[Hey Feathers, you got a minute to talk? Or hang out, at least?]
Flurry looked up from her homework at her new friend. It had been a week since they met, and after the misunderstanding concerning their initial meeting with Princess Cadence, Comet was quickly integrated into the daily lives of the crystal palace staff. It wouldn't do to put such a unique pony in the care of anypony else, due to his inability to speak the local language and crippling lack of magic. Still, he was learning fast thanks to the combined efforts of some of the best Crystal Empire scholars. It would be while yet, but...
"Fea-thers! He-low!"
...Comet was picking up some words. Although his nickname for her was perplexing, she appreciated not being called 'Your majesty' or 'Your highness' all the time. Besides, it was a distraction from homework. "Hey, Comet. How are you?"
"Comma is good. Yoo?" He paused, then added, [I really hope I got that right.]
Flurry floated over a paper and crayons from her desk. "Here, draw something. I have homework to do."
"Oh, hey there Flurry! I was hoping to run into you." Flurry Heart's ears perked up at that.
"Auntie Twilight! I missed you!" She rushed over and gave the purple pony a hug in greeting.
"It is good to see you, Flurry. And... oh!" She turned, noticing the room's other occupant. "You're that colt who fell from the sky. I'm Twilight Sparkle, element of magic. I have so many questions for you! How did you get that high up? What did you do to survive a fall that far? Do you know why your magic is at such a low level?" As Twilight rattled off questions, Comet sat down, confused and slightly dizzy from the barrage of questions. Flurry Heart tapped her aunt of the shoulder to get her attention. "Huh? What is it Flurry, I'm busy."
"He can't speak Equish."
Twilght's ears folded back, noticing the slightly distressed colt on the floor. "Oh. I'm... sorry? What language does he speak?"
"Mom and Dad aren't sure. Still," she got Comet's attention and pointed at Twilight. "Twi-Light Spark-le," she instructed.
Comet took a moment to roll his tongue around, getting a feel for the words. Putting on a confident grin, he replied to the princess in kind.
"He-low, Tribite Sprinkle! I yam Comma." As he beamed proudly, Flurry barely managed to keep from falling over laughing.
"I'm calling you that from now on, Auntie Tribite," Flurry joked.
Twilight, ever the diplomat, didn't even flinch at her butchered name. "Well, clearly he needs teaching. Maybe I can try and figure out what language he speaks, then I can help him figure out how to tell us what happened. Do you think you can get him to speak, Flurry? I heard you two are close."
"He's nice to me and we play together, but he doesn't talk much since nopony seems to understand him. I could try, though. He's smart, maybe you could use pictures?"
"That's great idea!" Swiftly, Twilight took the paper and crayons in her magic and scribbled out a diagram. On one side were two badly drawn ponies, but still evidently Twilight and Flurry. Each one had a speech bubble with Equestrian script in it. On the other side was a badly drawn Comet, with two speech bubbles. One had the same text as Twilight and Flurry's speech, and was crossed out. The other had a blank space, and was circled. "I hope he understands this," she hoped as she goofed the paper back over.
"He seems smart, I think he will."
Comet slowly reviewed the picture, looked back at the ponies, and back at the paper again. [They want me to speak like this?] He pondered aloud.
"There! Do you know that language, Auntie Twilight? ...Auntie? What's wrong?" Looking over, she saw Twilight's jaw hanging open. It was nearly on the floor she was so surprised. Stuttering slightly, she asked the most important question Comet had heard since arriving.
[Do you speak English, Comet?]
After that day, things progressed faster than the ponies working with Comet expected. Turns out that he came from a different world, somehow, and despite not knowing how he got there it was determined that it wasn't a 'normal'method like the portal mirror, since that let's you speak the native language as well as your own as soon as you go through. Speaking of the portal mirror, a quick look at Twilight's scrapbook of that adventure determined that Comet didn't come from the human world Twilight knew. However, he was progressing fast at both adapting to pony customs and his new language thanks to Twilight's tutoring. The only struggles had was a few breakdowns about his family, which were calmed by his new family consisting of the castle staff. Cadence even appointed herself as his legal guardian until he could go off on his own.
One other problem held fast, though. Try as they might, Comet's original human name was impossible to translate into Equish, so he decided that Comet would be his name for good. More specifically 'Astral Comet', but he preferred 'Comet'.
"Hey Feathers, you got a... uh... meenute?" That, and despite a whole month of work, there was a lot of language to learn.
"It's pronounced 'minute', Comet. But yeah." The other thing the purple princess had done was fashion a set of enchanted headsets for Flurry and Comet to translate their speech on the fly. They were incredibly expensive and took a lot of Magic to enchant properly, but Cadence had paid the price without issue, stating her daughter needed a friend who ignored her status like Comet did. And Twilight gladly did the enchanting, because there were 'abundant scientific possibilities from observing Comet's interactions with magical items when he came from a magicless world.' She was even writing a paper on it.
So, Flurry put on her headset as Comet did the same. "So, Comet, what's up? Mom went to the spa for a while, and I don't have homework, so we can play if you wanna."
Comet smiled at his closest pony friend. "Nah, maybe later. I was gonna go get some food. I kinda miss meat," he said as Flurry looked slightly nauseous, "but you guys sure know how to make hay and flowers tasty. I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch? We could go play tag in the gardens later, if you want."
Flurry got out of her chair and put down her book without a second thought. "Yeah, let's go! And I promise not to fly this time. It wasn't fair since you don't know how yet."
"Twilight said I might not be able to with my lack of magic. Not that I miss it, I never had wings to start with!"
"True, but we can move later. Come on, let's go get some ice cream before Mom gets home!" Flurry galloped off down the hall towards the kitchens, smiling all the while.
"Hey, wait for me! I'm still not used to four legs!"