//------------------------------// // Rainbow Dash: Gamer Girl // Story: Ponies Versus the Internet // by KenDoStudios //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash looked at the metallic box that was the brains of the computer, the monitor, and all the cables needed to run it. A smile formed across her face. She hooked up the wires and turned it on. It booted up and Rainbow Dash just sat there for a minute before typing into it "what is fun about computers?" she really wanted to know what was fun about it because so far, Rainbow just learned stuff from it. In short, they did not think humanity was all a bunch of eggheads what did they do on their computers for fun? The computer responds "fun is subjective. For instance, horse racing, fishing, playing video games, reading books, watching movies or tv shows, working on cars, "Horse racing?" Rainbow Dash thought. She then remembers that the horses on earth were different than in Equestria. The hooves were much bigger and the teeth were sharper. Her eyes widened in amazement and shivered to see one of them make a weird smile. Then she remembered that ponies never smiled except for special occasions such as weddings or birthdays. She typed "What is fishing?" "Fishing is catching fish by using bait and lures." replied the computer "and sometimes people use rods and reels to catch them faster." "why to catch fish?" asked rainbow dash. "Because they taste good and provide food." answered the computer. "EWW" shouted Rainbow Dash. "Humanity eats fish?" "Yes, most species of fish are eaten regularly." responded the computer. "well now I got to ask, does humanity eat horses?" asked Rainbow Dash. "No, horses are usually kept as pets." said the computer. Rainbow sighs and smiles "good, I don't want to become pony meat." she said. "what are video games?" Rainbow Typed on the computer. "Video Games are forms of entertainment where players interact with virtual environments and perform actions that affect the game world." explained the computer. "Entertainment?" asked Rainbow "heh about time, virtual world huh? well no harm in trying that, there is nothing else here to entertain me." Rainbow Dash said, "what is the best game out there?" "Well if you aren't looking for a challenge, you could play any of the Mario series." Said the computer. "But I kind of want a challenge. do you even know who I am?" asked Rainbow "if you're looking for a challenge, then you should try Dark Souls 3, " Replied the computer. "dark souls 3" rainbow dash put in the computer. "Dark souls 3 is an action role-playing game published by Bandai Namco Entertainment." Said the computer "6000 bits to buy?!" Asked Rainbow "Thats dollars," said Twilight just walking in the room "Hey Rainbow, what you doing?" "TRYing to play a 'video game'" Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. Twilight looked at what dash was looking at "Dash you have to remember we don't have human currency, we just have gold coins as ours. so anything representing the little doohickey over next to a number. means it costs human money." Said Twilight. "so I can't play it?" "I'm afraid not, well at least until we have human currency," said Twilight. "Okay, well what do I play?" "play the free games if any" replied Twilight. Dash typed in "free video games" on the computer. A list came up and Rainbow Dash started scrolling down it. There were a lot of game titles like Angry birds, solitaire, Tetris, Pong, Pacman, Yahtzee, jeopardy, scrabble, monopoly, chess, and many more. As she scrolled down, she saw "Fortnite". She read the description "Battle royale survival shooter set on a map filled with weapons and items. Up to 100 players compete to be the last man standing." she looks at Twilight "can I play this?" "Why would you want to play that?" asked Twilight. "because it's fun! look how big the map is, there must be loads of things to find," "Your goal is to survive, that means you have to kill some creature Dash." "I DO?" "Not in real life dash only in the virtual world." "Oh okay!" exclaimed Rainbow. "Okay let's go get the game," said Twilight "There is a small problem though." "problem?" asked Rainbow "We got to pass a ReCaptcha" "a re what now?" asked Rainbow "ReCaptcha, It's a program that checks whether the user is human or not." "Well thats not nice, we are ponies!" "well let's see, all it is is a puzzle... I'm sure we can figure this out..." said Twilight. after many moments of fiddling the picture was clear yet warped " AHA!" exclaimed Twilight as she solved the puzzle. she typed the solution and waited for what seemed like an eternity but was probably less than 10 seconds. "Done!" said Twilight "now let's go get the game." * * * Fortnite was installed, and Rainbow dash saw the intro screens "Aww yeah this is going to be awesome!" she cheered. After the intro screen, It went straight into gameplay mode. "This will take a bit of getting used to because humans normally play with controllers, while ponies... don't have that luxury," said Twilight. "yeah but I'm gonna learn how to play with keyboard and mouse anyways," said Rainbow Dash. They placed their chairs close enough to each other so that they had easy access to whatever they needed. Both began attempting to play the game. at first, the tutorial was slow, almost unresponsive, but after a few minutes, both girls figured it out and were ready to go online. "let's start off simple, I'll go first," said Rainbow Dash. She entered her username "20PonyDash" The game loaded, and when it did, its avatar appeared on the screen. Twilight watched the new character come alive on the screen, she wanted to say something but couldn't think of what to say. Rainbow dash ran around after he got off the battle bus and went around the island picking up resources (weapons, shields, armor) and killing enemies along the way. Her avatar took damage from one enemy, and since she didn't have shields, after falling off a cliff she died instantly. the avatar was sucked up in a lightbulb. "aww crap!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "What happened?" asked Twilight. "I killed myself by accident," said Rainbow Dash. "That sucks, I guess you will have to start again." and thats exactly what he did, over and over and over again. but to Dash's dismay never got the number one spot. Twilight kept watching Dash trying to master the art of Fortnite. Every time she died she would try harder to avoid dying. Eventually, she learned how to build. She built ramps that allowed her to jump higher. She also learned about building walls between herself and her enemies. This helped protect her from being shot by the enemy. But even then sometimes she still lost. After hours of playing she finally managed to get it. "I GOT ONE!!!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "I'm proud of you Dash! you finally won one!" said Twilight. "Yeah, I know! I'm so happy right now!!" they turned off the computer and stepped outside where the moon was overhead. Twilight looked at her friend who seemed very concerned. "What time is it Twilight?" asked Dash. "It's 12: 30 am" "wow, we spent all night trying to beat that game didn't we?" "yeah but hey I bet we could do better next time!" "Maybe," said Dash "but until then I need sleep." "Okay goodnight Dash" "goodnight Twilight" And with that, they walked back to their houses and fell asleep.