Steve led Rainbow Dash back to his house so they could stock up on supplies. Steve went to his chest once again, and picked out piles of food, weapons, and spare armor. Rainbow Dash stood behind him, and casually observed.
Steve sighed, and pulled out a full set of enchanted diamond armor.
…
“Whoa, you could kick some serious flank wearing those!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Yeah, but they’re not for me. They’re for you.” Steve replied, holding out the armor to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow’s jaw dropped. She stared in disbelief down at the armor, and then back at Steve.
“Seriously? You’re not joking?”
“I spent my entire time in this world saving up the diamonds for this armor. However, I think you should have it. You deserve it more.”
…
Still a little awe-stricken, Rainbow Dash slowly reached out and took the crystal clothing from Steve. She held it in her arms like a newborn foal.
“Why in Equestria would you give your life’s work to me? Am I that special to you?”
“I don’t have much time left in this world. The extended demo is almost up.”
…
Rainbow gasped.
“What? What do you mean?”
“The demo. My user did not buy the full version of the game, so their free trial is about to expire.”
“Free trial? Game? User? What does this mean? What are you talking about?” Rainbow asked, beginning to panic.
Steve walked forward, and put a hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder.
“Listen here Rainbow. This is a computer game called Minecraft. It’s a game programmed by Mojang available for purchase at around thirty dollars, or in your currency, bits. You can get a free trial that only lasts for one hundred minutes, which is about a week in this world. My user got the free trial, which is about to expire.”
Rainbow Dash could barely fathom what Steve was telling her. Her athletic mind couldn’t really handle so much information at once.
…
“But…I don’t get it! Who’s your user?”
Steve smiled.
“Sparkle17. You’d be surprised; you might know her.”
“……Sparkle? As in……Twilight Sparkle? I had no idea Twilight was a gamer.”
Steve sighed.
“You know kid, I think we all have a little bit of gamer in us somewhere. You just have to let it free.”
…
“But…this is all too sudden! Why didn’t you tell me this before?” She asked.
“I didn’t want you to worry. You seemed to be having a good time in this world, believe it or not. After the initial shock of being in a big, empty, scary world, you handled it pretty well.”
A tear rolled down Rainbow’s cheek.
“But…what about you? What’ll happen?”
…
As if in answer to her question, Steve and the world around her flickered. Flashing 1’s and 0’s in the form of binary code streamed across the surface of matter.
“Don’t worry about me. This happens to me every day when someone shuts off their computer.”
Although she tried to hold them back, tears involuntarily streamed down her face.
“Wait, there’s something I want to tell you!” She cried.
…
Before she could get the words out, she disappeared in a quick flash of white light. She closed her eyes from the flash, and when she opened them again, she was travelling down a long wormhole of computer-based data.
……………………………….
When the digital background subsided, she found herself standing still in Twilight’s library.
“What? How did I get here?”
She heard hoofsteps. When she turned toward the direction of the noise, she found Twilight walking down the stairs.
“So, what did you think?” Twilight asked.
“What did I think? First, you have to tell me what the hay just happened.” Rainbow responded.
“My calculations were correct. That spell I cast on you earlier sent you into my computer. I loaded up a demo of that popular Minecraft game everyone’s talking about, and put you in it.”
“A computer? I tried to get a computer to give me a wing-rub?! A freaking computer?! I really am alone in the world, aren’t I?”
Twilight laughed.
“I guess heat-season was a pretty bad time to put you in a big computer world with just one other person, huh? I probably would’ve done the same thing.”
“He seemed okay with it, until he found out what the real purpose of it was.”
“Yeah, to tell you the truth, I think the whole town was better off without you this season anyway. Last time you landed that assault on Soarin, he couldn’t sleep for a week. And he refused to do any TV interviews. You really need to learn some self-control.”
…
Rainbow Dash scoffed.
“Who needs self-control when you could have someone as hot as Soarin or Steve?”
She suddenly covered her mouth. Guess she said a little too much.
Twilight stared at her a funny way. The room was completely silent for a long time.
“Well, uh……I guess I’ll see you later, Twilight.”
Without another word, Rainbow Dash awkwardly walked out the door, and flew away. Twilight thought for a moment, then came to an idea.
…………………………………
Rainbow Dash paced back and forth in her house, shaking her head and swearing.
“For crying out loud, how could you be so stupid? You tried to mate with a bucking computer! What the hay is wrong with you? He’s not even remotely our species! What would a mutant foal of that kind even look like?! Stupid instincts…stupid stupid stupid.”
The doorbell rang a few moments later, interrupting her fit of rage.
She stomped over to the door, and swung it open.
“What is it??!!”
Rainbow Dash’s anger was completely washed away when she saw who was standing at the door. Twilight stood at her porch, using a cloud-walking spell. She was accompanied by Steve himself.
…
“Hello, Rainbow Dash.” Steve greeted.
Rainbow’s jaw dropped. She stood in place, completely at loss of words.
“But…you…here…h…how? How are you here?” She stammered.
“I figured if I had the power to transport you into a game, I could transport the game out to you. You seemed to like this man a lot, so I thought you’d be better off with him than alone. And now you don’t have to be embarrassed about him being a computer!”
Twilight and Steve smiled. Rainbow Dash was still stuttering, trying to find words to describe her mixed feelings.
“You didn’t hear any of that rage a second ago, did you?” She asked.
“Yeah, I kind of heard all of it. That’s uh…pretty interesting.”
Rainbow blushed.
“………”
…
“So, I’m just going to go and leave you two here. I have other important work to attend to back at the library.” Twilight said, excusing herself.
Once she left, Steve started conversation.
“Is that what you wanted to tell me before I…digitalized?”
“…Kind of. It’s not really important now, now that you’re solid matter and not just a bunch of computer code!”
“You know, I really enjoyed your presence in my game. It’s always nice to have someone else to share a server with, especially when it’s you.”
Rainbow Dash looked up at him.
“You were really brave in there. Sometimes even braver than me.” He added.
“Yeah, well. Now you’re in my world, with me. And no extended free trial could ever change that!”
…
“Well, for once I’m not out collecting resources or running from monsters. How about a wing-rub?”
Rainbow Dash gasped, and smiled ear-to-ear.
THE END