Published February 26th, 2013
Chapter fourteen: Cutie Marks and Race Courses
Skybreaker stepped off the train right behind Twilight, surprised at how low on power he was. Normally, having to talk with royalty was only mentally exhausting, but the princesses of Canterlot were definitely an exception to how leaders of a country behaved. Apparently, Celestia had caught on to the fact that Skybreaker was bored and didn't want to be there, so she had taken him for a walk in the hedge maze. During said walk, she asked if he would be willing to help her with something. Remembering everything he had been told by Dark Lance about dealing with royalty, he had accepted. And then wound up helping Celestia trick the entire castle staff into thinking Nightmare Moon had returned. They had even gone so far as to tie up and gag Skybreaker, making it look like she had a hostage. Dark Lance, of course, had seen right through the whole thing, but played along anyway. The charade was lost, though, when Skybreaker started laughing uncontrollably at the cooks, who had shown up brandishing various pots, pans, and cutlery against the perceived enemy. Apparently the guards weren't the only ones in the castle capable of defending themselves.
And as if that weren't enough to make it a good day, he then found out that Dark Lance had gotten the royal armorer to make cutie mark emblems for all of them. Dark Lance's, of course, was a lance pointing straight up. Skybreaker's was a cloud that looked like it had been shattered, Bunker's was simply a tower with a red flag, and Burnout's was a red cross with a small flame pointing outward from each inside corner. Dark Lance already had his on, and Skybreaker had been eager to get his attached. Now the other two sets of cutie marks jingled as they moved around in Twilight's saddlebag.
The two travelers stepped off the train platform just in time to see a familiar rainbow blur come to a screeching halt in front of them. Skybreaker noticed the excitement on her face and grinned.
"I take it by your speed that you finished that course for our race?" he asked.
"Yep. And I made it so tough, you won't have a chance at beating me! I'll be impressed if you even finish. It's that hard." She gave him a challenging smirk at the end, subconsciously trying to throw off his focus. Skybreaker, however, was unfazed.
"Uh-huh. We'll see about that, but not right now. I need to get back to the ship. We got cutie marks for Bunker and Burnout, and I need to go recharge. If I don't get roped into anything, we should be able to race tomorrow." He yawned near the end, punctuating his exhaustion as Rainbow Dash nodded.
"Yeah, your unicorn buddy said you might need some rest first. Don't worry, I understand the need for sleep. One of the best things about being as fast as I am is that I have plenty of time for naps. It's one of the perks of being this awesome."
"Yeah, I'm too tired to come up with a proper comeback to that." He yawned again. "I'll see you tomorrow at some point, Dash. G'night."
"See ya."
He and Twilight continued walking towards the forest as Rainbow Dash took off to take care of other things. As they were about to enter the forest, Skybreaker suddenly thought of something.
"Hey, Twilight. How about I take the bags so you can go home? You probably have other stuff to take care of besides making deliveries, right?"
"Don't worry about it. I don't have any terribly pressing matters to attend to right now, and I still want to see some of Bunker's work anyway. This gives me a good excuse to go look at some of his projects." Skybreaker decided he wasn't going to argue about it, and they walked the rest of the way in silence. When they finally got to the ship, Skybreaker walked up and transformed, quickly putting in the entry code and going inside to call out his usual greeting.
"Honey, I'm home!" Twilight giggled a little at his outburst as she followed him towards the med-lab. When they got there, they found a very frustrated-looking Burnout typing away furiously at a keyboard. She suddenly smacked a final key before staring intently at the screen. After a couple seconds, the screen flashed red, and she leaned back in her chair as she let out a cry of anger and reached at the screen like she wanted to strangle it. "Having some trouble, there, Burnout?" She snapped toward him in surprise, before realizing who it was and letting her head slump forward into her hands as her elbows leaned on the console in front of her.
"I've been trying to get this nano-shell working for over twelve hours, now." Skybreaker whistled. "I still can't get it to work in such a way that we can install it on ourselves without having to rebuild our bodies entirely. It's starting to get to me." Skybreaker scratched at his neck in thought for a moment, realigning a servo that had come loose again while doing so.
"Well, maybe you need to stop thinking about it for a while. Sometimes you need to get a new perspective on something in order to see it properly, right? Maybe you just need a break so your processor can think differently when you come back to it. And I've got something perfect to take your mind off it for a few microcycles." He reached into the saddlebags Twilight was carrying, and pulled out Burnout's new cutie mark. He handed them to the medic, and she turned them over in her hands to get a good look at them, before turning back to Skybreaker.
"Where did you get these?" she asked, having seen some of the scout's ill-advised acquisitions before.
"Dark Lance had them made while we were at the castle. Bunker got a set too. They're our new cutie marks. See?" He turned so she could see the shattered cloud that now adorned his thigh.
"Interesting. What's Bunker's look like? I'm guessing something really simple, right?" Skybreaker dug out the other two and showed them off, eliciting a small chuckle from the medic. "Well, you should probably get them to him. I can attach these pretty easily, and I'm sure he won't have any trouble either. I take it you're going to go recharge right after?" she asked as he yawned again.
"Yeah, so I'll say good night now. Good night." He waved as he and Twilight left the lab to go down to engineering, where Bunker's lab was. When they got there, they had to pick their way through the various spare parts and scrap metal across the room to where Bunker was sitting, working on what looked like the last of the mini-miners. Skybreaker came up right behind Bunker before saying anything. "HEY BUDDY!" he yelled before he found himself doubled over in pain, then face down on the ground as something else hit him on the back of the head.
Bunker, for his part, had been focused entirely on finishing the last mini-miner before Skybreaker yelled at him in close proximity, causing him to reflexively elbow the scout in the abdomen before rabbit punching him in the back of the head to knock him to the ground. By the time he realized what happened, Skybreaker was already recovering from the attack, groaning in pain. Bunker helped him pick himself up, before reprimanding him. Again.
"How many times have I warned you about startling me like that?" he said as he crossed his arms.
"I don't remember. I think you deleted that file just now. Jeez. For an old bot, you still pack one heck of a wallop. Ow." Bunker shook his head and rolled his optics before getting to the matter at hand.
"I'm not that old. So why are you down here, anyway? You're fully aware that I don't like being disturbed." Before Skybreaker could get himself in more trouble, Twilight decided to step in.
"Actually, we have something for you." Bunker cocked an eyebrow as she levitated the pair of metal, tower-shaped plates out of her saddlebags over to him. He grabbed them out of the air, and looked them over before speaking.
"I assume these are supposed to be my set of those 'cutie marks' you spoke of?" Skybreaker, now recovered from the earlier assault, turned to show off his new plates in answer.
"Yeah! Pretty cool, huh? Dark Lance had the castle's armorer make them. I gotta say, the dude did a good job, too." He yawned again, and turned back to the door. "Well, I'm gonna go recharge. See you guys in the morning." As the door shut behind him, Bunker turned back towards Twilight.
"So, I take it you're here to see some of our tech?" Twilight nodded, and Bunker grinned slightly at her eagerness. "Well then, I guess we'll start with the mini-miners, here..."
The next morning, Skybreaker got out of his bed, stretching a bit before going up to the bridge. When he got there, he found Twilight still sleeping on a small cot that apparently Bunker had scrounged up from somewhere. He knelt down next to her, and shook her lightly until she started moving. As she started to get up, she stretched, yawning slightly as she did so.
"Morning, sunshine. Sleep well?" Twilight blinked at him confusedly, until she looked around and realized she wasn't at home. She yawned again before answering.
"Yes, actually. Once I got to sleep, anyway. I stayed up really late talking to Bunker. You guys have technology I can't even get my head around. It's fascinating! I kept forgetting that you guys weren't ponies, so it wasn't until Bunker showed me some old Cybertronian writing that it occurred to me to ask how you knew our language. That Sky Spy part of Teletraan 6 is neat." She grinned at the thought of everything she still had to learn about them. Skybreaker just cocked an eyebrow, confused as to why anyone would consider something they couldn't understand a good thing. Usually that sort of thing just made his head hurt.
"Anyway. The others should be up and about soon, and then we can go into town. Lance said he'd be back this morning, and after we've talked to him, I can finally go have that race with Dash. That's gonna be awesome."
"By the way, what do you think your chances are of winning? I've never seen Rainbow Dash lose an air race fairly. And if this course is really as difficult as she says, you really might not be able to complete it. Her aerobatic skill is pro level. She may have an ego, but it's mostly well-deserved." Twilight had a very worried look on her face at this point. "And if she wins, you'll have to stay grounded for a week. That would put your team in a bad place, and I don't think you're the kind of guy who would go back on a deal like that. If one of you were to be hurt because of a bet that she came up with, I don't think she could handle it." Skybreaker put away his joking for a moment, seriously thinking over what Twilight had said. He was silent for almost a minute before opening his mouth again.
"You're right. On all counts. If she won, I wouldn't fly for any reason. Not even if I got thrown off a cliff. And yes, that would hamper our tactical ability due to the fact that I'm the fastest. Technically, Dark Lance is just as capable, but he's not as fast, and he has much more important things to take care of. Don't worry, though, I won't lose." He grinned a bit, even as Twilight's face became even more worried.
"But how can you be so sure?"
"Has Bunker told you about jet engines yet?"
"No. Why, what are they?" At this, Skybreaker let out a low, somewhat evil chuckle.
"Ask him. He knows how they work better than I do. That's why mine don't move around too much when I transform. Too complex for me to put them back together every time. I can tell you, though, that as long as I have jets and she doesn't, I'll be faster. Period." She still didn't look convinced, but any further concerns were cut off as Bunker walked in. "Hey! He lives! I was wondering when you'd get up. Usually everyone else is hard at work by the time I get up, let alone still in recharge. So what did you end up getting done last night? You know, since you had 'anyone else in your workspace'?" he said with a slightly mocking tone. Bunker glared at him before answering.
"I said that to you because you are loud and intrusive and don't pay attention. Miss Sparkle here actually understands the need for quiet when delicate work is being done, and actually listens to the answers to her questions. As it turns out, she actually assisted me in making the mini-miners more efficient, and we both made discoveries concerning the other's race. So don't start thinking that she is on your level. She has intellect you will never be able to hope to have, so you would do well to show some respect." Skybreaker's optics widened at this, even as Twilight blushed a bit from the praise. His tirade finished, he started walking towards the door. "I'm going to the station to wait for Dark Lance. I'll see you later." He transformed as the door opened, and then he was gone.
"Wow," Skybreaker commented. "I don't think he's ever talked about anyone other than Dark Lance with that much respect before. You must have really impressed him." He gave a congratulatory grin to the unicorn, causing her to blush further.
"It wasn't that big a deal. All I did was streamline a couple of tangles and modify one of them so it would carry the refined Energon back from the others. It was pretty simple, really." She waved a hoof dismissively, but Skybreaker was undeterred.
"Simple, maybe. But sometimes the simplest solutions are the least obvious. Especially when you've done something the same way for a couple million years. Seriously, though. Bunker doesn't hand out compliments to anyone he doesn't think has thoroughly earned it. Dude respects you. No lie."
A few minutes later, Bunker was sitting on the train platform, watching the locomotive come down the tracks. As it began to slow down, he got up and moved forward a step, scanning for his commander's energy signature. He found it as the train's brakes hissed and the doors opened, and he moved to where Dark Lance would get off. As soon as he did, Bunker threw him a short salute before following him off the platform.
"I take it you finished the mini-miners?" Dark Lance asked as they walked.
"Yes, and I had some help from Twilight. She had an idea to make one of the miners an Energon carrier, instead. Have it move the filled Energon tanks while the others continue mining. Also, she spotted a couple of problems with the design of them that I was able to fix. She's impressively intelligent. Especially for an organic."
"I don't suppose you found out anything about the whole 'magic' thing, did you?"
"Actually, yes. I had her do some basic spells for me, and I found that the energy she uses for magic is actually Energon radiation." Dark Lance stopped in his tracks, his optics widening in surprise.
"What!?" This was beyond surprising to Dark Lance. He had seen organic beings use raw Energon in various ways before, but to actually be able to harness the radiation itself? That was unheard of.
"Yes, that was my first reaction as well," Bunker said as they continued walking. "I initially thought that my equipment was misreading the data, but that was not the case. The horn of the unicorn and alicorn races apparently acts as a particle accelerator. Their bodies gather and store the radiation, and then they send it through the spiral structure of their horn to create an energy field. The aura that appears around their horn is actually excess radiation leaking from the tip, which then goes back down to the base and is reused, similar in movement to a magnet's electric field. Obviously, the larger the horn and the tighter the spiral, the more powerful the magical ability. Physical size of the pony can also attribute to magical strength, but is typically more indicative of stamina. I find it quite fascinating." The two had reached the library, and they saw Twilight leading Skybreaker and Burnout towards them. As the two groups neared each other, Dark Lance saw a blur of color in his peripheral vision that stopped off to their side and revealed itself to be Rainbow Dash. She had on a big grin and was looking at Skybreaker with excited eyes. He grinned back.
"Impatient as I am to get this under way, huh?"
"You better believe I am! I hardly ever get someone worth racing. You actually have a chance of providing an actual challenge, unlike most of the ponies around here. I just hope you don't disappoint me too much."
"Well then, let's get the rest of the gang together and get started, huh?"
"I already did. Everypony else is at the starting line, waiting for us."
"Then let's get moving, already. I want to see what Rarity's got in mind for you."
"Oh, ha ha. Aren't you just a regular ole mister comedian."
"I try."
"Well, keep practicing. You're not doing very well." The two of them continued to taunt each other all the way to the starting line on the edge of the Everfree Forest, where the other Elements, Spike, and the CMC were waiting next to a pair of poles stuck in the ground. Rainbow trotted up between the poles and turned around to face Skybreaker, while the others joined the crowd that was already there.
"Here's the course: We go to the north end of the forest, then turn west to follow the north side of Ponyville. Then we follow Mane Street south, until we reach the river. We follow the river all the way to Ghastly Gorge, and fly through till we reach the other side. Once we're there, we turn around and trace our way back here along the same route. Whoever makes three laps first, wins. Got all that?" Skybreaker let out a short laugh.
"Yeah, but is this really what you meant when you said it would be difficult? This seems pretty basic to me."
"That's because I haven't gone over the rules yet. The first rule is that you have to stay within three leg-lengths of a mostly flat surface at all times. The second rule is that you have to pick up a flag at each checkpoint, and the third is that you can't interfere with the other racer's flight. The checkpoints are scattered through the track, but they're pretty obvious, so you should be able to get them all. Still think this won't be difficult, tough guy?" She grinned with confidence, but Skybreaker wasn't particularly impressed.
"I think that by the end of today, Rarity will have a new line of dresses just for you. Any other rules you got for me? Or can we get this thing started?" Rainbow nodded, then turned to Pinkie, who grinned before reaching into a nearby tree to pull out her party cannon. The two racers got into position on the starting line, and Pinkie set up to start the race.
"Ready? On your mark, get set.... GO!"