Quantum Leap Forward

by Halira

Chapter 20: Elementary School, how hard could it be?

"Ah, Candy, take your seat up front next to Cheese," Silver Spoon instructed as Cheerilee walked into the classroom.

She looked around the classroom.The class was mostly ponies, but there were a few other creatures as well. Cheese was easy enough to spot, as his desk was the one closest to the door. Autumn Fire had the desk immediately behind the androgynous colt, and an empty desk sat to Cheese's left. She walked over to the desk, but stopped in terror at what was sitting to the empty desk's left.

She wasn't even sure what species he was-- he (she was pretty sure it was a he) was a scaly brown, had a face resembling a pony (aside from the very large, very scary, very sharp looking fangs), arms with clawed hands like a dragon, and the rest of his body resembled some massive snake (no hind legs, just his scaly coils). She was familiar with a large number of intelligent creatures in Equestria and beyond, but she had no idea what this thing was. Her mind just registered snake-pony, and a strong desire to turn and run. The only thing that gave her the courage not to bolt right then was he was obviously a student, and none of the other students seemed disturbed by his presence.

"Misss Silver Spoon," the snake-pony hissed, with his tongue flicking out of his mouth as he spoke. "She's staring at me like she's going to scream again." His head cowered low as he spoke, and she got the distinct impression that he was even more afraid of her screaming than she was of him.

Silver Spoon pursed her lips and then smiled at the monstrous pony. "Candy isn't going to scream. I'm sure she was distracted by something else." The teacher turned to her and gave her a tight smile. "Isn't that right, Candy? Sisstet isn't scaring you, is he?"

She licked her lips nervously. He's just another student, here to learn. He's a colt, just like all the other colts. You're fine with young dragons, and he isn't any scarier than a dragon. She repeated that in her head a few times, then silently made her way to her seat. The snake-pony-- Sisstet-- gave her a wary look, as if expecting an outburst at any moment, then turned his attention back to the lesson, and seemed to be making a point not to look in her direction. After a minute or two she settled down, and convinced herself that he wasn't dangerous, even if he looked scary. His kind must be a recent arrival in Ponyville, since he was the first of his species she'd seen since she'd been here. She wondered if there were any other unfamiliar species walking about Ponyville that she hadn't seen yet. The past year or two in her own time had an influx of foriegn creatures into town; who knew how many new things had been found in the past twenty years.

After that, things became rather mundane, although in a very novel way. For the first time in many years, Cheerilee found herself sitting in a student desk, listening to a teacher give a lesson. Listening might have been a stretch to say, as she was confident she didn't need any explanation on how to do basic long division. Silver Spoon had identified this as the subject that many of her students needed improvement on, and had chosen the last lesson of the school year to be a refresher on the subject.

Silver Spoon had some sort of light projector that students could write their answers on and it would display it against a canvas screen. It seemed a major quality of life improvement over the use of the chalkboard. She wondered if the gadget and accompanying markers were available somewhere in her own time. She'd love to have one if they were, but she doubted the school board would allow her to dip into the budget enough to actually get them if they were. Perhaps she could appeal to Princess Twilight for some sort of grant. The school obviously would get more money at some point, otherwise it wouldn't have these cool gadgets and grown as large as it had.

"Very good, Godfrey," Silver Spoon said in approval to a griffin student who had just solved a problem on the projector. "Does anycreature have any questions about what Godfrey did to solve the problem?"

No student showed any sign of confusion. Silver Spoon continued smiling as she walked over to her desk. The teacher had a large mixing bowl full of the names of students on small slips of paper. "We'll do just one or two more, then we can break for lunch." The teacher shook the bowl then rolled her hoof around in to further mix the names. She then reached in with her head and bobbed out a slip of paper, and then read it from the desk. "Okay, Candy, it looks like it's your turn." The teacher looked around the class. "I think that actually covers most of the class participation for today. Has anycreature else not participated today? Sisstet, I think just you. You'll go right after Candy, and when we come back from lunch we can discuss your summer projects."

There was a chorus of groans, and Silver Spoon flicked her ears. "Oh, don't be like that. This isn't your first or second year. You can expect a summer project every year from now till you graduate. I need you doing something small at the end of summer to get your minds in gear for school year. It won't be any harder than any of your other projects you've done this year, I promise."

Silver Spoon changed out the sheet on top of the projector with a fresh one, and Cheerilee left her desk and hopped up on the stool next to it. She grabbed up the marker in her mouth and quickly completed the math problem, before setting the marker back down.

"What is that?" One of the earth pony colts towards the back of the classroom asked.

"She didn't do that right," a unicorn filly chimed in.

"The answer is right, but I don't understand what she did," the griffin who had just been up at the projector before her piped in.

"It looks like what my daddy did when he was trying to help me with my homework that one time," another filly said.

She looked at Silver Spoon to try to figure out what they were going on about. The teacher gave her work a long look, then gave her a poker faced appraisal, then turned back to the class with her smile back on her face. "Candy's answer is right, she just used an old method for solving the problem."

"It looks weird," the earth pony colt from before called out.

Silver chuckled. "This is actually the way I, and many of your parents, learned how to do long division. It isn't part of the curriculum anymore, and it would take more time than what we have today to explain how it works." The teacher pointed a hoof at the snake-pony. "Sisstet, would you please come up and do the same problem with the normal method?"

Sisstet left his desk, doing a mix of walking on his arms and slithering with his tail. Cheerilee hastily left the stool, but the snake-pony simply reared up on its tail to reach a height to work on the problem. She hurried back to her seat, and watched as the problem was redone on the same sheet.

She hadn't been paying attention to what the students were doing earlier, but paid attention now. It only took the other student a moment or two to do the problem, but she wasn't exactly sure what the method he used was. He wrote out a small multiplication problem to the side for reasons she couldn't determine, and went through a series of other steps in a hurry. He came out to the same answer as her, except marking a simple one third fraction instead of her repeating three decimal next to the whole number. She guessed that was technically more accurate, though she wondered if they did decimals. At least one student had recognized her repeating three as right, so it seemed likely they recognized the decimal value for common fractions.

"Very good, Sisstet," Silver Spoon complimented. "What Candy did was accurate as well, but the princess prefers we don't do it that way."

Cheese raised a hoof up. "Why not?"

"She determined that the method we use now makes it easier for creatures to do math quickly in their heads, and it makes it easier to understand more complex types of math when they are introduced to you," Silver Spoon explained. "I admit, I was a bit skeptical about it when she first ordered this new method to be taught, but those who have been brought up with this method do seem to be much better at math than ponies that were brought up on the old method."

"So why did they used to do it that way if it wasn't as good?" Another student asked.

"It was just the way we'd always done it to that point. It was all we thought we needed, and for the most part, it was," Silver explained. "The princess wants everycreature to know more about math, science, and history than we used to know. She's shown all the teachers in Equestria all the things she wants for Equestria's future, but she needs everycreature's help to do those things."

"The princess needs our help?" Another filly asked in wonder.

"Yes, she does," Silver said with a nod. The filly gasped, as if Twilight Sparkle had just shown up right in front of her and ordered her on a quest.

Well, at least she could count on Princess Twilight to help with education in the future. Princess Celestia had always left a lot to the EEA, and the EEA was very rigid in how they wanted things done, without being very open about suggestions for changes. It sounded like the coming years would be an exciting time to be a teacher, so she was eager to get back to her own time and see what changes were coming, hopefully a crown funded budget.

"It's time to break for lunch," Silver Spoon announced. "We have a special lunch catered by Sugarcube Corner today, and they should be set up outside by now. It was very nice of them to do that, since they are very busy getting cakes ready for graduations. Be sure to thank the nice ponies from Sugarcube Corner for taking the time to provide a nice lunch for us all on the last day of school."

She wondered if Ma Apple was among those that would be serving lunch. From what she had seen, the staff of Sugarcube Corner consisted of the Cake Twins, Ma Apple, and Pinkie Pie.

"There will also be visitors on grounds, here to speak with the graduating class," Silver Spoon continued. "Try to be respectful, and keep the noise level down, as they're talking to the older students about possible apprenticeships. This is a very big deal to your older schoolmates, and to those ponies and creatures looking to hire them on. In a few years that will be you out there, and you wouldn't want any younger students being rude when you are trying to hold a conversation that could possibly impact your life."

In her day that wouldn't be necessary, as she would be the one privately meeting with all those potential employers on her students' behalf. Given how much the town had grown, along with how large the perspective graduating class might be, that might not be practical in this day and age. It was a lot for her to make those kind of arrangements for her much smaller graduating classes, trying to do that with twenty or more students would simply be too much.

"Class is dismissed for lunch and recess," Silver Spoon announced. "Enjoy yourselves, and come back promptly when I call you."

There was a rush of students leaving their seats and hurrying for the door. A few of the students, including her, sat and waited for the initial rush for the door to end before leaving their seats. Cheese was among those that had rushed out the door, but she noted the others that took their time; Autumn Fire waited patiently at his desk for the area to clear, Sisstet seemed almost intimidated by the rush of action as he crouched low at his desk, a unicorn colt with purple fur and a green mane also remained behind, and was watching her thinly veiled hostility that made her a little nervous. Unfortunately, Silver Spoon exited the classroom immediately after the initial rush, and that left her without an adult to turn to if the colt decided to make a nuisance of himself.

She didn't have to wait long before her fears that he'd be trouble to come about.

"I heard you decided to pretend to be my aunt," the colt said haughtily, with one of those practiced noble accents. "I don't find your impersonation of her to be very amusing. I insist that you cease besmeathing my aunt's name with your foalish play." Definitely laying on the haughtiness. This was her nephew? Somepony had mentioned her nephew's name to her already, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was-- it had Cherry in it for sure.

"Leave her alone, Mint." Mint Cherry, that was the name. "She hasn't done anything to you," Autumn called out in warning, swishing his long tasseled tail as he spoke.

"You're the one who told me you were unhappy she was pretending to be my aunt," Mint said with disdain. "What's wrong? You can complain about your little filly friend that you have the hots for, but others can't?"

"She's not my filly friend, I don't have the hots for her," Autumn said with a blush. "Are you saying you have the hots for her?"

Mint sniffed. "Of course not. Maybe a year ago, before this nonsense and when she seemed bound to rise up from her roots to Canterlot high society, that would have made her a worthy future partner, but now she's just some crazy country bumpkin. I wouldn't even care, as she is well connected, and can be forgiven some undesirable quirks for that, but now she is dragging my family into her slanderous portrayals."

She snorted, and had a strong desire that she'd never had towards a foal to just box Mint in the face. He was a snot, a well-educated snot by his verbose insults, but a snot. Of course, Cherry Tea always thought highly of herself as well; always wanting to ingratiate herself with the nobility. The entire reason her sister had chosen to return to Ponyville (other than failing to establish herself in the already crowded tea market in Canterlot) was she saw it as an opportunity to get in from the ground up with future influential ponies after Ponyville became rife with them. Her sister wasn't a gold digger, like Spoiled Rich, nor as snoody, but she definitely had her ambitions. Mint Cherry may be just eight, but he seemed to share those same ambitions with the way he described what was previously attractive about Candy-- a pony that had a star on the rise, with connections to some of Equestria's heroes-- the status she brought, not her personality. It made her feel embarrassed thinking that a nephew of hers could view the world that way.

"You sshouldn't say such mean things," Sisstet hissed in a quivering tone.

Mint raised an eyebrow at him. "Mind your own business, naga. She has run yelling and screaming from you how many times now? It seems like almost every single time she chooses to play some new creature. It has gotten rather stodgy to tell the truth. Why are you defending a pony that hides her prejudice and fear of you behind her charades?"

"Sshe's nice when she isn't pretending to be others," Sisstet hissed in reply. "You're being very mean."

"Or perhaps she is just pretending to be nice to you, and takes the opportunity to voice her true feelings when she portrays others," Mint said with his nose up in the air. Sisstet didn't reply back, instead cowering even lower against his desk, giving Cheerilee a sad look.

Cheerilee no longer felt a shred of fear about Sisstet. This was no scary monster, this was a timid student that longed for acceptance. "Sisstet, I'm sorry for anything I did that made you feel like I was afraid of you."

"Bah, you always give him apologies, yet it always happens again and again. And these two are saying that I am the one being a bully here. There is no fairness," Mint asserted. "You just drop this act now, or I'll see to it you get in big trouble. I don't care who else you decide to pretend to be, but it shall not be any member of my family." With that, the unicorn colt stormed out of the classroom.

Autumn followed after the colt, but glanced back at her as he reached the door. "I wasn't sticking up for you, I was sticking up for Candy. It's not her fault she has you running around instead of her." He then left the classroom before she could reply.

Sisstet slithered out of his seat, and hurried by her, not bothering to glance back in her direction as he went out the door. She hoped she hadn't inadvertently ruined Candy's friendship with Sisstet. Was the race called naga? Naga didn't seem too bad a species, although she'd only seen one example of them. It occurred to her that she'd learned something else. If all of Candy's other occupants reacted that way to Sisstet, that meant that they were all likely from the past as well, and therefore as unfamiliar with naga as she was.

Still, she had a new problem, Mint Cherry. If the colt reacted that negatively to her, how would her sister react? There was also the fact he seemed like he might cause some trouble. Normally she'd scoff at what problems a foal could cause her, but normally she was an adult. Whatever was said would be one foal's word against another, and Candy had a poor reputation. Mint might be a snot, but she got the impression he normally kept his nose out of trouble. That would have her at a disadvantage to anything he tried to pull. She should probably just go straight to Silver Spoon and tell her what had just transpired-- it is what she'd have recommended any of her own students to do.

She made her way out the classroom door. The school day was halfway done. Hopefully she could manage to make it so this was the most problems she had to deal with while getting Candy through her last day of it.

Author's Note:

I've got some personal issues going on in the background that may slow the pace of releases, but will still be getting out at least one chapter (if not more) every week.

Comments

[Lemon Lime Light]

I want to start this comment by saying I read this fic, all 20 current chapters, all 75k+ words, in one sitting. I have not done that in so long. In nearly half a decade I don't think. You wrote a fic that's just that good. Your writing, the world you made, the story, the mystery, I just wanted more and more of it. But, about three fourths of the way through, I kept reading for a different reason:

I think I figured out what's going on.

[Goodluckfox]

Holy crap how did I miss this until now? This is an amazing original story. Thank you thank you thank you!

[honeyhoneyhoney]

Yay! Math!

[Zubric]

Granted I haven’t been to school in over 20 years, but I don’t think division is changed in 20 years since I was in elementary school back in the 90s. It’s good to get back to thid story