Cheerilee had the perfect classroom. The walls were vibrant with powerful colors that kept the mind awake. Passionate magentas clashed against soothing chartreuse. Sunshine orange cascaded over forest greens. It almost felt like madness, but if if you were to ask any of her students they would say that it felt like home.
The colours were just one small part though. Cheerilee had put countless hours of effort into designing her classroom as a safe haven for learning. An ornate banner followed the circumference of the room, pressed up against the top of the wall. Cheerilee specifically created it herself to be a near comprehensive timeline of the history of Equestria that highlighted important moments of historical significance. From before the ascension of the Royal Sisters, all the way to the appearance of Castle Twilight. Cheerilee’s greatest love may have been her students, but her love of history was a close second. Any time she had an opportunity to combine the two it gave her that much more fulfillment in life.
Today though, was not going to fulfill her life.
Cheerilee sat at her desk on the far side of the classroom, and she sorted through the file in her hoof for at least the fourteenth time. The file contained an analysis of a particular piece of history. Not the sort of world history like she enjoyed to study. It was a more personal history. A history of one of her students. A student that had shown manipulative tendencies, unmitigated aggression, and a penchant for bullying. Her name was Diamond Tiara, her father was the richest stallion in all of Ponyville, and today was their parent/teacher conference.
A knocking came from the other side of the classroom door and caused Cheerilee to drop the folder. She quickly picked it up and stuffed in a drawer. She knew who was there, she was only expecting one visitor at the moment. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. She was more than willing to admit that the idea of this meeting intimidated her, but it needed to done for the sake of peace in her classroom.
“Come in.” She commanded in the same determined voice she used for unruly children. She hoped that by not getting up and opening the door it would at least establish a sense of power on her end. At least that’s what she hoped for.
A middle-aged Earth Pony walked through the door. He had a light coffee colored coat, a slicked back black mane, a cutie mark that depicted three bags of money, and he wore a style of collar and a tie around his neck that Cheerilee was rather sure went out of fashion twenty years ago. He was Filthy Rich and he was also filthy rich.
“Why hello Miss Cheerilee.” Filthy Rich said a little more jovial than she had expected. He had a slight southern Equestrian accent that Cheerilee placed as possibly Appleloosan, with some slight inflections from the Hayseed Swamp area. She wasn’t quite sure. Linguistics weren’t her favorite area of history research, but she did have a passing interest.
“Hello Mister Filthy-”
“Please call me Rich.” He said without a hint of irony.
He then motioned his way towards the chair on the other side of her desk and took a seat before she could invite him to sit down. “A-alright Mister Rich” She took another deep breath. “It’s wonderful that you could make time for a meeting. I know you’re a busy stallion.”
“It’s no trouble, I assure you. The well-being of my little filly is of the utmost importance. Though I must admit, this meeting came to my attention rather...suddenly.” Cheerilee could feel the accusation lingering in his voice.
“Um, yes, well-”
“If there is some sort of issue with my daughter I would much appreciate that we not drown ourselves in bureaucracy, and we speak openly.” Straight to the point and commanding the conversation at every turn. It really wasn’t until Cheerilee was in the presence of someone with power that she realized exactly how much it was worth.
Cheerilee’s brain still wanted her to soften the blow of what she was going to say. Years of talking to overbearing parents had conditioned her to only say what they wanted to hear in relation to their children. If they ever heard anything else she may just be risking her job. But that wasn’t what Filthy Rich wanted. He wanted the truth. Cheerilee fought against her instincts.
“Your daughter has been constantly bullying innocent students and if her behavior continues she will expelled from my school.” Cheerilee spat the sentence out and stared directly at Filthy Rich, preparing herself for the hell she had just wrought.
At first, he didn’t move. His limbs didn’t twitch, his eyes didn’t blink, he didn’t even appear to be breathing. The silence dragged on for an unbearable number of seconds. Cheerilee didn’t have it in her to say anything more. As far as she was concerned, she had already dug her own grave. All she could do was wait.
After an eternity, at least from Cheerilee’s perspective, the businesspony shaped statue that was sitting across from her decided to move. He reclined backwards and raised one hoof up to his mouth in thought. Then he giggled. Cheerilee couldn’t quite process the action. He presented himself as such a powerful pony. This was a stallion with a reputation, a reputation for never giving a single moment in any situation where he had anything less than 100% control. At least that was what she had always heard. But here he was, giggling. Not guffawing, not chuckling, not even laughing. The whole circumstance was just so...unintimidating. And yet somehow that managed to frighten Cheerilee even more.
Filthy Rich composed himself as much as he could, “Yes, yes. I suppose she is a bully.”
“...I’m sorry. What?”
“I’m agreeing with you Miss Cheerilee. My daughter, my bright little sunbeam, is a bully.”
“I, uh”, Cheerilee was rapidly coming to the realization that she had never been in this kind of conversation before. They never turned out this way. She had no script to go off of. “Wait, wait. What do you mean by ‘I suppose she is a bully’?” Filthy Rich opened his mouth to answer but Cheerilee just continued on anyway, “she has been intentionally trying to demean and belittle every student in my class since the day she started school, she has somehow developed an entire cult of followers that regularly seek her approval, she has not completed a single homework assignment because she forces her classmates to do her work, and for some reason she has focused her spite on group of three innocent little fillies.” Cheerilee voice cracked a little as she now considered that being fired might be the least of her issues. She was in too far though, there just wasn’t much point in stopping now. “But honestly all of those issues are somewhat manageable. With the right amount of support and communication between her home life and her school life we could still set her on the right track. No, the problem, the big problem here is that she is really, really good at being a bully. She has managed to cover her tracks on every single transgression she’s instigated. I’m not blind to the lives of my students Mr. Rich. I see the struggles they face every day, the hardships they endure. And you know what? Half of those struggles in some way relate to your daughter. But she is such an expert at being awful that I can’t prove anything.”
“You really can’t prove any of it?” Filthy Rich asked in a way that implied he wasn’t even paying attention to the rest of her rant.
“I, uh, I’ve tried. But short of actually hiring some kind of private detective, I just don’t think it’s possible. For some terrifying reason, she is very efficient at what she does.” Cheerilee’s mind took a moment to shift gears as she realized the ridiculousness of the fact that she had even answered his question. “Wait. why is that even a concern for you? Are you not the least bit interested in the fact that your daughter may very well be single-handedly destroying the sanctity of my classroom?”
“Partially.”
“Come again?”
“I’m partially concerned about your students.” Filthy Rich reiterated himself. “Admittedly they’ve spent more time with my daughter than they should have. I would truly be filled with regret if any of them suffered any lasting damage. If what you say is true then it seems she doesn’t have much use for public school anymore.”
Cheerilee scratched her head, “I’m not quite sure I...are you saying that you’re now going to voluntarily remove your daughter from my school?”
“Well, yes, that does seem to be the case.”
“Mr. Rich!” Cheerilee was having trouble believing that any parent could be this irresponsible. “To be perfectly honest my threat of your daughter’s expulsion was just that. A threat. Removing Diamond Tiara from this situation won’t solve anything. She is obviously having issues with emotional maturity and she is taking it out on her classmates. I need your help as her father. She absolutely cannot continue on like this, and she will only get worse if we do not address it.”
Filthy Rich stood up and brushed off his collar even though it was already immaculately clean. He then raised his front legs onto Cheerilee’s desk and leaned in close towards her. “Miss Cheerilee,” The way he addressed her this time had little patience, “do you know how much I am am worth?”
“I, I don’t think that’s particularly relevant to the topi-”
“Far too much to be sending my daughter to public school!” He leaned just a little bit closer. “And yet here she is. Here she’s been for the past 2 years in this hellhole that they call a learning institution.” Cheerilee was shaking with equal parts fear and anger. “Did you even stop for one second to consider how ridiculous it was that the daughter of one of Equestria’s most prominent entrepreneurs was at your low-income, hillbilly, townhouse of a school? Do you realize how mad that sounds?”
“How dare you!” Cheerilee practically yelled. “How dare you undermine this establishment, and how dare you think that your status is any excuse to be rude to myself or the students that this school represents. I would think a stallion of your stature would know better than to badmouth the hard work of somepony else. Quite frankly Mr. Rich you have now given me a full understanding of where Diamond Tiara’s ‘issues’ come from.” Cheerilee had no idea when she got up, but she was standing on all fours now. “I’ve changed my mind. I feel it would be in yours and your daughter’s best interest to disassociate yourselves with my school as soon as possible.”
He didn’t respond immediately. Cheerilee had the feeling that he was considering the fastest possible method to bankrupt her school and force her into homelessness. “I’m sorry,” he said. Filthy Rich’s attitude and aggression completely slipped away, and something almost resembling regret took it’s place. He pushed himself from the desk. “My daughter’s time spent in your classroom has been the, for lack of a better word ‘easy’, stage in her upbringing. From here on out it’s only going to get more difficult for my little sunbeam, and I’m having conflicting emotions about it all. I didn’t mean to take it out on you and your school. It’s a lovely place and it was just what we needed as a family.” Filthy Rich turned around and walked towards the door. “As compensation for both mine and my daughter’s behavior you can expect a rather generous grant in the near future. I’m positive it will be put to good use. I don’t believe our paths will cross again. Thank you Miss Cheerilee.”
He walked towards the door and reached out his hoof to open it. “Why?” Cheerilee somehow managed to make the question sound as dumbfounded as she felt, but it did make Filthy Rich stop and turn his head back towards her. “You never actually explained why your daughter was here in the first place.”
Filthy Rich giggled to himself. The same strange giggle from earlier. “My corporations are expanding more and more every year. We’re already reaching beyond Equestria and my best analysts only foresee consistent growth from this point. It’s a dream that I’ve been working towards every single day since I was just a poor little colt. But somewhere throughout that dream she appeared. A beautiful, smart, and savvy bundle of hope that gave me clarity and pushed me towards something far bigger. This world wasn’t mine for the taking, it never was. This world is for my daughter, and the most important thing I can do right now is prepare her.”
Cheerilee had a look of confusion on her face that she realized had been her default reaction throughout their entire exchange. “Those do sound like rather lofty ambitions, but it still doesn’t explain why Diamond Tiara was here.”
“I was an experiment.” Filthy Rich said about his daughter without remorse. “My little sunbeam has had only the finest tutors ever since the day she was born. They’ve extensively covered just about every necessary topic for her to become the world’s next great business mogul. Accounting, business law, economics, finance, we even pursued advanced mathematics and sciences. You said that she never completed a single homework assignment herself, right? Well I would hope so. It’s beneath her. But we made sure though to put the greatest amount of focus on the subjects of group leadership and mental manipulation. She was a natural, of course she was, and ultimately that’s what your classroom was for Miss Cheerilee. Her skills excelled so much in theory, but we needed to put them into practice. We needed a safe environment. A public school seemed perfect. And based on what you’ve told me, she passed with flying colours. Only 2 years in a place with her peers and she controlled every aspect of it so well that even her teacher was afraid.”
“That, that’s insane! That’s all this school was to you? That’s all your daughter is to you? An experiment?” Cheerilee snapped at him. “You should be ashamed of yourself. You’ve caused an untold amount of trauma to a class of grade school fillies just so your daughter could play some twisted game? I have half a mind to contact child services.”
“It wouldn’t work. I can promise you that. And yes, that’s exactly what I did. I choose this particular scenario because children are resilient. They will all recover sooner rather than later. And contrary to what you may be thinking I did this for my daughter’s best interest. I did it because I love her. And now with this ‘game’ concluded, my darling girl is about to step into a world far harsher than many ponies could even imagine. I can only hope that I adequately prepared her for what comes next.” He opened the door in front of him. “Again I thank you and your students from the bottom of my heart. Your contributions will not soon be forgotten.” He walked out of the classroom and lightly closed the door behind him. It was in fact the last time Cheerilee ever saw Filthy Rich.
Cheerilee sat back down in her chair. She kept trying to put her thoughts together, but found that it was more comfortable to not think about anything at all. She was just entirely drained. Eventually she regained her composure, or at the very least her motor skills, and remembered that she had three more parent/teacher conferences scheduled for today. Those parents would have some choice words for her if their appointments suddenly got cancelled. Cheerilee shrugged and figured that she would just cross that bridge when she came to it.
As for that very moment, all she had the desire to do was to tidy up her classroom. She pulled out a rag and a cleaning solution and she polished up all of the desks. One by one she gave them certain shine. She could vividly imagine how the children would appreciate it. Then she used her duster to spruce up the vibrant clashing colors that adorned her walls. After she finished the entire room it lit up even more. Then lastly she noticed her timeline of Equestria that wrapped around the top of the walls was sagging just a little bit. Armed with a sense of determination she grabbed a ladder and a roll of tape and began re-adjusting it. She started at the beginning of the timeline and worked her way towards the end. As she went along she read all of the events listed on it and reminisced about every single time she shared them with a group of students. In some small way it was the best part of her job. Finally she reached the end of the timeline and a sudden realization dawned on her. It was incomplete. Well, ‘incomplete’ was the wrong word. The timeline ended with the magical appearance of Castle Twilight, but Cheerilee knew that was wrong. Deep inside she could feel it, she might have called it clairvoyance if she actually believed in things like that. She knew that very soon there was going to be something new on her timeline, and it was going to be inevitably caused by Diamond Tiara.
