Each day Anon comes to the treebrary and you try to teach him to speak. It's not until roughly a week after the lessons start that Anon finally starts to grasp the concept of forming sentences. His first solo-formed sentence kind of came as a shock.
"Come on Anon, what do you call this?" You ask for the third time while holding up a flashcard with the word 'Equestria' written on it.
"E-que-sri-a"
"Close. Very close, try again."
"E-que-sri," he pauses when he notices you shake your head no, "E-que-stri-a."
"YES!"
He smiles warmly and you let out a sigh of relief. He's gotten the hang of pronunciations for the most part but there are words that stump him from time to time.
"Thank Twilight for teach Anon speak."
You fold up the flash cards and smile warmly to yourself. Then a moment of clarity returns to you as you realise what just nearly passed in one ear and out the other.
"W-What? Say that again."
He looks at you with concern.
"Thank Twilight... For teach... speak?" He repeats slowly, now unsure of his pronounciations.
"Anon! Wow! I mean, there's still some work to be done clearly but that was good."
"Good?"
"Yes, good. And you would use me instead of Anon when you refer to yourself."
"Thank Twilight for teach Twilight speak?"
"Heh, no, not quite."
He looks all fuddled now, like he's trying to work out a puzzle. Which this all very well might be to him. You kind of let out a small laugh but thankfully Anon doesn't notice.
"So, Anon."
He breaks his concentration to focus on you.
"Seeing as you're starting to form sentences we should focus on that. Getting you to understand the basics will help you speak more often."
Anon stares.
"Let's just start."
He nods.
"Alright so, every sentence has a subject and predicate."
"Pre-di..."
"Predicate, it's the part of a sentence where something like a verb sits to further describe the subject."
His eyes goes blank. It's like you broke a light in there. Poor Anon is trying to wrap his head around what you just said and it's not going right.
"You know what, forget what I said," you nervously laugh as you pack up all the study material, "It's only been a week, we shouldn't be too hasty."
Slowly, Anon gives you a nod but his mind is still very much stuck. Thankfully, a knock at the door takes his focus and yours. When you open it, you're greeted by the smile of the orange mare, Applejack.
"Howdy Twilight, how goes the lessons?"
"Pretty well, he's starting to make sentences on his own but--"
"Really? Hah, he'll be speaking perfect in no time then."
"Ah, it's still a while yet."
"Psh, Anon has to be pretty clever to be getting the hang of it this fast. He'll be better at it than me in no time."
"but I still think--"
"Oh, yeah, before I forget. We'll need Anon's help in the day if we want to make it in time for cider season."
"I'm not sure it's a good idea for him to be skipping lessons."
"I realise that, but we need the extra help," AJ replies a little aggressively.
She's likely just tired, hence the mood that she has suddenly brought down. You're not offended but you are taken off guard. Anon however is just looking between the two of you as the conversation carries on. It's likely he's trying to piece together what you're talking about but his face screws up with each baffling word.
"What if I came over after the work is done, in the late afternoon if I have to."
She ponders for a minute before nodding.
"Yeah, that'll work great. He'll probably be tired by then, but he needs those lessons."
And with that, she and Anon take off home.
I like it, just wish the chapters were a bit longer
Perhaps I have no clue what I'm talking about here, though that would make me a pretty bad editor, but I'm fairly certain that, if the word "I" was used in place of the word "me" (by the way, I think you were right that it shouldn't use the word "me" there), it would have to be directly followed by the word am, or it would, at the very least, not sound good.
7065973
It's correct. An example you might be familiar with would be the phrase "a better man than I". The issue is that AJ technically made another mistake. Strictly speaking, she should have said "he'll be better at it than I am in no time". The correction is valid but it's something that only someone in teacher mode would notice. When you share a language, little things like that aren't really important in conveying your thoughts. You automatically filter and translate minor issues like that without even realizing you're doing it.
now, anon falcon punches trees
7074411 One idea lead to anonther, dude. I imagined him punching trees like in MineCraft before treating each tree like a lesson from the Karate Kid where he can only knock apples down with the most precise kicks and punches, moving him to rapidly knocking down apples as the Apples struggle to keep up!
This is cute in a way, I like it, so good show