//------------------------------//
// 3: A/V 
// Story: Rez: Eqstr[Tera] 
// by NiGHTcapD 
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Data is not easy to memorize.
It's even harder if physics itself seems to be wonky, and the physics of "Equestria" seem to not match up with the known universe. You would not believe how long I was studying that dump to memorize the whole thing: 4 hours. And it only took 15 minutes to read through! It's not easy to internalize that kind of thing.
And yet I couldn't pull myself away from the computer screen until I had it all down. Admittedly, it took longer because I slowed down and thought about it as more than just data. I thought about their way of life-especially magic. They have magic down to a science, in place of science. And it works, and is somehow compatible with our own! Not to forget that they can keep tempo like an atomic clock, if I understand correctly. Harmony is a strange thing even there, but I might be able to instigate something and see it for myself.
Today I got to the subsystem early, because I thought I would have some free time to work on my optics...I'll explain soon what I mean...but I just got there in the middle of Twilight entering the building.
"Well, you're here early."
"As are you."
"Tell you what, I've got something to work on. If you have anything to look at, study, or otherwise think about, you could do that while I...erm...code this module."
"This place is amazing, and I'd love to be able to explore outside this...subsystem!"
"Just make sure you're back by you-know-when." And with that, the star moved off into the network.
Now might be a good time to explain what I mean by optics, and what I meant when I once said I used to be blind. You see, I was born blind. I relied on my hearing (which is excellent to begin with) to make my way through the world, even moreso than touch. (I could never get the hang of Braille, for those wondering.) Hearing became my vision, and with the help of text-to-speech programs, I learned to code by ear alone. It put me in a class by myself when I could find the typos and errors faster, even without seeing what I'm typing or fixing.
Then came technology. After years of not needing it, I decided to gain the sense I never had: vision. When I first saw things, I wondered why so much of it didn't match up to what I had in mind. It took a while to overcome the synesthesia, and now I can see the world similarly to most people, though I'm less able to trust my eyes than most. That's why I require sound while I hack.
But I didn't get normal eyeballs in my sockets, no. I got programmable optics, which can work just like eyes, but I can make them visualize code as I type it, or give me a first-person view of my avatar, direct feed rather than through my computer screen. Or I can switch them off entirely. And to the outside observer, it all just looks like I have normal eyes.
"Am I late?" Just as I was wrapping up.
"No, you're on time. Just in time, in fact. I'd like to ask you something."
"Yeah?"
"You don't know much about the human race, and I'm pretty sure you haven't actually seen what I look like. If you'd like, I could go about my day and you could see how much my world differs from yours."
"Is that really possible?"
"I don't even know yet. But it's what I was working on, and I guess it's worth a shot." I explain my plan: my optics can be hacked to display video from outside sources it's connected to, so it's a bit of a stretch, but possible to send video back to said sources. The tricky part was making it work remotely, but I think I made it work via cellular device. The video feed would then show up on my screen, where my webcam would be pointing. With some specific passwords and instructions, Twilight could viably bypass my firewalls to view the webcam feed, which is displaying my screen, which is displaying my field of vision.
"But what about hearing? Or what if I need to tell you something?"
"I have artificial eyes, but my hearing is impeccable as is, even without technology. And I sadly don't have an answer for one-sided conversations, but we can talk when I get back."
"Oh...okay."
A few minutes later, and Twilight verifies that she can see the screen, which is displaying my vision, which contains the screen, so I look away to avoid a loop. Next step: look at myself in the mirror. I stare at myself for a good 30 seconds before looking down at my hands and feet, to show first-person human, and what it looks like for my species to see themselves.
I get in my car, noticing my (piano) keyboard in the passenger seat. Must've forgotten to take it back inside after that last "open music night". I drive, not thinking about the fact that I have a watcher. All goes normal as I get to the store, pick up my needs and wants, with minimal interaction between myself or anyone else. It rains on the way back, though, and I get a bit delayed by traffic. The radio is playing Beatles (always a classic), but I have a different song in the back of my mind. Yet I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. All in all, a one-hour slice of my life.
When I get back home, the first thing I do is try to carry all of my stuff in at once. I actually...succeed, surprisingly enough. Then I go back to the car for my keyboard, bring it to my computer and place it next to my (typing) keyboard, look at the screen...
"When did you bring your friend?" There was another...avatar that had joined the T_Star. Specifically, a set of three congruent crystals, all sky blue, vertically elongated octahedrons. If I remember correctly, their appearances here are based off of something that is based off of what they do best. Something...mark.
"Oh...heheh. She came here when I said I would meet her for something, but I ended up here watching you, so she came to me...and then the rest of them came to see what we were up to. Well, there's actually six of us here, but only two of us are unicorns."
That follows. "Okay, but who is she?"
The crystals then "spoke". "My name is Rarity."
"So it is. How much did you see?"
"She came in around the time you were looking at underwear." I'm pretty sure that sounded hilarious to anyone listening to their end and not mine.
"Speaking of underwear, why is everypo...everyhuman wearing clothing, all the time?"
"The word is either 'everybody' or 'everyone'. And it has something to do with how our...uh...biology works." I could explain more scientifically, but their species seems slightly more squeamish than mine, and possibly more immature. Or maybe I'm just stereotyping.
"And speaking of people, you didn't really talk with anyone. Not even in that line of people at the register."
They are literally social animals, I shouldn't have expected that to get by them. "Is there a problem with that?"
"Don't you think all the people looked lonely?"
That line whams into me. Now I can place the music that was eating at me on the way home.
"Excuse me for a moment." I plug in the keyboard via USB and perform a basic exercise to make sure it's working properly. "About that 'magic of harmony' thing?" I shift the webcam to look from an upwards diagonal.
"What about it?"
"You said something about spontaneous musical numbers?"
"Yes, that sometimes happens. (No, Pinkie, not you this time.)"
"I think I'm feeling its effects." I record and loop a chord in violin mode to act as my "drumbeat" to keep the pace for me.
"What are you talking about?"
"This." I begin to play, but I think I'll only use the one hand to begin with. I want their attention before I begin singing.
They seem to stare in silence, but I get the feeling they're hearing it too. Even my avatar has its pulse synced with the music. I decide to not spoil the moment and extend the intro.
"What...are you seriously...?"
"Eleanor Rigby, by The Beatles. You want lonely people? Here you go." I begin to sing.

The song passes by, and I'm pretty sure I heard two voices for some of the choruses, and I haven't previously heard either of them; a high-ish pitched shy voice (and an excellent singer, I might add), and a lower-pitched voice with a heavy southern accent, both female. I'm guessing that those two were the ones who most related to the lyrics.
"So...that was it. That was harmony magic?"
They were dumbstruck, all of them. "...yeah, that was. I'm surprised you instigated it, though. You don't even have magic on your world!"
"Clarke's third law of scientific prediction: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." This seemed about as good as any answer to them. "Feel free to think and talk about it. I'm going to go fix an anomaly." That's not completely true. I'm going to watch through the footage of what happened (if I'm using my webcam, then it's recording), see if I can't find out what was in my head and what actually made sounds.
I log out.