"They're totally insane, aren't they? Six months? What are we going to achieve in SIX MONTHS?!" a blue pegasus mare exclaimed. She paced around the room, trying to calm down.

"You know, I think we could actually make it. I mean, what's there to re-invent, right?" another earth pony mare said, this one olive-green. She spun slowly on her office chair.

"Quiet now, I'm trying to make some calculations," a light-brown unicorn stallion said, scribbling down some calculations.

"We're screwed, that's what we are," a purple earth pony mare added lazily.

Back at the headquarter, Sweetie had broken the news about the change in plan. The reactions we're mixed, but Sweetie knew that the most important thing right now was to get the team to mutually agree on whatever consequences that that will bring upon them: good and bad alike, and move forward.

Now if she could just figure out how.

"Guys, I know this is bad news, and I can't agree more with you all on this subject, but it's final. Nothing can be changed, and we're gonna have to face it," Sweetie said.

"But Sweetie, you, me and Flip are the only designers in this team!" the blue one replied, in total disbelief that their boss decided on something like this.

"Please, Pos, don't make me go through what I already had this morning."

"Well, I personally think that we can pull through," the mare called Flip said, "I mean, what is there to design anyway? The MMAP is practically all-in-one. Unless you're thinking about something else," she added.

True, the MMAP 7700 has everything inside it: memory, graphics, audio, processor; it’s a one-chip-army, and it would practically only need very little circuitry. How hadn’t she thought about that?

"I agree with her, we can indeed pull this through," the light-brown unicorn spoke up. "My calculations show that we'll finish a week or three before the deadline. Chequer and I can verify your designs chop-chop. Isn't that right?" he said, turning his head to the purple mare.

Sweetie was appalled by the optimism of the two of them. She herself wasn't sure even to this moment. Yet, she's convinced that there was something off. Maybe she forgot to tell them.

Chequer shrugged. "Then again, there are only three of you guys, so I think it'll work out fine.”

Sweetie tried hard to remember why she even freaked out in the first place. Not only did she have a team of the best of Pegasus Instruments' designers, but technically the best in the whole of Las Pegasus. That shouldn't be a problem, right?

Several minutes of brain-wracking finally brought to her the answer. "See, that's not the problem," Sweetie said.

"Then what is the problem?" the stallion asked.

"MMAP is basically fresh from the oven, so we don’t have the development kit yet. Until then, it's traditional hoof-coded design, no fancy software to help us."

Like all surprising revelations, this one was followed by the classic silence with an ‘OMC!’ face plastered on all of them (except Sweetie).

"I- I think I'm going to recalculate," the stallion said with a faltering smile, surely disturbed by the new revelation.

"Save it, Jytter, you already know what it's gonna equate to," Chequer said.

"It won't change anything for the verification team, but for the designers, you're all gonna really have to work your flanks.”

"Listen, we all have got to work together on hoof-coding this design. That means, Jytter and Chequer, on top of verifying the design, you'll have to actually design as well. Pos Edge, Flip Flop and me'll try to code whatever we can manage. I'll join in on verification as well, if that makes you guys happy," Sweetie said affirmatively.

"Better yet, why don't we all verify each other's design?" Flip Flop offered.

"Normally I wouldn't agree with that idea, given the amount of experience any of you have," Jytter said. "But we're in an impossible situation here, so a helping hand would be appreciated.”

"Yep, I agree. But still... six months..." Pos Edge said before trailing off.

"Alright, so it's settled-" Sweetie said, before being cut off by Chequer, "Hold it. Jytter, run through your calculations again."

"Let's see. Five ponies... this here... add that and... wow."

"What wow?" Flip Flop asked.

"Theoretically we'll make it just in time, literally," he said.

"No margins whatsoever?" Sweetie asked.

"Nope."

She put a hoof to her face. This was going to be one Tartarus of a ride.

"Well, at least we’ve got the complete, working toolchain. That should be OK, right?" Button said, hesitant about the nature of hate he was getting from the software team.

"Yeah, we do. But that doesn’t make things any easier for us," a red earth stallion said. "For the sake of my paycheck, I hope you do realise how indescribably hard it is to write an operating system from scratch."

Button had always known that operating systems were a pain in the flank when it comes to writing one. Sadly for him, he didn’t have any choice but to try and convince his team of experts to write one in such a short timeframe.

"Assessing the situation as of right now, we won’t be able to meet the deadline unless we don’t start from scratch," another earth stallion said, this one lemon-hued.

"The MMAP has an Acorn microprocessor in it. That thing’s widely supported, right?" said a dusty-grey colored pegasus mare.

"I wouldn’t get my hopes up just yet if I were you, they don’t always have everything at hoof, you know," another yellow pegasus mare added.

Having such a diverse personality in the team was sometimes a blessing and sometimes a curse. Somehow, in Pegasus Instruments, there was always a mix of skepticism and overjoyous positivism. Pony engineers were truly one of a kind.

That, or Las Pegasus just messes with their heads the day they started working here. It happened often in other companies, too.

"Alright, I admit that we’re gonna have a Tartarus-load of work to get done... but hey, at least we’re gonna become famous!" Button cheered. He tried to lift the mood up. But it wasn’t working.

"Yeah. That is, if we could somehow write a few hundred thousand lines of codes in six months," a deep-pink unicorn mare sighed.

The whole team paused for another silent individual brainstorming session. Each one was eager to find a way out of this mess.

"Wait, Boxy didn’t say what it is exactly that he wanted on this thing, did he?" the lemony stallion asked.

"Not really. He just ordered us to develop the OS, and that’s it," Button replied.

"What are you planning, Stark?" the pink mare inquired, throwing him a hostile glare. "Don’t think I’ll let you do something stupid again."

"Relax Love, I’m not going to do that again. I’m just suggesting that, since Boxy didn’t tell us what we couldn’t put on the platform, we could stick a Ponix kernel in there and work with that."

Ponix kernel: the not-so-much relic of computing’s past. Even before Button was born, Ponix was already popular. How else could the arcade machines, the JoyBoy and Twilight’s machine work? Well with Ponix, of course!

"That’s getting a bit old, Stark, Ponix kernels are everywhere!" the red stallion said. "What makes you think that will make this product better than those already on the market?"

"And again, I would like to remind you that we don’t even know if they have a version that works on the new MMAP," the yellow mare added.

"Oh, come on guys. We can just tweak the code a bit, we’re pro enough for that," the dusty-grey mare said.

"You’re always on his side, aren’t you, Elsif?" the red stallion said with a tired voice.

"I agree with Hex," Button said.

"Come on, Button! Play your role a bit here!" the yellow mare exclaimed, annoyed by the fact that the team leader was acting childishly.

"OK, OK, I got you. Look, Stark’s right. We can get this done if we don’t start from scratch, which we’re not required to. Besides, if you guys really want to start from scratch, which I don’t intend to either, then at least we could somehow... I don’t know... turn Ponix into a new OS altogether."

"That sounds... interesting," Elsif said.

"Whoah, wait a minute. Are you telling me that you want to create a rip-off of Ponix?!" the yellow mare blurted. "Nope, I’m out! I don’t want a lawsuit up my plot!"

"Wait! Lisp! Hear me out," Button said.

"What is there to hear, Button? You just suggested to us that we copy another proprietary kernel, mind you!"

"Well, yeah, but we don’t have to... like... Ctrl-C the whole thing. What I meant was make Ponix an inspiration for this new OS. Add a bit of this and that, and voila! PI’s own homebrew."

"That’s pretty risky. Legally speaking," Stark said. "But what the heck. That ‘becoming famous’ part is pretty damn convincing!"

"I’ll play along. I’m pretty much screwed, in any case," Hex said.

"Well, so long as it’s not a 100% copy, I don’t think I mind," Love said. "Though I’m keeping my eyes on you," she added whilst giving a ‘got my eye on you’ expression to Stark.

"Great, Stark Pointer, Love Lace, Elsif, Hex, everyone is more or less OK. Lisp?" Button gestured, a sheepish grin plastered on his face. She sighed.

"When we’re done with this, you’re so gonna buy me a month worth of movie tickets!" she said angrily.

"That’s the spirit! I’m starting to feel that this project is gonna be a piece of cake already!" Button said, laughing with half-hearted certainty.

Las Pegasus’ team of expert coders were assembled here in this room. What could possibly go wrong?