Chapter 44 – Fury of Competition
Sselekk growled until he saw it, the hole in the wall that led to the pit that Rainbow Dash and the others had fallen into earlier in the race, and with a grunt, he turned his massive ship to duck into it and then fall into the hole in the ground. His eyes nearly popping out of his skull as he ground his teeth, "Little creature…" he mumbled to himself, "You'll never make a fool of me!"
'Dear Egas, he's crazy.' Krisskkil thought to himself, 'What is going on? Is this really one of the champions chosen by the Emperor?' It was only seconds later he noticed that everything went dark. With a few blinks of his eyes, they focused, the darkness clearing up to reveal outlines of all kinds of items as they raced past them, the larger machine smashing into everything as it passed by at high speeds. 'Where are we?" he asked himself and tried desperately to spot some kind of indication of their surroundings. Instead, everything he looked at was quickly destroyed by the large ship that he was in, the pilot erratically racing through the halls and letting the wings of the machine dig into the stone and reveal the metal underneath, a metal that shined like moonlight, 'Is that Calurio Silver?' he asked himself, 'Then that means, this location is of historical value, and destroying it would…' his thought consumed him, never once noticing the gates that his pilot raced through. "Sselekk, you have to slow down, this place is important." he suddenly said, and was quickly blinded when the two of them came into the light, "Engh." he groaned as he shut his eyes and placed his arms in front of his face.
Sselekk grunted in pain as well, closing his eyes slightly as he let them adjust back to the light, and quickly, he saw the three in front of him, his vision fading to red as he focused on one particular racer.
Rainbow Laughed as she raced her friends, "Can't hit me, we've got your special move countered now!" she taunted as Honor spun his ship to allow Chivalry to shoot in a spiral pattern. Breeze, through quick movements and precise targeting, was able to stop each of them, while fending off Tris' shots as well.
"Heh!" the unicorn grinned, "I've been practicing that little trick." he announced and turned to get a better view of the Honor Guard as they tried to fall behind to take a better shot. That was when he spotted the much larger Sunik ship using its turbo boost to catch up to them at a pace he was not comfortable with, "Incoming five o'clock!" he shouted.
The other five turned to spy the same thing he looked at, just as the ship raced up to them, aiming specifically for the Rainbow Trail. Rainbow Dash, with a quick thought of ingenuity, tilted her wings, pointing the nose to a slightly upward position, and just as the Sunik ship nearly hit her, threw the ship into full throttle, causing them to actually jump over the speeding racer. "What the hey was that about?" Rainbow asked.
"What dishonor, attempting to deliberately ram into another pilot?" Honor asked.
"He's getting away!" Syls said as they watched the much larger ship take a turn while slamming into the walls. The shield on the ship gave out at the impact, damaging the wing a bit, but quickly came back online. "You're not getting away from me!" she shouted and turned the handles on her machine so that they were flat. The wings on the Silver Blitz shifted, sliding back so that the cockpit was at the forefront instead of the back, and then the back of the ship lit up, and Syls boosted on ahead.
"What the…she has turbo as well?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"We'll not let that fiend cross the finish line!" they heard Honor say, and the blades at the sides of the ship moved forward, spreading themselves out and down a bit before the Honor Guard jutted forward, and away from the Rainbow Trail.
Suddenly, the screen flickered, and Tusks could be seen in the corner, "Did you guys see that?" Rainbow asked as soon as she noticed them.
"See what?" Blade asked as he found his way onto the frame.
"Syls and Honor both have turbo as well, why don't we have a turbo?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, that's the problem here!" Breeze said, "Ignore that fact that the Sunik team just tried to RAM INTO US AT TURBO SPEED!"
"They what?" Twilight asked, and was quickly interrupted by Blade.
"You don't have turbo because Writch and I are still testing fuels for compatibility with whatever fuels the B336!" he said, "It appears to be very picky about what it mixes with."
"But you can keep up with them, Rainbow Dash." Twilight said suddenly, "There are some very tight turns up ahead, they'll have to slow down and take wider turns than you. If you can keep your speed up and stay on the inside, you can catch up to them in no time."
Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth as she looked forward, "How fast?" she asked.
"About 85% to 90% speed should do it, more if you have a shallower turn." the purple alicorn said.
"Then we don't have time to lose." the blue pegasus said, and pushed her racer hard, keeping tight into the turns as she raced on through. It wasn't long after she disappeared through around one of the curves that it looked like a wall opened up, and out came the other six racers.
Rainbow Dash weaved in and out of the turns as they approached, staying inside at the speeds she knew the little racer could handle. They had lost much ground before but she could feel it, Twilight was right, they were making great strides with the tactic they had planned. It wasn't long until she could see the others ahead, Chivalry and Tris both firing at the much larger Sunik ship, and the Sunik gunner returning fire as the others either blocked or dodged out of the way of the blasts. "I see them!" she shouted, and suddenly heard the guns of her own ship fire off.
"We got company!" Breeze said, and caught Rainbow Dash turning her head, "Don't look at them!" he said harshly and got the pegasus to turn back around, "I'll take care of them, you focus on those turns." The unicorn then turned back to the six other ships firing at him, "You wanna play?" he asked darkly, "Then let's play!" With focus, he once again increased his speed, micromanaging the small flicks of his forelegs to keep up with a total of twelve other gunners. "Blade!" he said to the screen at his bottom right, and was able to tell that his brother was listening simply by the way the eyes on the grey pegasus opened in surprise, "Get Fluttershy and Hulon ready for some extraction." he said, "This is gonna take everything I got!"
"Do NOT overdo it!" his brother said sternly, "I want to see you training by the end of the day."
"Tch, no promises!" he said, and quickly switched his communications off, "Now, if you want Rainbow Dash, you'll have to get through me, and I'm one of the best assassins on the Genesis Ark." he said, though he was sure no one could hear him, "You're all going down!"
Rainbow Dash once again took a tight turn, keeping to the inside of the curve and sliding to the middle to make it through a gate before continuing on and turning again as the path formed a zigzag of sorts, she was now only one gate away from catching up. "I'm back!" she called out, catching the others by surprise. With that, she moved behind the Sunik ship, and bit down once again on the trigger in front of her, firing off the only weapon she knew that could take down the shield of the much larger ship in front of her, the Mass Stun Pulse Cannon. The burst of energy erupted in a flash of light, the barrier shattering to pieces as the others landed a few hits. Rainbow Dash moved to the side as the much larger ship started to fall back a bit, "That's what you get!" she shouted out, and once again watched as the others passed her by. Only then did she notice that the track had straitened. "Oh no!" she said and was quickly passed by several more racers.
"All that distance we made up." Breeze said to himself as he panted in near exhaustion.
"I'm sorry." Twilight said to Tusks as she lowered her head, "It looks like this is as far as we go."
'I can't lose now.' Rainbow thought to herself, 'We came all this way, and now I'm just gonna lose? I'm gonna let everypony down, I'm gonna let Tusks down.' Her thoughts brought her to Tusks words, the tale of the emperor that wished to rule, and the devastation that was sure to follow. An image of the beautiful planet of Bacromus flashed into her mind, the city destroyed and all the plants and animals gone, just a barren wasteland that was impossible to survive. 'No.' she thought, 'I won't let that happen. I refuse to let them down.' The moment that thought entered her mind, something snapped in her. Her determination flashing through her eyes for a second before her fur and feathers once again shined, brighter than before, 'I'm gonna win, I'm gonna save them.' The light that shined from her body snaked its way through the seams of the wing controls, and then across the outside of the ship as the wings once again folded up, "I refuse to let you WIN!" she called out, and the jets all fired at once, the speed seemed even more intense than the last time as the Rainbow Trail rocketed through the track. They were a blur as the little racer passed by all of the others. The surprise on Breeze's face as he felt the pressure from the increase in speed matched the expressions on their friends. As the Sonic Rainboom erupted from the contrail, and less than a second later, the little cyan racer pass both them and the final gate. The entire thing took less than a second and ended in Rainbow Dash overshooting by a few miles. 'I can't stop!' she thought to herself, and looked to her wings, before slipping them out of the controls. With the connection severed, the glow ended, and she was quickly able to reach back into the controls to slow her ship to a stop. Panting, and tired, she congratulated herself, 'I can't believe that worked.' She thought, and turned her ship back to the crowd, and was met with silence.