Twilight Sparkle's Anguish

by Trailblazer Rocker

Speed of Sound

Once all 30 contestants left the track that they just raced on, a shaft opened below it, and it lowered into the shaft and below the floor. They heard some machinery below them, and then a new track rose from the shaft. This one had a big pool of water that spanned the width of the giant glass box that they were just in. Much to the seven ponies' surprise, parts of the race course went underwater.

"This is going to be fun!" laughed Trailblazer.

"Well, I suppose that it'll be soothing to view a clear subbmerged landscape," said Rarity.

All of them got on the track, ready to race. Trailblazer was set to start in last place at the starting gate, Rainbow Dash in 29th, AppleJack in 28th. Rarity in comparison was going to start in 15th.

The countdown began, and they took off when they all heard "Go!" They got past the electric banner and ran down a domed tunnel. It led them all to an inward banked right turn, then to a small straightaway, and then over an inward banked left turn. They all ran up a slope that took them back above the surface, where a banked right u-turn took them to another straightaway. A boost panel was placed right before a ledge. Most of the racers were able to run across it, gaining more velocity to gross the gap. As they were crossing the gap, Trailblazer caught up with Rarity. along with AppleJack. The gap took them back underwater, which had a long curve to the right. At the end of it was a sharp S-turn to the left and back. A couple of the racers ended up running against the wall. The rest of them got ahead to another right turn, with a slope with three quick boost panels in quick succession. At the end of it was a big jump, with the starting gate below them. Trailblazer jumped off at the very edge of it to get more air, landing ahead of the pack. Pinkie Pie did the same, landing ahead of the crowd too. Trailblazer began leading the pack again, with Pinkie and Rainow Dash behind him. Just like the last time, he kept on the inside part of the track, shaving off more time. The others began to do the same, but they weren't able to catch up. On the straightaway leading back above the surface, he ran straight for the corner, rather than along with the track, or at the inside or outside edge. All of the others followed the same pattern, trying to keep up. This carried over to the last lap, winning his second consecutive race in the Max-V Novice cup.

Trailblazer earned himself 60 points so far, AppleJack and Rainbow Dash were tied for 2nd, and Pinkie Pie still carried third. But the others just seemed to go with the flow.

The next course was a desert themed one. Once the previous course went under, a winding road with sand rose from the floor. An indigo pyramid was also in place, and a part of the road went through it. A few stands were in place away from the track, and it had red lights shining on the track. They were emitting heat to give it a desert atmosphere.

They all got on, and got ready on the countdown. A boost pad was in front of the banner, which all of the easily crossed. A left turn was before them, which led to another boost right before a ledge. All of them took the gap, and ran on a long thin straightaway. It gradually widened as they got into the pyramid. A large and gentle corner rose with a small incline, which got them back out. A pigtail came and got them on another straightaway. The road banked to the outside as they ran over that small "hill", with the inside edge higher than the outside. Then, the road became uneven, with the inner edge raised, and the outer edge, lowered. They ran across it like the rest of the track, taking the upcoming left turn, and the road leveled out on the next straightaway, which took them to the lap line. Like before, Trailblazer got ahead of the pack once again, and ran the course out ahead of all the other ponies, finishing 1st.

"Ugh, this desert simulation is not good for my mane OR coat!" Rarity said as she finished in 23rd place.

"Or, you could take it like a PONY," AppleJack said to her, showing her orneriness.

"Why did I ever agree to race here...?" Rarity said, a bit upset.

"One more race to go!" yelled Twilight.

Trailblazer chuckled quietly. "I'll just blaze right by them."

The next track was one that looked like an electric plant. Sprinklers were set up above the track, putting them in a stormy setting. There were two loops on the track. One of them was vertical, the other, horizontal. The vertical one was right at the start. At it's end was the road, which steadily inclined towards it's left side, giving the impression that the racers were running on a wall. That led to the horizontal loop, which wrapped around the vertical one. The track then twisted upside-down, and the racers found themselves racing right above the starting gate. An outward folded straightaway was ahead of that area, and they saw a slope that sloped upwards, then back down, and twisted back right-side up. The straightaway that they were now on as they ran for the starting gate was folded inward, a mirrored version of the part of the track directly above them. Trailblazer got an early lead and kept it for the entire race.

"Baby, THAT is how that's done!" Trailblazer hollered, smiling from ear to ear.

All of the racers got off of the track. The results showed Trailblazer with a perfect score of 120. AppleJack and Rainbow Dash got 2nd and 3rd, while Pinkie Pie got 6th, Twilight in 8th, Fluttershy in 16th, and Rarity in 20th.

"Does this mean that I won't be able to run with the rest of you in the next Grand Prixs?" asked Fluttershy.

"Maybe if you pulled some weight at all, you would," mumbled Trailblazer.

"What?"

"According to the rules, you have to get 15th or better to get in the tougher grand prixs," he spoke up.

"Tch! Oh..."

"Don't feel bad, dear..." Rarity cooed. "I didn't make it either."

"Though, I have to say, a top three finish for us! That's REALLY good!" cheered Twilight.

"Well, that was just the Novice cup. Wait until we get into the Intermediate or even Expert cup!" said Rainbow Dash.

Another road rose from the floor, this time, just a flat oval, with three pegasi carrying a chariot for three.

"The award ceremony is going on now!" one of the officials said. "You three, come with me." He beckoned Trailblazer, AppleJack, and Rainbow Dash to come with him, and took them to a tunnel in the road. The pegasi stopped in the tunnel, waiting to pick up the three victors.

"Okay, you get on the bronze end, the orange one on the silver part, and, you, the colt, get on top," he instructed.

All three of them got on the chariot, which resembled an award podium. The pegasi pulling the chariot got back airborne and flew just a few inches above the track. As the crowd saw the top finishers, the entire stadium began to cheer them on. In the center of the track, a hemispherical platform was levitating in place, with three more levitating platforms over it. Once the chariot pegasi completed one lap of the oval, they took them to the levitating award podium they saw earlier. All three of them got on their respective platforms, celebrating their victories as they listened to the roaring crowd, praising them for their accomplishment. Trailblazer stood on his hind legs, beating his chest and pumping his hooves, AppleJack was rampant most of the time, and Rainbow Dash hovered over her platform, spinning and pointing to herself, trying to draw the crowd's attention. Three simple trophies were handed to them. Rainbow Dash took the bronze one, AppleJack with silver, and Trailblazer grabbed the gold. More celebrating came from them after taking their trophies for the rest of the ceremony.

After the ceremony ended, Trailblazer was called by a camera crew.

"Hey, come with us, please. We'd like to hit you up for an interview," one of the cameramen said.

"Oh, hell yeah, I'm in," said Trailblazer.

The camera crew took him to a corner of the stadium, where the media got ready to record. It was a platform hovering just off of the floor, with many t.v monitors at the back end of the stand. Trailblazer and the interviewer got in position on the platform.

"Okay, we're going live in five, four, three, two, one."

After the countdown ended, a fanfare played, and the giant monitor in the stadium that displayed the scores of the racers now was showing an image of a holographic sphere, along with the name of the organization, zoomed out from the top right corner of the screen, and stayed in place after that. There were two spinning rings around the sphere, and a vocal clip could be heard once the whole logo was displayed. "Max-V T.V."

After that, one of the pegasus cameramen panned himself around the platform, showing Trailblazer and the interviewer, recording the live broadcast.

"From the special Max-V GP venue, we're broadcasting an interview with the grand prix champion. Okay then, I'd like to ask you a few things."

The interviewer turned to face Trailblazer, who was surprisingly calm at this live interview. "Do you have a message to all of your T.V fans out there?"

"I have T.V. fans?" asked Trailblazer. "But I JUST joined as a racer the other day... Oh well, here's something. Have fun, live life, make the best of it, and grow strong. You only have one life, so make it good."

"Thanks for your words of enthusiasm, Champion! Now, what do you think was the key to your victory?"

"Ever heard of the Rising Warriors? I came from Equestria, and in my hometown, Tethleon, we had a little organization under that name. All of us ponies were trained to handle do-or-die stuations, and that made us both strong, and fast!"

"Thank you. One last thing: What are sone of your hobbies?"

"I play the guitar. I've played in concerts, and even composed a few instrumental songs of my own."

"Thank you for the interview." The interviewer took his microphone back and faced the camera. "That's all the time we have for tonight, fillies and gentlecolts. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you all in the next grand prix!"

The interview ended, and the spectators were beginning to leave the stadium.

"Let's keep this up!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "We did well out there!"

"Yeah... Wooo, I'm a bit tired from all that running," said Trailblazer.

"Well, with all that runnin' it's kinda like survival of the fittest," AppleJack thought.

"I say we hit the hay..." said Twilight. "I'm exhausted..."

"Yeah..." said Rarity. "We don't have to get up to do anything, so sleeping in will feel good."

All of them got out of the stadium and worked their way towards the lobby. One of the workers stopped them.

"Hey, wait up. You forgot your cuts!" he said. "Follow me."

He took them into the offices and into a room with an accountant waiting for them.

"Based on your performances, you'll get paid on how well you did," she said. She walked up to the back end of the room with a bunch of cabinets. They were arranged with three rows and 10 columns. The accountant pulled out bags of coins from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 16th, and 20th cabinets and handed them to the racers.

"How much is in here?" asked Trailblazer.

"3,000 for the champion, 2,900 for the 2nd place holder, 2,800 for 3rd, and so on and so forth."

"Whoa, then that means, I got... 2,400!" Pinkie Pie jumped. "We are RICH! She started to hop around wildly. "Just imagine all the parties I can host, and how many ponies I can provide for! Allthesnacks,desserts,games,everything'sgoingtobeaBLAST! Oh, and Fireworks, too! HeandIaregoingtohaveSOOOOO much fun!"

Rainbow Dash shoved her hoof into her mouth. "A simple "Wow, we're rich" would've done fine."

"Sorry, got a little carried away."

Twilight cocked her head to the side. "A LITTLE?"

The accountant cleared her throat. "Hey, just a little heads-up, this place is going to close for the night in 10 minutes."

"All right, fine, we're leaving," said Twilight.

The seven ponies got out of the stadium and headed back to their hotel. As they walked past a corner of the building, they didn't notice Hat Trick observing them as they discussed what their impressions of the grand prix was like. He quietly vanished in the shadows, unnoticed by any of them.

"...And so, I've observed their abilities as they raced. They are quite fast..." said Hat Trick to Steel Sword.

"How so?" he asked.

"It took the orange and sky blue one several seconds to catch up with the brown colt after he crossed the finish line."

Steel Sword placed a hoof over his chin, thinking. "So, they must be after a Sacred Star there... Okay, here's what I want you to do: don't engage until any one of them is about to grab it. Once you get it, take it away."

"Your wish is my command, sire," he said back.

"Good. Also... Pack Rat! Report!"

The green pony hustled into the throne room. "Yes, my lord?"

"Get in their next Grand Prix and try to slow them down. If they manage to beat you, let Hat Trick handle it. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" they both said.

"Good. Now, go."

Pack Rat ran out of the castle, while Hat Trick vanished, ready to do their duty.

One week passed since Rainbow Dash, AppleJack, and Trailblazer got the top three finish in the Novice cup. During that time, they signed up for the Intermediate cup, and Trailblazer won that too. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle couldn't get in the upcoming Expert Cup, leaving the three others to take it on themselves.

After the interview, the seven ponies regrouped and headed back to the hotel.

"It's all up to you three now," said Rarity.

"You'll get the Sacred Star, won't you?" asked Twilight. "It's not called the Expert cup for nothing..."

"Twi', yer talkin' to the fastest athletes in Ponyville!" boasted AppleJack.

"We got this in the bag!" taunted Trailblazer. "Did you see those leads I had!"

"Yeah, I did. Why was I even worried?" laughed Twilight.

A tremor shook the earth below them.

"Whoa whoa!" yelled Pinkie.

"Keep steady!

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got airborne, where the others stood their ground, keeping themselves standing. After only several seconds, the tremors stopped.

"Everypony okay?" asked AppleJack.

"Look! The Sario Hole!" Pinkie Pie looked and pointed at the hole in the sky, which doubled in it's own size.

"It's gotten bigger..." said Twilight.

"I'm not blind," said Trailblazer, sternly.

"Anypony know how much time we have left?" she asked.

They looked around at each other, not answering it.

"It may not be much. We'll have to pretend like we don't have much after all."

"Yeah, this isn't good at all..."

The pressure to keep the world from it's impending destruction was getting tense. They walked back into their hotel that they were staying at, trying to keep hope alive as they anticipated the Max-V Expert cup.