SparkleTek, inc. Season 1: Magi-Tech

by Grtgfbll

Chapters 1 and 2 Pinkie Pie Discovers TW1L7.SPRKL

Chapter 1
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 or Mirror Pool incidents happen. Overheated mana generators aren't cheap to replace, 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..."

Chapter 2
TW1L7.SPRKL

"...and that's how I became Princess Celestia's student."

"No wonder you succeeded where I failed."

As the voices of her friend and Trixie filtered through the fog of unconsciousness that clouded her mind, Pinkie groaned, catching the attention of the only dragon in the room.

"Twilight, she's waking up."

The pink party pony slowly opened her eyes, half expecting to see Spike using a pair of unicorn skulls as puppets. She was quite happy to spot the two most magical non-princess ponies in Equestria in one piece.

Still, the pinkest mare in the Pie family couldn't stay quiet (without reason) for long. "What happened? the last thing I remember was something from my worst nightmares, except in stead of Dashie it was you, and instead of me it was Spike. But that's just silly. I mean, why would he be making cu-" it was at this point that a rather large stack of cookies wrapped in a pale blue glow silenced the hyper earth pony.

Floating a glass of milk to aid the now chewing mare, Trixie turned to the purple pair, "I must admit, I find myself curious about just what we walked in on earlier."

"Well... er.... that is.... Spike?"

The baby dragon started waving his arms in front of himself in a warding gesture, "Uh uh! No way Twilight! You said that when the time came, you would tell them, not me."

"You're right," the librarian sighed, "I just wish I had more time to think about how to explain it."

Twilight took a deep breath, "It all started 20 years ago. Mom and Dad want to have a filly, but there was a problem. You see, most unicorns need to have their horns filed down a little when they're born to keep them from hurting themselves or others. Unfortunately, that means there's some... damage when they're born. So, when my brother was born, the doctor had to deliver the bad news.

"At first, they were fine with it, after all, they had a happy and healthy colt, each other, and a roof over their heads. But, as time moved on, they wanted more...

"At first, it started with the prosthetics they had been making for ponies that had lost a leg or an eye. Then, they started imagining what my brother, Shining Armor, might look like if he had been born a filly. One day, they combined the two with an AI, TW1L7.SPRKL, they had been programming in their spare time. That's how I was built..."

Silence flooded the room as the artificial pony trailed off.

Trixie recovered first, "I... I never would have guessed..."

All eyes turned to the disconcertingly silent Pinkie, despite- no, because of her silence.

Realizing that she was the center of attention, the earth pony echoed Twilight's earlier deep breath. "I... I..."

T o Be Continued...

Author's Note:

And now, Tropes appearing in these chapters (yes, I still call this one two chapters despite combining them):
Robot Girl: Twi, duh
Not What it Looks Like: Spike, smeared with a red liquid, with a table full of bits of Twilight...
Shout Out: Chapter 1 has the Red Coolant, and do I even NEED to tell you about the one in Chapter 2? I swear, Pinkie writes her own lines, no matter what I say...
Cliffhanger: I really shouldn't have to explain this one...

Comments

[Teraphim]

Nice to see this back up.