[AiE, neigh] breakthrough

[anon prompt]
>You hear a light knock at your door. Right on schedule.
>However, instead of that yellow birdhorse with boundary issues you see that orange apple horse.
Hey apple horse how are you this morning?
>"Neigh neigh."
Where's creepy yellow?
>She pulls a drawing from under her hat. It shows the yellow horse with a thermometer in her mouth and a hot water bag on her head.
Oh she's sick and you're the one who gets to check up on me today?
>"Neigh neigh."
Want some coffee?
>*Excited whinnying*
Alright, come on in.
>You spend the rest of the morning sipping coffee and scratching the orange horse behind the ears.

[response]
>Day 840 in Equestria
>You've managed to settle into a pretty decent life here
>Pones are pretty accepting creatures after all
>You are able to find "work" here and there, mostly carrying things
>The most annoying thing is communication
>All you hear is horse noises and clearly they can't understand you either
>You are able to communicate to some extent, just as 2 humans with completely separate languages can
>Some things can be communicated through drawing, so that helps
>Still, not having any intelligent conversations in over 2 years is stifling
>And it is annoying almost daily how simple things are made so complicated by no efficient communication
>But hey, still beats your old life on Earth
>Twilight being who she is made a legit effort to try to bridge the language gap
>You aren't exactly a linguist but you were all for helping with this experiment
>She used all her electronic analogs on you while talking to you and while you talked
>No results
>You tried to break the language barrier same as you would back home
>Point to objects and say your words for them, she would do the same
>But you could not replicate what she was saying
>Besides every "word" sounded pretty much the same
>You just couldn't tease a vocal pattern to their language
>It seemed pretty clear from Twi's frustration that the same went for her
>You figure that language must involve magic in this crazy pastel horse world
>Just like their improbable flying and earth pony growing skills
>Not to mention their outright ridiculous hoof grasping ability
>Took over a year before both Twi and you gave up on the language experiments
>But hey, you could still get through everyday life just fine
>You wonder if yellow's continued courting attempts are the result of you being unable to clearly tell her no
>or if your actions somehow suggest you are interested in candy horse language
>It's tolerable tho, since she never gets aggressive
>You mostly feel bad for her, that you are somehow leading her on
>You got REAL excited the first time you saw a difference species in town
>A griffin in the market, seemingly talking to a pone
>You booted it over there to listen in
>There is griffin, squawking away, and the pone responding in neighs
>They understand each other just fine
>That all but confirmed your "language is magic" theory
>Some minotaur came to town one day, putting on what sounded like a sales pitch to a big crowd of pones
>cow sounds, as you predicted
>You noticed yellow there
>She got extra weird for a couple days after that
>Then went back to "normal"
>Life went on, your hopes once again dashed
>So along comes aforementioned day 840
>Bump into that adorable mailmare with the wonky eyes
>Well, she bumps into you
>Pretty hard
>Her mailbag was open on one side, letters go flying everywhere
>You can't into pony body language much, but it is pretty obvious she is feeling pretty apologetic and embarrassed
>Give her a pet and a smile to show her it is no problem
>Even high speed marshmallow collisions aren't exactly taxing on you
>What with your natural picker uppers, you start helping her collect envelopes from the ground
>Actually pay attention to one
Sugar Cube Corner
33 Mane St
Ponyville
>...
>......
What the fuck?
>WHAT THE FLYING FUCK?
>Look at another envelope
>You can read the addresses just fine
>HOW DID YOU NEVER NOTICE THIS BEFORE?
>Freak out a bit, stuff the envelopes into her bags and hurry home
>Calm down on the couch and think
>Pones are so old fashioned, especially in Ponyville, that they tend not to write things
>Stores just use pictorials for their signage
>Shelves in stores aren't labelled either
>Prices usually aren't marked
>Pones just assume the price is reasonable and fair, because it always is
>You never even considered looking at any books in the library
>You are a pretty polite guy so you never leaned over to see what Twilight was writing during your language study attempts
>Seemed like a futile idea anyway
>Maybe you're seeing things
>It was kind of a hot day
>Figure you'll have a drink, maybe a light snack, sleep on it
>Have some water, but the curiosity gets the better of you
>You abandon your nap plans and make your way to the treebrary
>God you hope that Twilight is home
>Knock on door
>Hear high pitched rumbles from inside
>That's Spike (you know the names from the precognitive show)
>He lets you in
>Good, purple is there
>Go over to her and grab quill out her magic
>She looks at you a bit odd
>You look about as frazzled as she sometimes does, so you can't blame her for the face
>Take a quick glance at what she was writing
>Something about how magic flow is affected by the amount of friendship felt between two adjacent pones
>You can read it perfectly
>With excitement and nerves so strong your handwriting is shite (but still just barely legible) you write on another blank scroll lying on the table
"Can you read this?"
>You show it to twi
>Her eyes grow huge
>"Neigh!"
>fuck
>She quickly shakes the shock off and grabs the quill back from you
>Writes "Yes!"

>Day 1093
>3 year celebration of your arrival in Equestria
>Of course Pinkie is throwing a party for the occasion
>Big ol' banner with the occasion spelled out clearly in big letters
>You have an enchanted little chalkboard that writes whatever anyone talking to you says
>You learn to write tolerably quickly in response
>Life in Equestria isn't just decent anymore
>It's pretty damn good
-fin-
captcha: magic heemept