Birthday Bios: Pearly Whites · 3:27pm May 23rd, 2016
I wonder if anyone finds it odd that while she’s from what folks would call the “Metal” family, she’s named after something that’s not a metal at all. The theme was originally “ponies named after shiny things”, but among names with platinum, silver, and gold in them, she’s the odd one out.
Then again, her mother has “Crystal” in her name, so it’s good. Plus, I gotta keep the name because of her profession. 
Pearly Whites was born in Halterside to Noble Metal and Sunny Crystal, with her sister Platinum Pen (“Penny”) preceding her by two years. Little Pearl was so named because Sunny liked the name very much, and it fit with her hometown’s general theme of seaside town, as well as Sunny’s family’s crystal and gemstone motif. Plus, once Pearl grew her teeth in, they were a nice, white set of chompers.
The first few years of Pearl’s life consisted of her crying and having temper tantrums at least five times a day. She was quite clingy toward her mother, found dirt and grime or any other messy thing uncomfortable on her coat and skin, and bad smells scared her. She cried so much that she annoyed Penny, who tried to reason with her calmly angry toddler way. Had Penny been prone to yelling, that would have made the crying much worse.
She was three when the role of youngest was usurped from her by baby brother Silver Shill. As even the more timid and easygoing babies tended to be messy, Pearl always took it upon herself to keep him clean. She has almost drowned him a couple of times in the bathtub, and tended to vomit when coming across his dirty diaper. But the thing she was caught doing the most often was forcing his mouth open and brushing newly grown teeth. Silver did not like that at all.
Starting school, she was shocked to discover that all the other foals didn’t mind getting dirty in whatever activity was done in class. In fact, the teacher had to repeat the sentiment expressed by her parents that it was a normal part of life. While she got used to the other foals being messy, she wasn’t fond of being messy herself. She was ostracized for this reason, and bullied by having mud shoved on her coat.
She bonded with her mother by helping her around the house, and sometimes watched her polish jewelry at work. Pearl was amazed at how Sunny did it, and they would talk over how silly some of the neighbors were, what Pearl learned at school, and how Sunny met her husband. At one point, Pearl curiously tried to polish her teeth the same way she watched her mother polish the gems, which had Sunny stopping her and telling her it’s a bad idea and to stick with the toothbrush.
Her father made up a game where she got to be the Tooth Fairy, and steal her siblings’ teeth from under the pillow, while he slipped in a bit. She kept the teeth and preserved them, which Noble found kind of weird, but it was harmless (Penny did find it creepy, though). Still, in helping her clean them, he joked that he couldn’t get his teeth to be that white, and at least they’d make a beautiful smile.
Learning about cavities and other afflictions of the mouth had her wetting her toothbrush with mouthwash and brushing her teeth with a whole lot of mintyness and a lot of foam. Being fond of food with strong tastes like spiciness, sourness, and yes, peppermint (she was ahead of her peers in the taste buds department), had her handling it quite well. And flossing was always fun for her, as she always pretended she was making music akin to a violin as she was doing it. And when having made her already white teeth even whiter, having barely turned eight, she earned her cutie mark.
She shared a room with Penny, and it was lucky that they both liked to keep their room clean and organized. It was more of Penny being practical so that she could find what she needed quickly, while Pearl was just fussy and making sure everything was absolutely sanitized—after all, dirty equals germs, and germs make ponies sick! Silver Shill knew better than to disrupt the neatness, and thus, everything seemed perfect.
Then Comedy Gold arrived.
Goldie was loud, she was mischievous, and she was messy—everything Pearl hated. While Penny took Goldie’s rampages in stride, Pearl would freak out. Anger usually came whenever Goldie would cause a mess in Penny and Pearl’s room, and fear came whenever Goldie somehow teleported out of sight during a diaper change or feeding. Pearl and Silver were always partners in crime in panicking and scrambling to find their baby sister, much to Penny’s annoyance. Usually, Goldie was unhurt.
Goldie continued to be annoying for Pearl by getting into her stuff, making a mess in every way possible, and pulling pranks on her. Lacking Penny’s patience and Silver’s knack for distraction, Pearl took to shooing her away and yelling at her. The most fights in the house broke out between them, and they were often in trouble for it.
When she was fourteen, she was thrilled to finally be invited to a Nightmare Night party, and while she gave away most of her candy aside from the sour, cinnamon, and mint ones, she had no shortage of her own candy. She was wary of one group who had humiliated her the year before, but she had Goldie to thank for one thing—they wouldn’t bother Pearl anymore because her little sister’s terrifying. She even made a couple new friends, Jelly Jubilee and Pawprint, and found that she really liked romantic monster literature.
Then, coming home, she learned the awful news—at the ‘Haunted Lighthouse’ activity at the exact landmark her father worked, some stupid teenage pegasi used storm clouds for an eerie atmosphere, only to accidentally cause a storm. In getting foals to safety, Noble had been killed by a nasty wave.
Much like the rest of her family, Pearl was upset by this event. Between scrubbing in random places in the house, organizing and reorganizing her tooth collection, and snapping at Goldie for little things, Pearl wasn’t sure how to feel exactly. She vented in brushing her teeth and flossing furiously until her gums bled, and she refused to touch her candy out of fear of disrespect (and the others didn’t really like her selection, so it was left uneaten for a while). It took until Hearth’s Warming for her to get back to some semblance of normal.
After that earth-shaking event, she quickly realized that she had to learn to make money in order to help support the family beyond what their mother could provide. She got together with friends and went around to offer to clean houses. She had to split the bits with the friends, but she saved whatever she earned. She worked janitorial jobs in Halterside’s government and business buildings. She often came home exhausted and went straight to bed. Often, she ate her meals in her room.
After the family sent Penny off to law school, Pearl decided she wanted to save toward a chance in dental school. Once she told her mother this, she, her family, and her friends pitched in to save up some bits to send her to one in Baltimare. It took a few years, but they managed to send her off when she was still a young adult. Though she was sad that Silver and Goldie wouldn’t be able to attend any colleges after the nightmare of saving up for her, they were at least content with finding other ways to pursue their talents (then again, what kind of school would a party pony like Goldie go to?).
She spent several years learning the craft before going out into the field. When she couldn’t find a job in her area, thanks to many other graduates taking them before she could, she got a letter from her friend Jelly—who now lived across the country not too far from Applewood—that there was an opening in her town. Pearl quickly packed her bags and took a train there, and snagged the job quite quickly.
Unfortunately, she didn’t quite think to get her own place first, and bunked with Jelly until she could. She at least keeps her space clean and pays rent to Jelly.
Pearl enjoys her job, and likes hearing about her patients’ personal lives, especially with the little foals that talk about funny stuff. She makes sure to ask the patients about how they take care of their teeth, which has led to some bizarre answers (“You use sandpaper?! That’ll wear it down!”) She has unfortunately gotten sued for a couple of muck-ups, which frustrates her because she could get fired, and she still hadn’t gotten to buying her own place yet.
She was well on her way to being able to afford her own apartment when she learned about Goldie’s sickness and need for surgery. She gave up that money in resignation, and hoped Jelly wouldn’t mind her just staying for a little bit longer.
However, she soon learned that the place was going to be her own soon, as Jelly had gotten engaged to a stallion named Peanut Butter, who was a basketball player for the local sports team. While Pearl is happy for Jelly, she doesn’t really like Peanut that much. His personality just rubs her the wrong way.
That, and she doesn’t like the food he’s named after—it gets stuck on the roof of her mouth.
When visiting her family back east, she got into the habit of asking them about her dental hygiene. Her brother-in-law Coppersmith and her nephew Noble Metal (II) are not safe from these questions (Noble takes them in stride, though, and is proud of having clean teeth). In return, Goldie asks if she could fix Silver’s underbite, much to the stallion’s embarrassment. Pearl replies, “No, I’m not an orthodontist.”
Her future siblings-in-law and nieces and nephews won’t be able to escape. She demands clean teeth.
Who am I kidding, she demands clean everything.
Honestly, I always figured that any substance with a Pokémon game named after it was an acceptable name in the Metal family.
Aaaand I just got a mental image of Pearly ruling a pristine empire with an iron hoof. All will be clean. All will be pure. All will be Pearly.
What is it with me and wanting to see earth ponies take over the world?