The Shy Driver

by Wiz Ahmad

Screaming Down The Road

Author's Note:

The Supra has arrived! Enjoy and leave your comments! Don't forget to hit that "like" button! Thank you!

Darkness had fallen by the time Fluttershy had reached the center of Albuquerque, and it was getting fairly cold.

Pulling on her sweater and shining her flashlight on the map, she now saw how close she was – just a few more traffic lights to go. Soon, the bright lights shinign on the red garage doors came into view just down a side road. Fluttershy flew out of the pickup truck bed and landed on the sidewalk. But not before being noticed by the truck driver himself. Whilst still in traffic, he pulled to the side and ran down the sidewalk after her, his voice roaring with fury.

“Come here, you little thief!” he screamed. “You stole something from the back, didn’t you? You stowaway!”

Fluttershy simply flew up and rested on the metal ornate curves of a lamppost, where he couldn’t reach her, and then she spoke up. “I didn’t steal anything from you. I just needed to get somewhere quickly, so…yes, I did stowaway. You’d make more friends with people if you just showed a little more kindness and stopped being so mean. How would you even know if I was stealing if you never looked in the back of your truck to begin with? You’ll be really lonely if you assume the worst from people without asking them nicely before stating something about them. And if you don’t mind…I’m sorry I stowed away. I didn’t mean any harm to you or to anyone.”

The muscular man was left speechless for several moments. Finally he blurted out, “I’m sorry I accused you of theft. But please don’t go hiding in the back of people’s trucks without asking them. Are you lost?”

Fluttershy’s face relaxed, and she smiled. “I was lost at one point, but I finally found the right track and I’m on my way.”

“Good,” the man replied, and turned to walk back to his truck. “Well, good luck on your journey. Have a good night!”

“You too,” Fluttershy replied with her typical cute smile, sliding down the pole and resting her hooves on the ground. Once the man was gone, she continued on to the garage, which in fact turned out to be a storage facility. She flew around the lot until she came to the main office building, and walked in – five minutes before closing time.

“How can I help you?” one of the employees asked, her nametag identifying her as Katie.

“Hi,” Fluttershy said, smiling. “I need to know where the garage door for Justin Davis is.”

“That would be number 355,” Katie replied. “Gates will be closing soon.”

“I’ll be out soon,” Fluttershy promised. Swiping her card through the electronic slot check-in point, the gates to the storage area opened. It wasn’t too hard to recognize the garage doors with their bright red paint and big white numbers. Fluttershy wasn’t too good with numbers, though, unlike Twilight Sparkle, who could solve a three-point trigonometry problem in ten seconds flat. After three minutes, she finally spotted it near the end of the third aisle.

Fluttershy ran over to the door, rummaged for the key, pushed it into the lock, and used her teeth to turn it; the lock opened with a click. She then took off her saddlebag and pushed the big red door up with all of her strength, then flipped a few switches, illuminating the garage with light. It was only then that she saw the significance of the car. It was a 1995 MKIV Toyota Supra, with sleek grey paint, shiny chrome wheels, and a large rear spoiler. Not to mention the focused, intimidating look it had.

“Closing in three minutes,” a loudspeaker somewhere nearby announced, and some red strobe lights by the gate started to flash.

I gotta get out of here now! Fluttershy’s eyes widened. She spotted the keys on a hook on the wall, grabbed them, and unlocked the door. Pushing the door open, she jumped into the seat, slammed the clutch, shoved the key into the ignition, and turned it. The Supra’s turbocharged straight-six engine roared to life, flooding the garage with a loud sound.

“Aaaaaaaah!” Fluttershy covered her ears, trying to muffle the sound. After a few moments she got used to it.

“The gate will close in two minutes,” another announcement came out over the loudspeaker.

Fluttershy ran out of the car, grabbed her saddlebag, tossed it onto the passenger seat, and then tossed three old pillows into the car as well. She held the garage key in her mouth, and carefully drove the car out of the garage. Afterwards, she quickly shut off the lights and yanked the garage door down, causing it to hit the concrete floor with a thundering bang! that made her jump a little, before locking it up.

“One minute to closing time,” the loudspeaker announced again, just as Fluttershy was locking up the garage. It was now or never.

Fluttershy jumped back into the Supra, not even bothering to put on her seat belt or lock the car door. She dropped the garage key on the dashboard, pushed the stick into first gear and took off down the aisle as fast as she could. But as she veered around the corner, the gate was just beginning to close. Pressing the gas harder, Fluttershy engaged the Supra’s turbo, sending her rocketing towards the only exit. She cleared through it, the side mirror missing the gate by a few mere centimeters, hitting the brakes just long enough to avoid hitting any traffic. She parked by the side of the road, and swiped her card once more to check out.

That was seriously dangerous, she thought, still breathing heavily from her close call. Now that she could move freely again, Fluttershy set things up in the Supra. She properly laid her saddlebag on the passenger seat, put the garage key back in the saddlebag, and pulled out the Supra’s license, insurance, and registration papers and put them in the glovebox. Then she laid her headset and cell phone on top of the saddlebag for easy reach in case of a call. Finally, she stacked up the pillows behind her back on the seat to allow her to be closer to the steering wheel, as well as for her hind legs to be able to reach the pedals and press them to their full extent.

With a cockpit around her, a warm sweater, and comfy pillows supporting her back, Fluttershy buckled up in the racing harness, checked her map, firmly gripped the TRD steering wheel, and drove back onto the open road. Now at last, she was on the move once more – but this time with no sneaky border crossings or stowing away in the back of an 18-wheeler or jumping from pickup truck cargo bed to pickup truck cargo bed. She now had a car that she could drive.

---

Or could she? This was no ordinary manual car; it was really complicated. There was a button to select traction control, a gauge to measure the amount of boost, and a small circular pod with some buttons and a little digital display that Fluttershy didn’t know about. It even had a touch screen head unit. The steering felt solid and controlled, while the steering itself was precise yet a little stiff. But was most astonishing for Fluttershy was the gauge cluster. The Mazda 5 she had previously driven revved to only 8k, while the Supra revved all the way to 10k. The speedometer went all the way to 320 km/h.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. Could the car really go that fast?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the cell phone. Fluttershy slipped on her headset and picked up.

“Um, hello?” she said in her cute shy voice.

“Hi Fluttershy!” This time it was Ashley, and by a stifled yawn Fluttershy could tell she was in bed. “How are you? Just wanted to say good night.”

Fluttershy blushed with a little giggle. “Actually I have finally found the garage and picked up the car. It’s not an ordinary one, I can tell you that. It looks, feels, and sounds like a racing car. Scared me the first time I started it up. Anyways I’ll be heading down to the highway and continue on through the latter half of the night after I get something to eat and get a good rest. Bye for now, Ashley. I miss you already.”
Ashley smiled and teared up a bit, just like her brother. “I miss you too. Bye, Fluttershy.”

“Bye.” Fluttershy hung up and continued through the night traffic without hitting anyone. Carter had taught her well. With the time so late at well past 8:00 p.m., it was hard to find a restaurant that was open. Just when she was about to give up, she stumbled upon a pizza parlor on her way back to the main road.

Fluttershy stepped inside and let her little nose soak up the beautiful smell of fresh baked pizza dough, stir-fried vegetables, and sizzling fried chicken. It felt great to be in a place full of food once again. She ordered one medium-sized vegetarian pizza, a slice of apple pie, a small container of fries with ketchup, and three bottles of water. She ate a quarter of the pizza and a bit of the fries. Carrying the items back to the car was not easy, and took two trips. But soon, Fluttershy was on the road once more, this time with a food stash that she could eat later.

With her belly full, Fluttershy pulled into an old parking lot, parked the Supra, shut it off, and walked around for a while to let her stomach relax, then she pulled out the blanket, settled down in the Supra’s boot, and curled up to sleep, keeping the boot propped open slightly with a small stick.

---

Some eight hours or so later, Fluttershy awoke to the sound of loud banging and knocking. It turned out, she had parked in a construction site, and the workers were just starting their new day.

So was she. Having achieved a good length of sleep, her body felt energized and ready to drive.

“Aaaaaaaah,” she yawned, stretching and gently flapping her wings. “Another good day, even if it’s a bit noisy.”

Fluttershy tossed away the stick, closed the boot, and hopped back into the driver’s seat, just as one of the construction workers approached her.

“What are you doin’ here?” he demanded. “This is a construction site, not an RV campground!”

Fluttershy cowered and her face fell. “I…I’m sorry, I didn’t know. It was earlier in the night when I came here and I couldn’t see the signs well. I’ll be on my way soon.”

The construction worker nodded and walked away. Fluttershy pushed the clutch and turned the ignition key, awakening the engine once more. She gave it a few good startup revs up to about 4ooo rpm. With her window down, it was loud.

Fluttershy took a brief drink of water, drove out of the construction site, and rejoined the main road. It became rather boring, even though there was less traffic. Finally, she noticed what she’d been looking for: a sign that pointed towards southbound Interstate Highway 25.

“Back onto the highway, here we…um…go!” Fluttershy squealed with last-minute fear as she drove down the ramp and joined the main highway. She’d only driven up to 70 km/h in the Mazda 5, and she’d never driven on the highway. All she knew about the highway was that there were a lot of cars that constantly changed lanes, and that the left or right lanes often branched out to return to main roads in the city or to join other highways.

Fluttershy’s fear overpowered her, and soon she was going only about 80 km/h, forcing many cars behind her to slow down or change lanes quickly. One even blared his horn loudly in frustration.

“Let’s just go through this again,” she told herself, pulling over to the side and flipping on her hazard lights. Flicking on her flashlight and opening the map, she looked at her route more closely in detail, and saw that it was a very long route with two checkpoints at the borders of Arizona and California. But most of it was just long, straight highways.

Pumping her courage back up, Fluttershy folded up the map, shut off the flashlight, shifted back into first gear, and slowly increased her speed, watching her gauge cluster and counting.

“That’s 4000 rpm, and 60 km/h. 70, 80, 90, 110. Good.”

However, once she stepped really hard on the throttle, the turbo spooled up and the car just took off like a rocket, the engine almost screaming with fury as the revs shot up to 8000 rpm and the speed increased to 130, then to 150, then 180. Fluttershy’s head was pushed hard back against the pillows and her soft fur waved slightly. It took all of her self-control and strong grip on the steering wheel to hold on and not lose control as the Supra kept accelerating as she shifted up into third gear. Soon the cars that previously seemed almost on the horizon suddenly seemed so near.

“Woah!” Fluttershy said, releasing her right hoof and downshifting into second, lowering her speed down to a modest 95 km/h.
For once, the car seemed smooth and a real joy to drive as Fluttershy changed lanes and continued out west into the night, desparately trying to tolerate the feel of boost. It was a real shocker, and even after five brief pulls, it still frightened her.

“Just…amazing,” she whispered to herself as she increased her cruising speed to 110 km/h.

The miles and the hours rolled by, with the traffic congestion increasing a little as she neared the Elephant Battle Reservoir, roughly halfway between Albuquerque and the city of Las Cruces. The sky was a dark purple, signaling the arrival of daylight. And already the Supra’s fuel gauge needle was getting ever closer to the red line.

So Fluttershy pulled over and rested by the side of the road for a while, then relieved herself discreetly behind a large leafy bush, out of sight. With that discreet act done, she washed her hands with the second water bottle and the hand sanitizer and ate up the apple pie. Having finished eaten, Fluttershy got back on the road, this time trying to be more careful with her fuel economy as she continued on to the small town of Hatch, where she could refuel.

Hopefully they’ll have 98 octane gas, she thought hopefully, turning off the highway as the sun finally rose, blanketing the earth in a lovely bright yellow light.

As the sun continued to rise, Fluttershy scoured the petrol station, observing each of the gas options.

“Regular, Plus, Ultra…Super Octane. Yay!” she exclaimed, and opened up the gas tank. Then she unscrewed the gas cap and started pumping smooth succulent eco-friendly gas into the Supra’s tank until it was completely full. As she entered the store to pay for her gas, her eyes caught sight of a TV on the wall. On the screen was a picture of her in the back of that very pickup truck.

She gasped and ran towards the door, fearing for her life.

“Wait, please!” the man at the counter called out. “I won’t let anyone harm you, I swear! You pose no harm to anyone.”

Fluttershy froze halfway through the doorway, hearing the man. She turned around and re-entered the store cautiously. Carter had taught her to be careful with whom she trusted with information.

“It’s been quite some time since a pony came here,” the man teased as Fluttershy handed him a few banknotes. In return for the change and his promise, Fluttershy gave the man a comforting hug before leaving.

Back on the road, Fluttershy began to feel more confident at driving the Supra. But something was nagging her about the little circular pod with the little digital display. So she called Justin.

“Wassup, Fluttershy?” Justin’s smooth informal voice flowed out.

“Hi, Justin, I was just wondering about this small circular pod with a digital display just to the left of the steering wheel. What is it and what’s it for?”

“That’s the boost controller. You can control how much water is sprayed onto the intercooler, and how much boost you want at certain RPM ranges.”

Fluttershy slowed down and pulled over to the side.

“Okay, so first press the MODE button,” Justin explained. “Then…let’s see…from that, choose your boost unit.”
“I’ll take PSI,” Fluttershy said. ‘What’s next?”

“Now, press the mode buttons to adjust the PSI. The digital display will show the number. The higher the number, the more PSI you have – and the faster you’ll go. It’s best to map the boost to be activated fully after 6000 rpm. Maximum is 40 PSI – which I would not recommend.”

As she pushed the buttons, the display showed the boost level at 20 PSI! No wonder her socks flew off during that pull the day before.

“Thank you, Justin,” Fluttershy replied, and hung up. Flipping through the files and papers in the glovebox, she came upon the gauge’s instruction sheet. After following the instructions carefully, she had the settings that she’d be comfortable with: 11 PSI at 6000 rpm. In other words, the lowest boost setting possible.

With the boost at minimum, Fluttershy started to handle the boost, and soon managed to adjust her seating position and body movements with the power of the Supra. That was one thing that Fluttershy quickly learned about driving a Toyota Supra: it was powerful beyond limits, maybe even more powerful and faster than Rainbow Dash. If you didn’t pay complete attention when putting your foot down, it would wiggle dangerously. And the engine was tougher than all of Big Macintosh’s legs put together. Even after countless highway pulls, it still ran smoothly and swiftly and pulled strong every time, with practically no boost leaks.

Comments

[funguy26]

Got to love a speed jucnkie

[Dash32]

6932240 I agree. I myself am a car fanatic. However I am more into American muscle cars. Not real fond of imports or a lot of foreign cars. I do however love Jaguars and the Audi R8. My mustang has all the speed I need. Lol

[Diezel Riggz]

Good So Far.