//------------------------------// // Chapter III // Story: Adventures of a "Schoolteacher" // by VashTheStampede //------------------------------// Cheerilee awoke as usual, feeling renewed and ready to go. Her foreleg also felt slightly damp. Must have slept on it and… she looked down at her foreleg, momentarily surprised to see the slate form curled around it. Oh, right, and then there’s this adorable little colt, she thought with a smile, delicately extracting her leg from Rumble’s grip, and heading to the bathroom to take a shower. Showers were Cheerilee’s favorite part of the morning. Feeling the warm water wash over her body felt so cleansing and it was as integral to her being awake as her coffee downstairs. She toweled off and exited to bathroom to find Rumble sitting patiently next to the door. “Oh, were you waiting her for me? I’m sorry, I should have told you there’s a bathroom downstairs… then again, that’s my sister’s bathroom. Why don’t we avoid that one? Here, go on in. There’s soap and shampoo on the counter; feel free to use it if you don’t mind smelling a bit like a mare for the day,” Cheerilee said with a giggle, “Clean towels are over there,” she indicated with a hoof, “and I’ve got an unused toothbrush and some toothpaste you can use. I’ll go make us some breakfast.” Cheerilee went downstairs and began making oatmeal and coffee. It was a simple breakfast, but delicious with the right amount of cinnamon and sugar mixed in. Just as she was beginning to wonder what was taking Rumble so long, she heard a blood curdling scream from upstairs and a soaking-wet Rumble rocketed down the stairs and into the kitchen, clinging in terror to one of Cheerilee’s back legs as she stood over her stove. “I-it’s a z-z-ZOMBIE!” the diminutive colt stuttered. “A zombie?” Terror momentarily filled Cheerilee’s heart. She’d had dreams about the zombie apocalypse. It was never pretty, usually ending with the ponies she cared about suffering horrible, gruesome deaths at the maws of the never-ending ho- No, don’t think like that. Think positive. Happy thoughts. After the initial moment of terror, her mind made the connection as to what Rumble had actually seen. “BERRY! What is wrong with you? You’ve scared him half to death!” Cheerilee roared. “Ow, sis, not so loud…” a very hungover wine-colored mare stumbled down the stairs that Rumble had so recently blitzed through, giggling, “I’m sorry, that was mean. You should have seen the look on his face though… oh Celestia that was priceless!” “Berry…” Cheerilee sighed, exasperated. She loved her sister dearly, but her affinity for the bottle left her morning personality… lacking. “Please. He’s eight. He doesn’t need to know about the horrible aftereffects of alcohol yet. In fact, he shouldn’t even know what alcohol is!” “It’s that stuff my brother drank all night for a week after Blossomforth dumped him,” Rumble piped in, “Right?” Cheerilee merely clamped her lips together and glared at her sister while gesturing towards Rumble. Berry Punch guffawed, and promptly stopped and winced as her own laughter hurt her head. Cheerilee facehoofed. “It’s ok, Cheerilee. I woke him up so he’d go to work and got to and from school by myself just fine,” Rumble added. “Ok? ‘That’s ok?’ That’s not ok, Rumble! That’s the very definition of not ok! He’s your brother, your caretaker!” “Caretaker? You took better care of me last night than Thunderlane has every night for the past month put together! I walk home by myself, I do my homework myself, I make dinner myself, I put myself to bed, I wake myself up! Thunderlane doesn’t do anything with me! He spends all his time either at work, watching TV, or doing stuff with Flitter. I can’t even remember the last time we had a meal together… Oh right, I can. We were at Flitter’s house. Cloud Chaser and I worked together to make him dinner. I liked that… Cloud Chaser’s a better big brother than Thunderlane is…” Rumble finished his rant, tears forming in the edge of his eyes. “But… but I love him. He’s my brother, and everything he does should make me hate him… but I don’t, I can't. Is that weird, Miss Cheerilee?” “No, it isn’t, Rumble. It’s not strange at all. Hey, come on, we’ve got to get to school. I’ll talk to Thunderlane after school. That sound good?” Cheerilee asked with a smile. Rumble nodded happily, wiping the tears from his eyes. Cheerilee turned and opened the door to leave for the schoolhouse, hoping for at least one more normal day. “Wait, Miss Cheerilee! The… um… the stickers…” Cheerilee froze in her tracks, half of her body already out the door. She looked back over her shoulder at her flanks, and quickly retreated inside her home. “Rumble… thank you so much… that would have been really bad,” Cheerilee gasped, and grabbed the stickers, years of experience showing as she expertly applied them in seconds. “Want to make a more successful excursion?” He nodded eagerly. “Oh, and Berry? If you would mind… could you wait until we get home to start?” Berry Punch sighed. “When do you think you’ll be back?” Cheerilee smiled. “No later than five thirty.” “Five thirty? Are you insane? I can’t wait until five thirty! You’ll owe me for th-” Cheerilee closed the door behind her. “I know I do, sis, I know I do.” --- The day passed largely without incident. Snips and Snails were being rowdy, but Cheerilee couldn’t give them detention, not today. Diamond Tiara had failed the test on anatomy, but she was doing well enough in class otherwise to overlook one failed test. Besides, half the class had failed. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant or interesting subject for the little ones, but Celestia made it mandatory. Only she knows why that’s necessary information for ponies so young… She groaned lightly and rubbed at her temples. Class had only just been dismissed, but already the only pony besides herself left in the room was Rumble, though there was some commotion outside. She looked over at him and smiled. He’s so adorable. Wait… why’s he look like he’s about to cry? “Rumble?” “I can’t find my saddlebags!” Cheerilee had to admit, she was confused. “I’m sure they’ll turn up soon enough. Should we go talk to your brother now?” “No, Miss Cheerilee! You don’t understand! My mom… she made them by hoof. Thunderlane gave them to me for my birthday three years ago. They’re… the only thing I have to remember her by. I… I can’t lose them…” Cheerilee rushed over to the little Pegasus and hugged him. “Come on, you’re sure they’re not here?” He shook his head. “Then let’s go outside and talk to your classmates. See if one of them picked up your bags by mistake?” He nodded weakly. “Oh, shh… it’s ok, it’s ok. We’ll get them back, I promise.” Cheerilee smiled, that comfortable, warm, ‘I feel safe as long as you’re smiling’ smile she had. She led the small colt out of the schoolhouse to see what the commotion was. “MY SADDLEBAGS!” Rumble yelled, indicating with a hoof. There, atop a tree, were his saddlebags. How they’d gotten that high in the tree was a mystery to the earth mare – for the age group she taught, flying that high could only be the work of a Cloudsdale-born or very talented Pegasus – neither of which were present in her class. The next option was a unicorn – but again, to her knowledge, none of the foals were skilled enough to do it themselves. This left two options: one of the foals had convinced an older pony to assist them, or one of the foals had climbed up there personally. “Who put those bags up there?” Cheerilee asked, her voice calm, but not without an air of sternness. “We did, Miss Cheerilee,” Snips and Snails said in unison. “We heard about this new spell that would let two unicorns work together with their magic to make it more powerful, and it worked better than we expected it to… we’re sorry.” “That’s… it’s ok, boys. We can get it back. Rumble, if you can wait a few minutes… Rumble?” “Wow, look how high he is!” Cheerilee whirled around. To her horror, Rumble was at least twenty-five feet off the ground, steadily gaining altitude. “Someone, get a Pegasus, not Fluttershy, NOW!” Cheerilee yelled, before turning her attention to the diminutive gray Pegasus. “Rumble, come back down before you hurt yourself! Please!” “I’m sorry Miss Cheerilee, but I have to get my saddlebags back! They’re too important!” He continued his ascent, already well past the point where a fall would cause major injury of not be outright fatal. Cheerilee made a decision. In a flash, she had mounted the swing set and kicked off, reaching the top of the flagpole in seconds. Crouching expertly and perfectly balanced, she coiled her legs before shoving off with all her might, rocketing through the air towards the little colt. Her hooves connected with Rumble and she twisted herself around in midair, curling around his body. She braced herself for the impact with the ground when a pair of hooves wrapped around her sides, slowing her significantly, though not entirely breaking her fall. She landed hard on her back. Her breath escaped her violently and for a few horrifying seconds her diaphragm refused to cooperate. Rumble, thoroughly cushioned by Cheerilee, was furious. “Why did you do that? I was almost there! I could have gotten my bags back! You could have gotten seriously hurt!” he cried, hugging her tightly. “That… that was the point… you could have died, if your wings… if your wings had stopped working… even for a moment… don’t scare me like that again…” Cheerilee panted as her body struggled to start cycling air through it again. “But… I think we have somepony else to thank…” she said as she removed Rumble from her chest and stood shakily, her back popping in the process. As she looked over to meet her savior, she saw her class – every single colt and filly with their jaw on the ground. I guess… I guess I kind of overdid that, huh. Soon she located the pony that had broken her fall: a white Pegasus with a very fluffy yellow mane and matching tale with a cutie mark that looks shockingly similar to Pinkie Pie’s. “Are you ok?” The extremely eager-looking pony asked. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ve had much worse, much, much worse. My name’s Cheerilee, by the way. I’m the schoolteacher,” she said, and received a puzzled look. “Miss, you fly better than a few Pegasi I know, and you say you’re a schoolteacher?” “Yep,” she said, receiving another confused look. Cheerilee decided a subject change was for the best. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before – what’s your name, where are you from?” “My name’s Surprise,” the mare replied, “I’m from Manehattan, but I moved here a week or so ago. It’s a nice change of pace. My special talent is throwing surprise parties and sneaking around undetected!” “I bet I could give you a run for your money…” Cheerilee muttered under her breath. “Huh?” “Oh, nothing. Um, thanks for saving me. I’ve got another request though – would you kindly retrieve my student’s saddlebags from the tree? They’re rather important to him.” “Oh, yeah, sure, just a second,” she replied, zipping to the top of the tree and back in just a few seconds. “Here you go,” she said handing the bags to Cheerilee, who gave them to an expectant Rumble. “Rumble! What in Equestria are you doing? You could have gotten hurt, or worse, you could have hurt your teacher or this fine mare that helped you! All because you couldn’t hold on to mom’s saddlebags!” The crowd turned to look at the source of the voice – a large, dark gray Pegasus with his light blue mane styled in a sad attempt at a Mohawk had just flown in. He stared angrily at the small stallion next to Cheerilee. “Seriously, you can be so useless sometimes…” It was Thunderlane.