//------------------------------// // episode4 part3: we can put a man on the moon... // Story: Conversion Bureau: St George // by kryxel //------------------------------// TCB:SG E4P3 We can put a man on the moon... written in caveman by kryxel translated to binary by Ray10k Sales scratched his head, and scanned over the cords for the new computer. It was a new model, supposedly sent to the bureau by Princess Celestia herself, and was specifically altered to allow both humans and ponies to use it with ease. However, even with the many decades humanity had been working with electronics, setting up anything with a setup step more complicated than “put the plug in the outlet” would invariably result in trouble. Thus, Sales currently found himself in the company of his roommates, the four of them making a valiant effort to set up the electronic beast on Derpy’s desk, so far with little success. "Over a thousand years worth of technological development, and the human race still can’t figure out how to make setting up ONE computer easy," Terrence said while he scanned through a book about four times as thick as an average dictionary. The front of the book simply read, “Manual (part 1 of 6: setup)” "You sure we’re setting up a computer, or did we get shipped a nuclear reactor by mistake?" Hal said, warily eyeing the other five doorstoppers that claimed to be the various parts of the manual, labeled with ominous titles like “first-time use,” “maintenance,” or, in the case of the thickest tome of the series, “troubleshooting.” "I’m not so sure anymore... I mean, it looks a little like a computer if you hold it like this and squint your eyes... or maybe that’s just the control panel," Victorious said, tilting his head as he held the big touch screen monitor up above the other would-be computer assemblers, keeping it aloft in the dark blue aura of his magic. A few feet away from the group, Grace and Lindie sat together watching the boys. Galinda was chuckling at their clumsy attempts of finding the right way to jam the wrong cable into a hole intended for ventilation, while reading the tome of arcane wisdom masquerading as the manual. "You’re having fun with this, no?" Grace said, giving little Pepper a little bounce as the tiny colt squirmed on her back, making him giggle with delight. "Who, me? No, no. What made you think that?" Lindie said while fighting to keep her mirth and sarcasm hidden, a fight she could never hope to win. Grace chuckled. "You know, if you go over there to help them two things will happen. They will actually get that thing set up correctly, and you could flirt a little with that cute cowboy there. " Grace chuckled at her own suggestion, while Galinda just gave a wry grin. "Sorry sister, my cooling fans don’t spin that way," Lindie said. "Besides, if I went over there to assist with the diagnostics, I bet they’d get me a ton of malware. And between you and me, that is one virus I’d rather avoid." Grace responded with a confused look. “You are talking about them as if their pants-” "Woah! heads up!" A loud *bang* sounded through the office, as Victorious lost control over his spell and dropped the monitor, causing a large cloud of dust to be blown out from under the desk. A few moments of thorough confusion for everyone in the room later, the assembled humans plus pony got back on their feet, trying to assess the damage. "E-everyone all right?" Victorious said, worry clear in his voice. "I’m fine, you bloody needlehead! What did you do that for?" Hal said, coughing as he tried to get the dust out of his lungs. "Ahh am all right," Terrence said as he dusted off his Stetson. "Where’s Sales? Hey Sales, where are you!” In response to Terrence’s call, a banging noise came from below the desk, followed by the slightly muffled voice of Sales. "Over here! I’m ok, but can someone move the monitor so I can get out?" When Victorious had lost control, the monitor had fallen in front of the opening in the desk where a person’s legs usually were, just as Sales was trying to run a few cables there, leaving the boy trapped. Victorious took a closer look, trying to gauge if he could lift the monitor again. "Just a second, Sales, I need to catch my brea-" He blinked, as the monitor was lit up by a familiar cold blue aura, before floating upwards. "Oh, horseapples," he said, before turning to face the owner of said magic. Colgate stood there, her horn aglow with the same blue magic. She set the monitor down on the desk, and turned her full attention to Victorious, her face serious. "I told you, you are not yet ready to handle heavy magic, remember? ‘Using magic taxes both the body and the mind,’ like I told you earlier! You go and get some rest. And I do suggest you get all the rest you can get, because tomorrow you’ll be running your tail off! " She said, before levitating the manual and finding the page with actually useful instructions. ---------------- with the help of Galinda (thanks to some persuasion on Grace’s side), the guys were soon looking at the running computer of pony and human equality. "Now THAT is big..." Victorious said, awed by the sheer size of the electronic beast that currently occupied most, if not all of the desk. "True, and it’s strong too. Can connect to just about anything... Bet it can even link to the database in Celestia's kingdom," Galinda said with a hungry look on her face. "W-what? Celestia has computers? I thought Human tech couldn’t go through the barrier! " Hal said, looking at Galinda with a look of surprise and a little hope. "no, hold on. Let me change my Localization. *Ahem!* It can connect to anything, including the libraries in Canterlot and Ponyville. Maybe even to those of other cities, with some creative searching," Lindie said with a grin. Hal gave her an annoyed glance. "Why don’t you talk like that normally? I was almost thinking you had some malfunctioning chip in your head, blocking normal talk!" Lindie started to walk way, not even looking at Hal as she answered. "Because, why bother with primitive caveman talk, when you can talk binary?” ---------------- About half an hour later ---------------- Sales sat outside with Rainbow Spring. The two of them were looking at the foals playing tag with their dads as Mrs. Cake was preparing lunch, and Grace was busy with flight training. "So, are you okay?" Spring asked, breaking the silence between them as she looked over at Sales. "Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?" Sales said with a smile. "Don’t bother lying, you are terrible at it," Spring replied, deadpan. "I d-don’t know what you are talking about," Sales replied, a bit confused at her reaction. "Well, let me give you a hint, then." She pointed down to his shoe. A small trickle of blood was slowly flowing out through one of the holes for the laces. “That, and the fact that you’ve been limping ever since you’ve helped set up that big computer gadget. So, what happened?” Sales sighed, and rolled up one leg of his pants, revealing a long, shallow scratch. "When I pulled my legs under the desk, I nicked my leg on some corner." Spring sighed, relieved the wound wasn’t too bad. "Okay. If you want me to, I could heal that..." Spring said as she took a closer look. "Sure," Sales said, holding his leg out. Spring closed her eyes, as her horn started to glow a faint pink. A moment later, a similar glow circled the cut, making Sales twitch a little as the wound stung a bit. Sales looked at his leg when she stinging stopped, finding only a small scar where the wound had been. “wow...” "If we had a real medical pony on staff here, there would not even be a scar, but anyhow! Come on, it is lunch time!" Spring said as she got up. "What? How can you tell?" "Because Mr. Cake and Victory took the foals inside a minute ago," Spring said with a grin, as she trotted towards the door. "Wait for me!" Sales said, standing up as well and chasing after the pink pony. /////////////// Ray10k here. So, not a whole lot going on in this chapter, but surely next chapter will be different.