//------------------------------//
// 35 - Magically Tense 
// Story: Return to Equestria 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

David flipped through his book. Not one he held, or accessed with a mouse. He was flipping through the one in his head. "It's pretty obvious you're not all real..." The teleport had failed entirely. "But I don't know... Oh!" He descended the stairs into the busy computer shop, waving at some of the customers that recognized him and waved in kind.

Joy noticed him emerging. "There you are! Joining us?"

"I was going to go for a short jog." He shuffled on his still new hooves. "Alright?"

"Sure it is. Don't go more than a block away, please. I worry about you."

David patted her shoulder. "You care." A compliment, at least for him. "I won't, promise." He almost-jogged out onto the sidewalk. "Alright, let's try this. First, the control." He walked at a purposeful rate to the corner. "Test begin." He broke into a proper jog right back the way he came, passing the store at an energy bouncing. "Run forward, not up." He realized something as he ran. He had regained that ability. "Crap..." It was a little thing, not being able to run properly, but he had regained that. "Keep it steady. Jogging..."

He arrived  at the end of the block, sore, winded, but he had made it. "I'm better!" He thrust a hand up, clenched in a victory pump. The other rested on his side as he slowly regained his breath. "Alright..." He turned back around, glaring at the sidewalk as if a challenge. "This time..." He wasn't in a hurry, waiting for his body to recover entirely from his first jog.

The pain of the run faded away. His heart had slowed along with his breath. Everything felt like it had come back to a rest. "Let's try this." He broke into a jog, but his thoughts went elsewhere, to the imagination of his inside. He needed more oxygen to get in. He needed more carbon dioxide to get out. The smooth exchange between his working muscles and the blood, from there through the heart, pumping with the precision of millions of years of evolution to his lungs, one more exchange to get the good in and the bad out. Nice and smooth, all working the way it was designed to by random chance, luck, and sticking with what worked by the sheer stubborn nature of evolution.

It was code done with no manual, and keeping what happened to work, over and over and over countless times. He was nothing, just nudging it a step forward, one step after millions. A tiny thing, but even a 1% improvement was a lot of improvement. Countless more oxygen atoms in. Countless more CO2 out. His body was a fine tuned machine, or so he envisioned.

He returned his attention to what he was doing. "Oops..." He had run right past the end of the block, and arrived near the water. If he kept going for too much longer, he would have crashed into the guard rail, or hopped over it and then into the water. "Huh..." But none of that mattered. He didn't feel sore. He smiled as he twirled around back towards the store. He wasn't sore! His breath was coming right back down rapidly, as if that had been a little spring across a room. "Yes..." He had magic! "Excuse me?"

The mare he had addressed glared death at him. "Are you going to run into me again?!"

Oh no, had he? "Sorry! I didn't mean to. You alright?"

"No thanks to you." She turned her nose up. "Watch whatever you're doing instead of that thing on your head."

Wait. "What brings that up?"

"It was glowing as you were just charging through anything in your way," she huffed. "Cut it out! Damn unicorns." Posey took a sharp turn, leaving that street with angry grumbles left in her wake.

David continued his way back to the store, imagining the various ways he might have crashed through people and chastising himself for much of the way. He had to pay attention when he was... Oh, a chance. He broke into a jog back towards the shop but kept his focus on the sidewalk ahead of himself.

He could see the glow, out of the corner of his eye. His horn was glowing with the effort of keeping him running at optimal efficiency. "Awesome." Until it wasn't. It flickered and died without warning or reason. "Hm?" He paused in even a walk to reach up and poke at the horn dubiously. It resumed its glow for equally ungiven reasons and he was able to finish the jog home. "Strange."

"There you are." Joypad spotted him coming back in, prompting a round of waves and cheers from the regulars. "I got a call."

She sounded upset. David wasn't sure what at. "Something bad?"

"Well, maybe.. This human was seen more than a block away, knocking ponies out of the way. What's up with that?" She clapped her hooves together and set her chin on the union. "Did we get another of you, or did you do a bad?"

"Oooo," echoed the room, the drama between them suddenly more interesting then the computers they were in front of.

David tensed, caught red handed. "I didn't mean to, promise. I was practicing some magic and ended up way over that way." He pointed the way. "I hear I might have bumped into some on the way, but only one was upset about it."

"Was it Posey?" Joy arched a brow. "It'd make sense. She was the one that called me, asking me to 'keep my strange unicorn under control.'"

"I didn't get her name." Or he forgot it? That was a possibility. "Sorry."

"You're back and safe." She lowered her hooves to the counter. "That's the most important part. Don't run ponies over! That's rude."

"Yeah." Not much argument to be had against that. "I'll get back to work." It was a fine time to check the computers over for any troubles. He wandered up and down the aisles, checking in with ponies and their games to see if anything could be going wrong.

Another mare wandered up to Joy. "He's like the foal you never had."

Joy blinked. "What?"

"Him." The mare pointed at the wandering David. "You're mothering him, not that either of you seem to mind."

Joy colored in a swift coloring. "I am not! I'm just caring... I... He does like being cared about, and I like... I..."

The mare rolled a hoof. "You?"

"I like caring? He needs a hoof, and I have a spare..." She grabbed a pen. "You going to be at the party game day?"

The mare smiled brightly. "Oh, yes, for sure. Gonna try to drag some of my friends over. They never got into games, but that looks fun, and it's newcomer friendly!"

Joy took down her name. "See you then. It'll be fun!" The two met, hooves clopping. "Not that you're not welcome before then."

"They'd have to chase me away." The mare wandered back to her station with a smile.

David crouched down next to a pony focused on their game. "Love this one."

The pony perked an ear at the new voice. "Huh? Yeah... Picked it up a few days ago..." He moved a mouse with his hoove, clicking with a tilt of that same hoof. "But this part gets me."

"Elements."

"Hm?" The pony peeked up and to the left at David, jumping. "Oh! The human. I was not expecting that. Uh, elements?"

David nodded. "Elements. This game insists you use the right elements, or grind forever and a day. And who has time for that?"

"Not me!" agreed the pony. "But your party is easier and powerful with a balance..."

"That's what they want you to think." David wagged a finger. "It's like the games I used to play back home. The elemental advantage is too big to say no to. This level is all ice, so bring earth elemental and you'll clean house."

"Huh..." The pony returned to his gaming, even if he was assembling a team of earth heroes to take out that boss that was keeping him from progressing. "Thanks."

"Glad to help." David rose back to his full height and resumed his patrol.

One of his favorite colts let out a cheer as his go-kart slid into the finish line, claiming first place. "Good job." He got a balled fist out just in time to meet the excited hoof coming at him. Kids. "You're good at that one."

"I like RPGs and all, but a racing game is where it's at." Pipster's tail wagged eagerly. "Can't wait until I'm old enough to try real go-carts."

Huh. "What age are ponies allowed to try that?"

"Depends on your parents," sighed out the colt. "Mine said I had to wait a few years. I bet you'd let me!"

If he was the parent? Probably.... but he didn't share that. "I'm sure they have your best in heart."

"Yeah yeah... 'Course they do... Still a bummer." He stuck out his tongue as he started the next course. "At least I can be good in the games. Prepare to go down!"

David watched him go, taking the corners with obvious skill, speeding ever higher. "I could never match that."

"Match me? Probably not, Sir..." He stuck out his tongue a little as he took a tricky maneuver. "But you could get better."

"Not that much, not even a little." He warded off the idea gently with his hands.

The game paused. Pipster turned, his chair swiveling with him. "I'll show you." With a slap of a hoof, he banished the race, going back to the menu. "Start it up." He pointed to the next console over. "I'll show you how!"

David couldn't think of a smooth way to reject the idea without coming off as rude to the little colt. He didn't want to hurt Pipster's feelings. He surely only meant well. "I promise nothing." 

He sat down though and Pipster hopped over, hoof on one of David's hands. "Alright, let's get started." Pipster eagerly began a lesson in how to play the game. "After you're alright at it, we're racing!" Oh no, stakes. "Don't worry. Losing to me doesn't even count." He looked quite proud of that fact. "So just have fun!"

Despite his assurances that he wasn't great at those games, and a slow reaction time, he was getting better under the enthusiastic cheering calls of the colt that refused to give up on him. "You are at least decent," announced Pipster with a firm nod. "I have to go home or my parents will be super mad at me." He pointed at the console. "You keep practicing, at least two races a day! I'll know if you're skipping." He pointed at his eyes, then David in a promise of keeping an eye on things. "Have fun!" And off he galloped from the store.

Joy moved to the window, flipping the sign over to let others know they were closed as she locked things up. "You two looked like you were having fun."

David tried his best to not look embarassed, with limited success. "He insisted on showing me the racing game. I am now, and I quote, 'decent'. Which is still more than I would have guessed if you'd asked me before I started."

"Nopony asked you." She clicked off about half the lights, making things gloomy, but still visible. "Nopony can guess how good they are at something until after they give it a real try. Good on Pipster, dragging you into it. So... Enjoy it?"

"I've had worse afternoons. Right now..." He pointed to the stairs. "I want to see what happens next and let you play."

"Threatening me with a good time? How bold." She started up the stairs at a prance. "C'mon. Dinner first, then we can see what the next exciting plot reveal is. No spoilers here, promise."