The Last Week of School

by VashTheStampede

Thursday: Field Trip

The day spent with her family had been yet another she expected to be her last. Cheerilee awoke laying on her sister’s bed, her face buried in a maroon mane that smelled faintly of hard cider, the mare attached to the mane laid out perpendicular to herself. Curled against her sister slept her niece, the light purple unicorn filly’s chest rising steadily and shallowly as she slept in her mother’s embrace.

Another day. I’ve got another day. It will happen in my sleep, I have today.

Cheerilee lay contentedly at the bottom of her familial pile, listening to the breath catch in her sister’s throat in light, cute snores, and the slight, almost inaudible whoosh of Pinchy’s slumbering breaths. The scholarly mare would have been content to stay there for as long as her sister slept – which, unfortunately, was only another few minutes.

Berry Punch’s breath caught a little harder than the standard snoring, and the usually inebriated mare awoke with a snort and a half-hiccup.

“Ugh… G’mornin’, Cheers…” Berry muttered, rubbing her eyes as she rolled off her sister.

“Good morning, sis,” Cheerilee replied, voice a barely audible whisper, trying to preserve the dwindling time Pinchy had left in Luna’s realm.

“CHEERS!” Berry screamed, suddenly fully awake, throwing herself at her sister and pulling her into an exceedingly tight hug, “Oh my gosh Cheers you’re still here… oh tha-thank Ce-celestia…” Berry trailed off as Cheerilee felt a damp spot form on her chest, her sister’s breath having gone from a steady snore to an erratic, labored heaving of air in mere moments.

“You’re gonna kill me yourself if you don’t let go…” Cheerilee wheezed out of her sister’s crushing embrace. Berry Punch immediately let go, most certainly not wanting to shorten what little time she had left. Her eyes were a mixture of fear and sorrow – it seemed she had taken Cheerilee literally.

“Sister, I was kidding. Just… easy on the hugs. Oh, Pinchy, you’re up,” Cheerilee chuckled, looking over at the unicorn filly. The adorable child rubbed her eyes with her forehooves, before opening them, her light orange eyes taking in the rather immature sight of her mother weeping next to her aunt.

“Good morning, mom. Good morning, Aunt Cheerilee,” she said sleepily, rolling unceremoniously off the bed, hooves somehow finding their way underneath her as she righted herself and shuffled off towards the bathroom. Berry was about to reprimand her daughter for caring so little about her aunt when Cheerilee spoke.

“Don’t worry, Berry. It will happen in my sleep. She knows that. If I’m awake I’ll be fine for today. Don’t be mad at her for not being sad now. There… there will be enough of that in a few days. Come, let’s go make some breakfast. I think I’ll take the students on a field trip today – perhaps visit the Elements. They’re all such kind ponies, and Sugarcube Corner is certainly something none of them would oppose to,” Cheerilee giggled a little at her own plan. Berry grumbled her assent, and yawned as she got off of the bed.

---

“Miss Cheerilee!”

The wave of joy that blasted her as she walked into the schoolhouse nearly knocked her off her hooves.

“Good morning class!” Cheerilee responded with as much joy as she could muster. Just standing here, in the presence of all these loving fillies and colts, made her feel better about everything – it almost erased the feelings of dread buried in her chest.

“Today, I was thinking we could go on a field trip! We’re going to go meet the Elements of Harmony!” Cheerilee said, beaming at her students. Universally, her students returned the broad grin, getting up out of their seats and shuffling to the door, little hooves at the end of their short legs stepping and rolling in a manner that almost reminded Cheerilee of a centipede.

“Alright class, off we go! To Fluttershy’s cottage first!”

---

By the time they reached Sugarcube corner, the second-to-last stop on the trip, both Cheerilee and her students were quite tired, but very happy. Fluttershy had told her students the story of how she reformed Discord, Rainbow Dash had performed a Sonic Rainboom and gave rides to the foals, Rarity tried to explain how fashion trends came and went (a concept that the little foals didn’t get at all, so they had made a joke out of it, asking why orange and lime green didn’t work together and such like questions), and Applejack explained the history of Sweet Apple Acres in surprisingly juicy detail, and each student had left with an apple. All that remained were Pinkie Pie and… Twilight Sparkle.

Cheerilee had offered to purchase each of her students something from the little bakery on the condition they listen to one of Pinkie’s stories. As it turned out, Pinkie Pie wove a solid and continuous tale, one that kept Cheerilee’s young students rapt and waiting for more. Cheerilee sat in the back, sipping a milkshake, paying more attention to her students enjoyment of Pinkie’s tale than the story itself. When it became clear that Pinkie was drawing close to the end of the story, Cheerilee tuned back in.

“And that… is how you little fillies and colts ended up with the greatest teacher Equestria has ever seen, shy of Celestia herself,” Pinkie said, her rambunctious and exuberant voice taking a tone of solemn respect. She looked over to Cheerilee and smiled weakly at the teacher, walking over to her and hugging her, whispering into Cheerilee’s ear. “Don’t worry. I’ll cover whatever they want. It’s the least I can do. I’ll miss you, Miss Cheerilee. Everypony will.”

“Thank you, Pinkie. I… thank you,” Cheerilee muttered, trying to maintain her composure. Pinkie smiled at her again, before whirling around to the students, tumbling and balancing on the service counter as expertly as any gymnast might have done.

“Well little fillies and colts, what can I do you for?”

---

Bellies full and minds abuzz with sugar, Cheerilee realized that perhaps she should have planned the visit to Sugarcube corner as the last event of the day. Then again, the surprise visit to Twilight’s was as much a personal test of teaching skill for the unicorn as it was a field trip for the students. If Twilight could handle a class full of sugar-high fillies and colts, without knowing beforehand they were on their way, she could handle anything. Cheerilee knocked three times on the door, and waited for Twilight to open it.

“Good afternoon, Cheerilee! What brings you around here?” Twilight asked cheerfully before noticing the horde of students behind the teacher. “Oh. This is… some kind of test, isn’t it, to see if I can pull a lesson off on the fly, isn’t it?”

Cheerilee giggled. “Am I really that obvious?”

“Yep,” Twilight returned with a defiant glare and a slight chuckle, “but I’ll have you know I was expecting this, so I do have a lesson plan already! So ha! Come on in, kids, Miss Sparkle has a lesson for you…” The glint in Twilight’s eyes was one of pure determination, a look Cheerilee knew she had had years ago when she first began to teach.

“Do you think you can cover this? I need to run an errand really quick, I’ll be back in fifteen minutes at the most. You’ve got this until then, right, Miss Sparkle?”

“Of course, Miss Cheerilee, I can take anything these kids can dish out.”

“We’ve just come from Sugarcube corner, dear.”

“… you sly minx.”

---

As it so happened, Miss Cheerilee had been lying when she said she had somewhere to be. In fact, she stood quietly outside in the bright afternoon sun, trotting around the library for merely a moment or two before she noticed a lack of rambunctious child noises emanating from the tree. Curious, she peeked in the window.

Within the tree, Twilight had the students’ complete and total attention, and was delivering a lecture with magical visual aids the likes of which Cheerilee could never dream of having. Every eye was fixated on the purple mare, who was exceptionally more animated than usual, weaving in and out of the foals, making wide, sweeping gestures with her forehooves, jumping around almost like Pinkie might. Without warning, Twilight looked up and made eye contact with Cheerilee and winked at her, before continuing with whatever it was she was doing. Terrified she might break the spell as it were, Cheerilee resigned herself to staying outside for the duration of the lesson.

---

“I must say, Twilight, you really have proven yourself more than capable. Are you sure teaching isn’t your special talent, Twilight?”

Twilight Sparkle giggled and blushed at the compliment. “No, Miss Cheerilee, I’m quite certain that that is your area of expertise. Thank you, though, it means a lot that you think I’m going to do well as a teacher.”

“You’re welcome, Twilight. It puts me at ease, too, knowing the foals will be left in good hooves…” Cheerilee’s voice died and she stopped trotting, her head lowering as she began to cry. Twilight felt horribly awkward – she didn’t know what, if anything to say, or if a hug would be more appropriate, or –

“It’s alright, Cheerilee. You had no control over this. Do you… do you want to come over and have dinner? Spike really is an excellent cook…” the words found their way out of Twilight unexpectedly – the ideas hadn’t been in her mind moments ago, and now she had just invited Cheerilee over for dinner. Somehow… that felt like it had been the right thing to do, though – to offer a friend a simple comfort.

“Yes, Twilight, I’d love that. Thank you.”

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Okay so we've got the end coming up fast. Another day or two and Cheerilee will be gone forever.

Please hurry up and post the next chapter ASAP. I can't stand this cliff hanger even though I'm not exactly looking forward to what happens to Cheerilee.

[ValorlordV5]

My only complaint is that there is no sign (that I can recall) that Cheerilee is dying. Sure, you've told us, but we don't really see it. Otherwise, this is a great piece of work. Keep it up!

[The Lost Winchester]

The days keep going by... This gets more sad everythime