The Mysterious Mare Do Well

The metropolis, Cloudsdale, was an impressive sight. It was near the small town Ponyville and was up literally in the clouds. The city, although looks smaller on the outside, was massive within. Despite Celestia's rule over Equestria, her jurisdiction is often overlooked within Cloudsdale as it remains a quasi-independent city-state. There was a mayor, elected yearly, and there was a small central government.

This independence from the monarchy was due to the struggling relations between the pegasi race and Celestia back when Cloudsdale was formed. The founder, Cloud Dale, didn't want the pegasi to be reliant on Princess Celestia, and wanted to branch off to form his own country.

Thankfully, however, Celestia managed to calm him down and produced a compromise. She would assist with the creation of a cloud based city, the first of its kind, and would promise that she would not interfere with what goes on in Cloudsdale, so long as they don't interfere with business in all of Equestria.

Since then, the rules have been bent slightly where her jurisdiction in Cloudsdale is more relaxed, but the relationship between Equestria and Cloudsdale is still the same as it was from when the city was formed.

Cloudsdale had grown as a city and became a great place for pegasi. They are one of the major weather manufacturers in all of Equestria and the biggest sports center as well. The best fliers in all of Equestria generally come from Cloudsdale, and they all start in Junior Speedsters School of Fliers.

One of them in particular happens to be a very talented flier, if not a little lazy.

The alarm clock rang with its screeching frequency and obnoxious cadence. It went by nearly unnoticed however as it rang for minutes, unabated by pony interference until, finally, the door opened. A tall pegasus with a dark coat, curly, yet messy, blue mane, a thick mustache and a black thundercloud for a cutie mark, stood at the door, unimpressed at his daughter's exceptional talent in sleeping through the alarm.

Trotting calmly over the mess strewn over the floor, he approached the bed with its single inhabitant; Cloud Chaser.

He reached over the bed to silence the alarm clock, and tapped the lump underneath the covers. An exhausted groan and complaint came from the pony wrapped up in her covers.

He rolled his eyes. "Cloud Chaser, I've got chocolate-chip muffins!"

Instantly, Cloud Chaser sat up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. "I'll take twenty!"

Cloud Chaser was a young filly, a little small for pegasus her age, but she had a rough and tumble personality to match her looks. Her mane was light blue and straight though it was choppy and looked like it was cut by scissors or a rogue lawnmower; her tail was shorter than average. Her white coat gleamed in the light and that excited look in her eyes made her look like a foal.

She looked at her dad and around the room, the realization that there would be no muffins hit her and a huge frown creased her features.

She tried to get back into bed, but her dad pulled the covers back and she tumbled to the ground; her butt in the air, showing off her cloud-in-motion cutie mark, as she fights her tenacious bed sheets.

"C.C.," he said. "You've got to get up, you have a race today."

Trying to untangle herself from the covers, Cloud just groaned. "Ugh, but dad! I don't want to go! The other pegasi are so slow!"

Her overconfidence was her greatest downfall. Cloud Chaser was an immensely talented flier, top of her class but she has a big ego and tends to look down on other pegasi because they aren't as fast, or as talented, as her. She generally refuses races these days because of the lack of competition, though her father, Thunder Cloud, wanted her to keep going with this possible career.

As a filly, Cloud Chaser had aspired greatly to be like her mom, a Wonderbolt, Equestria's greatest band of fliers. She trained so hard as a flier and got through on talent and ability, she has high hopes and a lot of pegasi are looking to draft her on teams.

But, that changed quickly after her mom…

"Come on, you were always talking about being the best flier in all of Equestria," he coaxed. "How are you going to be the best if you can't even beat your old man down the stairs?"

Cloud looked at him with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. Thunder Cloud wasn't a very fast flier, he wouldn't beat Cloud in a long-distance race, but he was still talented, that's how he landed his wife, Cirrus Tempest, in the first place.

They have raced before, Cloud has never been able to beat her dad, and every chance she got she challenged him to a race. In fact, the only thing she liked more than chocolate-chip muffins was a good challenge.

"Oh yeah?" she got up, her wings fluttering, anxious to fly. "We'll see about that!"

Quick as thought, she took off and flew out of the door and down the stairs. Thunder Cloud was right behind her, however. Her first costly mistake, her start-up didn't offer enough momentum, she's certainly fast but undisciplined.

The staircase was incredibly narrow, and wouldn't offer enough room for the two pegasi. Cloud took that advantage and tried to push Thunder into the wall. Quickly, he maneuvered upward and flew overhead. Cloud nearly slammed herself into the wall but recovered just in time to see her dad gain the lead. He dove downward and began flying in front of her; she tried to catch up accelerating to her top speed

Unfortunately, the staircase wasn't long enough. At the last moment, Thunder curved left and into the kitchen while Cloud crashed into the ground, flipping head over hooves and slammed into the ceiling before crumbling to the ground.

Thunder stood by the kitchen, the undisputed winner, while Cloud nursed her headache.

"See? If you can't beat an old pegasus like me, you probably have no chance with the Wonderbolts," he joked.

Cloud stood up. "Please, once the Wonderbolts see me race, they'll be begging for me to join!"

He shrugged. "And how do you expect them to see you, if you never race?"

"Fine!" she screeched. "I'll just go, beat them all, and be back in time for lunch!"

Before she could go flying out of the house, however, Thunder stopped her by pinning her tail with his hoof.

"First, however, comes breakfast."

As they ate a delicious breakfast, Thunder had quietly reconsidered his options to move. He was part of the Pegasus Defense Squad and was a highly decorated police officer during his time spent there. Though he loved his job and Cloudsdale, he was recently offered a new position in Manehattan as police commissioner.

Manehattan was a nice place, he had lived there before, but he didn't know if Cloud wanted to move there. When he told her, she responded with idle indifference. He asked about her friends and if she would miss them, but she curtly responded with, "Friends? What friends?"

He sighed. Thunder knew about her reputation in school, as the top flier in her class, she often had a lot of… harsh critics that didn't like her style. She was a loner, didn't enjoy associating with anyone slower than her. He knew that with her personality, she would get into fights, those bruises from "practice" didn't convince him at all.

What would you have done Temp? He wondered, she was better with this than he was.

"Yo, dad, hello~" she called, snapping him out of his thoughts. "I said I'm done. Can we go now?"

He blinked, and looked at her plate, it was spotless. She did make everything into a race, after all.

"Yeah, let's go."

Thunder left his breakfast nearly untouched; he would grab something to eat along the way.

They flew over the city together, careful not to go to high and interrupt the workers reconstruction the city hall. Over the town square, everything looked amazing and nearly immaculate as the buildings that shined with a strange marble quality loomed over everything. Pegasi trotted around the square, conversing and just generally having a good time enjoying the beautiful weather.

Cloud Chaser recounted her days of school as they flew.

"You should've seen it, Zig-Zag tripped over himself and crashed right into the yellow paint! Ahaha! He couldn't get that off for the entire day, we called him Trippy The Flying Chicken!"

"Now Cloud," Thunder said, in his best father voice. "You shouldn't be making fun of anypony like that."

Cloud pouted. "But dad, it was funny!"

"That doesn't matter. You wouldn't want somepony making fun of you like that?"

She scoffed, turning away. "I'm faster than anypony my age anyways. It's not like they have a lot of material on me."

"And that's another thing. It is okay to be a confident flier, but it is important to stay humble."

Cloud looked at him with a strange expression, like he suddenly morphed into a changeling. "What do you mean humble? It is true that I'm the fastest flier west of Canterlot. You always told me to stay true to myself, and this is me!"

She flew in front of him, body extended out to show her entire self. It made Thunder's heart ache, she looked exactly like Tempest.

"The best flier in a hundred years!"

"Not exactly the most humble of fliers. You can't go around thinking you're the best, however, because there is always somepony better than you."

Thunder flew past her and continued down to the Cloudsdale Stadium. Cloud rolled her eyes, she knew for a fact that there wouldn't be a flier than could match her. All of the best fliers came from Cloudsdale, and she had beaten nearly all of them.

Cloudsdale stadium was originally built upon the city's founding. It was intended for Iron Pony competitions, but, due to the lack of variety amongst the competitors it was later converted into a general sports stadium. All of Cloudsdale's major races take place here, and this one is a doozy.

It isn't exactly the Pony 500, but this race determines which pegasus will be drafted by the Wonderbolts and move on to their special training camp in Fillydelphia.

All pegasi, young and old, would participate in this race after a grueling preliminary that weed out thousands of potentials. As mentioned, Cloud is the fastest pegasus to date but not the most stylish. She only barely got through the preliminary due to how she broke the personal best in one of the races.

The stadium fills three hundred thousand pegasi and today shows no exception in seating. By the time they had arrived, the preparations for this race was nearly complete. Coming in through the entrance, Thunder had to weave through thick crowds to see Pin Point, the pegasus who managed to get Cloud into this race.

"Sorry we're late!" Thunder called through the deafening cheers from the audience.

"Late?!" he screeched. "You guys nearly gave me a cornea!"

"I don't think you know what that is..." muttered Cloud.

"And you!" he pointed an angry hoof at Cloud. "Do you know how much I would've lost if you hadn't showed up! You are so lucky you're fast! Now then, go, go, get ready, it's starting soon!"

Thunder got a nice little VIP booth that overlooked the entire racetrack. It would only be three laps, but they are the fastest laps in all of Equestria. There are hundreds upon thousands of cameras fixed at the racers, to make sure they catch every moment. Back in the old days, before all of this technology, figuring out who won the race often ended in very… violent disputes.

The racers lined up on the cloudy start line; twenty in total. Cloud Chaser lined up at the very last one, it was very amusing watching her stand right next to twenty older pegasi; she looked like an ant next to an elephant.

"And here we have Cloud Chaser," one of the commentators said. "The youngest pegasus racing today, and I gotta tell you Big Brown, you gotta see her race to believe it!"

"I agree Eclipse," chimed Brown. "You wouldn't think that this little filly would have it in her to compete next to semi- and professional racers. But she certainly has something the other racers don't: tenacity."

On the televisions, and the jumbo screens, the screens switched from the racetrack to an old picture of a Wonderbolt. It was one of a mare, with fiery red hair, bright purple eyes, and a wide grin on her face.

"It also doesn't hurt that her mother was Cirrus 'Lightning Bolt' Tempest, a famous Wonderbolt and extraordinarily talented flier, one Cloudsdale hasn't seen in years."

Thunder winced at the picture of Tempest, it was odd seeing a young picture of her and it hurt the fact that he saw her again in these circumstances. He noticed that Cloud wasn't paying any attention to the screens, preferring to focus on the race at hoof, which was one of the good aspects of her personality; her concentration was laser-like if she got into it.

To Cloud this was a simple flyby around the playground. It was always a game to her, never anything serious or dramatic. There was never a need to overly complicate things; all she needed to do was to focus and to put her mind elsewhere.

"Make it into a game!" her mom once said. "Life isn't very fun if you make everything so serious and boring. If you make anything into little games, it would be easier and fun!"

Her mom could make anything better. Her smile, the way she hugged Cloud, it was nostalgic and made her chest ache. She just wanted to see her one more time to…

BANG!

Snapping out of her daydream, Cloud realized that the race had commenced! Losing two seconds already, Cloud was at an incredible disadvantage; snapping into action, Cloud took off.

The wind in her mane, the exhilarating rush that her body experienced was intoxicating. Any pegasus would fall in love with this sensation, the speed and hype was enough to get anypony drunk on their own ability.

"Concentrate," her mother said. "If you get caught up in your own feelings, you'll be tumbling head over wings."

Cloud calmed herself quickly, she needed to focus on her technique, her flawless turns. The first turn was coming up quickly and usually she would have to slow down to corner the turn perfectly, but, in this case, she needed to wing it; no pun intended.

She accelerated into the turn, coming up behind the 19th placed racer, turned her entire body to its side, and flapped her wings as hard as she physically could. This maneuver, if done correctly, would get her to side-step the corner instead of flying all the way around it. She managed the turn, narrowly avoiding crashing into the other pegasus, and at the same time moved up from 20th place to 10th.

It would be a straight shot to the second turn and she used her little maneuver again to ace it, jumping from 10th to 4th. Great, now she has a chance. She could hear the crowd cheer over the wind and her wings, it made her a little happy but she shoved those feelings aside; there will be time for celebration later.

Cloud accelerated to her top speed. Her lightweight body that was toned from years of training and her wing power is what pushed her position from 4th to 1st in only a few seconds. The crowd roared excitingly as she took the lead, and made her grin, why not give these ponies a show?

She let her hooves touch the clouds and, while maintaining her speed, she began to trot while flying.

"The Super Sonic Strut?" Eclipse mused. "Cloud isn't going to win any style points in a speed race."

"That's right, if she doesn't straighten up, she'll easily lose first place."

But, despite how dangerous this is both to her body and to the race, she continued showboating. It was both to please the crowd and to show just who the best flier in this race really was. She turned to look at the racers who didn't seem pleased at her cockiness.

The second turn came up faster than expected and she was barely able to adjust her stance. Nearly tripping over her hooves, Cloud stumbled over the corner and managed the turn… but lost first place as a result.

She was knocked all the way back to third place, the crowd collectively groaned at how easily she lost the lead. Cloud grimaced, she wouldn't lose to these washed up pegasi.

As easily as before, she caught up to those ponies and left them in the dust. Easily distancing herself from everypony, Cloud had an insultingly large lead. She flew so fast that she was partially deaf at that point, unable to hear everything around her.

Two laps later, Cloud had won; as expected.

In the winners' circle, Cloud was given her medal and trophy while being interviewed.

"The youngest pegasus to win this race," Eclipse remarked. "Tell me, how does that feel?"

She grinned proudly but much too arrogantly. "Frankly, not much. These types of accolades don't mean much to a pegasus of my caliber, anypony could achieve them if they had a fourth of my talent. I only got down to this race to see if there was anypony here that could compete with me."

She looked down at the line of racers who glared daggers at her, and, with a scoff, she said, "Sadly, there isn't anypony here. But who knows, maybe I'll find somepony down in Manehattan!"

Seething, the pegasi tried to make a nasty remark but over the symphony of camera shutters and reporters shouting questions, it was inevitably drowned out. Cloud said nothing more and strutted off the podium and toward the exit, where she met up with her dad.

"A bit much, don't you think?" he asked.

"If getting beat by a filly gets them this mad, maybe they'll come back with some actual talent."