Motorization

"DP machine gun, 7.62-millimeter caliber versus steel target, full mafazine, take three. Ready..." -- Cider took aim towards the target -- "Fire."

As the man pulled the trigger, the loud banging filled the surroundings. For a soldier, everything felt like in a slow motion -- how the used cartridges were extracting from the gun, how the target has been pierced by bullets... "Bang-bang-bang" -- the gun echoed, until the magazine went empty. After the gun stopped shooting, Cider unloaded its magazine and went to the target to examine it. Its shape was terrible -- ater the gun's firing, it looked like a mess, with all its holes and tears.

"For the record: this one goes with me. I will mount it on my offroader. The tape's still rolling?" the man asked a stallion, who's been standing behind a firing position with a camera.

"All good," he calmly replied. Cider happily sighed and came back to the firing table.

"Very well, then," the soldier tapped a camerapony's shoulder, "We're done here. See you around."

The sun was setting above the shooting range, which was just a few kilometers from Canterlot, being located higher in the mountains. Green grass, great acoustics and noone around -- and what else do you need for a shooting range? And, as another test day passed by, Cider began packing his offroader and was ready to head back to the hotel. But right when he began to put his belongings inside the car, he heard someone's voice behind himself.

"Captain Cider, sir!"

As the man turned around, he saw a pair of buffed Royal Guards. Their golden armor plates shined in the rays of Celestia's sun, which even made his eyes teary.

"Evening, lads," Cider said with a smirk, "How can I help you?"

"We are here to escort you to the Princesses' castle," one of the guards replied, "Princess Celestia wants to meet you immidiately."

"Immidiately? Well, seems like tough shit. Any info besides that?"

"No, sir," the first guard's companion said with a stern face.

"Welp, let's hope that won't take a lot of time..." the man said, while getting inside the car. "You two! Wanna' ride with me or stay behind?"

"We will stay behind, sir," said the first guard.

"Thanks for the offer, sir," replied the second.

"Well, as you wish..."

"So, what's the case, Celestia?" Cider asked, while walking alongside the princess.

"Well, I've told you that our scouts are searching all across Equestria to find vaults similar to the ones in Manehattan and Ponyville," Celestia replied with a smile, "And guess what they've found."

After her last phrase, Celestia handed the man a pack of photographs. As he started to look through them, his eyes widened.

"You are fucking kidding me..." the man swore, and immidiately recieved a glare from the Princess. "Sorry for that. But do you even have an idea, what have you found?"

"What, do you see something specific on these photographs?" the princess asked curiously.

"What I see here... Is a great garage, filled with racing vehicles... And you have no idea, how happy I am right now..."

Cider's joy was understandable. On these photos, he saw an enormous garage, in which were standing old cars of all sorts -- civillian sports, racers, stock cars, motorcycles, trucks, towing platforms, tires, wheels, spare parts... And even on the photos, the place itself looked at least twice as big as the famous Zadorozjny's technical museum. Except the museum was much less dusty.

"Okay, for the record -- you can take all the trucks from the armory and give to anyone for experimenting, researching or else. Because these are going to be my favourite! Just look at all this beauty! Formulas, sportcars, motorcycles... And with tires and spare parts! Your world is truly a wonderful place!" -- the man's mind was overwhelmed, and he began to grin like an idiot.

"I'm glad that you're happy, but there is a big problem, if you want to take all this stuff," Celestia cut the man off, "Because the vault itself is located under the desert of Badlands. And it can fall apart anytime soon, so you need to hurry, and probably get some help."

"Cool, I guess... And how did you find it?" the man looked at Celestia with a puzzled look.

"We didn't find it, really," the princess stated, "It's just shown up in a middle of a desert. One of patrols from a local weather monitoring outpost has spotted the entrance from a height. That was very convinient, if you ask me."

After a quick thinking, the man stated:

"Alright. I'm heading out tomorrow. I need a team of qualified magicians and technicians aside from your tomb raiders," the man smirked, "And I'll probably ask Twilight for help. Thanks for letting me know, Celestia."

The princess smiled warmly. "Good to see your enthusiasm. I will send a team with you tomorrow. And now, good night, Cider."

"Good night, Celestia," the man said, leaving the throne room of the castle. "I'm going to be the Duke of the Motor City," he thought for himself.

A few days later after the conversation with princess Celestia, the man was riding in a train, that sped towards the Badlands -- the unforgiving and harsh desert at the outskirts of Equestria. Before the start of his new trip, he met a crew of well-qualified unicorn specialists and scientists, as well as Twilight Sparkle. And now, while he still had a chance, he was repeating the instructions in front of a big audience.

"In a few hours we will reaach the drop-off point, people," the man started, standing in a middle of a crowded railway carriage, "I really hope that nobody has forgot the basics of car driving that we've learned. I remind you that our task is pretty simple -- as we drop off, me and miss Sparkle go for recon first. All others go after us. Our task is to re-fuel the trucks, your task is to load the remaining stuff on the trailers. After that, we will drive the trucks out, and if anything else remains, we will move it manually. Understood?"

The crowd responded with a hum of agreement.

"Good. Now, you still have a couple of hours before the drop-off. Dismissed!" Cider said with a grin. As the ponies started to walk away, he turned to Twilight and said, "Thanks for accompanying me here. Really appreciate it."

"No worries, Cider! I'm just as enthusiastic as you are," the alicorn replied, "You know, when I first saw your car, I thought that I could study it. And now we will have literally TONS of new material for testing!"

"Don't get too excited, Twilight," the man chuckled, "But I think that you can borrow a car or two. What about the rest... I can say from Celestia's photos: most of tech is pretty old, but there are a couple of interesting machines, like old Formulas, or even prototypes... And there's anoher thing, that's bothering me."

"Well, spill it out," Twilight laughed.

"If all these cars are here... Where are their owners? And did they truly come from my world, or it's just an enormously fat coincedence?"

"Well, I guess that we can only get there and find out..." the alicorn hummed. "Besides, I thought that you don't care."

"Yeah, I don't care. But still, these questions are quite interesting, aren't they?"

"Sure they are, Cider."

As the time passed by, the view outside the window became unfriendly. The Badlands was a massive flat territory of rock and dust, and as far as the eye could see, there was nothing more. And at some point, the train started to slow down, coming to a complete stop soon. As the man looked outside, he could see a small trainstation with a sign on it.

"Badlands weather control outpost... We're here!" the man thought, and in a few seconds, shouted loudly:

"DROP-OFF POINT! EVERYBODY, TAKE ALL THE BELONGINGS, INSTRUMENTS AND FUEL FROM THE CARGO COMPARTMENT AND WAIT OUTSIDE!"

After a few minutes of running and gathering everything, Cider drove his off-roader in front of a crowd, that stood in front of a steam engine. He was accompanied by Twilight Sparkle, who started her speech in front of other ponies.

"Listen up, everypony! Me and Cider are going to go first, so in case of anyhing we will have time to return and warn you. Everybody, follow the south direction, 6 hours five minutes. You shall see the entrance in about two hours of walking. Understood?" As Twilight saw everyone nodding, she finished: "Good luck, everyone! You can go, Cider."

And right after that, the offroader, that was filled with fuel and tools, sped into the unknown of the desert.

The blazing sun was baking the Cider's head, even under the helmet. So, when he finally saw an entrance, being surrounded by a great number of archeologists, he sighed with a relief.

"Well finally! I hope that under the ground there will be a cooler air," he said happily.

"I hope so... Shoosh, I can feel myself overheating..." Twilight responded, as the man parked his car near the improvised camp of the expedition. As he got out from the vehicle, he shouted:

"WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?"

After a few seconds of waiting, he saw an earth pony walking towards him. It had a white mane and a coffee-colored fur. He wore a hard hat, and a pair of glasses, along with a working suit.

"Hello there, mister. Your highness," the stallion bowed before Twilight, "You must be Cider, right? Who does the research of newfound mechanisms? Name's Bone Digger."

"Yeah, that's me. I can see that you weren't wasting time here, eh?" the man asked.

"Yeah, we've done plenty of work before your arrival. Must say -- all this machinery looks fascinating! Come, let's take a look."

After taking the lamp from the trunk of his car, Cider and Twilight followed the Bone Digger inside the wide maw of the vault.

"This entrance looks like an exit of some sort... Maybe an exit from the underground parking or something," the man stated, while lighting up the lamp and investigating the spiral-like shape of the road.

"Indeed! I've seen some ancient places of long passed days -- royalty loved to build places like this one for their chariots. Except, they were much smaller," the stallion replied, and stopped on his path. "Well, here we are."

When Cider stood beside the Bone Digger, his mouth went agape. The garage really looked more like an enormous vault. It's been lit up by an enormous amount of lamps, and different ponies were taking photos with their enormous cameras, making notes, cleaning the machinery from dust with their archeologic equipment... And the size of this garage was impressive -- at least five hundred meters in lenght, three hundred meters in wide and four meters in height. And every single meter of this garage was filled with MINT MACHINERY.

"Twilight..." -- the man facepalmed -- "I am in heaven. We HAVE to dig out all these cars!"

Twilight slightly giggled. "Well, I think you like what you see! Can recognize any of this machinery?"

The group came closer to the first line of cars. Different kinds of trucks were standing, like mighty guardians of the long forgotten treasure room. The man smiled and said:

"Of course! These two are ZIL-4421 SE, for example -- Chris Hodge Racing and factory team, the next one to it -- their towing truck, the next one is MAN, the next one is Caterpillar prototype... I know almost everything about cars," the man grinned widely and looked around, when something caught his attention. "NO FUCKING WAY! ZIL ROADSTERS!"

The man ran to the second line of cars, and literally tried to hug the first car he ran into. "This is ZIS-101 Sport, Twilight. A massive piece of a roadster!"

"Hey, Cider, look! Something lies inside it!" ignoring the man's excited shouts, Twilight said. Cider immidiately stopped talking crap and got up. As he looked inside the car, he saw that some kind of a book was lying on a passenger's seat. He carefully got to the driver's door, and pulled the lever. Without a screech, it opened.

"Wo-ho-ho, everything's in mint condition!" Cider said, being excited, and picked up the book with a piece of metal beside it. Twilight became excited, too.

"Well, what's this?" she asked in joyful tone.

"This is a user's manual, Twilight," the man replied thoughtfully, "It's in Russian, so I can read it. Take a look inside big trucks -- there may be some gear, instructions and other stuff. We will use them to tow all these cars out of here."

"Sure thing, Cider!" the alicorn said in a happy tone. "Oh boy, let me grab the instructions that I will understand -- Equestria will meet the age of motorization," she thought for herself. Everything went smooth by far.

When the rest of the crew from the train arrived to the digsite, the work literally boiled up. Trucks were refuelling and warming up, trailers were filling with cars and other cargo, and archeologists were moving their stuff from the underground. And Cider was controlling everything, with the help of Twilight, of course.

"Twenty trucks with cars and cargo -- check. Ten technical vehicles -- check. Supplies -- check. Looks like that we've managed to pack everything up, Twilight!" the man said with joy in his voice, while tapping the leading truck's door. "Roll out, boys! Go to the trainstation, see you outside!"

"Cider, I think that we've missed a couple of cars! They're standing at the farther side of the garage!" Twilight shouted, trying to beat the roar of many truck engines.

"Alright, let's have a quick look!"

As the last truck rolled out, and a heavy silence filled the place, Cider lit up his lamp and followed Twilight to the farther side of the garage. And she was right -- two cars were standing there. Go-karts, to be more precise.

"A couple of go-karts, huh? And the gear lies inside, too..." the man smirked, while lifting up the dusty helmet, gloves, racing boots and the firesuit from the go-kart's seat. The helmet was nothing too special -- Arai SK-6, which was very common in his world... And the last realisation hit his head like a heavy brick.

"Wait... Wait-wait-wait... This gear doesn't seem too old, like other cars," the man hummed, while taking a look at the helmet. Something in it was intrigueing him. It had a black polycarbonade vizor, a pair of air intakes and exhausts on its head and literally nothing special on it. Its furniture was quite standart, too -- soft pads and a few ventilation holes. So, the man handed the helmet to Twilight Sparkle, who was curious about sudden change of the man's behaviour.

"Is... Is everything alright?" she asked, while putting the helmet on the ground.

"Yeah... Just let me check a couple of things..." Cider hummed, while examinying the firesuit and the rest of the gear. Gloves -- black OMP fire-resistant racing model. Boots -- lightweight, high-heeled, pedal-friendly, made by Puma. And the firesuit, which looked quite fancy, compared to the rest of the gear -- white, with red and golden streaks on its sides, with "Superkart", "Formula Kart Stars", FIA and FOM patches all around it. Some of its parts were covered in oil, but in general, it was a reliable piece of clothing, manufactured by Alpinestars. But, as the man examined it further, he found a patch on its belt, that literally froze his mind.

"SIDOROV" -- bold black letters with golden outlines burned into his mind through his eyes. "No... No-no, th-this can't be..." the man whispered, with eyes as wide as artillery shells.

"What? What's the matter?" the mare beside Cider asked with a worried voice. He immideately shook his head, and looked around the kart. It had sleek green-and-white striped cowling around its metal chassis, that was covered with stickers. As the man wiped the dust from the frontal cowl, he saw a black number "99" on a yellow background. Cider suddenly felt pain in his head and grimaced.

"N-nothing, Twilight... Just nothing..." the man said, focusing on his pain, when he suddenly heard a rumble, coming from the ground.

"Cider! Do you hear that?" the princess said, feeling nervous. A few seconds later, a roaring sound boomed across the garage, and the pair heard the cracking sound.

"That's what Celestia meant! Quickly, get into the kart!" the man shouted, realising, that the garage was going to meet its end in a few seconds. As Twilight sat into the second kart, he praised to anyone that it has been refuelled and operational.

"Got it!" the mare shouted, while putting the gear, that originally laid inside the kart's seat, onto her knees. The man quickly reached her, and looked at the engine to her right hand. Vortex KF3 engine, a very mean machine in bad hands... As the man turned the ignition primer, he shouted to Twilight through the rumble of the garage:

"RIGHT PEDAL IS GAS, LEFT IS THE BRAKE! NOW MOVE!"

After releasing the shout, the man pushed the "Start" button between Twilight's legs. First, there was a popping sound of a cold engine starting, but then, the kart roared, and shot to the exit, nearly throwing Cider to the floor. As Twilight rode off, Cider ran towards his kart, and literally jumped inside it. As he laid the gear onto his knees, he heard a cracking sound just above him.

"Ignition primer, fuel, start..." -- the man thought, and, as the engine roared, sped forward with a massive wheelspin. After that, he heard a booming sound of a falling piece of ceiling behind him, but he didn't look back. As he saw more rocks falling in front of him, he rapidly moved into another lane between the collumns, and pushed the pedal to the floor.

"Not now... I've found THIS today... I will not die now..." the man thought, while maneuvering between the falling pieces of rock. Then, he saw how the large piece of ceiling just near the exit started to crack. The man held his breath and started to count.

"One."

The kart was speeding up, reaching its limit. The wind filled the man's ears, along with the raging sounds of the garage, that was falling apart and the engine, that was screaming at the top of his exhaust.

"Two."

The kart got on the spiral-shaped piece of climbing road, and with a massive wheelspin, sped towards the exit. Cider was driving almost instinctively, as he couldn't see the sun from upwards, and the only source of light right now was the lamp, that he held between his legs.

"Three. Liftoff."

As the go-kart reached the exit, it looked more like a ramp. But Cider didn't care -- as he pushed the gas pedal, the machine shot to freedom, jumping highly due to the angle of an entrance. As the man felt the fresh air, he drove for about one hundred meters away from the garage entrance, and saw, how it collapsed. While turning the engine off, he stood up from his kart and looked towards the former treasure chamber, when he felt a tight hug from his back.

"Cider! You are okay, thank Celestia!" a familiar voice of Twilight Sparkle warmed Cider's head.

"I guess so, Twilight... I guess so..."

The man tiredly sat on the ground near his go-kart. The place, that a few hours ago had been a treasure chamber, became a mess with a cloud of dust above its former entrance. But the most worrying thing for Cider was gear, that laid inside his kart.

HIS gear.

Long time ago, he was a racer. But these times passed, and all his racing clothes were collecting dust at the farther end of his flat. And now, his go-kart, his gear and his memories came back for no literal reason. And nearly killed him, to think about it...

"That's sure an interesting thing. What shall I do now?" the man thought, "Still, don't need to lose my head. I'll just be happy that my favourite things are with me now."

The man stood up and walked towards his go-kart. As Twilight has been already sitting in hers, she smiled.

"So, Cider, ready to roll out?"

"Hell yes I do. You have the compass, so I will follow you," the man said with a smile. And, as two engines roared, the pair shot into the night, riding on the flat and dusty landscape of the Badlands towards the trainstation.