//------------------------------//
// The Virtual Colt 
// Story: Button Mash's Awful Video Game Experience 
// by TheExhaustedBrony 
//------------------------------//

	Button stared at the floor in shock and disbelief.  He couldn't believe what he had just experienced.  There's no way he or anypony in the entire universe and known cosmos could have prepared himself for this.  Today was the day that Button learned of the dark ages of video games and the horrors that spawned from the shadows.  The concept behind the Power Hoof was very ambitious for the time and it would have been a cool if it been functional but instead, the only thing it brought to the fillies and colts that were dumb enough to buy it was anger.  Despite the deep psychological scarring that was caused by that miserable excuse of a controller, Button figured that they couldn't all be bad.  There's no way dad could even joke about this being fun.  There was nothing good or fun to be said about the Power Hoof.  It's so bad.

“Here you go.” Button's father placed the most peculiar looking object he had ever seen in his life right before him.  It looked like a pair of red binoculars on a stand.  

“What's this thing?” Button asked.

“This my boy, is the Virtual Colt.” The stallion said, wiping the dust off the top.

Button looked at his father with a puzzled expression, “Virtual Colt?”

Button's father gave an affirmative nod, “The Virtual Colt was made by the same company that made the JoyBoy and was marketed as the first portable game console to utilize virtual reality.  The way it worked is that it projected two images into each eye to create the illusion of depth of field and to fully immerse the player in the game.”

“Really?” Button was astonished.  Virtual reality was something that every gamer wanted to experience more than anything, but the technology just wasn't ready and it would be a while before VR headsets would hit the shelves.  Could it be that virtual reality was already mastered before he was even born?!  It just sounded too good to be true.

“Yep.  Now, look through the eye pieces and I'll turn the game on.”

“Okay.” Button scooted himself closer so that he could feel the rubber lining of the system on his face.  It was completely dark inside the system and was rather claustrophobic inducing. 

“You ready?  I've put in Vertical Force.”

“Yea!  I'm rea-WAAAAAAAAAAH!” Button wasn't prepared for the dark space around his eyes to become flooded with blood red light.  The menu screen appeared and the little colt instinctively pressed the start button on the controller.  He thanked Celestia that it worked.  When the game started up, Button found it kind of extremely disappointing that the game was a top-down shooter.  Not that he disliked that genre of games or anything, but he was expecting something that would be in a first person perspective.  After all, it was called the Virtual Colt.  So it wouldn't be wrong of him to expect the games to simulate virtual reality.

“How is it?”

“It's alright, I guess.” Button honestly couldn't think of much else to say about the game.  It was just another space shooter game like the ones he's played on other consoles.  The only thing the game did to create any sort of three dimensional depth was having the ability to have the ship change elevations.  The real disappointment set in when Button realized that there wasn't much else to it.  He ha.  It was kind of cool at first and Button was enjoying his time playing a functional video game.  However, it wasn't long before the colt felt like his head was going to split open.

“Owowowowowowow!” Button reared back away from the Virtual Colt and pressed his hooves tightly against his forehead.

“Button!  Are you alright?!”

“Uwaaaah!  This thing hurts my eyes and gives me a headache!” Button screamed.

“Just take deep breaths Button, it'll pass.” The stallion gently rubbed the child's back, waiting for the headache to subside.

It didn't take long for the pain to go away, but for the time that it took the game to cause it and the amount of pain that it inflicted was like an eternity of agony for Button.

“You feeling better?”

Button took a deep breath, “Yea, I think so.”

“You need to take a break?”

Button shook his head.

“You feeling up for another game or two?”

Button nodded.  His fiery passion for gaming wouldn't let a headache stop him from indulging himself on electronic entertainment.

He put his face up to the Virtual Colt and took a deep breath, “Ready, dad!  Lets do this!” Button braced himself for the blinding light of the game.

“Here's Red Alarm.” Button's father switched on the console and the game lit up.  It was a 3D space shooter like Star Pony on the Super JBES.  However, unlike Star Pony, Red Alarm was made completely out of wire frame.

“Holy cow!  Red is right!” Button was dumbfounded by the lack of rendered shapes.  Button's eyes couldn't tell how far away things were or which way he was oriented because the walls had no textures.  It was impossible for his mind to determine what was an opening and what was a solid wall.  At this point, he couldn't take it anymore.  It only took three seconds before Button's eyes began to punish his little body for gazing upon the horrors of the game that is Red Alarm.

“I can't take it!  It's nothing but lines!” Button spoke through clenched jaws, “Can we do something else dad?!”