I was woken up by loud, multiple, simultaneous ~~deep strikes~~ cheers of 'FUCK YEAAAAAAAH'. The sheer force if the cheer caused me to fall out of bed at 7:00AM. IT was the first lie-in I'd had for a while, and I was thankful, but my snooze started at 5:00AM. Quite angrily, I left my wings on the bedside table, and stormed downstairs into the kitchen.

"Fuck you all." I said miserably, trotting to the toaster and putting some in. Then, I turned to the other guys. Innocently, they were whistling and making gestures to the newspaper sat in front of me.

ONLINE COMMUNICATION, COMPUTERS, AND TRANSPORT, OH MY!

Then I fainted.

Immediately, my friends and I paid for tickets up to Canterlot, eagerly wanting to congratulate all of the scientists involved for the fact they literally made computers. And since most of the technology available in Equestria comes from the humans that are there, no doubt would it be one of our computers, Bush Whacker's Camper-van (or my jeep), and probably an internet server.

Probably more.

I didn't pay much attention to any of the whole 'hey look it's Thunder Mustang' mares and stallions as we went to the castle, so I felt quite a bit like George Clooney, only clearly 10X more sexual and cool*. Ignoring everything else, minus the burnt out EqD building which I admired for a few minutes, all 5 of us entered the castle. On the way to the lab, a familiar grey unicorn came into view. He was wearing a suit, but I'd recognise Ebony anywhere. However, there were more pressing matters at hoof, like the fact advanced Earth-grade computers now existed and we could probably wangle ourselves some at a later point. We gave each other nods, but he fell in beside us as we all trotted in a line down the halls to the labs. For once in a long time, I felt like we were all together again. In fact, with 5 of us having the option to work as mercenaries due to our 'un-killable' status and the Freaks inside us, plus one of us having high-political powers, it'd be highly likely we could work as a 'Band of Bros', with Ebony picking out targets and the rest of us finding and brutalising them.

It only took a few minutes until we entered the labs, with stallions and mares watching us when we stopped in the middle of the room. "Who is responsible for the re-invention of computers?" Fire called out. After a moment, a stallion raised a hoof. He was normal, as it were; blue, brown mane, and glasses. For a cutie mark he had a...dollar sign?

Dollars?

In Equestria?

Human.

"Yes, Mr Gates?" asked another scientist. 'Knew it.' My friends and I murmured in approval.

"Wait, Gates?" Ebony asked. "As in, Bill Gates?" The stallion looked shocked.

"Y-Yes?" he replied feebly.

"Head of Microsoft?" I asked. "Why're you here?" He paused, all eyes on him in surprise. "So this is where you went missing to." I chuckled. The scientists around the room began continuing their work, so we moved towards Bill. He was there at his desk, disassembling a PC. Next to his desk was Sputnik with the panels removed, no doubt because he needed parts. I don't like Communism anyway, so I was fine with it.

"Yes, I did come here." he nodded. "I've spent this time rebuilding an internet server, so I guess a few reproductions and programming sessions later, Equestria should have internet capability. And yes, I've started gathering the parts to build and program a human-level computer, so I guess this is another 'get rich' moment for me." Inferno laughed.

"Implying that you weren't retardedly rich back home anyway." he snorted. "Anyway, you're like the second real human we've encountered here. First was Thunder's brother, then you. So do you want a drink or something?"

"I'm mostly interested in what you mean by 'real human'." he replied, pulling out a motherboard. "What, there's TV characters here?"

"Well, we've met Doktor Schadenfreude, who turns out to be TF2's BLU Medic, Bush Whacker, and he's the Sniper, Rock Roller, and he's basically the Heavy, and..." Solar paused, looking to me. "What did Soldier call himself?" I shrugged. "Anyway, Thunder also mentioned 'Psycho Badflank' a few months ago, so if you think about it, that's 'Badass Psycho', as in the Borderlands variety. Hmm..."

"Rooftop?" I said.

"Ah yeah, Rooftop, he's Altair, from what I can gather from his accent and behaviour. But, ah, yeah. Those kind of ponies. The ones that weren't real people before." Bill thought.

"Have you ever thought that the woman from Mirror's Edge might be here?" he asked. We all stopped to think.

"Christ." Ebony whistled. "Good point."

"Maybe she has links to my clan?" I suggested. "I can track her down, if you wanted me to. Anyway, well done Bill, you've made Equestria more exciting. How much will these things cost?"

"With the high-end graphics, headset and microphone, plus 1080p widescreen monitor and custom built mouse for a hoof?" he smirked. "Not much. These're going to be shipped to Everypony in Equestria." I facehoofed.

"Oh god, does that mean-?" I began.

"Yes, screaming children on Steam."

"Brilliant." I sighed. Then my ears pricked up. "You just said Steam."

"Well, yeah...?"

"If Steam is here, could it connect to Earth's Steam service?" I asked hopefully.

"I suppose it could."

"So I could access my old Steam account?"

"If it's possible to reach Earth's Steam, yes."

"And if Everypony in Equestria can access it...?"

"God, you're full of questions."

"Yes." Inferno chuckled. "But would we be able to contact our Earth friends?"

"If it allows cross-dimensional Steaming, you should be able to."

"Yes." I smiled. "Cheers, Bill. See you around, I suppose?"

"I suppose."

We all went for a drink later, and it was pretty nice. Warm evening, so at least Winter was ending. But then this also meant Estrus was starting, and it's where thousands of Stallions were forced into fatherhood by mares they didn't even know. A few mares were acting strangely, but nothing of worry to us; we'd be out of the city in a half hour. Across the street, ponies were dropping their tasks to read about the new age.

Equestria was becoming Earth.

Author's Note

* Trust me, I'm a 'brilliant', 'well-made' OC.