As we headed back up the stairs, we talked more about Top Gear, as it seemed that Cadence and Shining had taken quite a likening to the show. I talked about how the show evolved, from the first episode, which looks low budget when you look at it from today's standing point, all through its life, when the show kind of begins to pick up round about series 5-ish, to the several controversies, including Jeremy punching the producer, and Richard and James leaving in the aftermath to create a new show, The Grand Tour.

Eventually we got back to where we were sitting before, and continued watching the episode, with the trio now trying to find the perfect driving road.

Wile we were watching the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment, Cadence decided to ask a question. "Have any of you ever tried something like that before?"

"Yes, we have," Thomas replied. "We decided back in 2013 - because we had a bit of spare money, and it was July - we would fly to Milan, Italy from Glasgow Airport via plane, rent some convertible supercars and do a road trip round northern Italy, especially up to the Alps and passing through cities like Turin, where The Italian Job was filmed, and Genoa."

"What's a convertible?" Cadence asked.

"It's a type of car that allows you to take the roof down,"

"Was the trip good?" Shining asked.

"Brilliant," I replied. "Sure, it may have cost quite a bit of money, we bickered on which road to Turin we would take and we went on the wrong road on the way to Genoa, but it is one of the best things I have ever done, and if I had the option to do it again, I would."

"What cars did you take?"

"Well, I took a Porsche 911 4S cabriolet" Nathan said. "It was black, but unfortunately it was only the 3.4 litre version. Pumped out 350 horsepower-"

"HORSEPOWER?!" Cadence and Shining repeated, in horror of the name.

And so, for the second time that day, I had to explain the whole horsepower and James Watt thing. After I had, Nathan continued.

"As I was saying, the 911 put out 350bhp, had a 0-60mph time of 5 seconds and has a top speed of 177mph."

The jaws of Shining and Cadence were slightly open at this point.

"...even though I could only do 174, personally."

Cadence and Shining were startled at the fact that he'd managed to go to that high a speed. I'd later found out that Pegasi could fly at those sorts of speeds, but not for continued periods of time, where as I had explained that as long as you had enough fuel and enough road, you would have the ability to go at that speed for almost as long as you want.

"I rented a Ferrari 458 Spider, which is a convertible version of the 458 Italia," Thomas explained. "It was, as you would expect from Ferrari, red in colour, brilliant handling and extremely quick when nobody else was watching. 562bhp, 0-60mph in 3.3 seconds and a top speed of round about 200mph."

Cadence and Shining looked like they had seen a ghost at the high numbers and how quick the Ferrari was. I was impressed at the time as well, but the Porsche was slightly behind us in terms of performance.

"And I brought the McLaren 12C Spider," I finished. "It was in orange, and it was a joy to drive. 616bhp, 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds, and McLaren claimed 204mph for top speed, although someone managed to do 215mph in it."

Looking to Cadence and Shining, I saw that they had zoned out, their faces showing a mixture of amazement and shock. I waved my hand in front of Shining to try and bring him back to reality. "Hello? Earth calling Shining Armor!"

This shook him out of his daze. He shook his head and looked at me. "It can really go that fast?"

"Yep," I replied. "Although that's not the fastest car. The fastest is debated between what counts as production, but recently, the Koenigsegg Agera RS broke the record, with a top speed of 284mph on a speed run in Nevada, which is a state in the US."

"That's mind-boggling compared to the fastest pony that ever lived!"

"Who was that?"

"The fastest running pony was an earth pony named Ostro, who managed to run at an average of 45mph. He may have been a legend, but he was running like there was no tomorrow. He actually just died a few months ago, at the age of 53."

"A pony named after a strong wind. Seems very fitting he would be fast."

We then continued to talk about the road trip again, with the memories flowing back to the three of us.

"Hey, Nathan," Thomas said slyly over the phone. "I wonder how fast that Porsche of yours can go."

I laughed at this, because I knew he was really having a jab at the lower performance of the 911, as the 991 Turbo had only just come out.

"I know this 911 isn't as fast as your two cars, but it's still very quick!" Nathan snapped back, causing Thomas and I to laugh even harder.

"Why don't you show us how quick it is, then?" Thomas replied in a condescending tone, while laughing over the phone.

Apart from the sound of our V8 (and flat-six in Nathan's case) engines, there was silence. Until, that is, Nathan spoke up again. "Fine, I'll show you."

With that in mind, he slammed on the accelerator, pulling towards me, as I was in the middle of our convoy. He passed me and Thomas, but still kept going while pulling away. Nathan decided to read off the speeds he was going - in kph.

"220."

At this point I decided to get in on the act, so I passed Thomas and put my foot down as well, shifting gears as the speedo kept climbing.

"240," Nathan was still going.

I kept speeding after him, with Thomas joining in as well.

"260!"

Up ahead, I could see a sharp 60 or 70 degree turn up ahead of us, so I slowed back down to the speed limit. Nathan, however, either didn't notice, or didn't seem to care.

"270!"

"Nathan, man!" I shouted over the speaker phone. "Brake!"

"280 - oh my god!"

Suddenly, as it got into the curve, the Porsche braked down to slightly over the speed limit and swung round, taking Nathan round the curve very easily.

However, he had miscalculated how strong he should turn the wheel, as the car's back end slipped out for a sort of drift for a second before correcting itself. Nathan started to speak again.

"That was just me, presenting the 911's ability to power slide."

Thomas and I laughed harder than any time we had during the entire trip. Thomas, after laughing nonstop for nearly 15 seconds, finally calmed down, as did I, and began to speak again.

"You nearly lost the back end of the car, Nathan, and you know it!"

"It was an intentional drift!"

"No, it wasn't!"

"Yes, it was!"

As the two began to bicker, I pulled in front of Nathan and began to lead the way to our first destination.

Colle del Nivolet.

Colle del Nivolet, to put it simply, was the best road I have ever driven on. The winding roads, the hills in the background, the views you could get... sure, you couldn't really enjoy it, because there's always other people there on the road, but the experience you get is well worth any traffic you could come across. It is simply gorgeous, and I hate to admit it, but it was far more beautiful than anything in Scotland.

And of course, they filmed The Italian Job there, especially the bus crash.

When we got to the beginning of the road, we decided to drive up to the top of the road, take a few pictures, and then go back down to Genoa. We thoroughly enjoyed the road, with the tight corners and fair amount of stretches was, to me, a perfect balance of a good driving road. Plenty of places for you to go sideways. And driving in the McLaren made it even more special.

When we got to the top of the hill, we took some photos and were discussing our cars. As we were discussing, Thomas came up with a brilliant idea.

"Hold on a sec," Thomas said suddenly, gaining out attention from our photo taking.

"What?" Nathan replied.

"Just a suggestion... What if we... you know, swapped cars, to see what they are like?"

Before Nathan could respond, I cut in. "That's a great idea, Thomas. Can I have the Ferrari?"

Thomas nodded. "Sure you can."

Nathan then smirked, getting an opportunity to get back at Thomas for the argument and being mocked earlier on. "Then it's settled. I'll take the McLaren."

"And I'll take the-" Thomas began, before he cut himself off, what he had done just now registering in his head. He scowled and turned to me. "I hate you so much."

I laughed. "Just give the keys, Coupsie."

And so he did, chucked the keys at me, while walking past me and getting the Porsche's keys from Nathan. After he'd got in and started the engine, he pulled off again.

Once he'd gone, I tossed the McLaren's keys to Nathan. As we both got in our cars, I called over to him. He turned and nodded his head as he started the engine.

"Last one to the hotel's paying at the restaurant," I said, as I tuned the ignition and started the 4.5 litre engine.

"You're on. Call me over the phone," he replied, and reversed out of the parking space and took off. I folded the roof back up while he did so and reversed back out and chased after him.

Long story short, I won, with Nathan showing up a mere minute later. Thomas got held up in traffic, as he drove a different route, so he came last. We'd explained over the speaker phone to him that the last one there was paying, so dinner was on him that night.

"So, what do we all think of the cars?" Nathan said suddenly, while we were looking at our menus in the restaurant.

"Eh, it was OK," Thomas grunted.

"Come on," Nathan raised his eyebrow. "It was a LOT better than OK."

Thomas groaned. "OK, it wasn't as bad as I thought."

Nathan nodded, satisfied at the answer, before turning to me. "How about you?"

"That Ferrari, is probably the second best car I have ever driven. The handling in that 458 is sublime. There are no other words for it."

"That's funny, I liked the McLaren a lot, too," Nathan replied. "I think that car was absolutely brilliant. The only issue I have with it is the suspension. I think the ride's a bit too firm, but other than that, that McLaren is probably just as good as the Ferrari."

We discussed the cars a bit more, and when the waiter came, we ordered our food. I was having lasagne, because I had (and still do have) horrible food tastes and only ate things that I knew what they were. Thomas was having a carbonara with different types of meat mixed within, while Nathan was having this fuck-off pizza that had every ingredient that you could think of to go on a pizza on it.

Tomato, cheese, anchovies, pepperoni, garlic, olives...

Except pineapple. Because in his words, "fuck pineapple on pizza".

He's not wrong, though.

I woke up early to find some form of box at the bottom of my bed. Curious as to see what it was, I lifted off my duvet, to find a small box of condoms. I was furious at this, not only had somebody slipped into my bedroom, but I knew who it was, as I saw him go into the pharmacy earlier on when we were getting snacks yesterday.

"THOMAS COOPER!"

Eventually we finished our little break, and had handed over the keys to the cars again in Milan. It was a shame really, because I really wanted to drive it all the way back to Glasgow.

I couldn't live with the thing, though, because if I wanted to have an everyday supercar, then it has to be the Porsche. You really cannot live with the McLaren, and the Porsche is just more usable as an everyday car than the Ferrari and the McLaren combined.

Oh well, now all we had to do is put up with QueasyJet.

I shudder now even thinking about it.

"Ah, yes. They were the good days," Thomas sighed.

"I wish we could just do that again," Nathan added. "Although I think we should do a step up with the cars."

"Yeah, that would be brilliant," I responded, then remembering something. "But it gives me an idea. You know how Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin all make luxury cars?"

"Yesssss..." Thomas replied, unaware of what I was meaning.

"Why don't we rent... like, convertibles of their cars and do a road trip from Geneva to Florence, and go through Stelvio Pass, Milan, Genoa and the coastal roads on the way?"

"That's..." Nathan paused. "Brilliant. But who's taking what, if that happens?"

"Well, I've always had a soft spot for Bentleys, so I could take that Convertible version of the Continental that's about to end," I replied.

"I've liked Astons ever since watching Goldfinger for the first time on VHS. That DB5... but I always have liked the look of that Vanquish convertible, the most recent one," Thomas replied.

"I'm not into those sorts of cars," Nathan replied, making us both turn to him as if he'd just slapped our mothers. "But I have always wondered what driving a Lamborghini would be like."

We turned our attention back to the Top Gear episode, which was back to the road trip segment by now.

"And then it hit me. I was in a Lamborghini, in the Alps."

"All I need now are some sunglasses... and some Matt Monro." And with that, On Days Like These started playing, as Jeremy drove through the twisty roads, until he got to a tunnel.

"Oh no..."

I laughed at this. I always do laugh at this bit, because I loved The Italian Job and got the reference. It was one of the first films my dad ever let me watch on VHS, around '86 or '87, and it's sort of the reason I became a petrol head in the first place. I loved watching that Miura drive through the road, and hated to see that, the two E-Types, the DB4 and those Minis get pushed off the side of the road and down whatever hill it was.

Ahh, nostalgia.

"Should we do it?"

...

"There's no other way to say it. This is a magnificent piece of roadbuilding."

Eventually, however, the program came to the end, with the iconic theme playing once again. I decided to eject the disc before we were bored to death with the credits. and turned off my laptop again.

"So, what do you two think?" I asked Cadence and Shining.

"It was... brilliant," Shining replied. "Top Gear seems like a good mix of factual information on cars and comedy at the same time, and the cars look - and sound - amazing."

"Not to mention some of the views that you could see on those roads," Cadence added. "There are few places in all of Equus, never mind Equestria, that could rival those scenes."

"There are many more like that," Thomas said. "The view from Ben Nevis is absolutely incredible on a clear day."

"Ben Nevis?" Cadence asked.

"Tallest mountain in Scotland, and the UK for that matter. In fact, the top ten tallest mountains in the UK are all in Scotland. It was challenging to climb, sure, and it was dead slippery because of the rain when you get higher up, but it was absolutely phenomenal to do, and you could brag and say, 'I've climbed Ben Nevis.'

"It's not exactly Mount Everest or K2 by any standards, which are the tallest mountains in the world, by the way, but it's still quite an achievement."

"That sounds quite impressive," Shining replied. "How tall is Ben Nevis?"

"4,400 feet or something like that, can't remember the exact number."

"Mount Canterlot is slightly taller than that. It stands at 4,500 feet, but it's far too steep for most ponies to climb."

"Teleportation?" I asked.

Shining laughed. "No, there are limitations to how the spell works, and besides, I'd rather pull in the effort to climb up to the top rather than just zap there."

"Ah, I see. Anything else back from either Celestia or Luna?"

"I sent them a letter about your wishes to attend the Grand Galloping Gala, but they haven't replied yet," Cadence answered. "There were also a lot of Crystal Ponies at court today as well, more than I was expecting. They were all there for answers to questions surrounding one topic."

I immediately caught on to what Cadence was implying. "Our arrival."

Cadence nodded. "They all wanted to know answers to the same sorts of questions, to which I answered that an official statement would be made. I ordered the guards to dismiss anyone who was there regarding that issue, as I was not going to spend a day in court answering the same questions over and over again."

I chuckled. "That'd take some patience to do. I'd be ready to punch through a brick wall by the end if I had to do that. When would this statement be made?"

"I've arranged it to be done tomorrow. Which reminds me, do you all want take part in said statement?"

"Sure, why not?" I replied, ignoring the 'WTF?' look from Nathan.

Shining laughed. "After you went to the medical centre, I went to grab a newspaper, and look what I found," he said, before handing over the newspaper to Nathan. I managed to get a brief glimpse of the newspaper name: The Crystal Times.

Wonder if they're anything like The Times.

Nathan skimmed over what I assumed was the title, before sniggering. He then read the subtitle, and burst into laughter, passing the paper to the right, to Thomas. Tom did the same, with him even slapping his knee in laughter, before finally passing the paper to me.

And so I read the title.

Unknown Creatures Spotted!

I didn't laugh at that one, as I thought that headline was perfectly reasonable. But then I read the subheading.

Hairless and tailless monkey-like creatures spotted in the Crystal Empire

Seeing this made me burst into laugher. Monkey-like creatures? Hairless? Tailless?

"That's brilliant," I laughed. "Are there any other papers like this?"

"Yeah," Shining replied. "There was one with the same sort of idea from the Canterlot Chronicle. Somebody from the Canterlot Chronicle made an article with a similar title to that one. The one you're reading's more positive, while the CC article seemed very biased against you."

"Great, that's all we need," Thomas said while he rolled his eyes.

Cadence suddenly laughed. "The Canterlot Chronicle is known to be quite snobbish and is only ever taken seriously by a few select nobles in Canterlot, as it's known to have very personal opinions driving some articles rather than facts."

We talked a bit more about the newspapers, getting an idea of what newspapers were like. We found out that the majority of newspapers in Equestria are independent and aren't really biased, with the exceptions of the aforementioned Canterlot Chronicle, The Equestrian Mail (think of it as a Daily Mail), and a few smaller newspapers who were biased against Canterlot nobles, with most of these coming from small towns and not really going out to be national newspapers.

We then started to discuss more general things, in particular the announcement. We arranged for the announcement to be made at 11 in the morning. Not too early in the morning, but whatever. During our talk, however, a flash of light appeared above the table. When it dissipated, a letter fell onto the table.

"A reply from Princess Celestia?" Shining asked, targeting the question to his wife.

Cadence, as a result of the question, looked to what the letter was addressed as. "It's her writing, alright. Wonder what she said about it?" she replied, while handing the envelope over to me. The letter had the Royal Seal of Equestria on the back, but I flipped the letter and it was addressed to us.

As I opened the letter, I began to read it.

"Dear Messers Luss, Cooper and Lang,
I, Princess Celestia, am pleased to announce that the Grand Galloping Gala is to be held in the capital city, Canterlot, on the 9th day of (whatever month that actually was at the time),1005 ANM. Wait, ANM?"

"After Nightmare Moon," Cadence and Shining replied simultaneously.

"Ah, OK," I replied. I skipped the part about the long running history of the Gala that had been listed. "In celebration of such a momentous occasion, I cordially extend a VIP invitation to Messers Jack Luss, Thomas Cooper and Nathan Lang." And inside, sure enough, were three golden coloured tickets, all of them with the name of the event, the year, the location, which was Canterlot Castle, the ticket type, which was the VIP All Area Access, and our individual names.

"Well, that's... certainly something," I absentmindedly commented. I looked up to see Shining and Cadence smiling at us. "Thank you."

"No need to thank us," Shining said. "Princess Celestia would probably like to hear back from you all."

"In that case, can I get paper to write back?"

"Sure," Shining said before lighting his horn up. In a flash of light, a roll of some type of paper appeared, along with a quill and an ink well. "Here you go."

I took the paper before me before nodding. "It's alright, I don't need the quill, but thank you anyway."

Shining and Cadence were confused by such a statement. "Why? Do you have your own on you?"

I smirked and then shook my head. "Nope, something better." I then reached into my pocket and grabbed a Biro pen.

Cadence was even more confused. "What is THAT?"

"A Biro, or its proper name, a ball-point pen."

"What does it do?"

"It already has ink in a tube that gets put onto the end. Don't ask me on specifics, I don't make the things. The ink goes on the tip and leaves a trail, and it dries as soon as you use it. I'll show you."

And that I did, writing the letter to Princess Celestia as to our agreement into attending the Gala, with Cadence and Shining watching in awe. When I finished, I asked for an opinion.

"If you could have those patented..." Shining said.

"I'm not taking credit for someone else's work," I cut him off. I was being truthful though, I didn't invent them.

"You could give the ideas to somebody to manufacture the pens," Cadence commented.

"I suppose we could. By the way, can I get a map of the place? I'm going to get lost here if I don't."

Nathan and Thomas started laughing, but Cadence just gave me a map of the place. "There you go. That should let you familiarise with the place."

"Thanks," I said, before turning back to the other two and waited for them to stop laughing.

Which actually took a while. In the mean time, I put the map in my pocket

When they did, I spoke again, in a joking manner. "If either of you get lost here, I'm not helping you."

"Oh, NO!" Thomas gasped sarcastically. "Please don't do that to ME!"

I laughed, then looked at my watch for the time, which had actually become 10:12PM while I wasn't paying any attention.

"Well, I'm gonna call it a day," I said, getting up and walking out of the hall. "See you lot later."

When the door closed again, I got out the map from my pocket and began to walk back to my room.

Well, today was certainly... an interesting day.

Author's Notes:

I'm late! BUGGER!