Ponyville. Such a peaceful town, filled with the happiest of ponies! The sun was shining, birds were chirping away, ponies going about their day, and a crowd of young ponies just trampled the market district, destroying everything out of their path to make way to perhaps the biggest building Ponyville’s ever seen!

The children of this town would usually be as docile as they come! But no, all of them seemed to try to kill each other, just to head to “The Retro Stable Arcade”. The building itself was as tall as the City hall. It was painted a bright red, a color you would have to be blind and/or stupid not to notice from afar. The giant neon sign that stayed atop the huge structure, spelled out the name of this establishment, with a horseshoe to fit as the “A” in the word “Stable”.

All of them pushed and shoved as they made it to the end of their destructive journey. All of them were quiet until one pony pipped up.

“It’s even bigger than I imagined it!” One colt shouted, a bag full of bits in his mouth.

"This place is supposed to be the biggest Arcade in Equestria, and it's supposed to add more games soon!" Another chirped.

“From what I heard, it even has a cabinet for Fighting is Magic, and it isn’t even out yet!” A small pegasus filly shouted from behind him as she flapped her wings as fast as she could to hover.

“Pfft! Screw that game, I can’t wait to try Mortal Kom-buck!”

“That game’s lame, Cider Tapper’s the way to go!”

"Are you stupid? Aren't we forgetting about the Maria Sisters Game? That's like, the best game ever!"

It seemed like each pony had their own game they wished to play, but they would have to wait until the arcade was officially open.

Beyond the locked doors were three floors of arcade games. All of them lined up beside each other, just waiting to be powered on and used by the masses of ponies that eagerly waited to play them. Each floor’s walls had a different decoration theme on them. The first being some sort of childlike fantasy. The walls were painted to look like some sort of field, with a castle in the background. On one wall, a pony with armor on seemed to look towards you with a smirk, and an ego to match. It fit quite well for the first floor, since the games were more for kids anyway. You would find adventure/platforming games, puzzle games, role playing games, as well as small carnival games for the younger kids that came in with parents.

The second floor was more for the older customers around the teenage variant. The room had a “Haunted” theme with violent games, like “Mortal Kom-buck” and “Chiller”, a game one would never find in an arcade anywhere else. In fact, some of these were actually banned from most of Equestria! But thankfully, not here. The best part of the room, was the “mist” that would fill the room, making you really feel like you were in a graveyard. You’d find horror-themed games of any kind, Music-themed games,and even shooter games. How ponies who weren’t unicorns used the crossbows to work with their hooves, is a mystery indeed.

The final floor was a “Mystical Dojo” theme. It had red painted walls what was plated with a gold “eastern” dragon on one side of the room, gold flooring, and a empty “Hall of fame” listing, digitally showing the top score, along with the initials of the players for every game in the building. The room was dark, but the screens of the games would give it enough light. You would find fighting games, side scrolling Beat-em-up’s, trivia, and many simulator games such as “Super Buck-Out!!”

The doors to this seemingly magical place were closed shut. The neon lights were off, but inside, a lone pony was working silently, fiddling with the wiring and other sorts of things that powered these wonderful contraptions.

This pony was a unicorn stallion, colored a dark grey. His eyes were a jade green and had himself a small black beard on the bottom of his chin. His hair, which was the same black as his beard, was combed back and had a light grey stripe running down. His tail was bushy, unkempt, and even had the same stripe running through the middle.

He wore what looked to be an orange jacket. The last piece of identification adjourned his flank in the form of a cutie mark, which was a rectangle video game controller colored black, grey, and had two red buttons visible.

As soon as he was finished fixing what looked to be a copy of “Manti-Kong”, he trotted towards the locked door. He looked to his left, and flipped the arcade-wide activation switch.

Outside, the neon lights sparked to life, attracting the eyes of the young ponies towards the doors, which opened as if by magic. The grey stallion walked outside, and gave them a big smile. With a young and strong voice, he spoke.

“Thanks for waiting, my little colts and fillies! Today’s the grand opening of my arcade, and I hope you have as much fun as you possibly can!”

And with that, the young kids flooded the Arcade. Looking at the amazing decorations, the disco ball in the middle of the ceiling, and the toys that were lined up on the shelves behind the counter made them want to squeal with joy, but the most amazing thing that their little eyes almost popped out of their sockets, were the games.

Each of them ran towards the nearest cabinet they could find, and just started having a blast. Literally all of the games were taken over by two or more ponies as they played their favorite games.

From such timeless classics as “Pac-colt”, to games that used hoof-drawn animation like “Dragon’s Den”, it seemed like everypony was having a blast!

Arcades weren’t the only thing in this amazing place, oh no. The owner even made a small rest pit for his customers. A door that was on the east side would take them to a room with chairs, long tables, and even vending machines for food and drinks.

The grey pony, content with his work, simply sat down behind a counter, ready to let the arcade reel in the dough. As soon as he sat down, a lone earth pony walked up to the counter.

“Excuse me, Mr...um...”

“Just call me 8-bit, little stallion. Wassup?” The arcade owner replied. Looking down at the colt, noticing it was a chubby one at that.

“Um, one of the games isn’t working...” The kid pointed towards the cabinet with the title “Mega-Mare: The Elements of Power”. The screen was flickering, and was giving off smoke.

“OH DEAR CELESTIA!” 8-bit cried out as he instantly jumped over the counter, running over the colt for no reason other than to attend to the smoking cabinet.

The poor colt was instantly smashed onto the ground by the heavy adult; his body sprawled on the floor in a dizzy heap.

8-bit, on the other hoof, was galloping as fast as his legs could carry, knocking anypony that was in his way out of it. He quickly reached his destination, and pulled the plug with magic.

The machine quickly turned off; the buzzing stopped, and the smoke seemed to have calmed down. After a breather, he opened the hatch, and took a look inside.

“Oh that’s it! Just a wire loose.” The stallion chuckled as he used his magic to fix the problem. The hanging wire was consumed by a red aura as it was then put back into its place.

As soon as he made sure no other connectors were out of place, he plugged the cabinet back in, the machine sprung back to life! The arcade game started up, showing the RAM and the ROM startup screen, and then...

It showed the logo, and the game started up as normal, showing the title “Mega-Mare: The Elements of Power”.

“Alright kid, you’re all set, and have a free game on me.” He said as he dropped a bit into the coin slot. The game responded with “MEGA-MARE!”.

“Thanks mister!”The colt said as he walked over to the cabinet, and hit the start button with a hoof.

8-bit chuckled, muttering the words “You’re welcome” as he walked back to his post. Just looking at how many kids were there, on the first day, no less!

“And mom said that video games don’t pay the bills.” He laughed as the day went by, the machines getting filled with bits by the minute.

By the end of the day, the colts and fillies took what little money they had left and began to trek back to their houses to their parents. As the last of them left, the doors closed for the night, as 8-bit was left to pick up the bits from each machine. Even though the process was long and tedious, to him it was worth it.

Every last bit.