Race to the Finish

As the days passed by, Coloratura managed to sign a deal with Sweet Apple Acres with Granny Smith. Meanwhile, she also spoke to Rarity and inked another sponsorship deal with Rarity's Boutique. She was more than happy to model a few outfits in exchange for promoting the boutique. Meanwhile, the girls themselves revealed that they were going to visit her at every track.

Upon hearing that, Sliptream was a bit hesitant. He warned, "Are you girls sure about this? I'm going to assume that these trips won't affect your schooling. However, my big concern is that tickets are not going to be cheap. Several tracks have different price ranges, not to mention that there is air fare, transport fare and the cost of hotels."

That was when Applejack informed him that her grandmother was more than happy to foot the bills for their travels. Apparently, the Apple family farm usually raked in a decent amount of income from their produce, and the matriarch assured him that it was no trouble.

As race weekend came closer, Sunset noticed that Slipstream was looking increasingly nervous. She looked up his accident and winced, as it was pretty grizzly. Eventually, she convinced him to join her in her sessions with their psychiatrist. On Thursday, Slipstream went to pick up the girls from Nuremberg Airport. As he drove in his modified car, he explained, "Sorry kids, Sunset really wanted to be there to pick you up, but she has a session with our mental health expert."

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion, "Mental health? What's that got to do with racing?"

He explained, "A lot, actually. Do you chicas have any idea how mentally draining it is? Since all teams are travelling a lot, many of us don't get a lot of time to spend with our families. As it is, this sport is so dangerous that the riders don't even know if they will live long enough to see their families. Also, there is the stress of the championship, and that takes a toll on anyone. A bunch of friendships even got broken, and some rivalries turned ugly."

Pinkie piped up, "How bad was it?"

He smiled wryly, "Let's just say, in the worst case scenario, one team even erected a dividing wall between two teammates who were battling each other for the championship."

He dropped them off at their hotel before re-joining the team at the track. As Gearwrench toggled with the setups and prepped the #19 bike, Slipstream sat down with Sunset with a folder full of data. He opened it up to reveal the track map and pointed to certain sections, "Okay, so the first corner is pretty tricky, because it's going downhill. Very easy to lose grip at this section, so be careful. The next sequence can be challenging, so if you make a mistake in one corner, you're going to be off the racing line for the next set of corners, and you lose time. With me, so far?"

She nodded vigorously and he continued, "However, the real challenge begins from Turn 4 onwards. As you can see here, you're just going left, then left again and again. It gets pretty tight at Turns 5 and 6, before you open the throttle for Turns 7, 8, 9 and 10. Then you got to flick the bike right for Turn 11. Trust me, this corner catches a lot of riders out. Heck! That's the corner that ended my career. The fact that it's a steep downhill drop, only make things worse. The last two corners are also tight, and they are some of the best overtaking hotspots."

Few minutes later, Sunset was out on the track, and was setting a good pace. In the opening session, she finished fifth fastest and was 10th in the second session. Admittedly, one of her lap times got ruined by yellow flags, thanks to a crash from Bullet. That incident happened with five minutes on the clock, and she was 13th at the time. When the yellow flags were taken away, she was back on the pace and slotted into P7, but soon slipped down to 10th.

When they turned up for qualifying, there was a new face waiting for them in the garage. Slipstream had a big smile on his face when he spotted the newcomer, "Well... This is a surprise!"

He was cut off when a pale opal blur tackled him with a squeal. When Slipstream finally got his focus, he registered a pair of lips smashed against his own, and a pair of arms around him. He melted into the kiss for a few minutes, when the woman pulled away. He finally broke the kiss, brushed back her two-tone pink hair with one hand and spoke in a soft husky voice, "Hey Fuffie..."

The woman snuggled into him and he addressed Sunset and her friends, "Girls? I'd like you to meet Kerfuffle, my fianceé. We met about three years ago in physiotherapy."

He gestured down towards a prosthetic right leg, "Turns out, she was a rising footballer, but lost her leg when a jerk of a drunk driver crashed into her."

Kerfuffle spoke up in a cute raspy drawl, "Yeah, well Streamy and I met in therapy and hit it off straight away. We began dating after about 6 months, and we only just got engaged, last year."

Rarity swooned, "How romantic!"

Kerfuffle leaned against him, still curled up on his lap in the wheelchair, "I happened to be in town and thought I'd drop by to say hello. I also wanted to meet this Shimmer girl, you've been going nuts about. If she were any older, I'd probably start getting jealous,"

She winked playfully as she said those words. He rolled his eyes and then poked her in the back, "Fuffie, as much as I'd love to cuddle, we do need to get back to work."

Kerfuffle whined, "Do I have to.....? Your lap is too comfy!"

He shot her an exasperated look, and then she relented, "Okay fiiiiiine."

Sunset snorted as she got kitted up and mounted her bike. Gear Wrench made some adjustments to the Aprilia before she set off. When the session drew to a close, she ultimately lined up in 10th place. Finally, it was race day, and Sunset was pumped. Much like everyone else, she opted for hard front and medium rear tyres because she wasn't taking any chances.

The girl rode out for her warm-up lap and then watched the lights. When they went out, she got a decent launch, but went a bit too quick into the first corner. This resulted in her losing three places, and it only got worse when she lost another. IN the garage, Slipstream was clutching his dark brown hair, "Gah! She didn't get enough heat into those tyres!"

The laps ticked by and then the fight back began. Sunset Shimmer eventually swept past one girl called Snowstorm and slotted into 13th. A lap later, she was up to 12th and Slipstream clapped, "Yes! That's it! Full gas! Come on!"

Sure enough, she was up to 11th by the start-finish line to start the next lap. Things got even better when Velocity went wide and took a trip across the gravel, and Sunset was up into the Top 10. With 20 laps to go, Sunset crept up to P9, and began chipping away at the gap to the rider ahead. Soon enough, she was in eighth place and hunting down P7. Slipstream, Sunny and Izzy then got out a big pit board, put some letters and numbers on it, and handed the board to Applejack, "Hey, do me a solid? Go out to the pit wall and show it to Sunset as she's passing by. This is the gap to the rider ahead."

Applejack tipped her hat, "You got it!"

She did so and Sunset pushed her bike harder. However, with about five laps to go, she was back down to 9th place. Then, disaster struck for Apex, as he crashed out from the lead. This promoted Sunset Shimmer back up to 8th. Then on the final lap, she dived down the inside of Powerslide and snatched 7th place, and that was where she ultimately finished.

As she rode in, she explained to him, "Sorry about that. Something got a bit screwed up at the start. That's why I got a bit bogged down."

Gear Wrench was already inspecting the #19 bike. He called out, "Ahh! So that's what happened! There was an issue with the ride height device!"

A bewildered Applejack exclaimed, "A who-in-the-what now?"

Slipstream waved the girls over, "Right... How do I put this, as simply as possible? So this device lowers the bike's centre of gravity, so that they can accelerate faster without popping a wheelie. Sure, the wheelie looks cool for the cameras, but the rider has to go slower so that they don't lose control of the bike and crash."

Fluttershy nodded, "I see... That makes sense. So because of the problem with the device, she could not accelerate fast enough?"

He grinned, "Got it in one! Anywho! I'm excited for Silverstone! Rarity, how goes the planned livery?"

"It's coming along. I'll email it to Sunset when we go home. I just need to put some finishing touches. And don't worry, no jewels have been used."

Slipstream shot her a thumbs up as they all began packing up. Meanwhile, the girls also decided to start making their leave.