Glasswing strained her wings, pushing herself to go faster. She spun, looped and dived, leaving a trail of violet fur and loose feathers in her wake. She swooped through the hoops, swerved through the columns and finally crossed the finish line to the click of a stop watch.

“No penalties to assess, final time thirty-five seconds. Unacceptable, try again.” The caramel colored pegasus held the watch with his wing feathers, yawning with boredom.

Face screwed up in frustration, she stomped over to the timekeeper, demanding to see the watch itself. Thirty five seconds. She needed to get her time below thirty to pass. Gritting her teeth in frustration she made her way back to the starting point. She had two more chances, she could do this. She had timed herself before completing the course in twenty, the mare nodded her head. This was in the bag.

Shaking her pink mane out, she took her position. Crouching low to the ground, the mare waited for the signal, staring at the lights.

Red. Red. Yellow. GREEN!

She blasted away from the starting line, wing muscles burning from the effort. She spun and dived with elegant ease, gliding rapidly through the obstacles again, trying to cut them as close as possible. Finally, nearly at the end, her wingtip clipped one of the columns and caused it to wobble slightly. She cried out in frustration, knowing they would penalize her for it. She crossed the finish line again to a familiar click.

This time the stallion clucked his tongue, “Time, twenty seven seconds. A five second penalty is assessed for clipping a column. Final time, thirty two seconds. Unacceptable, try again.”

She cried out in frustration and started towards the timekeeper, then slowly backed off as two unicorns in lab coats trotted up on either side of him. A bulky looking stallion and a shifty-eyed mare took up positions at the timekeepers flanks. Odd looking boots adorned their hooves, some sort of magical device that allowed the non-pegasi to walk on the clouds with ease.

“You have one more attempt, or you may forfeit here. Success earns you placement on the weather team responsible for Ponyville. I do not need to tell you what failure means.” The timekeeper looked tired, dark circles under his eyes. There was something else deep in his gaze, though. Was it a touch of regret?

Swallowing hard, the mare slunk back towards the starting line. Her knees were shaking as sweat broke out on her forehead. It felt like ice was forming in the pit of her stomach as she took her place again, staring at the lights.

Red. Red. Yellow. GREEN!

Feathers seemed to hang in the air where the mare had stood after she took off. She braked and glided, swooped and spun. Her face was a grimace of concentration as she did her best to maintain a top speed while trying to carefully fly through the obstacles, keeping as far as possible from each. She could sense the time running out and poured on the speed. Finally, she crossed the line with a familiar click.

The mare collapsed just beyond the finish line, completely spent as she looked hopefully over to the timekeeper and the unicorns flanking him.

The same bored expression was locked on the stallions face as he sighed softly, “No penalties to assess, final time, thirty-one seconds. Unacceptable.”

Yellow magic enveloped her wings as they were pulled straight out to her sides by the unicorn stallion. The mare used her orange energy to fit a set of braces on them to keep her from attempting to fly off. Her head hung low in defeat as she followed the three of them to a waiting chariot that carried the four of them towards the heart of Cloudsdale.

They swooped low around the weather factory, circling the colorful stream of liquid spectra that poured down to it from the darker structure suspended above. Slowly climbing higher and higher, Glasswing felt her eyes burning with tears as her heart sank into the pit of her stomach.

A weak smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, the timekeeper pointed to the deep gray structure that looked to be constructed from storm clouds and wrought iron. “Welcome, Glasswing to the Rainbow Factory. My home, and now yours as well.”