//------------------------------//
// Race 3: Appaloosa Part 1: The Wram Brothers and Their Amazing Flying Machine 
// Story: The Equestriaball Run 
// by Treblebeat 
//------------------------------//

This chapter was written by Slippy, author of the adventure story A Comedy of Terrors! Check it, and him, out if you'd like.


~A J F F~


It was a dark Appleloosa morning when Applejack's car putted up to the starting line. The air was stagnant and void of the excitement that was present for the previous races. Applejack glanced to the bleachers. As she expected, they were empty save for the judges, the mayor and three townsfolk, a few of the natives from the Buffalo tribe and, of course, her friends. Applejack smiled a little when her five best friends walked up to her for a pre-race talk. Twilight looked the car up and down, giving a small frown.

The vehicle didn't look like something one would race in, or even drive in. The paint had faded, the areas around the tires were coated in mud, and the interior had been scratched, poked and picked at. One headlight was out.

"Applejack, are you sure this is the best thing you have? I'm sure that it'd be okay for you to race in the Ferrari, it's doing fine!" Twilight asked.

Applejack shook her head. "I appreciate your offer, Twilight, but this here's personal. My family ranch car's the only thing I'd ever pick to go against..." she tightened her grip on the wheel with a scowl, "those two."

As if on cue, a torrent of mechanical sounds came from behind. All six friends looked up to see a horrible, whirring monstrosity crawl up next to Applejack's jalopy. Twilight and Pinkie gasped, Fluttershy hid behind the car, Rarity's eyes widened, and Rainbow Dash was trying to contain herself at how awesome that thing looked. The audience mumbled with excitement.

It was nearly eight times as tall as Applejack's car, and four times as long. The main body shined with red-painted steel, and gears and wires ran outside the thing. Electricity coursed through no less than six large glass tubes that led inside. It was equipped with eight monstrous tires taller that Pinkie Pie, and the front had a faux gold point resembling a snowplow. A plush-looking velvet couch clicked up into view on a structure of wires and iron framing, and Applejack held her resolve as she stared down the most horrible people in the world.

"Well, if it 'ain't' our dear friend Applejack!" Flim laughed. "Dear Applejack, could you please tell us where we might find our opponent in this race?"

Applejack glared at them. "You're lookin' at 'er."

The two brothers went into an uproar. "Racing us? In that bucket of rust?" Flam asked. Though Applejack wasn't affected by them, the rest of her friends, particularly Rarity, were fuming.

"Eeyup. And I'll send you two good-for-nothin' lowlifes crawlin' back into whatever snake hole y'all slithered out!"

Flam pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. "Oh Applejack, you are so delightful! You remember those words when Discord gives us the money to buy your cute little farm after we win!"

Rarity's face was red, and she tightly crossed her arms in anger and tapped her foot. Applejack pulled her hat down over her face with a grim smile. "Why don't y'all put that money where your greasy mustache is."

Flam's smirk faltered as he felt his mustache for grease. Flim only laughed more. "You seem very confident for someone driving that old thing!"

"This old thing could run circles 'round that contraption a' yours." Applejack returned.

The brothers exchanged glances. "Well, it takes more than that to win races! It takes prowess, finesse, class!"

"The two of you wouldn't know class if it struck those ridiculous hats off your heads!"

Everyone turned to look at Rarity. She pointed with fury at the brothers, opened the car door, and defiantly sat down in the passenger seat of Applejack's car.

"I came here to cheer my friend on in a race, not to stand by as she's mocked by two monopolizing toymakers! And I'm going to help her defeat you, even if it means getting my hands dirty!"

Flim and Flam looked to each other and contemplated this new development. Their couch descended in a chorus of whirs and clicks and Flam popped his head over the edge.

"That will be just fine! We can hardly wait to see how a sheltered seamstress can," he laughed, "defeat us."

Rarity and Applejack both growled, and Applejack turned to her friend with a silent smile of thanks. An intercom crackled, and Discord's voice came through.

"Thank you all for coming to the Appleloosa race of the Equestria Grand Prix! I would like to that Sheriff Silverstar for organizing our little event, and my dear friends the Flimflam Brothers for agreeing to race! Now, without any further ado, racers! Start your engines!"

Cogs grinding and robotic beeps echoed from the Flimflam Brothers' machine. Applejack simply turned a key and her car revved to its capacity.

"Three... two... ONE GO GO GO!" Discord's disembodied voice shouted. Applejack pressed the pedal to the ground and they were off. Whizzing down the track at speeds that shouldn't have been possible for the jalopy, Applejack grinned as the wind whipped all around her. Rarity screamed and tightly gripped her seat. Behind them, the maniacal brothers were driving as fast as they could to no avail.

"Brother!" Flim said to Flam as he continuously mashed the buttons on the control pad, "we're trapped behind that useless go-kart! We can't get ahead!"

Flam looked at his brother, bravely taking his eyes off the road and hands off the steering wheel. He grabbed the top of the control board and wrenched it down, revealing a secret, blinking red button.

"We've still got this in our arsenal!" He grinned.

"Absolutely villainous, brother!" Flim clicked the button with a laugh. From behind them a set of propellers of various sizes extended, and the sides of the machine opened to reveal massive tanned-leather wings. A compartment in the back opened to show a massive jet engine. It spun, the wings flapped and the propellers whirred, and when it shot out a blue flame the machine rocketed into the air and in front of the competition.

Twilight gasped from the stands. "They're cheating!"

Discord snapped into existence beside her and put an arm around her. "That's the thing about Flim and Flam, Twily. They're smart enough to win, and they always have the resources, but you can always count on them cheating anyway. Just for the fun of it." The draconequus laughed while Twilight's stomach knotted.

Back on the flying machine, Flim and Flam were gaining distance on Applejack.

"Ha ha! Should we simply beat them, or dispose of them as well?" Flim pondered.

"It'd be so unkind of us to let them lose and leave it at that!"

A button was clicked, and the machine's mechanical claw spiraled forth out of the front and clamped down on the car. Applejack gasped at the sight of the car being lifted off the ground and into the air. She and Rarity were hanging at almost a ninety-degree angle.

"Rarity, they're gonna kill us!" Applejack screamed. Rarity scowled up at the machine and gave Applejack a shake of her head.

"They won't kill us if I have anything to say about it!" Rarity returned. In a daring move, she stood up on the car's hood and began climbing