RAC 7

Chapter 3

Today was Friday, which meant that today was the day that Rainbow Dash had challenged RAC to a big race, and other things she decides to add when she can’t accept defeat. RAC saw the morning sun and went downstairs, noticing that Twilight and Spike were already down there eating muffins and reading from a book. “Hey, some pony finally woke up” said Twilight.

“Well, I never went to sleep” replied RAC.

“Then some pony finally noticed we were awake” she said with a good mood.

“Hey, Twilight, before I went to…uh….stare out the window” he started, “I was skimming through some of your spell books, and I learned this really cool spell. Want to see it?” he asked all excited.

“Sure” she answered. RAC took a few steps back to perform the spell. His horn began to glow that dark purple from before. Pretty soon, his whole body became wavy and transparent. And then, he disappeared. Twilight was baffled. “What?” she said. Then she noticed that her muffin was floating in mid-air and she wasn’t even levitating it.

“Invisibility spell?” she asked.

“More like a transparent spell, this could really come in handy” the invisible RAC stated.

“I’ve never seen magic like this before” Twilight said. Then RAC became visible again and released the muffin.

“If you think that was new, watch this” his horn began to glow dark purple again, even his eyes lit up, they both began to become brighter and brighter. Even a small halo of light started to form around his ankles. He even began to shout something. “Flare gun, x2!” and a huge purple beam came shooting out of RAC’s horn, blasting a huge hole in Twilight’s roof and into the sky, every pony could see it. When the beam finally died down, Twilight was surprised at what RAC has learned. She and Spike were both hiding behind the fallen table, and Twilight was holding onto Spike as if he was a stuffed animal. They both poked their heads up and saw the damage that RAC has created; luckily he didn’t seem damaged himself.

“W-What was that!?!?” Twilight shouted.

“Um….” RAC levitated a book and started to flip through the pages.

“Oh, it’s called a flare gun spell. It says that it’s really powerful and can easily damage anything in sight” he said cheerfully as if nothing happened. Twilight took the book from RAC to examine it herself; she wasn’t impressed like RAC was.

“RAC, this spell is forbidden! Meaning that no pony is allowed to perform it! It even says, Warning: Do not attempt! How can you be this naïve and careless?” she scolded at the machine. RAC’s smile went to a frown in an instant.

“Sorry, I guess my stupidity got the better of me, again” RAC said sadly. Then Twilight decided to ease up a bit.

“What?” she asked.

“This isn’t the first time, something like this has happened. When I was with Keen, I would mess up a lot, and he would say ‘how stupid can you be!’ so yeah” RAC answered.

“Well, you’re not stupid, RAC, you just have to be more aware of what’s safe around here” she told him. “This is exactly why you’re here, to learn what’s right” she continued, “Now please promise me you won’t do that again?” she asked him. RAC agreed, but little did they know that that spell would become useful to them later. Twilight decided to change the subject. “So, anything going on today?” she asked.

“Well, I guess I have this big race with Rainbow Dash today?” he answered.

“Really, that’s great” Twilight said. But RAC had different thoughts.

“Well, I find it that it’s unfair”, he said.

“What would be unfair?” asked Twilight.

“Rainbow Dash challenged me to a race, but seeing how I’m already faster than her I would automatically win. I’m not trying to boast or anything, I’m just pointing out a solid fact” he pointed out, RAC wasn’t trying to sound cocky or even brag, he just knew what he knew. “But every time I try to tell Rainbow, she thinks that I’m challenging her” he added.

“Well maybe you could tell her that, in a way that doesn’t so arrogant” Twilight suggested.

“But I’m not trying to sound arrogant” RAC told her.

“Well, I really don’t know what to tell you, RAC” Twilight said.

“I don’t want her to feel bad” RAC said.

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out” Twilight said, without knowing what to tell him.

“I suppose” RAC added. After Twilight finished her breakfast they made their way towards an open field, where the race was being held; it was near the place where Rainbow and Fluttershy created that huge hurricane.  There, RAC saw all the other ponies he had met including AJ, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and the crusaders. They all had seats to watch the race. RAC thought if he went a little slower than his normal speed, then he would be giving Rainbow a chance. He and Twilight saw Dash stretching at the starting line.

“Hey, Rainbow” Twilight greeted.

“Hey Twi, Did you see that huge blast in the sky?” she asked.

"Don't ask" Twilight said, knowing that she was referring to RAC's flare gun spell.

"Ok, so are you here to see me win?" she boasted. Then RAC trotted up to her.

“Hey, Rainbow, it’ll be fun racing against you” he said.

“Thanks” she replied.

“Just so you know, I’ll lower my speed to give you more of a chance” he warned her.

“What? Dude, if you have a secret plan you’re not supposed to say it aloud. Plus, I don’t want you to go easy on me. I want you to race me at your best” she said proudly.

“Are you sure about that?” RAC asked her.

“I’m positive” she said as she trotted towards the starting line. Soon they were both at the start and every pony took their seats. Rainbow Dash spread her wings out, “You ready?” she asked. RAC then spread his huge silver light medal wings, and two small jet engines popped out at each side of his barrel and under his wings, “Yeah” he said. Even though RAC’s idea fell apart, he still felt like he wanted to go easy on her. Fluttershy was holding the checkered flag in her mouth, and RAC and Dash were waiting for her to swing it. She waved the checkered flag, and they were both off at supersonic speed, leaving Fluttershy spinning out of control. They took off at 300mph and were soaring through the skies. There were barriers made of clouds to direct them on where to go. They were as high up as Rainbow’s house. They started to fly faster and faster, Rainbow trying everything she can to beat RAC. They flew around made a few turns and loops and circles. They kept flying straight, and then they both took a vertical drop dive. They were flying in steep and coming in really fast, they looked like they were going to smash into the ground. They kept on falling and falling, until they finally pulled up when they just barely touched the ground. They then flew straight into a forest; there were a lot of obstacles for them like trees and rocks and animals.  Dash flew through all of them, and tried to avoid anything else. But RAC was doing better, he had a quicker react time than Rainbow; a flock of birds were coming at RAC, but he quickly noticed them and flew over them as if they weren’t there. Rainbow noticed that she was in the lead, and that RAC was not too far behind. “Time to make things interesting” she said aloud, she quicker grabbed a nearby branch and pulled it back. Right when RAC was about to pass, she let go hoping that it would slow RAC down; unfortunately it didn’t. RAC saw the branch coming towards him, but to him the branch moved very slow; right when it was about to hit him, he quickly shot a beam from his horn and disintegrated the branch, and ended up disintegrated the entire tree. Rainbow saw the whole thing, so she quickly stepped on it, but RAC was unaware that Rainbow Dash tried to sabotage him.

“What just happened?” he asked himself. He decided to just continue the race and catch up to Rainbow Dash. Dash noticed he was catching up, so she flew faster.

Next, they flew in a rocky canyon. Rainbow Dash remembered that this was the place her pet turtle save her from a fallen boulder on her wing. She looked back and saw that RAC was nearly behind her. She thought of a way to try to slow him down, again. She flew up and landed on a mountain above the canyon; she then gave a boulder a big and loud BUCK. With that, it caused an avalanche and rocks flew everywhere; Rainbow luckily made it out, but RAC was just entering. He saw the avalanche; since there was no turning back he flew right in. A bunch of boulders were about to smash him, so he got out two large blades coming out of both front hooves. The first boulder flew at him; he leaned back and gave it a big SLICE cutting the solid boulder in half. And he did that with every other boulder that came at him. He went *slice*, *slash*, and *X slash* everything. More and more boulders were falling, so he brought out two more blades coming from his back hooves; and sliced and diced everything in sight. He reduced falling boulders to tiny pebbles. Rainbow Dash saw the whole thing, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Whoa” she yelled. But then she noticed that RAC was nowhere to be seen. “Huh, where’d he go?” she asked herself. She was beginning to believe that the avalanche destroyed him. But, out of nowhere, RAC went flying upwards at 400mph, nearly hitting Rainbow Dash off guard. She started to spin out at his surprise attack. “WHOA!” she exclaimed. She looked up and saw that RAC was ok, but as soon as she focused on him, he quickly took off and continued the race; Dash followed. Now RAC was in the lead, they were both flying very high in the skies. But Rainbow Dash was up to her tricks again, she spotted a nearby cloud and jumped on it. A bolt of lightning was shot out, and electrocuted RAC. With that, he started to plummet and Rainbow Dash gaining the lead again. He was falling at 28 thousand feet in the air; he safely landed on a cloud. Luckily the lightning didn’t affect him since he was an artificial mechanical being, and nothing electrical in him. He got up and recovered, but this time he saw Rainbow Dash do something.

“So that’s how she wants to play it?” he groaned to himself, this time he felt cross. His jet engines lifted him up and he took off. He wasn’t too far back from Rainbow Dash, but he had her in his sights. He had a lock on her, and then he open fired. Several purple beams came shooting out of his horn, and the beams were around Rainbow Dash. Twilight was watching this through her binoculars, she felt concerned.

“Oh no, this doesn’t look good. What if he accidently performs the Flare gun spell?” she said frightened.

“The Flare gun spell” asked Rarity.

“What in tarnation is that?” demanded Applejack.  Twilight explained what it was, and their reactions weren’t too impressed.

“Oh my, do you think he’ll actually do it?” asked the timid Fluttershy.

“Let’s hope not, that simple spell can be more powerful and possibly more lethal than the elements” she explained. They focused their attention back on the race, Dash was dodging beams.

“Doesn’t this guy give up?” she yelled. She took off, continued the race, and dodged as many shots as possible. RAC didn’t really focus on firing but more on catching up. He even caught up to her, and they were both neck and neck. RAC looked next to her, and he noticed something strange about her. He began to notice that she was starting to look brighter and brighter, he raised an eye brow in confusion of what he was seeing. And then BOOM, Rainbow Dash performed her famous Sonic Rainboom, and left RAC in the dust. RAC was spinning; he saw that Dash was way in the lead. He decided to crank up his engines, and blasted off. Rainbow Dash’s Rainboom lasted for a while, but it finally died down when she was only a few hundred yards away from the finish. “Yes, I can taste victory!” she yelled proudly. RAC kicked it up to Mach 5 speed and finally caught on to Rainbow, yet still very far behind.

“That’s it” he told himself. RAC was fed up with Rainbow’s cheating; he focused and locked on her. And then, he shot one more beam at Rainbow. She didn’t see this one, ZAP, it hit her in the back and damaged one of her wings. She was so close to the finish line in the sky, but now she was falling hard.

“RAC shot her down!” exclaimed Twilight to every pony. They were very shocked; they can see Rainbow falling to her doom. RAC felt worse than them all, seeing how he was the one who shot her.

“Oh no, what have I done? DASH!” He changed directions and dived straight down and heading for Rainbow Dash. He put his front right hoof forward and reached for her; he saw that her eyes were hardly open. He cranked his speed up to Mach 6, it still wasn’t enough, Dash was about to hit the ground. He started to fall faster and faster, trying desperately to reach her. “I won’t….let you fall!” he yelled. His body started to become brighter and brighter and more arrow dynamic. Before he knew, BOOM, he broke the sound barrier and made his own sonic boom. But instead of his looking like a rainbow, his sonic boom looked like that of a giant gear. His speed was doubled and Rainbow Dash was within his reach.

“Was that?” started Pinkie Pie.

“Did he” followed Applejack.

“Did he just perform his own Sonic Rainboom?” Twilight wondered.

“It certainly doesn’t look like a rainbow” added Spike. They focused back on the situation. They could hear RAC screaming from the agony of going beyond his limit. It was really close but………..He caught her, he caught Rainbow Dash and flew straight back up into the air and to the finish line in the sky.

“He did it! He caught her! Woohoo!” Fluttershy cheered. RAC was carrying Rainbow dash in his hooves and still flying high. Pretty soon, they both crossed the finish line and made it on the ground safely. Every pony was there to see if Rainbow was ok. After a few seconds on the ground, Dash was beginning to wake up; RAC was still holding her in his medal arms. The first thing she saw was RAC.

“Hey, can you hear me?” he asked her.

“Y-yeah”, Dash answered. She sat up and saw that all of her friends were there, she then turned her attention to RAC, “Hey, thanks for saving back there” she thanked him.

“You’re welcome, it was wrong of me to do that to you. I’m sorry” he said with sorrow.

“No, I’m the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn’t have cheated, that made you shoot me. It’s mostly my fault” she apologized. “But at least I raced you at my best. Maybe we should call this one a draw” he said.

“Yeah, after all, this was pretty fun. We should do this again sometime” she said. She then brought out her hoof for a hoof-bump, so RAC gave her one making a loud *ding* noise. Rainbow felt like it hurts, so she hid her hoof behind her back and waved it until the pain went away. But that was just the least of their troubles. As they were congratulating both RAC and Rainbow, they suddenly heard a familiar voice in the background. It sounded girlish, yet in a tough and irritated tone.

“Oh, isn’t that precious. I see your still hanging out with dweebs, Rainbow Dash” the voice said. They all turned around, hoping that it wasn’t who they thought it was. But it turns out, that it was. “Did you miss me, Dash?” the figure said.

“Gilda?”…………..

Unfortunately, it was Gilda the griffin; the one who made fun of and hurt Rainbow’s friends. She recognized that griffin from anywhere.

“Where did she come from?” wondered Twilight.

“I’ve been watching the whole time, you just didn’t notice me because you were too busy watching that little race” the griffin snorted.

“So, do I have to race her too?” asked RAC who seemed hopelessly lost.

“What are you doing here?” asked rainbow Dash who was still recovering.

“Two things; one: I heard that there was going to be some huge race of pony vs. machine. So I had to see that, when I saw that it was YOU racing I was just waiting for you to lose. By the way, it looks like you seem really happy with your new dweeb colt-friend holding you like that” she mocked. Rainbow noticed she was still in RAC’s hold and felt embarrassed to look so helpless and feminine, her face began to turn red.

“Put me down!” Dash ordered. RAC set her down gently on the ground, but she could barely stand. “So what’s the second reason why you’re here?” Dash asked her former friend.

“Revenge!” she roared.

“What?” asked Dash.

“You humiliated me in front of those dweebs and made me lose my cool!” she continued.

“Gilda that was your fault! You were the one who blamed Pinkie for all of those pranks I set up. You were the one who over reacted and got the wrong idea” she yelled back.

“Whatever, I see you’re still being a flip-flop” she attempted to insult.

“That’s not even clever!” Rainbow responded.

“Anyway, because of YOU, I ended having no friends! I traveled throughout this country, and I guess every other pony and griffin didn’t match my style. What’s worse, I became known as the jerky griffin who hates everything, but I’m not! Now, I’m going to destroy you like how you destroyed me!” Every pony looked frightened by her speech. But RAC just had that confused and clueless look on his face; he looked like he didn’t even care about Gilda’s evil revenge plot.

He tilted his head and asked, “Is that so?” in a very questionable way; but this insulted Gilda.

“Is that so? What do you mean is that so?!?! Who the hay is this guy anyway?!” she roared.

“I-I’m the robotic artificial colt; RAC for short” he answered innocently, “I was the one who raced Rainbow Dash” he added. But this made Gilda laugh.

“Ha, oh right! Now I know what you look like up close! That was awesome how you shot Dash down, by the way, really made me jump from my seat” she humored him.

“How was the awesome? I only shot her down because she was cheating so much, I could’ve killed her” he said mournfully.

“Yeah, too bad you didn’t” she laughed.

“What is your problem” demanded RAC.

“Uh, weren’t you paying attention? Rainbow really pissed me off and humiliated me” she said.

“But it sounds like it was mostly your fault” added RAC.

But she replied, “Look, she set me up. Now get out of my way before I bring the hurt on you!” RAC took no notice to her threat.

“I don’t see how you can hurt me” said RAC.

Gilda shouted, “Look at me! I’m a very fierce griffin! Haven’t you seen wings this big, or talons this sharp” she showed him her sharp eagle-like talons, “You could at least tremble in fear or be threatened or something!”

RAC decided it was his turn to intimidate her, so he brought up his right front hoof, and activated his large blade hoof out in an instant; it even made a loud *shing*  sound. Gilda was surprised by RAC’s blade.

“WHOA! Where’d you get that, you freak!” she exclaimed.

“Take it easy, you’re going to hurt my feelings” RAC said in a mocking tone while retracting his blade.

“Your feelings? Ha! I’m going to hurt more than your feelings if you don’t move out of the way” she threatened. He looked back at Rainbow Dash who was still hurt from the race and the fall, he knew what he needed to do. He stepped in front of every pony and faced Gilda.

“No” he said.

“What?” questioned Gilda.

“You can’t fight Rainbow Dash. Not like this, she’s still very injured and if you attack her then it won’t be fair. You’ll just win the cheap and biased way; I won’t let you. If you want to face her, then you have to face me first. I won’t allow you to hurt my friends!” RAC yelled sternly at the griffin. Dash was watching the whole thing and couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she felt a little touched that RAC was defending her like that.

“RAC....”, Dash whimpered.

“I don’t have time for this, you’re in my way!” she then flew passed RAC and charged at the fallen Rainbow Dash. Before she could make an impact, RAC jumped in the way right on time. He blocked Gilda’s attack and shielded Dash with his body. RAC’s horn then began to glow brightly. Gilda noticed it but didn’t know how to react, but it was too late. RAC shot a large beam at Gilda which sent her flying across the field. RAC then flipped out his engines and wings and flew after her to finish her off……..