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

	As Twilight turned round the corner, she saw Frank not far ahead. He had taken off his hat, was leaning against the wall of the next building and was looking rather miserable. His face had become a little pale, he seemed to struggle to remain standing, his legs were trembling and it seemed like he was struggling not to throw up. Twilight forgot whatever she had wanted to say. Instead she hurried for the last steps and asked: "Frank, are you alright?"
The colt looked up gasping like he was struggling not to hyperventilate. 
"I'm sorry", he mumbled. 
Twilight didn't really know what to say so she just waited for him to continue. 
"I lost my temper", he swallowed. "I shouldn't have said the things I did."
"Well...", Twilight was saying while trying to decide whether or not an anti-nausea spell was in place, but decided against it since Frank seemed to recover rapidly, "...they are still fillies so maybe you shouldn't have put on quite such a —"
"No", Frank contradicted vehemently before Twilight had even finished. "It is not that! It is not that they are fillies! Sweet Celestia, if they act like that while they are still fillies I don't want to know what they will act like when they are adults if nopony ever puts down a hoof! It was not wrong to tell them off!"
"Then what was?" Twilight asked frowning slightly at Frank's interrupting her like he had.
"It's what I said. About their marks I mean. Not so much better than those who mocked me for mine or them mocking those who don't have their marks yet."
"Hmm... well... they kind of had it coming. They have been about mocking others ever since I got to Ponyville and probably before. It was perhaps not best form for an adult to give them quite so harsh a telling off, but I cannot think of any filly I know that would have been more deserving of it. What exactly did they say to Scootaloo... in summary?" Twilight added as Frank seemed to be about to recite word by word what had been said.
Frank summarized quoting only some of the actual lines. Twilight snorted angrily. 
"Making fun of Scootaloo for being unable to fly, not yet anyways... not sure how well I would have kept my temper if I had been wearing that hat of yours to hear all that for myself."
"It still isn't what is really getting to me though...", Frank added sadly. 
Twilight cocked her head and gave Frank an inquisitive look. 
"What if I'm right with what I said? About them being made to act like dweebs by their cutie marks. Is it possible that they cannot act any different? Can it be that their cutie marks practically condemn and control them to be like that? Can it be that whatever magic might may be framing our cutie marks may also determine who we are and how we act?" Frank uttered a sound like a mixture between a sigh and a sob. "You know Twilight, these are the kind of questions where I am sometimes not sure if I will like the answers I am so much striving to get."
Twilight remembered Frank's earlier lecture on the implications of his research on cutie marks which he had given earlier this morning. Same as then she felt like the temperature was dropping a little and she was uncertain what to say.
"What I told them as they left... me hoping for them to prove themselves better I mean... I really, really meant that. I'm not sure they even heard it though." Frank took a deep breath and ceased leaning against the wall. Whether it was the time or the talk to Twilight, he seemed to have overcome the apparent nausea. Frank reached for the differently colored spectacles which gave him a really weird look and pocketed them.
"Uhm, Twilight? Mr. Blanket? Would you like to come back to the others? If you don't mind?"
"Fluttershy", Twilight called out in surprise. She hadn't noticed her friend and given his surprised look neither had Frank. But there she was hovering above them and Twilight was wondering how long she was there already and how much of her talk with Frank she had overheard... and how much of it the 'special friend' presumably still hiding in her mane had caught. 
Fluttershy landed beside Frank.
It appeared like he wanted to say something perhaps feeling more embarrassed towards the Element of Kindness than towards anyone else about what had happened, but it appeared that he was just at a loss for words. Twilight saw a tiny motion in the mane of Fluttershy and something was telling her that next time Frank would put on his spectacles they would be of clear glass again.
She nodded in response to Fluttershy's earlier question and turned around heading back towards the others. Frank followed her while Fluttershy hesitated for a moment before she too decided to walk rather than fly back. "Well...", a voice whispered in her mane, "...our new friend seems to be more interesting than I had thought. His studies might be quite intriguing, don't you think?"
Fluttershy did not respond. 

The others were waiting where Twilight had left them. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had taken turns in exposing what parts of the previous exchange they hadn't caught with their own ears. 
"There y'all are", Applejack called as she spotted Twilight, Frank and Fluttershy and turned to Frank she asked: "Why did you leave?"
"I didn't feel very well", Frank admitted straight out. "I needed a moment. Didn't like what I said."
"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash asked with an air of enthusiasm. Ruffling Scootaloo's mane she added: "Scoot here told what you said and..." Rainbow Dash frowned, "...what they said. And Scoot says you were awesome! And when Scoot here calls something awesome it is awesome..."
"She calls you awesome all the time", Apple Bloom threw in causing Scootaloo to blush a little. 
"There you see", Rainbow Dash said not the least bit abashed, "Proves my point!"
"Well, with what Scootaloo said they said, while I don't wanna go sayin' they got what they deserved —" Applejack left the sentence unfinished as Rarity interrupted:
"But did you hear what they were saying? We were still so far away."
Frank nodded and made a gesture towards the hat now attached to one of his saddle-bags again.
"My hat", he said. "It is shaped so its rim catches a lot more sound than our pinnas will. I heard every word they said."
"Oh...", Rarity's face was that of somepony who had just figured out more than one thing that had kept her preoccupied so far. Twilight was certain that Rarity was thinking of Frank's overhearing their talk earlier this morning.
Frank too remembered and he also remembered Twilight's critical questions about the intention of the hat, for without being asked he added: "Improving ones hearing a little can be a real benefit in Fillydelphia's auditoriums when sometimes everything but the lecturer is noisy. And when you are on your way on your own it may sometimes be helping to hear what is ahead before you see it or before it sees you." 
The awestruck look on the faces of the Cutie Mark Crusaders left little doubt that Frank's last words had evoked fanciful images in their mind of him sneaking past dragons, hydras or other monsters whom he had heard before they had spotted him. 
Rarity's face had taken on an impression of relieved understanding when she asked. 
"So your... hat is more of a tool rather than a fashion choice?"
At this Frank burst into laughter and he appeared as relaxed as he hadn't since they left the town hall. 
"This colt has certainly not so much sense for fashion as he probably should", Frank quipped. "And he must admit to being astutely aware yet not sufficiently concerned about that appearance that meets the eye. This hat has done me many a good service and it has also stood the test by all kinds of weather. I guess this colt has somewhat grown attached to its benefits and may sometimes turn too much of a blind eye towards its appearance; but he is not that blind altogether as to think of it as fashionable."
Rarity appeared genuinely relieved.
Suddenly Frank struck a pose and with a theatrical air proclaimed: 
"The fashion wears out more apparel than the pony."
Rarity's eyes narrowed a bit, but at the same time she was grinning when she in a similar air proclaimed:
"The apparel oft proclaims the pony."
"Touché, Miss Rarity. It appears that Pony Shakes was in a bit of a split mind about the significance of fashion or at least he made his characters so." 
"Er... what are ya two goin' on about?" Applejack asked one of her eyebrows raised so high it almost disappeared under her Stetson hat while her other eye was half closed. 
"Those were quotes from plays by Pony Shakes", Twilight murmured to Applejack. "A famous playwright of times long ago."
"All that is gold does not glitter!" Frank called out after a moment. "Not all who wander are lost!"
"That too?" asked Rainbow Dash who had overheard Twilight's explanation to Applejack. 
"No. I think that one is from a book by Coltkin an author not quite so long past."
"You can never be overdressed or over educated!" called Rarity. 
Without having been asked Twilight commented: "I think that one is from Caros Wildhorse..."
Twilight was growing somewhat fascinated by this battle of wits by quotes from authors whose works she had read before. 
"Oh come on!" cried Rainbow Dash flinging herself some meters up into the air. "What is this? The fancy quote fashion duel of the eggheads? Rarity for all I ever thought about your fashionmongering I never knew you to be an egghead! That's Twilight's thing!"
"Of fashion I know my words as well as fashion itself!" Rarity proclaimed in a fair imitation of a stage quote though Twilight was certain that these had been her own words.
Frank snatched his head from the saddle-bag and twirled it on one hoof, winked with one eye and with the most pompous air of staginess he rhymed: 
"So rare it is that hat of a colt
That rarity it's too 
Though rare's not always same as fair
In that it is not as you 
Not as comely to behold."
"Please tell me that's from some of your fancy writers Twilight!" Applejack pleaded. 
"I'm afraid it is not", Twilight said laughing at Apple Bloom's and Sweetie Belle's expressions of disgust while she couldn't help noticing that Rarity herself had blushed a little. 
"Talk normal or I'm gonna crash!" Rainbow Dash howled. 
"Very well", chuckled Frank. He stopped twirling the hat and seemed a little uncertain about what to do next before he finally decided to reattach it to his saddle-bag rather than putting it on again. 
"Now let's get to the party", Twilight said. "Or else Pinkie is gonna get us!"