The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian

by Georg

Ch. 9 - Starting School with a Bang

The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian
Starting School with a Bang

---

Discord would have been proud. Well over a dozen young foals, hyped up on sugar water, sugared cake, sugar candy and as far as Green Grass could tell, sugar air, fairly teemed through the party room. He could only estimate actual numbers because they moved fast enough that even Luna with her famous abacus could probably have done no more than estimate plus or minus two. Screams of joy filled the air inside Sugarcube (there was that word again) Corner as his prospective students and their friends flung themselves around the games and activities, led in their merry mischief by a pink ball of happy fluff cleverly disguised as a pony named Pinkie Pie.

Green Grass sighed with an inner smirk. Maybe someday he too would have a young child out in the chaos, perhaps an earth pony or pegasus. Not a unicorn. Even being away from home for a year had not damped his desire to avoid any unicorn mares. His last brush with parentally forced matrimony had been entirely too close for comfort. Willpower alone prevented a shudder from the memory as he escorted the little unicorn filly and her foalsitter into the meeting room with the two other teachers; instead he kept wearing his polite Teacher Smile until everypony had settled down before beginning the evaluation.

Both Cheerilee and Superintendent Masters remained quiet and to one side. Their job during the evaluation was to take notes and observe while the Educational Specialist handled all the student interaction. When he had started his tutoring career, he felt the way evaluations were done to be a little unfair, leaving the tutor without the backup of two other teachers, but he soon came to realize it was merely a test-run of his normal tutoring procedure where he would be in a one-on-one relationship with the student for the next several weeks.

Amethyst Star had been his closest career brush with an uncontrollable student to date, if Twilight Sparkle was excluded from the list, chapter, book, and library. She had been an awkward teen with a tendency to turn carefully prepared raw gemstones into high-velocity shrapnel due to releasing their inner crystalline energy in a rather random fashion while attempting to cut them into more valuable shapes. Less than a month after they had begun working on her control skills, she was happily splitting diamonds and rubies into perfect cuts with hardly a frightening tremble or explosive twitch. Now he felt proud to see how much she had grown while she was smiling and laughing with little Tootsie Flute, her foalsit-ee. According to her school records, Tootsie ‘Has amazing potential, if she would just apply herself⁽*⁾.'
(*) An evaluation that had never been written on Twilight Sparkle’s grades, ever.
—

Green Grass had to fight back a smile at the familiar words.

Now where have I heard that before? Over and over, from both my school and parents.

While Tootsie Flute had enough strength and skill to use her magic to grasp and use a quill, she still preferred hoofwriting, and had showed almost no increase in her magical abilities since Miss Primrose had been through. There were several tests and tricks in his bags for behavior such as hers, but he paused over his collection of educational toys with a well-concealed frown. Like a puzzle with a missing piece, the filly was acting... Yes, exactly. She was acting. He scattered the toys across the table and watched her eyes carefully as they darted from toy to toy and — there it was. Just a tiny glance, but her whole face seemed to light up with interest at the object in her vision before returning to blandly study the toys.

“Tootsie,” he began carefully. “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

“Daddy wants me to be a doctor, just like him,” she replied, poking a toy top with one hoof.

The twinge that tried to twist his face into a familiar scowl was difficult to resist, but he managed to turn it into a coincidental look at the potted plant sitting in the window. “Well, I don’t think we’re quite ready to turn you loose with a knife just yet.” He chuckled, theatrically. “But I don’t think you’re going to be able to live out your father’s dream unless you improve your precision.” Green Grass made a show of looking thoughtful while glancing around the room, eventually picking up the potted fern from its sunny growing spot and placing it on the table. Rummaging around in his collection of educational equipment, he pulled out a small pair of scissors and placed them in front of the little filly.

“Let’s start small, for practice. I gave Pinkie this fern last year, but it really has gotten overgrown and needs to be pruned back so it can grow. What I need you to do...”

Green Grass carefully guided the filly through picking up the scissors in her magic and snipping off the tiny dead fronds. She made a few mistakes, but quickly mastered the process until she was practically beaming when the last dry snip was removed. They ran through a few more exercises together, finishing only when Tootsie had extracted a solid promise from Green Grass that they would practice pruning at Roseluck’s greenhouse every day they had a tutoring session before she excitedly ran back out into the other room to join her friends.

“You,” declared Amethyst Star, “are a sneaky little sneak.” She punched him lightly in the shoulder and put on her best fake scowl. “You did almost the exact same thing to me last year.”

“You, were a precocious teenager who did not want to do the steps to your spell one at a time,” he declared with a fake sniff, raising his voice to a falsetto. “I just keep trying and trying, and I know I can do it, but I keep breaking things and it just makes me so... grrr!” They both chuckled along with the teachers.

Cheerilee volunteered, “I think you had Windowpane working overtime for a week to replace all the glass you broke.”

Superintendent Masters grumbled, “Almost raised insurance rates in the town too.” The smile on his face put a lie to the growl in his voice. “As I recall, we had to buy Mr. Green Grass a helmet and vest before we let him work with you. I still have it, if he needs it for your little sister.”

“Pfft. My little sister is just fine. I taught her that little thing you showed me about using a musical note with each step in the levitation spell, and she can hold her flute up now while she plays. She’s really advanced for her age.”

I’ve been hearing an awful lot of that around this town. Maybe Twilight is contagious. He suppressed a shudder, thinking about how many spells could be accidentally cast in the middle of an energetic piece of flute music during a class concert⁽¹⁾. So many cacti in the audience.
(1) Bringing new meaning to the opera ‘The Magic Flute’
—

As if triggered by the thought, the door to the room creaked open and a cute little filly poked her nose inside. “Hey Sparkler! Hi, Mr. Green Grass.”

“Hi Dinky. My, you’ve grown. Are you using magic already?”

“Yep!” The little filly hopped up and down with joy and grinned. “I have a friend who’s been teaching me! Come on in, Twilight. I want you to meet Mr. Green Grass.”

Comments

[Emptybee]

There is no way in which this can possibly end badly.

[Georg]

Quick comment: ( Spoiler for Chapter 10)
I wanted to end it with this line, but it's going to have to go into the next chapter.
Twilight stared at the tutor in shock. "Y-you... Where is your horn!"

[Seether00]

Crap! Just let the poor guy do his job.

[BenRG]

I think Green Grass need to accept that, even though they've got off on several wrong hooves, he's not going to be able to escape Twilight Sparkle's presence whilst he is in Ponyville. The two of them just need to get over their issues and learn to co-operate, for the foals' benefit if nothing else.

[djthomp]

"She’s really advanced for her age.” I’ve been hearing an awful lot of that around this town. Maybe Twilight is contagious.

...

“Yep!” The little filly hopped up and down with joy and grinned. “I have a friend who’s been teaching me! Come on in Twilight, I want you to meet Mr. Green Grass.”

Oh god, she is!

To be honest though, I really love the idea that Twilight would be providing tutoring services for Ponyville's young unicorns. Paying it forward from her own mentorship with Celestia, if you will.

[YorkBrony]

Run, bro. RUN.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Wow. Congratulations, Green Grass, you are officially Fate's chew toy.

[Music-and-magic]

You Sir, may have all the wins for the Motzart pun ^_^

[ShadowWing09]

“Yep!” The little filly hopped up and down with joy and grinned. “I have a friend who’s been teaching me! Come on in, Twilight. I want you to meet Mr. Green Grass.”

Aww, Dinky I'm glad somepony around here is showing appreciation for Twilight

Agreeing with djthomp

[Draco Dei]

SPOILER ALERT!!!
.
.
.
(*) An evaluation that had never been written on Twilight Sparkle’s grades, ever.
- Indeed. In fact, I rather suspect "Twilight Sparkle really should learn to accept that she has terrifying potential, and the only plausible barrier to an illustristrious career in all (not 'any', but ALL) of a wide variety of subjects would be if she suffers a melt-down... a possibility that Princess Celestia has not responded to our pleas for addtional radiation shielding and a 'New Volcano Formation Response Action Plan' as of this time."

she still preferred hoofwriting,
-I don't think we have ever seen a pony write with their hoof... they hold the quills in their mouths.

So many cacti in the audience.
-Was that Twilight, Amethyst, or some other Pony? Probably Twilight.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

You know, he never gets a break, huh? Though honestly, this is becoming less comedic and more bland. But you are doing fine with the character building, and you have pulled in quite a few background ponies. I like.

[Charlemane]

Bringing new meaning to the opera ‘The Magic Flute’

I am in tears right now.

[River Road]

This is a terrible use of cliffhanger and you should feel bad for it.

You should also feel proud of it. Before, after, or while you feel bad. Just try to keep the maniacal laughter down until I'm out of earshot, yes?

[Dan]

I'm surprised Princess Luna hasn't banned that opera, partly for being insulting to her royal person and partly because it's cruel and unusual to the sopranos.

[Real_Atomsk]

5865290
It's a wash, the cruelty to sopranos balances out the insults to the royalty

[peter]

“Yep!” The little filly hopped up and down with joy and grinned. “I have a friend who’s been teaching me! Come on in, Twilight. I want you to meet Mr. Green Grass.”

I'm suddenly picturing Discord casting a spell that creates background music. If he had done that Green Grass would have been hearing the theme from Jaws for a little bit before Ditsy showed up.