Steel Giant

Roadie sat in the Centurion, his face a mask of concentration. He relaxed as he heard a Clank followed by several clicks. His HUD confirmed the pod had been successfully reattached to the battlemech. He let out a breath of relief.

Roadie noticed a familiar yellow pegasus trotted towards the battlemech with her supplies on her back. Roadie popped open the hatch. Aile flew up to the Centurion’s cockpit, and entered it. Roadie closed the hatch behind her.

"Hey Aile. I'm guessing Celestia asked you to be my guide?"

"Yep. Do you have a place I can put these?" she asked motioning towards her saddlebags.

Roadie nodded towards one of the jump seats behind the cockpit. Aile put down her supplies and sat in the jump seat for all of 5 seconds before jumping up on the back of the pilot’s chairs, and wrapping her fore hooves around the top of the seat.

"Didn't you watch me when I was fighting the dragon?"

"I was more focused on the dragon and not you pressing buttons."

"Fair enough. Which way to Appleoosa?"

Aile pulled out a map from her bags, and gave it to Roadie. "We're here." she pointed to a point on the map "and we need to go here." she pointed west and a bit south.

"Alright hang on."

Aile watched as Roadie flipped a couple switches, pushed down the left foot pedal, and moved the horizontal stick forward. The centurion turned towards the west, and stomped off. As they left Roadie noticed the farm was missing any and all signs of the 'mech's landing and movement. Must of been what Celestia was working on last night.

15 minutes later

"NOOOOOOoooo!!!!"

Applejack scrambled out of the farm too see Pinkie Pie standing on the edge of the farm.

"What in the hay was that about Pinkie?" Applejack asked.

"They left! They left before I could give Roadie a welcome to ponyville party! That's twice now I missed it. I. Will. Get. Him. A. Party. No. Matter. What!" Pinkie yelled.

"Wait twice?"

"Yeah. Clide completely forgot about the first time, and just thought of it now. Oh well. He'll figure something out." Pinkie explained before walking back towards town. Applejack just sat there a minute.

"...what the hay is a Clide?"

Several hours later…

Aile and Roadie had passed the time during the trip so far with Aile asking what each button did, and Roadie answering her questions. Roadie had in turn asked about pony culture and customs. He didn’t step on any toes, or in this case hooves.

“So let me get this straight: Celestia and Luna raise and lower the sun and moon. Pegasi like yourselves control and produce weather, and you consider places like the Everfree where this is happens on its own unnatural?”

“Yep.” Aile replied but then furrowed her brow. “Is it different where you’re from?”

“Every planet in the inner sphere that has been explored by humans is like the Everfree. We have tried weather control and terraforming, but nature tends to throw a curveball at us and wrecks that plan. Terraforming takes years, and weather control always bit us in the butt in the end.” Roadie said, recalling several disasters he heard on the Comstar News.

“Wow technology can even control weather?” Aile asked dumbstruck.

“Why are you so fascinated with technology Aile? None of the other ponies, god that’s still weird to say, *ahem* none of the others seemed so interested in technology. So why are you?”

Aile’s ears drooped. “Promise not to tell anyone?” Aile asked, her voice a quiet whisper.

“I promise.” Roadie said.

“Well it began when I was young little filly.” Aile began…

10 years ago…

“Hurry honey. We don’t want to be late.” A pegasus mare said to a pegasus stallion with a small yellow filly riding her back.

“I’m coming sweetie.” The Stallion said.

The family walked through the streets until they came across a large and long platform that ran along two metal rails. As a column of smoke appeared in the distance, the stallion turned towards the filly on his back.

“You’re going to love this Aile, and to think it doesn’t need any form of magic at all to work.”

Aile watched as the metal caterpillar slowed, and crawled to a stop.

“Amazing isn’t it Aile? Aile?” The stallion turned to see that Aile had buzzed off his back and was looking at the engine. She was still on the platform but had run right up to the engine and was looking at all the gears, wheels, and smoke stack. The stallion let out a chuckle before spotting something new on his daughter that filled him with pride. A symbol had appeared on her flank, but she was so busy with the engine and assaulting the driver with endless questions, she didn’t even notice it.

The Stallion spared the driver from having to answer her questions by walking over, and scooping up his daughter. The family got into one of the passenger compartments, and in a few moments the train left the station.

“…And that’s how I got my cutie mark along with my hobby.” Aile said finishing her story. Roadie let out a small chuckle.

“I know what you mean. First time I saw a battlemech as a child, I fell in love instantly. Cutie marks show what your special talent is right? I thought it was a thundercloud with a lightning bolt?”

Aile let out a small smile.

“That’s what a lot of ponies think, but look a little closer.”

Roadie made sure the Centurion’s path was clear for a bit then looked at Aile’s cutie mark. Upon a closer inspection he noticed the clouds were not clouds, but in fact several gears overlapping to create the illusion of a cloud.

"Huh. Neat." Roadie said.

“It’s rude to stare you know.” Aile said with cheeky grin.

Uh oh she thinks I was staring at her out of…

“Whoa. No no no no. I wasn’t staring like that I kinda just drifted into space that’s all.” Roadie said, snapping his head and eyes forward again.

“Unhuh sure you did. Hey what time is it?” Aile said.

“1400 local time. Why?” Roadie replied, secretly glad to be switching topics.

As Aile opened her mouth, her stomach grumbled loud enough for Roadie to hear. Roadie laughed as Aile blushed to the point her entire face was bright red.

“Lunch sounds good to me too.”

Roadie brought the Centurion to a halt, and deployed the pod. Lunch and the rest of the day were rather uneventful with Roadie driving, and Aile reading a few books she brought with her. That night was also uneventful. Roadie slept in a sleeping bag that was on the life support pod, while Aile wrapped herself in a blanket she had brought with her.

The second day of travel, Roadie keyed up some Solaris replays to keep himself and Aile entertained. Both of them enjoyed the sport cheering on mechs they liked while taking silly bets on who’d win when they were cheering for opposing mechs. The most embarrassing one for Roadie was when he lost he had to let Aile sit in his lap, and try driving the Centurion. She drove it well for a pegasus. Roadie helped here and there, particularly with the throttle, but her hooves had no trouble with controlling the rest of the battlemech.

The end of the second day, they were deep into the Mild West. They still had a day of travel left, but were exhausted to continue any further that day. As Roadie got ready to sleep he noticed Aile was shivering despite the blanket she had on.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Y-yeah. J-just cold t-that’s all. Aile said through chattering teeth. “I t-thought the desert w-was suppose to be w-warmer.”

“During the day yea, but at night it can get to freezing temperatures pretty quick. Did you bring anything else?”

“N-no.”

“Crap. Hmm…” Roadie got out of his sleeping bag and rebooted the generator in the corner. Once the generator was up, he walked to the climate control, and turned the heat up to a comfortable 70F. “That ought to.” Roadie never finished his sentence as the generator made a snap noise and died. Roadie swiftly ran to the shelf, grabbed a flashlight, and began to examine the generator. “Great. Capacitor is shot…” Roadie said with a defeated sigh.

“C-can you fix it?”

“It's easy as swapping a wheel, but All the spares are onboard the Leopard. Problem is now both of us are going to be cold in a bit.”

“A-any ideas.” Aile asked.

“One, but I'm not sure you’re going to like it.” Roadie said, knowing he didn’t like it, but it’d beat sleeping in the battle armor.

“A-anything beats f-freezing to death.” Aile said, her shivering getting worse.

“Okay, come over here then.” Roadie said.

Aile promptly followed as Roadie fully unzipped the sleeping bag. Roadie indicated a spot for her to lie down. She lied down in the spot Roadie indicated. Roadie grabbed her blanket and put it near her as he slipped into the other side of the sleeping bag. Roadie didn’t notice Aile’s face had turned pink in the dark. He zipped up the sleeping bag and threw the blanket over both of them.

“Bit tight, but do you have enough space?” Roadie asked.

“Yep.” Was all Aile got out starting to feel the warmth from the sleeping bag, the blanket, and the body heat of the human she shared them with. “Hey Roadie.”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks.”

Both of them were out in a matter of minutes.

Aile suddenly awoke shivering. It was the middle of the night judging by how dark it was. she pressed herself into Roadie to warm up some more. Why is it so bucking cold? She thought as she pressed harder. Roadie suddenly turned around mumbling. His arms wrapped around Aile, and he began to cuddle her like a foal with a giant teddy bear. Aile's face flushed red, the cold temperature completely forgotten.