Contact

This is it. I reach my right arm behind my neck and undo the sling my arm’s in. For the first time in weeks, I have absolutely nothing constraining my left arm. I gently touch it, and boy is it nice to feel it. Of all the things I thought I’d miss, exposed arms was admittedly not on the list. I pick up one of the jumpsuits and put it on, covering my arms again. It was nice while it lasted, I guess.

Somebody knocks at my door. “Keerthana?” Twilight asks. “Are you in there?”

I go to the door and lean my back on it. “Yeah, you need something?”

“Can I come in?” she asks meekly.

“What is it you need?”

“Can we just talk?”

“Why can’t we talk like this?”

“Open up!” she demands. “Nopony’s seen you for weeks, and we’re all getting worried about you!”

“Well, I’m fine,” I reply sternly.

“Why won’t you come out?”

I moan at her inability to understand. “Twilight, if you don’t need anything, then stop wasting time for both of us. I’m sure you’re a very busy pony, and I have my own things I need to do.”

“Like?”

“I, you know…” I look around my living room for something to lie about. “…Stuff…”

“If you don’t want to talk to me, just say so!” she says.

“Fine.” I cross my arms in stubbornness. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

I can hear her groan. “What’s this all about?”

“Three guesses, Einstein.”

She sighs. “This is about the Gala, isn’t it?”

“What gave it away?”

“We can’t help you if you won’t let us,” she says worriedly.

“I don’t need help,” I assure her.

“We’d all r-“ I cut her off by slamming my foot into the door, which gets a little “ow” out of Twilight.

“Do I need to repeat myself?” I ask.

“Stop it!” she yells. “All I want to do is help!”

I guess I have to be blunt about what I want. “How can I be sure that it’s you?”

She sighs. “You came here a few months ago through a portal. My brother found you. The first night you were here, you tried to sneak out. You got really angry and locked yourself in my side room. We all threw you a party to cheer you up, and you said you’d stay for an extra week and well…you stayed longer. The next month-“

“I get it,” I cut her off. She’s either telling the truth or is a psychopathic bug-pony who’s done her homework. Either way, she probably deserves to come in. I unlock the deadbolt and open the door to see Twilight grinning up at me.

“Thanks,” she says.

“Whatever.” I walk in and sit down in one of the chairs. “What is it you need?”

“Could you come with me really quick?” she asks.

“For what?”

“It’s a surprise.”

I facepalm really hard. “You guys aren’t even trying anymore, are you?”

“Please just trust me,” she pleads, looking in my eyes.

“Damn bugs,” I mutter under my breath. “Fine. Just wait outside a moment.”

She obliges, walking out the door and shutting it behind her. I quickly run to my bedroom and start rummaging through my stuff. I find the small pistol I haven’t used at all and a magazine next to it. I put it in, get one in the chamber, and turn the safety on. I’m hoping I don’t have to use it, but I put it into one of the pockets and walk to the door. When I go out, Twilight’s still standing there in pony form.

“Lead the way,” I say, preparing for the worst. She walks through the town and into the forest. Totally not suspicious. I put my hand near my pocket in anticipation.

“Almost there,” she says. A few steps later, we enter a clearing where all the other ponies and Spike are sitting around a basket on a red and white-checkered blanket.

“A…picnic?” I ask Twilight. “You got me out here for a picnic?”

“Yup!” she beams. “A surprise party worked once before, we’re hoping it works again.”

“Well…wow.” I bend down and hug Twilight. “Thanks, guys. You know how to make someone feel wanted, don’t you?” Everyone else comes in and joins in the hug.

“I’m starving!” Rainbow Dash cries out. “Let’s eat!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight calls out jokingly.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was a little hungry myself,” I admit. “Besides, going to a picnic and not eating is like going to the ocean and not going in the water.”

“The ocean!” Twilight says. “We should go there some day!”

“Might be fun to do some day,” I say. “But for now, picnic.” We all go to the blanket and sit down. Twilight opens up the basket and starts pulling all sorts of food out. “Thanks again for doing this, guys.”

“It was no problem,” she says.

“Seriously though. Thanks.” I look at all the faces staring at me. “Not just for this, but for everything. I don’t know what sort of hellhole I’d be in if it weren’t for you. I could be dead,” I try to block out any thoughts of Jay or Dick, “Or worse.”

When I finish, I can see all six ponies blushing mildly. Spike has his head in the air, looking for something only he can see. “Something wrong, Spike?” I ask him.

“Do any of you hear that?” he asks nervously.

“It’s probably nothing,” Twilight reassures him.

Spike pulls a sandwich out of the basket, but I can see that he hasn’t put his fears to rest. For the next few minutes, he eats very nervously, constantly darting his head around to try and find some specter only he can hear.

“Spike, chill,” I tell him. “Everything’s fine.”

He jumps up and points to the forest, dropping his food in the process. I can tell this is really worrying him, since he’s not the kind to let food go to waste. “It’s coming from there!” he exclaims.

“Spike!” Twilight scorns. “Everything’s fine!”

“No,” I speak up. “It’s not.” I have absolutely no idea what’s driving me to say that, but I can tell something’s wrong.

“Well then,” Twilight asks skeptically, “What is it, and why can only you two hear it?”

“I don’t know.” I walk next to Spike and kneel down, staring intently at the trees. “But something’s fishy here. Gut feeling, primal instinct, whatever you want to call it, but something isn’t right.”

All the ponies come next to us and start concentrating as hard as they can. “You two sure there’s somethin’ there?” Applejack asks. “Ah don’ hear anythin’.”

I lean a little closer to the trees to see if I can hear something to confirm my suspicions. “It sounds like…” my heart sinks when I finally hear something. “…Bugs.”

“So?” Twilight asks. “Surely there have to be bugs on Earth, they’re everywhere here during the summer.”

“I’m not taking my chances.” I get up and turn around. “After the Gala, I don’t want to ever have to deal with any bugs ever, ever again.”

“It’s not changelings!” Twilight groans. “They’re rarely seen in Equestria, and I doubt they’d come twice in such short time. Probably some flies or mosquitoes.”

“Or maybe an evil swarm of changelings that plans to take over the world!” Pinkie adds.

“You’re not helping!” Twilight yells at her. “Anyway,” she says back to me, “You’ll be safe here, I promise. You have to trust us.”

Great, this again. I want to trust her, but the last time I trusted “Twilight”, I ended up in the hospital with a brain damage and a shattered forearm. “Twilight, I,” Damn, I can’t think of how to say this. “I trust you, but I’m going anyways.” Truth is, I’m scared as hell to be here right now, but I could never tell them that. It could only make things worse.

I take a few steps foreword, but something ensnares my ankles and stops me. I look down and see magic the exact color of Twilight’s around my feet. “If you trust us, you’ll stay!” she says.

“I trust you guys completely, but there’s only so much you guys can do. I mean, maybe it is changelings. They’ve defeated you once before, who’s to say they can’t again?”

“There were hundreds of them!” she says defensively.

“And who’s to say there aren’t hundreds here? Thousands, even?”

“Why would they send thousands of changelings to crash a picnic?”

“The one that attacked me at the Gala sounded pretty devoted to getting me. I mean, he died just trying to bring me in.”

“You have two choices,” she says. “One, you say that you trust us, and you come back here. Two, you admit that you don’t trust us, and I let you go to go do whatever you want, wherever you want in this world.”

“It’s not that simple!” I yell back.

“Choose!”

I sigh when I come to a decision. “I-“

“You should have listened to the human,” a creepy voice says out of nowhere. Everyone panics, and Twilight releases the magical grip on me. I’ll probably regret this later, but I run back to my friends.

“Who are you?” Twilight yells to the sky. “Where are you? What are you?”

The voice chuckles menacingly, then hundreds of changelings pour out of the forest, surrounding us. “Well fuck,” I whisper to myself.

One steps foreword, wearing some decorative battle armor. “Hand over the human and I promise that the rest of you will only die in slightly excruciating pain.” I recognize his voice as the one that was speaking to us.

“Why do you want me?” I ask it.

“The Queen wants you,” it explains. “Not me.”

“Why does she want me?”

“She is making a collection,” it says with a devious smirk.

“Of what?”

“Your kind. And she wants you.”

“My kind? Does she already have one?”

“Yes,” it says as evilly as possible, “She does.”

“How do I know you’re not bluffing?”

It laughs a little, then glares menacingly back at me. “You don’t.”

“Well, tell your Queen that she’s not getting me.” I instinctively move my hand to my pocket, where the pistol is. “And if she could release any other humans, that’d also be real great.”

“The Queen wants you.” It takes a few steps foreword. “And She doesn’t like being disappointed.”

“She’ll just have to live with it, I guess.” I reach into my pocket and put my hand around the gun. “And if you take one step closer, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

It smiles devilishly, then takes one step toward us. I pull out the gun and aim at it.

“What’s that?” Twilight asks.

“Really bad time,” I tell her.

The changeling laughs and looks at the gun. “What is that?” It can hardly keep still. “If that’s supposed to be a weapon, your kind really has a long way to go.”

“Tempt me and you’ll find out just how much it can do.” The combination of fear and adrenaline coursing through me makes every second heavy with anticipation.

“Oh, this will be delightful,” it says. “I wonder if it’ll sting a little?” It takes one step closer and grins at me. “Let’s see just how much you’re capable of.”

I just stand there for a few seconds, staring him down. Against every single bit of reason in my body, my finger pulls the trigger.

A bright flash, a loud bang, and a little kickback. That’s all it takes to put a hole in the changeling’s skull. It lifelessly falls over and starts spurting sickly green blood into the grass.

Everything just stops. The changelings are staring at their fallen comrade, my friends’ jaws are all wide open, and even the breeze seems to have stopped. The entire universe has ceased.

And as soon as it left, it comes back. The changelings all fly away quickly, obviously scared for their lives. I do over to the changeling corpse and fall to my knees, letting the pistol slip from my hands.

“Keerthana?” Twilight asks with terror. “What did you do?”

“I…killed it.” The words can hardly escape my lips. I, Keerthana Griffis, have just killed an intelligent creature. Not even killed. Murdered.

I grab the pistol, put the safety back on, and jam it in my pocket. “I’m going back,” I say as I get up.

“Wait!” Twilight puts her hoof on my shoulder and pulls me back down. “What was that you used on it?”

Without saying anything, I get back up and start running. I can hear them all yelling at me, but I just need to block them out. I just need to get home. After a few minutes, I finally get to my house and run inside. I just need a minute to get my thoughts together. I’ve just killed something. Does this make me a criminal? Will I be tried for murder and thrown in jail? Does Equestria have the death pentalty? Are there any laws regarding self-defense and if so, could I just say I was defending myself? What’ll the U.N think of a human killing the native life? What-

My internal rambling is cut off by some knocking on the door. “Keerthana?” Twilight asks. “Are you home?”

I suck in my worry and open the door. Twilight’s at my door, looking very, very worried. “Are you okay?” she asks.

“I’m fine, I just…need to clear my head a little bit.”

“I’m always here for you if you need it,” she says comfortingly.

“Thanks.” I get down and hug her. “I’ll be over soon. I think talking about it will help.”

“Glad to hear it,” she smiles. “You know where to find me. Just come over whenever you’re ready.”

“Thanks,” I say meekly. “For everything.”

“No problem. It’s what friends do for each other.” She walks away from my house.

I take a deep breath and try to calm myself. I know what must be done. I go to my bedroom and put my gun on the desk. I pull out some paper and a pen and write down a note. I go to the gun and double-check to make sure the safety’s on. The pistol automatically rechambers another after you’ve fired it, so there’s a bullet in the chamber. Perfect. I drop the magazine out, since I’ll only need one bullet where I’m going. I put it in my pocket and walk outside.

It’s just beautiful outside. Not cold, not hot, just perfect. There’s a slight breeze, the sun’s shining, and everything has that slight sweet smell I’ve come to associate with Ponyville. These are the kinds of days you couldn’t recreate if you tried. It’s just perfect.

I start walking and just don’t stop. Through town, out of town, and eventually I can make out the portal in the distance. So pristine. So beautiful. The only way back home. When I get to it, I test it for the last time. I put my hand on it, and it still feels as solid as ever. No getting through there.

I find the little tree I propped myself up against the first day I was here and sit down, my back to it. Just like old times. I pull out the pistol and look at it. My heart aches. I know what I’m going to do, but doing it is another story.

With a deep breath, I turn the safety off. I put the cold barrel against my temple and pull the trigger.