Quizzical
Chapter 6 – “Self Esteem”
“Dah, dah, Dah, DAH,” sang Quiz.
“Well, that was a little better,” said Sweetie Belle, as she brushed Quiz’s mane. “I can tell the different notes apart, now.”
“You are being kind,” said Quiz. “I am still flat.”
“Yeah, and you also need to learn how to take a compliment,” grumbled Sweetie Belle. “Eeeew, is this another twig?” Three days and four baths after the experiment, and they were still finding debris in Quiz’s mane.
“Compliments still puzzle me,” admitted Quiz. “And I am still flat.”
“Well, it isn’t like we are training you to go on the stage,” said Sweetie Belle. Quiz shuddered at that idea. “We just want to teach you to add a little color to your voice. And that’s already happening.”
“I find that dubious, Sweetie Belle.”
“No, it’s true.” Sweetie Belle paused to shake a pebble out of the hair brush. “Trust me, I have a better ear than you. You can hear the difference between when you’re excited and when you aren’t. You are learning to express your feelings.”
“Thank you, Sweetie Belle. But I doubt this is a thing anypony but you can hear,"
“So we keep working on it,” said Sweetie Belle, switching to a comb. “I think I can get this close to the way Rarity left your hair…”
“Do you really believe that?”
“No,” admitted Sweetie Belle. “But it’s still a prettier hair cut than you had when you got here. Now sing, one more time, please.”
“Dah, Dah, DAH, DAH!” sang Quiz.
“Better,” said Sweetie Belle. “I think I’ll get an A+ on my history report. I’m the only one, besides you, who included graphs.” She considered something for a moment. “I think we need to keep experimenting. It’s not the magic that’s so scary, it’s the power! If I keep the volume down I feel safe.” She sang softly, and a jewel on a nearby table began to glow. “See? I think this is something I need to learn about.”
“We will take this to Miss Twilight,” said Quiz. “We will just not mention our experiment out on the rocks. Miss Twilight will want to supervise any further experiments. Frankly, she will be alarmed that we experimented at all, on our own. We may expect a lecture.”
“Of course, it’s Twilight!” giggled Sweetie Belle. She set the comb down and replaced Quiz’s hair bow. “There, all better. Can you stay a little longer?"
“No, I have to go. I fear I have much work to do,” said Quiz. “I have promised to prepare something for Miss Cheerilee. I look forward to that, actually. But my first report to Princess Luna is due tomorrow evening. I…” Quiz trailed off.
“You’re worried about that?” Sweetie Belle couldn’t imagine Quiz having anything to worry about an assignment.
“If I fail to impress the Princess that my contribution is an asset to the research then I may be recalled to Canterlot,” said Quiz.
“Oh?” asked Sweetie Belle. Then it registered. “Oh! No, Quiz, that just can’t happen.
Quiz sighed. “I have learned very much, but the Princess will sense how little of that I have come to understand."
“Well, then she’ll see that she has to give you more time to figure things out,” said Sweetie Belle, flatly.
“I do hope Princess Luna shares your thinking.”
#
“Quiz?” called Twilight. She’d gotten up to get a drink of water and found the lights still on. She was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be Spike whom she found up at this hour.
“Quiz?”
“Who?” called Owloicious, from his perch by a window.
“Quiz,” answered Twilight. “I mean… never mind. Quiz, is that you?”
Twilight found Quiz at her desk, contemplating her magic blackboard. She’d drawn a dodecagon, and held a protractor up to it. Quiz erased one side of the figure, then redrew what Twilight would have sworn was exactly the same line.
“Quiz!”
With a start, Quiz finally noticed Twilight. “Oh, dear, did I wake you, Miss Twilight.
“No, but, Quiz, do you have any idea what time it is?”
“Why, no, Miss Twilight,” said Quiz. “I have no idea at all. Is it late?”
“Yes, Quiz. Very, very late. What are you doing, anyway?”
“I am preparing some visual aids for Miss Cheerilee.”
“And just why are you doing that?” demanded Twilight.
“Because Miss Cheerilee asked me nicely,” said Quiz, sheepishly.
“And just how many of these visual aids are you going to make tonight?” asked Twilight.
"Oh, I have completed them, and a few extra I was going to suggest to Miss Cheerilee. That was some time ago… I think. I have merely been tweaking them a bit…”
“’Tweaking them a bit’?!” cried Twilight. “All night and into the morning?”
“Um… apparently, Miss Twilight.”
“Bed! Now!” Twilight stamped her hoof. “Not another word, young filly. Off to bed.”
“Yes, Miss Twilight,” said Quiz, walking to her room. She shut the door behind her. That’s what gave her away.
Twilight waited, and sure enough there was soon a faint glow from under the door. “No magic blackboards in bed, Quiz!”
“Yes, Miss Twilight.” The light went out.
#
“Cheerilee, are you using my research assistant as a teacher’s aide?” demanded Twilight.
“What? Oh, hello, Twilight,” said a very startled Cheerilee. All her students had left several minutes before, and Cheerilee expected to be alone until she finished her paperwork and went home. “Why yes, Quiz has been helping me with some displays…”
“Which she was up all night creating,” snapped Twilight.
“Oh, dear,” said Cheerilee. “I was afraid that might happen. Quiz does tend to go overboard. She really only needed to do some basic shapes for beginning geometry…”
“Spike tells me Quiz spent over an hour practicing making circles freehand,” said Twilight.
Cheerilee shook her head. “She’s so very enthusiastic. I know you’re concerned, Twilight. But Quiz’s enthusiasm is a joy to behold.”
“I have to look out… Wait. What?” Twilight stared. “Quiz, enthusiastic?”
“She didn’t want to stop,” said Cheerilee, nodding emphatically. “Quiz was disappointed when I wouldn’t go on to conic sections. But I just don’t think my little ponies are ready for analytical geometry.”
“But… enthusiasm?”
“She shows it,” insisted Cheerilee. “All right, you have to have come to know Quiz really well to see it, but it’s there. I won’t discourage that for anything. And it works. I have never had a math lesson so well received.”
“But…” Twilight didn’t know what to say next.
“The only thing missing is pride,” said Cheerilee. “I can give her a forum to show off, but at the end of the day Quiz simply doesn’t think what she does matters to anypony besides herself. She doesn’t believe there is a place, anywhere in all Equestria, where a pony that cares about perfectly drawn diagrams matters. Frankly, Quiz could teach all of my classes, if the very thought of that didn’t terrify her. That would make any other pony proud.” Cheerilee sighed deeply. “I have to work on that.”
Twilight didn’t know what to say. “What do I do?” she finally whispered.
Cheerilee had to think about that for a moment. “I guess you are the pony who makes sure she doesn’t stay up all night drawing conic sections. Somepony has to tell Quiz to get her asymptote to bed.”
“I… I‘ve kept her waiting outside. I think it’s time I walked Quiz home,” said Twilight.
“Yes,” said Cheerilee. “But consider this, Twilight, you just came charging in here prepared to defend Quiz. And you have known me how long? Long enough to know I won’t take advantage of a student. Your heart’s in the right place. Follow that, and Quiz is in good hooves.”
#
The next day at recess Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara were walking, so deep in conversation that they bumped into Pipsqueak, nearly trampling him. Had any other filly been involved apologies would have been exchanged, both sides would have excused themselves, and everyone would have moved on.
But this was Diamond Tiara.
“Hey, watch where you’re going, Pip-Squeeek!” Diamond snapped at the foal.
“Sorry, Miss,” said Pip, head down, backing away.
“Well you had better be! The nerve! Someone really should keep these little foals from bothering us.” Diamond gave her mane a haughty flip, then moved on, walking with her nose in the air.
“That makes me very angry,” said Quiz, watching this. “My young sister Delight is the same age as Pip. I would not permit this treatment of her, and I will not permit this.” With that she trotted over to confront Diamond Tiara. “You have been mean and rude and you must apologize to Pip.” Quiz declared.
“What?” snapped Diamond Tiara. “I didn’t do anything. All I said was his name. That’s not against Miss Cheerilee’s rule about name calling.”
“Calling Somepony by name isn’t name calling,” giggled Silver Spoon. “That’s ironic!”
“You used much the same intonations you use when you say ‘Quiz-ik-al.’” said Quiz. “It is wrong to turn a pony’s name into an insult and use it against them. You must apologize.”
Quiz’s voice was as level as always. But if Diamond Tiara weren’t so clueless she would have noticed Quiz’s body language. Quiz was trembling, and her ears were flat to the side of her head.
Quiz’s friends did notice, and with great alarm.
“If there’s a fight it’ll look like Quiz started it,” said Apple Bloom. “What do we do?”
“I have an idea,” said Sweetie Belle.
Again, if she were not completely clueless, Diamond Tiara would have known something was wrong when Apple Bloom and Scootaloo positioned themselves so that Diamond couldn’t see what Sweetie Belle was doing. As it was, her first hint that something was wrong was when Silver Spoon began to back away. By then she could see the bright light atop her head with her peripheral vision.
Quiz was much faster on the uptake. “Oh, dear,” she said. “Diamond Tiara, is there something wrong with your diamond tiara?”
“W-w-what’s happening?!” squealed Diamond Tiara.
Quiz peered at her carefully. “Is it vibrating? It appears to be vibrating.” Of course it wasn’t.
“Help!” cried Diamond Tiara. “Somepony help me!”
“It is so very bright, it must be growing hot,” said Quiz, who knew full well that the stones in the tiara remained cool. “Is it very hot, Diamond Tiara?”
“It’s burning my head!” screamed Diamond Tiara. “It’s going to melt my brain! Get it off me! Getitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoffme!!!”
Diamond Tiara began to leap and buck around the playground, to everypony's delight. Eventually she shook her tiara off. All their laughter rang in her ears as Diamond Tiara fled and hid behind the school’s garbage dumpsters.
“What’s all the commotion?” asked Cheerilee, trotting into the playground. She found the diamond tiara and picked it up. “Where is Diamond Tiara? She dropped this.”
#
All through the second half of the school day, Diamond Tiara kept looking over her shoulder at Quiz. I know this is all your fault, Quiz-ik-al! she thought. But I’ll get you for this. I’ve been saving something special for you, and Miss Cheerilee won’t be watching forever!
#
That night, at bed time, Spike waved to Twilight from outside Quiz’s room. “Twilight,” he hissed. “I think the kid needs a pep talk."
Twilight peeked into the room. Quiz was sitting on her bed, surrounded by all her letters. She had many. Her parents and brother Chisel had written long ones, but most of the letters were from little sister Delight. Her letters were mostly line drawings in bright marker, with lots of glitter. But Delight had sent one every day.
“Quiz, are you alright?” Twilight asked softly.
“Oh, Miss Twilight,” said Quiz, startled. “I…I have reached a personal milestone.”
Twilight sat on the bed next to Quiz. “Tell me what is the matter.”
“The Greystone Quarries are just outside of Canterlot,” whispered Quiz. “Even when I was at school, home was only a short ride away. I was with my family almost every weekend, and on those rare occasions when I could not get away I could make that up with a visit during the week. Ponyville is the farthest I have ever been from home. And tonight marks the longest I have been away.”
She’s homesick, thought Twilight, and if Quiz feels badly enough to share with me then she must feel wretched indeed! Twilight put a hoof over Quiz’s shoulders. Quiz stiffened, but didn’t flinch. After a moment she relaxed, and even leaned a bit on Twilight.
“You know,” Twilight finally said. “We don’t have anything important planned for this weekend. We could get away to Canterlot for a few days.” She added, a little embarrassed, “Frankly, I owe my parents a visit.”
“Really?” said Quiz. “But is it wise to take a vacation now? I have been trying to impress Princess Luna with my diligence…”
“And you’re worried about that?” exclaimed Twilight.
“Why, yes, Miss Twilight, very much,” said Quiz.
This got a face palm from Spike. “Seriously, the kid doesn’t think she’s working hard enough?”
Twilight ignored him. “Quiz you were sent to Ponyville with the same simple instruction I was. ‘Make some friends!’ You have already done that, haven’t you?”
“Why… yes, Miss Twilight,” said Quiz. “It appears so. This is… quite extraordinary.”
“See? You have already satisfied your job’s number one goal,” said Twilight. “You aren’t going anywhere, Quiz. Not so long as you still want to be here.”
“I have things to look forward to,” said Quiz. To Twilight, she sounded amazed. “This will make the rest of the week easier. I hope…”
“Do you think you can get some sleep now, Quiz?” asked Twilight.
“I am not sure…”
Spike had climbed up on the foot of the bed. “Twilight knows a lullaby,” he suggested.
“Spike!” exclaimed Twilight. “It isn’t very good, Quiz.”
“I would like to hear it, please, Miss Twilight.
And Twilight sang. “Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur…”