The path down into the cave began changing as Rainbow Dash entered the place where she was going to be taking her challenge, the cave walls seemed to have disappeared as she now was in a grassy meadow. "Hmm. It really doesn't look like I'm in the frozen North anymore, I guess the magic in this cave place can do a lot of things. " She said as she looked around, seeing a blue sky above her with a few nice, soft, fluffy clouds. They seemed perfect for her to sleep on. She yawned. "So where is this challenge I'm suppose to be owning at?" The bronze dragon walked up behind her saying nothing for a second and took a few steps to get in front of the cyan pegasus. She looked at her with her colorless eyes and finally spoke to her.
"Your challenge is starting now." She raised her claw up and in the distance a giant ancient tree with a twisted trunk sprung up from the ground.
"My challenge involves a tree? Are you sure this isn't for Fluttershy? I mean she did want to be a tree. Applejack probably would have been a better choice if this challenge involves Applebucking or giving a tree a name. She did name a tree Bloomberg after all. " Rainbow said tilting her head at Valkyrie and then looking at the tree.
She just shook her head in reply. "You challenge does not involve those things. Remember earlier I asked you how fast you can fly?"
She nods. "Of course I do, we were talking about me after all, the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria. " She flapped her wings and zoomed around in circles around the dragon before landing where she started. "See, pretty fast you see?"
"I see that. Now your challenge is to fly to that tree over there-" Before Valkyrie could finish Rainbow interrupted.
"I can do that in ten seconds flat, just watch."
"Oh no you won't. I am not done speaking." She responded as the green grass under thier hooves and claws turned into a white starting line. "You will need to fly over to that tree there before she does, it is like a race."
"She? She who?" Rainbow asked and Valkyrie didn't need to answer as right before them a pegasus resembling Fluttershy appeared before them. The pegasus did resemble the kind friend the cyan pegasus had grown up with but her fur was a greyish yellow, her mane a more darker shade of pink and lastly, she had no cutie mark. Rainbow dash inspected the double and turned to the dragon. "Fluttershy, you want me to race Fluttershy? Easy peasy. When do we start? Now?"
Valkyrie shook her head. "No, you will have time to practice. Time move faster for this challenge, it may seem like days for you but it would not really be. You will have five days here to practice and when I come back the race will begin. " She waved her claw and a table appeared full of food, books, and a few other things that Rainbow dash loved. "When you are in need of a break take a minute and enjoy yourself." She turned around and headed for a door with a count down clock that appeared when Rainbow wasn't looking. It looked like it was going to start when Valkyrie was going to leave.
The pegasus looked at her opponent, to the table of goodies, and to the count down clock. "Five days to practice, I will barely need that. This is going to be easy, Fluttershy is the slowest pegasus I know, this copy will be the same." She flew to the table and found the latest copy of Daring Do. She smiled. "Awesome!!!!" Taking the book she flew to a cloud and started reading it.
Once Valkyrie had gotten to the door she turned seeing the pegasus on the cloud. "This copy is not like the friend you know, practice will be the key to your success, if you don't and judge your opponent based on their looks then you will become cocky, thinking you don't need it then you will become lazy and be the sloth that you are." Rainbow dash didn't even listen to her as she was reading, already sucked into the adventures of Daring Do. The dragon shook her head and walked through the door, the count down starting.
Four days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight seconds.....
The grey yellow copy of Fluttershy was stretching as she was warming up to do some practicing. She spoke not a word as she started flying like Fluttershy, nice and slowly, taking her time. She flew to the twisted tree and smiled and pet the small bird that was nesting on one of the branches. She smiled and flew back to the starting line looking up at the clouds seeing Rainbow dash reading the book. Still not speaking the copy went over to the table and grabbed an apple, looking around the sun was setting meaning that the first day of practice would soon be coming to a close. The copy did wonder which of them would be practicing more, she figured she would see what the next days would bring.
The countdown clock on top of the door now displayed three days, one hour and the seconds counted down. Rainbow dash had finished the book she read and was now laying down on the cloud she claimed as her own. She went over to table and munched on some food and drank a bottle of cider that she found. She looked around and yawned and saw the Fluttershy copy stretching, an idea popped into the cyan pegasus's mind. She trotted over to the copy. "Hey Fluttershy want to have a practice race?" The copy nods heading to the white starting line. Rainbow dash nods following. "I guess you're not much of a talker like my Fluttershy." Once they got to the starting line, they took their starting position as Rainbow dash looked at the copy and spoke. "On your mark, get set, go!" She flew off towards the tree, her mane and tail behind her. She looked behind her and saw the copy going slow as when she practiced but slowly getting faster. The leading pegaus chuckled. "I'm going to win this easily." After she said that she was at the tree and stopped to see where the copy of Fluttershy was, seeing the copy was still behind, she decided to fly back to the starting line. The copy shook her head as the rainbow maned pegasus flew back to the starting line and just made her way to the tree and then turned back to the starting line. Rainbow dash smiled as the copy got back. "Nice try kid, that was good for a beginner. Can't wait for us to have the real race." The copy just nods and goes to do some push ups. Rainbow dash smiled watching. "Guess she is going to try harder to beat me now but she won't get as good as me." The pegasus goes to the table and grabs a pillow and a blanket and heads back to her cloud, thinking she will take a nap.
While the pegasus took her nap, Valkyrie returned to check up on everything, she sees what has been taking from the table, moving her head up to the direction of the cloud, she shook her head seeing Rainbow asleep. "This really is the challenge for you." She rolled her eyes and looked at the copy and watched as it was ready to fly towards the tree. The copy saw her and just nods. The bronze dragon returns the nod and the copy flew as fast as Rainbow dash to the tree and then back to start several times. When the copy was finished she grabbed a bottle of water from the table and started drinking it. Valkyrie looked at the copy once more and gave another nod which the cpoy seemed to understand and walked back to the starting line. The dragon watched and looked back at the sleeping pegasus, picking up a rock and walking back to the door, opening it. She turned and threw the rock at the Rainbow dash and quickly left. Rainbow dash woke up getting it and looked around.
"Hey who threw that, I was getting my winner's rest." As she looked around she saw the copy flying towards the tree at the same speed as she could fly. Rainbow looked stunned. "How..." She threw the blanket off herself and flew to the ground. "I better get practicing." The copy smirked as it went back to practicing, with Rainbow dash now training and they continued doing that for as long as they could.
The count down clock went off and a annoying beeping began playing as it said zero days, zero hours, zero minutes. Valkyrie entered and had a small smile on her face as she saw the two opponents waiting for her. "I hope you are ready."
"Yeah I am." Rainbow said and the copy nods.
"Good. Get ready, get set go." The bronze dragon said as and they took off at the same fast pace, when ever one would get the slightest lead the other would catch up, it went back and forth like that until they got to the tree. The winner of the race was them both, it was a tie.
"A tie? " The cyan pegasus said as Valkyrie flew over and nods.
"Yes it is but you still won. " She said and the copy disappeared.
"How could I still won? I was suppose to get to the tree first, you said I had to." She exclaimed.
"I know that is what I said but this challenge wasn't really about racing, it was about your laziness. Your challenge was all about something called Sloth. You were physically lazy for the first few days but once you saw how the copy of your friend could fly as fast as you, you got to work. Now come, your friends have been waiting for you." The dragon said and headed out the door for the final time with Rainbow dash following behind her.