Horsepower #11

With a dramatic flourish, Lug Nut pulls the tarp away from her creation, and your eyes go wide with wonder, your voice makes a sound that’s not particularly describable on an audible plane of hearing. It’s a screech of pure joy, for this is the absolute best thing she’s ever made. Sure, it’s not sleek, fancy looking, or particularly pretty, but it has exactly what you want: the look of a car made to survive the apocalypse and more.

It’s compact, square, and rugged, with yellow paint covering the thing and some hazard stripes as an accent. Three tailpipes stick off the right side, with a plate on the front to protect the car. Heavy window bars have been carefully placed to keep the window from collapsing while not compromising your ability to see. The whole thing is jacked up to keep terrain from screwing you over while you drove, and the whole thing looked like it could eat a cragodile and just keep on going.

You’re practically dancing back and forth as you finish circling around the car and grin giddily at Lug Nut, who is smiling back at you, delighted that you like it so much. With a flying pounce, you grab her again and pull her into a big hug. “It’s PERFECT,” you assure her. “It looks like it could eat gravel and shit out diamonds!”

She giggles at that comment. “C’mon,” she says, “I’m proud of the design, but it’s not like Celestia herself crafted the hood ornmanent.”

“Are you kidding me? This baby’ll get us all the bitches. ALL of them!”

She snorts and pushes out of the hug. “Alright, alright”  She’s red as a tomato by now but it can’t dim her grin. “You’ve sucked my dick enough, let’s keep on working. We need to sort you out a weapon.”

“Right, right,” you acknowledge, still a bit distracted by your new car, “Uh, how about a taser?”

“A taser? I mean, I could rustle one up, but it’d be kind of short range.”

“Yeah, but it’s also the best way to stop a guy who’s already right on top of me, and the point is that Dusk is supposed to keep people from getting too close. It’s like, uh, insurance, not something I’m gonna like run around and try to zap people with.”

“Huh… Okay,” she says with a nod, “That’s surprisingly mature and reasoned of you.”

“Hey! I can be reasonable. I actually care about this shit, y’know.”

“Keep the car from lighting on fire this time and maybe I’ll take that under advisement,” Lug Nut snarks. You’re half sure it’s a joke. Or sure it’s half a joke. One of those two.

You grumble about getting no respect, and start to wander around to the other side of the car to give it another look. However, you don’t make it there, because as you’re circling around, you see the tent flap open and a familiar face sidle inside. With a second’s hesitation, you rush up to him.

“Fort!” You say, grabbing your older brother in a hug as he looks down at you with his casual grin.

“Hey there, squirt,” he says, rubbing your headfeathers and messing them up, which earns him a scowl as you immediately set to work to get your ‘don’t care how I look’ style back.

“What are you doing here?” You ask while you reshape your coif. “I thought you were in Las Pegasus, making crazy dough or something.”

“‘S the beauty of being a professional gambler, squirt,” he says, taking a look around. “I took a week off, I’ve got the cash reserves to support it. Plus, mom and dad couldn’t make it so they sent me the tickets.”

“Oh… Were they busy?”

“Yeah, dad’s modeling contract got extended, plus mom’s still in the middle of her training cycle for the next Wrasslethon,” Fort says. “Said they love you, give you a hug for them… Will just the one do? You want another one?”

You’re not really feeling it, so you nod and sigh. “Yeah… I mean, I guess they’re busy people. Can’t expect much more.”

Fort punches you in the arm. “Hey, quit being such a downer. I’m here to watch you win. First place, right?” He gives you a thumbs up, which you eagerly return.

“Yeah!” You say. “First place or bust. Oh, uh, you can crash on our couch in the hotel room.”

“Naaaaaaah,” he says. “I got the Princess Suite at the Mareiot Inn,” he says. “Oh hey, where’s your mechanic friend? Lug Nut or whatever?”
You start to answer, but then look around and see nothing. “I, uh, don’t know. Maybe she dashed off to use the bathroom or something… Wanna go get some food or something? It’s been like, years!”

“Yeah, sure,” he says. “I’m buying! Or, uh, mom and dad are.”

“Why did you even take their money? You’re like, crazy rich, aren’t you?” You ask as the two of you start off out of the work camp.

“Mom and Dad are giving the money so they don’t feel bad about not being here, duh,” he says, looking at you derisively. “It would just make them feel bad if I didn’t take it.”

“You COULD give me the money,” you say in a huff. “Money’s kinda tight and all.”

He just laughs, and the two of your find a diner that’s still open and grab a quick bite to eat, catching up on everything. He’s just as chill as ever, nothing fazing him even in the slightest. He lives near your parents, so he’s in contact with them quite a bit of the time. It’s enviable, but real estate in Las Pegasus was way too expensive, and none of the racing scene was there, so you couldn’t hang around there and needed to book it to Baltimare.

Eventually, the two of you part ways. He offers you to crash in the Princess Suite, but you don’t have a good way to tell Lug Nut, so you just head back to the grungier motel that you and Lug Nut found. It’s nearly midnight when you make it back, the pony behind the front desk of the motel gives you the key in your name, and you head over to room number six. They had actually been booked up, what with the Haymaker Circuit always being a big deal, but after explaining that you were racers, they quickly found a room for you. You only hoped some poor racing fan wasn’t left out in the cold because of it.

Opening the door, you see Lug Nut chilling and watching a small, static-y TV while someone jabbers on about oil prices. She looks over at you and she seems… rough. Her mane is a bit frazzled and her eyes are red and puffy. “Oh, hey Comet!” She says. “I saw Fort, how’s he doing?”

“He’s, uh, okay. You doing alright? You seem kinda…” You trail off while struggling for how to explain it.

“Oh, um, yeah,” she says with a nod. “I just missed some of my meds and my leg started to act up. I just needed to duck out to...” She trails off, unable to think of something.

You cut her off. “Are you gonna be okay? Do you have your pills on you?”

She nods. “Yeah, yeah, they were just packed up and I needed to finish some work on the suspension before I could focus on that.”

Your pony half wants to scrunch, but your bird half lacks an easy means of doing that, so your beak sort of stiffens.  “You’re really hard working, Lug Nut, and that’s what makes you the best. But that leg injury can knock you out, I’ve seen t before. If you pass out in the race, what am I gonna do? I need my mechanic AND my friend.”

She smiles at you, but there’s a touch of sadness behind it. “Alright, alright,” she says, “I’m sorry, it was dumb of me and I wasn’t thinking. I’ll be more careful, okay?”

As you crawl into your bed, you nod, still a bit concerned. “Yeah… yeah okay. As long as you promise.”

“I do,” she assures you. “Now c’mon. Let’s get some sleep before the race, okay?”

You sleep like the dead, all the excitement and work of the day having left you incredibly exhausted. The morning is mostly frantic preparations: a heavy breakfast and short workout to get you warmed up for the race, a thousand last minute checks, then a thousand more that you swear Tweak is just inventing from the aether to keep Lug Nut from consuming her own brain with worry.

Finally, you and your team are assembled. Dusk is sitting there reading a pamphlet for some kind of cruise line. Slight Tweak is checking over the screws used in part of the engine, and Lug Nut in pacing back and forth. You’re in the garage, just a short drive away from the starting line.

“S-so,” Lug Nut says. “I mean, most of this should be just doing a good job, y’know. But, uh, Comet. You’re in charge here, you’re the driver and all that. What’s the plan? How are you guys going to attack this?”