Author's Note

Would you look at that, another Twilight centered chapter! I hope you all like it! Sorry for taking a little longer than usual!

The Student Becomes The Teacher

Twilight let out a soft grumble as her body began to stir. She made shallow, rigid movements—her senses blinking back and forth between being on and off. Her brain kept on metaphorically kicking her right in her flank, her own voice yelling at herself to get up. After all, she had a long day ahead of her! She slowly stood forward, Rigdon mumbling softly as she broke away from his grasp.

She tilted her head down so she was facing him. She couldn’t help but grin like an idiot as she watched him sleep. Slowly, she bent forward. A tender kiss was left on the sleeping human’s cheek. Twilight quickly hopped off the bed, a soft squeak echoing out as the mattress let out its sigh of relief when her weight was lifted from it.

Twilight soon found herself in the washroom of the guestroom. Sweet Celestia, the bathroom was huge! Why would anyone need such space? She wasn’t going to complain anymore, though. She was going to indulge in the delight of a hot shower. She needed to loosen her muscles anyway! Her magic quickly engulfed the two handles to the faucet. She made sure to balance it so that the water was warm: not too hot, nor too cold. She lifted her hoof up, quickly bringing it forward ‘til she was about a couple inches from touching the water.

She quickly stuck her leg into the water, the warm liquid quickly wetting down her fur; the water was perfect. Hoof after hoof, she slowly pulled her entire body into the water, a soft gasp escaping from her lips as the water embraced her body. This should really clear her mind for the long day ahead of her. Twilight continued to lower herself in the water, her entire body quickly diving beneath the surface of the water, her head still making sure to stay above. She threw a couple of bath bombs in the water, along with a long squirt from the soap bottle provided.

Her body was now engulfed in a cloud of warm soap suds and bubbles. The soap worked its magic, quickly spreading over and lathering her entire body. She felt like she could spend her entire day here… It was as if she was laying on a fluffy bed of clouds. Huh, no wonder Rainbow always finds those things extremely comfortable. She sat there for about ten more minutes, letting all of her worries melt away. Though, nothing can completely take away the worry of teaching! She was so nervouscited.

Was there going to be a translator? There had to be one!… right? After all, she didn’t speak another language. After some more abuse by her inner thoughts, she quickly stood up, the water turning on once again. This time, it was the showerhead that sprung to life. Twilight quickly began to wash off the soap from her coat and hair. Once done, she quickly pulled the plug that kept the water in. As the water began to disappear to an unknown fate down the drain, she got out of the shower. She picked up a towel and began to run it across her figure.

What seemed to be a pedal protruded out from the wall; this piqued her curiosity. She reached forward, quickly pressing her hoof onto it. A whirring sound began to call out as she was doused in hot air. After a few moments, the air had completely dried her off. She stood there, flabbergasted at what just happened. Looking at herself in the mirror, she found that her hair had been left as a poofy mess. Well, it’s nothing a hairbrush couldn’t solve. She brought the brush up to her hair, deciding to fix that mess first.

She dragged it through her hair over, and over, and over again, the knots in her hair slowly coming undone. A little while would pass—her mane and tail now fixed in its usual style. When it came to her actual coat, she made sure to brush everything out very thoroughly, except with her chest fluff, which she decided to leave a bit more prominent than usual.

The bathroom door flung open, quickly catching itself before it slammed into the wall it was heading to. Twilight let out a sigh of relief, her magical grip dissipating. She was glad that she caught the door. She didn’t exactly want to wake Rigdon up. The giant double doors that kept their room closed off were suddenly brought to life. It slowly but surely opened itself up to the outside world, Twilight slowly spilling out into the hall of the castle.

A guard was standing at attention near the door. She slowly walked up to Twilight and gave an announcement. “The princess would like for you to join her at breakfast,” She said with a monotonous tone. She then quickly got back into her position. Well, this certainly was a surprising treat! She hasn’t had some one on one time with Celestia in a long while! She gave a solemn nod to their words before heading off.

As she traversed the halls, her mind raced with scenarios of what was to happen later today. Her mind, deciding to pull a goof, played out scenarios where she would mess up, or make a fool out of herself. Her heart began to race as she worried more about her newly formed teaching career.

A couple wrong turns and asking around later, she found herself at the entrance to the dining area. It really is hard to traverse this place, even if she was a bit rusty with the room placements. Though, she was certain that there were some renovations to account for the return of Luna. “Alright, Twilight… It’s just breakfast,” She let out a small laugh as she cupped her own cheek. She quickly planted her hoof back onto the ground, “Everything’s going to be fine!”

The moment she walked in, she was blasted with the wonderful, intoxicating smell of fresh fruits, veggies, flowers, and pancakes! She shut her mouth tightly, her muzzle scrunching up as she stopped herself from drooling right then and there.

“Ah, Twilight! It’s good to see you. I take it you slept well?” Celestia would question as she welcomed her student with a warm smile. She had a small teacup suspended in her magic, of which was as golden as the sun itself. The cup floated over to her lips. She closed her eyes as the cup tipped itself over gently, gracefully pouring its wonderful liquid contents into her mouth. Twilight slowly approached the table, quickly taking a seat across from her mentor.

“Yeah!” She started off with a cheery tone. She floated a plate over to herself, along with a couple of berries to start her breakfast off. “We slept great. Rigdon’s still in bed, which is actually surprising. He’s usually the one to get me up for sleeping in.” She let out a small chuckle at the thought, a raspberry floating up to her mouth, of which she took a bite out of.

“Well that’s great to hear!” She lowered the teacup onto the saucer below. She then placed everything down onto the table, “I did give you a recently tidied room on purpose after all.”

Twilight gave a gaze towards Celestia. Was she only doing this to be nice, or did she do it because of some… other thing she thought would happen. Her suspicions were confirmed when she quickly averted her gaze down, now finding the floor interesting. God, she was such a prankster when she wanted to be! One moment she can be posh—the next she’s teasing you about the littlest of things!

She rolled her eyes at Celestia’s aloofness. A teacup was raised up towards her. She took a couple of thorough gulps from it before setting it back down. Of course, smelling the awkwardness in the air, Celestia struck once again! She slowly leaned in, a sly grin planted on her face “So, how did you two first get together? Was he the one to make the first move? Or… were you the one to tell him?” Celestia interrogated.

Twilight let out a loud groan at her words. She was worse than her mom when she saw her around stallions. She stuffed her face with more fruit, giving a couple of courtesy chews before swallowing. Celestia couldn’t help but give off a small snort at her pupil’s antics. “Alright, alright. I will not pry anymore if you do not want me to.” She calmed her voice, a hint of laughter still at the back of her words. She pushed her fork into a few cut pieces of pancake.

Twilight gave a nod, appreciating that she knew when not to go too far. She lifted her cup of tea, sighing as he took a gulp of the heart-warming liquid. Oh yeah, now that was some quality tea. She stayed silent, the awkwardness reigning supreme in just a few moments. Celestia didn’t keep quiet, though. “You may not know it, Twilight, but you’re an excellent teacher,” She said supportively. “Your friendship lessons have taught both me and Luna a lot. I know that your friends would say the same. That’s why I picked you to teach Dimitri! I know that you’ll do an amazing job.”

Twilight was astonished at the words that left Celestia’s mouth. Teaching? Her and Luna? How can such words be put in the same sentence?! Twilight mumbled incoherently, her head beginning to spin. One, two, three! And just like that, she was out cold on the floor! Looks like breakfast was going to end a little earlier than usual.

A folder would slide across the table in the middle of the room, quickly finding its place next to the pencils and thick textbooks. Its crooked stance was quickly corrected with the help of purple magic. She then moved onto a couple of more miniscule objects and made sure to straighten them out as well. Once everything looked good, she sighed and sat down onto the seat at the head of the desk. Now, all she had to do was wait. She was a bit early, but Dimitri should be arriving any moment now.

As if everypony else was listening to her thoughts, the door opened with a loud, old creak; right on que. The guard was leading both Autumn, the translator, and Dimitri into the room. They both took a seat relatively close to the front. Dimitri seemed particularly entranced by everything around him. The guard gave a small nod before heading out of the room.

Twilight let out a small sigh before loudly clearing her throat, getting the fullest attention of both Autumn and Dimitri. “Welcome to the class about all things friendship and Equestria!” She spoke out, a hint of excitement traveling with her words. “My name is Twilight. Twilight Sparkle! This is my first time teaching, so I’m as excited as you are.” Her words came out quickly and without breath.

The pony sitting next to Dimitri shared a couple of words with him. He gave a small nod as he stared at the newfound teacher in front of him. He still had a slightly sour look on his face though. He still wasn’t used to this unusually friendly nature of others. After all, in his eyes, someone wouldn’t be this nice unless they wanted something in return.

“So, the first thing I’m going to teach is Ponish! That can leave room for Olde Ponish if you really want to.” She leaned in slightly as she pretended to whisper those words. “Anyways, I was told that it’s actually quite similar to a language in your world called English. The only real discernible difference is the written alphabet between us and you.” She continued to douse the both of them with information.

A small pointing stick would become engulfed in her magic. The thin piece of wood would fly over to the chalkboard, now pointing at the letters that had been written on it. “This right there is the Ponish alphabet,” She called back to the two. Dimitri had his eyes completely focused on her, “It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it!” She smiled at him. She brought her hoof to her mouth, giving a thorough cough as she prepared her singing voice. Once ready, she began to sing. “A, B, C, D, E, F, G~” She would draw out her voice on G. She continued on, stopping every so often with that same drawn out action.

Dimitri squinted softly, paying close attention to not only how the letters were sounded out, but the rhythm and tone that her singing carried. Sure, it would’ve been easier to only focus on one thing, but he isn’t going to slack off! He gave a couple of soft nods, his hands folding together as he continued to listen. The moment Twilight was done with the song, he would unfold his hands to give her a couple of firm claps. It was the right thing to do!

Twilight became flushed; She certainly wasn’t expecting such an ovation! She gave a small ‘Thank you’ before returning to her lesson. “Alright! Now you try singing the song! It’s alright if it takes you a little bit; any progress is still progress after all.” She would encourage him.

Dimitri sat there, his brain processing the song. He quickly went over it again and again in his head, making sure that it was going to come out perfectly. When he did speak out in the form of a song, it wasn’t that graceful. His voice was slightly deep, his accent heavy, and his pronunciation terrible. Though, he still was speaking Ponish. “A, B… C… D, E, F…G.”

He certainly wasn’t a singer or some choir boy. He fumbled over some letters, but that’s to be expected. Despite pausing a little in between singing, he wasn’t doing that bad of a job! It certainly was better than hearing Rarity’s Prench. Twilight gave an approving nod as she listened to him sing off all of the letters. A couple minutes later and he’s finished with the alphabet.

Twilight gave an enthusiastic smile, clearly excited with how fast he was able to pick up on the alphabet and the song that went with it! She lifted the piece of chalk once more. “Now, we’ll be learning about basic words—like hello, or how are you.” She spoke out as she quickly wrote the words down. “Ms. Hazel, would you mind coming up here and writing down the translations for him?”

Autumn wasn’t expecting to be put on the spot like that by Twilight! She stuttered momentarily. “O-Oh! I uhm… sure!” She gave a firm nod before getting out of her seat. She walked up to the board, her wing unfolding and quickly grabbing a hold of one of the many pieces of chalk. She began to write away on the chalkboard, placing each translated word next to their respective ones in Ponish. Dimitri gave a soft ‘Ohh’ as he read the translation.

Twilight quickly broke up the word ‘Hello’ into its two syllables. She did the same thing to the other words. “Okay! Every word has syllables. These can be used to pronounce words easier. Take hello for example; its syllables are Hell, and Low. Hell, and low.” She continued to go back and forth, saying the syllables over and over again, her hoof quickly moving between them as well.

Dimitri looked back and forth between both the word and the syllables, his mind processing how to say it. He paused for a moment, his hand reaching up and gently scratching his chin. He finally decided that he felt confident enough to try and say the word. He opened his mouth and said, “Hello.”

Once again, his voice was craggy and dominated by his eastern slavic accent. But, that doesn’t really matter! He still was able to say hello in english! Well, according to Twilight it was Ponish, but it’s practically the same thing.

Twilight’s eyes lit up as she heard him speak for the first time. Well, in a way that she could understand. “Good! Could you repeat that again? Repetition is key!” She spoke out. Autumn would quickly translate what she said for him. Dimitri gave a complaint nod before taking a deep breath.

He spoke out once again, his voice sounding a bit more smoother. “Hello,” Every time that he said Hello, his voice became more confident and his pronunciation smoother. Soon enough, he was saying hello over and over without fail! “Hello.”

Autumn had a huge smile plastered on her face. She felt like she had personally helped him begin his first steps in learning a different language. Twilight gave a solemn nod as he continued to speak his first word in Ponish. She then grabbed both a Ink pen, along with a piece of paper. She walked over to him, gently setting it down onto his desk. He looked up at her, confusion in his eyes. “Here, write it down! Not only does it encite repetition, but it also helps your penmareship!” She called out. Autumn was quick to translate what she said to him. Dimitri, now armed with what to do, gave a complaint nod as he stared at the word on the chalkboard.

He slowly began to scribble the word down onto the paper. He then made a note next to the word that stated what it translated to in Russian. He looked at the other words on the board and did the same thing to them. He then wrote the words down over and over, his brain ironing everything over as he did so. Once done, he placed the pen down. Twilight, not wanting to waste any time, had already gathered a couple of language books that housed everyday phrases and words. Autumn, ready to help all that she could, had already taken her place next to Dimitri.

“Alright, this seems like a good place to stop. You’ve done a great job so far, Dimitri! Just make sure to keep practicing,” Twilight spoke softly as her magic shut the book in front of her. The book was quickly floated away and filled itself back in its respective area. Despite the class having ended, Autumn and Dimitri were still conversing, albeit in his native tongue. She smiled at the sight, the both of them laughing and getting along like a house on fire. Even though he still knows little about this world, she has a gut feeling that he’s already made a friend. Gosh, she couldn’t wait to tell Celestia about his progress!

Twilight hummed as she headed to the front door. She opened it, her figure soon stepping out into the hallway. The guard that had been there for the morning shift had been rotated out. She gave a slight bow of her head before heading off. Twilight made her way through the endless halls, her intended target being the Castle’s extensive library. As she walked past the hallways, something caught her attention. Out in the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar human in the science section of the castle. She turned her body filly to the side to now face the person in front of her.

Rigdon was looking around the room, his eyes filled with amazement as he glared at all of the wonderful gadgets that modern science had brought to this world. She slowly approached him, her own eyes drifting off to what he was looking at. Rigdon had his eyes fixated on one of the most advanced objects Equestria had to offer—the microscope!

“Looks like somepony is wandering without permission.” Twilight cooed teasingly as she stood next to him. Rigdon turned his head to the side and down, the purple unicorn now in his view. He rolled his eyes before turning back to the instrument of science.

“ Did you really think I was just going to be satisfied staying cooped up in that room? I swear, sometimes I think you’re being clueless on purpose!” He replied to her. Twilight gave a small shrug. He did have her there.

“Pretty cool, huh? It’s called a microscope. It’s pretty new, and there’s still a lot we don’t know! Did you know that there’s trillions of bacteria around us at this very moment?” She hit him with a science fact, her voice filled with pride at the accomplishments. Twilight became flabbergasted as Rigdon stared at her with a ‘No duh’ expression: like what she just said was common knowledge. “Don’t tell me your world has this too…” She murmured softly, her ears flattening against her head.

“Well, the short answer is yes. The long answer is that we’ve got a WAY better understanding, especially if you’re confined to this archaic piece of equipment. But, then again, I can’t blame you. Humans tend to lean into the more science aspect since we don’t have magic. It does make sense your tools are outdated by our standards since you have magic to do most of the heavy lifting,” He would provide his argument.

Twilight let out a disappointed sigh as she stood there. “How far are we behind with this technology?” She questioned without looking his way.

“About three hundred and sixty-nine years give or take,” He replied bluntly. Twilight wasn’t even surprised at this point. “So, how did the teaching lessons go?” He changed the subject to her day. Twilight’s demeanor quickly switched its enthusiasm back on.

“Oh, well it was great! I mean, it was a bit worrisome going in at first, but everything worked out pretty well! Dimitri is actually progressing along quite fast! Though, with your language being the most spoken in your world, it wouldn’t be out of the question that he’s already picked up some English words.”

“So… I saw a local cafe a few blocks down yesterday. You wanna join me for lunch?” Rigdon would point his thumb back towards the door.

Twilight gave a big smile as she quickly turned back towards the door. “I thought you’d never ask.” She quickly retorted. “It’s on me, though!” She called out as she began to walk away.

Rigdon quickly followed her, his voice quickly calling back at the fleeing unicorn. “Like hell your ass is! I’m paying this time, sparkle butt!”