Consolidation.
Twist wasn't paying any attention to the messy trail she was making.
She was presently far too busy gazing around in astonishment at the enormous lobby of the Silver Mansion, it's gleaming marble floors and expensive hardwood fixtures all pleasantly illuminated by glowing crystals set into the walls that gave off a natural feeling, diffuse light. A huge dark wood staircase wound through the landings above her, a dozen massive doors no doubt leading to countless rooms just as ornate as this one.
A distant voice could almost be heard pleading to her as she trotted around, not really sure of her destination. The faint buzz of it was really quite distracting as she attempted in vain to calculate the value of her surroundings and some circumstance by which a pony could possibly come to require so many bits to begin with.
Twist was finally reawakened to her present company when she found herself hovering slightly off the floor.
"Sorry miss," apologized the white uniformed unicorn servant who had been diligently following her, wiping her tacky hoofprints as she made them. He gently eased her down onto four paper towels; "But we've been trying to tell you to stop before you tracked any sap onto the carpets." The stallion explained smiling kindly at Twist as she blushed in embarrassment over almost daydreaming another giant mess into being.
Pinkie never had trusted her to pack the welcome wagon again after that one incident.
"Thorry about that," Twist sighed as she hung her head, already resigned never being allowed into such a home again.
"Now then," the stallion explained as he gently picked up and wiped off Twist's hooves, "the young miss has asked that I accompany you to her private washroom to get you cleaned up for dinner. So if you would please follow me I'm sure that she'll be waiting there to receive you."
"You mean you aren't mad about the meth?" Twist asked as she looked up at the strangely calm stallion who continued to remove the lingering sap from her hooves. It was really quite a pleasant sensation which just made her feel even more embarrassed.
"My goodness no," he reassured her. "It's my job to look after such things. Were it not for the small mistakes of youth, I fear that my day would be frightfully empty."
"Tho Thilver hath a lot of foalth over?" Twist queried as he finished cleaning the last of the sap from her hooves.
The stallion suddenly looked quite sad for a second before he remembered his duties and bought back his warm smile and ushered Twist toward one of the large doors leading into the heart of the mansion.
"This way please miss," he said before falling into step behind Twist and following her through the doors.
---------------------------------------
After a short tour that led Twist past several hallways lined with imposing portraits of ponies she assumed were Silver Spoon's ancestors and relatives; they finally ascended a grand oak staircase, stopping as they came to the doors that led to Silver's private wing of the mansion.
Twist turned around to thank the stallion who had directed her but found that he simply bowed and took his leave. Twist was about to comment on this but her thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Silver Spoon as she came to the doorway.
"Oh good, I was afraid that you'd managed to get lost," Silver said with some relief. "Wouldn't be the first pony to simply disappear within these walls," she added, a slight giggle reassuring Twist that she was joking.
As she was ushered into the room, Twist was once again struck by the almost obscene scale of this house. She had expected Silver to have a big room but this was more like a dormitory. A lushly appointed central chamber with four or five doors leading to other rooms and a sitting area that could easily accommodate Ms Cheerilee's entire class.
Then there were the toys; Huge plush animals and shelves upon shelves of dolls lining the walls in a way that would cause any foal to start feverishly imaging the epic tales they could tell with their grand porcelain army. Curiously though, they all looked like they had been arranged for show and then never touched again. Did Silver simply not play with dolls? A small table between the couches surrounded by smaller and well beaten stuffed animals having a tea party seemed to suggest otherwise.
"Tho Thilver," Twist asked as she passed through another door into the bathroom, "do you collect dollth?"
"No Twist," Silver explained, "those are mostly gifts I've received from relatives continuously since being named as heir." She let out an exasperated sigh, "I've honestly never even heard of most of them but apparently they think they know me."
"Don't you ever play with them?"
"Diamond and I did once," Silver giggled with a guilty smirk, "when one of the maids saw us she almost lost her mind. Poor thing apparently collected dolls her whole life and there we were, two brats smacking a collection that far eclipsed her own against one another like they were action mares."
After a slightly awkward silence Silver simply pointed Twist in the direction of the bath, which was thankfully a modest affair that wouldn't look out of place in most pony's homes. The cream colored filly trotted up to the edge and after a quick dip with her hoof to test the temperature; removing her glasses, she climbed into the warm, pleasant smelling water.
Twist relaxed into the water. After pointing out where the guest towels were, as well as quick run through of the multitude of shampoos and scented soaps, Silver turned to take her leave.
"Awwwww, c'mon Thilver," Twist pleaded as she leaned her head back to soak her mane, "aren't you gonna tell me more of the th'tory while I thoak thith out of my mane?"
"Hmm, I can't really do that until Diamond gets back," Silver said, "but I suppose I could keep you company until... Well, speak of the devil."
"You would dare compare us to that uppity peon," Diamond Tiara proclaimed mockingly as she strode in through the door, with her usual confidence back in full. "My, how the underclass has grown bold."
Silver rolled her eyes at her friend's melodramatic speech. Twist had missed most of it, as she had managed to topple over and completely submerge her head when she was caught off guard by Diamond's arrival. Her splashy resurfacing forcing the other two to stifle their laughter.
"Bleh," Twist shuddered in revulsion, "gueth that thented bathwater th'till tath'tes the thame as regular bathwater."
"Yes," Silver deadpanned, "I imagine that it would, we'll just take your word for it." Feeling that conversation was best left where it lay she then casually trotted over to a lighted vanity on the far wall and pulled the two cushions over to the bath. Motioning for Diamond to take one of them as she sat down and leaned in over the tub so she could continue the story.
"Now then, seeing as we're all here, we can get back to where we were."
"Hold up," Diamond interrupted, "this is my story so I'd like to tell some of it if you don't mind."
"Ugh," Silver groaned, "Fine, but try not to embellish the facts too much. Celestia knows that trying to stop you entirely would be impossible."
"If you really insist," Diamond snickered as she placed a hoof over her heart, "I promise that I won't give myself more than three besotted love interests."
"Make it two and one of them has to be snails."
"Yuck, I think I'd rather just tell it properly."
"Okay, if that's your final offer."
"Bite me."
-----------------------------------------
Mummy was very excited.
Ever since Diamond come home, cutie mark in tow, Jade Scepter had been pulling out old photo albums and trophies from her closet and shouting plans for her wonderful, beautiful daughter and the swath of success the two of them would soon be cutting in the pageant world.
"Now now dear," Filthy Rich interrupted her as he fastened on his cufflinks, "if you don't get yourself ready soon, we're going to be late to our own celebration dinner."
"Ooh, can Silvey come too Daddy?" Diamond asked, looking up from the album she'd been nosing through. Her muzzle now covered in a light layer of dust.
"Of course she can," Filthy chuckled as he pulled out a rag and wiped off Diamond's nose, "we'll be meeting the Silvers there. That is of course assuming that we actually leave sometime tonight." He rolled his eyes towards his wife to emphasize his point.
"Fine," Jade finally relented, "I suppose my dreams can stand to wait for one more night."
"Aw, you mean I have to wait until tomorrow?" Filthy teased.
"Stick to business dear, leave comedy to the idio.." Jade Scepter was suddenly interrupted by a loud knocking on the front door.
"Who could that be?" Filthy wondered aloud. He left his wife to fix her dusty mane and trotted off to answer it, his daughter following closely behind.
They arrived at the door just as a second set of knocks reverberated through the house. Whoever it was being clearly impatient.
A quick peek through the keyhole revealed two of Filthy's branch managers. Both looking very jittery about something and clearly they hadn't slept in a while.
This didn't bode well.
"How may I help you gentlecolts this evening?" Filthy asked with as much decorum as he could muster as he opened the door. Diamond hid behind his legs with only her head poking out from around him.
"Well Sir," gulped a haggard stallion in a disheveled Barnyard Bargains uniform, "we're afraid that a matter has come up in Ponyville that needs your personal attention immediately."
"It most certainly does not," Filthy shouted. "My daughter has just earned her cutie mark and nothing is going to pull me away tonight that you idiots can possibly handle yourselves. Now figure it out"
"But Sir," the stallion pleaded, "the entire western wall and a good quarter of the stock have been obliterated."
"WHAT!?," Filthy suddenly screamed, sending Diamond scurrying away to hide. "You mean to tell me that you morons have managed to destroy my store, my FATHER'S store. How in the name of Celestia's holy t..."
He stopped himself and took a deep breath before continuing.
"Look," he sighed, "just.., just tell me what happened."
"Well," the other pony spoke up, "We were just going through the special orders that arrived yesterday morning, two large items were in there, a party cannon and a stone bust of Celestia for the local library."
"P.. party cannon?," gasped Filthy, not really liking any suggestion of the word 'cannon' given how he now knew things had ended up.
"Well," the stallion continued, "the pony who ordered it popped up pretty much the moment we opened that crate. I don't know how she does that and everypony I've asked has said not to ask...," he momentarily lost his train of thought. "But anyway, she suddenly decided that we should have a 'yay, my party cannon arrived' party and we maaaay have let her give it a test fire."
"Why..., why would you do that?"
"Well, it just fires cakes and decorations, at the worst we would have had a sugary mess to sweep up from the loading dock."
"So, how exactly," Filthy spat, "did cakes and confetti manage to completely destroy an entire wall?"
"Well, you know those almost invisible little plastic ties they use to hold labels on things." The stallion said while putting on his best 'we're so sorry, please don't fire us' grin.
"Please don't tell me..." Filthy groaned as he facehoofed.
"The confetti charge grabbed one on it's way out and, it took the stone bust with it. Those things are far too strong if you ask me."
There was an unnerving silence as the business stallion allowed these events to sink in. His employees had allowed a pony to fire an effigy of their monarch through the western wall of the original Barnyard Bargains. How was he ever going to explain that to his father? How would he explain the loss of a commissioned artwork, one that depicted a living god at that?
"Okay," Filthy finally said, his voice eerily calm, "tell me what you've done so far to fix this."
"Well sir," the stallion began, "we've cleared all the destroyed stock from the floor, put up temporary supports for the roof and moved what we have remaining to the eastern side of the store with the western side cordoned off."
"What about the bust? That was a one of a kind item."
"We've already contracted a sculptor to reproduce it, and in the meantime we've put the head from a destroyed rocking horse on a wooden base and covered it with a tarp. With any luck, nopony will know the difference before it's unveiled in a week." The two managers gulped and waited to be fired.
Filthy let out a sigh of relief and allowed himself to smile. These two idiots had managed to minimize the damage and with any luck he could have everything back to normal within a few months.
"Alright," he finally announced, "you two get the next train home, make sure the pegasai don't have any heavy rain or storms scheduled, bribe somepony if you have to. Oh, and try to get some sleep tonight. I'll be heading to Ponyville in the morning and expect to see you all bright and bushy tailed when I arrive."
"You mean we aren't fired?"
"No, not yet anyway. Now I plan to spend the last evening I have with my family for the foreseeable future celebrating with them at a dinner I am already far more than late for. Good day."
And with that, he turned around and slammed the door, leaving two bewildered branch managers to mull over their improbable survival.
Later that evening as he carried his lightly snoring daughter home draped across his back; Filthy Rich looked over to his wife and wished that he could have stayed.
Alas, duty calls.
----------------------------------------
Twist let her mane cascade back into the water as she used her hooves to massage the last of the sap out of it. She knew full well that it would spring back to it's normal, frizzy state the moment it was dry and was enjoying that her classmates finally got to see it at full length.
Not that Diamond and Silver had noticed as they were currently engaged in an argument over who was supposed to be telling the story. The argument had degenerated into a suds fight about five minutes ago.
Sometimes it's a truly tragic thing to be half blind without your glasses. It gives you fewer chances to laugh when your friends appear to have grown full length beards.
--------------------------------------------
Silver Spoon was very confused.
Diamond had placed fourth in a regional pageant, out of a field of over a hundred hopefuls and this was supposedly her celebration dinner.
So why was dessert completely off the menu?
Was milk really expensive at the moment? Had there been a general cow strike again? Those heifers really know how to stage a protest march.
These thoughts were currently being echoed, albeit loudly and with less tact by Diamond Tiara herself.
Silver tuned out the soap worthy tirade bellowing forth from her friend. She'd already been well aware of the doubling of practice time in the last month since Mr Filthy had left and sure, it wasn't fair that after basically monopolizing all of the pair's free time since to consider a top five finish unworthy of a treat.
Didn't mean that everypony else in the restaurant needed to hear about it for the umpteenth time.
Silver instead busied herself by going over the prices on the menu and doing a mental tally of their theoretical costs. The numbers seemed pretty promising. Maybe she should try her hoof at the food business.
Nah, what business did a filly have preparing food?
Silver's musing was interrupted by a loud gasp from everypony in the restaurant which was followed by a prolonged silence. When she looked up from her menu, she could see Jade Scepter blushing beet red and Diamond reeling away from her on the verge of bawling her eyes out. What the hay had been said?
That was when the floodgates opened.
The next couple of minutes were a blur of tears, screaming and panic as they were hurried out of the restaurant by Jade with every eye on them and Diamond shrieking like a banshee. Silver couldn't even get her bearings until they were safely in a taxi and heading back to the hotel.
Things seemed to have calmed down by the time they arrived. Diamond had managed to scream herself to sleep on the floor of the cab and Silver was stroking her friend's mane to comfort her. As Jade carried her daughter up to their room to put her to bed, she avoided all eye contact with Silver spoon, only managing to whisper, "I'm sorry baby," over and over.
To make up for it the next morning, they both got taken out to buy their first ever makeup supplies that they could call their own. Jade nudged them into the store and told them to find one that matched their coats as closely as they could. There was even a trip to the ice cream store afterwards with them both made up like dolls as the store hooves had insisted they try everything.
Sometimes salesponies are just far too transparent.
-----------------------------------
"I was so Naive back then," Silver sighed.
"Well," Diamond cut in, "in your defense, we were six. Back then I used to think that Daring Do was a real pony who made money by going on fantastic adventures and then writing about them."
"I don't get it," Twist piped in as she vigorously rubbed the last of the damp out of her mane, "I'd probably get a public thcolding as well if I wath acting up like that in public."
"Oh," Silver said, "Diamond's mother wasn't angry at her for acting up, Goddess forbid that anypony ever actually called her on that."
"Hey," Diamond whined, more annoyed about Twist's sheltered ignorance than her friend's little jab.
"Tho?," Twist asked as she replaced her spectacles. "What wath thee tho mad about?"
"Because," Diamond suddenly started shouting angrily, "I WASN'T HER and I DIDN'T WIN!"
Silver looked on in horror as Diamond stalked up to Twist and stared her right in the eyes as the volume of her voice increased and her screaming became raspy.
"All I got when I came home from that stupid trip was even more stupid restrictions on my time and what I was allowed to eat!" Diamond screamed. "I wasn't even... wasn't even allowed to.." She paused, her anger disappearing behind teary eyes and panting breaths. When she opened her eyes and looked at Twist's face, she was cowering in front of her.
Diamond took a step back and fell on her rump realizing she had once again allowed herself to shove her anger on an undeserving pony. "I... I'm Sorry Twist."
Twist just sat there for a moment, trying to process this new information but just couldn't. Winning wasn't something she or her family had any real experience with, only the long held belief that if you did your best, then you had nothing to worry about. That it could become an all-encompassing desire was a completely foreign concept.
Diamond was pawing at the ground, ashamed of her outburst. Silver just looked at her in disappointment, she thought Diamond had already come to terms with those parts of her past.
Thankfully, any and all serious thoughts came to an abrupt halt as Twist's mane suddenly took its cue, exploding back to it's normal form with an almighty FWUMMP that threw off her glasses and left the previously half blind pony completely absent her ability to perceive anything other than hair.
Nopony dared to laugh during the stunned silence that followed.
"So," Silver blurted out as she saw her chance to salvage the evening, "makeovers?"
"Yes!" Diamond responded instinctively, "let's do..., wait..., aren't you allowed like, no makeup in your room."
"Well no, but that doesn't mean I don't have any."
"Why would you not be allowed any?" Twist asked, genuinely confused that Silver had ever been refused anything.
"Daddy thinks that I shouldn't be worried about attracting a stallion until I'm older, he still has that makeup Diamond's mum bought me locked up in my hope chest back in Canterlot. Wouldn't do me much good anyway, my coat's at least two shades darker now anyway."
With that said, Silver trotted over to her lighted vanity and reached around the back for her hidden drawer. It didn't take her long to completely empty it's smuggled contents out.
It wasn't a lot, but it was more than enough to allow three inexperienced fillies to have a ball unknowingly making each other look ridiculous.
--------------------------------------
Sure enough, two hours later three fillies emerged from Silver's private wing; heading to dinner with grinning faces that shined like somepony had run a power buffer over them. This was left without comment by the servant that had arrived to escort them there, but he secreted some napkins into his pocket just in case one of them caught sight of a mirror on their way there.
No such luck.
As the three giggling fillies were ushered through the last set of doors that led into the main dining room, they were surprised to see that besides Silver's Aunty Sterling, a good number of seats had already been filled.
What were Mister Rich and Miss Bonbon doing here?
"Oh good," Sterling Silver addressed them as they nervously approached the large table, "you're all finally here. I do wish that I had known about your little sleepover earlier dear, I had to send out Swift Service to fetch these two for this get together as soon as I heard."
"Why did you have to.." Silver asked as she glanced over at the two clearly uncomfortable adults. Filthy Rich was glancing about in a fashion that suggested he saw incoming disaster. Bonbon was just trying not to look nervous and was doing a terrible job of it.
"Well," Sterling droned in her distinctly upper class accent as she inspected a wine list, "I had to meet with the ponies who own the businesses that you have so suddenly decided to merge with. It's always best to do these things formally you know."
Silver was grateful that her starting salad had already been served. It did a marvelous job of softening the blow as her face collided with the table.
Diamond and Twist glanced at their stricken friend and then across her to each other and gulped.
This was going to be a long night.
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Right, chapter 3.
Only took me a month.
I would just like to say that this one was by far the most difficult to write, mainly because this is the point where I actually started having to head the story towards goals instead of being able to just throw cute into two chapters whose entire narrative existed as a framing device for backstory and setting up the sleepover.
Also, big thanks to Sparky Luck for prereading and editing the bajezzus out of this mess so that it could reach the almost passable form you see here.
Haha, you don't mess with party cannons, they are serious business!
I like your Diamond Tiara - Silver Spoon dynamic, they play of each other quite well.
In regards to "One bad apple":
Will Twist join the "Sugar lump rump"-routine and the dark side?
Or will she mediate DT and SS towards being nicer?
Or will they try to play the thing down? If so: Good luck with that in a town with Cutie Mark Crusaders Private Investigators!
1687123
I can't say that episode had been out very long (one day) when I was finishing this up, so any allusions to it are going to need to be retconned in. On the other hand, I liked Diamond being terrified of her mother, it links up nicely.
Oh dat Pinkie Pie
I'm confused about the ending. What just happened?
1695061
*Warning: kinda spoilers because the signs are (or should be) there.
Silver Spoon is first in line to inherit control of the Silver Family and it's fortunes, so any relationships she forms are treated by the Silvers as potential interests or mergers.
Mainly because they don't really know any other way of relating to ponies. Social grace having never been their strong suit.
Celestia's holy WHAT
P-poor Diamond. That's gotta be rough for any young child to deal with... And Silver Spoon, too! I like how you have that they both reacted to the expectations heaped on them in different ways. They're not really alike at all, but still very good friends. I love it!
>.> So whats with the sex tag?
1822295
I originally put it there under 'teen - sex' because there is some allusions to it coming up.
Of course, with the site change it's just been made a blanket term, so I should probably just drop the tag.
So why was desert completely off the menu? -- dessert
1875993
I can't believe I missed that *headdesk*
It's always the little details the author includes for the reader to find that I enjoy seeing, especially when they're clever. I like how you never capitalize Snails's name, denoting his unimportance to the titular characters who are referring to him. I may not like twist, but I like this story. I can really taste the lemon you added to the DT+SS salad, and it really gives it a nice aftertaste.
I'm liking this so far. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.
HA HA HA I love that last part! Silver Spoon face planting in her salad bowl!
and I love your Silver Spoon. Until she mentioned makeovers I practically forgot this wasn't a future mare version of Silver. she is so polite, intelligent, and mature for her age.
I love her naturally business savvy nature, and her staunch hard work ethic. She doesn't seem that spoiled for a filly of class and style, born to a wealthy family. her father did a good job instilling in her responsibility and pride for an honest bi$ earned. Even if he did kina rob her of her foal hood in the process
but she seems happy with her life and that makes me happy as a Silver Spoon fanatic.
I love your Diamond to. She's a little spoiled but sweet. I love how she lost her temper and quickly apologized to Twist. I think there is hope for her yet. It was hilarious her sugar induced hang over in the beginning.
I think Twist will make a good replacement for Babsy and a good friend for both lonely fillies. Hopefully they can make peace and even a joint friendship with the CMC. Twist can help remind both of them that they are not yet mares and should have fun just like working class foals.
A wild uppercase draws near! Command?
3854953
Thanks, fixed.
I knew she had some "blue candy" on her.
Wait, I'm confused. What exactly happened at the restaurant?
Aside from that though, I'm loving the story so far. Especially buisness-oriented Silver Spoon.
Oh the irony of that statement.
5095752 out of the mouths of babes
oh noes you dropped her sweet lisp!
if she is shouting angrily you would probably want to capitalize the words she is shouting or at least use an exclamation point.
The period at the end of a sentence that is supposed to have been shouted in anger or frustration is just anticlimactic and diffuses the the emotion from the statement.