RAC 7

Chapter 2

They all went back to Twilight’s to begin RAC’s lesson on friendship, knowing they have the princess’s approval and faith. RAC was standing in the library listening to Twilight about all the things he’ll learn. She thought she should start off with something simple, such as the elements. “RAC, do you know what the elements or harmony are?” asked Twilight.

“No idea, are they some kind of material used to create massive energy to wipe out enemies?” he asked. Twilight was confused on what he had said, and so were the other ponies and Spike.

“Sort of, the elements are rare artifacts that are really powerful in Equestria, and each one represents an element of friendship: loyalty, honestly, generosity, laughter, kindness, and magic”, Twilight explained, “And you need to know these elements if you want to learn all there is about friendship”.

“Alright, sounds easy enough” RAC said.

“Here’s how this is going to work: you will live life here in ponyville like any other pony, there will be times where you might be put in situations. Each one will test you on what choices you will make and know about the consequences. It’s up to you to learn these lessons, once you’ve learned a valuable lesson in friendship you will report to me of what you have learned from that once a week” she said.

“Are you sure that will help me?” asked RAC.

“I struggled at first too, but as time went on I learned very important lessons. And each one had something to do with real life situations. If it worked for me, then it will for you” Twilight answered. “I have an idea on how you can start, you will spend the day with each of my friends; learn from them. That way, you’ll know how to act as a true friend” Twilight added.

“Ok, so who am I going to start with?” RAC wondered. Twilight thought for a moment, and decided the best way on which he should get to know first.

“I know, you will start off with Applejack, then Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. That’s the order of when I first met my friends, so that’ll be your order too, I’ll be last. I have a bunch of reports that I still need to fill out.” she said.

“Ok, sounds good to me” said RAC. Then they all left Twilight’s house and RAC followed AJ back to her farm. They walked all the way back to Sweat Apple Acres; RAC could see that there was a huge red barn along with a field with several rows of apple trees. “Welcome to Sweat Apple Acres, RAC” AJ said.

RAC was amused, “That’s a lot of trees”.

“Everything you see here we grow ourselves” she said. Just then Applebloom came out of the barn to greet her sister, when she quickly recognized RAC.

“Hey I know you, you’re that fancy machine who attacked my sister!”  And she ran right up to him and started to hit and buck him. But it had no effect on him, “Take THAT! And THAT” she shouted, but it just made *ding* noises on his medal legs.

“Is this how you greet others?” asked RAC.

“Not really”, said AJ, “Applebloom, stop. I know he attacked me but I forgave him. He’s good now” and with that, the little sister stopped.

“Oh sorry about that; so what’s he doing here, sis?” asked Applebloom.

“I am going to teach him what honesty is” answered Applejack. Then she turned towards RAC. “Now I already mentioned my huge Apple family” started Applejack.

“I know you told me about that. But what is it that you do?” asked the machine.

“We just grow apples and make them into anything we can serve: apple pie, apple fritter, apple cider.” RAC then turned towards a long row of apple trees.

“How do you get them down?” asked RAC.

“How else, we buck the trees ‘til they fall down” she then grabbed a basket and placed it under a tree. She turned and gave the tree a quick buck, and all the apples fell into the basket. “Just like that, why don’t you give it a try?” she asked.

“Really?” asked RAC curiously.

“Why not” answered AJ. So RAC went up to an apple tree and turned around. He lifted up one of his hind legs and bucked the tree so hard, that the roots came out and the tree went flying; then it hit the next tree and that one came out. Pretty soon an entire row of trees were gone with just one kick. RAC turned around and saw the damage he made, he felt embarrassed. Both apple sisters stood there speechless. RAC turned back and looked at the sisters, then back at the destroyed trees, and then back at the sisters. Back and forth back and forth, he continued. Then he began to speak.

“Uh…uh….” Even he was speechless, of course he knew that he could do that, he just didn’t take others reactions. “I…….”

“Maybe we should move on to something else” AJ suggested. They all went in the barn and AJ was talking to RAC all about what honesty is.  “It looks like you don’t know your own strength there” started Applejack.

“Yeah sorry about that, but you told me to…”

“I know, just forget it” AJ interrupted. “Now, honesty is when you tell the truth to a pony and mean it” Applejack said.

“That’s all?” asked RAC.

“Well, believe it or not, honesty isn’t always good. There’s a phrase that goes like this: if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. But true friends should always be honest with each other, it shows you can really trust them”.

“Like how?” asked RAC.

“Well when Twilight was hanging off a cliff, I grabbed onto her. I told her to let go, and I promised that nothing bad would happen. As soon as she did, my other friends caught her. She trusted me because she knew that I was honest to her” she answered. As soon as he learned this, RAC now knew what honesty is. Then they heard a voice outside the barn, they came out to see that it was Rainbow Dash hovering over them.

“Hey guys” she greeted. Then she noticed the row of destroyed apple trees. “Whoa, what happened over there?” she asked.

“Don’t ask” AJ told her. “Anyway, is there a reason why you’re here?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s my turn to teach RAC” she answered. AJ turned to RAC, she gave him a nod that meant go, and he took off with Dash. Dash took RAC high in the clouds and even landed on one to teach him what loyalty is. “So how’s your day so far?” she asked him.

“Pretty good, so far I’ve learn what honesty is, which is telling the truth” RAC answered.

“Yeah yeah that’s good and all, now it’s time you know what loyalty is” she told him.

“Loyalty is never letting your friends down, always standing by their side. And no pony is more loyal than me” she added.

“Hmm, explain” he asked.

“Explain what?” Dash asked.

“Explain why you’re the most loyal pony” RAC asked.

“Oh that’s easy, this one time we were trying to cross a bridge but it was all fallen apart, so what do I do? I fly over to the other side and get the other side of the bridge. But then this evil group called the Shadowbolts came in and wanted me to join them. But NO, my friends come first. So I turned them down and helped my friends cross to safety” she answered with a lot of pride.

“That’s interesting” RAC said.

“So have you been training for our big race tomorrow?” Dash asked.

“I don’t need to” RAC told her.

“Oh I see, trying to sound all confident are you?” she asked in a very questionable manner.

“Not really” RAC answered.

“Well, I hope you’re ready to eat my dust” and with that Dash took off at supersonic speed, but RAC stayed behind; RAC seemed to never understand Rainbow Dashes personality. Next was Rarity, he met her at her boutique. Rarity welcomed him inside, but she wasn’t really happy to see him.

“Hey, Rarity, so you’ll be explaining what generosity is?” asked RAC.

“Yes” she answered “But before I do, let’s just get one thing clear. I haven’t forgotten what you did to me yesterday” Rarity continued. RAC felt uncomfortable, he felt like she was spreading seeds of distrust to him.

“But I thought we put that behind us” RAC wondered.

“I’m still keeping my eye on you” she told him in a very rude tone. But that went from rude to polite in a second. “Now then, Generosity is when you give without expecting anything in return. For example, this poor sea serpent was upset because part of his mustache was missing. So, I cut of my tail and gave it to the poor thing as a replacement” Rarity explained.

“Are fashion purposes that big around here?” RAC asked.

“Well why do you care? You said that it was meaningless and worth nothing” she scoffed. RAC rolled his eyes and told her once more that it wasn’t his doing of what happened yesterday. “But, seeing how I’m supposed to show you how generous I am, I suppose your medal parts could use a good shining” she stated. She told him to stay in the room until she got back. RAC decided to look around the boutique. As he was staring at some of Rarity’s designs and dresses along the walls, he couldn’t help but notice that he was being watched by tiny eyes. RAC turned his head and noticed something disappear around the corner. A few seconds later, a face began to pop out, it was Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie Belle. She looked at him from a distance and smiled. Rarity returned to the main designing room with some shining material, when she saw that RAC and Sweetie were playing catch with a very large beach ball.

“Care to explain what you’re doing?” asked Rarity.

“Uh, Sweetie Belle looked like she wanted to play” RAC answered.

“Sweetie Belle, I need you to leave us be; I’m trying to teach our guest a thing or two about generosity” ordered the elder sister.

“Aw c’mon Rarity, you never allow any fun around here”, complained Sweetie.

“Don’t worry; we’ll play again sometime soon” RAC told the little filly. She smiled and trotted off.

“Now then” said Rarity and she shined all the parts on RAC that was covered in medal. After she was done, RAC was very impressed with her work.

“Wow, I’ve never looked this good. Thanks, Rarity” said RAC.

“You’re very welcome, darling. Now remember what I told you” warned Rarity.

“About what generosity is?” asked RAC, but that wasn’t the answer Rarity was looking for.

“That, and I have my eye on you” she said. RAC still felt uncomfortable about Rarity not fully trusting him, yet.

RAC left the boutique and went straight to Fluttershy’s cottage. He walked right up to the door and knocked, he heard a soft voice say “come in” so he did. When he walked in he was surprised to see that her home was full of animals.

“Oh, hello RAC”, Fluttershy greeted.

“Hey, Fluttershy, are all these animals yours?” he asked.

“Well, I don’t actually own any of them I just look after them and take care of them” she answered with a soft and gentle voice.

“So, you represent the element of kindness?” he asked.

“Oh yes, I’m the kindness out of my friends. Kindness is when you’re really, well kind, to some pony” she started as she was feeding some animals. “Perhaps you can demonstrate by helping me feed the animals” Fluttershy suggested.

“Sure” RAC answered, and gave the animals their proper lunch. “So, I still don’t understand what how kindness works” he wondered.

“It’s a little hard to explain. This one time we were all fighting this scary manticore in the forest, when it turns out it just had a thorn in its paw. So I took it out and gave it love and affection” she answered. “Besides, we should all show some kindness to every pony” she added.

“I wonder” RAC added. As soon as he was done helping Fluttershy, he ran right to his last stop, at Sugar cube Corner to meet Pinkie Pie. RAC made it to the bakery; he thought it was funny how the building looked very much like a cake. He walked right inside, when he did he was greeted with an explosion of confetti.

“Surprise!” a voice shouted, RAC quickly realized that it was Pinkie Pie, she then popped out of nowhere to say hello. “I’m glad you could make it. It’s about time you knew what my element is. Can you guess? Huh? Can ya, can ya??” she asked all hyper.

“Um, laughter?” RAC assumed.

“Yes!” shouted Pinkie Pie who was very happy to see him. “Laughter is something that no pony can live without. It really brings every pony together, I mean without laughing and smiling, where would we be?” she wondered.

“Nowhere, I’m guessing. So, Pinkie Pie, can you explain a little more why laughter suits you?” RAC felt like that it was a dumb question since he knew the answer, but he felt like he should ask her anyway.

“What? OH, now I know what you mean. When we were all lost in the forest and attacked by scary tree’s, I just laughed at them. They thought it was a monster, but it was just a tree with a funny face. We laughed and laughed, I even sang a song about it. Wanna hear it?” she asked all excited for no reason.

“No thanks, maybe later. So you’re saying that laughter is what brings others closer?” he asked.

“Not exactly, it’s just nice to get a good laugh every now and then, it makes every pony happy” Pinkie said. “Hey, since you’re here, wanna try one of my cupcakes?” she held up a tiny red cupcake with white frosting and rainbow sprinkles on it.

“You know I don’t have to eat, right?” asked RAC.

“I know that, but just try it. Taste how yummy it is” she offered. RAC took it from her, and took a big bite out of it. He chewed it then swallowed it.

“Delicious” he said.

“Yay, I’m glad you like it” she yelled.

“Thanks, Pinkie. I should probably go back to Twilights now” he told her.

“AW, already? Ok see you tomorrow” she said happily as he exited the bakery. The sun came down and the day was really long for RAC. Now he just had to check in with Twilight. He walked in, just when Twilight had just finished her reports.

“Hello, RAC. I see your back from your day of learning. I suppose it’s my turn to tell you my element. My element is magic” she started, “As you know, unicorns and alicorns have the ability to use magic. And I’ve noticed that you know quite few spells as well. But there’s a certain type of magic that most ponies know of. That is the magic of friendship. Have you learned enough today?” she wondered.

“Yes, but..” RAC started,

“But what?” asked Twilight.

“For some reason, I felt like I haven’t learned enough. I’m still having trouble trying to soak in all the elements and what they are. I just don’t know what I’m doing or what I’ll do for the rest of my life” answered the machine.

“Don’t worry RAC, like I said you’ll learn more lessons as the days go by. Today you just learned what the elements are. You’ll learn a lot more tomorrow” she told him.

“I hope you’re right” said RAC “because I’m hoping that I’m more than just a machine colt” with that, RAC’s first day was over, and was already getting ready for the next day……….