Chapter 32 (Show and Tell)
Chapter 32
Allen sat at the back of the classroom, quietly organizing his notes and thoughts as Ms. Cheerilee called out attendance, ignoring the stares of the curious foals as the teacher began the morning class. Over Saturday and Sunday, Allen, with a little help from Penny, had managed to put together a short presentation on humanity. Naturally, it would be anything but comprehensive, as he felt going too in-depth would leave the foals feeling overwhelmed with information. Moreover, Allen didn’t want to risk taking up too much time during the school day in case Ms. Cheerilee had other plans for her students that day.
All in all, he was as prepared as he could be given the amount of time and resources at his disposal. Man, am I glad the school has a power plug that works for the TV and VCR. Thought Allen quietly to himself as he looked at the cloth-covered television on Cheerilee’s desk. He’d had to get here early enough to set it up and make sure it properly worked, and thankfully Ms. Cheerilee had been here to let him in to do so. He had also been glad that he’d been able to fit it and the VCR in the little garden handcart that had been sitting in a corner of one of the barns gathering dust for years as well, as he didn’t think he would have been able to get it to the schoolhouse in one piece otherwise. All it had taken was a little bit of elbow grease to clean the cart, inflate the tires, add several old pillows and blankets to cushion the bumps from the road and he’d been good to go.
Quietly patting himself on the back for his ingenuity, he perked up when Ms. Cheerilee happily announced, “Alright class, I’m glad to see that everypony is here and ready for a new day of learning! As you can see, we have a special guest with us this morning,” pointing a hoof at Allen, she continued, “Everypony, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Ross, the newest resident of our little community.”
Allen gave a small wave as the class all turned around in their seats to stare at him. Clearing her throat to regain the class's attention, Ms. Cheerilee said, “Now, as many of you are aware, we are about to start the final learning module of this school year, Equestrian History, this module also includes a few lessons on folklore and mythology. As some of you may be aware thanks to that informative pamphlet that Twilight put together for everypony, humans were previously regarded as a myth. However, Mr. Ross’s arrival has since debunked that notion, and I have asked him to come and tell us a bit about humans and their culture. I would ask that you all remain respectful, and quiet until Mr. Ross finishes his presentation, after which there will be time before lunch for him to answer any questions you may have, so I encourage you to take notes and ask him questions. Mr. Ross, the time is now yours,” finished Ms. Cheerilee happily as she took a seat along the wall out of Allen’s way.
Giving a nod, Allen stood up and strode to the front of the class. Reaching the teacher’s desk, he turned around and surveyed the mood of the class. Judging by how most of the students were sitting up straight, with their ears perked forwards, and their full attention on him, Allen figured they were rather interested to see where he would go with this. Smiling, he cleared his throat and began, “Hello, as you know, my name is Allen Ross, but you can just call me Allen, and as Ms. Cheerilee said, I am a human from another world. I’m sure many of you have heard rumors of me around town, and I’m hoping that this presentation will answer some of your questions regarding humans. Now, it should be fairly obvious that I can’t cover the entire history of my country, let alone the entire world in a single lesson, so understand there are going to be a lot of things that I won’t cover for the sake of time.”
God, I sound like my history teacher from high school, groaned Allen to himself as he got started. Giving his head a shake, he walked around behind Ms. Cheerilee’s desk, grabbed a large cardboard box, and lifted it up onto the desk. Reaching in, he began pulling several things out in no particular order. The first item he pulled out was a rolled-up map of the world, and with a little help from Cheerilee, he managed to get it tacked up in front of the blackboard for the entire class to see.
Thanking the mare for her help, Allen pointed to a spot on the map and said, “This,” he tapped his finger for emphasis, “is the country I was born in. It is called The United States of America, and it is what is called a 'Constitutional Federal Republic'. Meaning that we do not have any kings or queens that rule over us, nor any nobility. Instead, we elect our leaders,” pulling out another item from the box, Allen placed it gently on the corner of the desk, it was a little flag, with thirteen red and white stripes, with a blue field of fifty white stars in the upper left corner. Pointing to it, he explained, “This is the flag of my country, these white stars each represent a state, and there are fifty states in the union, thus there are fifty stars represented on this flag. The thirteen stripes represent the original thirteen colonies that helped form the United States during our war for independence against Great Britain, which would be this country here,” he said, pointing to a cluster of islands on the other side of a large ocean.
He was about to continue when he saw a hoof shot up near the back, turning around, he pointed at the foal and asked with a hint of hesitation in his voice, “Yes?”
The yellow-coated filly put her hoof down and asked in a southern drawl, “Why did ya have to fight fer yer independence? Did that other country attack yer’s or something?”
“Uh... well that’s kind of a complicated question,” began Allen, suddenly realizing just how difficult a task he had before him, clearing his throat he continued, “The United States was originally a colony of Great Britain, many of the early settlers went to the New World to seek either religious freedom, a new life, riches, and fame, among other reasons I’m sure. However, as time passed, the two people disagreed on how things should be run, and well... it all eventually resulted in the colonies deciding to go their own way. Great Britain on the other hand didn’t want to let the colonies go, so war ensued. I don’t really have a lot of time nor all of the facts to go into great detail regarding the reasons why this happened, but needless to say, the colonists didn’t want to be told what to do from across the world, and so they declared independence and formed a new country. Did that answer your question, uh...” he trailed off as he hadn’t heard the filly give her name.
“Applebloom,” she replied, “and I guess so,” she added with a noncommittal shrug.
“Right, well thank you Applebloom,” replied Allen as he turned back to the map. “Now, as you all can see, there are many different countries around the world, and each one has its own unique history, culture, and language, this map here is fairly out of date, as there are several countries on here that no longer exist, but it was the only one I could find that was large enough so that you all could see it at once,” pointing to the largest country on the map, Allen continued, “This is the country that my mother and her family come from, it no longer exists, but when it did, it was called the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”
“Why doesn’t it exist anymore?” piped up another voice from the back of the class. Allen didn’t see who it was as his attention had been focused on the map at the time.
Clearing his throat, however, he replied, “A lot of reasons, most of which I do not think we have the time to get into, let’s just say that certain forms of government are not as robust as others, and that, as what happened with my country, sometimes certain groups of people don’t want to be part of a country anymore, and we’ll leave it at that,” turning around so that he was facing the class, Allen turned to look at Miss Cheerilee and asked, “I don’t think I ever asked, but how much time do I have to speak today?”
Cheerilee had been looking out at her students, probably looking for the foal who interrupted Allen with a question. Not expecting Allen to ask her a question, she gave a little start and whipped her head around to look at him, plastering on a smile, she quickly replied, “Well, I thought that you would have a lot of material to cover, and we’re actually ahead on our lesson plans this year, so you can take as much time as you want today, Allen.”
Feeling his eyebrows hike up in surprise, Allen replied, “Are you sure?”
Giving a happy nod, Cheerilee said, “Absolutely, so please, don’t feel as though you have a set time limit here, take as much time as you feel you need, I’ll let you know if time is getting short.”
“I... see, well, in that case, I guess we can keep going then,” replied Allen as he thought about how he was going to go forward. After a few seconds of quiet thought, he looked out at the group of students and asked, “I was originally going to just talk to you guys for about an hour or so and then answer some questions, but I’m thinking that it might be more interesting for everyone if we just skipped straight to the questions part and you direct where this thing goes. Does that sound good to all of you?”
When he saw an overwhelming majority of the class nod their heads in agreement, Allen smiled and said, “Alright, so this is how we’ll do things, if you have a question raise your hoof and I’ll call on you, once I’ve answered your question, I’ll point to another foal until everyone has had a chance to answer, that means until everyone has had a turn, you won’t be able to raise your hoof again, alright?”
Another round of nods and Allen said, “Alright, so who wants to ask the first question?”
An orange pegasus filly in the back shot her hoof up. Pointing at her, Allen asked, “Yes, what is your question, and could you say your name as well?”
“My name is Scootaloo, and I wanted to know if humans can fly,” she replied, her little wings buzzing in excitement.
Allen smiled and nodded. “Thank you Scootaloo, and yes we can fly, but not without assistance. Humans do not have wings like you pegasi do, so we have to rely on artificial means to achieve flight.”
Reaching into the box of things, Allen pulled out a small model airplane and held it up so that everypony could see it. “This is a model of what we call a jet airliner,” he explained, “it uses these engines here,” he pointed to the pair of jet engines that were hanging under the wings of the plane with a finger, “to generate enough thrust in order to overcome gravity and fly. It can carry a lot of people and cargo very quickly over a long distance before it needs to land to refuel. Millions of people and things use planes to fly to other countries in my world every day. It is actually possible to fly halfway around the world in less than a day for a lot of people, where before it would take days, weeks or even months of dangerous travel to reach the same destination less than one hundred years ago.”
Another hoof shot up, this one belonging to Life Flight, when Allen pointed to him, he asked, “So how long have humans been able to fly?”
“Sustained heavier than air flight has only been around for a little over one hundred years in my world. Humans have used lighter than air balloons to ascend into the sky earlier, but obviously, balloons are not very practical for moving lots of people and things long distances quickly. However, planes are not the only things that humans have created to allow us to fly,” reaching into his box of things, Allen pulled out a book and flipped to a bookmarked page, turning it around, he showed the class a picture of a Saturn V rocket ascending into space. “This is what we call a rocket, and humans have used rockets to go into space,” turning the page, Allen showed them a picture of Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon. “This is a picture taken from the surface of my world's moon, I’ll pass this around so that you can get a better look,” he handed the book carefully to a foal in the front row.
The little filly looked down at the picture of the Buzz Aldrin in his spacesuit and said, “What is that human wearing?”
“That would be a spacesuit. There is no air in space and it is very, very cold up there, so if you didn’t wear a protective suit, you would die very quickly,” explained Allen as the filly passed the book to her neighbor. “The United States was the first, and so far, the only country to put a human on the surface of the moon. However, we were not the first country to put a person in space, that honor falls to the Soviet Union, they were also the first to put a satellite into space as well.”
“What’s a satellite?” asked Dinky after Allen had pointed to her.
“It is a machine that is launched into space on a rocket,” said Allen, “a lot of satellites are used to help people communicate with others elsewhere on earth. Some take pictures from space, while others track weather patterns, thus giving valuable warning of changes in the weather.”
Another foal's hoof shot up, and Allen called on him, he was a pudgy-looking unicorn with an orange mane and tail and a pair of scissors for a cutie mark. “How come you need a warning if the weather is going to change? Don’t you guys have a way to manage the weather like we do here? Oh, and I’m Snips,” he said at the end as he remembered that Allen wanted to hear their names when he called on them.
Allen smiled. “If only that were true, Snips. You see, unlike Equestria, magic isn’t readily available on earth. In fact, most people consider magic to be a myth, and anyone claiming that they can do magic is seen as an entertainer at best or a fraud at worst.”
Another colt, this one a bit pudgy, with a light gray coat with a fork and knife cutie mark piped up. “My name is Truffle and my question is, what is your favorite food?”
“Honestly, I think it would be easier to say what don’t I like to eat, which if anyone wants to know would be cottage cheese, boiled spinach, asparagus, and brussels sprouts,” he replied with an exaggerated shiver and look of disgust on his face. The rest of the class giggled at the display and voiced their combined agreement that those foods were icky.
Once they had settled back down, Allen looked around and asked, “Alright, so does anyone have another question?” In response, everyone who hadn’t already gone yet raised their hoof and so Allen called on another foal, and thus it went until the bell for lunch was called and the foals reluctantly filed outside to eat their lunch. Allen for his part sank down onto a nearby stool and rested his back against the schoolhouse wall.
He was honestly surprised by how well things had gone. Over the past few hours, the class had asked questions covering a wide range of topics, such as what a normal day was like in his world, what kind of books he liked to read, what toys he played with as a kid, and so on. One chocolate-colored earth pony colt had been particularly interested in Allen’s old Gameboy Color that he had shown to the class along with his collection of games that went with it. This in turn had led to Allen explaining what a Pokemon was, which then led to a short discussion on all things Japan, such as manga, and anime. What had surprised Allen was that apparently there was a version of Japan on Equus, though it was called Nieghpon instead, and they had also developed manga, however, it was still relatively unknown in Equestria, so only a couple of the foals knew anything about it.
However, when a little unicorn filly named Sweetie Belle had asked him what kinds of music he had listened to as a kid, he had immediately smiled and pulled out an old radio cassette player from the box. Pushing in a cassette tape he’d found lying around, he hit play. Within seconds the first song on the cassette started playing and soon the voice of Billy Crawford singing the opening theme song of Pokemon: The First Movie belted out of the speakers and the foals began bobbing their heads in time with the beat and smiling. As soon as the song ended, Allen hit the stop button and asked, “So what did you guys think?”
“That was so neat!” squeaked Sweetie Belle excitedly from the back along with several other foals nodding in agreement, “Can we listen to another song, please?” She begged, giving Allen the biggest puppy dog eyes that she could, seeing this, the rest of the class, save for Diamond Tiara and Ms. Cheerilee joined in to combine their powers of cuteness.
Allen stood there on the receiving end of nearly an entire class of already adorable foals giving him their biggest, cutest, most pleading puppy dog eyes that they could. That much-concentrated cuteness would have given most people instant diabetes and or a heart attack on the spot. However, Allen was made of sterner stuff than that. Giving a shrug, he simply said, “Alright,” and hit play, M2M’s, Don’t Say You Love Me quickly filling the classroom with its sugary 90s pop music, much to the apparent joy of the foals.
When the song ended, Allen again hit the stop button and prepared to move on, however, the class hit him with another round of puppy dog eyes. Rolling his eyes, he said, “Alright, but I’m only going to play one more alright, then we have to move on.” Cheering the class waited as Allen fiddled with the cassette player, bits and pieces of random songs playing for a second as Allen would hit the buttons that would cause the cassette tape to fast forward or backward as he hunted for a particular song. Finally, after a minute of searching, Allen found it and hitting the play button, one of his favorite songs from the movie soundtrack kicked off.
To say that the foals really liked Angela Via’s, Catch Me If You Can would be an understatement, by the time the song had finished, just about every foal had gotten out of their seats and were happily dancing to the beat of the song. As the song ended, Allen, for the third and final time, hit the stop button and waited as the foals climbed back into their seats at Ms. Cheerilee’s urging.
Once the last student was back in their seats, Allen nodded his head and said, “Well, judging by how out of breath you all are after all that dancing, would it be safe to assume that you enjoyed that very tiny sample of human music?”
All the foals vigorously nodded. “Yeah! They reminded me of Sapphire Shore’s newest album!” said a random filly that Allen hadn’t called on yet.
“Sapphire Shores? Who is that?” he asked, his head cocked to one side.
Ms. Cheerilee replied, “She’s a new pop artist that’s taken the music scene by storm recently. A lot of the big city radio stations like to play her.”
“Wait, did you say that you guys had radios?” asked Allen incredulously.
Ms. Cheerilee opened her mouth to respond, but Diamond Tiara’s haughty reply cut her off. “Of course we do or at least rich ponies like my family do. Everypony else has to make do with mechanical record players if they want to listen to music.”
“Diamond Tiara, what I have told you about bragging about how well off your family is like that?” asked Ms. Cheerilee, a hint of warning in her tone.
Seeing the unhappy look that her teacher was giving her, and not wanting to get in further trouble with either Ms. Cheerilee or her father, Diamond simply sunk low in her seat and mumbled out a half-hearted apology. Seeing that her troublesome student was sufficiently humbled, Ms. Cheerilee turned her attention back to Allen and replied with a smile, “Yes, although it’s still relatively new, so a lot of ponies can’t afford a set yet, plus they’re quite large and heavy.”
“Huh, well isn’t that interesting, I wonder...” said Allen to himself as he turned back to the radio cassette player and flicked a switch, rough static squealed out of the speakers and everypony’s ears fell flat against their scalps as Allen fiddled with the dial and antenna as he searched for a signal, after several seconds of hunting on the FM band and not getting anything, he switched over to AM and immediately found something.
And here they come around the final turn everypony! It’s Spitfire in first, with Fleetfoot right on her tail, while Soarin is taking the outside to pass Surprise in third, and Gale Force is bringing up the rear in fifth. Allen leaned in and adjusted the volume upwards as the voice of the race announcer came over the radio through the mild static.
Adjusting the tuning knob a touch, he managed to get rid of the worst of it as the announcer continued, I’ve got to tell you, folks, this race is a close one and it’s anypony’s guess as to which Wonderbolt is going to take home the trophy today! Here they come down the final stretch, Spitfire is still in the lead by a muzzle, but Fleetfoot is giving it everything she’s got and is inching ahead, Soarin has managed to pass Surprise, putting him solidly in third, while Gale Force is struggling to keep up, I’d say he should have sat this race out after just recovering from that sprained wing last month.
Suddenly the announcer gasps and excitedly shouts, OH!? What’s this? It looks like Fleetfoot has managed to inch ahead of Spitfire, and with only a hundred hooves to go from the finish line, can she hold that position and take the trophy for the first time in her career... YES! SHE DID IT! Fleetfoot has won by a muzzle! Hear that crowd go wild out there everypony! Shouted the announcer pony joyously as the sound of a screaming crowd leaked through in the background, though judging by the excited shouting coming from several of the pegasi foals, they had also been rooting for Fleetfoot as well, either that or they were just excited to be excited, he wasn’t sure. The announcer continued, The results are in, it’s Fleetfoot in first, Spitfire for second, Soarin has taken third place, Surprise fourth, and Gale Force has come in at fifth place. What a race everypony. This is Mic Check coming to you from the Canterlot Royal Raceway! Thank you for tuning in and we’ll see you next week for more exciting pegasi racing action, now back to the studio!
Turning the radio off, Allen leaned back and watched as the excited pegasi leaped and fluttered around the classroom, much to the consternation of their teacher. While Ms. Cheerilee was busy pulling excited pegasi foals out of the rafters of the schoolhouse, Allen was contemplating the fact that Equestria’s technology wasn’t as backward as he thought it was. It looks like I’m going to have to compare notes with Twilight and Lyra sooner rather than later about the similarities and differences between our two worlds. Thought Allen to himself, however a tug on his pant leg pulled him out of his thoughts, and looking down, he spied a light gray coated filly with a pair of pale opal colored eyeglasses and a silver spoon as her cutie mark. Leaning down, he asked, “Yes? Did you have a question?”
She nodded and asked, “How come that radio is so small compared to the one my father just bought last month? I’m Silver Spoon by the way.”
Glancing between her and the radio on the desk, Allen replied, “My world has made many great advancements in electronics technology, that,” he said, pointing at the radio, “is so small because we’ve managed to make the internal components very small and more powerful than what you people likely can make.”
Silver Spoon blinked and edged closer to the radio, rearing back, she placed her hooves on the desk and looking back at Allen asked, “Can I take a closer look at it please?”
“Just be careful, if you break it there’s no way for me to fix it,” replied Allen.
The filly nodded and flipping her braided mane to the other side of her neck, she carefully pulled it closer and looked it over. Allen for his part just smiled as he watched the curious filly for a moment before a loud crash drew his attention. Apparently, Scootaloo had tried to fly up and roost in the rafters with the other pegasi foals and hadn’t been able to make it, crashing into her desk in the process. Ms. Cheerilee looked like she was just about done with the foals antics by this point as she untangled Scootaloo from her desk, pushed her down in it, and gave the others a stern look before pointing up at them with a hoof and then down at the floor silently, a stern look on her face as she did so. The wayward foals got the message and sheepishly returned to their seats.
“What does ‘FM’ mean?” asked Silver Spoon suddenly, drawing Allen’s attention away from the class again.
“Huh? Oh, FM stands for frequency modulation, it’s another way for information to be sent over radio waves. I don’t really know the details, but if my memory is correct, you have better sound quality with FM and it doesn’t suffer from as much interference like AM is.”
Silver Spoon turned back to the radio and continued looking it over. “Interesting,” she muttered quietly to herself.
Seeing that Ms. Cheerilee was just about finished getting the pegasi settled, Allen was about to tell Silver Spoon to return to her seat when she hit a button, and the radio burst to life with an ear-splitting unearthly wail of static, and metallic screeching that made everyone clap hooves and hands over their ears.
Rushing to shut off the radio, Allen had his hand on the off switch when the static suddenly ceased and a soft, cultured voice came over the radio saying, We are terribly sorry about that everypony, we don’t know what happened there. It seems as though we had some interference with our signal. Rest assured our technicians are looking into the matter, and it won’t happen again. In the meantime, back to our original programming with the weather-
Allen turned the radio off and turned to Ms. Cheerilee, who had just removed her hooves from her ears as had the rest of the class. Some of the foals had faint tears welling up in the corners of their eyes from the terrible racket caused by the radio.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, Ms. Cheerilee broke the tense silence by calmly saying, “Well, I think this is a good time to break for recess everypony.”
The foals didn’t need to be told twice, and within seconds the classroom was empty save for Allen and Ms. Cheerilee. Letting loose a sigh, Allen said, “Well... that just happened.”
Cheerilee gave a single nod. “I think it would be best to put the radio away for now.”
“Agreed,” replied Allen as he returned the radio to its place in the box, “do you think I should pack the rest of this stuff up and head home?”
Cheerilee quickly shook her head. “No, you didn’t know that this would happen, and I don’t want to end things on a sour note like this.”
“Alright,” nodded Allen as he sat down on a nearby stool, “if you’re sure, I’ll stick around for a bit longer then.”
Smiling, Cheerilee nodded and replied, “I’m sure, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and make sure the foals are behaving themselves. Recess should be over in about forty-five minutes, so if you want you can go and get something to eat.”
Allen's stomach chose that moment to let loose a disgruntled rumble and he replied with a chuckle, “I think I’ll do just that,” and with that, he followed Cheerilee outside and across the playground to the road.
When the foals saw him leaving, several of them came running up with upset looks on their faces and all asked at once if he was leaving for the day. When Allen shook his head no and explained that he was just going to get something to eat, they all relaxed and happily smiled before turning and rejoining their friends.
Allen watched them go for a minute before turning and heading home to grab a quick bite to eat. When he returned, he found that the foals were all back inside, eagerly awaiting his return. Stepping inside, he was greeted by all the foals shouting excited questions at him at once. Smiling to himself, he, along with Ms. Cheerilee managed to return order back to the classroom and resume the interrupted question and answer session.
When the bell signaling the end of the school day rang, Allen had managed to cover a wide range of topics from his world, such as technology, geography, art, and some history, though he wasn’t sure how much of it made sense to them, still, they seemed excited enough, so he didn’t worry too much about it. He even had enough time to show them several of the VHS tapes that he’d brought as well. The foals had loved watching the Magic School Bus, though Ms. Cheerilee had a look of horror on her face when she saw how seemingly carefree Ms. Frizzle was regarding the safety of her students.
Though, in hindsight, showing them the episode that went over how an engine worked, might not have been the best one to start with, as near the end of the show, he thought he saw Ms. Cheerilee shoot a suspicious look at Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. As the trio had suddenly put their heads together and started excitedly whispering to each other towards the end of the episode. However, when nothing else happened, Allen gave a mental shrug and dismissed it as just normal classroom chit-chat between friends.
When he had popped in the VHS for Schoolhouse Rock, the catchy songs had become an instant favorite, and several of the foals had started to sing along to some of them. Conjunction Junction, judging by how many of the foals had started singing and humming by the end of it was probably the class favorite. Though when they had watched the video about US history and government he had needed to give a bit of additional context in regards to it. As the information in the episodes were hilariously basic and had glossed over a lot of things that had left the foals confused. Though he felt that his poor attempts at filling in the gaps were not much better judging by the number of blank expressions by the end of it, and the less said about world history the better.
All in all, however, he felt that things had gone rather well today, save for the radio incident. Obviously, the foals had asked him a lot of questions about himself and some of the rumors that had been circulating around town. Most of the rumors had been pretty harmless, such as how he was unable to do magic, and in all honesty, Allen felt that this rumor might have some merit to it as he didn’t really feel any different from before he came to Equestria. However, only time would tell if he might develop any magical abilities, and from what he had learned from Dr. Stable, that might take a few weeks or months.
Other rumors were fairly silly, such as the claim that he was a secret government project that had escaped from a lab, and the government couldn’t cover it up so they blamed Discord, among others. He wasn’t sure how that one came about considering his farm was literally on the edge of town for anyone to come and see, but whatever. Thankfully, he’d been able to dispel the crazier rumors, and hopefully, when the kids went home they would be able to reassure their parents that Allen wasn’t some agent of chaos or secret government experiment that escaped from some secret lab in the Everfree Forest.
As he watched the last of the students leave, Allen gave an almighty stretch and let loose a satisfied groan as he felt his muscles stretch and joints pop. Looking around at the now-empty classroom, Allen remarked, “Well, that went well all things considered.”
Cheerilee hummed in agreement as she set aside a few papers she had been grading, while Allen had been answering questions. “I agree, and it looks like the foals had a good time as well, even if we did have that little scare in the middle of it.”
Glancing down at the radio, Allen slowly nodded. “Yeah... that was pretty freaky, don’t think I’ve ever heard radio static sound like that before.”
Cheerilee gave a quiet shudder as she recalled the sound, and hoped that she wouldn’t have to deal with any irate parents banging on her door accusing her of giving their precious foals nightmares. Shaking her head, she instead focused on Allen and asked, “In any case, would you like some help getting things packed up?”
Allen gave her an appreciative smile and nodded. “I’d never turn down free help,” he said as he placed several books back in the box.
Returning his smile, with one of her own, Cheerilee quickly set to helping clean up, and soon the both of them had everything packed away, save for the TV and VCR.
“I’ll go and grab the handcart and wheel it to the front door, that way we won’t have to carry this stuff as far,” said Allen as he made for the door.
Cheerilee, merely waved in understanding as she had moved towards packing up her own things in her saddlebags to take home for the evening.
Seeing that he’d been heard, Allen turned and opened the door and stepped outside to collect his cart. As he rounded the corner on the backside of the school where he had left it. He was momentarily taken aback when he spotted a large sunflower growing next to the back wall of the schoolhouse between a pair of windows.
Cocking his head, he blinked in confusion and thought, That’s odd... I don’t recall there being a sunflower back here this morning. Especially one this big this early in the year, wonder how they made it grow so fast? Did they plant it back at the beginning of April or something?
Stepping closer, he took a closer look at it. It looked to be about five feet in height, and its large yellow flower was fully opened and had several local honey bees happily buzzing around it, collecting nectar to take home to their hive to turn into delicious honey.
Looking around, he could see no one around nor anything to suggest who might have planted this sunflower nor how long it had been here. Looking at the base of the stalk, he noted that the soil didn’t appear disturbed and there weren’t any hoof prints around it either. Giving his head a shake, he turned and grabbed his cart and pulled it around to the front.
Must not have noticed it this morning in my hurry to get things set up before school started, he thought as he tried to rationalize to himself how a random sunflower could suddenly appear out of thin air like that.
Parking the cart in front of the door, he stepped through the doorway and was greeted by Ms. Cheerilee, his box of things next to her. Looking up at Allen with a smile, she happily said, “I took the liberty of moving your box closer to the door so you wouldn’t have to carry it as far.”
Returning her smile with one of his own, Allen replied, “Well thank you, I appreciate it,” grabbing it, he gave a mighty grunt and lifted the heavy box into the cart behind him. After shifting it so that he would have room for the TV and VCR, he, along with Ms. Cheerilee, carefully moved the two delicate items to the cart and gently set them down inside.
Wiping some sweat from his brow, Allen let loose a sigh of relief and said, “Thank you for the help, Ms. Cheerilee, would have been a major pain to do by myself if you hadn’t been here.”
“It was my pleasure Allen,” she replied as she gave the inside of the schoolhouse one last look for anything out of place before turning the lights out and closing and locking the door behind her. “Besides, it was the least I could do after you so generously came and shared a little bit of your world with us today, and I know most of the foals really appreciated it.”
Smiling and giving a nod of thanks at the compliment, Allen said, “It was no problem, besides, it never hurts to do a little public relations work to help boost one’s image to the local community.”
Cheerilee laughed. “It certainly doesn’t.”
Stepping between the pull bars of the cart, Allen lifted it up and slowly navigated his way through the school’s playground, Ms. Cheerilee trotting contently beside him. Reaching the road, he turned to look down at her and said, “Well, I guess I’ll catch you later then.”
Giving a happy wave, Cheerilee replied, “Well alright then, have a good night Mr. Ross.”
“Same to you,” he called back as he started on his way home before pausing and calling back over his shoulder suddenly, “Oh, I almost forgot, that sunflower you guys planted behind the schoolhouse is looking a little wilted, should probably give it some water soon.”
“I... will?” replied Cheerilee as she gave Allen a confused look as he turned and walked away. Looking from Allen to the schoolhouse, she unlatched the gate and trotted around to the back of the building, and quickly spotted the aforementioned sunflower. Cocking her head to one side, she cautiously approached the plant and inspected it.
How odd, this wasn’t here yesterday, and it's too old to have been recently planted too, she thought quietly to herself as she poked one of the leaves gently with a hoof. Pawing gently at the soil at the base of the stalk, she felt her eyebrows knit close together in curious suspicion as she noted that the soil under the grass had a reddish hue to it instead of its normal brown. Continuing her quick inspection, she found that the reddish soil extended nearly four inches in all directions from the base of the sunflower, forming a perfect circle.
Stepping away from the plant, she thoughtfully chewed on her bottom lip as her mind tried to figure out how a full-grown sunflower had ended up in the back of the schoolhouse like this. Shaking her head, she turned and quickly trotted towards town, a slightly worried look on her face.
I better get Twilight.
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Ominous flower is ominous.
why do i smell trouble?
I think Allen is about to get a crash course in just what a farm pony can do.
Also I hope your hay season is going good.
Curiouser and curiouser. Is the radio incident connected to the new sunflower? Or perhaps Allen is starting to develop magic and hasn't noticed yet?
10868915
Thanks, and yes so far so good. Better than last year, but not as good as it could be. Hopefully, the second cutting will make up the difference. We don't have any animals to feed, we just sell the hay, so there's no extreme pressure on us, unlike other farmers. This year is shaping up to be a pretty nasty one for everyone out west. Massive droughts are causing havoc and I expect food prices to go up sharply this year, there might even be food shortages, so stock up while you can or plant a garden.
Oh dear, Discord left his voodoo running.
Dimensional 'aftershock'. That sunflower and the bit of ground around it are from Earth.
That is also what likely caused that odd static: a radio in operation near the 'transfer' at the time it happened.
Yes, I think that if one could look at Earth where Allen and his farm came from, you'd find that piece of Equestria. Along with some slightly confused animals AND the area cordoned off and being studied.
10868903
Plays Pokemon The Movie Music.
Make it Double?
Who said that if you leave any cassette tape long enough in a car, it turns into Queen:Bohemian Rhapsody?
I suspect the radio had a little assistance with turning the gain up on the superhet oscilator and being magically amplified to override the main Canterlot transmission, given they heard it that far away, like a Taxi radio breaking into the operas sound loop?
As for the sunflower, maybe they have an insect problem.
The Beetles:Here Comes The Sun?
Or is the flower just happy to say ELO Mr Blue Sky?
10868945
Interesting. I was thinking disguised changeling imitating a flower to observe the school.
FCC rules clearly state that ANY and ALL interference must be accepted by the device.
But I wonder if it was mechanically based, or magically based
there's a dimensional merge comin, isn't there
Another great chapter. Eager for more.^^
Interesting... Welp, here's hoping Allen can get to the bottom of this while getting his paperwork done.
And an infernal voice began to sing, at first in the background, then coming to dominate the sound, "HIIIIIIIII-YAI-YAI-YAIIIIIIIII!!!! LO-LO-LOOOOOO-LOOOOOOO-LO-LO!"
Allen gasped, "Oh God... OH GOD NO!!!" He frantically tried to shut down the radio, but to no avail! THE CREATURE had already found them, and it was too late!
With an almighty explosion, the radio burst apart, and when the smoke and debris cleared, there stood that which even gods feared. Yes, Trololo had come to Equestria. They were all screwed.
I had to use the German dub of a silly fan animation, because somehow Youtube allowed a copyright strike against a fan animation using a non-copyrighted song from the Soviet Union, sung by a guy who's been dead for several years... Fuq you Susan, you absolute Karen. You'll suffer SLOWLY for this... my rage is kindled against thee! YOU HAVE DARED COMMIT HERESY AGAINST THE HOLY TROLOLO!!
10869414 King Koopa is clearly behind this! SOMEPONY SUMMON THE PLUMBERS!!
tvovermind.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/super-mario-bros-1-1024x580.jpg
(And so, the WORST crossover in the history of humanity began... and everyone begged for death... AND WERE DENIED, FOR THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM HELL!!!)
10869172 Discord has cracked both universes... the fractures are spreading! We need the Doctor!
But only as long as it's Tennant...
10868873 It's the Flower of DEATH! Turning all the ground around it into BLOOD, as a sign of the APOCALYPSE!!!
.... ...... ......... IT'S IN REVELATIONS, PEOPLE!!!
i0.wp.com/www.doorfliesopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Its-in-Revelations-People.gif?ssl=1
10875485
I've never read the bible
Normally I don't make suggestions for stories but since this is a story about farming and I happen to have some experience I'll lend a little bit. Sugar beets can be processed into sugar. Also corn can be processed into syrup (sweeter than sugar). And soybeans along with sawgrass and other plats like hemp (the oily stuff) can be processed for the oil they yield which can be made into bio-fuel. If the hero of your story got lucky and found a few bags of seed and a couple of books from his house and farm it would be a huge game changer for his and Bluebloods fortunes. Well that's my two cents worth of knowledge and please continue with the story, it's pretty good.
This bodes ill.
Ponies also have staged liquid fueled rockets, which they use mostly for fun, ...apparently...
Awesome chapter
Oh no. Please don't let it be...Flowey.
Earth bleeding into equestria?