Mecha was standing in the middle of the road, stunned with recent events. Well, recent event would be more accurate, as it was a singular event that caused the paralysis he was suffering from. He was right when he said that Fluttershy was going to kill him, he just figured it'd be in a violent manner of rage that she'd recover from before trying to heal him, not stunning his heart into stopping. For what happened was Fluttershy had cornered him, and raised her voice at him. And not just to barely above a whisper either, no, she'd actually raised her voice to a volume that matched other ponies raised voices.
This was the state that Twilight Sparkle found him in, nearly an hour after Fluttershy had raised her voice at him. Walking up to him in concern, she waved her hoof in front of him, asking, “Are you okay Mecha? Do you need me to take you to the hospital or something?”
Jumping a bit, Mecha shook his head, saying, “Oh no, I'm fine, just stunned that Fluttershy's voice could actually get as loud as it did, let alone having it directed at me.”
Quirking an eyebrow, Twilight asked, “Why'd she do that?” before thinking for a moment, and said, “No wait, I think I know. She was upset that you hurt that hydra that came by while we were in Cloudsdale so much, wasn't she?”
Nodding his head, Mecha started to walk towards his house, Twilight walking with him, as he said, “I kinda blanked out after the initial barrage, but yeah, that was the gist of it.” Opening his mailbox, Mecha pulled out the only letter, looking at the sender, before saying, “And now I need to pick up a package at the post office... which is going to have me pass the spa where Fluttershy is, and considering the time, she's about to leave.... oh joy.”
Chuckling, Twilight said, “I don't think you've got anything to worry about. In fact, I think if you run into Fluttershy, she'll actually apologize for raising her voice.”
Raising his eyebrow, Mecha replied, “I hope you're right.”
LINEBREAKER
Fortunately for Mecha, he didn't find out as he didn't run into Fluttershy while walking to the post office. Walking in, the bell rang as he walked towards the desk. After waiting for a minute, a pegasus walked up to the desk and said, “Welcome to the post office. How can I help you today?”
Smiling at the quick service, Mecha told him, “You have a package I need to pick up.”
Nodding his head, the pegasus pulled out a clipboard, and asked, “Are you Mecha?” Seeing Mecha nod his head, he put the clipboard on the desk, and said, “Sign here then please, and I'll go get your delivery.”
Watching the pegasus walk into the back, Mecha picked up a nearby pen, and quickly signed his name where the pony had pointed to on the clipboard, before putting it down and waiting for the pony to come back. He didn't have to wait long, as the postal worker returned after a few seconds, handing him a bag and wishing him a good day. Wishing one back to the pegasus, Mecha quickly left the building.
LINEBREAKER
Mecha stood in his backyard, leaning against the forge. Holding the still unopened letter in his hooves, he stared at his two apprentices in front of him. Both were very nervous, as he had told them that the letter he was holding was from the client they had made the armor and sword for. In fact, nervous didn't come close to how the two were feeling, they were that uncomfortable. Legs quivering, brows sweating, they waited for their boss to open the letter.
Showing no emotion on his face, Mecha held the envelope with his left hoof, as his right was opening up to pop out a small knife. Using it to open the envelope, he was about to reach in and take out the letter, when he suddenly head somepony call out, “Mecha, are you here?”
Turning to see Rarity approaching, he set down the letter, before saying, “Yeah, over here! You need something Rarity?”
Coming to a halt near his quaking apprentices, she barely gave them a glance before replying, “Yes darling. Do you have any more of that special gold you sold me earlier?”
Blinking, Mecha thought back to her order and asked, “You mean the kind that melts with barely any heat, and is readily absorbed by fabrics?”
Nodding her head, Rarity said, “Yes dear! I need some more of it, and fast!”
Seeing her rush, Mecha walked into the forge, returning with a small bag filled with the gold, and said, “This is all I have left, will it be enough?”
Looking at the bag, Rarity visibly relaxed, saying, “More than enough!”
Tossing her the bag, Mecha said, “Then take it, I've no use for it.”
Eyes going wide, Rarity grabbed the bag while replying, “But I simply must pay for it! After all, this is such high quality material, and must be extremely hard to acquire.”
Shaking his head, Mecha told her, “I got it off the side of a road. In fact, the only reason I know that it's a form of gold is because I had Twilight Sparkle identify it, so take it.”
Stamping her hoof on the ground, Rarity said, “I insist I pay, or do I have to make you another suit?”
Opening his mouth, Mecha was about to reply when he stopped to think for a moment. Coming to a final conclusion, he told her, “That actually sounds like something I could work with. How about instead of making me another suit though, you make a dress for Cheerilee? Something that would work well with my suit.”
Blinking at the sudden turn around, Rarity asked, “Are the two of you going to the Gala together?” to which Mecha merely nodded in response. “In that case, I'll make her a dress so wonderful, and matches up with your suit so well, that the only ponies who will be able to match shall be the princesses themselves, as well as myself and Blueblood of course,” she told him, before running off to get back to work.
Turning to face Snips and Snails again, Mecha saw that they'd gone from nervous to curious. Raising an eyebrow at their stares, he waited until Snips asked, “Are you really going to the Grand Galloping Gala with miss Cheerilee boss?”
Chuckling to himself, Mecha replied, “Yes, yes I am. Why do you ask?”
Snails responded for him, saying, “No real reason. It's just odd to see our two favorite teachers going out.”
Laughing Mecha said, “Aren't we your only teachers?”
Turning his head to the side, Snails thought for a moment before saying, “No. Twilight Sparkle taught us the magic we use here.”
“And you could argue that Trixie taught us that not everypony is who they say they are!” Snips added.
Smiling, Mecha shook his head before pulling the nearly forgotten letter out of its envelope. Unfolding the letter, he read through it quickly with one eyebrow quirked the whole time. Glancing up, he saw that the two young ponies had returned to being nervous, before saying, “Well I've got good news. It appears that Celestia and Luna liked what you two made. Luna in fact enjoyed watching Celestia as she tried to find the Cutie marks you two put on the armor as your signature.”
Sighing, the two relaxed, before Snips wide eyed and asked, “Did you say Celestia and Luna? As in the princesses of Equestria.”
Grinning to himself, Mecha replied, “Eeyup,” before blinking, muttering, “And now I spend to much time with Big M. I've got to watch how much time I spend with each of my friends...”
Snails was still processing what Mecha said earlier, and was speaking out loud, “We filled our first order... for the princesses... our first order... princesses...”
Chuckling at their reactions, Mecha went into the forge, before returning with two bags, which he tossed in front of the two. “That,” he started, “is your cut of the profit from the order.”
With Snails still trying to process the fact that their first order was given to the princesses of their country, Snips opened his bag, before looking at Mecha, and then back at the bag. “This is too much!” he told Mecha.
“Really now,” Mecha said. “How much do you think is in there?”
Snails, having given up at trying to process his thoughts, picked up the bag. Shifting it around a little, he estimated, “Around a thousand bits based on the weight.”
Blinking, Mecha said, “Exactly a thousand bits... how'd you figure that out?” Getting a shrug for an answer, Mecha sighed and said, “To be exact, that's ten percent of the total order, a piece. You two earned it after all the work you put into the armor, as well as the sword. Oh, and it took Celestia three hours twenty two minutes to find the Cutie Marks stamped into the inside of the helmet.”
Caught off guard by the sheer amount of money they'd been given, the two looked between each other and the bags of cash. Finally looking back at Mecha, Snips asked, “What are we suppose to do with this much money?”
Mecha shrugged his shoulders, saying, “I dunno. I'd recommend taking it to your parents and having them hold onto it. Furthermore, you two will be getting thirty percent each of what ever you make and sell in the shop for your selves. That being said, I'm giving you two the day off to process everything.”
Just nodding their heads, the two picked up the bags with their magic (with this being second nature to them after working with the forge's hammers so much) and walked home.
Turning around, Mecha faced the training area of his back yard, a giant empty field with targets lined up along the border of his property. Sighing, he said to himself, “If I want to stand a chance in the live demonstration, I better get back into top shape.” before trotting over to the field and getting to work.
LINEBREAKER
Mecha was spinning in place, swinging his swords while going through the forms while his eyes were closed. Suddenly, they snapped open, and he tossed the two swords into the air, before twisting and turning in ways that shouldn't be possible without snapping his back or tearing several muscles, before suddenly stopping, lashing his fore legs out to catch his falling swords before rapidly throwing them at two distant targets, missing the bulls-eye on each by a margin of less than an inch.
Turning around, he saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing near the entrance to his backyard, jaws on the ground, staring at him. Smirking, Mecha got back on all fours and trotted to the targets to retrieve his swords, asking, “Is there something I can help you with?”
Being the first of the group to recover from the impressive display, Scootaloo shouted out, “That was awesome!”
Nodding her head in agreement, Apple Bloom said, “Totally! How'd you do all that fancy footwork?”
Sweetie Bell was next saying, “And how did you manage to hit those targets from that far far away?”
Chuckling, Mecha said, “With lots of practice. And thank you, it's nice to hear that I can still be awesome. But you haven't answered my question.”
Blinking, Apple Bloom said, “We were wondering if you had some work for us so we can try and earn our Cutie Marks!”
Shaking his head, Mecha said, “Sorry, I don't. Although, I'm about to start my knife throwing practice, if you'd like to try?”
Eyes glimmering, the three all smiled before shouting, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS KNIFE THROWERS!”
Chuckling, Mecha put the two swords away as he walked into his house, coming back out with what appeared to be hundreds of knives. Pulling one out, he started to explain, “I'll be having you start with dull knives so that no pony gets hurt. Now, to throw them accurately, you have to...”
LINEBREAKER
Mecha gulped as Apple Bloom threw her last knife. Just as the last ten or so she threw, as well as the twenty that Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell had thrown, it went way off target and bounced off a rock, before flying back and barely missing Mecha, right underneath a part of him that he'd have missed dearly. Eyes widening, he said, “I think that's enough for today.”
Frowning, Scootaloo said, “But we haven't gotten our Cutie Marks yet! And I'm sure I can hit the target if you give me another chance!”
Walking away from the wall that now had an outline of Mecha made from knives, he said, “No no, that's enough. If I let you keep throwing, I wouldn't have any left for me to use for practice!”
Their moods quickly picked up, before rushing up to him and begging, “Can we stay and watch? Please?”
Looking at their faces, Mecha's response died in his throat as he got a full blast of three fillies giving him puppy dog eyes. Trying to be strong, Mecha began to say no, only to actually say, “Sure. Just stand back, okay?”
Getting an affirmative from them, Mecha walked over to the table where he'd left the knives, and put on several sashes before walking into a ring of targets. Taking a deep breath, Mecha stood on his rear legs before pulling a knife into each hoof, while closing his eyes. After a moment, they snapped open and Mecha whirled into action.
Becoming a blur to the untrained eyes of the three fillies, Mecha started to rapidly throw knives at the targets, spinning to keep momentum as well as gain a little extra speed, twisting suddenly, as well as jumping and flipping to make trick shots. Sometimes, he'd throw a knife high into the air, before throwing another one at it, making both hit targets on opposite sides of the ring.
Finally, after three solid minutes of knife throwing, Mecha stopped, panting a little. Rushing up to see how he did, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all looked in awe at the targets surrounding him. Each target had no less than ten knives lodged in them, and with twenty targets, that meant he'd thrown over two hundred knives in that short time frame! Not to mention, none of the knives were less than two inches from the center, which said a lot about Mecha's aim since he would've had less than a second each to aim.
Glancing at the targets, Mecha muttered to himself, “Still not good enough.”
Eyes popping, the three young ponies turned towards him. “What do you mean not good enough?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“I used to be better, and getting back to that level is my goal,” Mecha said.
Jaw dropping, Apple Bloom said, “You used to be better than this? Ah don't believe it!”
Nodding his head, Mecha told her, “I used to be able to throw the same amount of knives in two minutes, as well as throwing them more accurately as well.”
Looking back at the targets, Scootaloo asked, “How much more accurate could you get?! After all, none of these are that far from the center!”
Glancing at the targets she was looking at, Mecha said, “About twenty percent more accurate. Unfortunately, I've let myself slip in my training, so I'm going to have to work hard if I want to do remotely well in the demonstration.”
Quirking their heads, the three asked at once, “Demonstration?”
Chuckling, Mecha told them, “Ask Big Macintosh about it, I need to get back to practice,” before shooing them out of his back yard. Walking back to the ring, he sighed and said, “I need a better way to do this,” as he pulled the knives out of the targets in order to practice more.