Chapter 3: Field Trip

Cherilee awoke and pushed herself off the floor to greet the messy living room she used as a bed last night

Plant pots lay smashed across the floor and the dirt had sprayed everywhere, her chair was on its side, the cushions abnormally shaped from where she had tried to dive and catch the parasprite

She sighed as she took off her dressing gown and hung it up in the bathroom and retrieved a dustpan and brush

It took her a good thirty minutes to clean the dirt up, dump it outside, pick up all the broken bits of pottery, and beat her cushions back into shape

Once she finished she sighed again as she went into her small kitchen and retrieved a small bag essential for cleaning her school today

It contained a toothbrush to get the glitter out of the cracks, sandpaper to remove all the indents in the floor and finally a chemical mix to remove all the glue that held it all in place

Placing her cleaning equipment into her saddlebags she walked back into the kitchen and opened her fridge, removing a small tinfoil wrapped package from inside

It was one of her readymade breakfasts so she did not have to spend her morning eating and could go to school and clean

She sat down and opened it up, the smell of cold carrots and daisies met her nose as she ate her breakfast

After she finished her emergency meal she picked up her saddlebags and headed for her crash site of a school

Opening the front door, she set about cleaning again, sneezing once sending glitter everywhere again and sat down ready for her class to arrive once she had finished

The door banged open as if on cue and the class all eagerly crashed in once more “Good morning Miss Cherilee!” they cheered happily

Taking a deep breath and placing her smile back on her face she greeted them all “Good morning class!” she made sure everypony was there before starting her next lesson

“Now who can tell me when the steam train was invented?” Cherilee drew a picture of the train that ran through Ponyville along with some happy passengers ‘stupid passengers being so flying happy’ she angrily thought to herself

Scootaloo raised her hoof “ten years ago?”

“No but you are close” Cherilee smiled at her class “A little higher”

“Seven years ago?” Snails asked

“I said higher Snails,” Cherilee said behind her gritted teeth that hid behind a fake smile

“Twelve years ago?” Pip asked

“THANK YOU” Cherilee sighed loudly in relief as she wrote ‘twelve years ago’ on the board “Twelve years ago and I was one of the first passengers from Canterlot to Manehatten” she said proudly

“What was it like?” Snips asked, as he always liked trains

“Well it was certainly very quick” Cherilee giggled ‘not to mention cramped, smelly and it broke down about five times’ she thought to herself

Twist raised a hoof “What is it used for?”

“That was exactly what I was going to move on to,” Cherilee sat behind her desk “The Equestria Train Line or ETL for short has been used for transporting goods and ponies from one side of Equestria to the other ever since it’s invention”

The colts in the class took more of an interest than the fillies but that did not bother Cherilee as she continued, “Now who knows who invented the first train?”

Snips jumped up in excitement “OH OH I KNOW”

Cherilee was happily surprised “Oh that’s good snips, do you want to tell the rest of the class?”

“It was a unicorn called Albuck Steamy!” Snips smugly said to the rest of the class

“Very good Snips” Cherilee wrote ‘Albuck Steamy’ on the board while thinking ‘a pony knows something in here? Who did this and what did they do with Snips?’

“Who was Albuck Steamy?” Silver Spoon asked as the name struck her as somepony dirty

“Albuck Steamy invented the first steam train and built it himself, it was called a steam train after Albuck’s last name Steamy” She underlined the steam part and regretted this next decision “and if you all come with me we are going to go to the station and look at the insides of one of the trains”

All the children cheered as they swarmed around Cherilee and hurried her out the door

The children had all calmed down enough on the way that once they arrived to look at the giant machine they had stopped screaming enough for Cherilee to think ‘well this should tire them out a bit, what trouble could they get into around a train?’

The class all-horded around the train driver, frantically asking questions and she happily looked at her class ‘today could go without any problems thank Celestia’ she looked at her class again ‘where is Snips?’

Cherilee looked up at the controls to see Snips turn the brakes off and the train began to move forwards “SNIPS” She yelled angrily as she jumped onto the train and slammed the brakes on “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!”

Snips retreated slightly away from the angry teacher “I-I’m sorry Miss Cherilee” he sulked away “I just wanted to look” he backed right up to the wall but Cherilee continued

“Do you realise how stupid you just were, messing around with the controls?” She frowned angrily at him

“I-I-I’m sorry M-miss Cherilee” Snip’s bottom lip began to quiver

“You could have hurt somepony if the train got out of control!” She saw the small, plump colt begin to cry

“I-I-I-I’m Sorry” He burst into tears “I didn’t want to hurt anypony I swear”

Cherilee gave him a hug and he cried into her mane “its ok Snips… it was an accident” She said reassuringly as she stroked his back “Calm down now”, She directed that last bit to herself for losing her temper at the child as she looked at her terrified class