//------------------------------// // Working Harmony, chapter 2 of 4: Magic and technology // Story: Sunflower - Side Projects // by Hoopy McGee //------------------------------// It had started out as a nice day. Lyra had woken up feeling refreshed and energized for a change, even before her first cup of coffee. She’d awoken on her own a good twenty minutes before her alarm had gone off and had felt alert enough to hop out of bed instead of rolling over and trying to squeeze in a little extra sleep. Since she’d managed to get up early, she allowed herself to spend some extra time in the shower, luxuriating in the stream of apparently endless hot water that the Harmonics compound provided. The heat left her muscles feeling loose and relaxed, and the steam cleared out her sinuses nicely, leaving her feeling both awake and well rested, an unusual combination for her in the early mornings. A deliciously filling breakfast of fruit and oatmeal with honey along with her morning cup of coffee taken in the outdoor cafeteria had nicely rounded out her morning. She’d been filled with a sense of inner tranquility and good will towards all. That mood had lasted about twenty seconds once she got to her office in the Magical Research department. “Lyra! There you are. I need you here!” Lyra slumped at the sound of the reedy voice coming from the office directly across from hers. Her good mood evaporated like fog in the sunlight. “What do you need, Spectral Charm?” she asked wearily, her ears folding down. “I can’t show you from there!” She sighed and walked into his office. The stallion was frowning at his computer screen and using his hoof to move the mouse around randomly. As Lyra approached, he turned and held the mouse up in the light-blue aura of his magic. “This blasted device refuses to work once again! I require assistance.” As Lyra frowned at it he added, “And there’s no need to sigh at me like that. It’s not my fault that we are required to use this bizarre technology!” Lyra marshalled her patience as best she could. “Humans use computers for everything,” she pointed out. “They’re very efficient.” “As are books and scrolls,” Spectral Charm said with a sniff. He was sitting on a low, red-cushioned bench in front of the large screen. Like Lyra, he had to use a keyboard and mouse, as touch-screens didn’t work well with hooves. Unlike Lyra, he had no patience for learning how to use them. “What is it you’re trying to do?” she asked. “I was attempting to find documentation regarding all of the gateway research gathered so far by the humans. But this infernal device refuses to work properly!” He jiggled the mouse in her face once again. “Quit that,” Lyra snapped, pushing it aside with her own magic. “If you want my help, fine, but don’t shove things in my face!” “You’re the one who requires your staff to use these devices! If I had my way—” “If you had your way, I’d be printing out everything for you so you had paper copies of it all,” Lyra said, twitching her tail irritably. “Which is not only inefficient, but is also counter—” “You can make paper copies of the information I need? Splendid! Please deliver them to my desk as soon as you are able. I believe I’ll take a short constitutional while you do so.” Without another word, the stallion brushed past her and trotted out of the shared offices, leaving Lyra gaping after him, too stunned for the moment to be outraged. The moment passed. “Why, that little knock-kneed, crupper-breathed, swaybacked, bucktoothed son of a bot-ridden nag—!” was how she started. What followed after that was a display of Equestrian-specific cursing which managed to not only cover Spectral Charm’s appearance and demeanor but also his parentage, social standing, and her observations on variously physically improbable things he could do to himself, many of which involved the use of props. “—and shove it up there, hard, with a splintered wooden spoon!” Lyra finished, seething. A slow clapping from the next cube over cut her off, and she blushed a deep red as one of her human co-workers, a young male named Adam, came walking out of his own office. “That... was magnificent,” the human said, grinning from ear to ear. “Sorry,” Lyra replied. She looked down and shuffled a forehoof across the carpeting. “I know that wasn’t appropriate. Am I going to get into trouble?” “From me?” Adam asked before bursting out laughing. “Nah. I’ve heard... well, okay, I’ve never actually heard worse, so bravo. But still, I’m not going to rat you out for a little colorful language. Becky, on the other hand...” “Oh, ha ha,” her other employee said from her own office. “I’m not going to get Lyra in trouble for that. I didn’t even know what half of that meant!” “I’m a little curious, myself,” Adam said dryly. “I should have taken notes.” “Kinda glad you didn’t,” Lyra muttered. “Yeah, like when you said he had crupper breath. What does that mean?” Becky asked. “It’s… er… It’s part of a work harness that can get really stinky,” Lyra said, wishing the conversation would just end. No such luck was headed her way, though. “Still,” Adam said, running a hand through his black hair and grimacing slightly, “you want to be really careful with that kind of language. Especially in a team lead position.” “I understand,” Lyra said. “Oh, I see!” Becky wasn’t paying attention to anyone else in the room, instead looking at her tablet. “So, it’s sort of like a jock strap, but for ponies.” Lyra shuffled her hooves again for a few seconds, not sure what to make of that observation. She settled on just ignoring it. “Um... Any thoughts on how I should deal with this situation?” Adam folded his arms and smiled at her. “Tell you what. When he gets back, I’ll work with him and show him how to print off the documentation he’ll need. I’ll even show him how to refill the paper on the printer. He’s probably gonna need a few reams of it if he’s going to print off everything.” “Oh, thank you!” Lyra said, feeling so elated she actually bounced on her hooves for a few seconds. “Actually, not all of it can be printed,” Becky said, leaning backwards in her chair enough to poke her red-haired head out of her office. “Anything over grade-12 clearance is print restricted. And he’s got to remember he can’t leave these offices with any of it.” “Yeah, yeah,” Adam replied, waving a hand. “I’ll go over that with him.” “Ideally, though, we want to get him trained to use the computers properly,” Lyra said thoughtfully. “He’s not going to be able to collaborate if he can’t.” “I’ll see if I can work with him on that,” Adam said. “It may take some time, though.” Lyra was about to reply, but that was when Spectral Charm decided to return. He took one look at his desk and then, frowning, turned to Lyra. “Excuse me, but where are those documents I requested?” he asked, sounding puzzled. Lyra was inflating her lungs for a comeback when Adam’s hand gently touched her muzzle. “Tell ya what, Specs,” he said, “I’ll walk you through the process of printing out whatever information we can.” With that, Adam started walking into Spectral Charm’s office, with the unicorn trotting along behind him with a sour look on his face. “My name is Spectral Charm.” Lyra watched them go, trying to push down the resentment she was feeling. Once they were out of sight, she turned and walked into her own office. She hopped into her human-style seat and immediately slumped down, massaging her temples with her forehooves. “This is absurd!” Spectral Charm protested loudly from his office. “Why is it so difficult to acquire these documents?” So much for a nice, quiet day. ~~*~~ Lyra sighed as she looked out of the cafeteria window. Once again, it had just randomly started raining, with no announcements or anything. Which meant no eating outdoors and enjoying the weather. Not that the cafeteria wasn’t comfortable for her, but it could get a little crowded and noisy when full. She had really wanted to get outside today, especially after the earful she’d gotten from Maggie earlier. Lyra had only intended to make a quick comment about how hard it was to work with Spectral Charm and had, instead, ended up dumping all of her frustrations out on her boss for nearly five minutes straight. Maggie had let her finish, steepled her fingers under her chin in that fashion that Lyra knew meant that she was about to be serious, and had told her, “You’re the boss, Lyra. Put your hoof down and deal with it.” And now it was raining out, meaning that Lyra couldn’t even get the relative escape of having green grass under her hooves instead of the bland pinkish-grey tile that was spread throughout so much of the facility. “That’s a bummer,” a voice from behind her said. Lyra turned to see a brown haired human male of medium height standing there and staring out of the window with a frown of his own. “Hey, Mark,” she said, smiling. “Howdy, Lyra,” Mark said with a twang in his voice that reminded her of the Apple family back in Ponyville. “Guess I’m eating inside, today. Want to sit with me?” Lyra frowned up at his hopeful grin. “That depends,” she said. “Are you going to pester me about Ascent again?” “Nah,” he said, his brown eyes twinkling. “I get it. You don’t want to take a bath in the grey goo.” “I’m amazed that anyone does,” Lyra said as she maneuvered her way through the mostly-full tables. Lunch was in full swing, leaving very few open spaces. Mark tapped her on the shoulder and pointed. She walked in the direction he’d indicated and found a table with several people just getting up to leave, all of whom smiled at her and waved. Lyra smiled and waved back. “Good job finding a table,” she said to Mark as she set her tray down and took a seat. Mark sat across from her with his own tray of food. Lyra’s eyes flicked over it. An apple, a “cheeseburger” with potato fries, and a paper cup that probably held some sort of soda drink, which humans seemed to love. “Yup,” he replied. ”It helps bein’ a nice, tall biped instead of a tiny little pony.” Her glare didn’t even dent the mischief written all over his face. “I told you I don’t want to talk about being humanized,” she said reproachfully. “I didn’t bring it up,” he replied with a shrug. “Ain’t my fault bein’ a human has so many benefits.” “Why are you so interested in turning me human, anyway?” she demanded. Mark shrugged again. Lyra nabbed a bite of her salad while he was replying. “We really want to figure out why Erin couldn’t use magic in that last build. It was basically an earth pony body altered to look human, but we obviously messed up somewhere.” “Yeah, that’s a comforting thought,” Lyra said, rolling her eyes. “So, I could lose my magic if you ‘mess up’. No, thanks.” “We could always put you back just the way you are now.” He heaved a sigh. “But, I guess if you’re too scared...” Lyra stared at him incredulously for a few seconds before laughing. “Oh, that is so not going to work on me,” she said. He looked almost offended for a moment before grinning sheepishly. “Didn’t think so, but it was worth a shot.” They ate in silence for a minute or so. Lyra flinched as she bit into a particularly bland slice of tomato. Most of the Earth vegetation she’d tried was pretty close to Equestrian, with the exception of the tomatoes for some reason. Those were usually just nasty. “You know,” she said thoughtfully as she jabbed a slice of cucumber with her magic-wrapped fork, “we do have another unicorn for you to pester these days.” His eyes brightened back up. “Yeah, I heard about that. You think he might be interested?” “Hmm.” Lyra thought about it while chewing. “Nope.” Mark’s face fell. “But it would be just hilarious if you started bugging him about it.” The human’s chuckle was contagious. Lyra found herself laughing, too. “I may just ask him, then. Just for laughs.” “Make sure you call him ‘Specs’, too. He loves that.” Lyra struggled to keep her face straight. “You don’t say?” Mark replied, quirking an eyebrow. Lyra just winked at him over the top of her salad. “Right. Figured as much.” Mark chuckled. “Well, still wouldn’t hurt to ask him, I suppose. Still, I’d rather it be you.” “Why is that?” “You’d make one pretty human lady,” he said with a grin. “Pfft, right.” “I’d make sure of it,” he said with a wink. Lyra laughed in spite of herself. “Heeeyyy... wait a minute, is that going to turn out to be a Human Resources thing?” “Oh, no! Not Human Resources! I’ll be good!” His wide-eyed panic was so comically false that Lyra had to laugh again. Mark joined her shortly after. ~~*~~ “Hey, boss, what’re ya working on?” “Oh, hi Adam,” Lyra said, looking back over her shoulder. “Not much. Just working on a theory.” “What theory?” the human asked. He pulled a chair into her office, spun it around, and sat in it backwards, his folded arms resting on the backrest. “My theory is that there’s some deeper connection between my world and yours,” Lyra said. “It started with noticing the similarities in music. Then I noticed that you guys have similar countries. We have Prance, you have France. Germany, Germane. Saudi Arabia, Saddle Arabia. Even the languages sound similar from what I remember, though I only speak Equestrian, so I can’t say for sure. It goes beyond coincidence and straight into ‘damned spooky’ territory.” “Okay. That’s not technically a theory, though.” Lyra frowned at his grinning face. “Okay, I’m not a scientist. It’s… it’s a hypothesis, right?” “At this point it’s just an observation. It’s an hypothesis when you have an idea as to why that might be the case.” “Oh.” Lyra turned and frowned at the document she’d been writing up. “I like the word ‘theory’ better than ‘observation’. Makes it sound more official-like.” “Does ‘collecting data’ sound better?” Adam asked, eyes twinkling. “I guess.” Lyra sighed and spun her chair back to her co-worker. “Anyway, what can I help you with?” “Becky wanted to go out Thursday night. It’s our six month anniversary. We were hoping we could leave a couple of hours early, if that’s okay?” “Yeah, yeah, sure,” Lyra said, waving a hoof. “It’s not like there’s a whole lot going on here, anyway.” “True. But it does mean that you’ll be stuck here alone with Spectral Charm. No buffer zone, nobody to help you when he decides that computers are ridiculous and that he’d rather use ink, quills and scrolls.” Lyra shuddered. “Maybe I can leave early, too. Anyway, are you two planning something nice?” “Becky is in charge of all that.” Adam said with a smile. “I just have to show up. So far, I know that we’re going to dinner, then we’re going for a walk in a park. I’m hoping I can convince her to see a movie, but I doubt she’d be willing to go to the new Spider-man reboot. She’d probably want to see something romantic and cheesy.” “Romantic and cheesy, huh?” Lyra said with a grin. “What’s wrong with romance?” “Ah, you know,” Adam replied with a grin. “Chick flicks are all the same. Sappy dialogue, unbelievable reactions, people falling unconditionally in love at the drop of the hat. I think they’re pretty stupid, but she loves ‘em, so I pretend to put up with them.” “Stupid, huh?” Adam’s grin turned sickly and slid off of his face at the sound of the voice behind him. He stood and turned to find Becky, her arms folded under her breasts and a fierce scowl on her face. “Uh, I can explain…” “Hmph!” Becky turned on her heel and stalked out of the offices. Adam stared after her helplessly. “Go after her, you idiot!” Lyra said, leaning forward in her chair and shoving him in the back with a hoof. “But what do I do? She’s mad at me!” “Now, yes. Later, she won’t be. So get out there and mend some fences!” “Right. Thanks. Sorry!” Lyra watched the human speed off after his annoyed love. She shook her head and sighed. It had been long enough since her last relationship that she’d forgotten how easy it was for a couple to fight over the most ridiculous of things. But those two really seemed to fit well together. She was sure they’d get past this. In the meanwhile, she had an hypothesis to develop. With a long-suffering sigh, she turned back to her computer and opened up her browser window, once again searching through various aspects of human society. There had to be a reason everything was so similar. There had to be. And Lyra was going to find it if it took her the rest of her life.