Contact

I walk into Twilight’s library, which is empty. Strange, I could’ve sworn her letter told me to come here at this time. “Twilight?” I call into the house.

After a few seconds, sounds of all sorts of chaos start coming from downstairs. It gradually moves its way to the basement door, which opens to show a very sleep-deprived Twilight who’s grinning almost psychotically. “I think I’ve figured it out!” she happily cries out.

“Figured out what?” I’ll admit, if I didn’t know her this well, I’d say she's finally gone insane.

“Come with me!” she demands, running into her basement. “I’ll explain down there!”

I follow her into the lower floor, which I’ve admittedly never been in before. It’s lit by a bunch of lightbulbs all around (which I still have no idea how they power), and there’s all kinds of science-y looking stuff just lying around. Machines, papers, graphs, charts, books, scrolls, quills, and a chair with a small harness on one of the arms. “Come on down!” she yells to me while she starts tinkering with one of the machines.

I wade through all her junk to get to the chair, which looks safe enough to sit down. “So, finally gone off the deep end?” I joke.

“I’ve been up for four days straight!” she blurts out, ignoring my attempts at comedy, “And I think I’ve almost got it!”

“Got what? And why do you need me?” I clear my throat. “Also, in the note you had Spike give me, I don’t think ‘gallipwax’ is a word.”

“I’m glad you asked that!” she says, again ignoring my attempts to lighten up this slightly unsettling situation. “Well, I was reading one of those books you gave me from Earth, and I got to this interesting section about deoxyribonucleic acids, and I remember you saying you came here because of extra bases in your genome, so I figured out how to read it with magic and tell you just why you could come here!”

I just sit there a moment, letting her quick ramblings sink in. Wait, did I just teach an entire new species about DNA? Isn’t the main rule of pretty much every sci-fi story not to interfere with the development of other species? Eh, one crisis at a time.

“I was as speechless as you were!” she virtually screams at me in excitement.

“I was just…ah, never mind. You said you can read my DNA?”

“Precisely!” She haphazardly tosses me a few vials with her magic, not all of which I catch. “I’ll need you to fill these with some genetic samples, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Like?”

She turns around and looks at the broken glass on the floor. “Well…I guess just hair, skin, and blood samples will do.”

I pull out a few strands of my hair and stick them in a bottle, then pull off a hangnail and stick it in another. Twilight has to strap my arm in and take some blood with a long tube, and I can only hope she did it correctly. I’m actually surprised by her knowledge of the human body though, so I’m confident in her. She even gives me a kid’s bandage with a smiling little filly on it for the injection point. Cute.

“What now?” I ask when she’s labeled all the vials.

“Just a few quick tests!” She levitates a little ball of blood out and has it hover in the air in front of her.

“What are you-“ I stop myself when it…unravels is the best term for it. Instead of a little ball, it’s turned into a ton of long strands that are just floating there.

I just watch in awe for a little bit, then Twilight loses her focus and makes my blood go splashing on the floor. “Interesting,” she mutters to herself.

“What? What is it?”

She ignores me and moves onto the skin and hair, which do even more things I can’t describe. After she’s done, she lights up her horn and starts moving it up and down my still restrained arm.

“What’s going on?” I ask, expecting the worst.

“You said humans aren’t magical, right?” she asks.

“Yeah, why?”

“Not at all? Like, there’s no magic at all, right?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“And nothing on your home planet is magical?”

“Why? Am I magical?” I joke.

“Technically speaking,” she looks up at me with a look of super seriousness, “Yes.”

Wait. Twilight just said I’m magical? No, it can’t be. It’s impossible. “Twilight, I can’t be magical. I don’t have any powers, or a horn, or anything else magic-related!”

“It’s only trace amounts. Not powerful or prevalent enough for any sort of magic that I know of. But enough for something.”

“Something like?”

She stares at my arm a little longer, deep in thought. “Something. But what, I don’t know. But you wouldn’t just have it for no real reason.”

“Yeah, well I’ve got all sorts of stuff inside me that doesn't serve any real purpose. Hell, all my appendix does is randomly get infected and kill me.”

“Functionality of the appendix has not been yet proven, but evidence suggests that it was once used by ancient humans or their evolutionary ancestors and has simply failed to disappear completely,” she says, probably word-for-word from one of the books I gave her. “But that’s irrelevant. The point is, the magic you have is useful for some purpose. We just have to find out what it is.” She runs off and starts looking through a bunch of loose sheets of paper she has lying around.

“By the way,” I tell her, “I don’t think the answer to ‘Why is my human magical?’ has ever been discovered before. Come to think of it, the question’s probably never been asked.”

“Found it!” she chimes. Well boy, do I feel silly now. She picks up a small scrap of paper and brings it over to me. It’s got a bunch of lines and whatnot, and she holds up the reading of my DNA for comparison. “Isn’t it exciting?” she squees ecstatically. I stare at her blankly for a while until she giggles uncontrollably. “Sorry, I forgot you couldn’t read magical charts! Silly me!”

Wow, Twilight really is more interesting after four days of sleeplessness. “What’s the chart say?”

“Well,” she starts to explain, “Every time I perform a new spell, I make sure to log it so I can replicate it.” She points to the small scrap of paper she found. “That’s the spell I had to do to recreate the portal to Earth.”

“Uh-huh.”

She points to the graph she just took from my DNA. “And here’s the ‘abnormalities’ you said you had.”

“Wait. First off, you’re saying those two extra chromosomes I have are magical?”

“Yes!” And here I was, thinking all the crazy “science” ended before I got here. “Anyways, I know you can’t tell, but the two magical sequences are opposite of each other.” She points back to the graph. “This is pretty standard sequencing for long-range teleportation via group portals, but something’s…off. It’s missing something.”

“Like?”

She ruffles her brow for a moment. “I guess the best way to describe it to somepony who doesn’t know magic is…like a door. Anypony who makes a portal can ‘lock’ it, allowing only certain ponies or other creatures to pass through it. The portal you came through was locked, and your genes are the key.”

Wow. That’s some pretty heavy stuff there. “That’s…impossible. I have so many questions. It couldn’t work.”

“Ask me anything,” she says.

“A while back, when Will was here, you said it was really weird only a few of us could pass through the portal. Now you're saying it makes sense. Did some magical laws change, or…?”

“Well, I asked the Princess about it.” She looks around nervously. “Portals like that are illegal, and a very well-kept secret. Lots of ponies used to use them for quick getaways after robbing houses or banks. But the Princess let me practice a little bit with everypony else.”

“Everypony else?” I ask. “As in Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Fluttershy?”

“Yes,” she nods. “Why?”

“How could they all pass? I mean Rarity sure, since she’s a unicorn and all, but don’t they need to have specific magic sequencing to pass? Or do your earth pony and pegasi friends all have unicorn ancestors?”

“Not that I know of. And why wouldn’t they be able to pass?”

“Well…they all sort of have a distinct lack of magic.”

“Oh no, all ponies are magical,” she says like it’s common knowledge. “Unicorns just have the most and most visible magical ability.”

Well, that’s bombshell number two. I guess now I can call Applejack on magically cheating for all those arm/hoof wrestling matches we had and I inevitably lost. I want to know more, but given Twilight’s tendencies to overexplain things, it’s probably better I don’t ask. “So about that, how is it I got magical abilities?”

“I don’t have any idea,” she says, confused. “ It could be that every human has it, it could be a natural genetic mutation, I don’t know. I’d need a lot more testing than just one human. I’ll just be here if you need me, running some more analyses on your genetics and cross-referencing them with known spells."

“Here?” I ask. “As in, down here constantly?”

“Correct!” she says. “I have lots of work and research I need to do.”

“Twilight, get some rest. When you get tired, you can become a little, you know…”

“Restless?” she says for me.

“That’s putting it nicely. Rest up, Twilight. If anyone deserves a good night’s sleep, it’s you.”

“I can keep going a little longer!” she insists. “I’m not too tired.”

I smile and shake my head. “I guess I can’t force you to sleep, but don’t kill yourself.”

“I’ll be fine,” she assures me. “I-“ she yawns heavily.

A laugh a little bit and wade through all the crap to the stairs. When I get to the door to the library, I hear a loud thud. Checking back, I see Twilight snoring loudly with her head on the desk.

***

Twilight and I are sitting in a lonely, private train car on the way to Canterlot. Nobody else is sitting in it, which just leave us sitting on opposite sides of the aisle.

There’s nothing but the gentle movement of the train on the tracks. I want to talk to her, but it’s always awkward to be the first person to break such a big silence.

“You probably have a lot of questions,” she says, right in the middle of my thought.

“Plenty,” I say. “First, why are we the only two here? Is something wrong?”

“I should probably tell you the whole story. I sent the results to the Princess, and she got interested in it.”

“So we’re going so she can inspect me?” I can only imagine Celestia poking and fondling me with really malevolent looking tools.

“Not really. Remember a week ago when I went out to ‘visit my family’?”

“A vacation I highly suggested you take, yes I remember.”

“I actually went to Minos to track down your friend and analyze him,” she admits.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that Twilight used the cover of vacation to go and work. Usually it’s done the other way around. “How’d you even find him?”

“Humans aren’t as good at hiding as you might think,” she smirks.

“I guess we’re a lot better when we’re not the only ones in a thousand miles. Did you go and find him to check for any magic?” I ask, almost jokingly saying the last word.

“Yes,” she says.

“And?”

“Same as you. I don’t know exactly what the Princess planning, but she wouldn’t call us over unless it’s important.”

“Any ideas at all?”

“No, not at all. But it has to be important if she only wanted us to come.”

The train comes to a halt as we reach Canterlot. “Guess we’ll find out,” I say, standing up. Twilight stands as well, and we walk out to the station. The air’s pretty cold and all the trees are bare, which can only mean winter’s coming. Guess this means I’ve been here probably nine months. Wow, nine whole months on another planet. These jumpsuits are so good at stopping the weather, I haven’t had to focus on changing my clothes to suit the weather. Amazing how something that little can affect time perception.

“Here we are!” Twilight says, snapping me out of my stupor. We walk into the castle courtyard, and the guards still shoot a few nasty looks my way. They’ve lessened in dirtiness and frequency, go I guess my standing’s finally getting a bit better.

When we get inside the palace, a pair of guards starts escorting us through the many hallways and rooms of the castle. Finally, we get to a big wooden door, and the guards stand to the side. Twilight opens the door, and we step into the most regal looking room I’ve ever seen.

“I’m glad both of you came,” she says with a smile. “Keerthana, I believe I have something you’ll find useful.”

“Really?” I ask. I guess it probably really is useful if I had to come all the way here to pick it up. That, or it’s dangerous and probably something I shouldn’t be trusted with.

She puts a large, rolled-up piece of paper on the table in the middle and unfurls it. It’s a map of Equis with a bunch of elegant scribblings on the side and three red Xs in varying places. I can tell that one of them is centered over Ponyville, and two of them are over places I don’t recognize.

“These are some really complicated spells,” Twilight says, pointing at a cluster of annotations. “What are you trying to do?”

“The information you sent me was very interesting,” she replies. “These are the first results of my experiments.”

“What are all the little Xs?” I say, pointing to the one over where Ponyville would be.

“Those are where all the individual concentrations of the particular magic trace Twilight was studying are located.”

It takes me a minute to process what she’s saying. “Each X represents someone with the bit of magic in us that lets us go through the portal?”

“Exactly,” she replies.

“So this is basically a map of all the humans in the world?”

“Yes.”

I can’t help but beam at this news. “This is great,” I say with barely contained excitement. “Where are those other two Xs supposed to show?”

“This one is in Minos,” she says, pointing to one in a huge field of gray. “As Twilight explained it to me, you have already made contact with the human there, correct?”

“Yeah.” I point to the X in an area the map calls The Wasteland. “What’s there?”

Twilight and the princess instantly look at each other nervously. “Is there something wrong?” I ask them, not entirely sure that I want to know the answer.

“That explains a lot,” Twilight whispers to Celestia.

“Hello?” I say louder. “The alien’s lost. What’s so bad about there? Well, I guess anywhere called a wasteland can’t be that great to live in, but what does it explain?”

“Do you want to tell her?” Celestia asks Twilight quietly.

“Tell me what?”

Twilight sighs and looks at me sadly. “The Wasteland is where the changelings are from.”

“So that means if there’s an X there…” I don’t even bother to finish my thought.

“That means there’s a human living there.” Celestia examines a few of the calculations on the side. “And by these readings, right in the middle of their capitol city.”

“Capitol city?” I ask. “I’ve never heard of their capitol. I didn't even know they were cultured enough to make cities.”

“Its name is seventeen syllables and takes hours of practice to pronounce correctly,” Twilight explains. “And most ponies don’t like to talk about anything changeling related.”

“Why not?”

“A long history of violence and hatred,” Celestia says. I think I can even hear a little regret in her voice.

“So…what do we do now?” I ask, hoping one of them has some plan.

“What exactly do you mean?” Celestia asks, tones of suspicion heavy in her speech.

“Well, whoever it is there, we have to get them back!” I demand. “We can’t just leave them in the hands of some demonic insects!”

“I don’t know what you want us to do!” Twilight yells, defensively. “We can’t just walk into the changeling homeland and take a human! You said the changelings were collecting humans, so they wouldn’t just let us walk away with another.”

“Well of course they won’t let us take them!” I say to her, with me now the one acting like this is simple stuff. “We have to take him!”

“Him?”

“Well, yeah. Only two women came to Equis. I’m one of them, and the other died.”

“I guess I keep forgetting about the other unknown humans.”

“I think I might have an idea,” Celestia speaks up.

“Oh?” Twilight asks. “What is it?”

The princess looks at me and gives me a small smile. “I think we should let Keerthana make the plan to get the human back.”

“What?!” Twilight and I yell simultaneously.

“Celestia, I’m a terrible person to put in charge. You’re like, a thousand years old and have been making all the decisions for an entire country for generations. I’m nineteen, and my success rate probably needs negative scientific notation.”

“I have faith in you,” she says warmly. “I can have a chariot to take you back to Ponyville momentarily. Just write me whenever you have an idea.”

“Well, I…thanks, I guess." I walk to the door, and Celestia uses her magic to open it. All the way to the chariot and the subsequent voyage to Ponyville, I’m just lost in my thoughts.