Swift Streak I
It was a beautiful day in cloudsdale, it was one of those days where everything seemed perfect. Swift Streak knew that today would be the day that he would finally win at the CloudsDale Derby and impress the Wonderbolts. As he desperately tried to roll out of bed just like any other morning, he realized that he had over-slept! He hurriedly jumped out of bed and rushed into the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and stopped to admire himself in the mirror, My mane doesnt look to bad today, he thought as he admired his bleach white coat and vibrantly red mane and tail, it will probably will get messed up by my amazing speed anyway! He thought with a chuckle. He then excitedly galloped through his front door and out onto the streets.
There was about an hour until he needed to be at the derby, so he decided to grab a bite to eat at the café near his home. As he walked into the café, the owner called out, " Swift! How you doin today?"
"Pretty good actually,"He replied, "Im on my way to the derby to try to impress the Wonderbolts!"
"Well good luck with that," the chef said unenthusiastically.
Realizing with dismay that standing in line would make him quite close on time for the derby. Swift stepped out of line and started the short flight to the derby despite his stomach's rumbling complaints.
He arrived at the derby to find that the racing had already started. At the moment the fillies where running their races, so he had a few minutes until his race. He noticed a older pony that was calling out the starting positions for the upcoming sprints, and started to make his way through the crowd to get to him. As he got closer, the pony started to announce his races starting positions, he didnt recognize any of the ponies starting in his race, mainly because he had never been very good at making friends. Yes, he had made the occasional friend in town and at the derbies, but he had never had LOTS of friends. The pony announcing the starting positions kept on rattling through his list of names until he finally made the announcement that Swift had been waiting for. He would be starting eighth, all the way on the outside of the track, which was never a good place to start. He was still confident that he would do well, but not as confident that he would be able to win.
The pony commentating the races suddenly boomed over the intercom, " All ponies participating in the next race need to get to their starting positions immediately." Swift started to make his way down to the track, as he passed the stand he looked up to see none other than the Wonderbolts in the stands! I had no idea that they would actually be here, Swift thought to himself, now i have to go all out, if they see me win this race from the back, they will definatly let me join them! As Swift was getting set at his starting block, he realized that something didnt feel quite right, but he couldnt figure out what it was or why. Suddenly the crowd got quite, all became still as the spectators and racers where waiting for the flag to drop, Swift got into his starting stance and got ready to take off, he had gone over this moment in the past weeks hundreds of times, his wings were ready, his mind was ready, he was going to win this. The flagger raised his flag and paused, holding it in the air. The suspense was so thick Swift could almost take a bite out of it. Then finally, the flag dropped, and the racers took off! Swift got an amazing launch off the start, and was in third by the middle of the first turn. This is going awesome! Thought Swift. At the start of the second lap he had moved up to second! But rounding the first turn one of the slower ponies had tripped and fallen in his lane! Swift tripped on the fallen pony's outstretched hoof and fell down out of the sky, smashing through cloud after cloud. As he continued to fall, he felt the soft poof of the clouds turn into the hard slap of tree branches. The trees slowed him down drastically, but it wasnt enough, he landed on the hard ground with an audible thump, he took a moment to try to collect himself and to stand up. As he stood up he realized the he couldnt feel his right wing and looked over to check it out. The wing was crooked at an unnatural angle, and when he saw this, Swift promptly passed out on the soft grass.