• Published 27th May 2017
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Technological Wonders - currentlemon



As an experiment, Twilight Sparkle worked with her counterpart and Sunset Shimmer to bring technology over to Equestria. After weeks of hard work, Twilight had set up her own computer inside her castle, ready to share it among her friends

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Chapter 5

In a flash of purple, Princess Twilight Sparkle found herself standing in front of her castle. She had been away for some time, dealing with her duties as a Princess from Equestria. But now those duties were over. She was free again, and that meant more time spent on her friends, and her computer.

She smiled. Her first showing of the new technology she brought over was a huge success. Her friends were able to meet their human counterparts. Their talk wasn’t very long, but it was enough to get them interested in the machine. Eventually, the girls would probably want to talk to their counterparts more in the future, and the same could be said for the others in CHS. She would happily grant their request, but it’ll have to be worked out with Sunset.

Then her student came into mind. During the online meeting, Starlight looked pretty down after noticing that her own counterpart was missing. So, Twilight found a way to clear her student’s mind of the problem. At least briefly.

Video games. Particularly, Divinity Original Sin 2. A favorite of hers.

“Hmm, I wonder how Starlight and Spike are doing right now,” Twilight said to herself as she opened her castle doors with her magic. Before she could enter though, one of the bushes near the entrance began to shake rather uncontrollably. Seeing this, she approached the bush, but was immediately greeted by a hyper pink party pony.

“Hi, Twilight!” greeted Pinkie Pie.

“Gah!”

Twilight let out a yelp as she fell to the ground instantly. Looking up, she could see her friend bouncing out of the bush. “P-Pinkie? What… how? Why are you in my bush?” asked the bewildered Princess.

“That’s easy, silly. I’m here because I wanna see more of your computer thing!” replied the party pony while she helped Twilight back on her hooves.

“Yes, I know that. Why were you in my bush? And how did you get here so quickly? Sugarcube Corner is still a couple blocks away.”

Pinkie chuckled. “Oh, Twilight. You don’t have to worry about Sugarcube Corner. I already cleaned the place up! As for how I got here so fast; well, I took my secret tunnel!”

“S-secret tunnel?”

“Yup! Oh, but you don’t have to worry about that. My tunnels are safe and secure! They won’t be affecting Ponyville’s landscape, that’s for sure!”

Twilight twitched. The amount of absurdity that came out of Pinkie’s mouth was ridiculously high. Yet despite the lunacy, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. A secret tunnel would certainly explain how her friend would traverse the town so quickly unnoticed. After all, Pinkie came from a family of rock farmers and she also had that secret cave under Sugarcube Corner.

“So, when are we going to see your computer?” asked Pinkie.

“Oh, um, the computer?” Twilight replied. Her friend’s question immediately snapped the Princess out of her thoughts. “Yes… well, I was gonna wait until the girls get here first before we head back to the mirror room. There are some things I want to discuss first before we start the next demonstration, so—”

Before Twilight could finish talking, she was abruptly interrupted when Spike barged out of the castle. “Twilight! Oh, thank Celestia you are here!” he shouted.

Both the Princess and Pinkie stared at the young drake with confused looks. For some reason, he seemed strangely out of breath. “You… you got to help!” pleaded a panting Spike. “It’s Starlight. She won’t stop!”

“Settle down, Spike!” cautioned Twilight. Using her magic, she aided her assistant and helped the young drake catch his breath. “There you go. Do you feel better?”

“That’s… actually, I do feel kinda better, thanks. But that’s not what I’m here for! Twilight, you’ve got to tell Starlight to stop. She’s been playing that game of yours for four hours straight!”

“Game? What game?” asked Pinkie. The mere mention of the word ‘game’ excited the pink pony as she planted her face onto Spike’s forehead.

“Pinkie calm down. I’ll explain about it later,” Twilight said as she immediately pulled her friend away with her magic. “Now, Spike, you said Starlight has been playing nonstop for four hours, right? Why didn’t you convince her to stop?”

“I tried!” Spike argued. “I told her to take a break after an hour of play. But she was so focused on the screen that she wouldn’t stop! So, when talking failed, I tried to do everything I could to get her to stop playing. Even to the point where I threatened to turn off the dang thing!”

He frowned. “But even that didn’t work! When I tried to turn the computer off, she just used her magic to teleport me away!”

“Is she still in the mirror room?”

“Yeah, she is. After three hours of non-stop teleporting, I just gave up and figured that I’d wait for you instead.”

“Aw, but why would you want to stop her from playing? It sounds like this game of hers is fun!” argued Pinkie Pie. However, Twilight ignored her friend’s comment as she quickly fired up her horn. In a flash, she teleported away from Spike and Pinkie.

When the magic wore off, the Princess was inside her castle’s mirror room once again. Looking around, she immediately found her student sitting in the exact spot where she left her. She sighed as she noticed the mare’s eyes were completely glued to the screen. She’s become addicted. Twilight thought.

“S-Spike… is that you?” muttered Starlight who didn’t even bother to turn her head around. “Could you do a mare a favor and get me some hay chips please? I’d like to do it myself, but I gotta get this next Source point for my character.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. Once more, she ignited her horn. But instead of focusing her magic on herself, she enveloped the light around Starlight, teleporting the mare away from the computer. “Snap out of it Starlight!” shouted the Princess, immediately slapping her student right on her face.

“Huh, what?” Starlight blinked. “Oh, T-Twilight, you’re back! Gosh, that was fast. I didn’t think you’d be done with your royal duties so soon.”

The Princess sighed. It appeared the mare didn’t even notice that so much time had passed by. And judging from her face, it appeared as if she hadn't even blinked for hours.

“Starlight, it’s been four hours since I’ve left the castle! Since then, you’ve done nothing but sit here and play my game for the entire afternoon!”

“What?” Starlight screamed as her face went pale. “But, how? I promised myself that I’d take a break every hour!”

“These games are addicting, Starlight. Yes, they are fun; but if you don’t control yourself, you’ll find yourself playing for hours and not want to do anything else!” explained Twilight. “Trust me, I went through the same exact experience when I tried these games. And when that happened, it took the efforts of both Sunset and the other Applejack to get me away from my computer.”

“What about, Spike? He was there with me. Why didn’t he just tell me to stop?”

“He tried. But whenever he tried to get you to stop, you used your magic to get him out of the way.”

Starlight winced. “Oh, Celestia, I remember now! He… told me numerous times to take a break, but I ignored him. And when he tried to turn off the computer, I teleported him to random locations in town!”

“You did what?” shouted Twilight, letting loose the Royal Canterlot voice in front of her student. Upon seeing her student’s terrified reaction though, she quickly apologized and helped the mare up. “Don’t feel too bad about it, Starlight. When you are doing something fun, you don’t want to stop.”

“I guess. Still, I never would’ve thought I’d get addicted so easily though.”

“That’s the power of a good game. Divinity Original Sin 2 is one of my favorite things from the human world. The story, the narrative, and sweet Celestia, the characters! If Larian Studios wrote it in book form, I’d buy it in a heartbeat!”

“Of course you would,” snarked Starlight as her eyes began to twitch. She then raised her hooves and started rubbing her face. “Ugh, my eyes. It feels like they’re on fire right now.”

“A side effect of playing too much. When you become so focused on the computer screen itself, you forget to blink. Don’t worry. The pain will subside eventually. Though splashing your face with water does help alleviate it. Come on, I’ll help you to the bathroom.

Before either could leave the mirror room though, the exit door opened, revealing Spike and all of Twilight’s friends. “Twilight, there you are, darling,” said Rarity as she was the first who approached the Princess. “We heard everything from Spikey-Wikey. Is everything alright?”

“Everything’s fine, girls. I managed to get Starlight off the computer,” Twilight replied. She then looked to her assistant. “Spike, can you please escort her to the bathroom? Her eyes are sore from all the playing she’s done.”

“Okay, Twilight. But first, she’ll have to promise not to use her magic on me,” rebuked the young drake.

His comment caused Starlight to sigh. “I really messed up, didn’t I? Look, I’m sorry, Spike. I didn’t mean to use my magic on you like that.”

Spike chuckled. “Aw, relax, Starlight. I was only half joking. Come on, I’ll help you to the bathroom,” he replied as he helped the mare out of the room.

With them gone, Twilight was left alone with her friends. She looked at them and could immediately tell they had questions. “Alright, Twilight, just what in the hay is going on?” asked Rainbow Dash. “When we came to your castle, we found Spike panicking, and Pinkie saying that Starlight was in trouble.”

“Calm down, Rainbow. I’ll tell you everything you need to know,” Twilight replied. For the next few minutes, she explained what happened between her student and Spike. Though the girls found it difficult to believe at first, confirmation from Applejack settled their doubts.

“Girls, she’s tellin’ the truth. It’s not jus’ because Ah can’t tell a lie, but it’s also because Ah found Spike wanderin’ mah fields today,” the farm pony explained. “Ah asked him why he’s at the farm, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he jus’ ran back ta town.”

“I also found Spike at my home too,” said Fluttershy. “I was tending to my animals at the time, but then suddenly, he appeared out of nowhere. I checked on him to make sure he’s okay, but all he did was apologize and leave.”

“And he didn’t mention Starlight at all?” Twilight asked her two friends. To her disappointment, AJ and Fluttershy shook their heads. “Darn it. It would’ve made the situation a lot easier if he just told you two.”

“You weren’t in town, Twilight?” asked Rarity.

“I had to teleport over to Canterlot. Princess… I mean, Celestia needed some help with her paperwork. To be frank, I would’ve preferred that I work here, but I haven’t seen my mentor in a while. So I worked alongside her for the entire afternoon.”

“Did ya tell her ‘bout this whole experiment of yers?” asked Applejack who immediately batting an eyelash.

“She does, yes. But she says she wants to see what me and Sunset have been working on. So, as of tomorrow, she will be paying me a visit during lunch hour.”

“Oh, Princess Celestia is coming to visit?” Pinkie yelled. “Should I bake a cake and set up a party for her?”

Twilight chuckled. “If you want to, then go right ahead, Pinkie. But please, be on your best behavior when Celestia is here. I want her union with Sunset Shimmer to be perfect.”

“She wants to talk to Sunset tomorrow?” asked Rarity.

“Well, yes. But I didn’t tell her that. Their reunion tomorrow will be a surprise. Both for Celestia and Sunset. Granted, I don’t think the latter will take it well given their history, but I’m certain she’ll open up.”

“Yeah, whatever. So, can you tell us how exactly Starlight stayed here for over four hours? Pinkie said something about a game, but what exactly is she talking about?” asked Rainbow.

Twilight smiled as she looked back at her computer. The Divinity Original Sin 2 program was still up and running on her monitor. “Alright girls. For my next presentation, I’ll show you another feature on my computer. And trust me, it’s something that will blow you all away.”

Author's Note:

Okay. We're heading into video game territory now. With Divinity Original Sin 2 out of the way, I can start focusing on other games. For the next chapter, I was thinking Ori and the Blind Forest, mostly because some of the main six would want a game that's less violent compared to Divinity. Other games like Doom or Team Fortress 2 might come at a later chapter.

Again if you have any games or videos you'd like to recommend, please let me know. And if you see any errors, report them to me.