Overcoming The Past

It was a beautiful Saturday evening. Maud Pie, Rainbow Dash, and I had all gathered at Pinkie’s place at Sugarcube Corner. Rainbow Dash was in the living room playing some sort of video game. Pinkie was in the kitchen reading a cookbook, and Maud was cooking for us all. I was busy finishing some Calculus work that I wanted to finish before relaxing with the others.

In another room, Rainbow Dash could be heard shouting things like, "Yeah, I gotcha!" and, "Oh, you little cheater." She was heavily invested in whatever game she was playing. The rest of us had no idea what she was even playing.

Pinkie looked up from her cookbook to her sister and groaned,

“Maaaud! When is the food going to be ready?"

Pinkie is not the patient type, especially when she’s hungry.

"I’m almost finished," Maud replied in her monotone, calm voice.

She didn't even lift her head because she was so heavily invested in her culinary creation. While she didn’t usually make much, cooking was Maud’s favorite activity. She never minded cooking for all of us.

"BOOM! You. Have. Lost!" Rainbow shouted from the other room. I and the two Pies with me in the kitchen chuckled.

“C’mere, Twi! You have to see this awesometacular score I just got!” she shouted.

I couldn't help but giggle at this. My face lit up.

"Hang on Rainbow Dash, I'm almost done." I said still face-deep into my homework.

I scribbled in the final part of my equation and answered the the final question. I stored my papers in my binder and put my pencil in my backpack, but Maud made an announcement just as I stood to walk towards RD.

“Lunch is ready! Everyone come sit in the dining room.” And we all came in to eat.

We didn't eat out in the spacious and charming customer's dining area at Sugarcube Corner, but we ate in a private dining room behind the kitchen for the family. It was rather plain and small, even somewhat cramped.

Rainbow Dash had a much larger appetite than anyone else. Maud served her not one, not two, but three sandwiches, which I deduced all featured lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and mayonnaise, but different meats. I deduced by looking that one sandwich contained salmon, another beef, and the final ham. Everyone's sandwiches were beautiful. Every topping was perfectly centered, and even the sesame seeds seemed to be symmetrically dusted. This must have been why the cooking took so long. I giggled and felt almost bad for Maud though. Her craftsmanship was disappearing quickly. Rainbow Dash seemed happy to eat and scarfed down her sandwiches in 20 seconds, but Pinkie surprisingly seemed bothered by Rainbow's ill manners. She closed her cookbook, returned it to the shelf, and sat politely. I thought this was kind of odd. I had never imagined Pinkie as a courteous person.

Rainbow Dash might as well have eaten the whole table. Pinkie was sitting and eating her food uncharacteristically calmly, and there were not enough seats for Maud to sit at the table. Maud didn’t seem to care though. I felt guilty as I realized I was too busy watching everyone else to have taken a single bite of my own meal. I looked down at my plate and was amazed.

"Wow Maud. This looks incredible." I said as I stared at the sandwich of her masterpiece plopped in front of me.

"It is." Rainbow Dash choked out of her mouth as she was shoveling food in her mouth.

"Hey Twilight, what was that you were working on?" Pinkie asked. She seemed to be mostly through her first sandwich right now.

I looked up from my sandwich, which I had taken only two bites from by then. RD was already almost done with her pile of food, and Maud was quietly and leisurely chewing on her second sandwich.

"It was Calculus II." I replied, trying to sound humble.

"Two calcu-- calculuses… cluseseses… calculi… whatever! That’s too many maths! How many even are there?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

"There are different stages of calculus. At Crystal Prep Academy, there are eight levels of calculus, but unless you want to major in math in college, you only have to take the first two."

Rainbow Dash seemed surprised that there were eight levels. She choked on her food, spat it out, and practically screamed,

"Eight?! What kind of dweeb would take EIGHT YEARS of calculus?"

She looked up from the disgusting, half-chewed food she left on her plate and quipped,

“I wish math was a video game! I could beat eight levels of video game math faster than a rhino could eat a cucumber!"

“I don’t think rhinos eat cucumbers,” added Maud.

“See? I can move WAY faster!!” Rainbow Dash tried to finish eating the pile of regurgitated food she left on her plate.

"Well this is the second level. I already completed Calculus I back in high school."

Rainbow Dash murmured through her stuffed mouth,

"How did you do that?"

"Oh, well, I took AP Calculus in my freshmen year, well… in the first semester of my freshman year technically." I continued on by explaining how an AP class is different from a regular class. "AP courses allow students college credits if they pass. I finished AP Calculus I in high school, so I was given a credit toward college. Regular high school classes don't do that."

Everyone looked dumbfounded as I realized this was the first time I had ever told anyone about my scholastic life. Pinkie opened her mouth and asked,

"High school, huh? What was that like?"

I was hungry. Instead of answering Pinkie, I instantly grabbed my sandwich and wolfed the biggest bite I could out of it. She seemed capable of taking the hint. I wanted to change the subject, so I quizzed Maud as soon as my mouth was clear enough to speak.

"I am impressed, Maud. How did you learn to make food so well?"

I knew the answer. The entire Pie family is trained in cooking. Maud stared at me and realized my strategy. I know she cares about me, but she doesn’t like being used, and she was not going to be a pawn. She grinned at me deviously and shook her head while quietly chewing on her sandwich. I made a mistake by asking the cleverest of the three to change the subject. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash meanwhile stared at Maud for a little bit, expecting her to say something as well. When the silence continued, they looked at each other, not understanding what was going on.

I must have looked perturbed. I was quietly chewing, staring down at my plate, probably blushing. I hoped nobody would quiz me further regarding my education. But Rainbow Dash eventually broke the silence.

"Is something wrong, Twilight?"

I swallowed what was in my mouth and sighed exasperatedly. Rainbow Dash must have realized what I was hinting at. She looked kind of offended though. Her eyebrows were angled and her face was a frown.

"Look, you don't have to tell us about it if you don't want to," she scowled. "We understand if you feel uncomfortable."

This only made me grumble in anger.

"It’s fine, Rainbow Dash. It's okay. I… I'm okay with telling you guys. Can we at least talk about it in the den though?"

I finished the last few bites of my meal and headed to the living room. Pinkie, Maud, and Rainbow Dash followed.

I stood on a stool in front of the couch and waited for everyone to situate themselves. Pinkie sat down in the middle after Rainbow Dash and Maud took each side. All was silent as they waited for me to speak, but I was nervous. I sat down with my eyes on the floor, my hands in my pockets, and my mind filled with anxiety. Still, everyone just stared at me. I could feel their eyes piercing into my being. I took a deep breath and pulled my head up to start from the beginning.