Chapters A white earth stallion with a black mane walked into the bustling bar. It was of no surprise however, as a rather prestigious race was to be taking place soon. The stallion looked about the bar and saw that there were ponies in one corner playing poker. A glance to the opposite corner revealed a few other ponies, obviously too young to be there. Towards the center, there were a few, more undesirable, ponies. Finally, at the counter, there sat a lavender unicorn mare and her friends. His eyes lingered upon the mare, without thinking he took a seat nearby.
The stallion looked at the barmare behind the counter, she nodded her head and prepared his drink. He was a regular to this bar on the occasions that he was in town, after all it but only one of two reasons he came here, the other had to do with the race. Perhaps it is because racing is what he does for a living, or the fact that his cutie mark was that of none other than the checkered flag. It is uncommon for an earth pony to participate in this race, mostly having to do with the lack of magic and by extension, its dexterity. The Ponyville 500, a vehicular race, is popular among drivers, engineers and businesses. No one really knows why he wishes to participate, ponies have different theories, but he has declined to confirm or deny any of them; perhaps it is the one race he feels he has to win. He was lost in thought and too late did he realize where he was looking.
"Mister, do you want something?" the lavender unicorn asked, she was feeling embarrassed that he had been staring at her for a while. However, her coat did an alright job, if not a perfect one, of hiding her blush.
"Oh, nothing." the earth pony responded, looking away to his a blush of his own. The other mares began to chuckle and the white unicorn sitting near her simply said, "I hate to say this, but I believe that I said he was staring."
Meanwhile, the bartender looked at him and set the stallions drink in front of him. She whispered,"I wouldn't try anything with her if I were you, she is Twilight Sparkle, the star pupil of Princess Celestia, her brother is captain of the royal guard and she is one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony."
"Like anything larger has stopped me before."
"You should be more careful, one day you're going to find yourself in a position you can't crawl out of Slide. However, if you actually tried to be friends with somepony, you won't have to worry about that."
"Berry, you know that I won't just automatically be friends with anyone." replied Slide. "You may have lost your only friend, but that doesn't mean you should be lonely forever." After a moment of silent, he said, "You know of my 'problem' with being social."
"That is not an excuse," the barmare said with a fire in her eyes. "Alright! I give." the stallion exasperated.
He turned toward Twilight and decided to apologize for staring. He knew what he would say, he just had get it out."Hello miss, I would like to apologize for my actions. I’m High Slide; will you let me buy you a drink?" Berry punch facehoofed.
"I don't drink, at least not often. I mean, do you even know what this stuff does to you?” Slide’s spirit dropped at this. “However, I will give you a chance under two conditions." Twilight said with a plotting smile.
He walked up to a navy blue pegasus with a red mane who was just outside. “Hello Thunder. Can I get ask you for five extra tickets to the race?” “Slide, I can only pull so many strings at a time; I don’t know....” Thunder faltered.
“Slide, I’m running out of time.” Thunder interrupted, “There is a grave and it reads ‘Rolling Thunder’.” “You, will be fine I will make sure of it. Besides, if you need anymore reason, did you see that beautiful purple unicorn that left a minute ago?” Slide pleaded. “Oh, fine. Under one condition, you at least introduce to one of her friends.”
High Slide paced around his hotel room, he was worried about the race, and his promise to his friend. He knew that Rolling Thunder was on dangerously thin ice when he met him a few years ago, and it has gotten thinner yet. But his friend’s problems weren’t on the front of his mind. He had participated in several circuits with varying degrees of success and even raced in the Ponyville 500 before. But this year, Slide’s sponsor retired and his successor, Mr. Stakes, has taken his place as head of “Equestria Steel Company” .
Mr. Stakes didn’t exactly put the safety of his employees as a priority, in that he didn’t care about it at all. He was more concerned with personal profit and progress. It has been rumored that he has cut some very large corners to reach his position in the company; scaring those more qualified than himself and firing those who stood up to him. The only reason he didn’t drop his sponsorship of High Slide and Rolling Thunder is because of the amount of money that could possibly come out of winning.
It was in the middle of this tangent when Slide heard the knocking on his door. When he opened it, he found Twilight standing on the other side of the threshold. The two ponies looked at each other awkwardly. Slide broke the silence, “How are you?” “I’m doing fine. I was asked by Rainbow Dash, the one with the prismatic mane, to inquire about your ‘car’ as she called it.” Twilight responded. “Okay... what about it do you want know about it?” Slide sighed. “I was wondering how you would control it. I have seen motorized vehicles before, but they had so many control that it required magic to operate all of them.” Twilight rambled, regaining some of her excitement. “Well, you see, I’m a bit of a mechanic, it was a challenge at first, but when I figured out how to arrange the controls to just that of a series of pedals, a steering wheel and a single lever, it became possible to operate with needing a passenger. Of course it helped to have some help” Slide replied. Twilight, with a gleam in her eye, asked “May I see what you have done?”
A short walk later, the two arrived at a garage. Inside, was a large cloth, covering something large. Slide gripped the cover in his teeth and yanked his head to the side, pulling the lightweight material off of the vehicle. The vehicle was no taller than a the neck of a full grown pony. Its wheels were polished steel with heavy rubber tires. Its interior had two seats, in front of the left was row of pedals and above it was a column with a wheel almost parallel to the back of the seat. Between the two seats was a lever sticking out of a panel. Behind the seats was a series of steel crossbars. The chassis was a matte black and on its side, in soft white, was the name, Coltmaro.
Twilight, amazed at the work of engineering in front of her opened her mouth to begin to speak. But before she could, she was cut off by a rather rude “What is that? and what is she doing in here!?” The two ponies turned to see an angry unicorn with a maroon coat, white mane and an iron horseshoe for a cutie mark. The intruder repeated his question, causing Slide to flinch. “I-I-I was just showing the lovely young filly the Coltmaro Mr. Stakes.” he stuttered. “So that is what you call that piece of junk? Doesn’t matter, you’re not racing in that heap of scrap.” Mr. Stakes bellowed. “But then what am I going to use to in the race!” Slide panicked.
Mr. Stakes smiled and said, “Why, you’re going to use the EX-3180 of course.” “But that hasn’t eve--” “Enough! you will drive the EX-3180 and that’s final” Stakes interrupted with a roar before turning around and leaving.
High Slide was visibly shaken by this encounter. When Twilight moved to inquire as to who that was, Slide said “The new head of my sponsor. And before you ask, the vehicle he wants me to use, well, it isn’t the most sound thing in the world.” “Why does he want you to use it so bad?” Twilight asked. “Because it has... I think it would be easier to explain if I showed it to you.” Slide glumly responded.
In the garage next to the one housing the Coltmaro was a monstrous looking contraption. The EX-3180 didn’t have any internal supports, had about 5 times as many levers than the Coltmaro and had, and no pedals to be found. Where the seats should be, were pitiful excuses for stools with a plate attached to them. the chassis was heavily dented, as if it had fallen apart and put back together several times, which wasn’t too far from the truth.
Twilight cringed at the horrible screeching sound it made when Slide opened the door and attempted to sit in the vehicle. After failing to get comfortable, Slide stepped out of the monstrosity, and said “This was designed, built and tested by Mr. Stakes in under 2 weeks. and according to him, this is supposed to be faster by the merit that all of the ‘useless’ bits are not a part of this.. this... insult to transport.”
After a few minutes, Slide composed himself and said his farewells to his guest before he went to find Rolling Thunder to give him the news.
“He’s going to kill us.” Rolling Thunder said, shocked by Slide’s tale. They sat at a table in Rolling Thunder’s house, which was more like a shack. The kitchen was a small corner in the living room, dimly lit and barely big enough for the two stallions. There was a small window, showing the front yard. The living room itself was barely wide enough for company. A small door was the only entrance to the only other actual room ,the bedroom, and it was surprising that a pony could get in there, let alone sleep. The ‘house’ was all Rolling Thunder could afford. He was happy to have a permanent settlement, something to call his own. He had been trying to get High Slide to buy a house and settle down in Ponyville. High Slide, however, hasn’t had a permanent home since he was but a young colt, preferring to travel and race whenever he had the chance.
They had been silent for a moment, then Slide spoke, “ Well it’s not a particularly good move in my book either; but we don’t have much choice. Besides, if we quit what would we do?”
They walked out onto the street and headed towards Berry Punch’s house. When they arrived, they knocked on the door and heard somepony say they were coming, when the door opened, there stood a surprised Berry. “I wasn’t expecting you guys here! Come in. Come in.” The two entered and upon looking around, they saw breakfast laid out on the table. “Are you two hungry?” Berry inquired.
“Yes! I’m starving,” Thunder announced, “we just came to ask if you wanted to come watch the qualifiers, but I’m sure we have time to stop and have breakfast.”
“ I suppose we could stay and visit for a little while, it still is rather early,” Slide said, thoughtfully.
“Unfortunately, we have some bad news,” Thunder said.
“When is it ever good news?” Berry asked rhetorically. Slide began to tell Berry about the incident last night. He explained how he had shown the lavender unicorn his car and how they ran into Mr. Stakes. Then he told her about the car he is now supposed to drive and why it was a catastrophe waiting to happen. He concluded that just finishing the race in a single, living, piece would be a miracle.
Berry stared at a wall for an awfully long time lost in thought. These two stallions were practically her family. She couldn’t think about losing either of them. She remembered how they helped her so many years ago on a dark and stormy night, what could have happened, what almost did happen. She was scared for her life and of what would happen to her daughter if those wretched stallions, who wanted to forcibly take advantage of the mare, had succeeded.
She wasn’t going to let it be easy and fought as hard as she could to keep them from doing what they wanted. Then one stallion put a knife to her throat and attempted to start his assault, but a kick to the knocked the stallion to the ground when a pegasus swooped down and attacked another stallion before he knew what hit him. A cowardly third stallion ran for the hills after seeing his friends dropped so easily. Berry didn’t know who was helping her, in fact, she barely registered what happened, she sat and tried to process what happened; she was in shock and scared beyond reason. All she knew a minute ago, was that she was about to be assaulted. But, who had saved her and how did she survive. “Angels.” she whispered, one of the ‘angels’ heard this and decided it best if they took her to the hospital.
When they arrived the pegasus went straight to the front desk in a rush. “Nurse, we need to get help immediately!” the pegasus said with a sense of urgency.
“What happened?” asked the obviously worried nurse.
“She was almost raped by a group of stallions.” the stallion said. Crime in Ponyville was a very rare thing and almost unheard of. The nurse immediately paged a few doctors who took Berry and rushed her to the ER. She thanked Celestia that she survived and she became good friends with the ponies that helped her, but now, she felt she had to help them in whatever way she could.
“Berry, Berry, earth to Berry come in. Hello? Can you he-” the navy pegasus began, but got cut off by an enraged Berry.
“Of course I can hear you! Can a mare not think!?” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
“Sorry.” Rolling Thunder squeaked apologetically. Slide couldn’t help but chuckle. He always got a good laugh around those two. However, there was something he didn’t understand, he had two amazing friends, both of whom he was lucky to have, but he still felt lonely. He has never understood why that is, he didn’t have any known relatives that were still alive. But, he knew that wasn’t it. “So what is it?” as he thought to himself his thoughts flew towards the lavender unicorn, “Could that be it? If it is, then perhaps I should think about having a long term relationship with somepony. That can wait till later. Right now I have more urgent matters to attend to.”
Slide got up and thanked Berry for the food. He told his friends that he was going for a walk. As he walked he noticed a green stallion approaching him, Slide recognized him as an acquaintance whom he had met a few weeks ago. His name was Fighting Chance and he was an earth pony slightly larger normal, but still fairly average looking. He had green coat and a short- cut black mane. His tail was short, but not by much.Finally,he had a cutie mark of a boxing glove. He was being followed by a unicorn colt that had no relation to him, but apparently Chance took him in for an undisclosed reason. The colt was of average size for a pony his age. He had a black coat and blue mane. his tail was cropped and unlike the older stallion he had no cutie mark. “Hello High Slide, how're ya?” Chance greeted, with a smile.
“Oh, I’m fine. Have you managed to find a house yet?” Slide asked, in attempt to start a conversation.
“Well, we have a small apartment. But, we have a long way ta go.” Fighting Chance was not from Ponyville, but he was very well educated and could talk decently enough. But he still had a lot to learn.
“How are you, Thunderstruck?” Slide asked. Thunderstruck, a shy colt, did his best to muster up a response.”F-Fine, S-Sir.” the colt stuttered, he and his guardian was still getting used to things in Ponyville. Both of them were planning to attend the race, so they both hoped to get a little more social there. The three stallions decided to walk to the park.
There were several ponies already there. The stallions walked onto the path that led to a small clearing. Upon their arrival, Thunderstruck ran off of the path and into the open field and proceeded to smell the flowers.
“He can be so hilarious ta watch sometimes. Never once have I doubted my decision ta take ‘im in.” Chance chuckled, he couldn’t help but smile.
“Yes, but why did you take him in?” Slide asked curiously. Fighting Chance took a moment to respond. The answer was simple, getting it out was the hard part.
“Well, ah suppose ah should start from tha beginning. Ya see, ah’m from a ways off close ta tha outskirts of Equestria. There it is almost impossible ta find a decent pony and tha border clashes get fierce. But, tha real problem is gangs and radicals. Thunderstruck’s parents were killed in their home by a militant. However, they had me keep ‘im so he could be safe. They were good ponies, I met ‘em at a really tough point in mah life.” the green stallion finished.
“I suppose it was a good thing they gave him to you.” Slide responded, he couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for them.
“Yeah, I love ‘im as if he were mah brother. Son, if you’re willing to say that.” Chance said, he was a little different from some ponies in a few respects. He was kind of emotional and sometimes just seemed distant. High Slide couldn’t help but think there was more to the story than what he had been told. But he wasn’t going to ask anymore questions after all they were still a long way from being friends. They sat there and watched the sky for what seemed like forever. Neither said a word as they watched the colt investigate his surroundings. He seemed to be in his own world, where there was no pain and suffering, only joy and happiness. However, every daydream is doomed to be interrupted by reality.
“Scootaloo, watch out!” However, the warning came too late as a blur of black and orange went tumbling across the field for a few feet.
“Sorry, I should have been more careful,” said the pegasus filly,” my name’s Scootaloo, by the way. What’s yours?”
“Umm, h-hello my name is umm...Th-Thunderstruck.” the colt mustered up the reply, which took a lot of courage for him. He wasn’t used to talking to other foals his age, much less a filly. They sat there for a moment unsure of what to say. Finally, Scootaloo spoke.
“You must be new around here, where are you from?” Scootaloo asked.
“I’m from a town called Jackstallion.” The colt responded.
“Where is that?” The filly asked, curiously. The colt thought about that for a moment , he couldn’t quite remember where it was. Fighting Chance and himself had seemed to move from place to place for a while.
“I-Its a l-long way from here, b-but I’m not s-sure where.” The colt had spoken as if he had forgotten his life before Ponyville. In truth, he couldn’t remember much about himself or where he came from. He knew his parents died just not how. He also assumed he may have left behind a few friends as well. He was smarter than most foals his age, but just as naive. He believed that the reason for his parents deaths was an accident and nopony was to blame. However, he did not know that Fighting Chance had lied out of fear of the young colt being scared for life. Chance had an issue with paranoia it seemed he was getting better. However, he still had a lot to work on.
Meanwhile, High Slide had said good-bye to Chance while he was on his way to check on Thunderstruck. Slide realized he was running late, he had to hurry to be there on time. He ran threw the streets of Ponyville. Slide was dodging ponies left and right. He was running so fast he did not see the pony in front of him. They both fell over and tumbled to the ground.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” High Slide wondered who he had run into. He saw a black stallion with a white mane and the cutie mark of a notepad. “Oh, its fine, it happens.” The stallion smiled. He then noticed who he was talking to,”Your name is High Slide, right?”
“Yes,sir.” Slide said, as professionally as he could muster. He surprisingly wasn’t used to having somepony recognize him automatically as he was not a popular driver among the crowd and even though he assumed he had fans, he never met many of them. Most of the ponies he met were just ponies that had bet on him or wanted to get him to sponsor them. he had won a few races, but none of them were very big victories.
“You don’t mind if I ask you for an autograph, do you?” the stallion asked.”No, I don’t.” High Slide responded. “I know a colt who told me he wanted to be like you one day.” Slide seemed surprised by the complement, but he nodded and signed the picture. “That colt should find a better role model.” The white stallion thought, as he walked away towards the V.I.P. entrance.
As he walked into the V.I.P. area High Slide noticed several other ponies there. Friends and families of the drivers, several high class ponies, and many other important ponies. But, he was looking for one pony in particular. He wanted to show her around the track. All of a sudden a pink pony with sky blue eyes came seemingly out of nowhere and said, ”Hi High! I had to say that, I thought would be really, really, funny! Oh, yeah. Twilight’s over here.” The pink pony said, then bounced out sight.
“Hello, High Slide. The girls and I were talking and we were just wondering if you could show us around the track?” Twilight asked, somewhat ironically. High Slide just sat still and nodded. Then, a white unicorn began walking towards High Slide.
“High Slide may I talk to you for a moment please?” the unicorn asked.
“Rarity, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, confused.
The group walked towards the garage area, and on their way they saw several famous ponies. Much to Rainbow Dash’s chagrin they got to see two wonderbolts setting a table. High Slide was talking to Twilight for a moment and Rainbow Dash decided she would go to talk with the wonderbolts. The wonderbolts setting there were Spitfire and Soarin’. Rainbow was having a fangirl moment, but she managed to keep her cool. The cyan pegasus walked towards the two ponies.
Twilight watched in horror as a car had rolled upside down and caught fire. How it caught on fire she didn’t understand but couldn’t bring herself to ask. The medics were doing their best to move the body. The racer had been thrown a few feet away from the car and landed in some grass. His riding mechanic had been seriously injured as well. The car was totaled for all she could tell. Twilight looked at High Slide and noticed him having a solemn frown. The grisly scene in front of them was a lot to take in.
“ High Slide?” Twilight spoke, finally finding her voice. High Slide came out of his trance when she said his name.
“ Yes, Twilight?” Slide said calmly.
“ Does this bother you?”
“ It does, but I’ve gotten used to death.”
“ This happens a lot?”
“ around me it does.”
Twilight asked to go and find their friends. High Slide led her back through the garage. Neither said a word as they walked side by side. Twilight had to ask him something. And she wanted to know now.
“ How did that car catch on fire?” Twilight asked. She knew it was not unheard of, but typically a car can only catch fire from outside force.
“ A new fuel. It’s an experimental one, Some drivers use it. However, it’s not entirely legal and many suspect it may have caused a number of deaths. Not safe by any means, last year one of my only friends used it. His car crashed and caught on fire and he got trapped.” High Slide answered solemnly.
“ I’m sorry to hear about that, but have you ever used it?” Twilight asked, trying to make it sound as sincere as possible.
“ Once, long ago. Can we change the subject?” High Slide said, Politely telling her to shut up.
“ Okay, any family?” Twilight asked.
“ all deceased.” Slide said flatly.
“ What happened?”
“ long story.” High Slide didn’t feel like going into details and prayed to Celetia that Twilight would let it go.
“ I’ve got time.” Twilight responded. The stallion sighed, as always a mare would cause him trouble and not even typical trouble.
“ I figure I’ll have to tell you eventually so hear it goes. When I was a foal I looked up to my father as most young colts do. My mother was loving and kind, my father was strict but made sure me and my brother knew we were loved. My father raced cars for a living and made some good money. We had a big farm and the view was beautiful. Overlooking Canterlot the nights were even more beautiful than days. We were close as a family, it wasn’t until I was older that I knew how fortunate I was. I did fairly well in school, so did my brother.I wanted to be a racecar driver like my father and he wished I didn’t. However, He bought me a small cart type of vehicle.I got challenged to a race by the resident bully. I won and got my cutie mark. Dad was proud of that. He took me to a race afterwards, as a present. However, one of the racers were killed in a crash. I realized he wanted me to see what I was getting into. When I was twelve he told me he was proud of me. My mom had become ill and needed special attention. He was gonna attempt to win the one race that eluded him, the Ponyville five-hundred. I was still pretty young, when we got a letter. It told said my dad died of injuries sustained in the crash. After that, our mother began to slowly pass away. My brother and I got into the streets. We committing robberies and other crimes. We even sold drugs later on. Mom had met another stallion who abused her daily. He was also a bad drunk. Mom passed away and we were left on our own. Eventually, we saw that stallion again half passed out. I just left him there to die. Later, my brother overdosed and walked to a bridge. I was about to do one last thing, kill myself. But, a stallion stopped me and we’ve been friends ever since.” High Slide finished his tale. His eyes were a bit watery.
“ I’m sorry I asked.” Twilight said somewhat regretting her question. She tried to think of a different topic, but nothing came. Eventually, a pink pony came to her aid, followed by a yellow pegasus.
“ HI GUYS!” Pinkie shouted, She hopped out of nowhere and had dragged Fluttershy with her. The pegasus looked extremely uncomfortable, and more than likely didn’t want to be there.
“ H-H-Hi umm Pinkie I don’t think this is a great idea.” Fluttershy spoke in a whisper. But the pony managed to drag all three away from the table and to who knows where.
