• Published 18th Jul 2023
  • 697 Views, 15 Comments

Candy Coated - Pascoite



Silver Spoon thought everypony had become friends. They all like Diamond Tiara now, so why not her?

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Candy Coated

Silver Spoon took off her saddlebag, stowed her textbooks in her desk, and grimaced at the state of her seat. Some of the foals in class thought it acceptable to spread crumbs wherever as they ate the lowbrow fried foods they brought for breakfast. Most of the rest appeared to be chalk dust, no doubt Miss Cheerilee clapping the erasers together but failing to do so outside.

She pulled a lacy handkerchief from the small side pocket of her saddlebag and dusted off the seat. The sounds of somepony at a nearby desk caught her ear, and she looked up.

“Oh, hello, Twist,” she said, shifting her braid to the other shoulder.

“Hmf.”

Strange, Twist always seemed upbeat. She didn’t look angry, though, more distracted. Yeah, they had a math quiz today. Twist just had her mind somewhere else.

Silver glanced out the window at the new playground equipment Diamond Tiara had wheedled her dad into buying last week. It sure had made recess fun ever since. “Hey, Twist, you wanna, like, hang out at the slide after lunch?” No answer, so she turned back to face Twist again. “Hey, Twist?”

Her eyes… she’d never seen anypony’s eyes look that way. Wide, like Mommy’s when opening a huge ruby pendant on Hearth’s Warming, but also like Daddy’s guard dogs cornering a trespasser.

“I… I don’t think so.” At least that’s what it sounded like Twist said, but it was so quiet.

“Um… do you wanna sit together at lunch then? Diamond’s helping out Pip with student council stuff, so she won’t be around.”

Twist let out a hard sigh. “So you’re only asking me ’cause you’re lonely?”

“No!” Silver said, holding a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, I didn’t want you to think that! No, she said yesterday we should ask you, but she forgot about the meeting. I still wanted to though.”

Twist raised an eyebrow but fought it back down. “You don’t have to.”

Something didn’t feel right. Shouldn’t any of the kids jump at the chance? Most of them did. “You okay?” Silver took off her glasses and folded her handkerchief around to the other side without all the crumb residue on it, then buffed a few spots off her lenses.

“I just don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“I just don’t want to.”

Twist made awfully pretty candies. Silver sure wanted to have lunch with her. “C’mon, why not?”

“Becauthe you’re the wortht!” Twist erupted, and the few classmates already there all whipped their heads around. Miss Cheerilee even peered in from the storage room.

Silver’s chest tightened, and the panic rose in her throat. Why would she say that? Twist liked her, for real! “But… but I meant it, Twist,” she said quietly.

No answer.

“I meant it. Really. I think you’re pretty cool.”

Still no answer. At least the other kids had gone back to their own business.

“Will you tell me why?”

Twist flinched toward the door, but then she sagged in her seat. “Do you know how many yearth of therapy I’ve gone to becauthe of you?”

“I… I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

“And I finally got my lithp under control, and now it only happenth when I get threth—” she clenched her eyes shut “—sssstressed.” She took a deep breath and calmly sat up in her chair, her eyes fluttering back open. “Ssso please leave me alone.”

But Silver didn’t… “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t want you to feel that way.”

“Yeth you did.”

“I really didn’t! I—”

“Yeth you did!” Twist said, her voice rising again, and Sweetie Belle paused on her way in the door. “You haven’t changed one bit.”

Silver felt her face go cold. “But I did! Diamond Tiara and I both used to—”

She changed!” Twist took another deep breath. “She’s nice now, and she helped the school out, and did you listen to her song at all? She feels bad about what she used to be like, and she’s trying to make it better. What have you done?”

How could Twist not know? She was right there for all of it! “But I didn’t vote for her! I quit managing her campaign!”

“Not ’cause you felt bad for anypony else. You were just mad at her for insulting you.”

But that wasn’t true! “I helped Diamond Tiara build the new playground, and I played with those Cutie Mark Crusaders and Diamond, and went with Diamond Tiara to…” Silver’s face fell.

“Do you even hear yourself?”

With Diamond Tiara. All of it. Twist was right. What had Silver done?

Silver put her glasses back on. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make you sad.” She’d really driven Twist to therapy? She remembered a time she might have found that funny. Now it made the bile rise in her throat. “I’m sorry,” she repeated, and she turned toward Diamond Tiara’s desk across the room. Twist didn’t want to talk to her, so no sense in making her.

“I did really like the chocolates you gave the class at Hearth’s Warming,” Silver murmured, if Twist even heard her. “I was wondering how you got the red and green polka dots all over them, in the middle, too, and I thought I’d ask you. Maybe even see if you’d show me how to make some of the simple candies.”

“You… you really thought that?”

Silver stared at the wood grain of her desk. “Yeah. Not like I’d be good at it. That’s, like, your talent. Your cutie mark. But maybe I could learn something easy.”

Behind her, Twist cleared her throat. “I just… mixed in some ice cream sprinkles right at the end, and they melt a bit in the chocolate before it cools,” she said softly.

“That’s a neat idea. They were so pretty, I couldn’t bring myself to eat ’em, and they went bad.” Why’d she admit that? They went to waste.

A short silence, then a huffed sigh. “Do you wanna come over and make some more?”

Comments ( 15 )
Wanderer D
Moderator

Aww.

I do wish Silver Spoon had gotten more closure. I'm glad you were able to explore this though.

LOVE THIS

The narrowness of Silver Spoon's perspective is blown open really well, and the ending is really sweet.

Added to several groups so more people can see this.

Twist has a point. Silver Spoon didn't change her attitude towards anyone else, far as we know. She didn't abandon Diamond Tiara because of moral reasons, she just didn't want anything done to herself.

11643282
Thank you! I'm not a member of any groups that are oriented around sharing genre/character/plot/etc centric content, so I don't do much to circulate them myself.

Short and to the point.

I wish Hasbro did something interesting to Silver's character. Anyway, this story leads to an interesting start. Keep it up dude! 8/10

This was beautiful 🤩
And loved the dramatic reading 🥰

https://m.

It's THESE kind of short, intimate encounters that we could've had on the show itself... if they'd given their abundant supporting cast more time to shine, that is... :ajbemused:

That was a good story.

I remember having a certain dislike for Silver Spoon despite absolutely loving Diamond Tiara. Silver Spoon always follwed Diamond Tiara's lead but would immediately leave her high and dry when the crowd would turn against her, like she did in "Family Appreciation Day." Diamond Tiara was a bitch, but she would always own her bitchiness even when it made her unpopular, as it often did. Did Diamond Tiara apologize for going all J. Jonah Jameson in "Ponyville Confidential?" Hell no! She blew a raspberry. There is something respectable in that, in a childish playgroud sense. Silver Spoon was like a hyena following a lion--happy to feast together but not to fight together.

So, yeah, I'm with Twist here. The'th the wortht.

Some of the foals in class thought it acceptable to spread crumbs wherever as they ate the lowbrow fried foods they brought for breakfast.

um fried foods for breakfast rules?

“Hey, Twist, you wanna, like, hang out at the slide after lunch?” No answer, so she turned back to face Twist again. “Hey, Twist?”

dang, not even getting Twist to hang out with you, that is quite the L

“Becauthe you’re the wortht!” Twist erupted, and the few classmates already there all whipped their heads around. Miss Cheerilee even peered in from the storage room.

ahaha, great idea to have Twist to be the one saying it

“And I finally got my lithp under control, and now it only happenth when I get threth—” she clenched her eyes shut “—sssstressed.” She took a deep breath and calmly sat up in her chair, her eyes fluttering back open. “Ssso please leave me alone.”

aww!

She changed!” Twist took another deep breath. “She’s nice now, and she helped the school out, and did you listen to her song at all? She feels bad about what she used to be like, and she’s trying to make it better. What have you done?”

love that the song happened literally in the universe as an event ponies can make reference to, and also that the lack of a song is a sign of not having had any character growth or repentance

With Diamond Tiara. All of it. Twist was right. What had Silver done?

so true for, like, the entire series in general

A short silence, then a huffed sigh. “Do you wanna come over and make some more?”

aww, friendship!


lovely look at a supporting character finally getting to exist outside of the narrow context she was confined to in the canon. and not just Silver Spoon, but Twist herself really fell off the face of Equestria after the first few seasons.  thank you for writing!

She’s nice now, and she helped the school out, and did you listen to her song at all?

There’s something weirdly hilarious about explicitly mentioning a spontaneous musical number in the middle of calling someone out. Likewise Twist’s exasperation at the end as she realizes Silver’s being sincere, and has thus backed her into a corner and forced her to be the bigger pony.

Excellent use of two fillies the narrative forgot once they’d outlived their usefulness. I do feel like somepony else should’ve come in—Cheerilee if nopony else—but that’s the word limit working against you. All told, great bit of interpersonal drama, even if you probably didn’t mean for it to be as funny as I found it.

11698565
Hm, interesting that you found those things humorous. I can see the song coming across that way, especially if the story takes a humorous tone in general, but I wouldn't have expected the ending to seem funny. There have been several stories where I reference a song (or just the show's tendency to have them in general) as a matter-of-fact thing about life in Equestria and had never considered a reader might take it as a full-on joke. There are some show songs that are detached from the plot and could be taken more as a character's internal musings, but there are some that advance the plot while they're going, so while it's still plausible to see that as a conceit such that the characters themselves don't perceive it as a song, I find it interesting to do the opposite. Though that of course doesn't mean a reader is going to take it in the light I intended.

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