//------------------------------// // Aw, nerd! // Story: Equestria Glitch Techs // by Kaliann25 //------------------------------// Aw, nerd! “Hey girls! How’s your afternoon doing?” greeted Sonata after an exciting day with Five and her new friend Miko. Adagio and Aria turned their heads to see Sonata entering the house, but shrugged and turned their attention back to the T.V. “Weren’t you just going for some tacos?” asked Adagio, annoyed. “Only you are able to get lost on a three blocks trip!” complained Aria. Sonata smiled apologetically to her sisters. They may sound like they were mocking her, but she knew they were genuinely worried about her. Of course they would never admit it, especially to Sonata. “Yeah, sorry I’m late girls. But I bumped into my friend Five; you know, my Taco Pal. And he told me that he had some problems with magic on his other job so I introduced him to the Rainbooms. But they already knew each other. It turned out that the Rainbooms were his problem!” Aria groaned. “We do not mention the Rainbooms in this house, idiot. How can you get along with them after what they did to us?” But Adagio was interested in something else. “Wait! You said that they were the problem? What happened?” “My friend Five works for Hinobi, and it seems that Hinobi consoles do really weird stuff when they interact with magic. You should be there, it was awesome!” Adagio raised an eyebrow. “Hinobi? Those are videogames, right?” Aria nodded. “Yes, the largest videogame company in the world. But anyway, magic does weird stuff in this boring world.” Sonata nodded excitedly. “Yes, but Hinobi takes the prize! You can summon videogame stuff to come to the real world. It’s really cool! Miko and Five call them ‘glitches’. They are so interesting, and you don’t even need magic to make them appear. All you need to do is damage your Hinobi console!” Adagio and Aria groaned and raised the T.V.’s volume. This was what they got for paying attention to Sonata’s nonsense. Sonata only shrugged with a smile and went to her room. She had a very good day, but she was exhausted and needed to sleep. However Adagio was not able to pay attention to the show. Her mind was somewhere else. “Videogame monsters…” Aria rolled her eyes. “Don’t take her too serious. She may had too much sugar; or that many tacos finally affected her brain. Besides, we only have a tiny bit of magic left. We cannot afford to waste it in one of Sonata’s nonsenses.” Adagio looked at the drawer locked with a key where they kept the last fragment of their gems with the last of their magic. They have sworn that they would use it to get revenge on the Rainbooms no matter what. But they hadn’t come with a plan that would work. They could not underestimate their opponents or they would lose everything. Adagio sighed. “You are right but is worth a test.” Aria raised an eyebrow. “Did you hit your head or something?” Adagio grinned. “Don’t get me wrong. I would never risk our magic for something like that. But think about it, Sonata spent the afternoon with those Rainbooms so there’s a chance she is actually onto something. We just have to make them think we are going to use our magic with a Hinobi console to see how they react and see if we can try it for real in the future.” Adagio shrugged. “Fine, as long as we don’t waste our magic I guess it’s fine. I think I still have my 3HS with a game I never was able to finish. We can use it to make the test.” Adagio grinned. She still didn’t like that her sister befriended the Rainbooms but she had to admit that ‘that’ friendship was useful from time to time. Sonata’s carefree and naïve nature made her easy to manipulate; but also, easy to trust. She was far too innocent for her own good. At the next day: Adagio and Aria came to the school as usual. But this time they had Aria’s 3HS and a fake crystal on their backpacks. “Now we just have to wait until they’re all together!” said Adagio. “Yeah… whatever!” said Aria. She wasn’t convinced that this would work but it was worth a try. The only problem was that they had to wait until the end of the day since the Rainbooms had different schedules, and the only time they were together was after classes. They liked to hang out for a bit before going to their part time jobs or other extracurricular activities. Then after a boring day, it was finally time for them to try Adagio’s theory. Adagio and Aria waited for the Rainbooms at the lockers while Sonata simply ran to get her daily dose of tacos from Papi Nieves’ truck. Finally, the seven girls appeared. Aria was sceptic but decided to tag along. “Hey Rainbooms!” called Adagio walking toward them. “Hey Adagio, what’s up?” greeted Sunset. “What’s up? I don’t know, some revenge perhaps?” said Adagio frowning. The Rainbooms sighed. “Seriously Adagio, that was like months ago! How can you be still mad?” asked Pinkie, much to Adagio’s irritation. “Months? Shall I remind you that we used to be immortals?! We are hundreds of years old, months are like nothing for creatures like us. Or they used to be until you turned us into fragile humans.” Aria nodded. “Only Sonata is able to forgive and forget. We are not as innocent.” “They you should learn a thing or two from her!” said Fluttershy Applejack only rolled her eyes. “Okay parner’s we have things to do. Out of our way!” Adagio put her hand inside her backpack and took the console and the fake crystal. “Or what? This is the last of our magic and this is a videogame console. A Hinobi console.” The girls’ eyes widened much to Adagio’s delight. So Sonata was actually onto something. She would reward her later, now she had to think on a plan with Aria. Aria giggled. “So it wasn’t just another Sonata nonsense?” “Yeah, I told you we should give it a shot!” grinned Adagio. The girls started to move backwards, but Sunset Shimmer tried to approach to the Dazzling sisters. “Adagio, put that down! We can talk about this, just put that down before something bad happens!” said Sunset trying to mend things. The two sisters were laughing happily, when out of nowhere vice principal Luna came from behind and tried to snatch the 3HS from Adagio’s hand. “Adagio Dazzle, you know is forbidden to take videogames to school!” Adagio gasped and tried to pull the console from the vice principal’s grip. “Give it back! Is mine, I need it!” “Actually, is mine.” mumbled Aria. Vice principal Luna pulled harder. “Give it to me, rules are rules!” Adagio pulled it back. “No, no!!” Finally, the console slipped from both of their hands in the middle of that tug war, and went flying and crashed to a wall. The screen cracked. “No!” cried Adagio. But Vice principal Luna was very upset, and grabbed Adagio by the wrist. “To my office. Now!” The Rainbooms sighed in relief, when Fluttershy noticed that the console was trembling and generating sparks. “Uhm… girls?” Everyone gasped. “Did you actually used our magic?!” shouted Aria. Adagio shook her head. “Of course not! You saw I left our crystal at home!” Sunset groaned. “Damn it, I forgot magic is not necessary.” Finally, the console let escape a green energy field that started to change the school into a colorful town in the middle of the woods, with lots of tiny houses painted with vibrant colors. But also it brought to life horrid pony-like creatures made out of bones with the remaining of their flesh hanging. And red eyes. A big bright sign appeared in the middle of the school, not the town center. WELCOME TO SUNNY TOWN Sunset facepalmed. “Adagio, you are a goddamn moron!” The nightmarish ponies turned their heads to the girls and started to walk toward them. “Come with us, we’ll protect you from the mark… from the curse. We’ll be together and take good care of each other… come with us…” Rarity made a barrier to keep the creatures away from them. “What we do now?!” cried the girls, as the creatures continued to try to get them. “Use your magic! Purify whatever these things are!” cried Adagio. “I have news for you, magic would only make this situation worse!!” shouted Sci-Twi. The skeleton ponies started to scratch the barrier with heir hooves. “Come with us! Come with us our dears!” “What can we do?!” cried Fluttershy hiding behind Applejack and Pinkie. As usual, Vinyl Scratch was in her own little world dancing around with her headphones and her glasses, when she finally noticed what happened with the school. She gasped in surprise and wanted to know what was going on, when one of the skeleton ponies got her from behind. The effect was instantaneous, her skin melted, leaving only the bones and a few scraps hanging from them. And even if they were covered with sunglasses, the red eyes were still visible. More students went out of their classrooms only to be met by the horrid creatures that were slowly turning them into their kind. Behind Rarity’s barrier, the girls screamed horrified for what they saw. More and more students joined the creatures’ forces. Aria shivered. “I hate this game, I really do!” They turned to her. “You know what’s this all about?!” asked vice principal Luna. “Yes, I mean no. Is a game I rage quitted years ago! But I don’t know what’s going on!” said Aria. “This is a glitch, basically this is what happens if you mess with Hinobi Tech.” explained Sci-Twi. “Can you fix it?” asked Adagio trembled in fear. Sunset’s eye twitched and punched her on the head. “No idiot! Magic is not involved in this! There’s nothing we can do!” Rarity was sweating. “We better think about something because I don’t know how long I can hold them!” Applejack turned her head to one of the houses that popped out right behind them and lifted it with her super strength. She raised it over their heads. “Rares’!” Rarity nodded and released the barrier, and Applejack threw the house over the horde of skeleton ponies making a breach that allowed the girls to run away. “Okay, where to?” asked Rainbow Dash as they kept running. Sci-Twi turned to see the creatures resuming their chase. She frowned, she may not be able to touch them directly, but she could throw objects at them to slow them down and that was what she did. She used her telekinesis to lift fences, mailboxes and such to put as many obstacles as possible on the skeleton’s way. Aria looked around until she spotted a path on the forest. “There!” “Are you sure?” asked Pinkie. “I may have not completed the game, but I went this far! Come on!” They kept running as Twilight and Applejack were using the trees to hide the path. “There’s a cabin at the end of the path, we’re getting closer!” said Aria. Finally they saw it, an abandoned cabin. It looked sinister and lonely but it was their only chance. They closed the door behind it them. Adagio was breathing heavily, and her heart was a thousand miles per hour. “What was that all about? I didn’t even use magic I swear!” Rainbow and Sunset punched her again. “Shut up! This is all your fault!” said Rainbow Dash. Adagi groaned in pain and turned to vice principal Luna. “Hey, you’re a teacher! Do something!” The woman glared at her. “I would, but then I would lose my job.” Adagio and Aria groaned. “Okay, yes I messed up and I’m sorry! I didn’t know this would happen. I thought if I didn’t use magic nothing would happen! How was I supposed to know that magic isn’t necessary?” tried to explain Adagio. “Well, Sonata did tell us!” reminded Aria. The girls groaned in annoyance. “Now that I think about it, why didn’t those idiots wiped Sonata’s memory too? That would have saved us this problem!” complained Rainbow Dash. “Well, Sonata is a friend so they may have thought that if they do, we would have restored her somehow.” explained Fluttershy. Sunset nodded. “Yes, makes sense. Now I kinda wish we would had let them wipe our memories too.” The sound of hooves walking toward them reminded the girls that they weren’t completely out of danger. “Aria, now what?” asked Pinkie Pie. Aria pointed a finger to a corner of the cabin, to a pile of bones. Fluttershy shrieked and the rest of the girls prepared for the worse, but Aria calmed them down. “This is not one of them, relax! This is our guide!” “What?!” asked Fluttershy. The bones started glowing, and finally a figure raised over them. It was a semi-transparent pony with blonde mane and bright yellow lights as eyes. She made the girls a sign for them to follow her, as she went through the wall. “There’s a secret door, we just have to find the hidden mechanism!” said Aria. They began to look for it all over the floor as the ponies were coming closer. They didn’t have much time. Finally, Fluttershy accidentally stepped on a misplaced tile, revealing the secret door. After a quick congratulation session, the girls ran as the skeleton ponies broke into the cabin. In the distance, the yellow-eyed pony was waving at them, urging the girls to follow her, “And this is where I couldn’t continue! I’m sorry!” apologized Aria. The path was guiding them deeper into the forest, and finally they realized they were a the edge of a very tall cliff. “Where are we going?” asked Sunset. “To a dead end!” said Aria. “Keep an eye open to anything that may look like an alternate route!” They finally reached the end of the path. At their left, they had an old wooden bridge, but it was rotten and there was no way even one of them could cross it. At their right they had a very thick forest and a huge rock. And in front of them the path was blocked by an even bigger rock. And, the horde of skeletons were right behind them. They were trapped. The yellow-eyed pony was waving at them from the other side of the bridge, like telling them to hurry up but it wasn’t possible. Applejack could be able to make it by jumping with her super strength, or Rainbow could cross the bridge at supersonic speed and make it safely to the other side but neither of them were willing to abandon their friends. Vice principal Luna walked toward the skeleton ponies as she opened her arms,. “Quick! I’ll buy you some time, just find a way to escape!” And she closed her eyes, resigned to her fate. Out of sudden, an explosion of blue light reduced many of the skeleton ponies to a bunch of pixels as two kids walked toward the group. It was a tall young boy with brownish skin, and curly black hair; and a girl with purple hair and a playful smile. Both of them were dresses in white and blue uniforms with a black armor and blue visors. “Hinobi Tech support!” “Did someone report a glitch?” Sunset advance toward them. “You!” Miko and Five recognized the girls and greeted. “Hey, hello again! How is it going?” smiled Five. Applejack just groaned. “A’ don’t know, kinda’ in trouble!” “Really? But you made it this far without any help! You’re about to finish the game!” said Miko. “Really? I always got stuck at this point and never found the exit!” said Aria. Miko and Five smiled. “It’s okay, we’ll take you out of here. I’ve played Story of the Blanks thousands of times!” said Miko. “Hey Five, give me a hand! The two kids from Hinobi went to the rock of the right and began to push it. Applejack hurried to help them as she saw a second horde of skeletons coming. A new path was revealed. “This way!” called Five. There was no need to repeat it, they ran for their lives as Applejack placed the rock back to its first position to avoid the skeletons to chase them. “I can’t believe I never thought that you could just push that rock and escape!” said Aria. “It’s okay, everyone panics at this point of Story of the Blanks. Most people fall for Ruby’s trap over and over until they figure what to do!” said Miko. Finally they reached to a clearing with a single skeleton pony on the center. “What are you waiting for? Blast it with your bracelets!” said Pinkie. Miko shook her head. “Easy. Unlike Ruby, Mitta is a friendly NPC.” The skeleton pony aimed a hoof Norwest, and they were able to escape to a paved path in the middle of the forest. Miko jumped excitedly. “We did it! We escaped from Sunny Town!” “Great, now what?” asked Sunset Shimmer. Five shrugged. “Now we wait. These type glitches fixes themselves after you finish the game.” “Good! I don’t want to go through something like this ever again!” cried Fluttershy. “So how long until the game ends?” asked Pinkie. Miko happily pointed at the sky where some letters were appearing over their heads. “Not so long, since the credits are already displaying.” Vice principal Luna raised an eyebrow. “What on earth? Really, what’s going on here?” Finally when the last name disappeared from above, a new shockwave shook the town, and the school went back to normal. The converted students returned to their normal selves before they fainted. And finally, the broken console stopped to shake and went back to normal. Five took it. “Alright, we’ll take this to the Hinobi store for repair, and return it to the owner. Who’s these?” “It’s mine!” said Aria. “Ok!” said Miko writing a ticket and giving it to the siren. “Come to the Hinobi store by tomorrow and we’ll have it ready for you. Just make sure to take good care of it so it doesn’t create any more glitches.” Five turned to Sunset. “So, why this happened? You said you wouldn’t mess with Hinobi tech anymore!” Sunset pointed a finger to Adagio and Aria. “Tell that to Sonata’s sisters! Why didn’t you wiped her memory too, huh?” Five scratched his head. “I thought she was your friend… and since you have prevented us to reset your memories, I thought it would be the same with her.” “Told you!” mumbled Fluttershy. “Not to mention she said she was a magical creature and we made a vow to not to deal with your magic anymore!” added Miko. “Or is she not?” Sunset sighed. “Yes, she is. And these two are as well. But their powers are sealed so it’s safe to wipe their memories.” Adagio and Aria crossed their arms. “Yeah, right! As if we could forget something as big as this! A power as big as magic is inside Hinobi? Too good to forget!” said Adagio with a grin. Aria nodded. “Yeah, Sonata did good by informing us about something this good! Now we’ll…” Five simply aimed his Hinibi bracelet to the Dazzling sisters, and shot them with the white light as Miko did the same with vice principal Luna. The trio stared to the wall as the Rainbooms and the Glitch Techs exited the school. Five smiled apologetically at the girls. “Sorry for all this trouble! I’ll reset Sonata’s memory as soon as I see her again, okay?” “That would be great, thanks!” said Sunset in a bad mood. “But I understand that this was our mistake too. Thank you for saving us!” “Just doing our job!” said Five. He and Sunset shook hands as Miko checked on something on her Tech bracelet. “Hey guys! I think one of the monsters escaped! I am still detecting a glitch sign on the area!” Five and Sunset turned to her. “What?” Sunset shivered. “Is something wrong, darling?” asked Rarity. “Is just that I have a very bad feeling about this…” Miko started to look for the glitch sign, until her bracelet gave her a result. Right on the main entrance of the school. Miko smiled triumphant. “Found it! Is… inside the horse statue?” She scratched her head in confusion as Sunset facepalmed. “Of course this would happen! Damn it!”