Chapter 7
Most Definitely Not A Date
Sunset Shimmer sat on the floor of her living room, the curtains closed, the floor littered with parts and materials.
In the corner, placed on one of the chairs, sat the video display unit Sunset had succeeded in creating, based on copying the Pac-Mare display and tweaking it a little. Unfortunately, since it had nothing to display at the moment, the screen was just a solid blue at the moment, a constant distraction for Sunset's eyes and a mocking reminder of her limitations.
Because, while she had managed to create something resembling a monitor, creating an actual processor that could carry out the wide variety of functions Sunset wanted was proving more of a challenge.
Sunset growled as she tossed what she had hoped might be a viable motherboard across the room, where it bounced across the wooden floor and into the bedroom.
"Who would have thought that creating a processor capable of several complex functions simultaneously in a short period of time would be so hard?" Sunset asked the air around her. She wasn't even certain she was starting from the right premises. She knew that computers started at ones and zeroes, but she wasn't certain what that meant in real terms, or how to take that forward into anything meaningful. She had considered bolting something together and then zapping it with enough magic that it would either come alive or blow up in her face, but even if that worked it wouldn't really be suitable for production, would it?
Sunset sighed, rubbing her eyes with one hoof. It was starting to get stuffy in here. Her horn glowed as she yanked the curtains open, letting the bright sunlight flood the dark room with such intensity she had to shield her eyes from it.
"Oh, yeah, I definitely need to get out of here for a while," Sunset muttered. "Or else I'm going to go crazy or something." She pushed everything into rough approximation of tidiness before putting on her jacket and heading out the door.
The world outside made her screw her eyes shut at first, it was too bright and warm for somepony who had spent too long stuck inside.
Once she had gotten use to how much colour there was out here in the sun, Sunset began to trot in the direction of Sugarcube Corner. A cup of coffee and something sweet would do wonders for her powers of thought. Hopefully.
She passed Fluttershy, heading the opposite way with what looked like a saddlebag full of vegetables, and the yellow pegasus waved to her with one hoof.
"Good afternoon, Sunset."
Sunset wasn't used to having folks shout hello at her in the middle of the street, but she put something like a smile on her face and waved back. Fluttershy soon went on her way, and Sunset continued upon hers.
"Hey, Sunset Shimmer, glad you're feeling okay!" called a caramel coloured stallion whose name escaped Sunset's memory, though she remembered seeing him around.
"Uh, hi," Sunset replied judiciously, a grimacing smile playing on her lips.
Lyra Hearstrings and her mare-friend stopped to greet her as well, which was weird but at least Sunset remembered who Lyra was, if not why she suddenly wanted to be friends with Sunset Shimmer. She was still pondering the mystery of it when, almost to Sugarcube Corner, a grey pegasus with a golden mane and matching eyes dropped down out of the sky in front of her.
"Hi there, Sunset Shimmer!" she called cheerfully.
"Gah!" Sunset recoiled backwards with a start and a strangled cry, falling onto to her rear end as she did so. "Okay, who are you and how do you know who I am?"
The wall-eyed mare tilted her head to one side. "Are you okay?"
"No, I am not okay," Sunset snapped. "Every perfect stranger in this town seems to know who I am and I don't get it one bit and it's creeping me out so I am definitely not okay. Who are you?"
"I'm Derpy Hooves," Derpy smiled, closing her eyes as she did so. "Nice to meet you."
Sunset growled wordlessly before she managed to speak coherently through clenched teeth. "How do you all know who I am? I've never met any of you! Are you all stalking me or something?"
Derpy retreated a little. "Did I do something wrong?"
"Yes! Yes, you definitely did something wrong, I just don't know what it is yet!" Sunset shouted.
"What is going on here?" Twilight Sparkle asked, appearing out of the bakery. "I can hear you yelling from inside."
"I don't know what's going on! If I knew what was going on I wouldn't be freaking out," Sunset yelled.
Twilight trotted up. "Derpy, would you mind giving us some space. I'm sorry if you're upset."
"That's okay," Derpy said, the smile returning to her face. "We all have our bad days. I hope you feel better soon!" She took off into the air, her last word stretching out until she was out of sight.
"Now," Twilight said. "What's up?"
Sunset began to explain, "When Fluttershy just shouted hello at me in the street I thought that was just who she was. But then everypony started doing it, and I don't even know most of these ponies' names! I've never seen half of them before. It's weird."
Twilight giggled. "Is that all this is?"
"What, you think this is funny?"
"I think it's funny you don't understand yet," Twilight said. "Come on, you were going inside?"
"Yeah."
"Then follow me," Twilight led her inside the cake shop, towards a table in the corner. Sunset had barely sat down when a plump green mare bustled over to them.
"Hello, dear, so glad to see you're up and about again. What can I get you?"
Sunset's eyes were wide, her posture rigid with shock. She opened her mouth to demand just how she knew this pony, when Twilight spoke over her.
"We'll have two chocolate sundaes, thank you, Mrs Cake," she said.
"Of course, dear," Mrs Cake, bustling off to see to their order.
Sunset leaned in to whisper to Twilight. "What is going on here?"
Twilight chuckled. "This is a small town, Sunset. Everypony saw me carry you out of the wastes, unconscious. It's the kind of thing that ponies talk about,"
"So you're telling me everypony has been gossiping about me?" Sunset demanded, cringing at the thought. "That I'm...small town famous?"
"How does it compare with big city anonymity?" Twilight asked with a grin.
"Hey, I was never anonymous," Sunset declared proudly. "Whenever I set out to leave my mark on somepony, it stuck."
"Then why does this bother you?" Twilight asked. "I thought you enjoyed notoriety?"
"I do, but..." Sunset sighed, considering her response. "I like to be known for the things that I set out to be known for. I guess I like to control my image."
Twilight nodded. "I will admit, it took me a while to get used to the way Ponyville worked compared to Canterlot. My first day here, all I wanted to do was find some peace and quiet in the library, but as soon as I went inside I found that every single pony in town was waiting for me to throw me a welcome to Ponyville party."
"Seriously?" Sunset asked, her eyebrows rising. "Your very first day?"
"It was Pinkie's idea."
"Oh, well that explains everything." Sunset shook her head. "I suppose I'll have to get used to this kind of thing."
"If you decide to stay," Twilight said.
Sunset eyed Twilight suspiciously. "I didn't think I had a choice."
Twilight shrugged. "I'm satisfied you're not a megalomaniac bent on world-domination. Not anymore, anyway. I've recommended to Princess Celestia that you be put at liberty."
Sunset's mouth hung open, catching flies until she remembered to close it. She stammered, "Honestly? You, you trust me that much?"
"Are you so surprised?"
"Yeah, kind of," Sunset replied, half laughing. "I mean, when I first came here did you think you'd be letting me go so early?"
"No," Twilight admitted. "You're a better pony than I thought you'd be."
"Or maybe you're a better gaoler than you give yourself credit for," Sunset said.
Twilight didn't rise to the flattery. "So, what are you going to do now? Head for Canterlot?"
Sunset sighed, leaning backwards. "If you'd asked me that when I came through the mirror, I would have said yes in a heartbeat.But now...what am I going to do in Canterlot? My own sister doesn't want to know me; it's not as if I had a whole bunch of friends to begin with. I think I'd be lonelier in Canterlot than I am here."
"Really?" Twilight sounded surprised. "I never pictured you as a small town kind of girl, by preference."
"Were you?"
Twilight laughed. "No, I guess I wasn't. If I recall, my exact words were 'all the ponies in this town are crazy!'"
"You were probably right," Sunset said. "It's just that crazy-"
"Isn't always such a bad thing," Twilight finished for her.
"Yeah, something like that," Sunset said, getting up to leave. "Well, um, thanks Princess. I guess I'll see you around." She turned away, and the thought of another evening cooking for one filled her mind, along with the thought that her refridgerator didn't have a lot of room left in it for more leftovers. Another night alone.
Sunset turned round. "Hey, Twilight, do you want to come over for dinner tonight?"
Pinkie Pie gasped, long and loud, rising into the air as her hooves spread out like the legs of a folding chair. As soon as she was done gasping, she sped out of Sugarcube Corner with a commendable turn of speed, leaving only a pink blur in her wake.
Sunset looked around. Everypony in the cafe was staring at her,
"I should have asked you somewhere more private, shouldn't I?"
"Probably," Twilight replied, grinning. "But the answer is yes."
Sunset started to smile before, mindful of everypony staring at her and the ideas that they might get, she cleared her throat loudly. "I mean, I don't mean like a date or anything. This isn't a date. Most definitely not a date."
"Of course not, it's just dinner, between friends."
"Yeah, friends, exactly," Sunset said. She glared at everypony who was watching her. "Did you get all that, too?"
Everypony looked away. Slowly and reluctantly.
"So, do you want me to pick you up?" Sunset asked, at which point all eyes turned on her once again. "Oh for Celestia's sake!"
"I think I can find my way to your door," Twilight said, amusement in her voice. "Say, seven?"
"Sure, it's a date," Sunset said. "Except for how it most definitely isn't."
She strode out of Sugarcube Corner looking incredibly pleased with herself. On the way home she started to whistle.
***
Most of the rest of Sunset's afternoon was spent gathering ingredients for the meal she planned to create: tomatoes, onions, spring onions, cornflour, thyme, carrots, peppers, potatoes, plus pastry and a few of what Applejack had proudly declared to be her finest cooking apples for desert.
By the time seven o'clock approached, she had already pureed the tomatoes, onions, spring onions into a sauce, with cornflour added to give it texture and the thyme added with a few other seasonings to get the flavour just right. An apple pie was already in the oven.
Sunset levitated a spoonful of sauce into her mouth, letting the spicy flavours bite at her tongue and sizzle on her throat.
"Yep, once this has been cooked it'll be just fine," Sunset said, nodding to herself.
There was a knock on the door.
Sunset smiled briefly, then padded out of the kitchen to answer it. As she had expected, it was Twilight Sparkle. What Sunset hadn't expected was that Twilight would be wearing a glamorous gown of midnight blue, bodice and dress both sparkling with diamond dust, with a sapphire tiara set in her hair. She looked...stunning. Sunset could barely find any words to say.
When at last she managed to control her tongue, she only managed to point out the obvious. "You're wearing a dress."
Twilight blushed. "Rarity caught me on the way over here. She insisted. If you think it's too much I could always change out of it then put it back on again when I go."
"No, no, I don't think it's too much," Sunset said, shaking her head. "I think it suits you. Um, anyway, why don't you come inside?"
Twilight stepped into the living room, while Sunset shut the door behind her. Twilight at once headed over to the pile of (hopefully) soon-to-be computer parts. "Oh, is this what you've been working on?"
"Yeah, sort of."
"What does it do?"
"Nothing, yet," Sunset admitted. "I haven't quite figured out all the details."
Twilight looked at her. "Maybe I can help you out after dinner."
"Really? You know even less this than me," Sunset pointed out.
"I know," Twilight admitted. "But it couldn't hurt to have two smart ponies taking a look at this, could it?"
Sunset smirked. "I guess not. But after dinner. Right now I need to get back to work."
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Twilight asked.
"Even if there were, I'd say no. You're my guest tonight, remember?" Sunset called as she headed into the kitchen. She picked up a knife with her magic, and began to use it to chop up the remaining vegetables: peppers, carrots and potatoes. She diced them all into slices (more like cubes in the case of the potato) until there was a large pile of mixed vegetables sitting on top of the chopping board, to which Sunset added a few peas because, why not?
Then she put them all in a large flat pan, doused them gently in cooking oil and started to fry them.
"You seem pretty good at this," Twilight observed, coming to stand in the kitchen doorway and watch Sunset work.
"Nah, this is pretty simple really," Sunset said. "Once the vegetables have been fried it's just a matter adding the sauce and then leaving it to cook."
"What are we having?"
"A recipe from the other side of the mirror," Sunset replied. "It's a spicy stew, over there they eat it with meat but we should be able to manage without. You're supposed to have it rice but as we don't have any we'll have to make do. There's probably enough as it is."
"It looks big enough, no wonder you always have a lot of food left over," Twilight said. "Don't you ever eat any of that stuff in your fridge?"
"I find they're not as nice when they're not fresh," Sunset said. "Although, to be honest, it's more that I like cooking. It gives me time to think. It's kind of relaxing."
"When did you learn? In the other world?" Twilight asked.
Sunset laughed. "No. It certainly helped me get by there, but I learnt a while before that, when I was a filly. My mom and dad both had to work late more often than not. And so I'd pick Eclipse up from kindergarten after school and take her home. Whenever we got home, Mom would have left a note telling us what time she thought she and dad would make it back. If they were going to be really late, I'd make dinner for me and my sister and we'd eat together before I put her to bed. Then, when they got home, Mom and Dad would eat the stuff I'd put aside for them, after they heated it up again.
"But, if they weren't going to be too late back for Eclipse, then I'd time the dinner just right so that it was ready as they walked through the door. It got to the point where Eclipse would ask me to start cooking earlier so that our parents would get home quicker." Sunset smiled at the memory.
"It seems like you were pretty close when you were fillies," Twilight said, her voice tinged with regret.
"We had each other more than anypony else, it's no wonder we were close," Sunset said. "Our parents had usually left for work by the time she woke up, but I was always there. I met her after school, sometimes I tucked her in at night. We couldn't help but be close then. It was only later that I ruined it."
"I'm sure you didn't-"
"Yeah, I did," Sunset admitted. "I've always taken care of myself. Sometimes I've taken care of other ponies too. But somewhere along the way it seems like I forgot that there's a difference between being self-reliant and being selfish."
"I think you're remembering now," Twilight said softly.
Sunset said nothing, her attention fixed upon dinner. Eventually she said. "You've got... is it a brother or a sister?"
"A big brother, Shining Armour," Twilight said. "He's in the Crystal Empire, now."
"Oh yeah, you're the baby sister, aren't you," Sunset said, smirking. "I bet you got spoiled rotten, didn't you?"
"No," Twilight said, a little too quickly and too emphatically.
Sunset cackled. "What, it's nothing to be ashamed of. You couldn't help it, after all. I'm just saying, I reckon you were the little princess in your family long before you got a crown and a pair of wings."
Twilight blushed cutely. "Maybe a little."
"Don't be embarassed, it's the way things are," Sunset said, though that didn't stop her from continuing to laugh at Twilight's discomfiture. "The youngest is always special." She sighed. "Or should be, anyway. Sometimes you forget." She blinked rapidly. "Sorry about this, Twilight, the heat is making my eyes water a little."
"I understand," Twilight said, kindly. "I'll be out in the living room if you need me."
She went back out into the living room - Sunset could hear her rustling through books - and left Sunset alone in the kitchen with her thoughts and the smells of gently cooking food.
Soon it was ready. Sunset took the pie out of the oven, put it on the side to cool and dished up the stew, levitating the two plates out into the living room and setting them upon the table. "Here you go."
Twilight eyed it suspiciously. "It looks a little hot."
"It isn't so bad, I've eaten a lot stronger, trust me," Sunset said.
Twilight still looked a little suspicious as she took her seat and levitated a spoonful of the thick red stew, a piece of potato sticking out from amidst the sauce, and stuck it in her mouth. Her eyes bulged a little, but she made a contented sound as she swallowed.
"Spicy," she said. "But rather nice."
Sunset smiled. "Sometimes it's good to have your throat scoured clean, isn't it?"
"I wouldn't go that far." There was silence for a few moments as the two ponies ate. "So what did they do, your parents, if you don't mind me asking? What made them home so late every night?"
"Salesponies," Sunset said. "Selling hats. They weren't exactly huge successes."
"Does that matter?"
"Not per se, I guess, but..." Sunset pondered a moment. "They never had time to enjoy life, you know? Didn't have time to tuck their baby girl to bed, didn't ever have time to stop rushing around. What about your folks?"
"My dad used to be in the Royal Guard, until he hurt his knee," Twilight said. "My mom's a writer."
"Ah, so that's where the bookworm tendencies come from," Sunset replied knowingly. "Is she any good? Did she write anything I might have heard of?"
"She's written some pretty popular stuff," Twilight said. "Have you ever heard of the Peapod and Rough Diamond books?"
Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Your mom wrote them? Yeah, I read a few of them, they were pretty fun. The series stopped, didn't it? They had kids."
Twilight nodded. "Mom and Dad used to travel a lot: Ne'Ari, Gryphonia, it all stopped when they had Shining Armour and me."
"Oh, so it was based on life," Sunset said. "You never thought about doing that yourself? You've got the material: Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra." She grinned. "Me."
Twilight said, "Putting yourself in prestigious company, aren't you?"
"I could be an awesome villain, I've got so much untapped potential for malice," Sunset said. "Come on, you can't deny the premise has potential. A princess, newly crowned and uncertain of her status and position. A jealous rival, her heart consumed with bitterness and envy. A perilous journey to another world, with no guarantee the hero can ever return. Allies and enemies. Demons. Battle and forgiveness. The fate of two worlds on the line. It's got all the ingredients for a hit. Might want to add in some dragons somewhere."
"Dragons," Twilight said flatly.
"Our story could have done with some dragons," Sunset said confidently.
Twilight laughed. "You seem to have given this some thought."
"I've considered turning the other world into a book or two," Sunset said, leaning back in her chair. "After all, practically nopony would know that I hadn't made it up. I could explore the pony condition through humans, or teach life lessons to kids. I could just tell fun adventure stories in a unique fantasy setting."
"With dragons."
"Come on, everypony knows that dragons are awesome."
"I'll be sure to tell Spike that," Twilight remarked.
"You do that," Sunset was silent for a moment. "Thanks for agreeing to come over tonight. It's nice to have somepony to talk to besides the wall."
"The pleasures all mine," Twilight said. "This is very good."
They finished dinner, the discussion straying away from the other world and back to literature in general, before Sunset brought out desert: apple pie with whipped cream. As they ate, Twilight asked, "So, what's the problem with this machine of yours?"
Sunset sighed. "I feel like, once I get the basics working, building up to achieve greater complexity of function will be just a matter of increased power and capacity. But at the moment I can't get off the start line."
"What are you trying to do?"
"Get a processor to work," Sunset said. "I need a way of reducing a diverse variety of information into a common language for storage, which can then be re-extrapolated into its original complex state again at the command of the user."
Twilight frowned. "So the ideal system would be one in which the same processes used to convert the data going in could be applied in reverse to the data coming out."
Sunset shook her head. "I thought that, too, but it seems impossible. I mean, once you've reduced the data to a common language, how are you even going to know what language to convert it back into. But that's irrelevant since I still don't know how to convert it in the first place."
Twilight's eyes lit up with excitement. "Boolean logic!"
"Huh?"
"By interposing a series of boolean logic gateways between programme and storage, all data inputs would have to pass through a sequence of nand or nor gates."
"And as they passed through each gate they would be refined into increasingly simple forms of boolean algebra," Sunset continued, catching on to Twilight's train of thought. "Which can then be converted into binary at the point of storage. That's the common language between the various different programmes! That’s how we store a diverse variety of information in one place: by refining it until it isn’t diverse at all at point of storage."
"Yes, exactly," Twilight said excitedly. "But, that still doesn't solve the output problem."
"No, but it does, don't you see?" Sunset said. "Like you said: reversing. Two conduits, one for inputs and one for outputs. The first gate for inputs converts the input programme into boolean algebra. The arrangement of output gates is a reversed mirror of the input gates."
"So that the first output gate will read the programme that was used in the input, of course," Twilight said. "Do you want to give it a try?"
"Of course," Sunset yelled. "Let's get to it."
They worked all night. Finishing off the apple pie as they crafted circuits and logic gates, slotted homemade chips into an improvised motherboard, crafted twin highways of information. The result was an ugly mess, ungainly and a little haphazard, but so long as it worked nopony would care how it looked, Sunset Shimmer least of all.
"Ready to test it?" Twilight asked.
"Yep," Sunset swallowed, hoped, hooked it up to the monitor and then powered it with a burst of magic into the homemade battery.
There was a whirring sound, followed by some beeping in quick succession, then the blue screen of the monitor turned black as green letters appeared upon it.
SSTS-01 ACTIVATING
LOADING...
SEARCHING FOR INPUTS...
NO INPUTS DETECTED
WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROCEED? Y/N
A squeal of pure joy escape from Sunset's throat as she started bouncing up and down like a filly on Hearth's Warming. "It works! It actually works! This is absolutely brilliant!" She hugged Twilight tightly around the neck. "Thanks, Princess, I never could have done it without you."
Twilight beamed. "We make a pretty good team, don't we?"
"Are you kidding?" Sunset asked. "We make an excellent team."