I woke up in a room that had mannequins stuffed into a corner. I looked around to see that Fire Storm and Dusk Star (I’ll be calling them that now, so as not to get my audience confused) were sleeping at either side of me. I struggled to remember last night. Oh right, Rarity’s house. The party last night ended at around 10 in the evening, and we had nowhere to stay for the night. So, Rarity offered for me, Dusk, and Fire to stay in her guest room at the Carousel Boutique. I refused at first, not wanting to be a burden (there had to some kind of hotel around, right?), the ivory unicorn just kept insisting that we stay with her.

“She truly is the Element of Generosity.” I murmured to myself. I closed my eyes to catch a few more Z’s, but I opened my eyes suddenly because I remembered something: I was challenged to a race against Rainbow Dash! “You guys! Wake up!” I nudged at my fellow sleeping ponies. Fire was the first to stir, followed by Dusk. The latter pony had a huge “sugar rush-hangover” and was quite irritated when he woke up. We exited the guest room and walked into the main room of the Boutique. It was filled with mannequins covered with elegant gowns, and easels with sketches of future fashionable ideas.

“Rarity? Where are you?”Dusk called out. “In here darlings! In the kitchen!” We heard her through a doorway off to our left. We walked in, and saw Rarity and her little sister, Sweetie Belle, eating eggs for breakfast. “You must be the new ponies in town that my sister was talking about!” The younger sibling said. She ran up to my side and examined my Cutie Mark. “Whoa! Your Cutie Mark looks cool! How’d you get it?”

I was about to give a random response when Rarity scolded, “Sweetie Belle! You know better than to just ask our guests that question so openly!” The smaller pony walked back to her seat at the table, her eyes showing innocence. “I made extra eggs for all three of you for breakfast this morning! I hope you enjoy them.” Rarity continued, smiling and gesturing to a plate in the middle of the table. We sat down, had our breakfast, and socialized a little. Sweetie Belle spoke up, asking Fire Storm, “How’d you get your Cutie Mark?” The pegasus smiled and answered, “It’s because when I fly very fast, which isn’t very often, I look like an arrow that’s on fire. Also, if I fly fast and low enough I leave a trail of flames behind me.”

Sweetie looked to Dusk, who answered, “My Cutie Mark represents how much I like magic and the nighttime. I always liked stargazing at night. It’s very peaceful and stress relieving.” Sweetie looked at me expectantly. My pals looked at me, smirking. I knew those looks. They had made up stories that the little filly so eagerly accepted, like me with free samples at a food court.

“The shadowy sword represents my never-ending loyalty to my friends. It also represents my strength, both physically and mentally. Being physically strong helps me fight for my friends, and being mentally strong," I said, pointing at the filly's horn," helps strengthen my magic. The lightning bolt behind the sword represents my love for speed. Which will be shown today against Rainbow Dash, correct?

Rarity nodded, smiling. “Are you sure you’re up to the challenge?” I heard another young filly’s voice by the door. I turned and saw Scootaloo! The pegasus filly still had her blue helmet on, and she had a smirk on her face. “Rainbow Dash is the fastest pony ever! I doubt you can fly half as fast as her!”

“It’s all in good fun, Scoots,” Sweetie Belle said, walking to join her friend on another journey for their Cutie Marks. “It won’t really matter.” The orange pegasus just hmph-ed and left with the filly unicorn.

I looked back to Rarity, who rolled her eyes and said, “They’re just fillies. Don’t worry about them.”

~~~~~

“So where’s Mister Alicorn Hot Stuff? I can’t wait to kick his flank in this race!” I could hear Rainbow Dash boasting from a mile away. Rarity took us to meet with Rainbow, Applejack, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy couldn’t make apparently: she had promised Angel a picnic.

Anyway, Rainbow Dash saw me, Dusk, Fire, and Rarity walking towards her, and zoomed towards us. “Hey! Here you guys are! Let’s go already!" Twilight waved at Dusk, as the two had made acquaintances last night (and to be honest, I can’t wait to see what unfolds from that). Applejack and Pinkie just waved hello and waited for the exciting race to come. Dash started taunting, “I bet you think you’re pretty fast, huh? But you’re looking at the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria! There’s no chance you could beat me and my Sonic Rainboom!”

I smiled and replied, “Oh, I know all about you and your Rainboom, Miss Dash. I’m just doing this for laughs, which I’ll be doing when I win.” The cyan pony smiled and said, “We’ll see about that. I welcome your challenge, no matter how hopeless it is for you.” Twilight intervened and said, “Alright here are the rules! Rule one, no magic allowed!” She looked at me especially. “Two, cheating and outside help is automatic disqualification. Three, not too much roughhousing, so we don’t have any injured ponies. Finally, four; you are each allowed one use of your special trick, for example, Dash’s Rainboom.” She looked at me, and I shrugged in response. I only had this race to figure out if I had my own version of a Rainboom.

“Okay, good luck to you both.” The magician said, and her horn lit up with a purple aura. The same colored aura covered clouds and arranged them into a course filled with many sharp turns and one very long straightaway to the finish line, perhaps for the Rainboom and etc.

Dash and I headed to the cloud that marked the starting line. Then out of nowhere, Pinkie on a balloon floated up to our level. “READY!” Dash and I made poses like we were about to pounce. “SET!” Our hind legs tensed up for a boost at the start. Our wings unfurled, ready for action. “GO!” Pinkie cried, and we were off! Pinkie Pie commented during the whole race, but I paid her no mind; I need to concentrate.

I was not so good at turning than Dash was. She had a few body lengths ahead of me for the first half of the race, but at one turn I took the inner curve and got ahead by about 10 feet. It was at the turn before the straightaway when she caught up to me. We were nose to nose and Rainbow Dash saw we were only a few miles away from finish. She turned to smirk at me, and then looked forward again. She put her front hooves out in front of her, and I could see the familiar Mach

cone forming; the sure sign on an oncoming Rainboom.

“And Dashie looks to be preparing to do her Sonic Rainboom!” Pinkie yelled. I heard everypony cheering, and it sounded like a much louder crowd than it should have been. I copied Rainbow’s pose, and I too started to have a Mach cone around me!  I heard Pinkie gasp aloud. “Whoa! What is Shadow Blitz planning?” I wasn’t gaining much more speed than Rainbow was, so I did the first thing that came to mind: Spinning! As I spun, I saw a large Rainbow explosion, and heard Pinkie screaming, “A SONIC RAINBOOM! I DON’T THINK THAT SHADOW COULD CATCH UP!”

She was wrong. My body started to feel very tightly compressed, and the next thing you know, I was shooting out to the finish line like Rainbow Dash. I looked behind me, and while the image was distorted due to me still spinning, but I saw a huge bluish-black, ring-shaped explosion behind me, and a spiraling line of darkness trailing behind me. The next thing I knew, something flashed in my face and I crashed into a cloud with Rainbow Dash right next to me.

I regained my senses after a while, and saw that the flash emanated from a camera at the finish line. It was perfectly positioned at the finish line, to show who won the race. Pinkie took it into her balloon and floated back into town. Rainbow and I looked at our handiwork: two dissolving explosions, one of dark blue, black, and silver, and the other with the entire color spectrum.

Rainbow Dash commented, “I never thought you had it in you, Shadow! That was an intense race! You really gave me a run for my bits!”I nodded in agreement. I was wheezing hard as my asthma made me unable to speak, and made it hard to breathe. “Let’s go (huff) see the (huff) results.” I said, flying slowly down to the ground to meet the other ponies. I saw the rest of the Mane 6, all three Cutie Mark Crusaders, and some other background ponies that I recognized, like Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves and Dinky, Lyra and Bonbon, and Cheerilee and some of her students.

“Let’s see that photo finish!” Pinkie exclaimed, as Twilight magicked the camera to project an image onto a large screen set up nearby. Rarity asked aloud, “Where?” I believe she thought Pinkie meant the fashion pony. There was a collected gasp, and I turned my head to the screen. My jaw dropped. I had...won. I won by a whole head! Rainbow Dash was at my side at the start of the finish line, but I had crossed the tape.

I looked to Rainbow Dash who cantered over and said, “I hate to say it but, you win. It was a good race.” She looked very downcast. It was well known to me that she hated losing. I decided to try to cheer her up, “Don’t worry about it. We should race again some other time! It was fun! Maybe you’ll win the next one.” She smiled about the idea, hugged me (SQUEE) and walked over to talk to her friends.

I felt a poke at my leg. I looked down and saw Scootaloo, a little skeptical. “Hello there, Scootaloo.” I said, trying to avoid the fact that I just beat her hero in a race. “You cheated.” She said, plainly and emotionless. I was confused. “What? I didn’t use magic. Twilight would have noticed.” The filly retaliated. “There is NO WAY you could have beat Rainbow Dash! She is the fastest and coolest pegasus in all of Equestria!”

I decided to mess around with her a little bit. "Perhaps I’m not from Equestria.” I said, leaning towards her.

Scootaloo took a step back, a look of wonder on her face. I continued, “Maybe, the place where I’m from sees me as the fastest and coolest. In fact, there is fanpony just like you that would have reacted the same way if Rainbow Dash beat me in a race.”

The orange filly’s eyes widened. “That’s....pretty cool.” She said after some consideration. “Maybe you and Rainbow Dash could become racing partners and both become awesome Wonderbolts!” I could tell I was actually winning her over. “Maybe so,” I replied, smiling down at her. “And maybe you’ll be able to join us when you’re older.” She smiled to me and ran over to Sweetie Belle (who waved at me) and Applebloom. The farm filly looked to me and smiled, one which I returned.

“You’re very good with foals, I see.” I jumped at the sudden break in my silence. Rarity giggled and said, “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you.” She looked to the fillies. “Normally they’re little darlings, but they can get quite rowdy and not listen to you. The way you handled Scootaloo and brought her to your favor was impressive. She’s normally pretty stubborn, like Rainbow Dash. “I smirked at the remark. “There should really be more stallions like you in Ponyville.” Rarity said stepping towards me, but then she looked down, blushing. It took me a while to get what she was saying to me, that she was kind of flirting with me. I looked down and felt my cheeks heat up a bit.

“So...” I said, breaking an awkward silence. “What’d you think of the race?” She looked up, and seemed grateful for a change in subject. “It was quite the show, Shadow! What do you call that?” I was clueless for a second. “Call what?”

She laughed and pointed at the sky, where there were faint traces of the Sonic Rainboom, and my version of it, side by side. “Your ‘Rainboom’ was spectacular! I’ve never seen anything like it! Well, except for Rainbow Dash's, but you're was...different.” “Thanks, Rarity.” I smiled, truly grateful for the compliment. “When did you learn to do that?” She queried.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that question. “I saw Rainbow Dash put her hooves in front to gain speed and form that mach cone around her. I did the same, but I didn’t get the mach cone as a result. I started spinning to gain speed, and... voila! My very own... Shadow Blast!”

Rarity was going to say something when we heard a loud EEEEEEEEKK!!!!! emanating from the Everfree Forest. The Mane 6 (Fluttershy absent), Dusk Star, Fire Storm, and myself galloped as fast as we could to the source.

Next Chapter: Over the River, Through the Woods, to Canterlot We Go! Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 9 Minutes