Berry Punch: I hear you met our town’s resident dragon.
Green Grass: Yeah, and Spike too.
The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic comedy/shipping fanfic where the return of Green Grass, the school district's traveling unicorn magic teacher places him in a Sustained Misunderstanding with Twilight Sparkle, who had been teaching the students since her arrival in town. Only the power of friendship (and a certain amount of tinkering from the townsponies) can save the day for them and their students before complete disaster strikes, but maybe there is a little more than friendship in store for the two young teachers.
Considerable innuendo and romantic interference from their friends, family, and (ahem) royal teachers only add to the confusion.
Original story created: Feb 6, 2013
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Accidental Proposal: One simple word spoken wrong by Princess Celestia's Herald leads to Extra! Extra! Read All About It! headlines.
- Action Girlfriend: Twilight is the Element of Magic and multi-time heroine of Equestria. As such, a recurring source of insecurity for Green Grass is why precisely she should fall for him, since he's ultimately a fairly middling traveling teacher with no particular accomplishments to his name.
- Annoying Laugh: Green Grass's arranged fiance, Bee Tress, has a truly astounding braying laugh that draws pained winces at its mere mention and can be heard from most of a town away when she really gets going.Bee tended to start her Laugh with a deep breath, which triggered an instinctual wince in anypony who had been exposed to her for more than a few minutes. Then came the "Hoorach", a raspy, cough-like spasm that seemed to drive a spike of tenor terror from the ears straight down the spine to the tail. Starting fairly high in her substantial vocal range, around C flat, she would then repeat that horrid sound in a glissendo of descending notes, each one nearly a third of an octave apart until all the air had been expelled from her vast lungs at the stentorian bottom range of a note that rattled windows. Only when the victim's brain began to breathe that tiny sigh of relief at the worst being over would she then inhale with a mighty "Hhhhheeeeeaaaaahhhhhppp" and proceed to repeat the process again. And again.
- Arranged Marriage: Green Grass is facing his fate reluctantly, even willing to try a Fake-Out Make-Out with Twilight that winds up being Hoist by His Own Petard.
- Berserk Button: Don't deface a library book around Twilight. Particularly a reference book.
- Catapult Nightmare: Green Grass has a little Fainting problem meeting Princess Celestia, and her sister is glad to Tag Team the poor stallion. This results in a bit of a seesaw where he faints away when he wakes to find himself confront by one Princess and wakes in shock when he finds the other in his dream.
- Did They or Didn't They?: A constant question by Twilight's friends. Mostly answered NO!
- Dream Reality Check: Luna visits Green Grass' dreams often enough that he takes to pinching himself to wake himself up when they're done talking. After a particularly informal discussion with her, he performs the usual check and finds out to his chagrin that That Was Not a Dream.
- Footnote Fever: Footnotes are used liberally to add context to discussions and story incidents and to sneak in extra jokes.
- Innocent Innuendo: A consistent running gag involves characters, usually Twilight or Green Grass, discussing something perfectly innocuous in such a manner that everyone else thinks that they're talking about sex.
- Insecure Love Interest: Green Grass decides he's not good enough for Twilight. Her friends disagree.
- Jewish Mother: Twilight Velvet, who manages to be both a Education Mama as well as a Cooking Mama at the same time.
- Nice Guy: At heart, Green Grass is one of these. He's just in over his head, mostly in the fountain.
- Race for Your Love: Inverted, in that Princess Celestia "suggests" that Green Grass participate in the Running of the Leaves.
- Running Gag: Green Grass is constantly mistaken for a unicorn, due to his job of teaching little unicorns their first magic, and his tendency to wear a hat.
- The Reveal: Most ponies are shocked when they discover the unicorn magic teacher is, in fact, not a unicorn at all, most often when Green Grass takes his hat off.Twilight stared at the tutor in shock and blurted out, "Y-you... where is your horn!"
- Safe Word: Promised by Green Grass, in the form of a required Permission Letter from her parents or Princess Celestia.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: (or Stallion) With all the manipulative ponies Twilight has met, she is not quite certain what to do with one who seems honest for a change.
- The Talk: Inverted, in that Twilight's mother not only has given her the talk, but a test and a study guide.
