Pinkie Pie's Discovery

Magi-Tech

Pinkie Pie's Discovery

This was the ONE thing Spike hated most about life with Twilight.  He could handle cleaning up after her late night studying.  He did no more than sigh when she asked him to get a book he couldn't reach.  Hay, he'd rather be reorganizing the library, blindfolded with both hands tied behind his back, than what he was doing.

From behind him, a somewhat mechanical voice broke him from his musings.  “Spike, we both know you could do this in your sleep, but would you please pay attention to what your doing when your elbow-deep in my barrel?  Please?”

“Sorry, Twilight.  Kinda forgot how nervous you get whenever maintenance time rolls round,” the hatchling replied sheepishly.  Turning back to his work, he asked, “How did you get this banged up, anyway?  Last time you got this bad was when you tried...to...”  As he trailed off, the gears in his mind started turning.  Whirling in place, he placed a fist on a hip and waved a monkey-wrench menacingly at the head on the table behind him and bellowed, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE! WERE YOU TRYING TO UNDERSTAND PINKIE AGAIN?  WE WENT THROUGH A MONTH'S SUPPLY OF SPARE PARTS THAT WEEK!  I HAD TO MAKE EXTRAS FROM THE SCRAP TO KEEP YOU GOING UNTIL THE NEXT SHIPMENT CAME IN FROM CANTERLOT!  YOU SHOULD ONLY NEED PARTS REPLACED DURING THESE MONTHLY MAINTENANCE SESSIONS!”  Spike paused for a second to think before continuing at a more normal volume, arms now crossed, “Or if something like the Ursa Minor incident happens.  Overheated mana generators aren't cheap, you know.  Especially yours.”

The head of the normally purple unicorn glared back, the look made all the more effective by the lack of her faceplate, the silvery insides of her head on display, “I learned my lesson with Pinkie the first time.  This time it was some dragon that decided to take a nap a little to close to Equestria for anypony's comfort.”

The purple and green reptile arched an eyebrow, “I take naps around town all the time.”

“Yes, but you don't snore enough smoke to plunge Equestria in to darkness for 100 years,” Twilight snarked.

“touche.”

Spike missed the eye-roll as he turned around.  “Well, I've got good news and bad news.  The bad news is you got enough soot in here to need a week-long cleaning before you can go anywhere without the risk of overheating and possibly exploding.”

“So... What's the good news?”

“Your new hardware upgrade came in while you were out,” spike grinned smugly, “I can have you up and running in 5 to 10 minutes.”

Trying to look at the stack of pony-sized boxes to her left, made difficult by being no more that a head on a table, she asked, “Then why didn't you just install and upload me when I got back?”

“Wanted to see how much of your old hardware I could add now instead of after you got used to the new stuff,” he shrugged.

Before Twilight could respond, the door to the basement lab was slammed open by a certain pink pony who was shortly followed by a grumbling blue unicorn with a silvery-white mane.

“Twilight! Twilight! You won't guess who I found on the way back from Fluttershy's cottage!” the hyperactive mare chirped with her eyes closed, “I found Trixie and thought 'Gee, it looks like she could use a place to stay,' but The Cakes  don't have any room since they're expecting a new foal soon, she can't stay with Rainbow Dash since she can't walk on clouds, Applejack is still a little mad about being tied up with her own rope, Fluttershy lives too close to Everfree Forest for Trixie's comfort, and Rarity still hasn't gotten over having a green mane, so I thought 'Well Twilight didn't seem to have  problem with her,' so I brought her here to see if... you...” Pinkie trailed off as she noticed why Trixie had stopped muttering.

Seeing Spike spattered with a reddish fluid hovering over what looked like the remains of a headless purple pony with a terrifyingly familiar Cutie Mark, what seemed to be guts scattered like macabre confetti upon the table that bore the apparent evidence of her magical friends demise, she did what most lesser ponies (and Fluttershy) would do in her horseshoes.  *THUD*  She fainted.

“This will be awkward to explain,” Twilight deadpanned.

Spike sighed, "I knew the red coolant was a bad idea..."

To Be Continued...