//------------------------------//
// CMC by The1Ryu 
// Story: Love is Learning: Twirilee Group Collab 
// by caveman0803 
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CMC



By



The1Ryu


“Girls!”  Cheerilee voice rang out through the dark trees of the Everfree forest.  

“Girls!”  Twilight Sparkle’s joined hers, the unicorns horn aglow keeping the darkness at bay.  

They checked around trees and in bushes, anywhere that could be hiding even a single filly.  Despite their fervent searching Cheerilee never strayed more than a foot from Twilight as they searched.  Venturing a look up to see if there were any clues that the crusaders had climbed up into the tress, the school teacher froze seeing the claw-like branches above her seem to shift and move with Twilight’s light.  

“Cheerilee,” Twilight voice asked softly snapping the earth pony out of her terror, their eyes meeting.  “Are you OK?”

“Of course,” Cheerilee nodded a little too instantly and quickly broke eye contact with the unicorn.  “We should keep moving we have to find the girls.”  Cheerilee turned to continue on down the vague path through the Everfree Forest but hesitated until Twilight was Trotting alongside her.  

“It’s OK if you’re scared,” Twilight assured her softly, “We can go back if you want, half the town is out looking for the Cutie Mark Crusaders and they might not even still be in the Everfree Forest.”  

Cheerilee bit back her first response, which was to bite Twilight’s head off for even considering they stop looking.  She knew her friend was just concerned for her and the girls, for even if they did turn back Twilight would just teleport back to this exact same spot and keep looking by herself.  Pausing and staring down at her shuffling hooves Cheerilee admitted, “I try not to be, I try to think of the girls and be strong, but just scare of getting lost myself.”  Biting her cheer she stopped herself from fidgeting and looked Twilight in the eye, “But I’m not going to stop looking until those girls are found.”  

Twilight smiled at that then looked back behind them, Cheerilee fallowed her gaze and watched at Twilight seized they ends of both of their tails and knotted them together.  “There,” She finished and looked back at Cheerilee with a reassuring smile, “Now we can’t get separated.” 

Cheerilee returned Twilight smile with a thankful one of her own and together they started off once again.  

Cheerille called out for the girls again, and Twilight echoed it continuing the search for several more long moments.  Finally Cheerilee spoke over Twilight’s echoing shout, “It must seem silly to you for a pony to be scared of something like walking through the Everfree Forest after everything you’ve been through.”  

“Actually I’m terrified of this place,” Twilight said as Cheerilee called out in turn.  

“Really?”

“Of course, every time I come in here something tries to… get me, and during all those other adventures too.  I don’t know how I did any of that stuff to save Equestria or my friends.  Almost every single time after all the danger and celebration was over I would lock myself in my room and cry… just cry.”  Twilight suddenly realized they had stopped walking and calling out, Cheerilee was watching her with a pained look on her face.  Twilight suddenly couldn’t believe she had just told the other mare that, she hadn’t told anyone that since her adventures began, not even Spike knew about it.  

“We should keep looking,” Twilight said quickly brushing off her sudden outburst of honesty.  Cheerilee nodded not really knowing what to say anyway.  

“Cheerilee… Twilight,” Met the mares’ next called into the woods, the tiny cries of a trio of fillies answering back at last.  The mares rushed forward only to be met by the Cutie Mark Crusaders who burst forth from the bushes and charged at the two mares.  Sweetie Belle buried her head into Cheerilee chest jabbing her slightly with her short horn.  Apple Bloom crashed into twilight chest nearly knocking her down and Scootaloo pressed herself between them, totally not crying out ‘mommies’ when she saw them.  

The mares quickly checked the fillies over finding them a little scuffed up but not at all injured.  The group quickly retreated from the forest the two mares only softly scolding the fillies for what they explained was an attempt to get mapmaking cutie marks.  
Soon enough they were out of the Everfree Forest and delivered the fillies back to their worried sisters and mothers, along with one worried big brother and grandmother.  The search teams were called back and after a short celebration, insisted upon by Pinkie Pie, the long night was nearly at an end.  

“Well I should be heading home then, I’ll see you tomorrow Cheerilee,” Twilight said and began to quickly trot away her embarrassing admission creeping back into her thoughts.  Suddenly there was a sharp yank on her tail and she was halted in her tracks.  Looking back the confusion on her face turned to embarrassment as she realized her and Cheerilee’s tails were still tied together.  

Cheerilee looked embarrassed as well and started to stammer, “Sorry I… You could… I mean we could…”  Cheerilee bit her tongue trying to force back her nervousness, unable to think of anything else to say she finally said.  “You don’t have to be scared alone.”