Two sets of hooves slowly click-clacked on the worn stone floor of the dimly-lit, carved-out hallway. On either side were several heavy iron doors sealed shut with thick padlocks. Eventually, the two mares stopped in front of one of the doors, one of them removing a key from her saddlebag and unlocking the door.
Inside, Cheerilee and Golden were faced with two unicorns huddled together on the cold stone. At the door’s opening, one spoke up. “Who are you? What do you want from us?”
“We’re just here to ask a few questions,” Cheerilee said. “We don’t plan on hurting you at all.”
“Oh, thank Celestia,” breathed the other unicorn. “When the guards arrested us, I was just so scared that--”
“It’s alright, Penny, they’ve said they aren’t going to do anything to us,” Legal Tender assured his wife. “Now, what are we supposed to be answering?”
“Your son, Treasury Bill, was confirmed to be a high-ranking member of the terrorist organization HOOF. At the moment, you are under suspicion of aiding and abetting a known terrorist. We need to ascertain that those suspicions are false,” said Golden.
Penny broke down into tears, clinging to her husband like a life preserver. Golden would have liked to comfort her, but she had to keep up the disguise until the interview was over.
“Look,” said Legal, his voice heavy and tired, “I’ll give you the straight truth. You can believe it or not, but this is how everything went so wrong.
“Back when I was just an up-and-coming, ambitious young politician I had a dream of making the world a better place. I was fortunate enough to marry a mare who had the same dream as I did. When Bill was born, it was the best few months of our lives. As he started to get older, we were astonished at his inquisitive mind. He absorbed all the knowledge we could throw at him, he tore through all the fiction books in the library. We knew he would be a great influence on the world, so we did everything we could to teach him about harmony and friendship.
“I guess we didn’t do well enough; once he’d been elected to a position of his own, he was always frustrated with the legal process, and he’d always come home moody. We were afraid for him. After his term was up, he packed his things and left. Said he had to do some soul-searching. We don’t know all the places he went to, but I do know he stayed in Zebrica for at least a little while. That’s probably where he learned all that… that creepy magic stuff.
“He came back changed. He was driven, we could see the fire in his eyes, and for a moment we were hopeful.”
Legal paused, taking a few calming breaths.
“That was when he started this HOOF business. We didn’t realize it at the time, but he began manipulating us and many others towards some crazy idea of dethroning the Princesses. When we found out about what he was doing, we confronted him and he… he compelled us to help him. His own parents!
“Like I said earlier, I have only said the truth. His compulsion spells were the only reason we had anything to do with him after he’d made his intentions clear. For what it’s worth, I- I’m sorry for all the damage we’ve caused.”
By now, Legal’s eyes were glassy and threatening to spill a few tears.
Cheerilee and Golden shared a look. Golden cocked her head curiously, silently asking for her friend’s opinion. Cheerilee nodded.
“We believe you,” said Cheerilee. “We’ve seen his magic and we know it’s hard to resist. On account of that, I’d like to formally acquit you of all charges. You’re free to go. Would you like us to escort you out?”
“Yes, if you don’t mind,” said Penny, recovered somewhat from her earlier state.
“Very well, follow us then,” Golden said, walking out of the cell. The two unicorns followed, and Cheerilee brought up the rear, locking the door behind them.
It took a few minutes to ascend from the dungeons and finally exit the palace grounds, which passed in a relatively awkward silence. Cheerilee and Golden would have liked to chat with the two unicorns, but their disguise mandated otherwise. Soon enough the gate was before them, and with a wave, Legal and Penny trotted away.
After the pair had disappeared from sight, Golden let out a big sigh.
“I feel bad for them. They don’t even know he’s dead yet,” she said.
Cheerilee frowned. “Somepony will tell them once things settle down here. There will probably have to be a cover story so that they don’t find out about us. But I agree, I wish that they could have avoided getting sucked into all this.”
A few more moments of quiet passed while Cheerilee and Golden looked out in the direction of Canterlot. Golden finally reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a cheap cell phone, browsing through it with a somber expression.
“Whose phone is that?” Cheerilee asked.
“Ceros’,” replied Golden. “She gave it to me before she died.”
“Why do you still have it? Wouldn’t Luna’s investigators want that for evidence?”
“Yeah, but… I just couldn’t give it up. When she died, Ceros gave me a look. She wanted me to do something. I- I think she wanted me to make sure her grandkids were okay. She has so many pictures of them, and it seemed like the only thing that made sense. She wanted to retire…”
“Can I see them?” Cheerilee asked. Golden passed her the phone without comment. Cheerilee scrolled through the pictures until she found one with several young foals. Her eyes widened in surprise. “That’s how he knew so much about HOOF…” she whispered.
“Who knew about what?” asked Golden.
Cheerilee passed the phone back to Golden and pointed at one of the colts in the middle of the photo. “That’s one of my students. His name is Sand.”
Cheerilee set down the picnic basket on the grass, and took the large, checkered blanket out of her saddlebag, spreading it out over the ground.
“Why don’t you help me with this, Sand?” she said. The colt in question grumbled something about being picked on and helped Cheerilee spread out the blanket evenly.
“Miss Cheerilee, it was very nice of you to take us for a picnic,” said Diskette. As she trotted over, Disk swayed a little bit, the bulge in her belly beginning to become quite cumbersome.
“Disk, honey, I told you not to exert yourself too much,” Cheerilee replied. “Are you sure you’ll be alright out in the sun today?”
As if to emphasize her point, a particularly hot gust of wind blew past.
“Well, maybe it would be nice for one of the nice, strong pegasi over there to move a few clouds overhead,” said Disk, raising her voice slightly so that the two pegasi colts in question would hear.
One grumbled and rolled his eyes while the other raced off into the sky to fetch a few clouds. Disk giggled a bit, and Cheerilee couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Once a cool patch of shade had been established over the picnic blanket, Cheerilee opened up the basket and began removing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from within. Each filly and colt that was with them, with the exception of Diskette, formed into a line and took one from their teacher. The same colt who’d moved the clouds also grabbed Disk’s sandwich and brought it to where she sat.
“Goodness, it’s quite lovely today in the shade,” Cheerilee observed. “Did any of you bring a frisbee? I remember back when I was a filly, we always loved to toss a frisbee around when we went on a picnic.”
The majority of her class gave her blank stares, with a few shaking their heads no, they hadn’t brought a frisbee. Cheerilee chuckled nervously. “You do know what a frisbee is, right? They haven’t become that outdated yet, have they?”
“Well, I have a frisbee,” said Sand. “My grandma got it for me.”
“I have no idea what you are all talking about,” Disk added. The rest of the class piped up in short order, with most of them unsure of what a frisbee was.
“Oh, doesn’t that just make me feel old,” said Cheerilee, rubbing her temple with a hoof. “A frisbee is a small disk that can be thrown long distances by applying a spin to it. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds, trust me.”
By their deadpan expressions, most of her students didn’t believe throwing a disk could be fun.
“Well, maybe someday you all will have the opportunity to try it out for yourselves. I hope so, anyway. Keeping fit is an important aspect of life, and throwing a frisbee is a great way to do so.”
“But why should I waste time with a ‘frisbee’ when I could be kicking flank on Call of Cutie 4?” said one of the students, a colt.
“Ew, that game is for noobs! Anypony who’s a real gamer plays-”
“That’s enough!” Cheerilee politely interrupted. “You can discuss the validity of different video games later, when it isn’t such a beautiful day. Now go play something, our special guest will be arriving in about twenty minutes.”
Some of the students groaned, others merely complied, trotting off to other parts of the park to find some way to occupy themselves. Cheerilee remained where she was, calmly observing each of them as they went off. Just sitting and watching her students explore the park gave Cheerilee an oddly cathartic feeling, reminding her of the days she taught classes while she was alive.
Rather, when she was a normal pony; Cheerilee considered herself very much alive. It wasn’t whether or not you had a beating heart that mattered; what made the difference was having a heart,something other ponies could share in friendship and life.
Cheerilee was roused from her thoughts by the sound of wings beating and of hooves touching down on soft earth. She looked to the source to see her friend, Golden Ring, just a short distance away.
“You’re a little early, Golden,” Cheerilee said. “The students are still burning off some of their energy, but they should be tired enough soon.”
“Well, I thought there would be a bit more air traffic today, so I planned for extra travel time that I ended up not needing. How are the kids, by the way? Will they be ready for the new school year next month?”
“I think so. It took me a while to earn their respect, but once we got that out of the way it was smooth sailing. We covered so much material that we’ll be finishing early, so I thought we could take a break for a picnic. Did you bring anything for your presentation? Some of them need hooves-on experience for things to click with them.”
Golden set her saddlebags beside Cheerilee and opened one side, revealing a few uncut gems inside, as well as various tools that could be associated with the jewelers’ trade.
“I’m way ahead of you, Cheers. I convinced Silver to let me take a few of the low-quality gems we had in the back, as well as some that I’d already cut. I thought it would be fun if some of them got to try out the tools and stuff.”
“Alright, just make sure that you keep a very close eye on them. Those tools are sharp and I don’t want anypony getting cut.”
“Of course, Cheers. I’d never let that happen on my watch! Now where are those kids? I need to get going if I want to finish and be back before lunch break is over.”
“I’ll get the students together, you just start setting up at that picnic table over there.”
Golden nodded and took her saddlebags with her to the table in question. Cheerilee stood up and made her way through the park, gathering her students as she went. Only a few minutes later, the group was gathered around the picnic table, the young fillies and colts listening with various levels of attention as Golden explained about jeweller’s work and passed around some of the cut and uncut gems she’d brought with her.
Cheerilee watched quietly, content to simply listen to the children's excitement at holding gems and some of their chatter amongst themselves. She smiled and let the sun’s warmth soak into her.
We should do this more often. Life hasn’t felt so good in a long, long time.