Horsepower #7

This one is easier, but not by much. Although his personality is a bit whack, Slight Tweak’s technical knowledge puts him as a clear front-runner. Though it does pain you a bit to see Lug Nut with little hearts in her eyes. Maybe you can work something out...

You stand up and head over to where the three candidates are talking shop, all of them abruptly stopping as you approach and focusing on you with rapt attention. It’s a position based around working together and attentiveness, you suppose. “I’ve reviewed the options, and I think we’re going to have to go with Slight Tweak.”

Giz looks visibly deflated. “Awwww man,” she said with a sigh. “Eh, better luck next time, I guess.” She gives Slight Tweak a friendly punch on the wither, which frazzles him just a bit, and his magic glows as he immediately begins to smooth down the fur with his magic. She gets up and gives you a quick salute. “Maybe I’ll see you out there!” She chirps and heads out of the door.

Oil Slick nods professionally and starts to get up. “Well, I’m sorry I wasn’t to help you with your vision, but I thank you for the opportunity,” she says with a graceful bow.

“Actually, let me grab some contact info,” you say, getting both Lug Nut and Oil Slick to stare at you with surprise and a little bit of hope. “Just in case we need an image consultant or I need to put someone in contact with you.” You give her a wink.

She giggles and gives you a wink back before producing a piece of paper. With elegant loops, she writes out her contact information. It’s good enough that she essentially just improvised a business card.  “That sounds like a lovely plan,” she says, and starts off out of the door. You swear her wing opens just a little bit to brush against Lug Nut, who looks over at her with eyes full of wonder.

“Excuse m-” Slight Tweak starts.

“GAH!” Lug Nut shouts and jumps backwards, having been a bit too distracted to see him get up and approach the two of you. Her panic startles Slight Tweak, who yelps and jumps backwards. You thrust your face into the palm of your claw. Maybe having these two spend too long next to each other wasn’t such a good idea.

Eventually, the two high-strung mechanics stop panicking enough for them to join you as you sat at the table. “Alright,” you say. “Uh, if you can meet us at 6 tomorrow we can-”

“Nonsense!” Slight Tweak said, producing several folders. “I need to familiarize myself with the car.”

“What? I haven’t even gotten to see the car and I’m gonna be driving it!” You protest.

Lug Nut shakes her head. “You can drive anything with wheels. He’s gonna be fixing it.”

You grumble at her obvious appeasement tactic but, well, she’s right. “Fine,” you say. “I’ll let you two metalheads get down to it, then.”

“And then we can get started on my six hundred and twelve point inspection,” Tweak says as you start to get up. Lug Nut immediately looks at you with an expression devoid of her prior goodwill; it says something to the effect of ‘I could have been making out with Oil Slick right now you BITCH’.

You chuckle and head out of the diner before Lug Nut can drag you in out of spite. You did the business_work thingie, now you can finally meet some of the other racers. Fuck yes! You trot outside merrily and almost run into Dusk, who is standing, looking off into the sky. You narrowly avoid slamming into her and give her a look. Has she noticed you?

“Hello, Dusk,” you offer gently, hoping not to scare her with your presence.

“Hello, Comet,” she says without looking. In the light of the afternoon sun, she looks a bit scruffier than you had thought. Not bad, maybe a little unkempt, her short mane a little bit frazzled. She makes it work, however, and it frames her face nicely.

She’s seems a bit concerningly distracted. “You’re not on the sauce, are you Dusk?” You ask.

She looks back at you, and for just a second you get a glimpse of iron focus before her eyes go back to their carefree, casual drifting. “Nah,” she says. “Just thinking.”

“Well, I was about to go check out a couple of the other teams around there, did you want to come with?”

“Cool,” she says, a small smile on her face. “Sounds like fun.”

“Sweet,” you say, and the two of you start off towards the clutch of tents where various techs are dashing back and forth. “Anyone you really want to meet?”

“Does it really matter?”

“I… guess not?” You say. How are you supposed to answer that? You spy an information kiosk and head over, pulling out a map and starting to sort through. It has a list of racers and their tent assignments. Useful! You head down the main street of the tent city and look back and forth to see the teams available. A lot of teams choose to prepare off-ground and some are sequestering themselves for privacy or personal reasons.

Still, you double-check and see a few names of interest that have their tents open. Most of them you know a thing or two about, but it got a lot harder to keep up super well since you started doing the actual racing yourself. Still, you try and pool what you’ve remembered or been able to grab.

The Kings of Speed, pretty much the be-all end-all of racing from like ten years ago. They won almost every race, but just quit abruptly. Recently they rejoined to support the old driver’s niece, sort of a “second generation” deal.

Catberg Racing, a pretty skilled duo. You remember them being pretty famous, but besides not winning a lot of the races, little else comes to your mind.

The Lazy Boys, a real crowd pleaser. One of the front runners for the current best racing team out there, and using a tanker, too.

Team Sick Bantz, a sort of comedy group. They used to be shock jockeys but joined the Haymaker to get more cred. Pretty crappy racers, though.

Finally, the celebrity guest. They have one of those every time, kept kind of hush hush until the actual start of the race. You guess you could figure out who it is beforehand.

A handful of smaller teams who you’ve never heard of are also on the map. Southern Farming Collected, Dark Horses Racing, Mystic Racing, and… Normal Pony Equestrian Pony Racing.

Which one would you like to visit?