Speed King

As Luna's moon sunk below the horizon, the night sky began to brighten into a nice pinkish-yellow haze, followed by the familiar illuminating ball of light and fire courtesy of their celestial monarch.

A cool breeze passed through the city, with many ponies being elated to finally enjoy the calmer weather after a particularly hot couple of weeks.

Around six-thirty, the shops of New Mane City opened to not just a new day, but to a new city as well. Granted there were some who weren’t happy with the change, mainly shifting from a sleepy town to a bustling city, but it was something they would learn to adjust to.
The last shop to open was, surprisingly, Sugarcube Corner. While normally they’d be open by six, yesterday's events were still fresh in their minds, so it took them a little longer before they could finally open the shop.

Around seven o'clock in the morning, a horrible scream tore the city out of their stupor.

"What the heck was that!?" frightfully questioned a random bystander, who was on his way to the bakery.

It was prior to this event that Mrs. Cake, groggily, left her bed to begin her morning routine while her husband remained. However, even in his drowsy state, he continued to ponder on the actions that transpired the previous night, tossing and turning in stress, fearful of what the Griffins might do? Eventually, however, he decided to simply get out of bed and prepare for the day, finding no benefit in wallowing in his stress.

The maternal earth pony gazed at her husband with worried eyes, "I'm going to go ahead, and open up the shop," she said, waiting for a response from her husband. A grunt of approval from the bathroom merited Mrs. Cake to proceed down the second-floor hallway check on her two foals when an odd glimmer caught the corner of her eye. Curious, she made her way downstairs. As she got closer to the bottom, she heard what appeared to be pained moans, moans that belonged to a familiar pink pony., "Pinkie!?" she exclaimed with worry, and quicked her pace down the stairs.

Once she got to the front of the store, her eyes widened in horror at the sight in front of her. The entire store had been trashed, with furniture broken and splintered, many framed photos torn to shreds and frames broken, several claw-marks visible. Some were even burned or singed at the bottom, with the flakes at the bottom being a result of the burns.

But that's not what caught Cupcake's eyes, nor was it the equal calamity in the kitchen, what truly frightened her was the image of her pink co-worker. Her usual poofy hair was now flat, slightly darker colored mane while the top of her head seemed to be covered in blood. Additionally, her right forearm was badly scraped up. Pinkie's long sleeved shirt was torn in the middle and the collar of the stretched to where the collar of said shirt lowered to her shoulders. The final icing on this disturbing cake was that the pink mare's eyes, both as pink as strawberry ice-cream, with faint tear streaks visible on her cheeks.

Stirring about, Pinkie looked up and stared at her boss intensely and then whimpered "M-M-Mrs. Cake..."

Baffled by the image in front of her, Cupcake thought of the only rational thing to do at that moment, "Honey!" she shouted- or screeched rather-to her significant other.

Hearing her cries, Accelerator quickly ran down the stairs, and once he made it to the bottom, his face showed the same horror as his wife

"What the hell happened!?" he shouted, immediately going over to aid his pink assistant. Still shaken by the events of last night, Pinkie recalled the act of what exactly happened.

"If I remember right," she began, propping herself on the cashier desk, "All I heard was a whooshing sound..."

“I was at my apartment, doing my usual pre-bed stretches, when all of a sudden-" intrigued by the noise, Pinkie looked out of her window to see a bright light emitting in the bakery I wasn't sure if you guys were still up, or somepony was trying to rob you, so I took my chances on the latter. In hindsight, I probably should’a called you guys,” She tried to over a chuckle but flinched at still being sore.

“It all happened really super fast. The second I opened the door, somepony hit me with a wooden plan. When I finally came too, I saw... I saw,” She paused, grimacing after recounting the faces of her assailants. “I saw the three griffons from last night, the one who tried to challenge you, to be specific, holding something while the others, just finished breaking the last of the furniture.”

The trio of vandalizing griffins turned to the terrified mare. “Well look who's awake.” Will chuckled, his gaze locked firmly onto Pinkie.

Though terrified, Pinkie quickly found her voice, “Y-y-you won't get away with this when Twilight hears about-” her warning was interrupted when the female griffon severely slapped the poor mare across the face, resulting in a loud slap that echoed through the room.

“Ow!” Pinkie cried out, only to be immediately silenced, as a set of talons were suddenly wrapped around her mouth.

When she looked up she saw Duncan staring intensely at Pinkie “If you tell anyone about his,” he growled through his expression shifted to one of sadistic amusement as he pulled out a lighter. “Well let’s just say, your friends will get an idea what it’s like to be baked like one of their own so delicious pastries.” He emphasized his point by flicking the lighter on, holding the tiny flame close to one of the tables.”Got it?”

Despite Pinkie’s wish to retaliate she could tell the griffon would make good on his threat and offered a sorrowful nod in agreement.

“Nice to see you’re a lot smarter than you look.” He quickly closed the lighter and returned it to his pocket. He looked over at his partner.

“You manage to get the bandanas?” He inquired to Will, who merely raised a claw, filled with various bandanas, a satisfied smile etched into his beak. .

“Sweet, this was even easier than I thought.” The trio took another look at their prizes before making their way to the door, making Pinkie breathe a sigh of relief.

However, just as they were about to leave, Will turned back to the pink mare. “Oh, and just one more thing.” He took the plank of wood and walked up to the earth pony. “Nighty-night!” And in a single swift motion, smashed the plank over the mare's head, knocking her out instantly, only catching a glimpse of the trio leaving the store.

"And that all I remember," Pinkie recalled, wincing in pain from her head injury. Both of the shop owners were appalled by the story. Of the two, Mrs. Cake had it worse, her mouth covered in shock at the sight of her bleeding co-worker, made worse knowing she’d been violently attacked.

Accelerator, on the other hand, was absolutely infuriated, though not by the damage to his store. He could tolerate that, no, it was the threat to his family and friends that was making his blood boil over. "Those bastards," he growled, his eyes inflamed with rage. "How dare they..." he paused "How dare they threaten us like that!" His roar of fury actually causing the room to shake.

"Honey please," consoled Cupcake as she went to her husband's side. "We need to calm down before the kids wake up."

Her attempts, despite her husband practically shaking with rage, seemed to yield some result as e began pacing the room, quietly simmering down his heated anger. During his tirade, Pikie made a suggestion, "Maybe we should call the police."

"That won't do any good," Accelerator objected, continuing his pacing.

Baffled by such a ludicrous the objection, Cupcake retorted, "What do you mean it won't work?" Her husband sighed and looked Cupcake dead in the eyes before explaining himself.

"Because I know how they work," he explained, "Or to be more specific, I know about his gang, even if one of them is arrested, they'll keep coming back. Trust me, I know from experience how these things play out." Cupcake wanted to retort, but with the life her husband had, she chose not to press further, why question somebody who had already experienced such a dangerous lifestyle.

As the formerly known Mr. Cake was going to search the kitchen for any major damage, he found a note on the counter of the cashier desk. Intrigued he picked up and read it.

Dear Accelerator,

If you got this note then that means you got our message, a.k.a, your stores' current condition.

I thought I'd just let you know that those bandanas of yours have been given to their proper owner, us, seeing as you've turned you back as the pitiful, fucking, coward you really are.

But, since I'm so nice, I'll give you a chance to get them back. Meet me in Goldonia, Griffonstone at eight-thirty on the dock to get them back.

That is if you have the stones for it

Signed,

Will.

"Honey, what’s that?" His wife asked with a concerned look.

Accelerator didn't answer her question, instead, he marched over to his pink co-worker. "Pinkie I'm gonna need you to call the girls again-" he turned to his wife "-and Honey, I'm gonna need you to close the store." Before she could respond, the determined stallion began walking upstairs

"Honey, please tell me what's going on!" pleaded Mrs. Cake

He turned back to his wife with a reserved, but determined look. " I’m going on a business trip…” he continued to walk up the stairs, ignoring his wife’s pleas.

The afternoon was beginning to set, as the Cakes and the 'Mane Five', specifically Rainbow, Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy, the latter of whom was attending to the pink mares wounds, while Spike helped the cleanup and refurbish some of the broken objects of the shop.

While they were working away, the cyan speedster continually grumbled to herself about the break-in, chastising herself for not helping the family sooner. Hearing this, the caretaker, and local animal nurse of the group went to console her friend.

"It's alright Dash, none of us knew what happened-"

"But that's the thing," she interrupted her friend, startling the yellow pegasus, "I should have known, it's my fault that Pinkie got beat up like that," Rainbow turned her attention to the debris of what used to the table, "I swear, if I ever get my hoofs on those guys..." The Cyan pegasus’s voice cut off, drowned out by an angry growl as her wings flared.

"Rainbow," Pinkie began, going over to comfort her angry friend. "I don't mean to sound harsh, but those guys would have been all over you too, there's no telling what they could have done if you were there." She looked sadly at her friend, hoping the message got through to her.

Soon Twilight joined in on the conversation, siding obviously with the two other mares. "They're right Rainbow," she began "There's no telling what those griffons could have done to you." She placed her foreleg over the pegasus's shoulder.

Rainbow Dash wanted to object, but she submitted to their plea "Your right Twi, sorry.." The three mares hugged their friend.

The sweet moment was cut short, as Rarity coughed, as a reminder of their predicament. "Um, I don't mean to ruin the moment," she apologized "but I'm finished with the kitchen, and I was just going to ask Mr. Ca- I mean," she corrected, "Accelerator if there was any other damage to deal with."

"Speaking of which," Spike added, "Where is he anyway?"

Just as he said that a creaking sound could be heard down the stairway. Turning their heads, they looked at the tall figure and gasped at the yellow stallion, Rainbow's eyes widened in surprise and excitement.

There at the end of the stairway, was Accelerator, wearing a familiar black leather jacket, and sporting a spikier, yet slicked back hairstyle. "Sorry I took so long," he apologized as he trotted down the stairs, his wife in-toe, "I just needed to get back in the swing of things." He strongly emphasized the 'swing' part of his statement.

Among them now was the real, genuine, ultimate drag racer himself.

"Accelerator?" Twilight gazed at the stallion in amazement.