Fauna blinked as she opened her eyes. Her head throbbed, shaking the roof so hard it was a wonder it didn't shatter with every heartbeat.
Rising in an attempt to pinpoint her location, she discovered that whenever the world did not vibrate too much to see, she was in the same treatment bed as that animal she saw yesterday. Or was it even yesterday? How long had she slept?
"Ah, Doctor Sutler, you're awake?" a voice she barely recognized called to her. It belonged to the same person that had received her during her last visit.
"Whuh-" Fauna began before she realized that speaking clearly was more difficult than anticipated. With a cough, she tried again. "What happened?"
"You fainted, and you've been out for about an hour," another voice responded. "How do you feel?"
"I may have felt better... but I feel fine." The world still shook around her, but she was sure it'd pass after a night of sleep. And a painkiller.
"Based on witness accounts, and your blood pressure, your blackout seems to have been induced by a high amount of stress." Tarry, the highest-ranking medical doctor at CERN, was easily recognizable by his permanently smug attitude. "I'm prescribing you three months of vacation, starting today."
How he had managed to reach his current position with that carefree personality, Fauna couldn't understand. He...
"... Excuse me, could you repeat that last part?"
"Vacation. Three months of it," he repeated. "You haven't had one in ages - we checked - so this is for your own health and safety."
Fauna had hoped her hearing had been as shaky as her vision the first time around.
"I don't think you quite understand the gravity of what's happening or who I am, doctor," she accused him. "I need to coordinate the repairs for the collider, or we'll..."
Guilt caused her to lose her train of thought.
Or maybe the experiment wouldn't have gone awry in the first place...
Tarry sat down on the bed next to her.
"Remember, the LHC project is a collaboration - sixty nations contribute." He smiled. "You don't have to do everything alone. I'm sure someone else can do your duties while you take some well-earned rest."
Fauna's paranoid side insisted that the secretive doctors knew, and hid, the reason for the ALICE explosion. Now, they were trying to get rid of her for some insidious reason. However, her more reasonable side convinced her that the notion was ridiculous - how could it be their fault if it was hers?
Her head throbbed painfully, but she refused to cry. She wasn't that weak.
"Cheer up," he said. "The search for massless particles isn't all that important anyway, since they don't matter. Get it? Because gluons are massless, and... No?"
She wondered if she could somehow get away with beating him up for being so unsympathetic. Before she could strike, he continued.
"So, a tachyon exits a bar, and the bartender says-"
In desperation, she turned to the only person who had not annoyed her so far. At least, so far today.
"Please, Christina, make him shut up before I kill myself."
As two had left and the remaining one had sat down by the desk with a notebook, the doctor-creatures were obviously done with their checkups on her for now. Left to her own devices, Rainbow Dash's curiosity was sparked.
Using her left front hoof, she stroked her side. Nothing special, other than a some sore skin. Even as she used more and more force, all she really noticed was how little endurance she had left. Turning around, she decided to try another approach. With her right hoof, she began lightly impacting her hip. It hurt a little, but once again she found no reason for why the creatures' hands had stopped.
The remaining creature stared quizzically, still writing in its book.
Maybe they were the reason, not her. Had she been an egghead, like Twilight, she could probably have figured out how it worked, but without an immediate answer, Rainbow Dash quickly grew bored again. There wasn't even anypony around to talk to. Was there?
"You can't understand me either, can you?" she asked the creature.
Some animals, like Fluttershy's squirrels and bunnies, seemed to understand what ponies said, even if only a few ponies could return the favor. It was worth a try. The creature flinched and looked at her with a surprised stare, but didn't respond.
"That's what I thought."
She was a little disappointed. It'd take months for her feathers to grow back enough for her to be able to fly home, and without anypony to talk to while waiting, it was a dreary thought.
At least the trip back is gonna be fast, she thought, allowing herself a little grin. I'm the fastest flier in all of Equestria! By how much, I'll have to ask Twilight when I get back, but it's gonna be a lot.
The creature rose from its chair and walked a little closer, then it uttered something incomprehensible.
"No, I can't understand you either." She shook her head with a sigh.
Flora sat down on the edge of the bed. The sounds coming from the pegasus were entirely unexpected - she had assumed it only would neigh, but these sounds were far more complex. Almost like a language.
Almost. It still had parts that were somewhat reminiscent of neighing.
In an attempt to verify whether or not it really was a language, she tried repeating what the pegasus had said. It was difficult, and failing to get more of a response than a strange stare with one eyebrow higher than the other, she gestured towards herself to see if she could get it to speak again.
"Flora." No reaction. "Flora."
It seemed to realize what she wanted.
"Phu-... Floora," it said.
It talked. Whether it only could parrot her, she didn't know, but she decided for now to believe that it had the capability to communicate. She then made the same gestures toward the pegasus itself, hoping it would understand and tell her its own name.
It looked confused at her. "Floora?"
Disappointed, she stooped her head. At least there were other, more traditional and scientific ways of testing for animal intelligence. Counting, for instance. She pulled up her notebook, wrote two straight lines on a page, and pointed towards them.
"A, a."
After repeating the process with the numbers three and four, she proceeded to let the pegasus have a go with five.
" 'Eigh, 'eigh 'eigh 'eigh 'eigh," it neighed.
That proved it. Chimps had to go through this process thousands of times before learning to count, so either someone had beaten her to it, or it was more intelligent than any of the other primates on earth.
Someone should be told. Maybe Tarry and Christina were right, it shouldn't be just anyone, but she needed to show this animal to someone trustworthy. She needed to work with real biologists, not just medical doctors.
Going out to the living room, she picked up her cellphone, and dialed her old research group.
That was weird. I wonder why it made me count, of all things, Rainbow Dash thought. Oh, maybe it checked if I'd hurt my head... Yeah, that's probably it.
She also considered that it had made Equestrian sounds, but what it had said made no sense. Good thing that it could make the sounds, though. Maybe some of them could talk to ponies. That was an encouraging thought.
Once more left alone, her mind started wandering.
I hope nopony is worrying too much about me. Can I contact them somehow? I don't think I could get any of these creatures to send Celestia a letter. At least not unless I meet one that speaks Equestrian, she thought. Hm, maybe Twilight can contact me, even if she doesn't know where I am? She's really good with magic, after all.
Thinking about Twilight made her think back to the last time she saw her.
Come to think of it, it could be her wrap spell at work, she thought. Maybe it's the same thing that stopped me from being crushed as I flew?
It obviously had its limits, considering her current situation, but it made her feel a little safer.
If it could save me from that, it can probably save me from other things too...
Sorry it took so long, but I've scrapped and rewritten it something like five times now, as I wasn't satisfied with Flora's original reactions to RD's intelligence. Having another fainting character is just stupid (I already have like one per two chapters), and she wouldn't run off to tell everyone considering she's the highest authority on matters of biology around. I wish I was a biologist so I could have made it even more realistic.
I hope to have the next one up faster, thanks for being patient with me!
810367
Glad you expect nothing less of yourself. Also, your damn tachyon joke made me search it, and I think I facepalmed. Thanks to you, I have now moved from tachyons to other scientific objects. Once I start reading anything about Science, I can't stop :|.
"Someone should be told. Maybe not just anyone, but she needed to show this animal to someone trustworthy.
Going out to the living room, she picked up her cellphone, and dialed her old research group."
What about the scientists Flora is already working with? Is she waiting for them to come back or something?
810591
They're not biologists, and she doesn't know them that well yet. Since she's the only person with any real authority on non-medical biology, she considers herself the boss, and so she decides that she'd rather work with her old research team.
It's supposed to be a slightly surprising action, but I'll see if I can cough up a less confusing description.
Oh featured box, you are a strange being indeed
I have to agree with her decision a bit, maybe not so much on the secrecy thing(then again you never know) but for something along these lines I would want a few others in the same field helping. I study biology, but if you ask me about..oh say particle physics I'll just point you down the hall to the proper room.
810681
They're medical doctors - that includes some biology, but not on the more relevant level of ecosystems or animal psychology.
The technical names for their fields would be more along the lines of molecular biology, while Flora is an evolutionary biologist (Like, for instance, Richard Dawkins) as well as a veterinary, and her old team would be more suited to dealing with animals.
I'll see if I can't make the decision come less out of thin air.
YES. FINALLY. SOMEBODY WHO MAKES THE PONIES ACTUALLY SPEAK A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE.
You wouldn't believe how long I've waited for a fic that does this. There're some other fics out there that have ponies and humans speak different languages, but they cheat because of translation spells. You ain't gonna cheat on us, are you? I hope not!
You are awesome for doing this. Also, great work on this chapter; I really enjoyed it!
Oh! She's bulletproof now!
810776
Well, I haven't decided entirely how to eventually bridge the gap, and I must admit I have considered something like a lingual extrapolation spell eventually being developed, which would spit out the literal names of Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, etc, based on their etymology. For instance, someone named Smith would be translated to whatever the pony word for Blacksmith is. Would make for some efficient storytelling and I could still have some fun with the language barrier and how, exactly, the spell works, but that is also its biggest flaw.
I'm planning to introduce a qualitative description of how magic works on the basic level. It stands at risk that it wouldn't really allow for such nonsense as translation spells, considering linguistics is a very soft science. Just look at how well Google Translate is working for translating between European languages and African or Asian ones. With completely different grammatical systems, sentences are often untranslatable.
So in the end, I probably won't use the translation spell solution, unless I keep running into situations where I have to enunciate how one language sounds in the other. Since I'm no linguist, I'm going to have a really hard time referring to it as anything but "Neighing" and "incomprehensible babbling". Names are also difficult.
Either way, I'm slightly screwed.
810776 There's another fic that's doing it, astronaut explorer lands (voluntarily, for once) on Equestria, Twi and him start with mathematics, then he shows her his talking computer, Twi starts to learn english, Dash gets a wingboner over a picture of a Blackbird bomber: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/13616/Arrow-18-Mission-Logs%3A-Lone-Ranger
I'm finding I really like HiE/PoE fics that take a more serious approach to things; Arrow 18 Mission Logs, The Girl Who Went to Canterlot, and now this. Keep it up!
810776 There's also Over the Edge and Through the Wood and Prances With Ponies.
810953 810776
And this one, too: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/7945/From-Skies-Above
810953>>810980
Help, I can't read all these fics as fast as you're linking them! None of those I read before I started writing this story attempted to do the explaining part, so now I want to harvest these that you've dug up for future reference.
Reading and liking Arrow 18 so far. Nice to see someone follow Sanderson's Laws of Magic, intentionally or otherwise.
810867>>810953>>810980
Oh my freaking Celestia.
Even more fics to add to my ever-growing read-later list!
Naw. Just kidding. I'll read them right away. It's only 3:25 am anyway.
810863 Wait... this is going to become a more general crossover? Because if this is almost exclusively "Rainbow Dash stuck in the human world" I don't know how you are going to pull off a magic spell without someone who can cast spells. And if you are going to expand it as such... well, I hope you have a good background in sciology as well as the various natural sciences. ;)
Assuming that yes, we are getting a (some) unicorn(s) in here, then I wholly support your idea of putting twists with the old "translation spell" trick many (but not all) the other writers who include a language barrier within their HiE stories dip into. I pulled that trick with my (really-should-be-updated-soon-by-god-I-swear-it) fic, but I did a more bogstandard "full-on translation spell, little to no hiccups". If you can run something of a more imperfect translation, with names and concepts getting somewhat muddled, then I certainly support you...
Also, I suspect such a translation for "Smith" would probably be something more whimsical then "Blacksmith"...
I am the happiest man alive now.
810990 BUCK YES ANOTHER SANDERSON FAN. My favorite's Warbreaker, what's yours?
811119 It sticks to the usual "Equish = English" convention, but you may also want to check out The Girl Who Went to Canterlot. It's looking like a nicely dramatic story about Earth-Equestria political relations a year after first contact in a Stargate-style universe.
811124
No promises about who or what is able to do what with what sort of magic. And no, I have no clue about sociology beyond what Tom Lehrer sings.
The only reason I want names translated, is that not only do ponies have names with obvious meaning, but Flora and Fauna have names with (related) meaning. If they aren't translated, I have to invent name jargon both ways. I have an idea, but I'm not sure it'll be as popular with my audience. It solves all problems more believably than the others, but having my characters translate their etymological names out of courtesy still sort of feels like an author bail-out.
811166
My favorite yet is Wheel of Time I'm afraid. I haven't read any of his original works yet, I just ordered everything from Mistborn and Stormlight Archives because:
1. His lectures "Write about dragons" were very inspiring, and I think he is a very skilled author.
2. A friend won't shut up about how Stormlight Archives does world building much like he envisions that I'm trying to do with this story.
3. The concept for Mistborn - "What if the Dark Lord won?" - intrigues me.
Less related: Other than the journal style, I'm gradually realizing that Arrow 18 is precisely the kind of story I really wanted to write.
811258 Sanderson is like a worldbuilding god. He actually released Warbreaker for free on his website, if you'd like to check it out.
And regarding your comment on Arrow 18, I can't say I'm surprised to hear that. You're measuring up pretty damn well, though, if I do say so myself.
811299
:O I certainly will check out Warbreaker, then. As I'll likely be vacationing without internet in a week or two, starting off with Mistborn once I have the physical copy could also be a good idea. I hear it's his worst book, but I'm not all that sold on Stormlight Archives yet. Might just be my friend being terrible at promoting books, though.
I might have to steal a few things from Arrow 18 that I missed, such as some of its notes on pony bone structure. The joints of MLP ponies are more reminiscent of human joints than horse joints - they're really flexible. For instance, consider the fact that Rainbow Dash can put her front hooves behind her head, and often does so when resting. If I'm to pretend Flora is a reputable biologist, she should have at the very least mentioned it.
811437 Elantris, his first novel, is almost certainly his worst; I believe he's even said so himself. Not that it's bad, just not as good as his others. The Stormlight Archive is shaping up to be more or less Sanderson's magnum opus; I'd say that if you're a Wheel of Time fan, you'll love Stormlight. Can't say I blame your friend, though; The Stormlight Archive is planned as a ten-book series, and with only the first one out we've only gotten a glimpse of what's to come.
Holly crap, this story has everything I was looking for. Pony on Earth, serious, different languages, slow pace, smart. You may have even been bumped to the top of my favorites list, beating Arrow 18: Mission Logs. Gah! I love it. Keep writing!
this right now is my second favorite PoE fic after A Hero of War but that's an entirely different kind of story. I'm kinda a nerd so i love all the physics stuff.
One of the ideas for translation spells that I have seen used before is where they work by cross referencing the entire species knowledge of language (Like a network) and comparing notes. So in other words, it both acts like a computer brute forcing comparisons, but also takes into account context and intent.
However, that would of course be dependent on a unicorn being nearby, and honestly, having the human cast freaking out over a talking alien that seems to be increasingly confused by them freaking out over it would be much more entertaining .
In other news, I found this story through here http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/mlp-rec-thread-5.219890/page-43#post-8041035
I might add that Admiral Tigerclaw who wrote Arrow18 frequents that board, and there is a rather notable group of MLP authors who hash out their ideas there. I strongly suggest you take a look if only for the chance to get some helpful advice you might otherwise miss.
Lastly, is the spell stuck on her a makeshift Albecurrie field? And if so, can she control its on/off state?
Tracking and following this one, ponies + physics = pho... nawwww, AWESOME!
Good read.
You'll probably need some indication which language is being spoken at the moment. Could be italics, I've also seen using different characters instead of quotation marks, Wayward Courier uses colored font.
810863 So, Twilight will show up on Earth? And here I thought the fic will end with RD going Mach 9 again to come back and Twilight assuming Rainbow time-travelled. Anyway, I vote against introducing translation spells because a) the language barrier introduces an interesting complication we would like to see more of, b) Flora is already teaching RD English (I'm hoping for a "me Tarzan you Jane" moment next chapter) so they're not actually needed and c) magic has been playing nice with the physics so far, so why don't you stick with things that mostly make sense in modern science context? Good translation requires human-level intelligence, so either magic is sentient, Twilight steals somehuman's understanding of English (as seen in Under The Northern Lights, but I would not recommend it here) or casts the Babelfish spell (in which case go right ahead, it'll be awesome).
This is brilliant. You've got me utterly hooked.
My only possible complaint is the length of the chapters, but your update pace is quick enough for it to not matter. Please do continue this, I'm anxious to see where it goes.
810863
Literal translation is one of the easiest parts of a language barrier to overcome, especially true for the word translation of physical objects and phenomenons.
Take for example the name, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash consists of two separate words; rainbow(physical object/phenomenon), and dash(concept).
Now, attributing a physical object to a word is quite easy; you could highlight the object while emphasizing the word it represents.
Rainbow could simply convey her first name to Flora by pointing a hoof to a rainbow and a hoof to herself.
Now her last name, Dash(A concept synonymous with sprint and run.), would be a tad more challenging to translate though, as Rainbow would be required to do more than just pointing; I'll leave you to solve that little conundrum.
Speaking about concepts, Flora could try to communicate with Rainbow via basic arithmetic mathematics, as math is a rather universal concept expected to exist in any civilization with technological advances. While Rainbow might not be a Twilight level egghead, I'm fairly confident that she'll at least understand the concept of adding 2 marbles into a jar of 2 marbles gives you 4 marbles in the jar.
830853
I agree, that way is the easiest. It's far more difficult to think of how Rainbow Dash will get the names of Tarry or Christina. I'm definitely going to go through the "arithmetic" test, but not going out with details until I get there.
831994
She'll get their names in their native pronunciations? Seriously though, if I've got a friend with a foreign name, I'll refer to them by how their name is spelled/pronounced, rather than bother translating and referring to them as such.
In any case, I'm not sure why you'll think Tarry is so difficult to translate over; tarry just means to wait, delay or make tardy right?
You can easily farther emphasize the alieness between the direction of Rainbow's and Flora's cultural development by how they structure their mathematics; a different base number and difference in order of operation (eg. Base 8 with priority of operations given from the right, rather than the left.) can go a long way in making a science fiction hard[er].
(p.s. I randomly thought of Flora misinterpreting Rainbow's name and started referring to her as Colors, only to discover her mistake late into the fic when Rainbow gets proficient enough to correct her; I don't know why, but I find that thought hilarious.)
834695
Native pronunciation is even more difficult. I can't just refer to Tarry as "Tarry" from RD's point of view, since she wouldn't identify what she hears with "to delay". I'd have to figure out a way to describe how human-speak sounds to a pony.
For the record, I've encountered multiple people whose names have been so unpronounceable that they've requested a nickname. As an example, there was a polish guy in my Japanese class named "Szczhepinskij", and the Japanese language simply doesn't have the required sounds. He was forever known as "Bobbu".
Fauna and Flora are distinct classification names, and the meaning is quite central to their names, but I imagine Tarry and Christina will just have random nicknames until communication becomes smoother.
I was actually thinking I would use base 4, as we've been shown ponies count with their hooves. ("I put two and two and two together, and it added up to Mathilda!", obviously meaning Mathilda is 11.)
About having a different mistranslation - I doubt she'd mistake Rainbow (A Rainbow is a quite specific thing), but as you mentioned earlier, Dash is hard to identify. But yes, "Colors run" could be a humorous image. Imagine Flora's surprise when she realizes that RD has color view far beyond your regular equine.
834926
There you go! Nicknames for now, problem solved(for now); Just wait for RD to familiarize with the English language before going into deep philosophies and meanings behind English names.
Base 4 is kinda a small range to work with, so you'll have to consider that; I would suggest going with either base 8 or base 16, base 8 for it's nice range of digits and base 16 for not being overused in science fiction like base 8.
Franky, I don't think Mathilda is 11 in base 4; I mean if Mathilda == 2 + 2 + 2 (base - 4) then.
Mathilda == 2 + 2 + 2 (base - 4)
== 10 + 2 (base - 4)
== 12 (base - 4)
835212
See problem 1.
(I wrote 11 when I considered the fact that unicorns most likely developed arithmetic, and they might use base 5.)
Suddenly, revisions. After burning away a few minutes re-reading this chapter, I'm only left all the more wanting for a new one.
There is a new one coming soon, right?
847703
I've written the next chapter like three times now. I was going to publish it, but I'm not entirely happy with it yet. (Getting close) I scrap/rewrite my recent chapters much more than my first ones, and I like to think it's not because I've gotten worse at writing, but because my standards have become higher.
After I take a nap (It's 6 AM here) either chapter 10 is going down (up?) or I am.
835212 [link]
858781
I know how use grammar, I no language impaired. Why you're must correct me's grammar on me's comment and spam me's favorite literature your grammar Nazi? Me no fathom were your find its imperative to correction our's less then stellar grammar anywhere?
859379 dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_RageFace.png
862467
Oh dear Celestia, I laughed way too hard at that.
yay i understood most of what was written this time (not that i couldn't completely understand the previous chapters it was just hard) so yeah im the stupid reader of all the readers(by comparison obviously)