“And following that,” I continued. “It was decided to hold the games every four years, as a way of encouraging friendly competition between all three of the tribes. It greatly aided in strengthening the ties forged at the first Hearth’s Warming and helped reduce the occasional feuds between the more distrustful members of the old council. Now, are there any questions?” A few hooves went into the air.
I’d been doing a project with the kids prior to the Equestria Games and with the games now over for another few years, I was taking the opportunity to teach some history. It also helped as a distraction from other things. Whilst they had all managed to avoid the fate that temporarily befell many of my friends and both my children, the foals had been badly shaken up by Tirek’s brief rampage.
My son had told me about the battle against the changelings at Canterlot, but it didn’t sound that bad. Nopony had been killed, in fact only a few were injured in that battle. Given that this world was the basis of a show that had a TV Y rating, I figured we were safe from any real danger. Turns out I figured wrong.
I have been scared several times in my life. But that day had to rank as one of the scariest. Neither my husband nor I were overly affected, as we don’t have magic. But both Blade Star and Lizzie had been put in a very serious condition. Without their magic, they could barely lift their heads, never mind cast spells or fly. Still, they, along with everypony else, were alright now, and Tirek has, from what I understand, been sent to some kind of specialist magical prison. This time of course, with beefed up security. Still, as a mother, my instincts are to go down there and rip him a new one for harming my babies.
But I couldn’t really dwell on the past now. There was a class to teach. I turned to the nearest pony with a hoof in the air; Scootaloo.
“Yes, Scootaloo?”
“Mrs. Owen, do you think the games will ever be held in Ponyville?” she asked hopefully. She and the other Crusaders had of course, like Rainbow and the relay team, gone all the way to the Crystal Empire.
“I wouldn’t expect just yet, Scoots,” I replied. “To hold the games, a town needs lots of resources. That’s why it’s usually restricted to bigger cities like Canterlot and Fillydelphia.”
“And Cloudsdale too, right?” she butted in. I was about to reply, when I heard a scoffing noise, further back.
You would have thought that surviving the near destruction of our homes would have brought everypony closer together, wouldn’t you? And with one exception, it did. That exception of course, was Diamond Tiara. I thought she was finally coming around a few weeks ago, when all of her bullying, particularly of the Crusaders and Dinky, tapered off. But, no, I was mistaken. Recent events seem to have made her even more mean spirited that normal. At this point I was strongly considering sending a letter home to her father about her behaviour; to Tartarus with the inevitable backlash.
“Oh come on, Chicken. That dump’s never hosted the games and it never will,” Diamond Tiara said spitefully. Scootaloo instantly turned to glare at her. I can guess the biggest reason for such a reaction is the Rainbow Dash originally hails from Cloudsdale. And having been there myself, it is far from a dump. The coliseum they have is ideal for the games. Just so long as everypony has a functioning cloud walking spell.
“Diamond Tiara, have you never heard the phrase ‘if you’ve nothing nice to say, then don’t say anything at all’?” I asked, my patience wearing very thin by this point. This was, by my count, the fifth time she’d interrupted the lesson. In response the spoiled little filly snorted and stuck her nose up in the air. The best response to such behaviour is to ignore it, so I turned to Dinky, who also had her hoof in the air.
“Yes, Dinky?”
“Mrs. Owen, how come the Crystal Empire was able to host the games so quickly after its return? When I looked in the paper yesterday it said their currency was extremely low in value, that the country was suffering a severe population exodus and was still struggling to adapt to modern Equestria cultural norms. So how were they able to structure their economic recovery plan to cope with the costs of the games?” You see, this is one of the problems of having a very young and very curious Timelord in your class. In several areas, Dinky is arguably smarter than me.
Luckily, at that point, I was saved by the bell, literally. The school bell rang to signal morning break and the kids all promptly scarpered off to go and play outside in the warm summer weather. Dinky however, remained where she was, awaiting my answer. I stalled for time.
“Dinky, go out and enjoy recess, I’ll answer your question when you all get back in.” Whilst she is an incredibly smart little filly, she is also still a filly, and fairly easy to fool. As soon as she was out the door, I began to look for any books we had on economics.
After looking through the article Dinky had been reading and brushing up on my basic economics, I felt I had enough to answer Dinky’s question when the class got back in. Mind you, I doubted anypony apart from Dinky and Cheerilee would understand the answer.
Heading outside I found Cheerilee keeping an eye on the youngsters. She’s been looking to get some time off for a couple of weeks. She and Big Mac had, so I’m told, been planning to take a few days holiday out of town, apparently a suggestion Big Mac got from Princess Cadence, though how he got in touch with her I’ve no idea. Anyway, everything had been arranged and the pair was pretty much all set to go, when all Hell broke loose. Needless to say, a magic stealing demon creature was more than enough to postpone a romantic getaway. I’d had to run the class myself for a couple of days whilst Cheerilee fully recovered. With that incident over and stuck in a dark hole underneath the planet though, the pair were now planning for a second attempt.
“Hey, Cheerilee,” I said as I walked up. “Everything alright?” She nodded contently.
“Sure is, they’re being good as gold today,” she replied. “I managed to get some time to talk with Big Mac earlier. Would you be okay taking classes on your own between next Tuesday and Thursday? We’re hoping to get a weekend spot of course, but if we have to, we might end up going in the week.” Normally, if someone on staff asked me that, I’d be a bit annoyed. It was short notice and would place a lot of work on me. But, this was Cheerilee, she’d been trying to find some time for ages and it wouldn’t be too much work.
“Yeah, I suppose if push comes to shove I can manage that. But you do all the test marking come exam time?” Hey, I’m not a complete altruist.
“Of course. Like I said, hopefully we’ll be able to book for a weekend. It would be easier for both of us; just a fall back plan.” At that point we were interrupted by two of our students.
I think I have already made it pretty clear that Snips and Snails aren’t exactly the brightest students in the class. Though at least they do try I suppose. But one of the things they are known for is blowing things way out of proportion. Before my time, there was the Ursa Minor they led into town in an attempt to see a magician perform some kind of advanced magic trick. Then, when I started teaching here, there was the time they were being attacked by a giant flying insect; a dragonfly, which resulted in the entire class charging around in a panic. Long story short, they can by word or deed, cause about as much chaos as Discord. So when they ran up to the two of us, I was initially unconcerned by their warning.
“Mrs. Owen, Ms. Cheerilee! Diamond Tiara’s being attacked by King Sombra!” they exclaimed.
Well…that was a new one.
For starters, I know for a fact that King Sombra was blasted into atoms many, many miles north of here. And even with my limited understanding of magic, I knew it was impossible for him to reincarnate himself. More importantly, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why he’d, as his first action, attack a small filly in a small town elementary school. But of course, we were obliged to investigate. So, telling the foals to take us straight to the problem, we began to follow then.
As we walked to a more secluded part of the school grounds, Equestria’s answer to Abbot and Costello filled us in on the details. Just as in class, come recess, Diamond Tiara had resumed her campaign against the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Unusually though, it appeared this time, she’d been quite effective. Whilst neither of them knew what was said, it had brought Apple Bloom to tears. A few moments after that, 'King Sombra’ had appeared and grabbed Diamond Tiara in his magic.
I was expecting a multitude of possibilities for when we got there. Foremost in my mind was the question of precisely how strongly I should word the disciplinary letter to Filthy Rich, and for how many weeks I should keep that spoilt urchin he calls a daughter in for detention. What we saw when we got to the small hollow that held the Crusaders and Diamond Tiara, was not what I was expecting.
It was my son, Blade Star. And in his magical grip, being held upside down and quivering like a leaf was Diamond Tiara, with the odd tear running down her face. Standing a ways off, the Crusaders were looking on with a mixture of curiosity and fear, particularly Apple Bloom. Most alarmingly though, was my son’s eyes. One of the few things that hasn’t changed about my son since his change is his soft brown eyes. Now though, they had turned an unsettling shade of red, the whites of his eyes had turned green and a strange purple coloured smoke was oozing from his eyes like some sort of magical conjunctivitis. And even more oddly, his horn had changed; usually it was a typical unicorn horn, now it was like a jagged tooth, tipped red at the end. It glowed with strange purple and green bubbles, presumably his magic. He held Diamond Tiara close to his face as he spoke to her, his teeth bared threateningly.
“So, why were you picking on this filly?” he asked in the voice he had mimicked on Nightmare Night, gesturing toward Apple Bloom. “You have been doing it for years, but why? You won’t worsen her life, and you are going have to contend with me.” The filly merely continued to squirm and refused to look him in the eye, never mind respond. He bared his teeth angrily at her
“Answer me, Diamond Tiara!” he snapped. “Why were you picking on these fillies?”
I had no idea what in the name of Celestia herself he was doing, but that was one of my students.
“That’s enough! Put her down right now, Blade Star!” I shouted. The surprise briefly broke his concentration and the small filly dropped to the ground in front of him, before scampering behind my legs. “What on earth do you think you are doing?!” Immediately, his eyes and horn returned to their normal hues and shapes.
“Easy, Mom,” he replied in an attempt to sound disarming. “Ah was just lookin’ out for AB. Weren’t right what that filly said.” Old teaching instincts took over. First you find out who said what to whom, who did what and why. Then you try and work out who is responsible. If you can’t you say ‘I don’t care who started it’ and admonish them both. More than once I jokingly suggested this as a way to solve the problems of the Middle East.
“Alright, son, start from the beginning,” I said at length.
The story he told went something like this. Apple Bloom had forgotten a piece of homework due in this afternoon, a couple maths worksheets if I remember correctly. Anyway, my son had spotted them in Apple Bloom’s room and decided to bring them in for her. There isn’t that much in the way of security at the school. There’s a small fence big enough to stop young ponies from bunking off, not that I think for a second any of them would, but other than that, ponies can come and go as they please. Blade Star had realised class was out when he arrived and begun looking for Apple Bloom. He’d found her and the Crusaders, with Diamond Tiara doing her best to rile them up. To their credit, the Crusaders kept up their campaign of passive resistance even after the inspection. Mainly, I think because it made Diamond Tiara madder each time she failed to get a reaction.
Unfortunately, perhaps to my own discredit, this had an unfortunate side effect. Since her usual taunts were not working, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had stepped up their harassment, each time trying different subject to pick at each of the Crusaders. Apparently, today’s topic was parents. I do not know the whole story, nor does Blade Star, but I do know that Apple Bloom’s are no longer around. Whatever happened shook up all the members of the Apple family. So when Diamond Tiara made a wise crack about parents, in addition to slightly upsetting Scootaloo, it really hurt Apple Bloom. Blade Star happened to enter hearing range and see the reaction at just the right time.
I’m not quite sure why, but my son seems to have, in a sort of fatherly way, taken to looking out for Apple Bloom, helping her out with school work and the like. But he also knows what it is like to be bullied. He went through the mill in his first year of high school. Some upstart from the arse end of town who’d managed to convinced doctors he had ADHD, (he was actually just an evil little demon in need of some discipline, and his mother was one of those ‘free spirit’ types) starting bullying him non-stop. As was common the school did nothing about it, even on one occasion blaming my son for ‘provoking’ the bully. Consequently, as an adult, he doesn’t take kindly to bullies. Add to that how much he cares for Apple Bloom and you ended up with Diamond Tiara suspended in mid-air.
“Ah wasn’t gonna do anythin’, Mom,” he insisted. “Just give her a good scare is all. Why d’ya think Ah used that illusion spell from Nightmare Night.”
“That still doesn’t allow you to come onto school grounds and scare a filly half to death.” Under my breath I added; “Even if she does deserve it.” Snorting in annoyance and tossing his head, he gestured to the still cowering filly.
“Alright then, but given what Ah saw, Ah wanna see that filly duly punished.” He raised a fair enough point. Filthy would probably raise hell over his little scare tactic, but Diamond Tiara would be getting in trouble regardless. I’d eased off previously because she seemed to be toeing the line. Now though, I would be taking things up a notch.
Much to everypony’s surprise, Diamond Tiara recovered quite quickly. In fact, the moment I informed her she would be staying in detention and would have a letter sent home, the poor whimpering filly vanished, replaced by an angry screeching demon that told all in hearing range how her daddy was going to have me fired and my son put in jail.
Apple Bloom meanwhile, whilst not actually in trouble per se, would still have to go through the whole mess that came with sorting this incident out. As soon as everything had calmed down, she had stayed with Blade Star, who remained where he was until the end of recess and played with him. I think it made her feel a great deal better as well as greatly calming my son down. Like I said, his own experience means he takes a very dim view of bullies.
As for the rest of the class, the incident went into the rumour mill. By the end of the day, the story was that Apple Bloom had used some strange potion she got from Zecora to bring back the ghost of King Sombra to attack Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and that only due to our intervention, did he not eat the both of them.
But whilst it was just a great story for them, for me and Cheerilee, it was the beginning of a long headache. That evening, Filthy came by my house to chew me out, as much as a 5’4 human can be by a four foot tall pony. He technically was right to complain about my son’s actions, but the rest of his tirade was a load of horseapples. He even had the pure faced cheek to demand that Apple Bloom be suspended, supposedly for sic’ing Blade Star on his perfect little girl. Eventually, I managed to get him agree to come in after school tomorrow. We would all sit down and discuss the matter, whilst Diamond Tiara served out her detention.
The next day, after the class had been dismissed and all potentially prying eyes had departed, we all sat down to try and come to some sort of understanding. Cheerilee and I would be speaking on behalf of the school. Applejack and Blade Star were here to look out for Apple Bloom, and Filthy, along with his daughter who was doing lines at the back of the room would be telling his side of the story.
“Well, at least he didn’t bring his lawyers with him,” Cheerilee said quietly as we walked in. The two of us sat down behind the desk at the front of the classroom, whilst everypony else took a seat at one of the provided chairs.
“Alright,” I said. “Before we begin, I would like to establish some ground rules. This meeting is not going to achieve anything if it descends into a shouting match. Nopony is to interrupt anypony else. No shouting or foul language. And no goading each other.”
“Fine by me,” Applejack replied. Blade Star also nodded his assent. Applejack seemed to be taking the lead on this one. I can imagine Blade Star was probably in a bit of hot water over this with her.
“Very well,” Filthy agreed, albeit grudgingly.
“Good,” said Cheerilee, taking over. “Now, why don’t we start at the beginning? Mr. Rich, your daughter’s conduct at this school has been spotty at best.” She placed a rather hefty folder on the desk. “This contains the various incidents the school has had to deal with over the past six months.” Filthy quickly leapt to the defence.
“My daughter has done nothing wrong!” he countered sharply. “The problem is those three blank flank fillies that continuously cause chaos.” Well, I guess we know where that taunt comes from now. Cheerilee narrowed her eyes at him. I stepped back in.
“Mr. Rich, you are an educated stallion, let me pay you the compliment of being blunt. I have seen first hoof how your daughter behaves towards other students, and she is nothing short of the devil. She is mean, she is vindictive and she thinks she can get away with it.” Filthy bristled at that.
“In any case,” Cheerilee said. “According to several students and Mr. Star here, it was your daughter’s actions that were largely responsible for this incident.” Now, he snapped.
“Are you kidding me, you stupid mare! That horn head tried to hurt my daughter and you are punishing her?!” Cheerilee reverted to her’ teaching mode’.
“Filthy! I will not tolerate such slurs in my classroom!” she warned sternly. “Mr. Star will be reprimanded and you will be receiving an apology from him personally.”
“Ah do agree my actions were just a mite rash. Two wrongs don’t make a right after all,” Blade Star said.
“That they don’t, Bones. That they don’t,” Applejack added.
“However,” Cheerilee went on. “He claims his actions were motivated by the actions of your daughter towards Apple Bloom. In which case, the long standing issue of your daughter’s attitude must be addressed.”
“Were we back on Earth,” I said. “Or in a larger school. It would simply be a matter of moving either the Crusaders, or Diamond Tiara into another class. Of course, that isn’t really possible here in Ponyville. As a result, we are going to need to come to some sort of compromise. Both Cheerilee and I are sick and tired of having to play Royal Guards keeping them apart.” Filthy instantly prepared a comeback, undoubtedly trying to shift the blame onto the Crusaders and away from his perfect little filly. I quickly did my best to beat him to the punch. “Both your daughter and the Crusaders will have to give ground.”
Both sides paused for a moment to think. My son and Applejack were more than happy to cooperate. Like me, they were sick of Diamond Tiara’s bullying, particularly as she seemed to have turned a corner previously. Filthy on the other hoof, was not so inclined.
This wasn’t the first time Cheerilee has tried something like this with Diamond Tiara. After all, she does seem to go after the entire class at some point. The trouble is the Filthy has a fair amount of influence and was usually able to make parents drop their complaints. But the Apples were not going to go quietly like that. What Diamond Tiara had said…well, there are some things you just don’t say.
Anyway, this time, the problem wasn’t going to go away, so Filthy would have to agree to something. Snorting irritably he answered.
“Fine, what are you proposing?” I unveiled the master plan Cheerilee and I had come up with.
“Firstly, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo will each promise not to do or say anything to cause trouble between themselves and Diamond Tiara.” Whilst Diamond Tiara was a bully, on occasion the Crusaders had goaded her a little. Plus, given Filthy semi-hostile attitude, it seemed best to open with something that went in his favour.
“Secondly, Diamond Tiara is not to go near the Crusaders, either in class or at recess.” Difficult to enforce, I know, but traditional tactics to stop problem behaviour between students wasn’t working all that brilliantly. I mean, this whole incident had been brought on by the Crusaders not reacting to the bullying.
“And finally, all five of them should consider themselves on notice. Any further incidents between them, and there will be severe repercussions, for the lot of them.” If mutually assured destruction worked for world peace for getting on for sixty years, surely it can keep five kids in line. I looked to both parties. “Does that sit alright with everypony? Apple Bloom?” The yellow filly nodded, adding that she would pass this on to her friends. “Diamond Tiara?” Sullenly, she too agreed. Cheerilee stepped in.
“Okay then. Now that we’ve established that, we can hopefully go back to a more comfortable school environment. I thank you all for coming in to settle this so quickly.”
And with that, the assembled ponies departed, the new spirit of an uneasy truce filling the air. The whole issue was by no means solved. What we had done was about as much a resolution as the truce between North and South Korea. But still, at least now we wouldn’t have to deal with it every single day.
With the classroom empty of everypony except me and Cheerilee, we both had a chance to catch our breaths.
“Did we just do that?” I asked. Okay we hadn’t solved the whole issue, but with any luck, we’d both have a much easier time with lessons.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens on Monday,” Cheerilee replied, leaning back into her desk chair.
“Speaking of Monday,” I continued. “Will I be taking the class on my own for the first half of the week, or have you and Big Mac got a weekend slot booked.” Cheerilee smiled.
“We did manage to get a weekend slot in the end. The two of us are going to head off tonight and we should be back early on Monday. I’d be happy to come in if you want me to,” she offered.
“No, no, goodness, Cheerilee,” I replied. “It’s a simple enough start on Monday, and with things hopefully a bit quieter around here I don’t think I’ll have any problems. You take the Monday off and then come back in as usual on Tuesday. Sound fair?” Cheerilee nodded in agreement and headed out the door, undoubtedly to go meet up with Big Mac and pack her stuff.
“But you’re still going to mark those mid-term papers, right?” I called after her. The two of us laughed as I locked the schoolhouse up for the weekend.