Oh, To Be a Blank Flank Again
Oh, To Be a Blank Flank Again
Silver Spoon walked along the streets of Canterlot with a parasol resting up against her shoulder. It was a bright and sunny day, not too cool and not too hot, the perfect day for a meeting with an old childhood friend. They had agreed to meet for tea and sandwiches at a local restaurant, and so Silver Spoon made her way to the establishment, wearing one of her favorite white dresses she had received from a new boutique that opened up in Canterlot.
Her friend, a pink mare with a purple and white mane, was already there. She was still wearing one of the old tiaras she used to wear to Cheerilee’s class so long ago, neatly polished and shining brightly in the sun. Silver Spoon walked up to where her friend was sitting and they shook hooves as she sat down at the table, water being poured into a blue-crystal glass for her by a passing waiter and a plate of fresh-baked bread with butter set down by another.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” Diamond Tiara asked.
“It has,” Silver Spoon agreed. “Nearly five years since leaving Ponyville for me.”
Diamond Tiara looked down and noticed the pendant shining from her friend’s chest, a blue musical note in front of a ruby heart. “I love the new pendant. Where did you get it?”
“Oh… mom got it for me as a birthday gift,” Silver Spoon said. “It’s from the new Heartsong line based on the jewelry created for that new pop singer.”
“Ooh, I’ve heard a lot about her. Doesn’t she have a summer home in Phillydelphia?”
“And one here in Canterlot,” Silver Spoon replied.
“How much is it? The pendant, that is?”
“Only twenty five hundred bits.”
“Perfect. It looks good on you.” Diamond Tiara took a sip of the water in front of her. “So, what have you been doing these past few years?”
“Well, I went to a good university and took a few courses,” Silver Spoon replied. “A little in cooking, a little in literature, a few generalized classes, but I wasn’t sure where to go. They said with my grades they’d welcome me back anytime, though.” She took a sip of her own water. “How about you? What happened down in Ponyville while I was away?”
“Oh, nothing much, really,” Diamond Tiara replied. “It was business as usual until daddy decided he wanted to expand the family business, so he moved on over here to Canterlot and started another branch. Otherwise, I’ve just been lounging around enjoying the good life now that I’m done with school.”
The waiter came around again. Diamond Tiara ordered an earl grey tea, while Silver Spoon ordered chai tea. A plate of daffodil and daisy sandwiches, peanut butter with plum jelly sandwiches, and hay fries were ordered for the table, along with a plate of small pastries for afterwards. The waiter took down the ordered and left the two alone again.
“Have you really done anything lately, though?” Silver Spoon asked.
“I haven’t really needed to,” Diamond Tiara said with a smug smile on her face. “Daddy’s had so much wealth that I haven’t needed to do anything for these past few years. I want something and dad gives it to me. I want to go somewhere and dad takes me. Haven’t you done anything lately?”
“Well, going to the university, I haven’t had much time for anything. We still take summer and winter vacations to places, sometimes even to Ponyville, but I really haven’t done much of anything outside school.”
Diamond Tiara’s smug smile vanished as she looked at her friend, currently absentmindedly swirling the water in her glass. “What are you thinking about? Come on, I can see the look in your face that you’re troubled by something. Come on, tell me!”
Silver Spoon sighed as the waiter brought around the teas. She placed a few scoops of sugar in her tea but didn’t place the serving spoon back, instead holding it in her hoof. “Diamond Tiara… what do you think our cutie marks really mean?”
Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think I get your question.”
“Well…” Silver Spoon raised the sugar spoon so that Diamond Tiara could see it. “Essentially, this is what mine is. But I don’t even remember how I got it. It just sort of appeared there one day while I was talking with my family about money. And you… you already had yours by the time I met you and said it was because you were ‘daddy’s little princess’.”
Diamond Tiara giggled. “I still am. And enjoying every minute of it.”
“Well, that’s all well and good, but… a cutie mark is supposed to be a talent. Ponies get their cutie mark because they excel in something beyond other ponies. But, what are our talents? You don’t have a skill that really relates to tiaras, and I don’t have a skill that relates to spoons. It just is… well, it’s been bugging me.”
“Well, it shouldn’t,” Diamond Tiara said flatly. “If it’s any consolation, let’s think about the old blank-flank crusaders.” And she started laughing. “Ah, that one always cheers me up.”
“Well, I’ve been meaning to tell you about that.”
Diamond Tiara stopped laughing. “What about?”
“Well… I’ve sort of become envious of them. Do you remember what Twilight said back at your cuteceneara party? About how they still had time to discover who they were? I’m a bit afraid that I grew up too fast, that I found my cutie mark too early.”
“Why would you be so envious of some little blank-flank filly? I mean, they were just normal old Ponyville residents, while you and I were living the high life and destined for Canterlot society. What’s there to be so concerned about?”
“Well, I’ve heard about what happened because I talked with Sweetie Belle at the university. She goes there and I’ve had her in a class or two.”
“Wha…!? How did Sweetie Belle get into a Canterlot university?”
“Because according to most of the school rankings, it’s a low to mid-level university in terms of price. I tried speaking with some of the professors at the higher end universities, but they were so distant while the professors in the lower-end ones were more willing and enthusiastic about their students succeeding, so I went there.”
“Anyways, what did Sweetie Belle say? Was she whining and complaining about how her and her friends haven’t had their talents discovered yet?”
“Actually, they’re doing quite well. Apple Bloom is in construction and heads most of the projects around Ponyville but has gotten calls from Canterlot nobility to help design and construct their houses. Scootaloo finally got her wings and is part of the Wonderbolts but is a professional-level skater on the side. As for Sweetie Belle… she was the one who gave me the pendant, saying that she wanted to put the bad times in Cheerilee’s class behind us. She’s gone around singing and performing under the stage name ‘Heartsong’.”
Diamond Tiara’s jaw dropped. "I thought that was from your mom."
"Well, I lied. I... I didn't know how you'd respond."
The waiter came around and placed the sandwiches down on the table. Silver Spoon took one of each type of sandwich and a small amount of hay fries and started eating while Diamond Tiara stared at her.
“I suppose what I’m getting at is they have fulfilling lives and they actually know their talents while I’m sitting around here doing almost nothing and have no idea what I’m supposed to be good at. They have each other and have made friends in their jobs – Sweetie’s even worked with Sapphire Shores on occasion – yet all I currently have is you.”
Diamond Tiara’s jaw remained dropped as she raised her eyebrow again. “You’re saying you don’t want to be rich? To live in the lap of luxury and not worry about what’s going to happen?”
“No!” Silver Spoon reprimanded, raising her voice for the first time as she slammed the daffodil and daisy sandwich on her plate, causing the sandwich to break apart. “That’s not what I meant at all! What I meant was that I don’t want to be spending my life sitting around doing nothing while others are out there enjoying themselves.”
“We’re enjoying ourselves now going out to lunch,” Diamond Tiara said. “Well, we were.”
Silver Spoon growled at Diamond Tiara. “You just don’t get it, do you? We’ve been going through our lives as fillies thinking we were better than those three because they didn’t have cutie marks. The cutie mark isn’t what life is about. It’s about discovering yourself. I took the time to go and find out what I was meant to do, and instead I’ve come up with more questions than answers but I certainly feel better for having searched.”
Silver Spoon stood up from the table, knocking her chair over. “You… you haven’t changed. You’re still ‘daddy’s little princess’. You still think you’re higher than everyone else. Why, I… I bet that your cutie mark probably means you like having control over others and getting your way like the little princess you are!”
Diamond Tiara gasped. “What are you…?”
“I’m saying I’d rather still be a blank flank than not know what my cutie mark means!”
Diamond Tiara just stared at Silver Spoon, as did a few passersby to the restaurant.
After a while, Diamond Tiara smirked. “You’re going to leave me, aren’t you?” she said. “You think you can deal without me. Well, as you said, I’m the only friend you have.”
“Don’t you have any friends, Diamond Tiara?” Silver Spoon said quietly. “Won’t my leaving make you as friendless as I am?”
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Diamond Tiara responded. “So long as daddy still has money to buy me whatever I want, I don’t need any friends. But you… you’ve never been anything but a follower. You only agreed with me because you didn’t have anyone else.”
Silver Spoon felt the tears welling up in her eyes.
“I may be, as you put it, daddy’s little princess. But at least I know I am.”
Silver Spoon didn’t even try to hide it anymore. She went ahead and let the tears fall, not caring where they landed and not even bothering to wipe them away with her hoof. Instead, she started to walk out of the restaurant. Before she left, she turned around to Diamond Tiara.
“Good bye, Diamond Tiara,” she said through small whimpers. “I hope that, whatever you do, you find happiness. But I won’t care if I ever see you again.” And she left the restaurant.
As she walked along the streets of Canterlot, she turned around to look back inside at Diamond Tiara. The mare was sitting there eating and looking quite pleased with herself as though it didn’t even matter that Silver Spoon had come around after five years to say hello. Silver Spoon turned back around and started heading for home, sobbing all the way.
Back at home, Silver Spoon went to her bedroom, complete with her own full-sized bed, stuffed animals, jewelry, a vanity, a closet full of dresses. What did it all mean? What did it all mean if she had no idea what to do with them? They would all just be things to collect dust. Like her cutie mark, she was a spoon that no one had any idea to do with it, that was left in the back of the drawer to collect dust.
She took off the pendant and looked at it, the ruby heart and the blue musical note. It was shaped after Sweetie Belle’s cutie mark, and given to her after Sweetie Belle said she wanted to push past the problems they had in Cheerilee’s class. She envied the former “blank-flank” and her friends, who had now lived so much more fulfilling lives and knew what they were doing with their talents.
Perhaps… perhaps they could help her live that way, too.
Author's Note
This was going to have an alternate ending that was much bleaker. I was not a fan of it and it was switched to the current ending.
Oh, To Be a Blank Flank Again
Back at home, Silver Spoon went to her bedroom on the third floor of her family’s Canterlot mansion, complete with her own full-sized bed, stuffed animals, jewelry, a vanity, a closet full of dresses. What did it all mean? What did it all mean if she had no idea what to do with them? They would all just be things to collect dust. Like her cutie mark, she was a spoon that no one had any idea to do with it, that was left in the back of the drawer to collect dust.
But… wasn’t a spoon meant to be used? Didn’t it have a purpose? Perhaps Diamond Tiara had been right all along; she was nothing but a follower. She had no one else, no one to whom she could put her talent, whatever it could have been, to use. The thought made her feel sick inside, the thought of not having a purpose.
She pulled off the pendant she had been wearing and set it on the desk before writing a note next to it. She pulled off the dress that she had been wearing and set it neatly in her closet. She pulled out her hairbands and set them on the desk nearby the note. Afterwards she went over to the window and pushed it open.
Have I been nothing but a follower? she asked herself. Have I done so little I forgot what my cutie mark meant? If only I could remember what happened that day…
Silver Spoon walked forwards.
* * *
“Daddy, how come we have so much money?”
“Because daddy works hard to make sure he can care for his little daughter.”
“What do you do with all that money?”
“Well, I try to help other ponies with it. I build places where they can work, and I can offer jobs to those who don’t have any.”
“Why are there ponies who don’t have any work, daddy?”
“Because sometimes there are ponies who have talents better suited for some jobs and not others and can’t find work related to their talents. I try and help them as much as I can by making jobs that they have the talents for.”
“Dad… I wanna be like you when I grow up. I wanna work hard and get rich and help ponies out like you.”
“That’s my little girl… look at that!”
“What? What is it!?”
“You got your cutie mark! A silver sugar spoon with a blue heart jewel in the handle.”
“It’s pretty…”
“Not as pretty as you, my little girl…”
* * *
Sweetie Belle:
Thank you for the pendant, but I think it’s time I gave it back. I won’t need it anymore. Though, for once, I can say you weren’t all that bad. Thank you for trying to reach out and, while it might be too late, I hope you can accept my apology. I hope you can remember me as a friend... and hopefully I will remember that, too.
Author's Note
The much bleaker ending, in case any of you wanted to see what it was. I prefer the newer one, mostly because I'm not a fan of endings like this.