//------------------------------// // Part 1, Chapter 9: Decipher // Story: The Portgate // by Archival //------------------------------// Try not to talk to foreigners, if you can manage it; you will risk offending another pony, and heavens knows how rude that is! -Madame Fetlock -Leah- Whatever those weird log beasts were, they sure burned real warm, Leah thought as she flipped through the book that she had recovered from the bags. It was strange seeing how these creatures - no, horses - had developed books almost exactly like humans had. To find a sheaf of papers (if they were paper) with foreign, alphabetical script on them, bound on one side, was borderline unnerving. Even if this world was uncannily similar to Earth, a book was just too much. Leah didn't think the owners would mind as she leafed through the pages, considering they were knocked out and lying on a sheet on the ground with bandages around their bodies. It had been a scary moment when they realized that the aliens probably wouldn't handle human medicine well. Still, it wasn't like they could just ignore the poor things, and considering how similar this world was to Earth their first aid probably wouldn't have too many adverse side effects. On the desk in front of her, the contents of the three bags the horses were carrying were neatly spread out and laid on the table. Leah was rather interested in the book and turquoise crystals that she had found among the obvious expeditionary gear, and especially since the purple one was carrying the crystals. It was painfully obvious at first glance that the winged unicorn was another freaky mythological coincidence along with the blue pegasus, but the fact that they were likely intelligent was unbelievable - so unbelievable that Andrew was sitting outside and praying for salvation from this unholy mess. Speaking of unholy mess, whatever the purple unicorn did was something new altogether. The hydra was already bizarre enough; a unicorn that could shoot lasers out of its horn was absolutely kooky. Maybe it was some sort of implant or bionic, but that probably wasn't the case. The saddlebags were secured with leather straps and iron belt buckles, and apparently they still used oil lanterns for lighting. Not the kind of technology one would expect from a body-augmenting society. The crystals could have something to do with it, she thought. After all, popular culture had taught her that gems and crystals were pretty darn magical things in fantasy settings, and if unicorns weren't fantastical she didn't know what was. "Hey guys, the unicorn's waking up! Get ready..." Leah set the blue gemstone she was holding down on the desk and pulled her earbuds out. The cheerful electronic music that she had been listening to disappeared, leaving an auditory void that made Andrew's footsteps all the more noticeable. She jogged over to the front room, where Noah and Andrew nervously twiddled their automatic pistols in their hands. They had decided that Leah would be the first person who would talk to them, since she was the "smart" one. As she took a knee by the purple horse's side, it began to ever so slightly move and shift on the ground. Excitement filled her heart as the unicorn slowly opened its huge eyes, fluttering them in an endearingly cute manner. This was it; this was the moment she would make first contact with alien life. The cultural exchange, the sharing of information... And so, humanity's first words with another species were "Uh...H-Hi!...there...Are you okay?" The horse looked at Leah, its painfully cuddly face surprising her as it registered what had just happened. It looked around its surroundings, then back at Leah, before it spoke in the unmistakable voice of a female human... "Q-Qœnaë ävrúa tusmá? Sønreí apreíden..." Oh, right. The language barrier was a pretty obvious obstacle, at least in hindsight. Even with the massive similarities between Earth and this world, they should have expected the natives to speak a different language, even if it was French or something. Leah paused, then hurried over to her desk and grabbed a notebook and pencil. The unicorn watched as she quickly scribbled in it in a frenzied fervor, inspiration kicking her into overdrive. "What are you doing, Leah?" Andrew asked. "I remember something I watched on TV as a kid. It was from a documentary about aliens, I believe, on the Discovery Channel." "Oh, boy." "No, listen - they said something about a universal language, something every intelligent civilization should be able to understand..." "Which is?" Leah, satisfied with her drawings, turned and presented it to the confused horse. It looked at it for a second, then stared back at her. "Math." The page was covered with simple mathematical concepts, the kind that kindergarteners would easily recognize. Basic as they were, they provided a solid foundation with which they could build later communication. The first thing at the top of the page was a list of numbers from one to twenty with dots above each one representing their values. Further down were illustrations of arithmetic operations, with multiple examples highlighting each one. Leah set the pencil and notebook down at the unicorn's side, then expectantly waited for it to react. "Look, this is cool and all, but how do you expect that thing to pick that pencil up? I don't see how it's going to write with hooves." "Come on, Andrew, it can figure it out. They have books, surely there must be some way-" The unicorn's horn suddenly began to glow as Leah, distracted, stopped talking and watched. The two men gripped their handguns tighter, wary of the alien's strange power. A second later, the pencil was surrounded by a purplish-pink aura, and it magically raised itself off the ground and onto the lined paper. All three humans watched, shocked, as the pencil moved itself across the paper, writing out strange symbols in surprisingly elegant handwriting next to each of Leah's drawings. After it had finished marking all of the numbers and operators, it dropped to the ground as its aura faded away. Noah and Andrew stared, intimidated, at the unicorn as Leah gasped and stifled an excited giggle. The horse's ears flapped down to the sides of its head, and an unmistakably human expression of discomfort crossed its face. "Aww, it looks so cute! Guys, stop scaring it!" "Did you not just see what it did?! You're the one who's all up in its face, Leah. And besides, we have a right to be scared. If any weird crap gets pulled like that again..." She sighed, then looked at the sad alien sitting up on the ground. Somehow, it managed to support itself with its two front limbs, all while giving off a look of dejection. Its emotions were easily recognizable and strikingly similar to those of humans, and Leah couldn't help but gently reach behind the unicorn's head and pat it on its back. "Don't touch it, Leah! It might not like...it..." "It" froze for a second, then relaxed as she rubbed her hands back and forth on its neck and head. The alien's worry was soon replaced with happiness as Leah's fingers worked their way up behind its ears and began scratching. Leah shared the unicorn's smile as she comforted it, eager to have learned something from her endeavors. While Andrew and Noah stood in awe, she hurried over to her desk and grabbed another notebook, muttering as she frantically scribbled notes into it. "...base-eight...what a weird addition sign, that looks like...Alright!" She turned around and presented another series of math problems, this time involving some basic algebra questions. As she handed it to the horse, Leah took a seat by it and watched it quickly translate the human equations into its own numeric system, solve them, then translate them back into a shakier series of Arabic numerals and "X"-es. "Holy hell, that unicorn is way too expressive," Noah whispered to Andrew as he leaned into his ear. "The way it smiles...the fact it smiles...are we sure we should be so inviting?" "I wouldn't worry about that," Andrew quietly replied. The two watched as Leah and the unicorn happily conversed through the notebook, mathematical expressions and formulas acting as their medium. Leah would write out a math problem, then the unicorn would translate and solve it. The unicorn would then write up another problem for her to solve, which she would translate and figure out in turn. At that moment, neither Andrew nor Noah wanted to break their little bubble of enchantment and wonder. Instead, Noah grabbed his nicotine-pen from the nearby table and took a long draw from it. He savored the minty flavor and mind-sharpening feeling of high-dosage vapor juice as he watched Leah scratch and pat the alien as if it were a dog. Nicotine was a bit of a habit of his (not nearly as bad as his father's chain-smoking addiction), but recent events had forced him to ration out his smoke breaks. He only had half of a dropper bottle's worth of juice left, and he didn't want to use it all up at once - but this was something truly worth enjoying. "You're gonna relax right now, Noah?" "I can't help it, Andrew. This is a truly magical moment, and I want to enjoy it," he retorted as he puffed out a dense cloud of water vapor and nicotine. There was something whimsically enjoyable to Noah about a girl and a unicorn having fun together, an experience he hadn't expected to think of ever since first grade. It gave a feeling of amusement and elation, and a little bit of something else, too - something he also hadn't anticipated in quite a while. Hope. -Applejack- Applejack woke up with a start, her dreams plagued with visions of timberwolves and death. Sweat rolled down her head as the nightmares slowly faded away from her memory. She remembered running away, away from the timberwolves that chased them through the forest. Then she ran out of the forest, then into the meadow, then there were loud cracks and snaps... The earth pony held her hooves out in front of her, focusing on the clean, white bandages that were wrapped around them. Applejack let out a sigh of relief, grateful that she was alive. The last thing she remembered was a timberwolf pouncing on her, dragging her to the ground...no, she wasn't dead. As Applejack rested, her senses began to take in more and more of her surroundings. She was lying on a tarp on the ground, and a crisp white blanket covered her orange body. The ceiling of the building she had rested under was crudely tacked together with planks of wood, and a strange white light emanated from somewhere in front of her. Applejack groaned as she pulled herself up off of the ground - then grunted as a hoof pushed her down. "Don't stress yourself, Applejack. You're hurt." "T-Twilight? Are you okay? What happened?" The feeling of concern and worry was mutual between the two ponies as they stared into each other's eyes. "Long story. Right now, all that's important is that you get some rest." "I don't think I can, Twi. Not until you fill me in on what happened." Applejack lay motionless on the ground as she listened to Twilight talk. She explained how the strange creatures had helped fend off the timberwolves, then how the three of them had been seriously injured, then about the fact that the creatures took them in and healed them. She talked about how they were so different, how they were so strange yet so familiar to her. About how they were intelligent, fascinating, curious... "...and they were so tall! At least a head and a half taller than I am. They stand on two legs, so they're pretty thin, though...oh, here they come! I think this is the female one...judging by their steps. Oh yeah, don't be too surprised!" The creature rounded the corner and looked at Applejack, who returned the stare back at it. It stood on two legs and had two arms like Spike's with five fingers on each claw that flexed and stretched as it looked at her. Its torso and lower legs were covered by green and blue clothing, as were its feet. The face was rather odd, with no snout and small, beady eyes. A pair of boxy spectacles sat in front of its eyes, occasionally catching the glint of the crisp white lamps nearby. Twilight grabbed a nearby notebook and pencil with her magic off of a table, then handed it to the creature. It grabbed it out of the air, then drew a series of foreign symbols on it. When it handed the notebook to Twilight, Applejack watched her write something back in the same strange glyphs, then hand it to the creature. It nodded, a grin forming on its face as it left the room. "What was that about, Twilight?" "It was asking if you were okay. I said 'yes', and I think you'll be fine for now. I want you to rest a bit longer, though. I don't want you to stress yourself." "But what are-" Applejack almost managed to ask as she tried to get up out of the covers. A sharp pain shot across her stomach, and she gasped as she lay back down. "Shh. Only rest now." With a sigh, Applejack relaxed her muscles and looked around the room. The walls were all made out of the same planks as the roof, and they were tacked together crudely with nails. Crates of various sizes and shapes were piled all around her, some of which were made of a strange, black material. Several tubes that served as lights glowed from the ceiling, with cords trailing out of them and off somewhere else. "Where are we? How long has it been?" "Well, do you remember the meadow we were in?" "Are we in that house?" "Yes, Applejack. As for what time it is, I think it's been about a day since that happened. We've been knocked out for quite a while. It's night now, I think." "...alright." The earth pony suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion hit her body. Her worries had melted away, and she felt at ease. With a smile of relief on her face, Applejack drifted back into her slumber. Everything would be fine.