//------------------------------// // Laughter and Lessons // Story: The Chronicles of a Ponyville Teacher // by CluelessFilly //------------------------------// June 8th, 2008 Cheerilee was sitting on the soft green train seat, staring at the solid yellow wall of the train car. Nothing, she lamented, could smash clear through it, then. Sure, there were her new 'friends,' but now that she was on the train, she wasn't so sure. Lyra, at the moment, seemed to be good at one thing: talking. "The college dorms are gonna be exciting! There'll be a bunch of new ponies; maybe even we can find out special someponies at the college." Undoubtedly she was popular and smart, something most mares didn't seem to have. "There is a real diversity at college," Colgate agreed. Colgate was different from Lyra, that was for sure. She seemed to be like Cheerilee in miniature, maybe. Except that she could talk to ponies, a skill Cheerilee didn't seem to have. "I think college will be exciting," Mary agreed. Mary Mare wanted to be a mayor, and it made sense so far, having that commanding aura. Like the bullies... "Even better: we'll be living the dream," the mint-colored unicorn went on. That all it took for Derpy to brighten up. "There'll be courses for everything! I wanna be a mail mare and muffin-ist!" Derpy; funny, naive and eccentric, almost like a little kid. "Uh, muffinists don't exist," the unicorn deadpanned. Lyra also seemed like she was good at sarcasm against the eccentric pegasus, but she had yet to notice anyway. "Um, Cheerilee, are you okay?" asked Time Turner. Cheerilee turned to the brown stallion. Time Turner was two years older than she was, being in the twelfth grade, and he proved already that he was quick to pick up on things. On the way to the train station, he identified four birds she'd never heard of. "Nothing, really," Cheerilee replied. "Just a tad bit intimidated, being surrounded with ponies." Some thing about his intense gaze made her knew that she couldn't lie. "You sure did seem confident greeting me," he began. "You know, I think you'll fit in just fine, as long as you talk. Just me, but... ya know." He gave an indifferent shrug, and Cheerilee inexplicably wanted to try and listen to his command, turning erectly toward the rest of the group. "I think that there'll be a bunch of unique ponies in dentistry," Colgate added to the growing pile of comments. "I don't know about tooth class, but I'll be one heck of a muffin baker by next year!" Derpy responded loudly. Lyra rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Derp." Her chocolate gaze met mine. "Oh, look who's finally back in the conversation!" Sweat began forming on the back of her neck as the ponies in the group stared at her expectantly. What should I say? "I'm hungry!" she declared as a placeholder. Some laughter came from the group, but Cheerilee's eyes became pinpoints. They're laughing at me! Whimpering a bit, she hurried out of the train car and into the next, which belonged to a short, filthy stallion as she found out the hard way. "Hey, kid," he greeted in a growl-like way, his blue eyes training on Cheerilee. Cheerilee didn't know how to reply, so she settled by staring at the adult strangely, her heart thudding. This guy is a creep! The magenta mare stopped her internal argument by simply dashing to the next car, seeing that it was catering, she caught her breath. Those ponies were laughing at me! They aren't my friends! After thirty seconds, she noticed that many of the other ponies were looking at her strangely, as if she'd grown another head, and she was sure that wasn't the case. "Cheerilee?" called out a mature voice. Cheerilee turned around timidly only to see Time Turner. "Why'd you run like that?" "You ponies were laughing at me!" she accused. "You guys aren't my friends, so I'm getting some food and staying here." Cheerilee suddenly realized how whiny she sounded, so she quickly straightened up. "We were laughing with you," Time Turner pointed out, sounding patient. "There's a difference in between laughing with and laughing at, you know. I discovered it's just a part of friendship. Huh? "But it's the same verb, right?" Cheerilee blurted out. "Laughing is making sounds expressing amusement!" "That just supports my point further," Time Turner pointed out flatly. "But, if you can't get out of that mode, 'laughing' is used in different contexts. Being amused at somepony else's expense is laughing at. They here amused by your antics." Cheerilee's face brightened in realization. Oh, contexts fit in with the definition! I get it now! Time Turner coughed lightly. "Now, would you like to pick up that food and head back? Colgate was shifting the focus of the conversation towards square roots when you left." "Would I!" Cheerilee exclaimed. Other ponies batted their ears, already seeming to register that she was crazy. "Oh, and I'm not hungry!" Cheerilee and Time Turner trotted through the strange stallion's car before ending up back with the nerds. "Look who's back," Lyra snickered. Cheerilee batted an ear in irritation before seating herself where she was, reminding herself of square roots. Colgate was scribbling frantically at a piece of paper. "The square root of 15,789 is 125.65428763078480801100930994306," Colgate declared proudly. Mary pulled out a calculator and, on the small screen: 125.65428763078480801100930994306 "Wow."