//------------------------------// // I see Competition... // Story: Here's what I see... // by WhiskeyWolf70 //------------------------------// Gridlock led me over to the group he was hanging out with back here. Just four others, although one of them was quite familiar. I wasn't too sure wether it was a bad or a good thing, but I now had my guard up. She was a blue skinned gal, with blue and... kinda teal striped hair. Sort of early 2000s pop outfit. I knew this look. This was one of those Dazzlings. Sonata, I think her name was. I was somewhat shocked when she was the first of them to very cheerfully wave to me. "Hey there~!" I stayed silent for a second. This was completely unexpected... This was one of the girls who tried to take over Canterlot high... I should be on edge... but.... But... "Uh, hey. You seem familiar." I said, quite calmly. Yeah, let's go with staying calm. No need to start drama this early. I'm here to enjoy myself, and cars. "Have we met?" The girl tilts her head up a tad, putting a finger to her chin. "Hmmm... Oh, yeah, we have! Where was it... Class 3A? Chemistry? Eh, anyways.. Name's Sonata." She stuck a hand out to me, smiling. I took her hand in in mine, giving it a good shake. "Paradise Passion." She smiled. "I see you've already met Gridlock. Don't let the nice cars he drives fool ya, he lives to his name!" "What th- 'Nata what the heck!" He exclaims jovially, causing Sonata to giggle. One of the others, a short, silver skinned girl with sholder length black and slate blue hair chuckled a bit her self before giving a short, Neighponese esque bow. "H-hello. I'm um.. Quicksilver." She pushes her round specks up off the tip of her nose. The last one was a tall elegant looking lily white skinned girl, with long, flowing pink hair reaching just below her bustline. She was wearing some... pretty expensive clothes... ohh boy... this is one of those snobby rich girls isn't it? She casts a glance my way, gently pushing a wad of her hair behind an ear. "Wildfire Lily." She says in an... actually really not-snobby way. Looking at her slender build, this girl's got Mercedes written allll over her. Or maybe Rolls Royce... "Anyways, yeah. We're all a little group. Some of us drive better than others... And better than others will admit." He casts a glance to Sonata, who just giggles a bit. "She's not wrong though. I'm a disaster in big races. Better at those one on ones. Preferably drag. Don't have to worry about cornering too much..." I smiled a bit. These guys were all right. A roar of cheering fans erupted back around the front of the garage. "What in the...?" Gridlock looked at me, then to the group. "Well, c'mon, let's go check it out!" -- -- -- -- Up on the viewscreen, perched over the Autoshow, there was some nice driving going down. In... was that a CCXR?! Holy hell it was! For an older-ish super... hyper (?) car, that thing can go! As it speeds along it passes numerous other cars... Ferrari FXX-K, Bugatti Chiron, Lamborghini Aventador J... And ended up pulling neck & neck with a gold painted Agera. The view changed to be, somehow, behind the CCXR as it speed on, approaching the city. As it sped down the opposite end of the coastal street I'd ridden down, it hooked a left, deeper into the city. It pushed its way through a series of turns, even pulling offf some rather impressive drifting. Then, visual switched to what looked like GoPro footage, a cam probably strapped to the driver's helmet, as it sped straight toward the festival. Pretty quickly, the vehicle sped down to where we are at the far end of the pier, skidding to a stop. That thing looked nice in person. A nice two-tone paintjob... well if you could call half carbon fibre paint. The rest was a sort of blueish silver color, a black stripe going down the middle. Then, the door opened, a pair of booted legs swinging out as a face I kinda recognized stepped out. Purple skin, indigo hair with a majenta stripe through... Twilight Sparkle, the one in charge of the organization at the Horizon Festival. A flurry of staff came up to her, one handing her a clipboard as she strode towards us. It was then that I got the feeling it wasn't just us anymore, which caused me to look ba- WOAH that's a lot of other people! "Okay.. Do we have a.. Passion here? Paradise Passion?" My head snapped towards the voice. I stepped forward, raising my hand slightly. "Um.. Present?" Twilight smiled, strolling over and extending her hand. I extended my own to meet hers, giving it a firm shake. "Pleasure to meet you, Passion. I'm the organizer here. Our scouts have told me promising things about you. One scout in particular, really. We're looking forward to seeing what you can do here at Horizon." Rather suddenly, a red and gold haired woman jogged up behind her. "Hah.. H-hey, sorry I took so long! I was at the other end, didn't get the memo you were starting." Twilight turned to look at her. "Don't worry about it. Oh-" She turned to face me. "Passion, this is Sunset. She was one of the top winners a couple years ago, she managed the road racing series here." I extended my hand out to the amber girl, which she firmly grasped. "Now, I've gotta get others accounted for. Sunset, show her around a bit, get her some races, alright?" "Sure thing, Boss." That caused Twilight to roll her eyes playfully. "I told you, just call me Twi, we're friends, business or not!" She chuckles before turning and walking over to the rest of the potential drivers. I looked to Sunset as she raked her fingers through her hair, straightening it out, somewhat. "So, Paradise Maiden, huh?" she asks. I blinked a bit, causing her to chuckle. "It's pretty impressive, what you do with a stock Nova, girl. The video spread like wildfire among the staff. You should have seen Dash." She chuckled before clearing her throat. "Ahem.. ah... I'm getting ahead of myself. Dash is the Cross country series organizer. You'll probably meet her in a few days. For now... Well, I'm going to help you learn your way around the Festival... Al though... I suppose you're wanting to get driving, aren't you?" she asked. I nodded. "Yeah. After sitting in that 918 for a couple hours my feet are itching to punch the gas." She chuckled. "Come on. Let's get you behind the wheel. Got five choices for you.." "Five? Hopefully not all the same championship." I chuckle, half joking. I really didn't mind, but it'd be nice if there were variety. She chuckled herself. "Don't worry, you'll see. C'mon." She waved for me to follow her as she led onward down the pier.