The Beauty and the Nerd

by HattieForest

Instant Friends

The next class was math, one of the things Twilight excelled at. Joyfully, she would raise her hoof time and again, each time answering correctly, each time receiving praise from her teacher. Little did the asocial pony notice the glares she received, from clumsy young colts to jealous fillies, phrases of "teacher's pet" being tossed quietly her way.

Fluttershy, who was not quite so unaware of social standing, tried her best to warn her- but the poor pony was too shy to speak loud enough that her friend would hear in the presence of their teacher. You were not supposed to talk during class, and Fluttershy could not help but accept authority.

However, one pony in particular looked Twilight's way with jealousy- Glitter Rain, one of Rarity's youngest admirers.

"Twilight Sparkle," she decided, "will very publicly not be invited to this Saturday's party."

The teacher asked a particularly hard question, and Twilight raised her hoof in anticipation. She never got to answer, though, as something came flying through the air to hit her on the head. She yelped.

"Oh, no!" Flutterhy gasped quietly. Twilight brought a hoof to the back of her head. What just happened?

"Who threw a rock in my classroom?" the teacher asked shrilly. Silence. "I demand to know who would throw such a thing, and at a fellow pony!"

Snickers erupted from the back.

"It wasn't a rock, Miss," one of the colts spoke up. "It's just paper. I colored it. I don't know why the new kid is acting like it hurt."

Twilight turned to see her attacker. He smirked at her, and she couldn't help but notice the filly giggling to herself beside him. She turned back to face the front, holding her head high. The teacher marched over and picked up the paper ball. She opened it up.

"This has erasers! And ... what is this? Nail polish? Lightning Smoke, you cannot sit there and tell me you did not mean -"

"Please, Miss, I had two paper balls. Sorry."

He didn't sound sorry, Twilight noted.

The rest of class passed, and after a class of Equestrian, the language of their land, and introductory science, it was at last time for lunch.

Twilight could not quite shake the treatment she had received back then, in the classroom. She had told herself repeatedly not to let it get to her, and that they were just jealous... but whenever she thought about those ponies, laughing at her, it burned a little. Was it this hard to do your best? What was the point of studies if everyone hated you for it?

Suddenly interrupted from her gloomy thoughts, Twilight was knocked over. The blow had come out of nowhere, and her books went flying-

"Oh, I'm sorry!" A cheerful voice sang out. Twilight blinked, and looked at the pony straddling her. She was pink from hoof to ear, her mane incredibly fluffy. Was she a bully?

"I was just so happy today, 'cause we made cupcakes in homeroom and then I added EXTRA sugar in my frosting, and my teacher says too much of it is bad for me, but what does she know? I mean, it's not like I turn into this crazy little squirrel from a bit of sugar, anyway. Ooh, I wonder if squirrels like sugar as much as I do! They could have sugar-sharing parties, with the turtles and the dragons and gerbils-"

Twilight concluded that this was not a bully. Quite likely insane, but she didn't look like she meant any harm. She made a mental note to look her personality type up in a psychology book later; perhaps she could determine what dementia she suffered from.

"Um, excuse me," Twilight said, "but... my books?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" The pink ball of cheeriness exclaimed. "Here, let me help!" In a surprisingly efficient move, she had scooped up Twilight's books, and put them back in her bag. "I'm Pinkie Pie! Are you excited for lunch? I sure am!"

This, Twilight concluded, could be quite an experience.

"Maybe we'll have gumdrops and gingerbread and ohmygoshIdontknowyou! What is your name? You have a name, right? You must have a name, everypony has a name, letmeguess! You're nice -"

"My name is Twilight Sparkle," Twilight interrupted to no avail.

"- and you're purple and -"

"Twilight. Sparkle," Twilight tried again.

"ohmygosh, we need to get a table!"

"What?" Twilight asked. A table? As in sharing with this ball of energy? No way. If she sat with Pinkie, then she wouldn't get any studying done!

"Of course, silly, you're my FRIEND!" Pinkie shouted the last word so loud the cafeteria went silent. Several students snickered and that filly that had started Twilight's bad day stood up, and flipped her hair over her shoulder. Twilight had no idea why a pony would do that, but she figured she'd find out soon enough.

Pinkie, oblivious to the audience she now had, hopped around Twilight, giggling and chattering. "We can have sleepovers, and we can make cupcakes, and we can have parties - ooooooo, parties, with pin-the-tail-on-the-pony! HEY!" Pinkie suddenly stopped her bouncing. "What's you name, huh huh huh?" She pressed her face close to Twilights, making their eyes nearly in the same place. Twilight yelped and fell back.

"Pinkie, please, my personal bubble!"

"Bubbles? Where?!" Pinkie looked around excitedly then her face fell. "There are no bubbles! Why'd you lie to me? Oh!" Pinkie rounded on Twilight. "Your name is Personal Bubble!"

Laughter erupted from the students watching. Twilight felt her face grow warm. Why couldn't she melt into the floor tiles?

"What?!" Twilight asked.

"Hello?" Fluttershy interjected softly. Pinkie looked over.

"Another friend!" Pinkie gasped. She then proceeded to introduce herself to Fluttershy in much the same manner as she greeted Twilight.

Twilight was going to face the students, but Rarity came in then, surrounded by ponies, and the attention shifted to her. Twilight watched the beautiful filly sit at the same table that monstrous filly stood by. Why would Rarity sit with them? Oh, right. Rarity was their queen.

Twilight turned her attention to Fluttershy and Pinkie.

"Are you friends with Personal Bubble?" Pinkie concluded.

"Um, her name....her name...is...is..."

"Twilight," Twilight finished. Pinkie looked from one to the other, then in a shocking move, had all three sitting at a table.

"Whoa!" Twilight shook her head. Pinkie brought out her lunch bag and gave her new friends some gingerbread, cupcakes and chocolate milk.

Two pegasi sat at the table with them. Twilight knew of them, but did not know them personally. One was Ditzy Doo, a filly with googly eyes that requested everypony call her Derpy. The other was Rainbow Dash, an athlete that even Twilight respected for her skill.

Rainbow Dash was a handsome filly- normally Twilight would have thought her a jock, but she had heard she had picked a fight with the school's most notorious jerks, defending poor little Fluttershy. Mean tongues had called Dash a fillyfooler, but Twilight was not one to take much notice of rumour. Besides, who cared what two mares did on their own time?

"...Twilight?" Fluttershy's quiet voice came.

"Yes, Fluttershy?" Twilight said, munching on her hay sandwich.

"Your name isn't really Personal Bubble, is it? Because I know your mother is a famous person, and I thought maybe you told me an alias... but if you lied to me, that's okay. I understand."

"Fluttershy, that is ridiculous." Twilight scoffed. "I've been Twilight Sparkle since the day I was born. This... insane pony just made an assumption."

"Oh." Fluttershy said quietly, blushing. "I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize, Shy." Twilight said putting a hoof over Fluttershy's shoulder. Inwardly, she sighed. Now she had TWO friends. Well, she supposed there was no helping it, so long as it didn't get in the way of her studies.

This Pinkie, though... she was something else. She probably wasn't the kind of pony who would lock you in her cellar and, torture you to death and turn you into baked goods, but she was definitely not quite right, mentally.

Or she was just high on sugar. Twilight wasn't sure which.

That mean filly trotted over to their table, several other ponies following her, one of which was Rarity. Twilight bit into her muffin, determined not to give the filly any more attention than necessary.

"Hello, Twilight," the filly said. Twilight ignored her. The filly cleared her throat and spoke over Dash: "Hello, Twilight!"

Dash stopped mid sentence, turning her eyes to the filly. "Glitter, what do you want?"

Glitter giggled. "I'm here to ask Twilight to the totally awesome party I'm throwing this weekend."

"Party?" Pinkie laughed.

"Will there be muffins?" Derpy asked.

"I'm not talking to you, crossed-eyed freak," Glitter snapped. She took a calming breath. "Anyway, Twilight, do you want to come?"

Twilight tried not to frown. Derpy may not be her friend (yet, a small voice in the back of her mind said snappily), but she knew a decent pony never made fun of somepony for something s/he could not help. And Derpy's eyes was something that Derpy could not help. Twilight felt a small anger burn in her chest.

"No, thank you, Glitter," Twilight said cheerily. Fluttershy tried to get Twilight to shut up. She knew what her friend was going to say and that it would mean social death, but Twilight either didn't hear Shy or ignored her, as she said the words of death, "I don't do parties. I study."

"You...study?" Glitter repeated. "Study?" Glitter turned to the cafeteria at large and clapped her front hooves together. "Everypony! Twilight Sparkle refused to go to my party because she wants to .... STUDY!"

Laughter erupted, and Twilight felt her face grow warm. What was wrong with studying?

She turned to her friends. Fluttershy had her face buried beneath her forelegs, her nose sticking out. Pinkie was sitting there in cold horror.

"No...no...p...p..." she couldn't even say it.

"Yes, that's right, Pinkie. Your friend is so uncool, she HATES. PARTIES." Glitter said triumphantly. "She's a loser, just like I thought. Why don't you come hang with somepony who really IS somepony, Pinkie?"

Pinkie- who, despite being kind of an oddball, was well known for her very successful parties and above all living by herself with no pesky parents- had had this kind of invitation before, but living in cuckoo-land as she did, she never had picked up on it.

"Party? Nobody hates parties, silly!" Pinkie shot back cheerfully, snapping out of her daze. "It just means Twilight hasn't seen my kind of party yet!"

"You moron! Can't you see-"

As Glitter went on another tangent about being cool, being somepony, Rarity sighed inwardly. Glitter wasn't a bad pony, but she was petty and a bit simple-minded. Turning around, she began walking away.

"Rarity! Where are you going?" Glitter called out. Stopping just shortly, Rarity replied:

"I've better things to do than tell a bunch of ponies like them how "uncool" they are." She said it with a hint of a chill in her tone.

"But Rarity, they are nerds! Eggheads! Losers! They-"

"They know that already, and while you may have fun pointing this out to them, I have more important things to do. Girls?"

As one, Rarity's posse turned their heads and walked with her to her own table. Scoffing, Glitter Rain joined them.

Back at Twilight's table, Twilight was fighting the urge to cry. This wasn't fair! Why... why? She was trembling.

Then, as Fluttershy put an arm around her and quietly said a "There, there." into her ear, she calmed down. There was something very comforting about Fluttershy, and for the moment Twilight felt like being friends wasn't such a bad idea.

"Don't care about them, Twilight!" Pinkie chirped. "They're just a bunch of meanie-heads who are jealous of you! None of them are smart like you are!"

"Buncha punks." Dash snorted. "I ought to kick them right in their prissy faces-"

"Please, don't do that." Fluttershy said, giving a pleading look. Rainbow Dash melted instantly, and though she turned her head away as if to hide a blush, grumbling a little, she said no more on payback.

After lunch, Twilight settled into her classes without the same enthusiasm as before. Her mind was only half on the work.

Were parties truly that important? She knew her study habits were laughed at, and generally she could ignore it, but lunch gave her a nagging feeling. She couldn't put her hoof on it.

She glanced at Rainbow Dash. They shared History of the World, and Twilight had never before actually paid any attention to her. No one had ever stood up for her before. Fluttershy and Pinkie....why not Dash?

Then Twilight noticed Dash peeking out the corner of her eye to Fluttershy. Fluttershy was oblivious. Twilight's mood took a turn upward. Fluttershy needed somepony to love. Dash seemed like a good choice.

Twilight lifted a hoof. Back to education.

Still, that nagging feeling sat at the back of her head. The feeling something awful was going to happen just because she never went to parties.

"Umm, thank you, everypony." Twilight mumbled, before heading off to her next class. "I uh, when you, when Glitter, back there-"

"Don't think you're special or something." Dash snorted. "I just can't stand stuck up ponies like her who think they are better than everybody else." With that, Dash turned around, and walked off down the hall. A Griffin greeted her, and the two went off on their own.

"Don't listen to her, Twilight." Fluttershy said. "Rainbow Dash is a nice pony, she really is. She just can't admit she is, so she acts like she is some meanie pony. But she isn't."

Twilight nodded. "Insecurity, perhaps?" She thought aloud. "Lack of confidence, manifested in an over-compensatory "tough pony" attitude, while still vulnerable to the opinions of her fellow ponies- could be that she has difficulties at home. Parental distance, perhaps?"

"Huh?" Pinkie said.

"What Twilight means is, she agrees with me." Fluttershy said, giggling. She was one of the few ponies who honestly understood what Twilight said, even when she got technical.

"Oh!" Pinkie said. "Well that's nice. So..."

"You're planning a party, aren't you?" Twilight said flatly.

"It's like you knew me all my life!" Pinkie said, cheerfully. "I'm making one this Saturday, with balloons and marshmallows and cookies and berries and cake and lots and lots and lots of ponies! It's gonna be so much FUN!"

"Since when?"

"Since that meanie pony was such a meanie-head! We'll show her who's uncool!" Pinkie chirped.

"But Saturday is study night..." Twilight objected lamely.

"Study night? On SATURDAY?" Pinkie said, horrified. "Oh no no no no NO, that won't do at all! You're coming to our party, and Fluttershy too!"

"Well, I guess I could treat it as a social study in equestropology..." Twilight said, resigning herself to her fate.

Twilight made her way to her next class. Halfway there she realized she had no friendly ponies in it, and that Glitter Rain sat right behind her.

"Twilight?" a snooty voice demanded. Twilight turned to snap at Glitter only to find herself looking at Rarity.

"Yes?" she said.

"Glitter Rain made a point in telling me how much of a nerd you are."

"That's nice," Twilight said, unsure how to respond.

Rarity raised a perfect eyebrow. "What I mean, darling, is I need help in mathematics. I noticed you are not acquainted with sewing, even with the use of magic."

Wait - was Rarity asking Twilight to tutor her?

"You mean, you want my help?"

"In exchange for my help with your sewing, of course. We were making handkerchiefs and you managed to make a weird scarf."

Twilight swallowed. "I don't know..."

"Pardon?"

"What I mean is, I don't know if you want to be with someone so uncool."

Rarity held her head high. "I never associate with anyone beneath me."

"Um..I...uh..."

"See you tonight at my house, then. You simply cannot miss it."

Before Twilight could say another word, Rarity was gone.

Twilight blinked. It had never occurred to her that her academic skills were considered attractive in any form- yet here the queen of the school was, asking for her help. She blinked again. School was a lot more complicated than it used to be when she was a little filly.

So... Rarity needed help with her maths. Well, that should be doable, if she could find the time to help her. Twilight Sparkle was a master magician when it came to numbers; she knew Pi up to the seventieth digit. And maybe, if she helped Rarity, those other ponies wouldn't laugh at her...

She shook her head. Look at her now, trying to be one of the herd. Her resolution not to get involved in the social life hadn't even lasted one day. Celestia would chuckle at this, she thought sourly, oh she would, as she had done when Twilight had made her resolution.

Well, if it could keep Glitter Rain off her back...

Comments

[Tailslover13]

84204 You're welcome. And, of course you're allowed to edit your stories once they're up! It takes a bit of getting used to, but you'll get the hang of it. And, you don't HAVE to fix it; just the way it's written, it sounds like a mane is smirking...and a mane can't do that, since it's hair! But, either way, it was still a great chapter; nothing wrong at all.

[Tailslover13]

Very cute chapter this was. A lot longer, too, so props for that. The "Cupcakes" reference was funny, Pinkie herself seemed perfect as always, our favorite lesbian azure Pegasus was cute, nice cameo by what I assume was Gilda, and I love how you handle Twilight's character as if she was in a school situation. Everything seems so...well, fitting. She reminds me of a lot of myself, honestly. What you wrote for Twilight is EXACTLY what I went through. I was always called the teacher's pet, I had stuff thrown at me, I was made fun of...I was that same nerd. It hurts, but...still, you have to feel proud of being smarter than all the rest. At least that's what my mother told me. Glitter Rain is annoying...almost sounds like she's Diamond Tiara's older sister or something. Anyway, nice work! Can't wait to see more.

[RIPinPeaches]

FIMFiction: New chapter of "The Beauty And The Nerd"

Brain: it's 2am. Can we go to sleep?

Me: lol no.

[kjaslwod]

This Pinkie, though... she was something else. She probably wasn't the kind of pony who would lock you in her cellar and, torture you to death and turn you into baked goods, but she was definitely not quite right, mentally...

Oh god since I've read Cupcakes, I hate Pinkie...