Pony vs. Machine {open}

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight needed to relax.

Which really wasn't abnormal for her; she always seemed to be deep in some project or another. That had been how things had operated back in Ponyville, and it certainly seemed to be carrying over here to Tenebrae. After all, Twilight had been researching the area and the people, particularly the Shifted, nearly nonstop since she'd gotten here. The several notepads of data that lay back in her room were certainly testament to the amount of work she'd been doing. As were the fliers she'd put up about C.A.U.S, wanting to pull as many people together for it as she possibly could.

So she'd decided to take a break. Just for a few hours, the day before the meeting. This way, she wouldn't be completely stressed out by the time she got to the meeting. Well, less stressed; this was Twilight, stress was nearly second nature to her. She'd have better luck getting her magic back by tomorrow than completely eliminating the stress. At any rate, that's more than enough setup:

Twilight was in the arcade, looking at all the bright, flashing lights. Her first thought was that several of her friends back home would love this place. She could practically picture Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash running off and jumping on the flashing machines. Even Applejack would probably like some of the stuff here; she did enjoy games of skill. Curious herself, Twilight ventured forth till at last, she located...

a crane machine.

The first go around was relatively normal: she just barely missed this stuffed pony doll that reminded her of Mr. Smarty Pants, which she'd had to leave back home. Twilight figured she could get it on the next go around.

She didn't. Didn't on the third either. Or the fourth. Or the seventh.

By about the dozenth time through, Twilight was leaning over the machine, yelling rather loudly at it, and hammering the glass with her hand, her eyes nearly blazing violet as she glared at the doll, which she'd managed to dislodge and drop dangerously close to the hole.

[Deleted]

Well this was turning out to be an interesting day, Megs mused to himself while he continued to explore this new place. It was strange how not a single person stopped to stare. There were no whispers or finger pointing as he passed by. No. Everyone just went about their business. It seemed that as far as they were concerned he was just another ordinary Joe going about ordinary things. No blue skinned, big headed,  alien, villain turned hero here. Just a normal human in a brown suit and glasses.

In fact the only person to even talk to him yet had been that man in the black suit. The one who gave him the envelope with his new name, Bernard Megs, written on the front. Inside he had found a letter stating where he would be living and working during his stay. Locating said places should take top priority however he had been distracted as soon as he saw the flashing Arcade sign.

Ah yes the Arcade. Such a magical place that had been in his youth. Even though he had only been to one once. Growing up in prison you weren’t exactly allowed to go wandering around such public places. But one glorious day the Warden had surprised the young blue alien with a trip to such a locale with a whole pocket full of quarters. Oh what fun it was! He had played the Pac-Man! The race car game! He was determined to try each and every one! But then the other children came. Of course it did not take long for a fight to break out and all the blame landed on him. There were no other trips to the Arcade after that.       

He stopped in his reminiscing when one girl in particular caught his eye. The one with the black and purple streaked hair. He watched her for some time but could not figure out the particular game she was playing.  She would drop whatever coinage was necessary into the slot, move a lever of sorts, then scream near profanities into the glass. Well whatever the goal she must be going for the high score playing that many times. Curiosity got the better of him and he moved in even closer soon coming to stand right behind the girl, his reflection appearing in the glass.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight continued staring daggers at the doll, and it was quite clear that had she heat vision, or any sort of power related to her eyes, the doll likely would have burst into flames some time ago. As it was, the doll kept sitting there, silently mocking her. Twilight was already digging into her pockets, swearing that this would be the last time that she did this. Just as she did, however, she caught a reflection in the glass. Gasping, she fumbled the coin and backed up violently. This meant she nearly literally collided with the guy, which caused her to turn abruptly and back up again, hitting the crane machine. The whole device shook for a moment, but it was really asking too much for the doll to simply drop out with that little bump.

"I'm sorry!" Twilight spat, mortification rising to replace the anger, which was definitely a strange mixture, to say the least. She reached out, grabbing both the man's arms to check him over. She even patted his chest once before realizing what she was doing. This meant withdrawing both hands and flushing darkly again. She pointed, opened her mouth, apparently thought better, closed, and then stopped pointing.

"Uh, can I... help you?" she asked, looking up to meet his eyes as best she could.

[Deleted]

He jumped in surprise at the girls sudden movements barely managing to suppress the scream that tried to escape. Screaming your head off in the middle of the Arcade because a girl scared you would have been slightly embarrassing. When she put her hands on him he stiffened, body preparing for fight or flight mode. But let out an inward sigh when her actions appeared to be non-violent and forced himself to relax. Hmm, looks like we’re back to the staring and finger pointing though. Oh well, he’s used to it.

Megs cleared his throat pushing the glasses back up into place since they had slipped down to the end of his nose during all the commotion. “Well first you could refrain from fondling me.” He moved beside her placing his hands against the glass of the crane machine and peering inside. “Secondly you could tell me about this game.” A look of wonder touched his face, sparkling green eyes scanning over the various colorful things inside. He leaned in closer until his nose was almost pressed against the glass. “Are you suppose to yell at those toys inside? I mean I know people need to vent their frustration sometimes. But you could scream at other things and it would not cost you any coins.”

[Twilight Sparkle]

The mention of fondling caused Twilight's color to redden again. She wanted to stammer out something about how that wasn't exactly something she'd done really on purpose, but, thankfully, the moment had passed, moving into another question posed by Megs. The unicorn girl blinked her wide, purple eyes for a moment, before entering into her natural mode whenever asked questions: lecturer extraordinaire.

"This? This is a crane game," she said, stepping aside slightly so that Megs could get a better look. She gestured toward it, adding a slight nod. "The object is to move the crane," she pointed, "in position over something you want," she pointed at a random object that was most definitely not the pants-wearing horse doll she'd been struggling to earn for several moments, "then you press the button," another point, "and the crane descends," Twilight drew the line, "and hopefully grabs what you want. It then carries it over to the shute," she pointed, of course, "where you can then pick it up."

She nodded, then licked her lips. Then she bit them. Then she fidgeted. "I, uh, I'm not very good at it, apparently. Which was why I was yelling. I... I can't quite seem to get the item I want," she paused, chewing her lip for a few moments. She eventually decided to gesture magnanimously toward the machine. "You're welcome to give it a shot, if you want. Maybe you'll have better luck than me."

[Deleted]

“Interesting.” He replied after her explanation. Her offer of letting him try was worth some consideration. His focus wandered to the crane and mechanical workings above. His mind ticked away studying each visible piece and visualizing those that were hidden from view. So you guide the crane to grab which ever item you desired. Seemed simply enough and to a casual observer achieving said task may look like an inevitable success. But what he saw told him other wise.

“What a diabolical device.” Megs stated more to himself than anyone, a touch of awe to his tone. After another moment of admiration he nodded towards the crane. “It cannot move far enough to the sides so anything along the perimeter is out of the question. Height poses another problem. It will not descend far enough to reach any thing but the topmost items. Weight is the key issue. Why everything in here appears to be just a fraction over the cranes lifting capacity. They would fall before reaching the chute. To intentionally put such tantalizing prizes just out of reach. Truly the work of a madman.”

He paused in his rambling considering her previous offer of allowing him to try. Once more looking at the prizes. Would he be able to vanquish this device that had caused her so much struggle. “Hmm…” After another moment it struck him. “AHA! RIGHT THERE!” His voice suddenly boomed with excitement. “You see that brownish thing next to the pants wearing equine? The equine itself is out of the question but if you position the crane just right you can get the brown one and when it falls from the cranes grasp it will knock Pantsy there down the chute. Thus achieving victory!”

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Interesting's one word for it," mumbled Twilight, giving the machine what is affectionately known as "the stink eye." Had she her powers, she likely would have zapped the machine already. Of course, just thinking that was enough to make Twilight somewhat ashamed; it was a children's game, after all. Though, to listen to the man's explanation, it was one complicated game. Twilight was, thankfully, smart enough to keep up with the rapid-fire explanation. In fact, it nearly surprised her to hear someone else prattle off information like that. Sure, she knew there had to be other intelligent/nerdy people out there; she just hadn't run into any in ages.

"I... hadn't considered that," she admitted, looking back at the machine and doing her own calculations. Physics and this type of math wasn't generally in Twilight's wheelhouse, but she definitely knew enough to overlap Megs' information atop the machine, and she nodded slowly. "They probably did that on purpose; the machine is supposed to make money for the arcade. If people won every time, they wouldn't pull in anything..."

But she lapsed, in part because Megs had essentially shouted an "aha." Twilight recognized a "Eureka" moment when it happened, even if the word being shouted wasn't, strictly speaking, Eureka. She followed Megs' instructions, again looking. Sure enough, all her efforts had disturbed the inner workings enough that Megs' plan should do precisely what it entailed. That was, if someone with a steady enough hand tried it.

"That should work," she agreed, "but you'd have to manage to nudge the machine in just the right manner. The control's are a little off and there's a sway..." she trailed off, frowning and considering. She flicked her eyes to the man, then to the machine. "Do you think you could do it? I'd try myself, but, uh, my hooves aren't exactly at their steadiest right now..."

[Deleted]

Did she just say hooves? “I think you mean hands.” Megs corrected her. Taking the coin he stood tall taking a stance and tone befitting any hero. “Alright machine! Prepare to do my bidding!” The coin dropped and the battle began. He hunched over the control brow knit in concentration. She was right about the controls and the sway, would have to compensate for that. The crane moved. An inch to the left, fourth of an inch forward, another inch to the left and…”Ha!” He hit the button.

Watching the crane descend he bit his lip, anticipation mounting. The crane hit its mark and began to rise with target in tow. “Yes! Ye-e-e-s-s! Rise!” The brown thing, which now came into full view, turned out to be a fish of sorts. Its button eyes and stitched smile greeted him with a permanently fixed look of cheer. He pressed a finger to the glass pointing at the ascending fish. “Hey it kind of looks like…like…” His face fell. The look of excitement replaced by one of confusion. “That’s odd I can’t remember the name." It was right there on the tip of his tongue but the harder he focused on it the further it slipped away. Minion was the one he was trying to recall. Minion, that fantastic fish who had been his most trusted friend since birth.

The stuffed fish fell from the crane knocking the horse doll down the chute. The fish teetered there on the edge for a moment its cheerful face regarding him once more before it too tumbled down. This victory against the machine should warrant cheers of exuberance. For not only had he managed to get one prize but two. But instead his arms just fell loosely to his sides. “Looks like I won.”

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Right, hands," muttered Twilight, feeling the flush rise again. Had she really used hooves again? She'd obviously gotten too frustrated. Her eyes again flicked to the machine, as though she could throw the blame onto it with that simple glance. Her gaze and attention eventually turned totally to the machine as Megs took the coin and the opportunity. His cry did cause her to look to him and quirk a brow, but she was hardly in a position to comment on it. She settled for biting her lip and stifling the giggle she felt building up there.

Soon, Twilight was enraptured in Megs' battle with the machine. Watching the crane was nearly as exciting as actively participating, especially when Twilight now had the math and such to back it up. As the crane wobbled and tilted, moving exactly as Twilight predicted, she couldn't help but smirk slightly. The smirk brought forth a slightly more manic look into the unicorn-girl's face, one that certainly didn't dim as her eyes fell upon the toy hiding in the machine. It was odd, but the more she looked at it, the closer it seemed to resemble Smarty Pants. It nearly had the same worn edges that her toy possessed. Had her attempts to snag it resulted in that?

The sudden exclamation from Megs told Twilight what her eyes already confirmed: the toys were rising. she clapped her hands and let out her own exclamation of delight. Sure enough, the fish rose steadily, knocking over the copy-Smarty-Pants as it went. Both toys were soon tumbling into the retrieval chute, to Twilight's obvious delight.

"oh thank you so much! That was amazing! One try and everything!' exclaimed Twilight. she bent over, sticking her hand in and fishing out their prizes. "You really don't know how hard I'd been trying to--- I mean, uh, well, it's great to have, this," she looked down at the doll. That's strange, she could almost swear it hadn't worn those pants when she'd originally fished for it. weird. Fidgeting, Twilight raised up the fish. "Well, I guess this is your rightful prize, being the winner and all."

She held it out for Megs to retrieve, giving him a strange look as she did. He looked... off. She tilted her head, wondering if she should be checking to see if he was okay or not...

[Deleted]

“Hmm?” Her voice caught his attention breaking the brief daze. He gave his head a light shake and cleared his throat. “Sorry. Zoned out for a moment.” He gladly took the stuffed fish from her. For some reason he had a strong urge to keep it. “Seems my memory has been affected by my arrival here but I’m sure it will pass.” He shrugged it off like it was no big deal, not wanting to show what could be considered a sign of weakness by admitting he was worried by this fact.

He stowed the fish in his one of his pockets for safe keeping and gave a nod to her doll. “Looks like we both won. Must say that plan went better than expected.” The crane game had turned out to be rather exciting. Would have to make a mental note to try it again sometime. In fact now that he knew of this place he would probably come back to try all the games. Live out a childhood dream as it were.

Now there was something he should probably do here. What was it that people said in cases such as this? Oh right they said thank you. That bit was not do to memory loss. Telling someone thank you was just something he was not used to doing. “Thank you for letting me play Miss...Don’t believe I got your name.”

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight nodded and smiled as Megs apologized, took the fish, and explained his situation. It was this last that caught her attention, flicking a light on behind those wide, violet eyes. "Memory issues? That's one of the--" she began, before biting her lip. He had other stuff to say, and Twilight wanted to be more or less polite. Sure, the knowledge bubbled up, demanding to pour forth like so much water from one of those gushing fountains, but Twilight knew not quite everyone appreciated a well-done lecture (though she was really, really, ridiculously good at giving them).

Another nod, and then some semi-awkward silence, into which Twilight seriously thought about injecting that research tidbit. After all, if you went through all the effort of figuring out about Shifting and knew little details, it only made sense that you wanted to share it, right? Right? at last Twilight more or less got the opening she'd expected, in the form of the name.

"Twilight Sparkle," she said, nodding. She shifted her grip on the doll to extend a hand as she'd seen people do when greeting one another. She smiled at him, the joy at having won the doll mixing with the incoming knowledge bomb she was about to drop: "I'm actually a unicorn that got here a short while ago, and I've been busy doing research and such ever since. So many of us want to go home, right? so it only makes sense to try and figure things out. I was here to try and relieve some stress, but I guess the game was just a little too stressful for my liking. Thank you for winning it for me. But the memory loss thing! I know about that! Well, sort of. You see, the Shifting incident, or Virtual Reality Displacement, disturbs essential parts of us, realigning our bodies to fit into this world, which exists on a slightly separate reality from the ones we came from. So for me, it turned me from a purple unicorn to a girl. For you," she nodded and gestured, "it jarred some of your brainwaves, disrupting them and causing you to lose some of your memories."

What followed next was a huge,  beaming smile that looked like nothing so much as the expression the class pet gave the teacher after prattling off an answer far more detailed than the teacher had even dreamed of getting.

[Deleted]

She revealed her name to be Twilight Sparkle extending her hand for a shake. He reached his hand out, hesitated for a moment, then shook hers lightly. He opened his mouth about to say Megamind but at the last second decided to go with his new given alias instead. “Megs. Bernard Megs.”

It seemed this Miss Sparkle was quite the little informant. Unfortunately her first statement about being a unicorn struck his funny bone and he had to bite his tongue during the rest of her little speech. Every now and then he offered a nod to show he was still listening though his tongue was quite sore by the end. Throwing purple into the mix did not help the matter and when she looked at him with a big smile he couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Pfft..Ha! Ha ha ha…” He nearly doubled over bracing his hands on his knees. “I’ve never met a purple unicorn before.” Of course he wasn’t really one to talk when it came to being an oddly colored non-human. Who knows maybe he would of been more popular if he was a purple unicorn. An image came to mind. A purple unicorn wearing an orange prison suit looking menacingly through metal bars. Maybe a couple prison gang tattoos as well. This brought on another fit of laughter.

After a few moments and a deep breath he gained control of himself. Pulling off the glasses to wipe his eyes before straightened himself up. “None the less your theory on disrupted brainwaves makes sense. Being pulled into another plane of existence is bound to have some effect. I think the biggest questions here are how and why?”

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight was very tempted to ask if Megs wasn't a girl's name, but before she could have the chance to do so, there was the whole laughing thing. Twilight first just stared at Megs, not sure what she'd said that was so funny. She figured it out when he mentioned the purple unicorn thing. Sadly, Twilight had grown used to this, or at least, used to it enough that when it came up, she put on a "yes yes, I understand, very funny" expression. This turned into a "yes, laugh it up; it's all very funny" expression a few moments later, and ended at a "you can stop laughing any moment now" expression.

Twilight kept the last expression while Megs removed his glasses and wiped his eyes. She, at least, hadn't wandered off or started fidgeting with her new prize (though both were somewhat tempting). When he at last said something not directed toward the comedy of her being a purple unicorn, she had to blink. There was another short moment where her brain had to inform her yet again that yes, she'd encountered someone who understood her nerd-speak.

"Unfortunately, we don't know the how or why yet. There's a few theories and such that I've been working on, thanks to gathering information from various otherponies and pooling the data together. That's how we've managed to figure out so much about the actual Reality Displacement occurrence. We've got people looking into the how and why. Well, we will have. Soon, I hope," she flushed, realizing that she was putting the cart before the pony there. Sure, she'd have an official group and meeting and such soon, but not quite yet. It was nice to get a little practice in before she launched into her big speech though.

[Deleted]

Rather than put the glasses back on he rested his elbow in one hand and touched them to his chin in thought. “I will do some research myself. See what I can find.” It was far too interesting to not look into. Shifting to another dimension which alters your DNA into that of a human? It was enough to tantalize any super genius brain. He could offer to team up with this Twilight Sparkle and whatever ragtag team she had assembled. However he was much more accustomed to working on his own.

“I assume my arrival was not a complete accident since I have been given a place to stay and a job. Oddly enough.” Speaking of which should probably check out these locations. Partially out of curiosity but also because he had a strange, though not entirely disturbing, feeling he may be here awhile. “Can you tell me the way to the housing district or the shool?” He pronounced the word as shool instead of school. Just an odd habit he always had.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"That's what a lot of us think," agreed Twilight, nodding. "Though they sometimes don't seem to know what to do with pon--people who show up here. There's a handful of poni--people that are hoov-hand, handfuls for them."

Twilight flashed a slightly abashed smile. It was much more difficult for her to keep with the standard method of conversation when she got excited, such as now. It certainly didn't help that she was hugging the Smarty-Pants substitute at the same time. Talk about your revertigo. Twilight was half tempted to ask about the job, and chewed her lip while she chewed over the idea. Megs had, of course, continued while she hesitated, and Twilight again found herself with a question to answer:

"The school's pretty easy to find," she offered. "Just look for the big building that's sort of on the edge of town. Can't miss it. The houses are just a little off from there. There's actually this communal area that separates the two, with a pool and some gardens and such," not that Twilight had done more than walk by it while on her way from house to school. The pause to think that over allowed another question to bubble to the surface: "Why would you need to go to school? You seem a little old for it..."