Luna crept through the underbrush, her target somewhere ahead and to the left. An indicator pointed towards it and she knew which way to go, vaguely. She couldn't see the target itself, and worked to creep through what cover she could find. 100 feet, right around the corner.

A sudden rapid tempo of gunfire made her jump in place. She span around and tried to fire wildly, but it was far too little and far too late. Her soldier crumpled to the ground, murdered in cold blood. "Sister!" she howled, slapping the top of the desk with a hoof, huffing in frustration. "How are you so good at this?"

Celestia wore a little satisfied smile as she moved towards her next victim. "You have to learn to see the larger picture, sister dearest. You were close, maybe next time..."

While movies had to enter through the theaters, video games had no such restriction. From the first eager offerings of Sea Flower at the dockside, the idea of portable entertainment was quite appealing to many ponies. The graphic fidelity and rich sound of human games versus their pony counterparts put the pony makers out of business almost overnight. They just couldn't compete, crushing that fledgling industry flat.

Like the movies, games with blood for the sake of blood did not fare as well unless they were specifically advertised as bloody, daring the brave to approach them. It was far easier to simply remove them as videogames had done in the past to sell in more sensitive countries.

Despite the lack of blood, a pony seemed perfectly capable of approaching horrifically violent games, provided nothing came apart.

Simulations were a powerful hit in pony society. They were a strange and captivating window into human thoughts and society. Being able to control the actions of them and see the effects of it was fascinating. Copies of city, person, and even farming simulations flew off shelves and into waiting hooves and talons.

Puzzle games were an easy hit. Match three, Tetris-clones, and object finders found eager players across the world. More complex puzzles often started to rely on cultural clues that could be missed by someone entirely alien to the human ways of thought at times, making them chancy propositions.

"Fascinating," grunted the chairman as he ordered his units about. "Such numbers..." He was playing a war simulator. With it, he could see the entire world that the humans came from. It had a complete globe, and showed, basically, the powers at play as he practiced the art of modern warfare.

America was one of the largest forces on that world. Though China had quite a considerable force to its name, as did Russia.

He ordered a unit into enemy territory and the screen transitioned to show the battle take place. Tanks and planes battled with infantry and explosives on all sides. What terrible enemies they faced, already so used to such battles. So used to it, in fact, they considered it a game to pretend to be at war with millions of deaths, and called that a fun time.

"Harmless," he grunted in a half-laugh. Deranged lunatics was a better description of what he was seeing. The graphics were pretty impressive, he had to admit, watching the little simulated people perish at his command.

Button Mash pressed forward on the joystick, commanding his little human on the screen to march forward. "Onwards, to adventure," he muttered under his breath. He couldn't even grasp how much better human games were, in appearance, sounds, and even gameplay. They gave so much to track. Levels, equipment, class choices?!

The old games just had you moving around zones, sometimes picking stuff up most of the time and trying to avoid being touched.

Not human games! The screen swirled as a random battle begun. "Aw yeah." He pressed down to Magic. "Ooo, fire..." He selected it and set the enemy ablaze in a fwoosh of magic. "I will rescue the princess!"

"What are you doing?"

He looked up to see Sweetie Belle paused in walking past him. He was seated in front of Sugarcube Corner, with his portable console parked in front of himself. "Oh, hey Sweetie."

"Hiya," she chimed happily. "Whatcha doing? Is that one of those new games?" She pointed at the source of music, playing its battle ballad eagerly.

"Uh huh." He sat up with a big cocky grin. "Wanna see?"

She moved to sit next to him, eyes on the screen. "Is that one you?" She pointed at a monster that was chomping on his character.

"Nope. That's someone I need to teach a lesson to." He selected attack and casually bopped the monster to death. "Yeah, like that."

Sweetie tilted her head left and right, considering it. "Neat, but it looks like only you can play."

Button blinked at that, then put a hoof to his face. "Oh yeah, sec." He saved his game and switched over to a different game with far more cheerful music. "Challenge ya!"

Sweetie's face lit up at the sight of the rhythm game. Now there was a game a pony could get into. "You're on!"

Novo slapped a guard as she swam past, her tail catching him right across the snout. "Save your toys for when you're off duty," she spat on the way, rolling her eyes. Her people were enamored with human toys. She did not entirely approve of their effect on her kingdom.

They did not encourage movement by and large, nor interpersonal engagement. As much as Seaquestrians may have hidden from others, they were open with one another. She didn't want to lose that. But how to react? An outright ban on imports would certainly accomplish it, but also create a backlash against her. No... No. She would fight fire with fire.

She drew out one more human toy, though this one had far more pressing uses.

Human influences were the problem. Human influences would be the cure. They knew how to get into somecreature's head and change how they thought. It was a frightening ability, that she would employ. After some research she eventually got someone on the phone. "Yes, hello. I wish to find someone ready and willing to run an advertising campaign in my kingdom."

"Queen Novo, was it? We'd be honored. What are you advertising?"

"Not a product, I assure... A public message."

"We can do that too," assured the male on the phone. "What's the message?"

"I want people to focus on media less, and their neighbors more. I want to emphasize the joys to be found when you're not distracted by human toys."

A soft hiss came through the phone. "Ah, hmm. We're ready to help, but I should warn that that's a hard sale."

Novo scowled in place, bobbing lightly with soft undulations of her fins. "Is this a matter of money?"

"Competing with the marketing of the entire entertainment industry is a big task," explained the man. "Not to mention people's inclinations."

"I am the Queen," casually reminded Novo. "There are no advertisements for these things in my kingdom and I will not allow any. Does that make this simpler?"

"Sure, sure. Let me hook you up with a personal case manager to work through this with you and get it rolling. Sound good?"

Novo's expression softened into a pleased smile. "That sounds delightful. Let's make things better."

"So..." The man looked up over the resume in his hands. "You have no programming experience."

"Not in any... applicable method."

"You've programmed before then?"

He gestured vaguely to the east. "Pony games were not made the same way, Sir, but I understand how logical statements work."

"Alright..." He had a dozen more skilled and hungry human applicants, but he had given this pony an interview. "Tell me, have you played human games?"

"They're fascinating," gushed the pony with a smile. "So different and strange."

"What if I told you we brought you here to not make a single human game."

The pony's bright expression fell, his ears with it. "W-what?"

"We have humans to make human games." He pointed a pen at the interviewee. "What about a pony making pony games?"

"B-but, I mean... I can't go back to that. Nocreature wants a pony video game now. Compared to what you can do, it's nothing, less than nothing!"

"You're misunderstanding me." He set the resume down on the desk lightly. "What you make with us will have quality graphics, smooth sounds, and a great soundtrack. We wouldn't let a game release with our name that lacked these things. Now put that aside. That isn't what makes a human game a human game."

"It isn't?" The pony's left ear raised, curiosity rising to combat his befuddlement.

"If we gave ponies enough time, they'd have these things. That doesn't make it 'human' or 'pony'. Ponies like ponies, this is a fact, and it's alright. Humans like humans. We want a pony game. What would a game made by ponies, for ponies, using what we have, look like?"

The pony's eyes began to widen as the idea of it sank into him. "I would love to find out," he barely whispered out, as if just overwhelmed at the notion. "Will you let me find out?"

"It won't be easy," advised the interviewer. "Your experience in programming will be useful, but you won't be programming. What we want is a designer. A game designer. You'll dream up the systems, the setting, the characters. You'll be inventing genres, learning what works, and what does not."

"I am ready!" suddenly blurted out the pony, throwing himself right across the interviewer's desk. "I'll give it my everything!"

The news of the one other pony that had given it her 'everything' was still fresh and he gently pushed the pony back. "Give it your 'most' and we'll probably call it even. This is an experiment. We love doing experiments, and we think this one could work out well for all involved." He offered a hand.

The pony met it quickly, slapping the side of his hoof into the palm of the human.

"Welcome to Google."

Vinyl took a slow breath, her horn glowing as she made sure the pad was even and ready.

"Are you about to get loud?" asked Octavia, watching her from the other half of their divided home.

"Oh you know it, girl." Vinyl brought her fore hooves together slowly. "I'm just getting in the proper mindset for it."

Octavia rolled her eyes. "If you're not going to give me tranquility..." She hopped off her bed and thrust her head beneath the bed, coming back with another rolled up bit of plastic. She soon had it unrolled a short distance from Vinyl and plugged it into the same game console. "You'll just have to have your flank properly kicked."

Vinyl let out a joyous whoop as she willed the game over to two player mode. "Classic vs Electronic, let's do it!" She ran through the selection of songs wildly before opting to let the game decide which they'd play. "Keep it fair."

The music started and they began dancing, shuffling their hooves from point to point. Vinyl slammed her hooves down with an energetic purpose, throwing her head and strumming an invisible guitar as she went.

Octavia seemed to dance smoothly from one position to the next, her little hops gentle and fluid as if she were performing some waltz to the tune of the music that filled their house.

Though they were both beholden to the same beats, their motions were quite different, reflecting their approaches to music and life, but both putting up a respectable showing as the points racked up on the screen that they barely looked at.

The music was where their thoughts were, moving and swaying to it, surrendering to its magic willingly and being carried away on the tides of the game until it came to a gentle stop, cheering coming from the speakers as the last of their score was tabulated.

SSS they had both earned, either mare smiling.

Octavia pointed. "I win." She had, by a bare pittance of points, but a victory was a victory.

"Ugh, fine... Nice game though." She moved to turn off the system and give Octavia her peace.

Author's Notes:

So about them vidjagames?! We could go on about media's impact on the world, but I imagine you want to press forward. Lemme know how I did, and how you want it. I love comments.

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