Chapters Chapter 1: Attendance
Miss Cherilee walked up to the front door of her school, unlocking it with a small bronze key, as she pushed the door open the faint scent of glue, pencils and paint immediately ran up her nose to greet her.
The room was a mess, there were bits of paper covering the room along the floors, walls and somehow the ceiling. Paint pots tipped over adding vivid colours to the chaos, Cherilee moved slowly because turning around too quickly made her feel sick.
Placing her saddlebags on the one clean desk that belonged to her she began to clean the classroom, She collected up all the paper, luckily it managed to stop the paint reaching the wood floor beneath, she wiped the desks to remove any pencil drawings that the children decided to doodle while they should have been paying attention in class.
After a few minutes of cleaning and finally managing to get the last pieces of paper from the ceiling Miss Cherilee sighed and relaxed behind her desk admiring the clean class room she now worked in, Looking at her blackboard she groaned as all the notes from yesterdays lesson still coated the board in thick chalk.
“How does Snails not understand that alicorns have both wings and a horn?” She moaned as she proceeded to wipe the same diagram away from ten different places dotted across the board, some chalk dust gathered in her pink mane and down the front of her light, purple body so she quickly brushed it away
Cherilee sat down again, sighing even deeper as everything in the room was now spotless, opening her saddle bags she pulled out a large book and a pen, placing the book down on her table she opened the first page which contained a list of all her students.
It wasn’t long before a wave of students crashed into the class room, slamming the door open with a loud 'BANG', Cherilee wasn't shocked anymore seeing as this happened every weekday
“Good morning students” She put on a happy smile as the class all took their seats
“Good morning Miss Cherilee!” They all happily said in unison
After taking the attendance Miss Cherilee replaced her book and pen into her bag before picking up a piece of chalk between her teeth and walked over to the board and wrote in big letters ‘Cloudsdale’
Placing the chalk down she no longer noticed the horrid taste it left in her mouth “Now today students we will be learning about the role of Cloudsdale in our lives” She looked at the class as Snips raised a hoof “Yes Snips?”
“Will we be going there for a field trip?” All the class got excited as he asked
The class started to talk amongst themselves about what they could do while they were there and Miss Cherilee had to hush them all down “I am afraid not because Cloudsdale is a Pegasus city which means earth ponies and unicorns can’t simply walk around”
“What about Pegacorns?” Snails asked with a dopey expression on his face
“Pegacorns?” Cherilee raised an eyebrow “what’s a Pegacorn?”
“It’s a pony that has wings and a horn” he responded happily
Miss Cherilee facehoofed “Do you mean an alicorn?”
Snails stared blankly at her for a moment before a wide grin appeared on his face “Oh yea”
Miss Cherilee rolled her eyes “Anything with wings can travel to Cloudsdale, including alicorns” she looked at her class again to make sure there weren’t anymore questions before continuing “Now who can tell me… yes Sweetie Bell?”
Sweetie Bell lowered her hoof “Why can’t unicorns and earth ponies go to Cloudsdale?”
“Because Cloudsdale is made of clouds, which pegasi can walk on but unicorns and earth ponies can’t” She turned to the board again before hearing Applebloom and turning her head around again
“What’s so special about pegasi that means they can walk on clouds?” She asked leaning her head to one side
“That is for another lesson but today we are learning about Cloudsdale” She quickly took a breath so she could continue talking without interruption “now can anypony tell me what Cloudsdale is most used for?”
All the students looked at one another, puzzled before returning their gazes back to the front.
“Well Cloudsdale is responsible for making clouds and other pieces important to the weather in Equestria, such as lightning and rainbows” She drew a large cloud on the board “When they have a cloud the Pegasi that work in the factories fill them with water and some lightning bolts”
“How do the clouds work?” Scootaloo asked
“Good question Scootaloo” Scootaloo raised her head proudly as Miss Cherilee continued “A cloud can be moved by a Pegasus into any position needed, when slightly agitated for example, a Pegasus bouncing on top of it, rain is produced” She turned to make sure her class were taking notes, her neck began to ache already from all the turning “But when a sudden force is introduced, such as a strong kick, a lightning bolt is released”
“Can a unisus control the weather?” Snails asked
“A unisus?” Miss Cherilee sat down allowing the students to continue with their notes “What is that?”
“A pony that has a horn and wings” He replied dimly
Cherilee groaned and stated to lightly bash her head against her desk “Don’t you mean alicorns?”
“Oh yea”
The lesson continued with some difficulty due to Snails having trouble remembering what an alicorn was and Miss Cherilee gave up and let them all out to play for a while “I shall call you all back in when I am ready for next lesson”
The tired teacher got out sheets of paper, some thin sticks of wood, some long string and some glue and spread them all into even piles, enough for the children to all work in small groups “this shouldn’t be too hard” she muttered to herself as she drew some simple instructions on how to make a kite on the board
She walked outside to call her class in only to see Scootaloo hanging upside down from a tree by her tail “hey Miss Cherilee” She called happily as she swung back and forth
“What happened?” Cherilee ran over panicked and helped Scootaloo down
“Well we tried to see if we could get our cutie marks by tree climbing” She looked at her clear orange flank “I guess not” She looked up into the top of the tree “Either of you two get yours?”
“Did you say we?” Miss Cherilee looked up to see Applebloom and Sweetie Bell both hanging in a similar situation a few branches above her head “Really?” she said in disbelief
“I can’t see anything” Sweetie Bell sighed sadly as she spun slowly around
“Me neither” Applebloom looked down to the ground “Sorry Miss Cherilee”
Cherilee sighed as she helped the other two fillies out from the tree “well everypony inside for next lesson”
As they all started to walk in Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walked past the Cutie Mark Crusaders laughing “I bet they will never get their cutie marks” Silver Spoon said loud enough for everypony to know that it was directed at the trio
“We will! Just ya wait and see!” Applebloom angrily stared at the bullies “And they will be ten times better than yours”
“Will not”
“Will too”
“Will not!”
“Will too!”
“WILL NOT”
“WILL TOO”
“GIRLS!” Cherilee angrily screamed before taking a deep breath and regaining her usual smile “hurry for next lesson, it’s arts and crafts”
They all eagerly hurried in and gathered their materials apart from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who both groaned
“I hate arts and crafts” Diamond Tiara grumbled as she walked past the teacher “daddy always buys things I want”
“And arts and crafts hate you too, you spoilt little brat” Cherilee whispered irritably under her breath as she followed her students inside
Chapter 2: Simple instructions
Chapter 2: Simple instructions
Miss Cherilee sat down and watched the chaos unfold right before her, her class immediately began to throw everything together and apply glue whenever something touched together.
Cherilee put on a fake smile “Now students make sure you follow the instructions on the board” She said in a vain attempt to regain control but only received a momentary silence before the chaos continued
The mess from this morning returned as the kites began to take shape and the fillies all began to decorate their small disaster of constructions
“More glitter!” Sweetie Bell screamed as she poured a pot of silver glitter across the kite she, Scootaloo and Applebloom made, most of the glitter missed and sprayed across the floor causing it to sparkle brightly in the suns reflection as it all found ways to get into every nook and cranny possible.
“Add some more stripes!” Snips called to Snails who carved some lines into the floor through the thin, paper kite, some of the glitter dug into the small trenches and would prove harder to clean later
As the kites began to take shape and all the decorating came to a close, Cherilee took all the students outside so they could see if their creations could fly
“Alright, now run as fast as you can so the kites catch the wind” Miss Cherilee watched as the kites all failed in one way or another
Featherweight raced forwards so fast that the kite broke from the sudden acceleration, Snips ran and the string wrapped around his legs causing him to trip over, Silver Spoon jogged forwards slowly causing the kite to bounce along the ground
Scootaloo managed to get her kite in the air and it gracefully floated in the air “Yay we did it!” she cheered happily, as she cheered the string fell out her mouth causing the kite to spiral out of control and it dived into Cherilee, breaking as it collided with her head
The class gasped as they looked at the glue and glitter covered teacher “Oh no!” Sweetie Bell screamed as she ran over “Are you ok Miss Cherilee?”
Cherilee slowly removed the kite from her face, and applied her usual smile before dropping it to the floor “I’m fine Sweetie Bell, don’t worry accidents happen” She looked up at her glue covered mane “Just be more careful next time, Scootaloo”
Scootaloo hung her head in shame as the class recovered their flying disasters and took them back inside
The class all packed their bags and one by one started to head home, apart from Scootaloo who stayed behind to talk with her messy teacher
“Miss Cherilee?” She quietly asked “Is there anything I can do to make up for earlier?”
Cherilee looked at the sad filly and gave her a warm smile “I know you didn’t mean it so I don’t see a reason to punish you” She looked at her ruined classroom “I’ll see you tomorrow”
“Thank you Miss Cherilee” Scootaloo’s natural smile returning “I’ll see you tomorrow!” She called out happily as she ran out the front door
Cherilee waved her student goodbye before letting her head fall to her desk “Just four more days until the weekend” she sighed in an effort to reassure herself, and as she tried to lift her head up, the glue in her mane had stuck to the desk and kept her from moving “oh great” she muttered angrily as she pulled her head painfully from the wooden desk
As she left her school in a total mess, she locked the door behind her and headed home.
The school wasn’t too far away from her house, mainly for convenience but also so she didn’t have to walk into Ponyville looking like she did now.
Her home came into view the and the straw roof and flower garden outside was a welcome sight to Cherilee as she walked into her front room, there was a large purple chair resting beside the school’s projector, she kept it at her house unless the school needed it and she used it to watch films if she wanted to.
Placing her bags down she walked into her large clean white bathroom, a large bathtub sat on one side and she began to fill it with warm water, as the bathtub was filling up Cherilee walked over to a large cabinet and opened it.
She was greeted by the sight of numerous bottles of different shampoos and other cleaning products, she carefully removed two bottles that would remove all the glue from her mane and placed them next to her bath.
This wasn’t the first time Cherilee was this messy and she was well prepared, after teaching for as long as she had she had learned how to deal with any mess that the children caused.
Cherilee turned the taps off on her bath and climbed in, letting out a drawn out sigh as the warm water removed the stress of the day, she dunked her head under the water and applied hoof after hoof of shampoo to her dirty mane.
After she washed all the glue and glitter away, Cherilee pulled the plug from her bath and wrapped her mane in a pink towel “Finally some alone time” she sighed happily as she put on a large, fluffy dressing gown and sat down in her front room
As if fate conspired against her, the front door bell rang. She angrily stood up, marched over to her door and opened it applying a fake smile “Oh hello girls”
The cutie mark crusaders all stood happily in front of her “Hi Miss Cherilee, we were wondering if ya could help us?” Applebloom asked as they all applied large grins as she let out a long sigh
“Of course, how can I help?” She watched as Sweetie Bell removed a small tub from her bag and opened it
“What’s this?” Scootaloo asked and a small winged ball of fuzz flew past Cherilee’s head and into her house
“Oh no!” Cherilee cried as she chased after the creature “A parasprite! Shut the door and I’ll see you girls tomorrow!” The crusaders all looked at each other as their teacher frantically chased the parasprite around the room
“Ok Miss Cherilee, thanks for the help” Scootaloo closed the door and happily chased her friends down the road
Cherilee then spent the remainder of her alone time chasing the parasprite around her house before finally catching it “ah ha got you” She said triumphantly as she walked outside and kicked it away as hard as she could “and stay out!” she called after it as it flew into the distance
Yawning Cherilee walked back inside her house to find it in a mess with overturned chairs and broken plant pots “still tidier than the school” she sighed sadly as she collapsed asleep on the floor
Chapter 3: Field Trip
Cherilee awoke and pushed herself off the floor to greet the messy living room she used as a bed last night
Plant pots lay smashed across the floor and the dirt had sprayed everywhere, her chair was on its side, the cushions abnormally shaped from where she had tried to dive and catch the parasprite
She sighed as she took off her dressing gown and hung it up in the bathroom and retrieved a dustpan and brush
It took her a good thirty minutes to clean the dirt up, dump it outside, pick up all the broken bits of pottery, and beat her cushions back into shape
Once she finished she sighed again as she went into her small kitchen and retrieved a small bag essential for cleaning her school today
It contained a toothbrush to get the glitter out of the cracks, sandpaper to remove all the indents in the floor and finally a chemical mix to remove all the glue that held it all in place
Placing her cleaning equipment into her saddlebags she walked back into the kitchen and opened her fridge, removing a small tinfoil wrapped package from inside
It was one of her readymade breakfasts so she did not have to spend her morning eating and could go to school and clean
She sat down and opened it up, the smell of cold carrots and daisies met her nose as she ate her breakfast
After she finished her emergency meal she picked up her saddlebags and headed for her crash site of a school
Opening the front door, she set about cleaning again, sneezing once sending glitter everywhere again and sat down ready for her class to arrive once she had finished
The door banged open as if on cue and the class all eagerly crashed in once more “Good morning Miss Cherilee!” they cheered happily
Taking a deep breath and placing her smile back on her face she greeted them all “Good morning class!” she made sure everypony was there before starting her next lesson
“Now who can tell me when the steam train was invented?” Cherilee drew a picture of the train that ran through Ponyville along with some happy passengers ‘stupid passengers being so flying happy’ she angrily thought to herself
Scootaloo raised her hoof “ten years ago?”
“No but you are close” Cherilee smiled at her class “A little higher”
“Seven years ago?” Snails asked
“I said higher Snails,” Cherilee said behind her gritted teeth that hid behind a fake smile
“Twelve years ago?” Pip asked
“THANK YOU” Cherilee sighed loudly in relief as she wrote ‘twelve years ago’ on the board “Twelve years ago and I was one of the first passengers from Canterlot to Manehatten” she said proudly
“What was it like?” Snips asked, as he always liked trains
“Well it was certainly very quick” Cherilee giggled ‘not to mention cramped, smelly and it broke down about five times’ she thought to herself
Twist raised a hoof “What is it used for?”
“That was exactly what I was going to move on to,” Cherilee sat behind her desk “The Equestria Train Line or ETL for short has been used for transporting goods and ponies from one side of Equestria to the other ever since it’s invention”
The colts in the class took more of an interest than the fillies but that did not bother Cherilee as she continued, “Now who knows who invented the first train?”
Snips jumped up in excitement “OH OH I KNOW”
Cherilee was happily surprised “Oh that’s good snips, do you want to tell the rest of the class?”
“It was a unicorn called Albuck Steamy!” Snips smugly said to the rest of the class
“Very good Snips” Cherilee wrote ‘Albuck Steamy’ on the board while thinking ‘a pony knows something in here? Who did this and what did they do with Snips?’
“Who was Albuck Steamy?” Silver Spoon asked as the name struck her as somepony dirty
“Albuck Steamy invented the first steam train and built it himself, it was called a steam train after Albuck’s last name Steamy” She underlined the steam part and regretted this next decision “and if you all come with me we are going to go to the station and look at the insides of one of the trains”
All the children cheered as they swarmed around Cherilee and hurried her out the door
The children had all calmed down enough on the way that once they arrived to look at the giant machine they had stopped screaming enough for Cherilee to think ‘well this should tire them out a bit, what trouble could they get into around a train?’
The class all-horded around the train driver, frantically asking questions and she happily looked at her class ‘today could go without any problems thank Celestia’ she looked at her class again ‘where is Snips?’
Cherilee looked up at the controls to see Snips turn the brakes off and the train began to move forwards “SNIPS” She yelled angrily as she jumped onto the train and slammed the brakes on “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!”
Snips retreated slightly away from the angry teacher “I-I’m sorry Miss Cherilee” he sulked away “I just wanted to look” he backed right up to the wall but Cherilee continued
“Do you realise how stupid you just were, messing around with the controls?” She frowned angrily at him
“I-I-I’m sorry M-miss Cherilee” Snip’s bottom lip began to quiver
“You could have hurt somepony if the train got out of control!” She saw the small, plump colt begin to cry
“I-I-I-I’m Sorry” He burst into tears “I didn’t want to hurt anypony I swear”
Cherilee gave him a hug and he cried into her mane “its ok Snips… it was an accident” She said reassuringly as she stroked his back “Calm down now”, She directed that last bit to herself for losing her temper at the child as she looked at her terrified class
Chapter 4: Home time
Cherilee apologised to Snips again as he collected his school bag and quickly ran out of the classroom.
“I will see you all tomorrow,” She cheered happily to the rest of the class as they stampeded out of the front door.
She waited until the door slammed shut before burying her face into her hooves, how could she be so stupid as to let her anger get the better of her, she needed a vacation or something “I haven’t gone to a club in years” she thought to herself.
Sighing loudly she collected her things before leaving the school herself and heading home “I need a nice lay down and a hot chocolate” she paced home staring at the floor sadly the entire way.
As she walked in she did her normal regime of cleaning herself and preparing for tomorrow, she then wrapped up in a clean fluffy dressing gown and curled up in her chair with a large mug of hot chocolate.
“Ah finally some time alone” she sighed happily.
DING DONG
“And there it goes” she grunted as she pushed herself out of her chair and walked slowly to the door, she didn’t have a door bell so that could only mean one thing...
She opened the door and she was greeted by confetti and a smiling pink pony “Hi Cherilee!” Pinkie cheered.
“Oh hello pinkie what a surprise” Cherilee could never escape children “who’s birthday is it today?”
“It’s Colgate’s birthday and you’ve been invited!” Pinkie screamed in delight as she passed her a golden envelope.
Cherilee put on her saddest face she could muster “oh I would love to go but I have to get so much ready for the children tomorrow, could you save me some cake?”
“Okie doki loki!” Pinkie smiled as she began to bounce away “in a few more years the cake twins will be at your school won’t that be great?”
“I can’t wait!” Cherilee lied as she waved goodbye to Pinkie and as soon as she was out of earshot she muttered to herself “but I would prefer to get on Princess Celestia’s bad side and get sent to the moon for a thousand years first”
She crawled back into her chair and grasped her drink tightly “I would give anything for a few days alone… well maybe not alone but with somepony more mature… like Cheese” Cherilee rested her head back “His jokes are supposed to be bad though”
Cherilee took a sip of her drink a relaxed as her worries dropped like her eyelids as she fell asleep, but was rudely awoken again by a hard knock at the door “Oh feathers who is it now?”
She took a deep breath before answering the door “Oh hello Applejack” she smiled to the fellow earth pony that actually did a hard job around here.
“Greetin’s Miss Cherilee” Applejack tipped her hat “I just popped by on mah way home from deliverin some apples to tell ya that Applebloom and her friends won’t be attending school until next Monday”
Cherilee barely managed to cover up her smile “Oh how unfortunate why can’t they make it?”
Applejack shrugged “I don’t know she just said somethin about campin” She smiled again “Don’t ya worry I’ll make sure she attends for the rest of the year”
“That is good to hear” Cherilee refrained from slapping the element of honesty across the face for making that promise but instead waved gently “Thank you for letting me know and I will see you around”
Applejack turned and began to trot back up the path “See ya Cherilee!”
The tired teacher barely managed to miss the door as she stuck her head out again “OH Applejack!”
“Yes sugarcube?” She turned her head over.
“Could you say hi to Big Mac for me?” She concealed her blush behind another fake smile “oh and umm… Granny Smith”
Applejack tipped her hat again “Will do See ya later”
“Hopefully not” Cherilee gagged as she thought of being called sugarcube by Applejack “Does she want to eat me or something?”
Cherilee had to give the three blank flanks some credit, they made her life slightly less boring during the holidays like during hearts and hooves day, she originally thought that Big Mac was just a dumb brute but she was gladly mistaken.
She sank back into her chair as she caressed the side of her mug “Oh how I wouldn’t mind being Big Mac’s sugarcube” she then remembered she might see Applebloom and the other children more often “Well only for one night I guess”
