//------------------------------//
// 5: Compression 
// Story: Rez: Eqstr[Tera] 
// by NiGHTcapD 
//------------------------------//

Two hours.
I was out for two hours, getting back to EQSTR-07 by 2:00, and Ponyville itself within 5 minutes. Twilight was still at home, but was reading a book in a language I didn't understand.
"Didn't expect to see you back so soon."
"Didn't expect to be called away in the first place. Whatcha reading?"
"Book on magic."
"Looks foreign to me."
"You don't know the language."
"That figures. What do I do now?"
"Well, I could take you to meet my friends..."
"Sounds good." She proceeded to open the door and walk outside. I followed. "Your house is in a tree?"
"My house is the tree."
"Neat."
The next half hour consisted of Twilight walking while I floated. All the while, I was getting odd stares by all ponies who saw me. It was punctuated with three attempts to introduce me to Twilight's friends, but Rainbow Dash was away from her home, Applejack was apparently unable to spare any time from apple picking, and Rarity was busy brainstorming another design for some sort of clothing. This left Fluttershy and another one whose name had not yet been mentioned in conversation. "And since Fluttershy's handling some new animals right now..." She then suddenly sighed. "That leaves one more friend to try to introduce you to."
Uh oh. A sigh for something like this can't be anything good. "Who might that be?"
Suddenly, a nearby crate had its top fly off, and a pink pony with no wings or a horn popped out. "Me, maybe?"
I proceeded to do something that's hard to explain in words. My eyes widened, both hands went straight to my heart, I backed up in my seat, I intook breath in almost the exact opposite of saying "HNNNNG"...which made a really weird gasping noise, by the way. I don't I'll be able to easily repeat that.
All of this was directly followed by the pink horse doing something similar to what I did...except for the gasp. It sounded almost weirder...and possibly more practiced? "Anew...thingy! ItsnotaponybutwaitwhatwasthatnoisedidIscareit? Sorryforscaringyou!"
I proceeded to cut her off by matching her pace. "Holdupforaquicksecond! Howlongwereyouinthere? Whoareyouanyways?" A brief pause for breath. "And yes, you did scare me. Apology accepted, but now my synesthesia is always going to associate jump scares with the color pink..."
Twilight looked lost in the sped-up speech, but the other one seemed impressed, before introducing herself at a normal speed. "My name is Pinkie Pie! Resident party planner of Ponyville! And I haven't seen you in Ponyville before. Who are you?"
"Remember that friend I mentioned? The one from a different world?"
(gasp) "That's you? Ohmygosh I need to throw a 'Welcome to our world' party for you! Wait, what's sinuseethia?"
It was only a matter of time before that was made known. "Synesthesia. Sin-es-thee-see-ya. It's a thing about my brain, it sometimes makes some of my five senses activate another one of my senses. Usually for me, it's my sight that reacts when I'm acted upon by an outside source." Twilight seemed to be taking mental notes. "Wait, a party for me?"
"Yes for you! I throw a party for every new pony in town!"
"I know you don't care about the specifics, but I'm not a pony."
"I know! So I need to make this one extra-fun!" She began to...bounce?...off, almost at speed.
"Wait just one moment!" She did, to Twilight's apparent surprise. "I can only see and hear you guys, and your world in general. Isn't a party supposed to be completely stimulating? I suppose I could go out and get a pizza, but I won't be able to feel the everything. If I'm the guest of honor, shouldn't I be able to experience the whole thing as it's meant to be experienced without bogging down everyone else?" I take a breath. "Minor complaint, but still. How?"
Pinkie and Twilight looked at each other before dumbfounding me entirely. "Synesthesia!" they both said.
I raised a finger to complain, before lowering it and shutting my mouth. "Just do your thing. I'm going to AFK, I have some errands to run." I got up my chair, leaving Pinkie to bounce to wherever she was going and Twilight wondering what AFK means.

Apparently PP and the rest of the town work fast, because there was a whole setup waiting for me by the time I got back to my computer (4:00 PM, for those wondering). I looked at the screen, then hesitated a bit before sitting down, slipping my headphones on, and turning my microphone on. There were no ponies in visual range in the direction I was looking, but I could see what looked like a huge, wooden box of some sort.
I heard giggling behind me. "You know, I don't need to see you to know you're there." I then turned the avatar around...and found myself facing what looked like the entire town.
"SURPRISE!" And I jumped six inches in my chair.
"Well, that confirms the jump scare hypothesis..." I mutter under my breath. I then clear my throat and speak to the smiling and grinning masses, "That was a surprise, all right."
Pinkie spoke up. "Of course it was! That's the point of a surprise party!"
"Um...yeah, but is that it? I'm probably just being skeptical, but that seems like it to me."
"Are you kidding? We're just getting started!" She grabbed my avatar's right hand with her front right hoof, spun it back in the direction I had started from, and moved towards the setup. She proceeded to pull a lever behind the box, and a button popped out on the front. She then...stood right next to it as if to show it off to the world, and-to the shock of everyone else-did not press the button.
It took all of about 10 seconds before I realized that she was staring at me. "Oh, I get it. Stand aside, Pinkie!" She moved away.

Button
Button
FIRE_[2x]

I could not have predicted what happened next. The box unfolded...with everything on the sides sticking to or landing either base down, legs down, or just plain not rolling away. Even stuff that was on the top landed correctly, as if it had been glued to it...and yet it wasn't! The spread of all the banners, tables, food...it was impossible, and yet it all played out perfectly.
I was so busy gawking that I forgot Pinkie was there. "So, what do you think?"
I noticed a tune in the back of my mind. "Pinkie Pie."
"That's my name!"
In a completely serious tone, I asked, "How much effort did you put into this?"
"Time flies when you're making fun!"
"Did you have to put any actual thought into it?"
"Hel-lo? Party planning is my cutie mark!"
And the 64 thousand dollar question. "Did you even have to try?"
She stopped and pondered the question...for about one second. "No, not really," she said with a smile.
I then smiled myself, before swivelling my chair to face the (piano) keyboard and moving my mic near the speaker. I recognized the music. "Then you'll catch on quickly." I proceeded to move the music from my head to the keyboard, and into the world-two worlds, in fact. I began to play.
As it turns out, I was completely right about her catching on fast. The thing is, passive magic named after a music term is one thing, but Pinkie is obviously a master at it-she picked up the chorus without me needing to give a signal, clue, or line. She even sang the second verse-unaltered and having never heard the song before-about things that don't exist on her world, just because they were the lyrics to the song! And by the end, all present were singing-although I really should have expected that much. Crowd songs are nothing new here.
Side note: my avatar was pulsating to the beat as well, but it's specifically programmed to detect music and react accordingly. Magic had nothing to do with it, although I did look at the replay of "Rigby", and apparently it does hear the parts that aren't played by any physical instruments. Strange.
After the singing finally faded out, I turned to the other side of that duet. "This party has officially begun."

For the next few hours or so, I was doing vaguely partylike activities in my house (eating pizza, drinking soda, playing music and singing, and the occasional bathroom break) while having the time of my life in another. The synesthesia theory proved to work as theorized, adding to my enjoyment. Due in part to luck of the draw, a progress node ended up in the EQSTR subsystem. With some help, I was able to pull it into Ponyville, where I scanned it...

3x Progress Node
FIRE_[1x]
Downloading . . .
Updating Schematics
Level Up
SECOND FORM

...and leveled up. "Higher systems...accepted" was heard by all nearby. It was in a synthesized female voice, which caught their attention. Or it would have, if it weren't for the fact that my avatar had just changed form. It now looked more like a human, outlined in orange vectors with transparent polygons. There was an underlying "skeletal structure" with silvery polygons, some of which were part of the external mesh.
"Uh...what was that?" asked Twilight, speaking on behalf of Ponyville.
"Uhhh...level up. My avatar leveled up." I pause for a moment, thinking of what to say. "Do you have any role playing games on your world?"
"Yes. It's called Ogres and Oubliettes."
D&D enough for me. "Good, that makes it easier to explain. I get progress from those blue nodes, either 1 or 3, and that one was a 3. If I get 8 Progress, my avatar levels up and the meter resets, keeping remainder. When fighting viruses and firewalls, if I suffer a collision, I go down a level. This is called the 'second form' right now; I cap at 5 (without Eden's blessing, that is), and if I get hit at 0, that's it. Makes sense?" I noted that most ponies quickly became disinterested in the explanation, getting back to the party underway.
Twilight was, as always, happy to learn. "Perfect sense."
We got back to the festivities, which were beginning to die down by this point. I was just about to notify Pinkie and Twilight that I was going to leave soon (as they were the ones who would most need to know this fact), when I got a voice chat request. "Please don't be the politics guy..." I looked at the caller ID. "Blank." Which should be impossible...unless...obviously it's from this world and not my own.
I picked up the call and muted mic volume for the avatar. "Who is this?"
"Are you the one called Rez?" A somewhat...regal female voice. Suave of a sort, a calm demeanor, something about it wanted me to feel...comfortable.
It's not that simple for me. "He asked you first."
"Then you're just who I've been looking for. But I do wonder why I'm only hearing your voice, not feeling your mind."
"Allow me to repeat myself. I asked you your name first. Tell me now, or I'm breaking the connection."
"...I am Celestia." I've heard that name before, but I can't place it.
"You said something about not feeling my mind? Well, it appears that your magic...mind...speak was intercepted by my chat client. And yes, I understand that didn't make much sense to you. So, what were originally calling about?"
"I attempted to communicate so as to arrange a private meeting."
"Where and when?"
"Three days from now, directly before sunrise."
I look up the time the sun appears at the horizon at my location. "7:10 AM, so we should begin around 7. And what about the where?"
She giggled a bit at that. "Let's just say you're not coming out of Twilight's horn this time."
"...I'm forced to assume that you can access the network."
"No, but I can learn how."
A ten second silence was broken with "Hanging up. See you then." Followed by me doing so, telling Twilight and Pinkie I'd be leaving now and be back in a few days, and me thinking about what I'm going to be meeting the resident royal figure about.
I log out.