> Story Prompt: You have [1] unread messages · 8:48am Mar 21st, 2022
It was a strange device.
Happy had seen them before. Terminals, his clanmates had called them. Metal, plastic, clicky things made from burnt cords and broken glass.
But this one was different. A faint hum reverberated from within it’s housing, a tiny, flashing, green bar blinking on the top right corner of the chipped glass pane.
Raising an eyebrow, the gray buck glanced at the bumpy-board in front of it, giving it an experimental tap with his hoof.
Click.
The buck’s eyes widened as another shape, a circular word-letter, appeared on the screen, the green bar now flashing at its side.
Click.
A crissy-cross plus sign shaped word-letter.
Click click.
Two identical word-letters that looked like sideways threes.
The buck gasped, bringing his hooves to his cheeks in a gleeful squee.
Click-click-click! Click-click! Clickty-click!
So many word-letters! So many clickity-clicks!
Happy couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun.
The gray buck continued to tap away at the keyboard, the green blinky-bar running for its life as the mob of green characters on the screen spread. Eventually, it had no space left to continue, Happy’s expert science skills trapping it a the bottom right of the glass pane.
Grinning, Happy let out a low chuckle as he rubbed his hooves together.
Nowhere to run now, blinky-bar.
Eyeing the bumpy-board in front of him, the gray buck’s gaze drifted to the largest click-key. It was rectangular in shape, sporting an important looking arrow that set it apart from the others around it.
The chief-key. The leader-pony of its clan.
Click.
The buck’s ears perked up as the dull whine of the machine in front of him began to increase in pitch. The screen flickered for a moment before going dark, the word-letters and blinky-bar disappearing with it.
The buck’s eyes widened.
What had happened? Had he broken it?
A few moments later, the screen flickered back to life, new word-letters appearing one after the other. Phantom word-letters that appeared without any hoof-taps on Happy’s end.
[TRANSMITTING MESSAGE. PLEASE WAIT.]
Happy tilted his head to the side.
If only haunted terminals could speak pony-talk.
[PLEASE WAIT…]
[PLEASE WAIT…]
[PLEASE WAIT…]
[...MESSAGE SENT. AWAITING RESPONSE.]
The buck nodded to himself.
Yep. It was broken.
*****
In the corner of the dusty underground complex, a terminal on the far end of the room hums to life. The words [MESSAGE RECEIVED] flash across the screen twice before displaying a massive wall of random symbols, numbers, and letters.
The words "shINy" "hApPy" and "cLicK" are interspersed at random throughout the text, no discernable pattern to their order.
Another line of text appears at the bottom of the screen, a flashing green cursor blinking next to a short prompt.
[Reply to sender: Y/N?]
