Cherilee made the final stroke of the equals sign, dropped the chalk back in the trough at the bottom of the board, and wiped the dust from her mouth. “Okay class, let’s use what we’ve learned today about fractions. Who in here knows the answer to this problem?”
Six hooves shot up, including the new student’s.
Cherilee smiled and nodded to Verity. “Yes, Verity. Thank you for remembering to raise your hoof. Come up to the board and write out the answer.”
The filly slipped from her desk and trotted up to the front, looking neither to the left or right. She took up the chalk and began clacking and scraping away at the board.
The latest addition to Cherilee’s class was certainly a unique little flower. The teacher could tell that Verity had never darkened the door of a schoolhouse until today, but clearly somepony had been seeing to her education. During the history lesson, it had taken some time for Cherilee and Verity’s classmates to get through to the filly that she wasn’t supposed to answer as soon as anypony asked a question, but to wait for the teacher to call on her. Until they got her to understand classroom protocol, the little blue pony had given them an earful, expounding with absolute certainty on some highly unorthodox explanations for the failure of Equestria’s ill-fated first treaty with the dragon flights, most of them involving alchemists.
That wasn’t the strangest thing, though. It could just be that Verity had been the student of a very eccentric tutor until now. What Cherilee didn’t understand was the filly’s behavior toward her fellow classmates. Kids being kids, when the teacher had to slowly explain why raising one’s hoof was important, some of the other children had laughed and made unkind comments behind Verity’s back. It was natural for a young pony to be embarrassed, or depressed, or even angry when her strangeness and ignorance were put on display before her peers. Cherilee was all ready to offer comfort or chastisement as the situation warranted.
It didn’t. Verity had stared at her, attentive but impassive, the entire time. Cherilee couldn’t tell whether she didn’t notice or simply didn’t care about the giggles and jibes of the class. It was a bit unnerving. She must just be very emotionally mature for her age, Cherilee reasoned to herself.
As Verity continued to scratch at the blackboard, the other students began to murmur once again.
“What is that?”
“Is she drawing a picture?”
“Thath’s not math!”
Cherilee turned and checked on her charge. Verity had drawn a floor plan of the classroom, and was making X marks at various points.
“Verity,” the teacher said, “You’re supposed to be solving the problem up there, not doodling.”
The filly dropped the chalk back in the tray. “I did.”
The schoolteacher looked uncertainly down at her student. “No, Verity. You need to write out the answer, not draw.”
Verity nodded, picked the chalk back up and began writing next to her picture.
From her desk by the window, Diamond Tiara stifled a laugh. “Isn’t that the stupidest pony you’ve ever seen?” she whispered to Apple Bloom.
The red-maned filly frowned and shushed her. “Aw, hush! Ah bet she cain’t help being that way.”
Scootaloo, sitting to the right of Apple Bloom, shook her head. “Nah, I’ve seen her type before. She’s just playing dumb because she knows she can get away with it on her first day.”
“But Miss Cherilee’s trying so hard to help her! What a mean thing to do!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed from Apple Bloom’s left.
The teacher gave the row of fillies a sharp look. “You three! You know better than to whisper in class, especially when you don’t have anything nice to say.”
“Three?” Scootaloo said, “Diamond Tiara was—”
“Do we need to discuss this after school?
They hung their heads. “No ma’am.”
Cherilee nodded, satisfied, and looked back at the board. “Verity...what is this?
The blue pony had written out her answer:
Apple Bloom
Cherilee
Featherweight
Silver Spoon
Twist
Verity
“You asked me who in here knew the answer to the problem,” Verity explained with perfect innocence. A ripple of laughter went through the students.
Cherilee felt the beginnings of a migraine coming on.
“Hey!” Snips, a stout unicorn colt, said from the back of the room, “I know it too! Where’s my name?”
“You forgot to carry the two.”
As the rest of the class laughed harder, Snips leaned over his notebook and checked his work. His eyes widened. “Nnh... she’s on the other side of the room! How the hay did she know that?” he hissed to his friend, Snails.
“Know what?”
“She was right; I forgot the two!”
“Maybe she’s, like, psycho,” the lanky colt ventured.
Snips rolled his eyes. “You mean she’s psych-ic.”
“I thought I was your sidekick.”
“No, you dope! It means she reads minds and stuff.”
“That’s what I said: psycho.”
Snips groaned and dropped the subject.
Meanwhile, Cherilee was reaching the end of her considerable patience. She still coudn’t tell whether Verity was trying to see how much time she could waste, or if she was really this ignorant of how she was expected to behave. The teacher decided to give her one more chance.
“Verity, I want you to listen very carefully,” She said. “What is the answer to the equation right here on the board?” She tapped it for emphasis.
“Five and three eighths.”
The teacher exhaled and felt the pain in her skull begin to fade. Finally, the lesson was back on track. “Very good! And how did you find the answer?”
“I saw where you wrote it in your lesson plan there in the drawer.”
There was another smattering of giggles from the class, but most were simply staring silently at this point, in awe of the new kid’s chutzpah.
The teacher’s headache returned with a vengeance. This new pony was definitely a troublemaker. “No. No you didn’t.” she said, frowning severely and rubbing a throbbing temple. “You’ve been intentionally misunderstanding me, dragging your hooves to waste time, and now you’re making up ridiculous stories. Go back to your seat, Verity. We’re going to have a long chat about your behavior after school when your brother arrives.”
Verity gasped with righteous indignation, the first emotional reaction she’d expressed all day. She’d ignored the students calling her an idiot and a cut-up, but to be called a liar? It was beyond endurance. Concord was right, she reflected, ponies didn’t know what they wanted, and worse, they lashed out at the honest in their confusion.
She would teach this pony to doubt the word of a spirit. Verity planted her hooves and shut her eyes tightly.
In a flash, Cherilee’s headache vanished entirely, replaced by a confused, light-headed feeling. She shook her head to clear it. “Verity, quit being a naughty pony and go back to your seat now.”
The blue filly’s eyes snapped open and gazed into the teacher’s with startling intensity.
“When you were seven, your neighbors’ daughter Snowdrop had a pet kitten. She named it Berry,” Verity said.
“I won’t ask you again. Sit down.”
Verity didn’t heed her. “You wanted a pet of your own so much, but your parents said you weren’t ready to be responsible for another creature.”
“Verity, be quiet!”
“You and Snowdrop were best friends, and she always let you play with Berry when you were at her house. One summer, the two of you came up with a plan to prove to your parents that you could take care of an animal. Snowdrop’s family was going on vacation, and you would pet-sit Berry while they were away. Your parents gave their permission, so the afternoon after they left, you went to Snowdrop’s house to check Berry’s food and water and clean her litter-box. Berry had never been left entirely alone in the house before, and she was hiding because she was scared. You went inside to look for her, but you forgot to close the front door behind you. Berry ran outside when you weren’t looking.”
As Verity spoke, Cherilee’s annoyance melted into fearful amazement. “I never told anypony... how do you know this?” she gasped, lowering her ears and taking a step backward.
The blue filly ignored the question. “You searched all over their house until it began to get dark, but Berry was long gone. You were afraid your parents would never let you have a pet if they knew what happened, so you lied and told them everything went fine.
“That night, you lay in your bed and couldn’t sleep. Timber wolves howled outside your window for hours. They’d never been that close to your house before. You didn’t understand why until you went behind the neighbors’ house next morning.”
Cherilee’s lip began to tremble and her eyes filled with tears as the long-buried memory burst upon her with eidetic clarity. Suddenly she was seven again, finding the kitten’s torn, gnawed collar lying on the dewy grass. “Snowy... I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she whispered, backing into the corner and hiding her face in her hooves.
Watching the educator break down in tears, Verity experienced a sensation she’d never felt before; a tiny twist of pain in her innards and a cramp in one of her back legs. Was what she was doing... wrong? She pushed the thought aside. She was telling the truth; showing the world as it was, no matter what mean, deluded ponies wanted to deny. That was her purpose.
While this was going on, the other students looked at each other, unable to understand what was happening. Whatever the new kid was doing to Cherilee must be terrible, to make her huddle in a corner like that.
“We gotta do something, eh? She’s a psycho, and she’s psycho-ing Miss Cherilee!” Snails said, shaking Snips urgently.
“What can we do? If she’s psycho... ah, psychic, she already knows what we’re thinking!” Snips argued.
Apple Bloom overheard, and struck her hoof against her desk. “It don’t matter! She’s hurtin’ our teacher somehow, and we gotta make her stop! Who’s with me?!”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle rose from their seats and joined her. Most of the class soon followed.
Suddenly, Diamond Tiara pointed and screamed. “Eek! Look at her leg!”
Verity’s back left leg had gone from blue hair to bare pink flesh, ending in a double-toe and a pair of dewclaws. It looked exactly like a pig’s trotter.
Apple Bloom gulped and felt her courage begin to ebb. “Is she... is that a changelin’?”
“D’ya know anything else that can go from a pony to a pig?” Scootaloo said, undaunted. “Rainbow Dash and your sister beat up a cartload of them, right? A whole class can handle just one.”
“G-good luck then,” Diamond Tiara said, grabbing Silver Spoon and edging toward the door. “Me and Silver Spoon, um, we’ll go run for help.
The two fillies snuck to the door as the rest of the class hesitantly moved to surround Verity at the front of the room. The new student seemed oblivious to them, and continued speaking to Cherilee.
“You knew it was all your fault, but were too ashamed to admit it to Snowdrop. You told her you’d seen Berry every day, and that she was fine when you left the day before they returned. You even helped her put up ‘lost cat’ posters all over town.”
“You stop that right now! Quit hurtin’ Miss Cherilee!” Apple Bloom demanded, standing protectively between Verity and the teacher.
Verity seemed to notice the young ponies around her for the first time. “I’m not hurting her,” she said. “She hurt herself.”
“Just shut your mouth!” Scootaloo commanded. “We’re not going to let a nasty changeling get our teacher!”
Looking back to make sure Verity didn’t see them, Diamond Tiara slowly turned the latch and pulled at the door. It opened silently as the rest of the class distracted the creature.
“D-d-diamond...” Silver Spoon stuttered, staring wide-eyed through the doorway.
“Shh! Do you want to be changeling chow?” her friend hissed, not taking her eyes off the suspected monster. She carefully backed through the door and immediately bumped into something.
Silver Spoon scuttled back to the other students.
Diamond Tiara tore her eyes from Verity and slowly turned her head to look behind her. Mere inches from her face, the gray stallion who’d brought Verity there smiled apologetically down at the filly.
“ ’Scuse me little girl, but is school out yet?”
Diamond Tiara’s scream got the attention of every other pony in the building. The class and Concord stared at each other in confused silence for a moment.
“That’s the pony she was with earlier!” Sweetie Belle shrieked. “He must be one too!”
Intimidated by the appearance of a second supposed changeling, this one full-size, the students backed fearfully into the same corner as Cherilee. Their teacher was still beside herself, mentally reliving her most shameful memory.
Concord waved at the class as if nothing were out of the ordinary. “Hey y’all. I know it’s a smidge early, but something’s come up and I need to—”
Scootaloo stepped forward and dropped into an aggressive stance. “You’ll never take us alive, you filthy monster!” she declared, flexing her tiny wings and pawing the floor.
“Um, okay. Noted,” The stallion said. “But I really just want to take Verity alive and leave the rest of you alive too. That alright, Miss Cherilee?”
Still weeping into the corner, she made shooing motions with her hoof at him.
He was unsure what that meant, but he stepped into the schoolhouse anyway. The students backed away as he approached.
“Hey Verity, let’s go. Pinkie wants us back at the library.”
Verity gave Cherilee one last glare and then trotted to Concord, staggering slightly due to her mismatched limb.
Concord raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. “Whoa there. How’d that happen, sis?”
“I changed,” she replied sulkily, walking right past him and out the door.
He shrugged to himself and turned to follow her.
“W-wait, stop!” Apple Bloom said. “What’s going on? What happened to Miss Cherilee? Is she gonna be alright?”
“Oh gosh, I wish I could help her, but I promised Pinkie I wouldn’t,” Concord explained. “Listen, if she’s still all weepy when Pinkie lets me do my thing again, give me a holler and I’ll fix her up right as rain, okay?”
“Pinkie Pie told you not to help Miss Cherilee?” said Sweetie Belle, baffled.
Scootaloo was similarly confused. “And you can ‘fix her up’? What the hay?”
“Sorry kids, can’t stay to chat,” he said, cantering out the door. “I got a hot date with a pink pony and I don’t want to leave her waiting!”
“But...”
“You’ll understand when you’re older!” he shouted, and galloped away.