Everypony Needs A Smile.

by SweetieTheBot

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Pie Sisters, Rainbow Dash, Comedy, Pinkie Pie
Length: 3608

Pinkamena Diane Pie has a hard life living with her sisters, and now she has to deal with the ponies in school! Will she ever get by?

It's the beginning of the school year for Pinkamena, and she's excited to make as much new friends as possible. But when everypony reacts differently from what she expected, Pinkamena is made the laughing stock (and spitball target) of the school. Will she make friends, or is she doomed by her sisters?

Cover art by WhiteDiamndsLtd on Deviantart

Published 2013-10-10 17:00:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-10 17:00:03 UTC

Prologue

“Pinkie Pie, you have to stand up tall.  Learn to face your fears.  You’ll learn that they can’t hurt you, if you just laugh and make them disappear.”  Said Granny Pie.

Pinkamena took her head from under her pillow.  “Really Granny Pie?  I just have to laugh?” Pinkamena said, and her Granny chuckled.

“Nothing can hurt you, if you laugh in it’s face, Pinkie.” Granny said, and Pinkamena smiled.  Everypony always called her Pinkamena; Granny was the only one who called her Pinkie.

“Thanks, Granny.  I’ll never be scared of anything again!”  Pinkamena said, and settled herself under her blanket.

“Goodnight, Pinkie Pie.”  Granny said, and kissed her granddaughter goodnight.

1 - Bussed

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?”

2 - Taught

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.

3 - Stand Up Tall

The rest of the day went happily; she managed to ignore the ponies telling her how stupid she looked.  Everything was so peachy, she decided to bounce everywhere she went, and she liked when her mane got all fluffy.  Pinkamena bounced outside, and waited patiently for the bus to arrive.

Marble and Limestone walked out the school behind her, and Pinkamena prepared herself for an array of insults.  But they never came.  The only thing her sisters did was smirk at her, which made her worried, very worried.

Pinkamena sat with Lemonsugar on the bus, but they didn’t talk.  Pinkamena just kept looking at her sisters, wondering what they were saying as they whispered to each other.

When Pinkamena arrived home, she opened the door to find her mother glaring at her, almost as if she was waiting for Pinkamena’s arrival.

“Oh, hello Mom.”  Pinkamena said, and her mother sighed.

“Pinkamena, your sisters tell me that you’re being influenced at school.”  Cloudy Quartz said sternly.

“Well, they’re right, if I wasn’t being influenced at school I wouldn’t leaning now would I?”  Pinkamena said happily.

“No, Pinkamena.  I got a call from Limestone that you were talking with a ‘Rainbow Dash’, and that she was telling you to break the rules.”  Cloudy Quartz said, and Pinkamena gasped.

“I wasn’t breaking any rules!  Me and Rainbow Dash are friends!”  Pinkamena replied angrily.

Pinkamena’s mother got angrier.  “You weren’t breaking any rules?  Limestone tells me you are not paying attention in class, and you’ve been bouncing around like a ruffian!  And you purposely messed up your mane!  Who could have caused this out-of-line behavior if it wasn’t Rainbow Dash?!”  Yelled Cloudy Quartz and Pinkamena scowled.

“Maybe I’m tired of being treated like I don’t exist!  Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and all my friends make me feel happy!”  Pinkamena yelled.

Cloudy Quartz lowered her voice to a stern growl.  “It doesn’t matter how you feel, Pinkamena.  I forbid you from seeing Rainbow Dash and that’s that.

***

The next morning, Pinkamena didn’t want to get up.  She watched silently from under her covers as her troll-looking sisters caked on more makeup in front of the mirror.

How come they’re so liked if they act like mean bullies?  Pinkamena thought, watching them comb each other’s manes.  Everypony seemed to like it when they bullied me, and acted as if they’ve never met me.  She thought, and then her mind started to put things together.  If everypony likes them because they’re bullies, why in Equestria do I want to be liked?  Pinkamena got out from under her covers.

“Good morning, Pinks.  Ready for another round of applause today?”  Limestone snickered, and Pinkamena got up in her sister’s face.

“No, no I’m not ready.  Because I don’t care if anypony likes me or laughs at me, I’m not a meanie-pants!  I’m going to hang out with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy because they’re not big fat bullies!”  Pinkamena shouted, and bounced down the stairs...without brushing her mane.

***

On the bus, Pinkamena didn’t sit by Treeroot.  She wanted to sit by Dash, but Pinkamena didn’t see her on the bus.  She probably rides on another bus.  Pinkamena decided, and sat by herself, but this time she didn’t care that nopony was sitting by her.

Pinkamena hopped off the bus and ran into the school.  She was excited for her first class; Mrs. Firefly was her favorite teacher.

Pinkamena entered the classroom, took her seat, and waited for Mrs. Firefly to enter.

She didn’t.

Instead, an old, grey, unicorn hobbled into the classroom and levitated a piece of chalk to the board.

“Today we will be practicing multiplying like fractions, and dividing-” The unicorn began, but was cut off by Pinkamena.

“Where’s Mrs. Firefly?”  Pinkamena asked frantically.

“Excuse me, young lady, in my class we raise out hooves before speaking.  Now back to what I was-” Said the unicorn, but stopped when Pinkamena raised her hoof and waved it frantically.  “-saying.  Yes, do you have something to say?”  The unicorn said dryly.

Pinkamena nodded.  “Yes, yes I do.  Where is Mrs. Firefly?!”  Pinkamena said, perhaps a bit louder than she should have.

The unicorn sighed, “If you must know, Mrs. Firefly was called back to Cloudsdale for a family emergency.  She will be back next semester.”  The unicorn said, and continued her sentence pertaining to the class.

But Pinkamena wouldn’t hear it; she couldn’t hear it.  If Mrs. Firefly is gone, does that mean Rainbow is gone too?  How will I survive the rest of the semester?  Pinkamena was panicking, and by the time lunch came, she was trembling with nervousness.

Maybe if I be quiet on my way to the cafeteria, Marble and Limestone won’t see me.  Pinkamena breathed deeply, and trotted down the hallway, as quietly as she could.

“Hey!  Look!  It’s Pinkamena and her horrible mane!”  Somepony yelled, and Pinkamena turned to see the pony was Treeroot.

“Oh.  Mygosh.  She is so clueless when it comes to fashion.”  Another jeered, and the cycle of yesterday went on, but this time Dash wasn’t there to help her.

“She’s not even wearing any makeup, is she insane?”

“I heard that she likes spitballs, what a dweeb!”

“She can’t even stand up for herself; she needs teeny little Rainbow Dash!”

Pinkamena clenched her eyes closed like yesterday, but this time she didn’t wait for Dash.  Pinkamena opened her eyes, and stood up.

“Hey, I’m aware that my mane isn’t perfect, and I’m aware that I’m not wearing makeup, but I certainly don’t like spitballs.”  Pinkamena shouted.  The jeering crowd was taken aback.

“Yeah, I actually hate spitballs, why would anyone like them?  I sure do know he likes them.”  Pinkamena pointed to the red pony that sent the slimy ammo at her the day before.  “I also don’t like bullies, but you all seem to love bullying.  So I guess I won’t stop you, since you seem to enjoy picking off the weak so much, but I can tell you I don’t care.  I really don’t.”  Pinkamena said, she caught Marble and Limestone’s confused gaze at the back of the crowd.

“Because guess what?  I LIKE my super-messy-poof-a-licious mane, I LIKE bouncing all over the place, and I LIKE keeping my face rid of cakey-greasy-ugly-chemicals.  And nopony can change that.”  Pinkamena said, and continued down the hall, but after a few steps, she turned back to the ponies.

“And by the way, it’s not Pinkamena.  It’s Pinkie.  Pinkie Pie.”

Epilogue

Pinkie pushed a rock with her head, grunting.  Today, it was time to rotate the rocks from the South Field to the East Field.

“Arrgh, this is so heavy!”  Pinkie grunted.  She lifted her head briefly, and was then shaken by a huge explosion.

“Wahh!”  Pinkie said, and looked up at the sky.  There was a huge rainbow explosion spreading across the sky.

She saw a tiny blue dot with a rainbow trailing behind it streak from the center of the explosion, and then smiled wildly.

Thank you for making me smile, Rainbow Dash.  Everypony needs a smile.