Hi, my name is Alpha. I’m a simple pegasus pony, a victorian ‘one’ on my flank. I have a brilliant white coat, and a short, deep blue mane. I bet you’re wondering what my cutie mark means, aren’t you? Well, I’m extremely skilled in the computer and electronics fields. There aren’t too many computers in Ponyville, though. So I rarely get a chance to visit. Same with Canterlot, Princess Celestia, praise be her, likes to keep things traditional. Princess Luna on the other hand, she wants to modernize the city, but Celestia won’t let that happen. So, she generally spends a lot of time in more modern cities such as Manehattan or Las Angelemare. Hell, she even spends a little bit of time in the small town of Canterborough.
Yes, Canterborough, one of the smallest, yet paradoxically most technologically advanced towns in Equestria. Okay, technically, it’s right on the border of Equestria, so it has a lot of influence from the neighboring country of Narnland. I know, what a weird name. But, apparently, in their native tongue, it means “Land of Many Peoples”, but, as soon as they changed from Zebarian to common for their official language, people have been pouring into Equestria. They also tend to go through the city of Pouston, which is far to the west, actually. But, back on subject. I live in Canterborough, well, lived, but I’ll get into that later, doing IT work for a living. I know, pegasus, IT, who’d have figured? Fixing computers has it’s ups and downs, occasionally I’ll find some...nice pictures of a very good looking mare, and occasionally I’ll be able to swipe a game or two.
Now then, where do I come into this story? Well, my life was average. I wouldn’t call it unexciting, not by a long shot. It wasn't as exciting as some pony’s lives, or as boring as others. Being in Canterborough, we often don’t hear about events until weeks after it happened. We didn’t hear about the Discord event until a week after it happened, his initial reign of chaos was limited to Ponyville while he had the Holders of the Elements to take care of. The only reason I even knew about the Royal Wedding before it happened was because I was invited to help with the computers.
I bet you’re wondering how I got invited, aren’t you? Well, there are plenty of computer programmers, or designers. They develop software, then others use that software to do research, or to communicate. But there really aren’t too many that know how to fix one. Weird, right? I thought so. So, my name came up one day during a Canterlot meeting about the current state of technology in the city. They said I was the premiere pony for the job. Yeah, premiere. Apparently in the entire principality, there’s but 100 IT ponies. Most of them are in Manehattan, and are on 24/7 alerts at various companies, so they couldn’t be so easily recommissioned. I do freelance, working at my own shop. So, I guess I was the one to be called to make sure technology, the cameras, the computers, all worked perfectly.
The reason you really didn’t see many cameras or computers there was due to Princess Celestia, they were all behind the scenes. Equestria is a much more modern country than most think. It’s just the highly publicised places, Canterlot, Cloudsdale, and the like, are all generally not modern. Princess Celestia technically has power throughout the entire land, she just doesn’t really use it much. But she has a lot of influence in Canterlot and Cloudsdale and Ponyville. But,this isn’t the story of industrialization. No, this is the story of how I fell in love with the most wonderful mare in the world. With her help, I developed a technology that unified...technology and magic. It was a simple device, translated magic into binary pulses, I love binary, and made it much easier to use a computer. Unicorns didn’t need the very awkward interfaces that pegasi and earth ponies needed. They’re getting better, though, the interfaces. But that still begs the question of how I met her in the first place.
Well, it’s a very simple one. It starts at my house, with me, and my roommate Omega. “The shaped macaroni has a much higher cheese-to-noodle ratio than the normal kind.” I said, a smirk on my face, knowing I was right. Omega, not fully awake yet, sat back and sipped his coffee. It was clear he didn’t care, as he wasn’t awake yet.
“Why are you eating left over macaroni for breakfast?” Omega asked me, still half asleep.
“Because I didn’t feel like making anything.” I replied. Truth be told, I wasn’t awake fully either. I was talking out of my ass for most of it. “Plus, if it’s available, why shouldn’t I eat it?” I continued, putting another bite of the delicious meal in my mouth.
Omega just facehooved, sighed, and trotted away, no doubt to prepare for the day. It was a few minutes, and the rest of the bowl of macaroni, the delicious Princess Luna shapes, when I heard a knock on the door. “Don’t worry, I got it!” Omega shouted from the other room, so I threw the bowl in the sink and went upstairs to prepare for the day. Okay, I was going back to bed, but that’s a different thing altogether. I decided to take a shower real quick, but just as I got to the bathroom door, I heard Omega yell for me. “Alpha, come down here.” Oh boy, when he used that tone of voice, I knew I was dead. It was kinda...calm. Yet, at the same time, demanding, and angry.
I went downstairs to find a royal guard pony, one from Canterlot no less, at our door. They say Canterlot guards have the most serious faces when on the job. That’s kinda an understatement. He asked me, in a very serious manner, “Are you the pony named Alpha Bit?” Well, shoot. It appears I was that pony. I didn’t think I did anything wrong, and wouldn’t they have a warrant if I did?
“Yes, I am. How may I help you?” I asked him.
He rifled through his bag until he pulled out a scroll. Oh Celestia, it’s the warrant! “You are hereby cordially invited to the Wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor, to serve as the Royal IT Pony, to make sure that all of the technology at the ceremony goes smoothly.” He said, leaving both me and Omega stunned. He continued, “The ceremony will be held in one week’s time, at Canterlot Towers, in the capital city of Canterlot. Travel will be provided for, as will payment for your services, and compensation for missed work. This is an official Royal Decree, so you shall be given time off from your workplaces. If it is not a problem, I was told to leave for Canterlot immediately. Are you able?” He never once broke his serious expression.
“Uh, yeah, just give me a few minutes to pack my stuff...” I said, before realizing that I had one tiny problem, “I’ll need an assistant,” I continued, “Omega here will be very good at it!” Omega just facehooved. Taking Omega to the side, I said to the guard, “One moment please.” His response was very serious.
“What the hay, Alph, I can’t just take two weeks off to go help you, especially when you don’t need it!” Omega quietly shouted at me, “There’ll be, what, ten computers there?” Omega apparently didn’t realize what a chance this was.
“You can get royal orders to get them to let you take the time off! They’ll have no choice in the matter!” I also quietly shout, “This is our chance to get big! To hobnob with Royalty!” I tried building excitement in him, but apparently he wasn’t awake yet, “we can hobnob!” I emphasized hobnob. It’s a fun word.
“Fine.FINE!” Omega loses his cool and finally snaps, eliciting a response of joy from me, “Go pack your things, I’ll talk to the guardpony.” I rushed upstairs, and started packing my things. I packed my nicest suit for the wedding, my toothbrush, my hairbrush(Gotta stay classy), my laptop, and whatever else I could think of that I might need. Whatever, we’ll be striking gold in Canterlot, royals, especially the ruling Princesses, have a habit of overpaying. Call it generous, or call it that they’ve had thousands of years to gather wealth and simply have so much they don’t know what to do with it. I’m leaning on the latter. Oh, yeah, I also packed Omega’s things. Including his autographed Luna picture. I swear, he had a crush on her ever since she came back from the moon a few years ago! He’s not looked at another mare in ages. Oh my...how could I forget? I also packed my Limited Edition Canterlot Ms Smartypants...action figure. I’ve had it since I was a foal, it’s my favorite thing.
No, it’s not some gift from a fallen parent, or a long lost friend. The story is much simpler than it sounds. One day, I found a few bits on the ground. So, I went to the store and bought her. That’s it. She’s my favorite because it reminds me of my foalhood, something I desperately miss. Omega seems to not understand this, and constantly berates me for having such a foalish memento locked up. He was never really connected to his childhood, but that’s another story for another day.
Anyways, I gather up my things, and head out to meet the guard pony out front. “We’ll need to stop by my workplace, inform them of my leave.” Omega said, the first smile on his face this morning, since he got to ride in the chariot.
“It has already been seen to, we must leave now, they’ll be sealing off Canterlot a few hours after we’re scheduled to arrive, and nopony can go in or out.” The guardpony, I think his name was Hammer, informed me. With a smile on my face, I entered the chariot, hoping that Omega would do the same. Well, he got on the chariot, but the smile was missing. Now, when Omega smiles, he’s usually happy. Woah! What a shocking revelation, I know. Well, he usually stays happy for at least a half an hour or so, the amount of time it takes you to come down from a sugar high. My smile drops as I look over to him, the ground slowly fading away.
“What’s wrong? You seemed to happy being able to fly a moment ago.” I say to him, outside the earshot of the guardponies.
“We get to see the princesses, right?” I nod, “Well, what if I meet Princess Luna again, and she doesn’t like me this time??” Instantly I knew his problem. Okay, earlier I said he loved her since the day she got back. Well, technically, that’s true. He met her at the Nightmare Night Celebration, just a quick meet, nothing serious. Well, quick from her perspective. They chatted it up while in line for some snack food, something about an Apple family. He says they hit it off, I hardly believe it. Shortly after he went to Canterlot on a ‘business trip’, he barely does anything around his office anyways, and came back with nothing but a signed picture of the Mare of the Moon. He brought four bags of things with him. Perhaps he sold it all?
“Relax, you said you two hit it off before, right? Perhaps she remembers you?” I replied, giving the most caring look I could muster. He smiled back, but, rather than replying, just looked off into the distance. I’ll give you a spoiler, she did. Well, I think.
You know, I think now would be a good time to tell you about this mare I meet here. I’m sure you already know who I’m talking about. She’s the smartest, cutest, most all around best pony in the land. Smart, being, she’s widely considered one of the most prestigious unicorns in the land. That’s one problem I had to face. I, no matter how good I was, had to deal with being a pegasus, and not being able to actively use magic. Sure, I could fly fast, and computers came as naturally to me as flying did to Rainbow Dash, but still no horn. Little did I know, she didn’t much care. Being an alicorn’s personal protege kinda makes you a little agnostic on that matter.
I’m sure you’ve already figured out who I’m talking about by now. Twilight Sparkle, the mare everyone knows. Well, they all say they know her. Most only know of her. I’m sure you know who she is, she is the Princess’s personal protege. So why am I telling you all this? I’m not really sure. I just want someone to know how amazing she makes me feel. Hopefully she’ll realize how much I love her. As of yet, I am not with her. But, my story is not the story of how I got with her, really.
So I'll spare you the details, and jump to Canterlot. We were given a stay at a luxurious hotel, one of the best in the city. It's right next to the castle, so we're within walking distance. It's a nice room on the top floor, not the biggest, but big enough for both of us and all of our, my, equipment. We slept a lot the first day, probably should've been setting things up. Admiring the room, I had but one thought. "Damn. This is way better than we could've ever afforded!"
Omega predictably wasn't too thrilled with that statement. "Yeah. I'm still shocked you got this place." His look of excitement never faded.
I rolled my eyes, as was customary. "Well, help me get unpacked.” So we started unpacking. First was the clothes, all 3 of them, next was the equipment. There were servers, desktop, laptops, smart phones, pda’s, etc etc. Each smaller than the last. By the time we finished taking everything out, and setting up some of it, which included hacking into the hotel’s wifi, which they charged up the flank for due to it being one of the only hotspots in all of Canterlot. A few places had wifi, most notably Canterlot Towers. Weird, isn’t it? Princess Celestia, the one who dislikes technology like this, allows it in her castle. This is also probably because Luna said so, and they have equal power, so Celestia can’t go against the orders of the Princess of the Night, and vice versa. One last thing I took out was a picture of Celestia’s hoof. No, I don’t have a hoof fetish, it was a prank gift from Omega years ago. I really latched onto it, taking it in stride with swag. I pretended to love it, I had it framed, which was a very awkward conversation at the photo shop, and put it on my hearthpiece. Where it sits until we go places. I don’t mean, down the street, but whenever we go somewhere, and stay overnight, I take it, and put it on the hearthpiece there.
“You brought that?” Omega said with a facehoof, as I was about to reply, a knock came onto the door, “I’ll get it.” Omega claimed, since he was closer to the door, and opened it. On the other side was a palace guard.
“I have come to extend an invitation to a Royal Dinner from Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. It is customary to invite all members of all teams to a dinner the night before the work on the wedding starts.” Oh Celestia, that had taken us all day.
“Alright, when is it?”
“It is being held in 30 minutes, I trust you two can safely get yourselves over?” The guardpony still looked very serious. Omega said yes and closed the door, then trotted over to me.
“Don’t buck this up.” He said to me before gathering his goods and starting towards the doors. I did the same, and we had a silent walk to the towers. The dining hall was beautiful. They had always said that all of the castle was beautiful, but this didn’t even compare. It was gorgeous beyond belief, and the evening sunlight glistened, bouncing off various objects around the room. Somehow, they managed to make the sunlight fall directly on the table.
Princess Cadence was there, the guest of honor it seems. She caught everyone’s, basically me, Omega, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and about a half dozen other ponies I don’t know nor care to remember, by ringing a glass with a spoon. “Listen up, everypony, I want to make a toast!” We all looked over towards her as all the chattering in the room ceased. “To my wonderful staff who I hope will make sure this wedding goes smoothly, I just want to personally thank each and every one of you. To Applejack here, we’ll have a wonderful cake, and delicious baked goods for the reception!”
The orange pony blushed, and replied, “Aww, shucks, well thank ya, it’s no trouble at all.”
“To Rarity, who will be designing what I hope to be the most beautiful gowns I’ll ever have the pleasure to see.” A white unicorn blushed, and looked away, mumbling something I couldn’t hear. “To Fluttershy, for arranging such a wonderful ensemble for the music.” I didn’t quite find one named Fluttershy there, but I did find a few yellow feathers with my eyes. “To Pinkie Pie, for planning what I hope to be the most amazing an amazing party!” A pink earthpony stood up, and did a bow. I don’t know why, but it seems she was a little bit out of character there. “To Rainbow Dash for the post Wedding fireworks!” A rainbow maned pony just nodded. “To my soon-to-be husband, Shining Armor for planning security.” He just kissed her cheek, which made her blush a little. “To Alpha and Omega, for making sure it’s well connected and that all of the new technology goes smoothly.” I didn’t see what Omega did, I was lost in my napkin. “To Vinyl Scratch for the music in the reception, I hope it’s quite good.”
So I know what you’re thinking. Obviously, this Cadence was a changeling. But, sometimes, when you’re low on power as one, you act like the pony you’re impersonating. It’s how you get their memories, their personality. It takes a lot of power to override this. It’s all really complicated and such, I’ll have to ask Twilight about it sometime. Oh, wait.
Well, Cadence finished the toasts, and let everyone mingle about. I was seated next to Twilight Sparkle, the only pony in the room not mentioned. I spoke first. “So, I’m Alpha...” I can’t believe I’m doing this.
“Hi, Alpha.” She looked so sad, I had to know what was wrong.
“What’s the matter? You look awfully glum with such a fantastic meal sitting in front of you?”
She sighed and looked at me. “It’s just that Princess Cadence doesn’t remember me.” I glanced over to Omega, who was quietly munching away at his snacks.
“Remember you? Like, has she met you before?”
“She used to foalsit me when I was a filly, we were the best of friends. The only pony I really talked to aside from my family and Princess Celestia.” Wait, what?! She knew Princess Celestia AND Princess Cadence PERSONALLY?
I had to get to the root of it. “You knew the Princesses?”
“Oh, that’s right. I never gave you my name. I’m Twilight Sparkle, when I was young, Princess Celestia took me under her wing as a personal student. And Shining Armor is my brother.” Oh boy, here it goes.
“Really? That’s actually kinda awesome. A personal protegee to the Princess herself.”
“Yeah, it has it’s memories.” She chuckled. “I was never really an outgoing pony so most of those memories involve books.”
“It’s okay, most of my happy memories involve either a complex binary equation or computers.”
Twilight started casually munching on her food. I didn’t even realize I had any. “Really? Binary? I’ve read a little about that but never really looked into that.”
My speciality. “Well, ms Sparkle, binary is really simple. You have two numbers, one, or zero. On, or off.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, and smiled. “I know the basics, but I never got into the arithmetics of it. Weren’t you also good with computers?”
“Oh, yes, very good. I was called here to make sure things go smoothly with all the new computers during the wedding.” My other speciality.
“There are computers here?” She looked somewhat confused.
“Yes, they’re mostly going to be in the background, and used to give televised coverage of the wedding to ponies who either weren’t invited to personally attend or who couldn’t make it.”
“Ah. Last time I used a computer I nearly broke it. I tend to shy away from technology, no need for it. I’ve got magic.” Apparently her special talent was magic. Who knew?
“Magic? I wish I could do magic, make my life so much easier.” I laughed a little.
“Well, pegasi don’t generally use magic. Although, recent studies have found that you guys use magic during flight and when manipulating the weather.”
“Oh, yes, manipulating the weather. I totally use it for more than napping on clouds.”
Twilight put her hoof to her chin and giggled. “I’m sure you do. Water, so good for electronics!” She looked so smug.
“Totally.” The conversation started to trail off so I decided to turn towards my food. The food was amazing, I’ll have to admit. We both sat and ate in a comfortable silence, and before I knew it, the dinner was over. Twilight left before I could do anything else, so I had to simply go back to my room. Wonderful.