Iron Mare: Armored Adventures

"Look at it this way, Rainbow. In two years you get to fire him anyways," said Twilight.

"Yeah, I guess you're right... so, do we really have to do this... this school thingy?" said Rainbow Dash as she and Twilight entered the Tomorrow Academy.

"Duh, of course we do! Besides, my mom is a lawyer, remember? If she found out we skipped, she'd cream us. Kuh-reem us," said Twilight.

Before Rainbow could argue, she bumped into a handsome white pegasus with a dark blue mane and tail.

"Oops, sorry," said the stallion as he continued on his way.

Rainbow watched the stallion as he left."On second thought, maybe I should give school a shot," she said.

~

As it turned out, school was a lot more fun than Rainbow thought it would be. By the time she reached last hour, she had solved the "hardest" math problem in the world, explained her "Dash Chart," and pointed out that the physics textbooks were out of date.

"So, what now?" asked Rainbow, eager to show off her smartness some more.

"Well, I have Equestrian Literature, and you have a free track. Why don't you go check out the roof? Some of us used to have lunch up there. I'll pick you up after class," said Twilight.

"Yeah. Okay," said Rainbow, who was feeling kind of bummed out.

~

Up on the roof, Rainbow Dash looked out solemly at the Dash International tower. She closed her eyes and started to cry a little. She really missed her Dad, and now that son of a nag Blueblood was going to turn the company that should rightfully be hers into a weapons factory.

"You used to work there, didn't you?" said a female voice from behind Rainbow.

Rainbow gasped and turned around. Sitting on top of a rack behind her was a pink teenage earth pony mare with a bushy pink mane and tail wearing a light blue jacket, a white shirt with a pink heart on it, a pink skirt with the image of three balloons on it, and light blue boots with pink bows on the top.

"Uh... how did you know that?" asked Rainbow.

The mare took a deep breath before she continued talking, "Your name is Rainbow Dash, well, Rainbow Jennifer Dash, and you're like, super-duper smart, and you lost your dad in a plane crash about six months ago, your Dad was Rainbow William Blaze, he was the CEO of Dash International and he taught you almost everything you know ever since your Mom..." the mare seemed to note that she was getting into sensitive turf. "Sorry," she said.

"And you know all of this... how?" asked Rainbow.

"My Dad is part of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division task force that's investigating Obidiah Blueblood after your dad's 'accident,' He had the most to gain from it," said the mare.

Rainbow's jaw dropped. If this mare wasn't just making this stuff up, and if S.H.I.E.L.D. was investigating Blueblood about her father's death... could it be...?

"Oh, my name's Pinkie Pie, by the way," said Pinkie, before she slid off the rack and made her way through the door leading back to the school.

~

Right after school that day, Rainbow told Twilight everything Pinkie had told her. The two made their way to a compound directly across from the Sparkles' that Twilight's parents had been maintaining for Rainbow's dad.

"Are you sure that Pinkie didn't have a kind of crazy look about her?" asked Twilight.

"Between her crazy manestyle and her hardly shutting up, I'm not entirely sure," Rainbow admitted. "Here we are."

They had reached what was apparently a dead end. Twilight looked around. "You know, I don't think I've been in this wing before," she muttered to herself.

"There we go," said Rainbow as she finished imputting the code.

A hidden door moved aside, revealing a high-tech lab of some sort. Directly across from the door was some kind of launch device.

"This is the lab you've been 'fixing up?'" Twilight said in awe.

Rainbow pressed a few buttons on a nearby display console. From a rotating rack directly above the launch device, a grabber took an all-too-familiar suit of robotic red and yellow armor.

"Uh, Rainbow... maybe you should take what Pinkie said with a grain of salt. I mean, she's a wee bit on the crazy side," said Twilight as the launch device opened to reveal the suit.

"Crazy or not, I have to check it out," said Rainbow.

“Okay let’s just say that she’s right. That means that Blueblood is-”

“Is taking my father’s ideas and making them what they shouldn’t be.” Rainbow said sternly as she put her suit on.

“Okay fine. If you don’t want to listen to me I get it. So…. I’ll help out a little okay?” Twilight sighed. Rainbow smiled as her face was covered by the mask.

~

This... is... awesome! thought Rainbow as she flew high above the city streets. "Whoo-hoo!" she yelled, her voice somewhat distorted by the helmet.

"Rainbow, are you getting my feed?" Twilight's voice came through the helmet's speakers.

"Got ya, Twilight. Read you five-by," said Rainbow.

"Then you do know that you're about to crash into that building, right?" said Twilight.

"Huh?" said Rainbow, looking in front of her. Sure enough, she was headed right for a parking garage.

"Yikes!" said Rainbow as she made a hard right.

"You okay? How's the suit?" asked Twilight.

"It is just fine and dandy! Now, let's see what my old WEF Blueblood is up to," said Rainbow. She flew up to Dash International and tried to find a good spot for her to start downloading files. “Okay now…. AH! Here we are. Okay Twi I’m starting the down-”

“Rainbow are you hooked to the news feed?!”

“No? Why what’s going on?” asked Rainbow who was still downloading some data.

“There’s a train on a collision course for Dash International! Rainbow if that thing hits-”

“Oh dear Faust. That thing could kill everyone inside! Can you alert anyone?!”

“I’m trying but I can’t do anything… Rainbow you have to leave and stop that thing.”

“WHAT?! But Twilight I’m almost-”

“Rainbow what’s more important?! The lives of innocent people right now or your own bucking pride?!” shouted Twilight over the headset. Rainbow considered her options before making her decision.

“I can come back later for the data. Right now that train needs to be stopped.”

With that, Rainbow flew down to the tracks leading up to Dash International.

"All right, accessing Manehattan's Department of Transportation," said Rainbow as various bits of information scrolled across her Heads-Up Display. "Huh, that's weird. Track switches aren't responding. Guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way."

Rainbow flew down to the track intersection and began to push the rails onto an adjacent track. She managed to reroute the train just as it came overhead.

"Booyah! I just saved Dash International!" cheered Rainbow.

"And redirected the bull towards the china shop in the process," said Twilight.

"What do you mean?" asked Rainbow.

"That track you switched the train to isn't finished! Instead of crashing into Dash Tower, it's gonna crash into the middle of the city!" cried Twilight.

“OH COME ON!” yelled Rainbow as she flew after the train. After a few seconds Rainbow was flying right next to the train and noticed something strange. There was only one pony but he wasn’t dressed the same way that other employees were. In fact, he seemed to be dressed like some kind of ninja, the black jumpsuit, black mask, the whole thing.

Huh. Now why would ninjas want to blow up Dash International? thought Rainbow.

One thing was for sure, there was only one way to stop the train, but it was very, very, risky.

To Tartarus with it, thought Rainbow. She flew directly in front of the train and began pushing on it to try to stop it. While she did prepare for MOST of the pain a fast moving train would bring her she didn’t expect it to be THIS bad.

“Come on. Stop moving.” Rainbow grunted as the train kept pushing up against her. She tried using her thrusters but even that wasn’t slowing it down enough. She looked behind her and saw that the rails were about to end. NO! I WILL NOT LET THOSE INNOCENT PONIES DIE! Rainbow thought in her head.

Warning: chest implant power reserves depleted. Switching to reserve, said the suit's AI.

"I...WILL...NOT...GIVE...UP!!!" screamed Rainbow just before the train started to screech to a halt... with the front half of the train held high in her metallic hands. She looked into the cockpit only to find that the ninja from earlier had vanished into thin air.

"What the-? That looks like a... mare! Some kind of... Iron Mare!" said several ponies cried as they pulled out there cell phones and started taping. Rainbow, meanwhile, was busy trying to gently put the train back on the rails completely instead of putting it on the ground. It didn’t take too long but soon after three helicopters surrounded her after the train was put back.

"Excuse us, miss... Iron Mare, do you have a statement for the public?" a reporter asked through a megaphone.

Iron Mare seemed thoughtful for a moment. "Actually, yes. I got boot jets, and you don't," she said, before taking off into the air.

~

A little while later, Rainbow Dash stood at her lab's interface station in her armor, minus the mask with a plug of some sort attached to her chest.

"Charging in progress," said an automated voice as Twilight Sparkle came in.

"Rainbow, you're all over the news! Or, at least Iron Mare is being called a hero," said Twilight.

"Then that's exactly what Iron Mare's gonna do. She'll save Dash International from itself. And maybe, along the way, I'll find out what happened to my dad," said Rainbow.