Severance
Diamond Tiara woke to the insistent clamouring of the time-worn alarm clock beside her bed. Groggily blinking her eyes free of sleep’s embrace, she vengefully clubbed at the clattering object until her hoof struck true and the noise stopped. It was 6:30 AM, which, this being a weekday, was time to get up and ready for her own personal hell: Ponyville Elementary School.
The filly sat up in bed, pushing all thoughts of schoolwork out of her mind for the moment in order to savour the morning’s calm atmosphere. If today went like most schooldays, this would be the last quiet time she’d have for several hours.
The voice of her father, calling from floors below, broke the fragile peace in her spacious room: “Diamond, darling?!”
“Yes, daddy?” she replied, sliding from her bed onto the welcoming carpet.
“Breakfast is ready!”
Turning to the small bedside mirror, she grasped her mother’s old manebrush in her hoof and began the daily ritual of making herself presentable, sending an affirmative “I’ll be down in a moment” her father’s way.
*
Ten minutes later, neat-maned and tiara-adorned, she was tucking heartily into her breakfast, albeit not as heartily as she'd have liked to – a filly had to have some self-control, after all.
The full plate of food didn’t last long faced with Diamond’s appetite and she soon found herself with an empty plate and newly food-covered teeth to clean. Giving in to her obsession with cleanliness, she spent a good fifteen minutes brushing her teeth until they shone before her father called her to more pressing matters: grabbing her bags and heading off to school.
Diamond trotted downstairs and reluctantly donned her saddlebags, taking her time leaving the mansion despite the risk of being late for school if she dawdled too long. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, she straightened up and trotted slowly out the door.
Time for school. Time for hell.
*
Silver Spoon found her as she neared the school gate. Feigning a smile, she greeted her friend: “Oh, hey Silver. How are you?”
“Fine,” evaded the bespectacled filly, “Could you try a little harder with the Blank-Flank Blunderers today? You've been letting them off a little easy lately, and I don’t like having to pick up your slack.”
“Alright,” responded Diamond, wishing not for the first time that she had the will to say ‘no’. But defying Silver Spoon would only make things worse for everyone concerned.
“Great!” grinned Silver, and to the other foals it must have seemed as if everything was as it always had been with the two inseparable fillies. Little did they know that one of the pair wanted more than anything to be able to part with the other.
Diamond merely sighed: with a friend like this, who needed enemies?
Catching a glare from the underdeveloped pegasus, Scootaloo, she was bitterly reminded that she had plenty of those, too.
*
Class was much the same as always, and as usual Diamond tried hard to pay attention, before heroically failing as she focused more and more and more on pretending not to notice Silver’s unspoken signals to throw some insult or another the way of one of her classmates.
She made it through Equestrian without starting any verbal conflicts, but her notes were woefully patchy. Another night catching up on her studies it was, then.
Most of the day passed without much going on, for which she was grateful, but the inevitable happened in the corridor a mere hour before the end of school.
Silver Spoon had managed to corner Apple Bloom between the lockers and the door to the playground, alone, and Diamond groaned internally even as she moved to join her false friend.
“Where are your fillyfriends, blank-flank?” mocked Silver.
Her red-maned target merely turned the insult around, delivering it with an air of weary dismissal: “While we’re on the subject of fillyfriends, Silver, I’ve been wondering when you’re going to propose to Diamante over there.”
“What?!” spat Diamond, less angry than nauseated by Apple Bloom’s words.
“ I mean, I guessed that since you’re practically joined at the hip now, you’re probably ready to take the next step in your relationship but I thought I’d better check before arranging a Pinkie Party for you lovebirds.”
The others in the corridor laughed at their expense, infuriating and humiliating the pair as Apple Bloom smirked.
“Guess I don’t need my friends to help you make foals of yourselves after all,” stated the farm filly with an air of complacence more at home in her tormentors’ voices.
“Big words for a filly who’s failed completely and utterly to find something she doesn't fail at” levelled Diamond in an attempt to wrench the focus of the crowd away from her and Silver.
Getting back in the swing of things, Silver’s nastiness once again surfaced: “Still no sign of those friends – Did they ditch you for somepony less useless? Oh, poor little Bloom – all on your lonesome…”
A sadistic glint flashed in her eyes as the silver-tongued monster continued:
“Personally, I hope whoever they’re with convinced Scootaloser to stop pretending her mother’s feather dusters are wings – her parents might get caught stealing replacements!”
The bespectacled monster gave a malicious giggle at the insult, her grin growing as the other filly stamped her hoof in fury and opened her mouth to defend her friend.
“Now you leave Scootaloo’s parents outta this! You ain’t got no right talkin’ ‘bout that!”
“I can talk about whatever I want, plebeian” – though foreign to her, the sneer accompanying the word left Applebloom no doubt as to its nature. “Isn’t that right, Diamond?”
“Yeah,” affirmed her 'friend' halfheartedly. Her face was scrunched into a furtive frown, thinking about things other than the verbal battle at hand. Sensing that the footing was more even than she’d realised, Applebloom shot a retaliatory insult back.
“Well, y’all are just a pair of stuck-up spoilt brats anyway, so what would you know?!”
A chuckle escaped Silver’s poisonous lips as she answered: “What would I know?... enough to realise that you’re a useless piece of orphan trash, for one…”
It was all Diamond could do not to let her anger show – didn't Silver realise that she was insulting more than just Apple Bloom?
Bitterly falling silent, she answered her own question: of course she knows – since when has she cared about anypony but herself? Fury and hurt spiralled around in her heart at the thought of her mother.
“That’s too far, Silver,” she said, only to be ignored, as she knew she would.
“…What would I know? That your parents would have hated every fibre of your stupid talentless body! I bet they’re glad that they never had to live with such a waste of space for a daughter – I would be.”
“And what’ve you ever done but leech off your precious daddy like a-a parasite?!” snapped Applebloom, close to tears now.
“Silver Spoon. Stop.” Ordered Diamond firmly, anger flaring in her eyes as much as in Applebloom’s. This was way over the line.
“Why should I?” sneered Silver, amused at her accomplice’s reaction. “It’s the truth. You know as well as I do that she’s nothing compared to important ponies like us – with a useless filly like her draining their drink money it’s no wonder th- “
“Stop. Now.” Growled Diamond – there was no way in Equestria she was going to stand by and let her so-called friend say this. She’d stood by in cowardice until now, but this was the last straw.
“Or what? You’ll tell Miss Cheerilee? Go ahead, I’m sure your screw-up father will do just fine without my daddy’s bailouts.”
Diamond shrank back into herself at the reminder of the chains which tied her to Silver Spoon’s bidding, unconsciously stepping closer to Apple Bloom as her mouth closed upon its half-ready retort.
“Exactly.” spat the vicious filly, “Now, as I was saying, blank-flank, you are nothing compared to me – nothing. With a waste of air like you draining their drink money, it’s no wonder your layabout parents offed their pathetic little heads. And good riddance, if you ask m- “
In the space of a second, fury overpowered logical thought and an irate filly, drunk on years of pent up hatred, threw her whole body into an explosive punch. The hoof connected with a thunderous thwack and Silver Spoon staggered backwards, falling onto her hindquarters. Blood trickled slowly from one of her nostrils, her eyes staring dazedly ahead of her as the filly’s mind tried to comprehend what had just happened.
Apple Bloom, tears in her eyes from the fallen filly’s words, stood frozen in shock. Her expression was mirrored near perfectly among the onlookers. Silence fell, broken after a few moments by the bewildered voice of Cheerilee: “What in Equestria…? Diamond Tiara?!”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who had been a little way behind their teacher on their return from the store cupboard, dumped the supplies they’d been carrying and sped forward to stand by Cheerilee’s side.
“Apple Bloom, are you OK?” asked Sweetie Belle, concern etched onto her young face.
“Yeah,” replied Apple Bloom, managing a weak chuckle as the extent of what had happened caught up to her, “Though I don’t think Silver Spoon’s day has gone too well.”
Scootaloo grinned, “Oh, really? What makes you say that?”
Cheerilee took control of the situation at last, having broken free of her shock. This wasn’t the sort of thing she’d ever thought she’d have to deal with – little scraps in the playground, maybe, but this?
“Twist, take Silver Spoon to the infirmary, please. Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara, my office – Now!”
She surveyed the class she was supposed to be teaching Maths that afternoon and thought over her options. To her right, Silver Spoon got to her feet, ignoring Twist’s offered hoof and hissing a furious “You. Are. Dead.” at Diamond Tiara as she was led from the scene. Sensing that this would be difficult to deal with, Cheerilee decided to end the school day early.
“The rest of you… you can go home early, seeing as we only had an hour left,” The class cheered at her proclamation, only to groan when she added that extra maths homework would be given over the next week to make up for the lost lesson. One by one, they made their way out of the corridor, breaking into a cheering sprint for freedom as soon as they were out of her sight.
Cheerilee was surprised to see that Diamond Tiara was still where she had been minutes prior, curled into the foetal position on the floor and rocking back and forth. From her mouth came the incessant, whispered mantra of “No, no, no, no, no… oh no, no, no” and from her tightly shut eyes dripped glistening tears.
“Diamond? Are you alright?” asked Cheerilee, seriously concerned by the filly’s behaviour. After a long pause during which she lapsed into silence, her student took a shaky breath and answered.
“N-no” came the quivering response. The filly who’d uttered it was a far cry from the Diamond Tiara Cheerilee’d had to deal with these past years: she was tearful and scared, her face the very picture of misery.
Slowly, very slowly, Diamond got to her feet and shuffled along beside her teacher, plummeting into one of the waiting chairs when they reached Cheerilee’s office without a care that she was sat beside three of the fillies who disliked her most.
*
It felt like no time at all had passed between Apple Bloom entering Cheerilee’s small office and her subsequent reappearance in front of Diamond, although a glance at the clock told her that in fact it had been fifteen minutes. At her teacher’s request, Diamond walked through into the familiar room and took a seat without needing to be asked. For a little while both teacher and student sat in pensive silence, deep in thought.
Cheerilee spoke first. “I’ve already spoken to Apple Bloom about what happened, and while your actions will not go unpunished I feel you did what you did for the right reasons. You’re not in any real trouble, though if you make a habit of starting brawls in the corridors, your punishments will be severe, indeed.”
Her gaze softened as she finished, “My main aim with you now is to get your side of the story, and your reasons for doing what you did. Let’s start at the beginning of what Apple Bloom said and you can tell me if anything she said you disagree with, okay?”
Diamond hesitated before answering: giving her reasons for doing what she did would mean dishing some serious dirt on Silver Spoon and she would not be happy about that, but if her ex-friend was ever going to act on her threats, it would be now. Her chances of preventing her false friend from attempting to ruin her father’s business were already as good as ruined, what more could the wretch do?
“Alright, Miss Cheerilee.”
Cheerilee smiled down at her. “Fantastic. Now, I made a transcript of what Apple Bloom said, so let's start with…”
*****
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This is an interesting interpretation of Diamond and Spoon's relationship. Also I noticed a few typos, you want double check you spelling before posting. For example the lesson is just called 'math' and not "maths"
4919318 I'm British, that's just the way we spell those things over here. Math is Maths in this country. Though if you'd be kind enough to point out the rest, I could check that there are no genuine typos in there.
Diamond and Silver's relationship is going to be expanded on a lot in the next chapter, so stick around if you found what I managed to fit in here interesting.
This story is going great so far, very interesting... I don't see any misspellings. But there are a few things here and there you can fix, for example:
" "N-no" came the quivering response. " -You should put a comma at the end of the speech inside the "s (forgot what they're called...) if the sentence continues after, and a period if the sentence ends there.
"Yes, daddy?", she replied, sliding from her bed onto the welcoming carpet. " - The comma after the sentence ends is unnecessary, because the question mark already is the punctuation. If there should be a comma/period, it should be for the reason above.
I like it
It's just difficult to imagine SS manipulating DT given all the show has shown us about their relationship and I'm having trouble with suspension of disbelief
4920513 I'm in the process of writing the next chapter as we speak, which is going to (hopefully) do a good job explaining what exactly the situation with SS was. If you still can't see Silver doing what she's been doing after that, then that's fine - for now, though, just wait and see.
All I can say for now is that Silver did a very good job manipulating Diamond into acting in such a way as to make her seem like the leader (and therefore take most of the attention off of Silver.)
4919979 Thanks! I'll be sure to fix those when I upload the next chapter. Whilst I'm not usually one for spelling mistakes, I do tend to add punctuation where none was needed from time to time.
This looks well worth following. Good story so far, I'll be very interested in where it goes.
One thing I noticed that seemed off is your description of the school. Ponyville Elementary is one room, a basement and a bell tower. It has no corridors, lockers or teacher's office. I know, narrative necessity and all, just an an observation.
4926941
Yeah, I needed it bigger for what I had planned, so I made the school many times larger than it is in the show.
I'm planning to explain it in-story anyway, but the explanation I'm rolling with is that the school was expanded to cater for foals from a wider radius of villages, not just Ponyville (due to ponies wanting their children to be educated in the home town of the new princess.)
To allow for the school's reconstruction in the timeline, the story takes place around 2 years after the show, which (based off of my own ideas of how old everypony is) makes Diamond and her classmates around thirteen years old and the mane six in their early-to-mid twenties.
4919979 There is no comma after a quotation ("") if it ends in a question (?) or exclamation mark (!) otherwise, you are correct in the not using a period (.) at the end if there is an action that follows.
4919369 Heh, Yukito and I assume many Brits sadly get that a lot. They may as well introduce flags or tags that say "This author uses "S" in place of "Z" in many common words. You have been warned!"
I do not recall if I had read this yet, I'll be sure to read it. The description alone was pretty catching, Spoon being vexed enough to spill secrets on Diamond Tiara for a fight they had? DT must of really let her guard down around Silver who probably kept her guard up well to not let DT catch onto anything Silver may have.
I do hope this eventually sees a complete tag, I really have a hard time following stories that aren't complete. Too many disappointments like recently with stories ending up dead after so much time investments put into a story.
Well, enough chatter. Best finish my responsibilities so as to this story quicker!
4973898 Thanks very much for the comment, feedback is always nice.
Regarding its status as incomplete, I have been thinking of ending the story at the end of the current arc (anything up to 15 chapters at 2k words each) and thus leaving myself the option of continuing it through sequels a la 'An Affliction Of The Heart', albeit nowhere near as long-running.
I have some plans for events following on from this arc, but nothing too solid, so rather than continue it blindly and potentially leave it unfinished forever, I thought it'd be better to end it nicely at this arc's conclusion and decide if and how to continue it from there.
I've written more than I probably needed to, but alas, my OCD/paranoia about explaining things in full took over. Sorry for the wall of text!
Wow. That really was a heck of a turn around. You virtually only see this type of story told in Silver Spoon fanons. To have Silver, whom I have seen as a filly who knows what she does wrong and stands hoof and hoof as equals with DT enough to where they respect each others' own personal space where they each might have interests in different things, something you also don't see or read much of outside of certain authors, but to see THIS concept executed so smoothly and with real plausible reasons?
Gotta say, this Silver Spoon, especially with how assertive she can be at times and how silvertongued she can be, I have to say this is a hell of a setup. If one looks at One Bad Apple's Golden Apple Float scene, you can sort of envision where THIS story's Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon come from. Silver being ready to lay the verbal smack down while Babs did her thing, leaving Silver shocked as DT trotted away to avoid a confrontation to find a good spot to view the floats.
4974334 HA! No worries. That is hardly what I'd call a wall of text my friend. I am a stream of consciousness type person myself, and can go on for miles when discussing topics. I thought you presented your thoughts and wishes for the story just right and without really giving any spoilers away, which is a good thing.
That is some good planning by the way; something that feels complete but yet open ended enough to leave room for future projects in the same universe is exactly what readers love.
Seems you have the outline for this arc planned out well. Looking forward to seeing some updates.
And holy crap, that was well a well written chapter. You must not be one of those easily swayed by ponytailed glasses wearing three toned grayed fillies to toss out such a refreshing twist on all this. AND IT HAS A PLOT beyond superficial reasons!
Though, I can't say much this being a setup chapter, I really am looking forward to more updates now. Have a like and fav.
Hm, interesting.
Does SS have a mustache
? j/k
4920513 Well, I like to imagine Silver Spoon is the real brains behinds their group. But… in my vision, she's more subtle, operating with half-words and light, but constant pressure (never operating with direct and blunt blackmail). While DT is wanting to "prove" herself to SS (and that's why she's usually starting "Blank-Flank Blunderers" herself and generally seems like 'leader').