The Fast, Dangerous and the Furious

Chapter Thirty: Quarter Mile at a Time

Empty.

Princess Twilight’s castle was empty. I swear there is always at least one person in this place. But this time around it was a ghost town. Even the person that greets you at the door is gone!

I took my sweet time going around the castle looking for any pony. After looking around all the places I was allowed to be in, my eyes spied the one pony that seemed to always be here. Page Turner was at her usual counter packing things into her bag.

“Owner of the place gave everyone the rest of the day off. See you around, I’m out.” She slugged her bag onto her back before giving me a halfhearted wave.

And with that I knew exactly where to go next. My hooves trotted up the stairs leading me to the door that had been locked during most of my visits. Pushing past the door I was greeted by dozens upon dozens of memory jewels with stills that seemed to glow even more brightly than the last time I saw them.

One jewel in particular stood out to me. The still was of Princess Twilight enjoying a party with friends. I don’t know what it was, but that one put a smile on my face. Next to it was a picture of the Princess with all of her friends from around Ponyville. A bit of warmth spread through my heart.

“I did it, Princess Twilight. Hope this makes up for what happened back then.”

Pressing on I found the door that took me all the way up to Discords room. Without any real thought put into what might lay ahead I followed the stairs all the way up to Discord’s hiding place.

The door swung open with a creak.

As I moved inside my eyes were ready to burst with rage. Discord slid across the floor, practically glowing in perfect health, actually he was glowing, he slid towards me wearing a ‘beach bum’ t-shirt with a coconut drink in his claws. My eye twitched a little. “He did it all for me!” Discord bellowed. His face slithered inches from mine. Uneasiness washed over my entire body making my stomach feel a bit warm.

“Admit it,” he said with a coy smile that sent my head into a slight rage. “You did it all for me.”

I swear to Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Twilight that if this guy was faking I would choke him out with my bare HOOVES! Possibly. Maybe. Probably not. Buck it. It’s the master of chaos what the hell am I going to do? “I did it for Equestria. Allegedly.” It was more or less for revenge, but I’ll sleep better at night thinking I kept Equestria as my motivation.

Discord pointed a claw my way snickering at the last word I muttered. It took us little to no time at all to get each other’s humor. I’ll admit that beach bum shirt was pretty hysterical. With the snap of his claws, noticeably echoing around the room, a six pack of Pegasus Breed appeared on the tip of my horn. I carefully lit the tip, levitating the entire case down in front of us.

We each took one and clanked bottles for a job well done.

The cold sensation of a Pegasus Breed was almost too good to be true after the shit I had been through during that race. Seriously. Who else can claim they pulled off destroying a terror bus, raced through two major cities with heat and got through the Crystal Empire without seeing one infected! It’s a good action story. Discord slapped my back rather hard making me spit a bit of alcohol out. “There’s someone here that’d like to meet you.”

My look of understanding, the one I tried to put on anyway, was betrayed by the look of confusion that had taken its place.

Who wanted to see me? Daring Adventure was off being an explorer now. Diesel Fuel was waiting for me in the Badlands. O’Conner … well O’Conner is … I haven’t actually seen him since the race. Which raises a question. How did the cops know where the race was?

Discord held out his paw, gesturing to his chair which had a pony sitting on it, there was a smile on his face.

Light slowly began to shine into the room allowing me to see a pair of purple wings belonging to a mare. She stood as tall as Princess Celestia now, noticeably looking very young, but had a hint of regality to her poise. Her cutie mark was something I couldn’t really identify. It looked like a magic star, but for the life of me I know that wasn’t the proper way to describe it.

No way.

My eyes widened. I am not worthy of this. BOW! I need to BOW!

I faced the ground before remembering I hadn’t done this for the other three Princesses. If I get the chance I’d have to do that since, at the time, there wasn’t an opportunity for me to do so.

The mare sitting on the throne giggled. “It’s been over two hundred years since I became Princess Twilight and believe it or not I’m still not used to this. Please, stand up.” My head slowly looked up at the princess. Gently pushing myself up I met her gaze.

There wasn’t any need to tell her what went on, she somehow knew. That brought up a question to mind that made me want to laugh. I looked at Discord. “You made it sound like She was dead!” I pointed a hoof at Twilight. I mean. Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Did I? How rude of me,” Discord said tossing some popcorn in his mouth.

In all honesty, “That is hilarious. You made me think she wasn’t even around.” I paused. “I could have told a Princess about this and you made me think she was DEAD! The hell is wrong with you!” Discord snapped a picture of my face. My eyes rolled around making it impossible to see anything.

“Oh you should see the look on your face!” Discord held up the picture to me while my eyes continued to roll around. I shook my head making them snap back into place. Staring at the photo I brought a hoof to my face. “What? Oh,” he said noticing the problem. His entire lion’s paw blocked my head out of the shot.

I just laughed. This guy was a total riot! You just can’t turn his humor off.

Twilight gave out a reluctant long sigh. “Are you guys finished?” I cleared my throat giving her the most polite smile I could. I guess Discord did say she outlived her friends, but just not how long. “Because of you I can now age again. Honestly, thank you. Being able to live as long as I have has had its ups and downs.” There was a look of melancholy on her face. “I don’t know how Princess Celestia does it.”

“Oh please, try living in stone for as long as I have,” Discord muttered to us.

I snorted. That’s hilarious. Cause Princess Celestia would know all about that now! Ugh. My humor might get dark, but that shit is still hilarious. Sorry Princess Celestia, but Discord has you on this one.

Twilight’s glare might have been directed at Discord, but I could feel it stinging me in the process. She was not amused or entertained in the slightest. “Runner, I have been working on a counter spell for years, how did you find one?” Well, I really didn’t do anything more than use the information I was given to do exactly what should have been done if another person got ahold of the same knowledge.

I cleared my throat. “To be fair, I’m not that smart. It was just dumb luck that Dead Eye showed me what I needed to know, plus he seemed to be hording all that information for himself. As for why a counter spell didn’t work, well as Discord once said it’s the plot device of Equestria.” She understood what I was saying clearly. In all fairness it was really all Dead Eye’s work. I never could have figured this out without him so he has my thanks even if he is a conniving son of a bitch. “Kind of hard to solve the equation if you don’t have all the variables.”

That earned a giggle from the princess. Somehow that got the point across very well. “Is there anything I can do to thank you for helping Equestria out,” she spoke softly while her horn lit up. In front of us a giant schematic of a memory jewel began to glow bright purple. All around its shining edges I could see every problem originally caused two hundred years ago being fixed. Even The Valley and all its toxin had been transformed into a beautiful meadow of outstanding flowers. “I can’t clear your name though.”

I smiled at her. Somehow that didn’t surprise me. Even if she could I know where I’d end up again. No matter where I seem to go it’s like the bullets come cracking at my ass either way. I’m used to it by now. “I wouldn’t want you to. Honestly, Princess Twilight, even if you did I’m just going to get in more trouble. At least I’m willing to admit it to you now rather than after you do anything for me.” I stopped what I was saying. She might not be able to help.

But. Maybe. Perhaps she could clear someone else’s record.

“Wait,” I said rather fast. “I know what you can do for me.” Princess Twilight smiled earnestly. Discord put a pair of shades on pretending not to listen in on the conversation. “Can you clear someone’s record if they were framed for something they didn’t do?” Discord’s ear shot up. His claws snapped right away before conjuring a blanket. A top hat appeared over his head.

“Who do you have in mind,” the Princess asked curiously.

Discord set his top hat down on the ground, covering it with his blanket, while he tapped it with a wand. Where the hell is he keeping all those things? Grasping the cloth in his claws, Discord ripped the blanket off the hat making the object flip over several times before dropping a mare out from it. She stood up, weapon drawn in her levitation field, eyes frantically looking for an escape route.

Unless of course she uses her princess powers to banish me then lock me in a cage in a dungeon where she banishes me to! Sweet Celestia I don’t want to be banished! Just send me to the Badlands. Last time I checked that place became its own country roughly one hundred years ago.

“Not Important,” I found myself muttering almost to quietly.

Twilight looked at me with confusion. Once again, I love Not Important’s name. “That’s her name.” I pointed at the locked-and-loaded mare next to me. Her weapon was lowered once she realized who I was with. “Can you clear her record and make her a slick government agent for Equestria?”

With a careful look at Not Important, Twilight smiled elegantly. Something about that look put me at ease. Obviously there might be some complications not asking her to let me walk free, but I have a plan for that now! Always have an escape route. “I can do that, but on one condition.” I tilted my head curiously to her statement. “You have to give me an oral report on what you’ve learned about friendship.”

I have to what?

She wasn’t kidding. I have to give her … an oral report on … friendship. So … I gave her an oral report. “Dear Princess Twilight, friends come in different shapes and sizes, sometimes you won’t get along with them, but at the end of the day your friendship with that person is far more important than some argument. Then there are friends that stop being your friends, because they become family.” Not Important grinned at that. Discord conjured up a chair while Not Important took his shades, putting them on her face instead.

It wasn’t the best friendship report. It wasn’t the worst one either. I liked it though. That’s exactly how I found my family. Speaking of which I think it’s about time I track them down. At least before Bolt Action finds them. He got away, but he’s coming my way so I better be prepared.

“You know I can’t let you walk out of here,” Twilight said somberly.

I was expecting that. My pistol floated up, pointing right at Not Important’s head. “Yeah I know, but you’re going to let me walk out of here. Because I have a hostage.” It didn’t take a genius to see where I was going with this. Especially when the highly skilled soon-to-be slick government agent was doing nothing to stop me.

Discord leaned back in a floating recliner enjoying a large bucket of popcorn. Seriously, where was he getting all this stuff? I bet he’d make a great comedian.

Twilight stared at me, eyes wide, not really expecting me to pull a gun. “This is your plan,” she asked unimpressed. Yeah, she knew where I was going with this.

“Yup.” I gave her a smile. Obviously this had to look convincing, because a Princess can’t let a criminal walk out with nothing more than a stern talking to. I mean, she could, but it wouldn’t look good on her part.

Twilight’s horn lit up before a portal opened up next to me leading to the castle’s front doors. I trotted out, but not before hearing Discord tell me to check my bags.

I stepped out onto the castles beautiful grass while watching the portal separating me and Not Important close. At least one of us has a clean record. With a nicker I looked inside my saddle bags.

HOLY SHIT!

Inside my bag were all the Swordmares comics I hadn’t collected! I have a compete set! This is the best gift ever!

*** ***

My Mustang is ready.

Thanks to Candle Light my muscle glider was eager to have its first test run. Hopefully it would be ready for the pony hunt I was about to go on. Sadly, my shotgun was left on top of the Crystal Empire castle which left me with nothing but my pistol. It was more than enough to get the job done though.

A loud screech from a pair of horseshoes caught my attention while I finished connecting the single NOS tank in the blocks. O’Conner, with his horseshoes still on, galloped up the driveway with his gun held in his mouth. To this day I’m still amazed at how ponies can learn to talk properly with a gun in their mouth. “Runner, put the gun down now.” My pistol floated close to my head, something I hadn’t even noticed until he pointed it out. “No more running.”

I gritted my teeth.

Running. He thinks I’m running! “I’m not running!” I marched up to him, gun in my levitation field, pointing the weapon right at his head. He did the same. His glider was parked right in my way. “Move. Your. Glider.”

“Nah, bullshit, put the gun down now.”

Behind us a door creaked with a loud slam. Candle Light walked out looking more irritated than Nightmare Moon being banished to the moon. This wasn’t going to be pretty. “BOTH OF YOU! Knock it off now, Runner, it’s over. No pony is coming for us.” She shook her head out of frustration.

I couldn’t even groan. “Candle Light, stay out of it!”

My nerves were working overtime. O’Conner being here, for once, wasn’t calming me down. In fact his gun being raised to me was putting me in a mental tailspin I wanted to recover from faster than the sickness from inhaling some spores. “Where’s Glider and Diesel Fuel?” His eyes locked with mine.

I shook my head. Quite honestly I didn’t know. Somewhere in the Badlands. From what Candle Light mentioned to me, Vin and Lucky Clover were spread out someplace else in Equestria. I have feeling I know why the cops showed up though. “Long gone after that stunt you pulled today.”

“That wasn’t me. I swear to Celestia it wasn’t,” he said shaking his head. I didn’t see any sign of lying in his eyes. Then again I don’t know how good he is at lying. “It’s over then, I didn’t call the cops, but don’t push it, put the gun down.”

“You are a cop!”

O’Conner froze. I hit a nerve. And a big one at that.

Candle Light walked down the sidewalk, pushing past O’Conner, and squeezed her way between us. She made me look at her, but she could see it in my eyes that I wasn’t going to let this go. Shaking her head she threw a hoof up not knowing what to say.

My attention went to O’Conner. He had to understand what I was going through. I mean, come on, he was once a part of this family to. “O’Conner, I’ve got to find them before Bolt Action does, they are all I have left.” It had been a while since I felt this desperate.

I hated the feeling with every fiber of my being.

Vrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

We looked at the road just in time to see a motorscooter riding past the Supra. Its rider floated up a pair of submachine guns. My heart sank.

Pffffft. Pffft. Pffft. Pfffft. Pffft.

Pffffft. Pfffft. Pfffft. Pfffft. Pfffft.

I threw up a weak protection spell with what little time I had left. Bullets punched through it like it was nothing more than a piece of paper. Candle Light went down to the ground, yelling in pain, with her hoof on her shoulder. The only thing I could do was crouch down and gallop across the yard towards her, dodging whatever bullets came my way using my weak protection spell.

Bullets finally stopped raining towards us. O’Conner fired off a few rounds only to miss the remaining Reaper as he sped away. I slid next to Candle Light taking a look at her wounds. “Candle Light.” Blood started oozing down slowly, lucky, it was nothing major.

This isn’t going to end. I have to do something now.

The Supra started up, O’Conner backed out and galloped off after the shooter with his gun fully loaded in his mouth.

I frantically floated over a bandage rag over to us. It took me less than a minute to wrap the healing cloth around her. Taking in a deep breath I stood up, galloping over to my Mustang with a shouting Candle Light. “Runner, no, this isn’t the answer!”

Strapping the glider to my body, I looked at Candle Light knowing full well there was no other answer, this was something I had to do. With a loud rumble the glider started up roaring loudly while I galloped off without my horseshoes.

With great speed I followed O’Conner as fast as I could, trees and houses blurring together, my heart beating frantically. My pistol tucked itself way back into its holster. I kept my eyes peeled for the Supra, only hearing its loud hum, or at the very least hoping to glimpse its large spoiler. Hitting the NOS button as hard as I could, I felt my vision blur, the only spray being used to catch up to the one pony that could help me end this right now.

I rounded a corner right as O’Conner left the turn hot on Bolt Action’s trail. As I galloped up next to O’Conner our eyes met. Our goal was clear. Pushing off against the cement we both flew over a small hill, sparks flew out from underneath O’Conner’s horseshoes, our target slowly losing his distance between us. Autowagons lined the streets as Bolt Action turned his two submachine guns on us.

Pffffft. Pfffft. Pfffft. Pffft.

Pffffft. Pffffffft. Pfffft. Pfffft.

O’Conner ducked his head down swerving side to side nearly knocking me into an autowagon. My hoof hit the brake pedal letting me slide onto a connecting street away from them. I sped up my pace just before sliding around the next turn putting me right across from the two ponies. With aching hooves I galloped past another intersection just in time to see Bolt Action go by.

I turned right, nearly taking out a lamppost, my hooves carried me all the way to the intersecting O’Conner had yet to pass. As I arrived both Bolt Action and O’Conner sped by. My brother, still felt great saying that, came to a sliding halt halfway down a hill while I spun out onto the intersection. Down the hill, Bolt Action came to a sliding halt into a wall, O’Conner’s pistol unloaded the rest of its clip.

Is he dead?

My eyes narrowed cautiously.

Once O’Conner freed himself of his glider he galloped right over to the stallion, his pistol still drawn, his hoof pressed down on Bolt Action’s neck. Even from here I could see the blue stallion’s breathing rate picking up. I spun around, on purpose this time, galloping into the intersection while O’Conner shouted to some pony. “You. Call nine-one-one. Call nine-one-one!”

*** ***

I galloped down the road, ignoring all the lights, thankfully no pony was around this time of day. Without any idea of what town my family was in I need only to head to the Badlands now. My days of hunting ponies down were over. My heart ached for a break.

I turned right. A green light turned red so I stopped at the white line drawn in front of it.

Candle Light was in decent shape when I left her. The bullet wound wasn’t as bad as it looked. Part of me knows that she had seen the news reports. I can’t stay here. No matter how much I love this town. City? No matter how much I loved Ponyville I can’t stay knowing the Princesses are nearby.

Vrrruuuuuuuum. Vrrruuuuuuum.

“You thought I’d let you leave without racing me.” O’Conner’s Supra Mark IV pulled up next to me, revving a few times to get my attention, the stallion smiled at me. That was the O’Conner that put me at ease. Unfortunately for me he’s a cop. His hoof nudged me. “Hey, you know Diesel Fuel raced me here once.” O’Conner pointed at a railroad crossing down the road. “That railroad crossing is exactly one quarter mile away from here. On green I’m going for it.”

I smiled.

On green. I’m going for it.

I revved the Mustang’s engine loudly to the point I could swear things were shaking near me. Although I’m pretty sure I’m just imagining things that way. O’Conner revved his engine next to me while we turned our focus to the road ahead.

The light turned green.

I shifted into second, letting the power in my glider build up, while my fore hooves lifted up off the ground. Fire exploded from the back of the blocks like a flamethrower going crazy. The engine roared loudly while out of the corner of my eye O’Conner rapidly pulled forward. As my fore hooves touched the ground the fire from the blocks subsided, the engine finally putting all of its power to work, pushing me down the road approaching sixty wing power at breakneck speeds.

There was no aching in my hooves. Only high adrenaline coursed through my veins in sync to the turbo in my glider taking over for the NOS system. Dust trails kicked up from behind our bumpers the faster we went.

It didn’t take long for me to narrow the gap between us. The amount of power going through my engine put me right into first, forcing O’Conner to hit the red button. His glider drew closer to mine sending my heart racing. He was getting closer and closer. We were bumper to bumper, but not for long. Another small second went by giving my turbo system another chance to supply even more power to the engine.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.

Time began to come to a halt. So close to a halt that my body began to anchor itself down, so much so, that it felt more of a struggle to turn my head then keep pace with O’Conner. Our eyes locked for a brief moment. There was no going back now. Both of our gliders were running at sixty wing power with no chance of stopping at the railroad crossing.

DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

My hoof bucked the shifter into fourth. A loud heart wrenching, almost heart breaking, snap went through my glider making my pupils shrink. That sound. It was the one thing I hadn’t checked.

The wingspan on both ends of the blocks slid outward, luckily, latching onto a bolt keeping the metal in place. Smoke rose out from the gaps in the glider’s hood. It wasn’t ready for this race.

With a struggle that weighed down on me more than a broken glider, I turned my head to O’Conner. He looked at me, his eyes wide, as a train sped towards the crossing with its horn blaring so loudly we couldn’t hear our engines.

We couldn’t stop. We had to keep moving.

I shifted into fifth. My glider inched past the Supra slowly leaving it behind.

O’Conner punched the NOS button one more time. I swear on my life my ears could hear the sound of the spray being sent to the engine.

The crossing arms fell into place only a few feet out from us. We charged forward, the train coming full force around the turn, my eyes went down to the ground. Our gliders smashed the crossing arms apart, sending wood flying everywhere, we turned our heads seeing the train mere hoof steps away from us. Its whistle sounded loudly, filling our ears, yelling that it couldn’t stop.

As our gliders smashed through the remaining crossing arms I took a brief pause. If maybe only for a split second. To look at O’Conner.

His hooves touched the ground half a second before mine did.

The train blazed past us with alarming speed that surely would have killed us both, but instead it carried on.

Part of my blocks hit the ground sending sparks flying everywhere around us. I turned my head up to meet O’Conner’s gaze. There was a shocked smile on his face, like he didn’t think we were going to make it. But we did. I smiled back at him.

My Mustang let out another heart pounding crack. Part of the wingspan slid out, catching hold of a lamppost, sending me into a tail spin. Colors blurred together. Any pony around me looked nothing more than a blurred blob of jacked up color.

I tapped the brake trying to stop, but all that did was straighten me out. Just in time. To see a large wagon parked in front of an autowagon. With sixty wing power at my hooves I rammed into the wagon sending it flying into the autowagon, no doubt, totaling whatever brand it was. Everything around me went forward. Wood crashed down on me while the key to the Mustang fell out letting the engine die before anything else could happen to me.

Darkness was all around me. It wasn’t my eyes being close though. No. In fact my eyes were open. Wood piled up on me blocking my view of the sunset that had started to take place.

One of the planks violently threw itself off of me. Daylight flooded down on me. “Runner!” O’Conner prayed more of the wood off while I tried to slowly crawl out from my ruined glider. Sad to say it was ruined beyond repair. No amount of master mechanics could fix the damage nor would I even attempt to do it.

Wrapping his strong hooves around me, O’Conner lifted me up onto all fours checking for any signs of damage. There was damage. My fore hooves had blood running down them, but nothing I wasn’t already used to. “That could have ended better,” I wheezed at him. The smile I had been accustomed to was no longer on O’Conner’s face.

Sirens wailed in the distance. I just stared at the lights flashing far off in the distance. O’Conner looked from me to the glider then back at me. From the looks of it I’d be going away for a while. It could be worse though.

O’Conner held up a hoof with his keys sitting in the center. My eyes met his. This wasn’t some joke. His hoof held out my escape route. I didn’t believe it. “You sure about this,” I questioned without thinking.

“I lost.” I didn’t win though, his hooves touched the ground first. My own two eyes saw it. “And you owe Candle Light a ten-second glider.”

I took the keys from his hoof. With one final good look into his ocean blue eyes I knew right then and there he wouldn’t try to pull anything. There wasn’t any need to check for a tracking device in the Supra. That wasn’t O’Conner’s style.

I gave him an understanding nod.

Without thinking, without a second thought of anything, I walked towards the Supra. Its beautiful coat shined for me like the stars in the night. Sirens drew closer to us the moment my fore hooves strapped the glider to my body. I galloped off, the horseshoes screeching, looking into the rear view mirror.

O’Conner turned away from me. He walked forward ready to meet the cops racing towards him.

I couldn’t tell a pony right then, maybe not ever, why he did what he did, but I am forever thankful for this opportunity. Not every pony would do this. Not every pony would risk their second chance on a pony like me.

O’Conner looked at me one last time. Even from far off down the road I could make out his ocean blue eyes, only this time, without the smile. He turned away from me while I galloped off.