Where I Belong

The afternoon was spent with a bit less books than the morning, but Twilight and I had been busy with them all the same; not too busy to keep a conversation going, though.

As we had been looking for useful books - any books with the words 'spell reverting' in any shape or form in their title, or table of contents, were drawn out of the shelves - we had discussed our daily lives.

"So, what's it like to be a librarian?" I had asked while pulling a rather thick book from the top shelf of the bookcase in front of me.

"It's really easy! The workload is never big and the hours are flexible, especially here in Ponyville where not too many ponies read regularly", she had replied while examining a thick, deep blue book.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't pay too well. I get along, though, because the Princess supports me financially whenever I can't seem to make it on my own. Although, on the positive side, it leaves me a lot of time to read and I have a vast source of material for my studies", she had continued while setting the blue book into the pile she was about to tackle later on. She had pulled another book from the shelf.

"A job of your dreams, huh?" I had asked, putting the book I had last examined back into the shelf. I had picked a new one as she had replied:

"Yes, you could say that." She had chuckled a bit.

A few minutes had passed in silence as we had kept on examining the books that were on the shelf titled 'Magic'.

Twilight had been the one to break the silence.

"Do you have a job back home? I think you mentioned some 'duties' right after you got here", she had asked while frowningly putting a bright green book back into the shelf.

"Not currently. I did have one last summer, but as of mid-August I have continued my studies", I had replied.

"Ooh, what do you study?" She had asked eagerly, turning her head so quickly I could make out an audible crack emanating from the back of her neck.

I had chuckled at her a little while she had rubbed the very spot with her forehoof, grimacing.

"I study linguistics. You know, the scientific study of languages", I had replied, still smiling amusedly.

"No wonder you were able to use a different language the way you did", she had replied, moving her forehoof from the back of her neck to her chin, rubbing that instead. "I'm not an expert in human languages, but that did sound really fluent", she had added.

She had been thinking of something for a moment as I had shifted my position awkwardly. I don't get compliments about my language skills that often, since my friends are used to me speaking multiple languages without any problems.

"Linguistics isn't very popular of a field in Equestria since there are only a few different languages. Is that the case in Earth, too?" Twilight had asked curiously after the short pause.

I hadn't cared to correct her to say 'on Earth'. Instead, I had replied: No, not really, even though there are over 6000 different languages on Earth."

"That's weird. With the amount of people and languages you'd think it'd be quite popular", she had said with a pondering tone.

"I guess it's just how much reading it requires. I mean, it’s all about just reading texts and analyzing their vocabulary and grammar”, I had replied truthfully. My studies back home included studying a couple foreign languages, as well as reading and analyzing texts, both in my native language and the foreign languages I studied; Finnish, Swedish and German.

“It does include quite a bit of studying foreign languages, too. That was a major reason for me to go for linguistics in the first place”, I had continued.

“You mentioned a language called Finnish, didn’t you? Do you study any other languages?” She had asked, her tone shifting back to curious. She had lifted her gaze from the slim purple book she had been skimming through to look at me.

“Yes, German and Swedish. German because it’s spoken by over a hundred million people and Swedish because it has had a heavy influence on Finnish vocabulary. Both of them are also related to English, so they are not too hard to pick up”, I had explained while browsing through a thick blue book. The book seemed to be all about spell reverting, judging by the headlines in the table of contents, so I had put it in the ‘read these once we’re done with the search’ -pile.

“Could you give me a short sample of both of them? I’d love to have more reference material on the linguistic diversity you humans seem to have”, she had asked with a slightly pleading look on her face. Her note parchment had floated through the air from the kitchen, enclosed in an aura of purple light.

“Sure thing. Which would you like to hear first, and is there a specific phrase you were looking for?” I had asked her, replaying my impression of the perfect pronunciation of both languages in my head.

“Could you repeat that phrase you used for... Finnish? ‘Okay Twilight, do you understand me now?’” She had asked, readying the quill she had summoned from the kitchen as well.

“And go first with whichever language you please, just tell me which one it is you’re using”, she had continued.

“Okay. I think I’ll go with Swedish first.” I had inhaled, as if I had been preparing myself for something either slightly frightening or physically demanding. Probably the former.

“Okej Twilight, förstår du mig nu?”

I tried to pronounce it in a little... Let’s call it a ‘suggestive’ tone. What I mean is, I tried to sound as gay as I could, since some Finns tended to do that when speaking Swedish, to make fun of the language. It’s a cultural thing; it resembles the way Americans and Canadians treat each other. I had learned this on the first course of Finnish I had ever taken in high school, since my teacher tended to lighten up the lessons with little fun facts like that. The fact that I actually remembered that didn’t help with the weak feeling of homesickness I was developing.

Twilight hadn’t seemed to notice, though. She had handed the parchment over for me to write the phrase down. I had let out a short chuckle as she had done that, and she had blushed out of embarrassment, ever so slightly but still noticeably.

As I had written the phrase down, I had said: “Now, in German.”

“Go for it”, she had said with a smile.

“Okay Twilight, verstehst du mich jetzt?”

This time, I had slightly exaggerated the pronunciation of the ‘sh’ syllables and rolled the ‘r’s a bit too much, to give the phrase that stereotypical German sound. I think I did pretty well.

Twilight hadn’t bothered turning the parchment to face her in between, nor setting down the quill. I had picked the quill from mid-air again and written down the phrase I had just said out loud. She had taken a quick look at the parchment as I had handed it to her, nodding contently and flashing a smile at me which I had returned. We had continued examining the books.

--

The following couple of hours had passed with a little less conversation and a little more reading. After we had skimmed through the ‘Magic’ -shelf, Twilight had insisted on checking the ‘History’ -shelf as well. That had been a little less interesting, even if Twilight had gladly answered any questions about Equestrian history I had come up with while browsing the dusty tomes.

Judging by the condition of the books - and the spider webs that extended from the ceiling to the top of the shelf - the shelf was rarely touched. It also seemed like Twilight didn’t get to share her historical knowledge - which, I might add, seems to be on par with her knowledge of magic - too often, since she seemed more than happy about being able to do so. She had seemed to have quite a bit of knowledge on Equestrian history, though, since she was able to answer most of my questions offhand - or offhoof, rather.

During the hour we spent at the history section of the library I had learned that Equestria has been ruled by two princesses since time immemorial. There had been a period of time though, a millenium to be exact, when there had only been one princess to reign over the land. The other had been banished to - I had almost laughed out loud when I had heard this - the moon for her attempts to claim the throne for herself. That era had come to an end a few months back, with the assistance of Twilight and her friends.

At the point Twilight shortly described her five friends - I had asked her to - I had been very eager to just go outside and meet them in person. However, Twilight had both insisted on continuing with the research and told me it would be downright dangerous outside. Someone could panic and call in the guards to take me away to who knows where, which would pretty much ground me to Equestria for the rest of my life. The latter part considered, that had made a whole lot of sense so I had stayed inside.

--

The 'History' section skimmed through, Twilight and I decided to take a break and have some dinner. Twilight had seemed genuinely embarrassed by the fact she only had lunch leftovers to offer, but I had told her not to worry; me being a student, I was more than used to eating leftovers and had no reason to complain.

Besides, the caesar salad had been just as good as at lunch - possibly the best I have ever eaten - and as I said that out loud, Twilight had blushed visibly. She didn't seem to get compliments of her cooking skills too often, quite like nobody ever noticed my language skills.

--

By the time the sun had started setting, we had gathered a two-feet high pile of books from the shelves. As Twilight had set the last book on top of the pile, I had asked:

"So, now what? I don't think I'll understand a thing said in these books, which renders me useless in further studying."

Twilight had looked at me, seemingly thinking of something for a moment. "You may be right, let me see..." She had said with a pondering tone. She had shot a glance at the window to her left to see the sun dipping below the horizon and dyeing the sky scarlet. She had then shot a glance at the clock on the wall before setting her purple eyes on me again.

"I think it may be too early to even suggest turning ourselves in yet", she had chuckled. "Is there anything specific you'd like to do to pass some time?" She had continued, smiling.

"I can't really think of anything. If I were home, this is probably where I'd just turn on my computer and browse the internet for a couple of hours", I had said. Twilight hadn't seemed to quite understand me.

"Computer? Internet?" She had repeated, seemingly baffled. Her note parchment had risen from the table on the far side of the room and started to drift across the room inside a purple hue of light as she had spoken.

"Oh, you don't have those here? I would've thought so, given that you seem to have other electrical appliances like fridges", I had replied, a little confused too.

“No, I’ve never heard of... What were those again, a commuter and an innernet?” She had said, placing the parchment in front of her and readying her quill for another note with her magic.

“A computer and the internet. How should I explain this...” I had taken a short pause think. I hadn’t had any trouble finding a definition for the internet, but how are you supposed to describe a computer to someone that has never heard of one? I mean, it’s a piece of hardware that is capable of doing a mindboggling amount of operations at once, but that really doesn’t quite explain it’s nature, now does it? Then it had stricken me: computer’s operations are all about doing calculations.

I had continued: “A computer is a machine that does an enormous amount of calculations in order to execute various operations, like displaying images or running games. The internet, on the other hand, is basically an incomprehensibly big library with innumerable amount of pages on practically each and every subject imaginable."

"The internet can be accessed with a computer, and there are computers whose only task is to run websites, parts of the internet", I had added as Twilight had once again started to write with an utterly unbelievable speed.

After a good 30 seconds of writing, she had raised her gaze from the parchment to look at me again. “How big is the internet exactly? I mean, how much information can it contain?"

"That's beyond measurement. Think of it this way: if you were to need any information, any at all, you would eventually find it on the internet", I had explained. After a short pause, I had added:

"I mean, information that has something to do with the world I come from; I can tell for sure there is no mention of your world anywhere on the internet."

Twilight had taken a rather long note. Meanwhile, I had taken a look around the library that was being dyed deep scarlet by the last rays of the sunset. It had been very well organized and seemed to hold more knowledge of the world I was at least temporarily imprisoned to than what met the eye in the form of books; there were quite a bit of notes poking out from in between the rows of books on the shelves and even from in between the books themselves.

On the far side of the room had been a bulky desk that had been covered with piles of parchments, quite like what my very own desk back home looked like after finishing a school assignment. The idea of home had made me shudder a bit, even though I had only been away for just a little over 12 hours. I would have never had guessed I'd start feeling homesick this easily, but apparently my current situation had proven that idea wrong.

Twilight had finished her note while I had been sunken deep in thought and silently walked over to the 'Miscellaneous' -titled bookshelf. She had pulled a brown book with a picture of two pillows on the front cover from it and walked back to me with it enclosed in an aura of purple magic.

I had shaken my head slightly and turned my head to look at her and the book. "What's that? 'Slumber 101'?" I had asked, looking at the book confusedly.

“I just realized that if you’re going to be spending the night here, it’s technically a sleepover, which we might as well make a slumber party now that we have no more work to do today!” Twilight had said with a wide smile and sparkling eyes.

“And the book has to do with what now?” I had said, still slightly confused, even though the title of the book was pretty self-explanatory.

“This book contains a wide selection of activities to do at a slumber party. I use it as a reference guide, it’s very good”, Twilight had explained while opening the book and idly starting to flip the pages.

Before I could say anything, she had excitedly added: “Of course, if you know of something fun to do and it isn’t in the book, I’d be glad to try it out. I could even add it to the ‘Own activities’ -section if it works out!”

“Alright, that sounds like fun. What should we do first?” I had asked.

The following few hours were spent telling ghost stories, making s’mores, having a pillow fight and playing the ‘Truth or Dare’.

At one point, Twilight had tried to talk me into giving each other makeovers, but I had politely told her I didn’t want to. She had insisted on it, because the book told that was an essential part of a slumber party. I had told her I wasn’t willing to quite sternly at that point. After that, as she had kept on pleading me, I had half-yelled at her I didn’t want to. We had shared a laugh and moved on to doing something else.

Later in the evening, once the sun had completely set, we had gone outside on the balcony for a while to look at the stars with Twilight telescope. That hadn’t been in Twilight’s book, but I had asked her if we could as I had seen her telescope outside. Twilight had seemed more than willing to, even though it meant that I had to step outside for everypony to see me, so we spent a good hour taking turns in taking a look at the night sky. The stargazing had been really cool, especially since the constellations seemed to be quite identical to the ones on Earth.

--

Now, it is a little over midnight. Twilight has gone upstairs to her room and I am downstairs in the main library room, sitting on the edge of the couch. I still can’t believe I’m not going to wake up in my own bed tomorrow morning, just thinking this all was just a dream. How do I know that? I’ve been secretly pinching myself throughout the day just to ensure the things I’m experiencing are real, not mere images made up by my sleeping brain.

Now, I think it’s time for me to hit the sack. Tomorrow is going to be a long day of spell reverting.

Nighty night.