Turning Gears

by Shadow rift

Chapter 1 part 1: an unexpected explosion

As Neodymium Bolt walked towards the center, he couldn't help but get a little smile on his face. Today was the day that him and his best friend/Co worker were finally going to open that case.

It was left behind by discord some time ago and Astra and Neodymium had both assumed it to be some type of energy converter or a generator fueling Discord's powers. Unfortunately, a power source was the only thing that the two of them had considering how it had shocked both of them whenever either of them had touched it.

One way or another the two were going to find a way to open that case and find out what it was. No matter how long it takes.

Finally reaching the door's to his place of work, Neodymium said hello to the receptionist and quickly grabbed his tool belt and placed it on his wrist before making his way to the lab.

Eventually he did make it there only to see Astra reading some type of note and completely ignoring anything surrounding him. To his side was the case the two had been working on for a while, various cables and electronics hooked up to it.

"Ah good morning Dr. Bolt!" Astra said as he placed the note down and opened the door for Neodymium to make his way inside, his cheerfulness being reflected in his voice. "Morning to you Doctor Aquaduct. I'm guessing things went well with Colgate last night?" Astra had been working on trying to date a mare working in the same facility as them, and though Neodymium had not known much about this mare, he at least knew her name.

"In fact, it went horribly. I saw her kissing another stallion and left." Astra said as he grabbed a pencil and quickly began writing in his notes, although he said it rather happily, which is what confused Neo the most.

"Uh, your saying that like its a good thing..."

"Yes I know. True this mare held my affections for quite a while, but after contemplating under the stars, I met the most beautiful mare I have ever met in my life."

"And this mare would be..." Neo said as he poured a glass of water and levitated it over his lips and down his throat.

"Octavia Melody!"

He nearly choked on the water as he heated that name. There was no way in Tartarus that Astra had managed to meet and begin a relationship with a musician like her. He quickly regained control over himself and looked back at Astra, who was now grinning from ear to ear.
"No way you're dating her. Dude, she's practically a rising star and your just saying her like that!?"
Astra's grin quickly became a blank stare before turning into a look of annoyance. "We can discuss whether or not I'm lying later..." He said as he turned back to look at the machine, "...right now we have more important things to deal with. Head over to that leaver on the left and I will count down."

Doing as he was told, Neodymium made his way to the leaver and enveloped it in his magical aura. "Dr. Aquaduct, what'd you have in mind on opening it this time?"

"It's very simply Dr. Bolt! Just crank these two leavers three times at the same time and bottom in front of the case will begin blinking, signifying its ready to send the electrical current into the case to open it. Press that, and we open the case! Now when I count to one I need you to pull that leaver and so on until I'm done. Ok?"

"Got it!" Neo said as he continued to hold the leaver with his aura.

"Ok then, One!" He sent it the leaver down and up

"Two!" Another leaver down

"Three!!" Another time he sent the leaver down and eventually, both of them heard a loud beeping sound come from the control panel.

Astra hovered over to it and waved his hoof for Neo to come. When he did he saw three green lights on the left and right sides of the panel, with a large red button in the middle, a red light coming from it as well.

"Here we go..." Astra said as he pressed his hoof down on the button, making all the lights on the panel in front of them disappear.

However, the reaction that they were anticipating did not occur.

Nothing happened.

Both looked at the case unsure if it had anything done to it. There wasn't a single scratch or burn mark on it.

And the energy effects didn't seem to do anything.
"I don't get it..." Astra said as he inspected the case, "7,000 volts of electricity and nothing? How did this case just absorb 7,000 volts of electricity like that! Nothing can just-"

He was cut short as a large explosion erupted from the case, sending both of them back into the walls face first and causing the lab to catch slight fire, each of them sliding down their walls and slamming onto the floor back first.

Astra was just shocked that a large explosion like that didn't kill them, where as Neo had a large smile extending from ear to ear on his face. "That... Was... Awesome!!" He said, leaping into the air and looking back at the machine, "let's do that again!!"

"We are most certainly NOT doing that again!" Astra said as he got into his haunches and looked over his body and notice some of his feather were slightly burned before looking at the machine. "Experiment 19 has failed, number 20 is on its way..." Astra said with a sigh as he didn't even see a single sign of damage to the machine, "You call that failure I call it fun!" Neo said as he began to notice the area around them. Small fires around them and a decently sized hole in the roof and walls.

"Oh no" Astra said, shaking his head and placing a hoof on it, "the motor was what caused that hole up there" he said, pointing to the large hole in the ceiling above them. "What's so bad about the motor flying off?" Neo asked as he attempted to get rid of the small fires, "The problem is that the motor cost 400 bits of our research grant, it isn't ours."

Astra took to the air and examined the large hole, taking calculations of where it could've gone... Until...

"The everfree forest seems to be where it blasted off to. Damn!!"

"Great... Alright, how about this. It's practically a large maze in there so I could've gone anywhere. I'll look on the ground, you look in the sky, deal?"

"Fair enough... Hopefully it didn't get too far..."

With that, Astra exited the building through the hole while Neodymium took off through the main door. The only thing going through his mind is retrieving that generator

Comments

[Shadow rift]

6100565
Thanks! Glad to hear you enjoy it. I'm anticipating on a couple more chapters until then!