After school, the girls met in the cafeteria as planned. Applejack, who helped her granny clean the tables and such for the last period, was already there and waiting. "Bout time ya showed up," she teased, tossed an apple into the air. "Ah was startin' ta think ya left er something." She ignored the glares she got and looked at Twilight. "Have ya tried ‘ta tell Mister Cranky the truth yet? On why you were so upset ya got a C?"
Twilight looked at her feet, cupped her hands together. "No..." she admitted, "it...it hadn't crossed my mind."
Applejack gestured towards her, placing the apple back in the little apple bin she stood next too. "There's yer problem, Twi." She came over to the girl and placed a comforting hand upon her shoulder. "Ah'm sure if ya tell him why this got ya so rustled up, he'll understand. Heck, he might even let ya retake it."
Twilight looked up, hope in her eyes. "You really think so?"
"No." The farm girl said, giving Twilight a brief second of shock. "Ah know so. Now, come along. Ah can help get this whole mess cleaned up an forgotten 'fore the activity buses leave." With that, she turned tail and headed out of the cafe, down the hall towards Cranky's class, the other six quickly following after her.
In no time at all, they were outside of Cranky's classroom, the door opened just slightly. Applejack pointedly knocked before letting herself and the rest in, much to the teachers annoyance. "Can I help you?" Cranky asked as he tried to control his tone. He had just started the second stack of late papers and felt interruptions would just slow him down.
"Why, yes, ya can." The farm girl said somewhat respectfully. "Ya see, Twilight here was tellin' us about what happened today, and we all noticed how upset she was. Ah thought--"
"--Is there a point to any of this?" Cranky asked, sliding the paper aside, figuring he wouldn't get anything done with these seven girls here. "Any at all?"
Applejack cleared her throat and tried again, fighting the urge to be as disrespectful to him as he was being to them. "Ah thought," she continued, "that it would make more sense fer you to know what Twi was goin' through." She looked over at the shy girl and saw on her face that she didn't particularly want to talk to her teacher at the moment. So, Applejack decided to explain for her. "Ya see, Twi's been gettin' straight A's since she was in kindergarten--how, is lost ta me, but she's worried that this C will bring down her perfect average." Twilight blushed at this, and Cranky frowned. "She's a real smart girl, Mister Cranky, and, if ah were you, ah'd let her make up the test. Ah'm sure she can answer them questions in ten seconds flat, but only if ya give her a chance."
Cranky raised an eyebrow, then slid the paper he had been working on before backing in front of him. "Mmmmmm..........no." He said simply.
"What?!" All the girls were stunned, minus Rainbow, who thought that explanation AJ gave was a pretty good one; one that, if it had been directed towards Rainbow on why she should enter a fashion show, Rainbow would agree. "What do you mean no?!" Rainbow demanded, gently shoving Applejack out of the way. "What, are you deaf or something? Twilight is obviously upset by this stupid grade, Applejack tells you respectfully and honestly why she's upset, and you still say 'no'? What. The actual--"
"Rainbow, you know....it's...you don't have to freak out over it," Twilight said.
Rainbow turned towards Twilight, determination etched on her face. "No. You know what? We've tried this AJ's way," she said as she gestured towards Applejack, "now we'll try it my way." She turned back towards Cranky and slammed both hands on his desk. He stared at her, unfazed. "If you don't change Twilight's grade to an A, or let her make up that test, I swear, I'll---"
Cranky leaned forward, still unfazed. "Are you trying to threaten me?" He asked. "It might be too late for late assignments to be turned in, but it isn't too late for a day or two of in-school suspension."
Rainbow backed off at this, her face turning a little pink. "Uhhh.....yeah....nevermind, I guess..."
"If you girls will excuse me, I need to catch up on grading these assignments." Cranky pointed towards the door, letting that gesture speak for itself. They left the classroom quickly and silently, closing the door behind them.
Everyone was staring at Rainbow in shock at what she had done, she doing the best trying to ignore the stares. At last, Pinkie spoke up. "Wow, Rainbow. I've never seen you get so uptight about something. Not even sports. What was that?"
Rainbow was silent for quite some time, still embarrassed on what had happened. "I...uh.....I guess I don't like it when teachers act that way. He made Twilight nearly cry--not to mention, get all stressed over this and didn't even care, AJ was being nice and told him why, but he was rude in return. I guess I snapped after that or...something...?"
Rarity thought about that for a moment, then commented that she'd probably do the same, but she didn't want to advert from her lady-like image. "Although...Rainbow's 'way' did give me somewhat of an idea..." she said, more to herself than the others.
"Oh! Me too!!" Pinkie chimed in.
"Stay right here," Rarity instructed, "I need to fetch my makeup bag." She ran down the hallway, Pinkie bouncing behind her.