Magic School Zord
Chapter 2
by Rixizu
Cheerilee relished the strange looks she got as she walked into the classroom. She wondered if this was what Trixie felt like when she went on stage with that ridiculous outfit of hers. Every eye stared at her with mouth agape.
“Morning class!” Cheerilee greeted.
“Morning?” The class replied reluctantly. They looked at each other with worried looks. After about a minute of awkward silence, Dinky raised her hoof in the air.
“Yes Dinky?” Cheerilee asked.
“Uh, why are you dressed like that?” Dinky asked concern clear in her voice.
“Good question!” Cheerilee said with a wide smile. She gave a little curtsey to show of the blue dress covered with planets, stars, and crescent moons that she was wearing. On her head was a ring with a model of their solar system attached by a wire. “I thought it would be fun if I dressed up. It makes the lessons so much more exciting! And what a lesson we will have today!”
This was part of her plan to make a real impression on her students. She needed to capture their attention and the best way to do that was with flash and style, not unlike what her friend Trixie does. She would show them she wasn’t the same boring teacher they all believed her to be. A new elaborate outfit a day would do the trick nicely.
There was a moment of silence as everypony soaked in what their teacher had just said. The moment stretched on and on. Some of her students looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. A little embarrassed by their reaction, Cheerilee coughed in her hoof.
“Alright class, we have a lot to learn today, so it would be best not to dawdle," Cheerilee said, "but first I have a special announcement!" She flipped the blackboard over revealing a detailed picture of the moon on it.
“Does anypony know what this is?” Cheerilee asked.
“The moon?” Sweetie Belle asked. It sounded like she was expecting this to be a trick question.
“Correct!” Cheerilee congratulated. “It is the very satellite that orbits our planet controlled by Princess Luna herself.”
“Well duh.” Diamond Tiara said impatiently. “Everypony knows that. So what?”
Cheerilee ignored the filly and continued. “Since we are studying it at the moment, how about we do something special?”
"I've talked to the princess, and she gave her eager consent," Cheerilee explained. She found it hard not to explode from excitement. She didn’t expect Princess Luna to agree so easily. In fact, the princess visited Cheerilee’s house herself after receiving Trixie’s letter about the trip. She was insistent that the trip takes place, and then said something about showing up her sister. Odd, but Cheerilee didn’t want to question her good fortune.
The class eyed her with curiosity and Cheerilee’s grin widened. "She gave the go-ahead for a field trip to the moon itself!"
The whole class gapped in surprise and wonder. They couldn’t believe their own ears.
“Hold on, what?” Diamond exclaimed. “How would we even get there?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Cheerilee pulled out her morpher. “It’s morphing time! Libra!” She transformed into her green armor.
“You seem to forget that I am a superhero.” Cheerilee crossed her front legs. “And thus that makes me a superteacher!”
“Are we going to use your Zord?” Dinky asked catching on.
“That’s right!” Cheerilee exclaimed and unmorphed. "With my Zord, it would only take us three hours to get there." It was a rough estimation, but Cheerilee had confidence in her math skills.
The whole class erupted into chatter and amazement. Even skeptics like Diamond Tiara looked excited by the prospect of the trip. Cheerilee coughed getting the class’s attention, and they soon quieted.
“I’ll need a signature from a parent or guardian before you can go.” Cheerilee handed out a sheet of paper to each of her students.
“The trip will be this weekend on Saturday," Cheerilee explained, "have this sheet signed by Thursday.”
Cheerilee soaked in excitement. This is why she became a teacher. She would show them sights they could only ever imagine. After the moon, she would have to come up with another exciting field trip. Like the middle of an active volcano, maybe? Oh well, she had time to plan for that later.
"Now class I want you to open your Equestrian textbooks to chapter 8," Cheerilee instructed. She got some groans from the class. What, did they really think the whole school day would be nothing but that announcement?
"Yes class, I know you are excited about the trip, but it will have to wait," Cheerilee stated, "now, learning awaits!" She did a heroic pose. The class just stared at her as if she was crazy.
“I am thinking it’s 50/50 that this trip to the moon is even real.” Diamond Tiara quipped in the silence.
Cheerilee groaned. How does Trixie pull it off? Nopony stares at her as if she’s nuts when she does something outrageous.
---
"Alright, class," Cheerilee said as they finished up for the day, "I want you to read chapters 3 through 5 in your astronomy textbook and do all the odd questions at the end of each chapter.” The class grumbled in acknowledgment.
“And remember class, I need your field trip permission slips signed by Thursday!” Cheerilee said as the class got ready to go. “You won’t want to miss this historic school trip.”
The class started rushed out of the building, but to Cheerilee it was obvious they looked more excited than usual. She smirked. Her plan was already going flawlessly. A thought popped up in her head and she mentally kicked herself for almost forgetting something important.
“Scootaloo!” Cheerilee called as the filly was almost out the door. “May I speak to you for a moment?”
“Ooo.” Diamond Tiara said amused. “It looks like somepony is in trouble!” She laughed and whipped Scootaloo in the face with her tail.
“Get out of here!” Scootaloo glared at her adversary. “You aren’t wanted.” She looked on the verge of pouncing.
“Like I would ever want to stay around a stupid blank flank like you!” Diamond Tiara mocked.
"Diamond," Cheerilee said in a clear calm voice, "you know my policy about name-calling.”
Diamond rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry Miss Cheerilee." She darted out before Cheerilee could say any more. She wasn’t the one the filly needed to apologize to.
Cheerilee fought back her annoyance. Why did that filly like antagonizing Scootaloo and the other foals so much? She would have to have a long talk with her father about this. The situation was getting out of hoof. Oh well, one problem at a time. She looked at Scootaloo who was fidgeting as she looked at her teacher with apparent nervousness.
“If this is about the firecracker in the toilet, I’m sorry!” Scootaloo blurted out. “I didn’t think six firecrackers would cause that much of an explosion!”
Cheerilee blinked. “So it was you that played the little prank?” The less said about the results of that explosion, the better.
"Yes, mam! I'm sorry!" Scootaloo said. "Please don't tell my dad!"
"I'm glad you told me about it," Cheerilee said, "alright, I won't tell your father, but you are getting a month of detention for it."
Scootaloo looked bummed by the news but said nothing in response.
"But that isn't why I called you here," Cheerilee explained. Scootaloo tensed when she heard this. "It's about your recent grades."
“I’m not passing?” Scootaloo asked horrified.
"No, you're doing okay," Cheerilee said. In truth, the filly was getting Cs and Bs for the most part.
“What are you talking about?” Scootaloo asked puzzled. “If I’m passing, what’s the problem?”
"I think you could do better," Cheerilee said with a gentle smile, "you're a very smart filly. If you applied yourself more, I don't doubt your grades could easily become A's."
“But studying is so boring and uncool!” Scootaloo whined.
Cheerilee wanted to remind the filly just how cool school really was but realized how lame that sounded so she took a different approach.
“And what makes you think that?” Cheerilee asked. “You rarely pay attention to your textbooks. How do you know if you never try?”
“Rainbow Dash says reading is for lame eggheads," Scootaloo explained making Dash's words sound like a holy script that it would be blasphemy to deviate from.
Cheerilee fought back from making a face. That Rainbow Dash was such a bad influence. The nerve of that mare telling an impressionable filly that reading is for lame eggheads! She wanted to thrash that prismatic pegasus. No doubt she inspired that little prank from earlier too. She needed to do something about this.
"Studying can't all be boring." Cheerilee ventured. "There have to be some subjects that you enjoy reading about?"
Scootaloo looked about to say something but stopped herself. “Nope. They are all equally boring. Studying is lame!”
Cheerilee blinked. Cheerilee opened her mouth to reply but noticed a pony standing in the doorway. Much to her surprise, it was Rainbow Dash. She was wearing a t-shirt with Trixie’s face on it and had a flag that said “Trixie No. 1” on it. The pegasus gave Cheerilee a bewildered look, then broke out into rapturous laughter finding her outfit a great source of hilarity. Cheerilee was not amused.
"She promised me we would hang out today," Scootaloo explained, "Trixie is doing a practice magic show, and there is no way we could ever miss it!"
Wonderful. Cheerilee groaned. Rainbow Dash was the founder of the Galaxy Ranger fan club and they loved to gush about the Red Ranger. It didn’t help that Trixie encouraged this behavior.
Why don’t they even come around to bother me? Cheerilee wondered. They never came around to the school and bugged her during one of her lessons with t-shirts and banners of her. Did they even make merchandise of the Green Ranger? No, she didn’t care about this sort of thing. It didn’t matter. No really, it didn’t.
Rainbow Dash stamped her hoof in impatience. "Sorry Miss Cheerilee, I got to go!" With that, Scootaloo ran off with her idol.
“Scootaloo!” Cheerilee ordered in a commanding voice, but it was too late and the filly was long gone.
Cheerilee sighed. She almost had the filly before that accursed Rainbow Dash interfered. There was no way that Scootaloo would ever admit liking nerdy stuff in front of her idol. No matter, at least now she had something to work with. She would just have to work harder to get through to the filly. There had to be something she liked about school.
---
After a long week, the day of the trip arrived. It took a lot of cajoling and convicting of the parents, but Cheerilee got them on her side and they all agreed to let their foals go on the trip. She guessed that the Princess’s official endorsement must have helped quite a bit. Despite agreeing, many of their guardians were still uneasy and Cheerilee made a solemn promise to protect their foals with her life. Raindrops herself made Cheerilee make a blood oath to bring her brother Snail back safe. That mare could be so protective. Much to her pleasure, every foal in her class was going. It was just about daybreak as the class arrived at the meeting point in the quarry near Sweet Apples Acres.
Everypony had a backpack full of supplies and snacks for the trip. Many of them didn’t appear to get much sleep last night, too excited about the prospect of the trip. They talked amongst themselves about what they planned to do on the moon. The class gathered around their teacher and Cheerilee cleared her throat.
"I'm glad everypony could make it," Cheerilee said, "this will be the most fun and educational school trip of your lives!" Many of the foals rolled their eyes about it being educational, but Cheerilee just ignored them.
“So, uh, how exactly are we going to get there in your Zord? The moon is far.” Snails asked. It was obvious he thought long and hard about this question.
“Good question.” Cheerilee congratulated. "It might not look like it, but every Zord is a spaceship of sorts, able to hold an entire company of ponies if it has to. It has more than enough room for everypony.
Cheerilee pulled out her morpher. “It’s morphing time! Libra!”
After transforming, she pressed a button on her morpher and teleported into her Zord in its orbiting launch platform in space. It contained a tight little room full of controls and switches with multiple monitors that surrounded her in almost every direction. It was cramped but cozy in Cheerilee's opinion. After checking that everything was optimal, she tapped at her Zord’s controls and set its landing course towards the meeting point making sure it landed far away from the class. She pressed a red button on her control panel and readied herself for the launch.
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Let’s Launch!
The class watched in wonder as she landed her Zord. As soon as it had touched down they all ran towards it. Cheerilee’s Zord, the Libra Zord, was a giant green mechanical pony. Hanging around its body were two massive scales held together with a chain that wrapped around its torso. They’d never seen a Zord up close before and the sight awed them. They were almost tiny specks compared to the massive size of the Zord. Cheerilee couldn’t withhold a smirk. If they thought this was impressive, they had seen nothing yet.
Cheerilee jumped from the top of her Zord, unmorphed, and let off a loud cough. “All right class, gather around.” The class gathered around her eager to begin the trip.
“Alright class, this way.” Cheerilee guided them to a door in one of her Zord’s hoofs. Inside was a metal corridor that led to an elevator. One admittedly long agonizing elevator ride later, they found themselves in a wide room. It had tables and comfortable green couches that wrapped around the tables with carpet underneath. The main part of the room was in a pit surrounded by stairs that led to doors that led into other parts of the Zord.
Cheerilee told them to follow her and she led them into another elevator that led to the cockpit. There was an area under the main cockpit that was full of panels with various button and controls that Cheerilee still didn’t understand. She was grateful the thing mostly ran itself. The class gasped in delight for in this part of the Zord they could see out through the head’s eyes.
“Stay tight class, I am about to launch us into space." Cheerilee announced, "watch carefully. You will see the earth from space very soon.”
Cheerilee motioned to some seats built into the wall. "Now class, I want you to strap yourselves in. The trip into space can be turbulent and I don’t want to risk anypony getting hurt.” This was a little unnecessary precaution for the trip into space was smooth for the most part, but she didn't want to take any chances. She buckled herself in after entering the cockpit.
Cheerilee made the final preparations and hit a blue button on the console.
Launch sequence activate.
An alarm buzzed and the class looked around with anticipation and trepidation. Rocket boosters expanded from the Zord’s back and it flew into the air. The entire Zord rattled from the turbulence of the launch into high orbit. Cheerilee and the rest of the class winced from the high Gs pressing against them. The Zord had systems that compensated for Gs, but it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t crushing like it would normally be, but it was still uncomfortable. The window emitted blazing red light as it left the planet’s orbit. In a moment, the pressure passed meaning they were out into space.
Cheerilee unbuckled herself and left the cockpit. “Alright class, we’re in space now. Look.” She gestured to the window that led into the vacuum outside.
The entire class gasped and their breath caught for the Earth in all of its entirety was there for all to see. Nopony said anything or even moved, the awe-inspiring sight that transfixed them all. Cheerilee smiled as she watched the view behind them. She had had the same reaction when she viewed this beautiful sphere surrounded by endless blackness for the first time. Pictures didn't do it even a little justice. She knew the class would remember this moment for the rest of the lives.
"Science isn't as lame as you thought?" Cheerilee whispered into Scootaloo's ear and the filly nodded dumbly continuing to stare at the view wide-eyed and amazed.
It took at least twenty minutes before the class settled down enough to receive instructions again and Cheerilee didn’t have the heart to interrupt them.
"Alright, class," Cheerilee said getting everypony’s attention, "this trip will take a few hours so I want to make sure you’re comfortable.”
Cheerilee went into an outline of the Zord’s layout and explained where they could find food, bathrooms, the game room, and bedrooms if they so wished. She also explained what to do if they got lost since the Zord was so large and showed them the helpful maps on the walls they could use to find their way. Cheerilee made sure beforehoof to lock any sensitive or dangerous areas just in case. The last thing she wanted was to find one of her students hurt by any of the advanced equipment in her Zord.
The next three hours traveled by faster than Cheerilee thought they would. The class kept themselves busy one way or another. One of the most popular activities was just looking out of the viewing window into space. Many of the foals eagerly watched their approach to the moon giving them a nice and clear view of it as they came close to it. If felt as if you could grab out and touch the moon with a hoof if only extended it out. As they approached the final stages of their trip, Cheerilee called her class together for some final preparations.
“Class, as you may know, the moon has no atmosphere making it impossible for a pony to travel outside unassisted.” Cheerilee motioned to a bunch of lockers at the dock they used to enter the Zord from before. “Each one has a spacesuit we can use to go outside on the surface.” Each locker contained a green suit.
The foals opened the lockers and looked at their teacher confused. “What gives Miss Cheerilee?” Diamond Tiara asked. “These suits are huge. We can’t fit in these!”
Cheerilee smiled in a way that showed she knew something they didn’t. “That’s by design. They were made so that anypony can use them.”
Cheerilee grabbed one the oversized suits and put it on. It was too big for her as well and appeared to be the size of Apple Bloom’s brother Big Mac.
"Now watch closely," Cheerilee instructed. She pressed a button on the middle of the suit and it constricted around her until it was a perfect fit. It was a little tight, but it gave her free movement.
"I've tested it with Dinky, and these suits can even fit a foal if you want them to," Cheerilee explained and Dinky nodded in agreement.
Each foal grabbed a suit, put it on, and found that the suits could shrink to match their size. They looked at their suits in amazement.
“These suits have plenty of air so you don’t have to worry about that.” Cheerilee continued. “There should be enough for 6 to 8 hours at least. Since we will only be on the surface for four hours, we will have plenty of time. Just in case, I am bringing an extra tank of air."
She went over several safety procedures and explained what to do if their suit ruptured for whatever reason. Cheerilee also had a roll of duct tape in case something like that happened. Cheerilee did everything in her power to make sure the trip stayed safe as possible.
“To activate your suit’s helmet, press this button.” Cheerilee indicated a button on one of her legs and pressed it. A plastic dome flipped over her head. “Don’t worry about your helmet opening up on the surface. It is designed so it can only open while in oxygen.” She didn’t know who designed this technology or why, but she applauded their dedication to safety.
Cheerilee tried to stay passive as the door to the airlock opened, but she made a gasp of wonder with her class as she got her first view of the moon's surface up close. It was a barren, desolate, but magnificent as well. She was the first to jump out onto the ground. She wanted her students to be the first ponies on the moon besides Princess Luna, but she couldn’t help herself. Her hooves dug into the dirt on the ground. The rest of the class jumped after her and gasped in delight as they floated in the air before landing.
"As I said in our lessons, the moon only has 16.6 percent of the Earth's gravity so be careful as you jump," Cheerilee said through her suit’s comm pressing a button to address the entire class. She got some vague acknowledgments, but the class was having too much jumping around to pay much attention. She couldn’t begrudge them for that and let them play. Learning could wait. Foals needed to be foals.
“It’s like I’m flying!” Scootaloo exclaimed overwhelmed with emotion and tears welled in her eyes. To the little filly, it was like a dream come true. She jumped and leaped not wanting to stay on the ground for longer than she had to.
"Watch this!" Apple Bloom said and did a spinning triple somersault in the air. Dinky followed suit.
Diamond Tiara scoffed. "What that? That's nothing." She leaped into the air with the grace and poise of a ballerina.
"I want to try too!" Snips said before doing his own summersault, only to crash into several other foals, landing in a heap. They glared at him and he responded with a sheepish look on his face.
“Wee!” Snails shouted as he jumped back and forth between two spots, content with just doing that.
Cheerilee let them play like this for several minutes. she too couldn’t help but play around as well. She lept about without a care a wide smile plastered on her face.
"Alright, class settle down," Cheerilee announced and the foals gathered to her, "as fun as this is, we still have so much more we have to see, do, and most importantly learn!"
“There you guys are.” A voice proclaimed. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys! I didn’t expect you to land so far away.”
Cheerilee knew that voice and gapped. It couldn’t be.
"Trixie?!"