//------------------------------// // Just make it up // Story: Too short to post. Too good to forget. // by alt-tap //------------------------------// "Twilight, Twilight!" Pinkie cried in alarm, dashing through the door of the Golden Oaks library. "Pinkie, what's wrong?" Twilight replied, nearly dropping the dictionary she was busily rereading. Pinkie inhaled deeply, Twilight had a bad feeling about what she was about to say. "I was having a tea party with Fluttershy and Rarity." She reared up and began to shout and gesticulate wildly, "when a bunch of dragons appeared and Fluttershy screamed really loud and hid under the table and Rarity started yelling for Spike for some reason and then Rainbow Dash and Applejack showed up and did some kind of silly dance and then they said FUSION at the same time and exploded and this huge super-rainbow-apple-pony appeared and what does kerfuffle mean?" Pinkie fell back to all fours and stared expectantly at twilight, apparently expecting any of that had actually made any kind of sense. After several seconds Twilight's brain finished grinding to a halt and rebooted. "Wait, what?" "What does kerfuffle mean?" Pinkie repeated as if the rest of her rant had never happened. "Ookaaayyyy." Twilight replied, looking through the dictionary she just happened to have open to the beginning of 'K' and trying to pretend the other thing never happened. "lets see... Huh, it doesn't seem to be in here. that's odd," she looked up and searched to shelves for another dictionary. "I was gonna ask Rarity," Pinky said, entirely unable to just wait quietly, "Cause she was the one that said it, but she fainted on her magic chaise longue." Twilight found her query and pulled it from the shelf. "This one covers more of the foreign words used in modern Equestrian." she provided to her, partly wrapped in attention partly detracted by something that may or may not have actually been real, pink friend. "Oh, here we go; Kerfuffle: a disorderly outburst, disturbance, commotion or tumult." Pinkies eyes brightened with understanding "Oh! Wow, thanks Twilight. I think I have a new favorite word!" she chirped with excitement. "Say, you said that book was a bunch of foreign words right?" "Well, not as such," Twilight corrected, "but it says this one come from either Dun or Roan. Those are both north of Trottingham by the way." "Neato!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Who made it up?" "You don't just make up a word, Pinkie," Twilight chastised, annoyed that Pinkie would think something a significant as language could just be made up. "Oh. Well then where do words come from?" Pinkie asked with a puzzled expression. That gave Twilight pause. Where do words come from? She pondered for a long moment. When she came out of her revery, Pinkie was about a centimeter from her face. Fortunately, Twilight had gotten somewhat used to her friends antics and managed to keep her reaction down to squeaking and falling onto her rump. "Your so silly, Twilight," Pinkie giggled. "So did your smarty brain tell you where words come from?" she leaned closer to Twilight as she spoke. "No, Pinkie, it didn't" Twilight replied, rising back to her hooves. "How about this, I'll send a letter to the princess and see if she knows, okay?" Pinkie gasped, floating in the air for a moment. "Your gonna ask the princess for me? Wow, thank you, Twilight." Pinkie started bouncing in a circle. "I feel so supper special; I get to ask the princess a question!" Twilight snorted and made that one face. Her horn began to glow. "I'll come find you when she responds." then pinkie was outside. Dear Princess Celestia, As you know, I have always tried to find the answers to life's persistent questions. Today, Pinkie Pie presented a question that I, even after all the things I've seen and learned, could not answer. so i put the question to you, for I can think of nopony, save you and your sister, who would be likely to provide a satisfactory answer. Where did our language come from? Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. - Twenty seven minutes latter. - My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, I'm glad you asked, it's actually quite a funny story. A few thousand years ago, the three pony nations depicted in the hearths warming story were all trying to decide who's should be made the national language of Equestria (They all spoke different languages you see). It was getting to the point where Luna and I feared it may start a war so we decided to make up a new one and say it was how "royal ponies" spoke. Immediately the nobles of the three pony nations begged us to teach them, so we did, and they declared it the national language as soon an they were fluent, and that's how contemporary Equestrian was made. Your loving mentor, Princess Clestia. P.S. If you are interested in learning the original languages of the three pony nations, I would be happy to teach you. Twilight stared at the paper for a long time. "It's all just made up? But, it cant, what... I'm just gonna take a nap." "Whats the letter say, Twilight?" Pinkie asked entirely to loudly. Twilight leaped back. "Pinkie, how did you fit under my pillow?" she asked, hyperventilating. "Why were you under my pillow!?" "Um..."