Chapter 114 – Passive Lessons
"Keep it steady…" Blade said as he watched Rainbow Dash push the throttle, the Rainbow Trail Mk. 3 blazed across the waves just off the shore of the little town, the towns folk in awe at the spectacle, "Ok, how do the joints feel?" he asked.
"Fine." Rainbow said confidently.
"We weren't expecting the Mark 3 to be so much faster; the new joints weren't meant for that kind of speed." the grey pegasus told her.
"And to think, this is just seventy-five percent of the thrust." she said in response, "I still haven't put much of my magic into it."
"Ok." he suddenly said, "Try that drift turn again."
She pulled the thrust of her right-wing to zero, flaring her left wing at the same speed. The machine turned before she reduced the trust on her left, then she pushed both throttles back to seventy-five percent. The maneuver worked perfectly, "Way to go, me!" she said confidently.
"Don't get cocky!" she heard her coach say, "We can't have you {snort} making mistakes out there. Not with {snort} your life on the line."
"How have the underwater adjustments been coming along?" Pilit asked as she came out of the garage and joined them on the beach.
"Great." Blade said, only his voice wavering to show his excitement, "Wanna see what we got so far?"
"Sure." the young Treeopon chirped.
"Ready Rainbow?" Blade asked.
"Ready!" she responded with her usual confident grin. She turned the racer towards the ocean and pushed the throttles as far as she could. She then tilted her wings up just slightly, and the racer dove underwater. She looked around a bit, "Not a leak in sight." she said.
"Good." Blade said proudly, "She's still not rated to go very deep, but we're working on it."
"I'm glad we got you three figuring it out." Rainbow said, "I'm not sure what I'd do."
"Probably try plugging the hole with your feather?" he said in a grin. He watched as Rainbow's face went from confusion to realization, and finally embarrassment, "Yeah, Fluttershy told me about the whole 'Mysterious Mare-Do-Well' lesson."
"Must have been a hard {snort} race to run." Tusks said.
"It was." Rainbow admitted. She then looked around in awe, "Cool." she said in amazement.
"What?" Blade asked.
"It's kinda pretty down here." she told him.
"Don't go too deep." he warned, "Writch and I are still testing the pressure seals and stress testing the hull."
"I'm taking a picture." she said. A simple click was heard and she turned around, "Alright, coming back." she said.
"How does she know which way is up?" Pilit asked, "Most Hylops are trained in deep diving around four Cycles old, but I'm sure ponies don't have the training or the glands to help navigate underwater."
"We added an old Hylop device." Blade explained, "It's designed to always point up, that way she always knows where the surface is. We also added a type of gauge that's designed to calculate how far down she is from the surface of the ocean. We recalibrated it this morning."
"Also added an oxygen recycler system, {snort} right?" Tusks asked.
Blade nodded at the comment, "It utilized a type of moss found on Bacromus that photosynthesizes quickly. They'll never need to worry about fresh oxygen."
"Doesn't photosynthesis need light?" Pilit asked.
"Not when you have Aura like this." Blade said, "The Aura you and your friends made is so potent that it can reproduce the exact energy that the sun makes after entering Bacromus' atmosphere."
"Wait…" Pilit asked, "The Aura is keeping the moss alive?"
Blade simply nodded, "You and your friends did good kid."
Pilit watched as the Rainbow Trail Mk. 3 rose back up from the ocean, bursting from the water and sitting there hovering before slowly making its way to them, "I wasn't expecting the Aura to be that potent, maybe friendship is more powerful than I thought."
"You should ask Twilight how she used the magic of friendship to save our world, multiple times." Blade quipped.
"Oh." they heard from behind them. When they turned, Twilight was standing there with Lady Kiane at her side, "You saved your world?" she asked the alicorn.
Twilight gave Blade a slightly annoyed look, but a smile still formed on her face, "Thanks, Blade." she said and got him to laugh, though his mouth stayed flat and what looked to be unsmiling, he had what remained of his smile form in his eyes. Sparkling, soft, joyful eyes. "How are the tests going?"
"I got her up to seventy-five percent with no issues." Rainbow Dash boasted, "I'm gonna add another five percent on the next run, but first she needs a bath."
"Rainbow Dash took the Mark 3 underwater." Blade explained.
"Well," they heard as Writch guided the racer into the garage, "Guess we're up squirt."
The racer stopped at Writch's signal, a palm held up with fingers open before she balled her hand into a fist. Kklement dragged a bucket and soap over with him, the large hose draped over his shoulder, "Why are we washing it so frequently?" he asked in curiosity as Rainbow Dash exited the racer.
"The salt of the ocean will cause the racer to rust if we leave it too long." Twilight explained, "Just like friendships can break apart if there's bad feelings that have gone unaddressed."
"So, Rainbow Dash's dive into the ocean was bad?" the Sunik boy asked innocently as he started to climb the racer.
"No, not entirely." Twilight said, "Things happen all the time that can put salt on your hull, or strain and test your friendships. But if you maintain them by talking through your problems honestly or even just being kind to each other; or in this case just washing your racer, then the rust won't have time to set in."
"OH!" Pilit said, "I get it." She then ran past them and grabbed a scrub brush, "I'll help to!"
Twilight chuckled at the energy the young Treeopon displayed, it was due to her efforts that Kklement had opened up to them as much as he had. "Are you sure your talent is in Magic and not friendships?" Lady Kiane asked teasingly.
"It may have been the 'Magic of Friendship'." Twilight admitted.
"Do you think we should have Kklement write that lesson in the journal?" Pilit asked.
"That's up to him." Twilight said.
"It's a good lesson." Rainbow Dash said, "But I think lessons you have to learn the hard way stick better."
"You would know." Twilight teased as she used her hoof to nudge Rainbow in the shoulder. The two ponies chuckled at the comment.
"The magic of Friendship…" Lady Kiane whispered to herself, "I never expected magic to have more than one source."
"Are you alright Lady Kiane?" Twilight asked as she looked to the deep-thinking Hylop. Her eyes showed both curiosity and concern.
"I am fine Twilight Sparkle." she said gladly, "Just thinking, I am constantly surprised by both our world and yours."
"What's next on the list?" Rainbow asked.
"Next, we stress test the hull for leaks and pressure test the interior shielding." he told them, "We have to make sure this ship is ready for anything."
"Have you figured out how to cool down the canon yet?" the cyan pegasus asked.
"Not yet." he said, "But we're working on it."
"Thanks." Rainbow said and turned to the racer, "Things are starting to heat up huh?"
"More than we know." Writch said from up on top of the racer. She then threw the remains of a spider drone to the ground, right in front of them, "It shut down just seconds before I knocked it off of the ceiling, I think they're gonna make a move."