Miss Cheerilee prided herself in her work, and in her class. With few exceptions, her class was cheery, happy, and well taken care of. The routine they followed each day was structured, but not dull, and students bloomed in the environment, coming into their own and learning eagerly.
Today was not any different- the schedule was a bit altered, but it was a planned alteration, as today was Family Appreciation Day.
She smiled gently at the filly who was supposed to present- the child was a little bigger than the others, and had to squeeze into a desk, but this didn’t seem to deter her from talking very happily to her neighbor. Her strange eyes were lit up in excitement, and her beanie spun, as it always did, as she conversed with Scootaloo.
“Screwball?” the teacher trotted over to the desk, still smiling.
“Yeah, teach?” the filly looked at her teacher, halting her conversation with the pegasus.
“Is somepony in your family going to come in today? It’s your turn, I told you that Monday, didn’t I?”
She nodded, still smiling. “I know! Don’t worry about it, he’s coming!”
Cheerilee blinked in surprise. He? Pinkie Pie was her legal guardian. after all... Well, perhaps there was another family member she didn’t know about, an uncle or something. “Alright then. Will he be here soon?”
To her surprise, Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “If we’re lucky. He’s not great with schedules.”
“Oh?” Cheerilee asked. She was going to ask for more information when a pink hoof shot into the air. “Yes, Diamond Tiara, do you have a question?”
“Shouldn’t it be Scootaloo's turn?” the filly sneered. “After all, ‘O’ comes before ‘R!’”
“You know, that might be funny if you didn’t say it every time my name comes up for Family Appreciation Day,” the pegasus scowled.
“Well, I figured you’d have been adopted by now,” Diamond laughed.
Silver Spoon nodded in agreement. “After all, there’s always such a high demand for ponies that can fly, aren’t there?”
The orange pony bristled.
“Oh... whoops.”
“Girls!” Cheerilee looked at the pair, her lips twisted into a frown. “See me after class!”
“Yes, Miss Cheerilee!” they chorused, smiles still on their faces. They wouldn’t get in trouble, and they knew it. A scolding, maybe, a detention if they were unlucky. After all, their families practically paid for the schoolhouse, there was nothing Miss Cheerilee could do to them without invoking the wrath of the school board.
Cheerilee groaned, then gave Scoots a supportive smile, and made a mental note to do something nice for the filly soon.
“I don’t even think anypony’s coming for you, Screwball,” Diamond hissed once Cheerilee was out of earshot.
The other filly stared right back, her lips twitching into a smile. “You’re right, Diamond Tiara.”
“What?” the pony looked shocked.
“You’re right!” Screwball smiled deviously. “No pony’s coming for me!”
As if on cue- and, in all honesty, it probably was- the sound of a chainsaw rattled the classroom, and the blade appeared, tearing through the door. The foals all ducked to the ground, with the exception of four fillies.
“Hi daddy!”
Discord grinned, taking off his hockey mask. “Hello, my little abomination!” he smiled at the Crusaders, who were the only fillies still in their seats other than his daughter. “Oh, and hello, girls!”
Something was suddenly very certain to Cheerilee at that moment.
Something she had already thought about quite a bit, a belief she had held but had never shared to anypony else.
A revelation she had been pondering for quite some time, a truth she could no longer deny.
She didn’t get paid nearly enough for this job.
...Oh, and Discord was Screwball’s father.
That too.
The mare moved shakily out from under her desk, and looked at the draconequus, trying her best to look stern. “Discord, why are you here?”
“Family Appreciation Day, of course!” he smiled at the teacher, snapping his claw to fix the door before she could ask. He knew she would, after all.
She seemed a bit more comfortable when he did that, but still looked very unsure. “And you came because...?”
“Because my daughter asked me to,” he raised a brow. “Look, logical thinking isn’t really my area, but wasn’t that the logical conclusion?”
“Yeah, it was,” Scootaloo nodded.
“Thank you, Scootaloo,” Cheerilee said, a fake smile on her face. “So, you’re actually Screwball’s... father?”
“Of course I am! Didn’t you read her little story explaining it?”
“Well, I did, but-”
“And aren’t you supposed to have files of all your student’s family members, for safety purposes?”
“I have Pinkie Pie listed, as she’s her legal guardian, but-”
“But you don’t have her own father in your records?” Discord tsked. “Shame on you, Miss Cheerilee, shame.”
“Shaaaaameee,” Screwball said, shaking her head.
“Wait! So Discord’s your dad?” Diamond Tiara asked the filly, laughing. “Oh my gosh! No wonder you’re a freak, you aren’t even a pony!”
“Diamond Tiara!” Cheerilee started, marching over. “Young filly, I-”
She was cut off by Discord, who raised one finger and moved over to the child’s desk.
“So you’re Diamond Tiara,” he smiled, his voice like silk.
Despite herself, the filly swelled up at the mention of her name. “So you’ve heard about me?”
“I have,” he nodded. “I’ve heard that you’re a powerful little filly that rules the school with an iron hoof, and belittles those she sees as less than her. I know that you’re cruel and vindictive with little reasoning, and that, despite everything you do, your daddy’s influence keeps you out of trouble.”
She looked at him, but didn’t deny a word.
“Now, in some cases, I would be impressed with your cruelty, but honestly, you just strike me as pathetic. But you have a bit of potential. So here’s a tip,” he sneered. “Before you start asserting your power over others, make sure you actually have some.” he tapped her tiara, watching as it melted away. “Your daddy can only take you so far, my dear.”
“But- but...” she looked at him, blue eyes wide. Then she smirked. “Aren’t you letting Screwball do the exact same thing? You’re the one threatening me, not her. She doesn’t have power either, so you’re defending her- just like daddy does for me!” she smiled, satisfied with herself.
“Except that she actually does have power. Don’t you, my abomination?”
The filly laughed and nodded, her eyes glowing. “‘Course I do, Daddy!” her brow scrunched up and she looked at the melted silver of the tiara, concentrating on it until it took another shape- a small, silvery, but very much alive chinchilla. The creature squeaked and scurried back to the place it had lived most of its’ life: Diamond Tiara’s head.
The filly screeched and the class looked on in amazement as the thing burrowed into her purple and white hair.
The whole time Cheerilee watched, unsure of what to do. He wasn’t hurting her, of course, but he was threatening her, and that was pretty bad.
Then again, the filly really could use a bit of discipline, and if Cheerilee couldn’t scare her straight, maybe she should just leave it to somepony who could. Still, she cleared her throat. “Discord? Aren’t you here to talk about Screwball’s family?”
“Ah, yes!” he nodded, stretching to his full height and moving back to the fron of the classroom. “Alright, kids,” he clapped his hands together. “Story time! Now, we have a few options here-”
“You’re going to let us choose?” Silver Spoon scoffed. “That’s not how it works!”
“Well, the way it works is boring. Now, any suggestions?”
Dinky Hooves raised her hoof happily. “Were you around when the Crystal Empire was? Can you tell us about that?”
He conjured up a plush chair and sat down. “Hmmmm... Well, I suppose I have a few good stories about the empire...”
“Can you tell us about Princess Cadence’s alicorn ascension?” the purple-gray foal asked, a smile still on her face.
Discord stopped for a moment, looking at Dinky, surprised. “How do you know about her ascension? That’s not really common knowledge.”
“... Books?” she offered, although it sounded more like a question.
Well, that didn’t really make sense, since that fact wasn’t in very many books, but that was fine with Discord.
So he shrugged and started his story. “So this all started with Cryssie, actually. Sombra and I-”
“You knew King Thombra and Queen Chrythalith?” asked a lanky filly with a curly dark red mane and glasses. “Weren't they thcary?”
“No, not at all... you...” he said, unsure of her name.
“That’s Twist, Discord,” Applebloom said helpfully.
“Twist?” he frowned. “That’s horrible! Can you even say your name?”
“Well, thure I can! Twitht!” the filly beamed, apparently ignorant of the fact that she hadn’t exactly said it right.
The draconequus laughed, stopping only when the filly asked what he was laughing at.
“Oh, nothing, my dear, nothing,” he said in a sing song voice as Cheerilee glared. Another thing had become quite clear to the schoolteacher.
This was going to be a long day.
“As I was saying, Sombra and I were testing new magic on ants out in the palace courtyard, trying to avoid Cadence and Crysalis. Mostly because of what we were doing, honestly- Chryssie was always so fond of bugs, and if she saw us doing potentially harmful magic on them... well...” he rubbed his neck. “It wouldn’t end well.”
“Tho you were thcared of her!”
“No, not scared, intimidated. Intimidated,” he frowned yet again. “She was a powerful filly, even before she was a Changeling.”
“She wasn’t always a Changeling?” asked Pip, his curiosity peaked. “How do you change species?”
“Well, I was getting there. See, Chryssie and Sombra weren’t royals, but their family was noble. Chrysalis was the younger sibling, but she was-”
“Wait, Sombra and Chrysalis are siblin’s!?” Applebloom looked at her fellow Crusader, shocked. “Since when?”
“Since always. Really, what is this educational system teaching you these days?”
“Algebra,” Screwball supplied, causing her father to groan.
“Algebra. Wonderful. Can I pull her out of that class? It goes against our belief system,” Discord asked, turning to Cheerilee.
“How in Equestria does algebra go against your belief system?”
“Formulas and problem solving go against the pure nature of chaos.”
“I’d have a very hard time convincing the school board of that, so no.”
Scootaloo raised her hoof, and Cheerilee sighed. “Yes, Scootaloo?”
“Uh, I think algebra goes against my beliefs, too, Miss Cheerilee.”
“Put your hoof down, Scootaloo.”
Discord chuckled as the orange filly grumbled, then continued on with his story.
“So Sombra and I were avoiding Chrysalis and Cadence, so I’m not entirely sure how everything happened, but they were talking, as best friends do-”
“They were betht friends?”
“Alright, am I actually going to be able to get through this story before the day ends, or are you going to keep interrupting me?”
The filly shrunk down in her seat. “Thorry, Mithter Dithcord...”
“Any more questions?” he looked at the foals, annoyed, as if daring them to ask. He waited for a minute, then continued.
“As I was saying, they were talking about the fact that Chrysalis was betrothed to some prince of some sort. I wasn’t particularly close to her, so I didn’t know much about her situation, but it makes sense that she wasn’t too thrilled. She was pretty young, after all, and it wasn’t as if she loved the colt. They weren’t exactly going to be married for a while, but the point stands that they were going to be married, and neither one was particularly happy about this.
“Being the great friend she was, Cadence wanted to help. Now, she wasn’t magical yet, she was just a plain old pegasus. She didn’t have her love powers yet, she was just a hopeless romantic, and she was determined to make sure that her friend would love her future spouse, even if it took some magical intervention.
“So she developed a love potion- she was extremely intelligent, after all. But it went very, very wrong. It was less of a love potion, and more of a-”
“Love poison...” Sweetie breathed, her green eyes going wide.
Discord looked up, surprised. “How do you know about that?”
“We kinda...”
“Made it?” Scootaloo finished.
“Fer, uh... fer mah brother an’... an’ Miss Cheerilee...” the filly gulped. “Oh, sweet Celestia... We coulda made a Changeling...”
To everypony’s surprise, Discord grinned. “No, you couldn’t have-- but now I’m curious, how did you manage to make the potion? It’s pretty complicated.”
“It was?” Applebloom asked. “Ah though it was pretty easy!”
“Even getting the rainbow?”
Scootaloo shrugged. “We just used a vacuum.”
“You used a vacuum to suck the glow out of a rainbow?”
“Uh-huh.”
Discord beamed even more. “Creative,” he nodded approvingly, and the fillies beamed, before realizing what the potion could have done.
“Miss Cheerilee?” Sweetie squeaked. “We already said this, but... we’re sorry.”
“And we never wanted t’make ya inta a Changelin’, we swear!”
She smiled, although she couldn’t help but shudder and grimace a bit. “I know, girls.”
“You wouldn’t have made her into a Changeling, that isn’t what the potion does,” he started to explain. “After she gave Chryssie and the prince the potion, she realized that she’d made a mistake. It wasn’t love, it was complete infatuation.”
“Then a dragon came an’ a kingdom fell an’ chaos reigned, right?”
Discord cleared his throat. “Well, sort of. After Cadence realized what she’d done, she went straight to work, trying to help her friend. She studied deeply, developing a magic that even as a pegasus she could use, to get her friend back. Another potion, this time to drain all the love out of her. But she took too much, leaving her absolutely devoid of love, and making her body deteriorate. The only way to keep the deterioration at bay was to drain others of love as well, and feed off of it.”
“What happened to the Prince?” asked Pip.
“The spell was broken after Chryssie was changed, as she wasn’t around him anymore, spending all her time with Cadence, trying to be changed back to normal. Of course, this only added insult to injury, when Cadence realized that the solution was so simple.
“But that didn’t help her any, and Sombra got desperate, and delved into dark magic to try and save his sister, who was in excruciating pain. Cadence did the same, not having magic, but having the royal library and basically everything else at her disposal.”
“Why didn’t you help them?” Dinky asked, tilting her head in curiousity.
“Chaos magic is unpredictable, my dear, and it was just as likely I would have hurt her more than I could have helped. Celestia herself helped Cadence, trying desperately to find a cure for the ailing filly, but she wasn’t an expert in love magic, and didn’t have the time to become one.
“Cadence did, of course, and she studied day in and day out for...” he counted on his fingers, “Approximately 525,600 minutes.”
“525,000 moments? Oh dear...” Sweetie said.
“Ithn’t that jutht a year?” Twist asked, fixing her glasses.
“Is it?” Discord asked. “I don’t really measure time the way you ponies do, I wouldn’t know.”
Dinky raised her hoof. “What do you measure in, Mister Discord?”
“Oh, daylights, sunsets, midnights, cups of coffee,” he shrugged. “Inches, miles, laughter, strife. The normal things.”
“Those aren’t normal,” a brown colt with a beanie not unlike Screwball’s said. “Those are actually pretty weird.”
“Yeah, because everything you do is normal, Button,” Sweetie giggled. “Right, Stache?”
The colt turned bright red. “Sweetie, I thought you weren’t going to tell anypony about that!”
Sweetie Belle just laughed, and the colt grumbled. Discord raised a brow and looked like he was about to ask, but Sweetie Belle waved him off. “I’ll tell you later.”
“Sweetie Belle!”
“Aw, c’mon, Button, it’s funny!”
The colt sunk down in his seat slightly, pouting. “It’s not that funny...”
“And cute!”
The boy perked up, smiling slightly. The draconequus simply rolled his eyes and went on with the story.
“Finally, she discovered a crystal with the ability to amplify emotions throughout her future kingdom. She put it in the center and asked her subjects to use their love to power it, hoping that spreading love throughout Equestria would help her friend and let her feed without hurting anypony. This ended up being a wonderful source of protection for her empire, and the development and discovery of such a powerful relic, especially from a pegasus who couldn’t do magic herself, actually earned her a horn. It proved that she was a master of her craft, and used it to help others, doing something that hadn’t been done before, so Celestia gave her alicorn magic. It helped that she was Celestia’s favorite niece, of course but Celestia swore that was neither here nor there. I can’t say I believe her, personally, but there were many worse royals she could have chosen.
“Despite everything, though, the Heart didn’t actually help Crysalis, and she got more and more dangerous, until she eventually killed a pony, going too far with her love draining. Cadence banished her from the Empire, fearing for the safety of her subjects.
“This, of course, only made Somba more desperate, and he delved further into his studies. The magic he was studying started to take hold, though, causing him to turn cruel and power hungry, into a monster.”
“That must sound familiar to you...” Diamond muttered under her breath, then tried to scream as her mouth zipped shut, then covered itself with glue.
Cheerilee glared at Discord and demanded that he fix her mouth, but he looked just as confused she was, and gave a little shrug, as if to say “Wasn’t me!”
Screwball sat in her seat, a satisfied smirk on her face, her glowing eyes dimming. When Discord caught her gaze, he chuckled as well, realizing what had happened.
“Well, can’t you help her?” Cheerilee asked, starting to panic.
“I’m afraid not,” Discord shook his head, not even attempting to hide his smirk. “Chaos magic can’t fix things directly, and with that glue, I’d just as likely rip her muzzle off as I would rip the glue off.”
Diamond’s eyes widened and she whimpered, barely audible through the zipper and glue, and Silver Spoon looked at him, horrified. “Well, you have to do something!” the filly said, her voice cracking. “What if she never talks again?”
“That would be such a loss,” Screwball snorted, kicking her hind hooves on her desk.
Cheerilee squinted her eyes and trotted over to the filly. “Screwball...”
“Yeah, teach?”
“You need to fix Diamond’s mouth now, young filly.”
“Me?” she looked offended. “Why would you think I did this?”
“Screwball, I know it was you. Change her back now.”
“This is unfair! You have no evidence! I plead the fifth!”
“The fifth what?” Cheerilee asked.
“I refuse to reveal any evidence that might incriminate me! Daddy, that’s a rule, right?”
Dinky shook her head, surprisingly enough. “Wrong universe, Screwy.”
Diamond whimpered again and Cheerilee’s gaze turned steely. “Discord, talk to your daughter.”
The draconequus smiled genially. “Gladly,” he smiled and looked down at his filly. “Screwball, you know you did something wrong, don’t you?”
“What? Dad, I-”
“Really now, the glue isn’t even hot! All it will take is a quick cleaning to get this off, and a quick unzipping! There’s no lock without a key, no cement taffy, no removal of her mouth- remember what your mother said happened to her after that magician came to town? That was permanent! This... really, my dear, this is flimsy at best.”
Diamond let out a muffled scream at each new suggestion, and Discord couldn’t help but grin as he watched the bully squirm.
“Really, Daddy, a lockless key? That’s really boring...”
“No no no, the lockless key is more psychological, since she knows she can’t ever get out-”
“Discord! This isn’t what I meant!” Cheerilee stomped her hoof. The foals in the room each sported a different expression, some horrified, some intrigued, and some gleeful at seeing the brat get her comeuppance.
“What? I’m talking to her about what she did!”
Diamond stomped a hoof on her desk, tears starting to spring to her eyes. When the draconequus noticed this, he rolled his eyes, gave his daughter an apologetic look and snapped his talons. Crying just wasn’t something he liked. “Really? It hasn’t even been three minutes and you’re already crying?” the glue turned to silly putty, and the foal peeled it off gladly, unzipping her mouth.
“I’m not crying, it was just scary!” the filly sneered.
“I dunno, I thought I saw a tear,” Scootaloo smiled deviously, looking at the Earth pony with a grim satisfaction.
The pony blubbered, trying to come up with an explanation before finally muttering, “Stupid blank-flanked dodo...” and resting her head on her desk.
“Now, where was I?”
“Y’were at Sombra turnin’ over t’the dark side.”
“Right, thank you, Applebloom,” he smiled at the filly in the hairbow and continued. “Right, so old Sombrero was reading more and more about dark magic, and continued to try to help his sister. But the more he did to help her, the worse she got, as the magic warped her more and more, giving her her ability to change form.”
“But why does she look like a giant bug? What about the other Changelings, where did they come from?” Dinky asked, and Discord noticed for the first time that she had been writing everything he had said down with great interest. He was almost flattered.
“Well, one of the spells he tried as he began grasping at straws was a sort of cocoon spell. I told him that wouldn’t work, of course, but why should he listen to me? He obviously knew sooo much better,” he scowled. “The spell was supposed to help growth, like a butterfly coming from a cocoon, but it doesn’t work with mammals like you ponies. But Sombra knew better than me, or Star Swirl, or literally every other pony who had ever attempted the spell, and decided to go about it anyway. The magic didn’t work right, and although she certainly grew, the spell had side effects, making her more insect like. Irony if I ever saw it.”
“Irony? Why?”
“Well, her special talent before all this had happened had been studying bugs, and now she was one!” he let out a dry chuckle, although it was surprisingly humorless.
Dinky raised her hoof again, then spoke, not bothering to be called on. “But what about the other Changelings?”
He shrugged. “Another side effect of Sombra’s spells. The poor boy didn’t really know what he was doing by the end, really, and tried to separate her essence into several entities, hoping to find a speck of love and amplify it. It didn’t work, but now he had literal manifestations of her love deficiency running amok. Luckily she didn’t mind, and took them in as her subjects.”
“So why’d Sombra take over the Crystal Empire?”
“The long story short is that dark magic messes with your mind, and his goal to help his sister was eventually overshadowed for his goal for more dark magic, and the crystal that amplified it. He may have justified it to himself by saying he was getting revenge for Chrysalis, as well, by taking away Cadence’s empire.”
“But Ah though the Heart amplified love?”
“If that’s what it’s being given, yes, but it can also spread darkness. So Sombra used his dark powers to defeat Cadence, and the Empire fell.”
“Well, what about a dragon an’ chaos reignin’? Sombra’s not a dragon!”
“No, no, but I’m part dragon, and my rule started not long after. Sombra wasn’t in power for long.” he shrugged.
Sweetie Belle blinked. “I’m confused.”
“About what?”
“If Cadence lived a long time ago, how come she foalsat Twilight?”
“Her growth remained stunted until her Empire started to return, of course.”
“But her Empire just returned last year, and she didn’t start aging then!”
“Well, she’s an alicorn, for one, so that explains a bit. Besides, Empires don’t just pop out of nowhere, it came back gradually! Everything from a thousand years ago seems to be returning, and there have been small signs for everything, magical imbalances, the like. Except for me, of course, but that’s all thanks to you three.” then something occurred to him. If everything from a thousand years ago was returning...
No, Cerberus was good at his job, there was no need to ponder over him.
“Huh...” Pipsqueak scratched his head. “Is that why Queen Chrysalis took over Princess Cadence’s wedding? As revenge for what happened?”
“Precisely! Technically, she could have chosen any couple that truly loved each other, this was just more fun.”
Applebloom blinked, then raised her hoof. “Is all this true, or is this like th’time y’told us that Celestia nearly doomed th’world an’ fried us all inta sausages by hurt’lin’ us int’the sun?”
“Well, both of those stories are exactly how I remember them,” he sniffed indignantly. “It isn’t my fault if history tells them differently.”
“Uh... What’s a sausage?” asked Snails, blinking slowly.
“Trust me, Snails, y’don’t wanna know...”
“Great story,” Diamond deadpanned. “But you were supposed to tell a story about Screwball’s family. Unless she’s related to Chrysalis and Sombra, too?” her voice lacked a bit of the bite it usually had, as she was still shaken, but her disdain was clear.
“I did! I told you about Cadence. Cousins count as family, don’t they?”
Silver Spoon’s eyes widened. “You mean Screwball and Cadence are cousins?!”
“Well, of course. Cadence is Celestia’s niece, I was adopted into the royal family, so she’s my niece as well, and Screwball is my daughter, making them cousins.”
Diamond and Silver’s mouths dropped as the whole class looked at Screwball in shock.
The bullies looked at each other, a sick feeling in the pits of their stomachs.
Because the filly they had been relenting for a while was a freak, yes.
But she wasn’t just a freak. No, she was a powerfully magical royal freak with the god of chaos as her father, an Element of Harmony as her mother, and the rulers of the country as her aunts.
All of whom were much, much more powerful than their daddies or the school board.
Oh, they were screwed...
Pip was the first to speak. “So you know Princess Luna, then?”
“Yeah, I know Lulu! She’s a lot more fun than Celly!”
Totally and completely screwed.
The colt let out a soft, “Woah...” he blushed. “Could you... could you maybe bring her one day for Family Appreciation Day, too?”
Screwy shrugged. “Yeah, maybe, if she’s up. She sleeps during the day, y’know?”
At that moment, the bell rang, signaling recess, and the end of the time allotted for Family Appreciation Day.
Thank Celestia, was all Cheerilee could think as the fillies and colts rushed outside for recess.
“Discord?” Applebloom stopped on her way out and faced the draconequus. “Remember we got a meetin’ t’day, alright?”
The god groaned. “If we’re trying for chaos cutie marks, why do we have to have scheduled times? Shouldn’t it be spontaneous?”
“Because th’last time ya tried t’be spontaneous y’ended up with a third degree burn from Rarity’s hair curler.”
“I still don’t see what her problem was, I don’t look anything like a robber, and three in the morning isn’t that early! Pinkie wakes up an hour before that.”
Applebloom shrugged. “Look, th’point is we have a meetin’, an’ ya gotta be there on time. We can’t go dimension hoppin’ without you, after all!” she started to go, then added. “Oh, an’ bring Pinkie. She’s good with portals an’ stuff, right?” the filly giggled. “Any help we can get an’ all!”
The filly left then, running out to join Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who had already started a game of catch.
Screwball, who had been waiting for her friend to finish, leapt from her seat and, like usual, nearly tackled her father in a bone crushing hug. To Cheerilee’s great surprise, the spirit didn’t squirm or push her away, but actually hugged her back.
“Thanks, Daddy, that was great!” the filly beamed up at her father.
The draconequus ruffled his daughter’s curls. “Anytime- this was interesting, actually. Your classmates aren’t what I expected.”
Screwball nodded. “Yeah, they’re not as boring as I thought they were gonna be the first day!” the filly let go of her father then, screwing up her face. “Um, I wanted to-”
Discord didn’t even let her finish her sentence, snapping his claws and producing a sack lunch. “You forgot this, right?”
“Yeah... I woulda just made myself something, but then everypony woulda wanted me to make them somethin’, and I’m not making anything for anypony but me!” then she stopped. “Or you. Or Mommy, or Applebloom, or Sweetie or Scoots. But that’s it!”
He chuckled. “Good. I don’t want you straining yourself.”
“I won’t, Daddy, I promise! See you later!” the filly grabbed the lunch, beamed, pecked her father on the cheek and hovered off to join her friends.
Cheerilee looked at the filly, then at Discord, still surprised at the display of affection that had played out in front of her. Then she cleared her throat. “Well, Discord, um, thank you for coming in, it’s been... interesting... and I think the class really learned a lot! Um, if you-”
“Yes, yes, I’ll be off, you don’t have to ask me twice,” the spirit said, before popping off.
The teacher blinked and composed herself, still trying to process everything that had happened. She walked out of the schoolhouse and shook her head, getting back into her teaching mode.
“Alright, everypony, I just want to remind you to get your algebra books and homework on your desk at the end of recess!” the teacher smiled.
Scootaloo and Screwball stopped playing for a moment, looked at each other, and grinned.
“Miss Cheerilee, about that...”
The teacher groaned internally.
Yup, she was right.
This was still going to be a long day.