It's a brain thing.

by jillswift

2. Developing relationships are painful.

Six young mares and a baby dragon sat around the center table of the library's main floor. Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were gathered close, facing one side of a game board. Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack were gathered close on the other side of the game board. The young dragon watched from beside.

Dice rattled in a small cup, Rarity's light blue magic shaking it as she smiled mischievously at her opponents.

"You're going to get it now, girls." Rarity punctuated her playful threat with a clatter of dice over the board.

All eyes watched the dice expectantly.

"Aha!" "Woohoo!" Rarity and Pinkie Pie shouted their satisfaction with the dice roll. "yay" Was Fluttershy's quintessential response.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged disappointed glances.

"You know," Rainbow said as she turned to Twilight, "the team with you on it usually wins."

Twilight raised an eyebrow and looked disapprovingly at Rainbow Dash. "It does help to occasionally take my advice, Dash. Besides, this game doesn't reward the aggressive player, it rewards the subtle player."

Twilight looked over the board to Fluttershy and smiled. "That's really more in Fluttershy's skill-set than mine, anyway."

The yellow pegasus blushed and hid behind her lovely pink mane.

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and looked grumpy.

As Rarity and Pinkie moved their team's pieces and occasionally removed their opponent's pieces, Spike collected the out-of-play pieces and put them in the game's storage box.

The library's door swung open, a pink magical aura around it.

"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed. "Hello, Tombfly. It's been a while."

Tombfly was frozen in place in the doorway, staring at the collection of friends. Her jaw worked a few times, but she made no sound.

"Tombfly?" Twilight looked concerned.

"I..." The pink unicorn swallowed. "I am sorry. I saw the lights were on. I assumed the library was open. Please forgive me. I'll come back tomorrow." Her speech was quiet and rapid.

"No. It's OK, you're not disturbing us." Twilight tried to comfort the frightened looking unicorn.

"This game's very nearly finished." Rarity explained. "Would you care to join us for the next round?"

Tombfly locked her stare onto Rarity. Again her jaw moved a little, but no words came. She grunted a brief "um".

"Twilight can I please ask Spike to send this letter to the Sun Princess because regular mail is far too slow and I am afraid of losing this claim please," she said so fast that it was a little difficult to understand, all while still staring solidly at Rarity.

Rarity nervously glanced at Twilight.

Tombfly didn't move. The chill night air began to invade the room through the open door. Pinkie Pie looked on the verge of exploding with joy.

"Sure. Please, come in?" Twilight more asked than offered.

Nervously and hesitantly, the pink unicorn stepped into the library and closed the door behind her, finally removing her intense stare from Rarity. Spike hopped off the table and walked up to Tombfly, who levitated the letter into his waiting claws. With a small flourish, the little purple dragon sent the letter on its way.

"Thank you, young master dragon," Tombfly said.

"No sweat." The little fellow replied.

"Please pardon my manners, " Twilight said, turning to her friends. "I'd like you all to meet Tombfly Totentanz. She's an archaeologist and equitologist, doing some field work near town."

Twilight turned back to the shivering Tombfly.

"This is Rainbow Dash, the lead for the local weather crew and fastest pony in Equestria."

"Hey."

"And this is Applejack of Sweet Apple Acres."

"Hey there!"

"Rarity, fashion expert and owner of Carousel Boutique."

"Pleased to meet you, Tombfly."

"That's Fluttershy, animal caretaker and vet."

"H.. hello."

"And this is Pinkie Pie, baker of treats and the best party pony in Equestria."

Pinkie Pie could hold back no longer. Lunging over the table she zipped up close to Tombfly and shook her hoof, causing the pink unicorn to stumble.

"Hi! Are you new here? I bet you're new here, because I don't know you and I know everypony!"

"Pinkie..." Twilight tried to interrupt.

"Welcome to Ponyville! I'm gonna throw you a big welcome party!"

"Oh, Celestia, please no." Tombfly barely squeaked.

"Huh?" Pinkie looked genuinely confused.

Tombfly yanked her hoof out of Pinkie's and stumbled towards the door. Forgetting her magic, she fumbled with the handle, and galloped into the night the second the door swung out of her way.

Pinkie stared after the fleeing unicorn with a open-mouthed look of pure confusion and hurt, her lower lip trembling.

"Pinkie, it's OK." Twilight comforted, coming to stand beside her friend. "Tombfly is a little different. You just overwhelmed her."

"But, it's a party." Pinkie's voice was uncharacteristically reserved. "Everypony loves a party, right?"

"Almost everypony does." Twilight gently observed. "Tombfly doesn't have... well, what you have more than most, Pinkie, she has less."

The pink earth pony looked thoughtful. "Pink? She seemed pretty pink to me."

"Ah, no."

Pinkie thought again, then gasped. "Balloons?"

Twilight looked sideways at her friend, wondering if she did this obtuse thing deliberately.

"She has Asperger's syndrome. Tombfly doesn't handle social situations very well – which is what I meant about you, Pinkie. You've got the best social skills of anypony I can think of. In that, she's kind of your opposite."

Pinkie looked genuinely sad. "Oh." She looked toward her other friends still at the table. "That's why she wouldn't come in."

Twilight nodded.

Pinkie perked up again. "That's OK. I know lots of ways of making ponies feel welcome. I'll bring a smile to her face yet!"

Twilight looked a bit dubious.

"If anyone can manage that, my dear Pinkie, it's certainly you." Rarity nodded approvingly to the party pony.

"Ah don't think ah get it." Applejack cocked her head at Twilight. "Ah mean, she wasn't exactly a shinin' example of bein' personable, but she was polite enough. Even thanked Spike well and proper like."

"As I understand it, AJ, ponies with Asperger's learn to mimic social behavior. Like anypony would learn any given skill."

Pinkie Pie closed the library door and returned to the table. Twilight followed.

"So, it's different from just being shy?" Rainbow asked.

"I... I know what's expected," Fluttershy said, "I'm just nervous about... well, about not being liked."

Twilight smiled at her yellow friend. "Right. Where Tombfly might also be nervous about that, she also has to think about what's expected of her, too. The more ponies she has to deal with at once, the harder it is to for her to keep up. I imagine it can be easy to get overwhelmed."

"Hardly seems fair." Rarity mused. "Some ponies can be awfully judgmental about one's social graces. I can only imagine that she's had a few opportunities closed to her because someone thought her rude or uncouth."

Rarity looked at the door and sighed. "Frankly, and regretfully, I'm likely among those who would have judged her harshly. Simply for not knowing this Asperger's thing existed."

"It's OK, Rarity," Pinkie Pie said with a smile. "It's just a fact that normative ponies are privileged over unnormative ponies and that privilege includes not having to cope with being singled out. That so often makes us blind to the effects of that kind of attention. What counts is when we do learn about something our privilege protects us from, that we include it in our consideration for others. We're all really lucky. We're mostly normative and our exceptions tend toward excellence in things ponies value. Like Applejack and Dashie's athleticism, or Twilight's academics." Pinkie giggled. "Or my parties!"

Five ponies and a small dragon gave Pinkie nonplussed looks.

"What?" Pinkie looked equally perplexed at their looks.

"That was impressively insightful, Pinkie." Twilight complemented.

"Thanks!" Pinkie said with pride.

Comments

[jillswift]

3609973
I look forward to your comments.

[Hopefullygoodgrammar]

I love your OC, I myself have Aspergers and it's nice to see a character who can represent it the right way, which you are definately doing and doing very well.

Please keep up the good work

Also: Gilda....

[SilverStarApple]

This is a masterpiece! Liked and followed.