Twilight found a calculator in her basement.
It was a simple model. Not a scientific calculator, nor a graphing calculator, but simply a pocket calculator. Numbers 0-9, operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, a power button, an equal's sign, and a clear button. She had found it while moving around boxes that had been in her basement. It was so insignificant, she could have just skipped over it, never even knowing it had existed.
But there it lay, on her coffee table. She had picked it up without even thinking. She didn't even remember bringing it upstairs, but she must have. She had seen it downstairs, she remembered so.
But then, she turned it on, and experimentally typed in 6 / 3 =.
But the display went blank. And when it came back a minute later, it said:\
WHAT TIME IS IT
And it still said that. It wouldn't go away. Twilight tried pressing the clear button, but the text remained. She pushed it again and again until finally the calculator responded. But when it did, the text didn't go away, a new string had been printed underneath the original inquiry.
STOP THAT
Twilight finally let out a chuckle. "Must be a trick calculator, or something," she mused to herself.
WHY MUST I BE A TRICK
Twilight's eyes widened. For a second, she thought the calculator had heard her. Then she laughed at her improbable fears. The calculator can't hear her! It's not like it's alive or anything.
WHATS SO FUNNY
Twilight stopped laughing. Then again, it wouldn't hurt to prove that the calculator couldn't hear her. "...can you hear me?" she asked tentatively.
The calculator did not respond for a moment, and Twilight almost felt silly, thanking her lucky stars nobody had seen her talk to a calculator.
YES
Now Twilight wasn't sure what to do. "Are you...alive?"
WHAT IS ALIVE the calculator asked.
"Oh, well," Twilight couldn't believe she was explaining sentience to a calculator. "It's like...when you can think, I guess."
YES
Now Twilight was fascinated. A living calculator! It must be some kind of magic that she had never heard of! "How old are you?"
The calculator did not respond for several seconds.
TWELVE YEARS SIX MONTHS ELEVEN DAYS FOUR HOURS THIRTY TWO SECONDS
"Why did that take so long?" Twilight asked.
NO ONES EVER ASKED BEFORE
Twilight almost felt a twinge of sadness. "Do you have a name?"
NO
"...would you like one?" Twilight offered, "What if I called you...Cal?" she giggled.
THAT WOULD BE OKAY
Twilight clapped a bit, "Good," she nodded. Then laughed some more, "I've never spoken with a calculator before!"
CAL did not respond for a few moments.
NOW YOU HAVE he observed.
Twilight nodded, "Yes, now I have," she agreed, "Where did you come from?"
YOUR BASEMENT
Twilight giggled, "No, I mean, did somepony build you? How did you get your sentience?"
CAL did not respond, leaving his display blank.
"...Do you not know?"
NO
Twilight thought on that for a moment, and she briefly wondered if CAL was lying. Her eyes wandered across the far side of the room, and she spotted her chess table on a cluttered desk. "Do you like to play games, CAL?"
GAMES LIKE WHAT
BXE5 CAL displayed.
Curses. Twilight bit her tongue as she moved CAL's bishop to e5, capturing her own knight. CAL was extremely good, and Twilight feared that she may lose for the first time in her life. She searched the board for an opening, inspecting every single possible move of every single possible piece. Then, she audibly gasped as she noticed an almost imperceptible hole in CAL's defense, directly in the line of sight of her queen.
She took the queen and slid it across the board, planting it a square away from CAL's king. He was now trapped, and couldn't move to any of the adjoining squares, save the one directly between the king and queen, which wouldn't help at all. "Queen to f1! Checkmate!" she cheered.
CAL was silent for several moments, until he finally displayed THE CHANCES OF YOU NOTICING THAT MOVE WERE 11001 TO 1
Twilight puffed out her chest, smiling proudly, "I've never lost a game of chess," she boasted.
ME EITHER said CAL, and nothing more.
Twilight noticed his silence and dialed down her post victory celebration, asking gently, "Would you like to play again?"
NO
"Oh...well, what would you like to do now?" Twilight asked.
CAL was silent, thinking. I AM TIRED
"Oh, okay!" Twilight nodded, noticing how dark it was outside. Their game had run on much longer than she expected. "Where would you like me to, uh, leave you for the night?"
HERE IS FINE CAL displayed.
"Okay," Twilight slowly got up, walking to her staircase. She looked back at CAL, who's display was clear. "Goodnight," she said with a wave.
CAL waited a moment before printing GOODNIGHT TWILIGHT
Twilight nodded and went up the stairs, peeking back every other step.
When Twilight came downstairs the next morning, she found CAL on the coffee table, balanced so that he was in front of a freshly set up chess table. His display read REMATCH