Anon - Kyu~

>Anon wanders outside to check his okra plants.
>He arrived in the moth village not long before the growing season.
>He is not long there.
>Arrived with not a bit to his name. Only a suit, some dress-shoes, a tie, and a pocket full of various seeds.
>A large white moth pony and a few of her friends had built and filled a few raised beds for Anon when they learned about the seeds.
>Everypony was extremely curious about what would come up.
>They hadn't heard of all of the vegetables he knew he had.
>Especially not the okra.
>No one had heard of that, seemingly, though not that Anon had talked to everyone in the village yet.
>It wasn't THAT small.
>Anyways. We were checking the plants outside, no?
>It's night time, of course.
>Anon heads across the boardwalk with a headlamp on, which is new.
>It's great because it means he no longer has to squint to see all the time, keeping a nighttime schedule with the rest of the moths, usually.
>Yep.
>Life is good.
>And they put the raised bed right up on the boardwalk too.
>Anon could go out in slippers if he wanted.
>He doesn't, though.
>He's still not past the "giving a good impression phase" yet.
>Anon begins checking under leaves cautiously for any pests which might have appeared since he last had a good chance to look at the garden.
>He of course has no intents of letting anything bad happen to it, as of course for all the help he's received setting things up, it would be no good if there isn't enough to share.
>A curious moth pony wanders up as Anon prowls about the garden, check for aphids, slugs, rampant caterpillars, and the like.
>She walks up timidly but not precisely sneaking.
>Not precisely.

>Anon notices her, using that 6th sense of knowing when someone nearby is watching.
>He greets her: "Oh, uhm. Hi. I don't think I've seen you around yet. Do you know my name already?"
>She shakes her head, seemingly too shy to speak, at least yet.
>She is a young moth by appearances, but by-far not a filly. She has proper wings and everything.
"Well I'm Anon. It's very nice to meet you."
>He takes on hoof in his hand and shakes it.
>The pony looks happy as he does this.
>Afterwards, once he releases her, her expression drifts back to a contemplative neutral.
>Anon is by now used to asking yes-or-no questions to the new moths he meets; he's learned that very few of them talk.
>Meisa talks, though. She is Anon's goto for stuff.
>She is extremely well-spoken, and embarrassingly nice.
>Most moths are the same, just minus the "spoken."
>Some of them are just shy. Like the big white one, who helped put together the garden. {Butterscotch obvs.}
>Anon was told she could talk, but that she does not know him well enough to talk to him or even when he's nearby.
>He feels bad.
>He can't really thank her properly if they can't have a conversation together.
>He hopes she will talk soon.
>Other moths, though, *never* talk. To anyone. It's all charades and gesturing.
>Squeak can squeak. *LOUDLY.*
>...Most moths, though, are silent. They understand, but they do not speak.
>It is odd.
>Moth ponies are perhaps the oddest thing which exists in and around Equestria.
>Anon is used to oddness and silence, and odd silence, and silent oddness now.
>It's okay. He's better at body language now too.
>The mare is staring at him intently as he works away.
>After a while he notices that she is still there.
>She needs something from him, apparently. He knows that much.
>Cats act the same way.
>Anon knows a little about cats.
>He wonders if combining moths and horses in some way to get cats as an output is mathematically correct.

>Before he can wonder harder, however, he remembers and pushes this thought aside; he should address her concern.
>Her eyes widen a bit as he turns back to her again.
>Not in fear, but in wonder.
>He has to look at her a bit sidelong because looking straight at her would mean he'd shine the light in her face.
"It looks like you need something. Do you need me to go somewhere to show me?"
>She shakes her head.
"Sorry, I doubled up, didn't I?"
>She nods.
>He tries again.
"It looks like you need something."
>She appears she's trying to think of a way to reply to this.
>She neither shakes her head nor nods. She looks slightly frustrated that she cannot answer clearly.
"Do you need me to go somewhere with you?"
>She perks up and shakes her head 'no.'
>Anon laughs.
"You mothponies are the greatest. I'm gunna be out here for a while. Once I'm done checking for aphids, I need to thin the cucumbers here."
"C-!"
>It was like she's imitating a rimshot on an open snare with her mouth. Extremely percussive. Anon stops.
>He chuckles.
"Cucumbers."
>Some snout-scrunching later she makes the sound again.
"C-!" like she is trying really hard to say the word but it doesn't want to come out. Like trying to pull up a stubborn weed.
>Anon smiles.
"They're like zucchini only you have to peel them, usually. Oh and they're uhm... wetter."
>She does this little sort of mewl thing - a very faint rising sound, probably not audible to anyone more than a few feet away.
>Anon is left to guess what this means. He guesses, and says the word again for her.
"Cucumber."
"Cu-!"
>Anon isn't sure whether different types of mothponies learn to talk at different ages, or whether this mare is just nervous, or an exceptionally late bloomer.
>Nevertheless, he encourages her. Smiling in the way that one only can when teaching someone else something new.
>Anon reaches up and turns his headlamp off for the moment so he can make proper eye-contact with the mare.
>He kneels down to her.
"Come on. you can do it."

>She looks at him and scrunches her snout again.
>Anon blinks and looks at her expectantly.
>She scrunches harder.
>Anon repeats the word again, "...Cucumber?"
"Kyukkckkk!!!!!!" It comes out as an extremely violent cluster of mostly-consonants, but there is a hint of vowel in there.
>She's panting, now.
"Are you getting tired? We could do this tomorrow ni-"
>She stomps her front hooves and glares and scrunches.
"Okay. But I need to look under a few more leaves here, before I loose my place."
>Anon reaches up for his headlamp again.
>The mares wings flutter rapidly as he does this, although she does not take off or move otherwise.
>Anon finishes looking under the leaves of each plant, finding no pests to be seen.
"Okay, one more second."
>After a moment, Anon steps away from the edge of the box and walks around it with one of the plants cupped in his hands, a vine trailing down from it.
>As he circles wooden, soil-filled box, the mare sees the plant and sputters.
"C-c-c-c-ckkcckk! Ckckckukkkkkb!!!"
>She's putting so much heart into it.
>Anon sets the plant down in a clear area in the soil and digs with his hands until it's about as deep as the rootball of the vine he set down.
>He places it in the hole carefully and rakes some earth in to cover it.
"You're really close, but you need to work on your vowels a little bit."
>The mare tilts her head.
"Your consonants are great. Your vowels, though? Not so much. Let's try one at a time, okay?"
>Anon brushes his hands together to get rid of some of the excess dirt that was on them, before kneeling down and turning out his lamp again.
"Cu-?"
"Ckkkkckkcc-!"
"Cu-?"
"Ckkckkukckkk!"
>He rocks back on his heels for a moment, pushing against the wall of the garden box to keep from tipping further, then resuming his former position.
"You're so close. A vowel is like when you sing, or uhm, squeak if you can. It's a sustained thing. It's hard to keep making the same consonant sound. Can you just do the 'u'?"

>Another timid little mewl from the mare as she looks at him.
"It's okay. Yuu-"
>Anon tries to demo the sound for her.
>After some percussive, and intense sputtering, the mare produces a sound from her mouth which is not unlike a cricket playing.
"K-k-r-r-r-r-r-r-i-i-i-i-i-i..."
>Anon reaches forward gently as she makes the shrill sound and pushes on her tongue and cheeks to shape the vowel, encouraging her to keep singing while he proceeds.
>She doesn't seem to mind too much. It takes him a moment as he slowly "sculpts."
"-i-i-i-i-i-o-o-o-o-o-ö-ö-ö-ö-ö-ü-ü-ü-ü-ü-ü-ü-u-u-u-u..."
"You've got it."
>She continues with the sound. It seems like she can make it uninterrupted.
>Anon is not sure whether she can simply cycle-breathe somehow or whether it's not even produced by a vocal cord whatsoever.
"So can you just make a 'c' sound in the middle of what your doing and then go back to singing like you are now?"
"ckckkckkkkkccc-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-kkckkkk-u-u-u-u-u-..."
>It's like harsh static interrupting a continuous, trilling tone being played over a ratio.
>Anon "sculpts" the next vowel.
"u-u-u-u-u-u-u-ehhh--a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-uhhhhhhhh-..."
"Good, that's the next vowel."
>He presses her jaw closed with two fingers under her chin.
"M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m..."
"We need a 'b' sound next; 'ber' is the last part."
"m-m-m-m-m-pppppfffpfpfppfpfpfppfppfbbbbppbbbbbbbbb-r-r-r-rrrr-r-rrr..."
>Amazingly, she gets through the last two parts right there on her own.
>She keeps going tirelessly.
"-r-r-r-r-r--r-r-r--r-r-r--r..."
"You're at the end of the word, now, honey."
>She makes puppy eyes at him as she slowly comes to a stop; she had been *really* enjoying her self making the word.
"r-rrr-rrrr......rrrr..."
"You d-"
"rrr-r-r-rr........rrrrr."
>Anon clears his throat.
"You di-"
"rr."

>Anon waits a moment this time. Then he continues quickly.
"You did really great, and I'm proud of you."
>He gives the moth a quick hug.
>As he pulls away, she paws at him with a forehoof to stop moving.
>One of Anon's hands is still on her back.
>This is the first time he's had that much contact with one of the moth ponies before.
>Her neckruff is mindblowingly soft. He pets it until she decides she's finished. He has time.
>For a moment, she is just running her feelers along his head, dancing them about.
>His face twiches at the sensation but he keeps still.
>They stay like that for a while, in a very sort-of loose hug, with Anon holding his neck in an awkward position.
>Eventually she stops and looks at him. She "Rrrrr"s enthusiastically to Anon.
"I'm going to move some more plants but for now I need to go meet with Dawn Gleam and Meisa. Same time tomorrow night? Here by the garden?"
"Kyu-Rrrrrkckkkckcccuuucrrrb-b-b!"
>He waves to her as she prepares to take off.
"See you then!"
>Anon and the mare go resume their respective days, looking very much forward to the next lesson they'll have the next night by the little garden