Night life in the South-East area of Canterlot was the exact opposite of the stereotype of Canterlot and Canterlot ponies: not at all stuck up, snobby, posh, traditional or looking down upon others, but rather welcoming, vibrant and fun to be a part of.
Vinyl Scratch, a unicorn DJ better known by her stage name DJ-PON3, knew this all too well as she frequently did DJ-ing at nightclubs and parties, not to mention at the wedding reception of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor a couple of months ago.
Currently, she was setting up her equipment for another Saturday night party at a local nightclub when her phone began to ring in her pocket.
She sighed upon hearing the buzzing noise and put down her equipment to the side. She placed the equipment out of the way so nobody would walk into it and pulled her iPhone out of her pocket. Not bothering to see who was calling, she swiped the green button on the screen to the right and held the phone's speaker to her ear.
"Hello?" she answered, unsure of who was calling.
"Hey, Vinyl," replied a voice on the other end of the phone line that belonged to a mare who had an upper-class accent. "It's Octavia."
"Oh," Vinyl replied in a much more enthusiastic manner. She was glad it wasn't the client to say that it was cancelled or there was a problem. "Hey, Octi. What's up?"
"Oh, I'm fine, thank you. I was just calling you to let you know that I was accepted into the Royal Conservatoire for next year."
"Wow, that's brilliant!" Vinyl replied enthusiastically, smiling as she removed her shades with her magic and sat down on a nearby chair. "Congratulations!"
"Thank you."
"Your family's happy about it, I take it?"
"Yes, they were ecstatic about it. We'll be going out later to celebrate."
"So where will you stay while you're here?"
"Well, there's a mare that I know from doing the Grand Galloping Gala from a while back by the name of Beauty Brass, who got into the Conservatoire as well, so I'll ask if it's possible to stay with her."
"Well, that'll be good."
"So how are you at the moment?"
"I'm OK, if a little tired," Vinyl replied, getting out of the chair she was sitting in. "I was just setting up for another Saturday night."
"What about your roommate? How is he doing?"
"Oban?" Vinyl took a sip of her drink. "He's fine. I'm sure he's using the weekend to do something nice and relaxing."
Oban hit the brake pedal using his right toes while keeping his heel resting on the gas pedal, shifting down to second gear and using the accelerator to blip the throttle into the right rev range, while pulling on the steering wheel sharply to the left. He then almost immediately started counter-steering to pull out of the drift he had initiated not moments earlier, narrowly avoiding the guiderail on the right-hand side and his rival in front of him in the process, who had braked late into the corner and had run wider into the corner and as a result had lost a fair amount of speed.
Your driving isn't impressive in the slightest, Oban thought. You can press the accelerator all you want, but you're braking later than you should be, your gear shifting is seriously out of touch and your ability to corner is atrocious. The only reason you're still in front is because you have a V8 in front of you and you keep blocking me in the corners.
But now that I've seen your strategy the last few corners...
I know what your weakness is.
With that in mind, he slammed the car into third gear and sped after his rival.
*45 MINUTES EARLIER*
The night life in Canterlot has been known for one distinct thing: the night clubs and parties held during the evening and night in the city, as well as some gambling in some of the finest casinos in Equestria, with largely everyone being welcoming to others, with the exception of a few biased nobles that nobody really paid much attention to.
Another lesser known night activity in Canterlot, however, was the street racing that happened in the Canterhorn Mountains every weekend, where a small group of people would gather and race on the mountain passes, on both downhill and uphill sprints, where people would try to achieve the fastest times on both, as well as a drifting segment where on a sprint race going downhill, the driver is not the winner for being the fastest down to the bottom of the road, but rather who was the best at drifting.
For Oban McKay, he was much more attracted to the latter activity. He could be described as an avid petrolhead, showing particular interest in the BMW M3, specifically the E36 and E46 versions of the car, and Japanese sports cars from the late 1980's to the late 2000's, but liking all forms of cars.
Except if said cars had only cosmetic changes made to them or had less than 100 horsepower-- in his words, it wasn't worth his time if it didn't have some sort of power in the engine bay.
There was going to be a meeting in the mountains that night, so that was why Oban was walking to the garage only a couple of blocks away from the nightclub that his roommate would often attend on Saturday nights. He had agreed to meet a friend of his, Thunder Tail, at the garage where they kept their cars to discuss what was probably going to happen at the meeting.
Thankfully, it wasn't too long a walk to get there from Oban's job at a restaurant that he worked on the weekends to earn some money on the side for rent, and soon enough he was standing outside the building that housed their cars. The garage itself was a standalone garage that sat between other lockups. It had space for two vehicles, one for Oban and the other for Thunder.
Oban opened the maroon-coloured garage door, and smirked upon seeing the two sports cars sitting inside. Looking at these cars, one who was not a gear-head might notice some minor modifications to them, such as bumpers that exposed the intercoolers. But a car enthusiast would also note that the two cars in question were very capable sports cars.
On the left hand side of the garage sat a crimson-coloured Honda S2000, or more specifically an AP1 that had been converted to a coupé to improve body rigidity, with a carbon fibre hood/bonnet, a carbon fibre boot lid, a rear wing and a sun strip. This was Thunder's weapon of choice.
On the right hand side, however, was a modified jet-black Nissan Z32 300ZX, Oban's pride and joy. Oban had modified his car externally in a similar fashion to Thunder, but Oban's Z32 was a slightly more powerful than the AP1, packing 280bhp stock and was capable of twice as much as that. It was very quick for a nearly 20-year-old sports car.
The car was, mechanically, mostly stock. It had a remapped ECU, which squeezed some more power from the engine and gained a little higher top speed, but the turbochargers, spark plugs, brakes and exhaust, including the catalytic converter, were all stock.
Oban walked into the garage and shut the door behind himself, leaving it unlocked for Thunder to arrive. He then turned back towards his car, and sighed as he walked over and did some necessary checks on various parts, such as jacking the car up and checking the tyres and brakes to see how they were doing. Satisfied that they were looking alright, he lowered the car again.
He was in the process of fitting the wheel back on when he heard the door open. Looking up, he smiled upon seeing a familiar white and grey coloured gryphon.
"Hey, Thunder," Oban spoke as he turned his attention back towards his wheel, the Scottish accent plainly obvious in his voice. "You alright?"
"Yeah," the gryphon replied, walking over to Oban and standing behind him. "Work was slightly hectic, but that's to be expected on a Saturday. You?"
"Aye, I'm alright," Oban responded as he fitted the final wheel nut onto the rear left wheel. "It was really busy, but as you've said, that's to be expected with Saturdays." Oban then sighed as he stood up from his crouched position. "The race is still happening, right?"
"Yep," Thunder replied, somewhat angrily. "I still don’t see why they can't give it a rest and have to be so sure of themselves."
The meeting that was being arranged in the mountains tonight was to settle an argument between Canterlot's two street racing teams: the Canterlot Road Masters and the Canterhorn Insomniacs, Oban’s team. The argument had arisen because a member of the Insomniacs had gotten into an impromptu race with a member of the Road Masters, and the Road Masters refused to accept the win for the Insomniacs, calling for a rematch.
"I know, but let's not get worked up now," Oban replied, opening the driver side door. "We can talk about it in the mountains."
"Okay, okay." Thunder responded. Oban slipped into the bucket seat. As he looked around his interior, he saw the weight reduction he had done inside, which involved changing the steering wheel and replacing the front seats with bucket seats to reduce weight.
Satisfied, Oban fired up the car's twin-turbocharged 3-litre V6 engine. After the engine had roared into life, he looked over to his right, and saw Thunder was in the process of doing the exact same thing.
Oban set the car into gear and carefully drove the car out of the driveway, stopping just outside. Getting out of the car, but leaving the engine running, he walked over to the garage door, with Thunder having already driven out.
Oban grabbed the door and closed it quietly but firmly, as it had a tendency to not close properly, then locked the door. After a simple check to make sure it was locked, Oban walked over to his car again and got back in it. Putting his hands back on the Momo steering wheel, he began to pull out of the small back road the garage was located on.
And so, Oban followed Thunder up the road which would take them up the mountains, the traffic becoming nonexistent when getting to the neighbourhood where the mountain pass was. Oban didn't attempt to race uphill at the moment, as he wasn't ready to race just yet--although that didn't stop him from pulling some drifts on the tighter hairpins.
Eventually, they got to their meeting location, which was a car park next to an abandoned guardhouse. When they arrived, they saw the three others who were part of the Insomniacs already parked and talking to each other.
One was Sun Fire, a bumblebee yellow pegasus mare with a royal blue mane and tail, wearing a black t-shirt with an E46 M3 GTR on it and leaning on the bonnet of an Air Force blue 2G Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. Another was Silver Blaze, a ultramarine-coloured earth pony stallion wearing a grey hoodie with a Nissan Silvia S15 on it, standing next to his scarlet kouki Nissan 200SX S14 whilst talking to her, and the other was Blitz who was a black anthropomorphic cat who was wearing a Lotus F1 buttoned polo shirt, also talking with the other two and away from the other car in the parking lot, a canary yellow Holden Monaro CV8.
The conversation gradually toned down as Thunder and Oban pulled into the car park and parked into an empty spot, but picked up as they walked over.
"Thunder, Oban, how are you?" Sun Fire asked.
"Aye, I'm good, Sunrise," Oban replied, with Thunder nodded his head in agreement. "Yourselves?"
"We're OK," Sunrise replied, with slight annoyance in her voice. "Although I really wish that this race would get over and done with. I'm really beginning to get sick of this."
"I know," Thunder added. "The sooner this gets over and done with, the better."
"In that case, what's our game plan?" Oban asked. "We might as well decide before they get here."
"Well," Sunrise replied, pondering over an idea. "If they want to do an uphill sprint, then I'll do that. I do hold the record after all."
"Okay, so who's doing the downhill?"
No response was given. Instead, everyone turned to look at Oban.
"What?"
On the two lanes of road sat the AP1 and the Z32, both revving their engines at what they decided was the starting line. The group had agreed to send Silver in his S14, Thunder in his AP1 and Oban down in his 300ZX down to the bottom of the mountain road; and whoever was the fastest would be driving on the downhill against the Road Master’s driver.
So far, Silver had been eliminated, albeit marginally, due to the car not handling quite as well as the S2000 on the hairpins. Now, Thunder and Oban were lined up on the starting line, with Sunrise counting them down.
"Five..."
Both Oban and Thunder continued to rev their engines.
"...four..."
Oban and Thunder looked at each other briefly.
"...three..."
"We can't go now, guys!"
Groans could be heard from four others, especially from the two drivers.
"Why not, Blitz?!" Sun Fire shouted, turning towards the black anthropomorphic cat with an irritated expression on her face.
"Because there's a car on the way up."
Everyone groaned in displeasure. Depending on what the driver was doing, the race between the two drivers could either be put on hold if it was a civilian or another racer, or outright cancelled if it was an undercover police officer.
"Who is it?" Silver asked.
"I don't know. It wasn't clear on the CCTV."
"Well, that helps."
"All I know is that it was some kind of white sports car, so that proves it's not one of the Road Masters."
"Is it a cop?" Oban asked, himself and Thunder out of their cars and walking over to Blitz.
"I'm not sure, I'll look on the camera at the Wind Rider hairpin."
With that being said, Blitz clicked out of the road's bottom camera on his laptop and clicked on a camera marked 4_TURN; and sure enough, the camera showed a hairpin turn that was a turn to the right when climbing uphill. However, there was no sign of the car that Blitz had spotted.
"He'll be here any--" Blitz began, but he was cut off when he saw a white shape come into shot from the right-hand corner. "Oh, here he is."
Everybody craned their necks to look at the screen of the laptop.
"Doesn't drive like a cop," Sun Fire commented.
As the car got closer, they saw what the car actually was.
"Is that a G37?"
And sure enough, as the car got closer to the bend, they saw that the white sports car was actually an Infiniti G37 coupé, known for being used on the same platform as the Nissan 370Z and sharing the same 3.7-litre V6 engine.
"Looks like it," Thunder replied.
"Plenty of power stock," Silver commented. "But is he a somewhat decent driver?"
"He's an idiot... he's braking far too late!" Thunder said in a slightly panicked tone--with good reason, as the car kept closing forward... too close for the liking of most of the team.
It didn't bother Oban the slightest bit, however, as he had driven in much scarier conditions at a younger age.
Thankfully, the G37 managed to pull off a well-composed powerslide up the hairpin, kicking its tail out on the exit before quickly correcting and speeding up to the next corner.
"He's got a pair, I'll give him that," Sunshine replied.
More like being able to fight his car's weakness, Oban thought.
After another five minutes of waiting, and occasionally watching on the CCTV feed, the Infiniti finally came into view at the end of the road. The views on the driver amongst the groups was mixed: some thought he was a wannabe with money in his pocket, whilst others thought he was an enthusiastic driver that just had a habit of braking late that could be ironed out.
All of the group sans Blitz approached the G37 as it pulled over to the side of the road nearest to them, in front of the AP1. Sunshine knocked on the glass to get the driver to wind the window down. When the window came down, Sun Fire was the first to speak to the human behind the wheel, who looked to be in his late teens and seemed to be of Latino descent--other than that, it was difficult to determine anything about him.
"What are you doing here, kid?" Sun Fire asked. "Racing, I presume, looking at the CCTV feed and watching your driving."
The kid's eyes widened for a split second, but he caught himself and replied in a calm manner, "Yeah. I decided to come up here as I heard there was a duel between Canterlot's two street racing teams, and being interested into cars, I just had to come up to watch."
The driver then turned to Oban. "Hey, Oban."
The shock of this man he'd never seen before know his name was evident on Oban's face. "How did you-"
"I'm in your class at uni."
"You are?"
"Yeah. I sit up at the back corner, which is why you probably don't see me."
"Was the portal weird for you, coming through to this one?"
"Are you kidding? How is it possible to NOT get freaked out through the portal?"
"Aye, well, you've got a point there."
"Nice car," Silver commented. "Infiniti G37, 3.7-litre V6 engine, 316 brake horsepower. 0-60 in 5.2, and a top speed of 155 miles an hour."
"You know your stuff," the driver replied. "But I've modded the ECU, modded the suspension and fitted a twin turbo system into this car's engine, so it's closer to 580 horsepower and 490 pound-feet of torque."
"How old are you?" Thunder asked, genuinely shocked at the power figures of the car and how he was able to obtain it.
"I'll be eighteen in about two weeks."
Everyone's eyes boggled at the young age of the driver. A twin turbo system for that type of car would set you back at least roughly 5000 Bits, or £6,000.
"How were you able to afford this?" Silver asked.
"My parents are minted," he explained. "My dad's a surgeon and my mom's an orthodontist, and they spend too much time at work to care about what I'm doing in my spare time. They gave me a bit of money for rent for the first four months of my degree, but they fully expected me to work and earn money for myself as well."
"You work as well, though, to pay for your rent?" Silver asked.
"Yeah, I work part time when I get the chance at an IT suite as a janitor. It's only for twenty hours a week, but I do most of the work at weekends, which pays enough for me living here and the car. The same goes for my brother."
"What does your brother drive?" Oban asked. "Just out of curiosity."
"My older brother used to have a 2006 G35 Coupe, but it was too thirsty for oil and wasn't as reliable as he'd hoped, so he sold it and now he has a USE20."
Oban's eyes went as wide as saucers. "Your brother has a USE20?"
"Yeah, he's modded it as well, done a fair bit of tuning to it so it produces a hell of a lot of power for a four-door sedan from 2009."
"I bet it does."
"I'm sorry, what's a USE20?" Sunshine asked, making Oban turn around. "You're saying letters and numbers, but it means nothing."
"Seriously?" Oban asked, about to give a lecture about the car, but thankfully, the driver was more helpful.
"Basically, it's a Lexus IS F. 5.0 litre V8, but he's remapped the ECU and changed the intake, header and exhausts. So instead of the factory 416 horsepower, 0 to 60 in 4.2 and top speed of 170 miles an hour, it has about 500 horsepower, does 0-60 in 3.8 seconds and tops out at 205... or at least that's how fast he personally could get it."
The jaws of the group of racers dropped at the mention that he had managed to get the IS F so close to its top speed. Equestria didn't have a highway that had no top speed like the Autobahn, so having a top speed like that would be near impossible to get for the roads in Equestria.
"Where?" Sunshine asked in astonishment.
"On Highway 93, just out of Las Vegas. He managed to get up to that speed just a couple of months ago."
"Does he live here in Equestria?"
"No, he's staying in San Jose, just a short drive from my parent's house in San Francisco."
"Okay. Sorry," Thunder butted in. "What's your name?"
"Felix. Felix Ramirez."
"Well, pleased to meet you, Felix."
"Guys, we've got more traffic," Blitz announced as Silver was shaking hands with Felix.
"Is it them?" Sunshine asked as the others shook hands with him.
"Well, let's see..." Blitz muttered as he zoomed in on the camera image. "BMW i8, Cayman GTS, another i8, a 911 Carrera Cabrio and an Maserati GranCabrio... it's them, alright."
And as the group of six gathered round the PC screen, they saw the five cars head into the mountain pass from the opposite camera angle, all five braking fairly early and gathering very little speed into the corners for the cars they were driving.
"Not exactly enthusiastic, are they?" Felix commented, a smirk visible upon his face at seeing the driving abilities of the other team.
"Nope, they're not exactly the best of drivers either," Thunder responded.
"So, who's doing the downhill, then?" Oban asked.
"Well, shall we do rock, paper, scissors to settle it?"
"Fine, that's really all we've got left. Felix, can you park your car over here?"
"Sure."
As the sound of engines were getting louder, signifying the cars were getting closer, they played a game of rock, paper, scissors.
"Well, that means I'm driving then," Oban sighed, his anxiety beginning to pick up at the thought of losing due to the power outputs of the other cars, in particular the 911 Cabrio.
"Well, you haven't got time to worry about it," Felix commented as he got out of his car, having parked it in the lot with the other cars. "Here they come."
They all turned around, and sure enough, in addition to the sounds of engines increasing in volume, the outlines of five relatively new-looking sports cars clearly came into view, matching the descriptions that were visible on the CCTV.
Here we go, Oban thought.
