Technological Chronicles

"'The Hoof'?" 8-Bit asked, walking up to the window before her and staring out at the city.

"Yes. An entire world created by me and only me; no help from others, whatsoever." Haywire explained, "I created this world as an experiment, to increase the capabilities of programs everywhere and to work inside the network itself."

"Why would you need to work inside when you can just do it from outside?"

"That's what I asked myself: Why would I need to waste my time making another world when I can do the same without it? Well, I realized that it wasn't going to work out as I thought it would. Think of it as a store: You see the outside and you know how everything works; everypony asks what they want and they trot out of the store, with their desired item. But, if you went in as a worker, then you'd see how everything works in detail, what goes into getting that mare or stallion's item. If I do the same thing with a computer, I'll know how everything works, I'll know exactly what's going on and where."

"That's so cool! What do you when you're not working?" 8-Bit took a pillow from the orbit and sat down.

"Hmm... Well, I suppose I could take you down to The Games, but I'm not sure you'd like it..." Haywire went up to the window and stared at the city. 8-Bit could see her dad smirking in the reflection.

She got up from the pillow and bounced up and down, begging her dad, "Ooh, ooh, please, can we go?"

"Sure, why not, it is your birthday."

"Yay!" She jumped excitedly.

"Come, 8-Bit, I'll show you how we'll get there."

    He waved his key card in front of a scanner that opened a door into a reflective room. Inside that room were multiple doors that had a pixelized haze blocking each door. In the middle was a blue power core that pulsed with each step they took. 8-Bit took amusement to it and started to play around with it, jumping side to side.

"8-Bit," Her dad called, "This way." He nodded towards a door labeled 'The Arena'.

    They both stepped through the door and walked through a hallway of scripts. Letters and numbers floated around the 2 ponies, taking a slow walk through the digital space. A string of coding wrapped itself around 8-Bit, making her giggle as it unraveled itself in front of her and shot back into the digital walls. In front of her, she saw a doorway of pure light that her dad disappeared into. Soon, she could hear a faint noise of cheering. As she stepped closer and closer, the cheering grew louder and louder. Then, when she stepped through the door, she found her dad standing in the middle of a glass box. When she looked down, her mouth dropped in awe as a dark reflective arena suddenly surrounded her. The box she stood in hovered precariously in the middle of the arena. 8-Bit could see that there were millions of ponies cheering and hooting.

"Wow..." She whispered, still taking in the sight of the arena.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Haywire smiled.

She looked down at another glass box off in the distance. "What is that, daddy?"

"Ah, Disc Wars. That's quite a fun game."

    In the box, 2 ponies were fighting with, what looked like glowing frisbees. The first pony, a red unicorn, took the disc off with his horn and levitated it in front of him. The second one, an orange pegasus, held the disc in his mouth. Both of them charged each other. As the unicorn charged the pegasus, the pegasus jumped into the air, landing upside down in the glass box. He threw the disc, but missed, making it bounce off the other walls before catching it back in his mouth. The unicorn jumped up to join his advisory. He charged the pegasus, but he jumped back down onto the normal flooring. The unicorn followed. Then, the pegasus charged him, but he tripped. The unicorn jumped in the air, disc ready to strike him.

8-Bit turned away, scared to see what was about to happen. Haywire chuckled, "Don't worry, honey, nopony gets hurt in here." He aimed her head back at the battle.

The unicorn tagged him on his back, making the pegasus' vest emit a pulsing red light. The unicorn placed the disc on his back and smiled as a roar of cheers sounded off. The pegasus got up and gave him a congratulatory hoof-shake.

She turned back to her dad to see him with a light blue unicorn standing next to him. He must have noticed her because he made his way over to her.

"Why hello there, you adorable little filly!" He said, bending down to get a closer look at her. She went behind her dad, cowering and hiding her face.

"Ah, don't be afraid, 8-Bit, this is ViTUS; my management program that runs and watches The Hoof when I'm not here. Say hello!"

She slowly came out from behind her dad. "Hi, I'm 8-Bit." She quietly greeted.

"Well, hello, 8-Bit! I'm ViTUS, a great friend of your dad and the management program that runs this place! Your father was the one that created me."

Her eyes opened, "My dad created you?"

"Of course! He created everything around us."

"Awesome!"

ViTUS chuckled, "Indeed it is! Well, everything is all set, Haywire."

"Thank you, ViTUS."

"Ready? Ready for what?" 8-Bit asked.

"For the Light Bike Races." He pointed down at the arena where 2 teams of ponies lined up with their corresponding colors.

    Soon, a series of pixelated tones sounded. All the ponies sprinted and jumped in the air as a bike began to load itself around each of the ponies. Then, all of them shot off in a race around the arena, going faster than anypony had seen. It was really intense to see the digital ponies fight for the lead. Eventually, a blue pony took the lead and ran his first lap, scoring 1 point for blue. However, the next lap, a red pony took the lead and scored a point for red team. The race lasted on for several intense minutes before blue won the game 7-6.

"That was cool!" 8-Bit shouted, face pressed up against the glass.

"I'm glad you liked it!" Haywire chuckled. "C'mon, it's time I take you to lunch."

"Ooh!" 8-Bit groaned, "Why can't we eat here?" She pouted.

"Because the food in here will only affect you in here. If you left after you ate in here, you'd be hungry on the outside."

"Oh... Can we at least come back in after we eat?"

"No, I'm afraid not... I actually have to work on updating the hardware for The Hoof. ViTUS tells me there are a couple of glitches he's seen around the city. Plus, you're going to have to go home; your mother had baked you a wondrous apple pie for your birthday."

"Aw!"

"Don't worry, it'll be done by next week and you can come back to play a little bit longer."

~~~

    After they left The Hoof, Haywire had gotten her a couple of pieces of hay for the trip back home. He waved a hoof good-bye as the carriage took off for Buckingham. She returned the wave back and dug into her small stash of hay her dad had given her. After she ate half of the bag, she put it away and went to sleep again, knowing the length of the trip. She arrived home at night and her mom greeted her with the apple pie she'd made, but 8-Bit was still asleep. She smiled and nudged her awake. She escorted the tired filly to bed and kissed her good night.