"Make what go away?"
"Silver Spoon. She *sniff* won't leave me alone."
The nurse's mind raced furiously as she tried to prepare a response. It was, of course, her job to keep all the colts and fillies healthy, but Diamond Tiara had just utterly baffled her with this request. She wished she could say that she hadn't the faintest idea what Diamond was talking about, but after looking into her tear- moistened eyes and hearing her beg for help so earnestly, the nurse decided that she didn't have the heart to say any such thing. Fortunately, while she was still trying to formulate a reply, Cheerilee popped in to bail her out.
"How is she?" the teacher asked, timidly stepping through the door. Much to her relief, she saw that Diamond Tiara's wound had been neatly bandaged up.
"Well, the scrape doesn't look like anything serious..." said the nurse, her voice nervously trailing off at the end.
Cheerilee eyed her with some suspicion. "...But?" she asked, a hint of tension rising in her tone.
"...but there's something else that's distressing her. Apparently there's this filly called 'Silver Spoon' that keeps picking on her. Would you know anything about this?"
Cheerilee let out a tiny, barely audible whimper of a gasp. "S-she said what?" she asked, her pupils rapidly dilating.
"She told me that she wants me to make Silver Spoon go away and leave her alone. Is Silver Spoon a new student or something?"
"N-no," stammered Cheerilee, whose body was starting to shiver. "She-she's a- she's a...oh, my. Oh, my."
"I *sob* tried to get rid of her, Miss Cheerilee," said Diamond Tiara, "but she won't leave." As she gazed up into her teacher's eyes, the floodgates began to reopen. "Please make her stop, Miss Cheerilee!" she pleaded, newly formed tears dropping onto her lap.
Cheerilee took a long, deep breath and proceeded to give the pitiful filly another hug. "I'll try," she whispered. "I promise I'll try."
Diamond Tiara broke from her teacher's embrace and roughly shoved her away. "I don't want you to try!" she wailed. "I want you to do it! Make her go away!"
Cheerilee sighed. "I'm sorry, Diamond, but all I can say is-"
"Please, Miss Cheerilee!" Diamond cried, clasping her hooves together. "You have to do it! You're the teacher!"
A hard, dense, throbbing lump had lodged itself in Cheerilee's throat, and a mild wave of nausea was passing over her. Diamond Tiara's words had cut through her like a hot knife through butter. She was right; she was the teacher. Was the education and well-being of an entire class of youngsters too big of a responsibility for her to handle?
She had never thought so before, but as she frantically racked her mind for a solution, it certainly seemed like that was the case. She wished she could tell Diamond Tiara that everything would be okay. She wished she could run away from the schoolhouse and never return. She wished she could drag Silver Spoon into the real world and give her the spanking of a lifetime. She wished she could do anything but stand there and stare at this poor, pathetic, despairing little girl that she was powerless to help.
"So what are you going to do?" asked the thoroughly stymied nurse.
Immediately after she asked that, Cheerliee's bottom lip began to quiver. As the gravity of the situation was sinking in, a thin layer of mist began to form on her eyes, turning everything around her into an amorphous blur. Never in her life did she imagine that this could happen to her. She was a teacher, a matronly mare who had trained her whole life to prepare young ponies for the future. Years of practice, years of experience, a decade worth of acquired knowledge and wisdom, all so she could be ready to give her bright young students whatever help they needed.
And now she was failing. Miserably.
Cheerilee just hung her head defeatedly as tears began to trickle down her cheeks. With a substantial amount of effort, she barely managed to choke out the three words that she thought she would never have to say...
"I...don't...know."
Cheerilee's steady breathing pattern was starting to become jerky and erratic as tears continued to run down her cheeks in greater and greater numbers. Every time she looked at Diamond Tiara's sobbing, trembling form, she saw a reflection of herself. What was she? A licensed teacher? A full grown mare entrusted with the lives of the next generation?
No. Just a frightened, helpless little filly in a mare's body, desperately waiting for a grownup to step in and make everything better. What's more, she was keeping a class full of students waiting for her. Her feelings of shame became so overwhelming that all she wanted to do was run home, collapse into bed and spend the remainder of the evening crying into a pillow. But of course, that wasn't an option at this point in time.
She briefly excused herself from the nurse's office to return to her classroom, if only to tell them that they were all dismissed early. As she walked them out of the schoolhouse in single file, she prayed that none of them noticed her red, swollen eyes or her tear- stained cheeks. Diamond Tiara was, of course, in no condition to be sent home alone, so Cheerilee decided that she would call her father and ask him to come pick her up. Surely her own father would know how to help her, right?
...right?
Yay! Seconds chapter! Good job, I really liked this one!
I wonder if Diamond will turn out like
Being a teacher doesn't mean that you have all the answers. It's a sad truth of Ms. Cheerilee's chosen profession that she must cope with.
Also, why do I get the sinking feeling that Filthy Rich is going to be of no help whatsoever?
Oh, the chills of this... Keep this coming! Oh, and the feels! Yes, yes, We likes it, We wants more! We NEEDS more!!! GIVE US THE PRECIOUS!
Methinks that Silver Spoon is more than just an "imaginary friend," and that Cheerilee knows much, much more than she is letting on.
Hmm.. so Silver Spoon is either imaginary and in DT's head or post traumatic memory that is haunting her. Like she knew a Silver Spoon and killed her or something.
MOAR.
Now.
By Royal Decree of me.
This is interesting. I love the premise of this story, but it raises questions too. This story should have an AU tag to it, because it dismisses almost everything that happens in the show concerning Diamond Tiara. Surely some ponies in class would have brought up the weirdness of seeing this bossy and prissy filly talking to herself or doing her little rump bump with no one at the other end. So yeah, this needs an AU tag.
That being said, the story itself is good, could use a little more descriptions, but it's a good idea all the same. Kind of interesting too, seeing Diamond Tiara scared and unsure, like there had never been any other pony to come up and ask her who she was talking to all this time. That really does bug me, because it seems like this has been going on for a while, and Diamond Tiara knew in heart that Silver Spoon wasn't real, but still let herself believe the lie. Sorry, the holes in this story are hard to miss, but I hope they get answered in future chapters.
2242314 I suspected that it may merit the AU tag, but I PMed a mod about it and he said it wasn't separated enough from canon. I only showed him the first chapter, though, so maybe I should add the tag now.
And rest assured, all of your questions will be answered. I have an entire backstory mapped out for DT.
2242407
Hmmm, alright, that convinced me. I'll be watching this and seeing where you plan on taking the reader with this re-imagining of the best filly.
Poor Cheerilee. It seems it isn't going to be so easy.
I like your depiction of Cheerilee in this chapter. I did feel that the chapter was a little short, but I guess that's because it leaves me hungry for MORE!
This has some potential. Keep it up!
Any idea on future updates? I'd really like to see more of this fic.
It'll come... I just need some time to figure out what direction I'm going to take the story in next.
I see. So you pull no punches in getting the reader interested, eh?
You've definitely got a brilliant idea at your disposal here, and Cheerilee's part's been done exceptionally well. My only concern was how quickly the reader is thrown into the conflict. Miss Cheerilee immediately began the story by telling Diamond about Silver's nonexistence, and Silver in turn almost immediately turned villainous before Diamond had any real time to sort out how she felt about it. The relationship between Diamond and Silver could use more development to better emphasize how painful it all is.
Still, it's looking good so far. I wish you the best in your future efforts.
Interesting perspective. Silver Spoon as an imaginary friend.. a construct of a feeble and depsperatly selfish mind. NO WONDER she is the PERFECT companion! Looking back on the episodes is like looking back on the movie "The Sixth Sense". Like Bruce Willis, Silver Spoon COULD very well not exist as nopony interacts with her directly. Diamond is the focus.
You have made me doubt that "best pony" even exists.. no Ima go kill myself
I loved the first Chapter. it was chilling and sad and I had a WTF moment when Cherilee said "there is no Silver Spoon"
oh and before I forget, then there is this
Did not see the imaginary friend coming.
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb58p6iFDa1qi3s12.gif
great twist.
You must finish this. You must!
4633922 I know
For the longest time, I had no idea where to take this fic. I tried mapping out the story a dozen different ways, but no matter what I did, it seemed like I was never satisfied with the end result. Plus, I decided to take a pretty long break from fimfiction when I went through the whole graduate school application process, so that didn't help.
But I promise I have not abandoned this fic. I'm writing a new chapter as we speak and you can expect to see it relatively soon!
4633922 Then I am now following this story as well.