Family Traditions

by randomkid

Race time! (Wait an update?!)

Okay, this was it! The big family race! Rainbow thought to herself as she stood at the starting line with her family and Soarin. Come on! Let's bring home a win!

It was the next morning and everypony was getting ready for the first event. the annual family race. Fluttershy's family arrived a few minutes after Soarin and his dad yesterday.

She looked over at Soarin and his dad doing their ritual stretches. Soarin's dad's coat was a slightly darker shade of blue than Soarin and his mane was more well kept. His mane was starting to grey and he had dark brown eyes. Despite being around the same age as her father, Soarin's dad aged a lot worse and looked a lot older than he was.

Soarin noticed Dash looking at him and his dad and waved. Then he started mouthing the words, "you're going down," to her.

Rainbow jump gave him a cockey grin and turned back to her family. The others participating were her father and her brother, as mom had to watch Prism and she usually sat the race out to begin with.

Rainbow saw Fluttershy's mom sitting off on the sidelines with her mother just chatting away. Rainbow internally gagged when she saw Zephyr making googley-eyes at her. The Shy's also rarely joined the race, except that one time that Zephyr tried but gave up a quarter of the way through.

Whatever. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that. Rainbow thought as she refocused her efforts on her stretches. The race was in about a minute and she needed to be ready if she wanted to beat Soarin. Last year he really gave her a run for her money and, even then, she barely won. This year was only going to be harder. Soarin was a Wonderbolt and was getting better every day, but Rainbow was no slouch either. She was ready.

"Okay everypony! Let's get to our places," Rainbow heard her mother call out.

It's time. Rainbow thought as she got ready.

"Okay everypony. Like always, I want a nice clean race. No bumping into eachother, no dirty tricks and Rainbow," she said looking at Rainbow directly. "No tornadoes this year."

"Oh come on that was one time." Rainbow said jokingly.

Rainbowshine just shook her head and looked down. "In any case I just want to reiterate, this is a friendly race, not a competitive race. We are long past those days." Rainbowshine looked at her husband and Soarin's dad as if to make sure they knew exactly what she meant. "Well, now that that's over, fliers, get your wings ready! On your marks. Get set! GO!"

And just like that, all five racers zoomed off at the same time. Rainbow heard the cheers of her mother and her friend's family which only made her want to win more.

She flapped her wings even harder and zipped past her brother and father. She looked ahead to see that she was catching up to Soarin's dad and passed him with ease. Now was the hard part, trying to get past Soarin. Sure she could catch up to him but he always somehow knew how to out maneuver her.

She saw the light blue pegasis dead ahead of her and tried to zoom right past him. That didn't work out to well as he swiftly dodged out of the way and sped up as he easily caught up to her.

"Ah Rainbow, you're as predictable as ever," Soarin said flying right next to her.

"What was that?! I couldn't here you over the sound of me winning!" She replied speeding up.

Soarin instantly adjusted to the new speed and this time passed Rainbow outright, sticking his tongue out as he did so. Rainbow tried to get past him but Soarin kept moving in her way, easily predicting her moves before she did them.

"Face it Rainbow, you can't beat me this year. I know you too well," Soarin said as he blocked her again.

"Soarin, I'm gonna kill you after this race!" Rainbow said in frustration.

"What was that?! I can't hear you over the sound of me winning!" He shouted back mimicing her words earlier.

"Oh you are SO gonna get it tonight," Rainbow whispered under her breath.

She had to think fast. She could see the finish line just up ahead and Soarin was still in front of her.

Quick Rainbow, think of something! Rainbow thought franticly, trying to find a way to pass Soarin. Ah-hah! That's it!

Rainbow smiled as she readied herself for what she was about to do.

Rainbow opened her wings out losing a lot of speed and putting some distance between her and Soarin. When she got far enough she flapped her wings extra hard to fly right over Soarin's head. Soarin tried to block her but wasn't quick enough and she flew right over him. When Rainbow got in front of Soarin she used her wings to slow him down while simultaneously speeding herself up. Soarin tried to recover but it was too late, she had already crossed the finish line.

"And the winner is Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy's dad shouted out as Rainbow crossed the finish line.

Rainbow landed and turned around to see Soarin, dumbstruck, looking at her with his mouth wide open.

"What was that about being predictable?" Rainbow asked with a big smile on her face. Before Soarin could speak Rainbow put her hoof up to his mouth. "Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah. Now what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I've got a number of things to say but my dad told me to not say anything if I didn't have anything nice to say," Soarin replied.

"I know I know you can only blame yourself," she said dramatically.

"Why are we dating again?" Soarin asked.

"Because you know you love my ego as much as I do," she said kissing him on the cheek.

She turned around and sat on the cloud floor waiting for the rest of the racers to cross the finish line. Soarin smiled as he looked at the mare in front of him. It was true he did love her and that ego much more than she knew. Soon she would find out just how deeply he loved her on Hearths Warming Day when he would change the tradition.

Author's Note:

Yes, I finally updated this story after who know's how long. I'm finally feeling confident in my writing so I decided to come back and possibly finish this story. Well if you liked it be sure to tell me. Also if you spot any grammatical errors or problems with my story, point them out to me below and I'll use it to become a better writer. Thank you and see you next chapter!

Comments

[randomkid]

6904229 This story is finally back baby! Yeah!

[Zeppo]

Grammar.

[randomkid]

7675976 Tell me where and I'll fix it please.

[Zeppo]

7677471

Then he started mouthing the words "You're going down," to her.

Don't capitalize "you're." Also, you may need a comma after "words."

The others participating were her father and her brother as mom had to watch Prism and she usually sat the race out to begin with.

Add a comma after "brother."

"Okay everypony! Let's get to our places." Rainbow heard her mother call out.

Comma after "places." As a general rule, you should always separate dialogue tags (who is speaking) and dialogue with a comma.

There are consistent problems with run-on and verbose sentences which I don't have time to point them all out. I like the story otherwise,

[randomkid]

7677984 Thanks for the advise and sorry about the run-on sentences. Yeah the part about putting a comma part after quotes is an issue of habit, as I didn't know that was wrong for most of my life.