The next few days were a whirlwind of activity for Henry. He got fully acquainted with all of Twilight's friends, and while some of them still seemed suspicious of him, they were at least able to be friendly enough.
At some point, Twilight had the burnt remains of the chopper moved elsewhere, but Henry honestly couldn't care less. It wasn't exactly his to begin with, after all.
Meanwhile, both Twilight and Starlight had begun to try and teach Henry how to read and write Equestrian. At first, Henry was at least a little optimistic, but that hope was dashed the moment he got a look at the alphabet. Who in their right mind makes an alphabet with over fifty different letters?
Thankfully, the fact that, through sheer coincidence, their spoken languages were almost exactly the same served to help things along greatly, though it was still a very slow pace, seeing as having the letters spoken individually out loud seemed to be a weird mix of English letters and stuff that might as well been gibberish. The fuck was a "semi-tilde"?
So slow, in fact, that Henry was just starting to get close to forming his first Equestrian word.
"Come on, Henry," Starlight said. "Try and spell 'apple'."
Henry frowned at being treated almost like a child, but he supposed there wasn't really any other way. The parchment in front of him only had his own English writing of the word, purely for his own benefit, and a couple scribbled out lines from past attempts.
Next to that, was an open book displaying the entire Equestrian alphabet, and another parchment showing a written English counterpart. The book was for children, of course, but such is life.
Henry continued to frown as he looked between the pages in front of him, trying to find any sort of common ground he could use.
Except none of the letters were even vaguely recognizable, even compared to some of the Russian writing he saw.
If Henry could speak, he'd most certainly be grumbling by now.
Eventually, much to Starlight's relief, Henry managed to get close enough to the correct spelling that she decided to call it a day. She knew it would be slow progress, but that didn't stop her from being a little bit embarrassed for the poor... thing.
Henry was equally glad to be done, though he knew he'd just be delaying the inevitable. Not like he had literally anything else to do in this weird horse world.
He waved goodbye to Starlight as he made his way to the kitchen. While being a cyborg meant he had to eat a good deal less than the average human, he still had to eat once in a while. Thankfully, the ponies were taking the given diet of humans rather well, all things considered.
Okay, maybe only Twilight and Starlight knew, and made it sound like it would be an issue of utmost secrecy from the rest of their friends, but still.
Of course, Twilight didn't actually have any meat in the castle, and she said it could take a few more days to get something arranged, so he just grabbed a lettuce and tomato sandwich from the fridge and ate that.
Halfway into the meal, Twilight entered the kitchen, smiling. "So, how are the lessons going, Henry?"
Mouth still full of food, Henry gave a thumbs up.
"Glad to hear. Er, is that still right to say?" She shook her head. "Nevermind."
Henry just continued eating, giving a small shrug.
"Anyway," Twilight continued, "some of my friends' sisters are going to be coming over in a little bit, and... well, I don't want to sound rude, but..."
Henry got a feeling he knew what she was asking, and made a show of getting up and bowing exaggeratedly before walking towards the kitchen door.
It was hard to master the art of nonverbal sarcasm, but Henry never regretted it.
"Wait, wait!" Twilight said, causing Henry to stop in his tracks. "Look, I'm sorry, but trust me, they can be a bit... destructive. And the last thing I want is for them to accidentally attack you while they're here, or something."
Henry let out a silent laugh and just waved a dismissive hand, as if to say "I'll be fine."
Twilight gave him a skeptical look, but when he didn't back down, she did. "Well... if you say so."
She then turned around and left him to finish his sandwich. As he did so, Henry thought about what she said. It was only some kids that were coming over, then. He had no idea why she thought it would be such a big deal.
After all, what's the worst that could happen?
It turns out, Henry was pretty much right.
The moment the three fillies spotted him, simply lounging around in a spare chair in one of the castle halls, they ran up and started babbling countless excited questions at him. It made Henry miss his speech even more, since he was unable to yell and get them to quiet down.
Thankfully, Twilight was there to smooth things out, and once order was restored, they started asking their questions in a much more orderly manner.
Of course, they were disappointed when they learned he couldn't speak, and as such couldn't answer most of their questions, but it didn't take them long to recover from that and start asking exclusively yes and no questions.
"Are, like, all of you things that tall?!"
Henry nodded.
"And did ya really crash into th' castle from th' sky?!"
Henry nodded again.
"Ooh, ooh, did you lose your voice in the crash?"
Henry paused, before he shook his head.
"But wait, how were you flying?" the orange one (Scootaloo, if he remembered right) asked, suddenly skeptical. "You don't have any wings."
Henry nodded, and then pointed to Twilight so she could answer the other half of the question.
"He arrived in... some sort of aircraft. It looked like a large chariot, but..." She put a hoof to her chin as she searched for the right word. "Thicker?"
Henry gave a thumbs up, signaling that it was close enough.
The yellow filly, Applebloom, took the time to cut in. "So what's that piece o' metal in your claw?"
"Hand," the white one, Sweetie Bell, chimed in, getting an amused smile from Twilight.
As Applebloom ignored her, Henry brought the hand in question to his face. Of course, he knew why that metal was exposed, and what it signified, but there was no way to explain in his current state, so he simply gave a shrug and let the subject drop.
If he was being honest with himself, he also didn't want to give away everything about himself. Sure, Luna knew it all by now, but apparently she hadn't told anyone else yet.
The questions continued, and Henry answered as many as he could to the best of his ability. Surprisingly, he found that he was actually pretty alright with kids, though he wasn't sure if that was a factor of his former life or not.
Likewise, the fillies seemed to be absolutely thrilled at even his mundane answers, likely due to the novelty of meeting a new species. It was almost like when he had his first one-sided discussion with Twilight.
Speaking of Twilight, she had left the four of them some time ago, confident that no trouble would be caused in her absence. Much to her delight, when she came back, she was right, as the only real difference was Scootaloo jumping up and down excitedly, even buzzing her wings a bit.
"This is so cool!" she said, to no one in particular. "It's just like that one Daring Do book!"
Twilight tilted her head slightly, trying to think. "You mean Daring Do and the Crystal Skull?"
Scootaloo winced. "Ew, no. I meant the one with the thing from outer space!"
"...you mean Daring Do and the Thing From Outer Space?"
"Yeah, that one! Where the thing crashes into Daring's school in the middle of one of her classes, and she has to keep it safe, but then it turns out it's actually really powerful! And..."
Henry just silently laughed at the filly's quite active imagination as he started to tune her out. Though, he supposed that, technically, he could count as an alien. That is, assuming the term applies to cross-dimensional travelers, or whatever this world was in relation to his own.
Eventually, Scootaloo stopped rambling, and Twilight had to fight to not burst out laughing. "Oh, I don't think that book really applies here. After all, Henry here isn't in any danger from evil ponies, and I doubt he's freakishly strong."
Henry felt his robot arm twitch reflexively.
"Anyway, it's time to go, now."
The fillies all let out a chorus of "Aww"s, and Henry felt his heart melt just a little bit. They all said their farewells as Twilight led them out to do whatever it is they were here to do, and Henry decided to turn in for the night.
Okay, maybe he didn't really need to sleep as much as a normal person, either, but that doesn't mean he didn't enjoy doing it.
Once again, Henry found himself in what was becoming a familiar sight, as his memories simply played on loop around him. His experiences with the ponies were slowly getting added into the mix, though the memories about his past life were still an unreadable blur.
As usual, Luna arrived after some time, giving a small bow of her head to Henry in greeting. "Hello again, Henry. How goes the writing lessons?"
"To be honest, kinda bloody slow." After that first night, Henry came to accept Jimmy's voice as his own projected mental voice, so he figured he might as well pick up his somewhat eccentric speech patterns, too.
Luna nodded sympathetically. "To tell the truth, when I first returned, I had to spend a week essentially re-learning Equestrian, since it had changed so vastly from before."
In the nights before, Luna had told Henry an abridged version of the Nightmare Moon incident. She had rationalized it as a way to ensure they were roughly on equal terms, since she could clearly see his own memories around them.
"At least you still remembered how you were before," Henry said. "I still have nothing beyond this," he added, pointing to the memory of his supposed father.
"Do not worry, Henry, I feel that, one day, you will be able to find the answers you seek."
The two lapsed into silence, simply watching more of Henry's memories.
"May I ask a question?" Luna eventually asked.
"Shoot."
"Are you... afraid of what your past might hold?"
Henry didn't answer at first, choosing to simply stare at the whirlwind that was his forgotten memories. After a few moments of thought, he spoke up again.
"A little bit, yeah. A man doesn't get that good at killing just from some robot parts."
After another moment of silence, Luna stood beside Henry. "Whatever your past may hold, know that I will not hold it against you, nor will I share it with anyone if you do not wish."
"...thanks, Luna."
When the moment between them passed, Luna began walking away. "I must take my leave, now; there are many other dreams to get to in this night. Farewell, Henry."
"Later," Henry said simply, as she disappeared from his mind, leaving him alone with his thoughts, quite literally.
After some time, a recent memory floated into view, of his time with those three fillies. Despite himself, he smiled at the sight of it.
Maybe being stuck here wouldn't be so bad, after all.