Dear princess Twilight,
I hope I am not disturbing you or anything, I just feel like it's been a while since I wrote you something so I decided to comeback to my old habit once again.
In the last few days, I have been dealing with many things. However this one in particular is what I think I need to tell you about. And it's about one of our newbies: Steely Armor.
It all started from the day that our marks for the recent math exam got announced. I don't want to brag but I got a high mark as always. However the joy of my great mark wasn't going to last for long.
I was asked by Principal Celestia to tutor SOMEONE in the library after school. It was nothing big, at least I didn't thought it was going to be so I accepted. I tutor some students occasionally so I really didn't mind it.
And who was the one I was supposed to tutor in math you ask? No one other than Flaming Star himself. At first I thought that this might be a good opportunity to get to know the guy better, since the past two weeks that they have been in school they didn't really engaged with anyone, not him nor Steely Armor. Yes, they occasionally talk to us, but it's not really something to consider. It's mostly "Hi, how is it going." or "hey" "Bye" that sort of things. It felt as if they are not comfortable with the school or maybe even the students yet so maybe I could break the ice this time. And boy what a wishful thinking I had. Because just thinking about what happened makes me irritated by itself, I will not elaborate on it much but it went like this: He looked as if he knows absolutely NOTHING about math so I had to sit there till evening, trying to teach him something. But guess what? He was acting the whole time! why? don't even get me started on that. It's a story for another time.
After my long lasting session of tutoring that genuinely made my mindset ruined, I packed up and left school in hopes of riding on my motorcycle back home. But it didn't start. Once again I tried to turn it on, but still no luck to get it going. I didn't want to start investigating for an issue in it then, I desperately wanted to head home and put my head to rest. So I just locked it there and left it there, hoping no one tries to steal it.
I barely got home, and mindlessly walked upstairs and dropped dead on my bed. Next thing I recall was my alarm waking me up in the morning. Thankfully, I had enough time to take a quick shower to stay awake for the rest of the day, or at least school. After I dressed up and packed up my stuff into my back pack, I headed outside. Taking in the air to start a new day, I started walking to school but moments later, I sensed that something was missing. Like: "I shouldn't be walking to school, why am I-" and then it hit me! "MY MOTORCYCLE!"
I dashed through the streets, almost hitting few people on the way till finally, I caught a sight of the school. However, it was too soon to let out a sigh of relief. I walked up to the school to catch my breath a little bit. Though the thought of my motorcycle being stolen didn't really helped with the process. Thankfully, my motorcycle was untouched, at least it seemed to be. However it still wasn't starting, "I should take it to a mechanic today" I told myself. There was probably something wrong with it and I rathered fix it as soon as possible then for it to stop working mid-way.
I entered the school afterwards, it was not very crowded, though for some reason, I was not able to find the girls. It was as I was walking around searching for them among other students with my eyes that I felt a pat in the back.
"Hey Sunset!" as I turned my head around, Rainbow dash's face was the first thing to come to view. "how is it going?"
"uugh, I've seen better days." I grunted. "have you seen the girls?"
"nah, your the first that I met up with so far" she started walking beside me in the schools hallway. "So um, what's the problem?"
"Well, I had a really frustrating tutoring session with a certain someone yesterday that took till evening and once I get out to ride home, my motorcycle didn't start!"
"yours too?" Her eyes widened, "Mine also doesn't really move anymore."
"really?"
"yeah, found out this morning. And because I was restricted not to use my magic sporadically, I had to walk all the way to here veeeeeeery slowly!" she gave me a glare.
"Rainbow!" I let out a silent yell, "we both know what happens when you do that. It messes with all of us!" and stared back at her.
She rubbed her face away, "I KNOW!" but when she wanted to continue, she hit another student and fell on the ground and growled. the student she hit though stood tall as if nothing happened.
I helped Rainbow Dash to stand back up, meanwhile the guy turned around to see what hit him. And to our surprise, it was Steely Armor. He looked at us with his yellow eyes and stepped back. "Oh, sorry!"
"No it's not your fault" I said, "Rainbow just, wasn't paying attention"
"yeah, didn't see you there." she rubbed the back of her head. "hey um, have you seen the girls?"
Steely Armor paused for a second, "the...girls?" His eyes tightened.
"yeah, like Twilight? Pinkie? AJ?" Rainbow dash continued, gesturing with her hand. And it seemed it worked.
"OH! right, right!" He nodded a few times, "They have changed some classes and hanged the details on the well near cafeteria. They are there."
"Oh really?" I stepped forward, "Thanks," I wanted to move there as fast as I could, now that our schedule had changed, we needed to adapt. Whether we liked it or not. However, I decided to chat with Steely Armor a bit more. "Oh, hey Steely Armor!"
He was on his way too, but turned back, "yes?"
"I just, wanted to know how are you feeling about the school and all so far?"
He paused for a second, and then responded: "It's...nice...I guess."
It didn't seemed like he wanted to talk at that point. I needed to make him interested in doing so. "that's nice to hear, so, what have you been doing so far? I heard you and Twilight been having some sessions after school about magic." I gestured with my hand and tried to keep my eye contact with him. Though he was constantly looking away.
"y-yeah,..." he rubbed his right shoulder.
"are you guys doing that today too?"
"Oh, no, not today!" he shook his head and kept moving backwards, "I-I gotta go, um...bye!" he then walked away as fast as he could.
"what was that all about?" Rainbow Dash whispered, looking as he walked away.
"let's just go."
The girls were still where Steely Armor said, right in front of the information board. They were discussing about the change of schedule when we got there.
"we will be having sports on Tuesday?" gasped Twilight while looking at the board.
"uh, yeah....what about it?" Applejack asked, moving closer to her.
"Where is physics? they ruined my full scientific Tuesday!" she yelled!
"Uh.....it's uh....on Thursday." Flutter shy said softly. but it seemed Twilight couldn't get over it just yet.
"THURSDAY!?"
Spike noticed me and Rainbow and came running to us, that made the girls to follow him with their eyes to finally see us too. "A bit late to the party...." spike smirked.
We finally met up with the girls, and from what I figured: almost our whole schedule had been changed. However it was not really something we wanted, it really wasn't a big deal either, at least not for all of us. Twilight was freaked out about that, so much so that her eyes were going to jump out of their socket and break her glasses. Although we tried to calm her down, it was not effective.
"you're not getting it, this means I have to re-arrange my whole plans, and I better do them fast or else everything will be in havoc!"
"alright alright darling." Rarity put her hands on her shoulders to calm her down. "I'm sure you can find a way to solve that in no time."
Twilight let out a sigh, "Thanks Rarity, but It's just that I don't like being disorganized."
"But why?" pinkie jumped in front of her, "being disorganized is soooooo much fun! you get to figure out what you wanted to do and look for things you need. you don't like that?"
"not really...."
"I mean, look at the bright side," I joined Rarity to calm twilight by getting closer. "at least the classes are going to be changed from next week and not tomorrow."
Before the conversation could continue, the class's bell rand and we each went our separated ways. The rest of the day was uneventful, we didn't have a band practice and I was still somewhat sleepy. Though Rainbow Dash and I talked about our motorcycles and where we should take them. Knowing that my motorcycle had some problems with it recently, I had a gut feeling that this time the issue might be big. After school, Rainbow Dash and I went to check on our motorcycles. Hers did seem fine at first glance though what she described sounded way more different from what I was seeing.
"it just stopped and let out some weird noises from the exhausts!" she said.
"did you check in it, maybe something is stuck there?" I kneeled to take a closer look. "though I don't think it's that big of a problem."
"I doubt I can reach it with my hand, if there is something jammed in there, it's probably deep down."
"usually it will just shoot it out if there is something in it. There is probably something else than that." I tried to look down the pipe but nothing could be seen. It was then that I saw something, a small puddle of petrol beneath her motorcycle. The petrol was dripping from the motorcycle into the puddle. "Have you seen this Rainbow?" I turned my head to her.
"what?" she also sat down, and I pointed at the petrol puddle, "Oh boy, that doesn't look good."
I stood up, "Well that explains why it's not working as it should be."
Rainbow put her hands on her knees and stood up and kicked her motorcycle, "Ugh! I can't believe it had a leakage and I hadn't noticed it!" she nagged.
I put my hands on her shoulder, "look, the puddle is not that big, so the leakage is probably not that bad."
she rolled her eyes, "pfft, whatever," and turned back to me, "so what's up with your bike?"
I took a look at it from the corner of my eye, "if you ask me, I say that thing most likely won't move anymore."
Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow and started walking towards it, "why?"
"because it's been sooooo long since I took it to a mechanic, it has all kinds of problems now!" I speeded up to catch up to her.
"then I guess it needs a lot of work!"
"probably!...." we were both looking at my motorcycle, but looking at it wouldn't have made it move, "C'mon, let's get these two to a mechanic. We don't have all day."
We both went and dragged our motorcycles out of the schools yard. just doing that, was tiring by itself, and we wanted to drag them to a mechanic that we haven't decided yet. After a short discussion about where should we go, we decided to drag them to where Rainbow Dash used to take her motorcycle. She said it was not the best, but it does give you a fixed motorcycle.
But before we start moving, a familiar face showed up.
"Uh, hi...again, uhm, what's the issue?" Steely Armor was rubbing the back of his neck with his left arm as he looked at us.
We both turned our heads to him, "oh...hi Steely Armor," I said, "nothing really big, our motorcycles are just need some repairing." I gave him a warm smile.
"yeah, they seem pretty messed up," Rainbow dash added putting her weight on her motorcycle. "don't worry though, we are taking them to a mechanic."
Steely came closer, "what's their problem?" he inspected them.
"well, Rainbow has a leakage, and mine probably needs a lot of work to start moving again." Then I looked at it again, "and that is if it will start moving again."
He sat down and looked closely at mine, "I can fix them for you."
Our eyes widened and we stared at each other. "You, can, fix them?" Rainbow Dash asked with an uncertain tone. She took her weight off her motorcycle and continued, "are you a mechanic or something?"
Steely Armor just stood silent, staring at us without a single word, almost nothing of his face flinched, motionless. Until he finally broke the silence. "Bring them to the Cars Graveyard," and walked away.
For a few minutes Rainbow and I just looked at one another, till we opened up about Steely Armor. I am not feeling comfortable for using the word 'wierdo' but it was the closest thing that I could think to describe him. With that said, we agreed on taking our motorcycles to there. Not that we felt it was trustworthy, but rather because we thought where Rainbow suggested may not be the best options and that we were quite curious about how he wanted to fix our motorcycles. After managing to drag our motorcycles to where steely Armor said, (mind you it was quite far) we were very exhausted, however, the Cars Graveyard and a garage was in sight. So we walked to it.
The garage was quite big and it seemed it was able to maintain multiple vehicles inside, I guessed that there was more space on the back of the place but I was not sure. It had shelves on each wall, all filled up with materials and vehicle parts, a lone big light bulb was hanging from the ceiling that lighted up the whole garage. We looked around for Steely Armor, till we called him.
"Heeeey! anybody here?"
"aagh!" we heard a bang as someone rolled out from under a blue van, "Over here! Oh, my head!"
"are you ok?"
"yeah, I'm ok." he stood up and cleaned his oiled hands with a green rag. "ok, bring them in!"
Rainbow Dash dragged her motorcycle inside and stabilized it on the spot that Steely Armor was pointing at. He then put on his goggles and stabilized his hat on his head, "It should only take few minutes," he said and got to work.
Rainbow dash stood near him and watched him as he tinkered with her motorcycle. Meanwhile I brought my motorcycle in and decided to look around the garage a bit more. There were various machine parts on the shelves, both old and rather new. There was various wrenches and tools hanged on the wall, I dare say it was a complete set actually. But what drew my attention was what was in the corner of the garage. A small desk with pens and pencils on it. As I got closer, I saw something else on the wooden desk. A blueprint!
I looked over my shoulder to see if Steely Armor was paying attention or not, and when I made sure that he wasn't, I took a closer look at the blueprint. From what I could gather it looked like a mechanical claw, however, what raised the biggest question was how the scales and description was put down. In shapes! In various shapes that apparently resembled a language, a coded one! But unlike the other parts, the text on the top was written normally: "E.C.H.O stabilizer". After a bit more looking, I saw the same claw of the blueprint on the desk, it had some wires rapped around it and some that were connected to it from the bottom and had naked ends.
"hey uh, what is this?" I turned my head and looked at Steely Armor.
He was tinkering with Rainbow's motorcycle when I asked that, and that made him to turn his head around and look at me. "what?" When he saw me near the desk his eyes widened in shock. "Uh, I-I-it's nothing!" he stood up in a split second and came towards me.
"Okay?" I said, as he pushed me aside and put few sheets of paper on the blueprint. "are you sure it's nothing?"
He turned back, "y-yeah, I-it's nothing really." He tried his best to give a smile but he was very paranoid to do so. His lips and jaw didn't assist him and what came out was an extremely awkward face.
I stepped back and walked to Rainbow Dash. I thought it wasn't a big deal at first but the way he re-acted was concerning. Rainbow gave me a nudge once I got to her. "what was that all about?"
"I'll tell you later" I crossed my arms and stood still.
Steely Armor came back and started tinkering with Rainbows bike, he seemed stressed however. He was watching me sporadically every now and then while opening up some places of the motorcycle. And after while he took his rag and cleaned his hands with it. "it seemed the oil pump doesn’t have the pressure it needs to have. Which means that the exhaust is backing up into motor's pipes that results in the engine cutting out there....that is beside the leakage it had from having a loose screw."
"so, how long is it going to take?" Rainbow Dash asked turning her head in different angles to see her bike.
"It's done." he said as he put his wrench in the toolbox near him.
"wait, you're done?" rainbow dash walked forward inspecting her bike form every side possible, left, right, down, up everywhere, and yet she still couldn't believe it. "are you serious?
Steely Armor remained silent and just nodded.
Rainbow Dash turned her motorcycle on and the engine roared to life! and shot the piece of rock that was stuck in the exhaust out. "woow! you are really good at this!" Rainbow Dashes complement didn't make him flinch, literally no emotion.
"now yours!" he looked at me, his eyes looked way bigger behind his goggles, it looked oddly funny, but I beat myself to laugh and dragged my motorcycle to the spot.
This time I paid more attention to how he fixes stuff. He first fully inspected the motorcycle, took out some parts to inspect the inside as well. he was not very elaborating on what he was doing so I decided to ask him about it.
"So how is it?"
"...pretty bad, it needs the oil to be changed, the carburetor hasn't been working probably and has damaged the engine significantly, the washers need to be changed too. I doubt you took this to a mechanic for years."
"uhh, yeah! right on spot!"
"well, you should take it every once in a while, or else you should say goodbye to it, look, even the spark plug is messed up!" he then stood up and went looking at the shelves and brought some pieces: an engine that looked fresh, and some washers and a spark plug. "I need to replace these."
And so he started, he opened my bike and took out the wreck of an engine that was inside like an expert heart surgeon and put in the new engine. He wasn't even looking away from it when he wanted to change tools. He replaced the washers in a flash of a second and finally detached the spark plug and put the new one in the place. My motorcycle got renewed!
"wow! you...you're amazing!...uhm, so, how much should we-"
"NOTHING!," and then he paused for a while, " w-well I mainly wanted to return the favor of you helping Flame, so, ....nothing!" he gave an awkward smile at me, though it was very awkward, his smile lasted from one ear to another, but the pressure behind it could be seen in his eyes.
"Thank you!" I said giving him a smile, "You have no idea how grateful I am, I probably didn't have enough cash to get the engine fixed anywhere else anyway!" I looked at the desk in the corner that had the blueprint on once again before leaving.
Once we got out Rainbow asked about the what happened again, she seemed curious.
"there was this.....blueprint on the desk for a claw, but it wasn't normal.
"what do you mean," she stopped and got on her motorcycle.
"It was written in shapes!" I also got on mine.
Rainbow looked at me confusingly, "what does that mean though?"
I sighed, although her question was, mines too. "I don't know, But I think I know someone who might."
Author's Note
Check out the other chapters.
Special thanks to my editor Daniel Drazen.
What is the E.C.H.O stabilizer
Author's Note
Warning: The colored text implies that the conversation is happening via chatting in a messenger app.
What is the E.C.H.O stabilizer
Rainbow dash and I parted ways after that, however I could still hear her shouting "THIS IS AWESOOOOOOOME!" from a mile away. But I don't blame her. My motorcycle felt alive again, it was working flawlessly! I dare say even better than when I first got it. Steely Armor did me a great favor with fixing this for me.
I got home pretty quick, my body felt sore from dragging my motorcycle so I just crashed on my bed and before I knew it I was napping. When I woke up, it was six-ish. I crawled out of the bed to change my clothes to something more comfortable. and dropped on my couch. My mind was wandering about what about what happened with Steely and what that blueprint was, he seemed really protective about it. He was not the type that engages with others a lot however he did when he and Flaming Star first came to school and, well, you know the rest. I noticed that when he wanted to elaborate on my motorcycle he was very confident and fluent with his words. Whereas other times, he struggles to form his sentences.
I was just looking around the social media for stuff to just pass time, but I just couldn't get the thought off of my head. Therefore I messaged Twilight.
-Hey
-Hi
-How are you?
-I'm good, a bit tired but ok
-How are you?
-preparing my new schedule for next week
"of course you are!" I thought to myself.
-how is spike?
-he's eating his food
-dinner or evening meal?
-I don't know...he has been eating quite sporadically these days.
-why don't you make a schedule for his eating too?
-WOW! that's an amazing idea!
I literally face palmed myself on the couch when I read that.
-I meant it as a joke
-Oh.
-you're still going to do it anyway, right?
she didn't respond for a while.
-NO!
-(-_-)
-never mind
"I'm sorry spike!" I said, even though no one was there.
-hey, I wanted to ask you something
-how would you describe Steely Armor?
-we don't talk much about anything other than magic and our theories on it, but he seems like a nice guy.
-why are you asking this?
I felt explaining all that would have taking a long time, so decided to call her.
-Hold on
I stopped laying and sat down on my couch. I was still lashing though. As I was calling Twilight, I sensed something wet on my left chick. It was Ray, rubbing his head against my chick. I picked him up with my finger and let him be there, yes he occupied one of my hands but I still had my right hand.
After a few rings, Twilight picked up. "hello Sunset!"
"Hey, so, I think it's better if I tell the story here
"well, yeah, I managed to figure some stuff out."
That was promising! "So what is it?"
"Whoever made this blueprint has combined winding fonts together."
I changed position and sat down on my couch, "the what ding texts?" I admit, for a second I thought it was a scientific saying or something.
"Winding! Sunset! Winding! they are a digital font language that have shapes instead of letters, and there is quite some variations. its first model was designed in-"
"Twilight! the blueprint, not the history of digital fonts!" I would have let her explain it fully if I was not very curious at the time and to be honest it was not essential information.
she let out a sigh behind the phone and continued: "As I was saying, there are various types of this font, four to be exact. And I see shapes from all four here!"
"so what do you mean by that?" I asked while pitting my hand in my hair.
"it means I can't use any sort of programs to tell me what it is saying, Instead I have to decipher it manually."
"which means...."
"it's going to take a while, and that is if my assumption is correct and this is all there is to it."
That was disappointing, "Ok, just keep in touch if you had any news."
"so, are you not going to tell me where did you get this?"
She was determined and keen on knowing that, and to be honest, I don't blame her. I wouldn't have been patient either. But I needed to stall as long as I could. "I promise I will explain it all tomorrow, you just keep working on translating the blueprint."
"OK, I'll try my best. anything else?"
"No, just tell spike I said hi"
"will do, bye!"
"bye"
I turned my phone off and tossed it aside. I thought of just passing time and playing some games but, all the thoughts and questions I had in my head felt like a storm on a sunny beach, I just couldn't stop wondering. Wondering what it all meant, "why put in the effort to write everything in that conventional language? Is it that important that you don't want others to figure out what it is? If yes, what is it?" My head was exploding! I couldn't enjoy anything at that time.
So I started looking at it from a different angle: 'From what I'd gathered about Steely Armor, he is an antisocial dude who clearly is not very keen on opening up, unless he has to. From what I saw today, I dare say he is mazing with machines! I don't have much information on cars and machines and all that, but I can say what he did today, is not something that any mechanic can do. Not a normal one at least. But beside those I don't really know anything about him, all I can guess is that he is trying to make something that he doesn't want others to know.
"maybe telling twilight is not that bad of an idea..." I thought to myself while staring at the lonely white lamp that was hanging from the ceiling. "She had spent some time with him so she should know a thing or two" I sat on the couch to think more straight, "But even if she did, It's not like she is her best friend or anything!" and it was then, that it hit me! "Flaming Star!" I stood up and started walking around my not so big living room. "he probably knows a lot about him!" trying to get some information off of him seemed like a smart move, except, I was constantly remembering my tutoring session with him! THAT was not helping with the headache it was giving me. However, if it is was going to get me some more information on Steely Armor that could potentially help me figure out what is it that he is making, I was going to take the challenge.
