What a boring day.

Miss Cheerilee was at it again, desperately trying to make the material engaging, but yet I couldn't bring myself to care one bit. Who cares what happened 1,000 years ago? I get that it links to what happened at the Summer Sun Festival, but we don’t need to know every detail!

“And that’s how Equestria was made.” Not that anybody noticed it. Diamond Tiara, sat next to me, was paying about as much attention as a dead duck (which is to say, none at all), whilst those blasted Cutie Mark Crusaders, who make my life a living annoyance factory, were doing...whatever it is they do.

Where are my manners? My name is Silver Spoon. I’m the daughter of a local steel magnate, who lives in Ponyville and goes to the Ponyville school on the outskirts of town. You can usually spot me near the front of the class, or failing that somewhere at the back where Miss Cheerilee can’t see me (that's the theory). I have dark grey fur, and a two-tone pleated grey mane and tail. I’m also short-sighted, so I often wear a pair of blue glasses. I usually have a necklace made of precious beads around my neck, which seemed to be the interest of my compatriot sitting next to me, Diamond Tiara.

We were in the ‘special needs’ class, or as most other classes called it, ‘the retards group’. Why? It’s not my fault I’m dyslexic! Myself and Diamond bonded together over the fact we are both wealthy and got our cutie marks around the same time. Not only that, we have a shared dislike of those Crusaders. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle. They made us look like such idiots at Diamond’s Cutie-Cenera, and as such they have been our mortal foes ever since. Not to mention they make such a mess of the town most weeks.

Right now, Miss Cheerilee (our teacher) was trying to get a straight answer out of Apple Bloom, which wasn’t going to work.

““Oh… ummm…Yea, yea I s’pose ah can... ehhmmm... lessee here now...Night an’ day are important... Because... Because if there were only one or th’other, either Luna or Celestia would be very sad.” I sniggered quietly at the sheer stupidity of the response. By Celestia, she was as dumb as country hicks go! I also saw Cheerilee shake her head in frustration. That was what was odd.

Call it intuition, but I spotted that Cheerilee had been acting weirdly for a while now. She seemed to anger very easily, and had some sort of trouble with us. Maybe it was normal for teachers to do this, but at the beginning of the year she’d been...nicer. What could have happened?

My thoughts were cut off by Scootaloo interjecting. ““That’s stupid! Really, who could ever come up with a reason as ridiculous as that?”

Apple Bloom shot back with “Ah don’t see you comin’ up with a better answer either. Ah bet you don’t even know what you’re talking about!”

Scootaloo seemed to get even more infuriated. “Oh yeah? Why did I get a better grade on that last test then?”

They then argued loudly with one another for a few moments, before Cheerilee interrupted loudly.

“GIRLS!” she shouted, blowing everyone’s eardrums and even managing to wake Snips up, which I will admit is an achievement. ““This is neither the time nor the place to hold such pointless debates! You’re here to learn and pay attention. And that goes for all of you, yes you too Diamond Tiara, don’t look so surprised!”

That shut everypony up. Then she continued, as she was known to do. “I’d have thought the topic of today’s class would be exceedingly interesting to young ponies who, like you all, witnessed Princess Luna’s return, a major historical event that shed much light on our country’s history and origins.”

I wasn’t present when Luna returned, so what Cheerilee had said was technically incorrect. But I let it pass as Apple Bloom spouted some more nonsense. “Oh yeah! She was stuck on the moon for a thousand years, right?”

This resulted in a note of derision from Scootaloo. “The moon? That’s impossible. Not even Rainbow Dash could fly that high! Besides, what would she eat for a thousand years? The moon doesn’t exactly look grassy from where I’m standing.”

Once again, I suppressed a chortle. Luna, according to the histories, wasn’t exactly conscious during her imprisonment on the moon. Not that it mattered to those three idiots anyway. Least of all, to Apple Bloom, who retorted as follows; “She could just eat cheese, right? The moon’s made of the stuff!”

Scootaloo shot back. “The moon is not made of cheese!”

“Oh, it is so!” Apple Bloom replied.

Then for no real reason at all, Sweetie Belle, the only one of those three who could be said to show ANY degree of intelligence, chose to wade into this utterly pointless debate. “Ehem. I’m sorry Apple Bloom, but I have to agree with Scootaloo here. The moon can’t be made out of cheese.”

This made Cheerilee perk up, who at this point had resorted to bashing her head against the blackboard. She looked over in interest and confidence.

Which Sweetie Belle then ruined. “It can’t be made out of cheese, because if it was, Luna’d have eaten a huge hole in it by now.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Oh yeah! Ah s’pose that makes sense.”

Cheerilee looked to be on the verge of having a heart attack. “NO!” she screamed, as we all flew out of our chairs in fright, Snips crashing through the ceiling and getting stuck up there. Which was a good thing, as far as I was concerned, as otherwise we would need to listen to his insufferable nonsense for even longer. “It does not! It does not make any sense at all! The moon isn’t made out of cheese because, ugh, you know what… Forget it. Class dismissed! You all have the rest of the day off. Go!”

We were getting the day off? Something wasn’t right, I knew it in my heart. But I shuffled out of the room and headed on my way with Diamond. “Do you have any idea what’s up with Miss Cheerilee?” I asked.

“Why would I care?” Diamond asked. “We get a day off, so that’s good for me!”

I sighed. “It’s just she’s been a little off for a few days now. She didn’t use to be like this.”

“I bet those silly Blank Flanks have driven her insane,” Diamond said coldly. “Oh well, at least I no longer have to hear their annoying voices for another second.” It was here our paths split. Diamond’s house was to the left at the crossroads, and mine was to the right. I bid her farewell, and set off on my way.

I stopped off at some stands in town on the way to see what was on sale, when I saw Cheerilee stalk through the streets. Her face was even more purple than it normally was, and I thought she was about to blow a blood vessel. I followed after her, and asked her a question. “Are you OK, miss?” I asked.

“NO!” she shouted back at me. “The last thing I want is to be in the presence of you little monsters!”

I was taken aback by this, and let her go a bit further ahead. I then trailed her until she reached her house, a small affair in the woods, and watched her go inside. What happened next made me even more concerned. I heard the sound of things being broken, shattered glass, cracking wood, the works. At one point a chair leg even flew out of the window, nearly flattening some plants.

All the while she was screaming. “Why?!? Why can’t I get these ponies to BEHAVE!” She sounded like some banshee or demon, not the sweet, kind teacher I had known before a few days ago. I decided there was no point in waiting around, and headed home for the night.

The next day in class, we had all the random nonsense from the students. And then Cheerilee arrived, grinning from ear to ear like a maniac. She went to the front, and spoke up. “Good morning students!” she said, a complete contrast of tone to yesterday. “We’re putting on a school play!”

Author's Note

So, hello, to my third horrorfic!

Cheerilee's Garden is one of my all-time favourite gorefics, and so (with Unahim's permission) I present a might-have-been, had certain events been observed.