Burnout Equestrian Paradise

Chapters

Welcome to Paradise City!
Her first car: Hunter Cavalry
Her first race: Stealing 1st
The Marked Mare 1: Seeing Stars
Upped-Licence 1: Class D & Hunter Mesquite
A Princess and Dragon's Rage 1: Lighthouse Rock
Meet-Up
Things get worse
Burning Pursuit: VS. Nakamura SI-7 (Fluttershy)
An afternoon of conflict... and a night of pleasure (Steamy Chapter)
CUTIE MARK CRUSADER DUST STORMERS, YAY!!!!!!
The Dark Unicorn
Against The Clock 1: Hunter Cavalry (Braeburn)
Unhealthy Reunion
Against The Clock 2: Hunter Mesquite (Trixie)
"Ooooh, a pretty portal!"
The Legion of Doom... in Paradise!

Welcome to Paradise City!

East Crawford Drive
Location known as: 'Paradise'

After Twilight and Spike hopped in and buckled up, Rainbow Dash smiled at them and revealed a key. She then inserted the key into the ignition and turned it, and after a few seconds, the engine roared to life. Twilight and Spike both let out a shriek at the sudden noise. Dash unsuccessfully tried to hold back a giggle, and planted her hoof down on the accelerator, but not all the way down. The Jansen started to move forward and Dash turned to the left, swinging the car a full 180 degrees around in a wide U-turn, before accelerating even more and heading back the way she had come.

"As I said, 'Welcome to Paradise!' Or Paradise City, as it's called," Rainbow explained, keeping her eyes focused ahead on the road, "And it's the home of Burnout driving! From the winding trails of White Mountain to the grid network of Downtown Paradise, the city has miles of open-road-"

But before she could finish what she was saying, there came a loud roar that sounded like it was going past them, followed by the P12 jolting and suddenly jerking to the right, towards a line of parked cars. Immediately, Dash slammed on her brakes, locking the rear wheels and causing a loud screeching of tires. But she couldn't slow the Jansen down fast enough.

Moments later, contact.

The Jansen slammed into the back bumper of a parked sedan, crumpling the the front-end a bit and forcing the car to a stop. Although, the damage wasn't massive and Jansen was still driveable. Once the Jansen hit the parked car, Rainbow then looked around for the culprit.

Then, she spotted it.

Just ahead of them and getting further away, blitzing down East Crawford with green flames protruding from the exhausts, was a silver-and-blue Watson R-Turbo Roadster. And its right side was covered in scratches. It kept boosting away, until it took a right corner underneath the Coast Guard sign and disappeared.

Twilight eyed the Roadster in utter shock. They had just shoved an Element out of their way! And out of all the Elements, Rainbow Dash was the last one you would shove out of the way.

Then, a realization hit Twilight.

She looked at Dash. She was looking straight ahead, and her expression was one of absolute anger. And instantly, both Twilight and Spike knew what would happen next...

"Did that mother-bucker just scratch my paint?!" Dash exclaimed, staring down the Roadster with pure hatred.

"No, Dash! I know what you are thinking of doing, but don't do it! I beg you!" Twilight begged. But Dash didn't listen...

... and then she exlaimed, "OH, SHE IS SCREWED NOW!!!!!!" He then slammed her hoof on the throttle, and the Jansen jumped forward and raced down East Crawford, in hot pursuit of the Watson.

As for Twilight and Spike, when Dash's P12 started chasing the R-Turbo, they were both pushed backwards into their seats, and their eyes went wide as they realized how Dash drove.

Because she was driving dangerously. Very dangerously.

To put it into words, she was boosting down East Crawford, bright green flames erupting from the Jansen's exhausts, on the wrong side of the road. Horns honked and civilian cars swerved out of the way of Dash's Jansen, as it roared down the road. Then, Dash swung the sports car underneath a huge Coast Guard sign, past a drive-thru and started heading south. But Twilight and Spike didn't know that.

They were too busy screaming in terror.

Moments later...
Webster Avenue

Just ahead of the rampaging Dash and the terrified Princess of Friendship and her dragon assistant, was the Watson R-Turbo Roadster that had caused the incident. Behind its wheel, was a dark orange unicorn mare with a white mane, named Silver Spanner. She let out a relaxed sigh as she slowly rolled down Webster Avenue.

Did she know that she had just slammed Rainbow Dash into a line of parked cars? Yes.

Did she know if she had crashed? No. But she did worry. She though she had put enough distance between her and Dash's crash site to not worry.

That was when she heard an approaching car. When Silver looked in her rear view, she gasped in disbelief.

It was a cyan-blue Jansen P12. Rainbow Dash's P12.

"Oh shit!" The unicorn cried, immediately putting her hoof down. The Watson immediately picked up speed and started running from the approaching Jansen. But the Jansen was closing too fast, and given the fact that the R-Turbo was way slower than the P12, Sliver Spanner had no hope of trying to outrun Dash.

The only thing the unicorn could do, was to out-drive Dash.

Dash and the screaming Twilight and Spike managed to quickly catch up with the Watson, but by the time they did, they had reached Webster Avenue's huge concrete islands the separated the oncoming lanes from the same-way lanes (I personally call these 'splits'). But while the unicorn went to the right, Dash went to the left. And into more oncoming traffic.

More horns. More swerving. And, of course, more screaming (from Twi and Spike).

As the two sports cars raced down Webster, they were side-by-side the whole time. What this created was a Fast and Furious-style stand-off, as whenever the two got to one of the junctions, and thus the split ended, the two mares would look at each other for a split-second, as the split would begin again.

The chase continued in this way for a full 18 seconds, but this part ended when the split ended for good, at the intersection with 1st Street and Angus Wharf. And the Wildcats Baseball Stadium came into view. It was here that Dash made her move. Instead of staying in the oncoming lanes, she flicked the wheel right.

The Jansen flicked to the right, and slammed into the left door of the Watson.

The Roadster did the exact same thing as what the Jansen did when it was sideswiped. It jolted to the right and onto the sidewalk, but this time there was no line of parked cars. Instead, there was a right turn that led onto Harber Street, and to the side, was a Gas Station. And immediately, Spanner knew where she would go.

She went to the right, and through the Gas Station. After passing through, the Watson's boost filled completely, right before Silver's very eyes! Once the boost was filled, the unicorn hit her boost and rocketed away. But Dash wasn't having any of it, and she hit her boost, shoving Twi and Spike back into their seats again and blitzed after the Roadster. Dash chased Spanner down Harber, hell bent on sending the the Watson nose-first into a wall.

After a chase down Harber Street, the street went of to the right and back to the left, therefore running underneath the elevated Interstate-88. Silver followed the street, Dash hot on her hooves. She (Silver) kept her boost on, as turning her boost off meant that her tail-end will take a pounding.

And it was precisely at this moment, while passing on the same-way side of a couple of splits that contained supports for the overhead Interstate...

...her Roadster ran out of boost. Immediately, the Roadster slowed a bit.

And Rainbow saw a window of opportunity. And not letting such a opportunity go to waste, she didn't disengage her boost, and seconds later, impact.

A loud crunching sound echoed out, as the front-bumper of the Jansen slammed into the rear-end of the Watson, which caused the Watson to snap violently to the right, again! But this time, there was a line of parked cars. Also, there was no room to move. The Watson approached the parked cars at unbelievable speed, and there was no hope of recovering control. So, Spanner did the only thing she could do...

...She braced for impact and screamed.

CRASH!!!!!

The Roadster went face first into the nearest parked car, crumpling the front-end badly and causing the car to flip onto its side and roll multiple times. Pieces of the car flew off everywhere, scattering all over the road. Eventally, after rolling 5 times, the wreck of the Roadster came to a stop on the sidewalk, resting on its right side.

Once the Watson had stopped rolling, Dash turned the Jansen around quite quickly and drove back towards the wreckage, blocking the entire same-way lane with the car. The Jansen was brought to a stop, and Rainbow winded down her window and started taunting the unicorn who was driving the Watson.

"AW, YEAH B****!!!! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE ONE AND ONLY RAINBOW DASH!!!!!!" She cried out, pointing her hoof at the wrecked R-Turbo. And once she was done with her taunting, she climbed back into her car, wound up the window and turned to Twilight. "Check it out! Did you see that b**** crash?! Priceless!!"

Twilight just turned her head, very slowly, towards the smug Dash, with a look of pure shock on her face. She had just witnessed the Element of Loyalty chase down and tried to almost kill an innocent by running her off the road! And that language she used! She had never ever used that kind of language in her life! What provoked her to do so now?!

Then, she snapped.

"Rainbow DASH!!!!!" Twilight screamed at the pegasus, "What would provoke you to do such a thing?! And you mind your language! Why, I've never been so... so... ANGRY AT YOU!!! BUT THIS JUST TAKES THE CAKE!!!!"

But while the enraged Alicorn kept chewing out the cyan pegasus, Spike was looking out the passenger-side window, keeping an eye out for more cars when...

"Umm... Twilight?" Spike tried to take Twilight's attention from Rainbow, tapping her on the back.

"NOT NOW!!!!" Twi snapped at the dragon, "Can't you see I'm busy?!" She turned back to Dash, and continued her rant, "AND ANOTHER THING..."

"Uhh... Twilight?" Spike tried again, not backing down, "You need to see this!"

Finally, Twilight turned her attention from Dash to the thing Spike urgently needed to tell her about. "Alright, Spike! What is it-"

Then she heard it.

A deep, ominous vmmmmm. And it was approaching fast.

Twilight looked in the direction of the approaching noise and her jaw dropped, her pupils shrunk to the size of pinheads and her eyes grew to the size of frying pans.

Coming up the street, was a bright silver Carson Inferno Van.

And it was heading right for them at unbelievable speed.

"Dash!!!!!!" Twilight cried out.

"OH, WHAT NOW????!!!!" Rainbow snapped back, sick of being ranted at by the Alicorn. That was when she saw the approaching Inferno Van, and exclaimed, "Oh, shit!"

"Well, don't just sit there! Do something!" Twilight cried out, going into a panic.

Instinctively, Dash then said, "The only thing we can do!"

"And what's that?!" Spike asked.

"BRACE!!!!" Immediately, Rainbow got into a bracing position. She knew that she had no room to move her car and that if she did, there would be no time. The Inferno Van was right on top of them. So, she braced. Logically, Twilight and Spike copied what she was doing, moments before...

...Impact.

The blitzing Inferno Van plowed through the rear-end of the P12, sending the Jansen flying across a nearby intersection and into a nearby concrete wall. Then, once the P12 was flung out of the way, the Inferno Van continued on its way. Meanwhile, inside the Jansen, Twilight and Spike were jolted and bashed as the Jansen was thrown like a ragdoll, before coming to rest on the pavement.

Once the wrecked Jansen had come to a stop, Dash then slowly turned to Twilight and said, "Well, that was fun!" Twilight just slowly looked at the pegasus, and then fainted.

Moments later...

"Twilight. Twilight? TWILIGHT!!!!!" Rainbow Dash screamed into Twilight's ear, while Spike shook her, trying to wake her up. Then, Dash slapped her with a hoof across the face. And Twilight woke right up. The Alicorn's eyes snapped wide open, gasped in fright and then started blurting out something quickly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, now! We're okay, and the car is back intact," Dash explained, calm everywhere in her tone. Twilight was about to question what Dash ment, when she looked out the window...

...And saw that they were back where they were when they were hit by the silver Inferno Van. And the Jansen was now unscathed. Not a single scratch.

"Wha-? But how-?" Twilight asked, in utter shock.

"Don't worry about it, Twilight there are a lot of things here that you don't want to figure out just yet," Dash explained, when the radio in her car came to life with noise, "Ah, looks like old you-know-who is back!"

Then, a highly recognizable voice spoke through the radio, "Hey, hey! Yo, yo! DJ-P0N3 here! Filling in for DJ Atomika here on Crash FM! Now as you know, DJ Atomika recently called in sick with a cold, so he's not going to be here for a while. But when I first arrived here, the owners of Crash FM here liked by style, and signed me up as a back-up, so I only come on when Atomika is away. Anyways, a listener just sent in a video of Rainbow Dash and her Jansen chasing down a Watson on Webster Avenue like a mad-mare! Hahaha! The sound of the pony recording the video screaming in shock as the two cars blasted by is priceless! Hahaha! *clears throat*. Ok, this is DJ-P0N3, and you're listening to Crash FM, so keep it here!"

"Vinyl's here?" Spike asked, amazed.

"Well, yeah!" Dash replied, "Nearly everypony is here! In fact, I'll take you to see them now!" Upon saying this, she slammed her hoof down on the gas. The wheels of the Jansen started spinning and then the car roared back the way it had come, East back up Harber Street!

Author's Note

Ok, here's chapter 2! This is where things speed up a bit, literally!

I apologize if the chapter looks rushed. I just wanted to get it out of the way so I could start on the next chapter, which I'm anxious to finish! :pinkiehappy:

For those of you who wish to recreate these chapters in the game, but you don't know how accurate you are with the painting of the cars, and the end of each chapter, I'll leave a painting guide for some of the cars featured in each of the chapters. To show you what I mean, here's the painting guides for Dash's P12 and the Watson R-Turbo Roadster.

Dash's Jansen P12: Finish 1, light blue gloss paint.
Watson R-Turbo Roadster (This chapter): Finish 2, white metallic paint.

Also, the spelling of Harber Street IS the correct spelling of the street, as that is how it's spelled in the game, so please, NO COMMENTS ABOUT INCORRECT SPELLING!

Stay tuned for the next chapter and remember:

Don't scratch Dash's paint! She won't like it! :rainbowlaugh:

Her first car: Hunter Cavalry

Harber Street
Paradise City

Dash drove down her P12 Eastward down Harber Street in the oncoming lane, narrowly passing cars, vans and taxis heading past it, with Spike still screaming in terror and Twilight frozen in fear from the earlier T-bone with the silver Inferno Van. Within seconds, the car had reached the end of the street, where it ventures of to the left, onto the 6-lane Webster Avenue and past the Wildcats Baseball Stadium. When Dash swung her Jansen wide around the curve and onto Webster, Twilight had snapped out of her frozen state to see them blasting down the huge avenue, but this time, on the correct side of the road.

"So, Dash. Uhm... Where are we headed?" Twi asked, trying to take her mind off how dangerously the Element of Loyalty was driving.

"We're heading to the Junkyard on East Crawford Drive," said Dash. "If you were paying attention during the chase, you would've seen us go right past it,"

"Oh," Twi replied, "Is that where the girls are?"

"Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!” Dash answered, “You get a prize!"

"Ooooo! What is it?" Twi asked, excited.

Dash just turned to Twilight, smirked and answered, "You need your own car,"

"My own car?!" cried out Twilight.

"Yes," said Dash. "Your own car. Like this one, but probably not as good? You drive around in it..."

"Yeah, I know what a car is..." said the Alicorn, completely cutting off Dash. "It's just... I don't wanna... drive one..."

She was cut off when Dash yanked on the handbrake, sending the P12 into a drifting U-turn. The car slid around to the right, crashed through a line of yellow, chain-link fences that had a yellow sign that said 'PRIVATE PROPERTY KEEP OUT' on them, and drifted to a stop inside a huge parking lot. She put the car into park, avoided eye contact with both Twi and Spike and let out a deep, disappointed sigh.

"Then, and I'm sorry to say this but..." Dash then turned her gaze to the lavender Alicorn, "You won't be able to leave,"

"WHAT?!" Twilight and Spike cried out in unison, utterly shocked. "B-but why?!"

"Me and the others will explain it to both of you when we get to the Junkyard," Dash finished, starting the car back up (because if cars in Paradise City are left running for too long, they automatically turn off), the engine roaring to life again, and again, scared Twilight and Spike both half to death. It was gonna take a while before they would get used to that.

Dash slammed her hoof on the gas and the Jansen jumped forward, raced through the gap in the destroyed fence and turned right, back onto Webster, heading North again. She swerved left and continued following Webster Avenue, moments before the car would have raced up one of the on-ramps leading onto the I-88. After a few seconds, Dash came to a 3-way intersection. She turned the car to the right and then quickly to the lrft, onto East Crawford Drive. Then, Dash blasted past a T-junction and then, yanked on her e-brake again, throwing the P12 into another moving U-turn. This time, the car spun a full 180 degrees and came to a complete stop, parked on the kerb.

Once the car had stopped, Dash then pointed at something in front of her, and said, "We're here," Twi and Spike shifted their gazes towards where Dash's hoof was pointing. Then, it came into view.

On the side of the road, was an old, grey building with a faded yellow sign that read 'JUNKYARD' in black font. On top of the building were two neon signs, one was a red arrow lined with lights, pointing towards the building. The other was a white rectangle, with red lettering that read 'NEW WRECKS HERE' on it. But the building itself was peculiar, as the bottom floor was missing, except for the sides, which were the building's support beams. This allowed for some sort of drive-thru to be formed under the building.

After they examined the building for a short moment, Dash then hit the gas again, but this time gently, and the Jansen slowly rolled forward up onto the sidewalk and towards the drive-thru. After a few seconds of slowly crawling forward, Dash brought the Jansen to a stop underneath the building. She then put the Jansen into reverse, and backed up, heading towards a fence that led into a open area that appeared to contain four cars. But before Twilight could make-out the four ponies standing next to the cars, Dash started to reverse towards them, through the gate and into the open area.

After a few seconds of backing up, Dash stopped the car, killed the engine and jumped out. She signaled Twi and Spike to do the same and they did, shutting their door on the way out. Once out, Twilight then turned to Dash and said, "Alright Dash, were are they-" But she cut herself off...

...When she spotted her friends.

Applejack was working on the engine of her orange Carson Fastback muscle car. Rarity was polishing the bonnet of her white-and-red Carson & Bennett Grand Marais mobster car. Pinkie Pie was happily bounding around her bright-pink Montgomery Hyperion sports roadster. And Fluttershy was, of course, cowering behind her yellow-and-red Nakamura SI-7 sports car, upon hearing Dash's Jansen enter the Junkyard. They didn't notice Twilight or Spike get out of the Jansen and approach them until...

"Girls?" They heard somepony in Twilight's voice say. They all turned their heads, and saw Twilight and Spike standing right in front of Dash's parked P12.

There was a long period of silence, before all of the four Elements cried out, "TWILIGHT!!!!!" and then ran up to her and dog-piled on top of her, giving her a huge cuddle.

After a few minutes of snuggling, the others got off of Twilight and Rarity then said, "Oh, Twilight! How we've missed you! I hope you got through alright," She then turned to Spike, walked up to him and continued, "And I hope my little Spikey-Wikey is ok as well," She then gave the baby drake a peck on the cheek, and Spike then falls over, his cheeks blushing bright red with embarrassment.

Applejack then walked up to Rarity, pulled her back a bit, and said, "Ok, Rarity. Ah think AH shall do the explaining," She then turned back to Twilight, "Alright, sugarcube! Let me explain..."

Over the next half an hour, Applejack, with a little help from the others, explained what was going on, how they saw the portal had appeared near Town Hall, how they ran into the portal without her, and about what was going on at this 'Paradise City'.

But while the others were explaining, they never saw a huge group of cars pull into the Junkyard...

As Applejack finished up her basic explanation of what was going on, she then added, "So that's all ya need ta' know for now, Twi. Ya'll figure out the rest as ya' explore, and to do that, ya'll need ah' car," The farm pony then turned to the bounding Pinkie, and asked her, "Oh, Pinkie? Did ya' get the starter car ready for Twi?"

"Of course I did, Applejack! It's right over here!" Pinkie replied, squealing with delight. She then appeared behind Twilight and started pushing her with her over-sized mane past her Hyperion. She then stopped pushing, and covered the Alicorn's eyes with her hooves. "Ah-ah-ah! It's a surprise!" She then continued pushing Twilight, her front hooves wrapped around her eyes.

After a few seconds of shoving, Pinkie finally stopped pushing Twilight, took her hooves away from Twi's eyes and exclaimed, "SURPRISE!!!!!" Twilight then spotted what Pinkie was hoping to surprise her with, a bit of a smile on her face. But when she saw it, her smile changed to a disbelieving frown.

It was a lavender Hunter Cavalry muscle car, and a beaten-up one at that! The front-end was crumpled up a bit, to the point where the pointed bonnet was almost as tall as the car roof. The top and sides were covered in dents and scratches, as were the windows. And the back bumper had fallen off at one side.

Inside of her mind, Twilight was silently fuming. She was the Princess of Friendship! Her status as a royal of Equestria would seriously be damaged is she was seen driving that! And how could her friends think that giving her a beat-up ride a good surprise?!

But, no matter how hard Twilight tried to keep her anger to herself, she couldn't stop her left eye from twitching in anger. And Rainbow had noticed it. Dash then let out a small giggle, patted Twilight's back and said, "Aw, cheer up, grumpy! We all had to drive it once!"

That's when Applejack started explaining what the car was and why Twilight was given it in the first place, "This Hunter Cavalry is the only thing that we have left for ya' to drive, sugarcube. It's ah' stunt class car, meanin' that it's built for jumps an' spins. It's ah' good all-round car though, so we saw it as the perfect car for ya' to start with..."

Then, Twilight snapped again!

"No. No no no no no no NO!!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME, THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP, TO DRIVE THAT MONSTROSITY?????!!!!!!" She suddenly screamed out, in a Royal Canterlot voice.

"Hey! Ah' wasn't finished!" Applejack snapped back. Twilight then turned towards Applejack, her face a mask of rage.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED TO SAY!!!!!! I'M NOT LISTENING TO ALL OF YOUR EXCUSES!!!!!! INSTEAD, WE ARE ALL GOING HOME NOW!!!!!!!!!" After her huge explosion of rage, Twilight started letting out deep pants to calm herself down. She then looked at her gathered friends. Rarity had fainted onto the hood of her Grand Marais, Fluttershy and Spike were both peeking out from behind the front bumper of Fluttershy's SI-7, quivering in terror and all the others were just staring at her, mouths agape.

Twilight took a moment to calm herself before apologizing to her friends...

...when another voice spoke up. "I'm sorry, but you can't leave,"

Twilight and the Elements turned to where the voice had come from, and their jaws involuntarily dropped...

Author's Note

Sorry about the ending, I just like ending off these chapters on cliffhangers. :twilightblush:

Anyways, here's the Paint Schemes for this chapter:

Pinkie Pie's Hyperion: Finish 1, gloss pink
Applejack's Fastback: Finish 1, gloss orange
Rarity's Grand Marais: Finish 1, gloss white
Fluttershy's Si-7: Finish 3, gloss yellow
Twilight's Cavalry: Finish 1, gloss purple

Hope you enjoyed and know this...
...The Demon is approaching... :pinkiecrazy:

Her first race: Stealing 1st

East Crawford Drive Junkyard
Paradise City

"I'm sorry, but you can't leave,"

Twilight and the Elements turned to where the voice had come from, and their jaws involuntarily dropped.

They hadn't heard him come into the Junkyard.

There, having earlier slid to a sideways stop, was a dark-black Nakamura Ikusa GT JDM Import. And sitting on it's hood, was an unreformed changeling with red eyes, red wings, red shell, bloodied hooves and fangs and a Cutie Mark of the Soviet Air Force Roundel on his flank. He was staring at Twilight with a dead gaze, and shook his head.

But he wasn't alone.

More cars had parked near him, in a way that symbolized they were a group. Those cars were a blue-red-and-green Kitano Touge Sport race car, a black/blue-and-silver Krieger 616 Arachno Sport super car, a green-and-blue Kitano Hydros Techno coupe, a black Krieger Pioneer Super Gator SUV, a pink-and-silver Hunter Vegas Carnivale low-rider and one other car that Twilight recognized...

...A silver Carson Inferno Van. The exact same one that had so ruthlessly sent her and Dash's P12 into a wall just a few minutes ago!

Once Twilight identified the van, she heard a deep voice speaking, and it was coming from behind the Ikusa GT. Then, he came into Twilight's view.

He was a male adult griffon, covered in white from the tip of the feathers on his head to the tip of his tail. And he was very well built. And he was chatting to an unseen person, talking in a deep voice. "...So, I was just heading down Harber, as you do, then I see this dumbass blocking the whole road! Naturally, I decided to teach that idiot some road sense and I plowed through his P12! Sent it right into a concrete wall! I was exploding with laughter, that the driver of that Jansen was thinking that he could stop me!"

Then, the person that the griffon was talking to came into Twilight's view, from behind the Ikusa GT. Walking beside the white griffon, was a tall and thin black dragon who, just like the griffon, was coloured all over in his natural colour. He had a grey left eye and a red right eye, and in his left hand, he held a cigarette lighter. Twilight wondered why he needed the lighter, but shook that though away when she saw that the dragon had an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

"Wait, hold on a sec, big guy," The dragon replied in a deep but quiet voice, taking a second to light his cigarette, "What did this P12 look like?"

When the dragon said that, Twilight swore she saw him glace at Rainbow's Jansen.

"Well, then," The griffon said, scratching the underside of his beak, "It was blue, as in cyan blue. Gold highlights. I recognize it from somewhere... Oh, yeah! That speedy pegasus drives it! You know the one who is coloured the same colour as her car and has the rainbow mane-do. What was her name? It was... Umm, it was..." But while the griffon trailed off into thought, the dragon glanced again at Dash's car, and then smirked.

That's when the griffon came back from his thinking session, and exclaimed, "Rainbow Dash! Yeah, that was her name!" He then turned to the dragon, and saw his smirk, "What are you smirking at?" The dragon replied by pointing at something. The griffon turned to where he was pointing...

...and spotted Rainbow Dash standing by her P12.

Instantly, the griffon's eyes grew wide and his jaw hit the dusty floor. He felt absolutely stupid, saying that he was the one who wrecked Dash just a few minutes ago within earshot of her.

The black dragon touched on this, by whispering into the griffon's ear, I bet you're feeling stupid now, huh?

"That's enough, you two!" The bloody changeling snapped at the griffon and dragon, shooting them a glare. He then turned back to Twilight, hopped of the hood of his car and walked up to Twilight. "I'm sorry about the way Tank and Ghost are behaving. We're always like this. Permit me to introduce myself," He then kneeled at Twilight's hooves, "My name is Akula. I'm the leader of this group, who are also my friends. It's nice to meet you," He then took Twilight's hoof and gently kissed it, showing that he could be trusted.

Twilight blushed at the feeling of the changeling's lips on her hoof. "Oh! I never would've taken you as a gentlecolt! I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, by the way,"

Akula then looked up at Twilight, and flashed her a smile. "There's no need for you to introduce yourself. I know who you are. And I do have my moments," He joked, prompting a giggle from Twi.

"Kiss ass," The dragon silently remarked, taking a drag of his cigarette and exhaling the smoke.

But Akula had heard what the dragon said, and said back to him, "I heard that," The dragon turned away from the changeling, taking another drag of his cigarette, with the expression of 'Nothing to see here' written all over his face.

Akula turned back to Twilight, and pointed a bloody hoof to the dragon and griffon. "This is Ghost and Tank. Ghost is the black dragon on the left, smoking the cigarette. And Tank is the white griffon on the right, who's looking like an idiot,"

"HEY!!!!" Tank shouted at Akula, upon hearing what Akula had said about him.

"There are others with me you know," Akula mentioned, then turned towards the gathering of cars and called out, "Come on, no need to be shy, guys. Come out and introduce yourselves," Then, on cue, others began appearing from behind the Ikusa GT.

Akula then started to introduce them, "That's Striker, the alicorn on top of his Kitano," Akula started, pointing to a blue-with-red-camo alicorn colt with an emerald pinwheel Cutie Mark, standing on top of the Touge Sport, trying to look like a mighty hero, "Then, there's Strict Thunder, the one gazing at Striker," He then pointed to a white-with-black-spotted unicorn stallion with a storm cloud Cutie Mark, gazing at Striker as if he was in a trance, "Then, there's Druid, the one sitting on the hood of the green and blue car," He pointed to another unreformed changeling, but his eyes, wings and shell were purple instead, "And finally, there's Ko Ko-Puff, the one on the roof of my car," He then pointed to what looked like a dragon-pony hybrid, one with a pony's body with dragon wings, multi-coloured spines running down her back, a multi-coloured dragon tummy running down her belly to the tip of her dragon tail. Even her eyes were one-of-a-kind, as her irises were colour wheels, had a pair of golden horns coming out of her head and had golden claws coming out of her hooves. Her Cutie Mark was a golden ying-yang. He was looking down on Twilight on her friends, before she gave them an adorable toothy smile, and made a cute sound.

After he had introduced his friends, he then turned back to Twilight, and spoke again. "As I was saying earlier, you can't leave..."

Twilight was about to ask why, when Akula then stated, "...Unless you have one of these." The changeling then pulled out a small card, that had his name and a portrait of him on it.

Twilight examined the card very closely, and for quite a bit, when she then asked, "What is this?"

"This is a Burnout Driver's Licence. And only the best drivers in Paradise City have them. Once earned, instructions of how to cast the same portal that you went through will be seared into your mind, allowing you to travel to here and Equestria as much as you please. But until you get a Burnout Licence, you won't be able to leave," The changeling explained.

Twilight couldn't believe she was being told. She didn't want to believe that the only way that she could leave this crazy place and go home was if she somehow earns a little card made of plastic, but judging by how Akula had gotten his 'Burnout Licence' already, she figured that maybe, just maybe, he could give her some advice on how to earn her own.

After letting out a deep breath, Twilight finally summoned up the courage to tell Akula, "Alright. If it's the only way to get home, I'll drive. But only if Spike comes with me!"

Akula just shugged and said, "I have no objections if you travel as a pair. Hell, I know of some of the others here that are traveling as pairs," As Akula said this, Spike rushed over to Twilight's side and hugged one of her legs, happy that they don't have to travel separately.

"Great! But how do I get my own Burnout Licence?" Twilight then asked, but all she got in response was Akula laughing.

But after a few minutes, Akula stopped laughing and said, "Twilight, you've got a long way to go before you can earn a Burnout Licence. All newcomers to Paradise City have to start with a Learner's Permit. But since I knew you were coming, I went ahead and got one for you," He then turned to the alicorn on top of the Touge Sport, and asked him, "Corporal, what have you done with Twilight's permit?"

"I have it right here!" Striker called back to him, holding up another plastic card.

"Toss it over," Akula told him. Striker then tossed the card to him, and the changeling caught it the red aura of his magic. Akula levitated the card to Twilight, so she could see. The green-and-white card was a little bent, but it had her full name written on it perfectly. But then, she saw her portrait and she gasped. It was a photo of her when she had gone crazy when she couldn't write a friendship report to Celestia and had decided to make one instead.

Twilight blushed a deep shade of red, clearly embarrassed. And Akula noticed this. "I'm sorry about the photo. It was the only one we had. You're not too upset, are you?" He asked in a caring tone.

"No, it's fine," Twilight replied.

Akula gave Twilight a faint smile, and then called out, "Ko Ko!"

The dragon-pony on top of Akula's Nakamura perked her ears up upon hearing Akula call her name out, before she jumped off and landed right at Akula's side. "YES?" She asked, looking as if she was Pinkie Pie.

"What do you say you show Twilight here the ropes of how we do things here?" Akula then stated.

"Okie-dokie-lokie!" Ko Ko exclaimed. She then ran over to Twilight and started dragging her by the front hooves towards the beaten-up Cavalry. "Come on, Princess! Time to teach you how to drive!"

"Ko Ko," Akula said, getting the dragon-pony's attention, "I'll teach her how to drive. You just show her around."

"OHHHH!" Ko Ko realised, running to her Vegas Carnivale and getting in.

Akula turned to Tank and said, "Tank, can you give her a tow? Just underneath the building,"

Tank then scoffed a laugh and said, "Do you even have to ask?" He then walked back to his Inferno Van, got in and started it up. As Tank was starting his van, Akula walked Twilight and Spike to their Cavalry. He opened the driver-side door, and even though the car was beat up, the door opened with ease. And when Twilight saw the interior, she was surprised. Although the car was a wreck, the interior was, surprisingly, very clean. There was no hints of any dust, the seats weren't torn in any way and nothing was out of place or broken.

Wow. Rarity has really outdone herself this time!, Twilight thought, amazed at the cleanliness of the interior. And she got in, and Spike hopped over the gearstick to get to the passenger seat.

Akula then shut the door after them, but he wound down the window before he did, so he could lean in.

"Ok, Twilight. Let me show you how to drive. Down here are your three pedals. The tall, thin one on the right is the accelerator. It's the one that makes you go forward. The more you press it down, the faster you'll go. The short, wide one in the middle is the brake pedal. If you need to slow down a bit, press on it, as you do with the accelerator. The more you press the brake down, the quicker you'll slow down. And the square-shaped one on the left is the clutch. I'll get to that in a bit. Now, the big wheel in front of you is the steering wheel. It's what you use to turn the car. Just put your hooves here and here," Akula explained, tapping two separate points on the wheel. Twilight raised her front hooves, and placed them on the indicated locations on the wheel, "Just turn the wheel in the direction you want to go, and the more you turn it, the quicker you'll do so. If you look at the little rectangle behind the wheel, on the dash, you'll see your speedometer and your tachometer. The one on the left is the tachometer. It displays the engines current RPM, or revs per minute, meaning how many times the engine revs every minute. I'll get to that in a bit as well. The one on the right is the speedometer. It shows you how fast you are going, in miles per hour, meaning how many miles you'll cover every hour. The bigger the number, the faster you are going. The little bar below them is the boost meter. It shows you how much boost you have. More on that in a bit. Now here's an important part, shifting gears. See the stick to your right? That's the shifter. It's what shifts the gears up or down. To shift up a gear, you snap it backwards. To shift down, you snap it forwards. To change gear, first you come off the throttle, then you press down on the clutch. With your hoof on the clutch, snap the shifter in the desired direction, to change the gears up or down, as I mentioned earlier. Once the gear is shifted, immediately get off the clutch and back onto the accelerator, although there are times were you won't need to. Also, when holding down the clutch to shift gears, you CAN keep your hoof down on the brakes while shifting gears. But when do you change gears? Well, if you look at you tachometer, you'll see a red line on the right side of it. See the high point where the red runs out?" Twilight nodded, "That's the appropriate point to shift up. The appropriate point to shift down is the space between the 1 and the 2 on the tachometer. Finally, the boost. The red button on your wheel is what activates your boost, and boosting gives you a sudden burst of speed. It's vital to win events. The boost bar I showed you earlier is also vital, as if the bar is empty, you can't boost. If you are out of boost, don't panic! There are plenty of ways to refill you boost bar. Oh, and one last thing. All of the cars in Paradise City are classed by what boost type it has. The Cavalry has Stunt class boost, or green-coloured boost. You'll learn more as you go along. And there's the basics for you. Ko Ko will take over from now. I'll see you later," Akula concluded.

"Wow," Twilight breathed out, "That's a lot to remember!"

"I know," Akula replied, "It does seem like a lot, but once you start driving, everything I just explained will fall into place," He then started to leave.

"Wait!" Twilight called out, causing Akula to stop and turn his head back to Twilight, "What's with the red colour? And all the blood? And the Cutie Mark? I've never seen a changeling like you before. Are you unique among your kind?" She asked.

Akula just gazed at her for a few moments, then he began to smile. "I've only got a three word response, as its been a while since somepony asked me that," Twilight saw his lips curl up a bit before she got her answer...

"I'm half-demon,"

Akula then turned away from Twilight and walked back to his Ikusa GT. Then, Twilight and Spike were pushed back into their seats as the Cavalry jolted forward, being towed by Tank's Inferno Van! While Akula was teaching Twilight how to drive the Cavalry, Tank had hooked a tow-cable attached to the back of his Van to the grille of the Cavalry and had started to tow it towards the gate. Once through the gate, Tank led the Cavalry underneath the building and stopped. Twilight then hit her brakes to prevent her from running into the back of the Van when it came to a stop. Once the lavender muscle car had stopped, Tank released the Cavalry from the cable, reeled the line back in and drove off.

Twilight just sat there, unsure about what to do next, when a cheery voice came in over a CB Radio mounted in her car. Hiya, Twilight and adorable little Spikey! It's me! Ko Ko! I'm in the Carnivale, just ahead of ya! Twilight looked up, and saw Ko Ko's silver-and-pink Vegas Carnivale, stock still in the parking area just in front of her, revving the medium-block V8 engine under its hood.

Twilight grabbed the CB Radio's microphone, held down the button and replied, "Oh. Hi, Ko Ko. Akula told me you'll show me a few more things I need to know. Care to show?"

There was a few seconds of silence, when Ko Ko let out a huge gasp and replied, Of course! First, you car does look a little beat-up, so it'd be a good idea to find an Auto-Repair shop and get it fixed before you get into any serious action. I've marked the nearest one on your dashboard map. It's just around the corner, on Angus Wharf. Just follow me, and I'll lead ya! Before Twilight could reply, Ko Ko started speaking again, Okie-dokie, let's just check you car still starts.

"Wait!" Spike interrupted, grabbing the microphone, "You're telling us that this car might not start, and that we might be stranded?!"

Yep. Ko Ko replied.

"Has a car never started up before here?" Spike asked.

Nope. Not for as long as we've been here. But it might happen! Ko Ko replied, Now, just take you key, insert it into the ignition behind the steering wheel, turn it 45 degrees and hold down the accelerator! Twilight started searching for this key that Puff spoke of, but she couldn't find any sort of key. Before Twilight could ask where it was, Ko Ko came in again, Can't find the key, can ya? Pinkie told me she left the key on the dashboard.

So, Twilight looked on the dash, and found it.

A little silver key, shining in the sunlight. Twilight grabbed it, and searched for the ignition. She found it, stuck the key in and turned it, to precisely 45o. Once the key was turned to the correct angle, the engine of the Hunter started to cough and sputter. Remembering Puff's instructions, Twilight put her hoof down, and the engine started to make a continuous ck-ck-ck sound. Twilight released the throttle and stopped turning the key, and the Cavalry didn't start.

So she tried again, but with similar results.

Twilight and Spike's hearts sank. Had her friends given them a dead car?

Twilight was about to give up when another voice, this one was almost identical to Pharynx's voice but younger and a lot more cocky, came over the radio, You're not holding it long enough! Twilight assumed that the voice belonged to the other changeling of Akula's group, Druid.

It did.

When you turn the key and hold down the throttle, you need to hold it for about three seconds for the car to start. Otherwise, it won't. Druid explained. Twilight then decided to use this knowledge, turned the key and held down the throttle...

...One, one thousand
Two, one thousand
Three...

...and then, the V8 engine of the Cavalry roared to life! Spike yelped at the sudden noise, but Twilight didn't flinch, as she was starting to get used to the noise. Druid came in over the CB again, There you go! Remember, hold for 3 seconds to start the engine. It's the same with every car! Now, I'm done wasting my time on you! Later!

Sweets! Now, remember what Akula taught you earlier... And follow me! Ko Ko then announced, slamming on the throttle of her Carnivale. The silver low-rider jumped forward, and then turned to the left, disappearing from Twilight's view.

Twilight let out a deep breath and turned to Spike. "Ok, Spike. You ready?" She asked the baby drake.

"I... guess so," Spike replied, with a bit of hesitation. Twilight then turned her gaze to the front, and planted her hoof on the throttle. The Hunter roared and jumped forward, quickly picking up speed. Twilight saw Ko Ko's Carnivale to her left, racing up Angus Wharf. Twilight flicked the wheel left to follow the dragon-pony. The Cavalry responded by going into a wide left turn, onto Angus Wharf, and Twilight accelerated, chasing after Ko Ko.

Ko Ko looked in her rear-view mirror, and saw Twilight's lavender Cavalry approaching fast. She flashed a smile, and hit her boost button and immediately released it. For a few seconds, bright green flames erupted from the Carnivale's exhausts before dissipating. But the quick burst of boost did the trick, as the lavender Cavalry stopped gaining on the silver-and-pink Carnivale, but it wasn't falling behind either. Ko Ko had somehow accurately calculated Twilight's speed, and then expertly matched it!

The Carnivale raced around a right-hand bend, Twilight in hot pursuit. Twilight followed Ko Ko around the bend, then a red-and-yellow drive-thru building on the side of the road came into Twilight's view. And stopped right next to it, was Ko Ko's Carnivale.

Puff came in over Twilight's CB again, There's the Auto-Repair! Drive through it and see what happens! Twilight gunned it, making a bee-line for the Auto-Repair building. Twilight slammed her hoof down on the throttle as the Cavalry raced through the drive-thru...

...But Twilight and Spike didn't see anything happen. That's when Ko Ko spoke again, Great!!! Look at the outside of your car! It looks soooooo much better! But before Twilight or Spike could ask what she meant by 'It looks soooooo much better', they both looked at the outside of their cars...

...and saw that their Hunter was in perfect condition! Gone was the bent up front, scratched windows and deformed roof. Now, the hood was perfectly straight and no longer crumpled up. The scratches on the windows had gone. And the roof was now free of dents. Amazed, Twilight coaxed the muscle car to a stop and wound down both windows, so Spike and herself could see what else had changed. When they leaned out of the windows, they saw that the scratched lavender paint was now free of scratched and looked as if the car had been polished night and day, as the paint was shining in the sun.

In short, Twilight's Cavalry looked as if it had just rolled out of the Hunter showroom.

After Twilight and Spike had finished gazing at their shiny Cavalry, Ko Ko spoke again, Looks good, huh? When you drive a beaten-up car through a Auto-Repair, your car gets repaired back to full health! Also, it gets rid of any nasty scratches, dents and window cracks on your car, making it look shiny and new! Auto-Repairs are vital for winning Road Rage and Marked Mare events! Also, when you take a wreck through an Auto-Repair for the very first time, you'll get the location of the car's Burning Route, if you haven't found it yet. Pretty neat, right? After stopping to catch her breath, Ko Ko continued, Well, as far as I can see, you appear to be ready for your first Race! Follow me to the starting location! And with that, Ko Ko slammed her hoof down on the throttle and sped past Twilight, before taking a right onto Watt Street. Twilight clipped herself back into her seatbelt, and gunned it. The Cavalry leaped forward, chasing after the dragon-pony's low-rider. In fact, she was so focused in chasing after Puff, that she started to perform gear shifts without her realizing.

It was just like Akula said. Everything was falling into place for Twilight. And she was loving it, even Spike was starting to warm up to this style of dangerous driving. His terrified cries became excited ones, and he was even asking Twilight to go faster.

Twilight didn't disappoint, and she gunned the throttle even more. The V8 engine of the Cavalry roared louder, and the car increased its speed. Twi then snapped the wheel to the right, turning the big muscle car onto Watt, and raced down the small street, coming up on the end.

For the Princess of Friendship and her assistant, the sudden adrenaline rush was the best feeling ever.

Meanwhile...
7th & Webster Intersection
Starting location of Stealing 1st

The group of 7 cars were lined up across the street, engine idle, waiting for somepony to show up. On occasion, some of them would rev their engines to prevent them from automatically shutting off.

Sitting at the wheel of his Ikusa GT, Akula was sitting quietly, patiently waiting for... well, whoever he was waiting for.

Druid's voice came over his CB. Okay, AK! Everypony's here! What are we waiting for?! Let's go!

Akula picked up his CB's microphone and replied, Not everyony, Druid! Be patient! She's coming! Ko Ko says she'll be here any second now.

Well, if she doesn't get here soon, I'm starting without you! Druid impatiently snapped back.

Akula just put his CB microphone away, and though to himself, Patience has never been one of your strongpoints, Druid, and it never will be.

Then, as if on cue, there came a squealing of tires. Akula looked in his rear-view mirror...

...when a split-second later, Twilight's lavender Cavalry exited out of the street a few meters behind them, almost completely sideways, smoke erupting from the muscle car's back tires. Twilight was experimenting with using the brakes while cornering, resulting in a huge sideways powerslide.

Akula gave a faint smile, as the Cavalry straightened out and slowed down, pulling into a space in Akula's line of friends. Twilight coaxed the car to another stop, pulling into a space, with Akula on the right of her and Ko Ko on her left.

When the Cavalry had come to a complete stop, Akula's voice spoke through the radio. Looks like you're starting to get into the hang of things, Twi. How's it feel to be driving a powerful car at speed?

Twilight grabbed her CB's microphone and shouted into it with excitement, "THAT WAS AMAZING! I'VE NEVER FELT SO ALIVE!!!!!"

Another, younger voice replied to Twilight's little outburst. I heard that! I had the exact same feeling you're feeling right now when I started driving my Touge Sport for the first time! Feels good, doesn't it? Twilight assumed that the voice belonged to the alicorn colt Akula introduced as Striker.

Druid then piped up, Okay, okay! We're all feeling the same way as each other! It is a good feeling! CAN WE GET TO THE RACING NOW???!!!!!

Well, now that everypony's here, let's get started! Akula stated, revving the Ikusa GT's engine.

Another voice came in over Twilight's radio, this one heavily accented, Ok, Twilight. Ko Ko here says zat you have gotten ze hang of your car, ja? Vell, let's see how vell you fare against us! Twilight assumed that this voice belonged to the spotted unicorn Akula introduced as Strict Thunder.

Ghost spoke to Twilight next, Twilight, you ready to race? Spin your wheels when you're ready. To spin your wheels, just hold down the gas and the brake at the same time. Your rear wheels should start to spin. Twilight looked down at her pedals, and pressed her hooves down on the accelerator and the brake. Sure enough, the Cavalry's back wheels started to spin, creating a lot of tire smoke. Twilight then noticed that the others started doing the same thing.

Once all of the cars had their wheels spinning, they all unexpectedly stopped. Then, all the others started revving their engines, so Twilight started doing the same. Then, a map appeared on the Cavalry's dashboard map. And DJ P0N3's voice spoke through her radio. This is a Race. You are here. Race South to the Wildcats Baseball Stadium! First to the finish gets a mark on their licence! Go on the green light! Twilight looked up to the traffic light, which was red when it switched to yellow. The race was about to start.

"Here we go, Spike. You ready for this?" Twilight asked Spike, keeping her gaze focused forward.

Spike just chuckled at the alicorn's question, and simply replied, "I was born ready, Twilight!" And with that statement, the lights went green, and the race began.

Striker's Touge Sport shot immediately shot off the line and into the lead, with Akula's Ikusa GT and Strict's Arachno Sport close behind. Behind them was Druid's Hydros and then Twilight, with Ko Ko behind her and Ghost and Tank bringing up the rear. Twilight gawked in amazement at the speed the Touge Sport had launched off the line.

But she had no time to keep gawking, as Ko Ko was hammering on her tail, looking for a way to get past. The dragon-pony in the Vegas Carnivale almost passed her on the right, and she would've gotten past too, had Spike not alerted Twilight to the dragon-pony's presence.

Twilight snapped out of her little gawking session, as Spike was frantically yelling at her to 'block the crazy Ko Ko passing them on the right!' The Princess of Friendship glanced to the right, and saw Ko Ko's silver and pink Vegas Carnivale trying to sneak past them on the right! Acting on instinct, Twilight snapped the wheel right, causing the Cavalry to snap to the right and cut in front of Ko Ko. But Ko Ko kept at it, and moved over more to the right, trying to get past. But Twilight kept moving to the right, forcing Puff more to the right.

But then, as Ko Ko made to pass Twilight on the right again, she spotted a line of parked cars right in front of her! Immediately, Ko Ko threw the wheel right, and her Carnivale responded smartly, swerving onto the pavement, moments before it would have hit the first car in the line. But the sudden swerve had caused her to lose speed and she started falling behind.

Upon seeing Ko Ko swerve to avoid the line of parked cars and start to leave her vision, she let out a deep breath and turned back to Spike. "Thanks, Spike. Don't know what I'd do without you!"

The baby drake just blushed with a smile, and said, "Aww, thanks Twilight! Now, let's win this race!" And with that, Twilight stomped on the gas, chasing after the Hydros Techno ahead of her.

Meanwhile, just ahead...
Webster Avenue

As Twilight attempted to catch Druid and as Ghost and Tank battled it out for staying out of last, Striker was busy weaving his way through Webster Avenue's traffic, all the while trying to fend of a relentless assault by Akula to take the colt's lead. Akula was an literal demon when it came to overtakes. He would wear his opponent down with fake passing attempts, and once his opponent was tired as hell, he would easily power by them.

But trying to pass Striker was a different thing altogether.

The alicorn colt wasn't planning on letting go of his lead, and given the fact that he was an alicorn, he had pretty much the same level of stamina as Akula. What this meant was Akula just couldn't get past the colt. No matter how hard he tried.

Then, the two cars got to the first of Webster's many huge junctions (namely, Webster & 4th Street). A car was held up at the lights, taking up the middle lane. As Striker and Akula approached the junction, Striker took the left lane and Akula tried, once again, to pass him via the middle lane. However, when the two hit the junction, Akula swung wide to avoid crashing into the stopped car, allowing Striker to pull away.

But it also allowed another thing to happen.

When Akula swung wide to avoid the car, Strict Thunder, who was just behind the two, looking for an opening, saw Akula's swerve had left the door wide open for him. So Strict hit his boost, and raced through the huge gap that Akula had left and took second place from the demon. Strict was pleased with himself, having moved up to second. But that feeling wasn't going to last.

Akula wasn't having any of the unicorn's cheeky little passing maneuver, hit his boost and charged after Strict. And despite the Arachno Sport being quite a bit faster than his Ikusa GT, he caught the unicorn within seconds and clipped his bumper. The Krieger jolted and suddenly flicked to the left, going nose-first into the concrete split. The nose of the 616 crumpled and was brought to a complete stop. The crumpled wreckage of the 616 blocked the entire left lane, meaning that all the others behind Striker and Akula will have to avoid the wreckage when they got to it.

Meawhile, just behind the incident location, Twilight had managed to catch Druid's Hydros Techno. But she couldn't get past. The changeling was blocking her every attempt to get past. And to make matters worse, Ko Ko had recovered from her little overtaking mistake, and was now looking for an opportunity to get past. If Twilight didn't lose Ko Ko and get past Druid as soon as possible, she would be overwhelmed.

But relief was soon to hit her.

The three raced onto the same way lanes at the start of the split, Druid and Ko Ko in the left lane and Twilight in the middle. They then passed through the first intersection, and Ko Ko started to edge past Twilight's Cavalry. Then came upon something that shouldn't be there. The crumpled wreckage of Strict's 616 Arachno Sport, blocking the entire left lane.

Druid and Ko Ko's lane.

What happened next, felt like everything had slowed down for Twilight and Spike. Ko Ko, upon seeing the wreckage of Strict's car, immediately slammed on her brakes, as she had nowhere to move, and her Carnivale wouldn't be able to shove the heavier Cavalry of of the way fast enough. And while Ko Ko rapidly slowed down, Druid swerved onto the pavement, cutting right in front of Twilight and narrowly avoiding a stopped car in the right lane. But as Druid swerved around the stopped car, he found himself going head first to the side of a van crossing the intersection from the West side, with no room to move.

The Kitano crashed into the side of the van, creating a big dent in the side of the van and crumpling the front-end of the car. The wrecked Hydros then flipped, rear-end first, over the top of the van and started rolling before the wrecked car rolled into a concrete wall and stopped.

The sudden braking of Ko Ko and the wrecking of Druid did two things. First, it left three drivers with no chance to win. And second, it put Twilight, Striker and Akula well clear of the others.

The final stage of Twilight's very first race, winner-take-all, had now become a three-pony race.

Both Twilight and Spike realized this, and Spike turned to the alicorn princess and simply said, "Go get 'em, Twi!" Twilight didn't reply. She just moved one of her hooves to the boost button on her steering wheel and pressed it...

Twilight's and Spike's vision blurred as the Cavalry's boost activated. Bright green flames erupted from the Cavalry's exhausts and both the alicorn and baby drake were pushed back into their leather seats. Quickly, they raced down Webster Ave, quickly gaining on Striker and Akula. But she was gaining too quickly. And she boost shunted the blue Touge Sport with massive force.

The huge impact of the lavender Cavalry shunting Striker's Touge Sport sent the alicorn colt into a spin. Striker's face started looking a bit green as he gripped his wheel, trying to get out of the spin. Twilight just kept accelerating, when she saw her passing a black blur. Instantly, she realized what had happened. She had just overtaken Akula's Ikusa and had taken the lead. Her hoof punched into the sky in triumph. But Spike then warned, "Okay! Enough celebrating! Akula's gaining on us!"

Hearing Spike's warning, she put on a determined face and thought to herself, I can win this. Just stay focused!

Akula couldn't believe his red eyes. He just saw Twilight blast right by him, and take out Striker in the process. The half-changeling just stared at the lavender Cavalry with confusion. How did it do that, with its low boost rating? He though to himself, before regaining focus and hitting his boost.

He quickly gained on the heavier, slower Cavalry. Soon enough, he had managed to pull alongside the Hunter. And then he saw her. Twilight was focused dead-ahead of her, with a determined expression written all over her face. Akula just looked at her, with a dead gaze. He looked back in front of him... and the red banner that was the finishing point came into view.

He looked back at Twilight, started at her for a few seconds then did something unexpected.

He eased his hoof off the accelerator.

Instantly, the Ikusa GT lost its speed and slowed down, allowing Twilight to pull away. Then, Twilight's Cavalry raced under the red banner and came to a stop.

Twilight didn't believe it.

Spike didn't believe it.

Twilight had won, yes won, her first race!

Akula cruised past the banner, easily taking second. He pulled to a stop, and he saw Twilight's lavender Cavalry doing donuts just ahead of him, celebrating her victory. Akula didn't know, but Twi was screaming out "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in triumph. Spike was whooping it up, too.

After a few seconds of donuts, Twilight stopped the car. Akula's voice spoke through her radio. Well done. I knew you had it in you.

Within moments, the others started crossing the line; Striker managing to recover from his spin and hold onto third, leaving Druid to take fourth. Strict came next, in fifth, followed by Ko Ko in sixth. And, fighting a battle that lasted the whole race, Ghost had managed to outlast Tank's assault and take seventh, leaving the 'Silver One' in last.

As all the others pulled up behind Akula, Strict's voice came in through the radio. What a race! Who won? In response, Twilight revved her engine. Vell done, Twi! I hope ve run into each other sometime again, ja? See ya' around, Twi! And with that, Strict stomped on the gas and blasted past Twilight, heading for Harber Street.

AK, we're going with Psycho down to the old Stock Car Track. Meet us there when you're done with Twi, ok? Druid said, before he and the others raced after the 616, leaving just Twi, Spike and Akula.

After a long period of silence, Akula then said, Guess it's just you and me. Let's go find some trouble. Akula then slammed on the gas, and threw the wheel to the right, sending the Ikusa GT into a 180o lateral skid and raced back up Webster, before passing under the banner and taking a right onto Angus Wharf. Twilight saw what Akula did, stomped on her throttle and raced after him.

Author's Note

The Demon has appeared! And the Demon's ME!!!!! :pinkiehappy:

WOW, this took me a long time! So happy I managed to finish it!

The other characters featured in this chapter are the property of my best friend, who I won't name, for obvious reasons, and my little sister, who I also won't name.

Paint Schemes:

Akula's Ikusa GT: Finish 1, gloss black
Ko Ko's Vegas Carnivale: Finish 1, metallic silver
Ghost's Pioneer Super Gator: Finish 1, gloss black
Druid's Hydros Techno: Finish 1, gloss light green
Strict's 616 Arachno Sport: Finish 3, pearlescent black/blue
Tank's Inferno Van: Finish 1, metallic silver.
Striker's Touge Sport: Finish 1, metallic dark blue

Stay tuned to this story, as the next chapter will come as soon as it can and know this...

Trouble is coming to Paradise... :trixieshiftleft:

The Marked Mare 1: Seeing Stars

East Crawford Drive/Angus Wharf Intersection
Paradise City
A few minutes later...

Moments after their encounter with the Legion of Doom, Twilight and Akula were proceeding towards Twilight's next event. Passing under the Coastguard HQ, Akula started to explain the event type.

The event we are approaching, and the one you are going to start, is known as a Marked Mare event. It follows the premise of a Race, but the rules are different. The objective is to get to the specified finish location. There's no opponents to race against and there's no time limit, so you can take as much time as you need to get there. But there's a catch. When you start a Marked Mare event, other drivers in the area are alerted to your presence and are tasked with totaling your car before you can get to your destination. You have to survive the drive and get to the finish before the drivers hunting you total your car. It's much harder than it looks,

"Then why are we doing one of those events first?" Twilight asked, concerned with the way he was explaining the difficulty of the event.

Because when you progress through the licences, the events get tougher and tougher, Akula explained, If you take on a Marked Mare event at my level, you will face upwards of four highly-aggressive hunters, who become a real pain, no matter what car you're driving. But if you take on a Marked Mare event at your level, you'll most likely face only one or two hunters, who are not that overly aggressive,

Twilight and Spike both let out an 'Oh!', realizing what he meant. No more words were exchanged between the two as they proceeded up East Crawford, passing the point where Dash picked up the alicorn and the baby drake when they first arrived. Eventually, they got to an intersection where the event was to start. The two pulled to a stop at the lights.

Akula spoke through the radio. Okay. This is the starting location. Just drive as fast as you can, and if you need to, slam your hunters into the traffic or introduce them to a couple of walls. There's no rules saying that you can't fight back against the hunters. Just know this, There was a pregnant pause, before Akula then said, The moment you complete this event and you earn your D-Class Licence, it's over. I can't help you anymore. From then on, it's everypony for themselves. I wish I could help you, but I can't,

There was a huge moment of silence. Then, Twilight picked up her microphone and said, "No, it's ok. You've helped us enough,"

Spike just looked at Twilight in shock, and started to complain, "But, Twilight-"

"No, Spike. If he can't help us, we can't force him to do so. We'll just have to learn more as we go," Twilight said, cutting the dragon off. After a few minutes of hesitation, Spike just made the most adorable pouty face, nodded and hung his head down in acceptance.

Twilight continued, "Thank you for all you have done for us. I will never forget it,"

Unbeknownst to Twilight, Akula was smiling at her. He then said his final words to Twilight, It was my pleasure, Twilight. I hope to see you again on the roads soon, And with that, Akula then slammed on the gas, and threw the wheel to the right, sending the Ikusa GT into a 180o lateral skid and sped back the way the two had come, eventually disappearing from view. Twilight and Spike just watched him go.

Twilight fixed her eyes forward, took a deep breath out and, once again, asked Spike if he was ready.

"Ready... I guess," Was the reply.

"Oh, come on, Spike!" Twilight said, "I need your superb eyesight in order to 'Survive the Drive',"

"Well, when you put it that way..." Spike finally said.

Twilight just smiled at him and put her hooves down on the accelerator and the brake, causing the back wheels to spin.

They were ready.

Twilight eased her hoof onto the throttle, making the car start to pick up speed. Moments earlier, Twilight was told by Akula that Marked Mare events require a rolling start, rather than a stopped start from the lights. As Twilight increased the Cavalry's speed, a map appeared on her dashboard GPS. Then, DJ-P0N3's voice came through the radio again. It's time to be the Marked Mare. You are here. Survive the drive West to the Crystal Summit Observatory before the drivers chasing you smash up your car. If you arrive at the finish in one piece, you'll get a mark on your license. Ready? Here they come!

Once the final line had left Vinyl's mouth, Twilight and Spike immediately started looking around, checking for threats. But something was off.

Nopony was approaching them. Everything was quiet (Apart from the obvious roaring of the Cavalry's engine).

Spike and Twilight kept their heads on a swivel, constantly looking around for any car that approached them. "Something's not right, Twi. It's too quiet,"

"I know, Spike. Just keep your eyes open and we won't get jumped," Twilight told him.

But they never saw a blue-and-silver Hunter Mesquite Custom approach them fast from behind...

Twilight continued down East Crawford at a relatively steady pace, as the Mesquite Custom got closer and closer, and shunted the Cavalry at high speed!

Twilight and Spike were thrown forward under the impact, their seatbelts stopping them from flying through the front windshield. They looked behind them, and saw the Mesquite Custom hammering at their tail, constantly taking aggressive swipes at it.

Twilight turned to Spike, annoyance written all over her face. "SPIKE!! I told you to keep an eye out!" She snapped at him.

"Oh, come on, Twilight! I thought you were looking behind us!" Spike snapped back. The arguing was interupped when the Mesquite Custom shunted them again. Twilight looked in her mirror, and she swore she saw a unicorn pony in a magician's hat and cape behind the tinted windows.

Then, a very recognizable voice came in through her CB. Hello, Princess,

Twilight gasped at the voice. It was Trixie Lunamoon.

It is such a great pleasure for the Great and Powerful Trixie to be dismantling your car today! Trixie announced, moving for another shunt. But Twilight saw her move, and stomped on the gas. The Hunter leaped forward and charged into the small tunnel ahead, Trixie in hot pursuit.

As quick as they had entered the tunnel, they exited out the other side, with Trixie still right behind Twilight. Then, as they approached the road that led towards the Country Club, Trixie took another swipe at the Hunter's bumper. The Mesquite made contact with the Cavalry's rear, sending out a loud crunch. The Cavalry jolted forward, and Twilight quickly snapped the Cavalry right to avoid a van in front of her. Trixie followed her line, as the two started onto West Crawford Drive. And for Twilight, there was nothing she could do shake her first hunter.

As Twilight took the hard right towards the hairpin, she hit her boost. Green flames erupted from the Cavalry's exhausts. But Trixie anticipated the move, and hit her boost. But instead of green flames, red flames erupted from the Mesquite Custom. This was because the Mesquite Custom had Aggression-class Boost, which is identifiable by its red colour. Aggression Boost is also a bit more powerful than Stunt Boost.

Trixie began to close on Twilight again, but by that time, they had reached the hairpin at the end of the long straight. Seeing the corner ahead, Twilight disengaged her boost, tapped the brakes and turned into the corner. The back end of the Cavalry kicked out, and Twilight started to drift the hairpin. Trixie, however, in her determination to nail the alicorn, wasn't expecting her to drift, which ended up with Trixie attempting to drift as well.

But the takedown-specialized Mesquite Custom wasn't as suited to drifting as the stunt-specialized Cavalry. Which meant that while Twilight was able to exit her drift perfectly, Trixie overshot and slid into the side girders. Although Trixie didn't wreck, it severely slowed her down, allowing Twilight to pull away a bit.

Spike looked at the shrinking image of the Mesquite Custom falling behind, and chuckled. "You need to learn how to drift, Trixie!" The baby dragon joked, to which both he and Twilight laughed at. But as they went around the two right corners that led to the tunnel next to the abandoned railway (I'll nickname it the 'tabletop'), Trixie had managed to catch up, and shunted her yet again!

I'm back! Did you forget about me?, was the message she was delivering.

Then, Twilight turned the Cavalry into the huge tunnel just ahead, with Trixie still hot on her hooves. Then, things when from bad to worse for Twilight's run.

As the two cars raced down the tunnel, with Trixie trying to get alongside Twilight, the alicorn spotted a traffic car approaching them from head-on. But something was off about it. It was driving right on the double-yellow line in the middle of the road instead of in its lane. And the engine of the car was too loud to be an ordinary car.

Then, a realization hit Twilight. And she gasped.

It was the second hunter!

That's when a country-style voice spoke through her CB. But it wasn't Applejack. Well, howdy Princess! I'm sorry, but you ain't going any further than this!

It was Braeburn! Spike also heard the voice, and exclaimed, "WHAT?! What is Braeburn doing here?!"

As Braeburn got closer, Twilight managed to get a visual on his car. It was a yellow-and-black Hunter Oval Champ 69. The heavier, more powerful upgraded version of Twilight's Cavalry. Gazing at Braeburn's Oval Champ had distracted her...

...allowing Trixie to sneak alongside Twilight, and shove her car right into the path of Bareburn's incoming Oval Champ!

Well, then Brae. Trixie says she's all yours! Trixie said to Braeburn.

Much obliged, Trix! He replied, increasing his speed.

Spike was even more surprised at what was just said between the two of them. How do they know each other?! Spike thought to himself, getting more confused each minute.

Twilight however, wasn't confused. Instead, she was scared for her perfect run in this event. The Oval Champ 69 was way heavier than her Cavalry, so trying to take the hit would result in her being wrecked. And she couldn't move away, as Trixie was blocking her from doing so. Unless...

Then, the line Akula said at the start of the event kept repeating in her head. There's no rules saying that you can't fight back against the hunters. And it gave Twilight an idea...

Twilight then slammed on her brakes. The Cavalry locked its brakes, instantly letting the Mesquite Custom pull ahead of her. But when the rear quarter was in line with the Cavalry's front, Twilight released the brake, got back on the throttle and swung the wheel right, towards Trixie's rear end.

Contact.

Twilight's Cavalry started to spin Trixie. The Mesquite Custom started to shift sideways, taking up the whole tunnel. Then, Braeburn careened right into Trixie! Trixie's Mesquite was flung right into the air, allowing Twilight to race right under the flying wreck and pull away from her hunters!

As Spike looks back in the rear-view mirror, he sees the Mesquite Custom rolling down the tunnel, with the Oval Champ 69 nowhere in sight. Spike just turned to Twilight and said, "Nice driving, Twilight! That should be the last we hear of them!"

"I sure hope so! Whoop-whoop!" Twilight replied, honking her horn twice.

Twilight stomped on the gas, hoping to put as much ground between the hunters and herself. After catching some air hitting the hill at the end of the tunnel, the two continue down West Crawford, when they took a tight right onto Nelson Way. But as soon as they got onto Nelson, they turned off, onto Lewis Pass. But as they zoomed up towards Crystal Summit, Spike looked back in the rear-view, and saw something worrying.

"Twilight, they're back!" Spike told her, a hint of shock in his voice. Twilight looked behind, and saw that Trixie and Braeburn had caught up with them again!

Did you forget about us, Twilight? Braeburn rhetorically asked her, stomping on his throttle. But Twilight almost forgot that she was heading to the mountains, where hairpins reign supreme. And she was one heck of a drifter despite being behind the wheel of a car for only a few minutes.

Pretty soon, they got to the first hairpin, and Twi tapped the brakes, kicking the back out and sending the lavender Cavalry into another drift, and again, Trixie's determination to nail her proved her undoing, as she overshot the corner again and went careening into the fence on the side. But Braeburn, despite having a heavier version of the Cavalry, he was able to match Twilight's move. And upon exiting the turn, and racing under the Paradise National Park sign, he gave her a shunt for her trouble.

Did ya' think ya' could lose me doin' that? Think again! Braeburn remarked, shunting her again. And shunted her a third time, before trying to get alongside her on the left. Say goodbye, Twi! He remarked, moving to PIT Twilight's lavender Cavalry. But Akula's line for the start rang in her head again, and she got another idea.

She flicked the wheel left, and collided with the Oval Champ 69, sending it bumper-first into the guard-rail. The car wrecked instantly, giving Twilight some breathing room. "Goodbye!" Twilight joked, tapping the brake and sending the Cavalry into a drift around the next hairpin.

Igniting her boost, she raced up a small hill, gaining some air time, when she turned left, onto North Rouse Drive, with Trixie and Braeburn in hot pursuit. And drifting around what corners she can, she quickly makes it onto North Mountain Drive.

Trix, we gotta' go somethin', or Twilight'll make it to the finish! Braeburn frantically said, trying to speed up and catch Twilight.

I'll just give it one more go! She is not winning! Trixie growled, hitting her boost.

Trixie's Mesquite Custom closed fast, heading right for Twilight's rear bumper. But Trixie forgot that there was one more sharp turn between Twilight and victory. Twilight hit the brakes, and drifted the corner. Trixie overshot again, ruining her final attempt at stopping Twilight.

No. NOOOOOO!!!!!!! Trixie screamed in defeat, slamming her hooves on the steering wheel.

Twilight, now unopposed, just hit her boost and blasted past the finish line. Rolling the Cavalry to a stop on the side of the road, punching her hooves into the sky and shouting for joy.

That's when Trixie came in over her CB. Well played, Twilight. But next time, The Great and Powerful Trixie will stop you! I can assure that! As she said this, the two bashed up cars that were Trixie's Mesquite Custom and Braeburn's Oval Champ 69. Twilight giggles as the two beaten-up cars raced past, now probably looking for an Auto-Repair.

But as she giggled at the two passers-by, she failed to notice that her licence was glowing...

Author's Note

Announcement: Due to a lack of ideas for characters, I'm allowing my readers to have their OCs feature in my story. If you wish to see your OC(s) make a guest appearance in my story, just leave a comment stating your character's name, looks and species, along with the car they drive and the colour scheme their car uses.

I will DM you if I think that your character is good enough.

If you want your OC to feature in this story, but you don't know of any of the cars, that's ok. Just click on this link, pick the car you want and I'll come up with the paint job for you (if you don't have access to the game).

Paint Schemes:

Trixie's Mesquite Custom: Finish 1, metallic dark blue
Braeburn's Oval Champ 69: Finish 2, gloss yellow

Also, I hid a reference to NFS Carbon in this chapter. See if you can spot it!

Thanks so much for getting this far in my story and...

Twilight is now one step closer to getting home...

Upped-Licence 1: Class D & Hunter Mesquite

Crystal Summit Observatory
Aftermath of 'Seeing Stars' Marked Mare event

But as she giggled at the two passers-by, she failed to notice that her licence was glowing...

Spike was the first to notice, at tapped on Twilight's back to alert her. "Umm, Twilight? You need to see this!"

Twilight just watched Trixie and Braeburn leave, before turning back to Spike. "What is it, Spike?" Then, she saw her glowing licence, and her jaw dropped.

Then, as the glow surrounding her Learner's Permit dissipated, her licence changed. It wasn't a Learner's Permit anymore. Now, it was slightly-bent white-and-blue licence. Twilight was stumped as to what this meant.

That's precisely when DJ-P0N3's voice filled her radio. Congratulations! That win was all you needed to upgrade your Licence to a Class-D. All your wins have been cleared of the map, so you can beat an event again and add that win to your new Licence. Twilight was now relieved to know she was one step closer to home.

But as she looked at her licence more, her eyes went wide upon seeing how many wins she needed. She now needed 7 wins to get her next licence.

And DJ-P0N3 wasn't finished speaking. Celebrate upgrading your licence with a new car. The Hunter Mesquite has been delivered to the Junkyard.

Spike looked at Twilight, smiled and said, "Whaddya' say we check out our new car?" Twilight just smiled back, and hit the gas, heading back the way she had come.

Moments later...
East Crawford Drive Junkyard

Twilight pulled her Cavalry into the Junkyard, passing through the gate that separated the open area from the parking area.

As Twilight pulled into the area, DJ-P0N3 spoke again, Build up your collection of cars, then find a Junkyard like this one to switch you ride at any time. There's 5 Junkyards to find in Paradise!

Twilight pulled to a stop, and she and Spike jumped out. They looked up, to see a lavender-coloured ute hanging from the magnet crane above them. Twilight and Spike didn't have a really good view of the beaten-up car. That is, until the crane dropped the car.

It dropped about 3 feet, where it landed with a loud 'THUD' on the ground, just a few feet from where Twilight and Spike were standing. Twilight slightly fumed at the carelessness of the crane operators. If only those crane operators took a few seconds to show some care, then I wouldn't have to worry about being squashed!

After a few more seconds of silent fuming, Twilight and Spike decided to inspect their new car. It was a beautiful lavender-and-red Hunter Mesquite ute. But it was the furthest thing from pretty. It was badly dented and scratched, and the hood was in the same condition as the Cavalry's when she first got it. The passenger-side door was not closed, instead, it was hanging open. Finally, to top it off, the front windshield was badly cracked.

But neither Twilight or Spike cared. The only thing they cared about was getting home, and getting this car to an Auto-Repair.

The pony and dragon duo hopped into the Mesquite, and sat in their seats. Twilight grabbed the key to the car on the dashboard, and started up the Mesquite. After three seconds, the Hunter roared to life.

Then, DJ-P0N3 came over the Mesquite's radio, Ah, the Hunter Mesquite. Tough enough to take the knocks of rural life. Quick enough to blow the doors off of every preppie in the state. This is an Aggression-class car. Slamming and taking down other races earns boost the quickest in this class, and you can use it at any time.

Great. Good to know, Twilight thought to herself.

Twilight rolled the Mesquite towards the exit, but as the gates were about to open, the came a loud roaring from the left. Twilight and Spike looked in the direction, and saw something she wasn't expecting.

Blasting past the Junkyard, was a red-and-blue Carson GT Concept, and it was being chased down by a aqua-and-orange Jansen XS12, a purple Carson Opus XS and a red-and-black Carson Annihilator. And as soon as they appeared, they disapeared from Twilight's view, heading in the direction of the Wildcats Baseball Stadium.

After a few seconds of staring at the cars that had blasted by, she just shrugged them off as a Marked Mare event in-progress. She then stepped on her throttle, and left the Junkyard, heading for the Auto-Repair on Angus Wharf.

But little did she know was that there was more to that chase that met her eyes...

Author's Note

Another quick chapter to flesh out the plot. Just the way I like to write! Don't worry, a really important chapter is next. One I've been dying to make!

Paint Scheme:

Twilight's Mesquite: Finish 2, Metallic Purple

Stick around for the next chapter, because...

...things will never be the same in Paradise City... :pinkiecrazy:

A Princess and Dragon's Rage 1: Lighthouse Rock

Wind Farm
North Mountain Drive
Direction of travel: South
Event in progress...

Twilight and Spike's Mesquite lay stock-still in the grassy area next to the road, the car near the wall with nowhere to move. They had a takedown score of 5, meaning that if their car totalled, they would win the event.

However, Twilight and Spike were the furthest thing from ok. Twilight was bleeding badly from the head, her horn had minor cracks running down it, her mane was coated in the blood dribbling from the wound on her head, she was covered in bloody cuts running down her body and she was gasping for breath.

Spike wasn't any better than Twilight. He was also covered in bleeding cuts, but they were much worse than Twilight's, his nose was bleeding, his eyes were bloodshot and his left arm was dislocated and broken. He clutched his left arm, but he couldn't relocate his arm.

What made matters worse, was that their Mesquite was badly damaged after being badly T-boned earlier by another car. Their car wouldn't start up, and they couldn't get free of their seats.

They were trapped.

"T-Twilight..." Spike groaned, clenching his arm, "I... I think my arm's broken,"

"I'm... I'm sorry... Spike," Twilight replied weakly, having lost a lot of blood, "I... never should've... dragged you... into any of... this,"

A ominous revving sound come from nearby. The Princess of Friendship and her assistant looked in the direction of the noise...

...and saw Rarity's Grand Marais sitting stock still on Uphill Drive, its engine revving. And sitting behind the wheel was the premier unicorn fashonista that Twilight called, 'one of her friends'. But something about her was off. Her eyes were glowing a bright green, and purple haze was emitting from her eye sockets.

Rarity was under mind control. She was now nothing more than a mindless slave.

In her head, a deep voice echoed to her, Kill her, Rarity. She is my last painful reminder of my defeat.

Rarity just kept her glowing green eyes fixed on the wrecked Mesquite in front of her, inside of which contained Twilight and Spike, as the voice continued to echo in her head. Then...

"Yes, master," She droned, revving the engine of her Grand Marais even more.

Twilight and Spike looked at the Grand Marais as it prepared to charge, their eyes filled with fear.

Spike turned back to Twi, and tried his best flash her a smile, "Well, it's been one hell of a ride, Twilight. I'm gonna miss you,"

Twilight looked at Spike, and did the same thing Spike had done, "I know, Spike. I'll see you another time, in heaven,"

"Goodbye, Twilight. I love you,"

"I love you too, Spike," Was the final words said in the broken Mesquite as the baby dragon grabbed Twilight's hoof and squeezed it tightly. Both of them closed their eyes, and waited...

The sound of the Grand Marais started to approach them, getting louder and louder. Until....

CRASH!!!!!!!

A few minutes ago...
Angus Wharf/East Crawford Drive intersection
Starting location of Lighthouse Rock

Twilight pulled her lavender Mesquite up to the traffic lights, game face on. She was ready to undertake her first Road Rage.

Akula's line about what a Road Rage event from before they were cornered by the Legion of Doom. Next, there's Road Rages. This is only one of two events that don't have a finish location. Instead, it's a running battle across Paradise. You have to achieve the Takedown Target within the time limit to win.

Twilight didn't a hundred percent know what a Takedown was, but she had an idea. She remembered how she caused both Trixie and Braeburn to crash in the Marked Mare event she just won, she had a feeling that she had scored her first Takedowns.

Now that she had a Takedown-specialized car, she felt that she was ready to take on a Road Rage.

Twilight looked at Spike, who nodded once, before she started to spin the Mesquite's wheels.

Then, she started to roll the Mesquite forward, but this time, no map appeared on her dashboard GPS. Instead, was a message, telling her how many takedowns she had scored by how many she needed to win. And DJ-P0N3's voice spoke. The Takedown Target is set! Let the battle commence!

Immediately, Twilight was swarmed by three cars. And Twilight instantly recognized two of them. They were Trixie's Mesquite Custom and Braeburn's Oval Champ 69! However, the third car Twilight didn't recognize, a grey-and-yellow Hunter Vegas.

Then, Braeburn's voice came through her CB. Well, well, well! If it isn't Twilight again!

Trixie sees that, Braeburn! Now we have a chance to put her down with her new car! Trixie's voice added.

Derp! A third voice said. Twilight and Spike both recognized the voice as Derpy Hooves' voice. They both realized that the grey-and-yellow Vegas belonged to her.

Then, all the drivers slammed down on their throttles and the event begun.

Trixie, possibly upset that she couldn't take out Twilight in the earlier Marked Mare event (see Chapter 6, Seeing Stars), immediately targeted Twilight's Mesquite, ramming it like there was no tomorrow. Then, Braeburn saw an opportunity to take out Twilight, and went for it, only to be blocked by Derpy, who saw an opportunity to take him out.

Braeburn was furious, so he turned his attention away from Twilight and charged after Derpy. But this didn't turn Trixie's attention away from Twilight. As Braeburn and Derpy duked it out in front, Trixie kept up her repeated assault on Twilight.

Well, two can play at your game, Trixie, Twilight thought, as she continued to withstand Trixie's assault.

As the four drivers battled it out down East Crawford Drive, they eventually reached the huge building in the centre of the road that was under construction. Braeburn was still dueling with Derpy, and Twilight had gotten around Trixie and now, the magician was hammering on Twilight's right. But while Brae and Derpy went right, Trixie and Twilight went left. But when Trixie attempted to ram Twilight into an oncoming van, Twilight reversed the attack and sent Trixie into the concrete barrier surrounding the building under construction.

The Mesquite Custom's front end crumples up completely, and the wreck is brought to an instant stop. After a few seconds of processing what had just happened, Trixie screams out in rage and repeatedly hits her steering wheel, as Twilight and the others drive away.

Takedown count: 1 / 2

After racing around the building, Twilight ran right into Derpy and Braebrun's little duel. Both Derpy's Vegas and Braeburn's Oval Champ were badly scratched and some parts were missing altogether. And Twilight, thanks to some persuasion from Spike, decided to crash their little duel. Twilight swung the Mesquite to the right, heading right for Braeburn. However, Braeburn saw Twilight approaching and quickly turned to the left, causing Twilight to hit Derpy instead, right on her rear quarter. This sent Derpy into a spin, who eventually crashed into another car.

Takedown count: 2 / 2
Takedown Target Achieved!

Twilight was happy that she had reached her target, but she was more surprised about how quickly she did so. However, that feeling went away, the moment went away when she saw Trixie approaching fast from behind. And she was FURIOUS!

The Mesquite Custom rammed Twilight's Mesquite with a HUGE amount of force, almost throwing Twilight and Spike through the windshield, had they not been wearing their seatbelts. Trixie hit her boost, and approached for another shunt. Twilight and Spike braced themselves for the hit...

...but it never came.

Twilight and Spike both got out of their bracing positions, and looked behind. Trixie's Mesquite Custom was holding position behind Twilight's ute, inches away from making contact.

Trixie just stayed there, when all of a sudden, she increased speed and pulled alongside Twilight, on the left. But she didn't attempt to ram her off the road!

Twilight blinked, then looked to her right, and saw that Derpy was doing the same thing as Trixie was. And ahead of her, also doing the same thing, was Braeburn. Twilight turned on her CB, but the three weren't speaking to each other.

Something was definitely off.

Spike looked at the three cars with heavy suspicion. "Something's not right. What's going on?"

"I'm not sure, Spike. But I don't like it either," Twilight replied.

Then, came a bright flash of light from the three cars surrounding Twilight.

Twilight, after almost being blinded by the light, then looked again at the cars surrounding her...

...and saw three sets of glowing green eyes, one set for each car, staring back at her.

And upon seeing the sets of glowing eyes, her and Spike's eyes went wide. "Oh no! No no no no no no no no no no no no! That better not be what I think it is!" Twilight exclaimed, clearly shocked.

Then, Braeburn's, Derpy's and Trixie's voice came over her CB, speaking as one. Die!

Then, the three cars squeezed Twilight's Mesquite in their 'rolling roadblock'.

"OH SHIT!!" Twilight exclaimed, slamming on her brakes. Her Mesquite easily slides out of the rolling roadblock and Twilight quickly turns onto Newton Drive. The hypnotized Trixie saw what Twilight was doing and turned after her. Strangely, Braeburn and Derpy continued onto West Crawford and didn't go after Twilight.

As Twilight raced down Newton, she took a jump over the Paradise City River and quickly turned right onto Lawrence Road, Trixie still on her tail.

But as Twilight raced down the huge tunnel, he looked in her rear-view mirror, and saw a huge mob of cars had turned into the tunnel behind Trixie. Cars of all types of models, all with a pair of glowing eyes staring at her.

"Oh, sweet Celestia!" Twilight cried out, reaching the end of the tunnel and turning right, onto North Rouse Drive, the huge mob of cars gaining on her. Eventually, the huge mob managed to swarm her by the time they had reached the Crystal Summit Observatory.

Then, came the pain for Twilight and Spike.

The swarm of cars started to bash up Twilight's Mesquite. But every time Twilight attempted to fight back, the other cars would get more aggressive and bash her up badly. Twilight's car suffered heavy damage and she wouldn't last much longer. Then, Braeburn and Derpy joined the fighting, and things got worse for Twilight.

However, Twilight was quickly approaching Dead Man's Jump. But while the huge mob of cars went around, Twilight took a gamble, hit her boost and jumped the Dead Man gap! But despite driving a heavy car, all that speed she had gained with her boost ensured she made the jump cleanly and safely. Twilight cried for joy and Spike wiped his brow, thankful that they had made it, both of which turned to terror when the mob swarmed them again.

But while Twilight was distracted by the approaching mob, she Traffic Checked a Compact and it careened right into the path of Braeburn, Trixie and Derpy, wrecking all three of their cars.

Takedown count: 5 / 2

Twilight raced down North Mountain Drive, the mob still on her tail. But as she approached the Wind Farm, the mob started to slow down and she began to pull away.

Spike looked back, to see no mob of cars behind them. "I think we lost them, Twi!" He cried out.

"I hope so, Spi-"

But Twilight never finished what she was saying, as at that point she was T-Boned by Rarity and sent into the wall.

Wind Farm
Present time

CRASH!!!!!!!

Twilight and Spike closed their eyes and waited for the end...

...but it never came.

Slowly, Twilight opens her eyes, and saw that she was still alive!

"Twilight?" Spike asked, "Are we dead?"

"No... Spike," Twilight replied, quickly losing all her energy from her blood-loss.

The Alicorn and drake turned to where the enslaved Rarity was approaching, and saw no Grand Marais approaching. Instead, in-line with North Mountain Drive, facing North, its front bumper crumpled up badly...

...was Akula's Ikusa GT!

And further up the road, now a battered wreck, was Rarity's Grand Marais!

"What?" Twilight asked out loud, "When did he get here?"

Moments earlier...

Akula raced up North Mountain Drive, green flames erupting out of the exhausts, Akula driving on near-full tilt, running for his life.

I think I lost them! Akula thought to himself, looking in his rear-view mirror, to see if anypony was following him, Why the hell did they just attack me?! And what's with their eyes?! Why were they glowing?!

He had just caught up to his friends, and was heading for the old Stock Car Track to have some fun, right when they got there, his friends eyes started to glow green, and they started to attack him. But using all of his driving expertise, he managed to escape alive, but just barely.

His car was heavily dented and scratched, and Akula was sapped of most of his energy, as he was the one who taught his friend next to everything he knew.

As Akula raced up the windy road, he quickly approached the Wind Farm. And instantly, he saw two things. First, was a badly-damaged lavender-and-red Hunter Mesquite, stock still and next to completely wrecked. Second, was a white-and-red Carson & Bennett Grand Marais, sitting stock still on Uphill Drive, revving its engine. Instantly, he managed to assess the situation.

The Grand Marais intended to T-Bone the Mesquite and destroy it!

Then, using his demon/changeling combined magic, he managed to sense Twilight Sparkle and Spike the Baby Dragon were in the Mesquite. He gasped in shock.

Whoever was driving the Grand Marais, was going to T-Bone Twilight's car!

Twilight and Spike would be killed for sure!!

Not if I have anything to say about that, Akula thought.

He stomped on his throttle and hit his boost, racing to the scene as fast as he could. And he was approaching fast!

However, the Marais started to move, starting the driver's run to Twilight. Akula was left with only one option; T-Bone the Grand Marais and knock it off course.

So, Akula steered his Ikusa towards the Grand Marais intent on stopping it from killing Princess Twilight. And he was approaching so fast, he was getting closer to the Marais quicker than the Marais was closing in on Twilight. Akula then made one last adjustment to his line, before he braced.

Seconds later...

CRASH!!!!!!!

...Akula T-Boned Rarity!

Despite the Grand Marais being waaaaay heavier that Akula's Ikusa GT, the speed that Akula was approaching with easily compensated for the weight difference. The Grand Marais was thrown out of its path and tumbled up North Mountain, as Akula brought his car to a stop.

He had saved Twilight and Spike from a nasty death.

Twilight and Spike unbuckled their seatbelt and slowly and painfully got out of their car, exiting out of the passenger-side door. While they did this, Akula restarted his Ikusa GT and pulled up in front of Twilight's Mesquite, leaving a gap for a car to reverse into.

While Twilight and Spike staggered towards Akula's Ikusa, Akula jumped out of his car, golden M1911 in his grasp. He ran up to the Alicorn/drake duo and asked, "You okay?"

"Somewhat," Spike groaned, clutching his broken arm.

"Twilight, we need to talk..."

Author's Note

Chapter status: Done! Finally! I apologize about the long wait for this chapter, I've just been very busy with all sorts of stuff. Thank you for being very, VERY patient. I appreciate it!

Okay, I know that the rest of the Main 6 weren't enslaved by Sombra in Season 9, Episode 1 (Part 2), but this story isn't fully canon!

Paint Schemes:
Derpy's Vegas: Finish 2, gloss grey

Anyways, hope you enjoyed and...

TRANSMISSION INTERUPPTED
REBOOTING COMMUNICATION...

Meet-Up

Wind Farm
North Mountain Drive

"Twilight, we need to talk,"

It had been moments since Akula had saved Twilight and Spike from dying a horrible death at the hooves of an enslaved Rarity, and were now about to chat with her about what was going on. While the two talked, Akula kept looking over the hood of the damaged Mesquite, M1911 in his grasp, ready to fire on any enslaved pony that approached them.

"Ok, Twi. You care to explain what's going on here?! One minute, I'm heading to the Stock Car Track with my friends, about to have a good time. The next, they're trying to kill me, as if I'd just killed their lovers and kids!" Akula snapped, extremely confused.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure either, but I have a feeling on who did this," Twilight stated, before fainting. Spike attempted to catch her, but Akula beat him to it, catching Twilight in his red magical aura.

"It was a nice thought, kiddo. But with your broken arm, you wouldn't be able to hold her," Akula explained, making his magic glow brighter.

"What are you doing?" Spike asked.

"I'm casting a healing spell on her," Akula explained, "It won't heal her right away, but it will fix her horn, clean up and seal those cuts and replace any blood she's lost," Then, his magic dissipated and Twilight dropped to the floor. "Now, hold still Spike. I need to do the same to you,"

Spike didn't voice of offer any resistance as Akula lit up his horn again and surrounded Spike with his magic. Then, the aura got brighter and brighter, as Akula cast his healing spell on the dragon. And then, as quick as it had appeared, Akula disengaged his magic, having cast his spell on Spike.

"Thank you," Spike told the demon changeling.

"Twilight would do the same thing for me, so that makes us even," Akula said.

Akula looked at Twilight, who then twitched and started to get up, struggling to get on her hooves. "What... happened to me?" She asked weakly.

Akula trotted over to her and helped her up. "You fainted from the blood-loss so I cast a healing spell on you and Spike. You were just about to tell me who you felt was behind this," The changeling explained to Twilight, staring into her purple eyes. Twilight found herself doing the same thing.

But as Twilight and Akula stared into each other's eyes...

...there came the roar of a fast-approaching car.

Akula broke his stare, and looked over the hood of the Mesquite. And judging by the direction of the noise, it was coming up from Uphill Drive. Shit! Akula thought, pulling away from Twilight, readied his M1911 and aimed at the exit to Uphill Drive...

...precisely when a bright car-shaped blur of red appeared exiting from the road. Twilight sat up to get a look, and her mouth went agape!

Approaching them, was a very expensive, absolutely gorgeous bright-red Rossolini Tempesta supercar. And it was approaching fast! Twilight's jaw dropped at how beautiful this car was. That has got to be the most beautiful car I have ever seen! I'm so jealous! Twilight thought.

But suddenly, the rear-wheels locked up and the Tempesta was sent into a 180o drift. Akula made to open fire, but was too surprised about the approaching speed of the Tempesta, so he couldn't get off a shot. The changeling/drake/Alicorn trio watched in utter shock and disbelief as the Tempesta slid expertly into the gap between the their two cars!

Akula kept his gun up and moved in-between the Tempesta and Twilight, ready to protect her if bullets started flying. Then, the driver's scissor door rose open, and out stepped a crimson pegasus stallion with a brown mane and a blend of dark grey and red on his tail and a Cutie Mark of a white lightning bolt crossed with a guitar to make an 'X'. He was also wearing sunglasses, hiding his eyes and removing any possibility of identifying if he was under control or free.

Akula had a simple solution.

He raised his gun and aimed it right at the stallion's head, waiting for him to turn around and face him. After a while of staring at where he had come from, the stallion turned around, and saw Akula, Twilight and Spike staring back at him, Akula with his M1911 pointed right at his head. The stallion just stared at the three, mouth agape.

"Hooves up! Take you glasses off!" The changeling ordered.

The stallion complied, and raised his hooves up. But he didn't hear Akula's order to take his sunglasses off, and just stared at him, confused.

"Take the glasses off! NOW!!!!!" He snapped, clearly annoyed with the stallion's failure to follow his simple instruction.

This time, the stallion heard him and took off his glasses, resting them on his forehead and revealing his dark brown eyes. It was clear that he wasn't under control.

Akula's expression softened, but he kept his gun aimed at the stallion's head. He jerked his head towards the damaged Mesquite, signalling him to come over. The stallion understood the command and came over, kneeling behind the Mesquite, Akula still holding him at gunpoint.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Akula asked the stallion.

The stallion just looked at the demon changeling in the eye, and smiled. "Could you put the gun down first, bud? You're making me nervous," He said, looking at the M1911 being aimed at him. Akula slowly lowered his gun, but kept it in his grasp. "Thank you! Now, I'm sure introductions are not necessary, as I'm sure you've heard of me," He bragged, and gestured to himself.

"No, I don't think I have," Akula replied, looking at the stallion with uncertainty.

The stallion's look of pride changed to one of surprise, as he looked back at changeling. "You... haven't heard of me?" He asked, genuinely surprised. Akula just shook his head. "But I'm DangerDean!"

"Haven't heard of that name," Akula said, shaking his head.

DangerDean just stared at him with his mouth agape in disbelief. Eventually, he shook his head free of his thoughts and said, "Ok, ok. Maybe you've heard of one of my nicknames! Have you heard about... The British Speedfreak?"

"No,"

"The stallion with the red Tempesta?"

Akula just shook his head.

"So you're saying that you have't hear of me, at all?!" Dean cried out, shocked.

"No, I haven't," Akula finally said.

Dean just lowered his head in disappointment, and mumbled something to himself, before looking back up at Akula, keeping his proud smile. "Well then, I'm sure you'll get to know me!"

"Ok. Now that that's out of the way... What are you doing here?!" Akula demanded.

"Oh! Well, I was just in a race, which I won by the way, when the other competitors swarmed me and started to attack me! But, using all of my driving expertise, I manged to escape without a single scratch!" He explained, motioning towards his car. One look of his Tempesta said it all. There wasn't a single scratch on it. "Then, I just decided to head in the direction I was travelling and it brought me here,"

The trio's eyes all went wide when Danger finished up his explanation of his events. "Wait a second. You said that you were attacked by the other competitors in your race. Right?" Akula asked. Danger just slowly nodded.

"But... that's the exact same thing that to all of us!" Twilight exclaimed.

Danger just met their look with a happy grin, and said, "Wow! So were the same? Cool!"

He almost got killed, and he's acting like this?! Akula thought, Since when do ponies have so much positivity?!

But before Akula, Twilight or Spike could ask anymore questions, there came the sound of another car. This time, approaching from North Face Drive, in the direction Twilight had come from. Akula immediately turned to the direction of the noise, and quickly raised his gun. Twilight decided to join the changeling, and looked over the hood of the Mesquite with him.

Then, from over the jump near them, smashing through the billboard before coming to a stop next to the Mesquite, was Applejack's Carson Fastback. Upon seeing her, Twilight immediately wanted to jump for joy, but Akula shot down her excitement. "Calm down, Twilight. We don't know if she's under control or not,"

However, Akula had his statement answered as the driver's-side door of the Fastback opened, and out stepped Applejack, her emerald green eyes clearly visible. And upon seeing that she wasn't under control, Twilight, despite her blood loss, rushed up to her and gave her a massive hug. Applejack just stood there confused, being embraced by Twilight, before she returned the embrace.

"Applejack! It's so good to see you! Are you okay?" Twilight asked, concerned about her friend.

"Ah'm fine Twilight. But ah 'ave a bit of ah problem," Applejack explained, "Ah was just cruising with the others, mindin' mah own business, when all of ah sudden, they attacked me! I barely made it outta' there alive!"

It was at this moment that Danger decided to say something. "That would explain the damage. Oh wait, the Fastback always looks like that! Heh!" He joked. His statement was returned by Applejack glaring at him. All Dean did was give her a sheepish look and apologize for his comment.

"You were attacked by the others?" Twilight questioned, to which Applejack nodded, "So were we!"

Applejack just looked at Twilight with a look of shock written all over her face. "Listen, Twilight. Something's goin' on and ah' don't like it!"

"I know, Applejack. But I have an idea on who is behind this..." But before Twilight could finish, the sound of another car approaching filled the air, coming from the exact same direction as DangerDean had earlier. Oh, come on!!!

This time, instead of another Tempesta, a familiar red-and-blue Carson GT Concept that Twilight remembered to have seen just moments after she had managed to get her Mesquite when it was still a wreck raced up towards them. The GT Concept then slid to a sideways stop, parked right next to Akula's Ikusa GT. Instinctively, Akula and the others walked around Danger's Tempesta to get a better look, Akula with his M1911 ready.

Then, the driver-side door opened and out stepped a red pegasus mare with an orange-and-blue mane, orange eyes and a Cutie Mark of a stage microphone. But none of those features concerned Akula or the others. What did concern them was the modified MP7 sub-machine gun she was holding in her hoof.

Instinctively, Akula raised his gun and aimed it at the mare. He then barked sharp orders at the mare to drop the gun and stand down, but unfortunately, the mare took the warnings as a threat, and aimed her MP7 at the changeling.

The two were now held in a stand-off.

"Drop the gun now!!!" Akula barked at the mare.

"You first!!!" She snapped back, not backing down. Akula took a step back in shock the moment he heard the mare's voice.

"I recognize your voice! Have I held you at gunpoint before?" Akula asked, after he recovered from his small moment of shock.

The mare just squinted her eyes at Akula's question and said, "You sound familiar too. Do you know anypony by the name of Zephyr?"

Akula's eyes widened upon the mare's menitoning of the name 'Zephyr'. After a few minutes of silence, Akula looked back up at the pegasus and said, "Promise me you won't freak out when you see this,"

The mare just nodded at him. Akula then closed his eyes, and suddenly, bright red flames engulfed his body. Then, the fire dissipated, and standing where Akula was, was a pure black unicorn stallion with a dark red mane, matching red eyes and a Cutie Mark of the Atlas Corporation emblem. The stallion just looked at the mare with a blank expression, as if he was assessing her very carefully.

The moment the mare saw that Akula had transformed into a pony, her mouth dropped open and she dropped her gun. "Z-Zephyr?" Was all that she could sputter out.

"Hi there, V," The pony, apparently named Zephyr, replied, a smile on his face.

V just ran up to Zephyr and gave him a big hug. Zephyr immediately returned the hug.

The moment of silence was interrupted by Spike, who knew that Zephyr was actually Akula. "You two... know each other?"

V and Akula broke the hug, and the disguised changeling turns towards the group. "Yeah, I know her. Everypony, this is Viral Velocity. You can call her V, if you wish. She's a good friend of mine, and she hails from Wing City, not too far from here. Although she isn't from here, she knows her way around this place like the back of her hoof, because..." Akula explained.

"...I recently just earned my Criterion Elite Licence, meaning that I have mastered Paradise City," Viral finished for him, proudly, "I know where everything is. Every Billboard, Super Jump, Parking Lot, Auto-Repair, Paint Shop, the whole lot! If you ever need to know where something is, just ask me,"

"So do I, sweet!" Danger called out, smiling.

Viral just shot Dean a hostile look, and asked with a somewhat annoyed tone, "What did you just call me?"

Danger took a step back, surprised, before stepping forward and smiling. "Wow! You are feisty! I like that!" He complimented to the mare.

Viral was visibly surprised at how Dean was staying so positive. Whenever somepony called her 'sweet', and she asked them the question she had just asked, they would apologize immediately. But this stallion didn't seem to care about what she thought of him and what tone she used. And that annoyed her. "What is that supposed to mean?!" She asked, the venom growing in her voice.

Normally, at this point, most ponies would back down and stop testing Viral's patience. But Danger wasn't your average pony. Instead...

"Hey, has anypony told you that you look beautiful? Because you are the most beautiful mare I have ever seen,"

Dean's comment caused Viral to step back and her blush to deepen. Nopony had ever tried to flirt with her, due to her tough nature. But Dean was pushing her patience, and (to Viral) seemed to enjoy it.

But before Danger could piss her off further, Akula (who had just transformed back) stepped in between the stallion and the mare before some sort of violence broke out. "Ok, that's enough, you two. Viral, this is DangerDean. Dean, meet Viral Velocity," But as he finished introducing the two to each other, he was interrupted by the sound of another car. But this time, he recognized the engine sound.

It was another Mesquite. But it was coming from the exact same direction that Applejack was coming from.

Everypony in the gathered group turned to the direction of the noise, and all of a sudden, from around the hairpin corner instead of over the jump, was a black-and-grey Mesquite. The second Mesquite pulled to a stop next to Applejack's Fastback, and Viral raised her MP7, aiming right at the driver...

...when Akula put a hoof on the gun, forcing her to lower it.

"Wait, V. I bet you that the driver isn't under control," He told her, causing the pegasus mare to back down.

Eventually, the driver-side door opened, and out stepped Thunderlane.

Twilight gasped, "Thunderlane? What are you doing here?" She asked.

Thunderlane also took a step back upon seeing Twilight, but decided to answer her question anyway. "Umm... When Rainbow Dash entered here, me and the rest of the Wonderbolts were among the crowd that entered the portal after the Elements did,"

"Okay. Then where's the others?"

"Well, I was just cruising with them, when they attacked me. Not one of them tried to defend me. I barely made it out of there. I only did when they started pulling back, and they let me escape," He explained, earning surprised looks from the others.

"The exact same thing happened to us. And both me and Twilight have an idea on why," Akula then said, "We can get acquainted later, Thunderlane. But I think Twilight has been busting to say what she thinks happened to our friends. Twilight?" He turned to Twilight the moment he said this.

Twilight, now thankful that she wasn't going to be interrupted, began to voice her suspicions. "Thank you, Akula. But first, before I do so, I need to know something," She then turned towards the others and asked, "Did the others, who were chasing you down, have glowing green eyes?"

The others just stared at her with wide eyes, and nodded vigorously.

"Well then, I know who has put them under this spell," The others just stood there, mouths agape as Twilight revealed her answer. "King Sombra did this,"

After a few moments of letting Twilight's answer soak in, Akula breaks the silence. "It looks that way. And it appears to have affected everypony who was driving a car that is unlocked by either a Shut Down or a Burning Route. But our cars, are all cars unlocked by upgrading our licences. There's a pattern. And it looks like Sombra has made a mistake,"

"Or his spell was as powerful as he thought it was," Twilight added.

"So we have a plan of action. Win events, shut down the cars and free the others,"

Everypony remianed silent, until Danger said something. "Yeah. Ummm... I think I see a problem with that plan. There is only one, two, three, four, five... SIX of us, against an entire army!"

"Then we'll have to work together," Twilight stated, causing the others to turn to her, "Look. We have the some of the best racers in Paradise. And if we work together, we can do anything! Sombra and the other villains won't stand a chance if we work together!"

"Jus' like when we did it!" Applejack added. And Twilight's little speech lit a spark of hope in the others.

"Well said, Twilight. Well said," Akula complimented.

"Ok, we've got our game plan! But what's our first move?" Viral asked.

"First, we need to find somewhere to access cars and to stay, while we free our friends," Akula replied.

All of a sudden, DangerDean was overcome with an idea he was busting to get out, when he suddenly said, "We can use the Junkyard over by Lone Stallion Ranch! I've been there multiple times, and there is a nice building next to it, where we can sleep!"

"Good idea, Dean! Let's get there before the enslaved do!" Akula said, causing the others to rush to their cars and start the journey.

Twilight rushed to her Mesquite, after Applejack, Thunderlane and DangerDean pulled away to allow Twilight to get out, and jumped in. She found that Spike had already got in, and that Akula's magic had done its job, as Spike was now fully healed.

"So, I take it that we have a plan, Twi?" Spike asked.

Twilight just turned to him, smiled and said, "Yes, we have a plan," She then turned the car on, stomped on the throttle and raced alongside the other Free Ponies.

Moments earlier...

However, unknown to the group of free ponies, another pony was watching them. It was a pale green unicorn stallion with a grey mane, a Cutie Mark of a buzzsaw symbol and a 'X' done in black over his face. He was wearing a casual suit with no tie, and sat in the driver's seat of his black Carson GT Nighthawk, watching as the group rushed to their cars, about to head off to the Junkyard near Lone Stallion Ranch.

But as the group was about to head off, the stallion's wrist-mike started beeping. The unicorn answered it.

"Agent Locus, this is headquarters. Report position and status," A voice said through the wrist mike.

Locus just tapped his mike and reported, "This is Agent Locus. I have eyes on the suspects. They're about to move out,"

"Locus, you have your orders. Tail them,"

"Acknowledged. Moving to tail suspects. Out," Locus said, turning off his mike, as the group got into their vehicles and raced off down South, towards Lone Stallion Ranch. Locus hit the Nighthawk's ignition and raced after them...

Author's Note

There we go! The Free Ponies have a game plan! This story is going better than I thought! Be sure to spread the word about this story, if you enjoyed it!

Also, I want to give a big thanks to DangerDean, RDgamer321 and Mkchief34 for supporting this story! Their OC's DangerDean, Viral Velocity and Locus Fall all belong to their respective owners, and they are real good friends of mine on this site! Be sure to head on over to them and follow them!

An extra thanks goes out to DangerDean and RDgamer321, who have been waiting very patiently for this Chapter. Thanks very much for being so patient!

Paint Schemes:
DangerDean's Tempesta: Finish 1, metallic red
Viral's GT Concept: Finish 3, gloss red
Thunderlane's Mesquite: Finish 1, metallic grey

Stay tuned for the next chapter!

As things get worse for our heroes! :pinkiegasp:

Things get worse

Meanwhile...
Construction area next to Fort Lawrence Naval Station
South Bay Expressway
Paradise City

Meanwhile, while the Free Ponies were racing down to the White Mountain Yard to claim it, Grogar was waiting in the construction zone by Fort Lawrence. He was out of his car, his helmet was off and he was standing with his magic glass ball, the ball pulsing with magical energy.

Come on, where are they? They should be here by now! He thought. All of a sudden, his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of approaching vehicles. It was the rest of the Legion. They all parked around him and stepped out, and walked up to the ram, who turned around and looked at them.

"I hope that you have managed to do what you needed to do," Grogar said to Sombra.

"Of course I did. Every other driver in this city is now my loyal slave, though I don't think that your magic would've helped. I could have been able to do it myself," Sombra said back.

"Yes, while that is true, you could only do so one small group at a time. Only with my magic, now you could enslave everypony in this city at once," Sombra just looked away from the ram in annoyance. "Speaking of which, can you sommon all of your slaves here?"

Sombra nodded and ignited his magic, sending a beacon up into the sky. His eyes glowed and he announced, "SLAVES, ATTEND ME!!!!!!!"

Within moments, a huge swarm of cars arrived at the Naval Yard, completely surrounding the Legion. However, nopony was afraid. Then, all of the drivers stepped out of their cars and formed a huge crowd. And every single pony in the crowd had glowing green eyes. Among the crowd were the Wonderbolts, the Young Six, the Washouts and the Elements of Harmony (but only four of them).

"You summoned us, Master," The crowd said as one.

"Slaves, await your instructions!" Sombra ordered, to which the reply was a chorus of 'Yes, master,' from the enslaved ponies.

Sombra turned and looked at Grogar. "There here, so what do you want with them?"

Grogar beckoned the villains to him, and they all gather around the crystal ball. An image was showing in the ball, multiple cars racing down a winding road, which they recognized as South Mountain Drive. Then, Sombra recognized the red-and-lavender Mesquite as Twilight's.

Although Sombra already knew, Grogar said it anyway, "Twilight. Is. Alive,"

"Impossible!!!" Sombra immediately shouted back, "I sent Rarity to kill her! She should have succeeded!"

Grogar then motioned to the Ikusa GT behind the leading Tempesta, and its crumpled up front end. "It appears that her new friend, Akula, has saved her," When Grogar said Akula's name, Chrysalis felt a shiver go up her spine.

Tirek then spoke up. "That's not possible. The Grand Marais is way heavier than the Ikusa GT. Akula should've just wrecked, as there is no possible way his Ikusa could T-Bone Rarity's Marais,"

"It is possible," Chrysalis interjected, causing all the villains to turn and look at her. "Akula once taught me the 3 Laws of Physics when my reign was still in its infancy. One of the Laws states that, 'when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, they will cancel each other out,' What that means is that while Rarity's Marais was much heavier, it isn't immovable. And Akula must've been approaching at such a high speed that rendered him an unstoppable force. And Akula's momentum was much greater than that of Rarity's, which allowed him to take her out," She explained, slowly trotting towards them. But when she finished her explanation and saw that the others were staring at her in surprise and shock, she lowered her head and apologised.

After shaking his head clear, Grogar addressed the group, while Chrysalis took to the air and flew up onto one of the carrier's decks (when Cozy saw her about to fly away, Grogar just told her to let her go and give her some space). "It's clear that Twilight, Akula and the others with them are not under our spell or dead. So, I've taken the liberty to enhance the spell Sombra cast. The hypnotized ponies now can take orders from the rest of us,"

"OH! Can I try something to see if the enhancement works?" Cozy suddenly asked, her tone filled with excitement. Grogar, not seeing any reason to disagree, gave her a go ahead.

"Okay," Cozy stated, clearing her throat as she jumped up onto the hood of her Revenge, "WHERE ARE THE HYPNOTIZED ELEMENTS????!!!!!" She commanded the crowd of enslaved ponies.

Immediately, the hypnotized Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie stepped forward and bowed before their Empress.

"We are here, mistress," The four Elements said as one.

Cozy smirked deviously and said, "Come here and kiss your Empress's hooves," The four Elements acknowledged their mistress's order, walked over and started to lightly kiss Cozy's hooves, eventually evolving into more passionate and hungry kisses. Cozy loved the way they worshiped her tiny hooves, licking and sucking on them like lollipops and letting out very cute and lewd moans.

"Well, looks like it works to me," Tirek stated, the others nodding in agreement as they watched the Elements suck on Cozy's hooves.

After a while, Cozy thanked the four ponies for the love they showed for her hooves and sent them back to join the crowd. She then jumped off the hood of her car, walked up to the others and gave them a big smile.

After a few moments of silence, Tirek then spoke up, "So you believe that this army will finish Twilight off for good?"

Grogar just turned to look a the centaur and smiled. "Of course. Look. There's only five of them. We have an army. All of us, excluding Sombra, have our Burnout Licences. And I have my Elite Licence. You just need yours, and we will be unstoppable! Equestria will be ours to rule!" The ram suddenly announced, starting to laugh evilly. The others then joined his laughter one-by-one. Soon, the only thing being heard was the sound of their evil laughter.

But suddenly, it was cut short by a magically amplified voice, which said, "Do you really think it'll be that easy?" This voice had caught the villains by surprise, mostly Grogar. What? Is that Twilight? He thought, whirling around to find the source of the voice. The voice sounded a lot like Twilight, but something was off about it. The voice had a little touch of evil in it.

Then, there came the sound of a car slowly approaching. The villians turned to the direction it was coming from, to see that the crowd of enslaved ponies was making way for a Krieger Überschall Clear-View LMP race car to approach them. After moving a few feet forward to get clear of the crowd, it stopped, revved its engine a little and then shut off.

Then, the scissor door opened up and what stepped out sent waves of shock through the villains.

The pony that exited from the Clear-View, looked very similar to Twilight, but when she was a unicorn. However, this 'Twilight' was wearing a dark black full-body leather suit and a black with red highlighted helmet, which had a hole for her horn (obviously). On her breast area, was an imprint of some sort of red star and wrapped around her right foreleg, was a leg band with the letters 'OG' interlocking with each other. She also was wearing black royal horseshoes, but that reached up to her knees. Her mane was black with a red tip, while her tail was also black but was highlighted with red. Her horn was much to tall to be unicorn horn, and it was giving of a faint red glow. Finally, her eyes were the exactly the same as Twilight's, but with cat-like slit pupils. The Twilight doppelganger then started to slowly trot towards the gathered villains, gazing at them as if they were insects.

Walking alongside her, was a baby dragon that was identical to Spike, wearing the exact same helmet and suit as 'Twilight', but designed to fit his body. His eyes were giving off a faint red glow, but that didn't concern the villains. What did concern them was the modified MP5/10 sub-machine gun he was holding in his claws.

Then, the Twilight doppelganger stopped, which gave Grogar time to ask, "Who are you?"

"I... am Oscura Galaxia!" The unicorn suddenly announced, shooting lighting bolts into the sky. "I heard word through the vine that there was a gathering here, so I decided to intervene," She then turned her gaze to the dragon standing beside her and introduced him, "This is my personal assistant and bodyguard, Thorn. I've been with him ever since he hatched from his egg. And his is only loyal to me. I would advise not getting killed by him. His gun traps the souls of its victims," After she said that, Cozy visibly gulped and hid behind Tirek.

After a few moments of staring at Oscura's adopted dragon bodyguard, Grogar then said, "Okay, okay. That clears up a few things. Why are you here?!"

Oscura just turned to face the ram, and trotted up to the glass ball that floated near him. She then pointed an armoured hoof to the red Tempesta that was leading the group. "You see this Tempesta?"

"Yes?"

"The stallion driving that Tempesta..." She began, when, in a sudden swift motion, she punched the glass ball with such force, the ball shattered into a million pieces. "I... HATE HIM," She growled, the venom growing in her voice, "I... HATE HIM!!!!!!!" She suddenly screamed out to heavens, causing all the villains, except for Grogar, to cover their ears.

After Oscura had regain her composure and Grogar had repaired his glass ball, Oscura then turned to the villains and then said, "So. I wish to make you a deal,"

"A... deal?" Grogar asked.

"Yes. I heard that there are some other ponies you need to enslave, and Danger is one of them. I just want you to leave him for me, okay? I have a score to settle with him,"

"Okay, but what's in it for us?" Sombra then asked.

She just turned back to them, smiled seductively and said, "I can gather up the remaining ponies you need to enslave, including this 'Twilight' you thought I was. Also..." She began, approaching Sombra, "...I could give you strong males some... feminine pleasure," She then said, stroking Sombra's chin.

He smiled back and made to kiss her, but soon felt the barrel of a gun where Oscura was stroking, and saw that she was holding a red-and-black Desert Eagle .50AE to his chin. Also, Thorn was aiming his MP5/10 at Sombra's head, a bright red dot exactly between his eyes.

"Ah-ah-ah, Sombra. The deal hasn't been made," She then said, returning her gun to her side. She then turned to Thorn and said, "Thorn, stand down,"

"Yes, Mistress," Thorn replied, lowering his MP5/10.

She then turned away from Sombra and trotted up to Grogar. "So do we have a deal?" She then stuck out her hoof for a shake, and after a few moments, the ram accepted it and the two shook hooves.

"Deal,"

Oscura just smiled and pulled away from Grogar. "Good choice. Just remember, DangerDean is mine. I'll see you around," The unicorn said, turning away and walking back to her Krieger. "Thorn, let's go," She said to the dragon, opening the driver-side door.

Thorn just gave Sombra the 'I'll be watching you' jesture, before returning to his mistress and getting in the Clear-View. After the two had gotten in the car and buckled up, Oscura restarted the Clear-View and raced off.

But before she did, Sombra swore she saw Oscura wink at him seductively.

After Oscura drove off, Sombra then gave his next set of orders to the enslaved crowd. "Find Twilight and bring her to me for enslavement,"

"Yes, Master," Was the reply. Sombra then sent them to complete their task and the crowd returned to their respective vehicles and drove off in random directions.

"Cozy, we're leaving. Go get Chrysalis, will you?" Grogar told Cozy, to which she comically saluted and flew up to the carrier while the other got into their cars.

Meanwhile...

But while Grogar and Oscura made their little deal, Chrysalis was standing on the deck of the aircraft carrier that was in dock at the Fort, staring at the sun setting over the horizon. Also, her tears formed a puddle underneath her as she silenty sobbed.

Why? Why must life be so cruel to us? She thought, letting her tears flow, After all of these years, we've finally found each other. But why must we be on opposite sides of the wire? Friends of two separate enemies, basically at war with each other. Please give your guidance. I know that if the time comes, my friends won't hesitate to kill you. But I don't want it to come to that, my love!

All of a sudden, she was snapped out of her thoughts by the pitter-pattering of wings behind her.

"Chrysalis! We're going now!" Cozy's voice called out from the other end of the carrier.

"You go ahead, i'll catch up!" She called back, doing her best to hide her sad tone.

Cozy said nothing, but when Chrysalis heard the little filly's wing beat getting further away, she knew that the filly heard her. Now that she was alone again, the former changeling queen went back to her thoughts.

I promise that I will find a way to be with you again. I promise you that, Akula.

She then lit up her magic and summoned two necklaces, both with a bullet key-chain on the end. One necklace has a 7.62mm Soviet bullet, the other had a .45 ACP round. Both of the bullet had inscriptions on them. The 7.62mm had 'When darkness falls, I will rise' and the .45 ACP had 'I will return, my love,'

She brought both of the necklaces up to her muzzle and said, "Stay safe, my love," before she lightly kissed the bullets, put on the necklaces and took to the air, flying back to her car...

Author's Note

Finally, I've finished this! Took me a while, and I'm really happy with the outcome! Hope you enjoyed!

A special thanks goes out to DangerDean for letting me use his OC, Oscura Galaxia in this story. He has been one of the biggest supporters of this story, so be sure to head on over to his profile and show him some love! Also, Thorn was my idea, but is in use with Dean's character, so ownership of Thorn belongs to both of us.

Also, the MP5/10 is a real gun. Basically, the MP5/10 is the same MP5 we all know, but modified to use the 10mm Auto round instead of the standard 9x19mm Parabellum round. There's also an MP5 variant that uses the .40 S&W round, called the MP5/40. I'm not calling the MP5/10 the MP-10, because the MP-10 is a licence version of the standard MP5, being built in the Philippines.

Paint Schemes:
Oscura's Clear-View: Metallic red (can't change Finish)

One last thing, I'm not going to be adding any sex scenes between Oscura and Sombra, or any Oscura x Sombra crap. So don't ask for it. I'm not making it.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and be advised...

...The Nakamura SI-7 has been released into Paradise City... :trixieshiftleft:

Burning Pursuit: VS. Nakamura SI-7 (Fluttershy)

White Mountain Yard
Hans Way
Aftermath of Lighthouse Rock Road Rage

"You know," Danger started, siting down in the middle of the field in an empty space in the circle of his friends, munching down on some pizza. "I've always wondered what the underside of a GT Concept looks like. Now, I finally found out,"

It had been minutes since Twilight had told her new friends that had survived the attacks that Sombra had hypnotized their friends and enslaved them to his will, and now that she had now become the de-facto leader of their little, newly formed resistance group called the Free Ponies. Now, they planned on taking back Paradise City from the Legion of Doom, one event and Shut Down at a time.

"Strange, because at the same time, I was wondering if the Tempesta could look better than it already does from above. I found out, that at any angle, you can't make the Tempesta look any better than it already is," Viral Velocity remarked, taking a spoonful of her bowl of macaroni and cheese.

As the group raced down South Mountain Drive, instead of taking the regular route, Viral took the alternate route, on the dirt road on the cliffs above the road. Whenever she hit one of the jumps that sent her over the road, the others got a clear view of the underside of her GT Concept, before the cliff-side road ran out and she landed back on the road, almost squashing the Tempesta. In case you're wondering what Viral and Danger were bickering over, this the reason why.

Danger just smiled cheekily at the mare and then said, "Very funny. You're just trapped inside your tough little shell, but underneath that shell is sweet, little mare that I know has the hots for me," He started to chuckle, but it was brought to a stop when Viral threw her spoon at him, which hit him on the nose.

"Oww!" Danger yelped as the spoon hit him. "Don't hit me on the nose! That's my sensitive spot!"

"Next time, I'm throwing something bigger unless you stop running your piehole!" Viral snapped, starting to lose her patience with The British Speedfreak.

However, before Danger could keep testing Viral's patience and before Viral threw something bigger at Danger's nose, Akula stepped in between the two and settled them down. "Ok, calm down. The both of you! Danger, I'm gonna need you to shut your trap and stop testing Viral's patience! Viral, I'll need you to tolerate him a little. Sure, he may be annoying you, but that doesn't mean you should start hurting him! If there's anything you do instead of harming others to relieve stress, do that instead!"

Both of the pegasi reeled from Akula's sudden telling off, but both accepted and settled down. Twilight lit up her magic, cast a cleaning spell on it and gave it back to Viral. She took it back, thanked Twilight and gobbled up another spoonful of mac and cheese.

"Hey, Viral," Spike then suddenly asked the mare, who turned her attention to the baby dragon, "I've actually heard from Akula that you actually have an incredible singing voice. Is that true?"

Viral just put down her bowl, and them said with a smile, "Yes, I have a voice like an angel,"

"Would you care to show us?"

Viral was thinking of not showing, but when the others started agreeing with Spike and asked her to sing. Soon, she relented and stretched out her wings, which started to glow with orange magic and then suprisingly, started to play a unfamiliar beat (to them, at least). Then, came her beautiful singing voice.

When the song was finished, everyone (except for Akula, who already knew about her singing voice) was brought to tears. Her singing was the most beautiful voice they had ever heard.

"Wow," Applejack started to say, wiping away her tears, "That was the most beautiful voice ah' 'ave ever heard! How did ya' get your voice so beautiful?"

"I've been practicing since I was a little filly, so my voice can now reach levels of pitch and volume no other pony can reach," She replied, tucking away her wings.

But before she could pick up her bowl, Twilight rushed up to her and started asking her questions at a rapid pace, "Unbelieveable! Your wings have a magical property, other than the one that allows pegasi to move clouds?! How did you get it? Does anypony else have it? How does it work? What songs do you know?"

"WHOA!!! One question at a time, Twi!" Viral said, causing Twilight to realize her mistake and slow down. The alicorn then asked her questions one at a time, to which Viral happily answered. "I don't know how I got it exactly, but the only things I do remember is that I was somewhere in-between 11 and 17, I earned my Cutie Mark when I was 7, but it's hard to believe that it took that long to find it. When I did, I managed to fine tune this ability until I could repeat the beats of my favourite songs. Although, I did practice with it away from my mother, so I could spend some time with her,"

"Wait, you never told us about your mother," Thunderlane then said, before asking, "What is she like? Is she nice?"

Viral immediately swallowed down the mouthful of her food before giving her answer, "Well, let's just say she doesn't like you kind,"

"Pegasi?"

"No. Wonderbolts,"

Akula didn't need to sense V's emotions, because he could already sense a tiny bit of fear inside her upon mentioning that her mother hates Wonderbolts.

"Hey, can we move on to somepony else? I'm getting uncomfortable with all these questions," Fortunately, all the others respected her wish and allowed her ask somepony about themselves. "Okay, I'll start with you, Akula. You've told me your fake 'Zephyr' backstory, but I want to hear your actual backstory. What was your life like in the hive? Was it nice?"

Akula just smiled at her, and started his backstory, "You bet your flank it was nice. I was the first changeling to split my egg, moments after it was laid. No other queen had ever had one of her eggs split so quickly. Also, I didn't realize one other thing. I was born with the Devil's Gift. I only realized I had it after I lost my wings and then made sweet, sweet love with my Chrysabliss. I tried to keep it hidden, but soon, I became seduced by its power. So, I tapped into its power and used it. Capturing ponies to feed the hive and killing any guard that stood in my way. Nopony was going to tell me 'no'. Until..." After saying this, he eyes started to water up.

"Until what?" Danger asked.

"...Until, everything was taken from us. The hive reformed and my queen flew off without me, declaring her revenge. I tried mounting a final stand against the others that had reformed, but it failed. They did try to welcome me into their new hive, Thorax even approached to say that if I joined his hive and let friendship embrace me, they would forgive me for everything I've done, but I didn't listen. I verbally called them out, how they had made my life a misery and how they had taken my precious queen away from me. I shot at any changeling that tried to approach me, before I teleported away, into the Everfree Forest, hoping that one day I would find my love once again..." He finished, before bursting into bloody tears.

Instinctively, Twilight trotted up to the half-changeling, sat down next to him and wrapped one of her wings around his back. "There, there. It's okay. We'll find your lover, I promise," That seemed to help, because the changeling then sniffed, blinked his tear-filled eyes dry, stood up and said that he was okay. Almost instantly, all the others crowded around him and gave him his sympathies.

"It's okay, sugarcube. We'll get ya' lover back. And we're gonna' do it together," Applejack stated.

"Yeah," Danger agreed, "I'm with you all the way, my new friend!"

"We'll get her. And I'll be at your side all the way," Viral added.

Then, right as Viral said that, Danger scooted up right next to her and wrapped his left fore-hoof around her back. "And I'll be right here. Next. To. You!" He said, bringing Viral to face him. "Kiss me. You know you want to," He whispered to her.

"In your dreams, you pervert!" She whispered back, pulling away from him. Then, she called him out, "I'd rather sit on a storm cloud than kiss you!" She then stormed off.

"Sure, you may storm off now, but I know you love me!" He called out, to which he received a small rock that hit him right on the nose.

After a few minutes of silence, Twilight then suddenly realized something and rushed to her Mesquite. She opened the door and saw that the timer for the Road Rage event she had entered has just hit zero, then came the loud victory sound, which caused all of the others to crowd around her car and then Twilight's licence ticked down one win.

What was announced next made everypony's eyes go wide. It was DJ-P0N3, saying, The Nakamura SI-7 has been released into Paradise City. If you see it, shut it down to add it to your collection,

There was no need to say it.

Twilight looked towards Akula and said one thing, "SI-7,"

"Fluttershy," Akula finished.

"We need to get her!"

"We need somepony to hold down the fort,"

Then, Applejack spoke up. "Me an' Thunderlane'll hold down the fort. You jus' go get Fluttershy,"

The changeling just nodded once to the farm-mare before he then said, "Danger. Viral. Twilight. With me, we're going to back Fluttershy," Instantly, the two Pegasi rushed to their cars and raced off towards Downtown. Twilight just trotted up to Akula and asked, "Why Downtown?"

"Because that's the most likely place we'll find her. The SI-7 is a small, agile sports car, fits in well with the tight, 90o turns of Downtown. So, that's were we head," The demon replied, rushing to his Ikusa, Twilight rushing to her Mesquite.

Downtown Paradise
In front of the Crash FM Building

It was getting late in Paradise City.

The sun was beginning to set over the White Mountains and darkness was beginning to fall on the beautiful city. Pretty soon, the cars would leave the roads and the motorbikes would come out to play. But that was still a few minutes away.

As for the cars, two were sitting right outside the entrance of the Crash FM building. They were Danger's Tempesta and Viral's GT Concept. But despite the peaceful setting, the pegasus mare that drives the GT wasn't getting any seconds of peace, from the pegasus stallion that was sitting next to her.

When the two of them arrived at the location they were scouting for Fluttershy, Danger immediately entered her car and sat in the passenger seat. The moment he did, he started to flirt with her, saying that she secretly thought that he was hot and she wanted to be bedded by the stallion. Somehow, this crazy stallion had deluded himself into thinking that he could be able to handle her.

But no matter how hard he tried, Viral would shoot down every single on of his attempts. She was just too tough of a nut to crack.

But he still tried.

"C'mon, Viral. Don't tell me that you don't find me even a little bit attractive," Danger flirted, trying once again to whoo the mare.

"Actually, no," She then said, "I find you 100% annoying! So stop trying to win me! I'm not a prize!"

Danger just chuckled, leaned into Viral's ear and whispered, "Okay then. Believe what you want. And I believe that you're secretly just begging me to take you to bed,"

Frankly, Viral had had it with the stallion and his crazy thoughts. However, she kept her composure and just calmly said, "Please open your door," Although Danger was a little confused, he complied and opened the passenger door. "Now, unbuckle yourself," Again, he complied and unbuckled himself.

But as he turned to face Viral, he was met with a hoof to the face, which hit him right on the snoot. He was hit so hard, he flew out of his seat and landed on the pavement, rolling a few times before coming to a stop, clutching his muzzle. As Danger clasped his snoot, Viral slammed the passenger door shut and locked her car, preventing Danger from getting back in.

Dean just stood up and saw Viral lock the GT, just stared at the mare for a while, then smiled before walking back to his Tempesta. She'll come through. Eventually, He thought.

Meanwhile, in the GT, Viral just couldn't wrap her head around why Danger was constantly trying to bed her. What the hell is wrong with that stallion?! He should know by now that I am unavailable, yet he keeps trying. That guy doesn't know how to take 'no' as an answer!

But moments later, their silence was interrupted by the sound of a car approaching. Both pegasi snapped out of their thoughts to see, on the other side of Franke Avenue, was a yellow-and-red SI-7.

Fluttershy's SI-7.

Both Danger and Viral saw Fluttershy sitting at the wheel of the small sports car, her glowing green eyes making her appear lifeless and non-pony like. The pegasi duo watched as the Element of Kindness turned onto Fry Avenue and proceeded South. Both the pegasi started up their cars and started to tail the timid yellow pegasus.

Danger grabbed his CB mike, and reported to Akula. "AK, this is Speedfreak. We have a positive ID on Fluttershy. She's just turned onto Fry Avenue, heading South. Me and Viral are moving to tail her,"

Copy that, Speedfreak. Follow her, but keep your distance. I'll notify Twilight. Keep me updated if she changes course, Akula replied.

"Acknowledged," And the two drivers started to tail the hypnotized Element.

But meanwhile, over by the Naval Yard, was Twilight and Spike, heading west, searching for Fluttershy.

Sadly, their search of the area surround the Naval Yard proved to be fruitless, so now they were setting up another sweep of the area before heading up to the Wildcats Stadium and continuing the search there.

"Oh, come on!" Spike complained, "We're looking for an Element of Harmony. They can't be that hard to find!"

But just as the drake said that, the Mesquite's radio crackled to life. Twilight, this is Akula. Do you copy?

Twilight picked up the CB's mike and responded, "Twilight here. Go ahead,"

Danger and Viral have a positive ID on Fluttershy. She's just turned onto Fry Avenue and is heading South. Get yourself over there!

"Roger that!" Twilight replied, putting back the mike and yanking on the handbrake. The car spun around a full 180o, and Twilight raced back towards the Wildcats Baseball Stadium.

But while Twilight was racing towards Fluttershy's position, everything started to go wrong for the Free Ponies.

While Fluttershy was cruising down Fry, continually repeating to herself that she must obey her master, Danger and Viral accidentally misjudged their distance they were tailing Fluttershy from. And pretty soon, Fluttershy looked behind her and saw the two pegasi tailing her. She let out a sudden 'EEP!' and stomped down on the throttle, starting to race away from the two.

And when Dean saw the SI-7 pick up speed, he instantly knew that they had been spotted. "AK, this is Speedfreak. We've been spotted, and Fluttershy is making a run for it!"

Shit! Stay on her tail! Don't let her get away! Akula then ordered.

Both he and Viral acknowledged the order and raced after the timid pegasus.

As the two chased the Element of Kindness down Fry, she then sent a magical callout to her master. "My master! Ponies that are not enslaved to your glorious will are after me! I can't possibly outrun them! What do I do, my master?"

Lead them to Maplemont. We have an ambush set up for them there. Soon, they will join you in my glorious reign, Was the reply. Fluttershy immediately acknowledged this order and turned onto Harber, racing as fast as she could to get to the Country Club.

Meanwhile, Twilight raced up Manners Avenue to try and catch up with Dean and Viral, using any amount of boost she had. She then suddenly got a radio call from Akula.

Twilight, where are you?

Spike picked up the mike for Twi and spoke for her. "This is Spike. We're currently on Manners Avenue, about to arrive at Harber,"

Tell Twilight to hurry! I just got word from an unidentified source. The Legion of Doom is setting up an ambush at the Country Club, and Fluttershy is the bait! We need you to take her out before we get there!

What followed was the muffled sound of three cars racing by.

They've just gone past me now! I'm joining the chase, but we need you now! Akula then reported, before shutting off his radio and giving chase.

Spike put down the microphone, and immediately turned to Twilight and said, "We need to pick up the pace here, Twilight!"

"I'm going as fast as I can, Spike!" Twilight said to the drake, keeping her eyes focused on the road.

Twilight then turned off of Manners, taking a shortcut by taking the jump through the little building and then through the warehouse-like building before arriving at Harber. Quite soon, she managed to gain on where Fluttershy was, who was now being chased by Akula, Danger and Viral.

Spike picked up the CB mike and said, "Akula! We're right behind you!"

Copy that! I see you now! You're clear to come past! Akula said, clearing a path between their vehicles for Twilight to pass through. The princess took the opportunity and raced through the gap, closing on Fluttershy. She then shunted the SI-7, which easily sent it out of control. But by some miracle, Flutters was able to regain control of the car.

Now, the group had now turned onto Webster Avenue and were rushing down the main lanes, Twilight doing anything she could to catch the yellow pegasus.

The SI-7 has very poor weight, and when knocked about by heavier cars it usually faces, spells certain doom. However, first they have to catch the little bastard, as the SI-7 is just a little bit faster than most of the heavier vehicles it encounters at its level. So, while Twilight could easily take out Fluttershy, she wouldn't be able to catch her.

If she was traveling in a straight line.

Because, when the chase arrived at the Andersen Street intersection, a sedan then crossed the intersection, and passed right into Fluttershy's path. Immediately, she swerved to avoid the car, but ended up slowing down enough for Twilight to catch her.

And upon seeing that Fluttershy was now in striking distance, Twilight moved in from a slam.

Seconds later, impact.

Twi's lavender Mesquite slammed into the SI-7, sending it careening into the concrete split. The small, yellow sports car then crumpled up and started to roll. All of a sudden, time then slowed around Twilight, and her focus was directed to the wrecked SI-7, tumbling in slow-motion. Then, DJ-P0N3's voice said, The Nakamura SI-7 has been delivered to your Junkyard! Well done!

Then, as quick as it had come, the slow-mo then returned to normal and Twilight then hit her brakes to avoid the tumbling wreckage of Fluttershy's Nakamura. Pretty soon, the others arrived and encircled the wreck, the others jumping out of their cars and forming a perimeter.

Twilight decided to do the same, and jumped out. Once she was out, she locked Spike in the car and rushed over to the SI-7. Once she got to the wreck, she forced the driver-side door open, revealing Flutters.

And she was in a bad way. Her mane and tail were all messy, she had a few cuts on her body, her wings were bent and she was coughing violently. To make matters worse, her eyes were still glowing green, but the glow was very weak.

Instinctively, Twilight tried to pull the Element bearer free from the wreckage, but the seatbelt holding Fluttershy had jammed, trapping the pegasus in the car. Then, Twilight tried to communicate with the pegasus.

"Fluttershy! Can you hear me? Are you okay?"

Fluttershy just coughed again, before turning her head slowly towards Twilight and gazing into her purple eyes. "So... you got me," She replied to the alicorn, weakly, "No matter. You... will never... free the others. My master... will track you down... and you will soon... bow at his hooves! Equestria... will be... his... to rule..." She then coughed even more violently before turning away from Twilight and looking up into the sky. Her eyes then started to slowly close, and she silently muttered 'Goodbye, great master. I have failed you,' before she closed her eyes.

Twilight's eyes then started to water up. Had she killed one of her own friends? But as she was on the verge of crying, a bright flash enveloped the wrecked car, before disappearing, taking the SI-7 and Fluttershy with it. Shocked, she turned to Akula, wanting an answer.

All he said was, "Let's get back to the Junkyard before it gets late,"

Later, at the Junkyard...

The others arrived at the Junkyard, moments before the sun finally set. Thankfully, they didn't run into any of Sombra's minions on their way home and arrived without a problem.

And the moment they arrived, there was a surprise in store.

Danger was the first into the yard, and as his headlight washed over the darkness of the field, they discovered the wreckage of Fluttershy's SI-7 in the middle of the yard. Immediately, the group encircled the car, not permitting any chance of escape. And, as before, Twilight rushed to the car, only to find something very different.

This time, Fluttershy looked absolutely fine. Her mane and tail were perfect, there were no cuts and she wasn't coughing. And what was even better, her eyes were back to normal! Her cyan eyes were clearly visible, and moving around in circles.

She was very dizzy.

And the seatbelt had unjammed. So, when Twilight now tried to get Flutters out of her car, the belt unbuckled and the pegasus was easily pulled from the wreck (as the car was still wrecked).

"Ohh, my head," Fluttershy groaned, holding her head, "So dizzy. Wh-where am I?"

"You're at White Mountain Junkyard. You were hypnotized by Sombra and we freed you," Twilight explained, dragging the pegasus from her wrecked SI-7. After a few moments of letting that sink in, Fluttershy's eyes widened and then she hugged Twilight as tight as Pinkie Pie would.

"Twilight, you saved me! Thank you!" She then broke the hug and turned to the others, "And thank you as well,"

"You can thank us later, when we've freed the others," Viral stated.

For the next few minutes, Fluttershy told her story. How her car felt like it was hit by a lightning bolt and then losing control of her mind and waking up to find her car wrecked and in a Junkyard, surrounded by multiple cars. When the others told her what happened in more detail, she instantly wanted to help in any way she could.

But as the group conversed, there seemed to be no sign of Applejack or Thunderlane.

"Hey, where's Applejack and Thunderlane?" Viral asked, noticing the farm mare and Wonderbolt's absence.

That is, until there came a loud moan from a nearby building, and Applejack screaming out, "OH, BUCK!!! MESS ME UP MORE, YA STUD!!!!"

Viral, upon hearing this, facehoofed, let out a sigh and said, "Never mind. I think I know where they are,"

All the others then burst out into laughter, knowing they were in for a long night...

Author's Note

Once again, this took me an age to complete! And I'm really happy that I got it finished!

In case you were wondering (I'm looking at you, DangerDean and RDgamer321), there will be NO, I repeat, NO sex scenes between Viral and Danger! So again, DON'T ASK FOR IT!

That doesn't mean I'll stop on Dean's flirting through, or Viral's constant shootdowns either...

Stay tuned for the next chapter...

...because things will get interesting for one of our heroes... :trixieshiftright:

An afternoon of conflict... and a night of pleasure (Steamy Chapter)

Meanwhile...
The Maplemont Country Club

As night began to fall, the Legion were convinced that their trap to eliminate the Free Ponies was no use.

Having received intelligence from an unknown source that Twilight was going to try and free Fluttershy, Grogar decided to set up an ambush at the Country Club to eliminate the entire resistance in a single swift blow. However, it was taking much longer than it should be for her to arrive. Eventually, a car did arrive, but it wasn't Fluttershy. It was Rainbow Dash. She pulled to a stop in the planned ambush point and informed Grogar about the situation.

Fluttershy had been freed. The trap had been worth nothing.

Letting out a sigh, Sombra ordered her to tell the slave army the situation and to leave immediately. With a nod, she did so.

"Fluttershy is lost, gig's up. Return to your duties." What followed was the sound of the other cars pulling out.

While Twilight and the Free Ponies were discussing things and getting to know each other, Sombra appointed the hypnotized Elements, Starlight Glimmer and the Young Six his top creatures in his Slave Army. The Elements were appointed generals, Starlight was made a commander and the Young Six her lieutenants. Why Sombra chose Twilight's hypnotized friends and students to make his staff was because he loved the idea of having his enemies fighting their friends, family, loved ones and all the other important ponies in their lives. It gave his foes a sense of unease and unwillingness to fight them, while they can easily take down their master's enemy at his command.

But as the others left, Cozy then had a sudden idea. "Hey, you know what we need after a hard day of evil planning?" All of the villains, except for Chrysalis who just turned her ears to show the filly that she was listening, turned to face her. The filly then said excitedly, "A nice, big, group-sized pizza! I mean, it probably has been awhile since we've all had some, right?"

All the other villains then nodded in agreement. "Ahh, what the heck! A couple years locked away in Tartarus does a terrible number on your appetite. A little pizza won't hurt!" Tirek stated, already walking to his Thunder Custom.

"You think that's bad, I had to spend most of my years in a stone prison with nothing to eat after I was defeated twice!" Sombra added, "So, I definitely agree with the pipsqueak,"

"Okay, then. Pizza it is. I know a pizza place near the waterfront," Grogar then stated.

"So do I! Race ya there!" Cozy called out, rushing to her V16 Revenge.

However, as he walked to his WTR, he noticed that Chrysalis was not moving to her car, looking down at her new necklaces. "Chrysalis, are you okay?" He asked, snapping the former Queen out of her thoughts.

"Y-yes! Yes! I'm fine! Everything's fine! Just... thinking about plans for revenge!" She quickly said. But everything she said was a lie, and Grogar knew it.

"Are you sure? Ever since Twilight showed up and we ran into this 'Akula', you've been acting strange," Grogar said, squinting his eyes, "Do you keep having thoughts about the past?"

Chrysalis just slowly nodded as her visions of the past kept coming into her mind. All flashbacks of her in battle with Akula at her side, making love with Akula and the day her hive was lost and when she left Akula behind. And it haunted her.

Thankfully, Grogar seemed to notice the former Queen's unease whenever somepony mentioned her lover's name and made a suggestion. "You need some time alone to clear your head?"

Chrysalis then smiled at Grogar and said, "I would appreciate that. Thank you," She then raced off to her car and drove away in the direction of White Mountain. Grogar just watched her go, before he hopped in his F1 and raced after the others.

Moments later...

For the first time in years, Chrysalis felt hopeless.

She decided to head for the Dead Man's jump (or more specifically, the diner placed at its edge) as the place to clear her head. But when she arrived, she rushed for the walled-off side of the cliff next to the diner, and immediately her head would not clear. Memories flooded in more frequently, and she couldn't clear them out.

Then, the dam bust open.

She leaned over the edge of the concrete wall, and started to wail loudly. Her tears flooded out and fell down into chasm below. She felt that there was nothing she could do to get her lover back and that nopony could hear her desperate cries for help.

She didn't know how wrong she was.

Even though she started to let out all her built-up sadness, the memories didn't stop. No matter how much she wailed, there was no shaking her own shadows of the past. And it broke her.

In desperation, she summoned another gift Akula had given her during her reign. A customized, dark-green Beretta 92FS (M9) 9x19mm handgun Akula had made for her, alongside the two bullet necklaces she wore now. This weapon, she believed, was the reason that she was being haunted, as she was given this gun, along with the necklaces the day she lost her throne. The gun was meant to be a victory gift from Akula for when she was supposed to take over Equestria that day, but instead, it became a nasty memory of her defeat.

So, in absolute desperation, she made to throw the gun off the side. But then...

...came a voice from behind her.

"It's easy to run away from everything, isn't it?"

Chrysalis froze up in complete and utter terror. She knew who that was.

"The only thing you can't run from... is your own shadow," The voice finished. Chrysalis turned towards the direction of the voice.

And there he was.

Illuminated by the headlights of his Ikusa GT, was Akula.

Chrysalis just stood where she was, quaking in terror. Akula however, didn't hold back on anything and noticed what his lover was going to do with the gift he gave her. "You're... going to throw away the gift I made you?" He asked, leaping over the metal rail that separated the road from the cliff edge as Chrysalis quickly teleported the gun away. But when the demon-changeling leaped over the rail, Chrysalis backed away in fear. And Akula both noticed and sensed this.

"I sense your fear, Chrysalis. There's nothing to be scared of," He then stated, starting to slowly approach his queen. However, Chrysalis slowly backed away from him, still scared out of her mind.

Suddenly, Akula did something unexpected.

He reached up and wrapped his right fore-leg around Chrysalis's neck, stopping her from backing away. He then brought her face to look at him. "I'm right here, my love. And now, I will never let you go again," Having said that, he brought himself up, and connected his lips with his lover's.

The demon held the loving kiss for 3 seconds before releasing and staring into his lover's eyes. And while staring into the red eyes of her lover, she then realized something. She was scared of seeing Akula for no reason. And only now did she realize that the changeling that she was scared of was still the same changeling she was in love with. And it calmed her to know that Akula was there for her in her time of need.

And for once, she felt at peace.

Realizing how much she had missed the warmth of her lover's lips, she then immediately locked lips with Akula again, engaging in a passionate tongue dance with him. To both of them, this was pure bliss. After many years, they finally got to share a kiss just like they used to.

And oh, how Chrysalis loved it!

Sadly, the two had to break their kiss in order to catch their breath. However, when they pulled away, a small string of saliva kept their lips connected.

"Oh, how I've missed the feeling of your lips against mine," Akula silently said, staring into his lover's eyes again. "And there are other things that I've missed, too..."

Chrysalis immediately caught on with what Akula was saying what they should do next, and she blushed. "Just... like old times, eh?" She asked, hoping that the demon was thinking the same thing she was. Luckily, he did.

"Except much better," Akula answered, lighting up his horn and surrounding the two lovers in his magic.

The light surrounding them glowed brighter, until it suddenly dissipated. And when Chrysalis opened her eyes, she found out she wasn't in Paradise anymore. Instead, she was in a location that seemed similar to the Dream Realm.

"Like what you see?" Akula asked, noticing the queen's awe, "Welcome to my very own pocket dimension. I didn't tell you about this because... you know,"

"It's pretty empty," Chrysalis said, not seeing anything around her apart from what looked like the void.

"Not until I gain more power," Akula stated, walking up to her side, "For now, I can only summon only one or two objects here. But once I can gain some more power, I can create my own world! Pretty neat, right?" Chrysalis just returned her gaze to the surroundings, still gaping in awe.

"But enough talk," Akula suddenly stated, summoning the same bed he and Chrysalis used to constantly make love on during her reign, "We've waited long enough. Shall we... get down to business?" Akula asked seductively.

Chrysalis just looked at him with a sultry gaze and said, "I thought you'd never ask," She then lightly kissed him before walking over to the bed, and rolling over onto her back and spreading her legs out wide for Akula to enter her embrace. "Come here... and pleasure your queen," She commanded in a seductive tone.

Akula just smirked, and replied with a bow, "As you command, my sexy Queen," He then trotted up to the bed, and climbed on top of Chrysalis, embracing his lost queen as she did the same before the two locked lips once more.

For many minutes the two changelings lovers, separated for many years, made hot, passionate love just like they used to many years ago. And they both enjoyed it to the fullest extent.

Akula missed his lover's beautiful form and the way she moaned so beautifully with each of his movements. But now, he was able to teach his lover some new tricks for their latest love-making adventures. Chrysalis, on the other hoof, was absolute entranced by Akula's new tricks, and this love-making session was definitely fit for a queen like herself.

For both of them, this was pure, sexual bliss. They showed how much they missed each other, and making love was just the thing they needed to release their tension.

Half-an-hour later, they had finished, with Chrysalis's womb filled with Akula's eternal love. Once again, just like old times. However, when they emerged from his pocket dimension, it was the exact same time that they had left. Akula then explained that no matter how much time they spend in his dimension, they will always emerge from it only seconds after they entered.

Pretty soon, Chrysalis felt her tummy rumble. "I should... probably get going. Grogar's treating us all to pizza,"

Akula just gave her one last peck on the lips before saying, "Hey. Just remember. I will always love you, Chrysalis. No matter the situation,"

"I know. But we're on the wrong sides of this war. I can't get close to you without Grogar and the others killing me!"

Akula thought about Chrysalis's statement for a moment, then he had an idea. "Then cross the wire. Join my side. I never let those tratiors' brand of friendship infect me, but I created my own. And that was my love for you,"

Immediately, Chrysalis disagreed with Akula's idea, "N-no! I can't! If Grogar catches wind of this, he'll kill me! And if I'm dead-"But before she could continue, another kiss from Akula cut her off. As they kissed, he cast a spell on her.

When the two broke the kiss, Akula then assured his queen, "Let me take care of it. You just make sure you stay safe. And you will get a signal when it is time. And you will know what that signal is. Stay safe, my love," He then trotted off towards his Ikusa.

"Wait!" Chrysalis suddenly called out, causing Akula to turn back to her, "Thank you, my love. I can't wait to see you again!"

Akula just smiled back at her and said, "I'll see you soon, my love," And without another word, he hopped back into his car and drove away.

Author's Note

Ok, so now things get interesting between the demon and the Queen...

I was going to add an extra bit at the end of this chapter, but I got lazy. Decided not to do it. However, I might add it in another time! But for now, what you read is what you get!

Also, I was going to put a warning at the top, but that would betray my rule of always keeping the Author's Notes at the bottom, so I decided to stick a warning in the chapter title.

Coming up is a question. Fill in the blank to discover a clue...
'The Cutie Mark Crusaders + A Carson Dust Storm = ____________?' :scootangel:

CUTIE MARK CRUSADER DUST STORMERS, YAY!!!!!!

The next morning...

Twilight and Spike were awoken by the bright sunlight hitting their eyes through the window. Both the alicorn and the young drake got up with a yawn and headed down to the yard area, still waking up.

When they got down to the yard, what they saw wasn't what they were expecting.

All the others, except for Fluttershy, were up. Akula didn't look tired and also very happy about something. Both Applejack and Thunderlane were tired and were standing very close to each other (Twilight already knew why). Viral was not visibly tired but she looked very stern and worried about something. And Danger looked very tired but looked very pleased with himself for some reason, drinking coffee from a mug that had 'NO. 1 SPEEDFREAK' on it.

"Good morning, everypony!" Twilight called out.

"Good morning, Twilight. I hope you had great sleep," Akula greeted.

"I hope you have a bit of energy. I think we're gonna' need it," Viral then said, earning a glare from the changeling.

"Which reminds me," Akula began, giving a death stare to Viral, "Where were you last night?!" He then questioned the mare in a hostile tone. The pegasus in question reeled in shock, but soon recovered and started to explain.

"I left to go clear my head. A lot happened yesterday and I needed some space to think. So, I just entered and won a race. However, after the race, a couple of cars cornered me," She explained, before Akula stopped her.

"Which cars cornered you?" He asked, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Umm, a Touge Sport, a Pioneer Super Gator and an Inferno Van. The Touge was finish 1, dark blue. The Super Gator was standard paint. And the van was all silver,"

"Shit!" Akula exclaimed, facing back to the others, "Grogar's already using our friends against us! We need to get a move on!"

"This doesn't surprise me. He just realized his advantages over us, and now he's coming down with a vengeance," Twilight added.

After a moment of silence, there came a very cute yawn. Everypony turned around, to see Fluttershy emerging from the building, waking up. "Oh! Good morning, everypony!" She greeted. All the others just waved to her. Flutters just trotted up to get into the conversation.

"We're gonna' need to step up our game. If we just stay still and not free any others, we're gonna' get overwhelmed pretty quickly. We need to gain some allies," Akula explained.

"Umm, I wish to voice an idea," Fluttershy said, before suddenly adding, "If-if that's okay with you, that is,"

"You have my permission, go ahead,"

"O-okay," Then, the timid pegasus started to explain, "Well, when I was under Sombra's control, I could still here everything that was going on. I remember one moment, he appointed me and the other Elements as generals in his army. He also made Starlight a commander. He told me that I would be in charge of taking control of Big Surf Island, but the moment where I was relocating from where we attacked Twilight to the Junkyard my forces were using as a staging base, was the moment you freed me,"

Everypony's eyes went wide. Fluttershy had just given them the jackpot.

"Why were you taking control of those forces?" Twilight asked,

"Because their attempts to take the island were constantly thwarted by 'The Island Masters'. Whenever they tried to take the island, they would challenge them to a race, specifically the Dust Storm Burning Route. And they lost every single time," Fluttershy replied.

"Looks like fortune is smiling upon us!" Akula stated, starting to explain his next move, "Twilight, Fluttershy, Thunderlane, Danger, Applejack. You're up this time. Go get these 'Island Masters' trust, and give us a second front!"

"Why aren't you coming with us? Wouldn't you love to see Big Surf?" Danger asked.

"Well... I can't get over there," Akula said, earning gasps from the others (except for Twilight and Spike), "Every time I try to get onto the bridge that leads onto the island, I always hit some sort of invisible wall. I don't know why that happens, but I know it's bound to happen again. So, I'll run this operation from the fort with Viral,"

All the others rushed to their cars, but Fluttershy stopped Twilight from rushing to her Mesquite. "Umm, Twilight, From what I heard, these 'Island Masters' are really fast. You're going to need a Speed-class car. Since you shut me down, you should now have access to my SI-7,"

Twilight was about to question this when there came a loud crash from behind her. She looked around behind her, to see a lavender-and-black SI-7 behind her. It was severely damaged, with pieces of the front bumper coming off in certain places, multiple scrapes lining the side, the hood was crumpled up somewhat but there was no damage to the rear.

She couldn't believe her luck. Rushing in, she sat down the the nice seat of the sports car. Then, all of a sudden, DJ-P0N3 came in through her radio. The Nakamura SI-7. My favourite! Front wheel drive means no surprises in the drift, but no doughnuts either! It won't cause you many heart-stopping moments, but it's slavish obedience will get you out of sticky situations. When driving a Speed-class car, such as this one, you can only boost when the bar is full. They're also the only cars that can perform Burnouts, when you use all your boost in one go!

Might provide us with the edge we might need, Twilight thought, starting up the little sports car.

Moments later...
Grange Hill-Shires Drive intersection
Location of Dust Storm Burning Route

The Free Ponies group tasked with forming an alliance with the so-called 'Island Masters' were told by them to meet them at the intersection at Grange Hill and Shires Drive. However, there was no sign of them anywhere.

Island Force, this is FP HQ. Report in, over, Akula came in over the radio, using their call-signs.

In response, Thunderlane grabbed his CB mike and reported back to Akula. "HQ, this Thunder. We're at the rally point now, but there's no sign of them, whoever it is we're meeting with,"

I see. Just keep waiting. They should turn up eventually. HQ out, Was the reply.

Thunderlane just put away his mic and returned to the others. "He said to wait, and that they should be here soon," He reported.

However, everything soon changed.

As the group wondered around their cars, a small shadow descended on the group, becoming larger and larger. Then, came a voice calling out from above, saying "INCOMING!!!!!!!!!" The whole group looked up, to see a dune buggy coming down towards them. Immediately, the ponies scrambled out of the way, to avoid being squashed by the buggy. Seconds later, it landed with a loud slam, almost landing on Thunderlane's Mesquite. It then spun around to face the group. The buggy was an orange-and-purple Carson Dust Storm.

So they must be the Island Masters, Twilight thought. She then heard a voice coming from the Dust Storm.

"AWW, YEAH! NEW RECORD OF 5 SECONDS AIRTIME OFF THE SKI JUMP!!! BEAT THAT!!"

Twilight's eyes widened upon hearing the bragging voice. No, it can't be... She thought, having an idea on who was driving that buggy.

Then, Twilight's suspicions were confirmed, when a familiar cream-coloured filly jumped out of the buggy and spoke back to the first voice in a country accent, "Yea', right! As if anypony could match ya' on the ski jump, Scootaloo!"

"Apple Bloom?" Applejack called out to the filly, causing said filly to jump. She slowly turned to AJ.

"Big sis?" She called back, to which AJ nodded. The little filly broke out in a huge smile and rushed over to the farm mare, hugging her tightly.

"Oh, Apple Bloom! Ah' thought Sombra had enslaved ya'!" She said, her eyes watering up.

Bloom just pulled away from AJ and asked, "Whaddya' mean, sis?"

For the next few minutes, Twilight, with help from the others, explained what was going on. And while she was, the other Cutie Mark Crusaders had decided to get in on the conversation, saying that they were among the crowd that rushed into the portal the day after the rest of the Mane 6 entered the portal and managed to be the first members of the crowd to discover the island. They also easily mastered the island, inviting drivers across Paradise to challenge them to races on their turf.

"...And that's how the Cutie Mark Crusader Dust Stormers were formed!!" Sweetie Belle finished, proudly putting a hoof on her chest as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom posed.

Dean quickly snapped a photo with a phone he bought on the way to Big Surf and sent it to Akula, who he knew was back at the Junkyard.

"So," Scootaloo started, getting right to the point, "You wish to get our help in keeping a hold of this island while you fight off Sombra?"

Twilight just smiled at the CMC and replied, "Yes, we need all the help we can get,"

After thinking about it for a moment, Scootaloo gave her answer, "Alright, you have us,"

Twilight immediately beamed at this stroke of luck...

...which vanished when Scootaloo said this, pointing her hoof to the Princess, "If... you can beat us... IN A LAP AROUND THE ISLAND!!!"

Twilight's smiled turned to a look of horror.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Danger suddenly cried out, shocked that they had just asked Twilight to race them, "Why her?! Why did you choose her when you can race me?!"

"1, because she was the one that requested our help. 2, because that's how he do things. And 3, do ya' think we're dummies? We know who ya' are, Dean! And we know that Tempesta is yours! We're not stupid enough to race against an' Tempesta an' think that we'll win!" Apple Bloom answered, causing Dean to look away in embarrassment.

"But Apple Bloom, you're mah' sister! Surely ya' could jus' bend the rules ah' bit!" Applejack tried to reason.

"Mmmm..... Nope! Not goin' against group policy!" Apple Bloom said, prompting AJ to glare at her.

"Now, you see here..." She stared, before being dragged back by Twilight's magic.

"Applejack. If I have to race, I'll race. We can't force them to make a decision," Twilight then said, staring into the farm mare's emerald eyes. After a few minutes, she just nodded to Twilight.

The alicorn then turned back to the CMC and said this, "Okay, I'll race you,"

All three CMC's just smiled at her.

Later...

The two cars lined up at the starting lights on Shires Drive. The CMC's Dust Storm sat on the right-hand side of Twilight's SI-7, revving it's engine menacingly. Twilight just stared at the buggy, sweating heavily. She knew that her boost type was weaker and she had an inferior car. However, the only thing she knew that they had for an advantage was a small point of their boost type.

They had the ability to perform Burnout Boost Chains. If she kept in the oncoming lane for most of the race, then she could have a chance.

All of the other Free Ponies were waiting at the entrance of the bridge that lead back to the mainland, which was the finish line. They would judge who would be the winner, if the race came down to a photo finish.

Back at the starting point, the light switched from red to yellow. The CMC and Twilight started to rev their engines more, readying for the green. Then, the light went green and the race began.

Immediately, the Dust Storm shot into the lead, propelled along by it's full bar of boost. However, Twilight wasn't too far behind, as she activated her boost and raced to keep up with the buggy. As the CMC constantly swerved between the oncoming lane and the middle of the road, knocking small fences out of the buggy's way, Twilight kept to the oncoming, making sure that she would never have to run out of boost. And quite quickly, both drivers hit the first checkpoint, with the CMC in the lead.

Racing down Shires Drive and past another intersection, the buggy suddenly drifted onto Glover Way, with Twilight close behind. Both of their boost levels were almost depleted, and just before they turned onto Daniell Way, they ran out. The green flame coming from the Dust Storm dissipated and the buggy instantly lost all of its speed. The SI-7, however, suddenly then got a sudden burst of speed and its boost bar refilled.

Twilight had performed her first successful Burnout.

Instantly, her new boost got to work, letting her catch up with the Dust Storm. By the time they had caught the CMC, they had reached the intersection where they were to turn onto Daniell Way. Both of them hit the brakes and drifted the corner, Twilight the only one still boosting. However, that drift was all the CMC needed to get more boost. After emerging from the corner, they reengaged their boost, and started to race away. Suddenly, Daniell Way then became Huntley Boulevard, after they went past the next intersection, which was followed by a sweeping left curve. While Twilight held her line, the CMC kicked the back-end of their buggy out and they powerslided through the corner, regaining most of their boost. And once they had enough, they reengaged their boost and took the lead back from Twilight.

Things got worse for Twilight, as the two then hit a jump, allowing the Dust Storm to gain even more boost, allowing the CMC to pull away even more. But Twilight kept her hoof on the boost, knowing that if she let go, it was all over for her and the resistance's hopes in gain control of the island. But the jump had been just enough to get the SI-7 another Burnout, and allow then to not fall behind anymore. The pair raced under the Keys Bridge, before turning right onto Shires Drive, with the three fillies well out in the lead. But Twilight wasn't about to yield.

But quite quickly, the CMC ran out of boost again. And this time, Twilight was able to close the gap and retake the lead going through the long sweeping left, before the sharp right onto Grange Hill, going past the starting point.

But then, as Twilight raced around a hill, Scootaloo steered the buggy onto the jump and flew through a already-cleared Island Billboard, earning a massive chunk of boost. The CMC cut across Twilight's line, and drifted into the tunnel in Pitt Avenue, in the lead once again. Twilight then powerslided onto the avenue, pushing her Nakamura to the limit.

And as the buggy turned onto the approach to the Paradise Keys Bridge, it ran out of boost yet again! And Twilight had nailed her x15 Burnout Chain, allowing her to catch up yet again. But this time, Twilight held on for dear life as she caught the CMC at the intersection just before the entrance of the bridge, still boosting.

And as they approached the beginning of the bridge, Twilight and Spike saw the rest of the Free Ponies she was with at the finish line, being like a photo finish group. But as Twilight hit top speed in her fully boosting SI-7, Scootaloo found another gear on the buggy and was able to slowly close the gap on the princess. Spike was fully turned around, watching the Dust Storm got closer and closer.

The two cars were practically side-by-side as they crossed the finish line. But after some anylizing of a photo-finish camera supplied by Akula...

...it was shown that the margin between the two cars was no less than 2 cm...

...with the victory going to Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Once the results were relayed to Spike, he then broke the good news to Twilight, "Umm, Twilight?"

"Yes, Spike?" Twilight replied, concerned on what the answer was to be.

"It officially looks like... that you have beaten the Island Masters!!!!!"

Twilight stayed silent for a moment to let it sink in, before crying out in celebration, before kissing the steering wheel, showing how she loved her new SI-7 and how it didn't let her down against a much faster Dust Storm. With a humble grin plastered on her face, after settling down from her moment of celebration, she then got out of her car. The CMC did the same, Scootaloo with a look of disbelief on her face and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both with looks of impression on their faces.

"Well, I don't believe it, but it looks like you've beaten us," Scootaloo said, admitting defeat without being a sore loser.

"It looks like she did!" Sweetie agreed.

"So, what can we do ya' fer, Twilight? The Cutie Mark Crusaders are at your service!" Apple Bloom asked, willing to give the Free Ponies their assistance.

Twilight just smiled. Now their resistance movement had their second front.

Meanwhile...

As Twilight and the rest of the Free Ponies, a certain stallion in his GT Nighthawk watched the celebrations from afar, watching with a dead gaze.

But when the fillies got out off their buggy, he then lightly smiled.

Wow. That is some driving. I think I have some ponies in need of my assistance... Locus thought, watching as the Cutie Mark Crusaders chatted with the Free Ponies.

Author's Note

FINALLY, I GOT THIS DONE!!!!! After going through a small Hiatus period, the Burnout story is BACK!!!!! Thank you all for being very patient, as I got some of my other stories off the ground!

Paint Schemes:

Twilight's SI-7: Finish 1, gloss purple
CMC's Dust Storm: Finish 3, gloss orange

Anyways, hope you enjoyed. And just so you know...
'The Slave Army of the Crystal King begins to unravel...' :rainbowdetermined2:

The Dark Unicorn

South Mountain Drive
Just outside Lone Stallion Ranch,

As the group headed back from their little trip to Big Surf Island, DangerDean then had a sudden revelation. He hadn't seen his arch nemesis for a while now, and now (to him at least), she seemed to have disappeared ever since Sombra sent out his mind control spell. And actually hoped that she had joined the Crystal King's army as a mindless slave.

But ever since that moment, he began to see Oscura everywhere. On the road, in his room, even sitting in his car at some moments. But he would then blink and then she would disappear.

And Danger began to experience those moments now. First, he then heard the unicorn's voice in his head, saying, 'I'm coming for you, Danger and there is nothing you can do to hide,' Then, as he looked in his rear-view mirror, he then saw Oscura's Uberschall tailing him, before it then disappeared. Finally, after he looked back to make sure that the Oscura he just saw was just a hallucination, the car then appeared in front of him about to head-on him. Danger then panicked and swerved to avoid the charging Uberschall, only for the car to disappear from his view. He then immediately starightened the car and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Dean, what was with the swerve? You okay, sugarcube? Applejack asked, seeing Danger swerving.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Just had a hallucination!" He replied, lying to the farm mare. But he knew that if the hallucinations continued, he would lose his focus.

Then, all of a sudden, Thunderlane, (who was at the tailend of the formation) came over the radio. Guys, we've got car approaching fast from behind! Appears to be an LMP car of some sort,

Danger's heart then sank. It couldn't be... her, could it? After a certain amount of reluctance to do so, Danger then looked in his mirrors and saw what he wished he had never seen. A Krieger Überschall Clear-View and one that he knew very well. "Oh, hell no!" Dean cried out, as he broke formation and raced away for the safety of the Junkyard.

Dean! Get back in formation! What are you doing?! Twilight cried out over the radio, as Dean blasted by her. But her orders fell on deaf ears and moments later, the Clear-View following them immediately chasing after Dean's Tempesta.

Dean raced up South Mountain Drive, before turning suddenly onto Lucas Way and blasted past a caravaning club. But almost instantly, the much faster Überschall caught him up and shunted him. The bang caused Dean to jump in fright and activate his boost in an effort to escape his attacker. But the driver of the Kreiger anticipated the move and hit her boost, managing to keep up with Dean and chase him up Lucas, before turning onto Hans Way and racing each other to the Junkyard, with the Überschall in close pursuit.

However, while the LMP car was on the left side of Dean's Tempesta, the driver had forgotten about the parked cars that were on both sides of the road. As the LMP car tried to PIT Dean's Tempesta into the wall, Dean counters and door-slammed the Überschall into the row of parked cars on the left side. However, the driver of the Kreiger was able to hit her brakes and turn quickly out of the path of the parked cars. However, the back end of her LMP clipped the first car in the line and caused the car to spin out.

Meanwhile, Dean wasn't paying attention to where he was going and he went head-first into an oncoming Sedan. The font of his Tempesta crumpled up and the car flipped into the air, rolled a few times and crashed to a stop, the car totalled. Dean was quite hurt, but being an expert racer and having been involved in multiple wrecks, he had precautions in place to keep himself from seriously hurting himself. He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car and began running for the safety of the Junkyard.

But before he could get to safety, a magical field then suddenly grabbed him around the neck and lifted him off the ground. The magical field then surrounded him and carried him away from the Junkyard, until he was face-to-face with angry Oscura Galaxia.

"Hello... Dean," Oscura growled, keeping her magical grip around his neck tight, "The time for my revenge HAS COME! I told you you'd couldn't hide from me for long!"

"Hey, at least give me credit for trying!" Dean joked, trying to piss off Oscura somehow.

"YOUR SMART-ASS REMARKS WON'T SAVE YOU THIS TIME!!!!" Oscura shouted, her eyes going from purple to bright red, "I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE!!!!!" And with that, Oscura disengaged her magic and let Dean fall onto the asphalt. As Dean hit the floor, Oscura turned to Thorn and said, "You are not to do anything until I've had my revenge on this pegasus, then you can put as many bullets in him as you like,"

"Yes, Mistress," Thorn replied, readying his MP5/10.

Oscura then turned back to Dean and drew her red-and-black Desert Eagle .50AE. "Oh, look at how pitiful you look right now, Dean! You've tested my anger for the last time, you incompetent pegasus! And now, it's time for you to die!" Grabbing Dean by the neck with an armoured hoof, she then held her Desert Eagle to his face and pulled back the hammer. "Goodbye, Dean!"

But before Oscura could pull the trigger, a gunshot rang out. Milliseconds later, a bullet ricochet off of Oscura's armoured left hoof, making her drop both her weapon and Dean in surprise. Akula had come out of the Junkyard, having heard the crash, and was now aiming a modified AK-47 assault rifle at Oscura's head. Thorn saw what was going on and raised his MP5/10, but thought twice before firing when he saw Viral aim her MP7 at him.

Taking advantage of Oscura's distraction, Dean immediately grabbed her Desert Eagle from the ground and aimed it at Oscura, turning the tables of the stand-off.

"Friends of yours, I assume?" Oscura spat out, turning back to face Dean.

"That's the thing that separates you from me. I have very good friends, you do not. Oh, and I'm a better driver than you!" Dean told her, getting up from the road. Oscura just growled at this. Dean then threw the Desert Eagle to Akula, who then ejected the magazine and sliding the rail back, causing the chambered bullet to eject and fall onto the road. He then threw the empty gun back to Oscura.

"Get in your car and drive away," Akula ordered, much to the dark unicorn's ire, "If I see your car near this Junkyard ever again, I will personally put you through the wall!"

Oscura wanted to strangle the changeling for ordering her what to do, but she was in no position to argue, being held at gunpoint and all. She then turned to Dean, her eyes going red once again. "YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE FRIENDS WON'T SAVE YOU FROM ME, DEAN! I WILL CATCH UP TO YOU ONE DAY, AND I WILL TAKE IMMENSE SATISFACTION IN KILLING YOU!!!!!!!" She then turned away from Dean and walked back to her Uberschall. "Let's go, Thorn!"

Thorn just restrapped his MP5/10 to his back and returned to the Clear-View with his mistress. The car then started up and raced away in a Easterly direction. Akula then put away his AK, Viral did the same and both of them approached Dean. "Who the hell was that, Danger?!" Akula asked him.

"That... was a mare by the name of Oscura Galaxia. She claims herself to be my eternal nemesis," Dean explained.

"What did you do to piss her off?" Viral asked, putting away her MP7.

"I keep wrecking her car, ever since I first met her years ago. She really doesn't like when you try to wreck her. If you do, she'll make your life hell,"

But before the conversation could go on, there was a sound of approaching engines. The rest of the Island Force was approaching and all of them pulled into the Junkyard, except for Twilight. She pulled her SI-7 up next to the entrance, got out and trotted up to the three.

"Dean, are you okay?!" Twilight asked rushing up to him.

"Yeah, I'm just fine!" Dean replied.

"Well, we won't be if we don't get an more ponies back from Sombra's grip. We need more allies and now," Akula stated.

Then, Dean then put on a smug smile, turned to the changeling and said, "I think have an idea,"

Author's Note

FINALLY, WE ARE BACK IN PARADISE!!!!! I want to thank all my readers for being patient and I hope you enjoy the newer chapters that I'm posting soon.

A big thanks to DangerDean, for letting me use his OCs in this story. Thanks for being patient!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, because,
'The Free Ponies are Against The Clock...' :rainbowdetermined2:

Against The Clock 1: Hunter Cavalry (Braeburn)

East Crawford Drive/Patterson Avenue Intersection
Starting location for Hunter Cavalry Burning Route
Moments after encounter with Oscura...

Twilight had gotten back into her Cavalry and had followed Dean deep into Legion-controlled territory. Eventually, Dean led Twilight to an intersection just outside of the Coast Guard HQ. The two cars pulled up to the lights at the intersection and Twilight sat there, ready to race.

Okay, Twilight. You're about to run your very first Burning Route! The concept behind this event is very simple. All you have to do is get to the finish location within the time allotted. No opponents. Just you versus the clock. The only catch is that you can only drive the car that the route is names after. For example, the route you are about to undertake. The only car you can use in this route is the Hunter Cavalry, the car you are in now, Dean explained over the radio, Most to the beginning routes are very easy. I'll be waiting at the finish line for you, good luck! After that, he hit the throttle and raced away in his Tempesta.

Twilight took a deep breath and turned to Spike, who nodded once. Putting a determined look on her face, she then spun her Cavalry's wheels. Eventually, she stopped and began to rev her engine and the lights above flickered to yellow. The GPS switched to a map and DJ-P0N3 came over her radio. Ready for the Burning Route? You are here. Race South to the Wildcats Baseball Stadium! Beat the target time to get a mark on your licence and a special reward,

The light then switched to yellow and Twilight revved her engine more, ready to race. And then the light went green and Twilight set off for the Stadium. But little did she know, she had just activated a magical homing beacon...

As Twilight set off down East Crawford, Spike kept a lookout for any approaching vehicles. They had already been taken out during a Road Rage and they didn't want that to happen again. But it what was Spike could hear rather than see; a loud V8 engine approaching fast.

"Twilight!!!" Spike cried out. But before the princess in question could answer him, she then heard something more worrying. Not just the roar of the V8 engine Spike was pointing out, but tens, if not hundereds of engines roaring closer and closer to her.

Somehow, Sombra had found out that she was attempting to free Braeburn and were rushing to stop her.

And only seconds after this realisation, she and Spike were thrown forward in their seats. Twilight looked behind and saw that Braeburn had caught them and was trying to take her out!

Hello again, Twilight. You think that you could start freeing us from your blissful control of our master? Think again, Braeburn's told the princess of her C.B. radio, before starting to ram his car into Twilight's in an effort to stop her. Twilight quickly hit her boost raced away with Braeburn in hot pursuit.

Twilight's Cavalry was slower and weaker than the Oval Champ 69, so she had no chance of outrunning him. Also, the Oval Champ was a purpose-build attack vehicle with Aggression boost, whereas the Cavalry was an all-round beginner's car with Stunt boost, which (as she already knew) was less powerful than Aggression boost. Her only hope was to just avoid crashing and complete the event, before making a run for the Junkyard.

However, this would prove to be difficult. As she raced down Webster Avenue, Braeburn kept slamming his car into Twilight's car in an effort to stop her. But her well-built Cavalry kept adsorbing the hits and she quickly found herself weaving through the traffic of Webster Avenue, with Braeburn hunting her down. She had taken multiple hits from the stallion and was close to have her car totalled from damage.

And she was getting sick of it.

So, she hatched a plan. As the two began approaching the Stadium, Twilight began slowing down. Braeburn smiled. Her Cavalry's V8 engine was starting to succumb to the damage and falter. With that, he pulled alongside the lavander muscle car but the moment he did so, Twilight then got back on the throttle fully and door-slammed the Oval Champ into an oncoming van. The Hunter's nose crumpled up and the car flipped into the air as Twilight crossed the finish line, well within the required time.

She brought her car to a stop and looked at the wreckage of the Oval Champ, before DJ-P0N3 came over her radio. Congratulations! You've shown that you can drive your car so well, the *static* have decided to give you a brand-new car to celebrate, along with another win to your licence! And for this particular event, you have been given the Hunter Oval Champ 69. You can pick it up at the Junkyard, Twilight turned her attention back to the Braeburn and the wrecked car then disappeared in a bright flash.

But before either Twilight or Spike could question this, Akula then came in over her radio. Twilight, do you read?

The mare in question replied to him, "Yes, I just managed to free Braeburn! He should appear at the junkyard anytime soon!"

Good to know, but you need to get your flank out of there! Akula then ordered, The BSRU is showing a massive number of hostile contacts heading in your direction! Get back to the Junkyard now!

Twilight felt the colour drain from her face. Ever since Dean had left, he said that we would be watching over her with his drone, the BSRU (or British Speedfreak Reconnaissance Unit). But now, according to the drone, there was a massive amount of hypnotised ponies heading her way. And she needed to go!

Twilight didn't waste any time. She immediately flick-spun the Cavalry around and raced back down towards Lone Stallion Ranch. She had Spike keep a lookout for other cars while she drove as fast as she could back home. A perfect harmony. Until...

As Twilight blasted down Harber, out of one of the sides streets, came a bright-pink Montgomery Hyperion. Pinkie's Hyperion. Twilight did all she could to escape the Element of Laughter, but the Hyperion was a damn sight faster than the Cavalry. The Princess of Friendship had no chance of escape.

But as Pinkie moved in for a takedown, she was suddenly hit from behind and spun out of control. And the car that had taken out Pinkie... was none other than the British Speedfreak himself and his bright red Tempesta. His voice then came over Twilight's radio. Did you really think that I would leave you alone, Twilight?

She just smiled and replied, "Of course not! But couldn't that save have come a little sooner?"

Sorry, but you were moving like a bat out of Tartarus. Let's get out of here, And with that, the two cars raced away.

Author's Note

Thanks very much for being patient! I do apologize if this chapter seems a bit rushed, but I have I have a lot of new content coming in a moment, so stay tuned for that as well.

Once again, thanks for reading and...

...A certain bug will have a close encounter... :trixieshiftleft:

Unhealthy Reunion

Moments later...
White Mountain Junkyard

Having just escaped from a massive attack from Sombra's army, Twilight and Dean returned to the Junkyard. Once they arrived, they saw the wreckage of Braeburn's was already there. And after freeing Braeburn and helping him readjust to what happened, the Free Ponies planned their next move.

But one thing was also on their mind; how did Sombra's army knew where to find Twilight when she did her Burning Route. However, Twilight overheard what the group was saying and left Fluttershy to get Braeburn back up to speed. "What's going on, everypony?" She asked, "What are you discussing?"

Akula turned to face the princess, "When you started the Burning Route, Sombra's army somehow knew that you would attempt it. According to the footage captured by Dean's drone, the moment you started the Route, a massive force of enslaved raced to intercept you,"

"Meaning?" Twilight asked, not liking where it was going.

"It means that Sombra knows when you start a Burning Route and free a pony. Somehow, he will know when we try to save somepony. But we don't know how he does it,"

Twilight took a step back in shock. If Sombra knew each time when she tried to free another pony, his army could intercept her and stop her run short. And in these early stages of progression, that would be way too many cars for the Free Ponies to handle.

But also, Twilight remembered something from one of the books she read only moments after she had become an alicorn, something that could be linked to this problem...

"I think I know what Sombra has done," Twilight stated, gaining the attention of the whole group, "I think he has used a 'Magic Flare' spell. I remember this spell. It was in a book I once read, Advanced Magical Theory and Spells, Volume 5 by Starswirl the Bearded himself. This spell, once cast on an object, will set off a magical alert when that object is used. For example, if I cast this spell on a car door, I will get a magical alert whenever somepony opens it,"

What Twilight just revealed had opened the box of knowledge. "Sombra must've set this spell on the traffic light at the Burning Route junctions to go off whenever they go green at the beginning of a attempt," Akula theorised.

"And once he receives the alert, he sends his army to deal with it," Viral finished.

There was no other possibility. Sombra knew each time Twilight would try to free her friends and his army would move to stop them every time.

"Geez, how do we fight back against such numbers?" Dean asked.

"We divide and conquer," Akula answered, before turning to Viral, "Remember that conversation we had, V?"

Viral just nodded slowly.

"Well, it gave me an idea. I wish to try something. Twilight, get Spike and your Mesquite and head to the Mesquite Burning Route. It's on Lambert & 5th. V, while she is doing that, I want you to head into the mountains and do whatever you can to draw as much attention as you can. I'm sure you can handle that, with skills of your calibre. And I'll head to the waterfront and do the same,"

Viral, upon hearing what was going to happen, started quaking with anticipation. She was feeling just like a filly in a candy shop. "FINALLY!!! SOME ACTION!!!" She cried out, before rushing to her GT Concept. Akula just snuffed a laugh at Viral's excitement. But as he turned his head to speak with Twilight, he saw that she had already gathered Spike, hopped into her Mesquite and was already leaving. After ordering the others to stay and look after Braeburn, he ran to his Ikusa and raced away.

Akula pulled his JDM to a stop in the middle of the Wildcats Baseball Stadium, stopping on the pitcher's mound. While travelling towards the Waterfront, he felt something in his demonic power that was calling him to the stadium. Knowing that his demonic power had never let him down, he obliged.

Stepping out of his Ikusa, Akula could sense that he was not alone. And the stadium was far too quiet for the current time of the day. And silence wasn't normal in Paradise City.

Something's not right, Akula thought to himself, looking around at the empty stadium, It's much too quiet here.

But before the demon could figure out was going on, he then felt... something press against his neck. Akula froze in place but he wasn't scared. He had been in worse situations than what he was in now. But Akula also could identify the texture of the object being pressed against him and even that didn't faze him.

Taking a breath, the changeling then said aloud, "The Benelli M4 Super 90, aka the M1014. 12-gauge semi-auto shotgun. There's only one pony that I know with an M4 that has such a unique barrel texture... or should I say, 'changeling?' Right, Druid?"

The changeling in question just kept the shotgun where it was and snicked evilly. "Good guess, Akula. You know me so well," He stated.

Akula didn't reply. He just kept facing straight ahead, when suddenly, the bleachers of the stadium began to reveal the rest of his enslaved friends, all armed with their signature weapons and glowing green eyes with purple haze, staring towards the one who had brought them together without any emotion. And on the back-most row of bleachers at the North-side of the field, mounted behind a Desert Tech Stealth Recon Scout (SRS) chambered in the .243 Winchester round, was Ghost.

Akula had been caught in a trap. While Ko Ko, Strict and Tank remained in the stands with their weapons all trained on Akula, Striker soared down and landed in front of his adoptive father. The alicorn then nodded to Druid, who then lowered his shotgun and backed away.

"Hello, Akula. Great to see you again," Striker greeted, slowly trotting up to the demon changeling.

"I wish I could say the same," Akula replied.

"Now, that's no way to greet your son. I should know," Striker stopped in front of Akula, their faces only inches apart, "If only we were on the same side, maybe that will dampen your spirits," Akula just stared at Striker, not showing any emotion. The alicorn just leaned in and whispered, "Join us, Akula. It's pure bliss,"

Akula just looked at Striker right in his glowing green eyes, trying to find something. But he found nothing. "You are not the Striker I know and is my friend. Your mind is corrupted, so how do I know that you are telling the truth? I'm not joining your sick little family. I'm getting my old family back,"

This caused Striker to slowly pull away from Akula's face and took a few steps away, before suddenly turning back and drawing a Browning Hi-Power, pointing the weapon right between Akula's eyes.

"Fine," Striker said, his voice turning cold, "Then I guess it's time for you to die. Join us, or you will die,"

Akula just scoffed. "No, I don't think so. You're not going to pull that trigger. You know why? Because I know that you don't have the balls to kill a pony in the way that you thinking of right now. And I know that you wouldn't kill the one that brought you up,"

Striker flinched and pulled back the hammer on his Hi-Power. "What if I prove you wrong?"

"You won't. I know you, Striker," The hypnotised Striker had about had enough of Akula and prepared to fire, but before he could, Akula then said, "Let me make it easier for you," before he moved forward, placed his forehead on the barrel of the gun and closed his eyes.

Striker then prepared to pull the trigger and was halfway to firing, when something in his moral fibre begged him not to pull the trigger and kill his own adoptive father. The mind controlling haze clouding his mind was screaming at his soul to pull the trigger while his morals begged him to back off and let him go. And these two sides were now in conflict.

But it was Akula that made his decision. When Striker let his moral get the better of him and pulled the gun off of Akula's forehead, the changeling in question opened his eyes and said, "I thought so," What happened next caught everypony by surprise.

Akula, in one swift motion, pushed the Browning out of his face, snapped Striker's leg around and took control. Having seized control of Striker's pistol with Striker still holding it, he then fired three shots at Druid. The first two rounds hit him in the left fore-leg and the third hit him in the gut. Druid collapsed to the ground, badly injured. Akula then grabbed Striker, forced him to turn around in a action-sequence style move and fired three more shots in Tank's direction. While these shots didn't hit Tank, it did cause the griffon to duck for cover and drop his minigun. Akula then disarmed Striker, causing his pistol to drop to the ground and Akula then kicked Striker into one of the massive concrete walls that separated the bleachers from he field, knocking the alicorn out cold.

Having dispatched of three of his friends, Akula then heard Ko Ko then cry out, "KILL HIM!!!!!!" before gunfire rang out in the stadium. Akula dashed and took cover behind the open door of his Ikusa, as 9mm, 5.56 and .243 rounds slammed into the window and metal. Pinned down by the hail of fire, Akula grabbed his AK-47 and waited for the fire to stop. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Ko Ko and Strict's guns clicked dry. But there was still Ghost. Once the suppressive fire had stopped, Akula rolled out from his cover behind the door and fired a burst at Ghost. And like Tank, Ghost had to take cover or be cut down.

With the main sniper being suppressed, Akula rolled back into cover, just as Strict and Ko Ko opened fire once again. However, Akula then hopped into his JDM and started up the car. And despite being hammered on the front by countless bullets, the Ikusa started up easily. Akula spun the tyres and flick-spun the car around, heading out of the stadium. However, a yellow Hunter Reliable Custom was blocking the exit and a hypnotised Mr. and Mrs. Cake were standing guard with an Uzi each. As Akula approached them fast, Mrs. Cake opened fire. But the Ikusa was coming in too hot and Mr. Cake was forced to jump and tackle his wife out of the way as Akula plowed through the back end of the Reliable, smacking the car out of the way and racing away.

Now satisfied that he had caused enough distraction to draw attention away from Twilight, he then tried to contact her, now knowing if she had freed the next pony...

Author's Note

I'm VERY SORRY about taking so long with this one, but I had to deal with both real-life and a group project, so I apologize.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! And...

"Twilight is Against The Clock again..." :rainbowdetermined2:

Against The Clock 2: Hunter Mesquite (Trixie)

Meanwhile...
Hubbard Avenue

As Akula was just arriving at the Baseball Stadium, Twilight and Viral were proceeding towards the next Burning Route. Viral knew that Twilight was too big of a target to be left alone, so the pegasus would travel with Twilight until they reached the starting location, where they would then split up.

But as they were on their way to the start, they didn't notice an green-and-orange XS12 approaching fast from behind...

The two were approaching the 2nd Street intersection, when Viral chose to speak with Twilight, 'You feeling nervous, Twilight?' She asked over the radio.

"A bit, yes. With what just happened the last time and that Road Rage that brought us all together, I can't help it," Twilight replied.

'Don't be. The Mesquite Burning Route is nothing compared to some of the later Routes that you'll face sooner or later. Believe me, I've had to claw my way through all of them and much more to get by Criterion Elite Licence,'

Twilight giggled, "Okay, I believe you. But as long as we all work together, we can accomplish anything,"

'True that,' Viral agreed, but before she could say more, gunfire then rang out. 5.7mm rounds impacted against the rear windshield of the GT Concept, catching both Twilight and Viral by surprise. 'WHAT THE FUCK?!' Viral cried out, 'Twilight, get to the Route's intersection! I'll draw the heat!'

With that, Viral gunned it. The GT Concept raced away, as Twilight did the same and turned onto 2nd. As she looked behind, she was relieved that the XS12 that was attacking had decided that Viral was more important that her and raced after V. Twilight reached the next intersection in record time and she turned left onto Lambert Parkway. And (once again) within moments, he had arrived at the starting location for the Mesquite Burning Route. Twilight yanked on the handbrake and spun the car around 180o, until it stopped in the middle of the intersection.

Twilight spun her wheels and then reversed to line up with the street lights behind her. Once she was lined up, she revved her engine, ready to go.

A map appeared on her dashboard GPS, but this time, instead of Vinyl's voice greeting her, an unidentified male voice spoke instead. Ready for the Burning Route? You are here. Race South to the Naval Yard,

This statement was followed by DJ-P0N3 then saying, Time is not on your side, so get going!

The lights went green and Twilight blasted down Lambert, 1 minute and 45 seconds was the time to beat. And the moment the lights went, the beacon was sent out and quite soon, any and all enslaved ponies would be on the scene.

But the first responders didn't take long. In fact, they were quickly on the scene.

As Twilight took off, a loud screeching was heard behind them. Twilight looked in her mirrors and saw Trixie's Mesquite Custom in hot pursuit!

'You may have bested the old Trixie, but you will NEVER beat this Trixie! Why don't you just give in and join your friends?' Trixie told her, starting to give chase. While both Mesquite versions still maintained the same speed and strength, the Custom had more boost power. Twilight had no chance of outrunning Trixie, but she could fight back. For a while, the two Mesquites kept up with each other and Twilight and Trixie started to beat the crap out of each other.

Scratches ran the length of both cars. Their windshields were cracked. Some small parts (like rear-view mirrors and bumpers) had come off and dents of various sizes decorated the cars. Both would not be able to keep up the fight much longer. But then, the odds stacked in Trixie's favour.

As the group passed by the Obelisk Triangle plaza, that connects Lambert with 1st, another car turned off of 1st. Dash had decided to join in the chase!

Now, Twilight had no chance in Tartarus in outrunning her pursuers. The Jansen P12 was waaaaaaay faster than the Mesquite and Dash was an expert driver behind the wheel. And Twilight didn't want to hurt Dash. The only thing that Twilight could do, was pray that she could hold out.

However, the hypnotised Dash and Trixie made a costly error. As the group approached the three-street intersection, Dash suddenly backed off and let Trixie take over the chase. As Twilight stayed on Lambert, which turned to the right, Dash just continued onto Parr Avenue, leaving Trixie to stay with Twilight.

The alicorn saw this fault and exploited it to its extent. Twilight raced away from Trixie, for the magician had run out of boost. And as she tried to regain it as quickly as she could, Twilight boosted away at full speed. Twilight pulled away and then turned left onto Hall Avenue, the final street before the finish line. And Twilight had only 15 seconds left to reach the finish. But now, Twilight had run out of boost and Trixie was gaining fast.

But Twilight was too far ahead. And she easily reached the Naval Yard, drifting to the left and stopping on the open sidewalk near the entrance to the Naval Yard.

Trixie couldn't believe it and she immediately felt her body lose control and Sombra's spell clear from her mind. The unicorn then lost consciousness and threw the wheel, causing her Mesquite Custom to flip and roll multiple times.

The unidentified male then came over Twilight's radio again, as another win was added to her licence. You nailed that Burning Route! Your reward is waiting for you in the Junkyard.

Twilight silently celebrated her victory, but was soon cut short when the sound of a vehicle approaching fast snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked in its direction and saw Dash approaching fast! Twilight immediately stop her celebration and gunned it, heading for the Junkyard via the South Bay Expressway Bridge. But Dash was too fast and immediately caught up.

'Oh, no you don't, Twilight! You are not getting away from me!' Dash taunted, beginning to slam her P12 against the Mesquite. Twilight did her best to fight back, but her consciousness told her not to.

She didn't have to worry, as once the two were half-way across the bridge, Dash's P12 was suddenly hit from behind. Her 'Pocket Rocket' bucked violently and spun out, before colliding with a Gillette Fusion© Van and wrecking.

As it turns out, the pony who had shunted Dash was none other than Akula, who had just arrived at the scene, having not received any response from Twilight. Once Akula had reached Twilight, he then raced ahead, heading for the Junkyard, possibly clearing the way for Twilight. She then proceeded back to the Junkyard, following Akula's wake, with another pony free from the vice-like grip of Sombra.

Author's Note

Looks like the Free Ponies are getting on a roll! Thanks very much for reading and if you want to have some more Burnout action, be sure to check out both RDgamer321 and DangerDean. They have some really amazing stories that I think you guys should read!

Anyway, stay tuned...
...Two adversaries will meet on neutral ground. :derpyderp1:

"Ooooh, a pretty portal!"

Ponyville, Equestria
3 days ago...

It was a normal day in Ponyville. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and everypony in Ponyville were just going about their day. The Spa Ponies were giving massages and other spa treatments to stressed-out ponies, Rarity was busy making new designer clothes in the Carousel Boutique, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were baking delectable treats with Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy was busy taking care of her animals at her cottage, Applejack was busy with the apple harvest and Rainbow Dash was busy... napping.

Meanwhile, Mayor Mare was trotting around town, seeing her town's sights for herself. She let out a relaxing sigh, "What a beautiful day. I can't think of one thing that will ruin it,"

Then, as if on cue, a huge group of ponies rushed right by her, all heading for the town square. She overheard some of them saying stuff like 'What's that over there?' and 'Is that a portal?' Confused, Mayor Mare followed the group to the town square. Once there, she saw a massive crowd had gathered around something near the Town Hall. Attempting to push through the crowd to see what they were gathered around, she eventually laid eyes on it...

...And her jaw involuntarily dropped.

It was a portal, and it gave off a very weak red glow. But in the middle of the portal, was the opening, at what was on the other side was visible. On the other side, was a wide black road that turned to the left, that ran underneath a huge sign that stretched across the entire road. On it, in big bold letters, were the words 'COAST GUARD'. And hanging from the sign was a red banner, but it was too far from view to read what was on it.

"Ok, everypony! Please back away from the portal! Everything is under control!" Mayor Mare ordered, trying to force the crowd backwards. However...

"Oooh, a pretty portal!" An all-too-familiar voice exclaimed.

Oh no. Mayor Mare thought, spotting a very familiar pink Earth pony mare with a cotton candy-like mane and tail bounding through the crowd.

Upon reaching the front of the crowd, Pinkie Pie gazed at the portal with a twinkle in her big, blue eyes. "I wonder what's on the other side? I should call the others!" Mayor Mare, upon hearing this statement, ran over and tried to cover her muzzle before...

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE, EVERYPONY! CAN YOU COME HERE, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!"

Too late.

But it seemed to work, as within 19 seconds of Pinkie's screaming, the other Elements arrived at the scene. Well, almost all...

"Hey! Where's Twilight?" Pinkie asked, not seeing Twilight Sparkle in the group.

"Oh, Pinkie. Darling. Don't you remember? She was called away by the Princess for some royal matters," Rarity stated, prompting a realizing 'OHHHHH!' from Pinkie.

All the staring at the portal by the Elements was interrupted by a sweet, quiet 'Ahem'. All of the girls turned to look to Fluttershy, who repeated her throat clearing.

"Umm, girls. What should we do, now that Twilight is not here?" She asked, still as quiet as ever.

"Well," Rainbow Dash started, a small grin visible on her face, "There's only one logical thing we can do..."

"Go inside the portal."

All the others just looked at her, in absolute shock.

"Oh, come on, girls! Just imagine what's on the other side! And what we can do!" Rainbow stated, trying to sway the others' opinions.

"Oh, I don't know Rainbow," Fluttershy questioned, "It could be dangerous on the other side,"

Nopony then said anything, until Applejack spoke up. "Well, Ah' think that we should jus' take ah' peek at what's on the other side. I mean, Twilight would do the same for us,"

"Well I-I suppose we should do it, and yes, Applejack, Twilight would do it for us," Rarity admitted, "She was the one who went through the portal that led to the other world when Sunset Shimmer stole her crown. So, this is our chance to see for ourselves without Twilight to spoil it for us," Rarity's statement was met with nodding heads and agreeing 'yeahs' from the others. While Mayor Mare just stood there, slack-jawed at the whole situation.

"Well, girls. Why ah' we just standing here? Let's... GO!!!!!!" Applejack cried, and the Elements raced to the portal, to the Mayor's panicked cries of 'Are you sure that's the wisest thing?!' But they didn't listen, and one by one, ran into the portal, with Pinkie jumping in, yelling 'WHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"

And just like that, they were gone. Heading for an unknown location...

Twilight's Castle of Friendship, Ponyville
1 day ago...

"SPIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Was the sound of Twilight calling for the baby dragon's assistance. Spike, meanwhile, was 'busy' grabbing some gems from the castle's kitchen for his lunch, when he heard Twilight's booming voice calling for him.

"Coming!" Spike called back, placing his bowl of gems on the kitchen bench and immediately rushed to the library, where he knew Twilight was.

Upon reaching the library, he saw Twilight quickly flicking through a book that was titled, 'The Art of Locating Ponies (Using Magic)' In fact, she was so focused in her book, she didn't notice that Spike had arrived at the door, until he cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Ah, Spike! There you are!" Twilight finally acknowledged Spike's presence, looking up from her book.

"What's going on, Twilight?" he asked, unsure of what was going on.

"I need you to take this paper and quill and start writing what I say! I just can't seem to find the others anywhere!" Twilight stated, getting straight to the point, and materialized a quill and parchment into Spike's hands. "Start writing what I say..."

"Dear Princess Celestia..."

But then, just as the words left her mouth, the purple dragon burped, and a scroll magically materialized from the belch, wrapped in a red silk ribbon and adorned with a golden seal. Spike ripped off the binding and read the message aloud:

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am sorry to advise you that your friends have been reported missing for 2 days. Neither me or Luna know where they have gone, but both of us have an idea. According to a letter I recently received from Mayor Mare, a mysterious portal leading to an unknown location has appeared in Ponyville Town Square, and on the day it appeared, your friends were seen entering the portal. You know by now that if an Element of Harmony is not in Equestria, it won't allow the other Elements to power up and so, the Elements won't work, rendering Equestria open to attack.

Twilight, we need you and Spike to go into the portal, investigate what's on the other side and, if your friends are on the other side, please bring them home.

Your Teacher,
Princess Celestia.

Spike looked at Twilight. Twilight looked at Spike.

They didn't need to say it. Their friends were missing. Go find them!

Twilight immediately put away her book and told Spike, "Spike, go get you bag and pack some your things you need for trips. Were going to Ponyville!"

"Ok, Twilight!" Spike replied, running out the door of the library. But moments later, he poked his head back through the door and asked, "Umm, Twilight? When are we going?"

Twilight looked back at Spike and said, "Well, since it will take me a while to pack, we will go to this portal tomorrow morning," And with that, Spike left to pack his things for the all important portal trip tomorrow...

Ponyville Town Square
Present day...

Before Twilight and Spike knew it, the next day had come around and everything was set for their trip through the portal. But when they arrived at Ponyville...

"Wait, where is everypony?"

There was nopony outside. There was nopony in sight. Ponyville looked abandoned. Still, Twi and Spike proceeded towards Town Hall, trying to find any ponies on the way.

"I don't get it. Is there some sort of holiday going on today?" Spike asked.

"No. I checked the calendar before we left," Twilight answered.

"Did they smell me coming? Does my breath stink?" Spike asked, burping out green fire and smelling the smoke.

"You can rule that out already. I saw you eat a breath mint before we left, remember?" Twilight replied again.

Moments later, they arrived at Town Hall. However...

"Twilight! There you are! It's horrible! They've all left!"

Twilight and Spike looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Mayor Mare...

...and when they did, they gasped in horror.

Her glasses' lenses were cracked and her tie and collar were broken and covered in dirt. Mayor Mare herself was covered in bruises and scratches, and her mane elegant silver mane was disheveled and coated in dirt. A small line of dried blood, originating from her left nostril was visible on her face and she had a black right eye.

She looked like she had gotten run over by a stampede.

"Mayor Mare! Wha-what happened?" Twilight asked, shocked by what became of the Mayor.

Mayor started stammering and muttering before she said, "Your friends... *cough**cough* Th-they... *cough* When they went into the portal... *cough**cough* All of Ponyville watched and... *cough**cough**cough* Just the other day, they followed them in! *cough**cough* I tried to hold them back as best as I could, but-but..."

"But, what?" Spike asked.

"Th-they... They... They trampled over me!" Was Mayor answer.

The two just stared at her, mouths agape in shock. Why would the citizens of Ponyville do this?

"Mayor Mare, we are here to bring them back. Just point us to the portal and just leave the rest to us," Twilight explained to her.

"Okay," Mayor said, raising a hoof, "It's over there. Good luck, Twilight and stay safe,"

"We will," Twilight replied, smiling to Mare. She then walked towards the portal, breathing deeply. This was the most intense thing, apart from facing off against Tirek, that she would ever do, and she had to be prepared.

She then turned to Spike, who was standing right next to her, and simply asked, "Ready, Spike?"

Spike then cracked his knuckles, got into a runner's starting position and shifted his feet along the ground. "Ready!" He replied.

Twilight then got into a running stance, game face on. Then, the two raced for the portal and jumped in...

Unknown location
Present day...

Twilight had just started to open her eyes, as the bright light upon her entering of the portal was very bright, and if she had kept her eyes open, she would have gone blind. But, unlike her trip through the Mirror Portal, she didn't get dizzy, she just didn't want to be blinded.

When she opened her eyes, all she saw was a wooden floor, and through the gaps, she could see what she thought was the sea. She could smell the ocean as well.

"Uh, Twilight?" Spike asked her, suspiciously.

"Spike! I told you, if we end up with you as a dog and me as a human, for you not to worry!" Twilight snapped, clearly annoyed.

"Uh, that's not the problem," Spike then said, confusing Twilight.

"What do you mean-" But before, it came into view.

Two short, stubby, purple, scaly legs. And on the end of them, two little feet. Twilight instinctively looked up and saw Spike's baby dragon face. And it caught her by surprise.

"Spike? Are you... STILL A DRAGON?!" Twilight cried out in shock.

Spike then instinctively checked himself out, and confirms it. He was still a dragon.

"It... looks like it. But... That means..." Spike then said, looking at Twi's form, his pupils the size of pinheads.

"Means wha-" But before she could finish, she could see two blurry things in front of her, and when she focused on them...

...they turned out to be her two front hooves! She then looked around, and saw that she was in her pony form!

Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened to the size of saucepans upon seeing her pony features. After examining herself, she looked at her surroundings, and immediately, she knew they were in the human world. Constantly passing by them on the two roads that separated them and the beach from the two hotels on the other side, were what looked like 'cars', but they looked different to the ones they encountered at Canterlot High School.

But as to why they didn't change, they couldn't figure out.

"Something's wrong, Spike. It looks like were in the human world, but why are we still original forms?" Twi asked.

"Don't ask me! You're the magic expert!" Spike snapped at her. He then looked to his left, and his eyes widened. "But I think we've got company," Twilight then heard it before she saw it.

It was the engine of an approaching car.

Twilight looked in the direction of the engine noise, and saw a cyan-and-gold-highlighted Jansen P12 sports-car. And it was pulling up to the kerb, right where Spike and herself were standing.

As the Jansen rolled to a stop, the two watched it carefully, anticipating the driver to try and fillynap them, when the passenger-side window rolled down...

...to reveal Rainbow Dash, sitting at the wheel of the sports-car! She then stared at the dragon and the Alicorn for a long while, before breaking out into a huge smile.

"Twilight!" The Pegasus exclaimed, overjoyed, "You're here! I was wondering when you'd arrive!"

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, having run into the first missing Element within minutes of her arrival.

"Oh, Dash!" Twilight sighed, "It's good to see you! But you wouldn't happen to know where the others-" But before she could finish her question, she was interrupted by Rainbow, who was laughing.

"Ha ha ha, I just knew you were gonna' ask that! I know where they are. In fact, I'll take you to them!" Rainbow said, and then she opened the passenger-side door, "Hop in,"

"Hop in?!" Twilight and Spike both asked in unison, both of them almost shrieking.

"Yes, that's what I said. Hop in!" Dash repeated, almost bursting into hysterical laughter.

"NO!!!! No no no no no no no! We are not getting in!" Twilight shrieked, staring at Rainbow in utter shock and disbelief.

Rainbow let out a deep sigh, having successfully held back her laughter. "Oh, come on, Twi! The others are anxious to see you! And besides, coming with me is the fastest way to get around the city! Or would you prefer to walk? Because if you do, you've got quite a lot distance to cover. Also, walking around the city is pretty dangerous here. Are you sure you don't wanna' hop in?" She asked in a teasing tone.

Twilight though long and hard about what Rainbow had just stated. She walked around Ponyville everyday, not having to worry about anything. What was so dangerous about the city that prevented her from walking everywhere? And what was it about Rainbow's car that made it the fastest way to get around? She so desperately wanted to find out, she had no choice but to accept Rainbow's command.

"Ok. Ok, Rainbow. You win. We'll get in," Twilight said, admitting defeat and walking towards to the P12, having levitated Spike onto her back. Finally, they got in and shut the door behind them. Twilight sat upright in the seat, with Spike sitting in-between her hind legs, on the seat. Twi then grabbed her seat-belt with her magic and clipped it into the buckle.

"Good choice!" Rainbow remarked, a huge grin plastered onto her face, "Let's go! We've kept the others waiting for too long!" The pegasus then keyed the ignition and the Jansen's engine roared to life, nearly scaring Twilight and Spike half to death. Dash laughed at the pair's reaction.

"Is the meeting point far? I don't want spend longer in here that I have too!" Twilight asked.

"Oh, no. It's not far. Only a couple of blocks," Dash answered.

"Okay..." Twilight said, then she asked, "Do you perhaps know where we are? Or perhaps, what this place is called?"

Dash then snickered, before answering Twilight's question. "I'm actually not 100% sure where exactly we are, but, I can answer your second question. And with a simple phrase, at that,"

"Which is?" Spike intervened. Rainbow then smiled at Spike and said the phrase...

..."Welcome to Paradise!"

Author's Note

Well, here it is. The first Burnout Paradise story on Fimfiction has begun! To the sharp-eyed readers and members of the Changeling hive, you will notice that I have made several references to the Equestria Girls movie, GTA: Ponytropolis I (By Pinkamena666) and some episode of the TV show. Some of these references were intended, and some were not, so I apologize if you think I might be plagiarizing.

I'm not.

The races you will see in the following chapters are the same events seen in the game, but I intended for this to happen.

Also, the cars used in this story are the ACTUAL cars seen in the game. There are no rip-off of the Paradise cars, they are all seen in the game. I will provide links to the first-mentioned cars, so you will know what they will look like. And the paint schemes for each car can be recreated in the game without the use of any mods. So, if any of you bronies and/or pegasisters out there wish to recreate any of the moments of the story in-game, you may do so.

One last thing, the location where Twilight and Spike arrived in Paradise is a small, wooden jetty on the right-hand side of East Crawford Drive, just before the East Crawford Drive-Hudson Avenue intersection. The direction of travel is West.

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter and as always...

Keep dogfighting! :raritywink:

The Legion of Doom... in Paradise!

Angus Wharf
South of the Waterfront Plaza

It hadn't been a few minutes since Twilight and Spike stole victory from Akula in the last stages of Twilight's first race. Now, they were cruising up Angus Wharf, taking in the sights of the beautiful drive. After quite a while, Twilight picked up her CB microphone and asked, "Hey, Akula. This 'Wildcats Baseball Stadium', is it the only place to finish at? Not counting the Coast Guard sign, of course,"

Akula just let out a quiet laugh, and replied, Of course not! There are 8 different finishing locations, one for each point of the compass. To the North, is the Maplemount Country Club, the Coastguard HQ in the North-East, as you should already know, the Waterfront Plaza on the East coast, which is where we are approaching now. In the South-East, is the very-familiar Wildcats Baseball Stadium. The Fort Lawrence Naval Yard is in the South bay, Lone Stallion Ranch to the South-West, the Wind Farm in the West hills and in the North-West mountains, is the Crystal Summit Observatory. Akula stopped to take a breath, before continuing, To get your Burnout Driver's Licence, you need to win events, and lots of them! Every intersection has a different event, all you have to do to find them, is to drive through the intersection and it is automatically added to your mini map. Once you win enough events, your Licence is automatically upgraded and a new car is given to you.

Spike then snatched the microphone off of Twilight and said, "Wait, you said events. You mean there are other events?"

There are different types of events, yes. 5, to be precise. They are Race, Road Rage, Stunt Run, Marked Mare and Burning Route. Would you like me to go through the rules for each of them? Akula asked.

"YES!!!!!!" Came the response from Twi and Spike.

Okay, Akula replied, before beginning to explain, First is Race. The objective is simple: Be the first to arrive at the finish location to win. Simple as that. Next, there's Road Rages. This is only one of two events that don't have a finish location. Instead, it's a running battle across Paradise. You have to achieve the Takedown Target within the time limit to win. Then, there's Stunt Runs. Perform jumps, drifts and whole other manner of tricks of beat the point limit. Also, there's Burning Routes. Get from the starting location to the specified location within the time limit to get a special reward alongside a mark for your licence. Finally, there's Marked Mare. I'll explain what that event is when we get to the next location.

Twilight and Akula continued up Angus, cruising with the traffic, only passing traffic when they needed to. While Twilight drove, Spike was enjoying the view passing by his window.

But he, Twi or Akula never saw the silver-and-pink Watson 25 V16 Revenge super-car, parked on the side of the road. Nor did they see the light pink pegasus filly grab her CB microphone and speak into it.

They're heading your way.

Akula and Twilight kept to the road, not a worry in the world. Then, it came into view. A huge metallic arch, stretching across the whole intersection. Imprinted on it, in big, bold letters, was the word 'WATERFRONT' and with three sail boats on the highest point of the arch. Off to the side, was a chromed-metallic statue of a human holding a flag at a 45o angle. And hanging from the arch, was the red banner.

Twilight and Spike both gaped in awe. There it is. The Waterfront Plaza. Akula said.

"It's beautiful!" Twilight silently exclaimed, taking in the beautiful sight.

That's precisely when two cars came blasting out of the adjacent Andersen Street. The one in front was a dark-red Carson Thunder Custom, and the following car was a dark-black Hunter Racing Oval Champ. the two cars then slammed on their brakes, and formed a roadblock, blocking Akula and Twilight from passing. Akula and Twilight slammed on their brakes, forcing their cars to stop. And once they stopped, more cars appeared.

A silver-and-pink Watson 25 V16 Revenge (the same one Akula, Twilight and Spike all failed to spot) came racing up from behind them, and drifted to a sideways stop, preventing them from backing up. A dark-green Hunter Civilian appeared out of Andersen, sealing the gap between the V16 Revenge and the Oval Champ. And finally, a golden Krieger Racing WTR slowly rolled out from behind the Thunder Custom and completed the roadblock.

Akula's Ikusa GT and Twilight's Cavalry were trapped.

A deep, gravely voice spoke into Twilight's CB. Princess Twilight. Such an honor it is to finally meet you. Get out of the car and we can talk.

Twilight just sat there, confused and worried. She didn't want to get out, but something inside of her told her to get out and see what these people wanted. After a few seconds of silence, Twilight turned to Spike and told him, "Stay here, Spike. Don't get out, no matter what happens,"

"But, Twi..." Spike started to protest, but Twilight cut him off.

"No, Spike. Stay here! Trust me,"

Spike, after silently hesitating for a bit, bowed his head in defeat and said, "Okay, Twilight. But promise me you'll me safe!"

Twilight gave him a loving smile, unclipped her seat-belt and stated, "I promise," She then opened her door and stepped out, closing the door after her and locking the car.

Twilight stepped towards the front of her Cavalry, her horn crackling with magic, in case she came under attack. "Ok, I'm out! Now, WHO ARE YOU??????!!!!!!" She demanded in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

She got no response from the drivers of the cars in front of her, until the driver of the WTR lifted himself out of the F1 car's cockpit, and once he was out, started to walk towards Twilight. He appeared to be a male ram covered completely in a yellow-coloured racing suit and matching helmet that hid his identity. The only thing that wasn't covered, was a pair of massive horns coming out of the ram's head.

Then, the ram took off his helmet, and revealed himself. "My name is Grogar. It is very nice to meet you at last, Princess Twilight Sparkle. My friends here would love to see you again," Grogar said, waving his hoof to the Thunder Custom and the Oval Racing Champ blocking the road. Then, the driver-side door of the Thunder Custom opened, and a very familiar voice spoke. "Well, well, well! If it isn't Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight gasped at the voice, for it was a voice she knew well, yet hated more than anything. Then, from behind the open door of the Carson, out stepped a familiar red centaur.

Lord Tirek!

Twilight, upon seeing Tirek, started focusing her magic, her horn starting to crackle with energy. But as she was ready to release her magic at the evil centaur, she heard a loud thump coming from behind her. She lost her focus and turned to look behind her...

...and saw Cozy Glow standing on the bonnet of her Cavalry!

"Do my eyes deceive me, or is that Twilight Sparkle? The pathetic Princess responsible for by banishment?" Cozy remarked, giving Twilight a psychotic smile. Twilight just tried to back away, before she heard another familiar voice.

"No, your eyes don't deceive you. That means I can finally get what I want," It said, and then scoffed a laugh. Twilight knew that voice, turned and saw King Sombra climbing out the side window of the Oval Champ.

Twilight's gaze constantly shifted between each of the villains, as she was surrounded by the beings that wanted her dead more than anything else (well, apart from ruling Equestria). As she slowly backed towards Akula's Ikusa GT, she was picked up by a green aura and thrown towards the Citizen like Smarty Pants. She hit the side door of the Citizen, leaving a Twilight-sized dent in the door. Although the impact of Twilight being thrown into the door didn't knock her out, it did badly injure her, and she groaned in pain, trying to get on her hooves. The green aura surrounded her again, and Twilight was picked up and slammed onto the hood of the Citizen. Twilight's head jerked backward upon impact, and when she looked back down...

...She came face-to-face with Queen Chrysalis. And her face was a mask of rage.

"YOU!!!!!!" The former Changeling Queen hissed at the Princess of Friendship, "You have quite a lot of nerve showing your face in our territory! Especially after what you pulled! Now, I will take your love, and once I've fully drained you of ALL of your love and energy, I will turn your beloved Spike into my personal breeding slave!" She hissed again in Twilight's face before lighting her horn up and starting to make a slurping noise, and Twilight started to feel drained as she saw a bright pink aura leave her mouth and float towards Chrysalis and enter her mouth.

Chrysalis was draining Twilight of her love!

"No... no..." Twilight struggled to say, feeling her energy leave her. It seemed like Chrysalis was going to drain her of all her love, just like she had said earlier. But then...

...came the sound of a gun's slide being racked. And then, came the voice.

"I'm not going to let you do that. Put Twilight down, my sweet,"

Chrysalis stopped feeding on Twi's love to turn around...

...and see Akula had gotten out of his car, and was now aiming a gold-plated M1911 at her head!

Chrysalis backed away from Twilight, allowing the alicorn to regain her energy. Akula jerked his head towards Grogar, Tirek and Sombra, telling her to move to them. Chrysalis, in no position to argue or fight back, just nodded and walked away. This allowed Akula to walk to Twilight, pick her up and carry her on his back.

He turned his attention back to the villains. "Okay, this is what's going to happen. You are going to get back into your cars, drive away and leave us alone!" He ordered.

Grogar just stood there for a few seconds, before finally saying, "Fine. But you'd better stay out of our way, or we won't be the only ones you'll want to avoid," He then motioned to the others to get back in their cars, which they followed. Akula kept his gun up as the villains started up their cars and roared back down Andersen Street, but not before Cozy rolled up to Akula and Twilight, rolled down her window and said, "Enjoy you life, Princess!"

Once he was sure the villains were gone, Akula holstered his M1911, lifted Twilight off of his back and asked, "Are you alright, Twilight? Can you walk?"

"Yes... I can walk... I'm... ok," Twilight replied in between breaths. She took a moment so she could level out her breathing, and then asked, "What are the villains doing here?"

Akula just let out a sigh. "I honestly don't know. But it can't be good," He replied, staring off into the distance. "Let's go, before they come back," He started to walk back to his Ikusa, and Twilight did the same, going to her Cavalry.

Once Twilight had gotten back into her Cavalry, Spike asked her if she was alright. "Yeah, I'm fine Spike. Thanks for asking," She replied, smiling at him.

"Geez, Twilight. What are they doing here? And what do they want and why?" Spike asked, concerned.

"I don't know, Spike. But something tells me that I might not want to know the answer," Twi replied, starting up the car. Next to them, the Ikusa GT roared to life and took off, up Angus Wharf. Twilight put her hoof down on the gas, and raced after him.

Author's Note

I'll admit it, this is not my best chapter. But I just wanted to get it out of the way! Hope you are ok with this chapter, apologies if it looks rushed!

Paint Schemes:

Grogar's Racing WTR: Gold paint
Tirek's Thunder Custom: Finish 2, mettalic maroon
Cozy's 26 V16 Revenge: Finish 2, metallic pink
Chrysalis's Civilian: Finish 2, gloss light green
Sombra's Racing Oval Champ: Finish 2, metallic black

Now that the plot has taken off...

...Get ready to be the Marked Mare! :rainbowdetermined2: