//------------------------------// // ch4 The Harddrive // Story: The Tallmare (being reworked) // by hus //------------------------------// Twilight groaned as she woke up groggily. She was still at her desk where she had opened the box from the night before, the messages clustered lazily across it. There was also a small puddle of her own drool on the floor that looked like it collected overnight, which gave her a small smile. She then leaned her head back and sighed. She had to get ready for the day, go to the much more modern library at the east end of Ponyville, and find a computer she could use. Then she also needed somepony who could fix the tape and have a tv she can watch it on. But then again she knew she was being watched, she didn't know who but they did not work alone. She had to be careful or she would have somepony try to intervene. She got up on her hooves and slowly walked to her bathroom, before creaking open the door and walking in. Her bathroom was not that pretty looking compared to other bathrooms her friends had, except for Fluttershy who just did it in the bushes. It was small and had an average-looking sink on top of some dully painted white wooden drawers. The tiles were small clay squares that were dark blue that looked like if she were to punch them hard, most of them would break. Her shower wasn't impressive either, a small tub with plastic curtains and a dull fluorescent glow above the shower head.  She turned on the faucet on the sink and put some toothpaste on her toothbrush before putting it in her mouth. It had that awful minty taste as usual that she didn't mind due to how good it was for her teeth, and how many cavities they got rid of. But she absolutely hated how some of the toothpaste crusted out on the sides of the sink when left out, making it also hard to scrape off. She didn't take a shower the night before so she hopped in the shower and closed the current with her magic. She set the faucet to her usual warm temperature which took a minute for the water to warm up too. She put her lavender-scented shampoo in her mane and started dragging her hooves across her hair. She then went under the warm water for about 2 minutes before she felt the same throbbing pain from the day before returning to her head. She backed out of the water holding her horn as the headache refused to stop. She looked up at the ceiling lamp noticing it flickering rapidly which made her headache worse from looking at its light. She looked down from the light and looked to her right as she felt that same presence of being watched yet again. There was a tall blurry shadow in the far corner of the bathroom that looked like its pony-shaped body was pressed against the ceiling. She could feel her heart beating faster as she stared at the silhouette. Twilight felt her fight-or-flight instincts activating as she prepared herself to open the currents. She held the bottle of shampoo ready to use as a projectile as she drew back the curtains, only to find nothing there. The lights were not flickering anymore like they were never flickering in the first place. Then she noticed her headache wasn't there anymore and it felt like abruptly stop only a cupel of seconds ago The lavender unicorn opened the glass doors as she entered the library, taking in the view of her second time visiting. This library was a bit bigger than hers and was stretched in a square shape like a supper market. It only had a few ponies there who were just looking through the isles as they walked. White wooden shelves were laid about the library in lined sections that stood almost near the ceiling. There was also some black wooden tables to read at that had a small plant in little cute pots on them, these were to just make the pony sitting there more comfortable. Twilight then started trotting down the isles at a medium pace as she looked for the internet cafe in the library. After about 10 minutes she finally found the cafe, resting at the far east end with a few ponies in their cubicles. The internet and the magical transport of info was a pretty new craze in Equestria and had even become a major part of Luna's infrastructure plan. The basic functionality of the magic was the new electronic scrying computers were all linked up to artifacle laylines that functioned as a highway for info. But most info was stored in big rune stones called runepillers to make the flow of info easier. But for those who couldn't buy a computer like the ponies in Ponyville, there were internet cafes in newer public libraries like this one.  Twilight sat down in the cubical chair smoothly before turning on the computer and logging on with her library account. She looked at the hard drive in her hoof and then looked back at the computer's multiple sockets confused about where to put them in, better yet how to access the data from it.  She was about to start randomly shoving it in the rectangular sockets before she felt a quick hoof tap on her shoulder and yelped turning around, to see a face she didn't expect to be in a library, Vinyl Scratch. "Oh um hey Vinyl I didn't expect you to be here." She spoke up sheepishly as she looked at the blue-maned DJ. The DJ simply nodded back with a soft and confident smile, before pointing back at the computer expectantly. Twilight looked back at the computer then back at Vinyl raising a brow. "Soo do you want the computer?" Vinyl frowned and shook her head before moving the element of magic out of the way and sitting in the chair. She placed the hard drive in its correct socket before dragging the mouse over to files and opened up the hard drive folder. She then got up and hoffed over some headphones out of her duffle bag to Twilight. "Uhhh Thanks for the help I guess." Twilight thanked giving the DJ a weak smile. Vinyl grinned before walking off and away from the internet cafe. Twilight just gaped at that sudden and random encounter confused. How did she know that she had a hard drive? How did she know that she needed headphones? But that wasn't important right now, she had to view what the hard drive stored. She looked at the hard drive folder to see what was on there and saw a small video file labeledEeverFree_Waterfall_Family_Trip. Oh, goddess was this some poor family's home video, and she was going to watch it?!? She breathed in deeply and huffed before plugging in the headphones and placing them on her head. She clicked on the file and saw a black tab with a play button on it and clicked it. The video started off with a zoom-in on a vanilla-coated mare looking into the camera as she turned it on before moving it back and readjusted to show the mare to be Bonbon. There was the sound of rushing water could be heard in the background and as Twilight looked closer she could make out that Bonbon was at a river and that this video was filmed in summer, meaning this was months back. Bonbon moved closer to the camera and tried picking it up with her mouth before she was shoved out of view as Lyra came into frame. "Don't worry Bon, I can carry this." Lyra assured before levitating up the camcorder in her cyan-colored glow and turned it around and uncovered the camera lens, showing a small waterfall. The waterfall was of course part of a river system and the section the mare couple found themselves was a slow-flowing creek that was fairly wide with small rocks at its coast. They also brought their adopted son Buzzwing with them, who was a pegasus that had a mostly brown coat with some white splotches down from his face to his front legs. In Twilight's eyes, this was so far just a normal family outing, But then again she was sent this for a reason.  The two mares walked into the water as their son watched their son examine a sea shell that must have been there way before Equestria was ever formed.  "Sooo Lyra? How was that party Pinkie held?" The camera shifted view to Bonbon in response to her question. "Oh it was a Pinkie party as normal. The party itself was one of those night-only ones that she holds once in a while, which has a lot of booze." Bonbon put a hoof to her face scoffing before sighing. "Please don't tell me you got wasted there, you know what kinda stuff happens when a lot of ponies are drunk, especially at Pinkies." "Eh don't worry it was only about 2 shots before I left." "Ah that's good to know since I don't want you coming home dru- "HEY MOMS! MY FRIEND IS HERE!" Buzzwing shouted atop of the cliff that was next to the creek. The camera swiftly swung to the cliff and zoomed in on the trees. “Ok now something is definitely off”. Twilight thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes on the screen. "Ok Buzz Im coming, also what's your friend's name?" Bonbon asked as trotted around the cliff heading into the trees. The camera was still focused on the top of the hill, like Lyra was scared of something. "Uhh she really doesn't have a name, just call her Ms. Longlegs." "Oh that's a nice name! I can't wait to see-"Bonbon suddenly paused and Lyra moved in a little closer. Then the audio started to distort and the screen turned grainy with fuzz outlining Bonbon's shape. As she backed up. "WHY ARE YOU STILL STALKING US?! I THOUGH YOU WOULD LEAVE US BE!"Screamed Bonbon in distress with a chippy distortion in her voice.  Then some black tendrils rose above the tree, having a low slupering sound as they waved with odd color distortions shifting around them. Mom what's wrong?" Buzzwing murmured with confusion and panic  “I THOUGHT EVER SINCE WE HAD STUMBLED UPON YOU, THAT YOU WOULD GET BORED OF US! "  Lyra shouted up at her earth pony spouse as the Tallmare got closer, still consoled with visual glitches that swarmed her like bees "NO! Now just let me KICK YOUR FLANK!" Before bonbon could even charge the media player crashed.