Been A While · 6:23pm Sep 1st, 2013

Sorry I've been so quiet, lately. My muse seems to have ditched me, for the time being, and so progress across all fronts has been remarkably slow. I've been making some progress, though, and I think that my next update will be for Faster Than Light. After that I'll try and get the Rarity scene done for Fireflies, and then the next chapter of Imagined Parallels. No real promises on release dates, though, since I'm not going to try and pin myself down. Since that's pretty much going to guarantee a failure to deliver.

In other news, I'll be starting school this week, Tuesday to be precise, and that means that, of course, my muse if going to inundate me with ideas. Rather than act on them, though, I'll simply write them down, put them aside, and focus on continuing what I've already got started. That said, here's a small snippet from the start of the next chapter of Faster Than Light. Hopefully this will satisfy you all until the chapter is actually done.

After the ‘Pinkie Incident’, as Twilight had decided to call it, and a long talk with the pink mare about the fact that Abderus couldn’t speak the language, Twilight found herself alone, once again, with the human. It had taken the better part of an hour to convince him that Pinkie was gone, and even longer after that to get him to leave the room he’d been in since his arrival at the library. After a long, and fairly drawn out explanation of some of the most basic emotions and feelings the human had finally managed to express several things. The first of which was that he was hungry. And in pain. Based on the emphasis he had placed on the two feelings Twilight was worried that the human prioritized hunger more than he did self preservation.
During the repast Twilight continued illustrating concepts to the human, desperate to give him more tools to use to illustrate how he felt. He proved remarkably quick to pick up on concepts, and it wasn’t long before he was able to express some more complex topics. Although, to be fair, Twilight was upset with the human’s progress. He was faster than a foal was, but still far too slow for someone of his age, based on what he had told Twilight through his earlier writings.
As the meal was winding down, Applejack arrived at the library, her notable concern more prevalent for her friend than for the alien. Twilight trusted that the human wouldn’t depart from the kitchen during her brief absence to let in the farm pony, and so she spoke quickly to the farmer in the main room of the book repository. With as much detail as she could cram in, Twilight explained what had taken place since waking earlier in the morning, and what was now taking place.
“Shucks, Twi. I’d like to see him for myself, though. I saw him last night, after you went to bed... I need to see him. I want to ask him some stuff.”
“That’s... That’s probably going to be pretty difficult, AJ. He doesn’t really speak the language. At all. I mean, he can tell me if he’s hungry, or happy, or other basics like that, but not much else.”
The farmer frowned for a moment, before she let a small smile return to her features. “I’m sure that if he picks up on the language as fast as you’re claiming, he’ll be able to answer my questions just fine.” Twilight only raised an eyebrow as she let her friend pass her and enter the kitchen. The human was busy devouring the rather large amount of food on the table in front of him, and he failed to notice the new arrivals. At least, Twilight suspected that he didn’t notice, as there was no change in either his activity or stance.
“Abderus.” The human looked up from his food and looked first at Twilight, and then the orange coated mare. His eyes narrowed for a moment before he stood, grabbed his chair, and moved it to the far side of the table. His eyes never left the farmer, and Twilight could see his pupils were dilated. Before things could get out of hoof, though, Twilight calmly approached the fearful human. She pointed a hoof at Applejack. “Applejack. Friend.” She hoped that her earlier explanation of the word friend, based solely in pure emotions and feelings, had stuck. “She’s a friend, Abderus. Applejack is a friend.”
The human looked at Twilight for a moment before he looked back at the farmer. “Applejack?” His brow furrowed quite a bit, and then he gasped sharply. Twilight took a half step back at the outburst. After a moment the human held up an object, a proud smile on his face. “Apple!” The apple in his hand had a sizable bite taken out of its side, but that didn’t take away from its state as an apple. Without a pause, the human then pointed at Applejack. “Applejack!” He looked between the farmer and the produce several times before he started laughing. “Applejack! Apple!” The laughter lingered for a moment before he realized that he was the only one laughing, and his laughter died quickly.
Applejack looked between the human and Twilight for a moment before her gaze settled firmly on the alicorn. “Was he laughing at me, Twi?”
“I don’t really know, AJ. I don’t think so, but I couldn’t really tell you.”

(745 Words ~ 1/(4 or 5) total chapter length)
That's all for now. Feel free to make observations, criticisms, or whatever you might like. I'll do my best to get this done relatively soon.

Sursum Aeternum!
-Jet Howitzer

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