The sun was blazing down across the vast empty salt flats, the only sources of movement originating from the occasional snake or passing tumbleweeds. That was, with the exception of Rainbow's vehicle which roared across the desert, its wheels generating a cloud of dust behind itself.
It had been a very long drive just to get here from the city, as it was an entire state over. It also didn't have any signs of obvious roads to lead towards. In fact, she'd only found a single highway that had managed to guide her into this expansive desert. Along that highway were zero buildings, cars, not even any signs except for a lone outdated highway sign.
Even that road hadn't gotten her to her destination though, forcing her to take her car off-road across the desert instead of on the cracked and old asphalt of the highway. If she didn't have the GPS informing her that this was indeed the right location, she would of turned around way earlier.
"This place better exist, because if I drove all this way out here just to turn around then I'll.... " Rainbow's trail of thought quickly found itself placed on hiatus as her eyes locked onto something in the distance.
It appears that the GPS hadn't been lying, and there is something all the way out here. With what she assumed was the end of this long journey in sight, Rainbow floored the gas pedal and locked her eyes on her destination.
After a couple minutes, the building had gotten much closer, and therefore much bigger. It was very tall and wide, making up the dimensions of a large near perfect black cube. There weren't any windows or doors aside from a single outline of what resembled two miniaturized hangar bay doors. Although, the cube itself wasn't just a solid black structure. From top to bottom were strange red spaced out symbols aligned in a simple grid pattern, each one seemingly identical to the other.
Upon approach, the two doors made loud clicking noises, before they began sliding outwards into the walls and creating an entrance for her. Rainbow drive her car through the entryway and clicked on her car's headlights, although she didn't seem to need them for long.
The interior of the cube was massive, easily big enough to store a small plane or two, let alone its current occupants which were a handful of cars. However, just like her own, these cars had strange paint jobs and most looked completely alien from any sort of car manufacturing companies she knew of. All of these vehicles were parked within circular spotlights, two of which were vacant of any for some reason. Picking one of them, Rainbow drove over towards a spotlight and halted her car in its light.
Rainbow halted her car and shut off the engines, but remained in the driver's seat for a bit longer as she took in her surroundings a more. In the middle of the massive chamber was a large rotating monitor, its black screen suggesting that it wasn't active. Around all the other cars were people, most likely the drivers of said vehicles.
"Looks like I'm in the right place." Rainbow justified, pulling a lever by her seat which caused the front portion of her car to lift itself upwards.
She hopped out of her car, her cyan and white sneakers making a satisfying clack as they made contact with the metal floor. The panel on her car lowered itself back into place automatically, leaving its driver to explore her new surroundings on foot.
Rainbow chose to do exactly that and began strolling around the area, taking in the sight of the ominous monitor and all the other cars and drivers. There were around maybe eight cars including her own, each one with custom paint jobs and logos. Most of these logos were shared between two cars, while others appeared to be completely different.
"Huh, pretty cool place." She stated out loud, watching the monitor rotate around.
"You betcha! This place is sooo cool!" A sudden and incredibly loud voice exclaimed from behind Rainbow, startling the driver so badly that she jumped a few feet into the air.
Not a second later had she turned around to face whoever had said that, only to be greeted with a set of blue eyes locked directly onto her. Those eyes belonged to a pink skinned girl with darker pink hair that looked like it had been caught in a hurricane. She was wearing a plain white shirt with a blue vest over it, along with blue pants and pink boots. Her blue eyes seemed to be somehow sparkling in the light of the room, and thanks to how close she was, Rainbow knew that her breath smelled like a combination of cupcakes and toothpaste.
"Whoa back off there! You're standing directly in my face right now." Rainbow pointed out, taking a couple steps backwards.
"Huh? Oh, oopsies! Sorry if I startled you, I'm just so excited! First I found this cool car outside the bakery with a talking computer stating that I'm apparently an amazing driver and now I'm meeting other cool drivers who will be racing across the world! And once were done i'll throw a massive party for whoever wins!" The girl proclaimed, almost bouncing in place as she spoke. "By the way, I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name?"
"Rainbow Dash… " Rainbow muttered, Pinkie's 'jumpscare greeting's' adrenaline beginning to fade.
"Nice to meet you Dashie!" Pinkie claimed, grabbing her hand and shaking it with enthusiasm.
"Rainbow Dash, not Dashie." Rainbow corrected.
“Oh potato patato. Anyways come on! It's time for you to meet the other drivers!” Pinkie stated, before grabbing Rainbow's hand and guiding her over towards the nearest car who's driver just so happened to be leaning against it.
The driver simply shook their head as the two advanced towards them, however their expression revealed that they were at the very least amused by Pinkie's actions. The driver appeared to be another girl, her skin being a light shade of orange while her hair was long as blonde as straw, the end tied up with a red hair tie. Her cheeks were dotted with a couple white freckles, and she had emerald green eyes that seemed to host a slight fire in them.
Just like Rainbows own.
She was wearing a white and green shirt under a black vest as well as blue jeans and brown cowgirl boots with apple clippings on the sides. The back of the black vest had one of the logos from a car on it, the word Smashers printed out in bold white letters. Atop her head was a fairly worn brown stenson that seemed to radiate the smell of apples, or maybe it was just her in general that gave off that smell.
“Howdy partner, ah'm Applejack, leader of the Smashers team.” Applejack exclaimed, extending out a hand.
“I’m Rainbow Dash, and I hope you’re ready to come in second place.” Rainbow responded with a grin as she met Applejack’s hand with her own.
"Cocky much? Yer gonna want ta cool yer jets before ya wind up sett'n yer tailpipe on fire." Applejack stated, a matching grin on her face as well. "Ah won't be able ta tell ya again once we're driv'n."
"And why's that?"
"Well, ah can't exactly see the back of yer car if ah'm twenty yards ahead of ya."
Rainbow's fueled response found itself cut off by Pinkie, who had once again begun guiding the rainbow haired driver towards another car. Instead of walking right up to them, Pinkie merely pointed at them with a finger from their current position;
"That's the other racer of the Smashers team, Sunset Shimmer." Pinkie Pie explained.
'Sunset' had bright red and yellow hair with light amber colored skin. She was wearing a blue shirt under a black jacket, along with blue jeans and black boots. Her eyes seemed to somehow host even more fire than Applejack's, clearly ready to drive.
"Ooh! And that person over there," Pinkie was now pointing at another girl who was leaning against a purple car with green windows and pop up headlights. "-Is Rarity. She's raced in all sorts of high speed competitions like NASCAR, and is part of the Thread Chasers."
Even though she was clearly in hearing range, Rarity showed no signs of noticing the two and continued staring at the blank monitor. Her eyes didn't hold any fire like Rainbow's own or Applejack's, instead simply feeling sharp and focused.
Another vehicle rolled up next to Rarity's purple car. It was painted teal green with darker green tinted windows and the words Thread Chasers on the back. The car rumbled to a halt and the driver's side door opened, revealing another girl who stepped out of the car and walked over to Rarity. The girl was wearing a green jacket with black pants and blue boots, along with a tannish yellow bandana wrapped around her neck. She had dew yellow hair and her skin was a lighter shade of yellow.
"That's the other driver of the Thread Chasers, Lime Shift." Before Rainbow Dash could comment, she was pulled away again by Pinkie.
"That guy over there is my team's other driver!" Pinkie Pie stated, drawing attention to the two only guys in the building. One had a brown truck and was leaning against it while the other was talking with him.
The guy talking was wearing a brown jacket with dark blue pants and white shoes. On the back of the brown jacket were the words Candy Crunchers on it. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but facepalm at that name. Was that really the name of a team? Rainbow only just now noticed that Pinkie Pie had the same logo on her blue jacket.
"So you all are teams?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Teams of two! Speaking of which, your teammate is right over there!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
Right on cue, a girl walked over to the two. She had dark purple hair with a turquoise blue streak through it. Her skin was pinkish purple while her eyes were a purplish blue. She was wearing a purple jacket over a light blue shirt. She also had purple pants and purple and blue boots.
"Hello! My name is Starlight Glimmer. Nice to meet you," Starlight extended her hand out to Rainbow, who shook it.
"I'm Rainbow Dash, and no offence but, I usually don't work with teams, they hold me back." Rainbow Dash claimed.
Starlight furrowed her brow at Rainbow's statement, but wasn't able to speak before the roar of an engine caught her attention. The group quickly turned around to see a car enter the base. Right as the car was clear of the doors, they slowly shut and the monitor flickered from black to grey static.
"Guess that's the last driver." Starlight guessed, heading over to a railing which was surrounding the monitor.
The cars back looked like an exposed engine while the front of it had an orange tinted oval area. The car pulled up to the last remaining spotlight area, but the driver didn't get out. Rainbow squinted, trying to make out who was in the car but the oval cab was completely covered in tinted orange glass, not letting her see inside.
Finally, Rainbow just shrugged and went over to join the other drivers at the railing.
The monitor's static quickly vanished and was replaced by a familiar purple female face. The girl had dark blue hair with a pink and purple stripe through it, along with thick black glasses.
"Greetings everyone, it seems like you've all gotten to know your competition a little. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm the proud founder and owner of the Sparkle cooperation. Now that you're are here, I can address what I am asking all of you," Twilight said.
Rainbow glanced to her right to see the other drivers, each one staring contently at the monitor.
"I have commissioned a race like no other. A race that will determine who the fastest driver in the world is between you all. The winner of the race will receive a prize of a five million dollar check."
Rainbow's eyes widened at that. She glanced over again and saw some of the drivers now having grins on there faces. Others had looks of uncertainty.
"Five million dollars, awesome." Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath.
"The cars that you have been given have been made to handle all sorts of terrain. They have Nitrox 2 injection systems and grappling hooks made out of steel. Each one full of technology that you will push to its limits, and possibly beyond."
Rainbow looked back at the Deora ll. Even though it was just a car, she felt like it had the same idea that she had, burn rubber.
"Please get to your cars and prepare by using the nearby highway and the desert around the complex, the race is about to begin. But you all must remember, once you hit that gas pedal, there is no going back." Twilight finished, a hint of dread in her words.