Twilight’s breathing quickened as the magnetic locks released. The craft floated up a few more feet, and began to tilt back and forth slightly, idling. The final limiters on the engines were released, and the league-standard electronica began to rise in her ears. The sign above the starting line began changing from an advertisement for a new type of racing helmet. Almost in slow motion, the white and silver screen became blue, and a large “3” appeared in the center. A band to the left disappeared, the “3” became a “2.” Another bar disappeared. The “2” changed to a “1.” Twilight tensed up. The screen began to change one more time.
The bass dropped.
Twilight stamped her hoof down.
G-force thrust her back into the seat.
The outside world became a blur.
Having just spent the day with her good friends Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, Twilight was in a good mood as she trotted back to her library. There was a spring in her step, and a tune humming from her lips. As she turned down the street, towards Ponyville’s main square, she noticed a ring of tents lining the marketplace that weren’t usually there. Each adorned with a logo and each with a different color scheme, she scanned the new arrivals until her eyes landed on a familiar color scheme. Teal, yellow and white.
Twilight stopped in her tracks.
It can’t be… she thought. After the F9000 scandal… wasn’t all that shut down for good? Memories came flooding back to her; nights spent staying up late with her father, watching the races that her mother wouldn’t have let her. The morning after when her mother was yelling at her father, him feebly promising never to let Twilight watch it again, and then being right there with her the very next race. They were violent, dangerous, and fast, and gave her a thrill just watching them that she knew she could never even imagine. She’d dreamed of flying, or even working on, one of the racing ships one day, the powerful magic propelling them to speeds even the fastest Pegasi couldn’t dream of matching. But the speed alone wasn’t what caught her attention the most – it was the weaponry. Twilight came off as a quiet, reserved, bookish girl, and truth be told she was. But she had such a fascination with the weapon systems in those ships. Rockets, bombs, floating mines, even a high-energy plasma shot that could bring even the heaviest racecraft to a halt.
She’d never been much one for the ultra-heavy ships that could run through a bomb without so much as a stutter, or the ships that flew so fast they didn’t need weapons to counter the other craft on the track. No, Twilight’s favorite team had always been Feisar. First to realize that the Anti-Gravity magic that kept war machines and civilian vehicles aloft could be used for racing, they focused less on pushing as fast as they could go and more on safety and handling. As such, from beginning until the F9000 league and the crumbling of the sport, Feisar’s ships would always be exactly where the pilot wanted them on the track. Twilight loved that about Feisar – they were so very much like her. Everything in it’s place exactly how it should be all the time.
Twilight quickly made her way across the open market to the tent adorned with the Feisar emblem, ignoring the other tents offering equally nostalgic or infuriating memories – like the time in the 2049 Season Championship the Qirex pilot had gotten a speed boost down the final straight and overtaken Feisar for the victory, or the time in the FX300 League when a stray rocket knocked the Feisar pilot out of the race. There were a couple colors she didn’t immediately recognize, though – a white, pink, and orange tent along with a white, blue, and orange tent that seemed out of place among the great racing teams of her childhood. She was practically galloping at this point, and came to a sudden stop after nearly bowling over a typically unfortunately placed Derpy Hooves.
“Oh my gosh it can’t really be – but it is are you guys really Feisar is the team – is the entire sport really coming back?” Twilight spewed out a mangled mash up of sentences and questions at the two colts wearing team-styled polo shirts. Both had matching cutie marks, as well, something Twilight thought was odd but didn’t bother bringing up.
“Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there, filly. Yes, it really is – with the help of the good Princess Celestia (and at the urging of her younger sister, Princess Luna), we cleaned the corruption out of the league and race organizers and got the teams back together, heck, we’ve even got some new startups –” the colt gestured to the two tents Twilight hadn’t recognized, “to replace some of the teams that simply didn’t have the funds to enter the new league. You’ll find most of the big names are still here – you’ve got us, AG Systems, Qirex, Auricom, even Triakis, Assegai, and Piranha managed to get some people together to get the assembly lines going again. But the one thing every team is missing is the most important – the members of our teams that make the ships go ‘round the courses. Not a single one of us has a pilot. That’s why we’re here. You interested?”
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, closed it again, and fell to her rear.
“Are you really offering me… pilot… Feisar…?” Twilight could barely get the words out. Her friends new her as the pony who had words for every situation, even times when the best words were no words, Twilight had something to say. But now, the words just wouldn’t form the sentences she was trying to make.
“Yeah, we are? Would you rather fly for Auricom? Or Piranha? Their booths are right over there, we all need pilots equally badl-”
“Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes! I’ll do it! Where do I sign?” Twilight cut the bright teal colt off.
Slightly flustered at the purple mare’s sudden burst of energy, he reached under the table and came back holding a clipboard in his teeth. Twilight hastily grabbed it with her magic and pulled out a pen, yanking the paperwork violently from the colt’s mouth. She read the legal documentation as fast as she could, finishing with an exceptionally artistic signature.
“Alright then… the first practice is in a week, at Las Pegasus. Can you make it there?”
“Of course I can! I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Twilight’s voice rising into an almost inaudible fan girl squeal, I can’t WAIT to tell my friends and family! This is so great!
Twilight wasn’t the only one passing through the square at the time – Rainbow Dash happened to be flying overhead when she noticed the colored tents. A pink one with the words “Flying High!” plastered on it caught her attention over the others, and she descended in a cyan and rainbow blur, startling the twin pink Pegasi at the tent. The two lightish-red mares recoiled in surprise, and hastily began their recruitment pitch.
“H-hello! We’re with Icaras! Guaranteed to be the fas-”
“Are you…” Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment as she cut them off. “Is this a revival of that old racing sport? The one that got shut down because it was rigged?” Rainbow Dash asked, rather accusingly.
The mare on the left blushed and brought a hoof behind her head, scratching at her mane nervously. “Well… yeah. This is a revival of the WipEout Racing League. Rest assured, Celestia and Luna got rid of the guilty officials. Even still, we didn’t have anything to do with that – our team didn’t even exist back then. Some rich startup in Cloudsdale heard that WipEout was making a comeback and decided to buy up the old Tigron factory – and produce something completely different. Our craft are light and agile, and guaranteed to be the fastest thing around the track.”
“Sounds like my kind of race team! I used to love watching the old tapes of WipEout, but… after the issue with the F9000 league… I just couldn’t handle it anymore…” Rainbow Dash had a sudden realization.
“Wait… why are you guys here?”
The two mares beamed at her, “Every team here is in the same predicament – well, except Feisar, they just got one… but every team here is in the same situation: We’ve got the money, the mechanics, the ships… but no pilots. Want to help fix that?”
“Would I?” Rainbow Dash’s voice nearly cracked with excitement, “Where do I sign?!” Rainbow Dash hastily grabbed the paperwork from the two pink Pegasi and signed everywhere without bothering to read it at all. This is gonna be SO AWESOME! I can’t wait to tell my friends!
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were walking home after having spent the day with their good friend Twilight Sparkle. As usual, there was a bit more than a spring in Pinkie’s step and Fluttershy was walking a little taller than most days. Having come from the spa, Pinkie had to pass through Ponyville’s main square to reach Sugarcube Corner, and Fluttershy’s cottage was in roughly the same direction, so they’d decided to walk together at least for part of the trip. However, Pinkie Pie, being Pinkie Pie, upon noticing ponies she didn’t recognize and immediately blitzed off to introduce herself, leaving Fluttershy rather embarrassed, suddenly lacking the self-confidence that practically oozed from Pinkie.
“Excuse me! Miss! Could we speak with you for a second?”
Fluttershy glanced up to see two ponies with military-style mane cuts, wearing camouflage jackets and looking like they hadn’t shaved in a couple days, looking in her direction. She glanced around herself, hoping in vain they were referring to another pony. She swallowed hard, and gestured to herself with a hoof.
“Yeah, you! Come on over, miss!”
Fluttershy began walking over, searching for Pinkie, only to find her deep in conversation with two brightly colored earth ponies at an equally brightly colored tent, apparently very excited. Fluttershy had never seen any ponies as animated as Pinkie in conversation. She turned her head forward again and realized she was practically at the rather military-esque tent already.
“Hey miss! How’d you like to fly for Triakis?”
Fluttershy recognized the name. Triakis. The military-sponsored team from that awful anti-gravity combat racing league that had died years ago. Corruption, cheating, throwing races… it was just awful! Fluttershy opened her mouth to reject the offer when Pinkie appeared next to her.
“Oh hey Fluttershy I just signed up to be a pilot for a startup team called Goteki 45 their crew is really nice and happy and bouncy like me and so is their racecraft and oh wow you’re gonna fly for Triakis that’s a great decision because you’ll be totally safe all the time and –” For one of the only times in her life since that awful incident with the Minotaur, Fluttershy closed Pinkie’s mouth.
“No. I’m not going to have anything to do with that awful sport. It’s too dangerous.” Pinkie’s mouth fell open in shock.
“But Fluttershy… This is Triakis we’re talking about. In the entire history of the sport their ships have been destroyed twice outside of Combat events, and both times the pilots survived without any injuries. And safety has only improved since then. You’ll be just fine. Plus, I signed up and…” Pinkie put on her best puppy-dog-eyes, “pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes, and with a venom lacking, again, since the incident with Iron Will, stated that she’d personally hold Pinkie responsible if anything happened to her, the promptly crumbled back to her normal, insecure self and apologized.
The two military ponies had been watching with an air of caution, and their faces read something between confusion, excitement, and fear.
“So… you wanna join?”
“Want to, not really… but you need a pilot and I need income… where can I sign…?” Fluttershy asked meekly, trying to hide behind her mane.
The earth ponies shared a look, wondering how a pony could go from so sure and strong-willed to this meek little thing in so short a time. They shrugged and handed over the paperwork. At the very least she could fly, and they needed a pilot more than anything. Fluttershy sat back on her haunches and read through it, signing where necessary. Oh, how am I going to explain this to my friends…
It was later in the evening, and the crews that had hired pilots had packed up and gone home. Rarity was trotting through the square after getting dinner from her favorite restaurant. She had noticed the booths earlier, but ignored them. Now she noticed two rather bored looking unicorns, a mare and a stallion, wearing rather interesting yellow and red jumpsuits. She trotted over to inquire what exactly they had been doing there all day and noticed the name on the tent: Piranha.Advancements. She let out a rather unladylike gasp and ran to the booth.
“This… am I dreaming? Are you really back?”
The unicorns perked up. “Why no, you’re not dreaming. Piranha is back in business. As are most of the other racing greats. The WipEout Racing League is starting up again with the new PX-400 class racecraft. Piranha’s back, with added BITE!” The male unicorn practically screamed the last word, and Rarity recoiled a little.
“Well, why are you here, then? What brings you to Ponyville, of all places?”
“We need a pilot.”
It took Rarity a moment to make the connection.
“Well, I have always liked Piranha… and your ships are so beautiful and sleek… You wouldn’t want me to pilot, would you?”
“If you’ve got the time, we’ll pay you well and you’ll get to travel a lot,” the female unicorn added.
“Well, I’ve always dreamed of flying a Piranha racecraft… but really you will have to do something about that dreadful color scheme. Red and yellow? Honestly you look like a flying advertisement for that repulsive fast food chain…”
The unicorns looked at each other, shrugged, and handed over the paperwork. They were Piranha after all – the team was known for making compromises to avoid finishing last. Rarity filled out the forms and handed them back.
Two earth ponies wearing red, white, and blue jackets hung their heads as the unicorns from Piranha packed up and left, taunting them, “Last again, Auricom!” The pair was just starting to pack up themselves, and accept the fact that they hadn’t gotten a pilot. Even Harimau! Harimau had gotten a pilot! And not them!
An orange earth mare strolled up and spoke, “Well howdy y’all! Ya look tired, and ya’ve been here all day without so much as eatin’. I thought ya might like some pie.” She slid a pie from off her back onto the table. The two ponies perked up and dove in.
“Thanks ma’am. We were starving… Hey, would you consider flying for Auricom?”
“Flying? In case y’all haven’t noticed, I’m an Earth Pony. Ah don’t have wings. And who the hay is Auricom?”
The ponies looked at each other and hung their heads again and let out heavy sighs. Nopony even knew who they were.
“What’s got ya down?”
“Well, we’re here trying to get a pilot for our racecraft, but we’ve had no luck. Everypony we’ve talked to hasn’t been interested in flying for Auricom!” The one pony threw his forelegs up in the air in a sarcastic gesture of exasperation.
“Well shoot, partner, I didn’t know you meant flying for Auricom as in the WipEout team. Ah just hadn’t heard the name in a while. I was always rooting for y’all, even though ya never won anything.” Applejack smiled and laughed, “You said y’all need a pilot? Well, I might not be the best mare for the job, but I’d certainly be willing to try it out if you really have nopony else.”
The two stallions looked at each other, smiled, and got the paperwork.
How am I gonna explain this to Granny Smith and Big Mac…
Twilight had called her friends to her library. She hadn’t explained why, she just said she had a big announcement, leaving it open to speculation by her friends.
“I wonder if she’s pregnant?” Pinkie asked as she bounced along.
“Now Sugarcube, I know she’s been datin’ mah brother, but I don’t think they’ve gotten quite to that point yet…” Applejack remarked, making a mental note to talk to her brother when she got home.
“She probably just got some new books in, or is going to talk to the Princess again…” Rainbow Dash grumbled. They’d all known each other for years, and even after so many, Twilight was still prone to dragging them all to her library for an announcement the rest would consider generally insignificant.
“At any rate, it is always nice to visit her,” Rarity said.
The group of friends arrived at Twilight’s tree house library, and before they could knock, heard the sounds of arguing within, and entered to a shocking scene.
“I’m telling you, Twilight, handling means nothing if you’re the last off the line and slow out of the bends!” the dragon yelled.
“Being able to power out of the corners is useless if you can’t make the turn in the first place!” the unicorn retorted.
“If you want to berate a team for not being able to turn, talk to Piranha! You and I both know AG’s only flaw is in top-end speed, while your lame Feisar is slow everywhere!”
“Erm, Twilight? Spike? What are y’all arguing about?” Applejack interrupted.
Twilight, bedecked from horn to hoof in clothing and accessories bearing a cyan, yellow, and white color scheme and the words “FEISAR” and “The Future is Euro” emblazoned on them, shot back a venomous response.
“I’m trying to explain to Spike why Feisar is the best race team in the WipEout league!”
Spike, dressed in a similar manner but bearing instead a red and white color scheme labeled “AGSYS” replied the same way.
“And I’m telling her why she’s wrong! It’s clearly AG Systems!”
“You’re both mistaken. Piranha Advancements is the most fashionable, not to mention the fastest, team in the field, and isn’t as fragile as those pathetic Icaras ships. Feel free to disagree with me, just know that you’re wrong.”
Everyone stared in shock at the unusually blunt remark from the white unicorn.
“Rarity, I never knew you were a fan of AG racing,” Twilight began.
“Oh hush dear, I’m less of a fan and more of a passionate observer,” Rarity replied. The other occupants of the library exchanged glances, wondering if their definition of the word “fan” was wrong.
“… Well, at any rate, I’m glad you’re all here. I have an announcement to make! As I’m sure you all saw, there were a dozen tents set up in Ponyville’s main square today. As you may not have been aware, these tents were for each of the twelve teams competing in the revival of the WipEout Anti-Gravity Racing League!” Twilight couldn’t restrain a fan girl squeal and giggle at this point, but took a few deep breaths to maintain her composure, “Additionally, the reason they were all here is that they were looking for pilots for their upcoming season. I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to pilot Feisar this year.”
Twilight’s friends shuffled about uncomfortably, but Twilight didn’t notice, and continued.
“However, this little dragon over here had the nerve to sign up as AG Systems’ pilot without asking me first. I mean, how could he sign up for an inferior team like that? It’s just not lo-”
“I’m not a little dragon anymore, Twilight. I’m not fully-grown but I am maturing. I can make decisions by myself. You know from showing me the tapes of the old races how much I like AG Systems. You’re going to have to deal with it.”
“OH! You guys signed up for Feisar and AG Systems? They seem like nice teams! I signed up for one called Goteki 45! I’m really not sure who they are but they sound GREAT! They said their ship was light and spritely and I thought that sounded good to me so I signed up! Oh and Fluttershy here signed up for Triakis even though sh-”
“Fluttershy signed up for Triakis?” a chorus of voices exclaimed in shock.
“I… um… well… yes…” Fluttershy squeaked out.
“Wait, you’re telling me that you and Fluttershy both signed up as well?” Twilight inquired, a moderately frustrated expression on her face.
“Well…” Applejack brought a hoof to her chin contemplatively. “I think we all did, Sugarcube. Rarity’s been talkin’ like she joined Piranha, Pinkie and Fluttershy are both going to be pilots, I signed up for Auricom, only RD hasn’t mentioned anything.”
“Icaras,” Rainbow Dash stated flatly, “Their tagline is ‘flying high’ and they guaranteed me their ship is the fastest around the track. Sounded good enough to me.”
Twilight looked at her friends, her eyes starting to moisten. She let her head fall down and her shoulders began to shake. It sounded like she was… crying.
“Twilight, dear, I’m sorry if you thought that this was something special you and Spike were going to enjoy together… I assure you none of us meant you any harm to you by it…” Rarity trotted over and put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.
Twilight lifted her head.
“No…” she wiped the tears from her eyes, revealing she had been crying, but not for sadness “I’m not sad, not at all! Are you kidding? This is the best day ever! The WipEout AG Racing League is being revived, I get to pilot for Feisar, and all my friends are piloting for their favorite teams as well! Best day ever!” Twilight’s face exploded into an enormous smile and jovial laughter as her friends all rushed in to hug her.
Twilight thanked them all for coming and shut the door as Applejack left.
“Spike?” she said.
“Yeah, Twilight?”
“Feisar’s better.”
“Ugh…” Spike facepalmed and walked upstairs to go to bed.
It had been years since Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had found their Cutie Marks, and though they were no longer the Crusaders, they were still the best of friends, and roommates. While walking together after lunch they had noticed the tents, and had gone off to see the ones they thought most interesting. Each had signed up for a team and each felt ready to take on the world – Scootaloo for the upstart Mirage, Applebloom for the amalgamation of EGR and Xios now known as EG-X, and Sweetie Belle for League veteran Assegai. They walked home arguing over whom would win the first race and wondering who else would be piloting for the other teams. Unable to decide, they eventually went back to their apartment and got ready to go to bed. As they settled in for the night, Sweetie Belle piped up.
“Hey girls?”
“Yeah?” Scootaloo and Applebloom replied in unison.
“Cutie Mark Crusader AG Racers?”
“Cutie Mark Crusader AG Racers! YAY!” the Pegasus and Earth Pony replied, feeling a slight warmth of nostalgia in their stomachs as they fell asleep and dreamed of their antics in years past.
Applejack and Big Mac sat down at their dinner table. There were two other place settings, one for the moved-out Applebloom and one that they kept for Granny Smith. Applejack looked at the empty chair where the ancient green mare used to sit and smiled, tears coming lightly to her eyes.
“You know, Big Mac, I still miss her every day. I hope she’d be proud.”
“You know she is, AJ. She loved us and we loved her, and we’re taking care of the farm. That’s all she would want.”
“Speakin’ of taking care of the farm, uh, Big Mac, I need to tell you something.”
“As a matter of fact, I do too, sis.”
“Well, y’all go first.”
“Ok… Well today there were these tents set up in Ponyville’s main square… there were these big, blonde, tough lookin’ ponies at one so I figured I’d check it out…”
“Big Macintosh. Do not tell me you signed up for that foolhardy AG Racing piloting thing, too!”
“Too?” Big Mac inquired. He may have been slow of speech and a simple pony, but he was a lot more perceptive and attentive than he lot on.
“I didn’t say too,” Applejack lied, her face taking on that expression characteristic of when she told a lie.
“Applejack. You are the worst liar in all of Ponyville. And even if you weren’t, you’re my sister. I’d know if you were lyin’. Well, anyway, I signed up for a foreign team called kyu-reck or something. Their ships are big and tough, but not too slow. Seemed like a solid team to me.”
“It’s pronounced ‘Kai-rex’ and spelled ‘Q-I-R-E-X’ ya dummy,” Applejack laughed, “And I got roped into piloting for Auricom. So… I guess that makes us rivals now.” Applejack smirked, “And we all know who the better AG pilot would be!”
“Eeeyup. Me.” Big Macintosh smiled, then dug into his dinner.
“Hey now!”
“Oh, Applejack?”
“Yes, brother?”
“If we’re both gonna be racing… who’s gonna take care of the farm?”
“Oh horseapples.”
“So you’re saying that your ships aren’t as tough, or quick off the line, as any of the other teams, but are ‘pretty quick’ and ‘decently agile.’” The light green unicorn raised an eyebrow sarcastically.
“Uhh… yeah. We’re new, low on funds, and jus tryin’ to get our names out there. Would you help us out?”
“Eh, why not.” The mint-colored mare gripped the pen and paperwork with a strange magical appendage that seemed to have an assortment of smaller appendages stuck to it. She signed the papers and handed them back to the two ponies.
“When do I need to be here again?”
“Next weekend, your first practice is out by Dodge Junction. Does that work for you?”
“Yeah. I’ll make some time. Thanks!” Finally, a legitimate use for my magic hands… well, aside from with Bon Bon… Lyra blushed a little at the mental image she’d just created and hurried home to make it a reality.
A week had passed. Twilight had discovered that not just her five closest friends and Spike were going to be pilots this season, but also her boyfriend, Big Macintosh, the ex-Cutie Mark Crusaders, and… Lyra, of all ponies. Despite having hoped this could have been a special thing for just her, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t ecstatic to have her best friends and acquaintances racing against her on the track. For today, though, all that existed to her was her, her ship, and the track. She was standing in the cockpit of the racecraft, looking around her at the various gauges and dials indicating fuel levels, speed, pitch, yaw, shield, and various other vital functions of the ship. Twilight hadn’t slept in four days for trying to read the instruction manual, which was, quite literally, the thickest instruction manual Twilight had ever seen. At any rate, despite needing to monitor the incredible amount of sensory input being flung at her at hundreds of kilometers an hour as she hurtled down the track, the actual controls for the ship were relatively simple, and specialized for her unicorn nature. A lever that controlled thrust was mounted beneath her chin, designed to be operated by magic. A basic steering wheel was located merely inches in front of her face, again to be operated by magic. A square button beneath her left hoof fired whatever weapon she had handy and a circular button beneath her right would absorb it to restore her shield energy if necessary. Beneath her back hooves were two rectangular buttons that operated the airbrakes, an ingenious system that changed the direction her craft was pointing without actually altering her trajectory that much. Double stomping either of those buttons would result in a valve in the thrust system closing momentarily to redirect thrust sideways, violently and rapidly propelling the ship laterally across the course in a move known as a “sideshift.”
Twilight marveled at the technology that made the ships work. At the birth of the sport, everything had been operated by magic, and a whole slew of unicorns that were all thoroughly exhausted by the end of each race, teams sometimes having to change unicorns mid-race so as not to cause permanent harm from exhaustion. But now… now it was marvelous. In recent years, ponykind had discovered the secrets of splitting the atom, and with it, the need to have Unicorns using magic to run or charge up electronics and technology disappeared. In even more recent years, ponykind had actually managed to create sustainable compact nuclear fusion. That’s how the ships were powered – on-board compact fusion. The ungodly power output of the reactor allowed for the flotation system. An on-board particle accelerator accelerated an electron to nearly the speed of light, increasing its mass to the point where it created a mass of air so dense that the ship didn’t sink through it. It was an ingenious idea, in Twilight’s opinion, and despite the absurd amount of energy and fuel consumed, there was no issue due to being able to synthesize deuterium and tritium via magic. The radiation wasn’t an issue either, as layers of ultrafine lead mesh enchanted to withstand the immense heat of the reactor were places throughout the exhaust system in order to maximize thrust while not turning any racers caught in the exhaust trail into glowing slag. The enchantments had to be refreshed after every race, and are also the cause for the spectacular light shows seen as exhaust trails by the crowd – Unicorn magic is strong, but eighteen million degrees will cause it to spark and wear down in a beautiful manner: the iconic blue and purple trails of ionized magic and air.
At any rate, Twilight was getting ready for her first flight. She had donned the flight suit, an embarrassingly skin-tight cyan and yellow suit that she’d barely had the guts to wear outside of the locker room. Which, she thought, doesn’t make a bit of sense. I’m naked almost all the time anyway…. Today was her first day on the track – she’d been brought to the outskirts of Baltimare to the famed Anulpha Pass racecourse. One of the more simple courses, it generally resembled an oval. Generally. One of Twilight’s favorite corners from any course found it’s home on Anulpha – a wide, humped banked turn that led into an extremely narrow dip before continuing on to an S-bend that a small, single-hulled craft like Feisar could actually get through without needing to turn, given an appropriate angle of attack. As Twilight ran the course in her mind, her memories were disturbed by a voice crackling in her ear. Twilight would have jumped a mile if she hadn’t been restrained by a seven-point safety harness, among other body-immobilizing features, present in the cockpit of the craft.
“Alright, Ms. Sparkle, are you ready to go?” her team manager’s smooth voice and Trottingham accent transmitted magically directly to her eardrum. Twilight took one more glance around the cockpit, making sure everything appeared to be functioning as intended before responding.
“Yes sir, all systems reading at nominal levels.”
“Very well then, releasing final engine limiters and inertial dampeners… now.” Twilight couldn’t help but let out a small gasp of surprise as the massive ship jumped straight up a few feet. She could the engine spinning up behind her, and waited for the signal to begin moving.
“Alright, since this is your first flight, why don’t we start simple. For the first few laps, the speed pads will be disabled, and I want you to keep it at 75% thrust or below. While the shields will be up, it does take them a moment to recharge and they won’t prevent all the damage if you go nose first into a wall at top speed. Does that sound fair?”
“Yes sir,” Twilight had to admit she was a little disappointed she couldn’t go all-in from the start, but she had to admit that her manager’s thoughts made sense.
“Well then, get on with it!” Twilight would have been hurt by the condescending words if she hadn’t practically heard the smile behind his voice. The screen above the starting line changed to simply say “Go!” and Twilight gently pushed the throttle forward.
Elsewhere, near Las Pegasus, Rainbow Dash was having her first training day with Icaras. Her day, however, wasn’t going quite as well as Twilight’s. Despite having picked up an affinity for reading years back with help from the purple unicorn, even the abridged manual, cut down by a whopping 750 pages to a mere 1743, proved too much for her to stomach in the week before her first training day. She’d read what she thought was pertinent – controls and readouts – but nothing else. Wearing a similar skin-tight racing suit and strapped into a similar safety harness as her friend on the other side of Equestria, Rainbow Dash examined the cockpit around her. Her front right hoof rested on a pressure-sensitive cross-shaped button that controlled thrust. Under her front left was a joystick that adjusted pitch, yaw, and direction. Her rear hooves covered a square trigger for weapons and power-ups and a circular pad to absorb them. Her manager had impressed on her many times the importance of absorbing weapons instead of using them in her fragile racecraft. After the ninth time, RD had started to believe him, but what still somewhat skeptical. In addition to the hoof-based controls, sensors in the cockpit detected her wing movements and adjusted the airbrakes to match. Flaring a wing twice, rapidly, would result in a sideshift.
“Engine limiters and inertial dampeners released,” a disembodied, mechanical female voice with a Trottingham accent floated through the cockpit. Rainbow Dash had been ready for the rise and relaxed her knees accordingly, legs bending and straightening again in a moment.
“Venom-class fuel detected. Adjusting reactor output accordingly. Reactor output nominal. Weapons disabled. Powerups enabled. Systems nominal. Airbrakes nominal. All systems nominal,” the voice continued, cold and emotionless.
“Can someone shut her up?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Well, some ponies in the older League preferred the synthetic voice, the fount it calming.” The familiar voice of her team manager, and Icaras’ director of operations, Coltnor Burns, replaced the mechanical female sound.
“Well, I don’t. Your voice is much nicer.”
“Well, thanks. At any rate, are you ready to go?”
“Yeah.” Rainbow Dash replied.
“Alright, so, one of the things with Icaras is getting ahead of the pack right from the start. If you press the accelerator right as the countdown says ‘Go!’ you’ll get a significant speed boost. Use this in races to move up, or away from, the pack right from the get-go.”
“Alright, got it.” She was starting to get annoyed.
“As this is your first time piloting an AG Racing Ship, and especially seeing as we had to go to Sol I for our first test… please, for the sake of the unicorns keeping you from dying if you fall off, take it easy.”
“Yep.” Rainbow Dash stated, her eagerness and frustration spilling over a little, “Look, can I just fly now?”
“Ah, yes, sorry. I do have a tendency to ramble…”
The screen above the starting line flashed to a three, a two, and then a one – Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof down on the accelerator as fast as her reflexes allowed the moment it read “Go!”
The next thing she remembered was being on the starting line again, with an exhausted-looking unicorn staring irately at her from the side of the track.
“I suppose it is my fault for telling you about the speed boost, but please, don’t do it again. Keep the thrust low until you get the hang of what you’re doing!” Burns voice, now irritated, filled her head from the audio ports in her helmet.
“Heh… sorry…” Dash squeaked out, before gently pressing on the accelerator and beginning to float around the track.
“How in tarnation am I supposed to work this thing?”
“Well, seeing as you lack the extra appendages of a Pegasus or the magical abilities of a unicorn, we’ve fitted the cockpit with a voice recognition system for weapon and powerup controls. Simply say ‘fire’ or ‘use’ for a weapon or powerup, and ‘absorb’ if you need to absorb a powerup. The rest of the controls are hoof-based. Right rear is thrust, front left and right are airbrakes. We’ve been over this, dear.” Auricom’s team manager’s friendly, melodic voice reminded her a little too much of her over-enthusiastic cousin from Appleloosa.
“I know… it’s just… I’m a simple pony. I’m not stupid, just simple. This is kind of… sensory overload for me.”
The orange earth mare was telling the truth (a thing that came quite naturally to her) – the cockpit of her Auricom racecraft was far more complex than anything she’d ever seen before. The way the pilots gracefully guided their craft around every curve, bend, and chicane of every track gave no hint of the massive amount of sensory input they dealt with ever second they spend flying. Come to think of it, she’d never heard or seen anything having to do with the cockpit of an AG Racecraft.
“I never said you were. Come on dear, are you ready? The ship’s all ready to go, it’s just waiting for you.”
“I suppose so…” Applejack made one last quick glance around the cockpit to make sure everything appeared to be ok, and gingerly pressed down on the accelerator.
Elsewhere, racing around the iconic Synchro Logistics Dynamo of Moa Therma, a newly repainted purple and white Piranha craft racked up lap after lap, its pilot beating her own record over and over, having been running perfect laps for hours.
“Excuse me, Miss Rarity, but you’ve been out there for six hours. You’ve run thirty-seven perfect laps in a row, with full throttle control and no Pilot Assist. You’ve gotten to the point where you’re beating your own lap record by less than a thousandth of a second. It’s clear that you’ve got control of your craft and know what you’re doing. I think we can call it a day.”
“Hmm, what was that darling?”
“Miss Rarity, you’re almost out of fuel –”
“Oh?” Rarity glanced over at the fuel gauge – sure enough, she was almost out; likely only enough for seven or eight more laps at best.
“Oh dear. I’m sorry, I was just kind of in the zone there…” Rarity laughed nervously, she hadn’t realized how long she’d been on the track, and realized she should probably be getting home.
“That’s ok. The more practice you get the better, we just hadn’t planned on you being on the track so long. And, well, running out of fuel while piloting one of these craft is rather… dangerous, and damaging to the track, the ship, and potentially the pilot.” Rarity liked the voice of her manager. It was foreign, exotic, comforting. It helped his case that he was an extremely friendly pony, as well.
“Alright, I’ll… umm… how do I stop?”
“Is that why you’ve been out there so long?”
“… Maybe a little. I honestly was enjoying myself too much to realize how much time had passed, but the concept of feathering the accelerator to get such a graceful, powerful craft to stop where I want it to just seems… wrong.”
Her manager simply laughed.
“When you get to the starting grid, let off the accelerator and open both airbrakes. You’ll slow down well enough.”
Rarity did as she was told, and promptly slammed her (thankfully, helmeted) face into the thrust lever, knocking it forward and propelling herself down the track.
“Umm… maybe just one more lap?” Rarity was glad that her team couldn’t see her extremely embarrassed expression as she gradually worked her way around the course for another go at stopping.
Realizing the fact that their pilots had been born after the fall of the F9000 league and the intense friendship between them, Mirage, EG-X, and Assegai decided to host a few mock races to train their pilots instead of the more traditional speed-lap initiation. The friendly rivalry that the three companies shared also meant the winner of the mock track day had some bragging rights even before the season started. It also helped that unicorn triplets were the managers for each team. This would be an interesting race, though – the three pilots had literally no racing experience. Given the equally low skill levels, and the fact that for the first race weapons would be deactivated, this was a test of courage and hardware. EG-X’s craft was the slowest through the turns but the fastest out, and Assegai’s tight turning radius was bought at the cost of acceleration out of the corners. Mirage had built an obscenely well-balanced craft, almost to a fault – the ship was a true jack-of-all-trades, ace-of-none. Their pilots knew this as well, and Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were quite nervous. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, was quite sure she was going to win.
“So, you girls ready to lose? Coming in second and third, just like with your Cutie Marks?”
Sweetie Belle harrumphed over the intercom and Applebloom hastily replied, audibly hurt.
“Scootaloo! That wasn’t nice!”
“Sorry girls… I just get excited in competition, you know?”
“We know,” Sweetie and Applebloom replied in unison, Scootaloo blushing behind her helmet.
“Alright girls, if you’ve finished your friendly banter, are you ready to race?” An unnervingly immaterial voice filled all three of the young mares heads, giving them all a small start before remembering where the voice was coming from and whom it belonged to.
“Oh! Yes sir!”
“Mhmm!”
“Ah guess so…”
“Well, good then. I’m about to release the limiters on your craft, then we’ll start the countdown and get going, ok?” Sweetie Belle gasped slightly as her lightweight Assegai racecraft sprung up a few feet and began idly rolling left and right, a deep bass rumble reverberating through the sleek ship as the fusion reactors limiters were released. She could tell Applebloom had a similarly exhilarating experience from the words she breathed over the intercom.
“This feels… powerful.” Applebloom looked over the instrument panel, watching lights, dials, and gauges light up indicating a multitude of green-lit system checks. Similarly, Scootaloo was still trying to catch her breath, her wings twitching spasmodically as she tried to contain her excitement.
“It’s like… it’s like I’m flying!!” she squeed to herself, folding her wings down after noticing her ship’s airbrakes had opened, mirroring her own excitement. Glancing up, she realized the countdown had started, and she lifted her hoof in anticipation. The sign flashed to “Go!” and she stomped her hoof down. She felt the massive power surge behind her as the deep green, mantis-like Mirage craft lunged forward in one blinding moment of acceleration… and proceeded to pinball off the wall at the first turn. The shields flared and she blacked out momentarily.
Shaking her head from the force of the collision, she looked up to see a yellow ship and a blue ship blitz past.
“Look who’s racing for second now!” Sweetie Belle chirped over the ship-to-ship intercom.
“Hey! No fair! Get back here!” Scootaloo banked her craft right and pressed the accelerator again, much more gingerly, the ionized magic trail forming behind the craft as it bobbed and weaved over speed pads, rapidly making up for lost ground.
Twilight meandered home. It had been a long day, and she was quite tired from the constant expenditure of magic necessary to control the throttle precisely. She wondered to herself if the Pegasus and Earth Pony controls were as tiring, before reminding herself she’d never be on a racetrack for seven hours straight in an actual event. She felt like she’d practically mastered Anulpha today, but that was only one of more than a dozen League courses and at the lowest of the four speed classes her craft operated at. The speed had been beyond anything she’d ever experienced, and it was hundreds of kilometers an hour slower than what she’d be experiencing in a Phantom Class race, if she ever got that far. She chuckled and mentally chided herself for thinking she’d ever be skilled enough to pilot at the Phantom level. This first season will probably be entirely Venom class, maybe with some Flash towards the end… and next season… Twilight Sparkle smiled to herself. Maybe I will get to race Phantom after all. By now she’d arrived at her library home, and upon opening the door, was tackled by a distraught dragon.
“Twilight! Thank goodness you’re ok!”
“Oh course I’m ok, Spike, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Everypony else was back hours ago! I thought maybe you’d had an accident, and were in the hospital, or worse!” Spike sobbed as he hugged Twilight close.
“Spike… there hasn’t ever been a fatality in this sport. You know that.”
“I do, but… Twilight, you’re the closest thing I’ve got to family. You’ve been with me my entire life, and I love you. Not like I love Rarity, but in a weird kind of sisterly sort of way…” Spike trailed off, giving a weak laugh as he wiped his eyes.
“I know what you mean, Spike, and I feel the same way about you. That doesn’t mean I’m not willing to shoot you if it means I’ll win!” Twilight tried to ease the situation a little, hoping it would make Spike feel better.
“Same to you, Twilight. Hey, it’s pretty late. Why don’t we head to bed?” He was still sniffling a little, but cheering up.
“Yeah, we should,” Twilight’s horn ignited momentarily with a brief mane-styling spell, “but I’m feeling so tired I could just pass out~ I need a big strong handsome dragon man to help me upstairs!” Spike rolled his eyes as Twilight, no bearing Rarity’s mane, held a hoof over her eyes and over-dramatically flopped to the ground. She snickered as he unceremoniously picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder, muttering under his breath as he ascended the stairs and threw her onto her mattress before curling up in his own bed at the footboard of Twilight’s. She almost felt bad for teasing him over his love, but Rarity’s long-since acceptance and reciprocation of Spike’s feelings made it only funnier to her.
“Goodnight, Twilight,” he grumbled.
“Goodnight, Spike.”
Twilight sighed as sleep began to take her, pleasant thoughts of the days experiences filling her mind as she remembered what was happening next week:
Combat training.
