When Fluff, the hardest working pegasus horse in all of East of Cloudville, heard that the Pegasus Horse Games were now open to pegasus horses eleven and older (Fluff had just turned eleven!), he was beyond excited. That was until he learned that Conner was also going to enter the race. Conner had won every race since Fluff was six.

Fluff went to the race track that morning. Before that, he ate a hearty breakfast of cereal, bacon, and cotton candy, the best breakfast a pegasus horse can have. He met his friend, Nelshon, there, and they started training for the race. The race was twenty laps around the whole track. Luckily, Conner was so cocky that he was not training for the race.

BANG! The race started! Conner, Fluff’s competitor, had eaten so big of a breakfast and trained so little, that he was losing speed. The horse could not take it. He started to fall over, and that put Fluff in the lead. Fluff ran so fast it felt like the race was over in a second. The next thing you knew, the whole school was cheering for Fluff!

Except, right then, the referee called a timeout. The results of the race were declared invalid because both of the pegasi had started without obeying an important rule: the three second rule, which said you couldn’t start racing until counting aloud three seconds.

Fluff was devastated. This meant he had to race Conner again tomorrow; only Conner would probably be prepared for the race tomorrow!

Tomorrow came too soon. Fluff was pretty scared. When he got to the track again, he saw Conner on a treadmill going full speed, and it looked pretty easy for him. Fluff got on the treadmill farthest away from Conner.

When there was about five minutes from race time, Fluff went over to Conner and said, “Eat a good breakfast today?”

“Yes, I did,” said Conner.

“Fluff and Conner, please take your places and get ready to start,” said the principal.

BANG!

“One… two… three… go! The second take of the race has started. Fluff is losing! Lap one… lap two… lap three… lap four… lap five… lap six… lap seven… lap eight…lap nine… lap ten… lap eleven…lap twelve… lap thirteen… lap fourteen… lap fifteen… lap sixteen… lap seventeen… lap eighteen… lap nineteen…They’re both coming up right now! The place is tied! Five, four, three, two, one, and FLUFF WINS!!!”