Sunset Shimmer and the Holograms

by ratedoni


Lights

From day to night, from the sunrise to the… sunset, everything was beginning to turn into numbers and equations for the young girl. Imaginary, integrals, theories and more, they were all being swallowed by the prodigious mind of one student named Twilight Sparkle. A young girl that had arrived at what could be the college of her dreams after years of study and work on her back, the one she dreamed since she was a young girl and had watched “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” with her dad. She had dazzled all the teachers; she was focusing her whole mind on the study of electronics. It was a dream come true… one that felt sour to the young girl.

Being at MIT should feel like a dream come true, like the pinnacle of her studies, but felt empty. No matter how much she tried to immerse on a new article or something new to program, something always pulled her. That thing was ghosts, not of people, but of memories. Sometimes she smelled something sweet that another student had brought to classroom and Twilight half expected Pinkie Pie to tackle her like back on Canterlot High. Sometimes she got up from what she was working because she finally remembered that she had to feed Spike, just to remember that her companion was back on Canterlot.

That melancholy affected every part of Twilight and no matter how many students she met, there was a hole that couldn’t quite be filled. It even affected the romantic part of her life, not that there was much to rescue from that front. Studying at two different colleges, on opposite coasts even, did no favors to her relationship with Timber. She still sometimes felt giddy whenever he send a message, but even she could recognize that things between her and her boyfriend had become… stagnated, forced in some way. Twilight wondered if she was chaining Timber down, maybe he could meet a nice girl at his college, what if he already had met one? Twilight shook her head before her mind could bring images to her brain.

In conclusion, she felt isolated and foolish for not getting in contact with her dear friends. She knew she could make friends at college, after all, they were all studying and living together on campus, but for some reasons it was not the same. Not even the parties were the same, not that Twilight went to many of them, after all, she had promised her big brother and dad that she'll be careful of the strange and sometimes crazy parties at college, totally not related to the crazy parties of Pinkie Pie. She was no wallflower like back on high school, but that still didn’t mean that she was ready to become a party animal, she left that to the one and only girl that could simply hand wave physics as if it were a giant joke. Just the image of Pinkie Pie organizing a campus-wide party made her giggle. She knew that the pink haired hyperactive girl would find a way to create it and still keep it PG someway. And just like that, her good humor vanished as fast as it came.

Twilight knew that to be able to get out of her funk she needed to be truthful with herself, something that she had learned all the way back on Everfree camp, a lesson that Sunset had taught her just when she needed it the most. She was homesick, plain and simple; she missed her home, her family and her friends. It was ironic in a way; after all, this was the second time that she decided to go for advance courses. First was her attempt at going to Everton, which was thankfully frustrated by the greatest group of friends she could ask for. The second attempt had been successful… moderately at least, since she was on geek heaven as Sunset had coined it, but still found not the joy that she had been expecting. Yes, she was enjoying her classes a bit, but not to the degree her younger version would have, at least the one that didn’t know how great friendship was.

Twilight knew that if she had ever gone to Everton, she would have been over the moon, but she would still have that nagging pain and it would have only gotten worst. Not to mention that she would have done something incredibly stupid and would have destroyed the world with a malfunctioning machine. She had finally learned the virtue of patience and careful experimentation and by Newton she missed her favorite lab partner.

Checking the data being compiled on the screen she also confessed to herself that most of the work she was doing on college was light years behind anything the two friends were capable of back home, right at the perfect lab where everything was cozy and beautiful. She knew that pride was a sin, or at least according to her grandparents, but what the two had been able to create was worthy of pride. They had created life, one that had its own mind and ideas, with dreams and tastes, and one that she missed too much right now. Speaking of which.

“Hey mom!” The voice coming out of the speakers of the computer alerted Twilight and almost made her jump from her seat. Right there, floating on the screen of the computer was the one girl that saw Twilight and Sunset as her parents. Something inside the bespectacled girl warmed up at hearing those words and it was as fantastic and weird as always.

“Synergy, what are you doing?!”

“Chill out mom, I already checked and no one is even close to your lab, besides, if someone is watching they will think you are on twitch while the code is compiling; by the way, there’s some error on the code,” Twilight’s eyes went all into science mode now and was all ears to her daughter, who although looked like a young girl was instead an incredibly sophisticated AI powered by the magic of harmony.

“Really? Can you tell me where?”

“Sure, lines 3, 7, 19, 34, 35 and 50,” Synergy said as her eyes turned white as she interacted directly with Twilight’s computer.

“Well, at least that’s good.”

“Oh no, those are the errors that won’t let your program run, there are more minor bugs and small things,” at those words Twilight’s head hit the desk while she sighed.

“Where’s Sunset when I need her!” Twilight grumbled and basically whined as Synergy slightly winced at seeing similar scenes back when her parents used to live together, or as close as two teenagers teaching an AI about morals and values could. While mom was a certified genius with machines, her pops was more than handy when it came to compiling and writing code “Synergy, would you be a dear and call your… dad?” Twilight still felt weird referring to Sunset like that, but who was she to deny some familiarity to the young program?

“Sorry mom, pops is rather busy with her new band.”

“Excuse me; I think I heard you say Sunset has a new band, what happened with the Rainbooms?”

“Well, funny story, Miss Rarity found a nice singer and she kinda became an internet success, so now pops is helping her become a huge star with a band,” Synergy said placing some pictures of the band The Holograms on the screen. Those were showing a tall fit girl with huge flowing pink hair high fiving Sunset as these two showed the new song to the public. The two seemed very chummy and close by the looks of their smiles and eyes full of trust on each other. Next thing Twilight heard was the sound of the pencil she had on her hands snap.