*Dramatic Flashback Sequence Initiated*

A rainbow streaked across the sky, arching over Cloudsdale in a spectacular show of technicolor speed. Young Rainbow Dash looked back at the stream of colors emanating from behind her and beamed. The Sonic Rainboom! It was supposed to be just an old mare's tale, be she did it! Sailing across the sky, slicing through the finish line, she stopped flapping and braked right next to the cloud bleachers where everypony jumped down and began congratulating her.

Dash looked around her at the gathering ponies, barely unable to contain her joy. She proudly nodded at all the compliments given to her.

"Way to go Rainbow Dash!"

"That was so awesome! Can you do it again?"

"WILL YOU SIGN MY FLANK!?!"

"You're the best Dash!"

"Eh, it was kinda cool..."

The crowd quickly went silent and turned to see who made that last comment. Dash looked through the ponies to see a colt, not much older than she was, staring at her with a devilish little grin on his face. He sported a blood red coat, with a mane to match, with the exception of large black tips fading into the rest of his hair. He tipped his sunglasses forward, revealing his nearly black eyes, and trotted up to Dash.

"'Kind of cool'?" Dash asked incredulous. "That was amazing!"

Dash got a round of agreeing murmurs throughout he crowd. She zoomed up into the colt's face and stared him down, though he stood, unflinching. "Why don't you think that was cool?"

"Ohhh, I don't know. Although speed is one thing, it's nothing without proper maneuverability. Tell me, can you bank and turn at high speeds, or are you all about the speed?" He asked.

"M-my maneuverability is top-notch, thank you very much!"

His eyes pierced into Dash, seeming determined and stead fast, and with two words, nearly broke the multicolored pegasus' resolve.

"Prove it"

A round of gasp went about the crowd, and they all looked at Rainbow Dash, who was sweating slightly. "A-alright, name the time and place!"

"Woody Coltwood Memorial Track, right now."

"Woody's Field? Are you nuts? Those are for colts and fillies three years older than us!"

The colt pushed his glasses up his face and turned away. "Well I suppose we could just call it off then...I just thought with a cutie mark like that you could be the BEST flyer in Equestria."

Dash's eyes opened in shock. She looked at her flank to see a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt jolting out of it etched on her side. "OmigoshmohmigoshOMIGOSH!" She thought. "I got my cutie mark!" She looked at the colt walking away.

"Hold on a minute!" Dash yelled after him. "I'll do it."

Dash and the young colt took their places at the starting line. She looked down at the aerial course, the twisting and turning lines of hoops and the tall pillars of the slaloms seemed almost too much for the filly, even though they were doing the short course. Up in the massive stands, what seemed like a small blob of color dotted against the backdrop of the huge cloud stadium where the spectators and even the neighsayers from the race before. They all cheered this time though, as this was bound to be the best race yet.

A small filly took his place in front of the two racers with his checkered flag. "This race will be timed! Follow all the markers to reach the end. If you knock one of the markers, you will be penalized with one second on your time. Do you understand?"

The two nodded to the filly and at each other.

"On your marks!" Dash and the colt stepped up to the line.

"Get set!" They knelt down, wings spread.

"...GO!" The filly waved her flag and the racers sped off to the first round of obstacles. Dash looked behind her with satisfaction to see the colt a ways behind her, although he was matching her speed with what seemed like almost no effort. She looked ahead as she came to the first obstacle, the slalom. She started gliding, and came up to the first pillar getting ready to turn around the first cloud. But when she twisted her wings slightly for the bank and turn, she found that they wouldn't turn without huge amounts of strain. Unfortunately, she realized this too late. Instead of a swift turn, she listed almost lazily, trying to maintain her lift while turning. Her wing simply sliced through the first three pillars before slowing down enough to perform her turns and twist around the remaining five.

Once again she looked back at the colt, who made short work of the slalom. He neatly missed each pillar, albeit somewhat slower than what Dash thought acceptable. Almost right away, he was right behind her again as they came to the next obstacle, the loops. Two outside loops, and an inside loop, ending with an Equestrian bunt. There were hoops of clouds strung along the whole of the track to mark which stunt to do.

Dash flapped harder to break away from the colt before diving into the first loop. She could feel her speed pick up diving down, but kept flapping anyway. She dipped down through the first hoop, and sped through each hoop of the loop. Through each loop she could see the top of the hoop getting closer and closer. Her speed was too much, and on the last of the hoops she hit it head on.

That threw her concentration a little, slowing her down, a lucky break for her on the next loops. The next loop she only gliding down, not flapping until she reached the vertical climb. This time she didn't miss a single hoop. The inside loop was almost too much of a breeze, except she couldn't get the speed she wanted, even with her flapping her wings as hard as she could. On the dive of the loop however, she finally reached a speed she only found "somewhat slow" and sped toward the bunt. She looked back once more before diving, but didn't see the colt behind her. She smirked, thinking he must have gotten tangled up in the loops. She turned ahead to the half loop only to see a bright red flank obscuring her view.

"Wha...?" Was all she could spit out. The colt had angled the last turn so perfectly that he had come out of it right on top of Dash, and he had taken the opportunity to get ahead of her. She shook her head to regain her composure before they both angled down into the Equestrian bunt before the final leg of the race. Both of them flew in perfect formation around the loop and came into the final straight stretch that spanned the entire length of the course, back towards the finish line.

"Now this is where I've got him!" Coming into the stretch, Dash used every once of her remaining strength to burst ahead of the colt. He almost forgot to keep flapping with this sudden burst of great speed, but he kept his cool, and did the same. He pushed himself harder and harder, closer and closer to tailing the filly. Dash didn't dare look back to see where he was. She closed her eyes and focused on nothing but more speed. She squinted into the wind and saw the flag filly just in front of her and let out a burst of speed that would've broken the wings of some foals. She streaked across the finish line just as her energy gave out and she skidded to halt barely on her hooves.

A moment later the colt came right behind Dash, and threw out his wings, braking right in front of dash, and laned softly on his hooves, panting heavily. They both turned to the timer board, just as it lit up with their times.

Finish Time  Finish Time

Rain D 54.14   Seam L 56.34

Dash would have jumped for joy if she had any energy left from the day. Two races and she had won both of them! All she managed was a small chuckle. The colt cleared his throat and pointed back at the screen. Dash looked up to see more numbers appear.

Finish Time  Finish Time

Rain D 54.14   Seam L 56.39

Penalties   Penalties

Rain D 4.00   Seam L 0.00

Final Time   Final Time

Rain D 58.14   Seam L 56.39

Dash's jaw dropped. How could she have forgotten the penalties? Her head sagged and she dropped down onto the soft cloud floor. "You were right. I stink." She said, defeated.

She heard the colt's panting breaths come closer. He dropped down next to her and gave her a nudge. "Hey, I never said you stink. Besides, look at those times! Both of them are track records! Not just anypony could make those times. And, I'm sorry if I was kind of rude at all before. I just see so many kids here push for either speed or agility without realizing you can have both. But I think you're on your way to being one of the best flyers ever!"

She lifted her head up and looked at the colt. "Trust me on this, you are a pretty darn good flyer." He took his sunglasses off and stuck them on Dash's head. "And pretty cool too if I may say so."

"What's your name?" Dash asked, a small blush on her cheeks.

"The name is Seamless!"

"My name is Rainbow Dash." She held out a hoof which Seamless shook vigorously.

"Good to meet you Dash."

"How...how did you do that track without hitting a single marker?"

"It's all in the speed Dash." he said with a wink. "A lot of speed is great, but if you ever want to do anything with your flying abilities, you gotta know how to dodge an obstacle. Sure that was one heck of an angle you pulled in the race before, but I'm willing to bet that was from the air pressure hitting the ground that helped you do that."

"What? I...don't understand. How can you know so much about flying, you're barely older than I am!"

"Well for starters I usually train at home with my tutor. My dad wants me know everything there is to know about flying so I can help him when I get older, so he has me train after camp too."

"Wow." Dash looked back at the ground. "How can I ever be good though if I'm just stuck here. Mom can't afford a tutor..."

"Hey." Seamless gently turned Dash's head back towards him. "How would you like to come train with me? I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind the tutor helping us both."

Dash's eyes lit up. "You really mean it? B-but...I don't have the bits for a tutor, as well as flight camp."

"Oh that's no problem at all! We've got more than enough bits to cover you."

Ignoring her exhaustion, Dash sprang up and hugged Seamless around the neck tight. "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!"

Seamless coughed, his face turning more red than usual. He could only choke out "DA-SH! AIR!"

Three years later

Two streams of color streaked across the courtyard in the middle of an old cloud mansion, back and forth. They would have faded from view within seconds if it were not for the two ponies creating them, blurs flashing within a multicolored and solid red streaks. A whistle sounded and reverberated around the courtyard, and the lines of color faded. Rainbow Dash and Seamless braked midair and fluttered down to the floor, both on the verge of collapse due to the over exhaustion.

"Good work guys, take a five minute break!" A solid white colt with a blonde crew cut hollered from his lounge chair in the corner. Dash and Seamless caught their breath as best they could and walked inside for a cold drink of water.

"That...was...INTENSE!" Seamless huffed.

"Oh come on...you aren't...going soft...on me...are you?" Dash puffed back. The two reached the kitchen, not bothering with glasses, turned on the faucet and drank directly from it. After a long drink from the both, they began stretching to keep from cramping.

"Well...I haven't had much of a break. Dad's been working me into the night at the shop. He thinks this...'polyester' fabric is going to change Equestria! Or something li-AAHHH My latissimus is cramping!"

Dash stopped her stretching and began massaging the back muscle. "Wow, you are really stressed out. How late has he been working you?"

"Ahhh, aahhhh....about...until...two or three...in the morning...oooohh right there!" Seamless melted into Dash's hooves.

"What? Did he do this last night? You said you got up at six!"

"Yeah, last night...and I did get up at six. Had to work the register. Don't know why, no pony comes in that late. Ahhh, thanks Dash's you're awesome!"  Seamless stretched his wings out and flexed. "Y'know, if you weren't the second best flyer in Equestria, you'd make a darn good masseuse."

"Hehe, thanks, I...did you say 'second best'?"

"Haha, only after me!" Seamless winked at her before dropping to the floor to do wing ups.

"Right, sure!" Dash's voice dripped with sarcasm. She moved around to face him and dropped down to join him in the warm up. "Anyway, after this I'm going over to Gilda's and we're going to catch the eight o' clock movie, wanna come?"

"Uh...nah, I'm good. I've...got some more work to do." Seamless looked uneasy to Dash, but it was hard to tell from the wing ups.

"Oh come on! We haven't hung out in like, forever!"

"What about now?" He asked.

"This is a workout. Not hanging out. Big difference." Dash rolled her eyes, not noticing Seamless pick up his pace.

"All the same, I enjoy doing this with you. Maybe next time, okay?"

"Nuhuh! You gotta come with! Take some time to yourself for once, your dad will understand. And no excuses. You've given me every one under Celestia's sun, and even still you use that old 'I need to help my dad' excuse."

Seamless was really pushing himself hard, practically staying airborne with each thrust. "And I...mean it...every time!"

Dash finally took notice. "Les, slow down, you're going to cra-"

"AHHH!" Seamless dropped to the floor.

"-mp again." Dash said flatly. She stopped and began massaging Seamless' back again. "C'mon Les, what's the matter, don't you like hanging out with me anymore?"

Seamless mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Dash..." Seamless flipped over and grabbed her hooves in his own. He looked up into her confused face. "Dash I...I need to go." He got up off the floor and walked away towards his room. Before rounding the corner he stopped and looked back at Dash. "Have fun with Gilda tonight Dash. And finish up our workout hard for the both of us."

He went around the corner. As soon as he was sure he was out of sight and earshot he galloped as fast as he could to his room. When he reached it, after a few minutes, seeing as the house was so large, he slammed his door as hard as one could slam a cloud door and threw himself on his bed. He groaned and pounded his hooves on the pillow. He would have screamed into it, but clouds don't muffle the way regular pillows do.

He turned over and stared at the white ceiling. "Why can't I just tell her?" He looked down at his side, staring at the large red canvas just waiting to be painted with his mark. "Because even though she is my friend, she could never go out with a blank flank. She's just...too cool."

It was true, no pony his age, at least as far as he had heard, was still blank. It happened, he was sure, but rare enough it was never heard of. How could he, the most talented flyer in Equestria, only ever bested by his Dash, still be a blank flank. "It's a good thing I didn't stay at flight camp. I'd be the laughing stock."

He sat up and looked out his window just in time to see Rainbow Dash fly off in the direction of Gilda's house. He sighed and rolled off his bed. "Come on Seam old chap. You can think up a way to win her over can't you? Let her win a race? ...Nah She would think I'd actually gone soft. I know she isn't one for jewelry. Too 'frou-frou.' And I REALLY doubt she'd go for the whole mooshy die-hard romantic thing. I can only imagine her face if I walked up to her in a tux with a bouquet of roses. Little Barry Manelow in the background. Jeez, what is the one thing, that Dash would think would be the most awesome thing in the world, she just couldn't say no?"

The exhaustion of the day came upon Seamless suddenly, and he found himself drifting into sleep.

Later, he woke with a start as the sun was going down, the curtains casting a long shadow across his face. He jumped up and looked around him. His eyes rested on what he looked for, the alarm clock. Eight forty-five. "Well, there goes my chance for tonight."

Seamless imagined it in his head. He would rush into the theater, just before the movie started, get up on stage, and profess his love to a large group of strangers, though he only had eyes for one filly in that theater. "BAAH!" he exclaimed. He sat down on the bed and rested his face in his hooves. "Why can't she be like any other filly. Be girly."

"Because then you wouldn't like her as much. Girly girls were never your thing." Seamless said aloud to himself. "You like her because she's strong and courageous. She's not afraid to do anything, even if..."

In terms of light bulbs lighting up above a pony's head, Seamless' would have been a halogen bulb. He threw open his window and bolted for Downtown Canterlot.