//------------------------------// // An Elegant Solution // Story: The Mechanics of Harmony // by Kestrel //------------------------------// As the girls returned to the world above their prep garage, the roaring of the crowd grew louder. Upon entry to main arena, they saw Rarity and Sunset Shimmer exchange post-game greetings and congratulations with Flash Sentry and Thunderlane. In a shocking turn of events, the Noble Warrior was lying in a broken down heap of metal. No surprise there. Soon, the two teams in the center broke apart and made their ways off to their respective garages as they had to fix their mechs. In the meantime, Iron Will made his way onto the field, microphone stand in hand. “Another exceptional match! These kids mean business!” he blared into the microphone. The crowd sounded their agreement with a cheer. “With that stunning performance, Team Radiance and the Femme Fatale will move on to face Team Rainboom and the Rainbow Raider in the final match of the tournament in half an hour. See you all soon!” After he had finished, Iron Will made his way back to his personal viewing area while the stands above emptied out. Half an hour to wait… Rainbow heaved a heavy sigh. She had just come off of a string of victories and wanted to keep on going while her adrenaline was pumping. Having to wait like this meant that she’d have to psyche herself up again. At least fighting Rarity sounded like it’d be a bit easier. She was no Applejack, and it wasn’t like beating Flash Sentry’s mech was any real astounding accomplishment. Rainbow was sure Rarity was a passable pilot, but could she measure up to her? The tougher part of the deal was Sunset Shimmer. From what she knew about Sunset, she was as smart as Twilight and also carried a rivalry against her. So perhaps it would serve to make the match higher stakes. “Hey, Rainbow Dash!” an excited, voice called out. Dash turned to see Scootaloo running into their spectating area. Both ‘sisters’ embraced in a short lived hug with smiles on their faces. “Scootaloo! What’s up?” Rainbow inquired. It had been a few days since the little accident that Scootaloo had in their garage. While she had meant to check in on her, she didn’t have the time to since she was tied up with helping repair the workshop and mech. “Nothing much…” Scootaloo answered. “Just watching the greatest up and coming pilot in the whole world!” Same old Scootaloo. Nothing could keep her down. Dash had to just take a moment to admire her spirit. She saw a lot of herself in the younger girl. “Although… I do have something I need to tell you,” Scootaloo continued with a shifty gaze. Rainbow recoiled subtly at the sentence. “I’m listening…” “So you’re about to go fight Rarity’s mech, right? Well, me and Sweetie Belle have been watching the whole tournament. I have a little bet going with her. If you win, then I get a bowl of ice cream for free!” “Okay, that sounds like a worthy cause,” Rainbow answered with a laugh. “Just out of curiosity, since it’ll never happen, what happens if I lose?” “You have to wear Rarity’s newest fashion creations for a week,” Scootaloo answered calmly and with a huge smile plastered to her face. “WHAT!?” Dash answered, flabbergasted and with her jaw dropped open. “I never agreed to that! There’s no way I’d ever wear such prissy princess clothes!” “That’s what I said! Which is why I agreed to the bet!” Scootaloo cheerily replied, completely missing the gravity of what she had done. Rainbow sighed and put her face in her hands. She loved Scootaloo to death, but she could be sort of brash and self-centered. Dash had no idea where she had picked that up from. “Alright, well thanks for that. Anyway, I’d better have you leave so we can strategize so I can win you that bowl of ice cream,” Rainbow told Scootaloo with thinly veiled agitation. “Sweet! Thanks a lot! I know you’re gonna win, so do your best!” Scootaloo yelled as she ran out of the room and back to her place at the stands. Once Scootaloo had departed, Rainbow’s expression dropped into a deadpanned frown. If Scootaloo lost her bet, then she’d be the one to suffer? With that new reckoning on her mind, she had new incentive not to lose. She never had the intention of wearing those clothes even if she did lose, but then she’d hear it nonstop from Scootaloo for breaking her ‘promise.’ What a headache. Now that Rainbow was free, Twilight felt it was important to start strategizing now that the time they had to prepare had been shortened. “Dash, we need to get ready to fight Team Radiance,” Twilight stated. “I’ve been taking a look at some of the recorded footage and I think we may be in for a tough time.” With her focus snapped back to the competition at hand, Dash listened intently. A tough time? Like she had to tell her, she wasn’t the one being held to a bet she didn’t make. But no matter how tough her friends were, they wouldn’t stop her from winning. It was her title and she’d do whatever it took to win it. Twilight continued on with her explanation. “Unlike Applejack and Flash Sentry, Rarity will rely mostly on ranged attacks. What’s more worrying is that she’s going to be harder to catch due to the rollerblade like devices on the feet of the mech. She uses precise strikes in her fights, so you’ll have to make sure to guard your weak points.” “Seems easy enough,” Rainbow Dash answered. “I’m counting on you to give me all the info on weak points you spot. Sunset Shimmer’s gonna be a tough competitor in this one too.” “You’re right. She and I are very much alike, and knowing her, she’ll find your weaknesses before too long,” Twilight admitted. “So to keep her from gaining an advantage, you’ll have to make sure to keep a cool head and not do anything too brash.” “Now since when have I ever done anything like that?” Rainbow defended herself. Twilight met her question with an eye roll. “My apologies, I have no idea when you might have done anything like that,” she said sarcastically. While the two were busy planning out their strategy, the noise in the stadium had gradually risen to a dull roar. Once the sound had registered to the girls, they turned back and took a look at the stands. They were nearly full once more. The clock on the wall read that they only had five minutes to be ready for the final matchup. “Oh shoot!” Twilight interjected. “I forgot to set the Raider up to the teleportation field!” Rainbow and Twilight shared a collective grimace and raced to the garage. Making a break for it down the halls, Rainbow and Twilight ran to their garage to make final preparations to the Rainbow Raider, setting it to the proper designation for transport. Then the girls made another sprint back to the field, arriving in the nick of time as Iron Will had just taken the center of the field to announce the main and final event. Panting and out of breath, the girls made their way to their entry area, situated directly across from their opponents, to be called out in dramatic fashion by their charismatic teacher. With the microphone stand in hand once again, Iron Will began his dramatic introduction. “Welcome back to the main event! Iron Will hopes you’ve all had fun up to this point. But now… prepare for the main event! The final match of this year’s Ponyville tournament!” he excitedly announced. As if to approve of his words, the crowd let out a cheer. After letting the crowd settle and taking in the attention from the people in the stands, Iron Will gestured toward Team Rainboom’s side of the field, outstretching a hand. “Now everyone, welcome our up and coming new team! Team Rainboom!” he shouted out to the audience. Rainbow and Twilight took this as their cue to walk out into the arena. As they entered the light of the arena, they were greeted with the admiration of the crowd above. “And… their spectacular mech, the Rainbow Raider!” Iron Will exclaimed. As he finished, a large hole opened in the field and the deafening sound of claxon started. After a few seconds, the head of the Rainbow Raider peeked out into the light. More cheers erupted from the stands as the mech had become completely exposed to the light and stood in all of its glory, proud and ready. Now Iron Will stood with his back to them now, directing everyone’s attention to the other side of the field. He began once again with his introduction. “Now, please welcome a pair of our veterans, Sunset Shimmer and Rarity in Team Radiance!” More cheers came from the crowd, matching the enthusiasm for Team Rainbow. And once again, as he announced the name of the mech Dash would be fighting as well. “Now give it up for Team Radiance’s mech, the Femme Fatale!” he shouted out for the people in the stands. The fans all clapped for each combatant, ready to see the carnage of one last fight. The opposing mech began to surface from another hole opened up in the arena. As the light cast by the skylight in the coliseum hit the Femme Fatale, a shining gleam shone off of it. The mech was a shining white with purple accent marks on it, a true Rarity design as far as aesthetics went. It sported a strip skirt meant to provide easy movement, large orb shaped pieces on the shoulders, and some wheels attached to the feet of the mech to act as roller blades. And were the foot design based off of Rarity’s… boots? She had really spared no expense on how it looked. The tricky part would be how it would fight. Rainbow only had a slight idea of how Rarity went about her “scuffles.” After both mechs were brought up, the two teams took the field and met in the center to shake hands and wish each other luck. Sunset and Rarity approached Rainbow and Twilight, fires burning in the eyes of all, ready to take the competition in this last round. “Well darlings, I wish you good luck, after all… you’re going to need it,” Rarity said. “I heard about how you defeated Applejack, and while I’m surprised and even the slightest bit impressed, you won’t find such flaws in our beauty of a machine!” The gauntlet had been thrown, now Dash felt she had to answer to defend her pride. “Ain’t no way you’re gonna beat me! I’ve never lost to girly-girls like you in sports before, and I’m not going to now!” Rainbow answered the challenge. “We beat Applejack, and we can sure beat you.” While Rarity and Rainbow Dash were exchanging blusters, Sunset had kept her silence and had been gazing at the Raider. Twilight took notice and whispered into Dash’s ear. “Rainbow… we’d better get ready to start quickly, I don’t like the way Sunset’s looking at our mech. It’s like she’s taking it apart in her mind. The sooner we start this, the better,” she confided to Rainbow. Thanks to the not-so-subtle action Twilight had taken, Sunset dropped her gaze and returned her attention to the two girls across from her. “What’s the matter, Sparkle? Whispering already? We haven’t even started. I guess I’m flattered you’re that scared already,” Sunset jeered. Twilight flinched at Sunset’s statement, was she an easy read? Twilight had thought she had a better poker face than that. “N-no! I just already found what I needed to! Get ready, because you guys are in for it!” Twilight defended herself. “Alright then, let’s get started, may the best team win,” Rarity announced in a refined voice, taking Sunset Shimmer back with her to her corner. Sunset wore a smirk all the way back to her elevator lift, directed at Twilight before the door closed and removed her from Twilight’s vision. Twilight was already sweating and the match hadn’t even officially started. Rainbow Dash and Twilight made their way back to their own mech to share one last conversation in person before the match began. “Alright, Twi, lay it on me, you just said you found out something. I could really use the information rather than flying in blind like last time,” Dash inquired. Twilight just stood in shock, not expecting to have to explain herself already. Dash was taken aback by the silence and quickly grew uncomfortable. “Uh… Twi? You there? I’m gonna need you working properly for at least the next ten or fifteen minutes. It’s gonna be real hard without you, you know,” she said worriedly. Twilight shook out her head and regained her focus. She flashed a nervous grin at her friend and let the truth out. “I-I-I was just trying to boast like they were. I’ll tell you what I’ve found out when I’ve actually noticed something. I’m just really nervous right now, it’s like a test, only everyone’s watching me take it!” Twilight panicked. “Okay, Twilight, just breath, relax, we’ll think up something, or at least we’d better,” Rainbow attempted to console Twilight. Dash gave her a fist bump before mounting up in the cockpit. Following suit, Twilight made her way back up to her tower. After fastening her belt into the cockpit, Rainbow switched on the systems, each screen coming to life, displaying a large field of view, a diagnostic screen, and an energy meter for each system of the mech. Rainbow sent a signal to Twilight to indicate all was right with the Raider, even after its near destruction at the mechanical hands of the Mecha Mac. After receiving the signal, a green light flashed from the control tower. Sunset’s light came at nearly the same time. Rainbow gripped the controls in her hands, ready to rumble, but for some reason, the countdown didn’t come up. Instead, in the corner of the vision screen, she saw a platform being raised with Iron Will on it, with a microphone once again. Ugh… another half-baked speech to interrupt her flow. Iron Will raised his hands and beckoned to the crowd to incite their cheers one more time. “This is what it all comes down to. The last battle. Who will take it all? Our new rookies or the veteran dream team? We’ll have the chance to see it in action, all the cold, hard details right here in the last match of the Ponyville Tournament of—“ “Supreeeeeeeme Steeeeeeeam!” a high-pitched and shrill voice rang out from everywhere at once. Iron Will tapped his microphone to discover that it had suddenly stopped working. Then, the spotlight on him went out and the lights in the stadium went dim. Suddenly, a lone spotlight had been directed up to illuminate a lone figure in the rafters of the arena. It looked like a jet, with red, white, and blue detail on the wings, with a ridiculous out of place pink, poofy fluff where the cockpit would be. It was clearly a person based on the size. Then, without warning, the jet jumped off and started flying. “Wheeeeeeeee, I can see the stars!” the jet screamed. “They’re about to take flight and fight, fight, fight! Go Team Rainboom, go Team Radiance! You can do it!” The jet took several laps around the arena using some sort of jetpack The jet landed next to Iron Will and the safety glass of the cockpit slid down to reveal the face of the one, the only, Pinkie Pie. Once on the ground, she subsequently stole the microphone stand from Iron Will and it was suddenly working once again. “Heeeeeeeey, everyone! I’m sorry I’m late, I hope you’ve had a good time without me!” Pinkie shouted out to the crowd. “I actually forgot about the competition today and slept in, so I had to fly this here. I guess you could say I have a screw loose!” The collective voice of the spectators emitted laughs and groans at the same time. It had been a while since their ‘announcer’s’ last visit to the stadium. She was only there some of the times and when her friends had a big part in the events. “I want to give a big hand to both of all of my friends competing and everyone else in the crowd! Thanks for being here everyone!” she continued. “Now, who’s ready to who’s got the meanest, leanest, steamest machine out there?” She was immediately met with a resounding applause and cheer. Iron Will just stared flabbergasted at the whole affair. What took him so much enthusiasm and work to do, she just managed to do in just a few sentences. Dressed as a fighter jet, no less… “Let’s start the final countdown!” Pinkie declared, pulling out a guitar from midair. She started to strum heavy chords on each count. The crowd’s countdown neared the end and the chords got louder and harsher. “Three!” “Two!” “One!” After the last count, the lights brightened somewhat, though still dark to provide a more dramatic finale. Once Pinkie had strummed her last chord, several pyrotechnics ignited around the edges of the stadium and the match began. Momentarily blinded by the grandiose display of fireworks and awesomeness, Rainbow didn't see the first shot come out of the shoulder pads of the Femme Fatale, scoring a direct hit and knocking the Raider back a few feet. Twilight immediately came on over the radio system. “On your feet Rainbow, snap out of it, you need to pay attention!” Glad to hear she was in it. It irritated Dash that she had been an easy target, even though it really was her fault after all. Eager to make up for it, she started to make a break for her target, chakrams out, spinning in a menacing daze. The Femme Fatale rolled back on its roller blades, firing more projectiles from its shoulders. They moved slower than Rainbow, but had some homing ability, so she had to continually make small shifts in her path to avoid getting hit by another. As she approached the opposing mech, Rainbow fired off a blast from the propulsion system on the back, propelling her forward even faster. However, Rarity was prepared and spun in a graceful pirouette, avoiding the strike and offsetting Rainbow’s balance. As soon as Dash hit the ground, she was peppered by the energy blasts from Rarity’s mech once more. A quick scan over the diagnostic screen showed little to no damage, meaning either the blasts weren’t very strong, or the armor she had one was just stronger. Even so, this had been a ridiculous amount of shots fired against her in a short period of time. “What’s with all the shots she’s launched at me? Is it even possible to have that much energy in a system? I thought it was illegal!” Rainbow huffed into her headset. “If you’ve taken a look at the systems parameter screen, you’d notice that your systems have all been drained of their energy. They sap your mech’s strength. Getting hit by one of those will cripple your ability to fight!” Realizing the gravity of her situation, Dash maneuvered her mech up to its feet and began to move at a somewhat sluggish pace. Up in the stands, Pinkie Pie began to commentate on the fight with Iron Will at her side. “Looks like our favorite Rainbow haired fighter just figured out the alternate effect of the Femme Fatale’s ranged system!” Iron Will narrated. “They emit low frequency energy blasts, they don’t take much energy, and therefore can be used a lot.” “That’s right, Iron Will! It looks like they’ve figured it out! Knowing what to expect is good, after all… knowing is half the battle!” Pinkie made a big grin. “Let’s see what the rookie team can do about it. I bet you four marshmallows that they’re in for a shish-kabob! I wonder if I can get some s’mores from one of those mechs…” Pinkie said, trailing off in her own little world. Iron will just put his head in his hands and sighed. Back in the action, Rarity had already taken advantage of the Rainbow Raider’s exposed situation. She was closing in with her rapier drawn. Dash took up a defensive stance, but the light blade allowed for superior movement against the impaired rainbow machine. Several punctures and rips opened after a quick flurry of attacks, making perforations in the outer metal plating. After the aftershocks of all the direct hits, Rainbow checked out the state of her mech. Only minor damage to the frontal chasse of the mech. Thankfully, the energy drain from the shoulder mounted guns had worn off, allowing a much greater range of motion. Now that she had the advantage of speed once again, Rainbow took off at a charge toward the Femme Fatale, leading the charge with her shuriken launcher. Cancelling all of the opposing shots made the approach a lot cleaner, and once in range, Rarity drew her rapier once more, taking a few free hits from Dash’s projectiles before she redrew her chakrams once more to meet in a clash. As Rarity thrust out her blade, Dash caught it in one of the chakrams’ blades and twisted it out of the opposing mech’s hands. The blade flew across the arena and clattered to the ground. Taking advantage of the newly forced opening, Rainbow savagely struck the chest of the Femme Fatale, denting its beautiful armor. Taking back control of the situation, Rarity grasped the exposed parts of the Raider’s hands and did a twirl one would see in a ballroom dance setting. With a parting blast from the shoulder guns, Rainbow lost her balance and stumbled forward several feet. By the time she had turned around, she only had a quick glance of an oncoming burst of energy headed toward her. She threw herself into a roll, avoiding the energy blasts and switching back to her own launcher. A transmission from Rarity came in over the radio system. “Look at what you did to my beautiful dress! It’s soiled!” Rarity screamed into the airwaves. “What do you have to say for yourself!?” Rainbow snickered to herself before composing herself for a reply. Fighting Rarity was a lot more fun than she’d thought it would be. “The dress was gaudy and silly anyway, now it looks awesome with the battle damage! I even plan to give it some more cool battle scars,” Rainbow jeered at her friend. Rarity let out a decidedly unladylike grunt. Thankfully for all involved, Sunset Shimmer came in over the radio. “Don’t let her get to you, Rarity, I need you to focus. If you let her get the better of you, we lose the advantage. Now then, cut off the communications and refocus!” Rainbow could hear Sunset say over the radio. With one last message, Rarity cut off the feed. “This means war, Rainbow Dash!” “So, Iron Will,” Pinkie Pie began. “What’s your impression of our two teams? It’s like a delicious battle versus chocolate and vanilla! My two favorite flavors, aside from strawberry, lemon, mint, banana—” Iron Will clapped his hand over her mouth, the vibrations from her voice tickling his hands. His expression was labored and his nerves were growing thin. She was such a delight to have in class, but only in small doses. “Good question!” Iron Will quickly said. “Iron Will for one, thinks that our rookies are a force to be reckoned with, and they clearly possess the advantage in terms of speed and strength. But you can’t discount the defensive strategies of Team Radiance. They’ve pulled off many battles of attrition before with their strong armor and heavy ranged play.” Pinkie managed to break free of Iron Will’s gagging by prying open his hand with a pair of pliers she had lying around. Not bothering to take her mouth away from Iron Will, she spoke through the hole between his fingers. “That’s right!” she shouted, startling Iron Will. “The best parties are surprise parties after all!” With this piece of wisdom, a shower of confetti rained down on the announcer platform, coating both of them. Suddenly, all the confetti blew off of Pinkie as she blew a party blower. Iron Will however, was not so lucky, as he had confetti stuck all over him. He just sighed and blew confetti out of his mouth. “Let’s just get back to the action…” he said in a slightly defeated tone. With the declaration of war given, the violence recommenced. As Rainbow closed in for another attack after a successful dodging of blasts, she lead with her chakram, only for it to be gracefully parried by Rarity. Not to be outdone, Rainbow quickly took out her shuriken launcher and fired off blasts at point blank range, though now that she had her war face on, Rarity was extremely alert, or otherwise warned by Sunset to avoid the attack. Despite its speed, the attack was seamlessly blocked, and as Dash landed, Rarity dished out several kicks, balancing superbly on one roller blade and pummeling the Raider’s face. Capitalizing on Rainbow’s offset balance, Rarity took the opportunity to strike at an exposed area in the leg plating, catching one of Dash’s mech above the knee, stifling any attempt to regain momentum and falling over. “Timber! I’m going down,” Rainbow called out over the radio. “Rainbow! Now’s not the time to be making jokes! You need to get back up,” Twilight interjected back at her. “Anyway, I’ve noticed something about all of Rarity’s fighting style.” Now Rainbow was interested. She beckoned for Twilight to continue. “Well, each one of her movements is heavily reliant roller blades. They help her keep up the flow of her dance styled travel and maneuvers. If you can manage to destroy even one of those, then your odds will be increased by a huge margin.” “Sounds like a plan, Twi,” Rainbow replied over the radio. The problem was she had no idea how to go about getting that done. She moved fast, but Rarity had such sophisticated movements. She was in full control and Rainbow was constantly trying to catch up, having only scored a few lucky hits. Taking a more reserved stance, Rainbow carefully eyed Rarity as she launched a volley of blasts, dodging in a rotary motion, making a large circle. While easily avoiding each of the projectiles, Rainbow noticed that Rarity was rotating by using her roller blades, keeping her arms outstretched to keep her balance. Quickly formulating a plan, Rainbow leapt to action, running closer and switching out her chakrams for her shuriken launcher. She fired off a charged round at one of Rarity’s arms. The resulting impact caused Rarity to spiral out of control, spinning in a rapid circle too fast to control. Switching back to her chakrams, Rainbow closed the distance for a strike, but Rarity was too clever. By sticking her sword into the ground, she used that anchoring point to stabilize herself, and then flung herself back into safety. “Shoot! She’s too fast!” Dash fired off over the radio in frustration. “I can’t catch her like this.” “Keep trying!” came Twilight’s reply. “Don’t do anything drastic. No sooner said than done, Dash had already made the decision to make a gamble. Putting away her chakrams, she used her mech’s bare fists to rip off some of the heavier portions of armor on her mech, stripping it of its protection. Twilight was going nuts over the radio, trying to convince Rainbow to stop what she was doing. “Rainbow! Knock it off! That design is perfect! You don’t need to make any changes,” Twilight begged over the radio. All of her hard work was being torn to pieces. “There was no way to further optimize that mech! It’s as perfect as it gets!” “Not for me it isn’t,” Rainbow calmly replied. “I’m too slow, I need more speed. The way this mech is right now isn’t gonna cut it.” After tearing off the chest plating, Dash brandished it like a shield. As Rarity fired off even more energy blasts, Dash hunkered down and held out her makeshift shield, blocking each of the spheres. Now that she had a safer position, she began to think through how to next approach her problem. The crowd gasped at the bold move the rookie pilot had just pulled off. By sacrificing her armor, Rainbow would now move faster, though it gave her much less chance for error. “Wow… Iron Will has to admit he’s impressed. Those girls are much tougher than Iron Will would have thought,” Iron Will stated to no one in particular. Missing the wonder and subtlety in his voice, Pinkie Pie took the opportunity to make a quick joke. “I guess you could say that they've got some real bolts and nuts!” Pinkie exclaimed, holding out an outstretched hand to receive a high-five. Iron Will just planted his face into the railing of the platform they were casting from. Paying no heed to Iron Will’s reaction, she kept her hand held up, waiting for him. Last time worked rather well for Dash as she had managed to tip Rarity off balance, and as such, she no longer strafed using only her roller blades anymore like last time. This way, it was much easier to manage the ranged prodding Rarity had over her. The ‘shield’ did well enough, taking plenty of hits, though Dash could feel it starting to wear. It wasn't meant to take this much punishment. She had to find a solution soon before she was stripped of her only protection remaining. Using the power of the jetpack propulsion, Rainbow surged forward, holding the shield out first, covering her assault. Rarity spun out of the way using her roller blades. While she was busy using her hands to maintain balance, Rainbow took the advantage to once again shoot the outstretched arms to spin her wildly out of control. Since previous attempts had shown her that she was still too slow lugging around all the metal, she knew she still couldn’t catch her like this, carrying the largest bulk of material on her mech around as a burden. In light of this information, Rainbow did the only thing she could: wing it. While Rarity was still working to get under control, Rainbow leapt up into the air and wound up her mech’s arm. With a mighty swing, she threw the hunk of metal she had been holding onto and it fired straight into one of the roller blades, slicing it off entirely. The sudden imbalance combined with its momentum caused the Femme Fatale to fall. Keeping her rhythm going, Rainbow followed up by striking one of the shoulder guns on Rarity’s mech. With one gun down, the danger was drastically reduced. But upon reentry for a follow-up assault, Rarity rolled to the side and landed a stop thrust on the lower abdomen of Rainbow’s mech, dangerously close to the central energy core. “Well folks, Iron Will believes that we’re coming into the final leg of this fight. Both mechs have been severely damaged. Team Radiance has lost integral parts of their mech and Team Rainbow has taken near critical damage based on that last counterstrike!” Iron Will announced from above. Pinkie Pie gasped in an exaggerated manner and brought out a paper bag, heaving in and out shallow breaths until the bag popped and spring-loaded snakes came out. “Those two are closer than peanut butter and jelly!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Er… right Pinkie…” Iron Will said, clearly not understanding Pinkie’s either labyrinthine or ultra-simplistic thought process. “Anyway, it’s clearly anyone’s game. Let’s see how this pans out.” With both mechs on their last legs, Twilight made an urgent message out to Rainbow. She explained that despite the heavy damage on their mech, the Rainbow Raider was far better off on an operational level. It probably had enough strength left in it to keep on attacking without any problem so long as it didn’t get hit any more. The armor plating on each mechs, or at least what was left of both, were in shambles. Cracks lined the pocks and scars of battle wounds, sparks cascaded off of the missing armor connections where various wirings were now exposed. Rainbow prepared for one last confrontation, and Twilight came on over the radio once more. “Dash, I think I know what they’re going to do next.” “Lay it on me then, egghead, I could use whatever you've got,” Rainbow replied. Despite Twilight’s disapproval of the name she had been called, she went ahead with the idea. “Now that you've snapped off one of the roller blades, the other isn’t going to be of any use. So it’s likely that they’ll attempt to take it off themselves to regain better movement. But the tricky part is that they may try to use it as a weapon, much like a sharpened disc.” “That sounds… unpleasant,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll see if I can’t wrap this up now.” “Good luck Rainbow Dash!” Twilight finished and signed off. With that warning in mind, Dash once again took to a sprint, dodging oncoming fire deftly, which was much easier now that there were half the amount of energy balls coming her way. As she approached, Rarity swung into a kick, which Rainbow blocked easily, though on her turn, the Femme Fatale now had the wheel from her roller blade in its hand, releasing it to throw. Thanks to the warning, Rainbow had been expecting this ploy and ducked in the nick of time and the thrown disc lodged firmly in the wall of the arena. Thank you Twilight! Now with an opening, Rainbow slung a chakram into the Femme Fatale’s chest. Thankfully for Rarity, she was fast enough to predict it and reacted with a swift parry, holding the chakram in place with her blade. On instinct, Rainbow replaced her knee to be centered in front of Rarity’s mech and hit the propulsion. The Raider flew upward and delivered a crushing blow to the skull of the opposing mech. As she reached the height of her improvised jump, Dash activated the propulsion once again and slammed into the Femme Fatale, forcing it back. Then she threw her other chakram forcefully, lodging into the chest of the Femme Fatale. It recoiled back and dropped to its knees, a faint purple glow emanating from the cockpit. Iron Will’s voice boomed over the crowd’s cheers with the verdict. “The Femme Fatale has fallen! Our new—” “A winner is Team Rainboom!” interrupted Pinkie Pie. Rainbow heaved a sigh of relief as she relaxed her grip on the controls. Her knuckles began to regain their normal color. She thought back to the immediate past in the last minute of the match. If she hadn’t managed to dodge that throw, that would have ended it right there. She knew she’d have to thank Twilight. As Rainbow Dash exited the cockpit of the mech, she slid her way down the drop ladder and met the gaze of Twilight from the base of her tower. The two ran out to meet each other and met in an embrace, with tears of joy in their eyes. Despite the rocky beginning to their team, the two girls had come so far in so little time. As Rarity crept out of the cockpit, the emergency shield lowered itself and Rarity turned to look at her mech. Once the shock of seeing it in disastrous condition wore off, she clapped a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp. Sunset came running up behind her and caught her as Rarity fainted in a dramatic fashion. The two teams met in the center of the arena and the three girls shook hands while Rarity slumped over almost unconscious on Sunset’s shoulder. “You know, Twilight,” Sunset began. “I thought I had your number there. I was reading your mech so well. I knew exactly how you were going to try to take advantage of your design. We had such a good flow going.” Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Well, to be honest, if it wasn’t for Rainbow taking a risk there, we probably would have lost over the time. She had the courage to try something new while I freaked out,” Twilight admitted. Not wanting to see her friend put herself down, Rainbow did her best to salvage the situation. “Buuuut, thanks to you, I managed to dodge that last attack from Rarity. If you hadn’t warned me, I was sure I’d have been done right then and there!” Twilight made a slight blush and curled the end of a lock of her hair. Sunset scoffed at herself. “Yeah, after that gamble by Rainbow, I kind of freaked out. I thought that improvising with the roller blade would have made a good surprise attack, but I guess great minds think alike, huh?” Sunset humbly admitted. “You definitely clinched it there at the end by avoiding that.” “Thanks Sunset,” Twilight replied. “It was a really good match.” The two teams separated while the mechs were being moved back down to their respective garages. As Sunset carried off Rarity, Rainbow was sure she heard mumblings about her greatest fashion being ruined or something to that effect. Before Team Rainboom could reach the tunnel leading back to the competitor level, the screen in the center of the arena showed the team photo of Team Rainboom making its way past Team Radiance’s and up to the image of a trophy. Rainbow’s eyes glittered at the sight of it. Under the board, Iron Will stood with the tournament cup and beckoned the two to come forward. Hand in hand, the girls made their way to the stage. The approach to where Iron Will was standing with the prize seemed longer than it should have been. Perhaps that was because Rainbow was still seeing events in slow motion with all the adrenaline still pumping through her veins. The cold sweat still dripped down her face even as her smile grew larger with the weight of the victory sinking in. Once the two partners had reached their instructor, he grasped both their hands, giving each girl a hearty handshake. After a good three seconds of head-jostling shaking, he lifted their shaking hands high above their heads in a symbol of victory. The crowd went wild with whoops, cheers, and hollers. Rainbow could see Scootaloo waving her sign vigorously and dancing around in the stands happily. The other competitors came out into the arena and formed a messy semicircle, each person joining the applause, congratulating the new winners of their tournament. As the clapping and noise faded out, Iron Will held out the trophy, handing it off to Team Rainboom. Then out of the cup came a friendly face: Pinkie Pie! “YAAAAY!” she yelled right into her friends’ faces, blowing a party blower and tossing confetti over their heads as well. “Conglaturations, I mean, congradulations— You did it!” Pinkie stumbled over her words. Upon finishing her sentence, she slipped out of the cup and fell face-first on the ground, gracefully. Like a glob of jelly, she sprung back up, seeming to take no notice to falling and put her arms around her two friends. “We’ll totally have a party for this! A ‘Team Rainboom just won the tournament’ party!” Pinkie droned at a voice with a glass-breaking pitch. “Or wait! Maybe a ‘Rainbow Raider wreckognition’ jamboree?” Twilight and Rainbow reached around and left Pinkie musing to herself about how to celebrate. They put their hands on the trophy and lifted up, eliciting more fierce cheering from the crowd above. Rainbow turned to Twilight. “So, you feel proud? Cause you should! This is all thanks to you,” Rainbow spoke at a yell to be heard over the crowd. “Thanks for dealing with me and working with me. It’s been a while since I wasn’t the lone star of the team.” “It’s no problem. I’m just glad that you appreciate me now. I feel like I’ve finally proved myself as more than just an… ‘egghead,’ she giggled back to Rainbow. “Thanks for letting me be on a team with you, Dash.” “Heh, well I’m glad you feel that way, cause I’m not letting you go anytime soon,” Rainbow said, sticking her tongue out. Rainbow held out her hand, clasping it with Twilight’s own. Together, they held up their hands in a symbol of victory and solidarity. In that victorious pose, the two felt the crashing wake of the crowd’s cheers once more. Pyrotechnics lit up around them and amid all the chaos and jubilation, the two partners looked into each other’s eyes, both seeing the same thing: fire and the thrill of battle.