It was nearing the end of the third year, and after nearly three years of hard work, she was finally, FINALLY done, with almost accidentally killing herself with an explosion daily. Cooking crystal was hard work, and she did rather well (in her opinion, as well as her customers), and she was thrilled to leave it all behind, so she could go back to full-time being a teacher.

Her old friend’s had pulled through for her, giving her a nice refresh on exactly what she was doing, and they were thrilled enough that she was back in the business, even if it was only temporarily. They were happy to help distribute and help her out, for a fee of course. They got a total of a quarter of the profit, she got another quarter, and the rest of it was going into either A: Making more, or B: The fund to pay back that large looming debt. By the time it was finished, that debt had wracked up to over two million bits, which she succeeded in procuring.

Not only had she managed to get all those bits, she was a millionaire herself now, with quite a few bits to her name. Even with all the wealth, she just wanted to do what she was doing before: Teach foals how to be productive ponies, and make them able to survive in the world. Nothing really compared to the feeling she got when a foal she spent years raising proved to have grown into a strong mare or stallion, with intelligence to match.

But before she could go and do that, she had a dept to pay. She grabbed the wrinkled and stained paper that had been delivered via mail about three years ago, to get the return address. She wanted to hoof over all those bits personally, just to show off to the pony involved that she had, in fact, completed the impossible, and raised enough bits to cover the costs of repairing the damage the Crusaders had caused.

She looked at the paper, and got the address of the noble who was the cause of her having to do all of this in the first place. She slipped the paper into her saddlebags and trotted out the door, making sure to ask her neighbor, Roseluck, if she could water her garden if she was gone for more than a day. She made her way to the train station, and got herself one ticket to Canterlot. The next train was going to be leaving in about an hour, so she had some time to kick back and relax, content with the fact that she had done the impossible.

It had started as a nightmare, her friends had agreed to help her, and were happy that she was back, but they were suspicious that she had gone soft to their ways. She spent hours agonizing over the recipe of crystal as to not mess anything up at all. She ended up ordering supplies to make all of what she needed from every store on this side of Equestria. It was hard making sure that most of it wouldn’t be traced to her. One pony ordering cough medicine from every store within 100 kilometers would have raised more than a few eyebrows, especially if it was from within such a small time period.

Either way, it was a long, dreadful process that took most of the time she had to do it, but she did it, and that was, in itself, worth it to her. Now, she would be able to do the thing she loved, and nothing would stand in the way between her and that schoolhouse. She dozed off for a bit, only to be tapped awake by the ticket-booth pony, alerting her that her train was about to leave. She thanked the stallion and boarded the train, her ticket easily accessible for the conductor who came through to check if everypony had a ticket.

After he made his rounds, she got settled in for the hour-trip. She leaned her head on the window, staring blankly at the scenery of Ponyville, as the train began to accelerate forward. Lost in thought the entire time, entirely pleased with herself, and yet a rock in the pit of her stomach started to take shape, causing her to worry. What if someone found out? What if someone knew? What if that noble knew what she had been up to to scrape together the bits to give him?

She shook her head, she had taken every precaution she could. Unless the noble was expecting her to take the route of drugs, which he shouldn’t have in the first place, because she was a school teacher, then everything would be okay. He wouldn’t even know what to look for.

Her mind began to race in such a way for the rest of the hour, as Canterlot, and the end of this problem, seemed to take a forever to get to, looming ever so closer, and yet just as far away. Would she get home fine, would she be caught, would she even just decide to stay for a day to get over the face that all of the ordeal was finally over with? Only time would tell.

Canterlot was as beautiful as ever, she noted as she stepped off the train. Sure, she had been here a bit after this entire problem made itself known, but she only came back that one time. It seemed as though time stood still in this place. It still passed, but everything had the same shiny appeal with no show of wear since the last time she was here. Maybe it’s because of unicorns and their magic, or maybe Celestia and Luna blessed the city itself to never get worn away by time. Either way, the affect was astounding.

She stood probably near this same exactly place about three years ago, but she didn’t have time to think about that now, she had a bank to go visit, a huge load of bits to withdraw, a walk, and some gloating planned out. She walked forward into the mob of ponies going about their business on this Tuesday morning. She still had a week to turn in the debt, but she was going in early to deal with any complications that would rise.

The bank visit went about as well as could be expected. She walked up to the teller, a smile on her face, showed some identification, and accessed the savings account, and asked to withdraw two million bits, you know the usual. As soon as the teller picked his jaw off the floor, he excused himself and scrambled into the back. Whelp, now she accidentally caused a scene. Every pony in the room was looking at her, confused as to why the poor colt made a hasty exit into the back.

A few minutes later, it was revealed that he went out to get the owner of the bank, one Mr. Secure Safe. Take a random guess as to what his cutie mark might be.

“And you would be the pony who would like to withdraw two million bits?” He asked rather loudly, probably on purpose, to Cheerilee. For her credit, her smile didn’t falter at all.

“Yup.” Short and simple, was her way of reply. He probably wanted some sort of clarification as to why she would want two million bits, but you can’t always get what you want. It’s worth noting at this point that every pony in the room was staring at her, jaws going up and down trying to form words, but doing nothing altogether.

“Okay.” He decided to just roll with it. “Since you’re asking for such a large withdraw, we’ll want a hoof-print and a magic-field test to insure you are Ms. Cheerilee.”

“That is not a problem, I would be more surprised if you just gave me the money without doing any sort of test.” That said, the tests went smoothly. Her hoof would be blackened for about a day, until she could get into a shower, and she would be feeling the tingles of the detectors as they took samples of her magical aura for a few days, but the end result is a huge sack of bits, fit rather precariously on her back, carried with nary a problem due to her pure-bred earth pony physiology.

It would be of note to say that this bag, filled to the brim with gold coins, was at least 3 times her size. Most earth ponies would balk at exactly how heavy that would be, and would rather just let a unicorn carry it. Not Cheerilee, though. She had worked out for the past month to be able to lift such a heavy bag off the ground, and carry it around without a care in the world. It would make it so much more satisfying to “accidentally” spill the bits all over that noble’s floor. She probably wouldn’t do it, but it was definitely entertaining to think about.

Once that was over with, she pulled out a map, and found her destination. It was a mere 15 minute walk, even with the bag. And so she began her trek through Canterlot.

She was stared at the entire way to the noble’s manor, and it didn’t lessen the farther out of the usual hustle and bustle of Canterlot. Sure, there were less ponies starting, but those who were there, started with greater intensity, and she could practically feel the eyes on her, then her back, then the sack, then her again, and so on. She could make out ponies staring out through windows of other houses, but she didn’t pay them mind. She didn’t pay any of them any mind, she was so happy to finally have the fruits of her labor on her back, on its way to its destination, where it would no longer be her problem.

She walked up to door of destination, and knocked three times, hard enough to dent the door. This is quite the feat, considering that she didn’t bother to put down the bag of gold to do this. Inside, she wasn’t only gloating on how she had done the impossible, it was that she was strong enough to carry a large sack of gold, and dent a door at the same time. She was feeling immensely pleased with herself when a butler opened the door.

“Good day Miss, how may I help you today?” The butler, an older tan stallion with a stunning silver flowing mane asked.

“I have a delivery and a message for Mr. High Stake, if he is available.” Cheerilee pleasantly said, a warm smile on her face, and, if you paid any real attention, and fire in her eye.

“That would be fine. His schedule has been cleared for the next week or so, so he isn’t up to much. Come on in and take that load off, I can’t imagine that it’s too comfortable to hold.” With this, he opened the door wide enough for Cheerilee to walk on through, and once inside, the butler closed the door and turned. “I will go tell the master of your presence. Wait here and he’ll be out shortly.”

He left the room, the clopping of his hooves slightly echoing in the expansiveness of the manor, as he went to fetch Mr. Stake. Cheerilee dropped the bag onto the floor, causing the floor to shake and the walls to shudder slightly. She climbed onto a nearby couch, and sat there for a few minutes, as she waiting for the noble who basically played her to walk in.

Now, she wasn’t really angry at him for what he did, not only because she’s nice, but because if it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t of learned a bunch of things around herself. That, and it’s good to try to be what you want your students to be, and one of the main things she impresses upon her pupils, is to forgive and let go of wrongs, in hopes that ponies will accept it and do right.

Then, in walked High Stake, a smirk on his face and a monocle on his left eye. He was wearing some ridiculous hat, and was attempting to show it off in pride. Or at least, he was, until he saw the bag that had left an indentation on the floor where Cheerilee had so casually dropped the thing. She noticed his staring at it, and turned to see that it had, in fact, left an indent about an eighth of a hoof deep around it. She idly wondered if the road she had walked had cracks in it from all the weight she had put on it. She mentally shrugged and put it aside for now, she could investigate that when she left.

What Cheerilee didn’t know, was how threatening she seemed to High Stake. The stallion had woken up about an hour ago, and was reading the paper and eating a bagel when the Butler practically ran into the room. Blubbering about a mare carrying a LOT of gold on her back, as if it was nothing, and wanted to deliver it directly to him with a message.

Now, this caught High Stake’s attention, because his butler is one of the most experienced butlers that he could find, and had really good composure. What Cheerilee didn’t know, was so casually dropping the bag while he was walking away, just as he looked back, he saw it hit the ground, saw it indent, and felt it from over 30 feet away. To him, that was strength that rivaled even the Princesses, and that was an extreme cause of concern.

Not only with this information, but the fact that she seemed to be so casually reclining on a couch, as if she didn’t just carry thousands of pounds of gold to his doorstep, but had floated it here like any unicorn. It was obvious that wasn’t the case by the lack of a horn on her head. This isn’t even the mention the fact that he, personally, charged the same mare with a pretty steep bill a few years back, and here she was, with said money, scaring his butler, and indenting his floor. He nearly pissed himself as he walked into the room.

However, he didn’t lose his composure, so kudos to him. “Ah, Cheerilee, I’ve been expecting you.” Considering how scared he was, it’s a monument to his own composure that his voice didn’t quiver in the slightest.

“Well, I’d hope you were, considering you’re the one who decided to drop a million bit bill on me, and the due date for it is in a week. “ Cheerilee recalled. “As a teacher, I hate it when my students don’t hit their deadlines, and I do my best to be a great role model for them.” She continued.

Stake’s mind, working a mile a minute, had no idea what to reply to that, until it hit him. This was a risky gamble, but it might work, and his name is High Stake for a reason. Thinking carefully for a few seconds, he chose his words wisely. “Cheerilee, I must ask, how did you manage to even acquire this many bits in but three years time? I do hope that you didn’t stoop to *ahem,* sub-par methods to obtain it.”

Cheerilee, for her credit, already had an answer for this. In her mind on the way to the train station, this sort of situation must have played in her head but a thousand times, giving her ideas as to what to reply. Due to this, she had a reply ready on the go. “Oh, everything was perfectly par for the course.” Not a lie, though not what he was referring to. “I helped a few friends in high places, and they paid me back a bit.” Still not a lie though, and her definition of a high place was most definitely different than that of the one he was thinking of. “ Cheerilee sat up on the couch. “Now, I know you probably did this investment because someone gave you the idea of it, which is what I choose to believe, and that this situation won’t happen again. Will it?” Her tone brokered no argument.

While her tone was harsh, mentally, she was flipping out like Pinkie found out that sugar had QUITE the effect on her. She managed to deflect the line of questioning away from how exactly she managed to scrape up millions of bits. She wasn’t really excited While he was processing what she had said, he had a number of questions, but instead of asking any of them, he decided that this meeting should be cut short. He easily recognized a lost cause when he saw one, and didn’t really want to agitate a pony with the strength of a well-practiced unicorn.

Cheerilee left the manor feeling considerably lighter, and not just from the weight of gold no longer settled on her back. She did it! She best the unbeatable odds that was raising enough money in 3 years to pay off a lather rage debt.

Cheerilee looked forward into the future with a smile on her face. While it may have been a long 3 years, it’s going to be a great rest of her life.

Author's Note

And so, that is my first story. I hope you enjoyed it, and do leave any feedback for it. I want to know just how I did for my first story.
I can still barely believe that my first story is about a pony cooking meth. Where did my life go so right?