Friendship is Magic: 1st Gear

by Akeno

Europonian Power

Twilight woke up, to the sound of a roaring V10. She looked out of her window to find that Spike had already peeled out, likely to repair his car. Whatever. She noticed a note on her kitchen counter. Celestia is visiting today. 8:30 AM. Twilight looked at the clock. It was 8:24. She managed to prepare the castle in time, and waited to hear the galloping of the princess’s coachponies, but instead, she heard the high-pitched whirring of… Something. Finally, the whirring revealed itself; a white-and-turquoise car. It stopped in front of the castle’s entrance, blasting Reggaeton. The driver stepped out.

“Princess?” asked Twilight.

“Do you like what you see?” asked Celestia. “It’s a Lotus. The 2019 Evija.”

“I didn’t know you had a car,” said Twilight.

“Yes. I got into them through Luna. She was never able to ride in the royal carriages, so she got her own car,” said Celestia.

“I’m just having trouble understanding why everypony I know is obsessed with cars,” groaned Twilight.

Celestia gave her classic Celestia chuckle. “Come, we have more important matters to attend to. We can talk about it afterward.”

After several hours of royal matters, they finally finished. Twilight excused herself from the map room and went outside to brood on the balcony.

“So, Twilight, what did you want to talk about?” asked Celestia as she followed Twilight out.

“Cars,” said Twilight. “I talked to Rainbow Dash about it last night, but all she talked about was racing. Is this whole fad really over racing? I just don’t get it.”

“Well, tell you what, Twilight; we’ll go looking for a car for you. You can test-drive it, see if it’s comfortable and if it looks good. If you’re satisfied with the car, you and I will do a basic tune-up and we’ll take it to a car meet. There’s a meet starting tonight in San Featherscolt.

“Are you sure?” asked Twilight. “I don’t want to cause you any trouble.”

“Of course,” said Celestia. “Besides, if nothing else, cars are a great way to connect with others. For now, just think of this as a moderately expensive friendship lesson.”

Twilight agreed, and awkwardly climbed into the passenger seat of Celestia’s Evija. They took off, but not before she offered Twilight the aux. Shortly after, they arrived at a car lot. There were all sorts of vehicles, from ATVs to trucks, and even RVs.

“So, Twilight, what are you looking for?” asked Celestia.

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Twilight. “Just something that can help me understand the deal with these.”

“Ooh! What about this?” asked Celestia, clearly about to start geeking out. “A 2001 Audi TT!”

Twilight quickly looked up the car. “Apparently, this one requires a lot of maintenance. And… the camshaft has oil leaks? I don’t know what a camshaft is but it sounds important.”

Celestia rolled her eyes and snorted. She trotted about for a bit, eventually finding a different vehicle.

“What about the 1999 Ford F-150 Lightning? You could lower the suspension, install a body kit, maybe find a ducktail spoiler, no?” she asked, subconsciously trying to get her pupil into the rally scene.

“What kind of car is that?” asked Twilight, confusedly.

Celestia’s eye twitched. “This is a truck, Twilight. Your friend Applejack has one. They’re commonly used for holding things in the bed,” she said, motioning at the end of the truck.

Twilight looked at Celestia like she was insane. That didn’t look anything like a bed to her. She turned her attention towards an adjacent car.

“What about this one?” asked Twilight. “The Chysler PT Cruiser—”

“Stay away from that,” Celestia said flatly.

She looked around, when finally her eyes lit up, and a smile beamed across her face.

“TWILIGHT! LOOK! An ‘89 Porsche 911!” said Celestia.

Twilight looked at her mentor. It was quite a sight to see one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria scream like a filly. They walked toward it, Celestia prancing the whole way there. When they reached the car, she asked if she could pop the hood.

“I KNEW IT! This is the turbo limited version!” she squealed. “You need to buy this one!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, and asked to test-drive it. After a minute or two of getting the basics from Celestia, she drove half a kilometer and back.

“What did you think?” asked Celestia, having calmed herself.

“It drives well, I guess,” said Twilight, not really having a basis for what drives “bad.”

“And? It has minimal wear, a decently maintained engine bay. Nothing a fresh coat and a few hours under the hood can’t fix,” the princess said.

“It was a comfortable drive. Are you sure that this isn’t too much trouble to fix up?” Twilight asked.

“Of course not,” Celestia reassured her.

“Okay, then,” Twilight called for the dealer. “I’d like to buy this car.”

After she paid for it, Twilight drove home in her new 911, followed by Celestia in her Evija. They finally arrived at the castle, and Twilight—in an awkward few seconds—finally learned how to open the garage, and found that Spike was already inside, working, his car on one of the lifts.

“Hey Twily— WHOA! Is that your’s?” he asked, stars in his eyes.

“Why is everyone going crazy over this car?” she asked, groaning.

“Hello, Spike,” said Princess Celestia, climbing out of her Lotus hypercar.

Spike’s jaw dropped. Meanwhile, Twilight clumsily drove her car into the other side of the garage, onto a lift. Spike took a break from working on his own car, and together, the three of them got to work on the new 911 Turbo.

“Not to sound like Rainbow Dash, but this is 20 percent cooler than when we started,” said Spike.

After a few hours of hard work, the 911 was more road-ready than ever. A new coat of paint, new Torq Thrust wheels and white-wall tires, and a roof rack to hold copious amounts of books (Twilight’s request). But past aesthetics, it was tuned with performance in mind; a raised OEM wing for increased downforce, a new cat-back style exhaust, a new cone-shaped air intake, and lowered suspension to handle the increase in hoofpower, however slight.

“And just in time, too,” said Celestia. “We should leave for San Featherscolt in an hour. It takes one hour to get there… Twilight, I want you to drive over to Canterlot and practice driving on the mountain.”

“Oh, you guys are going to the car meet?” chimed Spike.

“Yeah, are you going?” asked Twilight.

“No, tonight is Gu— I… can’t. I’m busy,” Spike said, somewhat firmly.

Twilight smirked. “All right. Well, have fun.” She turned to the Princess. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

“As I know you will, my star pupil,” said Celestia.

Twilight started the car, and took off for Canterlot. Once there, she stepped out and went over the very basic instructions that the Princess laid out for her.

“Get up to seven-thousand RPM, hard turn on a corner, shift to a lower gear as I do, and rip the handbrake to drift. All while flooring the accelerator,” Twilight read to herself. She looked down the mountain pass. “There aren’t any corners here, just curves where the road turns! What was Celestia thinking?!”

Nonetheless, she got back into the 911 and did as she was told. And, similarly to anything else that she’s had to learn, twilight got the hang of drifting—no matter how neophytic—very quickly. Around an hour later, she drove back to her castle in Ponyville. Celestia was waiting for her by the front steps.

“Yoohoo! Twilight! Are you ready to go?” she asked, stepping into the car.

“Yeah,” Twilight said. “I think I’m getting pretty good at this drifting stuff.

“Good,” said Celestia. “On the way to the meet, you can show me what you’ve learned”

She slid a CD into the car’s port and they sped off to San Featherscolt to the sounds of DJ PON-3, mostly driving the speed limit, except on select corners where Celestia wanted a review of her student’s newfound skills.

“We’re coming up on a series of hairpins here,” said Celestia. “Go at your maximum revs for 2nd gear the whole way.”

“Alright,” said Twilight warily.

She tore through the hairpins as fast as she could. She looked over at the Princess for approval, and Celestia shone her a warm look. Feeling gassed up, Twilight attacked the corners as intense as ever the whole drive to the car meet.

Author's Note:

Name: (Princess) Celesita
Car: 2019 Lotus Evija
Hp: 2011
Weight (KG): 1678.3 (1678.292, 3700 LBS)
Top Speed (KMH): 350 (218 MPH)

Name: (Princess) Twilight Sparkle
Car: 1989 Porsche 911 Turbo Limited Edition
Hp: 212
Weight (KG): 1306.8 (2881 LBS)
Top Speed (KMH): 273.6 (273.588, 170 MPH)