//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Destroyer 7 // by Brightshadow //------------------------------// At the sound of Blue Screen's voice, they snapped to attention. They huddled closer together (if that was possible) to stare at what had caught the pony's attention in the vast void of the laptop. They stared... …And collective gasp bounced off the walls. It was a long moment before anyone spoke. "Five fingers… five toes…" puffed Silky, her long braid rubbing against her heaving chest. "That's… that's ah… ah… a…" stuttered Brightshadow, unable to complete her thought. "Human," Blue Screen offered flatly. At that, Andromeda began coughing uncontrollably (perhaps she was trying to mask laughter) and Sodapop seemed on the verge of fainting. Horizon was still staring at the screen. "Blue Screen!" Silky blurted, "Where'd you get this?" "It's my laptop. It's my picture. A picture of me." He stared blankly at the screen, deep in thought. Staring back at him was a tall lithe figure with dark brown skin. His hair resembled the kinkiness of Blue Screen’s, but it was black. This particular being lacked a tail. He sat stretched out on a couch, smiling lopsidedly - nonchalantly - at the camera that had captured him. His eyes just barely looked up at it. On his lap sat a laptop... the same laptop that was in front of him now. One of his hands could be seen, although his fingers were blurry. It was clear that they were flying across the keys. “Lyra was right all this time...” sighed Brightshadow. “She’s not crazy...” breathed Sodapop. “Oh she’s crazy,” Blue Screen grunted, “But no, she wasn’t wrong.” He instructed the orange unicorn to cycle through the pictures. They watched in wonder as buildings taller than they had ever seen, higher than Canterlot’s castle, passed in front of their eyes. They saw pictures of a species they had never seen before. They wore clothes. Clothes all the time. They walked on two legs. They did not fly, nor did they seem to have magic. So these... these were humans. Just as the ponies had settled into a relaxed state that watching a slideshow can produce, the screen began to flash brightly, then distort. “What’s going on?” “Oh no! I was afraid this might happen!” The screen distorted further. Suddenly a very recognizable symbol appeared in the top-right corner of the screen. The imperial symbol of Equestria: Celestia’s cutiemark. Blue Screen stared at it in horror, his eyes shifting back and forth from the symbol to the middle of the screen. Slowly, ever so slowly, pictures that looked much like Twilight’s file folders began to disappear. “It’s wiping,” Blue Screen whimpered, “She put a spell on it to wipe it!” He whirled around and stared straight into Andromeda’s eyes. “You’ve got to stop it!” Andromeda seemed stunned at suddenly becoming important. Her eyes searched his before looking down. "I-I can't…" “You have to!” The purple earth pony turned away. The blue one’s eyes returned to the screen. Losing focus, they rolled wildly. Moisture was forming at the corners of them. Then he paused. His head snapped back, almost dangerously. “Lockin’ Key!” “Wha?!” No one seemed to be expected to be called on today. “I need to you turn into a data storage device! A kind that can fit into this opening here...” Blue Screen pointed to the side of his laptop. “I can only turn into keys, man.” “It’s like a key!” “I know what he’s talking about,” Andromeda piped. She seemed more sure of herself now. “We have them on my planet! There kind of small and boxy like... Well here...” Although she was an earth pony, Andromeda’s eyes began to glow green with strong magic. Lockin’ Key stared into them, and his eyes flashed for a moment. “Got it.” As soon as it was said, the body of the pegasus began to change form. It shrunk and rounded, then flattened out. Soon Lockin’ Key was nothing but a gray and red blob. The goop wavered between what seemed to be a crudely shaped key and a oblong rectangular block before settling on something in between. An oddly shaped, blocky sort of key, that had the ability to separate in the center. Blue Screen quickly instructed Sodapop on how to take the key-shaped-storage-device, open it, and stick it into the laptop. He then led him, again very quickly, through the process of saving information on it, as much as possible, since capacity of the device was read by the processor as ‘INF.’ which, Blue Screen guessed, could only mean infinity. He guessed those were perks of being a living object. “It’s overheating! Hurry up Sodapop!” “I’m going as fast as I can! These controls are weird!” “Blue Screen,” whimpered Andromeda, “Even I’m smart enough to know this is dangerous for him.” “Listen to her Blue!” cried Silky. “Nothing is that important,” groaned Brightshadow. “The screen is going blue!” Horizon shouted. “The screen is going blue...” sighed the blue earth pony, “Pull him out Sodapop.” The orange unicorn nodded and with great gusto yanked the live device out from the slot, and not a moment too soon. The computer flashed with a blue error screen and countless meaningless numbers before flashing white and crashing with an exaggerated bang. Smoke came pouring from every vent and opening. “Agh! Put it out before my house catches on fire! And my paintings!” Brightshadow screeched. Andromeda’s eyes flashed green again and out of nowhere a glob of water appeared above the smoking heap of microchips, hanging in the air. “What are you waiting for, and invitation!?” Unphased, Andromeda nodded once and the water dropped, dousing the laptop. “There it goes...” sighed Blue Screen, “My whole life is...” “Now in my head! Oh Celestia it actually worked!” Lockin’ Key was now back to his pony form and shaking his mane wildly. “Never in Tartarus will I do that again. Do you know how painful being cut in half was?” “You weren’t exactly cut.” Brightshadow eagerly offered that correction. “And no stallion should ever know that much about another stallion! Just no!” Everyone stared at him with bemused looks on their faces. Sodapop began to chuckle and Silky broke into wild laughter. “Dude,” the gray stallion wheeled on Blue, “Dude you’re into some weird horseshit.”