Foal Folly
"Somepony! Anypony! HELP THIS POOR FOAL!"
Cheerilee came galloping into the Dream Castle clinic, with the injured yellow filly on her back. Dr Medicin and nurse Tenderheart rushed up, and took the child from the exhausted teacher.
"By the great horsemaster!" Dr. Medicin exclaimed, as they laid her on the bed. "What happened to her?"
"....Sparkler..." Cheerilee snorted, gasping for breath. "....her mother hit her..."
Medicin nodded. "I understand... please wait here." They wheeled the bed back into the emergency area, leaving Cheerilee to catch her breath.
The pink earth pony sat down of one of the chairs, and waited nervously for over a half hour. The shock and disbelief of what she had just witnessed turning over and over in her mind.
"How... how could anypony do this to their own offspring?" She tried to hold back her tears. "How could any mother hit their own child like that?"
As a half hour turned into an hour, Cheerilee stood up and began to pace nervously. It was then that Medicin trotted back out, and motioned for the earth pony to follow her in. "You can come in now, Miss Cheerilee."
Quackers was laying under a blanket, asleep, with a bandage wrapped around her head. For a teacher who loved children as much as she did, it was a stab in the heart to see a foal like this.
"Baby Quackers will be all right." The medical mare assured Cheerilee. "It was a mild concussion, but I believe the unicorn surgeons were able to prevent any brain damage."
Cheerilee looked down at the little filly, and closed her eyes. The bushwoolies hopped up onto the bed, and looked at Quackers.
"Please Get better!"
"Please heal up!"
"We miss you!"
"We'll play as soon as you're well!"
Unable to take it any longer, the teacher pony trotted out of the clinic, and out into the hallway.
"Oh, how I wish I could be back in Ponyville, back where ponies were kind to each other. Where my students weren’t trying to kill me, and there aren't jeweled-eyed ponies and sea ponies and talking furballs." Tears began to trickle down her face. " I wish the parents of my students weren't beating their own foals senseless. I wish I was home... "
After all that had happened over the past week, Cheerilee finally broke down, and started to cry. Everything... the grief of losing her old life and friends, this barbaric new world she found herself in... it was all just too much. So lost in her own misery and pain, that she failed to hear the trotting of heavy hooves coming up behind her.
"Miss Cheerilee?" A gruff but gentle voice greeted her. "Are you all right?"
Hearing the voice, Cheerliee looked up to find a pair of concerned blue eyes staring into hers.
"Oh! Wigwam!" Cherilee replied, embarrassed and flustered. "Sorry you had to see me like this!"
The orange earth pony handed the flustered teacher a handkerchief. "Thank You." Taking it, she wiped her eyes, and blew her nose. "Forgive me, I must look like a mess to you..."
"Your appearance is fine, do not worry." Wigwam reassured her. "But I came by as soon as I had heard what had occurred. How is the young filly, Quackers?"
"The doctor says she will recover, but she needs to rest." The teacher pony shook her head. "How could any mare do that to her own offspring?"
"Sparkler has always been a... troubled mare." Wigwam adjusted his headdress. "She is the only mother in the history of the Dream Valley heard, who has ever drank an alcoholic beverage... or to abuse her foal in such a manner. So we've never had to deal with this before."
"Do you have any idea what will be done about it?" Cheerilee asked. "Majesty can't just leave Quackers in that bad pony's care!"
"Sparkler's sister Glory has agreed to take in her two younger foals, but Quacker's fate is uncertain." Wigwam looked away. "As for Sparkler, none have seen her since she fled the gardens. It is believed that Sweet Stuff and Surprise have dealt with the problem. But Majesty has declared the matter closed, and ordered that nobody is to speak of it again."
Cherilee ignored his use of no'body' instead of no'pony' (she was getting used to it by now), and asked started to ask the earth pony "How-"
"How?!?" The orange stallion looked shocked. "Miss Cherilee! As a teacher, I expected you to not fall back on stereotypes, just because I'm an adopted member of the buffalo tribe..."
"No, I meant how do you know all of this?" The teacher asked, annoyed.
"Oh, well..." Wigwam looked sheepish. "I have a few eyes and ears in the royal court. They inform me of all that is worth knowing in the castle." He looked at the teacher's bloodshot eyes. "Miss Cheerilee, are you going to be all right? You do not look very well."
"What? Yes, I'll be-" She looked back into those concerned eyes again, and she suddenly felt a little bit better. "I will be fine, thank you." She replied with a smile.
"Still, would it be all right if I stopped by to check on you tomorrow?" He adjusted his big brother pony ascot with his hoof. "Perhaps we could talk for awhile."
"Come over at six, I'll have supper ready." Cheerilee blurted out, without thinking. Why in Celestia did I just say that? I'm still worried about Quackers!
"Splendid! I shall be there!" The earth pony replied with a smile. "Now, If you'll excuse me, I have to go help Tex and Steamer carry some construction materials."
"Constuction materials?" Cherilee asked, confused. (Not that she knew who Tex and Steamer were, anyway) "Are the three of you planning to do some work on the castle?"
"Actually, no." He shook his mane. "Apparently, Surprise requisitioned a few loads of bricks and mortar be delivered to the western corner of the third floor." He scratched his chin with his hoof. "Strange, considering there's nothing up there but a small alcove..."
"Well, thanks for cheering me up." She smiled, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I need to go back and check on baby Quackers, anyway."
"Worry not, miss Cheerilee." Wigwam took her hoof into his, and gently kissed it. "Everything will turn out all right in the end! And no more harm will come to Baby Quackers, I can assure you of that!"
As Wigwam trotted away, the pony teacher turned from pink to a deep shade of red. Why did I just act like that? Argh! Stupid pony lifebonding instincts! Shaking her mane, she trotted back in to see how Quackers was doing.
"Mish Cheeriewee! I had teh funniest dream -QUACK!-" The little yellow filly was sitting up in bed, her head still bandaged. "TEH said I was hurt, but I feels fine! I wanna go shee mah duckies! -QUACK!-"
"I'm pleased to hear that, Quackers!" Cheerilee put on a smile. "I'll see if I can get your ducks brought up to you!"
"Shank you, miss Cheeriwee.-QUACK!-" She reached up and hugged the pink earth pony. "Afther all, teh are mi babies -QUACK-, and a mama's ghotta take care her bebies!"
As she trotted out of the room, Cheerilee had to stop herself from crying again.
....
As she was trotting back to her room, Cheerilee noticed a white Pegasus flying down the hallway. The teacher stopped for a moment, swearing that the Pegasus with the blonde mane looked familiar somehow, down to the balloons cutie mark. Cheerilee was going to say hi, but she noticed the mare was carrying a trowel, lightly covered in wet cement, in her mouth. Realizing the Pegasus must be busy, Cheerilee shrugged, and moved on.
It was then, that the teacher pony ran across Glory.The white unicorn's ears perked up, as soon as she saw the pink earth pony.
"Cheerilee!" The concerned unicorn came galloping up to her. "I heard about what had happened with my sister... I'm so sorry you had to witness that!"
"Don't worry about me, Glory." Cheerilee grumbled, rubbing her temples. "See to your niece... she's the one that needs love and care, now."
"I'll take Quackers in and, care for her as best I can..." Glory's ears drooped. "Though I'm going to have my hooves full with the twins and Baby Glory as it is."
"What about Sparkler?" Cheerilee asked curiously. “She almost killed her own daughter, and I heard she has two other foals, as well!”
"My sister has caused trouble around the castle one time too many. Since her lifemate died, she has not been the same." Glory replied coldly. "She been forgiven again and again for her crimes- Majesty even forgave her for her treasonous involvement in Truly's coup attempt- and she will be forgiven no longer."
"So she won't be able to hurt Quackers anymore?" Cheerilee asked hopefully.
Glory nodded. “Sparkler has been sent into deep, solitary seclusion to reflect on her actions. I doubt anybody in Dream Castle will be seeing her again."
"Thank you, Glory." She shook her mane. "Now, if you'll excuse me, it's been a harrowing day... and I have class tomorrow."
"Yeah, you go get some rest." Glory replied. "You look like you need it. See ya later, Cheerilee!"
As Glory trotted away, Cheerilee continued back towards her room. If Glory couldn't take care of Quackers properly, maybe some other pony could. The wheels in the teacher pony's head started turning, Perhaps there was somepony who could take care of the misunderstood little filly... and give her the attention and understanding she needed.
Thinking about it, Cheerilee remembered a time when she was a misunderstood, awkward filly... the fears and uncertainties she had felt. It was then she remembered what Tarot had told her about 'looking to the past, to help the future' and she knew what she had to do to win her class over.
As Cheerilee passed a corner near her door, she smelled the scent of wet cement drying.
"Now that's odd, where in Equestria is that coming from?"
The teacher noticed the pony-sized alcove near her room, that she remembered being empty, had been covered over by a newly-erected wall of mortar and bricks.
"That's even stranger, why would anypony brick up an empty alcove?" A puzzled Cheerilee thought to herself. Shrugging, she turned around, and trotted back towards her room.