Summers of Change

by Silver Letter

The Great Project

One day, Pixel was in her workshop, typing away on her laptop computer. She had been in the lower floor a lot lately. It’s mostly an underground place for her to work on her projects and experiment with various technologies. Everything was chiefly designed by her; it linked to her new server room and was covered in brilliant white tiles. Her computer was sitting on a steel table along with a few other devices while large white light fixtures illuminated the entire area.

Her house CPU told her that Ferris had arrived and had let himself in. She had been waiting for him that morning. He flew in by helicopter and she could hear a faint whirring from outside.

He walked down the steps until he was in sight. He was 32 and not only was he more handsome with his trimmed beard and toned muscles but he was just as spontaneous even as CEO of Spark Industries. Most rich stallions would start to settle down at his age but he was just getting warmed up. He went on adventures every other week, parasailing or snorkeling or mountain climbing. He partied and drank with his rich friends all the time in his executive apartment. Sometimes mares would spend the night with him. Pixel herself still found herself distracted by the elegance that emanated by the way he carried himself; but as much as he was still attractive, she never thought herself as wanting to pursue anything with him. They had a bond of course but she wanted to think it was closer to a friendship that came from their shared time. He would visit her at the university occasionally; and she was quite familiar with his lab too where he built new prototypes for all sorts of things. He’s always given her more than her share of time and attention and she’s appreciated that from him.

“How’s the place treating you?” he said. It was a casual day for him as he didn’t have a suit on although he had a pair of glasses and a single black leather saddlebag on his left.

“I love it. The server room especially. I know it will really help with OS development.” When he approached her, they both shook hooves briefly. She thought of him as a friend but when it came to work, she always wanted their relationship to maintain some level of professionalism. She came to understand once how easily things could change. When he gave her that house, it was something from out of the blue; she remembered the joy perhaps being too much to where she wanted to break down and cry, joyfully of course, and hug him. But she had to restrain herself. It wasn’t just for her after all. It was good for the company too that she had her own place to work like he did. Not to mention that one moment he could be transfixed on what she was doing then the next, he would appear aloof after a phone call. She didn’t really want to irritate or bother him.

“Excellent. How is the maintenance cycle on the Wave OS 2.0?” One thing she didn’t like was that he could be a nagging boss at times. When he wanted things done, they always took precedence, even when there were other projects. She was especially concerned to have to put her pet project on hold. She’s been reminding him since she joined his company that she wanted to develop her main computer line using the original Wave OS. He ended up rejecting it, saying that it wasn’t going to be good enough. She disagreed and even tried arguing her case but in the end, he made it clear that the Wave OS 2.0 was far more profitable and lucrative in his eyes.

“It’s going well enough. A lot of the protocols and such you came up with is ambitious,” Pixel said.

“But for a brilliant mare like you, it’s more than doable.”

She smiled politely. “Yes, but without knowing some kind of end goal, it’s hard to grasp the scale of what the OS should be capable of.”

“I understand completely.” His tone turned serious. “I suppose I should be able to finally bring you up to speed. I’ve kept this secret from everypony but it’s kind of like your dream. A vision I’ve had since I was young.” He asked if he could clear the table of everything and she agreed. Her stuff was swept to the end and he pulled out a folder from his saddlebag. From it, he layered a bunch of papers on the table. Each was covered in diagrams and writings in blue ink. Even without him speaking, she could see the symbol of the Wave OS, three bright blue squiggly lines on top of each other, on one of them.

“What’s all this for?”

His hooves were spread apart and pressed against the table as he leaned against it. He gazed downward at the papers as if taking it all in or even admiring it. At first glance, it looked awfully complex with lines streaking across the pages, seemingly at random like the paths of comets.

“It’s something completely new. Nopony in our world has seen anything like it. In fact, some won’t believe it’s anything but magic.”

“Some people still think what we do is magic but I don’t hold it against them. What is this you’re working on?”

“Well, it’s more like what we’re working on. Before your OS, what I have now was just an idea floating around in my head. But a lot’s changed. What you see before you is a bunch of ideas that if put together, becomes a singular that I call the “internet”.”

“The internet? Sounds interesting.”

She’s rarely seen him so pumped up since she first got her first phone off the ground at her first tech show. He moved papers and gestured wildly when really motivated. This internet he spoke of was, according to him, going to redesign how ponies did pretty much everything. Communication and information technology that would run through computers and phones, and would all be connected through a central location.

“Spark Industries Tower would be fitting to be the core of this new project. It would start small at first but spread all over the place, to every major city. With wireless tech, there’s no place it wouldn’t be able to reach in the end,” he explained excitedly.

For a moment, she quietly peered over the papers. The maps and charts showed how each city would be linked to one another. The towers he was building being integral to it. After a while, she needed to put it down. It was the most ambitious project she’s ever seen and was too much to take in all at once. She felt like going outside and letting the wind cool her.

“I like that look. I bet you’re as eager to see this technology in action as I am,” Ferris said confidently.

“It’s incredible. But, is all this infrastructure caught up to what you have in mind?”

“Of course. I’ve been planning this for years. Even before I met you back in that town of yours. Like I said, it’s been a long dream.”

As excited as she wanted to feel, Pixel did let a bit of disappointment slip through. The internet sounded like it would take years to realize. “I’m willing to lend a hoof to all this but I still wanted to get my work handled at some point. I’m still behind as it is.”

A pony like Ferris knew exactly what to do to get what he wanted from others. He must have learned it from his father, who wooed investors into making his company what it was. Ferris could get any mare to like him or any stallion to put his faith in what he offered. When he applied the charm, it was quick to draw them in and to make them feel as though they needed Ferris more than he needed them.

“I see.” He scooped up the papers and didn’t look her in the eye as he was about to put them away. But she stopped him suddenly. Just the thought of losing out on an opportunity put a chill through her. She was already drawn in and knew that she was bound to accept it. It was like seeing that contest in the magazine. That was done for her benefit. And how many others could something like the internet help? After all, she knew him well enough to at least give him some benefit of the doubt.

He looked so appreciative. His face and posture softened near instantly.

“If you help me with this project, I’ll promise that you’ll get that computer developed eventually.”

For her, it sounded as good a compromise as any. A stallion like he, she thought, always kept to his word. “Then it’s settled.” She reached to shake his hoof but as he gripped it, he went forward a bit and gave her a hug. It was unexpected but she reciprocated. She had forgotten how warm he could be if he really wanted. It was one of her favorite traits that he had but also one he never revealed often enough.

He didn’t go home that week or the week after that. She let him stay at her house and he slept on her sofa since she didn’t have a spare room. He didn’t mind and they both slept little for those weeks anyway. They spent the majority of their time downstairs where their work was done. The bulk was computer programming and such, dealing with ways the technology interacted in systems and all kinds of other technical issues that 99% of ponies wouldn’t be able to understand. It was mind breaking rather than back breaking and just as frustrating when things didn’t go as planned which happened a lot when dealing with things new and untested.

At the end of those two weeks, Ferris returned to Manehattan. He had business to deal with personally but he left her a list of things to test in his absence. She agreed but she wouldn’t start without taking a break from all her work. Her birthday was coming up. She was born in summer and it was that time of year that made her a bit more homesick than usual. So she arranged a day to go and visit some friends and family, some she hadn’t seen in a long time.