Chapter 72 – A Whole New Challenge

She finally stood proud, her and Breeze together for the second time on the winners' platform and this time with her team behind her. She had plenty of time to recover from using her magic the way she had during the Labyrinth. The medallions passed out to all four of them, and for once she was happy to have gotten something other than second or first place, though she would have openly preferred first. After being granted the honor of being able to race again thanks to the rule change, she wasn't going to complain. "Ladies and Gentlemen of Bacromus." the announcer called out, "I give you our final four contestants." The crowd shouted in glee, thanks to the announcement that morning, Rainbow Dash had been announced as innocent of any wrong doing, Twilight however was a little upset at the council taking the spear and placing it in the center of the city so that others could experience the magic that flowed, and Lady Kiane even decided that she would stay behind and teach others to use magic just like she had learned form Twilight. In return for the help, Twilight had written down a great many spells that she had memorized, and given them to Lady Kiane to learn and teach at her own discretion. "These four brave and inventive teams will be moving on to the system wide races to compete against the other three final four groups to determine the fastest in the Terranuil system."

"Wait, what?" Rainbow Dash asked in surprise.

"Good luck, and may the best racers be victorious." the councilor said with a grin, and suddenly everyone was surrounded in light.

"Where are we?" Rarity asked.

"I don't know." Writch said, "This is the first time any of us has ever actually been here, is this really what happens after the races?"

"Did I hear that guy right?" Rainbow asked as she turned to them, silver medallion in her wing, "Did he just say that we have to race the final four of all four planets?"

"That would be correct." Sselekk said as he approached them, "Once the final four of all four planets are decided, they convene and compete in a series of five races, one on each of the four planets and one only Egas knows where in order to determine the winner of the entire system. Just like last time, the last three racers of each race are eliminated from participating but this time it's until only one is left standing."

"So…you've been in the final four before?" Syls asked.

"No…" he said as he let the embarrassment set in, "But my mentor has, several times. He never got past the first race in the system races though, it's that competitive."

"Lady Skkail was my mentor, she was one of the best gunners in the system." Krisskkil said, "Though it looks like I've still got a long way to go."

"How about you and me duke it out in the simulators later?" Breeze said, "I'd bet we could learn a lot from each other in that kind of setting."

"I'm game." Chivalry said as she approached the two of them.

"Count me in to." Tris excitedly said, "Sounds fun!"

"We're going to have to up our game if we want to keep competing." Blade said to Writch, "Got any bright ideas?"

"We'll have to wait and see." the Treeopon said in response and turned to Twilight and Pilit as the two hugged each other in what could be counted as a sorrowful disappointment.

"It's not fair!" Pilit said.

"Why'd they have to take the spear?" Twilight followed up.

"Because it's public property?" Image asked in a questioning answer.

"But they didn't have to take our credit for the find!" Pilit said.

"They just wrote it down as ANONOMOUS!" Twilight informed them, "All because we kept it to study!"

"And used it to give me an edge with my magic." Rainbow added in.

"WE FOUND IT!" Twilight shouted, "I could have gone down in Treeopon history!"

"Me to!" Pilit agreed as the two continued crying.

"They're taking there punishment well." Honor said.

"Well, well, what have we here?" they all heard from behind them. When they looked, not only was there another group of final four victors some distance away, but there was a dwarf like figure, his skin shining like an aurora same as the Meltackians, but his cherry red beard stretched down to his shiny silver belt buckle with a moustache that curled up to the outside of his ears. He had bright blue eyes that glistened in the light and a full garb of leather and chain mail strewn about his person with what looked like a kilt that was split into several different spear head like sections, "Newbies aie?" he asked. He turned to honor and Chivalry, catching Image in his sights as well, "Meltackians." he said flatly, "Bout time yah left teh planet!"

"Humf." Honor's skin flashed bright reds and angry yellows as well as a shade of grey and black mixed in, everyone could tell he was distrustful of the new comer, "What does a Hok-Sai like you want with this system?" he asked, "Run out of things to melt down on Meltack?"

Twilight, Pilit, Fluttershy and Hulon were looking between the two of them, Twilight, Pilit and Hulon with stars in their eyes at the chance to see a new alien, Fluttershy was afraid that the two would start fighting. "YOU TWO HAVE SIMILAR SKIN!" Twilight shouted out, catching the two of them off guard as she flew into the face of the Hok-Sai, "Do you share an ancestry? You obviously share the planet but do you have powers like Honor does? Do you have names or do you do what Honor's species does and identify as ideas? Why don't you float like Honor? Is it a thing with Hok-Sai or are you doing it on purpose?"

She was going to keep asking but suddenly the Hok-Sai burst out laughing, "This one's a lively one, aie?" he said with a grin that could have stretched across his entire face, "I like yah, what's yer name?"

"Twilight Sparkle!" she said with a grin that could have matched his, "Head of Research for our team."

"Nice te meet yah Twilight Sparkle." he said, "I'm Tri-Tiner, teh pilot of teh Boring Rubble!"

"I'm Pilit." the little Treeopon shouted, "I'm assistant coach!"

"At yer age?" the dwarf of a man asked with the same smile, "Congratulations, I think yer teh youngest I've seen yet!" He then looked around, "So who's yer pilot, aie?"

"That would be me." Rainbow said confidently, "Rainbow Dash!"

"Nice te meet yah." he said with a grin and a hand outstretched. Rainbow Placed her hoof to his hand and they shook, "Hope yah don't mind but I'll be taken home that first place prize."

"Tch," Rainbow scoffed, "Gotta 'Tri' to get past me first!"

Tri-Tiner belted out laughing before any of them could cringe at the attempt for trash talk, "I see what yah did there." and turned to Honor, "See?" he asked, "This is how yah trash talk!"

"We're still learning that art." Chivalry said as she placed a had to her fuming brother.

"Still." Tri-Tiner said as he turned back to Rainbow Dash, "I do hope yah can put yer points where yer mouth is. Otherwise, this might not be as fun as I'm hoping."

"Just you wait." Rainbow said, and suddenly there was a horn that blew, a light shining in the center as the four groups form the planets gathered around. None heard any nose other than that, but they could feel the command. The pilots and the gunners all approached the center, and could feel the thing greet them. Rainbow Dash hadn't noticed until now, but all sixteen teams had arrived, and with a flash of light, all were separated into what looked like their own garages.

"We got three weeks huh?" Blade said.

"That's a long time." Writch said, "Think we can get the Rainbow Trail up to snuff in that time?"

"With what I could see we're going to need stronger shields, and maybe a bypass system to restart some thrusters." he said. "We've got three weeks; I think we'll be fine.

"Did you see all those racers?" Fluttershy asked, "They all look really strong."

"We'll be ok." Rainbow said, "Cause we've got the best of the best right here." she smiled as the grins started to appear, "We're all we need to win this race and save the system."

Her team cheered at the words, her confidence infecting them all as they excitedly went back to work on whatever they were doing before. "Did we teleport already?" Pinkie suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Tusks asked, "We can't have, none of us have placed the final medallion yet."

"But look!" she said and got the team to look out the garage door as she let the thing open. There was nothing there, rather just a simple white blanket of nothing outside, just like the meeting area they had been to before.

"Sselekk did say that a one of the five races will be on each of the four planets." Rarity reminded them, "I wonder which planet the Egas will pick first?"

"I hope it's not a scary one," Fluttershy said as she hid herself behind Blade.

"I think we need to place the medallion to find out." Twilight suggested.

"Well, I can't think of anypony I'd like more {snort} to kick off this adventure," Tusks said as he turned to Rainbow Dash, "What do you say Pilot? {snort} Wanna send us to a new location?"

Rainbow let her eyes shine with excitement, "You mean it?" she asked.

"Why not?" Writch said in agreement.

The blue pegasus squeed in glee as she flew up to grab the medallion from her coach. She then slowly made her way to the wall where the medallions were set, and placed it to the wall. It was almost as if it was supposed to go there, though there were no markings on the wall, the medallion slid into it with verry little pressure. Once set, the magic started again, and the door closed by itself. Almost at the same time, Pilit found her scanner going haywire, reading magic everywhere. Then, the rumbling stopped and everything went back to normal.

"I was right!" Twilight said almost to herself, "It is a massive teleportation spell." she glanced at the scanner as she spoke, "That was a LOT of magical power!"

"And it was all form the Egas." Pilit said as she checked her readings.

"But, what planet did it send us to?" Spike asked.