//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: How to Money // Story: Equestria Girls: Racers // by Gapeagle //------------------------------// "Pinkie?" "The one and only!" Pinkie picked the confused dog up in her arms, squeezing him tightly, making his green eyes bulge out. Twilight and Sunset entered the garage while rubbing their now sore backs. The world swirled and it did not seem like it wanted to stop. Maud simply sipped some soda through a straw in a glass bottle she retrieved from somewhere and Billy scowled at all of them from a corner. "Pinkie, please!" Spike pleaded. "Naw, you're just tooooo cute!" Her eyes widened, "No offense, Gummy." The alligator simply licked its eye in response. This somehow told the driver that everything was peachy and she smiled even brighter. Spike whimpered some more before she finally put him down on the old couch. "Pinkie, since we are here, can we start on planning?" Twilight asked. "Oh yeah! You guys still have to meet the others." Pinkie gasped. The driver then threw herself on the couch, sending Spike into the air. Twilight was quick to snatch him out of the air safely. Sunset shuffled over to a puffy chair and slumped into it. Her head still swirled with the insane car ride. "Sooooo," Pinkie began, "in this world you gotta make lots of money fast! Main way is to race or help racers. Drivers like me are like the big celebrities here and we need to make you guys into celebrities so that you can meet Rarity and Rainbow and Applejack and Fluttershy." "I'll be the driver." Sunset raised her hand slowly. "I at least know how to drive, unlike Twilight." "She's right." Twilight agreed. "I'm better off being a mechanic anyway." "Do you have a car?" Maud asked in her usual careless tone. "Yeah. We got her from the junkyards." Billy grumbled from the dark corner. Pinkie's eyes darted to the red Mazda that took up a quarter of the garage they were in. Like a lazy snake, she scooted to the edge of the couch and looked at it with her head upside down. After a couple of skeptical blinks, she shrugged. "Needs some touch up." She paused and quickly lifted her head to see Sunset. "But it fits you perfectly!" "Heh, thanks." "Rarity was the best at making our racers look great for the grand events." Pinkie continued. "Twilight was the best at making them work. Too bad we have neither to help you now....But Maud and I can help you aaallll the way. We can even sponsor you while you're in the dirt leagues." "Sponsor?" Twilight inquired curiously. "Eeyup! We'll provide you guys with some of the money we earn from our winnings. Usually high-ranking racers who do this make the sponsored advertise them through their car or their social media. I don't need that from you guys. We'll sponsor you and you won't have to worry about the money!" "That's mighty generous." Billy huffed. "What's the catch?" "Huh? I haven't gone fishing in a while, so I got no catch." Pinkie giggled. "You know what I mean." "And you know what I mean." Pinkie winked. Billy crossed his massive arms. "Fine. I do doubt that Sunset has the natural talent to race though. It's much harder than it looks, and we'll startin' from the very, very bottom." "I'll teach her!" Pinkie sat up. "I didn't know how to drive when I started racing, did I, Maud?" "Nope. And that's when you wrecked my '66 Impala." Maud slowly took another sip of her soda. "It was junk anyway..." Pinkie rolled her eyes. "No...It wasn't..." Maud actually snarled, though the rest of her stone face remained the same. "Uh huh!" Maud sighed. "Whatever..." Pinkie dashed over to Sunset. "See? We can get you into shape and have you doing donuts by the end of the week. Then we'll sign you up for the Audition Challenge!" "Audition Challenge?" Twilight raised a brow. "It's a showcase of young talent." Billy explained. "If you do well enough, you can skip by some of the lowest leagues. If we do poorly, we'll start from the lowest league there is and the earnings will be little. Winning such a challenge could take months, heck even years off of grinding in hell." "You also have to take it for me to sponsor you legally." Pinkie added. "Not that we could do it illegally, but that would be called boosting and I could be imprisoned for cheating." "Why would that be illegal?" Sunset asked as Pinkie crept closer to her face. "Let's say that I'm a reeaally good pastry chef." Pinkie started. "I only compete with chefs of my own caliber. Now, there's a young chef and she is competing against chefs of her own caliber. Now, I meet up with her and give her my pastries for her to be her submissions in her competitions. It's not her own pastries, but mine, so they're reaaallly good and she wins all her competitions. Doesn't seem fair, does it? That's what boosting is. It's letting me give you all my stuff to you on a silver platter and letting you beat all the folks who don't booster. If I boosted you, you'd win every race until you got to my league. Racing isn't about the car, it's about the team behind it. You wouldn't be winning, my car would be. So, to eliminate this, they made it illegal. Now I can sponsor you if do well in this challenge. Well, I can sponsor you even if you don't do well, but that'd be suspicious. Good karma isn't really given to those who show favor to one racer because they're family or friends. So, you do well, and I'll sign a contract to sponsor you legally by giving you a percentage of my own earnings. Use my money to improve your car and gear and to get into more races." "I see." Sunset slowly nodded. "Now give me some space." Sunset put a hand on Pinkie's surprised face and pushed her away. Twilight was taking notes on a small notepad she had in her pocket. Spike was snoozing on the arm of a half-destroyed sofa. This made Sunset reach in the pocket of her jacket and pull out her phone. Her eyes felt tired when she saw it was passed midnight. "Maybe we should get some sleep. I'm worn out." "I don't care if I have guest, I still get my bed." Billy muttered and hobbled over to his room. With him gone, Pinkie slithered over to Twilight and read the notes over her shoulder. The driver then gave the princess an incredulous look. "Don't you, like have a laptop or tablet to do that with?" Pinkie seemed disgusted by the pencil. "Not here. There is Billy's, but I rather not mess with his." Twilight paused. "Seen some odd things on there." She added with a whisper. "You can the business tracking to Maud. She's been doing my budget for years now!" Pinkie grinned. "Making budgets for Pinkie is calming for me." Maud nodded absently. "I'll never get used to her." Sunset sighed. "Oh, I'm not doing that sort of thing, Pinkie. I'm taking notes about this place. It isn't anything like the other human world I went to." "Ever wonder why the mirror took us here?" Sunset slumped in her chair. "Of course I do." Twilight gripped her pencil tighter. "I haven't found any evidence of its malfunction though. Though I do have a feeling this world is a pocket dimension." "Pocket dimension? Seems pretty big to me." Sunset threw her phone up and caught it on its way back down. "Well....Pinkie, what is there outside of the city?" "Oh, the junkyards and the fields." Pinkie answered cheerfully. "Besides that?" Pinkie made a confused face. "What do you mean?" "What's beyond the fields?" Twilight insisted. "Fields." "And anything else?" "Fields." Pinkie repeated. Twilight blinked in astonishment and was about to say something when Maud turned on the radio. The sound of Torque's voice filled their ears. "That's right! Rarity's party is going to be where it's at! All the top racers and teams will be there. I will be there too! Your Grand Champion, people of the city. Lay off the bets for the night and drink up instead! The party will be at the Gala Tower! Be there. If you got the money. I truly hope that all can come....even our new guests." Sunset and Twilight's eyes met in understanding. "Do you think that he knows something about this?" Sunset asked first. "Sounded like it." Twilight gulped. Pinkie stood erect. "If Torque wants you there, then by Celestia you go there!" Her eyes sparkled. "Maybe Rarity will let you in anyway! That'd be fantastic!" "I'm not sure if I want to go there now..." Sunset moaned. "We should all sleep on it." Twilight suggested quietly. "I'd rather not think about all this at the moment." "Sleep?" Pinkie perked up. "Woohoo!" With that, the driver fell over as if she had fainted and was snoring on the floor in a deep sleep. Maud did not seem to have any will to sleep as she simply stood there and stared at the remaining two. Sunset furrowed her brows at the Pie sister. "Are you going to watch us sleep?" She asked grumpily. "Maybe." Maud shrugged one shoulder. "This sucks..." Sunset shook her head. Twilight walked over to the couch, picking up the sleeping Spike gently on the way. The dog stirred a little in her arms but never awoke. The two of them reached the couch and Twilight slowly laid herself out on it while Spike snuggling in her arms. She then closed her eyes and tiredness took her to rest. Sunset sighed through her nostrils. One glance back proved to her that Maud was still watching with her unrelenting stare. She ruffled her hair in frustration and tried to get comfortable in her chair. "Goodbye sleep." She uttered. "Why did I have to be the last one up with her watching me!" (~~~*~~~)