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In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.
In unison, they complete their shared spell.
Joy in Elcenia
joyfulnoise
A creature who looks... sort of vaguely like a dragon... appears in the circle. He is purple with green accents - tummy, ear-flaps, crest, wing membranes, eyes - and a little more than four and a half feet tall standing bipedally, which he currently is.
He blinks confusedly at the two girls.
He blinks confusedly at the two girls.
The girls seem to find him really surprising, especially the blonde one. They start jabbering at each other in gibberish.
The girls look at him when he talks, but don't respond directly to him. The blonde one with the long pointy ears gets a book off a shelf and starts flipping through it.
joyfulnoise
He waves cautiously.
"I guess you don't speak Equestrian. Well. This is gonna be hard."
"I guess you don't speak Equestrian. Well. This is gonna be hard."
The brown girl waves back.
The blonde one makes a more complicated gesture and says more gibberish and then says, "There, that should work."
The blonde one makes a more complicated gesture and says more gibberish and then says, "There, that should work."
"I did a translation spell," explains the blonde, putting her book back. "It'll break when we send you home though."
joyfulnoise
"Oh, huh," he says. "But you're not a unicorn or anything. What are you? I've never seen anything like you before!"
"I'm a human," says the brown girl.
"I'm an elf - well, an elf thudia - what are you? You look sort of like a largish drake..."
"I'm an elf - well, an elf thudia - what are you? You look sort of like a largish drake..."
"Huh," says the blonde. "I guess you look a little like a dragon, enough that the spell is calling it close enough. I'm Korulen and that's Saasnil."
"We have dragons here but they aren't - two-toned and - well, here," says Korulen, motioning Saasnil out of her way and shapeshifting. "I'm not a real dragon, but I can do this, this is what jade dragons look like."
joyfulnoise
"Oh, awesome!" says Joy. "What kind of not-a-real-dragon are you that lets you do that?"
"My mom's a dragon and my dad's an elf. I take after him, basically, and my little sister is a real dragon instead."
joyfulnoise
"Oh. So it's like - huh. I don't think we have anything like that in Equestria," he says. "Different kinds of ponies can have kids with each other, but they don't end up with cool shapeshifting powers, they're just regular ponies of whatever kind."
"Ponies?" says Saasnil blankly.
joyfulnoise
"...Ponies," says Joy. "Like - people. Regular people who aren't dragons. They have hooves and manes and tails and they walk around on four feet instead of two like me, and have flat teeth instead of sharp like mine, and there's three kinds. Earth ponies are strong and good at doing physical stuff and growing plants, and unicorns have horns that let them do magic, and pegasi have wings that let them fly and do weather stuff."
"I don't think we have those," says Saasnil blankly. "Humans and elves and stuff are regular common kinds of people here. And there's other kinds too, just not as many."
joyfulnoise
"And you're a human and you're sort of an elf," he says, indicating Saasnil and Korulen respectively. "Okay... do all the kinds of people around here look mostly like you? I guess you said there's dragons. Is it just dragons and humanish-elfish-people, or are there more different kinds?"
"There are more different kinds. There's merfolk and there's sprites... vampires can turn into bats but the rest of the time they look sort of humanish... there's fairies and pixies that are kind of like sprites... there's leonines, they walk on two legs but they look like lions... there's wolves, but I don't know if they count because they come with riders who look humanish... there's skyfolk and they're bird people," says Saasnil.
joyfulnoise
"We have griffins in Equestria, and those're sort of lion-bird-people, but I don't think we have separate lion-people and bird-people... well, there's birds and lions, but those can't talk except to people who have the right talent to understand them."
"You can talk to animals?" asks Korulen. "Just regular non-people ones?"
joyfulnoise
"Well, I can't, but I know somebody who can. I can sort of pretty much tell what some critter is trying to get across if it's simple enough and I'm paying attention, but I don't hear them like they're talking language or anything. Cordy does, and she can talk back to them and be understood too."