Cheerilee's Normal Day

by PseudoBob Delightus

Chapter 3 - The Sleepless Beholder

Author's Note:

This chapter was written by The Sleepless Beholder, who only knew about chapter 2.

“They want me to what?!” Cheerilee screamed, causing Discord to pull off his ears so he didn't rupture something.

“Well, not you in particular, more them.” A dozen arms sprouted out of Discord’s shoulder, pointing at the different students.

“Us?”

“Me?”

“But of course.”

“Expected nothing less from the princesses.”

“Does that mean we get to see Princess Luna?”

“Those are pretty good questions, care to elaborate?” Cheerilee said, getting right in Discord's face.

The lord of chaos scratched his chin, pulled on his beard, hummed patiently, ignored Cheerilee’s anger, and said; “Nope.”

Then banished in a flash of light.

The teacher blinked the white spots out of her eyes and looked at the classroom, all the fillies staring at her with bright eyes and pleading smiles.

Cheerilee let out a heavy sigh. “I guess we're going on a field trip.”

-+-

Cheerilee took her seat with a grumble as the train slowly started moving out of the Ponyville station, wondering to herself. “What were the princesses thinking?!”

First sending Discord as a messenger, then asking her to come to Canterlot immediately, then… for some Twilight-forsaken reason, bring the entire class with her!

“So… will this field trip affect our grades?” Truffle asked, always interested in extra points.

The rest of the class was spread all over the train car. The Crusaders were elated about going in an adventure like their sisters, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were excited to visit Canterlot and mingle with the high class, Pipsqueak was happy to see Princess Luna again outside of dreams, Featherweight was taking pictures and talking about how this was going to sell a lot of newspapers, Peachy and Sunny were just roller skating in circles, Snips and Snails were talking to each other about something completely unrelated to the situation, Twist was a nervous mess, and Button Mash was just playing on his portable console.

“Teacher?” Truffle insisted, seeing that Cheerilee had been silent for a minute.

She shook her head. “No, you won't get extra points for this, I was not expecting it and you’re already getting to visit Canterlot as a field trip.”

“And hopefully nothing else”

That was the question of the day. What could the princess need after their retirement that required the entire class of Ponyville’s Schoolhouse? Was it some world ending event? Were they just inviting them for tea? Was it related to Randall? Cheerilee couldn't tell, but if the princesses thought the fillies would help, she would bring them to Canterlot.

If only to see how in Tartarus they would be able to help them.

-+-

The train arrived at the station and Cheerilee herded the class out of the car, the fillies immediately wanting to spread out and explore. It was at times like these when the teacher wished she was a unicorn so she could just lift everyone and be done with it.

Doing it the hard way, she managed to keep pretty much everyone together, and whoever wandered off would be caught by the guards eventually. The princesses can explain that to the parents since this whole mess is because of them.

With the situation back under control, she guided the class towards the castle, where the guards let them in without question, giving validity to what Discord had said. Luckily all the students were too busy looking at the castle in awe to do any damage or chaos.

Eventually they made it to the throne room, where Queen Twilight was sitting on her throne, with a disheveled Celestia and Luna speaking to her in whispers. Cadence was also next to them, but was speaking with Shining Armor instead, seemingly calm despite the others’ clear anxiety.

“Excuse me, princesses, queen,” Cheerilee spoke as she took a small bow, glaring at her students so they did the same. “I've brought everyone as requested. I don't know how they will help or why you had to send Discord to get us, or why… he didn't just teleport us here from the start?”

That last question got a groan out of everypony save the royals of the Crystal Empire.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Twilight said. “I know this is unusual but times are dire and we are facing something that's… unorthodox in their way of being defeated.”

“I… guess that explains the students being the ones necessary,” Cheerilee looked at Shining and Cadence as the two started laughing about something in their conversation. “Um, I’m getting a bit of mixed signals here. Are matters urgent or-”

“They very much are,” Twilight said, giving a pitying look at her brother and sister-in-law. “They have sadly been victims of the threat we need to stop.”

Cheerilee looked at them more closely. Neither of the two seemed to look injured or sick, no markings, no glow of magic in their eyes, they looked perfectly fine if maybe unaware of what was going on around them. “They… don’t seem in a bad spot necessarily.”

“We thought the same thing for a while,” Luna said. “But the oddities kept piling up till we knew something was off.”

“We thought it similar to what Queen Chrysalis had done to Shining Armor during the wedding, but Thorax couldn’t confirm what it was or its nature,” Celestia added.

“We even brought Chrysalis back from the stone to see if she could figure it out, and the answers…” Twilight looked worriedly at her family. “We’ve time, at least, but there’s much to do.”

Cheerilee gave them a serious nod, the fillies behind her also turning their full attention to the princesses. “Then what are we to do? What is this threat? What does it do?”

“I guess I should explain from the start.” Twilight took a deep breath. “There’s a long lost Changeling legend…”