Laud led the way with Lyra as his companion. "This is unlikely to be that interesting to watch, I warn. I simply need some assistance with something."
"Something I'd like to know about, if it's not a big deal." She trotted along, tail swaying in obvious good cheer. "I mean, if you want to. I don't want to be a nosey jerk about it or anything."
She was clearly nosey, but a jerk? "It isn't a secret. It certainly won't be if Starlight can do what I hope she can." He pushed open the door of the castle and passed inside, the mint green pony kept at his side as he began to hunt for Starlight. "Starlight? Miss Glimmer?" The castle felt at once massive and homey at times.
Finding other ponies was usually when it felt at its largest. Laud suddenly realized what was missing. There were no servants to fetch the ladies and lords of the castle, help keep track of where they may be, or any of the other countless chores that needed doing to keep any castle running properly. It seemed like no small miracle that Twilight could keep the place going with her staff of one and a half. It was less than a skeleton crew.
Starlight's head emerged from one door among many as Laud and Lyra explored. "Someone shouting for me?"
"Ah, Starlight, good to see you." Laud approached her with purpose. "Do you recall the device I've left in my room, about this big?" He made the circular gesture by placing his fingers together from both hands to form a wide circle. "It's meant to make sounds outside the range that humans can normally make."
Starlight tilted her head to the left, vanished, then just as abruptly reappeared, holding Laud's translator. "This thing?"
Lyra grinned at the thing. "That looks pretty cool to me!"
"It warms quickly." Laud missed the saying. "The problem is that it is not..." He did not know the word for 'programmed'. "It does not know the pony language, so it can't help."
"Right?" Starlight turned it around in her magic's grip, eyeing it suspiciously. "So, what do you want me to do with it?"
Laud pointed at Starlight's horn and its glow. "Lord forgive me, but your magic, or psionics, or whatever it ultimately is might be the key. Lady Sparkle said that you can influence the electronics inside it."
Starlight's face brightened. "Right! She was going on about that, but even she can barely make anything happen, and she's practiced it more than I have, so far. Why are you asking me instead of her?"
Lyra's tongue poked free of her snout. "Even I can answer that. First, our man Laud here tries to be polite, and Twilight is a princess, so asking her to do things isn't the first thing he'll think to do."
Starlight quirked a brow. "So my time is less important?"
"I do not mean to imply that." Even if was true, Starlight was a person of common birth so far as he could discern. "I am told by Lyra here that you enjoy magical challenges."
Her expression eased from its wary edges as she smiled. "As it happens, I do." She brought the translator to almost touching her quivering nose as she turned it this way and that. "I'll do what I can. Is it safe for not-humans to wear?"
"Entirely." Laud relaxed a little, knowing Starlight had accepted his reasoning. "It was originally meant for inhuman throats to make human sounds, so that those we met could speak with us."
"Is that so?" Starlight opened the collar and slipped it around her own throat, turning it around until it felt right and closing it. "Test?" The device spat out a seemingly random word, as if it had noticed speech but was unable to figure out what was actually being said.
Lyra looked quite amused by it. "That is just amazing! I'd wear one of those if it meant I could talk your crazy language. Speaking of that, could you say a few things in it?"
"Such as?"
"Oh, I dunno... how about a stirring war ballad. I bet you know a few of those." She swayed a little as she made her plea. "Or maybe a nice poem. I wonder if it'll sound right."
Laud considered before he spoke in the clearest English he could, "We stand on the precipice of war. Though the sky may be stained red with those that may fall in the future, we must plant our feet on the ground and face the future with unwavering resolve."
Lyra's cheeks went a deep red. "Nice! Was that a love sonnet? Was it for me? It sounded so romantic!"
Starlight shook her head slowly. "I doubt that was a love poem. He looked a little too serious for that." She quirked a smile. "Besides, why would you want a poem from an alien anyway?"
"Why wouldn't I?!" Lyra blew a raspberry at Starlight. "Can you fix that thingie." She pointed at the translating collar. "It's making all kinds of funny words, but I don't understand a single one of it. Laud, can you understand it."
Laud made a single wave. "It's nonsense. My language, yes, but random nonsense. It does not understand what Starlight is saying."
Starlight pulled it free easily with her magic and brought it to Laud. "How does it work when you use it?" Laud didn't fight her, so she slipped it on him and clasped it shut. "Alright, let's hear it."
Speaking in the pony tongue would just get more nonsense. He reached up and fiddled with the settings. He knew how to turn it towards three particular languages it was programmed with, and turned it towards the equine sounds of the horses he knew previously, the shantor. He spoke in English, "This is a test." What emerged was equine snorts and noises.
Both ponies looked appalled a moment before Lyra fell over laughing. "Oh wow! What a tongue!"
Starlight looked away, her cheeks warmed. "I don't think you meant what you said, but please don't say that again."
Laud frowned as he undid the clasp of the translator. "What did it say? There were no pony words that I recognized."
Lyra rolled back up onto her haunches. "It has the thickest accent I ever heard, and it came out a bit garbled, but it sounded like you were making a very lewd proposal. I'm flattered, really, but we're still getting to know each other."
Starlight reached with her magic, reclaiming the translator. "I see it already knows how to speak a little like we do. That should make this a touch easier. Look, I can't make any promises. What happens if I break it trying to make it do what we want?"
"Then I will lose a thing that serves no purpose in its current condition." Laud shrugged. "Whereas if you do succeed, I will gain something valuable. It is a risk, but the benefit is worth it."
Starlight slipped it away into whatever pocket space it seemed all ponies had. "What if I go the other way? I mean, if I teach it our language, there's no reason we can't make it so a pony wearing it can talk your language, just like you want to speak ours without your accent."
"What's wrong with his accent? It's cute." Lyra sat up properly. "It's 'you'. No reason to rush to be generically good. When I hear that nasally pitch, I know it belongs to a brave human stallion."
Laud did not like being referred to as nasally in any context. "It is better to be understood clearly. As for ponies speaking English, that would be great, but I only have one of those, and there are many more ponies than that."
Starlight got the most wicked of planning faces an instant before she vanished away.
Lyra peered at the spot she had once occupied. "That mare has something up her sleeves."
"When does she not?" He turned towards Lyra, the only conversational presence left. "Do you think she can do it?"
"With that expression? She'll keep trying until it explodes or she gets it, I bet. It'll be fun to see either way, but she ran off before we could." She rolled her eyes. "She probably poofed to one of the many labs hidden in this castle to get to work."
It was all Laud could ask for. "I need to speak to Lady Sparkle next."
"Lady Sparkle," echoed out Lyra with an amused tone. "I bet she looks flustered every time you call her that."
"She does. Do you know why?" The idea that a noble would show any aversion to being addressed with a title confused Laud.
"That's easy." Lyra stood up and began walking. "I knew her for the longest time, since before she had wings, or a crown. She was just a nerdy little unicorn, a runt really, but here she is now, bigger than most of us with a castle that dwarfs the town."
Laud walked with her, wondering if she knew where Twilight was at that moment. "About that. You say she was purely a unicorn?"
"One hundred percent." She pointed up at her own horn. "Just the same as me. She earned her wings, became a princess, pop, just like that. I was so excited for her! I couldn't stop giggling and bouncing for days."
Laud had little issue imagining Lyra doing just that. "Was it a sorcery that allowed it?"
"It was! She, what was it... She learned a new kind of magic, of friendship." Lyra nodded firmly. "Yes, that was it, for sure. That's why she's the princess of friendship."
That idea was less easy to grasp. "A magic that forms friendships?"
"Nah, we've had those forever, as lame as they are." Lyra waved that idea away. "More like... harnessing friendship, of making the strength of our bonds into a thing of magic. It's pretty special. I've seen her go all rainbow power with it, literally. It's a wild show. Her and her friends fwoosh around like a bunch of super-ponies."
Friendship turned into arcane strength? It threatened to get close to the oddest concept he had heard on their planet so far. "Does it drain that friendship?"
"Not that I can tell. I mean, they're all super close friends still. Bunch of oddballs, really. A fashionista, an excitable extrovert socialite, a reclusive introvert scholar, a hard-working laborer, an almost painfully shy animal expert, and a dare-devil athletic walk into a bar..."
"Is that a joke?"
"It is! I was wondering if you'd get it. Still, a crazy group that loves each other so very much. I get jealous at times before I remember I have my Bonnie and it's alright." She pointed up at Laud. "And maybe you, maybe. We're working on that, right?"
They emerged into a small library where Twilight was poring over a book while taking notes on a floating piece of parchment, a quill that glowed with her magic scribbling on it quietly. She must have heard them enter and twitched an ear towards them. "Laud? Who's that with you?"
"It's me," called out Lyra. "Which you'd know if you just turned around. What's up?"
Twilight finished what she was writing and set it aside before she turned. "I heard Laud's shoes easily enough, but hooves are not as easy to identify from one another. Lyra, good to see you." Her eyes moved to Laud. "And you as well. How can I help either of you?"
Before Laud could ask a question, Lyra jumped straight in, "He was wondering how you became a princess and got your wings. Knowing him, he probably wants to know what sort of strange magic was involved that made you get bigger and grow wings. Did that hurt, by the way? I bet it had to, I mean, how could it not?"
Laud put a hand over Lyra's face. It was an inexcusably rude thing to do among humans, but he'd seen enough ponies do it to one another to know it was considered normal for them to cut one another off if two were familiar. "While fascinating, I have more pressing questions."
Well the translators are a bust, but good thing that Twilight wasn't involved or they would have spent weeks trying to get it right.
Ever notice that when teaching a child a language you use a list of simple words, then examples to collect them together with useage, and with computers theyre just expected to listen to a crowd and work out Queens English from scratch?
Theyre going to end up with singing teasets like this. Glimmers going to go all duplication, then Trixie is going to go all Teacup.
harnessing
circuluar gesture - circular gesture
more than i have - more than I have
the precipe of war - the precipice of war
looked apalled - looked appalled
I'm surprised that Laud let that stand without immediately clearing up what he actually instructed the translator to say. Of course, it's not as funny that way.
The wheels seem to be turning a little faster each episode, I hope Laud can help broker a solution before his cohort arrives.
I am hoping Starlight can get the UT working and maybe copy it a few times.
a really good chapter.
Wow, is Laud clueless or just trying to politely ignore Lyra hitting on him? Either way I wish you luck Lyra.
If 6 friends makes magic, what does 6 lovers make?
A major headache, dear.
Hmm... At this point, I give Starlight even odds of programming the local language into the translator, breaking it beyond reoair, and accidentally mind controlling soneone with it. Possibly all three.
In any case, I'm not sure what's blowing Laud's mind more, magic fueled by positive emotions or meritocratic monarchy. In any case, he'll have to put it aside for now... though I do looknforward to the later discussion should he further confront the ideas.
Also:
Both of these should be questions.
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Delayed, but fixed! Nice meeting you at the con, Fan!
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Side note, but this is another reason I love comments. I didn't even pick up on this as the writer until reading this and re-reading the chapter.
8377352 Your mind isn't in the gutter like mine, but your fingers are?
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I try to let the characters 'live' when I write. They surprise me.
you mean they haven't told him about the magic of friendship?
You accidentally a thing.
It's a question, not a statement. Question mark. I think you made this same mistake earlier in the chapter as well. Too lazy to go check.
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The fixes continue.
*harnessing
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How does one truly let the characters speak for themselves? I imagine the first step is a deep understanding of them. I ask because I’m working on a story draft of my own, and I want to use this method.
Is it even something that can be explained?
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By asking yourself 'What would he/she do?' instead of 'How do I get to that plot point I want to get to?'
Do it often enough and you get to know them, as a person, and you find yourself asking it less, because you already know. It becomes obvious what they would do, and you end up writing what seems clear to you. They come alive.
Hoping to seeing the meeting of Laud and the princesses especially Princess Luna, I also like how you also involve Twilight and Lyra's old friendship
When you're sad because you think you are close to finishing the story, but you realize that there's eighty chapters left.
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Sorry.
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Do not apologize, your passion for your craft is appreciated.
Finally, Laud remembered his translator! Apparently, you have to manually program it for new languages, as opposed to it being able to learn them on its own. :-P
When I clicked on this story, I didn't see the "1" in the word count, and thought it'd be a couple days' read. Oops. 19 chapters down, A HUNDRED TO GO.
This may take a while............
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Sadly, the translator of the story is working quite well.
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I'm happy to see you replying to my comments, so I can ask you this: Star Trek UT's can learn new languages by listening to them, while it appears that Laud's simply isn't that advanced. It has to be programmed for new languages, like downloading new apps on a phone. Am I wrong?
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Entirely correct. The idea is each language has to be worked into the blasted thing.
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Cool. For a minute there, I thought I'd missed something.