• Published 1st Dec 2012
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The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian - Georg



Twilight believes the new unicorn magic school teacher is a pretentious royal jerk. Green Grass thinks the town’s librarian is an interfering, arrogant brat. Can they teach each other differently before somepony gets killed, or worse, married

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Ch. 7 - Wake-Up Call

The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian
Wake-Up Call


Twilight Sparkle stood proudly on the grassy knoll, looking down upon the hideous giant who blocked the path to the fair maiden with a whirling blade in each of his hooves. The sight of the proud purple knight caused the foul moss-covered beast to cringe, lifting its blunt snout to the sky and blasting out a beery-smelling roar in her direction which carpeted the ground in a swirling miasma and turned the grass black with rot. A deep growl sounded within its cavernous chest as it bared yellow teeth in her direction and glared with piercing blue⁽*⁾ eyes.
(*) Twilight not only dreamed in color, but with exacting detail as to which hue and tint was correct for the subject.

She raised her lance and prepared to charge with a shout. “Come, my trusted companion. We shall defeat this beast for the fair Dulcelestia del Solara. Pancho, strike up a tune on your lute while I vanquish the beast in her most glorious name, so that even the angels shall know of her beauty in song!”

Instead of martial music which would stir her soul to righteous heights for her eternal quest, she heard her trusted companion call out faintly, “Twilight! Breakfast is ready!”

As the words echoed around the grassy glade where the giant had made his lair, the foul visage of the beast shimmered before her gaze and began to fade away into green smoke. Desperately she drove onward as foul magics stole the monster away before she could put in a finishing blow.

"Stand, coward!" she cried. "Stand your ground! Do not fly from a single knight who dares to meet you in a fair fight. How will the fair Dulcelestia know of my love if I cannot vanquish even one giant in her name?”

She leaned forward into her gallop, but just as she was about to reach the giant, the faint vaporous wisps suddenly coalesced into the smiling face of the stallion she least wanted to see at the very end of her nose.

“Hi.”

The piercing shriek that Twilight uttered as she recoiled backwards in panic was muffled somewhat as she slammed back-first into a bookshelf, tripped, and fell forward into almost exactly the same spot she had just left, only slightly farther forward.

“Ow!” snapped the green stallion as he grabbed for his mashed nose.

“Ouch!” yelled Twilight in response, clutching her own nose as she rolled off the mattress and into another rather hard and unyielding bookshelf. “Ow! You bopped my nose?”

“You know if you two wanted someplace to kiss, you could have just sent me over to Rarity’s, right?” Both of them looked over at the little dragon, standing at the open back door to the wagon with a look of mild disgust.

“Wejustbumpednoses,” squeaked Twilight, backing up flat against the bookshelf in a futile attempt to hide from Spike in the cramped quarters of the wagon.

“Well, it must have been one heck of an apology for you to be out here all night,” groused the dragon as he turned away. “Breakfast is getting cold. If you’re done sleeping with your coltfriend, come on in and I’ll warm it up for you two.”

“We were not sleeping together!” hissed Twilight at the departing dragon while clutching the bedsheet to her chest. “We were just… I was just… He was…” She whipped around to glare at Green Grass. “You tell him!”

The green pony was not looking at her, but instead was staring in stark disbelief at the clean floor of his wagon. “It’s... gone.”

“Yes, I know,” she hissed. “I cleaned your stupid wagon. But I need you to go tell Spike we weren’t sleeping together! He’s just a baby—”

“You cleaned it?!” snarled Green Grass. “Six months worth of painstaking cross-referencing between seventeen different history books and thirty-seven diaries about the battle and you cleaned it!

“What battle?” she snapped back. “The battle against clutter? Because you lost that one, buster! You couldn't even step in this room without stomping on a book or paper! I did you a favor, and you’re going to yell at me for it?”

“A favor?! Is that what you call ruining my entire Master’s thesis? That stupid library book was so wrong in all of its facts and dates that I had it approved as my thesis project! I wouldn’t expect the Princess’ perfect pet to understand—”

PET?! WHY YOU INSOLENT, ARROGANT LITTLE—”

The icy bucket of water that splashed forcefully into her face caught her with an open mouth, extinguishing the faint buzzing that had grown in Twilight’s ears even as she coughed and spluttered in the middle of a growing puddle on the wagon’s clean floorboards. Cheeks reddening in embarrassment, she tried to regain enough composure to respond, but before she could even finish coughing, Green Grass put the remainder of the half-full bucket on the floor and pointed to the back door.

“Out!”

“But—”

“Get out!”

“I just—”

“Out of my wagon! Out! Out! I still have water left, you know.”

“But don’t you want—”

“No! Out!”

With ears drooping and head hung low, Twilight plodded out of the wagon, turning around at the bottom of the ramp to give a well thought-out response to the annoying stallion, only to have the door slammed in her face.

“Well, if that’s the way you feel about it, I’m not going to apologize,” she growled. “In fact, you can keep your stupid messy wagon.” She glanced around, moved close to the door, and spoke in a whisper. “Can I borrow your copy of Don Rocinante please?”

“No!” The tutor’s voice was muffled as if he were mopping up a puddle.

“Oh!” Twilight screwed her face up in concentration and tried not to get angry again. “Please?” she whispered at the door. “The library doesn’t have a copy.”

“No. It’s mine. I brought it to read as a reward when my Master’s thesis was done. Now it’s going to be another six months. Thanks to you!”

“Harrumph.” She lowered her voice and whispered at the door again. “I’m sorry about what happened. Does that help?” The door popped open momentarily, and a soggy towel dropped in front of her throbbing nose to dry on the sunny ramp.

“No!” The door closed.

“Well!” Twilight stomped one hoof on the soggy ground and swished her tail in aggravation. “I’m not finished! Please?”

“No.”

“It’s too long for just one night,” she whined. “I thought I could have it for just a couple more nights, and then it’s all yours again for whatever you want. Please?”

“No.”

“But I really like it.”

“No.”

“I really, really like it. I want it. Can’t I have it for just a little while longer?”

Although Twilight could hear no response from inside the wagon, behind her was a veritable wave of childlike twittering giggles. She turned slowly around to see a stunned Cheerilee standing on the library path with her students, all standing behind her like baby ducks behind their mother. Or more like really attentive baby ducks with really good hearing and a horrible case of the giggles. She was abruptly aware of her damp, bed-knotted mane and the sight she must pose having just emerged from the young tutor’s wagon, making her cheeks burn bright crimson with embarrassment.

It took a few moments of just looking at each other before Twilight Sparkle broke the giggle-filled silence with, “Hello, Miss Cheerilee. Class.” Twilight swallowed. “Nice morning for a walk. Are you coming to the library?”

Only years of teaching experience and the presence of her students allowed Cheerilee to keep a straight face while responding. “Yes, I was taking the children on a field trip this morning. I thought it would be educational.” She shook her head and lowered her voice. “I had no idea.”

“W-well,” started Twilight hesitantly. “I’ll just go make sure Spike has the place cleaned up for business this morning. Cleaned up. Yes, that’s it. I’ll just—” There was a sharp ‘pop’ and the purple librarian vanished in a teleport spell, taking along a great deal of nervous tension in the area.

“Miss Cheerilee,” asked Diamond Tiara with an ill-concealed smirk. “What was Miss Twilight doing in the tutor’s wagon?”

“Studying,” replied Cheerilee firmly and without hesitation. “No doubt the new tutor was taking advantage... I mean using Twilight’s knowledge of... I mean... After we go to the library and everypony checks out a book for this afternoon’s reading, why don’t we go by Sugarcube Corner and get everybody a muffin. I mean a cupcake. My treat.”

“Yea!” The horde of tiny tots swept into the library with a cheer and fanned out in their search for reading material as Cheerilee spared a glance at the tutor’s wagon home, not certain if she should be warning him, or congratulating him on whatever had transpired there last night.

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