Twilight Sparkle looked at the position of the sun in the sky and sighed. She’d already wasted an hour here at Sweet Apple Acres when she should’ve been doing more research about Nightmare Moon. Curse her weakness for delicious sweets.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a mare sit down near her. She looked down at the green-maned mare and bit her lip. Twilight knew she was the first pony Applejack introduced her to, but that only meant it’d be more embarrassing if she got her name wrong.
“Um, Apple Fritter, right?”
Apple Fritter nodded, and Twilight thanked everything good in the world (which was mostly books and Celestia).
“Well, this is a very nice farm you’ve got.”
Apple Fritter grinned and held a hoof to her mouth; it looked like she was giggling, and yet no sound reached Twilight’s ears. Fritter bent around to her side with her mouth open, but paused. She looked back up in a panic, eyes darting around.
Twilight wasn’t much of a ponies-pony even on her best days, and she was completely baffled by the rapid change in emotions Apple Fritter was exhibiting. For all of her social faults, though, the sight of a pony in distress still upset her.
“What’s wrong?”
Apple Fritter looked back up, tears welling in her eyes. She sniffled a couple times, and then motioned to her throat before shaking her head. She then motioned as if writing on paper with a pencil, looked around, and then shrugged her shoulders.
Twilight’s mouth opened in understanding. She smiled at the mare and signed, ‘Don’t worry, I know PSL.’
Apple Fritter’s eyes widened. ‘You do? Why?’
Twilight shrugged. ‘Had a bit of a linguistics kick a few years back. Learned about seven different languages, PSL included.’
Apple Fritter nodded, before doing her silent giggle again. ‘You don’t have to sign, you know.’
Twilight giggled right back. ‘I know, but I always liked the idea of talking to someone in a crowded room with a secret code or something, and this is kind of close!’
Apple Fritter smiled at her, wide enough that Twilight couldn’t help but feel like her time at the farm hadn’t been completely wasted.