The Technician

by Pyrus_uk

Getting connected

Charlie and Twilight arrived outside the library. They had been driving for about 15 minutes, of which most of the time was spent travelling through Ponyville streets. Charlie had to slow right down just to be sure that everypony didn’t freak out. They both got their fair share of awkward glances from the ponies they drove past. After all, it’s not that usual to see a human and pony riding some strange machine through the middle of Ponyville. Charlie was actually quite thankful they had finally arrived. He brought the quadbike to a slow stop outside the front door and switched off the engine.

“Twilight, we’re here.” He said, looking over his shoulder.

She didn’t respond. She just sat there with her eyes closed. He also noticed a very small smile on her face. But it wasn’t long before she noticed the soft vibrations and the sound of the engine had stopped.

“Huh? What’s that?” She mumbled.

“I said we’re here. We need to unpack the trailer.” Charlie replied, taking off his helmet.

“Oh? Oh!” Twilight said as she hastily got off the quadbike. “I’ll get the door.”

As Twilight made her way to the library’s front door, Charlie started untying the trailer cover. He could hear the unicorn calling her dragon assistant from inside the library.

“I wish I had a little assistant. Maybe I could ask the other eggheads back home to make me one. Like a small robot butler! Yeah, that would be awesome.” He thought as he worked.

It wasn’t long before he had the trailer cover removed. He went around and checked that everything inside the trailer looked fine. He saw that everything he needed was inside, including the most important part: the client terminal. He knew that Twilight was going to love this. The all in one piece of hardware would allow her to call up other ponies with the same kit and have video calls with them.

Twilight came back outside to meet him. “Need any help?”

“Yes please. Can you levitate that thing out on your own?” He asked.

“Oh, sure! Easy.” She said before lighting up her horn. The terminal became shrouded in a lavender aura before slowly floating out of the trailer.

“Wish I could do that.” Charlie thought as he began making his way inside, carrying his tools. Twilight followed, bringing the floating terminal with her.

“Alright, where do you want it?” Charlie asked as he stepped inside. Twilight made her way through and placed the terminal by the wall next to one of the bookcases.

“Here.” She said with a smile.

“Ok, good. I’m afraid I’ll need to drill a hole in the wall to put a cable through to the outside. Is that okay?” Charlie asked as he began unpacking his tools.

“Umm, sure I guess. Would you like a drink?” She said back.

“No, thank you.” He replied. “I’m just gonna get right to it.”

With that, Charlie began working on the terminal.

---

~1 hour later~

Charlie walked back in through the front door followed closely by Twilight. “Thanks again for letting me use your ladder. That new dish on the side of your library took a lot less work that I thought.” Charlie said as he made his way over to the terminal. “I can’t believe I forgot the friggin’ ladder”

“No problem!” Twilight replied as she followed.

Charlie put away his drill as he reached the terminal. He had spent 45 minutes configuring it before heading outside to install the dish. He was now near the end of the installation and he had a feeling that Twilight knew it.

“Alright, let’s boot her up.” He said as he switched the power back on. The splash screen displayed the familiar logo of the base’s research division before the setup screen appeared. “Okay, Twilight. Each terminal, including this one, has its own ID number. You use these to identify which terminal you wish to contact. Other people...uhh...ponies will need to know yours if they wish to call you.” Charlie pointed at the 11 digit number displayed in the top right corner. “This is yours. “

Twilight watched in fascination as Charlie pointed to various parts of the screen as he explained how the terminal worked. Her anticipation continued to grow.

“Great! So who can I call?” She asked.

Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, only me right now. No-one else has a terminal yet. I’ll need to install some more.” He scratched his chin in thought. “Speaking of which, have you got anyone in mind who you’d like to try it out with?”

Twilight looked away before replying. “Actually, there is someone. Or rather, two.”

“Oh?” Charlie asked.

“My parents.”

Charlie raised his eyebrows at that. He was honestly expecting her to suggest her friends. He’s seen how close she is with them all.

“I actually have a particular reason too.” she continued. “Ever since I moved from Canterlot to Ponyville, I’ve been in contact with them less and less. I figured that something like this would help immensely.”

That made much more sense now. Charlie knew the feeling all too well. Being sent away somewhere can bring these problems. He knew he’d lose contact with his family when he crossed over to Equestria. But he was prepared for that, even before he went. There was one small problem to deal with however.

“Where are your parents?” He asked.

“Canterlot.”

“Thought so.” He thought to himself.

Charlie assumed that Twilight had lived with her parents in Canterlot, but he hoped they had moved away from the big city since Twilight left. Canterlot was the capital city of Equestria. It was predictable bad luck that her parents were there and that Charlie would need to take a trip to the city. Charlie had seen the maps given to him when he first moved in. Canterlot was a long train-ride away. The journey plus the installation would mean that he would almost definitely need to spend the night there. He would also need to get this cleared with Celestia before going. He had no idea how the ponies of Canterlot would react to him. All in all, it was going to be a hassle.

“Is that going to be OK?” Twilight asked, slightly concerned by his silence.

“Oh....uh, sure! I’ll just need to let Celestia know that I’ll be working out of Ponyville. I think it might be a little sooner than she planned, that’s all.” He said with a smile.

“Oh, I can handle that. I’ll have Spike write a letter.” She said with relief before becoming more excited. “I’ll also write a letter to my parents asking if we can stay over for a night! Oh I think they’ll be just as excited as I am!”

“Woopie” He thought.

“Well I think that’s everything ready to go here, Twilight. I’m gonna head back home and we can test if it all works. I’ll give you a call from the facility. Just follow the instructions on screen and you’ll be fine.” Charlie said, packing up a few tools he had left out.

“Okay! Thanks!” She called back as Charlie opened the front door. He looked back and saw her attention completely fixated on the terminal screen. Shaking his head and holding a smile, he made his way out and closed the door.

---

~Charlie’s Facility~

Charlie rolled up to his facility on his quadbike. He opened the garage and disconnected the almost empty trailer. After packing away the quadbike and trailer inside the garage, he made his way back inside his home. He sat down at his main work terminal and placed his head in his hands before sighing.

“Canterlot.” He mumbled. “The capital city of Equestria. Won’t this be fun?” He said sarcastically.

Lifting his head from his hands, he began typing away on his terminal. He opened up the communications tab before setting up the call to Twilight.

“Bet she’s still sat in front of it, waiting for the call.”

He punched in her terminal number before hitting the ‘CALL’ button.

---

~Twilight’s Library~

Twilight sat in front of the terminal screen, reading through the myriad of information displayed. She had not moved away from it since Charlie had left. She had figured out how to navigate from screen to screen using the touch buttons. She was jumping from one screen, reading everything on it, before jumping to the next. She was about halfway through reading the current page before it suddenly changed.

*INCOMING CALL*

The terminal chimed at her. Twilight jumped back slightly in surprise. She quickly noticed some more text underneath. She saw the words ‘Equestrian Communications Facility’ which preceded two coloured boxes. The green box read ‘ACCEPT’ whilst the red one read ‘REJECT’. Twilight pressed her hoof against the green box.

Charlie’s face appeared on the screen. “Hi Twilight.” he said plainly.

“OH MY GOSH! It works!” She said excitedly. “Can you see me?”

“I see an overexcited lavender unicorn. Yes.” Charlie replied.

Twilight scowled. “Oh very funny. I’ve never done this before.”

“Well, the next step is to get one installed at your parent’s place.” Charlie said, leaning back in his chair. “Got a plan for that?”

“I’ll let you know once I get a reply for the letters I’m about to send. Then we can get started.” Twilight replied before taking a closer look at the camera. Charlie chuckled as he saw the two large eyes on his screen.

“I await your call then, Twilight.” He said, leaning back forward. “There’s a user manual stored on that terminal. You can read it on screen from the main menu.”

Twilight brought her head back from the camera. “Oh, I think I already found it before you called. I was just starting on the first section.”

“Alright, I’ll leave you to it then. Take care, Twilight.” Charlie said.

“Bye, Charlie!” she chirped before the video feed closed down, quickly replaced by the text she was reading before. She sighed as she switched off the terminal. “I better get those letters done before I get too engrossed in this thing.” She mumbled to herself.
“SPIKE!” She called. “I need your help!”

---

Charlie stood up as he ended the call. Stretching his back, he felt a few pleasant cracks before relaxing again. His foot still ached, but it wasn’t really that bad. He actually felt more tired than anything. However, he knew he still had some work to do. Although it had only been a few days, he figured that he should send a report back to base. He needed to let them know what he had done and what he planned to do. Staring down at his terminal in front of him, he made another critical decision.

“Need coffee”

He turned and made his way over to the coffee machine. He was going to need it for what was about to come.

---

~Canterlot Castle~

Celestia sat comfortably on her throne. She wore a neutral expression, but inside, she was tired. The noble in front of her had been moaning about the impact of some new establishment constructed in the high street. She knew it wasn’t really that important. She had other things on her mind.

Human activity had slowly been increasing over the last few days. She knew it was only a matter of time before she would have to reveal to the world their existence in Equestria. She would also have to be ready for the repercussions of that revelation. Both expected and unexpected.

That worried her the most.

At that moment, a scroll appeared in front of her in a puff of smoke. Twilight had sent her a letter. The noble had noticed this as well, putting a quick halt to their session of moaning. Celestia opened the scroll and began to read. The throne room was completely silent as Celestia’s eyes scanned the text. A few minutes passed before her eyes went wide. She quickly looked up and locked eyes with the nearest guard.

“Summon my sister to the meeting room immediately! Day court is now over.” She said swiftly.

“Yes, your highness!” the guard replied before rushing out the room.

The noble sighed before turning to leave. Celestia could barely make out irritated muttering from the noble as they left. But she had a bigger problem to deal with: A human was coming to Canterlot.

---

~Sugarcube Corner~

Pinkie pie sat at her desk in her room. Stacks of paper towered over her and she was visibly agitated. It’s been days since Charlie’s arrival, and she still hasn’t thrown him a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party. Twilight had made her promise, a Pinkie promise at that, to not throw a party for him until Twilight gave the go ahead. She knew this was important, otherwise Twilight wouldn’t have mentioned it. But she had no idea why the party had to be delayed for so long. This frustrated her.

So she sat at her desk, working on the only benefit she could see from this: Planning. She took a sip from the cup of hot chocolate next to her. Planning a party wasn’t something usually that difficult for Pinkie. But this was special. This would be the first Pinkie party for a human. A party for someone from a different world.

It had to be perfect.

So she continued to work, scribbling down ideas, schedules, contingency plans and everything else she could think of onto various sheets of paper. She knew that when it finally came around to throwing this party, she was going to be ready.

---

~Charlie's Facility - A few hours later~

Charlie pulled his gaze away from the screen and chanced a peek out the window. He could see that it was now fully into the evening. He had been working on his report for a couple of hours now. He had a guideline to follow when writing these reports. A guideline which he greatly underestimated. Oddly enough, the majority of the time consuming parts had more to do with the social aspects of the operation rather than technical. Even though most of the report was of a technical nature, he just couldn’t write down the social parts the way he wanted to. Naturally, he had spent most of his time writing, deleting and re-writing his analysis of these parts.

He stood up and went to re-fill his coffee cup.

“I wonder how Twilight’s doing with that comm terminal? I hope she hasn’t decided to try and take it apart.”

He breathed in the welcome aroma of coffee as he filled his cup. Once it was full, he made his way back to his terminal. He sat down and quickly glanced over his work. He had proof-read it once already, but he was one of those guys that tried his best to be safe rather than sorry. Satisfied that it was as good as it was ever going to be, he hit ‘Send’. A progress bar appeared in the middle of the screen showing the transfer progress. Charlie took a sip of coffee as the progress bar slowly filled. A few moments later, the report was sent.

“I wonder how they’ll react to my fall from the tower. They’ll either find it funny or embarrassing.”

With that, he decided that he’d done enough work for the day. He put on some headphones that were connected to his workstation, and decided to listen to some music before turning in for the night.

Comments

[Iroh Legoman]

Like a small robot butler!

He can have a British accent and calls everyone:
poptranshumanism.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/butlertron.gif

[Pyrus_uk]

4941415 That was pretty much what came to mind!