Never the Final Word (Vol. 2)

by FanOfMostEverything


Georg's Googol Translations (Estee's "Because nothing has EVER gone wrong with this kind of request: public opinion needed.")

"You're being sued."

"What was that, Spike?" Twilight Sparkle looked up from her book to where her faithful assistant was sorting the massive lump of mail they had been receiving every day. Some was trash, and got the dragonfire treatment. Some was misdirected to the wrong princess, and got the special dragonfire treatment. And some was of the unfortunate type that actually had to be opened.

"Says here, a translation of your friendship book in Zebrica uses the same copyrighted phrase as--" he squinted "a two-hundred year old pillar of their religious faith. Yadda, yadda, there it is. Huh. 'Friendship is magic' translates out in Zebrican the same way, I guess."

"Can't they just change the Zebrican translation?" asked Twilight with her eyes drifting back to her place in the more important Book Of The Moment.

"Not without a change in the source material," said Spike as he read. "It turned up when the book was being translated for the West Windies, and since they have interlocking trade deals—"

"Wait a minute." Twilight put a bookmark where she had stopped reading. "They're translating my book into Windiean from the Zebrican translation?"

"Actually," said Spike with one claw on the letter. "They're translating it from the West Griffish Isles dialect, which translated it from Zebrican, which translated it from Tauren, who took it from your original book." He turned the letter sideways and squinted. "Apparently, it's a guide to dating now. Sweet."