AMORE OBBLIGATO

Chapter 4: Bellicoso

It was entirely too lovely a day for such grimness as was about to occur. Twilight noted the animatedly chirping birds, the clear, blue sky, and the cheerful chatter of her fellow students as she made her way through the school grounds, hoping that she wouldn't need to have the confrontation today. However, she also knew that the sooner it happened, the sooner this cloud hanging over her would lift.

Unfortunately, it would mean having to provoke Honeyed Words into action, which could prove dangerous for the much younger filly. The best way she knew to do that surreptitiously required her to talk with her teacher. To that end, she boldly marched over to the Teacher's Lounge and knocked on the door. It was answered by an old mare who instantly recognized the filly from when she was in her class. “Why, Miss Sparkle, what brings you here? Looking for another test to take?” she asked with a sly smile.

Twilight shook her head. “No Ma'am. I needed to talk to Mr. Cosine about seating.”

A middle-aged stallion appeared at the door and said, “Did someone call for me?”

With a nod, Twilight replied, “I did, Sir. I was thinking about what happened yesterday, and realized that I was daydreaming when I should have been concentrating, and I wanted to apologize. I was also wondering if it were possible to move my seat.”

Cosine scratched his head in confusion. “Why would you want to move your seat? Everypony wants to be near the window.”

“That's just it, Sir. The window has become too much of a distraction. I think that was why I was spacing out in your class yesterday.” Twilight held her breath. She had never deliberately lied to an adult before, let alone a teacher. She had always believed that teachers deserved the ultimate respect one could give, because it was through them that knowledge was easily gained, but now, here she was lying to one. She licked her lips as a bead of sweat trailed down her forehead and over the side of her face.

With a shrug, Cosine said, “Very well. I'll have you switch with Miss Heartstrings. That way, you'll be in the farthest seat from the window, and front row. Sound okay to you?”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “That would be great, Sir. I'm sure that will keep the distractions to a minimum.”

In truth, Twilight regretted losing her seat. Though it wasn't quite next to the window, it was close enough that a quick glance out of the corner of her eye would grant her a rather expansive look at a fair section of the sky. Still, if this got a certain monkey off her back, it would be a small price to pay. With another nod, she said, “Thank you, Sir. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again.”

She was turning to go, when Cosine said, “Are you alright, Miss Sparkle?”

Twilight turned to him again and asked, “Sir?”

“You ran out of the classroom yesterday before I could even dismiss the class, so I was wondering if I may have been too... public with your dressing down. Are you alright?”

As mortified as Twilight should have been about the overt nature of her admonishment, that embarrassment paled in comparison to what she felt after finding out that her personal bully had discovered her secret. Almost nothing could compete with the sick feeling that was even now, threatening to return. Fighting down the urge to run or vomit (or both at once), Twilight gave a sheepish smile and said, “I'm fine now, Sir. I... I suppose I needed that rebuke to remind me of what's important. I apologize again for disrespecting you.” She bowed and quickly trotted off to the library for her usual pre-school study session.

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As predicted, Honeyed Words was less that enthused about the sudden change in seating arrangements. When Lyra sat down in Twilight's usual seat, she thought at first that she was looking to make friends with her, despite making it absolutely clear that a pony from a nouveau riche family like hers was not welcome in her circle of friends, not matter her family's noble ranking. However, when the mint green unicorn did not initiate any conversation with her, and instead brought out her textbook in preparation for history class, she felt compelled to say something. “What do you think you're doing, sitting there?”

Lyra didn't bother to turn to her, but continued arranging her materials while saying, “Getting ready for class. My seat assignment was changed. If you don't like it, take it up with Mr. Cosine.”

A scathing retort almost made it past her lips, but she managed to hold her tongue. “And why would he do that?” she asked with false sweetness that would fool no one.

With a shrug, Lyra leaned back in her seat and looked out the window, pointedly not even glancing in the direction of the filly with whom she was conversing. “You'd have to ask him. It was at his request.”

She was about to reply when Twilight walked in and sat at Lyra's old seat. The younger filly also didn't look around at the other foals in the room, who all looked at her, then at Lyra, then Honeyed Words as if it were some sort of bizarre, three-way tennis match. Like Lyra, she only took out her own book and note-taking supplies, arranging them carefully on her desk.

Honeyed Words rose to walk her way, but the history teacher walked in just as the bell rang, preempting any possible pre-class confrontation. All throughout that class as well as the following one, she was unable to find the time nor opportunity to talk to Twilight alone. The younger filly never left her seat, even in between classes while waiting for the next teacher to arrive.

However, third period was magic class, which was being held in a lab room today, meaning that they would have to move. Twilight was the first out of the room, leaving behind Honeyed Words to struggle in gathering up her work materials. By the time she had finally caught up to her in the lab room, she found that the seating there had also been altered, with Lyra seated on Twilight's usual stool in front of the lab work station. Grumbling, she took her assigned seat. She would have said something to her as she passed her on the way in, but the magic teacher, Ms. Crucible was already there, in her ever-present stained lab coat, clapping her hands together. “Alright, everypony, get settled in, we have a most interesting practical for lab today! We're making that promised batch of arcanofigulate! Being such an involved process, this will be a double-lab class today, and you'll be able to pick them up tomorrow after school when they have had time to set and I've graded your work.”

The class gave a happy murmur of excitement. Many of them had been waiting for this lab since it was announced on the syllabus. Honeyed Words was of a different mind. She had been counting on Twilight “helping” her as per usual, but with the smartest of the class far removed from her work station, she would either have to rely on her own poor notes, or somehow coerce Lyra into aiding her.

Turning to her, she was shocked to see the mint green unicorn move to the very end of the table and stand up her textbook so that it hid most of her work. “What are you doing now? Get over here and help me, before something you will regret happens!” she viciously whispered.

In a casual tone loud enough for most of the class to hear, Lyra simply replied, “I wouldn't want anyone to think I was copying from you when your usual exemplary work is done, Honey. I'll just stay here to make sure that there is no doubt in anyone's mind, thank you.”

“Is there a problem back there?” the teacher called out.

Lyra just arched an eyebrow as she actually returned Honeyed Words' gaze for the first time all day. Swallowing her rage, Honeyed Words called back, “No, Ms. Crucible. Just... getting our areas set up.” Turning back to her table mate, she glared at her, but it was wasted as Lyra was already setting up her apparatus, getting it ready for the distillation process. Honeyed Words scrambled to keep up with her, almost dropping a glass filtering flask which was not clamped to its stand properly.

Having already given them all instructions on the procedure in a previous class, Ms. Crucible wandered among the students, making little grunts of satisfaction when she saw something going right, or a low tutting sound when a pony was making a minor mistake. She nodded as she passed Honeyed Words, but suddenly came to a stop and walked backwards until she was even with her table once more.

Honeyed Words tried to ignore her as she just stood there watching her work, but having the mare hovering over one's shoulder like that was, to put it nicely, disconcerting. Ms. Crucible was infamous for her love of the unusual and the unorthodox, and was known for occasionally berating a student or even a fellow teacher for letting procedure getting in the way of innovation. Still, her AP Magic class (really, more of an after school club, but all her best students attended) was easily the most sought after class in all of the school, and that was only held once a week after school. Finally unable to take the strain of her gaze any longer, she turned and said, “Yes?”

Ms. Crucible waved off her unasked question and just said, “Oh, don't mind me. I've just never seen anyone try to make arcanofigulate without ever turning on their burner. I wanted to see how you did it, and perhaps take some notes. I'm especially curious how you plan to rectify the terebinth oil, since it happens to requires a hotter flame than I know you can produce with magic alone, and for much longer than you could sustain, now that I think of it.”

Blushing furiously, Honeyed Words belatedly turned on her burner, carefully adjusting the flame until it was at the desired intensity. “I- I just hadn't gotten to it, yet. That's all.” Though the rest of the class knew better than to laugh at her, she still heard a few unidentifiable titters around her.

Ms. Crucible gave a little moue of disappointment. “Oh. I thought you had perhaps stumbled on some ancient, lost secret, or something. Carry on, then,” she said with a sigh of disappointment.

She walked away, continuing her patrol until she came up to Twilight and actually nudged the other student at her table, taking over the stool and sat with her head in her hands, watching the filly work with obvious fascination. It went on like that for many minutes until the mare could take it no more and asked, “So, why did you choose to rectify the terra figulina with aqua fortis instead of aqua regia?”

Without even taking her eyes from her delicate work, Twilight replied, “While regia is better for time constraints, fortis produces a more even and smooth distillation. This will allow for better mana retention as well as better mana distribution.” Unstoppering a second neck in a flask, she carefully added some more liquid, then sealed it up again. “Ideally, I'd want to use aqua vitae, but I really don't want to spend a week on this, especially for a batch this small.”

“And what is the phlogiston for?” Ms. Crucible asked, pointing towards a small ampoule containing a tiny amount of a reddish substance, the consistency of pudding.

Twilight fiddled with the knob on the burner, making miniscule adjustments until she was satisfied. Finally turning to the teacher, she replied, “I wanted to make Spike a special present, and he's been wanting me to find a way to enhance his fire breath, so I'm going to use this to make him a torque to wear around his neck. With the enchantments I plan to put into it, I estimate that he'll be able to reach about one thousand, eight hundred degrees, Melting.”

Ms. Crucible actually looked a little alarmed by this. “Why so hot? Is he looking to smelt iron?”

“Actually, yes,” Twilight answered with a smile. “The Princess took us on her diplomatic trip to Griffonia a couple of months ago, and one of the places they showed us on the tour was the foundry, which really seemed to grab Spike's interest. Naturally, The Princess and I want to encourage him broadening his horizons, so he's been taking lessons from the palace smithy. I was planning on waiting to make something like this until his hatchday, but this opportunity is too good to pass up.” She noticed the look of concern, and added, “Don't worry, though. He's supervised at all times, and I won't let him wear it unless he's working at the smithy itself.”

With a relieved smile, the mare stood and said, “Very good, then. I presume you'll want to spend your lunch here to monitor your experiment, since it will take longer than the allotted ninety minutes for a double class?”

Twilight nodded, and the teacher moved on with her patrol of the class, most of which had stopped to watch the exchange with interest. As much as Ms. Crucible tended to scare the rest of the students, she actually seemed to have the opposite effect on Twilight, drawing her out of her shell in an adversarial manner, demanding she defend her positions and work, which she happily did. Pushing up her glasses, she checked the time and nodded with satisfaction. Despite the lackluster performance of some of her students (Honeyed Words' poor performance especially so, given that she was often ranked second or third in the class for grades), this would prove to be an interesting lab.

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Despite the double class as well as taking her lunch in the lab, Twilight was still five minutes late to class. She handed her pass to the teacher and quickly resumed her new seat near the door. This class passed much like the first half of the day had, with both Twilight and Lyra doing their level best to ignore Honeyed Words' glares. When the Equish teacher called on her to read from the textbook, it took Honeyed Words a moment to find where she thought the last pony had left off, and even then, she had to be corrected by the teacher, as she was on the wrong chapter.

Chemistry and math classes weren't much better for the filly, as in both cases, she depended entirely on cheating off of Twilight. Lyra, having music classes at that time, was unavailable for cheating, so Honeyed Words was left trying to decipher work for which she had never studied once. Needless to say, she was failing miserably. It was only by sheer luck that she was not called upon by the teachers, but she kept her head down regardless.

When the bell signaling the end of the final class for the day sounded, she was hardly surprised to see that Twilight was the first out the door. She slowly gathered her belongings,, planning just what she was going to do to that filly when she caught up to her. Someone sat in Lyra's new seat, and she looked up to see Tight Rein, a filly who had been in her clique since before they ever attended school. “So what do you plan to do about her?” the more athletic filly asked in a low whisper.

“I certainly can't let this little rebellion just pass by without redress, can I?” Honeyed Words said. Shaking her head, she added, “If I were to do that, the others might think that they were my equals or worse. No, we must nip this in the bud before these plebes start getting uppity.” Turning to her friend, the cold glare in her eyes sent a thrill down Tight Rein's spine that made her lick her lips in anticipation. Honeyed Words always felt... frisky when she looked like that. “Gather the girls. It seems we must plan for tomorrow morning. Afterward, you and I can have a little time to work out my frustrations.” Honeyed Words laid a hand on top of her friend's, giving it a painfully tight squeeze.

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Twilight walked into what had been dubbed “the Music Room” and smiled to see that Octavia had apparently just gotten there herself. The older filly was still setting up the two music stands next to each other, a sight that caused her heart to race. Twilight had expected to be seated opposite her tutor, and the thought that they would almost be close enough to touch had her both wanting to jump for joy, and faint from nervousness. “G- good afternoon, Miss Melody. I hope this day finds you well,” she said with a small bow.

Octavia returned her bow. “Good afternoon, Twilight. One thing I meant to say last session was that if it makes it easier for you, you may just call me Octavia. I want this experience to be the best it can be for you, so do what makes you most comfortable. My pride can handle you calling me just Octavia, alright?” She smiled at Twilight's nod as she dragged two chairs closer together. “Now, why not come over here and show me how your practicing has been going since Moonday.”

Eager to show off that she had been diligent in her assigned homework, Twilight opened her instrument case on one of the chairs. Taking the violin out before stowing the case under her chair, she breathed in deeply before going through several arpeggio scales, not even looking at the fingering guide still stuck to the fingering board.

“Very good, Twilight. You only missed three notes,” Octavia said, nodding her approval. “Now, show me where the middle G is.”

Twilight did so, and found the next half-dozen notes the earth pony asked her to find. “Excellent. You are picking up the basics fairly fast, so why do we not move on to a simple song.” Octavia pulled out a sheet of paper and placed it on the music stand before her student.

Immediately upon seeing the song title in big, bold letters, Twilight groaned inwardly. Why did it have to be this one?

“Now, I know it can be embarrassing to learn on an old nursery song like this, but trust me, we all do it,” Octavia said, forestalling any complaints. “Now, come on. You just showed me where all the notes in this song are, you just have to put them in the correct order. Do not worry about sounding slow or stupid, we all go through that as well.”

With a resigned sigh, Twilight placed her fingers in the right places and began to play a song that she had hoped to never hear again since she had started school. To her credit, she did remarkably well for her first real song, but she misplayed a note, and that began a cascade of failed notes, sometimes several in a row until she set the violin in her lap. “Can we... can we find a different song to play? This one has... bad memories for me.”

Octavia looked at her curiously. “What is wrong with Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?”

Twilight sighed again and lifted the hem of her skirt on her side, revealing the cutie mark adorning her hip. “This is what's wrong. Because of my name and my cutie mark, I was teased pretty badly in kindergarten... and first grade. In fact, the first three or four years of elementary school was pretty merciless. I just... I'd rather learn on some other song, if you don't mind.”

The elder filly smartly rapped herself upside the head. “Of course. That was careless of me to not realize the connection. I hope you shall forgive me for this oversight, Twilight.”

“Oh, it's not like you had any reason to know, Mi- er, Octavia. Really, there's nothing for which you need to apologize!” Twilight quickly replied.

Laying a comforting hand on her shoulder, Octavia said, “Nevertheless, I have caused you distress, and such was not my intention. Let me just get you a different song from my bag.”

Bending over, she did not notice the blush that overtook Twilight's cheeks, which was back under control by the time she popped back up again with a new sheet of paper. “Let us try Au Clair de la Lune, shall we?”

With a grateful smile, Twilight turned her attention to the sheet music and practiced the fingering a moment before putting bow to strings.

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This is just weird.

The thought came unbidden to Spike, and refused to leave. He stared at his dining companion across the table and noted that she was once more wearing a goofy grin. While disconcerting to see on such a normally sober pony, it was at least not as frightening as when- Ooo... there it goes again. The little dragon shivered as the smile on Twilight's face slowly faded and was replaced by a grim look of determination after a brief stint as her more usual neutral expression. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew that it frightened him terribly. Clearing his throat, he casually asked, “So... anything new, today?”

Twilight jerked as if startled from some deep thought, which was actually true. These thought however, were not the sort that she wished to share with anyone, let alone the dragon that filled the role of her little brother. “Huh? Oh, um... no, nothing worth talking about, really.”

Spike simply shook his head as he returned to his dinner, his course of action now set. I guess the princess will be able to get at what's bothering her. I'll talk to her about it tomorrow. Decision made, he was able to keep the worry in his gut from spoiling his appetite.

Author's Note

This chappie was a bit of an odd duck, I know, but I didn't want to shoot my bolt the chapter after the conflict arose, so I decided to put it to simmer for a bit. Don't worry, it is building to a head. Just a quick heads-up, I'm going to be extra late with the next chapter, because I want to do a quick one-shot. Lots of sex and best pony will be involved, so be on the lookout for it.