Button's Manehatten Minute

Yes

Button Mash swallowed hard, looked the mare in the eyes, and said, “Yes.”

Her face split open with a wide grin, before she moved in, and pecked him on the cheek. “About damn time one of you made my wait fun.” She then bounced back, falling almost perfectly into the racing console as she pointed at Button. “Now, you better not disappoint me, got it?”

Button took in a deep breath as he smiled. She definitely wasn’t the type of mare he would normally spend time with. No, no one in Ponyville, from what he knew, was even like her. But… that also excited him, and he didn’t know where he would be going to college at, so making a wild friend here might help him out if he ended up here.

But first, he had a race to win.

The mare glanced over at Button as he took his seat, and shivers ran down her spine. He didn’t have her grace when it came to grabbing the wheel, or taking the shift, but his eyes… She bit into her lip as with only the slightest flick, she could tell her knew every bit of the foreign machine. “So, first time driving here?”

Button settled back into the faux leather, his breath completely even, despite not knowing it. In fact, a well kept secret by only a few ponies was this state. They said that his cutie mark took complete control here, and when he got like this, no one could beat him.

He slid his tokens in, and shifted slightly. “Yeah. Though, I’ve played on these sorts of machines plenty.”

The mare frowned. His nervousness was gone, and she wasn’t sure where it had gone. Instead, it was replaced by this mechanical voice. It frightened her… but also excited her a little bit as she turned back to her screen, and slid in her own set of tokens. “Well, I’ll give you a bit of a warning then. The steering-”

“-sticks a little when you try to turn a little to the left. So I noticed.”

And in that moment, the naughty pegasus realized that when he said she would eat his dust, he was by no means bluffing. She clenched her jaw, but not out of anger. No, it was pure excitement, and she turned back to the screen, where her whole attention was now.

The race started, and at first, it wasn’t anything too special. On certain stretches, the red mare would take the lead, streaking down the straightaways with better acceleration due to her knowing the exact second to switch it over to the next gear, usually accompanied by the sound of Button doing it a second later. When it came to the turns though, Button seemed like he had omniscience as he would often use other cars to help make his turns tighter. What he lost in speed usually was recuperated by his lack of distance travelled, and, half the time, by using her or his turn.

It was a vicious, but brutally effective tactic, and the mare bit into her lip every time he smashed the side of her car. She knew that if this weren’t a game, both cars would be a wreck by now, but if used just once to win… A heat primed itself in her, even as the last turn promised her that she wasn’t winning. Not when Button was getting to shift a second before her as they raced down the last stretch.

It wasn’t even close to her.

Button let out a long breath of air as he leaned back, not having realized how tense his body was. He hadn’t gone that all out since he won the Super Smash Sisters’ regional tournament at Ponyville. When he looked over, he saw the red mare there, smiling at him with the same, predatory look as before.

She extended a hand to him. “Drift. Nice to meet you.”

Button swallowed hard as he took her hand, and gave it a firm shake. “Good race. You almost had me there.”

Drift smirked, her wings stiffening a little bit. Any other racer she knew, and they would have gloated. Not this kid though. Of course not this kid. “Nah, you had me pretty good. Which also means,” she leaned in close, knowing that the screen light would practically let him see through her tank top while she was this close, “you’ve won the bet. However,” she paused to smile, and forced a blush not to come to her cheeks, “if you’re feeling really lucky, I’ve got an event I need to go to, and we can do double or nothing there. What do you say?”

Button paled at the thought of double, but it also meant more time with her, and… he glanced back at the screen and how much fun it had been. If she wanted a rematch…

Go with her.

Take your winnings now.