Interlude 2 - Back to School
Note: This chapter takes place from the perspective of our protagonist's mother.
Twilight took me to the local school for nine in the morning, to see if I would be able to, at the very least, get some experience of teaching methods here. With any luck, and perhaps the nod from those two princesses, I’d be able to start teaching here soon enough. I’d actually retired not that long ago. Or at least, I left the school I was teaching at, the head was setting up to turn it from a bilingual school to a minority only one. It didn’t help when said minority had their own government and political parties.
After leaving the library, we walked up the main street, which was somewhat ironically called ‘Mane Street’, and headed out from the town’s centre toward the outskirts. There we found the schoolhouse.
It was a pretty little building, the sort of thing you’d expect to find on a kids TV show. A wooden structure, the schoolhouse was painted a softish red colour. On the roof was a small steeple housing the school bell. Not too dissimilar to my last school in that regard. Out in front of the building was the school yard. It had a couple bits of playground equipment, with a few toys scattered here and there. There were no fences, obviously there was either no concern for children running off or such concern was not necessary. Based on what I’d seen so far, I suspected it was the latter.
We arrived just before nine o’clock, when lessons began, so we ought to be able, according to Twilight at least, to have a brief discussion with the head at the school and settle any details later. Hopefully, in a few weeks, I would be able to start teaching, or at the very least helping some of the struggling pupils as I had done before.
We found the teacher, a Miss Cheerilee, outside keeping an eye on the playing children. She looked to be several years younger than me, were she a human, but she had the look of someone whose been at the job long enough to know their cookies. It is an undisputed fact that young children have the ability to smell fear on teachers. From this initial sight, I knew she could keep these students in line.
“Good morning, Cheerilee” Twilight said as we approached. The cerise coated mare turned to us.
“Oh, morning Twilight,” she said. “And good morning to you…too.” She faltered a little upon seeing me.
“Cheerilee, you remember Margaret right? Margaret, this is Cheerilee,” Twilight introduced us. The earth pony recovered and greeted me, apologising for her shock.
“I’m awfully sorry about that. I know you’re not dangerous; you just took me by surprise. What are you two doing down here anyway?”
“The Princess said it might be in both our interests if I was to come and help teaching here,” I replied. Cheerilee blushed slightly.
“Oh of course, I remember now” she said. “Yes, she did say you had some experience teaching foals. And it would help me reduce my workload a great deal.”
“Well, I don’t know about foals, but I’ve dealt with all sorts of human children over the years. I can’t see any kids here that look particularly unruly.”
Cheerilee’s expression now shifted to a sort of appraising attitude. I probably had a similar look when I first spotted her when we arrived. After a moment, she returned to her previous happy looking face.
“How much experience do you have then?” she asked me.
“About twenty years on and off, plus I often helped out unofficially at my son’s school when he was younger. I’ve dealt with quite a few troublesome students, particularly a few who had learning difficulties.” Cheerilee nodded, impressed.
“Well, I suppose you could observe for today. You won’t be able to teach until you pass at the next inspection, that’s in about a fortnight. But if I let you sit in today on the lessons, I’m sure we can steadily ease you into a few unofficial areas. Then once you pass inspection, which I’m fairly certain you will, you can take a couple of days a week.”
This surprised me greatly. I’d expected at least a demand for a reference of a CRB check. Obviously, this Equestria didn’t suffer from some of the darker faults humans did.
With that Twilight said she’d return to the library, as it was (again) reshelving day. I expected to finish around three, so I promised that I would return around then, depending on what happened over the course of the day.
Cheerilee led me through the building’s front door into the classroom. It was full on Americana, the traditional blackboard, school desks; everything reeked of an idealised time. There were about twenty or so desks with Cheerilee’s own placed just ahead of the board. Given the relatively low population of Ponyville, I wasn’t surprised by the low class size. Mind you, on Earth, they’d have closed this place down in a heartbeat. I’d already taught at schools with an average class size of forty students per group.
“Right then, if you want to take a seat at the back there to keep an eye on things?” She gestured toward a chair leaning against the back wall. She then briefly turned around and called the kids inside.
As the students filed into the classroom, they all instantly latched onto me. Kids notice everything that’s different at that age, and a strange talking biped was no exception. In particular those three that Lizzie had made friends with at the party came up to me to say hello again. Cheerilee quickly reeled them in and got them seated and settled.
“Alright, everypony settle down. Now, I’m sure you’ve noticed we have a visitor today. This is Mrs. Owen.” It surprised me that Cheerilee knew about human names and their significance, perhaps Twilight had told her. “She’s going to be sitting in on a few of our lessons and hopefully, will be teaching you all soon enough.” This drew a number of questions.
“Does that mean you’re not gonna be teaching us anymore Miss Cheerilee?” one foal asked.
“Are we gonna learn about where those aliens come from?” asked another.
“No, no, no. Nothing like that,” Cheerilee assured them. “Mrs. Owen is just going to be helping me out a little. That way, we’ll both be able to get more work done. I’m not leaving Ponyville just yet.”
And so I settled down for the morning lessons. I’d never taught under the system they used in the US. In Britain, you went to primary school, then secondary, and then if you wanted to, stay on for Sixth Form. It was easy enough to tell that this was the elementary level. To my knowledge, there weren’t any other schools in Ponyville. Maybe the high school was off in one of the larger cities. Those puns still make me smile.
We began with history. Ironically, they were studying the conflict between Equestria and the Griffons. The whole story was a mix of the Cold War combined with a few aspects from World War Two and the wars in the Middle East. Today, I actually understood half of what was being taught, since the main subject was the Sixth Griffon War, which I had read a fair bit about when I was with Princess Luna.
She’d been good company while I was at Canterlot. I’d heard her story from my son, but you’d never guess what had happened to her based on her general personality. Though her occasional use of archaic language did throw up a couple red flags. It was nice to have someone to swap notes with about the whole ‘Brony’ phenomenon. Living where we had, I was certain that there were no others for a fair few miles. And I wasn’t about to tell any of our extended family about it. I’d been dreading what would happen when my uncle would come to visit and find the posters and other merchandise my son had in his room.
With the history class wrapping up, we moved on to mathematics. Luckily, they seemed to use the same numbers that humans did. I still needed to fully learn the new alphabet if I was to have any hope of being a teacher. They were working on multiplication tables today. It didn’t seem as if they had much trouble, except for one little filly.
She had a noticeable lisp and seemed to struggle a bit with mental maths. Not really unexpected, but it was important that someone, or somepony, pounced on the problem before the poor thing was left behind. Luckily, Cheerilee had also noticed and, whilst the others worked through the exercises on their own, she helped her with a few of the trickier questions.
It was then that I heard quiet sniggering coming from the front of the class. I guess even in Equestria there horrid cruel little children. Two fillies were giggling amongst themselves as they looked on at the other’s plight. The nastier of the two had a little tiara on her head, with a similar tiara for her mark. Any fool could see she was rich and spoiled one of the class.
There were two kinds of problem children. The first tended to be from poorer areas, and rarely got any help or attention from their parents. These could be helped and encouraged, it was simply a matter of dispelling the anti-swot culture that may have prevailed in their home. The spoilt rich child however, was more difficult. From long experience I knew any complaint to the parents would be met with the claim that their child was perfect in every way, and that it surely must be the other child at fault. They actually encouraged the bad behaviour.
This one definitely fell into the latter of the two categories. I was not the only one to notice their behaviour fortunately, as Cheerilee quickly moved over to the pair. This ought to be good.
“And just what are you laughing at Diamond Tiara?” she asked flatly, causing the two to fall silent. I had to strangle a laugh at that name. It certainly fit the bill if nothing else.
“Oh, nothing Miss Cheerilee,” the filly replied.
“Really, because from where I was standing, you two seemed to be laughing at Twist.” Again, she kept her voice level. Kids often find it scarier when you don’t raise your voice.
“Oh, we’d never do that Miss Cheerilee.” Somehow, the response lacked any sincerity.
However, since she’d got them to stop and convinced them to back off, Cheerilee moved on to check on the others. However, every time her back was turned, those same two would go back two bullying Twist. When Cheerilee came back down towards me, I motioned her over.
“Those two are still going after Twist,” I said quietly.
“I know,” Cheerilee replied. “But I can’t keep tabs on them all the time.” She paused, and smiled, a plan forming in her mind. “Why don’t you have a go at straightening them out? It would more than help prove your ability when the inspection comes around.” I nodded.
“Alright, I’ll give it a shot,” I said, rising from my seat.
So I wandered around for a few minutes, keeping one eye on Diamond Tiara and her friend. As I passed a trio of fillies, one of them gently pulled me aside. I quickly recognised her as one of the kids that Lizzie had been getting along with at the party. She was a yellow earth pony, with a bright red mane and had a huge bow tied in it. This was Apple Bloom; she was the sister of the pony my son was currently staying with.
“Mrs. Owen, Diamond Tiara an’ Silver Spoon are still makin’ fun of Twist.” She said. Looking at the pair she was right, they were still giggling away and Twist was looking more miserable by the minute. A plan formed in my head.
“Here’s an idea. Can you three girls do me a favour?” They all nodded and I explained my plan to them. The bell then rang, signalling the lunch break.
When class resumed, I put my little plan into action. I’d explained everything to Cheerilee while she was watching the kids. While it was a little unorthodox, and probably bent a few rules, she agreed to play along.
So, when class resumed, and they all settled down to work on Equestrian, I nodded to Apple Bloom and her friends. They began by quietly giggling, as Diamond Tiara had done, this quickly drew said filly’s attention. At first, she just ignored it, but Apple Bloom and the others simply kept going driving her steadily crazy. Me and Cheerilee were struggling to keep our composure, as was a thin young colt that happened to listen in on our conversation. Eventually, Diamond Tiara could take it no more.
“Miss Cheerilee, those three blank flanks are laughing at me!” she whined. Cheerilee looked up.
“Crusaders, are you laughing at Diamond Tiara?” she asked the three fillies. She promptly received a negative from Apple Bloom. This quickly formed into a cycle, and Diamond Tiara began to get more and more infuriated. Only when she began to get upset, did Cheerilee at last step in.
“Alright, Apple Bloom. That’s enough.” She turned to Diamond Tiara. “It’s not very nice to have other ponies laugh at you is it?” The filly shook her head. “So maybe you shouldn’t be laughing at Twist.” The filly nodded. “Good, then we’ll say no more about it.”
Half an hour later, the last bell rang and the kids all headed home. I was surprised that there were no parents to pick them up. Evidently, Ponyville was a safe enough place that children wandered around freely. I got up to leave but Cheerilee stopped me at the door.
“You really helped me out today, Margaret,” she said “When I saw you this morning, I wasn’t sure if you’d be a good teacher, but now, I’d say you’re more than qualified. If you come in same time tomorrow, we’ll start introducing you to some of the workload. You can’t teach yet, but you can certainly help me out until you can.”
So, it looked like I was going back into teaching. My pension wasn’t that great anyway. Would I have to reapply to the NUT, or whatever they called it here? I got on well with Cheerilee and, with the exception of those two fillies; the class seemed to like me too. All in all a good start.
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yay! more!
And that, is what makes humans so terrifying - especially to Equestria. We are ingenious, we manipulate and trick and outwit to levels equal to or even greater than Celestia.
3749859 Correct. Soon.
3749886 Oh please, very few humans can hold a candle to the troll Celestia.
I actually based that one something that happened when I was in in primary school. I actually felt sorry for the evil bugger.
3749899
Sure, we might be overmatched in terms of scale or resources, but we're innovative and resourceful. We'd do things she'd never even think of.
3749934 That's true. Equestrians do seem to innately be more kind hearted than humans. even Tia. She has yet to introduce the concept of 'Family camps' as North Korea has.
3750148
I did consider expanding on the episode 'Hearts and Hooves Day'. Maybe the next time she gets a chapter. 
dam that a good slice of life chapter
One thing I had trouble pinning down, when you included the remark about a bilingual school becoming a minority-only school I couldn't figure out what kind of schools they'd be in the context of British education.
That's not ironic.
A statement that, when taken in context, may actually mean something different from, or the opposite of what is written literally; the use of words expressing something other than their literal intention, often in a humorous context.
It is appropriate.
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121231051702/mlp/images/6/65/FANMADE_%22You_don't_say%3F%22_by_mamandil.png
Oh, yes! Yes! She SO had that coming!mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw10695-this_pleases_Miss_Cheerilee.png
curse you.... curse you and your good writing.... I HAVE TO READ STILL 20 MORE CHAPTERS AND ITS 2AM
WHY MUST YOU WRITE SO WELL!!!!!!
Resting, walking or running? What BMI level? Do they have a pacemaker? Any family history of cardiovascular problems?
National Union for Teachers?
5539026 Close. National Union of Teachers.
I remember when I was a kid in a small town (mid 1960s). Monday nights, my Dad would drop me off early for the Boy Scout meeting on his was to call Bingo at the local VFW (Illegal as Hell, but all 4 town cops were members so their attitude was "* the law, we need the money"). I was always 1st one there, so I'd just go in & wait. It was in the church basement. so the door wasn't locked. Afterwards, at about 9PM, I'd walk about a mile in the dark (no street lights outside town) over to the VFW (nobody lived out near us) & they'd let me in. They'd give me a cherry soda & I'd call Bingo until break time & then Dad would take me home. (Technically, under USA laws they could have lost their liquor license letting a minor in where booze was served. I remember Dad told one of the cops, "You don't like it the kid is here? You drive him home" & that was that). Mom never worried about it -and she was a worrier.
That's what it used to be like in small towns. Took some getting used to if you moved in from a big city
It's rather amusing to see so many anti-American comments. I also like how the Father said that Great Britain 'allowed' the nations it had enslaved to form their own governments with no mention of how many of those rebelled violently due to horrific crimes of mass murder, rape, and theft. Truly a humerous frame of thought from the nation that has committed more crimes against Humanity than arguably any other in history. Lord knows Americans did plenty of our own such crimes, though we never had the gall to say it was for the good of the enslaved then act offended when they got upset about it. Meh, it's all good though, most Brits hate Americans because we kicked you out, and Americans hate Brits because you're snobs who think you're better than everyone else. It's all fair. Besides Brits gave the world Dr. Who, Monty Python, breakfast tea (which is exquisite), John Malcom Thorpe Flemming Churchill, and Tommy McPherson. Well those last two are Scottish, but close enough. (My Campbell ancestors are probably rolling in their graves over me saying that)
9095841
*cough* Manifest Destiny.
Joking aside, the Dad character does paint a rather rosy picture. But while I would never try to justify the old Empire, I would argue it wasn't terrible either. Britain abolished slavery well before America did, and the majority of the colonies were comparatively well treated when compared to the other Great Powers, considering the ethical and moral standards of the time. It's unfair to judge our forebears by modern standards.
Cookie I said Cookie!
*Looks definition up*
Yeah I’ve been playing fortnight for two weeks. 
Alright who’s the nut job?
9109197 NUT, is the National Union of Teachers, one of several trade unions for teaching staff in the UK.
It is an undisputed fact that young children have the ability to smell fear on teachers. A truth unspoken of but a truth never the less.
Kids often find it scarier when you don’t raise your voice. when I was loud they would quiet down but all was well. when I got quiet and used a low quiet voice! The reaction was "Duck and cover the old man is going to blow!" 35 years of 8th graders.
9097492
Treated well? Well......compared to, say, the Belgians or the Russians, yes. But Gahndi would probably dispute that & so would the Irish.