All was quiet in the capital city of Equestria, Canterlot, for the most part. There were ponies and griffons engaged in meetings inside the castle, and others who were having quiet cups of coffee at their favourite cafes, with the occasional conversation between two ponies over what was the latest gossip. Other than this, everything was relatively calm and peaceful in the city of Canterlot.

But, unfortunately for the citizens of Canterlot, this was ruined by the sound of a 3 Litre BMW twin-turbocharged straight-six.

Specifically, the engine that was in Nathan Lang's BMW M3.

As he was drifting.

Oh, boy.

What was not so easily heard, however, was the screaming that Sonic Blaze and Thomas Cooper in the back seats as Nathan shifted into third gear, and created a large and wide powerslide, kicking the rear end out as he stepped on the throttle and pulled onto Unicornia Boulevard, gaining many stares as he did so.

"I'm having fun!" Nathan shouted as he used the paddle-shift gearbox to shift into fourth gear, and magically passing the 100 mph mark.

Aye, I'm sure ye are, ya rocket, I thought.

After about one hundred meters of driving in a straight line and eventually hitting 130 miles per hour, Nathan put his foot on the brake pedal, slowing the car to a lower speed and shifting down to third, before flicking the tail out as he elegantly drifted onto Solar Way, seemingly very calm about his actions.

Well, technically, there's no speed limit, so-

My thoughts were interrupted as the engine's noise increased in pitch when the revs rapidly climbed while he suddenly drifted onto Clover Street, gaining the screams of Sonic Blaze and Thomas.

Oh, grow up, you man-child. What age are you, five?

By the way, that was meant for Thomas. I know Sonic hasn't been in a car before, so I'm cutting him some slack.

The M3 kept gaining speed as it belted down the street in a similar fashion to that of Bullitt, except, of course, not having a second car to chase, at speeds that would make officers from Police Scotland go, 'Let's just leave him, we can't catch him anyway.'

Because, you know, a Peugeot 308 diesel is going to keep up with an M3.

"Are you having fun?" Nathan asked me suddenly as he turned onto Celestia Boulevard, which is the Main Street, if you will, of Canterlot, kicking out the M3's tail once again.

"I am. What about you lot?" I asked, turning back to the two in the back.

No response. They were doing breathing exercises to calm themselves down.

Not that it mattered, as Nathan suddenly veered onto a small road that I can't remember the name of for the life of me, with these weird-looking trees that were over to the side near the end of the road from the side we were at.

Then, all of a sudden, I saw a white speck that I swore was a golf-like ball go into one of the trees from the right, over the wall. I initially thought nothing of this, but when that same tree fell over and hit the one next to it, I knew things were about to get serious, in addition to the cones that were already around on the road.

"Nathan," I said to him, hoping he would have seen.

"What?" he replied, not even seeming to acknowledge what was happening in front the revs of the engine still climbing in third gear.

"Can you just slow down?" I asked him, as the second tree fell onto the third at an angle slightly towards the building on the left hand side.

"I thought you said you were enjoying this?"

"I was, but you need to slow down."

"No, I don't."

As I had predicted in my mind, the final tree fell onto the road in front of us, possibly leading to a collision that would have killed us at the speed we were doing. To this end, I pulled on Nathan's handbrake to get the car to stop. Thankfully, it's one of those new electric ones, instead of the old hydraulic ones. I mean, they're not as fun to use when drifting, but in cases like these, I'm glad it is electric.

Thankfully the car stopped maybe five metres away from the fallen tree, and not even a second after we stopped, a powerful looking stream of water burst out of the fallen tree, although I guessed that this was a burst water pipe.

"Phew," Nathan commented, turning his head towards me with relieved features on his face. "Good thing the brakes and handbrakes still work, right?"

I just gave him this glare that told him it was best he stopped talking... which worked, as he then developed a sheepish grin.

"Eh heh, what I meant to say was-"

"We're lucky you had someone like me who actually has a pair of working eyeballs instead of trying to be a Ken Block wannabe," I finished harshly, before turning to the others. "You two alright?"

There was silence for several seconds, before Thomas spoke up.

"Never do that again."

Sonic was stupefied to say the least.

"Sonic?"

No response.

"Sonic."

Still no response, still stuck in his trance and still staring at the tree like a deer in headlights.

"SONIC!"

Sonic woke up from his trance.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"That was so cool!"

"Come again?"

"That was unlike anything I've ever experienced!"

"So you enjoyed it?"

"Yeah! Ponies would love this sort of thing! If we get the cars to work in Equestria, could we make a car that's based on performance?"

"You mean like a supercar?" Thomas asked, while Nathan got out of the car.

"What's a supercar?"

"A supercar is a car that's designed to go fast, while looking beautiful and sounding great at the same time."

"So is this a supercar?"

"Not really," Thomas replied, pulling out his phone. "This is considered a super-saloon, but it isn't a supercar. I'll show you what a supercar looks like, or one of them, anyway."

Sonic Blaze seemed to be interested in Thomas' phone. "What's that?"

"It's my mobile phone."

"A what?"

"A mobile phone. It allows for communication all across my world, so long as you and whoever you're trying to contact has mobile signal reception."

"What if you don't?"

"Well," he began as he unlocked his phone. "You're buggered, I suppose. Anyway, here's that supercar I was talking about. This one is called the McLaren 720S. I wonder what you'll make of... this-"

"Wow!" Sonic exclaimed, his eyes widening at the sight of the car. "That's amazing!"

"That's really nothing compared to some more... extreme designs," Thomas replied, swiping his phone along to another image. "Here's the Apollo Intensa Emozione..."

"That..." Sonic replied, struggling to find words to describe the IE. "That thing looks... stunning... and it looks kind of evil as well..."

I looked out front and saw Cadence, along with Nathan and an engineer pony with a safety hat. I saw that she had lifted the tree and was now using her magic to do something with the water pipe. Seeing as Thomas was now complaining at the 'ridiculous' price of the car and blabbing on about how it's nothing more than a suped-up Ferrari (no idea where he got that one from), I got out of the car and walked over to the trio.

"Hello, Jack," Cadence sighed as she saw me approach.

"Hi, Cadence," I replied. "What's the matter?"

"Well, things have been getting a little out of hoof. I tasked Spike in making sure Twilight wasn't awakened so she could be ready for doing her tasks when she woke up, but he started making decisions on Twilight's behalf. I believe this may have been a result of his actions."

"Eh... a bit like TVR, I suppose." I commented absentmindedly, unaware I had said it out loud.

"What was that?"

"What?"

"Yo said something along the lines of, 'a bit like TVR'. So I was just wondering what you meant by that?"

"Well, TVR was a sports car company back in the day, especially when I was growing up, when Peter Wheeler owned the company. They made some mental cars over the years: the Cerbera, the Chimera, the Griffith, and, if he had a bit more bravery, the Speed 12, what would have been the fastest car in the world. The cars were mental, and unsafe, but that's what made them good. Any normal idiot who is used to Traction Control and ABS-"

"ABS?"

"Anti-Lock Braking System. Stops the wheels from locking up when braking, so it's useful for cornering."

"I see."

"But anyway," I continued. "Any normal guy who takes that technology for granted will find a TVR very difficult to control. It takes a skilled driver to get the most out of a TVR. But, about 13 years ago, Peter Wheeler sold the company to a Russian businessman called Alexander Smolensky, who then gave it as a gift to his three-year-old son, Nikolai."

"He gave it as a-"

"I'm joking about that," I laughed. "Nikolai bought the company himself, and he's older than me, but his business decisions, especially for TVR, destroyed the company. For more of the time he owned the company, he had laid off most of the workers and was faffing about, transferring and splitting the company like nobody's business. No pun intended."

Cadence laughed. "I wouldn't have said anything about that, quite honestly."

"But he said he was going to make new models and make 2,000 cars a year by 2008, nearly ten years ago," I continued, pulling out my phone. "I can imagine the business meeting looking something like this..."

Cadence and Nathan laughed, with the worker having walked away by that point.

"Don't be ridiculous, Jack," Nathan said while laughing.

I laughed. "He said he was going to make the TVR Sagaris 2, with the original Sagaris being the last model TVR ever made. Then his dad came out and pulled him back inside, saying he shouldn't be up that late because it's a school night."

Nathan laughed even more. "You're not letting this go, are you?"

"Sorry, I'm going too far," I laughed. "But thankfully, Nikolai no longer owns the company and the new Griffith is coming, next year. But this example shows that if you take control of an industry in a field you know nothing about, that's what happens."

"I suppose the same thing happened with Spike. Speaking of which, I'll need to check on him. The main summit hall got flooded and Spike was there. I'll need to see if he managed to get rid of the water."

"We'll come with you," Nathan added quickly. "We're not doing anything else anyway."

"What about your meeting with Sonic Blaze?"

"He's in the car anyway, we can continue at the castle."

A few minutes later, everybody was gathered in the main summit hall, where lots of items were lying around broken, and the telltale signs that water had indeed flooded the hall. The statue from earlier lay broken on the floor, all of the individual pieces lying on the floor in a mess.

Twilight, to put it plainly, was not a happy bunny.

"A few decisions?!" Twilight voiced out loud, obviously not impressed with the results of Spike's decision-making, judging from the pacing around the hall and looking at the damage caused.

"Well, maybe more than a few," Spike began, trying to find a way out of the situation that I knew would only be rectified with him admitting his mistakes. "But I had good intentions! Honest!"

Spike stood there for several seconds, seeming to feel the glare that Princess Cadence was giving him. Eventually, he turned around and saw that Cadence was not impressed by what he was saying. "Until I... didn't anymore."

"I'm sorry, Twilight," he continued, feeling ashamed by his actions. "I guess I got a little carried away. It-it just felt so good to have ponies caring about my opinions on such important matters."

"I guess I was just enjoying feeling like a princess," he finished, looking to the floor and avoiding eye contact with anybody.

Twilight walked over to Spike, having accepted his apology. "Well, Spike, one of the most important things a princess can do is realise when she's made a mistake and fix it."

"How do I do that?" Spike asked in confusion as Cadence walked over.

"You could start with them," Cadence told Spike, pointing her hoof towards the large group of delegates, including Fancy Pants and a few other guests that attended the Gala.

All of whom looked very peeved.

Spike let out a sigh, before walking over to the stage.

"Uh, hi there, everypony," he began. "So I guess I owe you all a pretty big apology.

"It's funny. Here we are at a summit that brings together ponies from all across Equestria, and all I could think about was myself. You all came here to celebrate the things that make each of our cities so unique and special. But instead of getting into the spirit of things like all of you, I used my friend's position to make myself feel good."

As he finished his apology speech, he walked over and picked up a gem that was lying on the floor, with his depressed look turning into that of determination, and to my shock, he started trying to rebuild the statue, albeit to no avail. The gems simply weren't fitting together.

That was, until Fancy Pants decided to use his magic to put it in the right place. "The Canterlot ruby goes here, old sport."

This was quickly followed by a mare with winter-like clothing (yes, winter clothing for a species that has fur) putting her gem next to it and speaking in what I'm guessing was a strong Canadian accent. "And ours goes here, don't 'cha know?"

Shortly after, everypony joined in, putting their gems in their respective places on the statue.

How they knew exactly where theirs were and how they managed to do it without adhesives is still beyond me, even after all these countless decades of it sitting in the centre of the city.

Eventually, the statue was complete, its glory restored to what it was at ten this morning. The mare in said statue gleamed like the sea on a hot summer's day near a beach on the Bahamas.

I would have said like a diamond, but that realistically doesn't really say all that much...

"Does this mean you forgive me?" Spike asked hopefully.

"Sure!" One of the delegates replied. "You know, the whole idea of the statue is that when each of us plays our own small part, it adds up to somethin' great."

"Quite," Fancy added. "Just like how all our cities make up the beautiful land of Equestria!"

Without further ado, Cadence started speaking. "I hereby dedicate the Citizens of Equestria statue to everypony who plays their part, no matter how big or how small!"

All of the ponies in the hall began cheering for the new dedicated statue, and as a celebratory gesture, some "flowers" were given to Spike, for his apology and efforts.

Upon closer inspection, however, guess what the plant was, or what it did?

Spike started sniffing, and his eyes became bloodshot, with swelling underneath his eyes. "Aww, come ON!!"

Everybody in the room began panicking, including the Princesses... and for good reason too, as Spike inhaled to sneeze again, and DESTROYED the statue from what I'm told is the SECOND time.

"The statue," The winter dressed delegate whispered. "It's been destroyed... again.

"Well," Thomas began. "You could always-"

"HOW COULD YOU ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN?!" Fancy shouted at a fairly loud volume towards the pony who handed Spike the "flowers". "This was supposed to be trimmed to avoid this!"

"Hey, don't blame me," the older stallion said, pointing to a worker in the crowd. "These were just given to me by that fellow over there."

"Hey! Don't blame me!" the worker in question retorted. "These weren't trimmed for a specific reason!"

Soon, an argument broke out between this group and others in the hall, soon becoming what could be described as pass the parcel. The only ones in the hall not arguing were Twilight and Cadence, both of whom were trying (and failing) to control the crowd, and the three of us, who were just pained by all of this.

Eventually, I snapped.

"WILL EVERYBODY IN THIS BLOODY HALL SHUT UP!"

This quickly gained everybody in the hall's attention, even the Princesses. Deciding to capitalise on the silence, I spoke again. "Will you lot stop complaining and getting at each other's throats about the smallest things? You all built the statue up again not even two minutes ago, saying it's a symbol of friendship and tolerance, and when it gets destroyed again, you all decide to play the blame game on each other as if it's a game of pass the parcel! You need to grow up and stop bitching about stuff that's already happened. You all need to admit your mistakes and stop acting so infantile towards each other, it's sickening."

Thomas and Nathan started clapping for me, but everybody else in the hall, bar the Princesses and Spike, looked at each other, many with guilt on their faces, taking in what I just lectured them about. It didn't matter to me, though, as I had already turned on the spot and walked out of the hall.

The rest of the day was pretty boring after that. Sonic said he was going to speak to various businesses to see if we could get the necessary equipment to build Equestria's first car, and have it on sale for the end of next year. We also agreed to recreate Nathan's M3 in a similar style, except toning down on the sportiness to make it more efficient and more eco-friendly.

After he left to go back to where he was staying, I spent the rest of the day doing practically nothing. Nothing happened, and nothing was all that interesting, since most of the conferences at the Summit sounded extremely boring at the time.

There was a period of time, at dinner, that was sort of interesting. While the other Princesses were talking about the summit, Celestia was looking preoccupied. Curious as to what was wrong, I spoke up.

"Is everything okay, Celestia?"

"I'm fine, thank you, Jack," Celestia replied, before sighing and looking somewhat nervous again. "It's just that..."

"It's just... what?"

"I was wondering..." she began nervously, blushing in a similar fashion to earlier on. "If you would like to... spend some time together... alone."

"Alone?" I asked, confused by her behaviour. Then the penny dropped. "You mean... a date?"

The blush getting redder was enough to give me the answer, but she still nodded anyway. I turned away in shock, not knowing how to respond to such a request.

"I..." I began, beginning to find my words. "I would certainly like to join you... but are you sure?"

"Yes. I would like to get to know you better."

In the ensuing conversation, we agreed that we would meet on Friday night and go to a restaurant in the heart of Canterlot that specialised in seafood, called The Daily Catch.

Soooo original.

Meanwhile, everyone around us was still oblivious to said conversation, and also completely oblivious that Celestia had even asked me out in the first place.

And even with everything that was going on with potential business ventures and partnerships, not to mention the engineering involved in making the cars, phones and everything else, my date with Celestia was the only thing I could actually think about that night.