//------------------------------//
// Prompt #531-Observation 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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“Ponywatching?” asked Twilight Sparkle, as she walked down the streets of Canterlot, Princess Celestia by her side. The elder Alicorn had carefully applied a ‘Don’t Notice Me’ Spell to both herself and the newest Princess of Equestria, and as such, the two were going unmobbed.

“Indeed, Twilight. It is perhaps one of my favorite exercises. You can tell a lot about ponies just by watching them, and I have found that it also comes in useful in court,” Princess Celestia nodded, and glanced around the street, before her eyes settled on a pair of ponies arriving to have lunch at a nearby restaurant. “Over there, Twilight. Do you see those ponies sitting together? Why don’t you see what you can tell me about them?” 

Twilight looked over at the two ponies that Princess Celestia had pointed out, and gulped.

“I’ll give it a try,” she said, and fixed her eyes on them.

“Okay,” said Twilight, after a few moments of studying the two, “Both are mares. Both have music-related cutie marks.”
Princess Celestia smiled, “Twilight, the point of ponywatching is to ignore the obvious details. Focus on their body language. Small details, not obvious things. For instance, those two having lunch are leaning in towards each other. That means they are having an intimate discussion. They also arrived together, which means that they met up prior to lunch. From that, we can infer that they are either good friends, or that the two are in a relationship.”

Twilight Sparkle nodded. She couldn’t see how those tiny details could mean all of that, but she would try her hardest to understand. After all, Princess Celestia wanted her to learn this.

“Now, try again, Twilight,” said Celestia.

“Okay,” said Twilight, and fixing her gaze back to the two ponies. As she did, she took notice of as much detail as she could. She saw the way that the earth pony of the pair covered her mouth with a hoof when she was trying not to laugh, while the unicorn at the table was demonstrating something with large, sweeping hoof guestures.

“They seem to be complete opposites,” said Twilight, and Celestia smiled again.

“Can you explain how you came to that conclusion, Twilight?”

“Umm...Well, the unicorn likes to move around a lot when she’s talking, and Pinkie Pie does the same thing, especially when she’s excited about something. And the earth pony sort of acts like Rarity does when she’s being refined, so she’s probably the calm one.”

“Good, Twilight. Relating other ponies’ actions to ones that you know from your friends is a good way to learn how to interpret the body language of complete strangers. Is there anything else that you can tell about our pair over there?” Twilight beamed at the praise, and looked back to the pair.

“They’re in love,” she said after several minutes of studying the two.

“And how can you tell, Twilight?” asked Princess Celestia.

“I can’t entirely explain it. It’s just something about the way that the two are sitting together. I’m sorry, Princess,”

“Don’t be, Twilight,” said Celestia, “You did remarkably well for your first time at this. And two ponies being in love is, I have found, one of both the easiest and hardest things to pick out. You are correct, but it is difficult to explain. However, you see the way that both ponies are sitting fowards, so that their natural state is looking at each other? And how even when they arrived, they preferred to stay close to each other? These things say that they are indeed in love with each other.”

[Time]

Twilight nodded in understanding, and was about to reply, when a bread roll rocketed out of nowhere, and lodged itself in Twilight’s open mouth. Stuck to the roll by a small cocktail stick was a note written on a napkin, which Princess Celestia could read.

‘We’re just friends!!’ The Princess smiled, and glanced back to the two ponies that she had been using as a demonstration, both of whom were sitting and laughing together, but occasionally sneaking glances in her direction. As Twilight realized that she had a piece of food lodged in her mouth where there wasn’t one before, and beginning to flail and panic, Princess Celestia smiled, magically extracted the roll, and began to lead Twilight back to the castle.