Canterlot: The Wonderbolt race track, Royal VIP box.

Twilight Sparkle and her 5 friends where taking up seats near the edge, as behind them sat the regal forms of the white sun goddess, and dark blue moon goddess, the princesses had invited them to Canterlot for a week to relax and get away from it all, not only for the girls, but for the princesses themselves. The idea had really been Twilight's. Since Nightmare-night, she had been talking not only to Celestia, but also to Luna, and gotten to know the younger of the princesses more. She found the idea of a mini-vacation to be something that both her beloved mentor, and newest friend needed from their hectic lives of running the nation of Equestria. This really was something she had been looking forward to though, since Rarity’s visit to Canterlot last week had gone so poorly, a second chance to just relax and have some proper fun sounded good to the recovering socialite she called a friend.

As they prepared to watch the 6 Wonderbolts, including, as Dash had informed Twilight, Spitfire and Soarin, though she didn't immediately know the names to the other 4, race it out. A number of thunder claps cut the crowds murmurs to minor panic, as a small group of Pegasus dragging a set of black clouds neared the track.

“I would think that if there had been plans for a storm, it would not be at the same time as a race,” Said Rarity, while Twilight noticed the confused glances traded by the Princesses. Then Twilight felt herself, like Rainbow beside, her gasp at the sight of what the pegasi where wearing.

“T-the S-sha,” Rainbow stammered out as Luna stood up fully from her seat
“The Shadowbolts?!” She said nearly using her royal Canterlot voice as the lead 3 landed in front of the line of Wonderbolts, stopping them dead in their tracks.

“Guards!” Said Luna pointing, as suddenly Celestia stuck her leg out to stop her sister and the guards.
“Sister?” Questioned Luna, wondering if they could let these trespassers go just for that, let alone the uniforms they wore. Curious as to her mentor’s choice and to the arrival of the pegasi, Twilight focused on the scene below.

“Just who do you think you are barging in wearing those knock off uniforms and stopping our race with your racket!” Demanded one of the Wonderbolts. The leader of the 3, a Black colt who was quite tall and thickened for a pegasus, arguably not as big as Big Macintosh and other such stallions, he was no light weight either, would look through the goggle/glasses of his uniform at the questioning Wonderbolt, and spoke.

“My name is of no importance, I am the leader of the Shadowbolts!” He was interrupted by another Wonderbolt before he could say anything
“And just what ARE the Shadowbolts, besides wannabe second raters?” The dull yellow filly to the black colt’s right just scoffed at the insults clearly glaring through her yellow goggles. The colt spoke,
“We are the fliers of Equestria's shadows! We come from the lost and forgotten towns, that neither the upper class or Wonderbolts ever visit, the gifted fliers never found and left to rot in the uncared for and ignored shadows of Equestria's territory.” Luna was left with her jaw just open thinking about how the name was nowhere near what she had feared it would be used for, but still, how did they come across the uniform designs, and the name? Or was the name just a chance that they had chosen based on the design?
“So, then what do you want with us?” Said Spitfire calmly towards the colt, as the blue uniformed colt to his right smirked to the question.

“We wish to prove we are the better fliers.” The other 4 Wonderbolts just burst out laughing as well as most of the stadium. These ponies better then the Wonderbolt's?
“Oh yeah, like upstart no-ponies like you are going to compete with us! Oh Celestia my sides, my sides hurt,” Said one of the laughing Wonderbolts. The Shadowbolts at the clouds where starting to stretch them out, lighting their tone till they had a massive stock of white cloud to work with, as Celestia stood up. Twilight and the others watched the Princess near the edge of the booth, and using a powerful voice only known once to them as
“The Royal Canterlot Voice,” Spoke to the crowds. “I approve of your challenge, see to it that rule changes are stated before you begin!” The resulting silence across the stadium only sought to bring smirks to the faces of the Shadowbolts.

The Shadowbolts in the clouds began to tear into the track, pulling it apart and molding new parts to it out of the clouds they had brought with them.
“Then, first things first!” Declared the colt strongly, “This track is only a show of speed! A pegasus has so much more to spread their wings then with just their sheer flight speed!” The track got a massive peak up, had sharp turns and key curves into its sides that where clearly design to test not only just sheer turn speed, but their ability to adapt their turn radius and skid on the clouds. Next was a straight up loop-de-loop, the purpose of this was clear, can you make a full 360 circle going straight, and then finally a bent outward that also dipped down and back up on its way back into the main track, that also like the peak up and down, had key types of turns on it.

“Next, if a bolt, wonder or shadow crashes through or off the track, that is it, no getting back on!” Celestia would order her guards to sit around the track to make sure to enforce this rule much to Luna’s protesting eyes. Twilight could not blame Luna for wanting to protest her older sister’s allowance of this. These where fliers who not only interrupted a high class event, which to Twilight’s knowledge, it was a massive insult and even a straight up felony to interrupt back then, let alone just the trespassing and the interruption of a organized sport in such a manner was still considered an offense, but the uniforms where a visage of a dark time in Luna's life. Whether they knew it or not, that may be a massive insult to the princess. As the 9 bolts began to make a line at the start, the colt said 1 more thing as all the wings unfurled,
“2 laps around, we shall see how many of you make it.”

They where off, well 8 of them, the black colt was stuck on the start line wings locked up his teeth gritting, some might think he was just going to try to completely upstage all the others by letting them get a head start, but something in Twilight's gut told her something was wrong. As the 8 began their course up the peak, one Wonderbolt shot off the side, hard, from a sharp turn, trying to get back on, only for the guards to point him back to the stands to wait. Spitfire and the Shadowbolt filly came over the top and shot down first, neck and neck. Soarin was behind them, then another Wonderbolt, then the blue colt Shadowbolt, and the last current Wonderbolt, as they did, the black colt finally shot from the start line with a tremendous wave of air shooting behind him. During the loop-de-loop, the 2 in the lead shot through, at first one might think the under trained Shadowbolt filly might end up crashing them both out of the race. As the idea of a completely independent group of fliers this hot headed might be able to keep up without crashing into a pegasus they have never worked with before was honestly laughable, but the 2 kept going side by side unwavering. Soarin did the same, but the Wonderbolt behind him. When he went through the part where he was upside down, for some reason he flipped up in some sort of instinctive auto-correct and crashed through the back, leaving the blue colt Shadowbolt and other 2 Wonderbolts to catch up to Soarin. The 2 came out of the final bend out with Spitfire showing she was edging out on her Shadowbolt competitor. The filly dropped back and took up a position behind Spitfire nearly sending her hind hoofs into Soarin's face.

“Smart,” Said Rainbow, to which Twilight responded,
“What do you mean?” Rainbow would tap her chin with her hoof,
“Well who ever that filly is, she realizes that Spitfire’s going to eventually overtake her in the second lap, and lose more energy in it then she’d lose just getting behind her.” Twilight would think watching, as the 5 of them crossed the start/finish line into lap 2. The black colt leader was shooting out of the bend. Drafting, that's what Rainbow meant, the filly was drafting behind Spitfire, allowing Spitfire to keep at full speed to keep ahead but waste a lot more energy in doing so then the Shadowbolt was. As the lead 3 shot over the peak, the 2 Wonderbolts tried to block the nearing leader as the Shadowbolt had ended up crashing into one of the poles and knocking himself out of the race and almost unconscious. The two tried to push him back but when he got between them, they tried to just slam into his sides. He cut his speed as they hit each other and smashed through the clouds beneath them before shooting back into the race at full speed, creating another wind blast. Soarin heard him coming,

“Aw no buddy you are not getting past me, sorry.” The Shadowbolt smirked as he shot under Soarin and did the loop-de-loop with him shooting in front of him,
“I don't recall giving you any say in the matter, 'buddy'” He retorted as he shot up behind the filly and Spitfire as they where going into the bend, all 4 in a single file. The final stretch came as the filly broke to the left, the colt to the right, they shot forward catching up to Spitfire. Soarin pulled up some as he seemed to wobble, falling behind the other 3. They had created a draft vacuum of some kind, Twilight figured, and when they had broken off, the impact on the air in front of Soarin must have thrown him off entirely. They where nearing 3 wide for the finish line, it was going to be literally a photo finish at this point as they could not tell who was pulling fully ahead of who. The flash, the passing, the cheers of the crowd who had been watching intently! It was clearly a rush of emotions as the photographer would wait for the picture to form while the Shadowbolts rushed to their leader, who looked absolutely exhausted, almost unhealthy so, as the filly though panting did not look half as winded as the black colt.

The photographer and officials pooled over the image and seem to be drawing lines down it to literally mark who was just how far ahead. Finally, one stood up,
“We have confirmed our findings, the winner is….The Shadowbolt filly! With Spitfire in second and the colt in third!” The uproar was a mix of cheers and boos as the royal sisters descended. Celestia would smile, the silence following her landing, allowing her to speak,
“I must congratulate you on your efforts in finishing the race and in placing so highly against the well renowned Wonderbolts. You have shown a strong will to compete.” Spitfire would near the Shadowbolts,

“You really strutted your stuff out there, and now I understand your complaint about the short track. Indeed it was not enough to show just how fast a pegasus can go but how agile they are, giving them the room to out play their opponents like that.” The Shadowbolt filly neared, her eyes locked on Spitfire, though you got the vibe she wasn’t exactly as happy-go-lucky sports-mare as her Wonderbolt counterpart.
“I won and that is all that I feel matters. You are the stronger flier and you likely always will be. Even if we had lost, this would not have been the last of us. So next time, I expect you to bring that challenge again.” Spitfire nodded smiling despite the rather threatening tone of her competitor.
“Before you go, I must ask, what is your name?” The filly focused on her, reaching up slowly to take her goggles off, showing deep orange eyes that burned with a passion,
“I am Night fury, remember it well.” She put her goggles back on as the Shadowbolts flew off.

Author's Note

I do want to mention that i did have an editor to help me during most of this, she also did my title card on the front and is a good friend of mine. I hope you all enjoy this, comments on how you felt or how you feel i could improve are much appreciated.