Silver Marriage

by cdcdrr

A Pony's Metal

A Pony's Metal

"How much longer?" Asked a blindfolded Silver Spoon.

"Ssh, I'm almost done. There, you can take it off now." Diamond Tiara instructed, and Silver followed.

After she removed the blindfold, Silver Spoon could see there were inside and empty shop. A large number of display cases stood scattered throughout the place, and there was a counter with a register. The walls had been padded with a dark purple and lined with cherry wood panels. The floor carpeted in lavender colours. There were a few mirrors on the walls and headless display busts. A few ornate wall lamps and glass chandelier provided bright lighting. The place looked like a jewellery store, only minus all the jewels.

"You had this build? This is your business?" Silver couldn't help but admit she was impressed. Aside from the place looking quite neat, as a filly she had wondered what it would be like to own a whole store of jewellery. There was just one thing missing, and that was the same thing she imagined she'd sample for herself if given the run of such a place as a filly. "But where is the merchandise?"

"Oh Silver, you think I forgot about that part? I have only shown you half of my surprise." She began to trot towards the backroom of the store and beckoned Silver to follow her.

Passing through the door from the storefront, she found herself inside a fully furnished workshop. There were bins with various metals, metalworking tools, precision tools, workbenches, and even a smelter. Diamond Tiara rested her forehooves on a large metal bin containing gems.

"What do you think? This idea wouldn't have worked out without a little help from Rarity." Diamond ran her hoof through the gems, enjoying the sound as the clattered about.

"You're going to make them all by yourself? But who will tend the register? Did you hire help?" Silver Spoon asked as she looked about the place.

"Oh, I won't need an employee, I'll do that myself. But you are going to help me make the goods put up for sale." Diamond gave a shrewd smile.

"But- but I don't know anything about how any of this works! I mean, what tools to use. How I'm going to turn these ingots into a setting. How to securely fasted the gems." Silver Spoon protested.

"Sweetie, your name is Silver Spoon. Your cutie mark is a richly decorated silver utensil. Your family were known for their silver smithing ability. You were born to do this. It's your destiny." Diamond insisted and laid her hooves on her shoulder in encouragement.

"Diamond, that doesn't all mean I'm born to be a craftspony. I got that cutie mark for having a silly tea party with you! I'm a pathetic mare who never made it to college, and you believe I can just pick this up by trying?" Silver Spoon remained incredulous.

"Don't say such things! You are my wife and you're an amazingly gifted and intelligent pony who underplays her own abilities. Don't let your insecurity deny you this opportunity to prove you're not just some spoiled filly with rich parents. If you would just try your hoof at jewel crafting, you would find this is your true destiny. All I ask is that you make at least one thing, and see for yourself how good you are. If it's not good enough for sale, I'll give you my promise I will hire someone else who does have faith in her ability."

Silver Spoon bit her lip as she looked about the workshop, the sense of being overwhelmed about what to do already taking hold. Then she looked back at Diamond Tiara, and found there to be no doubt about her own words in her eyes. Relenting, she gave a sigh.

"Just one. But after that, you won't have to rely on my unskilled self. You can order them from a real factory." She disentangled herself from Diamond's grasp to begin collecting tools and material.

Diamond looked on with a bit of sadness. It was disheartening to see what years of doubt, parental abuse and a lack of education had done to the once proud, smug filly of her youth. But Diamond Tiara was confident she'd get that old Silver Spoon back as soon as she discovered she was right.

Silver set to work, deciding that her first project would be on a silver torc. It was a round piece of metal with a hole for the neck and a few token gems set on the front, so how hard could it be? But all through the morning, her conviction that she shouldn't even be trying grew. Was it normal for the smelter to take as long as it did to melt down silver, or was she just inefficient? Curling the silver to fit around a pony's neck was hard as Silver struggled to maintain both symmetry and shape. Had she picked the right tools, or was her intuition on what kind of tongs, hammer and welder to pick just arbitrary? Setting the gems, she wondered how many mistakes a true professional would have remarked on and scolded her for being an expensive waste of time, material and labour. Even when she finished, the end result looked like nothing she would want to wear. The choice of gems seemed just garish, the torc looked like it was bend wrong on one end, and too flat on the other side, while she worried the inside was too jagged and would cut the neck of the wearer. Maybe she could fix this, maybe with sandpaper and applying more force with pincers and hammer. But Diamond Tiara re-entered the workshop after having been out front for some time.

"And, how is the work coming along, Silver? It looks like you're finished." She said as she drew nearer to inspect the final product.

"It looks just awful. Every pony will laugh at you if this is what you're selling here." Silver told her ruefully. Her wife was going to be so disappointed after talking her up all through the morning.

"Silver, you did an excellent job with that. More than anypony could expect for a first attempt. If you are going to improve with every finished piece, I want to see how you will be in a month from now!" Diamond Tiara complimented her and rubbed her withers affectionately with a hoof.

"No, it's all bent wrong and the gems just seem so...cheap." Silver inspected her work further, hoping not to find any more flaws for Diamond Tiara to spot so she could lie even harder.

"Tssk, flaws only a pony with a keen eye for quality like you will notice. I saw you work on that thing, and every step just seemed to come so naturally. Like you didn't need any help from me. It's a good thing to, because I haven't done any better than crafts at Ms Cheerilee's school."

"You're just saying that because you don't want me to feel bad. There's no way a customer would buy this." Silver insisted as she pushed the torc into Diamond's hooves.

"Well, why don't we ask one then?" Diamond smiled and took Silver's hoof. "I have a pony in the store who knows about fashionable neckwear. Let's ask her."

"Wait, you're actually-" Silver stopped her sentence as she was dragged into the storefront, where she saw Rarity waiting by the counter.

"A wonderful afternoon Silver darling. I noticed your wife was in the new store by the market street and I just had to see if her business was finally open. She was gracious enough to let me inside, despite not being ready for an official opening yet." Rarity told her, the let her eyes fall on the torc Diamond now carried. "Is that a piece of your new line? Wherever did you order this?"

"Silver Spoon made it just now." Diamond Tiara stated before Silver could say anything to avoid embarrassment.

"I know it doesn't look like much. It's my first work on jewellery. I don't think Diamond will rely on my work in the future." Silver Spoon tried to cover herself from any further embarrassment.

"All if this wouldn't have gone as well if it weren't for your help, Rarity. I think I owe you something for helping with our financial situation." Diamond Tiara thanked their first customer.

"It's quite alright, dear. I help ponies because it's only right to share what we have with those who need it. You don't owe me anything, darling." Rarity denied.

Diamond Tiara wouldn't accept that for an answer. "I would like you to have Silver's first finished product as a gift. You deserve something for your trouble, and it feels appropriate that you who made this possible should be the first to get something from our starting line of jewellery."

Rarity gasped, in a somewhat typical dramatic sense. "It's too much! The amethysts on silver, the tangible blood, sweat and tears, the hours that must have gone into making it look right." Silver ducked her head, certain that this indicated Rarity was insulted. "It's magnificent! You have a bright career ahead of you, Silver darling. I will treasure this gift like my finest pieces. If you will keep up such excellent work, I hope to see our mutual business flourish! Why, Ponyville may just become the new scene of high society fashion."

Despite herself, Silver Spoon felt herself perk up at those words. Secretly, she wondered if Diamond Tiara had just talked Rarity into being easy on her, and hand out compliments merely to help her self esteem. It was certainly in Rarity's nature to be encouraging of struggling ponies who had yet to hone their skills. Even with those doubts, she did feel she wanted to give jewel crafting another try, if only to see if other ponies would react the same way and this really wasn't just a fluke.

"Thanks Rarity. I hope your friends will think the same." Silver smiled gratefully in return.

"They have to! I will show this piece of work to them immediately, and let them know where they can get theirs once your business opens for good. Have a nice day, girls!" Rarity cantered out the door with a jovial spring in her step.

Silver watched her leave. She had to admit, there was something about working on jewellery that beat cleaning their house and reading the same dull books all day when Diamond Tiara wasn't home. And even if Rarity and Diamond were being too kind, she now felt like proving herself worth their praise. Even if it took a lot of work to do that, she wasn't quite done working at her wife's store just yet.

Author's Note:

It's been a while since that last time I uploaded a chapter. Holiday season does demand a lot of one's time. I hope this new chapter makes up for my absence. I feel more confident I'll have the next chapter up in a more timely fashion, as I had intended for more to happen in this one, but it reached its full length quickly. Hope you'll enjoy.

Comments

[ServingSpoon]

I forgot to comment on how sad it was that Luna showed Silver her parents did care but only if she killed herself and then they turned around and disowned her. Made doubly so because Silver didn't believe that Luna would visit her.

Things seem to be looking up.. why does that worry me?