Monday, September 13, 2021

Twilight looked around her in utter astonishment. This room was unlike any she had seen in Equestria, filled with strange machines of metal and glass. But the strangest sight was definitely the crowd of... beings... standing in the center of the room, facing away from her and making quite a lot of noise. They certainly were not ponies of any sort. They stood on two hooves instead of four –and what strange hooves they were! They seemed to be divided into five segments that each moved independently. The closest resemblance Twilight could see to anything Equestrian was that these beings' hooves were similar to the tail on Ahuizotl from the Daring Do books. But he was just a fictional character, and these beings were most definitely real.

And these things had such strange coats too. All patchwork colors instead of solid, usually blue or beige on the bottom half and some other color on the top. It took Twilight a moment to realize that every one of them was wearing clothes. Had she walked in on some super-formal gathering? She immediately felt self-conscious and wished she had some sort of dress on as well.

But it was rude to stare –or at least in Equestria it was. Twilight decided she ought to introduce herself and try to find out what was going on here. “Hello,” she said. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm from Equ—”

She was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream from one of the strange beings who had turned around to see who was talking. All the others turned to look as well, and they all backed away in surprise and fear at the sight of Twilight. Or maybe it was the sight of the gaping hole in reality right next to her; she couldn't be sure. The one who screamed covered its eyes for a moment and then looked again; upon confirming that the visitor was indeed still there, it collapsed onto the floor.

“I'm sorry for scaring you,” Twilight said. The beings seemed to not understand her, and pushed even farther away. Finally one of them had the courage to speak.

“¿Þevor... þevor viytrekoy kørð?” The being uttered a few words Twilight couldn't understand. It seemed to be asking her a question. She took a step back and tried to find any sort of meaning she recognized in the words, but it was completely unfamiliar to her. We don't speak the same language, she realized. This is going to make everything a lot harder. This is an entirely different world –why was I expecting everypony to speak the same language? Well, there were only a few likely possibilities for what she had been asked; the being almost certainly wanted to know who she was and how she had gotten there.

“I am Twilight Sparkle,” she repeated. “I am a pony from Equestria.” She gestured toward the portal behind her. “I am here somewhat by accident, but I wish to learn about your world.”

“¿Viytrekoy... Twoyløyt Sparkuwl?” It mispronounced her name, but at least it seemed to have learned it. “¿Þebist zøyrg-tekuwekoy? ¿Viytrekiytid demal ziy kørþ? ¿Viytrekiy uwl irv sormelk?” It became agitated and spoke louder and faster; upon hearing it, the group showed signs of fear again. Twilight put on her best I-dont-know-what-you're-saying face and remained silent. The being turned and addressed its fellow whatever they were. Several of them conversed for a while without paying much attention to Twilight, though she could tell they were talking about her. She took the opportunity to explore the room they were all in. Meanwhile, the being who had fainted upon seeing Twilight began to wake up.

There were several curved desks, and each one held quite a few strange flat objects with pictures on one side. As Twilight watched, one of them suddenly changed its picture to solid black with a swirl of color twisting around in it. Moving pictures, thought Twilight in amazement. What kind of strange magic is this? She walked over to take a closer look at it. It seemed to be just a flat piece of glass, encased in a bit of metal. She picked one up with a levitation spell –which seemed to take more effort here than it should have –but even examining it from all angles did nothing to demystify the device. They seemed to be the main focus of whatever was done here, since there were more of them than there were living beings, and most had a chair sitting by them. Clearly the beings must be able to manipulate these moving pictures, and somehow that worked its magic and created an effect in the world.

“Excuse me,” she said to the group of beings. “What do these things do? How do they work?” Several of the beings jumped, startled by her voice, and one stepped forward to answer. This one's mane was as curly as Pinkie Pie's, but jet black. It was a lot less hyperactive than Pinkie as well. It said nothing and instead began a series of pantomimes. Smart move, thought Twilight. Words weren't helping us much before. It pointed to a clock on the wall and arranged its top legs to match the positions of the clock's hooves, then slowly rotated one through a half circle. It must want me to wait –something will happen when the clock matches that second position. Twilight nodded her head to acknowledge that she understood, then sat down on the floor where she was.

She couldn't quite read off what time it was exactly, since the clocks here were divided into twelve segments instead of the standard Equestrian eight, but if she assumed the short hoof went around twice each day, that would put the time at either mid-morning or mid-evening. Neither option was the just past noon when she had left Equestria. This world's Princesses must move the sun and moon on a different schedule, she realized. That's going to be confusing if I keep crossing back and forth to study this place. But just like in Equestria, clocks always seemed to stand still when one had nothing else to do but wait for them. Twilight was bored, but she didn't want to risk angering the beings by moving around the whole time. And so she continued to wait.

۞ ۞ ۞

The control room was a buzz of excitement. Everyone was cheering and laughing and remarking what an amazing achievement it was to get a machine that large running on the first try, especially since its predecessor, the LHC, had failed almost immediately upon startup. Zai found it all rather pointless. She was a theoretical physicist, so whether the SMAC worked or not was not critical –her job was to come up with things to test for, not do the tests herself. And she just wasn't really a partying sort of person anyway.

But then, amidst all the clamor, there came a new voice, one Zai didn't recognize. She and several others turned around to see who was talking. What stood before her was simply unbelievable. Could that really be a purple unicorn standing next to a black hole? No, not a black hole, a wormhole –a black hole that size would have more mass than the entire Earth.

Apparently everyone else saw the same thing she did, since the newcomer's speech was cut off by a high-pitched shriek from one of Zai's coworkers. She looked over toward the source of the noise and couldn't help but laugh at who had made it. Robert, the hyper-masculine asshole engineer who we would love to fire if he weren't so depressingly good at his job, screaming like a little girl. I wish I had that on camera, she thought. But she was not disappointed, for a second later, Robert fainted. Zai pulled out her phone and took a few pictures of him lying on the floor, then turned back to the real issue at hand. One of the experimentalists tried speaking to the strange being who had appeared.

“What... what are you?” he asked. The unicorn took a step back, and a brief look of surprise and fear flashed across its face before it responded.

“Ilv viytrey Suwlsɤwznelk Eleniyesk. Viytrey irv puwniy zøyrg Ekwestriyu.” It tipped its head to the side to point its horn toward the inky blackness beside it. “Fley tekuwork nerelelkɤrb, bin ilv sigumey nanbrisk pors il viytrɤwv kørþidik.”

Zai didn't catch a single word of what the unicorn said, only that its name was quite long and ended in a K. Her coworker didn't seem to get any more than she had; he tried to repeat it back and completely mangled the unfamiliar name. This language barrier is going to be a problem, Zai thought. At least our little visitor here doesn't look too dangerous.

“Where did you come from? Are there more of you? Is this an invasion?” The poor man just didn't get it, did he? Zai sighed; he was making everyone afraid again when so far they had seen no reason they should be. The unicorn didn't answer and just stood there looking confused. Zai decided she just couldn't take any more of this kind of jumping to conclusions. She had to act.

“Alright everyone, look here,” she said. “There is absolutely no reason to be afraid of anything. We have seen no evidence that our visitor here means us or anyone else any harm.” She raised a hand as another coworker tried to speak. “I'm not finished. Let me remind you all where we are. We work at the biggest research facility in the world, on the most advanced experiments anyone has ever done. We are not ignorant fools who run and hide at the thought of anything new. We are scientists, damn it, so let's start acting like it!” She paused to take a deep breath and then continued.

“We are scientists, and what does that say about us? Everyone, think about what made you interested in physics. We are all here because we are curious about how the world works. Well, maybe not the engineers; we just hire them to build stuff for us. But the rest of us want to unlock the secrets of the universe! Look what an amazing opportunity we have been given: we built this machine to find physics beyond the Standard Model, and here it is. Irrefutable evidence that our understanding is not complete.

“Another civilization has contacted ours –peacefully, I might add –and it is our duty to foster good relations so that we may learn from each other. This is no time for fear! This is the moment when we, as a species, join something bigger than ourselves, when we take our place in the cosmos. And the first thing we have to do is learn to communicate with others. I'm going to tell our guest here that a translator will be arriving in a half hour. And you know how I know there will be a translator here in a half hour? Because we're at CERN, and the Geneva office of the UN is just a twenty-minute drive away. All it will take is a phone call, and a new era of humanity can begin!”

The rest of the room stood in stunned silence as Zai finished her speech. She turned away from the group and took a few steps toward the mysterious visitor, who now appeared to be inspecting the computers. She paused a moment to calm her nerves and brushed a stray strand of hair off her face. She had the unicorn's attention now, so she had to start the message whether she was ready or not. Hopefully they had clocks on whatever world this alien came from. Zai pointed to the clock on the wall behind her, then carefully matched the position shown with her arms. Could it really be only ten minutes past the hour? It felt like it had been so much longer already. She carefully swung one arm through a half circle to show a new clock position, then let both hands drop to her sides.

The message seemed to have been received properly; the unicorn nodded and sat down. That was a good sign –communication through sign language and acting things out was a little more awkward to use than speech, but at least it worked. Zai pulled a chair out from the nearest desk and sat down as well, facing the door so she would see immediately when the translator arrived. She had a suspicion she might know the person the UN chose to send, but she couldn't be sure... She would just have to wait and see.

And this waiting was the perfect time to think about what she wanted to do from here on. One thing was certain: Zai wanted to learn all she could about the aliens and what they knew about the universe, and about their world and their technology. Clearly it was much more advanced than human technology so far, so the potential for revolutionary discoveries was huge. But what if the unicorns didn't want to share freely, if their visit to Earth was not one of altruism? Zai considered the implications. This was a unique opportunity in human history, so did they not have a duty to take it to the fullest extent possible? And the best way to learn about a place is to be there, so...

She had made up her mind. Somehow, she would find a way to cross that still-open portal into wherever the alien had come from. Rules and obligations be damned –what she brought back would be more important than any old duties she neglected. But still, patience was key; she couldn't let anyone else know of her plans. Soon there had to come a time when Zai would be alone with the portal.

۞ ۞ ۞

Chryasor stepped out of the official UN transport vehicle and walked across the parking lot toward the CERN control building. She was accompanied by two guards just in case the alien turned out to be hostile. Her supervisor had told her that the report was of a peaceful contact, but they always preferred to err on the side of caution. Normally they would send an entire team as well, but Chryasor happened to be the only highly skilled linguist or translator available on such short notice. That's an impressive mural on the wall there, she thought, looking at the three-story-tall painting of the accelerator's inner workings on the side of the building. A pair of simple glass doors stood before them. As Chryasor approached, one was pushed open from the inside and the research director Dr. Ziegler stepped out to greet her.

"Ms. Xlevrata?" Chryasor nodded. "The alien is just inside, in the main control room. So far it has been completely peaceful; we have hope that you will be able to communicate with it better than we have."

"Thank you, Dr. Ziegler. I admit, I am not sure what to expect from an alien language –but I will certainly do my best to learn it."

The four humans walked inside and entered the control room. Chryasor was amazed at how orderly and quiet everything was. Everyone was sitting at one end of the room, most of them staring at smartphone screens. They all looked up when Chryasor entered, and several almost dropped their phones in amazement. Oh great, not this again. Every time I meet new people... Chryasor liked to describe her height as "an inch short of two meters", just so Americans and the rest of the world could be confused equally by the mixing of measurement systems. People were always so surprised to see how tall she was –the reactions were understandable since most people had probably never met anyone six foot six before, but it really did get old after a while.

"Attention, everyone. This is Ms. Chryasor Xlevrata from the United Nations, here to deal with this... alien." Dr. Ziegler couldn't bring herself to say "unicorn", no matter how much it looked like one. Unicorns weren't real, everyone knew that. Right? "First Nguyen, second Nguyen, you go with Robert and Zai and help Ms. Xlevrata here with... whatever she needs. Everyone else, back to your regular positions; we still have particle collisions to analyze here."

Nobody called the two Vietnamese physicists by their actual names; they were just numbered instead. As twins, they were interchangeable, right? Even being fraternal twins of different genders didn't stop people from treating them identically. Second was actually the older of the two; they had been assigned by the order they walked through the door on their first day rather than the order of their births. Recently though, people had started just calling them "the Twins", which of course they spelled "the Tnguyens", just to be difficult. First and Second didn't seem to mind.

Chryasor walked over to the small group Dr. Ziegler had designated, leaving her two guards standing awkwardly at the door. “Hello again, little sis. Good to see you're doing all right out here.” Chryasor laid a hand on Zai's shoulder. “By the way, nice speech earlier. You almost sound like you're running for office.”

“Thanks, Chry! I just... Wait a second, how do you know what I said? That was before you got here.” Zai looked at her sister in utter confusion. She couldn't figure out how Chryasor could possibly know anything that had taken place earlier.

“Oh dear, how unobservant of you. Dozens of the most brilliant minds in the world all gathered together, and not a single one of you realizes you left the cameras on.” She gave a short laugh. “You were on worldwide TV for the accelerator start-up, and then when this happened you all just completely forgot. I've been watching the show.”

“So wait... have people been watching this the whole time? The entire world knows we have an alien visitor?” Zai's face changed from confusion to horror. “This could get out of control really fast. The last thing we need is for this to become a political issue where everyone wants to get involved.” She could imagine it now, hordes of people with torches and pitchforks surrounding the CERN campus, demanding all sorts of unreasonable demands. She tried not to think about it, and instead simply walked over to the pair of cameras in the corner of the room and shut them both off. Alright world, show's over. Let's get to work.

With a grim expression, Zai returned to her sister's side only to find Chryasor already talking to the alien visitor. She wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to do to help, and it looked like the Tnguyens and Robert didn't know either. At least Robert had shut up for once; after all that had happened, Zai wasn't sure she could endure the stress of listening to him as well. She pulled up a chair and made herself comfortable, content to watch her sister work and wait for further instructions.

Chryasor was kneeling on the floor and was still significantly taller than the standing unicorn. They had exchanged names already and were now teaching each other some basic words. Chryasor pointed to herself and said “Human.” She pointed at Zai and said “Human” again, then the same for Robert. Finally she waved an arm at the entire room and said “All humans.” She extended a hand toward the unicorn and adopted a questioning look.

“Irvtigaptit,” came the reply to the implicit question. It raised a front hoof and touched the tip of its horn. “Il tigaptit ilvik,” it said. “Irv tigaptit ilvik.”

So the unicorn called itself a unicorn too, in its own language. “Tigaptit” clearly meant “horn”, and “irv” was therefore likely to be the number one. That third word, “ilvik”, was still unclear to Chryasor. She pointed to the floating blackness that still remained behind the unicorn and asked, “More... irvtigaptits?”

“Demal irvtigaptitid. Tuwvu ikritid int nimaskitid.” The unicorn nodded, but then elaborated on its answer with words Chryasor couldn't hope to guess. Could there be more than one intelligent species where this being came from? The unicorn looked around for a few seconds then, not finding whatever it was searching for, asked, “¿Porifekey qorlefesk irvid þeŋwɤrkid?” It moved one hoof along the floor as if tracing out symbols.

Chryasor turned and addressed the four bored-looking people beside her. “Hey, can we get some paper and pencil over here? I think our friend here wants to draw something.” Immediately First produced a notebook from his bag of work supplies and handed it to her.

“Just ignore all the math in there; there are blank pages near the back. Or don't, if you just really want to read about group representation theory as applied to particle physics...” He pulled out a pencil and handed that to Chryasor as well.

The translator thanked him and passed the items on to the unicorn, which picked up the pencil in its mouth and drew sketches of itself, then a version with wings and no horn, then one with neither like a regular horse. Impressive control there, writing without hands like that, First thought. I guess they get a lot of practice –I don't think I could ever manage that. Then a new thought came over him, and he turned to Zai.

“Are you and she really sisters? I mean, you don't have the same last name or anything. But you know each other and I thought I heard her call you 'sis'.”

“Yes, we are,” Zai replied. “We all chose different names than the ones we were originally given. Would you believe I was once called Veronica?”

“I just can't see that being you at all,” First said, his mind filled with images of prissy, stuck-up, pink-loving little girls, so unlike the serious and determined Zai he knew. “And you said 'all' of you –how many are there? Just you two?”

“There are three of us. I'm the youngest and Chry there is in the middle. We have an older sister as well.” Zai fell silent for a moment. “We don't really have much contact with her anymore, or I don't anyway. I'm not sure we'd even be on speaking terms if we did happen to meet again.”

Just then, Chryasor stood up and turned to face the physicists. She inquired as to whether there were any unused rooms nearby; apparently she and the unicorn were both finding it hard to communicate with so much other commotion around. They were directed to a small conference room down the hall. Zai offered to stay there and help out, but was told she didn't have to. Chryasor would simply text her if she needed anything. Reluctantly, Zai walked back to the main room and took a seat at her usual desk. Back to work, she sighed inwardly. Back to doing math while my sister gets all the glory of being the first to communicate with aliens. She would just have to be patient. Her time would come soon enough.

Author's Note

That picture I link to when describing the room really is the CERN control room. I visited there a few months before starting to write this story.