Cheerilee was not having a good night. Never in her years of teaching had she ever had to mark so many failing grades for one assignment. What she thought would be a routine history report had instead been the worst work that her current crop of students had ever given her.

“It’s like none of them even read the material I assigned.” she mumbled to herself as she scratched a large ‘F’ onto the paper with her quill.

“Or your lectures were so poor even that couldn’t help them.” The doubt in her mind said what her voice wasn’t willing to.

Cheerilee shoved the thought out of the way and shuffled the next paper in front of her. In the three hours she had been working she had only gotten through a third of the essays in the stack and the rest had to be finished before school started in the morning. The earth pony wanted nothing more than to snuff out her candle and curl up in her bed upstairs but she had an obligation as an educator to correct her students’ mistakes so they could grow from them.

“As if you could help any pony grow.”

The little voice in her head kept getting harder to ignore. Cheerilee tried to drown it out with her work. This next essay was from one of her best students, surely, it would fetch a good grade. Unfortunately, the paper in front of her was no better than any other she had seen that night. Not only was it under the length requirement for the assignment, it barely mentioned the material it was supposed to cover! At least every word was spelled correctly on this one. A heavy sigh escaped Cheerilee’s lips as she bent over and picked up her quill to mark the result of this essay: D+.

The doubt in her mind returned, louder than ever. She stared down at the paper, unsure if she even wanted to continue. If she couldn’t impart this knowledge on her best student, then she had surely failed all of her students. What good was a teacher who couldn’t teach? She was on the verge of tears when she felt a warmth envelope her and a pair of lips press onto the side of her head. Her stress started to ease as a gentle and aimless humming filled the room.

Cheerilee didn’t even need to look up to know that Twilight Sparkle had seen her distress and had come to console her. Over the years they had known each other, both ponies developed a sense for when the other’s doubts and fears were getting the better of them. This far on, they didn’t even need to talk things out, just being there was enough.

The pair sat for a few minutes before either spoke up.

“Thanks Twilight, I was in a pretty bad place there.”

Twilight pulled away a bit before replying, “I could tell. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Cheerilee offered the alicorn a small smile. “Well, I think I might need to do a review of last week’s history lecture. Could you help me whip up a lesson plan later, please?”

Twilight’s eyes lit up at the prospect of paperwork. “Of course, I’d love to!” She gave Cheerilee a quick peck on the cheek before darting towards the nearest bookshelf. “I’ll start getting some notes written up!”

Cheerilee couldn’t help but giggle at her wife’s enthusiasm, the doubt formerly in her mind now nonexistent. “Thank you dear, I knew I married you for a reason.”