Chapters Author's Note
This story is now organized into three sections.
April 24
April 24
In the Canterlot castle, Luna sat next to Celestia’s throne, and for a long span of five days, she has been bickering about the boredom she experienced in the castle.
“Come on, sis! I want something to interact with in order to keep me entertained,” Luna stated to complain, and Celestia, attending to her needs, spoke out a suggestion.
“Why not descend down to Ponyville and socialize?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I am socially inept. I don’t feel like doing so.” Luna crossed her arms and looked away.
“Hmm…” Celestia began thinking, “Upon a little reflection, I think I do have something for you…”
“What is it? Tell me!” Luna got excited and all jittery.
“Well first, you have to calm down, and I will get it eventually.” Celestia stood, and after a brief pause, she slowly walked out of the throne room.
“Wait, where are you going?” Luna questioned as Celestia turned to the halls.
“You will see!” She echoed from the halls. Luna, bored, jumped onto the throne, and foolishly declared herself the leader of Equestria instead of being an auxiliary; while Luna sits on the throne, Celestia descended downstairs and into the storage room in which she used her horn to unlock.
The door swung open, and the first thing that was visible to Celestia was a laptop, and to be exact, it is branded as an IBM ThinkPad. She picked it up using her magic and contemplated.
“Maybe this might do the trick, although I partially know how to use this…” Celestia spoke to herself as she moved the computer around. She remembered the computer being in the storage for around three days, but where it came from was valid to her, since she knows the human universe teems with technology and this laptop was no exception.
She carried the laptop out and closed the storage doors behind her. She stepped upstairs, introducing the computer to Luna.
“What is that?” Luna questioned Celestia as she lay the computer down on the ground in front of Luna.
“You will see. I think I have mentioned these before when I told you the stories of the “other dimension,”” Celestia said to Luna as she opens the laptop, revealing the keyboard and screen.
“Oh! I see. This is one of the pieces of technologies they had…” Luna realized, and as a response, Celestia nodded.
Luna observed the computer by looking at all the ports and keys, and she instantly became confused by their purposes.
“How do you work this?” Luna turned to Celestia and asked for help.
Celestia had a partial knowledge of operating these things. She took her front hoof and raised it above the computer keyboard; she then scanned around until she found the power button that is above the keyboard and pressed it.
The screen then displayed an IBM logo, and it disappeared as the BIOS completely loaded. The windows 98 screen popped up as it loaded the operating system and it disappeared when it was complete and went straight to the desktop, and since the computer is sort of lagged, the startup sound was played with delay, and Luna backed away from the computer as a result.
On the desktop, a couple of folders were present such as “RULES.doc”, “IMPORTANT FILES”, and a “Readme.txt.” Along with those folders are the typical icons on the desktop such as the Recycle Bin, Network Neighborhood... etc.
Celestia then gradually taught Luna the basic functionality of the laptop. She taught her how to use the mouse that is controlled by the small red nib squished between the F and G keys; she also taught her how to open, close, and right click files so Luna would have an easier time navigating.
“So, have fun with your new toy!” Celestia said to Luna with a jovial tone, and Luna smiled at her in return. She lifted the computer to her room using her magic, and placed it near her bed.
Right before she laid her hoof on it, a window popped up.
This program has performed an Illegal operation and will be shut down.
If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.
There were two buttons: “Details” and “Close.”
“Celestia!!” Luna shouted for her sister, and Celestia immediately reported to Luna’s room and saw what was going on. Celestia took control of the red nib, and clicked on “close.” The main explorer.exe interface was gone for a moment, and by that time, Luna started to freak out since she thought it was broken, but the process restarted successfully.
“Just press “Close” when these things pop up,” Celestia reminded Luna before she quietly left for their throne room.
Luna used her magic and moved the nib. She was surprised and got excited when the mouse moved in the direction where she was tilting the red nib; she had the feeling of power as she was piloting this device all by herself.
“This should be fun,” Luna said to herself as the folder opened up.
In the contents, there were several programs, including “Minesweeper.exe”, “Solitaire”, “FreeCell”, “Hearts” and any other typical OEM games that are installed on a computer.
Luna double clicked on minesweeper, and a grid of 81 squares arranged in a dimension of 9 across and 9 down. She was not sure what to do next, so she consulted the help button in the top menu.
MINESWEEPER In this game, the objective is to clear the board while leaving all the mines untouched.
- To begin, click on any square. If you are somehow unlucky and click on a mine on the first click, don’t be hesitant to click on the yellow frowning face and get a new board.
- Most of the time, it will reveal a gray space with various colored numbers.
- The numbers signify the NUMBER of mines AROUND the number.
- For example, if there is a 2, and it is completely surrounded by 8 squares, the probability of hitting a mine would be 25%.
- If you are certain if a mine is behind the square, right click to flag it.
- The instructions are simple since this game mostly requires logic, and sometimes guesswork and probabilistic reasoning. After reading it over quite a couple of times, Luna seemed to grasp a rudimentary level of understanding about the gameplay.
She navigated the mouse over to the corner square and clicked it; a mine was revealed, and a loud explosion played, and it scared Luna as she jumped and scurried away from the computer screen.
“That was too frightening for me to handle…” Luna muttered to herself as she slowly slid back to the computer.
Luna then navigated the mouse to the yellow frowning face with X’s being the eyes, and she clicked it; as a result, the board cleared.
Luna then moved the mouse pointer to the middle square; in fear, she closed her eyes and looked away as her hoof closes in on the left mouse key.
Her hoof slightly nudged it, and it opened an expansive space with ones and twos. She opened her eyes and slowly turned her head back towards the screen.
From the instructions she read, she now knows that the corner pieces are indeed mines since she knew that the 1’s are only touching one square; by following that rule, she was able to slowly double click through the nearby numbers, and successfully flag the mines that remained.
She finished her first game of Minesweeper in 3:07, and she was quite blissful about being able to play such exotic games that she have never encountered.
She exited the game by pressing the X on the top right corner, and she minimized the game window so she could view the entire desktop. She opened the folder “IMPORTANT FILES” and it displayed several unknown programs.
The prominent one was the “READ THIS FIRST.txt,” and she opened the file.
Notepad popped up, and it showed a couple of precautions.
“PLEASE DO NOT OPEN ANY FILES IN THIS FOLDER UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. OPENING ANY FILE EXCEPT THIS ONE WILL CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE DAMAMGE TO THE FILE SYSTEM.
FOR THE STUDENTS:
OPEN ONE PIECE OF MALWARE ONLY. OPENING MULTIPLE MALWARE MAY CAUSE UNWANTED RESULTS.”
Since it was all caps, she imagined herself yelling this out in her Royal Canterlot Voice.
She closed out of the notepad, and had an overview of the files.
The files were:
“CIH.exe”, “Melissa.exe”, “ILOVEYOU.vbs”, “Blaster.exe”, “Netsky.exe”, “CodeRed.exe”, “Happy99.exe”, “Gruel.exe”, “Sasser.exe”, and “MyDoom.exe.”
Upon reading the text document, she closed out of the window to prevent her computer from being destroyed.
She went on and opened Minesweeper again, and played until her Night Duty comes around; on the second game, she was considerably faster to clear the board, and as she played on, her time kept getting faster, and eventually leveled out to 0:13 for beginner level.
She seemed to have found a new level of excitement while playing that simple game.
The room gradually dimmed as the sun began to lower, and it was time for Luna to start her night duty. She was reluctant, but she shut down the computer by long-pressing the power button, and shut the lid before taking her post for night duty.
April 25
In the morning hours, Celestia woke and crossed to Luna’s room which was empty since her night duty was not finished yet. She moved the computer to the main room where the throne was located. Twilight Sparkle and Spike entered the throne room to consult Princess Celestia.
“You wanted to meet me, Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked as her voice resonated around the room; as a result, Celestia turned her head to face Twilight.
“Yes. I have something that I wanted you to figure out so you can be enriched with outer-world knowledge,” Celestia emphasized.
“That sounds spectacular! What will I be working with?” Twilight cheered and asked Celestia, who appeared to be a little nervous.
“You will be working with this laptop. I have “borrowed” it from Luna’s room--” right at that moment, Luna entered the throne room, and looked dreadfully tired.
“Princess Luna! Is it alright with you if I can lend your computer to Princess Twilight Sparkle for this day?” Celestia asked Luna.
“Sure… Go ahead…” Luna said with a hoarse voice as she walked towards Celestia.
“Okay, thank you; get some good sleep too.” Celestia reminded Luna as Luna enters the hall of her room.
“Wow, that night duty sure did a number on her stamina,” Twilight remarked as she looked at the bedrooms and then towards Celestia.
“She is assigned to do dream duty, and certain dreams are quite… let’s say, complex to her,” Celestia answered.
Afterwards, there was nothing much else to say, and there was a period of long awkward silence between Twilight and Celestia.
“I guess… I’ll be seeing you, Princess Celestia,” Twilight hesitantly said as she lifted the computer and slowly trotted to the main entrance; at that sight, Celestia realized something.
“Wait!” Celestia raised her voice slightly, and caught Twilight’s attention. “ I forgot to teach you the ways of operating this computer!”
Twilight turned towards Celestia, and sat the computer in front of her while spike grabbed a quill and a piece of parchment paper.
Celestia delivered the same lecture as she did with Princess Luna, and as she delivered the info, Spike deliberately took notes of every minute detail such as every mouse movement, and every interaction that happen.
When the short lecture ended, the parchment is filled with instructions and notes that Spike vigorously took. Spike grabbed the computer and Twilight said a temporary goodbye to Celestia.
“Wow, this thing sure is heavy…” Spike complained as he used his two claws to hold the Laptop. Twilight then initiated a teleportation spell, and she, along with spike, disappeared from the castle.
…
The two reappeared in the Golden Oaks Library, and Spike placed the computer on the table, and flipped open the screen.
Twilight walked over to the computer and looked at the individual keys, and the nib.
“You should operate this, Spike. My hooves are incompatible with such small keys,” Twilight assigned Spike, and as a result, Spike became excited since he would be piloting a piece of modern (Well… sort of modern) technology. Spike grabbed the parchment, and looked over the first procedures:
“Turn the computer on by pressing the button above the keyboard!”
Spike used his claw, and gently pressed the power button. The computer displayed its IBM splash screen, and it loaded Windows 98 again.
The loading screen disappeared, and as it loaded the desktop, the startup sound played at full volume, thus scaring Spike, and catching Twilight’s attention.
“What was that?” Twilight asked spike, and Spike pulled out the parchment sheet.
“Don’t worry; the loud sound you will hear will be the startup sound. There is nothing wrong.”
Spike then looked to the screen, and then notices the desktop blacks out, and then displayed a white screen.
Active Desktop Recovery
Microsoft Windows has experienced an unexpected error. As a precaution, your Active Desktop has been turned off. To restore active desktop, use the following troubleshooting tips:
Did your browser stop working, or did you restart your computer without shutting it down first? If so, click:
[Restore my Active Desktop]
Spike thought it would me more sensible to click the button, and he did, which brought the desktop back to its normal status quo. Twilight slowly trotted to the computer, and investigated. She eyed on the “Readme.doc” file.
“Spike, move the pointer over to the readme.txt and open it,” Twilight commanded spike, and spike gently placed one of his claws on the nib, and slowly moved the pointer to the icon. Spike double clicked it, and a Microsoft Word window popped up.
Twilight overviewed the file, which was a syllabus/unit guide of sorts.
UNIT 9 – Malware and viruses
Students! By the end of this unit, you need to meet the following Critical Learning Standards:
I can identify and define Computer Virus and Malware
I can classify what variant or kind of Virus is running, i.e. Trojan Horse, Malware, Spyware, Adware, Backdoor… etc.
I can Identify malicious coding
I can identify and analyze the payload of famous malware samples.
I can identify the different payloads each type of malware has.
I can explain how an antivirus works.
I can accurately develop basic antivirus software. (Lab project!) (You will base your malware database off of the sites on )
I can develop a simple piece of malware. (Extra Credit Project! More destruction = More Points!)
Day 1: You will be administered what I call “Dummy Computers.” The purpose of this project is for you to choose one piece of malware and explore its effects on the system. After observing the effects, please, on a separate sheet of paper, write down your predictions on what the virus did to the system.
IMPORTANT! Please do NOT run two malwares at once! It will give unwanted results, and your assignment score will be deducted!
In the “IMPORTANT FILES” folder, I have searched the internet, and retrieved the finest, and the most famous pieces of malware for you to explore.
The rest of the days will be lectures, and some fun interactivities.
Twilight, upon reading the syllabus, was extremely confused, as if she read some document that is written in a different language; her face was flushed and frozen. Spike tapped her on the shoulder.
“What is wrong, Twilight?”
“I don’t know any of this!” Twilight complained as spike pushed the down arrow. It revealed important info in a very large font.
“That is why you learn!” Spike gently said to Twilight.
“Learn about mal… antiviruses? No one in Equestria has ever heard of these!” Twilight explained to Spike in a quasi-anxious tone.
Your TEST will be on 29 April.
Your FINAL EXAM will be on 6 May.
“TEST? Nopony ever told me that there will be a test on this!" Twilight yelled as she entered a freak-out mode.
“Twilight, It is just a test…” Spike replied to her madness.
“It’s just a TEST? If I fail this, it means that I betray Celestia!” She yelled, and then she furiously ran to one end of the entire bookshelf and vigorously searched the shelves for any content related to coding, viruses; etc.
“Coding… Coding… CODING…!” Twilight frantically chanted as she removed each and individual book from the shelves.
Spike, on the other hand, went into the “IMPORTANT FILES” folder, and clicked on “description.txt.” A window of Notepad opened, and it debriefed the viruses.
“Twilight!” Spike yelled.
“WHAT?” Twilight, enraged, replied to Spike’s call.
“Whoa… I think just by previewing this small document may help,” Spike suggested.
Twilight stomped her way over and read the first entry.
DEBRIEF OF VIRUSES.
CIH: A very devastating virus that affected the majority of the business computing industry in April 26, 1998. The virus was created by a Taiwanese man named Chen-Ing-Hau, hence the virus name “CIH.” When the date is OTHER than April 26, opening the virus sample will manifest the virus into the memory, and any executable file that is opened will be infected by the virus. On April 26 of any year, when any program that is infected with CIH runs, the virus activates its fatal payload; as a result, the computer cannot boot anymore. If you choose this virus, you should write a brief prediction regarding the hindered boot sequence.
“It sounds quite interesting, maybe we should try it!” Twilight suggested as she understood half of the jargon.
“Well, it’s on the Critical Learning Standards list… Why not?” Spike clicked on the folder behind the notepad window, and moused over the CIH.exe file.
“Don’t blow up…” Spike nervously pressed the left mouse key twice, and the CIH.exe opened a simple command line window.
“Oh no! It is showing a black screen with grey text!” Spike jumped when a large MS-DOS window popped up and Twilight used her magic to use the nib, and she moused over to the X on the top right corner of the window.
“It did not do anything…” Spike wondered as he stared at the screen while clicking around. “Should I run another one?”
“From the syllabus thing, it indicated that it would ruin our results,” Twilight explained to Spike, and he scrolled down the list and spotted the “ILOVEYOU” worm.
“Oh! I shall send that to Rarity!” He dared to click it, but a flashback of what Twilight just explained came back to Spike, and because of that, he refused to open it so he could not betray Twilight.
Twilight was back to search for any relevant books while Spike navigated to the Games folder. He moved the pointer to “Hearts” and opened the game. There was a card in the middle, and then each side of the window filled up with cards with various numbers, faces, shapes, and red or blue colors.
“Twilight?” Spike was confused of what is going on in the game.
“What do you—“ Twilight eyed on the game, and she seemed to remember playing it with old fashioned paper cards instead of electronically.
“Oh my gosh! I remember how to play this!” Twilight pushed Spike aside as she initiated the game by picking three cards to exchange.
“Spike, you can search through the shelves,” Twilight was then absorbed, and transferred her errands to Spike, and as a result, Spike groaned and climbed up the ladder leaning against the shelves.
… (4 hours later)
“Nope… Nope… and no… That seems to be the last of it,” Spike declared, and Twilight, all of a sudden, was interrupted on her 125th game of Hearts just to stare at Spike.
“Are you serious?” Twilight gently raised her voice at Spike, and as a result, Spike’s anxiety grew as he feared of being demoted as Twilight’s assistant.
“Yes I am, and there is not a book that has the terms “Coding”, nor “Computer Viruses”!” Spike, panting out of extreme exhaustion, declared the pithiest statement to Twilight.
“Well… Now it is down to one thing… It will be risky,” Twilight told Spike her plans of Learned Helplessness.
“What is it?”
“Make educated guesses!” Twilight declared, and by that, she meant completely BS’ing through the unit in the vain hope she passes.
“Educated guesses… Well the directions in the syllabus thing told you to use an educated guess on what the virus is doing when it opens. It is questionable to wing the entire unit on concepts you have not even heard about,” Spike explained to Twilight, and it whisked her chances of hope away.
“I’ll contact Celestia tomorrow. Sit down, Spike, and you can enjoy yourself while I continue to thrive on this game of “Hearts”.” Twilight assured Spike as she resumed her game. Spike signed, and walked over to the stairs. He stepped up to the bedroom and rested on his small bed.
Twilight continued to play Hearts for quite a while, and she stopped when she felt her eyes twitch and strained; Due to the side effects, she became tired earlier than usual.
The sun lowered towards the Horizon, and Twilight looked around her library, which was a complete mess that is composed by mounds of books piled everywhere. Fortunately, she used a spell, which made all the books levitate, and slowly, all the books slid past another, and eventually, they were arranged in an array by alphabetical order of the title. The books were then shoved into the individual spaces on the bookshelf, and the library was back to its clean state.
Twilight walked back to the computer and resumed her activities, but her eyes continued to rally at her; eventually, the rallying took over, and Twilight had to shut down the computer.
She pressed the power button, and the cursor turned into an hourglass. The computer seemed to do nothing. Twilight nudged the small red nib, and the cursor did not even move in compliant to the direction of the nib-tilt.
Then, the screen turned black, and then…
It is now safe to turn off your computer.
“Okay… I pressed it to turn off and it is asking me to turn it off again…” Twilight let out disgruntled sigh, and pressed the power button again to shut the computer off completely.
Twilight closed the lid on the computer, placed a piece of paper on it and wrote:
“Dear Princess Luna,
-Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
The sun was completely below the horizon, and as the sky darkened, Twilight slowly trotted up to her quarters, and observed Spike sleeping soundly. Twilight yawned, and jumped into the bed and under the covers.
Downstairs, Luna entered the library, and immediately spotted the computer. She walked over to it and read the note.
She used her magic to hold the computer, and as she left, she uttered: “Thank you, Twilight!”
Luna returned to her quarters in the Canterlot Castle, and placed the computer on the floor near her bed; instead of opening it to play, she left it there and went straight to her night duty post.
Meanwhile, when Twilight was about to fall asleep, something came to her mind.
“On April 26 of any year, when any program that is infected with CIH runs, the virus activates its fatal payload; as a result, the computer cannot boot anymore.”
“April 26…” Twilight stood up and looked at her calendar, and then the clock.
“April 26… Is tomorrow!!” By that time, Princess Celestia was sleeping, and Princess Luna was attending to dream duties.
“Oh my…” Twilight grew anxious as she lied on the bed again, tossing and turning before drifting to sleep.
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--
