Nobody to Most Wanted

Night had taken the time to wander the sprawling city and find some more vehicles. Among his findings: an Aston Martin V12 Vantage near the spot he had come across the Carrera, a Porsche 911 Turbo 3.0 (early 911 Turbo, fast in a straight line, but required a lot of bravery to drive fast on a winding road) also nearby, an Ariel Atom resting on a metal grate above a freeway bridge, and one of his personal favorite all time vehicles (in terms of sheer awesomeness), a Ford SVT Raptor, in a small parking area on the side of a 2-way, 2-lane street.

The bat pony's cellphone rang as he zipped around in the Atom.

"Yeah?" He said casually while enjoying the feel of the wind rushing by him.

"Night, you need to come back to the city's entrance." Discord replied. "It sounds like you'll have to do some talking."

"Let me guess, Twilight wants to call the princesses in?"

"I've been telling her that doing so will make things worse, but I think she's close to ignoring this and calling them in anyway."

Of course.

"Think you can keep her busy for at most, five more minutes?" Night asked.

"That'll be easy. Just don't dawdle and get back over here ASAP." Discord replied.

"On it."

With that, Night jumped back to the Carrera, got in, and zipped off.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

...

Back outside of Fairhaven, six ponies (plus one draconequess) waited, though the purple unicorn looked particularly frazzled.

"Twilight, I'm telling you, it's simply impossible for logic to explain my magic. Fact is, somebody who has chaos magic like me finds it impossible to explain it without sounding like a four-year-old foal." Discord concluded.

"I still don't believe it!" Twilight snapped. "There has to be an explanation as to how your magic works!"

Rainbow Dash facehoofed.

"Well, I'd give it a shot if you could at least figure out how Pinkie Pie can do things that even you couldn't do." Discord said.

"That's because she's Pinkie Pie!" Twilight shot back.

"Then why can't you just accept that my magic is what it is like Pinkie is who she is?"

The purple unicorn looked like she was going to spontaneously combust like she did when trying to figure out the pink earth pony's peculiar (for a non-unicorn) abilities, but was thankfully stopped by an approaching sound.

The sound ended up belonging to something none of the ponies had seen before. It was yellow, and looked like a carriage, but at the same time, it didn't. It was much lower than an ordinary carriage, for one, and it was far too small to be pony-powered, on top of its sound being far from what a pony, or anything on the planet, could make. And the way it moved when it rounded the corner was different from even a flying pegasus.

The strange machine stopped shortly outside of the city's border and its sound fell to a level that made Twilight assume it was on a standby mode of some sort.

And a familiar brown and black stallion stepped out.

"Alright." Night Rider said while removing his helmet. "What's the problem here ponies?"

"I just don't see why I can't bring the princesses here!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Twilight, just relax and think rationally." Night said calmly. "Yes, you seven have dealt with some crazy things, and so have Celestia and Luna, but none of you have ever encountered one of these." He motioned to the yellow Porsche. "I've been playing with these things since I was four years old, and even then it was clear that I had a lot of potential. It's been eighteen years, and I've driven hundreds of these things and have reached a level of skill that can't be achieved overnight."

"Why not?" Twilight asked, now sounding curious.

"Because there's a difference between reading how to do something and actually doing it. You've gotta be able to react on a dime, know how your ride behaves, know what you're dealing with, and be able to make moves on instinct. And above all, if you're getting frustrated, you've gotta be able to figure out just what it is that's frustrating. If it's just the level, keep practicing and you'll eventually complete it. If it's the universe in general though..."

The bat pony paused.

"... Then you've gotta decide whether or not it's worth it to continue. Everything's inevitably going to get hard, but it's a matter of if you like the challenge it presents, or if it ruins the whole experience for you. If it's something that you feel you can eventually do, then maybe just take a break and come back later. From what Pinkie's told me, that's something that's not easy for you."

Twilight suddenly found a tree a short distance away to be particularly interesting.

"I know that Celestia and Luna are both more than a thousand years old, but if this problem is going to be solved quickly, I'm going to have to do it solo."

"Problem?" Twilight turned back to Night.

"I received a letter from the blur that went by me." The bat pony explained. "The city's racers have gotten bored with racing each other, and they want somebody tough to take them on in all of their challenges."

"Meaning... ?"

"Meaning that I have to find every vehicle in the city, beat all five of its events, beat the 10 Most Wanted, and win all of the challenges available to their cars. And it sounds like they aren't leaving until it happens."

...

Silence.

"... You sure you can do it?" Twilight spoke after a pause.

"Yeah. Normally Discord would help me out, but it's been more than 300 years since he got chased by the police." Night replied.

"Wait, you're breaking the law to do this?" Twilight now sounded surprised.

"In a way, yes. But I've successfully evaded the police dozens of times, so I don't expect to be caught again anytime soon. I'd normally stay and explain more, but I've got a job to do."

Night put his helmet back on, got back into the Porsche, reversed, pulled a J-turn, and drove back into Fairhaven.

"..."

"..."

"... I'll get the popcorn." Discord said finally.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Continental Drift > Easy > Sprint Race > 12,000 SP for 1st

Track Tires for 1st

Lightweight Chassis for 2nd

Mods currently equipped:

Burn nitrous

*   *   *

A bird's eye view of the large, gazebo-like building in Hughes Park. An upside down view from inside the park, then of a road that went around the park, before zooming along the road. An upside down view of a repair shop as a car raced by. An upside down view that included some of one of the park's arches, then a shot of most of the arch, then some of the trees. An upside down view of a 911 Carrera drifting around a corner by a repair shop. A moving, upside down view, then tilted to reveal the asphalt and a small group of cars, then tilted to a normal, chasing view.

Right off the bat (no pun intended), as the group raced by a repair shop, Night slammed a silver Alfa Romeo next to him, forcing it to slow down to avoid wrecking. Having moved up one position, small, steady blue flames spouted from the red Porsche's (the color had been changed at a repair shop) quad tailpipes as the bat pony activated the nitrous, sideswiping a white Carrera and moving up into 6th place.

As the 911 continued to gain momentum, Rider swiped a silver M3 and snatched its 5th place position. As he sped past another silver car (with the speed he was carrying, Rider wasn't able to get an ID on it), a notification popped up:

SLAM TAKEDOWN +275SP

He had just managed to take down his first racer in this city. The upside: he had an additional 275 SP. The downside: assuming that Beemer caught up with him, it would likely try to take him down as retaliation.

...

Meh. He'd deal with that when and if it happened.

Anyway, with the pedal down and the N2O active, Rider managed to slide into 1st place; if he kept this up by maintaining his speed and not crashing, the bat pony had a very high chance of winning this.

The road began to curve left, forcing Rider to revert to just using the throttle for forward propulsion. The road finally made an actual left turn, and the Porsche cut the corner to streak through a repair shop; in a very brief flash of white, the car was then painted a dark metallic blue just before he stampeded through the checkpoint. As the road quickly straightened out, the bat pony reactivated the nitrous and began to extend his lead, soon topping 180 mph as he barreled down the road.

The road turned left again, so Night let off the N2O to regain vital control over the Porsche, cutting the corner and slipping through a space made by a fence on the left and a fenced off tree on the right. When the route became straight immediately afterwards, he got back on the nitrous, again propelling both him and his car to speeds that were pretty intimidating on a racetrack, but were downright terrifying on ordinary, open public roads.

The route turned left again, and Rider cut through a repair shop, repainting his car (it appeared to be black, it was kind of hard to tell in the shadows of the buildings and the angled reflections of the sun) as he stayed on the pedal. The bat pony stayed on the left side of the road, catching some airtime when the road quickly sloped upwards and then flattened out, then resumed using burn nitrous when the 911 landed.

The road made a gentle curve right, straightened, then made a sweeping left hairpin; the bat pony stopped using the speed enhancer and pulled a long, easily controlled drift, hitting a checkpoint as he did so. The road went straight, and Night spotted a repair shop just to the right of the road, which he promptly drove through, changing his car's color to a metallic red.

Lap 2/3

He steered the Porsche back onto the road (sort of) and hit the nitrous (noticing a pattern here?); despite hitting multiple sidewalk objects, he was within throwing distance of 200 mph(!). Again, Night let off the N2O to reduce his chances of wiping out, and cut through the repair station, painting his car metallic silver-gray, before reactivating the boost as he continued charging down the road.

He steered his car to the right, then steered left to avoid crashing head-on into a building; he succeeded despite not letting off the speedy stuff (nitrous). The bat pony then temporarily stopped using said speedy stuff to cut between the two fences on the inner (and much faster) part of the upcoming left corner, and got back on it when he cleared the corner and the road straightened.

The Porsche tore down the straightaway (with a slight right curve), hitting 196 mph before Night slowed (slightly) and cut through the repair station on the inside of the next left corner, painting his car orange this time around. He again caught some air when the road made a short upwards slope before leveling out abruptly, and only had to glance at his minimap to see that he now had a huge lead over the others.

The road dipped, again netting the bat pony some airtime, before the route curved left. As the orange 911 howled down the straight, there was a brief flash of white. Night Rider was so focused on the first lap that he hadn't realized that he had triggered a speed camera. The bat pony wondered if that would affect his heat level.

No time for that now.

Right. Up ahead came the sweeping left hairpin, so he let off the nitrous and performed a long drift through the corner... at about 173 mph, hitting a checkpoint along the way. He had dealt with some interesting physics during his travels, but with the exceptions of Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge, he had never been to a world where he could successfully drift while moving at that speed, or anything close to it, for that matter.

Night turned the speedy stuff back on, feeling the g-forces push him back in the driver's seat, as he slipped through the repair station right next to the finish line, painting the Porsche silver-gray metallic...

Lap 3/3

... And starting the final lap. Small, steady blue flames emerged from the 911's quad tailpipes as Night's nitrous use resumed, sending him careening down the lightly curved road at a frightening velocity. Through a checkpoint; next, through the repair station that lied on the inner part of the high speed left corner, painting the Carrera yellow.

As he raced down the straight, the bat pony triggered a speed camera that he had somehow failed to notice on his first two laps, then stopped using the N2O, cleared the corner between the two fences, and resumed using the N2O when he straightened out. To his surprise, however, he then actually caught up to the racers currently at the back of the pack.

Night riskily maneuvered through the repair station on the inner area of the left corner as another racer appeared to be aiming for it, but he got through with no problems, and got his car painted a snowy white. When the road crested, he caught more airtime than before, but still managed to successfully land without crashing immediately afterwards.

The Carrera caught some more airtime when the road dipped, before screaming down the straight towards the sweeping left hairpin that was the course's final turn. As he drifted through the hairpin, Night moved to the right to slide around a few more cars; a quick glance at the minimap showed that he had just lapped the entire field. From there, it was merely a short sprint to the finish line.

Continental Drift

Finished 1st

Mods unlocked

Track tires

Lightweight chassis

Track tires: improves on-tarmac performance at the expense of off-road performance.

Lightweight chassis: improves acceleration and control, but reduces vehicle toughness.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"That was really something." Night said after he had driven through yet another repair shop before cruising into and stopping in Hughes Park, then got out of his car so he could properly view the attractive park. "I'm getting the hang of this pretty quick."

"Yeah that really was impressive." Said Discord, proofing into existence next to him. "I'm actually starting to want these fellows to stay here as long as they can."

"You think when I beat the city's number one racer they'll let me keep his ride as a souvenir?" The bat pony asked while taking in the scenery before him.

"I'm assuming they will, since you technically will own it then." Discord said. "But I can't see any place on the planet where you'd be able to push it, or even drive it."

"I'll probably find someway to create a replica of Fairhaven and put in in my house." Night replied plainly. "'Course, I'd need your help to do that."

"You're family and I have been close for a long time." Disco said. "And I can warp the laws of physics and reality here; I'd be obliged to help you do something that insane."

"Thanks buddy; that means a lot."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Having completed his first two races in Fairhaven, Night had wandered around more to find more cars, in some cases, wandering quite far. Some of his new findings: a BMW M3 Coupe, Bentley Supersports ISR, and Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale in Hughes Park (the Maserati was more on the border of the actual park), a Chevy Corvette ZR1 in Hodges Airfield, a Marussia B2 in Callahan Industrial, and a Jaguar XKR on the top floor of a parking garage.

And, of course, he had triggered some speed cameras, smashed some security gates, and blown through more than a few billboards.

As fun as all of that was, he was still a man (or rather, pony) on a mission, and that mission was to complete the Most Wanted's challenge. And naturally, things wouldn't stay at easy forever, quite unlike that Dragon Quest game on a portable console that had, at most, only three particularly hard moments if you were properly prepared.

Cold Burn > Medium > Circuit Race > 12,000SP for 1st

Reinforced chassis for 1st

Long gears for 2nd

Mods currently equipped:

Burn nitrous

By now, it was nighttime, or at least very early morning.

"Time to step things up." Night said as he brought his 911 to a stop at the race's location. "You know what I'm going to be dealing with Disco?"

"I've been consulting a walkthrough on the internet," the draconequess said, "and it sounds like this race is primarily asphalt, but there are going to be a few off-road moments; however they're entirely optional, the the person that wrote this says that they can help."

"Hmm..." The bat pony searched through his mental filing cabinet labeled 'strategies'. "... I'll equip track tires for this one; if that's not enough, then I'll swap 'em for off-road tires." He said finally. "And of course, if I have to, I'll take the offensive approach and take down anybody that stands between me and the 1st place position."

"How can you succeed with plans that are shallow in detail?" Disco asked his friend.

"You mean all those times I faced a boss without any prior planning?" Night replied, getting a nod from his wingman. "I can't explain how or why, all I know is that winging it and improvising if I need to often works out well for me."

"Could you at least guess why?" Disco asked.

"Probably innate skill and a bit of luck." Night replied plainly before spinning his car's tires.

*   *   *   *   *

A shot of a street. A view of some raised train tracks next to some shipping crates. A short shot moving along the tracks. A view from under the tracks. A view of an industrial complex. A stack of shipping crates with mountains in the background. A billboard. A split second shot of a flashing road sign. Finally, a street with a downward slope that was invisible from the current viewpoint. And two silver Porsches roared into view. The two raced down a freeway. In quick succession, a shot from under the train tracks, moving down the oncoming (left) side of a multi-lane road, and the edge of an overpass, looking straight down at the road below as a yellow Carrera raced by. A brief shot from beneath the overpass as two cars sped by. Finally, a far view of the back of the pack, which then zoomed in, and started the race.

Night made no effort to hide his grin as the flat-6 behind him wailed. Yes, the fifth-generation and onwards 911s may have lacked the thrilling sound of the old air-cooled models, but the sounds they produced while closing in on the redline was exciting nonetheless.

But that wasn't important; what was important was that it had rained earlier in the day and the pavement was still wet, which would in turn make controlling the car more difficult, particularly during drifts. Still, it didn't bother Night, who had raced in the rain many times over the years.

Silent, he knocked over a street sign as he partially drove on the sidewalk, following close behind the car in seventh place as the flat six propelled the yellow Porsche along. The brown bat pony kept the right pedal floored as lightning flashed twice overhead. On his map, the first checkpoint neared.

Braking hard, Night drifted left, going onto the dirt on the side of the road but narrowly avoiding sliding into the side of an on-ramp. Moving back onto the asphalt, he had to strain to see a bit due to the spray coming off of the tires of the cars ahead of him, but still managed to avoid the first freeway pillar on the left side of the road.

Remaining full throttle, he gradually closed the gap between him and seventh place as visibility somewhat improved, passing multiple freeway support pillars along the way, before braking a bit to stay on course for the mild left curve that was part of the route.

Scraping against a white 930-generation 911 Turbo, Night moved up into seventh place, before switching on the boost briefly and scraping a gray car while entering sixth, then smoothly drifted through the left corner on the road, hitting the checkpoint halfway through. Straightening back out, he switched the boost back on and rammed a red car from behind, moving up into fifth place as it wiped out moments later.

Charging down the road beneath some train tracks, lightning again flashed twice overhead as the brown bat pony began to move to the right of a gray Porsche 918, only to use his own Porsche's brakes to their full advantage as he turned hard to clear the sharp left that came up suddenly. But he was still able to pass the 918 on the outside and slide into fourth place before the end of his turn.

Looks like they aren't used to that ride's speed yet. Night observed as the Spyder accelerated at a pace much slower than what it was ultimately capable of. Once the road became straight again, he resumed boosting, easily opening a gap between him and his opponent. Speeding across the start/finish line into lap two, the brown bat pony sideswiped a dark gray (possibly black) Porsche Panamera and snatched third.

With no spray from cars ahead obscuring his view of the road, Night was able to take the left before the on-ramp smoother and faster this time around, and was also able to keep the throttle mashed against the floor without having to worry about going head-on with a support pillar. Despite the wet pavement, the brown stallion took the following left at full throttle, being slowed only by the friction between the Carrera's tires and the asphalt.

Still silent, as he often was during races, Night caught some airtime by running across a curb before passing a car that he was unable to identify to grab second place, before using a brief stint of nitrous to pull away and close the gap between himself and the driver currently in the gold trophy position, switching the laughing gas off just as he passed through a checkpoint.

After straightening out, he used another quick burst of N2O to regain some speed as the distance between him and his next opponent shrunk even further. Lightning flashed overhead as the yellow Porsche barreled down the route that went beneath the train tracks, before tearing through the left at the end at a speed that was surprising when it was dry, but was flat out frightening in the rain.

The brown stallion used another brief nitrous boost to get himself closer to first place as he entered the third and final lap. But then he entered the left at the end of the straight while moving too fast. Night swiftly braked hard and steered sharply, managing to eliminate most of the understeer and narrowly avoided crashing into the side of the on-ramp.

It was a close call, but he was still okay; but his target had gotten further ahead. Not to be left behind so easily, the brown stallion made good use of his car's boost to get back up to speed, but he ended up using the last of it in his effort to catch up. That didn't bother him, though, as the 911's flat six still provided good forward thrust.

With the right pedal floored in a very Jeremy Clarkson-esque manner, Night sped along the road beneath the freeway, keeping his trajectory as straight as possible to maximize his acceleration, before cutting across the left corner at the end. In the interest of preserving speed, he instead aimed for the service station on the right side of the road.

Coming out, his car was pristine and painted white, but was still just as fast. Screaming through the checkpoint, the brown stallion switched the boost back on mid-corner and began to catch up to the first place car.

With the throttle mashed, Night roared into first place, tore through the final checkpoint, steered left, and blasted across the finish line.

Cold Burn

Finished 1st

Mods unlocked

Reinforced Chassis

Long Gears

Reinforced Chassis: increases vehicle toughness, but comes with a penalty in acceleration and control.

Long Gears: raises ultimate top speed, but reduces acceleration.

Night wore a big grin (unseen due to his helmet) as he lifted off the gas and eased onto the brakes, bringing the 911 to a gradual halt.

Yes, that was a lot of fun. But now, he's have to deal with the hard races.

"..."

The idea of such a challenge while piloting such a beautifully balanced ride really excited him.

Author's Notes: I was finally able to rediscover the motivation to write this story! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because next up we're going into the hardest events this ride has got!... And depending on what way the gameplay videos I'm watching go, the first Most Wanted race might also happen in the next chapter. This set of Notes is shorter (for me), but that's because I really don't have much else to say... so I'll see all of you next time!