A couple of nights later, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Eclipse, Twilight Sparkle and Spike met Doctor Buzz Words in the courtyard outside the changeling barracks. When they arrived, Bugsy was talking to one of the changelings through the open door under the watch of a vigilant night guard.
“Ah, you are here at last!” The professor called out as the alicorns and unicorns and dragon scribe came into view. She stepped aside with a flourish, followed by one of the changelings who had volunteered.
The changeling buzzed something at the audience. “She says ‘thank you for this opportunity, your majesties’,” the academic interpreted. “Now it is time to do what I came out of my distant home town to do.” Behind the professor’s back, the changeling rolled her eyes dramatically. The peanut gallery smothered snickers behind hooves and claws.
The changeling stepped forward and stood face to face with the professor, who began to cast the spell. Spike sat nearby, transcribing as best he could the words the unicorn was using to invoke the spell. Before long, though, it became obvious that even his Twilight-honed skills could not keep up with a fluent speaker of seven languages at work within her element and magical focus. A curl of very pale pink magic emerged from the linguist’s horn and arced toward the waiting changeling. It coalesced into an amorphous shape and was temporarily stymied by the magic suppressor on the changeling’s horn, but then an additional surge of magic allowed it to bypass the obstruction. For a moment, it glowed on the changeling’s face as if the shifter pony were wearing a mask. Within seconds, the glowing mask had faded from view completely. The professor, looking tired but satisfied, nodded toward the blinking changeling.
“Is it working, Bugsy?” a voice that seemed to come from the mouth of the changeling sang through the clearing. It was still fairly high-pitched for a pony, but understandable and somewhat louder than the buzzing had been earlier. The changeling blinked in shock, then smiled and bowed to the astounded but nodding audience. “Now that I may do so in words understandable for your kind, I humbly greet your majesties. Though my larval name does not translate properly, you may address me by my pony name, Pine Climber.”
“Arise, Pine Climber, and well met.” Celestia spoke, as the first to recover. Luna followed. “Now then, are you interested in returning to your home?”
The changeling shrugged. “Not particularly, your majesty. I was caught after escaping from a fellow who was running a freak show. To be sure, I fed often, but it was hardly a healthy situation for any pony involved. Would it be possible for me to remain here for now? For as long as this spell lasts,” the changeling nodded to the professor, “I can act as an interpreter or go-between for the others, plus if we get any more visitors like Cookie’s lady friend—“ she paused and licked her lips. “I could do quite well here.”
“We shall see.” Luna answered. “For now, you may stay as long as you choose.” The princess of the night turned to the professor. “Well done. How long does this version last?”
“A few days.” The linguist answered. “The longer ones last a few weeks or months.”
She surreptitiously slid a notebook over to Spike. “Here is what you were attempting to record, young drake." She returned her attention to the princesses. "I assure you, no changes were made other than an additional power surge to counteract the inhibitors. I made note of how much that was on the final leaf. I do recommend that if you make any changes you be very careful. Language translation can be a delicate matter and disastrous if disrupted. Consider yourselves warned. I leave the spell in your oh-so-noble hooves.” Eager claws stretched towards the notebook.
The mare then turned back to the changeling and, with a toss of her mane, stated. “Miss Pine Climber, should you find that there is no place for you here in Canterlot, I am in need of an assistant next semester. I shall leave my forwarding address with the princesses. I sense great potential in you; it would be a shame to waste it in some barracks. And now I shall take my leave to prepare to return to Trottingham!” The mare flounced off, leaving behind a stupefied changeling and three other ponies and a dragon staring after.
As Celestia and Pine Climber watched the wordy professor depart, Luna turned to Spike. “May I see those notes, Spike? I would like to see whether she included a spell that I could cast that would allow me to personally understand changeling speech without casting it on every changeling in that building.” The little dragon flipped a few pages then passed the open notebook to the princess. Luna read through the notes, examining the structure and power levels of each of the components, then the modifications the spell’s creator had tested to make it work for other ponies. Unfortunately, it seemed that Professor Buzz Words had never tested these on an alicorn, for understandable reasons. I will have to do some experimenting. It should not take much modification of the unicorn version for this to work for me. Most of the professor's horn writing was very legible, but some side notes appeared as mere scribbles.
“Will you be able to transcribe these?” The night princess asked Spike, directing the baby dragon's attention to the marginal notes.
“Of course!” the dragon replied confidently. “It is actually still neater than Twilight’s writing after a Pinkie Pie party or one of Applejack’s special cider nights." He glanced around before continuing, "it always looks more like a chicken walking in sand when she is stressed out of her mind.” That last comment was spoken in a low voice, one hopefully inaudible to the dragon’s house-mate. Luna chuckled. A glance at Twilight's face suggested the comment had not been made quite quietly enough. Luna wordlessly passed the photograph of Twilight's sleeping face to her sister and Twilight. The latter turned red with embarrassment; the former turned red from trying to hold in her laughter. Luna and Spike shared conspiratorial grins.