Quantum Leap Forward

by Halira

Chapter 19: Strawberries and Muffins

The next morning began again before the crack of dawn, with her being told to do a few chores before school. She grew up on a farm, so she wasn't completely caught off guard by this, but it had been so many years that she'd forgotten how a farm filly's day might begin. It gave her a reminder that this was how many of her own students began their days, in contrast to the city ponies that she had done her student teaching with years ago-- and may have influenced her teaching methods since then. She wasn't sure what she would change about her methodology having considered this, but it was worth reviewing how it impacted her students and how to best teach them, at least once she finally got back to her own time.

Candy's morning chores weren't too much; she simply had to bring fresh water out for the various animals on the farm. She wanted to know why the Apples kept pigs, as her family never had, and she knew few farmers that did. They just didn't seem to serve a purpose on the farm. She almost asked, then considered the number of dragons and griffins she'd seen living in Ponyville, after which she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer. However, the Apples had kept pigs even back in her own time, and she doubted the local demand for… that… was as high back then. It was a mystery she decided she'd rather not solve.

Having completed the chores, she was then escorted to the school by Strawberry Surprise (Who thankfully hadn't been that loud with Bright Pear overnight). This wouldn't be so bad, but the young mare seemed to be doing her best to try to form a bond with her future sister-in-law, by revelling Cheerilee with her school exploits. She tried to object that she wasn't Candy, but the pegasus countered with Candy might remember her telling all this later on. Cheerilee had no counter for this, and was forced to listen to the things her school was going to be subjected to in a few years.

"--and one time there was this filly, I won't say who, who was such a prissy thing that I felt I had to bring her down a notch," Strawberry was saying. Her previous stories made it clear that Strawberry was lucky she hadn't been expelled at some point for her foalhood pranks. "Anyway, I won't tell you how I managed to do it, but I made a peanut butter bomb explode under her tail when she was using the restroom. The stuck-up priss hid in the restroom all day trying to clean it off with her hooves, and that was just making it a worse mess."

Cheerilee stopped walking and stared. "Do you realize how much you could have traumatized-"

Strawberry gave a small flap of her wings. "Oh her parents were mad! And Spoiled Rich nearly had me expelled-- I would have loved to get her instead, but I didn't want to get expelled. Principal Cheerilee sat me down and had a long talk, and had me write a thirty-page report on why I shouldn't make messes all over another filly's winking-hole, and had me in weekend detention for a month."

Cheerilee shook her head in disbelief. "Are you at least regretful about what you did?"

Strawberry's ears sagged. "Yeah, I didn't mean to do anything too bad to her. I just wanted to embarrass her with a mess because she was miss perfect-never-does-anything-wrong, and I felt bad even being around her."

"So you were the school bully," Cheerilee said flatly.

"I'm not proud of that." Strawberry pointed a wing at Cheerilee. "You and I are alike in some ways, you know? I guess I was just acting out because I was mad back then, and you're mad now and acting out by doing this whole personality thing. My dad was always gone for long stretches of time, and when he did come home for a few weeks, I always ended up with my mom telling me I was going to have a new brother or sister. Oh, and guess who was going to have to help take care of them instead of doing things with other foals my age after school? Me, because I was the oldest, and Mom worked late."

"Wasn't Ma bragging about how many grandfoals you were going to give her?" Cheerilee asked.

Strawberry sniffed. "Well, that will be different. I'm going to be a full time mom by choice, and they'll be my foals, not somepony else's. Plus, they won't have one parent gone most of the time, and I have Ma to turn to for help occasionally." That was fair enough, and a distinction worth making.

"So when did you stop being a terror at school?" Cheerilee asked, then laid her ears back. "You did stop being like that to others, right?"

"Yeah, I stopped," Strawberry said with a nod, and gave her a considering look. "You should take notes, because it was the real Principal Cheerilee that kind of helped with that."

That caught more of her interest. "What did I do?"

The pegasus came and sat down next to her. "One day, after I got caught putting mealworms in Spoiled Rich's lunch-- believe me, she deserved it-- Cheerilee called me to her office. My mom and Spoiled Rich were both there, and Spoiled Rich was pushing for me to be expelled. My mom was there trying to plead my case that I wasn't a bad foal."

"So fear of expulsion straightened you out?" Cheerilee asked.

The mare shook her head. "Oh no, at that point I could have cared less. Then Cheerilee went and locked us all in her office, and said that I wasn't getting expelled, but she was going to take extreme measures to make sure things were resolved for good. Spoiled Rich thought she intended to have my mom beat me, right then and there, that snooty witch even smiled when asking if that was what Cheerilee intended. That kind of scared me. My mom had never hit me, ever."

Cheerilee shook her head. "That can't be what I intended. I would never approve of just beating a foal into good behavior!"

"And it wasn't what she intended," Strawberry replied. "She told me to tell my mom exactly what was making me act out. I didn't, not right away. I just said I didn't know. Then she told my mom to talk about how responsible I was at home. My mom sat there and told them all about all the stuff I did taking care of my siblings, and how good and helpful I was, and how she couldn't understand why I behaved like such a brat and bully at school when I was so great at home."

Strawberry frowned and looked away. "And I don't know why, but I just snapped. I started screaming at my mom. It was really unfair, and I felt really bad about it afterwards, because she was the one sitting there, trying to defend me, but I couldn't stop yelling at her about how I never got to have friends outside of school because she couldn't stop having foals, and I shouldn't have to be taking care of them. Then she got her feelings hurt, and started yelling back at me. Spoiled Rich tried to interrupt a few times, calling me a disrespectful ingrate, but Principal Cheerilee told her to let us get it out, and just sat there, at her desk, watching us.

"And eventually, we both just kind of ran out of steam and broke down crying," Strawberry said with a shrug, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Principal Cheerilee then said that foals should be allowed to be foals, but that my mom really did need the help I provided. She said I should help at home, but maybe too much was being asked out of me there. She suggested some things to my mom about how to make that happen, and she told Spoiled Rich that she was confident that would help settle me. The witch didn't buy it, but said she'd wait for my next slip up."

The pegasus then smiled and giggled. "And when we left, we found that a bunch of my classmates had been eavesdropping on the conversation, which made me real mad. They all scattered and ran, but the next day at school one of them came up to me and decided to be my friend, Bright Pear. All the other foals were kind of scared me, and didn't want to be around me, but not him-- he felt bad for me not having any friends. That's how your brother and I started out."

"And all was well after that?" Cheerilee asked. It was nice to hear she'd made a difference in a student's life, even if this was something yet to happen for her. Maybe she could do something about it at an earlier point, but-- would that mess up Strawberry's relationship with Bright Pear? That made this knowledge uncomfortable. It was her duty to step in and help her students if she knew something was wrong, but doing so could actually throw their futures off course in this case.

Although, she was pained to admit she hadn't always stepped in when a student was in need. Diamond Tiara could be a pain back in the day, and was exceedingly difficult to properly discipline due to her mother's interventions, but she'd known why Diamond was so difficult. She'd tried once to help with that, by telling Filthy Rich what she felt his wife was doing to the filly. The next day Spoiled had shown up at the school and told her in few words that, if she tried again to interfere with the way she raised her foal, then she'd be looking for a new job far from Ponyville, and there'd be no recommendation given by the school board to help her in finding work.

Strawberry smirked. "Well, I stayed out of trouble at school after that, but it took a while to stop misbehaving altogether. I'll have to tell you the story sometime about how I used to steal Ma's pies; and how she got even more upset with me when I suddenly stopped than when I was stealing them, but we don’t have enough time for that before we get you to school."

It was still a fair number of minutes before the school day should begin when they reached the school. She saw a large number of foals, and a fair number of other underage creatures, walking around the grounds and playing on the playground equipment. It looked like most of the teachers were out supervising. Strawberry walked up beside her and frowned as she watched a unicorn mare hauling a pegasus filly with the same fur coloring to the administration.

"I guess I should stick my head in the principal's office and find out what trouble my sister has gotten herself into, just to give my mom the heads up," Strawberry said with a sigh. "Trouble at school seems to run in the family. I'm going to pass you off to Miss Silver Spoon and then go check."

Cheerilee almost told the pegasus that she was perfectly capable of getting to class on her own, but decided that would be pointless. Ma Apple had given explicit instructions about it to Strawberry, and made it clear that Candy running off rather than going to class had been an issue with some of the previous personalities.

She allowed herself to be escorted over to Silver Spoon, who was watching the playground and sipping from a steaming thermos. The mare smiled as she saw them approach. "You arrived nice and early, that's a relief. Are you still pretending to be Cherrilee, or are you back to normal?"

"Still Cheerilee," Cheerilee replied, trying not to sulk about continuing to be treated as if she were Candy pretending. Silver Spoon must not have been informed yet about the test results.

"We found out it's a bit more complicated than her just pretending," Strawberry said as she walked up to the teacher, and passed a paper to the teacher. "It's apparently some serious mental thing. I don't really understand it all, but Ma Apple explains it in the letter."

Silver Spoon had set the letter down on the ground and carefully read it over. Her eyebrows arched as she looked back up at them. "I hadn't expected those tests would turn up anything, but this sounds serious. I'll have to pass this on to Principal Doo so she can decide if we need to make any sort of accommodation for it."

"She's been behaving herself," Strawberry explained. "If she honestly thinks she's Cheerilee I can't imagine she'd be that much trouble, and definitely not at school." She flicked an ear and looked at the administrative building. "Speaking of trouble, you wouldn't happen to know what trouble Daiquiri got into, would you? I know she's not part of your class, but you must have seen whatever happened right before we got here."

Silver Spoon gave a frustrated sigh. "I wish she was the same type of trouble you were when you were a student here. She was overheard trying to encourage foals to try her fermented beverage." Cheerilee felt like gaping at what was implied. It was one of the older students, but she was still only twelve or thirteen at most.

Strawberry's head, wings, and tail all hung low; and the mare gave an aggravated snort. "I don't know why mom decided to name her that, other than she thought Strawberry Daiquiri sounded like a pretty Strawberry-themed name. I don't believe names are strictly prophetic, but they definitely give ponies pushes in certain directions. When I have foals, I'm not naming any of mine anything that can lead them to make questionable life choices, I promise you that. I'll talk to my mom about her. I'm really sorry about her behavior."

"She has been a good student, and we understand that she is excited about her recently gained cutie mark. We wouldn't have ponies to produce such things if nopony ever got a cutie mark in it, but we can't have her offering alcohol to foals," Silver Spoon said sternly. "Thankfully, she's about to graduate, and that will save her from some trouble, but your mother needs to give her a good talking to about how just because she knows how to produce alcohol, that she is too young to be drinking it herself without supervision, much less offering it to other creatures even younger than her."

"Mom and Daiquiri have been at odds with one another since Daiquiri got her mark," Strawberry explained. "Mom felt like ponies would judge her if they found out she had gotten her mark accidentally learning how to make alcoholic beverages, and refused to have a cutecinera for Daiquiri. Daiquiri got her feelings hurt over it, and she has been making more, against mom's direct orders not to."

Silver Spoon raised an eyebrow. "Well, Surprise, maybe you should try helping mend some fences with them so this can be resolved. They both respect you, after all. I'm sure that she'll have an appropriate apprenticeship lined up, but after today she's no longer the school's responsibility."

"Yes, Miss Silver Spoon. I'll do what I can," Strawberry said with a nod.

"You can drop the honorific. You haven't been my student in years," the teacher said with an amused smirk. She then turned to Cheerilee. "But as for you, my current student, I think you should just head straight to the principal's office, so she can go over what you'll be doing over the first few weeks of summer. You'll miss the beginning of class, but I'm allowing it. Just come to class immediately when you're done. I don't expect it to take long."

Cheerilee nodded silently. She just wanted to keep her head down and be on good behavior for Candy's sake today, at least through the time spent at school. If there was one place she was sure she could keep from getting Candy in trouble, it was here.

She made her way to the administrative building, ignoring the few greetings by foals that she didn't know along the way. When she entered the building she found a small lobby with several labeled doors along it, as well as a few benches, and a reception desk with an unfamiliar earth pony stallion watching over it.

"I'm supposed to be seeing the principal," she said as she walked over to the reception desk.

The stallion smiled down to her. "You're expected, but you'll need to wait a few minutes. She's dealing with another student right now." That would probably be Strawberry Daiquiri. She nodded in acknowledgment, and took up a seat on one of the benches.

There wasn't much to do while waiting. Aside from a few drawings, that were too far from her to see well, there wasn't much to even look at. The school in her time didn't even have this building, nor any real offices for that matter; her office was her classroom, and she was the entire teaching staff and administration. She wondered when the school started going through this expansion, and hiring on other teachers. When did she get promoted up to the rank of principal? It was hard not to ask the receptionist about these things, given this was something she poured so much of herself into, but she resisted the spoilers-- she had enough to last a lifetime.

After several minutes of waiting, she decided on one thing: when she was in charge of this place she was going to do something to make this lobby more interesting, even if it came down to just adding some potted plants and inspirational posters. This place was just so maddeningly dull and utilitarian, and didn't convey the sense of warmth she wanted to give her students. The thought crossed her mind that she might well have done so, but Dinky Doo chose to go with a different approach; or perhaps had different decor in mind, but had not yet had the chance to put it in place. She’d only just got the job, after all.

Why her future self had run off still was a mystery that bothered her almost as the mystery surrounding Candy. It just was just not something she could see herself doing, even in twenty years, even if she changed a lot. Running from a job had never been a part of her makeup.

One of the doors opened and Daiquiri walked out with head held low, and a scowl on her face. It must have been more of a scolding than a happy resolution; sometimes that was all that could be done. Cheerilee caught sight of the filly's cutie mark, a small pile of strawberries next to what was clearly a wine bottle. Dinky stuck her head out her office door and gave the pegasus a sad frown, then turned to Cheerilee. "Alright, Candy, I'm ready for you. I hope you haven't been waiting too long."

She got up and walked to Dinky's office. As she was walking by the mare she glanced up at Dinky's earrings. The earrings appeared to be just plain muffins, with no smiling faces. "Silly question, but do you have a different set of muffin earrings?"

Dinky tilted her head. "No, just this pair. They were a gift from my mother when I first started teaching, and I rarely go anywhere without them. Why do you ask?"

Cheerilee shook her head. "I just thought I saw a different pair yesterday." She then continued into the office.

Dinky's office was much warmer in tone than the area outside. There were a few loaded bookshelves, along with some filing cabinets, a large calendar with a smiling sun hung where it was easy to look over. There were also a few cardboard boxes that looked like they were still in the process of being unpacked, and a few framed photos had been hung on the wall so far. Dinky's desk was clear of any clutter, except for a notebook, ink well, and writing quill, and a large window graced one wall, done in Cheerilee's own colors and her cutie mark, perhaps a holdover from when she held this office that Dinky simply hadn't found a replacement for as of yet.

There were also three stools in front of the desk beckoning to her,and she took a seat on the center one.

"And how are you doing today, Cheerilee?" Dinky said as she took her own seat behind the desk.

"You believe I'm Cheerilee?" She asked with eagerness.

Dinky shook her head. "I believe you think you are. Starlight came over and briefed me about your condition yesterday afternoon. I figured it would be best just to address you as you see yourself, for right now anyway. I haven't had a chance to explain the situation to Silver yet, but I'll speak with her. How are you doing?"

"Wishing more ponies would believe me when I say who I am," she responded with a pout.

Dinky raised an eyebrow. "Do some believe you?"

She lowered her gaze from her former student. "I can't say for sure." She would respect Pinkie's wishes, for now, about not telling anypony the party mare believed her.

"I see," Dinky replied with a nod. "Well, I still need to see to it that you are properly disciplined for the dangerous stunt you did with that potion, and the mess you made. I don't believe in keeping you busy all summer though. Foals need that break, and so do the teachers. I'm going to be extremely lenient in this case. I expect you to be here this weekend, bright and early, and you'll be cleaning desks for the whole day. I'll be the one supervising you. In addition to that, I expect you to write a ten-page report over the summer about potion safety, which you will turn in to Miss Silver Spoon on the first day of school next year, along with giving an oral report about it. You may consult your aunt if you wish; in fact, I'd even recommend it. It will count as part of your grades for that year, and failure to do it will result in a failed project and additional disciplinary action. Do you have any objections or reasons you can't fulfil these tasks?"

"Um, can you write Ma Apple a note explaining this?" Cheerilee asked in return. "I don't know what Candy will and won't remember about all this, and I doubt it will be me who is here come next school year. I hope I won't be here come the weekend, but have a feeling I will be."

Dinky flicked an ear. "Why so sure this personality will still be here?"

Cheerilee waved a hoof. "Last three inhabitants of Candy's body; Sombra, Twilight Comet, and the changeling… I never caught the changeling's name were here for extended periods."

"The changeling was Pincer," Dinky supplied. "And I don't remember a Twilight Comet."

"That was who was holding the body when Candy was saying she had amnesia," Cheerilee explained.

Dinky raised both eyebrows. "And how do you remember that one, but don't remember Pincer?"

She blinked. Explaining that would require explaining Twilight Comet's note, and that note could look very bad for her if anypony looked at it before she knew how to present it. "I… I-I found out on accident about that one. Somepony told me about him."

Dinky propped her chin on a hoof. "I see. Care to share who?"

"I don't know their name," she answered quickly.

Dinky gave her a skeptical eyebrow. "Very convenient, don't you think? But I guess your family is going to resolve this over the summer. I do have a quick question for you, as Cheerilee, before I send you back to class."

That caught her off guard. "What is it?"

Dinky gave a frustrated sigh, and gestured around the room. "If you're Cheerilee, where in Equestria would you keep all the old student files? I've been looking all over for them for months, and haven't found a trace of them. No pony has asked yet, thank Twilight, but I need those transcripts if any graduate from here ever requests them. I've tried mailing the real Cheerilee several times to ask, but have gotten no response. I'm about ready to take a train to Vanhoover just to track her down and get an answer."

That was easy enough. "Well, in my day I didn't have much storage space at the school, but I did have plenty at home. I keep my current student's files at the school, and the graduates I have at home."

"That's a possibility I'd considered, but didn't want to demand access to her old house," Dinky replied thoughtfully. "Maybe I should just break down and ask Cherry Tea to let me in there to check."

Cheerilee gasped. "Wait, I took off out of town, but never put my house on the market? That must mean I intend to come back."

Dinky frowned. "I'm not so sure, Cheerilee was kind of…" The principal seemed to catch herself. "That really isn't something I can discuss with anycreature except her family. Just know I don't think she plans on returning. I promised her I wouldn't spread any rumors about her leaving when she appointed me her successor at the school."

Cheerilee narrowed her eyes. The principal might not fully understand her future self's reasoning, but she did know something about the running off incident. "So you saw me before I left, but after I had decided to skip town? You can't tell me anything about it? Was I nervous? Was I agitated? Was I upset about something? Was I angry about something?"

"I'm not discussing it," Dinky replied with a tone of finality. "I don't know her reasons. I was caught off guard like everycreature else. I won't speculate on them and start rumors flying that could hurt her reputation."

Well, Dinky, you just let slip that it could come off as damaging to my reputation. She barely stopped herself from saying out loud. That didn't get her any closer to figuring out what it was, as she could think of nothing she would ever do that could hurt her reputation. She was as squeaky clean as they came.

She was about to try to weedle out some more information, but her breath caught as she looked up at Dinky's earrings. The muffins were smiling at her.

Dinky picked up on her sudden shock. "Is something wrong? Do you need to see the nurse?" She asked in concern.

Cheerilee squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. The faces were gone, the muffins on the earrings were just plain muffins. "No, it's nothing. I think I'll just head back to class now."

She definitely couldn't tell the mare the truth. She was having a hard enough time convincing ponies she and Candy weren't crazy without talking about seeing things that weren't there.

Comments

[dvdspires]

One of the theories I’ve heard about Applejacks pigs is that they’re kept as truffle hunters. Which makes a little more sense than most other reasons.

[Solarfollow]

"Thankfully, she's about to graduate, and that will save her from some trouble, but your mother needs to give her a good talking to about how just because she knows how to produce alcohol, that she is too young to be drinking it herself, much less offering it to other creatures even younger than her."

So Equestrians practice this modern American religion, where it's sinful to drink a beer until you're 21, yet you're allowed to join the army and die for your country at age 18.

[Halira]

10046521
They wouldn't say 21, more just "full grown" before given free access to it. I debated back and forth adding an "unsupervised" to Daiquiri's own drinking, as with her talent it is needed that she taste her product. The idea of foals having a little here and there under adult supervision isn't considered bad, the idea of foals having easy access to it through another foal is, along with a light possible stigma about having an alcohol related cutie mark (will always be someone who implies they're a drunk, even if they aren't, which is what the mother was afraid of).

Edit: decided to edit to clarify they want full grown adult supervising her.

[Fernando1717]

10046665
You know, I wouldn't be so worry about young ponies getting drunk from alcohol as to getting drunk from fermented beverages such as apples, grapes and oranges, those can get you tipsy way faster and without the effect of the hangover the next day, plus you don't need a lot of fermented juice to get drunk like with beer, you just need a stronger fermentation. It is highly I poked in the series that adult ponies drink hard cider for this purpose.

[Alaborn]

10046369

We all know the real answer is "bacon".

[FridayPie]

10046665
"Supervised consumption" thing actually was a thing in number of countries, incliuding mine. I received a sip of wine during a New Year celebration from mom, being 15 year old, to give me knowledge of what it is (I was a curious bookworm!). Drinking age was 16 then. At 16 was offered beer as a testby my parents, who actually expected I won't like it. I found it odd , but not revolting.