Another day, another class done. Cheerilee sighed through her nose, her eyes tracking the last bobbing tail of one her summer school students as they chased their friends across the schoolyard. While she loved being a teacher and would chew anypony out for suggesting otherwise, today had been quite a trying day for the teacher. While her relationship with Twilight Sparkle was going smoothly, and not horridly fast like some parents would like to see, it was starting to show signs of strain.
They hadn’t argued. Sure they would have a spat over which pre-classical Equestrian writers were true champions of the written word and which ones were total hacks. But those weren’t important. No, Twilight had started asking questions, questions Cheerilee didn’t feel up to answering. At first, her marefriend would simply let the subject go, but now, she seemed fairly adamant. It was all alright, at least until recently.
-----
“Cheerilee?” she had asked. She had asked with that sickeningly awful voice that Cheerilee was certain the harpies of legend used. An awful, terrible screech that certainly she was not hopelessly turning to butter whenever Twilight spoke. No, she was smarter than to be ruled by such simple emotions and she certainly held firm against her wiles.
“Yes, Twilight?” Cheerilee asked, in her practiced, teacherly way. There had been no way that Cheerilee would fall to the vile temptress's demands. She would never give in. She would deflect the question, as she had before. It was a dance, and they cantered to it. But Cheerilee knew the steps.
Twilight cleared her throat, putting a gentle hoof on Cheerilee’s own. “Do you think that maybe, now, I could...?” she trailed, her nerve losing out. She had asked several times, sure, each time as sheepish as the last. Cheerilee had plenty of experience with ponies asking that question. When she was younger, she couldn’t wait to say yes. But now that she was older, wiser, she knew it was a terrible idea, and she would push it back as long as she could. “I mean, um...”
Cheerilee got ready to shake her head, her eyes catching the book that Twilight was reading. Asking the Difficult Questions to Your Significant Others that You Want to Make More Significant: For Eggheads. It was the ninth edition.
Before she could react, however, Twilight had somehow found her nerve. “Can I please meet your mother? We’ve been together months and... I only have that night at the restaurant, and I was not at my best.”
She had laid it out so simply. Cheerilee knew she had to tread carefully– Maintaining this perfect balance between her mother never meeting Twilight again and Twilight never learning just what kind of mare her mother was... it had to be kept the way it was. Looking into those horrible purple eyes that certainly did not make her knees weak as she most certainly not had lost herself in them multiple times, Cheerilee renewed her resolve. “I don’t really know, Twilight. She’s a very busy mare, even if she has retired early in life. I don’t see her much myself—”
Cheerilee hadn’t expected Twilight to puff her cheeks out. That was atypical. It was also horridly adorable, as her little purple cheeks were stretched to their limit in a barely contained huff. Twilight barely ever huffed, but she certainly never puffed. Raising a hoof to her mouth, Cheerilee failed to contain a giggle. The look Twilight gave her could have frozen Celestia herself in her tracks.
-----
And thus, Cheerilee now faced dinner with her mother and girlfriend. In her schoolhouse, Cheerilee stayed her hooves, every second spent away from the meal was another second she could keep up this charade. Looking at the clock above the door, she threw a magenta hoof over her eyes as she sighed deeply. Talking to her mother was always... taxing.
Staring at her foreleg, the creeping darkness it cast over her reminded her of her mother’s own coat and mane. She was, in essence, very much like Cheerilee’s own, a fact that could have given her much more trouble if it weren’t for the natural white highlights that differentiated herself from her mother. Cheerilee sported a lighter coat, and her mane took on a wonderful pink-and-white roll of colors, while her mother had a much deeper hue to her coat, a strikingly beautiful fuschia rose color. Her mane was solid red, not unlike Big Mac, but a bit softer on the eyes. Cheerilee’s stomach fell as she thought of that poor stallion. There was something about their... involuntary escapades, that seemed to have caused the large pony to make fewer appearances around town. Silently, she resolved to ask Apple Bloom about it, if only to make sure there wasn’t any lasting damage from the love poison. Perhaps she would get Twilight to help her. It was what good friends did.
The clock on the wall clicked into the 4:00 position. Cheerilee stared at it, completely unbelieving that she had allowed a half an hour pass without the proper amount of angst. Sighing, she pushed herself up off her desk and onto her hooves. Sadly, she couldn’t help but be a stalwart, optimistic pony, and angst never seemed to come as easy to her as it did in her youth. Closing her eyes, Cheerilee breathed in the memory of her time in college. Shortly after calling it quits with Fleur, she had entered a ‘rebellious’ phase of her life, where she had taken to music. She remembered taking a semester off of college, returning to Ponyville... starting a band. Getting some groupies, falling for one alabaster unicorn who always screamed the loudest at her shows...
Cheerilee’s eyes snapped open. It probably wasn’t best to lose herself to memories of past relationships when she had to focus on the one at hand. The one she had to now desperately try and save from her mother. She felt her whole body visibly wince at the prospect of Twilight Sparkle soberly dealing with her mother. It could only end in tears. Hopefully, the path to those tears wasn’t laid in the sexual relations between her mother and her marefriend, but Celestia help her, it had happened before.
It had happened thrice before. Cheerilee’s stomach did a cartwheel as she remembered catching Minuette with her mother. That was the second time. Shaking her head violently, Cheerilee stepped to the door. Her mother always had the same thing to say, every time Cheerilee would get in her face about it. In fact, she had said the very same thing when Cheerilee had set up this dinner date.
-----
“You have nothing to worry about, Cherry!” Her mother, the succubus made real, had said. It was met with a practiced eye roll. “Oh come now, Cherry, if she’s really right for you, she won’t even think of me like that~! Mm, but you know I wouldn’t mind it if she did. That mare– Mm, you really struck gold with this one...!”
“Mother!” Cheerilee had stated, more as a means to silence her than anything. Taking a deep breath, she allowed the ill emotions to wash away before continuing. “I’m giving you a chance because Twilight wants to know my family better. And unfortunately, that includes you.”
“Oh Cherry, you wound me,” her mother had said, a smile playing at the edges of her lips.
Not many ponies knew that Cheerilee’s true strength of character did not come from being a teacher. Her unflappable resilience and saintly patience against the worst of what the Ponyville youth would throw at her had been forged through the fire of having had to bear witness to her mother's antics over many, many years.
Waking up to find a veritable who’s who of Ponyville’s finest mares on the kitchen table also served to help ground Cheerilee when she needed to be level-headed. Children, the fillies and colts under her charge, were just more innocent forms of dealing with her mother on different levels. “I expect you to be on your best behavior. That includes wearing something for a change, and keeping it on.”
Her mother met her gaze, her face resting in her hoof, propping it up on the table. “Well, say no more, Cherry. I’ll be the mother you’ve always wanted me to be.”
“I mean it, Mother. Clothes on. That includes the first two hours after you get home. No funny business!” Cheerilee decreed, her voice level. She kept eye contact, not even daring to look away. A long silence had followed.
-----
Cheerilee opened the door and walked outside. Sighing, she recited an old schoolyard rhyme about one hoof in front of the other as she trudged on to the restaurant. She had asked Twilight where she had wanted to go to eat tonight, but she wasn’t as helpful in that regard as Cheerilee gave her credit for. Outside of a few smaller, outside eateries, Twilight Sparkle didn’t go out to eat very often, instead choosing to focus on the meals she made herself, simple as they were, or to try out Spike’s cooking from time to time. The dragon, when not making a fool of himself when out of his element, could indeed cook up a storm. Cheerilee herself had sampled some dragon-broiled vegetables, and that hint of magical flame had a very satisfying kick to the tastebuds.
Still, she wasn’t about to let her mother know where Twilight lived. That was right out of the question. Ignoring the fact that her mother likely already knew, as did the entire town, but there was an old adage about leading an animal to water, and she wasn’t about to let her mother have a chance at taking a drink.
Speaking of drinks, Twilight had very strictly claimed that there would be no alcohol tonight, so there was one large hurdle crossed. Unfortunately, due to the nature of their situation, Cheerilee had let Twilight know that the best restaurant for them to have this get together was, in fact, the same one from before. The blood had nearly drained all out of her face, but Twilight agreed, knowing that, statistically, the chances of running into any of the ponies there that witnessed her anti-sobriety were the same as if they had gone to any other restaurant in the area. It sounded good on paper, so Cheerilee was confident that she hadn’t needed to tell Twilight that it was a bunch of hooey that that was the reason they were going to return there– she just wanted to make her a little uncomfortable so she wouldn’t hit it off with her mother.
But Twilight need not know that. Looking up at the Golden Oaks Library, Cheerilee sighed inwardly. She was happy to see her marefriend, but the short walk to her mother’s home from here filled her with the type of dread that was synonymous with leaving the oven on at home. Something was going to be ruined, and you just hope everything didn’t go up in flames.
Knocking on the door to the library, Cheerilee was left to ponder the silliness of knocking on the doors of a public library. Granted, it doubled as Twilight’s home, but it was a moral gray area that she was not about to cross. Relenting, Cheerilee did admit she was a closet fan of breaking into and thriving in such situations in her youth, but she was a teacher now, and she had to set an example. Besides, she couldn’t exactly be like she was back then– try as she might, she just could not get her mane to style the way it used to back. There was no bringing the frizzy mane back. No longer would experienced hooves get caught in her frazzled locks, and in a fit of passion entangle two lovers—
Cheerilee might have been drooling by the time Spike opened the door. “Uh, hey Cheerilee?” Spike cautioned, his eyes tracking the line of saliva down to the teacher’s chin.
Hastily wiping her foreleg against her mouth, Cheerilee smiled down at the dragon. “Oops! I must have let my mind wander about tonight’s meal a little too long!” She gave a light, airy laugh that would have fooled even the Princess’ ears. I am not my mother, Cheerilee told her brain, who replied with images of her third girlfriend who she caught with her mom. Even with practiced grace, she had a hard time keeping her demeanor straight.
“Oh, man, I know what you mean. Sometimes, when Rarity takes me out gem collecting, oh man, do you even know how sapphires taste?” Spike allowed his tongue to roll out of his mouth as he let himself get shamelessly lost in memory. “When I’m eating gems with Rarity, aw man, nothing can beat that.” He patted his stomach as to emphasize his point. Cheerilee nodded slowly, accepting that she still had much to learn about dragon diets and typical mannerisms.
“Well, I see what you mean– I think,” she said, looking beyond the dragon to see if she could catch sight of her mare. “Is Twilight ready? Although I don’t mind being a bit tard–” Interestingly enough, a dragon’s claw tasted mildly of sunflower seeds. Also, Cheerilee’s eyes narrowed on the dragon as he placed a finger over his own mouth and pulled his entire hand out of hers.
“Shh! We don’t use the T-word around here,” Spike hastened, his eyes shifting quickly about the room behind him. “Twilight’s fine, she’s just finishing up one of the books Princess Celestia sent this morning. She’s got it all on the schedule, don’t worry.” Looking back toward the schoolteacher, he was rewarded with the sight of the mare attempting to remove a taste from her mouth. “Oh. Heh, sorry about that.”
Cheerilee’s face contorted into that of barely contained rage, but a quick swallow later and she was right as rain. “It’s... fine, Spike. Just fetch me a glass of water, if you’d be a gentledragon, and a promise you’ll never do that again.”
“Er, right. I’ll get on that.” Spike hustled out of the way of the door, allowing Cheerilee to enter the library finally. Shutting the door with an absent-minded kick with her back leg, she couldn’t help but take in the scent of old books and aged wood. It was much, much too early to start thinking of a future with Twilight, but... she very much wanted to spend every waking moment not at the school here at the Library, and that would be so much easier if she lived with the unicorn. Warm thoughts entered her mind, her daydreams finally allowing her visions she’d rather like to have, such as waking up to lavender eyes and burying her face in a sea of purple hair. Placing a hoof on her chin, she made sure to check for any drool. Mercifully, her jaw was unwetted by the thoughts of a potential future with Twilight. Cheerilee smiled selfishly.
“Got your water,” Spike interrupted, Cheerilee giving the dragon a disdainful look, her daydream breaking.
However, she masked it quickly with a smile, taking the glass in her hoof. “Thank you, Spike. I hate to ask, but can you tell Twilight I’m here?” With a curt nod, the little dragon trundled off up the stairs to grab his sister. Cheerilee watched him go, that damnable smile not leaving her face, which proved problematic as she ended up dribbling over herself and getting her chest wet. Sputtering, Cheerilee found her using her foreleg like a hoofkerchief once again, trying to rub out the water from her chest, but only accomplishing to get her crest hair to stick out in frayed and wild directions. Snorting with displeasure, she placed her cup down on Twilight’s desk and went at it with her other leg, sending fervent glances back at the stairs.
However, fervently rubbing her chest had the unintended side effect of making her blind to much else in her vicinity, and without watching her elbow, she felt her arm collide with the glass of water on the table. Spilling everywhere, Cheerilee could only watch in horror as the offending liquid lapped at the surface of Twilight’s desk, soaking into letters stamped with Princess Celestia’s royal seal.
“Oh no.” Cheerilee raised a hoof to do something, anything, but it was paralyzed. “Oh no no no!” Slamming her foreleg on the table, Cheerilee uselessly rubbed her coat against the wood, trying to stay the feral liquid from harming another innocent leaf of paper. But as she vigorously wiped her already damp legs over the table, the momentum was enough to dislodge one of the inkwells from the top of the desk.
She never stood a chance.
Ink splattered over the table, catching her hoof and smeared over the papers, splashing up and into her face. Only having time to defend her eyes with a quick blink, black ink greedily grabbed at her coat as it speckled her face and the scruff of her chest.
Cheerilee stood dead silent, refusing to open her eyes. As long as she didn’t open them, none of that ever happened. In fact, she was standing in the center of the room, devoid of any liquids whatsoever, and was eagerly and cleanly awaiting Twilight Sparkle. They would have an arguably trying evening, but they would come back here and release all that pent up frustrations in a wild night of—
Despite her best efforts, Cheerilee had to open her eyes just so she could give herself a deadpan gaze into the nearest mirror. This proved to be a fatal mistake as her unamused expression slowly devolved, her mouth starting to hang open, her breath coming out as a silent scream as her pupils shrunk, then dilated.
“Cheerilee! I'm sorry I took so long, I just had to–” Twilight stopped short in the middle of the staircase. Cheerilee couldn’t even think fast enough to stop herself from looking at Twilight. Like a foal caught next to the shattered remains of the family vase, she couldn’t help the tears that formed at the side of her eyes. The pony-turned-dalmatian mouthed unintelligible excuses, Twilight staring in disbelief at the spectacle. Her eyes scanned her work desk, and then her marefriend. Then back to the desk.
Descending the rest of the way down the stairs, Twilight Sparkle approached Cheerilee, her eyes unsure of what to focus on. “A-Ah–I–ah—!” Cheerilee choked out.
Twilight put her hoof gently on Cheerilee’s face. “If you really didn’t want me to meet your mother, you could have just told me, silly,” Despite the ink, Twilight leaned in to kiss her marefriend, who numbly reciprocated the gesture.
And then Cheerilee’s eyes rolled back and she cleanly passed out on the wooden floor with a satisfying thud.