If the residents of Ponyville were to be believed (and they were a reliable lot when it came to matters on such a relatable level), there was nothing that Miss Cheerilee could not teach. It was the reason that so many parents tried to get their children into her class. She was kind, fun, and extremely knowledgeable; the total package of what one could ever want from a teacher. She made it her personal mission to make sure that her students received the best education possible, and had the most fun while doing it. Even when presented with a problem student, she always did her best to help turn them around, and her success rate spoke volumes. "Unteachable" was not a word that she seemed to give any merit to. In her eyes, every student was teachable as long as the right approach was taken.
"Excellent job as always today, Snips!" Cheerilee called to the pudgy blue colt as he left. "I loved your presentation, Snails!" she sang out to his longtime friend as he exited with him. "Thank you so much, Twist!" she said cheerfully as the bespectacled filly left a shiny apple on her desk. "And thank YOU, Ruby!" she chirped as Ruby Pinch left a drawing on her desk. She picked it up and looked at it, beaming at the rendition of herself with the words "Best Teacher Ever!" scrawled under it. She loved every student of hers and made sure they knew it, and was always happy to get a token of appreciation in return.
"Whoa! A royal carriage!" Scootaloo's voice rang out from outside. Cheerilee's ever-present smile faded slightly in response, unseen by her students, who'd already left the schoolhouse. She had been worrying about this moment ever since she was informed of it last week. Normally, this would be the point where she would finish gathering her supplies, then head home and prepare a dinner for one before going over lesson plans for the next day. It was a somewhat-repetitive existence, but not one that she resented, save for the occasional desire to venture into the "serves two ponies" section of her cookbook. Today, however, would be different, and different in a way that wracked the cheery pony's nerves.
It really was an honor to be held in high regard by Princess Celestia, an honor that Cheerilee had never expected to experience. After all, the rulers of Equestria had many subjects, and certainly some more deserving than Cheerilee's humility would allow her to believe herself to be. It came as a total surprise to her when she received that royal letter last week, informing her that the Princess had decided to send her nephew to her to receive lessons on manners and politeness. It truly was an honor, albeit not one she was sure she deserved (though she supposed her numerous "Equestria Teacher of the Year" awards hanging on her wall said differently). At the same time, it was a prospect that terrified her. She knew that Celestia was a patient and benevolent ruler, and she was mostly confident in her abilities, but the idea of possibly disappointing her by not doing a good enough job with her nephew was not one that she wanted to entertain. It was not a request that she could deny, however, and the agreed-upon day had arrived. She stepped around her desk, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself and boost her confidence. She had never failed a colt or filly before, and royalty or not, this colt would not break her streak.
Cheerilee watched as a young, well-built white stallion strode, nose in the air, into the schoolhouse, leaving the door wide open. She kept her smile intact while mentally taking note of his behavior. She didn't really like to judge, but she could not deny that from her experiences, colts and fillies who exhibited poor manners more often than not inherited that behavior from their parents or guardians. Perhaps it was a little unfair of her to judge based simply on this unicorn leaving the door open, but the fact that he was now standing before her without greeting her or even looking her in the eye was giving her speedy judgment a bit more ground.
"Good afternoon!" Cheerilee said, giving him a pleasant smile. "I'm Cheerilee. You must be Prince Blueblood's father."
"I AM Prince Blueblood," the stallion said curtly. Cheerilee tilted her head, looking the stallion in front of her over, somewhat bemused at this revelation. When she had heard that the Princess had requested lessons in manners for her nephew, she had expected a young colt, not a stallion who was practically her age. She was only just barely able to stifle a chuckle, and was pleased to realize that the prince had not seemed to hear it. The last thing she wanted to do was insult royalty, regardless of how silly the situation was. She smiled lightly as she looked him over, admitting to herself that he was quite the rugged young thing. As happy as she was with her life, small twangs of loneliness often found their way into her thoughts. As she looked the prince over, she couldn't stop her mind from going off into tangents, imagining what it would be like to be held in those muscular forelegs.
"I take it you like what you see," the prince said with a smirk, snapping the embarrassed teacher out of her reverie. "A lovely young thing..." Cheerilee blushed at this. She looked up to meet his eyes, only to see that they were gazing straight past her and into the mirror she kept on the wall. She rolled her eyes as he lit up his horn and fixed his mane. She cleared her throat, pulling his attention away from his reflection and focusing on Cheerilee.
"And I must admit, you're a looker yourself," Blueblood said. "What do you say we forget these silly little lessons and get an early dinner together? Princess Celestia will be none the wiser." He gave Cheerilee a grin, one that threatened to steal her heart. She once again allowed her mind to float, feeling like the little filly she was years ago, the one who had always dreamt of being swept off of her hooves by a dashing prince. The prince waggled his eyebrows, seeing that he was beginning to win her over. She felt the consent start to creep its way into her mouth, but then focused. She was a teacher, first and foremost, and the princess was counting on her to help her nephew. Regardless of how handsome and debonair Blueblood was, he was a student, and she had to treat him as such.
"I'm sorry, Prince Blueblood," Cheerilee said, mentally waving away the lingering fantasies in her mind. "I made a promise to Princess Celestia that I would teach you manners, and that is what I am going to do. Perhaps if we finish in a timely manner and you can prove to me that my lessons have helped, then we could see about dinner." She smiled, proud of her resolve. The prince, meanwhile, hmphed and looked away like a petulant child.
"Fine," he huffed. "Then let's get this over with. I don't have all day." Cheerilee frowned.
"That's the exact kind of behavior that we're looking to fix, Prince Blueblood," the fuchsia mare said, doing her best to put her physical attraction aside and let her nature as a teacher shine through. "And on the contrary, we DO have the rest of the day. Princess Celestia said that she doesn't want you to go home today until you've shown a modicum of improvement."
"Hmph," was the prince's reply. Cheerilee put on her most patient smile, the one she reserved for her most problematic students.
"Now now, let's put a smile on that face!" Cheerilee sang, heading to her desk. "We are here to learn, not to be all pouty!" She chuckled lightly to herself at the whole situation; here she was, speaking to a grown stallion... royalty, no less... like he was a colt. She glanced out of the corner of her eye at the still-pouting prince. At least he was playing the part.
"Now then," Cheerilee said, sitting at her desk. "One of the most important aspects of showing good manners is to treat ponies the way you'd like to be treated yourself, and to make them feel good about themselves in general!" She reached into one of her drawers, producing a blank white sheet of paper and a set of crayons. "Please come up to my desk, Prince Blueblood." She smiled earnestly as the prince got up and began to approach. Again, her mind wandered briefly, seeing that strong hunk of stallion approach. Her eyes darted up to his and caught a smug look from him. He'd caught her peeking again. She closed her eyes, clearing her mind. As long as he kept catching her looking, he was in control, and as a teacher, she could not do her job properly if she were to allow the student to gain control. Her eyes opened and her look of confidence returned.
"I'm going to draw something," the teacher said, setting the paper down in front of herself. "And when I'm finished, you tell me what you think of my work, alright?" Blueblood gave a noncommittal grunt, which Cheerilee figured, at this stage, was the best she would get. Cheerilee smiled and took a crayon in her mouth, getting to work. Her students often talked about how good her drawing skills were on the chalkboard, but good was not her intent this time, as she hastily scribbled out a crude (in skill, not in content) drawing of a pony standing in front of a barn. Finishing with a sloppy flourish, she placed the crayons down and turned the paper to face the prince.
"So? What do you think of my drawing?" Cheerilee asked.
"That is the most horrific display of artwork I have ever seen," Blueblood answered without hesitation. Cheerilee tsk-tsked.
"That would have hurt my feelings if I hadn't drawn it poorly on purpose, Prince Blueblood," Cheerilee lectured. "Even if something that somepony has created is not very good, it's not nice to insult it."
"What do you expect me to do?" Blueblood scoffed. "Am I supposed to lie and say that it's beautiful?"
"I doesn't have to be one extreme or the other," the teacher replied, putting the drawing away. "You could easily get around it. For instance, if you showed this to me, I might say something like 'nice work' or 'good use of colors!' And maybe, if I thought you could take it, I'd offer a few helpful pointers on how to improve." She pointed to it to show her point, then spoke in her tried-and-true teacher's voice. "You did a nice job here, Prince Blueblood. I like how creative you got with the colors! If I could make a suggestion, though, perhaps next time you could give the pony four legs instead of five? It's very creative though!" She smiled warmly to the prince. "You see? You can be polite and helpful, even with something like this!"
"I see no reason for it," Blueblood answered, rolling his eyes. "Why compliment somepony when they do a poor job?"
"Because it's polite!" Cheerilee responded, keeping her patience. Patience was something that she was used to displaying thanks to the trials and tribulations of her job. "Let's try something else, alright?"
"I don't see why we can't just skip this and go out to dinner," the prince said, flashing her another winning smile. Cheerilee felt her heart flutter, trying to push back the urge to let his smile infect her and sway her decisions. As if he sensed that he had located the crack in her foundation, he strolled closer to her, never breaking eye contact, smile holding steady. He smelled strongly of cologne, a scent that pleased Cheerilee's senses. How wonderful it would be to wake up to that scent, to lose herself in that smile whenever she pleased. All she had to do was accept his offer. Certainly she could afford one blemish on her flawless record.
No. No, she couldn't. A handsome face was not worth putting her track record on the line. Just as Blueblood's face was about to reach hers, she turned away, looking back towards her desk.
"If you can prove to me that you've learned something, then we can discuss dinner," she said, proud of herself for overcoming temptation. Blueblood, meanwhile, stood with his mouth agape. Not since that white unicorn at the Gala had a mare turned down his advances so easily. He then felt a hoof press up against his chin, pushing his jaw closed.
"It's not polite to let your mouth hang open," Cheerilee said with a chuckle. "Now come on, we've got so much to do! The things for our next lesson are right through this door!" She turned and headed towards the back of the classroom, motioning for Blueblood to follow, something he did reluctantly. She opened the door to her back room, then stopped herself in the doorway. She waited patiently as she heard a "hmph" from behind her, then nearly stumbled as Blueblood shoved his way past her.
"What could you possibly have in here for a next lesson?" the prince asked, a hint of frustration in his voice
"You already had your next lesson," Cheerilee responded, frowning momentarily before catching herself. "Most polite ponies would say 'pardon me' or 'excuse me' or something similar, instead of just pushing past me,"
"But you were in the way," Blueblood said matter-of-factly. Cheerilee sighed lightly.
"If it's passage you need, use excuse me and please," the fuchsia mare recited, then smiled sheepishly. "It's a bit of a slant rhyme, but it conveys the point just fine." She then gave Blueblood's shoulder a light poke. "And a big, strong stallion like yourself should be especially careful with a small mare like myself."
"Hrm," the prince responded. "An important pony like myself doesn't have time for that kind of thing." He went to exit, but Cheerilee blocked the door.
"I won't move until you say excuse me," she said playfully. The prince groaned, then let out a barely audible "excuse me." Cheerilee gave him a smile and stepped aside.
"Are we done now?" the prince asked. "I just showed you that I learned something, didn't I?" The mare shook her head, clearly having a bit of fun playing with the prince.
"I'm afraid that doesn't count," Cheerilee said, much to his chagrin. "You have to show progress without me prompting it. Now let's move on, shall we?" Without a moment's hesitation, she returned to her desk, pulling another sheet of paper out of her desk.
"Are we doing the drawing thing again?" Blueblood asked, rolling his eyes.
"Not exactly," Cheerilee answered, passing him the paper and crayons. "You'll have to forgive me for the foalish subject matter. I was under the impression that I was going to have to deal with a young colt." Blueblood looked with dismay at the childish black-and-white scene on the paper. He sneered at the large sun with its obnoxious smile, the big cartoony flowers with the same smile... every single thing on the paper was smiling at him, and for some reason it irked him so.
"Go ahead and color that in as best you can while I grade these papers," Cheerilee said, sitting down at her desk.
"What does this have to do with manners?" Blueblood asked, but Cheerilee did not answer him, too engrossed in her grading. After a moment of waiting, he rolled his eyes and, for lack of anything better to do, began to color. Cheerilee snuck a few glances at the unicorn as he drew, and couldn't help but giggle quietly to herself at the sight. Something about a full-grown stallion of royal descent coloring like a foal just tickled her funny bone. Her eyes quickly darted back to her papers as the prince looked up towards her, but returned to him once his attention was back on the paper. His coat was as white as the paper he was drawing on. She briefly entertained a thought of hoof-painting all over his pristine coat, tracing colored streaks right down his muscular chest...
"Finished," the prince said, giving her just enough of an alert to go back to looking like she was paying attention to her grading. The mare got up from her seat and trotted over to see the prince's work. His coloring was impeccable. He had not gone outside a single line, and had even employed a couple of shading techniques. If she didn't know better, she would have guessed that he was trying to impress her, just like one of her regular students might. She giggled quietly at this thought.
"Are you laughing at my coloring?" the prince asked indignantly. Cheerilee quickly quieted her chuckles and shook her head.
"Absolutely not, Prince Blueblood!" she exclaimed. "You did some wonderful coloring work here!"
"As expected," Blueblood said haughtily, getting up from the table and beginning to leave. "So now that I have passed this test..."
"Actually, you just failed it," Cheerilee informed him, a bit of disappointment in her voice.
"What? How?!" the stunned prince demanded. "I did an excellent job of coloring, you said so yourself!"
"I didn't have you do this to see how well you colored," Cheerilee told him, shaking her head. "This was to see if you would clean up your own messes by yourself." She pointed to the table, where crayons were strewn haphazardly about. "Clearly this is something you need to work on."
"Somepony will clean it for me," the prince said, waving it off. "They always do." The teacher sighed heavily. Her patience was really being tested, but she had to persevere. Her teaching record was at stake, and there was no student that she could not teach.
Or maybe there was, she began to think as her trials with the prince continued. Every single thing she tried to push to him seemed to just roll off his back. Every single lesson refused to penetrate the wall he seemed to be putting up, and even her usually-endless patience just couldn't take it anymore. She looked across the room at the stubborn, yet still strikingly-handsome stallion. She'd really been hoping for him to learn something, anything, so she could take him up on his dinner offer, but it just didn't seem to be in the cards, and she couldn't in good conscience give him the reward if he hadn't earned it, even though it would have been a reward for her as well.
"Are we about done here?" Blueblood asked, checking his appearance in the closest reflective surface he could find; a hoof mirror that he had pulled off of Cheerilee's desk. Without asking, of course. The defeated teacher rested her head on one hoof.
"For today, yes," she told him with a sigh. "I'll write a letter to your aunt and tell her that I need to see you again next week. Could you get me another piece of paper from the back room?"
"Do I have to?" Blueblood asked, frowning.
"Just do this one thing for me, please," Cheerilee requested, keeping herself from yelling despite how much she wanted to. The prince looked annoyed, but finally acquiesced, entering the back room. Cheerilee sighed a heavy sigh, looking back towards the back room. For the first time in a long time, her perfect track record was in jeopardy, and it didn't help that she was also losing out on a chance to be taken out to dinner by a prince. How could this day get any worse?
"Miss Cheerilee!" a young voice called from the front door. She looked up to see Sweetie Belle trotting cheerfully into the schoolhouse, carrying a small parcel with her. Cheerilee did her best to perk up and look happy for her little student.
"Why hello, Sweetie Belle!" Cheerilee said warmly. "What brings you back to school this afternoon?"
"I totally forgot to bring you a present I had for you!" the white filly said, plunking the parcel down onto her teacher's desk. "It's a thank you present for being such a great teacher!" Cheerilee smiled, her heart warmed by the act.
"Thank you so much, Sweetie," Cheerilee said, pulling the box towards herself and starting to untie the string around it. "What is it?"
"Cookies!" Sweetie exclaimed. "I made them myself!" Cheerilee hesitated. Sweetie was a very thoughtful young pony, but to be honest, her culinary talents left something to be desired. She'd had to deal with Sweetie's dishes since she started teaching her, and it was often quite an ordeal. Cheerilee had never seen somepony manage to burn ice cream before meeting Sweetie Belle.
"That's...very kind of you, Sweetie," Cheerilee said, smiling awkwardly as she opened the box. She took what was allegedly a cookie out of the box, looking at it cautiously. She had a personal rule to never throw something that a student made for her away, but Sweetie's creations would sometimes tempt her. Regardless, it wasn't an option, and judging from the big smile Sweetie was giving her, she couldn't get away with waiting till she got home to try one.
"Here's your paper," Blueblood's voice suddenly rang out as he dropped the paper Cheerilee had asked for on her desk. His attention then turned to the box. "Ooh, are those cookies?" Cheerilee panicked inwardly as she processed the situation. She wanted to cry out and stop it from happening, but her mind and mouth couldn't coordinate fast enough.
"Yup!" Sweetie said proudly. "I made them myself!" Before Cheerilee could get a word out, Blueblood floated a single cookie out of the box and popped it into his mouth. Cheerilee, too late to stop the impending disaster, braced for impact. The prince chewed, and Cheerilee watched nervously as his face twisted and contorted painfully. Eventually he swallowed, a process that should not have been as laborious as he made it out to be. His cheeks had flushed to a deep red, and he did not look the least but pleased.
"How are they?" Sweetie asked, seemingly oblivious to the agony that the prince looked to be in. Cheerilee took a deep breath, preparing for the imminent flood of tears from the little filly. The prince looked down at Sweetie, who smiled a big, eager smile up at him. He stared at her for a good five seconds before offering a smile back.
"Very flavorful," he finally said. "Well done, young lady." Cheerilee gawked as Sweetie bounced with glee.
"Thanks, mister prince!" she said happily. "Maybe you and Miss Cheerilee could hang out together and share them!" She began to leave, but stopped to turn back and add a second "together." She then zoomed off, giggling. It was not until she was gone that Blueblood coughed, lolling his tongue out of his mouth and nearly gagging.
"Who...puts cayenne pepper in chocolate chip cookies?" Blueblood gasped. Cheerilee leapt out of her seat, hugging the surprised prince.
"That was marvelous!" the fuchsia mare exclaimed. "How did you do that?" Blueblood raised a brow at her.
"She was just a child," Blueblood answered simply. "I couldn't bear to tell her just how much I disliked it." He returned the hug lightly. "Now I suppose I shall be heading home." Cheerilee smiled a cute little smile.
"I thought you were taking me to dinner once you proved that you learned something?" she asked, releasing her hug. Blueblood tilted his head, then smiled a suave smile.
"Indeed I did," he said, heading to the front door. He then turned back to her. "I'm sure you won't mind picking up the bill?" Cheerilee opened her mouth to protest, then let it be. One step at a time, she figured.
