Author's Note: Again, much thanks to Sintakhra for giving me permission to write this and giving us all wonderful art, comics, etc. Sintakhra's profile on dA can be found here.
Twilight flipped through the pages of the tiny book with precision while she walked around in the quiet library. Using her magic to do so was a simple thing for her. What was hard was doing so without wrinkling or creasing the tiny pages of the manual itself. Even though the manual was tiny, she could still read the text that was printed on it with ease. She read every tiny detail on her new device before using it.
"Let's see..." the unicorn spoke to herself, assessing the information she had just gathered.
"According to the user manual, it says that unicorn magic can be used to operate this thing. All they have to do is cast a levitation spell around the phone and gently slide across the arrow on the touch pad to unlock," Twilight spoke.
Enveloped in a purple aura, she brought the square device up to her eye level and gave it a curious look while sitting the manual down on the floor. Remembering she had to press what was called the home button first, she lightly pushed on it with her magic. The screen lit up magnificently which prompted her to put on a smile. Displayed on the screen was the image of a silver apple that had a bite taken out of it. On the top of the screen, it displayed the time and date, while on the bottom it displayed a single tab with an arrow that said: 'Please Unlock Before Using'.
Twilight smiled to herself.
"Seems easy enough," she said happily before pressing gently on the screen with her magic. She attempted to slide the tab, but found that her magic slipped and didn't allow it to budge.
Twilight frowned.
"Maybe," she said, a little peeved.
Once again, she gently pressed forward on the screen with her magic and tried sliding the tab across to unlock the iPhone.
It didn't budge.
'Please unlock before using.' is all that it said across the bottom, occasionally lit by a faint light that would illuminate the letters from left to right.
Twilight frowned once more and furrowed her brow.
"Come on..." Twilight spoke under her breath.
Pushing a little harder, Twilight slowly pressed down on the tab, attempting to slide it across to no avail. She tried again and again but she couldn't get a grip on the sly tab. It kept eluding her with every attempt.
'Please unlock before using.'
Twilight's eyes began to narrow.
"Pinkie told me magic works with this gizmo. Am I supposed to press down harder, or am I not pressing down in the right spot? Why won't it unlock?" she asked, but only got silence in return from the empty room, the black iPhone still floating in front of her. Twilight tried to unlock the phone once more, repeating the process of pressing down on the touchscreen with her magic, a little harder as time passed. After each failed attempt at unlocking the phone, Twilight Sparkle's eyes narrowed even further. The narrower they became, her eyebrows continued to act on instinct and follow their example. Anger started to swell within her. No matter how much she tried she couldn't seem to unlock the new iPhone. She cast a glance to the screen once more.
'Please unlock before using.'
Her left eye twitched.
She began to rattle it back and forth with her magic while rage began to build inside her.
"That's it! No more Miss Nice Sparkle!" she said a bit louder than she intended to, continuing to rattle the device out of frustration before more attempts at unlocking the screen.
'Please unlock before using.'...'Please unlock before using.'...'Please unlock before using.'
"Why won't you work?!" yelled the mare desperately to the iPhone that would not cooperate with her at all.
Twilight stopped herself.
"Ok," she spoke while taking several deep breaths. "There is no need to get angry Twilight, right? Keep it together. You are the personal student of Princess Celestia. You aren't going to let some silly phone get to you, right?" the lavender mare asked herself. She giggled.
"Of course not! It's just an iPhone....just an iPhone," she repeated while she stood and stared into the screen of the rectangular phone that hovered in front of her.
"Just...an...iPhone..."
::One Hour Later...::
"WHY WON'T YOU UNLOCK?!" screamed the unicorn at the top of her lungs.
'Please unlock before using.'
Twilight stood in the middle of her library rattling the phone like a madmare. The poor unicorn had tried to get the device to unlock for a full sixty minutes. She could not contain her temper any longer. After repeatedly failing to slide the tab on the bottom of the phone across, she was on the verge of having a meltdown. Twilight got her face inches away from the screen after flailing it back and forth in the air like it was a weapon.
"You listen to me!" screamed the lavender mare at the inanimate object, before growling at it like an animal.
"Work! I am the Element of Magic, and I demand that you WORK!" she screamed before pressing down hard on the screen while closing her eyes with strain, and swiped the bottom tab like her life depended on it. Hopeful, she cracked her deep purple eyes open slowly and brought the iPhone back up to her face.
'Please unlock before using.'
...
"STOP MOCKING ME!" Twilight screamed before tackling the multifunctional monstrosity to the ground.
No longer would it taunt her with its musings. She would not be made a fool by this simple device. Nopony in this world had more determination than Twilight Sparkle had to show this smartphone who was the boss. She rolled on the library floor while struggling with the phone, as if she was wrestling Rainbow for the latest Daring Doo novel. Valiantly battling the iPhone with her magic, she continued to try and unlock it. Even though it was day time and the sun shone in the library, it might as well have been pitch black due to Twilight's pure focus on getting the phone to bend to her will.
Pressing a little too hard with the force of her telekinesis, she heard a kerzap.
"Aha!" yelled Twilight, who assumed that the noise meant progress on her goal. "I have you now!" she screamed and looked down toward the phone.
It began to bubble and bend under the exertion of her magic, distorting and getting brighter and brighter,
Twilight's eyes widened as she looked at those horrendously taunting words.
'Please unlock before using.'
FWOOSH!
"AAIIEEEE!" screamed the lavender mare as she saw the phone burst into flames. Panicking, she quickly threw the flaming piece of tech onto the ground and stomped on it with her hooves, before it could catch her whole library on fire. After stomping on the late iPhone several times, she backed away and looked at the damage. All that remained was a blackened orange pile of circuitry and burnt wiring, but through the charred remains of her iPhone, she could have sworn she saw those four horrible words, burning into her soul; 'Please unlock before using.'
Twilight let out a long sigh and looked at her coat. It was black from smoke and her fur had a few singes from where the phone had caught fire while she was on top of it, beating it into submission with magic. She also had a few hairs sticking up out of her mane, which was now a complete mess. Twilight slowly turned away from the pile of scrap.
*sizzle*...*sizzle*
Hearing the remains sizzle throughout the dead quiet library was enough to put Twilight on edge once more. Leaning her head down and scowling back at the pile, she uttered three threatening words,
"You. Saw. Nothing..."
The library door swung open.
"Twilight! Check out what I-"
Spike didn't finish his sentence, as his green eyes stared at the sight before him.
On the ground was a sizzling pile of what was once an iPhone, burnt to oblivion. Spike looked to see his best friend and the mare he considered to be his sister with burn marks all over her matted fur, a scornful look, and hot steam pouring out of her nostrils.
There was silence in the Ponyville library as neither of them moved for a bit. Then Spike held up his right hand, with a small, rectangular device inside of it.
"I got us a new iPhone, because I wasn't sure if you had bought one yet. Look," he spoke quietly, before pressing the home button in and lighting up the screen. He then used his opposable claw to slide the tab on the bottom across the screen, unlocking the phone with a click. He held it up in the air so Twilight could see.
Her jaw dropped and her left eye twitched several times.