After showing Twilight some pictures and clips of music on his laptop, and deciding that it had been a bad idea to introduce her to what "heavy metal" was outside the context of chemistry, Sam decided he was ready to endure the torrent of questions that he had seen building in her eyes all day.

The purple unicorn brought her hoof to her chin and absentmindedly eyed the ceiling of her library for a moment. "Hmmm... Well, since you'll be staying with me for a while, this one will help us both; what do you humans typically eat? Besides apple pies, I mean."

"Well, meat is a pretty big category for us, we used to raise cattle, chickens, and pigs for that..." Sam quickly noticed Twilight's eyes growing wide with shock, "But we're biologically herbivores mostly, so we also eat quite a few of the same things you ponies do. You know, fruits and veggies." This seemed to relieve his host's anxiety a bit, as the thought of housing a predator made her shudder.

With a small, nervous laugh, Twilight posed her next question, "In your time, were there other intelligent species living with you? Kind of like the cows and buffalo I mentioned earlier."

Leaning back in his chair, Sam laughed, "Given how the rest of us killed each other off, I'd wonder if there were EVER any intelligent creatures on earth in my time. But no, though apes and chimpanzees seemed to come close sometimes." Her giggling subsiding, Twilight felt a slight twinge of guilt laughing at such a dark joke.

Remembering some of the music Sam had on his computer, Twilight couldn't comprehend how something so... aggressive and violent could be pleasant to anypony's ears. Sometimes she couldn't even handle Rainbow Dash's rock-and-roll. Sam explained, "Yeah, I can see that. Metal isn't for everyone, I guess. I like how complex some of the songs are. You really have to know your instrument to get that detailed with it. It's cathartic, too; you get angry and turn this on as loud as you can, it feels good. As for the screaming that was in a lot of what I showed you, it just fits the music. And not all metal is that violent, some of it is so mellow and melodic that I will occasionally go to bed listening to those songs." Twilight couldn't help but admire the way Sam's blue eyes lit up as he described why he loved that harsh music of his, his hands wildly gesturing as he excitedly regained a memory of a concert he had attended. "... It's just incredible, the feeling of the music crushing you while the crowd collectively loses their minds around you... But I'm rambling again I think. Got any other questions?"

"Ah right," She snapped out of her daydream, "Well, I know you haven't regained much memory in terms of your time period's history, so those can wait for later. Like any new friend, I think for now I'd just like to get to know you. What was your family like? Did you have a special somepony before you were... is frozen the right word?"

"I still don't remember much of my family, beyond that I had a mom, dad, younger brother, and younger-still sister. I recall sitting at a table with them several times, all of us eating together. We were happy." Sam's face showed a hint of confusion, "What do you mean by 'special somepony'?"

Twilight strained her mind for an explanation, "Oh, um, I think another term would be marefriend?"

"Ohh, you mean a girlfriend. No, I don't think I did. In my line of work then, I didn't get much time to go out and socialize. Computer and electrical engineering is a pretty tough field." Just remembering the hundreds of hours spent hunched over a keyboard made Sam's head ache.

Twilight sympathized, "I know the feeling there, with all my studying, sometimes Pinkie and the rest of the gang end up dragging me out by force! And what exactly did you do?"

Sam began rubbing his chin, "Basically, my boss would give my team a set of specifications and functions that our next device should meet, and then I would design and layout the circuits for the device to implement those functions. It was pretty tedious work, but I was also pretty good at it." He seemed to suddenly remember something, "But hey, sorry to cut your Q-and-A session short here, but I'm going to go talk to your friend Applejack about possibly working for her family while I wait on Cheerilee's decision."

Twilight waved her hoof, "It's no problem! I'm sure she'll be glad to meet you, and even happier to have an extra set of hooves, I mean hands, around. I'm sure I can keep myself busy in the meantime." Sam quickly ducked down and out of the library's front door.

Twilight trotted over to the box Sam was keeping his stuff in. She found his laptop and levitated it back to her desk. After several minutes of aimless button-mashing, she managed to get the device turned on. She opened his pictures again and began flipping through them. She was amazed at the various sights and places Sam had been to. It saddened her a bit that none of these existed anymore, but she was sure Sam felt it much more strongly than she did. He had been to huge cities that put Manehattan and Fillydelphia to shame, each crawling with more humans than lived ponies in all of Equestria. There were a few pictures detailing Sam's graduation from high school, and then university. It was still mind-blowing that even now, Sam looked exactly the way he did in these eons-old pictures. Even though his muzzle was totally flat with the rest of his face, minus his nostrils, Twilight admired the way his eyes shone out through his permanent case of bed-mane. Or did humans refer to it as just "hair"? She decided to ask him later. She couldn't wait for him to regain the rest of his memory. He seemed to be pretty intelligent thus far, and Twilight had always wanted a friend with intellectual interests as strong as her own.

She was starting to feel pretty happy about taking on this little research project for Princess and Doc.