Favorite Quotes

[Gentian]

This is so her.






Twilight cleared her throat and glanced at something under the table. “So, Lero… does your family have many enemies?” The human blinked in surprise, trading a confused glance with Rainbow.

“Er… enemies?” The unicorn fidgeted nervously.

“Yes… foes, rivals, things like that.” Lero stared for a long second before glancing at Rainbow and receiving a baffled shrug.

“Erm, no, I suppose they don’t. Didn’t. They may now, I have no idea. Doesn’t really seem likely, though.” Rainbow cleared her throat. She knew Lero didn’t especially like to be reminded that he had no way to contact his family.

“Uh, Twilight…” Twilight ignored her, bulling on with a slightly desperate smile.

“Oh! Good! That’s good! So, d-did you destroy them, then?” The unicorn glanced surreptitiously at something under the table. Rainbow had had enough.

“Twilight, what the hay? Where the heck did this come from?” She ducked her head under the table, spotting a piece of parchment that was somehow hovering there, encased in the soft glow of Twilight’s telekinesis even though her horn was dormant. Stretching out a forehoof, the pegasus snatched the parchment, disrupting the spell that held it. Ignoring Twilight’s squeak of dismay, Rainbow pulled the parchment out from under the table to look at it.

“Family enemies…feuds… What the heck, Twilight, it sounds like you’ve been talking to Gilda about her home life or something!” Twilight tried to snatch the list back, her horn glowing as she tugged at it, but Rainbow pinned the bottom of the short scroll to the table with both forehooves and kept reading. “Dude, he doesn’t even live in a cave, you know that!” The next entry made her do an actual doubletake, not quite believing what she’d read at first. The pegasus made a strangled noise, trying not to laugh. “How big is your hoard?” she finally exclaimed, barely managing to keep the guffaws from slipping out. Rainbow grinned at Lero and wiggled her eyebrows with exaggerated lasciviousness. “Well, I mean, it’s not that big, but it’s big enough to get the job done!” Twilight gurgled in embarrassment, her face bright red under her lavender fur. She finally managed to tug the parchment away from Rainbow, and Lero gave the pegasus a reproving look.

“Rainbow. Remember what you asked me to do before we left? Right now kind of applies.” Rainbow blinked, belatedly remembering her request. Oh. Duh. Way to be a jerk and embarrass your date, Rainbow! This was part of the reason she’d been so bad at courting. The human turned to Twilight, who was staring at the table, face still bright red. “Twilight? You okay?”

“Fine,” Twilight said in a tiny voice. Aw, dangit, Rainbow thought, chagrined, I really didn’t mean to humiliate her like that.

“I’m curious,” Lero said gently, “where did you get those questions? They seem a bit… well, not-Equestrian.” Twilight sniffed, peeking up through her pink-streaked forelock.

“Well… it took some looking, but I found this book…” Now Rainbow was curious.

“What kinda book would tell you to ask that?” The unicorn sniffed again.

“It… I… there was only one book on interspecies courting… It didn’t even have sections on everyone, just the ones that were the least ponylike. Griffons, dragons, sea serpents, a couple others. There was even a little section on trolls even if it just said ‘don’t bother,’ but I couldn’t find anything close to human and I just thought…”

“Oh.” Rainbow blinked. “Yeah, I get it, those questions were from…”

“The griffon and dragon sections of the book, yes.” Twilight interrupted. “I thought they might be the right parts, since griffons are omnivores and dragons are patriarchal, and, well, since Lero’s told me humans are omnivorous and patriarchal…” She trailed off.

“Ah, I think I understand. You were looking for an Equestrian analog of human society, right?” Lero asked.

“Yes,” Twilight said, “I mean, thinking about it now, neither one is all that close, but it was all I could find…”