The life of Vinyl Scratch
chapter one : foundling
Waking up in an empty house is the most terrible thing, I would not wish it on anyone. Unfortunately that is how Cheerilee's story begins for on this most fateful of mornings she woke in an empty house. Every room in the new house resounded nothingness. In the hollow silence the ticking of a single clock was her only companion.
Like scatered stardust the moon still pierced the fabric of her curtains. The morning was still young. she tried to get back to sleep, knowing she would need it for the long day ahead. A sudden thundercrack outside crashed to the ground, the sound rattling her porcelain brain. Thunder now fulminating in her head as she lay wide awake, she abandoned her attempt at going back to sleep and groggily sliped from beneath her blaketed haven and into the world of moonlit shadows.
Yellow bolts still scraping through her eardrums, flashing scourges across her brain. Managing to trip only twice on her way to a room which at this hour is even darker than her bedroom, even the moons light could not breath life into it's depths.
Abated, the storm now doused by the warm waters of her washing. Feeling if not mor awake then certainly more allert. Wind rattled unheeded at the windows os she made her slow advance towards the oaken front door.
Beeeeeeep!!!!
Cheerilee’s alarm bell emitted a screeching wail which scraped through her ears and scourged the tissue of her brain, waking her abruptly from her pleasant slumber and introducing her to the lacklustre world of reality.
As if the day had not started off bad enough a realisation came crashing into her mind like a storm-borne wave smashing against the bow of a ship. today was the day. Today was the first day of her new job.
She reluctantly rose from her sheets with groggy movements. Stumbling clumsily as she tripped on her own hoof as she phlegmatically undertook preparations to leave the house. She was not a morning kind of pony. She forsook breakfast; her stomach was too twisted with anxiety to possibly accept food.
Making her way over to the school despite the time being somewhere around 5:00AM; she knew she was running at least an hour early because Princess Celestia had not even brought the sun up yet, but she didn’t care. There was too much anxiety swirling around her head like a maelstrom of thoughts weakening the significance of such concepts as time.
Walking through the town so early in the morning gave her a rare glimpse at a more tranquil Ponyville, bathed in the soft gossamer glow of the distant moon. This alternate Ponyville contrasted with the usual cornucopia of dazzling colours assaulting the eyes from every angle. The night, Cheerilee decided, had a certain delicate beauty to it. Such subtlety simply did not exist in the radiant splendour of the effulgent sun.
‘it is a shame’ Cheerilee contemplated ‘that the night is so often neglected, most ponies are safely tucked away in their cosy beds. Missing out’.
When Cheerilee finally got to the school grounds nopony else was there, approaching the front double doors right at the front of the school house in the delicate silence. She trotted up the 5 levels of granite semi-circular steps, her hooves cutting through the crisp dry mute that lingered in the air, only to find that the double doors where still locked.
Still feeling a little anxious about her first day despite the calm of the night she decided to take a walk around the place in the hope that it would sooth her nerves. The school buildings where obviously off limits for now so that left only the field and the playground to be explored. Trotting across the field she soon found herself at the school playground where there where swings to her left squeeking in the light chilled breeze, a see-saw to her right, a small climbing frame dead ahead of her and just behind that; an old box…..
Wait a box? What in equestria is an old box doing in a school playground?
Utterly perplexed as to the origin of this queer item Cheerilee took a few slow tentative steps towards the box. One, two, three, four, CRACK Cheerilee had not been looking at where she was stepping, her eyes fixed so intently on this strange box. Consequently she had stepped on a twig which had promptly snapped in protest. At this sudden loud sound the box began to move, swaying slightly, then a muffled sound came from it…….
Cheerilee was momentarily shocked into freezing to the spot as if petrified by this sudden turn of events, but came around after a few hushed deep breaths. she abandoned all attempts to sneak up quietly; swiftly closing the remaining distance between her and the box. She gingerly peered over the top of the box having no idea what she expected to find, and saw………………………………………………..
The most adorable little filly with a brilliant white coat glowing like a tiny beacon of solace in a sea of darkness, accompanied by an equally bright electric blue mane and tail with streaks of cyan. The foal was curled up in a foetal position, presumably in a last-ditch attempt to keep warm.
She was shivering in the frigid night air.
Princess Celestia had made the sun rise somewhen but Cheerilee had not noticed exactly when. Even so, the young sun’s faint glow had not yet had enough time to bring warmth and comfort to the frigid air. Scanning the surroundings carefully to see if anypony was around; maybe the parents of the filly where nearby?
Nopony was anywhere to be seen. But casting her vision back from where she had come from, over the other side of the field which was now to her left she noticed the front double doors to the school where now open; whispering enticements of warmth and security.
Fighting conflicting argumnts Cheerilee deduced that the foal had most likely been left here by his parents, who for some reason felt unable to raise him so had left him at a location he would be found and cared for; a school. So with a final check of her surroundings to make sure the parents really where not coming back, she picked up the box and balanced it delicately on her back so she could walk it and the precious cargo carefully into the school and hopefully out of this haunting cold.
Once in the school corridors the temperature began to increase, the air becoming comfortingly warm. The filly clearly appreciated this as a she gave a little wriggle and a faint content sigh. Cheerilee didn’t know where to take filly or what to do with her, so Cheerilee took her to the only room she knew: the staff room. Finding her way was easy enough; her memory was good with directions.
The corridor ran straight ahead and at the end there was a block of lockers and a pair of dark blue double doors to her left, through these was a second corridor but this one was irrelevant as the first door to her right was clearly marked
‘STAFF ROOM teachers only’.
Pushing the door open with her purple snout Cheerilee scanned the room for some-place to put the filly down, she was getting quite heavy and Cheerilee was not the strongest of ponies. Her back was not best pleased with the aditional weight and told her just as much.
There was a small black-board in the near right corner and an L shaped granite worktop in the far right corner cluttered with all kinds of things from the normalities such as a coffee machine to a microwave to the not-so-normalities like the mound of magazines scattered about as though they had just had a civil war.
In the centre of the room were two deep red sofas with a swirly patterned fabric, one facing towards the doorway and the other facing away from it and between these two sofas was the most exquisitely carved oak coffee table that had graced Cheerilee's eyes.
Cheerilee trotted over to the low table, mesmarised by it's beauty and set the box down on it. Slumping deep into the sofa which faced away from the entrance. She was emotionally drained already and the day of teaching had not even begun!
Her mind throbbing, she attempted to collect herself, however distraction overtook.
The top half of the legs where squared with the angular edges carved off in a wide W shape, then a sill projected outwards to partition the top and bottom sections of the leg, finally the bottoms of each leg where rounded off into an hourglass shape which was wider at the top than the bottom and then each leg was terminated with an elegantly carved perfect sphere.
Cheerilee cut off her momentary strange fascination with the table legs in front of her and concentrated on more pressing matters.
She peered over the top of the box to look in at the filly for the second time; it was only now that she was captivated by the immense cuteness of the perfect white ball of fur. She had always been good with children (despite being unable to have her own), that is what had kept her motivated in training to become a teacher; it was her special talent after all.
“tha’s it Cheerilee jus get ya left hoof onto that there ledge and you’ll be able to pull yourself up here easy as pie” came a re-assuring voice from over the top of the jagged outcrop of rock.
Cheerilee had made the fatal error of looking down and oh boy was she regretting it; wispy clouds swirled round the monolithic shard of rock that was below her. The challenge of climbing to the summit of the mountain had seemed like a fun idea at first, but it started to get scary even before they broke the cloud layer. they where now far past that piont.
She was currently a gibbering wreck, desperately babbling apologies of submission. She begged that if she really must go on could they at least try to find another way around, maybe one with less spiky rocks and menacing outcrops such as the one before her now.
“ah come on Cheer it aint that bad, hey ah’m younger than ya'l by more than a year so if ah can do it you can” came the voice again. A head popped over the edge of the outcrop and smiled down at her, then a hoof was offered to provide support.
“here take mah hoof and ah’ll pull ya'l up here, then we won’t go any higher. ah swear. We’ll just stay here and set up camp, light a fire, heck it’ll be like a picknick. an' when everypony else gets ta the top we’ll just tell them to get some pegasi to bring us back down.
Cheerilee took comfort in the sense of her friends words and with a grimace, extended her hoof towards her friend's. The warmth of her friend's hoof gave her some comfort but in truth the warmth in her heart from knowing she would always be safe wither friend Big Mac was what allowed her to finally move, and climb over the top of the outcrop with it’s cruel serrations.
“EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”
A deafening screech ricocheted back and forth across the sky, emanating from the pair of ponies stuck on the mountainside, piercing the ears of any unfortunate enough to in habit the desolate mountain range.
Cheerilee was snapped back into reality by the filly crying in her box. She panicked at this moment but only for a split second, then her maternal instinct kicked in and she reached both forelegs into the box and picked up the foal in her supple purple hooves then held the little furry ball in her cradled forelegs, the fine long hairs of adolecence still lingering on the filly's coat. being held seemed to settle the poor filly and she gave a little hiccup then smiled.
“good morning there, I hear you are the new teacher, Cheerilee is it? O wow is that a foal daaawwwww isn’t he just the cutest. Harrow little one” a merry voice came from the entrance of the staffroom.
Cheerilee, somewhat shocked turned around to find a mottled grey mare who had a faded white tail and mane styled into a shampoo and set, she stood a hand or so shorter than Cheerilee herself and she guessed was some twenty years older than herself buy the looks of it. Cheerilee was, to say the least, bemused; surely such an animated voice could not have come from such a wizened mare as the one before her.
However, the grey mare in the doorway was sprightly beaming towards Cheerilee and the filly with such glee that the source of the voice simply must be her.
“Oh, I should warn you; the other teachers here can be quite boring but stick with me and you’ll have plenty of fun here. I’m Elizabeth, o but you can call me Lizzy”
“Ahhh yes….. it’s nice to meet you Lizzy, my name is Cheerilee and this is…… well I suppose I don’t know….. You see I just found her this morning out by the playground in this box all on her own, it was just so bitterly cold out there so i bought the poor little one in here where it’s warmer. I think she must have been abandoned”
“So you got no idea of who she is or where she came from? isn’t that just the saddest thing you ever heard” the grey mare said, suddenly sobered from her previous excitement. A thought crept into Cheerilee’s mind during the ensuing silence that surprisingly had not crossed her before this moment;
“ who in equestria is going to look after the poor filly”
Lizzy paused for a few seconds, her brow visibly furrowed showing she was in deep thought “well I’d be happy to look after the adorable little thing but I’ll be honest I’m not the most able bodied of pony’s on account of my ripe age and all”.
“no, no, your right it would be unfair to ask you to look after him” Cheerilee said, then her inside voice whispered to her:
“now’s your chance Cheer, you know you can’t have your own children, but right here, right now fate has given you an opportunity to be the brilliant mother you are destined to be. Now’s your chance”.
“CHEER WHAT HAPPENED ARE YOU ALRIGHT!!!!”
“aahhhh ooooo”
“STAY WITH ME CHEERILEE, HOLD ON IN THERE. You’re gonna get through this, ah’m jus’ gonna turn y’al over an’ take a look at what were dealin’ with.”
Another moan of pain emanated from Cheerilee’s now hoarse throat as a bolt of lightening shot through her body; starting from her extremities towards her spine, finally raising a full on assault of her brain.
“you’re gonna be fine now Cheerilee, ah’v got ya. Ah know just what ta do, trust me m'ah papa taught me how ta deal with exactly this here kinda injury on the cattle down at the farm.” Big Mackintosh reassured Cheerilee with his outer voice.
His inner voice however was screaming the reverse argument. ‘holy buck, what in the hay am ah meant ta do now!!! Oh celestia ah can’t let anythin’ happen to her’
He began to take a closer inspection of the wound that Cheerilee had sustained; a long jagged gash ran from inside her left foreleg all the way down to her right hind and all along it were shards of rock breccia. He had no idea how deep the cut was but gauging by the volume of blood that had already escaped and the pain his friend was in he guessed it was pretty deep.
‘oh crap ahhhhhh what in the hay should ah do.’ Came Big Mack’s inside voice again. ‘ah’ll-right, so were gonna need ta get the blood ta stop flowin’, that’s obvious enough. But were gonna have ta get those shards o’ rock outa there first. Ok Big Mack, you can do this.’
After this internal pep-talk Big Mack was ready to act. Continuing in his best reassuring voice “ah’ll-right there Cheer ah’m gonna go get some water so ah can wash it out then ah’m gonna get those there nasty pieces o’ rock outa there, then we’ll get ya’l bandaged up. Ah’ll have ya cured faster than ya can harvest a field o’ zap apples”
She had to be stupid or crazy or even both but Cheerilee blurted it out anyway “I will bring her up as if she where my own child. O but Lizzy would you still help me only it won’t be easy and I don’t have a very special somepony to help me”
“of course I can help you darling, and I’m sure all the other teachers would love to help you too” replied Elizabeth. “right. now we’ve got that bit over and done with, you should start to think about some names for your filly my dear”
DRIINNNNNG the brass bell mounted above the door rang for the start of the first lesson
“o dear is that the time already, you had better be getting off to your class my dear, no use being late for your own lesson now is there. Why, the children would never let you forget it” Elizabeth jibed.
Cheerilee reluctantly rose from the sofa still holding the filly “I suppose I’m not allowed to take her into the class am I?” she dejectedly stated; she knew the answer was ‘no’.
Lizzy noticed the tone and responded by kindly saying “don’t you worry dear I’ll take good care of her while you’re in your class, you can trust me I’v looked after many little tykes before” with a sympathising expression.
Cheerilee’s lips tugged upwards a little and she gave the foal over to her new friend where she lay in Lizzy’s lap gurgling with his eyes almost shut so they were little slithers, with a final look round she walked off to her classroom, room 3.
“Hello class, welcome to your third year at Ponyville School I am your new teacher; Miss Cheerilee. Please enter your new classroom and chose your seats.”
The class filed into the room and hesitantly, one by one each of the students chose their seats. Cheerilee walked in last and closed the door behind her, she scanned what would be her first ever class, they were in their third year so they were quite used to the rules of the school concerning classroom etiquette. Cheerilee realised that her pausing to scan her new class had been widely noticed and so she turned round, walked towards the main black-board and wrote her title and name for the class:
miss cheerilee
Her inner voice noting an old joke from her university days as she was writing her name “with any class a teacher spends the first two weeks of the year trying to make them socialise and talk to each other, then spends the rest of the year trying to make them shut up”. Aloud she now spoke to the class a whole.
“alright class this is how we spell my name, and I’m sure your all familiar with the customary good morning at the start of each day; which we will be starting from tomorrow.”
“I hope to be your guide and support through your next year of education and if anypony has a question at any point please do not hesitate to put your hoof up and ask.”
“Right shall we get started”. And with that Cheerilee began her first lesson. She had rehearsed it many times in her head, it was the first of ten lessons in essential pony history; this particular lesson being on Edward the mighty.
The lesson went on and although Cheerilee was in full flow with her teaching she was still having difficulties believing that the events of this morning had actually happened. A nagging thought kept on popping up in her head ‘what in equestria am I meant to name the poor foal’, sure she had some ideas for when she thought she was going to have her own children and even though she would care for this foal as if it where her own, he was very different to the kind of pony her own foals would be like and so deserved a different name. A name that suited him, perfectly.
Soon the lesson was over and all of Cheerilee’s students rushed out of the classroom to get to lunch first. Really she didn’t understand why, it’s not like those extra few seconds where going to make any difference. But students always did it never the less, she could even remember the days when she was exactly the same.
Upon entering the staff room Cheerilee was welcomed by three other teachers who all turned round with curiosity in their eyes.
The grey mare she had met before was there and standing casually next to her there was a crimson stallion with a purple mane who had his front legs crossed over. He turned his head towards Cheerilee and introduced himself as Crimson Sabba’th quickly adding:
“but the little ones call me Mr Sabba’th”
Standing in the back right corner of the room was a bright yellow mare with a orange mane making up 4 cups of mint tea who smiled in Cheerilee’s direction and introduced herself;
“good afternoon, I am Carrot Top but the fillies call be Miss Top, I teach them gardening skills. I presumed you like mint tea, do you take any sugar?”
“oh lovely I do appreciate a good cup of mint tea, aah two sugars would be perfect thank you Carrot Top” replied Cheerilee, she loved mint tea it was the one thing that she could never refuse.
“Elizabeth has been telling us all about this little filly of yours, have you any ideas as to what you are going to name her yet?” enquired Carrot Top.
“uummm well I have a few ideas…… but…… no I’m not sure on any of them yet”
"maybe we could help, like brainstorm some ideas?" offered the crimson stalion "i mean if thats okay with you"
"well any-place is a good place to start, why not" Cheerilee was first to move close to the filly and look upon her thoughtfuly, the others followed suit.
At this point a dark blue stallion, the headmaster Professor Postlewain, entered the staff room and looked towards the group of teachers huddled around the small box which he presumed contained the filly he had heard tell of.
“I have received word of your events this morning Miss Cheerilee and I would like you to take the rest of the day off to settle that poor little filly into a proper home, and start thinking of that all-important name”
Cheerilee was shocked at this order from the professor “B-B-But Professor what about my class, what about my other three lessons after lunch. I can’t just leave them…” Cheerilee replied, somewhat shocked by the concept of abandoning her new class; especially on the first day.
The professor cut her off mid-sentence, anticipating this re-action from Cheerilee “I commend your enthusiasm Cheerilee but really these are exceptional circumstances and I shall personally take over your afternoon lessons for today so you have no need to worry about your new students” Professor Postlewain reassured.
“well if your sure Professor…. Okay…… I’ll be back to normal form by tomorrow though” and at that Cheerilee carefuly set the filly into her box and wraped her in the soft blankets within, then loaded her precious cargo onto her back and started for home.