Error Code: FIO

by Ashfur

Arc 3-3: Super Zeroes (and ones)

The trio stood ready in front of one of the forgotten doors deep in the Castle of Friendship. The unassuming door would normally lead to a broom closet. The soft glow surrounding it after Glitch cast his spell, however, signified it as the gateway to their next adventure.

Infinite Loop was the first to speak up. "Okay Glitch, what exactly is the plan? I mean, I get it, but I think Short Circuit might need a refresher."

Ignoring the condescending glare Circuit shot at Loop, System Glitch stood in front of the door and responded. "Simple. There are other shards out there, and odds are whatever hit yours hit another. At the very least, there are others without Celestia watching. So, we need to help any survivors and bring them here. But flying across the void takes too long. So why not just take this door and tell the code that it leads to a door in another shard? Easy! Now, are you gonna stop stalling, or are ya coming with me? I might need help; I don't know what shard AC42DF790 is like aside from the fact the hexadecimal number is a few off of ours. We could be walking into a game of Fallout for all I know, or worse."

"What's that game? I've never heard of it here i Equestria," Circuit inquired.

"A huge time sink. Pray you never pick it up. Now let's get going." With that, the three pushed the door open, striding through to greet the sights of-

"Oh my gosh, this is the best door ever!" Cried Loop.

"Where exactly are we?" Glitch asked.

Circuit signed. "A huge money sink if you buy mint-condition back-issues. "

---

Location: Maretropolis
Time: 5:00 P.M.

"Maretropolis! A city that never stops moving! Situated on the Mare-iana coastline, this bustling trade center is full of buisness and cash flow! But beware, for beneath the busy exterior lies crime and corruption threaten to swallow the unwary whole!"

Glitch stared up at the sky, befuddled. "...I'm sorry, do we have a narrator now? What is this, a 50's comic book style radio drama?"

"Last we saw intrepid heroine, that unstoppable mare of justice, she readied to stop the mad master of darkness, Destructo! Can she defeat her rival this time, once and for all?"

Sure enough, a brown unicorn stallion smashed down the wall of a nearby building conveniently labelled 'Museum', cackling maiacally. He also was decked out in ridiculously gaudy armor, not meant for combat in the slightest. "Muahahahaha! Fear the name Destructo, citizens of Maretropolis! With this stolen OOPART, I can at last awaken the destroyer of worlds to do my bidding, and this city will be MINE!"

"Son of a bitch, it even has the stupid edgy supervillain, and he already has the MacGuffin-Muffin-Whatever. That's it, abandon shard." Before Glitch and Circuit could open the door to leave, they were grabbed by an overly enthusiastic Loop.

"Where the buck are you two going? We get to watch my favorite heroine beat Destructo for real! Can't we stay, please please please PLEASE?!" Now she had two condescending glares coming her way.

"Ten bits says that artifact fails miserably because 'spooky dark forces beyond mortal control'," Glitch deadpanned.

"You're on. I bet its gonna work but have some horrible side effect." Circuit and Glitch hoof-bumped as they toned out the monologue coming from behind them.

"Oh, the equinity of it all! But behold, for the mare of the hour arrives to save the day!"

"Stop right there, Destructo! This looks like a job for... Live Wire!" A gray earth pony mate kept from a nearby window onto the street, electricity crackling around her hooves and electric yellow mane (which looked nice despite being spiky and all over the place from static).

Glitch and Circuit facehooved.

"Aha, Live Wire! But you are too late! Behold, I will use this OOPART to bring about your end! For I, the great Destruco, will triumph- wait, where did the OOPART go?" The stallion stopped mid-triade to glance around, as the mysterious glowing pendant he held had disappeared.

"What'sthis? A civilian steps up to the cause to help out our hero! But can she escape with the artifact in time to avoid the clutches of the evil fiend?" Sure enough, Loop was running off down the street towards Live Wire with the pendant in her telekinetic grasp.

"Don't worry, Live Wire! I'll help you! Just leave it to me!" Loop rushed forward and into the building that Live stood on top of. Cursing his luck, Destructo ran in after her. If there was a way to facehoof more than they already were, Glitch and Circuit would have discovered it before dashing in as well, making a mental note to scold Loop at a later date.

"Will Live Wire save the day? Will Destructo finally get his wish for the capture of the city? And what of these mysterious good samaritans?
Find out next time on... The Adventures of Live Wire!"

Glitch popped his head back out to call to the mysterious voice in the sky. "Spoilers: We win!"

Author's Note:

...not my best chapter. But my new job has been a little too good at keeping me busy. I'll figure this out.

At least I didn't go with my original plan and make destructo the red and black alicorn oc. Regardless, he is just comedic relief anyway.

Comments

[DreamCloud]

I can't help but hear Dunkey read Glitch's lines.

[Cander]

Ok, considering the range of crazy they could come across in this fic this was actually rather funny. Thank you for doing another FiO fic. This has been tossed onto my tracking shelf and upvoted.

[Cander]

9038808
Yeah I feel you there. Iv'e done 72+ before while running a Table Top RPG. That was a marathon. Slept for 16 hours straight after that.

[Ashfur]

9094696
Aw, thanks! And here I feel I'm not doing enough. Well, at the very least adjusting to my new job is getting in the way. So, how about some behind the scenes to tide you over?

Live wire and this entire chapter didn't exist u til very recently. Not in the timeline of the story, but in my plans for it. The original plan was to somehow kill off Blue Scream and have either CelestAI or Glitch make an imperfect clone named Blue Screen to join the team, but I hit a snag when I realized the only point I could theoretically kill off even a piece of our favorite optimizer was during the big climax, but the whole team needs to be alive at that point because [error: data corrupted].

So, Live Wire was born to satisfy the Earth pony requirement for the team! Smart, right?