Recently, a new sporting event had become somewhat of a tradition in Ponyville: The Applewood Derby. It is a cart race designed to celebrate not only the fastest cart, but also the best looking and most creative cart (Most Creative was wildly considered the hardest category as other competitors always tried to rough up the prettiest one while racing). Eligible for foals of all ages who could drive a bit better than ponies give reasonable credit for, it is quite the draw.
This year, the race had come around again, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were all putting the finishing touches to the shell of their newest cart. They had switched up the rules this year, turning the race into a team event, where a group of three foals could race in the same cart, and they had all agreed to go for the "fastest cart" prize, since that was by far and away the most simple to achieve.
You didn't need to look pretty to leave everypony else in the dust, after all.
Applebloom screwed the last of the hubs into their place. "There, all done! Well, Crusaders, whad'ya think?"
"Gets the Scootaloo seal of approval!" the orange pegasus filly said, trotting around their cart. "So far. Now, you're sure that you screwed everything in? Last time we built this, you forgot one screw and it fell to pieces after ten yards."
"Yes," grumbled Apple Bloom. "Ah double checked, and then triple checked. Ah'll even do a quad check, just for ya!"
"It's fine," Sweetie Belle raised her hooves in a placating manner. "It'll be fine. Now, why don't we take the cart for a test drive and see how it runs?"
"The good part. Finally," Scootaloo grinned. She hopped straight into the front seat of the cart: not the driver's seat, that was for the leader Applebloom, she knew her role. Sweetie hauled herself into the back seat, adjusting the mirrors slightly with her magic. Applebloom turned the key, and the engine inside the bonnet thundered to life.
-
The Crusaders emerged from the edges of the Everfree Forest, covered in twigs and leaves, but otherwise grinning from ear to ear.
"Welp," Applebloom declared, "we passed the FIRST test: we didn't crash."
"So far so good," Sweetie Belle nodded. "But how fast were we? Scootaloo?"
"Scootaloo looked down at the stopwatch in her hoof. She raised it to her face, then frowned. "Nowhere NEAR as fast as last year's champ. Two minutes, forty seconds."
"Nuts!" Applebloom kicked the ground with her hoof. "We're 30 seconds shy of Dust Eater."
"Wonder why he was called that if he came first," Sweetie Belle muttered to herself.
"That's not the point!" Scootaloo turned to Sweetie Belle. "The point is that we seriously need to juice up this thing if we wanna start thinking about the fastest cart prize here!"
Applebloom raised a hoof to her chin, in thought. "Well, there's actually a garage on the edge of Ponyville that opened up last year. He came from Manehatten for the quiet life. Ah bet he can give us what we need to soup up the cart!"
"Applebloom, we're FILLIES," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "We're basically living off the pocket money our families give us. And Scootaloo and I blew most of ours on just this cart. I bet he'll be super expensive..."
"Don't y'all worry! I've been savin' all mah bits startin' last year on THIS year. Little by little! Ah reckon a thousand bits should cover the vital stuff."
"A THOUSAND?" Scootaloo's eyes bulged in shock.
"Meh, it's not THAT much," Sweetie Belle had seen more dresses commissioned for her sister Rarity that cost more. "Still a start though. Let's pay the garage a visit!"
"Sure! But, uh..." Applebloom looked sheepish. "It's a mite heavy, so uh...think y'all could help me carry the bag? Seriously, ya'd think SOMEPONY would have invented lighter money. Like paper or somethin'..."
-
It took a great deal of muscle and a lot of concentration from Sweetie Belle to levitate Applebloom's hoard to the garage, but eventually they found themselves outside a rather oily brown shack. And it was before sundown, so they had beaten curfew, which was a bonus.
"This the place?" Scootaloo asked.
"That's him!" Applebloom grunted, dragging her hard earned dough through the door. "C'mon Crusaders!"
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed in as soon as they managed to step over Applebloom's sack. The three of them found themselves inside a white room, with black oil slicked all over the walls, as though somepony had put oil in a bucket on string and spun it round and round, but not quite fast enough to keep the oil in. They could certainly smell it: they soon found themselves not wanting to stay any longer than necessary. Wooden shelves also littered the walls, with cart engines of various sizes lined up on top, although they also spotted a desk with some basic tune-up kits for sale. Behind that desk was a yellow stallion with probably the most gloriously large grey moustache that were ever seen on a pony.
He looked up from the newspaper he was reading, and spotted his three small customers. "Can I help you with anything?"
"We're entering the Applewood Derby. We need parts. Really good parts." Scootaloo decided to be blunt to speed things along.
"You too, eh?" The stallion chuckled. "Not my first customers today entering the race. Well, most of the fillies came for spare parts, but I've sold most of them off now."
"Not that," Apple Bloom stepped forward. "What have you got in terms of engines?"
"Engines?" He looked rather surprised. "Somepony'd got ambition. And a lot of pocket money." He turned, and motioned towards some of the shelves on the wall to his left. "Well, this is what I've got. Those three engines at the top are by far and away my most powerful - and most pricey. Haven't budged all day though - too much for other fillies' blood, no doubt. Honestly, I thought that Diamond Tiara filly would turn up to buy them, but first come first served, yes?"
"Diamond Tiara?"
"Oh yes. Showed up this morning to inspect my wares. She said she'd come back as soon as she got the bits together. Well, if she made no reservations for my wares, that's on her." He winked at the yellow earth-filly.
Apple Bloom inspected them. They certainly looked impressive. She looked over the specs that were listed to the right of their price tag (400 bits each). According to the owner, and from what Apple Bloom knew about engineering, she could probably shave off about 20 seconds with one of these, but two would make it heavier and reduce the efficiency in half for the second engine...
She then turned to the medium sized engines on the right. She could see eight of them lined up, along with six 5-litre bottles of fuel.
"Ah yes," the stallion explained. "These are my most fuel efficient engines, but that's all down to the special oil they use. Couldn't find anything else for it. Doesn't take regular petrol either, in case you're wondering. But a fully fuelled one has shaved off as much as five seconds from most vehicles. Probably do the same for your cart."
Apple Bloom nodded. "Pretty good."
"Hey," Scootaloo pointed at the cardboard boxes lined up on top of the owner's desk. What are these?"
"Oh these? Tune-up kits." He opened up on of the packets and showed the inside to the orange pegasus. There were all manner of tiny little devices one could install inside an engine to make it more efficient than usual, from fuel consumption to prevention of overheating. "Cheaper than getting an already efficient engine if you know your way around a spanner."
"Geez, we're just spoiled for choice here," Sweetie Belle looked around the garage in amazement, before stopping and putting on a look of deep thought. "So if we buy that, then that, and those..."
"Hold up," Scootaloo trotted up to the white unicorn. "We're the first customers here who wanna buy straight up upgrades. I say we make the most of this opportunity."
"How?" Apple Bloom asked.
"We got a thousand bits to throw at the problem, right?" Both of the other Crusaders nodded. "Then I know what we need to spend it on to make sure we take first place."