The Fast, Dangerous and the Furious

Chapter Twenty Seven: Death Race

“Daring, get down!” I called out to Daring while she dropped out of the sky, landing smack dab on top of my Eclipse. Bombastic sounds erupted around me while several cannonballs cascaded through the air bombarding the cliff side to my left. Debris collapsed down towards the other racers that had been unlucky to get caught with all the murderers.

The rest of the team was up near first place with the rest of the fliers leaving Daring and I to fend for ourselves having been caught off guard by Cannonball Joe’s big ass cannonball wagon from hell.

Daring rolled across the wingspan, using her back hooves to hold herself to the Eclipse while she leaned upside down aiming her gun at Cloud Chaser. The stallion looked up at us, noticed the gun, and then released a smoke screen blinding everypony coming his way. I rose up high enough to avoid it but remained clueless as to where he had gone.

A bomb fell down towards me. The detonator blinked red several times before exploding inside of the smoke screen turning it from grey smoke to black smoke. Several fliers came bolting out from the explosion with injured wings and broken gliders. Brave Day landed down on top of the Eclipse, bearing a belt of sticky grenades in her mouth, ready with a detonator switch in her magic field. Daring flung herself back up just in time to tackle Brave Day into the rocky wall letting her drop down to the fighting below.

“We’ve got griffons with mini guns,” Daring shouted to me. I looked up, kicked the gear shifter into fist, and sank down like a rock while the griffons busted out a team of fliers with mini guns. THOSE GUNS ARE NOT MINI! Bullets exploded out the rotating barrels straight down towards the few racers trying to get out of the dog fight.

Oh shit!

A large pink protection spell went over us, taking only a few shots before being shot to pieces. Magic shards rained down on us while bullets came pouring down in my direction. Daring let her wings out, taking to the skies, right towards Brave Day.

I looked into the rear view mirror seeing a belt of sticky grenades detonate the cloudy sky like fireworks from the Redemption Casino. Daring came crash landing onto the Eclipse’s hood leaving a good dent in it. “Hey, I just had this thing tuned!” She gave me a sheepish grin. Her grin faded as she whipped out her pistol taking aim at a murderer levitating up four submachine guns.

Daring reached into her saddle bags, pulling out a bottle of oil along with a rag. Shoving the rag in as far as it would go Daring used the flames from my glider’s blocks to ignite the makeshift fuse. With a mighty heave she tossed the weapon at the attacker’s glider. The glass broke apart, the liquid being touched by the flame and igniting everything around the stallion. Next thing I saw in the rear view mirror was a great ball of fire dive bombing to the ground.

“Step on it!” Daring grabbed the ‘oh shit’ bar using her free hoof to hold her pith helmet down. I shifted into fourth for nothing else but the speed it gave me. The needle on the speedometer approached one hundred wing power with a steady climb to one twenty.

Brave Day rammed me into Cloud Chaser while we passed a sign claiming we were heading into the Badlands. My hooves slammed down on the brakes while Daring jumped onto the back of Brave Day’s glider. Biting down at the strap binding Queen Firefly to her machine, Daring clamped down on it, pulling it with all her might. The strap came undone. Daring jumped back onto the Eclipse wrapping her hoof around the bar. I caught the sight of Brave Day holding on tightly to her glider with her bare hooves.

Daring groaned. She pulled out her pistol. “I’m getting real sick of her.” The trigger was pulled twice.

Click. Click.

VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMUMMMMMMMMMMM!

Our attention went straight up to King Sombra as he soared past all of us at an alarming speed. I cursed under my breath earning a chuckle from Daring. “I’ve got something special for his ass,” she sounded almost seductive. Her hoof locked a new clip inside the pistol. Daring stretched out her body, taking aim away from Sombra like she was using a sniper rifle.

Daring unloaded the clip in front of him. A spark against his glider alerted the tyrant into throwing up a protection spell strong enough to take each bullet one after another. “Damn,” Daring spat, “those were all my tranquilizers.” Sombra lowered his spell and turned his attention to us. His horn lit up, firing a spell towards us. In retaliation my horn sparked to life creating the strongest protection spell I could. Sadly, it was only strong enough to take the one spell thrown at us. Daring reloaded, attempting to fire again. By the time she was ready the former King was already too far away.

Daring let out several well thought out colorful phrases that made me a little embarrassed to have her near me. “Stay away from those,” Daring shouted. I looked at where she was pointing at, noticing a large pony skull imprinted on the ground as I flew over it. A flash in my rear view mirror caught my attention. Griffons armed with more mini guns flew back into formation. The barrels on their guns began to rotate.

Cannonball Joe galloped over the skull imprint causing it to glow bright orange. From the imprint a spell was fired into the air forming two large dragons out of pure magic. The dragon heads turned to the griffons breathing hellfire down on them, burning each and every one to a crisp.

I jerked my head at Daring trying to ask her what that was. “Those are Warheads. Step on one and it causes a large number of deaths in its wake.” That would have been nice to know before the race had started! AGH. Another thing to worry about.

Banking into a branching path I could see Brave Day following right behind me. Daring groaned. “She’s still on our tail. No elite soldiers though.” Thank Celestia. Now how to get rid of this mare. Daring pulled out her pistol ready to unload the clip.

My gaze fell on the red button that I was told to use only when I needed it. “Nah, she won’t be on us for long.” I hit the red button. My vision blurred together while the Eclipse shot forward in a burst of speed. Brave Day shrank in my rear view mirror just before I regrouped with the murderers, thankfully, ahead of them by a good margin.

To my left a large wooden dam held back large boulders that looked ready to bust the entire thing down. Cannonball Joe exploded out from a tunnel, his cannons all pointed at anypony ahead of him, he let loose a plethora of cannonballs in my direction. Behind him a large autowagon with a large trailer attached to it came thundering out the same tunnel with turrets all turned towards the fliers. Bullets exploded with bombastic sounds all around us.

“Daring, I need an out!”

Daring looked down, bit my ear, tugging me in the direction she wanted to go. Cannonballs cascaded the wooden dam one after another letting the entire sea of boulders come crashing down towards the other fliers. My eyes caught sight of a cave entrance. I pushed the gas pedal back, collapsing my wings in, as I hit the ground while the entrance around us exploded. Everything caved in around us.

*** ***

Putting a rag around my mouth I carefully tied it around my head, keeping it in place. Daring limped a little. I had her show me her fore hoof. There wasn’t any major damage, but she definitely needed to stay off it for a while if we could help it. I grabbed a bandage rag from the trunk and wrapped it around her wounds.

“You doing okay?” I tightened up the bandage.

Daring hummed while trying to put some weight on her leg. Her leg buckled making her fall to the right. She caught herself with her free hoof. I gave her a concerned look. “I’m fine.” She growled. Of course you are.

“Come on then,” I said sliding underneath my Eclipse. With my horn aglow I telekinetically set Daring on top of my glider.

Without a second thought I galloped down the tunnel looking for any escape tunnels. Using the transparency spell with all my focus, every wall turned see-through allowing me to pin point an exit. Several turns later we found ourselves galloping along a set of railroad tracks leading to the exit.

The tunnel around us began to shake. Dirt began to sprinkle down on top of me and Daring. We started looking for the sound, eventually noticing a light behind us. It actually looked kind of pretty. Growing brighter and brighter with each passing second. A whistle blared down every branching tunnel causing my heart to find its way to my throat.

I started galloping faster.

Faster.

And faster.

Our shadows began stretching out along the walls that seemed to close in on us with each passing second. Another loud whistle echoed around us making my heart pound against my chest. Daring got a glimpse of what was coming, she told me it was armed with guns. That didn’t surprise me! “At least it doesn’t have flamethrowers,” Daring muttered to me. An orange light flashed in my rear view mirror. All around us blazing hot flames reached for something to burn into a crisp.

I spared no time forming a protection spell that pushed back the flames. A speaker system was apparently attached to this death train because a voice started echoing around. “Me and Old Steam here are having a pleasure running you down!” I cursed several colorful words that made Daring smile.

My spell slowly began to melt under the pressure of scorching hot flames bearing down on it. Fire began engulfing the entire spell, blocking nearly my entire view of the tunnel ahead. “You just had to say flamethrowers,” I yelled up to Daring. Forcing out my third protection spell I watched as the other spell burst into shards from the sheer heat closing in around us.

The whistle shook everything around us, sending cracks spider webbing around my spell. Daring nudged me demanding I do something. Sliding into my transparency spell I saw a branching tunnel fifty feet away. I pushed the gas pedal back making flames burst out from the glider blocks. Two larger cracks formed across the spell making the entire thing creak. I continued to pour on the speed.

Forty feet.

Several magical shards came crashing down next to me shattering like glass upon impact. All around me the shards rained down from the train ramming into the back of it. I threw up another spell, sending a sharp pain through my head; the spell formed slower than the rest almost falling apart from the flames.

Twenty feet.

I galloped as fast as I could, trying to hit the gas pedal to move faster. The speedometer was already pushing past fifty wing power with a steady climb to sixty. Daring aimed her pistol at the train ready to unload it the second my shield fell. The flames around us died down, much to my relief, but that was until the bullets started.

Mounted to the front of the train with flamethrowers right next to it were mini guns with what I could only assume was enough ammo to make me cower in fear. The spell around us was slowly shot to pieces sending shards of magic everywhere around us. I dove into the branching tunnel feeling another round of flames singe my back hooves.

I came to a sliding halt doing my best to resist the urge to scream. The stands ejected out of my Eclipse while I rolled out from underneath it hearing the train speed pass us. Both Daring and I panted hard. Daring looked at my hooves noticing they were burned right above where my horseshoes were protecting me. “When we get to Bolt Action, you better protect him.”

“Why,” I asked cringing in pain. It was then I noticed my makeshift mask had flown off at some point.

Daring retrieved the bandage rags from the trunk. Once she had them tightly wrapped around the singed area she looked at me with an evil smile. “Because I’m going to shoot his ass for this.”

“Yeah, get in line.”

I was pretty sure Daring saw the double barrel shotgun in the trunk. That was just for Bolt Action. Although now I was beginning to have second thoughts about killing him. I questioned if I had the nerve to go through killing someone outside of self-defense. It took the bandage rags no time at all to send a cold chill up my legs. Once I was sure my legs were healed, notably with little to no burn damage at all or accompanying headache, I thanked Fluttershy for being there every step of my travels. Best invention she ever made.

*** ***

The train exploded out the tunnel, steam surrounding it like cloud cover, bullets exploded down towards the juggernaut helping Cannonball Joe. The turrets mounted to the juggernaut turned right at the train. I slid into my transparency spell, spying one passenger car attached to the engine with ponies arming the turrets mounted to the windows. Two ponies grabbed the turrets at the back windows which were directly in front of us.

I slid out of my transparency spell. “OH CRAP!” Daring pressed her head against the hood preparing for the barrage of bullets.

A blue protection spell formed around me.

Pfffft. Pfffft. Pfffft. Pfffft. Pfffft. Pfffft. Pfffft.

Bullets bounced off of a spell which didn’t belong to me. I flew up staring straight down at the unicorn casting the spell from atop the passenger car. Brave Day. “If anyone’s going to kill you it’s going to be me,” she hissed. Hitting the brakes, I landed on top of the train with my pistol floating up. A cannonball smashed into the passenger car making it tip a little.

Daring rolled off the glider, setting her sights on the hatch below. She galloped past Brave Day making sure to take the last of her sticky bombs with one stealth swipe.

I unlatched myself from the Eclipse while the stands ejected out. Brave Day’s glider was on the other side of the car. Galloping towards her, I unloaded my clip. She rolled out of the way. As she looked up at me I tackled her across the passenger car. My hoof planted itself firmly against her neck aiming to push her head into the turret below. Brave Day brought her back hoof up.  She slammed her hoof tip into my stomach sending me stumbling back.

Upon recovering from the attack, I had just enough time to look up before Brave Day dove towards me. I rolled back, planting my back hooves into her stomach, and then throwing her off the top of the train. Her glider was engulfed in her levitation field before being pulled with her. A second later she flew up over the train with her pistol pointed at me. Daring popped back up, pistol drawn, aiming right at Brave Day.

“Try it, bitch,” Daring shouted up to her. A cannonball impaled the cliff next to Brave Day forcing her to make a break for the fighting directly below the tracks. Below me the car began to shake uncontrollably. “I dropped a little surprise inside. Did you know these things are armor platted on the inside to?” I did not.

Strapped to my glider, I frantically looked for a way to get rid of the juggernaut down below while I flew over the fighting. Bullets continued to bombard the train to the point even the armor plating was beginning to have holes punched through it. Daring directed my gaze to the bridge several yards out. “Blow the bridge,” she suggested.

“Let’s do it,” I said between pants. “You got any bombs left?”

Daring held up several. I smiled

Everything swirled around me as I plummeted down to the ground. Daring shouted down to me while I caught the sight of Brave Day’s blue coat. She knocked me into a tail spin! Son of a bitch. I hit the gas pedal propelling myself over the juggernaut which was still ramming the train with bullets.

Brave Day pulled up next to me prepared to ram the tar out of me. Or so I thought. She pulled out a pistol. My horn lit up, ripping the gun from her teeth. I let the gun drop as Brave Day retaliated by knocking me around a bit more.

I dropped altitude letting Brave Day fly right over me and into the cliff. She dropped down after me, floating out a sniper rifle in her levitation field. Pouring on more speed I shoved as much distance between us as possible while a bullet struck my ear. I yelled out in pain. A fore hoof went to my ear. There was blood. “Damn it,” I uttered barrel-rolling to the left making myself a harder target to hit.

As I flew underneath the bridge, everything exploded around me, including the train being consumed in flames. Thank Celestia for Daring Adventure! In my rear view mirror Brave Day was avoiding everything that was raining down on the remaining murderers.

There was nowhere for any of them to go. Ridges were on either side of the crowds, with nowhere to run but straight, they all ran right into the burning carcass of a train with flaming wood crashing down on the survivors.

Brave Day was the only mare to make it out with her sniper rifle still pointed at me. I wrapped my magic around a boulder. As Queen Firefly drew closer to me, I yanked the boulder down flying past it while it came crashing down towards her. Her sniper rifle dropped from her levitation field as she jerked herself to the side only nicking the boulder a smidge. “Ha! That shit don’t work twice on me playboy!”

Damn it!

There was a pause. Brave Day hit a button on an ear piece I had completely missed during our fight. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but from what I could gather from her expression something was waiting for the racers around the corner. “Later,” she said with a devious smile. Brave Day took to a tunnel leaving me behind.

“She’s about to be pissed,” Daring whispered into my ear sending me into a little jump. “I left her a gift.” Holding up a detonator in her hoof, Daring made my jaw drop. Her other hoof pressed the button causing the tunnel below to collapse from a single sticky bomb.

“Let’s regroup with the team.”

*** ***

Glider descended down from the sky, stomping her hooves down on top of a Firefly solider, she stumbled a bit galloping away from the solider but regained her composure. Her wingspan tore through several bushes before she came sliding out onto the open road.

Brave Day had something alright. She had all of her remaining soldiers get together for this and they were all pissed at what Daring had done to their leader. For the most part we were done dealing with the other racers.

The rest of my family got back to the main road. “Everyone check in,” Diesel Fuel shouted into his head set.

Glider tossed me a headset that I gladly slid into place. One was given to Daring thanks to Vin along with a small camera for her helmet. “Runner, checking in!” I smiled at Daring while she hit a button on her head set. She slid the camera strap around her pith helmet.

“Daring Adventure, checking in!” She looked at me with a smile on her face.

Lucky Clover touched down and galloped past us. “I’m all ears, what’s the plan?” Several fireflies were descending down towards us.

“Vin’s good to go,” the griffon called out while flying low to the ground. Just a couple feet above us.

O’Conner slid out from several Firefly soldiers lying on ground. Diesel Fuel looked at him ready to ram him off the road. Both fliers stared at each other ready for a fight. The team leader galloped closer to O’Conner preparing to ram him off the road. “Hey,” I called out to them, “Diesel Fuel I need him with us for this one alright! He’s like a brother to me!” Glider looked at me then fell back behind us, keeping both me and Daring covered.

Diesel Fuel reluctantly tore his attention away from O’Conner, putting his gaze on me. There was no lie written on my face. Everyone in our family had no word against O’Conner helping us out. Diesel Fuel looked forward. “Formation!”

We all shifted into fifth.

THE TEAM IS TOGETHER BITCHES!

Diesel Fuel galloped forward with me and O’Conner backing him up. Daring took to the skies with Vin and Lucky while Glider backed us from behind. Our formation was good to go. The soldiers flew down towards us!

Daring unloaded her pistol clip into them letting them drop down towards us. One of them went for Diesel Fuel only to be met with O’Conner firing three well placed bullets into the Firefly’s neck.

Vin pulled out two pistols, unloading each clip into the rest of the soldiers before they all hit the ground dead. With a free moment now in our hooves, Daring shot up higher into the air using her camera to display footage of what lay ahead of us. She disappeared close to the clouds while Vin called Glider up with him for an aerial formation. Everything Daring was seeing was soon displayed on our computer screens.

A large trailer more than twice the size of the one laying in a burning heap under the bridge stood ahead of all the fliers gaining on us. Its wheels thundered down the path to the next stop which was a moderately large town near a swamp. Just a few very short miles from our current location. Knowing Brave Day was a murder meant that thing had one objective after killing us. Slaughter the rest of the fliers leaving the Fireflies the only fliers in the race.

Our aerial formation lowered itself down closer to a few clouds for cover. Diesel Fuel’s voice rang out to everyone, even O’Conner, on their headsets. “We have to stop that thing before it reaches the town.” The ground team slid around a large ridge bringing the terror bus into full view. They knew we were coming. Best not disappoint!

Glider pulled out a low caliber assault rifle and tossed it to Daring who held herself back letting bullets rip through the air. Vin reached into a compartment in his glider, pulling out a combat MG with a long cord attached to it, the griffon let loose a plethora of bullets. Glider unloaded the clip from her own MG.

Bullets pelted the top of the bus with loud clangs and pangs alerting the Fireflies inside of our presence. If they didn’t know we were here before, they did now. Our hooves pushed off against the ground as two large autowagons slid out from two conjoining paths. “Runner, shields up!” At Diesel Fuel’s command I threw up a large shield that, a second later, was bombarded with bullets aimed at the ground. “Let’s punch it!”

O’Conner and Diesel Fuel slowed down enough for me to pass them. They put their hooves against the wingspan quickly accelerating to eighty wing power, pushing me with my shield right into the autowagons sending them into a few pot holes that flipped them over like bowling pins. I called out to them, “Strike!” My protection spell vanished, being replaced by my transparency spell.

I cast the spell over the terror bus making it completely see through for me. “Hiya!” A griffon called out to another Firefly with an assault rifle gripped in his claws. Accompanied by three other griffons, plus two turrets, they all set hoof on a platform that raised them up into the open. Their weapons were aimed at us.

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

“O’Conner you’re up,” Diesel Fuel called out.

O’Conner looked at me, “Runner give me a lift!”

I rose up into the air giving O’Conner a stepping stool. He galloped forward, jumped on top of my glider, then jumped up on top of the bus letting the glider stands eject out. O’Conner slid out from underneath his glider simultaneously kicking the turret barrel so that it spun around smacking a griffon in the face sending him screaming right off the bus. Frantically climbing over the hole left in the top of the bus, O’Conner dove into the griffon knocking the assault rifle down. The third griffon ducked down while the second turret turned its sights on him.

O’Conner dove under the griffon, bullets being sprayed from the turret, the griffon fell forward being shot dozens of times in the back. Rolling forward, O’Conner whipped out a pistol firing two rounds into the third griffon. “Runner,” the stallion called out to me, “Brave Day’s coming up on you fast!”

I looked, terrified, into my rear view mirror. Brave Day was alive, but not without several obvious wounds left by Daring Adventure. Queen Firefly’s mane was scorched as well as part of her body which wouldn’t heal correctly even with bandage rags. Fury was written all over her face. I did the only thing I could think of. My horn lit up, ripping the two turrets down from the bus, wires and ammo clips included, just as they began firing.

Brave Day got within three feet of me, giving me one option, to turn the already firing turrets on her. As I spun to face her the bullets tore her entire body apart, leaving behind bullet wounds no bandage rag could mend, she screamed at the top of her lungs before losing control of her glider. Her glider crashed underneath the bus just before the wheels ran over her crushing whatever part of her was still alive.

“Brave Day’s gone,” I muttered coldly. Keeping light on my hooves I spun back around galloping towards the front of the bus.

Several airborne Firefly soldiers dove towards me. Glider unloaded another clip at them before landing on top of the ground showing me how many gashes she had received in the air. O’Conner tossed down two grappling guns fully loaded with one shot each. Glider caught hold of one, bucking the other over to Diesel Fuel who connected it to one of this wings. Glider did the same. Another autowagon rolled up behind us, preparing to fire an RPG right towards us.

Diesel Fuel shot the grappling hook into a glider flying above him, it was owned by a Firefly, Glider followed his example. “Knock ‘em out,” he shouted to Glider. They slammed on the brakes, pulling the Firefly right down into the RPG causing it to explode. There was a satisfied smile on my face hearing the sound of the autowagon burst into flames.

Hot damn!

A griffon came crashing down into the ground in front of me. I looked up seeing O’Conner tangling with more Fireflies. I hit a button on my headset. “Glider, give me a boost!” I fell back while Glider flew up a few inches. Jumping on top of her glider, I got a good boost up right on top of the terror bus. My glider slid to a stop while the stands ejected out holding the machine in place.

As I landed on top of the bus I looked down to the left just in time to see Lucky Clover use his wingspan to retract and then eject out into two soldier’s faces. I galloped along the roof, tackling one of the ponies to the ground before bucking him off towards the ground. The wheels ran over his head. O’Conner looked down at the side of the bus, any form of smile was gone, “Oh no.” I looked down at the wall just in time to catch part of it retract into the bus like a garage door. Several griffons with assault rifles took aim at Diesel Fuel and Glider.

I threw a protection spell around the entire bus just as bullets ripped through the air. They punched enough holes to make the entire bubble come collapsing down. Diesel Fuel slammed on his gliders brakes, moving back behind the bus with Glider. Daring Adventure flew straight into the griffons before vanishing inside the bus. “Daring,” I called out over the headset. “Daring!” There was no response. I groaned, galloping underneath my glider and strapping it on. O’Conner put his hoof against my chest before pointing something out to me.

My eyes went up to the clouds. As if on que dozens of bullet proof vested Fireflies began descending towards our team. O’Conner reloaded his pistol. “Hey,” Daring shouted to me, “help me get this thing out.”

I looked at O’Conner while he strapped the Supra to his body. We jumped down, our engines humming together in harmony as we landed on the road without a clue at what Daring had found. The moment my back hoof hit the ground I noticed it was on top of a pony skull.

Oh crap, Warhead!

I looked around for a giant spell only to find the spell wasn’t fired. “Daring,” I spoke firmly, “I just ran over a Warhead and it didn’t go off.”

“All four hooves need to make contact,” she answered back. “I’m ready to roll.”

O’Conner looked up at the bus getting ready to jump up. I galloped behind him doing the same. We jumped up together, bucking the side of the bus with enough force to have something slide out. It was an autowagon with several high caliber weapons attached to the back. A military grade desert patrol vehicle. “Did you read the instructions,” I asked Daring noticing she was just now starting it up.

The attack vehicle started up with a loud roar while the entire team galloped past it. Daring put it in first driving forward with great speed until she closed the gap between us. “Instructions,” she questioned. “You mean the manufactures opinion.”  I shot her a smile.

Lucky Clover moved behind the bus keeping Daring’s blind side covered. Glider moved to the left of the bus just before looking up at Vin. The griffon dodged a soldier’s bullet only to have several more tear through his wingspan like a pair of claws slicing paper. The engine let out a loud popping sound giving him no time to react while everything shut down on him.

“O’Conner, give me a boost,” Glider exclaimed from the other side of the bus. She crouched down low enough so that I could see her run underneath the buses rather high suspension. With great precision Glider galloped underneath the bus just as O’Conner tilted his wingspan down to the left. Glider galloped up, using the tilted span as a ramp to throw herself in the air. She barrel rolled into Vin catching him with both hooves before coming to a stop somewhere inside the bus. Vin gave us a status update through the headset.

He’s back bitches!

From what Vin mentioned to us, his glider was shot for the rest of the race, but with the spare gliders inside he could jerry-rig his engine into working order. Apparently Daring had left most of, if not, all of the guard’s unconscious giving us access to whatever weaponry we could find. That gave my adventurous friend an idea that I could see forming right away. “Getting the weapons hot.” Daring flipped a switch in the attack vehicle making the turret like weapons attached to it take aim at things she labeled as hostile.

“Take shelter inside the bus,” Diesel commanded as several griffons held up rather dangerous looking combat MG’s. We each jumped through the opening in the bus while Daring flipped another switch. Shards of metal flipped over, completely surrounding the vehicle in armor plating.

Bullets ripped through the air while O’Conner tried to jump inside the terror bus. His eyes went wide and he galloped under the bus.

“I’m bullet proof, jerks, can’t touch me,” Daring shouted out with a smug look on her face.

Using every ounce of magic in me I telekinetically levitated every assault rifle still loaded with bullets. Each gun pointed out the opening. The triggers were pulled back sending round after round at the Fireflies diving towards us. Daring’s weapon system kicked on firing off green attack spells that dropped whatever it hit in one strike.

“Vin, Diesel let’s get this glider going again,” Glider demanded while searching for tools.

In the midst of my shooting I managed to find the gun lockers holding all the ammo for the assault rifles. Reloading became as easy as breathing while I let bullets rip the Fireflies body armor to shreds. “Daring,” I called out to her, “looks like these guys have bullet proof armor on.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Her voice shot back a little irritated.

One of the turrets began overheating forcing Daring to bring it offline. The other turrets slowed their shooting rate giving Daring Adventure time to let several other turrets cool down. Her vehicle ran over a large rock sending the thing tipping forward. The front wheels hit another bumped, but the suspension took the shock.

Damn those vehicles can take hits!

Daring shoved the gear shifter down letting the thing climb right up a hill without any trouble. I stuck my head back out the bus, with assault rifles, taking aim at everything not friendly to my family. Bullets began unloading towards the enemy again.

“Ready,” Glider shouted while Vin burst out the opening. His Maxima forced flames out the back while the wingspan ejected out letting him take flight high into the air. I tossed an assault rifle to Vin who caught it, cocked it, then took off after some Fireflies trying to escape.

Reattaching her glider to her body, Glider looked up at me with a smile. “Toss me one.” I threw her a rifle while she galloped out the bus, taking off after Vin.

O’Conner crossed my mind.

I galloped out of the bus, landing on the ground with a hard thud. “O’Conner,” I said noticing the autowagon gaining on us.

“Yeah, I’m on it!” O’Conner slammed on the brakes with his pistol in his mouth. His Supra shot up into the air, sending him flying into a loop before letting him dive back down. With his superior marksmen ship he unloaded five very well placed shots into the ponies trying to use another RPG. The hunk of machine veered off in one direction before hitting a bump and tipping over to its side. “We’re clear in the back.”

“We’re clear in the skies,” Vin answered back.

“Grounds clear,” Daring chimed.

Music to mine and Diesel Fuel’s ears. The team leader came rushing out from the bus with a shotgun tied down to his hood for quick access. With no more Fireflies to deal with there was only one thing left to take down. “The rest of you head out, O’Conner and Runner, lets deal with this terror.” Diesel Fuel looked at me, then O’Conner. We smiled at him taking note of the Warhead a couple yards ahead of us.

The rest of the team took off into the air, Daring abandoned her attack vehicle letting it swerved out of control. Once we were sure the team was a good distance ahead of us we galloped straight for the Warhead.

O’Conner’s back hoof stepped onto the pressure plate along with Diesel Fuel’s back hoof. Both my fore hooves struck the plate with them making the entire skull imprint light up orange. We galloped over a small hill watching the cliff eject spikes from hidden plates in the rocky terrain. As the bus drove over the plate the spikes wedged themselves into the vehicle crushing it like a bug meeting a large boot.

All three of us came to a sliding halt, turning our attentions to the flames bursting out from the totaled vehicle. It was rather satisfying to see that thing burn to bits. The spikes slowly retracted back into the rock leaving the machine to fall apart on its own accord. I have to admit I enjoyed this. Doing a mission as a team with these guys. I loved it.

I turned to face them, but could still see something was keeping the two of them from enjoying the moment. O’Conner had a look of respect on his face though, so did Diesel Fuel. I smiled catching some of O’Conner’s attention. “You know this is still race,” I mentioned without subtlety. “I’d really like to race you, both of you.” O’Conner shot me his trademark smile.

Diesel Fuel let out a low chuckle. He looked back at the burning machine then at me. “You sure you can handle third place?”

“You tell me.” I revved my engine.

O’Conner drew a line in the dirt which all three of us stood behind. I looked to my left, Diesel Fuel revved his engine, I looked to my right, O’Conner revved his engine. We took off into the air.

*** ***

Celebrations.

With the first part of the race behind us the entire team was celebrating having survived the plethora of Fireflies that were no doubt sorry they messed with us. It had been a couple of hours since that event and I still couldn’t believe we made it out. Once I pulled into town I put my Eclipse away, grabbing a drink from the hotel we were staying at.

O’Conner sat next to me keeping his gaze on the bottle. I knew what was going through his head, but we weren’t going to talk about it in great detail. In fact this was a conversation that just didn’t need to be said. Three words said it all. “Good race, O’Conner.” I gave him a pat on the back.

“Same to you.” He mouthed a number to me. I smiled not caring where I had placed in our race.

After all that race gave me what I needed. Confidence. I felt great. I could have been in any place in the race and in the end all three positions would have given me the same feeling. “Damn,” I said looking at O’Conner, “Diesel Fuel is fast.” O’Conner laughed with me and we clanked glasses to that.

“Gooooood evening all you speed demons!” DJ-PON3’s voice replaced every hip hop song on the radio along with any other radio system we had. It didn’t take an experienced hacker to know she had some skills busting into communication systems. I don’t know how to hack systems without help, but I can recognize good work when I hear it.

She cleared her throat. “All you griffon and pony folk alike don’t take to kindly to murders turning this gentle sport into a killing spree. I especially like the team that took down the Fireflies!” I smiled at that. Covert operations with a team that is only known to the world as a team and nothing more. I love that.

“I caught most of the race on radio, but man I wish I could’ve seen the look on that bitch’s face when the turrets were turned on her ass!” DJ-Pon3 started laughing her ass off while some of the audio from our encounter played once or twice through the speakers. Diesel Fuel’s entire team had their voices changed, which I’ll admit was nice. Reminds me of Swordmares. The main character was getting a reputation that I’m happy to say I never want. One thing that I learned about all thieves is that only other thieves know about each other. “From the data I got fresh from my computer it looks like no more murderers are in the race. And I’m more than happy to report that the top ten murders have been wiped from the face of Equestria after today’s event. That’s one problem solved.”

“Can we do something about the infected,” she asked rather curiously.

That made me chuckle. That very statement reminded me why I love paper. Ponies can’t hack into that shit. Seriously when was the last time someone ever reported their paper files being hacked into? At least when my files were found I knew where they were at.

Glider slid her hoof around me, dropping a room key down on the counter next to my drink. I took a look at it. The thought of a comfortable bed hadn’t crossed my mind all day, but now that I thought about it I was ready for a good night’s sleep. “I set you and Daring up in the same room,” she mentioned with a wink. “Don’t get the wrong idea about that though. It’s only cause we don’t have the funds to put us all in our own rooms.” O’Conner scoffed staring at his drink. With a light lean to the right, Glider put her attention on him.

“Choked on some Pegasus Breed.” O’Conner took another drink this time coughing a little.

“I’ll end my broadcast tonight with a little depressing note,” DJ-Pon3 said somberly. Her voice cracked a little trying to say something. “Out of all the fliers we started with today, we have twenty left.” My heart stopped. It wanted to cry a little. How many of those were good fliers. “But most of them were murderers and Fireflies so buck them in the face with a two by four! Send you the map for tomorrow’s race in the morning! Good-night everypony!” DJ-Pon3’s broadcast turned to static before being replaced by hip hop music.

I snorted hearing the last part. She might just be one of the funniest ponies I’ve ever heard. From the way she spoke it sounded like most of the racers had just been unlucky enough to have their engines shot like Vin’s. Not that it was a bad thing. With less competition it just made our job easier.

Daring Adventure tossed some bits down on the counter. I gave O’Conner a pat on the shoulder saying bye to him before moving over to Daring. “You’re rooming with me tonight.” I took a drink from my Pegasus Breed.

“You don’t snore, do you?” Daring gave me a serious look. I shook my head telling her I have never nor will I ever snore.

We made our way to the elevator, I pushed the button earning a ding before the doors opened. I let Daring walk in first and I followed behind her. Facing the glass wall behind us I kept my eyes glued on the view while my back hoof hit the button to our floor. The doors closed with a ding. Daring let out a long sigh. “Would you look at that view? Can’t deny it, beautiful.” I looked at her. There was a smile on my face.

The smile on Daring’s face was the exact same one I saw when were together during our first mission. It looked good on her. In fact it made her look even more dazzling then that night at the casino. “You know they all like you,” I said with a smile. Daring looked away from the window as the elevator began moving up. “Maybe you could stay with us?”

Daring shook her head. “I don’t know, Runner. I’ve drifted out of so many crews I don’t know what feels real anymore.” I put my hoof around her pulling her into a hug. The camera that had previously been around her pith helmet had been stashed away in my glider. “I’ve never had anyone stick with me. Anyone that has taken me in is dead now.”

I looked right into her eyes. “I’m still here. And I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.” Daring didn’t break eye contact with me. Her eyes stayed locked with mine.

“You are,” she said coming to the same realization I had about my family.

Daring planted her lips firmly against mine! I wrapped my hoof around her a bit more, holding her closer. She pulled away. “Why are you still with me anyway,” she questioned rather coyly. Oh, she knew I had several reasons that weren’t connected to well … how I felt about her.

“You stole my weapons,” I said warmly into her ear. She stared at me not believing a word of what I had just said. I didn’t believe myself either. “Well aside from being one of the toughest mares I’ve ever met, you’re also one of the most fun and beautiful mares I’ve been with.” That made her smile a lot more. Everything I said was true. At least, it was true after I got to know her. Had she asked me just after the weapon incident then it would be a different story.

Daring brought me back in for another kiss. The elevator dinged. The doors slid open.

“And I kind of like it when you bite my ear.” Daring bit down softly on my ear. Tugging it a bit while we walked out of the elevator. Our room was several hoof steps away, I don’t even think we could make it there.

I slid the room key into our room letting it unlock.

Daring continued tugging at my ear until I shut the door behind us. Her vest was the first thing to go, then her pith helmet. Eventually we found our way to the bed. She kissed my muzzle several times before I rolled her over putting me on top. Daring wrapped her wings tightly around me, keeping my body close to hers.