The Third Wheel
The grand piano hurtled straight for Apple Bloom. One could only guess at the speed, but from the speed lines and the shadows, Silver presumed it was hurtling. Green stink lines wafted off the cross-eyed, drooling Scootaloo, too dumb to notice the flying shark about to devour her, scooter and all. Diamond didn’t even give her enemies the dignity of coloring within their lines.
“Miss Cheerilee’s gonna be mad if she sees that,” said Silver Spoon.
Diamond Tiara added more teeth to the shark.
Silver triple-checked the teacher. Four rows up, Cheerilee helped out the new colt with the silly hat—Mutton Hash or something—with his art project. The colt’s amber eyes blinked behind a mask of wet paste, construction paper, and paint. The teacher begged him to keep still as she carefully cut glue and a fake pinecone out of his mane.
It looked like she’d have her hooves full for a while. The coast seemed clear, but a filly never quite knew for sure with Miss Cheerilee. “Diamond, I really don’t want to spend our last day before vacation in detention.”
“Oh, like she’s even gonna give detention over a drawing. You worry too much, you know that, Silvie?” Diamond finished the tangles in Sweetie Belle’s tail and started on the dunce cap. “We’ve already finished our harvest project—”
“I finished our project.” Silver glanced at the sequined gravy boat train on Cheerilee’s desk, next to Rumble’s giant ear of corn.
Diamond colored in Sweetie’s long, raggedy scarf in mismatched ugly colors. The end of it tied around the shark’s tail, about to lift the unicorn into the sky. “Well, I came up with the design idea and sequined the base. Besides, it’s only busy work to kill time. So stupid. We should just be able to start vacation early.”
One more lightning bolt for good measure, a dash of bloodthirsty red in the shark’s pupils, and it was complete: a magnificent crayon testament to the epic failure that was the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Where do you think we should leave it for them? Do you think we could sneak this in a saddlebag or should we just give it to them on their way out?”
In the corner of Silver Spoon’s eye, Sweetie Belle painted a foam orange for a cornucopia while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo glued them in. They’d added grains and vegetables this morning; just the fruits were left. Before one of them caught her looking, she turned back to the drawing. “I’m… not really sure,” she said.
“Hm. Yeah, Miss Cheerilee could catch that, and it is kind of old-school.” Diamond rubbed her chin with a crayon-stained hoof. “What if we leave it somewhere they hang out a lot?”
“No, I mean…” Silver frowned at Apple Bloom, who stood on her desk stuffing in the ball bearing cranberries and liable to fall on her face any moment. Maybe she’d land on her own project and crush it. Or maybe she’d slip and crush Pipsqueak’s papier mâché porridge. “I’m not sure we should do it at all.”
Slowly, Diamond lay down her drawing. Her eyes searched Silver’s for traces of sarcasm or hints of an alternate idea. When she found none, she frowned. “What’re you talking about? Of course we should. If this is about Miss Cheerilee—”
“It isn’t.” She shrugged. “The Gabby Gums thing is over, Di. It’s been, like, two months.”
“It’s been a month, two weeks, and three days.”
“…Right.” A month, two weeks, and three days of sniffling over teacups, glowering over plates of cucumber sandwiches, mapping out intricate revenge plots and burning them when they weren’t good enough. Over a month of Diamond’s wrathful silence steeping a boiling temper. “Blank flanks” day in, day out; Silver Spoon couldn’t remember the last time they just played a normal drama-free game of Oligarchy.
“Look, maybe it’s time to cut our losses and let it be. It’s over, Diamond Tiara.” Silver didn’t budge at Diamond’s incensed scoff. Before her friend could cut in, she added, “I mean, we can’t change what’s already happened, right?”
For a moment, the wrath faded from Diamond’s face. “I—well… no.” It returned in a blink, her eyes cold and bitter. “But I can sure get them back for it.” At Silver’s sigh, her teeth clenched hard. “They deserve it, Silver Spoon! I mean, just look at it from your angle: if you’d worked your tail off setting up a fancy tea party, you’d be proud of it, right?”
“Well… yeah, but—”
Her hooves ground into the desk’s wood grain. “And what if your tea party suddenly became the most popular tea party in town and every single pony wanted to come and your mom said you did an amazing job?”
“Uh, Di?”
“And your dad said it was one of the most amazing successful small-town tea party turnarounds he’d seen in decades and ponies came in all the way from Cloudsdale—Cloudsdale!—just to see your tea party—”
Silver Spoon ducked low and hissed as loud as she dared. “Diamond!”
“What?!” Diamond Tiara’s head swung up to discover half the class staring back at her. She looked back down at her desk to discover a crumpled, shredded picture under her hooves. The only salvageable section was the shark and half a lightning bolt. “…I spent half the afternoon on that.”
Cheerilee took a few steps toward them.
“We’re fine!” Silver tossed her braid and grinned her best nothing-to-see-here grin. “We just, um, broke a few crayons. Mm-hmm!”
A lie that wouldn’t even fool Snails, but it was enough to get the class to stop looking. Cheerilee opened her mouth to say something, but Truffle Shuffle tugged on her tail to show off his dessert diorama.
Not taking her eyes off the class, Silver whispered, “Di. Breathe.”
Some foal in the peanut gallery whispered, “Her face is all red.” A cluster of ponies giggled. A colt—it sounded like Rumble, but Silver couldn’t see to be sure—snickered and said Diamond’s face looked like a grumpy tomato. Jerk.
Diamond Tiara folded her legs over the ruined picture and rested her chin on her fetlocks. “I just don’t get it, Silvie. They’re natural disasters but they get to keep on winning anyway.” She balled up the tattered remains of her drawing and shoved them in her saddlebag. “It’s not fair.”
The bell rang. Harvest vacation had officially begun. Stools scooted away from desks and foals climbed over each other to turn in their art project. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo made it there first. Right on cue, the ball bearing cranberries rolled out of the cornucopia and onto the floor. Sweetie Belle slipped on one and crashed into Twist who crashed into Pipsqueak and Peachy Pie. They all fell in a big pile and laughed about it. Cheerilee told them to be more careful next time, but she laughed, too.
“No.” Silver Spoon frowned. “It’s not.”
Diamond packed up her stuff and started for the door. “And you still wanna let them get away with it. Even after they sabotaged my school paper. On purpose.”
It suddenly became difficult to look Diamond in the eye. Silver hung back and waited for the gnawing in her gut to go away. For pony’s sake, can we please not talk about that paper anymore?
She took her time meeting Diamond at the door. “Look, I’m just not sure it’s worth it.” Silver stepped closer, lowering her voice as Sweetie Belle passed by. “It’s like you said; they wreck everything they touch. Maybe including us.”
“Okay, okay.” Diamond wrapped a foreleg around Silver’s shoulder and tried to laugh it off. “So maybe it didn’t work out a few times before—”
Silver flattened her ears. “Or at all.”
“—so that just means we need to get back to the drawing board. Innovate. Innovation’s what keeps a business in business, you know.” She gave herself a resolute nod. “Winners never quit, Silver Spoon. We just need to try again.”
Silver hung her head with a sigh. “Yeah. Okay.”
“Hm.” Diamond clicked her tongue and considered her friend’s drooping ears. “But… I guess for now we could take a break. Not like I’ve got any ideas anyway.”
Now, that was more like it. “Cheerilee didn’t give us any homework over the break and since we don’t even need to help bring in harvest, it’s just three weeks all to ourselves. We can do, like, whatever.” The possibilities rolled off Silver Spoon’s tongue. “We can go shopping, have tea, and that movie theater’s finally gonna open in a couple days!”
“Finally. They’ve been building that thing since the Mare-Do-Well fad. We’ll have to pop by the Summer Harvest Parade next week, too. My dad’s riding on a beet float with Mr. Turnip Truck.”
Silver shivered under the wind whistling through the leaves. She’d need to start wearing sweaters soon. “Why does Ponyville call it a summer harvest when it’s winter in a couple of weeks, anyway?”
“Summer Harvest started it. I guess she got to name it, too.”
The growing smile on Diamond’s face made Silver smile, too. Three weeks with some well-needed blank flank breathing room. No schemes, no vengeance, no competitions, and nothing to fight for. Perfect. “Race you to Daisy’s flower stand?”
Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes and laughed. “Silver Spoon, you run at, like, negative two miles an hour. That’s not even a race.”
“I didn’t hear a ‘no’.”
“It’s not a 'no', it’s a merciful offer for surrender. As your best friend, it’s only fair.”
Silver nodded, pretending to think it over. “You do make a good poin—hey look, a distraction!” She tore down the street fast as her manicured hooves could take her.
Diamond Tiara gave Silver Spoon a thirty-second head start before she left her in the dust. She hadn’t been kidding about mercy; usually Silver just got ten.
The Dink leaned against her doorway, a lopsided grin on her lips and a basket of black candles in her hooves. “Tiara, Spoons! What’s up, you guys bored of vacation already?”
“Not yet, Dink.” Diamond gestured toward the candles. “What’re those for?”
“Looks like another monster hunt.” Silver had hoped for a less outdoorsy adventure, like a monster story or jump rope.
“Even better!” The Dink opened the door wider to reveal Shady Daze packing up a wooden talking board and matches. Pipsqueak sat atop Mystery Manual to the Macabre Vol. II: Advanced Edition, polishing a set of little silver mirrors.
“Me and the boys are headed up to the graveyard. After sunset, we’re gonna ask the ghost of old lady Root Work where her treasure’s buried. I was gonna take Pinchers, but she’s got a cracked hoof and can’t walk too far. You guys wanna come along?”
To a muddy, dusty graveyard full of bats and rotting ponies and cobwebs and scuffed shoes? Hardly.
Silver Spoon flicked her tail and looked to Diamond Tiara, keeping her face neutral. On the other hoof, if it kept Di out of her funk, Silver Spoon could tolerate it, provided that she got to change shoes first.
Diamond considered the mysterious arrangement of mirrors and extra sets of goggles. “I do like treasure…” She shook her head. “I’d better not. I’m not supposed to be out after dark anymore.”
“Well, duh.” The Dink pushed up her goggles and pointed to the carrot fields outside. “Why do you think I’m doing this at my aunt’s house? No way I’d get away with this at home.” She narrowed her yellow eyes, grinning with all her teeth. “Besides, it’s not a real adventure if you can’t get in trouble.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to push my luck. I just got out of hot water with my parents.” Diamond took a long look at an artist’s rendering of ghost treasure and sighed. “Maybe next time, Dink.”
“Sure thing, Tiara. See ya Spoons.”
So that made twelve. Twelve foals in all of Ponyville worth hanging out with, and all of them were busy or out of town. Or sick, in Cotton’s case.
Diamond gave Golden Harvest a polite nod on their shortcut through the carrot patch. “Guess it’s just you and me, Silver Spoon.”
“There’s always Feather—”
Diamond Tiara glowered.
Open mouth, insert hoof. “Just throwing it out there.” Silver looked at the ground. She’d be lucky if Diamond could even tolerate Featherweight’s face by next year.
Diamond nudged Silver’s leg. “Aw, don’t be like that. Come on. Let’s go get sundaes at Sugar Cube Corner.”
Her eyes followed the sloping hills of the carrot patch down into the valleys of Sweet Apple Acres. Apple Bloom’s brother pulled out of the orchard, lugging a wagon full of red delicious to the apple silo or wherever ponies stored apples.
“Actually…” Di fished out a slip of paper from her saddlebag. “While we’re here, let’s drop off my dad’s note. If we hurry, we can catch Big Macintosh before he goes in.”
How the stoic, silent stallion could ever be related to Apple Bloom, Silver had no idea. He’d never win prizes for being a conversationalist, but he bore a tranquil dignity she’d have never thought possible in a farm pony. Certainly not of somepony related to Apple My-Voice-Is-A-Bullhorn Bloom.
Big Macintosh scanned the note, took time to mull something over, and then read it again. “Noon,” he said.
“Okay, I’ll tell my dad.” Diamond’s hoof reached to take back the note, but her eyes and ears trailed eastward. Voices piped near the barn, loud and excited. “Excuse me, Big Macintosh? Is Apple Bloom home today?” She smiled.
Silver Spoon narrowed her eyes. No.
“Eeyup.” Big Macintosh nodded towards the barn and went on his way.
Diamond Tiara smiled wider and waggled her eyebrows.
Silver pursed her lips and grabbed at Diamond’s tail. “You said we were getting ice cream.”
“We are.” Diamond’s tail slipped out of Silver’s hoof and bapped it. She made a beeline for the barn.
Silver stayed put. “You said we were taking a break, Diamond! You said!”
A yard ahead, her friend looked back. “I am—we are.” Two yards ahead. “Right after I check this out for a sec.” Three yards… three and a half.
“Oh, fiiine.” Silver Spoon gritted her teeth, running to catch up. “But just a look. Say our piece and get out.”
“Right. Hit and run.”
When they could smell hay, they cut their speed to a stealthy crawl. Diamond pressed her shoulder to the barn door, crouching to pounce. Silver claimed high ground atop a bale of hay to scout the surroundings. Coast looked clear: no sign of Applejack or Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh worked well out of hearing range.
Diamond listened close, tail swishing in anticipation. She looked up and mouthed, “They’ve got a float.”
Of course they did. Silver rolled her eyes. Bet it holds a whole eight minutes before it falls apart.
“It’d be totally fun!” screeched Scootaloo’s voice. A pony couldn’t ask for a more perfect cue. They locked eyes with a nod. Three… two…
Diamond pounced. “More like funny—”
“Looking!” Silver chimed. Maybe not their best quip, but hey, it was a flop day. They laughed at it anyway.
Funny looking wasn’t the half of it. The bulbous, bloated tumor of a float took up a fourth of the barn, the wimpy little wheels clashed with the color, and it smelled like somepony forgot to clean their porch after Nightmare Night. A perfect fit for these dorks.
“What is that thing, a giant orange?” Silver barely got it out before she sputtered back into giggles.
Apple Bloom screwed up her face and stroked the hideous thing as if Silver Spoon hurt its feelings. “It’s a pumpkin.”
Diamond shot Silver a wry smirk. Fish in a barrel. “More like a lame-kin.”
Wood groaned under the smelly orange failure. Silver took a small step back. Check that: three minutes before it falls apart. The last thing she needed today was a lame-kin bath. Time to move on before these three losers drag us into—hold on.
She adjusted her glasses. Make that three losers and one new foal. Silver Spoon frowned. A wild card.
The new kid’s coat had the shade of apple cider, a slight pudge, and a manecut straight out of a high-end Broncs salon. Her round green eyes stared at them like an oncoming train.
Diamond’s eye raked over the filly. “Who’s the new blank flank?”
With absolutely no regard for personal space, Apple Bloom met them at the nose. “She’s my cousin, Babs.” The little snot didn’t flinch or even break eye contact. She smirked proudly. “She’s from Manehattan.”
Not the good part, I bet. Silver could practically smell the spray-paint and welfare checks. What, those lamewads suddenly thought they were cool because they got to run with some discount Manehattanite? Pathetic.
Diamond Tiara humphed in approval. Impressed. “Manehattan, huh? Well, I guess you have that going for you.”
Was that sarcasm? It didn’t sound like sarcasm. Silver Spoon pawed the hay. Sometime today she’d have to explain the difference between the Manehattan worth visiting and the Manehattan to avoid after dark. Best to remind Di where this kid’s bread was buttered.
“Hmph. Suppose you’re gonna join their little club—what’s it called?” Silver’s eyes crossed as if the sheer stupidity of the phrase fried her brain. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders?” Her crushing smile chased Apple Bloom and her tacky attitude back to the shelter of her loser posse. At Silver’s side, Diamond barely contained her giggles.
That’s more like it. Silver lifted her nose in the air, waiting for the dumb new loser to make her dumb loser move so they could go get ice cream, already.
Babs blew her bangs out of her face. She stared them dead in the eye and gradually—so gradually Silver thought she’d imagined it—her expression changed. Her posture changed. Her everything changed. She grinned. “Heh. More like the Cutie Mark Crybabies!”
Silver Spoon blinked. Wait, what?
Babs chuckled under her breath and took a spot at Diamond’s opposite shoulder without even a moment’s hesitation. She gave Silver a wink and a nod. Somewhere in the background, a Crusader cried out in horror.
No, seriously, what?
Had Silver misread this kid? She supposed just standing in a barn with somepony didn’t automatically make them friends, but if they weren’t friends, why hang with them at all? And weren’t they cousins? Nothing about this added up. Maybe it’s a trick. A trick would explain why Bloom suddenly wasn’t afraid of them.
“Ooh, big city attitude.” Diamond Tiara got that familiar smile. The smile for sugar-lump-rumps, the smile of sisters-in-arms. The smile supposed to be reserved for Silver Spoon. “I like it.”
Something in this barn smelled rotten, and it wasn’t the pumpkin. But a proper lady knew there were proper times and places to rock the boat, and now was not one of them. Silver smiled and nodded. “Mm-hmm.” Better to wait and see what happened.
Babs brightened at Silver watching her. “Yeah?” Grinning, she eyed the smelly lame-kin on wheels. “Well, there’s more where that came from. Check this out!”
The front wheel flew off with one kick. The float flopped on the hay like somepony tripped it.
Despite herself, Silver Spoon chuckled. The wheel thing was funny enough on its own, but Scootaloo’s outraged sputtering made it hilarious.
Babs puffed her chest out, ready to say more, when the lame-kin creaked and groaned. The skinny wooden splints snapped under the pumpkin’s weight. The float moved.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle scattered out of splattering range and watched in horror. The float crashed out of the barn, tumbling wheels over stem down the hill, bounced off a wheelbarrow, and crashed in a magnificent explosion of seeds, splinters, pumpkin innards, and mechanical gears. Lame-kin shrapnel splattered against the apple trees in little orange starbursts.
“Looks like somepony’s pumpkin just got squashed.” Babs stuck the landing like a pro.
Silver Spoon had to concede good work when she saw it. If this was a trick, then Babs was an expert magician. Smooth, too: the way she’d done it, any adult would think it an honest accident at worst. Effective, though a bit reckless.
She smiled, but tossed Diamond a cautious side-glance. “Nice move,” she whispered, “But too many like that, and somepony’s gonna tattle.”
Apple Bloom puffed herself up like a wet cat, outraged and raring to bite. “When I tell Applejack—”
Babs snapped on her heel, looming to cast her cousin deep in her shadow. “You’re gonna tell Applejack what?”
Apple Bloom practically deflated on the barn floor.
Diamond Tiara met Silver’s cautious glance with a confident smirk and whispered, “I think she’s got it covered.” She slung a hoof over Babs’ shoulder. “Come on, Babs, you can hang with us: the cool ponies. Not these babies.”
Silver peeked over Babs’ shoulder. “Now can we get sundaes?”
“Sure.” Diamond winked at their newest member. “On the way, what say we give you the newbie tour?”
Babs picked up the pace, a sudden spring in her step. “That sounds great!”
Okay, so it’s not the original plan, but this… works. Of course it worked. It had to work. Diamond Tiara had something to do and she smiled again, that meant it worked.
“Yeah.” Silver Spoon forced her smile wider. “Yeah, like, totally great.”
The last bit of strawberry milkshake plopped into Babs’ mouth. She licked her chops and leaned over the table for napkins. “Didja see the look on Bloom’s face when Silva Spoon popped up in fronta her?”
“Ha! She totally jumped out of her skin—oh! Oh, and what about Scootaloo?” Diamond Tiara flopped in her chair, cackling louder than appropriate for young ladies. Louder than Silver could remember in a long while. “Guess she knows how to fly after all.”
“Yeah, right out the door!”
They crossed legs and bumped hooves upways and sideways; some new West-Manehattan thing Babs said all the fillies did now. Or so she said. If she made up the whole thing herself, it wouldn’t surprise Silver Spoon one bit. The two of them laughed like they’d been the best of friends since diapers.
Silver loomed over a half-melted chocolate shake, rolling the cherry stem in her mouth. She laughed (politely) when they laughed and smiled when they smiled. Babs held her hoof out for Silver Spoon to try the weird hoofbump, but Silver knew young ladies ought to shake hooves properly and declined. It had nothing to do with the fact that Silver didn’t have Diamond’s speed, nor that her hoof kept slipping on the last bump.
“You’ll never get the hang of it if you don’t try it,” Diamond said.
Babs pushed her glass aside, scooting closer to reach Silver’s hoof. “It’s kinda hard to get at first. If ya want, I could help—”
Silver Spoon edged away, clutching her melted milkshake. “I know how to do it.” She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “I just don’t want to.”
“Oh. Okay.” She put her hooves back in her lap.
“Where do you think those Goofsaders ran off to?” Diamond sat up, squinting through the window’s early-morning glare. “It’s still too early for a movie and the pond’s too cold to go swimming.”
Babs chuckled under her breath. “They wouldn’t be caught dead at the movies after last time.”
A few unused bang snaps from the joke shop rolled around in Diamond’s hoof. She glanced down into the bag with the fake spider and itching powder, courtesy of Babs Seed’s vacation budget. “I’m not even sure the movies will let them in.”
“Yeah, we didn’t even have to run them out that time.” Silver Spoon dipped her muzzle in her glass and smirked. Sweetie Belle had screamed so loud the management kicked her and her blank flank buddies out of the theater.
“I heard ‘em talkin’ the other night,” Babs said. “Something about a... Twilight Sparkle? I think they’re headed there. If we leave now, we could probably head ‘em off.”
Silver looked up from her shake. “Now?”
“Well, they ain’t gonna stay there all week.”
“But Di, what about Tealove’s? We were supposed to brunch there, remember?”
Diamond Tiara didn’t look away from the window. Her ear didn’t even turn in Silver’s direction. “Were we?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s Wednesday, Diamond.” Silver Spoon frowned. “We always have brunch and tea on Wednesday. It’s the whole point of meeting at sunrise. It’s tradition!” A three-week old tradition, but it still counted.
“We just had milkshakes, though,” Babs pointed out, despite having absolutely no say in when to alter traditions.
“Yeah, and this is a special occasion. Babs is only here for, like, another four days.” Diamond shrugged and hopped off her chair. “We can do brunch next week, okay?”
Silver shrugged back with a smile. “Okay.”
It wasn’t.
The fluffy white cat rolled past the dresser, fiercely kicking at the soft, wool belly of a catnip mouse. Not for the first time, Silver wondered why Rarity bothered keeping it in the boutique. Wouldn’t it shed all over the clothes? Then again, it also kept to itself most of the time, usually glowering at the top of a scratching post or grooming under a table. Maybe it only got in the mood to play every once in a while.
Silver Spoon waggled a stray bit of ribbon. “Kitty.”
The cat chewed the toy’s button eyes. It blinked at her.
A brown face edged into Silver’s line of sight. She ignored it and looked to the dressing room. How long did it take one filly to try on a dress? Di needed to pick up the pace.
“Kitty, kitty?” She shook the ribbon harder. And this stupid cat needs to pay some attention to me before—
Babs shifted in her seat, pawing the carpet with her hoof. “So, uh… Silva’ Spoon?”
Before something like that happened. “Yes?”
“Uh, Diamond Tiara says you’re from Manehattan, too.”
“I am.” The ribbon did corkscrew flips and erratic twirls over the carpet. A ballet no cat could resist, a perfect temptation to scamper over and provide a distraction.
The cat hopped onto a desk covered in sketchbooks and bobby pins. It rolled on its back, stared Silver in the face and meowed. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say it looked smug. Useless bag of fur.
Silver Spoon threw in the towel. “What about it?”
“...Nothin’ ‘bout it.” Babs got quiet a little while before adding, “I was just wonderin’ what neighborhood you’re from. I mean I know your mom does opera, but you don’t really sound like the other girls from the theater district.”
“Because I’m not. Mother used to live near the Haypacking District when she was a filly, and we’d go down there for shows and to see my grandma, but that’s all.”
Silver Spoon stared through the boutique walls, over the Ponyville skyline, and straight into her old familiar Sixth Avenue. This time of year, it smelled like fresh snow and spiced coffee. She wondered if Gran Jeté would miss her when she didn’t come by for Hearth’s Warming.
“We lived in West Manehattan, just outside Pell-Seed.”
“Hey, no kiddin’! I’m just ten blocks from there.” Babs blew her bangs out of her face and laughed. “Small world or somethin’, huh?”
“Yeah.” With effort, Silver managed to keep her nose unwrinkled. What a crock. As if she’d ever make it past the doormare. “Sure you are.”
Babs curled her tail close to her haunch. “I am!” Her voice pitched sharp and cracky, typical sign of a liar.
The dressing room door banged open to reveal Diamond Tiara in a sparkling blue dress. She walked backwards, still examining herself in the mirror. “Guys, tell the truth: does this make my barrel look weird?”
“Looks good to me, I guess,” said Babs, surely eager to change the subject. She rubbed the back of her head and squinted at the white piping on the sides. “I don’t really know much about this stuff, though. Uh, whatta you think, Silva?”
Silver Spoon didn’t let this faker out of her sight for a second. “It’s fine.”
“You didn’t even look!” Diamond stamped to Silver’s side in a huff. “Silvie, come on! I gotta know if this works before pageant season starts! Last year at nationals, Taffeta said I looked like a peach stuffed into a straw and I’m not gonna let her say it again. Seriously, does my barrel look weird?”
Silver looked. “Your barrel’s fine, Di. Really. Maybe you could use some more white to match the accents, though? Some shoes or something.”
“There, darling, you see?” Rarity stepped from the dressing room cradling an array of little cocktail hats in her hoof. Several pairs of shoes orbited her lit horn. She picked out a pair of off-white slippers and levitated them in front of Diamond’s nose. “The belle of the ball, just as I told you.”
“Well, I wanted a second opinion.” Diamond lifted her hooves one by one to let the slippers on. “It’ll be okay, I guess.” Her neck twisted around to see her tail. “But I think I need something else back here. Do you have, like, an extra bow, or…”
Rarity bobbed her head. “I’ve just the thing!” Together, they ducked into the accessory room. “I lucked into a stunning roll of gossamer the other day, and…”
Silver swung back to Babs, eyes narrowed. “Ten blocks down, that’s Sixteenth. I’ve never heard of Apples on Sixteenth Street.”
“Really?” The filly cocked her head to the side and blinked. “I thought Ma knew all the fancy ponies in our neighborhood, what with all her dinner parties. You sure your folks never met The Oranges?”
“Uh…” It was Silver’s turn to tilt her head. She stared vacantly at Babs’ clean coat, unchipped hooves, and high-end manecut, waiting for the world to make sense.
Of course The Silvers knew The Oranges. So did half of West Manehattan. She recalled somepony with a tall hairdo and golden necklace at Mother’s last cocktail party. The one who always seemed eager to hear Silver Spoon play harpsichord after dinner. But, no… surely not.
“You… you don’t mean Valen—”
“Valencia and Mosely Orange, dat’s them!” The tension washed out of Babs’ shoulders and she scooted herself closer, grinning like Pinkie on a party day. “We’re in the tall brownstone across from that one candy shop sellin’ lollipops that look like—”
“The Bronclyn Bridge,” Silver finished.
None of this added up. Surely she’d have met Babs at the foal’s table during Hearth’s Warming or something. “But since when do The Oranges have a foal? And why do you have a Bronclyn accent?” A gross thought wormed into Silver’s head. “You don’t go to Wisteria, do you?”
“Oh. Well, uh…” In a rush, Babs stood up to check out the rest of the boutique. She plunged her head into a rack of Nightmare Night costumes. Her voice rose up from a thicket of bat wings and spooky capes. “I haven’t been livin’ there too long. I used to live up in Bronclyn. At, er… Lady Sweetheart’s.”
Sweetheart… A name from Father’s charity list, if Silver remembered right. One of the orphanages, and not one of the better ones. Okay, so that made a little more sense.
“And no, I don’t go to Wisteria’s. Pops says you gotta apply real, real early to get in.” Babs peeked out from under a chiffon pinafore. “I’m on a list though, so… maybe later?”
“A list for what?” asked Diamond Tiara. She had a Carousel Boutique bag slung over her shoulder and two more held in her hoof. “What’re you doing in the costumes?”
“Oh, you know. Just lookin’ around, talkin. You know.” Babs shuffled her hooves in the carpet, her eyes darting between Diamond, Silver, and the door.
“So, what school do you go to, then? Vineyard?” Silver couldn’t blame Babs for being a little embarrassed, but it wasn’t really that big a deal. Hundreds of fillies didn’t make Wisteria, after all. “Gingerroot? Merrylegs East?”
Babs went stiff at the last one. “Uh… yeah. Merrylegs. For about a year.” Her tail curled in tight. She drew farther into the clothes rack. “S-say, Diamond, you ever try out the costumes here? Some look pretty sweet, like the—”
“Really? What’s it like?” Rumors of Wisteria’s century-old rivals flooded the junior halls for more semesters than any filly could recall. When the senior team rolled in, Silver and Wondermint used to take shelter in the library, just in case those rumors had any truth to them. “Is the freshman hunt real?”
“It’s an okay school, I guess.” Babs nosed a lamb costume aside and ran her hoof along the wolf outfit’s fabric teeth.
Bells rang at the front of the boutique. The sound cut off midway, as if somepony’s hoof muffled it. “Sorry!” whispered a timid, squeaky voice. Sweetie Belle.
“Aw, don’t worry about it, Sweetie Belle.” Scootaloo didn’t bother whispering. “It’s your sister’s shop, what could happen here?”
Babs popped her head out of the clothes rack, ears twitching furiously. Her eyes darted between Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara, and the front entrance. The wolf outfit dangled from her hoof. She grinned.
Diamond grinned back. Silver Spoon rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway.
Apple Bloom chuckled. “Yeah,” she said. “Guess you’re right.”
The crabapple bounced off Scootaloo’s shoulder, bashing her left wing. She yelped, flapping headfirst into Sweetie Belle, who screamed and crashed into Apple Bloom, who’d been too busy ducking apple cores to see the ditch in front of them. Nopony saw the final crash, but the screams and dust clouds spoke for themselves.
“Yes! Triple crybaby in the corner pocket!” Babs pumped her hoof and flopped back in the high branches of the apple tree. She let her foreleg dangle for a hoofbump.
A branch below, Diamond Tiara bopped it. “Nice!”
Silver Spoon dangled from the bottom branch. Her horseshoes waved a few inches above the grass. Proper young ladies did not climb up and down filthy, buggy trees like some common squirrel. Besides, she didn’t know how.
“Are we done yet?” She flinched. That came out a bit more petulant than she meant it to. Maybe Di hadn’t noticed?
Five feet up, Diamond scowled. Yep. She noticed. “We just barely got up here Silver, sheesh.”
“Di, there’s bugs down here! And my legs are getting tired and I think I stepped in mushy apple.”
Babs smiled and waved down at her. “So come up here instead. You can sit up here with me an’ your hooves won’t hurt.” She tossed down a red gala. “C’mon, the view’s amazin’!”
The apple thumped hard in the grass. Silver Spoon refused to turn her head. “I don’t want to. Young ladies shouldn’t run around dirty farms climbing trees, Diamond.” She tried to stamp her hoof, but had nothing to stamp.
“Ugh, fine, don’t get your tail in a knot. We’ll be down in a sec.” Diamond’s face vanished into the rustling leaves and dappled shadows. Her back hooves gripped the trunk to stabilize her way down. “C’mon, Babsy. Guess we’re gonna miss that sunset after all.”
Silver flattened her ears. That lowbrow thug is Babsy now? “You can see the sunset perfectly fine from down here.”
In a low voice, Babs said something; probably something lame and dumb and totally not cool at all.
“No, no, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it, Babs,” said Diamond. “I swear she’s just like my stepmother sometimes.”
The strength drained from Silver’s forelegs. She sank into the grass, trying to drag up a smile or a smirk, some expression a boring wet blanket wouldn’t have. In the end, she settled for a neutral poker face.
“I didn’t know you had a stepmom.” Babs hopped into the grass next to Silver. She smiled at her. “Hi again.”
“Hm.” A fake smile wasn’t worth the effort. Silver lashed her tail and turned away. In the corner of her eye, Babs’ ears drooped. Good.
“Well, I do.” Diamond Tiara slid down the trunk. Bits of sticks and leaves stuck to her mane, but she didn’t even seem to care. “There’s a couple hours left before the sleepover. If we can’t dig the crybabies out of their hole, what do you girls wanna do?”
Quietly, Silver Spoon suggested, “We could always—”
“You got a pond not far from here, right?” Babs pointed towards the horizon. “I could find some good pebbles and show you guys how to skip rocks.”
“Yeah, okay. If The Dink’s up there looking for that lake monster, I’ll introduce you.” Diamond sprang forward at a canter. “She’s the coolest kid in school—besides me, of course.”
“And me.” Silver Spoon scrambled to keep up. Nopony had said there’d be cantering after all that tree climbing.
“Wow, you got lake monstas in your school?” Babs met Di at her shoulder and they laughed at her dumb joke together. She didn’t huff to keep up. She didn’t even break a sweat. If anything, Babs only hung back because Diamond knew where they were going.
With Diamond Tiara several paces ahead and the wind in Silver’s ears, just staying in the conversation became a struggle.
“I wish you could stay at Silver’s for the sleepover.” Diamond’s voice grew faint. “It stinks you have to sleep at Applejack’s all week, but you can still stay and play Oligarchy, right?”
“Sure thing, Diamond. Hey, you wanna hear how I snatched Bloom’s bed? Happened when…”
Their voices faded as they crested a hill. Silver Spoon panted in the valley. Her hooves still hurt from gripping that branch and getting her good horseshoes chipped up just didn’t seem worth it. She slowed to a walk. “Whatever. I’ll just catch up later.”
The sheets rustled around Diamond’s shoulders. The guest bed squeaked under her shifting weight.
Even without glasses and in the dark, Silver Spoon knew when somepony stared at her. She opened her eyes and rolled over. “What? Is your pillow too lumpy?”
The silhouette of Diamond Tiara’s mane fluttered in the moonlight. “Huh? No, the pillow’s fine. I was just thinking about something.”
“Something like…?”
Silence. “It’s nothing. Go back to sleep.”
Silver pulled up the covers and rolled back over. “If you say so.”
Two seconds later, lamplight seared through her eyelids.
Diamond Tiara sat at the edge of her bed, wide awake and frowning. Her hoof propped against the bedside table, a little island between the two beds. “Babs thinks you don’t like her.”
A second passed. “Oh. That’s interesting.” Silver cocooned herself deep in the sheets to block the light out. She studied the gingham pattern of her bedspread and waited for one of them to go back to sleep.
“Well? Do you?” Diamond’s gaze cut through the satin comforter to prickle Silver’s fur.
“Sure I do. Babs is great.” Silver's hoof reached out and flicked the lamp off. “Goodnight.”
Diamond snorted. The light turned back on. “I don’t believe you.”
Fake snores rumbled from Silver’s blankets.
“I know you don’t snore, Silver Spoon.”
The snores grew louder.
Diamond’s bed squeaked. Perhaps she’d decided to go back to sleep.
The springs squeaked again. Once, twice, thrice… not exactly like somepony setting into bed. In fact, it kind of sounded like somepony preparing to… to jump!
At the last second, Silver tucked and rolled. Not fast enough.
Diamond Tiara landed on all fours, each hoof pinned against writhing blankets and the squirming hostess trapped underneath. Her mane dangled over Silver’s nose. “What is your problem?”
Bristling, Silver backed deeper into the gnarl of bedsheets. “I don’t have a problem!”
Diamond’s head burst through before Silver could block the entrance. “Oh, come off it, Silver Spoon. You’ve had your tail in a knot this whole week and darn it, I wanna know why! What, are you still mad we didn’t go to Tealove’s?”
Yes. “No.” Silver’s mouth twisted up in a tight little scowl. “And I’m not mad.” Her ears lay flat at Diamond’s concrete stare. “I’m… I’m just… vexed.” Yes, vexed seemed a good word for it.
“About what?” If Diamond didn’t know what vexed meant, then it didn’t stop her. “What’ve you even got to be vexed about? Everything’s perfect. We’re not bored, you’ve got somepony to talk Manehattan stuff with, and we’ve got those loser blank flanks on the ropes, and we can’t even get nailed for it ‘cause Babs covered all our bases.”
“And what happened to taking a break, Diamond Tiara?” Silver kicked off the bedsheets and let them fall off the bed. “What happened to you and me just hanging out for once?”
A stupid question and they both knew it. Babs happened.
“Yeah, and you also said we should stop because nothing was working. Well, now it is. We’re not outnumbered anymore. For once we’re winning, and winning by a lot!” Diamond pointed out the window to their victories. “Why can’t you just be happy about that?”
Silver backed against a pillow and gathered up Lady Mimic. She buried her nose in the unicorn doll’s hair, staring at the lamp. “Because.” Before Diamond could ask “because why”, Silver curled her tail around her hooves and added, “You’re not winning with me.”
Diamond Tiara’s face slackened as the issue slowly untangled itself. “That—” The words knotted up in her mouth. She sat down, clicked her tongue and sighed, “You are so dumb sometimes.”
Silver Spoon lashed her tail and stuck her lip out.
Diamond rolled over, her mane spilling into Silver’s lap. “Oh shut up, you know I don’t mean it. Silver Spoon, Babs is my friend, but she’s not my best friend. She’s not here forever; she’s going home in a day, maybe sooner. I just wanted to make good on the time we had.”
She nudged Silver’s shoulder. “And maybe I wanted you to lighten up a little for once. We’re ten, not fifty.”
“Hmph.” Now that Silver thought on it, lately Brass Tacks had taken time to point out relaxing bath salts and suggest more calming teas. Maybe Diamond had a point. Still…
“It’s not just that, Di. Something’s been bugging me.” Her hoof felt about the table for her glasses.
Diamond Tiara eyed the wrecked nest of blankets and sheets surrounding them. “No kidding.” She grabbed the glasses and put them in Silver’s hoof.
“Thanks.” The guest room came back into focus. Silver winced at the messy bed and nudged Diamond off. “I gotta fix this.”
After a moment spent watching Silver Spoon struggle with the sheet, Diamond Tiara sighed and helped her straighten out the other end. “So, what’s bugging you, Silvie?”
The sheet pulled tight. Silver tucked in the left side, careful to get the edges and corners. “Babs is Apple Bloom’s cousin, Diamond. I know Bloom’s annoying and a loser and a failure and super rude, but she’s still her cousin.” She peeped over to make sure Diamond had the other side straight before tossing the pillows back on. “And she switched over so fast. Like, not even half a minute.”
The satin comforter walked over on little pink legs. A muzzle poked out and said, “You’re overthinking things. It probably wasn’t even a switch and she just never liked the Goofsaders in the first place.” Diamond flapped out the comforter and let it settle. “Or Babsy knows good company when she sees it. I mean, between us and them, who’d you choose?”
“Us, of course.” Silver gripped a corner of comforter in her teeth and together, they dragged it up to the pillows. She gave the left side a little tug to make it symmetrical. “But I’m also not Apple Bloom’s cousin.”
“Maybe they’re not that close.”
Silver Spoon lowered her glasses, lifting an eyebrow. “Uh, have you seen The Apple Family?”
“Besides the ones in Ponyville? No.” Diamond flipped her tail and met Silver’s look. “And you haven’t either.”
The bed didn’t meet Brass Tacks’ caliber for neatness, but it worked for tonight. Silver folded back the comforter, fluffed the pillows one more time and nestled into the sheets. “I don’t know. I still don’t like it, Di. I mean, if Babs turned on Apple Bloom—her cousin Apple Bloom…”
Silver Spoon looked Diamond Tiara in the eye. “What’s stopping her from turning on us, too?”
Diamond Tiara climbed back into bed, pulling her stuffed pig under the covers. She grabbed the glass of water from the nightstand and took a sip. A long sip. She stared at the twinkling studs of her tiara under the lamp, ears swiveling in thought, though her expression never changed.
“Di.” Silver cradled Lady Mimic close. “What’s stopping her from—”
“Babs is okay. When was the last time we hung out with somepony this much fun?” Diamond propped her chin on the pillow and chuckled. “Did you see Apple Bloom’s face when we popped out of her dumb little clubhouse? Priceless!”
Scootaloo got so mad she’d actually hovered off the ground for three whole seconds—a personal best, probably. Her feathers had puffed up so much she looked like that lamekin float. Silver Spoon hid her muzzle under the blanket and giggled.
Cuddling her pig, Diamond sang, “I see a smi-ile.” She laughed and turned off the light. “Not everypony’s out to get you, you know. It’ll be fine, Silvie. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
Silver yawned and put her glasses on the nightstand next to the tiara. “Yeah, okay.” The least she could do was give Babs an honest chance. It was only fair. “I trust you, Di. Goodnight—for real, this time.”
“Night, Silver.”
Mud oozed through Diamond’s bangs and plopped onto her nose. She huddled against the beams, staring into the dark crawlspace under the platform. “Silver Spoon?”
“No.”
Diamond tried crawling in after her, but a mud ball thrown from the crawlspace stopped her. That and the fact that only one pony could fit under there. “Silvie, come on.”
“No, I s-said!” The knot in Silver’s throat made her voice tremble. Hot tears stung her eyes. She didn’t know if the wetness on her face came from tears or mud or mucus or some awful combination of the three. She didn’t want to know. Her shoulders shook with a mangled sob.
The steady clip-clop of hooves pounded above their heads. Silver bit her lip and tried to stay quiet. What if one of those ponies heard something and tried to investigate? They’d be worried. They’d get other ponies to help them look for the filly crying under the train station and bring their lanterns and then they’d… they’d…
“Silver, please.” Diamond Tiara’s ears drooped as the soft sobbing started again. She seemed close to tears herself. A stiff filthy thing lay between her hooves, probably her tiara. “It’s going to get dark soon.”
“I don’t care. I’m not coming out.”
When Silver touched her braid, she just felt mud, grime, tangles, and more mud. How would she ever explain why the platinum shoes she got for her cuteceañera were ruined? How would she explain any of this? “I can’t.”
Through blurry glasses lenses, it looked like Diamond frowned.
“I can’t. I-I…” Silver Spoon shut her eyes against the tears, but they came anyway. “Diamond, they’ll… they’ll see me.”
A fresh wave of hooves in an array of different sizes and colors passed the hiding spot. One set paused a terrible five minutes—it seemed five hours—before finally moving on. Wood creaked over Silver’s flattened ears.
Ponies everywhere. On all sides. Who all knew her name. Silver Spoon whimpered, missing the tall, anonymous towers of Manehattan so hard it hurt. The Manehattan that Babs got to return to.
“We should have just gotten ice cream.” Silver chewed the inside of her cheek. The spiny ball of sorrow in her chest boiled into hot, fluttering anger. “Darn it, Diamond Tiara! I told you we should have just left them alone! Those blank flanks wreck everything they touch and you know it but you still drag us into their mess! I just wanted one vacation in peace, but you couldn’t even let us have that. I told you this would happen.”
Diamond Tiara flinched back. “I… but they—” Her mouth moved silently, searching for words and finding none. She flicked mud from her mane and sniffed. Finally, she sighed and said, “Yeah. Yeah, you did. A lot.”
A second of silence. The second became a minute. In the dark, the minute went on forever. And then, just loud enough to hear over hoofsteps and Silver’s wet, heavy breathing: “Silver Spoon? I’m sorry.”
Silver inched forward. Not entirely out of the crawlspace, but just enough to see her own filthy nose in front of her face. “What?”
Cradling her muddy tiara with one hoof and reaching out with the other, Diamond sighed again. A long, tired sound. “You’re right. I should have listened to you, Silver. I’m sorry. I just thought we could…”
Diamond rubbed her cheek. It just made the cheek filthier. “Whatever, it didn’t work. But Silver, we really have to go.”
The laughter bubbling out of Silver Spoon bordered on hysteria. “Go where?” She summed both of them up in a sweep of filthy hooves: ruined coats, tangled, matted manes, mud coating every crevice, stained glasses, puffy red eyes, ragged braid, and tarnished tiara. “I can’t go home like this. I can’t go anywhere like this!”
“Well, maybe we—oh, no you don’t!” Diamond grabbed Silver’s tail before she could slide back into the crawlspace and dragged her to the edge of the platform. “We can use the back entrance to my house and…” she trailed off, noting the sun’s position. “No, maybe not. Mother’s home by now.”
Diamond checked the perimeter for ponies and stepped out in the open, one hoof still on Silver’s tail. Her neck stretched over the train platform to see the road beyond. “I don’t think she’d hear us if we stayed quiet, but she’d probably smell us.”
“Oh Celestia, we smell, too?!” With her stuffy nose, Silver had no idea.
Diamond Tiara tried to smile. “Yeah, but not that bad.” A bad lie, but Silver appreciated the effort. “Our houses are both kinda far, anyway. The Dink’s house is even farther.” She squinted at the houses around the corner. “You think Twist can keep a secret?”
“I doubt it.” Twist had a bad habit of letting things slip, and she likely wouldn’t get why something had to be secret in the first place.
“Hmm.” Diamond’s tongue ran along the edge of her teeth. She stood up.
“You’ve got an idea,” said Silver Spoon.
Diamond Tiara nodded. “You’re not gonna like it, either. But you just have to trust me on this, okay?”
Free of Diamond’s hoof, Silver inched back under the train platform. “That’s what you said last time.”
“I—alright, I was wrong about that, but I’m not about this. Okay?” She blinked at Silver’s silence. “Also, there’s a spider on your leg.”
Silver barreled out into the open so fast she left dust clouds.
“Oh wait, it was just a piece of grass.” Diamond innocently rolled her eyes towards the sky. “My mistake. But since you’re already out…” She gestured down the block. “See that place across from Vinyl’s? The one with the bottle weathervane? That’s our ticket. If we run—”
“Ponies will see us. Especially if we run.” Silver cringed behind Diamond’s hip.
“If we sneak, they’ll get suspicious and look closer.” Diamond reached down and yanked Silver to her hooves. “And honestly, if you saw us running down the street looking how we look, would you recognize us?”
“Good point. Let’s do it.”
When they ran, Silver Spoon kept her eyes on the road, not on her own filthy hooves, not on the ponies they passed. She didn’t give herself time to think or observe, she just put one hoof in front of the other and tried not to trip. It wasn’t until they stopped Silver realized Diamond held back at a quick trot slow enough to stay at Silver’s shoulder.
The two-story house before them seemed decent enough, though it wouldn’t score any pictures in Finer Stalls and Stables. It had a patched hole in the roof and rows of grapevines in the backyard.
A sign hung above the door. Silver tilted her head at it. “Why’d you bring us to a bar?”
Diamond knocked twice with her hoof, thrice with the brass knocker. “It’s not just a bar, duh. You know a bunch of ponies run businesses out of their homes.”
The door swung open. Silver’s mouth dropped.
“This one belongs to Berry Pinch.” Diamond eased Silver’s mouth shut. “Pinch, three questions: is your mom home, do you have a curling iron, and can you make tea?”
Berry Pinch blinked, one hoof in a cast and the other holding a raisin cookie. She gaped at the dripping, stinking ponies on her doorstep. “Um. What?”
Diamond Tiara lifted her head with as much authority as a muddy filly could muster. “I’m calling in my favor.”
A spark of recognition lit Berry’s eyes. “Oh my gosh, Diamond Ti—”
“Pinch!” Di made a quick ix-nay motion. “Time’s an issue here.”
“Oh. Oh, right, come on in.” Berry Pinch stepped aside for them. “No, Mom’s not home yet and no, I don’t have a curling iron.” She glanced at Silver Spoon, waiting for a jibe.
Silver Spoon wiped her feet, fretful eyes searching the empty tables and bar stools.
Berry knitted her eyebrows and frowned. “And yeah, I can make tea, but none of that fancy stuff.” She shook her head with a disbelieving chuckle. “Silver, that really you under all that mud? Wow.”
Silver’s ears wilted. She stared back with wide eyes and didn’t say anything. Her throat felt tight again.
Concern wrinkled over Berry Pinch’s face, but she kept it to herself. “We might not have curling irons, but I do know how to braid. I can even do the Prench kind.” She took some paper towels from the bar and handed them to Diamond. “You know where the bathroom is, right?”
“Upstairs, first door on the left.” The tension eased from Diamond shoulders. Her steel tiara shone again with a few rubs, though it took all the towels to do it. “And I should close the door so the dog can’t get in.”
Berry lifted the remaining half of her cookie to them. “You got it.” In a lower voice, she added, “Try and get Silver to lighten up, huh? She’s freaking me out.”
Five rinses, three scrub-downs, two bottles of shampoo, and half a bottle of conditioner later, Silver popped the drain and shook herself off.
Diamond Tiara—previously satisfied with just two scrub-downs—sat on the counter, teasing a comb through her damp tangles. She tossed over an extra towel for Silver’s mane.
“Thanks.” First things first, Silver wrung her mane out and wrapped it up tight. Coats dried fast, but barring a freak rainstorm, she couldn’t explain a sopping wet mane. The bathroom had no rugs, so she took extra care coming out of the tub. “You know, it’s weird. I spent half this week mad at Babs and now, after she did what she did, I’m not anymore.”
By all rights, Silver should have been. She wondered why that was. Perhaps she’d softened up to Babs when they traded jump rope tricks and reminisced about the famous Hearth’s Warming pole in the center of Manehattan Square. Or perhaps it happened when Babs styled Diamond’s mane for the parade.
Still, that didn’t explain why Silver wasn’t mad now; if anything, it meant she ought to be angrier. Bitter, at the very least. But Silver Spoon didn’t really feel much of anything besides exhausted.
It’s my own fault, really. Silver couldn’t fault the train for hitting her when she’d heard it coming five miles away. She should have stepped off the track. She should have run out of the tunnel. Ponies stuck to their own. Sometimes they mixed together for a little while, but in the end, they always stuck to their own. Silver knew that. She’d known that before she knew how to read.
Diamond Tiara didn’t seem to. Even after Silver’s warnings, she hadn’t seen the turnaround of Babs Seed coming at all. From the expression on her face, she still couldn’t quite believe it. She gave Silver a quiet little smile.
Silver smiled back. It really stunk being right, sometimes.
“Yeah, I can understand that. I’m not really mad, either,” said Diamond. The comb hit a nasty snag and she winced, gritting her teeth. “Not mad at Babs, anyway.” That old, familiar scowl returned.
Silver Spoon drew a fluffy yellow towel around her heavy shoulders. “Diamond?” The sparse little bathroom gave Silver’s voice a little echo. “I think we should stop. Not just a break, I mean the whole thing: revenge, blank flanks, let’s just… drop it. It’s not working.” She rubbed a light bruise on her shoulder. “I don’t think it ever will.”
Diamond’s mouth drew into a thin, tight line. She looked ready to rail entire litanies of reasons why they had to push on, but all she said was, “Winners never quit, Silver Spoon.”
She finished combing her hair, hopped off the counter, and walked out. “Mom says the only thing worse than a loser is a quitter.”
“Which one?” Silver followed her down the hall and into the living room. Made for a pony twice her size, the towel trailed behind like a cape.
The tiara waited for them on a coffee table, newly polished and shining as if nothing ever happened at all. It slid back into Diamond’s mane and finally, she looked like herself again. After a short moment, she said, “The first one. My real one.” Her ears went stiff. “Don’t tell Spoiled I said that.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me you had a stepmother, Di?”
“I dunno. Since she wasn’t back from her trip yet, I guess I just didn’t think about it.” She made sure her coat had dried before sitting on the couch. “And you weren’t around when she came back, either. She says she met you, by the way.”
“Uh-huh. She seemed…” Silver considered the proper word. “…thoughtful. Do you like her?”
“Sometimes.” Diamond shrugged. “I think she likes me, too. More than she likes most ponies, anyway.”
Silver Spoon joined her on the couch—if one could really call the tiny, threadbare thing a couch—and studied the ugly wallpaper. Inspirational lithographs and squat bookcases full of almanacs ran along the walls. The carpet desperately needed shampooing and the sunfaded curtains looked cheap. “What’s this favor Berry Pinch owed you, anyway?”
“None of your beeswax, that’s what.” Pinch carried a pair of teacups in a sputtering green aura. Her horn glowed hot with effort, and to her credit, the cups landed on the table with only a few spilled drops. “And I still owe it.”
Diamond sniffed the tea and took a sip, a little confused. “But—”
Berry Pinch shook her head. “This doesn’t count.” She glanced at Silver. “You’re hiding out here because of parent stuff, right?”
Silver didn’t answer, but Berry must have read something in her expression because she seemed satisfied.
“Thought so. Parent stuff doesn’t count.” She rubbed her hurt hoof and chuckled. “I mean, if I counted this sort of thing, I’d be a bigger butt than Tiara.”
Diamond smacked Berry’s haunch with her wet tail. “Takes a butt to know a butt.”
“So you finally admit you’re a big smelly butt. Good to know.” There wasn’t room on the couch, so Berry Pinch sat on the armrest. “How’s the tea, Miss Fancy-schmancy Tea Expert?”
Silver took a sip, swishing it slowly to get the full flavor. “Mediocre.” She smacked her lips, took another sip to be sure, then nodded. “You steeped it too long and the tea itself is a painfully generic black blend—not like you can tell under all the lemon and sugar. I could make a better cup with four broken hooves and a blindfold.”
The teacup warmed Silver Spoon’s hooves. She closed her eyes, breathing in the steam as she felt the knots in her shoulders relax. “Oh, but I am, like, so glad you made it. Thanks, snotface.”
“Don’t make it weird, Silver Snob.” Berry lifted an eyebrow with a smirk. “And since when am I a snotface? You never call me that.”
Silver unwrapped the hair towel and let her mane fall to her shoulders. “Not to your face.”
Berry Pinch lit her horn, tongue sticking out in concentration. Her magic lifted Silver’s mane and sectioned out panels to braid. After a few botched tries, she got a weaving rhythm going. Painfully slow, but so smooth Silver barely felt it. “So, are you guys okay?”
At the far end of the street, Scootaloo carried a purple kite. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle tailed her, dragging a wagon full of fireworks. They laughed together, excited for some random new adventure sure to leave somepony in stitches.
Diamond quietly watched them through the window, her expression calm and shoulders slack. She shut the curtains and sipped her tea.
“You know what?” Diamond Tiara glanced at Silver Spoon and smiled. “I think we are.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
960 users online
293,750 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Typo on the story's description:
Highly entertaining I look forward to the resolution. You have developed SS and DT into true characters rather then the cardboard cutouts that they were in the show while keeping them to their cannon actions.
For me, some of the best stories are ones that manage to tease a story out from -inside- another story.
This one does it in spades on a regular basis.
As always, wonderful.
I can't understand why I hadn't faved this story before. The mistake is now corrected!
I was interested in how you were going to handle this episode, as Di and SS are, to quote Pinchy, pretty huge butts in it. The way you used Babs as a catalyst, focusing on Silver's feelings of jealousy and her shared Manehattan background, was really nice. And that ending... the whole "two bullies getting their comeuppance" thing looks very, very different from another perspective.
You know, DT's stepmother is a total beeyatch, but Filthy seems to love her... which doesn't make sense unless...
SHE COULD BE A CHERNGELERNG!! ERMAHGERD!!! And she KILLED DT'S REAL MOTHER!!! ER-MAH-GERD!!
*Celestia lands behind Alondro and adds* HUR-DURK-A-DURRRRR!!!
A meaningful chapter. The cracks are starting to show between Silver and Diamond, but they still both enjoy getting a kick out of teasing the CMC. I like your idea that Babs was adopted, though I do wonder how her older sister factors into this.
Man, now that we now about Spoiled, Bab's threat to tattle to their mothers seems way worse. Babs Seed would never be an Element of Loyalty, that's for sure. As terrible as Spoiled is, how she treats Diamond Tiara does seem like her honest attempt at love.
I like how you're quietly building up the Dink in the background, as this cool, adventurous kid who's also slightly weird. I hope you develop her further.
Fantastic interplay and seeing episode from their pov
This chapter does a pretty good job of justifying Silver's remarkably cynical worldview.
I knew what was coming, and it still kinda hurt when Babs left. Of course, knowing the other half of the story means I know why Babs did it, but it's hard not to feel for Silver and Diamond here.
6809644
....Well that's embarrassing. Sheesh, that's been there for months. Ah, well, fixed now. (I should probably just and rewrite the entire description at some point, honestly)
6810022
It's not an easy balance, I gotta say. While sympathetic stories about Diamond and Silver aren't that uncommon, it's rarer I find fics that also incorporate their nastier sides and as soon as Apple Bloom and company came into the picture I saw why. Managing to maintain sympathy without falling into trap of making the CMC the "real" villains or overplaying the sympathy as to overshadow the jerky stuff they do.
6811374
Babs' older sister was a blind spot, admittedly. I totally forgot about it until I was in final draft.
The irony of that is, they absolutely could have called her bluff and gotten off without a scratch. Really, is Spoiled Rich going to listen to this random kid coming out of nowhere? It's her word against theirs, unless AJ decided to step in. If they'd actually come home immediately after tripping in the mud Diamond could have made an excellent case for sympathy (or even getting bullied by this mean kid from Manehattan who tricked them), especially with Silver Spoon standing next to her in a physical and emotional mess.
At worst, they'd likely get lectures about choosing friends more carefully.
I'd sure like to. I don't think there's sufficient room in this story, but there's been a one-shot about The Dink that's been on the burners for a few months. I'd like to complete it if I ever find the time.
6813503 That's a good point. Ever since Silver Spoon got her cutie mark before Diamond Tiara and they had a falling-out, it seems like deep down, Silver doesn't really trust Diamond not to put herself first. She brings in Twist to their act, she sabotages the paper, and it was clear she was coming up with a plan to drive off Babs Seed, all to preemptively counteract scenarios where Diamond Tiara might turn on Silver Spoon. The sad part is, I really don't think Diamond would turn on Silver like this (at least not yet, once Spoiled gets her hooks in deep enough that's a different story.)
Before Silver Spoon showed up, Diamond Tiara was pretty good friends with Dinky and other ponies, and even frenemies with Berry Punch. Silver Spoon though, has no one else. She tried making friends without Diamond Tiara, and it turns out she's a prissy tea nerd. So she's paranoid about losing her most valuable friendship.
6813585 Silver was probably more afraid, since she tends to overestimate her opponents. She knows that if she was in Babs' place, if her bluff was called, she would walk directly over to the Silver's condo and ask Pitch if she can clarify if this behavior is how fillies in Manehatten should act, since Babs is still trying to live up to Valencia and Moseley's expectations.
6813585 It's cool. I've had that happen to one of my story's description too. It happens.
You know, I'm not sure if I've said this before but, the Apples are not only a big family, but they are old money too. I mean if you think about it the Apple Family owns Ponyville as Celestia sold them the land in ages past. Plus they basically bank rolled Rich's business. Then you've got Appaloosa and APPLEwood. It takes a lot of money to build and develop towns and turn them into cities. Plus with such an extensive family with the Oranges and the Cherries....they've got connections at every level of business.
Finally, it costs a lot of money to repair the town and the farm stead after every disaster. Who do you think pays for it?
Finally, nice touch in making Babs adopted by the Oranges.
I feEl for Silver Spoon in this. She just doesn't get a break.
6813593
The irony being that it's going to be Silver Spoon who turns on Diamond Tiara in a meaningful way. Kind of sad that it's because of her taking Silver for granted (which she does in this story as well) when Silver's been quietly sabotaging some of the things she fears might pull Diamond Tiara away from her. In the context of this story, DT's eventual isolation will be at least partly Silver Spoon's doing.
6813585
That's a very good point right there.
See, I kinda like Blueblood, who is in a similar situation. I like him in part because there's some funny potential in the guy, and in part because of the disproportionate hatred he spawned. Fired up my inner contrarian, you know? Anyway, though I like Blueblood the character, most stories that declare he'd been nice all along also don't work for me. Just turning the episode on its head isn't satisfying, no more than revenge stories are. That's why I adore The Best Night Ever or Glory, for example. He's still got his recognisable flaws, but the writing works with them, not around them.
You even managed that with Babs Seed. I don't think I've seen another author work in the idea that her switching sides this quickly might not be just due to an epiphany, but because Babs might also be, well, opportunistic.
I enjoyed this. It's a satisfying read but it's also fun to see you getting ambitious: Silver Spoon's combination of exasperation and jealousy is a difficult balance but you've pulled it off. It also drives the emotional arc of the story and sets up the trajectory towards the S5 endpoint as well. You are letting one thing do several jobs and that is the principal of elegant structure.
I like how you've limned Babs' character. You have a knack for showing us the few bits of flotsam on a calm and sunny sea and making us understand the storm and the shipwreck. Also, you've handled the way Babs' and Silver Spoon's histories osculate, and the shock the two of them feel when they realize this, with a deft touch.
Anyway lemme put on my Perry White hat and give you a few quick editorial notes, Lois:
If the cat is glowering at the top of a scratching post, the reader wonders what is at the top of the scratching post. If that thing is the cat itself, "glowering 'round wi' prudent cares," then the cat is glowering from the top of the scratching post.
The word you want is peeked, as in a quick or surreptitious glance. Someone who has peaked has reached the top or the point of something, as in the peak of a mountain. Then, just to confuse things, there's piqued:
"Her interest was piqued when she peeked at his legs, but her desire peaked when her glance rose to his butt."
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f7/86/ed/f786ed81b3e25f10b0bb024712f7d544.jpg
6814634
Eh, I wouldn't go so far as to say the Apples on a whole are old-money. They're more rich in land than money, because while it's true one needs money to start a project but all of it goes into keeping it running and breaking even without a huge return; that's the way most farming tends to go. Ponyville's Apples aren't in dire straits, but they aren't doing especially well either. AJ often seems in need of money or else frets about Acres' welfare, should a staple of their profits (like the fact that cider season keeps them going through winter) hints that they're not in a cushy position. We also can't really be sure how many ponies out there have the namesake without being directly related.
They DO have connections, though. Applejack herself is lousy with friends in high places
6817687
Yeah, I'd be lying if I said a good portion of why I like Diamond Tiara (and Silver Spoon, but Diamond gets the brunt of it) wasn't the overzealous hatedom. Like, I know she can be an annoying jerk but the kid's like, nine, chillax with the murder fantasies maybe?
It's kind of ambiguous. Or at least, it feels that way on my end. Often I'll have a concrete reason of why a character does something but in this case...I dunno, exactly. But I can tell you for certain that she really, really wanted Silver to like her, even though Silver wouldn't give her the time of day for 90% their time together. I can't imagine that got them any loyalty favors on Babs' part.
6820713
Ay, peek vs peak strikes again. Every time, man, no matter how many times my editor bonks me with a newspaper.
I had the basic conflict of this chapter (and the last one) set up from the get-go, so it was a delightful surprise to find that S5 ended up supporting so much of it. ...Also I just realized that Babs' situation is sort of a reversal of Silver Spoon's and that's some heck of a wacky accident.
Some stories hit you in the feels. This one sucker punches you.
I am fast running out of ways to say how goddamn brilliant this fic is.
A bit grown-up, but it kinda made me think of your take on the Silver Spoon-Diamond Tiara friendship:
One of the cultural differences between new money & old money
Yeah that's a good point, I won't pretend to have any real love for DT, but when Spoiled Rich was revealed...well there's one pony who I wouldn't cry if she got an *ahem* friendly visit from a certain Dark alicorn.
As to Blueblood, while he was certainly a pompous ass in his one appearance (outside of comics that is) I have in my 5-ish year journey with pony come to adopt the head-thought that Rarity wasn't exactly a saint in that episode either, in fact some of her behavior spoke of gold-digging, she was so entranced by her visions of a fairy tale romance that she practically jumped him without even so much as a how-de-do. several stories have suggested that Bluebloods behavior is a facade that he puts up to ward off mares who only see him as a meal-ticket. He's no saint by any means, but he's not quite as much a brainless buffoon as he pretends to be.
I always saw Silver Spoon as the kiss-up lackey in the sugar rump duo, and was actually quite glad when she "grew a pair" as it were in canon. This story though gives her a much more detailed personality, albeit not a very nice one. That being said, I love how you draw all this snobbish behaviour down to a deep-seated fear of loss, and I have a soft-place in my heart for lonely nerds, (doubly so if they are purple
) being somewhat of an armchair nerd myself.
When I read this it really just goes to show how there is more than meets the eye about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. The two of them get so much un-needed hate in this fandom, they are just two kids who have a difficulty growing up and adjusting to their circumstances. Silver Spoon not being all that fond of DT's plans for the CMC makes a lot of sense, and I enjoyed how the two of them got cleaned up after they were in the mud together. I wonder how they reacted to say, when the float the CMC rigged to crash - crashed. Spoiled Rich showing some love towards Diamond Tiara is something that is also a nice thing to see - and I find that the hate towards Spoiled Rich is also a bit unjustified as well considering the canon didn't give much, of anything to go off of, so maybe she had her reasons to be like she was. I look forward to seeing how Spoiled Rich will be here as I read further.