//------------------------------// // “You’re so random,” // Story: Smile // by pandaxxus //------------------------------// “I’m telling y’all, for the last time, she isn’t imaginary!” Applejack yelled at her two friends. It was a normal Monday morning in Canterlot Elementary and class began in five minutes. Her third grade teacher Mrs. Moon Blossom was kind enough to let children bring in snacks to eat fifteen minutes before class. This was just enough time to tell Rarity and Pinkie Pie about her new friend, Rainbow Dash, who she had just met over the weekend. However, her excitement disappeared when neither of the girls believed her. She hadn't even gotten the chance to even tell them about her yet. "Applejack. Look, I'm sorry I wasn't able to hang out yesterday. My mother offered to teach me how to curl my hair on my own and I just couldn't pass up the chance! If I knew you were that lonely I would have asked her if we could do it another time." Rarity said, looking at her nails. Rarity was an eight year old girl with big dreams of becoming a famous fashion designer. She had purple hair that was curled by her mother most of the time and blue eyes. Rarity had always put effort and thought into every outfit she picked, and always carried a bedazzled notebook with some drawings of dresses she designed. She wanted her designs to be known all across the country! Many grownups don't seem to take her dream seriously and neither do her classmates! However, Applejack and Pinkie Pie support and encourage her to do her best, which is why she is glad to have them as friends. Apart from that, Rarity is very generous. She had once given up her favorite necklace for a classmate who was upset that everyone had forgotten about their birthday. It was sad to see the necklace go but at least her classmate wasn't sad anymore, even if the necklace was only available for a limited time in her favorite cereal box. "Ohh, so that’s why you're wearing that giant bow today! You probably accidentally burned-" a young Pinkie Pie began before Rarity stuffed a biscuit in her mouth. "That is quite enough, Pinkie Pie," Rarity said between her teeth. "Mmm, did you put syrup on this?" Pinkie asked with her mouth full. Rarity rolled her eyes and adjusted her bow, which totally wasn't hiding a missing lock of hair. Pinkie Pie was a normally happy eight and a half year old girl. She had bright blue eyes, light pink skin, and very curly pink hair. She just wanted to share her excitement with everyone, but it seemed as if no one seemed to get it. Her family was always "too busy" to come to one of her parties, and when they did, they never seemed to have any fun! She also notices that people laugh when she says or does things, they aren't laughing with her, they're laughing at her. That makes her upset most of the time, and she doesn't know how long she could keep faking things. Luckily, she has her friends who never fail to make her smile. "Ugh! If ya'll just listen to me for two seconds I can explain-" Applejack was beginning to get angry with her friends. There was only two minutes left before class began, and wouldn't be able to see her friends at lunch. Rarity even had something to do after school. There was a large chance she wouldn't be able to talk to her friends until the next day. She glared as Pinkie had interrupted her for the fifth time. "Applejack, its okay to have imaginary friends. Once, Maud couldn't come to my 'Good Job on finding your 523rd rock for your rock collection' party and I had to create an imaginary friend to share all of the cake that I made. His name was Joe! I think I ended up liking Joe a little bit too much because I tried to give him a kiss on the cheek for being so nice to me. But guess what! I ended up kissing the cake instead!" Pinkie began laughing but stopped after seeing her friend's worried expressions. She may have said that last part a little louder than expected, because she noticed the table next to her laughing and pointing at her. One even asked if she wanted to marry the biscuit he was eating. Applejack knew that everyone would hear about this by lunchtime, and was worried for her friend who sank into her seat. "Okay class! Time to clean up and get out your writing books!" The teacher suddenly shouted. At this point, Applejack had completely given up on telling her friends about Rainbow dash, and grumbled while pulling her notebook out of her desk. Lunch was humiliating for Pinkie Pie. When going into her cubby to grab her lunchbox, she noticed some kid had given her a love letter. “Dear Pinkie Pie, You are the love of my life. We just have to hang out more! How about today, after school? Don’t forget to save me a kiss or two after. *wink wink* Love, Cake. “ Pinkie crushed the paper into a ball and glared at two boys who were giggling and making kissy faces at her. Her face became hot and red like a tomato. She quickly grabbed her lunchbox and took a seat in the cafeteria. Applejack wasn’t able to join their table today, so she talked with Rarity while eating lunch. They were interrupted many times by classmates poking fun at Pinkie. By recess, her curly messy hair had somehow turned perfectly straight, and there was no trace of a smile on her face. Pinkie was tired of everyone laughing at her, she was tired of being rejected, she was tired of pretending to smile. Today was the final straw. Everyone thought that the happy and weird Pinkie was a joke, and her parents thought it was a phase. Maybe she would do everyone a favor by not smiling ever again. She wouldn’t do anything that she’d normally do ever again. That didn’t seem that hard, right? No one will laugh at her anymore and she wouldn’t have to see her family be annoyed with her every time she asked them to come to her random parties. She stopped thinking for a moment to listen to Rarity. “I’m sorry I can’t go outside today Pinkie. Mrs. Moon Blossom wanted to speak with me about my fashion show I’m planning. I think I finally have enough volunteers that want to model!” Rarity squealed and hugged her pink friend, “Cheer up! Trust me, people will forget about this by tomorrow.” Pinkie watched her fashionista friend walk out of the cafeteria and went outside. She didn’t feel like playing, and neither of her friends were around. After walking around the playground for a while she found a bench to sit on. She watched the other kids playing and laughing with each other. Pinkie wished she could do the same, but she knew she would just get laughed at more. “Um...hey? You okay?” a raspy voice caused Pinkie to nearly fall off of the bench. “Sorry! You just looked kind of...lonely...? Yeah, I think that’s the way to put it.” the voice said. Pinkie Pie looked up to see a girl with rainbow hair, light blue skin, and magenta eyes staring at her. She hadn’t seen this girl before, she must be new. “Oh, me? I’m fine.” Pinkie said, looking down. “Yeah...no you aren’t.” the girl said, sitting down next to her, “What’s up?” Pinkie didn’t know how or why this girl decided to sit with her, and she didn’t know if she should really tell her anything either. “Nothing, really. Um...are you new?” Pinkie asked the rainbow haired girl. “Oh, yeah. The principal offered to show my mom and me around the school today, and I get to see what recess is like now,” the girl replied, “But I don’t really see myself playing that much so...” When hearing that Pinkie might have a new classmate, she would jump up and down and tell the girl how amazing the classroom is or how the stickers Mrs. Moon Blossom give smell like chocolate. However, Pinkie is a new person and she doesn’t do that anymore. “Cool.” Pinkie said in a robot-like tone, not making eye contact with the new student. “Did something happen? Am I bothering you or something?” the girl asked, looking down and frowning, “Seriously, I’ll leave you alone if you want me to. I won’t be mad.” Pinkie suddenly felt bad for the new girl. She did have some experience in making people smile, so she could also tell when something is bothering someone. She could tell by the tone in her voice that people may have told her to “leave them alone” often. “No! No, no, no. You’re not the problem, I promise.” Pinkie said quickly, looking at the girl. “You’re sure?” the rainbow haired girl asked getting ready to stand up, “I’ll totally leave if I am annoying you.” “No, you’re fine. I’m just sad for a different reason.” Pinkie said sadly. “Well...do you want to talk about it? I kind of just learned that once you get things off of your chest, you’ll feel a lot better.” the girl said, scratching the back of her head awkwardly. Pinkie looked at the girl and thought about what she just said. How would she know anything about what she was going through? She probably doesn’t know what it feels like to be laughed at, or rejected so many times. However, maybe she would feel better after talking about it. “It’s just...no one likes me. I’m always being laughed at because of how I act. Not even my family takes me seriously!” Pinkie shouted, but not too loud, “I wish I could just be normal. Then maybe people would like me.” The girl looked at Pinkie with a weird look on her face. It seemed like a look of shock mixed with...well Pinkie didn’t know how to put it. “Well...do you have friends?” the rainbow haired girl asked after a few moments, and received a nod from Pinkie. “I have two really really good friends. They never laugh at me.” Pinkie smiled. “You have a nice smile, you should do it more.” the girl said looking at Pinkie, “and at least you have friends that care about you. What about your family? They can’t be that bad.” “My parents are rock scientists and my sisters all want to follow in their footsteps. I always like to throw parties and tell jokes, but everyone thinks I’m annoying. The one that gets me most angry is my dad. He once told me that I’d grow out of this ‘phase’ one day. It gets me so mad...I just hate him sometimes!” Pinkie balled her hands into fists, but calmed down when she saw the girl’s eyes widen. “Woah. I know he might make you mad but don’t ever say you hate your dad. Really, there are so many kids out there that wish they could even see their dad.” she said, her tone changing dramatically, “But hey, when you throw parties and tell jokes, does it make you happy?” “Very! I like seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces, especially when they are sad.” Pinkie said smiling a little. “Okay then. Keep doing it! As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters. Don’t change yourself just because people laugh at you. Smile back.” the rainbow haired girl said. Pinkie thought about what the girl had said. She realized she was right, so what if everyone laughs at her? Pinkie smiled much more now and hugged the girl. “Thank you.” She said. “Um...your welcome...I guess.” The girl said awkwardly. Suddenly Pinkie began to notice something. This rainbow haired girl just told her to smile more, but throughout this whole conversation, she hadn’t seen her smile once! “Hey, why don’t you smile?” Pinkie asked the new student, who simply stared into her blue eyes. “Oh me? No...I don’t smile too often. I never have a reason to smile.” She said. Pinkie was stunned. Who doesn’t have a reason to smile?! After this whole thing about smiling, she doesn’t want to? “Don’t be a hippo crate.” Pinkie said, crossing her arms. “A hippo....crate? What?” The girl asked, very confused. “I think my mom said it once. But you really should smile more! Smiling is fun!” Pinkie said. The girl mumbled something that Pinkie didn’t quite hear, but her focus quickly went onto something else. She looked at the girl’s multi-colored hair. It was kind of messy, but it fit her. She had bangs that were long enough to almost cover her eyes. However, Pinkie was more intrigued at the color, or colors, of her hair. “Hey...your hair reminds me of that cereal, Fruity Hoops, I ate this morning. Did you dunk your head in a bowl of it or something? I wanna try, maybe I can have rainbow hair! But the milk...it might make my hair smell funny. Does your hair smell funny?” Pinkie sniffed the girl’s hair, “No...it doesn’t. It smells like vanilla. Do you have vanilla milk?” The girl couldn’t help but laugh at Pinkie’s rant, “You’re so random. I like it.” “Ha! I made you smile! I made you smile! I, Pinkie Pie, have made you smile!” Pinkie said jumping up, her hair turning back into its curly state. “How did you do that?” The girl said, pointing at her hair. “Do what?” Pinkie asked innocently. “Nevermind.” the girl said, puzzled, “So your name’s Pinkie Pie?” “Yup! What’s your name? Ooh! Can I guess?” Pinkie almost yelled, now bouncing around the bench. “Uhh...sure.” the girl replied, she seemed surprised with Pinkie’s energy. “Um...Watermelon Twist? Solar Dazzle? Skittles? Sunny Rays?” Pinkie shouted names very quickly. “Wow that’s a lot of names-wait Skittles?” the girl raised an eyebrow at Pinkie. “What? I had to try.” The girl giggled, “Well you’re wrong. It’s not any of them.” “Can I have a hint?” Pinkie pleaded. “Um...it has something to do with my hair.” “Ooh! Rainbow Shine? Rainbow Dazzle?” “Nope!” the girl grinned. “Ugh! I give up!” Pinkie was practically on her knees as she dramatically sighed. The girl looked at Pinkie and giggled, “My name’s Rainbow Dash. Happy?” “Rainbow Dash? I like it! Since we’re friends, can I call you Dashie?” Pinkie asked innocently. “Friends? Really?” Rainbow Dash seemed to be a little uncomfortable, but Pinkie had just assumed she was nervous. She nodded her head quickly. “Well...I...I guess you can call me that. I’ve never really been given a nickname before.” Rainbow hesitated. “Yay! Why is your face all frowny? Aren’t you excited?” Pinkie asked, throwing an arm around her new friend. “For what?” “Wait until you meet my friends! They’re going to love you!” “Oh...yay...more people.” Rainbow Dash grimaced, her mood suddenly changing. “That’s the spirit!” Pinkie cheered, not noticing Rainbow’s sarcasm, “When are you going to come for real?” “Um...in about a day or two. After getting the tour my mom and I get to talk to my teacher, which should be around after school lets out.” “Who’s the teacher?” “Mrs. Moon Blossom.” Pinkie gave a dramatic gasp and hugged her new friend. “I take it you’re in her class?” Rainbow strained, Pinkie hugged really tight. “Uhh Yeah! I can’t wait!” Pinkie shouted. The school bell suddenly rang, indicating that recess was over. Pinkie frowned and was sad to see her new friend leave. “I think I see my mom, I gotta go.” Rainbow Dash looked at Pinkie. “Okie dokie. One more thing. Thank you again!” Pinkie hugged her one last time. “For what?” “For making me feel better silly!” “Oh...right. It was nothing.” Rainbow Dash blushed a little, but turned when she heard her mother call for her, “I’ll see you soon I guess.” As Pinkie watched her friend run off, she decided it would be a good idea to say goodbye one last time, very loudly. “BYE DASHIE!!” Rainbow turned around with widened eyes, and timidly waved back before going back inside. When heading back into class, kids still made jokes about Pinkie being in relationships with various desserts. However, she didn’t seem to be as bothered. She remembered what Dashie said, and she smiled and laughed at their jokes. Her friends were relieved to see Pinkie back to her old happy, goofy, self. Applejack had gotten worried when Rarity told her about her hair straightening. Pinkie did seem upset that she wouldn’t be able to tell her friends about her new friend. Rarity and Applejack were busy after school, and she had a doctor’s appointment the next day! She couldn’t wait until Dashie did come however, she seemed kind of down the whole time. Maybe when she came Pinkie can make her happy! That sounded like a great idea. She wanted to make people smile more. And that is exactly what she was going to do, whether they liked it or not.