The town of West Slope stood on, well, the West Slope of the Canterhorn. Ever since the capital was moved there one thousand and change years ago, ponies had needed to work there, and rapidly many of them couldn’t afford to live there. Thus, the terrace towns on the three shallowest slopes of the mountain.
Sunset shuddered as she stepped down from the funicular rail from Canterlot. One of the few concrete facts she knew about her birth was that she’d been from North Slope. In fact, the only survivor of North Slope.
She shook her head. It was one of the few bad things in her life that wasn’t her fault, but it didn’t help her mental state to dwell on why she was an orphan. Better things to think about, better things to think about. She turned back to the paired tracks of the funicular and the cables linking the cars. Pinkie would love the word “funicular!” She’d say something like “The funicular is funtacular!” and we’d all laugh. That did it and her mood was improved. Thus fortified with a smile, she walked forward with purpose towards the West Slope franchise of Burger Princess.
Sunset marched back to the funicular, a bulging greasy bag floating in her aura behind her as she munched on a hayburger levitating obligingly into position.
Stellar Flux, one of the many past rivals-turned-friends she’d acquired, had formerly worked here, but had apparently gotten a new job back in Canterlot. Sunset had decided to order some food before heading back. The prevailing wind from the West had picked up as she stood waiting for food, but hadn’t bothered her very much.
In retrospect this is actually quite a lot of food, and I’m still not feeling full. She paused. Eh, maybe it’s because I spend so much time as a teenage ape. Rainbow could probably eat all that no problem, if it were meat burgers and potato fries.
She ate the remaining two burgers and double large fries on the funicular up to Canterlot.
Finding Stellar’s new job wasn’t terribly hard, as it turned out. She was right there, at the front desk of the School of Magic library, eyes bright and looking towards the entrance.
“Hey Sunset!” Stellar grinned as she realized who it was.
“Hey Stellar!” Sunset trotted up to the reception desk and hoofbumped the gray unicorn mare sitting behind it. “I see everything got cleared out with your academic status, how’s the paper reviews going?”
Stellar sighed annoyedly, eyes making a dramatic roll. “It’s a real mess. The idea of computer-assisted proof has everypony in a tizzy and there’s all sorts of panicking and ‘who does this no-doctorate think she is’ and such.”
Sunset growled slightly and stomped her right forehoof. “Those old gray nags never change. Did you know they tried to block my first major thesis because I used paper folding to construct the geometric array?”
“Get out!” Stellar grimaced. “Imagine if the Eastern Unicorns heard that. There’d be spirit dragons smacking people throughout the school.”
“Yeah, I heard ever since Twilight plucked Mistmane out of limbo they’re planning to offer that as an elective here now.”
“Creating spirit dragons or paper folding? Well actually they’ll offer both.”
Sunset grinned. “I meant paper folding, but I kind of want to take a quick seminar on the spirit dragon thing.”
Stellar shook her head brusquely. “Probably not a good idea, they’ll have Mistmane teaching it until they can get somepony else, she plans to spend two weeks going over the proper way to dress, bow, and drink tea after you finish.”
“Yeah definitely not my thing. I have a lot of trouble doing ‘calm’ anything.”
Stellar canted back and forth, coming close to pronking in place. “Anyway Starswirl himself is looking over the paper sometime soon, so you’re going to have a Starswirl number of 1 if he wants to write a clarification with you or something. And he loves to write things.”
“That’d definitely liven up some parties here. Although there’s probably been a few new Starswirl number 1s since he came back.”
Having finished her burst of excitement, Stellar stopped to wave a hoof dismissively. “Eh, he’s been travelling mostly. Decided to take a look at the whole ‘friendship is magic’ thing for himself.”
“I mean, it is. Literally. And now I feel like I’ve got an idea, but I’ll come back to it later.”
“Anyway are you just here to stop by or do you have business here?”
“Actually, Stellar, I need some help with a project. And since the other mare that tied my record in crystalline enchantments is busy with the Swans, that falls to you.”
Stellar’s face lit up. “Excellent! It’d be nice to work with you some more, but with less blasting each other.”
“Great. How soon can you get off work?”
“I’m not really doing anything. Being named in a new, controversial paper has done wonders for my career so I’m filling in before the electronics lab gets ready.”
Sunset quirked an eyebrow. “Electronics lab?”
“Well, you did get them interested in one area. They’re installing some nightmare of wires and tubes to try and calculate spline reticulation matrix tables instead of doing them by hoof.”
That provoked a laugh from Sunset. “I know it’s going to be astonishingly useful, but I’m just picturing something that has less processing power than the old watch I got at the flea market for ten bucks. If only I could figure out how to get a laptop through the portal.”
Stellar nervously looked away. “Yeah, I read the stuff you post in Xenocultural Studies. It’s, yeah, gonna be a bit old fashioned. I read the article on ‘the history of the computer’ and it’s basically from right around when they started the whole ‘programming language’ thing.”
“I mean, you could do worse. I laid the blueprints for this and maybe it’ll free up some grads to do more than the equivalent of never-ending homework.”
“Right, let me go get the stallion who’s supposed to be watching the front and tell him his break’s over.” Stellar stood, then trotted over to a nearby unmarked door on the wall. She opened it with her magic, then leaned through and shouted “Gotta go, Starshine!” Muffled annoyed snorting came back out at her, and another unicorn trotted past her and to the desk.
Stellar rejoined Sunset. “So, Sunset, what are you doing back here?”
Sunset huffed. “It’s really dumb. So Celestia’s on vacation, Twilight and her friends are busy, and thus problems run down here to me.”
“Well!” Stellar’s eyes widened in shock. “How’d they rope you into this?”
“A draft notice.”
Stellar’s eyes were now fully widened, which was quite a dramatic sight on a pony. Not quite Pinkie-widened, but close enough to unnerve non-pony onlookers.
“Get outta town!”
“And Twilight said that it was all legal.”
“No offense intended to her royal highness, but, that’s horseapples.”
“Eh, what’s really horseapples is what I’ve got to work with. This ancient legendary monster called the ‘Ice Skate’ is coming back and I’ve got a budget of 175 bits and zero backup.”
“That’s pretty peevish. You can quote me on that one. I think I remember the Ice Skate, isn’t immune to magic or something horrible like that?”
With a sigh, Sunset looked over her shoulder at the spellbook section. “Not exactly. It’s extremely resistant and will become immune to a spell after only a small amount of exposure, but as long as you can just keep using sufficiently different spells, or spells that don’t actually interact with it, you’ll be fine. It’s also pretty fast so many standard projectiles won’t land. I can’t requisition nearly enough cannons to do a thing to it.”
“And how many spells is it known to be immune to?”
Sunset tried to combine a sigh and a sneer. “Uh, most of the ones you’d want to use on it. I also have access to the Magus Corps library but most of it’s either too specialized or too old or too similar to something that’s also too old. I can’t trust any spell that’s older than the Ice Skate’s banishment on it directly, or even too close to it. The good news is that only spells that directly affect it get adapted to, so if I were to say get a construct and put non-magical claws on it, it could hit it as much as it wanted. Come with me, I’ve got a private study room at the Castle.”
The journey to the Castle was, by the design of the city, very brief. Sunset used the opportunity to catch up on where Stellar was currently living, and promised to visit her later. The study room was appointed with a few desks, a few cushions, and an immense stack of paper.
“Now, I’ve got a few plans on how to beat this dumb thing. If I can’t get any troops then I’ll just have to get some of my own. Here. I’ve got a stack of paper over there. I need you to take half of these spell fragments in Bubbling Cauldron’s verb-noun format and sketch them out as crystalline etchings for inclusion into this thing I’m planning, while I get the other half.” Sunset jutted a thick notebook towards Stellar.
“Get your own? Are you doing mind control or demon summoning or something?”
Sunset shook her head. “Read the spells.”
Stellar flipped open the notebook to the first page. “Oh. Oooooh.” She flipped through a few more. “Huh. This is… really complicated. I get the general idea of what it’s doing but I can’t see how the pieces go together at all.”
“Eh, I’ll explain later. I’ve actually wanted to try this ever since we had our, uh, reconciliation.”
“You mean when you kicked my flank like a boss.” Stellar flipped through the book some more, finally reaching the end. “OK, I can do this, I guess, that’s a lot of paper but these are all spells I know.”
“After this we’ll check each other’s work and then it’s time to take them to where the not-magic magic happens.”
“So, fingers.” Stellar looked down at the new appendages at the end of what used to be her forelegs.
“Yeah, it’s a lot different than just reading about it or seeing a picture of it.” Sunset closed and opened her own fist. “I still think it’s pretty weird. If I go without going back home for a while it starts to feel more natural, but whenever I come back, boom! Everything is so so weird.”
Sunset looked around the deserted school. Nobody wanted to be here on break, but there were a trio of cars in the faculty lot. She recognized Vice Principal Luna’s, but the other two were probably janitors or security. “We should probably leave before anybody asks questions about why we’re here. We’ve still got work to do.”
“Yes, you said you had an apartment nearby?”
“Yeah, c’mon.” Sunset pointed towards a sheet covered object by itself in another lot. “They let me keep the bike here during break.” They marched over to it and Sunset threw the cover off. “Behold!”
Stellar beheld. Specifically, she beheld a frame of metal tubes with a wheel at each end and an engine slung under it. “Is that safe? Bipedalism already makes me feel wobbly.”
“Eh, safe enough. I’ve never crashed this thing and I’ve done some pretty cool stuff. Ever since that time I almost died on the Friendship Games motocross track I’ve felt way more confident in these.”
“What was that about almost dying?”
“Eh.” Sunset shrugged. “Just carnivorous Everfree vines breaching into our dimension due to type-xk instability.”
“Wait.” Stellar tapped her foot three times. “Type xk instability?”
“Yeah.” Sunset began to fold and roll the cloth cover into a compact lump. “I thought it was type-k instability before human Twilight went all, uh, dark goddess. Then things got pretty bad.”
“Sorry, just having a case of existential dread here.” Stellar held her hand to her throat as she panted. “You, uh, know the consequences of an uncontrolled xk rift right?”
“Yeah. I do. I was too full of determination to be scared until after it was all over.” Sunset pressed the compressed cover into a compartment over the rear wheel and slammed it closed. “Here, take this helmet.” She reached into another compartment and threw an oblong black object to Stellar.
“Given that it’s easier than predicted to create a xk-rift, I have to wonder why we haven’t been destroyed by one.” Stellar fiddled with the helmet, trying to put it on backwards.
“No no, let me.” Sunset grabbed it, turned it around, folded down the eye protection, and jammed it onto Stellar’s head. “I figure it’s the strong hippophic principle in action. Destiny magic or something will always prevent them from messing everything up. Now get the the strap fastened and save our place in the conversation for later, we won’t be able to hear each other once we’re in motion.”
“Scary.” Stellar wobbled into the building, clutching her helmet tightly against her chest in both arms.
“Eh, it’s not that bad. I took a ride on Princess Celestia’s back once, for my eighth birthday. That was twice as fast at least, and she was trying to keep it sedate.”
“That motorcycle doesn’t have telekinesis to catch you if you fall. Nor does it have time, there’s a harsh, gritty road right there waiting to grind your face off.”
“Yeah, that’s why we wear helmets. But we’re here. Now, as I recall, we were discussing the–”
“No.” Stellar released a portion of her forearm to make a small sweep gesture. “We are getting what we came for done and then I am getting back to where I stand on four legs as the ancients intended.”
“Fine. I suppose that’s why you’re the salutatorian of our class.”
“Well, once I got my academic standing reinstated, yes.”
Sunset’s eyes went to pinpricks as she realized what she said. “Sorry.” She glanced downward. “I should…”
“Nah.” Stellar reached up and patted the other girl. “I’m just messing with you a little. Things were rough, but I feel like my career is actually further along than if I’d graduated and went right back into low-level academia.”
“It could have been you calculating matrix tables eight hours a day I guess.”
“The only difference between that and Burger Princess is a small amount of self respect.”
“Right. So, here, take the papers, I need you to open this and lay each one flat, diagram down, on here. Then, after that, hit this button. You’ll see an image of what you drew on this screen, and then it’ll be converted to a vector drawing. Just make sure it still looks correct after that happens, then repeat the process for each sheet.”
“Uh huh.” Stellar looked down at it. “I’ll let you know when I’ve done one so you can check on me. But what will you be doing?”
“Pricing. This will be the second time I spent money on this today.”
Earlier, back in Equestria...
“I am Chief Master Sergeant Sunset Shimmer of the EUP Magus Corps. I’d like to purchase a crystal from you for enchanting.”
The gray earth pony leaned forward, grin predatory. “And I’m Limestone Pie. You’ve come to the right place. I’m here in Canterlot to drum up some business for the rock farm.”
“I need a pure quartz crystal, formed into a pentagonal trapezohedron. That means a trapezohedron with five-fold symmetry.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know my solid shapes. How big do you want it?”
“How much can I get for 175 bits?”
Limestone Pie narrowed her eyes. “Is this a rush job?”
Sunset sighed, knowing this was coming. “Yeah, I need it in five days. Specifically Friday morning.”
Limestone shook her head. “Oof, that’s gonna be rough. I might be able to give you two cubic hooves.”
Sunset mentally converted that to cubic centi-ponylengths and groaned. “Ugh. I don’t suppose you can give me some kind of ‘saving the world’ discount?”
“Nah. My sister might, but she’s a little soft. This is for a government contract, right?”
“Oh, I get what you’re saying.” Sunset grinned conspiratorially. “How much can I get for a down payment of 175 bits?”
“And now it’s Twilight’s problem. Or Celestia’s, depending on when Limestone shows up to collect.”
“I feel like you violated all sorts of acquisitions regulations there.”
Sunset shrugged with her off-hand as she clicked through a series of web sites. “I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it I guess. If the world gets destroyed by some flying magical beast with a dumb name I’ll be unable to really appreciate it.”
Stellar looked up from her scanner feeding. She’d been doing quite well for having fingers for less than an hour. “Is it actually capable of destroying the world?”
“In the sense of breaking the planet’s gravitational binding energy, heck no. But it’s sure capable of triggering all sorts of social breakdown and general mayhem if it’s just straight-up immune to attempts to magically harm it and flying about destroying as it wishes.”
“So if you’ve already got the crystal on lock, what are you looking for here?”
“Photolithography, mostly. Like hell I can carve nanoponylength-scale features, but there are machines that can do that. And then I can transfer the photolithography results onto the crystal with Copy Paper’s symbology transfer.”
“Well, nice to see your reputation for cleverness is maintained. Have you ever tried that before?”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I tried something like that as part of my early efforts to bring my smartphone into Equestria. Never got it to work, but I was able to make a really great stained glass window.”
“So what happens once I get all these done? I know that I haven’t made nearly enough to cover a crystal at the nanoponylength scale.”
“I’ve got an algorithm set up to put them together. That little bit that doesn’t do anything off to the side is actually the identifier, it’ll remove that and use it only for looking them up. Anyway, I’ve written the algorithm to arrange many, many copies of those into the real spell.”
Stellar did some mental math. “That’s… good grief. That might be the most complicated spell in Equestria now that the Tree of Harmony is gone.”
Sunset nodded. “Hey, this thing is providing me with my backup. It needs a limited ability to think for itself. Imagine if I used, say, high-capacity golems as a base. I’d spend all my time telling it how to move every one of its joints. I use the singular since there’s no way I could coordinate more than one in combat.”
“That makes sense, I guess. Almost done here.”
“Great, and I’ve found my guys too I think.” Sunset stood up and stretched as Stellar fed the last image into the scanner. “Now let’s just close all those, then run this little thing here.” The computer hummed as all its fans kicked to full blast, the processor running all cores full-out. “There we go. Now let’s just wait and upload that into the order form.”
Stellar looked at the screen. “Uh, Sunset.”
“What.”
“That price looks really rather substantial. I admit I only know about this world from your publications, but that’s truly much more money than I’d expect a minor living on her own to have, isn’t it?”
“Uh, yeah.” Sunset looked away. “I acquired it in a legal manner.”
Hackercon.
“If you can nab my Bytecoin, it’s YOURS!” proclaimed the banner.
“Twilight, explain.” Sunset wasn’t entirely sure what this meant, but it paid to be careful and ask someone you trusted in this hive of digital scum and villainy. The man sitting at the table under the banner looked greasy and in Sunset’s opinion a little punchable.
“So, Bytecoin is effectively a system of trustless accounting. Thanks to cryptography, you can verify everyone else’s balances with only the data you have on hand, but can’t change any of them without the appropriate password. That man heads one of the ‘exchanges’ where you can trade Bytecoin for money. He’s advertising the security of his establishment by daring anyone who can take his Bytecoins to do so.”
“And that number below the banner that’s fluctuating wildly?”
“That’s the dollar value of the Bytecoin at stake.”
Sunset stared at the sign. While the number fluctuated, the number of digits in it didn’t. And it was a rather high amount of digits. “So you’re saying that I can obtain that much money legally just by guessing his password?”
“Yes, but… Oh.”
Sunset approached the table. “Nice contest you’re running here.” She extended her hand to shake his.
Sunset sneered at the screen. “Honestly I’m philosophically opposed to the idea of purely trustless systems, so I can’t say I feel much guilt over it.”
“Still, that’s a lot of money.” Stellar looked up at the progress bar on her screen, as a collection of jagged angles slowly organized themselves into an odd design. She recognized it would cover a pentagonal trapezohedron.
“Yeah, but I can’t actually convert it into the regular money people normally use here. Banks would want so much documentation I don’t want to give them. Fortunately, these guys are willing to take it through an intermediary.” Sunset began to gather up her things again.
“So can they get it done in time?” Stellar turned away from the display filling in finer and finer details on the 3D model of the trapezohedron.
“Eh. There’s a lot of photolithography options. I just picked whatever would get anything that could technically count as inscribing it onto a wafer in time and the fastest possible shipping. Still a little expensive but I can’t exactly buy a new Equestria.”
“That seems a little more expensive.”
“Yeah, anyway. I mentioned another plan earlier. The Magic of Friendship is a real and tangible force, that I’ve experienced from both ends. I feel like I’ll have better odds of dealing with this in one piece if I can put to rest my past and resolve things with the ponies I hurt the most.” On the screen, the words “Alignment complete” flashed over the trapezohedron. Sunset reached over and dragged the mouse, clicked a couple times, then turned back to her screen.
“If I remember correctly, there’s me, Ghost Pepper, and Charge Carrier that you really went after. I don’t think you did anything nearly that bad to anypony else.”
“Right.” Sunset attached the file to the order and pressed the send button. “Charge Carrier probably landed on her rose-scented feet, but… oh wow. Ghost Pepper. I pretty much ruined his life.” She shook her head slowly.
“Last I saw he was working odd jobs, starting to get a little weird.”
Sunset gulped. “Well, there’s one more on that list. Princess Cadance. I did most of my awful to her at the palace, so you wouldn’t know about it. I’ll send a letter to her once we get back. For now though, I think we should prioritize Ghost Pepper.” She closed her eyes. “I made it so he can never use his special talent again.”