Falling Petals

by BronyWriter

You Failed Them

The first sign that morning that something wasn't quite right was when Cheerilee had walked out into her prize garden to see that all of the leaves had been turned into licorice and the flowers themselves were chocolate. She squinted and leaned in next to them, her hoof extended. She brought the hoof close to her flowers, but stopped just short of them as if she was worried that they were going to bite her.

Just as she was about to consider running into town to talk to somepony about this when she heard the bell from the schoolhouse begin ringing signifying that it was five minutes until class. She didn't even stop to think about how it was against the rules for somepony other than her to ring the bell. With a yip, she bolted into her home and slung her saddlebag over her shoulder. She ran out of her house and towards the school just in time to see her students begin filing in. She smiled as she came in behind them. "Hello, Twist, hello, Snips."

Cheerilee's smile fell, and a frown crossed her face when the two students she greeted not only didn't respond, but they ignored her completely. They simply walked inside and went to their desks. Cheerilee raised an eyebrow and stared at the two before deciding that they must not have heard her. Her smile returned and she walked into her classroom.

She placed her saddlebag on her desk and turned to face her class with her usual smile. "Good morning, children." The only response she received was a half-hearted mutter from one or two of them. Her smile faded and was once again replaced with a frown. "Uh... is something the matter?"

Dinky and Twist exchanged a glance and burst into giggles. Cheerilee narrowed her eyes and looked in their direction. "Is something funny, you two?"

Dinky and Twist shot Cheerilee only the most cursory of looks before giggling once more and turning to face the front. Cheerilee stared at them suspiciously for a moment, but decided that they were probably laughing about something that had happened at morning recess. She pushed it out of her mind and forced her smile back on her face.

"Okay, today we're going to continue our lecture about the origin of The Canterlot Gardens. First, I would like everypony to turn in the worksheet I assigned yesterday." Cheerilee gave the surprisingly silent Cutie Mark Crusaders a knowing look. "And that includes the essay about discord that I assigned you three."

The foals sat at their seats, silent and unmoving. Twist and Dinky shared another look and giggle, but nopony even reached into their saddlebags. Cheerilee scanned the classroom, her frown returning. "Class, that wasn't a suggestion. I need everypony to take out their homework!" Her eyes landed on Diamond Tiara. "Diamond Tiara, if you could please collect all of the worksheets. You can set them on my desk."

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Miss Cheerilee, you didn't seriously expect us to actually do that useless worksheet, did you?"

"Yeah, why would we waste our time on that nonsense?" said Silver Spoon. She gave Cheerilee a small smirk. "Seriously, we all have better things to do."

Cheerilee's eyes narrowed, and she trotted up to the two of them. "You two are out of line! Detention for both of you! You will stay after class and not go out to recess today!"

Diamond Tiara yawned and leaned back in her chair. "As if you have that kind of power." She glanced over at Silver Spoon. "You wanna go to Sugarcube Corner after school?"

Silver Spoon giggled. "Better than wasting our time here."

"Detention for a week!" Cheerilee snarled. "And I will be talking to both of your parents about this!"

"Ooh, tough mare," Diamond Tiara muttered.

Cheerilee bit back a retort while mentally adding on another week of detentions for the two of them. She inwardly growled and walked back up to the front of the class. "Did anypony actually do their homework assignments?"

The class was silent, only moving to exchange incredulous glances. It was Apple Bloom that spoke up first. "Well, Miss Cheerilee, Ah did want to do tha assignment, but Ah looked it over and thought it was kinda... silly."

Cheerilee's mouth dropped open slightly, and took a step backwards. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon could misbehave sometimes, but to hear such words out of Apple Bloom's mouth was absolutely unheard of.

"I don't..." Cheerilee blinked twice. "Apple Bloom, I'm not sure what you mean by that."

"What she means is that the assignment seemed a little condescending," said Sweetie Belle. She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the incomplete worksheet. "I thought you wanted to treat us more like adults than this."

"Sweetie Belle, it's just a math worksheet on multiplication tables!" Cheerilee walked over to Sweetie Belle and looked over the paper. "It's literally just numbers!"

Sweetie Belle sighed and crumpled up the paper. "I dunno, Miss Cheerilee, it just kind of seems like you give us these pointless assignments because you don't know how else to teach us."

"Seriously, who cares about stupid multiplication problems?" said Scootaloo.

Cheerilee wheeled on Scootaloo and glared at her. "Scootaloo, you know that every job requires some math. What I am teaching you is important! Doesn't that matter to you at all?"

"Keep tellin' yerself that," Apple Bloom muttered.

Cheerilee turned back to Apple Bloom, still sporting the same glare. "Apple Bloom, I don't know what has gotten into you, but you cannot speak to me like that!"

"What's gotten into her is that she's figured out that what you teach is just a bunch of horsefeathers," Scootaloo responded. She leaned back in her chair and began idly playing with the pencil on her desk. "Seriously, I can add and subtract; why do I need to do more than that."

"Detention for all three of you!" Cheerilee snapped. "You will remain in class once we are finished."

Cheerilee was about to ask the class who had actually done their homework assignments, but she was cut off from a small chuckle by Apple Bloom.

"Did that make ya feel good, Miss Cheerilee?" Apple Bloom widened her smirk and leaned in closer to her teacher. "Did that make ya feel... powerful, givin' us detention just now?"

"I know it made you feel good giving me and Spoon detention," Diamond Tiara cackled. "You really thought that you were going to put us in our place because we say what the rest of us are thinking, didn't you?"

Cheerilee slammed her hoof on the floor. "Enough! Enough all of you!"" Cheerilee stomped to the front of the class and fixed the foals with her intensified glare. "All students who did not complete their homework assignments will receive a week’s worth of detentions!"

Cheerilee' glare softened slightly when she heard a slight whimper from the back of the class. She looked in that direction and saw Dinky with her head low and ears flattened. "B-but Miss Cheerilee, I just forgot my homework! My mommy was in the hospital yesterday because of her eyes."

Cheerilee stared at Dinky for a moment before sighing and shaking her head. "Well that is a reasonable excuse for not doing your homework, Dinky." Cheerilee trotted up to her and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "You can turn it in tomorrow and you won't get detention, okay?"

Dinky sniffled, but managed to look up at Cheerilee with a weak smile. "Really?"

Cheerilee returned Dinky's smile. "Of course. Your family takes precedent over schoolwork."

Dinky's smile widened slightly. "Okay. Thank you, Miss Cheerilee."

Cheerilee nodded and began trotting back up to the front of the class to get the day's lesson going. She had only taken a few steps before she heard Dinky lightly chuckle behind her. "Sucker."

Cheerilee's eyes widened, and her ears perked up as she registered what Dinky had said. With a snarl she spun around and stomped over to Dinky. "How dare you, you ungrateful brat!" she screeched. "How dare you use a fake story about your mother to try to get sympathy from me! If I ever hear--"

Cheerilee's rage died down when she saw that Dinky was legitimately sobbing in front of her. Her wails filled the small schoolhouse, and each of the students was looking at her with a grim expression. Cheerilee softly gasped and reached a hoof out to Dinky. "Oh Dinky, I'm sorry that I--"

With a squeak, Dinky slapped Cheerilee's hoof away and slid off of her seat, backing away into a corner. "Go away!" she squeaked. "I-I'm sorry that I did a bad thing, but I just didn't want detention, Miss Cheerilee." Tears began pouring down Dinky's face, staining the floor below her. "I'm s-sorry!"

"No Dinky, I'm sorry!" said Cheerilee as she reached out her hoof to Dinky. "I didn't mean to yell like that!"

"Pathetic."

Cheerilee wheeled around to see Apple Bloom glaring at her. "Apple Bloom, what--"

"Ah called ya pathetic!" Apple Bloom snapped. "Yellin' at Dinky like that. Wasn't detention fer all of us enough for ya?"

"I bet she enjoyed that," said Diamond Tiara.

"She really loves being the one in charge, doesn't she?" Silver Spoon agreed.

"Maybe that's why she got into teaching, so she could boss foals like us around."

Cheerilee turned to Sweetie Belle and wildly extended a hoof. "That isn't true, Sweetie Belle! I became a teacher to bring joy to your learning! I love teaching foals!"

Sweetie Belle scoffed and shook her head. "Yeah, yeah, we've heard your cutie mark explanation a million times."

"Is she seriously seeing the same cutie mark that we are?" Scootaloo muttered. "Her flowers don't look that happy to me."

Cheerilee turned her head and looked back at her cutie mark. Where once there was a trio of healthy, smiling flowers, now there were a trio of sickly flowers with crying faces. The colors were dulled, and the petals were shivered up and black. "Oh no," Cheerilee whimpered.

"She's seeing what we all have from the very first day of class," said Snips.

"I told you she wasn't going to be very good," said Snails. "Never thought she'd be in this just to make us feel bad."

"That isn't true!" Cheerilee wailed. "I love you all and it has been my privilege to teach you."

The class began laughing all around Cheerilee, with only Dinky's sobs mixing in. Their caws echoed throughout Cheerilee's brain, and she collapsed onto her haunches and shoved her hooves over her ears, begging her class to stop. Her begging became so hysterical that she didn't notice that a shade of gray was creeping up in her fur, encasing her completely. Her class was talking around her, but only Dinky's words made it through to her.

"Miss Cheerilee... I thought that I could trust you."

With that, Cheerilee curled up on the ground and began loudly sobbing, hoping for the nightmare to end. Her hooves still covered her ears, but the laughs and the crying from Dinky still rang throughout her head as she sobbed on the ground.

She was still lying there and crying when a rainbow burst shot throughout Ponyville. She wasn't found by Twilight and her friends until many hours later. She was still sobbing on the floor of the completely empty schoolhouse, begging her students to stop laughing at her.

Comments

[Nazidash]

holy fuck
poor Cheerilee

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Goddamn dude.

That chapter title could have been more perfect.

This had POWER to it. EXTREME power.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Fire Scroll]

Damn, that is not what I was expecting at all.

[BronyWriter]

2983690 could or could not have been more perfect?

[Skeeter The Lurker]

2983699

No need to do anything to it.

It was spot on perfect.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[BronyWriter]

2983694 What were you expecting if you don't mind me asking?

[ironwolf]

Oh my. I'm a teacher myself, but I do not teach children, so I don't think I can relate to her situation. To have such little angels start being so mean and cruel to her... Ouch. Dammit, Discord, you lil' bitch.

[kilo]

This was actually more twisted than what my limited imagination could come up with, and very much up Discord's alley. She's gonna need some serious therapy.

[Eden]

[youtube=W_B3dvFMyDE]

[John The Dragon]

wow,I was not was not expecting that at all. Good job! and I cannot wait until she has to go back teaching the foals.

[Allsmiles]

Whoa... this was cruel. Didn't see that coming... very well done.

[Fire Scroll]

2983704 Truthfully? Something absolutely ridiculous (funny) . I didn't expect something so dark. I guess I should pay more attention to tags

[PhycoKrusk]

I continue to believe that Discord is a guy that just wants to have a good time. He just, you know, never thought things through when he did them.

FOR INSTANCE

In this chapter, we see no evidence that Discord worked his magic on Cherilee. Which means that what happened to her was straight up legit trauma, with her changed cutie mark being a hallucination caused by her cognitive dissonance, culminating in untreated Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is why she's been hiding all week.

Which is, when you think about it, way worse.

[BronyWriter]

2985262 Except that she turned gray when she had hit rock bottom like the rest. On top of that, none of the students were actually there.

[Jamin P Rose]

Poor Cheerilee, I hope that Twilight can help her work through this.

[Jgame]

And this is a slap in the face to not only the character, but Cheerilee herself. Not many stories can do that within the first 2500 words. Expertly done.

[Ellington]

Somehow Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are IN character. Not Discorded.

Hey Discord? You missed those two!

[MustacheMerlin]

3495908 I don't think he could make them any worse if he tried.