The Path of a Champion

It was something of true magic. Really. The process of creating clouds with nothing but your hoof was quite spectacular. It was peculiar why Earth Ponies and Unicorns couldn't truly grasp a cloud without it dissolving in front of them. Perhaps they were clumsy with their hooves? They truly didn't know how to use their hooves with finesse?

Fire Fallen, fastest Pegasus in Equestria (to himself really), didn't envy them one bit. "Get set!" Oh right. He was in about to begin a 1600 meter sprint to the planet below.

He smirked, narrowing his eyes to the ground below where hundreds of ponies stood, cheering on the four crazies about to land face first into their coffin. Fire didn't even know why he was up here. Race? Sounds fun. A sprint? Ah, his specialty. A free fall sprint of chicken into the hard, unforgiving for-an-inch-of-mistake ground? Ok, that sounds a little stupid to take on. But his best friend since Flight Academy, Cinnamon Whiff, who also entered the race told him that he needed popularity and first place in this race was going to give him just that. Man, the starter was taking an awfully long time to say 'Go!'.

Fire looked at his fellow racers and sighed. The three of them, including Cinnamond, all stood trembling on their respective cloud. He took a look at the starter, a unicorn with a pop gun held in the air with magic. He looked unsure of the race himself. It was dangerous and letting four young ponies duke it out where anything could go wrong and any pony could make a mistake and end their flying career as well as their life this very race.

"Rest." The unicorn said, lowering his pop gun, the string behind the contraption no longer taught. Ugh. He had to get up, early mind you, in the freezing cold before the sun truly graced the land with its light. Had to wait for stupid pegasi in this region to get their apples together and clear the mischeduled rain, and then, had to wait two hours for the rest of the racers to get their cow behinds in gear.

"Hey! Unidork! Toss over that gun!" Fire called over with a snide remark. The unicorn, annoyed already that he had to go tell his employer  that he couldn't send the racers to their death and was probably going to get fired for this, tossed over the noise maker shouting back an even snider remark.

"I don't know about you ponies, but I got up this morning to race." Fire put his black, mischievous hooves to use, catching the pop gun and pulling the string taught. The unicorn's eyes widened. "So, three-two-one!" He quickly screamed the wonderful three numbers that all pegasi loved to hear before a race, and popped the gun.

Pop!

Fire threw the pop gun behind him and dived through the cloud and aimed for the 'soft' target below. He tested the target before. That thing could not catch something dropped from eye level to the floor without it breaking. So he did need to be careful. But it wasn't like anypony was following him anyways for him to worry about second place...

In an instant, he ate his words and some dust as a crimson colored pony with a short chocolate colored mane whizzed past him. Fire grinned, some competition was always nice. He recognized her as one of his class mates. Cinnamon Whiff.

"Not this time Whiff!" Fire screamed after his friend, shooting after her. He was hot on her tail, something Whiff was not too pleased with.  Fire threw his hooves behind him, trying to increase his momentum and velocity.

Fire moved to the side of Whiff, noticing that he was slightly gaining. They were half way to the ground, and it was slowly getting bigger, and bigger. It was an odd feeling from Fire's stand point. It felt as if the earth was drawing the two pegasi in, as if the earth was a single entity about to devour two small beings for lunch.

Cinnamon did a front flip and threw her hooves down, slowing her descent with her wings. Fire grinned. He won. But a little bit further wouldn't hurt. His descent continue to increase in speed and from another pony's perspective, he didn't like he had any intention of stopping.

Fire felt a burning sensation around his entire body. It didn't feel too hot and it didn't feel bad or painful in any way. It was like he was, for once, in full control of his life. Nothing to root him down, nothing to stop what was about to happen. He felt as if he was a true unstoppable force.

Now any pegasus professor would tell you that about a quarter mile from the ground, you need to slam on the brakes and you might be okay, the worst being that you break all your legs and cripple yourself for the rest of your life. All pegasus professors would not advise you to increase speed and ram the earth with your head.

Good thing Fire wasn't a pegasus professor.

No pony could have predicted what happened next.  A literal earth shattering boom exploded the soundscape, a bright mixture of orange and white light emerged across the spectrum of light, and the one known as Fire Fallen disappeared into the earth. The hundred of ponies panicked and ran from the point of impact. It felt as if chaos was raining around them as chunks of the earth fell with loud crashes.

The dust cleared and it seemed no pony was hurt. But the red and white target that took up the field was gone, replaced with a giant crater the size of a typical pony abode. Cinnamon was the first to rush to the scene, tears in her eyes and her mind filled with worry. "Fallen! Fallen you there?!" But no response was given. Cinnamon quickly rushed into the hole and flew to the middle.

Fire Fallen was there alright. His wings unfurled, covering his entire body. Cinnamon drew closer to Fire, and could see him smiling, and with a quick motion, Fire stood up stretching his back as well as giving his wings a good flap. "THAT WAS AWESOME!" Fire turned around with a face of jubilation and turned to give Cinnamon a high hoof.

Cinnamon was flabbergasted. She had no idea what to do first. Choke or hug Fire? She went with the first option.

After a small scuffle of hooves and insults that rooted from worry, she stopped and saw something sparkle on Fire's behind. She pushed herself away from the white pegasus and saw the promised mark that filly and foal dreamed of getting. "Fire..." She whispered.

He dusted himself off with his wings and also looked upon his newly appeared mark. "Oh. Well look at that, it's a... star?"

"With wings to boot." Cinnamon added, motioning her hoof to the extended feathery wing from the right side of the star, towards Fire's head.

"I guess I am kind of a super star huh?" Fire smirked at Cinnamon while making macho poses. Cinnamon giggled and then frowned, punching him in the shoulder. "Ow! What was that for?" Fire flinched, rubbing his shoulder with a hoof.

"That's what you get for making me worry!" Cinnamon growled. "I mean, what were you thinking?! Diving straight into the earth. That's mad! That's crazy, it's..."

"Exactly my style." Fire said with full confidence, not missing a beat. Cinnamon sighed. He had a point there.

"FIRE J FALLEN!!!" A high pitched feminine voice cracked the friendship forever atmosphere.

Cinnamon's eyes shot straight to the panicked looking Pegasus. "You didn't tell your mother?"

"Yeah. Because YOUR mother would let you dive head first at the earth at blinding..."

"GET YOUR FLANK OUT HERE THIS INSTANT!!!" Oh boy. She was really fumed. He was probably going to be grounded forever. If he was lucky.