Storm Nexus Race: Let the Games Begin!

[CaptainMcDerp]

Ammy happily took the hay bit and popped it in her mouth as the unicorn spoke. "Oh! It's awesome ta meet ya, Amethyst! I'm Presteza. Future greatest artist in the world... and potential Duchess."

Upon hearing the word artist, Ammy took a quick gander at her cutie mark. It certainly indicated that painting was her special talent. She gave a wide grin as she chewed but blinked in surprise at the end of the unicorn's sentence. Duchess?

She quickly swallowed the snack. "Why are you a potential Duc-

"Alright everypony and griffon! To the starting line! It's time for the Storm Nexus race to begin!"

Presteza tossed her a playful smirk. "... And definite Future winner o' this race!" With that, the unicorn artist galloped toward the starting point

Ammy smiled and waved. "Good luck, ma'am!" Her waving ceased and she raised an eyebrow. "Wait... I'm a part of this race too. And I just said 'good luck' to my own opponent un-sarcastically." She turned to Flourish with a sheepish grin, scratching the back of her head. "Heheh I'm not the best at this competitive stuff, am I?" Her eyes widened and she jerked upright. "Shoot! The race is beginnin' soon! We better get on over to the startin' line!"

Ammy scampered to the starting point and tried to imitate the most common stance among the competitors. "I"m gettin' pretty excited actually." She said to Flourish. "This is gonna be fun! Who knows, maybe I won't get last place after all. That'll be a surprise, huh?" Her nose crinkled for a brief moment. "Er, I mean uh..." She awkwardly puffed out her chest and displayed a smirk. "Ya'll better watch out cause I'm gonna beat ya'll faster than um... faster than... somethin' that's fast..."

After realizing her failed attempt at proper competitive banter, Amethyst's face flushed red and she shrunk back down to her normal demeanor, her smirk fading into a timid smile. "Maybe I'll just stick to figurin' out that storm cloud." She said to Flourish in a hushed tone.

[RainbowFoxxy]

Flourish couldn't help but smile at the actions of her friend. Ammy certainly was a little awkward in these kinda of settings. But it was awkward in the kindest of ways. That was why Flourish was so fond of her newest friend. Ammy was always there with kind words. She was so good at keeping Flourish calm and that was needed right now. She had decided to fly along with Ammy as much as she could even though she was much faster than her friend. If they did make it to the storm cloud they would need Ammy's thinking to help figure out how to get it under control.

"Maybe I'll just stick to figurin' out that storm cloud."

"That sounds like a good idea! I'll try to fly point to make it easier for you to get near that cloud!" Flourish assumed a ready position with the rest of the contestants.

-------

"Now remember racers. First one or group to get to the center of that storm, AND figure out how to get control over it, wins the race! It's not just about speed this time, it will also take some quick creative thinking to figure it out." Spitfire looked over her shoulder in the direction that the racers would be heading.

"As an added bonus I've had some of my Wonderbolts set up some special clouds along the way. They are placed as close as the 'Bolts could get to the storm without them blowing away." As she spoke a Wonderbolt came into view, pushing a small purple cloud. "This is a Joke Cloud. It's a regular cloud infused with poison joke extract. If you fly through one of these babies you will take on the attributes of the poison joke plant. You may react in various ways. Some of the effects might help you in the race, others would definitely hinder you!"

She nodded to the Wonderbolt who pulled down his goggles and flew through the purple cloud. It disappeared in a puff around the pony. When the puff of purple was gone the Wonderbolt remained, his wings double their normal size!

"This would an example of what might happen to you if you choose to fly through one of these clouds. Remember the effects are not permanent and the effects will wear off after a while. The effects are altered as these clouds have been especially designed for this race!"

She eyed the group one last time. "That's it! Get ready!" Spitfire could feel her own heart pounding in excitement of the race to come. "On your mark! Get set! GO!"

--------

By the way when this is over I wanted ta talk ta ya. I got a request fer ya but it can wait fer now.

"Yeah, find me once I win the race and we'll talk." Rainbow gave Pres and playful and slightly aggressive wink before making her way to the starting line.

Rainbow Dash needed no second bidding! As soon as Spitfire said GO she was off like a shot!

"Hmmmmm, now let's see... getting these is no problem for me. I wonder how I should make this storm realize that it's epicness has been matched by me!"

Like a streak of rainbow light the blue pegasus moved towards the forest. Soon she was flying over tree tops.

"There's a Joke Cloud." She eyed it a little longer as it hovered in the sky some distance above her. "Should I or shouldn't I..."

---------

*Look for info on Joke Clouds in the OOC section for this thread!

[ShadowWalking18]

Razor took off as soon as it was time. What he hadn't been prepared for was the speed at which the blue Pegasus Rainbow Dash had took off at.

"She is fast....maybe faster then me." He said, before blinking.

"Wait...faster then me. Faster then me! Nopony is faster then me!" He shouted as he flapped harder, moving up to fly over the tree line.

Razor was not going to be shown up by some crayon dyed up mare! He was gonna prove he was faster then her!

As he flew Razor kept an eye out for any competition that got in his way. And anything he could do to make their movement hampered. He ignored the joke clouds for now. Let others get joked up, he could weed out the ill effected from the positive ones and determine who he should focus his aggression on.

[tacobob]

As the race was just moments away from starting, Zelda made sure to do a few last second warm-ups. As she did, she caught sight of the brown earth pony who was starting to make with the wise-cracking."Nah, I just know my own limits. I'm fast. Fast enough to run circles around the lot of you, but Miss Dash? Maybe if she tied one wing around her back and tried to fly? Maybe I'd have a chance, but beyond that? No way. I saw her awhile back in Cloudsdale. Gal can move!".

Her smile faded as Captain Spitfire said 'griffon' as if there was just one. Poor Razor was so small, she probably overlooked him! Trying her best to contain her excitement, the griffon quickly made her way to towards the starting line. The blacksmith couldn't help but chuckle at Amethyst's comments about being ' faster than... something' that's fast'. She wanted to say something clever in response, but she decided against it, believing the pink and purple mare was far too cute to tease. There was one fella she decided to have a little bit of fun with.

Once the mark was given, the griffon took off! While she originally wanted to start off slow like any good racer, she decided she would at least catch up to her fellow griffon who wasn't Gilda. "Hey short-stuff!", Zelda crowed, "You got to pick up your pace! This an't little-league racing here! You're flying with the big-birds!"

[SteelEagle]

Applejack wasn't a rude or inconsiderate pony. No, not at all. She on any other day would have given a great deal of hay about the trash talk and excitement and overall competitive attitude on display, but this was a different beast of a race today that they were being asked to slay. The real prize wasn't measured in bits or a medal or even a ribbon that Applejack could place along with her armada of colors back home. It was measured by the degree of safety that Ponyville enjoyed and by the lives and livelihoods saved from the terrible storm. So the rest of her foes could gab on and fkuff each other up ad break each other down over and over in search of emotional succor from shared ego. Applejack would be content with just beating this storm into a bloody pulp as soon as possible, and stretched and prepped for a strong gallop all the while. She was as loose and limber and fit as she could be and she could be quite fit: All she needed was the go.

As she waited and the others jabbered, she went over in her head the list of things she had brought in her saddlebag. Rations that could in theory last a few weeks if she stretched them out? Check. Her time in Suntrot paid dividends there. Oatmeal and whey, cherries as snacks, chia seeds and kale, good ol' fashioned milk and walnuts, sweet potatoes and of course apples combined to give an endurance athlete evrything they needed. She had portioned it all out to precise amounts for however long she would need to be out there. Her lasso hung within hoof distance and her hat edged forward to narrow her focus ahead. She had a high quality tent stuffed inher bag as well. It had cost a pretty bit or two but she had learned recently that a good tent could very literally save your life! A few pictures, a journal, a quill and some ink, and finally a compass- she was prepared for anything and all she needed was the go.

And she finally got it. Beforehoof she was at the line, haunch in the air as she prepared to let go with all of her pent up energy. Coiled like a well-toned muscle and with a laser-like focus on the qualities of a winner: Honor, respect, responsibility and focus. She was gonna win not because she wanted to win but because she needed to win, and if she lost it was simply because she was able to push them to beat this beast as fast as they could. And when the go order came, Applejack belted off of the line with all of the energy she could muster forced into an immediate and swift gallop as she blasted out from the starting line. This wasn't the little leagues some griffon said, and Applejack had to agree: this was time for the big ponies to show up. And Applejack was sure as hay one big pony!

"YEEEEEEEEE-HAW! SEE Y'ALL AT THA FINISH LINE!"

Okay, so maybe she was a little competitive.

[CaptainMcDerp]

"That sounds like a good idea! I'll try to fly point to make it easier for you to get near that cloud!"

Amethyst smiled. "Aww thanks, Ishy. I really appreciated it."

Her ear twitched as she heard a mare explain the addition of joke clouds. That was interesting. Perhaps going through one of those would help even the odds a bit.

"On your mark! Get set!"

After looking left and right, she mimicked the pose everyone else displayed upon hearing those words, taking on a stance that was ready for lift off.

GO!"

Off she went. The wind sent her mane into a flurry and the ground below whizzed by in an assortment of ever shrinking colors and shapes. As she looked up, she noticed a number of competitors passing her. It wasn't all that surprising though and she certainly wasn't disappointed.

Amethyst eyed the first poison joke infused cloud that came into view. What kind of effect would it have if she flew into it? The curiosity was too much! Besides, was there really any risk? She was probably the slowest competitor so the chance of a positive effect was worth it.

Ammy glanced at Flourish and pointed to the cloud. "I think I'm gonna try one of these thingies out!"

She took a deep breath and dove through the puffy cloud. When she emerged, her mane and tail were at least fifteen times longer than usual!

After giving her new hair a quick gander, a snort escaped her muzzle. "Hehehehehe, I hope I don't get stuck in any towers- whoa!" She wobbled downward for a moment. The weight of the the hair made it a struggle to stay afloat, much less gain any momentum. It definitely hindered rather than helped.

"Ugggh!" She grunted, flapping her wings as fast as she could. Not only did the extra weight make things more difficult, so did her giggle fits. "Pfffft, hahahaha! Maybe that wasn't such a good idea!"

[RedCedar]

Red Cedar

"On your mark! Get set!"

Red Cedar crouched behind the starting line, his leg muscles tense with anticipation, looking ahead to plot his path as far as he could before the trail was obscured completely by the woods.

"GO!"

At the signal, Red sprinted forward, galloping at his fullest along the path, through the forest, pausing only to glance up at the stormclouds and the centre of the storm before looking ahead and pushing himself further and faster.

[DerpRavener]

Despite a getting a good kick out of the starting gate, 'Spring 'Breeze' felt downright downright sluggish. Several of them, most notably a pegasus and a pair of gryphons, shot ahead faster than 'Spring' had ever seen before. Once she reached the treeline, she had to struggle just to keep vision of the race leaders, let alone keeping pace with them running along the ground as she was. At this rate, she thought that by the time they did tire out the race would probably be over.

She shook her head, trying to remind herself that nothing was at stake here. She couldn't fail to complete an order where none was given, and it wasn't like she had any honour left to be stained by a loss. At this point she was just out for a nice leisurely-

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sight of a small purple cloud, sitting just above the trees. That might be just the thing she needed. Something about it seemed like a bad idea, but if she didn't do this she was basically out of the running anyways. What did she have to lose?

Altering her course to pass under the cloud itself, she flapped her wings and lept skyward, crashing thought the cloud.

Almost immediately her hooves collided with the ground, and she stumbled and careened into a tree- almost losing grip on her disguise in the process, though in the heat of the moment she didn't notice. Fortunately it was only a glancing hit, and after a few more stumbling steps she'd regained her footing and was back on track.

The ground had been closer than she'd expected. Once the smoke cleared, and she took a moment to get a look at her own hooves as well as the other competitors, she saw why. She was huge! The cloud had made her several times her previous size, towering over the other racers. She was still at the back, but now it looked like she was gaining, taking advantage of her new gargantuan stride, though taking care not to trample anypony. She laughed aloud as she ran. She was set now, as long as she didn't run into any more trees...

[RazorWind]

Raz's hoof went up to pull his goggles down as the countdown to racing began.. his wings spread wide in preparation and his hind hooves crouched for the lift off..

As the resounding "GO!!" was heard the pegasus joined his other winged companions in launching himself off into the air, though notably falling behind the rainbow maned speedster as she bolted ahead of.. pretty much the entire pack! Still, Razor kept a steady and comfortable pace; a warrior must not use all of his strength at once, after all, it is important to pace one's self! While he didn't have the most speed he had one thing going for him; a great amount of stamina allowing him to fly extremely long distances without too much issue. Still, it seemed he'd need more then that to win this particular race, and as the group sped on they began to come across strange, multicolored clouds hanging over head and near the ground.. now what a curious development these were.

His attempts at figuring out what these clouds did was cut short as he heard an audible rumbling soud from behind him.. his head turned and his eyes widened in shock as the pegasus Spring Breeze from before was... enormous! She somehow had grown above the trees and was stampeding through the woods and surprisingly gaining ground on the rest of the group. Razor doubled his efforts to keep ahead of the super sized Spring and B-lined forward without turning into the clouds.. for now.

[moonshineTheleocat]

"Nah, I just know my own limits. I'm fast. Fast enough to run circles around the lot of you, but Miss Dash? Maybe if she tied one wing around her back and tried to fly? Maybe I'd have a chance, but beyond that? No way. I saw her awhile back in Cloudsdale. Gal can move!".

The brown earth pony gave a smile and made his way up to the line in a light canter. “Oh that's nice,” the earth pony nickered before prepping himself up on the line. “I used to have stupid dreams like you,” the pony teased as he flicked down his pair of safety goggles. He was about to lower himself down onto the line till Spitfire approached the racers with an odd looking cloud. With the run down of it's purpose and name, Java couldn't help to grow incredibly excited.

“Oh that is just awesome!” He chimed in an excited tone. It was pure genius really. Such a tool could provide an incredibly stupid method to win, or an incredibly humiliating defeat. It was a real gamble in a race against some of the fastest ponys and griffons in all of equestria! Then on the warning, he quickly ducked down, excitement still showing quite clearly however. Once the die was cast, he was off. Well sort of. It began in his feet rapidly moving, attempting to carry his body forward, only to throw up a heap of mud with each kick he made. Eventually he managed to move forward, and build up speed. A slow start, but it wasn't much of a worry.

He was more so worried about touching one of the Joke clouds. He didn't even think about the consequences. The moment one came into view, he lounged forward. His hooves outstretched, reaching for this glorious cumulonimbus in an acrobatic dive. And finally... his hoof touched it! His hoof touched a cloud! A glorius day this was as a tingling feeling shot through his body. Though, he didn't notice anything weird as he sort of went back down to the ground. That was till his eyes settled on his forelegs.

They were now hot pink. In fact, his entire body was now hot pink. “What the hay... Pi-” was all he could utter before finally crashing into the ground. Though rather than a hard landing with a loud thud. A strange springy rubbery like sound was emitted. The next thing he noticed was his body was now cartwheeling through the air at a high velocity. Then he struck a tree. But it didn't hurt. Instead, the same noise was created and he was bouncing in another direction. He struck yet another tree, then the ground, branch, ground, branch and now he was flying over the tree lines way up high in the air.

He was screaming, “OOLLLY GEEZE NO, WAAAAH MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STAAAHHAAAAPH...” as he came back down below the leaves and bounced off another branch, projecting him forward. The world was just spinning around him.

[RedCedar]

Red Cedar

Red Cedar glared down the trail, galloping at his fullest between the trees, leaping over fallen logs, resolute in trying to reach the centre of the storm and discover why it was here. As he ran, a sudden massive rumble in the ground shook him to the bone, almost sending him flying back up into the air.

Lifting his head and slowing his pace somewhat, he looked around him. "What was that?" he said to himself, looking to see if the forest had just had an earthquake, then peering up to look at the clouds, wondering if the thunder had started again or he was getting closer to the source of it.

His eyes went wide at the sight above him. Towering above the trees was the massive form of a pegasus, peering over the canopy high above. Red gaped in awe until his front hoof caught a tree root and he stumbled over into the dirt.

Getting to his hooves again, he took another look way up overhead before deciding that he didn't want to be anywhere near the pegasus if she started moving again, looking down the trail and starting in on a full gallop. "Now that has to be the biggest pony!" he muttered.

[Pretzelparty]

"On your mark! Get set!"

While Spitfire made her announcement, Presteza took a deep breath and tuned out all distractions and focused on the path ahead and the yellow pegasus' voice. Presteza had been in races before and she'd been trying to make sure she learned to keep herself from being distracted on the starting line, one moment's delay on a start could sometimes make quite the difference; especially if one didn't get going soon enough. Practically digging her hooves into the dirt, she tried to gain an extra bit of oomph to help her get ahead of the competition without expending too much energy she was saving for the finishing stretch (where ever that was).

"GO!"

Without missing a beat the mare took off from the starting line like she was shot out of a cannon, leaving a size-able but unintentional cloud of dust in her wake. After breaking into her gallop she soon found herself alongside a certain pony in a cowmare hat. It seemed she was already doing pretty well in the race, not long after she left the starting line she couldn't help but hear Applejack cry out...

"YEEEEEEEEE-HAW! SEE Y'ALL AT THA FINISH LINE!"

Spending an extra bit of energy to catch up to applejack she glanced at her to say,"Yep! at the pace yer goin'..." Suddenly she galloped ahead and left the orange mare in her own personal dusty trail,"Yer gonna get there about five mintues after me!" She said before attempting to put even further distance between her and Applejack. For now it seemed the silver maned mare was going to hold off on using any of those joke clouds until she got a decent idea of what they could do.

[RainbowFoxxy]

"Oh my gosh!" Flourish shouted as Ammy entered a joke cloud. Though she loved to pretend she was tough, Flourish had actually found herself somewhat afraid to enter on e of the clouds. Now here her friend was with huge long locks of mane and tail! "Ammy, keep on flying!" Flourish looked down, noting how far away the ground was. If her mane and tail pulled her down too fast Ammy could get hurt!

"Here, I'm gonna help you until this wears off!" Though she really wanted to be at the front of the pack, there was no going there at the moment. She wouldn't leave her good friend behind! Flourish gripped Ammy's tail between her teeth and pumped her wings hard. They were descending still, but at a rate that wouldn't hurt should they need to land from the extra weight. "I hope the effects wear off soon!" She muttered through clenched teeth.

Flourish was not looking down and as they descended, she went straight through a joke cloud. The sky blue pony coughed upon exiting the cloud, a small puff of purple escaping her mouth as she did so. "Hey!" She looked at her wings and saw they were flapping very rapidly like a hummingbird's. Suddenly she found herself able to support not only her own weight but Ammy's as well!

"Come one Ammy! Let's go before my wings slow down!"

Rainbow found herself hovering in front of a joke cloud, trying to decide if she should go through.

"Oh man, I'm wasting too much time! Let's just get this over with!" She gulped and flew through the purple puff. "Hey!" Suddenly Rainbow found herself flying back through where she had just been! "What's going on here?" The cloud had turned everything around! Actually it had turned Rainbow around! She was flying upside down and in reverse.

"Great...just great..." The rainbow hued pony muttered as she tried to size up her situation. She could still fly, she just needed to change her bearings. Flying upside down and backwards was not going to help her out at all. From her vantage she could see that other ponies had used joke clouds as well. Buzzing wings, long locks, bouncing rubber, and a giant pegasus could be seen. Then Rainbow's eyes narrowed... far below she could see Applejack speeding along.

"Darn joke cloud! I gotta beat AJ!" Rainbow tried to concentrate on flying in her awkward state. Her goal as usual, was to beat Applejack in this race!

[ShadowWalking18]

"Bahahahahahahahaahaha!" Razor laughed, seeing the results of the joke clouds. Oh this was too rich!

He laughed as he picked up speed, moving past the giant pony and flew beside Rainbow Dash for a bit.

He covered his beak with a talon as he tried to surpress a laugh, "Hey there...you look...you look rather off center there." He said, snickering before bursting into laughter.

"Ahahahahahah! Oh...Oh my ribs. Out of all of this, I think yours is the best joke ever." Razor said, holding his sides. "See you at the finish line!"

He said before turning to refocus his attention on what was infront of him. When he did, his eyes went wide when he saw a bunch of joke clouds in his path.

"No wait!" He shouted before crashing into the clouds, when he burst from them....everything seemed okay.

Razor blinked and looked around, "Ha! I'm indestructible!" He cheered and opened his wings to give him another boost of speed.....or...he tried to.

"Wait a minute..." He said and looked at his wings....they were stuck to his sides! He struggled to open his wings, but some sort of sticky substance was keeping his wings pinned and he was starting to loss altitude.

"Nononononononnononononononononoonon NO!" He panicked as he started heading towards the ground, "Stop stop stop stop stop stooooop!"

CRASH!!!!

Razor hit the ground and slide across it, his beak cutting through he dirt before he finally came to a halt.

"That....wasn't.....funny...." He groaned as he got up, bruised and dirty now.

"Oh great. I'm not a running sort of griffon." He groaned and took off running.

[CaptainMcDerp]

"Here, I'm gonna help you until this wears off!"

After hearing her friend speak, Amethyst felt a tug on her tail before her altitude began to increase. She glanced behind her to see Flourish had gripped her tail between her teeth and was pulling to towards the sky.

"Thanks." Ammy said as she watched others zoom through the race track. "I'm not sure how much longer I coulda stayed afloat."

A loud buzzing followed by sudden gusts of wind from above made Ammy raise an eyebrow.

"What the hay is that?" She looked up to see her friend's wings were fluttering rapidly. She must have flown into a joke cloud! The results were much better than overgrown hair. Soon enough, Ammy began to pick up speed as Flourish carried both their weight with her new hummingbird wings.

"Come one Ammy! Let's go before my wings slow down!"

Her mane was pelted by wind as they flew faster and faster. "Whoohoo, yeah! Back in the race, baby!" She laughed again, imagining what they must look like from another perspective. Her mind then wondered on another subject.

"Do you think somepony ever grew their mane on purpose? I couldn't imagine havin' a mane and tail like this all the time." Before she let Flourish respond, a gasp escaped her muzzle. A gigantic pegasus met her vision. The ground rumbled every time her hoof met the dirt as she ran amongst the competitors.

Ammy pointed at the obvious target Flourish most likely noticed at this point. "Good gallopin' gravy, look at that!" Being a grape farmer for most of her life, she couldn't help but imagine the amount of grape juice a pegasus that size could stomp out in mere minutes!

[RedCedar]

Red Cedar

Red decided that gawking at the fortunes (or misfortunes)of his fellow competitors encounters with joke clouds wasn't getting him closer, and a joke cloud probably wouldn't help him much. He tried plunging on through the rain and wind, trying to take advantage of breaks in the wind from the trees as he weaved in and around them, hoping the giant pegasus watched where she stepped.

[tacobob]

“I’m not gonna even think about touching one of those silly magic clouds.”, the griffon added, oblivious that he was no longer at her side, “Knowing my luck, I’d probably fly into one that make me lose my fur or cause me to become in....hey...”, Zelda realized that the male griffon had long passed her by and was now challenging the front-runners, “Ugh.”, she groaned as she tried to catch up, but just wasn’t fast enough to do so. Even at her distance, she was still able to see the griffon as he blundered into an entire patch of the trap-clouds, “Oh smeg!”, she grimaced as the little bird started to plummet.

Zelda tried her best to catch up once again to the male, this time to keep him from hitting the ground. Unfortunately for Razor, she still wasn’t fast enough, but to his credit, he was able to crash without breaking every bone in this body. “Hey you alright?”, she called out to griffon before letting out a sigh of relief, “You need to watch where you’re going buddy. As for those wings, a little vegetable oil should clear it all up!", once she was sure he was alright, the blacksmith returned to the race, "Sayonara!", she yelped before she made her way after the Pegasi.

[RainbowFoxxy]

Flourish found herself quickly becoming winded from carrying the weight if her friend's newly acquired locks. She hoped the effects of the joke cloud would wear off before too much longer.

"Good gallopin' gravy, look at that!"

"Whew! That's the biggest pony I've ever seen!" Flourish spoke around a mouthful of mane. "We gotta get flyin' fast Ammy if we want any chance of winning this race! Flap those wings!"

The two flew on towards the ever growing storm. Soon they would be close enough to get a look at what was going on in the storm oddity.

Rainbow Dash huffed in frustration at her flying position. To have to fly upside down was causing a blood rush to her head. If the joke cloud didn't wear off soon she would have to land somehow.

"Gotta keep going!" She encouraged herself, willing her wings to flap from their awkward position.

POOF!

"Oh yes!" Rainbow found herself righted in a moment. The joke cloud she had run into had worn off. She flapped her wings and got herself back into an upright and forward position. "AJ better run fast cause this pegasus is about to be back in the lead!"

Soon Rainbow was right above her earth pony rival. She called down to Applejack. "Hey AJ! Run into any joke clouds yet? Looks like one of them might have slowed you down?" She ribbed her friend in a playful but challenging manner. "Time for me to go check out that storm nexus!"

[RedCedar]

Red Cedar

Red tugged down on his rain hat harder, gripping the chin strap in his teeth as much to give his determination another outlet as to keep it on his head. He wasn't quite sure where he was in relation to any of the other racers - well, except for the huge pegasus - but he kept up his pace as swiftly as he could through the rain, mud and overgrown branches. Looking up, aside from seeing a pegasus or two, he could see how close he was getting to the centre of the storm. "Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going." he told himself.

[moonshineTheleocat]

With no one to help him, all Java could do was watch with annoyance as he bounced from limb to limb, and only managed to gain a small foot print of distance. Now he was already in dead last just a few minutes after the race started. And part way to a tree, the effects of the joke cloud went away with a violent explosion of purple smoke.

“NONONO,” Java cried moments before slamming face first into the tree with a loud thunk. His body slowly slid down the tree a few hoof steps, and flopped off onto the ground. Java laid there for a moment, with a frown. “This... is depressing,” He thought to himself as he now rose back to his hooves.

Only a few more paces ahead of him was another joke cloud. The last one proved to be an utter disaster. And even forced him into dead last, AND in a position where running by hoof wouldn't allow him to actually catch up. If it wasn't for Java's competitive spirit, he may have been in tears from the sudden unfair changes. But, at least what was lightening the mood was a happy little cloud next to a happy tree, just begging him to touch it.

“Oh... what do I have to loose,” Java sighed as he now gave the cloud a poke with his fore hoof. The cloud exploded into purple smoke, and engulfed Java.

For a moment, he didn't feel any different. But a few seconds later, he suddenly felt his hooves leaving the grass. The worst part of it was now that he was tumbling backwards and slammed into a tree once again!

“OW! OH CELSITI-” He cried out in rage, but once he sat up, he cut himself off. He noticed something rather peculiar. The grass was in front of him. And literally in front of him. Like a giant wall! He looked down, and noticed that he was lying across the tree. There was nothing tying him down. And he most certainly wasn't falling off the tree and back to the grass.

“What the...” Java hummed to himself as he slowly, and carefully got back up to his hooves. He was standing ON THE SIDE OF THE TREE! “Oh... gravity must be...” he hummed to himself, before finally grinning. This is the exact boost he needed to get back into the race.

Waisting no more time, he sprinted up the tree towards the canopies, and leaped off of the top. Just as he predicted, he began to fall. But not back towards the earth. Oh no, he was falling sideways! TOWARDS THE FINISH LINE!

His body was flipping through the air as he laughed madly at the exhilirating experience. Eventually, he managed to gain control of his fall, and was soaring through the air with an upside-down swandive. It was almost like he was flying! ALMOST! Only he was actually building up quite a large amount of speed thanks to the power of SIDEWAYS GRAVITY! And soon enough, he was closing in on the racers at an alarming rate!

"I'M BACK BABY!"

[CaptainMcDerp]

The looming storm came into view up ahead. It was dark as all get out and had a swirly shape that reminded Amethyst of ice cream. Though she couldn't really see herself ever eating dark grey ice cream but, life is full of surprises, right?

"There it is!" She said, squinting. "We better get closer if we wanna figure out what's goin' on."

Suddenly, she felt herself become immensely lighter. The rapid decease in weight zipped her upwards. "Woah!" She stabilized herself and slowed to a hover before glancing downward to see her mane and tail had shrunken back to normal size. Finally. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and sighed in relief. "Whew. That sure was a workout."

"I'M BACK BABY!"

"What the hay?" Ammy turned her head at the voice to see a dark brown pony headed right in her direction. "Holy horsefeathers!" She galloped in place while flapping her wings wildly, trying to get out of the way of the fast approaching pony bullet.

[DerpRavener]

'Spring Breeze' was making good time through the woods. She was still a little clumsy on her currently giant hooves, but the main path was open enough that she didn't have too much to worry about. She just made sure to keep an eye on the ground, to avoid stepping on anypony.

Approaching a turn in the path, the false pegasus tried to make the gradual change in direction, but found herself unbalanced. One of her legs was suddenly shorter than the rest! The sudden change caused her to stumble and miss the turn. She kept her momentum however, and ended up careening through the brush. She had a moment to reflect that the joke cloud had worn off at the worst time, before she collided with a tree trunk a ways off the trail as she returned to her original size. The impact stunned her, and caused her to drop her disguise.

Naj tumbled off of the tree in a daze. The changeling shook herself off, more to try and clear her head than due to any debris she'd picked up, and looked around. Given how far from the path she ended up, she doubted anypony had seen her revert to her natural form. That was one less thing to worry about. Looking up at the sky, she noticed that she had gotten very close to it, which presumably meant the rest of the racers were as well. Naj couldn't see them currently, but given have a few had been ahead of her even after she'd caught up to them, she could only assume they were as well. She guessed somepony had possibly even finished the race by now. Ahh well, she hadn't been expecting to win anyways.

The most important part of this event would take place after the race however, and she didn't want to miss out on it. She quickly re-disguised herself.

'Spring Breeze' began to run through the woods once more, now ignoring the trail in favour of her own knowledge of the area, and moved in the general direction of the storm's centre.