Do Ponies Watch Movies?

Twilight's eye twitched. Soon her masterpiece would be complete! One more cog in, a little more magic in the battery, one more tightened screw and it would be finished. Lightning crashed outside and the awesome power of thunder shook the treehouse library that Twilight had made her home. Twilight paid no heed to the disturbances. Right now, the only thing that mattered was her invention.

Place the final cog into the machine. Check. Zap the quintuple D battery full of self-replenishing magic. Check. Tighten the last screw on the machine. Check. Twilight looked at her machine with awe and wonder. Truly it was a wonderful sight to behold. However, she felt that there was something missing, like there was a vital step that she had missed during the creation of this machine. She couldn't quite put her hoof on it though.

She frowned and scratched her head. What did she not do?

The next lightning strike jogged her memory and she began laughing. It wasn't her usual happy laugh either. No, this was a laugh of EVIL.

Twilight Sparkle stood up on her hind legs and raised her forelegs into the air and let out a string of evil laughs that echoed throughout her treehouse home. Lightning and thunder continued striking and rumbling outside which only further fueled Twilight's mad laughter.

All at once, the largest bolt of lightning struck mere inches from Twilight's house and the loudest clap of thunder rang throughout the land. This was her cue. She raised her eyes to Celestia's heavens, darkened by Luna's night and the Pegasus rainstorm and shouted with all of her might.

"IT'S ALIIIIIVVVVVEEEEE!"

At that moment the basement light flipped on and Twilight turned around to see a rather irritated Spike standing behind her.

"Uh Twilight, what are you doing?" he asked. Twilight blushed and stood on four legs again.

"Oh, uh, hi Spike. I was just finishing my latest invention. I guess I got a little carried away," she said with a blush. Spike merely rolled his eyes.

"I see then. Well, keep it down will ya? Some of us are trying to sleep here," said Spike.

"Yeah, of course. Sorry about that," said Twilight.

Okay then," said the irritated dragon. "Goodnight." He began walking back to his room when he suddenly stopped and wheeled around. "And can you cast another soundproof spell around the house? I can't get to sleep with all of the noise from the storm."

"Sure Spike."

"Okay. Thanks."

Spike stormed back up to his room. Twilight sighed and looked back at her machine. Spike may not understand it yet, but she had just created something wonderful here.

As she became lost in loving thought once more, a particularly nasty rumble of thunder shook the house, causing Twilight to give a yelp of shock. When she calmed down, she giggled at her momentary loss of dignity and fired up her horn to perform the soundproofing spell.

* * * *

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash all sat in a group on the floor of Twilight's library home. They had each been given a mysterious note to be at Twilight's house at exactly 8:00 that Saturday. Each of the ponies was curious about what Twilight had in store for them. They had found the door unlocked with a note telling them to come in taped to the door.

That was five minutes ago.

"What do y'all think that Twilight wants with us tonight? And why isn't she here to greet us in person?" asked Applejack, looking around the group.

"I think she might be surprising up and throwing us all a super-duper fun party right here, right now!" said Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at Pinkie.

"Yeah, do you see any indication that a party is happening? Plus, does that sound like Twilight to you? No, I think something very different is going on here tonight," said the rainbow Pegasus.

"Um...is anypony else a little...worried about why we are here?" asked Fluttershy.

"Well, now that you mention it darling, I am slightly nervous about it. I mean, have any of you ever experienced Twilight doing something like this?" asked Rarity. The other four shook their heads.

"Not a'tall," said Applejack. "Did any of you get her letter in person?"

"I did," said Rarity. "She knocked on my door, gave it to me, and left without a word. It would be odd behavior from anypony, let alone Twilight. What bothered me the most is that she seemed to have this...unsettling grin on her face.

"Like 'Lesson Zero'?" asked Rainbow.

"No, good gracious no, nothing like that. She just seemed too excited about something. I don't know what it means, but I suppose we will find out soon."

"Indeed you will," said a familiar voice from behind them. The group turned to the source of the voice to see Twilight Sparkle pushing something covered in a white sheet into the middle of the room. To the relief of her friends, she looked like her normal self.

Twilight finished maneuvering the machine and stood proudly in front of it. "I suppose you are all wondering why you have been called here tonight," said Twilight.

"Oh, um, well, kind of," said Fluttershy meekly.

"Well, wonder no more! Fillies and...well...other fillies I guess, allow me to present to you my latest invention!" she dramatically pulled the sheet off of the machine and tossed it aside revealing what essentially looked like a medium-sized TV with an receiver dish on the top and a keyboard on the side. "Behold! The Movie Watcher Immerser 7000!"

Silence filled the room for a few moments. Nopony quite knew what to say at the sight of Twilight's creation. Like most times, it was Rainbow who bluntly broke the silence.

"It looks like a TV with a receiver dish and a keyboard," she said bluntly. Twilight shot her a glare.

"It is more than that! Well...actually it isn't really that at all. This little machine," she said as she rent over to it and polished its surface with a spare rag. "Is the new wave of movie watching technology! Say goodbye to sitting on the couch and staring blankly at the screen!"

"Uh, gee Twilight, it looks marvelous...can you explain what's the big deal though?" asked Applejack. Now it was her turn to meet Twilight's gaze. However, this time, it was one of joy and not irritation.

"What's the big deal, o Applejack? The big deal is that this machine lets you be in the movie you are watching! So say for example, you want to watch...uh, The Avengers! You just need to put on one of these headsets," she said, motioning to a box next to a machine before pulling out one of the headsets. "And type the name of the movie into the machine. Then, the machine fires up and anypony wearing a headset is transported into the movie where they become one of the characters!"

Silence filled the room once more, only this time it was a silence brought on by pure shock.

"T...this works?" asked Applejack in disbelief. Twilight nodded.

"I've spent the last few weeks testing it. It works perfectly."

"So let me get this straight darling," said Rarity as she stared intently at the machine. "If I type 'Roman Holiday' into that machine, I will wake up and find that I am playing Audrey Hepburn's role in that film?" Twilight grinned and nodded.

"That's exactly what it means," said Twilight. She walked over to the machine and flipped the switch to 'on'. The room was filled with a pleasant vibration sound. Twilight turned to her friends and patted the machine.

"So," she said excitedly. "Who's first?"