Last Ditch

Chapter Eight:

The race had been going on for several hours now, and most of the racers had conked out. Lyra's accident had rendered her Camaro a smoldering ruin, and Bon-bon had stopped to help. Derpy had gotten to occupied on telling off her ex-husband, Fleetwood on the radio, and had crashed into a bale of hay. Applebloom had her engine overheat after damaging the radiator, and Snips and Snails had stalled out on a hill. Only Irvan, Spike, Fleetwood, Westside, Rainbow Dash and Wilcox remained, and Irvan was beginning to fall asleep.

As darkness began to fall, Westside made his move on Fleetwood. He engaged Fleetwood in a game of high-speed tag, and the two began to endanger eachother's lives. The two cars slammed into eachother with gargantuan force, and spinned out of control. Westside's Edsel hit the CMC's clubhouse as the racers flyed by it, and Fleetwood regained control, and brought the car safely to the pits.

Meanwhile, a few of the racers, hopelessly lapped, emerged from the pits to challenge the four remaining cars. Rainbow Dash laughed at one of the challengers, a Buick Roadmaster Station Wagon, as it came lumbering up behind her, but then realized that it was gaining on her, and FAST!

"How can this be happening?" she thought, "I'm getting passed by a bucking WOODY!"

It turns out, the Buick WASN'T gaining, SHE was slowing down!

She looked at her fuel guage, and realized that it was buried on "E". The Shelby Cobra she was driving began to sputter, and the engine soon cut off completely.

Irvan, Spike and Wilcox began to shut down as well, and the three guided their cars to the pits, where they refueled them. Each driver got a very different pep-talk

"IRVAN, YOU IDIOT!" Rarity whined, "DIDN'T YOU KNOW HOW TO READ A FUEL GUAGE?!"

"You're doing great, Spike," Mel said enthusiastically, just a few more laps, and we'll have won!

"Wilcox," Fleetwood sighed, " you know you're my prodigy, but why did you have to pick such a thirsty car? This fuel up takes up a lot of fuel, you know!"

Fleetwood was right, and not just about the Plymouth. The teams had taken so long fueling up that the five cars that had left the pits in pursuit (A Ford Falcon belonging to Westside's team, Apple Bloom's Datsun, Derpy in her Buick Roadmaster Wagon, an AMC Gremlin, and a Mini Cooper) had caught up, and were now only half a lap behind!

Spike and Wilcox told Mel to cut their fill-ups short, whereas Irvan just took off without warning to Rarity.

"You idiot!" she screamed at the top her lungs, "it's not full!"

****

The Jaguar, Fury, and '63 Corvette were flying along, the five junkers pursuing them relentless determination to beat them.

They tried to pull away, but the rejects would not let up. It was clear that they weren't going to lose them. Spike then focused on beating his arch-rival.

"..and," continued Delray the announcer, "We have Spike and Irvan fighting for first, Wilcox in second, Apple Bloom in third, Hooves in fourth, Derwent in fifth, Stetson in sixth, and Apple Fritter in seventh! We are now on the last lap, folks, it's anyone's race!!!!"

Cheerilee reached for her checkered flag as the cars rocketed down the last straightaway toward the final turn.

Spike was already flooring his Corvette, not able to break the two-wide with Irvan. It would take a MIRACLE to win this race!

As soon as he had given up hope, and was about to slam on his breaks and stop his car, Spike heard a car horn blaring. He looked in his rear-view mirror to see Wilcox, highbeams blaring, charging uncharicteristically up from behind. The battered Plymouth Fury took a huge chomp of Irvan's E-Type's bumper, and made his rival lose just enough traction to give Spike the lead. The racers slammed on their breaks, screamed around the final corner, and across the finish. SPIKE HAD WON!