Book 1 - Prisoner and Savior

by Midnight_Lights

Chapter XII - Translator

"Twilight! Are you awake?" Xul called. Luckily, Twilight was already awake, or else Xul's psyspeak would have only appeared in her dream. No nightmares tonight though, luckily.

"Yes," she said.

"You're going to meet with Zeck as soon as possible today, so hurry up and get ready, please," Xul replied.

I wonder what this is about. Maybe I'm going home? Twilight thought.

"Yes." She rushed over to the small desk in the room and used a mirror she took from one of the guards to brush her mane. She didn't have a brush, so she had to use her magic, which didn't do as good of a job.

When Twilight was ready, she went out to meet Xul, who escorted her to a conference room. There, she saw Zeck, Chmone, and another creature sitting at the table. The other creature was tinkering with a strange object, and he seemed to be frustrated with it.

"I'll meet you back in the observatory when you're done," Xul said to Twilight. Then, she walked out.

. . .

The room was silent for a moment. Zeck and Chmone couldn't communicate with Twilight yet, so they had to wait for the alien to finish putting the translator together.

Zeck held up a finger to Twilight to tell her to wait, but he was unsure what that gesture meant in her culture, or if it was even a thing, since, well, Twilight didn't have fingers. Luckily, Twilight didn't seem to be offended or concerned about it, and she just sat down at one of the chairs around the table. Only her head and neck were visible to Zeck, and it made her look like a child.

"Sir, the translator is ready," the alien said, putting the headset down on the table. "I should warn you, some glitches haven't been completely ironed out, and some sentences and words may not translate properly."

"Dootsrednu," Zeck said, before turning off the translator. "I mean, understood," and the alien left the room. Then, Zeck turned the translator back on and faced the slightly surprised Twilight. "Hello, Twilight. As you can see, the translator has been finished, and we're working to create more so we can better communicate with your kind. Ponies, you called them?"

"That's nice so of you!" Zeck heard a robotic-sounding version of Twilight's voice say.

"Uh yes," Zeck replied. That's one way to put it. "Anyway, have you enjoyed your time here? I am sorry that you have been brought so far away from home." Zeck put his arms on the table and linked his fingers together.

"Well, Terram wasn't the most nicest places to go to, but this ship hasn't been so bad."

"Good, good. Now, since we have a better way of communicating, I believe that we owe you an explanation. I'm assuming you have some questions?" Zeck asked.

"Oh, yes! Many questions! Xul told me some things, but I'd really like to know; who are the UFF, Sectanium, and Mandors? Xul said she was but of the UFF, but she didn't explain what is that. And how do your planets revolve around your sun? Do your rulers or whoever is in charge of that have to move your planet? Oh! And how come none of you seem to have magic? I mean, the Sectanium used some, but I guess I can't exactly ask one of them, and Xul never told me..." Twilight rambled on.

So Xul is part of the UFF then...did she betray the Sectanium? And why did she trust Twilight with that information? Zeck wondered.

"Well, the UFF are the good aliens. We fight for freedom and work against the evil Sectanium and Mandors. They despise everyone and everything. Our goal is to defeat the Sectanium and Mandors. We also work towards peace and justice, and we make sure to be very kind to all of the planets we...occupy. Currently, the evil Sectanium have started a war, so the good UFF was formed to fight back against the brainwashing evils that the Sectanium stand for,"

Twilight was quiet for a moment as she processed things.

"You're... in a war? Are you okay all?"

Well, that's a strange reaction.

"Well, it's a war, and as long as the evil Sectanium exist we won't be okay. However, the Sectanium are much more powerful than us, and we could use some help."

"Are you saying that you want my help?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, though you don't need to decide now, and I doubt that just one of your kind would be able to do much. If more of you-"

"Of course I'll help my friends! Oh wait, I'll need to go over this with my friends and citizens first, I can't just go off fighting in a war, who would take over?!" Twilight paused, and suddenly looked very worried, her mouth opened slightly as she stared off. "Oh no! I'm not in Equestria, who is ruling there while I'm gone?! Is Starlight too busy with the school, and my friends all have other obligations! Wait, wait wait wait. Luna visited me... she and Celestia must have taken over again. And I'll have to tell Luna about this too..." Twilight trailed off, mumbling to herself.

Ruling? Is she...

"Calm down, Twilight. What's this about someone ruling?" and while you're at it, what did you mean by "Luna visited you"?

"Oh, right," Twilight said, smacking her head. "Sorry, I probably should've told you sooner. I'm actually the...the ruler of my homeland, Equestria. That and I'm also the Princess of Friendship."

Oh, crap crap crap crap. How come none of us thought that she might be important! I hope what I said was enough to make her not want to hurt us, we definitely couldn't survive fighting a war on two sides! I swear Chmone should've listened when I ordered him to put Twilight in the nicer bedroom. Zeck worried. He'd seen what Twilight could do, and having an army of Twilights fighting against them would not be fun.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, we didn't realize. If we did we would have made sure your stay here was more pleasant."

"It's okay, this is much better than Terram," Twilight said, but she didn't sound very enthusiastic.

"Thank you. Now, I'm not sure if the last part translated correctly. What did you say that you were the princess of?" Zeck asked.

"I'm the Princess of Friendship."

"Is that a country?"

"No? Surely you have heard of friendship?" Twilight asked she tilted her head.

"You're the princess of...friendship, then?"

"Yes."

But how? Zeck wondered though he didn't ask for fear of offending Twilight.

"I believe I understand then." Zeck paused, "You said that you would be willing to help us, then?"

"Yes! Well, maybe. I need to get home first! I'm sure Equestria is fine though...probably. There's always some evil creature trying to take over, what if they try while I'm gone? My friends might need my help! I'll also need to discuss this with them too, of course, and with everypony else. I'll let Luna know first though if I can find her tonight, that is. I wish I could promise that Equestria and the other nations would help, but I'm not sure if everypony would be willing to."

"Of course," Zeck said, before getting an idea. "What form of government do you run by?"

"Oh, well we have a few different types. Mostly branches of monarchies. Though I think Thorax is making the Changling Kingdom become more of a democracy, and the Griffons don't really have rulers..." Twilight trailed off, looking off at a wall.

"Your planet is not fully united? What prevents this?" Zeck asked, forgetting his idea.

"Nothing, really. I don't see a reason to unite." Twilight shrugged.

That's strange. Zeck thought.

"What about power? Gaining land? Or what about diplomatic relations? Wouldn't you want to get rid of those countries who pose a threat?"

"Why would we want any of those? Equestria has as much land as we need, and we're friends with most of the other nations." Twilight said, taken aback.

"So...all of your nations get along? How many are there?" Zeck put his hands on the table, intrigued.

"Over 10, but I don't know the exact number. I'd have to look at a map. And yes, aside from a select few, we all get along." Twilight said.

"That's impressive," Zeck said, then he mumbled "Especially for a monarchy."

"What did you say?" Twilight asked.

"Nothing, but I mean to ask, how long have those relationships lasted?"

"Well, Equestria has been a bit isolated for a while, but we still kept decent relationships with the other countries. More recently, we have communicated more with the other countries and made friends with them. And of course, some kingdoms have had recent leadership changes. Oh, and the Crystal Empire only came back a little while ago.

"Crystal Empire? Do you mean it was only just founded?"

"No, I mean that the Crystal Empire only just came back from, uh, well I don't know where it was. I think it was in a limbo-like place for 1000 years, long story." Twilight said, waving it off.

"Your kind can do that?" Zeck asked, he was surprised, and a bit concerned, Twilight looked so harmless, but if her kind could make a whole empire disappear... Well, he didn't want to anger Twilight.

"King Sombra could, he was a previous ruler of the Crystal Empire, but he had to turn to dark magic to do it. I'm not sure if I or any other alicorn could do that, even if we combined our strength. We've never tried anything like it."

"Dark magic? Alicorns?" Zeck repeated, blinking. "Is that translating correctly?"

"Yes, haven't you heard of dark magic? There's some infused in the potions that the... the Sectanium used to make us forget things. And alicorns are me. We are part Earth Pony," Twilight lifted a hoof, "part Unicorn," she tapped her horn, "and part Pegasus," she spread her wings out.

"Uh-huh," Zeck nodded, but he was completely lost, it gave him a headache just thinking about it. "...We will head to your planet soon then since you mentioned earlier that there were internal threats with you being gone. Once we get there we can discuss the war further, but please try not to discuss anything from your planet with me. It is very confusing, but you can talk to Xul about it if you wish."

"Alright, but there's one more thing you should know," Twilight said, hesitantly.

"What?"

"Well, I might be able to talk with Luna, who is likely co-ruling with her sister in my absence. If I can reach her, is there anything you would like me to tell her?'

"How..." Zeck started. No, do not question this. "I can't think of anything you'd need to tell her, but I suggest letting her know what is going on here and about the war," Zeck said, sounding rather tired.

"Okay, may I go now?" Twilight asked, sensing Zeck's mood.

"Yes, yes. Go find Xul."

Author's Note:

I don't like this chapter as much as the other ones, but I did manage to get a lot of exposition and information shared between Twilight and Zeck. This chapter didn't have much else going on in it, but I'm planning on making the next chapter have a bit more action. :D

Comments

[efug25g]

I pretty much enjoyed this chapter since we finally managed to have Twilight re-announce herself as the commander-and-chief of the Equestrian Ponies. It's only a matter of time before Twilight's nation will yield to the UFF, in which I can count on.

[Commander Darklight]

i understand that its the translator doing it but fuck me with a cactus reading this chapter sucked balls the broken english gave me a god damn headache

[Midnight_Lights]

10349980
Can you give me some examples of the mistakes? If there are a lot of grammar issues, I’d like to identify them.