Classroom of the future

by Paradise Oasis

first day

Chapter three: First Day

Two days following Sundance's mental breakdown, class was back in session in Dream Castle's schoolroom. The fillies and colts filed into the classroom, and trotted to their desks. As they sat there chatting and gossiping to one another, the school bell in the tower turret overhead rang, signaling class was starting. All of the students in the class quieted down, as the new teacher trotted down the steps behind the blackboard from pulling the bell rope.

Okay, Cheerliee... this is it! Here we go! Taking a deep breath, she trotted out in front of the blackboard. "Good morning, students! My name is Cheerilee, and I will be your new teacher from now on!"

"Good Morning Miss Cheerilee!" The entire class said in unison. It was then Cheerilee got to see look over her new students, and the children got the opportunity to size her up. Roughly about thirty colts and fillies- twice as large as her Ponyville class- and a mixed group of Pegasus, Unicorns, and earth ponies.

"That's her?" Apple Delight asked in a whisper, as Cheerilee wrote her name on the blackboard. "That's the new teacher?"

"This'll be easier than I thought." Baby North Star whispered with a smirk. "Baby Glory, you know what to do!"

Putting the chalk down, she turned back to her new class. "I look forward to the chance to get to know you all. Now, since this is our first time together, I would like to go around the classroom, and have each of you tell me your names." She gestured to the yellow earth filly in the first seat. "Let's start with you."

"QUACK!" The student said simply in response.

"Young filly, that is no way to talk to your teacher!" Cherilee snorted in a scolding tone. She remembered Applejack telling her these were problem students, and she was ready to be a little firm, but kind, with them.

"Showwy mish Cheerwiwe-QUACK!" The embarrassed filly replied. "My name ish- QUACK- Bahby Qwakersh-QUACK!-"

Cherilee noticed the young filly's cutie mark- a baby duck carrying an umbrella. "Aha! That explains her speech impediment... I think..." The teacher thought nervously, not knowing how much a pony's cutie mark affected their personality in this era. She looked to the colt behind her. "And you?"

"Name's Apple Delight, Miss Cheerilee!" The white earth pony with the yellow Bowtie around his neck greeted her. "And my mom told me all about you!"

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Apple Delight!" She said with a smile, noticing his apple tree cutie mark. "I take it your Applejack son?"

"Yep, that's me!" He said proudly, then started looking around. "My sis and I baked you an apple pie to welcome you, but I can't seem to find it right now..."

"That's very nice of you... but will worry about that later." She looked at the white unicorn filly, sitting behind Apple delight.

"And Your Name, young filly?" The teacher asked her.

"Baby Glory, Miss Cheerilee." The unicorn filly replied.

"Well, I'm guessing your Glory's daughter, given you look just like her." Cheerilee said with a smile. "But aren't you being a bit hard on yourself by referring to yourself as a 'baby'?"

"That's what we call young ponies that have the same name as their mom's, teach." A pink Pegasus filly told her, looking bored, and painting hoof polish on her hoof. "You think our teacher would know something like that."

Cheerilee looked at the pony that had spoken up, and noticed the Compass cutie mark on her flank. "You must be North Star. Applejack and Glory told me all about your... adventurous educational spirit."

"It's Baby North Star, teach... I'm not my mom." Baby North Star corrected her. "And I think we're going to get along just fine."

She flashed Cheerilee the smile of a Timberwolf staring at it's prey.... right before she devoured it.

"She can't be as bad as Applejack and Glory said." Cheerilee thought to herself hopefully. "I'm a teacher... and there's no such thing as an 'evil child'." She could handle this little filly just fine.

As Cheerilee looked back at Baby Glory, she noticed her horn was glowing, indicating she was using unicorn magic. Seeing as how she wasn't levitating a pencil to write or any other classroom activity, Cheerilee suspected she was up to some mischief.

"Young filly, what ever you're doing with your magic, I insist you cease immediately." Cherilee stamped her hoof, gently but firmly.

"But Miss Cheerilee.." The unicorn protested.

"I don't care, stop using magic, now!"

The unicorn filly immediately did so.

SPLAT!

Every student in the classroom burst into laughter, as the Apple Pie that had been floating in the air came down on Cheerilee's head

"Oh! That's what happened to my pie!" Apple Delight said with a snicker.

"Let's... take a break, shall we class?" Cheerilee said, trying to hold a smile, as the bits of apple oozed down over her face.

...

When the class resumed, the beleaguered earth pony teacher finished the student introductions, then spoke to the class.

"All right, students. I know my replacing Miss Sundance in the middle of the Semester was rather abrupt, but I will still try to pick up from where she left off." She smiled at her new students. "So if you would all please hand in the last assignment she gave you, I shall do my best to review and grade it."

"I can't turn in my last assignment, Miss Cheerilee." Tic Tac Toe replied, putting her hoof up. "The Sea Ponies ate it."

"Tic Tac Toe, that excuse may have worked with your last teacher, but it won't fly with me." The earth pony teacher snorted. "Everypony knows there's no such thing as Sea Ponies."

This elicited a wave of snorts and giggles from the class, though Cheerilee couldn't figure out why. It was then the earth pony noticed a young unicorn filly sitting in the back, who had some kind of odd... glass things over her eyes.

"Speedy, what are those odd... lenses your wearing?" Cheerilee asked, puzzled. "Are they to help correct your vision?"

"No, Miss Cheerilee." Speedy replied. "Those are gemstones."

"What?!?" The teacher yelled in shock. "Get those things out of your eyes this instant!"

"But Miss Cheerilee." The orange unicorn filly protested. "I'm a twinkle eyed pony, those gemstones are my e-"

"Not another word, young filly!" Cheerilee insisted. "You could hurt your eyes! Take those gems out, NOW!"

With a sigh, Speedy pulled her gemstone eyes out of their sockets with a loud POP, and set them on the desk in front of her.

Staring into Speedy's empty eye sockets, Cherilee's eyes went wide in horror. She then reacted the only way an Equestrian-era Pony would to what she had just seen.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Cheerilee's eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed to the floor with a loud THUD.

All the students rushed over to her, as Speedy popped her eyes back in.

"Miss Cheerilee, are you all right?"

"Is she dead?"

"Naw, we’re not that lucky... She just fainted."

.......

"WHY DIDN'T ANYPONY TELL ME ABOUT THE TWINKLE EYED PONIES!?!"

Cheerilee had woken up in the castle infirmary, with Applejack and Nurse Tenderhart standing over her. She had been on the verge on cracking up again, until AJ explianed about the ponies with Jewel eyes.

"They got those from ancestors who went blind or lost their eyes in accidents, and had their eyes replaced with enchanted seeing gemstones." Applejack repeated what North Star had told her. "The trait just kinda... passed down to their offspring."

"Lovely! I used to just have problems with Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara wearing gaudy amounts of jewelry to class!" Cheerilee snorted. "Now, I have students whose bodies are made of jewelry!"

"I kinda guess it slipped our minds to tell ya, Cheerilee... I'm awfully sorry." She narrowed her eyes. "And I'll have a word with Apple Delight about that trick with the pie... I'll tan his hide so sore, he won't be able to sit down for a week!"

The two had left the infirmary, and were trotting down the hallway towards the steps that led to the drawbridge.

"Where exactly are we going again?" Cheerliee sighed. "I really need something to take my mind off of this mess."

"I though ya might say that." AJ said with a grin. "I thought I'd take ya to the castle's local hangout spot... the Satin Slipper Sweet Shoppe!"

Heading out of the castle, the two mares approached a slipper-shaped building wthin the castle walls, but adjacent to the main keep. They walked though the old-fashioned turnstile... and Cheerilee was taken back. The checkered floor, the jukebox in the corner, the spinning stools at the counter... the teacher flashed back to a teen filly with braces and crazy hair, nervously asking a stallion out on a date to the Ponyville prom.... ah, those were good times.

"AJ! Cherrilee! Over Here!" Glory called out to them, waving her hoof. Next to her was an orange unicorn, with a dark orange mane and a tambourine cutie mark. "We saved seats for you!"

The two ponies trotted over to the table, and sat down. Glory introduced her. "Cheerilee, this is Gypsy, she is Queen Majesty's court seer and mystic."

"A pleazure to meet you, darlink!" The pony mystic greeted her, in what the humans would call an Eastern European accent. "If zee ever vant a hoof reading, let me know."

"A fortune teller?" Cheerilee asked skeptically. "Again, I am reminded of the fact I am in a more feudal age."

"Don't scoff so much, Cheerliee!" Applejack chided her. "Remember 'Pinkie Sense'? I think she's got a more advanced version of that!"

"Anyway, how'd your first class go today?" Glory looked up at the counter. "Fizzy! A Diet Dr. Ponyper for our castle's new teacher! Lickety Split! A hot fudge sundae with a cherry on top!"

"Comin right up!" The two mares behind the counter said in unison.

"Thank you, Glory. A soda and a sundae sound really good right about now." Cheerilee replied. "Great Celestia, today was a bizarre experience! I had no idea all of all of the changes to pony society... I don't even know if I can even understand or relate to my students. " She put her chin on the table. "I don't know if I'm cut out for the modern world."

"Aw, just give yourself some time, Cheerilee!" Glory reassured her. "Ya just gotta give it some time!"

"Perhaps vhat you need iz zome guidance." Gypsy added, levitating her cards out of her satchel. "Vould zou like me to give you a reading, Darlink?"

"Go right ahead." Cheerilee added with a sigh. "At this point, I will take what I can get."

Gypsy telekinetically laid out several of the cards, and read them over. She floated the deck up in front of Cheerilee.

"Choose von of zee cards." The unicorn told her simply. The earth pony teacher reluctantly pointed at one with her hoof.

Gypsy levitated the card down onto the table, in the middle of the others she had laid out. After several minutes of concentration, she looked up at Cheerilee.

"You vill deal vith zee future you vind yourzelf in, by looking to your own pazt." She told her simply. "By letting go of zee truths you know, you vill zet yourzelf vree."

"Well, that's not very clear." Cheerilee said incredulously.

"Zee future never iz, darlink." Gypsy told her plainly.

Comments

[mbpony 512]

This story is worth reading so far I mean it takes one person with a seeing condition to Scare Cheerilee off on her first day.

I can almost see the brief comparsion between and baby Quackers given their speech problem.

Please do keep up the good work upon such a great storyline like this one.

[Paradise Oasis]

133251It's the same applejack. I'll cover how she survived in brief in the next chapter... though my other story 'twilight then, twilight now' goes over it in more detail (Shared universe)

[Leave a Whisper]

Well that went well...