• Published 27th Aug 2012
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A minor variation - notMurphy



No sonic rainboom. The Mane 6 find different destinies. See where it takes them.

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For want of a Rider iv/vi

For want of a Rider

Part iv of vi

For Want of Speed

"Not interested, sorry kid."
"This is not my line."
"Needs work, revise your work before you show it around."
"You must be joking."
"How could you even...?"
"I sense NO majicks in this, take it avay."
"How did you find me?"


"And just hwhat are you doing here?" The dark gray stallion lowered his silver shades to glare at the ruffian proffering a handful of colorful sketches at him.

"M'fwowing mah wuwk. Ptoo! I'm showing my work around, I figure once somepony sees how awesome my designs are they'll be bound to want to make them. Pretty clever, huh?" The blue pegasus was so excited to be having more than two words with one of the 'big designers' about her ideas that she completely failed to notice the eye twitch the Stallion was making.

"No, that is not hwhat I hwas asking. This is my PRIVATE home, how in Equestria did you get past my security?"

"Oh, those guys? No problem, I climbed around your front wall, ducked through one of those little elevator things you rich people have instead of just carrying things upstairs, edged around some of those potted plants in the main hallway - oh, NICE color on the ...glaze by the way, how do they get it so shine in two different colors? Nevermind, what I mean is, any amazingly gymnastic and highly determined pegasus foal who was half as awesome as me could have gotten here." 'Ok, tone down on the boasting, not doing that anymore...'

"Well, since you've gone to So much trouble... I'll tell you a few things. First of all, your use of perspective is entirely off, and that's from a pony who looks a fashion drawings all day. You need more work. Also, how exactly do you expect anyone to actually Make this?" The stallion was glancing at his doorway occasionally.

"What?"

"I said, how Exactly do you expect Anypony to take this... this sketch and turn it into a working design? You've drawn in details that defy the laws of physics, and your model's coiffure would require so much structural work that Pony Gaga's personal designer would probably hang up her meat dresses before even trying. If you want to break into the industry, you need to know a thing or two before you start." The stallion looked off wistfully into a nostalgia colored past before returning to the present. "However, before you can 'break into fashion' you're going to have to explain to the city guard about 'breaking into' my house!" The stallion's quip was all the warning Rainbow Dash got before three well paid Security Ponies desperately tried to justify their paychecks.

Leaping into the air, Rainbow barely avoided a pincer attack by the outside two ponies, turning mid air so she could avoid the middle one's attempt to grab her. 'Huh, all that stretching they made me do in recovery seems to be helping. Gotta keep that routine up.' She scuttled between the legs of the tallest as he struggled to his hooves, causing his two allies to smash into him, leaving all three in a pile. "So, huff, what you're saying is I," duck, tumble, climb onto number 3's back... "erg, need to, whoa! Learn how to make the stuff I want other ponies to make?"

In spite of himself, Hoity Toity was enjoying this. The filly was embarrassing paramilitary security that cost more a week than her parents probably brought home in a month, and she was wasting time to try and glean a few more words of advice from him. "Hwell, two thoughts. First of all, hwhy are you trusting others to bring about Your vision?"

"Well, really it never. Oops," She turned around and caught a rather expensive vase that was falling, using her wings. "See, that, with the color? It's green, but when I - hup!" She tossed the vase skyward as she ducked low, turning to climb on top of the prone pony guard to catch the vase again, setting it in front of Hoity, and resting her hoof in top. "Thanks fellas, that was a great workout, really helped me cure some of the kinks left over from my injury." 'Was that rubbing it on too thick? None of them look hurt.' She turned back to the fashion pony. "Seriously, these guys are really good, you... you're not going to fire them for this or anything, right?" The stallion of style raised an eyebrow behind imperious shades. "Hay I'm not here to hurt anypony."

"Chatoyance."
"Huh?"
"The word to describe the finish? Chatoyancy, although it can easily be mistaken for iridescence, which is the shimmering rainbow effect one sees in certain seashells and the carapaces of beetles." Hoity Toity gestured to his security detail to wait outside the door.

"And the other one?"
"Hwa- ah, hahaha... yes my other point was when you do trust others to carry out your vision, why wouldn't you want to learn how to make it as easy for them to achieve your goal as possible?"

"..." A light dawned in the Pegasus's mind. "I... ok. Wow. Aw pony, that's going to take a lot of work." She looked up, "You... thank you so much. I kinda' feel bad for breaking into your house now." She chuckled embarrassedly and began backing towards the door.

"Next time, and I do Not expect to see you for a Very long time, try knocking."

The three guards flanked Rainbow as she left the building. The Ponies to her right and behind her remained utterly silent, glaring forwards and conveying strong purpose. The Pony to her left spoke as they neared the door, revealing herself to be a mare. "Nice moves kid, you should consider taking Pon-Ki-Do or something. Why didn't you fly though? 'Kept expecting you to take to the air."

"Not really my thing, anymore. I'll see about that pokey doke."


Her father fell into hysterics, her mother hit him with a broom. In the end, they got her a broken down old manual sewing machine, let her use a pair of rusty old shears, and scrounged up old bedsheets that weren't being used. Sewing needles turned out to be easy to get ahold of - and in some cases difficult to remove. In the end she resorted to using her wings a great deal, both to increase her reach, the machinery having been designed for adult ponies, and to stabilize her work. Grim determination yielded to competency slowly but at a pace that suggested further progress was possible - which was all the encouragement she needed to keep going.

So, sewing was possible if tedious - but some of the things she wanted to make couldn't be made out of cloth. Crochet seemed impossible, it wasn't until the sixth time trying to learn that she got the hang of the loops and hooks, and then it was like flying, just a simple set of motions repeated with an infinite number of subtle variations to produce a world of different results. Knitting was easy once she rigged up a harness for her wings using string and rubber bands. Leather-working took more patience but was effectively sewing slowed down. She could see the problems about shape now, how everything but crochet started with something flat and expected you to cut and join it so the seams pulled everything into a three dimensional shape. She discovered Origami and was hooked, although it took a long time for her to slow down enough to get the folds just right - paper was unforgiving about sloppiness.

School plodded along, until it occurred to her to check out Shop Class. 'Whoa, this has nothing to do with shopping at all! Is that a welding torch!?' One side benefit of all the craft-work came when Math suddenly went from being her arch-nemesis to her secret ally. Ratios and fractions were like measurements of length or volume, curvatures were much easier when she realized she could write out a couple of numbers instead of cutting and re-cutting until she found the right length by feel.

Drawing was always there, even if only in the background. Every spare moment seemed to involve a sketch of something that caught her eye or a shape she was trying to figure out. Her Mother, dear sweet Sunny Rains, was the one who mentioned Drafting to her, 'Argh, again with stuff that doesn't mean what it looks like it means!' It was a revelation, a connection Rainbow could make between art, math, flat things, and three-dimensional things.

She had to tear herself away some days, but she kept up a regimen of running, wing building exercises, stretching and flexibility exercises - there was a noticeable increase in her creativity when she felt good - like after a real workout - even as she resented the intrusion on her time... sometimes she came back to a project and saw it in a whole new light. She started doing that on purpose, projects, working almost all the way through, and then taking a break before continuing. At the very least it never lost her anything, and a break often provided better objectivity.


Rainbow Dash took a part-time job at a carriage shop. She had to contribute money to the household, every school had looked at her crazy all-over-the-map studies and politely suggested she might find another school better suited to her 'interests'. But she also took it because she'd started thinking about machinery - nothing super-complicated, but Wheels, and joints, gears and pulleys, the simple stuff seemed like it'd be useful to understand.

The job lasted six months, and she liked the work fine - putting stuff back together felt right, like there was an order to things. The problem was ponies were such sticks in the mud about the exact order things went together, and they didn't always like her improvements, which almost always worked... mostly. It was a good learning experience, and led directly to her first major breakthrough.


"So, what am I looking at here exactly? I can go see a copy of Vitruvian Pony at the museum if that's all this is."
"I call it the 'Pega-chute', it's like a cross between a hang-glider and a parachute, but it's not always sticking out, and a pegasus can use it without tangling their real wings - in case they can't fly for some reason. But it can still be used by Earth Ponies and Unicorns - in fact I re-worked the pull-strings on the release so that Anypony can use it in the way that feels natural to them." The young mare was quite proud of her revisions.

"I don't see no details about safety testing."
"Oh, I did all that myself."
"Uh huh."
"No, really. First couple of failures really hurt, too." She smiled as the solution came to her, "Tell you what, I'll give you a demonstration, I just need some rope... here we go." The Business Mare watched in horrified fascination at the complex circumlocutions the Pegasus used to tie her wings down... with her wings. "Ok, now I just need you to pull that line... there." The business mare complied without thinking.

"Wait! what are you doing?" She screamed as the now flightless pegasus threw herself off the side of the building they had, until recently, both been standing on.

"All I have to do is, huff, pull -there!" With a 'sproink!' tension caused a mechanical ballet of framework and canvas to reconfigure itself from a saddlebag into what looked for all the world like a set of canvas wings. Sure they were the stretched tautness of bat or dragon wings, but they caught the air and kept the Pegasus from hitting the - ooh, they didn't keep her from crashing into a street vendor on the other side of the street.


It took her ten minutes to track down the blue pegasus afterward, but Business Savvy knew a lead when she saw one, and collateral damage had not dimmed her interest. "Hey, kid! What's the deal, this some kind of tease play or something?"

Rainbow Dash looked up in surprise, "wha? I crashed. Who wants a product that makes you crash? I figured you wouldn't be interested."

"Nah, no no. You didn't crash, you threw yourself at the ground and missed. That's flying"
"It felt more like falling without style."
"Hah, a comedienne too, huh? You're a regular Renaissance Mare. So, you got my attention, what are you looking at for a deal?" This was going to be the hard part, young hungry inventor, eyes on riches and fame - always had unreal expectations about business contracts.

"Well, I want to hold onto the original design rights. Everypony I've talked to said not doing that was a huge mistake." Savvy's profit sense diminished by the same amount her opinion of the Pegasus increased, she nodded to keep the pony talking. "Well, I want to get SOME credit for the design, I know you have to turn a profit or why would you make it? But... I kind of want it to be as affordable as possible. I... if these had been around a few years ago my whole life might be different right now." There was a sore point there.

"Ok, thing is I can't give you any solid numbers without knowing how much material, what kind of training an assembly team will need, and what kind of machinery we'll need to automate the process would cost. You a equinitarian or something? You know talking public good won't earn you any bonus points right? I'm all for the public, no customers if there's no ponies, but... I got family to feed, if you know what I mean."

"Wait, this is happening? This is a thing? Oh, that's... awesome!" Rainbow shook her head, re-orienting her focus, Savvy would later swear she heard a rattling noise like a cowbell. "Well, I've got all my notes on construction back at my house, and I can probably produce the first few batches, and I can certainly show your people how to make them so it works just right - there's a LOT of tension going on in there, believe me!" She seemed to find that funny. "Heee... but Dad says I've got to have signatures before I let you see anything." She crossed her front hooves.

"Kid, I foresee a very... interesting business partnership here."


"Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't really see us ever needing these." The Royal Guard Unicorn was white, had multi-hue blue hair, and was a total hottie. "Plus, these ties here? they'd interfere with our normal armor ties. I had to try one for half a day, and let me tell you it chafed pretty badly." 'I wonder if he's single.' "Hello? Miss?".

Rainbow Dash crashed back to earth, metaphorically. "Uh yeah, chafing. Heh." She scribbled notes furiously, hoping to work the blush off her face. "Well, I could try to work up a mount that attaches directly to the armor-"

"That's NOT a good idea" The unicorn interrupted.
"Why?"
"Armor straps can fail. In fact they're designed to in case we fall into water, as a safety feature."
"Huh... they it might be possible to... Ok, yeah, yeah... liking that..." A thought occurred to her, a delicious thought. "Mr. Captain Armor sir, can I get you to turn sideways just a bit?"

"That would be Captain Armor, but you're not enlisted so it's not expected for you to address me by my rank... the actual military might demand it, but the Princess wants the Guard to be approachable, so you can just call me Shining." 'Oh, you're approachable all right Shiny...' "So, like this?" 'Whoa girl, keep a little focus here...'

"That's... perfect. You're going to be the new base model for my next design. All the girls are going to love this."
Shining Armor choked on air. "Wh-what!?"
"Chillax hot-stuff, just ya-giving you a ha-I'm teasing you." 'Can ya' be any more awkward Dash?' "What you said about the armor release, it occurred to me that falling off a high place would be another 'armor failure' condition, so why not set up something that fits under the Armor." 'Ack! Bad brain! Stoppit!'

The Guardspony was clearly getting uncomfortable. "Miz Dash, I'm afraid you're taking this interview in inappropriate directions. If you don't have any other APPROPRIATE questions, I'm going to have to get back to my duties." 'Oh dear Celestia he is so cute when he's flustered.'

Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath and let it go. "Look, Captain Armor, I didn't mean to disrespect you or your title. I respect the right of Stallions to work and I'm really sorry for my inappropriate remarks. Thank you standing still for my sketch, your concerns, and your time. I'll find someone else to bother if I have any more ideas. Can we end this amicably, please?"

"Well, yeah I just... yes. Ok, so that's all you needed?"
"That should be plenty, oh, and Captain Shining Armor?"
Sigh, "what?"
"Tell your mare-friend I said she's got good taste."
"You-how, wha?" Rainbow Dash made her escape, wings pumping to speed her up so she got off the castle grounds before bursting out laughing.

The ponies of Canterlot regarded her with affront. "Hah haa... ... what? Oh like you've never investigated a plot before?" The Stallion in question snorted hurried away.


Dear Rainbow Dash,

Hi, this is Fluttershy. I know we haven't talked in a long time, but I just saw a rainbow the other day - ok, I saw Cloud Kicker make one - and it reminded me of you.

What are you doing these days? I moved to Ponyville and have been working on the Weather Team for the last few years. You know what? I don't think I ever thanked you for getting me to give flying a second chance. I have no idea what I'd be doing with my life right now if I didn't have the skies.

Ditzy Doo works here too, only she goes by Derpy now - says she's going to own the name and make it something people admire instead of... well a childhood insult. I think she might be taking it too far, but I have to respect her spirit. Actually, Cloud Kicker is here too - you know, I never realized just how many members of our Cloudsdale Flight School Alumni work in Ponyville now.

If you're not to busy, I'd love to visit or have you visit. We could catch up on old times, and you could show me whatever super-awesome thing it is you're working on now.

In any case, don't be a stranger,
Your friend,
Fluttershy


She just had to laugh, finishing the letter. 'Friends, do I even have any of those anymore? Well, Flutters hasn't given up on me, obviously.' The Pega-chute had taken over her life. All the variations, the materials revisions, the modifications for the ultra-lite versions, and the revisions to Reckless Endangerment laws because of the device had taken up all her time.

She couldn't think of the last time she'd worked on something else. 'Darn it, I can take a vacation any time I want - I AM my own boss. You're on 'Shy. In fact, why don't I just move my whole workshop to Ponyville? This behemoth can support itself, Biz' doesn't need me underhoof. In fact, I could just let her buy me out - the rights alone will keep my folks from ever worrying about their bills.'

For the first time in a while, Rainbow Dash felt inspiration. 'I can start a workshop, make custom gear, work out my own ideas. Call it Dashworks... that's a terrible name. No... "Flashworks" that's a name with some pizazz.'


It had been remarkably easy to tear up every attachment she ever had to her home and business. A lot of early work was either in storage or had been thrown away in a fit of cleanliness. Her mother had kept far more pieces than she really liked, but arguing with the Mare who brought you into the world had never been Rainbow's forte. Her best drafting tools all fit into a long saddlebag, and fabrication equipment had to be custom ordered and installed. It took her about two months to uproot her entire life and relocate - and that included the time spent setting up an annuity for her parents from her residuals on the Pega-chute. That had sparked the realization that she had more money lying around than she really liked to think about.

In fact, it took her two whole weeks to realize why the subject turned her stomach. 'It's useless. I have a pile of mony just lying around. I could probably never work another day in my life and manage to not starve at least for the rest of my life.' That made her profoundly uncomfortable. 'W-what am I DOING with my life? I got into this to help ponies, and even with my best efforts the 'chute' isn't going to help more than fifty ponies a year, maybe. I, I don't wanna be a drain. I can't, nopony can get hurt because of me, even by inaction - if I can help somepony, I've got to or else I'm... no I just have to find ponies who need help.'

Her attorney 'when the hay did that happen?' Good Hooves, was willing to set up several entities in anticipation of her discovery of 'worthwhile causes', even if he didn't see the point. It was a client's privilege to do what they wished with their money, he just made sure they did it as efficiently, and as Legally as possible. "Well, there is always the 'Hoofbody-Mareson Opportunity Grant' if you're trying to invest in future generations."

"Yeah, sure, sounds great. Hey, how much of a problem is it to just give a chunk of the money to the government?"
"I beg your pardon?" Good Hooves hoped with all his being that he was not being asked to bribe the-.
"Not like a bribe or anything. The government is there to take care of ponies, right? So it stands to reason that the most efficient way to get this stuff to ponies who need it is to give it the ponies who spend bits every day trying to take care of EVERYPONY."

"I... can't fault your logic, but. And forgive me for saying so, but just - just handing your money over means you have no control of what they choose to-"

"I DON'T WANT control! I have more money than I deser-than I need. I want somepony to benefit from it rather than it just laying around."

"There are possiblities... now would you be interested in a lump payment or some annuity plan?"
"Difference? In Equestrian, if possible?"
"Hem, a lump is just that. We give the ... Government a specific amount of money and they do... whatever they choose with it. An annuity would require setting up a specific financial enti-a big bank account, sort of, and having the interest from that ... big account paid out periodically to the Government - less money now, but they keep getting it."

'Well, dumping a huge pile of bits on them might cause it's own problems. The annual thingie sounds good but if it's-' "Hey."

"Yes?"
"The 'annuity' plan, that comes with a name, doesn't it?"
"Err, that is the tradition, yes."
"No."
"No?"
"You find me a way to pay it out without anypony knowing the money is coming from me. I am NOT doing this to get any credit. I will get famous and be admired because of my superawesome radical inventions, not because somepony builds a museum with my money."

"... there has to be a trail so the ERS can track everything, but I believe its possible to prevent anypony else from ever uncovering the identity of the donor. The fund will have to be called something, should I come up with some unassuming title?"

"Nah, call it 'Do Well' or something like that."
"Then that leaves us with the small matter of how much of your personal fortune you wish to invest in this endeavor."

"Let's see, we need the cash for my folks. That's going towards buying and outfitting a shop in Ponyville, and say enough bits to float me for a month... Ok, this much" The number was nearly everything else she was worth.

"Y-you..."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Get me one of those forms I can sign that says 'yeah, I'm serious' so I can get back to other stuff."


She had never felt fewer regrets about a decision in her life. 'I'm finally free.'

Meeting Fluttershy again for the first time had been like meeting an entirely new pony who was already her best friend. Catching up with Derpy had been cool, and she had to admit Dinky was adorable. She was working her way through her other old acquaintances when she was asked to decorate Ponyville Town Hall for the Summer Sun Celebration, and how could she refuse? 'This'll be the most radical celebration ever, if I have anything to say about it.'

That was when He walked back into her life. Shining Armor, in Dress Uniform, and accompanied by another white unicorn who simply exuded class and was a natural beauty. 'There's no way I'm lucky enough that that's his sister or something. Well, can't say he's got bad taste, although the stuffed dragon accessory is kind of tacky and is definitely creepy, it looks so lifelike. And Celestia's Holey pajamas! What on earth did she do to her hair!?'


Artwork by: Inspired_Light