//------------------------------//
// Interlude: The Twinquiry 
// Story: The Curse of Cryonics 
// by Mine_Menace 
//------------------------------//

Firefall stepped outside of the castle, paused and rubbed his head, and continued down the path to the rest of Canterlot. His body was on the road, trotting home along a well-traveled path, but his mind was in the castle with the human.

The human. Patrick Stanford Walker. Just thinking about him was confusing. Nothing about him made sense--it didn't take any historian, archaeologist, hippologist, or any other academically prominent pony to know this.

Between his claims that magic wasn't real and that horses weren't supposed to talk, his comparable intelligence to at least that of an average pony when he was clearly related to the relatively stupid apes, and his discovery--stuck in an underground box--he was downright baffling. The fact that he could speak perfect Equestrian was merely icing on the cake of confusion.

Firefall was really beginning to wish he hadn't agreed to do this for his final project.

But he had to do it, he told himself; besides, it was at least interesting. He'd certainly be occupied with this for some time.

But where did the human come from? And how? Why did he speak perfect Equestrian? How was he so smart, but be clueless as to the existence of magic? And speaking of magic, why did he have so little anyway? It would have been nice to have stayed in the room with him as he was talking with Princess Celestia...

Firefall suddenly found himself on the welcome mat in front of a brown door attached to the two-story, mid-sized house he called home. He blinked and shook his head. He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed where he was going, but due to walking the same path every day, he found himself at home again. The route had been perfectly ingrained into his memory.

There was something oddly comforting about that, he silently reflected as he adjusted his hat and pushed open the door. Whistling tunelessly, he stepped inside, jerking the door closed with a touch of magic, and headed left into the kitchen.

"Oh, hi there, Tempora," Firefall said nonchalantly, barely sparing a glance toward the royal blue mare as he went straight for the refrigerator and opened it, looking around inside.

"Hello, Fire! Whatcha been doin' today?" greeted Tempora, looking up from the counter. "Decided on a project yet?"

"What have you got there?" Firefall deflected instantly, levitating a bottle of cider and closing the door.

"Oh, this?" Tempora adjusted her hat--a black wizard hat that was identical to Firefall's--as she glanced down at the counter again. "It's a broken pencil."

"A broken pencil?" Firefall repeated, effortlessly uncorking the bottle with telekinesis and sitting down on a stool at the counter beside her. "Okay, but why are you..."

"I was writing some dumb paper when I guess I focused my magic too much and it split in half," Tempora half-explained, glaring at the pencil. Then her gaze shifted upward. "So, decided on a project yet?"

Firefall paused briefly. As students in their final year at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, they each had to come up with their own individual final projects in order to graduate. However, Firefall's project was...special, to say the least.

So he decided to play dumb. "Get a new pencil?" he suggested, ignoring the last question.

"Aw, come on, Fire!" scowled Tempora, visibly upset. "You're hiding something from me! We never hide things from each other! You know I won't tell anypony!"

"It's not that," Firefall muttered, looking down at his bottle before taking a swift swig. "I have decided on something. However, as per Princess Celestia's orders, it's highly classified. There's only about half a dozen other ponies that know about it."

The blue mare frowned, then grinned. "Ooh, so it's important enough that Princess Celestia herself is part of it!" She turned in her seat, holding out a hoof, beckoning for a hoofbump. "She never gets directly involved in student projects, or if she does, it's really rare! We should go get some pizza or something to celebrate!"

Firefall chuckled and went with the hoofbump. "Thanks, sis, but you don't even know what the project is."

Tempora grabbed her brother by the shoulders with her front hooves. "Look, I know it's top secret and everything, but I swear I won't tell anypony. We've trusted each other longer than we can remember, and if you can't trust me with a secret like this, then who can you trust?"

Firefall stared back into his sister's eyes--the bright orange eyes that were exactly like his own--and relented. "All right. I suppose I can't argue with you."

Tempora let go, beaming. "Woo! I knew you'd go along with it!" she cheered. "Now tell me! Please!"

"All right. But promise not to tell anypony else."

Tempora leaned back, took her hat off, and pressed if over her chest, revealing a teal mane--the same color as Firefall's coat--and a royal blue horn, matching her coat. "I, Tempora Strider, promise to not tell anypony about Firefall Strider's project, whatever it is, unless we agree together to abandon the promise. Not even Princess Celestia, even though she already knows about it." She swung the hat back on her head and leaned forward expectantly.

"...Well, okay then." Firefall took a quick sip of cider. "A couple of days ago, the crystal miners found some kind of metal room thing buried underground. When they opened it, they found a hairless apelike creature who saw them and fainted. They brought him up to the castle and we've been studying him and talking with him."

"An ape thing...? But..."

"So when he woke up, we found out some things that were even more confusing. He spoke perfect Equestrian and first called himself Patrick Stanford Walker. When he saw us, he thought he was dreaming and tried to wake himself up by slamming his head into the headboard on the bed."

Tempora snorted with laughter. "Seems pretty stupid of him."

"Perhaps, but based on how he reacted, I'm guessing he came from somewhere far away that happens to share our language," Firefall said. "He didn't think we should have been able to talk and didn't think magic was real. Not only that, when we measured his magic level, he had three thaums."

"Three hundred?" Tempora asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No. Just three. Three total."

"Three total hundred?"

"...No. Just three." Firefall paused and scratched his chin. "Do you get a sense of déjà vu?"

"But just three? Are you kidding me?" Tempora said, throwing her hooves up. "That's crazy! That bottle of cider you got there has more magic than that!"

"I'm not kidding. I don't know why, either. Maybe Princess Celestia knows why, but if she does, she hasn't told me. She spoke with him today, but I wasn't allowed to listen. She said she'd debrief me tomorrow, though."

"I hope so. This is so cool, though!" Tempora cheered. "This new human thing, and he's so weird and different...I kind of want to sneak in and see him!"

"It might be warded against outsiders, though," her brother warned. "Not to mention you're not supposed to know about this..."

"Aww..." Tempora's head flopped down briefly. "So what do you have to do with him?"

"Basically, I've got to be his companion. I have to find out what I can from him about who he is and where he came from and, if necessary, teach him about ponies and Equestria," Firefall explained, recalling what the princess had told him. "Especially about magic--although since he isn't affected by magic, it might turn out strange. Eventually, maybe he will go out and actually be able to meet some ponies."

Tempora idly poked at her broken pencil with a hoof. "You think you can do it?"

"I don't know, but I'm not going to give up," Firefall said, shrugging. "We shall see."

The mare smirked. "Sure...in the meantime, though, let's get some pizza. You in?"

"We don't need to get pizza just because of a project I'm doing..."

"Oh, come on," Tempora grinned. "I'm the big sister--"

"By about seven and a half minutes--"

"--and I say we go get some pizza."

"Fine, fine," Firefall said, rolling his eyes, but grinning back. "Since you put up such a convincing argument..."

They slid off of their stools, and as Tempora briefly squinted in concentration, the broken pencil disappeared from the table in an orange flash of light. "There we go..." she breathed quietly.

"So what exactly were you doing with that pencil?" asked her brother as he moved toward the front door.

"Oh, that! You know, it's funny that you told me about what you're working on, because that broken pencil gave me an idea for my own project before you got home..."