Lessons in quirks

by Mike84

Chapter V

It had taken just a few probing questions from Frank to get Twilight to summarize the basic events around the switching of the cutie marks of her friends. He didn't interrupt Twilight's tale withe any questions, but observing his expressions Twilight had a feeling that later on he would ask for details or clarifications in some matters.

While she was careful to include everything of any significance in her tale, she was as cautious to avoid any details which wouldn't be of any interest to Frank's studies or would possibly embarrass her friends. If he wanted to know about their side of the story, he would have to ask them as Twilight was certain he was going to. Twilight had a feeling though that being tied up and put into a cooking pot by forest critters would not be a feature of Rainbow Dash's recollection of the events. It was with fondness however that Twilight recounted how her friends had been returned to their normal selfs again.
"And from Rarity's Carousel Boutique we headed for Sweet Apple Acres to get Applejack back to normal and to help Pin—"

WHOMP!
The library door burst open as if an explosion had been set right in front of the doorstep and a pink colored pony flew in as oblivious as an earth pony could possibly be to lacking wings and the consequentially presumable inability to fly.
"TWILI—"
Pinkie Pie stopped in midword and midair, goggled at Twilight and Frank. Gravity happened to remember that this pony was supposed to remain attached to the ground and Pinkie landed on her four hooves. Twilight wanted to say something before Pinkie could, but a tiny breath the alicorn had to take first gave Pinkie all the headstart she needed to burst into a flood of words like nopony but Pinkie Pie could utter: "I don't know him! Why don't I know him? Is he new? Who is he? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh gosh! Twilight has a new friend! Do her friends know about him? I am her friend and I don't know about him! So her friends don't know about him! But they must know about him! I must tell them! And he is a colt! And we must have a party! Another party to the one we will be having already! But why didn't you tell us, Twilight? And when did he get here? Nopony gets to Ponyville when I don't know about it! But I didn't know about it! But I know now about it! So I do know now! But was it a secret? Was it to be a surprise? I am surprised so it was a surprise! But what is his name?"
"Breathe please!" shouted Twilight.
Pinkie Pie spun around and rushed for the door at a speed that would have done Rainbow Dash proud.
"Pinkie Pie, wait!" Twilight called after her. She cast a levitation spell, trying to stop Pinkie, but whether Twilight missed or something about Pinkie Pie made her as oblivious of having been subjected to Twilight's magic at the moment as to being subjected to laws of gravity, logic or probability, Pinkie was not stopped.

Twilight sighed. "Frank, meet Pinkie Pie."
"Charmed", the colt said, looking at the door that was still swinging slightly from Pinkie's rushing out. "The representative of the Element of laughter I think? Was she... in a hurry?"
"No", said Twilight with a weak smile. "She was just being Pinkie Pie. We might be able to figure out everything there is to be figured out about cutie marks, but trust me when I tell you, nopony will ever really figure out Pinkie Pie."
"And she is the one you were helping at the farm?" Frank tried to pick up the thread of the interrupted story again.
Twilight nodded but said: "You know, I think we should stop for the moment. I think it is better if we set out instead and I will introduce you to all my friends. You probably want to talk to them too and also..."

"And also?" Frank asked as Twilight didn't continue.
Twilight sighed: "We may not want to wait too long. Celestia knows what Pinkie Pie is thinking and what kind of stories she is telling everypony she meets now."
"Okay..." Frank said slightly bemused and got up as Twilight got up. He reached for his saddle-bags and put them on his back.
"Do you want to take all of that along?" Twilight asked surprised.
Frank nodded: "I rarely go anywhere without all my stuff."
Twilight was looking out of the door that had ceased to swing but still stood open. By now the sun had completely risen into a clear summer sky.
"It will be a hot day. Don't you want to at least put off your... coat?"
"No." Frank walked past her out of the door.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. It hadn't escaped her notice that Frank had never put off the piece of cloth which she had flattered by referring to it as a coat. A vague suspicion which had come to Twilight's mind before grew more concrete and Twilight made a mental note to ask Frank about it when they got back in case the question would not have been answered by that time.

Author's Note:

When editing this story this was the first case where I had to change something for the sake of continuity. The second sentence of this chapter used to be:

Frank had dug a large role of paper a quill and an ink-bottle from the depths of one of his saddle-bags and was taking notes at a pace and with the routine of someone who had never enjoyed the benefit of a number one assistant.

However, a story element I thought of only much later makes it necessary that Twilight or anypony else don't see Frank write anything until the second morning of the story (Chapter XIX).
Parts of a later sentence had to be removed for the same reason...

He reached for his saddle-bags, put the writing utensils in and put them on his back.

...making the shortest chapter of the entire story even shorter

Last edited on December 6th 2015.

Comments

[Limelight02]

I liked this.

[Mike84]

5656990
Thank you very much
I will bring up more very soon.

[Chronicler06]

Hi there. Chronicler here. I figured I'd be a good friend and take a look at your fanfiction effort.

I'm not much on comments, so I'll just say that it's a rather interesting concept that I haven't really seen before. (If anyone else has written something similar, I guess it just wasn't popular enough for me to notice.) As good as it is, though, I do see room for improvement. Spelling is mostly fine (except for cutie 'pox', not 'pocks'). For grammar, I can't help but feel like there's a lot of missing commas. I don't have time to thoroughly proofread this, (too busy writing my own fanfiction) but I'm sure it shouldn't be too hard for you to find an editor who would be willing to help you.

Overall, not a bad start for your first MLP fanfiction.