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// A first flight 
// Story: The Forgotten King 
// by Ghost Writer 
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 	As he made his way down the street Eclipse noticed that some ponies gave him surprised looks as he passed, and every now and then somepony would show a look that bordered somewhat on fear. They’re afraid of me…lovely he thought. 
Eclipse rounded the street around Quills and Sofas and noticed that the amount of buildings started to dwindle and off in the distance he saw what looked to be a large green tree with what might have been a purple door in the trunk. From the distance it wasn't necessarily easy to tell if it was really a house or just a tree. Eclipse thought that it was a great time to try out his wings. He leaned down and took a powerful leap into the air. He opened his wings and they instantly caught the air, he started flapping them to get some real momentum and speed as he flew towards what he presumed to be Twilight's house. 
What he didn't see was that the rainbow maned pony from earlier had been sleeping on a nearby cloud and had woken up when he took off. She stretched on the cloud after her nap and took a look to see what had woken her. She looked to see a large dark blue alicorn take off from the ground and soar into the sky. He was fast but she doubted he was as fast as Rainbow dash, the fastest pony in all of Ponyville. And she, of course, was Rainbow Dash herself. Now awake she launched herself from the cloud to catch up to the alicorn, who had already covered a good distance in the short time since he took off.
Rainbow dash had to put on a burst of speed to catch up to Eclipse. Eventually she caught up to him and flew directly in front of him. Then she opened up her wings, using them as air brakes to slow her down. Likewise, Eclipse slowed down too. He was wondering why the rainbow maned pony had stopped him and was about to speak when she said "Hey I'm Rainbow Dash, I haven't seen you flying around here before, but hey your fast. I challenge you to a race! I'm the fastest pony in Ponyville and possibly all of Equestria; nopony can beat me in a race."
Eclipse looked at her and said "Well, it's nice to meet you but I'm a little bit busy, I'm headed to Twilight’s house to see if I can learn to use magic, so I can't really race now but I'll race you in a few hours." 
Rainbow Dash now noticed the horn on Eclipses head and realized he was an alicorn. She had never heard of there being any alicorns besides Luna and Celestia. She had never raced an alicorn before and thought about how much bragging rights being a faster flyer than an alicorn would bring. 	
"You want to go and find out how to use magic? Save it for later, you need to race me right now. I can't stand to wait for hours, the anxiety will kill me!" said Rainbow.
"I don't know, I wanna stop by Twilight's to learn how I use magic." said Eclipse.
"Twilight isn’t home; she went off to find some ingredients. So in the mean time you’ll race me to Cloudsdale! First one there wins…..Ready, go!" said Rainbow, her voice trailing off as she rocketed off towards Cloudsdale.
Eclipse bolted from where he had been hovering to catch up to Rainbow. "How am I supposed to beat her in a race to a place I've never even heard of?” he mumbled. His wings pounding the air as he gave some considerable effort to catch up to Rainbow.  He started gaining on Rainbow and had pulled up next to her a few moments later. "Hey Rainbow!" he shouted, trying to make his voice heard over the rushing wind. "I'm kind of new here and I don't exactly know where Cloudsdale is, any chance you can tell me where to go?"
Rainbow, somewhat shocked Eclipse could even keep up with her, said "Cloudsdale is straight ahead just past the peak of that mountain off in the distance, it’s a big cloud city you can't miss it. But there's no need to ask for directions, you can just follow behind me!" she said as she stuck her tongue out and bolted ahead.
"Things just got serious!” he shouted ahead, he now put all his effort into the beating of his wings and rocketed forward with tremendous speed. 
Eclipse was gaining on Rainbow again and decided this time not to stop and chat. As he passed rainbow he gave her a mock salute and proceeded to pull ahead. But Rainbow had never lost a race and didn't plan to lose today. She put on an extra burst of speed and started catching back up to Eclipse. Eclipse was pretty confident of himself now that he was ahead and knew where to go. He never expected to see Rainbow pull up next to him and give him a salute with her tongue out in mock of his earlier mocking salute. Now things were heating up. Eclipse was fast but Rainbow was a rocket. Not today thought Eclipse as he put on yet another burst of speed to regain his position ahead of Rainbow. 
This time Rainbow didn't let him pass and gave it her all to stay just the tiniest bit faster than Eclipse. The two ponies were going so fast the scenery around them seemed to blur by. Eclipse could see the mountain ahead and knew that Cloudsdale couldn't be far away. He had almost given up on beating Rainbow there when he realized that the time between her wing strokes seemed to be decreasing bit by bit. The increments were so small at first that they were hardly noticeable, but the time between the beats of here wings was definitely expanding! She was getting tired! Eclipse had the advantage from his bigger wings and while he wasn't quite as fast he could keep up top speed longer than Rainbow could. Eclipse wanted to put on another burst of speed to make more of a show when he passed her but he knew that would drain his energy more, and he needed all the strength he could get if he wanted to beat Rainbow. After a brief few moments the two ponies shot over the mountain and Cloudsdale came into sight. The sweat on Eclipses face was starting to make it to his eyes and it stung badly, blurring his vision a bit. Rainbow Dash must have been having the same problem because she blinked her eyes a few times and rubbed her hoof over her face. 	Cloudsdale was now a short sprint ahead and Eclipse was putting every ounce of strength he had into his wings. The way things were going it looked like he was going to win.
Rainbow was now becoming desperate; she had never lost a race and knew that if she did she would lose all the pride she had as a pegasus. Drawing on reserves brought upon by the sheer fact that she just couldn't lose she gave everything she had and started to catch up to Eclipse again. The strain it put on her was almost unbearable. Her eyes also stung from the sweat and she was starting to feel dizzy from the ridiculous stamina the race required. Eclipse saw Rainbow slowly passing him up and attempted to pick up the pace and stay ahead of her. The attempt failed and he was starting to lose feeling in his wings. The incredible determination Rainbow Dash had was also an advantage over Eclipse. Slowly but surely Rainbow pulled ahead and Eclipse decided that with that kind of determination there was no way he would beat her. He conceded defeat as he slowed down to watch as Rainbow soared to the city below.