A Wish Come True

"Come on dude, you can't let these noobs dominate you like this!" Joseph looks around, then turns his head to his right, seeing Jerome. Jerome has a serious look on his face, and his hair was done up in a ponytail, still braided though. "Dude, seriously, change to Pyro and burn this guy!"

"What's going on?" Joseph asks.

"What?" Jerome returns his character, Scout, to spawn. "Oh, the doctor's said you might suffer random memory loss. Don't you remember? You got hit by a bus a few weeks ago, now you're forgetting everything."

"...Oh...okay then." Joseph looks around again, and then notices the desktop in front of him. On it's screen was an active game of Team Fortress 2, though he was in the RED spawn point, waiting. "...What's happening?"

"You just got dominated by some kid named Garfunkel. Come on, get back into the game, and change to Heavy or Engineer so we can get team BLU."

Joseph scratches his head, though not really feeling it. "Er, right...what map is this?"

"Right now we're playing Hoodoo, the payload map. The server's gonna change to Gorge: control points after this match."

"...Okay." Joseph smiles as he gets his hands on the desk. He puts one hand on the keyboard and one of the mouse. "...Um...let's go Engineer."

"Put a sentry up in that stairwell. BLU will walk right into it. Be careful though," Jerome warns, "some pro named Raccoonhunter237 is a Spy, so keep your ears open."

"Okay, I'll build my sentry near spawn then." Joseph begins hitting the machine he placed near the starting gate with his wrench. He returns to the resupply station and grabs more metal, then upgrades his sentry to level two. "Good enough."

Jerome shifts at his own desktop. "Hey, put down a teleporter near spawn. Set the exit over in that building, we can flank 'em there."

"Good idea," Joseph agrees. He sets down a teleporter entrance, resupplies his metal, and carries his sentry over. He backs his character up into a small gap in between buildings. "Careful, I just saw a Medic with his Ubercharge ready. There might be a Heavy around, but it's a Kritzkrieg."

"The critical charge?"

"Yeah."

Jerome snorts. "Okay, I'll go Sniper and take them out. Set up your teleporter."

"Kay." He sets his sentry down and builds a dispenser next to it. "Here comes the cart." he moves his character to get a look, but what was riding on the rails wasn't a blue bomb, it was a red bus. "...Jerome? Is there some kind of cart skin in this server?...Jerome?" Joseph looks to his right, seeing Jerome was gone. His screen depicted his Sniper being back-stabbed by a Spy. Joseph looks at his own screen, seeing the red bus flying toward his character. The bus derails and heads straight for the screen.

Joseph scoots away from the chair he was sitting on and falls backward onto the floor. The screen of the computer bursts and sends glass through the air. Joseph looks up at the computer in horror as a large tire erupts from the shattered computer front and falls toward him. Joseph closes his eyes and throws up his arms. "No! Not again!"

"No!" Joseph nearly throws himself upward in a sitting position. His heart was pounding in his chest and sweat was running down his face. He looks around, seeing the full bookshelves and wooden walls of the library. The coffee table still had his MP3 player on its surface. He was still in Twilight's house.

Joseph swings his legs out from under the blanket and puts them on the floor. He turns and rests his elbows on his knees, then puts his pace in his hands, being careful of the bandages on his right palm. Joseph hears a click, and somepony taking a few steps. "Joseph?" He looks up from his hands and up at the stairs, seeing Twilight slowly coming down. Her mane was a mess, and her tail wasn't doing any better. Her violet eyes were filled with worry. "What happened? I thought I heard you yell."

"...Ih-ih-it was just...a nightmare." Joseph returns his face to his hands. "...Sorry if I woke you up."

"It's okay." Joseph hears Twilight walking closer, then feels her get up onto the couch with him. "You know, when Spike had nightmares, I would hold him close and stay up with him until he would fall asleep again in my legs."

"...I...don't think I can fall asleep again tonight."

"Well, it's only three am," Twilight says softly. "...Joseph, do you want to talk about it?"

"Nothing to talk about," he says crudely. "I got run over again." Joseph shakes his head in his hands. "...I miss my world."

Twilight leans over and rests the side of her head on Joseph's bare shoulder. He welcomes her. Twilight sighs. "Joseph, is there anything I can do to help?"

"...Well...there is one thing...When I get upset," Joseph looks up from his hands and lets them fall between his knees, "I build. Models, 3-D puzzles, everything." He looks down at her. "Does Ponyville have a dump? Or a trash heap somewhere?"

"Um..." Twilight sits up and stares at the ceiling. "...Normally...we have an area to deposit leftovers such as scrap metal and such, but it's emptied out by sanitation workers every Friday."

"What day is it?" Joseph asks happily.

"Wednesday."

"Awesome, where are my clothes?"

Twilight looks at Joseph strangely. "...They're in the basement, waiting with the others to be folded." Joseph gets up from the couch and starts toward the door under the stair. Twilight follows. "Joseph, you aren't considering going out this late at night, are you?"

"Technically it's morning now, and yes I am." He opens the door and slips inside. Twilight follows him down more stairs and sees Joseph at the bottom step. He points forward. "Twilight...what is that?"

"Oh that silly thing?" Joseph is pointing at the large metallic contraption in the middle of the room. Paper was piled near the base in long strips, and paper was still hanging from the intake slot. Measuring needles, dials, wires, light bulbs, and many other items contributed to the structure's form, including a large glass screen. Twilight walks forward and taps the object. "I used this way back when Pinkie Pie and I had a bit of a disagreement. The way she could 'feel' what was going to happen got my tail in knots, so I thought I would try this." Twilight shakes her head with a smile. "It didn't work."

Joseph steps closer and looks the tool up and down, observing it. "...Internal hard drive may be intact...exhaust fan looks good...wiring is a bit screwy...no keyboard? Huh...external factors seem efficient..."

Twilight cocks her head to the left. "Joseph, what are you doing?"

"Looks like I may be able to...if only I had...Twilight!" He rushes to her side with a big grin on his face. "Do you use this at all?"

"Not anymore, no. I have touched this thing in years."

"Would you be willing to hand over the ownership so that I may...redesign it?"

Twilight backs up a step. "Uh, sure."

"Awesome!" Joseph looks around and sees his clothes on top of an upturned wooden basket. He jumps over and slips everything on except for his hoodie, which he ties around his waist by the sleeves. He's careful around his hand, but he rushes through anyway and back to the machine. Joseph grabs the side panel and opens it. "...Missing a few components...needs another fan...disc drive...flash memory storage...Size of the machine may be able to hold...six gigabytes of memory...and a whole lotta ram..."

"Joseph," Twilight says sternly, "you're creeping me out with all this talk."

"Now you know why I didn't fit in back in my school. This is how I talk, how we techies talk." He closes the panel. "Where is this dump site?"

"We're on the north end of town, so..." Twilight looks at her hooves, "...it's on the west side of town, the very edge."

"Okay, thanks. Twilight, when I get back, I'm going to need a screwdriver, possible a wrench or two, and anything else you used when you made this."

"But-"

"I'm sorry Twilight, I'm losing moonlight. Be back soon!" Joseph rushes up the stairs and into the living room. He then bolts out the front door.

Twilight slowly makes her way back into the living room. "...A techie?

*Alongside the edge of town*

"Gotta get there! Gotta get there! Just gotta!" Joseph speeds his way across the empty side roads, watching buildings zip by in messy blocks of color. Joseph stumbles when he puts his foot down wrong, and only then did he notice he didn't have his shoes on. He was running around barefoot, but he was too determined to get to the disposal site to turn back.

"...Come on, where is it?" Joseph looks from side to side, switching his focus from the field on his left to the buildings on his right. "Dump, dump, dump, dump...Dump!" He slows a bit as he sees piles of debris starting to form. Little piles of plastic pipes, lug nuts, screws, wires, but Joseph was after a bigger score. "Okay..." Joseph slows down to a walk, dashing his field of vision from pile to pile, seeing they were gradually growing in size.

"...Better be safe and take some spare parts." He reaches down and digs through a mound with his left hand, so's to not agitate the injury on his right, and frowns. "...Nothin' but scrap metal...Hey, maybe I can get enough and craft a new hat, then go prancing around the servers of Team Fortress 2 like a jackass." Joseph puts his hands on his ears and flaps his wrists. "Oh hey, I'm Scout! You'll never hit me! You'll never hit my tiny head! But this new hat should help you aim! Oh? Is it the Bonk Helm? The Batter's Helmet? Bill's Hat?" Joseph turns around. "I don't know, it's on my head, but I bet it looks good! Ha!" Joseph laughs to himself, but it slowly fades. "...Okay, okay...focus."

Joseph moves on and begins searching in a pile that's about waist high. "...No...no, no good...oh, this could be of use." Joseph pulls out a solid bar of copper. "Huh, who would throw this out anyway? Actually, who even has a bar of copper just laying around the house?" Joseph shakes his head and stands. He looks around and sees a worn out purse. It had a hole near the top and the straps were rugged. "...Good enough." Joseph walks over, kicks it open, drops his find into it, and picks it up. "...Okay, next up...okay, now I'm really asking." He walks over to a small tank with a hose connected to the top. The hose ended in a welding torch. "...Who the fuck throws out a home welder?"

He reaches down and takes the torch. Joseph squeezes the handle, but nothing happens. "Ah, that's why...Anyway, might as well take the nozzle." Joseph disconnects the hose and moves along.

*Three hours later, Twilight's house*

"Hey Twilight, where's Joseph?" Spike asks as he heads down the stairs from his bed. He slowly makes his way over to the couch, where Twilight is sitting with her head drooped. "...Twilight?" Spike inches closer and reaches out. He taps her hoof and she rises her head. "Twilight?"

"Wah, I'm...I'm awake." She looks around and smiles. He vision sets on Spike's face. "Good morning Spike...Is Joseph back yet?"

"That's what I wanted to ask," he replies. "He's still gone and I wanted to know where he is."

"Oh." Twilight pauses for a yawn. "...Joseph...left last night to search through the town's disposal site."

Spike tilts his head. "...Why?"

"I have no idea," Twilight answers. Her ears perk up. "...Wait...Spike, do you hear something?"

"...No." He looks around. "Why, do you?"

"Yes, I do Spike." Twilight shakes her head softly and stands from the couch. She walks over to the front door and opens it, letting the morning sunlight in. "...What the? Joseph?"

Joseph was siting cross-legged in the dirt with his back to the library. He was stationed nearly fifteen feet from the door and off to the side a bit to be out of the way. In front of him was Twilight's computer system she had shown him in the basement, and parts of metal, plastic, nuts and bolts, wires and oil littered the ground around him, as well as a number of rusty tools. Joseph looks over his shoulder and smiles. His face is smeared with black oil and other liquids. "Good morning Twilight, Spike." He returns to his contraption. It would be taller than Joseph if he stood.

Twilight steps out into the dim morning light and walks over to Joseph. She sees him working on a small green plastic disk with numerous golden stripes on it. Joseph has a small broken screwdriver in his right hand, and the bandages are black and red with oil and blood. "Joseph, what are you doing? The sun's barely up."

"I'm creating a working computer. After I'm done with the circuitry, I'll move onto the sound system, then reinstall the ram capacity module. After I get the lighting back into the screen, I should be able to connect to the internet."

"Internet?"

"Yeah, internet." Joseph nods to himself. "The internet is a vast expansion of technology and data, accessible via computer or any compatible device. Luckily for me, I've already dismantled and reassembled a ton of portable internet access plug-ins..." Joseph sighs. "...You guys, ponies I mean, haven't invented the internet...Oh well, I'll get around it."

Twilight's eyes were spinning. "Wow, you know more about this than I do, that's for sure."

"Yeah, I used to get that a lot." Joseph finishes with the piece of plastic in his hand and shoves it into the back panel of the large metal structure. He reaches further into the creation and sticks his head inside, leaning forward onto his knees. "...Just...a bit more...There, the sound's online. Now for the lighting and the rest of the internal circuitry..." He clucks around a bit more. "...Ugh, Twilight, can you hand me the smallest wrench near the pile of oil cans? It should be the only one without rust."

"...Um...sure." Twilight uses her magic to grab the metal tool. It was nearly five inches long, and like Joseph said, it was free of any orange residue. She levitates the item into the hole Joseph was working in. "Here you go."

"Thank you Twilight." He tinkers a bit more, then tosses the wrench over his back. It lands in the dirt beside his white sneaker, which was brown from moving in the dirt. "...Almost..."

"Joseph," Twilight says as she moves over beside him. "I saw your bandages. We need to get your injury cleaned up or you'll risk infection."

"A little bloated skin and peeling is something I can deal with Twilight. Right now this computer is my top priority."

"Joseph, please."

Joseph shifts his weight as he squeezes into the machine further. He squirms and lurches forward, completely entering the machine. He moves around in the dark innards of the metal structure for a moment more before popping his head out the back panel he fell through. "Twilight, this is very important to me. Please let me work for a while longer?"

Twilight bites her bottom lip and looks over at the small hills that formed the fields. "...Okay...but in one hour I'm coming back out here, and whether or not you want to, I'm bringing you inside to redress your hand."

"Deal." Joseph disappears from sight back into the large computer and Twilight turns back toward her house.

Twilight sighs to herself, but pulls her feet forward back into her home. Spike was waiting for her on the couch. "Spike," she says sternly, "go and take inventory of our potion stock. I want to know if we have the right ingredients for a special potion."