Chapter 2: Old World Meets New World
“Seriously, kid,” Cranky said as he led Sunset into the teachers’ lounge after their meeting with Celestia, “just don’t give them anything to latch onto on your first day. You’re new to them. They’ll test ya, and if you show any cracks, they won’t let you forget it for the rest of the year. I swear, they can smell fear.”
“You make it sound like I’m walking into a horde of monsters, Cranky,” Sunset replied with a raised eyebrow. “They’re our students, not our enemies.”
“They’re both, Sunset. Teens are their own worst enemies. All we can do is try to intervene in this battle with themselves and hope their better angels win the fight by the time graduation rolls around.”
Sunset paused as she picked up the relevant textbook for her first class. “That’s very … poignant. I know I was certainly at war with myself when I first came here.”
“That’s putting it mildly. You were a total bitch.”
Sunset stared at Cranky for a good few seconds. “Wow, just, not holding anything back, are you?”
He raised an eyebrow in response. “Are you gonna argue the point?” He turned to the rest of the half empty room and asked: “Anyone here in agreement that Sunset was a total bitch when she first came here?”
Ms. Harshwhinny, the math teacher, gave a “yep” from the couch while not even looking up from the paperwork she was currently going through.
Ms. Cheerilee of all people looked straight at her, smiled brightly and said: “Oh yeah, you were a total bitch, honey,” followed by Mr. Turner, the physics teacher, going “Yeah, I’d agree with that based on empirical evidence,” after shrugging his shoulders.
Sunset simply stared at them in open-mouthed shock.
“Teenagers always think they’re so much smarter than us adults,” Cranky explained with a smug grin. “We could tell the difference between the kid who put on the Good Girl Act when she enrolled and the young woman she’d grown into when she gave the commencement speech at graduation.”
Feeling her ears burning and hating the fact that that was probably showing due to her hair being tied back, Sunset sighed. “Alright, I get it. Yes, I was a bitch. I turned into a literal she-demon. Is it really alright for a teacher to say that, though?” At least my friends have the decency to tack a half-hearted ‘no offense’ onto a statement like that, she added silently in her mind.
Cranky gestured at the entirety of the room they currently stood in. “You’re not a student anymore, Sunset, and this right here is our safe space, alright? Nowadays, us teachers need to be careful about everything we say, everything needs to be PC and above reproach, whether it’s in front of a student, a parent or the barista at Starbucks. Here we can talk freely, and what is said here, stays here. Some of your students will be little shits, and it’s better you let it out here than in front of a class or a parent, got it?”
“It’s both training and stress relief,” Ms. Harshwhinny chimed in. “If you can’t take a bit of ribbing from your colleagues, you won’t survive in class for ten minutes. If you don’t let it out somewhere, your own mental health will suffer.”
Ms. Cheerilee, still smiling, picked up a large, soft pillow from the couch and showed it to Sunset. “This is great for screaming your frustrations into. You can be as loud or as obscene as you want, nobody outside is gonna hear you. I do it every lunch break.”
“Right,” Sunset said carefully, subconsciously backing away from the teacher with the wide smile on her face. “Anyway, I should get to my first class.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Cranky said and Sunset caught the fact that he gave his fellow educators a wink as he turned her around by the shoulder.
The corridors were mostly empty at this point, most students already having filed into their respective classrooms. But upon rounding a corner, Sunset nearly got the wind knocked out of her as she felt an elbow jab into her ribs. “Ooph! What the…?”
The sound of a thud drew her attention to the floor in front of her. A girl, perhaps 15 or 16, had run into her and been knocked flat on her behind. She shook her head to clear the dizziness, sending her braided ponytail swinging around her shoulders freely.
“Hey, you okay, kid?” Sunset asked, extending a hand to pull her up.
The girl looked up, and when her eyes met Sunset’s, they went as wide as saucers. Stammering a little before getting to her feet, she said: “I’m so sorry, I’m not a wraith!” Then she turned and ran the other way.
“What?” Sunset asked perplexed, but the student was long gone.
“No running in the halls!” Cranky called after her lazily, clearly not expecting to be heard by the fleeing girl.
Sunset noticed that the girl had dropped her book and picked it up. It was a World History 101 textbook. “That was weird, right?” Sunset asked as the two teachers continued on their way.
Cranky shrugged. “Weird ceased to be a concept at this school when you and your friends were students here.”
“Hm, can’t argue with that logic, I guess.”
The pair stopped in front of a classroom. Cranky simply gave his protegee a nod and a clap on the shoulder before heading off towards his own class.
Sunset took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Alright, Sunset. This is it. This is what you worked all those years for, the chance to teach these kids something and make a positive impact in their lives. Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, please watch over me. Here we go.
Opening the door energetically, Sunset greeted her students with a bright smile. “Good morning, cla…” Before she was finished, something soft hit the top of her head before bouncing off and landing in front of her. The smile still frozen on her lips, she looked at the dry eraser lying at her feet and the chalk dust swirling in front of her nose.
Time seemed to stop as Sunset considered her options. Half the class seemed to be suppressing giggles while the other half hadn’t even looked up as she came in. Should she raise her voice and demand to know who was responsible for this? Cranky’s words played on her mind. “They’ll test ya, and if you show any cracks, they won’t let you forget it for the rest of the year. I swear, they can smell fear.”
Sunset bent down and picked up the eraser to buy herself some time as she crinkled her nose. Come on, come on, come on. Push through it. … Ah, okay. Having successfully prevented herself from sneezing, she simply went up towards the teacher’s desk as if nothing had happened.
From the corner of her eye, she could see a boy in the front row stand up, shortly followed by another boy in the seat behind him who bumped into his shoulder, grabbed a book from him and headed Sunset off before she could get to her seat. “Uhm, ah, class book.”
“Thank you, Mr. …?” Sunset said carefully as she accepted the book with Class 2-A written on the cover that contained the records of the students.
“Sprout Cloverleaf, ma’am,” he replied, and Sunset noticed him reaching behind himself where her chair was. She just caught something gleaming out of the corner of her eye, reflecting the sunlight from outside before it was gone, and the boy hastily returned to his seat while the boy he’d bumped into gave him an odd look.
She shook her head. Focus, Sunset. Don’t get rattled on your first day. But the rattling continued as her search for chalk yielded only a single piece about two centimeters long. Pinching the stub between her thumb and index finger, she wrote the words “Ms. Shimmer” on the blackboard, wincing whenever her nails made contact with it.
“Alright,” she said, addressing the class which quieted somewhat but not entirely in its whispered conversations. “My name is Sunset Shimmer. You may call me Ms. Shimmer or Ms. Sunset if you prefer. Welcome to World History 101. I believe Vice-principal Luna covered American history with you last year. This year, we’ll be looking at a more … uh, yes, question?” Sunset pointed at a girl with a stylish haircut and clothes in the back row who had raised her hand.
The girl held up her phone, set to recording Sunset realized only after the fact, and asked: “Do you have a boyfriend?”
Sunset stood there slack-jawed as the girls in the class giggled and the boys stared intently. “Not at the moment, no,” she answered without thinking before silently berating herself for not having just ignored or shut down the question as irrelevant. Thinking about how to change the subject, she picked up the class book and opened it. “Let’s just … start with attendance, shall we? Let’s see. Cloverleaf, Sprout.”
“Here.” Recognizing the name, she looked at the blonde boy who had handed her the class book. He was wearing a blue sports jacket with the CHS logo emblazoned on it which marked him as a member of one of the sports teams.
Sunset nodded and continued. “Moonbow, Izzy.” Nobody answered, and Sunset repeated: “Izzy Moonbow?” When still no answer came, she asked: “Has anybody seen Izzy today?”
“She was here during homeroom,” a boy with green hair in the first row answered.
Sunset sighed and marked the absence. Great, Day 1 and I’ve already misplaced a student apparently, she thought. “Petals, Pipp.”
“Here, here.” The stylish girl who had asked the outrageous question raised one hand while continuing to type on her phone with the other.
“Right, please put your phone down while class is in session, Ms. Petals.” She did so, only to pick it right back up the moment Sunset’s eyes returned to the class book. “Starscout, Sunny.” Without a verbal answer forthcoming and dreading another absence, Sunset looked up to see a girl wearing an overall raise her hand halfway up. Recognizing her, Sunset took the book she had brought in with her from her own desk and placed it in front of the student. “I believe this is yours.”
Sunny blushed and nodded, though her lips remained pressed together tightly.
“Storm, Zipp.”
“Yo!” A lanky girl with a multi-colored pixie haircut and wearing the same team jacket as Sprout sprawled across her desk towards the center back of the class answered.
“And finally Trailblazer, Hitch,” Sunset continued, noting that there was a little note reading Class Rep scrawled next to his name.
“Present.” The boy with green hair in the front row sat straight upright in his navy-blue button-up shirt.
If he’s the class rep, he should have been the one to give me the class book, Sunset mused, glancing at Sprout sitting behind him. “Alright, open your textbooks to Chapter 1 – An Introduction to Medieval Europe. Read quietly and try to answer the questions at the end of the section before we go through them. … Ms. Petals, phone.”
Pipp put down her phone before turning to the page in the book like the rest of the class. Meanwhile, Sunset made her way to her desk, giving her chair a long, hard look, the odd encounter from earlier still puzzling her, but found nothing amiss with it.
Barely having sat down, there was a bang at the classroom door. “Keep reading,” she said and opened the door to check.
Outside she found a girl in a pink skirt, white blouse and a frankly obscene amount of charm bracelets tied to her wrists and hair. She was rubbing her forehead as if she’d bumped into the plaque with the classroom number written on it. “Uhm, is this World History 101?”
“Miss Moonbow, I assume? I’ll leave it at a warning for today, but please try to be punctual in the future.”
Izzy brought her face uncomfortably close to Sunset’s, crossing her eyes in the process, before booping her teacher’s nose. “You got something there, you know,” she said, showing a bit of chalk dust on her finger.
“I’m aware, thank you,” Sunset replied with a forced smile. “Please find a seat and turn to Chapter 1 in the textbook.”
“Okay,” Izzy replied with a cheerfulness that instantly disarmed Sunset.
Sunset was halfway to her desk to cross out the absence from the class book, before she turned sharply, walked to the back row and calmly picked up the phone that lay next to Pipp’s textbook, causing the student to swipe at the desk a couple times before going “huh” and looking up.
“You may pick this up after class,” Sunset said coldly and turned. She just managed to see a photo of herself with chalk dust all over her head with the caption “Wonder why she has no boyfriend. XD” and a button that read “Post Published” before the screen went black.
The second half of class was less eventful but no less torturous as Sunset went over the chapter and writing things on the blackboard with the stub of chalk. While there was no longer a way to read minds and emotions as she was once able to, she clearly saw the looks on the faces of her students that ranged from mildly disinterested to total incomprehension of the subject matter. The only sign of life from the class came when the bell cut her off mid-sentence, sending students scrambling out of their seats. When the dust settled and Sunset stood alone in the classroom, she was left to wonder if anyone had heard her instruction, shouted over the commotion, to read Chapter 2 before the next lesson.
Moving like a zombie through the corridors, Sunset arrived back at the teachers’ lounge. Entering, she saw Cheerilee sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee who looked her up and down with a sympathetic smile. “Dry eraser on the door frame?”
Sunset simply nodded and sat heavily down on the couch next to her, staring straight ahead. From the edge of her vision, she could see a cushion being placed on the coffee table in front of her. When she looked over, Cheerilee nodded at her. Sunset looked forward and let herself fall, her face hitting the cushion with a muffled thud as a cloud of chalk dust poofed out from her hair. Her face still buried in the pillow, Sunset’s shoulders drew back as she took in an enormous breath of air.
“From the diaphragm, dear,” Cheerilee supplied helpfully while picking up her mug calmly to take a sip of her coffee. “You don’t want to blow out your vocal chords before the next lesson.”
Finally recognizing the wisdom of her elders, Sunset screamed into the fluffy void. “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!”
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😨😨😨😨😨
WHAT THE HELL
wow
I'll...take second thoughts of becoming a teacher
Again, some really good work on this latest chapter. Took a while but was quite worth the wait. Definitely liked the work that went into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. REALLY appreciated the more experienced teachers giving Sunset those helpful words of advice before her first class (especially the point about taking ribbing from her fellow teachers and trying to minimize the ammunition for the students) as well as the first meeting with the human counterparts to the Mane 5 and Sprout. And, yeah, Sunset, perhaps you should have taken Pipp's smart phone much sooner (though, in a way, the "wondering why the teacher doesn't already have a significant other" could actually qualify as a compliment if it is meant to be an observation on how she is an attractive woman who seems nice). And Izzy was only late because she had a lousy sense of direction without friends keeping her on track. Though I would have thought that at least the human counterparts to Sunny and Zipp would have shown an interest and skill in the subject of World History (given that their pony counterparts were the only two that knew from the start that the three tribes DID used to be friends).
And, yeah, I could easily see Hitch having SEVERAL pets in his house (including a bird named Kenneth and a puppy named Sparky).
Anyway, really looking forward to more of this.
oh boy
We got a trouble maker
oh no
where did she go
wow
Duchbag much Pipp😑
Idk which you would choose.
Keep teaching or go back to Equestria and end up in G5.
📖😑
(And, yeah, I could easily see Hitch having SEVERAL pets in his house (including a bird named Kenneth and a puppy named Sparky)
Oh no. Spike is dead
11377415
Why does the class only have 6 students?
11377429
Have you seen the declining birthrates across first world countries?
Methinks someone or her dad someway, somehow heard about the magic incidents at CHS, making them a little obsessive as their counterparts about the old days of Equestria.
Given that pony Hitch is a Lawful Good rule follower, I could see him being that good student to the point of being a teacher's pet, with Sprout playing the part of the rebel bad boy. (Something Sunset could see eye-to-eye with)
Can I just say how nicely the story is going in my opinion and how interested I am to see if Misty will appear in this story?
Well, Sunset. You asked for it. Welcome to the world of teaching.
Right...
Why did Cranky mention a barista of all people regarding his talk to Sunset?
I wonder what's up with Sunny?
Really Pipp.
You're good Sunny.
Thx a lot Pipp.