When you think of love, what does it mean to you? Is it an emotion, to describe great affection for someone? An expression of great interest for something? Is it an experience, to be felt by sentient beings? Perhaps it is all of these. And if it is, does that mean it is possible to feel them all at once? If it is love, is it limited to age or maturity? To understand that, you must first ask yourself: What is love?
“Okay, class, pay attention! Today we’ll be learning about emotions.”
“Miss Cheerilee; aren’t those the things that make ponies cry?”
“Sort of. That’s a particular emotion called sadness, although overwhelming happiness or joy can make ponies cry as well.”
Silver Spoon drew circles on her desk with her hoof next to Diamond Tiara, who sat – a blank expression plastered on her face – staring at the chalkboard. Silver Spoon was only half-listening to the lesson, favoring her daydreaming to the class discussion. She spared a glance at Diamond, who looked back and rolled her eyes. Silver Spoon stifled a giggle, understanding Diamond’s frustration being stuck in class.
“Miss Cheerilee, what is love? I mean, I kind of know what it means, like what you do for someone you love, but what does it specifically mean?”
The question made Silver’s ears perk up. She had heard the word before, a long time ago when her parents used to say it to each other. She still didn’t know what it meant, but she knew it was special somehow.
“Well, Sweetie Belle, love is what we describe when we care deeply about someone or something. Your parents, for example, love each other very much...”
Silver Spoon glanced at Diamond Tiara again and stifled another giggle as her friend imitated gagging. The rest of the lesson drowned out in the background, having lost Silver’s interest to her daydreaming.
At lunch break the two were outside, eating on the fence of the playground, away from the rest of the ponies who would bother them. They normally sat in silence. Due to Silver Spoon’s introverted nature, there wasn’t much worth talking about for her. Neither of them minded. Silver Spoon just liked being her friend.
“Hey, Silver… Were you listening to the lesson just now?"
Silver shook her head.
“Well, I was just thinking and a lot of the stuff that Miss Cheerilee said about ponies in love... well... It kinda sounds like us."
“What do you mean?” Silver asked, surprised that Diamond was actually interested in one of Miss Cheerilee’s lessons.
“I guess you wouldn’t know since you weren’t paying attention... Nevermind. Forget I said anything.”
“No, tell me.”
“No, it’s silly.”
“Diamond, just tell me.” Silver enforced.
Diamond sighed. “Okay, okay... She was talking about how when ponies are in love with each other, they really care about each other. They do things for one another and just like being in each other’s company. She even said that they do stuff like kissing and hugging and ‘special sleepovers’, though I have no idea what that last one is. Probably something stupid.”
Silver raised her brow behind her glasses. “And you think this is us?”
“Well of course not. We don't kiss or any of that stuff.” Diamond’s cheeks turned a shade of light purple as she blushed.
“So you're saying you... love me?” Silver teased.
“J-just forget it!” Diamond exclaimed, her blush turning to a deeper hue of violet and spreading to the rest of her face.
Silver Spoon giggled as Diamond jumped back up on the fence and sat with her. Silver turned her head and looked to the distance, the sun's light peeking at her between the leaves of the autumn trees. Although Silver preferred winter to fall, she still loved the passionate colors of the trees during this season. She took a relaxing breath and felt the cool breeze on her face, welcoming it with flourished cheeks. An odd warmth roused her as she felt something against her leg. She looked over to see Diamond Tiara holding hooves with her, while blushing profusely.
“Diamond, what are you–”
“S-shut up. I’m just trying something out.”
Before it could get any more awkward, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Silver hopped off the fence and adjusted her glasses, while Diamond Tiara almost galloped to get into the classroom. Giving one last look at the burning treeline, Silver lifted up the hoof that Diamond held and stared at it quizzically. It wasn't any different from before, just the same old hoof. Except, somehow it was special now. For a reason unknown to Silver, that hoof seemed warmer. Not the kind of warm that one gets from holding hooves, but warm on the inside. Feeling the cold breeze again, she brought the hoof to her cheek, immediately feeling the extra warmth from Diamond’s hooves enter her face. She smiled and embraced it further, closing her eyes and remembering how Diamond looked when she blushed. She hadn't seen that look in a long time.
A voice, stern yet caring, pierced through her bliss. “Silver Spoon?”
“Coming, Miss Cheerilee!”
~~~
Silver Spoon emerged from the doorway to the school with Diamond Tiara lagging behind. They hadn't spoken much for the rest of the day, not that they spoke much anyway during class, and every time Silver looked at Diamond, they both blushed and turned away smiling. Now they were on their way home, walking together, since Silver’s house was only a short minute away from Diamond’s.
Reaching Diamond’s house, they said their goodbyes – though it was Friday and the two would most likely be meeting up later – and Silver turned to continue walking to her house. As she approached her house on the end of the street, she heard yelling, thus dissipating whatever happy thoughts and faint smiles that still lingered. Silver never liked to intervene, conflicts and arguments were something she tried to stay away from. However, in this house, conflict was always looking for her, and often times found her.
Silver entered the doorway and the shouting intensified, driving its way into her flattened ears. Quickly shutting the door, she galloped upstairs in the hopes that the shouting would not follow her. After two flights of stairs she finally reached her bedroom, a large space that made up the entire third floor, and shut the door behind her. She laid on the bed and tried to drown out the shouting, but it was to no avail. Even two stories above them, she could still hear them arguing.
Tears forced their way onto her face. Nearly every week they did this, for almost three months. She had tried at first, talking to both of them about it individually. She didn’t understand what they were fighting about thought. By what she had heard, one of them was caught doing something with another pony, but it wasn’t clear which since both of them told her that it was the other. Were they only allowed to be with one pony at a time? Or was it what they were doing with that other pony that was wrong? Silver had no way to know.
The shouting stopped and Silver heard hoofsteps on the stairs. She rose from the bed and sat on her haunches facing the door, expecting the worst to come bursting through it anytime now.
The hoofsteps got louder and louder until they eventually stopped. Silver waited awhile, then there was a knock at the door. Silver resisted the urge to drop her jaw in surprise. They never knocked. Ever. She got up and walked slowly to the door.
“Who is it?”
A gruff voice replied, clearly weary from the shouting earlier. “It’s me. Can I come in?” her father said.
Reaching with her head, she turned the knob in her teeth and pulled the door open. He entered the room, giving it a once-over and shutting the door behind him. “Princess, we need to talk.”
‘Princess’ was her father’s name for her. She didn’t like it much, having no desire to be a princess, but she liked it when he called her that. Although now, by the trouble in his voice, it did anything but soothe her.
He took a nearby chair while she hopped back on the bed and sat down. “You already know, I’m sure, that your mother and I are having difficulties in our marriage. I know you don’t fully understand why, and you won’t till you’re older… But what I’ve done, and what she’s done, cannot be undone.” He paused and took a deep breath before turning his gaze from the floor, back to Silver Spoon.
“The things we’ve said to each other haven't been very nice, and I… we can’t take them back. Whatever love we had for each other has died, finished off by those things we said.” He chuckled. “It’s funny how words have that much power. They can express something as complex as love and just as easily do the opposite, taking away love and replacing it with hate and sadness.” Another pause, longer this time, Silver took the opportunity to speak.
“Dad, are you two splitting up?”
“It seems that way, Princess. But that’s not really even the worst of it.”
“What could be worse than that?!” she burst, tears flowing down her cheeks.
“Your mother…” He sighed and ran a hoof through his mane, letting out a nervous chuckle with the slightest hint of a crack in his voice. “Your mother doesn't want to take care of you. She’s going to Manehattan, and she doesn't want to take you there.”
“Well you can just take care of me by yourself, can't you?!”
“... No.”
Author's Note
I can't believe it, but someone actually made some fan art for this chapter. o.O
I totally didn't flip when I got it.
Link.
Seated in a restaurant on a brisk Saturday morning, Filthy Rich stared out into the rain. A coffee mug, now empty and cold, stood on the edge of his table. Most drank tea, but Rich was a business pony, and he preferred something that could help him shake off the long nights he spent conjuring proposals and filing reports. A newspaper laid in front of him, with a half-finished crossword puzzle displayed on the page. He looked across from him and found himself staring at an empty chair, waiting for its occupant.
He eyed an envelope laying on his table, sticking out just from underneath the newspaper. With a practiced hoof, he slid the envelope out and opened the flap to reveal the letter. Using his mouth he pulled the letter out and set the envelope down with on the table. Dropping the letter into his waiting hooves, he unfolded it and laid it flat on the table. Reading it quickly, he made sure he got the place and time correct, before sighing and tucking the letter back in the envelope.
He turned, and yet again made note of the empty chair across from him. Glancing at his watch, the once pleasant look on his face now faltered. Rich was a pretty easy-going pony by nature, but if there was anything that he hated more than keeping ponies waiting, it was ponies who kept him waiting. In fact, there were a lot of things that Rich didn't like about ponies. He chuckled. He always got mad over the small stuff, which, he supposed, was better than getting furious over the big stuff. Sometimes he wished he were never angry.
Just like her...
A faint smile brightened his face as a feeling in the pit of his stomach set his nerves ablaze and caused his hooves to tingle. He sighed deeply and ran his hoof through his mane, his eyes visibly watery and not from the dirt that he would have liked to pretend just flew into them. Why did she have to go so soon?
Rich shook his head, forcing the thought from his consciousness. He didn’t want to feel sad, now of all times; not if he could help it. He turned back to the window, calling on the rain to occupy him with something else. Like a subject to a cruel deity, he was a slave to his wandering mind. Unfortunately for him, this god wasn't so merciful today. He was in a tug-of-war over his thoughts, and he was sure he just slipped into the mud. He felt a headache coming on.
Through the mist and rain, Rich could make out the silhouette of a tall, silk-white unicorn maneuvering through the weather with an umbrella hovering above her. Rich glanced down at the face on his wrist, casting its mocking glare at him. He was just about to win his staring contest when the door to the cafe was gracefully thrown ajar; the wind tackling it like a bodyguard protecting his charge: the mare with the umbrella.
Feeling that his mane out of place, Rich’s hoof quickly slid over his head, forcing it back into submission. Meanwhile, the mare was finally able to shut the door to the cafe, requiring the assistance of a nearby host to fight back the wind that charged the door like a battering ram. Taking a deep breath, he rose and beckoned her to him, fixing his lips into a friendly smile. She scanned the room a while before finally locating the gesturing stallion and making her way to the table.
A filly lay in bed, luminous under the morning light fighting its way through the curtains. She pulled her blanket over herself, trying to salvage whatever sleep she could manage. The bed was exceptionally warm this morning, a great haven from the cold room beyond the sheets. The filly turned to face away from the window, only to find that she couldn’t move.
She tried sitting up, but to no avail. Why can’t I move? She lifted the blanket to reveal silk-gray and white hair resting on her stomach. She screamed and ripped off the bedding, bathing the filly and the intruder in the morning light. The filly examined the pony in the new light. It was a young filly, like her, with dark-silver skin and braided mane, and a decorative spoon painted on... her…
“Silver Spoon?!” The alert filly cried.
Silver stirred in her sleep, shifting further onto the now irate filly and limiting her movement even more. The filly blushed and mumbled half heartedly. “Silver, get off of me...”
Silver Spoon did no such thing. Instead she subconsciously wrapped her forelegs around the filly’s midsection, resting her head on the filly’s chest. The filly’s body started tingling, though from nerves or loss of blood flow she could not tell which. The room was frigid, as her father always kept the house, but she was perfectly warm under the combination of Silver Spoon and her deep scarlet blush.
The filly tried to gently nudge Silver Spoon awake, but that only resulted in more shifting. Guess she’s a heavy sleeper. The filly sighed and accepted defeat, not wanting to try to force her friend off of her. Usually she would have shoved them off instantly while shouting horrible names on the way down, but something was different this time. Some strange feeling occurred to her that made her think twice about kicking her hind legs into the stomach of the pony on top of her. Perhaps… because she actually liked it.
The filly laid back against against her pillows and tried to relax, letting the warmth of her friend sink into her. Is this what couples feel like? Does this mean I’m a fillyfooler? I mean, do I even like Silver like that? Well, of course I like her, but–
“I love you too, Diamond,” Silver Spoon muttered in her slumber.
The mare took her place across the table from Rich, exchanging greetings with him as she sat. “So,” she began,”what do you do for a living?”
Rich’s easy going grin slowly turned to a skeptical smile. “Well, I’m an entrepreneur mostly. I have tons of business ventures I own and it’s all very boring stuff, really,” he finished, bringing a coffee mug to his lips.
If the mare noticed this change in his facial expression, she didn’t show it. “Interesting…well a stallion such as yourself must do something for fun, least he not keep his sanity.”
Fun. That was something Rich hadn’t thought of in a while. “Well I do have a daughter I take care of. I try to spend as much of my free time with her as possible.” A spark came to his eyes as he spoke, “Yeah, I suppose we have fun together.”
“Oh, you have a daughter?” she asked. “Well, what I mean is–”
“No, that’s quite alright.” He waved a hoof dismissively. “I understand what you mean. Yes she is indeed my daughter. The mother, unfortunately, is... no longer with us.”
“Oh… Oh!” The mare’s eyes widened. “I apologize to have brought up such a… sensitive subject so soon. To be honest, I didn’t even properly introduce myself. I am Fleur De Lis, though most call me Lily.”
“Likewise, I am Filthy Rich. But you may call me Rich,” he responded.
Diamond Tiara almost choked as spit forced its way down her windpipe after a short-lived gasp. What?! she thought, staring at the the sleeping Spoon in front of her.
Silver Spoon, being asleep of course, was unaware of the leakage of a secret she did not know she had. Diamond Tiara almost felt like this was an invasion of Silver’s privacy, although Silver was currently invading Diamond’s personal space, so she figured they were about even.
“No… No Daddy, please...”
Diamond’s ears perked up at the sound of more muttering from Silver Spoon, though it sounded more troubled than her previous revelation. Just as she was considering between waking Silver and listening in, she was again interrupted by the sound of Silver Spoon’s voice.
“Don’t leave me here… I want to stay with you… Father, please stay...”
Silver sounded desperate now. Her voice, though dreary and weak, screeched at its peak. She twitched and thrashed violently. Diamond Tiara couldn’t stand to see it any longer.
“Father… no… Don’t leave me behind...”
That was enough for Diamond Tiara. “Silver Spoon! Wake up!” she shouted, practically shoving her friend back and forth.
“Uhnn… Diamond Tiara? What are you doing in my… Oh...”
Silver Spoon blushed warmly at the intimate position in which she was laying. She removed herself, only to be stayed by a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up at Diamond Tiara, who wore a look of generous concern on her face; a look that Silver Spoon had not seen in a long time.
“Silver… What’s going on with your dad?”
Author's Note
Happy birthday, RainbowBob.
