Choose another language.

by Solar Caesar

Thinking is Hard.

Sweetie Belle didn't care about what her mother thought. Even though she said she would choose another language, she still remained faithful with her choice to learn Changeling. It appalled her. It wasn't like she was hurting anyone.
Was she?
The Canterlot invasion left a lot of hate from Equestrians. They wanted to have no association with Changelings whatsoever.
But what about free will? What about choosing what you want to do?

I guess you don't get free will until your'e 18, Sweetie Belle thought to herself as she lay in bed.
Now, she had to learn two languages- Changeling and French.
Well, I guess I can pull it off, Sweetie Belle said as she closed her eyes.
...
Wait.
Yes.
Yes I can! she thought as she swung her back hooves over the bed.
She walked over to her desk and pulled her drawer open. Inside she pulled out a book.
A book titled, The Webster's Guide of Languages.

8 Hours Later

"Sweetie Belle..."
Just a few more minutes ma.
"Sweetie?"
Please, mom. Wake me up in five minutes.
"Sweetie Belle!"

Sweetie's eyes shot open.
"I see you were practicing your languages!" her mother said.
"Y-yeah. Yeah mom. Yeah, I was practicing my languages." Sweetie covered up.
"You seem very tired Sweetie. How late were you up last night?" asked her mother.
"I-I don't remember." Sweetie groggily answered.
"Hmm... go take a cold shower. That'll probably wake you up. Then get ready for school." her mother ordered.
"Kay."

30 Minutes Later

As she dried herself with the towel, Sweetie Belle thought about how Changelings live. They had to have some civilization, right?
Right.
Right?
Sweetie Belle had no idea. Pretty much nopony did.
If someone probably infiltrated the Changeling hive, they could know a lot more than already did.

As she got dressed, she wondered how complex their language was.
Is it difficult to learn? How about their number system?

What about their technology? Are their researchers smart? Philosophy? There was one Philosopher from the Changeling Kingdoms.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.

While he died over a century ago, Princess Twilight Sparkle mentioned him and many other Philosophers in her book, The Love Of Wisdom.
Sweetie Belle read her book.
And she enjoyed Friedrich's part the most.
While John Locke, Alan Turing, and Julien Offray de la Mettrie were all interesting,she felt more interested in Friedrich's Philosophy.
Why?
One quote.
"If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." he had said.
While she had no clue what the heck that meant, she still felt moved.
She thought of that quote whenever she felt sad. Or just needed some wisdom.

But hey, what can you do?
People either change or they don't.
Life sometimes just...
just...
sucks.

Author's Note:

Okay, for the majority of bronies in the crowd who are interested in philosophy, I had recently bought, "The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy". It contains all(or most) of the best philosophers of all time.
I might make a philosophical story later.
But for now, YAY!

Comments

[yourlocalhetheydisaster]

This seems like it is going to be an interesting story! (In a good way!) Good job!

[Mauser1888]

Interesting. I know that if I were a pony, I'd be fascinated by changelings and would take any opportunity to study and learn more about them. Sweetie is right to want to learn to speak Changeling.

[ColdGoldLazarus]

Ooh, interesting start. This could use some polish, but I love the concept thus far!

[mastermenthe]

Im surprised you are not ponifying everything. I suppose that makes it easier to write this story. Following.

[Perteks]

That was dramatically short.

[Solar Caesar]

6120781
What was? The story? It's not over.
Oh, you mean this Chapter? I'm a concise writer, I guess.

[Perteks]

6122345 Sorry, all that chapters are dramatically short for me its not enough even for one full chapter, its not even 1,5k words uhh

[Solar Caesar]

6120470
I should probably add the anthro tag...

[Solar Caesar]

6119506
My man! Or woman...
I'm glad you see it the same way as I do. Equestrian's revolve around kindness and understanding. So why do they act racist?

[Solar Caesar]

6119263
I would have taken it as a compliment anyway. Thank you!

[Chicago Ted]

6122449
Nothing happened. I've never even been to Albania!

I simply picked it up because I wanted something unusual, yet familiar. I could've gone with Irish, Welsh, Esperanto (which I inadvertently learned as well), or Armenian. So I flipped the coin in my head, and went with Albanian.

And to answer your question: Po, unë flas Shqip tani. A ju?

My parents are more interested in the languages that are practical in my area (English and Spanish), but my school paper published a language project that showed just how diverse my school is. We found Croatian, Gujarati, Japanese-- all kinds of stuff!

So, anyway, that's why my parents are opposed to Albanian. (I'm just damned grateful they don't know about the gjakmarrja. . . .)

[mastermenthe]

6122407
I detected no anthro hints... I was talking about ponifying concepts and names, such as using Prance and Germaneigh, and otherwise avoiding direct 1:1 connections between pony culture history with human culture history, such as simply copy pasting german culture history onto the changelings.

[Chicago Ted]

Guess whose story made the popular list.

[Ether Echoes]

I'm not terribly interested in this, however -

But something happens in Canterlot, and the CMC have to tag along. But what happens leaves everyone in shock.

Just as a friendly sort of criticism, this part of your description caught my eye. It's rather weak, grammatically and dramatically.

For instance, "something" literally tells us absolutely nothing. It isn't even titillating. We don't even know what the effect of that something was.
The second sentence is especially bad in this regard. So the thing that left everyone in shock was not the "something" that happened in the first sentence?

[Solar Caesar]

6122472
Just translated. And no, I don't speak German.
Or Shaqip... I used Google Translate. As you probably know, it's a bit wonky.

[Chicago Ted]

6127097
It is wonky, isn't it?

Shqip is the autonym for the Albanian language. Google Translate thinks it means "English" (though I haven't seen it say it means German). "English" in Albanian is anglisht.

[Solar Caesar]

6127111
Ah.
Did you mean to ask me if I speak Shaqip? I don't. Neither do I speak German.
God, this is getting confusing!

[Chicago Ted]

6127178
Okay. Lemme clear this up.

English = English
Deutsch = German
Shqip = Albanian

Therefore, I mentioned, "Yes, I speak Albanian now. Do you?"

[Solar Caesar]

6127184
Okay, okay. I get it now.

[Ralfil]

This seems like an alright story, and I'll give it a thumbs up, but I probably won't be following it. It doesn't seem quite deep enough for the concept it's bringing up. Maybe longer chapters would help.

[nioniosbbbb]

6127240

It appalled her

You mean appealed to her? Appaled is the opposite of appealed.

"Sweetie Belle..."
Just a few more minutes ma.
"Sweetie?"
Please, mom. Wake me up in five minutes.
"Sweetie Belle!"

Eeer why not add quotations when changing the person speaking? This is a dream right?

A book titled, The Webster's Guide of Languages.

Actually I understand that you need to mane allusions to real life stuff but it's suggested to make pony gimmicks leaving the allusions explained in the author notes.

Interesting story. No really... despite it being short I like it. If you want to merge the chapters into one that would be best though.

[Solar Caesar]

6139523
Yeah, I guess people from other countries call it "american".

[Solar Caesar]

6123170
*Fist Pump*

[Solar Caesar]

6122609
Thanks for the feedback, and for Russian...
Trussian?
Trut+Russian=Trussian.

[PinkiePieFox]

The only thing I see wrong with the story is that it lacks detail. I do like the idea and concept of the story, though, and I'm enjoying the idea of it, but I think it could use a higher word count per chapter... Other then that I hope to read more of it.

I think with more details and a higher word count it could be a much better story overall. Perhaps add a bit more conflict, I'd like to see Sweetie hiding it from her family in different ways and maybe getting help from other ponies to learn Changeling.

Its just my thoughts... I hope that they give you some ideas.