Apple Bloom sighed sadly as she carelessly assembled a few bits of junk she'd stumbled across in her walk through the Everfree. She'd sat down after gathering a good amount and reaching Zecora's hut. Unfortunately, the friendly zebra shaman was out at the moment, so Apple Bloom couldn't talk to her like she had hoped. Still, assembling these metal pieces and other bits she'd found kept her somewhat entertained for a while, even if she didn't know what they were.
After a time, she finished her assembly. She smiled as the small device rose up on its multiple legs, extending a ball of crystal from its top. It then proceeded to give off a bright sequence of rainbow colored lights, quite pretty. Apple Bloom's calm, quiet contemplation of the lights was interrupted as she heard hoofsteps approaching.
Turning, she saw Zecora stepping into the clearing around her hut, Scootaloo across her back looking frustrated, Sweetie Belle beside them on her own hooves. Zecora smiled as she saw Apple Bloom. "Tell me now, little bloom, what has you so suffused in gloom?"
Apple Bloom sighed. "We tried to get our Cutie Marks again today...but it's beginning to look like we'll never find them. We're running out of things to try, and nothing works."
Sweetie Belle nodded. "Everything we try blows up in our faces, too."
"Sometimes literally," Scootaloo commented dryly.
"I told you Cutie Mark Crusaders Chemists was a bad idea," Sweetie Belle pointed out.
"Water shouldn't explode!" Scootaloo growled.
Zecora chuckled as she listened to the friends' conversation. "Of your antics I am aware, as I am of outcomes unfair." She glanced at the device Apple Bloom had assembled. "But tell me dear, what have you made here?"
Apple Bloom shrugged. "I often find bits and pieces of metal, wires, and glass. When I'm really down in the dumps, I put 'em together to make something. It cheers me up...for a little while."
"And think you not this might have been meant, in your search for your hidden talent?"
Apple Bloom shook her head. "I'd really rather have a talent that's useful."
Zecora shook her head. "Correct me if I've mistaken your meaning, but do you say this is less useful than underwater basket weaving?"
Apple Bloom blinked, then flushed. "We only tried that once..."
Zecora thought for a time. "Perhaps the reason you find your creations lack heart, is because in assembly you've a shortage of parts." She gestured for the three fillies to follow her. Curious, they did.
Zecora led the three young friends through the Everfree Forest to a wide gorge, stretching back to a huge pit. Filling the pit and spilling over was the largest pile of scrap that Apple Bloom had ever seen. "What's that?" Apple Bloom asked, awed.
Zecora smiled. "Beyond the sky is a gate to elsewhere. That which it disgorges ends up down there. To keep it from depressing the world even deeper, I have chosen to become this yard's keeper. If anything here your interest fits, to my young friends it is yours for two bits."
Grinning widely, the three friends began scrounging through the scrap yard, looking for something interesting to work with.
"How about this?" Scootaloo asked, holding up some unusually configured metal.
"Nah," Apple Bloom said. "Too shaped, nothing to work with."
"How about this?" Sweetie asked, pushing a hunk of stone around.
"I need metal or glass," Apple Bloom replied as she scrounged in a large pile.
"This?" Scootaloo asked, holding up a red and white ball with a button.
"We already tried every ball game cutie mark in existence," Apple Bloom pointed out, leading to Scootaloo tossing the ball carelessly away.
"What about this-" Sweetie froze as the large barrel leaking green liquid she was pushing rolled down the side of the pile, bouncing off into the Everfree where it was eaten by a hydra, which promptly exploded. "Never mind!"
"We're never gonna find anything awesome at this rate!" Scootaloo complained.
At that point, Apple Bloom pulled a piece of junk aside, causing the entire scrap pile to cascade downward, revealing a massive, headless mecha the rough size of Canterlot Castle. After all three fillies stared at it for a while, Apple Bloom spoke up. "Awesome enough for you?" she asked Scootaloo.
"Two bits, right?" Sweetie called out to Zecora. Chuckling, Zecora nodded knowingly.
Three months later, at the end of summer vacation from school, Apple Bloom leaned back inside the old barn at Sweet Apple Acres. It was never used for anything aside from the occasional party, so when she had asked Applejack if she could use it to work on a Cutie Mark related project, her older sister had chuckled and approved.
All three Cutie Mark Crusaders had worked hard on repairing and restoring the abandoned mecha. Apple Bloom had focused on repairing the internals, replacing anything broken and adding systems she felt necessary. Scootaloo had been put in charge of designing the outside, and had given it what she felt was an awesome paint job. Sweetie Belle, realizing how dangerous her usual clutziness would be with this project, had instead contented herself with fetching supplies.
Now, Apple Bloom watched as her two friends finished polishing the crimson vehicle they had found in the junkyard and had jury rigged as the missing head unit. It was the only thing visible above ground, as their first task had been digging a huge cellar to work on the mech in. Right now, the head unit looked like it could roll right out the front of the barn.
"Hey Blank Flanks!" an irritatingly predictable voice called out to them.
The three friends turned to find Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon sauntering up to them. "Finally putting your talentless selves to good use?" Silver suggested.
"I'm sure Daddy would happily toss you a few bits to wash the family coach," Diamond taunted, grinning.
On any other day, their taunts would have had the CMC glaring daggers at them, complaining, demanding to be left alone, or - if pushed too far - with Apple Bloom telling them to 'get off mah farm' while reaching for Granny Smith's shotgun. Today, however, much to the bullies' surprise, it resulted in wide grins. Reaching over, Apple Bloom threw a lever to a spot marked "Up". With that, she raced over and leaped into the head unit - followed by Sweetie and Scootaloo - as gears began to turn. The entire mecha rose upwards on the moving platform as it erupted from the barn.
"You were sayin?" Apple Bloom called down.
Pressing a button at random, Scootaloo caused one arm of the mecha to swing forward and extend a strange weapon. A beam fired from it, vaporizing Silver's necklace and Diamond's tiara in twin flashes of blue light that left both their manes frazzled. The two bullies screamed and fled in fear.
"Apple Bloom!" Applejack shouted up from the ground. "Is that you up there?"
Apple Bloom looked down guiltily. "Yeah, sis, it's me and the others."
"What's the big idea wrecking the barn like that? You are so grounded!" She seemed to just notice the giant mecha. "What's that?"
"It's the Cutie Mark project we've been working on!" Scootaloo called down.
"I think it's called 'Megan' or something," Sweetie added. "Can't really read the text very well."
"And we just got it working after working on it all summer!" Apple Bloom added petulantly.
Applejack glared up at them for a while, then sighed. "Alright. You got one test drive lap around Ponyville, but then you're grounded till school starts, and you have to fix anything you break!"
"Yay!" the three fillies shouted together.
Scootaloo glanced over the crazed arrangement of buttons, controllers, joysticks, and other video game type controllers scattered in front of her place before the wheel. They'd taken out the two front seats and replaced it with a cushioned bench they could all sit on in front. "...what's with all the video game junk?" she asked.
"I asked Button Mash what kind of controls I should use for a giant robot, and he told me this was what you were supposed to use," Sweetie admitted sheepishly.
Scootaloo nodded. "Alright...so how do I make this thing go?"
"I dunno," Apple Bloom said with a shrug. "I just built the thing and hooked the buttons up to all the systems. I don't know what the systems do."
Scootaloo tilted her head. "So...push random buttons and see what happens?"
"Works for me!" Apple Bloom said happily.
They all grinned as they started pressing random buttons. Down below, Applejack shuddered, feeling a horrible premonition. Glancing towards Ponyville, she muttered, "At least it's Tuesday..."