Friendship is Failure #17: Nine & Eleven

by DakariKingMykan

Act Three: Far From Friends

ACT THREE

A few decades ago, Mare and Silver were playful little school ponies who just couldn’t get enough of playtime and living life to the fullest.

They would play in the playground, the sandbox, in big trees, and there was never an imaginative game they couldn’t come up with, or any adventure they couldn’t imagine or wish to play and create that they and lots of other ponies loved to play.

To them, playing was the perfect way of life. They loved to play so much that they would often neglect to do their chores or their homework, or forget to carry out favors asked by others.

Mare’s family took it easy and helped Mare realized where to put her priorities first, but Silver’s on the other hand, her parents were not the normal kind.

They were both hard working and no nonsense ponies-- work-a-holics who believed that child’s play, fun and enjoyment were worthless frivolities and wastes of time and energy.

To them, working was the one and only way to live and be, and they disapproved of their daughter’s desires to have fun, imagine, and be carefree.

They wanted to show her that life was tough, and that meant she had to be tough, or rather toughen up, and buckle down to get to work.

They began to get stricter with her, giving her less time to play and loaded her with chores and at-home assignments, which Silver protested and didn’t like a thing of.

Finally, a few years later, her parents put their hoofs down, and vowed to make her give up having fun and get her to work even if they had to break her in half, which was only a verbal threat.

In reality they didn’t physically abuse her, but they did treat harshly, confiscating her toys, all the drawings she ever made, and forbidding her from playing simple games or even mentioning them again.

They worked her at least sixteen hours a day with loads of school work, chores, and assignments, and any ounce of free time she had, and Mare saw less and less of her friend.

She tried to help by reasoning with Silver’s folks, only to be ejected forcefully and ridiculed for her enjoying fun and not working enough.

Soon, Silver Nickle had practically disappeared, neither she nor her parents were seen anywhere in Ponyville.

Mare began to miss her friend, and couldn’t begin to imagine what she was going through.

Then, fifteen years later, when Mare had become Mayor of Ponyville. She heard of this new industry outside of Las Pegasus, that was becoming one of the most successful businesses in all of Equestria, and so many employees and outlets across the land.

On her day off, Mare went to the borders of Las Pegasus and saw the massive high rise, which was celebrating its grand opening as the worldwide headquarters and nerve center of the industry, and who did she happen to see who was the head and founder of this great workforce?

…You guessed it, it was Silver Nickle. She had really grown over the years, but from the looks of things she had changed just as much too.

She was scowling very hard, and looked ready to fight someone, and stranger also, Mare noticed she took a drink from what appeared to be a small bottle of red liquid.

It obviously tasted very awful as Silver seemed to cringe and then look crosser after ingesting it.

Several ponies seemed to back away from her; she didn’t seem too much up for talking or exchanging pleasantries.

Even when the ribbon was cut, opening the building and the crowds began to cheer.

“SILENCE!!” she shouted, and crowds went silent and in shock.

“What you think there’s going to be some kind of party or day off?! There’s work to be done!”

Then she turned to face her workers, “GET MOVING!!!”

The workers all scrambled inside and immediately started to work, and Silver turned to face the crowd of non-workers.

“This area is restricted to workers and authorized personal only! SO GET OUT OF HERE!!!”

Her angry snarl frightened many of the ponies away while others looked back at her and called her out on her snapping, but Silver gave them a ferocious roar finally giving them the message, and they left.

The entre ground was emptied almost too quickly, but Mare still remained, and she wasn’t about to let Silver just walk away like that.

Fortunately, no security guards had stood by the perimeter yet, so she let herself go by.

“Silver…!” she called “Silver Nickle.”

Silver turned sharply, and then saw who it was, “Mare?”

She was surprised to see her again, but didn’t look a bit pleased. Even though she knew she was mayor of Ponyville now, she didn’t seem to care, and she just gave her a cold shoulder and walked away intro the building.

“Wait!” cried Mare “Silver, please. Can we talk for a moment? It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”

Silver, not even looking back at her just grumbled, “What could you possibly have to say that I want to hear?”

Mare felt heart struck.

“Silver, what’s happened to you? How did you do all this?”

Silver scoffed, “Years of hard work, back-bone breaking, and manual labor, that’s how!

Any other questions…?”

Mare took a step back as she had addressed not her friend, but a fearsome demon.

“Silver, don’t you remember? We were friends once. We had so much fun together.”

Silver looked as though she was struggling to repress her feelings and memories.

“Fun is over…

Friendship is over…

…Time to grow up, and get to work!

Stupid! Mindless, Idiotic work!

Goodbye!”

She walked up to the building, but stopped moment to take another swig of that liquid in the bottle.

Mare was heartbroken, but confused as well.

“Silver Nickle…”

She tried to reconcile with her, or at least try to get to the bottom of what changed into… whatever she had become.

Silver Nickle, unfortunately constantly rejected her, insisting she be left alone, and she had no intention of being nice to or cooperating with any-pony, prompting Mare to just ultimately respect Silver’s wishes and leave her be, and try to move on with her life.

The story then faded into the present day, fifteen years later.

Mare looked very depressed, and rubbed her eyes behind her glasses.

“Oh, Mayor Mare.” cried Fluttershy “I’m so sorry you went through that.”

“And all we did was open up the wounds.” muttered Applejack

Rarity passed Mare a tissue which she dabbed her eyes with.

“I’m sorry, Every-Pony, it’s just I don’t understand. What happened to my friend? Why is she so enraged, so fun-loathing and hating work so much that she makes other ponies suffer?”

“That’s something we’d all like to know.” said Starlight “…Then again, you said her parents drilled her and tried to change her in a fun-loathing work-a-holic.”

Everyone began to agree it was possible.

“I’m afraid her parents have passed away long ago.” said Mare “We won’t get any information from either of them.”

“Aww, that’s sad.” said Pinkie “I didn’t even think they were that old.”

“Oh, no, no…” corrected Mare “They weren’t old, it was an accident.

They were both scientists and somewhat of inventors.”

Twilight’s head perked softly, “They were?”

“Yes, and they always seemed to be on the verge of creating new items and products for further the ways of work and industry, but then one day they were just found dead amongst the wreckage of their machinery.

Naturally, Silver was told, and seemed… well rather upset about.

…That or she was still the same.”

Twilight was deep in thought now, and thinking about that red liquid mentioned in the story.

She remembered seeing Silver drink some of it just before she tapped on her office window earlier that day.

“That liquid…!”

“Twilight, are you okay?” asked Rainbow.

Twilight snapped out of her trance.

“Oh, sorry, I was thinking about that liquid. If I could figure out what it is, maybe it’ll give us a clue.”

Spike then noticed, “Hey, what’s that spot on your tail?”

Twilight looked and saw a red sticky spot on her tail, realizing it must’ve come from the dumpster she fell intro.

Twilight gawked at the spot and realized it was the same color as the liquid that Silver was drinking.

“Yes!” she cried “This is it!” and without warning she teleported away in a puff of smoke.

“Is that girl ever going to take it easy?” asked Applejack.

“If I know Twilight,” said Spike “…This is going to be an all-nighter.”