Chapter 11: ...
School Daze
By Paleo Prints
Chapter 11
An exhausted Flip hovered through the opening of the mineshaft, blue wings straining as a heavy burden swung back and forth underneath him, held on by leather straps. As the drained pony slipped out of the restraints, the canoe fell to the ground. He collapsed with fatigue into the inviting structure.
After a few minutes the sound of his companions filtered into the edge of his consciousness. Flip raised his weary head to see his best friend sweating under an unbalanced pink burden. Quest gently dropped the unconscious filly to the ground. He gently withdrew her beanie from his saddlebags and placed it on her head with infinite tenderness. She slowly came back to consciousness as he proceeded to nuzzle her neck.
“’kay, Screwy. You alright?”
As Flip, now the canoe's sole occupant, rubbed his eyes with his hooves, he started to notice things about Quest. Sure, all of their coats were dirty from the hurried climb up the mountain path, but the group's game master seemed to be suffering from more than physical exhaustion. Quest's eyes were wide awake with a nervousness that fought off his weariness. Flip thought it might have something to do with the filly spread out on the ground. Screwy was being worn down by more than worry; he swore she was paler than usual.
“Hey buddy. Hey. Is she all right?”
Before his friend could answer, her spiraling eyes snapped open. “Of course. I feel fantastic. Never felt as good as how I do right now.” She rose on four shuddering legs. “Let’s get things not done.”
The retinue of exhausted students trailed into Flip's vision. Bomber was the only one still smiling, her military family having well-prepared her for forced-marches. She stared past Flip towards a door blocked by an assortment of rubble. “That’s the problem? We’re gonna be in and out of there in a jiff. Pass me the blue bottle in your saddlebag."
Sluice, still in the hideously damaged gondola driver outfit, searched the inside of a leather sack while thinking aloud. “All right. If that’s the only problem, we’ll be fine. That’s the main mine door; the whole complex is right behind it. As long as we have no other cave-ins to deal with, we’ll be good.”
Luster and Crunch pulled themselves into the mine and collapsed. They mutely watched as the leather-clad filly carefully mixed a multitude of colorful chemicals in stolen science lab flasks. As she suddenly grinned in triumph a bevy of nervous looks were exchanged. By the time Bomber set the chargers, five terrified pairs of pony eyes peered out from their protective perches inside the paddleboat.
The students spread out as a peach-colored catastrophe jumped into the boat. She turned to her friends with a terrifying grin. “Gents, if you ever want to hear again, cover yer ears.”
Flip pushed his hooves firmly into the side of his head. A bright light flashed through his closed eyelids. Feathers blew off his wings as a cloud of pebbles rained across the tunnel. His ringing ears gradually heard a pony coughing in the now blown door, Screwball launched herself over the edge of the rim, only to find herself eye-to-eye with a pudgy stallion.
“Hey, did anypony get the number of that cart?”
The children stared nonplussed at the unexpected pony they had rescued. Sluice regained his voice first. “Mister Dangerfield? What’re you doing here?”
The smirking inspector pat his hoof on Sluice's shoulder. “Bein’ grateful, kiddo. By the way, great costume. What’re you supposed to be, a disgruntled mime?”
Sluice shook off the limb. “My father and the rest are in there too, right?”
The dirt-covered adult frowned. “Buddy, there’ been a cave-in between yer father’s favorite drinking shaft and the connecting bridge. There’s nothing but water and newly-made walls between them and us. Ain’t no one gonna get the drill squad up here in time.”
The budding writer’s shoulders slumped. Tears formed in his quivering eyes.
“Like I said kid, it’s hopeless. Ain’t nothing gonna cross those rapids in time.”
Disheartened tears were blinked away from eyes that suddenly filled with determination. “Mister Dangerfield, I didn’t carry a boat up a mountain to give up now. Everypony, let’s go.”
As the children passed him by, a haggard voice sounded from the back of the canoe. “Hey Boat Boy, who flew the canoe up the cliffs? Actually, I’m still pushing it now! We have five earth ponies so can someone please help me, in the name of Celestia?”
The thankful mine pony shook his head at the rescuers who had seemingly abandoned him out of boredom. “I get no respect, I tell ya. No respect.”
Seconds later, the improvised rescue team stood on a stretch of land between two raging underground rivers. In front of them an underground bridge was hopelessly clogged with debris. Screwy looked at the two opposite flowing streams, and turned to Sluice in confusion.
“The river’s full of loop-de-loops and turns. The channel to the left of us goes into the mineshaft, and the one on the right goes out from the mineshaft.”
Crunch finally found the will to speak. “So... ” he started while panting, “we could have Flip just tow the boat up that way and have them ride it back?”
The young miner shook his head as the pegasus panicked. “It goes underwater too often. He’ll drown in the current.”
Flip breathed out slowly. “Okay. Um. Yay?”
The young captain picked up an oar and jumped into the front of the boat. “We’re just going to have to go in ourselves. Grab some rope in your mouth, Flip. You’ll have to land on a shore to stop us, Anchor Boy.”
Flip stared at the hopeful stares leveled at him and swallowed. “Okay, so I’m done. I’m done, right?”
Crunch rolled his eyes. “Flip, get in the boat.”
“No, that’s alright. I mean, you don’t need a pegasus on a raging river underground. That’d be ludicrous.”
Bomber threw her burden into the back of the vessel. “Featherhead, get in the boat. Now.”
“Bomber, you know I’m terrified of getting you angry. Still, are we sure they’re even still alive?”
While her friend freaked out, Screwball sat dejected on the river bank, thoughts running unchecked in her head. Suddenly she shot out a hoof into the current, retrieving a bottle. She sucked out the cork, chewing it thoughtfully before spitting it out. She turned the bottle upside-down and retrieved the note.
The argument from her friends slowly fell off as the sounds of sobbing came from the river. Quest’s marefriend was crying onto a sheet of parchment.
“Screwy,” Luster tentatively ventured as she walked forward. “Are you all right?”
As Screwball realized she had her friends’ attention, the rapidly dripping tears turned from clear to red. “They’re alive. She sen t a message in a bottle. They’re alive and we’re the only ones who can save them. And…there’s other stuff that doesn’t matter unless we fail. And we can’t fail.” Blood-rimmed eyes turned to the group. “I mean it.”
Flip coughed nervously, breaking the silence. “Still, I’m a pegasus! I got bones like twigs, so I’ll let you all…”
Crunch nudged his instinctive social superior. “Quest, reign him in. I think you’ve got the best chance of diplomatic success.”
The young storyteller nervously adjusted his glasses. “What, I’m the club president so I get a bonus or something? Running the game makes me leader?”
The frustrated mathematician sighed. “I thought I implied all that. Get to it before he runs.” Satisfied that his solution would work, he silenced himself by picking up a lantern in his teeth.
His friend narrowed his eyes at Crunch. “That’s just cowardice. You’re got a horn, remember?”
“Mmph-mmph,” was the only reply. Quest sighed in response.
A few feet away, Flip backed away from three disappointed looks of three different mares. He stopped as a white hoof slowly touched the terrified gamer’s shoulder. “Flip Turnpage, I have been your bud since I got kicked out of magic kindergarten. I have seen you slam into a wall and laugh it off every day since then.” Quest breathed in, hoping to channel the motivational voice of a Sea Pony war leader.
“I have never known you to let down a friend.”
His blue wings briefly drooped, and then rose to attention again. Flip turned his gaze several times from the rickety boat to his childhood friend. A decisive hoof was suddenly aimed at his game master’s chest.
“My character gets a level for this. And I get pizza.”
Quest smiled in relief. “Get in the boat, Flip.”
The previously timid flyer stepped over the side. As Sluice took his position in the front, the teens pushed themselves off. The boat banged sharply off of a clutch of rocks, then rode ahead into the current. Bomber gave a reproachful glance to Sluice. “Hey, pilot carefully my friend. Ye wouldn’t want some of me stuff in the sack to get any hard shocks.” The determined miner’s son nodded.
As her words sank in, the newly terrified pegasus turned to his friend. “Wait, what’s in the sack? Can we dock again? This deal’s getting worse all the time!”
As the current’s speed carried them forward, Crunch ducked his head to prevent a rocky outcropping taking his horn off. “Flip, I’m pretty sure the bargaining phase is over.”
In the darkness, there was silence. No one moved. No one found a reason to justify an expense of energy. Eventually, Lookout tried his best to break the monotony.
“Well, if I die first you can eat me, for what it’s worth.” Suddenly a smile failed to appear in the blackness. “Hey, anypony knows what you’d call…”
He was temporarily deafened as the three educators shouted as one, “THE GENEROUS MEAL!”
There was a moment of silence.
“Well, I was at least trying to bring up the mood.”
The unbearable silence stretched on for an indeterminate time. The sound of feminine crying eventually filled the cave. Placeholder dragged himself to the nearest place where masculine breathing could be made out.
He gingered whispered in the direction of the other stallion. “Mister Glare, perhaps you should try to comfort her.”
There was a pause as the listener contemplated the advice. Lookout Hardpick responded, “Are you talking to me?”
While the two older stallions shared a socially uncomfortable moment, Red had already pulled himself next to the shuddering schoolteacher. “Cheerilee, I think…”
“Red,” she interrupted, “please let me do this.”
He stopped at the firmness in her tone.
“I know,” she continued, “that you’d like to tell me somehow this is going to be alright.” She sniffed, her voice cracking. “I’ll be able to go back to being sunshine and flowers soon. I just need to get this out.”
His only answer was the presence of a hoof across her shoulders. Comforted as much as she’d allow, she heaved great wracking sobs into his unseen direction.
“My goddess, Red, what have I done?”
A battered boat sped into the twisting rapids of the underground tunnel. It skimmed into the side of a rocky outcropping, shaking back and forth as it barreled over a drop in elevation into the rushing water below.
Quest surveyed his crew. Sluice strained at the front of the boat. It was likely that he was the only reason they were all still alive. Bomber sat right behind him, grinning madly like she was riding an over-priced rollercoaster. Screwball rolled the note from Cheerilee back and forth in her hooves, occasionally reading the same paragraph over and over. In the back of the boat, Crunch kept a comforting limb around Luster. The insightful jeweler was terrified.
“WerenotgoingtomakethisohnothatsarockTHATSABIGGERROCK!”
Crunch pulled her tighter. “Don’t worry. The odds are on our side.”
She straightened. “Really? Could you tell me how you worked that out?”
“No,” he said as he smiled.
She nodded with a sarcastic smirk. “I guess that settles it, then.”
Quest shook his head turning to his other gaming stallion buddy. “You know, I expected you to be the one screaming…”
“Be quiet,” Flip suddenly interrupted. His eyes were wide and unblinking. “Got to look for the right time. Got to pay attention. We all die if I am weak. If I fail. If I suck.”
The surprised gamer blinked in shock. He snapped to as he heard Sluice give a plaintive yell while he strained. “I have to focus on the currents here! Somepony in front tell me which way to turn!”
Crunch pulled himself to the front of the boat, only to have a spray of water carry his glasses into the river. Squinting, he could make out Bomber concentrating on retrieving a variety of tools that had spilled out of the bag and now rolled around the floor of the canoe. Suddenly a cracking, pained voice shouted directions through a hacking cough.
“Left! Now, go right! Veer to port! Starboard now! Starboard again!”
Quest felt his thoughts stop as he realized Screwball’s exertions were making the whole boat smell of copper. “Screwy, you have to relax. You’re going to kill yourself!”
“I’m going to find her first.” A wet cough punctuated her reply. “Slightly starboard! I have to be not broken to do that.”
He hooked his forelimb around her neck and dragged her close. Her chest was wet and warm. “You are not broken! You are the most amazing, caring, and funny filly I have ever met.” In the light of the rolling lantern he could see right into her spinning eyes, and thought that he could happily drown in those pools. “I refuse to live in an Equestria where you count as broken. That world needs fixing, not you.”
She stopped shaking, stunned into stillness. The red tears turned clear again. Slowly she leaned into his ear and gently whispered, “Not starboard.”
His eyes rolled together as his brain reversed. Suddenly, he screamed out with realization, “Sluice, turn to starboard!”
She leaned into his embrace, staring into the darkness. “Not port, now.”
“Port, Sluice! Turn to port!”
The canoe made breakneck turn after breakneck turn. Sluice screamed back in exhilaration,“Keep the directions up, everypony! We’re getting there, I can tell!”
Quest cocked an ear as Screwy spoke up. “Me hate you, Quest Talltale.” She nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck.
He felt tears well up inside. “You, too.”
At the front of the boat, Sluice grimaced. The tunnels were starting to get familiar. Unfortunately, that meant they were nearing the forty-hoof deep drop know as Widow’s Waterfall.
He hit his hoof into his head. “Okay, think hard Hardpick. How would I write my characters out of this situation?”
Suddenly, a crazed grin spread across his muzzle. He pulled up the oar, and changed grips until it was parallel to the canoe.
“Um, Sluice?” Quest spoke up with apprehension over the sound of the raging rapids ahead. “That’s…that’s a waterfall up ahead, right?”
The miner turned writer turned boater nodded. “Eeyup. Flip, start flapping.”
The terrified blue wreck grabbed the sides of the boat with all hooves and began generating lift.
“And…are you going to stab the waterfall with your oar like a lance?”
The navigator didn’t speak as the boat reached the rocks. With the strength of an earth pony enhanced by years of mining, Sluice Hardpick slammed his oar down on the rock ahead. The shaft snapped as the boat was pole-vaulted over the jagged stones. The captain of the now-airborne boat whooped in triumph, waving his splintered half-of-an-oar over his head in victory. With the added thrust from the straining wings of the trembling blue shell of a stallion behind him, the boat sailed over a field of jagged rocks. Bomber joined in, screaming joyfully in nothing that resembled musical harmony.
As the flying boat started to tip forward, Sluice turned back. “Harder now, Flip! Harder than ever before!”
An angry snort sounded from the back. “Buck me, did you THINK I was holding back?”
The smiling boatsstallion laughed as his boat crashed, landing onto a rocky beach. Looking back, Sluice saw that they had overshot the shore by at least a dozen hooves. He threw his forelimbs to the ceiling in victory, screaming like a Horswegian Viking at the gates of Barnhalla. Bomber tried to say something congratulatory, but stopped in stunned silence as Sluice’s flank glowed, the image of an oar crossed over a quill appearing. The captain of the now destroyed boat turned to his friends. With his front hoof he ruffled the mane of the still shocked speechless Quest Talltale.
“Sluice…you actually did that.”
The gray stallion snorted. “Eeyup.” He flung a hoof behind him at a field of rubble at the end of a wrecked bridge. “They’re on the other side of that rockslide. I got us here intact.” He fell backwards into the wrecked boat, sprawled on his back. “Get my Dad out of there. Y’can do it,” he groaned as he passed out with a grin.
A bleary-eyed Flip at Quest’s side gave him a pleading look. “Permission to join him, captain?”
Answered with a nod, the exhausted pegasus welcomed unconsciousness.
Bomber stood over the sleeping Sluice, gazing at his newly-marked flank with a look that turned from astonished to competitive. She bit the bag of explosives with determination, lifting it into the air. It landed outside the boat with a thump. As she dragged it to the wreckage, Luster pulled herself out of the boat with a questioning look.
“Bomber, didn’t you say to treat that bag with care?”
The fighting filly shrugged, not even sparing a look back. “Ehh. Life’s too short.” She placed her tools down in front of the bolder pile, giving it wide smirk. Luster recognized it as the stare her friend gave bullies before she bucked them in the face.
“Let’s do this.”
Screwball nervously trotted to the side of her friend. “Um, if this does work? Me mean, me believe it won’t, but…”
Bomber rolled her eyes. “Look here, Little Miss Lovely and Looney. One way or another, this explosion is going to light up my flank.” She threw an offended glare at the rocks in front of her. “Better get to cover.”
Cheerilee had been kneeling silently in thought for endless minutes before Red’s worried voice commanded her attention. “Ulp. Not good. Bad thing now!”
She shifted toward him, feeling more of his warmth against her side. “Red, what is it?” In the darkness she heard at least one of the other stallions stir at the sound.
“’Lee, I want you to calm yourself for this.”
She chewed the side of her lip. “Okay.”
A dramatic pause played her nerves like a piano. “I think…I’m blind.”
The darkness was silent for a second.
“Ow! You didn’t have to hit me.”
“That wasn’t funny, Red.”
“Then why are you snorting?”
Cheerilee let the unexpected levity rise out of her. Knots of tension came free in her body as she nearly choked. Sighing, she leaned her head over the neck of the smug-sounding stallion. She let a smile appear slowly on her face as she listened to Red’s breathing.
A throat cleared itself from the other side of the cave. “That foal’s been a joker since he was a young colt.”
Cheerilee blinked in understanding. “That’s right. Lookout has known you since you were a child, hasn’t he?”
Red raised his hoof over her and stroked her farther side. “I was raised here, you know.”
“You’re going to die here, you know. Convenient.”
That drew a few chuckles. “You know, I used to think you were both beautiful and terrifying.”
She scratched behind his ears in idle thought. “’Used to?’”
“Well. Um. Didn’t exactly make a good first impression, did I? Still, no one ever told me I could end up with a mare like you.”
Cheerilee’s eyes went wide in remembrance as she recalled a threatening prophecy that had filled her classroom with menace.
"There's a room where the light won't find you; holding hooves while the world comes tumbling down." Discord had pointed at her. "When you do he'll be right beside you." The trickster shook his head in false commiseration. "It's so sad that you almost made it."
"Red…I think someone tried to tell me. Honestly…,” she paused with an intake of breath, “Maybe I wouldn’t have minded. You know, I understand you now, Pause Placeholder.” She crooked her neck around Red tighter. “As endings go, this one isn’t bad.”
Placeholder cleared his throat. “By your leave, I’ll be going now. I think I’ve stayed a little too long.”
The schoolmare’s incredulous look was invisible in the gloom. “Where could you possibly go?”
“Well, I…thought possibly…that there may be some more comfortable rocks on the far side of the tunnel. You know, the loud part of the river. Care to check it out with me, Lookout?”
“What?” A few seconds passed. “Oh! Oh. Sure, let’s check it out. Um. Good luck, Red.” The two stallion retreated toward the sound of water flowing underground.
Finally alone with the mare of his dreams, Red sighed. “I don’t know what they expected us to do here , but I feel kinda dizzy. I think the air’s running out at last.”
Cheerilee nodded while keeping in contact with her companion’s neck. “I feel it too. Well, we can always pretend something happened.”
Red coughed. “Um… ”
Cheerilee put a hoof to his lips. She slightly slurred her speech as she hushed him. “Shhh. Don’t ruin it. You were magnificent. What did you want, Red? Out of life I mean.”
He thought for a second. “This. In a rocket ship.”
She could only manage a single chuckle. What would the girls back home say about this? Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that you should treasure the moments with those you care about…
“Red, just… hold me now. Stay with me.”
Too weak to speak, he nodded in the dark. Feeling his sluggish affirmative movement, she slowly smiled.
Cheerilee eventually felt Red falling to the side next to her. At the moment she was also busily sliding over him, her back legs kicking in the air like a rag doll as a cloud of rocks and dust were thrown into the air from the direction of the collapsed tunnel.
Landing in a heap, she shook her head as painful light reminded her eyes to do their job. Voices began to fight through the ringing sound in her ears.
“Heh. You two were right about the mixture amounts. Good work, everypony.”
Is that…Bomber?
“Well, Crunch got most of the calculations down on his own.”
“You were the one who factored out the volume necessary to spread the explosion. You truly are my better half, my dear.”
She squinted into the light as a multitude pushed themselves through a door-sized hole in the former wall. “Red? I think there’s a rescue.”
“Mmph Mmph,” he said into her coat from beneath her. She heard two ponies weakly trotting over to join them from the back of the tunnel.
From the exit, Quest shouted out in triumph. “We did it! They’re…um..are we interrupting... ” His voice trailed off as he saw the entangled mass of his teachers.
Red coughed in amusement. Cheerilee shook her head. “S’kay. Done now. Magnificent.” As she pulled herself up, a second powerful force sent her to the ground again. She stared into two joyful spiraling eyes, and felt a drop of blood mixed with tears fall onto her.
“I love you, Mom.”
Cheerilee let the quivering teen hug her as she reached her weak limbs up around Screwball’s neck. “Huh. You got my letter.”
Red brought himself to his hooves and scratched the back of his mane. “Mom?”
The schoolmare tried to work out an explanation before a breathless torrent of words rushed out of Screwy’s mouth.
“To anyone who finds this message. I’m alive and trapped in a cave in the mine at Old Canterlot. If I don’t get out of this please see Ditzy Doo-Smith in Ponyville. She has a copy of paperwork for my adoption of Screwball. Please make sure she gets her inheritance of my estate and bits to help her along. Tell her…”
Screwball suddenly breathed in deeply. Before she could continue the crying schoolmare pulled her into a tight embrace. Red cantered toward the two and put a tentative hoof on the emotional teen’s shoulder. A pinkish forelimb shot out around his neck and dragged him off his hooves along the ground into the hug.
Pause cleared his throat to the side. “Well done, my little ponies. It certainly looks like the townsfolk underestimated you.”
A tired-looking Sluice pulled himself over the crop of rocks in the improvised entrance. He carried a broken oar over his shoulder. “We just needed the right inspiration, sir!” He heard a choked sob from somewhere in the group hug as his father walked into view.
Lookout Hardpick gave his son a critical eye. Sluice was wearing the tatters of the Veneightian boatpony’s outfit. His hat was pointed at a jaunty angle. “Son, you look like you went ten rounds with a quarry eel.”
Sluice winked. “Dad, you should see the boat.”
Lookout gave a brief laugh of relief before stopping. “What is that on your flank, boy?”
The beaming colt trotted to his father. “I got that after we flew over Widow’s Waterfall. It was amazing! I’m totally going to use that in a story someday.”
Lookout was speechless. He nervously patted his son’s shoulder. Sensing that he should do more, he turned to stare at the still-ongoing group hug. “Um. That’s all there is to that, right?”
Sluice swallowed. “Dad, if you don’t want to…”
He father tenderly embraced his son with inexperience, moving slowly like a worried minotaur gingerly hugging a porcelain doll. “Heck, if you tried something new today I might as well give it a shot.”
Minutes inside the wreckage passed in joyful silence. Eventually the crowd made their way to the remains of the boat. Flip raised his head, the commotion finally breaking him out of his exhausted unconscious state. “So,” he mused out loud. “What kind of job ensures I never have to do physical exertion again?
Cheerilee raised her eyebrows in confusion. “Uh. Physical education teacher?”
Flip nodded and climbed out of the wreckage. Red giggled and playfully smacked Cheerilee’s shoulder. “I had a coach that could snap you in half.”
“It was the first thing that came to mind, okay? I had kind of a long day.” As she took in the scene, she noticed the kids expectantly staring at her. “Quest? Screwy? You ran the show this long, don’t you have a plan for getting home?”
The two shared a glance and returned a shrug. “Honestly, miss? Screwy and I only planned this far.”
The concerned schoolmare gave a look over to the wrecked boat. The bottom had several slashes. As she contemplated it, Bomber walked over. “You know, I think a leather jacket might ‘ave enough material to seal it up.”
Cheerilee’s eyes went wide. Bomb swallowed, waiting for a response.
“True.” There was a pause while Bomber’s heart broke. “Or, we could use the remains of a burlap sack previously full of science material and explosive devices aided by the telekinesis of two unicorns.”
Bomber’s eyes went wide. She then started violently laughing before stopping suddenly. “Okay then. Let’s never mention that other plan. Ever.”
As she walked off, her teacher called after her. “Miss, is that a cutie mark I see?”
The teen turned around, casting a glance at the ignited bomb sitting on a pile of dynamite that now adorned her flank. “Isn’t it cool? Look at it!”
Cheerilee nodded her head happily.
Running Dangerfield fought against his fatigue as he dragged himself into the fairgrounds of Luna’s Academy. He had needed constant stops to rest as he made his way from the cave-in that nearly killed him. Hours later, his disheveled form commanded the attention of everypony around as he cantered on shaky legs.
“What woe befell you, sir?” an old stallion asked with concern. The crowd leaned in to hear the imminent tale of woe.
“I nearly got killed in a cave-in, and boy are my hooves tired.” He adjusted his tone. “There’s still a few unlucky folks stuck there. I could use a few dozen hot dogs if ya got a stand in this here carnival.”
A scuffed-up Lyra sat on the side of a tent, clasped in irons. She suddenly turned to a helmeted guard. “See! I told you there was a cave-in! Let me out of these things!”
The guard regarded her carefully. His emotions were concealed inside his metal helm. A bruised pegasus holding an icepack to her eye rushed to his side.
“Sir, that’s ridiculous! The law was clearly broken in this case. I was assaulted.”
He looked back and forth between the two mares and nodded to himself in decision. “I agree totally!”
Cloud Kicker smiled with glee. She beamed until the moment the guard clasped her in irons.
“Interfering with a rescue mission is a serious offense, miss. You have committed crimes against Old Canterlot and her people. What say you in your defense?”
The terrified mare spread her wings and tried to take off, but the heavy chains pulled her to the ground with a thump. She cried as the guard dragged her off of the school grounds. Lyra happily waved at the two.
“Don’t worry, Kicky! I’m sure you’ll get community service. In the meantime, enjoy being shoved in the holding cell.” She grinned, exposing all of her teeth. “If I remember right, it’s the size of a closet.”
The crowd ignored the small altercation as they stared at Dangerfield with concern. Every eye in the fairground turned to him with empathy. Dangerfield felt a swelling of relief at the anxiety the townsfolk had felt over him.
He was suddenly knocked out of the way as a stampede of ponies galloped through the gate. The gathered mining ponies were spellbound as dirt-encrusted adults laughed with exhausted-looking students.
An older pony suddenly approached Cheerilee. “What woe befell you, miss?” He asked with concern. The crowd leaned in to hear the imminent tale of woe and triumph.
“Hey, I’m still here!” Running Dangerfield picked himself up with offense. “I still got plenty of woe, too!” He shook his head. “I tell ya, I get no respect.”
The crowd thronged around the survivors and rescuers alike. Cheerilee braced herself. She started to will the mask into place, and gave up on the effort as a genuine expression of relief spread across her face. I don’t have to pretend.
“We were trapped in a cave-in. These amazing students saved all of our lives. I don’t know where I’d be without them.”
Her contented sigh was interrupted by a loud voice. “Hold your horses for a second!”
The gasping crowd turned to Lookout Hardpick, red in the face with indignation.
It didn’t matter, did it? After everything I’ve been through, it didn’t matter.
Hardpick doffed his helmet as he slowly approached the teacher. “If this happened a year ago, I’d be dead now. The kids were able to do this because of this school, and this school did it because of you, miss. I think I owe you an apology.”
Somewhere across town, Prunecrop relaxed at his desk, stamping papers with red words of rejection. Suddenly he shivered.
“I feel a disturbance in the Bureaucracy. I fear something apolitical has happened.”
As Cheerilee stared at Lookout with mouth agape, Red pushed in front of her.
“Wait a second, Hardpick. Does that mean you’ll support us in the vote?”
The townsfolk leaned forward with expectant looks. Hardpick gave a gigantic smile.
“Not a chance!”
The assembled crowd gave a disappointed breath. Hardpick seemed confused at Cheerilee and Red’s crestfallen looks. He rolled his eyes with a sharp intake of air.
“Miss, I called the vote in the first place. As town council leader I can retract it at will. There’s not even going to be a vote.” His voice lowered respectfully. “It’s the least I can do for the mare who helped my son discover his special talent.”
As Cheerilee accepted the outpouring of a grateful crowd, a sticky and disheveled pegasus watched happily from behind his Young Flyer troupe. Storm Vision nodded with relief.
“Well, it looks like that monster failed at whatever he tried to do.”
Suddenly a mismatched figure blinked into existence next to him. The draconnequus threw an arm around the terrified scout leader.
“Don’t worry yourself for a second, Owned.” The spirit of chaos stroked his newly-grown full beard in contentment. “Everything is going according to plan.”
When he blinked out a second later the terrified pony had fainted. Discord reappeared on the empty streets of Old Canterlot, staring at the school. He smelled powerful magic in the air approaching him, and tried to act nonchalant. He had rehearsed this scene many times in his head.
“Well,” he called theatrically out to seemingly no one. “There’s nothing to stop me from trying again.”
“That’s what you think, Discord!” The angry speaker who had shouted was behind him; she couldn’t have seen that he had mouthed those very words along with her.
Turning around with rolled eyes he stared into the angry glares of half a dozen ponies and two alicorns. Five of the Elements of Harmony struck angry and dramatic poses in front of Princess Celestia, who scowled at her foe disapprovingly. The sixth barely held onto her hat as she tried to restrain the snorting rage-filled Princess Luna.
“You tried to harm one of my ponies, Discord.” The calmer alicorn frowned in disapproval. “It seems oddly direct for one such as you.”
Luna broke free of Applejack. She charged at the motionless draconequus, flipping him into the wall.
Enjoy it while you can, Luna. The patient spirit of chaos reminded himself to stay calm. One day I’ll teach you harshly that you only touched me because I let you.
The Mistress of the Moon reared above the fallen trickster, expecting an assault.
“We do not understand, foul beast.” She raised an eyebrow. “Why are you…crying?”
The insincere draconequus pointed to the celebrating throng visible past the school’s arch. The assembled heroes closed around him carefully, wondering at the convincing crocodile’s tears. Twilight Sparkle stared at the target of the crooked claw.
A strange filly with spiraling eyes was being thrown into the air by a celebrating crowd. Twilight gasped as she recognized the bizarre teen.
“That’s the weird pony I saw!” She turned to her teacher. “She’s the pony that was floating around when Discord was loose last time! No one recognized her, and I turned up no trace of her in the town records.”
Celestia cocked her head at her fallen foe. “Discord, what does this pony mean to you?”
He straightened up, carefully reciting the practiced words. He knew his whole career rested on this scene, and emoted with passion.
“I made her, you silly moops. I made her and that teacher took her heart away from me.”
There was a sharp intake of breath from the small crowd.
Celestia stepped forward. “You have done much ill this day, trickster. Still, I find it hopeful that even one such as you can begin to understand the magic of friendship.”
Luna looked aghast at the preceding. “Sister, thou surely cannot grant mercy to this beast! His feelings towards the pony are irrelevant to his crimes!”
Oh, trust little Woona to be the only one to suspect me. She understands what makes a monster better than anyone else.
Celestia nodded. “Girls, we will return him to stone. Perhaps study will teach me how to best restore him in a way where Discord can safely explore this new emotion he feels. Perhaps in time he can find a place in Equestria as his creation has.”
They were several things running through Discord's mind. One was the trajectory of assorted raindrops he was willing into the shaped of a rude face above the skies of the zebra kingdoms. Another was the precise ordering of the nightmarish marshmallow and candy marionettes he was constructing in secret, his magic weaving creations far away from Old Canterlot. A larger thought than most of the others was the fact that Screwball was now fully accepted into the Equestrian community. Better yet, she was staying in Canterlot, a mere stone's throw away from the Statuary Gardens.
As long as this last tangible magical construct existed with a connection to him, he would always have a door out of imprisonment; not a revolving one, more like a door only slightly stuck that he could always force ajar in time. He inwardly grinned at the thought that his continual series of returns was guaranteed as long as the goofy little idiot was around.
He exaggeratedly wiped an impressive tear from his eye. “Thank you, Celestia. I couldn’t help it. She's my only daughter after all.” Got to play this one sappy; they eat up that kind of horseapples.
Seconds later, as the rainbow twisted into the air to strike him, he chuckled to himself softly.
“Sometimes it’s so easy, I’m ashamed of myself.”
As a group of guards carried the newly-hardened statue to the gardens, the victorious ponies walked with relief toward the joyous sounds of the fair. A worried Pinkie Pie kept pace with Celestia.
“Um, Princess? Now that you know that weird pony is connected to a scary-wary ol’ monster, are you gonna let her stay with her new family? Do you have to grab her and lock her up in a tower surrounded by a moat with a dungeon in a moat shoved in a closet…”
Pinkie stopped as Celestia laughed. “No, child. My sister spoke highly of that young filly.” She rolled her eyes. “Besides, does separating a youngster from her adopted mother for her father’s past sins really sound like something I’d do?”
Try as she might, Cheerilee was unable to speak. Turning around she was greeted in every direction by the overwhelming joyous stomping of the crowd. Her mother peered out of the crowd, a reluctantly accepting smile on her face.
“Wonderful work, Miss.” Placeholder walked up to the joyful educator as the crowd turned its attention to the heroic children. “You really have inspired us all.”
She nodded with a playful grin. “Wait until you see what I have planned for next year, sir.”
Pause shook his head. “Let’s not use the formal, Cheerilee. I don’t expect to be your boss for much longer.”
She gasped. “After all of this, you’re not staying with us?”
He levitated a hot dog into his mouth and carefully chose his words. “No, my dear. I can’t stand this indecision married to my lack of vision. I think I’ll find a position that’s less stressful than principal. Nothing ever lasts forever.”
He gestured at the joyous crowd of adolescents. Bomber was tearfully embracing her uncle as Sluice showed off his cutie mark to an appreciative crowd. Crunch and Luster had dutifully reopened their shop as Quest treated Screwball to a huge plate of hay bacon strips.
“Miss,” he said with an admonishing tone. “Do you really think that this wonderful school community will end anytime soon?”
Cheerilee stood dumbstruck as the chuckling administrator walked away. While she stood in a haze of her own thoughts, Red leaned over to whisper into the jubilant schoolmare’s ear.
“Welcome to your life. There’s no turning back.”
She turned to him with tears in her eyes. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She leapt up to give him a high hoof. As the two educators moved their hooves together, they stared at each other in amazement. They found themselves suspended in the air mid-brohoof.
Cheerilee noticed the golden glow that suffused the both of them. Looking to the side, she saw the light pouring out of the straining horn of Lyra. The schoolmare’s exhausted best friend winked.
“You’ve always wanted one of these, ‘Lee. Enjoy it.”
The crowd applauded as the two educated finished their celebratory gesture.
Lyra carefully lowered the two of them to the ground after a few seconds. She felt that she had never seen her friend so happy. The weary musician watched the crowd. With amusement she noted that even the mine’s safety inspector was dancing on top of a cart to the music. A gravelly female voice suddenly jerked her attention.
“Sorry I’m late, Lyra. What did I miss?”
Lyra looked with relief at the cream-colored candy merchant sitting beside her. “Bon-bon? I almost didn’t recognize your voice. You sound awful.”
Her quite-late marefriend shrugged. “I got one of my throat colds again. So what happened?”
The smiling green unicorn only responded by resting her head on Bob-Bon’s shoulder and falling asleep.
Months later, Cheerilee sighed contentedly as her students milled around the classroom. Everyone was looking at the clock except her. While their attention rested elsewhere, she picked up a drawing off of an empty desk. She blushed as her eyes crossed, then calmed down and smiled.
Well,” she admits to herself, “it’s a very nice wedding dress.”
She casted a glance out of the open classroom door. In Red’s class she saw him counting down the seconds with his students. She nodded, and slipped the paper into her saddlebag. She turned from the sketch to look at her students quizzically and shrugged. Excitedly, she started shouting numbers with her class as the second hand approaches the twelve.
My very dear, treasured, patient readers…I think you know this one.
(Something explodes on Red’s desk. He seems proud)
RED: Ten months of classroom coolness and awesome lab work days
(Goldy walks proudly around her class as they finish her final.)
GOLDEN RATIO: We kept our students hard at work, time just enough to play
(Cheerilee lets her head fall on the desk on a pile of papers)
CHEERILEE: But the lesson plans are running out, inspiration going cold.
(Sluice leans his head on his hooves in boredom as Trotter addresses the class)
SLUICE: And ever though I love this stuff his tales start getting old.
(The bell rings; the students rush into the hallways!)
CHEERILEE-The time has come to set them free, out of our doors they wind.
(She looks sadly at the open door)
But it’s also time to say goodbye, and leave this room behind.
(Sluice passes her class to give her a hug, then waves good-bye.)
Now we make our way outside, into the wide world go!
(Red and Cheerilee nervously look at their long end-of-the-year checklists)
How will we finish by our deadlines, I’d really like to know!
(Placeholder walks a group of students out the door)
PLACEHOLDER: School year wrap-up, School year wrap-up
It’s an educational cheer.
STUDENTS: School year wrap-up, School year wrap-up
‘Cause today the summer’s here!
PLACEHOLDER: ‘Cause today the summer’s here!
(Red strains to pull a full cart through a wrecked room with every cabinet open.)
RED GLARE: Bringing home the lab supplies
This place is a pig pen.
(Cheerilee assembles a scrapbook.)
CHEERILEE: And saving all the student work
I will remember them.
RED GLARE: We move the desks
Clear our rooms out like so.
(He bucks a table into a tottering pile)
CHEERILEE: When the fall comes round
So much potential will show!
(She nods at the empty walls, imagining new student papers.)
(Red and Cheerilee, dancing together in the teacher’s lounge)
RED & CHEERILEE: School year wrap-up, School year wrap-up
It’s an educational cheer.
School year wrap-up, School year wrap-up
‘Cause today the summer’s here!
(He spins her into an embrace to look into her eyes)
School year wrap-up, School year wrap-up
‘Cause today the summer’s here!
‘Cause today the summer’s here!
GOLDEN RATIO: Precious students hibernate inside their last block class
(She taps Sledge. He’s the only student left.)
GLOBE TROTTER: We try so hard to make them learn, give something that could last.
(He’s taking off a harlequin suit.)
GOLDEN RATIO: We help them gather up their things, waving as they go!
GLOBE TROTTER: Will they use the things we taught them, I would really like to know!
(Screwy sings in the hallways, students passing her by)
SCREWBALL: New year start-up, new year start-up
It’s me soft and ignorant song
New year start-up, new year start-up
‘Cause tomorrow summer’s gone!
New year start-up, new year start-up
‘Cause tomorrow summer’s gone!
(She looks lonely, until Quest places a hoof on her shoulder)
QUEST: ‘Cause tomorrow summer’s gone!
(She smiles, eyes spinning.)
(Custodian Cleansweep sings in a deep operatic baritone)
No easy task to sweep the class,
Make it shine and gleam
With proper care and tough brooms
Every room is clean!
Wrappers, gum wads, wadded up tests, permanent markers too.
I must scrub so very hard, there’s just so much to do!
(Bomber, Luster, and Crunch walk in lockstep out of the school grounds)
THEY SING: School year wrap-up, School year wrap-up
It’s an educational cheer.
(Flips flies above the grounds, singing.)
FLIP: School year wrap-up, School year wrap-up
‘Cause today the summer’s here!
(He flies through a crowd of paper airplanes.)
School year wrap-up, School year wrap-up
‘Cause today the summer’s here!
(Flip smashes into the sign.)
‘Cause today the summer’s here.
(Cheerilee walks through a dark hallway, faces of her students float around her)
CHEERILEE: Now that we’ve helped them all we can, they’ll have to find their place
And head into the big world, tough task ahead they face
(The faces start disappearing, one by one)
How will they do without our guidance?
And can they find their own way?
(She looks right at Screwball’s image)
I want to help but I know
My job’s done today.
My job’s done today!
(She’s finally alone in the hall.)
(Placeholder pushes her out the door!)
PLACEHOLDER: School year wrap up, School year wrap up
A well-earned vacational cheer!
(The teachers leave in a smiling group)
TEACHERS: School year wrap up, School year wrap up
GOLDEN RATIO: ‘Cause today the summer’s here
(Goldy relaxes on a cloud with a novel)
TEACHERS: School year wrap up, School year wrap up
GLOBE TROTTER: ‘Cause today the Summer’s here
(Trotter relaxes in a Fancee cafe)
CHEERILEE: ‘Cause today the Summer’s here!
(Red in a Haywaiian shirt and Cherilee with a lei pull Screwball in a cart onto a cruise ship’s gangplank.)
CHEERILEE: ‘Cause today the Summer’s here
(As the boat sails off they're waving to the crying Orchid Petal.)
And now dear reader, as the credits roll on our beloved cast, please imagine your favorite images of the respective players as their epilogues appear on the screen.
Former principal Pause Placeholder lived out his declining years in the academy he had learned to love…as a substitute teacher.
Golden Ratio continued in teaching, practicing writing on the side to exorcise her insecurities. She would eventually retire to writing full-time after hitting best-selling status with her first steamy romance-murder story set in the halls of education, Her Body Was Sprawled across the Desk. At the moment she's writing her twelfth novel chronicling the investigations of Nosy Knickers, Mare Detective.
Globe Trotter’s summer vacation turned into an epic journey. After an accident in the Houve destroyed a priceless piece artwork during a romantic date, he and the mare in question found themselves running across the continent hounded by the art police. Making it back to Equestria, he used the experience to earn the replacement money, starting his ‘How to Survive in Stiruope on Five Bits a Day’ travel agency. He still teaches at the Academy, where he grumbles about his wife’s meatloaf with a smile.
Sluice Hardpick traveled the length and breadth of Equestria’s rivers, becoming famous for documenting the stories and cultures he found on his way. In his later years his autobiography, My Life on the Maresissippi, remains a celebrated cultural treasure, outselling such hits as Cerulean Starlight’s 'Essentials of Grammar' and Kamineigh’s 'Hot-Blooded Improvisational Inspirational Shouting for Beginners.'
Bomber Jacket’s work in explosives revitalized the economy of Old Canterlot, improving the safety and efficiency of the mines. Retiring at a young age, she set up a trust for orphaned Equestrian ranger children in her father’s name. Her husband Nailkicker has so far failed to make her stop swearing around the children.
Luster Shinybrick and Crunch Tallymark jointly opened a general store with a jewelry counter right after university graduation. Somehow correctly predicting the great Diamond Dog Gem Collapse, their investments paid off lavishly. Every year they travel from their house in New Canterlot to the Annual Luna’s Academy Town Festival.
Flip Turnpage settled into the job of the Luna’s Academy Physical Education coach. He found that it required a surprising amount of physical training, making him the highest scoring pegasus in the history of the Running of the Leaves. He still serves as the sponsor of the Adventurer’s Guild club. He still ends up paying for the pizza.
Sledge Rattlerock dropped out of school in his last year of education, and works the mines to this day. He is married with four children, and can only find time for himself when an opportunity comes to get his Sluice Hardpick novels autographed. He never stopped bragging to his kids about his close friendship with the celebrated author.
Lookout Hardpick had a terrible fight with his son the day before he left to wander Equestria. They didn’t speak for over a year. The conflict ended when a preview copy of his first autobiographical novel arrived. Hardpick read ‘A Steadfast Stallion among the Strata: My Father the Miner’ in a single sitting. Within a week Lookout had tracked down his son in a seaside shanty bar. Sluice never went more than six months without visiting home again.
Custodian Cleansweep eventually negotiated his job experience into a position as clean-up crew at the Stable for Disease Control under celebrated epidemiologist Vector Spread. He spends his days working with lethal communicable pathogens, and is ecstatic that he never needs to look underneath another student desk again.
Running Dangerfield turned his sardonic worldview into a successful stand-up comedy routine. He remains Equestria’s most beloved loser.
Princess Luna became the head of the office of the Equestrian Education Ministry after Prunecrop was reassigned to Haylaska. Visitors to her office remark on the ancient timepiece she winds daily, a gift from a dear friend.
Jury Rig settled down in Old Canterlot to be near his son’s new family. He forgot the pain of his wife’s separation with the help of a younger mechanic mare he met while repairing the boiler of a train station.
Diggydiggy Hole still digs holes. He’s happiest that way.
Pearlshield, Servant of Foamrider and keeper of the Obsidian Trident, achieved 17th level and was married to a powerful sea pony bard before being stored away in a folder for safekeeping when the next campaign started. She was later framed, placed on a mantle, and passed on to generations of children and grandchildren.
The budding family of Cheerilee and Red Glare went on to new struggles and challenges. Every year hundreds of new faces greeted them, each of them holding unknown backgrounds, needs, and hopes. They reached as many students as they could while supporting each other. The pair jointly celebrated the students they reached. Each offered consolation to the other for the students they felt they let down. Cheerilee and Red Glare’s life was never easy and never simple. In the end, they were happy with the path they chose, and they walked it together.
End of School Daze, Chapter 11: Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Cheerilee, Red, and Screwball return in A Nightmare in Ponyville... along with you-know-who...
See how Cheerilee and Lyra came together in their crazy college days in Choices!
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*sniff* It was hard to read the end out loud without tearing up.
Your selection for the ending theme!? Hilariously awesome! Grammar errors were at a minimum , man you did real good. I am honored to have read this story. As call back as it is to stories like "Stand and Deliver" (which is most prominent in my mind for this particular theme) the effect it brings in tempo and movement, well it is inspiring to me. I really think about being an educator, or rather I actually consider what some educators did as far as my perspective went. One can't help, well I can't help but want to bring a passion into my life and teach it to another. Really, honestly and fully you've culled something to my attentions; I dunno what.
Anyway Paleo, thank you for allowing an advance reading like this. I look forward to another story.
these emoticons just don't convey what I want.
And now... the first MLP fanfiction I ever read is over, 3 million words of pony fanfiction in between start and finish. Wow.... it feels quite surreal.
Bloody brilliant! Beautiful! I can't help but be grinning wide! Discord makes this story perhaps not sealed quite shut, but that epilogue made me feel satisfied-- a good combination, I suppose. I'm surprisingly emotional about the end, because I had more emotion invested in this story then I had anticipated.
That little jab at Past Sins also made me lol pretty hard. You are such a clever pony. :P
THAT. WAS. AMAZING
Brilliantly done. I loved the ending song. I loved everything.
Very good work.
Thank you so much for allowing us to share in reading, the enjoyment you must have felt in writing this. This is without question my second favorite fic...ever
Honestly Paleo.
I have no words to explain this.
I read this from the start when I first found it on Eqd.
I was skeptical I had not thought a fic with so many original characters would be so amazing.
Im proud of this. Proud of you.
Thank you.
:Gibson Beedle
*wipes away a tear*
*lone slow clap*
*additional slow claps*
*additional faster clapping*
*crowd begins to stand and clap*
*standing ovation with cheers, whistling, and air horns a plenty*
*women start throwing their bras and underwear on stage and clamor for the privilege of having your babies*
Oh, man. This was my first Cheerilee centric fic that I read. I started on this ride very early on and stayed on the entire time. You got me to like Cheerilee!
Thank you!
Thank you for the fun ride!
Onward to the bonus chapters!
Absolutely bloody brilliant. I think the thing I really dug about this story is the 80s teen high school movie references it was so inspired by. I loved those movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Fast Times at Ridgemont High and this fic just really made me get that.
Wonderful ending, just wonderful. Kudos to you for giving us this crazy amazing story.
That was a really good ending, I have to say.
And I loved the ending theme, I actually pulled out the off-vocal version of Winter Wrap Up and sang along with this in my head. XD
Very good fic, excellent writing. ^^ I don't have much in the way of critique to give, the whole thing held together pretty well.
Also:
“No, child. My sister spoke highly of that young filly.” She rolled her eyes. “Besides, does separating a youngster from her adopted mother for her father’s past sins really sound like something I’d do?”
I see what you did there.
So beautiful and epic all at once!! GREAT STORY!!!!
Well that was fantastic. I dont think I need to say anything else except that its up there with allegrezza and the vinyl scratch tapes etc as one of the best fics in the community
Pre-reading this is one of the greatest joys I've had in the past months. It is easily THE Cheerilee fic that all other Cheerilee fics will be compared to. Also love that all of us pre-readers get a mention at the end.
Such a wonderful story, I especially liked your use of music through out the story, really well done.
YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON I KNOW OF WHO COULD POSSIBLY MAKE AN 80'S MOVIE STYLE MONTAGE AND A MUSICAL NUMBER IN A FANFIC. YOU ARE AWESOME
323790
HEY LOOK! SOMEONE READ MY BOOK AND GOT INSPIRED!
I shed happy tears while reading the ending. to quote the 9th doctor, it was absolutely Fantastic!
mate, this is the whole reason i'm part of this website. i absolutely love these and i'm both sad and happy to say it's come to an end. i thank you greatly, this was the best story i've ever read, and nothing will ever come to match.
> Besides, does separating a youngster from her adopted mother for her father’s past sins really sound like something I’d do?
Well played my friend, well played.
This was an amazing story. That's all I can articulate right now. Thank you.
Kamineigh’s 'Hot-Blooded Improvisational Inspirational Shouting for Beginners.
Thank you, sir, that was one hell of a ride. So many references, I'll never get them all. With that ending, this has jumped to the #1 spot on my list of favorite fics. I can't say anything else other than one more thank you.
And now my list of things I look forward to updating is down by one....
It ended well though.
You know. Minus the lack of a clever title.
325809
I'm assuming this chapter's title is an instrumental
zlack3r.deviantart.com/art/the-end-278616102
i think this about sums up how i feel. Great story
Absolutely wonderful.
That....was.......God, I hate words, such fickle things, they fall so short in my attempt to express my feelings towards this Fic. Everything about it was just absolutely fantastic. I-I just don't know how else to say it. My extensive vocabulary has once again failed me. What surprised me the most was the fantastically constructed music numbers. Perfect! I swear, you almost had me chocked up at a few parts....o-okay, so I was chocked up, what of it? That just means it's that much more fantastic of a story! The epilogues were fantastic! I can't wait to read your bonus chapters! Here take all 120 stars! With these, you should be able to find Yoshi on top of the castle, he'll give you infinite lives. Wait....what do you mean no more stars? Only thumbs up?! NOOO!!!! Very well, I must collect 120 thumbs to give you....Yoshi isn't that picky.....I don't think my neighbors will miss their thumbs much anyhow. Joking aside, I'm gonna go ahead and say that that was THE best Fic I've read....ever. Do not, under any circumstances, stop working you magic on the literary arts. If you are kidnapped by ninja cyborgs, I'll personally see to their obliteration.
-A Very, Very Impressed M.A.D. Man!
328773 P.S. I'm gonna come back and re-read the end musical number with the music when I graduate this summer! Please pardon the profanity, but that was FUCKING FANTASTIC!!!
A delight to read. Although... I wonder why you did not include Screwy when you explained where everypony ended up way at the end. Still, I'm kinda sorry its over. I am not entirely sure if the sequel is genuine... But I think it is. If so, I'll be looking forward to it. If not, I'll be looking forward to anything else you might write in the future.
Loved the story, great ending, generic praise, et cetera, et cetera...
I shall miss this story. Especially Clean Sweep. Keep fighting the good fight, brother. We janitors keep the world clean. I'm still cleaning a school, but it's good to see he got his happy ending.
“Besides, does separating a youngster from her adopted mother for her father’s past sins really sound like something I’d do?”
Love it, well-played XD Awesome story!
Oh you bastard. You magnificent, beautiful, fucking brilliant bastard.
If I could marry a style of writing, it would be yours. I did, truely, cry over the ending. It was BEAUTIFUL. You rival my favourite novelists in terms of characters that I care about. This was absolutely fantasti and I hope (well, know) that you will continue to write such amazing stories.
You do have some rare talent here. And I love every single line of your writing.
Goddammit, set up a PayPal account so I can send you five bucks!
This was a really great story! At the beginning I had my doubts, since I'm not the biggest Cheerilee fan and there were a lot of OC ponies. But the quality of your writing kept me hooked and I did not regret it. The 90s flashback plot also helped a litte
Screwy was really cute, she had to be my favorite in this. I also loved the many, MANY shoutouts to pretty much everthing (Loved the Buffy song cover!). You should add a list of those, I have a feeling I missed over half of them.
Great work, I hope this wasn't your last story
Oh my goodness, I simply loved this story. I definitely have to read it again from start to finish. keep up the good work
Question though, did Discord ever use Screwy to escape his prison? and lastly who drew all the saucy pictures of Cheerilee and where can I get them?
This story has been absolutely beautiful. I'm...really not sure how much more there is to say.
My one suggestion would be going back through each chapter and ctrl-F searching for the usual "someone/body, everyone/body, no one / nobody" and pony-ing them.
Also, "thou surely cannot" should be "thou canst not" or something because second-person conjugates -st/-est.
That was awesome. I like how you made Discord, not all powerful but still damn cunning. That's what he ought to be !
Honestly, this was very unpredictable. I mean the whole story. From the start I didn't expect it to be like this. I didn't read the bonus chapter yet, but a sequel with Discord is entirely possible, right ?
I'd like to add that you made very nice OC ponies. They all were awesome. Really, nice job ! Thank you for this story !
"SLUICE: And ever though I love this stuff his tales start getting old." I think that's a little typo here
. (Curse these entirely bold comments !)
Have a nice day, good sir !
BUCK"-yay-"ING BEAUTIFUL...
this is one of my favorite stories of all time now here on fim fiction
words fall short of conveying the emotions this fic has inspired deep within me
thank you for providing us with this wonderfully amazing story
Sincerely - Enmar
I think I'd have solved the direction problem by letting Screwy talk her normal way, but sitting backwards in the boat. Problem solved.
Blasting a cave-in doesn't seem like a good idea. There's always more cave above it. But, I'm not complaining too loudly.
I think the celebrations could probably wait until they're out of the hypoxic atmosphere, but anyway.
Sluice winked. “Dad, you should see the boat.” Lookout gave a brief laugh of relief before stopping. “What is that on your flank, boy?”
Missing a paragraph break, there.
Minutes inside the wrecked passed tunnel in joyful silence.
I think you have a word in wrong the place.
“What kind of job ensures I never have to do physical exertion again?
“Uh. Physical education teacher?”
Ow, my sides...
Wait, if they went down a 40-foot waterfall, how can the river carry a bottle back to the level they started at? OW, MY PHYSICS.
Somewhere across town, Pruncecrop relaxed at his desk, stamping papers with red words of rejection.
Prunecrop.
“You have down much ill this day, trickster. Still, I find it hopeful that even one such as you can begin to understand the magic of friendship.”
done much ill.
The freeze-frame ending made me laugh out loud, too.
And again at Pearlshield showing up in the epilogue.
where the YAY! is Screwball in the epilogue?
Whew! What a ride!
“I feel a disturbance in the Bureaucracy. I fear something apolitical has happened.”
I'm getting my BA at the end of this summer, and I WILL be singing that song as I walk.
*sniff*
This was the best damned story. Thank you for writing it.
No words. This was absolutely perfect.
Also, that was without a doubt the best adaptation of Winter Wrap-Up I have ever seen. You're good.
"Lookout Hardpick had a terrible fight with his son the day before he left to wander Equestria. They didn’t speak for over a year. The conflict ended when a preview copy of his first autobiographical novel arrived. Hardpick read ‘A Steadfast Stallion among the Strata: My Father the Miner’ in a single sitting. Within a week Lookout had tracked down his son in a seaside shanty bar. Sluice never went more than six months without visiting home again."
This much later and that part STILL manages to make me tear up
I didn't realize that Sluice was missing his cutie mark. Also, something weird :
He levitated a hot dog into his mouth and carefully chose his words. “No, my dear. I can’t stand this indecision married to my lack of vision. I think I’ll find a position that’s less stressful than principal. Nothing ever lasts forever.”
“Miss,” he said with an admonishing tone. “Do you really think that this wonderful school community will end anytime soon?”
Was Cheerilee suppose to say "Nothing lasts forever?"
What.
Other than that, one of the most amazing stories I have ever read!
This took me for ever to read. I kept having to look up some of the best music ever! Loved this story and the memories it brought back of the best time in my life.
I'll admit, keeping in time without skipping parenthetical descriptions was a challenge, but let it never be said that I back down from such things.
Seriously, though, I can't decide if those were a good idea. You pretty much have to read ahead on the lyrics, and keep those scrolling in the proper tempo while you read descriptions. But I don't think that the song would have worked purely on its own.
A wonderful story you've got here.
I could see this fic as an actual feature length movie. Though I think it would have to do some legal acrobatics to differentiate itself from 'Stand and Deliver"
I was actually reading the final epilogue montage to "Allegro Presto" from the Rayman OST (also called 'Band Land') It goes well with the final bit.
Past Sins... saw that. ALL
So emotional. Can't type. Break faving rule now.