//------------------------------// // Afterwards // Story: A kick in the butt // by Hyper44 //------------------------------// It had been a few weeks since the mock trial. Rembrandt was trying to make up for his past mistakes by being the best teacher he could be for Coal Coat and Dinky as well as the others. It was still a bit awkward after the fact but they pretended it wasn’t. Little Dinky was probably the only one who had truly put in behind her. That was one of the remarkable things about her that he was learning to recognize now. He watched her from his desk as she worked on the latest assignment. She didn't look up as she kept looking to her book and then going back to writing on her paper. The little filly did look super focused. Unlike the others she didn't keep constantly groaning. "Remember class this magical code uses both a numerical and alphabetical shift." He said. "It's impossible." One Filly groaned. "We've been working on it for days." She plopped her head down on her desk. Rembrandt smiled. "You’re only graded on your effort. Remember that even Princess Luna and Celestia took many years to master it. Princess Cadance never has and Princess Twilight is still learning it. Most never learn it let alone master it so don't be frustrated." "It's still frustrating." The student grumbled. "Just keep trying." "Excuse me sir, I'm finished." A small voice spoke up from the side of his desk. Rembrandt looked down to see Dinky holding her paper. "Well let's take a look." He said as he took the paper. Multiple students had walked up thinking that they had finally gotten it only to have to try again. Rembrandt hopped that she wouldn't be too disappointed when she found out it was wrong. He opened the book with the answers and found the problem that she had been given. He blinked at the page then back at the paper to back at the book again. It took a moment for his mind to process the situation so that he could speak. "That's correct." He finally said. Every head in the classroom snapped up. Jaws hung agape and eyes were wide. "Here try this one." Rembrandt said handing her another problem to decipher. Dinky chewed on the end of her quill a moment then started. Rembrandt couldn’t imagine her cheating, that was impossible for that little filly to do so but this was something that even ponies like Starswirl the bearded had trouble with. His mind could not compute this. One by one the student's started slipping out of their seats and creeping over to watch. They all stared as slowly, bit by bit the spell in hidden code came together. In about ten minutes she was finished and pushed the paper back to Rembrandt. He flipped the pages of the answer book until he found it. It was correct. He handed her another paper and in about the same amount of time she had solved it. "How do you do that?" He asked astounded and everyfoal leaned forward to hear. Dinky just shrugged. "It's like a picture." She said pointing to the paper. "Or a connect the dots puzzle, you just put it together." She looked at them as if it was so obvious. Rembrandt could not understand how she saw a picture in in but apparently it worked. "Stay right here." He said and bolted to the door. "I'll be right back." He stated and darted out. They could hear him all the way down the hall yelling, "Princess Celestia! You have to see this! You were right! OH! I have a student that's a genius! Princess Luna Princess Celestiaaaaa!" The other fillies and colts stared at her Dinky with an expression similar to reverence. Dinky looked back unable to understand what the big deal was about. “I knew you could do it!” Coal Coat yelled rushing forward to hug her. “I knew you were a genius!”