My Friendly Iron Giant

The plan

Dash slowly woke up and heard a voice in her head saying, "This is all just a bad dream." As she rubbed the sleepiness away, she realized she was in her bed. However, she soon remembered why she had fallen asleep in the first place. She heard Ace Deder's voice saying, "I don't know who built it, but it's here, sir. It's huge. But the real question is, do you want to act, sir?" Curious, Dash got up from her bed and quietly headed towards the door to eavesdrop.

"Sir, the only question is whether you think you have enough resources to get him," Deder said as Dash peeked to see him on his phone. "Excellent, sir. You won't regret this," Deder said as he hung up. Rainbow quickly hid behind the door. She heard the door open and close, assuming it was Deder heading to bed. Rainbow looked in the hall heading downstairs but bumped into Ace Deder. "The army is coming tomorrow morning, Rainbow, and you won't see your metal friend," Deder said.

Rainbow glared at him before retreating to her room and shutting the door. "I have to warn my uncle and my friends," she said to herself before heading to the window and trying to slide it open. However, it wouldn't budge, and she realized that nails had been driven into it. Deder then opened her door. "I'll be watching you, and don't bother calling for help," he said, holding her phone, which he had taken from her while she was unconscious, and putting it in his pocket. He then backed away to the room in front of her bedroom, sat on the bed, and watched her.

Dash lay on her bed, her eyes fixed on Deder as he glared back at her. The tension between them was palpable, each waiting for the other to give in and close their eyes. As the hours ticked by, neither of them budged. However, Dash's eyelids began to droop, and eventually, she succumbed to sleep, turning away from Deder. A small smile played on Deder's lips as he glanced at his watch, which revealed that it was nearly 2:00 in the morning.

Several hours had passed, and the clock now read 5:50 in the morning. Dash woke up promptly, as she had a habit of waking up on her own. As she turned, she noticed that Deder had fallen asleep. A smile spread across her face as she began to contemplate her plan. 'I can't get my phone 'cause that'll wake him up, can't use the phone in the kitchen cause the floors creak,' Dash thought before remembering something as she smiled.

She got out of bed quietly and used her extra pillows to make it appear as if she was still asleep. Dash checked the time and saw that it was 6:00 am. She walked over to her closet carefully and began searching for something before pulling out a small brown box.

Dash immediately lifted the lid and rummaged through it. Her eyes lit up as she pulled out a small navy blue walkie-talkie, which brought back fond memories from her childhood. Dash and her friends used to communicate with each other using these walkie-talkies before they got their phones.

They would use it endlessly to chat and play games like Would You Rather and Truth and Dare. She vividly remembered a conversation from a few weeks ago during lunch, when Sunset had brought up the topic of walkie-talkies, and everyone chimed in, saying that they still had their walkie-talkies tucked away somewhere.

Rainbow pushed the button on the side of her walkie-talkie with a hopeful thought: "Please let it work." As the walkie-talkie turned on she chuckled, she slipped it into her pocket and put on her shoes. She tiptoed past Deders' room and crept down the hallway, then quietly made her way downstairs and out the door. Dash grabbed her board and ran up the path, making sure she was a safe distance from the house before taking out her walkie-talkie. She pushed the button and began speaking into it. "Hello, can anyone hear me? It's Rainbow Dash." She laid down her board and started skating towards her uncle's scrapyard.

"I repeat, can anyone hear me? It's an emergency, a super duper emergency," Dash asked urgently through her walkie-talkie. Suddenly, she heard someone's voice on the other end. "Dash, what are you doing talking on the walkie-talkies?" someone responded. "Applejack?!? Is that you?" she asked with relief. "Yeah, it's me. What's going on?" Applejack asked. "No time to explain. He knows!" Dash said with urgency. "Who knows?" Applejack asked, confused. "The Agent from the Department of Phenomenal. He questioned me yesterday and blackmailed me to reveal where Giant is. I need you to warn the others but don't text in the group chat because he has my phone. I'm heading to the scrapyard to warn my uncle," Dash explained, speeding up on her board.

"Okay, got it... and Dash," Applejack said. "Yeah?" Dash answered. "Be careful. I don't want you to get hurt or into serious trouble," Applejack said softly. "I will take care," Rainbow replied as she turned off the walkie-talkie and skateboarded towards the scrapyard. She arrived just in time to see that Giant was still sleeping. She ran to her uncle's little house and knocked on the door quickly and loudly.

"Uncle, uncle! It's me, Dash! We have an emergency!" she yelled. Her uncle opened the door, looking tired. "What is it, kid?" he asked. "The army is coming to get Giant, and we need to hide him," Dash said. "What? How does he know?" Striker asked. "He forced me to tell him. He blackmailed me by using my friends against me," Dash explained.

"Okay, okay. So, how are we going to hide him?" Striker, asked as they both brainstormed ideas. They turned to look at one of the creations made by Giant and then looked back at each other. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Striker asked with a smile. Dash nodded and replied, "Oh yeah." They had just come up with an idea on how to say goodbye to Ace Deder and the army while keeping him hidden.