The Lesson [2/5]

It was hard to learn French when Twilight’s mind kept wandering towards Rarity. It was hard to memorize verbs and conjugations when her heart was completely focused on making her remember instead the way the unicorn smiled, how she laughed, how she moved, how everything.

Twilight was sure ‘rareté’ must mean perfection in French because that’s what she was.

Twilight looked up towards one of the nearby library tables, and watched as Rarity listened to her personal tutor. The elder mare was completely engrossed in her lecture, her nose stuck inside her book, whereas Rarity seemed to be quite occupied jotting down notes.

Good! Twilight thought, looking back to her book. The Princess had been making great progress with her intensive English lessons, and Twilight was very pleased about it. Soon, they’d know each other’s language as well as their own, and—

Thonk!

Twilight blinked, having been pulled back to reality by… a paper plane? She looked around, her eyes resting on the only possible culprit, who was now very attentively paying attention to her professor. Frowning, Twilight picked up the paper airplane, unfolded it and giggled at a very lovely drawing of a familiar silver unicorn sleeping away at her desk while her professor droned on and on.

When Twilight looked back up, Rarity was now looking at her, an absolutely innocent look on her face, and when Twilight frowned at her, the unicorn reacted by pulling back, a hoof on her chest.

Moi? What did I do? Je suis innocente!

“Well then! I think that settles it for today!” Professor Inkwell exclaimed, closing the book and standing up. “Any last questions, Princess?”

“Non, ça v—”

“Princess…”

Rarity nodded and cleared her throat. “No, I am fine for now, Professor.”

“Good!” The professor gathered her things and after a few parting words and a bow to both princesses, she left the library.

Once he was gone, Rarity made her way towards Twilight, placing her forelegs on the table and letting out a theatric sigh. “Je te jure, j’en ai marre de—”

“Rarity…”

Rarity frowned at Twilight, and with a flash of her horn, a notebook appeared next to her. She opened it up, flicked through several pages, read for a moment and then looked back at Twilight. “I am so very tired of these classes, Twilight.”

“That doesn’t mean you should be drawing during them,” Twilight reminded.

Rarity harrumphed. “Well! Equestria is…. Euh… attend…” Another jolt of magic and a dictionary levitated to her, which she promptly opened and read through… “Equestria is… is… undeserving? Undeserving! Of mes talents artistiques!”

“My artistic talents.”

Rarity playfully rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes… Twiliiiight,” she added with a whine. “Can’t you be my professeur? You are so much more fun than Miss Inkwell, and…” She fluttered her eyelashes. “You can teach me so many things…”

Twilight felt a blush creep up her face. “Rarity, we tried that. It didn’t end well, remember?” she replied, looking back to her book. “I think that was the first time I’ve ever been banned from the library for being too loud.” When Rarity whined again, Twilight pushed her book towards the princess. “Why don’t you get your book and we can continue our reading?”

That was yet another one of Twilight’s ideas on helping Rarity. Both would read the same book in the language of the other, and that way they could not only practice new languages, but they had something in common to discuss.

“No, I have a better idea!” Rarity proclaimed. She got up, sat herself right next to Twilight, their coats brushing, and said, “You read, and I listen, d’accord?”

Twilight snorted. “No, you read, and I listen, d’accord? Don’t look at me like that! It’s a simple book! And it’s fun, too, about a phantom princess locked in a library and, well, the author does tend to drag on a lot in some chapters, but it’s bearable.” She pushed the book towards Rarity. “Allez, Princesse.”

“Fine…” Rarity cleared her throat, sat up and read aloud, “Triple Diamant ne croyait pas aux contes de fées.”

“The English version.”

“Twiiiiiliiiight….”