//------------------------------//
// 1 - Bussed 
// Story: Everypony Needs A Smile. 
// by SweetieTheBot 
//------------------------------//

	Pinkamena usually awoke to the sound of her alarm clock, but this morning she was awoken by her two sisters, Marble and Limestone.  Pinkamena’s older sisters never really paid her any mind, except for when they could bother her. 


“Pinkamena!  Pinkameee-na!”  Marble hollered, while Limestone jumped on her bed.  All the Pie sisters slept in the same room, which made sleeping unbearable for Pinkamena.  

“What?  Can’t I just go back to sleep?”  Pinkamena grumbled, and then had the breath knocked out of her when Limestone jumped onto Pinkamena’s stomach.  

“No, you can’t, doofus.  Today is the first day of school!”  Limestone jumped off Pinkamena’s bed.  

“Make sure you make yourself look presentable, I don‘t want you embarrassing us.”  Marble cackled, and ripped the blanket off Pinkamena’s bed.  “You really need to get a less childish blanket, Pinks,” Marble said, and strutted out the room.  

Pinkamena grabbed her blanket, and pulled it toward herself.  She didn’t care what Marble said, she liked her pink striped blankey.  She liked her pink bed sheets, and her pink lamp.  She loved the little pink this room was allowed to have; it added a nice contrast from the grey and dulled greens of her sister’s beds.

Pinkamena hopped out of her bed, and trotted to her mirror.  She picked up a brush, and brushed her puffy, pink, happy, pretty mane, until it was straight and dull.  Ponies who worked on a rock farm had to have straight manes, or they looked like ‘hooligans’, as her mother put it.  

After her mane and tail were brushed straight, she walked the creaky stairs, across the creaky hallway, and into the stinky kitchen.  Limestone and Marble were sitting at the table, putting on so much eye makeup Pinkamena was surprised it didn’t weigh down their faces.  

Pinkamena’s mother, Cloudy Quartz, was stirring a bubbling pot of white oatmeal.  Pinkamena sat down at the table, and her sisters turned to her, smirking.  

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to school like that.”  Limestone said, pouting her lips as she applied her fiftieth layer of lip-gloss.  Pinkamena looked down at herself; she looked fine.  

“I told you to put on some makeup for once, and look less stupid.”  Marble said, and rolled her eyes.  

“No, you said to make myself look presentable.  I brushed my mane.”  Pinkamena said, as their mother came up to the table with a pot of sludge that the family called ‘oatmeal’.  

“Pinkamena, Marble told you to make yourself presentable and all you do is snap rudely.  Please, use your manners for once.”  Cloudy Quartz said, and Pinkamena’s rage bubbled inside of her.  “I expect you to show a little more respect for your sisters.”  Cloudy said, but Pinkamena ignored her mother.  She was used to being treated this way.  

After a meal of lumpy oat-sludge, she walked with her sisters through the farm until they got to the road.  Marble and Limestone kept fixing their hair and caking on more makeup.  Pinkamena just stood by the road until the bus came.  

The dingy yellow bus came slowly to the Pie sisters, and the doors opened.  Marble and Limestone stepped on the bus first, and Pinkamena waited patiently until her sisters finished flirting with the boys at the front of the bus.  Pinkamena stepped on, and looked around for a seat.  A brown colt with a green mane had an empty seat next to him, so Pinkamena went to go sit down.  

“This seat is taken,” the pony said, and Pinkamena cocked her head.  

“Taken?  By who?  I can’t see anypony.  And if it’s taken by your imaginary friend I’m very sorry.”  She said, and sat right down next to the colt, who was now rolling his eyes.  

“What a ditz…” he said under his breath.

***

The bus ride was slow, there was a stop every now and then to pick up more sad, hollow-eyed ponies, Marble and Limestone didn't hesitate to bat their eyelashes at the colts. 

Pinkamena pouted.  Why is everypony so sad?  She wondered, and then turned to the brown colt next to her.  
“My name is Pinkamena, what’s yours?”  She said happily.  

The colt didn’t reply.  

“You call me Pinkie if you want.  My Granny Pie calls me Pinkie, and I really like it, it’s such a fun name.  Pinkamena Diane Pie is such a boring name, it makes me sound sad, but I’m anything but sad.  I love meeting new friends!  Do you want to be my friend, unnamed stranger?”  Pinkamena said quickly, and the colt turned to her.  

“Treeroot.  My name is Treeroot.  Happy?”  Treeroot said, and Pinkamena smiled and nodded.  

“Very.”

***

Nopony else really spoke to Pinkamena on the bus, but Pinkamena sure spoke a lot to Treeroot.  

“I live on a rock farm.  I also work there; my family has been running the place since, like, the dawn of time!  Its reallyreallyreally boring, I sure hope I don’t have to run it when I get older; I want to do something that makes ponies happy!  Like run a bakery, and LIVE in a bakery!  Oh wouldn't that be fun!  I’d-” Pinkamena began to say, but was cut off when Treeroot stuck his hoof in her mouth.  

“Listen, Pinkie, the bus stopped like ten minutes ago and I can’t get off if you don’t move.” Treeroot said, and Pinkamena’s face lit up.  

“Pinkeef!?  Whu kwalled me Pinkeef!”  Pinkamena said, her words muffled by Treeroot’s hoof.  

“Can I please get off the bus?”  Treeroot said, and Pinkamena nodded.  Pinkamena stepped out of Treeroot’s way, and followed him off the bus.  

Treeroot stepped off the bus, but it was a bit high up for Pinkamena, so she hopped off. “Hey!  That was fun!”  Pinkamena said, and continued to hop everywhere she went.  

She followed Treeroot into the school, through the hallways, and into the first classroom.  She didn't see her sisters, but she didn’t care.  She didn’t mind not having that cold glare searing her back.  

Pinkamena sat down in the middle of the classroom, right next to Treeroot.  A pink pegasus with a windblown blue mane walked in the front of the class.  

“Good morning, class.  My name is Mrs. Firefly, and today I will be your math teacher.”  Mrs. Firefly said, and wrote her name on the blackboard.  

“Hello Mrs. Firefly.” the class droned in unison.  

“Hi Mrs. Firefly!”  Pinkamena said, and waved her hoof wildly.  

Mrs. Firefly looked at Pinkamena, and Pinkamena thought she saw a hint of a smile on her face.  “You ought to meet my daughter.  But that’s for after class.”  Mrs. Firefly said, and picked up a chart from her desk.  “Now, can anypony tell me what the factors of 748 are?”