//------------------------------//
// Chapter II 
// Story: Lessons in quirks 
// by Mike84 
//------------------------------//

	"Huu, huu."
A hooting sound startled the colt from his thoughts. An owl had landed on a wooden sign of a book that stood beside the library door. The owl was glancing at the colt with piercing golden eyes. 
A broad smile spread over the face of the colt. With a swift motion he lifted his hat as a greeting and careful not to speak up too loud he said: "Good morning. You must be the Princess' owl. Pleased to meet you."
One of the old newspapers he had gotten his hooves on in Canterlot had sported a photo of Twilight Sparkle, her dragon assistant whose name he had learned was Spike and her owl. The photo had been from the time preceding the events that had resulted in Twilight Sparkle's transformation to an alicorn. The paper hadn't mentioned the name of the owl though.
"My name is Frank Blanket", the colt introduced himself. "Perhaps Princess Twillight told you that I was going to visit today?"
"Huu."
"Yes, I'm afraid our conversation may be a little one-sided, seeing that I do not understand what you are saying, but you sure look like you were a very understanding owl. Unless you are not interested, in which case of course I wouldn't presume the right to take any offense I could tell you a bit about my studies that brought me here. You see, I am studying cutie marks..."

Early sunbeams woke Twilight after a short but restful sleep. Neither quirky worries nor any struggles with the wings she still hadn't quite grown accustomed to had kept her from some hours of deep and dreamless sleep. She walked over to the dresser with the round mirror on top of it to brush her mane. It was still quite early and since security considerations usually kept the pegasi-drawn royal carriages on the ground until after sunrise Twilight expected the visitor not to arrive for at least another hour or so. Hopefully this would be sufficient time for Spike to get up too and prepare a breakfast. Princess or not, she would be a kind host and if the example of Celestia taught her anything, then that princesses were to offer more than the normal degree of hospitality. With a somewhat guilty conscience she realized that Princess Celestia had a whole staff of courtly attendants at her disposal for such occasions. While Twillight was positively horrified at the looming prospect of having swarms of courtiers and servants around her all the time, the absence of the later also meant that over here poor Spike would have to bear the brunt of whatever additional work the visitor might make necessary. Twillight decided she would at a later time think of some way to make up for it to Spike as she stepped towards his cot to wake him up. But before she reached the cot she stopped in motion and turned her ears towards the window. There was an unusual sound and now that she was paying attention to it she realized that it had been there all the time since she had woken up. It sounded like somebody was talking, not far away but with a deliberately quiet voice yet in a constant flow of words less notable than it might have been with some intermissions. Twilight cast a look out of the window. 
Somepony was standing in front of the library and sure enough this somepony was talking to... the wooden sign in front of the library? Rubbing her eyes and taking another look, Twilight spotted Owlowiscious seated on top of the sign and by the looks of it the unknown somepony was talking to him. Twilight couldn't see much of the talker most of whose head was concealed by... was that supposed to be a hat? And the wrap-around this pony was wearing didn't help the altogether quirky impression caused by the idea of somepony apparently holding speeches to an owl at the crack of dawn. 
Quirky!
Twilight whirled around. "Get up Spike! We need breakfast right now!" she shouted, giving Spike a much rougher waking call than she had meant to. As she passed by his cot she gave it a kick with one leg and later on she couldn't tell if it had been by accident or if it had been a deliberate attempt to startle Spike as much as she herself had been startled by the visitor being at her gates already. Spike sure was startled though not as much by the kicking of the cot as by the fact that the motion caused Twilight to trip, stagger past and ultimately topple over at the top of the stair. "Twilight!" screamed Spike jumping up from his sleep like no regular attempt at waking him up could have ever done and rushed towards the stairs. A combination of fiercely flapping wings and a levitation spell granted Twilight a save if ungraceful landing at the foot of the stairs. 
"Are you alright?" called Spike from the top. "What—?"
"Our guest is already there. We need breakfast."
"Guest...?"
"Now!"
Spike knew Twilight well enough to know that there was no point in any further inquiries now, nor in taking any offense at the curt and rough attitude. The best thing to do in such a moment was to do exactly whatever she was saying and look forward to when she herself would grow aware of the erratic behavior and make up for it somehow. Heading for the kitchen, Spike couldn't help smirking to himself. "In some respects she has been a bit of a princess all along", he thought as he assembled the breakfast on a tray. 

Twilight listened for the voice of the arrival in front of the door. It had fallen silent. Sure enough the commotion and shouting inside must have been audible outside and she felt quite stupid all of a sudden. Given the short notice of his coming and the arrival even earlier than could be expected, she would have had every right in the world not to be embarrassed about not receiving the unknown guest to a ready set breakfast table. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, then she opened the door.
The sun still stood very low, shining right into Twilight's face causing her to blink before her eyes accustomed to the light. 
"Your Highness! Princess Twilight Sparkle?" It was more of a declaration than a question. 
Caught somewhat off guard Twilight just nodded. "Yes. And you must be... Mr..." Celestia help, she just couldn't remember the name. "The postgraduate student..."
"Frank Blanket, at your service, Your Highness", the colt said. 
If he had noticed her uncertainty about his name or her embarrassment about it he didn't give any sign of it. Instead he drew the felt oddity from his head with a sweeping motion and at the same time bent his other foreleg and lowered his head. The display of courtly reverence came so naturally that Twilight was certain that it was not performed for the first time and Twilight remembered Celestia's reference to him as 'cautiously deferential'. The show of elegant motion however came to a sudden stop. 
Mr. Blanket had somehow attached his headgear to one of his bulging saddle-bags apparently not intending to put it back on his head. At the same time he tried to get out of the bow having but only one of his forelegs, the one not occupied with his hat and the saddle-bags to support not just his own weight but also that of the crammed bags which had shifted a little forward, not helping the colt in his attempt to get back to his hooves again. To make matters worse, the hoof he had used to remove his hat had somehow been caught in one of the straps of the saddle-bags. Struggling to get his hoof free, all the while still struggling to manage the push-up with the other hoof only set him out of balance. The sight was hilarious, but Twilight wasn't going to embarrass her guest by bursting into laughter. With just a barely noticeable smirk, in memory of her own fall at the stairs just moments ago, she cast a levitation spell to help Mr. Blanket to his hooves. 
"Twilight Sparkle, at yours", she said smiling in response to the service offered at the beginning of his display of courtliness. 
"Err... yes, thank you, Your Highness." His face had blushed not just from the struggle to get out of the bow, but he was trying to conceal his embarrassment. 
He was probably a few years older than Twilight and somewhat lean for an earth pony. 
An earth pony? Twilight couldn't help taking another look at his forehead and without really thinking she said: "Oh, you are—" before she cut of her own sentence not knowing how to continue. Mr. Blanket was looking at her with confusion before it dawned on him what she had been about to say. 
"Well, yes", he nodded. "I am an earth pony." He said it lightly, but Twilight couldn't help the impression that there was a well hidden but not quite unnoticeable undertone in his voice and Twilight couldn't think of anything to say. 
Mr. Blanket broke into a slightly forced smile and said in a tone of cheer: "Earth ponies are not so frequently found in academies. Maybe you expected I would be a unicorn... Your Highness." 
"Please don't call me that. My name is Twilight." 
It was out before she had thought about it. Twilight had not at all planned to offer the name without the title just like that. Ever since her coronation Rarity had pestered her to go with the title which had been given to her and bear it with dignity. Twilight didn't like the thought or the sound of it, but Rarity did have a point of course when trying to convince her that this would be part of her royal duties. While Twilight had left no doubt that she would not accept that kind of fawning from any of her friends she had somewhat resigned to the prospect of having to go with it when it came from strangers or newcomers like this postgraduate student she didn't know at all. But still her dislike of the whole princessesinging and highnessinging had gotten the better of her. Moreover it seemed like a good way to somewhat thaw what ice her unfinished statement on the fact that her guest was not the unicorn she had indeed expected him to be might have caused. 
"Your... err... Twilight?"
"Just Twilight", she said with a smile. Another thought boosted her confidence that not insisting on the title was the right thing to do. "This is a library, not a court and when we are to study cutie mark matters, princess business got nothing to do with it. Besides, same as earth ponies can be academics, shouldn't princesses be granted the same right and not be reduced to mere royalty?"
The colt goggled at her flabbergasted for a moment, then he burst into wholehearted laughter, Twilight joined in and all tension was gone.
Twilight's look fell onto Owlowiscious who was still sitting on top of the sign and had observed everything with the watchfulness so common for the owl. 
"Were you talking to Owlowiscious?"
"Oh, that's his name?" The colt made a little bow towards the bird. "Pleased to learn your name after having made your acquaintance already."
"Do you understand him?" Twilight asked in utter surprise. 
"No. Not as much as I suppose you do. But I am quite certain that he understood everything I said."
Owlowiscious hooted affirmatively. 
"Quirkiness?" Twilight wondered silently. "But Fluttershy would certainly like that".