//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Shocking Developments // Story: Augmented Love // by Silentpegasus //------------------------------// Chapter 14 Shocking Developments The man felt the sun shining in his eye and he groaned. When he turned over he saw a tuff of rainbow hair and he gulped. The athlete was wearing her clothes from yesterday and her eyes slowly started to open. Not thinking, Crank shot a blast of electric based magic that pinned Dash’s body to the ceiling by her arms and legs. “What the hell?” The woman yelled in frustration. “You mean you’re real?” “Obviously!” Crank cut off his magic and the woman hovered back down and slapped him across the face. “What was that for?” “Sorry. D sometimes used the hologram projector to mess with me early in the morning.” He said as he rubbed his cheek. “She even disguised herself as Rarity one time.” Dash raised an eyebrow at the words. “She may be a program now, but she still likes to mess with me. As siblings do.” The AI then appeared on the night stand. “You should have seen his face when I turned into yo-” Crank pulled out his new screwdriver and made the tiny girl’s mouth vanish. The man snickered and put the device back on the nightstand. “Course I can mute her whenever I want.” The AI looked at him with a scowl. “Now if you two ladies would excuse me, I need to get dressed.” Dash nodded and went outside the man’s room with the AI on her shoulder. Dash went into the bathroom and was straightening her messy hair. The AI cracked it’s neck and it’s mouth was returned. “So you got the hots for my bro huh?” The AI chirped. Dash’s face went bright red and looked at the small see through woman. “What? No!” She said with a blush. “My logical data analysis sector indicates that you are lying and my bullshit meter agrees.” The AI smirked and snapped her fingers. A video feed from the man’s laptop camera opened and Dash saw the man’s shirtless back. Her eyes widened and she felt her wings spring up. “Ha! Knew it!” The AI smiled as the video vanished. “Okay fine.” Dash admitted with a blush. “Just don’t say anything!” The AI hoped off her shoulder and grew to a 5’7” woman. “I may be a blend of light and color, but I know the code.” She put her right hand in a fist. “Ho’s before bro’s.” Dash attempted to fist bump her but her hand went right through the image. “First world hologram problems.” The AI vanished and Dash walked out of the restroom. Crank also walked out with a light green T-shirt and black pants. Dash sniffed the air and smelt something cooking. The two walked down to see Nova over a pan of eggs and bacon. “Morning you two.” She smiled as the teenagers sat down. “How do you like your eggs Rainbow?” “Scrambled is fine.” The girl stated. Rainbow and Crank looked towards the doorway to see a man with dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes. A green horn was coming from his forehead. “Sup dude?” The man said as he walked over to Crank. He was muscular and tall. Definitely an athlete. He stood at around 5’9” and his clothes hugged his body. “Hey Ratchet.” Crank said as he shook his hand. Dash raised an eyebrow at the inventor. “Rainbow this is my best friend Ratchet Steel. Ratch, this is my friend Rainbow Dash.” “Nice to meet you.” Dash said with a smile. Ratchet looked at her and grinned. “Wow dude, you undersold her when you said she was ho-” Crank blushed and shocked his friend with a gray bolt of magic. “That’s enough out of you.” He said as he his blush. Nova chuckled and continued to cook. “Where’d you stay last night anyway?” “I found an inn in town near Sugar Cube Corner.” He said as he dove into his eggs. “So you’ve known Crank for a long time?” Dash asked. “Oh yeah, we go back to kindergarten. I actually work for his dad.” “What do you do?” “Security. I was actually here yesterday.” “I didn’t see you.” “I was the one in the green suit.” Dash glared at him. “Sorry for the shooting you threat, I was kinda on edge.” He said with a sigh. Dash just ate in silence while the two boys continued chatting. The AI then appeared on the table. “I sent the others a message.” “Thanks D.” “Oh and your package arrived.” Grey smiled and helped his mother with the dishes before she left for the hospital. Crank and the other two followed the man down into his lab to see a large crate in the middle of the floor. Crank levitated a crow bar over to the wooden box and pried open the lid. The girl then saw several metal parts, wires and computer chips. “What’s all that stuff?” Dash asked. “This is my replacement.” He said with a grin. “You two might wanna stand back.” Dash and Ratchet nodded and stood a few feet away from the man. Crank closed his eye and focused. Several objects rose from the crate and some from the surrounding room. Wires stitched themselves into computer chips. Several metal pieces bent themselves into a small sphere that was soon covered by white glass. The small sphere fell into the man’s hand. Dash gulped when she saw a long needle on the back of the object. “I hate this part.” Crank said as he walked over to the mirror. He pulled the eyepatch off and carefully inserted the fake eye into his socket. He heard a metallic click and a familiar buzzing noise. He looked in the mirror and saw his black iris become green and bits of code flashed across his vision. He blinked a few times as the code vanished and he saw his reflection. “There we go.” He said as he looked at the other two. “How does that even work?” Dash asked. “The eye sends what I see in bits of code. Theres a chip in my brain that decodes the information and I get a mental picture.” He said as he walked back over to the box. His horn glowed and several more, larger metal objects came out. The parts then started to bend to the man’s will and put themselves together. The next ten minutes was filled with a swirling mass of metal parts, wires and gears. Soon the final product revealed itself. It was sleek, sophisticated and undeniably badass. Unlike the previous one, the cover was completely black and was made of hardened metal. Some of the wiring that was still visible was also black. Dash noticed that near the shoulder was a long rod. Crank walked over to his barren workbench and laid down on it. He extended his left arm and several clamps wrapped around his legs, arm and mid section. Crank levitated the arm over to his right side and guided it into the socket in his right arm. The man grunted in pain as he rotated it so it would match up with the socket. With one final grunt of pain and burst of magic the arm slid into it’s new home. The man saw several loading bars in his right field of vision and watched as thy all flashed from red to green. Neural interface start up complete. The words blinked for a few seconds before vanishing. The restraints released him and the man sat up. He flexed his fake hand and cracked his shoulder. “Wow.” Dash said as she eyed the arm. “That looks so cool!” She said as she walked up to the man. “It still has a few bugs in it but, nothing I can’t fix.” The three then made their way back upstairs. A few minutes later the three heard a knock at the door. Ratchet approached the door and looked out to see five girls. “Who is it?” The man said. “Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie.” The indigo haired girl said. Ratchet looked at Crank who gave him a nod. The man opened the door and saw five of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen. The girls made their way inside and saw their rainbow haired friend next to the inventor. Pinkie, Shy and AJ gulped at the man’s different form than what they were used to. “How are you doing Crank?” Twilight asked as she and the others sat down. “I’ve been better.” He said as he looked at the girls. “I guess we should shoo the elephant out of the room and explain my condition.” “Oh you don’t gotta do that partner.” AJ said with a smile. “We all got things we don’t wanna talk-” “No, you guys have a right to know.” He sighed. Crank gave them the full story. How he had lost his arm and eye, the augmentation process, his sister Dawn becoming an AI. Everything. It was a good thing that Rarity had put on waterproof makeup. Pinkie’s hair deflated and AJ would occasionally wipe her eyes while Twilight was handling her own feelings and Fluttershy’s tears. “My word.” Rarity said as she summoned another tissue. “I...I had no idea that you’d been through so much.” Twilight said as she dried her eyes. “Not exactly something that’s easy to bring up in conversation.” Crank said as he gulped. “So what’s gonna happen now?” Pinkie asked. “Not sure.” He said with a sigh. “I know I’ll have to face the music eventually. Might as well get it over with.” The other gave a nod and Twilight noticed the blonde haired man. “Oh right, ladies this is my best friend from manehattan Ratchet Steel.” “Nice to meet ya.” He gave them each a nod. Pinkie giggled and whispered something to AJ who also started to laugh. “Mind telling me what’s so funny?” “Just that,” Pinkie giggled. “together you’re-” “Don’t you fucking dare.” Crank said with a frown. “You’re-” “Pinkie!” “Ratchet and Crank!” Dash blurted out and the girls all laughed. “Congrats Dash, you are one-millionth person to reference us to that game.” Crank sighed. The girls calmed down and Pinkie’s hair exploded back to its normal self and she smiled. “Oh! I have an idea!” “Okay, lets hear it.” “We throw a party!” Pinkie smiled. “I think everyone from here to the Crystal Empire saw that one coming.” Crank said under his breath. “Pinkie, I think the last thing Crank wants is-” The scholar was cut off by the inventor. “Actually Twilight, that’s not a bad idea.” “What?” The group of girls said in shock. “I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no changing Pinkie’s mind when it comes to parties.” The group gave him a nod. “Okay, make it later on tonight and just say that it’s Ratchet’s welcome to Ponyville party or something. I still need to test this thing and make sure it doesn’t blow up or anything.” The group then saw the black suited woman come in and look at them. “Oh yeah! That’s another thing.” Dash said. “Who is that?” “Calm down Dash.” The AI said. “That’s just my mobile platform.” “What?” The AI rolled her eyes and jumped into the suit. The black suit then shook and cracked it’s neck. “That was me yesterday at the front of the house.” “No way!” Ratchet said in shock. “She’s been in that thing the whole time?” “You mean you didn’t find the fact that she slept standing up and drank motor oil to be a little bit odd?” Crank said. The blonde haired man thought back and remembered the suit standing still for hours on end and sipping black liquid through one of those crazy bendy straws with loop-da-loops through her helmet. “Oh. My bad.” He chuckled. “Anyway, I have to put this thing through some tests. Shouldn’t take more than a few hours.” Crank said as he stood up and cracked his back. “I guess I’ll see you guys later on tonight.” Pinkie smiled and wrapped the inventor in a bone crushing hug before zooming off with a cloud of pink dust behind her. “How did she-” “It’s Pinkie Pie. Don’t question it.” Crank said as he looked at his friend. “Twilight, why don’t you show Ratchet around town before the party starts?” “You sure?” “I’ll be fine. I just need to run some tests. Go out an enjoy yourself. Besides Twilight has a crap load of books.” The man’s eyes widened. “You don’t need to tell me twice.” Twilight looked at him in surprise. “You like books?” The scholar asked. “Who doesn’t?” “Here we go again.” Crank muttered as the group left his home. Once they were far enough away dash pulled Rarity to the side. “H-Hey Rarity c-can I ask you something?” The fashionista looked at her friend and raised an eyebrow. Dash was stuttering and looked more nervous than she did when she competed in the ‘Best Young Flier’s Competition’ one year prior. “What ever is the matter darling? You look more nervous than Fluttershy when we went to the Crystal Empire for the first time.” Dash was biting her lip and had a bright blush on her face. “H-how do you,” The girl grunted and gathered her resolve. “get a guy to notice you looks wise?” Rarity froze in place and almost fell over had Dash not caught her. Rarity looked at her friend with tears of joy in her eyes. “I honestly never believed that I’d ever see the day you’d willingly take an interest in your appearance.” She said as she wiped the tears away. “I’m going to assume that our favorite mad scientist is the guy you wish to impress hmm?” Dash knew that it was futile to deny it to the fashionista and answered with a swift, but wholehearted nod. “Come along dear, I must get your measurements!” The flier then felt herself being dragged by the fashionista towards her boutique. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hours ticked by as Crank tinkered with his new arm and added new additions to the hardware and software design. He included several new types of upgrades to the arm. Soon D appeared beside him. “Crank it’s time to head to the party.” The AI said. “Yeah let me just finish this up.” He had his screw driver over his arm. The light buzzed green and he flexed the appendage. “Okay all set.” Before he reached the door the AI snapped her fingers and the door closed. “What?” “Are you seriously going to go like that?” Crank looked down at his green T shirt and jeans. “At least wear a collared shirt.” The woman said with a sigh. Crank rolled his eyes and made his way up to his room and changed into a gray collared shirt and a pair of black pants and matching shoes. “There, happy?” He said as he looked at the AI. Dawn had sent Rarity a message via private channel. The AI then jumped into the chip and the man inserted her into his head. “How does the new arm and eye register?” “I’d say a power efficiency increase by twenty percent.” The voice said in his head. “I see that you’ve added a few more defensive options.” “Well, since my secret is out I gotta be on my toes.” He said as he grabbed the cloaking module. The man left his home and made his way towards Sugar Cube Corner. He ducked behind a building and saw several people entering the establishment. He activated the cloaking mechanism and snuck his way inside. Soon the place was packed and Crank saw Ratchet talking with Twilight. Soon the lights dimmed and Pinkie grabbed a microphone out of her hair. How she was keeping it in there we may never know. “Attention everyone, let’s give a big Ponyville welcome to Ratchet Steel!” A light then shined on the blonde haired man and he gave them a nervous smile. “On a side note, we will also have-” The pink haired girl was cut off as a crackling noise filled the air and the cloaking wore off showing Crank. “Damn it.” He sighed. The spectators immediately gulped and looked at his new right arm. “So much for incognito.” The room was dead silent until Crank cracked his neck and stood up on a chair and faced the crowd. “Look, I know that my appearance shocked you all the other day. To set the record straight I lost my arm in an explosion along with my right eye.” He heard several gasps from the crowd. “The reason why I hid them was not out of fear, I only wished to be treated as an equal among all of you. Sorry for the deception.” The man stepped back down and sighed. If the AI hand’t been helping him in his head he would have surely panicked. Crank then saw Thunderlane and a few other members of the football team. “Dude, if anything we should apologize to you.” Crank raised an eyebrow at Thunderlane. “Come again?” “We were all kinda freaked out. Hell, some of us thought you were just a robot.” Caramel said with guilt present in his voice. “So what if you have a robot arm, which looks badass by the way, you still helped us win the regional championships and your our friend.” Thunder said with a smile. “YEAH!” Snowflake bellowed. Other students fro school gave him a nod. “Bullshit!” The crowd to see Endzone with his two friends. The three had been in Blueblood’s employment up until Crank and the team had voted him out and their flow of cash stopped. “This guy is a damn freak show. Probably has a fax machine as an ass.” Crank brushed off the insult as Ratchet stepped forward and cracked his knuckles. “You mess with him,” The man snapped his fingers and his arms were wrapped in yellow flames. “you mess with me.” The three thugs gulped at the spectacle and heard loud cracking noises. Thunderlane, Caramel and the other members of the football team were getting ready to pounce on the three. The group was surrounded by unfriendly eyes. Crank then picked up a metal fork from the table and bend it in half using his pointer, middle and ring finger on his right hand. The three gulped and quickly made themselves scarce. The teenagers then went back to socializing with one another. Most of the guys were asking Crank about his arm and eye. Soon the fashionista dragging an embarrassed Rainbow Dash made her way over to their friends. The athlete was wearing a flowing cyan shirt that left her shoulders exposed and ended above her naval. The tom-boy was also wearing a pair of black pants that clung to her body and accented her natural features. Her hair was combed and parted off to the right and she was wearing a little bit of make up. Crank’s throat dried up as he saw the girl. On the outside he kept a calm, cool demeanor. But he and almost every other guy on the inside were like. “I feel so weird right now.” Rainbow said as she shivered in her new outfit. “Well, I for one think you look very nice.” Rarity chimed. “Yeah Dashie you look awesome!” Pinkie said as she hugged her friend. “You look great Dash.” Twilight said as Dash shook her pink haired friend off. Dash saw that Crank was looking in her direction and felt her face flare up. Twilight sighed and gave rarity a nudge. “Oh Crank! Could you come over here for a moment?” Rarity yelled to the man. The inventor nodded and excused himself from the group of men. He made his way over to the group and hid his blush from Dash. “Hey guys, what’s up?” “Oh we were just critiquing RD’s new threads. What do ya think?” The farmer asked. Crank gulped and looked at the girl. He felt his cheeks flush bright red and felt his mind draw a blank. “Um...you look nice.” “Just nice? Frankly I’m insulted that my work goes into the nice category.” The fashionista pouted. “Pretty, cute, hot choose one.” “What was that last one?” Dash asked with a blush. “I said-” The man’s mind snapped and his throat went dry. He could hear D’s laughter in his head and looked for an excuse. He levitated his screwdriver out of his pocket and discretely made a few sparks fly from his arm. “Uh-oh. Sorry girls but I’d better fix this. See you all around.” He said as he quickly made his way out the door. Dash felt disappointed, but then saw the AI appear on her shoulder. “You gonna let him leave like that?” The AI yelled. “He said he had to-” “If I had hands I’d slap you.” She groaned. “Light bulb’s got a point Dash.” AJ said. “Light bulb?” The AI then hopped into the woman’s digital watch and slapped her with her own hand. “Ah take it back!” AJ yelled as she struggled to restrain her own arm. She felt the tugging cease and sighed. “What happened to the Dash ah know? That one wouldn’t give up that easily.” Dash frowned and gritted her teeth. “You gotta go for it Dash.” Pinkie chimed. D nodded her head before dissolving into the air and went after the man. “YEAH!” Snowflake yelled as he scored a double bullseye at darts. The other five girls looked back at their friend who was gritting her teeth. “If you don’t then someone else will.” Rarity chimed. “I do recall hearing that Lotus had taken a liking to him.” Dash’s face was now red with anger. “Are you gonna loose to her?” Twilight asked. “Hell no!” The flyer yelled as she flew out the door. The girls high five’d one another and smirked. Rainbow charged out into the darkness of the night and flew towards the man’s home. She saw him walk in the front door and head upstairs. The girl grunted and flew around the side of the house and saw that his bedroom window was open. Dash flew up to the window to see the man with his back to her and was taking his shirt off. Dash’s face went bright red and saw a mark on the man’s back. She had seen the cover of her science book enough to know the atom symbol. In the center was the power symbol that was displayed on her Xbox power button. Crank turned around and their eyes met. The man’s face went bright red and Dash almost fell out the window trying to hide her blush. “Dash what the hell are you doing here?” He yelled as he quickly put his shirt back on. “I wanted to know how you were doing.” She said as she stepped inside his room. “You know, since you just revealed yourself to the school. That’s gotta be tough.” “I’m fine.” He said with a sigh. Something beeped and he felt that he needed to recharge his arm. He walked over to his bed side and pulled out a plug with eight prongs coming out of it. “Mind if I ask something?” The other end of the cord was a standard three pronged wall plug. “What?” The man plugged the eight pronged cord into his right shoulder and Dash saw a few lights light up on his arm. “Why do you care so much?” He asked as he felt the electricity go into his arm. Dash gulped and felt every emotion rushing to her brain and face. The girl was silent for a good five minutes until she gulped. “I-it’s because I like you.” She said as she bit her lip. “S-so do you like me?” “Course I like you Dash. That’s why we’re friends.” The girl walked up to him so they were within a few inches away from each other. Crank felt himself blush and saw Rainbow’s cheeks tinted red. “No, I like you.” The words clicked and Crank felt his spine stiffen as his face went crimson.He only saw a blur as the flyer went forward and pressed her lips against his. Crank was still plugged into the wall and Dash felt several waves of electricity wash over her body. Crank felt his fake arm act on it’s own and wrap around the girl’s waist, brining her closer to him. The action caused Dash’s slowly rising wings to stand on end. The door to the man’s room then opened to show the red haired man. “Crank I need to-” He froze in his tracks when he saw the two teenagers embracing each other. The two instantly broke apart and they were now blushing out of embarrassment. “I’ll come back later.” He said as he closed the door. The two stood frozen and dared not look one another in the eye. “Well, that killed the moment.” Dash said. “Dear old dad.” Crank said as he sat down on his bed. “So are we like...dating now?” “Y-yeah. If you want to I mean.” Crank gave a chuckle at the words. “What’s so funny?”
 “You sounded like Fluttershy for a second there.” The flyer looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, I guess we are.” Dash smiled at the words. “So how was your first kiss?” “Shocking.” The girl then lightly slapped him. “Wow that was a bad pun.” She chuckled as she walked over to the window. “I’ll call you.” She said before jumping out the window and taking flight. Crank unplugged himself and walked over to his door and opened it swiftly to see his parents fall onto the floor. “Enjoy the show?” Crank said as his parents got up. “It was her idea!” Vermillion said as his wive casted a death glare at him. “What did you need to talk about dad?” “It can wait till tomorrow.” The man said as he and his wife left. Crank changed into a pair of shorts and laid down on his bed and waited for sleep. Hours later, the man awoke to the familiar sound of his phone going off. He looked at the screen to see he had at least twenty-seven missed messages. All from Rarity. The phone rang again and Crank sighed. “Yeah?” “Finally! I’ve been trying to reach you for hours!” She said in an irritated tone. “I’ve noticed.” Crank looked at his clock and frowned. “Rarity it’s four in the god damn morning. What do you want?” “Tell me everything that happened! What did you two do? How was-” Crank hit a button and went back to sleep. A minute later the phone rang again. The man raised the phone to his ear and pressed the call button. “Did you just hang up on me?” “That depends. Did it sound like this?” Crank hung up again and went back to sleep only to be awoken a third time. “Okay that’s it.” Crank grabbed his bluetooth headset and plugged it into the phone. “What now Rarity?” “Now you look here mister-” Crank zoned her out and answer with a ‘eeyup’ or ‘uh-huh’ as he grabbed a spare tinfoil pie dish and filled it with shaving cream. He grabbed a ski mask and a hoodie. “You two could go on picnics, the movies.” Crank heard a gasp as he teleported in front of her boutique and knocked on the door. “Hold on there’s someone at the door. Odd this time of night.” “Take your time.” Crank said as he pocketed his phone and hid on the side of the door. He saw the fashionista open the shop and pop her head out. “Is someone out-” She was cut off as something white and sudsy collided with her face. As she wiped the cream away Crank teleported back to his home. “Still there Rares?” He asked keeping hi laughter down. “I think I was just assaulted by a pie.” “That sounds crazy Rarity, maybe you better get some sleep.” He hung up on her and shut his phone off before hopping back into bed.