//------------------------------//
// High Noon Highway 
// Story: My Little Pony Adventure: Neck-and-Neck 
// by PhycoKrusk 
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	Not long after the race had started, the crowd had dispersed back to the fair; there was nothing else to see and the starting line, after all. Three hours after it had started, the fair was still in full swing; there were plenty of games, plenty of food, and plenty of monitors displaying a map of southwestern Equestria, showing the positions of both Sonic the Hedgehog and Rainbow Dash — approximately, at least — as well as a number of other statistics, chief of which was their velocity (which fluctuated for both of them between ‘really fast’ and ‘by the seven stones of chaos, what?’). All that anyone could really complain about was the fact that, despite three hours and nearly six hundred miles of terrain, neither Sonic nor Dash had managed to secure a lead.

“Great news, everypony!” Spike’s voice announced suddenly over the PA system. “Everybody! If you could all turn your attention to a nearby monitor, you’ll see that both of our racers are just about to enter the first Mach Zone on the circuit.”

“See, the big problem that both Sonic and Rainbow Dash have is that they’re too fast. They’re actually holding their speed way, per the rules of the race. If either of them went all-out, they’d cause untold destruction to the world around them just by passing through! And that is where the Mach Zones come in.

“In an Unrestricted Maneuvering Zone, or ‘Mach Zone’ for short, the usual rules regarding speed don’t apply. As soon as they enter up until they leave, they can go as fast as they like. And speaking of entering, hey Tails! How long until the show starts?”

“About thirty seconds! I’m pulling up the live feed from the camera at the start of the zone now,” the fox replied over the PA, “For those of you watching right now, this particular Mach Zone is located just a bit west of Appleloosa, and is about one hundred miles from start to finish. A trip like that could take a pony five days, but if he hits top speed, Sonic could clear it in five minutes. I don’t have any numbers for Rainbow Dash, but I guess we’re about to find out if she’s as fast as he is.”

After another moment, the map of southwestern Equestria disappeared from the screens and was replaced with an image of what looked like the start of empty, arid desert. A packed dirt highway was clearly visible in the shot, as was a large marker, turned at a slight angle and likely marking the start of the zone. In the top-left corners of each screen was a simple message reading, ‘LIVE’. A moment later, a countdown appeared in the center of the screen, just in time to start at six. A rising column of dust was approaching the marker at the start of the zone rapidly. It only took the people and ponies watching another second to pick up on what was about to happen, and then all watched intently, certain that someone would finally take the lead.

“Four! Three! Two! One!”

The monitor being fed video from the camera briefly showed both racers close enough to pick out details, then briefly showed a burst of rainbow light as both racers vanished in streaks of color, and then briefly picked up the sound of a boom and roaring wind as it showed the camera being lifted from its mount, and hurled through the air by the supersonic compression wave before it struck the ground, and showed a blank screen with the prominently displayed message: ‘NO SIGNAL’.

Everyone stared at the monitors. After a moment, Tails came back on the PA, somewhat meekly, “Ladies and gentlemen, the camera may have been just a bit too close to the race.” After another moment, in which the audience started to exchange confused glances, he added to his statement by saying, “Oops?”

Hundreds of miles away from Whitetail Wood, the world blurred by Sonic in dead silence, nothing registering to his senses except for the noiseless stretch of unpaved road in front of him. They were rare: Moments when he could effectively disassociate himself from the rest of the universe and actually put the big things into perspective. Moments like the one he was experiencing as he ran towards the next leg of the circuit.

Moments that never seemed to last, though; before long — not more than a few minutes — he saw a sign high above the ground, miles distant and hundreds of feet tall and wide, dimensions necessary just to be seen at the speed he was traveling:


MACH END / SLOW DOWN


He mentally ticked off the seconds until he was passing just beneath the sign, and then began to check his speed. At first, the world seemed just a bit less blurred, and then, he felt a wave of sudden pressure hit him from behind — pushing him forward just slightly — and the world was silent no longer. He heard the wind rushing by him, no longer blocked out by the sound of speed; heard the torrents of dust he’d stirred into a small hurricane catching up as he continued to slow down to what was considered a ‘legal velocity’; heard the rhythmic and rapid-fire slamming of his high-tops against the ground like a jackhammer; and perhaps most critically of all, he heard the air as it whipped over wings that were only just beginning to beat again.

For the first time since entering the Mach Zone, Sonic turned to look to the side and saw that throughout it all, Dash had managed to keep pace with him, and looked like she could continue to do so for some time. The hedgehog smirked.

“Yo! Dash!”

The pegasus suddenly turned her face to look at him, startled, and then fell behind as she lost her concentration, although she quickly accelerated to catch up to him again — even though doing so was tredding a grey area with regards to the rules. “You! What? How!” she stammered out.

Sonic’s smirk widened. He was used to running with others who could keep up with him when he was only giving things twenty percent of his max; Dash clearly was used to flying with others who were much slower than she was. “Just keep flying and watch ahead of you, Dash,” he said back, turning his gaze forward again. “Appleloosa’s coming up fast!”

Shaking the confusion from her mind, Dash refocused on the route in front of her. Sure enough, she could see the distant marker ahead to note the town’s border, as well as the start of the Reduced Speed Zone that surrounded it; the “Slow Zone” for short. As soon as they pass the marker indicating the start of the zone, both she and Sonic slowed down, and then slowed down even more. By the time they reached the town proper, they’d both slowed down to a typical pony trot.

The waved to the cheering crowd as they passed down the street, ponies and buffalo and even some other creatures mixed in. Dash noted to herself that it looked like a fair number of spectators had come in from out of town; why they decided on Appleloosa instead of almost anywhere else on the circuit remained mysterious, as it didn’t look like any new inns or saloons had been built.

Just ahead of them on either side, two spectators wearing official Grand Prix badges stepped out from the crowd just slightly, each holding something in an outstretched hoof. Without slowing down further, Sonic and Dash each reached out towards the officials. As they passed by them a moment later, both hand and hoof had grasped a unwrapped RunningMate® Calorie Bar (product of Xtreme Eats Ltd., a division of Accelovice, Inc.); compact, easy to chew, chocolate-flavored, and packed with an even two thousand calories worth of sugars and complex carbohydrates, perfect for the racer on the move. They each stuffed the bars into their mouths, chewed quickly, and swallowed before reaching out again.

When they passed by two more officials a moment later, both hand and hoof grasped an opened bottle of RunningMate® Electrolyte Water (another product of Xtreme Eats Ltd., a division of Accelovice, Inc.); flavored water overflowing with potassium and other electrolytes for rapid rehydration, perfect for the racer on the move. Without missing a beat, each brought the mouth of their bottle to their lips and drank greedily, before tossing the empty containers into a circuit-side bin for recyclables (product of some company that wasn’t a sponsor and therefore not worth mentioning after the fact).

Appaloosa was a small town, and even at their slowed pace, it did not take Sonic and Dash more than a couple of minutes to reach the other side. Shortly after that, the reached the end of the crowd, and a cloud of dust leaped after them as they were off once again, the landscape rushing by them far below mach speeds, but still faster than any other thing in Equestria, with the Princesses as a possible exception. Maybe.

The circuit took both of them off and away from the one highway winding through the desert they were entering, and both hedgehog and pegasus dodged and wove around rocks, boulders, sages, and the occasional tumbleweed. Gradually, the markers led them into a canyon, narrow and with very tall sides, but hardly enough to interfere with their movement. A tall, rocky median divided the canyon in half and the two racers separated down even more narrow pathways, although still not enough to interfere with moving.

At least, not until the ground suddenly vanished underneath Sonic’s feet and sent him tumbling into a deep pit with sloping sides. Moving quickly, he managed to turn onto his back, so he could at least see what he was falling into, and saw two huge, blade-like pincers erupt from under the sand and rocket straight at him, spreading apart wide. ‘Watch out for ant lions’, eh?

With a twisting jump that was only one part technique to three parts desperation, Sonic got into the air just in time and just high enough to avoid the enormous, iron-black pincers that came from out of the sand. To his surprise and slight horror, he did not land of any loose gravel, but on something very solid. Looking down, he confirmed that he was standing on top of the head of a gigantic insect. Just one of its eyes was almost as big around as his head! Completely unwilling to conduct any sort of study, the hedgehog turned and jumped into the air again, this time with solid enough footing to clear the pit he’d fallen into.

Back on solid ground, he took off running again, albeit much slower to give himself time to look for the telltale signs of another pit, spotting one ahead of him and changing his course to go around it. Not a second later, he saw the lip of another pit, and then two more so close to it that weaving between them even at reduced speed would have been unsafe, especially in the narrow canyon that, per the rules, he couldn’t go around. Why were they so close together?

With the ground out of the question, Sonic juked around the first pit and up onto the canyon wall, leaping from it and landing precisely on the tip of a thin rock spire before bounding to the other canyon wall, then to and off the side of a tiny mesa back to the wall he’d leapt from. He hit the wall running, darting up and along the underside of a narrow arch that crossed over the top of the canyon, and jumped one final time towards the canyon floor. Curling into a tight ball, Sonic spun rapidly, and the moment his quills touch the ground, he took off like a cannonball, skipping over one final pit too fast for the ant lion inside to react and out of the canyon, before uncurling and beating feet towards Dodge Junction again. No more pits opened up in front of him as he continued running, but at the same time, Dash was nowhere in sight; no doubt that she was already waiting for him up ahead. Spying in the distance the final marker for the stretch of circuit he was on and no significant obstacles in his way, Sonic kept his speed up and ran straight toward it.

Still, the encounter in the canyon had spooked him, just a little bit; Sonic had been expecting something fanciful when he’d heard ‘ant lion’, like a lions with ant mandibles, or something, and not just a bigger, badder, hedgehog-eating version of what they had back home. That just wasn’t fair! The world didn’t get to just decide to start making sense after not doing that since he arrived.

Slowing to a walk as he entered the town proper, Sonic noticed a lack of a crowd to greet him. Some were there, but he suspected most of them must have dispersed once Dash arrived. Giving a wave to the officials — who noted his arrival — he looked at his comm-link for a moment, puzzling over the buttons, and then tapped two of them in succession. “Hey, Tails,” he said into the microphone, “Y’there, buddy?”

“Reading you loud and clear, Sonic,” came the reply over the radio, “Looks like you made it to Dodge Junction.”

“You know it.” Sonic paused for a moment. “Hey, listen. Is Princess Twilight still there?”

“Yeah. Gimme a second, I’ll conference her in.”

A few seconds of quiet passed before another voice joined in on the comm-link. “Hello? Sonic?”

“Hey, Princess, thanks for the heads-up about the ant lions,” Sonic said with a scowl, “Would’ve been really cool if you mentioned they were as big as houses!”

“Oh,” came Twilight’s voice over the comm-link. “Do they not get that big on Earth?”

“Nothing gets that big on Earth! Not without serious help.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!”

“Princess, just —“ Sonic shut his mouth, pulling in a deep breath — “It’s cool, ok? That kind of stuff is normal here, right? So, it’s cool,  just… if there’s other stuff like that we’ll run into, check with Tails and see if you need to explain something to me. Listen, I gotta grab dinner. I’ll catch you later.”

Without ceremony, Sonic abruptly closed the connection and then started in a slow jog further into town.

Back in Whitetail Wood, Twilight hung her head say, ears pressed back to her skull. She wasn’t about to cry, by any means — Sonic had been justifiably upset — but the conversation just ended and she didn’t have a chance to really apologize.

“Don’t worry, Princess.”

Twilight’s attention was drawn up to Tails, who was pushing his chair back from the terminal. “I know Sonic brags sometimes, but he doesn’t lie, not when it really matters, and he doesn’t really hold grudges. For long. He’s probably still a little cheesed, but if he says the two of you are cool, then you’re cool.”

That, at least, lifted the alicorn’s spirits slightly. “You’re sure?” she asked.

“Totally!” Tails entered a command on the terminal, and with a mechanical hiss, several compartments opened up and the screen unhinged, and the whole began folding in on itself to a more easily moveable size. “It’s not just you, either. He gets like that sometimes, ever since… well, that’s not really for me to tell. Anyway, let’s go!” With a final ‘clak!’, the terminal finished its routine, now a size that could be easily wheeled around; it even had wheels in this configuration! “You and Spike said you’d show me around, since we didn’t have time before everything started, remember?”

That perked Twilight up immediately. “Right!” she replied. “And I know just where to go first.”

Far from Ponyville, Sonic jogged down the streets of Dodge Junction, having been directed to the saloon by a race official. Sure enough, Rainbow Dash was reclining out front on a small cloud she’d brought down from the sky, looking smug. When she noticed Sonic approaching, her attitude did not change.

“Well, look who decided to join us!” Dash jovially, flapping into the air and over to Sonic, circling around him as he came to a gradual stop, watching her. “Told you I was faster.”

“As if it’s a fair comparison,” Sonic fired back, “You flew through the canyon. I had to run, and those ant lions didn’t even know you were there, so guess who had to deal with all that. I’ll give you a hint. He’s got two thumbs, and is the fastest thing on two feet.” Without ceremony, the hedgehog raised both his hands and jabbed his thumbs towards himself.

“Sounds like an excuse if I ever heard one, but hey, don’t worry about that right now!” Dash said, lazily corkscrewing up in the air, diving again and then drifting back towards the saloon in a slow backstroke through the air. Pegasus magic. “C’mon, let’s go check out the spread. I’m starving!”

With a roll of his eyes, Sonic jogged after her to find out what dinner would consist of.

As it happened, dinner consisted of — at the recommendation of one Miles Prower, it seemed — calorie dense foods of all sorts, including pasta marinara, cheese, plenty of fresh fruit, avocados, dark chocolate for dessert, and plenty of water; a fair amount of the fare looked like it had been brought it from outside the town just for the event, particularly the avocados. The conversation during dinner was nonexistent; both Sonic and Dash were completely focused on eating and nothing else. The conversation after dinner was likewise nonexistent; both Sonic and Dash immediately dispersed to do their own things to pass the remaining hour before sunset.

For Dash, that meant taking to the airspace above Dodge Junction for stunt flying, or at least what would pass for stunt flying. In truth, her maneuvers weren’t made with her best effort; her turns were too wide, her spins and twists too loose to qualify as actual stunt flying, but she was moving quick enough that only a practiced eye would notice, and in any case, no one tried to get her attention. Finally, the sun dipped below the horizon and the moon came out, and without being able to see as well with only star and moonlight, Dash called it a day for stunt flying, settling into a slow, easy flight around down to cool off.

Partway through the night flight, she chanced to look down and spotted a blue hedgehog laying down on one of the rooftops, looking up at the sky. While a smirk, she dropped down from the sky and flew several speedy, tight circles around him before settling into a hover. “Yo, Sonic!” she said, giving him a place to actually look as he tried to track her, smirking just like she was.

“Hey, Dash,” Sonic replied before turning his attention back up towards the sky. “What’s up?”

“Not me until tomorrow!” Dash replied. She flew a lazy loop through the air and then touched down on the roof, walked a half-circle, and then rolled onto her back, front hooves behind her head. “What about you? Never guessed you were a stargazer.”

“Meh, not usually,” Sonic said back. “But you go to a different planet, you can only go so long before you wonder how different the sky looks. Especially if you haven’t seen the view at the top yet.”

Dash puzzled over that for a moment. “The view from the top?” she asked.

“Yeah. Up there.” Sonic pulled one hand from behind his head, pointing a finger up towards the sky. “In high orbit, where you can see the whole world all at the same time.”

As Sonic’s hand went back behind his head, Dash considered the implications of his statement; and wow. “You’ve been that high?” she asked.

“Just once. Had a whole adventure while we were at it!” The smile stayed on Sonic’s face, even as his expression seemed further away. “Once I had a chance to stop and just look, it was kind of like running the way we did back in the Mach Zone, you know? No distractions, no interruptions, just me and me. Sometimes, that’s the only way you can really think about stuff.”

The conversation descended into easy silence for several seconds before Dash spoke up. “Stunt flying’s the same thing for me,” she said. “I mean, I work hard at them, being on reserve for the Wonderbolt’s and all, but all the little things just kind of, you know, fall away for a little while when I’m twisting and corkscrewing. I’m not really even practicing sometimes. I just look like I am because everypony just assumes I really need to concentrate and leaves me alone, and when nopony’s bothering you, it’s easy to block the rest of the world out. Just me and me, like you said.”

Silence overtook the conversation for a second time, again for several seconds. “Good talk,” Sonic said finally, before following up with a loud yawn. “Man, I’m beat. Hey, catch you in the morning, bright and early, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Dash replied, following up with a yawn of her own. “Sounds like a plan.”

But plan or not, Dash could only look up at the sky with an uncertain frown. There was something she was thinking about that was giving her worry and keeping her awake, and finally, she could wait no longer. “Hey, Sonic?” she asked, hoping he was still awake.

“Mmhm?” came the tired reply.

Dash paused for a moment before she continued. “I really don’t wanna win on a forfeit,” she said, “You do have a plan for getting across the swamp, right?”

She was answered by silence.

“Sonic?” she asked again, lifting her head up from the shingles on the roof to actually look at her compatriot.

She was answered by a low snore.

Dash watched the sleeping hedgehog for a moment, and then huffed and laid back on the roof again to stargaze for a bit longer. “Dweeb,” she said with a smirk.