Learning

With her breakfast finished, Dinky was walked to school by Twilight. The purple mare was deeply concerned for the filly. No father, a mother who is a pegasus, and a proclivity for magic that lets her do things that most foals her age would have found impossible? Then there was her seeming overreaction to Spike's innocent outburst. The grey unicorn was something of an enigma to Twilight, and the studious mare intended to find out how she could help.

Taking a breath, Twilight asked her first question. "Dinky, do you practice magic?"

"Not really, why?"

Twilight bit her lip. Magic could be dangerous if left untrained. The experience of turning her own parents into cacti had enforced that lesson in Twilight firmly. "Do you have any unicorn friends at school? Did anypony teach you how to lift all that stuff?"

"No."

This is going nowhere. Maybe I need a different approach, thought Twilight. "Do you know what most other ponies are able to do at your age with magic?"

"They use it for flipping pages on books mostly, and writing."

"Does Cheerilee know you can carry that much stuff with magic?"

"I don't do stuff like that at school."

"Why not?"

"Other ponies call me a show off, but I'm not! I just like to carry all my stuff with magic!"

"Surely your friends don't think you're a show off."

"I don't have any friends."

Twilight stopped and stared, the statement had been made so matter-of-factly. She had gone most of her childhood without friends. In retrospect, however, she saw how much better life was with ponies to share it with.

"Why don't you have any friends, Dinky?" Twilight asked.

"I don't know..." Dinky's voice quivered slightly. "Ponies tease me all the time, call me a cry-foal and take my lunch. Cheerilee tries to stop them but she's only one mare. I try to stay inside during recess and read, but sometimes Cheerilee has to send me out so she can teach the older foals." When Dinky noticed Twilight had stopped following her she turned around and looked at the purple unicorn. "What is it?"

"Dinky, don't feel you have to tell me this, but what else do the other foals say about you?"

"Bedwetter, nerd, egg-head, dweeb, know-it-all, show-off, meanie, dolt." The filly lay down and sniffed, painful memories surfacing in her young mind.

Twilight walked over to Dinky and sat beside her. Bedwetter. Ditzy mentioned that she had night terrors, and somepony at school must have found out. Show-off. She does have an amazing latent talent. Nerd, egg-head and dweeb. Maybe they're envious, she did talk about her mother's medical condition without stumbling over the words. Meanie and dolt... "Dinky, what happens when or before ponies call you a meanie or a dolt?"

Dinky nestled into Twilight's side as she whispered, "They say I don't care about their feelings, that I don't understand what any of them are trying to say when they talk to me."

That doesn't make sense, Twilight thought to herself. She had to think on this. For the time being, she needed to get Dinky to school. The two continued trotting along and made it with plenty of time to spare, and Twilight and Dinky bid eachother farewell. Classes would begin in twenty minutes. Dinky opened up a school book and began reading intently.

~~~

"Thank you! Pencils down, everypony! Please hand in your quiz on division," Cheerilee called out as she gathered various papers from her students. Going to the front desk, Cheerilee gathered some more papers. "Now let's see how everypony did on the homework. Sweetie Belle, good job. Snips, Snails, try to work a little harder next time. Dinky, you did wonderfully." Dinky looked at her work and smiled: sixteen out of seventeen questions had been marked correct.

"Yes!" the foal whispered to express her joy. Looking up, she saw Snips glaring at her and she lowered her head quickly.

"Okay then, everypony! School’s out! Take care and I’ll see you all tomorrow!" Cheerilee called out, and all the foals cheered at the news, trotting outside with haste.

Dinky gathered her bags and started outside. Trotting up beside her Scootaloo called out. "Hiya Dinks'! How ya doin'?"

"I'm doing fine. I did well on my homework, how did you do... uh?" The grey filly responded, never once turning her head to look at Scootaloo, confused as she couldn't remember the pegasus' name.

"Ugh ... I barely passed. How do you do it, Dinky? Cheat?"

"NO!" Dinky screamed indignantly.

"Sheesh, no need to fly off the handle Dinky, take a chill pill." With that the orange filly galloped off, eager to put distance between herself and the overreacting filly.

Dinky looked down on the ground. Her mother had told her about how some ponies joked like that, and that it was just a way of showing how impressed they were. But every time, the young filly thought that they genuinely believed she was a cheater.

Dinky continued onward when the orange colt Snails, followed by his chubby compatriot and brother Snips came around a tree. "Heya, cry-foal!" Snails grinned leaning into towards the filly. Dinky tried to run but was blocked off by Snips.

"Nuh-uh, we ain't done with you yet!" the green colt spoke slowly.

"Please, just leave me alone!" Dinky cried out, tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

"What are you going to do? Use your fancy magic on us? Nerd! Teacher's pet!" The words cut into Dinky and she started bawling and shut her eyes. She felt a hoof connect with her side as Snails continued. "Look at ponies when they talk to you, dolt!" With a laugh, the two colts disappeared and Dinky was left on her own. Tending her bruise, she got up and walked back to the library. She opened the library door and saw Twilight reading on a couch, with Spike napping on the other.

"Welcome back, Dinky," Twilight said.

Dinky trotted over to Spike and hopped up beside him, laying down and looking at Twilight who was entirely absorbed in her book. The dragon was muttering in his sleep when his left leg shot out, hitting Dinky in her bruised side.

"Eep!" Dinky called out, trying to get a handle on the pain as her eyes teared. Twilight looked over and saw this.

"Dinky, what's wrong?"

"Nothing! I'm fine—" Spike's leg shot out again and Dinky screamed out in pain.

"Wahhuh?" the purple dragon spoke out as he woke up. He saw Twilight lift Dinky away from him with her magic, and set the now once-again crying filly on the couch beside her.

"Shh, Dinky, tell me where it hurts." the purple mare asked. Dinky indicated her side and Twilight saw a well formed bruise underneath the thin grey coat. "That was too fast for a bruise to form, Dinky, did something happen today?"

"Some bullies kicked me today."

"What? Who?"

"I don't know their names, they're all mean!" Dinky replied. "One was a light blue, chubby unicorn with an orange mane and scissors for a cutie mark, the other one was a light orange with a teal mane and a snail for a cutie mark, and he's really skinny, too."

Twilight lifted her head up. Dinky couldn't remember the names, yet she had a near perfect description for Snips and Snails? Opening her mouth, Twilight began to speak. "It's okay, Dinky. I know who you're talking about, and I'll go talk to their parents right now. Spike?"

"Coming..." The purple dragon walked in from the kitchen with a bag of ice with a hand towel. "Here, Dinky. I'm sorry I hurt you." At this, Twilight smiled and mouthed a word of thanks to her number one assistant. Sniffing, Dinky accepted the bag with her magic lowered it onto her aching side.

"Spike, if you could watch over Dinky while I go have a discussion with Snips and Snail's father, I'd be very grateful," the lavender mare asked.

"Sure thing, Twi!" the purple dragon responded before turning to the grey filly beside Twilight. "Again, Dinky, I'm sorry. I was dreaming, I guess."

"It's okay," Dinky said.

Confident that things had settled down, Twilight stood up and went through with her intention of facing Pressing Order, father of Snips and Snails.

~~~

Twilight coughed to clear her throat. In front of her was the office door of Pressing Order, chief of the Ponyville postal service, father of the two colts who had hurt her charge, Dinky. Twilight raised her hoof and knocked on the office door.

"Come in!" a voice called, Twilight opened the door and there was the green stallion. He looked up at the mare and asked, "What do you want?"

"Good afternoon, Pressing Order. I'm Twilight Sparkle—"

"Fascinating, now what do you want? I got a post office to run."

"I am Dinky Hooves' foal-sitter while her mother is away on work, and I have an issue I'd like to bring up with you."

"That being?"

"Dinky came back from school today with a bruise on her side. When I asked how she got it she said that your sons, Snips and Snails, had bullied her."

"Preposterous! My sons would never do something so low brow! That filly is just trying to get them in trouble," Pressing Order yelled out, the livid color of his outrage plainly showing even through his dark fur.

"Then how do you explain the bruise I found?" Twilight asked, nonplussed.

"She probably ran into something like that wall-eyed mother of hers always is!"

"I don't honestly think Dinky would lie about that, if we could just talk to Snips and Snails and disc—"

"I've had enough of this!" Pressing Order shouted. "You come into my office and accuse my children of hurting a filly who for all likelihood hurt herself for some attention and then start demanding I do something about it? OUT!"

"Now you're being unreasonable. Dinky shows no signs of her mother's strabismus, and to suggest that Dinky would—!"

"GET OUT!" Pressing ordered yelled, standing up and turning over a pile of papers, leading the stallion to curse. "Damn it! look what you made me do!"

Twilight glared at Pressing Order before turning to leave. The stallion refused to listen to reason. Deprived of one choice to resolve the issue, Twilight would have to pursue another course of action.

~~~

Spike was watching Dinky carefully. He had already managed to cause the filly to cry twice within twenty four hours of meeting her; the young dragon felt it as a personal failing that decried his own character. He was eager to make amends, and although he had already apologized and Dinky had accepted, he still did not feel like it was enough.

"Dinky," the purple dragon finally spoke out.

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry again for hurting you. Twilight said that I kicked you in the side. I didn't mean to, honest. I was dreaming and sometimes I act out what I'm doing when asleep. Applejack says Winona does the same thing."

The grey filly lifted her head and looked at Spike; when he tried to look her in the eyes to gather some indication of her emotional state, she averted her own eyes. "What were you dreaming about?"

"I was, uh ... it was... lemme think for a sec." Spike tried to remember the dream: he was running, that much was apparent, but where? Ah, right! I was in the quarry with Rarity, trying to catch up. "I was dreaming I was helping Rarity find gems."

"Okay," the filly said, and lay her head back down.

There's gotta be something I can do to set this right, she won't even talk to me! Wait a second... An idea formed in Spike's mind. It hadn’t been long since his last trip to the quarry with Rarity, and he still had a few gems left. "Dinky, follow me. I want to show you something."

Wordlessly, Dinky obliged and followed Spike to his bed inside Twilight's bedroom. Shifting the cushion, Spike reached underneath it and pulled out a small cardboard box. The dragon scanned the contents and settled on a basic diamond nestled among several fire rubies, and on top of a yellow topaz. "Here, take this."

"Why?" Dinky asked.

"It’s a gift, to show how sorry I am," Spike replied.

"Okay, thank you." The filly took the sizable gem with her magic and simply went on looking at the details around the room.

It was then that Spike heard the library door slam open and shut. Spike went downstairs to see what was wrong. There stood Twilight levitating a piece of paper and quill, scribbling out some notes.

"Twilight? What are you doing?" Spike asked.

Noticing her assistant, Twilight gave a quill and paper to Spike, instructing, "Take down a checklist for me, Spike."

Spike stepped to a nearby desk and grabbed a quill and paper. "Ready."

"One, create checklist. Two, create list of items I need." Spike took out a separate sheet of paper for the coming inventory. "Three,  inform Cheerilee of my plan. Four, gather supplies. Five, Go with Dinky to school to make sure she isn't bullied."

"Wa-huh? I thought you resolved that?" Spike interjected.

"I tried, Spike, but Snips and Snails' father wouldn't listen, and he's convinced that they didn't do anything. Here's what I'll need: a lunch, a camera, paper and quill, and a copy of The Geological Formation of the Dragonguard Mountains."

"Aaaand done! Wait, what's the book for?" Spike queried.

"Reading material so I can get some studies done."

"Right, gotcha."

Twilight was satisfied with her course of action. It was direct, and not subtle. She had doubted her plan slightly, but when she thought about it, had Spike ever been hurt by somepony she wouldn't have let him out of her sight. She had already decided she wouldn't be right next to Dinky the whole time, just waiting outside and keeping a watchful eye. She was nothing if not vigilant in whatever task she set herself to.