The Truth About Girls (Vol. 1)

by TheMareWhoSaysNi

The Strange Secrets of a Reputation (part 2)

They all had hoped this would be nothing but a flash in the pan, and that a day alfresco spent away from school would scatter the flames of the rumor. After all, at the era of digital technologies, a news chased another news in the speed of light, and many things could happen in only one day.

Rainbow Dash had invited Pinkie Pie to sleep at her house, and the teenage girl had a very hard time trying to convince her best friend. In order to achieve this, she had to play with her emotions, relying on the shock it had been for her to attend funerals, and if there was something she hated, it was to trick her own friends with her weaknesses.

Yet, sure it was a good solution to comfort her, she had played that card all the same, and it happened to be the right strategy. They both had visited the students house Pinkie Pie was living in on her own, and they had picked a few things she needed for the next morning.

Despite all her efforts, she hadn’t much been able to cheer the young woman up. Yet, she had gone as far as buying loads of sugar treats for the personal use of her guest, who barely ate them, and even her attempt at a Raritysmopolitan had failed – partly because even when following Rarity’s instructions to the letter, she had been unable to prepare a cocktail worthy of a name.

Seeing Pinkie Pie discouraged always was a bit scary for Rainbow Dash. She’d seen her on the verge of doing a big mistake, she knew she could be as fragile as herself, though most of the time her sunny mood was in no way simulated, conversely to her who could display remarkable skills in acting.

These rumors were odious, yet they leaned on a part of reality. Pinkie Pie had never sold drugs, and if she really possessed a switchblade back to this dark period, she had never harmed anyone with it. It was a period during which she’d lost all her landmarks, and, on the verge of a ravine, she’d tried to survive. This couldn’t be blamed against her, like grudges couldn’t be held against Sunset Shimmer for the past mistakes which she kept on tormenting herself about.

As soon as the two young women arrived at school on Rainbow Dash’s scooter, they quickly noticed that far from being quietened, the rumor had turned heavy. This plague now reached the students from the other classes, who eyed her with disgust or dread, and whispered things as they passed them by.

If no one tried to harm her physically, Rainbow Dash knew it was because she also was dreaded a lot. None of them wanted to take the risk to have to deal with Canterlot’s female lacrosse team’s captain.

They met their other friends in the corridors, in the middle of this very tensed mood. As soon as they saw them, Applejack, Twilight, Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer dragged them to the washroom, where they thought they would be alone so early in the morning.

It wasn’t completely true, since young girls of ninth grade had taken refugee here, and Rainbow Dash, short-tempered since she’d arrived, chased them unceremoniously.

“Now, what’s happening?”, she asked while sitting on the rim of a washstand.

“Something serious”, Twilight answered.

She took her Notebook out of her bag, and opened it on an Internet page. It was a Muzzlebook account with a personal picture of Pinkie Pie at Middle School, painted red roughly. On the screen were displayed many messages of the same material than the chain message all the eleventh grade had received on the previous day.

“Who’d dared doing such a disgusting thing?”, Rainbow Dash yelled.

“We don’t know”, Fluttershy answered.

“I’ve tried to go back to the IP address but it’s too complicated”, Twilight added. “I could ask Shining Armor to use the police technology in order to uncover the culprit’s identity.”

“Wait, you don’t know what’s worse”, Sunset Shimmer bid.

“Because there’s worse?”

“Eeyup. Ya ain’t seen anythin’ yet.”

“The messages on the Muzzlebook account go farther than the chain did. It says that Pinkie Pie…”

“Is worse than a nanny goat in the middle of the mating season.”

“And for a lot of money.”

“It’s so horrible”, Fluttershy finished.

They all turned to her, flabbergasted. When they met, she had just started a job as an escort and wanted to go all the way, hoping it would help her to be more sociable, and now she acted as if this idea was unbearable… what, in retrospect, was certainly the case. Out of their personal experience, they all knew that despair could push anyone to do awkward things.

The most horrible about all this, was that this one rumor was a complete fabrication. Pinkie Pie’s parents fulfilled her needs by paying her rent and by sending her money for many of her expenses. She was often paid when she planned a party, although it was never with loads of banknotes, and along with the help she provided to the Cakes, it was enough to make her live rather comfortably.

Well, for sure, she liked boys and boys liked her too, in general. She was a young woman who liked to be attractive and had no personal issues with flirts and even though she was in the league of the girls who’d taken the plunge, along with Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer, it was insulting to call her ‘easy’.

It was a problematic exaggeration to let others think she was renting her charms.

Since she had arrived in school, Pinkie Pie hadn’t opened her mouth. Leaning against one of the toilet’s door, she kept her head low and scrubbed the floor with her feet. They all knew her very well and knew what it meant when she wasn’t at the maximum of her shape.

She usually never remained silent. Even in class, she participated more than any other students because she couldn’t stand a hour-long with nothing to say.

“We should be heading to class before we’re going to be late”, she said, lifting her head, with a weak smile on her suddenly pale face.

“But…”

Applejack put a hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder and made a silent ‘no’ with her head. It was Pinkie Pie’s choice not to say a word and to act as if she wasn’t feeling hurt, and they had to respect it.

The usual restlessness and sweet mood of the group at a standstill, they all went to their classroom in the most absolute of silence, circling Pinkie Pie, like trying to be her shield. The gazes upon her were unbearable, but they knew better than making a scene in front of everyone.

The first hour of class happened in a relative quietness. For the first time since always, Pinkie Pie didn’t participate orally. She only wrote in her notebook, never meeting anyone’s eyes in the process.

It was impossible to be liked by everyone, that was a fact, but what she loved the most out of her family and her friends was to give away happiness. In the morning, she always had nice words for those who were too tired, she gave smiles never expecting something in return, and each time she would try a new recipe for cakes, she always did her best to bring samples for the others.

She’d never hurt anyone in CHS. This past was behind her now and she never wanted to go back there. In fact, when she thought about it, she was overwhelmed by guilt and remorse. It looked so far from who she truly was…

Today she was rewarded with scorn and dread. That not even one person would give her the benefit of the doubt was the most offensive things of all.

Her heart squeezed by the end of the class, since Pinkie Pie knew that between two teachers, there always was five minutes free when students were chatting together. Usually this was the moment she liked the most, today it made cold sweat running along her neck.

A sheet of paper appeared on her table. When she looked around her, she couldn’t find where it came from, but some adamant eyes sang the melody of secret.

With shaky hands, she unfolded the message, and her eyes opened wide under the shock. Immediately, chuckles resounded from almost everywhere.

Pinkie Pie begged for none of her friends to take notice.

They all took notice, and Rainbow Dash, right in front of her, turned around, frowning, with the flame of determination in her eyes. Before she could even do anything to struggle, she had taken the piece of paper destined for her.

On it were written the words ‘slut’ and ‘liar’ in capital letters. So, this was what was making them all chuckle this way? They think it was funny to think out of someone’s distress? She knew Applejack was right, and that letting her anger explode wasn’t a good solution, yet this type of attitude had a gift for making her blow her fuse.

Rainbow Dash sat up and hit her table with her fist, which made everyone jump and look in her direction.

“Does it make you laugh; you bunch of morons?! Would you laugh so much if you were in her shoes?! So, what? No one to be a smartass, now? Come on, have the courage of your opinions! It’s easy to talk behind backs and to reel dirty words not even trying to know whether it’s true or not. What are you? A bunch of brainless pigeons?”

“Dash, calm down, please”, Twilight said softly, taking her by the sleeve.

But she rejected her friend. The way they all treated Pinkie Pie who always wanted them to feel happy had sharpened some old anger she’d kept from the depth of her guts. People could have all the condescendence of the world towards those with mental diseases but at least the girls she had known back in Green Haven had the courage to say it when they didn’t love someone.

In the classroom, no one dared to do or say anything anymore. The literature teacher coming cut short the sudden tension of the place.

They’d been saved by the bell, but if they thought they could get away with it so easily, they all were wrong. Since trying to ignore them had no effect whatsoever, she was going to make things her way. The first who would speak bad about Pinkie Pie in her presence would have to deal with her. In fact, Rainbow Dash hoped her friends would follow, despite Twilight’s reasonable side and Fluttershy’s timidity.

The teacher had barely put his bag on his desk that Pinkie Pie was lifting her hand up.

“Yes, Pinkamena?”

Most of the teachers called her with her complete name and it usually didn’t bother anyone, nonetheless today, it added electricity to the hostility floating in the air.

“I’m not feeling very well. Can I go to the nursery, please?”

“Well… Yes, of course. Twilight Sparkle, go with her, will you?”

“Yes, Sir.”

It was nothing special that Twilight was the one chosen. Being the Student’s representative, it even was one of her potential responsibilities.
In fact, the teenage girl thought it was for the best that she was the one who would accompany Pinkie Pie, since she knew Rainbow Dash was thin-skinned, and she feared her anger would sharpen the young woman’s desolation. She knew Pinkie Pie well… surely, she was feeling guiltier now she knew her best friend would set herself against the entire class in order to defend her honor.

-------------------------------------------------

The day before, Pinkie Pie had spent all her day entrenched in the nurse office and hadn’t even gone out to lunch. She had gone home immediately after class, letting Rainbow Dash on her own for the lacrosse practice. Without her most precious ally, this sport she was fond of didn’t have the same flavor.

In fact, when the group was deprived of their small ball of energy, something lacked, like a limb necessary for survival to an amputee.

The five girls didn’t know how long this situation was going to last. With the funerals taken into account, it had been three days and it already was unbearable. Something had to be done for it not to stay this way.

Little by little, Pinkie Pie lost her smile, and what everyone feared, it was her to fall back into certain bad habits. Sometimes, when everybody insisted on a person being bad, this person turned bad for real.

If glances and whispers seemed to have decrease, it was only because no one wanted to face Rainbow Dash, but they knew that, when her back was on them, discussions went on and were more and more deformed. The fact there were not a single voice except theirs to speak against this injustice brought them back to bad memories.

The same thing had happened in Middle School, when Twilight had been bullied for her intellectual abilities.

Maybe they should ask help to Vice-Principal Luna to settle the matter once and for all. She was less occupied with administrative processes than her sister Celestia, and knew how to listen to the students. If she came in classes to speak about the importance not to believe anything that’s on the Web without reliable sources, it could help things to get fixed.

Meanwhile, they had to deal with a deflated Pinkie Pie, morally and hairy speaking, and they kept on defending her at the least occasion. For nothing in the world would they let their friend down. They were like a family, there for one another through thick and thin and anything along their way.

The gang of friends was still in the corridors when Celestia’s voice resounded through the speakers of the main building.

“Students Twilight Sparkle and Pinkamena Diane Pie are asked to come immediately to my office.”

They all looked at each other, fear painted on their faces. It never was a good sign when Celestia summoned you first thing in the morning. Generally, for problems related to grades like it had been the case for Twilight a few weeks earlier, the appointment was made in advance, in order to allow the student to get prepared. Undoubtedly, what was happening was serious, and linked to the rumors spread all over school.

Their throats caught in a vice, the two girls left their friends, who they promised to tell everything between two classes, to get to the Principal’s office. Because she was feeling as tensed as Pinkie Pie right now, she grabbed her hand and they both walked together this way.
They didn’t care if they looked at them… They could speak if they wanted, but Twilight couldn’t let her friends in such a state without providing a bit of comfort, as much as she could, and that was how she could. Although she was also trying to comfort herself with this action.

In front of the office, they sighed deeply at the same time before the blue-haired teenage girl knocked three times on the door. Principal Celestia’s serene and soft voice resounded at the other side, intimating them to step in and to close the door behind them.

She was sitting behind her desk, busy sorting out papers, and welcomed them with a smile so full of benevolence their both hearts thumping together on the same rhythm calmed down. No matter what she would say to them, they knew it would be said with diplomacy and that she wouldn’t try to offend their feelings.

It wasn’t big, but it was something anyway.

“I suppose you girls know the reason I summoned you here”, Celestia started with a firm yet warm voice.

Pinkie Pie and Twilight only nodded.

“Luna and I are determined to find the origin of the rumor, even if it must take time. It’s unacceptable such things are happening in our school. Canterlot High advocates friendship and harmony between our students. It had taken us a lot of efforts to erase the power of cliques and to make sure a spirit of solidarity to prevail over the rest, it’s not to let these virtues crumble at the first gut. Of course, everything isn’t perfect… However, we do our best for what to happen in other schools not to happen here. This is why I’m so bothered about this matter…”

There were real reasons behind the respect both Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna inspired to teachers and students. They had great wisdom, always fair and understanding, but they didn’t let people walk over them neither. When they applied their authority, no one dared to call their decisions into question. For some, they were role models, a landmark…

Twilight saw in them the person she wanted to become in the future, and for Pinkie Pie they were some kind of surrogate mothers, since she was so far from her family she only saw them twice a year when they stopped by Canterlot in order to visit her.

“I’ve been called by PTA. The rumors had reached their ears and they demand an investigation to separate fact from fiction.”

“It’s a good thing, isn’t it?”, Twilight asked.

“In a certain way, it is. It will allow us to put a light on all this dark matter, and to clear Pinkie Pie, because I’m convinced these rumors are false.”

Finally, there seem to have someone outside her bunch of friends to believe her. It felt like ointment on a wound. Yet, the teenage girl guessed that behind this small victory was hiding another mountain to climb, something to get her out of breath anyway. The fact she was expecting it wouldn’t change her fate, but at least, she could get prepared to another hard blow.

And it didn’t wait to come and hit her full face.

“But while it hadn’t been proved that Pinkie Pie doesn’t take drugs, or sell them during the parties she plans, that she doesn’t have a knife and most importantly, that she’s not a prostitute, unfortunately, I have to suspend her. PTA is really angry… I don’t have the choice. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I understand.”

Yes, it could sound unfair, especially as she was presumed innocent until proven otherwise, but in all Equestria’s schools, PTA ruled the roost. Often composed of the most socially influent parents, making donations to the school, they had their word to say in every Celestia and Luna’s decisions, and many were more than happy to assert their rights and opinions.

Technically speaking, Rainbow Dash’s father was a part of it, but his influence couldn’t be taken into account in order to help Pinkie Pie, since he never attended the meetings and only gave loads of money… In short, what he already did with his daughter.

Pinkie Pie accepted her fate without debate and even thanked Celestia for her patience with her. That was why Twilight did the same. If the person in question refused to call into question the decision about her, she had to respect her choice.

The class had already started, so ruined for ruined, she decided to accompany her friend to the gate. None of them two found the strength to utter a single word until they had reached their destination.

“Thanks for everything, Twilie. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. Celestia’s going to prove it all wrong very quickly and soon I’ll be back with you guys. Just keep on smiling until then.”

“I promise I’m going to try… but it won’t be the same without you.”

Twilight wasn’t the kind of person to let emotions easily get the best of her. It wasn’t out of sheer modesty. Putting things into perspective and defusing a situation was her specialty, her role inside this group. Pinkie Pie’s role was to bring joy and comfort through her madness and cheerfulness, and it was what made this short separation so hard.

Of course, they would still see each other out of school, but something told the young woman her friend would probably want to be left alone until she was cleared, in order not to risk to stain the reputation of her band indirectly.

Before she definitely went through the gate of the school, Twilight embraced one last time the teenage girl, and they both left each other without turning around.

She made the way back to her class with dragging feet. She had this unpleasant sensation of emptiness again, just like when she almost broke forever the bond between her and her friends because her grades had decreased. It was distasteful, and she didn’t know how to get rid of this feeling.

Especially as she knew the others wouldn’t take the news well. Because of this, she tried to postpone as much as possible the moment when she’d have to step into her class again, but on her own.

Sitting on the floor of the corridor, she stared at the hands of the clock hung above the door, ticking as slowly as the moon rose…

When the bell rang, Twilight realized she’d spent the rest of the hour staring at time going by with a knot bigger and bigger growing inside her stomach… Now was the time to step on the scene… She couldn’t allow herself to miss another class, especially as it could worry her friends even more.

As soon as they saw her crossing the doorstep, the girls rushed in her direction. Like expected, they all wanted to know where Pinkie Pie was, and why the hell she had taken so much time.

If she didn’t want to answer to the second question, she was obliged to explain them as far as the first question was concerned. They would end up realizing the problem, anyway.

She told them broadly what their discussion with Principal Celestia had been about and the reason why Pinkie Pie wouldn’t come back within the next hour, nor even tomorrow. An investigation of this kind could take time…

“But it’s almost the end of the semester”, Fluttershy said sadly. “What if she was held back in eleventh grade because of this and couldn’t be with us next year?”

This perspective, which no one had thought of until then, created a wave of panic that went through the faces of each of the girls.

Rainbow Dash didn’t utter a word, and went back to her desk. If her silence was unequivocal, her eyes weren’t outdone. She stared at all of the students, her jaw clenched, frowning. It seemed she would eat up alive whoever dared coming too close.

They all were the blame. They had dragged Pinkie Pie’s name in the mud, had stepped on her and wiped their feet on her head. She was charity and openhandedness incarnated, she treated everyone the same nice way and was benevolent with anyone she met… They didn’t deserve the attention she’d paid to them until now. They didn’t even deserve to breath the same air than her.

When the whole matter would be cleared, they’d better apologize to Pinkie Pie, whoever they were. They would even be lucky if she ever forgave them what they did to her.

The most outrageous thing about this was that she knew her friend would be able to forgive them without them to even do anything for it, because that was the way she was.

Fine. She, Rainbow Dash, would make sure they all would repent toward her best friend, even if she had to quarrel with every one of them for this.

That was a risk to take when her family was attacked.

Comments

[PinkDiamond67]

Poor pinkie

So much fucking drama is not good for pinkie

[Snake1000]

Those bastards!

[Dusk_Writer]

I feel bad for the rest of the students…they messed with Pinkie, and that's a bad idea when you've got friends like hers.