//------------------------------// // 2. Rainbow // Story: Twist // by pinklover12 //------------------------------// How I love the feeling of adrenaline. How could I - standing there with the wind at my back and the sky at my front, crowds cheering, everything at stake - not feel it? I could see the two idiots right then. I turned my head to their sniveling faces. By Celestia, I hated them. They called me Rainbow Crash, and I called them... well, I hadn't come up with a name yet, but it sure was gonna be awful. I focused my attention back on the track. The race was about to start. A gust of wind spurted up from behind me, and I brushed my frizzy, tricolor mane out of my gleaming magenta eyes. The flag waved. I took off. Instinct was all I needed - or so I thought. Maybe if I'd relied on skill, things would have been different. I whizzed through the first cloud-hoop, easily bypassing my competitors. I let out an internal laugh, and possibly an external one as well. There was nothing in the world I loved more then flying, more than racing. I zipped through the hoops with ease, feeling the wind dash past me. I had never flown like this before! The speed, the adrenaline, the wind in my mane! I loved it! Like, a lot! A sharp pain in my left side brought me back from my thoughts. "Later, Rainbow Crash!" the tan colt with the brown mane jeered as he sped past me. Ugh! He pushed me! How dare he? "Hey!" I quickly put on a burst of speed, catching up with him in seconds. I was so close... I was almost there... I stopped in mid-air. A sharp pain had pierced my stomach, and an invisible force had seemingly knocked me out of my place in the sky, winding me as well. My eyes instinctively flinched close, and I hovered for a few seconds to regain my composure. However, my eyes were soon opened again by a strange but familiar sound. The crowd at the finish line was cheering... like, a lot! Did I do it? Did I pass the finish line? Did I win? I hesitantly opened my eyes. What? I hadn't won yet, and I was nowhere near the finish line. Why was everyone cheering...? My gaze slowly rose to the finish line cloud, where the checkered ribbon that stood there was torn in two. The two competitors - my two competitors, were standing next to each other at the finish line, cheering for all they were worth. Had they - dare I say it - won? Yes. They had. They. Had. Won. They'd won. And I'd lost. I lost... I lost... At that point, my mind fractured. If I wasn't a winner, I was nothing. I was no one. The little blue pegasus' body slowly began to flutter downwards, then started to fall. Only a few ponies noticed, but she didn't care. The rest were up at the finish line congratulating the winners. Someone screamed as the rainbow filly plummeted through the clouds, already close to the ground and gaining closer by the second. A pale purple stallion with a similar mane shot through the air in a rush to save her, but she was already crashing through the treetops. She didn't care. She had lost. She had lost.