//------------------------------// // 6.1 // Story: How Hard Could it Be? // by Richardson //------------------------------// 6.1 Exercise Glorious day! O’ what a bright and beautiful glorious day! O’ to celebrate the wonders and the joy of a glorious day! O’ to go forth and teach on her glorious day! O’ to enjoy the wonder of the girls and colts on her glorious day! O’ to teach again, to reach the children, to widen minds again was so glorious, it made her day such a glorious day! Okay, maybe she needed less sugar in her diet. Sunbeam practically Pinkie Pronked down the streets of Ponyvile as she prowled towards the peaceful properties of the school-house. Infectious cheer radiated from her like the light of the sun above, raising the spirits of the locals as they dealt with mid-morning business in the face of lunch. She could use lunch, maybe a donut from Sugarcube Corner—no, she had already passed it. Her pronking passage grew greetings and waves as most ponies called out her name and wished her will. She’d done quite a bit to help keep things in order in town, helping ponies to clear up the wreckage of Twilight’s explosive replies to Tirek or fill in and replant emergency trenches dug by the army in Luna’s defense. All that generous time donated on the side had done well to help her get confirmed by the town hall council meeting as the new teacher at the school; winning hearts and minds felt so good after the miasma of the courts! Why did she ever let herself get dragged into them? Luna was doing such a fine job! She was looking forward to her job so much; sure, tutoring the crusaders was nice and all, but it had just drawn her back to her joys—o’ glorious joys—of teaching! Every-pony loved teachers, so selflessly donating time and joy to the little ones! Well, almost every-pony loved teachers; Twilight still needed a good sanity-checker for some of her plans, and Pinkie had begun to eye her suspiciously whenever they met. Rather creepy, actually, especially whenever she spotted the Pinking Horror through a window. Brr. Ah, but there it was; the shining red building upon the low hill at the edge of town, the school-house beckoning her to simply burst little heads with knowledge, especially the crusaders! Sunbeam’s thoughts turned from the slight darkness brought on by Pinkus Creepicus to return to their happy rejoicing of her bright and glorious day, reveling in the thought of seeing entire classes of children who would listen instead of arguing with her! With each bounce, a warm breeze temporarily swept in behind her, blowing a small storm of flower petals around her fragrantly to sweep ahead towards the school-house. She ate up the ground between herself and the school-gate, speeding down the lane until she fluttered to a halt in front of the opened wide white gates, breathing deeply and sighing at the smells of apples and cookies; flowers and chalk; fresh paint and the deep fragrance of a well-used grassy yard. Why, it almost made her want to si—“Wow, Scootaloo! No wonder you got put up for adoption! Looks like your mom showed up and thinks her baby snack is grown up enough to eat!”—No she wasn’t going to sing. She was going to rip some-pony a new one. A scowl most unwelcomed etched itself across her muzzle, creasing it with angry lines as she leaned around the thick white columns of the gates to look into the yard. Sullenly, Scootaloo sat to one side sulking whilst pointedly trying to avoid looking and a pink and purple filly with a tiara on her head who was circling the little Pegasus with a silver grey follower standing to one side. Sunbeam’s frown grew deeper as she realized she recognized neither. Ah, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, so she would meet them at last. “Hmmm, look. She’s leaning around and frowning at you now. I bet she’s been visiting you at the orphanage, trying to find out if you’re juicy enough to eat. So that’s why you’re always trying to fly, so you can get all scrawny and run, run away where the big fat momma can’t fly.” The little troll of a filly mocked Scootaloo, then laughed cruelly as her companion looked rather appalled at her leader’s words and edged back. No, she wouldn’t stoop to the creature’s level. No, she wouldn’t use more than 1500 years of experience to disassemble her into itsy-bitsy cubic zirconium crystals for that last remark. No, she didn’t even find the filly morbidly amusing like the one idiot a few centuries back who tried to blow up Canterlot with fireworks, only to be a light show. And no, she did not like her at all. Not. One. Bit. Well, she’d have to fix this little sordid mess. “Miss Tiara, I presume.” “Oh, hello ma’am!” The little filly turned sickeningly sweet in an instance, flashing a smile that Duke Redcoat would have been proud of if he had seen it. With a rump-check, she bounced away the nearest crusader, Sweetie Belle, who had started running over to warn of her nasty ways. A casual motion, well-practiced and done in a way to look like an accident to inexperienced viewers. Oh dear, she actually thought she hadn’t been overheard. “I was just comforting poor Scootaloo here, who was having a bad day thinking about her mother, wherever that wonderful being might be. Are you here for a special presentation today?” Diamond scooted over to make room for Silver Spoon to stand beside her. “No.” Sunbeam curtly called as she marched over with a bit of courtly grace. “I’m Princess Celestia’s special teaching assistant, who came to town to help Twilight Sparkle with her own faithful students.” Her smile grew wider, toothier, sharkier. “And you have captured my attention above and beyond what some-pony could normally manage—as a filly of illest repute.” With those few words, the smug smiles on the duo’s faces flew off like a balloon rocketing away from the highest level of the tallest tower in Canterlot. No snarl of rage graced Tiara’s face as her friend scooted away silently in shock and awe. None, save for the tiniest flicker that was smothered quickly as Tiara tried to put on an air of sickeningly sweet politeness. “Have these three been telling mean stories about me again?” Diamond asked, waving a hoof in the general direction of the crusaders. “Miss Cheerilee was supposed to have stopped that. It hurts that they want to be jealous of me instead of accepting my friendship, I just don’t know why they insist on it.” Diamond Tiara laid a hoof to her head in mock exasperation, trying to imitate Rarity. She failed miserably at that, but no-pony had the heart to tell her. “I think it might be their failure to get their cutie marks that frustrates them enough to take it out on me.” “Oh, no.” Sunbeam winked slyly to the crusaders as Tiara blinked in slight confusion and stopped her ridiculous posing. “You ruined your reputation with me a minute ago with your cruel words.” Ah, the spluttering of an idiot noble was a glorious day-capper. A young imitator paling from pink to white was much less satisfying, but was much more useful in raising her apprentice’s spirits. “But I- why I never- who, ahem.” Aww, it was over already as Tiara caught herself and tried to recover the conversation. “Can I ask for your name? We haven’t met.” In reflection, she might have picked up her habits from her sister after the dark mare’s return from her moon, seeing as her smile could be charitably described as ‘shark-like’ to compliment sharks. Sunbeam sniffed at the air, straightening up as she flicked her nose skywards. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders whom you pick on may know me as Miss Sunbeam. You and your friend may know me as the end of your reigns upon the school-yard. I am well-versed in your—shenanigans—and they will not be tolerated here while I teach.” Sunbeam’s declaration earned cheers from the crusaders behind the despicable duo, the trio high-hoofing each other at the best news they ever heard. Diamond Tiara paled as her friend slowly scooted completely out of the conversation behind her back and disappeared into a knot of students coming to watch, watching Sunbeam’s fore-hoof pawing at the ground particularly worriedly. “What? You can’t just barge onto the school-grounds to start bullying foals around to protect your precious snowflakes! I thought you said you were teaching Twilight’s faithful students!” “Bullying foals around. How quaint, coming from you. As a matter of fact, as Miss Cheerilee’s new co-worker, I can in fact stop you. Actually, I’m required by law, come to think of it.” Diamond felt completely wrong, she still didn’t really know who the new mare was, or where she had come from. “Who hired you? Daddy said he was going to stop letting the town council hire mean teachers!” “Oh, so your father arranged for that encyclopedia of an application? Well, I’ve certainly had worse. Ish. It was but a papercut!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle cringed a little. Further frightened, Diamond Tiara’s formerly sickeningly sweet smile was marred by a scowl as she started backing away. “My- my daddy is going to hear about you! You- you-“ Eyes rolled as Sunbeam put up with the impotent rant for just a second. “Okay, what’s he going to do? Fire me? Oh, I’m sure firing the personal assistant to Princess Celestia and Princess Sparkle will look real good for him. Why, it won’t reflect badly on his judgement at all!” Wow, that snark felt so good. A delightful spoonful of sour to make the personality medicine go down. “Go on now, tell your father where the nice respectable lady touched your horrible personality.” Sunbeam finished, pointing towards the school-house. Tiara sniffled, backed a little further away, and she ran like her hooves were aflame. Silence reigned on the school-grounds as every-pony blinked in shock. A swing creaked back and forth until the little cream-colored filly in it fell out when she forgot to hang on. Well, perhaps silence didn’t quite reign. “THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!” Scootaloo screamed, waving her arms in the air like air-tube arms for a second before she fell to her tail. Sunbeam’s face-hoof let loose the flood-gates; stomping hooves kicking up dust clouds all over the grounds as the story spread through the ranks of children. “Say, uh, ya ain’t gonna turn that tongue on us, are ya? Ah’ve seen mah brother with peelin’ tools that ain’t as sharp as you.” Applebloom worriedly asked. “No, she has my extra-special attention.” “Oh, good.” “Does two teachers mean less homework?” A colt awkwardly asked from where his gangly body was tangled in a bunch of ropes for a trick he had been trying. Sweetie shook her head, mumbling a little. “I don’t think it works like that, Snails.” Boy, that hoof felt real good on her face. Sunbeam wondered if watching all the little faces fall when she revealed that she was going to be evilly making them use—gasp!—their brains would hurt about as much as she expected. Darn it, she’d lifted their hopes up by stopping Tiara and now they’d expect her to be like that more often. Couldn’t be helped, she supposed. With two hundred students of all grades, Cheerilee was rather overworked, and with more coming with the expected expansions of Ponyvile, the situation was likely going to get worse for her. Ah, well, she’d just have to get Twilight to hire an entire staff. Right, time to meet with the mare in question. “Behave, every-pony! I’ll be speaking with Miss Cheerilee! See you all in class!” She deliberately took up her pronking again, bouncing up to the door and letting her mane bounce off-rhythm from her motions. She pounced up the steps and slipped through the half-open door Tiara had left behind her in her flight, snorting a little when the troll-filly in question squeaked at seeing her and ran towards the bathrooms, leaving the old mare to make her way to Cheerilee’s office in the tight service corridor behind the classroom. The thick oak door had been recently installed, judging from the scrape marks on the frame and the squeaky-clean state of the brass hinges. Odd. No matter. Sunbeam’s hoof rose high and arced back with all of her leg, but tapped against the door so softly that it could be mistaken for a mouse bumping its head. A sullen grunt of annoyance answered from within the cramped office, followed by the soft titter of glass against glass as Cheerilee put away her drink. Her heavy hoof-falls couldn’t be heard, masked by the fetlock-swallowing shag carpet of her office. Soft thumps of flank against wall and shelf were the progress trackers of her movement, followed by the soft rubbing noises of the beleaguered teacher sliding softly down the wall to slump on the floor beside her door. “Who is it?” “Your help? Miss Sunbeam?” Well, this was all starting to sound rather horrible. Cheerilee’s office door jerked open a crack, the stressed out mare peeking through and frantically looking back and forth down the shadowed hallway for signs of her students, hoping to not see Diamond Tiara or her crony. Unsettled, Sunbeam waved a little when the teacher’s gaze settled on her, smiling uncertainly as she tried to look peaceful and reassuring. Then came the lunge, the desperate yanking off of her hooves, the frantic slam of the opaque door behind them and the tired slump against it. “Oh thank Celestia! I’ve been waiting five years for help, and it’s finally here!” The mulberry mare panted as she locked the door reluctantly and looked over her fellow teacher. “Quick, have you been seen by Diamond Tiara yet? You’ve got to be careful with her, her f-“ “Tiara? That little troll? Wait, no, I really shouldn’t call her that. It’s inharmonious, and that insults rock dogs and their diamond cousins.” Sunbeam pondered aloud, her internal monologue spilling out like Pinkie’s jelly-baby stash under attack from Time Turner. Tapping her chin, the old pegasus tried to think of a proper descriptor while ignoring the veneration of her other name. Amoeba, maybe? No, she had a particularly stiff spine to try her stunts. Darn. “I’d call her a roach, but she’s less wriggly than Red—why are you making that face?” Cheerilee’s chin hung limply low from her face as her open mouth uttered an inaudible keen of horror. Filthy Rich was going to get Sunbeam fired! “Tell me you didn’t!” Blink. Blink. “Didn’t what? Tell her to stop picking on foals and call her out on her vileness? Better question, did you know she was picking on f-“ “YES!” Cheerilee slumped tiredly, hanging her head low in shame. “But that- oh. Ah, that would explain a lot.” Tiara had her father wrapped around her hoof and had him thinking she was his adorable little alicorn. She kept out of the line of sight of ponies who her father wouldn’t ignore or bribe. Clever little- no, no insulting, it wasn’t nice. They had probably hired on more teachers before, only for Tiara to complain that they were being ‘mean’ and gotten them fired through her father’s influence. “So, she’s going to be quite the little issue, then.” “You have no idea.” Cheerilee moaned as she clomped over to her desk and pulled out a glass bottle of soft cider. “Oh, I might.” Stupid Redcoat. Stupid nobles. Adjusting the stacks of homework on her desk into neat little piles, Cheerilee rested an elbow on the cleared felt pad at its center, toasting her fellow teacher over the stacks of multiple-choice homework assignments she still needed to feed to the little scanner at the back of her office. “Thank you for trying, but I guess it was just doomed from the start. If that little brat doesn’t get her way, her father usually makes it her way.” Well, that just wouldn’t do at all. Then again, part of the Ponyvile boom had been Filthy Rich turning his father’s store into a national franchise chain. Most of the town’s inhabitants were ponies moving in as part of his consolidation into his hometown and working the distribution hub he was creating, hence the lopsided adult-to-foal ratio that was slowly being corrected. Sure, the old charm of the original farming community was still there in places, but Twilight’s castle had been the final push to start turning it into a minor city. Filthy had the ear of the town council, and Tiara had his. No wonder nothing had been done about her. Ah, how quaint. The bigger fishies were in the pond now. “I don’t think he’ll be firing me. It would reflect rather badly on his business if he got the personal assistant to Princess Celestia and Princess Sparkle fired. It’d make ponies ask what exactly he was trying to hide, or if his judgment was sound, especially since said mare has Princess Luna’s ear, too. I’m sure we can work something agreeable out.” Shaking her head, Cheerilee explained. “No, the town board will find something ‘unsuitable for foals’ in your personality or habits.” The beleaguered teacher looked over Sunbeam, who was still awkwardly standing in front of her desk. A flash of insight struck her, and she cringed a little given her rather tactless observation. “Like your weight! A claim will come up that your—um, obese nature will induce improper bodily habits in the children.” “I’m not fat!” Sunbeam yelped indignantly. “I’m just big. And fluffy.” Awkwardly ruffling her wings, Sunbeam realized that her correcting statements had slowly cranked one of Cheerilee’s eyebrows incredulously towards her mane-line line a flag up a pole. She looked down, and carefully poked her belly, sloshing it like a jello mold. “Alright, I’m fat; I let myself go. We can work with that! I won’t even have to bring up my ‘trained the current leaders of Equestria’ credentials!” Cheerilee picked at the wild stacks of paper on her desk idly, pushing them a little further into neat semblances of order as she voiced the skepticism on her mind. “You trained all the princesses?” Smug once more, Sunbeam preened a little—metaphorically—as she sat down at the cushion on one side of the desk with a bit of awkwardness. “Well, I taught Princess Cadance and Prince- Twilight Sparkle, I helped teach Princess Luna proper modern vernacular and caught her up on a thousand years, and taught quite a few other pupils of Princess Celestia.” It was kind of fun, getting ready to tweak noses like she was going to. At least the biggest headache of Ponyvile was going to be dealt with in short order. No ponies would look for her here, so she’d finally be able to relax a little and teach. Maybe. “Think of the headlines: ‘Crazy CEO unduly influences town council to fire the teacher of Equestria.’ His business would fall apart if he even tries.” Scooting back a bit as she realized what Sunbeam had just suggested, Cheerilee smacked the back of her head against the filing cabinets that blocked off her former window. “Wait, you can’t do that! If we wreck Barnyard Bargains to keep you on, it’ll be years until Twilight’s work gets the town back to this point!” Sunbeam nodded. “I’m well aware of that. It’s still an option, but there is a—ugh, another one.” Softly did a slightly pudgy hoof caress the rounded bulge of Sunbeam’s belly; the pegasus groaning softly as she considered what was to come. While not exactly to the point of being called ‘morbidly obese,’ Sunbeam’s belly still extended around by about three inches past her hips and similarly downwards towards the ground, not even counting the plushably cuddlesome softness that defined the rest of her body, a far cry from the lithe and thin figure Equestria thought her real form resembled. Cheerilee’s ears bent forward inquisitively. “Another option? I’d- oh.” Whimpering a little, Sunbeam’s ears flattened against her head. “Being a good role model by actively losing weight through proper diet and exercise. A lot of exercise.” She had an idea of where to get it from, but she still didn’t want the stress and soreness. Really didn’t want the soreness. At the same time, she didn’t want to use political levers that could be traced to her just yet. She stretched, yelping as her backwards wriggle nearly knocked over a shelf of school projects. “And I might need to get just a little smaller on general principles.” Ringing stopped them as the semi-automated school bells rang through the building and yard, heralding the end of the middle class’s recess. Cheerilee’s groans were rather alarming as the school-teacher slowly and repeatedly thumped her head against her desk. Softly, of course; bruising would cause the children to ask questions. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” Cheerilee’s mathematical head to desk equations rarely yielded results beyond addition—of headaches. She didn’t really know why she persisted in them. Wait, no, they temporarily canceled out frustrations with reciprocal operations. She plastered on a fake smile and gestured to her door. “Ready to meet the ‘darling’ little ones?” “Oh, don’t worry. Be happy.” Sunbeam felt the strangest urge to sing after reassuring Cheerilee, but squashed it as she motioned towards the door with her head. T’was a silly urge. “Oh, you’ll have a friend in me. I won’t be some passing aide.” Now to extract herself. Bit of a problem, given the way she had packed herself into the tight space. The extra-large Pegasus squeezed and shifted in the tight corner to reach the door. That wasn’t a consequence of her—fluffiness—she was just suffering the annoyances of being ‘Celestia-sized.’ Wait, should she call it ‘her-sized’? Cheerilee watched with bemused smirking, with hints of worry for her poor abused shelves as the mare bumped them, with a dash of concern for her door, with a few nervously confused ear twitches, and with a hint of apple-breath as they both tried to squeeze through the door at nearly the same time. The twister-tangle of teachers toughed their way down the hall, threading the tight space towards the classroom. Foals could be heard jostling around in their seats and making messes as the pair straightened themselves up in the vestibule to make their theatrical entrance. Sushing Sunbeam silently, Cheerilee quietly pointed for her to wait in place while she prepped the foals for her. An amazingly few strokes of her hoof and a few tweaks of her expression wiped the tired visage from her face and reformed it into a mask of endlessly cheerful enthusiasm before stepping out into the classroom. “Did every-pony have fun at recess?” “Yeeeeeaaaaah!” Came the thunderous retort as nearly everypony cheered, save for Diamond Tiara, who sullenly sulked low in her seat. Well, that was certainly something. It was easy to see how Cheerilee’s struggles might have been overlooked with her skills. Most of the foals held their cheerful poses and continued to generally wave and have fun while Cheerilee warily looked to Sunbeam. The old mare rolled her eyes and hoofed a ‘get on with it’ gesture to her co-worker as the teacher settled at her desk in front of the class. “Well, glad to hear that! I have better news for you: you have a new teacher! Please wel-“ “MISS SUNBEAM!” If it was thunderous before, the new shout was deafening as the foals greeted their defender. Many turned around to welcome her with wide-open fore-legs, startling her and inducing a twinge of jealousy in Cheerilee as Sunbeam carefully squished her way to the front between the desks and the row of cabinets on the side. A particular yellow-furred, red-maned pony who would remain unnamed followed up the cheer with a particular question in mind. “Are ya gonna send stupid-head Tiara to the moon? Ah say it’s about time!” “Yaaaaaaaaaay!” Diamond shrunk down in her seat further, slumping down until only her eyes, ears, and head-wear could be seen over her desk. “No, no.” Sunbeam warned, perking Tiara up a bit. Taking notice, she decided to string the pink annoyance along a little. “No, I certainly can’t send ponies to the moon. Princess Luna handles that.” Ducking again, Tiara wanted to find a hole and die in it. How could her daddy have let such a mean pony teach? “Furthermore, just because she’s mean doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to insult her, and it would be mean to cause her harm just because you don’t like her.” Perk? “You should be ‘loving and tolerating’ her until she understands the immense harm she’s caused.” Whimpering. Ducking. “Also, I should apologize to her. Only a little. Calling her a troll was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have stooped to her level to stop her bullying.” “I don’t bully!” Diamond blurted out, clopping her hooves angrily against her desk. “Miss Cheerilee? Why do you want to work with a mean pony? She’ll teach us to be horrible!” Irony usually didn’t bother to mess with Diamond Tiara, she could work herself into a hole easily enough; it could make very interesting exceptions, however. Particularly when she all but called Irony a flightless chicken with asthma problems who couldn’t beat up a zucchini. Irony had just sent a missive to its friend Fate, and they were going to have extra special fun with Diamond Tiara. Sunbeam cleared her throat, looking mournful for a moment. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have taught you a bad nickname for rock dogs. Will you forgive me?” Sunbeam countered, enjoying the laughter directed at Tiara as she fluttered her eyebrows. No, wait, she shouldn’t enjoy the laughter. It was the horrible kind of laughter. Holding a hoof up, she quieted the class without a further word. “No, seriously, every-pony. I shouldn’t have called her names at all, no matter how far she got onto my bad side. I could have told her to stop telling an orphan that her absent mother would have eaten her without insulting any-pony at all. So, I am sorry for that. I will not be sorry for being ‘mean’ to you if telling you to stop disturbing your classmates is being ‘mean’.” Sunbeam explained in great detail as she scowled at the faint, faded imitation of the bane of her existence. At least Redcoat was polite, and useful. Irony and Fate giggled like a pair of drunken Pinkie Pies. Snails raised his hoof questioningly. “Miss Cheerilee, what’s a rock dog?” Looking to Cheerilee, Sunbeam was given the nod to go ahead as the frizzled teacher stepped back to see how well her new co-worker handled the question. “Rock dogs are semi-rock canines who come in a variety of different shapes and forms. They live underground for most, if not all of their lives, using the deep realms to travel around. You can find any from the relatively simple local diamond dogs to the great mountain hounds overseas in Canidia.” “Oh.” Snails nodded at the question and sat back down. Snips stood up in his seat, waving his hoof around. “Miss Cheerilee, Miss Cheerilee? Who’s an orphan?” Scootaloo winced. “Me. You know, Miss Gladly’s Home for the Unfortunate?” Snips’s eyes went wide as he finally realized why Scootaloo never brought any family in for Family Appreciation Day, nodding slowly. “Ooooh.” He frowned, looking between her and Sunbeam. “I just thought your mom was in the guard up in Canterlot and just came home to finally teach after getting fat and fired or eating all of Princess Celestia’s cakes and making the princess go on a crazy adventure to Caketopia in the Hinney-leas.” Snip’s hooves weaved about in the air in a manner that made no sense to any-pony, probably not even him. “What?” Sunbeam bewilderedly asked as she looked to Cheerilee who shook her head and shrugged. “What.” Scootaloo flatly squeaked, trying to figure out what- no, Snips and Snails never made sense. The two colts jumped out of their seats and levitated Scootaloo, desk and all to the front to compare her directly against Sunbeam. “See! We saw her around town all the time, and figured since you were with her a lot that you were related since you look all alike.” They pointed to the various features of the pegasi, young and old, like their identical coat colors, eye colors, and even the oddly similar cuts of fetlocks and the rough impressions of Scootaloo’s eventual figure. “See?” Facehoofing, Cheerilee wondered if there was a science to reading the frogs of some-pony’s hoof. Hay, she spent enough time looking at her own. “While fascinating, will you two return to your seats and please put your classmate back where she belongs?” Sheepishly flinching at the sharp rebuke by their teacher, Snips and Snails slunk back to their desks, floating the oddly quiet and motionless Scootaloo behind them. Both squirmed under Cheerilee’s stern frowning glare of disappointment, hunching down in their seats rather than lower her expectations of them further. The schoolmarm steadied herself with a hoof atop her desk next to her globe as she reared up to gaze over her class and let her voice project further. “Well, now that that little bit of trivia has been settled, let’s get on with business, shall we?” Fifty nods silently responded to her. “Now, while Miss Sunbeam will be helping me, she will be dealing primarily with the younger foals and advanced magic studies. She’s mostly in town to help Princess Twilight with teaching her faithful students, and is filling in some of her free time with helping me so I can devote more time to you, class!” Putting on a wider smile for the group didn’t clear away the awkward silence that followed as the foals tried to decide if more time was a good thing or not. “Does that mean more homework?” Cheerful faces turned to depressed cringes. “No!” Cheerilee waited for the cheering to die down after her announcement, then propped herself up further. “This does, however, mean less multiple choice, class! You can expect more assignments requiring critical thinking!” Snips and Snails looked at each other. “Does that mean using our heads?” “Yes it does!” Smile and reassure, Cheerilee, Smile and reassure. “Awwwww,” came the collective reply. Using their heads meant less free time. And more brain-hurting, that was bad. Maybe. The foals weren’t really sure if using their brain really hard hurt for the most part, save for a certain trio. Trying to take control of the discourse again, Cheerilee decided to reassure her charges and prop up their spirits a little. “Don’t worry! Thanks to the spare time offered by Miss Sunbeam taking over our youngest class in the mornings, I now have more time to give each and every one of you attention to help you shine brighter than ever before! With that attention, I’m sure you’ll do fine.” Diamond Tiara perked up again, slowly brightening from Macintosh Red back to her own shade of pink as the praise was reinterpreted in her mind to be for her and her alone. “Like me, Miss Cheerilee?” The broad smile instantly turned strained as Cheerilee tried to think of the most neutral way to return the question, mumbling somewhat as she did. “Yes, you too, Diamond Tiara.” Instantly perking up with her ego restored, Diamond Tiara smiled and stuck her tongue out at Sunbeam—carefully from behind Snails where she wouldn’t be seen, of course. “I’ll be your best student yet, Miss Cheerilee! I’ll learn better than any-pony else and prove it to you!” She recovered annoyingly quickly, putting on a smile better suited for a slasher villain to her fellow student’s discontent. Sunbeam wondered if Tiara really was the unholy hellspawn of Redcoat and Blueblood birthed via mitosis. No, that was just silly, even Redcoat had standards. He would have rather gone to Canidia naked with griffon steaks around his neck while insulting the national leaders there rather than have anything to do with Blueblood of that nature. Cheerilee’s forced smile faltered further as she ladled out a meager serving of forced false praise. “I’m sure you will.” “In fact, I’ll be so good that I might be able to get my daddy to get you some more help so I can shine my brightest!” Diamond craftily suggested, looking at Cheerilee hopefully while studiously ignoring a certain orange mare—even if she did flinch each time said pegasus’s gaze passed over her. “It isn’t right that you should split your attention so many ways!” An oddly noble and selfless sentiment from the bully. Classmates all looked at her like she had just sprouted mis-matched wings and a curved horn behind their back as Sunbeam looked outside to see if her sun was being screwed with by Discord. There was no way that Diamond could have gone good so quickly, that the words calling her out had already had an effect. It would have been nice if they had, of course. Diamond Tiara suddenly turning normal—or relatively saintly compared to her old personality—would be a relief to every-pony involved in the school. “If you have a lot of help, you could have all the time in the world to focus on making me and my friends the shiniest you possibly can for my daddy and his friends to praise!” Good moment gone. Shuddering nearly imperceptibly from the slimy feel, Cheerilee stepped out from behind her desk. “I’ll see about talking with him, Diamond Tiara.” She chirped as she got ready to teach a math lesson. Weariness with Tiara’s antics seeped about in her gut like an upset tummy exposed to a nasty combination of sweet and spicy sauces as she turned to the chalkboard, nearly making her miss the thud. “Scootaloo?!” Applebloom was fanning her friend with her bow. “Ah don’t know what’s wrong with her! She’s been all still like Fluttershy in a Pinkie Party ever since she got compared to Miss Sunbeam there.” ---------------------------------------- Elsewhere, a stallion of relatively ill repute glanced through the copied initial reports from a ‘Captain Berry Bubble’ of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s newly formed guard. His eyes flicked between pages as he cross-referenced a particular set of notes detailing corporate news and business dealings involving the town’s premiere business stallion, Filthy Rich. A hoof reached out, pulling a single page out from a tall stack of papers against the austere rock wall above the desk. From there, in a well-organized office lit only by candle-light and crystals, a chamber buried a mile deep beneath the peak of the Canterhorn far away from any possible prying eyes of a nosy princess hidden behind rock walls only passable through shadow and light magicks, that blood red stallion studied. And planned. Personality reports from a temporary agent were pinned to cork board, records concerning the death of one ‘Golden Tiara’ from Ponyvile Hospital were placed alongside a pink and a grey file, school records easily transcribed from a woefully understaffed school were stacked neatly atop the crudely extruded stone desk in a corner, one will concerning the passing of a business from father to daughter sat atop the other; all the pieces formed into a coherent image, albeit one still not whole. Personally taken surveillance photos detailed the assembly of two pods inside the half-built assembly tree-barn, a look ahead to what might be at stake. The expansive desk--just one part of the furniture assembled from the granite bedrock of the deep underground chamber--was nearly completely covered with papers and plans, with only one large free area left open. Correction, no free area left open as a large paper plate stacked with sandwiches was put down atop it by the faithful butler of the house. “Ah, thank you, Union Jack. I’d forget to eat if it wasn’t for you.” The figure in shadows gestured to the plate, and the sandwiches atop it. “Did you already eat on the way down? At your age you should be worrying about yourself as well, it’s a long path.” The elderly donkey nodded, adjusting the tie of his work tuxedo. “Yes, Duke. A rather bit of a shame that you can no longer work in your old study.” He nodded, glasses glinting in the lights. “Shall I get you anything else? You have that look once more.” “Yes, I need to have a talk with Filthy Rich of Barnyard Bargains, headquartered in Ponyvile. Preferably without Princess Sparkle knowing about it, or at least not until after the fact. I have some business with him and his daughter to prevent several unfortunate—setbacks—from disrupting the house plans.” “Yes, Duke. It shall be arranged.” “Hush hush, you understand? Twilight means well, but she’ll get in the way of saving a particularly useful business and our burgeoning little shipyard down there.” “Of course, Sir.” Munch. Munch. “Mmm. You’ve out-done yourself. You sure you don’t want one?” “Yes, my Duke.” “Alright, your loss. Oh, and ask the maids to prepare a guest suite for a filly. Keep it humble, and pick one that’s suited for a more permanent residence. We may have a guest taking an extended stay in the manor shortly.”