Bits and Games

by Brian Jacko

Finding a Game to Play

Rainbow Dash walked through the arcade eyeing each machine. "Lame, uncool, wouldn't spend a bit on that game," she said. Rainbow Dash sighed and said, "I could be practicing my tricks in the skies today, but instead, I'm stuck here with a bunch of lame games." Rainbow suddenly reached the far end of the arcade. Her eyes lit up like a foals eyes in a candy store. There was a machine with such bright flashing lights that she couldn't take her eyes off of it. The colors on the screen were vivid and hypnotizing. Rainbow licked her lips as if she were about to eat something delicious. "Now here's a game that might be interesting," she said.

Rainbow Dash stepped onto the platform. She didn't know how to play the game, so she waited for the instructions to appear on the screen. She read them out loud, "It says to wait until the arrow reaches the top and then step on it. Avoid stepping on mines, Keep your hoof down on arrows with a long tail, these are hold arrows. Keep your hoof tapping on rolls/multi-tap arrows." Rainbow scratched the back of her mane with her hoof. "Sounds easy enough," she said.

She took some bits out of her bag with her mouth and plunked them into the slot of the machine. The arcade speakers made a loud noise as she put each bit into the slot. "Wow! That sounds so cool!" She pressed a green button on the cabinet to start her game. She began to bob her head with the music that played at the select screen. She read what the screen said out loud, "Singles is one pony playing on one pad. Doubles is for one pony playing on two pads. Insert more bits to play with a friend." Rainbow Dash was deep in thought. "Singles sounds too easy. I bet doubles is more fun and challenging anyway." She selected doubles mode and began to scroll through each song. "Wow! This music is awesoooome!" she thought to herself. She went through each song while listening to a variety of different genres of music. She eventually landed on a techno song and paused for a moment. "Wow! This song is from DJ Pon-3! I can't believe this machine has my favorite song by her!" Rainbow Dash hit the green button once again. "It says to hold or press again for more options." Rainbow Dash pressed the button again and up came a screen with what seemed like an endless amount of options. "Hmmm. Speed mods adjust the scroll rate of the arrows." Rainbow Dash didn't really understand, so she chose the modification somewhere in between. She skipped through the rest of the options and made it down to the bottom. "Select difficulty. Hmmm. I may not have played this game before, but I'm good at everything, so let's give the expert level a try." Rainbow Dash hit the green button two more times and stepped back. She bobbed her head as she kept the beat of the music.

On the screen came a barrage of bright, colorful arrows. She began stepping across the pads like wild. She was already sweating and having trouble keeping up with the arrows on the screen. She made it a quarter of the way through, until she tripped and fell on her face. She got back up and finished her song, but it was too late, her life bar had drained all the way down and it was game over after she finished her first song. "Aw nuts!" she said. "I can't believe I failed!" Rainbow Dash wiped the sweat off of her forehead and grinned from ear to ear. She looked nervously around her to make sure no pony was looking or laughing at her for making a fool of herself on the dance pad. She plunked more bits into the machine. She smiled as each bit she put into the slot made that magical and awesome sound. "That was really kind of fun. Maybe I'll try something a little bit more easier this time."

Applejack made her way through the arcade. She looked at each machine as if it were some kind of strange sorcery that she did not understand. "What in tarnations are these things? She pressed a few buttons on one of the cabinets, then backed away from the foreign object. "Well, I guess I might as well try somethin'," she said. She put a few bits into one of the machines and began to play. She had no idea what she was doing. She just began pressing random buttons. "WHAT!? GAME OVER!? Why I just started playin' the darn thing! Gimmie back my bits!" Applejack bucked the machine in an attempt to get her bits back. "I reckon these games do nothin' but suck the bits right out of yer bag!"

Applejack became frustrated and walked over to the snack bar. There, the manager was waiting for her. He was a tall brown earth pony with an arcade joy stick and buttons for a cutie mark.

"I'll have one of those ice cream soda floats please," she said as she sat on the bar stool. The manager nodded and made her one. He slid it over to her. Applejack caught the drink with her hoof and began to sip it. "Ah, that tastes good!" she said. "Here's the two bits for the drink."

The manager smiled and gave her the money back. He looked at her and said, "Don't worry about paying for the drink today. It's on me. I saw you were having a hard time with one of the games and lost your bits rather early, so the drinks on me."

Applejack tipped her hat to him and said, "Why that's awfully nice of ya mister. I ain't ever been to an arcade before and I just don't understand these modern do-hickeys."

The manager nodded with understanding and said, "Just please don't buck the machines when you lose, that can damage the machines."

Applejack turned red with embarrassment and said, "I'm awfully sorry about that sir. It won't happen again!"

The manager smiled and turned his back to her. He was watching Rainbow Dash go berserk on one of the dance games.

Applejack finished her drink and wiped her mouth with her front leg. She was about to go find Twilight Sparkle and ask if she was ready to go yet, when suddenly something caught her eye. In the back of the arcade was a pool table and a dart board. "Pool and darts? Now those are fun games!" Applejack looked at the sign by the pool table. Five bits per game of pool. One bit for a game of darts. Applejack put the bits in the side of the pool table and grabbed herself a pool stick. She grinned and said, "Now this is a game a farm girl like me can play!"

Pinkie Pie bounced around the arcade. She would occasionally stop and stare at the bright colors on the screen.

The manager watched her for a while, then came out of the snack bar area and stood beside her. "If you're nervous about playing and losing bits, I can give you a few free games since you're new here," he said.

Pinkie Pie looked up at him and said, "Oh no, I just really like looking at the colors and movements on the screen. There's something about them that makes my head go zoom, zip, ka-pow!"

The manager scratched his head with his hoof. There was something odd about this pony. She was different. Maybe she had a bit of A.D.H.D. the way she would try to look at multiple screens at once. He couldn't figure out which game to suggest to her, and then it hit him. "What's your name, dear?" he asked.

"My name is Pinkie Pie," she replied.

"Well, Pinkie, I think I have just the game for you that you might enjoy. Why don't you follow me?"

"Okie dokie lokie," she said as she bounced behind the stallion.

In one corner of the arcade were pin ball machines. He bent down low and put in a few bits for her to try the game for free. He then gestured for her to play and he stepped back.

Pinkie Pie stood on her hind legs and put her front hooves on the buttons. She didn't know what she was doing.

The manager laughed and pushed the start button for her and out came a ball. He pulled the lever back and shot the silver ball out into play. He looked back over to Pinkie Pie and said, "Now just try to keep the ball in play and not let it get past you!"

Pinkie Pie frantically hit the buttons trying to keep the ball in play.

The arcade manager smiled as he watched her eyes dart around trying to keep focus on the ball. He knew he had her hooked and that pin ball was her game.

Pinkie Pie's eyes lit up at the randomness of the ball and she was giggling madly. After her game was over, she got out her bag of bits and bounced over to another pin ball machine. She put her money in the slot of the game and started playing. She was hooked and mesmerized at how the ball can bounce so crazily around the board.

Twilight Sparkle frowned as she looked at each game. "In The Hooves 2? Pony It Up? Poppin' Pony? These games are for little foals, how can the Princess even think of sending me such a gift? Why couldn't she send me a book instead?" Twilight Sparkle said as she bowed her head and walked in disappointment. She then bumped her head into a machine. "Ow!" she said. She looked up and noticed the machine had a giant touch screen on it. Above the screen was the game's name. Rehay. Twilight sighed out loud and said, "I might as well play something here." She read the instructions out loud. "Tap the symbol when it reaches the twelve o' clock position and matches the music’s beat. Sometimes, more than one symbol will need to be pressed at once. These are called omni-taps. Multi-taps require you to tap each time a bar rotates to the twelve o' clock position with the beat. Holds need to be held down. Press down on the symbol when it rotates to the twelve o' clock position and keep it held down until it rotates back around. Follows require a pony to hold down and follow the path of the line until it reaches the end. Sounds easy enough, let's give this a shot."

She levitated some bits out of her bag and put them into the slot of the game. Twilight Sparkle stood on her hind legs, she touched the screen and was greeted by the intro. "It says that I can either play full screen or half. I better play half to be safe. Full screen might be a little bit too hard to read right now," she said. Twilight selected half screen and began to scroll through the music selection. She found her song that she wanted to play and made sure the difficulty was set to easy. She pressed the screen again and the song started.

Twilight tapped each colored symbol as they appeared on the screen. She tapped one of her hind legs on the ground in an attempt to keep beat with the music. When she finished her song, she looked at the results. "Oh! I got a star!" she said in a cheerful voice. "I passed my first song!" Twilight was rewarded with another song. She looked around to make sure that no pony was watching her enjoy her game. She was embarrassed and unsure if she should be having this much fun with a video game. After all, in her mind, video games were for foals and not to be taken seriously. After Twilight finished her game, she looked around and noticed there were other touch screen music games to be played. She grinned as she tip-hoofed over to another game and opened up her bag of bits.

"UNGH! This place is absolutely hideous! I bet there are cock roaches roaming around behind these machines," Rarity said in a whiny voice. Rarity looked around for Twilight and the others, but she couldn't see any pony. She sighed out loud to herself and sat down on a stool that was in front of one of the games. She watched the screen as a demo of the game was shown. Two ponies were fighting each other in the game. Rarity rolled her eyes and said, "I guess I might as well try this game. Although I can't imagine enjoying it."

Rarity walked over to the counter and got some paper towels. She took them over to the machine and put them down on the cabinet. She used her magic and took out a bottle of hoof sanitizer. She always kept a bottle with her when going out, just in case she didn't feel very clean. She put some hoof sanitizer on the paper towels and wiped the joy stick and buttons down.

Rarity used her magic and put the coins into the slot of the machine. She hit the start button and was greeted by a selection of fighters. She began to comment on each of the characters on the screen. "Oh, this pony would never win a fight. He's too thin and weak looking, and this pony is too big and strong. He would be too slow to keep up with the faster ponies, and that pony has absolutely NO taste in style, there is no way she would win in a fight!" Rarity cocked an eyebrow at one of the pony fighters in the game. "YES!" she cried out. "She is perfect! She's pretty, stylish, has an attitude, and looks almost as beautiful as me. She would win a fight for sure!" Rarity selected her character and began to play.

Click clack, click clack. The sound of Rarity's hoof was pounding away on the buttons. "Seven hit combo with an air juggle! That did so much damage!" she cried out. Rarity won her fight and proceeded to the next pony to fight in the game. Rarity put her hoof to her chin in thought. "Playing such silly little games like this is not very lady like and if Sweetie Belle ever found out I was here, why, I don't even know how she would react, but I bet it wouldn't be good," she thought to herself. Rarity played another stage and lost. "Well, I guess that's that. No need to get upset over a loss. It's just a game and I have better things to do," she confessed. Rarity paused for a moment and thought to herself. "But I was so awfully close to beating that pony, and my pony should of won being that she's the prettiest in the game! I must continue and beat that pony!"

Rarity closed her eyes in frustration and used her magic to put more coins into the machine. "There's nothing wrong with trying again. You can have a little fun, Rarity. It's not a big deal." As Rarity selected her character, she started to scream at the machine. "You're going down punk! I'll show you this time!" Rarity couldn't help but smile a sinister grin. She felt awfully guilty that she was enjoying a game in such an unclean place, but that didn't stop her from playing again. She wanted to beat the game, more importantly, she wanted some pony else to play with her so she could beat them as well. Rarity pounded the keys again and she screamed out loud in excitement, "C-c-c-c-combo breaker!"

It has been about a half hour now and Fluttershy was still cowering in the corner of the arcade with her eyes shut tight and her hooves covering her ears. Fluttershy took some deep breaths and said to herself, "Ok, you can do this, Fluttershy. Just walk through the arcade and find a game. It’s not that hard."

Fluttershy got up and tip-hoofed her way nervously around. A loud bang had occurred from the other side of the arcade. "Eeeeep!" Fluttershy yelled and hid behind one of the arcade cabinets. "Oh wait, maybe this isn't such a good idea. Maybe this machine might make a loud sound too," she thought to herself.

Fluttershy ran from behind the machine and made her way to the counter. In her mind, the machines were so loud, that she was afraid that they would explode.

There stood the manager looking down at the terrified pony.

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Um, excuse me, but these machines are so loud and it's really scary being in here. Is there any way that you could perhaps turn the volume down on the machines?"

The manager simply laughed and said, "I could do that, but other ponies might feel that the sound would be too low for their game. I have a better solution."

The manager bent down behind the counter and pulled out some headphones. He pushed them over the counter to her and said, "These are special noise cancelation headphones that you can buy for just ten bits. You can plug them into a game and control the volume yourself!"

Fluttershy nodded her head slowly and gave the pony her gift certificate.

She quickly put the headphones on right away and sighed to herself in comfort. "That's much better," she said. "All that noise is gone, but I can still feel those scary vibrations in my hooves. Oh, I just need to go find a game away from where all my friends are playing."

Fluttershy ran over to one corner of the arcade where there were no ponies. She took in a deep breath and looked at one of the machines. "Ok Fluttershy, you need to be a brave pony and try," she said to herself. Fluttershy took out her bag of bits and opened it up. She put a single coin in and a loud sound came out of the speakers. "Eeeeep!" she cried out. Fluttershy ran and hid behind a stool. She was shaking and cowering. "Get a hold of yourself, Fluttershy. It wasn't that loud with these headphones on. You just need to get used to feeling the vibrations in your hooves," she said to herself. Fluttershy put another coin in and looked at the screen. She pressed the start button and read through the tutorials. "All I have to do is press one of the buttons with the matching notes on the screen that goes to the music. That doesn’t sound too hard," she said.

Fluttershy plugged her headphones in and put the volume down very low. She scrolled through the music selection and picked out a soft classical song to play. She began to hit the buttons on the cabinets that matched with the notes on the screen. Fluttershy smiled warmly and said, "Oh my, this isn't so bad. In fact, this is kind of fun, now that the volume is reasonable." Fluttershy enjoyed her game. She really had fun with the note and symbol matching games, so she stuck with those. She didn't want to play any of the fighting games because she didn't like the violence that she saw on the screen.

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