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“What’s wrong?” Twilight asks.

I stand back up and look at the portal. “I don’t know,” I say weakly.

The portal is floating in the middle of the field, right where it was when I walked toward it. Nothing has changed at all about where I am. I’m not in the small laboratory I was when I came here. No, I’m still stuck on this rock full of talking unicorns and dragons.

“Why can’t you go through?” she asks again.

“I don’t know!” I say, panicking. I reach out my hand and put it on the portal. Instead of it being sucked in, some invisible wall just stops it. The portal feels as solid as a wall. “I was chosen to come here because I was one of the only ones that could. So to not be able to go back home, I…” I can feel all my hopes and optimism crushed. “I don’t really know how I feel.”

Twilight walks up and puts her hoof on the portal. It is stopped in midair, right where mine was. She seems crushed, but not only by the loss of her dream to go to Earth. She seems legitimately concerned and sorry for me.

“Wait,” I say, taking my backpack off and sitting down. “I have an idea.” I open the big pouch and go through it. I find one of the notebooks they gave us under a bag of dehydrated pork I completely forgot I had. Well, at least that solves my problem of needing to find some protein.

I pull out the notebook and rip one of the pages out, then pick up a pen and click it. I write “Is this the UN?” on the paper and wad it up.

“Twilight, go stand on the other side of this portal for me, will you?” I ask. She follows my orders and walks over there.

“What do you need me to do?” she asks from the other side.

“I’m going to throw something,” I explain, “And I need you to catch it. Can you do that?”

“I was never good at sports!” she says back.

“Irrelevant! Just try your best!”

“What will this accomplish?”

“I’ll explain later! You ready?”

“I guess,” she says worriedly.

I chuck the wad of paper as hard as I can, and it goes straight into the portal. Just like that.

“When are you going to throw it?” she asks.

“Twilight?” I say sorrowfully. “I just did. Come on back.”

She comes back around with a look of defeat on her face. “Sorry, I didn’t even see the paper. Guess I let you down, huh?”

I shake my head. “You can’t have let me down. It never got to you; it just went through the portal.”

“What?” she screams, walking back and putting her hoof on it. “But…how?”

“Back on Earth, only two things could travel through this. Certain people, myself being one, and inanimate objects.”

“So…what does this mean?” she asks.

I sigh as I realize exactly what it means. “It means that the portal’s working like it should. Only problem is that I can’t get back through it.”

All of us get silent and don’t say a word. A ball of paper hitting square on the forehead me breaks that silence. I grab it desperately and open it up. Below what I put, someone wrote, “Yes. Who is this?”

I get the pen again and write “This is Keerthana. Something is wrong with the portal.” and then throw it back through.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asks.

“I have no idea, and I’m trying to find out.”

A minute or so later, the paper comes back out. I unravel it and see that someone responded, “Keerthana? Is everything okay? And what’s wrong with the portal?”

I take a deep breath and start writing my response. “I’m fine. The creatures here are nice and fairly hospitable. Oh, by the way, there’s intelligent life here. The portal isn’t working because I can’t get back through it. Help.” I throw it back through and hope there's some simple fix, and that I’ll be back in Michigan for lunchtime.

When it comes back, I pick it up and hope for the best. “We have absolutely no idea what’s going wrong. Try and live with the creatures and learn as much about them and the planet as you can. We’ll work on getting you back.”

Well, that crushed any remaining hope I had. In a final fit of desperation, I write “Do you know where the others are? They aren’t with me.” I throw it into the portal and try not to get my hopes up waiting for it to come back.

When it does come back, I find my hope going up, despite my best efforts. Again, it’s all crushed when I see just one word on the paper; “No.”

Crushed, I wad the paper back up in my hands and sit down on the ground. "What's wrong?" Twilight asks.

"I..." I dry my eyes a little. "I can't get back home. And nobody knows there the other humans are."

"Is that true?" she asks softly.

I moan at her question. “Yes, it is,” I whimper.

“What do you want to do now?” she asks.

“I just…” I sigh. “Let’s just back to your house, Twilight.”

“Are you sure? You don’t want to talk about it?”

“Let’s just go,” I say, getting annoyed. I’m not even that annoyed at Twilight. I’m annoyed at everything. Everything that physically could go wrong now, is. I start walking slowly back to the chariot, and the others do as well. The flight back is a lot more quiet and awkward than the one here.

When we land back in Ponyville, I go trudging back to the Twilight’s house and enter my room. I drop my backpack on the ground, defeated, and walk to the window. I can hear a few pairs of hooves come in behind me.

“You okay?” Shining Armor asks. “You seem pretty depressed.”

“Can you blame me?” I ask, trying to hold back some tears. “I didn’t even know what I really signed up for. Now I’m stuck on this planet, probably forever, and the four other people I trained for a month with in preparation to live with are gone. Nowhere to be found. I’m probably just going to wither away and die here, all alone, with nobody there for me.”

“Don’t think like that!” Twilight says. “I’ll be here for you! Spike will be here for you! Shining Armor will be here for you!”

“Yes, Twilight, but that isn’t really like having someone else be there for me. I mean, yes, we could become the best of friends, but all that aside, I still don’t belong here. There just won’t be any room for me to fit in here.”

“Well,” she asks, “What do you want to do now?”

“Twilight, remember how I said you needed to find four more humans for me?”

“Yes?” she answers, not exactly sure where I could be going with this.

“I need you to come with me and find them.”

“What?” she asks in shock.

“I need your help!” I repeat. “I can’t just let them wander around this planet all alone! They could get seriously hurt, or even die! I don’t want anything to happen to them while I’m perfectly capable of helping them.”

“But I can’t help you!” she says. “I need to stay here with my friends and do my duties for the Princess. And you can’t go either! The Princess said that you shouldn’t leave Ponyville for the time being!”

“Twilight, truth time,” I say, turning around. “I. Don’t. Care.” All three of their jaws drop in shock.

“What?!” Twilight yells, shocked that anyone would disrespect the Oh-So-Perfect Princess.

“Twilight, I don’t care what she wants me to do!” I yell angrily. “She has no authority over me! I am not one of her citizens that she can put down and tell what to do! Do you really think I’ll just bend over to the first person that wants to tell me what I can and can’t do?”

"Keerthana!" she yells. "She is one of the smartest ponies in this world! She always knows what's best, and if she thinks it's best for you, it probably is!"

"Well, Twilight, she's probably wrong. There's a first time for everything, and I have a pretty damn good feeling this is her first. And before you try and convince me otherwise, I mean every single word I just said."

Her face changes from shock to pure hatred for me. “I have nothing more to say to you,” she snarls. She walks out, and Shining Armor and Spike follow her. The door slams shut, and I can hear the deadbolt locking. I storm back to the window and look out on the town. It’s amazing how ignorant the townsponies are; five creatures never before seen are running around in their world, and they’re just going about their regular lives. I envy them slightly.

After a few minutes in abstract thought, I walk up to the bookshelf Twilight’s keeping in here and look at some of the titles. I’m tempted to grab a few of them and read them to find out what’s in them, but I don’t want to break my anger. I just want to stew for a little while and figure something out.

I sit back on my bed, and grab my backpack to put it on the floor. Suddenly, I get an idea. I open it up and pull out the device that determined if foods were safe to eat or not. I rotate it, and then look at it from the side. A devious smile grows on my face as I know exactly how I’ll go find the others.

***

I hear one bong from the giant clock tower, telling me it’s exactly 1 in the morning. Absolutely perfect.

I pick the food analyzing device, then put my backpack on. I walk to the window and look out; there’s not a single soul awake in the town. I walk to the door and try to open it. Sure enough, it’s locked by a deadbolt, just as Twilight left it. I slide the device in between the door and the wall, then move it down. I find where the deadbolt is, then wiggle the device to get it unlocked. The UN would probably have a heart attack if they figured out what I was using this for, but they can’t see me right now, so no real harm done. Besides, I probably don't need this thing for its intended use.

After a minute of working with the primitive locking technology, I hear a satisfying click as the bolt goes back into the door.

“Not going to be stopped by some friggen’ deadbolt,” I whisper to it triumphantly. I put the device back in my bag, then open the door as quietly as I can and walk into the main room of her house. Twilight’s out cold in her bed, and Spike’s in a basket near the foot of the bed. I say a very rude goodbye to them in my head and tiptoe downstairs. After unlocking the door, I find myself outside in the cool night air.

I very gently close the door behind me and look around, making sure I can’t be seen. I probably look overly suspicious, and the fact that Twilight has forbid me from going anywhere probably wouldn’t help the outcome that would ensue. When everything’s clear, I start walking slowly ahead.

After a few feet, however, I hit something solid. Today just has not been my luck with invisible barriers. Even worse yet, a splotch of red that starts from where I hit the wall shoots all around, making a barrier around Twilight’s house.

“No!” I whisper to the bright, glowing red light. “You go away right now, you hear me?” I can hear lights clicking on behind, and my worst fears have come true; Twilight’s woken up, and is now coming to get me. “Please!” I ask the light again. “Just let me go! I can outrun her!”

“There you are!” I hear Twilight yell, clearly not happy at all with me.

“Fine, you caught me, okay?” I yell, probably waking half the town up. “What’re you going to do now, huh? Lock me in prison or something for trying to help my goddamn friends?”

“Is this what this is about?” she asks in a much calmer tone. “You want to find your friends?”

“Oh, come on!” I yell. “Yes, of course this is what it’s about! What gave it away, Sherlock?”

“I know how I can help you!” she says, actually sounding concerned.

“Twilight, the only way you can help me is by taking this barrier down and letting me go wherever the hell I want to on this world! Nothing, I repeat, nothing else you could do is capable of helping me!”

“Please!” she says. “Just at least let me try to help! If it doesn’t work after a little bit, I’ll let you go, promise!”

“How can I trust you?” I ask. I’ll admit, her offer does sound nice.

“I don’t know any certain ways you can trust me,” she says, crestfallen. “All I can think of is that you just have to look into your heart and find some trust.”

“Fine,” I sigh. “But the second whatever you’re trying is over, I swear, I’m going to find my friends.”

“If that is what you want when the time comes, I’ll allow it. Just, please, try just one thing for me?”

“What?” I ask, wanting to get this over with.

“It has to wait until the morning,” she says.

“Twilight, come on,” I say angrily. “I don’t have time for this.”

“But it just can’t. Please, will you just please wait until morning? I promise I’ll do my best to help you.”

I comply and start walking back to her house. I mean, at least she’s got a plan, which is a lot more than I can say I have. My plan was just to wander around aimlessly until I find someone, then we try and get the others. Now that I’m not jumping the gun like I specifically told Twilight not to do, I can realize how ill fated my plan was and how it could only end badly.

When we get back to the door to my room, I turn around. “Remember,” I say, holding up my index finger. “One chance. That’s it.”

She nods slowly. “I understand,” she says hollowly.

I turn my back and walk back inside the room, pulling the door shut behind me. I hear the deadbolt lock again, and this time I’m not tempted to open it. I sit on the bed and sigh. If I knew exactly what I was signing up for, I would have completely disregarded that letter and just gone on with my normal life. But no, I thought it’d be fun. But no, I was naïve and came. I slide under the covers and let my mind wander for a few minutes before I go to sleep.