Compiler

by Smoking Gun

Rating: teen
Tags: Spike, Comedy, Other, Romance, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 6985

Twilight Learns Programming

You're never too young to learn something new.

With computers becoming a new hit in Equestria, Twilight and Spike travel back to Canterlot so that she can learn all she can about these new devices and how they work. Meeting the colorful staff and students, Twilight slowly starts to learn that not all problems can be solved with a solution in the book.

Maybe she should try a video tutorial.

Published 2013-01-08 03:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-10 03:39:58 UTC

Chapter 1: Hello World

Compiler
Chapter 1: Hello World

By Smoking Gun

Silver. It was all silver. And a little bit of black here and there. The walls were so reflective that they might as well have been mirrors. The tiles were white, but they had a similar effect. Twilight felt disoriented as she trotted through the hall, her saddlebag feeling heavier and heavier as she saw her reflection in the walls. Thankfully, Spike was walking alongside her as they headed further down the hall. The dragon was holding a printed schedule. Examining it, he compared the room number on the paper to the numbers hanging over the doors. The numbers increased one by one until the unicorn and the dragon finally reached their destination: C06-35.

Using her magic, Twilight pushed the door open and stepped into a carpeted hallway. She and Spike walked past a wall and found themselves looking over a large lecture hall with what were at least two hundred young stallions at the desks in the center of the room. Each one had a laptop in front of him. Twilight searched for a seat and found that every row except the front had been filled. Twilight led Spike down the steps on the side of the room, and the two sat down in the center seats. Everypony was still too busy paying attention to their laptops to notice her entry.

Twilight and Spike glanced back at the rest of the class, staring at them in confusion. Twilight looked closely at another student, and she could make out the light of his laptop monitor reflecting off his eyes. Hearing the door on the far side of the room open, the unicorn and the dragon turned around to see an older stallion enter the room, trotting towards the podium at the front of the class. None of the other students looked up.

What is going on with these ponies? thought Twilight.

“Welcome to Orientation Day for the Canterlot University of Technology,” announced the teacher. “My name is Professor Systems. I’ll be your course convener for the next year.”

Quickly glancing back, Twilight noticed the stallions had yet to remove their eyes from their computers.

Hitting a few keys on the podium, Professor Systems turned on the projector, which displayed a slideshow presentation on the wall behind him. The first slide read “Introduction to Equestrian Computer Studies.” To Twilight’s bewilderment, the other students still did not look up.

“The program’s core courses will cover the broader areas of computer sciences, including object-oriented programming, database design and implementation, interactive application development, systems analysis, and web development. Other subjects will be covered in your electives,” explained the professor.

It’s like he doesn’t care that nopony is listening to him.

Levitating a small makeup mirror out of her bag, Twilight positioned it so that she could look back at the other students. As expected, they were just staring at their computers, with the sounds of hooves tapping the keyboard acting as the background music for Systems’ speech.

“Since all of you are junior students, you will have already been issued your schedules for today,” continued the professor. “You’ll have an hour break before your first classes. I suggest you use it to get to know your surroundings and your fellow students. It will help you adjust better. Now, I want to cover some topics you’ll need to understand if you hope to get a job after you graduate.”

Systems proceeded to discuss various topics in the IT industry, ranging from employment rates to the best and worst operating systems and programming languages to learn. Twilight sat attentively in her seat, hanging onto every word the professor said, her mind filling with a whole new area of information. Having spent most of her life in a library, Twilight had yet to immerse herself in this new, technological aspect of Equestria. Spike, on the other hoof, had been doing his best not to fall asleep. He had failed.

“And if I catch any of you using Internet Explorer, I’ll expel you myself,” finished Systems. Twilight could hear the sound of ponies shuffling in their seats as the other students started packing up their laptops, the sound of which woke Spike from his nap.

“Wait!” shouted the Professor. “There’s one last thing I want to cover.” He pulled up a separate slideshow. The title was “Mares in IT.” Twilight leaned forward, even more intrigued than before.

“Mares have been an unappreciated presence in IT. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be where we are today.” Moving onto the next slide, he brought up a photo of an elderly mare with glasses who was standing next to a supercomputer. “Punch Card was the inventor of the database, using punch cards to store and display data. Her parents must have had some real foresight.” Several students groaned in response.

That has to be the most active they’ve been this whole time.

“My point is, the IT industry needs mares. In recent years, a thought has emerged, a thought that says IT is for stallions and that mares are unwelcome or have no place. To be frank, that’s bullshit.”

Twilight jolted in her seat, shocked at the language her professor had employed. Celestia would never have said anything like that. Spike giggled in response to the sight. The other students, of course, gave no reaction at all.

“Mares need to be in IT. The world won’t progress until they do,” stated Systems.

Feeling confident and proud, Twilight turned around to count all the mares in the rows behind her. After a few seconds, she slowly turned back. Her interest had changed to annoyance and confusion.

“All right, everypony,” said Systems. “I look forward to working with each of you. I will see you around!”

The stallions closed their laptops and headed out the door in a quiet and orderly fashion. Twilight, however, headed straight for Systems, who was walking away from his podium. Spike followed her.

“Professor!” called Twilight. “I’d like to talk to you.”

Systems turned to the mare, an expression of slight surprise on his face for a moment. “Ah, yes. You must be Twilight Sparkle. What can I do for Celestia’s number one?”

“I was hoping you would… elaborate on that last part of your lecture,” said Twilight with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

“How, exactly?” asked Systems.

“Well, you talked about how mares have such a huge impact in IT and how there needs to be more of us. I turned around to count how many mares are in this class. I couldn’t find any.”

“That’s because you’re the only one,” he said flatly.

Twilight paused for a moment. “Then why would you give us that speech? Wouldn’t it make more sense to tell other mares about this? To let them know that there’s no reason to think less of IT?”

Systems glanced up, eyes scanning the room. After the last stallion left, he looked back at his female student. “Miss Sparkle… that speech wasn’t exactly for your benefit.”

“I don’t understand.”

Systems shuffled his hooves on the ground, struggling to make eye contact for a moment. “You see, mares are a rarity in this department. Most of these stallions don’t exactly… interact with them often. I wanted to make sure that there are no… shall we say, ‘misunderstandings.’”

Twilight shifted her eyes suspiciously. “OK then… Why?”

“I think you’ll understand later,” he said as he headed towards the back door. “See you in class, Twilight.”

Twilight and Spike exited Building C06, entering a small area that overlooked the main courtyard where most of the other students had gathered. Twilight watched as the students mingled, shaking hooves, chatting, sharing whatever they had on their laptops at the moment, and just relaxing in general. However, Twilight couldn’t help but notice a sizable group of students just standing around awkwardly, not talking to anypony else or even making the effort to smile.

“That’s just sad,” the unicorn remarked. “Why doesn’t he go say hi to anypony?”

“What about you?” asked Spike.

Twilight looked away. “I don’t know. Something about what the professor said—“

“Hey, egghead!”

Twilight and Spike spun around, seeing two familiar-looking pegasi descend behind them.

“Rainbow! Fluttershy!” Twilight ran up to her friends and embraced them. “What brings you two to Canterlot? Did you already start missing me?”

“I did,” mumbled Fluttershy.

“We got tickets to the Wonderbolts air show in town, so I brought Fluttershy with me,” explained Rainbow.

Fluttershy added, “Rainbow thought it would be a good idea for me to see flying from the professionals.”

Rainbow butted back in. “We remembered that you were coming up here to study, so we thought we’d drop by and say hi.”

Twilight released her friends. “Thank you both for coming to see us. We were just about to grab something to eat, if you want to join us.”

“If we’ve got time, sure!” Rainbow trotted over to the outlook and gazed over the other students from Twilight’s lecture with Fluttershy right behind her. “Who are those guys?”

“They’re Twilight’s new classmates!” Spike explained.

Rainbow scanned the crowd, arching her eyebrows as she examined each pony from above. She looked disappointed and more than a little uneasy.

“Everything OK, Rainbow?” Twilight asked.

“Your school buddies seem… eggheady.”

“Rainbow,” said Twilight, gesturing her foreleg towards herself. “I’m an egghead.”

“Yeah, but you’re a cool egghead, you know. You’re our egghead.”

“I like eggheads,” Fluttershy added.

“What’s wrong with them?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow extended her hoof towards the stallions below. “Look at them! They don’t exactly look like mounting material, do they?”

Twilight’s pupils constricted as her cheeks turned pink. “Rainbow!”

“I’m just saying they look kind of awkward, not all that handsome, and there’s a couple not even trying to talk to anypony.” Rainbow leaned over and put her hooves around her mouth. “Bucking smile!” she shouted.

Twilight quickly pulled Rainbow back before anypony below could look up and see them. “Rainbow, it’s my first day. Do you think you could try not to ruin my first impression?”

Rainbow wrapped her foreleg around Twilight, giving her a sly smile. “Twi, you obviously don’t know what college is about.”

“University,” she corrected. “And it’s about learning independence while furthering your education.”

“Ha!” Rainbow scoffed. “You have much to learn, newbie. College is about finding the hottest stallions and partying your flank off.”

“I thought you didn’t go to university.”

“Oh I did, just not as a student. See, I would hit up the bar and—“

“Stop right there,” Twilight said as she removed Rainbow’s foreleg.

Rainbow trotted over to look over the stallions. “I can’t see any decent material down there. Are there at least any cool mares to hang with?”

Twilight looked away. “I couldn’t see any.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Figures that you would end up in a course full of stallions and not have one hot one.”

“I think they look nice,” Fluttershy interjected.

“Rainbow,” began Twilight, “I’m sure they’re perfectly nice, friendly ponies. Besides, I’m here to study. Mounting isn’t exactly the first thing on my mind right now.”

“Give it time,” Rainbow said with a wink.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Do you girls want to grab something to eat or what?”

Fluttershy pointed up to a clock hanging on the wall of Building C06. “Actually, the show is starting in twenty minutes. Rainbow said if we’re too late that we would lose our seats.”

Rainbow jumped into the air with a little squeal. Fluttershy casually hovered behind her.

“We’ll catch you later, Twi!” Without another word, Rainbow dashed off into the distance.

Fluttershy quickly descended and gave Twilight one more hug. “I’m sure you’ll do great, Twilight. Don’t forget to write us.”

“I never will,” Twilight said, smiling as Fluttershy headed off after Rainbow.

Twilight trotted over to Spike, levitating the food she had selected from the cafeteria. She had a grass sandwich, a side of hay fries, and bottled water. Spike had a corn dog, canned cider, and another corn dog.

“The meal of champions,” remarked Twilight as she took her seat opposite Spike.

“Eh, I’ll burn it off.”

Twilight looked around the cafeteria, taking in the sight of all the other students. She noticed several students that she hadn’t seen in her orientation lecture. They looked almost worlds apart from what she had observed earlier. There were stallions and mares all sitting together, socializing, smiling, and being friendly.

Is this what Professor Systems was talking about?

With a burp, Spike finished his last corn dog and got off his chair. “I have to use the little dragon’s room.”

Twilight didn’t respond, still lost in her thoughts.

Is there something wrong with IT students? Is there something wrong with me?

“Hey.”

Twilight looked up, finding a unicorn stallion standing behind Spike’s chair, shooting her a casual smile. He looked to be within a year of her own age, and he had a long auburn mane with a mahogany coat. His cutie mark resembled a block of code, but Twilight couldn’t make out what the code itself said—not that she would be able to understand it.

“Hi,” returned Twilight.

“I’m Eclipse. I saw you in orientation. May I join you?”

“Sure, pull up a chair.”

Eclipse levitated a free chair, taking a seat to Twilight’s left.

“Thanks. So, what brings Celestia’s star pupil to the Technology Department of C.U.?”

“How did you—“

“You’re one of the Elements of Harmony. If you were planning on having a secret identity, you’re doing a less-than-stellar job,” Eclipse chuckled.

“Oh yeah, that.” Twilight’s cheeks went a light red. “As for why I’m here… it’s not really interesting.”

“I’ve got time,” Eclipse said, smiling.

Twilight smiled back. “Well, it all started when I was having a conversation with my friend Rarity…”

“And I was positively stunning!”

Twilight and Rarity casually trotted down Mane Street, Ponyville. Several ponies going about their daily business passed them, running in and out of shops, spending their hard-earned bits on whatever they wanted and enjoying alfresco brunch.

“Aren’t you always, Rarity?” Twilight remarked with a smirk on her face, keeping her eyes facing forward as she kept moving.

“Of course I am, dear. But I like to make sure that fact is well known.”

Twilight chuckled as they continued down the road. “So, what happened next?”

“Anyhow, I casually walked past Hoity Toity, making sure he had a great view of my—”

Rarity suddenly paused, gazing at a store off to her left. “When did we get one of those?”

Twilight looked where Rarity was looking, noticing a store she didn’t recognize. The name of the store was “Pony Norman.” The building was grey and there were several sales advertisements stuck to the windows from the inside.

Twilight looked at Rarity curiously. “I don’t suppose you know what that is?”

Rarity swiftly turned to Twilight, looking shocked at her question. “Darling, are you saying you haven’t heard?”

“Heard of what?”

Rarity grabbed Twilight’s foreleg and dragged the mare into the store, ignoring her protests. Upon entering the building, Twilight saw miles upon miles of devices she had never seen before. They were small towers with buttons on the front and what looked like thin television sets attached to them.

“Rarity, what is this?” Twilight asked with wide eyes as she gazed around the store.

“I’m honestly shocked you haven’t heard of computers, Twilight. They’re all the rage in Canterlot.”

“Uh huh. What exactly does a ‘computer’ do?”

“Allow me to give you a demonstration.” Rarity cleared her throat with a small cough. “SERVICE!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

In a split second, an employee was standing before them. He sported glasses, a white button-up shirt, and a grey tie. “Welcome to Pony Norman! How can I help?”

Rarity wrapped her foreleg around Twilight. “My friend Twilight has yet to be introduced to your stock. Would you be a darling and give her a proper introduction?”

The salespony pushed the two along with his head and showed them to one of the many display models that had been set up in the centre of the store. “Well, Miss Twilight, computers are electronic devices that can do anything you want!”

Twilight chuckled. “Well, I doubt it can do anything.”

The salespony shifted his eyes back and forth with an awkward smile. “Actually… it can. It plays games, writes documents, plays music and movies and allows you talk to ponies anywhere in Equestria.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, smiling. “I don’t need a machine for that. That’s what letters are for.”

The salespony began to chuckle, and Rarity stepped between him and Twilight. “Excuse my friend. She’s still new to all this. Why don’t you show her how it all works?”

The salespony nodded, trying to keep his laughter in. He turned on a device behind him, and Twilight saw a screen flicker to life that showed several small icons, each with a name underneath.

“This is called the desktop. This is where you’ll find all your software and—“

“What’s software?” inquired the unicorn.

Rarity shot the salespony a death-glare to keep him from cackling at her friend.

“Well, software is how the computer performs its tasks. If you want to watch a video, you open the media player. If you want to write a document, you pull up the word processor. If you need to do something that the computer doesn’t already software for, you can easily buy it from our wide stock, as well as find it on the Internet.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “Excuse me again, but what is an ‘Internet’?”

The salespony stared at her with a blank expression for a few seconds. “Excuse me, ma’am.”

Turning away from Twilight and Rarity, the salespony bit down on his hoof, with a few muffled laughs escaping past him. After a moment, he turned back to them, now with a single tear on his face.

“The Internet is what connects most computers in Equestria. It enables ponies to share and create over massive distances. However, you’ll have to talk to a service provider about getting connected.”

Twilight’s ears perked up. “Getting connected… what can you do over the Internet?”

“Everything!”

Rarity coughed, drawing the attention back to her. “I believe Twilight has the idea. Would you be a dear and get her set up with a laptop? She won’t need anything special, something to help organize books should be enough.”

“I’m a librarian,” Twilight added proudly.

“Ah,” started the salespony. “I’m sure we’ve got plenty of models perfect for that.”

“And…” Rarity leaned into the salespony. “Would you be a gentlecolt and reconsider whatever the price tag is for this device?” She then proceeded to smile and bat her eyelashes at a remarkable speed.

Blushing, the salespony ran out to the back. “I’ll be right back. Meet me at the front counter in a few minutes.”

“You hear that, Twilight? This handsome stallion is going to give us a special deal!” exclaimed Rarity as the salespony ran back. Rarity led Twilight back to the front counter. “Works every time,” she giggled.

“Rarity,” began Twilight. “Do you have one of these computers?”

“Well, yes and no. You see, I heard how useful they were for organization, so I bought one. Unfortunately, Sweetie Belle always seems to find it and use it more than I do.”

“Does she know how to use it properly?” asked Twilight.

“She picked up on it quite quickly, actually. Although she spends most her time playing a video game… ‘Minecrab’ or something.”

“And you’re OK with that?”

“Anything that teaches my sister how to dig up diamonds is fine with me.”

The next day, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy were in the lobby of Carousel Boutique, most of them sipping tea.

“And I looked positively stunning!” Rarity said before taking another sip of tea, letting the aroma waft over her.

“Umm, Rarity, Ah think we’ve heard that one before,” Applejack remarked, sitting in front of a teacup that obviously hadn’t been touched.

“Actually, I think all her stories have that line,” Rainbow added with a chuckle. Everypony except Rarity laughed.

“Only because it’s true,” huffed Rarity.

The laughter stopped as the door opened with a ding. Turning back, the ponies saw their favourite librarian, wearing a saddlebag, close the door behind her.

“Hey, everypony!”

“Twilight!” shouted Pinkie as she ran up to her and squeezed her fiercely. “What took you so long? Rarity was telling us another story about how cute she is!”

“Is that so?” Twilight asked, smirking at Rarity. “As thrilling as I’m sure that is, I’ve been late because I’ve had some paperwork to fill out.”

“What kind of paperwork?” asked Applejack.

“The enrolment kind,” the unicorn explained. “I’m officially a student of Canterlot University!”

Everypony in the room went wide-eyed.

“Hold on!” shouted Rainbow as she flew into the air. “Since when? Aren’t you the ultimate egghead already?”

“Not quite.” Twilight levitated the laptop she had bought from Pony Norman the previous week, placed it on the table with the tea, and turned it on. “I’ve found that I’ve got quite a bit to learn about computers. Did you know that ponies make software themselves?”

Turning their attention to the screen, the girls saw a webpage that Twilight had opened. The page contained several samples of words in a language none of the mares in the room could understand.

“Um, Twilight, what is all this?” Fluttershy asked.

“That’s called ‘code.’ Programmer ponies use it to make computers work and to create software. I’ve spent a good portion of the last week skimming over it, and it’s essentially algebra.”

“Er, Twi, that doesn’t make understandin’ this any easier,” remarked Applejack.

“I’ve been looking into what makes computers work, what they can do, how it’s all done… and you know what? It looks absolutely fascinating! I can’t believe I had never heard of all this.”

“Knew it,” Rarity whispered to herself.

“However, when I was doing research on computers, I saw where they’re heading… and I believe that if I don’t keep up, my role as Ponyville librarian might be made obsolete. So, I’ve received permission from Princess Celestia to put my magic training on hold for a period while I head over to Canterlot to complete my degree!”

Twilight’s face changed to a more sombre expression. “However, this means I’m going to have to move away from Ponyville for a while.”

“Wait!” Pinkie jumped up and ran over to Twilight, bringing their faces millimeters apart. “How long are you going to be away?”

Twilight looked away from her friend. “It’s a three-year degree.”

The room went silent. Not a single peep came from the other mares. They all just sat there, gaping at Twilight. Slowly, little noises seeped out of Pinkie’s mouth as her eyes started to water. After a moment, Pinkie started bawling, and a river of tears began to pour out onto the floor.

“Pinkie!” shrieked Rarity. “You’re ruining the carpet!”

Pinkie was too busy hugging Twilight while crying to stop. “DON’T GO, TWILY! DON’T GO!”

“Pinkie, it’s OK,” Twilight said reassuringly. “I’ll come back and visit when I can, I promise. Plus, you all are welcome to come and visit me whenever you like.”

Releasing her from her tearful embrace, Pinkie stopped crying and looked hopefully into Twilight’s eyes. “You… you mean it, Twilight?”

Twilight placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I Pinkie Promise.”

“Well, Twi, I think it’s mighty impressive to improve your already fancy education.” Applejack trotted over to Twilight. “And a mare’s gotta do what a mare’s gotta do.” Starting with a hoof on her shoulder, Applejack brought Twilight in for tight hug.

“Thanks, A.J.”

“I suppose Applejack is correct,” Rarity said, trotting over. “I’ll miss you dearly, Twilight.”

A tear trickled down Twilight’s cheek. “Not as much as I’ll miss all of you.”

Twilight signalled all her friends to come in for one more group hug, making sure to hold them as long and as tight as she could.

Back in the present, Twilight had yet to realize her vision had wandered, leading her to stare into her hay fries. She quickly snapped back when she noticed her lack of eye contact. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to go that far,” Twilight said, raising her hoof to her face to make sure she wasn’t crying

“Wow.” Eclipse frowned, leaning back into his seat. “I… I completely understand. I’m so sorry you had to leave your friends behind.”

“Oh, it’s not so bad. I got to bring my assistant Spike with me, plus Rainbow and Fluttershy visited me earlier today. So I’m sure I’ll see them more.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” remarked Eclipse. “Soon enough, you’ll get too busy to even hang out with your own classmates, let alone your out-of-town friends.”

“Oh… really?”

“Don’t let it get you down though; we’re all in the same boat here. All of us are here to work hard. And those of us that aren’t… well, you won’t see around much longer,” Eclipse said, gesturing to the ponies around them.

“Well, that’s one way to look at that,” Twilight said as she shifted in her seat.

The two unicorns turned to the little purple dragon that took back his seat.

“Sorry, Twi, I didn’t think I’d be so… hey?” Spike stared suspiciously at the stallion that was suddenly sitting with him.

“Oh, you must be Spike. I’m Eclipse—I’m in Twilight’s course.”

The two boys shook appendages.

Eclipse turned back to Twilight. “Well, Twilight, it’s been fun, but I have to see somepony else right now. I take it I’ll see you in class tomorrow?”

“Yeah… at least that’s what my timetable says. Right, Spike?”

Spike quickly burped up a piece of paper, which he then examined. “Yep! Tomorrow at 6 p.m.”

“So… yeah,” Twilight confirmed.

“Sweet,” returned Eclipse.

The two shared an awkward giggle as Eclipse started to trot away.

“So… see ya!” he called out as he left.

“See ya!”

Twilight watched out of the corner of her eye as he trotted away.

Why did I just unload all of that on him? He seems like a cool guy but I didn’t even ask him—

“Hey!” shouted Spike as he snapped his fingers in front of her. “You OK? You look a little out of it.”

“Yeah,” murmured Twilight. “I’m just thinking.”

“About what?” asked Spike as he drank from his can of cider.

“About all this,” Twilight said, looking around the room. “This feels off. Some ponies seem social, some don’t. Some ponies seem friendly, some don’t. It’s just kinda weird… I don’t know.”

“Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Spike remarked as he burped an ember onto the table. “You’ve seen what happens when you worry about the future. I think you should just go with it for now. You’ve got classes tomorrow. Just focus on that.”

Twilight leaned back in her chair and soaked in her surroundings again, looking at all the ponies around her. Eventually, she noticed another group of ponies sitting at a corner table. They sat a bit farther away from the other groups in the room, looking content as they talked softly while eating their less-than-healthy food.

Sure, Twilight. Don’t worry about it.

Next: The Gibson!

Author's Note

Here we go.

As an IT student, this is a story that's very personal to me. While I'm sure it's hard to believe, that whole speech about women needing to be in IT actually happened on my orientation day. The only difference was that there was in fact a woman there. One lesbian.

A lot of the things you'll see play out here are very personal to me. Somethings have actually hurt to write down, but I think it's going to make for a good read.

Hope to see you all later!

Oh! Don't forget to listen to next week's episode of Flankcasters, in which I will be the guest. We'll be disscussing my work, as well as the 2nd and 3rd issues of the IDW published comic books series. Hilarity may or may not ensue.

Chapter 2: The Gibson

Compiler
Episode 2: The Gibson

By Smoking Gun

It was almost late enough to see the stars in the sky as Twilight looked through the window. Pulling her gaze away, she found herself in one of the campus's learning buildings. The one in question had a multi-color, modern art, hipster vibe to it. Several wall decals and posters littered the wall.

Spike walked by her side as they trotted down one of the halls, stopping at one door marked C32.22. Checking her class schedule paper, she nodded to Spike, and entered. The room had a white color scheme with an ugly grey carpet, and had a projector hanging from the ceiling, pointing directly at the whiteboard at the head of the room. Against the other walls, there were tables that had computers set up on them, as well as three or four stations in the middle of the room; most of which where full. Several students, all around Twilight's age, were all fiddling on their computers, talking to each other, or on their phones.

Spotting two spare computers, Twilight and Spike took their seats, looking at the other students, seeing if any would make eye contact. They did not.

The computers were already on, with a 'log on' screen facing Twilight. She stared at the screen for a few moments before turning to Spike, looking rather anxious.

"I'm in trouble."

Twilight looked to the young stallion to her right, sitting a few seats from her. He had a still-growing mustache, long hair, and was wearing glasses and a pair of blue headphones.

"Excuse me," Twilight spoke, "I'm not sure what my log in is... hello?"

The stallion didn't respond.

Twilight looked to Spike, who simply shrugged in response.Twilight climbed off her chair, and approached the other pony, placing a hoof on his shoulder.

"Excuse me," Twilight said as she shook the stallion a little bit.

"Oh, sorry!" the stallion pulled off his headphones and smiled at Twilight."Sorry, had the volume up. What's up?"

Twilight smiled back, "I'm new here and... well, I don't know what my log on is."

"Do you have your class sheet?" he asked.

"My friend, Spike, has it," Twilight said as she gestured towards Spike.

The stallion pushed himself over to Spike, still sitting on his desk chair, blowing past Twilight. He picked up the class schedule for Twilight, which was was sitting next to Spike, waved Twilight over to him.

"You see this?" asked the stallion.

"See what?" asked Twilight as she took her seat back. "Oh..."

On the back of the paper Twilight noticed two pieces of information; her username and starter password. Her username was written as 'Twilight2583'.

Twilight took the paper from the stallion, blushing from her brief moment of stupidity. "Thank you. I didn't catch your name."

"It's Reboot," he said with a nod, pushing himself back into place.

Twilight extended her hoof. "I'm Twilight Sparkle."

Reboot shook her hoof. "Everypony here knows who you are. What they don't know is why you're here. Shouldn't you be saving the world?"

"Oh... well... broadening my horizon's I suppose."

Reboot nodded. "Good a reason as any, I guess," he shrugged as he put his headphones back on, returning to his video.

After putting her details in and pressing enter, Twilight looked over at Reboot's screen, examining the video. The video seemed fairly simple; a stallion in a fedora was sitting on a green futon, holding an old comic book in his hoof. He looked somewhat irritated.

"That looks... interesting," Twilight said to a distracted Reboot. "What's he talking about?"

Twilight leaned back to the center of her chair when she realized nothing she was saying was being heard over Reboot's headphones.

"It's a webshow."

Twilight looked to the doorway, seeing Eclipse walk in. "He reviews comic books... usually whilst irritated."

Twilight felt a sudden sense of relief a Eclipses appearance, it was a face she knew (kind of) and somepony she could talk to (kind of).

"Hi, Eclipse," Twilight said, smiling. "Are you in this class too?"

"No," he said, glancing around the room. "I came to help improve the audience."

The two ponies and Spike chuckled as Eclipse took his seat opposite Twilight at one of the desks in the middle of the room.

"You ready for your first lesson?" Eclipse asked.

Twilight nodded surprisingly quickly."Oh yes! I've been doing reading in preparation."

Eclipse looked confused. "You've... been coding already?"

"Oh no," Twilight said, shaking her head. "I've been reading about computers, software and their history too. Turns out unicorn magic really pushed technology far."

"So..." continued Eclipse. "No code yet?"

"Not yet, but that's what tonight is for,right?"

Eclipse chuckled. "Well... sort of."

Twilight's eyes started to dart around the room. "Did I miss a lesson?" she asked as she levitated her schedule up to her face. "Did I misread my schedule?! Oh, this can't be happening!"

Eclipse pushed himself over to Twilight, putting his hoof on her shoulder. "It's OK, Twilight. It's just... usually, ponies who do this degree usually know how to program before the course starts."

"W-why would that be the case?" Twilight asked.

"Because the ones that don't usually drop out." Without another word, Eclipse pushed himself back over to his deck.

Trickles of sweat started to drop from Twilight's brow as her breathing became quicker"Wu... What am I supposed to do? I'm not prepared."

"You'll be fine."

Twilight and Eclipse looked over to Reboot, who had finished his video.

Reboot continued. "It's all the basic stuff for the beginning. Anypony can pick it up."

"Then why would you need to know what's going on?" Spike added, breaking his bored silence.

"There's... kind of a learning curb later," Reboot answered.

Twilight smiled, emanating confidence. "I've dealt with dragons and monsters on a weekly basis. I think I can handle a few assignments... Speaking of assignments, where's the teacher?"

Spike looked around the room, realizing that the classroom was close to empty. The only ponies in the room were Twilight, Eclipse, Reboot and other pony on the other side of the desk that Eclipse was sitting at, his face was buried in the screen.

"I figured the teacher would have been the first here," Twilight added.

"Were you planning on bringing him an apple?" Eclipse smirked. "This isn't kindergarten. We're all adults now, so any excuse the teachers can come up with to be lazy, they'll take it."

Twilight arched her eyebrow. "How lazy?"

Without warning, the projector on the roof of the screen turned on, and began projecting onto the whiteboard. A photo of a middle-aged stallion appeared on the screen.

"Good evening, everypony," a voice coming out of the speakers said. "I'm Render Farm, and I'll be your lecturer for 'Introduction To Programming."

Eclipse leaned over to Twilight as he whispered, "that lazy."

"This course will be your introduction to the .NET framework, and will teach you the basics of programming. Sorry I was late. I couldn't connect properly until I finished downloading last season of Doctor Whooves," Render explained as he chuckled.

Twilight, looking confounded, rolled her eyes towards Eclipse, seeing him shake his head.

"We paid bits for this."

"Now," the teacher continued. "Please open up Code Kitchen and write 'hello world' for me. I'll be back in forty minutes, I've got to run out and grab dinner."

The speakers emanated sounds of a chair being pushed back and a door being loudly shut.

Twilight's eyes shifted from left to right. "That was... laid back."

"Get used to it," Eclipse remarked.

"If you were ever wondering why nopony gives a fuck," a third voice spoke. "Now you know."

Twilight, Eclipse and Reboot looked over to the third stallion in the room. Eclipse poked his head around the monitor, seeing a stallion with a long black mane, bushy beard, and a t-shirt that read 'I'm not slacking, my code's compiling'.

"Driver?!" Eclipse shouted with a smile. "How come you didn't tell us you were here?"

Driver looked to Eclipse, and shrugged his shoulders. "Doing stuff?"

"Excuse me, guy. I'm not sure what to do."

Eclipse and Driver looked back to Twilight, who had her hoof raised in the air.

Twilight continued. "I think I did it wrong."

Eclipse walked over to Twilight, who had Code Kitchen opened up. In the body, where the text went, all he found where the words 'Hello World' and nothing else.

"It just says 'compiler error'" Twilight explained. "Clearly I'm not doing this right."

Eclipse chuckled. "Don't worry, it's not complicated. You won't be learning how to hack the Gibson tonight."

Twilight looked around the room, seeing Driver and Reboot where laughing loudly.

"What's so funny?" Twilight asked.

Eclipse shook his head. "Forget it; inside joke." Eclipse pulled his seat over, and put himself right next to Twilight. "OK, type what I tell you to. Trust me, it's not scary."

Twilight smirked. "I never said I was scared."

"Now," continued Eclipse. "Type 'namespace Helloworld.' After that, type curly brackets and put a few lines between them."

Twilight obeyed. "Now what comes next?"

"OK, inside, type console, dot, writeline, and in brackets, put 'Hello World I'm Twilight Sparkle' in quotation marks."

Twilight obeyed again. "Now what?"

"Press compile."

Twilight shot Eclipse a confused look. "Wait... that's it?"

"Mhmmm," Eclipse nodded. "The 'console.writeline' means it's going to print out whatever you write. Give it a try."

Twilight moved the mouse up to the big green arrow shaped button towards the top. Pressing it, she looked down at the console at the bottom of the application, it had something written in it now.

'Hello World, I'm Twilight Sparkle.'

"Yay!" Twilight clapped her hooves together, grinning ear to ear.

Eclipse almost looked a little freaked out. "You seem to be having fun."

"Yeah, actually," Twilight said as she started to calm down. "As simple as that was... that was fun. You could do... anything with code."

Eclipse Shrugged. "Well, that's what we're here to do. Did you save?"

Twilight clicked the save icon at the top of the page. "Is that it?"

Eclipse reach over to Twilight's CPU, and hit the power button. "That's it." Eclipse then moved to his computer and did the same. Driver and Reboot were quick to follow suit.

"Wait!" Twilight called out as the stallions started to leave. "That's it? The schedule has this lesson penned for 2 hours long."

"That's there for anypony that needs help later on," explained Reboot. "These first few weeks; you show up for a couple minutes, see what needs to be done and leave. They never give you anything hard at the beginning."

Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "I... suppose that makes sense."

As Reboot and Driver walked out, Eclipse waved to Twilight and Spike. "Come on, we'll get some drinks. My treat."

Twilight looked around the uni bar, which was all but empty. There were lots of small tables around the ballroom, broken up by a few pool and ping pong tables. There was also a stage with some microphones at the head of the room. Around the walls were strategically placed T.V. screens - none of which were on. The only ponies in the room were Twilight, her friends, and a single bartender.

"You guys grab a seat, I'll order," said Eclipse.

"Fuck yeah, you will," Driver chuckled as he walked away.

Twilight, Spike, Reboot and Driver took their seats at a long table outside the bar. Twilight was a little shocked that the sun had set, leaving the stars to lighten up the sky. She was even more shocked at what she saw Driver doing.

"You're on your laptop?!" she called to him.

Driver didn't even look up at her. "You're just a fountain of information, aren't you?"

"B- but you were just on a computer."

"And now I'm on another one. I need to so I can work on my shit."

"You'll have to excuse Driver's language," Eclipse said as he placed five glasses of cider down on the table. "He hasn't realized he's in the presence of a mare, just yet."

Driver shrugged. "Give me three or four years."

"It's alright. You should see my friend, Rainbow Dash, when cider season starts. "She got so drunk at a gala one year that she tried to hit on Princess Luna. She immediately threw up and passed out."

"And on that note," Eclipse began as he raised his mug. "I think this is the start of a great year." Eclipse raised his glass high. "To C.U.T"

The others raised their mugs. "To C.U.T!"

Reboot raised his mug. "To vidja games!"

Everypony raised their mugs again, with Twilight looking a little confused. "To vidja games!"

Going with the crowd, Driver raised his mug. "To the Gibson!"

As with the other two, everypony raised their cider. "To the Gibson!"

Twilight looked over to Spike, who was looking up at her with an arched brow. In response, she smiled and shrugged.

"Inside joke."

Next: ClassNotFound Exception!

Author's Note

So... you're probably wondering why this took as long as it did. Truth be told, I was avoiding writing Compiler. Not because I didn't want to write it, but because... well, this story is going to be dealing with heavy issues in the near future - stuff that I was going through up until a couple of weeks ago. The computer lab is a lonely place.

But, I'm back! And you've got more Compiler to look forward to! No, it'll take nowhere near as long to update as it did last time. A man always finishes what he starts.