“Mum, I don’t understand this mathy-maticks stuff.” Rose looked up from her textbook, prodding it with her hoof as is her poking it would somehow retract the numbers from their jumble across the page. The filly’s large green eyes blinked up at her mother, Ladybird, who in return smiled at her daughter and walked over to her side. The pale brown mare stared at the simple problems stumbling across the page for a few moments before sighing.
“Rose, dear, I’m afraid I can’t help. I’m sorry. I was never very good at math either,” she said, shutting her mouth with a smile before she could say, but your father, he would know exactly what to do.
“Then what can I do, Mum? This is due tomorrow, and I’m already getting a bad grade in mathy-maticks.” The pink-maned filly began to cry, still poking sorrowfully the math book, and her mother put a hoof around her daughter’s shaking shoulders.
“It’s all right dearie, grades don’t mean everything,” Ladybird said graciously, nosing her daughter’s tear-stained cheeks.
Then a knock came at the door. Ladybird quickly got up, smiling apologetically at Rose as she went to answer the door. Rose crept behind her, anxious to discover this new pony at her doorstep. As the door opened, the filly’s eyes opened wide to take in somepony incredibly peculiar.
The stallion at the door was light brown in color, with a greasy, dark mane and wild, light blue eyes that sparkled with the happiness that reflected over to his giddy smile. A bow tie was strung tightly to his neck, and an odd, boxy thing with a tassel adorned his head. “’Ello everypony, I,” he said, hooves gesturing grandly as he looked down with kind eyes at Rose, “am your tutor.”
Ladybird was, to say the least, very confused.
“Well, time’s a wasting, there’s a test tomorrow, ain’t there?” he said, and, as confused (and concerned) as Ladybird was, there was no doubt Rose did need help. Perhaps the school had sent the stallion to help better her daughter’s grade. So the motherly mare’s gray eyes greeted the peculiar stallion with a smile, and she stepped aside as her wonderstruck, excited daughter followed her tutor into the living room.
In the living room, the odd stallion sat down and prodded his hoof along the page. “Ah, let’s see here, fractions! Fun, isn’t it, all those numbers lining up perfectly together?” The little filly at his side merely tilted her head confusedly. Frowning slightly, the stallion added, “No, of course not, numbers are stupid little buggers, I know. Not as much help as you might think they’d be.” His bright eyes scanned the page restlessly for a few seconds before he looked down at Rose with a grin. He wrapped a hoof around her fragile young shoulder, pulling her in tightly and raising his other hoof to gesture at the problems lined over the page. The little filly smiled. “Now, my RoseLuck, here’s how we do this.”
From the kitchen, Ladybird brushed her scattered pink bangs from her eyes and worked on some homemade bread for her filly’s lunch the next morning, absentmindedly watching her daughter grin alongside the dark-maned stallion, the pale yellow filly laughing when he leaped up and gestured broadly with his hooves. As she formed bread dough beneath her hooves, she smiled, remembering Rose’s similar interactions with her father. The nostalgia sitting heavy over her eyelids, she sat down a while and watched her ecstatic daughter finally understand the math she never could have without this strange stallion’s help. Even as the pale brown mare unconsciously set the table for three, her daughter laughed. And this made Ladybird ever so happy.
“So, my little RoseLuck, does that make sense now?” The pink-maned filly smiled widely. At first the title of RoseLuck had bothered her, but now it felt right. Rose did not understand, but she knew she was safe all the same, and happy.
“Yes, it makes perfect sense now sir! Thank you so much, sir, you’re so much fun!”
“Now, now, Rose, don’t let the schoolteachers catch you having fun now. Fun isn’t permitted in school. You wouldn’t want to get in trouble now.” The stallion ruffled her mane with his hoof as she smiled, stifling her own giggles with a pale yellow hoof of her own.
“Sir, one more question.”
“Yes, little Rose?”
“What is that thing on your head?” The stallion laughed, prompting hoofing the boxy structure off his own head and placing it onto Rose’s own tiny (and adorable) one. The thing covered her eyes, so only her little snout poked out as she struggled to free herself from the tyranny of the boxy hat. Laughter overtook the room as she rolled around and around, struggling with the red, tasseled box.
“It’s a fez, my RoseLuck. Fezzes are cool.”
“That’s a silly name for a hat, sir,” the filly replied, shaking her head free of the so-called fez at last. The stallion only smiled and placed the infernal red thing back on his head.
“No, my RoseLuck, it’s a fun name; fez is such a fun word, isn’t it? Great fun. Now, I best be going, I’ve got things to do, ponies to meet, places to go.” With a flick of his head the stallion stood up, ready to be on his way.
“Oh, won’t you at least stay for dinner, sir? It’s the least I can offer after you’ve done so much for my daughter. I could never have been that good with numbers myself,” Ladybird called from the kitchen. She came out bearing a dish of steamed vegetables decked with flowers, a delicious meal to behold.
“Yes, please sir?” Rose’s round green eyes beheld the stallion with eager hope.
Nopony could possibly deny a filly with eager hope; it is one of the known facts of the world.
“Yes, of course I’ll stay, my RoseLuck, Miss Ladybird.” Rose cheered, hugging one of the stallion’s light brown legs tightly and just as quickly releasing, bounding off toward the kitchen. The greasy-maned stallion followed his RoseLuck and her mother into the kitchen, where the smell of a feast awaited his nostrils.