Today was the worst day of Cheerliee's life. Ever. Nothing else even came close. Not even when Nightmare Moon returned. Not even when lord Tirek ravaged ponyville. Not even when she blabbed about how attractive Princess Twilight Sparkle was, and how much she loved her and how much she wanted to propose to her but just didn't have the courage to while out with the girls and had to buy their silence by giving them her pudding cups for the next 3 months (that was humiliating)
The reason? She had just been informed that she had been adopted... by Sweetie belle. Apparently there was no age limit (upper or lower) for being an adopter or an adoptee. She went to mayor mare who verified that yes, this was a law and yes, sweetie belle was now legally her mother and no, there was nothing she could do to stop it. That was something that she would look into changing when she got around to it (ie: never. FAUST, she hated bureaucracy with all her being) . So now cheerilee was going to be bossed around by someone more than half her age!
"Isn't this GREAT!" said Sweetie belle almost jumping out of her skin ecstatically.
Cheerilee on the other hoof had a number of words to describe this situation and none of them were synonyms of the word great. they included words like "nightmare" and "torture"
But she bit her tongue because she didn't want to be disrespectful to her new "mother" (though she will never call her that, EVER)
(She didn't even know how sweetie belle knew about adoption, much less got adoption papers!)
And so Cheerilee Sonja Belle and her "mother" left the town hall.
A while later
Cheerilee was downstairs making breakfast. Maybe if she was quick about it, she could finish and leave the house before her "mother" sweetie belle came down.
"Is that toast I smell?" said Sweetie belle groggily.
Speak of the devil.
"Good morning Cheerilee, my sweet darling child" said sweetie belle.
"Hello sweetie belle" Cheerilee replied coolly.
"How many times have I told you, just call me mom! or mommy! or momma! or mama! any of them will do!" she said
"I'd rather... not." Cheerliee replied with the least amount of cheer possible in her voice.
"Suit yourself. Anyway, you should get going. You wouldn't want to be late for work now, would you?" said Sweetie belle
"Of course not.." Cheerilee replied wearily
"Have a nice day at work!" said sweetie belle as Cheerilee left her house, which they now shared as 'what kind of daughter wouldn't let her mother move in with her?' A bad daughter, and while Cheerilee was many things (especially annoyed at sweetie belle) she wasn't a bad daughter.
After arriving at the school, and preparing for her days classes. Cheerilee thought back to the previous months. You might assume, like Cheerilee, that Rarity would be against this arrangement. Imagine her surprise and horror when it turned out that rarity was PROUD of her sister for "helping a sad, lonely orphan feel loved". She also apparently liked the idea of a niece to spoil.
It was the same story with sweetie belles parents. They were very excited (maybe TOO excited) to finally have a grandchild to spoil. Overall she had gotten a lot of "welcome to the family" presents from sweetie belle's relatives. Some were better than others (ie: a dress rarity made her). Sweetie belle herself gave her a gift: A rabbit plushie that she had made herself with help from rarity and her friends. And though she was annoyed that sweetie belle had custody over her, she realised that sweetie belle going to such efforts to welcome her to the family was incredibly sweet, so she accepted the plushie.
(No, she does NOT sleep with the plushie, and anyone who says so is a LIAR!)
Cheerilee watched as students began to file in to the room. The one saving grace of this whole debacle is that sweetie belle had decided to do a correspondence course instead of coming into school so she could take care of the house. an arrangement Cheerilee was happy with, because she didn't think she could handle the embarrassment that would come with being in a classroom with her "mother", even if said mother was a child.
As she was taking attendance, despite herself, she felt a surge of relief. Maybe this lesson wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe she won't get embarrassed in front of the young minds she was paid (not very much) to mould into functioning members of society!
"Oh darlinnnnnnng!"
Or not.
Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
Sweetie belle stood in the doorway of the room, wearing an ensemble of clothes that included a sunhat, cat's eye sunglasses and a leopard print dress. with ruby red lipstick and her hair in a bouffant hairdo, she looked like someone's caricature of maternal beauty
"Hello... Sweetie belle. What are you doing here, and why are you wearing those clothes?" said Cheerilee, very confused.
"Why darling, I just came to give you your lunch. You forgot it at home! as for my outfit, I've decided to try out a new style! What do you think?" inquired Sweetie belle.
"Yes, yes, it's very... good." said Cheerilee.
"So glad you approve!" said Sweetie belle "Well I'd better get going, have a great day at school" sweetie belle said, giving cheerilee a big kiss on the kiss
"Moooom, stop it! you're embarrassing me!" Cheerilee blurted out. Only realising after the fact what she had said and the long reaching implications of it.
"You called me mom... you called me mom, YOU CALLED ME MOM, HAHAHAHA! I KNEW you'd cave eventually. Oh darling, you have no idea how happy this makes me! Wait till I tell Apple bloom and Scootaloo!" said sweetie belle
Cheerilee was only half listening to her "mother's" rant. she was too focused on her class trying (and failing to hide their amusement). The biggest offenders of this were Diamond tiara and Silver spoon, who didn't even bother to hide their amusement. Cheerilee would have told them off, but she couldn't because they were friends with her "mother".
Cheerilee sighed. It was going to be a long school year, and an even longer life.