THWEET GENIUTH
Chapter 10
Take The Last Train To Manehattan
"Now, Quiz, I don't want you to stay up in your room moping all the time I'm gone."
"Yes, Miss Twilight."
"I've ordered Spike to not take you any meals in your room, so you'll have to come out and be sociable. I think Spike and Owloicious would appreciate the company, really."
"Yes, Miss Twilight."
"The larder is fully stocked, I've even gotten some of those cookies you like, you know, the really dry ones. And if I've forgotten anything I've left Spike several bits in petty cash."
"Thank you, Miss Twilight."
Twilight reached out and straightened Quiz's hair bow, which wasn't crooked. "I wish I could think of a way to cheer you up, Quiz…"
"Please, do stop fussing over me, Miss Twilight," said Quiz. "This is your moment, and you should be enjoying every second of anticipation. Would you like to rehearse your speech once more, until your carriage comes? I have enjoyed hearing it each of the 8 times you have read it thus far…"
"No, Quiz, I am as ready for my trip, and my presentation, as I am going to get with no time left. I don't have the extra week or two I'd like to work on it, I just have the 5 minutes it will take for the taxi to get here. So I'd like to concentrate on one last item…well…look." Twilight turned her clipboard so Quiz could read her check list. Almost all the items, from "Remember your keys" to "Check the weather reports for Ponyville and Canterlot" had at least 3 checks next to them. Quiz could no longer count the checks next to "Edit your speech" and "Re-edit your speech." Only one item was left undone. Item number one – "Make sure Quiz will be OK."
Quiz sighed. "I take it you will not simply take my word for it, if I say that I will be fine?"
"No, Quiz," said Twilight. "You have been so depressed lately, I couldn't just leave you."
"It is true, I have been quite sad," admitted Quiz. "I would say that, given my current circumstances, sadness is the only sane reaction."
"I'm so sorry, Quiz…"
"I have found that this has been a tremendous advantage to my research," noted Quiz. "In terms of friendship, having your friends denied to you provides a perspective that is just extraordinary. I believe I shall be sending the Princess some of my most important dispatches soon."
"Well, I'm pleased you found a silver lining, I guess…"
"Given what it took to achieve my results, I hope that neither you nor any other future research ever has to replicate my findings."
"Oh, Quiz," Twilight put a leg over Quiz's shoulders and drew her in for a hug. Quiz did nothing to fight this.
"This won't last forever, Quiz," said Twilight. "You are already allowed to see Twist, and Derpy and Applejack should let you see Dinky and Applebloom soon. And you'll get to go to Twist's welcome home party tomorrow night. Not even Rarity would dare tell Bon Bon that you shouldn't be there."
"Do you think Miss Rarity sent the Princess the letter of protest against me?"
"No, I think she gave up on that when nopony would sign it with her," said Twilight. "And even if she did send it, they are not taking you from Ponyville until they pry you from my grasp."
"Thank you, Miss Twilight," said Quiz. She leaned on Twilight, letting the older pony comfort her a bit. "But, Miss Twilight, you were so happy and excited when you received your letter. And I was happy and excited for you – to speak before your piers is a well-deserved and long overdue honor for you. I should not intrude on your thoughts now. You should enjoy every moment of this."
Twilight thought she detected something in Quiz's tone, which was amazing since this was Quiz. "What aren't you telling me?"
"It will not make you happy if I say, Miss Twilight."
"Tell me anyway, Quiz."
The filly sighed. "It is just that this conference seems so hastily put together. And they have answered none of your personal inquiries, they have only sent you form letters. They have not even sent you a conference schedule."
"Yes, and I really wanted to pick out the presentations I wanted to hear," said Twilight. "Oh, well, all the speakers I'm interested in will be scheduled opposite each other, they always are… Oh. You think this is a hoax, don't you?"
"Yes, Miss Twilight," said Quiz, sadly. "It is all very suspicious…I do not wish you to be disappointed."
"I have already said everything I can possibly say about your conspiracy theory, Quiz," said Twilight. "Tomorrow, when the candy contest is over and nothing nefarious happened you are going to feel very silly. This is not a plot to keep me from going to Manehattan; I really am going to make a presentation at the Magic Academy, and I am going to have a wonderful time. So, stop worrying about me!"
There was a pounding at the front door, and Spike called, "Twilight, your ride is here."
"I have to go now, Quiz. Is there anything I can say that will make you feel better?"
"If you could, I would appreciate one favor, Miss Twilight," answered Quiz. "Promise me you will not use the magic blackboard spell during your presentation."
"But, Quiz, I want to show off your spell…!"
"Your bright purple lettering is difficult to read, and you always set the brightness much too high," said Quiz. "Do not use the spell, Miss Twilight."
.
"Oh…..deeeeeeeeeear!" Crash!
Quiz had climbed halfway down from her bedroom window when she lost her grip on the knotted bed sheet rope she had made. Now she was stuck in a shrubbery.
"Bother!" grumbled Quiz, as she struggled to free herself.
"Here, let me help you," a pair of scaly purple hands reached in and gave Quiz a good tug. She was soon able to tumble out onto the lawn.
"Thank you, Spike. I was quite trapped without you,"
"Who?"
"It's just Quiz, Owly," said Spike.
"Who?"
"Right, who else would be falling into our bushes? She's lucky she landed in the privet. She almost hit the holly, now that would have hurt," said Spike. "You know, Quiz, the front door's unlocked, and we weren't actually watching it very carefully."
"I thought you would appreciate it if I took great effort to escape from you, Spike," said Quiz.
"Yeah, that was kinda thoughtful of you, Quiz. Thanks," said Spike. "But we caught you fair and square, so back inside now."
"Who?"
"Quiz. We caught her…oh, I get it. We didn't catch her, the privet did. Good one, Owly."
"Yes, well," began Quiz. "Which do you prefer, Spike. Do you want to report me to Miss Twilight, or should I confess to her myself?"
"I would prefer to forget the whole thing and just go back inside," said Spike.
"I am afraid I cannot do that, Spike," said Quiz. "Though I do wish to minimize my disobedience. When I defy her orders I fear Miss Twilight will think I do not respect her authority, and her feelings will be hurt. I hate to do that the her."
"Who?"
"Twilight," answered Spike, "Yeah, she's talking about Twilight, Owly. It doesn't sound like her to me, either."
"I do not understand."
"The other night, Twilight was marveling about how you still respect her, Quiz," said Spike. "What with how she let you down when the other ponies wanted to lynch you."
"What?" exclaimed Quiz. "That is ridiculous. Miss Twilight's defended me despite the ire I had drawn from her friends. Her conduct towards me is beyond reproach."
"Who?"
"She's still talking about Twilight, Owly," said Spike. "He's confused, because he slept through that meeting, and he's only heard Twilight's story. The way Twi tells it, she threw you to the wolves, then stood back and watched them tear into you."
"That is not what happened," whispered Quiz, sounding very sad.
"Yeah, well, maybe you and Twilight should have a long talk, Kiddo," said Spike. "So, you ready to go inside?"
"I have a promise to keep," said Quiz, shaking her head. "When I have done my duty I shall return. You may then lock me in my room if you wish." Quiz turned to leave.
"I can't just let you go," said Spike. "What would I say to Twilight?"
"You may tell Miss Twilight that you were trapped in a shrubbery."
"What? Hey…stop…come on…that tickles!" Spike was at the upper limit of Quiz's levitation spell, but with effort she managed to stuff him through the hole she had made in the privet bush. It helped that Spike did not struggle very much.
After Quiz had left, Spike crawled out of the shrub, and said, "Good luck, Quiz."
"Who?"
"Quiz! Seriously, Owly, sometimes I think you just keep saying that to irritate me."
"Who?"
"Yeah, like that!"
.
All the way to Sweet Apple Acres Quiz tried to work out exactly what she was going to say to Applejack. She knew she had to come quickly to the point, and her argument had better be immediately compelling. Applejack was not the sort of pony who would listen to her rhetoric for long.
Unfortunately, Quiz arrived at the farm with still no idea of what to say.
"Well, looky here," called Applejack, noticing Quiz approach. "If it isn't Miss Hypothetical Projectile herself! Quiz, Darlin', you ain't allowed to be here."
"I shall trespass as briefly as possible," said Quiz. "But I must make one last appeal for Applebloom. Will you please reconsider allowing her to go to the candy making contest?"
"Nope," said Big Macintosh, just joining them.
"This is doubly unfair to Twist," Quiz pointed out. "Not only does she have no pony to root for her, but she will also be short one assistant."
"Twist was part of your little gang out on the barrens," countered Applejack. "She had to know that was gonna lead to trouble."
"Perhaps, but Twist is the only pony being punished on the most important night of her life. That is not fair."
"There's a lot that ain't fair about this whole mess," said Applejack. "Fer instance, it probably ain't fair to punish your friends to get your attention, Quiz. But you have a whole lot of concern for them, and not a whole lot of concern for yourself. If it's the only way to teach you a lesson then, fair or not, I may be doing you a favor by saying no to Applebloom."
"Fiddlesticks!" cried Granny Smith, trundling up to them, showing a surprisingly good turn of speed. She began to shake her walker at her grandchildren. "You youngins haven't thought this through, and you haven't applied any of the good horse sense I thought you got from me!"
"Now, Granny…" began Applejack. She didn't expect to get to finish the sentence, and she was right.
"First off, you all done flown off the handle, treatin' this like it was almost the end of the world," Granny was off and ranting now. "This was just fillies getting into trouble. All fillies get into trouble, it's what they do. I could tell you stories about the nonsense you two got up to…"
"Granny!" said Big Mac. If he thought his warning tone was going to get him anywhere he was sadly mistaken.
"Do you remember that hot summer, when you thought you'd make a swimming hole closer to the house?" mused Granny. "That creak you dammed up flooded our root cellar!"
"Granny!" This time Applejack and Big Mac spoke in unison. Again, it did no good.
"Good thing, too," Granny continued. "If you had succeeded in making a pond you two would have been diving off the roof into shallow water…"
"Granny, you have strayed a might off topic, don't you think?!" cried Applejack.
"Topic?" asked Granny, startled out of her reverie. "Oh, right, fillies getting into trouble…see, this is just the same thing. You all should just calm down about it."
"I don't know, Granny," said Applejack. "If you ask Twilight what the worst thing that could have happened was, she just shudders and changes the topic."
"I think I heard her whisper something about 'rending the fabric of reality.'" Said Big Mac.
"And I reiterate, fiddlesticks!" stated Granny. "Twilight's a tad skittish; and you'd think that mare would know what the end of the world looks like, what with her helping to save it twice and all. No, this was just typical fillies being naughty. Little Quiz there just thought up a brainier way to go about it."
"Don't you worry that Quiz's big brain might make things a little more dangerous than usual?" asked Applejack.
"See, now there's another thing that's got me all cross!" Granny went back to waving her walker with added vehemence. "I don't hold with all this 'Quiz is the root of all evil' talk! I got a whole different view of that!"
"What do you mean, Granny?" asked Big Mac.
"Applebloom, you and your friends heard about Sweetie Belle doin' magic, and you got jealous, right?" asked Granny. "And y'all wanted in on the fun?"
Applebloom had been standing off to the side, maintaining a respectful silence and hoping the adults would sort things out without her. She wasn't at all surprised to be drawn into this. "That's about right, Granny."
"So you asked Quiz if you could do something, too? Something 'cool?'"
"Yes, Granny," said Applebloom, warily. She didn't know where this was going. You rarely did with Granny Smith.
"While 'cool' was used, I believe 'awesome' was my friends descriptive word of choice," said Quiz.
"Cool, Awesome, you girls and your words of the day! Anyhow, Quiz, has anypony ever asked you to do something 'awesome' for them?"
"What? Oh, dear, me, no. Not at all," answered Quiz. "My classmates back in Canterlot would have laughed at the very idea."
"So, Quiz's friends found out she could give them fireworks, and they turned her head with praise and pretty words and talked her into giving them fireworks, too. And Quiz got into a whole passel of trouble for those fireworks," said Granny Smith. "That sounds to me like a pretty mean trick to play on a poor little pony who no pony ever called awesome before."
"What?!" cried Applebloom. "We never did that! At least…me didn't mean to. Oh, Quiz, it wasn't like that, was it?"
"No, Applebloom, it was not like that," said Quiz, firmly. "I mean no disrespect, Mrs. Smith, but I must correct you. I am an unusual pony, that is true, but that is not how my friends see me. When I behave oddly my friends merely accept it, and say 'Quiz is just being Quiz.' It is an extraordinary thing, but that is my friends' view of me. They could not manipulate me in the way describe. It would simply not occur to them."
"I had a feeling you would say that," said Granny, grinning. "Special relationship y'all got there. Does anypony else get the idea that we may be making a mistake separating these girls?"
"Eeyup," said Big Mac. "We've kept them apart long enough."
Applejack was thoughtful for a long time. Finally, she said, "Little Sis, you had better get a move on, if you're going to catch that train to Manehattan."
"Thank you, Applejack, thank you, thankyouthankyouthankyou…" Applebloom hit her sister with a full on flying hug that sent Applejack's hat flying.
"Just don't let me find out you haven't learned your lesson after all," said Applejack. "No launching Quiz into any bushes without adult supervision."
.
"Well, that was quite extraordinary," said Quiz, as she and Applejack walked back to town.
"Yes, it was," said Applebloom. "Quiz, if you want to make a note or two it's OK, I don't mind."
"Thank you so much, Applebloom," said Quiz. She immediately summoned her notebook and quill and began scribbling madly.
As they walked Scootaloo fell in alongside them. "Hi, guys," she said.
"Scoot, aren't you grounded, too?" asked Applebloom.
"Yeah, but I'm not very well supervised," said Scootaloo. This was true, and, as usual, the girls decided just not to talk about it.
On the edge of town they found Derpy and Dinky waiting for them by the roadside.
"Hi, girls," said Derpy. "I have to get to work, so I was hoping I could trust you to see Dinky safely to the train, and to Manehattan and back."
"Certainly, Miss Derpy," said Quiz, and there was a chorus of accent from the other two. "But, I must ask, why have you changed your mind."
"Well, suspicious things have been happening," said Derpy. "If even a little of what you have been saying, Quiz, is true, then it's really important to get Dinky and you girls to that candy making contest. Cheer real loud for Twist, for me, will you please?"
"Of course, Miss Derpy."
"But, one more thing, Quiz," said Derpy. " A lot of things have been said to you, and a lot of them were hurtful and unfair, but some of them weren't. Dinky is a unicorn, too; and soon, when she gets older and grows into her horn, she's going to be all magical like you. I need you to promise me that you will never teach her to walk through walls or break the rules of causality or any stuff like that, 'kay?"
"I promise, Miss Derpy," said Quiz, solemnly. "Dinky will grow to be an extraordinary unicorn without any interference from me."
"I think I trust you, Quiz," said Derpy. "OK, Muffin you have fun, but you be good."
"I will, Mom," said Dinky. Then she turned to the others. "Isn't this just soooo cool! We're going to Manehattan!"
"Yes," said Quiz. "And thus far it has all gone much more easily than I had expected. But I have reached the hard part."
"What's the hard part?" asked Scootaloo.
"I must now have a word with Rarity," said Quiz.