Author's Note

So different to write almost no dialogue...

Learning the Differences

Ivan gave me another smile, holding up a finger and turned around to converse with his parents. I stood doing nothing before falling on my haunches where I stood, my flanks hitting the hard wood floor a bit hard but I didn't care. My mind was racing with hundreds if not thousands of questions. Where are they from? How did they get here? Was their species ever truly extinct? I felt so strongly to find out the answers to all of these questions, but the obvious and very obnoxious language barrier would make that information harder to get tenfold.

I was so lost in my own thoughts that it took a short while to register Ivan snapping his fingers. With a small shake of the head I looked back to him and his family. Instantly I noticed the looks that Mama and Papa were giving me. Mama looked at me with curiosity and a kindled warmth while Papa looked as though he was trying to intimidate me through the fear that was shown in his dark eyes. And then, of course, there was Ivan with an expression of joy and what I could only assume to be a slight impatience. He waved one of his hands towards the open door to my left that led into a room to dark too see into. I eyed it cautiously. As nice as Ivan seemed to be, there was no way I was going to put all of my faith in him unless he proved to me that he was competent, polite and trustworthy enough.

Seeming to sense my hesitance Ivan gave me another warming smile and reached his hand into the doorway and I heard a flick of a switch. Something told me to shut my eyes and I did as much, fearing something bad may happen, but nothing did. I opened one of my eyes to see Ivan frowning, slipping into the dark room.

"Papa," he called out, "Elesisitie es kaput."

Papa, who was talking with Mama quietly let out a groan, "Wot do vu soth? We you solas penals!"

"Elesisitie es stu kaput."

Papa growled and walked towards me, glowering at me seeming to try and will me out of the way. I got up and moved out of his way, admittedly in fear practically leaning against the wall, before righting myself and continuing to stand as Nick searched for something in the living room. With a small Ah ha! Ivan seemed to find what he was looking for, a candle in a metal candle mount held in his hand. Slipping back into the dark room I heard the sound of movement and shifting. A match was brought to life in the inky darkness, lighting the candle and giving the room a dramatic light, but was enough to see most things in the small room with.

The room itself was not spectacular in any way. It was wider than long with dark slate colored walls, a twin sized bed with a wooden bed frame with two large drawers at the base and a dresser a small distance from the door. On the wall that the door was on there was an ebony desk with a messy array of papers and a plush office chair, presumably better fit for a human next to it. On the far left wall was a small screened...thing of some sorts mounted in an alcove made by an exposed closet with a fair assortment of clothes fit for a human. Next to the screen thing was bookshelf holding an odd assortment of books and a few other shapes I couldn't recognize. Ivan calmly put the candle down on the dresser and went over to the bookshelf and grabbed at the objects I couldn't make out and went back to the dresser, opened one drawer and dumped the objects into said drawer. The only real thing I saw of them were two colors; yellow and purple.

His behavior was a bit odd, but as far as I knew what Ivan was doing was completely normal for a human. Waving for me to enter the room entirely he went to and sat down in his chair and turned to watch me. I took a few steps into the room and looked for a place to sit rather than just sit on the carpeted floor. Ivan just watched with his head cocked to the side a bit a grin still on his face. The only real option I had was to sit on the bed so I made my way to it, but something stopped me. I looked over to Ivan for confirmation with one hoof on the bed, and he nodded slowly.

With a a bit of work I managed to climb onto the bed, sitting down on the soft comforters. The two of us sat in silence. Neither of us did more than study the other. I noticed he was still squinting, and seemed to be struggling to see me even though I was only a hoofful of feet away. Ivan broke the silence with a sigh before he got up, moving towards the dresser grabbing at a pair of glasses. Unfolding the small pair of glasses Ivan set them on his face blinking owlishly for a few seconds before he took his place in his seat again, running a hand through his hair. The way he did it was odd, his palm just passed his forehead before he switched the direction to make all the hair in between his fingers stick up and curve to the left. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was styling his hair. I don't know why this fact surprised me, but I'll be the first to admit that it did.

More silence. The quiet only being interrupted by the the quiet shuffling of bare feet against the wood floor in the hallway and a new voice that didn't belong to Mama or Papa, talking sleepily about something or other. I decided to break the ice with something simple, "Do you understand me at all?"

Ivan cocked his head slightly and remained silent. I repeated my question, slower this time to be received with the same end result. I groaned, "I should've known. Of course he wouldn't be able to speak Equestrian, that make it all too easy now wouldn't it?" I complained to him seeming to just confuse him more. "Maybe I should tell the Princess about you," I said sarcastically, thought not object to the idea.

"Pin...cess?" came Ivan's quiet voice.

My ears perked up and a thought rushed forwards. Maybe he wanted to learn Equestrian! "Not pincess. Princess."

"No pin-cess. Purcess?"

I repeated the word princess several times until he was able to say princess correctly. When he said it right the first time I'll admit that a proud smile crossed my face. The language barrier might not be as tough to best as I had intentionally thought. After I got him to repeat princess a few more times to try and clear up some of his thick and very odd accent, we sat in silence again but a satisfied silence.

Once again it was Ivan who broke the quiet when he shuffled around the papers on his desk, some scrawled in what I could only assume was his native language, whatever it was, and other looking fresh from a typewriter. Eventually he pulled out a clean sheet of writing paper and a pencil and started writing. From my angle and the poor light I couldn't tell what he was inscribing, but once he lifted it up to show me I saw what was on the paper; it was the alphabet, both in upper and lowercase. Now, I'm sure that most people would think of it a blessing that he knew the Equestrian alphabet, but I felt a little suspicious. Not for the base fact that he knew the alphabet, but more for the fact that if he was writing in his alphabet then that would be quite an odd coincidence, but if he was writing the Equestrian alphabet and was aware of it, than that would mean that he may have other knowledge that could be beneficial or hindering. I know that it's rude to assume something like that without legitimate reason, but my mind

Either ignoring or completely missing my pointed gaze, Ivan just looked over the paper, pointed to the set of a's, looked back at me and did nothing more. He sat like that only pointing to the set of a's not trying to communicate in any way. I gave him a confused look to hopefully show his that I had no clue what he wanted. Ivan just jerked the paper forwards and tapped his finger on the paper.

Taking a guess I just said what he thought I should say, "A?" Hearing this Ivan recoiled as though struck, shock evident on his face. Blinking a few times he moved his finger over to the b's. I named the letter and we continued through the entire alphabet from a to z, and with each letter passed Ivan's look just became more and more incredulous until he just sat in his chair, mouth agape. From his end reaction, I could only guess I just listed off his entire alphabet perfectly, even though I spoke an entirely different tongue.

Ivan just sat back in his seat, a thoughtful expression present. His eyebrows narrowed slightly as he slid down seemingly too deep in reverie to right himself. Ivan sat like that for another span before sitting up, turning the paper to the opposite side and scribbling something more furiously. I just continued to sit, wondering how confused the two of us were about the other. I could only imagine this is how ponies of old times felt when they met the zebras or the minitors for the first time. I chuckled lightly at the thought. I wasn't meeting a human for the first time in recorded history, but the first in a long time. When Ivan finally stopped writing and turned back to me the paper all I saw was a list of numbers, starting with zero and ending with one hundred.

We repeated the process with each of the numbers as we did with the letters. It was slow going, and I could tell that the two of us in fact did not share the same words for numbers. Once we got through it all once, Ivan pointed to zero again a twinkle in his eye. And so we did it again, going over each letter many times for what felt like an hour or three. After Ivan repeated one hundred for a fifth time. He paused with a grin, standing up to stretch, opening the door waving for me to follow. Gently getting off of his bed I heard a myriad of cracks as I too stretched. Exiting the room, Ivan made his way to the front door looking over his shoulder to check if I was still there. Without a word he put on a pair of worn black shoes and walked outside without any extra protection. I, still wearing my maybe-too-pink winter saddle, followed him, confused why he didn't put anything on to protect him from the bitter cold besides the small shirt and short pants he was wearing before.

I heard a young, feminine sounding voice from behind me, but Ivan reached over me and slammed the door before I could see who made the noise. I looked to the door, expecting it to open again, but it didn't and when I turned back to Ivan I saw that he was just leaning on one of the railings as if oblivious to the cold, his arms and slightly hairy legs covered in goosebumps. The look of utter serenity that was held on his face befuddled me, but I just threw that question of why onto the ever increasing pile of what I'm going to ask him when he knows Equestrian better or when I learn his language. That it, if he teaches me. Not doing anything more than waving for me to follow again, Ivan made his way down the steps and along the path. I continued to tail him as we made our way down the wide and winding dirt path until we reached the end, where the trees were no longer present. Taking a few extra steps Ivan slowly stopped, looking around with an unreadable face until his gaze found Ponyville, painted faintly on the horizon. His eyes became misty and glazed over as he stood in silence. It wasn't until then did I see how late it was, maybe two or three hours until sunset. Meaning when Rainbow would bust down the door of Ivan's house, caring only for my safety if I didn't get back to town soon.

"Penonsill" Ivan mumbled faintly. He shook his head, his gaze no longer far away, before he looked to me. Once again we were still and studied one another before he pointed to himself as he did when he introduced himself. "Ivan" I nodded, he pointed to me and said nothing else. As soon as I realized what he wanted it hit me like a ton of bricks; I hadn't introduced myself and he didn't know what to call me. I cleared my throat before saying my name loud and clear.

"Twilight...Sparkle..." he repeated, his accent nowhere near as thick as before. I blinked in surprise before I considered it a coincidence. He continued to say my name several times before nodding with another grin, I returned the grin, his joy seeming to radiate almost like Pinkie's always does. Ivan rose an arm, pointing to the house that sat amongst the grove of trees. "Homa" he stated, jabbing his finger in the same direction repeating Homa several times. I nodded in understanding, knowing that he was talking of his home. "Ivan homa," he pointed to me, "Twilight Sparkle," he offered up his hand and waved it from me to where his house lay. My mouth fell open. Even though we have only known each other for a not even a full day, he was practically saying that I was welcome at home. It astounded me.

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding, giving him a smile to hopefully show him my gratitude about granting me better access to learn about him and humans in general. He gave me a nod and made a shooing motion, all the while smiling about something. I took the action as a farewell and gave him a small wave before I began the walk back to town. When I had taken about twenty steps I looked over my shoulder to see Ivan strolling back to his house, slowly singing the numbers that he had learned, varying between four notes. The sight made me smile once again and I continued on my way back home the knowledge of having a new friend, even one as different as Ivan, keeping me joyous for the entire trip. And the amount I can learn...This has been a good day I think!