Harmony Consultant

by jqnexx

Interlude: Sunset Shimmer 2

Sunset had liked computers ever since she had come to this world. The symbolic manipulation of information was a core component in magic, and the disciplines had more in common than many would expect.

She ran her fingers over the expensive workstation Principal Celestia kept in her home office, and looked at the frown reflected in the black metal case. If she’d been able to afford a computer that could run a photo-manipulation program, she’d have succeeded in framing Twilight and gotten away with her theft of the Element of Magic.

But who knows what would have happened after that? Would it have made her happy?

Probably not. She’d have come through the portal with an army, but Celestia and those other two Princesses would likely be right there with an army of their own at their beck and call. Who would win, and what would be left of them?

She shook her head. No time for reminiscing now. She needed to make sure that the program worked perfectly. Principal Celestia had a rather suspicious amount of financial resources, but even the rise of cloud computing could only help so much. She’d done the math on the estimates.

The biggest cloud instance she could possibly purchase on short notice would take somewhere between fifteen and twenty-seven hours to run the calculations that would reveal the answers she sought.

The secrets of the universe itself.

She looked over at the roll of butcher paper she’d taped to the wall and used as a blackboard. Equations in human, pony, and ancient Teru were written all over it, lines connecting circles indicating common features.

Each society captured a part of the whole, each looking at the universe in a different way. Combined, they wove a net that ensnared the mysteries of the universe.

A chart on a whiteboard across the room showed the relationship between soul and matter, emotion and energy. She looked at it again, to make sure she’d written down everything precisely.

If I screw up once, it’s all over.

The Sirens would grown in power as they harvested more and more negative emotions. This in turn would allow them to create stronger and more widespread anger and hatred. And the world of politics was all too ripe for that. International relations between the Sol Ciel and the Sol Cluster alliances were at a low over relations with Justine, and nuclear disarmament had been removed from the table entirely. The Sirens could accidentally blow up the whole thing.

Her program had to be absolutely flawless. OK, this branch needs a set of test cases. Let’s see…

“Sunset, have you slept any?” Celestia had returned from her school. Getting Sunset out of class was easy for the school principal, even if it rankled her to have to do it.

Sunset looked over at the pile of caffeine pill wrappers, empty containers of instant coffee, and her jar of peppermint oil. “Of course not.”

Celestia sighed. “Are you sure you’re all right? Programming is a delicate art, lack of sleep can cause you to make mistakes.”

Sunset shook her head. “The schedule’s too tight. I’ll sleep once the code is done and the program is running in the cloud. Did you get the payment ready?”

The principal walked forward and put her hand on her student’s shoulder. “I have. Please, don’t hurt yourself doing this.”

Sunset put her opposite hand on Celestia’s. “I’ll be fine. I just need to finish working.”

Celestia removed her hand, then stood to admire Sunset’s work. Paper seemed to cover every surface of the office, covered in equations and notes. “You can read the ancient Teru writings?”

“A little. Mostly I was able to see common mathematical symbols, and that allowed me to guess at the meaning of things. Physics is physics no matter where you are, so when I saw an equation that was the same, it was easy.”

“So what exactly is your plan?”

“It’s simple. I’m going to tap into the forces that made the universe and crush the Sirens with raw power. I’m going to literally sing their evil powers out of existence.”

“Is… is that safe?”

Sunset shrugged. “Eh. It seems like it’ll be pretty safe for everyone except the Sirens. And maybe me.”

“Sunset!” Principal Celestia rounded on her. “Please don’t hurt yourself.”

“I’ll try not to.”

“I simply cannot tolerate a child under my care being endangered in such a way.”

Sunset turned around. “I have to do this. Nopo– nobody else can. The world has to be saved, or every child under your care…” Sunset glared into Celestia’s eyes. “...turns to radioactive ash.”

Celestia flinched back as if struck.

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry!” Sunset stood up, despair on her face, reaching towards Celestia. “I didn’t mean to put it like that.”

Celestia looked down. “I… I… suppose.” She lifted her head, then smiled weakly and took Sunset’s hand. “Tell me that you want this to be ok.”

Sunset smiled and nodded. “I wish that this will turn out alright.”

Celestia smiled, then winked at Sunset. “Thank you, that makes me feel better. In any case, you mentioned singing?”

“Yeah, that was the really weird part. I realized that there was some kind of deep structure, underlying everything. And then it hit me. The girls pony up when they sing. Animals evolve song independently of each other all the time. Magic spells are always supposed to rhyme. The rules underlying everything are harmonic, in the musical sense. There’s a secret musical language that describes the universe. Singing in it will allow me to clearly direct all the forces I’m trying to use.”

Celestia leaned in to look at the screen. “So… this program will help you decode the language?”

Sunset nodded. “Yes.”

“Well,” Celestia smiled, “I’ll let you get back to uniting physics, magic, and music.”

As Sunset resumed her seat, she picked up a scrap of paper. “Oh, one area has had some direct progress. I’ve figured out the exact size of the songstone block I need.”

Celestia accepted the note from her. “Huh. That’s bigger than I thought, but my guy can come through. I’ll have it delivered to the shop tomorrow by 10AM and the lathe will be available to you by 11. Make sure you wear your hair up and don’t have any loose clothing or jewelry.”

“Right.”

Sunset turned back to the screen. Secrets beyond what she’d dreamed of when she left Equestria were within her grasp, but she couldn’t think about the consequences yet. Everything after we win can be dealt with then.

Comments

[tvo770]

I blame you and this story for introducing me to my new obsession go fuck yourselves,,, Now if you excuse me I need to get back to 100% Ar Tonelico 2.

[jqnexx]

7268327
It's unfortunate that Ar Tonelico 3 (and Ar Nosurge) couldn't quite live up to Ar Tonelico 2.

[Fenrir00]

Uhh... Waffling over bringing this up or not, but I frequent one of the forums aquagon shows up at from time to time. He's one of the guys that's involved in translating pretty much everything AT for those who don't know.

The TOWER CONNECTION level Song isn't actually a laser, its a point blank explosion of energy like any other Song functions.