Cheerilee stumbled through the streets of Manehatten, the adrenaline of the night’s events wearing off and the weight of Diamond Tiara on her back making getting back to her shonty apartment difficult despite her immense strength. A fair amount of smoke inhalation probably hadn’t helped much.
She fumbled with the complex lock on her door, silently cursing herself for turning her apartment into a maximum security prison. Once she got her front hooves through the doorframe, Cheerilee dumped Diamond Tiara on the floor next to her and slammed the door shut. The little brat deserved nothing better. Although, observing closer, the mare noticed Diamond Tiara wasn’t so little anymore. Cheerilee took off her mask to get a better look.
She was a few inches taller than Cheerilee herself, although she was certainly lacking the muscle that lined the mare’s legs. Her hair, although a wreck from the escape and being haphazardly carrier around town, was pulled back into a reasonable (albeit dusty and destroyed) ponytail, a stark contrast from the gaudy curls Diamond Tiara had sported so many years ago. Celestia, how old was she now? She must be around twenty, maybe older. The most noticeable difference, though, was the lack of her namesake and most prized possession: her Tiara.
Cheerilee sniffed. It had probably just come off in the fire. She smiled at the idea of the bully’s much loved sign of wealth melting down into no more than a twisted hunk of silver and gems in the huge apartment. What was she doing there, anyways? Diamond Tiara was by no means talented or dedicated enough to make enough bits to afford the apartment on her own. It was no doubt paid for by her equally snobbish father.
Cheerilee had originally planned on waiting for Diamond Tiara to wake up on her own, but found that with each passing second she grew more and more nervous. She could feel her heartbeat in her hooves and knew that she needed to do this now or her rapidly-deteriorating courage would leave her before she could confront he situation.
The former teacher crossed the room to the tiny kitchen and filled a jug with tap water. She stomped back over to Diamond Tiara, putting on a steely face, and dumped the water out over her dirty head.
Diamond Tiara gasped and shot up, sputtering with her eyes wide. The sight made a smirk cross Cheerilee’s face, which she had no intention of pushing down.
Diamond Tiara stayed on the floor, staring silently into Cheerilee’s tired eyes, her mouth opening and closing silently, and that paired with her bulging eyes gave off the impression of a fish out of water. Which, Cheerilee supposed she was.
The former teacher said nothing, waiting until Diamond Tiara finally found her voice.
Looking around, she hesitantly asked, “Where—where am I? And why does it look like a prison?”
Cheerilee snorted. Of course, just rescued from a burning building and the first thing to come out of the filly’s mouth was an insult to her home. “My house,” the mare spat out, keeping her voice low and hard. She had been nice long enough, and now it was her turn to intimidate and dominate. Damn, she should trademark that.
Diamond Tiara certainly looked scared. Then again, who wouldn’t be if they found them self in the barred home of the mysterious mare who had just saved them from a deadly fire? “Why?” She asked, the seriousness of the situation seeming to finally sink in.
Cheerilee huffed. “Because you and I have some unfinished business,” she told the sniveling bully in front of her, the suit giving her huge bursts of confidence.
“Bus—business?” Diamond Tiara stuttered leaning on her forelegs while the rest of her was still splayed out on the wooden floor. “What business? And—and who are you?”
Ah, there it was. The question Cheerilee has been both anticipating and dreading since she had first picked up the unconscious pony. She thought it best to let her figure it out on her own. “You tell me, Diamond,” Cheerilee spat out, taking a single, menacing step towards the pathetic mess on her floor.
The mess let her eyes flit around the mare’s face, desperation soon being replaced with horror and recognition. Diamond clapped a hoof over her mouth and shuffled back as best she could with only one free leg. “Cheerilee...” she whispered.
Cheerilee whipped around. “That’s Miss Cheerilee to you, you snot-nosed brat!” She snapped, letting the insult fly more freely than she ever would have ten years ago.
Diamond scrambled to her hooves, looking down at her former superior with so much guilt in her eyes Cheerilee almost faltered. “Miss Cheerilee, I’m so—“ she started.
“Save it!” Cheerilee yelled. Sweet Celestia, she wanted nothing more than to rip into the little bitch in front of her. “You took everything from me, my teaching, my life, you dont tell even a scrap of the truth, and you have the gall to apologize?! To live it up in some lavish building with celebrities on every hall while I rot in this cage I call home?” Diamond seemed taken aback, to say the least, but Cheerilee still wasn’t done. All the rage that had built inside of her, fighting tooth and nail to claw its way out while Cheerilee put all of her energy into shoving it down was finally being set free.
“I bet you thought you had done so well, huh? That you’d finally gotten rid of that drag of a teacher? Well guess what?” Diamond, understandably, gave no response. Cheerilee continued. “I’m still here, dumbass. I’ve been building strength for ten years, and if I hadn’t just worked so hard saving your sorry ass I’d kill you in a second.” There was no truth in that statement at all, but the sheer ferocity in Cheerilee’s words was certainly convincing.
“You knew the truth, you and your sniveling little friend, and neither of you cared enough to say a thing!” Cheerilee, overwhelmed by the storm of negative emotions raging by inside of her, growing stronger with every word she spoke, raised one hoof and struck Diamond Tiara across the cheek as hard as she could. Diamond Tiara cried out and crumpled to the floor, cradling her injured face.
Cheerilee stood absolutely still. In all her years, she had never another hurt a pony out of malice, much less a student. Yet for some reason, despite the tendrils of guilt that were already working their ways through her, she felt...better. Relieved, even.
She would never let Diamond Tiara know that, though. She sniffed and continued on.“Where is your little servant, anyways? Still calling on butlers for every tiny obstacle?”
This time, Diamond knew the question wasn’t rhetorical. She wiped at the tears that had been begun cascade down her face, but they were soon replaced anyways. “She’s...” Diamond trailed off.
“She’s what?” Demanded Cheerilee.
“She’s—She’s teaching at the Ponyville Schoolhouse!” She rattled off, scrunching her eyes shut as she prepared for another strike.
Cheerilee’s anger returned at full force then. She ripped off her belt and threw it across the room hard enough to dent the wall. “Goddammit!” She yelled, more to herself than Diamond. “The little shit wasn’t satisfied, was she, she had to take my job, too!”
Diamond’s tears were flowing freely now as she tried to explain through her sobs. “N-no! Silver Spoon—she felt bad!”
“The hell do you mean she felt bad?”
“She wanted to—to honor you afterwards! She wanted to do something to help like you had!”
Well. Cheerilee certainly wasn’t expecting that one.
She also wasn’t expecting to hear a knock on her door, or see a familiar white unicorn through the peephole.
Author's Note
Well, that’s all for the first chapter! Please, let me know if anything strays from the original story
Vinyl was right outside the door, a scared and confused Diamond Tiara was shuddering by the wall, and Cheerilee was screwed.
Vinyl knocked again, more urgently this time. “Cheerilee!” She called, but she was given no answer.
Cheerilee herself was frozen in place, trying to think of something to do. She turned slowly to Diamond, breathing hard as her fury drained out of her and was replaced by fear. She fought to keep her voice steady as she commanded, "Go to my room. It's all the way at the end of the hall. Don't come out. The code for the lock is zero-seven-one-zero. And if you make so much as a sound I swear on my left hind leg I will come in there and use every muscle in my body to crush you."
There was no weight behind her words, not now, but Diamond was clearly shocked enough to believe Cheerilee. Which might have been why she was still frozen in place, mouth agape.
"What are you waiting for? Go!" She insisted, almost frantic as Vinyl's knocking grew louder. That seemed to get Diamond moving, and the filly jumped to her hooves and scrambled down the hall. Cheerilee waited until she heard the bedroom door close to walk over to the door and open it.
Before she could even process what was going on she was pulled into a bone-crushing hug, wincing as some bright red sunglasses and a horn poked her cheek.
"Holy shit, Cheerilee, I saw what happened on the news and my first thought was Octavia but then I saw you and then I saw the building crumble and thought you were still in there but then the news reporter said a masked mare had just run off and so I came here and--"
"V-Vinyl--" She choked out after a few seconds of suffocation. Vinyl instantly pulled away, keeping one hoof on Cheerilee's chest like a lifeline.
Vinyl silently studied Cheerilee for just a moment, then looked directly into her eyes with such intensity Cheerilee had to fight the urge to back away. "Cheerilee, I watched you save Octavia's life. You almost died and you told no one that you were fine. For a few minutes I thought that you were dead, and if I had turned off the TV I would still be thinking that."
Cheerilee didn't quite know how to respond to that. Neither did Vinyl. The silence persisted for a few moments until Cheerilee forced out a quiet and confused, "What?"
Vinyl sighed. "I'm still pissed that you're trying to be a superhero but I'm done cutting you off."
Cheerilee was shocked to say the least, but for the first time in ages a spark of hope lighted within her. "You--you do?"
"Yes. And I'm still scared out of my wits so I'm staying here tonight." Vinyl, clearly comfortable with the area, marched straight down to the bedroom while Cheerilee stood and watches, frozen with indecision. "Celestia, what happened to this place? I thought you were glad to be out of prison."
Cheerilee shook herself out of her stupor and raced over to Vinyl, trying to keep a calm expression even though she was just about panicking. She had just earned Vinyl's trust again--or some semblance of it--and the unicorn was about to see a random, beat up mare hiding in Cheerilee's bedroom, which was sure to throw it all out the window.
"Well, you bought a shifty lock, I could probably unlock this with magic--"
"No!" Cheerilee exclaimed, a little too loud. Vinyl stopped in her tracks, her horn surrounded by a purple glow that had yet to reach anything else.
"Um, I mean..." Cheerilee started to sweat while she tried to cook up a slightly believable lie. "I mean that there's an alarm system on the lock that...that calls the police is magic is used on it! Yeah, and--and I really don't want that right now because of what just happened, and all..." Cheerilee trailed off, hoping her explanation was vague and pity-provoking enough for Vinyl to accept.
Vinyl looked skeptical, but she just shook her head and hummed her approval. "Then you unlock it. You know the code, right?"
Damn.
"About that...um...actually...I can't remember the code. I've been locked out of my room for days. I've been sleeping on the pull out couch." Well, it painted Cheerilee as an idiot, but it was a good excuse. Vinyl now just looked confused.
"Wait, your couch is a pull out?"
Cheerilee forced a laugh, thankful the conversation was steering away from the bedroom and trying to keep it that way as she turned Vinyl around and began guiding the two of them towards the entrance again. "Yeah, well, I only really buy things that are multi purpose. Because I'm poor." She sounded very strained, but she was doing her best to keep calm. Vinyl stopped a few feet before she reached the door, at this point being pushed across the apartment.
"Cheerilee, what's going on? I haven't seen you this stressed out since prison." Her tone was so gentle and her face was so caring that Cheerilee almost wanted to give in and tell her, but knew that Vinyl would never look at her like that again if she knew what was happening.
Cheerilee sighed. "I'm just still kind of off. Jumping into a burning building multiple times is a little unsettling and I need some time to figure it all out. Just a few hours," She confessed, ashamed of how easily the half lie rolled off of her tongue, but she knew it was necessary. Vinyl's red eyes filled with pity that internally disgusted Cheerilee at that.
"Oh, I get it. Can I come by tomorrow, at least?" Cheerilee almost wanted her to stay, but said nothing for fear of saying everything and simply nodded.
"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow. I'll go check on Octavia now." With that, the unicorn left and Cheerilee crumpled against the closed door, the night's events finally catching up with her.
