The secret NOW IMPROVED

To most of the world, a pony like Applejack would be entirely unnoticeable, save for those who knew her as friends and family. Part of it, of course, is simply the fact Earth Pony farmers aren't seen as very bright, and are usually dismissed on the spot as being backward hillbillies with no place among the sophisticated. Applejack defies this stereotype, though mainly through being one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony and not for her secret. That secret being that she actually has a love for the sciences, a fact she has kept from the ponies in her life. When not out farming or hanging out with her friends, Applejack dons a white lab coat, wears glasses, and reads books that most wouldn't associate with a farmpony. One Saturday evening, Aj sat by the windowsill in her room, reading a book on quantum physics written by one of Equestria's most renown scientists.

As she read, she couldn't help but be amused at the thought of Twilight Sparkle doing the same exact thing at the exact same time. At the same time, her mood darkened. Aj knew this was Twilight's department too and she would've loved to debate Twilight on the subject of cosmological equations and the basics of Advanced Transformative magic. At the same time, however, Aj couldn't help but feel.... intimidated, as Twilight knew tons more on the subject than she did and was worried about embarrassing herself. She knew full well, of course, that this was a highly illogical fear, as Twilight would be more than glad to have somepony else to talk to about that stuff and could probably teach her a few things.

Suddenly, AJ looked up from where she was seating and nearly had a heart attack at the sight of Pinkie at the window. The pink pony was bouncing up and down, waving at Applejack to get her attention. Opening the windowsill, she looked down and saw that Pinkie was bouncing on a trampoline and knowing Pinkie, it was probably constructed in a matter of seconds and made from seemingly impossible materials.

"Hiya Applejack, glad I got your attention," Pinkie said excitedly.

"Pinkie, keep it down, don't wanna wake up the family," AJ scolded.

"Oh, sorry," Pinkie whispered as she came up again.

Five minutes later, Applejack walks out of the house, wearing her famous hat of course, and goes over to the side of the house.

"So, mind telling me what in tarnation are ya doing here so late," she asked as Pinkie slid off the trampoline.

"Wellll, that's a bit of a long story. See, I couldn't sleep for some reason, and when I can't sleep, I get the need to walk around, so I got up, headed out front and walked through town. THEN, I got this idea to go to Sweet Apple Acres and just walk around the orchards and you know, stargaze, but when I got here, I saw the light was on in your room and I was wondering why so I went over to the side of the house, got this trampoline going and that's when I saw you dressed funny and reading," Pinkie explained.

Applejack's eyes widened and she rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

"Ah see, and now Ah suppose ya wanna know why Ah was dressed like Ah work in a lab and whatnot," Aj replied.

"Well, I wasn't going to ask since I figured it was really personal and I didn't want to get all up in your personal stuff," Pinkie said, smiling.

"That's mighty kind of ya, Sugarcube, but, ya saw me, and Ah know how bad your curiosity gets, so, Ah guess Ah'll tell ya," Applejack replied, sighing.

"Well, if you insist", Pinkie said.

It was then Applejack began explaining her secret.

"See, it all started when Ah was really young. At that time, Ah was just a little filly, only ten at the time. Ah wasn't a huge fan of school, but mah favorite subjects were ironically enough, math and science. For a long time, Ah had the highest grade in those subjects. Shoot, Ah probably was one of the smartest fillies in class. however, Ah wasn't exactly the most liked filly in the class. Ah got picked on both for being an egghead and a simple farm pony. After Ma and Pa died, and Ah got mah cutie mark, mah duty became to take care of the farm and Apple Bloom, so Ah couldn't really pursue any careers in math or science. It was only recently Ah rediscovered mah love for those subjects, and Ah have to thank Twilight for that," Applejack explained, getting teary eyed.

For a few moments there was silence, with the only sounds being the chirping of crickets and the beating of Aj's heart.

"Oooh, that would explain why you were dressed like that, and I never seen you wear glasses before, are they like just reading glasses, and I bet Twilight absolutely LOVE to have another pony to talk about this stuff with," Pinkie replied, her mannerisms the same as usual.

"Y-yeah, she would," Applejack replied.

The next morning

"Oh, good morning Applejack," Spike said upon opening the castle door.

"Good Morning Spike, where's Twilight?" Aj asked.

"Oh, she's in the kitchen, I just made her some coffee," Spike explained.

Twilight sat at the kitchen table, rubbing her temple. She had spent the previous evening overlooking reports from the Equestrian Royal Society regarding the nature of transdimensional physics and spent three hours correcting errors in the equations. All in all, not one of her busiest evenings.

"Mornin Twi. Ya okay, didn't get enough sleep last night?" Applejack asked, taking a seat at the table.

Twilight chuckled and replied, "yeah, I guess you can say that. Geez, it's amazing how many errors Royal Society members can make in their equations."

Applejack nodded and said, "well, Ah have something Ah want to talk to you about, if that's okay with ya."

"Yeah, sure, just let me get some energy into me," Twilight replied, slowly sipping her coffee.

Aj nodded and waited as Twilight consumed the caffeine.

"Okay, I think I'm ready," Twilight said, looking more refreshed.

"Twi, Ah've been hiding something from all of ya, and Ah think its now time Ah tell ya", she began.

"Go on," Twi said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, Twi, ya know how ya talk about advanced theories and Ah ask ya to explain it in English? Well, truth is, Ah actually understand what ya mean before, but Ah was too ashamed to admit Ah'm what Dash would call an egghead," Aj explained.

"Wait, Applejack, you mean to tell me you're smarter than you let on?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, that's it," Aj replied.

"Wow.. that's actually really cool, why didn't you say sooner?" Twilight asked.

"Well, Ah had some bad experience with ponies knowing Ah'm smart, and Ah don't want to lose ya as a friend cause y'all due to me embarrassing myself," Applejack replied.

"Applejack, there's no shame in admitting you're smart or nerdy. I mean, I sometimes embarrass myself, but you girls are still my friends and true friends accept each other for who they are, no matter if they're smart or nerdy, or none of those things," Twilight explained, smiling.

Applejack wiped a tear from her eye and replied, "aw shucks, thanks Twi."

"It's not a problem, Applejack. Still, mind if I ask how'd you became interested in science and math?" Twilight asked, smiling reassuringly.

Applejack hesitated for a moment before she responded. "Well, it started when Ah was just a young filly in school," she began....

18 years earlier

"Okay, everypony, please take your seats." the teacher, Miss Learning Curve, said as the bell rang.

In the back of the class sat a orange-coated earth pony filly with green eyes, freckles, and her mane tied so that one side fell down. After the teacher finished the roll call, she told the students to pass up their homework from the night before. When she got to Applejack, the filly already had the paper out ready.

"Here ya go, Miss Curve." she said, smiling.

"Pff, nerd." the colt in front of her muttered.

Aj gave him a glare before turning back to the teacher. Later on during the math class, the teacher was covering the formula for solving long equations.

"Now, Class, can anypony demonstrate how to solve this problem using PEMDAS?" Miss Learning Curve asked, writing the following formula on the chalkboard: 5+6x4-2+1=?

Suddenly, Applejack raised her hoof up and said, "Ah'd like to, Miss Curve."

Miss Learning Curve nodded and Aj approached the chalkboard, grabbing the chalk when she stopped. For the next three or four minutes, the only sounds heard was the tick tock of the clock and a chalkboard being written on. When she was finished, Aj stepped away to let the class and the teacher see her answer: 28

"Excellent work, Applejack, that is the correct answer." Miss Learning Curve said, sounding pleased that she had gotten it right on the first try.

...

Finally, recess time had come, and Applejack was reading a book underneath a tree when the colt who sat in front of her approached her, sneering.

"Well, well, well, isn't it Apple-Dork studying." he said, sneering.

Applejack didn't say anything, deciding to ignore him was the best option.

"Hey, Apple-Dork, I'm talking to you, so why don't you look at me." the colt said, sounding more annoyed.

Again, silence.

Suddenly, Applejack felt a hoof grab for her book and instinctively looked up, seeing the face of the colt, now visibly angry. She also saw that he had a few other students with him, who all grinned sadistically.

"What do y'all want?" Aj asked, cocking her head.

"Why, to miss with the dork of course." one of the students, a stallion replied.

Suddenly, the hoof on Aj's book tore it away from her and threw it into a nearby puddle. With a gasp, Aj ran over to the puddle and retrieved the book. The book was covered in dirty water and several of the pages were soaked.

"Mah book, it's ruined!" she cried, her ears drooping.

Applejack let out a oof as one of the bullies pushed her into the puddle.

"HAHAHAHA! That was great! Get that dork, Sport!" One of the bullies called out to the pony that had knocked her down.

By now, Aj had turned over onto her back to see who it was that pushed her down, and it was the colt that had started the whole thing.

"Aww, look, Appledork is crying. Cry dork, cry!" a bully called out.

"Stop, please, just stop." Aj cried, choking as she did.

The group of bullies continued to laugh and taunt her till the bell rang. Aj didn't get up right away, staying in the puddle and sobbing.
....

Present day

"... and it was from that day forward Ah never showed my intellectual side again, believing that all anypony would do is laugh at me." Aj said, finishing her story.

Twilight stared at her shocked. She knew Applejack had a hard time with ponies being mean to her, but what those kids did to her was just cruel.

"Applejack... I.. I don't know what to say. I mean, I was a bit of a outcast but I was never bullied for it." Twilight replied at last.

Applejack nodded and said, "it's quite alright, Sugarcube. Ah'm just glad Ah got that off of my chest."

"I bet. Do you plan on telling anypony else?" Twi asked.

"Big Mac and Granny Smith know Ah was really smart in mah youth but Ah stopped for whatever reason. Applebloom doesn't know and Ah don't want to share it with the others just yet." Aj replied.

"I understand. Say, would you like to debate sometime?" Twilight asked.

Applejack smiled and replied, "it'd be mah honor, Sugarcube."

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