“Okay--okay--this is where it gets juicy--” Spike continued to tell the story from memory…
The young Micro Chips gave a presentation to his second grade class…on the subject of thermodynamics.
“...And in conclusion, that’s how equilibrium works when it comes to power exchanged via heat.”
“Woah…”
“Wow…”
“Oooh…!”
“Thank you for that…unexpected presentation, Mr. Chip,” said their teacher.C
Micro Chips gave an awkward smile as he sat down, much to the chagrin of Twilight who simply rolled her eyes.
The students in their class were much more entertained and enthralled by Micro’s work. Thankfully, their teacher remained unbiased and graded him accordingly. In the end, Micro and Twilight both ended up with the exact same grade, however the latter was unsatisfied with the reception she got.
“Hmph,” she huffed as she walked to her locker and opened her backpack to talk to Spike, “Micro thinks he’s soooo much cooler just because he knows about thermodynamics. I know about that stuff too!”
Spike, being a puppy that couldn’t communicate through words, simply whined and tilted his head. Essentially, he was uncertain in regards to what Twilight took away from that situation. To him, it didn’t seem as if Micro was trying to upstage her at all, but he couldn’t exactly tell her that…
Twilight took Spike’s little noise as a sign of sympathy and responded by petting him on the head. “Don’t worry, Spike. My invention is gonna rock the world and Micro won’t know what--”
“Hey Twilight--”
“BAWK--” Twilight screamed and quickly zipped her bag shut while turning around, only to breathe a sigh of relief when she realized that it wasn’t a teacher. “Oh…it’s you. Hi, Micro.”
“I have to say that I really liked your analysis on cell division,” he said with an earnest smile, “It’s something our teacher never would’ve expected, so I think you did a good job of making something fresh and engaging.”
“Oh…uh…thanks?” Twilight responded with an uncertain tone as she pouted and shoved her hands in the pockets of her denim shorts. “Your presentation was neat too. Thermodynamics are really cool.”
“I know, right?” Micro replied with sparkles in his eyes, “There’s so many ways heat can be used for energy. In the future, we won’t even need coats once I develop skin-based thermodynamic nanomachines!”
Twilight’s eyelid twitched as she forced an uneasy smile onto her face. “That’s…so…neat. I was…thinking about that too.”
“Really?” Micro asked with a hopeful tone, “Then maybe we could study them together? Come up with ideas?”
“Sorry,” Twilight replied bluntly while adjusting her glasses, “I have more important things to do.” With that, she swiftly grabbed her backpack and shut her locker, leaving a confused Micro Chips behind.
“...What was that about?” he muttered obliviously.
“...And that’s one of numerous examples,” Spike explained as he finished up recounting that moment from his younger days. “Twilight always saw Micro Chips as a goalpost of sorts. Someone she felt the need to outpace.”
“Damn…” Was all Flash could say in response. He knew that this world’s Twilight was different than the one from the pony world, but he didn’t realize just how much different she was. The look of guilt on his face said it all. “Maybe I should’ve gotten to know her instead of writing her off.” Then he spoke aloud, “So she and Micro have been like this for the last decade?”
“Nah, once she went to Crystal Prep and Micro went to CHS, they stopped seeing each other--in the literal sense, not the romantic one--but even up to 8th grade she always tried to nip at his heels.”
“Tis true,” Micro commented from where he was sitting, having sorted the contents of the box into petri dishes and inspecting it with a microscope. “At every spelling bee, every science fair, even the group projects--I could feel her eyes boring holes into the back of my head. It’s strange because we got along just fine off-campus and when it came to discussing our hobbies.” He sat upright and sighed, “But when it came to schoolwork, she simply seemed to want to outdo me at every turn.”
“Yup--even now,” Spike agreed and added onto that statement, “You should’ve seen her face when you were voted ‘Most Likely To Invent Cold Fusion’ in the yearbook,” he paused and chuckled at the thought. “Hoo-boy! She was so pouty that she started to turn blue!”
Micro rolled his eyes as he continued working. “And here I am, working on a way to save her and her friends. I’m sure she won’t at all be annoyed at that,” he muttered in a flat, sarcastic tone.
“I’d hope she’d be mature enough to put something petty like that aside,” Flash commented, “It sounds to me like you two had a semi-competitive sibling relationship in the past--but that’s in the past.”
“That’s just it though,” Micro went on, “I never did try to compete with her. Looking back, I think I was oblivious to how she felt.”
“Yeah it’s true. I don’t blame you,” Spike replied and looked at Flash once more, “Though there was this one time where they were actually paired up together to work on a project. The objective was to make a perpetual motion device…”
“UUUUUGH!” the young Twilight groaned into her book, “How are we gonna make this heavy metal pot move constantly? We’ve tried everything from rubber bands to chicken wire…”
“How about magnets?” Micro suggested, “If we use two magnets of opposite poles…”
“Then it’ll give off a zero-gravity effect and cause the pot to float forever! Mikey, you’re a genius!”
“I’m simply more of a planner…you’re the one with the--”
“Done!” Twilight had already assembled the motion machine powered via magnets and wire. The stewing pot was able to float just as they intended--which naturally drew the attention of their peers….mostly to Micro though.
“Did you come up with that yourself, Micro Chips?”
“That’s so cool! I knew he was the smartest!”
And even as he tried to clear it up… “Oh no, Twilight actually--”
But they didn’t listen and continued to fawn over him, earned an annoyed side glance from Twilight as she muttered to herself. “Tch…there he goes again…”
“I don’t think she ever realized he wasn’t trying to outdo her,” Spike explained with a shrug of his paws, “Shame. I think they could’ve been friends. But that’s what happens when you make sweeping assumptions about people you think you know, only to be utterly confused when those assumptions don’t line up with reality.” He leaned against the chair Flash was sitting on and raised a brow, looking for a response. “Know what I mean, brother?”
The realization hit Flash like a truck as his eyes shot open. All he could do was idly rub the back of his neck as he spoke, “Yeah…you make a good point.”