Sandbar shivered slightly as he waited for the line before him to start moving again. Even though his green snowboarding jacket, he could feel the chill. He could also feel it directly through his black sneakered back hooves and regular black pants. Getting a pair of good boots and insulated pants had been somewhere near the bottom of his list of priorities, but now that winter had hit full swing it had been moved up a few places.

But only after he got his game.

Speaking of that, the queue that he was stuck in led to the doors of the hottest store in the Ponyville market – at least to those of his age group. For them, the signage above the entrance told the whole story. A gigantic floppy disk had been mounted to the roof of the building, and a neon sign stating the name of the business hung just below, glowing faintly against the afternoon sky. SoftWare and Games also had the distinction of being quite literally the only place that sold computer equipment in Ponyville and to surrounding communities. The store management was well aware of their solitary position, and they did everything in their power to rope in extra profits from those outliers that would only stop in once in a blue moon.

The window displays were chock-full of stacks of big box PC games with all the colors of the rainbow present; stacks of high-end software in more utilitarian casings, and several systems advertised as for sale or rent had been set up for all passer-bys' to drool over. Sandbar would have loved to own the beautiful tower PC, but the incredible three thousand bit price tag had quashed that desire for him and many others long ago.

Knowing that the line was going nowhere fast, the pony took a break from window shopping and unscrewed the cap on his stainless steel thermos and took a long drag of the piping hot chocolate contained within. The hot drink did wonders to stave off the cold, and when he had his fill, the cap went back on and he tucked the thermos between his foreleg and body – for both of their benefit.

A maniacal laugh followed by a terrified squawk drew Sandbar's attention back down the main road out of town. A little way down it he could see his friend Gallus running up while constantly casting terrified glances over his shoulder. When the griffon dodged to the side of the street and a ball of snow exploded against the spot where he had just been, the pony understood the gravity of his situation.

Even further back, he could see Yona cresting the hill at full speed while lobbing snowball after snowball high into the sky. Gallus continued to duck and weave all over the street, doing his best to dodge the endless aerial assault.

As Gallus entered the market square he shouted at the yak currently trying to destroy him. “Ok! Ok! You've made your fucking point! Now st-!”

His plea was cut short as a snowball clocked him directly in the back of the head, knocking him onto his face and into an uncontrollable skid which ended right at Sandbar's hooves. The pony stared at his downed friend for a second, then slowly looked up at the long skidmark he had left behind in the snow, and the yak who was dancing around in triumph. “Yaks always get their revenge!”

The rest of the gang came to a slippery stop behind Yona, eagar to get in line for their game, but not so eagar as to possibly get snowballed as well. After a few seconds to catch their collective breath, any fear of that was brushed aside as they saw that their yak friend was out of ammunition, and they all joined the line.

Smolder stuffed her clawed hands into her pockets and leaned towards Sandbar. “So, how're you holding up out here?”

The pony was chilled and shivering, but he still managed a dismissive shrug. “Doing okay, a little cold. I'm glad you guys got here quick though. It was getting really boring here.”

With an agonized groan, Gallus slowly pushed himself back to his feet. He took a few seconds to brush off the snow, and then fell in. “I'm just glad I got here without Yona burying me alive in snowballs.”

A cloven hoof coming to rest on his shoulder caused the griffon to visibily flinch, but he calmed slightly when he saw that she no longer had the crazed look in her eye. “Yak knows to stop once the fool is beaten!”

The group broke down into their usual antics as they waited for the line to move. Gallus jammed to his music while Smolder and Silverstream shared their concerns of the game being available on their system. Sandbar chugged his hot chocolate down to the last drop and Yona drew little designs into the snow with an idle hoof. The chit-chat died off when several large shadows loomed over the marketplace, causing the ponies loitering around the central fountain to gasp and scatter in fear.

With three distinct thumps, three adolescent dragons touched down with complete disregard to the townsfolk. The big one demonstrated this by picking little bits of ice off of the shoulder of his brown bomber jacket and flicking them at all the ponies waiting patiently for the store to reopen. He then wiped the snow off his gray pants and belted snowboarding boots, and the pair of purple headphones were pulled from his head and draped over his shoulder.

He stood up straight, a scowl on his lips as he scanned around for some kind of trouble. He soon found just what he was looking for, and his expression morphed into a dark smile.

“Well, well, well,” He approached the group. “Look what we have here boys, its the little loser gang here to buy another lameass game to waste their weekend on.”

The other two dragons – one white and one purple – finished dusting down their clothes and joined their leader. The white one wore a big white winter coat with a high collar and muted pink zippers and snaps that matched his natural coloration. A pink rimmed white bucket hat with the image of a skull with crossed out eyes sat atop his head, and the rest of his ensemble consisted of black cargo pants with many pockets and a pair of oversized lace up boots. And the purple one wore matching purple everything, from the top of his hooded jacket, all the way down to his sneakers.

“Garble,” Smolder practically growled.out the red dragon's name. “What the hell are you doing here, don't you have someplace better, or cooler to be?”

Garble's shit-eating grin faltered. “Oh believe me, I'd much rather be tearing up the slopes than hanging out in this filthy backwater. But apparently we must be too good for the local ski park, cuz they kicked us out.”

“Bastards,” the purple dragon swore.

“And that's why we're here,” he concluded. “I really wish we were back home with our hoardes, but since we're here...”

Most of the ponies in the immediate vicinity shied away as the dragons came ever closer with their claws raised in a threatening manner, and Sandbar suppressed his own urge to do the same. The rest of his friends were made of sterner stuff, and stood their ground. Smolder laughed at this stupid display and looked Garble directly in the eyes.

“It's not our fault that you failed so miserably at the Dragon Aptitude Test that Ember sent your sorry asses to the academy as well.”

“HEY!” Garble's face went towards a deeper shade of red, and a puff of smoke came out his nostrils. “I would have passed that damned thing with flying colors if it wasn't timed. I don't do good under pressure, and if we were told ahead of time, we would have read a book or something!”

“Ha! No amount of studying would have saved you. Besides your ability to read is highly questionable to me.”

“All right, listen here you little shits! I don't know why Ember started all that shit, but the truth is we dragons were doing fine without the so called 'smarts' that ponies here love to flaunt around. We have the most gold, silver, and gems of any kingdom, and can loot many more.”

The red dragon sneered once again and his cronies did the same, believing whole-heartedly in their own logic.

“Yeah, and that's coming from a guy who can't even get the most basic of math problems right.” Smolder grinned. “Two plus two does not equal five.”

“Are you serious?” Gallus was incredulous. “That's like, hatchling stuff right there. I mean, you could count that out on the claw!”

At that, the tense mood lifted and everybody around started giggling – which quickly evolved into loud guffaws. Garble tried to defend himself, but was unable to get anything in edgewise over the laughter. Eventually he growled, threw up his arms, and stalked away in absolute embarrassment. His pals were also quick to retreat, rubbing their leader's back to comfort him of his embarassment.

Nobody could really hear what was exchanged between the dragons, but it must have had an effect since he callously waved the two off and stood straight. “Whatever dude, but as long as I am fucking stuck here in this boring ass of a town I'm gonna try to make the best of it! Come on Fizzle, Spear, lets go snowboarding.”

“But, the ponies kicked us out of the park,” Spear tried to remind him.

“Then we'll have to find our own mountain for dragons only!” Garble immediately took to the skies in a blast of loose snow, the big dragon Spear also doing the same.

Fizzle was left alone, and the irritated look on his face said that this wasn't new. “I follow you everywhere,” he whispered to himself.

“Come on you lazy slug!” Garble's roar rattled all the nearby windows. “Get your ass moving!”

“Coming boss!”

“Damn, what a fucking asshole!” Gallus swore to himself and the others voiced their assent – with Smolder being the most vocal.

“I hear ya, dude. But seriously, don't mind them. It's not our fault Garble only got a forty out of five hundred. Let's just go in there, get our game, and get back to our systems and play,” she huffed.

“Speaking of that,” Ocellus began. “Where are we going to set up?”

Sandbar shrugged. “School library? It's all set up with the right cables already and nobody's gonna need to use it over break anyway.”

A grumble from the griffon put a little salt in that plan. “That means I have to lug my machine all the way down there, and that sucker is heavy.”

As Sandbar, Gallus, and Ocellus further debated that topic, a whole different conversation was happening between Smolder and Silverstream.

“Why did the dragons have to take that test again?” the hippogriff asked?

“It has to do with the fact there is almost no schooling system back home,” the dragon explained. “Instead of learning, everyone either works their ass off to accumulate a sizeable hoarde, or they spend their time guarding said hoardes from looters. And there are those who are born into wealth and feel that all they have to do is mess about without a care in the world, and that the only ones that they have to lift a claw for are themselves. Like that jerkass Garble and his gang.”

Finally – after what felt like hours to some – the little bells above the doors chimed as they opened and a unicorn stallion with a slicked back mane and wearing a white polo shirt with khaki pants leaned out into the cold air.

“Alright folks, the shop is restocked. Come on in and get your SoftWare and Games!”

Things started to finally move after that announcement. Creatures of all species began to enter, the doorbell ringing almost constantly as they all shuffled in to both escape the weather and complete their shopping.

Once it was their turn to enter the shop, the six were greeted by the interior sights of what they considered to be sacred ground. The walls were lined with shelf upon shelf of big colorful boxes for games with equally impressive artwork. There were also freestanding shelves and racks all around the floor, the former containing more boxed software, and the latter housing clear jewel cases with CD-ROM's inside. On either side of the store were two huge bargain bins full of older or outdated software or games that had either not sold so well, or just needed to be sold off quickly.

At the store's counter, there were several locked glass display cases that held unboxed computer components with little placards listing the price of each, and smaller all in one systems. And flanking those were two rotating racks holding books, magazines, and other assorted items. Right next to the counter, between it and the window display, were the stairs leading up to the second floor business.

And off to the right – what they and many others had come for – had been erected in the shop's downtime. The purple, star dotted display stand towered above all the others in the room, and the golden, spiky font across the logo of a ring with a crossed sword and staff that read Spell Questing: Online was just as – even though the core fanbase required no introduction. Unfortunately for the six, the display was swarmed by shoppers of all species, and they couldn't just fight their way in, so they collectively decided to do a few minutes of shopping while the mob died down.

The gang scattered to different corners of the store to locate whichever shelves applied to their system of choice. Gallus, Yona, and Sandbar didn't go for the biggest section, but rather the second biggest. It still had quite the crowd though, and they did their best to finaggle their way through. Silverstream and Smolder went deeper in and stopped by a much smaller shelf, and Ocellus went to speak with management about her special case.

“I take it you guys also run with SK-DOS too?” the griffon asked his friends as he sized up the selection dedicated to the aforementioned operating system.

“Yona does,” she answered. “Yona wanted to get Yakyakistan's newest system, the Yakard-Bell one-thousand, but Yona's daddy didn't give enough money for it. But Yona does have Yakard-Bell five-hundred. Eventually, Yona will save up enough to get it so she can prove that yaks can achieve anything with hard work!”

Sandbar shook his head. “I... rarely use it, given my system can run Doors ninety-seven no problem.”

Gallus picked out a box and flipped it over to examine the back. “Than you, my friend, are browsing the wrong shelf. CD's are over there.”

“I know, I know.” The pony held up his hoof. “But I'm still keeping my eyes out for DOS only releases. You never know, right?”

“Eh, suit yourself, I guess.”

Sandbar gave the shelf a quick once over, then went over to browse by the more crowded shelf. He really didn't find anything noteworthy there either, just stuff he already had, or had no interest in purchasing. Besides, his bits were being saved for the game he truly wanted, speaking of which...

The crowd that was mobbing the Spell Questing stand a few minutes prior had thinned out considerably , but so had the copies. Only about half of the stock remained, and the pony quickly signalled to his nearby friends the situation. They all dropped what they were doing and quickly hopped over. After filtering their way to the front of the crowd, and after Yona almost wiped out some poor sap, they all reached for their compatible copy.

Gallus and Yona both reached for the hard floppy disk version, and Sandbar picked out the CD-ROM variant. Despite the physical size of the storage mediums, the boxes that shared the same coloration and logo of the self that bore them were bigger than an average textbook – but luckily didn't carry the same heft.

With all copies now in hoof and claw, The five made their way to the main checkout, finding Ocellus standing just off to the side – sans game.

“Why are you here?” Yona joined her. “Aren't you going to get your copy?”

“Oh, I will,” Ocellus assured her. “It's in the back, there is only one copy for my system, along with my backlog of other software. Unfortunately, they're swamped with the other customers at the moment, and won't be able to handle my business for at least an hour.”

Gallus looked around and saw that there were about fifty assorted creatures crammed into the shop right then. “I can see that. Well, we can't just sit around for an hour with nothing to do,. May as well find something to pass the time while this place clears out.”

“Lets go find the others, then,” Sandbar agreed. “We can buy an hour on the computers in the internet cafe upstairs.”

Way in the back of the shop, Smolder and Silverstream already had their copies in claw, but that didn't stop them from picking up almost every game on the shelf, and gabbing while they did so.

“Looks like we may have to consider switching to a different system soon,” Smolder pointed to the few copies of games for their system on the shelf. “There aren't many games being made for our platform anymore.”

“Yeah, but the magazine stated that the manufacturer and several game publishers would still support it for the next few years,” Silverstream smiled.

“That's a little too optimistic if you ask me. Technology is always advancing, and game devs are always looking to the future.” Smolder noted the sour look on the hippogriff's beak and quickly adjusted her strategy. “I'm not saying ditch the systems outright, just... may as well start saving up now, right? That way, when the next system comes, we'll be ready.”

“So, did you girls find your copy?”

They both spun to see Gallus and the gang standing around behind them. Smolder held up her case and gave it a little wiggle. “We're good to go here. What about you, O? Got yours?”

Ocellus pointed her hoof at the service entrance. “It's in the back, but it'll be an hour or so before they can get it to me.”

“So we're gonna have to wait it out for a bit,” Gallus finished.

“Since we're gonna be stuck here for an hour or so, wanna hit up the internet cafe upstairs?”

The other five Looked at Sandbar, then looked out the windows at the worsening flurries. They liked playing out in the snow just as much as any others, but they didn't really like the idea of freezing to death to do so. One of them didn't have that issue, which made it all the more surprising when she was the first to agree.

“Yona thinks that is best action we can take.”

Smolder shrugged. “I'm down, provided their rates aren't too crazy. Have you been there before?”

Sandbar shook his head. “No, but I heard its like eight bits an hour or something like that.”

“Alright. We can do that.”

In agreement of how they would burn away the next hour, the six made their way to the storefront and began their ascent up the staircase to the upper floor. The wooden steps had no trouble supporting the mixed group of pony; griffon, hippogriff, dragon, and changeling, but they immediately protested the moment Yona set hoof on the first one. She looked up at her friends innocently, and they all scrambled to the top landing. When they were out of the way, the yak bounded up the stairs two at a time, the boards squeaking all the way up.

Safely back with the group, Yona looked back down the narrow staircase. “Creaky stairs are creaky. Ponyville needs more yak buildings!”

“Nah,” Smolder elbowed her in the ribs. “Ponyville needs lighter yaks.”

After a chuckle, they all entered the doorway to the cafe. What greeted them was a darkened room with a mixture of booths and round tables holding close to forty individual systems either sitting idle with the shooting star screensaver going, or were in use by the smattering of ponies there. Once their eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough, they could see that the only true sources of light were coming from the thirty or so monitors and a row of vending machines along the right wall that were humming away happily. They couldn't quite see to the back of the room, but the almost constant clicks and clacks that had already eclipsed the soft techno coming from the ceiling mounted speakers that were hooked into the jukebox on the far side of the vending machines. The almost constant noise let them know that they would be sharing the space with a good number of others.

Directly to their left was a counter that also doubled as a glass display case filled to the brim with all sorts of data storage devices available for purchase. The mediums ranged from compact disks available as singles or packs, to floppies of various sizes in paper pouches, and even data cassettes. On top of this was a computer monitor with a register, and a somewhat bored stallion wearing a black t-shirt and jeans eyeing them up.

“You guys need to buy time on our network?”

“Yeah.” Smolder approached the cashier while pulling her wallet out. “How much for an hour?”

“Ok, for the Pears OS it's eight bits an hour each.”

They all followed his outstreached hoof which pointed at a table that was holding some of newest computers there. Unlike the usual rectangular beige towers and square monitors they all knew, these were composed of opaque white panels with smoothly rounded corners on the towers with a pear shaped logo placed in the center of the side panel. The CRT monitors had much the same treatment, with a frame of opaque plastic and a blue panel on each side.

“For the Doors systems its four bits each.” They followed the hoof once again which pointed towards where the majority of the systems were set up. These were of a more boxy and industrial construction that the six were more familiar with, and used the OS that the gang was most comfortable with.

“And lastly, the SK-DOS machines for two bits, but those have all been rented out for the evening.”

They looked over to the back right corner where the oldest ones were, but they were completely obscured by the group of colts huddled around. They couldn't see exactly what that group up to, but the furious clicking happening in concert with the sounds of gunfire and lasers blasting out of the speakers told them that they were playing a shooter game of some kind.

The selection laid out before them, the gang shared a moment of contemplation before Gallus walked up with four bits in claw. “We'll take the Doors. And how much for one of those subs?”

A single claw pointed to another display case to the right, but this one was the type designed to hold foodstuffs. Unfortunately, most of the brightly lit shelves had been picked clean by earlier customers, leaving only the bottom shelf which was filled with plastic wrapped sub sandwiches, and the next shelf up had a single case of Sugar Cube Corner doughnuts remaining.

“Two bits a piece,” the clerk stated as he pulled one out for the griffon. “Five for the doughnuts.”

Gallus exchanged the bits for the sub and walked over to a table that held enough systems for them all. The rest also bought their subs and followed their friend in, with Ocellus buying up the doughnuts as well. That left Yona, who had a goofy grin on her face.

“Yona would like to buy eight sandwiches.”

The cashier looked like he was about to argue, but then seemed to realize that arguing with a Yak would be bad for business. “That be sixteen bits,” he said as he rapidly placed the eight on top.

A pile of bits were left behind as Yona gathered up her late afternoon snack and went over to one of the drink vending machines, where she spent the next few minutes buying fourteen cans of Rush.

When she had finished and rejoined the group, they were already typing and clicking away at whatever computer-related activities they had each chosen. They had only taken a few nibbles of their food, but that changed the moment Yona distributed most of her drinks to them. Then she squeezed into the last available seat and wiggled the mouse to wake the computer. A double-click on a desktop shortcut brought up the internet browser, and as the front page opened she took the time to unwrap one of her sandwiches. The wrapper with a sticker that denoted the ingredients as cheese; lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle was tossed in the nearby waste bin, and she took a gigantic bite followed by an equally large gulp of soda.

The rest were all doing mostly random things. Gallus and Sandbar drifted from one website to another – each trying to outdo the other with how absurd their searches could be, and laughing the whole time. Silverstream was updating her personal blog about life back on land, in Equestria, and the magic of stairs. Ocellus was visiting an encyclopedia, brushing up on her ancient equestrian history and then switching over to that day's news. And Smolder was busy trying out the games that were preinstalled.

After what felt like an hour of aimlessly wasting time by chatting about random topics and reading random blogs, the allotted time was up and they all gathered their empty cans and torn wrappers and filled the trash can to the brim. Then they all shuffled back down the stairs to see that the last rays of sunset were filtering in through the shop's front windows.

The crowd that had inundated the place earlier had almost completely dispersed, with only a few shoppers remaining to browse the almost bare shelves for any software of their liking. This also had the added benefit of allowing the six a straight shot to the back door that led to the storage area, where a neon yellow pegasus stallion with a brown mane and stubbly beard, and wearing a green shirt that had I love BASIC printed across the front in bold white lettering was waiting for one of them.

“Ah Ocellus, I got your copy right here. Man, this is the first I've seen anyone in this town buy software for that platform in a long time, since maybe when I was still a colt.”

The changeling smiled knowingly. “Yeah, I get that a lot. How much for the game and the rest of that software backlog you guys are holding for me?”

“For that game, fifty-five bits. For everying else, since it's just been collecting dust and hogging up space in the back, and because we have a shit ton of 'em and need to clear up shop, how does forty for the lot sound?”

“That sounds good,” Ocellus agreed. “And it will be shipped to my address?”

“Of course. Dorm 3 at the academy, correct?”

“Yes, that's right. And I will be waiting for it.”

The changeling hoofed ot ninety-five bits from her wallet – a feat that wouldn't have been possible without the few ten and twenty bit pieces she floating around inside – and exchanged them for a box that was considerably bigger than the ones that the rest of the group were carrying.

Finally, they all had what they came for. Once they departed the shop and began to trod back to the school in the winds of the freezing twilight, their excited chatter kept any of the cold's effects away for the time being.

“This is so awesome!” Silverstream clapped her claws together.

“We can finally explore the world together!” Sandbar added.

Gallus hovered slowly alongside them. “Don't forget about the dungeons we can now crawl through.”

“And be able to carry out all the loot!” Yona all but screamed. “Yona's loot!”

“Oh har har!” the griffion laughed. “Nobodycarries out more loot than good ol' Gallus.”

“You wanna go again?!”

Gallus wisely put a little distance between himself and Yona, opting to hover on the other side of the street.

“Yona is only kidding,” she reassured. “With this new game we can just duke it out online. Yona challenges Gallus to a loot-off!”