The Traveling Tutor and the Diplomats Daughter

by Georg

Ch. 10 - Epilogue - Extreme Princess Tension (EPT)

The Traveling Tutor and the Diplomat’s Daughter
Extreme Princess Tension

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Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.
— Charlotte

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Two months later

During the day, the doors were always open at Rich’s Bargain Barn as ponies passed in and out in a constant whirl of activity. Ponies from all over the whole Ponyville valley dropped in to shop and pick up critically needed goods, including this week’s sales on carrot sharpeners and rutabaga peelers. But at night, even despite the new Open 24 Hours For Your Convenience policy, the doors remained closed, and only the strange and unexpected happened in the shadowed aisles.

Or at least that was the opinion held by one of their cashiers, Amethyst Star, or Sparkler to her friends. It was taking a lot of bits to reach her goal of running a jewelry store in Canterlot, but one bit at a time, she was making progress. Sparkler’s Sparkles had quite a ring to it, particularly if she could talk Equestria’s newest princess into letting her use the logo of a totally generic tourmaline star symbol that just happened to match the one on her Royal flanks. With that goal in mind, Sparkler had applied for the night shift at the Barn in the hopes of raising a few more bits for her destination of fame, glory, and a lifetime of selling precious sparkly gems in expensive settings.

She should have been suspicious when Filthy Rich had hired her the moment she dropped off her application, but she learned quickly. The first night she had worked, she found out that the only reason Mister Rich kept the store open at night was because his spoiled daughter had once needed a box of cough drops in the middle of the night. Once the sun went down and the vast majority of the staff had gone home (less one junior checker), the store was empty and the doors remained closed, which meant nopony, nowhere, noplace except for Coat Check the night stocker, who normally completed his task and departed around midnight.

On the second night, she brought her Geology books to the cash register station, and spent the dark and quiet hours until dawn exploring the mysteries of geodes and concretions. Over the next few nights, it turned into quite a win-win relationship. With few distractions such as her darling little sister trying to ‘help’ with her studies, she finally made good progress on her mail-order classes in Advanced Geomorphic Structures and Thaumaturgical Mineral Interactions. On the rare occasion when a sleepy customer came in, she could happily trot along with them to find any emergency cold medications or plumbing fittings they needed, check out their purchases, and return to her studies refreshed and renewed. She even got to spend some precious time with Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville’s newest (and only) princess, who had a tendency to come stumbling in during the middle of her own late-night study session after discovering a shortage of coffee or paper during a critical bit of midnight research. Sometimes after picking up her purchase, she even stayed to look over Sparkler’s work and exchange spell tips. Despite her occasional scatterbrained moments, Twilight (as she preferred to be called) was a limitless genius in the field of magical endeavors, and could comprehend at a glance even the most complicated mineral metamorphical spell that would confound Sparkler for days.

Fortunately for Sparkler’s ego, Twilight was totally clueless when it came to other complicated and intricate problems, such as young stallions. It was a sure sign of at least an hour’s worth of study break when a rather rumpled princess would shuffle through the doors, as had just happened tonight.

It was almost two hours before the start of the morning shift, nearly the time when her mother, Ditzy Doo, would stop by to bring her daughter a quick breakfast snack. The doors to the store gave their cheery little jingle, and at the sound of the bell, Sparkler looked up from her studying, but instead of her mother holding a bag of fresh muffins, there was a troubled purple alicorn stopped only part-way through the entrance doors. Princess Twilight Sparkle paused, glanced in both directions as if stuck, and stammered before speaking.

“S-sorry!” Twilight blurted out, vanishing out into the darkness as the door closed behind her.

Sparkler swallowed, wiping her chin and taking her bookmark back out of the book where she had automatically stuck it in a Pavlovian reflex to the bell. The reaction bothered her sometimes, and particularly since Dinky had discovered that she could get her big sis to react in that fashion.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Dinky hadn’t brought the rest of her little school friends by to show what happens when she rings a bell. At least they all got good grades in that section of their history test.

The bell jingled again, and Sparkler looked up, only to see the door slowly close again. This time she sat the books to one side and got up, moving to the door as quietly as possible so when it swung open yet one more time, Twilight Sparkle yelped in surprise at the sight of Sparkler grinning at her from just a hoof’s length away.

“Stallion trouble, Twilight?”

“No!” yelped Twilight in a panic-driven flurry of feathers. “How did you know!” She whirled in place, looking at the silhouette of the library tree in the distance. “Did Spike tell you? No, wait a minute. He couldn't have told you because I haven’t told him and I don’t even know for sure yet. Which I don’t. Know, that is. No.”

“So…” started Sparkler. “You’re just here for some late-night shopping?”

Twilight Sparkle grinned, a fake and insincere twisting of the facial muscles that seemed driven by panic and raw nerves instead of anything pleasurable. “Shopping!” she blurted out, her magic yanking a wire cart out of the collection and floating it in front of her. “Midnight shopping!” she added, quite unnecessarily while pushing into the store and vanishing down one of the aisles at a dead run.

Smile. Nod. Save a muffin from breakfast so you can bribe Spike for the details later.

For a moment, Sparkler considered trying to track down the nervous alicorn inside the store, which would not have been difficult considering the clattering and muttering that followed her path. More intelligent brain cells vetoed the idea, pointing out that there was only one way out of the store without setting off the fire alarms or teleporting, and that since she was buying things, Princess Twilight Sparkle most certainly would also be paying for them before trotting out the doors.

She slipped her school books under the counter to eliminate a potential evasion path in the anticipated upcoming conversation, and plotted out a few possible introductory phrases while waiting. It took a while, but one of the first lessons she had learned from her magic teacher was patience. Attempting to cut a gemstone without properly setting down and considering all of the ways things could go wrong was just begging for a disaster, and trying to stop an alicorn on a mission would be like putting a ten thousand caret fire ruby on the floor and throwing a rock at it.

Actually, come to think of it, Green Grass was scheduled to return to Ponyville in a few days. If anypony knew what was twisting Twilight Sparkle’s tail into a knot, it was him. Even discounting Twilight’s somewhat odd behavior, there was certainly something weird going on in Ponyville. Well, weirder than normal. Mom had been flying letters almost nonstop between Ponyville and Wheaton over the last week, and Pinkie Pie seemed to be stocking up for a siege. Even Dinky and the rest of her teacher’s young magic class had been roped into security for what was called ‘Operation Important Announcement’ over at Gustav’s Restaurant in a few days, which seemed to be—

A mental hammerblow like a thunderbolt nailed Sparkler’s hooves to the checkout lane’s floor. It had been months since she had helped Green Grass pick out the perfect engagement ring, way back before Twilight had grown wings and even before Princess Mia Amore Cadenza’s wedding! No wonder she had not heard anything about an engagement yet. Only a complete blithering idiot would have waited this long before proposing. Or allowed herself to wait this long.

Maybe those two do deserve each other.

It was completely silent in the store now, and Sparkler frantically revised her planned conversational starters. Somehow, asking “Has your coltfriend given you that engagement ring yet?” did not really seem like a good idea for anypony in a few mile radius, particularly if the answer was “No.”

Then again, in order to have a conversation with Twilight Sparkle, it would require both of them to be present in the same spot. The rattle and clatter of fast-moving alicorn in the store had died down to complete silence, which was a bad sign, but Sparkler looked around until she spotted a small bit of purple in the pharmacy section. There was just the tiniest tip of her tail sticking out from behind a display of boxes, twitching in short motions much like the beating of a nervous heart, and after considering just what product Twilight was looking at, Sparkler decided it would be best to give her some more time to make her decision.

After waiting a respectable amount of time, and then waiting yet another respectable amount of time, and finally just counting down ten minutes of painful silence, Sparkler quietly walked over to where Twilight Sparkle was regarding the boxes.

“Twilight? Can I help you?”

“Um… Yes. I need to make a decision.” All of the panic-prone alicorn flurry was gone now, replaced by a sharp tension in the bookish librarian that even made the air around her seem to twang with tight nerves. The pupils of her eyes had expanded out into huge limpid pools of darkness, quite different than the pinpoints of panic that Sparkler had expected, and her breathing had slowed to the deliberate in-and-out of the benevolently tranquil or forcefully tranquilized. Two boxes floated off the display in Twilight’s violet magic and were placed on a nearby table with all the care and caution of transporting fine crystal.

“This is a very important decision. The most important one I’ve ever faced in all of my years since I was the Princess’ student. I would ask my friends, but I don’t think any of them has the experience to help with this kind of decision except for Pinkie Pie, and she’s probably making breakfast muffins at Sugarcube Corner. I can’t be wrong this time. I’m a princess now, and the decisions I make can affect hundreds, if not thousands of other ponies. But I can do this. I can make this decision.”

There was a long pregnant pause as Twilight breathed in and out, and Sparkler reconsidered her decision on a secondary profession.

One purple hoof pointed. “This one says results in just one minute.” The purple hoof trembled as it pointed to a second box. “This one says ninety-nine percent accurate.”

“Actually,” said Sparkler with more intense examination of the boxes, “they’re both under a minute and just as accurate, they just each print different sections in larger print.”

There was a second long, pregnant pause.

“Should I buy both?” asked Twilight Sparkle in a somewhat distant voice. “I mean… Just to be sure.”

Sparkler was saved from having to respond by the solid whump of a fast-moving body hitting the front door of the store, followed by a familiar, “Whoops. My bad.” The gentle tinkle of the door bell followed, as well as her mother calling out, “Sorry, Sparkler! The door was closed.”

“Back here, mom!” she called back, feeling a wave of relief sweep over her as her mother hurried up with a warm hug and a paper bag filled with a fresh-cooked breakfast for her late-working daughter. This actually was a decision more in line with Ditzy’s experiences in motherhood and parenting, and Sparkler was more than happy to pass it on.

“Mom, can you help Twilight with picking out one of these—” Sparkler paused, trying not to laugh, because it really was not the kind of thing you were supposed to laugh about, particularly when a friend was asking, and doubly-so when that friend had both wings and a horn.

“That’s easy,” said Ditzy, picking up one of the boxes. “This one.”

“Oh,” said Twilight, lifting the box out of Ditzy’s hooves with her magic and examining it closely. “Does it have a higher accuracy rate, or a different alchemical process?”

“No, it’s pink. If you want a filly, you want a pink one.”

While Twilight absorbed that bit of experienced motherly advice, Ditzy kissed her daughter on the cheek and trotted back out of the door on the way to her mail delivery job. Sparkler thought for a moment about how easily her mother had taken to raising a powerful little unicorn filly by herself, and mentally multiplied the difficulty that Twilight was potentially facing, even with help.

And she’s going to need all the help she can get.

Sparkler put on a friendly smile and eyed the collection of random items Twilight had thrown in her basket in her panic-driven flight through the store. “Would you like me to put those back after you check out?”

Twilight stood staring off into the distance for a while. “Yes. Please.”

Once the young alicorn princess had gotten her purchase — carefully wrapped in a brown paper bag and taped closed so it would not inadvertently open on the way back to her library home — she turned for the door, vanishing outside into the darkness with a cheerful jingle of the bell again.

It took a while for Sparkler to find where all of the inadvertent items went and return them to the proper shelves, but as she settled back down at the cash register with her geology books, she could not help but look at the front door of the store and smile.

Looks like that ring is going to get put to good use after all.

Much later, as the glow of a new dawn was beginning to show and Sparkler was deep in the chapter on forced geological crystal formation through magical intervention, she had almost put the recent events out of her mind.

Until there was a quiet thump at the store’s front door.

At first, she thought it was just the morning breeze, but the thump repeated.

Opening the door revealed Princess Twilight Sparkle standing in the soft glow of pre-dawn as the early morning traffic of Ponyville began to quietly stir in the distance. She looked even more stressed than before, with ill-preened feathers sticking up from her wings and dark bags under her eyes.

“Can I help you, Twilight?” asked Sparkler.

“Yes. No. Actually… Here.” Twilight pushed a large bag of bits over to Sparkler before the entire display of boxes from before glowed with her magic and assembled at the panicked princess’ side. She hesitated, shifting from one hoof to another and acting as if she were on the threshold of more informative words, then darted out the store doorway and galloped at full speed in the direction of her distant library, the cloud of boxes trailing along in her wake.

Sparkler just stood there and watched, following Twilight’s rapid progress through town until she vanished into the library with an explosive slam of the door that could even be heard at this distance. Ponyville had always been a small town in the middle of large changes, and it looked like another dramatic change was on its way in a few months. From princesses to manifestations of pure chaos, parasprites and giant space-bears, Twilight Sparkle had been at the center of them all, and strange as it seemed, the small town had always turned out the better for it. Now something else brand new to Equestria was taking place, and Sparkler actually found herself looking forward to it. News like this could not be kept secret as Twilight and Greenie had thought their relationship could be hidden.

Whatever had happened behind the closed doors of the library was about to spill out all over town, and Equestria would never be the same again.

---

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Princess Sunny's story continues in Diplomacy by Other Means, a considerably darker tale of assault, murder, and the darkness that lies within the soul. Four diplomats travel to the Misty Mountain aerie to prevent war, and wind up in an escape and a fight to the death.

Green Grass and Twilight Sparkle's story continues in The Traveling Tutor and the Royal Exam, which is also located on the FimFiction.net site.

A simple test with an unexpected result sends Princess Twilight Sparkle’s life in an unexpected direction, accelerating a high-speed collision course with the young magic tutor she met and fell in love with just over a year ago. But angry Griffons, arrogant Royals, in-laws and other mighty forces from Canterlot and beyond seek to tear the young lovers apart and enforce their own will upon their future regardless of either Twilight or Green Grass’ plans for a life together.

Too bad for them.

Author's Note:

This chapter was originally written for the Writeoff.me ‘Behind Closed Doors’ challenge as Extreme Princess Tension, and placed 17th, around the (now expanding) middle. It has been somewhat improved since then and is added at the end of this story because I wanted to.

Comments

[Georg]

There we go, wrapped up with a bow around it. Enjoy.

[Talon and Thorn]

Not entirely sure how Sparkler picked up on Twilight's issues being stallion related at the beginning, unless one or both of them are of an age when every problem is stallion related.

At least they all got good grades in that section of their history test.

Shouldn't that be science or phycology test?

There was a second long, pregnant pause.

Its not the only one.

“No, it’s pink. If you want a filly, you want a pink one.”

You should listen to the mare, she has two daughters.

[Biker_Dash]

5713476 I am simply shocked! (happily shocked.)
I had just finished this story an hour or so ago... and I was doin a final check before heading out, and I see this.
Twi has a bun in the oven...

*faints*

[Skydrake]

This was a nice wrap-up indeed (or only the beginning, if you were to ask Twilight) - now we know where Twilight got those dozens of test slips she spilled all over Celestia's floor. I must admit I am somewhat surprised that she, in the end, was so straight-forward with Sparkler about what she wants to buy - I was expecting her to buy half the shop's worth of stuff just so she could camouflage her actual purchase amidst all the junk.

And poor Sparkler's ego is probably about to take another hit when she realizes that, despite her apparent cluelesness when it comes to stallions, Twilight Sparkle has clearly gotten some, and her relationship is steadily moving forward, what with the as-of-yet unused ring and all

I must admit though, I didn't quite get what the deal was with the doorbell

[Soge]

This works as an epilogue and sequel bait. Good work.

[BenRG]

I think the little moment with Derpy and Twilight was lovely. It just showcases their different personalities and the way Derpy things in simpler and, possibly, happier ways than Twilight's over-complex fears.

I also think that the generosity and willingness to help that immediately sprang to Sparkler's mind was a nice reminder of just how genuinely good most ponies are. Yes, Twilight is going to need all the help she can. Not just because she isn't automatically the sort of pony I would consider a natural mother but because her foal was in the middle of Twilight's ascension energies, her wielding the power of all four alicorn princesses and later being a focus very of the power of Harmony Itself as well as going through a pony-to-human transformation twice. The poor little mite probably won't even know what shape she is!

[Kenshinryuu]

I love the appearance of Sparkler and Ditzy, real sweet and nice. I can totally see Ditzy bringing her hard working daughter food every morning and Dinky showing up to tease her big sister. Nice family.

And leave it to Twilight to decide to grab every test in the store just to be safe.
5716936 I had not thought about that... poor kid might even end up as a Draconequus Just imagine the dirty looks that would cause.

[djthomp]

As much as it was fun to see Twilight's spazzed out shopping trip, I think I enjoyed the details about Sparkler and her studying even more. So nice and slice-of-lifey.

[Magical Trevor]

I wanna root for Sunny, but I don't do dark and gore and stuff... ; ;

[Nyerguds]

Huh. How did I miss this? Too much crap on the feed... I need a feed just for story updates

There was a long pregnant pause

I see what you did there

“No, it’s pink. If you want a filly, you want a pink one.”

Haaahahahaha!

“Yes. No. Actually… Here.” Twilight pushed a large bag of bits over to Sparkler before the entire display of boxes from before glowed with her magic and assembled at the panicked princess’ side.

She's preggers all right.

Remarks and corrections:
> ten thousand caret fire ruby
"carat".

[Nyerguds]

Oh, by the way...

> The Traveling Tutor and the Diplomats Daughter
Should be "Diplomat's Daughter"

[Georg]

5942914 At one point in time, putting punctuation in a story title put unprintable (percent-sign/number) characters in the URL, so I'm shying away from doing anything that might make the URL disconnect from any of the references I've gotten so far.

[Nyerguds]

5942944
Ah. Understandable
(though that doesn't excuse the "nocturnes pegasi" one )

[Georg]

5942985 That's how it's spelled in Equestrian. Honest.

[Nyerguds]

5943645
Looks more like a double plural to me, of the "guards stallions" instead of "guard stallions", or "pegasi ponies" instead of "pegasus ponies" kind

[lazyreader19]

Another lovely story, looking forward poring over the next installments

[Dan]

continues in The Traveling Tutor and the Royal Exam, which is currently being posted every Tue/Wed/Thu in March.

Uh-huh. Speaking of...

[Georg]

6479898 Yes, I'm still writing on Royal Exam. I'm up to Chapter 31, which is exactly 24 hours before the wedding, right before Blueblood tries his last-minute desparation move for a change of grooms in the wedding. You see, there's this test....

Twilight Velvet stepped forward and placed two short stacks of paper on the table, each of them entitled 'Final Exam - Physical Sciences 104'

While Blueblood fought an outburst of anger and Green Grass fought to keep from laughing, Celestia continued, "Since both of your final grades in the course were nearly identically abysmal, and since Twilight Sparkle is a source of contention between you, it seems only rational to engage in a competition more to her natural preferences."

"This is outrageous!" thundered Blueblood, slamming a hoof down on the table.

"Where are the pencils?" asked Green Grass.

[Wintermoon]

7699127

I knew it! The spelling was throwing me off

It's been a while since I read the story, but I have some free time next week and decided to read The Traveling Tutor and the Royal Exam and the rest of Letters From a Little Princess Monster!

[Georg]

7699294 Hm. 'Some' free time + nearly a half-million words combined of reading = no free time. At least it's a way to take your attention off the political scene until Tuesday.

Hm... Maybe I should re-read it too.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

8563786
No, I am an Old Fogey. I no longer understand anything & I am proud to say that I have No Clue Whatsoever as to the meaning of "being a turtle" On the other hand, in English class back in high school I learned how to use a card catalog. If you need help with that, just ask. I can also read & write cursive

[Dan]

8563922
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_and_Honorable_Order_of_Turtles

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

8695560
Thanks, I never knew that. (I grew up in a REALLY small town). There's a song "Are You A Turtle?"
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lyrics+are+you+a+turtle&&view=detail&mid=D78F83CF49F282CA66ECD78F83CF49F282CA66EC&&FORM=VDRVRV
What does a cow have four of and a woman only two?
Legs
What is a four letter word ending in K that means to have intercourse?
Talk
What is it on a man that is hard, and sticks out of his pajamas?
His head
A candidate must answer four from a list of twenty-five of such questions.

Every member of the club supposedly has a donkey. If asked "Are you a turtle?", they must answer "You bet your sweet ass I am" or buy the questioner a drink. President Kennedy was supposedly asked that at a press conference & replied "I'll buy you the drink later"

[Georg]

8695639 George Gobel did a wonderful rendition of that. The reference to the moon goes back to the Apollo days and Deke Slayton's cue card. (what a bunch of cut-ups)

[Foggy Dreams]

So Twi Twi is pregnant?!
Looks like our Avocado isn't the only one with a seed in them!

[ClosetBrony]

Greenie seems to have learned much. Thanks for the story. Onward to the next one.

[JOEBLACK]

There was a long pregnant pause as Twilight breathed in and out, and Sparkler reconsidered her decision on a secondary profession.

I see what you did there

[Mythic Night]

9735099
As delayed as your response to my question, I take it?

[tsaukpaetra]

TWO MONTHS AFTER FOUR PONIES ALMOST LITERALLY TOLD HIM NOT TO WAIT?!??!!
Well, guess that's the tradition...
It's been fun!

[Arkonfleight]

Reading through this again in troubled times. I think the funniest bit of the last part is imagining Twilight trying to drink a bathtub of tea to produce the needed amount of urine for the tests.

[A.P.O.N.I.]

I can't believe it took me years - years! - to notice the Kolchak the Night Stalker reference.

[Georg]

11619128 You think that's bad, it's been nine years since I wrote that, cackling to myself at my genius wit with the expectations that my readers would be so amused, and waiting for the applause... and waiting... and waiting...

[A.P.O.N.I.]

11619278
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