//------------------------------//
// Shellshocked Part 2 
// Story: No Game No Life 
// by Spirit Shift 
//------------------------------//

	Down on the track during the last few seconds of the countdown, Lyra turned to Vinyl and smirked. “Hey, Vinyl, if I win this race, you have to move in with me!” she said quickly.

Vinyl scoffed. “As if! You’re on!”

Octavia’s eyes widened in shock. “What?!”

“Go!”

At the final count, Rainbow blitzed out of the starting line. Luna, a large grin plastered on her face, tracked the racers with her eyes and eagerly commenced the play-by-play. “And the racers are off! As expected, Rainbow Dash and Lyra have boosted their ways into first and second place using the speed bonus granted at the start of the race.”

Octavia, falling into fourth behind Vinyl, growled, “Ugh! I never could figure out that stupid opening speed bonus.” Slamming on the brake, Octavia drifted past the Mareo Stadium’s signature first turn. To her annoyance, Octavia barely missed one of the clear floating weapon cubes.

There was a brief static before Vinyl’s voice came out of Octavia’s dashboard. “It’s all in the timing, Octy. Allll in the timing.”

Over in Vinyl’s kart, Octavia’s voice came out of a small speaker in the same way. “Wh— how are you talking to me?”

Even though she had known Octavia couldn’t see her, Vinyl shrugged. “There’s a com in all of the Karts, I guess,” she answered.

Currently, Vinyl herself was trailing directly behind Lyra, debating on whether or not to use her new weapon.

At that moment, another voice chimed in. Vinyl recognized the squeaky nervous tone. “Umm… hello? I-uh, ran into this thing and now I have… I think it’s some sort of turtle shell? What do I do with it?” asked Sweetie Belle from second to last place.

Twilight began to answer, but Vinyl piped up first. “It’s a weapon. You gotta take out the ponies in front of you with it. Like this!” Slamming on the button in front of her, Vinyl shot a green shell out directly from the front of her kart.

Fortunately, Lyra swerved just in time to dodge the shell. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash, who was right in front of her, was directly in its path.

Spirit hissed with a cringe as he listened to Rainbow’s faint cursing, followed by Vinyl’s loud laughter. “Looks like things are really kicking off.” His nervous grin turned into one of confusion. “Princess, did you intentionally give them ways to talk to one another.”

Princess Luna also had on a confused look. “No, I do not think so.” She glanced over at Discord, who was innocently waving around a foam finger that read ‘MLZFan FTW’.

“Though, I suppose it all works out,” she frowned. “It had slipped my mind that Sweetie may need some assistance on the game’s mechanics. Hopefully, Twilight or Octavia can assist Sweetie Belle if she requires more instruction.”

Sweetie Belle, surprisingly not in last place, carefully turned the third corner and passed by a blue strip. She let out a small yelp as she found her kart beginning to defy gravity by going up the side of the wall. She closed her eyes and braced herself for a fall, thinking she’d messed up somehow.

She felt something bump the side of her kart. She opened her eyes to see that she was now driving her kart up against the fence of the sideways wall. Once she realized that she was really riding sideways down the track, excitement filled her body and she sped up slightly.

Speeding down the raceway, Sweetie Belle noticed one of the bright golden coins coming towards her. Unsure of what they were, Sweetie spoke into the com link. “Girls, what are the coins for?” she asked, swerving past the gold coin out of caution.

After a second, Octavia responded from the speaker.

“Those are boost coins I believe. They’re used for—” Sweetie flinched when there was a sudden crashing noise. She could make out somepony laughing and Octavia’s rage filled screams. “Damn it, Rainbow Dash!” There was an explosion and the radio went dead. The chaos only served to return Sweetie to her previous nervous state. 

Thankfully, after a few seconds of silence, Twilight’s voice came out of the speaker. She sounded nervous herself. “Sorry… I think Octavia’s a bit busy. I’ll help you. From my understanding, you need to collect ten coins. After you collect the first ten every coin afterwards gives you a speed boost. But if you get hit with a weapon you lose coins. Understand?”

Sweetie Belle smiled reassuringly. Seeing one come around, Sweetie turned the wheel and picked it up. There was a tingly feeling, and on the edge of her dashboard the coin counter went up to one. “I got it! I got it!” she cheered. “Thanks, Twilight.” 

Twilight’s chuckling came through her speaker. “Any time. Remember, slow and steady wins the ra—”

*Static!*

Rainbow Dash’s laughter filled Sweetie’s speaker. The sudden loud noise caused her to flinch back some. “Forget that!” said Rainbow. “Go as fast as you can and get as many weapons as possibl— OH CRAP!” There was slight crackle before the link went dead completely.

*Static!*

This time it was Octavia laughing. “Sweetie Belle, small nick of advice, watch the road and get ready for sudden turns if they come up. To drift just hold down the brake at the same time as the accelerator while turning the corner. If you do it right then you should get a speed boost. Please do not drift off the edge like somepony did just now.”

*Static*

Lyra scoffed. “Oh sure just tell her all the tricks to the game why don’t you! Even if you do, she won’t win. I’m surprised she’s not in dead last right now. Seriously, who could be worse than her?” 

Sweetie Belle frowned at Lyra’s tone. Frustrated, she shut off her com. Taking a deep breath, Sweetie summoned her confidence, pressed down on the accelerator, and took off after the pony in front of her, weapon at the ready.

“Ohh,” gasped Spirit, continuing his commentary. “It looks like little Sweetie has taken offense to that remark and is off after her! With her currently in seventh and Lyra in third behind Octavia and Vinyl, Sweetie’ll have to pull off some clever tricks to get her back.” He chuckled. “I’m glad that we at least have a few players who know the word ‘sportsmanship’.”

Luna nodded. “Indeed. Though I wish Lyra wouldn’t taunt Sweetie like that. It is bad for her morale”

“Pfft!” Both ponies turned to see Discord smirking. His MLZFan foam finger now read as “Lyra Best Pony FTW” “Personally, I love it when there’s some good smack talk between contestants, it builds a good chaotic rivalry.” He pointed the foam finger down at the track. “Look how determined little Sweetie is now. And look down at Lyra’s smirk. She knew what she was doing, the little troll.”

Spirit rubbed his chin with a hoof. “I suppose you have a point there. I wouldn’t know, I play mostly single player games,” he grinned sheepishly and turned to the Princess. “So who do you think will win, Princess?”

Luna shook her head. “It wouldn’t be right for a Princess to show favoritism. Not to mention I am today’s gamemaster,” she said proudly.

Spirit gave her a surprised look. “I didn’t know you liked racing games.”

Luna smiled back at him. “Oh yes I—”

Both of them were interrupted by a loud gasp from the draconequus next to them.“It looks like Octavia and Vinyl have passed the first checkmark— Ohhh and there’s MLZ Fan letting loose with the inkblot,” he yelled dramatically. 

With a swoon, he pointed down at the field. “Ooop, and there goes Twily spinning off track once again as blindness spreads across the board. Chaos and spins outs everywhere! Oh dear me, she released the plant! The plant takes out Vinyl and Vinyl slams into Octavia.” 

Discord somehow swooned with even more drama than before; he practically bent half of his body over the edge of the booth. “And the four pony pileup builds ever further on the turn. Oh the pomanity, oh the chaos, oh the splendor of it all! This reporter for one shields his eyes from the carnage! Oh how could this have all happened?!” 

Discord ginned and turned back to see Luna and Spirit staring at him with bemused looks. “What? Somepony has to do it while you two blather on.”

Down on the track, Lyra wailed as the black ink slammed into her eyes. Instantly, the mare released her grip on the wheel in an attempt to get the ink out of her face. “Ahhhh jizz! There’s jizz in my eyes!” she screamed. As expected her kart spun out and slammed into a wall.

Twilight faired similarly except that she also accidentally released the weapon that she had been holding onto. With a puff of smoke, a large red and white polka dotted piranha plant jutted out the front of her Kart. Without hesitation, it ferociously began snapping at anything that came too close.

Vinyl and Octavia, whom had both been controlling their karts fairly well while inked, fell prey to Twilight, whom had been slowly sneaking up on the two rivals. Her plant snapped its jaws on the both of them, causing all three of them to spin out off of the track.

“Hah!” Rainbow cheered, passing the three of them. “Newbs!” 

Luna resumed her play by play. “I appears that, thanks to Rainbow Dash’s extensive experience in playing this game, she has learned how to drive while inked. Now all she will have to worry about is Pinkie who is quickly gaining on her and Sweetie who’s right behind her.”

Rainbow’s flinched in surprise. “Wait what!” Taking a glance back she noticed that Pinkie was, in fact quickly gaining on her. The two raced fervently down the straightaway.

Spirit took over. “That’s right. Pinkie, whom had been in last place the entire round. Though, it wasn't because of her lack of skill, but rather her having too much fun honking her own horn,” he snarked. 

He glanced over at Luna who shrugged sheepishly. “I figured she would enjoy the song horn. I never imagined that she would spend the first five minutes of the race playing it on repeat.”

Spirit gave Luna a flat look. “Aaaannnyyhow I’m surprised she caught up so fast. What kind of weapons has she been getting this whole round.

Discord scoffed. “Some play-by-play you two provide,” he muttered.

A few minutes ago

Pinkie drifted around the corner and up the side of the road. Right as she ended her drift, she ran into one of the prismatic weapon cubes. She was instantly surrounded by three spinning red turtle shells. “Oohhh,” Pinkie gasped. Without hesitation she slammed on the button three times,

With each press of the button a shell shot out. All three zoomed forward, relentlessly tracking their targets. The first eventually slammed against the kart of the small mushroom-headed colt. The second zoomed past him and slammed against Princess Peach, whom had been racing in front of him. With her down the last one slammed unfortunately zoomed off of the stage and into the abyss before it could catch his its target. Undaunted, Pinkie easily passed into 10th place.

After attaining her new spot, Pinkie almost immediately picked up another weapon, this time it was a Boomerang Flower. With bombastic excitement she slammed the button once more, sending the white ‘rang hurdling forward. Luckily, she had caught up with Mario and Luigi, who, at the moment, were too busy distracted by their own silent brotherly rivalry. As such the boomerang slammed into both of them, allowing Pinkie to join her fellow players in the top 8.

When the ink blot came around, Pinkie mearly reached up with her tongue and scooped up the ink like it was chocolate. Unblinded, she easily drifted past turns and passed those who had spun out. As she drove she instantly released any weapon she picked up, target in sight or not. All the while she was cheering and whooping in a crazy rush of excitement. 

It wasn't long before she met up with Sweetie in sixth and MLZFan in fifth. With a well timed shove, Pinkie pushed MLZFan out onto the grass and thus, slowing him down.

Sweetie nervously glanced over at Pinkie, waiting for her to attack her next. However, Pinkie simply lifted up her goggles and gave Sweetie a wink before picking up a coin and boosting on ahead.

With both of them passing the just-now recovering quartet of inked ponies, the two gained on Rainbow Dash. 

With 6 other racers right on her tail, Rainbow began serpentining from side to side in order to make herself less of a target. “Get away from me Pinkie!” she yelled, not even bothering to use the com link.

“But Dashie you love races!” Pinkie yelled back, closing the distance ever more. 

Rainbow Dash swerved down the turn, desperately aiming for a weapon cube. The instant she grabbed one she released it behind her, not even bothering to check which weapon it was.

Pinkie saw a flash of yellow then a swirling myriad of colors filled her vision. 

“WhooOOOOOaaaaaOOOOhhh!” she yelled, spinning to a stop. Dizzy, Pinkie put both hooves to her head in order to regain her composure. “Hehe, that was so fun!” she giggled. “Can I do it again?!” 

At that moment, Sweetie, Vinyl, Lyra, Octavia, MLZFan and Twilight all passed by her. “Whoops!” Pinkie slammed her hoof back on the pedal and zoomed back into the fray before the NPCs could also catch up.

Spirit leaned over the booth edge with an excited look on her face. “And Rainbow Dash has passed the final checkpoint. It’s all down to this. All of the ponies are neck and neck, and with just about every one of them carrying weapons, it’s a bad time to be in that sort of position.”

Luna, equally excited, added, “Indeed, Mr. Shift. As most weapons are designed to take out the pony either directly in front of you or directly behind you, being close to any pony isn’t where you want to be. At any moment any of them could release a shell or— oop and there it is!”

Down on the track, Sweetie slammed on her button and released a fierce thunderbolt from the top of her kart. It struck every kart on the track and shrunk each of them down to a mouse’s size. The drastic reduction in speed allowed Sweetie to giggle her way into first place, leaving behind her a chorus of squeaky sounding players.

“Crap!” cursed Vinyl struggling to drive while not laughing at her own voice. “She took out the bomb I was saving… Nice one!”

“Ugh, why can’t this be Modnation!” yelled Lyra. “I could’ve blocked that!”

Luna chuckled as she watched the ponies eventually regain their original sizes. “Unfortunately for Sweetie Belle, being in first place in this part of the race also puts her at a disadvantage unless she builds a strong lead.”

Discord turned to her with a grin. “And why’s that, dear Lulu?”

Luna frowned at Discord’s familiarity but answered anyway. “You see, there are plenty of items that target the player in first place directly. And in the last lap of the race is when those items start showing up in larger quantities for ponies in the back.”

Spirit leaned over the booth and continued the play by play.  “It looks like Ms. Octavia has pulled ahead of the others and has taken second place. It doesn't look like Rainbow Dash is all too happy about that.

Octavia grinned and turned on her com. If there was any time to commence her plan now was the time. “What’s wrong, Rainbow Dash? Not only are you getting beat by a filly, but you’re also getting beat by me as well!”

As she expected Rainbow growled through the speaker. “Ugghh! Just you wait Octavia, you’ll be eating my dust in a sec!” she spat. “This isn’t over just yet!”

Octavia rolled her eyes and slammed on the brake to drift past a turn and into a weapon cube, picking up a coin of all things. Cursing under her breath, she quickly made use of it and refilled her coin metre back up to 10.

Likewise, Rainbow Dash picked up a cube and came out with green shell. Grinning, she hurriedly lined up Octavia in her sights. But before she could release the shell, a sudden explosion from behind blasted her kart into the air and off the track.

“WOOOOHOOOOO! BOBOMB’D YA!” cheered Vinyl zooming past where Rainbow Dash previously was. While said pegasus was yelling and respawning back on the track, Twilight, MLZFan, and Lyra also passed her.

“Screw Bobs!” chuckled Lyra. She slammed on her button and transformed into a huge green colored bullet-shaped rocket. “I got Bullet Bill!!”

Twilight screamed as she and MLZFan were violently shoved aside by the super-charged cackling bullet. 

Crazed, Lyra started singing randomly. “Move, Bitch! Get Out Da Way! Get Out Da Way, Bitch!”

Up in the stand, Luna softly and silently placed both hooves onto her face and leaned all three down onto the table. “I’m going to start deducting points now,” she sighed. Discord, however, began cheering wildly, now sporting several flags, shirts, hats and other accessories with Lyra’s name and face on it. 

Twilight, frustrated, activated her own button and, in a multicolored blur, she became filled with Rainbow Power and zoomed forward as well. She didn’t quite catch up with Lyra but she maintained a close distance.

Octavia and Vinyl, now neck and neck, both glanced back and gulped in fear when they noticed two super charged and invulnerable ponies zooming towards her. 

Octavia, in order to retain her speed, swerved almost to the edge of the road to avoid being knocked dizzy. Vinyl, however wasn't so lucky and fell back in a dizzy state.

Octavia let out a sigh of relief when the two passed by her. 

“Hey Octavia!”

Octavia turned around just in time to see Rainbow slam into her from behind and forcing her off the track! “Daaaaammmnnnn iiitttt Raaaaaiinnnbbooooww!” she screamed.

Laughing fervently, Rainbow sped on ahead.

~~~

Lyra’s powerup eventually ended, placing her in a solid second place position. However, she could still see Sweetie in the distance. Twilight’s power-up placed her right beside Lyra.

“Having fun yet, Twilight?” Lyra called over while trying to pull ahead.

Twilight couldn’t withhold a grin. “I will admit... this is much more fun than playing it at home,” she confessed. Both of them zoomed up a ramp and into the air, picking up a power cube in the process.

Gliding back down to the ground first, Lyra once again glanced back to Twilight and yelled, “So whatcha get?” 

Twilight, uncharacteristically competitive, smirked back. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she shot back. 

Lyra laughed and cut on her com. “How about you, Sweetie? You enjoying—”

“I’m winning! I’m winning! I can’t believe it! I’m having so much fun!” Sweetie screamed. “Did you see me flying through the air a while ago!” Her insanely loud cheers momentarily threw Lyra and Twilight off for a second. 

A second went past before Lyra burst out laughing even more so. “Well sorry to burst your bubble, but we’re nearing the end and it’s time for me to snatch first place!” 

“W-what?!” gasped Sweetie. “Y-you can’t! I’m too far ahead.”

“That's what blue shells are for!” Lyra screamed. “Slamming on her button, Lyra released her weapon. A spiny blue shell appeared in front of it for a split second before flying off ahead of the two.

Up ahead, Sweetie Belle panicked when she saw that a red light began flashing on her dashboard. Looking around, she had noticed that she had picked up a weapon. Not knowing what it did, but wanting to keep her lead, she pressed it. Suddenly, a myriad of red boxed horns jutted out of the sides of her kart. 

Sweetie looked at them in confusion. “What is-”

*HONK!* 

The horns let out an insanely loud noise that forced almost everypony in the area to cover their ears in desperation.

“What the hay is that!” Lyra screamed. She watched as the blue shell that was aiming straight for Sweetie bounced off of nothing and disappeared. “What just happened!”

“I don’t know I’ve never seen it before!” Twilight answered.

Up above, Luna adjusted her earphones. “Thank you, Discord. Like I was saying, it seems as though little Sweetie has picked up a rather unique weapon. Exclusive to only the newest game, the Super Horn is an all around repellant. From other players to other weapons, nopony can so much as get near the user of the horn.”

“Oh phooey!” groaned Discord. “Well that’s not very fair. There's no more weapon boxes. Now there’s no way either of them will catch up.” 

Luna nodded. “Indeed, and with the lead Sweetie Belle has I assume that we can safely say that-”

“SWEET LUNA’S MANE!” screamed Spirit.

“Yes,” Luna blushed awkwardly touching her mane. “I do wash it regularly.”

Spirit pointed out on the track. “No, look at that!”

Discord saw what he was pointing at and leaned over with him. “What in the world!” he gasped.

Down on the track, Spirit and Discord watched in awe as Pinkie zoomed past everyone on her part of the track with insane speeds not thought possible without a bullet or rainbow power.

Spirit’s jaw fell out of the booth. “She’s in seventh— no sixth— no fifth… HOW IS SHE GOING THAT FAST!” he finally yelled.

Luna squinted her eyes and finally noticed the faint golden glow surrounding the pink pony. “Oh my word!” she gasped. “She has the golden mushroom!” she explained, trying to remain calm and collected.

Spirit turned to her in curiosity. “What’s the golden mushroom?!” he asked.

“It’s a rare item that lets you boost an infinite amount of times for as long as you hold it. Normally, it’d be useless when used on the turns... but Pinkie somehow has enough handling to make those turns expertly and gain even more boosts in between the boosts from the mushroom.”

Smiling, Luna simply shook her head. “Unfortunately, despite the valiant effort it won’t be enough to reach—”

“SHE JUST PICKED UP ANOTHER ONE!”

“WHAT?!” This time Luna was over the rail as well. She watched as, down on the track, Pinkie passed the cubes that Lyra and the others had passed previously. Without hesitation, Pinkie activated a second volley of golden fueled boosts, allowing her to rocket past Lyra and Twilight and into second place.

“But Sweetie’s so close to the end!” yelled Luna getting hyped. Even she couldn’t hide a manic grin on her face.

“But Pinkie’s quickly gaining on her!” Spirit added.

Panicking, Sweetie picked up a coin and gained her own short boost. Unfortunately, Pinkie’s repeated boosting and expert drifting quickly had her closing the distance. Sweetie could see the finish line coming up around the next turn.

“Come on!” she urged, willing her kart to go faster. But as the sound of Pinkie’s rapid boosting slowly got louder, little by little, her confidence waned. She slowly began to believe that she wasn't going to win this. Her negative thinking reflected in her kart actually beginning to lose speed.

Octavia’s voice came from her speakers. “Sweetie! Don’t worry about Pinkie! You can do it!”

Vinyl soon joined her. “Yeah don’t go wussing on us now! You still beat the rest of us!”

“You can still win!” added Twilight.

Even Rainbow Dash was getting into it. “Take the shortcut!”

Luna cheered from the booth as well. “Don’t give up, young one! You can still defeat her, Pinkie’s mushroom has worn off!” she yelled.

Sweetie turned to see Pinkie zoomed up next to her and finally began to slow back to her normal speed. “Whew, finally made it!” she cheered. She, in turn saw Sweetie's nervous face. “Hey, relax. Remember, it’s just a game. You need to have fun.” Pinkie winked at her and Sweetie’s face brightened up.

Both karts turned the final corner and zoomed towards the finish line.

Luna turned to Spirit. “Who’s in first place!”

Spirit panicked and stared at the race. “Sweetie… no wait, Pinkie is! Agh, I can’t tell!”

Luna growled at him. “WelI I knew this might happen but I can’t track a photo finish because you forgot the camera. Discord you—” Luna paused when she realized that Discord was no longer in his seat. “Where is Discord!” she screamed, nearly going into the Royal Canterlot Voice.

On the track, Pinkie and Sweetie zoomed ever closer to the finish line. Although, just as the Gummy Cruiser’s natural speed began to pull her ahead, one last thing happened in the final few seconds of the race.

Lyra’s voice came out from Sweetie’s speaker. “Slam into her! If you wanna win you gotta take Pinkie out!”

“But I don’t have any weapons!” Sweetie hastily answered.

“Your kart is a weapon! You have to slam into her NOW!”

Desperate, Sweetie Belle followed Lyra’s advice and violently turned her wheel. Slamming into the back end of Pinkie’s kart forced it to fall back in a short spin that Pinkie seemed to enjoy. Her spin ended with Pinkie and Sweetie neck and neck once more.

However, the kart bump also provided Sweetie with a small bonus boost just as the two crossed the finish line.

“AND THE WINNER IS…”

Discord appeared on the track and held Sweetie’s entire Kart into the air, yelling, 

“SWEETIE BELLE!!”

Sweetie cheered at the top of her lungs.

“SECOND PLACE IS…

PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!” yelled Discord into a microphone just as Pinkie crossed the line. Likewise, he grew another arm and held up Pinkie’s kart, though not as high as Sweetie’s was held.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash smirked. By this point she had caught up with Lyra, Vinyl, and Twilight.

Vinyl noticed her smile. “What, not upset you lost?”

Rainbow scoffed and pulled ahead with the red mushroom she picked up. “Whatever, third is still beating you two!” Unfortunately, just as she thought she was going to make it, a thunderbolt crashed into the three of them, shrinking them down to the size of mice once again. 

Rainbow’s squeaky cursing could be heard just as clearly as if she were full sized. It even increased in volume when she noticed who’s kart had passed them.

“Suck it, Dash!” MLZFan zoomed past the trio and into the finish lane, taking third place and denying the ponies the points.

“And WHAT! A! FINISH!” screamed Spirit, hyped beyond belief. “That was an amazing turn around by MLZFan as he swooped in and stole third place from right under her muzzle. Truly a stunning end to the first round.”

Luna let out a sigh and leaned back into her seat, chuckling lightly. “I-indeed. That was very exhilarating. I think I’m starting to understand what Discord meant.” Luna grinned and spread her wings. To Spirit’s surprise, she hopped off of the booth and sailed down to the ground.

Down below, Rainbow and the others crossed the finish line just in time to see Discord holst up MLZFan’s bike.

“AND THIRD PLACE…

MLZFAN2130!” he announced. Suddenly, a cheering crowd appeared and began roaring in applause. Soon enough the other ponies also reached the end of the line.

Unfortunately, there was one pony that didn’t cheer so loudly. Rainbow Dash immediately took off her helmet and tossed it down in anger. “What the hay!” she groaned. “I didn’t even place?! That’s not fair!”

Octavia took off her own helmet and waved out her long black mane. “Rainbow don’t be such a sore loser,” she scoffed, trotting closer to her. “No pony is ever guaranteed a win, no matter how good they are at their respective games.”

Just as Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to rebut, Octavia cut her off. “And we still have three more races.” With a smirk, Octavia booped Dash’s nose and moved past her. “So calm down, dear it’s just a game.”

Rainbow stared back at her in a rage, her face fuming but enable to release and words of retaliation. Thankfully enough, Pinkie Pie hopped out of her kart and bounced on Rainbow’s back. 

“Oh my goodness, Dash that was soooo much fun! Did you see how I just ate those mushrooms and started zooming really really fast like BRBRBRBOOOOMMMMEE!” Pinkie began raspberrying kart noises and pretending to steer a kart, excitedly sharing her epic tales of kart awesomeness. 

Meanwhile, Lyra made her way over to Sweetie who, while her kart had been lowered back to the ground, was still cheering her heart out. Though once she noticed Lyra, the filly’s expression turned sour and she turned away. It wasn't long before she felt herself being lifted into the air and brought over into Lyra’s embrace. 

“Oh don’t be mad, I was just playing the game,” she grinned, rubbing the top of the filly’s head.

Sweetie struggled and hopped out of Lyra’s grip, still upset.

Lyra rolled her eyes. “Alright. I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I was just talking smack to motivate you. You took it pretty well compared to other ponies I know.”

Sweetie glanced back reluctantly. “I guess I should thank you for your advice. I only won at the last moment because you told me the kart trick.”

Lyra rubbed the back of her mane awkwardly. “Yeah. Though I wonder why Pinkie didn’t do it first.” Lyra’s gaze floated over to Vinyl climbing out her kart. “Oh hey, Vinyl!”

While Lyra ran over to Vinyl, Twilight took the time to examine the other racers. The four original game character had mysteriously never crossed the finish line. But she found that MLZFan was still hanging around, basking in the glow of his victory by leaning on the side of his bike. Twilight decided to approach him.

“So…” she began, “are you excited for the next race?

The mysterious racer simply turned to her, grinned, and nodded. Twilight continued. “So are you one of the game masters?” she asked hopefully. He shook his head. “I see, I thought it would be a bit too easy,” she mumbled.

“So who are you; a gaming buddy of the Princess maybe?” The silent racer simply shrugged and tilted his hoof back and forth.

Twilight examined him up and down. “B...but you are are real pony right, you weren't created with magic like the others?”

To her surprise, the colt let out a low chuckle. Just before she got the chance to ask she noticed that Discord had slithered his way over to them and leaned on the kart next to MLZ.

“Oh ye of little chaos,” he laughed, “you give me too much credit, those were real ponies you were racing.”

Twilight gasped in surprise. “Wait, you mean they weren't illusions or constructs made of magic?”

Discord scoffed. “Of course not… well… unless you want to count the magic of childbirth.” He snarked. “But anyhow, I have an announcement to make.” He eagerly began rubbed his paw and claw together.

Octavia, after leaving Rainbow, went back to her kart to go fix her mane. Afterwards, she made her way over to Lyra and Vinyl who seemed to be engaged in a rather heated discussion. “A deal’s a deal, Vinyl.” said Lyra.

“Well you didn’t actually win the race, Lyra,” Vinyl shot back, a competitive smirk on her face. “In fact, you barely beat me. We also have like… three races left.”

Lyra frowned and turned to meet Octavia’s flat stare. “Oh, great timing. Octavia, you said that you didn’t care if Vinyl moves out and in with me right?”

Vinyl turned to her with a blank look. “What?”

Octavia reeled back in shock. “I... err, no that’s not what I meant by—”

“Octavia if you wanted me to move out all you had to do was say so,” said Vinyl, giving Octavia a hurt look.

Octavia took a hesitant step closer. “N-no, Vinyl I—”

“Oh ponies!” sang Discord. Extending his arms, Discord reached over and picked each pony up and brought them to him.

After setting them all down in a circle around him, Discord retracted his many arms and leaned down with an excited smile. “After seeing your little race I have come to a unanimous decision!”

Luna landed softly next to him. “Excuse me, but how can your decisions be unanimous if you made it without consulting us,” she said, leveling a harsh look at him.

Discord merely reached over and brought her into a one armed hug. “Oh don’t be so uptight, you’ll get a kick out of this too Lulu.” He dramatically waved his other paw. “For you see, I’m reducing the amount of races from four to two with the next one being the final the race!” he announced. Just as Luna began to open her mouth Discord pinched her lips together. “Shush, I’m not done. I very much enjoyed this little race and I’ve decided that I want to race as well. However, I wouldn’t want little Luna to miss out on the fun.” 

He picked up Luna and began rocking her back and forth. In response, Luna released a lightning bolt from her horn and shocked the draconequus. Blackened, he glanced down at her and shrugged, dropping the Princess of the Night in the process. 

“So, I propose this,” he continued dusting himself off, “how about the remainder of you all race against Princess Luna and I in a bonus round. The winner out of you all will receive the points given to our guest racer plus a nice little bonus if you defeat the two of us.”

Luna put a hoof to her chin in contemplation. “That does sound like a reasonable idea… coming from you. But I am the gamemaster, is it not required for me to observe rather than play?”

Twilight shook her head. “Of course not; if you want to join us sometimes there’s no reason for you not to.”

Lyra nodded. “Yeah, as long as you don’t use your GM powers to cheat us.”

Sweetie, standing next to her looked up at her curiously. “How would she cheat us?”

Lyra shrugged. “Gamemasters have access to all kinds of glitches and mods. Also they could get advantages like being immune to the items or something subtle like having a smaller knock down and respawn time.”

Luna shook her head. “Please be sure, I’m am no troll or cheater. I will play fairly as the rules dictate.” Though she had to turn to look at Discord who, at the moment, had on an angelic looking smile and halo. “Although, we may have to keep an eye on this one.”

Spirit Shift floated down on beating wings, his eyes glistening in excitement. “So does that mean I can race too?!”

Luna gave him a sad look. “I’m sorry, Spirit. But we still need a commentator.” 

Spirit’s face fell. Luckily, Pinkie was on the case. Grabbing Sweetie and MLZFan, she dashed over to his side. “Don’t worry, we’ll be up there with you! Like Dissy said, we can’t race with them so we need something to do while we watch!”

Sweetie nodded. “Yeah, I don’t mind it. I think I’ve had my fill of high speed chases. I’m really not even allowed to watch them on T.V.” 

Grabbing Spirit, Pinkie brought him into the group hug. Even though he wanted to race, Spirit still smiled since he knew he would at least have company.

Luna nodded with a smile while Octavia stepped forward. “Excuse me, Princess, do you have a kart to race with or will you need some time to create one like you did ours?”

Luna turned to Octavia with a slight blush. “Well... I… You see...”

Spirit stepped up and smugly pointed a hoof to the side of the track. A section of the grass began separating and slowly a dark blue race kart rose up from the ground. Everypony looked on in awe while Spirit stood by and barely contained his laughter born from the sight of the Princess’ beet red face.

“It looks amazing,” gasped Sweetie.

“Absolutely stunning,” added Octavia.

Rainbow shrugged. “It’d be at least 20 percent cooler if it was a bike.”

Spirit stepped forward. “You see, my Princess was secretly hoping she’d get to race and ended up making her own kart in case such— woahhhhh” Spirit found himself being magically flung back up to the comment box.”

“That’s enough talking,” Luna ordered, ignoring the heat in her cheeks. “Let us get ready for the next race. Everypony move your karts into place.” Luna marched over to her kart, looking as serious as possible. Though but nopony, nor no draconequus was blind to the slight skip in her step.


A/N
GUESS WHAT! I GOT PICS THIS TIME!

Now you all know... it did in fact happen. 
She blushed.