A white earth stallion with a black mane walked into the bustling bar. It was of no surprise however, as a rather prestigious race was to be taking place soon. The stallion looked about the bar and saw that there were ponies in one corner playing poker. A glance to the opposite corner revealed a few other ponies, obviously too young to be there. Towards the center, there were a few, more undesirable, ponies. Finally, at the counter, there sat a lavender unicorn mare and her friends. His eyes lingered upon the mare, without thinking he took a seat nearby.
The stallion looked at the barmare behind the counter, she nodded her head and prepared his drink. He was a regular to this bar on the occasions that he was in town, after all it but only one of two reasons he came here, the other had to do with the race. Perhaps it is because racing is what he does for a living, or the fact that his cutie mark was that of none other than the checkered flag. It is uncommon for an earth pony to participate in this race, mostly having to do with the lack of magic and by extension, its dexterity. The Ponyville 500, a vehicular race, is popular among drivers, engineers and businesses. No one really knows why he wishes to participate, ponies have different theories, but he has declined to confirm or deny any of them; perhaps it is the one race he feels he has to win. He was lost in thought and too late did he realize where he was looking.
"Mister, do you want something?" the lavender unicorn asked, she was feeling embarrassed that he had been staring at her for a while. However, her coat did an alright job, if not a perfect one, of hiding her blush.
"Oh, nothing." the earth pony responded, looking away to his a blush of his own. The other mares began to chuckle and the white unicorn sitting near her simply said, "I hate to say this, but I believe that I said he was staring."
Meanwhile, the bartender looked at him and set the stallions drink in front of him. She whispered,"I wouldn't try anything with her if I were you, she is Twilight Sparkle, the star pupil of Princess Celestia, her brother is captain of the royal guard and she is one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony."
"Like anything larger has stopped me before."
"You should be more careful, one day you're going to find yourself in a position you can't crawl out of Slide. However, if you actually tried to be friends with somepony, you won't have to worry about that."
"Berry, you know that I won't just automatically be friends with anyone." replied Slide. "You may have lost your only friend, but that doesn't mean you should be lonely forever." After a moment of silent, he said, "You know of my 'problem' with being social."
"That is not an excuse," the barmare said with a fire in her eyes. "Alright! I give." the stallion exasperated.
He turned toward Twilight and decided to apologize for staring. He knew what he would say, he just had get it out."Hello miss, I would like to apologize for my actions. I’m High Slide; will you let me buy you a drink?" Berry punch facehoofed.
"I don't drink, at least not often. I mean, do you even know what this stuff does to you?” Slide’s spirit dropped at this. “However, I will give you a chance under two conditions." Twilight said with a plotting smile.
"And they are?" asked the stallion curiously.
"That you are completely sober,” she started, “and you get my friends and I tickets to the race."
"Well, I have only one V.I.P. ticket I can give you. But I think I can figure something out. I think Princess Celestia and the Wonderbolts won’t notice a few surplus guests" he said with a wink, at this a rainbow maned pegasus smiled and a pink pony spoke. "Okie dokie lokie, looks like I have two things to do today: I have to throw a ‘Twilights got a new coltfriend’ party and a ‘We get to go to the race’ party!” Upon which, Twilight blushed and the rainbow maned one hoof pumped. The six mares paid Berry, and walked out the door. High Slide said,"Now that wasn’t so bad."
He walked up to a navy blue pegasus with a red mane who was just outside. “Hello Thunder. Can I get ask you for five extra tickets to the race?” “Slide, I can only pull so many strings at a time; I don’t know....” Thunder faltered.
“You know I can take care of it after I get paid, you’ll see.”
“That’s what you said last year. I’m deep enough as it is.”
“I know, but I promise that I will help you. Give me ti-”
“Slide, I’m running out of time.” Thunder interrupted, “There is a grave and it reads ‘Rolling Thunder’.” “You, will be fine I will make sure of it. Besides, if you need anymore reason, did you see that beautiful purple unicorn that left a minute ago?” Slide pleaded. “Oh, fine. Under one condition, you at least introduce to one of her friends.”
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High Slide paced around his hotel room, he was worried about the race, and his promise to his friend. He knew that Rolling Thunder was on dangerously thin ice when he met him a few years ago, and it has gotten thinner yet. But his friend’s problems weren’t on the front of his mind. He had participated in several circuits with varying degrees of success and even raced in the Ponyville 500 before. But this year, Slide’s sponsor retired and his successor, Mr. Stakes, has taken his place as head of “Equestria Steel Company” .
Mr. Stakes didn’t exactly put the safety of his employees as a priority, in that he didn’t care about it at all. He was more concerned with personal profit and progress. It has been rumored that he has cut some very large corners to reach his position in the company; scaring those more qualified than himself and firing those who stood up to him. The only reason he didn’t drop his sponsorship of High Slide and Rolling Thunder is because of the amount of money that could possibly come out of winning.
It was in the middle of this tangent when Slide heard the knocking on his door. When he opened it, he found Twilight standing on the other side of the threshold. The two ponies looked at each other awkwardly. Slide broke the silence, “How are you?” “I’m doing fine. I was asked by Rainbow Dash, the one with the prismatic mane, to inquire about your ‘car’ as she called it.” Twilight responded. “Okay... what about it do you want know about it?” Slide sighed. “I was wondering how you would control it. I have seen motorized vehicles before, but they had so many control that it required magic to operate all of them.” Twilight rambled, regaining some of her excitement. “Well, you see, I’m a bit of a mechanic, it was a challenge at first, but when I figured out how to arrange the controls to just that of a series of pedals, a steering wheel and a single lever, it became possible to operate with needing a passenger. Of course it helped to have some help” Slide replied. Twilight, with a gleam in her eye, asked “May I see what you have done?”
A short walk later, the two arrived at a garage. Inside, was a large cloth, covering something large. Slide gripped the cover in his teeth and yanked his head to the side, pulling the lightweight material off of the vehicle. The vehicle was no taller than a the neck of a full grown pony. Its wheels were polished steel with heavy rubber tires. Its interior had two seats, in front of the left was row of pedals and above it was a column with a wheel almost parallel to the back of the seat. Between the two seats was a lever sticking out of a panel. Behind the seats was a series of steel crossbars. The chassis was a matte black and on its side, in soft white, was the name, Coltmaro.
Twilight, amazed at the work of engineering in front of her opened her mouth to begin to speak. But before she could, she was cut off by a rather rude “What is that? and what is she doing in here!?” The two ponies turned to see an angry unicorn with a maroon coat, white mane and an iron horseshoe for a cutie mark. The intruder repeated his question, causing Slide to flinch. “I-I-I was just showing the lovely young filly the Coltmaro Mr. Stakes.” he stuttered. “So that is what you call that piece of junk? Doesn’t matter, you’re not racing in that heap of scrap.” Mr. Stakes bellowed. “But then what am I going to use to in the race!” Slide panicked.
Mr. Stakes smiled and said, “Why, you’re going to use the EX-3180 of course.” “But that hasn’t eve--” “Enough! you will drive the EX-3180 and that’s final” Stakes interrupted with a roar before turning around and leaving.
High Slide was visibly shaken by this encounter. When Twilight moved to inquire as to who that was, Slide said “The new head of my sponsor. And before you ask, the vehicle he wants me to use, well, it isn’t the most sound thing in the world.” “Why does he want you to use it so bad?” Twilight asked. “Because it has... I think it would be easier to explain if I showed it to you.” Slide glumly responded.
In the garage next to the one housing the Coltmaro was a monstrous looking contraption. The EX-3180 didn’t have any internal supports, had about 5 times as many levers than the Coltmaro and had, and no pedals to be found. Where the seats should be, were pitiful excuses for stools with a plate attached to them. the chassis was heavily dented, as if it had fallen apart and put back together several times, which wasn’t too far from the truth.
Twilight cringed at the horrible screeching sound it made when Slide opened the door and attempted to sit in the vehicle. After failing to get comfortable, Slide stepped out of the monstrosity, and said “This was designed, built and tested by Mr. Stakes in under 2 weeks. and according to him, this is supposed to be faster by the merit that all of the ‘useless’ bits are not a part of this.. this... insult to transport.”
After a few minutes, Slide composed himself and said his farewells to his guest before he went to find Rolling Thunder to give him the news.