The Movie Watcher Immerser 7000
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?"
Silence filled the room as each pony pondered this new development. They could pick ANY movie and be in it with their friends. The prospect was overwhelming for them. Twilight looked slightly impatient. She frowned at her friends. "Come on everypony, you can pick any movie that you want!"
"Yeah," said Applejack with a nod. "And that's pretty daunting for us. We don't know what to choose!"
"Just pick your all-time favorite movie. We're going to do this more if you guys want so we might as well start at the top," said Twilight. Fluttershy blushed and shrank back into her mane. Twilight noticed the shift in her mood.
"You have one to choose don't you Fluttershy?" said Twilight.
"Oh...um...well, yes. But I don't want to impose if somepony wants to go first. I can go last...I mean, if you want," she said quietly. Twilight rolled her eyes and used her magic to lift Fluttershy up in the air. She moved her right in front of the keyboard and plopped her down in front of it. She then used her magic to put the headsets on everypony's head.
"Just type in the name of your favorite movie Fluttershy and we can get started," said Twilight kindly. Fluttershy nodded and quickly typed in the name of the movie.
All at once, the six ponies felt their brains go a little fuzzy and after a few seconds, they collapsed onto the floor.
They woke up to see that they were in a conference room of some sort. Each pony was wearing a suit and sitting at a table with what seemed to be bowls of fruit in front of them. Twilight looked around confusedly.
"Fluttershy, what movie are we in?" she asked. Fluttershy looked down with an embarrassed look on her face and flattened her ears.
"Oh, um, well, we’re in The Godfather right now. This is the meeting of the five families after the, um, tollbooth scene," said Fluttershy. Rarity rolled her eyes and spoke up.
"Ah yes, The Godfather. What a cliché choice darling. Everypony likes The Godfather!" she said.
"That's because it's the greatest movie of all time!" retorted Fluttershy. Rarity sighed.
"I'll grant that the acting is good of course, but the story can drag on a little at times," she said. Fluttershy seemed really angry now.
"Maybe you'd like to fast-forward to the baptism 'Don Barzini'!" she said.
"'Don Bar-what?" asked Twilight confusedly.
"Well, if we are all playing roles in the film like you said Twilight, then Rarity is playing the role of Don Barzini," said Fluttershy. "Applejack seems to be Don Tattaglia while Pinkie is Don Cuneo and you are Don Stracci. Rainbow here is Tom Hagen.
"How do you know that?" asked Applejack.
"Well, I can tell just by where you're all sitting," she said.
"Uh Fluttershy," said Rainbow Dash. "How many times have you seen this movie?" Fluttershy shrank back a bit more (which wasn't a very awe-inspiring look for Don Corleone) and mumbled a bit.
"Uh, I didn't quite catch that," said Twilight.
"Twenty-seven," she said.
"My dear, how do you not collapse in boredom!?" said Rarity. "I got bored around this scene myself and I turned it off."
"Well the movie can be a bit slow sometimes," agreed Applejack. "But come on, 'boring' is a bit of a strong word isn't it?"
"I really like the scenes in Italy!" said Pinkie Pie happily. "The fuzzy colors matched with the general feel of the Italian countryside which showed how different the world Michael had entered into was really well done!" Twilight found herself shocked that all of her friends had seen this.
"Wait, you've all seen this movie?" she asked. Everypony else nodded.
"Well, up to this scene anyway," said Rarity.
"Oh come on, you haven't even seen the baptism scene?" asked Rainbow Dash. "That's one of the most brilliantly done scenes in the movie!"
"Along with what, the scene where Sonny beats up Carlo?" said Rarity. The other four looked vaguely uncomfortable at this point.
"Um...well...yeah, they could have done a lot better with that scene...I guess," said Fluttershy. "But really, you have to see the baptism scene!" Fluttershy turned to Twilight. "How do we skip to that scene?" she asked. Twilight pointed to a remote next to Fluttershy's left foreleg.
"You just use that to get to the scene where you want to go," she said. Fluttershy nodded and picked up the remote. She pressed a button and immediately the six of them were transported into a large church. Fluttershy was Michael Corleone now and she was watching a colt getting baptized.
"Is this the whole scene?" asked Twilight. "We just watch a colt being baptized?" A shadow of a smile crossed Fluttershy's face.
"Twilight, what happens if you die in here?" she asked.
"I...I don't really know actually. I think you just cease to be involved in the story, but you are still watching unless you switch characters," she said.
"Oh good," said Fluttershy.
Twilight and Rarity looked at each other nervously as did Rainbow and Applejack. Pinkie still had her usual grin and was muttering something about throwing a party for the baby being baptized.
In a flash, the ponies were transported to an area in front of an elevator. Twilight was nowhere to be found. Instead they saw a fat Earth Pony with a package in his hooves. The other four ponies looked around for Twilight.
"What's going on Fluttershy?" asked Rarity. "Where is Twilight?"
"She's Don Stracci, remember?" said Fluttershy. Applejack gave a shocked expression.
"Does that mean...?"
At that moment, they heard the elevator door open and the five saw Twilight inside the elevator with two Pegasi bodyguards.
When she saw her friends, she began to walk over to them.
"There you are girls! I was wondering--"
At that moment, the fat Earth Pony pushed Twilight back into the elevator and opened up the package to reveal a large shotgun. He pointed it at Twilight whose eyes widened with fear.
"Wait no do--"
It was too late. The Earth Pony fired two shots into the elevator, both of which hit Twilight and knocked her onto the ground. A decent amount of blood filled the elevator.
Before anypony could do anything, the ponies were transported into a room where they saw Rainbow Dash lying belly down on a table getting a massage. Twilight examined her body to see that there were no wounds before looking angrily at Fluttershy.
"What kind of a movie is this!?" she asked.
"Well you see Twilight, Michael Corleone is trying to save his family by getting rid of all threats to him and those he loves. But I mean really Twilight, it's a mafia movie. He isn't going to do it by giving them gift baskets and asking them nicely, now is he?"
"Yeah Twilight," said Rainbow Dash who was clearly enjoying the massage she was getting. "He felt that the only way to cleanse his family was by the blood of his enemies. That's the main story, he is trying to get out of his life of crime to protect his family and he feels that the only way to do that is to kill his threats." Applejack nodded.
"Not to mention that in the third movie--"
"THERE IS NO THIRD MOVIE!" screeched Fluttershy in an almost demonic voice that surprised everypony in the room. Even Rainbow Dash snapped out of her contented feelings she was getting from her massage. Fluttershy shrank back a bit. "I mean, I wasn't aware that there were three movies. I thought that there were only two." Twilight frowned at her.
"No, I'm pretty sure that there are--"
"There are only two," said Fluttershy curtly. Rainbow dash grinned.
"Yeah, ponies that are fans of the first two don't really like to acknowledge Part III," she said.
At that moment, a slender unicorn pony came in with a gun in his hooves which startled Rainbow Dash.
"Wait!" she said. "I thought I was Tom Hagen! I--" The pony fired and a round went into Rainbow's eye, causing blood to squirt from the wound.
The ponies moved on once again and found themselves in a lobby near a revolving door. Like Twilight, Rainbow's wound from her assassination had healed. Pinkie Pie turned to Fluttershy.
"I'm the one who is in the revolving door right?" she asked excitedly.
"I think so," said Fluttershy.
"Sweet!" said Pinkie who bounced typical Pinkie Pie style towards the revolving door. Immediately, another unicorn pony followed right behind her and the second Pinkie went into the revolving door, the unicorn blocked it off, trapping Pinkie Pie inside. Pinkie turned around with a huge grin on her face as the unicorn pulled out a gun and began firing rounds into Pinkie Pie.
To the surprise of the group, Pinkie Pie laughed at every shot that hit her. "Ooh, that tickles, hee hee!" she said happily.
The scene switched once again and they saw that they were in a hotel room, this time without Applejack.
There was movement on the bed and Applejack sat up with a glum look on her face as another mare sat up next to her. "Oh dear," she said. "I was hopin' that this one wouldn't be me."
"Why not?" asked Twilight.
Her question was answered for her as the door burst open and two Earth ponies with machine guns emptied their clips into Applejack and the mare on the bed.
Once again the scene switched only this time, Fluttershy and Rarity were missing. The remaining four ponies saw Fluttershy conversing with two colts while Rarity was walking down the steps with a confused look on her face.
As the ponies walked next to Fluttershy, Applejack looked a small grin.
"You know, Pinkie was right: it did tickle when I got shot."
"You noticed that too?" said Twilight.
At that moment, they heard Rarity's voice as she approached the group.
"Oh Fluttershy darling, would you mind explaining what--" before rarity could continue, Fluttershy unholstered a pistol that was strapped to her side and shot the two colts that she had been talking to. She turned and pointed it at Rarity. "FLUTTERSHY, have you lost our mind!?" said Rarity.
Fluttershy had a maniacal grin plastered over her face, much like the one at the Gala. "The story drags on does it?" she said with an ominous giggle. Rarity turned around to run away but Fluttershy shot her twice in the back.
"Okay," said a visibly disturbed Twilight, "I think that's enough Godfather for today."
As Rarity fell, Twilight quickly grabbed the remote from Fluttershy and pressed a button. Immediately, the simulation terminated and the six of them found themselves back in Twilight's living room. Fluttershy had a creepy grin on her face.
"How is that for a boring story Rarity?" she said in an overly sweet voice.
Rarity gave her an uneasy look. "Oh, well, it seemed very exciting near the end there"
"Fluttershy, how can you enjoy a movie that violent!?" asked Twilight.
"Well, first off, it's an extraordinarily well made movie. The violent scenes are few and far between for the most part so in reality that isn't much of an issue. Besides, I stopped minding the violence as much after the first few times."
"Let's not forget how awesome the scrip is!" said Rainbow.
"And the oranges!" said Pinkie as she bounced up in the air happily.
"Oranges?" asked Rarity and Twilight together.
"Yeah, oranges," said Applejack. "Every time an orange appears on screen it means that death or a close call is about to happen."
"Well, it could be that they're just discussing death and it can even just be the color orange. Remember the orange jumpsuit that Carlo was wearing when Sonny beat him up?" said Fluttershy.
"Oh yeah, good point!" said Applejack. Fluttershy turned back to Twilight.
"I think the thing I enjoy most about it is how masterfully crafted it is. Every scene has a purpose, every image has a purpose, the story is masterfully crafted and nothing feels out of place. I see very little wrong with the movie. Its main fault is the scene where Sonny beats up Carlo as it doesn't look very realistic. However, I forgive that because that is hardly a major detail." said Fluttershy.
Twilight nodded and looked deep in thought.
"It's still pretty violent though, isn't it?" she asked.
"Well come on Twilight," said Rainbow. "The life of organized crime is hardly a pretty one. It's a brutal life no matter how the movie paints it. Death is part of the life they have chosen and I think that the movie portrays that very well. The violence is all necessary." Fluttershy nodded in agreement.
"Well girls," said Twilight. "I may just have to watch this movie normally. That aside though, who is next?"
