"Alright Scootaloo," Cheerilee starts off as she sits down at her desk, folding her front hooves across the hard wood surface, "How about you sit down at the desk right over there, this will only take a moment, I promise."
Scootaloo doesn't hesitate at all, happily trotting over to the desk and sitting in the wooden chair, her hooves swinging happily beneath her. Cheerilee notices the fillies blank stare, Scootaloo looking over at the wall and thinking deeply about something.
"Step one: Intimidate your foes."
"Scootaloo."
The orange filly quickly snaps out of her trance, a small maniac like smirk going unnoticed by her smiling teacher. The filly moves her head to look over at her teacher, a stare that would make most ponies and possibly other lifeforms cringe in creepiness and the feeling that there was someone else in the room, stalking them without giving away its position. The fillies smirk grows even more when her teacher flinches under the uncomfortable stare.
The mare shakes off the feeling though, finally ready to ask her first question.
"What do you think about Soundwave?"
Scootaloo leans back in her chair, surprising the teacher with the sudden mood shift. Cheerilee was half expecting the tiny filly to burst out of her chair, chanting exaggerations and shouting to the heavens about how wonderful her dad is. Seeing the direct opposite happening right in front of her eyes is something she wouldn't have expected from someone like Scootaloo, the filly she was always able to read like a book. If the filly is trying to hide something, whether it be emotions or the truth, Cheerilee knew about it just from looking at her for a good second. The teacher's become so good at reading the orange Pegasus that she's begun to accurately predict her movements and even test scores.
The fact that she couldn't do this now didn't scare her.
It terrified her.
"He's alright."
Cheerilee analyzes the filly time after time, trying to see what she's feeling, what she's thinking. It was so easy for her before...
So why not now?
"I'm going to need more than that Scootaloo, "Cheerilee says to the filly, trying to hide her terrified expression under a blank one, "tell me how you really feel about him, no lying. You're a terrible liar."
"Not a terrible liar, just great at acting." The orange filly thinks, happy to see how much her plan has worked over the years. The filly chuckles to herself, imagining Cheerilee's facial expression after the mental homicide she's about to commit.
"Step two: Lead up to the conclusion."
"Well, "Scootaloo says, her tiny smirk disappearing as she prepares her payload, a blank face covering her emotions as she stops leaning in the chair, folding her hooves on the desk like Cheerilee, "he understands me the most out of everyone. He's taught me many lessons that still carry with me today, and I respect him as much as he respects me."
Cheerilee nods her head, trying to dig deeper, "What kind of lessons?"
"For one, he taught me what kind of berries in the wild are poisonous and which kind are safe for consumption." Scootaloo says, watching her teacher's movements before looking down at the table. The filly watches her eyes get slightly wider out of the corner of her eye, like the teacher came to some sort of realization.
"Consumption? I've never heard such vocabulary from her before. In fact, I haven't heard it from any of my students before. No wonder Language Arts is one of her stronger classes." The teacher thinks to herself, piecing together a new picture of the filly before her, trying to read the Pegasus's emotions.
"That's actually very useful to know, "Cheerilee comments, happy to know her student is learning important things outside of her class, "Is there anything else he taught you?"
"Never get too comfortable."
Cheerilee's happy smile transforms into one of uneasiness, getting that feeling of being watched again. The teacher wants to close her eyes and collect her thoughts, but realizes that might not be the best idea when she see's Scootaloo's body go stiff, her back hooves stopping their swaying motion altogether.
"And why is that?"
Scootaloo stops staring at the desk, her head moving up to meet the teacher's confused gaze.
"Because Life is like a big bully. Life is the kind of creature that always likes to sneak up on you when you're not expecting it and punch you in the face with something terrible. You could be having the best day ever and Life could come out of nowhere and utterly destroy you. Life is relentless, heartless, and doesn't give a single fuck about what you want."
Cheerilee listens to the filly, the words going through her head over and over. She is about to comment before Scootaloo startles her by slamming her front hooves on the table and standing up in her seat, her voice growing louder.
"But what can you do about it? You don't know what Life looks like, you don't know what it sounds like, you don't even know the next time it'll strike. The only thing you know is that it's everywhere, and its only mission is to bring you down. No matter how hard you plead, no matter how hard you beg for it to stop, Life will continue to slap you in the face with event after event. Life controls everything, and unless you take control of Life and stand up to it, you'll never get anywhere."
Scootaloo sits down once again, continuing her speech while continuing to bring her teacher into a state of astonishment, "That's why I've come to the only answer I have: Expect everything. Never get comfy no matter how good your situation is because Life is always beside you thinking of ways to tear you down, and when it finally strikes at you, be ready for it. Accept everything it throws at you and roll with it, because it will never give you time to catch up if you spend the time you have sobbing over why this is happening to you or how you could have done something better."
When Scootaloo finally finishes, Cheerilee's mouth is wide open, the gears in her mind contemplating the words one of her best students has just poured into her cranium. The thing about is, Scootaloo isn't wrong. Life isn't a cakewalk, and you can constantly be bombarded with situations that you don't know how to solve or what to do. But life never slows down for you, it only continues on its way, leaving you in the dust.
"That was... very profound Scootaloo. I've never heard this side of you before. If you're looking for a cutie mark, try poetry slamming or motivational speaking because you have a talent with words."
"Optional Step: Lead them into a false state of happiness.
Scootaloo isn't expecting her lighthearted teacher to agree with her, but shrugs her shoulders anyway, accepting the situation presented to her, "Thank you Mrs. Cheerilee, Raven always said I was good at expressing how I feel though words. In fact, she likes it so much that she's convinced me into writing poetry in my free time. Sometimes I even read them aloud to the kids at my home." She confesses, much to the joy of Cheerilee.
"Well I'd love to read one of them sometime. Maybe you'd get your cutie mark by reading your favorite one in front of the class."
"Yeah, maybe." Scootaloo says, chuckling at the thought. Scootaloo always hid her poetry in a special place in her home, away from everyone else. She sometimes pulled them out when no one was looking, reading her tiny dabbles and poor handwriting to herself. The thought of getting a cutie mark off of something so 'uncool' as Rainbow Dash puts it is amusing to her.
A silence hangs over the classroom, the two ponies smiling at each other.
Until Scootaloo begins to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Cheerilee asks, her smile increasing even more in size as the student in front of her giggles like a child.
"I bet you never expected a daredevil like me to be into writing poetry." She says, her laughter increasing in volume after she hears the words escape her throat.
Cheerilee begins to laugh with her, "Up to this point I expected you had some hidden talents, but poetry was not one of those."
Scootaloo chuckles with her teacher, the two enjoying their company more and more as time goes on. The two laugh together for what seems like hours, but in reality is only a minute. The two look at each other for a brief second before Scootaloo begins to speak once more.
"That's another thing life likes throwing at us, plot twists. You think you know someone inside and out, but they always have a hidden trick or two up their sleeves."
Cheerilee's smile once again goes flat, instead being replaced with a look you get when you see something big and menacing at the end of an alley. Her open mouth only gets wider when the Pegasus in front of her, the one she's bonded with so mush in such a short amount of time, stares directly through her flesh and cartilage and pierces her inner sanctum, causing her to start to breathe heavily as a wicked grin makes itself known on the fillies face.
"Final Step: Drop the bombshell."
"You know Cheerilee, poetry isn't my only hidden talent. I'm also good at acting, and learning about other ponies."
Cheerilee's labored breaths increase in pace as she swallows a big gulp of air, "L- learning about other ponies?"
"Yes, I find that getting ponies to openly admit to things about themselves is really easy in this town, especially ponies like you Cheerilee. All I have to do is ask and you'll spit out enough information about yourself that I can read you like an open book. Your emotions, what you do after school, even the tiny comments you'll write on my tests, telling me 'Your handwriting needs to improve, but otherwise great job!'
The last part of her sentence sticks to her, realizing that's exactly the words she wrote on the essay Scootaloo had handed in to her three days ago. Her heart begins pumping faster as the orange Pegasus continues to stare at her, not letting her have time to think before digging the hole deeper.
"The information you ponies don't share however, that's where it gets difficult. Luckily for me, Soundwave taught me how to sneak in a way that makes it very hard for other ponies to hear me. Very handy when your trying to look through someone's window."
Cheerilee tries to gain control of the situation put before her, "That's enough out of you! I will not have a... creeper running around in my class! Get out of my classroom! Get out and never come back!" She shouts, horrified that one of her students would do such a thing.
Once again Scootaloo just laughs. It isn't that kind of laughter like 'oh that's funny', it's that kind of laugh that shouts out 'its too late for you'. The purple earth pony watches as the creep reaches into her saddlebag that the teacher suddenly realizes was next to her the whole time.
The earth ponies heart sinks when the filly pulls out a dozen pictures.
"You kick me out of school or tell a soul about my 'hobby', and I'll make sure the entire world knows how the smiling school teacher of Ponyville has committed foalcon with an unsuspecting colt. against his will if I might add."
That instantly shattered the teacher's spirit, her heart beginning to slow down as she realizes there's nothing else to do. Her biggest secret, the only thing she's tried to hide from everyone, completely out in the open, and in the hooves of a filly with a mind so dark it could block out the sun. The earth pony tries one last tactic, her last hope hanging on her next words.
"Please...You don't know what you're doing Scootaloo."
Once again the filly laughs, getting out of her seat and stuffing the pictures back into her saddlebag. She trots up to her teacher, her grin now a thing that could give Discord nightmares.
"Never get too comfortable Cheerilee. You never know when Life is going to punch you in the face."
The filly stares at the shattered school teacher, the purple mare whose legs have given out minutes before. Her eyes have darkened moments before, her last bastion of hope completely broken by the devil in front of her. The mare looks up at the demon, and she could swear she saw something black swimming in the fillies eyes, an evil entity floating through the compact expanse of the fillies complex mind.
She doesn't get more than a glimpse of it as a hoof slams into the side of her skull, the teacher not having the will to fight back or cry, only groaning in pain as she brings a hoof up to caress the spot of impact. The filly smiles at the scene before her, trotting towards the door before looking back at the broken school teacher, the one who brought so many smiles to everyone reduced to nothing.
"Scoot-"
The school teacher's weak voice is instantly destroyed when the filly glares at her, the demonic child's crushing gaze shutting her up instantly.
"Scootaloo is such a childish name. From now on... call me Stalkerloo." The filly says, before opening up the door and walking out into the sunny day, everyone else once more oblivious to the scene inside. Cheerilee never gets up, only curling up her body as she contemplates what decisions she's made to come up to this moment.