Fast Friends and Faster Cars

Chapters

Where Speed Limits are Mere Suggestions
10-44 in Progress
Rising Tension and a Midnight Ride
Bacon Grease
Party Animals
The Afternoon After
Escalation
Braking Point
Road Trip
Welcome to Fairhaven
Welcome to Rockport

Where Speed Limits are Mere Suggestions

You're sitting on the couch in your makeshift house, holding your head in your hands. The girls had just finished telling you about how they got here, and what 'Equestria' was like. Apparently, it was a world where everyone was some kind of talking animal, mostly ponies, and magic and flight were very common. Also, the sun and moon were controlled by two princesses or something.

You clap your hands together, looking up. "So, let me get this straight; You six lived in Equestria all your lives, as ponies..."

They all nod in confirmation.

You point to Twilight. "...and you were a princess."

She nods.

"And you decided to try out some kind of world viewing spell, but you- pardon the pun- royally screwed up."

Some of them contain their laughs while Twilight nods again.

"...and you all expect me to believe that?"

"Hey, it's true!" Rainbow says, getting in your face. "Why else would we be here?"

"I was starting to think you were all high as a kite in a hurricane, but now I see that you all just went insane in the exact same way," you say, leaning back on the couch.

"Insane?! Why I oughta-"

"Calm down, Rainbow," Applejack says, holding her friend back.

"What will it take for you to believe us?" Twilight asks.

"How about some undeniable proof, first? That'll be a start."

"Okay..." She looks on a nearby table, where a book is sitting. Just like before, in the clearing, she concentrates on it until the book lifts up into the air, covered in a purple glow.

"I've already seen that," you say, "and it's freaky, but there are all kinds of possible explanations for that."

The book drops back onto the table. "Well, maybe if I..." She now faces an empty space, concentrating massively. For a while, nothing happens, and you're about to say so, but then the smallest of purple lights flash, just enough for you to see it. When you look again, the most bizarre sight greets you: What looks like a purple-edged hole in space is floating there, and on the other side was some kind of town. When you looked closer, you saw that it was populated entirely by small, colorful horses, some with horns, who were doing magic, and some with wings, who were flying around. Before you could ask "What the shit-ass Christ?", the image flickers, before disappearing completely. Twilight falls to her knees, bleeding from her nose, and her face pale.

"Twilight!" All of her friends rush to her side, especially Fluttershy, who was there almost instantly.

"I'm... fine..." Twilight said, still pale, but bleeding from her nose less now. "I just need... some rest..."

You sit wide-eyed on the couch. "Well... I guess I believe you now... But there's still nothing I can do to help you besides let you stay here," you say.

"Don't worry," Twilight says weakly, being helped up by Fluttershy. "I'll... think of... something..." She takes a deep breath. "These bodies are... not made for magic..."

Once everyone saw she was alright, the tension in the room died down. "Hey, you said you were a racer, right?" Rainbow asks.

"Yeah, I did."

"Well, you can't be racing in that hunk of junk we rode here in! I could fly faster than that thing!"

"One, the fastest we went on our way here was seventy-five, and two, I have plenty of other, much faster cars."

"Oh yeah?" she challenged. "Show me."

"Oooh! I wanna see 'em too!" Pinkie spoke up, hopping again. The shirt she picked didn't do much to hide her figure.

"Well, I think I should stay here with Twilight..." Fluttershy said.

"No problem. Now, follow me to see some of the best cars around." You lead them out the door into the rest of the large garage, formerly used for airplane storage. Because of this, there was more than enough room for both your house (powered by a generator, to keep off the grid), and your collection.

Turning, you raise an arm out towards that collection. "Behold."

Nearby, the only visible car was a Ford Focus.

Rainbow laughs. "That's it? That looks even slower than the other one!"

You smile. "Oh, excuse me, I seem to have forgotten something." You pull a remote out of your pocket and press a button. One by one, the overhead lights came on, revealing row upon row of sports cars and exotics, positioned in a decently sized parking lot. All four girls' jaws drop.

Hitting another button, you lower the platform where you parked the Land Rover, a panel sliding into place on the ceiling above it. Once it was on the ground, you walked over and got inside, starting it up. As the girls stayed put, you drove it off to where you put cars that needed some repairs, before shutting it off, getting out, and looking for another ride. You had a race to get to in a little over an hour, and it was agreed upon to pick something fast, but not too fast for it.

Turning, you spy the perfect car, and grin. Getting in, you turn the engine on with a roar, before pulling out and heading back to the girls at a decent clip. Just before you would've hit them, you spun the wheel and hit the brake, throwing the car into a drift. Once you stopped, you put it in park before rolling the window down, catching four surprised looks.

Rainbow Dash is the first to react. "Now that's more like it!" It seems she likes this new car a lot more. You don't blame her; the Ford GT is, indeed, a fast looking car, as well as just plain fast.

"I actually have a race to go to in about an hour," you say. "Which one of you want to go with me?"

Pinkie and Dash raise their hands, while Rarity and Applejack seem reluctant.

You chuckle. "There's only one passenger seat, so you'll have to decide amongst yourselves who gets to go."

The two eager girls look at each other, before Pinkie steps back. "I know how much you like races, Dashie," she says. "I can go next time, anyway!"

At first, it looks as if Dash is about to decline as well. But you rev the engine, and she makes up her mind, getting into the seat next to you. Turning back to the others, you say, "We'll be back in about an hour, ten minutes."

Before any complaints can be vocalized, you shift into drive and peel out. Whirling around, you park on the lift before hitting the button to raise it back up. Once back on the surface, you breathe in the evening air before rolling up your window, shifting back into drive, and punching it. Dash looks thrilled by the speed, and once you get onto the highway you're doing a comfortable eighty miles an hour.

Soon, Dash seems bored. "This doesn't seem much faster."

"Again, cause I'm only going eighty. I don't want to attract unwanted attention."

"Attention from what?"

You realize your mistake, and try to cover for it. "I mean... I don't want to tire out my car, is all. Going fast can take a lot out of it."

She still looks suspicious, but leaves the issue alone. At least, mostly. "Come on, go faster!"

"Alright, fine." You flip up a cover on the gear shift, revealing a red button labeled "NOS". "You want fast? You got fast."

You simultaneously shift into a higher gear and hit the button. At once, your speed starts rocketing up, and both you and Dash are pushed backwards into the seats. While you keep your eyes on the road, dodging around any traffic and watching for turns, Dash lets out a yell that's probably born of both fear and excitement. You glance at your speedometer a few times: one sixty, one seventy...

Finally, you top out at eighty, but you squeeze out another ten by hitting the nitrous again. Seeing a turn up ahead, you let off the gas, hit the brake, swing the wheel, and hit the gas again, going into a drift. Dash yells again at the maneuver.

"Told you it went fast!" you yell over the sound of the engine. Dash just nods in reply.

Suddenly, your rear view mirror is filled with red and blue, and someone begins talking over the police scanner. "Be advised, I have a vehicle going by at a-"

Acting quick, you shut off the scanner. Thankfully, Dash didn't seem to hear it. The cop is quickly left in the dust, and it looks as if you had the shortest pursuit ever. As you drive on, a few speed cameras take your picture, but you pay that no mind; with all the racers in Fairhaven, the cops stopped paying attention to every single speeder that goes through long ago.

Up ahead, you see your destination: The local construction site, where a new building was planned, but mostly forgotten. Deciding to make an entrance, you take a conveniently-placed ramp, courtesy of some of the more adventurous street racers, and smash right through a billboard telling drivers to buckle up. Dash screams as you fly majestically through the air, until you not-so-majestically land hard on the dirt, shaking you both. You go into another drift before sliding to a stop, just outside of view from the highway. Next to you, Dash breathes heavily, the adrenal rush probably wearing off. "That... was..." she starts.

"Awesome?" you ask. "Amazing? Other words that mean that?"

She thought for a bit, then simply nodded. Then she started looking around the empty lot. "I thought you said there was gonna be a race."

"There is. We're just early." You turn off the engine. "Now we wait."

You lean back and prepare to take a quick nap. "Wake me when someone else gets here," you say. Before you can hear her reply, you're out.

10-44 in Progress

You awake to see Dash shaking your shoulder and pointing out the windshield. "Someone's here," she says. Sure enough, you see a familiar yellow Corvette drifting onto the dirt, followed by various other sports cars. You smirk while stretching. Even before the race starts, you're first.

"How long was I out?" you ask.

"About twenty minutes," Dash replies.

"Huh." You go to get out, before turning to your passenger. "Stay here, and don't touch anything, alright?"

She looks like she's about to protest, but then she nods. You get out and breathe the evening air as you walk over to your fellow racers to mingle.

The first person you spot is your longtime friend, getting out of the yellow 'Vette. Seeing you, he smiles and waves.

"What's up, man?" he greets.

"Nothing, other than cops still trying to bust me," you reply. You decided not to tell anyone else about your rather unique situation.

"Well, cops may not be able to do much, but trust me, I'll take you down one of these days."

"You sure? Cause you sure seem to like riding my rear bumper."

The two of you glare at each other, before he cracks a smirk, and you both start laughing. Outside observers would assume you and him were archenemies, which wouldn't be too unreasonable, given that he was the number two racer, second only to you. In reality, however, it was more like a friendly rivalry than anything.

Your friend looks behind you, points. "You see the new guy?"

Turning, you see someone leaning against a blue Porsche, simply watching everyone else. "Him?" you ask, pointing the guy out.

"Yep. Word on the street is he comes from Seacrest County."

You give a low whistle. "Seacrest? Damn." Seacrest County was infamous among street racers across the nation, and for good reason. Where else does the police force regularly use cars like the Bugatti?

"Don't worry, he doesn't know the streets like we do," your friend adds, holding up his fist.

"Damn right he doesn't," you say, returning the fist bump.

As you look at a new scratch on your friend's 'Vette, he taps your shoulder. "Hey, who's your lady friend?" he asks, pointing to Dash sitting in your car. Thankfully, bright, neon-colored hair wasn't too out of place in the street racing scene, so she didn't stand out too much.

Thinking quick, you come up with a story. "She's actually my... cousin, visiting from out of state." A different dimension counts as 'out of state', after all.

"Well, if you don't mind me saying, she looks mighty-"

"I do mind. She's my cousin, man, come on." If you're going with the story that Dash is family, you might as well act the part.

"Alright, alright," he says, holding up his hands. "Don't blame me for being a healthy male human being."

Before you can retort, your cell phone rings in your pocket, as does everyone else's. Pulling it out, you see a new text from the one behind the majority of the races in Fairhaven, who went by the name 'Criterion'. Not much was known about them, except that they regularly schedule races and set courses. Occasionally, they would also tip off the cops about certain races, adding an added fun factor to them. At least, for you.

"Alright, let's do this," your friend says, jumping into his car through the window, Dukes of Hazzard style. You jog over to your Ford and get back in the driver's seat, starting the car.

"Is the race about to start?" Dash asks.

"Yep." You plug your phone into your GPS, and upload the file embedded in the text. Soon, a course is plotted on the GPS screen. Down the interstate some more, then exiting at Ripley's Point, before ending at the beach there. Simple enough. All that was left to find out was whether or not the police would get involved. For once, you hoped not. Still, you turn your scanner back on, just in case.

As is usual for these races, you wait until everyone else is in position before taking your place at the back. A little added challenge, given that you never lose.

As you sit in park, you wait for the signal to start. Traffic keeps heading by on the freeway, but you think you spot a few people eyeballing the gathering of expensive cars. If the cops weren't tipped off before, they would be now.

A display on your GPS appeared, part of the essential street-racing app. Simply saying "Ready", it was enough to get everyone revving their engines, you included.

You shift out of park and into drive.

You get ready to slam your foot on the gas.

You prep your nitrous for deployment.

You hit the gas. Within moments, you and everyone else are breaking a hundred miles an hour as you get back onto the pavement. You quickly move up in the pack, soon finding yourself right behind your friend. You try to pass, but he cuts you off, and you don't want to wreck him, which leaves only one option. Seeing a empty space in the divider between lanes, you plunge into oncoming traffic, blasting nitrous. Dash screams, probably more from fear than excitement.

You effortlessly weave between the cars before returning to the right side of the road, the yellow Corvette now in your rear view mirror. You smile and give a small wave to him before boosting off, just as you enter a tunnel. As the car's engine noise reverberates off the walls, you top out at nearly 180. Dash seems to love the speed, but she looks as if she's not a fan of tight spaces like this.

Suddenly, something shunts your car from behind. You straighten back out, then look in the mirror to see that Porsche behind you, a new set of red paint flakes adorning its front bumper.

"So he wants to play rough, huh?" you ask yourself. You see that he's moving to hit you again, and you respond by swerving to the right and braking. The Porsche flies past you, and you quickly get back up to speed. You were well known for racing dirty when provoked, and you were about to demonstrate that fact to this newcomer.

Just as you both exit the tunnel, you hit the nitrous, delivering a mighty blow to his rear bumper. Unlike you, he fails to correct himself, and ends up careening into a side wall, where he flips over. You laugh.

"Is he alright?" Dash asks, sounding genuinely worried.

"Oh, he'll be fine," you say. You don't know for sure if he will be, but you also don't really care much. He struck first, anyway.

Looking ahead, you spot the exit you need to take just in front of the setting sun. Veering into the opposite lane, you drive up the exit and start drifting left, lining up with the new road. Turning left at an auto-shop, you check your mirror to see the rest of the racers, your friend leading the pack. Glancing to the GPS, you get ready to drift right.

Just as you do so, you see a flash of red and blue in the mirror.

"Dispatch, be advised," an officer began saying over the scanner, "I've got a street race in progress here, back-up requested."

"What's going on?" Dash asks, worried.

"Nothing, nothing," you say quickly. Hopefully, you can go ahead and finish the race and escape the cops before any more damning evidence about the truth of your trade could occur.

"Copy that," the female voice of Dispatch responded over the scanner, "Code 3 authorized."

Almost immediately, several more police cars join the chase. The other racers split up slightly, and at least two of the cops were right behind you. Up ahead, you see a roadblock in place; right where the race route was supposed to go. Thankfully, a ramp also happened to be right there. Taking the opportunity, you jump over the block while Dash screams, and the other racers do the same.

"They got around the roadblock, suggest use of spikes."

"Approved. Interceptor units en route."

"Did those cars say 'Police'?!" Dash yells. You don't answer, instead focusing on the road ahead. Traffic was thinning out, but now Corvette police were on the scene, able to easily match your speed. You ignore them, as well. Just a bit further until the finish...

"All units, I have a positive ID on several of the racers as highly wanted suspects, we'll probably need to escalate this."

"Copy that, tactical units arriving shortly."

This wasn't good. Once tactical units, shorthand for "huge-ass SWAT trucks", get involved, it's generally not a quick chase.

Driving onto the sand, you hit the boost to make it through the home stretch. The car shakes from the lack of tarmac, but you overlook it.

As if fate decided it had enough of you, a 'Wanted' billboard up ahead displayed your face, easily visible. You can practically hear Dash's eyes widen.

As you smash through the piece of wood, you check the GPS. The race was over, and (surprise, surprise), you won. That's one out of three things done. Now all that was left was to lose the cops- and explain the situation to Dash...

"You- You're a criminal!" she accuses. Looking over, you see her trying to undo her seat belt, as if she was preparing to jump out of the car.

"First of all, don't do that, you'll become a red smear on the concrete at this speed," you say, which gets her to stop messing with the belt. "And secondly, I can explain everything once we're done here." Up ahead, you see a line of SWAT vans blocking the road, so you turn into a nearby shipping yard.

"I can't believe you! We trusted a lawless criminal?! Why did you lie to us?"

Another van comes in ahead of you, blocking your exit. "Hold that thought," you say as you activate the e-brake and slam the wheel to the side. Dash screams as the car spins, and you rocket off the way you just came, dodging around pursuing cops.

"Dispatch , I have identified a highly wanted suspect, driving a red Ford GT."

"Copy that, all units, Code 3 suspect is driving a red Ford GT; suspect is highly wanted, pursue and detain."

Welp, it seems that you've been singled out. You'll probably have to change into another car to completely get away from them. Following the road tracing the beach, you turn left at another SWAT roadblock. Hopefully, you can get back on the highway soon, and from there you can simply out run the cops.

A police Corvette pulls ahead of you, then evens out its speed.

"Be advised, dropping spikes."

As the device drops from the back of the cop car, you swerve to avoid it before boosting back to speed. Spotting an exit to the interstate, you take it, causing a few of the cops to overshoot and continue down the other road. The majority of them were still chasing you, though, so you kept your wits about you as you weaved through traffic.

"You still haven't answered me! Why would you-"

"Look, Dash, I'm kinda busy at the moment!" You shoot back. "We'll discuss it when there isn't a threat of us being arrested!"

"Us?! I'm not the criminal here!"

"No, but you're part of a group of magical horses who ended up teleporting into this world completely by accident! You have no previous records here, and it didn't look like that trick Twilight pulled was good for her. Do you really want her to do that again just to prove your story is true, and you all aren't just six raving lunatics?!"

While she's silent, you use the time to check your surroundings. Cops are still behind you, and you are just about to run into another SWAT roadblock, with no way around it. Cursing to yourself, you stop just short of it and spin around, now facing your pursuers. A SWAT van heads towards you, and you decide to play chicken with it.

"What are you doing?" Dash asks, broken out of her thinking. "You're gonna get us killed!"

"Nope." In one swift motion, you dodge the oncoming behemoth while simultaneously spinning the car again. As you watch, the fast-moving truck is unable to stop in time, and crashes right into the roadblock, leaving a hole big enough for you to drive through, so you do so. The other cops get hung up on the block, and you quickly out run the SWAT van, leaving you alone on the road.

"I lost sight of the suspect, he was heading down the interstate."

"All units, go Code 2 and search for the suspect."

Spotting an exit, you get off into Callahan Industrial. Sticking to back roads and alleys, you soon find what you're looking for, and shut off the car. "Come on, get out," you instruct your passenger.

As you leave the car, you receive a slap to the face. "Ow! What the hell was that for?" you ask.

"That was for nearly killing the both of us," Dash says. "Now, what did we stop for?"

Still rubbing your aching cheek, you point to the reason. "Changing rides."

While Dash takes in the sight of the Aston Martin, you get in and start it up. "Well?" you ask, motioning for her to get in with you.

"What makes you think I should still trust you? What's keeping me from just telling the cops where you are?"

In answer, you turn the scanner on and turn it up loud enough for her to hear.

"-suspect is extremely dangerous, and appeared to have a passenger with multicolored hair-"

You turn it back down. "You're an accomplice of mine, now," you explain. "They'll arrest you just as soon as they do me. And when they find no background on you, none at all, what will they do, you think?"

She stays silent, but gets in beside you. As you pull back into the street, she finally asks, "Why is one of your cars out here, anyway?"

"Technically, it's not mine; us street racers always need a change of wheels in a pinch, so different cars are parked away from sight, where any of us can just pull up and take it," you explain.

Getting back onto the highway, you pass a couple of roaming police cars, who, thankfully, seem oblivious to you.

"How long?"

"What?"

Dash coughs. "How long have you been doing this?"

"About... I-unno, a few years, now? I kind of lost track, honestly."

"Why do you do it?"

"Well, I like the sense of speed, for one," you say. Chuckling, you add, "And I can see you like it, too."

Dash blushes slightly, but tries to hide it. Slight anger soon makes itself apparent on her face, however. "Still, you couldn't have told us what you did?"

"Let's see, you just teleported into someplace completely different from home, and the first person you see says they're a criminal. Gee, you'll surely trust him!" you say, your voice dripping with sarcasm. "And since you reacted so well to that fact, I think I'm gonna hold off on telling the others about this."

"What? You have to tell them, or I will."

"Alright, alright," you relent as you pull into the airplane scrapyard. "I'll tell them tomorrow, alright? Today was a long day."

This seems to appease Dash, so you park on the platform and press the button on your remote to lower it. Once it's done moving, you shut off the car and get out, Dash right behind you as you enter your subterranean home.

Inside the living room, Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy were all sitting on the couch next to Twilight, who looked much better now. "Heya," you greet.

They offer their own greetings, and Pinkie literally hops over to Dash. "So? How was it? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"It was... fast." Looks like she's waiting for you to tell them tomorrow, so that's good. Gives you plenty of time to think up an explanation.

"So, what were you all doing while we were gone?" you ask.

"I was reading your collection of books," Twilight says, pointing to your bookcase, which was mostly full of road maps and car manuals. "I must say, this world seems much more technologically advanced than ours."

"And this upholstery is simply fabulous!" Rarity says, adjusting herself on the couch. "Just what material is this?"

"...I don't know, really." You never considered your couch that great, but eh.

"I don't know about you all, but I was bored as heck," Applejack says, her feet resting on your coffee table. "Ain't there anythin' t' do 'round here?"

"Well, you could turn on the TV, for one," you say, grabbing the remote.

"TV?" Fluttershy asks. "What's that?"

You nearly forgot about Twilight's little technology comment. "Well, I'll show you." You hit the power button, and the screen turns on to show the news channel. You don't even have to change the channel, the girls all seem captivated as it is. Besides, you might as well catch up on current events.

"-and the doctor has not been heard from since. In other news, today another street race has occurred in Fairhaven, with the area's most wanted racers taking part."

You stiffen slightly. Hopefully, they won't show any evidence that it was you...

"Here, you can see the apparent leader of the racers making his escape after the race was over."

The newscaster kept saying things, but you didn't hear it. On the screen was a helicopter view of your Ford GT escaping cops, even showing you bypassing roadblocks and weaving in traffic.

"It has been confirmed that this driver was the most wanted in all of Fairhaven," the newscaster continued, "but unfortunately, he escaped police and is still at large."

"Hey, isn't that the car that him and Dash left in...?" Applejack said, connecting the dots you hoped wouldn't be connected.

"I'm not the only one with one of those," you defend, "lots of people have Ford G- those cars."

"If you see this man," the news went on, showing the same picture of your face that was on that billboard, "please call police immediately."

All of the girls look at you, their faces showing a combination of anger, surprise, confusion, and worry.

"You're... wanted?" Twilight accuses.

"Well... Look, I can totally explain this."

"We'll be right back after these messages."

Rising Tension and a Midnight Ride

"We trusted a criminal?" Twilight asks, raising her voice.

"Now, look, let's not jump to any conclusions," you say, trying to keep the girls from overreacting.

Unfortunately, it seems like they want to do exactly that. "Jump to conclusions?" Applejack asks, standing up and pointing a finger at you. "How do we know you weren't plannin' t' kill us all or somethin'?!"

"Don't you think that-"

Rarity cuts you off. "Of all the rotten things you could've done, you lied to us?"

"Hey, I didn't lie," you retort. "I said I raced for a living. You didn't ask if it was legal or not."

"Oh, and that makes it all better?!" Twilight yells. "We trusted you! You took us into your home, and you didn't even bother to mention that you were wanted!"

"Because that totally would've gone well!" you shout back. "I'll tell you just like I told Dash; if I just told you that I was a wanted criminal moments after meeting me, do you really think you would still trust me?!"

The girls' attention is now deflected to the rainbow-haired girl behind you, who was standing in silence the whole time. "You knew?" Pinkie asks.

"An' just when were ya gonna tell us, Dash?" Applejack adds.

"I..." She clears her throat. "Look, he said he'd tell all of you tomorrow, and if he didn't, I would've."

"That still doesn't excuse his actions," Twilight says, standing up. "Come on, girls. We're leaving."

"And where, I ask, where you go, huh?" you comment, stopping her in her tracks.

"We'll go to the police. I'm sure they'll-"

"What? Give you a nice little house to live in until you get this whole situation figured out?" you ask mockingly. "You have no background here. If they were to look at any prior history for any of you, they'd find nothing; because you literally did not exist in this world until earlier today." You cross your arms. "And what do you think they'll do then?"

Twilight stammers. "W-Well, I suppose they could-"

"I'll tell you what they'll do: Worst case scenario, they'd deport you to another country, one that is far less friendly than this one. Or, maybe they'd lock you up in a prison somewhere until they found something on you, which probably wouldn't happen any time soon. And if you try and tell them all about Equestria, they'll lock you up in the nuthouse, instead."

"In that case, I could-"

"You could what? Do some little magic trick to convince them that you're actually from another world? Do that, and you'll most likely be shipped off to the national capital, where I can't guarantee that several secret service agents wouldn't, say, dissect you or anything like that."

Truth be told, you had no clue what the government would do with them, whether or not they proved their story of being from another dimension. Still, the point got across, as all of them just looked at the ground silently. "Face it," you say, "whether we like it or not, I'm pretty much your only choice for staying under the radar until you figure this whole mess out."

You lean back on the wall, remaining silent with the rest of the room. It wasn't often you were forced to shout, and honestly, you didn't like it. It wrecked your voice like nothing else if you weren't careful.

After several painfully quiet minutes, you cough. "Well, I think we should all get some sleep, then."

"That reminds me, where exactly are we gonna sleep?" Applejack asks, her earlier hostility gone.

"The couch could probably fit two of you, and I have a couple of mattresses lying around somewhere, I think..." As you look in the room where you tossed everything you didn't need at that exact moment, you overhear the girls talking to each other. From the sound of it, they still don't entirely trust you, but they all agree that they have no other choice. You sigh. You didn't like being their only choice, but there was really no way around it. If you hadn't found them in that forest, someone else would've, and things could've gone much, much worse for them.

Finding what you're looking for, you start sliding the two mattresses into the living room, and position them decently close together on the floor. "Alright, there are blankets and pillows and such in the hallway closet," you say, pointing to said closet. "I'll let you girls decide who sleeps where. Also, you'll have to sleep in your clothes for now, because that's all I have as far as women's clothes. If you need me, wait until morning, because I'm going to be out like a light." Leaving them to themselves, you go to your room, where you don't even bother changing out of your clothes, and instead just plop down on the bed. You simply lie there for a while, listening to the girls talk some more, but now they're on the subject of their friends and family back home. Honestly, it's rather depressing to you, so you're glad when they finally turn out the light and go to sleep. You follow soon after.

You can't get to sleep.

No matter how hard you try, tossing and turning in bed, you just won't leave the land of the awake.

Groaning, you look at your alarm clock: five minutes past midnight. Too long to simply wait until morning.

Rolling over to face the ceiling, you start thinking about what the reason for your sleeplessness could be. It's not hard to figure that one out; it's the stress that those girls are putting on you.

And you knew a perfect way to relieve stress.

Getting out of bed and slipping your shoes back on, you creep through the living room, past the sleeping forms of the girls. You slip into the garage undetected, and start looking for the proper vehicle for this. Sure, you could use the Ford Raptor, but it's rather slow, compared to what you're used to, and you feel like you need something fast this time. Still, not something so fast that you lose the cops with little effort...

Eventually, you decide on an old favorite of yours: the BMW M3. For you, it had the perfect balance of speed, strength, and looks when it came to high-speed chases. Starting it up, you pull onto the platform alongside the Aston Martin, before getting out and moving the latter. However, just before you re-enter the BMW, you hear your name softly called out behind you. Turning, you see Fluttershy sticking her head out the door. "What are you doing?" she asks.

Still mindful of the earlier argument you all had, you quickly say, "Going out for a drive."

"Oh." She looks at the ground, but stays put. Going back to your car, you open the door just as she faintly says something that you didn't catch.

"What was that?" you ask her.

"C- Can I... come with you?"

You pause. The obvious thing would be to say no, but thinking back, you realize that she was more or less the only one of the girls that didn't overreact. In fact, she just stayed silent the whole time, now that you think about it. "Why do you want to go with me?" you ask back.

"W- Well, I can't get to sleep, and I would like to see the city..."

"As would I." Both of you are surprised by Rarity's sudden appearance.

"Rarity?" Fluttershy asks. "What are you doing up?"

"As you know, I am a light sleeper, and his moving his cars around woke me up," she says, pointing at you. "But regardless, a quick look at the city doesn't sound too bad."

"I don't think that's a good idea," you start. "After all, I was going out so I could blow off some steam..."

"Then I'm sure you can do it while me and Fluttershy are with you."

Your mildly-sleep-deprived brain goes to naughty places, and you shake your head. "Trust me, it's better if you're not with me."

"But I insist! Besides, somepony-"

"Somebody," you correct.

"-somebody has to make sure you don't get into any trouble, right?"

...You have a feeling that she meant to do this to you. You throw up your arms in defeat. "Alright, fine, you can come with me." So much for having a late night chase.

Fluttershy smiles while Rarity claps her hands excitedly, and they both get into the car, Rarity taking the front seat. You get in as well and start up the engine, causing both girls, Fluttershy especially, to jump. You chuckle as the platform reaches above ground, your headlights illuminating the pavement in front of you. Shifting into gear, you drive onto the interstate, already with a location in mind. At first, you go as fast as the car can go, but at the urging of the girls, you traveled along at a slightly more sane hundred miles an hour.

Once you start driving across the bridge over the river, Rarity speaks up. "This city looks almost bigger than Manehattan!"

You almost gag at the horrible pun. "It's pretty big, but not uncomfortably so."

In the back seat, Fluttershy fidgets slightly. "I think I liked the countryside better..."

"There's plenty of that, too, but mainly on the highway here," you say.

You head into a tunnel, slowing down when you see a cop patrolling up ahead. Once you're past him, you speed back up, taking the nearest exit to the road up above.

"So, where are we going?" Rarity asks.

"There's a parking garage near here, and it has a pretty decent view from the roof." Finding the road to turn on, you execute a small drift, then another as you enter the building in question. You drive up the circular ramp until it lets you out on the roof. With almost all of the parking spots empty, you simply pull into the middle, facing a ramp that someone had put up a while ago, and park the car. There was also a pretty nice view of downtown Fairhaven on the other side of it, which both of the girls seemed to enjoy.

As you roll down your window to let in the night air, Fluttershy asks, "Did you really mean what you said? About us having no other choice?"

You lean back in your seat and sigh. "Yeah... Looks like it."

"Well, just because we have to stay with you doesn't mean we can't enjoy our time here, right?" Rarity says. "After all, I'm sure I could learn a few things about this world's fashion!"

You let out a short laugh. "Well, don't look for any help with that from me. All I know is cars."

"Ah, yes, these cars... I must say, I like them far more than the carriages back home."

"I do too, cause I don't have to worry about feeding any smelly horses." You realize what you just said. "Err, no offense."

"Assuming the ponies in this world are much different than in ours, none taken," Rarity replies.

The three of you share a laugh before simply falling into silence, listening to the sounds of the city. Among those noises, you think you can hear police sirens, but that's probably for someone else...

Though that doesn't explain why they're getting closer.

Suddenly alert, you turn the police scanner on and begin tuning it in. "What's wrong?" Fluttershy asks.

"Shh." You dial in the police radio, and listen.

"-advised, sightings have been reported of a suspect vehicle, on top of the downtown parking garage."

"Dispatch, can I get a make and model of the Code 3 suspect?"

"Vehicle is a white BMW M3."

You take in a sharp intake of breath while rolling up the window. "Crap..."

"What's going on?" Rarity asks.

"Well, it occurs to me that the last time I took this car out for a drive, it resulted in dozens of cops getting wrecked," you confess. While the girls gasp, you shift into reverse and turn back towards the ramp-

Only to see SUVs already blocking it off. As you stop, you hear more cops heading into the garage and making their way up. You look around for an exit.

"All units, we have him cornered; move in and detain."

"Welp, looks like we're gonna go for a ride," you say, shifting into drive. "Hang on, girls."

You begin spinning your tires, causing the cops to stop advancing towards you. You use the time to turn on the radio and start playing the CD you left in there. After all, if you're going to have a late night, all out police pursuit, you might as well do it to fitting music.

After one more second of your tires squealing, you let off the brake and turn the wheel around, doing a quick one-eighty back towards the makeshift ramp. You hit the nitrous and dart forward as the girls scream. You take off and sail through the air before landing roughly on the ground, not too far from the street. A quick check confirms that the girls are alright, though Fluttershy seems to have fainted, and Rarity doesn't look like she'll last much longer.

"All units, he just grabbed air, repeat, suspect has grabbed air, get back on him."

As you speed off, interceptor units are already on your tail, one of them getting in position to spike your tires. You respond by boosting forward and slamming his rear bumper, causing him to spin out into a parked car.

"We got a unit down, repeat, unit down, we need to escalate this."

"Copy that, tactical units have been deployed."

You veer left at a tunnel and drive down a bigger road; the same one above the interstate tunnel. Behind you, a SWAT van lumbers into view, its yellow headlights blaring in your mirror. You curse to yourself as you shift into the next gear, putting more distance between you and the black behemoth.

Rarity's sudden frantic screaming and pointing gets your attention, letting you look back in front of you just in time to see an SUV barreling towards you. You yell out more expletives as you slam the wheel to the side, just scraping the cop. Once you steady your car again, you look back in the mirror just in time to see the SUV barrel right into the van, causing a fairly large wreck and slowing the van down considerably.

The heat was still pretty strong on you, however. Highway units were catching up to you, and you could see a spike strip roadblock up ahead. Wanting to preserve your tires, you instead go for the other option.

"What are you doing?!" Rarity yells.

"Making a path!" you yell back. You gun the engine as she screams some more, before you barrel right through the parked Corvettes, sending one spinning down the road. You're shaken by the impact, and Rarity faints.

"Dispatch, he got past the spikes, requesting more roadblocks."

"Copy that, roadblocks are in place."

Now without anyone to yell at you, you focus on trying to lose your pursuers. And what better way to do that then by simple elimination?

You let of the gas slightly, letting the highway units catch up to you. Once they get around you, trying to box you in, you slam back on the gas while turning, slamming both the front car and one of the side ones. Both of them careen into the guardrail, totaling each other. You laugh as the remaining two cops try to retaliate, only to hit nothing as you slam on the brakes again.

Before you can take them out too, however, an interceptor unit slams into your rear bumper, causing you to lose control for a second. When you regain traction, you're now on the dirt in the construction site just outside of the city. With more cops heading your way on the pavement, you drive onto the railroad tracks, the car shaking on the dirt and rails.

"Be advised, suspect has gone off-road."

As you bypass a SWAT roadblock, you look back to see one of the SWAT vans catching up to you, being better suited for this sort of terrain. You try to put as much distance between it and yourself as possible, but it keeps edging towards you.

Suddenly, you feel the car start to dip to the right. You look back forward, and see that the right wheels had slipped off the tracks in an area above the road that had no guardrails; and the rest of the car was quickly following the wheels.

"No no no no no SHIT!" you yell, just as the BMW falls the rest of the way off. You land on the roof, but thankfully roll back over on your wheels due to your momentum. You check yourself, as well as your two unconscious passengers, and after you're sure there are no serious injuries between the three of you, you start moving again.

"Suspect has crashed, move in and- no, wait, he's still going."

Despite the amount of damage done to the car now, including both bumpers nearly falling off and cracked windows, you're still able to squeeze a good amount of speed out of it, letting you put some distance between you and the cops.

Up ahead, you see the sign for the airfield come into view. This isn't good; you can't go back in your home while the cops are on you, and if you get too far away you probably won't be able to get back without the cops picking back up on your trail. Still, the airfield had ample room to maneuver in, so you drive into it, cutting across oncoming traffic. The cops lose more ground, either from overshooting the entrance or from colliding with traffic.

With no one currently on you, but with cops still everywhere, you drive into the frame of a scrapped plane and turn off the engine, making it so you could see out through holes in the frame, but they wouldn't see you unless they drove in themselves.

You hear Fluttershy moan in the backseat. "What... happened?"

"Cops," you say simply. When you see her look at Rarity worriedly, you reassure her. "Rarity fainted, same as you. We all got knocked around a bit, though, so you both might have a bruise or two now."

"Dispatch, I've lost the Code 3 suspect, but he couldn't have gotten far; we have all entrances to the airfield blocked, we'll find him soon."

"Copy that."

This isn't good. They'll more than likely find you, and you'll have to extend the chase even more...

Seeing a couple of police cars approaching the plane, you prepare to turn your engine back on and drive off quickly-

Just as, behind them, a Porsche blasts through a billboard and lands roughly. It immediately heads for the two cops, and slams one in the side before doing a donut right in front of the other.

"All units, we got a second suspect here, taking out units."

The Porsche takes out the other cop by slamming it into a nearby hanger. As more come in to take care of this new racer, you notice a few things about the car.

Namely, the red paint flakes on the front bumper.

A cop's headlights shine into the car's open driver window, and that confirms that this is the same guy from Seacrest that you wrecked earlier that day. While you're wondering what he's doing there, and if he knew you needed some help, he starts driving towards one of the entrance ramps, where one of the SWAT vans broke formation to try and take him out. It doesn't work, and the Porsche drives back onto the freeway, the rest of the cops in pursuit.

"All units, focus on the new suspect for now. We'll send in units to go Code 2 for the BMW soon."

Sighing, you start up your car again, but leave the lights off, so you don't give yourself away to the wrecked cops. Driving slowly, you make your way to the platform where you press the button to lower it as soon as possible. Once back down, you turn off the engine, and let out a big sigh of relief. Beside you, Rarity begins to stir.

"Mmm... what happened?"

"I just evaded arrest for the third time today," you answer. "And I don't know about you two, but I am beat." You let out a yawn as you leave the car, the girls behind you. You reenter the house, seeing that the rest of the girls were still asleep. That is, except for Applejack, who was sitting up on her mattress and looking sternly at you.

"And just where were you three?" she whispers.

Being very tired at this point, you say, "Went for a drive, they wanted to go, we went, cops, chase, crash, eh." You start to go back to bed, but Applejack grabs your arm.

"What?!" she yells quietly. "You took Fluttershy and Rarity out on a dangerous chase like that?!"

"In my defense, I didn't want them to come, and I didn't go looking for cops."

"That's no excuse! What if they had gotten hurt, or worse?"

"Acutally," Rarity whispers, "it was rather nice... At least, until the police part." She takes this opportunity to smack you in the head. "What were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking about how not to get caught," you reply, rubbing your head. "We can talk about this in the morning, I'm going to sleep now." Before any more complaints can be voiced, you go into your room, where you immediately fall into bed and go to sleep.

Author's Note

Quick mostly unrelated advice for Most Wanted 2012: Ford Raptor, ram chassis, reinflates, powershot, aero body, short gears. Have fun being unstoppable and plowing right through SWAT blocks, and even taking those vans out if you hit them right

Bacon Grease

Your eyes slowly crack open, your vision still fuzzy from sleep. Looking at the clock, you see that it's about 7:30 right now. That seems like a good enough time to get up.

Pulling yourself out of bed, you stretch, getting a few joints to pop. You head into the living room, where the girls are still asleep. You spot a couple of bruises on the arms of Rarity and Fluttershy, so you'll have to explain that to the others, save for Applejack. Still, you'd have a bit before they woke up, so you might as well do something with that time. You go into the kitchen, and start looking through the fridge. Apparently it hasn't been touched since the girls got there, because everything's where you remember it being last time you checked it. This also means that you'll pretty much have to use all of it in order to feed the seven of you.

Grabbing a couple of cartons of eggs and a full pack of bacon, you set them on the counter next to the stove. You weren't much of a cook, but you could make scrambled eggs and bacon without burning down the house, so that's better than nothing.

As you set a pan on the oven and turn it on, you place a few strips of bacon in it, and they immediately begin sizzling. You inhale the scent, smiling at the future meal. It felt as if you were forgetting something, but you pushed the thought away.

Over the sound of the sizzling, you hear some of the girls moving about in the living room. You could overhear some of them talking, but you couldn't make out exactly what they were saying. Pretty soon, they walked into the kitchen, Twilight at the front of them.

She yawns. "What are you doing up so early?" she asks you.

"Just making breakfast," you reply, flipping over the slices of bacon. The feeling that you're forgetting something returns, for some reason...

"Oh? Whaterya makin'?" Dash asks, sleepily walking up behind you.

"Ah'm hungry enough t' eat anythin'," Applejack remarks, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

As you flip the bacon over again, you think about what she just said. It occurs to you that they hadn't eaten since yesterday, and that this will be their first full day as humans. Funny, how not too long ago they were ponies in some other-

Suddenly, you remember what you were forgetting earlier: Ponies don't eat meat.

Despite coming to this realization that your sleepy mind was unable to grasp earlier, you do your best to keep a cool head. Who knows, maybe they won't realize it's meat...

Rarity tapping your shoulder breaks your hope of avoiding the problem. "Excuse me for asking, but what exactly are you making?"

Your mind races for a way to explain this, when you just decide to not beat around the bush. "Well, first of all, there's something you should understand about humans..." You take a deep breath as you remove the bacon from the pan and place it onto a plate. "We eat meat."

You turn around to gauge the girls' reactions, and they all have some form of either shock or disgust on their faces.

"Y- You mean," Twilight starts, "that you- humans- are carnivores?"

"Omnivores, actually." They all still look disgusted, so you add, "But we don't eat ponies, or anything like that."

This seems to make them relax a bit, but only slightly. Surprisingly, Fluttershy seems the least shocked at this. This doesn't go unnoticed by the others.

"How can you not be sickened by this, Fluttershy?" Rarity asks. "It's... savage!"

You ignore the insult directed at your species as Fluttershy begins talking. "W- Well, I kind of knew since we got here, since humans had some sharp teeth..."

All of the girls start feeling around in their mouths for the teeth she mentioned, and you almost laugh at the sight.

"And besides," the timid girl continues, "it's only n- natural for them, just like it is for bears back home."

This causes the girls to think, and ultimately agree that, at the very least, you're not a terrible person just because you eat meat.

"I'm still not eating any meat," Applejack says. "So don't expect me to."

"I'm not making any of you do anything you don't want to do," you assure them as you start breaking eggs into another pan. "This was pretty much all I had, is all."

The girls eye the plate of cooked bacon, sitting on a plate. You notice this, but you don't want to push them into eating it. Besides, if none of them eat it, more for you.

While scrambling the eggs, you hear movement behind you. Turning slightly, you're surprised to see Fluttershy walking up to the plate of bacon.

"Fluttershy?" Dash says, mirroring your surprise. "What are you...?"

"I- It's normal f-for humans to eat m- meat," she stammers, obviously nervous about the whole thing. "S- So it should be alright if..." She trails off, now right in front of the plate of cooked meat. As you tend to another plate of eggs, you watch her cautiously pick a slice up. She seems off-put by the grease, and the bacon itself. She looks to you, and you shrug as if to say, 'Do whatever you want to do'.

She looks back to the bacon in her hand, then while you and the girls watch, she timidly takes a small bite.

For a good while, nothing happens, and no one says anything. Then Fluttershy begins shaking ever so slightly. It almost looks as if she's... crying?

The girls also notice this. "Fluttershy?" Twilight asks, taking a step towards her friend. "Are you... okay?"

Fluttershy says something inaudible to all of you.

"I knew it!" Dash says, shooting you a glare, as if you forced her to eat the bacon. "I knew it would be no good!"

Before you could offer a rebuttal, Fluttershy speaks up again, loud enough to hear this time. "N- No, Rainbow, th- that's the problem..."

Everyone goes silent and looks at her. "...whaddya mean, sugarcube?" Applejack finally asks.

"I- It's... good!" Suddenly, she takes a huge bite out of the strip of bacon, surprising everyone, though you notably less so. It seems bacon has its allure even to interdimensional travelers.

The rest of breakfast is mostly uneventful. The girls had no problems eating eggs, and Twilight and Dash also tried bacon (though they didn't like it as much as Fluttershy). Once you had all eaten, you looked into your now-empty fridge.

"Alright, I'm gonna go grocery shopping," you tell them, grabbing your keys and remote. "It shouldn't take me too long."

The girls say their goodbyes, with Rarity adding, "Try not to get involved with the police this time." You chuckle in response as you go out to the garage and to your chosen car for this trip.

About half an hour later, you return. You didn't get in a chase this time, but that doesn't mean the trip was uneventful; someone else had their own chase going, and they even sideswiped you while escaping. Police were completely focused on him, though, so you were able to keep driving with little issue. Still, you'd prefer if your Camero didn't get scratched to hell.

As the platform lowers you into the garage, you honk the horn a couple times. As you get out, the girls come out of the house to greet you. Which is great, because you also needed a few extra pairs of hands to get the food and stuff inside. You're just thankful there is a bit of a black market in Fairhaven, even for mundane things like groceries.

Twilight sees the rather large spot of missing paint on the side of the car. "I thought you weren't going to get involved with the cops," she scolds you.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault this time, it was someone else having their own chase," you reply. "Anyway, go ahead and grab some bags and carry them inside." You pop the trunk, and you and the girls begin moving the rather large pile of plastic bags into the kitchen, where you then start putting them in the proper places... more or less. Twilight seems a little annoyed by your lack of categorization, but says nothing.

Once you're all done, Dash claps her hands. "Alright, now what?"

"Well, nothing's really happening today," you tell her, leaning against the fridge. "I was just gonna spend most of today fixing the cars that need it, so you all could just... do whatever it is you do whenever I'm away."

At that moment, you feel a buzz in your pocket. You pull out your phone, and see that you received a text. You half expected it to be another race from Criterion, but instead it tells you that there will be a party later that night. You went to them once in a while, and almost every time it ended only when the cops broke it up. Still, it was a good way to both size up the local racers and to just unwind.

"What is it?" Rarity asks.

"Well, there's something to do, I guess," you say. "Later tonight there's gonna be a par-"

"A party?!" You almost fall over backwards from Pinkie suddenly jumping in your face and shouting.

"Uh... yeah," you confirm, backing away from the pink-haired girl.

"Great! I was going to throw you a 'Thanks for helping us when we're in another dimension' party soon, but now we can go to another party! A party in another dimension!" Her eyes go wide. "What kind of cake will they have? Oh, I hope it's chocolate, because I love chocolate, I mean, who doesn't? It's just so good and-"

You cut off Pinkie's rambling with a hand on her shoulder. "Pinkie. Calm down. Deep breaths." She does as you say, and does look to be a bit calmer, though her smile is still incredibly large. "The party's not until later tonight, anyway."

"Well, a party can't do much harm," Applejack says.

"I doubt they're as awesome as Pinkie's parties," Dash adds.

"Well, we'll all go to it later. Until then, I'll be out in the garage if you need me."

As you head back out to the garage to service some of your cars, you sigh. Tonight is gonna certainly be interesting...

Author's Note

Good god I procrastinated so much and nothing's really happening yet why

At this rate, expect the next chapter at Christmas

Party Animals

Hours later, you wipe some of the sweat off your forehead. You had succeeded in fixing the biggest pieces of damage on your cars, though it doesn't exactly look pretty. You're just thankful you learned how to weld.

Putting your tools away, you look at your watch: seven at night. Damn, time really flies when you're working. That text said the party was starting at seven thirty, so it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and head out there now.

You enter your living room, where the girls were all watching TV. Evidently, they found the game show channel, judging by the fact that Twilight was convinced what she thought was right.

"Hey, party's in thirty minutes," you tell them. "We can go ahead and go over there."

"Oh boy, I can't wait!" You look beside you and flinch at Pinkie's sudden appearance. You were starting to learn to not question her antics.

"Where will it be?" Twilight asks, turning off the TV.

"Out near the docks, in an abandoned warehouse."

The six girls follow you to the garage, where you tell them to wait while you go find a suitable car for the occasion.

Really, you only had two choices for carrying a lot of passengers, and despite your work all day, the Land Rover was still fairly beat up, which left only one other option: the Ford Raptor. You normally weren't a big fan of trucks, but anything that can plow straight through a roadblock with little effort was okay in your book.

It would be a tight fit, though, since you'll need to fit four in the back, when it only really has room for three. Still, it's roomier than any of your other cars.

You start up the behemoth, and drive over to where the girls were waiting. They climb inside, Twilight and Dash getting in the front with you, and the others squeezing into the back.

"Everyone comfortable?" you ask as you pull onto the elevator.

After you get six affirmative replies, you start the elevator up, then drive onto the highway. After a moments thought, you turn on your lights, as well. It was about to get dark, after all.

On the way there, you saw fit to inform the girls on what to expect at the party. Pinkie seemed disappointed that it wasn't like what she considered a "normal" party, and that there wouldn't be any sweets that you knew of, but she shook it off fairly quickly.

"Also, there's gonna be a lot of people there, probably," you say, "so you might need to come up with cover names and stuff."

"Now why would we need fake names?" Applejack asks.

"For most of you, your hair can be passed off as dyes," you tell them while you take the exit to Ripley's Point. "But your names are a bit harder to explain, even with most people not using their real names."

Before you forget, you add, "Oh, and I kinda used the story that Dash was my cousin, so we could probably say that the rest of you are her friends." You realize that part wouldn't be a lie, but whatever. "And if anyone asks where you're from, just say Palmont," you tell them, naming off a city you remember visiting once. Like Fairhaven, it had a street racing "problem", though not as severe.

Soon, you pull into the warehouse. Two cars are already there, and you park alongside them.

"Who are they?" Twilight asks.

"Probably the DJ and the bouncer, they always get here before everyone else."

You all get out of the truck, and start walking down a ramp, where the actual party would be. There, the DJ was already setting up various things, and the bouncer was leaning on a wall. You knew both of them, even though they themselves don't race all that often.

"Let me do the talking," you whisper to the girls, before returning the bouncer's wave.

"If it isn't mister number one," he greets you. "And who are these fine young ladies?" he then asks.

"The rainbow one is my cousin from out of town, and the others are her friends," you tell him.

"They race, too?"

"Nope."

He laughs. "Well, you're right on time. Everyone else should be showing up soon."

Sure enough, a number of other cars pull into the warehouse, and soon it's like a full parking lot. People filter in almost just as quickly, and various cans and bottles are quickly set up at a table, a number of which were alcoholic. You didn't drink that often, since you like your driving to be sharp at all times, but you have a beer every once in a while.

It's not too long before the DJ starts playing music. It's loud, and it certainly gives his speakers a workout, and a sort of dance floor begins to materialize. Thankfully, there's still plenty of room to not dance, and you and the girls end up splitting up. Hopefully, nothing will go wrong.

You scan the faces, and see a number of people you know, either dancing or just talking. You see more than a few guys hitting on some of the girls there, with varying degrees of success.

Among those trying to get some that night, you spot one in particular, who was well known for being generally unlikable. He raced, but not very well, and always blamed his losses on anything but his skills (or lack thereof). On top of that, he was just annoying to be around, and he always tried to get with any woman he met.

Of course, as the girl currently slapping him in the face would attest to, he wasn't very good at it.

You chuckle to yourself, only for your smile to drop as you see him approach Fluttershy, who was simply trying to be invisible on a wall.

You can't hear what's being said, but it certainly seems to be making her uncomfortable. Because she lacked the assertiveness to tell him to leave, he only saw this as a sign of succeeding, and slowly got closer to her. You were about to intervene on her behalf, but you spot the bouncer out of the corner of your eye. The two of you look at each other, before he nods and starts walking over to the scumbag.

One brief conversation later, and the guy leaves, angry. Fluttershy seems relieved, and after the bouncer makes sure she's okay, he goes back to work keeping an eye on the party.

With that taken care of, you go ahead and decide to loosen up a little bit. You could still drive pretty well with just one beer in you, after all.

Right after your first sip, you hear a familiar voice directed at you. "Sir, have you been drinking tonight?"

You laugh at your friend's antics. "I swear to officer, drunk, I'm not God!" you answer. The both of you laugh a bit.

"So, I hear that your cousin has friends," he says.

"Don't even think about it," you tell him. "They're all taken." You didn't know if they were, but you were sure that the girls wouldn't appreciate being hit on.

"Damn, I'll just have to look somewhere else, then." He disappears into the crowd of people, and you take another sip.

About an hour passes, with you making small talk every once in a while. You spotted the girls every once in a while, and it seemed that they were progressively getting more and more drunk. You told them there would be alcohol at this party, so if they want to drink, that's their business.

From what you could gather, Applejack and Dash got into a drinking contest at some point, and they both evenly matched each other after numerous shots. Now the two were nearly passed out in a couple of chairs.

Fluttershy continued being a wall flower, though now Rarity was with her. Judging by the purple-haired girl's loud laughter, she had a bit to drink, but not quite enough to cloud her judgement.

Pinkie, meanwhile, had been on the dance floor the whole time. Amazingly, she managed to get everyone around her to do the same dance at the same time. Because of that, you can now cross "watch a group of drunk people try to do the dance to Thriller" off your bucket list.

Surprisingly, Twilight was also on the dance floor, and from the sluggishness of her movements, you could guess that she had a bit too much to drink.

The music was still just as loud as before, but you had mostly tuned it out by now. Seeing nothing better to do, you walk over to Shy and Rarity, who were simply watching the party with mild interest.

Rarity is the first to spot you. "I must say, darling, that this was more fun than I anticipated," she says, a slight slur detectable on her voice. "I thought these kinds of parties were just uncouth, but now I see that there's a bit more to it than that."

"Glad to see you're enjoying yourself," you almost yell to be heard over the music. "And you, Shy?"

She just nods in answer. The poor girl probably couldn't be heard over the noise if she tried.

You're about to comment on their friends, when suddenly you could hear and see sirens outside. The others notice this, too, and the DJ shuts off the music.

"It's the pigs!" someone shouts, and the room is filled with panic as everyone runs as fast as they can to their cars. You notice that the ramp back up is wide enough to drive on, and you get an idea.

"Get all the girls together," you tell Rarity and Fluttershy. "I'll get the truck and pick you all up."

You don't even wait for their reply. You sprint over to your truck, wincing as a couple of passing cars scrape it. You get in and start it up right as a couple of police cruisers enter the warehouse.

"Dispatch, be advised, we got what looks like a number of wanted street racers here, we're gonna need backup," you hear on the police scanner. You waste no time in driving back down to where the party was, where the only people left are the girls and the DJ, who was frantically packing up his equipment.

You honk the horn in front of the girls, and they start piling in, Dash and Applejack having to be lifted in. With Rarity and Twilight in the front with you, you give a quick thumbs up to the DJ, who returns it, before flooring it.

The ramp back up is blocked by the two cruisers, but you easily break through. The impact shakes all of you, and you notice that Dash and Jack are a bit more mobile now.

"That wassa fun time!" Twilight slurs, a stupid smile on her face.

"Glad you enjoyed yourself," you say, drifting back onto the road. "But we got a bit of a problem now."

"We got a red Ford Raptor heading south towards the interstate, we need units to cut him off."

A pair of SUVs drive past you and try to box you in, but your front bumper shows them that you're having none of that shit.

In the back, you spy Pinkie bouncing in her seat, while Fluttershy was sandwiched between the two drunk girls.

Next to you, Rarity seems a bit more calm than her last ride with you, but that's probably the alcohol doing its job. Twilight, meanwhile, still had a smile on her face.

Up ahead, you see a roadblock in place. You break through it easily, sending police cars spinning and rolling.

"I've stopped a green Camero and a blue Mustang, moving to assist with other suspects."

You begin knocking any cop foolish enough to drive alongside you off the road. You knew that if you kept that up, then they'd eventually lose you.

"You'rea nice guy, ya know that?" Twilight says, rubbing a hand on your shoulder.

"Yeah, sure, just let me focus," you tell her. She pouts and removes her hand.

In the back, you see that Pinkie was holding on as if she was on a roller coaster, and Fluttershy was now curled up, as if to protect herself. Dash and Applejack, meanwhile, had began to...

You shake your head. If their drunk selves wanted to make out in your back seat, that's their problem. But you had more important things to worry about at the moment.

Namely, the spike strip roadblock that was placed up ahead. You avoid the strip, and barrel through a pair of Corvette units, who go flying.

"Suspect is not slowing down, requesting tactical units."

"Roger that, tactical roadblock en route."

Hell, that's what you were afraid of. Only SWAT vans even had a chance of stopping you when you were driving this beast.

Speak of the devil, one of them was barreling at you now. You curse as you swerve out of the way, causing the girls to be jumbled around.

Just a few short minutes later, you made it back to the airfield. Another spike block was waiting for you, but it provided little resistance as you blasted through both it and the billboard behind them, causing you to catch some air. The landing was somewhat rough, but still passable.

After making sure there were no cops around, you shut off your lights and parked on the elevator. Then you hit the button to lower it, sighing in relief. In the back, Dash and Applejack were now completely passed out, still on top of each other. Twilight didn't look too far behind, either.

"...well that went well," you said after a while.

Pinkie laughed, seemingly entirely oblivious to the tongue wrestling that occurred next to her just moments before. "Yeah, that was fun! Can we do it again?"

You laugh weakly. "We'll see." You and the girls get out, and you help Rarity carry Dash and Applejack inside and put them on separate mattresses. Once that was taken care of, you yawned loudly. There would be a lot of things to deal with in the morning, namely hangovers and maybe some tension, but for now, all you cared about was sleep. You told the girls that, and they bid you good night as you went to your room, fell on the bed, and quickly entered dream land.

Author's Note

I swear I was kidding when I said the next chapter would be around Christmas. I didn't think it actually would be.
I'm sorry

The Afternoon After

You don't feel yourself waking up until you start hearing the TV in the other room. Looks like the girls are up already. You glance at the clock, and see that it's already half past noon. Jeez, you really slept in.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, you enter the living room to find the girls scattered around the TV. As expected, Dash, Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity were nursing hangovers. Dash and AJ also kept glancing at each other, then looking away quickly. Looks like one of them told them what they had done last night.

"Mornin'," you greet them, receiving similarly short responses. "How you girls feeling?"

"Like crap," Dash groans.

"Last night was fun!" Pinkie says. You notice that she's quite a bit more quiet, to avoid causing her friends more pain. "What're we doing today?"

"Absolutely nothing. No races, no meetups- just us sitting around, being lazy."

"That's good," Applejack says. "Ah don't think Ah can handle another night like that."

With that settled, you plop down on an empty spot on the couch. Right now, the news was reporting something about politics, which none of the girls, even Twilight, was interested in.

While tuning out the droning newscaster, you spot your laptop just beside the TV. This gives you an idea. "Hey, you girls want to watch something else?"

A chorus of yes's meets your ears. Hearing this, you grab the remote and change the input, bringing it to a blank blue screen. You then get up and grab your laptop, making sure it's plugged in properly.

"Uh, pardon me for not knowin' much about this technology," Applejack starts, "but how is this better?"

"Just give me a sec." You open the laptop and fiddle around with it, the girls trying to watch over your shoulder. Soon, you get the TV to display the computer screen, which seems to amaze the girls. A couple of clicks later, and you had Netflix opened up.

As you start scrolling through movies and TV shows to watch, you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket. Setting the laptop aside and excusing yourself, you get up and look at the caller ID. It's your friend.

You answer with a simple "'Sup?"

"Hey, man, that was some party last night, huh?"

"Yeah, it was pretty crazy, I suppose."

"Listen, man, you know who I noticed wasn't at that party?"

"Who?"

"Only Mister Seacrest himself. I looked, and he wasn't there. But when we were all bugging out, I could've sworn I saw that Porsche of his."

"You sure you weren't drunk?"

"Positive. And, I found him out driving just now, so I'll be following him, keeping tabs on him."

You look back at the girls, who were reading the descriptions for various different shows. "You do that, then, I guess. I can't stop you."

"Alright, man, peace."

You hang up and return to the couch just in time for Twilight to point at the currently selected show. "How about this one? It says it's one of the highest rated."

You look, and see that she was asking about none other than Breaking Bad. Probably a bit too dark and violent for them. "You sure? That show's kinda... well, mature, I guess is the best way to put it."

"So?" Despite her headache, Dash puffs out her chest. "We can take it! We're grown mares!"

"The correct term here is 'women'," you say. "And, you all really want to see it?"

You get five nods in confirmation, followed by Fluttershy's much slower nod. "Alright, then."

With that, you select season 1, episode 1, and watch as the girls react to the first thing onscreen being a flying pair of pants in the desert.

This could be entertaining.

You put the phone back into your pocket, and look across the street.

That blue Porsche still hadn't moved from its spot, and its driver hadn't got out, either. You saw your friend shove him off the road a couple days ago, but apart from a few dents, his car still looked to be in pretty good shape.

The fact that you spotted him when the cops showed up last night gave rise to a host of suspicions. You didn't have any proof yet, but that's what you're hoping that tailing him will give you.

Eventually, he does move, and you follow him, doing your best to be discreet. Too bad you didn't pick a more subtle car, though. Your Corvette sticks out as much as his Porsche, so you'll have to hang back quite a bit.

He pulls onto the main interstate, and after he's a good distance away, you follow, doing your best to stay behind traffic when possible.

You follow him out of Ripley's Point, and even past Callahan Industrial. Eventually, he gets back off the highway at downtown Fairhaven. Odd, how he took the long way around.

You almost lose him while hiding behind traffic, but it's nothing that cutting a few people off didn't solve. You quickly get him back in your sight, though you make sure that he can't easily look back and spot you.

He keeps going for a couple more blocks, then he suddenly stops again. You drive a bit past him, trying to make it look like you were just passing by, then stop around the next corner, his car still visible through the windows of a restaurant.

He still wasn't getting out of the car, and you had no idea what he could be doing here. In fact, now that you think about it, wasn't the police station on the other side of that building...?

Suddenly, cops swarm into the intersections in front of and behind you, lights blaring and sirens wailing. Shocked, you start backing up and spinning around while turning on your police scanner.

"We got eyes on the suspects, driving a yellow Corvette and a blue Porsche, beginning pursuit."

Cursing, you manage to push through the cops before they can box you in, though that still left a not insignificant number tailing you.

As you turn onto another street, you spot the guy from Seacrest driving the other way. The two of you look at each other as you pass, cops following both of you. Once you pass each other, and get past the pursuing cops, you watch as the police cars crash into each other, trying to get both of you.

A chorus of reports from out of commission cops comes through the scanner, and you smirk while drifting back onto the highway. There, you start picking up speed, and it isn't long before you have the cops left in the dust.

Once you're sure you're clear of them, you park on a dirt road underneath a bridge in the highway, and hit your steering wheel in frustration. You were sure you nearly had something on that guy, but then the cops showed up out of nowhere. It's like they knew you were going to be there...

This situation seems more than a bit fishy to you, but you still don't have any solid proof. Sighing, you take out your phone. Might as well fill your buddy in on the lack of good news.

Unsurprisingly, the girls were pretty shocked by the nature of the show once it went into full swing. At first, you had to pause every few minutes to answer one of Twilight's questions, but once you got to the more gritty subject matter, she stopped asking them. The others were watching with rapt attention, though poor Fluttershy looked like she was about to faint just from the first two deaths in the show. You doubt she'll be able to stand what happens later on. Especially when that body disposal gets botched.

Suddenly, you feel your phone vibrate, and you excuse yourself again. You had already seen the show, so you didn't mind missing it at all.

You look, and it's your friend again. "Find anything?"

"Nah, man, sorry, cops showed up before I could get any evidence of anything. I'm telling you, something doesn't seem right about that Seacrest guy. Something's up."

"Well, just take 'er easy, alright? Whatever it is, I'm sure we'll figure it out. Just, be careful out there, okay?"

"Shit, man, you too."

You hang up, and get back just in time to catch the end of the first episode. You look over all the girls, and they all seem like they want to watch more. Even Fluttershy, as hard as it was to believe.

"Well, episode 2," you say, starting it up. Looks like tonight was going to be a long night.

Author's Note

Maybe I should stop making promises about deadlines, and just write.
Or I could stop being such a lazy bum.
Either or.

Escalation

You sigh as you look over your vast collection of cars. You probably should've seen it coming, but the girls quickly chose to watch something else. After some browsing, they found a show they actually wanted to watch. Some cartoon about six dragons that solve problems through the power of friendship. Apparently it was pretty good, but you personally didn't care for it.

Suddenly, your phone buzzes. You pull it out and see that you have a new message from your friend:

Check out the news, asap

This sounds important. Going back into the living room, you tell the girls that you need to check on something real quick. They groan in disappointment slightly when you pause the show and change the TV to the news, but otherwise don't seem to mind.

On the screen, a variety of clips showing street racing are displayed, with a newswoman talking over them.

"-despite their best efforts, the street racing epidemic has been on the rise in recent years, with several police departments forced to use measures that critics see as excessive. However, following the incident in Redview County-"

The screen changed to show an aerial view of a country road. A sports car drove by, tailed by almost a dozen police cars, until the racer managed to slam into traffic at an intersection. The police were following too closely, and also smashed into traffic, causing a massive pileup, with several civilian cars involved. In the confusion, the street racer managed to get his mangled car away, while the cops futilely tried to continue pursuit.

"-several police departments have requested assistance from the federal level. Here to speak on the matter is Director Anderson, of the FBI."

That gets your attention. You lean closer to the screen as it changes to show a middle-aged man standing at a podium. A ticker at the bottom of the screen tells you all that this is live.

"It has come to our attention that illegal street racers are getting more bold, more numerous, and more dangerous," he begins, his voice mildly angry. "At this very moment, several cities and counties across the nation are falling short in trying to combat this. Palmont, Rockport, Fairhaven, Seacrest, Redview, Paradise... The list goes on."

He takes a second to adjust himself. "With this in mind, starting tomorrow, the FBI will be dispatching several special vehicle response teams to these locations, and more, in an effort to finally crush this street racing epidemic." He speech was starting to get more heated, and he looked directly at the camera. "To all you... punks who think you have free roam over the roads... your time is up."

The crowd on the TV erupted into applause, before the camera went back to the studio. The newscasters kept talking about the issue, but you had already heard enough. You absentmindedly turn the TV off, while the girls have confused looks on their faces.

"Wait, what exactly does that mean?" Dash asks.

"It means that my life is about to get a whole lot harder," you answer.

You pull out your phone and answer your friend's text.

Yeah, that's bad

The feds are gonna be all over you, you know

I'll manage

When you put your phone away, you finally notice that Twilight isn't with the rest of the girls. Weird, how did you not notice that when you first walked in?

"So where's Twilight?" you ask them.

"She's looking at one of your books," Applejack said. "Think she said it was an... 'atlas'?"

Curious, you go into the kitchen, where Twilight is carefully studying an open page in what is indeed an atlas. The page she was on showed the entire United States, but it seemed like she was only focusing on the east coast. Occasionally, you see her forehead just barely flicker with purple magic, but it's so fast that if you blinked, you'd miss it.

"Whatcha got there?" you question her, making her jump in her chair.

"Oh, sorry, you scared me." She looks back at the map. "I've been trying to figure something out. Basically, I could theoretically cast a spell to get all of us home, even in this form, but we both know that I can't really do that without something going horribly wrong. However, I can 'sense' magic just fine, even across vast distances, and while there is almost no magic at all here, I'm detecting a spot somewhere south of here that has slightly more magic than usual. Still barely any, but just a bit more."

Honestly, most of what she just said went over your head, but you still nod as if you understood. "So if we find... wherever that is, you think you and the others can make it home?"

"That's the idea." Her forehead flickers again, and she traces her finger farther down the map. "I'm trying to narrow down where it could be, but I'm having a hard time of doing so. Unless..."

Suddenly, her forehead glows a bit more intensely, and for longer than before. You're about to warn her about what happened last time, when she cuts it off abruptly, clutching her head in pain. Still, there's a faint smile on her face. "It's six hundred and forty miles south of here... give or take."

With this newfound knowledge, she once again traces her finger on the map, starting at Fairhaven, then slowly tracing her way down, one eye on the map's scale. Eventually, her finger comes to a stop down in Florida, and she removes her finger to see the name of the closest city.

When you see it, your eyes widen slightly. "Paradise City?"

Twilight nods. "It looks that way." She looks at you. "Why? Is there a problem with that?"

"A couple. First of all, the drivers down in Paradise are even crazier than we are up here. Hell, even the cops are insane, I'm pretty sure."

Her eyes widen at that, but you keep going. "Plus, I just found out that the feds are cracking down on street racers, and starting tomorrow they're gonna be here to help."

Her eyes cast down. "Well, it was just an idea..."

"I didn't say I couldn't get you there."

Your words make her spring up in excitement. "Really? Even with-"

"Yes, even with the added heat."

She looks incredibly grateful to you, before shaking her head. "Right, we need to tell the others, then."

You nod. "I'll need to get some things set up on my end, too."

She goes to the living room to inform the girls, and you go to your garage. Only a select few of your cars could fit seven people, counting yourself, and both of the ones that could are still pretty beat up...

Of course, you could always take two cars...

You file the idea away for later. For now, you just have to worry about current events. You've heard rumors about the FBI's Vehicle Response Team, and none of them are good. They've rarely been dispatched before, but very few managed to get away when they were, and often through sheer luck.

There's a storm coming, and you're about to drive into the middle of it.

Braking Point

The girls reacted predictably to the news that they would be able to go home soon. You wanted to be happy for them, as well, but recent events hampered your happiness. On top of the FBI getting involved, you had just been informed that a race was going to happen only an hour from now, as "one last run before the heat drops". You were hesitant to take part, but your pride as the most wanted in Fairhaven won out, and now you were applying the finishing touches to your car of choice.

You always were a fan of Lamborghinis, and the Aventador was quickly becoming one of your personal favorites. All the classic look of a Lambo, with far more power. Sure, it had a habit of trying to kill you, but it wasn't anything that a talented driver couldn't handle.

"Whatcha doin'?"

You jump, possibly letting out an unmanly yelp as you whirl around to face the sudden appearance of Pinkie.

"Jesus, Pinkie, don't sneak up on me like that!" You take a few deep breaths. "Anyway, just getting ready to go to another race."

She tilted her head. "But aren't the cops gonna be coming even harder for you?"

"Not until tomorrow." You look past her, where you can faintly hear the other girls still talking. "Figure I could fit in one last race, right?"

"Ooh, can I go with you? Please please please-"

You cut Pinkie off by holding a hand on her head, stopping her incessant bouncing. "Sorry, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea."

She pouts. "But you already took Dash to a race! It's my turn now! Pleeeeeease?"

Oh god she's even doing the puppy dog eyes thing.

Sighing, you relent. "Fine, you can go."

"Yay!"

"Just go tell the others, alright? I'll get this ready to go in the meantime."

Nodding excitedly, she zooms off to the girls, leaving you to get inside the car and turn on the engine. For a moment, you contemplate leaving Pinkie behind anyway, just in case things went south, but before you can even decide such a thing, you hear the passenger door open, and suddenly Pinkie is sitting beside you.

"Alrighty! Let's goooo!"

You can't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm as you start the lift. As your headlights cut through the darkness, you got onto the highway, and started driving.

This race was going to be a bit less formal than usual. Rather than gathering at a single place, you and the other drivers were simply going to converge on a single stretch of road, and then, once the word was given, the race would begin.

One by one, you spotted more sports cars merging onto the freeway, all of you falling into a loose formation. This race was going to be a simple loop around the interstate, so everyone brought cars with speed to match.

You spy your friend pulling in front of you, driving an older model McLaren, along with a familiar face behind the wheel of a black Lamborghini, almost identical to your blue one. You want to question what that Seacrest guy was up to, but now was clearly not the time.

Your GPS lights up, and then the countdown starts. Pinkie squeals in joy.

You floor it and shift into a higher gear, just as everyone else around you does the same. The sound of approximately eight supercar engines roaring fills you with a familiar thrill, and it isn't long at all before you find yourself in the zone.

As you move your way up the pack, you find that the Seacrest guy is persistently tailing you, yet makes no moves of his own to pass yet. Your earlier lesson probably still stuck with him.

It isn't long before you're at the front of the pack, weaving in and out of traffic as you continue redlining your engine. When a turn came up, you were quick to pop into a lower gear, pump the brakes, and slide around the corner before gearing back up and continuing, everyone behind you following in your skid marks.

Beside you, Pinkie was having the time of her life, judging by her constant cheering.

Curiously, you notice that the police scanner has been completely silent. Normally, they would at least be talking about reported street racers by now...

You roar into a tunnel, and the Seacrest guy starts to slowly gain on you. Not one to give any ground, you pushed your car to its limit to maintain the distance, bringing the two of you to the same speed.

You emerge from the tunnel, and you're just barely able to see a spike strip on the ground before a chopper flies down, nearly blinding you with a searchlight.

Blinking away the pain, you swerve around the strip, and you see about half the racers behind you fall prey to it, leaving just you, your friend, and the Seacrest driver.

Your scanner suddenly fills with a flurry of voices. "Ambush successful, we got some of them!"

"Be advised, we have drivers still on the move."

"Don't worry, those two won't make it far."

Wait, two? But there's-

Suddenly, your rear view mirror fills with blue and red, and you look back to see your rival's car now flashing brightly.

Cursing loudly, you swerve to avoid an attempt at a pit maneuver, as even more police flood onto the highway. You feel your stomach drop as you spot FBI written on the sides.

"All units, this is VRT captain Jones, we will now be leading this operation."

"Copy that, Jones. Requesting permission for tactical roadblocks."

"Granted. "

Shit, this was bad. They weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow! Why are they here ahead of schedule?

You think Pinkie said something, but you've tuned her out completely, now. You were entirely focused on the growing horde of police on your tail. At some point, your friend had caught up to you, and you saw him take an exit before you turned all your attention forward.

The chopper was still following you, constantly covering your car in its search beam. Ahead, you could spot several blue and red lights in a row.

"Rotor 1, VRT, he's not slowing down."

"Copy that. Box him in."

You don't even give them the chance to, as you slam on the break and spin the wheel, performing a clean one-eighty into the opposing lane. Shockingly, the cops tailing you are barely thrown off, and they match your maneuver almost perfectly.

"Subject is now westbound."

"Understood. Get some more tac units in front of him, ASAP."

One of them manages to pull alongside you, and doesn't hesitate to deliver a sideswipe. Shaken but unfazed, you return the favor, locking the two of you together as sparks flew.

"He's resisting, someone get in front of him."

"Roger."

Another cop speeds ahead of you, and you have just enough time to recognize the Seacrest plates before they slam on the brakes. You realize you don't have enough time to get out of the way, so you do something else instead.

You hit the nitrous.

You brace for the impact, but even then you can feel your bones rattled by the hit, and you can tell that your front bumper is shattered now. Still, it did the job, as the driver in front of you was spun to the side, their rear end mangled. Another cop hit them, which left you only one to speed away from.

"Be advised, subject is still mobile."

"Tactical units are in place."

You speed back into the tunnel, and take the first exit you see, emerging into the open night sky. You were near the middle of downtown Fairhaven now, and you could spot several police cars pulling towards you, both FPD and FBI.

"We're off the freeway, repeat, subject left the freeway."

"Acknowledged. Keep pressure on him, don't let him get away."

You turn down the first empty road you see, and you haphazardly weave along the road, avoiding both traffic and parked cars.

You take every turn you can, hoping to shake the cops off your tail. And while it works for some, those VRT bastards were still stuck to you like glue. They certainly knew how to drive, in any case.

The chopper had dropped out of view behind the buildings, but you could still hear it somewhere nearby. And you knew that as long as it was in the air, you weren't getting away.

"Rotor 1, all units, we now have the downtown district blocked off. He's not going anywhere."

Fuck.

Sure enough, as you kept weaving through the streets, you'd find police blocking the roads, through a combination of the usual SWAT vans, heavier SUVs, and spike strips. They kept forcing you to swerve back into the deeper part of the city, and you knew it was only a matter of time before you were cornered.

Suddenly, you spot a parking garage up ahead- the same one you went to with Rarity and Fluttershy, in fact- and you get an idea.

You make your way inside, before drifting up the spiral ramp.

"Be advised, subject has entered the parking garage."

"Get inside, corner him. We got him now."

As soon as you made it to the top, you drove to one side of the building, before slamming on the brakes and whirling around. You then rocketed towards one of the pre-placed ramps, the chopper flying uncomfortably close.

You hit the nitrous, and a moment later, you're airborne.

You're only halfway aware of Pinkie's screaming as you sail through the air, just barely landing on the other side of a row of SWAT vans. You waste no time in tearing back onto the freeway.

"All units, he got past the blocks, move to intercept ASAP!"

"Rotor 1, all units, following suspect, heading northbound."

As you emerge into the night, you're once again almost blinded by the chopper, which almost caused you to slam into a semi trailer.

You look behind you, and are satisfied by the lack of blue and red lights. However, you knew that as long as the chopper was in the air, you wouldn't be getting away.

You try to cut through the construction site in hopes of shaking them off, even if for just a moment, but the search beam stays firmly planted around your car, no matter what you do.

As you continued down the highway, however, you finally heard the first set of good news in a long while.

"Rotor 1, all units, I'm running on bingo fuel here, gonna have to break off pursuit for the moment."

"Acknowledged, more units should be there in about three minutes."

Shortly after the helicopter flies off, your phone rings, and you hurry to pick it up and answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey man, you didn't get nabbed, did you?"

"Still good here. And you?"

"Good, but I have a problem. The feds apparently found out where I was living, and now I got no place to go. Mind if I crash at your place a little bit?"

You hesitate. Even though the two of you were friends, you had never really shown him your garage and home. Partly because he never seemed to care enough to find out, partly because of some sense of paranoia from yourself.

"Where are you right now?"

"I just passed the abandoned airfield, why?"

"You got a tail on you?"

"Nope, still good, for now."

"Turn around and go into the airfield. I'll meet you there in a bit."

"Gotcha."

He hangs up, and you let out a deep breath. You had no idea if this was a good idea, but it was all you had at the moment.

Beside you, Pinkie looks like she was able to calm down, but only barely. She doesn't say a word, though, which is a bit disturbing.

You pull into the airfield, and shortly after you see red and blue lights projected through the trees, racing down the opposite way you came. Looks like you were just in time.

You pull up to your usual spot, and not too far away you see a familiar McLaren, although it was now banged up to hell.

You quickly dial up your friend. "Park right next to me, on my left, and we'll go inside."

"Wait, what?"

"Just trust me."

You hang up, and then your friend pulls alongside you. Once you're sure you're both in position, you press the button to lower the lift. There was just barely enough room for the two of you, and you could see the shock on his face when the platform started lowering. Once you were at the bottom, you parked your car right next to the lift, and turned it off and got out. Pinkie did the same, still not saying a word.

Your friend got out of his car, next, and he couldn't help but gape at the impressive collection of cars around him. "Dude, man, where did you get all these?"

You shrug. "Won some, bought others, never really got around to getting rid of any."

He gestured towards the ceiling. "And- And what about this place?"

"Stumbled on it back when I first came to town. Turned it into my safehouse."

His gaze falls onto Pinkie, and you see him smirk slightly. "You must have a bad habit of dragging girls into trouble, you know?"

You shrug.

While he takes a closer look at some of your cars, you turn to Pinkie, who had an unreadable look in her eyes. "Hey, Pinkie, do you think you could-"

Suddenly, she gets in your face, grinning like mad. "That. Was. So. Cool," she whispers, evidently barely holding herself back from screaming.

"Uh, glad you had fun?" You gently push her away. "Anyway, go tell the others about... well, all of this, okay?"

"Okie dokie!" She gives a small salute, and walks towards your home.

You sigh, and look back at your friend, who was currently ogling your own Corvette. You wanted to say that this was a setback for your plans of getting the girls to Paradise, but something occurs to you... You did entertain the possibility of a second driver, so why not...?

Though that brings up the question of whether or not you tell him the truth about the situation. After all, you didn't believe it until Twilight demonstrated, and you would hate to make her do that again. Of course, you could always try and lie your way through, but... for some reason, something about that idea doesn't sit well with you.

You shake your head as you walk back to the others, seeing your friend start to follow you in the corner of your eye. You'll figure something out.

Road Trip

Your friend sits on the couch, simply staring into the ground. He's been like that for a couple minutes now, and it was frankly starting to worry you.

After some brief introductions with the rest of the girls, you made the decision to come clean with him about who they were, and where they were from. At first, he thought you were just playing some sort of joke on him, but once you and the girls convinced him that you were all serious, he got like this.

Finally, he takes a deep breath, and looks up at you. "You know this sounds like a load of bullshit, right?"

"I'm well aware, yes," you deadpan. "But trust me, as weird as it sounds, it's true."

"See, I want to believe you," he starts, "but aliens coming from some other horse dimension?" He shakes his head. "Sorry, that's a bit too far."

You sigh as you pinch the bridge of your nose. "Well, fine, you don't have to believe us. Just help us out."

This gets his interest. "Help you with what?"

"We need to get down south to Paradise," you explain. "Twilight here," you motion to her, "thinks she can manage a way back home from there. Something about magic."

"Riiiiight."

"Um, if I could interrupt..." Twilight breaks in. "I mean, I could show him the same way I showed you-"

"No," you cut her off. "Last thing I need is you putting yourself in a coma."

The others stay silent, but nod in agreement towards her.

"Well, in any case," your friend says, "it doesn't matter much. Feds got every road out of the city blocked off, and they're looking through every car that comes in or out. No way we're sneaking past them."

You let out a grunt as you lean against the wall, trying to think. There has to be a solution here...

"Hey, I got an idea," Dash pipes up. "Why even bother sneaking past?"

Everyone just stares at her. "Explain," you say.

"Well, why not just, I dunno, smash through?"

Your friend is quick to shoot that plan down. "They got full checkpoints set up. We're talking thick cement booths and walls, and I heard rumors on the way over about a quarter mile of spike strips just past them, too. None of our cars would survive brute forcing that."

The others look somewhat saddened by the news, but you keep thinking. None of your cars would survive, yes, but...

"We can get through."

Everyone looks at you. "Beg pardon?" Applejack asks.

"Up top, in the airfield, there's an old semi truck and trailer, probably used to transport smaller planes," you explain. "It's broken down entirely, but maybe we could fix it up, load a couple cars in the trailer, and smash our way through."

Everyone gives the plan some thought, before your friend gives a clap. "That is absolutely the stupidest idea I have ever agreed to."

"Alright, then, no time to lose. Let's get to work."

The next few days are spent entirely on fixing that truck, as well as packing enough supplies for a multi-day road trip into the cars chosen for the trek: a Porsche 911 for yourself, and a Nissan GT-R for your friend. Both cars had enough room for three of the girls each, while still containing enough power to keep you both competitive with the law.

Eventually, you both got the semi back to working order, though it was an amateur job if you ever saw one. If you had to guess, it wouldn't last longer than a couple days before it broke down again.

Thankfully, you didn't need it to run that long.

With the engine taken care of, you both started other small bits of tuning to the truck. Of course, "tuning" in this case meant welding a bunch of scrap to the front, in the interest of making it capable of surviving a massive frontal collision. Sure, the weight would slow it down considerably, but you figured that once it was up to speed, momentum could handle the rest.

Once that was also done, there was one last issue to address.

Neither of you had any idea how to drive a semi truck.

Sure, you knew the theory, but you had no idea what to do with a vehicle that size, let alone with that many gears. Unfortunately, you were picked to drive it by the time-honored tradition of rock paper scissors, so you had to give yourself a huge crash course in how to drive it without exploding the engine.

Once you were convinced you were okay at it, everything was ready.

You leave early in the morning, before the sun had even fully come above the horizon. Both cars were parked in the trailer, and you were sitting in the cab. You could see the cars in the hole you cut out behind you, giving you quick access to the trailer once the time was right.

Taking a deep breath, you start the engine, and then shift up a gear.

And then again, as you start to stall out.

And again.

Eventually, after shifting several gears, you managed to get up to a stable 35 miles an hour, enough to ease your way onto the highway. Hopefully, no one would question the slow truck driver too much.

You start to pick up speed, but you take care to keep it smooth. The last thing you wanted was to attract too much heat too early.

From the console, the CB radio crackles to life. "How's it going up there, Mac?"

You can't suppress a grin as you pick it up and answer. "Breaker one-nine, nice and steady, over and out."

Your friend laughs. "Don't get too carried away with the trucker talk, you might turn into one."

You return the laugh as you continue the cruise down the highway.

Soon, you spot one of the FBI checkpoints, which just so happens to be near the bottom of an incline. "Got visual, better start holding onto something."

"Copy that, commencing clenching."

You slowly start to accelerate, making sure to once again shift up a gear once the RPM starts to climb. At some point, the downhill slope starts doing more work than you, so you instead turn on the police scanner and maintain your course.

"All units, this is dispatch, any visual on street racers?"

"Dispatch, this is checkpoint Charlie, we got negative on racer sightings."

"Roger that. Checkpoint Alpha, dispatch, anything on your end?"

"Negative, dispatch, nothing over-"

"Uh, this is checkpoint Charlie, we got a semi coming out right now."

"Copy that, advise when it's stopped."

"Um... Dispatch, it's not stopping."

"I didn't catch that, Charlie, say again?"

"That semi isn't... EVERYONE OUT OF THE WAY, NOW!"

You grip the wheel as tightly as you can as you veer towards an open lane of the checkpoint, right before you slam through it.

The impact almost throws you from your seat, and you can even barely see the cars in the trailer getting just a touch of air time. After a few seconds of grinding metal and smaller impacts as you tear through a few parked police cars, you're through to open roads.

At least, except for the spike strips folding out in front of you.

"This is checkpoint Charlie, we are compromised, a semi just barged through us, spike strips deploying now, send backup ASAP!"

"Roger that, air support and ground units en route. ETA 3 minutes."

You hit the first spike strip, and you have to fight to keep the truck straight as you feel at least 2 of the 18 wheels get torn to shreds. Each strip after that reduces the number of functioning tires further, and it isn't long before the ride becomes a very bumpy one.

Still, you keep your foot firmly on the gas pedal, managing to keep a steady speed despite the damage. You can't even see how many cops are behind you, since both side mirrors were completely shattered by the initial impact.

After a number of spike strips that you lost count of, you're excited to see nothing but empty road ahead of you, just as your speed started falling.

Time to get started.

Making sure you leave a brick on the accelerator, you get out of your seat and make your way through the hole and into the trailer, which is easier said than done thanks to the constant bumping from what was left of the tires. Regardless, you manage to edge your way to the back of the trailer, where you quickly shove open the back, which lowers to the ground to make a ramp, showering the road in sparks.

Making sure to keep your footing steady, you make your way to the Porsche, and quickly get inside. Twilight gives you a small worried look, but says nothing as you start the car and immediately shift into reverse, slamming on the gas pedal as you fly backwards onto the road. You quickly shift back into first gear just before you hit the road itself, and a moment later you're completely out of the trailer and speeding ahead.

Behind you, your friend pulls an identical move and pulls behind you, flashing his headlights at you.

You pick up the radio and hit the button. "No time for showboating, we got a tail to lose."

"You're telling me!"

"Nine, all units, we are closing in on the suspects."

"Rotor 1, nine, we have visual."

At that moment, a police chopper flew overhead, shining a spotlight on the two of you.

"Suspects are driving a yellow Porsche and a blue Nissan."

The highway turned as it started heading northwest, and you couldn't help but watch in the mirror as the mangled semi crashed off the road. Just behind it was a small squadron of police cars, which were quickly gaining on you.

"Forgive me for asking, but what is the plan now?" Rarity asks from the backseat.

You smile. "We drive."

You pour all of your focus into the road ahead, reaching top gear as you follow the highway's turns and slip right by traffic. Once the cops start to get within ramming distance, you hop over into the oncoming lane, weaving back and forth among the traffic. Your friend, meanwhile, takes a more direct approach on his side, keeping the cops at bay by avoiding their rams from behind and retaliating with sideswipes of his own.

You slide back into the right hand lane just in time to hit the rear end of a cop that started pulling ahead, sending him spinning off behind you as another cop made impact.

"We're losing cars left and right, get us more backup!"

"Acknowledged. More units incoming."

Only one car remained in pursuit, and it wisely decided to hang back and simply follow for now. The police chopper still flew overhead, but began to hover in place as the road took you into a tunnel.

"Lost sight of the suspects, heading back to refuel."

"Copy, Rotor 1."

While you use a little bit of nitrous, your radio crackles to life again.

"Hey, take the exit when I say, I know a guy who can give us some help."

"Gotcha, you lead the way, I'll try and handle our plus one."

You ease off the gas as your friend pulls ahead, and you apply some brake as well to let the cop pull even with you. You swerve to hit him aside, but he sees it coming, and steers away just in time. Fortunately for you, the movement made him scrape into a passing log truck, resulting in the cop losing control and spinning out while the truck dropped its payload and blocked the road behind you.

"And we're clear," you say, both through the radio and to your passengers just as you exit the tunnel.

"That was absolutely positively cool!" Pinkie finally spoke up from the back. "They were like 'woo woo' and you were like 'slam' and they were like 'oh no' and-"

"Pinkie?"

"Yeah?"

"I know what happened, I was there."

She giggles. "I know, but it was so crazy!"

You give a small chuckle at her enthusiasm. "Well, it's only gonna get crazier..."

"All units, be advised, suspects were heading westbound on I-88, report any visuals ASAP."

You simply follow behind your friend, weaving between cars in sync. You assumed that he knew what he was doing, and even if he didn't, you were still heading in the right direction anyway.

"Okay, so," Twilight said from beside you, holding the atlas and tracing the page with a finger, "we follow this road around this lake, and then it's a straight shot south to Paradise City."

"Not quite," you say. "Cops are gonna have the interstate locked down at points, so we're gonna have to try and go on smaller roads when we can. It'll take longer, but it'll be safer."

"Oh... good point..." You see her starting to mentally figure out a new path, but you snap in front of her face to get her attention.

"Don't bother memorizing a path, we're gonna play it as it comes."

Twilight gasps. "But, we have to have a plan! And if we need to, we can make a backup plan, and-"

"Twilight." Once you're sure she's looking at you, you continue. "Making plans just means we'll be at a disadvantage when they don't work exactly like we think. We take it as it comes, we're less likely to be caught with our pants down."

After a pause, she slowly nods in agreement. "I suppose..."

"Okay, this exit here."

You snap your eyes back to the road just in time to see your friend veering onto an exit ramp, and you follow. Just as you're leaving the interstate, you spot the sign saying that this exit leads to Rockport.

"Rockport, huh?" you ask over the radio.

"Yeah, man, my buddy's been set up there for a while now. Hopefully, he's hanging in there with the added heat."

"If he is, let's hope he can hold on a bit longer, we still got a while before we get there."

The two of you fall into a steady, yet fast-paced cruise after that.

At this rate, you should be there in about an hour.

"Are we there yet?"

"No, Pinkie."

A very long hour.

Welcome to Fairhaven

You love Fairhaven at this time of year. The sun is shining, the wind is pleasant as you drive down the road...

“All units, fifty-one, we need to escalate this pursuit.”

“Copy that, fifty-one, we’ll need a description of the Code Three vehicle.”

“Suspect vehicle is a white Land Rover.”

And, of course, the police who just keep trying to take you off the road. Of course, they aren’t going to succeed, but you admire the effort.

But that doesn’t mean you let it go unchallenged.

Wrenching the wheel to the side, to ram right into a cruiser trying to get in front of you, knocking them off the road and into a ditch. You always were known for playing rather dirty.

Glancing in the back, you spot the bags of clothes thrown about on the floor and on the back seats. You were on an errand for an old friend, who apparently needed two bags of women’s clothing for some reason. Whatever it was, you don’t judge, and it gave you an excuse to go out for a drive, one of your favorite things to do.

After all, you’re the most wanted street racer in the Fairhaven area for a reason.

Still, this chase had gone on long enough for you to get your enjoyment out of it, and your friend probably didn’t want you to bring the entire police force with you to his doorstep, so it was time to go ahead and end this.

You glace out your windows. Three police cars around you, too far away to ram reliably. Up ahead, you could see a line of cars making up a roadblock. In a beast like the Land Rover, it shouldn’t be any problem to smash through it.

Which is exactly what you do.

“All units, he smashed right through the roadblock, we need to get more units together to put an end to this!”

As the police radio frequency fills with reports of units being knocked out of commission, you laugh. Behind you is a scene of chaos and pandemonium, only one squad car making it out to trail you.

You look at the road ahead, instantly recognizing where you are. You don’t become the best street racer by not knowing the roads of where you race, after all. Now that you know exactly where to go, you let off the gas to let the cop catch up, and they go right in front of you.

Big mistake.

You gun both the gas and your nitrous, slamming into the back of the police car at over a hundred miles an hour. The car flies off to the side, before rolling down the road some more.

“I lost him, get all units in search formation.”

Content that there were no cops around, you pulled into a dirt side road and parked under a bridge, right next to the edge of the forest. Turning off your engine, but not the radio, you sit back and listen as police cars pass right over you without realizing it.

“All units, we lost the suspect. Return to normal duties while keeping an eye out.”

You nod your head in success. That chase was shorter than they usually were for you, but still just as fun. Doing some counting in your head, you figure that you took out about fifteen cop cars, not counting roadblocks or cops that wrecked from their own nerves. All in all, a good day.

Your cell phone rings in your pocket. Taking it out, you answer with a casual “Hello?”

“Hey,” your friend greets you on the other end, “you know those clothes you were gonna bring me?”

“Yeah, what about ‘em?”

“Forget about ‘em, I don’t need ‘em no more. Go ahead and throw ‘em out, or something.”

Most people would be angry that they did this for nothing, but you were happy to have a drive, anyway. “Eh, alright.” With that, you hang up. Checking the police scanner, you make sure no cops are nearby before you reach for the ignition.

When suddenly, a bright purple light flashes deep inside the forest. It wasn’t blinding, but it was definitely enough that you noticed it. You don’t know anything that could make a light like that, so you decide to go and investigate. You leave your SUV, which had a fair number of scratches and dents on the sides, and was missing part of the front bumper. Readying yourself, you head into the forest, towards the mysterious light.

While the urban jungle was your natural habitat, you weren’t clueless in the wilderness. After a minute or so of walking through the ankle-high grass, you begin to hear voices up ahead. Not able to make out what they’re saying, you move in that direction.

Once you come to a set of bushes, you can hear the voices pretty clearly, now, and they all sounded female.

“Now, could ya tell us where we are, Twi?” a Southern voice asked. “An’ why we’re like... this?”

You reach the edge of a clearing, where you see the source of the voices: a group of six girls. Notable was that among them there was one with kind of purplish hair, one with rainbow colored hair, one with pink hair, another one with purple hair, another one with lighter pink hair, and one with blond hair that was also wearing a Stetson on her head.

It’s also probably worth noting that the hat was the only piece of clothing between all of them.

Now, you were no stranger to the nude female form, but finding a group of six naked girls in the middle of the forest like this, and with all of them ranging from somewhat attractive to absolute bombshells, was something else entirely.

Looking past that, you noticed that only the blonde one, the first purple haired one, and the pink haired one were standing; the others were either sitting or just lying down, looking at their hands for some reason.

“I don’t know, Applejack,” purple hair number one said. “I’m not sure what could’ve gone wrong with the spell...”

“Well, I kinda like being like this!” darker pink hair exclaimed. “It’s so... bouncy!” After she said this, she began jumping up and down, sending her generously sized... assets bouncing along with her. You catch yourself staring, but you shake your head to snap back to reality. One of them mentioned a spell, so either you stumbled upon some kind of cult in the middle of the forest, or they had been smoking some really strong stuff.

“At least it didn’t take long to get used to this new body,” rainbow hair speaks up, now standing with the others. “Sucks that I have no wings though.”

“And I can’t seem to use any magic,” purple hair number two says in a refined voice, looking at a nearby rock, as if waiting for something to happen. “Odd.”

“I wonder...” Purple hair number one looks at another nearby rock, squinting her face in concentration. You’re about to laugh at the display, until you see the rock float up, surrounded in a purple glow. Your amusement gave way to sheer confusion and some horror.

She just did goddamn magic! your mind screamed at you. Get the hell out of there!

You decide to do just that, backing up slowly, hoping to every higher power imaginable that you won’t step on a twig while making your-

*snap*

...crap.

All six of the girls look in your direction, the levitated rock dropping to the ground.

“W- What was that?” lighter pink hair said, her voice just barely audible to you.

“Probably nothin’ good,” blondie says, assuming a somewhat clumsy-looking fighting stance.

The others look towards your position, with looks of either fear or aggression. Thankfully, they don’t seem to have seen you yet.

You quickly think about this entire situation. You happened upon six naked women in the middle of the forest, and at least one of them know actual, for real magic. You’re no wizard, but you’re sure that they could do something rather painful to you with it. And even without magic, blondie and rainbow both look like they could kick your ass with minimal effort. True, that isn’t saying much, considering that you’re actually rather physically weak, but it was still threatening.

Deciding on a plan of action, you back up slowly, slightly rustling the bushes. You can barely see them now, but they seem to tense up at the noise.

“Alright, who’s there!” rainbow shouts in challenge. Now’s probably a good a time as any to make your entrance and peacefully talk with them. You weren’t exactly a lady-killer, but you had enough of a way with words to score a date most of the time. You could probably convince them to not assault you.

Taking one last deep breath, you walk out into the clearing, hands held up. “Hello, ladies,” you greet, in your best impression of what most people would say James Bond sounds like.

The girls don’t seem to be impressed. “Who are you? Where are we?” rainbow asks.

“You’re in Fairhaven, one of my favorite towns ever. As for who I am...” You pause for both dramatic effect, and to give you time to think of a way to describe yourself that doesn’t reveal you to technically be a highly wanted criminal. “...I’m a racer, of sorts.”

All at once, rainbow’s aggression gives way to curiosity. “Racer? Really?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” You look at the other five, who don’t seem to be concerned with their nudity. At that moment, you remember the unused clothes in the Land Rover. “Do any of you need some clothes?”

“Now why would we need clothes?” blondie asks. “And why should we trust you?”

“You should trust me because I seem like a nice guy, and you need clothes because...” you broadly gesture at their bodies. They all look down, and suddenly begin covering up, slightly embarrassed, as if you pointing it out made them realize their situation. The dark pink haired one, however, just shrugged, not caring, while the lighter pink haired one seemed most embarrassed of all of them.

“I guess I’ll get some clothes, then,” you say, as you move back towards your SUV. As you walk, you think over everything again. Should you tell them you saw that little display of magic? Should you demand answers? Or should you make them think you’re oblivious, and let them tell you themselves?

Screw it, you’ll ask. Opening the banged-up back door, you remove both bags of clothes before heading back towards the girls. Now it’s just a matter of either bringing the matter up subtly, or outright asking. You’re still not sure what kind of magic they could be packing, so it’s best to err on the side of caution. Who knows, maybe you just hallucinated it. But that still wouldn’t explain the apparent lack of knowledge about nudity. Maybe they really were part of some kind of cult...

You snap out of your thinking as you re-enter the clearing, where the six girls are waiting, all standing now. You whistle and toss the bags toward them, and they immediately begin opening them and looking at the garments inside. Your friend may have strange hobbies, but he seemed to have good taste in clothes, as pretty soon all of them are clothed, and they look pretty good in the outfits they chose. The second purple haired one seemed particularly interested in the clothes, as well.

“Well, with that out of the way,” you start, “whaddya say I take you all back to my place?” You have to fight with yourself to keep lewd thoughts out of your head. “We can get everything straightened out there.”

“How far is your home?” magic purple hair asks.

“About ten miles,” you guesstimate.

“So, are we taking a train, or a carriage?”

You laugh. “Trains are only used for long distances, and carriages haven’t been used for at least... a hundred years, almost? Something like that.”

“Really? Fascinating...” The look in her eyes tells you that she’s mentally recording this fact, though you can’t imagine why.

Regardless, you motion for them to follow you, and they do. The light pink haired one and magic purple hair both look at the trees and occasional wild animals with great interest, which again confuses you. The answers behind all this better be good...

Soon, you all reach the parked SUV, and you sweep your arm towards it dramatically. “This is our ride.”

Rainbow hair snickers. “Looks like a piece of junk.”

“That’s because I just got out of a... wreck,” you say, quickly. No need to tell them that you got it from an all out police pursuit.

They pile in, magic purple getting in the passenger’s seat up front, as you start up the Land Rover. They jump as the engine roars to life, especially light pink hair, who looks as if she’s about to faint.

“W-What was that?” she asks, in a slight panic. You chuckle.

“That was just the engine. No need to get frightened.”

This calms them down a bit, though they tense up again as you start moving. Checking your GPS and police scanner, you get onto the road proper, accelerating up to the speed limit. As much as you wanted to, it wouldn’t be good to get into a police chase right now. Besides, there’s the chance your ride would be recognized, and it would start up again anyway.

During the car ride, the girls introduce themselves to you, and you do the same. You must say, their names seem rather odd. ‘Fluttershy’? ‘Pinkie Pie’? ‘Rainbow Dash’? Who names their kids like that?

“So, I must ask,” you begin, “what was that about, floating that rock in mid-air?”

“Duh, haven’t you seen magic before?” Rainbow asks.

You pause. “No, actually.”

Next to you, Twilight gasps. “No magic?”

“...no.” Really, all of this is smelling rather fishy to you. For all you know, this could be a team of highly skilled thieves, who are out to steal your impressive collection of cars. Or maybe they’re even undercover cops. Then again, neither of those make sense given what you’ve seen and what they’ve said.

Silence overcomes the inside, and you glance at the GPS. Still a couple miles to go. You decide to break the silence and forgo subtlety. “Alright, tell me, what’s up? Why were you all in the forest, naked, and why do you not seem to know the most common of knowledge?”

Again, silence fills the interior, until Twilight speaks up. “Well, we’re all from a place called Equestria, which is populated almost entirely by ponies...”

You slam on the brakes, causing everyone to scream. “What the hay was that for?” Applejack asks.

“Nearly missed the turn,” you answer, somewhat truthfully. You did almost miss it, but Twilight’s explanation just made your head hurt. Whether it was from disbelief or proximity to such bullshit is debatable. You park in your usual spot, before turning off the car. “We’re here.”

As you all get out, you watch as the girls take in the sights of the airplane junkyard that has also served as your home of sorts for the past couple years.

You started leading them inside, but before you went in, you spun around to face them, catching them off guard. “Now, I think you owe me an explanation of what the hell this ‘Equestria’ is.”

Author's Note

To be clear: This will not be a clopfic, by any means. However, if it's demanded enough, I might add a scene or two down the road (ha!), with the rating being adjusted accordingly. This would not change the planned story of this fic majorly, so no matter what the same basic things will happen, and the emphasis would always be on the racing.

Welcome to Rockport

It's a little bit before noon by the time the two of you arrive at the outskirts of Rockport, where you both start slowing down as another checkpoint comes into view.

As you pull alongside your friend, you can see him on the phone, so you simply wait until he's finished. It doesn't take long, and he hangs up and picks up his radio in the same motion.

"Alright, good news, we should be able to drive right in, cops are apparently tied up with a pursuit right now."

"Copy that."

You don't wait for him as you quickly get back up to speed, passing right through an empty spot at the checkpoint. You see a single police car light up behind you as you do so, but that's it.

"This is Rhino Eleven, got eyes on two street racers entering the city through checkpoint Alpha, they got Fairhaven plates."

"Rhino Eleven, dispatch, disregard vehicles and hold position, we'll deal with them later."

"Affirmative, dispatch."

The police lights don't follow as the road feeds into a highway, which then heads into another tunnel.

"Alright, my guy said he'd meet us in Rosewood, just north of the actual city," your friend explains. "Look for the exit that leads to the university."

By the time you spot the exit, your police scanner starts buzzing with activity.

"All units, be advised, pursuit is now condition 5, repeat, condition 5."

"He took out all my cover units, requesting backup!"

"Affirmative, backup should be there in a few minutes."

"Be advised, we got spikes on the road ahead, make sure you keep him left."

"Sounds like someone's having fun," you comment.

You just barely see Twilight roll her eyes beside you.

Once you were off the highway, your friend speeds ahead and takes the lead. "Alright, follow me, I remember the way from here."

"You never told me you were from Rockport, man."

"Spent some time here, yeah."

He leads you through a rather small town, and you notice that the roads felt less maintained than the ones back in Fairhaven. Probably a slightly poorer city, now that you think about it.

The police scanner kept going, in the meantime. "I think we should back off a bit, we're causing a lot of damage here."

"That's a negative, you WILL NOT fall back."

"Suspect just crashed back onto the campus, he's in the campus!"

You see Twilight give you a concerned look. "Weren't we going to the campus...?"

You just shrug, which does nothing to soothe her worries.

"I'm gonna have to break off pursuit, my engine's shutting down."

"All units, keep clear, gonna try and take him off the road."

"He- He missed the block! Suspect going into the hospital!"

"Alright, it's here."

The both of you pull in front of a typical parts shop, before he swings around to the rear of the building and you follow. As you kill the engine and leave the car, you hear sirens approaching, and you look back to the road just in time to see a red and white Viper drift around a corner, a small squad of VRT cars following closely behind, while a chopper started hovering overhead, following the chase.

You smile as you look back at your friend. "It's like we never left."

He returns the laugh as the girls all get out, Dash and Applejack stretching slightly. "So, what's in here?" the latter asks.

"An old friend of mine," your friend explains. "He actually helped me get started racing."

He leads the way inside, and you all follow.

The inside of the shop was pretty much just a garage with a store counter wedged in the corner, with a number of cars in varying states of dismantling filling the space. The only other person inside, besides the workers who were elbow deep in cars, was an older man leaning on the only fully-built car in the garage, who looked like he was pushing his late thirties. He was already smiling, but it widened noticeably when he spotted your friend. "Good to see ya, man."

"Long time no see, Rog," he replies, giving a quick high five. "How have things been down here?"

Rog chuckles. "Things have been blowing up recently. You guys see a red Viper driving around on your way in?"

"Just now, yeah," you say.

"Well, that guy blew into town about a couple months ago, driving this beautiful BMW. He tried breaking his way onto the Blacklist, but got cheated in his first race, and lost."

"Ouch, who did it?"

"You remember Callahan, right?"

"That wannabe?"

"Well, he ain't wanting anymore. He made it to the top of the Blacklist, using that BMW, calls himself Razor now."

Your friend fails to stifle a laugh. "Real original, then."

"Wait, hold on," you interrupt. "What's the Blacklist?"

"A list of the city's most wanted street racers," Rog explains. "People can move up the list by challenging the guy above them, but we put pink slips on the line when that happens."

"Wait, you said that guy lost?" you ask, pointing outside.

"Yeah, and he got busted soon after, but a friend of his bailed him out in just a few weeks and hooked him up with a cheap car. Since then, he's been tearing his way to the top of the list, no doubt just to take down Razor and get his car back."

"How high is he now?" your friend asks.

"Right now, he's number two."

"Oh damn," you comment.

"'Oh damn' is right. The guy can drive like no one else I've ever seen, and I've never once seen him lose a race or get caught by the cops. The guy's something else."

Your friend elbows your shoulder. "Dude, when we're done with all this business, we gotta race him."

You just nod in agreement.

Suddenly, Rog's phone rings, and he answers it. "Yeah?" A pause. "Alright, I'll tell him."

As he hangs up, he already starts explaining. "Well, I gotta go now. Looks like Razor's about to finally race that guy. You guys can follow, if you wanna watch."

"No thanks," you say. "We just need to get to Paradise, don't need any extra heat right now."

He nods. "Fair enough. Feel free to buy whatever you need from here in the meantime." He's already dialing on his phone before he fully gets in his car. "Alright, the race between you and Razor is locked-"

You don't get to hear the rest as he closes the door, and then drives out of the garage.

"Alright, so," you begin, "let's figure out what we can afford and what we need."

After some discussion between the two of you, you and your friend decide on improved nitrous systems along with a fresh coat of paint on both cars. The workers said it would take about an hour to get it done on both cars, so you were simply standing outside, watching the town.

In the distance, you see some small rain clouds approaching. A little driving in the rain isn't beyond your ability.

Behind you, you hear the door to the shop open, and you turn to see that it's Fluttershy. "Hey, Shy."

"H- Hello." She begins standing beside you silently, so you go back to looking at the town, as well as the nature that you could see around it.

"Y- You know, this place is kinda beautiful," she eventually says.

You smirk. "Yeah, it does look pretty nice. I should go on road trips more often."

She goes silent again, and you see her eyeing a squirrel in a nearby tree. You hold back a chuckle at the sight.

Suddenly, the squirrel ducks back down into the foliage, and a moment later you find out why. A pair of engines were starting to roar their way towards you, so you look in the direction they're coming from.

The engines get louder, until you see a silver and blue BMW with a massive spoiler drift into view, before rocketing off down a different road. Before it was even out of sight, that same Viper from earlier came right behind it, taking the same turn even harder and pulling alongside the other car.

They both sped out of sight before you could see the full outcome of the maneuver, but you smirk. That Rog guy was right, this guy knows his stuff behind the wheel.

As the sounds of the engines fade into the distance, you turn to see Fluttershy... not there anymore?

You turn a little further, and see her hiding behind the door to the shop. She blushes slightly at your confused gaze. "They're a lot scarier from the outside..."

While you allow yourself a small laugh at her expense, Dash nearly bowls her over as she exits the store. "Did I miss 'em?"

"Yep, you're just a bit too late."

"Aw, darnit!"

With that, she heads right back inside, and Fluttershy meekly follows.

Looking back to the sky, you notice that those rain clouds are a little bit closer and bigger, now. Looks like a storm is coming.

Checking your watch, you decide to head back inside and wait out the rest of the time with the others.

Author's Note

The original Most Wanted is the best Need for Speed game in my opinion, and if you disagree I will respect your opinion even though it's wrong