Chapter 1: Attendance

Miss Cherilee walked up to the front door of her school, unlocking it with a small bronze key, as she pushed the door open the faint scent of glue, pencils and paint immediately ran up her nose to greet her.

The room was a mess, there were bits of paper covering the room along the floors, walls and somehow the ceiling. Paint pots tipped over adding vivid colours to the chaos, Cherilee moved slowly because turning around too quickly made her feel sick.

Placing her saddlebags on the one clean desk that belonged to her she began to clean the classroom, She collected up all the paper, luckily it managed to stop the paint reaching the wood floor beneath, she wiped the desks to remove any pencil drawings that the children decided to doodle while they should have been paying attention in class.

After a few minutes of cleaning and finally managing to get the last pieces of paper from the ceiling Miss Cherilee sighed and relaxed behind her desk admiring the clean class room she now worked in, Looking at her blackboard she groaned as all the notes from yesterdays lesson still coated the board in thick chalk.

“How does Snails not understand that alicorns have both wings and a horn?” She moaned as she proceeded to wipe the same diagram away from ten different places dotted across the board, some chalk dust gathered in her pink mane and down the front of her light, purple body so she quickly brushed it away

Cherilee sat down again, sighing even deeper as everything in the room was now spotless, opening her saddle bags she pulled out a large book and a pen, placing the book down on her table she opened the first page which contained a list of all her students.

It wasn’t long before a wave of students crashed into the class room, slamming the door open with a loud 'BANG', Cherilee wasn't shocked anymore seeing as this happened every weekday

“Good morning students” She put on a happy smile as the class all took their seats

“Good morning Miss Cherilee!” They all happily said in unison

After taking the attendance Miss Cherilee replaced her book and pen into her bag before picking up a piece of chalk between her teeth and walked over to the board and wrote in big letters ‘Cloudsdale’

Placing the chalk down she no longer noticed the horrid taste it left in her mouth “Now today students we will be learning about the role of Cloudsdale in our lives” She looked at the class as Snips raised a hoof “Yes Snips?”

“Will we be going there for a field trip?” All the class got excited as he asked

The class started to talk amongst themselves about what they could do while they were there and Miss Cherilee had to hush them all down “I am afraid not because Cloudsdale is a Pegasus city which means earth ponies and unicorns can’t simply walk around”

“What about Pegacorns?” Snails asked with a dopey expression on his face

“Pegacorns?” Cherilee raised an eyebrow “what’s a Pegacorn?”

“It’s a pony that has wings and a horn” he responded happily

Miss Cherilee facehoofed “Do you mean an alicorn?”

Snails stared blankly at her for a moment before a wide grin appeared on his face “Oh yea”

Miss Cherilee rolled her eyes “Anything with wings can travel to Cloudsdale, including alicorns” she looked at her class again to make sure there weren’t anymore questions before continuing “Now who can tell me… yes Sweetie Bell?”

Sweetie Bell lowered her hoof “Why can’t unicorns and earth ponies go to Cloudsdale?”

“Because Cloudsdale is made of clouds, which pegasi can walk on but unicorns and earth ponies can’t” She turned to the board again before hearing Applebloom and turning her head around again

“What’s so special about pegasi that means they can walk on clouds?” She asked leaning her head to one side

“That is for another lesson but today we are learning about Cloudsdale” She quickly took a breath so she could continue talking without interruption “now can anypony tell me what Cloudsdale is most used for?”

All the students looked at one another, puzzled before returning their gazes back to the front.

“Well Cloudsdale is responsible for making clouds and other pieces important to the weather in Equestria, such as lightning and rainbows” She drew a large cloud on the board “When they have a cloud the Pegasi that work in the factories fill them with water and some lightning bolts”

“How do the clouds work?” Scootaloo asked

“Good question Scootaloo” Scootaloo raised her head proudly as Miss Cherilee continued “A cloud can be moved by a Pegasus into any position needed, when slightly agitated for example, a Pegasus bouncing on top of it, rain is produced” She turned to make sure her class were taking notes, her neck began to ache already from all the turning “But when a sudden force is introduced, such as a strong kick, a lightning bolt is released”

“Can a unisus control the weather?” Snails asked

“A unisus?” Miss Cherilee sat down allowing the students to continue with their notes “What is that?”

“A pony that has a horn and wings” He replied dimly

Cherilee groaned and stated to lightly bash her head against her desk “Don’t you mean alicorns?”

“Oh yea”

The lesson continued with some difficulty due to Snails having trouble remembering what an alicorn was and Miss Cherilee gave up and let them all out to play for a while “I shall call you all back in when I am ready for next lesson”

The tired teacher got out sheets of paper, some thin sticks of wood, some long string and some glue and spread them all into even piles, enough for the children to all work in small groups “this shouldn’t be too hard” she muttered to herself as she drew some simple instructions on how to make a kite on the board

She walked outside to call her class in only to see Scootaloo hanging upside down from a tree by her tail “hey Miss Cherilee” She called happily as she swung back and forth

“What happened?” Cherilee ran over panicked and helped Scootaloo down

“Well we tried to see if we could get our cutie marks by tree climbing” She looked at her clear orange flank “I guess not” She looked up into the top of the tree “Either of you two get yours?”

“Did you say we?” Miss Cherilee looked up to see Applebloom and Sweetie Bell both hanging in a similar situation a few branches above her head “Really?” she said in disbelief

“I can’t see anything” Sweetie Bell sighed sadly as she spun slowly around

“Me neither” Applebloom looked down to the ground “Sorry Miss Cherilee”

Cherilee sighed as she helped the other two fillies out from the tree “well everypony inside for next lesson”

As they all started to walk in Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walked past the Cutie Mark Crusaders laughing “I bet they will never get their cutie marks” Silver Spoon said loud enough for everypony to know that it was directed at the trio

“We will! Just ya wait and see!” Applebloom angrily stared at the bullies “And they will be ten times better than yours”

“Will not”

“Will too”

“Will not!”

“Will too!”

“WILL NOT”

“WILL TOO”

“GIRLS!” Cherilee angrily screamed before taking a deep breath and regaining her usual smile “hurry for next lesson, it’s arts and crafts”

They all eagerly hurried in and gathered their materials apart from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who both groaned

“I hate arts and crafts” Diamond Tiara grumbled as she walked past the teacher “daddy always buys things I want”

“And arts and crafts hate you too, you spoilt little brat” Cherilee whispered irritably under her breath as she followed her students inside