“Now what?” Lily asks.

“You go back without me.”

Lily and Honolu-loo each take a step back in surprise. “What?” Honolu-loo finally asks.

“Cutesaurus obviously knows there’s more out there than this oasis. If the buffalo have legends about her, then they’ve interacted at some point in the past. If she wishes to live her life, here, away from civilization, who are we to tell her she can’t?”

“But why aren’t you coming back with us?” Lily asks.

“Because I’ve waited my whole life for something like this. She’s a real, living, breathing dinosaur. I need to befriend her. It… it’s what my cutie mark is telling me. I can study her, and maybe someday I’ll learn her language. Island Rainbow at the university is a linguist. Please ask her to join me in Appleloosa at her earliest convenience. All you have to do to convince her is that I found something that might crack the Proto-Pony language.”

“We’ll miss you.”

“Don’t worry, Lily, I’ll come home periodically, and you’re always welcome to visit me here.”

Author's Note

Story notes: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1041675/story-notes-the-legend-of-cutesaurus