• Published 6th Aug 2012
  • 17,493 Views, 1,076 Comments

The Literary Appeal - HiddenBrony



Cheerilee gets an unexpected invitation from Ponyville's librarian, but her mother has other plans.

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The Inebriated Appeal

“More wine?” the waiter asked, his magic picking up an empty bottle of wine. “Or has your partner here had enough?”

“Lesssssee ‘bout that,” Twilight giggled, her hooves over her snout. Every laugh carried a wet rumbling noise that sent her into a further bout of giggles which Cheerilee could only watch in smiling incredulousness. “Mmmmyes! More wine, sirrririrrriiirrrr.” Twilight slapped the table with her hoof, nodding with the worst attempt at class the waiter had ever seen.

“Ma’am?” the green pony asked, turning his attention toward Cheerilee.

“No, I think I’m fine! Somepony has to walk her home, after all!” Smiling sweetly, she waved off the waiter while he fled to retrieve more social lubricant from the back. “Twilight, are you sure you want another bottle? I know I said I could pay for the dinner, but too much more and we’ll be—”

“S’fine! S’fine, really! I’m the Prinnncesseseses’ personal pupple. Pupil,” Twilight hicked, blinking off synch. “Do you know how much bits I have saved up!? I could... buy and sell this place! And then have more bits!” Twilight’s eyes grew wide. “Ohmigosh! Cheerilee, I could go into real estate!”

Leaning her head into her hoof, Cheerilee smiled as she witnessed Twilight’s downward spiral. “Real estate.”

“Yes! The house market is booming right now in Ponyville and I could buy one, and sell it at a... a... really good price and then have more money! And then I could save Equestria by buying off whatever stupid villainous scheme comes up next.”

“Schemes, Twilight? Really?”

“Oh yessss. Discord, Chrysalis...” Twilight mumbled... “Um, Nightmare Moon. Oh my gosh, Cheerilee! Nightmare. As in like, a female pony. Like you and me!” Peeling her eyes, Twilight gave the window a suspicious gaze. “She’s so clever.”

“Princess Luna? I doubt she’d have much use for money. She is the Princess after all.” In some sick part of her mind, Cheerilee was enjoying this. Unfortunately, it was a rather large portion of her mind, to boot.

“I haveta use the little fillies’ room,” Twilight suddenly announced, far louder than she had any need to. “I require a map. Blueprints or schematics of the restaurant.”

“You could follow the signs, dear.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed at the small sign that adorned the far wall.

[Restrooms →]

Smiling and mumbling excuses through a ferocious blush, Twilight stumbled off through the restaurant. Cheerilee smiled after her. It took her a good fifteen seconds to realize she was watching Twilight’s rear end as she walked. Blinking hard, Cheerilee refocused her thoughts as she went over her date. Twilight was a lot of things, but to say she was a boring old bookworm would have quite possibly the worst assessment of her date she ever heard.

Time passed, and Cheerilee sent the waiter away when he had shown up with the third bottle of wine. “I think she’s really had enough, thank you.”

“That was apparent from the fifth glass,” the stallion smirked. Cheerilee shot him a look, but he merely trotted off with a smirk on his face. Scowling with a smile, Cheerilee picked herself up off the table and stretched her hooves. Twilight had been gone a while, and unfortunately, that could have meant she’d find the mare face down in a toilet in the fillies’ room.

Or, as experience had taught her, the colt’s room was just as likely.

Walking in a decidedly straighter line to the restroom than her date, Cheerilee quickly found nothing in the restroom for fillies. She asked a passing stallion if a lavender unicorn had passed out in the gentlecolt’s room, and he mercifully told her that it was clear of any unconscious ponies, male or female. Wearing a pensive look, she trotted back to her table, fearing the drunken pony may have taken off into the streets. As she rounded the corner to the room they had been sat in, the reality of the situation was, in fact, much worse.

Mother!”

Twilight Sparkle looked up from not her own table but the one displaced by a few rows, sitting with the spitting image of Cheerilee given twenty years time and a pound of perfume. Waving enthusiastically at her date, Twilight suddenly looked between the two mares. “Ohmigosh! Cheerilee, you got cloned! And old! But young, too!”

Despite the jab, Cheerilee’s mother wore a saintly smile. “Cherry, dear, come sit with us. Twilight here was just telling me all about your relationship.”

Taking a step forward, Cheerilee wondered if anypony could lose all the blood in their face and to the point where they would fall unconscious. She would have liked that, right then. Walking with practiced focus, the schoolteacher made her way to her mother’s table, her train of thought quickly interrupted as Twilight’s hooves fell around her.

“Cheerilee! I’ve figured it out. That’s your mom!” Twilight said, her snout mere centimeters from Cheerilee’s. “When I came back, I thought I had been gone for years, and you waited for me all this time. You’re so loyal, Cheerilee. The best mare a girl could ask for!” Burying her head against Cheerilee’s chest, Twilight nuzzled deeply in a way a child might a parent. “You waited for me.”

“Um, Twilight, that’s not—” Cheerilee cut herself off, focusing her attention on her mother. Mouthing a quick what are you doing here to the matron, she put her hooves around Twilight defensively.

“Oh, Cherry. I was just in the neighborhood. I was feeling a bit famished and thought I’d stop by. Really, it’s no problem, is it?” Cheerilee could swear she saw a silver tongue flash behind perfect white teeth.

“Heeheeehee... Cherry. I like that. Cherrylee.” Twilight cooed, closing her eyes as she hung loosely on Cheerilee. “Hey Cheerilee Cherrylee~!”

Cheerilee hoisted Twilight up onto her hooves and smiled vainly through her teeth. “No problem at all, mother. Just wish you could have given me a little warning, is all.” She looked at the increasingly inebriated unicorn in her hooves. Twilight was trying desperately to stay vertical despite no longer knowing where was up and what way was down. Gingerly, Cheerilee coaxed Twilight away from her mother. “Come on Twilight, let’s get back to the table. We still have to pay.”

“M’not hungry anymore, Cheery.” Rolling her eyes, Cheerilee sat Twilight in her chair and moved to the other side of the table so she could keep an eye on her mother. “Oh no! I’m in your chair, Cherrycheeri—” With a hiccup, Twilight finished, “—chonga.”

“As a schoolteacher, I have to teach that it is important to share our things. You can— Cherry what?”

“Izzzwhat Pinkie Pie wanted. I meant to get her one but she’s a baker and I’m not good at cooking...” Twilight mumbled, her eyes searching the tablecloth. “I can’t find any books about them either.” Sliding her hooves in front of her, Twilight hunched over the table, her eyes peeling. “I think! She mussst’ve made it up. It’s the only explanation.”

Cheerilee fought to hold back her smile–her teacher’s intuition told her it would only reinforce Twilight’s behavior. Eyeing her own empty wine glass, Cheerilee quickly rebuked it. “She’s a baker like you said. Nothing would ever get made if it had to come from a cookbook.”

Twilight sat up straight. “Of course. Invention! It’s the necessity of the mother! No, I mean—” Twilight paused. “Pinkie must need a chonga. She invented it! Ohmygosh! Cherrycheeri... Lee. Pinkie needs her chonga!”

Cheerilee stared. “Her chonga.”

Slamming her hoof on the table, Twilight brought herself up to her full height. “I must give Pinkie my Chonga!" she declared.

Cheerilee stole a glance around the room. Everypony was indeed watching them. Again. “And there goes the shame. Twilight! Please come down from there.”

Twilight stared down at her date with a quizzical expression. “Do you want my Chonga as well?”

Behind her, Cheerilee’s mother was currently enacting her impression of what ‘chonga’ meant. A nearby father covered his son’s eyes at the crude display between the knife and the fork. Unlike his flighted cousin, this knife was content to live a sedentary life with its pronged soulmate. It was used to being used in manners not befitting cutlery. What it wasn’t used to was enacting an explicit love affair with a fork.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” a strawberry coated mare with a yellow mane asked. Her cutie mark was the picture of the most perfect cup of coffee. “Could you please put the silverware down? You’re disturbing the other customers.” With a woeful glance over to Twilight Sparkle, Cheerilee’s mother let herself dwell on the fact that she was the disturbing one in public. However, she briefly locked eyes with her daughter. A smile slowly spread over her face as she looked back at her waitress, giving the young mare a once over. “Perhaps I could interest you with some hot coffee while you wait?” Cheerilee’s ears twitched as she heard the mare ask her mother that question. The question that haunted her youth. The same question she had heard asked to her mother by Mayor Mare. Mrs. Cake when she was still Ms. Cake. And that Manehatten mare, Orange Julius. And so many, many more.

Hot Coffee was a dangerous phrase.

Cheerilee moved faster than her buzzed brain could pick up on. Acting on instinct, she quickly grabbed their bill. Her fidgeting limbs attempted to stabilize Twilight Sparkle as she dragged her date toward the register. “Well, we’ve certainly had a night, Twilight—”

Yes, mm! I would be interested in your hot coffee.

“I like coffee,” Twilight mused as her eyes began to droop at an alarming rate. “Cherrylee, I wan’ some hot coffee,” Twilight giggled as she started to move forward.

“Noooo,” Cheerilee started, taking a precautionary glance backward. It had already begun. Her mother was smoozing over to the unexpecting waitress. She didn’t want to know what happened next. “Coffee is a morning drink, Twilight. You’ll stunt your growth if you drink it before bed!”

Twilight grunted. “That’s just an old mare’s tale...”

Oh really? I too, am a huge fan of a little... French Vanilla.” Cheerilee's mother had the tone of a siren.

“Think of how many old mare’s tales end up being true!” Cheerilee tried, recalling the events of the Longest Night. “Not everypony can take such risks all the time.”

“That’s true. Oh Cheerilee, you know what’s... what’s best.” Twilight snored. She was walking, talking, and generally being an agreeable drunk, and yet she just snored. Cheerilee couldn’t help but pause and admire this mare’s hidden talents, but a crash from behind bolstered her into action. Forget the siren. That was the sound of a succubus.

Somepony was about to spill the coffee.