“I really don’t know how to feel,” said Scootaloo, folding a letter from home into a paper airplane.
“Happy, of course,” said Sweetie Belle. “They’re letting you stay in the Village.”
“Yeah, but…” Scootaloo toyed with the paper airplane, “why didn’t they come and give me their blessing in the flesh like your sisters are?”
She gestured to Applejack and Rarity, who were sitting with the Crusaders at a table outside the Cafe.
“Maybe they figured since you asked them if you could stay by mail,” Apple Bloom suggested, “they’d send you their blessing by mail as well.”
“Now while we agree that it is a good idea for you three to remain in the Village after all,” Rarity interjected, “we would very much like for you to carry on with your education.”
Applejack nodded in agreement. “Y’all are still young’uns.”
“I gotta admit, I’ll miss Mr Sticker,” said Apple Bloom. “Just as much as I missed Miss Cheerilee when we finished Primary School.”
“But there’s no schoolhouse in this Village,” said Scootaloo, still showing no sign of throwing her paper airplane. “And there aren’t any teachers here either.”
“And we, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, must be on call at all times,” said Sweetie Belle, gesturing towards the Cave outside of town. “So what can be done about it?”
Applejack and Rarity said nothing more on the subject for the rest of their day-trip to Starlight’s Village.
*****
The next day, the Crusaders were going to put the finishing touches on their new Treehouse. The first thing they saw when they left the Cafe was Big Macintosh hauling a heavy load of timber to the end of the road.
“Whoa, that’s a lot,” observed Sweetie Belle.
“We ain’t gonna need nearly that much,” said Apple Bloom with a frown.
Big Mac dropped off the timber near the tree and turned back towards the Cafe.
“Gonna be a big construction day,” he told the Crusaders. “Well, have fun finishing your treehouse.”
The Crusaders looked at the large quantity of wood.
“Do we want to add extensions?” asked Scootaloo.
A pause.
“Nah,” all three said together.
“We’ll worry about it after we’re done,” grinned Apple Bloom. “Come on, let’s finish this thing up.”
*****
While it was bigger than the one back on Sweet Apple Acres, this Treehouse was still modest, and that was all anypony wanted it to be. The work left over to do was menial but still had to be done. The Crusaders didn’t have any volunteers helping them that day, but they didn’t really need any assistance to install windows, lamp brackets, calendar and chart pegs, and to assemble furnishings. As the sun was setting, there was only one task left. The Crusaders had set up a chute that led to a trash bin that sat next to the tree’s trunk.
“So, what are we gonna do with all that extra wood?” asked Scootaloo.
Apple Bloom turned her head. “Uh… what extra wood?”
*****
Almost all of the wood Big Mac had dragged into town was gone.
“Wait a minute,” said Sweetie Belle, “is that what Big Mac meant when he said it was a big construction day?”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo turned to where Sweetie was looking, and saw at once why no Villagers had volunteered to help them finish up their Treehouse. They found themselves staring at the foundations and frames of a new cottage sitting on the other side of the Tree.
Sugar Belle arrived hauling a trolley of refreshments. “I haven’t forgotten you three, don’t worry. I know you’ve been hard at work all day too.”
“Who’s that cottage for, Sugar Belle?” asked Scootaloo.
“That’s not going to be a cottage,” Sugar Belle told them. “This is the new schoolhouse.”
Apple Bloom burst out laughing.
*****
On Monday the following week, Apple Bloom didn’t even so much as smile. She was awoken by a school bell. She’d been told there would be school that morning, but it just didn’t sink into her head. She was still dumbfounded as she found herself lining up in front of the now-completed schoolhouse along with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
“But who’s gonna be the teacher?” she wondered.
“Maybe it’ll be a different Villager every day,” suggested Sweetie Belle. “Maybe they’ll teach us something they each know a lot about.”
“Oh, like how they hold Town Meetings,” said Scootaloo. “The Villager with the most knowledge on the subject takes the reins.”
The door opened.
“Very good,” gurgled an old unicorn stallion none of the Crusaders recognised. “File in.”
*****
“I am Professor Glomgold,” the teacher said once his three students had taken their seats at their desks. “I’m an old colleague of Twilight Sparkle. I used to teach at Queen Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns. I retired at the start of summer, and Twilight reached out to me suggesting a home and hobby for me to spend the rest of my days. So here I am.”
The Crusaders tried not to groan. They tried to distract themselves by admiring the interior of the brand new schoolhouse; it wasn’t too far off from the one they were used to back in Ponyville. But it seemed there was no time for distractions, as Glomgold picked up a stick of chalk and began writing on the blackboard. As he wrote, he launched into a lecture about the origins of the land which was currently occupied by Starlight’s Village.
“I’ll wager you’ve been wondering why there is an unofficial train station halt outside this Village.”
He stopped writing on the blackboard and paused his speech.
“I don’t hear pencils scratching.”
The Crusaders realised he wanted them to be taking notes.
*****
Glomgold made no effort to mask his disappointment as he turned and watched his students hastily pull out pencils and paper.
“If you want to live in this Village,” he said, “you must learn how it came to be here in the first place.”
“We know why this Village is here,” Apple Bloom blurted out. “It used to be a cult colony.”
“That is true,” said Professor Glomgold with a frown, “but there is history of this area before Starlight Glimmer came along. Starlight was not around at the time of King Grover of Griffonstone.”
“She might have been,” shrugged Apple Bloom. “You know the whole time travel thing.”
“As you find no value in this lecture,” Glomgold said, “you may do an in-class assignment to be turned in at the end of today’s class.”
He produced a textbook; “Bygone Griffons Of Greatness.”
“You shall read about King Grover’s plans for a rail extension to Griffonstone,” he instructed. “And you shall each write a paper describing it. You may share the textbook and you may confer, but no copying the text word-for-word, and your submissions must not be identical.”
*****
At lunchtime, the Crusaders went to Sugar Belle’s Cafe; Professor Glomgold didn’t object, but he told them he would punish them if they were late returning.
“He’s boring,” groaned Scootaloo.
“He’s tough,” sighed Sweetie Belle.
“He treats us like idiots,” scowled Apple Bloom.
Big Mac took no notice of the Crusaders’ complaints about their new teacher. He distinctly remembered Apple Bloom and her friends grumbling about Sticker when they’d entered Secondary School; they’ve even complained about Cheerilee in their first few Primary School days.
“What do we need school for anyway?” Apple Bloom moaned. “So we can be ready for the future? We know what our future is. We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders. We have a destiny set in stone. Literally.”
She looked out of the window towards the Cave wherein stood the Cutie Mark Grid.
*****
The Crusaders lined up outside the Schoolhouse before the end-of-lunch bell rang, and Professor Glomgold beckoned them in with a nod of approval.
“I understand,” he scowled as his students returned to their desks, “that one of you was responsible for the exile of my star student.”
Sweetie Belle gave a start. “I had no choice! She’d abducted the Queens, Professor. Don’t you know?”
“I do know. I’m not blaming you,” clarified Glomgold. “I’d had misgivings about Evensong Glisten for a while. She was the only student I ever had who never complained about or struggled with the workload I give out on a daily basis.”
He stared at the ceiling, seemingly unconcerned about the dread that was now gripping the Crusaders’ souls.
“She was hungry for knowledge,” he said. “Knowledge is power, but without a sense of responsibility, it can be an evil power.”
*****
The Crusaders turned in their papers as class was drawing to a close. Professor Glomgold rifled through them very quickly.
“B- work overall,” he said. “Good, good.”
The Crusaders were quite disarmed.
“Now for tonight’s homework,” the Professor went on. “You shall research what kind of crops were grown on this land before this town gained an apple orchard.”
The end-of-day bell ringing drowned out the groans from the students.
“A word of warning, Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Professor Glomgold said as Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle began to file out. “If you happen to be called by the Cutie Mark Grid to help somepony with a cutie mark problem, this will not excuse you from turning in your homework tomorrow.”
And with that, he yawned and climbed the ladder to the Schoolhouse loft.
*****
It was the worst time Apple Bloom in particular ever had doing homework. The prospect of being summoned by the Cutie Mark Grid had been an exciting one up to this point. Now that she and her friends had to read and write about ancient pumpkin patches and beat plantations at the risk of strict detentions, the idea of being called away by a magical giant rock seemed more like a threat now. The three Crusaders spent the entire evening in their Treehouse; none of them were happy that the first serious business they would undertake in there was homework. Conversation was scarce; Apple Bloom never even spoke. She was too anxious about the possibility of being called away to the Cave. It didn’t happen, but by the time they’d finished their papers and returned to the Cafe, Apple Bloom was a bundle of nerves.
*****
Apple Bloom slept badly that night, and she felt awful when the school bell rang the next morning. Fortunately, when she and her fellow Crusaders arrived at the Schoolhouse, there was something to distract them temporarily from the tough day they were about to endure.
“Cooper,” said Apple Bloom, “we’re supposed to line up here. You’re kind of in our way.”
Old Lady Cooper sighed through her nose as she rocked back and forth in her chair. “That’s not my house behind me again, is it?”
“No, it’s the Village’s new Schoolhouse,” said Sweetie Belle kindly.
“I struggled a lot in my school days,” said Old Lady Cooper absently. “Because of my cutie mark, I was always treated with suspicion by staff and students.”
The Crusaders thought Old Lady Cooper seemed strangely undaunted by this. Then they heard mooing and turned to see a herd of cattle being driven into town towards the orchard, and understood why.
*****
When the start-of-class bell rang, the Crusaders were surprised to find themselves waiting for over a minute for the door to open.
“Please pass me your homework as you enter,” Professor Glomgold said when he opened the door at last.
The Crusaders did so, and as they took their seats, Glomgold walked to his desk while rifling through their papers.
“B work, most of you,” he said as he parked himself behind his desk. “C work on your part, Apple Bloom.”
Apple Bloom’s hooves clenched.
“Alright,” said the Professor. “Free period.”
*****
For the rest of the morning, the Crusaders flipped through books, doodled, and chatted. They left for the Cafe at lunchtime again, and after they came back, Professor Glomgold allowed them to carry on with their free period. Before the end-of-day bell rang, the Crusaders had played a few card games, and they’d made paper airplanes and threw them around the classroom. All the while, Glomgold sat at his desk glancing over a book. When school began the next morning, the Professor declared another free period.
“I met Old Lady Cooper outside yesterday morning,” he said, seeming to have read the curiosity and concern on his students’ faces. “She told me about how she’d struggled with the meaning of her cutie mark all her life, and how it wasn’t until her winter years that she came to understand it.”
He sat lazily at his desk.
“It occurred to me that I am the opposite of that,” he went on. “I’ve always understood my cutie mark.”
The Crusaders peered around the teacher’s desk to see the book spewing out pages on the Professor’s flank.
“I’ve made my contribution. Now that I’m entering my winter years, it’s time I took it easy.”
He sat up straighter as his students took their seats.
“I also know,” he went on, “that it was thanks to you three that Old Lady Cooper had her epiphone. I understand you three have a vital public service to perform. And while it may be on an on-call basis, I do not wish to jeopardise your important duties by assigning you too much school work.”
*****
For the rest of the week, the Crusaders’ workload was easy, with Professor Glomgold only occasionally giving a half-hearted lecture and assigning them menial homework with flexible deadlines. And during all this time, the Cutie Mark Grid had not called upon the Crusaders.
“When the Grid eventually does call us,” said Scootaloo confidently, “do you think it’ll be the Professor it wants us to help?”
“Maybe. Unless he’s right about getting his life’s work behind him,” said Sweetie Belle. “Otherwise, he’s just abandoning what his cutie mark dictates.”
“Let’s not rock the boat,” insisted Apple Bloom. “If the Grid calls us to help somepony, we don’t want him to be giving us too much homework.”
“But if the Grid calls us to help him?” asked Sweetie.
“Then… I guess we’ll have to encourage him to pour it on,” sighed Apple Bloom. “But surely the Grid wants us to be ready and able, right?!”
*****
After the weekend, Monday morning class saw Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle playing cards, while Professor Glomgold napped at his desk. There was a knock at the door.
“Professor?” Apple Bloom piped up.
Glomgold slept on. There was another knock.
“Eh, I’ll get it,” shrugged Apple Bloom, abandoning the card game and heading to the door. She was pleasantly surprised to see Muga and Coan had arrived.
“Hi, Mr and Mrs Silk!” called Scootaloo.
Professor Glomgold woke up.
“Uh, hello Professor,” said Muga, looking around the classroom at the card game and the drowsy teacher. “Sorry if we’re interrupting.”
“It’s alright,” said Glomgold, sitting up straight. “It’s only a free period.”
“This is Muga Silk and his wife Coan,” Apple Bloom told the teacher. “They live here in the Village with their son Mussel.”
“Well Mussel lives with us during the summer, anyway,” said Coan with a frown. “The rest of the year, we don’t see him. He’s away in boarding school.”
“So we wanted to ask you, Professor,” said Muga, “if you would consider taking on the role of Primary School teacher in this Village as well as Secondary.”
*****
Professor Glomgold blinked, and gave a nervous glance at Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who still had their playing cards in their hooves and spread across Apple Bloom’s desk.
“We would love to pull our son out of boarding school and attend one right here in the Village,” Coan told him. “Then he wouldn’t have to be so far from home almost all year.”
“And we’re sure there are other parents in town who would like it if their foals could go to Primary School here,” put in Muga.
Glomgold glanced at Apple Bloom, who managed to muster an encouraging smile.
“I shall make arrangements,” said the Professor.