Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat

by David Silver

58 - Lending a Hoof

Leading the way through the halls, a guard marched with practiced precision. "The Ambassador is hard to reach. There's a long line awaiting his time and attention." Without looking back, he asked without asking, "It's quite remarkable you managed to get in to see him so quickly."

Penny was missing having Stick at her side, even for a relatively short length of time but Cadance had insisted to continue her conversation with the changeling. “He is a-” Penny’s speech halted a moment then resumed. “He’s an old friend.” Her simple reply wasn’t a lie, but it certainly wasn’t the whole truth.

The guard had better tact than to pry further, and eventually arrived at a door. He knocked on it firmly. "Ambassador, an 'old friend' is here to see you."

"Old friend?" came a voice dulled by the door itself. The door opened and Silver's snout popped out, only to brighten quickly. "Damaged!" He burst free, only to suddenly halt and collapse to the ground, his smooth tail held in the teeth of his wife.

Penny chuckled and turned her gaze to the mare restraining Silver. “I would say ‘try a shorter leash’ but that looks fairly short already.” She leaned down and bopped the unicorn on the nose. “If I am interrupting something, I can come back?”

Night released Silver. "Stay. Good boy. No, come on in. I'm sure he wants to see you. He's just grounded at the moment." She saluted the guard, who returned the gesture and wandered off back to his own duties.

Silver gathered himself off the floor. "You didn't have to do that. You know I wasn't running away."

“You better not, if I have to chase you across another kingdom there will be issues and… grounded?” With the guard gone Penny seemed a little more free and relaxed with her words. “Didn’t think unicorns could fly, well, except-” She stopped and put a hoof to her mouth as if she were about to let something slip.

Silver shook himself out before reaching for Penny, dragging her in bodily. "Get in here, I'm not allowed out right now." He rolled his eyes. "Try to help some ponies and they decide it's better to keep you bottled up."

Night snorted softly. "Oh no, it's not as if you have a penchant for getting into trouble or anything.."

Penny let herself be dragged in with no resistance. “You got into trouble too? No wonder Princess Celestia compared us. So what is the news, I want to know everything. Are you still writing?” She scanned around the room looking for somewhere to settle down.

Silver blinked. "Hey! I managed to go a whole month or so before I started getting into any trouble at all. How long have you been in Equestria?" He stuck out his tongue a bit. "As for writing, well, yes, but it's a lot more arcane these… oh! Have you learned how to read unicorn yet?"

The conversation shift made Penny look a touch confused a moment but she recovered. “That was what Luna sent me to you for, didn’t she send word I was to be your student?” The mare’s saddlebag flap opened and a magic teaching book floated out toward Silver, one page bookmarked with a slip of paper.

Even as Silver grabbed it with silvery magic, Night leaned forward. "You're Silver's student?" She poked him in the side. "You hear that? That means no wandering off. You have someone relying on you right here."

Silver shook his head. "I… never taught someone magic before." He looked up with a smile. "I'd be glad to try though. I mean, hell, you're a friend." He spread his forehooves wide. "It's great to see you again!"

Penny laughed. “I don’t think you ever saw me as human, did you? As for learning, I think I have the first two down, how many of those glyphs are there?” She found a little couch, setting her shawl-covered rear down and settling to chat.

Silver plucked out his own book, devoid as it may be of his more 'advanced' spells. "Here's my spellbook. Oh! I don't think I ever showed you this." He turned enough to display his flank. "Cutie mark showoff. Yes, I am showing you my flank. Welcome to Equestria."

Night raised a brow. "I gather humans didn't do this very often?"

Penny blushed furiously at Night’s comment, it reminded her so much of the stigma of humans. “Showing off, well, kinda. I had some friends who liked to decorate their bodies with pictures, they were quite open about it… wait, what does your’s mean? You write still or not?” Silver’s earlier comment had confused her and this wasn’t helping. She did glance back to her own covered flank for a moment.

Silver perked an ear as he pointed back at it. "It means I code the same way I always did. I can read spells and mash them together and make new spells that usually… work pretty well."

Night flashed her sharp teeth. "Except when they don't. Those can be quite entertaining, or dangerous. Sometimes both."

Silver waved it off and took Penny's book, flipping it along to the simple beginner's spells. "Pick any two."

Penny got up and stepped over to examine the page. She had promised not to look ahead in it but her new teacher was telling her otherwise. “Uh, the one to change colors and, flower growth? Isn’t this dangerous? I never heard of ponies making new spells… except Starswirl I think.” She looked between Silver and Night, particularly at Night.

Silver began studying the two spells intensely as he started making scribbling marks in his new book. "Unicorns learn magic like specific phrases, but they aren't! They're bits of syntax, like programming. I know you can program, so I know you'll get the hang of this, once you have the basic primitives down. My talent is this." He kept taking bits of one spell, then some of the other, slowly forming a new, third, spell that shared letters from both in a long string of unicorn letters. "It's not the most elegant, or efficient, but it works!"

The lunar unicorn watched interested as he worked, adding and removing symbols from both spells, then squeezing in new ones here and there. “Okay, so let’s do this how I learned to code for you back… when. What does this one do?” She pointed a hoof at an unfamiliar symbol, one of the many she hadn’t learned.

Silver blinked at it. "Ah, that's this one." He lit up his horn in a very precise way, holding it. "It seems to control density. When combined with color and skewed just so…" The symbol changed faintly. "It makes dense color. It's for bright flowers. If you lowered the intensity, you'd end up with pale flowers, likely." He tapped at the paper. "Shall I try our new spell?"

“Whoa, no, you don’t need to prove it works, I can take your word for that. How much… how during… I am thinking a little wrong here. Okay, so we have statements, we have verbs… loops? I gather it takes energy to use each symbol but do some use more than others?” She was off, tangential questions flying. “Have you done any documentation on this? Has anypony?”

Silver snorted softly. "Didn't I just say that unicorns don't see this as a syntaxed programming language? Like less than ten seconds ago." He reached out and gently booped his friend on the nose. "As for what's worked out? I mean, I know some take more than others, but no, I don't have any exhaustive guide, because most combinations seems to do nothing at all, which is probably why unicorns never thought of it that way in the first place. It's complicated, and I'm casting this spell." The new spell hovered up in front of him. "I'm not making one just to not cast it."

Penny stepped back, clearly having taken Night’s words to heart, regarding the danger. “There a way to test them, or bits of them? I mean, sometimes you don’t want your big powerful spell to go off and actually do what it intends. Can you use bits of the spell to make parts of the effect…” She stopped. “I am getting way ahead though, aren’t I? I need to learn the symbols before I can misuse them.”

"You are. Let's see!" Silver's horn became almost pretty to look at as intricate patterns played up and down his horn as the power was focused. Magic began to come into being…

---

Stand In was thrown to the ground at the entrance to the room. Her eyes were dimly opened, glassy and unseeing, possibly dead, or at least unconscious. "She should have just shown the way." Chrysalis stepped over the form of the leader. "Now then. Fast, is it? We have so much to… discuss."

Fast scowled as she stood. "You wretched beast! Stand In never hurt you, or anyone else. Get out of here and go rot in the badlands."

"Hmm? Is that all you have to say." She frowned. "You don't even look like a proper changeling."

Fast clopped a hoof on the ground as green energy flared brightly around her in a bubble. "This is what a changeling should be like. We are all well fed, and without harm. We're doing it smart, not like beasts."

Chrysalis' teeth were born in a slow snarl. "You haven't begun to learn what a beast is. Are you ready then? I'm going to rip your head off and prove to everypony just who is the Queen here." She leaned forward slightly. "Not you, if you weren't aware."

---

With a bright flash, flowers began sprouting all over Silver's body, each one a different color. Some small, some large, all sticking out in straight lines, but slowly succumbing to gravity in gentle arcs from his form. "Ta da?"

Penny laughed and clopped her forehooves together. “Silly displays aside, that is pretty awesome. So we have a programming language for the world at our… horn-tips.” She pointed to his own book at the symbols, scribbles and writing. “We have the basics sorted but really, you need to optimize. There are probably better ways, safer ways, to do all of this.” Penny gestured first to the flowers around Silver, then to her own book and the simple spells there.

The mare breathed in deeply and back out. “This is so, freakin’, cool.”

Night hiked up a brow. "So, this makes sense to you? Is it a human thing?"

Silver flashed a smile at her. "Worse, it's a programmer thing."

"And a programmer is…?"

Silver clopped his forehooves together, mashing a flower in the process. "The worst kind of humans, and you married one!" He shook vigorously, sending flowers raining down all around him, apparently not rooted in any serious way.

“You know, they have to have programmers here, somewhere. I saw one of their little video games, basic stuff, but somepony had to write it.” Penny levitated her book back, flipping the pages with her soft-red magic. “Okay, so this one.” It was the third symbol in the beginners book. “What does this do?” She focused her horn, channeling as little as she could but still keep it focused, trying to form the pattern on the page.

Silver perked his ears suddenly. "Oh, you have telekinesis down. Good work! It took me what felt like forever to get that part down." He thought back. "It felt like months. What's your rating?" He lost track entirely of what he was asked.

“Rating? Twilight just showed me how to do this and work with small things.” Penny wondered just how strong it was. “Heaviest thing I have lifted is this book, I have pushed a few things but that seems a bit easier than lifting.”

Silver tapped at his chin a moment before grabbing the book out of the magic with his own, silvery magic slipping in beneath the red for forcing it away. He set it down, then grabbed a heavy looking candle holder, then a set of chairs five high. "Alright, try each in kind and let's see how high you can go. If you do all of those, the bed is the next target."

“Okay.” She sounded a little sad at losing her chance to work on the runes but focused first on the candle holder. Slowly building a channel strength and reaching toward it. The normal leakage was not huge but it still meant she was not at what she should be. Securing her mental hands around the holder, she lifted it without too much strain. “Right, that one wasn’t too bad.”

As Penny reached for the chairs she felt for them, finding where they would balance and focused on trying an extra hand to stabilize. Getting set, she started channeling more and more but the chairs wouldn’t budge. “I am leaking too much…”

Silver nodded. "Don't stress it. You can hurt yourself just pushing against a wall, as it were. You're a two, give or take. This is hardly, you know, rated weights, but I feel confident. Two isn't bad. I was like a 2.8 for the longest time. I'd practically burst a vessel getting #3 to move."

“It’s good to know I can work at it but the harder I push the more I… oh!” Penny’s hoof had come up and bopped her own head, her magic ceasing immediately at the touch. “I need to explain what happened first. It was a big mess, some not so nice changelings foalnapped me, I think I was in a pod for some time, maybe a day. My magic sort of twisted and leaks when I try to channel. I thought I had a good hold on it but it seems worse the more I channel.”

Night blinked at the story. "Where was your changeling friend? She's supposed to keep you out of trouble. I swear, humans…"

Author's Note:

You get a cookie if you notice the happenchance working here before the story announces it.

Comments

[Morphy]

Ugh, Fast, for all her strength, is going to get her plot handed to her by Chrysalis. Not because she's got a larger mana store but because Chrysalis is devious and cunning.

Well, in a tactical sense. Her strategy skill blows; e.g. The Canterlot invasion.

The ponies should worry a little if Penny starts "programming" like Silver, making slap-dash spells willy nilly. Heh.

[Daremo]

collapsed - collapse
began sprouted - began sprouting - I was almost expecting Silver to find himself covered in poison joke.
*****

“Didn’t think unicorns could fly, well, except-”

- There's something going on here, but no clue as to what it could be. Alicorns are no secret so that's not what she's trying not to reveal... magical wings are not really a secret either... hmmm.

then a set of chairs five high

- I mention this because there don't appear to be any chairs in Equestria unless Pinkie pulls one out of the ether to stand on for comic purposes. Ponies seem to sit on the floor at low tables. Even Celestia's throne is a pad on the floor with a tall backing... and what looks like arm rests, oddly enough.

I notice that the narrative events have been reflected in Damaged and Kiki's stories as well. Awesome work!

[David Silver]

6857784 Objection!

vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/4/45/Granny_Smith_getting_out_of_chair_S4E20.png/revision/latest?cb=20140403220351

[David Silver]

6857780 What's the worst that could happen?

[Dravkwn]

6857808 I think based on who said it and your reply. We could make the joke are you invoking Morphy's law? Morphy can be Murphy's second cousin twice removed on his father's side.

[Gargon94]

6857808 You really shouldn't say that line in a story. Because you KNOW that something bad will happen.

[David Silver]

6857886 As the author, there's no way I could enjoy conflict.

[Gargon94]

6857891 ? I don't understand.

[David Silver]

6857897 Then I am doing my job properly :D Enjoy.

[Daremo]

6857798

>>Daremo Objection!

Oops. I stand corrected.

[David Silver]

6857922 For giggles, another two: img10.deviantart.net/9ae4/i/2015/123/2/8/braeburn_sleeping_on_chair_by_dasprid-d8s1p6g.png
t08.deviantart.net/Pzv1cuohk7K1PqhJxlfo30dv8bk=/300x200/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre03/3322/th/pre/i/2015/138/3/8/mlp_s5_e7_vector_by_bombard423-d8tvt4j.jpg

[Daremo]

6858042 - eeyup.

Practically speaking, chairs are probably just one of those visual elements that the animators leave out to keep things from looking cluttered. Something I failed to consider before yapping about it.

[No one is home]

Some of us make a note at the start of the chapter when we do direct crossovers. I know your god of the universe and all, but I'm just saying, had to go back and read the last Penny chapter. Links are a thing. That said, gave Stick a shout out in my last chapter. Hey, D, wazzup?

[David Silver]

6858111 Notes? What do you think I am, The Text?!

[No one is home]

6858119 Well... since you asked...

[Fireeaters]

I wonder if anyone has magically programmed a 'Bop It' toy yet.

[tsaukpaetra]

Another programmer joins the ranks of the Arcane, let's see if this one gets more chance to practice it...
I wonder why they didn't allow her changeling friend in with them. Or do the guards etc. not know?
Keep going! ;)

[David Silver]

6858391 You have to check our their story for more of their side of things!

[harts fire]

I really only have one thing in mind. TEXT
Penny is a new pony and not only a student for Silver to teach but a past friend.

[Booster Spice]

Yaay, Programmers. I wonder if they are crippled by the exact didactic requirements of C, or more more freeform compiled translated or interpreted languages like tokenised Basic or REXX, or heavens forbid the YuGiOh styled implicit function based Python.

Python? You know youre in trouble when your exact 1 dimentional memory layout has to be written in an exact 2 dimentional text form, using variable sized text. Youd have thought people wouldve learned from COBOL punch cards.

Its like the symbols arnt even endien, but more like code density representation functions, like P prime and other minimum symbological coding languages.

I wonder how crazed Twilight would get if it turned out that the various symbols were built up out of common sub parts such as Lambda Calculus or SKI Its Magic

If the changeling thing is occuring at the exactly the same time as Silver is turning himself into a Blue Meany from Yellow Submarine, is she going to survive long enough for the rest to get there and give Crysalis everything she wanted. In one compact lead implant?

Watch out for symbols that represent energy flows in more dimentions that you actually think they do. Four dimentional strip line is fun.

[David Silver]

6858705 I don't program in any of those languages. You wouldn't know my languages, for I am the grand hipster of coders.

[Morphy]

6857877

I'm more like his goofy uncle that gives really awful advice.

[Booster Spice]

6858771

MUF? Only heard of that in passing, as the MUD I frequent has it completely locked out for security, and a limited set of MPI is used instead. Many years ago, the MUD school had classes on learning to code, and I tried to start work on a double indexed natural language parser due to the 4k limit. Wasnt till years later I discovered far simpler maths for processing, and am still tweaking the model.

I think the closest I can get to the equivalent of Silvers ability is when I looked at the 2*2 matrix representation of numerical values and mathematical functions. During calculations the matrices representing numbers all are the same, but, they have to be operated on by a given matrix in orrder to actually define the number they encode.

Magical functions to me would be the equivalent of having a physical 2*2*2 matrix volume, trnasposed onto 2D parchment or such for representation, and the 3D to 2D transformation allows for variations in representation while having the same actual symbol, effect. Also explains why Silver has to come up with new intermediate blending rotations.

Watch a 4D polyhedral screen saver rotate long enough and you get the idea.

[Booster Spice]

6859220

RPN is popular because its how stack based CPUs are coded in the first place, assemble the structure you want to use, then PULL it back to fire it off. Stack Frames just make it all that more fun, as you still Push to the stack, but then you can Pull a whole Frame off as a single assembly, and not just the top one.

If unicorn spells are a grammatical coding language, which way does their sense of time flow, do they have zero and fourth person requirements, does the grammatical structure itself depend on the spell requirements, such as casting a Self spell on Another, or a Wait for?

Lambda goes back to the 40s, P prime is 60s, BrainF**k is 80s, and was created in order to make the smallest compiler, Boot block size, under 256 bytes. How much further could Silver get with a magical spell that could translate higher level symbology into actual spell symbology, maybe with flag symbols for different types of spell output required, unicorn, pegasi, earth, zebra, to allow for cross comparison, reverse engineering?

[tsaukpaetra]

6858438 ah! Took a bit of sleuthing, but I think you refer to http://www.fimfiction.net/story/310330/a-penny-for-your-thought ?

[David Silver]

6859317 You win!

[Vutava]

Without looking back, he asked without asking, "it's quite remarkable you managed to get in to see him so quickly."

"It's

How much… how turing… I am thinking a little wrong here.

I think that's supposed to be something else.

[Cursed Quill]

happenchance

happenstance

what does your’s mean?

yours

beginners book

beginner's

[Cursed Quill]

Magic programming…stop teasing.

[erictheblue]

this reminds me of an old book series, the "changewinds" series: people could work magic using mathematical formulas...so when someone figured out how to use a computer to do the calculations, he became incredibly powerful...

[NightmintHLW]

Fast scowled as she stood. "You wretched beast! Stand In never hurt you, or anyone else. Get our of here and go rot in the badlands."

Get ouT of here

[David Silver]

8277770
Vintage typos! Fixed.

[Alvsecret]

Fast scowled as she stood. "You wretched beast! Stand In never hurt you, or anyone else. Get out of here and go rot in the badlands."

Fast should be saying anypony.