Chapter 5 – Invitation to Race

"It's tradition!" the pigman said with a smile as he stood back onto his hooves.

"For what exactly, you have a lot of traditions!" Breeze asked.

"The Terranuil Race!" Tusks said and reached into his pocket to pull out a small metal stick. He pressed his thumb against the side, and from the tip, came a light that formed a poster of several of his race in what looked like ships that were put together from parts of other ships. "It comes up every cycle, {snort} the four sister planets all get-together and the best of their {snort} racers compete to see who the winner is between them. The victor gets to make one demand {snort} that all four planets have to obey. Though, for the most part, {snort} it's always better parts for your ships. {snort} Once it was a trade route establishment."

"Awesome!" was all Rainbow Dash could say as she looked stary eyed at the poster.

"This is one of the biggest races in my solar system. {snort} Techs, scroungers, pilots!" Tusks said, "We even have real quality parts this time!"

"Quality parts?" Blade said to himself.

"That's great!" Breeze said with a smile, "But, we don't have tickets." This last part he said with a bit of disappointment.

"PHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the alien belted out, "{snort} The team doesn't need tickets!"

Everyone stopped as they looked at him, "I'm sorry…what?" Rainbow asked.

"I was hoping you'd be my Pilot!" Tusks said with a smile, "That's why I {snort} dyed my hair like yours."

"You want me…to race one of the biggest races in your galaxy…as your pilot?" the pegasus asked.

"Well, {snort} I wasn't expecting you to have so many friends of course." he admitted, "When you said you'd {snort} save your friends I was {snort} expecting maybe one or two!"

"I'm way cooler than that!" Rainbow said with all the confidence in Equestria, "And what did you mean 'you weren't expecting' it?"

"I kinda got a team of my own together with just a few extra slots open," he said.

"Oh, man…" Rainbow sighed and turned to her friends. The look Twilight was giving, a defeated look, while Applejack had a worried smile. Fluttershy looked worried and Rarity smiled with a sorry small smile.

"R.D.?" Breeze asked from beside her and Blade simply nodded.

"Sorry Tusks." she said as she turned back to him, "I just can't leave my friends like that." She turned to her friends again, each of them sadly smiling as they surrounded her.

Tusks was about to argue a bit, but was quickly cut off, "Friendship is very important on this planet young Treeopon." Riida said as she approached his ship.

"Wait…that voice!" he said and turned his head to see the tall alicorn with light shimmering blue fur and moonlight mane and tail, then the crown of leaves on her head, "Head Counselor?" he asked in shock, "You too?"

"I changed because of a different reason than them." she admitted, "Why not join us for lunch and tell us about why you chose Rainbow Dash to represent your team?"

"I would like to hear that as well." Blade said, and turned to the alien, "Is your race still primarily vegetarian?"

"Through and through, {snort} and proud of it!" Tusks announced with pride.

"So are ponies, and I bet you've never had hayfries before." the stallion said.

"Wait…you can fry hay?" Tusks asked, "I want some!"

Breeze couldn't stop smiling as the alien pig man ate like…well…a pig. He quickly shoved whatever hayfries were placed in front of him into his mouth and scarfed everything down. He even grabbed Twilight's daisy sandwich without really thinking about it. Riida and the others waited until Tusks had finished, and then quickly ordered again, "Well, I see you haven't been eating well, as usual." Riida said as she used her magic to lift up a nice carrot, hay, and pickle sandwich.

"Yeah, sorry about that {snort}." he said as he shot an apologetic look to Twilight. The mare simply sighed as her new sandwich arrived. "Still, daisies!" he said, mostly to himself, "Who knew they tasted so good. {snort} I might just need to bring some of them to Bacromus so we can grow them ourselves."

"So why are you here anyway? I mean other than to recruit me?" Rainbow Dash asked him.

"Oh yeah!" he said, and patted his stomach, "I guess you were right; a full tummy can help you {snort} figure out your problems." with this, he turned to Riida.

The alicorn's cheeks turned red, "I believe the word I used was stomach, not tummy." she said embarrassed as she heard Discord chuckling in the background.

Tusks simply smirked at her, and then turned back to Rainbow Dash and her friends, "I'm sorry about earlier. You see, I was hoping to steal {snort} Rainbow Dash away for a few of your months."

"We get that." Blade said, "But why? You've got plenty of qualified racers on your own planet, and if you wanted to, you could easily hire a racer from one of the other planets"

"We have to win!" Tusks said, "Not just for my team, {snort} but for all of the other planets in the Terranuil solar system." Every pony looked to him in confusion, "Ok." he sighed as he gathered his thoughts, "Look, {snort} there's a group of Sunik Racers that are entering the race under the order of their {snort} undeclared ruler, he wants to use the demand given to the winners of the {snort} race to order the all four planets to submit to his rule indefinitely."

The entire group gasped in shock. "Honestly I'm surprised it hasn't happened before!" Discord said out of the blue, but still in alarm.

"It did." Tusks said solemnly, "The rule lasted so long that the four planets had to go {snort} to war with each other. If that happens again, {snort} I don't think any of the planets will survive."

"Why is that?" Twilight asked.

"Because the last time {snort} it took the Genesis Ark AND Head Councilor Riida to end it." he said, "I was just a youngling of maybe {snort} two cycles at the time. I witnessed what it took {snort}."

"The Genesis Ark AND Riida had to stop it?" Rainbow asked.

"Yes." Riida said solemnly, "Their weapons advanced so erratically, I had to go planetside while the Ark itself laid down suppressing fire. There was so many dead around me, it reminded me of the tragedy so long ago, the tragedy of my doublePack." She shed a single tear as she spoke, "I was forced to end the reign of a monarch in blood that day. And then, I scooped up a young orphan to bring onto the Ark and train. An apprentice for the great Councilor Geros."

"How long is a cycle?" Fluttershy asked in curiosity.

"It usually depends, the four planets have to alight just right for it to be counted a cycle, mostly somewhere between sixteen and twenty of your years." Riida said.

"And how old are you now?" Twilight asked.

"Why, are you trying to court me?" Tusks asked with a grin on his face. Twilight instantly turned red as several of her friends started giggling uncontrollably.

"Wha…no I w-w-w-was just…um…" she stammered.

"Relax, I'm just teasing you!" he said to calm her down, "I'm about twenty-three cycles right now."

"TWENTY-THREE CYCLES?" Twilight shouted, "Let's see, given the average…carry the two…YOU'RE ON AVERAGE FOUR HUNDRED AND ELEVEN?!"

"No, I'm twenty-three cycles." he said in a bit of a huff.

"She meant four hundred eleven equestrian years." Blade corrected, and Tusks placed his hands up to count.

"Wait…" he said as he started trying to do the math on his hands.

"Man!" Rainbow Dash suddenly sighed, "If I don't go, Tusks might have to obey some kind of tyrant, but I can't just leave my friends!" she lay her head on the table as she tried to run through the dilemma.

"Well, first you'll have to tell the Wonderbolts about this. It'll explain why you won't be there." Blade said as he stood up from the table, "I just do odd jobs so I basically work for myself."

Breeze instantly smiled at his brother, "I can stop by the delivery service in a sec." he said and vanished in his ring of smoke, only to reappear within a few seconds, "They said it was fine, they'll just give my rout to the new guy until I get back."

"Good. Fluttershy?" Blade turned.

"I'll have Dr. Fauna help take care of the animals." she responded and walked away.

"Don't let Angel Bunny try to sneak into your luggage!" he called after her.

"What's going on?" Tusks asked as he and Rainbow Dash stood by watching as Blade basically took charge.

"Applejack? Pinkie?" he asked.

"I got everything settled!" the pink pony said as she set down a very large bag of luggage. The orange earth pony seemed to just stand there as her eyes tried to stop spinning in her head.

"Of course, you do!" he said as he rolled his eyes, "Twilight?"

"I can't wait!" the young alicorn said as she reappeared from her unseen teleport, "Princess Riida, you and Spiral Chain can use the castle until we get back, but don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"Did we get everything?" Spike asked as he lifted his backpack.

"I didn't have time to make a list, what if we forgot something?" Twilight suddenly panicked.

"Don't poke the alicorn Spike!" Breeze suddenly said.

"How about you Rarity?" Blade asked as he turned to the marshmallow colored pony.

"I'll have to contact somepony to take care of the Boutique, but I've got a great entourage to choose from." she said, "I can have it done quickly."

"Great." he said and turned to Rainbow Dash, "We got ya covered Dash."

It suddenly clicked in Rainbow's mind, and a smile slowly formed on her face, and with no warning, raced off to get one of the Wonderbolts to take care of her pet. "Wait, what just happened?" Tusks asked.

"You just got more passengers than you bargained for, and I doubt there's anything you can do about it." Riida said as she and Discord both chuckled.

Tusks just let his jaw drop, he looked around as the other ponies dispersed to go their separate ways, Spiral Chain following Rarity as they talked. "Wha…but…I…{snort}"

"Just look at it from their perspective, wouldn't you try to follow one of your friends." Riida explained.

Tusks simply dropped his posture, defeat finally sinking in, "Fine." he sighed.