Cheerilee

Cheerilee is an Earth pony in Ponyville and a supporting character in the show. She teaches at the Ponyville Schoolhouse. She is called Cheerilee Pie in some promotional material.

Development
Cheerilee shares her design and name with a Generation 3 Earth pony. She is a unicorn pony in My Little Pony Crystal Princess: The Runaway Rainbow, and her design was combined with Cherry Blossom to create her Core 7 incarnation, which developed into her current appearance. In the Core 7 series, she is the older sister of Scootaloo and her main personality trait is intelligence.

Depiction in the series
Cheerilee's first appearance in the series is as a background pony in Boast Busters. She appears in the background of several more episodes, including Winter Wrap Up, Green Isn't Your Color, and The Cutie Mark Chronicles. She is a member of both the animal and plant team in the musical number from Winter Wrap Up.

Her first significant role is in Call of the Cutie, in which she teaches her students about cutie marks and explains their purpose. Even though she has a speaking part, her name is not stated on-screen. She shows the students photos of herself as a young child and as a "teenager", with no cutie mark. She compassionately tells her class that her cutie mark symbolizes her care for each of her students, and her desire to help them learn and grow. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon interrupt class by passing a note to Apple Bloom, and Cheerilee asks Apple Bloom to show the note to the class; the note is blank, and Diamond Tiara remarks that so is Apple Bloom's flank. The scene fades to black with the students laughing at Apple Bloom.

A filly bearing a striking resemblance to Cheerilee appears in the play that Rarity designs costumes for as a filly in the episode The Cutie Mark Chronicles. She is the second filly to the left, wearing a dandelion costume.

"Let's quiet down please, we have a very important lesson to get to, thank you..."

- Cheerilee

In The Show Stoppers, she hosts the school's talent show, advising the Cutie Mark Crusaders to participate in hopes that it will help them discover their special talents. She serves as the show's host, while Spike hands out the awards for her.

In the opening sequence of The Return of Harmony Part 1, Cheerilee takes her students on a tour of the Canterlot statue gardens, and teaches them about the statue of Discord.

Near the beginning of Lesson Zero, Spike mentions as part of Twilight Sparkle's checklist that they returned a blackboard to Cheerilee; this is the first time on the show that her name is mentioned, though her name and design was used almost a year prior to that, in the January 2011 McDonald's Happy Meal toy sets. Her name is subsequently mentioned in Luna Eclipsed, as Pinkie Pie and her group of fillies went to her house during the Night Mare Night festivities to go trick-or-treating.

Cheerilee appears in The Cutie Pox where she takes a fascination in Apple Bloom's new cutie mark and her "special talent" which was supposedly loopty-hooping, asking for a lesson in how to do it. She is equally fascinated when Apple Bloom gets a second cutie mark whose talent was spinning plates on sticks, assuming it to be a second hidden talent when in reality Apple Bloom cast one of Zecora's spells on herself. This is also the first episode where Cheerilee is addressed by name in person by the other characters.

She also appears in Secret of My Excess, shown walking with her groceries when she accidentally bumps into Spike. While Spike apologizes and helps Cheerilee with her groceries, he tells Cheerilee that it is his birthday. Surprised about this, Cheerilee wishes happy birthday to Spike and gives him a feathered hat as a present.

She appears in Family Appreciation Day. She is first seen with Filthy Rich as he makes his Family Appreciation Day speech to her class. Afterwards, she accidentally calls him Mr. Filthy. Later she comes to Sweet Apple Acres to talk to Granny Smith. She is briefly deceived by Apple Bloom into thinking Granny cannot speak before the class, but Granny tells her she can, much to Cheerilee's confusion. She is later seen at the back of the class room when Granny Smith tells her story.

Cheerilee gets an episode more centered on her in Hearts and Hooves Day, where she reveals that she lacks a significant other. The Cutie Mark Crusaders then attempted to get Cheerilee a date for Hearts and Hooves Day, finally settling on Apple Bloom's big brother Big McIntosh. When their initial meeting went nowhere, the Cutie Mark Crusaders' devised a love potion to get them hitched under the guise of a simple taste test. However, the reaction proved too strong resulting in Cheerilee and Big Mac becoming obsessed with one another. Since an hour of separation cures the spell, Sweetie Belle took Cheerilee to Carousel Boutique in order to fake picking out a wedding dress in order to keep them apart. However, Big Mac returns to Carousel Boutique soon before the spell wears off and Cheerilee dashes out to greet him, severely damaging Carousel Boutique in the process. Fortunately, the time needed to keep them apart had expired and the two returned to normal, though Cheerilee wondered why she was wearing a wedding veil. The Cutie Mark Crusaders come clean and while Cheerilee expresses appreciation for the effort, she still punishes the Cutie Mark Crusaders by having them do Big McIntosh's work.

She appears briefly near the beginning of in A Friend in Deed, where Pinkie Pie wishes her a happy birthday.

In Ponyville Confidential, she appoints Diamond Tiara as the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. She later strips her of her position after Diamond Tiara turns the paper into a gossip tabloid and blackmails the Cutie Mark Crusaders into getting embarrassing stories about other ponies. Cheerilee then appoints Featherweight as the new editor.

Other depictions
Cheerilee's appearances outside of the show often use an alternate cutie mark design: a smiling flower with two smaller flowers and four green leaves, as opposed to three smiling flowers with pink petals.

Cheerilee is frequently featured in Hasbro's toy line, with her cutie mark always using the alternate design on the toys themselves but sometimes using the in-show design on their packaging. Her model for some of toys is sometimes the same model used for Pinkie Pie's toys, and sometimes for Applejack's toys. As noted above, her name was used in the toy line almost a year prior to its first mention in the show.

A Cheerilee mini-figure and collector card appear in the second EU wave of "mystery pack" toys, respectively using a repaint and recolor of Applejack's Earth pony mold and model. Her colors are mostly screen-accurate, although her cutie mark uses the alternate design. Her mystery pack is embossed with the number 13, for easy identification.

Cheerilee, along with a host of characters from the show, appears on the Comic Con 2011 promotional poster.

Cheerilee appears with the alternate cutie mark design in the game Adventures in Ponyville.

Cheerilee is one of the available characters in the Valentine's Day version of the game Card Creator.

Cheerilee appears with the alternate cutie mark design in the storybook My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which is based on the episodes Friendship is Magic, part 1 and Friendship is Magic, part 2. Page 11 shows her and Sweetie Belle on a balcony in town hall, seemingly without their tails.

Cheerilee is one of the available playable characters in Gameloft's mobile game. Early previews of the game sometimes listed her as Cheerilee Pie instead of Cheerilee.

Cheerilee is included in the trading cards.

WeLoveFine has made licensed merchandise featuring Cheerilee.

My Little Pony mobile game description
A teacher at the Ponyville Schoolhouse, Cheerilee adores all of her students.

Quotes
"You can all see my cutie mark, can't you? Like all ponies, I wasn't born with a cutie mark. My flank was blank."

- Call of the Cutie

"I had decided to become a teacher, and the flowers symbolized my hope that I could help my future students bloom if I nurture them with knowledge. The smiles represented the cheer I hope to bring to my little ponies while they were learning."

- Call of the Cutie

"All right, my little ponies, time for class!"

- The Cutie Pox

"Everypony should get fun gifts on their birthday!"

- Secret of My Excess

"I have lots of good friends and wonderful students who care about me very much. I'm gonna have an absolutely terrific Hearts and Hooves Day."

- Hearts and Hooves Day

"Girls! Can you explain why I look like I'm getting married at the bottom of a pit?"

- Hearts and Hooves Day

Gallery

 * Cheerilee image gallery