Iron Mare: Armored Adventures

In the semi-darkness of a high-tech laboratory, we find a young anthro pegasus mare with a light blue coat, a rainbow-patterned mane and tail wearing a white shirt with a image of a cloud and a rainbow lightning bolt, a dark blue jacket, blue jeans, and black and white sneakers with a welding mask pulled over her face. This was Rainbow Dash, a 16-year old genius with a taste for technology. At the moment, she was finishing up on a red and gold suit of armor.

"And... done! What do you think?" Rainbow asked her best friend, Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight, who was an anthro unicorn with a lavender coat and a dark blue mane tail, both of which had a pink stripe, and was wearing a blue dress shirt with a pink bowtie, a purple skirt with a pink star on it, and purple boots that went up to her knees, walked over and looked at the armor.

"Colorful, but you know your dad's just gonna trump this. You two are like dueling evil geniuses," she said.

Rainbow smirked. "Ah, come on! One look at this armor and Dad will freak out. Why don't you come with me to show it to him?" said Rainbow.

"Nah. Some of us have to go to this thing called school," said Twilight.

"Yeesh, sounds like a nightmare. Well, I'll give you a call tonight and tell you how it went," said Rainbow.

"I'm holding my breath starting right... about... now," said Twilight.

Rainbow laughed. "Go on, get outta here. I've got to get to Dash International and show Dad the armor," said Rainbow.

And with that, the two friends left the lab, one headed for the Tomorrow Academy, the other for Dash International.

~

Home sweet home, thought Rainbow Dash as she entered the lobby of Dash International, the company her father, Rainbow Blaze, had built from virtually nothing. It was a high-tech wonderland... thanks to Rainbow, who had designed half of the place. She walked up to the desk and saw the pony stationed there. “Morning Fluttershy.”

“Oh um… morning Miss Dash.” Fluttershy stammered. She walked a little while before she came to two double decker doors that led to her father’s office. She placed her ear on the door and sure enough two ponies were arguing inside.

“I’M WARNING YOU BLAZE! THOSE EARTH MOVERS WOULD BENEFIT US IN MORE WAYS THEN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE!”

"OH. COME ON BLUEBLOOD! YOU WANT TO TURN THE EARTH MOVERS INTO WEAPONS! THE SOLE PURPOSE OF MY COMPANY IS TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO HELP PONIES! NOT BLOW THEM TO SMITHEREENS!" roared Rainbow Blaze.

"We'll just see about that... you're wasting good money trying to analyze that moku-whatever ring of yours," said Blueblood, before storming out of the office in fury, nearly knocking Rainbow Dash on her butt.

"It's Makulaun, you iron monger," grumbled Blaze as Rainbow walked in. "Oh, hello Rainbow,"  Blaze said, smiling at his daughter.

“Hi dad. I heard Blueblood in here so I figured to just wait aside and be a little nosy. you know usual stuff.” Rainbow said nonchalantly before her dad said anything.

“Cute Rainbow. You know one day that snooping is going to get you in trouble you know that right?” Blaze asked his daughter who just rolled her eyes.

“Oh please dad. When have I NOT been careful?”Rainbow challenged to which Blaze responded quickly.

“Well there was that one time with the tesla coil and the potato-”

“Eh…. besides then?” Rainbow asked with a nervous chuckle.

“Then there was that… what did you call it? An… Awesome Android?” Her father asked reminding Rainbow of her failure with a few scraps of metal and a concrete block.

“Okay yeah so I am a LITTLE careless at times but other than those I’ve been really careful!” Rainbow whined to her dad who just sighed.

“I know you can be careful Rainbow but-” before Blaze could continue his phone rang. “Excuse me Rainbow. One moment,” He told her before picking up the phone. “Hello?”

“Yes um… Mr. Blaze sir there’s a Griffon down here-” Fluttershy started before Blaze interrupted her

“Tell him I’m busy.”

“Oh um… s-she’s not here to talk to you. She said her name was…. Gilda?”

“GILDA? SHE’S HERE! OH MAN THIS IS AWESOME!” Rainbow shouted as she overheard the conversation.

Blaze smiled. "I'll send her right out," he said before hanging up the phone. "Well, Rainbow, better not keep your friend waiting," said Blaze, only to find that Rainbow was halfway out the door.

Rainbow stopped and turned around. "Oh, Dad, before I forget, there's something I wanted to show you," she said.

Blaze raised an eyebrow. "Really? Well, why don't you come with me out to the testing grounds tomorrow and you can tell me all about it," he said.

"I'll be there, Dad," said Rainbow, before she left to go hang out with Gilda, her fillyhood best friend.

~

"So, how's the world's most awesome egghead been doing?" said Gilda, who was wearing a black leather jacket, a black shirt with a yellow Griffon symbol on it, black jeans, black boots, and a necklace that had a ring that looked oddly familiar to Rainbow.

"Aw, you know, same old, same old, working on some awesome new tech, trying to out-genius my dad," said Rainbow nonchalantly.

“Somethings never change huh?” Gilda asked as she fist bumped her friend. The two had been friends ever since Rainbow first entered a flying camp. Ironically she wasn’t the one being made fun of instead that torment went to Gilda. It seemed that every pegasus wanted to poke fun at the… little chicken.

“Come on chicken! Make some clucking noises! BOCK BOCK! BOCK BOCK BO BOOOOOOCK!” Was one of the more common taunts they said to her but it wasn’t long before Rainbow intervened and made sure everyone knew Gilda was not to be messed with as long as she was around.

"Say, Gilda, I've been meaning to ask. Where did you get that ring? Because I could swear my dad has one like it," said Rainbow.

Gilda smirked as she held up the ring, which had a purple gem with an ancient-looking symbol on it. "This old thing? It's an... old family heirloom. Handed down from mother to daughter and father to son. If I know my ancient Griffonese right, it says 'power' on the gem," explained Gilda.

"Huh. I could've sworn it looked just like a ring my dad found at a site where they were building a new factory... but, now that I think about it, Dad's ring was green, not purple," said Rainbow.

For a split second, Rainbow could've sworn she saw something like triumph in Gilda's eyes. "Is that so? Huh... as far as I know my ring is one of a kind... listen, I gotta get back to school, so, I'll see you around," said Gilda, before she took off in flight.

"Huh. What was that about?" muttered Rainbow, before she shrugged and headed for home.

~

Meanwhile, in the skies, Gilda could not have been in a better mood. She was on the brink of obtaining the second Maukluan ring. Only problem was that she needed to... relieve Mr. Blaze of the ring...

Luckily, I know somepony who can help with that little detail, thought Gilda as she pulled out her phone...