As she walked across the field, her hooves hit the wet ground with the distinctive 'plopping' sound that all ponies knew. The rain was now coming down sideways, but none of that seemed to matter to the teacher. Cheerilee stood in front of the Pegasus statue that was before her. With its wings wide spread, it left two small patches of dry ground underneath them. Cheerilee took refuge under the wings for a bit just to shake her coat off and the moment she stepped from under it, she was met with the rain again.
Her hooves and forelegs were coated in mud and grass as she made her trek through this field. Luna's light poked through the rain clouds causing the already ominous shadows to appear even more so. Normally, Cheerilee would have been cautious about this, but this wasn't the time for her trivial fears and brash superstitions.
At last, her journey was over. She sat down in the wet grass and stared at the slab of cement standing up before her. Even though this tombstone looked like most of the other ones in the Ponyville Cemetery, this one was special in her heart. Tears strayed from her eyes as she spoke to the inanimate object in front of her.
"I really miss you… It's hard waking up in the morning knowing that I'll never see you again and that we won't be able to have fun like we did when we were younger. And it's hard to think about what happened to your husband and your poor daughter too. I thought… I never thought that I would be the one saying goodbye. You were always so much more responsible than I was when we…I just wish that you didn't have to die like that…"
As Cheerilee continued to lament the loss of her friend, the rain ceased. Well, it seemed to stop, but only above her. Cheerilee tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, but that left her with a face smeared with mud and bits of foliage. She looked up to see a familiar blue unicorn standing next to her with an umbrella floating over her head.
"Silverlight, I feel so empty right now. It's really hard to smile when one of your best friends is gone. Even though it hurts now, I'll soon be able to smile in her memory again. And I'm glad that you're here, too."
The male unicorn shifted slightly in his stead and looked at the saddened mare in front of him. Neither of them said anything and the only sound that was heard was the soft pattering of the rain on top of their umbrella. After a few moments of solemn silence, he finally spoke.
"Cheerilee, you know that I love you and that I only want you to be happy, but I can't go on like this any more."
Cheerilee's eyes quickly watered up again when she heard what he said. Normally, she smiled in the face of bad news, but in her current state, she knew she wouldn't be able to put on a strong front.
"I don't think that we can be together anymore. It's not you, it's me. I no longer think that I'm right for you."
Of course, Cheerilee was going to object and plead as any mare would do, but there was no point. Before she could even say anything, he was leaving. She sat and watched the bright silver star on the side of his teal flank slowly moving further away into the distance.
She was mourning the loss of her friend, and now she was single, and she was in the cold rain covered in mud in a forsaken graveyard of all places. At this point, Cheerilee felt like she couldn't possibly feel any lower. She sat there for a bit as all of this sank in. There was a quiet storm going on inside of her and she couldn't even cry it away. Despite the broken feeling that was radiating throughout her being, she knew she couldn't let this bother her too much. Her job required her to keep an upbeat attitude and a smile on her face.
"Make sure to keep a bright smile, Cheerilee! You don't want your students knowing something is wrong with you."
Cheerilee was standing in front of her bathroom mirror getting ready for another school day. She loved this job more than anything; mainly because she loved sharing the things she learned and enriching the minds of Ponyville's youth. And so far, she hadn't had any real problems other than a few playground scuffles.
She held her toothbrush in her hoof and preceded with the ever familiar back and forth motion. How certain items were held with hooves was something that most ponies could do, but never really spoke about.
She spit out the toothpaste, looked into the mirror and forced herself to smile. Smiling was second nature to her, but after the events of the previous night, she just wanted to cry her heart out once more. Of course she couldn't; well at least not right now.
She left her bathroom and headed to her living room to get her saddle bags. After talking to herself in the mirror, she actually felt a lot better. As she threw her bags over her back, she saw a rather nice picture of her and Silverlight hanging on the wall.
It was at one of Pinkie Pie's random parties. Pinkie Pie pretty much forced everypony to come and despite her reluctance to attend, Cheerilee thoroughly enjoyed herself. The picture brought back all of the fun memories of that night. Lyra and Bon-Bon sneaking outside, Twilight Sparkle talking about some massive book she had read and Berry Punch passing out in a trash can. She found herself laughing about that last part, but she quickly stopped when she saw how happy she looked with Silverlight.
And now he was gone without an explanation. It was like someone taking out the center pieces of a puzzle and leaving nothing more than a border. That is how she felt right now; like just a border. She was a puzzle missing the inner pieces of her. Once again, she forced a smile onto her face as she left her house and stepped into the streets of Ponyville.
Since she always left early into the morning, the streets were always quiet. Most ponies were either still asleep or just getting ready for their day. With the ground still wet from the previous night's downpour, Cheerilee's hooves hit the ground with the ever so familiar "plopping" sound as she headed to her home away from home; her school.
How she got the job was pretty much a mystery to everyone except her and the Equestrian Board of Education. The previous teacher suddenly quit and Cheerilee was hired to replace them. Since then, she has been the Equestrian Teach of the Year for the past five years. It really isn't saying much since there aren't that many 'normal' schools in Equestria to begin with.
She was rather smart, but she was no way a genius pony. Instead of her focusing on one particular subject, Cheerilee knew something about everything, including basic flight and magic usage despite being an Earth pony. Lately, she had been thinking of having Twilight Sparkle come in and teach the unicorn fillies about how to use their magic the right way, but right now, she wasn't even sure she wanted to see another unicorn. She wasn't going to let heartbreak turn her into a prejudice pony, but she felt not seeing another unicorn for a bit would ease the burden on her heart.
When she reached her school, she unlocked the door, took a deep sigh and stepped inside. The familiar sight that she saw five times a week all came back to her. The desks she straightened every morning were always left crooked by the fillies. She shook her head as she walked over to her own desk and set her saddlebags on top of it.
She pulled out her lesson planner and opened it in front of her. It was the same old thing. Teach them about reading, writing, and mathematics; nothing special was planned today. And since her students wouldn't be coming in for another hour or so, she took this time catch up on her reading.
For reasons such as this, Cheerilee kept a variety of reading material in her desk. It ranged from hilariously terrible essays written by her students to old magazines and even a few massive textbooks selected by Twilight. Without looking, she reached in and pulled out the first book she put her hooves on. And to her terrible luck, it happened to be a romance novel. The cover featured a powerful Earth pony sweeping away an elegant Pegasus pony. And then the memories started to come back. Before an image of Silverlight completely formed in her mind, she had flung the book into the trash can.
"I don't need him. Now that I'm an independent mare, I can do what I want, when I want."
And that was the thing. Cheerilee never did anything spectacular. She went to work, went home, and took strolls around town. Not like being in a relationship had stifled any of her freedom. She banged her head on her desk before stopped after the pain set in.
"Ah, Miss Cheerilee? Why are ya talkin' to yourself?"
Cheerilee was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even see Apple Bloom walk in. She quickly tried to put on her best poker face and act like nothing had happened.
"I wasn't talking to myself, Apple Bloom."
"Ah'm pretty sure ya were, Miss Cheerilee. I saw ya."
"Even if I was talking to myself, you should still sit down and prepare for class."
"But class doesn't start for another 55 minutes."
Cheerilee couldn't believe it. She had only been there for five minutes and it seemed like she had been there for at least half an hour. She certainly didn't feel like reading at the moment and she was ready to teach. And she had 55 minutes to do whatever she pleased. She wanted to go for another stroll and get some breakfast at Sugar Cube Corner, but she knew how she and Mrs. Cake might end up talking for hours.
She could always talk to Apple Bloom until more students arrived. As a teacher, part of her job was to get to know all of her students on a more personal level and that is what she was about to do.
"So Apple Bloom… how goes…. everything?"
"Well, Applejack and Big Mac have been teaching me ta' buck apples. I'm not tha' best when it comes to getting them off tha' tree, but at least I can make myself useful by carrying 'em around. I thought if I worked harder, I'd get mah cutie mark."
And Cheerilee was learning about her student already. How two young ponies, an elderly one, and a filly managed an entire orchard was beyond her. Ponyville was provided with a constant supply of fresh apples and Cheerilee made a mental note to thank Applejack and Big Mac the next time she saw them around town.
"Apple Bloom, when I was your age, I was obsessed with getting my cutie mark too. I remember an old friend of mine and I would go all around Ponyville doing all sorts of crazy things together. Sure, we never got our cutie mark for being stunt ponies, but she got hers for being an amazing flyer and I got mine when I realized how much I loved spreading knowledge. The flowers symbolized my hope that l could help my future students bloom if l nurture them with knowledge. The smiles represented the cheer l hope to bring to my little ponies while they were learning."
Cheerilee finished her sentence with a proud smile. She remembered all of the ridiculous hijinks she got into when she was younger. And remembered how her and her pegasus friend would always run around doing dangerous things.
And then it all came back to her. She recalled the times in their youth and when they both grew up and lived their dreams. And then when she got the bad news and when she went to her funeral. Cheerilee vividly saw herself the previous night before sitting in the rain. The pain of talking with her lost friend was only made worse by her sudden relationship issues.
Her eyes welled up and she wiped them with her hoof. She quickly made her way to the board, grabbed her chalk and began writing.
: In times of stress and danger, keep moving forward! As long as your legs can move, keep walking forward! As long as your wings can flap, keep flying forward! As long as your horn glows, keep going forward! :
When Cheerilee stepped back, she looked at the words she had written. She wasn't even sure where they came from. Just a moment ago, she thought she was going to be a sobbing wreck in front of a student. And now, she was creating motivational speeches out of thin air. With this sudden turn of events, she felt a lot better. She wasn't sure where it came from, but she got a somewhat euphoric feeling from it that was like when she first started teaching. It was the amazing warmth that came from inside whenever she expanded her or her student's mental capacities. It was the same way she felt when she first realized she wanted to teach and when she got her cutie mark.
"Alright, class! I have an amazing lesson planned for today!"
She turned and faced her students with a bright face full of enthusiasm and eyes that twinkled with a desire for feeding hungry young minds. She was about to unveil her amazing plan when she realized that her class was nearly empty. Apple Bloom was still there, although she was vacantly staring out the window. Sweetie Belle was walking in and struggling to make a ball of yarn float with her magic while two of the male students were horsing around as young colts do.
The enthusiasm didn't leave her face although her wide smile was somewhat lessened. Not like she could blame anypony. It would be another fifty minutes before she had to call roll and see if all of her students were present.
Normally, she had a lesson plan to review or a cool story to tell, but not today. It seems that time was slowly dragging on and on. She stood at her board patiently and closed her eyes for a bit. Everything got quiet and it was as if she was all alone. In her head, she went over the sting of the past 24 hours and knew that focusing on the pain would only make it worse. She pondered on her current situation and realized that things could have been far worse.
She was suddenly possessed by a strange feeling of elation; it was like she was in her younger years and could do anything. Empowered was exactly how she felt and she was going to spread understanding and knowledge through her students. She opened her eyes and with a wide smile on her face, she looked at the clock. Forty-eight minutes until class started and she still had nothing to do.
She took a seat at her desk and proceeded with incessant hoof tapping. After ten minutes of this, she was rather bored. Even though more students had come in, she didn't even have a quarter of her class. Cheerilee began to pace rampantly and constantly find something to rearrange to keep herself busy. Her sudden obsession with not being idle had made bell ring. Finally, she could get to her job.
"Good morning, everypony! I hope you've all had…a… lovely… Where are the rest of your classmates?"
She looked around the room and noticed that not even half of her students were in there. There was no way that all of them could have arranged a mass skipping of class; they weren't that well organized.
"Fiiiiiiight!"
One of her students quickly alerted the rest of them to the action that was happening and they all ran outside in a loud clamor and Cheerilee was right behind them. They jetted to the back of the schoolhouse where two young colts were standing in a tight circle of young ponies.
One of them was a beefy young Earth pony with dark orange fur with a few brown spots. His mane was scruffy and he was panting heavily. Standing in front of him was a light green unicorn pony wearing a needlessly flashy scarf. He had a smug look on his face and he had his muzzle pointed high into the air.
"Expect a lowly Earth pony to resort to violence instead of talking it out like a civilized individual. And I thought your kind was supposed to be strong and yet you're simple minded and weak. What a terrible combination that must be."
The arrogant young unicorn merely laughed before he began to trot to the edge of the circle to take his leave. Of course, all of the earth ponies were booing him and calling him names, but he kept his uptight demeanor. The few Pegasus students that were there were looking completely out of the loop since their kind wasn't involved in this.
Some of the unicorn ponies were nodding their heads in approval while most of them looked on with shock and disgust. Race differences weren't an issue in Ponyville and Cheerilee strong taught that if you're going to dislike a pony, dislike them for their character and not their coat color or race. Most of her students had no problem with being different. Most of her students couldn't really use their full abilities any way. The earth ponies weren't yet strong, the Pegasus ponies could barely fly and none of the little unicorns could do anything other than barely pick up a book with their magic.
But one thing that Cheerilee knew for certain was that with age, ponies began to lose their youthful innocence and differences become problems. One issue was when the elitist unicorns from Canterlot occasionally came to Ponyville and belittled other ponies and preaching their pro-magic agenda.
Cheerilee was usually very calm when she wasn't emotionally distraught, but seeing this type of thing going on in her schoolyard wasn't going to slide. Putting on the best face she could, she walked in front of the little unicorn and put a hoof in his face.
"You listen here, mister! We don't tolerate that kind of behavior around here! I suggest that you both apologize to each other."
The roughed up little earth pony kicked some dirt before he raised his head and partially faced the pompous unicorn.
"Sorry."
Cheerilee walked over to the Earth pony and gave him a pat on the back.
"That was very mature of you. Learning how to resolve your differences with words is an invaluable thing to learn."
She then made her way to the unicorn, stood over him and again tried to give him her best serious face. To her dismay, he laughed in her face, gave a dismissive wave of his lustrous mane and began to walk away.
"Last thing I need is a lecture from a mud pony."
Cheerilee had to bite her tongue in order to stop herself from lashing out in an unprofessional manner. Her face flushed and was a dark shade of purple as a small vein showed in her neck. To see somepony act so superior at such a young age made her lose a little hope for the generation she taught. As a teacher, it was her job to teach her students about the values of kindness, equality and tolerance.
All of her students were standing there watching her to see what she would do next. Cheerilee held her breath, cleared her mind and let out a sigh. There was no point in her getting bent out of shape over something like this. He was just some stuck up colt and she knew it shouldn't bother her too much. Her face was now its usual fuchsia tone and she motioned for all of her students to stand in front of her.
"I'm sure all of you are shocked and confused about what just happened. No matter, what insults anypony may say to you, you should never react with violence because leads to more fighting and more pain. If somepony says something mean to you, the best thing for you to do is walk away and ignore them. Learning to walk away from rude people is a lesson in maturity that you'll all learn through living."
Cheerilee felt rather proud of herself. Normally, such an incident would have raised several questions that would have disrupted the innocence that came with youth's ignorance about the darkness of life. She smiled on the inside and acknowledged a unicorn filly raised her hoof.
"What is your question?" Cheerilee inquired.
The filly put her hoof down and nervously looked at the dirt and then at the young pony that was in the scuffle.
"Miss Cheerilee, what if the mean things they say are true?"
Cheerilee's positive internal feeling instantly vanished. She knew that this question would come up eventually and she wasn't exactly ready for it. It came up every year, but this time, it came earlier in the school year than she was used to. Sure, she taught that all ponies were created equal under the eyes of Celestia, but there were times when her students would question her message of 'equality'.
"I think you should all go home and ask your parents about that. Class is dismissed early today."
All of her students quickly forgot about the events that had just transpired as they ran off of the school yard in an excited clamor of hooves and tails. Cheerilee looked up towards the sky and thought out loud to herself.
"As the years go by, the students seem to drift away from the traditional values that have kept Equestria stable. How many generations until civil war takes place?"
"Ah, Miss Cheerilee? What's a civil war?"
Cheerilee's face went blank as she slowly turned around to see Apple Bloom standing behind her with her wide, amber eyes. Cheerilee nervously looked around and tried to find an excuse; with her being a teacher, simply ignoring a question was hard for her to do. Since there was no point in lying, she simply told the truth.
"A civil war is when people inside of the same country start fighting against each other."
Much to her surprise, Applebloom didn't seem that shocked. In fact, she seemed like she hadn't heard anything too strange at all.
"So when two ponies fight each other, does that mean it's a civil war?"
Cheerilee bit her lip and again tried to look for some sort of distraction. She wasn't really ready to explain the concept of war to a student. Now was the time for her to say something parents always say to their little ponies.
"I'll explain that to you when you're older."
Cheerilee gave Apple Bloom a pat on the back accompanied with a warm smile. She knew all too well how youngsters got when you withheld information from them without telling them why. Sometimes a nice smile was all that it took for them to forget about something.
"How about I walk you home, Apple Bloom?"
Cheerilee walked into her home and headed up the stairs to the balcony. She usually didn't come up here because she was abnormally paranoid about falling over, but the stars were too beautiful not to admire.
She had taken Apple Bloom home and she was invited to dinner. She had never seen apples used in so many ways before. She thought that she was too full to walk home, but she somehow made it. She spread out over the blanket she kept out and looked up into the sky. Celestia's sun was gone and Luna's moon was casting a soft white glow on everything. At this very moment, all of her troubles over the past few days seemed to be lost amongst the countless stars that littered the lustrous night that Luna provided.
She began to blink less and her eyelids began to feel unnaturally heavy. Falling asleep under the stars wasn't something she had done since she was with Silverlight. Silverlight… the thought of him hadn't entered her mind since the unicorn incident earlier. That was slowly being pushed even further out of her mind as she listened to the sound of the night: the crickets that were chirping, the sound of the wind flowing through the leaves, and the ever familiar sounds of wings beating right above her. Cheerilee quickly sat up to see the Pegasus that was flapping in front of her.
"I brought mail and I didn't lose it this time!"
The gray coated pony reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a fancy looking letter. She dropped the letter in front of Cheerilee and took off into the skies. The beating of her wings was heard for a few seconds before it was interrupted by the sound of crashing branches and a yelp.
Cheerilee ran over to the ledge to see what had happened, but the gray pony was back in the air and flying off into the moonlit sky. Cheerilee wasn't exactly sure what had exactly happened, so she went back to her spot and sat down. She saw the letter and wondered if it was from a parent or the Equestrian Board of Education.
She picked it up and saw "To Cheerilee" written in extremely fancy cursive that hooves couldn't do. She knew it was from a unicorn and when she saw a bright silver star printed on it, she knew who it was from. Her first thought was to tear it to shreds and then throw them into a fire. She knew deep down inside that if she didn't read this, she would spend the rest of her life wondering what could have been. She took a deep breath, picked it up, and ripped off the end. She took out the letter and began reading.
"My dearest Cheryl Leah. I am writing this letter so that I may inform you of my current condition. After our falling out, I was free to finally confess my love to another mare. I know I should have told you before, but doing this was far simpler for me. I doubt you feel the same, but I know that you're a strong mare and you'll soon move on as quickly as I have. I know things may seem hard, but I know you'll find comfort in knowing that since immediately moving on to somepony else, my quality of life seems so much higher. Instead of coming home and listening to a dry tale about the things young fillies and colts do, I am entertained with tales of various adventures and prophetic visions. Even though she somewhat resembles you, I assure you that is purely coincidental. Again, I hope that your life has also gotten better in the past day. "
Sincerely, Silverlight Brightshine
P.S. It would be wonderful if you could clean and return all of the jewelry that I've purchased for you.
Cheerilee paused, reread the letter twice, and balled it up. Right now, she wasn't exactly sure what she was feeling. It was like a mix of fury, sadness, irritation and loathing. She picked up the letter, walked inside and tossed it into the fireplace. Sure there wasn't a fire, but there was one raging inside of Cheerilee. She honestly didn't know that last time that she had felt like this and she wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to do.
She sat on her couch, shut her eyes, and counted to ten. She always told her students to do this when they were angry and she realized that this was not very effective when you know it doesn't work. She got off of her couch and headed into her kitchen. Right now, ice cream seemed like a good idea, but she needed something that wouldn't make her get fat.
Cheerilee walked over to the pantry, opened it and pulled out an old dusty bottle of wine. She wasn't even sure how long she had this one when she got it. Actually, she had several bottles of wine that were gifts from over the years, but she would spend several months just drinking one bottle.
She completely disregarded getting a glass and moped her way into her bedroom. She threw herself on top of her covers with the unopened wine bottle next to her. Tears once again rolled out her eyes and she turned her gaze to her window. It certainly would have been nice if the curtains were opened and she could enjoy the starry night, but she didn't even feel like moving.
She picked up the bottle of wine and looked at the date. According to the faded out text, this bottle was made in the year XX17 and it was currently XX22.
"You seem a bit old for a bottle of wine. And I guess that I seem pretty old too. I guess we're both old, huh? You've been locked in a dark little room for years and I've been thrown away. Well, good thing we have each other."
Cheerilee laughed to herself as she pulled the cork out of the bottle. The sweet, yet unfamiliar fragrance of the drink wafted into her nostrils and she decided to breathe it in. She pressed the tip of the bottle to her mouth and took a slow and long drink. She pulled the bottle away and let the taste sit in her mouth for a bit. It wasn't the sweetest thing, but it had a clearly fruity taste as she slowly swallowed it.
About halfway through her wine, Cheerilee rolled over and stared out her window. She wasn't sure how long she was staring when she decided to go to the bathroom and douse her face in cold water. Despite her somewhat bumbling movement, she was able to reach the bathroom. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall as everything began to slowly spin around her. Her gaze made its way to her mirror where she saw her reflection was all blurry and distorted.
"Oh my. I think I've broken myself."
Cheerilee placed a hoof on her head and tried to keep herself from falling over. She made it to the sink and turned on the cold water. The brisk spray of cold water sent shivers down her spine and partially brought her out of her somewhat drunken stupor. She looked into the mirror and saw her reflection staring back at her. Her reflection smiled and gave a cheery wave. Cheerilee wasn't smiling… or waving to herself.
Cheerilee closed her eyes and quickly shook her head. When she was again exposed to the bright light of her bathroom, she saw nothing more than her own confused expression in the mirror. Maybe the wine was messing with her already? Cheerilee dragged her hooves back to her room and attempted to fling herself onto her bed. She managed to get halfway onto it before she rolled off and ended up on the floor. The light purple mare grabbed a pillow, tucked it under her head and went to sleep.
"No, I don't want to go to school today. Let me sleep. No, stop it. Stop with those drums. They're so loud and drummy. I'm trying to sleep. Go away…."
Cheerilee mumbled in her sleep until she opened her eyes. The small beam of light that shone through her curtains seemed to land directly on her face. She got off of the floor, sat up, stretched, and gave out a loud yawn. And still the knocking sound continued. She shook her head in a pitiful attempt to focus herself. She dragged her hooves to the door and peered out the small glass hole and saw yellow flapping wings and she was again tortured by the loud knocking. She opened the door and saw Fluttershy in front of her, nervously rubbing her front hooves together.
"I know you were probably sleeping and I didn't want to wake you, but Twilight said you need to hurry and get to the library, if that's alright with you."
She closed her eyes, reopened them and looked at all three of Fluttershy standing in front of her. She shook her head again and allowed her vision to regain focus. The events of the previous night all flooded back to her. She was feeling bad, drank some wine, and then everything got fuzzy after that.
"Goodness! I can't believe I forgot!"
Two weeks earlier, Cheerilee promised that she would hold a Saturday lesson at Twilight's library for anypony interested in learning something outside of the normal curriculum. And she completely forgot this while she was drinking the night away. She ran through her living room and into her bedroom. She fumbled with her manebrush and tried to straighten out the mess of hair that adorned her head.
As she stood in front of her mirror trying to make herself presentable, she saw Fluttershy standing behind her tapping her hoof and looking at the floor as if something wasn't right.
"Something wrong, Fluttershy?" Cheerilee pondered.
"Miss Cheerilee, maybe you shouldn't drink before bed?"
Cheerilee looked at Fluttershy who was staring at the half finished bottle on the bed. The last thing she wanted was for anypony to know that she spent her nights alone drinking the pain away. She slyly moved towards Fluttershy and placed an arm around her neck.
"Fluttershy, if no one ever hears of this, I'll let you teach my students about the different types of cute little animals in Equestria."
The animal loving pony gave a squeal of delight and floated a few inches above the ground. It was very clear that she had accepted Cheerilee's simple 'request'.
"Alright, Miss Cheerilee. I do look forward to telling them all about which animals are nice and which aren't. Maybe I'll bring Angel and tell them that some animals can be really smart. Or I can bring them a parrot that can say their names. Or perhaps I could even…"
Cheerilee let Fluttershy enjoy herself as the teacher pony made her way back to her bathroom. Her face was lacking the usual pep and cheer it normally had and her mane was still a mess. She grabbed her brush again and began to drag it through her mane trying to get out the lumps and unnatural curls that she missed the first time. When she was done, she noticed she looked better, but not the 'normal' that she was used to. Her usual cheery smile wasn't present! She tried to forcibly make herself smile, but it looked creepy and unnatural. Not to mention the slight redness that tinged her eyes.
"Ffffffsssssshhhhhh. Time to go to the library."
She made her way back to her room where she felt a calm breeze coming through the slightly cracked window. When she saw that Fluttershy was gone, she grabbed her saddlebags, put them on and stepped to the window for some fresh air. The air was fresh and sweet against her tired and weary face. As the sun's light shone on her, Cheerilee felt a lot better about what she was going to do. She smiled to the sky and she felt that this smile wasn't a faked one. She closed her window and headed to her bedroom door when she saw the half-empty bottle on her bed. Again, the events of the night prior hit her like a brick wall. Well, she had learned her lesson. No more wine for her! Or maybe she wouldn't drink half a bottle at once. She walked to her bed, grabbed the bottle, removed the cork and took a few swigs. It didn't taste this flavorful the night before. It might have been because she was awake and not overcome with emotions. Instead, she felt a lot better. It was like someone turned courage into a liquid and put it into a bottle. She was ready to take on the world!
"Well, what Twilight was trying to say was that reading is a way to expand your mind and when you expand your mind, a whole world of new pathways will reveal themselves to you."
"She could have said that without the massive speech."
One of the students in the library made a snide comment and all of them burst into laughter. Even Cheerilee found herself giggling a little as Twilight's face darkened with embarrassment. Not wanting to be the butt of the joke no longer, Twilight stood in front of Cheerilee and dismissed all of the students from the library. Cheerilee grabbed her bags and was about to leave when Twilight called out to her.
"Cheerilee, I'm going to need to see you for a moment when everyone leaves."
Cheerilee's spine instantly froze up. She hadn't heard anypony say to her since the days when she was a young troublemaker without a cutie mark. Several of her students giggled at their teacher as they made their way outside.
"Looks like the teacher is going to get detention!"
A roar of laughter came from outside as the last student closed to door. Cheerilee forced herself to smile as she turned around to face Twilight.
"Yes, Twilight? If it was about today's lesson-"
Cheerilee was quickly cut off as Twilight began her own explanation of what was going on.
"If you weren't feeling well, you should have just stayed home."
Cheerilee gave a sigh of relief and took a seat in a nearby chair. For a second there, she thought that she was going to be in serious trouble even though she was a teacher AND a bit older than Twilight.
"Oh, Twilight it's nothing major. I just had a lack of sleep, that's all. I couldn't miss this day for anything in the world! It's not all the time that I get to teach in a library on a Saturday morning!"
Cheerilee gave a nervous laugh and shifted around slightly. She could feel the gaze of the purple unicorn burning a hole into her and she had a feeling she wouldn't like where this would be going.
Twilight's horn gave off a familiar purple glow as a magnifying glass floated around Cheerilee's face and a thermometer was stuffed into her mouth.
"Your eyes look a bit red, your mane looks frazzled, and you aren't as happy and excited as usual. Your temperature seems normal, but you're shaking from nervousness."
At first, Cheerilee was only a bit nervous, but by now, she was sweating like a pig in the sun. Her teeth began to chatter and her hooves tapped the floor repeatedly. The last thing she wanted was for Twilight to find out what's wrong. The Princess' student wouldn't be as easily persuaded as Fluttershy.
"Ah, I've come to a diagnosis!"
"Wait, Twilight! I can completely explain this if you promise not to tell anypony!"
Cheerilee was beginning to freak out now. The last thing she wanted was for all of Ponyville to find out what she did with her spare time. She would become the town laughingstock, she would lose her job and then be unable to pay for the things she needed and she would become a hobo pony! Or a hobony! Actually, there weren't any homeless ponies in Ponyville, but Cheerilee's imagination was starting to get the best of her.
"Cheerilee, looks like you're suffering all the symptoms of stress."
"It's not my fault! Wait, you mean I'm stressed?"
Cheerilee's heart skipped a beat as she sank lower into her chair. She felt a lot better knowing that Twilight hadn't caught onto her yet. She felt like she was free to go back home.
"Yes you are. Looks like you should spend the rest of the weekend at home relaxing. Just to be sure, I may have to run some blood tests and give you a brain scan. How does…that….sound?"
Twilight looked at where Cheerilee was sitting and saw the door was swinging on its hinges. Cheerilee had high tailed it out of there as soon as Twilight wanted to do extra things.
"I was just kidding, Cheerilee! A blood test would be uncalled for!"
"And the moral of the story is that you can't run from your problems. Sometimes when you take things head on, you see that you had nothing to be afraid of! And that concludes the lesson for today. I hope you all go home and think about this."
The afternoon bell sounded and the students all ran out of class in their usual chaotic manner. Once again, Cheerilee would have to pick up paper, straighten desks, and scrape spitballs off the wall. It was all a part of the territory and she knew this when she got the job. To her, spreading the joy of knowledge was completely worth it.
It had been almost a week since she last had a drink. In fact, she was feeling rather proud of herself for stopping before it became a serious problem. She didn't know she had this much willpower, but it felt amazing. She rarely thought about Silverlight and his betrayal was just a fleeting thought.
After straightening up her classroom, she grabbed her saddlebags, stepped outside and locked the door behind her. It was a bright day with a few clouds and Pegasus ponies were going between the deliberately placed clouds. Since she had nothing planned for the day, she decided to watch them as she headed home. At the end of the track were two black clouds that let out a loud thunder clap as the first racer flew past with several more behind him. She didn't know any of these ponies, but anyone could recognize the ever familiar multi colored streak. The colors than weren't in first place.
Cheerilee was going to congratulate Rainbow Dash for trying hard, but she was cut off when Scootaloo ran in front of her.
"Wow, Rainbow Dash! How much did you win by? Was it a few feet? Or was it a few yards? Did you leave then in your dust? Well, that would have been weird since you're flying. Were they crying when you beat them?"
Cheerilee decided it would be best to leave her student and her idol alone. Actually, she felt a little bad for Rainbow Dash. She always had the orange filly trying to follow her around everywhere. Cheerilee felt a sudden sadness tug at her heart as she looked away. She had come to terms with the Silverlight incident, but she had yet to get over the death of her friend.
"I came in fourth. Dammit!" Rainbow Dash let out an angry sentence before she took off into the sky leaving a cloud of dust in her wake. Scootaloo coughed for a bit as she saw the one she adored soaring back into the clouds. This certainly was an interesting thing for Cheerilee to see after school, but it wasn't that strange. Whenever there was a competition, things always got a little crazy. Such as when Pinkie Pie thought baking cakes upside down would make them taste better.
Naturally, Cheerilee didn't seem to have many competitive bones in her body. Sure, she had been voted the best teacher in Ponyville for the 5th year in the row, but that was because she had no real competition. Other schools were dotted around Ponyville, but they were smaller and more specialized. There was a school for blacksmithing, a school for dance, and even a school for walking on two legs. The bipedal school only had a few graduates before it was shut down by the Equestrian Education Board.
Cheerilee kept trotting on her usual path home. She had been taking this path for years and it was a common sight to see here at this time of day. She was greeted with the usual smiles and waves that she was used to seeing. As always, she always smiled and waved back. She continued her routine until she saw Berry Punch slowly dragging her hooves in the dirt.
Despite them being sisters, they rarely saw each other. Actually Cheerilee made a conscious effort to avoid her sister for obvious reasons. Everypony knew that Berry was the town drunk and she was rarely seen completely sober. She was normally a pleasant mare, but when she got to drinking, she would go from sad to violent in an instant. Despite this, she still managed to keep a steady job as the town wine and juice maker. Even though she was constantly sampling her own product, she was able to have a wide clientele and handled her business in a very professional manner.
Cheerilee knew that talking to her sister for a little bit wouldn't kill her. She walked beside her sister and suddenly jumped in front of her.
"Hi, Berry!"
The darker purple pony jumped up with wide eyes and stared at the teacher in front of her. Berry didn't say anything; she only began to pick up the fruit that has fallen out of her saddlebags. Cheerilee wasn't sure what was with her sister. Maybe she wasn't happy to see her but more than likely, Berry was suffering from a bad hangover.
"So, Berry. How have things been lately?" Cheerilee inquired.
Berry finished picking up her fruit and looked back at her sister. While Cheerilee had a wide smile, Berry bore a look of boredom and irritation.
"Dearest sister, things have been perfectly alright. My customers are happy and I stay busy. Before you ask, I have not found a nice colt to make wine with. At your caring suggestion, I don't drink heavily before 5 pm, I make sure to visit my doctor regularly and I know not to drink and run."
Berry Punch quickly blurted this all out in a monotonous tone and walked past Cheerilee. For the pony known as a chronic drinker, she spoke with extreme eloquence when she was sober or on the job. Cherilee's smile went away as she saw her sister go past her. Even though they weren't the closest of siblings, Cheerilee knew something wasn't right. Either Berry Punch was hiding something or she just didn't want to be around Cheerilee. Knowing that pushing the subject wouldn't solve anything, Cheerilee just waved at her sister and continued on her way home.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Cheerilee rolled over and stared at the clock on her wall. It wasn't even noon and she still hadn't gotten out of bed. She wasn't sleepy; she had nothing to do on a warm and sunny Saturday. She could go out there and frolic with the other ponies, but then she'd have to come home to her quiet house and spend yet another evening alone. It would just be easier for her to stay inside until Monday.
She didn't need other ponies to have fun. She could have fun all by herself! She dragged her hooves out of her bed and made her way to her living room. She knew the layout of this room like she knew the curls in her mane. And there wasn't the slightest thing of interest in here other than books, lesson plans and ungraded extra credit work. She told herself a week ago she'd get around to those papers and now was the perfect time. Of course, it would be more enjoyable if she did it on a rainy day. Rainy days always made correcting common spelling mistakes a lot less tedious.
` And suddenly, an old deck of cards on an end table seemed a lot more entertaining than they should have been. She picked up the pack, dumped the cards out and threw them into the air.
"Fifty-two pick up!" she screamed as the cards fell to the ground spread around her. "This is more fun when you aren't alone."
Letting out a sigh, she began to scoop the cards up and put them all into a pile before she decided they were good enough. She glanced at another clock and saw that only a few minutes had passed and it wasn't even lunchtime yet. She made her way to the kitchen and began to rummage through her fridge. Despite knowing exactly what was in there, she never let that never stopped her from repeatedly going to look back in it. Nothing looked appealing. Not the fruits, not the cold bread, not the apples and not the wine. Well, that wine certainly looked nice. Not like one drink would hurt; in fact, it would help her in clearing her head.
She took the bottle out, popped the cork and took a long drink. It was even cooler and more refreshing than she had thought. She knew it wouldn't be long before she started to feel the effects of it and she wanted to take it slow. Still able to walk straight, she trotted over to her love seat and plopped down. She wasn't feeling anything yet, but she didn't want to rush it. She sat there patiently and her eyes drifted to a picture of Silverlight. He was so handsome when he smiled. He was smiling at her with those warm eyes. Smiling… because he was laughing. She was all alone and he thought this was all a joke. Leaving her in a graveyard in the rain was all funny to him. She was just a used up old teacher who couldn't keep up with someone a little younger than her.
She didn't care and she knew he would get his just deserts eventually. She took another long swig of wine and closed her eyes. She was pretty sure that she could sleep all of this resentment away. Or she'd have a bad dream and freak out. Either way, she needed a nap.