"Miss Cheerilee! Miss Cheerilee! Here's my history report!"

"And here's mine!"

"Hey, I was here first!"

"Miss Cheerilee, can I have another day for my report please?"

"Have you graded our art projects yet?"

"It's probably lame, like your Cutie Mark."

"Are we gonna have that math tetht like you thaid?"

"Aww, I hate math."

"I'm ready! My brother taught me ever'thing there is to know about mathematics!"

"Miss Cheerilee, did Apple Bloom's brother ask you to the dance tonight? My parents are gonna be there, too."

"Who cares about a stupid old dance? I wanna know how good my drawing was!"

"Miss Cheerilee, did we hafta do two or three pages for our history report? I've got one here..."

"Mine's five pages!"

"Well, mine's gonna be twelve!"

"Nuh-uh! What's yours about? Mine's about the founding of Ponyville."

"Miss Cheerilee, she won't stop poking meeee!"

"Did you like that apple I got for you, Miss Cheerilee? They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away."

"Who says? My report was about apples, and ain't nopony told me that!"

"My report is about the Wonderbolts! It's gonna be better than any of yours, 'cause I invertewed Rainbow Dash!"

"Miss Cheerilee, is it 'dip-moa' or 'mip-doa'?"

"You're a dip."

"Heyyy!"

"Why's it got to rain all day, I wanna go outside!"

"Miss Cheerilee, can I go outside? I'll dry off, I promise!"

"Me too, Miss Cheerilee!"

"Miss Cheerilee, please?"

"Pretty please?"

"Quiet down, I'm trying to do this multiplicamation problem!"

"Laaaame!"

"Miss Cheerilee, tell her that multiplicamation isn't lame!"

"Tattler!"

"My daddy does math all the time on his receipts. It's why were so well-off and other ponies want to be with them at dances."

"Miss Cheerilee, now he's poking me! Make him stoooop!"

"I'm hungry!"

"Miss Cheerilee, can I go to the bathroom, huh?"

"Want some company, hot stuff?

"Ewww!"

"EWWW!"

"Wait, if'n colts got cooties, how come my brother and Miss Cheerilee—"

"Shhh!"

"What?"

"Miss Cheerilee, is number five five?"

"Hey, Miss Cheerilee! This book is missing a page!"

"I'm gonna see if daddy'll take me to the dance. I bet he'll take me."

"Miss Cheerilee? You alright?"

"Miss Cheerilee, you said we couldn't go through the windows!"

The prompt:
Overloaded.

This is a thirty-minute prompt. You may take as long as you wish to plan and procrastinate on your entry, but once the first word is down the timer is on. Leniency will be granted, but around 2000 words eyebrows will be raised. Multiple entries are welcome. Submit in a comment to this thread, either as text or a linked document.

I will read your story and reply with my thoughts, ideally after not more than a few days. Critique is available upon request.

Have fun, and good luck!

5072724

First off, I liked your prompt text! Cheerilee has been shown as very weary from time to time, and I can hardly blame her!

Also, wow, no response and it's technically already Thursday here. This one isn't as good as I'd like and didn't go where I wanted, but still. I thought it was a neat prompt!

"Of course, Rarity! I don't mind doing that for you." Princess Twilight Sparkle smiled as she scribbled down a few notes on the research Rarity had asked for.

Rarity smiled, pretty as usual. "Are you quite certain, Twilight? I know you have a simply enormous number of letters to answer."

Twilight shook her head quickly, setting the note aside for later. "I don't mind. It's only a few letters, and I'm sure I can find the information you need on pre-classical robes quickly enough."

Spike's head poked out from an upper shelf, where he had been working to reshelve a number of reference books. "Don't forget the classroom textbooks for Miss Cheerilee!"

"Huh? Oh, right, that too. But that's okay, Rarity. I'll have this by tomorrow."

---

"I sure am glad you don't mind workin' through me an' Big Mac's math, Twilight. I know it's a lot of addin' and subtractin', but I just can't have the books be off again this year." Applejack doffed her hat, and smiled at Twilight before setting it on her head again.

Twilight smiled, flipping idly through the farm ledger. "Oh, it's no problem, Applejack. I'm sure I can fit this in somewhere."

"Things sure are lookin' busy in here, Twilight. Why do y'all have books all over the floor an' everywhere else?"

"I was looking up answers for Pinkie Pie's question about historical parties. She asked about 'history parties' and I thought... well, it turned out that she just meant parties for studying history. But it was still interesting learning about all of that, even if she didn't really need it."

Spike grumbled as he collected book after heavy book in his arms. "Yeah, and you pulled down half of a shelf just to figure it out..."

---

"Um, I'm sorry, I know you... already have a lot of books. But I thought... a few more books about animals might be... nice." Fluttershy smiled, and nudged the books across the crowded table, toward Twilight.

Twilight smiled, and brushed her slightly mussed mane out of her eyes. "I'm sure we can find space. Are you sure..." She paused, blinked, and then shook her head quickly to clear it. "Are you sure you don't need them anymore?"

"I um, already know all of it. I've been caring for my animal friends so long, I just know how to spot all the problems without reading these again." Fluttershy pulled back her own mane without thinking about it. "Are you... okay?"

Spike picked up the stack of books from the table, and started sorting through them. "She's okay, it's just been a busy day. Don't worry Fluttershy, we're fine!"

---

"Spike? Spike! Where's that book on pre-classical looms? I've got way too much to do, and I can't seem to find it!" Twilight pulled volume after volume from the shelves, her horn glowing and her eyes slightly too wide as she scanned each title in turn.

Spike called out from a nearby ladder. "It's over here, Twilight, in the trade book section. You really need to take a break, Twilight."

"A break? I can't take a break! My friends are all counting on me, and that's not even counting all the ponies that wrote in for advice!"

"But you're getting too stress-urp!"

Spike burped and coughed as the scroll appeared in the middle of a gout of flame, and then dropped to the table.

Princess Twilight stared at the scroll, and the royal seal gracing it. She lifted it in her magic, and unrolled it. Her eyes moved left and right over the text, and her eyebrow twitched in a very familiar way that set all of Spike's spines on edge.

---

The castle sounded strangely quiet to Twilight, after the past few minutes. Her breathing had calmed again, and here, under her bedcovers, it was warm and safe and dark.

She felt more than a little foalish. It was just another minor question from Princess Celestia, and it wouldn't have taken too long to answer, not really.

Twilight sighed under her covers.

The creaking of the big crystal door to her bedroom hade the fur along her back stand on end for a few seconds, until she realized that it could really only be Spike. "... Hi, Spike."

Spike's voice was quiet and almost apologetic. "Hey, Twilight. I answered Princess Celestia's letter, it didn't take too long."

The patter of his padded feet was almost loud in her silent bedroom, as he walked over toward the bed. Twilight nodded, even if he couldn't see her under the covers. "Thanks, Spike. I'm... sorry about making a mess of the library."

"It's okay, Twilight." Spike burrowed under her blankets, and cuddled up against Twilight's chest. He hugged her around the barrel, and Twilight couldnt' help but smile.

Twilight gave her number one assistant a squeeze, and then sighed. "Okay, from now on, I'll listen when you suggest a break, okay? All that stuff will still be there tomorrow, let's just rest."

5084736

Thanks for the kind words regarding my flavor text (which I see you took to heart; more on that in a moment). As for 'being late,' that seems rather normal recently and nothing to be particularly excited about unless you want to. When you get down to it, it's just three people these days... despite my attempts to draw people in from the Writeoff group and elsewhere. I understand that this coming week is yours.

Here we have Twilight stretching herself a bit too thin; just one thing after another. Rainbow stands out by omission, oddly enough. The transition to the final scene was unique in that they were directly connected, but that last section where Twilight takes a long-overdue proverbial breath is definitely my favorite: things haven't exactly been resolved, but she's gotten through some of it and is setting aside a little while to prioritize herself.

Not much else to say about this one. Not perfect, but I liked it.