I'm in Equestria, But...

by niightear

Chaos Begins

I open my eyes to see what is not my room. At all.
Rather, it’s the sky of Equestria. From My Little Pony.
What happened last night? I was watching the most recent episode and... uh... Yeah I dunno what happened after that.

I manage to get up on my hooves, and I mean, I think it’s ridiculous that I’m not overreacting. To any of this.
I see a pair of blue wings on my flank, alongside blue fur and a blank flank. Am I a filly or..?
Eh. Doesn’t really matter that much I guess. Down a small hill with a path lies Ponyville. Let the chaos begin.

I walk down the hill, awkwardly entering Ponyville.
I soon find a pink earth pony’s face squished into mine.
“Hi!” Pinkie Pie exclaims. “I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?”
“My name’s... uh...” I shuffle my hooves awkwardly. “Uh... Ocean Wings... Yeah, Ocean Wings!”
“Well you’re new to Ponyville, right, right!? I mean, I’ve never seen you, so you must be new! I’ll get the welcoming party ready!!” Pinkie Pie hops away, as I just sigh. Aaaaaaand I didn’t say anything to her. She’d probably know exactly what I was talking about! She’s Pinkie Pie for Celestia’s sake!

I sigh, and continue walking through Ponyville. I wonder how hard it’ll be to find work. I mean, it’s Ponyville, it’ll probably be easy. Let’s see, options... Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner, Post Office... Maybe Twilight needs help at her castle? And maybe I could be a teacher? Or maybe help Fluttershy with her animals?!
Cue me squealing like a horse. Everypony stares at me. “Heh heh... Sorry...”

Most of them fly/walk away, but one of them, a gray cross-eyed pegasus, approaches me.
Derpy begins making horse noises.
Uh...
She cocks her head to the left in confusion and worry, before making worried horse noises.
“Sorry, uh...”
I see her mouth ‘Derpy’, and say, “Derpy, but I can’t hear you very well. Maybe we could talk later?”
She nods, before flying away. If only I had my phone, I could post this on Amino or something...

I sigh before walking to Sugarcube Corner. I see Pinkie Pie behind the counter, baking something.
“Uh... Pinkie?” I ask, entering.
“Oh! Ocean Wings! Just on time! I’m almost done making your ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ cake!” she pauses. “Do you like cake? If you don’t I can make cupcakes or pies or sorbets or ice cream or -”
“That’s not what I was talking about.” I sigh. “Well I was talking to Derpy a bit ago and I couldn’t understand literally anything she said. It was just horse noises.”
“Well you appeared out of nowhere...” she murmured to herself for a bit, before gasping. “Gasp! Are you a -” she shushed herself, probably so Lyra didn’t hear, “human?”
“Yes.” I say simply.

“Well humans have come to Equestria before,” I cock my head as she sighs, “haven’t you seen all of the Human in Equestria fanfics? Anyways... But they could always understand us.”
“Well I can understand you.” I sigh. “But probably nopony else.”
“Well I can probably explain and just say that you speak Equestrian but don’t understand it so ponies can communicate differently.” she says. “Wait can you read the frosting on this?”
She shows me the cake. I can tell that the lettering reads ‘Welcome to Ponyville Ocean Wings!’, but the letters look different. The w kind of looks like an m, e like a u, but it’s obvious to tell what it reads. “I can, but the letters are different.”
“Well I can help you read Equestrian! You’re a teenage pony anyways so I can just say that you don’t read Equestrian fluently yet!” Pinkie Pie exclaims.
“Aren’t ponies gonna think I’m autistic or something?” I ask.
“This’ Equestria, basically no disabilities exist except Scootaloo’s.” Pinkie says, continuing to set up her party. “Go into my room and I’ll call you down once we’re ready for the par-taaaaaaaaaaaaaay!”

So I go up the stairs into her room, sitting on her bed. Where’s Gummy?
I see Rainbow Dash fly by the window, as she skids backwards. Horse noises.
I blink. “Sorry, I don’t understand Equestrian. Pinkie’s downstairs if you need her.”
More horse noises, before she flies into the room and dashes downstairs.

I hear Pinkie Pie’s voice, but I can’t tell what she’s saying. Pinkie Pie’s can hearing thingie from that one episode! Let’s see... where is it when you need it?
I look around for it, before finding it and listening through it.
I faintly hear Pinkie’s voice. “Yeah! That’s Ocean Wings! She’s new to Ponyville! She’s heard about us from the, uh... the news! Yep!”
Horse noises. I mean they’re in Ashleigh Ball’s voice so... Ashleigh Ball horse noises.
“That’s not nice Dashie!” Pinkie scolds.
Ashleigh Ball horse noises.
“If you think she’s a changeling, she’s not.”
Ashleigh Ball horse noises.
“Anyhoo... Wanna help me with her welcome to Ponyville party?”
More Ashleigh Ball horse noises.
“Confetti, balloons, punch and... well... basically just anything that I have for parties!” she exclaims, before going behind the counter. “Ocean Wings, are you spying?!”
“Uh... no?” I call from upstairs.
Ashleigh Ball horse noises.
“Uh... I can speak a variety of languages Dash! Heh heh heh...”

I just sigh and walk around in “my” room, until I hear Pinkie call me down.
“Welcome to Ponyville!” she exclaims, while I just hear horse noises from the others. Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Derpy and a few other background ponies.

After a bit of dancing and playing party games - which were very hard for me since I can’t understand anypony besides Pinkie Pie - we eat the cake. It’s a vanilla cake with blue frosting and chocolate filling. I like it, it tastes good.

Everypony leaves, but I’m left. “Um... Pinkie? Where should I stay overnight?”
“Oh! You can stay upstairs, I have an extra bed!” Pinkie exclaims, hopping up the stairs.
She’s Pinkie Pie, what do you expect? I follow her up the stairs, as she gets a mattress - completely set-up - out of the closet. I collapse on the bed, as I hear her say, “Maybe somepony could teach you how to fly! And the Cutie Mark Crusaders could help you get your cutie mark and!”
“Pinkie, I’m trying to sleep.”
“Oh right. Heh heh...”

Author's Note:

Translations for convos:
Derpy:
“What were you squealing about? Gasp! Was it about muffins?! They’re delicious, right?!”
“Are you okay?”
“Derpy! Or Muffins or Ditzy or - oh, yeah, heh heh, bye! ”
“Welcome to Ponyville!”
Rainbow Dash:
“Where’s Pinkie?”
“Oh. Okay.”
“She’s weird.”
“Sorry. She just seems suspicious.”
“I never said that she was a changeling! She just seems weird. The changelings are reformed anyways.”
“Sure! I’ll get some, uh...”
“If she can’t speak Equestrian, why can she understand you?”
“Welcome to Ponyville!”
Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and the other background ponies:
“Welcome to Ponyville!”
Fluttershy:
“Um... Welcome to Ponyville... I guess... It’s nice to meet you...”

Comments

[Zapper Frost]

the translations in the authors notes make very little sense without context, perhaps you should put the translation after the horse noises.

also, the characters in this story are being way to nonchalant about this

[niightear]

9686700
Basically the only characters I’m good at characterizing are Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie out of the Mane Six, and all of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. And Derpy but she doesn’t have personality in the show, like, at all.

[Zapper Frost]

9686758
I was mainly talking about the MC

[niightear]

9686790
I'll try to fix that.

[Zapper Frost]

9686971
thank you

[Viper Pit]

Hmm I bet she crushes hard on bulk biceps (we need more ships with him)

[Divan1229]

I always love the language barriers that are in this type of stories. It's something soo refreshing to read again.

[Geminii]

Always fun to read communication-difficulty HiE fics. Although I think this is the first one where Pinkie's been able to translate right off the bat. Interesting that she's keeping the main character's origins secret. And given Twilight showed up but didn't do anything, I'm guessing there aren't translation spells. Will Ocean Wings be carrying around a slate and chalk, given the writing systems seem to be roughly comparable?

[_Kenzu_]

Interesting premise, I agree with Divan that language barriers can make for interesting stories
though the first chapter feels a bit rushed. Take some time and let your characters take in the surroundings and explain who they are and why they're doing the things they do.
But either way, curious to see where this goes dont stop writing

[niightear]

9687216
Honestly I wish there was a translation guide, but I don’t think there’s one, at least not one that’s official.