Sparks coming off of the walls. Wires dangling around the place. Insects scurrying across the floor. Rarity found it hard to continue to push herself forward, but she did so because she needed too. She was in the Sky Patrol, which was still being rebuilt, to check up on Rotor. Ever since the incident with Nicole and the warehouse, he had holed himself inside the fortress, only coming out to talk briefly with Antoine and Bunnie. She had only passed him on his way back to the Patrol.
But it had been a look on his face that had caught her attention, a look that she knew all too well. A look of somepony who was desperate, trying to figure something out and having no luck with it. Somepony who was doubting themselves and trying to hide it from the rest of the group. Somepony who felt useless. A feeling she knew all too well.
The sound of lasers and hammering up ahead told her she was getting close.
"Rotor? Darling, are you in here?" Rarity asked. She peaked her head into the room the noise was coming from and found the person she was looking for. Rotor was sitting at a workbench, working hard on whatever lay upon the bench. If he had heard her, he gave no indication. "Do you mind if I come in? I, well, wanted to check up on you and make sure you were alright."
Rotor didn't answer. Rarity sighed before walking into the room. "Rotor, darling, I know that something has you upset, but that doesn't mean you have to be rude and-"
Rotor, without looking, tossed a pair of goggles over his shoulders to Rarity, who caught them with her magic. She looked at the goggles with some surprise, as they were fit for her, before a shower of sparks went off next to Rotor. She took the hint and slipped the goggles over her eyes before approaching.
On the bench was what looked like a skeleton, one made of metal that was as large, if not larger, than Rotor. "I see that you are hard at work. Is this a new version of your nano-suit? It looks to be much larger than your old one. Is it to support your body as you are...less than one hundred percent?"
Rotor answered with silence.
"Or perhaps you are building that to have a suit to fight Spike? Twilight did inform me that he has his own robotic suit now. If he wasn't being controlled by Sombra, the little dear would be ecstatic to have a suit like that. Ooh, perhaps you are building it for Tails! I bet he would-"
"What do you want?" Rotor finally said.
"Pardon?"
"What do you want? Why are you bothering me?" Rotor curtly asked. "Because if you are for idle chit chat, then I'm going to ask you to leave. I have work to do and I cannot be distracted."
"I just came to check up on you. I saw how down you were feeling the other day and-"
"I'm fine. I'm working. Leave," Rotor replied. Rarity looked at him for a moment before she used her magic to pull up a chair and sat down next to him.
"Your design is flawed. The stress you have placed on the joints will have this thing tear itself apart when it tries to move," she said. Rotor stopped working and looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Also the structure is wrong. It offers a great deal of support, but it will choke it's users body. That not only limits movement, but it will also shave off maybe a second of time when the wearer needs to move. And that could be fatal."
Rotor was about to argue, but a look from Rarity silenced him. He narrowed his eyes before going back to his suit, running what she had said through some calculations, before his eyes went wide when he saw that she was right. "How do you know all this? Do you build battle suits in your spare time?"
"Nothing as barbaric as that. I design outfits and I know how they work. But yes, I have designed a few pieces of armor or, as you put it, battle suits in my time," Rarity said with a smile. "But my intuition tells me that you normally do better work than this? What is the matter?"
Rotor stayed silent for a minute before he sighed and sat back, looking up at the ceiling. "Do you ever feel useless, Rarity? Like you don't belong on the team you've sworn to protect?"
"Everyday, darling," Rarity replied. Rotor gave her a look and she smiled, a bit more bitterly this time. "Allow me to attempt to guess your thoughts. You feel inadequate. Like you are taking up space on the team. That because of what you can't do, all you do is hold everypony back. In your case it would be you are older, your damaged and there is somepony else who can do your job better. Does that sound about right?"
"That is...scarily accurate," Rotor nodded. "How'd you guess that?"
"I'm good with reading others. Hence why I came to visit. Part of being a dressmaker is giving others what they want before they even knew they wanted it," Rarity said.
"You're right. I feel...so useless," Rotor snarled. "I'm getting old, nothing I can do about that, but these recent battles have shown me how far behind I've fallen. I used to be the smart guy for our team, coming up with weapons and gadgets. Then Tails was added to the team and completely blew me out of the water. Fine, kids the smartest guy I've ever met, I can stand being second to him. I'm actually proud of him."
"But it's being behind Eggman that I can't stand. For years, I thought that I could at least match wits with him, to fight him on a field that I understood. But now...even he's gotten smarter. His robots have gotten more advanced while I'm falling behind. I can't figure out how to undo what he did to your and your friends families. I can't crack his tech. I can't even make a suit that can hold up against his forces. I feel...like a liability."
"I feel the same way," Rarity revealed. Rotor looked at her with surprise and Rarity chuckled. "Oh yes, I know how you feel. I am one of the chosen champions of Equestria. One chosen by both the Elements and the Rainbow Power. And yet, I am the one that...brings the least to the team."
"How so?"
"I am a unicorn. Meaning that magic is what I am supposed to be good at. Yet Twilight is the princess of magic. I am nothing compared to her. I'm not the silver metal, I'm the tin star. I can't compete. I'm not a brawler like Applejack. I'm not fast like Rainbow Dash. I...can't break reality like Pinkie Pie. And even Fluttershy can talk to animals and understand how they're feeling. I make dresses. I cry a lot. I can eat three tubs of ice cream in less than a minute. Not exactly useful on the field of battle. At least you can say you contribute to the team. I am mostly there to get saved."
"Come on, you're not being fair to yourself..."
"And neither are you. I know that I do not bring much to the table, darling, at least in terms of combat. But I know what I am good at. I can mend. Be that ruined outfits or ruined hearts and bodies," Rarity continued. "It is why I continue to go out there, even when things are dangerous and I am most likely to get hurt. Because while I may be little more than support, you'd be amazed what a little support can do for those bearing the weight of the world on their shoulders. I was chosen alongside my friends. So, like them, I will give everything I have to protect them and this world. And that's all there is."
"Geez, you make it all sound so simple," Rotor chuckled. "I wish I could support my team the way you do."
"You already do, darling," Rarity pointed out. "You may not see it, but Tails looks up to you, moreso than you would believe. You said that you are the silver medal to Tails? I would say that you are the one who built his wings so that he could fly."
"You mean I lifted him up?"
"I mean that you are the reason he loves building and creating so much. He looks up to you, Rotor. Sonic may be his hero, but you are his idol. The person he wants to be like. At least, that's how I read it," Rarity said with a small shrug. "And then there is Sally, who values your opinion and support. And then you are always helping to repair Bunnie, making her and Antoine's lives easier."
"I guess."
"It's a little thing. Just inspiring somepony to be like you. Just being there for them. Supporting them after all these years. Seems almost inconsequential. Yet it can make a world of difference."
"What are you getting at?"
"Do not undervalue what you bring to the team. You may see yourself as old, washed up and a silver medal-"
"Harsh."
"But to the rest of your team you are a trusted friend. Somepony who can mend their wounds and parts. Somepony to look up to, who builds them higher than they could go on their own. Something I had to come to learn," Rarity said. "We may not be the best in combat, but sometimes it is the battles at home that are the hardest to win. And that is where we fight our hardest."
"Focus on where I fight at my best, not one where I fight at my worst," Rotor said. Rarity smiled and nodded at him. "Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Supporting my friends, both emotionally...and physically."
Rotor then looked down at the suit he was designing, before an idea came to him and he looked over at Rarity. "How hard to do you think it would be to outfit our whole team with suits like these? The last one I created was able to survive quite the explosion. That's something I feel everyone could use."
"Now that is an idea worth pursuing," Rarity agreed. "But each suit would have to be unique to aid those that are wearing it. A suit that worked for Sonic wouldn't work for Fluttershy, after all."
"Agreed. Each one will have to be specific, tailored made and would require the knowledge of how to tailor an outfit to numerous different people. I may know a thing or two about building suits, but getting the ins and outs of how to fit them to a group...that's a bit much for me. If only there was a nosy unicorn that could help?"
"Hmph, be thankful that this nosy unicorn ignores jabs at her and does her job professionally," Rarity teased in response. "Each of the suits will have to work for the user, but what if we could get them to work in tandem with others? Say, design Rainbow and Sonics so that they could feed off of each others speed? Or have it that Twilight's magic could charge Sally's weapons?"
"That would allow for more variety in our team building and how we can support each other in the field," Rotor caught on. A devious smile spread across his face and he looked at Rarity with a newfound respect in his eyes. "You know, you might not be a rocket scientist like Tails, but you are brilliant in your own right. Why did you never bring it up before?"
"Please darling, a lady never brags about herself. She does the job she needs to and that is enough for her," Rarity replied. Then smiled. "But if you wish to keep heaping on the praise, I would not say anything about it."
"You help me to get these suits working and I'll create fireworks that sing your praise across the sky."
"I'll hold you to that."