Practice continued on the small circuit over the next nine days. Concorde still proved faster than his team mates, but as the days went by their progress was constantly improving. Fleet had initially started quantifying their performance in the number of times they were lapped, but now it was a matter of seconds behind.
The two mares were improving by at least a second per lap every day, but Concorde was still taking a tenth off his fastest lap just as quickly. Even though he still managed to electrocute himself every once in a while on the thunder clouds surrounding the track, he had improved his best time by nearly a third of a second. Lightning Dust wasn’t happy she still wasn’t challenging him, but the Tools (as she’d started thinking of them) insisted both her’s and Rainbow Dash’s progress was pretty good.
After a few days, Fleet had informed her team she was going to start throwing them some more curve balls, similar to the huge gust of wind she had Cloudchaser and Flitter create in their practice sessions before Cloudsdale. So far, this had included an unintended ‘airspace violation’ in the form of Fluttershy trying to herd a flock of birds off the track, but Fleet had said she wanted to run a Safety Kart drill as, while injured racers could be swiftly removed from the track, there was always a possibility they couldn’t or shouldn’t be moved, which was when either a Safety Car or Marshall would take to the track and lead the racers around in order at a much slower speed.
Lightning Dust wasn’t particularly bothered as she went about improving her long run lap times. Her combined training had improved her endurance to the point of not being physically tired by race distances, though she was still having trouble keeping herself fully focused when flying for laps at a time on her own.
Rainbow Dash was in the same position, but she’d been working on improving her own flying style, rather than changing it entirely to match the other racers as Lightning Dust had. She thought it was awkward and counter-intuitive, effectively forcing her to re-learn how to deal with turning in order to keep up as she used her wings to counter hurling herself into a corner to turn tightly rather than simply tilting in, but if that was what you had to do to beat the competition, then that was what Dust would do.
Dust wasn’t sure what use this style of flying would be once this charade was over and she was a fully-fledged member of the Wonderbolts, but while it would defiantly happen it wouldn’t be until the next year, much to her frustration, so she carried on lapping the track.
They were finishing their last day of practice before Baltimare with a two hour race, staggering their starts so Dust had a twenty second lead on Dash, who in turn had a twenty second lead on Concorde. With ten minutes to go, Concorde had caught and passed Dash and was three seconds behind Dust. Dash was able to keep up with Concorde, keeping within two seconds of him. In the time they had left, it wasn’t likely they could catch Dust, who was quietly pleased she was going to beat them.
“Safety Kart drill!” Spanner suddenly said over the radio. Before Dust could think of anything to say, Fleetfoot flew out onto the track ahead of her, wearing a helmet with a large, blue flashing light on the top.
Dust slowed as quickly as she could, more out of surprise than anything else and lined up behind Fleet, before her mind worked out what was happening and anger took over.
“Seriously? Now?!” She exclaimed, gesturing to Spanner as she went by.
“Don’t blame me, I didn't know about it and Fleet did say she was going to try and take you guys by surprise. Unless you see the accident, you can never tell when a Safety Kart’s going to be sent out.”
Dust rolled her eyes, still furious but at least calm enough to ask a simple question.
“Is this it? Is she going to glide around for the last ten minutes?”
“No, I think she’s going to do two laps and then come in. I’ll keep you posted.” Spanner replied.
Dust sighed, checking over her shoulder to see if her team mates were lined up closely behind her. Sure enough they were, eliminating the advantage she had as they both weaving slightly to keep their wings warm.
“Fleet’s coming in at the end of this lap.” Spanner informed as they crossed the line. “I want you to back off after turn three and let Fleet get away. You’ll have control of the pace so I want you to accelerate out of turn five like normal. Once you cross the line, you’ll be under racing conditions again and can overtake. Whatever you do, don’t overtake Fleet.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Fleet said under her breath.
She did as he said as they exited turn three, gliding gently along the small in-field straight as Fleet vanished around the next two corners. Out of turn five, Dust picked up her speed and headed onto the next lap, spotting Spanner’s pit board which said they had five laps left.
She went to turn into the first corner as if nothing was wrong, but as she looked for the apex Concorde came into her peripheral vision, right in the small gap there was between her and the inside thunder clouds.
Without thinking, she levelled out so she wouldn’t fly into him and found herself on the outside of the track faster than she expected with a spark of lightning hitting her wing.
“Keep going.” Spanner encouraged her after she’d stopped swearing.
She gritted her teeth and chased after her teammates now they were both past. She shouldn’t have allowed that dump Yorkshire pony through so easily, she may as well have ushered him through with a free drink she had made it so easy. Next time, she wouldn’t let him through.
***
Dust’s bad mood persisted after they finished practising and continued until they got back to the house. As Rarity was accompanying them to Baltimare, they’d given her a key to get in once she was ready.
“Ah, good evening!” Rarity smiled as they walked in, finishing what looked like an elegant cup of tea. “How was your practice?”
An answer would have come if the team hadn’t noticed the pile of suit cases next to Rarity. There was so many it made the team’s combined suitcases look like they were staying overnight somewhere.
“Are you moving, or something?” Maffett asked.
“Of course not. These are all for design and inspiration as I’m going to start designing your suits and dresses for the Maneaco Fashion Show with my friend from Manehatten. She’ll be meeting us in Baltimare.”
“Coco Pommel?” Dash guessed.
“Why, yes. She was so excited when I wrote to her about the show and she’s eager to meet you all.”
“Will you be needing them to pose or anything?” Fleet asked as she picked up the late mail. “We’ll have a lot to do once we reach Baltimare.”
“It depends on what ideas we have, though we shouldn’t take up too much of your time.”
“Right.” Fleet mused before turning to her team. “Would you all start packing our bags in the cart? The train leaves in two hours time.”
The team did as she said while Fleetfoot quickly organised their mail, so they could read and deal with it on the train. They’d be traveling for a full day to get to Baltimare at the south eastern corner of Equestria, a journey that would drive her mad some times, but at least there were some good valleys to fly through to keep their wings warm.
While sorting the mail, she found a particularly heavy envelope that was addressed to the Wonderhawks team as a whole, so she decided to open it and have a look.
“Well, this is an interesting piece of mail.” Fleet commented as she read through it.
“Interesting in what way?” Spanner asked as he came to get another suitcase.
“Have your salacious magazines finally arrived?” Concorde remarked, poking his head around the door frame with a grin on his face. Fleetfoot just shot him an annoyed look that made the others chuckle.
“No.” She replied simply after a moment. “It’s seven invitations to the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Black Sheep brewery, sent by Riggwelter.”
“Free beer, eh?” Maffett asked, having a look at the letter and enclosed invitations.
“Apparently so. It’s the day after the Baltimare race.”
“We’ve got time between Baltimare and Vanhoover, so why not?” Concorde added.
“We’ve only got two weeks again.” Dust pointed out.
“You say that like it’s no time at all.”
“It isn’t. You can waste time and go, but I’m coming straight back here.” She snapped, her bad mood amusing him.
“Where is this place, anyway?” Fleet asked, checking the address.
“Mareham’s a slight detour, but it’s on the way back here. Takes just under a day from here.” Maffett informed her.
“Right, we can confirm any invitations with Riggwelter at Baltimare so you can make up your minds.” Fleet concluded, organising the last of the mail. “I’ll go get my stuff.” She added before heading up stairs.
The team continued loading the cart Applejack had leant them, Ratchett and Spanner keeping the precarious pile balanced as it got higher and higher.
“Rainbow!” Came the high pitched voice of Pinkie Pie. Dash turned to see where she was and jumped when she realised Pinkie was already barely an inch away from her. Even after knowing her for so long, she could still take her by surprise.
“Mr and Mrs Cake need me to help them all weekend.” Pinkie explained quickly before Dash could ask. “I can’t come and cheers for you guys, but I’ve brought everything so I can go in spirit!”
With that, she started loading the surprised Dash with party supplies.
“Balloons, streamers, trumpets, tinsel, party poppers,” She listed in rapid succession as Dash was loaded down and soon hidden under a pile of supplies, only her tail visible as her bemused team mates laughed. “confetti and- Wait? Where’s the confetti? This is an emergency, you need- Oh, oh!”
Pinkie rushed past Spanner, into the house and hurtled up the stairs, nearly knocking Maffett over in the process. Dash freed herself from the pile of party supplies as the team went to follow Pinkie, Ratchett helping her when the tinsel wouldn’t let her go.
“What the hay are you doing in my room?” They heard Fleet say as they crossed the first floor landing to the second set of stairs, before she exclaimed loudly in surprise as there was a loud bang.
The team got to the second landing and looked into Fleet’s normally perfectly clean, tidy and organised room, with various trophies and Wonderbolts pictures on the shelves and walls, to find it covered in confetti, as if it had exploded from one of her drawers. Pinkie gave the partially open bag to the still bemused Rainbow Dash as soon as she entered the room.
“Where’d you get that from?” Spanner felt like asking.
“I have stashes all over Ponyville in case of emergencies.” Pinkie grinned as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “Good look Rainbow, I’ll come and see you when you get back.” She smiled sweetly before bouncing out of the room.
***
Once the chaos had been cleaned up and the team had loaded their bags, they made their way to the station. It wasn’t long before they were all on board and under way with an entire carriage to themselves, courtesy of Concorde’s father. He hadn’t been able to make the first race due to orders of his famous powered glider going through the roof, which had disappointed Concorde more than he let on, but he had promised he’d make it to Baltimare.
Once they'd had their dinner, the team occupyed themselves by playing a card game Maffett had brought with them called Cards Against Ponies. Once she explained how it was played, the hugely politically incorrect game had drawn more than enough laughs, gasps and combinations of the two and, after a hugely offensive answer that reduced the team to tears, Rarity removed herself from the foalish game to start scribbling some designs.
“So, is anyone planning on taking Rigg’s invitation?” Spanner asked after a while. His hoof of cards was absolutely terrible and he was considering ditching it for a new hoof.
“I wouldn’t touch such foul stuff.” Rarity said, her nose in the air.
“Do you prefer wine?”
“Well, of course. A nice glass of wine is the perfect thing to relax with on a Sunday in my silk pajamas, along with a good book.” She smiled.
“It all smells like gasoline to me.” Fleet remarked. “I don’t even know what the differences between them are.”
“Well, there’s red and white.” Rainbow pointed out.
“I know that, smart hind. I meant between shiraz and chianti and the like.”
The team looked at each other, unsure, before looking at the one pony who would likely know.
Concorde was sorting through his hoof, trying to think of good answers to the question ‘And for my next trick: I will pull Blank out of Blank’. After a moment, he glanced up from his cards and realised everyone was looking at him.
“What?” He asked.
“Surely you can tell us the difference between shiraz and chianti.” Ratchett said.
“I might be half French, but I don’t know much about wine, or even drink it. To my knowledge, chiantis go well with fava beans though.”
“Seriously, you don’t know?” Dust found herself asking. “Next you’ll say you don’t know your cheeses.”
“Wensleydale with cranberries.” Concorde replied instantly. “Best thing in the world next to chocolate coated raisins.”
“Can you at least tell us anything about this beer?” Fleet asked.
“Well, if Whitbay’s anything to go by, they’re in a battle with Bronze Dragon. Half the pubs serve Black Sheep, the other half Bronze Dragon. They both do brilliant blonde ales.”
“Blonde ales?” Rainbow asked.
“Aye. blonde ales aren't particularly strong but you can drink them easily. Dark ales are really strong and I'm not that fond of them.”
“Because you're a wuss.” Maffett injected. “Are you going to play any cards, Corde?” She asked. She was playing the current question and had answers from the other five already.
“I’ll throw these in, then.” Concorde said, passing two cards, face down, to Maffett. Concorde grabbed two more answer cards and groaned when he read them.
“Right. So, for my next trick, I will pull-” Maffett paused, turning over the first two cards while Fleet failed to hold a straight face. “The Big Bang out of the Armish.”
No one reacted so Maffett turned over the next pair.
“I will pull The Light of a Trillion Suns out of Scientology.”
There was no reaction, but Maffett had an urge to look at Ratchett and Spanner, the others following her gaze.
“I had a terrible hoof.” Ratchett said.
“Just getting rid of some useless cards.” Spanner added.
“Right. I will pull-” She continued, turning the next pair over. “Breaking out into Song and Dance out of The Hustle.”
“Why would you do that?” Concorde said while the group chuckled, Fleet looking pleased with herself while Maffett turned over the next pair.
“I will pull Unfathomable Stupidity out of Prince Blueblood.” She said, starting to laugh mid-way through the sentence before the others joined in. They all agreed that it would be an incredible trick.
“For my next trick,” She was eventually able to continue. “I will pull The Mysterious Mare-do-Well out of A Really Cool Hat. For my last trick, I will pull Overcompensation out of Vigorous Jazz Hooves. Stupidity and Blueblood win.”
Dust grabbed the question card, smirking as Fleet and Dash sighed with disappointment as they thought their answers were good. Still, it would be hard to match the winning answer to ‘What’s that smell?’.