//------------------------------// // Gossip and Results // Story: Wonderful Mechanical: Keen Eye and the Wonderbolt Saboteur. // by Monocrome_Monogatari //------------------------------// “Storm Front, wait!” She reached out for him, about to give chase before catching herself, and looking back at her post. One down! Part of me wondered if I went too far, but… …Nah I mean, seriously? “I just didn’t want to see anyone get hurt?” in a building filled by capable staff? As if they wouldn’t have the situation completely under control? There’s no way sort of compulsive heroism isn’t driven by some hypocrisy or delusion. I know I just talked about the evils of assuming others will help but… If that sort of compulsive hero jumped into Primrose’s accident, her injury would have gotten worse. Not because of a sincere decision but compulsive neurosis. Just as you can hurt others through thoughtless inaction, you can hurt others through thoughtless action. That sort of pony deserves a few good kicks to the teeth. Besides, while this conversation was fun, I need to slip away and rendezvous with Rivet soon. It’ll be easier if they want me to leave, instead of risking some excuse why I need to leave. Now to push away the other one… I rolled my eyes with an exaggerated pout. “Awww… they always leave before it gets good.” Piece bit her lip, looking back and forth between the hallway Storm ran down and me, before drooping her head and sighing. “Could you follow me for a moment?” her tone was a strained calm. She wants to keep our talk going? Stubborn. I’ll have to push her a bit more. “Dragging me to Storm is a bad idea.” I said. “After all, he’ll need some time to cool down before he’s willing to apologize to me. “ She was facing away from me, but I could hear her grit her teeth for a moment. “No…it’s not that. I just want to talk with you. One-on-one. Someplace private” Huh? If she doesn’t want to iron things out with Storm, why is she dragging me away? …Did she catch on to why I’m here? “Are you sure?" I said "Didn’t Silver say something about the engineers keeping an eye on me?” "I’m an engineer. I have eyes. We won’t be far.” No one else in the hall seemed to be objecting. Most of them weren’t even paying attention now, caught up in their own conversations. They must have assumed that, because Piece Maker was focusing on me, they were off the hook. Assuming the kindness of others… My escape plan took shape. “Hmmm…” I played up my reticence before shrugging. “Alright, if you insist.” Before she could respond, I walked passed her, beckoning her with a free hoof to keep up. “Ah! Wait up!” She jumped forward to get in front of me, rounding the corner. With that run, our hasty exit now looks like her doing. Phase 1 complete. … It seems Piece’s idea of a private place was a half empty utility closet down the hall. In other words, she seemed to have a poor sense of what’s private. Seriously, the door looks thin enough that eavesdropping wouldn’t be difficult at all! You wouldn’t even need to put a glass against the door. And it’s not like she didn’t give people reason to do so. Dragging someone into a closet and slamming the door shut sure doesn’t look suspicious. The suspicious atmosphere wasn’t helped by her jamming the door handle locked with a broom, nor by her refusal to look at me, instead busying her eyes with the shelves beside her. She’d been glancing my way before returning to the wall for at least a minute now, like she was trying to say something but was cutting herself off. “Fair warning, if anyone asks what we’re doing here, I’m saying ‘Seven Minutes in Heaven’” “…” My attempt to lighten the mood went ignored. No laughter, no anger, not even sounding flustered. She just bit her lip and sighed, before finally addressing me. “Are you…” she began. “Am I…?” Actually a painter? A detective? A spy? A journalist? A criminal? A victim? A saboteur?...Single? “…Are you okay?” she finished. “…What?” “I mean…” She gulped before continuing “the first time we talked was kind of worrying. You did a lot of self-depreciation, even talking about scenarios where you’re killed… Then you made it sound like you’re having financial troubles, if that thing about being arrested while selling paintings was true. You got into an altercation with Silver lining… Now you joke about having garbage parents and you lashed out at Storm when he just wanted small talk… I mean, I know Rivet mailed you asking him for help with something but…what about you? This sounds like a cry for help. Are you okay?” … Is this a joke? Are you serious!? You just met me today! Our relationship is only hours old! And now, on a hunch, you lock me into a closet, corner me, and play unlicensed therapist? You expect me to spill my guts out to you?! And in here of all places, where we can be easily overheard?! How self-absorbed are you?! I attempted to keep most of my reaction internal, but from the way she started to wilt away, some of it must have leaked onto my facial expression. I cleared my throat and hastily rearranged my face into something more neutral. If she wants to be so helpful then, might as well use her. I made a show of exaggerating my pout. “Why would you care?” Lure her in with a light refusals... “Because…” She placed a hoof on my shoulder “I’ve seen what happens when ponies keep their problems bottled up. Besides, I’m Rivet’s friend too, you know.” "I brushed her away. “Don’t bother, you wouldn’t get it.” “Well…” she looked down at her fetlocks “I admit…I might not be able to understand, but…” She looked up once more and closed the gap between us “can I at least try? Now to reel her in with some drama… “Really?” My voice dropped to a strained hush. “Do you really think you could get it? Do you think you could really get being precocious enough to be labeled a prodigy, only to let everyone down? Do you really think you can get feeling socially stunted to this day, because growing up no one could keep up with you where it counts, and you couldn’t keep up with them where it counts?” I let myself sound choked up. “Do you really think you could understand visiting one of the few friends you’ve been able to keep, only to be reminded of how much more successful they’ve become? How you didn’t keep up? Could yo—“ She tackled me with a hug, burying her face in my neck and rubbing my back. “It’s okay…” I had her. In the end, she never really cared about me as an individual. She only cared about the archetype of a troubled pony. All I needed to do was make myself seem like whatever imaginary victim she imagined up. She’ll eat out of my hoof to convince herself she’s a good person… “Alright…” I said “Alright, I’ll talk. I need some time to get comfortable, though… do you think we can make some small talk first.” “Sure thing.” She said “Take as much time as you like…So what do you want to talk about?” And here’s the catch on my hook. Time to mine for information… “Well...Rivet never told me much about his co-workers…how about some old fashioned workplace gossip?” “…Gossip?” A spark lit in her eye and a smile creeped up her face, moving from her lips to her eyes, even somehow expressed at the tip of her mane. I could tell I hit a rich vein. “Oh no no no…” she said, her face still beaming, “I couldn’t! I mean…they’re my co-workers! I wouldn’t want to talk behind a pony’s back, not with a visitor…” You totally want to talk behind ponies’ backs! “Are you suuure?” I said “I mean, a friend of Rivet’s is a friend of mine, so it’s like we’re practically already friends riiiiight?” I gave her a wink and a nudge. “and since we’re practically friends, I’d probably be willing to share some stories about the wonderbolt’s resident wunderkind…” “Oh...” she was vibrating at this point. “…OK!” she punctuated her agreement with a small hop. I get she’s a meddler, but this is a bit much… “But don’t expect me to get too person, buster.” she said, “After all, even if we are practically friends, aren’t you not supposed to trust your friends?” Hearing my words cheekily flung back at me, I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Wow…” I said “This is new. Where’d this energy of yours come from?” “Oop!” she blushed “I just… get excited when I hear about other ponies’ lives.” After a moment of clearing her throat and letting her face cool down, she spoke. “So, where do you want to start?” “Hmm…”I brought a hoof to my chin and made myself appear pensive. “Well…Oh! Something just came to mind! Or rather, some pony. “Oh? Who?” “I saw something weird when leaving the arena… I saw this purple stallion, about yea high, black mane with a bit too much product in it, spring cutie mark…” “You mean Counter Clockwise!” she said. “You know him?” She puffed her chest out in uncharacteristic pride. “I know practically every pony at the compound.” Note to self: Probe her mind often, if not for information about these incidents then at least for blackmail opportunities… “So, as I was saying” I turned my head and gestured like I was looking in the distance “I was digging through the cloud flood, and I noticed Counter Clockwise at the control panel. He seemed panicked, just mashing buttons and looking like he had no idea what was going on” I let the implication that he caused the accident hang in the air, unspoken. “Do you know anything about him? It seems odd that a member of the engineering team would be so careless.” “You’ve got it all wrong.” She shook her head. “He’s not an engineer.” “…What?” “He’s our mathematician.” She nodded. “He helps wherever numbers need crunching, like double checking the engineers’ schematics, balancing the budget, or arranging the schedules.” It felt weird for my impressions to be so off. “Not that I view cutie marks as worth anything…” I said. “,but how exactly does a spring relate to math?” “Well…” she tilted her head and pursed her lips. “He SAYS it’s supposed to be a logarithmic spiral… but if you ask me” She leans in and lowers her voice “I think it means he’s good at working under pressure.” “…He looks like a walking nervous breakdown.” “He’s nervous more often than not but, if you’re constantly scared, then you’re constantly under pressure. That he gets so much done is admirable!” …Can that really be called a talent? “So,” I said “what exactly is an organization as professional as the Wonderbolts doing allowing unqualified staff operate heavy machinery?” I shifted my posture forward, creating a sense of leering over her. “I would assume there are rules against that sort of thing.” “Well the truth is…” she hesitated. “it’s kind of because we don’t have enough hooves on deck” I thought back to the engineers lined against the wall, impatiently waiting for the room to clear out so they can get to work. “…That’s ‘not enough hooves’? Really?” “Well, yeah, there’s a lot of us, but there’s a lot more to be done too, especially recently. The situation with Rivet doesn’t really help…” “Oh?” “He, alongside whoever was on his team at any given moment, would always get a godly amount of work done. As for everypony else…” She uncertainly forced out a laugh while rubbing the back of her head “Everypony else had to scramble for whatever was left.” She sighed. “Now that he’s not working, we’re king of struggling to make up for his output.” Oh Rivet… Same old Rivet… Even now you do it. Without prompting, without questions, without complaints, without hesitation, without any expectation for praise, you dive into your work and take for yourself as many jobs and as many ponies’ burdens as possible, all for the love of your job, and all for the simple joy of feeling useful. How completely callous and selfish of you, Rivet. “I’ve tried to convince Commander Spitfire that we need more staff but…” She sighed “,it always looks like we have more than enough” After a moment of staring dejectedly at the floor she gasped and covered her mouth “Not that I’m resentful or anything!” “You might not be, but is there any pony who is? I mean he already isn’t popular with Ratchet.” At line of questions she just…giggled behind her hoof. “Mm-mm-mm-mm. You’ve got her all wrong. She doesn’t dislike Rivet. In fact he’s one of the ponies she respect the most.” … Am I the only pony in this building who can recognize bare-faced contempt?! I began to express my discontent. “Are y-“ “Up-up-up!” she interrupted. “I shared my piece, now Piece gets her share. You promised stories about Rivet” Jeez, is this the same mare who cowered when I got too confrontational? With this hunger for info, she could make a good detective…barring that, a good blackmailer. “Hmmm…” I had to take serious consideration. … If I use the Nightmare Night incident, then I lose a good bit of leverage over Rivet... and I can’t use a story that shows off how genius Rivet is, she sees events like that on a day to day basis… and it can’t be a story of the everyday, it needs to be interesting or else I lose my hooks in her… Out of the ordinary, and shows off some vulnerability… A story came to mind. “Do you want to hear about the time Rivet was almost expelled?” I said. The story I told was one from quite a while ago, soon after that fateful chemistry project, and soon after I first fooled him into being friends with a person like me… In an honors class with a tyrannical senior teacher, enforced and assisted by a senior student, what should have been an ordinary end of the day, went horribly wrong. Rivet had been the victim of a frame job. He was so entranced in his studies, he didn’t notice a note placed on his desk. A notoriously crude note, one that had supposedly polled the class on how awful the teacher was. It was the kind of thing Rivet could never do, even if he wanted to, maybe even THOUGH he wanted to. The teacher made a threat under the guise of a compromise. Since Rivet was adamant he hadn’t written it, they proposed a test. They assumed whoever would have written a note would be a friend of his. With that in mind, Rivet was threatened with the worst punishment available, unless the supposed actual author revealed themselves, at which point they would be given a single day’s detention. If no one stood up in the remaining class time, then there was no other author, and Rivet was the original all along. Of course, in telling the story, I rewrote my role to one of a helpless bystander, and passed off the role of the pony who helped Rivet find the true culprit somewhere else. How exactly did that go? I told Piece a shortened version of the story, going into full detail is a story for another time… “Wow!” she quietly clapped her hooves, eyes alight. “Impressive story, huh?” I said. “And an impressive teller!” she praised. I think, somewhere along the line, she forgot this was supposed to be about my emotional problems. I was about to goad her into spilling info on Squads Charlie and Foxtrot, when two of my plans accidentally collided with each other. “Alright!” a muffled voice could be heard in the distance “We’ve cleared it out!” Crap! My escape plan had been, once she had separated me from the crowd, to tie her up in conversation until the engineers had to enter the arena. She’d be forced to leave me alone, and I could wander off without the engineers disobeying Silver’s order to keep an eye on me. Stumbling into this source of info had been unplanned. “Eep!” she jumped, remembering her job. “Hold that thought alright? I need to get going, we’ll talk later!” Before she left, I decided to use her to tie up a loose end. “Wait!” I said, “Can I borrow that clipboard for one moment?” “Uh…err…” she danced in place for a moment before shoving it in my chest. “Make it quick!” Grabbing an empty sheet of paper in the back of the stack, I wrote a short letter… A short letter for a certain rainbow mare. It was worded vaguely enough that any second set of eyes would mistake it for a fan letter, but she’ll get the implications. Don’t talk about me, not unless you want your friends to know what I know. “Can you hand to Rainbow Dash?” I said. “Just tell her it’s from a fan. Kind of nervous about it…” She smiled and tucked the note behind her ear. “No problem.” Then she undid the lock and rushed out. I timed my exit a couple minutes later, avoiding any witnesses seeing us leave together. There, in the doorway across from me, was Rivet. “Rivet!” Before he could respond, I dived across the empty hallway, throwing him into the unoccupied room, and slammed the door locked. He was rubbing the back of his head “Hello to you to—“ “Don’t give me that Rivet!” I hauled him up by his shoulders. “Wha—“ “I’ve been looking everywhere for you! I’ve been up and down this entire compound twice now!” I shook him with each syllable. “I—I—I—“ “What happened to meeting up with me?! Where were you?!” “I was in the bathroom!” he finally spat. “The same one you just threw me in! The same one we're locked in!” “…Oh.” I gently put him down. “So since you aren’t crying now, I guess you successfully dodged Silver?” “…Why would I dodge Silver? “Well…on the way out of the arena, Silver sort of caught me, and I kiiiiiiiinda tricked him into thinking you asked me to check out the problem as a way around your probation. Since we’re here, I might as well coach you on the lies you’ll need to say.” I doubted that he would be able tell them with a straight face, but that actually worked to my advantage. Since he’d already be nervous facing down Silver, all his tells would be misread as his baseline nervousness. By being bad at lying he’d become an unassailable liar. He didn’t dignify my statement with a response, though. His was just repeatedly hitting his head against the wall. “Great…Just great…” “Well…on the good news, I think I figured out his specific incident with the cloud machines. It looks like it might have been an accident. At the control panel there was this stallion named Clo—“ “It was sabotage.” His tone was deadly serious. “…what?” “The cloud machines…one of the ways they regulate release is through the nozzle at the top. It tightens shut when you want less, and expands open if you want more.” He explained. “When I looked at the machine with Swift…the nozzle was completely removed, allowing the depository to flow freely. We found it on the floor. The outer rim of the nozzle piece had the screws half removed.” He grit his teeth “They’ll probably say they were just loose, it IS overdue for maintenance, but when I saw it...I could only imagine it as deliberate…” I thought back to the scene. “If that’s true…” I said “we have a big problem.” The battle dome had been completely packed with witnesses. Not only that, but at the moment the machine failed, Velocity Vector had been flying through the cloud cover at the upper level. She was moving constantly, she didn’t have time to mess with the machine herself. Not only that, but Squall had been throwing a barrage of fire up there. If it had been some other pony, though, not only would they have to somehow make it up there unseen by the audience, but they would have to avoid being seen by Vivi, and avoid being caught in the crossfire of the fight. Not even invisibility could pull that off. Rivet…what exactly have you gotten me into?