//------------------------------// // Augmented Updates // Story: Virtual Mischief, Augmented Darkness // by chaoticevl //------------------------------// Augmented updates Thomas once again finds himself on his ass as he realizes that he’s back in his normal reality. Removing his glasses he stands and moves back towards his pc. The screen was flashing with a message once again. PLEASE INSERT DISC 3 NOW. “Well this looks familiar.” Thomas sighs as he reaches for the disc drive. Placing the recently ejected disc back into its case he quickly pulls the next one out. Taking a look at the next disc Thomas sees exactly what he expected to see. The back was still dark but this time it seemed to have a slight pinkish tinge to it. “Huh, I seem to remember the last disc looking a bit orange. Since Applejack got her element in that one maybe that means this one is pinkie’s!” “That sounds about right!” Says a small girlish voice from below. “Who said that?” “I’m in your pocket!” Giggles the voice. Reaching into his pants Thomas pulls out his pocket pc and wakes it up. On the screen was the Anymapwiki program and sitting in the middle was Screwball waving towards Thomas. “Hey, what happened in there with that glitchy copy of the element?” “Sorry but I can't explain it right now it wouldn't help you and you probably should get that disc started. They have quite the trip ahead of them.” Looking from his pocket pc back to the disc Thomas places it into the drive and closes it. A moment later the screen changes showing a timer of twelve hours on it. Looking down at his phone at a now smirking Screwball. “Why do i need to wait for twelve hours for this thing to process when the last one only took six and the original was nearly instant?” Screwball speaks up with a rather smug look on her face. “I thought it would be fairly obvious to you. Do you really want to sit in a cart with six mares for a three day trip? Especially when one is that pink menace and the others only slightly accept you due to said pink menace?” “I guess not?” Thomas says looking confused. “Don't tell me, you didn’t notice time seems to work a bit differently over there compared to here?” Giggles Screwball as she scoots to the side of the screen. “It will take them about three days their time to get to las pegasus.” Screwball points towards six moving dots on the screen. “Okay i guess that makes sense. Well is there anything you can tell me about the place? So i don't go in completely blind next time.” “I can't give you too much info I'm afraid. The show itself only showed a bit of the city but the bible had a description of the city as a whole.” Screwball reaches off the screen and pulls out a picture. “It’s a two tiered city. The surface part of the city is home to earth ponies and unicorns that work in or for the upper tier. The upper tier itself is made up almost in its entirety by an entertainment district, with the local pegasi living along the outskirts.” “Wouldn't that put the ground based part of the city in the dark for the majority of the day?” Thomas asks while studying the picture. “This picture doesn't quite show it right but the upper portion is actually off to the side like a stair step.” Screwball pulls a small staircase from her mane as she explains the layout of the city. “I really hope the element’s on the ground!” Shudders Thomas. “Sorry to say but with the way the girls will be entering the city, you’ll be popping up in the upper portion.” As Screwball explains this she points to a plateau that connects to the upper portion of the city. Thomas's shoulders slump as his fear of heights starts to creep back into his mind. “ I'm really not looking forward to this.” “You’ll be fine. It's not like you'll instantly fall from there.” Screwball just smiles innocently as she looks towards Thomas. Thomas groans as he tries to stop himself from imagining being in the sky. “Hopefully i won't be able to even see the ground.” Screwball just giggles and then does a over exaggerated yawn to remind Thomas of the time. “You're right it is getting pretty late. I guess I'll check the news real quick before I head to bed.” “Goodnight Thomas.” Says Screwball as she wanders off screen. Thomas shuts off the monitor to his desktop, puts his pocket pc back into his pants pocket and leaves his entertainment room. Making his way into the kitchen he begins to make himself a sandwich as he hadn’t eaten since this morning. As Thomas pulls out the ingredients for his sandwich his fridge beeps at him. A robotic but clearly british voice speaks out. “Master Thomas would you like me to put in an order for bacon and limburger cheese?” Sighing to himself Thomas looks over to the screen on the fridge. “Yes. Please put in an order like the last time. Hopefully they're still takeing orders with the current problems going on.” There was another beep from the fridge. “Acknowledged, master Thomas. Thank you for using Alberways grocery delivery service!” Putting the finishing touches on his BBLT (bacon bologna limberger and turkey) sandwich, Thomas grabs a bottle of water and heads out to the living room to watch the news. As the tv turns on a commercial for term life insurance is just ending. A moment later a middle aged anchor holding a tablet comes into view. “Good evening. For those just joining us I'm George Bridgewell. Tonights topic, just what's going on in our solar system! First a recap, in the early morning hours today the moon stopped in its orbit and a large dark mass began to cover the sun. A ship was quickly launched to find out exactly what that mass was.” A small image of a spaceship was posted in the upper right as the anchor continued.“About an hour ago we received word back that they had visual confirmation on the object. Here now is a video of what they saw.” The video took a moment to focus but what it showed wasn’t a large solid mass moving in front of the sun but a blue and black cloud engulfing it. To Thomas it didn’t quite look natural. It seemed to move in waves and wasn't very thick as holes allowing sunlight to filter through popped up quite often. The video ended as quickly as it started. “The scientists aboard the Challenger 3 will be sending a probe into the cloud to find out what it's made of. They also hope to gather any further info they can, with the intention to move it along or disperse it entirely.” The picture now shows a picture of the moon with the words moon crisis over it. “On the moon side of things the scientists aboard the lunar base are actually pretty stumped as to the cause of its new stationary orbit. They do claim it's stable and won't be moving closer or farther away from the earth. So far other than the western hemisphere having a high tide longer than it should we haven’t...” Turning the tv off Thomas stands up. “I don't know if this is coincidental or all my fault. But if it is my fault then I need to help the girls find these elements as soon as I can.” sighing to himself he makes his way to his bedroom. *** BEEP BEEP BEEP! Thomas startles awake from a restless sleep by his alarm blaring loudly next to him. Rolling over and shutting the alarm off he groans at the time. “Nine am, bleugh it still feels like three am.” getting up he moves towards his bathroom for his usual morning routine. Getting dressed and grabbing his pocket pc Thomas moves onto the kitchen for a quick breakfast of cereal. Opening the Anymapwiki app on his pocket pc Thomas looks down at the moving dots. “They should be there pretty soon!” Says Screwball as she saunters onto the screen. “Oh, good morning Screwball!” Says Thomas between large bites of cereal. “I was wondering last night. Can we really not tell them what the element is?” Shaking her head while placing her forehooves in an x pattern Screwball speaks up. “We cannot tell them. Forcing them to recognize what their elements are would have the opposite effect.” Audibly sighing and visibly shrinking Screwball continues. “Too be honest if we're dealing with pinkies element I think she’ll figure it out right away. How to actually get it might take a bit more time.” Having finished eating while Screwball talked Thomas washes his bowl out. “Why do you think she’d recognize her element so easily?” “Because she’s the pink menace that's why!” Steam puffs out of her head as Screwball shouts her displeasure. Chuckling to himself. “I don't know why you call her that. Though i think you should try to get along with her. You both seem to have quite a few things in common.” “You'll know soon enough why i call her the pink menace and that's all i'm going to say on the matter!” With a loud huff and crossing her forehooves, Screwball turned around facing away from Thomas ending the current conversation. Thomas just laughs as he picks up his pocket pc and puts it back in his front pocket. Having finished with breakfast he goes to check on his desktop to see how much time he has left. “Forty five minutes left. I guess i can go watch some tv for a bit.” As he heads for his tv he’s stopped by a knock on his front door. “Oh maybe the other set of dvds i order has finally come in. Not that i have the time to mess with them.” Thomas opens the door finding the same delivery guy from a few days ago. “Hey man i knew this address looked familiar! Thanks again for telling me about the elevator. It made this trip so much easier.” The delivery guy hands Thomas a signature pad. Thomas quickly signs his name and hands it back. “No problem.” “Here you go one emergency delivery!” Thomas looks down at the box it certainly wasn't big enough to be a box set. “I don't remember ordering anything this small.” “Sorry dude, I don't know what's in it. I just know i was told to pick it up and deliver it to this address this morning. They paid quite a bit as well.” Thomas starts to reach for his wallet when they delivery guy stops him. “Don't worry about a tip this time. They gave me quite a big tip when i picked it up to make sure you got it on time.” “Well thats surprisingly nice of them. Thanks and bye.” Says Thomas as he waves and backs away from the door. Closing the door he stares down at the box. The label reads from Disco Riders Media. Concerned and a bit confused Thomas heads back to his computer to open the box. Sitting down he grabs a nearby pair of scissors. Carefully opening the box he removes a small amount of bubble wrap to find a rather high tech looking collar. “I certainly don't remember ordering something like this. Let alone ordering it from Disco.” “You didn't order it!” Shouts Screwball from Thomas's pocket. Pulling the pocket pc out and waking it up he looks down on a rather sheepish looking Screwball. “What do you mean I didn't order it?” “I ordered it for you.” “YOU WHAT!” Yells Thomas. “I may not be hurting for money, but what right do you have for ordering things for me!” At Thomas's bellow Screwball jumps off screen. Peeking her head back out a bit she speaks up. “I-it didn't cost you anything, and you may need it.” “What do you mean i might need it? And how did you order something without money?” Thomas calms down a bit as he talks. Gaining a bit of confidence Screwball comes back on screen. “I'm part of Disco Riders Media. So if i ask for something to be sent for my user they’ll do so. As for why you might need it. Well it's a static collar, like your bracelets. Based on the information i was able to get from your last round trip, it seems as though they were the cause of your ability to interact with their world. So i believe you should be able to replace them with this collar and you’ll be able to have you entire body be tangible or intangible as needed.” Sighing Thomas looks at the collar. It does seems to resemble a larger version of his bracelets. “Alright, that makes sense as to why i would need it. But i can't see why they would send this at your request. It can't be cheap and why would they have something like this to send out at the request of a program?” Taking off the bracelets, he places them on the desk. Opening the collar and placing it around his neck, Thomas turns it on. As the field covers his body a tingling sensation follows, but quickly fades. “The reason they sent it when i asked is they know what's going on and have since the beginning.” Screwball whispers the last bit as she looks around in a slightly shifty manner. “What did you say?” “I said you might want to get ready the timer is about to end.” Screwball just smiled with sweat drops coming of her head. “You know as well as i do, that's not what you said.” Seeing she was right Thomas grabbed his stuff and made his way to the center of the room. “We’ll be talking about this later.” Placing the pocket pc back in his pants Thomas makes himself ready as the timer finishes its countdown.