Needless to say, the bell caused a massive turmoil in the class, as every foal raised from his seat to enjoy the interval.
I decided to await the confusion to set in before actually leaving the schoolhouse...
“Boulder, just hold a minute... I have to talk with you.”
I remained seated as Cheerilee closed by.
“So, how is everything so far?”
“Gwood, fweel happy in lwearning!”
“That’s great. But there’s something that haven’t left my mind ever since I met you.”
My answer was a curious gaze
“You said that a giant fiery thing attacked your parents, I take it’s a dragon...”
I nodded sternly
“Well, do you know that dragons never attack unless provoked, and when they do so, they prefer to land and attack physically in the case they meet small and weak victims, as to avoid pulverizing any valuables they might carry? And also that Ponyville has pegasus teams that can spot dragons and any other incoming threats up to 250 kilometers, and yet, we received no warnings about flying dragons ever since the Great Dragon Migration?”
Oh no... she couldn’t...
“But Chewyw...”
She strictly raised her hoof
“Cut the “dumb colt” act kid, you’re not fooling anypony...”
I was totally surprised and embarrassed at the same time for being caught.
“But how did you know?”
Cheerilee simply raised one of her eyebrows.
“I’m a teacher. I’m pretty sure you’re familiarized with what a teacher does. I am used to hear lies from foals in a daily basis: “A parasprite ate my homework!”, “My friend missed class today because she got cutie pox”. As a result, I can tell exactly when a foal is lying. Not that it was hard in your case; your ludicrous history has more holes than a slice of emmental cheese...
Of course she could tell a lying kid... I wanted to smack myself for being so stupid.
“If you knew all along, why did you let me keep lying?”
“A lie brings another, which brings another and so on, to the point that you can’t stop lying until you rat yourself out. I kept playing your game just to see what you intended to get from it.” Was her answer. “It turned out to be that notebook. On the entire class, you didn’t stop scribbling onto it for a long period. Mind if I take a look at it?”
I know when to assume defeat. “Go on.”
And she flipped the pages, eyeing my notes and trying to make sense out of them... boy, I was glad i didn’t wrote everything in Equestrian/English
“What does these mean?” And she pointed at the opened notebook.
“It’s a diary... I find it comforting to write down my experiences.” I answered, not lying at all.
The mare closed the notebook and sat in front of me, her eyes persecuting every move I did...
“Why have you lied to me? And, more importantly, what really happened with you? Why you were all by yourself near the lake?”
The weight of those questions, her inquisitive gaze and the guilt of doing something wrong all combined made me feel utter shame. I couldn’t hold my eyes up to hers; instead, I instinctively bowed my head. All i could see now was the ground, comforting ground that asked nothing, demanded nothing...
“Answer me.” She calmly spoke, holding the same tone.
“I... can’t.” Was all the sound that left my mouth.
“Pardon?” The teacher pressed
“I can’t tell you Cheerilee, I’m sorry, but I can’t...” What else could I say? There was no time to come up with a lie, plus, the same trick wouldn’t work twice on the same pony.
“Too bad. I’m not leaving until you give me a proper answer.”
And we stood there, the teacher whose eyes captured every motion, every time I blinked, while I couldn’t do nothing but keep staring dumbly at the ground.
My stomach rumbled again. I remembered that I hadn’t ate anything since I was a human...
“I’m hungry...” I muttered.
Cheerilee stood up and trotted to her desk, the mare opened a drawer and retrieved na object, then made her way back to me.
“You’re dismissed kid. Enjoy what is left of the break.” She spoke, disappointment dripping off her voice. “And take this with you.”
Cheerilee placed an apple over my desk, using a bit more force than it would be necessary. From her actions, I could tell that she was really, really dissatisfied with me.
“I can’t... that’s your snack. If I take it, you won’t have anything to eat.”
“Don’t be silly, I’m a teacher. My students often bring me apples, more than I could possibly ever eat. I can spend one day without the fruit.” Was her dispassionate answer.”Now, leave me alone. I need to think what to do with you.”
I didn’t need to hear it twice... I gripped the apple in my mouth and headed to the doorway, but I’ve turned back before leaving...
Cheerilee was at her desk now, the mare’s eyes on a book. I knew that she wasn’t reading it... one cough from her was my cue to leave.
The sun shined gloriously and foals happily played on the grass, yet, the vision couldn’t cheer me up.
I took a bite from the apple, the fruit filled a hole in my stomach, but given my state, it tasted like failure...
Failure because I couldn’t keep a history satisfactorily on my very first day... Cheerilee was right; IT WAS a ludicrous history... I was stupid to think that the mare believed on it.
I’d like to think there is a lesson in that... never be overconfident. In my urge to come up with a story that wouldn’t make anypony go searching for my non-existent parents, I’ve came up with an evident lie, confident that I’ve tricked Cheerilee into buying it, while in fact, she pretended to do so to rat me out once I couldn’t dig my way back...I should had seen that Cheerilee could say when a foal was lying since she was a teacher. I’ve underestimated her intelligence and paid the price, she was surely suspicious of me now.
At least it wasn’t a lost cause... she was suspicious of me, but unless I gave her a motive, suspecting that I was a human (or, for that matter, any sentient creature coming from another dimension) was a far stretch.
All that was left of the apple now was it’s core. I looked around searching for a trash bin, but none could be found.
I remembered that there was one inside the schoolhouse, near Cheerilee’s desk, but I decided against going back before the bell rings. She wasn’t exactly happy with me; the mare needed some time on her own.
Instead, I looked to the grassy, soft ground and an idea came to mind: why not bury it? It would be better than littering.
And I started to motion my hooves... specks of dirt flew as I begun digging. Besides my lack of experience, it was easy enough. It seemed like the hooves were made exactly for that purpose. The earth was warm, soft and strangely comforting to the touch... soon, a small hole and a little mound of earth were beside me. I picked the apple core and dropped it into the hole, then, I’ve placed the earth back into it. While I was at it, the bell rang.
I finished my work before heading back. Consequently, I was the only one still outside.
Trying my best not to make any noises when opening the door, I silently headed to my desk. Cheerilee was already speaking. Apparently, she paid no attention to the fact that I was missing... it was like she was purposely ignoring me.
This time, out of shame, I actually paid attention on her class, trying to resist the temptation to scribble on my notebook. She could take it the wrong way, and i would have time to scribble later if I could somehow get off the hook.
Unfortunately, my “interest” wasn’t shared by some of my classmates. Not being burdened by guild, Sweetie Belle was frequently sharing whispers with Scootaloo, and at some point, she even tried passing something to the pegasus...
“Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, would you two care to share what is so interesting?”
Sweetie Belle almost instantly flushed and seemed like she wanted to be swallowed by the earth, while the orange filly looked at his friends nervously, looking for an excuse, but Cheerilee was quicker. She got what the unicorn gave to Scootaloo: a slingshot.
“It’s not mine, honest! I don’t know where this came from.” The filly nervously said. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara could barely conceal their glee on seeing the predicament Scootaloo got herself in.
“I have an idea about that.” Cheerilee sternly answered.
With the slingshot on her mouth, she went back to her desk, produced a key, used it to open a drawer, tossed the slingshot inside and locked the drawer again.
“May this serve as a lesson for you two. No distractions during class. I’ll give you back your slingshot as soon as your parents ask for it.”
Scootaloo’s semblance was of impotency. She knew that any parent on the world would believe that the teacher’s punishment was fair enough and her slingshot was good as dead.
The class continued normally, and after a while, the bell sounded again to signal the end of the class.
“Don’t forget your homework! See you next week!” Were Cheerilee’s words. Almost everyfoal left the class, the only one apart from me was Scootaloo, who was now pleading to Cheerilee to return her slingshot, while Sweetie Belle was waiting for her friend at the door, out of guilt. After all, she had half of the responsibility for the result.
“For the last time Scootaloo, you should have known better before bringing it to class. Not to mention that this could hurt somepony.”
“Please, Miss Cheerilee... give back my slingshot.”
“Will you use it to hit a bird?”
“No”
“Will you use it to break any windows?”
“Of course not.”
“Will you use it to hit Diamond Tiara’s flank?”
“No, miss Cheerilee.”
“Then, why in the wide, wide world of Equestria do you need the slingshot for?”
As expected, the filly couldn’t come with any answer. My guess was that she intended to master the “weapon” as a mean of attaining a cutie mark.
“No means no, Scootaloo.” The teacher spoke.”Now, if you excuse me.”
Hearing that words, the filly left the schoolhouse, not before giving me a curious look and an accomplice’s smile. She knew that I was too in a bad situation, otherwise, I’d have left already.
I limited myself to merely smile back and not say a word, lest I’d want to make things worse by not taking my situation seriously.
Cheerilee finished packing her things and came to my desk, the teacher pocketed my notebook and pencil with her stuff inside the saddlebag.
“Come with me” She said coolly.
I knew better than to argue.
Eventually (more than you think) you will find yourself in situations where you cannot directly decide or interfere with the outcome. I know how bad it is the feeling of impotency and helplessness… those are uncomfortable beyond words. My advice is, whenever you find yourself in such situations, you should, more than ever, keep your cool. If you let emotions define your actions during such events, chances are that you will behave irrationally and will, most likely, make things even worse. Resist the temptation of shouting about “how unfair” everything is and resist trying to find an easy way out. Most of the time, it doesn’t work. Know that your actions have consequences on the equestrian community and you must accept them if you wish to make part of it.
The mare led me through Ponyville, we cruised through houses, shops, gardens… all of them containing that familiar architecture that seemed to have a thing for heart-shaped ornaments. I think that I even caught a glimpse of the cupcake-shaped roof of sugarcube corner. I tried to keep my attention in examining the passers, as to identify if any of the mane six was close by. I was on luck, nothing but background ponies around going on their daily business… Ponyville was somewhat a big city, after all…
“Am I going to be banished from Ponyville?” I couldn’t help myself but to ask.
Cheerilee said nothing. I wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad omen, it could also mean that she didn’t hear the question. Well, I won’t ask it again.
We continued the rest of the silent trip, finally reaching the center of Ponyville: the enormous pavilion building that was used both as a town hall and to hold events of importance, such as the summer sun celebration. The interior was magnificent, with huge impressive banners, nice ornamental columns and space to boot. There was no question why that particular building was always chosen for indoor events.
The teacher guided me through a set of doors that revealed the “heart” of the building: the small, almost cramped offices where the magic of bureaucracy happens. We trotted along a corridor with many doors that led to rooms where I could see a politician or monarchy functionary performing his functions whenever we crossed a room whose door wasn’t closed.
On the very end of that corridor was the mayor’s office. Cheerilee unceremoniously made her way in, and so did I with her. The room was simply a reception for those wishing to speak with the mayor, with a few couches and a desk where a secretary should be. Instead, there was a small sign with the saying “Gone to lunch”, strange if you mind the fact that it was late afternoon already. Another door was near the desk, one that would lead to the mayor’s office per se.
“Sit down and wait here” The teacher said to me. “This shouldn’t take long.”
I took a seat at one of the couches,(like ponies usually sit, no point trying to sit upright, slouching uncomfortably like a certain mint pony did.) it was reasonably comfortable. From my spot, I saw Cheerilee entering the mayor’s office, no doubt to discuss about me and my future.
I only hope that things turn out for the best.
==============================[><]=============================
“So, let’s recap... this colt appeared out of the blue, just like that?”
Cheerilee looked back into Mayor Mare’s eyes. The teacher was used to the mayor’s peculiar style of advising, in which she would fragment the problem in several tiny pieces and attempt to understand one by one, proceeding to put them together as they went through.
“He was near the lake, all by himself... I thought it was one of my students, only when I approached the foal I could tell that he wasn’t one. Then, I asked him where did he come from, and things went downhill from that moment...”
“You mean, when he lied to you? You could tell straight away that he was lying to you?”
“Truth be told, what tipped me off in that direction was that he was forcing an accent, it didn’t sounded natural. I understand linguistics enough to know the difference. I was certain that he was lying when he told me his story, a bunch of hooey about a dragon attack...”
“A foal lying to a stranger? That’s a first in Equestia’s history…” The Mayor wisecracked at Cheerilee.
At first, Cheerilee gave a censuring look to the mare, then she understood why Mayor Mare mentioned that.
“It wasn’t much because he lied to me, I’m used to hear lies all the time from my students... but theirs are to cover trivial petty problems, not something like this colt did. It’s the fact that he didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth of something that essential, about his parents! I would accept if he told me they had a fight or something, but no... even after he admitted his lies, he refused to tell me the truth.”
“Well, you didn’t exactly acted honorably too, purposely fooling him and letting the colt lie his way until you found out why he did such... which didn’t helped much.”
“I really believed that this... “Diary”, as he named it, could give us an answer.”
“Ah, this notebook...” The mayor disinterestedly looked at it; she already had opened it and read the notes for a while, with little results...
“Seems like it’s written on a code or a foreign language, plus, his calligraphy really doesn’t help. However, I could make out the words “Equestria”, “Ponyville” and “Bits”… there’s also some crossed out items… I can only assume that he plans to start a new life in our town.”
The teacher nodded softly. “But what I don’t get it is why he would believe that deceit would aid him in doing such.”
Mayor Mare’s eyes blinked twice. “You tell me; after all, foal psychology was the theme of your CCW, if I remember correctly…”
Yes, foal psychology was indeed the theme of Cheerilee’s completion of course work… The teacher’s mind was overflowed with memories of her university times at the Mayor’s mention. The two were friends even back then, the tanned mare was attending law school and Cheerilee herself was into the teacher training course… those were the days when “free love” was the motto uttered by an entire generation and the most dazzling hipster mane cuts were the latest fashion in Equestria. The teacher still had a few photos and very fond memories of that time… ever since then, she never forgot the main reason why she always wanted to be a teacher: to help her little students blossom by nurturing them with knowledge. Though why did she have gotten a highly symbolical cutie mark instead of say, a blackboard or two pencils, was beyond her… nopony had real control over the shape of their cutie marks.
The mare thought back on what she had learned about foal psychology. She had delved on the subject to find new ways to motivate and encourage her students into learning, being hooked by the topic and deciding to write her CCW about it. But that was way back in time, psychology had evolved as society did, and Cheerilee wasn’t exactly up to date on the subject, she was busy enough preparing classes and such. Still, it was worth a shot.
“A lie is a natural response from a subject when he is faced with something or someone that, for a reason, gives him discomfort. Could be fear of being embarrassed, hurt or having to face an unpleasant experience.”
“Meaning that…?” Mayor mare asked, clearly enjoying spectating Cheerilee’s efforts to build a complex line of reasoning.
“It could mean a lot of things…all that we know is that he is not going to say the truth. Could be because he is afraid of it, or that he doesn’t trust us enough to do so, which opens a wide fan of assumptions, the worse being that he is an abandoned child or having suffered some kind of grave abuse, to the tamer ones that include the one that he simply had a fight with his parents over a trivial thing and ran away from home. Could mean too that he simply doesn’t trust me, plain and square, having nothing wrong with his parents, but with me. Point is, we could be laying out hypothetical explanations all day long, but they wouldn’t help us a bit in the problem. There is really no way to know the problem, if there is one, unless he talks about it.”
“And so, the best way to make him talk about is…?” The smirking Mayor asked for the second time.
“To convince the colt that he is on a friendly environment, by making bonds with him and encouraging the kid to make friends. Nopony is an island… he will eventually feel happy and comfortable enough to confide the truth to somepony. Only after knowing the truth, we can act accordingly to his problem.”
The mayor nodded to Cheerilee’s response. “And, by Celestia, what have you done so far to earn his trust?”
“I’ve taken him into my class and done nothing reproachable.”
Mayor Mare simply gave an unconvinced look to Cheerilee.
“Okay, I might have been a bit harsh on the kid after I’ve exposed him.” The mare admitted.
“I understand your scruples about somepony lying, especially about something like this… but keep in mind that he is just a foal, he couldn’t know better.”
Cheerilee nodded again. After all, he was only a child…
“Do you know if he has somepony to stay with or anything?” Mayor Mare asked
“Not likely, or he would have gone to it instead of simply staying near the lake or mentioned it to me after being caught…”
“Say Cheerilee, why don’t you take him in?”
“Me?” the teacher looked confused. “I mean, I’m sympathetic to the little colt’s plea and everything, but I’d feel uncomfortable living with a stranger, even a child like him…
”
“Nonsense… it could mean a great deal to earn his trust, and I can’t think of somepony more appropriate to take in a kid. Besides, it’s only temporary, until we sort out this situation and solve it.”
“If that’s so, I guess I could try…” Cheerilee nervously said, still not entirely convinced but unable to think of an alternative.
“You do that. In the meantime, I’m going to research the Ponyville census and make contact with my acquaintances from the equestrian census… this way, we can find this colt’s parents and have a little talk with them, this shall bring a light to the situation if he doesn’t speak about it until then.”
Cheerilee nodded and opened a big grin.
“Thank you for your help, Mayor Mare…”
The Mayor returned Cheerilee’s smile with one of her own.
“Oh, it’s nothing… it’s always a pleasure helping somepony, especially an old friend…”
==============================[><]=============================
After what seemed an eternity (my jitters made the wait even worse, plus, the secretary didn’t returned… I guess she took the day off.) Cheerilee appeared back from the office.
There was a noticeable change in the mare’s demeanor. Whenever she had talked with Mayor Mare, it eased Cheerilee.
She was only thoughtful now, not holding a grudge against me anymore.
“Tired yet? Come on, let’s go.”
I rose from the couch, teeming with curiosity.
“So, how did it go? Can I stay in Ponyville?”
The mare looked at me and smile awkwardly.
“Sorry I’ve been a little rough with you, Boulder… I’ve overreacted a bit.”
She was apologizing to me? I suppose that’s a yes…
“It’s ok Cheerilee… nopony likes being tricked; I should have come clean as soon as possible.”
“Boulder, do you have somepony in Ponyville that you could stay with?”
I shook my head negatively. Cheerilee seemed resigned all of a sudden.
“Come, you can stay in my house for a few days…” She spoke on a monotone.
“Really? I’d love to… I mean, if that’s not a burden for you…” I couldn’t believe my luck: shelter, and possibly food, fell from the heavens right on my hooves!
“It’s alright… but I have one condition.”
So, there’s a catch… I should have guessed it.
“Name it.”
“Promise that you won’t lie ever again. I mean it, that’s not nice.” The teacher spoke with a very stern tone, she was serious as a heart attack.
“Ok, I promisse not to lie to you anymore, Miss Cheerilee, as long as you understand that there are some things that I do not wish to speak about… for now.”
“You know, the longer you refuse to tell us what is wrong, the longer you hinder us from helping you.” She calmly said.
I doubt that speaking what really happened would do something besides screw things even further, that is, in the nearly impossible hypothesis that Cheerilee actually believes on the truth…
I simply nodded my acknowledgement.
“It has been a long day, let’s go home.” The teacher said. “We both deserve a rest.”
I couldn’t agree more. Things didn’t ended so bad after all… I guess I should be grateful for my luck so far…