The. she. we.
MLP: FiM
Romance
Slice of Life
A man, empty. A mare, damaged. A life, lived. A life - loved.
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Shinzakura · 111k words · 984 58 · 15k views

Something is Coming on a Wintry Day · 1:28am Dec 18th, 2019

I set the PS4 controller down and look at the eager developer faces before me.

“Does anyone have an Atari 2600 joystick?” I ask in my sweetest voice. I barely know what one is – I saw a picture of it once and from a conversation that North and I had, apparently it was one of the earliest videogame systems. The name is, from what I gather, synonymous with near-hagiographic respect and, conversely, bottom-barrel scum feeding. From what I gather, the graphics of one of those games would probably pass as cutting-edge in Equestria.

A girl who appears younger than my (supposed) age adjusts her glasses and runs her hand through dyed-green hair. Between that and her hazel eyes, I’d swear she looks like someone made a human analog of one of the ponies I knew as if they were making a high-school spin off of a toy line or something. She then asks me, “Um…what’s an Atari?”

I resist the temptation to look over the rim of my glasses (as that would reveal my real eyes) and instead say to Ben Sandoval, “I see your crew isn’t versed in the classics.” Not that I am either – yay for hypocrisy! – but a person like me is supposed to, so I make a mental note to go hunt one down off of EBay first chance I get.

Ben looks at me through that salt-and-pepper hair of his and rubs his bearded chin; in the few days that I’ve known him so far, I have noticed that is very much a nervous tic of his. As BurnStrike, he was one of the very first e-sports guys, and even though he’s retired from that now, as CEO of Renaissance, he’s trying his best to have his team put out an impossible task. “No, but I’m surprised you do. People your age typically think of the NES as the first system.”

“Well, I like to be a well-rounded gal,” I point out, using my best disarming smile before I lay out the truth to them. “In any case, your controls aren’t. They feel, well, sticky. Like the controller drivers aren’t programmed correctly, or like you dipped the controller in glue this morning.”

One of the guys in the back looks at me with a mixture of embarrassment and disappointment. “Uh, it’s, um…it’s a custom driver,” he says haltingly.

I then explain that it makes the game handle like a slog and that’s on the PS controller. On the XBox one, it’s even worse and I want to beat the controller to death. And don’t even get me started on the PC layout. Glad I’m not on that team, but I swear I think the guy who’s doing the testing for that is probably going to need some hot chocolate, a teddy bear and hugs from a dozen of the cutest mares available.

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