The Grey Screen
“Ugh, come on why won’t you load!” Twilight complained at her unresponsive computer, both to her question and virtually everything else. She pressed her hoof onto the space-bar, the return key; she even slammed her hoof onto every key at once, in a desperate attempt to move the sluggish Zapbook computer along.
Unfortunately, nothing helped. The computer was stuck on a dull grey screen that was insanely frustrating to her. No spinning dial to let her know it was loading; no message to tell her the computer was warming up, there was not even a message giving her the reason as to why her computer was running slower than Rainbow Dash’s pet tortoise.
Nope, there was just grey, grey and more, miserable, melancholy grey that seemed to taunt her like a cookie dangling just out of reach of a starving Pinkie Pie.
Twilight could feel her stomach knotting as her mind began to focus on all the documents she had saved on there, worrying about them especially since one of the documents included a letter to the Princess she just finished. In fact, the computer became unresponsive just before she planned to proof-read a recent letter and send it off to Princess Celestia the following day.
But this was no ordinary letter. This letter was extremely long, well-written, and took almost half an hour to dictate to Spike, when normally her letters would take five, maybe ten minutes maximum. Had he written it out, his poor little hand felt would’ve hurt less had somepony stabbed it with a fork. But even using the keyboard, which saved his hand a lot of pain, as was the Princess’ hope in sending the Zapbook to Twilight, didn’t completely make writing the letter painless, as his fingers were still sore from typing.
The length of this letter wasn’t an unnecessary overkill by Twilight in order to impress her teacher, rather a recent pie eating contest down at Sugarcube Corner between Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had so many odd and intriguing friendship dilemmas that the length of the note was necessary in order to make sure nothing important was left out.
Cheating, dirty play during the contest itself; heck the three competitors split up the remaining three of their friends to coach them before the event. Fluttershy went with Rainbow Dash, which led to her shedding a lot of tears. Rarity went to help Applejack, but soon quit when she saw how messy Applejack was when eating the pies.
Twilight, of course, got stuck with Pinkie Pie, which was an experience she’d never forget. It was one full of memories involving berry juice to the face and messes so repulsive she wouldn’t make a garbage-pony clean it up. She couldn’t believe the messes her hyperactive pink friend made. Sure, she was Pinkie Pie, but that’s nothing compared to Pinkie Pie in competition mode; pupils dilated, voice always on high volume as she screamed mere centimeters in front of Twilight’s face.
The lavender unicorn still had nightmares.
Spike sat on the couch, his claws digging into the cushion as he waited on Twilight. He was nervous as well since he spent so much time typing the letters in and he didn’t want to lose the most recent one.
“Still not working?” Spike asked.
Twilight slammed her hoof onto the floor in frustration, “Crud! No, Spike it’s not even getting past this bucking screen.”
“Well maybe if you close it and come back to it later it’ll work?”
“Not like I have much of a choice.” Twilight sighed, “I guess I’ll try that.”
Twilight turned off the monitor, closed the computer and levitated it back over to her desk, mentally praying that it would be up and running by the time she opened it again.
Later she went back, turned on the computer and found the same, grey screen.
After trying a few more times over the next few hours, nothing changed except possibly the tone in the grey, which seemed to go to a darker tone as time went on, most likely due to the light-bulb on the computer slowly losing energy.
Naturally, Twilight began to freak out. As always, her gradual descent into madness started off slow. She would act like most ponies would act if they just remembered they had a cumulative final exam the following day and hadn’t attended class once during the semester; groaning and tossing things around with her hooves and resorting to her magic when her hooves got sore.
Alas, with each attempt at re-starting her computer, Twilight’s mane started to become more and more frizzled. Her eyes wide and her pupils dilated; her mind snapped in a way that it hadn’t since she cast the “want it, need it” spell on Smartypants and caused everypony to fall in love with her foalhood doll.
The next morning, Spike came downstairs to see that Twilight was still awake. The lavender unicorn was sitting on the ground by her computer. She appeared to be muttering some calming words under her breath to the computer; one hoof stroking the device while the other was protectively placed on top of it as if it were her vulnerable lover, about to be torn away from her due to some unforeseen circumstance.
She had entered the next stage of Twilight’s break-down…insanity.
“Um…Twilight?” Spike asked fearfully, having knowledge of how crazy Twilight could get with an approaching deadline.
Twilight turned to Spike and gave him her insane grin she did whenever her OCD transformed into borderline lunacy.
“Oh hey there Spike, how did you…twitch…how did you sleep?”
Her twitching was enough to make Spike take a few uneasy steps back. “Erm Twilight, are you okay?”
“He-he, am I okay…twitch…AM I OKAY!?!” Twilight said; her teeth gritting together as Spike let out a little scream, “NO! OF COURSE NOT! MY COMPUTER ISN’T WORKING AND I CAN’T GET MY LETTER TO THE PRINCESS AND I TOLD HER I'D GET IT TO HER BY SUNDOWN !!!”
Twilight was now mere inches away from the scared dragon. She was breathing quickly and deeply, her eye twitching yet again as she let out a small, but creepy, giggle.
“Well…then maybe you could get the computer fixed.”
“Fixed…twitch?” Twilight asked, still a little panicked, but the possibility of saving her work from the abyss of lost data seemed to calm her down.
“Yeah, I mean I read up on the Zapbook thing, your data should be saved even if the computer crashes.”
Twilight’s crazy smile slowly fell, replaced by a small, but hopeful one.
She took a step back, giving Spike some space, “Really? You think that’ll work?”
Spike nodded, “Yeah, definitely.”
Twilight let out a sigh of relief and turned back to the computer, “Great, now I just need to take this to the repair shop.”
She levitated the computer into a saddle-bag and put the bag over her back before turning to Spike.
“I’ll be back real soon.” Twilight said as she trotted out the door.
_________________________________________________________________________________
“What do you mean you can’t fix it!?!” Twilight screamed at the frightened pony who owned the small computer repair shop in town. It was a modest shop, often boasting a “whopping” average of three customers per day. The walls were brown and the floors were made of hard-wood; a very humble little shop. Twilight was standing at a counter near the back of the shop with her hooves firmly planted on the counter-top, while the scared earth pony that owned the shop stood on the other side, trembling with dread at the situation he found himself in.
Computers started off somewhat rare in Ponyville, only a couple of lucky ponies had the unique privilege of owning one, such as Twilight, who got hers through the Princess a few months back.
Even with all that, recently they started to become increasingly popular. In fact, all five of Twilight’s best friends had computers. Fluttershy used hers to keep entries on each of her animals, such as what they ate, what time, which rabbit got what medication. Rarity used hers to help her design dresses. Applejack used hers to record sales of apples and apple products. Pinkie Pie had a journal on her critical assessment for certain sweets, including a large pros and cons chart to compare cupcakes and cookies to see which truly reigned supreme. Rainbow Dash…actually, nopony was sure what she used her computer for, all they knew was she spent a lot more time inside and whenever she came out her mane would be a mess and she would look fatigued and sweaty, as if she just ran a marathon .
Must’ve been some sort of Wonderbolts site.
So, naturally, as the number of computers in the modest town increased, so did the number of ponies that worked on fixing them, such as the repair pony, Bolts, that was, as of right now, facing the terrible terrors of Twilight’s wrath. Bolts was a relatively tall and muscular colt with a silver bolt as a cutie mark, symbolizing his special talent for mechanics and technology. His light blue fur shone in the afternoon sun as his grey eyes looked worriedly at the purple mare that looked like she was on the verge of ripping his throat out.
“I…I told you this computer is a ZAP computer, it requires special parts that can’t be bought here.” He said with concern in his voice.
“But you’re a computer store…” Twilight leaned forward so her muzzle was inches from that of the nervous-looking repair-pony. She pointed an angry hoof at the computer, “…and as you can clearly see…THIS IS A COMPUTER!!!”
“Ah!” Bolts jumped back in fright at the crazy unicorn in his shop, her eyes bulging from their sockets as she leaned across the counter, staring down Bolts. Eventually, he was able to regain his composure.
“Sorry ma’am.” The pony answered with a quiver in his voice, his hooves up to defend himself, “I can’t do anything, I apologize, really, I do.”
“You do understand that I can do magic, right?”
“Yes, everypony in Ponyville knows that Miss Sparkle.” Bolts said nervously, like he didn’t enjoy the direction this conversation was heading. He knew enough about Twilight to know that she was very powerful and, while she was often the kindest pony around, when she was stressed out there was no telling what she was capable of.
Twilight continued the conversation, “And you do know I could probably turn you into a mouse, right?”
“Please don’t.”
“Then fix my computer!”
“I told you can’t!” the pony screamed, tears running down his eyes as the mental image of himself being transformed into the furry little critter flashed into his mind.
“Then who can?”
He quickly reached under his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper that had the words “ZAP STORE!!” in big, overwhelming black letters.
“Here! You can go to this place and they’ll fix your computer lickedy-split!”
Twilight’s angry expression slowly fell, “So, I just go to this place and…my computer will be fixed?”
Bolts nodded furiously, now even more scared as the unicorn was clearly bipolar.
“Yes! No please don’t turn me into a mouse! I have a wife and two foals!" Bolts cowered against the back wall, hooves in front of his face, "AND I’M ALLERGIC TO CHEESE!”
“Great!” Twilight’s stressed-out demeanor quickly vanished and she smiled, “Where is this “Zap” store?”
___________________________________________________________________________-
“You have to go all the way to Canterlot?” Spike asked in shock.
“Yep!” Twilight said with an exasperated tone as she began to fill the remaining space in her saddle-bag with food, drinks, anything that might come in handy during the trip. She even tossed in a book for the train-ride, “Daring Do and the Giant Lizard of Zulu”.
She then started towards the door, Spike right on her hooves.
“Wait! Why can’t we just go tomorrow?”
“Because the Princess expects the letter by tonight,” She then turned to Spike, “I promised her an extremely long and in-depth letter by then. I assume you don’t want to re-write that letter by hand, do you?”
Spike’s eyes widened at the memory of the agonizingly long letter Twilight gave him to type up. It was beautifully written; even Spike had to agree on that. But he also had to agree that it was painfully long.
Heck that was literally the case for Spike, as his fingers were sore form the typing. He was worried that he’d get carpal tunnel if he had to do it much longer, but then he remembered the wrist cramps he’d get when writing long letters to the Princess and would promptly shut his mouth.
“Then why don’t we just tell the Princess that we need to wait? She seemed to understand back when you didn’t have a friendship lesson to write about.”
“That’s the problem Spike; I haven’t sent her a letter in a couple of weeks. It’s just been my friends. I can’t keep holding out on her like this, it isn’t right.”
“I told you we should have sent it when I finished.” Spike muttered.
“Well I wanted to re-read it just before sending it…”
“And you’d re-read it a second time, and a third time and a fourth, just to be sure, right?” Spike asked.
Twilight closed the door to the library with her magic, “Yeah, probably.”
Spike gave Twilight a dead-pan expression, “Of course you would.”
“Besides, Spike, it shouldn’t be a big deal. All I have to do is recover the data and we should be all set.”
Spike sighed and gave Twilight a small nod in agreement. He knew that if they waited until tomorrow, not only would it be pushing the deadline the Princess gave Twilight, but it would also bother Twilight all night to the point where she wouldn’t sleep and Spike would wake up the next morning to find her cradling the computer and crying while screaming “My baby is dead!! My baby is dead!!”.
You’d think he was exaggerating, but he wasn’t.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
“We’re here!” Twilight said as she and Spike stepped off the train and onto the platform. They both stood out like a cupcake in a pickle barrel. Most of the ponies here were typical of Canterlot, the perfect mix of classy rich and snobby elitist. Some did acknowledge the duo with a friendly nob, while others gave them such dirty looks that Twilight wished they just ignored them.
They both trotted through the train station and into the city itself, relatively busy, but not overwhelmingly so, it had everything from a high-end cupcake shop to a tailor’s business where a long line of colts waited to enter.
After about ten minutes of walking the duo arrived at a small shop that didn’t look too different from any other on the same street, save for the giant “ZAP COMPUTER STORE” sign out in front and the fact that almost the entire front of the building was glass.
Twilight smiled and let out a sigh of relief, “Well, this is it, time to get my letter back.”
She excitedly trotted in, completely excited to finally put this whole matter behind her, while Spike just begrudgingly followed, not looking forward to sitting in a chair for however long it took for the computer to be repaired.
Once he entered the store, however, his jaw joined Twilight’s on the hard surface of the floor.
Wall to wall computer devices, accessories, phones, strange MP3 players…everything.
“Whoa.” Spike muttered in awe, his eyes moving from the left side of the room to the right. Twilight’s just stared directly ahead at a giant screen that was flashing ads for the various products.
“Impressive.” Twilight looked towards the counter and, assuming that’s where she had to go, trotted over. “Come on Spike, let’s go.”
“It’s so…beautiful .” Spike said as he began to drool at the sight of the long line of phones on the right-hand side of the wall. He slowly walked towards the shelf, arms outstretched towards the colorful devices, his eyes unblinking as he didn’t look any different from a zombie after laying it eyes on fresh meat.
He was about to grab one when he felt something grab him. He then was pulled away, his eyes showing a sense of longing, as he was moved further and further away from the devices. He was finally released right next to Twilight. He turned to see his friend giving him an annoyed look as she tapped her hoof on the floor.
“What?” Spike asked.
“We’re here to fix my computer, not ogle at things we don’t need.”
“But…they’re so cool and...shiny.” Spike said, drooling a little as his hands made grabbing motions.
"I said no."
Spike turned to face Twilight, "But..."
"No!"
Twilight kept staring at Spike; prompting him to let out a groan and give up before he put his hands down his sides like he had pockets, and kicked at the ground sadly. Twilight looked around behind the counter, waiting for somepony to appear. She was quite surprised at the lack of employees working here. Did she come on a light day? Surely there had to be somepony here to help her.
As she looked around, her eyes landed on a little bell on the counter. She trotted up to it and noticed it was a bell one pushes down to activate. Assuming that this is how a customer makes his or her presence known, Twilight pressed the silver button.
“I’ll be right there!” An effeminate voice rang out from the back room of the shop.
Twilight waited and waited for the mare to appear so she could finally get answers. Every now and then she’d have to pull Spike back next to her as he tried to sneak over to the phone shelves. Everytime she brought him back, he’d just cross his arms, fall to his bum and let out a nice “humph” before pouting, his eyes never leaving the shelf of forbidden goods that seemed to be beckoning to him like sirens to sailors.
“Twilight?” Spike asked.
“Yes Spike?”
“I wanted to ask you, why didn’t you just teleport us to Canterlot? I mean, the train ride's good and all, but it's pretty long. Plus the pony sitting next to us stunk worse than a diamond dog."
“It’s quite a distance.”
“I know.” Spike said, “But so was the teleporting distance when Rainbow Dash, Rarity, you and I were running from the dragons.”
“That was different. We were in danger, and I had to get us out of there, risks had to be taken then. That doesn’t mean I’m going to teleport us to Canterlot when we can easily take the train.”
There was a brief pause before Spike let out an “Ooohhh…” and shrugging in nonchalance, as if her explanation meant nothing. He then thought for a moment before speaking up again, “But what about all those times you could’ve teleported, like when the hydra was chasing you and you had to cross the gorge on those tiny rock formations?”
“Well, there’s a perfectly good explanation for that, you see…”
Before Twilight could finish, the door to the back room opened and a purple unicorn mare with glittering red eyes walked over to Twilight, a big grin on her face. The mare had the modest image of a calculator on her flank, her glossy and silver man beautifully combed to match the style revered by the Canterlot elite. And though on the surface she seemed mostly harmless, Twilight couldn’t help but feel there was something about this pony, like she emitted an air of superiority or arrogance.
But she seemed kind enough at the moment, so Twilight decided not to look too deeply into her personality. Besides, as long as she helped fix her computer she didn’t care how she acted.
“Why hello there and welcome to the Zap Store here in Canterlot. My name is Techie, how may I assist you?”
“Yes, my computer’s been acting up and I was wondering if you could fix it?” Twilight asked as she used her magic to bring the computer out of her saddlebag and gently placed it on the counter. The mare peered at the computer as Twilight opened it and turned it around so the screen could face the mare behind the counter.
“As you can see,” Twilight pressed the power button and waited as the grey screen came up, “I have a bit of an issue with starting my computer and getting to the main screen.”
“Ah, I see, well…”
“Hey um excuse me?” Spike jumped jumped up onto a nearby stool, interrupting Twilight. He held up a phone he had gotten off of the shelf, “how much is this?”
“Spike! I told you to forget those phones; I’m not buying you one.” Twilight hissed.
But Techie seemed thrilled by the dragon’s question, “That there Zap phone is on sale. Twenty percent off if you buy now.”
Spike turned to Twilight and put his hands together pleadingly.
“Twilight? Please?”
“No.” Twilight said flatly.
“Come on, there are some really cool games on here, like Angry Pegasi!”
“No.”
“Cupcake Ninja?”
“No!”
“Pinkie Jump?”
“No! Spike I...wait? Pinkie jump?”
Spike nodded and showed her a picture of a game that had a pint-sized Pinkie Pie hopping from platform to platform, trying to get as high as possible while smiling that ever so familiar smile she had whenever she hopped down main street of Ponyville.
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“How in the…” she then shook her head, remembering that it’s Pinkie Pie they’re talking about and got back on topic, “No Spike, forget it I’m not caving on this.”
Techie, who seemed to be sizing up Twilight for a sale, smiled, “You know you seem like a mare that likes to read.”
Twilight looked at Techie, who pointed at the Daring Doo book, which was poking out of her saddlebag slightly.
“Yeah?”
“Well with the new Zap Phone here you can purchase as many books as you want and read them, all conveniently packed into one device.” Techie tapped the Zap phone box to temp Twilight’s love of reading.
Twilight’s stoic, stubborn expression fell, replaced by one of doubt and a slight hint of temptation. She seemed genuinely interested in the idea of having as many books as she wanted on a little device.
Just as it looked like she was about to cave, Twilight’s subconscious screamed at her.
”Duh! Twilight!?! Are you crazy, you live in a bucking LIBRARY!!! Why would you need any more books when you are literally SURROUNDED by them twenty-four seven!?!”
This snapped Twilight back to reality and she gave Techie a small, cocky grin before shaking her head, “No thank you.”
Techie shrugged, “All right then.”
Spike looked at Twilight with sad eyes just as the phone was lifted out of his hands by Techie. He made a small reach for it and muttered, “Please…don’t go my sweet.”
“Now,” Techie said. Her previously cheery demeanor was replaced with one of silent contempt, like she was holding it against Twilight for resisting her sales-mare charms, “What’s your name?”
“Twilight Sparkle.”
Techie pulled out a device and levitated it in front of her. She looked at the screen, pressed on it a few times, and nodded silently before peering up at Twilight, “You’re not on the list.”
“List?”
“For an appointment? You’re supposed to make an appointment with us before coming in.”
“Oh.” Twilight said before looking around at the mostly empty store. Two young unicorn colts that must’ve come in after Twilight and Spike were busy admiring the MP3 players over in the corner; both looked like they came from wealth.
Meanwhile, an older mare was looking at new Zap phone covers, holding a neon green one in one hoof while holding her own Zap phone up in the other as if to help herself imagine how it would look on her phone.
Seeing all of this made Spike green with envy.
“Geez, even the kids and the old ponies have fancy phones.” The baby dragon hissed to himself.
“Come on,” Twilight pleaded with Techie, “certainly you could make an exception just this one time? Please?”
Techie seemed to think over the question for a bit before giving her a smile, “Okay, I’ll put you in for right now.”
Twilight let out a sigh of relief, “Thank you.”
“But only if you buy the phone.”
“What!?!” both Spike and Twilight said in unison.
Twilight’s tone much more shocked and angered while Spike’s was much more cheerful and excited. He felt his heart rate increase as his mind raced with high expectations and positive thoughts of him being in possession of shiny the new product.
Techie smiled at the next victim of her sales-pony ploys, “You heard me, buy the phone and we’ll get the computer fixed up for you, otherwise you’ll have to wait for our next available appointment, which is tomorrow.”
Before Twilight could vent her frustrations out on this pony that, by the look on her face, was clearly enjoying ripping her off, she felt someone tap her on the leg. She looked down to see Spike on his knees, his hands pressed together like a man pleading forgiveness from a higher power.
“Please Twilight; please let me have this one thing, just this one.”
“One thing?” Twilight asked, “You mean allowing you live with me and giving you an allowance isn’t enough?”
Spike didn’t change expression; he just kept giving Twilight his big, reptilian eyes that begged for her to let him have this little device.
Finally, Twilight caved with a beaten sigh.
“Fine.”
Spike jumped into the air like he was posing for a freeze-frame shot for a 1980’s high school graduation film, his fist in the air in a triumphant gesture while he grinned from ear to ear and shouted “ALL RIGHT!” at the top of his lungs.
Twilight rolled her eyes and turned back to see that Techie was smiling at her, clearly enjoying taking advantage of her.
“Excellent!” Techie said, back to her cheery demeanor before she began to hook up the laptop and fiddle around a bit, clicking buttons here and there, eventually losing Twilight’s attention as she zoned out in a mix of boredom and resentment.
Twilight felt like she was about to collapse onto the counter and enter neverland when she heard Techie call out.
“Okay, I think I know what the issue is.”
“Really?” Twilight perked up, “what is it?"
“Your hard drive is fried and needs to be replaced, but thankfully your computer can be repaired and up and running by tonight.”
“Great!” Twilight said excitedly, “So you can fix it now?”
Techie shook her head, “I’m afraid we’re all out of hard drives.”
Twilight’s smile fell and she suddenly looked worried, “How…how long until I can get another one?”
Techie looked off into space and clicked her tongue as she thought of the answer, “Probably about three to four business days…that is as long as the pegasi don’t schedule any spontaneous storms that could slow the shipment down.”
“Three…to four…days?” Twilight asked in disbelief. Techie nodded.
“Well, that stinks.” Spike said as he looked down at the phone he just bought. He was acting like he was using it at the moment when in reality it was still in the box, not operational.
“No please tell me you have one. I need it by tonight.”
“Well…” Techie thought for a moment, “there is one hard drive left in the back store, but we normally aren’t allowed to give away because it’s used to test computers.”
“Please...oh please!! I’ll do anything.” Twilight prayed, leaning her elbows onto the counter and pressing her hooves together much like Spike had moments before to get his phone. Spike simply rolled his eyes at Twilight’s groveling while mentally noting her hypocrisy.
Or what he thought was hypocrisy.
Techie smiled, “Anything?”
Twilight’s pleading stopped and her face froze, knowing what the smooth talking, manipulative mare was going to do. Twilight sighed and nodded, “Yes, anything.”
“Perfect! There is something you can do for me.”
“Fine, what then?”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
“Wow! Now we have a Zap Phone, Zap Pod, and Zap Pad! This is so awesome!” Spike said cheerfully as he did a little dance on the floor like a child who just got the one gift they truly wanted for Christmas, plus two other equally awesome ones.
As Spike engaged in a giddy dance, he didn’t notice Twilight levitate the two boxes that held the new purchases right above his head.
Aggravated by Spike’s mannerisms, as well as Techie’s schemes, Twilight released the boxes from her magic and let them fall onto Spike, pinning him to the ground. Rubbing his head, Spike stood back up and gave Twilight death-stare.
“Oops, sorry didn’t think it would hurt, after all you already have technology on the brain.” Twilight said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she told the bad joke, before turning back to Techie. Meanwhile, the Zap employee mare was busy admiring the gold coins Twilight had given her in exchange for the products. When she saw the smug smile on Techie’s face, Twilight realized her earlier intuition about Techie having an air of arrogance was valid.
“Okay, you have your wish. I bought that music player thingy and that thing that just looked like a giant Zap Phone, now fix my computer!” she slammed her hoof into the counter to add to the urgency, sending out an echo through the store and drawing the other few customers’ attention over to her.
Techie smiled and shrugged, “Fine.”
She trotted towards the back of the store, leaving Spike and Twilight in place. Spike was admiring the new things they purchased while Twilight sat in the stool, her cheeks burning a passionate crimson as her rage started to reach its boiling point. Finally, Techie came back out of the back with a new hard drive. After some magic fiddling to the laptop, she managed to slip the old hard drive out of the computer and insert the new one.
“There you are.” Techie said with a smile.
“Thanks.” Twilight sighed as she turned the laptop towards her. She turned the machine back on and saw the little spinning circle appear in the center of the screen. Soon the monitor went back to the main page and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.
“Great, it’s working.”
“Glad to hear, that’ll be seventy bits please.”
Twilight gaped at the price, as seventy bits was an absurd amount. When she saw the lack of amusement in Techie’s face, Twilight begrudgingly pulled out some money and gave it to Techie, who took it without saying a single word of thanks and mechanically put it into the register.
Twilight sighed and decided to send the letter off immediately rather than wait until later and risk losing it again. But when she searched her computer’s data, there was no unsent letter for the Princess. In fact, there was no letter at all. The storage space for the typing program was as blank as a cutie mark crusader’s flank.
“Where is it?” Twilight asked no one in particular as she began to frantically search for a letter, any letter, in the computer.
“Where’s what?” Spike asked.
“My letter it’s gone! They all are!” Twilight said with worry. “I can’t find anything I saved!”
“What do you expect sweetheart? The hard drive died out on you.” Techie said matter of factly.
Twilight looked up at her, “What?”
“Your hard drive is where your data is stored. It burned out so you lost everything on there; I certainly hope you saved everything to an external source, would be such a pity to lose anything you worked hard on.” Techie said with such a tone of superiority that it made Twilight’s rage return.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Twilight asked.
Spike, who up until this point had not stopped admiring his new gizmos and gadgets, looked up at Twilight with some concern on his face as his friend got angrier and angrier.
“You didn’t ask?” Techie said with a shrug.
Twilight’s cheeks turned beet red. She shook her head, “Well then I’m not taking this computer…or any of these devices…”
Twilight used her magic to levitate the boxes of goodies from Spike’s claws. He was taken aback, but this time didn’t reach for them, as he was too concerned for Twilight. He did, however, let out a small “Awwww” as he watched the glorious materialistic items float away from him.
“I want my money back.” Twilight hissed.
Techie shook her head, “Nope, sorry we don’t do refunds.”
“Make an exception.”
“No, especially not for a Ponyville hick such as yourself.”
Twilight’s jaw dropped open in offense before her face returned to a scowl.
“How…how dare you. Do you know who I am?”
“Yes, by your little gaudy saddlebag and your plain looks I’d say typical pony trash from that town..”
Twilight didn’t move an inch after Techie said those last words. Techie just kept smiling, confident that she had won and would not face any repercussions.
“Spike, go outside.” Twilight muttered under her breath.
“But…”
“No buts.”
Spike opened his mouth to protest but stopped himself. He sighed and turned to leave. He took a few steps, stopped and turned to blow one, final kiss to the Zap phone, Zap pod and Zap pad that had almost been his, and continued out the door.
Twilight turned to Techie, “Actually, I am from Ponyville.”
“I knew it.”
“But I’m from Canterlot.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, and I was trained in the art of magic.” Twilight said, a small smile creeping across her lips.
“Pfft…unlikely.”
“Actually, it’s very likely indeed.”
“Right, who would possibly train a hillbilly like you?” Techie asked, still smiling like a know-it-all jerk.
Twilight’s small smile turned into a full-fledged, almost competitive, grin as her horn started to glow brighter and brighter.
Meanwhile, outside of the shop, Spike sat on the curb his head resting in his hands. His eyes followed ponies as they passed by, studying their appearance and attitudes in general and taking mental notes on what he saw.
He knew Rarity would want to be with a man from Canterlot, so he decided it was best to learn how they acted so he could impress Rarity with his charm and class. A charm and class nopony in Ponyville could offer a beautiful mare like her.
As he sat there watching, he suddenly noticed a flash of magenta from behind him. There were screams as ponies bolted out of the Zap store, eyes wide in horror and saying something about a “crazy unicorn” casting a spell.
Puzzled by the commotion behind him, Spike turned around to see Twilight trot out the front door just as the last few customer ponies disappeared from sight, safely away from the shockingly calm Twilight.
Spike was confused, and then highly concerned. How was she acting so relaxed after losing her letters? Normally she would’ve had a mental breakdown or would’ve teleported both of them back to Ponyville, risk be damned, so they could quickly crank out a new letter for the Princess before the sun went down.
Or she would go on a magic-fueled rampage, something Spike had feared ever since he was little.
But for some odd reason, Twilight seemed content with how everything went, and this is what terrified Spike more than the screaming ponies or the odd magenta flash he often associated with his friend’s magic.
“What…the…” Spike stuttered.
“Okay Spike, time to go.” Twilight said with a normal smile.
“Wait…what happened? What was that flash thing?” Spike asked.
“Oh nothing,” Twilight smiled mischievously, “Just proving to that mule Techie how well acquainted I am with the Princess...no offence."
"None taken." said a nearby mule as he gave Twilight a smile and walked away.
"Geez, does that guy follow us or something?" Spike asked.
Twilight shrugged, "I don't know."
“Anyway...what did you do?” Spike asked.
“Oh, nothing you should worry your little scaly head over.” Twilight said as she gave Spike a small, condescending pat on the head like he was some sort of pet. Spike could tell that Twilight didn’t want to discuss what she did.
“Why does that concern me?” Spike asked rhetorically.
“Oh, and I got you this.” Twilight said in a blatantly obvious attempt to change the subject. She used her magic to take a familiar black box out of her saddlebag and levitate it over to Spike, whose concerned expression became one of awe as he realized what this box was.
The box for the Zap phone he wanted. He was so stunned that he didn’t more even when the box was dropped into his eagerly waiting claws. Slowly, his shock turned into excitement and his eyes grew wide, almost sparkling in the evening sun.
“Oh wow…awesome!” Spike said before he looked up at Twilight with some worry in his eyes, “wait, you didn’t steal this, did you?”
Twilight giggled and shook her head, “Of course not Spike; how could I possibly steal from anypony?”
Spike’s concerned face softened and he gave Twilight a huge smile, “Wow a Zap phone all for me! Thanks Twilight!”
Spike jumped up and gave Twilight a big hug, which she happily returned.
“My pleasure, just don't expect a new Zap phone every time a new generation comes out, otherwise I'd be buying three of these things a month."
They broke apart and Spike looked down at the box in front of him. It was taking every ounce of energy in his little body to keep himself from letting out a “squee” in delight.
“I can’t wait to play the games on this thing.”
“Just don’t let it distract you. I still need my number on assistant to help me out.”
“I won’t.” Spike said with a small salute.
“Oh, and Spike could you take a letter to the Princess for me?” Twilight levitated a blank scroll and feather from her saddle-bag.
Spike reached out and took it before chuckling. “You really are prepared all the time, aren’t you?”
“I do my best.”
“Is there anything you don’t have in there?”
Both Twilight and Spike giggled as Spike unrolled the scroll and prepared to write, “Okay, lay it on me.”
________________________________________________________________________________________
Princess Celestia was busy relaxing on a large, red cushion, a novel levitating in front of her as her eyes moved from one word to the next at rapid speed. She seemed at peace, content even.
And then there was the familiar sight of green smoke, flowing in front of her, spinning and finally popping into a letter that fell to the floor. She smiled and gently placed the book down before raising the letter with her magic.
“Tired of the computer I see.” The Princess giggled as she unraveled the scroll to see what her student had written her this time. “Oh well, let’s see what you’ve sent me now.”
”Dear Princess Celestia,
I had a lengthy, highly detailed, well-structured letter that I planned to send you before my computer’s hard drive died. I regret to inform you that this is the best I can do, and I apologize in advance for not sending you the epic letter I promised a few days ago. My first, longer, more scholastic letter was going to be a highly detailed analysis of a pie eating competition between Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
”Mmmm…Pie…” Princess Celestia drooled, having her own little Homer Simpson moment before she wiped the saliva off her lip and continued reading the letter.
"Instead I have decided to send you this. Mind you, it isn’t a work of literary art like the last one, but I feel the message is more important.
Today I have learned that not only are sales-ponies working in computer stores not to be trusted, I have also learned that technology is a pain in my rump, and I refuse to let another computer grace my presence again. Well, save for Spike’s new Zap phone. Speaking of which you might want to check the Zap store employee as I sort of cast a powerful spell on her I threatened another pony with today.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle."
“Powerful spell, what powerful spell is she talking about?” Princess Celestia muttered to herself before her eyes travelled slightly more south on the letter to see Twilight had written one more thing.
”P.S. When you go to the store, you might want to bring cheese…LOTS of cheese.”
Princess Celestia face-hoofed, “Ugh, Twilight. Why is it every time you lose your mind, I have to be the one to pick up the pieces?”
With that, Princess Celestia stood up and started to walk out of the castle, but not before summoning a giant wheel swiss cheese from the royal kitchen.
