It Can't Be Taught

by RunicTreetops

Parent-Teacher Conference

Cheerilee wavers as she stands in place, her fatigue finally catching up to her. She fights with all her might to stay conscious, doing her best to focus on the cool morning breeze that causes her mane to gently sway back and forth. She stands before the Golden Oak Library a few hours before her scheduled meeting time with Anon. She has a purpose, but as she tries to rub the crustiness from her tired eyes, she starts to ponder if this trip was even worth it.

In that moment, Cheerilee hears a few voices from behind her. She turns slightly and glances at the dirt road leading to the library, noticing Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walking by. They look in her direction, causing her to immediately look back towards the library. She cannot let her students see her like this, least of all Diamond Tiara.

Choosing the lesser of two evils, Cheerilee approaches the tree-made-library and gently knocks on the door. After a few moments, she is greeted by Twilight's assistant, Spike, who looks up at her with a smile.

"Good morning Ms. Cheerilee. Um, not that I'm trying to shoo you away or anything, but you know the library doesn't open for another couple of hours, right?"

"Good morning to you too, Spike. And yes, I know. I was hoping to speak to Twilight, if she's available?"

"Let me go check. Knowing her, she stayed up all night studying and is still asleep at her desk."

Cheerilee chuckles as Spike disappears behind the door, his tiny dragon feet making audible pitter-patter noises on the wood flooring beneath him. Unsure of what to do with herself, Cheerilee tries to straighten out her mane and tail in an attempt to make herself look as not-tired as possible.

After a couple of minutes, the door opens once again. This time, it's Twilight who greets her.

"Hello, Ms. Cheerilee! Is there something I can help you with?"

"Actually Twilight, if you weren't too busy, I was hoping you might have a few moments to discuss... you know..." Cheerilee leans in closer to Twilight, though she's not quite sure who she's trying to keep this a secret from. "Anon?"

"Oh. S-sure! Come on in."

Twilight steps aside, allowing Cheerilee into the library. Despite it being so early, Spike has already made the tree feel cozy and comfortable. The hollowed-out tree is illuminated by several windows as well as a number of freshly lit candles scattered across a few tables and shelves in the main reading space. As a result, the whole room feels like it has a warm glow and a relaxing atmosphere, which is exactly what Cheerilee needs right now.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"No no, I'm okay. I don't think this will take too long."

"Well, okay then. Please, take a seat wherever you like." Cheerilee finds the nearest place to sit down, which happens to be on the end of a decently comfortable sofa. Twilight gives her a gentle smile and sits in a small wooden chair not far from said sofa, turning it to face her guest. "So, what's going on? I have a bad feeling it's not good news."

"Well... I'm just a bit confused, is all."

Cheerilee looks at Twilight with guilt and trepidation, but Twilight just smiles and gently nods her head.

"Go on."

"Well, his behavior is... questionable, I suppose."

"Wait, really? What has he been doing?"

"Everything a student shouldn't. He talks back, he doesn't pay attention, he actively insults both me and the material... he's essentially every part of a problem child at once. And I can't figure out how the heck I'm supposed to discipline him since he's a grown adult! What do I do, take away his recess?"

Twilight stares at Cheerilee with wide eyes, her mouth slightly agape. She sits like that for a few awkward, silent moments before finally remembering to speak.

"I... I'm sorry, I'm just trying to process this. That doesn't sound like the Anon I know at all."

"How so? What's he like with you?"

"He's the epitome of a gentlecolt! Or, I suppose in his case, a gentleman. He always treats my friends and I with respect. He apologizes frequently. He's fun to be around, and even when he does something wrong - which is often - he always bounces right back with a smile on his face. He's never once complained to me about anything! Well, except his homesickness, I suppose."

"He's never sarcastic with you? Or passive-aggressive, or rude, or angry?"

"No, never."

"..."

Cheerilee stares at the floor with a blank look on her face. It seems she was right about Anon acting differently towards Twilight, but she wasn't expecting this. He has Twilight completely fooled!

After a few moments, she looks back up at the unicorn, determination and anger on her face.

"Twilight, I think he's taking advantage of you."

"Excuse me?"

"I saw it myself when you dropped him off the other day. He was acting all nice and everything, but the second we were behind closed doors, it was like he was a different person. If nothing else, he was most certainly trying to get under my skin the whole time!"

"Not that I don't believe you, but I just can't imagine him acting like that."

"..."

"Heh, you know, this is sort of like you approaching the parent of a problematic student, isn't it?" Cheerilee looks up at Twilight, who gives her a sheepish grin. "Surely you've had this kind of conversation before."

"I... suppose I have, yes."

Cheerilee's frustration slowly begins to fade as the dots begin to connect in her head.

"Then maybe you're right. I don't know why Anon would try to stay on my good side, but it's unacceptable if he's behaving like that when I'm not around." Twilight sighs. "I just wish he was honest with me."

"I'm sorry you had to learn this way, Twilight."

Cheerilee bites her tongue before she can say anything more. In the span of this brief conversation, she figured it out. Twilight is giving Anon everything he could ever want. She's given him protection thanks to her status, she's given him friendship with ponies that will make professionally tailored suits for him, and she's given him an entire freaking house. For free. Of COURSE he acts nice around her! Meanwhile, why would he need to hide his true self from his teacher, who has nothing of the sort to offer him? THAT'S what he's really like.

...Right?

"This changes quite a few things, I think." Twilight looks up at Cheerilee, and she notices a growing sadness in the librarian's eyes. "I'll go speak to him. For now, I don't want you to have to go through that anymore. You can consider your job done from now on. I'll handle the rest." Twilight gets up from her seat and starts to step towards the door, taking a deep breath as she does so. "Thank you for your help, Ms. Cheerilee."

Cheerilee stands as well. For a brief moment, she feels relieved. This is what she wanted, isn't it? To be rid of this burden? For Twilight to learn who Anon actually is? To be able to reclaim that little bit of extra free time every day?

...

"Wait, Twilight."

"Hm?"

Before Twilight can reach the door, Cheerilee runs up alongside her and places a hoof on her back to stop her.

"I don't think that will be necessary."

"What do you mean?"

"The more I think about it, the more I'm realizing that Anon is... complicated. If I just spend a bit more time with him, I think I'll be able to figure all of this out without any need for confrontation. B-besides..." Cheerilee is hesitant to finish her thought. She doesn't even know why she's doing this. After all, Twilight is the type of mare who will pay her regardless of the fact that she's only been teaching him for a couple of days, so why even bother? And yet, something in her heart won't let it end like this. "Maybe we're wrong. Maybe there's more going on than we think."

"I really hope so," Twilight says, her gaze falling to the floor. "I genuinely thought things were going well with him."

"Give me one more day. I'll send you a letter later tonight letting you know whether or not I'll be continuing with him."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm gonna do what I do best." Cheerilee gives Twilight a forced smile as she walks in front of her and opens the door. "I'm going to give him a pop quiz."

---

"Done."

Anon, having been forced to use Cheerilee's desk as it is the only one large enough to accommodate his comparatively massive body, slides his stapled-together packet of paper towards his teacher, who sits across from him. All of the blanks are filled in, just as she asked. She glances at the clock. He had ten minutes to take the quiz, but he finished it in six. Most of her regular students can't even accomplish that. Granted, she's never given this specific quiz to her students, but she digresses. After all, this pop quiz was meant to cover everything she discussed with Anon over the last couple of days. In particular, she wrote extremely specific questions about the topics he wasn't paying attention to.

In truth, she has mixed feelings about this little experiment of hers. On one hoof, she still doesn't know what compelled her to do this in the first place. She wants to be done with this, to wash her hooves clean of Anon and move on with her miserable life. On the other, she feels a strange desire to see Anon succeed, as if he were just another one of her students. But just LOOK at him! He's a grown adult seated uncomfortably across from her in a schoolhouse made for little children. Heck, from their conversation, it almost felt like Twilight sees him as a child!

Wait. How has she been seeing him? She did just talk to Twilight like that mare is his mom or something. Heck, she's giving him a purposefully difficult pop quiz to, what, prove a point? To who? Herself? Twilight? Anon? Why is she doing this?!

Ugh. Oh well. Nothing to do now but see if he managed to retain a single bit of information over these last few days.

...Huh?

Huh?

Huh?!

"Anon!"

"Yeah?"

"Y-you got a perfect score!"

"I know." Anon looks at Cheerilee with a bored-yet-cocky smile. "Did you expect anything less?"

"How?! I know for a fact that you haven't been paying attention!"

"Then maybe you have your 'facts' wrong." Anon reaches into his back pocket, once again producing the small notebook he had a few days ago. Cheerilee glances at it, and her eyes widen as she realizes that the page it has been opened to is filled with writing. "I know how to listen."

"But... but you've been complaining every step of the way!"

"Trust me, I'm not exactly a fan of you rambling on and on all day long. But considering you never shut your trap, it's hard to not catch what you're saying."

"I-"

"Besides, you made this quiz way too easy. That's your fault, not mine." Anon grunts as he stands up, stretching his back as he does so. "And I believe you said I could go home if I passed your stupid little quiz. So, I'm outta here."

Anon nonchalantly walks towards the door of the schoolhouse, throwing it open with one hand and stepping outside.

"Wait, Anon!" To her surprise, he does actually stop, though he doesn't turn around to look at her. "...Thank you."

"For what?"

"For proving me wrong."

"...Don't get your tail in a twist over it." Anon raises one hand into the air to do the low-effort wave Cheerilee has gotten used to seeing from him. "See ya tomorrow."

"Goodbye, Anon."

She barely manages to say her goodbye before the door closes behind him. She stares at that closed door for several quiet moments before a tiny smile makes its way to her face.

Make no mistake, she still doesn't like him. She also still hasn't quite figured out why he acts the way he does, but despite the morning's events, she can't help but want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, unlike her other students, he has actually proven that he has been listening. Her lessons did mean something. In a strange way, for the first time in a long time, she really, truly feels like a teacher.

A smile still on her face, she immediately finds some paper and ink.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I believe that we may have both been wrong about Anon. I will continue to act as his mentor. In the meantime, I feel that it might be best to give him some extra space to figure things out on his own.

I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

Regards,

Cheerilee

Comments

[Fecyrineu]

Gee, I wonder why the man who has been ripped from his home, is treated like a child and is constantly reminded about the fact he is in an unfamiliar and strange world would be angry to be forced around someone who embodies that for multiple hours a day.

Don't get me wrong, Anon is being a jerk and should know better, but at the same time it's shouldn't be very hard for them to figure it out.

[RunicTreetops]

11711869
We get there when we get there!

[6mike161]

I wonder why he acts the way he does towards Cheerilee and Twilight.

[blargg]

She was surprised that he wants to pay Twilight back for the shack?
I take it that she has never encountered pride before

[Hedonism Bot]

11711865
You'd think Twilight could find a better way for Anon to learn this stuff.

[Noobblue]

I am really starting to enjoy the character interactions

[Kyuubi325]

Anon is a jerk… but he’s also dealing with a lot being trapped in horse land… I think a Cheerilee is gonna get an idea of just how much it’s effecting him soon… also appreciate it when Anons not a moron.

[Skrepka]

Thanks for the chapter.

[f0st3r21]

Definitely want to see where this is going.

[MatTheBook]

"Besides, you made this quiz way too easy. That's your fault, not mine." Anon grunts as he stands up, stretching his back as he does so. "And I believe you said I could go home if I passed your stupid little quiz. So, I'm outta here."

So what? Cheerilee has to do something very nice for you to be respectful to her?

[Savant Sentral]

11711916
yeah me personally, id have just taken the house
I'd obviously be a great friend to twilight for as long as we are friends, but a house is a huge responsibility.
And I doubt twilight would want to shoulder him that burden of making THAT even

[surewhynot]

Cheerilee reading over Anon's test like
i.makeagif.com/media/12-10-2022/j_G8y1.gif

From how he acts, it's possible that Anon could be neurodivergent or mentally ill. Or going through withdrawal. Or is just traumatized and/or fed up with being treated like a child and ripped away from everything he's even known. That tends to cause mental problems. Those are just some possible interpretations, though. It could be basically anything at this point. Time to continue reading and hopefully find out.