Buffy, Viola, Viridan, and Nova all sat out the server laboratory on the far side of campus. Six days their teacher had been absent, and today would be their normal day to get together outside of class to assist Pixel with her project. After the first week or two, Pixel had approached them with a request for help. It was really volunteer work, simple tasks that helped Pixel delve fully into her work in resolving the barriers to long-distance communication between the still very limited machines on campus, but some students were still interested. Soon, the students showing up dropped to just the four of them, who kept it as something beneficial they could do as friends. Some had left without a word, others instead took up roleplaying in the basement of Emerald Hall after everyone had gone home for the day. And so there were four, and admittedly, they enjoyed how it both brought them together, and allowed them to spend time with their favorite teacher.
Despite no confirmation of their meeting during the week Pixel had been missing, the group met up outside the door regardless. It was quietly agreed that they would try, even though the result would likely be fruitless so late in the evening. The halls were quiet. Somewhere nearby a janitor hummed a little tune as they cleaned up after the day's traffic.
A short series of knocks broke the peace.
No response sounded from within. Viridian shook her head before opening the door anyways. One by one, the group pushed through the doorway and into the server lab.
"Hello? Professor Wavelength, are you here?"
Wires were strewn everywhere between the data storage towers. A few terminals were left unattended, multiple on-screen windows haphazardly left open. Pieces of paper with diagrams and full paragraphs of messy text were scattered over the floor. Buffy's hoof caught one of the stray cords, almost causing her to fall face-first onto the ground had she been a second too slow to react. After earning a concerned look from Viola, she shook her head and smiled back, assuring her everything was fine.
They finally found their professor in the very back of the server lab, asleep with her body curled around a desk. Her mane was a mess, and soft snoring came from her small muzzle. All around her was a wealth of loose paper sheets, each adorned with more of the diagrams and words written in increasingly neat hoofwriting. What's more, the mass of feathers at their professor’s side gave pause to all four of the onlookers. The two added limbs sprouted from her barrel proudly, and despite looking a little worse for the wear, they were beautifully long and almost seemed to shine in the dull fluorescent light. After noticing the abnormal effect, they also realized the slight added shine to her head of disorderly locks, as if flecks of glitter were shining from within the strands themselves. The four looked at each other before Viridian tentatively stepped forward to prod her side.
"P-professor?"
After waiting in vain for a response, Viridian prodded her side with more force. "Professor! W-what happened to you?"
Pixel started twitching, before opening her jaws in a long, gentle yawn. "Wuh? Oh, Viridian... what are you doing here?"
Pixel blinked slowly, her eyes not fully prepared for intense light of the waking work. Slowly, she picked herself up and looked around the room.
"Or... the rest of you for that matter?" Her gaze then wandered to the rest of the lab. She seemed to note the messy state of the server lab with a slight frown of disapproval. "Goodness, I do believe I let myself get carried away."
"Umm..." Viridian started, though it was Viola who stepped forward to answer her.
"We took it upon ourselves to proceed with our meeting, in the event you still intended for us to come."
"Oh!" Pixel blinked. "Wait, it's already Thursday? Last I knew, it was... It's no matter. I have great, amazing, wonderful news!"
The group blinked, seeing the white alicorn suddenly prance in place, her otherwise cool older nature momentarily being eclipsed by something closer to an energetic filly.
"I have made such a breakthrough!"
What followed out of her mouth was a torrent of rapid words and phrased that flew over Buffy’s head from the start. It was all jargon to her. Things about standard protocol, language, conversion, and electrical signals that could be decoded or encoded at will. Pixel painted the image of a chain, a series of links that spread out in an infinite array of pathways, much like the web of a spider. This web was supposedly moderated through methods completely alien to her mind.
But, she was excited by association all the same, though still very, very much confused.
"So in other words, you found a way to properly link two machines over long distances without the use of magic? And this would allow us to share anything already capable of being on the machine hosting it?" Nova rubbed his chin with his forehoof, seeming to contemplate what this could mean in a different light. "If I was to have an executable for Void Invaders or Snakepit, I would be able to share it as easily as sending them a letter?"
“Of course! You see, so long as it can be reduced and sent along in the pieces that make it up, and the machine on the other side is equipped to decode the message, you could have it reconstruct the file as well as if it had been there to start with.”
"Oh! And just imagine what this could mean for films!" Viridian exclaimed, excitement practically burned into her words as she put the pieces together herself. "Of course, we'd have to adapt them to run on the computer somehow, but still! I would love to organize a library of classics for other ponies to view!"
"I feel the same for the lesser known pieces of classical orchestra or folk songs." Viola comment with a small smile. "Actually listening to the older works of prolific composers is quite hard when they're rare to come by, which is doubly true of their older works."
"On top of all that, why not just use it to make new friends?”
The group turned to look at Buffy following her question. Buffy scratched the back of her head, still trying to take in all of what was buzzing around her. However, she could feel something welling up inside. Excitement, nervousness, and awe at what was beginning to fully sink in.
"Why can't we just use these to talk to other ponies, just like sending a letter, but like as a group?" Buffy asked with a growing smile. "Just... just think of how amazing it would be!” She gave a grin directed at Viola. "Like, as if you were talking to each other in the same room! Just imagine how much easier it would be to make new friends, talk about your hobby, or discuss a new movie if we gave them a common place to do so! Friends and strangers alike could all message each other from different corners of Equestria!"
"I had thought of the same," Pixel said with a smile. “Why don’t the four of you put together your ideas for what is to come. I’m sure this discovery will have drastic repercussions for how Equestria views computers, but I am optimistic it will be nothing but good for ponykind.”
She was met with a highly enthusiastic series of nods, followed by the sound of hooves skipping in place from one purple pony.
"In fact, I do believe each of you will have something worthwhile to contribute in this matter, and bring ponies together through your varied ideas."
Pixel winked at the group, before getting up from her spot at her desk.
"Now, shall we start writing some of these ideas down?"