From the beginning - Foreword
"AND DON'T COME BACK!!" The chef yelled as he slammed the door in my face.
"Uhhh, oh well, another day, another job for the collection..." I started walking away, no destination in mind. "Hell, I didn't even last a day before I got fired this time... how these ponies grab things with their hooves, they make it look easy," I thought out loud.
"And I wonder how a full-grown unicorn can still be as clumsy as a toddler," A sharp and somewhat annoying voice invaded in my ears. "I still think you need to go to a hospital," Then I saw the pink pegasus with a red mane and tail coming over to me.
"Hey, Daisy Rose, and, no, I don't need go to a hospital, I'm fine," She rolled her eyes and sighed.
"If you say so." She looked around, "So... what are you going to do now?"
"Well, obviously I need to look for another job... again. But most peo-ponies reject me for no reason at all!" I sighed wistfully. "Although, in this case, maybe it would've been better if I was rejected at the door, I almost burned down the place," I laughed awkwardly.
Daisy put her hoof to her chin in thought. "Mmm, it must be because of your cutie mark," She point at my flank.
"My cutie what?"
Her face practically screamed 'seriously' as she stared at me, "You don't know what a cutie mark is?"
I quickly tried to remember that I was a cutie mark with what little I know of equestria, "It's not those tattoos that show you your destiny or something like that, is it?"
"Uh, basically, yeah, they are. But your cutie mark is... weird," I look at my right flank, noting the picture of a grey Nintendo 64 controller, complete with red, green, blue, and yellow buttons. A classic system technically before my time, especially before I became a programmer. "I don't even know what it's supposed to be. Is it some kind of toy?"
"Ohh this, well, it is some kind of toy, but it won't help me much here" Surely if I explain that it's an alien device from another world, she'll think I'm crazy.
"Why would you think that, Start? Every pony should do what they like the most, I'm very happy with my work as an illustrator," She turned to show off her cutie mark of a pink brush drawing a multicolored rainbow heart.
I took a long breath, thinking about how to explain that my “Cutie Mark” (which I think is a very feminine name) is useless in equestria.
Ever since I arrived here, I've been trying to adapt, and one of the first things I planned on doing was to get a job, and with a job I can get money: coins, literal coins they call bits, which are pieces of gold of exceptionally high quality, just one would make you a millionaire back on earth! - ehm, like I was saying, I tried to get a job, but it turns out that ponies get their jobs practically handed to them, thanks to their Cutie M-, you know what, I don't like the name, I'm going to call them “destiny tattoos” (patent pending) from now on, and in the same way, it didn't help me at all, thanks to Equestria's lack of technology. I mean, they do have trains, cinemas, and even some things scientists would dream about making, but common, everyday things from my old life don't exist at all: cell phones, cars, and most important to me, computers.
“Look, Rose, it's not that I think my cutie mark is useless, I actually love it! But, so far, I haven't seen anything in Equestria that can even make a video game."
"A video-what?" Rose asked, her head tilted in obvious confusion.
"Exactly! You don't even know what that means!" I practically shouted, getting frustrated all over again.
"Calm down, Start," Rose rested her hoof on my head, trying to comfort me. "There's gotta be somepony out there looking for a pony to do those 'video games' you do," she rubs my cyan-brown fur as she does so.
"I... I don't think so," I slowly take her hoof off my head. "Unless a miracle happens, my hopes of having a job like that are slim to-"
SLAP
A soft, yet sizeable piece of paper hit me square in the face, knocking me to the floor. "Start!" I hear Rose's voice yelling with concern as I tried to get up.
"Auuhh, that hurt," I look around and found the weapon: a newspaper now lying on the floor, I looked around again to see who would've thrown it my way, 'okay piece son of a bitch, where are you miserable' I see Rose grab the newspaper, then start to read and look to me in excited awe
"Start! You have to read this!"
Failing the mission of 'Find my victim', I levitated the newspaper over to me with my yellow aura and start scanning the articles: not so important news, offers, advertisements, political things, before finally finding what got her so excited.
Desperately Hiring!
The well-known company "Fun and entertainment", is looking for digital media game makers, applicants require at least one of the following: work experience, Magic animation, multimedia design, magic graphics...
I kept reading paragraph after paragraph. How come I never found out about this company before now? Aside from the magic, it's just like a basic programmer's job; but what got me most of all was this image: a vertical piece of furniture, with yellow walls and green borders, an 8-way lever on the left side, blue and red buttons on the right, and most importantly of all, a mini screen at the top, showing a pixelated green mini pony jumping with its two rear hooves over a long precipice.
A ray of hope formed in me, God has heard me.
"Start, are you crying?"
Rose and I looked at the building of my last hopes, Rose was more than impressed and excited about the place, while I was nervous about spoiling this opportunity, though a little puzzled that it looked more like a huge toy store than a company that makes toys (and most importantly video games) , with windows everywhere that showed off what lied inside while the “Fun and entertainment” logo was plastered all around, its letters written in what looked like crayon by a 4-year-old boy, reminiscent of when I was little and would go to the "Toy's “Я” us" store to buy toys with my mom and my sisters. I also saw pony children... or were they called fillies? Colts? It doesn't matter, there with their parents to buy toys.
I stood up firmly and took a deep breath.
'Come on Jeff, you got it' I take the first step, entering my new future.
Upon entering the place, I see that my assumptions were correct, tons of blue boxes of toys of different varieties and sizes, with a lot of toys very similar to those on Earth, trains, balls, dolls (of ponies, obviously), among others.
"This place is incredible," admits my companion.
"Well, it is very... 'interesting'" I said while addressing a local worker.
"Hello there, I came for work. Do you know where I have to go?" I levitated the newspaper that hit me in the face.
The amber pony read the newspaper and then nodded “Ah, you came to create those weird games right? I'm Forced Worked.”
'What a weird name'
“What a good name, I'm Start Play, nice to meet you”
Forced signaled me to follow with his hoof, "Come on, we'll start the interview right away” He headed off with me and Rose behind, but the pony immediately stopped her, "I'm sorry miss, but unless you're here for the job, you have to stay here. Do you understand?"
Rose sighed and rolled her eyes. “Okay. Good luck, Start! Don't burn anything this time!" Rose exclaimed, making the hardworking pony look confused as she shook her head and we continued on our way.
"You know, not many ponies come here to make those video games, what got you interested?" Wondered the amber pony.
Oh well, here we go, "Y-me, well I always liked making and playing videogames, ever since I was a little... Foal," I laughed nervously.
Forced Worked looked at me confused, "But we just started making them like five years ago, what do you mean?"
Damn, I'm screwing this up! Don't panic, just come up with a cunning excuse, "Ahh, it's just that I wasn't born in Equestria, I-I'm from another country far away."
The amber pony stared at me, while I kept mentally pleading for him to buy it, "Wow I never met a pony from anywhere other than Equestria" Thank God!
I took a silent sigh in relief.
...
"So where are you from?" Forced asked with an obvious question I didn't expect.
“I'm from... A-mare-rica...” I said quietly, hoping he wouldn't ask more about my personal life.
"I don't think I ever heard of that place, it must be nice. Oh well, here we are!" I sighed again.
"Sorry, but I have to go, the colts can be very hyperactive sometimes." He gave a little laugh, "It was nice meeting you, Start. Good luck." He took a few steps away to a corner, and when he couldn't hear his hoof steps, I realized that my body released a very large weight on top of me.
'How close I was.'
After the cardiac arrest, I approached the oak door the size of a pony, as I expected, taking notice of a sign with name called "Puppet Doll", probably the one who runs the place, it's still weird that Equestria has the same language as I do, but it doesn't matter.
I took a deep breath (again) and proceeded to enter the room where I'll finally get a job.
"So, Start Play, you're interested in working with our company, to make video games, right?" The company's head mare asked me with a very enthusiastic tone, compared to other ponies I met in Manehattan, the lemon-furred earth pony with a daffodil wavy mane and tail, cut in half at the tip, with magnet-colored eyes and a cutie mark of a dark blue teddy bear with a pink heart on its tummy, just like a care bear.
"Yes ma'am," I said quickly.
"Brilliant! It's been a long time since we had a pony who wanted to make video games. You have experience with them, right?" She asks me cautiously.
"Yes, I do," I say confidently.
Her smile grew even bigger as she squeals with delight, “Yeah! You are hired!" say-wait what.
"Seriously?" I don't believe it.
"Yeah! The last programmer we had left almost a year ago, and he couldn't do much, kept complaining about not knowing what to do." She got up from behind her desk and excitedly rushed to the door, "Come on, let me introduce you to Dream, your supervisor!" She was practically yelling at me, all while I was stunned by the situation, 'She hired me that easily.'
She and I quickly arrived at what I supposed was the programming office, a big, clustered room with sheets, tickets, pencils scattered all over the floor, game machines on one side and multiple tables with even more documents, drawings, photos of different creatures, among much more on top of them, then there were the dolls, everywhere you looked there were rabbits, sheep, cats, along side the occasional ball, wooden sword, train, you name it.
In the middle of the room was a very striking green pony wearing a lab coat stained with dirt, his mane and tail apparently dark black, he was sitting on the ground, levitating a sheet and pencil as he muttered thi- “Dream!” Puppet yelled happily, interrupting my analysis of the environment of the place, however, my new boss's scream caused the pony now recognized as Dream to scream in fright, jump up, trip over a pencil, and slip right back down to the floor.
“Puppets!! Don't surprise me like that, you know how I get when I'm in the zone!” Dream angrily stands up with a frustrated face and sleepy blue eyes.
The mare laughed awkwardly, "Oops, I'm sorry." Puppet stuck out her tongue, making her look cute, "I was just so excited to introduce you to your new partner!" She grabbed my sides with her hooves. "Meet your new friend and co-worker, Start Play!"
"A pleasure," I tell him awkwardly, extending my hoof to him, to which he kindly shakes with his.
"So, you're my new partner?" I stood before him, feeling the nerves go through my whole body as he stared at me, as if he were looking into my soul, "You know how to program, right?"
...
And there I realized something: I don't know how the "Magic" programming of this world works, 'let's just go with the flow, it must be like what we had on Earth, right?' "Yes, I know how to program," I finally answer.
Puppet Doll finally let go of me and galloped away "Okay my dear employees, I have to go to a conference with some executives, you guys do that gaming stuff and everything, I don't want any fights so be nice! Byee!" Leaving Dream and me alone.
Nodding, Dream told me, "Before we know for sure that you're going to work here, you're going to do a project. I want you to make me a short and simple game, something that is easy to understand for adult and young ponies, that is fun to play, and can be challenging. Do you understand? Now come with me." I can only nod in response, still taking it all in, trying to think how video games are made in this world. I mean, it's obviously made with magic, but what kind of magic? I know nothing!! He wants me to make a game right here out of the blue?
I kept mentally abusing myself until we reached a simple room with dark blue walls, illustrations of snowflakes, and a crescent at its maximum splendor on the ceiling, in front of me was a desk with sheets of paper in the middle, some brilliant mini gems, emeralds, rubies, aquamarines, and others that I don't know their names of on one side, and some instruments, like a guitar, even a mini piano on the other!
Dream held out his hoof, "This will be your work room," he then pointed all around him, "Here you're going to do your job and make your games for this," And with a "POOF" there appeared a... GameBoy? "You see, we released this console a few years ago, but nopony's been buying them, that's why I want you to make a game for it, to get ponies to buy them." Dream smiled as he almost proudly showed me the "Mare-Foal", that basically looked like a common gameboy, only a little bigger, and with a black and white screen, not green, thank god.
A few awkward seconds passed before I asked, "So are you going to help me ooorr?"
He rolled his eyes and chuckled softly, "Oh, of course not. I'm too busy to help you, I'm already spending too much time informing you as it is."
"But you didn't inform me at all," I quietly murmured.
Dream turned around and headed for the exit, "You said you know how to program, so you already know about this and get a game for it by the end of the month."
Shocked, I respond, "What? A month? I don't have time to do it in a month!" Or at least that's what I would say, but then I remember that I don't want him to think I'm a liar, so I said, "Yeah, I think I can do it."
Dream reached the door and turned to me, "Oh, if you have any problems, you can rummage through the notebook." I look towards the wall on the right and see a book placed on a 'strange' pedestal, and when I looked back, the door was closed, leaving me all alone.
I sigh and try to calm myself as I pick up the book, "Well, at least I have you. I hope you can help me."