XGRA: Ultrasonic Rainbow

by Brotato

Prologue

XGRA: Ultra-sonic Rainbow

By: Brotato

Prologue

"I hate it."

A man wearing a very sleek and pressed black suit jumped from his chair before slamming his hands on the table. Needless to say, his actions had the desired affect as the others around him winced at the sound. Himself and ten others sat around a large rectangular wooden table that had been polished to a shine. He pressed a button on the table and the video trailer for this years racing tournament blinked away without a sound. "We can do better than this," he shouted while pointing at the screen. "Where's the twist? The excitement?"

He walked across the room towards a window that took up the entire wall, allowing him to view the utopia before him in all its glory. Hundreds of holo-signs lit up the view in a chaotic mess of colors. The sky itself was a smoggy orange thanks to the toxic chemicals coming from a nearby power plant. To anyone else, the sight was disturbing, but to him, it was normalcy. His tone lost some of its enthusiasm as he watched the city below him continue with their lives. "Where's the surprise? No one is going to care about the same damn tournament every year. It needs something new, but what?"

It had been over five years since 2080 when Sports Interactive News Network, or SINN for short, announced XGRA's Global Season Tour. He had seen the facts on his computer; the graphs showing viewers steadily dropping every year as it was the same races over and over. He had to come up with an idea soon, or risk the association to continue its plummet.

One of his, who he called behind closed doors "scapegoats", brought up a shaking finger to get his attention. His pale sweaty complexion and black square glasses only helped prove that it was his desired place in the company. "I, uh," clearing his throat while pulling at his yellow tie. "Might have something to fix that, sir." His voice was barely recognizable, even with the entire room dead quiet.

The boss strode over with his hands behind his back, before reaching out and gripping the back of his chair with a smile. "By all means, continue."

Even with the smile the scapegoat gulped. "Y-Yes! well, uh," clearing his throat again. The boss did his best to hide his disgust everytime he did that. "W-We've discovered something quite interesting during this years universe-wide recruitment for the tournament." He produced from his folder a thin disc that looked like it could snap with the slightest pressure. "If you may?"

The boss took the disc from the man's pasty hand and walked back to his side of the table. He slid the disc into a slot located above a list of buttons to his left, and pushed play. The screen behind him lit up, showing a blue planet that looked a lot like earth.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Raising an eyebrow towards the scapegoat. "Cause I'm not laughing."

"N-No, sir. Please, just watch."

The planet continued to grow as the ship approached. When it filled almost the entire screen, it shifted and started to orbit around the planet. The view was indeed beautiful; matching that of earth. However, the landmasses were very different.

The feed turned to static for a second before switching to another view inside a dark and cramped room. Air rushed out as an airlock opened below whatever the new camera view was attached to. and without warning, shot towards the planet. It passed through with ease, with only the probe getting its hull singed from the atmosphere. The view was filled with a bright blue with dozens of pillow-white clouds dotting the sky. Even before reaching land itself, the planet looked like it would be paradise.

The sound of metal shifting filled the speakers as the probe seemed to transform its shape; slowing its descent to a full stop. It had almost crashed into the lush green grass that made up the rolling hills around the invading device. Trees were sparsely dotting the hills as well, and the soft breeze that ruffled the plant life only helped give it that sense of calm.

"You found a habitable planet?" Boss stared up in awe. "Do you have any idea what you've discovered? We could sell this discovery for billions! why, just think-"

While the boss ranted on about the monetary value of the discovery, the pasty man held up his finger again. "Uh... sir? It's already, uh, inhabited."

The boss stared at him like he just stained his suit. "What?"

"S-Skip twenty-four minutes and fifteen seconds into the v-video." The scapeboat said while half his body was hiding under the table. He watched his boss press another button and the video fast forwarded to the intended spot. The room suddenly exploded with gasps of surprise as everyone's eyes were fixed on the screen.

"Is that a... pony?" One of the others at the table said. The probe's camera zoomed in on the creature to get a better look. A pony with wings was shown with a coat as blue as the sky, and its mane and tail a literal rainbow of colors. It didn't seem to notice the intruding viewer and was busy doing different stunts.

Doing several loops, the pony went into a steep dive towards the ground. The probe's camera had to zoom out just to keep up with the winged pony as its speed increased dramatically. To everyone's surprise, signs of the sound barrier breaking began to appear.

"That's impossible! no living creature should be able to withstand the full brunt of subsonic speeds!"

No one else spoke as their eyes were glued to the screen. The pony continued its descent, passing rapidly by clouds while the white cone around her slowly turned acute. It didn't take long after that as a loud explosion shook the camera, creating an enormous rainbow ring that spread across the sky. The pony who caused it quickly pulled up with a rainbow streak following behind it, before disappearing across the horizon. The feed then cut off, leaving only static, then nothing.

Boss pressed down the button to eject the disc and turn off the holo-screen. His stood over the table with his hands spread out to keep himself supported; a look of deep contemplation on his face. He stayed like that for a minute, before looking at every other face in the room. A smile slowly spread on his face.

"Alright... Alright, alright." He walked back and forth while keeping his right hand tucked underneath his left elbow; his left index finger tapping his chin as his thoughts collected. "This might be just what we're looking for! If we can somehow talk to this creature and get it to join our little tournament, our views would skyrocket." He eyed the group before him. "Unless they prove to be more hostile than shown on the video, I don't want us to appear frightening to it. Do whatever it takes to get it here that doesn't result in brute force. Hell, bring a team of zoologists if you have to, but get it done." When he didn't see them leaving to do their tasks, he slamming his hands on the table once more. "Now!"

They all flinched and he watched them leave one by one, with the man who gave him the disc being the last. When the door closed behind him, he sat back down in his executive chair with a sigh. Glancing at the disc poking out of the desk, he lightly pushed it back in and fast forwarded it to where the pony first appeared. Leaning back in his chair and eyeing the pony on the screen, a wide grin formed on his face. His lackeys never failed him, and he always got what he wanted.

"Welcome to the XGRA, my little pony."

Comments

[SkyStream]

ok... this has some potential.... evil corporate humans, a high-speed racing tournament (from the looks of it) with potential death in it and I don't think I saw mistakes, should be good.... Im adding to favourites for new chapters. BUT, I'm not adding a like yet. I still don't know exactly how it's going to go

[Shpoople96]

1602364
Same.

[OddDreams]

I noticed one thing wrong here (besides recent science proving humans can indeed survive Mach 1 speeds in freefall). You put SUBsonic (beneath the speed of sound) where the context indicated a breaking of the sound barrier (SUPERsonic, or ABOVE sound). Not a huge mistake, but Dash has been proven via a brony with WAY too much time on his hands to be able to reach Mach 10 during sonic rainbooms, which occur at around Mach 5 (Don't shoot the guy who has too much time to watch youtube >.>)

Other than that, this has to keep going. XGRA was my favorite game outside of the Pokemon franchise, bar none. Add ponies and it can only get better (though Dash better get some weapons or this'd be a short race >.>)