Gold Star felt increasingly confident that Sigma was either the greatest or the worst pony in all of Equestria. But between those two, it was almost a toss-up.
On the first day, while Sigma had taken one of her rare and short breaks from whatever she was working on, Gold Star had asked how much help she expected for their bargain to hold.
Sigma had responded that, um, as far as she remembered, the deal they had made was that if Gold Star helped her at all, she would try to help her friend after all was done, and, um, she had already bought things for her once, so her end was met. She had not even added “but I would like it if you stayed anyway,” or “but if you keep helping me, that would improve the odds of the rift being closed.” She had just given her a pass, following the literal words of their deal.
Gold Star could have walked out right then and there. She had no doubt that Sigma would stick to her word... that was, at least not during the times when she thought of Sigma as the greatest pony in Equestria. During those times when she felt Sigma was terrible and utterly insane and that she was making the biggest mistake of her life by believing in her, she might have had a few doubts... or perhaps more than a few...
She hadn’t walked out.
Instead, she had asked whether there was anything else she could do, anything whatsoever. Sigma had responded that, um, um, she would think about it.
On the following day, she had said something about the high temperatures being distracting (which was quite understandable, even for normal ponies), and that doing something about that would help, but that it couldn’t be too loud. Gold Star had nodded, had searched through the stores of Canterlot and bought the nicest air conditioner she could find. It was a fascinating thing, purely magical, a highly sensitive constellation of crystals that sucked in warmth from their surrounding. After twelve hours of use, you had to carry it outside, where it would release all of the accumulated heat in a matter of minutes.
It had also been very expensive, but Sigma had said she had enough and it didn’t matter. Gold Star wasn’t sure if she wanted to know where all the money came from.
She vaguely remembered what it had been like, when she had just thought of the other pony as a somewhat eccentric, socially awkward mare that lived next to her. Only weeks before she had moved to Ponyville had she seen her do the thing... the thing which should have been impossible. It was that incident which was the sole reason for why she had asked her for help in the first place.
On the second evening, Sigma had asked if Gold Star would make love to her.
Gold Star hadn’t known what to say, and after a few seconds of regaining her voice, she had asked whether she had to. Sigma had looked at her like it was a weird question, and had said no, and that had been it. Gradually, as her shock had been fading, Gold Star had remembered that she had offered to do ‘anything whatsoever,’ that she was already free to leave if she wanted, and that Sigma probably had no idea why there was any difference between that particular request and the air conditioner. She hadn’t said yes, but she had decided not to begrudge the other mare, either.
She hadn’t slept well that night. In her dreams, a gigantic dragon had descended to Equestria through a crack in the sky, and with a fury he had spat green fire onto everypony and everyone in his path. Gold Star had run from him, and then she had seen him burn a smaller dragon, a dragon who she knew was her friend Autumn Wind, who had transformed into a dragon herself, believing it would keep her safe. She had awoken as Autumn had melted into a pool of crimson blood.
Sigma hadn’t been there. The night before, she hadn’t seen her sleep either, but Gold Star had assumed it was simply because she stayed up later and woke up earlier. Now, she was wondering whether the other mare slept at all.
When eventually she did come from the living room, Gold Star was still wide awake. She asked her how little she slept, and Sigma said two hours. Gold Star asked how that was possible, and Sigma replied that she had studied sleep before and had found a way to decrease it to two hours a day. Gold Star asked how and Sigma said it was very complicated.
Carefully, Gold Star then asked how her previous suggestion would have helped. Sigma said that, um, releasing extreme physical pleasure relaxed body and mind, made sleep more effective, and helped her to concentrate.
Wondering whether she had gone mad herself, Gold Star agreed.
“Isn’t there anypony who could help you more than I can?” Gold Star asked carefully.
She was a mess. She had cried a lot, out of fear, confusion, sometimes regret, and then more fear. She had kept it from the other mare, which had been very easy. Sigma spent almost all of her time sitting in the living room, sometimes with a sheet of paper in front of her, sometimes writing something down, but most often with her eyes near closed, her lips moving in perfect silence.
Still, she was hanging in. She had decided to help Sigma, and that was what she was going to do, as best as she could.
“Um,” Sigma said. “Um.”
...
There was a long pause. The longest one yet.
“I have very poor social skills,” Sigma said eventually. “I think if I had strong social skills, I would not be working alone. I did not think much about that question.”
“So is there somepony?”
“Um,” Sigma said. “I don’t know.”
“What would somepony have to be able to do to be helpful?”
“Um. If she was very good at group theory, that would help.”
“What’s group theory?”
“It’s the study of mathematical objects called groups and of functions and relations between them.”
“O-... oh. Maths...”
A pause.
“Anything else?”
“Um. If she was very good at magic, that could also help.”
“Magic?” Gold Star asked excitedly. “Twilight Sparkle is really good at magic! Have you thought about contacting her?”
“Um. No.”
“... no? Why not?”
“I make a lot of mistakes when it comes to these things,” Sigma said. She sounded unhappy. “There are probably a lot of things I should have thought about or done that I didn’t. It was only luck that you came to me, too.”
“Oh. So would contacting her be a good idea?”
“Um ...”
...
“... it’s complicated.”
“Come on!” Gold Star protested. Sigma gave her a confused glance.
“What I mean is that, well, I can do it for you! I can contact Twilight. If you want, I’ll drive back to Ponyville right now!”
“Um,” Sigma said, “give me a few minutes to think about it.”