//------------------------------// // Prototype // Story: The Mechanics of Harmony // by Kestrel //------------------------------// MLP: FiM The Mechanics of Harmony By: Kestrel Despite having to be holed up in school for another full week, the days seemed to go by in a blur for Rainbow Dash. She had been talking some with Twilight about building their own fighter, and man, was it gonna be amazing! On that Thursday, Rainbow Dash ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the gymnasium complex. She was prepared to help out make her fighter in whatever way she could. Naturally, she already had a few design motifs and basic ideas ready to go. Obviously, her mech would have only the coolest weapons, armor, and designs, only the best for the best student on campus. As she approached the entrance, she snickered to herself, thinking about all the awesome contained behind those doors. After throwing open the doors in a grand display, (and getting a few funny looks from the crowd gathered) she noticed where Twilight was. More importantly though, she noticed the lack of something kind of important to her at that moment… there was no awesome, amazing, custom mech for Rainbow anywhere. Barely hiding her immediate disappointment, she went up to Twilight, ready to ask about it. But before she could formulate a question, Twilight noticed her and hailed her over to the small stack of papers she had ready to go. “Hey, Rainbow! Twilight greeted Rainbow upon her arrival. “So, I decided that I’d go ahead and draw up a few concepts and ideas for the mech, since it’s not quite ready to go yet. I’ve put together the chassis, and after we plan a bit here, I’ll go ahead and head home to build the rest, hopefully in time for a fight next week here at the club,” Twilight finished and smiled to her friend. Rainbow managed to hide her disappointment, but didn’t manage to conceal her distaste for having to plan the whole design. It seemed like it would take forever! There had to be at least three dozen papers, and they all looked super complicated. “Great…” she replied with a slight sigh. This was going to be a long afternoon for her. “So where do we start?” Ignoring her friend’s disinterest, Twilight pointed out some of the more vital parts of the design that she wanted to have Rainbow’s input on since she was going to be the pilot. “I was thinking that we should figure out just what kind of weapons and gadgets we should use to improve your performance,” she began. “I’ve got a few ideas in mind for some of them, but I’d like your input. I also want to make sure you know that we’re only given a certain amount of money for a stipend, before you get too crazy,” she said as she shot Rainbow a sideways glance. Rainbow Dash looked away and whistled a few notes, knowing that Twilight had her pegged. Rainbow decided to mull over a few ideas in her head. Top priority: it had to be fast, and it had to feel amazing to pilot. As for everything else… she didn’t have much of a clue for how to functionally improve the mech. She’d figure out how to make it work as long as it adhered to her basic style. Badassery. “Well, to keep up with me, it’s gonna need to be wicked fast! Oh, and have a really cool weapon! Like maybe a hammer, or a huuuuuuge sword!” Rainbow Dash ranted. It was possible that some of these ideas were born of a few of her more epic dreams. Twilight just groaned internally as she heard Dash’s input. She had expected that she wouldn’t have a lot in mind, but this… was very little to go on indeed. “Rainbow…” she started with a huff. “Use the part of your head that isn’t stuck in a cloud for a second. How do you expect to move quickly if you’ve got something as heavy as a hulking hammer? Rainbow Dash just shrugged, thinking it wasn’t really her problem. She just gave the requirements, Twilight made it work. That was egghead stuff. Twilight pulled a few sheets out from the stack full of specs and designs to work with and handed them to Rainbow. “Here, see what you like and pick one out.” Naturally, that would take a bit of time to look over, so Twilight returned to her previous work on the other aspects of the build. She’d have some time to work in peace. Rainbow hastily took a quick glance over the sheet Twilight had handed to her and in less than ten seconds, before she had any time to pick up her pen. She had circled an option and handed it back to her eggheaded friend. Twilight suddenly felt as if Rainbow wasn’t very interested in this stuff. For some reason… “Rainbow, there were at least eight weapon choices on there with detailed explanation. There’s no way you could have chosen what you wanted that fast,” she complained to her good friend. “You do realized you ‘chose’ a pretty difficult weapon to use, right?” Twilight began to tap her foot on the ground in annoyance. Rainbow only shrugged. They looked cool, so she chose them. She’d learn how to use them anyway, after all, she was the embodiment of awesome and cool. She sat back and reclined in one of the chairs that Twilight had set up near her little desk. Twilight took a glance at the red circle on the paper; she had circled the chakrams. Twilight let out a sigh, slapped her face, and groaned. Out of all the possible options available to her, she had to choose those. “Whatever,” Twilight answered the silence. “So what do you think for anything else? Like gadgets or special functions?” “Oh! I know! Rainbow perked up and shouted. She had been looking forward to shooting this idea for the whole week now. “I was thinking we could totally do something like the Cloudsdale Crusaders, with the wings and the boom feathers.” Rainbow’s mind immediately filled up with the images her mind produced from the fight she heard on the radio the week prior. “Too expensive, Rainbow,” Twilight retorted. Dash’s dreams were abruptly cut short. “That’s some of the highest quality stuff. They’ve only got that because they got some prize money from tournaments they’ve won over the past few years.” “Oh… yeah,” Rainbow sighed and flopped back into the chair. “I’d still really like some sort of flight incorporated into it.” She started to play with a pen she found, twirling it around her fingers in boredom. She knew that it wasn’t likely she’d get everything she wanted, but she was really hoping to get her wings. Twilight noted the dejected tone of Rainbow’s voice and jotted down a few notes on how to improve her design. Nodding, she resolved to include some form of flight, or at least aerial maneuvers. Rainbow was a big fan of all things airborne, so she wanted to do her friend that one favor. “Okay, I think I’ve got a few ideas down now,” Twilight stated. “Do you want to help me with the mechanism planning?” she asked, not expecting her to do so. Rainbow’s attention span had already been hopelessly stretched, but that’s what made her who she was. “Nah, I’ll be alright. Although, I do have an idea for the mech’s name.” “Really? I hadn’t actually thought about that one,” Twilight admitted sheepishly. She had been so focused, almost to an obsessive level, on the technical parts of the fighter that she completely forgot to think up names. “Yeah, I wanna call it… The Rainbow Raider!” Rainbow stood up and struck a pose. Twilight felt… underwhelmed by the name, but didn’t really have any objections. She really wasn’t any better when it came to naming things, judging on her doll Smarty Pants… who she still slept with. “Sounds good, I’ll go ahead and head home with this and start the build. I’ll probably have it ready next week,” she said to Rainbow as she packed up her papers and sketches. After stuffing her bag mercilessly full, she started to hobble towards the doors. She looked like she was gonna buckle under the weight. Rainbow let out a soft chuckle. “Fair enough, I’ll probably hang around here for a little while longer,” Rainbow said, wanting to take a good look at some of the other mechs around. Despite there being a few completed mechs standing around, there was to be no fighting until the next week, since this was a planning/tune up meeting. Rainbow Dash began to walk around the gym at a relaxed pace, taking in the sights. Ponyville High had a pretty standard gym, with a few bleachers, a stage, and a very high ceiling. Though in the recent years, to accommodate the new sport she was in club for, the ceiling had to be raised even higher to allow for the display of the mechs. Fighting took place in domes specially built for the purpose of fighting mechs, which is why there was to be no fighting until the next week. While pacing around and not really paying attention to what was in front of her, Rainbow collided with something in her path. As she looked down, she saw that she had not collided with something, but rather someone, who was now down on the ground. “Fluttershy! Look out next time!” Rainbow chastised her friend before reaching out a hand to pull her up. The pink haired, timid girl took the hand extended to her and lifted up off the ground and back to her feet. She stood taller than Dash, but tended to shrink in reality because of her timid nature. She straightened her skirt as she regained her footing. “S-sorry, Rainbow,” she apologized while taking her hair and partially hiding behind it. She had no fault in what happened since she was actually standing still and Rainbow just bumped into her and knocked her down. “Oh, wait a minute! I didn’t know you were part of this club.” “Yeah, I joined up last week with Twilight! She’s my new sidekick. She’s gonna build me an awesome mech and I’m gonna win it all this year!” Dash puffed out her chest and put her hands on her hips in triumph. She began to think a bit more on the presence of her friend in the gym. Fluttershy was more of a… delicate flower. It was surprising to see her here where there was so much roughness. Fluttershy looked around nervously and started to mumble quietly. While Rainbow couldn’t hear her, she knew that she probably wasn’t actually part of the club. She did manage to notice a few decorations scattered along the hardwood floor of the gym near Fluttershy. It became fairly obvious what she was doing. She quickly stooped down to help gather all the things that Fluttershy had dropped. Streamers, posters, and various fliers. They looked like party decorations, this had Pinkie Pie written all over it. Rainbow Dash recalled that while she wasn’t in the club, she did go to a few meets that her friends competed at and cheered along. Fluttershy didn’t play the sport, and nor did she want to, but she was always kindly there to help support her friends. Pinkie Pie wasn’t part of the club either… officially. Over time, she became the self-appointed announcer of Ponyville. Her bubbly personality and strange ways of putting things became a popular staple of the Ponyville club. “Heh, sorry about that, Fluttershy,” Rainbow embarrassedly apologized to Fluttershy. She had been distracted by one of the mechs on display that bore the name “Mecha Mac.” She was distracted because she knew who piloted, and built this one. The large figure and powerful, beefed up limbs could only be the work of a few people she knew. “Hey, y’all! What’s up?” came a familiar voice with a southern twang. Her worn jeans were stained with multiple oil stains and ripped full of new holes, and she was wearing her trademark hat. Applejack. That was her mech. She was one of the toughest competitors Ponyville had to offer, and Rainbow had a rivalry with her to boot. Ever since they had been young, they had always tried to one-up each other in everything they did. Sports, working out, sports… and yet they never competed for grades. This would be just another point on Dash’s side of the scoreboard. This season, Applejack would go down. “I’m so happy you joined up, Dash. It’ll be a lot more interesting with another real fighter here,” she stated with a smug grin and tipped her Stetson up. It seemed she was itching for another competition between the two. Rainbow Dash was glad to see her rough and tough buddy, but she was more focused on the amazingly sturdy hunk of machine that filled her vision. Applejack noticed what Rainbow had been distracted on and wasted no time on talking up her machine. “This here’s my pride and joy! The Mecha Mac! I built it myself,” she began to narrate, showing obvious pride in her eyes. “My big brother taught me most of the stuff I know, and let me tell you, it’s all the right stuff. Good luck trying to beat me in a straight on fight here. My mech’s as sturdy as they come. He’ll take a beating and dish it right back out!” she finished and crossed her arms in a triumphant stance. She propped herself up on her desk, putting one foot on it, showing off her rough, country style boots. The Mecha Mac was indeed a very large mech, made with some very tough metals and contained lots of punching power. She had seen enough of Applejack’s fights to know this. It cut a very imposing figure. Its armor was extremely tough, in fact, Dash had never seen anyone best it. This would be a tougher battle than she thought. The mech had a less than stellar paint job, and didn’t really exude confidence based on the condition it seemed to be in, but despite the chipped and faded orange paint, the mech always punched a way through. When just using its bare fists, the mech was also equipped with a hammer that spelled certain doom for any mech it hit. It also contained some heavy duty cannon gauntlets that launched massive, albeit slow, projectiles at distant foes. The armor of the mech was worn and full of dents and battle scars, but it was still some of the toughest stuff the club had on hand. Such strong armor hampered the mobility of the fighter, but that was Applejack’s preference. Slow and steady always won the races for her, unless it was an actual race, that is. To prevent more agile fighters from being too annoying, she also packed a dense force field projector to protect her from ranged weaponry. Another thing that Applejack was known for, was her pride. She had continued the image that Big Macintosh had set forward by building, and piloting on her own. She had no coach or mechanic to help her. She felt she didn’t need one. It was perhaps a weakness, but she had seemed to do just as well with her fights anyway. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool and all, but mine’s gonna blow it right out of the water!” boasted Rainbow Dash. Applejack just scoffed at the idea. She folded her arms and lowered her hat to cover her eyes as the corners of her mouth turned up into a smug grin. “We’ll see about that, sugarcube. I’ll see ya later,” she said as she waved off to Dash and Fluttershy. Dash and Fluttershy continued walking together and saw more of the mechs on display. There were still a few, but most of them looked pretty uninspiring, there was one in particular that she only remembered because it didn’t stand out at all, and therefore stood out like a sore thumb. It was weird seeing such a generic looking mech. Most people had more imagination. Eventually, Dash caught a glimpse of a mech that stood out greatly. It shone like a white porcelain doll… of pain and destruction. The design was sleek and slender, with ladylike curves. It took all of three seconds for Dash to figure out who this one belonged to. Rarity. It had surprised Dash when Rarity was one of the first friends of hers to drop in on the action. That had seemed like the last thing she would do, being a “lady” and all. But she surprised Dash by bringing her own flair to the battlefield. The mech sported a lot of Rarity’s fashion choices, having its armor in the form of a battle dress. The frills were all laced together to provide good covering to the internal systems. To further enhance the elegant motif of the project, the mech used a rapier as its primary weapon which landed very calculated and precise strikes to throw off an opponent’s reactions. It was pretty fast and well armored, but it suffered in its strength. It played a game of attrition, which bored Dash to tears, especially when the dance move dodging came out. Dash generally averted her eyes at that point to avoid puking. Finally, to further add to the annoying factor, the machine had two shoulder mounted guns housed inside of rounded shoulders, and while dodging, the canons would pepper enemies and it just drove Dash insane. Over at one of the work stations that had been set up sat Rarity. She was hunched over a design paper, huffing at a lot of style choices. There had been several papers scattered along the floor, each sporting lots of different design motifs. “Hey, Rarity, what’s happening?” Rainbow shouted over as she approached. Fluttershy decided to return to her work instead and left. Rarity’s long and fancy hair partially obstructed what she had been bent over. She was still wearing her stylish school clothes. She obviously didn’t have any intention of getting dirty. Dash managed to catch a glimpse of a purple rose design. Clearly for style only, and even more clearly, so Rarity. “Hello, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity spoke up in a light and polite voice, maintaining her ladylike composure despite being yelled to. She was absorbed in her work, so she didn’t even look up. After nodding at her design, she finally gave Dash a proper greeting, hug included. Then another girl came out from the mech. Her red and yellow hair was damp from a bit of sweat from working on the systems of the mech, but she still looked great in her black jacket. It was Rarity’s partner, Sunset Shimmer. She had once been the school bully, sabotaging other girls’ chances at popularly elected social events, blackmailing other students with embarrassing secrets, and being a jerk to everyone. But after a few run-ins with Dash’s friends, Sunset had apparently changed for the better, or at least the others trusted her implicitly now. Rainbow Dash hadn’t really been convinced that Sunset Shimmer had changed from being a bully. Back in those days, one of her favorite marks was Fluttershy, and despite being slightly annoyed by her wimpy nature, Dash stood up for her whenever she was able. Nobody disrespected Fluttershy. But, after hearing about the good things Sunset had been doing, she decided to give her the benefit of a doubt. “Oh, Rainbow, darling, I want you to meet my partner in crime, Sunset Shimmer,” she motioned to the other girl. “She’s an absolute delight to have around, and she’s sooo smart. She helped me make this beauty of a mech and is a wonderful counterpart to my piloting finesse,” Rarity explained with a flourish of her pen. She obviously had a lot of pride in her skills as well. But no amount of bluster in the world could compare to Rainbow’s bravado. “Well, she seemed to have done alright with this one,” Rainbow said. “But it’s still gonna wet it’s sprockets when it sees my mega-awesome mech!” “Well, we’ll have to see about that, but I won’t be a pushover either. I’ll show you the elegance of the Femme Fatale. Girl power at its finest! You won’t stand a chance,” Rarity boasted right back. “And besides, anything I don’t catch, my partner will. After all, we’re going to be the one to take the club tournament this year.” The club tournament happened only once a year, and was a coveted trophy for the winning team. It was a great addition to a room, but more importantly, it let the team move on to the interschool league play. Only the champions from each respective school got to compete there. And only the best of the best won the title. There had been only five titles so far, and Cloudsdale had just won the last one. Rainbow Dash was prepared to win this one in her rookie year. “No way! That’s got my name on it! Er… that is, me and Twilight’s name on it,” Rainbow Dash retorted. Dash knew Twilight was important, but Dash didn’t need any help inside the ring. She was going to mop the floor with anyone who got in the way. Her pride wouldn’t let her have it any other way. “I don’t think you’ve got a chance against me, but feel free to try. Anyway, I’ve got to get back to my designing,” Rarity said and leaned back over her design plans and promptly zoned out. “Fine, fine, I’ll let you get back to decorating while I train,” Rainbow teased and began to walk away. No more than five steps out or so, someone she didn’t expect to talk to her hailed her down. Sunset Shimmer was behind her and had tapped her on the shoulder. Rainbow thought that she’d be the last one Sunset would want to talk to, given how coldly Dash had treated her recently in compensation for the torment that Fluttershy had received from her. It was a more than an awkward situation for Dash, since she had little to no interaction with her since she had changed her ways from being a bully. She wasn’t too keen on having to talk to her either, she was on her way out. “Hey, so Twilight Sparkle’s your partner, huh?” she asked. So this was why she’d decide to talk to someone like her. Rainbow Dash had figured that this would be why she wanted to talk. Despite becoming friends with Dash’s group, she was still competitive with Twilight. After having met her, the two formed a rivalry and eventually became friends as well, thought the competition persisted. “Yeah, what’s it to you?” Rainbow asked with a dull tone of voice. She didn’t really want to hang around much longer and wanted to leave to go practice the techniques she’d use in her fights. Dash wanted to maintain her top form and bring the moves she used in martial arts to the battle domes. “I just wanted to tell her that even though we’re cool and we’re friends now, she’s going to go down when we meet in the battle domes,” Sunset declared confidently. Bringing her arms into a fold and smirking. She flipped her hair back to complete the motion. Rainbow Dash was now intrigued. If Sunset though she could beat Twilight, then that was by extension beating her. Now she had a stake in her game. No one beat Dash, not even by extension or technicality. “No way that’s gonna happen, Twilight’s gonna build me the best mech ever, and we’ll steamroll you guys into submission!” Dash fired back with her competitive spirit. No one could beat her, she would be the best there could be in the game. She never settled for anything less. “It doesn’t matter how tough you are, Rainbow, my designs are superior in every way imaginable. Twilight’s got nothing, and I know exactly how to beat you,” Sunset snickered at Rainbow. “Yeah, right. I’ll see you later, and I’ll bring a can of whupass for anyone who thinks they can beat me!” Rainbow announced and started walking toward the door. She looked back at Sunset before leaving and flashed her a friendly grin. “Heh, guess you’re not too bad, Sunset. I’ll look forward to our fight, see you later.” Dash continued her walk to the door. As she left, she couldn’t help but mentally prepare for next week. It would be a proving ground for her, and her skills. She couldn’t let anyone beat her, she was the best of all the sports teams, and she’d be the best of this one too. With a clear goal in mind, she strode on home for the day, ready for the fights in her near future.