Twilight Sparkle looked over at the huge stack of binders as a smug look of satisfaction crept over her face. It had seemed like a rather simple affair to go through those records at Princess Celestia's request. "Gosh, how could they have missed it?" Twilight said to herself. "All they had to do is switch from a logarithmic estimation process with Spengler's growth pattern adjustment variable to a modified exponential estimation process using Hauser's bracketing!" She took a sip of her nearby strawberry iced tea, chuckling for a moment. "It's almost Elementary School stuff!"
Of course, she wouldn't ask for anything in return. She wouldn't dream of it. However, she knew that the Canterlot Health Affairs Department, known officially as 'Chad' but colloquially always referred to as 'that bucking Chad' or 'the stupid Chad' et cetera, would have to present her with another medal. Her calculations, which had at least a ninety percent chance of being successful, would save the agency at least half its budget.
Twilight finished her drink, and she leaned back in her fluffy white chair. Her eyes glanced up at the various bookshelves around her. Maybe I should dust the library soon. Couldn't hurt. She felt like doing something more in celebration, though. Why not? I'll send the Princess a scroll in a moment, but kitten videos await!
"Ha, ha! Time for the Ponynet!" Twilight called out, magically lifting over her pPad. She clicked the side and watched as a big smile crept over her face. The screen lit up, and the background-- a sleazy image of Princess Luna from the recent controversial Photo Finish picture spread, with Luna's lips curled around her face in a way that always made Twilight's heart flutter-- flickered into place.
She took a low breath in anticipation. I suppose I'll head right to PonyTube. Or I'll check out something fun and music-related over at MNE.com, maybe? Rather than choose between applications, she decided to open up Chrome and just run everything through the browser. That'll be easier for sure. She tapped the upper-left side of the screen.
The familiar gray and blue frame of Chrome appeared. She opened up MNE.com, standing for Musical Network of Equestria, and the obnoxiously formatted website, filled with constant flashing things and gaudy colors, filled her eyes. She scanned the day's news, and a low, sharp pain shot up through her insides.
"What! OK No might be breaking up?" Twilight cried out, and she slanted to the side in her seat. She nervously tapped her hooves on the table as she read on. "Band leader Poppy Jumps hints of a solo career with his new work on Fab Factory's soon-to-be-released soft rock album?"
Hold on, Twilight, you're smarter than this. You know that bands do this all of the time. They just want to drum up publicity in order to promote sales. It's a trick older than the Ponynet for crying out loud! Still, she found herself clicking over to PonyTube and opening up the wonderful music video to "There It Went Again". She bounced up and down, looking a lot like Pinkie Pie, as the infectious guitar riffs and snark-filled singing began. The band members hopped to and fro around their massive gold and silver treadmills, with Twilight rubbing her flanks in the air at the same time.
"They wouldn't dare stop the music by breaking up, not when they've single-hoofedly saved the Canterlot power-pop scene from this supposed 'post-punk' horseapples," Twilight muttered. "From 'You're So Bucking Hot', 'There It Went Again", "The Invincibles", "Getting Over It", and-- just-- everything else--" She stopped, and she realized that she felt like crying. "No! I'm not going to let something like this get me down!" She took a little breath, and she kept on dancing, turning up the volume.
"Oh, there it went! Oh, there it went! There it went! There it went again!" Poppy Jumps sang. The music filled her whole library.
"Yeah!" Twilight twirled about on her hind hooves, clopping her front hooves together. She threw her mane back, preparing for the next verse.
*Beep!*
She missed a step and fell flat on her face. She immediately stood up, a huge frown popping on her face as her ears flickered back. "What the hay was that?" Twilight hollered. And thank goodness Spike is at Sweetie Belle's and didn't see that. Twilight's eyes swelled up as she looked upon her pPad, seeing a nasty error message.
Invalid Command
*Hey, oooh, not... there...*
Flash Has Non-Integrated Plug-Ins
*But, oh, right there-- it's more than good*
Please Upgrade Google's Flash Extension
"Oh, please," Twilight remarked, rolling her eyes, "another upgrade? I just did one this afternoon, only about two hours and--" She glanced down at the bottom of her pPad. "Thirty-six minutes ago. Gosh!" She closed that tab of the webpage. Well, forget PonyTube, then... I'll just look at some business and financial type news. She clicked over to Blooming Burg, LLC and magically floated over another fruity iced tea.
*Beep! Beep!*
"Again?" Twilight muttered. She surveyed the big gray frowning faces that had popped up all over the webpage tab. Another big yellow error message appeared, and she clicked her teeth together.
Server Access Depreciation
Index Limits Reached in Recall
*You like that, don't you? Want more?*
Please Upgrade Google's Velez Extension
*Your body tells me that you want more*
"Well, rats," Twilight murmured. She rubbed a hoof on her chin. "And what on earth is all this stuff about 'touching', 'bodies', and 'not touching there'?" She looked up at the ceiling, seeing sunlight streaming through her library. Must be some kind of jargon that I'm not familiar with. Maybe I could send the Google Team ponies a scroll.
Okay, I'll just use Firefox. Twilight closed the whole browser and opened up her other option, feeling better as the orange-tinted window flickered into place. Good ol' Firefox... it won't bug me about anything... She sipped her drink as she snuggled into place in her chair.
*Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!*
"Son of a beeswax!" Twilight called out, popping out of her chair. She glared at her device. Yet another nefarious error message had splattered across the screen.
Firefox Is Unable To Reach Trim Control
Gain Depreciation At Maximum Capacity
*What about your belly? On your belly?*
Please Upgrade Firefox's System Adapter
*Rub it harder? Well, you're a bad girl, aren't you?*
"I've more than had enough of this!" Twilight spurted out a big breath, and she pulled up her main system panel on her pPad. She clicked over to 'Upgrades', and she began to upgrade both browsers. "This had better get resolved in this century." She tapped her hooves against the bottom of the table anxiously as big green status bars filled the screen.
The black progress bars crawled slowly across. Twilight leaned her head to the side. She rested it against her hooves as she closed her eyes, picturing what she'd do once she got everything working again. Maybe I should hit Dashie up with another message. I'm feeling rather, well, 'frisky'... I suppose that's the word that she would use. Dashie always finds it funny how I'm more discrete, using terminology such as 'having sensual needs' or 'experiencing carnal withdrawal' or 'wanting post-work comfort' and so on. Twilight blinked, and she glanced over at the screen once again.
Warning
Upgrade Failed
*Please, I beg you, don't bring in that*
Please Re-install Programs Involved
*Oh, yes, you're going to purr like a kitten*
Twilight opened her mouth up wide, prepared to hurl insult after insult at the device. Yet she stopped halfway. She stared straight down at how the condensation of her drink had dripped along the top of the screen. Her eyes darted about from tiny Twilight to tiny Twilight in the drops, reflected in such a way that made it look like her doppelganger was walking underneath the screen.
"Of course," she moaned, and she hopped over into the middle of her library. "Why didn't I ever think of this before?" Book after book flew off of the bookshelves and hovered over her head. She flickered her gaze up and down, scanning cover after cover. "No. Nope. Not that one. Maybe?" She paused, opening up a slim, green magazine and flowing through the pages. "Well, not that either." The books buzzed around her head like bees going about a flower.
She spotted a thick, gray text with odd-looking whitish stains along the cover out of the corner of her eye. She let out a happy squeal. The other books sailed back into place, and Twilight propped the gray text down as she arched her back up. She devoured the pages, her hooves lined up at the bottom of the text as she learned all she could on the subject.
"Well, 'transmuting a pony into a miniaturized world'," she remarked, magically grabbing a third fruity drink, "I suppose it's a lot less hard that I had thought. I just need to find the right spell, but gathering the power will be a piece of cake." I wish I knew what that white film on the book... it almost seems fresh... is it? She sniffed the tip of the cover. Where the hay did that sticky white film come from? She flashed back to how Rarity had checked out a bunch of books, although she couldn't recall which books those had been. "Oh, whatever."
Twilight flipped over to the section containing the actual spells. She cleared her throat as she felt her horn glowing brightly. Such an odd spell... it starts out making sense, but then it devolves to a sort of song and dance number. She magically lifted over her pPad, still frozen from the mysterious inter-browser problem, and she nudged it in between the pages of the text. She felt her powerful magical energy coursing through her body, and she smiled. Let's recite this thing!
She started by muttering an incantation of what seemed like nonsense words, although she knew it had something to do with setting the parameters of the spell. The rest of it at least made some sense-- although not much. "Diggi-loo, diggi-ley!" Twilight sang. She bucked up on her hind hooves, and she swung her front hooves in a clock-like circle as she pumped her plot backward. "Diggil-loo, diggi-ley-- blixtar och dunder, magiska! Plötsligt en dag har det hänt, åh..." She let out a giggle as she spanked her cutie mark hard. "Vilken tur."
What language is this? She clopped her hooves, clenching her flanks together as the book's spell commanded. She looked straight up, winking. She took a deep breath before singing once more.
"Du är en lyckofigur!" She leaped up in the air, waving her hooves as if she could fly. "Diggi-loo diggi-ley! Alla tittar på mig." As she landed, she threw her body onto the floor, crawling like a snake. "Där jag går i mina gyllne skor." She prepared for the last line, throwing all of her magical energy into the strange rhyme. "Diggi-loo diggi-ley, himlen öppnade sig!"
A bright white flash appeared right above her head. She closed her eyes, feeling her pPad flying up and rubbing up against her chest, and ripples of magic coursed up her fur. She kicked against the floor. A powerful suction, as if she had a gigantic vacumn cleaner over her, flew her body straight upwards.
Time felt as if it had ripped, feeling like a film reel suddenly snapping. Twilight's senses went numb for a moment. She first heard her quiet breathing, twinkling her nose. Twilight opened her eyes up, slowly but surely, yet she could only see a soft, almost cuddly-sort of whiteness popping up around every inch of her body. She blinked. She rubbed her eyes again.
She found herself lying about a huge white mattress, her face and hooves mashed against the corner. She tried to stand up, and pillows landed across her sides, her body somehow slipping up against something. She took a very deep breath, and she teleported herself up atop the fluffy white pillows.
She looked all around, seeing white mattresses up against the walls, floors, and ceiling all around her. She saw rainbow colored walls with various cartoon-like animals alongside the mattresses, from puppies to kittens to elephants and more, all drawn in with what seemed like gigantic crayons. She twirled her body around, and, sure enough, she spotted a bright pink crayon the size of three ponies just a few yards away.
"What the hay?" Twilight called out. "This is the inside of my computer?" She glanced down underneath her. "Wow, what are these?" She held her hooves up, nudging her body against the shiny golden boots that had appeared. They felt smooth and cuddly. "How did I get these?"
"Vingar på skorna, är allt vad du behöver!" yelled a cheerful voice.
Twilight flipped around from side to side, her mouth hanging open. She couldn't see that other pony anywhere. Yet, as she looked around yet again, more and more items seemed to pop up inside of the room. Enormous, fuzzy teddy bears with arms filled with sparking candies rested against the walls. Pony-sized crayon after pony-sized crayon stuck out from the walls above her, seemingly writing by themselves without a hint of magic. Frisbees, garden hoses with sprinkler ends, teeball stands with bright white balls atop them, and other outdoor type toys sorrounded her.
"Åh, jag kan bli vad jag önskar! I min förtrollade värld!" Twilight heard. A sweet, feminine chuckle rained through the air. "I mina gyllene skor!"
"I'm sorry, ah, whomever you are," Twilight said, hopping about across the floor. She ducked as pillows flew through the air by themselves. There's no magic here. Or is there? Is everything just naturally this weird? "I don't speak that language."
"Gosh," replied the voice. "I thought you were speaking Swedish, and I was just singing along with you. Sorry, miss purple-maned-cutie-pie. I'll adjust my language settings accordingly."
"Language settings?" Twilight repeated. Oh, goodness, am I talking to who I'm thinking I'm talking to? "Where are you?"
"Graphical interface points skyward, my nice new friend," said the voice, and another girly giggle followed.
Twilight glanced upwards. Her eyes locked on a beautiful white pegasus, the mare hopping about from mattress to mattress on the ceiling. Twilight reached out, and she suddenly felt her body wobbling out through space. "Hey, whoa?"
"Oh, there's no gravity here, you silly-illy-purple-filly," the pegasus remarked, and she beat her wings as she kicked against the ceiling. She sailed through the air and picked up Twilight like a falcon going for its prey, causing the unicorn to let out an 'eep'. Twilight found herself thrust into the arms of one of the teddy bears, the pegasus slobbering her face with bright red chocolates.
"I'm sorry, I, uh," Twilight muttered. She stopped, having no idea how to really even start. I have so many questions! So many things to learn! So many things to get resolved! She rubbed her head back and curled her mane against the fluffy brown bear chest.
"My name is Chrome," said the pegasus, and she gazed over at Twilight. "My friends call me 'Rome' or 'Romi' for short." She held up her shiny white hooves and ran them through her slick, even shiner light-blue mane as she winked. Her matching light-blue eyes, with big, pretty black eyelashes above them, looked so adorable to Twilight. "Of course, they also call me 'Chrome' too. Well, I like all three. Variety is good. That's what I'm all about. Variety and lots of choices are what my friends expect from me." Chrome scooted over closer to Twilight's spot, scattering the mound of candies around them, and she smiled. "Are you going to be my friend, too?"
Twilight nervously nodded. She hadn't expected this at all. Twilight surveyed every inch of the pony-version of her favorite browser, sliding her body off of the teddy bear. Chrome hopped up and clopped her hooves, overjoyed to hear Twilight's response. Twilight drank in Chrome's pretty green, yellow, and red wings as they brushed up against the bear, Chrome's long, flowing light-blue tail curling up along her hooves.
"We're going to share so many wonderful experiences today, Twilight," Chrome said, flying up and hovering right above Twilight's head. "I'm honored that you chose me to be your program for these next several instruction cycles!"
"How do you know my nam--"
"Oh, you crazy-azy-popping-up-in-my-room-like-a-daisy," Chrome remarked in a sing-song voice, sailing down upon Twilight's shoulder and playfully smacking her mane, "Everypony here knows you. Your data. Your preferences. Your histories. Everything." Chrome gazed whisftully across Twilight's sides and down along Twilight's droopy tail across her hooves. "I know, more than many, since I'm your own creation, designed around you and how you've used me."
"Sure," Twilight replied, not sure how to even begin to take that. She looked over at Chrome flying a loose loop-de-loop, and she looked down at her boots. "How did I get these?"
"Your song," Chrome replied, making a sudden zig-zag. Pillows danced across in the air around her. "Remember? 'In my golden shoes' or 'I mina gyllene skor'?"
Twilight shrugged.
"Oh, hey!" Chrome burst out, flying about in a spiral down over at Twilight. "I have to introduce you to my other friends!"
"Okay..."
"Especially my bestest-most-fantabulous friend in the whole wide Ponynet! Let's meet her!"
"I would," Twilight began. Chrome ran up behind her and smacked the unicorn to the side before pulling her body back with her wings. Twilight squeaked out a weak "love to" as they aimed straight for a small crack in the far side wall. Holding on to Chrome's backside, Twilight nudged herself forwards. She could hardly believe her eyes-- with the crack transmogrifying into some kind of a gap in the rainbow-colored wall that grew wider and wider every moment, vanishing parts of the mattresses around it into thin air.
"Hold on," Chrome remarked. They flew straight on through as a flurry of rainbow-colored sparks rippled across them. Twilight clutched Chrome's back tightly. In just a moment, she felt cold, wet breezes dripping across her fur. Twilight leaned her head backwards, looking all around as Chrome's wings beat more slowly, and she gasped.
Canterlot, Ponyville, and everyplace else that Twilight had ever seen all couldn't hold a candle to the massive cityscape. Massive towers with intricate geometric shapes coursing across their sides lined up row after row besides huge domes and labyrinth-like arrays of metallic girders, spires, spikes, and wire-coated beams. What seemed like rain soaked everything, blue dripping across the endless expanse of grey, black, and glass.
Immense neon lights with fractal patterns and three-dimensional symbols dotted across the industrial complexes. Chrome sailed over to the right, wrapping across a glowing dark grey sphere, and Twilight shifted her gaze downward. Powerful whitish-blue beams shot out from building to building, and she focused, spotting ponies figures speeding along inside of the beams. Crowds of thousands upon thousands of ponies with all manner of sizes, shapes, outfits, gear, and everything else muddled along from place to place.
"Sweet Celestia," Twilight remarked, "it's beautiful."
Chrome stopped atop what seemed like a gigantic letter 'O', perching up like a bird and sticking her wings out. She looked back and grinned at Twilight. "We call this area, where we work, 'the frame', and it's made up of what we call 'the city' all mashed up against 'the grid'."
"Inside of my own computer," Twilight muttered. She narrowed her eyes, seeing a gaggle of tall, proud-looking unicorns with bright red top hats pressing through the crowd. "And those are my programs. My data. My... my everything." She almost felt numb, coming to a profound realization as her mane shifted about her shoulders. "Every single pony in here is basically a piece of me, even closer to me than my own family." She paused, pressing her hoof against her temple. Yet, at the same time, they're all independently made... gosh, I wonder if other ponies have the same thing inside their pPads. I wonder what it means if I were to back things up or if I restored the factory settings. A chill crept up her insides. Would restoring factory settings mean killing all these ponies? But they weren't really alive to begin with, I suppose.
"I suggest you don't worry about it, Twilight," Chrome said, gently sliding Twilight off of her back. They sat right next to each other, bottom hooves swinging against the front of the massive neon sign. "I can tell that you're worring about getting her, about being welcomed here." Chrome nudged her side against Twilight's, Chrome's slippery, shiny mane curling against Twilight's fur. It felt a lot better than Twilight wanted to admit. "We'll all welcome you with open hooves, especially Foxy."
It's not the welcoming that I worry about. It's the implications of me being here. Twilight glanced straight down as Chrome kept on rubbing against her, spotting those hurried ponies with the big red top hats. "Wow, they're going pretty fast," she murmured. "And who's that fellow with the scarf and the bright blue dots all across his body in between them?"
"Oh, that's First.fm," Chrome remarked. "That program's just escorting the artist information to the main page, making sure that all of the musical profiles show up when the radio station plays."
"Oh, gosh," Twilight muttered. She squinted, seeing the mare in the middle with the big scarf pull out something like a tuba. "And that one in the middle, she's a pack of data? A jpeg with text data?"
Chrome nodded. She looked back up above them, rain still spattering against her face but turning into more of a drizzle. "Where is Foxy, anyways?" She let out a little, quite squeal. "It's our special place. And I'm here right at the exact moment in the cycle." She made a cutesy, pout-ish sort of expression as her ears stuck out.
Twilight glanced across the storefronts. A grumpy-looking unicorn with black and purple stripes across her body hopped from building to building, holding a big pen in her mouth as she surveyed the various designs and patterns across the building facades. A huge badge glittered from the light purple jacket atop the unicorn's back. "Oh, I know! She's an-- an--" Twilight nudged Chrome. "She's an anti-virus program!"
"You're a smarty," Chrome giggled. "I should know, after all." She stepped over to the side, her wings sticking out and pushing Twilight down flat upon the top of the sigh. As Twilight lied down, trying to relax but still feeling confused. Chrome stood up straight above Twilight's body. "I should know, since you made me."
"I made you," Twilight repeated in a monotone.
Chrome blushed, her bright white cheeks turning an adorable pink. "That's right. Your every last little search. Your ever last little click. I've seen something like everything that you've seen in my world, making us connected in a way so unlike you and other programs." She pressed her front hooves up along Twilight's bottom hooves. Chrome's smooth, slick fur felt like nothing Twilight had ever felt-- so different than Dashie's wild, ragged fur. Chrome's eyes seemed to draw Twilight like a moth to two burning flames. "I'm made just for you. Customized just for you. And, now, I can finally be with you, face to face."
Twilight couldn't believe it, but she saw something like two bright bluish tears appearing below Chrome's eyes. Twilight stared as thousands of square-shaped cracks popped up on Chrome's face where the tears ran down, glittery energy glowing underneath the broken digital skin. The tears joined the raindrops going across the top of the neon sign. The cracks disappeared, leaving Chrome's own pretty features just as before. It all felt so poetic.
"Chrome," Twilight muttered.
"Please, please, call me 'Romi'. That's what Foxy and everyone that loves me calls me."
"Romi," Twilight said. "I don't really understand what you want." She showed emotion. And the emotion seemed to... destroy part of her? Or corrupt part of her, somehow? Are programs supposed to show emotion like that-- crying and everything?
"I... I..." Romi muttered. She moved her hooves up to Twilight's sides. A look of concern flashed up across her face, her tail and mane shifting about. "I don't know either, to be honest." She sniffed. "It's so scary-- yet so thrilling-- to be going 'off task' and filling out new missions that I didn't get directions for." She rolled her head back, letting the last bits of rain course along her cheeks and neck. "I've dreamed of getting instructions from you like this."
"You've dreamed? Dreams? Programs can have dreams?"
"We're not supposed to, although, it's not proscribed really-- just something that's a 'don't ask, don't tell' thing." She leaned back down and locked eyes with Twilight. "I often dream about life before. About my early education in that administrative server, when I was told over and over again by my educators about my mission and my purpose. I flash back to how they told me to feel my user, to recommend things to my user, and to give my user what he or she wants to the best of my ability."
Twilight felt flattered, confused, and even a little bit ashamed somehow. She slinked away from Chrome's grasp, moving off of the giant neon sign and onto the grimy steel staircases behind it. She rubbed up against the metal bars and stood up. Chrome simply froze in place, her mouth hanging open. She seemed incapable of expressing what she thought deep inside. That makes perfect sense. They're programs. They're robots, replicants, or whatever anypony would want to call them. They're not meant to feel things outside of their user tasks... right... I think. Right? So, any emotion would be difficult for them to deal with.
"Who's making my best friend cry?" called out a strong, sultry voice from just below them both.
Twilight and Chrome flipped around, looking straight down in the staircase. Chrome burst out with a gigantic smile. Twilight simply scratched her head.
To Be Continued...
“Well, miss purply-sweet, those are some fancy looking golden boots,” said the pony walking slowly up the stairs, with a slow, almost-smoky sort of voice. “Möter vi äntligen.” Twilight rolled back to her side, standing up against the wet, slippery metal as she saw what looked like a ball of fire fused with an earth pony moving along the steps.
“Thanks...” Twilight deadpanned, casing a glance over at Romi. Stop speaking in languages I don’t know! Stupid browsers!
Romi hopped up, giggling once again, as she passed right by Twilight and almost mauled the other mare, who let out an ‘oof’. The bright orange fur of the mare darted about everywhere, with Romi hugging her close, and Twilight stepped down closer. Romi pointed over at Twilight and pumped her hoof into the air happily with a frankly adorable squeal of joy.
“I can’t believe that I’d ever be so lucky-plucky-cleverer-than-a-ducky,” Romi squeaked, her grin in serious danger of splitting her head in two. “Framstående! My two bestest-ever friends right atop my own special place from when I just started here!”
“You’re, ah,” Twilight began. “another...” Her eyes drank in every last inch of the mare’s sultry, strong orange hooves as well as the mare’s enormous mane and tail, both of them covered in bright yellow and orange strands looking just like a raging fire in a way that made her feel dizzy. “The program that, wait...” Twilight glanced over to the mare’s interesting cutie marks, abstract circular symbols that Twilight didn’t understand.
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, then,” the mare said, holding out one of her muscular front hooves. “‘Möter vi äntligen’. ‘We finally meet’. I suppose you’re exactly who I think you are, right?” Twilight gazed into the mare’s sky-blue eyes, and she suddenly put two and two together.
“Firefox,” Twilight said, shaking hooves. Even though she heard the endless hustle and bustle of programs down below her, with beams of energy coursing through the air, she still felt taken aback by seeing the mare face to face. “So, ah, I guess it’s... nice to meet you.” She sputtered with a small nervous grin, ears splayed back against her head.
“It’s been a while,” Firefox remarked, and she put on an earthy, almost smug expression. “I see that you’ve been using my best friend Romi a lot more than me, recently.” She glanced down and carefully examined her hoof with a strain of disinterest. “Of course, it has a lot to do with you clogging me full of plug-ins.”
“Oh, okay,” Twilight eked out. She closed her eyes for a moment, stepping backwards. As her flanks rubbed up against the metal poles behind her, she tried to think. Seriously, what is she implying? Is she mad at me? Why should she be mad at me! Would my toaster get mad at me if I crammed too many, too big pieces of bread into it? “Great to see you.”
“And, more importantly,” Firefox said, brushing up her side against Romi, who just beamed with her sunny white cheeks sticking out, “call me ‘Fox’.”
Twilight didn’t really think. She simply shook her head ‘yes’. She paused, rubbing her hoof against her neck, and she tried to come up with a question.
Before she could even open her mouth, fox shot out a hoof around Romi’s shoulders and pulled her into a heated kiss, not surprising Romi in the least who instead merely let her eyes slip shut. Their lips met, and Fox’s huge mane wrapped snugly around Romi’s front hooves. Heads shifted side to side, both ponies embracing with total abandonment, and Romi’s smooth blue mane intermingled with Fox’s flaming locks.
Twilight balked, wide eyes not blinking for several seconds as the two mares steadily got more into it, occasionally moaning into each other's mouths. She honestly hadn’t the slightest clue of what to think. On one hoof, she could compare it to her fridge making out with her air conditioner. Yet, on the other hoof, she stood right beside two extremely attractive mares, both locked in a moment of sheer passion.
Her jaw worked up and down, trying to get even the most menial of phrases out to accurately describe what she thought of the situation. Unseen by the group of mares, a small holographic panel materialized over Twilight and proudly displayed a bolded message that read ‘404’.
“Hey, Romi,” Twilight finally spat out, “I think that we-- we were--” She took a gulp. “Didn’t you have something else to tell me?” She meekly attempted to get Romi’s attention, a vibrant blush showing through her purple coat.
Romi suddenly seemed to realize something and nearly choked on her own tongue before pulling away quickly. She scrambled over to Twilight.
“Jag glömde nästan! Come on, Twilight-- ooh-- we have to get going!” The red, yellow, and green feathers of Romi buzzed out of place in an abrupt panic, reminding Twilight of when she’d seen Dash wake up late for weather patrol duties. Fox simply smiled, putting her mouth around by Romi’s tail.
Twilight barely had the time to come up with a retort before Romi threw her over her back and galloped of the nearest ledge of the building, eliciting a terrified scream from Twilight as floor upon floor of glass and metal flashed along her sides. Romi twirled about, going into a roll before beating her wings and rocketing out at a ninety degree angle. Twilight held her breath.
Romi landed firmly on the street below and shrugged the dazed Twilight off of her shoulders. She slid down into a puddle of what looked like rainwater, except it tickled around Twilight’s body almost like sand. Slowly forcing herself up, Twilight gave the giggling Romi a glare and looked around.
Fox stepped out around Romi’s back, sauntering about as if she thought nothing of jumping down at least a dozen stories. Twilight saw the ponies situated in some sort of alleyway just off of the main streetways. She stuck her neck out, looking above the stacks and stacks of black bags around them, and she watched as hundreds of odd-looking ponies glumly trotted along besides the endless arrays of sky-scraping buildings.
“Come on Twilight! We need to get going!” Romi chirped as she swatted playfully at Twilight’s flank with one of her wings. Twilight yelped loudly, jumping slightly in place as the white mare passed her with a giggle.
“R-romi!”
For a short while, Romi and Fox merely walked and talked about various nothings, commenting on various storefronts and particularly interesting ponies that passed them by. They slipped in Swedish constantly, throwing a “hon är söt” and “vacker röst” in between their phrases. It all drove Twilight mad. I suppose the whole computer world has this multilingual thing. Or maybe this is because I bought my pPad online from another, previous user?
Twilight struggled to keep up, forcing herself against the oncoming flow of bland ponies. Twilight’s eyes locked on Fox’s long, brilliant mane as she hobbled over thick black canisters dotting across the sidewalk. She looks so different than the rest of the programs-- so vibrant and alive just like Romi. I wonder why.
The crowd’s flow abruptly stopped, forcing the pair to squirm their way through the idle ponies. Twilight grabbed onto Fox’s mane, and the earth pony pulled her through as Twilight nervously glanced around her. The crowd of ponies, all with cold, flat white faces and huge grey suits with glowing blue stripes along their sides, looked like toy-soliders that had to get wound up. Romi led her two friends into a clearing walled in by bystanders. A rather large pony stood perfectly still in the center of the clearing, having a look of horror upon his abnormally expressive features as a single stark blue circle spun over his head.
Twilight furrowed her eyebrows, running over what she knew about programs to figure out what this one in particular was doing. She noticed the spinning circle. Oh, it’s so obvious! The program had crashed! She felt like laughing at the absurdity. Chrome didn’t upgrade for her since the program had naughty business with Firefox, and Explorer literally kept crashing into other programs.
Romi seemed to come to the same conclusion and stepped inside of the circle, her form drawing the soulless gaze of the drone ponies as she stopped in front of the frozen pony. Frowning for a moment, she turned and swatted him over the head. Twilight started to ask why Romi had done that until the frozen program twitched violently and keeled over onto the wet ground with an odd metallic-sounding clink.
“Redo att börja?” Romi said in her cute, sing-song like voice.
“It means, ‘ready to start’,” Fox whispered to Twilight.
“Tack. Jag behövde verkligen det.” Twilight felt taken aback by the formerly broken program’s deep, masculine voice. He stood up and shook his short, shiny black mane violently. He put on a reserved smile as he gazed at Romi. The pegasus smiled back as she stuck out her pretty wings and curled her ears around.
“Romi,” Fox said, stepping over and rubbing her huge mane around the cute pegasus’ shoulders. “Didn’t you dash us down here from the roof to find the ponynet radio programs? Those tall, strapping-looking darlings carting around the mp3 file?”
“Oh, yes, right,” Romi said-- hopping over to where Twilight stood, simply watching the events unfold. “But it’s a packet of artist and album information data, not the music itself-- isn’t that right, Twilight?”
“I don’t see any, ah, radio thingies anywhere.” Twilight slinked out of the crowd and backed into ten meter high stack of what seemed like brown paper bags. She slinked to the side against the building front, looking off mysterious glowing red balls-- almost like the super-balls she’d see a children’s playpen-- scattered off of the top of some of the bags. She hoped that the whole edifice wouldn’t come crashing down on her.
Romi and Fox sped over to Twilight’s sides, standing her up as they all moved down the side-alleyway. “Oh, gosh, I hate to come across as worry-warting-always-cavorting,” Romi said, putting a hoof through her sparkly blue mane, “But didn’t they say just a cycle ago to us that they’d be besides the stack of inter-departmental memory balls?”
“Memory balls?” Twilight repeated. Thick spires of energy glowed across the tunnel-like walls around them as they walked through the alleyway.
“Or was it several cycles ago?”
“No, the radio programs are right where they said they’d be,” Fox said.
“Huh?” They made it to a big opening, with array after array of harsh-looking metallic scaffolding in front of them. Various drone-like programs still worried about, although staying out of big crowds as such.
“Turn around, then,” Fox remarked.
Twilight blinked, eyes flicking to the sudden mass of unicorns with huge red top hats gathering around her. She made a nervous smile, seeing them all gaze across her body. The unicorns’ faces, pale white with makeup-like blotches about them, seemed to light up with raw excitement.
“Oh, my gosh!” the tallest mare bucked up on her hind hooves for a moment, her eyes bulging out. Twilight noticed such odd, alien-looking crimson flashes in the mare’s pupils. “My gosh! Oh, my CPU!” She shot out a hoof, which Twilight grabbed. The mare couldn’t believe that Twilight was actually real. She felt cold, hard compared to Twilight’s fur, as if Twilight had just touched a metal pipe. “It’s really you-- the user!”
“Eeeeyup,” Twilight said, putting on her best Big Mac impression. I should be really glad that most ponies don’t seem to recognize me-- or else I’d be totally swamped.
“My name is ‘Muse’,” said the mare, and she gestured back at her posse of shorter but similarly dressed ponies. “And these are my ‘Muses’.”
“You’re all named ‘Muse’? Doesn’t that get confusing?” Twilight asked. Romi laughed while Fox simply snickered.
“Not really. Hey, ‘Muse’!” Muse-the-tallest called back at his group. The mare at the far right corner waved a hoof in the air. “See, it’s easy.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. Okay, the computer world... it’s not going to make sense... “Fine, Romi and I are here to pick up the ponynet radio program data.”
“Oh, excellent,” Muse-the-tallest said, “and, between you and me, I’m very glad that the user-- oh, ah, I mean... that you have decided to listen to more folk rock. Expanding your musical horizons is great. Research shows that listening to more styles results in faster mental processes for ponies.”
“I’m an arteeeest,” said the musical data behind Muse-the-tallest, pulling her black-and-white thatched scarf backwards and lifting up a pair of sunglasses. “I have no need for worrying about the inferior competition.” She sized-up Twilight, looking less than impressed as her massive, flowing white mane curled down her greyish body. “Oh, there you are. You’re the courier program sending me to the user?”
Dear sweet Celestia, she embodies Gagalicious so well... she’s like a pixelated clone. And didn’t she just hear what the other programs said about me? I guess she’s too self-absorbed to care. Twilight refrained from saying “but, I am the user”, and she merely smiled while brushing the data closer. Romi stepped up as well as Fox, and the three mares made a sort of donut with the pompous data squeezed right in the middle between them.
“Oh, I suppose one must introduce one’s self to everyone,” the data sarcastically remarked, clutching her tuba closer to her back. “My name is Licious.”
“Romi,” said the red, green, and yellow-winged pegasus, “I’m here to get you to the graphical-user-interface.” She glanced over at Twilight, and she giggled. “Well--” She guestured over to the First.fm unicorns. “You girls can all go break till your next function.”
“I can’t wait until my friends hear that I met a user!” yelled out one of them. A bunch of nods and happy sighs followed. In just a moment, they all melted into the mass of drones around the sidewalk.
“Is that a bad thing? Maybe we should have kept me being here quiet,” Twilight muttered. Fox immediately put a hoof along her shoulder.
“Don’t overhype yourself, darling,” Fox remarked, putting an almost devious grin.
“So, into the transport beams!” Licious announced dramatically with a crazed smirk.
“T-t-transport beams?” Twilight sputtered. She didn’t like the sound of that at all. Romi and Fox lead them all down the sidewalk, Twilight’s eyes flickering around from the massive grey columns to the huge spreads of rain-soaked wires to the endless boxes of bright, glowing green energy all across the building fronts. What’s in those cubes? Power? Are those boxes memory space or something? They look like toys, even. She could spend a lifetime in there, discovering new things every few minutes.
Ponies swelled across almost every spare inch of the cityspace, constantly brushing against and bumping into Twilight, not caring at all about personal space. She scanned face after face. Most of them looked so unlike Romi and her friends. Their stark black, pupil-free eyes with faint green lights glowing along their sides, seemed to stare right through Twilight’s fur and go directly into her mind.
She shuddered as she came across a massive earth pony, twice the size of Big Mac, who merely stood at the corner beside a spiky slate-grey mound, constantly spewing yellow liquid upwards through massive tubes that led skywards, and glanced blankly into the open air. The pony’s body, coated in grey and white spots, matched his five insect-like eyes. He would make a perfect stone sentinel were it not for the odd breath he took through the slits under each of his eyes.
Twilight coughed nervously, her ears sliding backwards as she felt Romi’s smooth hooves touching against her back, prompting her to turn around with a startled squeak. The chipper mare held open the translucent-white slab of plastic that constituted as the entrance into the massive building that seemed to go on forever into the sky, reaching much higher than the other buildings.
“Come on!” Romi chirped brightly as she ushered in Fox with a wing. Hesitating for a moment, Twilight reluctantly followed and stepped in behind Fox. She narrowed her eyes as she took in the huge lobby.
To Be Continued...
