The Iron Mare

by FanofAwesomeness

Mark II

Shining Armor was annoyed to say the least. His plans had just been blown completely away by somepony he had thought to be much more simple-minded than that. And that wasn't even the worst part! No, the worst part was there was now somepony in his way who shouldn't be. Somepony who he was just going to have to take care of himself.

Wait, where did that come from? That didn't sound like me, he started thinking. Something didn't feel right. He had originally thought of the reactor to help others. He had considered the possibility of another power war and decided it would be best to have somepony else make the final decision. But then why didn't he come to the Board with the idea in the first place? Or his sister, for that matter.

He shook his head. Now was not the for paranoia.

*******************************

Rainbow was staring at the projection of her suit. "Try maximizing mobility without removing protection," she said. The picture shifted to show a slightly slimmer design of her suit. "Now add a way to conceal all weapons. And try to add some more padding around the wings."

After the specifications had finished, she looked at what would soon be her next project. The sound of hooves on stairs shook her out of admiring her work and she quickly minimized the projection.

"Look, Dash," Soarin said. "I need to talk to you."

"Well that's never a good start to a conversation," Rainbow said.

Soarin chuckled slightly. "It's about what happened to you. you went through a lot and then you were given a huge responsibility. I just think you should reconsider your actions."

"I know full well what I'm doing," she responded. "I did what I saw was best for Equestria, not the company."

"I saw what you were like when you were designing," he said. "It's become a passion for you. Not just a job, but something you love. At least think of a direction for the company to take that you will enjoy more than just a job."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Rainbow replied.

"Now maybe you could let me in on what you're designing now?" he asked.

"I'm not designing anything," Rainbow said. "Nothing at all."

"One," Soarin said, "I know when you're lying. Two, I recognize when you're designing something. I've been watching you do it for 15 years now. What are you designing?"

Rainbow opened her mouth to protest, but thought better of it. "It's what I used to escape," she said. "I thought I could see if it could be modified to work with better technology without overpowering it. Then I ran into the amount of power it was going to need. It's nothing right now."

Soarin just shook his head, chuckling. "Not going to make weapons, huh?"

"It's not necessarily a weapon," she said. "It's an armored suit combined with modern technology."

"Keep telling yourself that, Rainbow," he said.

"You called me by my first name," Rainbow said. "You haven't done that since..."

"I figured now would be as good a time as any to finally get over that old thing," he said. "I've been getting better at flying, anyways. I've bypassed everything the doctors said I would be limited to. You should have seen their faces!"

"Soarin!" Twilight called from above. "We aren't done scheduling! Where are you?"

Rainbow chuckled at the sound of her friend. "It was nice talking to you like a friend again, Soarin."

"Yeah, it was," he replied. "I should go back up there and finish the scheduling. See you later."

"You too," Rainbow said.

Once he had left, she turned back to her new project. "Time to start building."

*******************************

Rainbow stood in the center of the platform, looking at the camera. "Wingless flight test #1," she said. "I've designed power boots to provide enough lift to propel me upward and simple controls based off of leaning. Because of my experience with flying, I'm going to start at 10% impulse power."

She took the controls in her mouth and bit down, activating the power loop to the boots. Jet power flooded through them and gave her enough lift to fly through the roof of her lab. Her head popped out of the floor on the upper level and she dropped the controls. Shifting slightly, she pushed on the floor from underneath and fell the dozen feet to the lab floor. Her head hit the metal platform she had set up and Rainbow lay there for a few moments before saying one thing.

"Ouch."

*******************************

Rainbow walked over to the table and redid the calculations for her next test flight while shifting the bag of ice strapped to her head. She looked at the model and made the few adjustments to the boots before her next test.

"Wingless flight trial 2," she said to the camera. "Because of what happened in my first try, I'm going to start at 1% impulse."

Rainbow took the controls in her mouth again and did a quick mental countdown before biting on them. The boots worked well enough to lift her off the ground, but only barely. She released pressure on the controls and hit the floor, stumbling a bit from the landing.

"Alright," she said. "Now shifting up to 5% impulse power."

Again, Rainbow took the controls in her mouth and bit down to start the flow of power. She was brought up fairly quickly, but wasn't going too high just yet. She saw the amount of lift she had achieved and started making a few mental notes before noticing she had started moving over some fairly expensive products.

Rainbow shifted her weight around to move herself towards some less expensive pieces before noticing a small beeping noise by the door to her lab. She quickly let go of the remote, causing her to fall onto one of her older projects. She lifted her head to look around and saw the door was blinking.

She slowly stood up, trying her best not to do any more damage to her body than had already been inflicted. She started moving over to the door before she remembered the boots and took them off. Walking all the way to the door, she found Soarin waiting for her. "Hey," she said.

"Hey yourself," Soarin replied lightheartedly. "I thought I'd check in on you again, seeing as you put a new hole in the building."

"I'm going to fix that," Rainbow said.

"That's what you said the last time you broke the house," Soarin replied.

"That was before I got sidetracked," Rainbow said, slightly defensive.

"Yeah," Soarin said. "By one of the mares on the other side of the room. How drunk were you?"

"I was staring at a mare?" Rainbow asked.

"That answers that," Soarin thought aloud.

"So why did you really come down here?" Rainbow asked, sobering the mood drastically.

Soarin stood there a moment before replying. "I heard about an outgoing shipment and was going to ask why you were sending it."

"What are you talking about?" Rainbow asked. "What shipment?"

"The one you sent the conformation forms in for this morning," Soarin stated. "It was a first priority shipment. The papers had your signature perfect. Have you been drinking recently?"

Rainbow stood there for a moment, taking it all in. A first priority shipment meaves the shipping bay exactly twelve hours after the arrival of that day's shipment. She hardly hesitated before making up her mind. "Soarin, cancel all my appointments for the day. I have something I need to do. What shipment number was it?"

"42," Soarin said. "Why? It's not like you can stop the shipment. It leaves in twenty minutes."

"Just go do what I told you to do!" Rainbow yelled. "I need to move now if I have any chance at pulling this off," she added under her breath.

Soarin paused in the door. "What exactly are you planning?"

"Nothing big," Rainbow said.

"Everything you do is big," Soarin said.

"Just go cancel my appointments already!"

Soarin jumped at that and left to take care of the schedule. As soon as he was out the door, Rainbow activated the suit building protocols.

"I sure hope this works," she muttered to herself.

Machines whirred and buzzed, moving around her body to attach her newest invention. A basic armor with added weapons systems. She checked her HUD before setting off on her first real wingless flight. This was the first test of the armor that would prove whether or not it was capable of what she wanted it to be capable of.

After double-checking her systems, Rainbow Dash lifted up and flew out the side of her house.

Comments

[FanofAwesomeness]

3232635 I'm glad you found it again.

[My Rainbow Dash]

He shook his head. Now was not the for paranoia.

I believe what it’s trying to say is, “Now was not the time for paranoia”.