The Alternet

Twilight Sparkle sat at the desk, staring at the dimly-lit computer screen. The box on the screen sat empty, and pieces of paper, all covered with writing, littered the floor.

"Bucking government websites," she said.

Her eyes were drooping as she inserted another code. A screen flashed up when she pressed enter.

"Wrong again," she said.

She clicked on the box again.

'Just one more code,' she thought.

She inserted the code, pressed enter, and laid her head down on the desk before she could see the results. She was asleep in seconds, wondering if she got in.

******

She awoke at midday. She blinked once to clear the fuzziness from her eyes. She looked at the puddle of drool she had made while sleeping.

Her eyes moved up to the computer screen. She was shocked at what she saw. She had put in the correct password. The words 'The Alternet' were at the top of the screen in large letters. She looked to the dropdown on the top of the page. She tried to think about the password she had put in to get on. She looked over at her paper. She remembered she fell asleep after typing it.

'Looks like this'll be a one time thing,' she thought. 'Better do as much as I can.'

She clicked on the dropbox, and there were tons of other things that had already been searched. She looked at them. EPony, Facehoof, other social sites, a place that she'd rather not think about, a few more of those, and some game sites. She closed the dropbox. She then saw there was one underneath it.

She clicked it, and what appeared to be altered versions of the websites in the dropbox above popped out. EBay, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, some more places she'd rather not talk about, AddictingGames, and GamesBox.

'This is incredible!' she thought. 'A place that has other versions of our favorite sites! And some not so good sites, but that's fine.'

She began to scroll down the second dropbox, looking for a place that she didn't know already. After minutes of common everyday sites, and some other sites that she'd rather not mention, she finally found a site she had never heard of, her world or otherwise, Fimfiction.

She clicked on the link. It went to a page that she was confused about for years. There was a picture of herself with Princess Celestia, except everything was so medival-looking. She looked at a box in that picture. It looked pretty advanced; more advanced than the picture. The box's picture and description changed.

Twilight clicked on the box, sending her to a new page. The picture that was there before changed, and was now Scootaloo, in a gown and in a jacket. She was confused at what this place was, but she still was in awe over the entire Alternet.

She clicked on the words 'Chapter 1' on the thing she clicked on in the box. She saw that what she was reading was a short story. She read through the entire, complete story quickly. She was suprised by the incredible skill with which it was written. She then clicked on the box again, taking her to another story.

She read three more, and then she saw a pattern. A pattern in the way that the plot started. They were all caused by her magic or science experiments. She was deeply disturbed that all the stories, obviously popular because they were in that box every time she clicked a story, that she had read had her as the reason for the problem.

She looked through all the stories in the box. Most of them involved her as the problem maker, or some kind of romantic setting. Twilight felt like barfing because she wasn't a very big fan of romance stories of any kind.

The fact that a romance story reached the front page box said that the ponies in this world, if they were ponies, were very loving, at the least, or they had a different preference. Something a bit more disturbing.

She felt glad that at least the problems caused by her were resolved, but the fact that she was the main problem disturbed her.

"Bucking website," she said, switching to another website.

She didn't check what it was, but it had games, so it was hopefully good. She looked at all the game tags in the corner.

'Shooting!' she thought. 'This other place is messed up!'

She played games here for a while, but her mind kept wondering back to Fimfiction. She was disturbed that that place had so many stories on how she had bucked up and failed all of her friends until the end. It was so dang frustrating that she couldn't tear her mind off the website.

Eventually she went back to Fimfiction. She wondered why her mind had brought her back here. As she thought, her eyes wondered to a book entitled 'Linnux'. A thought struck her like lightning. She clicked on the login box. It was time for some hacking.

******

At 3 p.m., Twilight finally took a break from an entire day of working. She looked at the results of her handiwork. The stories she had just read were now changed from the problem being Twilight to the problem being a random pony she made up off the top of her head. It was glorious. Not a single Twilight existed as a problem in this world. Her work was complete, for now.

She looked at the clock. She had been working for a long time. She got up, stretched, then went to the kitchen. She ate a daisy sandwich, then went straight back to the computer. She figured her eyes needed a break, but she declined the common sense and continued to plow right through the accounts, through the stories, through the hours. She stopped when her constant typing on the keyboard broke it.

She then left her house to go to the store to buy a new one. She walked down the road. As she walked, she got wierd looks from everypony she saw. She wondered what everypony was doing. She walked into the store. As she turned to go down the aisle with the keyboards, she saw Applejack looking at a laptop.

"Hey, Applejack," Twilight said, walking up to her.

"Oh my God!" Applejack said. "Twilight...!"

"What?" Twilight said. "Why are you acting like that. Yes, I know I look bucking hideous, but that's because I was up all night typing."

"You-you," Applejack stammered. "You were gone for days!"

"What?!" Twilight said, completely shocked.

"You've been in your house for days!" Applejack said. "You've been typing for at least a week!"

As Applejack mentioned this, Twilight's sense of reality came back. She was hungry, and her mouth was dry. She blinked to get what was going on straight.

"So," Twilight said. "What you're saying is that I've been in my house typing for a few days? I didn't even realize!"

Twilight rushed to get a keyboard, got the one she needed, hastly paid, avoided any attempt to ask about where she had been. She went home and got food and water. She then took a needed shower. She rushed back to the computer. She opened up the package for the keyboard, and plugged it in.

She re-activated the monitor and continued on her path to clear her name in another world. She looked back to the stories she had changed earlier that week and began to glorify her progress. Then she saw something. The name Twilight was back in the story. She checked all her other changes and found them fixed.

"Darn it!" she yelled.

She began to read through the stories again. And she laughed at the way she acted.

'I act like a total mad scientist!' she thought, then realized exactly what she did.

She looked at the writing again. It was better than before. Before, she had just been in a blind rage to get rid of her bad name, but now it seemed that it actually interested her. She read a few more and marveled at how well-written they were.

"Oh, buck," she said, realizing now that she was enjoying her own faults.

She was so suprised at herself. Her mind rarely changed. But this was an exception. She decided that this should be left be. She made a decision that she slightly regreted over the next few years of life, but right now, it didn't matter. She closed the Alternet.

She went on the normal web that she always used. Just another typical day ahead. Then she looked at the corner of the screen.

"Oh, buck," she said through gritted teeth. "Not again. Dang computer..."

THE END