Speed King

"My father, the one you killed..." The air in the room grew cold as the brown griffon blurted this out. Not only was the accusatory remark the cause of the grim mood shift of the room, but it appeared that the formerly known, Carrot Cake, had been afflicted by his assertion. Though most of the group didn't want to believe such a charge, the expression plastered on Accelerator's face told them a very, disheartening truth was soon to follow.

Of the group, Rainbow Dash, whose face had turned a slight shade of rose from confusion, and irritation, took an umbrage to such accusations and began walking closer to the main griffon of the group, chastising him for such implications.

"Look here buddy," she began, getting closer to the large-beaked griffon, "I don't know who you are, you better back the fu-" she stopped herself mid-sentence remembering that the twins were in ear-shot of her; wanting to be a role model to ever young Equestrian, she corrected herself "- you better back up whatever crap you're spouting, because I don't believe that for a second!"

The main griffon began chuckling at Rainbow Dash's offended outburst, "Man, oh man-" he sighed, running his talons through his hair, "I forget how stupidly gullible, and optimistic you ponies can be sometimes."

"What the heck are you talking about!?"Rainbow Dash growled growing more infuriated by the minute.

Eye to eye, Will told them the story of his deceased father, "It’s like this," he began, "in case it wasn’t obvious, my dad was a racer, an’ a damn good one too. He’d even take me to see him race, even when I was just a chick.

"He was also an upstanding kind of griffon, always made sure I only watched when I wasn’t in school.”

Rainbow Dash seemed slightly perplexed by the direction of the conversation, “Okay, so you’re dad liked to race and helped you keep your beak clean, what’s your point?”

"I was getting to that!" Will growled in annoyance, "My dad was an amazing racer and I used to look forward to his races as they were some of the only times I got to see him, used to be something I had fond memories of," the griffon smiled a bit, before his smile sank into a frown, "at least, until…” he paused during his reminisces looking over towards the mustard yellow stallion, "Hmm-" he closed his eyes, "-you know, that part always gets a little fuzzy, mind explaining how you careened my dad off the road."

"There you go again," Rainbow shouted. "Spouting more BS again, I already told you that if you-" she hadn't seen it, but the rest of the group noticed the sudden vacant look in Accelerator's eyes.

"It was an accident," he admitted, his voice quavering in the process. Ignoring the looks of the horror of the others in the room, he reluctantly began explaining. "It was intensely rainy that day, I didn't want to race at the time-" he paused briefly, the grim memory lowering his voice. " But, my damn pride got the better of me, I wanted that checkered handkerchief so bad I had completely ignored the weather conditions. I just wanted to win so badly." He took another pause before he finished his admittance. "Even if it meant certain death."

Everyone in the room, mostly the ponies, looked at the stallion with a mix of fear, pity, and a bit of betrayal. The pony who they thought they knew, the kind caring to father of two now felt like nothing more than a lie, a dark, morbid, and all-out horrible truth.

Will took notice of the group's faces and decided to make a snide comment at their expense. "You know it's funny," he began, a grin growing on his face, "You ponies always joke about how greedy griffons are, yet you had no idea that your so-called friend-" he walked over to Accelerator, grabbing him by the collar, and lifted him to his eye level,"-Was nothing more than just a greedy, dirty killer-"

"So!" Everyone seemed to snap out of their stupor, as they looked towards the source of the voice, belonging in question to the Princess of Friendship's fabled assistant. " I mean, I know what he did was wrong, but can't you see he's been through enough."

“Been through enough?” The griffon repeated the last part in his mind, dropping the former racer to better process the last bit of his statement. “Been through enough!?” A vein formed on his forehead, his teeth gritting attempting to quell his angered shout. "What the hell do you mean, 'Been through enough !?" He practically spat those last words, practically frothing at the mouth as he did.

He growled intensely, his vein beginning to pulsate.

Noticing this, Spike slowly backed away, trying to stutter out a response, "I-I mean," he began "Changing his identity, moving to Ponyville, starting his whole life over. I mean, when you think about it, he was probably suffering over this for a long time, right?"

The aforementioned yellow stallion lifted his head, his eyes lightened by the dragon's revelation, quickly agreeing with the biped. "Y-yes," he stuttered, "Ever since that day, I've been lamenting about over the entire incident. I even contemplated going to the funeral, but." He lowered his head once again. "I was afraid about what would happen if I went, I thought you would kill me once I got there..."

"Oh, honey." The racer's wife went over to comfort him, "No matter what you did, you know I'll always forgive you." Quickly, the other ponies and one dragon began hugging the depressed the stallion, who now had tears forming in his eyes, silently thanking them for their understanding and forgiveness. Even with his gruesome and iniquitous past, they still forgave him. At some point, Accelerator could feel a few strings of tears streaming down his cheeks.

“I'm so lucky to have a family like you!” He thought to himself as he hugged his friends and family tighter.

This warm moment was cut short, however, as the trio of griffon began to chuckle. Annoyed once again, Rainbow Dash faced them once more. "What's so funny!?" The feathered trio quelled their laughter and looked at the cyan pegasus with excitement.

"It's just-" he exhaled sharply, attempting to calm himself from the outburst, with 'attempt' being the operative word, as it took a good minute or two for them to quell their giddiness. Once they were calmed down, and finally noticed the annoyed glares pointed towards them, they explained their sudden eruption, "-This is exactly what we were expecting!" he happily exclaimed.

With a few confused murmurs spreading across the room, Twilight questioned Will’s statement, "What exactly do you mean by exactly what you were expecting'?"

Smirking, the griffon explained himself, "As I said earlier." "You Equestrians are so damn forgiving and pacifist-like. We figured this would happen, and with that in mind, it makes things much easier." Once again, his statement was met with confused glances. Noticing this, he explained or announced rather his plans. "You see, I didn't come here to kill ya,'" he revealed, receiving a mixture of relief, and suspicion from the group of equines. "The real reason I'm here is to avenge my father in the best way possible."

"Which would be...?" asked Pinkie

Smirking once again, the rust-colored griffon glared at the stallion, "I, Will Talson the Third, challenge you, Accelerator, to a race. If you lose, I get not only get all your bandanas but your title of ultimate drag-racer as well!" A chorus of gasps were met with his demand, most of them belonging to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, "So," he reached out his talons waiting for the baker to shake, "We have a deal?"

Accelerator, surprisingly, was shocked, not by his opponent’s demands, but by his sudden offense over the griffon's demand. Why would he care? More so, why should he even care about such a thing?
It's because of his expertise why he ran away from the entire thing; yet, there was a certain tingling in his brain that he couldn't shake off, something that re-casted former shadow. It was tempting, but- he looked back at his family with concerned eyes -but I have to do what's right! He turned towards the delinquent, and in a stern tone gave his answer.

"I'm sorry mister Talson," he replied, "But I'm going to decline your challenge."

The pupils of Will's eyes shrank to the size of a button, he genuinely wasn't accounting for any kind of retaliation, especially from the ultimate drag racer himself. Befuddled, he glared at the baker. "What do you mean you decline?" he censured, staring daggers at the stallion.

"Listen," he began, glaring back at the griffon "I'm sorry about what happened to your father, and I know that no amount of apologizing will fix what I did, but-" he paused, turning back to his friends once again, and turned back to the griffon."-I'm done with racing. I walked away from my title a long time ago and it has no value to me now. The only things that matter to me are my friends and my family; If you want the title, fine, but I won’t risk my life over something I have no interest in now."

There was a long, tense silence between the two, in fact, the entire tension of the room was so strangely strong, that it felt as if the thermometer had dropped below zero. The only noise to be heard in the room was the grinding of teeth made by Will. The vein reappeared, pulsating once more. He wanted so badly to scream, to attack the yellow stallion, but what would be the point, he's already given up on his passion. And like his father told him It ain't fair for a big man to pick on the weak. His anger quickly subsided. "Fine," he hissed, turning back to his comrades.

Confused, Duncan clutched Will's shoulder. "Hey hold up," he opposed "You looked like you were about to jump this guy, what happened?"

"Let's go, he's not worth it." Holding open the door, he motioning his two friends to leave. As they were exiting the establishment, Will faced the ponies once more. "Don't think this is over," he declared angrily, "I'm getting those bandanas, one way or another." And on that note, he finally exited the store, leaving behind a group of scared, and irritated ponies.

"Do you think they'll do anything rash?" asked Cupcake, her voice slightly quivering with fear.

Rainbow Dash went over to quickly console the blue mare. "Not while Twilight, me, and the other girls are around."

"And why is that?" the blue earth pony asked.

Rainbow explained herself, although slightly disappointed as the mare seemed to have forgotten just who those griffons were dealing with, and had forgotten just how powerful the girls were."Because we've protected Ponyville-" she was quickly interrupted by Pinkie, announcing a bit of news for the other.

"Actually-" she turned her phone to show the front of the screen, "-we protect New Mane City now." On the top screen of her phone, a recent poll showed a bar graph representing voters, and a large majority seemed to have chosen the yes option of changing the name.

Again, it was a little disappointing to the cyan pegasus, but that didn't stop her from her speech "Ponyville, New Mane City, whatever," she returned to the mother. "What's important is that with us around, you guys have nothing to be afraid of, right?"

She was indeed right, the Mane Six had faced off against far more dangerous foes s. It didn’t matter if the threat was minimal or world ending, they always bounced back. Accelerator, however, was unsure about the idea of having somepony else fight his battles.

"Look, girls, I appreciate it and all." He trotted over to the door and opened it, "But, I don't want you getting too involved in this."

"What do you mean by that?" asked an offended Rainbow Dash

"I know you girls can take care of yourselves," he admitted. "But you don't truly understand how dangerous this is, the world of drag racing can be very...unpredictable."

Dash’s expression quickly turned deadpan. “You do remember the time we fought and defeated a literal Spirit of Chaos right? Kind of hard to get more unpredictable than that.”

However, before either party could offer a follow-up a white hoof gently tapped Rainbows shoulder. "Rainbow, darling, perhaps it's for the best we take Mister Ca, I mean, Accelerator's warning." The speedster looked back at Rarity with annoyed eyes but promptly submitted to her request. Without saying a word, she left, with the other girls followed suit. Eventually, the bakery was empty, save for its inhabitants, an immense feeling of concern for both the family and their now departed friends still hanging in the air.

Before exiting the shop, Spike, being the last one out turned to the family of four, "If anything happens just give us a call, alright." The family replied with a slow, yet swift nod. Once they were gone, the remaining ponies opted to simply return to their rooms and turn in for the night.

Although most of the family was asleep, Accelerator mind still pondered at the words of the griffons.

“Knowing his father, I wonder what they have planned?”

In the alleyway of a cafe, the trio of griffons could be found talking to a strange hooded figure. Said quietly inquired about their recent encounter with the former racer.

"So how did it go?" the dark figure asked.

"He said he declined 'er some shit," replied Duncan igniting a lighter to light his cigarette. "Coward said something about 'I have to protect my family or something," he attempted to imitate the baker's response to Will's challenge.

"Well there is nothing we can do about it now," complained Maria "What we should be doing is planning on how we get back at those guys?"

While the group pondered, the cloaked figure assured them of a plan that would surely guarantee them of those bandanas," Oh don't worry, I have just the idea." Before they could ask what it was, the trio was engulfed by a bright violet light and soon found themselves in a familiar bakery.