Fortune

Chapters

Arrangements
Fortune Favors the Strong
Forty Thousand and One Reasons to Race
Epilogue

Arrangements

Chapter One: Arrangements

Despite my stomach feeling nauseated from the sight of the doctor zipping up his pants, I managed to make myself comfortable by nuzzling the pillow in front of me. A small portion of my brain questioned why a pony was even wearing pants in the first place, but then I was reminded of the fact that clothes were made to be worn in order to prevent infection to other ponies, should the doctor in question be a bit unsanitary. Just as fast as that question had entered my mind, it vanished, pushed aside by the sight of the doctor admiring his rather less impressive physique.

Maybe another middle-aged pony would find the below average doctor appealing, but not me. I felt repulsed at the mere sight of him, but I needed him.

His rather gruff voice snapped me from my daze. “Listen I’ve had a great time with these…meetings of ours, but I am a married stallion.”

Could have fooled me, I mused coldly.

His hoof adjusted his slightly crooked necklace. “My wife and I are planning to move to a small island now that I can retire, so you’ll need to make your payment tomorrow or we’re stopping the treatment.”

“Bullshit, asshole,” I snapped back while sliding my hoodie back on. My hoof brushed the hairclip I had been given, which I now noticed had several large cracks running along it. “We had a payment plan! Now stick to it and treat my sister!”

The doctor planted himself firmly in the squeaky chair behind his desk with his eyes stuck to me. My hoof went to my side, aiming for the climbing pick I held onto, but upon noticing its absence I recalled setting it down someplace for safe keeping.

“You’re right, we had a payment plan, but now there’s a new plan. So get us the bits by tomorrow or your sister gets kicked to the curb,” he said without a hint of sympathy.

My time in Griffinstone taught me that bits were the only thing most, if not all, ponies and griffons cared about here. Seeing how greedy some ponies were here, makes me thankful I grew up being on the road after running away from home. It was the best decision I’d ever made. Ponies living here, however, they only cared about the bits and never the life of the pony those bits were supposed to help. I’d call him a jackass, but that would be an insult to donkey’s everywhere.

“I already paid you,” I said, my tone threatening and a hoof raised at him. “Treat my sister and I will have bits to pay you next week.”

His gaze fell upon a stack of papers sitting in front of him. For a moment I had suspected that it was my sister’s file, but upon taking a glance I noticed it was for a cruise set to depart the next day or so.

I slammed my hoof on the desk. “Hey, are you listening to me?!”

Pushing himself away from the desk, the doctor put a hoof on me, slowly nudging me to the door. I tried to push back, but before I could put any real strength behind it, I was shoved out the door. “I’m sorry, Sky,” he said rather unapologetically. “Either you bring the bits tomorrow or her treatment ends here.”

I went to throw a hoof his way, but the door slammed shut behind me. Before I could even get my hoof on the doorknob, I heard it lock from the other side. My hoof pulled the pony-made hairclip from my mane, which was just for show as my tan mane was kept short. I bent it slightly until a metal prong stuck out, then retrieved a lock pick hidden in my hoodie.

It took a good long moment before my crude tools broke. I threw them both down, standing up to face the door. “Go suck a dragon’s cock!” I bucked the door making it rattle.

*** ***

I spent the next half hour walking around the hospital aimlessly, thinking about how I would pay for my sister’s treatment once my funds ran out. Thanks to the street racing I did on the side, I managed to pull together enough bits to keep us sustained for a while, but blowing my engine, then rebuilding it again was starting to put a strain on me. So much so that I resorted to doing any jobs I could get my hooves on to pay my bills.

By the time I was done going over my options, I had arrived in front of a door with my sister’s file in its holding slot. Carefully and quietly pushing the door open, I made sure to close it gently behind me as not to wake her.

Laying there in a frail unmoving state was my responsibility. Her eyes remained closed as I quietly trotted towards the chair I kept near the bed. I took a seat, eliciting a low squeak.

“Sky-Sky,” the filly muttered, with her eyes slowly opening. Even with the treatment doing its best to keep her illness at bay, Buttercup looked even more exhausted than the last time I saw her, which had only been yesterday.

Laying in her bed was my ice climber pick axe, with the filly's hoof draped over it. That brought a warm smile to my face. “How’s it going filly, you keeping my tool safe?” I asked earning a weak smile from her. Running a hoof through Buttercup’s mane I noticed something shining under her sheets. “Is this my camcorder?”

Carefully retrieving the recorder, I took a look at the screen to find it paused on a few videos I had paid someone to take for me. Some of the contents were skiing stunts that I was rather proud of, but the ones my filly was watching were from last year. “You’re watching my Payout races? Why?” I paused for a moment to think. “Hey, how’d you get this anyway?”

Normally I would scold the filly for what I assumed was snooping around in my backpack while I was sleeping, but when she began baring those puppy dog eyes at me, I couldn’t be mad at her. For a moment she tried to speak, but no words came out. After some struggle, she finally managed to speak. “I found it…and I wanted to see you, so I thought I could watch your videos to pass the time between visits.”

Her words, no matter how weak they were, managed to sting me right where it hurt. I enjoyed watching over her, but making sure I could keep a roof over our heads as well as keep her treatment going was putting me through more than I could manage. “What did you see?” I asked, curious as to how much she’d watched so far.

“Just you winning a few rounds,” she said with a blush. “And a lot of curse words…you’re not supposed to use those.”

“Those are grown pony words so I can use them,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her. She nudged my muzzle weakly, but I moved my head as if she had put more force behind it. “Look at you getting stronger every day.” My gaze fell back to the camcorder to find which video she had stopped at. From what I could tell, it was my orange Holden Torana A9X going up against a matt grey Chevy Vega running three shots of nitrous. “That was a good race.”

Buttercup nudged the play button with her hoof, making the video resume.

“So are you worried about going into this race?” asked the camera pony from behind me. I scoffed at him as a cloud of smoke rose up around us. We both began coughing as a white Pontiac GTO Judge rolled to the starting line.

I looked dead at the camera. “Are you kidding?” I asked without worry. “The Holden gapped that friend of his and I plan on gaping his ass to,” I slammed my car door after crawling inside.

As I finished speaking to the camera, the mare I had kicked to the curb trotted past me with a sour look on her face. “Hey,” she said to her friend. “You lost the bit flip. What are you going to do about the oil spill? I mean you’re obviously getting the crappy lane.”

A stallion with a matt grey coat and dark blue mane got up from his vehicle. He looked down at the road, letting out a sigh with a head shake. “I’m going to do a water burnout the first eighth mile, try to clean some of that crap off the road and give me something solid to get traction on.”

The door to his car slammed shut while the mare telekinetically threw some water below the rear tires as they began to spin around without gaining traction. Smoke rose up around the tires as the stallion’s vehicle lunged forward to spread the liquid across the oiled surface. After the burnout was finished, the driver pulled back across the line getting right beside my vehicle.

The video cut out for a moment, skipping over my preparations for the race.

A mare, her mane hanging down over one of her eyes, trotted between our vehicles, then faced us. It took her a moment to pull us both to the line, but when we were ready, she did a twirl and flashed her horn. Our wheels squealed like pigs as we took off down the road.

My Holden pulled ahead, but the GTO kept pace up until the halfway point. The white vehicle’s back end kicked out one way with the driver fighting to keep control just before it slid back the other way. By the time he had regained control, I had already finished running down the quarter mile.

The video ended shortly after the front end of my car came into view with me holding my hoof up. Buttercup didn’t try to hide the grin on her face. “That was so cool, when are you going to take me out to a race?” she asked almost squealing. Shortly after, she began coughing.

I ruffled her mane a bit after she finished coughing. “Maybe after the doctors fix you up,” I said softly. A long silence fell upon us while I slipped into aimless thought, which was becoming more frequent the longer I kept running on two hours of sleep each night. It was then that I noticed my ice climber still lying in bed next to Buttercup. “Did you keep this safe for me?”

A proud smile on her face assured me she kept it in as good condition as I had left it. Looking at its blue handle brought back fond memories of the filly’s mother. I’d give anything to have her back now. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be looking after the sweetest little filly in all of Griffinstone. “Sky-sky?” Buttercup asked staring at mane. “Why is your mane all frazzled? It looks like you finished wrestling with someone.”

Well…she’s not wrong… I mused, trying to push some rather unpleasant memories of a wheezing stallion well in his later years.

I laughed, earning a questionable look from the filly. Fixing my short tan mane with my free hoof, I shook my head at her, knowing she’d never know how close she was to the truth. “I’ve just been too busy to properly groom myself outside of a few showers,” I stated as I internally cursed myself for putting myself through the wringer.

Not only was keeping the house payments a hassle, but with the newly added medical bills, I’d be lucky to see my middle age with the amount of debt I’d rack up if it was left unchecked. The very thought made my stomach queasy.

“Sky,” Buttercup muttered, snapping me from my thoughts. “Can you tell me a story? The one where you met my mom?”

That helped keep a smile on my face. I nodded, rubbing the filly’s head. “Sure thing, filly.” Leaning back in my chair, I thought carefully, trying to recall just when everything had gotten interesting between me and Buttercup’s mother. “It all started when I was a guide on the mountains...”

Fortune Favors the Strong

Chapter Two: Fortune Favors the Strong

Snow crunched beneath my boots as I tightened the strings around my hoodie. Wind screamed around me as I adjusted my glacier goggles that had almost been blown off of my face. Letting out a sigh, I watched as my breath took visible form.

Even with my mane cut short, even shorter than most stallions, it continued to whip around like a wild animal escaping a predator. “If you don’t mind me asking,” I called back to the mare and filly following me, “What in Celestia’s name made you two want to tread these mountains? And why’d you bring the little one here?”

I looked up at the sky above to find that it had turned dark grey, apparently the weather had decided to take a turn for the worse. Pegasi were supposed to control the weather, however at this elevation there were very few spells that could actually keep control of the snow storms that occurred here regularly. According to Princess Twilight, the higher a pony goes in elevation, the less effect magic has on the environment, which also applies to Alicorn magic to some extent.

At this rate, we would have to take shelter if the storm turned into a blizzard. Of all the times I went hiking, this hike was the most thrilling. Nothing came close the adrenaline kick I got out of a challenge like this.

A patch of snow crunched beside me, I stood alert only to find it was the mare. She shot me a smile turning back to see her ankle-biter following along just fine. “My husband and I used to climb Mount Ever Hoof when we were dating. After we had Buttercup and introduced her to mountains, we were planning trips up there regularly, so much so that she knows it like the back of her hoof!”

A gust of wind made the mare lose her balance for a moment before continuing, “I promised Buttercup a change of scenery for her birthday and she wanted to come here. I would only agree to it if I got to pick the part of the mountain we were hiking through, and if we hired a guide this time, plus I figured this was the safest route.”

I shoved my cane into a patch of snow, and felt the tip of the cane slide with it almost taking me down. Correcting my balance, I kept walking. I looked over my shoulder thinking I had heard a timber wolf, but when I found it was just the wind again, I kept moving forward. “Keep an eye on her,” I said smiling at them, “When she gets older, she’ll want bigger and better challenges.”

Another howl from the wind made me check on the tourists before marching forward. A crunch of snow had me move to the side while the mother caught up with me, “I asked you how long you’ve been doing this.” The mother said, moving closer to me so I could hear her.

Before I could reply , another loud roar from the wind interrupted me. I pointed out the correct path to take while my scarf whipped around as sporadically as my mane, “A couple of years!” I shouted back, attempting to be heard over the wind, “It helps pay the bills and feed my adrenaline habits.” I slowed my pace so we could hear one another.

“Mama, what are adrenaline habits?” The filly questioned as she trotted ahead of us.

I looked at the mother and she nudged her head at me to explain. “You know, activities that really get your blood pumping!” The little filly nodded while she went into deep thought about something. I chuckled, “Alright, let me put it to you this way. Outside of scaling mountains like these, I go surfing with tall waves, sky diving, wrestle huge bulky stallions to the ground in close-quarters combat, and do anything that makes me feel like I’m alive.”

It took a moment for it to set in, but once the filly got what I meant, I saw her eyes light up with her imagination going into a frenzy. Her mother just chuckled in amusement. “And when I’m not pinning down stallions and making them tap out,” I continued, “I’m rooftop jumping with my climbing pick, you’d both be surprised at how many times it’s saved my life; turns out it’s useful for all kinds of things.”

“I can imagine,” the mother retorted with a smile.

In my reminiscing of old memories, I lost track of the filly. As I looked around for her, I found her climbing a small pile of snow before falling through it. She rolled out from under the pile, “Does it have a name? Your climbing pick, I mean?”

I shook my head in response. There were a few occasions where I had almost given it a name, but so far it didn’t have an official name.

We approached a large icy cliffside, which we would need to climb in order to shave off a few minutes from our time. Finding this shortcut now was practically perfect timing as the wind was beginning to sound like timber wolves again, which I knew would make our trip that much more difficult if we encountered any. The faster we got out of the approaching storm, the better. “Alright little one,” I said while hoisting the filly onto my back. “I’m going to start climbing, so I need you to hold on tight, I can’t risk anything happening to you with the weather being this bad.”

“Be careful,” the mother said, attaching two climbing picks to her forehoof bracelets.

I did the same and slammed one of my picks into the wall. Doing the same with the other hoof, I slowly began my ascension to the path above. My scarf whipped my face, forcing me to stop. “Hey filly, do me a favor and stuff my scarf into my jacket.”

The filly did as she was asked while I continued pulling us up the cliffside. “What else do you do in your spare time?” she asked with her voice nearly being drowned out by the wind.

“Street racing,” I responded as I pulled us up over the cliffside. I set the filly down a few hoofsteps away from the edge. I extended my hoof towards the mother, she smiled and grabbed my hoof, allowing me to pull her up.

We continued walking, both me and the mother staying close to one another while we kept our eyes on the filly running ahead of us. Fortunately for the little one, the rest of the way was just a straight walk. With it being a relatively short walk, I went ahead and holstered my cane.

I smiled as she got ready to slide down, but instead she fell back into another pile. Dead tree branches snapped from behind a snow covered tree, no doubt from the filly trying to find her way back to us. Moments later, she emerged from the snow, frantically galloping toward us with tears streaming down her muzzle. “Monster!”

Cowering behind her mother, the filly hid underneath her while I put my climbing pick in front of them, motioning them to keep their distance. Cracks from the trees ahead of us kept me at full alert as the snow pile the filly ran into from before began to shake. A muscular frost-covered limb began moving, dropping the snow from what appeared to be a wing I couldn’t quite make out, although it made a buzzing sound with each flap.

Emerging from the snow was a large black barb that send a shiver down my spine. A bug bear, noticeably with two times the muscle mass of an average one, repositioned itself so that it was staring at us and this one was large enough to get my heart rate ticking a few beats faster. My free hoof went to my spare climbing pick and locked it into place with my fore hoof bracelet. I could practically feel the adrenaline filling every blood vessel in my body.

Four muscular arms stretched out from a pile of broken branches, each one revealing large claws that looked sharp enough to shred through all three of us with one well aimed swipe. A growl escaped the snow pile. It wasn’t long before a long snout made its presence known, bearing teeth sharper than anything I had come across before.

As the last bit of snow covering the creature fell, I stared into the beast’s eyes to get a good feel for how it was going to react. I noticed the claws gripping a tree branch, which snapped from the tree it was attached to moments later. In the seconds that followed, I watched the branch hit the ground after having been snapped in two.

It lunged at me, swiping its claws right where I stood. I ducked down, avoiding the assault. With a split second to spare, I latched my climbing pick around the creature’s muscles, using my momentum to swing around and buck it's jawline as hard as I could.

Abruptly pulling its arm back, the creature dropped me like a boulder in the ocean, letting my own weight take me to the ground with a loud crack. For a moment I thought it was my back, but then I noticed the broken pieces of a branch under me. I rolled back onto all fours.

Snow crunched a few hoof steps away from me. I looked over at the mother to find her ushering her filly further down the path. The creature noticed this too and growled at them. When it went to lunge at the mother, I jumped up, slashing my climbing pick across its face. A huge patch of fur ripped from its muzzle, leaving a large blood covered mark from where I had struck it.

I landed back on all fours with a smile on my face. Who says an Earth pony can’t hold their own, I mused.

Thrusting its stinger at the mother, I galloped towards her, but I wasn’t going to make it. As the stinger got within striking distance, the filly tackled her mother to the ground, the stinger barely grazing the mother’s back, causing her to yell in pain.

Throwing myself at the creatures back, I impaled one of my ice climbers into it, earning a loud roar from the beast. I heaved myself higher on the creature, as if I were scaling a mountain, then slammed my other ice climber into its shoulder as the creature lurched back.

Snow crunched under the creature’s weight as it slipped on an unsuspecting patch of ice. It stumbled towards the cliffside, then toppled over like a domino. I ditched one of my bracelets along with my spare climbing pick as I tore the other from the creature. Pushing off against the falling beast, I managed to catch hold of the cliffside, only to slide backwards at an alarming rate.

I yelled out, shoving my ice climber into the ground, holding me in place. Letting out a long sigh, I carefully pulled myself back up as I looked over the cliff to see the bug bear trying to limp off the pain. From where I was standing, I could see that its wing had been broken long before our scuffle.

Groans from the mother turned my attention to her. She was lying on the ground, her hoof on her back, with her filly standing there not knowing what to do. I galloped over to her, throwing my bag down to retrieve medical supplies. It didn’t take long to bandage up the flesh wound, but I didn’t have enough practice in medicine to think she was well.

Helping the mother up, she cringed in pain. “We need to get you to a doctor,” I said helping her walk. I whistled to the filly who grabbed my bag and followed after us.

*** ***

A couple of hours had gone by, but we had found a doctor and a place to stay until the snow storm died down. To my surprise, we were only grazed by the edge of a developing storm. I didn’t leave after the doctor admitted Buttercup’s mother into treatment. Part of me wanted to make sure the filly stayed out of trouble, and make sure the mother didn’t get too seriously injured on my watch.

I sat across from the filly, drinking warm cider while I watched an inaudible news broadcast. It wasn’t very interesting, in fact the filly playing with her cup was beginning to be more entertaining than the television.

A hoof rested on my shoulder, “Honey, why don’t you go buy yourself something sweet?” The mother gave me a smile while she gave her filly a few bits. It didn’t take long before Buttercup ran off to buy something from the newsstand that carried cookies.

Taking a seat across from me, the mother gave me a hard stare. She just kept staring at me…until I started to feel uncomfortable. I diverted my gaze to the new bandages wrapped around her body. “Don’t worry,” she assured me, “It’s just a flesh wound. Nothing to be worried about.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes just watching Buttercup go from window to window trying to get a better view of the lake down below. “You know she likes you,” the mother said as she took a sip from Buttercup’s half empty cider cup, “She never really warms up to ponies like she did with you, she’s been that way since her father passed away.”

“I’d keep her away from someone like me,” I warned jokingly. “You know how impressionable kids are these days.”

Peach laughed at that, and took a quick glance at Buttercup before returning her attention to me. “She’s already a hoof full as is,” she said with a chuckle. “You know I think you would make a great role model if you just had some guidance.”

I tried not to scoff at that. A role model is not a word I would use with my name in the same sentence. “What makes you say that,” I questioned running my hoof through my mane.

A warm smile made me keep my full attention on the mare. “Well,” she stated with confidence, “for starters, you're a very athletic mare, you’re not the type to sit around and let life pass you by. From what I saw up on that mountain, you’ve worked hard to reach that kind of physical ability, so I know that you’re a determined and hardworking mare. That’s admirable.”

I didn’t say anything in return, only looked off at where the filly was buying her treats from. Actually, the sound of sweet, sweet alcohol after that fight sounded like a great way to end the day.

Finishing off the last of my cider, I tossed the cup into the trashcan beside me. “Sorry about how the hike turned out,” I said earnestly. “You might want to take it easy, I hear the bug bear venom has a gnarly kick to it.”

Hopefully the medication would take care of any nasty side effects. I heard some ponies had died from being exposed to far too much toxin, but that was only rare cases. “Anyway,” I said whistle getting up from my chair. “Not that this conversation isn’t fun, but I really need to get back into town, see you around, Peach Tree.”

I stopped for a moment then looked back at her, “Tell the little one I said ‘bye’.” I gave her smile then trotted off to catch a cable car back down the mountain.

*** ***

By the time I got back to the small town at the bottom of the mountain it was later than I had expected it to be. It was close to midnight when I walked into the bar that let me rent a room in the basement. I didn’t exactly like renting a basement as my room, but the distance between the bar and my bed was close enough that I could get drunk off my ass any day of the week and could make it to the mattress before passing out.

I downed another drink, then added the glass to my tower of three shot glasses. A yawn escaped me as I listened to the sound of the bartender playing a game of billiards with his friend. For a bar, it was rather empty tonight. Not that I minded the rather calm atmosphere.

It was rather nice listening to the bar music, even if it was looped on the same dubstep track that had been playing for the past hour. My head nodded slowly to the beat until the door to the bar swung shut with a loud thud, throwing me off rhythm.

Someone sat next to me and started to speak, “So this is where you live? At a hole in the wall bar, and by the looks of it, it was crudely made even for a piece of crap.” I looked at the mare speaking to find that it was Buttercup’s mother.

“Is this really the kind of scene a middle-aged single mother should be in?” I retorted rudely, “But since you asked, yeah, the closet and the old mattress are pretty damn comfortable. The roaches are a bit of pain, though.”

She looked me dead in the eyes, making me want to scoot my chair away from her. I tried, but all that did was make me wobble. “Is this really the kind of place a mare your age should be staying at?” she shot back with the same rude tone I had, “You’re a bit young to be living paycheck to paycheck, don’t you think?”

I kept my gaze fixed on the various bottles set along the shelf across from me. My hoof went for the bottle, but the mare took hold of it and poured both of us a drink. “Is that really your concern?” I asked, finally turning my gaze to her.

“No, but it’s written on your face,” Peach replied, taking a drank.

“Hey, next round is on her,” I called out to the bartender. He gave me a wave before returning to his game. Returning to my drink, I fixed my gaze on the glass to see Peach Tree was still staring at me. “Again, that’s not really your business now is it?”

“You’re right, it’s not, but I’d like to offer a helping hoof.” The mare poured herself another shot glass and downed it in one drink. She set it atop my small tower, which was slowly beginning to lean a bit, but I wasn’t sure if it was from bad placement or possibly being drunk off my ass. “You know, I used to be like you. Searching for that next rush, always being on the move, but that’s no way to live.”

If it hadn’t been for the amount of drinks I’d had, I might have taken some offense to that.

She continued, “One of these days you’re going to push it too far, and then you won’t ever be thrill seeking again.”

“I haven’t had an accident yet,” I responded, back slamming my hoof against the table and making the glass tower shake. “If it hasn’t happened yet-”

“It probably won’t ever happen,” the mother interrupted sharply, getting me to stop talking. I stared back at her, which proved to be a bit difficult after downing my last drink. “That’s what I said before I broke my back on a ski trip pushing it too far. Thankfully my parents were around to help me out, seeing as I couldn’t pay for my medical bills.”

I sat in silence. I wasn’t going to answer that, nor did I want to think about any backup plan. “Listen,” she continued while writing something down on a napkin. She had mastered the art of talking with a pen in her mouth better than I ever had. “I’m not saying you have to give up being an adrenaline junkie, but if you don’t at least have a permanent place to live as well as a steady income when something bad does happen to you, what are you going to do then?”

She draped the napkin over my drink so that I could see the address written on it. “I know a place that’s hiring and it pays decently, come visit if you’re interested,” she said before setting enough bits down to cover the bill plus one more drink, “I hope you’ll think about it.” Once she left, I started wadding up the napkin, but stopped for a minute to mull it over.

My hooves crumpled the paper up before bumping it into the trashcan behind the counter. Shortly after, my head gently hit the countertop with my eyes battling to stay open for one last drink. I nuzzled the countertop slowly feeling the weight of sleep over taking me.

A loud clunk from an empty glass made me look up. The bartender had a rather surprised look on his face. “So you’re just going to let an opportunity walk out the door?” I didn’t say anything to him. All I could do was lean my head against the counter and listen. “You really are a stubborn mare, you know that?”

His hoof reached down, wrestling for something inside the trash. I couldn’t see what he grabbed, but I did have a nice view of the drink he was pouring. For some reason, another one sounded good right about now. “This is for you,” he said setting the glass of water down on top of a piece of paper.

With a bit of a struggle I managed to lift my head up enough to look into the glass. At the bottom of the glass, I could barely make out an address through the rippling liquid. My hoof reached out to it, but the stallion pulled the drink back just outside my reach. “You know I was once offered this job, but I blew it, over and over again,” he said, pouring himself a drink. “I went through all of my chances, every last one of them, that’s how I ended up here.”

He slid the drink back to me. “If I ever got an opportunity like what that mare just offered you, I’d take it. Took me a long time to get my shit together, don’t waste something like this.” Before I could form any words, the bartender turned up the music. I didn’t bother trying to raise my voice enough to talk over the music.

*** ***

I had to admit, I wasn’t expecting to have a room to stay at the day I walked into Griffonstone, but the mother was true to her word. A museum had been hiring, and I was to transport several works from the exhibit to and from two other smaller museums every couple weeks, along with a few other miscellaneous transporting jobs. However, I hadn’t been expecting my room to be in a two story house with the very mare that had passed the job off to me.

Upon request, I shared my place in the garage that wasn’t being used. I didn’t ask what the mother did for a living, but I won’t pretend for a second that I wasn’t impressed by the size of this place. There was enough room to park my vehicle and still have some stretching room.

Nonchalantly tossing my bag on top of a well-made bed, I shortly joined it by flopping down next to it. A loud groan escaped my mouth as I took in the feeling of a mattress that wasn’t older than Princess Celestia. I nuzzled my head into the pillow as a sound from the vent caught my attention, but not enough for me to actually look up.

A hoof nudged me.

“Go away,” I muttered. It nudged me again, and to my irritation, it got my full attention. “What do you want?”

The mother’s filly sat in front of the bed with something sitting next to her. A hoof sat on top of it, keeping it obscured while she spoke. “Are you the mare renting the room?” she asked with her tail wagging to and fro.

I let my face hit the pillow again, avoiding the question. Her hoof nudged me. “Yes,” I said with a groan. Upon leaving my lips, that word made the filly squeal with delight. To my misfortune, she didn’t stop for several long moments. “Hey…Buttercup…listen I’ve had a long day. Would you mind letting me rest?”

Her eyes lit up. “After a story!” Her hooves held up a book. The cover was as worn out as my surfboard. I looked over to where I had leaned it against the wall.

At first I was prepared to reject the story, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Those puppy dog eyes of hers were too much for even me to turn down. “Fine,” I said with a sigh. I took the book in my hooves while I rolled over to make room for the filly.

Forty Thousand and One Reasons to Race

Chapter Three: Forty Thousand and One Reasons to Race

My hoof gently stroked Buttercup’s mane as my story came to a close. Her eyes had closed long before the story had finished, I was sure she had fallen asleep after the first five minutes, but I couldn’t bring myself to end the story. It was one of my personal favorite memories that brought a smile to my face when I told it.

The only downside to it was that not to long after I had been accepted into Peach Tree’s household, she died from a delayed reaction to the poison. The medication given to her wasn’t strong enough to stop her lung from clotting up. It had been one tragic afternoon when I came home to find Buttercup trying to wake her seemingly passed out mother on the floor.

I took over as her caretaker from then on out. Honestly, I never expected to bond with Buttercup as much as I had over the next few years, but I could say one thing with a smile on my face. “Being your sister, even if it isn’t by blood, was the best thing to ever happen to me,” I whispered to the sleeping filly. My eyes drifted from her to the night sky out her window. “I’ll be back soon, love you, Buttercup.” I gave her a soft hug along with a kiss to her head before quietly trotting off to make my last hope to earn enough bits to keep her with me.

*** ***

The cool air was crisp enough to be broken off like an icicle from my skis. Tightening the strings to my hoodie, I turned my attention away from an engine exploding like a fireworks display in the distance and back to my car which looked as if it was being held together by small threads. Those threads happened to be duct tape and a few bits of chewing gum that were somehow holding the hood of my car together each round.

A long sigh escaped me as my breath rose up like steam from a cup of coffee. I carefully closed the hood down, making sure the tape and gum were still holding. My brain reminded me how lucky I was to have gone first this round, as well as being extra fortunate to have gotten a pony tied to a stone; or in other words, someone not fast, as my opponent. “That should do it,” I muttered to myself.

One of the contestants, the one with the exploding engine, rolled by with his window rolled down. Curse words that would make me put my hooves over Buttercup’s ears filled the air, making me chuckle. By the looks of it he had won the race, but like me at one point, sprayed too much nitrous into the engine, causing it to firework itself to the finish line. Normally I wouldn’t judge a pony on how they won a race so long as it was earned, but in a contest like this where a pony could race four or even five times in a weekend with the same car, meant that blowing the engine every pass could result in that driver taking themselves out, which is a poor strategy to use with forty thousand bits on the line. Especially when that option had a high chance to fry every piston.

While I preferred to earn my victories, I wasn’t going to complain about drawing Fast Lane’s name in the coming round, seeing as I wouldn’t need to use my nitrous to beat him with what he was running with now. A mare with a pink puffy mane and coat as white as a bleached lab coat walked by, “Calling it now, he’s out of the race!” She shot me a glance, but before she could get in my face about last Payout, I took a look at the video from the last race.

Before the video ended, I placed a bet on the next race, my bits being on the white Pontiac GTO Judge that was driven by Runner Up. Rumor had it that every Payout event Runner Up had entered, he’d gone all the way to the finals every time. I couldn’t say how many times he’s been beat, but I always put my bits on him if he’s racing.

I shoved my way through the crowd just in time to see Morning Mist, our flagger and race master, flashing her horn to signal the drivers to start. With my eyes glued to the GTO, I smiled at the sight of it taking off as if it were set up perfectly. Its wheels hooked almost instantly while leaving the pony in the right lane behind by a car length the entire race. “That’s how it’s done!” I shouted out to the stallion that owed me bits. He slapped a sack of bits into my hoof which I hid inside my hoodie.

“Tell you what,” I said with a sly grin, “If Runner Up goes up against me, double or nothing. If he goes up against Silver Shoe, triple.” We locked gazes for a moment. I extended my hoof, and although it took a moment, along with what looked like a lot of will power, the stallion agreed to it.

“Adrenaline junkie,” Morning Mist called out. “Come on drivers, meeting now!”

Now that I was locked in for a bet, I trotted off to the meeting and stood next to Runner Up, who usually served to keep Silver Shoe off other racer’s asses when she got too competitive. There was a noticeable spot open where a fourth driver should have been. “So,” Morning Mist started to say as she walked past us, “I’m sure you have all noticed that Fast Lane is not here with us. Unfortunately for him, he fried his pistons in that last run.”

Morning faced us, dropping a brown sack in front of her. “Great news for you three, since that means one of you will get a free pass right into the finals. The only question that remains, is which two of you are going head to head.” With the excitement building up in this tournament, one thing was clear, no matter which match up was next, it was guaranteed to be a good race. Word on the street was that ponies were calling a rematch between me and Runner Up the race of the year.

On the other hoof, if Silver Shoe and I went up against each other, it would be a revenge race for metaphorically blowing her doors off last year. “I want to race you,” Silver Shoe said with her gaze locked on me, I shot her a smile. “If it hadn’t been for that oil covered lane, I would have beat you.”

“Oh and I suppose you’re going to say someone tied a boat anchor to your car too?” I retorted with a smug grin.

“Hey,” she said jokingly and with a defensive hoof up, “Whoever tied that anchor to my car had it out for me.”

The crowd laughed at that. Out of all the excuses a pony threw out after they lost, Silver Shoe claiming someone tied a boat anchor to her car was one of the best. Morning Mist’s chuckle brought us all back to the meeting. “Alright,” she said levitating the bag up. “Runner Up, why don’t you come up here and draw?”

“I’m not drawing,” he stated flatly.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, which brought about the question as to when Silver Shoe got so close. “Why don’t you reach on in there, Miss Junkie?” My eyes darted between the other two drivers.

“What is this? Some kind of mind game?” I asked, taking a cautious step forward. Both Silver Shoe and I looked at Runner, who just shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter who I get,” he said nonchalantly. “Either way it goes down, I’m giving you both a good race.”

Rolling my eyes at his decision to let me pick, I trotted over to the sack and put a hoof in. Paper brushed up against my hoof as I felt the three scraps that would determine who was going to meet up in the coming race. “While you’re at it,” Morning Mist said with a grin, “Once you pick Runner’s number, how about you pick yours?”

I pulled out a piece of paper and flashed it to Morning. She wrote it down on her clipboard, then let me reach another hoof inside the bag. Once again, scraps of paper brushed up against my hoof. I yanked one out, then took a look at what was written on it.

A smile grew on my face as I tossed the paper on the ground and stood next to the crowd. “Have fun you two. Runner, win this for me, I need the bits.” I gave him a wink and let my smug smile piss off Silver Shoe. I would be lying if I said that last taunt wasn’t for her.

Morning Mist neighed to get our attention. “Sky, we’ll see you in the finals. Runner, Silver, you both get your asses ready to go down this road. Once one of you pulls to the line, the other driver has five minutes to get up here or they’re disqualified.” Once they were both set with their burnout juice, they trotted off to their vehicles to prep for a race I was dying to see.

Runner Up tossed the bottle to me, so I followed him to his car. Our conversation was quiet, which I assumed was because he was psyching himself up. “Don’t sleep on the light, don’t sleep on the light,” he mumbled to himself. A long exhale came from him a moment later. “Alright, Sky High, do me a favor and help me get the burnout juice under my tires, without Silver Shoe helping me, I need an extra pony.”

“Sure thing.” I slid the bottle in my hoodie pocket. As I approached his car, I took a look at the open laptop with all the information on his car. A peak like this into someone else’s car was gold for winning, but since it was mostly about his twin turbos, which I knew nothing about, it didn’t help at all.

I scooted off to the side, letting Runner take his spot in front of the laptop. “Spying on the enemy, Sky? That’s not a very good way to win a contest.” He stuck his tongue out at me playfully, making me laugh.

“Shut up, you asked for my help, besides I don’t understand twin turbo data anyway,” I said, trying not to laugh too hard. “So how much of this do you need on the road?”

“Just a little.” He hit enter on the laptop once it assured him everything was good. Climbing inside the car, Runner rolled down the window using his hoof to motion where he was going afterwards. “Pour about a quarter of the bottle on both tires.”

Three drawn out honks had me jerk my head up to find Silver Shoe’s Chevy Vega had already pulled to the line. Smoke slowly rose up, signifying that she had already finished her burnout in the right lane. “Get your ass up here!” Morning shouted to Runner while he checked some wiring that hadn’t been concealed properly.

I knocked on the side of the car, earning a hoof in the air that told me to give him a minute. His hooves shoved the wires back where they were supposed to go, then closed the compartment they came from to keep them from falling out. “You stallions can’t seem to keep your hooves from jacking with everything,” I said jokingly as he shot me a smile. I pushed myself away from the car and followed it as he drove towards the line.

“Damn, this a good matchup and it’s not even the finals!” One of the stallions in the crowd shouted out.

Putting myself between the starting line and the car, I held my hoof up, slowly moving it around in a circular motion to get Runner to pull up closer. His front bumper lined up perfectly with the spray-painted line when I held my hoof straight out, signaling him to stop. Trotting up to one of the rear tires, I sprayed some of the burnout juice, or “pimp-juice” as some called it, along the concrete in front of the tire. I did the same on the other side.

Once I gave him the okay, Runner did a small burnout, leaving smoke trailing behind him as his vehicle lurched forward. With a new coating of rubber down in the left lane, Runner backed up to the line, making sure I oriented him so that he could focus on getting from point A to point B as fast as possible.

I joined the crowd a moment later, making sure to stay close to the stallion I made the bet with. My eyes became glued to Morning Mist as she stepped out in front of the drivers as they revved their engines together. It was brief, but I caught a glimpse of Runner and Silver taking a quick glance at one another just as Morning got ready to trot backwards. As she ran back, Morning stopped and flashed her horn bright purple.

The wheels attached to the GTO spun slightly, but caught traction a moment later as if it were running across a soda-covered table top. It pulled forward, as fast as every other launch it had done tonight, and continued to accelerate without any complications.

In the other lane, the Chevy Vega launched just as hard, catching enough grip against the road that it could have pulled a ten-year-old piece of gum off the road surface. Somehow, by a bumper length, the Vega pulled ahead enough for a few ponies in the crowd to run out after the cars, cheering their favorite on. Flames came spewing out from the exhaust pipes for a brief moment, then died down just before the second wave of flames came exploding out after the second kit of nitrous was sprayed.

At the halfway mark, Runner Up’s GTO caught back up without any sign of it slowing down. A couple more pony-lengths went by when Silver Shoe’s third kit came on. However, it wasn’t enough. The twin-turbo GTO seemed to keep with it by the time they reached the last portion of the quarter mile.

Being so far out from us, I couldn’t tell who crossed the finish line first. From my perspective, they crossed at the exact same time, which is the reason we have someone down at the end with a camera ready to make that call. Morning Mist hit a button on her headset, “What’ve you got down there?”

She nodded her head then looked at all of us. “Runner Up, by a fender!”

I took my winnings from the stallion, cheering for the GTO as the driver started driving back. As I walked away from him, I could have sworn I heard a few curse words that would have made Buttercup’s face turn bright red. “Pleasure doing business with you!” I called back to him.

My hooves motioned for the crowd to move aside while I shouted out that a car was approaching. Just as the crowd formed an empty lane, Runner Up pulled through, trying to honk his horn to the song playing on the stereo next to me. He came to a right beside me. “Hey!” he called out with the window rolled down, “I’ll take the left lane like last time, if you’re okay with it.”

I gave him a hoof bump. “Sure thing,” I said, giving his car a pat on the hood before it drove off to turn around. My hoof rested on the top of my Holden while I shook off the anxiousness that was forming in my stomach like a knot. A long exhale slowly brought the fire back to my stomach while I slid inside my car.

Tracing the steering wheel slowly with my hooves, I counted to five before sighing once more. I kept psyching myself up as much as I could, doing my best not to think about the stakes I had riding on my back. With my hoof firmly planted on the gear shifter, I began pulling up to the line, but found Runner Up motioning for me to roll my window down.

With my window rolled down, I leaned my head out to hear him better. “Sky,” he said, nudging his head at the finish line, “Win or lose, I’ll buy you a shake afterwards. Deal?”

“It better have some hard cider mixed in with it,” I retorted with a smile.

“Damn, you have expensive tastes.” His window rolled back up as he laughed.

Silver Shoe called out to Runner, “Fuck this bitch up!”

Morning Mist trotted out in front of our vehicles, facing us with her mane obscuring one of her eyes. Her hoof brushed her mane away as she slowly pulled Runner Up and his GTO to the line. A moment later, she held her hoof out, keeping him from advancing any further.

She looked at me, then motioned for me to pull forward. She continued to have me pull forward until I was right on the line. Her hoof stopped and so did I. Morning exchanged glances with both of us before trotting back and flashing her horn with a bright purple flash.

Natural driving instincts took over as my hooves acted on their own to create the best possible launch.I could feel the tires catch grip far better than they ever had before thanks to the rubber left behind by the other drivers. My bumper shot out in front of the GTO, which brought a large smile to my muzzle.

Morning Mist became a distant figure in my mirror as my hoof hit the first nitrous kit. Flames erupted out from the exhaust pipes as I kept part of my gaze on the road and boost gauge. Once it was safe for me to use the second kit, I mashed the button down. Another round of flames exploded out from my vehicle while I looked at Runner Up.

His car pulled ahead a bit more that I couldn’t tell if I was winning or if we were tied. As we passed the halfway point, I mashed my emergency nitrous button to give myself an additional bit of horsepower that could make or break this race. My eyes darted to the gauge after hitting the button to find the needle was dangerously approaching where my engine would have problems.

A loud explosion from the engine made my heart slowly sink back into my chest as both vehicles came flying across the finish line at the same time. Without wanting to damage my engine any more than that last shot had done, I took my foot off the gas, slowly coming to a stop near the pony that could make a call on a close call like that one.

I got out of my car to find Runner Up breathing heavy. He looked at me with a smile. “I love it when things come down to the wire like that! It’s all for this feeling right here!” I couldn’t help but laugh at his enthusiasm while he beat his chest to mimic his fast beating heart.

The pony in charge of declaring a winner looked at both of us for a second, but before he said anything he took another look at the video. A few moments began feeling like an eternity as the stallion nodded his head and pointed at the winner.

Runner threw his hoof up and waved back at the crowd down the road from us. From where we were standing, we could see them all cheering. When Runner faced me my heart skipped a beat. I stared out at the empty field next to us before galloping over to my car and starting it up, which took a few tries as the nitrous had blown something in the engine. Thankfully it started up before anyone could talk to me, although I thought I heard Runner try to speak.

I slammed on the gas and drove.

It took me a few minutes to find a barn to park my car behind. For a few moments I just sat there listening to the sound of my engine getting ready to die out on me. Once it did, I slid my hooves along the steering wheel.

I screamed at the top of my lungs with my hooves slamming into the steering wheel. My hooves hit it again and again until it finally bent. Smoke continued to rise up from the engine signaling to me that even if I wanted to challenge him to a rematch it was already out of the question.

*** ***

My hooves felt ready to fall apart by the time I ran into the hospital. The sun hadn’t even risen despite the early morning hours. Each step I took my brain tried piecing together another plan that I could use to get the money I needed. Even getting an extension on the payment would be enough to settle my pounding heart.

Buttercup’s clipboard containing all of her medical information wasn’t on the door. I checked inside the room for her, but it was empty. It took me a moment to walk back outside. “Excuse me,” I asked pulling a nurse to the side. “Where was Buttercup moved to?”

“Buttercup?” she said to herself thinking about the name. “Oh. Sky, she passed away in her sleep earlier tonight. We tried contacting your home phone a few times, but you never answered.” She walked inside the room then returned with my ice climber. I don’t know how long I stood there holding it in my hoof, but it was long enough that the nurse left to avoid whatever awkward situation I put her in.

An hour passed before I finally got the strength to get up and walk over to the doctor’s office. I stared at the door then bucked it as hard as I could. “Jackass!” I continued to buck it one hit at a time until a police officer pulled me away.

Epilogue

Epilogue

A couple of days had passed since the funeral, which still didn’t feel real even after attending it. Since then I took the week off, mostly to grieve, but also to try and get back into normal routine again. My luck seemed to stabilize after ruining my car with the stupid amount of nitrous I sprayed, which to my misfortune, meant I no longer had a usable vehicle.

I stretched out one of my hooves, admiring the beautiful sunset as I did so. My conscience told me to turn around and head back the way I came once I saw an the old warehouse come into view, but I shoved that advice back where it came from. Had it not been for one of the drivers from Payout telling me someone wanted to meet me, I wouldn’t have shown up, but I’ll trust the word of any driver that Morning Mist invites to race.

“You couldn’t have picked some place closer,” I muttered crossly. The sun hit my eyes a moment later, but my hoodie sleeve shielded me from the light as I found my way to the warehouse door. Jiggling the knob, I hit the door a bit trying to budge it, but managed to knock the door knob off instead.

Moving my sleeve over the dust-tinted window, I peered inside to find the garage door on the other side was open in front of what I could only assume was a rusted car left to rot. I pushed off from the window, slowly trotting around to the garage door where I ate crow. Instead of finding a rusted piece of crap, I found a beautiful blood red Holden Monaro GTS resting peacefully near several tool crates.

“It’s a work in progress, but I think I did a good job thus far,” said a mare from behind me. Before I could turn to see who it was, the mare stepped in front of me, setting a tool box by her side. Her puffy mane stood out to me right away. “So,” Silver Shoe said grabbing a wrench, “Morning Mist told me about that filly you were driving for. I’m sorry for your loss, I’m sure she meant a lot to you.”

Silver Shoe was the last pony I expected to meet. My tolerance level for her wasn’t going to reach as far as it normally did. “Look,” I said with my hoof close to my climbing axe, “If you came to make fun of me, or give me some arrogant shit talk, I don’t want to hear it.”

Low cranks from the wrench echoed around the warehouse before Silver Shoe finally decided to say something. “Sky,” she said in what I assumed was her most calming tone, “I know I talk shit about you a lot during race nights, but that’s when we’re out trying to prove we’re the best drivers.” She paused, taking the brief moment to scratch her head before saying, “Runner Up told me that I had to offer this to you, because he wants to make sure I can play nice with you.”

“Did he tell the kitty to put her claws away,” I retorted with a smug smile.

She tried not to laugh, but Silver couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “Alright, I’ll let you have that one,” she said while packing up the toolbox into the car’s trunk, “But seriously, we figured you have a lot of bills to finish paying and we can help you out. So you want to come along, or what?”

Moments stretched into a few minutes while I thought this over. Silver Shoe didn’t seem to mind, she took the time to check the car, making sure it was in driving condition before starting it up. “If it helps,” she said with a smile, “Runner told me to tell you he owes you a hard cider shake.”

I laughed and shook my head, part me of couldn’t believe he actually remembered that bet. With a nod, I said to her, “Then fill me in on the way back into town.”

Her eyes lit up like a firecracker, she pulled me over to the driver's seat, slapping the keys into my hoof with enough force it hurt just a little. She slid over the hood saying, “You looked confused? What, you thought I was going to drive this piece of shit, Holden?”

A long sigh escaped me as I brought a hoof to my face responding with, “This is going to be a long drive, isn’t it?” I pulled my hoof away to see an evil smug smile stretched across her face. Something told me this was going to be some form of initiation. “Fine,” I said with a mental groan, “Tell me what’s up.”