Rez: Eqstr[Tera]

by NiGHTcapD

2: Resolution

8:30 AM.

My alarm woke me up bright and early today. I need to be wide awake for this.

As expected, the forums exploded after I posted my findings. There were suggestions of extradimensionals, fantasy planets, even another Morolian prank (good lord, we don't need any more of those)! But the general consensus was that I needed to be there at the right time to find out more about it. So I needed to be prepared for it. I needed to be working at full mental capacity, which meant a complete breakfast, a shower, a toothbrushing, all that jazz...heheh, jazz. Or was it swing? I could never tell. Anyways, my computer had the destination in mind, and all previous entities and enemies were logged, so I set the layer and activate "travelling", the autopilot.

"Rez."

9:45 AM, I reach the location. I guess this is what it feels like to be in a "stakeout"? Might as well play some music.

9:59, it's about ti-"Hello?"

"Here."

"Good." A ball of light appears, as the T_Star rezzes in. But not normally. Rather than building up from bottom to top, the vectors and polygon appear radially from the center. Like an actual starburst.

"So, let's start with a better introduction, since the first one was a disaster."

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, unicorn pony from Equestria."

"I am known as 'Rez', human from Earth."

"Known as?"

"I don't use my real name online. The term is 'anonymous', and it's kind of the norm for communication with those you haven't met yet."

"You guys can communicate anonymously?"

"Yeah..." If I could see its face, it would probably have an expression of awe. "You sure seem excited about that. For the most part, you're doing it right now."

It squeed. "OhmygoshthisissocoolIneedtotellCelestiaaboutthiswhenI'mdonehere..."

Good thing I'm no stranger to fast talking. "Calm down, please! And what's this about a Celestia?" I pull up an internet window, because I'm curious what's in a name.

Celestial: positioned in or relating to the sky, or outer space as observed in astronomy.

"Actually, never mind. Better question: if you don't have computers, how did you get here in the first place?"

"Well, I read about this spell that allows for communication across distances. I know Celestia and Luna can do it..." Lunar: of, determined by, relating to, or resembling the moon. "...but this seemed like a different version somehow. So I tried it, and I ended up...here, wherever here is."

Hm. "When did you first try it? One week ago?"

"On the dot."

"Okay, I have some theories about what happened. But you'll need to know how the internet works, or at least have a basic primer." I pull up another internet tab, type something into the code for my program, then lock onto Twilight's avatar.

T_Star

T_Star

T_Star

T_Star

T_Star

T_Star

T_Star

T_Star

"Brace yourself, this may sting a bit, but it won't do lasting damage."

"Wait, what are you-" FIRE_[8x] "Whooooooa, this is so GREAT!"

While Twilight's going over the information dump, now seems like as good a time as ever to explain what my program's shots do. They are primarily used for scanning, for forming connections between my computer and a subsystem so that I can see its code. When used on certain bonus nodes that can be seen around, it automatically scans the code for anything beneficial, before adding it to my program's own.

When used on firewalls and other things that could cause a collision (and thus lower the level of my avatar), it scans them as usual, before sending the data to me. Then it's up to me to find weaknesses in the code to make the enemy fall apart, or derez. After that, my program can automatically target those weaknesses and change the offending code to defeat the enemy, although it still has to lock on to be able to access the code. (Bosses take less work-they always have similar areas where they're weak, which is good for them because-I admit-it's strong code and it takes awhile to force a critical failure. However, it means I don't have to code the derez every time, which means that security system battles play out more like a video game.)

What I did this time was access a website that gives information on what the internet is and does, look through Twilight's code to find places where I could dump information without screwing any internal workings (there was a folder named "Hippocampus"), access the source code again via lockon, and alter that part of the code by adding the information from the website.

In short, Twilight now knows about the internet and is about to nerd on about it, if I'm seeing things right. Time to get her back on track. "So, now that you have that in your system, I'm going to describe what I think happened here. Okay?"

"Okay!" Certainly enthusiastic.

"Alright. So, you performed that 'spell', and it was meant for communication. Well, the network is programmed to do just that, so it must have picked up on it somehow. As a side note; given the Morolian and Lumi Incidents, it's not too much of a stretch to say that music strengthened and stabilized an otherwise-impossible connection, seeing as this network seems to like music. It didn't have an appropriate place to put you, so it ended up creating this subsystem, possibly drawing inspiration off of the user, you."

"I get it now. I became confused, but decided to keep trying to cast the spell in the hopes that I would get somewhere or something different."

"The definition of insanity, I might add."

"Yeah, but I was going to stop after one week of straight attempts."

"Which is where I came in."

"And here we are now." That seemed to explain everything.

"Yeah, but what's this about music?" Shoot. I knew something was a bit dodgy about the whole thing.

"Well, that's when the creation of this network comes into play. The Lumi Incident, if you will." I explain the leadup and incident itself to Twilight, and she seems genuinely impressed. "As you can see, music and sound play a vital role in the running of this network, which may explain how I was the one best suited to dealing with the Eden Incident...but I digress. Were you singing or humming something, or was there music nearby you when you first perfo...cast the spell?"

"No, but it may have had something to do with the Magic of Harmony."

I snigger. "It's exactly what it says on the tin, right?"

"Sudden musical numbers? Long times of peace? Yes, it is. Although when casting the spell, I do hear something like this." She started humming, (about 1:30) and I recognized it instantly.

"Sugiyama..." I said under my breath, stupefied. "How did you get Buggie Running Beeps?"

Sadly, she was just as confused by this as I was. "No idea. Is that really what it's called?"

"Yeah."

"I've never heard anything like it."

"It's called techno. The genre, that is. It's my lifeblood, to be honest. Especially when hacking." Not a lie, not in the slightest. "But really, that just opened up a whole new can of worms. Let's talk about something else."

"What?"

"I've given you plenty of information about my world, mind giving me something about yours?"

"Um..." She seemed to hesitate, but not because she was hesitant. "Okay, but how?"

"You can try doing what I did."

I'm guessing that she was mulling it over, because she was silent for a bit. "Alright..." I saw several lines of force from the various T_Sparks to me. "And, I just release it?"

Whoa, she must be good at analyzing things, because I never told her exactly what I had done! "Uh...yeah! Exactly like that."

Five seconds later, I look through my program's code, and find that she had just done a total dump on the basics of her world! Or at least it seemed that way. "Whoa...three kinds of pony, magic, harmony..."

"Thank you, uh, Twilight Sparkle. Looks like we've both got a data dump to look over."

"I know, right? I guess I'll see you back here tomorrow."

"Swear to Eden?"

"Upon Celestia's name!"

"Awesome." I've got a lot to learn before next meeting, but it isn't early in the day. I figure I can get all I need to know on a cheat sheet, if it comes down to that.

I log out.

Author's Note:

FYI: The Morolian Incident refers to Space Channel 5, given that both were created by Q Entertainment and that a Morolian appears as an easter egg in Rez, which tells me that the games take place in the same universe. And given that all of Q Entertainment's games have something to do with music, along with the singing involved in MLP...you get the idea.