"Me being here helped him... How am I going to break it to him that I do need to go back?"
Twilight was mentally preparing herself for what had to be done, she didn’t know how to tell him and the growing concern was not helping, she realized that John more than likely had unconsciously forgotten about it, making it far more difficult for her. Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the door busting open I feel sorry for the poor door. Thought Twilight already knowing who the person attacking the defenseless door was.
“Coward,” Twilight began continuing their earlier banter, attempting to relieve some of the stress.
“I would reply to your comment if something amazing hadn’t happened today!” John replied with glee.
“You just did,” Twilight jested, bringing the glare she expected. “But what has you so happy?”
John quickly recovered and his happy smile came back. “Well, you'll find out that I actually have a date with the girl I liked for a while now.”
“That’s great! Congratulations, John!” Twilight replied with honest happiness on her face.
“I have the date this Sunday at six PM, I can’t wait!” John gave a very womanly squeal that Twilight could have mocked, but she was too busy thinking about the time she had to be ready to leave. The 19th hour of the seventh day the words had come from the Princess herself. That meant she had to leave as John was out enjoying his date.
'And here I thought this day was bad enough,' Twilight thought in despair.
“Hey, John?” Twilight began, John noticing the way she called him.
“What’s wrong? What’s bugging you?” he asked concerned.
“Uh… I… I have… “ she gave a brief pause. “I want to hang out with you!” she finished loudly making John flinch.
“Uh, sure. I was gonna go look for a job, but I think I can handle a weekend without one.” He eyed Twilight suspiciously. 'Well, if something was really the matter, she would have told me already,' right then, a crazy idea to cheer her up came to him.
“Hey, Twilight, wanna try something out? It’s called “videogames.” John told the already questioning Twilight.
For the next few minutes, John was busy connecting his now dusty console, leaving Twilight to look at the games he had put in front of her.
“So… You put these cases on that black box and you can use this remote to 'play'?” she asked holding the controller and a case with her magic.
"Well, actually, you use what is inside those cases, but that's not a bad guess,” John replied with a chuckle, he was gonna have a fun time with this.
On Twilight's mind, she struggled, staring at the “remote” blankly, attempting her best to figure it out, she pressed the buttons and moved the sticks carefully, trying not to break the fragile looking object, her hooves would not be able to hold it, so her magic would have to do.
“You ready, Twi?” John called breaking her concentration, the remote lightly falling on her legs.
“About as much as I can be, I will try my best to understand this,” she answered with a bit of excitement, it might have been a way to attempt to cheer her up, regardless, she was interested in the technology, and if she figured it out, she would have an extra subject for her report, she was actually looking forward to it.
She picked up the remote and watched the TV flare to life with different images across it, and after a few minutes, John began explaining the controls and what each did.
“Good, now, press X to attack.” Twilight pressed the button with her magic and saw the boy in the screen swing the sword, from there, she slowly made her way through the buttons on screen instructions, learning the patterns and how to best use each to its fullest extent, soon after, she was nimble enough to avoid asking every minute for help.
“You… Are better than I expected, Twilight,” John noticed, watching in awe, Twilight chuckled at his praise, feeling a bit of pride in herself, soon, she was lost in the game’s world, she had dismissed John who had gone to get food, and instead, she spend the following hours having adventures with the characters Donald and Goofy, she was hit a few times, but her clever use of customization helped her survive.
“This isn't so hard.” Twilight thought giving a smug smile.
~~~~~
John made his way back home with a cheerful step, a box of jelly donuts in hand, he found everything to be too quiet as he arrived at the room, the sound of the static from the TV barely audible from behind it. With some concern, he opened the door slowly, poking his head in, noticing the game over words on the screen, and Twilight breathing heavily, with a nervous glance, he made his way in, and closed the door, approaching her carefully.
“So, you finally lost, Twi?” John asked with a hint of a smile, he didn’t want her to get angry.
“What am I doing wrong? This is the 30th time I lose!” Twilight asked with irritation.
“Hold on…” he made his way to the light switch and turned the lights on.
Twilight hissed and caused John to turn in surprise, he was more surprised by what he was witnessing: Her combed mane was now a mess of hairs going every other way, her left eye was twitching in an awfully disturbing manner, not to mention her magical grip in the remote was quivering as the remote was shaking slightly as she tried to keep her magic from crushing it.
He grabbed the controller and looked at the screen coming to a realization; her in-game character was far under leveled.
“I… Think that's enough about games, Twi…” He warned her.
Twilight sat looking at the screen, her breathing increasing in pace, he had to intervene.
He tried to keep a smile but inside he was sweating, the thoughts of what could happen with the mare in such a state, so he decided to approach her with the food in the box.
“Twilight… Here, we should eat something, I can make you some tea or something for you to enjoy this, see? Donuts, yum?”
Twilight’s eyes seemed unfocused but one of her eyes seemed to inspect the food with interest, till a grumble came from her stomach breaking her out of the trance she was in.
“I-I guess I am a bit hungry…” she resigned moving away from the TV and as soon as she did,John turned off the PS2, disconnected it, and tossed it into the closet where Twilight would never dare to go, all of this while Twilight stared with narrowed eyes.
“What was that for?” she asked in an out of place whine.
“I think videogames are something you should keep away from,” he warned and explained how she had acted and why she should never touch it ever again, this was something obviously not meant for her.
“Oh no, not again, last time that happened was because I didn’t send a letter to the Princess, I thought I knew better.” Twilight let out an exasperated sigh and her ears fell slightly.
"I think we need another way to hang out, huh?" John searched his head trying to find something that they could be a part of, he came across a variety of ideas, but only one stuck out at the time, he didn’t like it, but it was the only thing he knew for certain that Twilight would enjoy. 'Screw the consequences!'
He gave Twilight a hug and he felt her nuzzle his shoulder still a bit shaken by her ‘crazy state of mind‘ just minutes ago, still, this was as good a time as any.
“Hey Twi, what would you say to a trip outside tomorrow?”
She slowly undid the hug and stared at him, her eyes seemed to widen in excitement at the idea, but that soon faded and her eyes showed dissaproval, at this John just gave her an all knowing smile, one that simply said:
"Don't you worry; I got this."