Princess Luna's Computer

April 26

It started as an average day, and it was no big deal for Princess Luna as she completed her dream duties. The dreams were a lot quieter and much less extreme compared to the one that she managed the day before.

Luna entered the throne hall, and Celestia was already sitting at her throne seat.

“Welcome back! How are you feeling?” Celestia greeted as Luna walked near the throne chair.

“I feel a lot better than yesterday,” Luna replied with a flat expression.

“I am glad to hear that. Say, how are you doing with that computer?” Celestia asked Luna with a small smile on her face.

“I have not had a chance to look at it today, but I will do for a couple of hours before sleeping.”

“Okay, don’t break it!” Celestia assured, and then resumed filing through various letters and documents.

Luna walked into the halls and into her bedroom where the computer lied on the floor, waiting for her to boot it up. She opened the lid, and pressed the button in which the computer began its boot sequence. The usual splash screen was shown, and the loading screen as well.

The screen transitioned to the desktop, where it showed the typical files and folders. Luna navigated the mouse pointer to the Start menu, and then to the games folder where she found and opened Minesweeper.

She started to rigorously play as if she was completely rushing, and after a period of exposure, she though the beginner lever was too easy. She went into the options window, and set the difficulty to Intermediate.

With a larger grid and more mines, she was able to enjoy a good challenge as she slicked her way through the grid while flagging all the mines.

“This should be a competitive thing… I am having so much fun with this,” Luna wondered as she nears the end of the game, which in total, took her 2:04 on her first try on that difficulty. Luna continued to fly by every round, and eventually beating her old time with every game she progresses through. She loved to see the smiling yellow face with the shades every time.

Eventually, she closed out of the game, and browsed the game folder.

She opened Solitaire, and as the cards were dealt, she had no idea how to play. She opened up the manual and grasped some basic understanding,

but the crippling problem is that she does not know how to drag items; even Celestia does not know it after she called her over and consulted.

Luna sighed, and closed out of the program. She tried the other ones:

Spider solitaire, it is a click and drag game, so she closed it again.

FreeCell: It is a click and drag game, so no.

Then, there was Hearts.

She moused over and opened the software; since it is April 26, and Hearts being infected with CIH…

“…Huh…?” Luna jumped as the screen suddenly turned black, and then, a blue screen appeared.

“What…?” She suddenly went into mass confusion as she tried to read the jargon.

Windows

An exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C1A8F3B4 in VXD. This was called from 0028: C0008EF2 in VXD. It may be possible to continue normally.

• Press any key to attempt to continue.

• Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your computer. You will lose any unsaved information in all applications.

Press any key to continue _

“It was supposed to pop up a green window, not a blue one!” Luna was speechless upon what to do, and her intuition was to press a key.

The screen disappeared, and then a mouse pointer appeared, but nothing else appeared after the mouse except a blank taskbar.

“What happened to you…?” Luna tried conveying the computer using words. She moved the mouse around, and found an empty Start button, and as she clicked, it froze.

She tried to move the nib around, and it did not respond, and even if she used all her might, it did not do anything.

“RESPOND! THY SHALT RESPOND TO MY EVERY COMMAND!” She used her Royal Canterlot Voice at the computer, but it was still at that frozen state.

She sighed, and pressed the power button, but that did not do a thing. She used her hoof to jam the keys; consequently, there was nothing displayed, and there was no reaction.

She forcibly pressed the power button, and held it down. It seemed to work as the screen stopped giving output.

Luna pressed the power button again; the screen lit with a lighter tint, but as she waited, the screen never gave a splash screen.

She unpleasantly waited for minutes, even up to an hour, and it did not display anything.

“What… Happened…?” Luna held the computer and checked its parts.

“It’s all fine… but how did this happen? Is it not starting…?” Luna questioned with a large scale look of concern on her face.

Luna sighed, and looked out the window, and daylight was in full swing.

She pressed and held the power button, and the screen turned off as it suddenly turned dark. She then turned it on again, and consequentially, it did not display anything.

Luna thought back to the time where she retrieved the computer, and she declared to herself, “Twilight Sparkle…”

Luna grabbed the computer, and trotted to the throne room.

Celestia noticed Luna with a disturbed expression.

“What is the matter, dear?” Celestia, with all of her hospitality, inquired Luna.

“Oh, it is just my computer… it won’t work anymore…” Luna said with a lowered voice as she looked at the computer that she placed on the auxiliary throne chair.

“Oh no… That is a bummer. Here, let me examine,” Celestia used her magic to levitate and operate the computer. She started off by pressing some keys, and then removing the battery. She waited for around a half of a minute before inserting it back into the compartment. She turned the laptop upright and pressed the power button, and ultimately, nothing displayed, not even a boot screen. She pressed the key to access the boot menu, and that did not seemed to work. The computer was toast.

“Luna…” Celestia sighed and turned to view Luna’s face, filling with hope.

“What is it?” She asked with a rushed voice.

“I am sorry to say this, but due to my limited knowledge of this, I am not able to fix this.”

“What…” Luna angled her face down, and right at that moment, Twilight Sparkle busted the door open, and immediately flew in front of Celestia with a furious pant.

“I… I…” She struggled to produce a word out of her mouth whilst she panted.

“Whoa, calm down, Twilight Sparkle. I know life can be pressuring, but sometimes you need to slow down,” Celestia spoke to Twilight.

Twilight’s panting stopped, and then spoke up, “I’d like to address something.”

“Let me guess… Was it about this computer?” Celestia held the computer, and when Twilight looked at it, she gulped.

“Yes it was,” Twilight admitted and sighed. Her hooves started to shake as she expected a punishment for her misuse of the computer.

“Now… What did you do? I need evidence,” Celestia spoke up as she stared at Twilight, and Luna came around and stood next to her, glaring at her.

“Well… There was that vanilla folder that is named “IMPORTANT FILES” and as I opened it up, there was a syllabus type document in there; a window popped up, and it described the purpose of these computers—“

“Was it for games?” Luna questioned while she interrupted Twilight.

“Sadly, it is not. It is used as an Intro project for the investigation of computer viruses,” Twilight explained to the two sisters, and they stayed silent, and they looked at each other.

“Computer viruses…?” Celestia asked, since she only knew how to navigate the computer, and not the software aspect. Luna, on the other hand, remembered that .txt file she opened that warned inexperienced users about malware.

“Well… I can think… as the name suggests, Viruses are those pesky microscopic creatures that wreak havoc in our bodies by injecting their genetic code into cells, and Computer viruses, I am guessing, works in the same way since they wreak havoc on files instead,” Twilight defined the term to the Royal Sisters, and she felt accomplished as she realized that she completed half of Learning Target 1, which was defining the term “Computer Virus.” Luna then thought about and realized the reason for all those malware being present.

“I see, Twilight Sparkle. What else do you have to say?” Spoke Luna.

“Well, I have to write up a paragraph on what the virus did to the computer and turn it in. I also have a test that you wanted me to take on the 29th of April,” Twilight nervously said to Celestia.

“Test? Assignments? I never assigned you any of these,” Celestia clarified.

“Then… to whom are the tests and homework directed to?” Twilight asked.

“All I know is that the Laptop strangely appeared in the storage room four days ago, and my theory is that It was from an alternate dimension, which creatures called “humans” that inhabit it.”

“Oh… That dimension. I remember you explaining it to me a month ago,” Twilight sighed in relief.

Luna walked back to her throne chair, and leaned on it.

“What are you going to do with the broken computer?” Luna asked.

“Well, I am going to put this computer back into the storage,” Celestia spoke with regret.

Luna sighed as Celestia walked to the hallway and down the stairs to the storage room. Celestia gently sat the computer down in the place where she found it.

Before she left, she saw something that lied next to the computer. She used her magic to pick it up, and looked at it. It was a beige box with two wired rectangular controllers dangling off of it and it included a power cord. The controllers had two red buttons, a plus shaped D-pad, and two oblong buttons in the middle.

“Hmm… How is this going be used…?”

--To Be Continued--