Chapter 10 – Makeover

It was dark when she got back, Pinkie both exhausted and sad as she walked into the garage, the door vanishing as she neared it, and then reappearing as she entered in. "You ok?" she heard a familiar raspy voice ask. When she looked up, Rainbow Dash and Breeze both stood there, the boy with his scarf slung around his neck and both with worry etched into their faces.

"Yeah." she said as she walked on and yawned, "Just tired."

"You sure?" Breeze asked as they watched her pass them.

"Yeah, I'll be ok tomorrow." she said, and then thought about something, "Where are the rooms anyway?"

Breeze chuckled a bit as Rainbow sighed, and with a bit of navigation, lead Pinkie Pie to the room that had been chosen as hers. It wasn't well dressed yet, but she hadn't been there to decorate. She walked into her room, and flopped onto the bed, a bit stiff, but she still instantly fell asleep.

She was still a bit tired when she woke up that morning, and it seemed as if everypony else was in full swing. She could hear machines moving and Blade calling out some directions as it moved. She came out into the actual garage just in time to see a large piece of ship hull moving into position around what looked like a metal frame that had fresh markings from where she thinks the group had just welded them together. Blade now also had his mane colored like Rainbow Dash's; the one bang that lay limp around his face turned orange. Her own hair was tossed a bit, poufy but severely out of place. "Dahling, there you are!" she heard Rarity call out, and turned to see her halfway out of a different room, her once purple mane now striped with a rainbow of colors, the same colors as Rainbow Dash's hair.

"Rarity…what happened to…" Pinkie started to ask.

"Don't ask dahling, it's a tragedy is what it is, forced to have a perfect mane like mine colored like this." the overdramatic mare said.

"HEY!" The two of them heard Rainbow Dash call out.

"FOR ME!" Rarity seemed to repeat to the phrase for the pegasus.

"Am I supposed to have my mane colored as well?" Pinkie asked.

"Yes, I suppose yours will need a shampooing as well?" the white unicorn asked.

Pinkie looked up at her mane, the wild way her hair stood out in random directions, "Yeah, I guess I could use a good shampooing." she said, and suddenly let her eyes follow a food cart carrying a large number of sweets and pastries, "Right after breakfast!" she said and raced off to find the cart again.

"Well." Rarity said to herself, and then turned to find Twilight and Spike trying to sneak by, "Your turn Dearie!" she said as she picked Twilight up with her magic and pulled her into the room.

Pinkie Pie now bounced around the room, her energy up to the ceiling and her hair now light and fluffy and 'Rainbowed' as she had put it. It just so happened that the tail didn't matter as much as the mane, so she just left her tail pink. She happened to stop near Blade and Writch as the two talked about what to do next, "A normal drive system won't work, ponies can't do that much with their hooves, yes we can grab and push buttons, but not that many, and not that small. It takes actual fingers to be able to maneuver a system like that." the pegasus said.

"Hm." Writch said as she placed her hand to her chin, "Then maybe something else, I've been keeping a blueprint for a new drive system on hold for a while. Almost lost hope that I'd get to see it work."

"I'm listening." Blade told her, just as Fluttershy came up to them with a cart with large cups on top with steam escaping from the open tops. Blade and Writch mindlessly grabbed a cup from the cart, and both placed the cup to their mouths. Writch didn't move as she drank, but Blade removed the liquid from his lips, "DAA, hot!" he said and looked to Fluttershy as she chuckled, her hair also colored like Rainbow Dash's. "Thanks, Fluttershy." he said as he looked her in the eyes, she smiled, and pushed the cart away.

"She special to you?" Writch asked.

"More than you know." he said as he watched the yellow pegasus serve everypony else as well.

Blade turned to her just as she smiled at him, "What?" she asked.

"Who's special to you?" he retorted.

"Psh, ain't got time for that. Not till after the race anyway." she told him.

"Whatever." he said, and once again lifted the now cooled cup to his lips, "So, about that drive system?"

"I'll go grab the blueprints, came up with the system myself. Might need some tweaks for Rainbow Dash." she told him and walked away.

"I'll see what I can do." Blade said, and turned back to Fluttershy, "Need help with that?" he asked as he made his way to her.

"I'll be ok." she said as she turned to him, the last of the cups being taken by Spike and a slightly angered Twilight Sparkle while her newly colored hair flopped around and Spikes new painted scales shined like diamonds. She chuckled a bit at the sight, "Twilight looks upset."

"She's was hoping to avoid the makeover. Luckily Rarity was told not to go overboard with it." he said and took a sip from his cup, "Delicious hot cocoa." he told her and placed a quick kiss onto her cheek.

"Hoo weeeeeee!" they all heard from the scrap yard, and in came Applejack, dressed in a full suit that matched Twiggs' and black grease in her rainbow hair. "Lookie what Twiggs and ah just found." She said happily as she pulled a flatbed with a large wing on top of it, one that looked strangely familiar to Rainbow Dash.

"That looks like a giant version of one of Jetwing's booster wings." she said.

"Well, the wings on Jetwing were modeled after a few of the fighter jets from the Coluca 6 war." Breeze said, "How did those end up here? It's not like those ships were built for outer space."

"Maybe a prototype?" Blade asked as he looked at the wing.

"Can't be!" Twiggs said, "There's a bunch {snort} of them out in the yard."

"Are you serious?" Blade asked in shock.

"Most a the ships were burned up pretty bad, but the wings seemed to be just fine!" Applejack said.

"Maybe they were trying to attack other planets?" Blade thought.

"Or maybe they originally were made as racers, you know, so they could compete." Breeze interjected.

"Perhaps…" his brother thought, and lowered his hoof to the floor, "Either way, those wings are tough, let's use them on the racer."

"Wait." Twilight said, "I thought we weren't allowed to use tech, not of this world."

"No, we're not allowed to use tech from outside the planet, these wings have been here for at least two cycles judging by the look of this one." Breeze corrected, "As long as we find it in our scrap yard, we can use it."

"How do we know where our scrapyard is?" Spike asked, "There's no walls back there!"

Blade walked them to the outside of the building, "Do you see those large posts directly in the middle of the garage wall?" he asked, both Twilight and Spike nodded, "If you follow the wall, it'll make a circle, the large posts are where the pie cuts are. Just follow the line and you'll find the yard edge. Anything inside our piece of the pie is ours, anything outside is off-limits."

"What about if you find a ship that's on the line?" Spike asked.

"Then whatever is on our side of the ship is ours to use, and we can't touch anything other than that, except the floor, exploring on another's side is not forbidden." the grey pegasus explained.

"So, if we have to wander into the yard of our neighbors, we can look but not touch." Twilight surmised.

"Exactly." Breeze said with a smile, "And magic will be off-limits for the racer as well, it's considered a power source or tech from outside the planet."

"So, we can use magic for conventional means, just not as part of the racer." Twilight surmised, and Blade simply nodded.

"Good thing we found these sittn right in the middle of our yard, covered by some fallen wall I guess." Applejack said. Twiggs simply started nodding wildly.

"Good, nopony can try to dispute that they belong to us. I say we get a set of six of these and refit them for the racer." Blade said.

"You mean the Rainbow Trail!" they heard Rainbow Dash say from the garage door.

"Rainbow Trail?" Twilight asked.

"I thought long and hard about it, and the ship's name is the Rainbow Trail. I wanted it to be as special as Jetwing's name was." the blue pegasus admitted.

"Then the Rainbow Trail it is." Blade said with that small smile, "A fitting name for a fast machine."

The day went by without much incident, with Blade and Writch actually able to adjust the six wings to the sides, the rest of the ship still not together, they had designed the wings themselves to resemble Rainbow Dash's wing when closed, and to open wide enough to allow the jets to not interfere with each other. Blade was pretty happy with his design.

The two mechanics finished washing up, Writch rubbing her hands into a towel and Blade letting his mane drip dry as he walked alongside the Treeopon, then they saw Pinkie Pie, her face that once held a bright smile sinking into a frown as she sat at the door of the open garage just watching the sunset on the day. Blade waved to his mechanic friend as she made her way to the dorms and he turned to walk up to Pinkie Pie, "You ok?" he asked.

"Huh?" she asked as she turned to him in surprise.

"You've been going back and forth from the door all day," he told her, "You've also been getting antsier and antsier as you do. Are you expecting someone?"

"Well, Yeah. I thought I'd made a friend that could help." she admitted.

"And?" he asked, urging her to continue.

"I thought maybe he'd be here today. Maybe, he'd agree to join our little group. I can't really do my job well without his know-how." Pinkie told him.

"Oh yeah?" Blade asked as he sat down next to her.

"He's really smart." she said and turned again to the outside world.

"Pinkie, watching the door won't make it happen any sooner." he told her, "You just gotta let things happen the way they want to."

"I know but," she began, and looked to the ground. "He said that if he wasn't here by sundown, then he wasn't showing up at all."

Blade simply turned back to the sunset, watching as the last of it vanished behind the hills off in the distance, "Sorry Pinkie Pie." he said as he placed a hoof on her shoulder, "Maybe the next one you find will be the one." And with that, he lifted himself up to turn around, "Get some sleep, you're going to need it."

Pinkie let her mood fall, a doubt creeping into her mind as she lifted from her seated position, and turned to go back to the rooms. The two of them stopped when the garage door closed and they heard a loud banging noise on the other side. Pinkie walked up to the regular door, the one that vanished as she neared it, and looked around the corner, "Sorry if I'm late but all these garages look the same." she heard the familiar voice say. There he was, Piks. His family next to him and the tuft of hair on the top of his head colored in the fashion of a rainbow.

"Really Piks?" his wife asked as she held onto what looked like a toddler-sized version of herself, "That's your best excuse."

"Oh, Phis, I'd never lie." he said smoothly, and the two young ones at his feet giggled as his wife rolled her eyes.

"You made it just in time." Pinkie heard Blade say from behind her, and she moved aside to let the family of Dryskians into the facility.

"We're sorry if he worried you Mrs. Pie." the wife said.

"Ms. Pie." Pinkie responded, "And I'm just glad he's here." the pink pony said in relief.

"He's a team player now, I'll make sure he never lets you down." the Dryskian said with a smile, "My name is Phis, and this is Kips." She introduced as she lifted the toddler at her side, "The twins are Divs and Livs." At the mention of their names, the two little Dryskians looked up, smiled mischievously, and ran, blowing right by Pinkie and Blade before making their way into the halls, "DIVS, LIVS. YOU TWO GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" she called out as she stomped on by and handed the toddler off to her husband. Pinkie and Piks looked at the young one as she sucked on her hand, then to each other, and exploded with laughter.