Language Barrier Chapter Four [New]

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PART ONE
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>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.


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PART TWO
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>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.



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PART THREE
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>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.