Chapter 14
The sculpture garden was dark on Sunday night, lit only by a half moon. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the bushes and decorative trees. Cheerilee waited upon a pedestal, doing her best to look like an actual statue. Of course, it helped that she had been painted with plaster and weathered to resemble stone.
“I’ll layer things with paper to make the coating more durable, but too much movement could crack the plaster,” said the artist who had been brought in for the job. He joked, “Could you perhaps keep the breathing to a minimum?”
“I’ll do my best,” Cheerilee had told him, serious.
At least mimicking a piece of garden art gave her time to think. The ambush had been set, and all she had to do was wait for it to play out. With so many hours ahead of her, Cheerilee let her mind drift.
The swamps outside Trottingham had been heavily guarded for good reason. The documents Cheerilee recovered provided more than a little valuable information. The unique terrain had also been the source of the uncommon plant material that had been used to bind Sapphire Shores to the table at the Garden Party. The fog and general impassibility of the area make it likely that there might be other new plants or animals in the swamp that had yet to be discovered.
Analysis of the recovered data had answered most of the big questions. Organized crime was something Equestria had rarely seen before. The group that had built their operation in the swamp posed problems because of how unconventional they were. Princess Luna had remarked that it was a good thing they had an unconventional warrior to combat them.
The title had made Cheerilee very uncomfortable. It was still very hard to admit what she had done. Though it seemed inevitable, the mare did not look forward to killing again.
Perhaps she had it wrong. It was easy to say that it was the vampire doing the slaughter, not Ms. Cheerilee the schoolteacher. That almost seemed like she was trying to shift the blame off her shoulders. What would it take to fully admit what she was? How could anypony come to terms with something like that?
Does feeling bad about it count for anything? wondered Cheerilee. She hadn’t hesitated to kill, but she regretted each time that she had done so.
The forlorn pony continued to think as the hours passed.
Two ponies walked hurriedly through the park. The aged mare was surprisingly able for as old as she looked. Her pace may have been caused by the stallion’s prodding. The unicorn looked much younger than her, and kept glancing around. They entered the sculpture garden. It was decorated with various statues, most of them ponies. Neither of them noticed the eyelids of one particular mare open as they walked by.
“Come on,” muttered the stallion. “You’ve come this far, Photo. Just a little further.” He and the pony continued on, leaving the sculptures behind and entering an area decorated with various large rocks hauled from around Equestria. A green-eyed statue watched them go.
Cheerilee took a deep lungful of air. The familiar habit of breathing served both to calm her down and to crack the hard shell on her body. She shifted slightly, pulling her feet up from the stone base she rested on. Quietly, she stepped down, shaking off shards of plaster.
The two ponies were now out of sight. Cheerilee went down the path after them, gliding as silently as mist. She knew what she had to do.
The stallion may not have been told to watch out for a particular lavender mare, but anypony would have noticed the fire in her eyes and expected trouble. When Cheerilee descended on him, he didn’t react calmly. Shoving the third pony out of the way, he kicked at his attacker.
Cheerilee easily dodged the strike and knocked the stallion over. He jumped back up, his horn sparking with magic. A bubble-like shield appeared around him.
Unimpressed, Cheerilee bucked the magical barrier. It dampened the effect of her blow, but the stallion was surprised to find his hooves sliding backwards several inches from the force.
The mare kicked the bubble again, harder. She kept hammering away at it until the shield was positioned very close to a nearby boulder.
With one final buck, the bubbled slammed against the rock, bouncing back and giving the stallion an unexpected one-two pummeling. Temporarily stunned, he dropped the bubble. Cheerilee whirled around, balancing on her rear legs and drove her forehooves into the pony with enough force that he left the ground and landed on the other side of the boulder.
The mare walked around the rock, finding the stallion lying on top of a small metal plaque and groaning in pain. The words—Specimen contributed by the Carousel Boutique, Ponyville—were cast into the tablet as raised letters, and would probably cause him some interesting bruises.
As Cheerilee approached, the stallion managed to get himself turned over and fired a bolt of magic that struck her squarely in the chest. The mare tumbled head over heels and slammed into another nearby boulder.
The unicorn struggled to get up before Cheerilee recovered. He didn’t manage to rise before she pounced on him, pinning the stallion on his back. She bent down, her mouth opening…
“You’re under arrest.”
Cheerilee flipped him over, pulling on his legs to keep him from getting up. “And if you even think of using magic to get out of this, you’re in for a world of hurt.”
The pony that had been with the stallion when the fight broke out came over cautiously. Since his shapeshifting spell had worn off, she no longer resembled a frail old mare.
“What is this?” asked Photo Finish with her distinctive enunciation.
“You’re safe now,” Cheerilee told her. “That’s all you need to know.”
“I must preserve this moment.” Photo looked through the pockets of her coat for something but gave up. Apparently, her camera was gone. That was just as well. Cheerilee definitely didn’t need her picture taken while on her night job.
“Countess! Is everything all right?” It sounded like Shining Armor’s voice. A chorus of hooves sounded through the garden as the Royal Guard arrived.
“Countess? Magnificent!” exclaimed Photo. “Take my card. Take it! We must meet once again.”
Cheerilee thought her false identity was rather cheesy and hoped it would be changed soon before it became a permanent nickname. She released the captured stallion into the custody of the guards. They put him in restraints, both physical and magical. Photo Finish was taken away by a different set of ponies. She probably had some recuperation to do after her long captivity.
The schoolteacher let out a sigh and leaned back against one of the boulders. Shining Armor came over. “Another group of guards took down the last few ponies from the gang that were going to try and break into the Archives. Leaderless, those that remain aren’t going to be able to do much. We’ll go to work rounding them up.”
The stallion sighed. “Not all of them are bad ponies. Some just got in too deep with something they didn’t know anything about.” Cheerilee thought of Trixie’s brother.
“That flunky escorting Photo Finish was taking her to meet up with the rest of the group," said Shining. "They may have been planning to ransom her or something, but we intercepted them. That was good work with the rescue.”
She smiled. “Some of the best I’ve ever done.”
Shining’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Why not penetrating a heavily defended area, killing half a dozen armed ponies and a manticore, and digging up enough information for us to clean up everything else?”
Cheerilee looked at him. “You said it. Killing.”
The unicorn nodded with realization. “I see.”
“I understand it was part of the job,” explained the mare. “I was alone against all of them, and there wasn’t any way to take prisoners or restrain them for later. It was never said, but we both know I was expected to kill them.”
Shining nodded regretfully. “It’s a terrible thing, taking a life.”
“I didn’t want to, but it was better than the alternative of not stopping them.” said Cheerilee.
Shining was relieved that he hadn’t had to say that. It probably would have sounded insensitive coming from his mouth. Quietly, he asked, “How are you coping?”
“I don’t want to be evil.” Cheerilee looked at the ground. “I’ve done things that I regret. While I was stewing in self pity though, it occurred to me that as long as I had the capability to feel bad about what I did, then I’m not a soulless monster.”
Shining said nothing. The mare was thinking out loud, and he didn’t dare interrupt.
“I don’t want to hurt ponies,” Cheerilee sighed. “I don’t want to kill, even if they deserve it. The thing is, I can. I’m even good at it. I’m not saying that I should use that ability at every opportunity, and I hope I don’t have to. It is my responsibility to do what I can. I don’t have to like it, but it’s my job. I don’t need any more regrets. I’d like to know that I did my best with the situation I was thrust into.”
She looked at Shining. “You probably think I’m babbling nonsense.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to like killing anypony,” he said. The stallion tipped his head, aware that what he said next would put him on thin ice. “But when we swept the area, a couple of the bodies were lower on blood than expected.”
Cheerilee swallowed nervously. “I thought about that for a long time. Would it be worse to waste it since I had already crossed the line of killing the pony? In the end I decided…maybe drinking it would spare the life of some innocent animal. One less death.”
“I guess that makes sense,” said Shining hesitantly.
Cheerilee’s ears twitched, hearing the sound of a far-off whistle. She got up. “I should go to the station before that train gets here.”
Shining hadn’t heard it, but nodded. “We’ll find something new for you to do. It might be a few days. Take some time to relax.”
Cheerilee laughed. “Me, getting a good night’s sleep? The foals will think I’m a different pony.”
“They didn’t notice any changes after you were first turned?” asked Shining.
“What’s the difference between a schoolteacher and a vampire?” the mare asked him abruptly.
The unicorn thought for a moment. “I don’t know.”
“Nothing. I’m both. The students took the change better than I did, because they didn’t know about it. The reason they didn’t know is because I kept doing my job like I always had. By focusing on a higher purpose—teaching school—I was able to get through it. I realized that my other job worked the same way. There are other ponies depending on me to do it right.”
Shining put a hoof to his chin. “Maybe I can adapt this into a motivational speech.”
Cheerilee laughed. “Good luck with that. I have to go now. There’s school in the morning.”
Author note:
In the words of Jigoku Luna: Hail to the Mare
I try to be a transparent guy and don’t cover up my mistakes. However, enough loyal readers expressed their feelings over the original ending of this story that I caved to the pressure and rewrote it. It still may not be exactly what should have happened, but I’ll stop hogging your attention now.
Thank you very much for reading (and commenting).
Stats
Page generated in 0.029 seconds
Total duration
991 users online
124,924 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Excellent revision, I look forward to seeing more from you and vampire Cheerilee in the future!
If only Bioware was like you...
Definitely a better ending. My hat goes off to you good sir.
Wait.. a rock donated by Rarity? ............. Tom? Is that you?
Now THAT'S aproper ending, anyay let's see the scores now
Cheerilee's badassery list:
BECOMING BADASS... Part 1: Success
BECOMING BADASS... Part 2: Success
BECOMING AWESOME BADASS... Part 1: Success
BECOMING AWESOME BADASS... Part 2: Success
BECOMING EPIC BADASS... Part 1:
BECOMING EPIC BADASS... Part 2:
BECOMING LEGENDARY BADASS... Part 1:
BECOMING LEGENDARY BADASS... Part 2:
BECOMING AWESOME LEGENDARY EPIC BADASS... Part 1:
BECOMING AWESOME LEGENDARY EPIC BADASS... Part 2:
I think this sums it up all so we can say that Cheerilee is now an AWESOME BADASS!
Hummm, I dunno, I liked many aspects of the previous ending.
This however is also a very enjoyable ending. Bravo.
This is a marked improvement over the last one. Open-ended is one thing, but that last one just dropped the plot entirely and moved into the future wherein it wasn't mentioned at all, rendering everything we'd been reading empty and pointless.
So whats your next spin off going to be? A Sweatie Belle ninja one i hope
Lol. when I read Stature Garden, I first assumed Discord would be a part of it. Then I realized, Oh wait, Hes dead. Valiant killed him :P
I like the idea of encasing her in plaster. Seems like something you'd expect to see in a James Bond film.
I do like this version better than the previous one.
This chapter still feels the slightest bit threadbare, as if Cherilee is pulling off a soliloquee (or whatever that word's spelling is) rather suspiciously close to the fourth wall for our benefits. If I had my preference granted, We'd've seen another 5 or 6 chapters out of this story. Especially with a bit of her teaching class.
That said--you didn't have to come back and recast the ending.
But you did, and its a solid step up from what it was.
I tip my proverbial hat to you for doing this.
Thank you.
This is a great ending, I enjoyed the entire thing
YES! YES! BWAHAHAHA! Mostly Cleared plot lines, Whoop!
defiantly a much better ending.
one without death even! awesome!
Is there going to be more?
718694
Not in this story. Another sequel? Maybe, time will tell. There are a few other writers who have offered to continue the series. We'll see.
718703Will you put a chapter with a link of the next one?
718715
Maybe. I did that with the first story.
This does a much nicer job of tying up the loose ends. That said, I did like how the other ending tantalized with hints of future secret agent vampire Cheerilee. Eh, now you've got better leeway to use her without waiting a century.
And I thank you for the proper ending :D
And I really did like this one more.
Cheers, mate, and live on with summer break!
I enjoyed this story.
i like this ending, but make a new chapter with the fail ending as i want to see that too
717394
Where is this badass list you keep mentioning? I can't find it anywhere!
Damn you for being so great you jerk.
I still think there is more that can be done with vampire cheerilee. I can see it now, over the decades she becomes a fixture of ponyville, unchanging and always there. Parents send off children (with a smile) to their first day of school, saying she was their teacher too. The children wonder how long she has been around with rumors circulating about how she can still look young such as she's a zombie, uses extreme amounts of cosmetics, she's a vampire to she is secretly an alicorn, changling or alien or just simply magic. All the while she's the mare we know having found serendipity in the intervening years. She could pick u p a night job as game warden for ever free by keeping a lookout for extremely dangerous animals, controlling animal populations in her own way, finding people lost. Ignore or steal as you you want but there's some fun to be had even if you have tons of other stuff to write (I can't write to save my life).
722644
Future plans will be addressed in an upcoming blog post
720907 That my good firend, Is a SECRET, a secret under penance of Death
717298 Psh, if only VALVE was like him... We'd be at episode forty or so of Half-Life, and we'd have a zombie killing, alien hunting, portal using multiplayer game that encompasses all the different games they have, with new awesome Turret-zombies!
761860
The world would never be the same again...
776147 ... The world IS never the same again, anyways, lol
This was awesome.
776441
The world's always the same, it just looks different from time to time.
813853 Eh, not really, but it's your opinion, so I'll respect that.
814200
I just wanted to put some philosophical sounding words in there.
814273 Yeah? Philosophize with me when I'm not dead in the head.
814380 It's noon here, what time is it where you are?
814442 9:28 AM
910884
lol, great name and image combo
That was a pretty good story bro.
I enjoyed this very much and hope to see s sequel to this in the very near future (hint, hint)
"It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he's got and all he's ever going to have."
That quote just seems fitting for this chapter. Shame it wasn't used.
Yesssssss...
I must go, while there's still time (given, I've already gone past 'out of time') for me to read the next sequel!
So yeah, I'm not gonna lie, this was some quality work. The whole way, I was pretty much there with Cheerilee, you wrote her mental processes and monologues so well. And any time, ANY time I doubted her for a moment, I'd just have that "Oh my gosh" moment, realize how stupid I was being just moments ago, and get right back into the story. It was actually pretty impressive, how many times it happened. Really, that was the best thing about the story, the way you portrayed Cheerilee, and how you showed her change and accept more than just her vampirism. A huge part of the experience for me was sympathizing with Cheerilee, and hoping things would go better for her, hoping that she would learn a little more about herself and realizing that there would always be a better day and all that. The other part of the experience was watching her tear ponies limb from limb, but that's beside the point. What I found really interesting was how before accepting the job, Cheerilee was slowly coming to terms with her situation, but afterwards, she was shocked into different levels of acceptance, repeatedly, for not only her vampirism, but also the prospect of killing other ponies, what kind of pony it would make her, and why she kept going. It was all so gripping.
It seemed as though the criminal organization was kind of vague, and could have been developed more, but personally, I liked the story the way it was, focusing on Cheerilee's struggles a opposed to some huge underground conspiracy. As interesting as it might have been, I can't get as emotionally attached to a group of thugs as I can that lavender schoolteacher mare. Normally, I would have noted that the organization was moreover just a plot device to consistently supply Cheerilee with jobs and story progression, but it wasn't the real focus of the story, and anyway, I was far too busy rooting for Cheerilee.
Also, something interesting I wanted to note about your writing style, you were actually able to craft some powerful images without going into extremely elaborate description. It's like, your writing style isn't necessarily "Purple" or "Beige" so much as it is "Efficient" but leaning a bit on brown. There were times I found some things to be a bit dry, or sometimes lacking description entirely, like the Sabre Siblings, who were never actually described. Otherwise, I found your imagery to be fairly well done.
All in all, this was a great story. It was entertaining, the character
s were* was charming and compelling, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I had spent reading it. Going back to the one issue of... other characters, I mentioned that I hoped he would get better, but what you did was certainly an... interesting way of dealing with him. Now, given the direction the story started to move in, what with Rarity and Twilight becoming significantly less prominent, the same would've naturally happened to Valiant, but... geez.*Partway through, Twilight and Rarity became significantly less important, for good reason, since they didn't have any more to contribute. It mostly shifted to follow Cheerilee and Shining Armor Shining Armor, while also well written, wasn't focused on much, either, so you know. Kudos for characterizing him with so little time to do so!
Anyways, this was certainly fun, and I do sincerely hope to read more of your stuff!
...Right after I go read more of your stuff!
Must resist starting sequel...need sleep...
I have a hard time believing that the Royal guard would make cheerilee do all their dirty work without at least backing her up, but good job otherwise