Classroom of the future

by Paradise Oasis

Turnabout

Turnabout

"Okay, Glory... Miss Cheerilee wants what delivered to her classroom?" Medley, the Pegasus who was in charge of the castle's music and instrumental programs, asked the white unicorn in surprise. "Shouldn't she be asking for recordings of Classical music - you know, Coltofsky, Jean Cloppin." The turquoise pony with the musical note cutie mark responded. "Maybe even some of the human composers, like Beethoven, Mozart, or Bach?"

"I know it's sounds strange, Medley." Glory replied with a shrug. "But those are the instruments she requisitioned for music appreciation day,"

Medley shook her mane. "Well... she's the teacher. I certainly hope she knows what's she's doing."

...

"Did you hear about what happened to Quackers?"

"Yeah, I heard her mom finally snapped."

"Maybe it's all that old apple cider she drinks? That stuff's gotta be spoiled!"

When class started on Monday morning, everypony was busy discussing what had happened with Quackers and her mother. Word had traveled fast around the castle, and all of the colts and fillies were debating exactly what had occurred. Quacker's empty seat, of course, did nothing to help dissuade the gossip.

The class was so wrapped up in their idle chatter over Quackers, that their teacher trotting in was barely noticed. But when they all turned to see her, everypony's jaw nearly hit the floor.

"Heya class, what's up?"

Cheerilee's mane was tied up in two pigtails, held in place by two neon scrunchies. As she trotted up to her desk, they saw she was wearing four legwarmers on her hooves, and butterfly clips in her tail.

"She looks different." Apple Delight said in shock.

"She talks different." Baby Glory agreed.

"I don't believe it!" Baby Applejack finished in shock.

"Miss Cheerilee... are you feeling ok?" Speedy asked nervously.

"Oh, I'm totally cool!" She kicked the whoopee cushion off her chair (she knew her students by now), hopped into her seat, and faced her students.

"All righty, class! Let's get this thang goin!" She gave them a great big grin. "Today is music appreciation day... so let's rock this place!"

That's when the class noticed several speakers, rock guitars, and other instruments over in the corner. Their teacher nodded her head towards the instruments. "So what're ya watin for?"

Most of the class could only stare in shock... but Baby Medley trotted over to the instruments. "I-I can play... I think.." She picked up the drumsticks, and hit the cymbal on the drums.

Following her example, Baby Firefly pick up the guitar, and struck a riff with her hoof. "All right! Now this is music class!"

Baby Heart Throb picked up a microphone with her wing. "Yeah! Let's sing a song from Nightshade and the Shadowettes!"

Everypony whose quarters were near the schoolroom, heard the hip-hop sound of the student's playing. Twilight Shine and Galaxy covered there ears with their hooves, grumbling about 'all that racket', while Lickety Split and Cherries Jubilee tapped their hooves to the beat. Even Queen Majesty gave a smirk, at the music coming from the floors above her throne room.

"Yeeah! This is awesome!" Baby Firefly exclaimed, hitting a final riff on the guitar. "You totally Rock, Cheerilee!"

"Yeah! You're the best!" Baby Medley agreed.

The whole class was surrounding Cheerilee, telling her how awesome she was... except for Baby North Star. The Filly sat back at her desk, scowling at the now 'cool' teacher. This wasn't supposed to happen! They're supposed to hate her! How dare they do this! The pink Pegasus got angrier and angrier, until she finally picked up her math textbook, and hurled it at the back of Cheerilee's head.

Without even turning around, Cheerilee caught the book with her tail, and set sailing back at the little filly. It landed squarely on the desk in front of Baby North Star- right where the teacher had intended it to land.

"Nice throwing hoof, Baby North Star." Cherilee looked back over her shoulder. "But ya might want to do the assignment in that book, instead of tossing it."

The whole class burst out laughing, and the pink Pegasus only snorted at her teacher.

...

"Oh trot! It's almost Six! He'll be here soon!"

Cheerilee was busy sitting the table, and trying to get everything ready. The buzzer on the oven went off behind her, and she spun around and turned it off with her hoof. "Ohh, that spaghetti and tomato sauce smells sooo good! He's going to love this!" Slipping on her hoof mitts, the teacher pulled the freshly cooked dish out of the oven and retrieved a serving spoon. As she was stirring it, Cheerilee heard a knock at the door.

"Just a minute!" Adjusting her pigtails, she trotted over, and opened the door. "Hello, Wigwam! Please, won't you come in?"

"Hello miss Cheerilee!" He greeted her, a bouquet of roses clenched in his teeth. "I brought you these!"

"Oh, they're lovely!" She replied, taking the flowers from him. She filled a vase with water, and set them on the table. "There, that looks nice!"

He pulled out her chair for her, and Cheerilee sat down.

"That's... that’s a new look for you." Taking his headdress off, he sat down opposite her. "I like it."

"Oh, why thank you." She replied, looking up at her pig tails. "I thought it might help me with my students."

"And how is that?" Wigwam asked curiously.

"Gypsy advised me to look to my past, to solve the problems of the future." Cheerilee spooned out the spaghetti onto her plate. "So I thought I might try reaching back into my own fillyhood to try and connect with them."

"A wise decision." Taking the serving spoon up, Wigwam put the spaghetti on his plate. "But did it work?"

"I think they liked the jam session I arraigned for music appreciation day." The teacher giggled. "Wait until they see what I have planned for our field trip."

"What, are you taking them to the human kingdom for a visit?" Wigwam took a bite of the spaghetti. "Mmm, this is delicious!"

"I keep hearing that name tossed around by different ponies." Cheerilee poured them both a glass of lemonade. "Who are the humans?"

"A race that we ponies are allied with, much like the bison." He slurped down a noodle. "Trust me, you'll get to meet them soon enough."

"Speaking of the bison, what are the tribes really like?" Cheerilee took a bit off her own plate. "I've always been fascinated by what the textbooks say about them."

"The bison are a strong and proud people." Wigwam smiled. "They are deeply rooted in their traditions, and follow the ways of their ancestors, but can adapt quickly to any situation. They hated ponykind once, for moving in on their lands in the age of Equestria. But those settlements are long since abandoned, and the Bison no longer have any qualm with our race."

"And you live both here and the frontier?" Cheerilee licked some sauce off her plate.

"Correct. I help the tribe with fighting off timber wolves, and protecting the stomping grounds. The rest of my time I spend here, giving reports to Majesty, and helping my fellow big brother ponies defend Dream Valley." He finished his plate. "Tell me, Miss Cheerilee, did you... have a special somepony back in Ponyville?"

"What? No... I never formed the lifebond." She replied, stifling a small blush. "A few of my students gave me a love poision once, though. I fell in love with Applejack's Brother, it... was kind of embarrassing, actually."

"A love poison? I've heard of that from the bison tribe's shaman." Finishing his meal, Wigwam took his plate to the sink. "It's a stronger version of the 'want it, need it' spell. But all it does is make you stare into another pony's eyes endlessly, without doing anything else."

"Yes, it's nothing like the lifebond." Cheerilee sighed, putting her dishes into the sink, and rinsing them off. "It's nothing like really falling in love."

"I never had a girl here at the castle." Wigwam snorted. "I was never around here long enough to get to know anypony."

"That's really sad." Cherilee replied. "You should have the mares swarming all over you."

Wigwam had trotted over to her bookshelf, and was looking at a few of the titles. "Where did you get these?"

"The archivist, Tornado, gave them to me... when I stopped off at the castle library." She smiled. "Are there any books you like to read?"

"Well... I love the adventures of Daring Doo series." He shook his mane. "Though I'm not a fan of the portrayal of aboriginal societies in the books."

"Wow, I love that series!" Cherilee exclaimed. "They actually still publish those, after all these centuries?"

Wigwam nodded. "Yes, although most ponies prefer human fairy tales... ether those, or stories about the age of Equestria."

"Wow, it's amazing to think that a time period I lived in, is now being romanticized." She replied with a laugh.

For the next several hours, they talked about their favorite books and hobbies, and enjoyed each other's company. Finally, it was time for Wigwam to go.

"It's getting late, and we both have responsibilities tomorrow." The orange stallion said with a sigh, heading for the door. "I had a lot of fun this evening...would you like to go with me to the next castle movie night?"

"I have no idea what movie is playing." She smiled at him. "But it sounds lovely."

"I'll see you later then,,," He started to trot off, but then came back and gently nuzzled her. "I'm so glad things are working out for you now."

She stared after him dreamily, as he trotted away. Then she just wandered down the hallway in a giddy daze, not noticing she had wandered in front of the bricked up alcove. What happened next... she was entirely unprepared for.

Suddenly, the wall beside Cheerilee exploded outward. "SURPRISE!"

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!" *THUD*

"Heya, Miss Cheerilee!" The white Pegasus who popped out of the wall exclaimed. "Name's Surprise! Betcha ya didn't see that coming!" She burst out laughing. "The old fake wall trick gets em every time!"

When there was no response, Suprise looked down at the unconscious earth pony.

"Uh oh, I think I made her faint again....."

...

As the sun set and evening came on, Glory trotted down into the dungeons beneath the castle. The guards at the exterior gate opened it for her, and she passed into the master jailer's office.

"Locket... let me in." She asked the pony sitting across the room, staring at a monitor array. "I want to talk with her."

"Are you sure about that, Glory?" The pink Pegasus with the white and purple mane, spun around in her seat to face Glory. "Your sister's been quiet ever since we brought her down here. She might turn violent."

The pony master of jails and cages, Locket ran the Dream Castle dungeons with a steel hoof. Her special talent, evidenced by her key cutie mark, put her in a grim line of work. Her eyes had been long ago put out by rioting prisoners, and replaced by two pink gemstones. The television monitors behind her kept constant surveillance on the hundreds of prisoners down here

"I'll be fine, Locket." Glory told her. "Just have your guards keep an eye on things."

Sighing, the pink Pegasus hit the button, opening the door into the prison area.

Glory trotted in slowly, staring at all of the dangerous and violent prisoners who were being kept here. In one cell was Beezin- the vile goblin sorcerer whose magic paint had brought life to several inanimate objects, which had killed several ponies at Paradise estate. Another cell held Porcina, the swine witch who murdered ponies by turning them to glass with a touch. And farther down still was Arabus, the cloud genie who drew power from stealing the shadows of unsuspecting equines. His lamp was held fast inside a unicorn-maintained magic shield, preventing his escape.

They all stared silently as Glory passed, and she shivered at the sheer amount of evil contained in one area. Finally, she came to a cell where a pale blue unicorn lay sullenly on the cold stone floor.

"Sparkler?" Glory asked. "Sparkler, it's me... your sister."

Sparkler simply turned away, and faced the opposite wall silently.

"Sister, don't be like that... you brought this on yourself." Glory pleaded with her. "You hit Quackers very hard... you could've killed her!"

Still Sparkler said nothing. Glory continued-

"I just wanted you to know... I promise I'll take good care of the Twins. I'm thinking of asking Cherilee to take Quackers in, and I promise you... they'll be well cared for and loved. I just thought... you should know."

The white unicorn shook her mane, and started to trot away.

"Glory?" Sparkler asked, her voice barely audible.

"What is it, sister?" Glory stopped, looking back towards Sparkler.

"Tell Quackers... tell her I'm sorry I was such a horrible mother." Glory could her sobbing. "And tell her she deserves better."

Glory nodded, and trotted silently back out of the dungeon.

Comments

[mbpony 512]

Nice update as it seems that the return of 80s Cheerilee was a nice surprise for this chapter.

I have to say I cannot wait to see how Cheerilee encounters the Humans and their weird ways.

Also is it possible for you to have Cheerilee meet Spike in some way during this storyline of yours ?

Or have Cheerilee encounters what was left of old Ponyville and the remains of her schoolhouse ?

Interesting moment between Sparkler and her sister, I must say...

Also nice cameo by old Surprise pony, I cannnot wait for Cheerilee to get a proper introduction to some of the G1 ponies throughout this storyline of yours.

Please do keep up the good work upon such a great tale like this one as I cannot wait to see what happens next in this storyline of yours.

[Eddie Sand]

Huh, I thought she was bricked up in a wall.

[soulwinds]

So who was bricked up in the wall?

[RaptorCalloftheShadows]

214966

Me too. What a pity. >_>

[Paradise Oasis]

220065
I think Sparkler's suffering far worse being locked up with all those Psychotic G1 villains. Warden Locket has a tendency to look the other way when inmates do bad stuff to mares who do what Sparkler did

[AliCentaur Br0ny]

What a , it was Surprise herself who was sealed behind the wall: SURPRISE!