Chapter 1: Cheerilee's Mistake
Scootaloo's Homework
By Wanderer D
Chapter 1: Cheerilee's Mistake
The fillies and colts of Ponyville chatted animatedly as they returned from their lunch break into the classroom, where their beloved teacher awaited.
Once they had settled back into their seats, she tapped her hoof on her desk, drawing their attention to her.
"Welcome back, everypony!" she called out cheerfully. "Before we continue with our usual schedule, I thought of something interesting while eating lunch!"
More than one colt and filly shifted uneasily in their seats. Cheerilee's random ideas usually ended up in additional homework.
"Uh, what was that idea, Miss Cheerilee?" Apple Bloom asked, raising a hoof.
"Simple!" Cheerilee giggled. "I was going to let all of you write an essay on a subject of my choosing for homework!" she started, eliciting a groan from her students. "Now, now, let me finish! You still have to work on the essay, but instead of me telling you what you have to write it on, how about I let each of you decide what to write it on?"
There was a moment of shocked silence.
"How about you just tell us?" Sweetie Belle asked, seconded by several groans of support from other students.
"You mean..." Cheerilee tilted her head. "That you want me to think about it while you put just enough effort on a topic of my choosing to earn a passing grade while I have to pore over thirty-six essays of the exact same information?"
The class pondered for a moment before the general consensus that yes, that's quite exactly what they would very much prefer was made known to Cheerilee in the form of eagerly nodding heads.
"Well that's not going to happen!" Cheerilee replied, smile firmly in place. "You'll have to think about a topic, research it and write about it." She nodded. "And make it different. Think about it now, and by the end of the day I expect all of you to have come with a topic. I will give you a list for you write in what you chose." She paused, tapping her chin in thought. "And think more than one, just in case somepony else already chose the topic you wanted."
The collective groan from the class didn't take away any of her cheer.
"Okay class! Here's the list!" Cheerilee declared, giving the sheet to Diamond Tiara. "Write down your topic next to your name! You have a week to do your research and submit it!"
Diamond Tiara cast a quick glance around the room before leaning over to whisper to Silver Spoon. "Hey, Spoon."
Silver Spoon nervously leaned toward her friend. "Yes?"
"I want you to choose apples for a topic."
Silver Spoon blinked. "What?"
"Choose apples. I'm going to write down Rainbow Dash."
It took only a moment for Silver Spoon to catch on to what Diamond Tiara was thinking. "Are you sure you want to do this? Rainbow Dash is... well... Rainbow Dash."
Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. "She's the weather pony. What challenge could she possibly be?"
"But—"
"Just do it!" Diamond Tiara hissed.
"Okay..." Silver Spoon shrugged, leaning away from her friend. She could think of worse topics, and the Apple family history was actually kind of interesting. As soon as Diamond Tiara passed her the list, she wrote her selected topic next her name before passing the paper over to the pony next to her.
Scootaloo leaned back on her seat, a confident smirk on her face as she awaited the page to be passed on to her. She already knew the subject of her essay. It could only be the most awesome, amazing, astounding, intrepidus, perfect pony of all: Rainbow 'Danger' Dash.
As such, she barely glanced at the list when it was presented to her and was about to start writing her favorite pony's name, when she caught sight of it at the very top of the list.
"WHAT?!"
Cheerilee looked up from her desk, smile in place. "Is there a problem, Scootaloo?"
"Yes! Somepony... actually, Diamond Tiara chose to write about Rainbow Dash!"
Cheerilee tilted her head and blinked twice. "And what's wrong with that?"
"Yeah," Diamond Tiara teased. "It's not like you own her, right?"
"Well no, but—"
"Scootaloo," Cheerilee chided, smile growing slightly, "we all know the rules. If somepony else chooses your topic, you should use the second one you thought about."
Scootaloo gritted her teeth and glared at the page and the blank space next to her name. "Grah!" she snarled, scribbling her frustration into it. She didn't care if Cheerilee was upset by what she was writing. She didn't care if she got in trouble at all.
Snails — Parallel Trajectories of Heavenly Bodies Snips
Scootaloo — Luna, Celestia, Discord, Sombra and Chrysalis dammit!
Sweetie Belle —
Apple Bloom —
Disgusted, she tossed the list to Sweetie Belle, who promptly wrote something on it before passing it to Apple Bloom, who—after taking a look at the list—shot Silver Spoon an incredulous look before frowning and writing something next to her name.
"And that's it!" Cheerilee said excitedly, snatching the paper from Apple Bloom's desk the moment the filly had stopped writing. She looked over the list. "This looks perfect! I look forward to seeing the fruit of your efforts! And remember that you have to really do research or you will fail!"
"Wait," Scootaloo said, standing up, alarmed. "You don't object to what I wrote?"
Cheerilee blinked and looked at the list for a moment before looking up. "Nope! It seems you're very excited about it! It does seem ambitious, but your wording indicates that you are committed to this! I'm very proud of you, Scootaloo!"
"But!"
At that moment the bell rang and all the students rushed out of the room, leaving behind a gaping Scootaloo and a smiling Cheerilee.
"B-but..."
"Now, get to writing it," Cheerilee giggled, before bumping Scootaloo's shoulder. "Dammit!"
"Well, it seems we have a lot of work to do," Apple Bloom sighed. "What are y'all workin' on?"
"Ooh!" Sweetie oohed. "Mine is on Musical Theatre!" She turned to grin at Scootaloo. "Guess what Apple Bloom's is on?"
"Apples?"
"Ah do not only think about apples!" Apple Bloom protested.
"Somepony took it, didn't they?"
Apple Bloom looked away and muttered.
"What was that?"
"Yes."
"Aw," Sweetie hugged her friend. "It's not that bad!"
"Ah just don't get it!" Apple Bloom huffed. "Why would Silver Spoon want to write about apples of all things?"
Scootaloo snorted. "For the same reason Diamond Tiara decided to write about Rainbow Dash, I bet."
"Well, it don't matter anyway," Apple Bloom shrugged. "Ah'm gonna write about jewel-crafting!"
Scootaloo blinked. "Say what?"
"Jewel crafting!" Apple Bloom repeated. "Ah got the idea from Silver Spoon wantin' to find out about apples. Why, if she can learn somethin' about me, Ah can learn somethin' about her!"
Scootaloo frowned. "I guess I could have written about Filthy Rich..." she considered that for a moment. "Then again, I have too much self-respect."
"So, what is your essay about?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Scootaloo paled. "Oh. Oooh damn. I'm done for..."
"What? Why?"
"I... wrote down Celestia, Luna, Discord, Sombra and Chrysalis."
The two fillies blinked. "Wait, so you have to write papers on all of them?!"
Scootaloo slumped. "I guess I do."
"But... Sombra is gone, Chrysalis is..." Apple Bloom looked at Sweetie Belle.
"I'm sure something can be arranged," Sweetie Belle said.
"...okay..." Apple Bloom continued. "Discord is, well, Discord. And the Princesses? They're busy! Are y'all going to be doin' all the research in the library?"
"Eww!" Scootaloo cringed. "No way I'm doing that! I'm a hooves-on filly! I'll look into it myself!"
"Well, Twilight is a princess and knows the other two..." Sweetie Belle ventured.
"Nah, I'll just talk to Luna tonight," Scootaloo shrugged. "I'm sure she can help me with Celestia."
The other two fillies nodded.
"Hey, don't you find it odd that fillies our age are so well connected with beings of ultimate power?" Apple Bloom wondered.
The three pondered the thought.
"Nah."
"Well girls," Scootaloo sighed. "I'm off, I need to figure out a way to resurrect King Sombra... and that means the library."
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle watched Scootaloo ride away in silence.
"This is not going to end well, is it?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Apple Bloom shook her head. "Eeenope."
