Magnificent Might of Midnight Sight Sorcerer Supreme

by Element of Malice

Chapter 9

Author's Note:

I’m sorry for the extensive delay, things are getting crazier these days and I was already a slow writer to begin with. This chapter is being posted a little prematurely, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up. I’m doing what I can but I’m only human.

A group of doctors and nurses shuffled in and out of a tent used as an emergency operating room. With the hospital in Ponyville temporarily out of commission, Celestia had teleported most of the patients to the Canterlot General Hospital until further notice. But the circumstance that Good Light was in caused the need to avoid exposure of spellcasting for the time being. That included teleportation.

Rainbow circled the tent showing the anxiety that she and her friends were feeling. However, having disrupted the operation one too many times, Twilight placed a magical barrier around the tent to keep distractions out. Eventually, out of foalish spite of being forced to wait, Rainbow flew up and perched herself atop the forcefield. Afterward, Twilight started to track down the stallion from earlier to find out the reason behind the spontaneous combustion.

The search led her to the room that the fire started in. Now that it was out, it was safer to come and go as needed, and Twilight needed answers. When she entered the room, a cherry red stallion with a silver main and a blue, oil-stained coveralls greeted her. This wasn’t the same stallion, but he looked like he would know something, “Your majesty.”

He started to bow, but Twilight stopped him, “Just skip the formalities, please, that’s an order.”

He gave her a tense look as if he was about to be grounded, “Uh, okay if you insist.”

“Thank you. So,” Twilight turned her attention towards the part of the room that was undoubtedly the fire’s origin. “Tell me what we’re looking at, what exactly are these?”

What she saw we’re four machines that, to her, looked like radiator heaters. Each one was roughly the size of a small wagon in a shape similar to a triangular prism and had a circle offset from the center closer to the floor. All of them were blackened by the flames that were now extinguished and covered in foam.

The stallion opened his mouth to speak, but a louder mare’s voice interrupted what he was going to say. “Out of my way! Move! My children are in there!”

Twilight made a brief scan of the room but saw no sign of foals or any young creature. A lightning blue colored mare with frost tipped hair wearing a red pair of coveralls covered in grease and oil marks barged into the room.

She threw her hooves to her head, “MY BABIES!!” She jumped and landed on one of the machines in question like she had spontaneously become magnetized to it and started coddling it.

“You poor things, what happened to you?” The machine responded with a creaking groan from the added weight. Twilight was afraid that the part she was clinging to would break off.

The blue mare began shushing it like it was a crying foal that had fallen and hurt themselves. “Don’t you worry, mommy right here. Mommy will make you feel all better in no time.” She cooed, nuzzling it before sliding down to the floor and held a hoof behind her, “Toolbox!”

“Yes mam?” said the red stallion Twilight was just talking to.

The mare head snapped around and she looked at Toolbox like he was one responsible for ‘hurting’ her ‘babies.’

“Toolbox, toolbox, toolbox. Tool! Box! I need my Tools!” she said shoving her face into his.

“Uh, right your tools. I’ll go grab them.” Toolbox turned and began to gallop out of the room.

Seeing this the Mare yells back to him, “What do mean it’s not here!? What am I even paying you for!? I expect my tools to be where I need them to USE!!” she turned back towards the machines, grumbling something about the incompetence of her employees.

Twilight finally took her chances and approached the mare. “I take it you know a thing or two about these machines.”?

“Know them? Princess, I built them.” She turned to properly greet herself to Twilight, shaking her grease-covered hoof with the princess, “Name’s Grease Monkey, everypony calls me Grease.” Grease pulled Twilight closer with a glare, “Call me Monkey and you’ll know why they don’t.”

Releasing Twilight, who planned to wash her hoof the first opportunity she had, Grease said, “So you want to know about my babies, hu?” She pulled out an accordion fold photo holder with four pictures of the Machines inside.

Pointing to the top one, Grease went down the list, “This is Tie Rod, my little goody two shoes. He does everything the way I like it. Now Lug Nut, he’s a real work horse, twice the power… _{for three times the energy.}” Twilight helplessly sat and listened to Grease talk about each of her ‘babies.’

“This one is Spark Plug, he only lets me work on him otherwise anypony else will get shocked!” Grease raised her voice out to a pony approaching the machine. “Piston here is trouble maker number three—” a loud revving and banging erupted from the unit second to the farthest in the room sounding like a broken washing machine.

“Whoa, whoa hey Lugnut take it easy!” Grease ran over to it and gave it a hard buck, “Down boy… I said, down!” She gave it another buck and there was a pop, hiss, then silence.

By this point Twilight was done waiting, she was determined to get the answers she came for. “Look, Grease, all I want is to know what these machines do, and why they burst into flames.”

Grease gave a sigh before she spoke, “Okay, but it would be easier to show you. I need to check and make sure they aren’t damaged anyway.” The mare popped the cover off the central circle revealing a handle.

“I know you’re eager to get back to work,” She said to Lugnut, “but you… Need to...” She grabbed the handle and attempted to twist it but looked like she was struggling.

“Drop it.” She stopped trying with her hooves and instead bit down on the handle using her teeth. “I said drop it Lugnut!” She started growling like a dog with a bone.

Twilight tried to help using her magic, but to her utter amazement she had none in her to use. She tapped her horn and tried again but it was to no avail.

Grease then noticed a puddle of liquid leaking from underneath another unit. “Oh great!” She gave up on trying to move the handle. “Who forgot to change Piston’s oil?”

Two hospital maintenance workers looked at each other, one saying, “I didn’t know these took oil.”

“They don’t.” Grease responded, making her way to Piston and started to climb under the machine. “And don’t ask me where it’s coming from, because I can’t figure that out even if my life depended on it.”

“I got your toolbox mam.” Said a stallion who just entered. He was an all grey, middle aged stallion wearing the same uniform as Toolbox.

“Perfect. Vice Grips.” Grease demanded from under the machine.

“Yes mam?” Responded the same stallion.

Grease came out from under Piston and looked daggers at Vice Grips, “Where’s Tool Box?!”

“Uh, they need some help with—”

“You know what? I don’t want to hear it. What I want are vice grips!”

“Right, vice grips, here you go mam.” Vice Grips handed Grease the tool. She took it and went back under Piston to take care of the oil leak.

“Hey, uh, Vice Grips?” Twilight called out, “Can you hand me a crowbar, or just something to help me turn this?” She said while trying to twist the handle that Grease was earlier.

“Push and turn!” Grease informed Twilight, “You need to push the handle in first and then—” Spitting and sputtering noises interrupted what Grease was saying. “Dang it Piston, that went up my nose!”

Grease crawled out as quickly as she could, face and main drenched with oil. “Can any of you get over here and clean this up before Spark Plug zaps it into flames or something worse?! Seriously what are you all standing around for!?”

Grease clomped over to Twilight and Vice Grips dripping with fluid, “Make room.” She gestured for them to move to the sides while they were still in a position to twist the handle. She gave a well aimed buck, causing it to pop and release. The compartment had to be spring-loaded the way it slid open, ripping the tool out of the hoofs of the two unsuspecting ponies holding it.

Inside there were rocks. Ones that Twilight was all too familiar with. “Are… Are these...?”

“Pieces of Chrysalis’s throne.” Grease finished for her, “You see princess the times are a changin’, magic and machines are starting to grow closer together faster than ever before.” She sounded proud of herself as she carefully looked over each rock.

“However, it’s been discovered that magic can actually cause interference with the readings of sensitive equipment. Think of it like a magnet next to a compass. That’s what these babies were made for, to reduce the amount of magic in a given area.”

Grease walked over to the next unit, “Tie Rod, you’ve been kind of quiet, you feeling alright bud?” She put her ear up against it and knocked on the side, “Yeah, that doesn't sound too good, but I should have you operational in no time.” Grease was able to open it with much less difficulty. Again, it had the same rocks. “The problem is though, spells are still needed in performing surgeries and applying medical treatment.”

She picked up one and eyed it closely like she had seen a flaw. “So rather than just completely eradicate all of the magic, it allows a small amount to still be usable. It’s enough to do what is needed but not enough to mess too much with medical results allowing for a more accurate reading.” Grease lowered the rock to put it back, but it slipped out of her hooves. When it hit the ground she had stepped forward in an attempt to catch it, but doing so shot it under the next machine over. “Dang it.”

Twilight was only half listening at this point, her mind had wandered to another issue regarding Good Light. “What would happen if there was a sudden surge of magical energy released within the range of these machines?”

“Sister, that is precisely why I have four of them.” Grease said, struggling to reach for the misplaced piece of mineral. “The more magic one of my babies has to regulate the more they overheat. What doesn’t make any sense though is that this is enough to challenge Celestia herself… I mean I’m sure that she’s more than capable of doing this much damage, but this happened way too fast.”

Having finally grabbed what she was after, Grease began to wiggle back the way she came, but in doing so noticed an issue that needed to be dealt with. “Oh crap! Flat head!”

“Yes mam?” said a stallion from across the room.

“Are you kidding me! Who names their offspring after tools! Seriously, this naming system is a nightmare!” Grease cried to the heavens in which her pleas would forever remain unanswered.

“Sorry, I just… over ninety percent of the time when I need a tool I insead get a ‘yes mam,’ not a ‘here you go,’ or ‘What size?’ No! I am, by some unknown twisted reason, always talking to the one pony named after the tool I am asking for!”

“Righ, flat head… here you go.” Vice Grips said, handing her the screwdriver.

“I would like to make a statement regarding these machines,” Twilight said, making sure she didn’t sound offensive in what she was going to say next.

“Shoot, I’m all ears.” Grease said, although it was in the same manner as somepony who was tuning out their surroundings.

Twilight took a breath before she spoke, “Don’t get me wrong, these are impressive, I’ll admit. However, I have conflicting opinions. On the one hoof, they may very well have saved some of my closest friends.”

“That’s what they’re for, saving lives.”

“While on the other,” Twilight continued, “they may be the reason a stallion is currently in critical condition.”

The sound of an object clattering to the ground was heard, but it was the lack of cursing that drew everyponys attention. Grease poked her head out and looked at Twilight, “Wait, back up a bit.”

She pulled herself out from under the unit she was operating on and stood in front of the princess with a look of concern. “Are… you saying… So a pony got hurt and… could be dying? Because of these?”

Now that it had been said, Twilight stood her ground in her opinion, “Quite possibly, yes.”

Grease’s mouth quivered like she was saying something but no sound out. She then gave a look of malice, before bucking the closest unit. “Okay, you listen to me, you little brats!” she said marching down the line like a high ranking general. “If mommy finds out that you have been lying to her this whole time, I will personally disassemble all of you down to the last ball bearing and convert you all into pencil sharpeners!!”

Grease went back to work on the critical issue from earlier. “_{You ungrateful little gremlins} you’re lucky that I haven’t— yeouch! Spark plug!” She gave the machine a good hard kick, “you know mommy hates it when you— Ah-ha-ow. Okay mommy is sorry. If you can let me prove that you’re innocent then I won’t recommission you… that’s a good boy.”