3:50, Cranky thought, looking up at the clock wistfully. Ten minutes until I can leave and get back to Matilda. He sighed as he looked back down at all the paperwork he had left to do; he had pre-counted it all before and was shocked to find he had 200 papers to grade. That was more than two assignments per student per class, give or take a couple who made sure to get their work turned in on time.
And he had only graded ten, thanks to the distracting, persistent seven girls outside that seemed to want to help Twilight out so bad with the two problems. Those girls..., he grumbled to himself, pushing another finished paper aside. Those girls are driving me nuts with they're constant interruptions. Do they not know I'm a busy man?
"Cranky?" The call of his name made him look up from his work to see the timid, pink-haired girl standing in his doorway.
He sighed, pushed aside the paper he was working on, knowing he wouldn't be able to get anything done if they came in again. He gave up once Pinkie broke in, but failed to admit to the seven teens stalking his classroom. "Yes?" He asked, albeit with a slightly bitter tone, making the shy one recede.
"Oh...I...uh..." She hid behind the door, starting to close it again. "N-never--"
"No, Fluttershy, it's okay." He heard another voice coax her gently; the door stopped closing, being held at a halfway-open stance as she and, from what Cranky could see, the bacon haired girl continued. "He's not going to get mad again."
A small squeak emitted from Fluttershy and, although Cranky hardly knew her, he imagined the girl squatting slightly, trying to roll into a nice, protective ball while also standing up. "B-but..." she whimpered, "w-what if he does?" A small sigh echoed throughout the classroom. "I-I'm sorry, Sunset, but I'm just not that great at negotiating..."
He could see Sunset's hair go up and down from the door's window, and a hand goes on Fluttershy's shoulder. "I know," she said gently, "and it was a dumb mistake by me to let you go in and be intimidated by him." She patted her shoulder twice, then gently pushed her aside, so she could get through. "And I'm really sorry about that."
A cut off-apology came from Fluttershy, mainly because Sunset had already entered the room and gently closed the door behind her. She faced Cranky's desk with determination and started walking towards it. Oh, goody, Cranky thought sarcastically. Another one.
"Mister Cranky," Sunset said, now in front of his desk with a hand on her hip. "I believe you owe something to Twilight?" He narrowed his eyes, a soft growl emitting from him; she held up both hands to show she meant no harm and continued. "Before you freak out on us again, please let me finish." She took a deep breath to steady herself and Cranky leaned back in his chair, the furniture squeaking under his weight.
---
Outside, the girls all looked at Twilight's phone, which had the timer app up; there were seventeen seconds left. Applejack looked at the door and straightened her hat, waiting for the time to hit zero.
---
"You've had a rough day; I get it." Sunset said, "last five days of school, kids starting to act up, I've seen it in all my other classes. And, on top of that, you'd have to deal with us trying to help our friend." She gestured towards the door, speaking as she did so. "we've all had different tactics to deal with this. Applejack's honesty, for example." Applejack walked through the door, leaving it open and walked up to stand on Sunset's right. Sunset smiled, glad that there was no 'technical' difficulties and raised her voice a smidgen so she could be heard from the hall. "Or threats from Rainbow," Rainbow entered and stood on Sunset's left, then crossed her arms as she waited for the girl to finish. As Sunset listed off the different tactics by each girl, they entered as their name was called and alternated sides, Fluttershy being the last to go up on the right, next to Rarity. "..and though you got upset and scared us most of the time, we never gave up. Do you know why, Mister Cranky?"
Cranky blinked, not sure if it was a rhetorical question or not.
"Because we all wanted to help Twilight out." At the sound of her name, the meek girl entered and went to stand on the left beside Pinkie. "We have literally battled monstrous demons, worse than you can imagine." She leaned forward, placing her elbow on the desk to support her weight. "And you thought we'd back out the first two times."
"Yeah, I kind of hoped that." He said blandly.
Sunset straightened herself up, going back to her original position. "Now," Sunset said, "are you gonna let her try?" All leaned forward slightly, hoping he'd say yes to get it all over with for him.
"Nope."
All girls minus Sunset and Twilight furrowed their brows and groaned, sensing this was going nowhere. "Okay," Sunset sighed, "let me try a different way." She looked at Twilight apologetically before continuing. "Remember, during the Friendship Games, when Twilight turned into Midnight Sparkle? Did you see how hysterical she was about getting a C? Do you really want to risk her destroying the world and succeeding this time?"
"I--"
"If you say 'I don't care', she just might, and we'll all know who to blame."
Cranky sighed, slightly scared of what Twilight would do know that he knew that, and also not wanting this to continue for the next four days. He looked up at the clock and saw it was 3:56. "You have four minutes," he said, digging through the stacks to find her test. Once he found it, he handed it to her and looked at the clock again. "Make that three," he grumbled, "don't make me change my mind."
The seven girls stared at him, stunned. They had finally managed to crack him! To make him say 'yes!' They shared a look, then all went in for a group hug, shouting out tears of joy as Twilight's eyes formed little pools of happiness. She sniffed and wiped at her tears, reaching for her test. "Thank you so much, girls; you're all just so....so..." they smiled as she looked at each one of them, tears blurring her vision again. "You're all so much more than words can describe...I-I just don't know what I'd do without you!" they went in for another group hug, then Twilight shooed them all away as she finished up the answers. "These are just graded on effort, right?" Twilight asked as she turned it in a minute later, to which Crank nodded. The girl grinned and gave it to him, then left with all her other friends.
Cranky watched them leave, then looked down at the test he had just received. "Teenagers," he sighed, smiling a bit. He put her test off to the side in one of the piles and started to pack up. "I wish I had friends like that when I was her age..."