Chapter 30 – Something Special

"Ok, Rainbow Dash, tell me if you notice anything different." Blade asked the pegasus.

She stood in front of the Rainbow Trail Mk.2, her eyes still wide with wonder as she gazed at the machine, "You mean besides the awesome new paint job?" she asked. She had taken the time to rest, her leg now good as new and with Fluttershy and Hulon in agreement that no unwanted side effects would arise.

"Yes, besides Rarity's new paint job." the stallion sighed in a relieved way; Rainbow Dash was back to her original self.

With a cheeky smile, the blue pegasus flapped her wings and entered the cockpit of the machine. When she finally touched down, she looked to that familiar console, only to find some changes, the wing controls were sleeker and sectioned into three parts that slid into each other, the design choice of a wing to mimic Rainbow Dash's natural wing shape. The throttles were a bit different now as well, slightly wider and much smoother, the outsides were decorated with a rainbow of colors. The room itself had gotten an upgrade as well, slightly bigger than last time, the room looked as if it shined from the panels. There was also some kind of metal device that looked like a pipe that came out near where her chin would be, and it had some kind of bulge at the nearest part of her.

"Wow." she said to herself, and Blade came on screen.

"Like what you see?" he asked.

"Nice!" she said and walked up to the control seat.

"Good. I think Writch and I did great with the new design for the StarDrive System." he said, and watched as she turned to him in confusion, "That would be your drive console." he told her.

"StarDrive?" she asked, and then smiled, "Cool."

"Breeze?" the grey pegasus asked, and watched as his brother landed on the top of the ship, "We were able to salvage a few of the panels from your old room, and Pinkie was able to find somepony who deals in ancient Shimmer Tech, so we struck a deal, and were able to build a whole new room for you with new controls."

"Did you separate the guns?" the grey unicorn asked.

"Yes." his brother said, "We did."

Breeze smiled a bit and opened the hatch before jumping into it. Instantly he could see it, the controls had changed but the room itself was pretty much the same, instead of joysticks that stayed out front, he could see what looked like gauntlets that connected to the seat itself through suspension arms and wires. "What?" he asked in surprise and placed his hoof to the controls.

"You like it?" he heard his brother ask.

"I love it. It's like Hearths Warming came early!" he said, and heard Rainbow Dash chuckle.

"This design will make it easier for you to keep up with racers like that samurai ship and their special move." Blade said.

"Speaking of special moves…" Rainbow said, and turned her console on, "Wanna see if we can perfect it before the next race?"

Breeze smiled, and Blade looked confused, "What are you two talking about?" the pegasus brother asked.

"Wanna show him?" Rainbow asked, and Breeze simply grinned in response.

The two echoed each other as the new ship raced through the open area. The field full of other racers was left behind as Rainbow Dash and Breeze looked for someplace private to practice. "How about in the cliffs?" Rainbow asked.

"Wait, you mean those big rock formations?" Breeze asked as he turned. The base rotated him in his spot, turning him to face the place his guns were facing.

"Yeah." his pilot said, and grinned, "Even Syls won't know about this move." she said and raced her way to the cliffs.

When they got there, Rainbow Dash found a nice open area and placed the new Rainbow Trail Mk.2 into a hover. "Ok, Blade. You watching?" she asked and looked up to spot a cyan orb with a rainbow on its side.

"Camera drone is in place." he said, and watched as Rainbow boosted up, causing her nose to point into the air, and she flapped her wings hard. The wings of the ship flapped with hers, and once again, the air compressed before the jets ignited into a stream of fire. "Where…did you two learn to do that?" he asked.

"When we had to escape from the chasms." Breeze told him.

"That…was actually easier than the first time." Rainbow observed.

"It should be." Blade said in response, "Writch and I tuned the controls to be tighter and more responsive, that's why we had to change the way the wing controls looked, the old design was just too bulky and didn't allow for natural movement."

"They're way more comfortable as well." she said, "But what's with this chin rest?"

"It's not a chin rest, it's a trigger." he told her. Both Rainbow Dash and Breeze looked as if they were going to ask him some serious questions. "Don't give me that, it's not deadly and we found some of the tech in our first garage with the second completing the parts list." he told them, "It's just a Mass Stun Pulse Canon."

"Oh!" Breeze said, and smiled, "You mean that thing Head Councilor Riida used on our entire group of assassins when I got everypony sugar high?"

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing as she heard this, "That has to be one of the most harmless things you've ever done."

"Yes," Blade said, "that thing. It's a short-range stun blast that at the moment is designed to take out a shield in one hit." he said, and stopped Rainbow Dash from actually biting onto the trigger, "However." he said right before she tried it out, "We weren't able to make it useable more than once, the amount of power would drain too much out of the old engine, but with this new engine…"

"Why did you say that like it's a special engine?" Breeze asked.

That was when they saw Twilight, standing behind the grey pegasus, the grin on her face was so big Rainbow was worried the alicorn was going to shatter her face, "It's working perfectly!" she said.

"Huh?" R.D. asked.

"You guys are currently using an engine that has never been tested, built several cycles ago, and lost for just as long." Writch said as she came on screen.

"A B336 Magnus Particle Engine feels good in a custom-built racer doesn't it?" Blade asked, getting both Breeze and his pilot to drop their jaws in surprise. "And yes, before you two ask, we had Rarity examine it for flaws and damage before we put it in."

"What…" Rainbow asked, and almost didn't even see the ship that came up next to them, a ship that closely resembled a samurai helmet. "What do you want?" Rainbow asked as she turned to the approaching ship. It stayed quiet, just hovering there, "If you're here to try and take us out in secret…"

"I would never stoop to something so unprofessional." they heard, it wasn't like actual words that came out from the machine, rather thoughts and pictures that formed meaning, a meaning that translated into words inside their heads.

"What's going on?" Blade asked.

The samurai ship finally lowered to the ground, Rainbow following suit, and staying on guard.

The creatures that came out from the ship wore cloaks that draped down to the ground, each designed with different designs that never seemed to stay the same. Their skin though, it changed colors like a Borealis. They floated slowly to the ground and hovered just above it when they stopped. "Are those?" Breeze asked, and was answered by his brother.

"Meltackians." he said. Both Breeze and Rainbow Dash could hear the sorrow in his voice.

"What do you want?" Rainbow Dash asked as she and Breeze exited their racer.

"An explanation, and perhaps an apology." the pilot, a male, said his mouth never moving as his words echoed through their minds.

"Why should I apologize to you?" Rainbow asked.

"We'll see who needs to apologize to who." the male asked.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, and this is Breeze." she introduced. When they didn't say anything, she spoke up again, "It's not cool to not tell us your names, especially when we've introduced ourselves."

"Meltackians have no names." the female said, and held up her hand when the male tried to argue, "However, we identify ourselves as a special thought or an idea that separates us from our kin. This is my special thought."