It had been a couple of weeks since the school year started, and the autumn weather was becoming more brisk, though there was still the occasional sweltering afternoon. The mornings, however, were definitely cooler, and it was those kinds of mornings that Cheerilee enjoyed. The walk to work in the chilly air helped wake her up and sharpen her mind for the day ahead... along with no small amount of coffee. The sun was barely awake over the horizon when Sunburst entered in, forcing the door shut against the breeze behind him. Cheerilee was sitting at her desk, sipping coffee and grading papers.
"Good morning, Miss Cheerilee." Sunburst said, awkwardly trying to straighten himself out from the blustery weather.
"Oh please, Sunburst, just call me Cheerilee." She glanced up with a small smile. "At least while there aren't students around."
Sunburst cleared his throat. "Yes, well, um... Cheerilee, what's on the schedule for today?" He sat atop a nearby student's desk.
"Well," she began "today, the morning class is going to be learning some simple geometry and getting a nice storytime about Gusty the Great." She paused to shuffle her graded papers back together and sip at her coffee. "Then, the older kids will have their phys. ed. assignment followed by a history lesson and maybe a math review, if we have time. Later this afternoon, the youngest class will be reviewing shapes and colors--I've invited Applejack to come and play a lovely little song for them as well--and the last class of the day is..." Cheerilee rifled through the papers on her desk until she found the right one "the fourth grade, who will be learning about metamorphosis and be introduced to the caterpillars we'll be raising."
"Sounds like quite a lot of work!" Sunburst said. "But I'm happy to help mold young minds." He magically reached into his cloak, pulling out a thermos full of soup and sipping from it.
"I've been meaning to ask, Sunburst," Cheerilee rested her chin on her forehooves "where did you go to school?"
"Well, when I was a foal, Sire's Hollow had a kindergarten that Starlight and I both attended." He said, tugging at his goatee in thought. "Then once I got my Cutie Mark, I enrolled in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I pretty much completed the rest of my education there."
"Hmm. No higher education?"
"Well, not that I haven't thought about it, but for now I think I just enjoy doing my own research whenever it strikes me. I'm sure you know by now that I love magic and its theory. Maybe one day I'll apply to one of the spellcrafting schools that Starswirl founded." He paused for a moment. "...What about you?"
Cheerilee sat back up in her chair, taking her coffee in both hooves. "Well, I was born and raised right here in Ponyville. Attended this very school; Stage Play ran it back then, back when one-room schoolhouses were still in vogue. After that, I attended Canterlot Academy--that was before Ponyville High was built--and went for a teaching degree at the University of Canterlot. My Cutie Mark always told me I would help children learn and grow, but I didn't know just how much I would learn and grow along with them. I don't think I'd rather do anything else."
"In learning, you will teach, and in teaching, you will learn." Sunburst replied with a smile.
Cheerilee chuckled. "That's one of Perfect Plume's quotes, I'd recognize it anywhere." She scooted back from her desk and pulled open one of its drawers, retrieving the protractor and ruler she'd need for that morning's geometry lesson. "Those quotes bring back such good memories for me; all the ponies I knew in Canterlot, all the things there were to learn, the endless possibilities..."
She took a piece of chalk in her mouth and began to scribble on the board before Sunburst got up and stood beside her.
"Please, allow me." he said, gingerly lifting the chalk in his horn's aura and scrawling the day's date and subject across the top of the blackboard.
"Miss Cheerilee, this one looks funny, what is it called again?"
"Mr. Sunburst, I broke my pencil. Can I have a new one?"
"How do you spell 'rhombus'?"
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
The foals were full of questions that day, but at least they were showing engagement in the subject. Sunburst and Cheerilee went about the class, helping however they could, frequently referring back to shapes drawn on the board.
"That's called a trapezoid, Starshot." Cheerilee explained to the little unicorn whose flank glittered with stars. "Think of it as if somepony sliced the top right off that triangle up there." The filly drew a line through the shape she'd already drawn and wrote out 'trapezoid' as best as she could guess its spelling next to it to remind herself.
"See if you can think of something that's shaped like a trapezoid!" Cheerilee smiled as she stepped a couple of desks over to help another student. It was the little pink filly that sat near the front, the one that seemed the shyest on the first day. Though she was still hesitant to talk to other students, Cheerilee had at least managed to make a connection with her, and her grades had so far been good.
"Are you doing okay, Gumdrop?" Cheerilee asked, gently sitting beside her desk. The little earth pony glanced down at her paper; barely any of the lines connecting the dots were straight, and her writing wasn't very legible. The filly had had difficulty with her mouthwriting, something Cheerilee had helped many children with before, and was doing so again for this one. Gumdrop looked downtrodden as she laid down her pencil, but Cheerilee put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, sweetheart, you'll get there. I want you to practice writing with your parents after class, okay? And if you ever need me for anything, they know where to find me." The child looked up without a word, but her eyes said everything. She embraced Cheerilee in a hug. "I believe in you, kiddo."
She happily watched as the filly picked up her pencil and tried her shapes again with gusto. Inside though, Cheerilee's heart sank a little. She really wished she could devote as much time as Gumdrop or any student needed to one-on-one instruction, but it was a big class with a time crunch. She was determined to help teach as many of Ponyville's children as she could, but in the end, she knew that meant some might not get as much help as they deserved.
Meanwhile, across the classroom, Sunburst used wooden building blocks to demonstrate some of geometry's uses to a group of students.
"See? Just a few squares and a triangle, arranged properly, and you've basically got a house!"
"So... everything can kind of be broken down into basic shapes, can't it?" asked one of the colts, a spunky kid named Bronco.
"Well, yes! In a sense, they can be." Sunburst said, adjusting his glasses. "That's one of the many uses of geometry. Observe!"
Sunburst took several of the blocks in his magic, including some circles, rectangles, and triangles, and rearranged them into a rough outline of a pony, even animating it in his aura.
"Cool! You made a pony!" said Journey, the colt's sister.
"And that's not all you can make!" Sunburst continued rearranging the blocks into various shapes, adding or subtracting pieces as needed. "You can make a wagon... a fish... a dog... a boat... even the Castle of the Two Sisters!"
The foals tilted their heads or cocked their ears in different ways, not yet having learned of what the castle was.
"Uh...? Sunburst?"
Sunburst sheepishly turned towards Cheerilee.
"Maybe that's enough block-time for you."
The children had a good laugh as Sunburst rolled his eyes and dusted off his cloak, shuffling the blocks back into their container.
As the last class of the day dismissed that afternoon, the schoolhouse's two teachers swept the straw on the floor back into shape, cleaned off the chalkboard and took the erasers outside to be dusted. Sunburst took the small netted cage that the class caterpillars lived in and carefully set it by the window, allowing the plants inside to get some sunlight, even as the little creatures feasted on them.
"I think that was sweet how you helped that filly conquer her fear of insects, Sunburst." Cheerilee remarked as she gathered stray books to reshelve.
"Well, to be honest, I once had quite the case of entomophobia myself." He replied. "She got over her jitters much faster than I did. If I had let that caterpillar crawl on me when I was her age, I'd probably be running up and down the walls screaming."
Cheerilee laughed. "My thing was always reptiles. Still sort of is, to be honest. Anything with scales I'm not a big fan of, although I do think animals are a great thing to learn about." She paused for a moment, flicking her ear in thought. "Actually, I'm not sure there's anything that I don't think is fun to learn about."
"Tell me about it!" said Sunburst, trotting over to one of the bookshelves. "For most of my life, I felt like I was the only pony who read encyclopedias for fun. Now, I not only know Twilight, but you as well!"
Cheerilee swirled around on her rear hooves, clutching a textbook to her chest. "Knowledge for knowledge's sake is such an admirable pursuit, isn't it? I mean, I spent so much time in the library in college, my friends thought I lived there!" She was interrupted by a laugh bubbling up from inside her. "One time, my sister came to visit me on campus, and couldn't find me in the library, so she started frantically asking around for where I was-- I had already gotten on the train back to Ponyville to come see her!"
Sunburst let out a chortle of his own. "That's great! It reminds me of the train riddle in the latest issue of Equestrian Science Quarterly." Before Sunburst could elaborate further, Cheerilee took a loud step forward with a broad smile.
"You get that magazine too?!"
"Wh-Why yes!" Sunburst gave a surprised smile. "Did you read the article about the solar system?"
"Oh my gosh, yes." Cheerilee replied in exaggerated fashion. "The part about Sine Wave's research into the Secretariat Comet was astounding; it basically confirms what Neighton suspected to be true hundreds of years ago!"
"And the bit about the planets affecting each others' orbit ever so slightly over millennia?"
"And the newly-discovered moons orbiting the gas giants!"
"And the new observatory they finished building in Yakyakistan with a one-of-a-kind telescope that's 30 feet long--"
"--With a lens crafted from a special magnifying gemstone from the Crystal Mountains--"
"--That will be able to look so far off into space, it may give us a chance to research--"
The voice of the two intellectuals excitedly came together at the end of the thought.
"--The origins of the observable universe!"
As the two excitedly shared wide-eyed grins, it took a moment for them to notice that they'd slowly been taking steps with each sentence fragment and now stood awkwardly close to each other. Cheerilee was the first to break eye contact and notice this, sheepishly clearing her throat and putting on a tiny smile.
"Yes, um, well..." she took a gingerly step backwards. "I suppose great minds think alike..."
Sunburst adjusted his glasses and ran a hoof down the back of his neck. "Or they at least... have, heh... similar... reading material..."
Cheerilee realized she was still clutching the book to her chest as though her life depended on it. She quietly trotted back across the room to reshelve it.
"I must have gotten quite excited talking about that article." She thought. "My heart is beating like a drum! Maybe I just haven't engaged that part of my brain in a while and it felt good to let it run."
Sunburst lifted a keyring in his aura and spun through them until he found the one for the schoolhouse.
"I'm ready to head out whenever you are, Cheerilee."
Cheerilee gathered up a few things from her desk to work on at home and stuffed them into her saddlebags. She stood in silent thought for a moment, looking out the empty door. Sunburst leaned into her line of sight curiously.
"...Miss Cheerilee?"
The magenta mare shook the sense back into her head. "Sorry, Sunburst, I must've zoned out there."
She quietly trotted out the door, which Sunburst closed and locked as he backed out.
"Guess I'll see you in the morn--"
"Sunburst, would you like to grab dinner?"
The words came out so quickly she didn't realize she'd said them. Fortunately, her embarrassment wasn't noticeable. Sunburst's slightly was.
"H-What?"
"I mean..." Cheerilee's mind fired faster than a Wonderbolt to search for the right words. "I enjoy our conversations about school, education, things we've learned or are learning about... why don't we... keep this going over dinner? Consider it my treat to properly welcome you to Ponyville, and in honor of the great work you've been doing with the students."
To her great relief, Sunburst smiled warmly.
"Why, that sounds wonderful, Cheerilee! Let me stop by the hotel and drop off these bags, then I'll meet you at the town square, let's say? You can pick the place, I don't really know what there is to eat here. Maybe I'll even tell you about the research I've been doing into Haycartes' work!"
"Sounds good!" Cheerilee said with a nod. The two waved goodbye to each other and Cheerilee began the walk back to her house. The prospect of a good intellectual conversation excited her even more than she let on, and adding food to the mix only made it better. She still wasn't quite sure what made her spring the proposition on Sunburst so suddenly; maybe she was just starved for a good conversation. Or maybe it was the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his passion for learning, the childlike excitement spread across his face, and his enthusiasm to share it with others. No wonder he made a good teacher, she thought.
The semester had only just begun, and Cheerilee looked forward to seeing what more was in store.