Chapter 5: The Race Part 3
The remaining four teams were getting very near to the end of the race. They had roughly one third of the track left before they would finally cross the finish line. Flim and Flam were in the lead and they were laughing to their hearts' content. They had taken down eight of their eleven competitors and the remaining three were surely unable to get past the roadblock that the two stallions had left behind.
"I'd say we've really outdone ourselves with this one my dear brother." Flim said as he swerved around a turn.
"I quite agree bother of mine." Flam replied as he used his boosters to enable their kart to jump a gap.
The two stallions grinned but then their expressions changed when Flam realized that the other three teams were starting to catch up with them. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie were in the lead with the teams of Rainbow Dash and Gilda and Applejack and Lightning Dust right behind them. All three teams were determined to win and they were glaring at Flim and Flam with quite a lot of hatred.
"They certainly are persistent eh Flam?" Flim asked his brother.
"That they are Flim." Flam replied. "Very persistent."
Flim kept driving and then he used his kart's cannon to shoot down several tree branches. The branches clogged up the road as the duo sped off. The remaining three teams weren't able to smash through the mass of wood so they came to a stop. They looked for an opening and they saw a patch of trees off to their left. All of a sudden, Trixie got an idea. Her face lit up with excitement as her horn glowed.
"Umm Trix what are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked in confusion.
"Twilight do you remember when you taught Trixie that Tracking spell?" Trixie asked her alicorn friend. Twilight Sparkle nodded in response and Trixie kept talking. "Well Trixie thinks that she might be able to convert it into a Pathfinding spell." Trixie then shot a bolt of magic into the air. The magic blast soared high over the forest and it wandered over it for several moments before it flew back and hit Trixie's horn. Trixie sat still in a thoughtful pose and then she swapped places with Twilight Sparkle.
"Follow Trixie." she said as she led the way into the forest with the other two teams following closely behind her. Trixie's spell seemed to have done the job as the showmare knew exactly where to go. The forest was quite dim but the karts had been equipped with headlights so the three teams were able to see quite clearly. The trees overhead were massive and their leaves almost completely blocked out the sun. This forest was definitely a remote area due to the lack of paths as well as how wild everything looked. The three teams swerved in between trees, stumps, bushes, and rocks as they made their way through the forest. The path they were on started to slope upwards but they kept on driving. Sunlight started to pour into the forest as the amount of trees started to lessen. The path kept going upwards and it seemed to form a ramp of sorts. The three teams boosted and they flew off the ramp at blazing fast speeds.
"I never get tired of that." Lightning Dust yelled as her kart was pushed forwards at a blindingly fast pace by the boosters that Applejack used.
Meanwhile Flim and Flam were still in the lead. This time they were positive that they had won. There was no way that the other teams could get past their roadblock and even if they could they'd be too far away to stop the stallions from winning. Both of the brothers chuckled as they kept driving.
"I'd say we have this race in the bag my brother." Flim said.
"You can say that again brother." Flam replied.
"I'd say we have this race in the bag my brother." Flim repeated.
"You can say that again brother." Flam said in response with a smile on his face.
Before Flim could say his line again, he was cut off by the roars of three engines. Flam looked behind him and his jaw dropped in pure shock. Three go karts shot out of the forest like rockets and landed on the track only a few feet behind the two stallions. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie were in the lead and the other two teams were very close by. Flim and Flam started to get worried and they tried to prepare their illegal weapons. Unfortunately for them, their cannon had overheated and they were out of nails. The spring had also broken a bit so their only weapon was their set of spikes. That wouldn't do them any good since the spikes were mounted on the front of the vehicle and all three teams were behind them. Twilight Sparkle had taken her position at the steering wheel again and she was trying to think of a way to beat Flim and Flam. However Rainbow Dash and Gilda as well as Lightning Dust and Applejack pulled up next to her and grinned.
"Leave this to us Twi." Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone.
"These guys are gonna get a taste of their own medicine." Gilda agreed with a grin on her face.
"We're gonna show 'em how we feel about cheaters." Lightning Dust added in a confident voice.
"Ya can count on us Twi." Applejack told her with a smile.
With that, the two teams sped off and pulled up alongside Flim and Flam. The two stallions grinned a bit but then they remembered that their springs were broken. Worried looks grew on the faces of both brothers as they watched their enemies get closer and closer to them.
"Now now." Flim said in a vain attempt to calm the foursome down. "Don't try anything."
"Why don't ya just let the real winners win this race?" Flam asked.
The two teams looked unimpressed by the stallions' arguments and they began to ram the duo's kart with their own. Flim and Flam barely managed to maintain control of their vehicle and they were perilously close to being sent off road. They argued that they were the best team and therefore deserved to win.
"You guys have some skills." Rainbow Dash admitted.
"And something to prove." Gilda added.
"But you're in our way." Lightning Dust told them.
"So ya better move." Applejack finished.
With that, the two teams rammed into Flim and Flam's vehicle once again. The yellow kart spun out of control and then the duo got rammed into by Twilight Sparkle and Trixie. The yellow kart went off road and slammed against a tree. The tires had been popped by some rather sharp rocks and then a branch came down and smashed the engine, rendering their kart useless. Sighing in defeat, Flim used his flare and the duo waited to be towed off of the track. Now there were only three teams left in the running. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie had caught up with the other teams and all three of them were neck and neck with each other. The audience cheered when they saw that Flim and Flam had been eliminated. The two stallions were highly unpopular in Ponyville so they had had absolutely no support from the townsponies. Flim and Flam waited while trying to ignore the glares they were getting from the rest of the teams.
The remaining three teams were still racing but they weren't attacking each other. They all wanted to win but they didn't want to win the way Flim and Flam had tried. Even though sending other karts off course wasn't against the rules, the three teams wanted to actually have some competition for the rest of the race. All three teams were moving as fast as they could as they swerved around curves and jumped over gaps. They came to a huge loop and they all used their boosters. They drove through the entire loop and then made a jump across a huge chasm. They rounded another turn and they saw the finish line in their sights.
"Good luck." all six racers said in unison as they sped towards the end of the race. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie were in the center with Rainbow Dash and Gilda on their left and Applejack and Lightning Dust on their right. The crowd was cheering at the top of their lungs as they watched the three teams use their boosters one final time. Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, and Trixie all had determined expressions on their faces as they got closer and closer to the end of the race. The three karts were nothing more than blue, teal, and purple blurs as they crossed the finish line. Nopony could tell who had won since the karts had been moving so fast. The three teams came to a stop and waited for the results. After several moments, the official pony walked up to his podium.
"The winning team of the race." he said. "Is the team of."
A moment of silence hung over the audience and the three teams as they waited for the stallion to finish his sentence.
"Twilight Sparkle and Trixie!" he shouted as the crowd cheered. The team of showmares had won the race. In second place were Rainbow Dash and Gilda who were very closely followed by Lightning Dust and Applejack. Loud cheers and applause were heard throughout the stadium at the announcement.
Many words could be used to describe the expressions of Twilight Sparkle and Trixie. Surprised, stunned, astounded, astonished, and baffled were just some of the wide variety of adjectives one could use. Both of them were amazed at the fact that they had won the race. Their friends cheered for them and then lifted them out of their kart and into the air. They carried the two ponies to the winners circle while the rest of the racers, minus Flim and Flam, pushed their kart into the center of the ring. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie were plopped down beside their kart and a photograph was taken of the duo. The official handed over two sacks of ten thousand bits each as well as two golden trophies to the winning duo of ponies and congratulated them. Flim and Flam walked over to Twilight Sparkle and congratulated her.
"We knew you could win." Flim said as he moved close to the alicorn, much to Trixie's displeasure.
"Never doubted ya for a minute." Flam agreed as he moved in on Twilight Sparkle's other side.
Twilight Sparkle beat her wings at the two stallions and they quickly moved away from her. They were about to speak to her but then they noticed the teams they had eliminated. Sixteen pairs of eyes were glaring at the two stallions and they started sweating a little.
"Now now." Flim said nervously. "Don't be hasty."
"No harm done." Flam agreed through chattering teeth. "No hard feelings. Right?"
The eight teams glared at the duo even more and then Flim and Flam ran off as fast as their legs would carry them. Not a single pony chased after the brothers. As far as they were concerned, the less time the duo spent in Ponyville the better. Pinkie Pie proposed a victory party and every team made their way to SugarCube Corner. All of the teams mingled with each other. Spitfire grinned as she signed an autograph for Scootaloo and told her that she could one day be a great flier. Scootaloo smiled but replied that she would rather stay with her friends and their rock band.
"If you wanna see a great flier there's nopony better than Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo declared. The rainbow maned pegasus heard this and a small blush appeared on her face. Spitfire smiled a bit and asked Rainbow Dash if she was the best flier ever.
"Fastest pegasus in Equestria." Rainbow Dash replied proudly.
"Oh please I could take you any day of the week." Lightning Dust replied in a challenging tone.
The two pegasi argued for a bit but Gilda broke them up.
"You guys might be the fastest ponies." she said with a grin. "But that doesn't mean you won't be beaten by a griffon."
The three fliers then got into a playful fight while the party kept going. In a secluded section of Ponyville, two stallions were standing with a small cloaked figure. They showed him two purple feathers that they had plucked from the wings of Twilight Sparkle. The presence of the feathers sparked the interest of the cloaked figure and he began to haggle with the brothers.
"Ten thousand." the figure said.
"I thought it was ten thousand per feather." Flim said with a slight grin on his face.
"That makes it twenty thousand." Flam added with a much broader smile on his own face.
"It's ten thousand like we agreed." the small figure replied firmly. "I don't care if you give me one feather or a hundred, it's gonna be ten thousand bits. Take it or leave it."
The trio stood in silence for a moment before the stallions smirked at the small figure.
"Well then perhaps we shall take our business elsewhere." Flim said.
"Too bad ya wouldn't raise your price." Flam told the figure in a mocking tone as the duo pretended to leave.
"And where would you go?" another voice asked.
The two stallions wheeled around and found themselves face to face with Shining Armor. Fear was showing very clearly on the faces of both Flim and Flam. They quickly handed the feathers over to the small figure, grabbed their bits, and ran. The two brothers didn't even dare look backwards out of fear that the male unicorn would be following them. Shining Armor smiled evilly a bit then he turned back into a changeling. The small figure grabbed the two lilac feathers and the duo left Ponyville in a flash of emerald green light. They appeared at their base and were grinning maliciously. Their plan to conquer the world would commence very soon. Now that they had the feathers of the alicorn princess there was nothing stopping them. The duo presented their feather to the queen of the changelings and she was quite pleased. Queen Chrysalis grinned broadly as she started making plans. She could already see her takeover of Equestria.
The End!
Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoyed reading this story because I had a lot of fun writing it. I had this idea for a while and I'm glad to have gotten the chance to make a story out of it. I said that A Prank Too Far had the most changes from when I got the idea to when I published it. While that is still true, this story definitely takes a close second. This was the story where I had originally planned to redeem Lightning Dust as well as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Instead of Flim and Flam being the villains it was going to be the changelings. I'm glad I changed it to what it is now because I like it better this way.
Right now I want to give a huge thanks to Crisist47 and 1LoneShadow for beta reading this story. You guys have been very helpful and I cannot thank you enough.
The lines said by Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Lightning Dust, and Applejack as they took out Flim and Flam are a reference to a song that I love which was the theme of a racing movie. (If you know the song it refers to you are awesome.)
If you're wondering why Queen Chrysalis wanted Twilight Sparkle's feathers or who the cloaked figure was that will be revealed in the next story. Speaking of the next story, when I published The Great and Miserable Trixie you guys said you wanted another Twilight SparklexTrixie story and that is what the next story will be. I am super excited to write it and I'm going to do my absolute best to make it as good as it can be. This story was a lot of fun and I can't wait to get working on the next one. Reviews are appreciated as always. Thanks for reading!
Edit: Hey guys it's been a while. I wanted to say that I'm working on the next story and I'm really proud of it so far. I've been doing my absolute best to make this story as good as it can possibly be and I think you guys will really love it. Unfortunately I've recently run into some personal issues which have kind of put a damper on my mood. I haven't quit writing fanfiction or anything but I want to sort out these issues before publishing my next story. I hate to leave you guys hanging like this but I don't feel right publishing the story when I'm not in the greatest of moods. Hopefully I'll be able to sort out these issues soon and be back to writing the stories I love. If you've been sticking around then thank you. I will not give up on writing these stories because they are way too fun for me to write. I just need to sort out some personal stuff first. Thanks for being patient and being such awesome fans! -TheGoldenYoshichu
For anyone who's curious as to when my next story will be published and why I've been absent for so long, I added an update to my profile so check it out and it should hopefully answer all of your questions. I'm sorry for the huge delay but everything that you need to know will be in that update on my profile. Just click on my username and it'll take you right there. -TheGoldenYoshichu