//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: My Pet Nightshine // by TwiPON3 //------------------------------// As I ran to meet up with Vice-Principal Luna, she said something rather unexpected to me. "So you're out of retirement, eh?" she said, very casually. "What!?" "Christmas of 1965, Cafe Canterlot. You were in the middle of the bar, everyone gathered around, two idiots stabbing at themselves with knives just to show off, remember?" "Were you in the crowd?" I replied, slightly confused. "Actually, I was Blade Bishop." "Holy fuckamoly," I said at that revelation, "After our race, I'm gonna help Raven Dusk with some potions. I think she just mislabels everything." "Don't die," she said, giving my ring back to me before starting to her car, "Need a ride?" "I live in the Everfree district, so I'd have to drive." "Hey, my sister and I have a second apartment from the early 70s. It's here in town if you want to move." "Let's work on that tonight if Celestia's up for it." "Alright," she said as we walked to her car and I drove the longer-than-comfortable distance to my house. When we were there, I just parked in the street and showed Luna the house. "So this is it," I said. She seemed unimpressed, "Yeah, in the city would probably be better." "I get terrible service here if you want to use the landline." "Alright," she said, going over to the phone while I went into my room and changed clothes. By the time I came back out, she had some kind of news. "So I talked with Celestia," she said, "And she's okay with you two staying in the second apartment." "That being said," I looked around and grabbed a set of keys (three said Yugo, one had a blank keyhead, and the other had a Š on the keyhead) and my phone before going out to my Škoda and starting it up, "Lead the way." After another substantially-long drive, we were at the track. "Our next race is between a '99 Civic and... well I know it's something from the 80s, but I don't know what," the announcer said. "It's a Škoda," I said to myself, doing a burnout, "130 LR." "Is that blood on that guy's car?" an announcer said, noticing the translucent deep-crimson paint on my windows and body. Who the hell cares about Soviet aesthetics when you find crimson and dark-midnight paint. And blood from more than a few fights in the mid 2000s. When the countdown started, I revved the car "GO!" I immediately started, shifting through the gears like no tomorrow. "Good thing this baby loves this shit, Nightshine!" I said as the car hit 80 miles per hour at ten seconds in and quickly going up. "Yeah! One thing though!" "Luna's winning? Yeah, I can kinda see that! Wait until this baby hits 175!" "What?" he replied as the needle on the speedometer glided past 120 MPH. A few seconds later, we had taken the lead by about two inches. From the corner of my eye, I could see Luna briefly flip me off, so I returned the gesture as I crossed the finish line, shifted to neutral, slammed on the brakes, and turned sharp enough to get a 270 through oversteer. "That was good, wasn't it, Nightshine?" I asked as he opened his door and started puking his guts out. I just leaned back in the seat, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the shifter, head back, and laughing a little at the whole situation. A minute later, he was through vomiting so Luna and I left the track. "You okay now?" I asked, shutting off the car at the parking lot. "You know how to drive, right?" "Yeah, and I also know how to race. Reach in the back, there may be something." After finding a can of soda that had to be a decade old, he punctured it with his fang and drank it, then we got out and met up with Luna, Celestia, and Chrysalis and Discord. "Some of the paint on my car," I said, "is actually blood, just if you were wondering." "I stopped at 120," Luna said, "How fast were you going?" "A hundred seventy, hoping I could get it to 175. I had a guy screw around with it so it could do better in races." Nightshine fell over, "I'll take him home," Celestia said carrying him off. "You win this time," Luna said to me. "I just do better in rear-wheel drive vehicles. Not to mention the entire engine in that thing is in the back of the car." "Could I use it to win a few bets?" "Keys are in the ignition," I said as she gave me her keys and we swapped vehicles.