Title: Language Barrier Chapter Four [New] Author: ViolinAnon Pastebin link: http://pastebin.com/yfn5J5ig First Edit: Saturday 25th of August 2012 08:15:53 PM CDT Last Edit: Saturday 25th of August 2012 08:15:53 PM CDT ------------------------------------ PART ONE ------------------------------------     >Thump. "Hrmgrrmbl..." >Thump! "Just one... more... minute..." >THUMP. "Oh come on... where's that blasted... snooze button..." >You lazily drop your hand to the side of your bed, trying to aim where your clock should be. >Much to your surprise, it doesn't fall on the clock or on your nightstand. "What the... hay?" >Oh. Right. >Ponyland. >Always slips your mind. >You're really not a morning kind of guy. >THUMP! >Oh godammit. What the hell is that noise? >You stand up and brush off the stray hay on your clothes. >Let's go investigate on where's that thumping coming from. >Leaving the barn, you spot Applejack walking to one of the apple trees that are spread all around you. >Once next to it, she turns around and- >THUMP! >-kicks it with both hind legs. >The tree shakes and all of its fruites fall into a few baskets layed around its roots. >Applejack notices you and wave a hoof welcomingly in your direction. >She trots over to you. >The mare lifts her hat a little higher, allowing her to look at you in the face. >You nod a salutation to the mare. >She points to the barn, then closes her eyes and 'snores' for a moment. >So... She's probably asking if you had a good sleep. >You nod, but rub your neck trying to show that it wasn't really the most comfortable thing ever. >While your arm is raised, Applejack looks at your armpit and frown a little. >You give a quick look at it to see the reason of her scowl. >There's a pretty large rip in your shirt. >It was probably damaged when you fell off that tree yesterday. >Oh well. >Applejack gestures you to follow her back to her home. >And you're happy to oblige, you left your violin there last night.   >As soon as you enter the house, Applejack yells something. >Not a moment later, the filly with the oversized bow erupt into the room. >That was probably her name. >Applebloom, you think. >The two of them discuss for a minute and then they drag you to the kitchen. >Applejack lay a few things on the table. >A scroll, some sheet of papers, a pencil and some crayons. >She picks up the pencil in her mouth and start to write on the scroll. >Next to her, Applebloom is using the crayons to draw on the paper. >Since you can't understand a single word of what Applejack's writing, you turn to Applebloom and watch her draw. >Okay, she's drawing a... little stickman. >It's not bad for someone who just met a human for the first time. >She drops her crayon and picks up a light purple one instead. >A new scribble is started next to the other one. >It's some sort of building? Maybe? >Oh! It's the strange carousel thing you saw on your first day. >An arrow points from you to the weird construction. >Okay, so she wants you to ge- >Oh, she's not done yet. >A light brown scroll is added under the first drawing, then another arrow pointing to the empty space to its right. >She stops, then look at her white crayon, then at the white empty space, back to the crayon. >Putting a hoof to her chin, the filly ponders for a few seconds before grabbing the light blue one. >She fills part of the empty space with the pale color and goes back to the white crayon. >You turn back to Applejack who is apparently done writing. She hands you (hoof you? No that's just silly.) the rolled up scroll. >The mare opens the door that leads outside from the kitchen turns back to you. >She points to herself, then outside and finally at her... flank. >Or rather, the apples on her flank. >Guess she has to get back to kicking trees. >She leaves with a tip of her hat. >Before you can tell her goodbye, a yellow hoof pokes your side. >Applebloom, sitting on her chair, is holding the drawing in her mouth and presenting it to you. >You grab it and look at her finished work. >A handful of new pictures have been added. >A white unicorn with squiggly purple mane and tail is drawn over the blue background. >Close to the bottom edge of the sheet, there is something that must be your shirt with a rip on the armpit. >Then yet another arrow pointing to another shirt, this one with stiches instead. >Alright, so you need to go to the carousel thing, give your newly acquired scroll to a white unicorn and you'll get your shirt fixed? >... >Well okay then. >You rustle the kid's mane and pocket the drawing after folding it. >Picking your violin up, you leave the house by same the door Applejack walked through earlier. >You wave Applebloom goodbye as you cross the doorway and then make your way back to town.   >You're walking through the streets, looking around and trying to find your way to the flashy carousel building. >Looking at the sky, you realise something. >This paper Applejack gave you probably doesn't have an expiration date. >It's a beautiful day and the population is roaming in the town, doing... whatever magic pastel ponies do in their daily lives. >Might as well look around and see what this town has to offer. >Yeah, let's go with that. You'll just go get your shirt repaired later in the afternoon.     ------------------------------------ PART TWO ------------------------------------     >Eager to begin your little exploration of the town, you start walking in a random direction. >...And you quickly get lost. >Why did you even start walking through the back street? >You end up walking by the tree-library. For the third time today. >Maybe you should go talk to Twilight? >She left so hurriedly yesterday, leaving only a crude drawing behind her that didn't explain much. >And you're really curious about what it meant. >You go to the front door and knock a few times. >While waiting for someone to answer the door, you quickly remember that it -is- a library and that you could just enter. >You open the door, but stop halfway through, your hand still holding the handle. >Why do you stop? >Well, because there's a big green and purple humanoid lizard shelving books. >Hearing the creaking of the hinges, it turns around and looks straight at you. >It continues to very slowly push a book between two others on a carved bookshelf. >His eyes never leaving your person while doing so. >Yeah, no. Fuck that. >Not dealing with giant lizards today. >You carefully close back the door while keeping eye contact with the creature.     >You're sorta able to locate yourself from the library. >Slowly, you start to map the town in your head from this landmark, wondering where you could go while doing so. >There's the gingerbread house, maybe you could see Pinkie Pie again. >The town square seems like a calm enough place. You could probably sit somewhere and relax a little while watching the locals go about their daily lives. >The marketplace could be interesting, you bet it's pretty lively during the day. >You wonder what kind of stuff those guys sell there, it could be nice to see what kind of food the ponies eat. >So far, you only know that the ponies eat pastries and apples. >Knowing what they eat might help you avoid some pretty awkward moments. >Yeah, the market sounds like a nice idea. >You head for the town square, you're probably going to be able to find a way to your destination from there. >Now that you are walking through streets that have a higher pedestrian traffic, you can observe the various reactions of the ponies when they see you. >Some of them look at you like they just saw a ghost, a few of them simply ignore you, an even lower amount of them look interested and curious about you. >Two or three of those last ones actually came closer and tried to speak with you. >You can only smile and try to motion them that you can't understand. >Fortunately, all of them understood the gestures you made and left slightly disappointed. >It's nice to know that you don't make the town go into full panic anymore. >Weird looks you can deal with, but utter chaos is just saddening. >You succesfully navigate to the town square and try to remember which way's the market place. >While looking around, you notice that this part of the town looks simply amazing in broad daylight. >... >Maybe the market can wait. >It'll still be there even if you stay here an hour or two.   >You sit on the edge of a large fountain in the middle of the plaza and lift your violin case on top of you knees. >Opening the case you reveal your musical friend and let it bask in the sunlight for a few seconds. >You pick it up along with your bow and place its paddded prison on the ground in front of you. >The hairs of your bow glide on the strings as you play random parts of your favorite pieces of music. >Minutes fly by and you close your eyes to fully appreciate the moment. >Your surrounding seems to fade, leaving you alone with your music. >You're playing your favorite part of 'In the Hall of the Mountain King', when a light metallic sound breaks your concentration. >You stop playing and look at where the noise came from. >Two shiny coins are laying in your case. >A pegasus is looking at you, smiling. >Well, that's unexpected. Especially with the kind of looks you got while walking around town. >You nod and return the smile, before resuming your performance. >This time, you decide to look around a little while playing. >You can tell by the sun that it's about noon. >Ponies are sitting on the benches spread around the plaza, talking with friends, eating lunch or simply enjoying the day. >From time to time, you can see one of them looking at you. >Today is a nice day.   >After a few more minutes, you decide that you should probably go back to your little exploration of the town. >Time for one last song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7r9yQG9PO8 >Once again, you feel yourself slip out of your surroundings, focusing on your music. >You let the song flow through you. >Your fingers dancing on the neck of your violin. >The repeated motion of your bow across the strings. >This satisfying feeling of quietude. >There's nothing else similar in the entire world. >The song ends and you can hear a few clinks coming from the ground before you, followed by a handful of ponies clapping their hooves together or on the ground. >Some of this clapping seem to be coming from really close to you. >You turn around to locate its origin and see a pretty familiar mint-green unicorn sitting next to you on the fountain. >As soon as you are facing her, Lyra wraps her hooves around your chest and hugs you tightly. >Heh. Guess she missed you, you did leave without saying her 'goodbye' yesterday morning after all. >Or maybe it's just how she is. >Hell, for all you know hugging could be the normal way to greet friends around here. >But you're probably just overthinking stuff again. >You return the hug. >Maybe now would be a good time to surprise her with your recently acquired knowledge of her name. "Hello, Lyra Heartstrings." >Of course, you know she won't understand that first word. >But it does sound better than just spouting her name at random. >At the mention of her name, she perks up and says something to you, smiling all the while. >Sounds like a question, maybe she's asking how you know her name? Or what's your name? >Since you can't really know what she said for sure, you decide to introduce yourself anyway. >You bring a hand to your chest. "Anonymous." >She looks at you, slightly confused. >Let's try something else. >You point at her. "Lyra Heartstrings." >Then back at you. "Anonymous." >Confusion leaves place to sudden realisation and she happily repeats after you. >"Anonymous!" >Lyra then starts to talk. And talk. And -talk-. >Thankfully, she's not as bad as that pink mare you met yesterday. >You wonder how long it'll take her to remember you can't understand her. >While talking, she gestures at some saddlebags on the ground next to her, then toward some random direction. >And finally, she notices that you're not reacting to her words. >Her speech progressively slows down until it stops. >She then facepalms with all her might. Or is it a facehoof? >Whatever.       ------------------------------------ PART THREE ------------------------------------     >Lyra hops down from the fountain and levitates the saddlebags to her back. >While she does that, you use that time to gather up your stuff. >You pocket the bits that were given to you and put back your violin and bow in their places. >As soon as you lock the clips on your case, an aqua glow manifests itself on the end of your sleeve and starts dragging you away. >Okay. So. You guess that either she's a wizard like Twilight or it's something every unicorn can do. >... >Is that really a sentence you just thought? >No matter, the new tension on your sleeve is strong enough to aggravate its condition. >The rip extends until it complete its course around your shoulder and the sleeve suddenly slides off your arm. >Lyra and you gasp and stare in surprise for a few seconds at the piece of cloth now magically floating inbetween the two of you. >You shrug and grab the sleeve in mid air, rolling it up and stashing it in one of your pockets. >Just because it's ripped off doesn't mean it can't get fixed, right? >Anyway, since you'd like to keep the rest of your shirt intact, you start following Lyra to wherever she wants to take you.   >The marketplace. >Neat. >Now you won't have to look for it. >It's not as busy as you thought it would be. >Though, judging by the sun, it must be about six or seven in the evening. >Actually, you think you can see a few shops that are currently closing. >Why would Lyra wait so la- >Wait... >Where the hell is she now? >A quick look around the market reveals that she already started to make her way to few stands on your right. >Never a slow moment with her, uh? >You jog to catch up.   >Alright so, it looks like you two are going through the fruit stands first. >Heh. >This guy is looking at you with eyes as big as the melons he's selling. >Lyra grabs two of the fruits with... >Uh... >How are you supposed to call that? >Sorcery? Wizardry? Telekinesis? Magic? >... >Melons. Floating. >One of them gets stashed into Lyra's saddlebag and she produces a few gold coins from her other compartment. >The coins drop in front the shopkeeper as she turns around to face you, the second fruit still floating next to her head. >The unicorn makes a few gestures and you quickly understand that she's asking about if you eat melons. >You give her a thumbs up and smile to answer her. >She raises an eyebrow and gives you a puzzled smile, while looking at your extended arm. >At your hand, more specifically. >Oh. Right. >Thumbs up probably aren't a thing around here, are they? >Well, no matter. >Lyra shrugs and stuffs the melon in her saddlebag. >Onward to the next stall. >The two of you repeat the same process at every stand you stop by. >Buy product. >Lyra shows it to you. >You nod or shake your head to answer. >Go to the next stall.   >So far you learned that ponies eat fruits and vegetables, unsurprisingly; >Eggs, which makes sense considering the bakery you visited earlier; >Hay, duh; >And flowers, that you thought she was buying for how they looked until she snacked on one. >You haven't seen a single piece of meat in the entire market so far. >Not that you were really expecting to see some, but it wouldn't have been the craziest shit you saw in the last few days.   >Lyra, seemingly satisfied with her purchases, yawns loudly and then points to an invisible watch. >Yeah, you agree that it's getting pretty late. >She points at you then 'draw' a house in the air and slightly tilts her head, an inquiring look on her face. >You're not sure if she's asking you if you want to come back with her to her home, or if you found somewhere to live. >Either way, you have to get your shirt fixed before it's too late. >You shake your head, then pull out the ripped out sleeve from your pocket along with the drawing Applebloom made you this morning. >After some wordless explanations, Lyra understands the situation. >She puts a hoof on her chin and ponder for a few seconds, before pointing at something behind you. >Turning around and following the hoof, you notice a red flag floating above the rest of the surrounding stalls and tents. >You nod and wave her goodbye as you two part ways.