//------------------------------//
// 7 - Chatting the World 
// Story: Universal Language 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

They rolled into the UN building slowly, scanning everything around them carefully, on high alert from the incident they had experienced on the way there. "What do we do with her?"

"That's a question for them." The agent nodded towards the top officials that were waiting for them at the entrance. "We deliver her, and keep her safe."

"Thanks kindly?" Applejack walked along with her escorts up to the officious looking human that radiated all the pomp and circumstance of someone in some kind of official capacity. "Right nice to meetcha." She sang, her words translated to English.

"Nice to meet you as well, Miss Apple." He extended a hand, and it was met with that odd fleshy hoof. They shook, Applejack getting better about how human handshakes worked. "I just work here, but I've been assigned to get you to the right place. Let's head inside." He waved her in and they all began the trip into the UN building proper.

They didn't have far to go, meeting another set of guards as they came inside, these ones with serious faces and alert eyes, watching every direction. There were many locked doors ahead of them, and they expected she'd see more. She was passed from one guard to the next, though the new detachment also claimed to work for the Secret Service. It was just fresher faces that hadn't just survived an attack.

They went to a room that was a little larger than all the people, and alien, filling it. The man that had welcomed them waved gently. "Relax where you wish. We'll be called when it's your turn to go on stage. Do you wish to watch them talk while we wait?"

"Watching, yeah." Applejack found a couch and settled down onto it, spreading her limbs out as she stretched her aching muscles. She glanced at the large screen mounted on the wall. She could see humans in a big hall, and others standing up to speak at them, yelling, almost. They were arguing about something, but most of the Proper Nouns were lost on her.

Still, there were plenty of normal words she could pick up on. Climate change, impoverished people, money. Damage, death, money. Applejack nodded as her translator picked up fragments of each spoken sentence, trying her best to keep up with things. "Oh, right." She bobbed her head in understanding as a word floated into place that put all the other bits of conversation together. She seemed to be learning new things about human politics all the time, which was entertaining to someone who didn't understand why the humans cared so much about the things they chose to, while seeming to brush off the more obviously important things. At least, from Applejack's perspective.

Still, it wasn't her world, nor her people. Chastising them for not being ponies felt silly. She took a slow breath, calming herself from the excitement. "Ah'll get through this," she said to herself and nobody else. "It's jus' talkin', 'n lettin' folks know the things they need to."

As they watched the big meeting, everyone waiting, Applejack reached out towards one of the Secret Service agents. "So, what are we waiting for?"

"It's on a vote." The agent frowned at the screen. "Once it's over, we can go on stage." He glanced at her, looking away from the large monitor in the corner. "They'll let us know. That part's not a secret." He chuckled softly. "We humans love our schedules, and you're on it."

Applejack poked her tongue out past her teeth with a tittering laugh, that odd clicking they'd learned. "I knew that." She put a hoof to her face. "Jus' a bit anxious. Sorry." She watched the humans watching each other speak, shout and yell, argue about things they seemed passionate about.

But the vote happened, hands raising and untranslated words sailing past her. She grasped the vote was happening, and she heard Yeahs and neahs. A few abstentions.  A result. There were some claps, and some scowls, but the vote was completed. Applejack looked up at the agents around her. "What now?"

"It's our turn." One reached down to take her foreleg and lift her back to her feet. "You'll have to go up on stage now. Can you handle that?"

"Ah think so." She sucked in a deep breath. "Once ah start, ah can keep talkin'. I ain't shy when it comes to speakin' the truth." She walked with that first person that had led her into the building, emerging into that room. Seeing it from the bottom, she was hit by how large a space it was, filled with countless eyes, and they were rapidly turning towards her. She cringed, trying to focus on her escorts instead of all those people staring at her. They lead her up to a podium, waving her forward. "We'll be right here, ma'am."

She was left alone on the stage as the first human began to speak, then, was that music? The soft sounds of a whale's song played from somewhere all around her, and Applejack smiled. She also let her teeth be shown for the first time, swept away in the wondrous notes of that song. She joined it, pony and whale song harmonizing, neither exactly the same, but two puzzle pieces that slotted together perfectly.

The room went quiet save the playing sound and the alien singing. They were witnessing something entirely new to them. For once, the video wouldn't capture what was happening, and that wouldn't matter. As it finished, the UN president started to clap, and the others followed his example. A standing ovation for an alien that had just sung a song to them all.

Applejack lowered her ears as their applause rolled over her. "T-thank y'all." She noticed the microphone and reached out, pulling it closer. "Ah'm right pleased to be here. Ah'm told this is a way to talk to a whole lotta y'all at once. Um, if I can ask though, what was that? Ah didn't know humans sang!" Her normal dialect clashed with her English one, singing her questions just as excitedly.

The president held up a hand for silence, restoring order to the room and his own seat, "Miss Applejack, why have you come to Earth?" He had so many questions, but he tried to keep himself focused.

Applejack started. "Oh, right. That's a fair question. We've been listenin'! And yer powerful noisy. Not sayin' that in any bad way, but we could hear you clear 'cross the sky." She pointed upwards into the void. "We heard ya, and we came to say 'howdy!' Ya said all kindsa thin's. Kept us guessin' fer years! So we sent a hello back." She paused for a moment. "Y'all are right spooked, aren't ya?"

The president looked across the room. "That would be an understatement." He leaned in on his podium. "Miss Applejack, what brings you here?"

Applejack rewound the conversation in her mind, realizing she never really technically answered that. "Well, we knew our hello reached you. So we figured, once we said hi, the next step, as a good neighbor, was to actually stop by. We're here to offer open hooves." She spread her forelimbs wide. "We're all in this universe together. We're hopin' we can be good friends 'bout it."

The president straightened himself back up. "That's a wonderful sentiment, but surely there is more. You're more than welcome to be friends with us, but what do you want? Our space?"

Applejack raised a hoof to her head. "Yer space? Um—" She looked that human over, taking Cindy's advice in mind. They didn't have those fat deposits. They were probably—"Sir, this universe has a lot of space. So much of it we can't rightly count it. Why would we want your space in particular? It ain't special as space goes. Just another rock. No, what's special are the people livin' on it!"

The room filled with murmurs, most likely saying some variation of 'fair enough.' Applejack smiled at that thought. "That's what we're here to do, find new friends 'n talk about it all! That's why we came here. Yer welcome to keep yer world. Interestin' place. If ya don't mind, we could visit? But it's yers. Oh!" She perked up. "Ah'm bein' rude. You could stop by our little world. We wouldn't mind a few happy guests."

A woman from Europe stood up, looking at the president with an upturned chin, her face set in a dignified scowl. "This is all very nice, but we have seen no proof of what you're saying."

Applejack gave a strange new click. "Well, um, not sure what more evidence ah can give." She stood and did a slow circle, displaying her strange form to the assembly. "Ah gotta ship, up there. Y'all have seen it, haven't ya? We can start goin' over body specifics. Done learned how humans work, broadly, so ah know what parts ah mine sure do work different." She began pointing out all the odd details, or ones she knew were different from what they were used to seeing, describing the little quirks of being a pony that set them apart from the humans, some subtly and others quite broadly indeed.

The president gently waved for her quiet. "That's quite enough. You don't need to explain to all of us these likely taboo topics." Even if they weren't taboo for the alien, they sure were for many members in the audience. "We have seen you ship, at least some of us. America had been slow to share that information.

America's diplomat stood at that. "Giving the precise coordinates is useless for those that have no visual line towards it because the earth's in the way. We're not playing favorites." He pointed across the room. "As Miss Applejack has explained, she is an alien, from a far off world. How can we be sure they all look like that? What if they're not friendly? What if she is just the scout?"

Applejack walked over towards him, looking him up and down. "Well, yer partially right. Ah am a scout. Ah am Applejack, Captain of the Distant Friendship. We're the first in line to see if there's any land on this place worth talkin' bout, and if there is, if they wanna be friends, or if we shouldn't bother with 'em. Now, since we're bein' all truthful, mah world ain't just got one thinkin' race on it. Ponies are just one." She poked a hoof towards him, the others quietly listening as she spoke. "Yer another."

That got them talking. America seemed surprised at her words. "What?"

Applejack bobbed her head. "Humans, just another one, but we got plenty back home. Dragons, griffons, changelings." Many of her words were loose approximations at best. "They all got somethin' unique to share, and a different perspective on things. Ah'm here as a pony, offering a friendly hoof." She extended one towards them all. "Will ya take it?"

The president's hands lowered towards his podium, gently tapping against it as he thought that through. "Miss Applejack, can you excuse us? I think we need to talk amongst ourselves."

Applejack looked around the room. There were hundreds of people there, and they were talking quietly. Part of her wanted to say more, to sway them, but they were talking, at least. "'Course. Take yer time." She nodded to her escort and they left the way she came, to the same waiting room. That screen was mounted on the wall, providing the live feed from the UN in progress as Applejack took a seat, relaxing as best she could on the sofa, not daring to try squeezing onto a chair. "Ah don't think it's going so bad?"

Her escort sank onto a seat proper. "You have given them much to consider. They may be arguing for days, weeks. We'll see if they call you out again."