Rainbow Dash was at the airport in Lincoln, Nebraska. She had inspiration from Dusty Crophopper, the champion of the 2013 Wings Around The Globe. Now she wanted to compete in the WATG with him, and he was kind enough to give her some flying tricks handed down from Skipper.
Fonzarelli was the first competitor up. Even though he was not the fastest and he had used an illegal racing fuel additive last year around, he knew the course the best, so he was the one to demonstrate. Plus, it was a new year, so the old records were a thing of the past. Rainbow and Dusty watched as the yellow and blue plane crossed the start gate and leaned to the right. Roper saw all the action from the outpost he was in. “The racers must pass through the blue pylons on the horizontal and around the red pylons on the knife-edge,” the blue pitty in the stand announced to the crowd. After the horizontal and the knife-edge, Fonzarelli turned around and went through the blue pylons again, only backwards. He was now set up so that four red pylons clustered in a small group were in front of him, known only as the quadro. He knife-edged the pylons at an angle and pulled “…a hard right with a 270-degree hi-G turn…nicely done!” Roper shouted. Another blue gate, and then came the three-pylon chicane. Fonzarelli slalomed the single red pylons with ease. After knife-edging the quadro for a second time Fonzarelli went through two more blue pylons set up next to the start gate. He pulled up, enduring about 9.1 Gs and when he was close to making a complete loop he turned right side up and passed through what was now the finishing gate. The clock read 1:23.87.
Racer after racer went through the pylons. Some managed to pass Fonzarelli. Many of them did not. Rainbow watched their every move and took note of their strategies. Dusty left her side for 1 minute, 20.97 seconds to strike the new first place record. Being in his new T-33 form, he was far better at racing. Rainbow was the last competitor.
Rainbow was through the start gate. She steered right, flew through the horizontal, and managed to successfully knife-edge the red pylons. After turning around and passing gate 3, Rainbow entered the quadro. The 270-degree hi-G turn was a hard one, with the centrifugal pull weighing Rainbow’s wings down so it was harder to flap them. Nonetheless, Rainbow made it and went on to her chance to pick up the pace. She breezed through the three-pylon chicane and began the half Cuban 8-the last move needed to complete the tryouts. She had to push her wings to their limits to get it done, but she came out of the Cuban 8 and crossed the finish…at 1:21.50. Second place.
Rainbow thought it was over with that and she was in the race when Roper said “Oh! We just had our last contestant get here…also from Equestria, Prismatic Bolt!”
Prismatic Bolt? That earth-pony’s gonna race? Rainbow thought to herself. Prismatic was not very well known to the citizens of Equestria. He rarely came out, and when he did it was hard to catch him in full detail. But here he was, in the flesh. You could see his yellow coat, purple mane, green tail, deep blue eyes, and his 5.25-5.00 prescription glasses perfectly. His horn also glinted in the sunlight for effect. Above all this, he had the strangest thing on his back. Rainbow had never seen anything like it.
A brown leather strap was tightened around his body, and attached to it in alignment with his spine was a metal beam. On the end of the beam was a pod with a propeller on the rear end and an intake attached to the curved upper surface.
WHAT?! Rainbow thought. Prismatic had managed to use engineering and technology to make his way into the race somehow. And just when it couldn’t get any worse for Rainbow, it did. Prismatic stood at the end of the runway and two metal wings extended from the sides of the pod. He had basically turned himself into a full-fledged alicorn at this point. He was walking to the end of the runway and Rainbow yelled “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” a little too loudly.
Nonetheless, Prismatic was through the start gate. He was clean through the horizontal, clean through the knife-edge, and clean through gate three. Who the buck trained him? Rainbow thought. Prismatic was lined up for the quadro and he went through the first knife-edge. He pulled a hard right with the 270-degree hi-G turn and finished it up. He was in fifth place.
“WHAT?!” Rainbow shouted. Neither Roper, nor Dusty, nor Prismatic listened to her, though. “He’s through the quadro, lining up for the three-pylon chicane…now in fourth place and closing in rapidly!” As Dusty watched, he raised an eyebrow and said to himself “I’m likin’ this guy…”
Prismatic was out of the three-pylon chicane and into the half Cuban 8. It seemed that it had all happened in only a few eyeblinks. Prismatic finished the Cuban 8 and crossed the finish in 1 minute, 22.10 seconds. He was in third place.
He had an objective to fill, though. He retracted his wings and confidently walked up to Rainbow Dash, asking her “Well…what do you think?” Rainbow responded, “I think…any illegal fuel additives in that tank?” Prismatic had flown at some unrealistic and ridiculous speeds. Despite this, he coolly responded “Nope.” Rainbow was still suspicious, even with two pitties testing his fuel and checking his engine. “No nitro-methane? No high-combustion ethanol?” she asked. Before the stallion could answer one of the pitties servicing him said, “Fuel’s clean. Engine power’s good. He’s in.” Prismatic took the alternate course of action and said “Told you.”
Dusty approached Prismatic and said “Wow…you really had me for a second there. Don’t know how you were able to pack so much power into such a tiny engine.” “It’s all in science” was Prismatic’s answer. After a bit of an awkward silence, Prismatic said, “Well, I’d best get going. Good luck in the race to you both!” “You too!” Dusty called back. Rainbow was a bit disgruntled. She only did so much as glare back and mutter “Yeah…sure.”
“Air racer number 21. Air racer number 21. Do you read?” Prismatic was flying towards the airport in New York, where the race would start. Following the instructions he received from the pitties at the control tower through a special headset that he engineered, he safely made a landing and walked over to the pits.
“Look who’s finally here! Far as I can tell, you’re the last one in!” Roper remarked as Prismatic signed in. Well, of course… Prismatic thought to himself. Considering I’m racer number 21…
“Your friend’s over with Crophopper,” Roper said, pointing in the direction of the last tent on the left. Prismatic already knew that it was Rainbow Dash. He walked over to tent number 7, which was in front of the stage that Ripslinger was sitting on. Rip, surprisingly enough, wished Prismatic good luck in the race without the offensive remarks said under his breath. Prismatic’s reply was just a friendly “You too!”
Prismatic then approached Rainbow. He said “Hey! How’s it going?” only to have her not respond. She was standing facing towards the wall.
“Best you don’t bother her,” Dusty said from behind. “Her day’s not going too well.”
“Why?” Prismatic asked.
“I tried asking her the same thing. She didn’t say anything. It seems that since the qualifier she’s been acting very strange. Maybe when the race starts she’ll tell one of us what’s wrong.”
“Good idea. Let’s just try to stay away from her for now.”
Prismatic then walked into his tent. There he saw nopony other than…his sister, Blaze Dubstep! She had orange eyes like Spitfire’s, as well as flaming orange hair with pink mixed into it. The color of her coat was also exactly identical to that of Prismatic’s. If she weren’t his sister, Prismatic would have very well made her his mare-friend.
“Blaze! Great to see you here!” Prismatic shouted, throwing his arms around Blaze.
“I just wanted to see how things are going before the race starts,” Blaze replied, accepting her older brother’s embrace. “It’s going to be a tough one this year, considering the fact that Rainbow is challenging for you.”
“Yeah.”
“And by the way…” Blaze said. “How’s the mission going? I assume you were able to talk to her at the qualifier.”
Prismatic and Blaze finally let go of each other and Prismatic answered “Not too well. She’s been giving me disapproving looks, or just flat out ignoring me. Maybe I can find out what’s up when I get to Iceland.”
“You remember the low-pressure survival spell you’re supposed to cast on yourself before the race, right? That’s important.”
“Already done. I also got a temperature control spell if I may need it.”
“Awesome. I gotta get back to Equestria, but the rally is going on TV there. I’ll still be able to see you win the race.”
“Oh, I don’t think I’ll win,” Prismatic laughed. “I have a tough competition with me.”
“Just try you best,” Blaze said, gearing up a dimensional warp spell. “See you around!”
“You too!”
With that, Blaze disappeared in a bright flash and Prismatic was left alone again. He walked over to a corner, took off his propeller pack, and picked up a wrench. Even though the pack was working perfectly when he was flying to JFK airport, he had a bit of last-minute fine tuning to do. When he was all done with that, he kicked back and went to sleep for the night, hoping that he could find himself a good position in the race the next day.