MLP FiM
The Mechanics of Harmony
By: Kestrel
Rainbow reclined on her seat in the cafeteria, snacking on her sandwich and rattling off her epic display of skill in the ring. Her ego was on full blast, much to the chagrin of her other more serious minded friends.
Victory. That was one of the words Rainbow Dash lived her life by. She was the best, and she made sure to show it. Ever since her first match and first victory in the mech coliseum, her ego had inflated even further.
Over the next couple of weeks, Rainbow had managed to garner the attention of the other members of the club, having run undefeated in her recreational matches. There was no trophy, but bragging rights were enough for her. And brag she did. Throughout those weeks, Twilight had showed Rainbow while in the club near complete silence. She did little beyond tell Dash what was happening next on their agenda and asking her for her opinion on design improvements, always hiding her annoyance behind a smile.
The mech Rainbow had come to love hadn’t been changed very much over the past few matches, favoring the original design. It probably still could have used some more tuning up and work on the weak points, specifically, the lack of power and strength in the limbs. The armor used in the mech was a bit too stiff to allow completely free movement. However, Twilight had yet to change this since it was seeing them through matches just fine.
As her fame grew in her newest sports conquest, a few of her admirers and fans came to watch, heading up a small cheer section. First among them was her honorary sister, Scootaloo. The younger girl followed Dash to all of her sports matches. Dash was her idol. She nearly worshipped the ground she walked on.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo yelled out to her big sister as she ran over to the table holding a scrolled up poster beneath her arm. “I saw you in that big mech, it was so cool! You gotta teach me how to do that someday.” Scootaloo’s smile looked like it might just wrap around the other side of her face, it was so big.
“Heya, squirt!” Rainbow replied enthusiastically, ready to regale her disciple with more stories of her awesomeness. “So, I was just getting to the best part! So I was fighting Flitter and Cloudchaser…”
Rainbow launched into another long story about how great she fought, totally neglecting any parts about Twilight or her opponent’s performance. Scootaloo just sat next to her with her eyes wide open, practically seeing the heavens around Dash. The other girls let out a collective groan.
“Oh, come on now, Dash,” Applejack complained. “You’ve already told us five times now!” The other girls all gave their responses in agreement. They were tired of hearing Rainbow yuck it up for her crowds, or at least for her biggest fan.
“Hey, what’s that?” Pinkie interjected, popping up behind Scootaloo as if she came out of a jack-in-the-box. She reached out for the poster the younger girl was holding, causing Scoots to jump in surprise.
Scootaloo brought up the poster and unrolled it for her older friends to see. The poster showed two mechs with interlocking fists, locked in battle. It was an advertisement by the Supreme Steam club, put up by Iron Will. Apparently, the club’s inner league tournament was next meeting. This was what Rainbow had been waiting for.
“Oh, right, I forgot. I was gonna show you all this poster, I found it about an hour ago before my math class,” Scootaloo explained to the crowd of now interested girls.
Rainbow did a fist pump and let out a cheer. She quickly ran off to tell her other friends so they could watch her win. The other girls formed a tighter circle to talk about their excitement. The tournament only came once a year, so all the girls in the club were ready to show off everything they had.
“I’ll have to kindly thank Mr. Iron Will later…” Rarity grumbled with a deadpanned look. “He never gives us any notice for these things.” She complimented her complaint with a flip of her long and voluminous hair.
“Heh, ain’t you right, he doesn’t give us a lot of time to plan. But it’s a good thing I’m always ready,” Applejack responded. “But there’s nobody who’s gonna stand in my way. This time, I’ll take the trophy and the league too!”
Applejack kicked back in her seat and tipped up her hat, confident in her abilities to defeat her opponents. It would be just like the last few tournaments she had won in the club. But this time, she’d go all the way.
“I don’t know, Applejack, darling. I and my fabulous new partner are going to really kick my mech up a notch. You’d better watch out, because you may have a new lady take the prize,” Rarity said, giving AJ a wink to match her own bluster. Sunset Shimmer had been listening to the conversation while she sat quietly, not sure how she should speak about all this.
As the discomfort emanating from Sunset became a bit more obvious, Fluttershy quickly recognized her newest friend’s problem. She put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong, Sunset Shimmer? I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” she said with a smile. Sunset looked back at Fluttershy and returned her smile, albeit much weaker. She was still nervous about her own first tournament, and she didn’t want to let down her new friends, or worse…
“Sorry, Fluttershy,” Sunset replied. “It’s just that I’m not quite comfortable fighting with you guys, even if it is part of the club. I’m just a bit nervous, I don’t want to cause any divides.” Fluttershy let out a short sigh and reinforced her sincere smile.
“Don’t worry, they’ll all understand. It’s just a game after all. Besides, I’m cheering for all of you. Even if and when you have to fight each other, I’ll be cheering for both sides. You’re all my friends, and no rivalries are going to change that,” Fluttershy reassured her. Having been satisfied, Fluttershy turned back to face the others, who were exchanging witty banter and playful challenges.
Twilight just stared down at her notebook. The news had sunk in for her, but she was honestly quite worried. The mech was fine, but she wasn’t sure how she was going to improve her team’s performance, namely, Rainbow’s. Her recent trend of ignoring the other half of her team alarmed Twilight. It was alright for the practice fights, since it didn’t matter as much. But each time Dash switched off her communications, it annoyed Twilight, and try as she might, she couldn’t get her partner to listen to her. If she had, she’d be able to win faster and avoid some more damage.
Letting out a sigh, Twilight closed her notebook and put it back into her backpack. As she turned around, she came face to face with Pinkie Pie.
“Waugh!” Twilight nearly screamed and fell back in her seat in temporary panic. “What’s wrong with you, Pinkie!? Don’t do that!”
Pinkie retracted her head back and let out a fit of giggles. No matter how down someone felt, she was always there to bring their mood right back up. It was heartwarming. And it looked like she had noticed something up with Twilight. Oh, joy.
“What’s with the long face?” Pinkie asked as she stretched her cheeks with her hands. “Of course, I guess having a long face is better than a short face, since it means you can have a bigger mouth, so you can eat more ice cream!” Twilight rolled her eyes, but retained a gentle smile. As random and off-topic as Pinkie got, she was a laugh.
“It’s nothing much, just figuring out how to work better with my partner,” Twilight replied with a short sigh. “I’ll be alright.”
“Oh, you mean Dashie? I know just how to push her buttons!” Pinkie said with a mischievous grin. Twilight wanted to slap her face at that comment. Pinkie could push everyone’s buttons, whether she knew it or not. But that was the nature of their pink haired, candy munching, chatterbox friend. “What I usually do is when I want her to listen to me, I use a megaphone in her face!” Pinkie exclaimed, her eyes rattling around, like she had just gotten off of an amusement park ride. “I’ll even get to do that when the tournament happens!”
Pinkie was the self-appointed, and well-loved announcer of the club. Ever since she had started going around shouting out the action and commentating at the club’s road meets, other clubs had since picked up on the idea. Pinkie Pie suddenly started back up talking.
“Oh, oh, oh! I know! Let’s throw a party for before the tournament! And maybe one afterwards too. And maybe during…” Pinkie rambled on. Twilight felt she had to save herself from the verbal vacuum.
“That sounds great, Pinkie, but I think I need to go take care of something now,” Twilight excused herself. Pinkie didn’t seem to mind her leaving. She just sat there and asked herself questions about the streamers she’d use at the party. Twilight backed away slowly as she saw her other friend fall prey to the party machine.
She had to find Dash and make sure she knew what needed to happen for success. Twilight’s abilities had been called into question, and she was ready to deliver, but there was only so much she could do with such a recalcitrant partner.
Rainbow was psyched up and ready to rumble. She had everything she needed for success. She had a kick butt mech, some top notch skills, and her favorite fan to boot. While she wouldn’t admit it and damage her image, she was always grateful for her presence. Scootaloo was her beacon of hope for whenever she felt like she wasn’t doing enough.
Scootaloo had followed Rainbow on her quest around the lunchroom to tell her other sports friends about the tournament. She had promised Scootaloo a tour of her mech after school just to show off, especially for her little sister.
Now that they had finally arrived at the team’s garage where the Rainbow Raider was standing in its normal spot. Upon viewing the awe inspiring machine from up close, Scootaloo let out a gasp and subsequently stopped all of her chattering she had been doing on the walk up. Dash seized this opportunity to talk up her mech.
“This here is my new favorite toy, the Rainbow Raider!” Dash announced, striking a confident pose with her hands on her hips and her chest puffed out, facing the mech. She had always been ecstatic about her mech, but having her biggest fan here to brag to in person made it that much sweeter. “So far, she hasn’t let me down once! I’ve been through four fights so far, and this is the one that’s gonna take me all the way, I just know it.”
Scootaloo maintained her reverent silence, mentally noting everything Dash had said. No word went by unnoticed, and Scootaloo was beginning to get excited. Well, more so than before. She was trying to remain respectful, but she couldn’t mask her excitement very well. Her eye had been fixed on the cockpit of the mech for the past few minutes. Rainbow looked back at her amazed little friend and noticed her longing gaze.
“So… how’d you like to see what it’s like in a real mech?” Rainbow asked with a nonchalant and toothy grin. At first, Scootaloo’s poor awestruck mind couldn’t even comprehend the awesomeness of the question. After her brain registered the amazing opportunity, she immediately jumped on it, her excitement coming to a burst. She looked like she was about to jump out of her skin.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Scootaloo screamed out and did a little dance, forgetting her cool kid image while lost in her euphoria. The outburst and the statement itself seemed oddly familiar to Dash, like it reminded her of another young girl from a while back… but she never acted like that, right?
Once Scootaloo had settled down, Rainbow led her to the lift to the cockpit and went to the control panel to activate it to bring her friend up to the promised place. Having only very little experience from watching how Twilight did things, she took a minute, but managed to figure out how to work the lift.
As Scootaloo clambered into the seat, Rainbow went about clumsily activating the mech from the remote station. After a few tries with random buttons that didn’t seem to do anything, the mech finally kicked on. When she activated the radio between the control station and the mech, she was greeted with the return of the giddy younger girl.
“Woah, this is so cool Rainbow Dash! And you get to do this every week!? I wanna join now! I’ll make me a super cool mech and I’ll be just like you. Won’t that be cool?” she blurted out in a seemingly endless monologue. If Rainbow wasn’t sure that the mech cockpit was where Scootaloo wanted to be, she’d probably be crawling out of the receiver based on how happy she sounded.
Rainbow smirked to herself, making sure to tack on a few extra cool points to her mental scoreboard. Now that she was situated, she was ready to try out the real deal that the mech could provide. Dash reached for the release switch on the ‘Combat’ setting. The magical display inside the mech went from blue to red and Scootaloo released a little squeal of delight over the comm set.
“Alright champ, let’s try this stuff out. Just let me find the right button… this’ll only just take a second,” Dash called out over the radio as she looked for the marked buttons to bring up the magical mech images and targets in the training area. “Aha, there we go!”
As the buttons activated, the monochrome images of other mechs came into the training field area. Large panels in the walls flipped over after a release of steam to show targets lining the back wall. The controls on the station Rainbow was at were far more complicated than the ones inside the mech, making her feel somewhat inadequate as Scootaloo had a decent grasp on her own only after a few minutes of fumbling around.
Pretty soon, Scootaloo began to engage the make believe images of opponents. Using the chakrams and shuriken launcher, she felled her foes rather sloppily, but she got the job done. She showed some natural talent, which made Dash proud. As her honorary sister, she had to be awesome to keep up with her, this was a good start.
Scootaloo seemed to take a liking to the shuriken launcher, as she continually depleted its energy and had left countless back marks on the back wall of the field.
“Wow, big sis, this is amazing! I wish I could do this every day! I mean, look! I’m even tall!” Scootaloo spoke over the radio with a beaming smile. “I’m gonna try out the other things I’ve seen you use in your fights.”
Now this could be a bit of a laugh. Rainbow watched her little follower try to do some of her acrobatic maneuvers with little success, often ending in the metallic clank of the mechanical body hitting the ground. After watching her little sister continue to try and fail, she couldn’t help but let out a few laughs and even had to stop to catch her breath, much to the dismay of Scootaloo.
Feeling the necessity to regain her coolness from her previous blunders, Scootaloo decided she’d use the most amazing thing about the Rainbow Raider, at least in her opinion. The jet pack was ready and willing to help out.
“Yeah, yeah, Rainbow Dash, laugh it up. Now watch this!” Scootaloo determinedly answered Rainbow’s laughs. She was prepared to show some cool aerial stunts and moves using the jetpack. The plan and how she’d look doing it was all laid out in her head.
The Raider took a running start, jumped and twisted in midair. As she came close to one of the side walls, she activated the propulsion and pushed herself back up higher and launched a few shots at the back wall targets. Despite her floundering attempts with unaided acrobatics, Scootaloo was doing rather well with the pack, impressing Rainbow.
She repeated the process, activating the boost at the back wall and flipping towards Dash. While in the middle of the flip, Scootaloo activated the chakram system and readied for another flip to meet with a mech image standing approximately in the center of the field. However, she didn’t realize the energy drain of the jetpack system. It had dropped nearly to zero.
As Scootaloo hit the ignition on the propulsion system and the system only gave a half-hearted pulse, lifting her slightly into the air, but not doing enough to shift her horizontal trajectory. She was heading right for the control station! As Dash registered what was happening, she acted quickly, tucking and rolling off to the side as the Raider crashed into the control area, demolishing several large pieces of equipment. There was nothing on the radio in those short seconds save for Scootaloo’s panicked screams.
Thankfully, the safety precautions in the mech prevented any bodily harm to its pilot, but Scootaloo had become very shaken up, and while she would not admit it, so was Rainbow Dash. Dash ran straight up to the cockpit of the mech and pried it open, releasing Scootaloo from its confines. A very scared Scootaloo clung to Dash and apologized profusely for what she had done. Dash was just relieved that her sister was unharmed and everything was okay.
Well… not everything. The garage was a mess now. But thankfully Dash had just seen the worst of it. Then suddenly the elevator down to the garage began to whir, the steam powered platform descending down, holding what Rainbow could only expect to be one person.
“Oh crap…”
Twilight had started on her trip to the mech coliseum in order to administer some preparatory triple checks on the mechanisms and systems. She had been loaded down with blueprints and all other manner of papers depicting possible upgrades and diagrams full of complicated math.
She was still studying over her notes when she was on the elevator shaft down to her team’s garage when she heard something large crash. Ripped from her concentration, she told herself that the noise came from some other area, but she knew she was only lying to herself. She quickly furled her diagrams and made a quick prayer, shutting her eyes in futile hope.
The elevator doors opened up, greeting Twilight with her own brand of nightmare fuel. Everything was in shambles right of the center control panel, which had thankfully been left untouched. But as she turned and saw the wreckage, she saw the Rainbow Raider, lying atop a head of totaled electrical and magical equipment. Her mouth hung open as she viewed the carnage.
As she made her way around the impact zone, her disbelief began to fade and be replaced by anger. When she turned the corner around the limp arm of the Raider, she came into view of Rainbow Dash and the very frightened Scootaloo. Twilight quickly put together what had happened to a degree.
“Oh my god! What happened!? Are you okay, Scootaloo?” Twilight shouted out in alarm to the young girl in Dash’s arms. Scootaloo was still heaving in her breaths from the shock and adrenaline pumping through her veins after the harrowing event. “Come on, let’s get you up and out of here. We’ll call your parents to take you home. It’s going to be just fine. Nobody’s been hurt.”
“I’m sorry Twilight…” Scootaloo whimpered with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to!” Twilight’s anger momentarily faded into a warm smile. In all honesty, she was just relieved beyond belief to see that her friends were unharmed and safe. There would be hell to pay later, but first, she had to get the younger girl home to her parents.
The two girls sitting on the ground got up, Scootaloo breaking off from Rainbow Dash and walking to Twilight to be escorted to the elevator. Once Scootaloo had passed her, Twilight shot Dash a look full of daggers and venom. Dash shrank back visibly and began thinking about how much she could fake her explanation to avoid the wrath of the bookworm.
Once inside the elevator, Twilight gave Scootaloo a quick embrace. After having steadied her and removed her from the area, she began to try to probe into what had happened.
“Scootaloo, I’m not angry, that’s the first thing I want you to know. But what exactly happened in there?” Twilight questioned. Scootaloo looked down dejectedly.
“I’m sorry… I was piloting the mech, and I guess I overdid it. I didn’t mean for any of that stuff to happen, I was just trying to impress big sis,” Scootaloo sighed and closed her eyes. She really looked regretful.
While she hid it in front of the younger girl, Twilight was pretty sure she felt something in her mind snap a little bit. Rainbow let Scootaloo pilot the mech!? She was way too young to be getting in the cockpit of a dangerous machine like that! She and Rainbow were definitely going to have a talk.
“Oh, there, there. What matters is that you’re okay,” Twilight stated. “You’re not in trouble. I think you should just tell your parents what happened and be more careful from now on, okay?”
Scootaloo sniffled and nodded her head. The elevator doors opened up to the entry level floor. Twilight walked Scootaloo to the payphones in the lobby and called up her parents. After giving her one more hug for good measure, Twilight headed back to the elevator, her smile completely thrown aside once she had turned from Scootaloo. There were a few other students in the hall that waved, but as soon as they saw her face, they got the idea very quickly and moved on their way.
Twilight took the elevator back down to the garage, stomping her foot on the metallic floor panel of the elevator and crossing her arms. A livid frown was plastered on her red flushed face. She wasn’t angry, she was ballistic. The tournament was just a few days away and Rainbow had managed to single-handedly set them back by at least two days given the amount of damage done to the lab.
The doors opened and Twilight stormed out of the elevator and to the area Dash was sitting in. As she approached, Dash tried to remain cool, but shrank in the fury that gripped her friend. Twilight looked fit to burst into flame.
“Heh, heh… Heeey, Twilight. Uh, how’s it going?” Rainbow sheepishly greeted. Dash instantly regretted opening her mouth as Twilight’s eyes dug into her skull.
“How’s it GOING!?” Twilight screamed into Rainbow’s face. “The tournament is in three days, the Raider is a mess, the test equipment is trashed, Scootaloo looks like she was just traumatized, and it’s all your fault!”
Each reason listed made Rainbow shrink back into herself a bit more. Rainbow Dash never admitted being afraid of anything, but at this moment, she was petrified in fear of what Twilight might do to her. They were friends, so she’d go easy on her, right? Dash didn’t think so though…
“I can’t believe you let someone so young pilot our mech! There is no justification! What purpose could that possibly served!?” Twilight continued to blurt out in her rage. “Why do you have to be like that? Scootaloo wasn’t hurt at least, but it’s entirely your fault that this garage is a disaster! If you would have just used the safety barrier, then this wouldn’t have been nearly as bad!”
Rainbow sat stunned. She hadn’t known about that! She totally would have used it if she had known.
“Well, how was I supposed to know how to do that? It’s not like there was a button on the control panel over there,” Rainbow replied to Twilight’s onslaught of outrage. Twilight’s face visibly reddened, her face flushing over with anger.
“KNOW!? I told you! If you had been listening then you’d know that the safety barrier is activated by a switch on one of those machines you got destroyed!” Twilight yelled out in frustration. “Why don’t you ever listen to a word I say? It’s all important stuff!”
Twilight brought her hands to the sides of her head and shook it out. She groaned out into the void of the garage, letting out her frustrations. After clearing her head, she turned back to Rainbow.
“Okay… look, I’m sorry for yelling at you, but this is a pretty serious amount of damage,” Twilight started. “It’s going to take at least two full days to fix, and there’s no way you can even think about practicing until I rebuild the safety barrier. But thankfully, I’m not going to be on my own.”
“How’s that?” Rainbow asked, already knowing the answer, but hoping to avoid it.
“You’re going to help me clean up your mess! And you’re going to figure out how to listen to me and not tune me out.”
“But I have no idea what to do with this stuff!”
“Then it’ll be a learning experience about how to follow directions,” Twilight huffed with her eye twitching and index finger shaking in an exasperated rage.
Dash internally moaned, not willing to do the real thing in front of Twilight. She really didn’t want to have to help with all of this, but she wasn’t going to be able to practice unless the barrier was reinstalled, so she had to help. Dash let out a sigh.
“Alright, I’ll help. I’m sorry, Twi.”
Twilight returned the sigh, bringing a hand to her head in thought.
“It’s alright, but we’re going to be spending a lot of time in here over the next few days. I hope you didn’t have any plans.”
In truth, Rainbow had a few fundraiser events for her soccer team, but she was willing to put that on the back burner for the greater good, meaning that she didn’t want to do that. She was very glad that there were no more practice sessions since the season wouldn’t start for another month or so.
“There’s also another thing…” Twilight began. “Because of this accident and your current attitude, I’ve decided you need a bit of help being a ‘team player.’ So the radio set is now going to be built straight into the mech, meaning you won’t be able to switch it off.”
Rainbow Dash was slightly upset at this remark, since that meant she wouldn’t be able to focus like she was used to. But she figured she deserved some sort of punishment, even beyond helping clean up. This was a rather big blunder.
“Fine, fine, fine. Whatever you need to happen, Twilight,” Dash relented. Twilight nodded and relished in her small victory.
“That’s right, I’m a part of this team just like you are, and I’m going to help you win whether you like it or not. I’m not just here for the build, I’m your eyes in the sky too,” Twilight lectured her partner.
With that misunderstanding and storm of aggression out of the way, the two girls spent the greater part of the evening at the garage, repairing what they could before going out to eat together. While Twilight still had every intention of putting Rainbow on probation, she had quickly forgiven the actual incident itself.
There were a few days left before the first real performance of their team, and the clock was ticking. It would be a very busy time for the both of them.