Encryption Level: 5
Today is my first day working at Alicorn Tech. I’m really nervous. The head of the department I’m working on, Dr. Applejack, seemed quite friendly. She gave me a few tips of dos and don’ts of the office after greeting me via email.
I really hope I can fit in. This job means everything to me.
Everypony’s calling me Ms. Shimmer and it’s the worst. Everypony else has had their PhDs. I’m working with professionals! Absolute prodigies at what they’re doing! What was I thinking? Of course I won’t fit in. It’s written all over the place! Dr. Belle even gave me curious looks at lunch. How long would it be until I got fired?
I messed up. I screwed up so badly today. How many of these ponies laughed at me when I misplaced that decimal? Oh, goodness. God, if you exist, please let the Director give me a second chance.
The Head of Arcane Engineering, Dr. Sparkle, visited me personally at my office today. I thought I was in trouble for yesterday, but it turns out she only asked me to join her at lunch.
She then told me that I’m overthinking my mistakes. It makes a lot more sense now that I think about it. I feel foolish now for making such a fuss about yesterday. Ha! I should really work on my self-doubt. There’s no way I’m keeping my job if I kept getting anxious.
Dr. Sparkle has been quite enjoyable. For the last five days, we’ve been sitting together at the cafeteria and talked about random stuff that has nothing to do with our jobs. I think I made a friend! One of the higher-ups, even.
No, bad Shimmer! She’s been friendly and very helpful with my anxiety, I shouldn’t make use of her. Or anypony, for that matter. Keep your bad habits in check, little Shimmy.
This isn’t lunch yet, but I don’t know if I can still have my personal journal after this. AJ told me that Dr. Belle wanted to see me for some reason. I think I’m in really big trouble.
But what is it? Was it something I said? Maybe I’m not helping the project enough. Or maybe she thought I was sweet-talking my way with Dr. Sparkle? Oh, I hope it’s not that last one. I genuinely hope we can be friends! I didn’t intend to make her like me, and oh, I don’t know I can’t even form words right right now. God, I hope you exist, because i’m now praying that you dont take away my job please dont’
It was a prank. Dr. Belle never was somepony I should be wary about. She’s just concerned I’m giving her apprehensive looks.
Well, how couldn’t I? AJ told me that Dr. Belle secretly takes tests on new employees to see if they are qualified for the job. Dr. Sparkle then told me that the fact I’m inside the facility is enough proof that I am.
Apparently, there’s an ongoing war of spite between Dr. Belle and AJ and I’m simply unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire. It’s amusing to recall that now, at least. It made me remember the spiteful times at high school.
I’ve just noticed that the biometrics have built-in hoof polishers. I asked Twilight about it and she answered with “Rarity”. Apparently that’s another byproduct of their bickering. I wonder how many things in the facility exist because of the same reason?
The blueprint for the Mining Gun is finally finished! That took a lot faster than I first thought. Twilight was also impressed. AJ . . . not so much. Well, at least she’s not upset about it. I wonder what made her dissatisfied? Was it the blueprint? Well, only one way to find out!
No, not asking her. Making a prototype and testing it, of course!
The Mining Gun prototype worked, but only barely. The moment I saw the finished product, I instantly noticed the many mistakes I made in the blueprint. No wonder AJ’s not impressed. I need to fix it and fast before she berates me any further.
Well, alright, she hasn’t berated me in the slightest, but that’s always a given for anypony in charge when their subordinates don’t do as they’re expected to.
The blueprint for the second mining gun is almost complete. When it does, I’m going to recheck and then recheck and then recheck again for any mistakes. I can’t afford any more mistakes after my first failure.
I can’t believe it. How can I miss that? That was a simple friggin aspect that I should’ve thought about! I’m such an idiot! I don’t know what AJ thinks after seeing my prototype goof off, but I don’t think I want to know. I haven’t met her all day and I think I made a smart choice. I don’t think I’d be able to think straight if she ever lashes out on me.
Don’t get me wrong, AJ is very down-to-earth and friendly, but I don’t think she’s very sensitive to criticizing others’ works.
That sentence implies that I can take any kind of criticism at all, which is kind of a lie.
Mining gun 3 almost complete. Haven’t slept for days or is it weeks i have no idea. Tired but i have to get this right
Nearing completion. Revision again before prototyping remember dont build a prototpy even if i think it aredy prefect
Evrypont left fr holiday. Cant leaf project no doe yet. Tiwlght annoyng
Some omer revis i ser just a lil bit more there are going to be happy and mining gun some mistake not sleep i cant lev no twilight here sh noisy at door i need ot fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Three weeks. For almost 3 weeks straight I’ve been working at the facility with minimum sleep and didn’t go back to my apartment at all. Thinking back it was so, so foolish of me. The only reason I got out of the office at all was because Twilight knocked me out with tranquilizer back on New Year’s Eve. Ketamine and all.
I slept for twenty hours before waking up still sleepy on New Year, and my mind hadn’t recovered enough to do anything but devour the food that Twilight gave me and relieve myself. And then I slept for twelve hours more waking up like I’d gotten the world’s worst case of hangover.
I felt really guilty right now. Seeing Twilight’s face by my side every time I woke up, all worried and anxious, almost made me cry every time. Okay, so I did cry. I cried a lot and apologized a lot. Twilight is a friend I’m eternally grateful for having and I won’t trade her for any kind of utopian world you have in your mind, not even the entirety of heaven and the power of an Alicorn God.
Remember this, Shimmy, to never overwork yourself. Also try to get over your fear of failure.
I’ve taken Twilight’s advice to not hurry on the project, and I think I’ve done a much better job at it than ever. I’ve also talked to AJ and the rest of Phys. Engineering Dept. team about it, many of which pointed out things that I’ve missed. If only I’ve done this a lot sooner.
Mining Gun 3.0 worked perfectly. Even the director is impressed! Twilight, I owe you so much.
The Mining GunTM was launched early today and demands have already flooded! The director was so pleased that she offered me to work on one of our top secret projects!
I take back what I said. Twilight, I owe you my life.
Tomorrow’s Hearts and Hooves day and I have nopony to spend it with. Again. Twilight offered to celebrate with her family but I refused. I reasoned she should spend it as much with a family she scarcely sees over a friend she barely knows. She persisted, but luckily her iron will’s no match for my steel one. Ha!
I don’t know if I should be proud of my stubbornness. AJ will, I bet. Anyway, Twilight eventually gave up and suggested that I spend it with our janitor instead. The old stallion, Stinky I think his name is.
Well, she offered that as a joke before suggesting AJ and many other co-workers of ours, but he was the most intriguing. I heard he has quite the dance moves. We’ll know the truth behind that tomorrow night.
Hey, I like randomness. Also dancing. I consider myself a good dancer.
I’m out of words. I’m a little exhausted from the party tonight but dang. Stinky Gutterson is the best dancer in all of Equestria, if not the universe. I took him to the club just a couple of blocks away and nopony believed that he’s almost seventy. An old stallion like him wouldn’t know any dances other than waltz, right?
Wrong. He can breakdance. He can rave. He can do disco. He can do backflips. He can split. He brought back SWING DANCE on a RAVE FLOOR and I still don’t know how he did that when nopony knew what it was. If I listed it all down here I’d reach the ten-thousand word limit and barely touched half of it.
Later when we had exhausted ourselves he told me that he had been all for dancing when he was younger. His cutie mark isn’t a broom sweeping through the floor; it’s a representation of Celestial Coast Swing. He was there when The Rollers first danced with roller skates. He was there when Vanhoover Splits won the throne to Vanhoover’s dance floors. He was there to swing at the Fillydelphia Grand Swing Dance-Off. He didn’t just experience musical evolution, he studied, lived and danced them. And he admitted that that was what made him had no choice but to work as a janitor: mere dancing couldn’t feed his family, especially when rave took over (rave was and is an industry for the DJs, not the dancers).
Such a shame that his talent doesn’t go beyond rumors. I wonder how Twilight would react.
Should’ve brought a camera.
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I’m suddenly acutely aware of why AJ once said, “Never question the director’s orders.” Well, I have a job to keep. No turning back now.
My project has led me to meet a fellow employee I don’t even know existed: Dr. Shy. She was the Head of Bioengineering before I came in and her position got replaced by . . . Dr. Cellin(?) I dunno, I think that’s actually her first name.
Anyway, Dr. Shy is apparently so shy that I thought she was Dr. Michelin’s (or whatever I forgot) daughter visiting. She’s actually older than me, around Twilight’s age.
And, glimpsing through her work, I think she better suits the title “Mad Scientist” than Pinkie.
I mean, a chimaera-dragon-goat thingy is pretty high on my list of weird-things-to-forget-about.
A biological 3D printer. Huh. Y’know, when you told me a year ago that I’d be working on a blueprint for a grocery printer, I’d laugh and dance you into humiliation. I just couldn’t get it into my head why this thing is classified. Tomorrow we’ll be making the prototype and hopefully Bioengineering will let me see the result.
Be careful what you ask for. Stinky told me that Bioengineering has been experimenting on printing living beings out of my machine. I don’t know if that’s an accomplishment or a ticket to hell. Welp, good as time as any to be an atheist.
Also, I’ve just noticed that Stinky probably knows a lot more (and I mean a lot more) about the dark side of the facility than the director herself. Good thing he’s on my side.
A brain scanner.
Everypony knows Scan + Print = Photocopy.
Director Celly, if you don’t want me to know that you’re trying to print clones, you shouldn’t have, y’know, put me on every top secret project on the company.
“Neural Vacillator” because yeah, you don’t want to sit on a “Brain Scanner” and be turned into a zombie. Whatever, at least they’ll let me test the prototype.
Wait, does that mean they’ll try to print a clone-me? That’s . . . actually kinda cool.
Oh my God, look at this cutie! Clone-me looks just like me but smaller! She’s almost a head shorter than me!
Other than that, she looks like a picture-perfect copy of me. Oh, and that she can’t speak other than gibberish squeaking. And she’s full of life and hope and happiness, unlike me.
God, I’m pathetic.
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Pathetic, but a pathetic pony that can make a printer that works as one intends it to. It’s probably a better achievement than the fact that said printer spits out sapient beings willy-nilly.
On a side note, clone-me doesn’t have my memories other than muscle memory and instinctual behaviour. I’m weirdly happy to learn that she can moonwalk just as gracefully as I can. Lil' guy's smooth.
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This one’s not one of the top secret projects, but it sounds more ridiculous than “Twilight can dance to funk”: An energy generator that runs on time.
No, not as in punctual, but as in uses time as fuel. The director gave me some foundation for the research but I know it’s merely a pipe dream. I told her that and she replied that she knew, but it’d be neat if I can make it come true.
Dang, the old mare’s quite poetic.
A cranial chip implant so we can move clone-me with a joystick. Oh, the wonders of crossing the moral horizon so far out that I made orbit.
I’m out of every project now, even the Anti Entropy Thermo-Nullifier that I’m so close to finishing. The director wants me to focus on the Time Generator. Whatever it’s called, anyway. Project Time Arrow, I think.
And it’s a wise move, I think. Alamaneia almost made war with us for their lack of oil. If I can make this work, I’m going to save the world.
I shouldn’t have said that. Now it looks twenty times more important and anxiety-inducing.
Dr. Invicta (that's the Michelin mare I wrongly named before, her name's Selena Lulamoon Invicta), in trying to prank her sister, somehow managed to redact herself from the entirety of Alicorn Tech.'s database. AJ couldn't stop laughing at Dr. Belle's constant shrieking.
To quote the majestic proclamation of the mare herself: "I have, quite possibly, unpersoned myself."
I’ve been busy for a while now. I think I won’t be meeting you as often, Diary. Sorry.
I think I did it. Free Energy.
I couldn’t believe it myself. God, I think you’re real.
I have nothing to say but yes, I’ve saved the world. I saved the world of her energy crisis and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.
Also a handsome amount of bits and an honorary doctorate, but that’s just the bonuses.
Some of my friends were flabbergasted when I told them I don’t charge any royalty for my patent. Well, duh. It’s Free Energy.
Too bad my invention is unable to be too large in size. We found out today that a large enough Time Arrow Generator would create a basically impenetrable substance we’ve named neutronium. Which means an infinite battery for your phone yes, a generator for an entire research facility no-no.
The substance was actually so impenetrable and dense that it has a noticeable gravitational field. AJ took advantage of this and turned on our prototype generator right below Dr. Belle's weighing scale, making her permanently 0.015% heavier than she actually is.
What surprised me most is that the prank actually worked.
I’m back on working hush-hush stuff with Bioengineering. This time it involved Metaphysics and Arcane Engineering, too. I wonder what it is.
With how little my involvement in this project is, I don’t know if we’re trying to create an eldritch abomination or a sapient microwave. I don’t like not knowing, but I guess it comes with the job.
This project is taking exceedingly long. Apparently they’re trying to modify the neural vacillator for something or another. Probably those fancy mane treatment devices.
It’s my fault. It’s all my fault. I should’ve known what I was making, and Twilight got the end of it. Every time she told me it’s not my fault it made me want to kill myself, but remembered that it’ll probably make her suffer more than she already has.
Celestia, I hate you so much. You and your fucking greed.
AJ drank herself to death. The police found her body under dozens of jerry cans of what’s possibly 90% alcohol. After knowing what the director’s really for, I can’t blame her. She’s the one who had kept the secret the longest, after all. Twilight’s accident just gave her a reason to do it.
Yesterday at the bar she had told us “in the know” a stupid plan to stop it all and prevent the white pegasus bitch from, apparently, godhood. It actually is a stupid plan, Luna even laughed at it. But it’s a plan that can work.
Well, "work" is a generous description. If we succeed, it's suicide. If we fail, it's omnicide. And quite possibly rip a chunk of the planet off.
I’ll need to talk to the others before making a decision.
Deleted data successfully retrieved
I know you’re secretly spying on this journal, Dr. Belle, so let me tell you that I’m all for it. Dash, Shy, Pinke and Luna are too. Meet us at The Room at lunch break.