Chapter 1

Smiling Flowers

by TheBrianJ

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Chapter 1

"Now then, class, can anypony tell me the main difference between a hydra and a dragon?" Hooves shot up across the classroom. Cheerilee scanned the room, smiling. "Hmmm, Scootaloo?"

"Dragons have one head, and Hydras have, erm…" she trailed off, rubbing her chin. "A bunch?"

Cheerilee nodded her head. "Very good, Scootaloo! Hydras can have any number of heads, although you find them mostly with somewhere between six and eight."

Cheerilee's entire class was sitting up, paying close attention to the lecture. The very idea of happy, attentive students was more than enough to energize her. After spending weeks on grammar—subject that the fillies, if their glazed-over eyes and snores were anything to go by, were clearly bored of—Cheerilee had felt that a break was necessary. And as luck would have it, a perfect scenario presented itself: just days earlier, a Hydra that had taken residence in Froggy Bottom Bog was finally moved. It gave Cheerilee the opportunity to cover a far more interesting subject: the various wild creatures that populated Equestria.

Her musing was interrupted by Apple Bloom jutting a hoof into the air. "But Miss Cheerilee, mah sister said that the Hydra she saw a few months ago had only four heads."

"Yes, Apple Bloom, but then again, Hydras don't usually show up in Froggy Bottom Bog. That one was certainly an oddity! That's why the Canterlot Wild Animal Patrol were down there on Tuesday to transfer it off to the Caballus Swamp, much further away from civilization, so it won't be able to attack anypony."

Cheerilee took the pointer in her hoof and turned to the class, gesturing at the Hydra she had drawn on the chalkboard. Every filly's eyes were wide, their posture perfect in eager anticipation of the rest of the lesson. Cheerilee's cheeks were starting to hurt from her smile; she hadn't seen the class this interested in a lesson in quite some time. "See, class, Hydras are technically herbivores. That means they only eat plants. However, they are also fiercely territorial. They will go after anypony—or for that matter, any creature—that enters what it considers its territory. That's why several months ago, it attacked a group of ponies who were visiting Froggy Bottom Bog. Any questions?"

A hoof in the front of the room ponderously raised.

"Yes, Scootaloo?"

Scootaloo looked around the room a bit, making sure that the other fillies were listening closely. "Is it true that if you cut off a Hydra's head, it grows back?"

Cheerilee's jaw dropped slightly. "Scootaloo, where did you get that information?"

The pegasus filly grinned ear to ear. "Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo leaned forward in her desk, her voice cracking slightly with excitement. "She was telling me all about how she would have beaten that Hydra that showed up, and she mentioned that Hydra can regenerate heads! Is it true?"

Cheerilee's face grew thoughtful as she mulled it over. The more detailed information about Hydras might not have been the most appropriate information for fillies, but it was important. She took another moment to gather her thoughts, knowing she would have to word this just right.

"Actually, Scootaloo, there's more than that: if a Hydra's head gets cut off, two heads grow back!" The gasp that rose from the room encouraged Cheerilee to continue. "The cells inside of a hydra grow at such a rate that they duplicate the head within a fraction of a second."

Cheerilee couldn't help but giggle a little as she saw the entire classes' eyes widen. Scootaloo's hoof shot up again, almost instantaneously.

"But then how do you stop a Hydra? If their heads can grow back, doesn't that mean there's no way to stop it?"

Cheerilee shifted her weight awkwardly onto her right side, blushing and slightly averting her gaze from the class. "Oh, well, I don't know if that would be appropriate for you all."

Groans shot up around the room, along with begs and cries of "Pleeeaaaaaaaase!" Cheerilee cautiously smiled.

"Well, a fire spell is the best way to stop a Hydra. It will incapacitate the Hydra for long enough for a pony to escape. In fact, in some cases, the fire spell will stop the Hydra's heads from regenerating!"

Cheerilee chuckled again as the collective eyes of the class widened, and a "woaaaaahhhhh," rose up from the students. She opened her mouth again, but her eyes wandering around the surprised classroom suddenly fell upon the clock on the wall, and she let out a dismayed sigh.

"Oh, goodness, it's already 2:55? My my, this day certainly went by quickly," she said with a smile. "Alright, does anypony have any announcements they'd like to make before the weekend?"

A hoof shot into the air, then wildly waved back and forth. "Ooh! Oooh! Ooooooh! Miss Cheerilee, Miss Cheerilee!"

Cheerilee chuckled again. "Go ahead, Twist."

Twist jumped up on top of her desk, spinning around to try to address everypony in the room at once. "I just wanted to tell everypony that my mom's furniture thtore is having a thuper thale this weekend! You all thould totally…"

Twist was interrupted by another voice from across the room.

"A 'thale?' I'm sorry, I don't know what a 'thale' is."

Silver Spoon giggled at her own joke. Cheerilee rolled her eyes as she turned to her.

"Now Silver Spoon, that's no way to talk to one of your fellow students!"

"But furniture is boring," Silver Spoon said with dismissive wave of her front hoof. "Have you seen Twist's mother? Her Cutie Mark is a chair! She's probably the most boring pony ever!"

"Hey, furniture is thuper thwell," Twist protested, her eyebrows tilting upwards as she leaned towards Silver Spoon.

Before the discussion could descend into an argument, Cheerilee stepped in between the two fillies.

"Silver Spoon, come on now. You can't judge a pony's personality based on their Cutie Mark."

Just as the words escaped her lips, Cheerilee felt a knot form in her throat. Giving a quick shake of her head, she swallowed and opened her mouth to speak again, only for Silver Spoon to cut her off.

"But even so, Miss Cheerilee, Cutie Marks help you identify what ponies are good at," she said with a slight giggle. "Last week, my dad hired a pony to help fix the roof of our house. He had a guitar as a Cutie Mark, but insisted that he could fix walls, and he ended up ruining the wall even more! Turns out he was some out of work musician, looking to make a few bits!"

Cheerilee felt the knot in her throat return as the class laughed, but this time, the knot didn't go away as quickly. Biting her lip a bit, Cheerilee glanced up at the clock again.

"Well, if there aren't any more announcements, that's all for today. Don't forget your homework this Monday!"

The knot slowly disappeared again as Cheerilee walked her students out of the schoolhouse. As they moved outside, Apple Bloom's eyes lit up.

"Applejack!"

Apple Bloom broke away from the students exiting the school house and jumped at her bigger sister, hanging off of her neck with a big hug.

"Hiya Apple Bloom," Applejack said, tussling her sister's hair. "Thought I'd stop by and walk ya'll home from school. How was yer day?"

"Great! But I wasn't plannin' on goin home just yet." She dropped off of Applejack's neck, taking a few steps back. "Me an' the Crusaders were headed over to Sugarcube Corner to meet Pinkie Pie. She's gonna teach us how to bake biscuits!"

Sweetie Belle ran out of the classroom and jumped in front of Apple Bloom.

"Yeah. Cupcakes, cakes, pies, bread, brownies, fudge, and muffins were all busts," Sweetie Belle said, jumping up and down with a massive smile on her face. "But she's got a really good feeling that we're natural biscuit makers!"

Applejack couldn't hide her eye roll as Scootaloo leapt over her two Crusader friends, landing in front of them and dramatically pointing a hoof towards Ponyville.

"Come on, Crusaders! We got Biscuit Baking Cutie Marks to earn!"

With a burst of energy, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo took off towards downtown Ponyville. Apple Bloom chased them for a few steps before screeching to a halt and turning back to her big sister.

"Ya'll wanna come, sis? You could help us!"

"Sure, I'll join ya! Just run along ahead, I'll catch up with you fillies."

Apple Bloom took off to join her friends, and Applejack turned to the teacher.

"Howdy, Cheerilee!" she said with a friendly tip of her hat. Cheerilee returned the smile.

"Hello, Applejack, good to see you." Cheerilee said, beckoning Applejack to follow her through the door back into the classroom. "That was nice of you to walk all the way from Sweet Apple Acres to walk your sister home."

As Applejack stepped in to the schoolhouse and spoke, her voice began to take a more somber tone. "Actually, Cheerilee, to be honest, I wanted ta talk to you about something."

Cheerilee turned back to Applejack, turning her head to the side in concern. "Oh? Is everything alright?"

The smile on Applejack's face slowly disappeared, and anxiety shot through the back of Cheerilee's mind.

"Well, no." Applejack said, kicking at the ground lightly. "Listen, the past few weeks, Apple Bloom's been comin' home in an awful state. The way she looked some days, I reckon she was cryin' on the way back to the farm. When I talked to her, she told me there was a pony here at school that had been botherin' her and callin' her awful names, pony's name was Silver Spoon?"

Cheerilee nodded. "Oh yes, I completely understand. Silver Spoon can be a little, well, abrasive."

Cheerilee smiled at Applejack, but the smile wasn't returned.

"Abrasive?" Applejack scrunched her face, an eyebrow slightly raising. "What do y'all mean by abrasive?"

"You know, a little rough."

"A little rough? A little rough?" Applejack's voice grew louder as she stepped forward. "Cheerilee, sandpaper is 'a little rough,' Sthis Silver Spoon filly is bein' a bully, and it's hurtin' mah sister. Now I need to know if ya'll are gonna do somethin' about this. I woulda figured you'd've noticed it by now, seein' as this has been goin on for a while now."

Cheerilee stepped back slightly from Applejack, putting on a smile to try to diffuse the situation.

"I've mentioned to Silver Spoon to try to be a little nicer, but she's also a bit stubborn." She turned, starting to gather some papers on her desk. "I think it's just a phase she's going through, you know how little fillies can get. Hopefully she'll grow out of it soon."

Cheerilee turned back, and found herself face to face with Applejack. A shadow had grown across her face, and her eyes were now narrow and hard.

"Hopefully she'll grow outta it? Cheerilee, she's tormentin' Apple Bloom! I can't just stand by and watch mah little sister be upset like this!"

Applejack stepped forward towards Cheerilee, her hoof coming down on the wooden floor of the school house with enough force for Cheerilee to feel the floor tremble in her own hoof. "This filly's makin' her miserable, and there ain't no dad-gum reason for it! Now i gotta put my hoof down and demand that you, as her teacher, do somethin' about it!"

Cheerilee's jaw hung, quivering ever so slightly. Applejack could be stubborn, but it was especially rare to see her angry. It was quite a shock, but what stung all the more was knowing that it was her fault. Silver Spoon could certainly be quite rude, but she hadn't realized how much it could be hurting one of her students. The knot in her throat returned as she tried to look directly into Applejack's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Applejack. You're right, I'll talk to Silver Spoon, I'll get her to stop." Cheerilee said, her voice starting to crack. "But Applejack, please, accept my sincerest apologies. I had no idea that Silver Spoon was hurting her that badly. To think that Apple Bloom was leaving school in tears… I'm so…"

As Cheerilee began to stumble over her words, the anger on Applejack's face quickly melted away. She turned away slightly, removing her hat and holding it in front of her mouth.

"Listen. I'm sorry for gettin' so upset, Cheerilee. But shoot, that's mah sister, she means the world ta me." Applejack turned to face Cheerilee, putting her hat back on. "When I see her down like that, it makes me just as sad. Heck, makes everypony in the Apple family sad. I trust ya'll will be able to help, Apple Bloom talks about ya'll all the time, she loves ya."

A warm smile grew across Cheerilee's face. Applejack returned the smile and patted Cheerrilee on the shoulder.

"I know I can trust ya'll to solve this. Yer a good, honest teacher. I know Silver Spoon'll listen to ya."

Cheerilee's smile didn't waver, but she felt another pang of anxiety at the phrase "good, honest teacher", and every nerve in her body suddenly became focused on keeping the smile on her face.

"Thanks, Applejack. I'll make sure to talk to her."

"Thank ya kindly, Cheerilee," Applejack said with another tip of her hat. "Well, I'ma go catch up with the girls 'fore they burn Sugarcube Corner down. See ya around!"

Applejack turned and walked out of the classroom, trotting off towards downtown Ponyville. Cheerilee sat down behind her desk, cleaning up a bit before pulling out the student's homework assignments. The very first assignment had the name Apple Bloom on top, and she couldn't help but smile again at Applejack's comment that Apple Bloom had said "she loved her." Knowing her students looked up to her like that was the greatest part of her job, but her thoughts shifted to the image that Applejack had put into her mind: Apple Bloom walking home alone, in tears. Cheerilee's ears slowly drooped and her head lowered slightly as the image stuck in her mind.

"I can't believe I could miss something like that. What kind of teacher would let that happen?" Cheerilee thought… and with that, something that one of her students had said entered her mind.

"But even so, Miss Cheerilee, Cutie Marks help you identify what ponies are good at!"

The words reverberated in Cheerilee's head. Talking about Cutie Marks was something Cheerilee never liked; it put her on edge. The only reason she had taught a lesson about them to her students was because it was required by the school district.

"I'm certainly not the one who should teach them about Cutie Marks," Cheerilee muttered to herself with a sad sigh. Her mind wandered back to all the times that she had told ponies about her Cutie Mark. As the years had gone on, it had become easier and easier to repeat the same story. It was simple to just tell everypony that she had been studying teaching for months, and that it appeared overnight after a late night of studying, finally confirming her dream. Over time, it had become more and more natural for her to simply repeat that story word for word, rather than tell anypony the truth.

A part of her had wanted to tell somepony the real story for quite some time, to finally get it off of her shoulders, but she always chased that thought away quickly whenever it snuck into her mind. After five years of teaching in Ponyville, and after a lifetime of telling that story, certainly any trust that ponies had for her would be ruined if she suddenly told them the truth.

She continued to grade Apple Bloom's worksheet, but found that she just couldn't focus; her mind was anywhere but grammar worksheets. Her eyes began to wander, and settled on the clock: Three Fourteen PM. She had hoped to get the papers graded in a few hours and have the entire weekend free, but with the stress that was now circling her mind, her thoughts drifted, until they suddenly landed on something else: Ponyville Spa. She paused, looking down at the papers in front of her, then back up at the clock.

"Oh, these can wait until tomorrow. What I need right now is to relax."

As Cheerilee quickly began to gather her things, her thoughts stayed with the Spa. Normally she would go in for a quick hair styling or, on a rare occasion, a Pony Pedi, but what she needed now was something more: The Deluxe. Pedicure, hair style, face mask, back massage, and most importantly, full hot mud bath. Cheerilee imagined herself slipping into the boiling mud, letting all her cares melt away, and it was simply too tempting to pass up.

Her cleanup around the school house lead her to the blackboard, beginning to erase the multitude of drawings that had populated it over the course of the day, but once again, her mind drifted to the Spa. Thoughts of soaking in the hot tub carried her away, and she lazily rubbed the eraser against the blackboard, completely losing herself in the thought of relaxation.

"A-AHEM!"

The sudden sound of a pony clearing his throat snapped Cheerilee back to reality, and she whipped around, accidentally letting the eraser fly out of her hoof. It soared across the room, directly into the face of the source of the throat clearing. The stallion it hit let out an angry sigh as he reached into the pocket of the tailored suit he was wearing, pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped the chalk dust from his thick rimmed glasses.

Cheerilee quickly calmed down, then let out a gasp as she made eye contact with the stallion. "Oh my goodness. Mr. Headmaster! I'm so sorry, you startled me. Are you okay?"

Headmaster stuffed the handkerchief back into his pocket in a huff. "As okay as a pony with chalk dust in his mouth can be."

Cheerilee slowly got over her shock, approaching Headmaster.

"Um, I really wasn't expecting you, sir. What are you doing here?"

Headmaster glared over the top of his thick glasses at her. "Cheerilee, I oversee every school in the area. I'm more than allowed to visit and check in on the teachers. Quite frankly, I'm a bit surprised you would ask me what I was doing here."

Headmaster looked around the classroom as Cheerilee crossed her front legs nervously. Headmaster came to a large wall charting the height changes of the students in the class. He rolled his eyes, then turned back to Cheerilee.

"So, Cheerilee, how exactly have things been going here in Ponyville?"

The nervousness began to melt away, as Cheerilee's eyes brightened a bit.

"Oh, just wonderful! I've started to incorporate a "Family Appreciation" day, where students bring in family to tell stories. Just a few weeks ago, one of them brought in their eldest relative, and as it turned out, she was one of the ponies who founded Ponyville! Such an interesting story! And, let's see, last week the students got to visit the Canterlot Archives for the first time. They all got to read about the most famous Equestrian sorcerers, historians, political figures, oh you could just tell how excited some of them were to learn about the history of Canterlot!"

As she talked, Cheerilee's ears perked up and her voice rose in confidence. She loved talking about her students; seeing their growth was the biggest thrill of her job. She picked up speed with her monologue, and began to go through her desk to find some of the assignments the students had written about their Canterlot Archive visit.

"And speaking of, one of my good friends actually is the protege of Princess Celestia, and she says that the Princess would most likely be more than happy to come speak to the kids," she said with an extra perk in her voice. "I'm trying to work out a special date where she can come down and—"

She looked up from her search, and was met with a half bored, half angry glare from Headmaster. She quickly closed her mouth, and Headmaster just shook his head.

"I don't care about any of that. Just show me the current grade chart, Cheerilee."

Cheerilee bit her lip, swallowed her desire to talk back to her boss, and instead started looking through her desk for the grade chart. Cheerilee had always tried to be nice to everypony she met, and really strived to like everypony, but that didn't exactly apply to Headmaster. He struck her as being far too by-the-books and businesslike, too detached from the work that he did. She had never seen him smile once, and he certainly never seemed to care about any of the many students at the schools he oversaw. Rather, he was just about the bottom line: the letter grades, the financial side of the schools, running them the same way a pony would run a retail chain. She felt that it was quite the poor attitude for any teacher to have, especially a pony who oversaw so many schools.

She pulled out the grade chart and handed it to the stallion, who began to scan it. An awkward, tense silence filled the room as Cheerilee hoped that that would be all Headmaster wanted, and she could get to the Spa, but Headmasters face scrunched in confusion, stopping her hopes dead in their tracks.

"Cheerilee, what is with all of these comments on the side?" he said, pointing to several of the names on the list. " 'Diamond Tiara, B-, but beginning to show B+ effort'? 'Sweetie Belle, A- with an A+ heart?' "

Cheerilee chuckled. "Oh, those are just little notes I put day to day for the students. I find it hard to track the growth of the kids with just letter grades, you know?"

Headmaster looked over the top of his glasses at Cheerilee, and shook his head slightly.

"No, I don't know. Seems simple to me. If the students do well on assignments, they get good grades. And if not, then they get bad grades. There's not much more to track than that, if you ask me."

Cheerilee rolled her eyes as Headmaster tossed the grade sheet onto the desk.

"Looks fine to me, other than those silly comments. Any concerns on your part?"

Cheerilee opened her mouth to say "no" and hopefully get rid of Headmaster, but as she did, she glanced around the school house, and a thought entered her mind.

"Actually, yes. I've been considering doing a little redecorating around the classroom."

Headmaster raised an eyebrow. "Redecorating?"

"Yes," she happily proclaimed, gesturing around the classroom. "With Spring here, I was thinking it might be fun to spruce up the room! Maybe some new curtains, some themed decorations on the walls, maybe finally fix up the back window, just something to make it a little nicer."

Headmaster remained silent. Cheerilee couldn't read his expression; most of the time, he had the same look of exasperation on his face.

"Hmm, I suppose that's up to you. If you want to redecorate, that's your decision. I personally don't see the point, but it's your call."

Cheerilee could hardly contain her grin.

"Wonderful! So, what kind of budget is available for me to work with? I really don't think I'll need much."

She was interrupted by a loud, semi-cruel laugh, and the grin disappeared from her face.

"What kind of budget? Cheerilee, I have no interest in funding something as pointless as decorations. The budget is zero. If you want to redecorate your classroom, you can pay for it out of your own pocket."

Cheerilee's jaw nearly hit the floor. "My own pocket? Surely there has to be a few bits available somewhere!"

"There are, but not for things as petty as 'beautifying' a classroom. If you needed a new textbook or a set of rulers, I could free up some money, but other… than…"

Headmaster trailed off as something caught his eye. He walked over to the chalkboard, to a large drawing of a Hydra that Cheerilee had drawn for the class. He looked it up and down, adjusting his glasses.

"Cheerilee. Is this..."

She blushed slightly. "A Hydra, yes."

"Hrm." Headmaster adjusted his glasses. "I'm surprised one of your students would know about a Hydra, especially at their age." He pulled a small notepad out of his pocket, mumbling to himself. "Tell me, which one drew it?"

"Um, actually, Headmaster, I drew it. Today's lesson was about some of the creatures that live around Equestria!"

Headmaster spun around, his jaw slightly agape.

"You cannot possibly be serious."

Cheerilee swallowed nervously. "Is there a problem?"

"A problem? A problem? Cheerilee, let's ignore the fact that I wanted the schools to be teaching grammar these last few weeks, what possible reason could you have for teaching young fillies about Hydras? They're giant, dangerous creatures, hardly the kind of information that fillies need! You'll be giving them nightmares!"

Cheerilee cocked her head to the side. "They seemed quite interested in the lesson to me. They were all bored with grammar non-stop, so I thought I would mix things up a bit. Plus, there was a Hydra incident here in Ponyville just a few months ago, and the Hydra was transported to the Caballus Swamp quite recently to ensure that another incident wouldn't happen."

"Cheerilee, I am not paying you to 'mix things up'!" Headmaster yelled, stomping his hoof on the floor. "There is a lesson plan, and I want you to stick to it. And more importantly, I don't give a damn if it's a current event or if it happened 5,000 years ago, Hydras are not appropriate for a classroom of young children! How much did you teach them?"

"Just basic facts. Where they live and what they eat, their origins; you know, the most obvious facts about Hydras."

"Obvious facts?" Headmaster paused before his jaw dropped even further. "By obvious facts, you don't mean cutting off their heads, do you?"

A slight chill hit Cheerrilee's face. "Well, it's important information! When you think of Hydras, their amazing regenerative abilities are usually he first thing to come to mind! That, and the way to properly stop one."

"The way to properly st—" Headmaster interrupted himself, shaking his head. "Cheerilee, are you telling me that you taught your students about how to slice Hydra's heads off, and then how to cauterize the wound to kill them? Good lord!"

Cheerilee kicked at the ground lightly, averting her gaze from Headmaster. "Well I certainly didn't get THAT detailed! I just said that when Hydra's head is cut off, two grow back, and I said the best way to stop a Hydra is with a fire spell." Turning back to the stallion, she put on her strongest face, ready to defend herself. "Headmaster, don't you think you're overreacting? These are important subjects that my class was genuinely curious about, and the whole point of teaching is to provide knowledge about the world around them."

"I don't give a damn about the "point of teaching". It is wholly irresponsible of you to not only go against my lesson plan, but to teach the students something that I don't think is appropriate!"

Headmaster shook his head, his voice angrily raising. "For Celestia's sake! For a pony with a teaching Cutie Mark, you don't seem to know much about teaching!"

A sharp chill shot up Cheerilee's spine, rendering her entire face numb. As she felt her body start to tremble, she desperately tried to think of something—anything—to say, but no words were able to reach her mouth. She struggled to even form a complete thought, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

"I-I just was… I'm sorry, I was... I didn't…" she stammered.

Headmaster pulled the handkerchief back out of his pocket and carelessly tossed it onto the desk next to her. Cheerilee slowly took it in her hoof, dabbing her eyes as Headmaster simply rolled his.

"Pull yourself together. Look, Cheerilee, don't go teaching the little fillies about things like that, it's irresponsible. In the name of Celestia, stick with the lesson plan that the other schools are going with. I don't want to hear that you've been teaching the students things like dark magic and how to kill bunnies, do you understand me?"

Through tears, Cheerilee slowly nodded her head. "… Yes, I do."

Headmaster reached out, plucked his handkerchief from Cheerilee's hoof and put it back in his pocket.

"I don't want to have to have this lecture with you again."

"You… you won't."

"I certainly hope not. Goodbye, Cheerilee."

Headmaster turned away without so much as a nod and walked out of the classroom, leaving Cheerilee alone. Shakily, she sat down behind her desk, tears still clouding her vision, her body giving up and refusing to move any more the second that she sat. Silver Spoon mentioning Cutie Marks had given her pause. Applejack calling her a "good, honest teacher" just caused a little anxiety. But Headmaster's words were a direct attack to a part of herself she didn't talk about. There was no way he could have known the truth, but the words hurt her more than anything anypony had said to her in a long time.

After minutes of silence, she felt feeling return to her body, and she slowly grabbed her saddle bag, placed her student's papers inside, and exited the school house. She briefly glanced towards Ponyville Spa in the far distance before turning away; she just wanted to go home. She closed the door to the small schoolhouse and began her walk home, all the while, Headmaster's words rang in her head, over and over.

"For a pony with a teaching Cutie Mark, you don't seem to know much about teaching!"

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The walk from the school to Cheerilee's cottage was a walk that most residents of Ponyville would be jealous of. The path around the school was lined with flowers and trees, while the actual road went right behind Sugarcube Corner, which always had the enticingly sweet scent of various confectionaries. Her house itself was a quaint old cottage a little outside of the Everfree Forest. Although ponies were generally afraid of the forest, dangerous creatures rarely came close to the cottage, and even more rarely to the edge of the forest itself. It meant that the path in front of it, leading straight up to the cottage, was the best and safest view of the beautiful outside of the Everfree Forest that a pony could see from Ponyville. It was a walk that Cheerilee enjoyed every single day.

Except today.

Cheerilee's head hung the entire walk home; the only thing that she saw was the dirt road below her. Even if she had looked up once, she wouldn't have been able to process anything around her. Instead, the same three sentences were playing in her head on a loop.

"But even so, Miss Cheerilee, Cutie Marks help you identify what ponies are good at!"

"I know I can trust ya'll to solve this. Yer a good, honest teacher."

"For a pony with a teaching Cutie Mark, you don't seem to know much about teaching!"

The knot that had formed earlier in Cheerilee's throat wouldn't go away, and every time one of the sentences popped up in her mind, it tightened. She tried to get something else on her mind, but she was unable to; it always went back to the past hour or so. The image of the class laughing at Silver Spoon's story of a pony working against his Cutie Mark, Apple Bloom walking home in tears, Applejack calling her a "good, honest teacher," and most painful of all, Headmaster's words. The kind of thing that Cheerilee wished no pony would ever have to hear. She couldn't believe he would accuse her of not knowing about teaching, that he would hurl an insult at her like that.

But hardest of all for her to swallow was the niggling thought that perhaps he was right.

Cheerilee finally arrived at her cottage and nudged the door open, closing it behind her and dropping her saddlebag to the ground before sitting down on her couch. She started to take deep breaths, looking to put her troubled mind at ease, but as her eyes scanned the room for something to focus on, they instead fell upon a mirror across the room. As she stared at herself, her Cutie Mark came into vision, and with that, Headmaster's words rang in her head again.

"For a pony with a teaching Cutie Mark, you don't seem to know much about teaching!"

As the sentence played over in her mind, Cheerilee felt tears begin to stream down her face again. She abandoned all attempts to calm down, lowering her head to let the tears come. She remained motionless on the couch for a few minutes, her eyes shut tightly as she wept. All she wanted to do was let out the anxiety that had been plaguing her for so very long.

Minutes later, the tears finally slowed down, and she was left in silence once again. She laid her head down on her couch and tried to clear her mind, but this time, her eyes were again drawn across the room to the mirror. She looked herself in the eyes for a few moments, before her gaze shifted to the reflection of her Cutie Mark. She stared at the three smiling flowers on her flank for several moments, before turning her body so she wouldn't have to look at the mirror anymore. She couldn't stand to look at those smiling flowers.

She hated her Cutie Mark.

Ever since the moment it had appeared, it had brought her nothing but aggravation, anxiety, and shame… and worst of all, she knew there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn't cover it up, remove it or change it. It was permanently affixed to her, a constant reminder of her lie.

Cheerilee's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a knock at her door. She hadn't been expecting any visitors, nor was she really in the mood to talk to anypony, but she still got up and walked to the door anyway.

Taking deep breaths, she composed herself as best she could and pulled the door open, and found herself greeted by a purple Unicorn with a big smile on her face.

"Hi Cheerilee!"

Cheerilee put on her best smile. "Hello, Twilight. What can I do for you?"

"I am soooo sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if you had a copy of Spells and Sorcery of the Pre-Classical Era? I need it for a report I'm working on, but the only copy at the library is checked out right now."

"Oh, yes, I think I have a copy. Come on in."

Twilight Sparkle happily trotted into the cottage, and followed Cheerilee towards a large bookshelf on the wall. Even though Twilight was one of her closest friends, Cheerilee wasn't in the mood to talk to anypony, not after the day she'd had. She started scanning her bookcase to find the book Twilight was looking for, when Twilight spoke up.

"So, how was your day?"

The knot in Cheerilee's throat tightened ever so slightly. She swallowed, trying to make it go away. "F-fine, just fine. Yours?"

"Great! I just finished reading A Brief History Of Pegasi, Volume 5." Twilight's eyes shimmered. "Just a wonderful read, and has one of the most extensive bibliographies I've ever seen! There is a whole chapter about the Great Pegasi Exodus, which is what led directly to the founding of Cloudsdale! See, the pegasi had grown tired of living on the ground and—"

Twilight's description fell on deaf ears, as Cheerilee couldn't focus long enough to pay attention to her friend. As much as she liked talking with Twilight, Cheerilee just wanted to be alone, and had no interest in prolonging Twilight's visit. She finally located the book that Twilight was looking for and pulled it off the shelf, turning back to Twilight.

"Here's the book, Twilight."

"Thanks so much, Cheerilee, I, uh…"

Twilight cocked her head slightly, leaning in towards Cheerilee a bit.

"Um, Twilight?"

"Cheerilee, is everything okay? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine."

"Really? You look like… like you've been crying."

A number of excuses quickly shot through Cheerilee's mind, but when she looked into her friend's worried eyes, she shook them out of her head and merely sighed.

"Is it that obvious?"

Twilight gasped. "Oh my gosh! Cheerilee, is everything alright? What's wrong? What happened?"

"I just had a bad day, that's all. I'm fine now, Twilight."

Cheerilee smiled again, but Twilight shook her head, resting her hoof on her friend's shoulder.

"Cheerilee, you shouldn't keep your feelings from your friends. Do you want to talk about it? It could make you feel better."

There was a pause. Cheerilee hadn't wanted to talk to anypony, but looking into her friend's eyes, there was something warm and inviting there. The knot that had been plaguing her throat slowly disappeared, and she smiled: this time, sincerely.

"Yes… I would like to talk about it."

-----

When Twilight Sparkle had taken over as Ponyville Librarian upon her move, Cheerilee figured that getting to know her would be a no-brainer. After all, Ponyville's resident teacher was also Ponyville's resident bookworm, spending much of her free time relaxing with a good story. What she hadn't figured was that the new librarian would share the exact same passion for books, maybe even moreso than Cheerilee, and from there, a close friendship had formed. Twilight loved hearing Cheerilee talk about her students and the strides in their studies, while Cheerilee was always there to help Twilight come back down to earth after another one of the incidents that seemed to follow her around since she arrived in Ponyville. As such, Cheerilee felt comfortable telling Twilight about the bad day she had had; in fact, the more she thought about it, there was no pony she would rather tell than her.

So, over a cup of tea, Cheerilee talked to Twilight. She told her all about what Applejack had said to her, the fact that her sister had been tormented by a bully, while Cheerilee had sat by, not realizing how much it had hurt her. She told Twilight how down it had made her to imagine even one of her students having a bad day. But more importantly, she talked of her meeting with Headmaster… specifically, what he had said to her. Cheerilee told Twilight how horrible it was to hear those words, how the tears had come from hearing another pony question her talents as a teacher. There was so much more that Cheerilee wanted to tell Twilight, but every time she started to, something stopped her. She just couldn't bring herself to tell Twilight about her Cutie Mark, about the truth. If Twilight found out she had been lying for so long, surely she would never want to speak with her again.

Once she finished her story, Twilight let out a sympathetic sigh.

"Oh, Cheerilee, I'm so sorry. I hate having bad days, everypony does."

"Thanks, Twilight. It's nice to be able to tell somepony about it."

Cheerilee sipped her tea, shaking her head.

"I just can't believe I could be so blind as to miss such blatant bullying! And to see Applejack that angry about it..."

Twilight patted Cheerilee's front hoof with her own, smiling.

"Everypony makes mistakes, Cheerilee. You know what you have to do now. You know how to stop it from happening again, and that's what is important. And as far as Applejack goes... well, you know how protective she can be of Apple Bloom. I'm sure she didn't mean to get that upset at you."

"I guess."

She took another sip of tea.

"But then what Headmaster said…"

Twilight Sparkle's face grew serious as she looked directly into her friend's eyes.

"Cheerilee, don't listen to what a pony like that says. Anypony who talks to another pony like that is someone who isn't worth listening to."

"But Twilight, what if I was wrong to teach the students about Hydras? What if he's right?"

"Cheerilee! Don't pay any attention to him. If you ask me, he sounds like a jerk."

Cheerilee chuckled a bit. She had never heard Twilight refer to another pony as a "jerk" before.

"Twilight, thanks for talking to me about this."

"That's what friends are for, aren't they? If you have a bad day, your friends will always be there to help you up."

Cheerilee's mood began to lift again as she sipped her tea. Twilight shook her head.

"I really can't believe he would treat you like that. And that comment about your Cutie Mark was so unnecessary!"

Cheerilee's hooves tightened around the cup of tea as she felt the knot return to her throat. She desperately hoped that Twilight wouldn't continue—the last thing she wanted was to talk about Cutie Marks—but the look in Twilight's eyes said she wasn't about to stop.

"That's just so rude! Making any sort of comment about a pony's special talent, as if they somehow don't know what they're good at! I wonder how he would like it if some pony told him that his Cutie Mark was a lie!"

Cheerilee's vision of the world around her began to quake. She opened her mouth to try to get Twilight to stop talking, but the only thing that came out was "Twilight…"

"Sorry, Cheerilee, but I just can't get over that. Was he trying to imply that you misinterpreted your own Cutie Mark? I can't even imagine…"

The knot finally snapped. Cheerilee slammed her tea cup down on the table.

"Twilight!"

Twilight was completely caught off guard by the sudden burst of emotion from Cheerilee, jumping back in her chair slightly.

"Please, Twilight, stop talking about Cutie Marks! I don't... I don't want to hear it!"

Cheerilee felt her eyes well up with tears again. Twilight, getting over her initial surprise, leaned forward.

"What? What's wrong?"

Cheerilee fell quiet, realizing the impact of her outburst. She stared down into her teacup, her hooves trembling. Twilight shook her head.

"Cheerilee, what is going on here? Why don't you want to talk about Cutie Marks?"

To Cheerilee, the ensuing pause felt like an eternity. "I-I don't want to…"

Twilight shook her head. "Cheerilee,what's wrong? Please, you don't have to hide things from me, I'm your friend!"

Cheerilee's vision blurred. There was nothing she could do, there was no way that Twilight would just ignore an outburst like that. It was a scenario that she had played over and over in her head over the years… but she had always thought—hoped—that it would never happen. Finally, she spoke, her voice quietly trembling.

"Twilight. Haven't you ever thought that my Cutie Mark story is odd? That I just woke up one day, and it was there? Every other pony in Ponyville, they had a grand revelation when theirs appeared. But mine just appeared overnight?"

Twilight tilted her head to the side."Um… I mean, it's certainly a different story, but I don't see how—"

"And the fact that it's flowers. I'm a teacher, Twilight…why wouldn't I have a chalkboard? Or an equation? Or something more associated with, you know… teaching?"

Twilight remained silent for a moment, staring at her upset friend. She reached over, placing a hoof on Cheerilee's shoulder.

"Cheerilee… look at me."

Cheerilee looked up, and was met with a smile from her friend.

"Cheerilee. I know that what Headmaster said was rude—heck, it was downright horrible—but don't let it get to you," she said, smiling warmly. "If you're trying to say that you're worried you misinterpreted your own Cutie Mark… well, Cheerilee, that doesn't happen, and you know it."

"Twilight…"

"It doesn't matter if how you got your Cutie Mark is "different". And it doesn't matter if it's flowers. You know deep down that it represents your love of teaching…and there's simply no way to misinterpret something like that."

Twilight smiled warmly… but her smile disappeared when she saw that Cheerilee had turned away from her.

"Twilight, it's not about that. I know I didn't misinterpret my own Cutie Mark."

Twilight shook her head.

"Then Cheerilee, I'm sorry, but I don't know what to say. Why are you so upset? What is going on here?"

Cheerilee turned away more. Twilight leaned forward.

"Please, Cheerilee, I'm worried about you. Just tell me what's wrong."

"I didn't misinterpret my Cutie Mark, Twilight… I... I..."

Cheerilee's lip quivered, and the words caught in her throat, refusing to be spoken. Her hooves shook harder than ever, and she closed her eyes, letting out a long, defeated breath.

"Twilight, just come with me, please," she said, standing up. "There's… there's something I need to show you."

She slowly walked out the back door of her cottage, with Twilight following close behind her, a look of concern for her friend on her face. As they walked forward towards the trees, Twilight stopped.

"Wait, you're going into the Everfree Forest?"

"It's not far in. Dangerous creatures don't come that close to the edge."

There was something about Cheerilee's voice that gave Twilight pause. Normally, her voice was upbeat, full of life and happiness. But here, there was no happiness, no cheer. It was empty and lifeless, the voice of a pony who had given up on something.

The walk through the Everfree Forest was silent. Twilight was too concerned about her friend to say anything, while Cheerilee merely continued forward, her head low. Just as Twilight was getting ready to ask where they were going, Cheerilee stopped at a large bush. She looked back at her friend sadly for a few moments before turning back and nudging the bush out of the way, walking through. Twilight followed, and as she exited the other side of the bush, her eyes widened.

Standing before her, in a small clearing in the trees, was one of the most beautiful gardens she had ever seen.

Light shone down through breaks in the canopy, illuminating an expansive rectangular patch filled with large, vibrant flowers. Every color of the rainbow seemed to be present in the flowers, all of which were in full bloom. Twilight stepped forward, amazed.

"Wow. Cheerilee, is this your garden?"

Cheerilee paused, slowly nodding her head. Twilight remained confused, but felt her friend needed some encouragement. Twilight walked towards the garden, marveling at the beauty before her.

"It's beautiful! I've never seen a garden like this! Look at these flowers! You have Pink Whirls, Wildcat Orchids, Calla Lilies... and they're all so vibrant and pretty! It's so rare to see flowers like that growing together. And they're all in full bloom! Cheerilee, you really must have a great mind for… for… "

Twilight trailed off as another group of flowers caught her attention. Her eyes widened as she carefully stepped into the center of the garden towards the object of her attention: a large group of golden flowers. Despite a relative lack of natural light, each flower was brilliantly shimmering, giving off a golden glow that illuminated all the flowers around them. Twilight, completely transfixed on the flowers, carefully leaned forward and examined them.

"Oh my. Are these Canterlot Golden Daisies?" She sniffed them, becoming momentarily lost in their heavenly scent. "They are! Goodness, I've never even seen these grown outside of Princess Celestia's garden!" She looked up at her surroundings. "And you're growing them here in the Everfree Forest, where there's so much canopy cover, it's nothing short of amazing! Cheerilee, this is one of the best… "

Twilight turned with a huge smile on her face, but the smile fell as she saw her friend. Cheerilee stood at the edge of the garden, head low to the ground and turned away in shame. Twilight approached her friend, shocked and confused to see tears in Cheerilee's eyes.

"Cheerilee, I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Why are you so upset by this, why is this such a secret? Please, just tell me what's wrong! I'm just not getting—"

All at once, a thought entered Twilight's mind, quieting her immediately. She turned back to the garden, one of the most beautiful she had ever seen, the kind of garden that only a professional gardener or botanist could even hope to grow, especially in the forest. She returned her gaze to Cheerilee, who just minutes before had been in tears just discussing the matter of Cutie Marks. Twilight turned her head slightly, looking down at her friends flank, and the mark that adorned it.

Smiling flowers.

Twilight remained silent as she began to put her thoughts together quickly. She looked at the garden again, then back to Cheerilee, shaking her head slightly.

"Wait… wait. Cheerilee. Have you—"

Cheerilee panicked and turned away before Twilight could finish her sentence. It was playing out exactly the way that she was afraid it always would. She wanted to prolong any friendship she could possibly have with Twilight before it all came crashing down, even if it meant simply leaving. With tears streaming down her face, she turned away and clumsily pushed through the bush and away from the garden. Twilight opened her mouth, but all she could muster was "Cheerilee…" as she followed her friend.

--------

SMILING FLOWERS

End of Chapter 1

Special Thanks to: Props, Golden Vision, Seattle_Lite, Science Brony, and Terran

Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

Only the faint rustling of leaves and the occasional animal howl interrupted the silence that surrounded the two ponies as they walked back to the cottage. After her friend had pushed away the second she started talking, Twilight didn't want to say anything else, instead choosing to remain quiet and gather her thoughts. Cheerilee, meanwhile, hung her head as she walked, anxiety wracking her mind too much to form any words. She found herself too ashamed to even look her friend in the eyes, knowing that Twilight now knew something about her that she had hoped no pony would ever know.

As they returned to Cheerilee's cottage, she gently nudged the door open and stumbled inside, sitting down on her couch and looking straight at the floor. Twilight cautiously stepped into the cottage as well, sitting down a few feet from her friend and waiting, hoping Cheerilee would be the first to speak. A minute went by with no words, before Twilight had enough and quietly broke the silence.

"Gardening."

Just the mention of the word made Cheerilee shudder. The remaining shred of hope that perhaps Twilight hadn’t figured it out was destroyed; Twilight knew.

"Cheerilee. Your special talent, your Cutie Mark, it has nothing to do with teaching. It… it's gardening."

Cheerilee opened her mouth, but the words became choked in her throat. She closed her mouth again and paused for several moments, before giving an almost imperceptible nod.

Twilight shook her head. "I don't understand. You've been lying to me? To all the ponies in Ponyville?" Twilight paused, and her voice lowered. "To your students?"

Cheerilee closed her eyes in shame and gave another small nod. Twilight stood up, turning away from Cheerilee as she took in the information.

"I don't understand," she said, turning back to Cheerilee. "Why? Why would you want to hide a part of you like this, let alone lie about it to so many ponies?"

Twilight stepped forward, but Cherrilee remained silent. "Cheerilee, talk to me, please! Just answer me, why have—"

Cheerilee interrupted. "Twilight, have you ever thought about your own Cutie Mark?"

"My Cutie Mark?"

"Your Cutie Mark, Twilight. You told me you got it when you tapped into your true magical potential. Well, look at you now: you're the most magically gifted pony in all of Equestria. Not only are you the Element of Magic itself, but the the other Elements of Harmony are right there, represented! The moment that your mark appeared, your entire destiny was set in stone."

"But Cheerilee—"

"And your friends, Twilight! Applejack knew she would take over Sweet Apple Acres as soon as those apples appeared on her flank, and that's exactly what she ended up doing. And Pinkie Pie got hers by partying, and she parties to this very day!" Cheerilee turned away from Twilight, her voice getting louder and louder. "Even Princess Celestia's Cutie Mark represents what she does, Twilight. The first thing you see on a pony is their Cutie Mark, the most important moment for a child is the day they get their Mark… I hate it, Twilight. I hate Cutie Marks! I hate being trapped by mine, having to lie to everypony I meet so that they won't judge me as a gardener. I hate—"

"Cheerilee. Stop."

Cheerilee winced as Twilight's demanding voice cut off her frustrated diatribe. The unicorn stepped forward, locking eyes with her friend.

"You're not making any sense. This isn't about me, it's not about my friends, it's not about any other pony. Cheerilee, this is about you. I need to know the full story here… please, I need to know the truth."

Cheerilee felt her body shiver again as she took a deep breath. "Twilight, it's… a long story."

Twilight remained firm. "I don't care how long it is. You're my friend, and this is important. Please."

Cheerilee froze again, her head wracked with nervousness. She gazed up at her friend, whose face was plastered with worry. Staring into her eyes, Cheerilee knew that there was no going back; she had to tell her.

"Ever since I was a little filly, I wanted to be a teacher. It was more than just a dream for me; it was almost an obsession. Both my parents were teachers, Twilight, and I wanted so very badly to be just like them. They were wonderful teachers. In fact, they still are. " Somehow, through her nervousness, Cheerilee smiled. "I even remember as a little filly, I never had tea parties with my toys…I had lessons, teaching them whatever I had learned in school that day. I would daydream about when my Cutie Mark would finally appear, and what it would look like. I couldn't wait for the day that I could confirm my dream to the world."

The smile disappeared from Cheerilee's face, and her head hung back down.

"But it never came, Twilight. No matter how much I studied teaching, no matter how much I taught things to my friends… it never appeared. I kept working, watching all the other kids in my class get musical instruments, food, animals, until I was the only pony left in my class without a Cutie Mark. I would spend my days thinking about teaching, my nights studying teaching…and it just never happened."

She stopped talking, her head hanging again. Twilight stared at her, then broke the silence. "So then, how did you get your Cutie Mark?"

Cheerilee took a long breath, letting it out with a sigh. "My neighbor. She had one of the most amazing gardens I've seen in my life; sparkling flowers, always in full bloom, always perfectly maintained, and I had admired it for years. One day, she went on vacation… she had seen how down I had been getting about not getting my Cutie Mark, and knowing how much I loved her garden, she asked me to take care of it. And… well, it just came naturally to me. It took my mind off my Cutie Mark, it calmed me down, it made me happy to take care of it. After just a few days, her garden was suddenly more beautiful than ever. I stood back, marveled at my own work…" Cheerilee briefly glanced back at her Cutie Mark, sadness in her eyes. "And this appeared."

As Cheerilee shook her head, Twilight cocked hers. "I still don't understand, Cheerilee. Why would you hide your special talent from us? It sounds like you're a great gardener, I would think that you would have been proud of something like that."

"I wasn't," Cheerilee said, her voice cracking a bit. "I was terrified, Twilight. After everything I had said to my friends about being a teacher, everything I had told my parents about how much I looked up to them and was going to follow in their hoofsteps, after all of that... I panicked. I wasn't ready to accept that my special talent was gardening. So… I hid it."

"You hid it?"

"I took some of my mom's makeup and covered it up as best I could. I wore dresses for a few days. I didn't want anypony to know... and a few days later, I came up with the story."

Twilight's jaw dropped, sending numbness down Cheerilee's spine. Twilight sat down next to her friend, staring straight ahead.

"Oh my gosh,” she gasped. “You haven't just been lying to Ponyville… you've been keeping it hidden your whole life."

Cheerilee nodded. "Yeah."

"D-does any other pony know besides me? Anypony at all?"

After a long hesitation, Cheerilee gave in. “No... no other pony knows.”

Twilight shook her head in shock, remaining quiet. Cheerilee tried to look her friend in the eyes for the first time since starting her story, but as soon as she saw the confusion and shock in Twilight's face, she turned away in shame.

"Then why did you keep it hidden? Surely when you went to study at a university, a new city, you could have told the truth, started fresh."

Cheerilee closed her eyes. "I wanted that, Twilight. I wanted that so badly. But as soon as I got there, as soon as I was ready for that fresh start, I was surrounded by ponies who were studying to be teachers too. Only, their Cutie Marks were blackboards, A-pluses, pieces of chalk, textbooks. These permanent symbols told everypony around them that their destiny was to be a teacher, and there I was with smiling flowers. I figured that if I told anypony that my special talent was gardening and not teaching, it would destroy any credibility I had. So the story just stuck. I guess I thought that if I ignored my special talent long enough, it would just sort of change; that I'd really become that teacher I wanted to be."

Silence filled the room again as Twilight took in all the information. It was quite the shock for her; finding out that one of her closest friends hadn't just been keeping something from her, but keeping it from every pony her entire life. But something more was confusing Twilight.

"But… if you're so ashamed of gardening, if you wanted to ignore it and become a teacher, then why even have a garden? Let alone, one as beautiful and well-maintained as the one you have in the forest?"

Cheerilee looked up and out her back window at the Everfree Forest. She stared for a few moments before taking a deep breath and exhaling in sorrow.

"That's just it, Twilight. Ever since I got my Cutie Mark, no matter how hard I've tried to ignore it, no matter how much I've strived to be a teacher, a part of me wants to garden. I'm ashamed of it, I've tried to avoid it… but gardening calms me down, it relaxes me." Cheerilee glanced up at the wall. Twilight's eyes followed hers, and fell on the framed teaching degree that was hanging up. "Even when I graduated and moved back to Ponyville, I kept a garden. I can't escape it, Twilight, I just can't... ”

Cheerilee's head dropped again, and she stared at the floor. As Twilight tried to comprehend all the information, a new thought entered Cheerilee's mind. It was a thought that she had been trying to fight for the past few hours, but there was simply no way to ignore it anymore.

"Maybe Headmaster was right."

Twilight turned to her friend in shock.

"What?"

"Maybe he was right! Twilight, he said that I didn't know much about teaching for a pony with a teaching Cutie Mark. Well, I don't have a teaching Cutie Mark! I'm just some gardener who tried to ignore her special talent. But there's no avoiding it, Twilight... you saw my garden. Maybe he's right; maybe I don't know anything about teaching... because I was never meant to know anything about it. I was just meant to plant flowers.”

Cheerilee swallowed the knot in her throat as best she could, desperately holding back any more tears. Twilight remained quiet, and her horn glowed as Cheerilee heard her sink turn on. A few seconds later, a glass of water gently floated into the room and in front of her, and Cheerilee shakily grasped it in both hooves, taking a few precious sips. As she did, Twilight finally gathered her thoughts enough to speak.

"Cheerilee. Everything you just told me, this whole story… is it the truth? Are you being totally honest with me? You're not hiding anything now, are you?"

Cheerilee slowly shook her head.

"No. It's all the truth."

Twilight paused, taking a big breath. "Well, in that case, I have something important that I need to say to you, something that you need to hear. And I need to look you in the eyes when I say it."

The world spun. Cheerilee's throat closed and her breathing quickened. The moment she had feared for so long had arrived; the moment when she would lose her best friend. When she would be taken to task for being so untruthful about something so important. For not being a teacher, for deceiving the fillies in her class, she knew that she deserved everything Twilight was about to say. She closed her eyes and turned away, wanting to preserve a few more precious moments before it all came crashing down on her.

"Cheerilee, please."

Cheerilee's eyes became wet again. "I-I can't… don't… "

"Look at me, Cheerilee."

Her head trembling, it took every muscle in Cheerilee's anxiety-tormented body to turn to face her friend. After a few moments, she forced her eyes open and looked at Twilight, ready to accept the inevitable…

… but her jaw slowly dropped in shock once she opened her eyes.

Twilight Sparkle was smiling at her.

There was no anger, there was no betrayal, there wasn't even a hint of disappointment in her face. Instead, her smile was genuine, and her face was warm and inviting, a face that was ready to help her friend. Cheerilee stared in shock at her friend, as if the smile was the last thing she ever expected to see—and in many ways, it was. Twilight reached up and placed her hoof on Cheerilee’s shoulder, her eyes filled not with sadness, but with reassurance.

"Cheerilee… you are more of a teacher than any pony I've ever known."

Cheerilee stared at her friend in a stunned silence. She had expected to be chastised, berated, told what she was doing was wrong, but she simply wasn't prepared to hear any sort of praise coming from her friend.

"Wh-what?"

"Listen to me. You've talked about how you went against your Cutie Mark, how you ignored your "special talent" of gardening, and focused instead on something that meant the world to you. But Cheerilee, that's not a trait to be condemned and ashamed of… it's one to be admired. You didn't go against your special talent; you followed your dream."

"But..." Cheerilee started, but before she could even continue Twilight gently squeezed on Cheerilee's shoulder with a smile.

"It doesn't matter that you went against your Cutie Mark, it doesn't matter that you still garden, and it especially doesn't matter that some jerk doesn't like the way you teach. You know what does matter? The fact that despite everything, that degree on your wall is just as legitimate as it would be no matter what your Cutie Mark is. The fact that the ponies here in Ponyville respect you enough to let you teach their kids without giving it a second thought. And most importantly, the fact that your students… well, they love you Cheerilee. I've never seen a filly speak a bad word about you. They look forward to going to school every day, and they admire you, Cheerilee… and if you ask me, that's the real mark of a teacher, not what your Cutie Mark is.

Cheerilee remained quiet. She couldn't believe what she was hearing; not only was Twilight not angry at her, but she was accepting and encouraging? It was the absolute last thing that she had expected to hear after finally telling a pony the truth… and she still didn't quite believe it.

"You… you're just saying that."

Twilight's grasp on Cheerilee's shoulder again turned firm. "No! I'm not just saying that, I really believe it. And it's important that you believe it too. Cheerilee, you have a wonderful talent for gardening. But you have just as wonderful a talent for teaching, for bringing happiness to the lives of your students. Don't sell yourself short as a teacher just because it doesn't relate to your Cutie Mark; you're amazing at both."

"But… but I've been lying… "

Twilight's face turned serious for a moment. "I can't condone lying, Cheerilee. You know I can't do that."

Cheerilee started to turn her head away in shame, but Twilight reached up and brought it back, looking her friend in the eyes. "But there's something more important than that right now, and that's you. Now is not the time for me to be talking about lying. Right now, what’s more important is you listening to what I'm telling you. It sounds like you've been doubting yourself for far too long. You don't have to do that anymore, Cheerilee. It's like I said, you're an amazing teacher, and you have no reason to think otherwise."

The smile on Twilight’s face grew as Cheerilee looked into her friend's eyes, and silence once again filled the room. She tried to comprehend everything that Twilight had just said—all the praise, all the kind words, all the encouragement—but when she thought about it, all that happened was it made her more confused. Her mind was suddenly swirling with conflicting ideas, quotes, and opinions. She had no idea what to say to her friend, or even what to say to herself; she finally sighed and stood up, turning away from her friend.

"Twilight… I need some time to think."

Twilight stood up as well, stepping forward. "I know it's a lot to think about, but you don't have to do it alone. I'm here for you if you need me."

Cheerilee turned back to her friend. "I appreciate it, but right now, I just need to be alone to think about everything."

"Cheerilee, I can stay… "

"No, you don’t have to, it’s ok. Like I said, I need some time alone.”

Twilight sadly looked at her friend, sighing. "I understand. But please, come talk to me when you're ready. I don't want you to have to deal with this all on your own. I'm here for you."

"Thanks, Twilight."

Twilight leaned forward and gave Cheerilee a hug. Cheerilee returned the hug lightly, her mind anywhere but on the embrace. As they broke off, Twilight paused, still sadly staring at Cheerilee before nodding and walking out the front door of Cheerilee's cottage. Cheerilee looked out the window at her friend as Twilight walked into the distance, stopping to look back at the cottage for a few moments before turning back and walking out of sight. Once Twilight was out of her vision, a new feeling hit Cheerilee: exhaustion. The draining nature of the past few hours finally caught up to her, and she found herself unable to even keep her eyes open. With practically no other choice, she slowly pulled herself through her cottage and to the sanctity of her bedroom.

She pulled herself into bed, and began to drift off almost immediately. As she lay in bed, the day's events played over in her head, and she pulled the covers up over her chin. Once her eyes began to flutter closed, Headmaster's words rang in her head yet again, and her body shuddered, curling up under her covers.

But as she fell asleep, another voice played in her head. It was faint and distant, almost completely covered by Headmaster's words… and yet it was powerful, a shining beacon in her nervous mind.

"Cheerilee… you are more of a teacher than any pony I've ever known."

-----

A part of Cheerilee had hoped that a good night's sleep would clear up her mind. That once she woke up, maybe everything would make sense. But she knew it was but a pipe dream, and once she woke up, she found herself more confused than ever.

The past day had taken its toll on her, and she had fully expected to spend the weekend home alone recovering, but Twilight's visit had thrown everything out the window. She hadn't expected that she would be telling another pony about her day. She hadn't expected that by the end of the day, a secret she had held onto for her whole life would be known by another pony…

And most importantly, she especially hadn't expected that the pony would offer her encouragement, not anger. Although she knew that Twilight had nothing but the best of intentions when she told Cheerilee how good of a teacher she was, her words had simply complicated matters.

Cheerilee found herself lost in thought for most of the day. Was Twilight right? Was going against her Cutie Mark not as important as following her dream? Cheerilee had never heard of a pony ignoring their Cutie Mark like she did, but did it matter? Cheerilee couldn't deny that ponies in Ponyville certainly respected her, and that her students enjoyed her work, but the idea that it would be enough to make up for her lying her whole life was something she had never even considered before. Was it enough? Was she really a teacher, like Twilight had said?

Or… was Twilight just being nice? Was Twilight just being a friend and encouraging her, even though what she had done was wrong? Lying about a Cutie Mark even once was something Cheerilee had never heard of another pony doing, and she had been lying about it her whole life. Surely an act like that was unforgivable, and yet Twilight had brushed it off as if it was nothing. Was Twilight genuine when she said Cheerilee was a wonderful teacher, or was it just an attempt to make Cheerilee feel better?

These thoughts raced through Cheerilee's brain all day, no matter what she did to try to calm herself. She was too confused about teaching to try to grade the papers she had been putting off. Attempting to read a book only left the room silent and gave her brain more time to wander, and there was no way she could go downtown to Ponyville Spa, or even anywhere in Ponyville. She had no interest in talking to another pony, not in the mood that she was in. As the day wore on and her stress built, she finally gave up and accepted the fact that there was only one thing that could calm her down enough to contemplate her situation.

And thus she found herself sitting at the edge of her garden.

As soon as she had arrived, she had intended to start weeding out a pesky patch of dandelions that had grown over the edge of the garden… but as soon as she had arrived and seen the flowers, it was as if all the energy had been sucked out of her body, and she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was ashamed at the fact that the one thing that could calm her down was the very source of her problem. She gazed down at her Cutie Mark, then back at her garden, and Twilight's words played again in her head.

“if you ask me, that's the real mark of a teacher, not what your Cutie Mark is.”

As she mulled over the words, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she heard a rustling coming from the bushes next to the garden. Cheerilee jumped up and started to slowly back away from the bushes. The rustling grew closer as she saw the bushes begin to move, and she found herself shaking nervously. If it really was a creature, she knew that trying to run away could only anger it, but staying there could be just as dangerous. As the rustling got right to the edge of the garden, she took another step back, ready to run into the woods…

…but instead, through the clearing came a black and white figure. The figure looked down at the garden for a moment before turning up and seeing Cheerilee, then smiling.

"I thought a pony I did see. How are you doing, Cheerilee?"

A long, relieved sigh escaped Cheerilee's mouth, "Oh, it's just you Zecora. You scared me for a second. I'm doing okay," she said, sitting back down next to her garden. She looked over the flowers for a few moments before turning back to Zecora, but suddenly found the zebra much closer to her than expected. Zecora's head was turned to the side slightly, staring at Cheerilee.

"Hmmmm…for a pony who claims to be "okay", you certainly don't seem that way."

Cheerilee sighed and looked back at her garden. "I'm… I guess I just have a lot on my mind right now, Zecora."

Zecora took a step closer to Cheerilee and smiled again. "Well should you need a pony to lend an ear, know that I am always here."

Cheerilee mustered a smile on her face. "Thanks, Zecora, I appreciate it."

She turned to the zebra, but found that Zecora had turned her attention to the garden. Zecora looked amazed as she paced back and forth along the edge of the garden, admiring all the flowers. "Such beautiful flowers of every style and hue. Tell me, does this garden belong to you?" she asked, prodding at a patch of King Proteas that sat in the far corner of the garden.

Cheerilee turned back to the garden. She didn't want any other pony to know about it, but Twilight had pointed out that lying about it wasn't a good idea.

"Yes, it's mine" she said after a long pause.

Zecora nodded and looked over the garden, and her eyes sparkled as she saw the patch of Canterlot Golden Daisies in the center of the garden. She carefully walked up to the daisies and stared at them in wide-eyed amazement, taking in their heavenly scent and beautiful glow for several moments. Once she reluctantly pulled away from them, she exited the garden and stood next to Cheerilee, continuing to marvel at it.

"I am quite impressed with your gardening powers," the zebra said, before looking over at Cheerilee. Cheerilee turned to meet her gaze, but saw that Zecora wasn't looking her in the eyes…she was looking down at her Cutie Mark. "Is this the true meaning of your smiling flowers?"

Cheerilee went numb as her mind panicked and her eyes frantically darted around for something to focus on to bring her back to the real world. She couldn't believe what she was hearing… in only a few moments, Zecora had figured out something that she had been trying to hide her whole life.

"I… that is, I don't…" Cheerilee started to stammer, but as soon as her usual story of her Cutie Mark popped into her head, something else was right there to accompany it.

"I can't condone lying, Cheerilee. You know I can't do that."

Twilight's words echoed in her head, stopping Cheerilee's thoughts dead in their tracks. She swallowed her usual excuse, and merely nodded her head. "Yes, it is."

Zecora nodded thoughtfully, and the two stared at each other in silence. Cheerilee braced for the inevitable line of questioning that was coming, but Zecora just looked her over.

"I can tell this issue brings you great distress. For that reason, I will not press," Zecora said, smiling and backing up. "But if it is something that you wish to discuss, I assure you that you can have my trust."

Zecora nodded, then turned around and started to leave the area, but as she began to push through the bush…

"Zecora?"

The zebra stopped and turned around.

"Zecora… what defines a pony's special talent?"

Zecora cocked her head, then walked back to the garden and sat down next to Cheerilee, rubbing her chin.

"Quite the interesting question you pose. Their passion defines it, I suppose. And when they find their talent on which to embark, it usually results in their Cutie Mark."

Cheerilee sighed. "Yes, but… well, what if a pony doesn't want to follow their Cutie Mark? What if they had an interest in doing something else? I mean, if somepony… "

Cheerilee looked up at Zecora, who was lightly shaking her head.

"Please make sure your words are true. When we say 'somepony', we are talking about you."

Cheerilee sighed. "Yes, we are. You see the garden, Zecora… my "special talent" has always been gardening. But, well, I always dreamed of being a teacher. I went to school for it, I became a teacher here in Ponyville. But… I just don't know, Zecora. Does that mean I'm a teacher? Or does it mean that I've just been ignoring my special talent, being something that I'm not?”

Zecora kept quiet, pondering, as Cheerilee took deep breaths, calming down. Finally, Zecora spoke.

"To me, we must begin at the start. What is important to you, in your heart?"

Cheerilee looked Zecora in the eyes. "In my heart?"

"In your heart, look and see. What matters the most to you, Cheerilee?"

Cheerilee thought quietly to herself. She looked back at her Cutie Mark, then at her garden. There was no denying her skills as a gardener, they really were beautiful flowers… but she shook her head.

"What matters the most to me is teaching, Zecora. It’s always mattered the most to me. It's what I've always wanted, and it's what I've worked for my whole life. I just don't know if it's my destiny to—"

Zecora held up a hoof, silencing Cheerilee. The zebra smiled.

"That is all you need to hear. If you ask me, the answer is already clear."

Cheerilee turned her head to the side. "It is?"

"It appears your confidence is swaying… so let me impart on you an old Zebra saying." For a brief moment, Zecora's eyes had a glint of nostalgia, before she smiled again, and put her hoof under Cheerilee's chin, pushing her head up slightly to be level with her own.

"When times are tough, lift up your chin."

Zecora paused, then moved her hoof down to Cheerilee's chest.

"What matters to your heart…will always win."

Cheerilee looked down at her chest, then slowly up at Zecora. Zecora's smile was warm, just like Twilight's had been the day before. Zecora finally drew her hoof away and stood up.

"I do apologize, but I must go. A pony in Ponyville needs me so. A stallion suffers from Unicorn Horn Stress, the cure for which I currently possess."

Zecora smiled and nodded, then turned and slowly trotted off. Just as she got to the edge of the area, Cheerilee spoke up.

"Zecora?"

The zebra turned around. Cheerilee looked up at her and smiled… and for the first time since Headmaster’s words had first been spoken, the smile didn't feel forced. It felt natural.

"Thanks, Zecora."

The zebra nodded again, and shuffled off through the bush. As she left, Cheerilee turned back to her garden, sitting in silence and surveying it. After a few moments, her eyes fell on the dandelions in the corner of the garden. She trotted over and sat down next to them, staring down at the overgrowth. Again, her mind filled with conflict, wondering if working in her garden was only going to make her problem worse. The words of Headmaster again played, sending a shiver down her spine and making her remember the mistakes she had made; teaching the kids about Hydras, not disciplining Silver Spoon, Apple Bloom walking home in tears...

But as those images appeared in her head, another one joined them. The image wasn’t as clear as the others, but was still enough to momentarily stave off the anxiety that had been plaguing her for the past day.

The image was Zecora, smiling down at her, and placing a hoof over Cheerilee’s heart.

"When times are tough, lift up your chin. What matters to your heart…will always win."

As the sentence finished, Cheerilee closed her eyes and took a long breath in, then reached down, beginning to pluck the weeds from the corner of the garden.

--------

SMILING FLOWERS

End of Chapter 2

Special Thanks: Props, RazgrizS57, and Shortskirtsandexplosions

Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

Cheerilee had fully expected to wake up the next morning just as confused as she was yesterday. When she went to bed the night before, even after Zecora's encouragement, she had been prepared to wake up confronting the words that had plagued her mind for the past two days. When she woke up, she was ready for Headmaster’s vicious words to be the first thing to run through her head.

Yet... it wasn't. When she woke up, the first thing she saw in her mind was the smiles of Zecora and Twilight Sparkle, and the first thing she heard was the words of encouragement they had offered her.

"When times are tough, lift up your chin. What matters to your heart…will always win."
"Cheerilee… you are more of a teacher than any pony I've ever known."

It still left her speechless. Throughout her whole life, the worry about her lie had sat in the back of her head, plaguing her. She had thought that the moment that another pony found out would be the moment that her life as she knew it would end. That once the news was out it would spread around Ponyville, and that she would no longer be respected as a teacher, but shunned as a gardener who lied her whole life. Telling Twilight Sparkle about her garden was one of the most difficult decisions she ever made, and the minutes following were now a hazy blur of anxiety, a period where every word out of her mouth had been accompanied by the thought that Twilight was going to abandon her any minute. But that never happened. And when Zecora had realized that her Cutie Mark was for gardening and not teaching, she had prepared herself for confusion and disappointment. But that never happened either.

Instead, they were supporting, comforting, and ready to help Cheerilee through what was clearly a hard time. Cheerilee still was trying to wrap her head around it. Ever since Headmaster had scolded her, the question of her worth as a teacher had been running through Cheerilee's mind almost non-stop. But now, another question had come to the forefront - a question that she had never even considered before.

Had she been wrong all this time?

All this time, hiding her real special talent for fear of being judged and not respected, was she wrong? Would ponies not judge her based on her Cutie Mark, but instead on what she chose to do with her life? Cheerilee spent a lot of the day thinking about it, but she realized that she had come to an impasse - she couldn't come to a conclusion on her own. And so with trepidation, she finally left her cottage and took off towards the library to talk to Twilight Sparkle.

Before stepping into Ponyville, Cheerilee paused and took a deep breath, preparing herself to be in public for the first time since the weekend began - the last thing she wanted was to break down in the middle of Ponyville. As she finally stepped into town, her path brought her through the local farmer's market, and she felt the knot tighten in her throat and her mood fall. Everywhere she looked, all she saw were ponies doing something that matched their Cutie Mark. Carrot Top was happily negotiating the sale of a bushel of carrots with another pony. The Cakes were standing outside of Sugarcube Corner, a crowd gathered around as they gave out free samples of fresh muffins. Lyra was leaning up against a wall, horn glowing as her lyre gently strummed a calm tune, occasionally pausing to jot something down on a music sheet next to her. Seeing ponies proudly displaying their special talents made Cheerilee shudder, and just like that, the anxiety that had been lowering that day suddenly returned.

Her heart sank. Even with what Twilight and Zecora had said, all Cheerilee could see in Ponyville were ponies proudly displaying their special talents. They never had to lie about it to other ponies, because their Cutie Marks had been exactly what they wanted them to be. Cheerilee turned away from the area of activity and looked for an alternate route around the center of Ponyville where she wouldn't be confronted by Cutie Marks, but she was interrupted by a prodding on her side, causing her to wince and shy away. She started to turn around again to see what it was, but she felt the prod several more times, and instinctively started moving in the direction the prod was forcing her, just barely managing to turn her head and see who was poking her.

"Rarity? What are you… "

The unicorn interrupted her. “Cheerilee, you are just the pony I had in mind! Would you be so considerate as to spare a friend a few minutes of your time? I swear, it will not take long.”

"Rarity, I have somewhere I have to go. I'm really not in the mood to…"

Rarity interrupted her again with a smile. "Darling, I am working on a new line of hats for the summer, and I require a model. Your coat and mane are the perfect contrast of vividness and subtlety! You'll be the ideal model for them, I just need to check to make sure they can stand out as well on calmingly loud as they do on muted earth tones."

Cheerilee began to shake her head, but Rarity leaned forward, staring into Cheerilee's eyes and lightly pouting her lips. Cheerilee sighed. When Rarity had an objective on her mind, it could be almost impossible to persuade her out of it.

"All right."

Rarity hopped up and down happily and grabbed Cheerilee by the hoof, taking off and dragging her to Carousel Boutique. In just a few short minutes, Cheerilee found herself perched up on a platform at the Boutique as Rarity ran back and forth, gathering a plethora of materials before floating a stack of extravagant hats next to her. She levitated the first one up and carefully placed it on Cheerilee's head, slowly circling her with a carefully analyzing eye.

"Hmmmm… just as I thought, this hat simply looks drab on you. Perhaps a few more feathers… "

Rarity muttered to herself as a few feathers floated up to the top of the hat, and she carefully started attaching them in place. As she was working, Cheerilee glanced around Carousel Boutique and she noticed something new hanging on the wall: a framed simple, childish sketch of Rarity and Sweetie Belle smiling at each other, surrounded by a large heart created out of blue gems. As Cheerilee looked it over, she went back to Headmaster's admonishment.

"They're giant, dangerous creatures, hardly the kind of information that fillies need! You'll be giving them nightmares!"

Cheerilee’s ears flattened. "Rarity… I think I owe you an apology."

Rarity backed off from her work on the hat and looked at Cheerilee. "What? Whatever for, darling?"

"The other day, I had a lesson about some of the creatures around Equestria, and… well, I think I may have gotten too enthusiastic. I went into a fairly detailed lesson on Hydras, I'm just worried that it might have been too detailed."

Rarity paused before giving a knowing nod, then went back to work on the hat.

"Ah, I was wondering why Sweetie Belle was talking about Hydras at Sugarcube Corner on Friday." Rarity looked down at Cheerilee, smiling. "I wouldn't worry about it, dearie. It is an important subject, better she learns it from a teacher than from personal experience."

Cheerilee smiled a bit, even though hearing the word "teacher" hit her with another chill. The room went quiet again as Rarity continued to try different hats on her, muttering to herself, making modifications and occasionally writing something in a notebook. As Cheerilee glanced up at the clock, Rarity suddenly gasped.

"Oh! This reminds me, would you mind telling your students that I'm looking for models for small costumes? I was selected to design the outfits for the performance of Romule and Fillyette at the Seaddle Center for Children's Performing Arts and I need a few students who can model the outfits for me before I arrive."

"I'll be sure to mention that to them on Monday. Congratulations, that's quite the job!"

"Why thank you. I must say, thinking about it has me a bit sentimental. I haven't designed children's costumes since… " Rarity trailed off, then looked at Cheerilee, and a nostalgic smile grew on her face. "Why, since the play that we were in as little fillies!"

Cheerilee smiled. "Oh yes, I remember. Goodness, that was quite some time ago."

Rarity carefully replaced the hat on Cheerilee’s head with another, taking more notes. "My, I don't even remember what the play was about. Although I suppose that's to be expected; the only thing I really remember about that play anymore is that I got my Cutie Mark at the end of it!"

Cheerilee turned away as best she could. She had no desire to hear about Cutie Marks, and didn't want Rarity to see her reaction. Rarity reached out and pulled Cheerilee's head back into position to continue modeling the hat, oblivious to Cheerilee's face as she continued talking.

"Oh, that was such a wonderful day! I had been working so hard for so long, and for my Mark to appear like that, in front of so many other ponies all looking at my work… Well, it just meant the world to me."

Cheerilee tried to compose herself as best she could. "Rarity, could you-" she started to say, but Rarity continued talking.

"Oh, I'm sorry for prattling on about the past, but it was just such an important day. After finding those gems, well, it was just the proof I needed that I truly was destined to be the greatest fashion designer in all of Equestria!"

As Rarity smiled and continued working on another hat, Cheerilee breathed a silent sigh of relief that Rarity had stopped talking about Cutie Marks. After seeing every pony in town proudly displaying their special talent, she knew that any more discussions of them would just make her more anxious.

Yet… there was something that Rarity said that stuck in Cheerilee's head. No matter how much she wanted to not think about Cutie Marks until she had the chance to talk to Twilight, what Rarity had said simply wouldn't leave her mind. As she thought, Rarity began to place yet another hat on her head, then looked at Cheerilee's face and smiled.

"A bit for your thoughts, dear?"

Cheerilee jumped a bit, suddenly brought out of her thoughts by Rarity. "Oh… it's nothing."

"You know, for saying it's ‘nothing’, you certainly seem like something is on your mind."

"Well… it's your Cutie Mark."

Rarity raised a single eyebrow. "My Cutie Mark?"

"You just said that when it appeared, it was the proof that you were going to be a fashion designer. But as I recall, didn't you find your special talent by discovering a cache of gems? How did that confirm you being a fashion designer?"

Rarity's mulled the question over in her head for a few moments. "Well, I guess you are right. My special talent was finding gems…" she cut herself off with a smile and a laugh. "Oh, who am I kidding? I didn't need confirmation. I knew I was destined to be a fashionista from the very moment I discovered cloth!"

The anxiety that had been haunting Cheerilee since she first ran into Rarity suddenly went away. "What?"

"I guess I was never really that concerned with my Cutie Mark, now that I think about it. I had long since decided to pursue dressmaking and I wasn't about to let my Cutie Mark get in the way of it. "

Cheerilee stood in silence, staring off into space. She had never even considered that there was another pony who had decided on their passion before their Cutie Mark appeared, let alone one who was in the same class as her as a young filly. "So, you just went against your Cutie Mark? You decided to pursue fashion anyway?"

"I wouldn't exactly say that I went against my Cutie Mark. It still influences me, now and again," Rarity said, nodding her head at the hat floating next to her, adorned with a number of rubies and sapphires around the brim. "But I suppose that would have happened no matter what my special talent was. Why, if I had received a pineapple for a Cutie Mark, I'd be creating pineapple-influenced dresses to this day!" Rarity paused, suddenly lost in thought. "Hrm… fruit-themed dresses. That might be worth looking into."

Rarity picked up her notebook and quickly started scribbling something into it. As she did, Cheerilee tried comprehending what she was hearing. Rarity had decided on what she wanted to do long before her Cutie Mark appeared. She hadn't let the fact that gem-finding was her special talent get in the way of her dream. If anything, she had let her talent guide it. As the last hat was slipped on her head, Cheerilee looked around, taking in Carousel Boutique, a wildly successful fashion boutique, well respected not only in Ponyville but known throughout almost all of Equestria as well. It was a boutique being run by a pony with a passion for design the likes of which had never been seen before. A pony who, when she was a filly, wanted nothing more than to be a fashionista, and would not only accomplish it, but become one of the most well-known and up and coming names in fashion. A pony who was one of the happiest ponies in Ponyville.

A pony who had gone against her Cutie Mark.

Rarity finished with the hat and took it off Cheerilee's head. "Allrighty, that's all I had for you to model. Thank you so-" Rarity interrupted herself as she looked down at Cheerilee. "Goodness, I didn't think the hats were that good."

Cheerilee turned to Rarity. "Hmm?"

"You're positively beaming! "

Cheerilee hadn't even realized it, but she had the biggest smile on her face. She couldn't help it. As she stepped down off the table, Rarity nodded at her.

"Thank you most sincerely again, Cheerilee. Sorry for taking up your time, but—Oh!!"

Rarity was interrupted by Cheerilee leaning in and grasping her in a tight hug.

"Thank you, Rarity. Thank you so much."

As Cheerilee finally broke the hug, Rarity smiled at her, her lips curved in confusion. "Whatever for, darling?"

"I… well, I can't really go into it right now. But hearing you talk about your Cutie Mark like that, and pursuing your dream, it just means a lot to me. It means so much to me to see a pony follow their dream and become so successful."

Rarity took a step back, and giggled, tilting her head to the side.

"I-I'm sorry, Cheerilee. I appreciate the sentiments, but I'm afraid I am completely lost as to what you're referring to here."

Cheerilee smiled. "Listen, I'll come back and tell you the full story, I promise. But right now, I have to go see Twilight, I think I have some new insights I'd like to share with her."

Cheerilee gave Rarity another quick hug, then turned and trotted out of Carousel Boutique. Rarity, shaking her head in bewilderment, waved a hoof to Cheerilee before turning around and looking at the hats she had just modeled.

"Hmmm… I wonder how pear slices would look on these…"

-----

As she walked through Ponyville again, Cheerilee saw the same ponies she had seen last time. She glanced around at them and their Cutie Marks, and briefly paused in her walk. After only a few moments, she turned back and looked at Carousel Boutique. It stood as one of the tallest buildings in Ponyville, and no doubt one of the most successful. Cheerilee thought about all the times she would see a pony walk into the boutique, and walk out with an hoofload of clothes. The outfits that came out of the boutique were always of the utmost quality, and could be seen all throughout Equestria.

And it was all being done by a pony whose "special talent" had nothing to do with dresses. Cheerilee sighed contently at the new knowledge, then turned back around to continue her trek to the library.

"Gangway, look out!!"

Cheerilee barely had time to register the shout before she saw something barreling towards her. She dove out of the way at the last second as a scooter shot past her. Scootaloo rocked the scooter back and forth to try to stop the momentum, and after that failed, she buzzed her wings, finally sending the scooter to a screeching halt. As she popped her helmet off and scanned the area, Sweetie Belle poked her head out from the wagon being pulled.

"Sorry about that, Miss Cheerilee,” Sweetie Belle said, her words stuttering from dizziness.

Cheerilee smiled. "It's ok, girls."

Scootaloo continued looking around her, then turned to Cheerilee. "Miss Cheerilee, have you seen Apple Bloom anywhere?"

"Apple Bloom? Sorry, girls, I don't think I have."

"Aw shoot. If you see her, will you tell her that we're looking for her? We were supposed to have a Crusaders meeting like fifteen minutes ago, and she's nowhere to be found!"

"If I see her, I'll be sure to mention it."

Scootaloo jammed her helmet back onto her head. "Thanks, Mis Cheerilee. Come on, Sweetie Belle, let's check over at Sugarcube Corner. Maybe she's apologizing for the biscuit thing."

"Okay, but could you, uh, go a little slower this time? My stomach isn't feeling too gooAAAAAAAA-" Sweetie Belle didn’t even get a chance to finish her sentence as Scootaloo took off down the road on the scooter, pulling the wagon behind her.

Once they were away, Cheerilee turned and continued her walk towards the library. But as she did, a new thought popped into her head: Apple Bloom. She remembered everything that Applejack had told her: that Silver Spoon had been bullying her relentlessly, that she had been walking home in tears for weeks, that Cheerilee had completely missed one of her students being so miserable. Her mood dropped again and the image of Carousel Boutique suddenly seemed so very distant. She couldn't focus on her newfound knowledge of Rarity. All she could see was her failing to keep one of her students happy. Her place slowed as she got downtown, and with Ponyville relatively quiet now, she had nothing to distract herself from her thoughts. The very idea that one of her students had been so sad, and yet she had been so blind to it, was all she could focus on. All she could hear in her head was the sound of a pony crying…

Cheerilee came to a halt, and she turned her head up. It suddenly occurred to her that it wasn't in her head; she actually could hear the sound of a pony crying. She quickly looked around the area, not seeing anypony who showed any signs of distress, but she again heard the faint sniffles and sobs of a crying pony. She carefully walked forward, scanning around Ponyville until she came across a small alley in between two buildings. Walking towards it, she heard the crying becoming clearer and she turned her head slowly around the corner of the alley. Sticking her head around the corner, it only took her a moment to see the source of the crying, causing her to gasp.

At the back end of the alley, Apple Bloom sat. She was partially hidden behind a stack of garbage bags, but enough of her mane and bow stuck out for Cheerilee to recognize her instantly. As she approached, Apple Bloom didn't notice her; her eyes closed and head hanging down, face stained with tears. Once she got close enough, Cheerilee finally spoke up.

"Apple Bloom?"

Gasping, Apple Bloom wiped her eyes off and looked up, trying to smile. "Oh, hi Miss Cheerilee. I was just, uh… " She trailed off as more tears welled up in her eyes, and she looked down at the ground, away from her teacher.

"Your friends are looking for you, Apple Bloom! What's wrong?"

Apple Bloom continued staring at the ground, sniffling.

"…Silver Spoon."

Cheerilee sat down next to Apple Bloom.

"What happened?"

"I was jus' gonna meet the other Crusaders here downtown to decide what we wanted to try next, and I ran into her," Apple Bloom said, her head lowering more. "She laughed at me. She said I'm never gonna get mah Cutie Mark, that it's 'too late,’ that me an' the other Crusaders should just start paintin' stuff on our flanks ‘cuz we ain't gettin’ anything there otherwise."

Cheerilee sighed. "Apple Bloom…"

"We've been crusadin' for so long now, and we ain't any closer to gettin' our Cutie Marks. Maybe she's right. We're the oldest kids in class without Cutie Marks, it's way too late for us to ever find anythin'. We're gonna be blank flanks forever!"

As Apple Bloom began to close her eyes, Cheerilee took her by the shoulder and turned her so they could be face to face.

"Apple Bloom, listen to me."

Apple Bloom opened her eyes and looked up at her teacher.

"Silver Spoon… she's a bully. All she is doing is saying things to try to see you upset, nothing more. You can't let the things she says get to you."

Apple Bloom sniffled. "But… she's been sayin' this stuff for so long…"

Cheerilee shook her head. "It doesn't matter, Apple Bloom. It's never a good idea to let something bad that someone says get to you, because the more you take what a bully says to heart, the more you will start believing it. You can't focus on that."

There was a short pause, and Cheerilee smiled.

"You have to focus on the good. Don't listen to some bully saying you'll never get your Cutie Mark, listen to your friends. The ones who know more about you than Silver Spoon can ever know. The ones who love you dearly, who are always there for you. Listen to the ponies who you admire, who you respect and who respect you. The things that they tell you are more valuable than anything a pony like Silver Spoon will ever say to you. "

Apple Bloom looked at up Cheerilee, then turned and sat against the wall, thinking. Cheerilee turned and sat next to her, and the two ponies remained in silence for a while.

"Miss Cheerilee?"

"Yes, Apple Bloom?"

"… Do you think I'll get my Cutie Mark?"

"I know that you'll get your Cutie Mark. You and your friends, too"

"But it's taking so long! Ain't we too old by now to find our special talents?"

Cheerilee turned and looked down at Apple Bloom, resting a hoof on her shoulder. Apple Bloom looked up, and was met with a smile.

"Let me assure you, Apple Bloom, it is never too late to learn something about yourself."

There was another pause. Cheerilee looked down at the little filly.

"You know, Apple Bloom, I've been learning something about myself lately too."

Apple Bloom turned up, wide eyed, at Cheerilee. "What? Really?

Cheerilee nodded. "Yes. And it's… Well, it's something that I think I should have learned a long time ago. Something that I should have realized when I was your age."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "But yer a teacher, ya'll know everything!"

Cheerilee shook her head slightly. "Oh, Apple Bloom… you'd be surprised."

"Well, what did ya'll learn?"

There was a long pause as Cheerilee closed her eyes. She thought back to when she was sitting alone in her house, a weeping wreck of a pony. She thought back to the doubt that had been plaguing her mind for far too long, the anxiety that had been eating away at her from the day her Cutie Mark appeared, and the depression that surrounded her any time she looked at her Cutie Mark. But she thought back to something else: Twilight Sparkle telling her that she was more of a teacher than any pony she had ever known. Zecora telling her that what mattered to her heart would always win out. Rarity, who told her the story of following her dream despite her Cutie Mark, and becoming a success. Cheerilee opened her eyes and turned down to Apple Bloom, smiling.

"I learned that all this time, I've been doing exactly what I've been meant to do."

Apple Bloom responded with a confused scrunch of her face. "What, teachin'? I coulda told ya that!"

Cheerilee chuckled. "Yes, I suppose you could have told me that. I just wish I would have listened earlier."

"So... ya'll do think I'll get my Cutie Mark?"

Cheerilee nodded. "Absolutely. And I know that once you do, it's going to be beautiful."

Apple Bloom smiled and wrapped her hooves around Cheerilee's leg. "Thanks, Miss Cheerilee. Ya'll are the best."

Cheerilee reached down and patted Apple Bloom on the head. "You’re quite welcome, Apple Bloom. Now, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are looking for you. They said they'd be checking Sugarcube Corner. If you go now, I’m sure you can catch up with them.

Apple Bloom nodded and let go of Cheerilee, taking off down the alley. Cheerilee couldn't help but smile as she watched the filly run to meet her friends, and she let out a long withheld sigh. As Apple Bloom exited the alley, she looked back and forth… and she immediately froze in her tracks as she heard another voice.

"Well, if it isn't ‘little miss Blank Flank’ again!"

Cheerilee stood up and walked towards the exit of the alley. Apple Bloom was slowly retreating from where she stood, her face fallen. "Were you looking for your Cutie Mark in there? Cause I don't think you're gonna find it."

As Cheerilee exited the alley, she immediately saw the source of the voice: Silver Spoon. A slight smirk was on her face as she looked at Apple Bloom, but as soon as she saw Cheerilee, her grin was quickly swept away.

"Oh… hello, Miss Cheerilee! I was just, uh… talking with…"

Apple Bloom smiled at Cheerilee. Cheerilee smiled back at her, then turned back to her other student.

"Silver Spoon…"

The filly smiled awkwardly. "I was just joking around, Miss Cheerilee! I was-"

Cheerilee interrupted her. "Listen to me, young lady. It doesn't matter if you were joking or not. Do you understand how upset you've been making Apple Bloom?"

"But I wasn't being serious! I-"

"You need to learn that your words can really hurt the ponies around you. Now I want you to apologize to Apple Bloom, and I want you to do it right now."

"But-"

Cheerilee shook her head. "I want you to apologize right now.”

Silver Spoon sighed, and turned to face Apple Bloom. “I... I’m sorry for calling you a Blank Flank, and saying you’d never find your Cutie Mark. I didn’t mean to make you so upset.”

Cheerilee nodded her head. “Good. Apple Bloom, you can run along now.”

Apple Bloom smiled and took off towards Sugarcube Corner, and Cheerilee turned back to Silver Spoon. “Now, if I hear that you have been bullying Apple Bloom again—or any pony in class, for that matter—I'm going to have a talk with your parents.”

Silver Spoon went wide eyed. "But-"

"No ‘buts’, young lady. I’m sorry for being so harsh, but that’s just the way it has to be - I don’t want you bullying any other ponies, do you understand me?”

Silver Spoon nodded. “Yes Miss Cheerilee.”

“Thank you. You can run along now.”

Silver Spoon hung her head and nodded, then and shuffled off in the other direction. Cheerilee sighed as she turned and began to walk towards her initial destination: Ponyville library. She only made it a few steps before she came to a halt, as she realized something.

It was gone.

The anxiety that had clouded her mind for the past few days. The words of Silver Spoon, Headmaster, and Applejack, and all those of the past that had been playing over and over in her head were gone. Her nervousness about her garden, her future, and her special talent. The questions she had about being a teacher.

They were all gone.

Cheerilee closed her eyes and just savored the moment. For all the questions she had had only a few days ago, for all the uncertainty and nervousness that had controlled her for so long, everything seemed clear to her. She smiled and began to walk again, but before she could open her eyes, she bumped directly into another pony.

"Oh goodness, sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going, my apologies," she said, carefully stepping around the pony she had run into. She started to walk away, when an exasperated sigh froze her dead in her tracks.

"Hello again, Cheerilee. Fancy running into you here."

Cheerilee slowly turned around, and as soon as she saw the pony she had bumped into, her face went numb.

The past few days had been eye opening to Cheerilee. So many of the questions she had had in her mind were so long had been answered. The encouragement of her friends had truly opened her eyes, and she was seeing herself in a new light.

But all the encouragement now seemed a million miles away. The anxiety was starting to creep back into her mind, and the only thing left in the world now was the pony standing in front of her.

Her boss. Headmaster.

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SMILING FLOWERS

End of Chapter 3

Special Thanks: Props, RazgrizS57, and Shortskirtsandexplosions

Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

"Hello again, Cheerilee. Fancy running into you here."

Cheerilee stared at Headmaster in shock. She hadn't expected to see him again for quite some time, let alone only a few days later. Headmaster tended to move very quickly between schools when checking on them, so it was surprising to see him still in Ponyville. Cheerilee found herself at a loss for words, as all the anxiety that had slowly been leaving her over the past few days began to return all at once. Headmaster's words, which only minutes before had felt so distant, were suddenly ringing in her ears again. She focused on the encouragement she had received over the past few days, swallowing the knot that had formed in her throat, and quickly tried to recompose herself as she felt the bored gaze of Headmaster burn a hole through her.

"I'm surprised to see you still here, Headmaster,” she said at last.

Headmaster rolled his eyes. "Believe me, I'm just as surprised. I was expecting to be over in Fillydelphia by now, but there was some sort of problem at the Ponyville train station, and my train got delayed several days. My new train leaves in about an hour." He glanced at his pocket watch. "You know, I've lived in Fillydelphia for twenty-five years, and never once have I had a train delayed by more than twenty minutes. But as soon as I visit a place like Ponyville, everything breaks down."

"I'm sorry to hear that. At least you were stuck in a nice town like Ponyville, though,” she said with a smile, but as soon as she saw Headmaster's expression, the smile disappeared.

"'Nice' is a very abstract term, Cheerilee," he said, taking a glance around town. "I'm sure you and the other ponies who live here enjoy this town, but I must admit it doesn’t entice me. I simply don't understand the appeal of living in a small town like this. There doesn’t ever seem to be anything going on here." He turned to Cheerilee, now with a slightly bewildered look in his face. "Is it true that one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony actually lives here?"

"Actually, sir, all six of them do,” she corrected.

Headmaster's eyes widened. "Goodness, really? They'd be welcomed with open hearts in any city they went to, and they choose to live here?" He shook his head. "Rather mind-boggling if you ask me. So, have you been planning out your next lesson plan? Something regarding how to stuff and mount a manticore, perhaps?"

Cheerilee's ears flattened as Headmaster chuckled to himself. "Sir, I did say I was sorry for going off that lesson plan…"

"Oh, it was just a joke, Cheerilee. I really don't want to hear from parents complaining that their children have been talking about killing creatures, so I do have your word that you aren't going to attempt something like that again, right?

"I promise, sir."

"Good." Headmaster again looked at his pocket watch. "Well, I really am quite eager to get back to Fillydelphia, perhaps they've gotten everything sorted out at the station a bit early. Goodbye, Cheerilee."

Without so much as a glance in her direction, he started to turn around and leave. Cheerilee breathed a sigh of relief, but as she turned to leave as well, she stopped. With Headmaster no longer talking, voices were starting to creep back into her mind… but this time they weren't Headmaster's. She heard the warm words of Twilight Sparkle telling her how wonderful of a teacher she was. She heard Zecora’s assuring words that what mattered to her was what was most important, not what her Cutie Mark represented. She heard Rarity happily discussing how she wasn't letting her Cutie Mark get in the way of her dream, and she heard Apple Bloom thanking her lovingly and saying "ya'll are the best."

She took a deep breath and turned around. "Mr. Headmaster?"

Headmaster stopped a few meters away and turned to face her again. Just seeing his face hit Cheerilee with another slight chill, but she shook it off.

"What is it now, Cheerilee?"

She took another deep breath, preparing to do something she never thought she'd do.

"Mr. Headmaster, I feel you were rather harsh to me the other day."

Headmaster looked baffled for a moment before walking back towards her. "I beg your pardon?"

"You outright told me that I didn't know much about teaching, Headmaster. To be frank, it was harsh and in fact, it was quite hurtful. I've been teaching here in Ponyville for five years, and have received nothing but positive marks in that time, something that you should well know." Cheerilee felt confidence building in her body, which was reflected as her voice became louder. "I will admit that I may have gone too far teaching my students the details of Hydras, but to claim that I don't know much about teaching... Well, sir, I understand that you've never been one to hold in your opinions, but to say something like that is unfair to me, and I think that you know it was quite rude."

Headmaster stepped forward to get close to Cheerilee, staring at her. “‘Quite rude?’”

There was a long pause as Headmaster continued to stare at her. Cheerilee briefly felt her confidence start to falter and the anxiety hit her nerves, but after a few tense seconds, Headmaster sighed.

"I suppose it was a little rude, wasn't it."

Cheerilee nodded. "Yes, it was."

Headmaster opened his mouth, and for a brief moment, Cheerilee thought she had gotten something from Headmaster she had never heard before–an apology. But just as the words were starting to leave his mouth, he shook his head.

"Well, you just caught me off guard, Cheerilee. I wasn't expecting to have to tell a pony about what to teach and what not to teach, and especially not to you! As you said, you get great marks, and yet you taught them something like that? It was irresponsible!" He shook his head. "Sometimes I don't get you at all, Cheerilee."

She bit her lip. "You don't… ‘get’ me?"

"You get consistently positive feedback, and then turn around and do something like that? It’s completely unprofessional. But that wasn’t the only happenstance either! Every other teacher was assigning a family tree and you went and devoted weeks to a 'Family Appreciation' project. Then, when it was time to learn about history, you arranged for all of your students to be taken to the Canterlot Archives."

Cheerilee nodded. "Well, yes, but that's just because I'm dedicated to my students, sir. I care about each and every one of them, and I want to make sure that they get the best education possible."

"I certainly understand dedication, but to that level? It's quite baffling. I've always thought you'd be better suited for a position teaching in a bigger city. You'd be able to teach multitudes more students, and the pressure would be off you to arrange 'projects' like that because of the size of the class." Headmaster briefly pondered something. "In fact, there happens to be an opening at Fillydelphia Elementary for a class of nearly fifty students; perhaps that would help focus your priorities. If you want to apply, I'm certain that your excellent record would speak volumes to the hiring committee."

Cheerilee smiled at Headmaster. "I appreciate that, sir, but I can assure you that I'm quite happy here in Ponyville."

Headmaster looked downright baffled at her response, dropping the smile from her face quickly. "You do understand that a position teaching at one of the most prestigious elementary schools in all of Equestria would come with a substantial pay raise, yes?"

She nodded. "Yes, but that's not my concern. As I said, I'm quite happy in Ponyville. I have friends here, ponies who care about me, and I've grown attached to the fillies in this town. I wouldn't want to just abandon them halfway through my time with them, now would I?"

Headmaster's confused expression and prolonged stare at her finally began to take its toll, and she felt the confidence again start to sway. Headmaster stepped forward, causing her to involuntarilly step back.

"Turning down a high paying position at one of the best schools in all of Equestria…” he mumbled to himself. “As I said before, Cheerilee, I simply don't get you, and I don't believe I ever will." Headmaster paused, searching for the right words. "You are like some sort of... anomaly."

Just hearing the word "anomaly" was enough to make the confidence that Cheerilee had been building crumble, and she was suddenly left the same way she had felt the last time they had spoken–empty and anxious. Her ears fell and she slunk backwards. "An… an anomaly?"

Headmaster nodded. "Yes, that's the right word for it. I can't explain you, Cheerilee. All the grades in your class indicate your abilities as a teacher, and yet you turn around and teach your students about Hydras. You get consistently good marks from your peers, but are willing to turn down any improvement in your career by moving to Fillydelphia? All these decisions you make go against everything I would expect from somepony in your profession.

As he gazed to the side, Cheerilee felt herself being crushed by his words. She opened her mouth to say something, desperate to preserve what little of her confidence remained, but Headmaster looked her in the eyes, silencing her before she could speak.

"I don't know. I guess in the end, you are simply different from every teacher I've ever known."

Cheerilee went numb. She tried to focus on all the reassurance that she had been getting for the past few days, but it suddenly became a garbled mess, a million miles away from her being able to hear it. All she could hear now was Headmaster's words, telling her that she was "different". As Headmaster checked his pocket watch again, Cheerilee looked around for something to bring her back, in doing so, she noticed her Cutie Mark. The word "different" stopped her dead in her tracks as the thought creeped into her mind that she knew exactly why she was different from other teachers.

"Now then, if there's nothing else, I think I will be off to catch my train."

She took a long breath and realized she no longer wanted to defend herself to her boss, she just wanted him to be gone. "N-no, sir, there's noth…"

"Miss Cheerilee!"

Cheerilee went wide eyed as she heard a high-pitched voice yell her name. She slowly craned her head to the source of the yell, and saw Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all running towards her. WIthout much time to react, she swallowed her nervousness and put on a false smile, not wanting her students to see her in a moment of weakness. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle slowed down, but Apple Bloom ran right in front of her.

"Miss Cheerilee, real quick, do ya'll got any ideas on where we might find cave explorin' equipment? Scootaloo thinks that we could go explorin' the Crystalline Caves, we might be natural…" she trailed off, then turned back to Scootaloo. "What was that word ya used?"

"Spelunkers,” Scootaloo reminded her.

"Yeah, we might be natural spell linkers!" Apple Bloom turned back to Cheerilee. "So where can…" Apple Bloom trailed off as she looked at her teacher, and Cheerilee realized that the filly must have noticed that something was wrong. She continued to smile worryingly, but then Apple Bloom took a step forward. "Are… are ya'll okay, Miss Cheerilee?"

"I'm fine, Apple Bloom. Really."

"But ya look different then ya did just a moment ago. Everything alright?"

As Cheerilee began to open her mouth, Apple Bloom looked over at Headmaster, who had put his pocket watch back into his suit and was now staring at Apple Bloom with the same bored expression that usually was on his face. There was a long pause before Apple Bloom turned to him, standing in front of Cheerilee and leaning forward.

"Hey! Were ya'll bullyin' Miss Cheerilee?"

Cheerilee swallowed nervously as Headmaster stared at Apple Bloom "I beg your pardon?" he said, raising his brow.

"Yeah! She was fine jus' a few minutes ago, then you show up and now she’s all distraught an’ stuff!" As Apple Bloom spoke, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle ran over and stood next to her, all three of the Crusaders standing between Cheerilee and Headmaster.

"Girls, please... I-It’s fine. You don't have to talk to him like that," Cheerilee said, trying to diffuse the situation. Sweetie Belle turned up to look at her.

"But Miss Cheerilee, Apple Bloom told us that you said we should stand up to bullies! And if this guy is bullying you, we're gonna stop it!"

"Yeah!" Scootaloo added, before turning back to Headmaster. "Now cut it out!"

Headmaster sighed, looking up at Cheerilee. "Students of yours, I'm guessing?"

Cheerilee nodded. "Yes… Uhm, girls, this is a very different situation than bullying. I appreciate what you're saying, I really do, but you don't have to stand up for me."

As the three students all looked up at her and began to calm down, Headmaster stepped forward. "Cheerilee, let me handle this." The Crusaders all turned back to Headmaster as he cleared his throat. "You listen to me. This is an adult conversation that does not need you three to suddenly jump in. I was not bullying Cheerilee, I was merely stating my opinion; there is quite a big difference, and your interrupting our conversation is quite disrespectful."

Cheerilee's jaw dropped as Headmaster talked to her students. She was in shock that he would be so blunt with them. Before she could say anything, Scootaloo spoke up again.

"Disrespectful? You're being mean to our teacher, and that's just as rude!"

Headmaster let out an aggravated sigh. "Look, I am not about to have a discussion with three little fillies about the meaning of disrespect. You simply aren't old enough to understand the difference between…"

Headmaster trailed off as he stared at the three fillies, then slowly took a step to the side and looked them over. After a few moments, he turned back to Cheerilee.

"You said these are students of yours, yes? So they are in your class?"

"Yes…"

"Are they advanced a year or two? Because they certainly don't seem like it to me…"

Cheerilee swallowed. "No, they're the same age as everypony else. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I'm just quite surprised to see fillies their age without their Cutie Marks yet."

Cheerilee gasped at the comment. She looked down at her three students, and saw that their faces had fallen. Scootaloo was the first to speak again after a few moments.

"Hey, just cause we don't have our Cutie Marks doesn't mean we're never gonna get them."

Headmaster nodded. "Yes, I'm sure that's what you anticipate."

The girls’ spirits sunk as Cheerilee stared in shock at Headmaster. Sweetie Belle looked up at him, hopelessness in her eyes.

"B-But mister,” she stuttered. “We're gonna get our Cutie Marks one day, right? We've been crusading for so long together, we're bound to find them soon!"

Headmaster blinked in confusion. "Together? Wait, you three have been looking for your Cutie Marks as a group? That's rather silly, isn't it?"

Cheerilee continued to stare at Headmaster in shock, her jaw slack. She looked down at her students, who were now huddled together, completely voided of their morale. She turned to Headmaster, the pony who was directly responsible for making her students sad. Suddenly, she realized that her hooves and face were trembling… and it occurred to her that it had nothing to do with the anxiety still in her mind. As she stared at him, Headmaster spoke up again.

"I mean, I'm sure you'll get your Cutie Marks one day, but to see you without them at your age is quite strange. Wouldn't you agree, Cheerilee?"

Cheerilee said nothing, staring at Headmaster and still trembling. The three crusaders were shivering as well, and Headmaster noticed it, but only responded with an irritated sigh.

"Look, I'm not trying to be rude here, I'm trying to be truthful. And pardon the expression, but to see a group of blank flanks at your age…"

Something snapped in the back of Cheerilee's mind. Suddenly the anxiety was shoved aside, and a new emotion took over. She stomped her hoof into the street.

"Mr. Headmaster!!!"

The Crusaders all jumped at the sudden yell from behind them, but their reaction was nothing compared to Headmaster, who completely stumbled forward in shock, his glasses almost pitching off his face. As he turned up, he saw Cheerilee with an expression he had never seen on the pony before, one that even took herself by surprise: anger.

"Mr. Headmaster, that is quite enough!” she shouted in a sudden outburst, pointing a hoof at the stallion. “I am not going to stand here and allow you to talk to these children like that! Sir, you of all ponies should understand that you cannot speak to young fillies like that, especially when you are an educator. To be so outright rude to them is completely unforgivable!"

Headmaster had gotten over his initial shock, but continued to stare in disbelief at Cheerilee. His eyes slowly narrowed, and he spoke through gritted teeth.

"Cheerilee. You do understand who I am, correct? I am not some random pony on the street, nor am I an unruly parent. I am your boss, and you work directly for me."

She shook her head. "That hardly precludes you from the very notion of common decency!"

Cheerilee instinctively started to step forward, past and protectively in front of the Crusaders. Although she didn’t show it, she was a little surprised when Headmaster started to step back. She knew full well that she could be facing dire consequences for speaking to her boss like that, but something in her mind was preventing her from stopping. She simply couldn't allow anypony to talk to her students in such a way.

"No pony should speak to young girls like that, or anypony for that matter, and especially not one who is so closely associated with education. You may question my methods of teaching. You may call me an anomaly, you may claim I am different. You may even outright declare that I do not know anything about teaching, but I will never allow you to insult three of my students. Do you understand me?"

Still in a state of shock, Headmaster continued his slow walk backwards with every step Cheerilee took forward. He shook his head to try to clear his mind.

"But—"

"No, sir, there is no excuse for comments like that! Now I believe an apology is in order."

Cheerilee had gotten right up to him and was staring into his eyes, waiting on his response. To her shock, he looked completely lost for words, which was something that she had never seen out of Headmaster before. He finally opened his mouth, and briefly put on a strong face.

"Cheerilee, I-I... what? An apology? Are you really demanding an apology out of me? Are these girls really that important to you?"

She gave a firm nod. "Yes, they are!"

Headmaster looked positively dumbfounded. "Why?"

"Why? Why?! Because I am their teacher!"

As soon as the words escaped her lips, Headmaster was gone. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were gone. All of Ponyville was gone, and Cheerilee was simply left alone with just her thoughts. Her entire life, any discussion of her as a teacher had come with the knowledge of the secret she had held close to her heart. It had been difficult for her to imagine herself as a teacher. Any time she did, the knowledge that her "special talent" was gardening had always been there to quickly hinder the thought. Even over the past few days, as ponies offered her wonderful encouragement and insight that had never crossed her mind before, the idea remained that she had been living a lie; defying who she was truly meant to be.

But as she stood there, admonishing Headmaster, she felt the anxiety dissolve. As she thought about how important her students were to her, everything he had said–accusing her of not knowing much about teaching, calling her an anomaly, claiming she was “different” than other teachers–slowly evaporated from her mind. Instead, they became replaced with the words from the past few days, finally returning to her, clearer than ever.

"Cheerilee… you are more of a teacher than any pony I've ever known."

"When times are tough, lift up your chin. What matters to your heart will always win."

"I guess I was never really that concerned with my Cutie Mark, now that I think about it."

"Thanks, Miss Cheerilee. Ya'll are the best."

And now they were joined by one more quote, this time her own voice.

"I am their teacher!"

As she returned, she found herself still staring down Headmaster, who had the same perplexed look on his face. She took a few long breaths to calm herself down, then spoke to Headmaster in a quiet tone.

"I am their teacher, Mr. Headmaster. They are my students, and they mean the absolute world to me. I am with them five days a week, I have watched their growth, tended to them every step of the way, and I have come to love every single one of my students. I will simply not allow a pony to speak to them badly, whether it be a stranger on the streets, or even you."

Headmaster continued to stare at Cheerilee. She was completely unable to read his face; she had no idea if he was about to fire her. After a long pause, Headmaster looked down to the side at the Crusaders, all three of whom were wide-eyed and slack-jawed, before looking at Cheerilee and letting out a long sigh.

"I can respect that,” he said with a defeated nod.

Cheerilee blinked. Those were the absolute last words she had expected to hear from him. "What?"

"I can respect that. If they really mean that much to you and, well, you are their teacher, in the end it does come with the job for many."

Headmaster took a few seconds to think, struggling to find the exact words.

"I do believe I owe you an apology, Cheerilee."

Cheerilee momentarily considered accepting it. She had never once heard Headmaster apologize to anypony, but she shook her head.

"No, sir,” Cheerilee said, finally easing up on her glare. Headmaster responded with a quizzical look. “I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

Headmaster nodded, then turned back to the Crusaders, stepping up to them. "Girls, I give you my apologies. Your teacher is entirely right: I was out of line, and to put you down in such a matter is equally unjustifiable. Regarding your Cutie Marks, well, you should listen to Cheerilee. She is your teacher, and as she said, she is with you far more than I am."

The Crusaders nodded, and Headmaster turned and walked away, motioning for Cheerilee to follow him. She did, and they walked out of earshot of the Crusaders, the three of them pretending they weren’t paying attention, and he leaned closer to her.

"Cheerilee,” he said in a quiet tone. “I do not want you speaking to me in that tone of voice again."

Cheerilee nodded. "I understand, but sir, I don't want you ever insulting my students again. For that matter, I do not want you insulting me either."

"Fair enough."

There was a long pause, and Headmaster looked over at the Crusaders.

"They really mean that much to you, don't they?"

A faint smile appeared on Cheerile’s face. "As I said, they are my students. They mean the world to me. Ensuring their happiness is the most important thing in my life."

Headmaster, still glancing towards the Crusaders, shook his head. "I've had parents talk back to me, teachers tell me to stop being so blunt and rude, but I have never had a teacher speak to me the way you just did; all to defend a few students. That kind of dedication…" He trailed off, then turned back to Cheerilee.

"I will say it again, Cheerilee. You are different from every teacher I have ever known."

Cheerilee pondered his words. Just a few minutes before, those same words had sent a chill down her body. But now, as she looked over at her students, they made her smile.

"Sir, that is not something to be ashamed of. In fact, I believe that it is something to be proud of."

She looked back at Headmaster, who was staring back at her. To her surprise, a very small smile grew on Headmaster's face.

"Yes. I suppose it is"

The smile disappeared from Headmaster's face as quickly as it had appeared, and he checked his pocket watch for a final time. "Well, I believe that I will be heading over to the train now. I really would like to get back to civilization at some point." He turned and nodded. "I will see you next time, Cheerilee."

Once Headmaster had walked off, Cheerilee felt the smile return to her face. She had just stood up to her boss and somehow was still standing. But what was more important to her was what she had said and the fact that she knew that every word was true. There was no lack of confidence, there was no anxiety, there wasn't even a shred of doubt left in her mind; all that was left was the encouragement of her friends, and the knowledge of her true calling in life. She finally turned around, and was nearly tackled down to the ground by three excited fillies.

"Wow, Miss Cheerilee. That was awesome!" Scootaloo exclaimed, happily hugging her teacher's leg. "You totally showed that jerk!"

"Yeah! Maybe he'll think twice 'fore he talks back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Apple Bloom added.

"You're the best teacher ever!" Sweetie Belle happily yelled.

"Aw, thank you, girls," Cheerilee said as the three fillies backed off. "Now you heard what he said: he wants you to listen to me. Well, I want to tell you all something. I can promise you that there is nothing odd about not having your Cutie Marks yet, and I can promise that you will find your Cutie Marks, all three of you.

Sweetie Belle jumped up and down. "Of course we will, and I already know what we're gonna do!"

Apple Bloom turned to her. "We do?"

"Yeah! Why didn't we see it before? We're gonna be cookie bakers!"

Scootaloo put her hoof to her face. "Sweetie Belle, maybe we should just give up on baking. After what happened at Sugarcube Corner when we tried to make those biscuits…"

"But we're getting so much better!"

Cheerilee laughed. "Well, you'll never know until you try. Now you girls run along, I have to go speak to an old friend of mine."

The Crusaders all happily nodded and ran off, leaving Cheerilee smiling. With all distractions out of her mind, she finally turned and completed what she now realized was a long trek to the Ponyville Library.

-----

Twilight Sparkle had spent the weekend starting to read A Brief History Of Pegasi, Volume 6. Although she found it interesting, the knowledge that one of her close friends was going through a hard time had been eating away at her. She had contemplated going back to talk to Cheerilee, but every time she talked herself out of it, deciding that her friend still needed to be alone to consider things. But when she heard the knock at her door, she threw the book to the side and rushed to open the door, eyes widening a bit when she saw who was on the other side.

"Cheerilee?"

"Hi, Twilight. Do you have a little bit of time to talk? I promise I won't be long."

"Of course, of course! Come in, please."

Cheerilee trotted into the library and sat down at the table in the center of the room, with Twilight immediately sitting down next to her.

"So have you had time to think? How are you feeling?"

"Twilight, do you really think I'm a teacher?"

She enthusiastically nodded ."Of course! I meant every word I said, Cheerilee. You're an amazing teacher, and there is nothing that will ever convince me, or anypony otherwise."

Twilight leaned forward, causing Cheerilee to instinctively close her eyes. She knew how worried that Twilight was about her, but she couldn't help savoring the moment. A part of her had never thought that she could say what she was about to say and mean it. She thought back to everything that had been told to her over the past few days, a sudden whirlwind of support that she had never expected to receive, and she opened her eyes and looked at Twilight.

"I think I am too. I know I am."

Twilight's face lit up. "Really!? Cheerilee, I'm so happy to hear that!"

"I've had some time to think this weekend, and more importantly, I've gotten some encouragement. Not just from you, and I think that you're right, Twilight: I am a teacher. I've always been a teacher. I just wish I could have realized that myself earlier."

Twilight smiled and rested her hoof on top of Cheerilee's. Cheerilee returned the smile, but after a few moments, it faltered and she turned down to look at the table briefly.

"I… I'm sorry that I've been lying to you for so long. You said you couldn't condone lying, and I don't blame you for that."

Twilight patted Cheerilee's hoof. "Cheerilee, I said that I couldn't condone lying, but I can certainly forgive it.

Cheerilee smiled. "I'm not exactly looking forward to telling other ponies the truth, however. They won't like that I've been lying."

Twilight shook her head. "You're underestimating yourself. Most of the ponies here really do respect and admire you. I think they'll be quick to forgive you."

There was a long pause. Cheerilee began to snicker a bit.

"It's funny, Twilight. All day I've had this meeting with you on my mind. I expected us to have this long, in-depth talk. I expected to be in tears. I expected that I wouldn't leave knowing everything." The snicker turned into a laugh. "But… I don't have anything else to say. I know I'm a gardener, but I’m also a teacher, and what’s important is that I know now I can be both. I guess I only stopped by to let you know that I completely agree with you."

Twilight chuckled as she stood up. "That's fine, Cheerilee. A long talk isn't really important. If you ever do feel like talking more, you know I'm always here."

Cheerilee stood up to, and started to turn to leave. As Twilight picked the book up off the ground, Cheerilee paused.

"Twilight?"

Twilight turned around, and before she could say anything, she found herself pulled into a tight hug.

"…Thank you. Thank you so much for being there for me, Twilight. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there."

Twilight smiled, and patted Cheerilee on the back.

"Hey, that's what friends are for."

-----

As Cheerilee trotted back to her cottage, the smile on her face was threatening to cut it in half. Everypony around her seemed to be affected by it, and she was met with big smiles back as she walked through Ponyville. For all the questions she had had days before, and even for the questions that she still had, so much more seemed clear to her, and she couldn't help but share her happiness with everypony around her. She knew that there were still things to do–namely, going about telling ponies the truth–but she just couldn't focus on anything negative; she was simply too happy. As she got back to her cottage, she paused to take in the beautiful sight of the Everfree Forest, then turned back and look at the schoolhouse in the far distance. Both sights only made her smile grow as she finally pushed the door open and entered.

She quickly walked over to the desk in her living room, where her saddlebags had been sitting since she first came home a few days ago. Excitedly she reached in and pulled out the stack of worksheets she had been putting off all weekend. As she put them down on the table, she started laughing to herself again. She had never thought that the idea of grading grammar homework would have gotten her so excited. She sat down at the desk and began to quickly go through the worksheets, and after just a few, she found that her thoughts were racing; to her, there was so much to catch up on. She knew that the students were bored with grammar, but she also knew there could be ways to get them interested: perhaps some more interaction, maybe even let the students try their hoofs at writing a story themselves. As she continued grading the sheets, her mind wandered away, this time to the classroom. She wanted to do something to the room now that spring had arrived, and she began considering her options. Maybe some new posters and paintings around the room, or just a few bright decorations…

"The budget is zero. If you want to redecorate your classroom, you can pay for it out of your own pocket."

Cheerilee's ears flattened slightly. Even after their discussion earlier, no pony could ruin a mood quite like Headmaster. She still couldn't believe that there was no budget for decorations; Headmaster just didn't understand how much a few decorations could change an entire classroom's mood. As she flipped to the next worksheet, she wondered how he expected her to keep her classroom fun without doing something to make it stand out. She didn't want to have to spend a lot of money, but certainly there had to be something she could do.

Cheerilee froze for a second. She stared down at the worksheet, then turned and looked to the back of her cottage. Her ears immediately perked back up and another smile returned to her face. She set the worksheet aside before walking to her kitchen and digging through the closet. After a minute, she pulled out a small pair of hedge clippers, then happily trotted out the back door of her cottage, towards the Everfree Forest.

-----

"We just have to try baking cookies, I just know it's our special talent!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

As the Crusaders walked to the school house the next morning, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle continued going back and forth. Apple Bloom stared at them as they argued, before getting fed up and jumping between them.

"I thought we all agreed that arguin' wasn't our special talent!" Apple Bloom sighed, then turned to Sweetie Belle. "Sweetie, I don' think we should do any more bakin'. Not after what happened last time."

Sweetie Belle was stunned. "What? But we're getting better! Mr. Cake even said he was going to save one of the biscuits!"

"Yeah, as a paperweight!"

Apple Bloom shook her head as she pushed the door to the school house open. "Girls, maybe we should just forget about bakin' for a while. Besides, I've been makin' pies with Granny for months now, and I ain't got no…"

She stopped herself as soon as she entered the classroom, and went wide-eyed. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined her, sharing the same reaction.

"Whoaaaaah…" they said in unison.

The room was decorated with an amazing variety of colorful, vibrant flowers. Each window in the classroom had a long trough beneath it, displaying a wide variety of flowers that soaked in the sunlight that shone through the glass. The walls had strings near the ceiling, draped with lilacs and carnations. At the front of the room, a single pot sat at the edge of the teachers desk with two Canterlot Golden Daisies inside of it, giving off their golden glow and illuminating the entire desk. Cheerilee was standing on her hind legs atop a chair behind the desk, using the wall to brace herself as she carefully hung up a string of purple lupins above the chalkboard. She finally got them just right, and turned around, smiling at the three fillies.

"Good morning, girls!"

"Miss Cheerilee, the classroom looks amazing!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. As Scootaloo and Apple Bloom joined the rest of the class and took their seats, Sweetie Belle got closer to the Canterlot Golden Daisies, staring at them in wonderment.

"Why thank you, Sweetie Belle," Cheerilee said with a chuckle. "I thought that the room could use a little more color with it being spring and all."

As she stepped down from the chair, Twist entered the room, immediately gazing around the room as well. Silver Spoon looked over at Twist and smiled.

“So, Twist, was that ‘thuper thpecial thale’ that your mom was hosting as—” she was saying, but quickly slammed her mouth shut and looked over at Cheerilee’s silent glare. Silver Spoon swallowed, then smiled and turned back to Twist. “I mean, uh, how did your mom’s furniture sale go?”

"Great," Twist nearly yelled. "A ton of ponies showed up, it was like a big party!" She turned to Silver Spoon and stuck her tongue out.

Cheerilee shook her head."Now Twist, that's no way to treat a fellow student."

"Oh, thorry." Twist said, blushing a bit before turning back to Silver Spoon. "But thee? Just because my mom's Cutie Mark is a chair doesn't mean thee's boring!"

As Silver Spoon sighed, the bell rang and the entire class turned to face the front. Cheerilee picked up a piece of chalk in her hoof and turned to the chalkboard, but stopped. She thought about Twist's last sentence, then put the chalk down slowly on her desk.

"You know, Twist, you make a very good point."

Twist raised an eyebrow from her seat. "I do?"

"Yes, you did. Cutie Marks don't define personality. In fact…" Cheerilee turned to her class and smiled. "Class, at your age, a lot of emphasis is put on Cutie Marks. They are all beautiful, and the day they appear can be the greatest day of your young lives. A lot of you already have your Cutie Marks, and that's wonderful, and some of you are still on your journey to find them, and that's wonderful too."

At the back of the room, the CMC bumped their hooves together, and paused to gather her thoughts.

"But there's something important you all should remember: Cutie Marks are not absolute."

There was a pause, and Twist raised her hoof.

"What does 'abtholute' mean?"

"Well, Twist, it means that your Cutie Mark does not determine your future. You see class, no matter what your Cutie Mark is, no matter what your special talent ends up being, know that you can do whatever you want with your life. Many times, a pony's Cutie Mark will be exactly what they want to do, and that's a great thing. But if a pony's special talent doesn't happen to match what they want to do… well, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that." She smiled, surveying the class. "Always follow your passion, class, and never think that your Cutie Mark has to get in the way of it. I know it may be surprising to hear this–especially after everything that has been said to you about Cutie Marks–but it is important that you all learn this now. See, class, some ponies learn this before they ever get their Cutie Marks, because they've decided what they want to do with their lives. Some ponies learn it after they get their Cutie Marks, because they realize that they want to follow a different path. And some ponies…"

There was a long pause, and she closed her eyes, smiling.

"Well, class… there are some ponies, like me, that don't realize it until they're much older. "

Cheerilee took in the moment, before opening her eyes to meet the now bewildered and confused stares of her students. Scootaloo raised a hoof.

“Wait, what did you learn?

She chuckled to herself. "I just learned that the most important thing is to follow your dreams, regardless of what your Cutie Mark is. Anyway, sorry for getting so sentimental and so far off topic, but it's something I want all of you to remember.”

She picked up the chalk again in her hoof, turning back to the blackboard. "Now then, today we will be returning to our lesson on grammar." From behind her, she heard a loud groan from the class, and she couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "I know, it's not the most exciting topic in Equestria, but I promise, I'll try to make it interesting. So, can anypony tell me the definition of 'dangling participle'?"

-----

Never had a day gone by so quickly. She felt reenergized and excited, it was suddenly like her first day of teaching all over again. It was the first time in a long time that she could come to school as a teacher, and not have a lie hanging over her head. She completely lost track of time, guiding the students through a lesson on grammar that she knew should have bored them, but her enthusiasm was clearly rubbing off on them,and they paid close attention the entire day, asking questions and furiously taking notes. It made her happy, there was no bigger thrill she could think of than a happy class. The day went by so quickly that when the three o'clock bell finally rang, it caught her off guard so much that she jumped a foot into the air in surprise. The class obviously laughed at her reaction, but her surprised breaths quickly turned to laughter as well.

"Oh my, the day is already over? Goodness, where does the time go? Well class, I will see you all tomorrow. Don't forget to start thinking of ideas for your stories!"

As the students packed up and left, Cheerilee turned and began to clean off the chalk board. She looked up at the string of lupins hanging above the board, and smiled again as her thoughts turned to her garden. The idea that her garden was something she could be proud of was something that hadn't even crossed her mind, but now she couldn't help but be excited about it. She began thinking of the ways she wanted to work on it: replant some of the flowers she had cut to decorate the classroom, maybe even talk to Lily and Roseluck about what flowers would go well. In fact, she thought, they would be the perfect ponies to go to. After years of having to leave Ponyville just to get new flowers for her garden, it would be nice to talk to a few ponies right in town about suggestions for improvement, not to mention she was sure they would get a kick out of seeing what she had planted. But first and foremost, she had one goal in mind before anything else.

"Um… M-Miss Cheerilee?"

Cheerilee put her thoughts to the side as she recognized the voice instantly, turning around. "Yes, Diamond Tiara, how can I he-" She immediately stopped as soon as she looked down at the filly.

Diamond Tiara was normally one of the most self-contented fillies in her class. Although she could be bossy and outright mean, she also always exuded confidence no matter what she was doing. But as Cheerilee looked down at her now, she saw none of it. Diamond Tiara's eyes were turned down and her body was slumped over, not making eye contact with her teacher. Cheerilee quickly crouched down to get to eye level with her.

"What's wrong, Diamond Tiara?"

Diamond Tiara remained silent for a few moments before finally talking, still not looking at Cheerilee. "T-That stuff that you said earlier. The stuff about doing whatever you want with your life, even if it's not your Cutie Mark… Is it true? Did you really mean it?"

Cheerilee nodded. "Of course I meant it, Diamond Tiara. Why?"

She quickly backed up a few steps. "I… I was just wondering, that's all."

Diamond Tiara started to turn around, but Cheerilee put her hoof on the filly's shoulder and turned her back to face her. "Diamond Tiara, listen. If something is wrong, you know you can tell me. I'm your teacher; I'm here to help you. If you really don't want to tell me, that's fine, but I can promise you that keeping issues to yourself does nothing but hurt you."

There was another pause as Diamond Tiara nervously stared at her teacher, her body still slumped over. Finally, she shakily reached up and took her tiara off her head, staring at it. Cheerilee was rather stunned; she had never seen Diamond Tiara remove her tiara before.

"Miss Cheerilee… I got my Cutie Mark when I made this.” She gestured at the headpiece in her hoof that she’d been wearing for as long as Cheerilee could remember. “My mom was a jeweler, she has a tiara Cutie Mark too, and so does my grandma. They were both so happy when I got my Cutie Mark. They were talking about how I would keep up the 'heritage' of the family. They kept telling me that I was such a natural. But…"

She briefly trailed off, her eyes dropping further and her lip starting to quiver.

"But I don't know if I want to be a jeweler, Miss Cheerilee. There's just so much I wanted to try. I wanted to keep searching and find something I really wanted to do with my life. But then my Cutie Mark appeared when I had made this…" she looked at her tiara in her hoof, then turned away. "Does that mean that I can't search anymore? That I found my special talent, and that I have to be a jeweler?"

"Diamond Tiara…"

"I'm scared, Miss Cheerilee. What if I tell my parents, and they hate me? I'll be disappointing my mother and my grandma if I don't become a jeweler, but I don't want to be one! And Silver Spoon talks about how much she loves silversmithing, and how cool it is that our jobs are going to be so similar, and that we should go into business together when we're older… But I don't want to! I wanted to keep looking and find something I wanted to do the rest of my life , but what if I'm stuck doing something I don't want to do? I just…"

As the filly's eyes welled up, Cheerilee reached over and rested a hoof on her back. That was all it took for Diamond Tiara to break down completely and burst into tears, rushing forward and burying her head into Cheerilee's shoulder, sobbing. Cheerilee held the crying Diamond Tiara in a tight hug, letting the filly cry into her fur while she gently stroked the back of her mane.

"It's okay, my little pony. You don't have to cry. Everything's okay, I promise…"

After a minute, Diamond Tiara's sobs slowly went away and she was left hugging her teacher in silence. Cheerilee gently repositioned Tiara so she was facing her, and smiled.

"It's important that you listen to what I'm about to tell you. Are you listening, Diamond Tiara?"

Diamond Tiara slowly nodded. "Uh-huh..."

"You have a wonderful talent for jewelry making, and your tiara is lovely, but I promise you that you are still free to choose what you want to do with your life. You can be absolutely anything you want to be, and no pony will ever judge you because you went against your Cutie Mark."

"But what if my parents are angry with me? What if Silver Spoon..."

Cheerilee shook her head, quieting the filly. "Your parents love you, Diamond Tiara, and they will be proud of you no matter what you choose to do with your life, I can promise you that. Silver Spoon is your best friend, and she will remain your best friend no matter what you want to do. Your friends and family aren't ponies who you should keep things from. Rather, you should tell them everything. They'll be the ones who will support you no matter what you do, because they all care about you so very much, Diamond Tiara. They’ll all want nothing more than to see you happy, even if it means going against your Cutie Mark."

Diamond Tiara sniffed. "I… I haven't found what I want to do with my life yet though…"

"You're just a little filly, Diamond Tiara. You have your whole life ahead of you, and you have plenty of time. One day, one day soon, you will find what you want to do. And once you realize what you want to do, it will be the happiest day of your life and your friends and family will support you no matter what it is."

Diamond Tiara looked up at Cheerilee. "Really?"

Cheerilee smiled, and gently placed the tiara back on her student’s head. "Really. I’ve learned that exact lesson myself recently."

Diamond Tiara reached forward and hugged her teacher again. "T-Thanks, Miss Cheerilee."

"You're welcome. If you ever have any other issues, know that I'm always here for you."

Diamond Tiara backed up a bit. "Could you not tell Silver Spoon that I was crying? She'd never let me live it down."

Cheerilee smiled again. "I said that you should tell your friends and family all your concerns, not keep them secret. But I think that I can manage not telling Silver Spoon about the crying."

Diamond Tiara smiled and gathered her things to leave. Meanwhile, Cheerilee resumed cleaning up the classroom. As she heard the door to the classroom open, she was suddenly struck with another image: herself as a filly. She remembered how afraid she had felt when her Cutie Mark had appeared, how she suddenly felt as if she was completely alone and could turn to no pony in the world to help her. She thought back to the years of anxiety that had plagued her, and the lie that had stuck with her for far, far longer than she could have ever predicted. But then she thought back to the encouragement she had received over the past several days, her friends coming together and finally lifting a great weight from her back. She knew just how long she had been carrying that weight, and now she realized she didn't want that to ever happen to another pony.

"Diamond Tiara?"

Diamond Tiara stopped at the door to the classroom and turned around.

"How would you like to start this weekend?"

She cocked her head to one side. "Start what?"

Cheerilee turned to face her. "Well, you said that you still wanted to find what you wanted to do with your life, right? It just so happens that I had a project I was going to be working on all weekend. I was going to do it on my own, but I could always use an extra pair of hooves to help me. If you'd like, you are more than welcome to assist me. Who knows, you might just discover what you want to do!"

Diamond Tiara's eyes absolutely lit up, something Cheerilee hadn’t seen from the filly. "Really? I… I'd love to! I mean, if it's okay with my parents."

"I'm sure it will be. Just let me know sometime in the next few days.”

"I will, I will! So, what would we be doing?"

Cheerilee paused. She briefly looked around the room, the schoolhouse that in many ways was her home away from home, now more than ever with the flowers from her garden decorating it. As she looked, her eyes fell back on her Cutie Mark. She stared at it for a few moments… and smiled.

Her smiling flowers had never looked so beautiful to her.

"Oh, I was just thinking it's high time I move my garden to the front of my house."

--------

THE END

SPECIAL THANKS: RazgrizS57, Shortskirtsandexplosions, & PropMaster