//------------------------------// // 2 - Taught // Story: Everypony Needs A Smile. // by SweetieTheBot //------------------------------// Math class went smoothly, Pinkamena was eager to learn anything Mrs. Firefly had to teach. Her next class was spelling/language arts, and she was sure she would ace it. Pinkamena bounced down the hallway, right behind Treeroot. “Is your next class spelling and language arts? ‘Cause that’s my next class. It’s always good to have a friend with you in class, because then you can both learn at the same time and-” Pinkamena’s happy rant was cut off by Treeroot. “Stop following me, you’re insane.” He said, and walked away. Pinkamena smiled, “Thank you!” She screamed after Treeroot. It was okay that Treeroot wanted to be left alone, that left more time to make even more new friends! That was, until the bell rang for her next class. Pinkamena spotted a group of ponies, and bounced over to introduce herself. “Hi everypony! My name is Pinkamena and I-” Pinkamena began, but stopped when she spotted her sister, Limestone. “Pinkamena? What sort of name is that, you sound like an ice-cream flavor.” She said, her voice full of attitude. Then, Marble stepped up behind Limestone. “Her mane looks like a cluster of balloons.” Marble said with a smirk. Pinkamena reached her hoof up to touch her mane, which was now fluffed up from all the bouncing. “That’s because I was bouncing, it’s really fun, and you should try it.” Pinkamena said, her voice faltering. “Yeah, I’ll try that when I turn six again!” Marble said, and another pony stepped up behind Pinkamena’s two sisters. “She’s a blank flank!” One pony said. “Pink is so ugly.” Another pony said. “What’s wrong with her?” “She looks dumb.” “Ha-ha.” “Ha!” “Hahaha!” “Ha.” “Ha.” “Ha.” Pinkamena stopped bouncing; she was on the verge of tears. “Stop it, I’m not dumb, I like pink, I…I’m…” Pinkamena tried to respond to everypony’s taunting. She couldn’t stop the tears from rushing down her face, she clenched her teary eyes shut and was about to run away, but stopped when she heard a strange voice. “Hey! Everypony! What’s wrong with you? Pinkamena here isn’t dumb, in fact, I think she’s cool.” Pinkamena opened her eyes. In front of her, stood a tiny blue pegasus, with a messy multi-colored mane, Pinkamena thought she looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. “Yeah, right, Pinkamena’s like, the opposite of cool.” Limestone said, towering over the blue pegasus. “And who are you to judge? If anyone’s the opposite of cool it’s you.” The pegasus said, her teeny wings fluttering. Limestone frowned, and turned away from the pegasus. “Come on guys, let’s bail on this lame ensemble.” Limestone said, and the crowd of taunting ponies followed Limestone as she walked away from Pinkamena and the pegasus. Pinkamena stood up. “Thank you.” She said, she wanted to say more, but that was all she could choke out. The pegasus smiled. “Hey, don’t mention it, Pinkamena.” She said, and began to fly away. “Wait!” Pinkamena called, and the pegasus stopped ad turned to face Pinkamena. “Who…who are you?” Pinkamena asked. The pegasus flew back over to Pinkamena. “The name’s Rainbow. Rainbow Dash. But you can just call me Dash if ya like.” Dash said. “Well, you know my name’s Pinkamena, but you can call me Pinkie…if you like.” Pinkamena said, and smiled. “Cool, Pinkie. We should hang out sometime.” Dash said, and began to fly away. And then, Pinkamena knew where she thought she had seen Dash before. “Wait!” Pinkamena called out again, and Dash flew back. “Yes?” She said, and Pinkamena felt a little bad for calling her back. “Does your mother teach here?” Pinkamena asked, and Dash narrowed her rose-colored eyes. “How did you know that?” Dash said quizzically. “You reminded me of my math teacher, Mrs. Firefly.” Pinkamena said, and Dash’s face softened. “Mrs. Firefly is my mom. I usually go to school in Cloudsdale, but we moved here for a few years so my mom could teach. It‘s a pity I'm a few grades higher than you, if I wasn‘t we'd be in class together.” Dash said, and landed next to Pinkamena. Suddenly, the bell rang, alerting Pinkamena to get to class. “Well, I have to get to class. See you at lunch?” Pinkamena asked, and Dash nodded. “See ya then, Pinkie Pie!” *** Pinkamena sat down at her desk in spelling class. She didn't sit next to Treeroot, and he seemed happy. She took out her books, and her pencils, and soon she had all her supplies on her desk. Then, the oldest pony Pinkamena had ever seen toddled into the classroom. She was a light pastel pink, with a white curly mane. “Good morning, class. My name is Apple Rose, but y’all can call me Mrs. Rose.” Mrs. Rose said, and the class nodded. “Now, in this class we’ll cover some commonly made grammatical errors, and punctuation mistakes. We’ll go over the Latin origins of commonly used root words, and…” Mrs. Rose said, but Pinkamena couldn’t listen. She felt a wet, cold, glob on the back of her left ear. She flicked her ear, and the glob flew off, but no sooner did another glob take its place. She lifted her hoof to rub the glob off her ear, when a third glob hit her hoof. She flicked both globs away, and turned around to see a red colt chewing up another glob in his mouth. Is he flicking spitballs at me? As if the world was answering her thoughts, the colt lifted his straw and shot a spitball straight into Pinkamena’s right eye. “Aaghh!” Pinkamena gasped, and clenched her wounded eye shut. She turned back to face the front, and found that Mrs. Rose was looking at her, and so was the whole class. She rubbed the spitball out of her eye, and smiled sheepishly. “Pinkamena Diane Pie, can you tell me the meaning of the Latin root word broncho?” Mrs. Rose asked, and Pinkamena’s face flushed. “I-uh, um. Well you see I was-” Pinkamena stumbled. “That’s enough. What about you Cheerilee?” Mrs. Rose pointed to the purple pony sitting up front. Pinkamena put her head down. After a few minutes, she heard whispering, and caught brief portions of muted conversations. “She can’t pay attention.” She heard somepony to her left whisper. “I saw her bouncing down the hall.” Somepony in front of her whispered. This couldn’t be any worse. I wish Rainbow Dash was here. *** For the rest of spelling, and every class after that, Pinkamena let anypony who wanted to pelt her with spitballs, as long as she didn’t get whispered about and laughed at. As soon as she was let out of science class, she was out the door and running down the hallway until she got to the cafeteria. She didn’t see Rainbow Dash, so she went over to grab some food. As much as Pinkamena hated cafeteria food, her family couldn’t afford to pack her a lunch everyday. So Pinkamena took the sludge that she guessed was supposed to be macaroni. She again looked around for Dash, and spotted her sitting by a bunch of ponies that seemed to worship her. Pinkamena trotted over to Dash’s table, and was met with a few annoyed stares. “Hey Pinkie Pie! Come on and sit over here!” Dash said, and gestured to a seat next to her. Pinkamena sat down, and the other ponies at the table looked at her quizzically. “Copper Belle, Lemonsugar, Fluttershy, this is my gal-pal Pinkamena, but she prefers to be called Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow Dash said, and Pinkamena waved. “H-hi, Pinkie P-Pie.” A yellow pegasus with long pink hair smiled at Pinkamena. “Hi.” Pinkamena said. “I’m Fluttershy, a-and th-this is Copper B-Belle and L-L-Lemonsugar.” Fluttershy said, and gestured to a copper-colored unicorn with a blue mane, and a white earth-pony with a yellow mane. Rainbow Dash dug into her sandwich, while Fluttershy and Lemonsugar nibbled at a light salad. Copper Belle had macaroni sludge, so both she and Pinkamena ate rather slowly. After Dash finished her sandwich, Pinkamena couldn’t help eyeing the cupcake that was sitting on Dash’s tray. After a few minutes, Dash finally realized what Pinkamena was looking at. “Hey Pinkie, do you want my cupcake?” Rainbow Dash asked, and Pinkamena nodded. She took the cupcake from Dash’s tray, and took a bite. Instantly, her senses exploded with pleasure, the vanilla-y goodness of the cupcake making all the sadness of the day fade away. That lunch was the happiest lunch she had ever eaten, even if she was picking dry spitballs out of her mane half the time.