Worse than death, as told by Silver.
It getting dark outside while Silver Spoon sat alone at Sugarcube Corner with her head with one hoof, as the other played with her long finished milkshake's straw, taking in another deep sigh while she relived her day in her head again...
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"What?”
When she got home from school, her father said in rather weak voice that he and her mother had to talk to her. While she already knew what they wanted to talk to her about, it wasn't until they said the word "divorce" did it all sink in.
“I’m sorry, dear,” Silver Spoons mother said, “but it’s nothing you’ve done wrong. We still love you, please know that. It’s just something we adults…”
“I know what a bucking divorce is!”
“Young lady!” her father said raising a hoof, “you will not speak to your mother like that.”
“Oh," her mother snapped at her soon to be ex-husband, “and you would be so much kinder if she shouted at you?”
“Oh here we go again," he said as he started to raise his voice, "it always has to be my fault doesn't it? It’s my fault we’re out of apples, it’s my fault that you can’t afford a trip to Canterlot. When will you ever bucking blame yourself for something?”
“When you stop being such a retard about it!” she barked as the two went into one of their famous verbal wars that could last all night if nopony interrupted them.
Unable to take it anymore, Silver Spoon slipped out of the house to make a run for it...
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“You alright dear?” Mrs. Cake asked Silver Spoon as she snapped out of her daydream.
“Oh um, yes of course,” she said straightened herself up, trying to look presentable. “I’ll just be a few more minutes.”
“Sure thing, dear, have a good evening.” Mrs. Cake smiled at her before they both heard a pair of cries echoed in the background. With another smile, Mrs. Cake raced off to attend the twins after she gave her husband a quick kiss.
Silver Spoon rolled her eyes at the scene as she wondered if the Cakes would ever get a divorce one day. She knew that it wasn’t likely, and it didn't improve her mood...
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After the bad news, Silver Spoon had gone over to Diamond Tiara’s hopping for words of comfort. However, all Diamond Tiara had done was force her into a shopping trip as she tried to convince her that a divorce was actually a good thing.
"I'm like telling you, Silver,” Diamond Tiara insisted as she examined another pair of shoes at the Horseshoe, “a divorce is one of the best things that can happen to a filly.”
“Don’t you feel the least bit awful about it?” she asked as she tapped with one of the empty shoe boxes.
“Oh stop being such a foal, Silver.” To be fair, she knew that Diamond Tiara was trying to help, even if she wasn't doing a good job of it.
Aside from being best friends from the crib, the only reason Silver Spoon stuck around with Diamond Tiara was because she knew that her friend would have fallen apart after the Riche's divorce. If it meant teasing a few blank flanks to keep her friend in check, she was more than willing to follow suit.
Today however, she wasn't sure how much more she could take.
“I mean like yeah,” Diamond Tiara admitted, “I acted like a cryfoal at first, but then in time it got better. Then I found that divorced parents are the most gullible ponies ever. All they care about is making you happy so you'll love them more than the other. It's amazing what you can get away with.”
“Not helping, Diamond,” Silver Spoon said as she fidgeted with the shoe box some more.
“Hey, now you get to have two Hearth Warming’s as well as two birthday parties. The best part, is that when they get remarried you’ll have four parents trying to win your favoritism with four times the gifts and attention.”
“Shut up!” she screamed while the shoe box imploded under her hoof. She then got right up into her friends face. “I don’t want to be a bucking divorce filly, I want my parents to stay married without fighting with each other, and I don’t want to become a bucking monster like you!”
After realizing that everypony in the store was staring at her, she glanced back at a Diamond Tiara who ears were falling flat as he eyes grew heavy. What drove Silver Spoon to run out of that store though, was when Diamond Tiara began to cry. It was a face she hadn’t seen in along time, after she swore to never let that happen again.
**********************************
She shouldn’t have run off, Silver Spoon thought to herself again, she should have at least said something rather than leave her friend like that.
When she did finally turn around to go check on Diamond Tiara, she was long gone. After a futile search for Diamond Tiara, she decided that her best bet would be to go to Sugercube Corner.
They always went here when bullying didn’t feel satisfying enough, so it was the most likely place Diamond Tiara would show up if she hadn't gone home.
It wasn't likely that her friend would show up, but she had wanted a milkshake anyways, so it seemed like the best idea at the time.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat at that table pondering her day, but by 6 o'clock it had been long enough for her. As it started to get darker outside, she began to wonder if her parents were worried about her yet. Frankly though, she didn't give a rear.
Straightening her glasses, she left a decent size gem on the table and departed out into the oncoming night. Once she was outside though, she realized that she didn’t know what to do next. She didn’t want to face her parents or Diamond Tiara, but she didn’t have anywhere else to go.
After a long horrible day, she felt a desire to cry. She didn’t want anypony to see her do it, but she had to shed some tears before she did anything else.
Not knowing anywhere else private enough, she made her way to the back of the restaurant as she found a well concealed spot behind a dumpster. After she made herself comfortable, she began.
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After what felt like hours of crying, she began to feel somepony nuzzling her neck. Thinking that it might be Diamond Tiara or her parents to apologize, she whipped her neck around, not sure what she would say to either of them. Instead of anypony she cared about, she was met with the concerned eyes of one of her favorite targets of taunts, Apple Bloom.
“What do you want, blank flank?” She glared, hopping to scare her off. The last thing she wanted was for Apple Bloom to see in this state.
“Fine, be that way,” Apple Bloom snapped as she turned to walk away. As she began to walk away, Silver Spoon began to sob again, wishing she hadn’t said that.
“Are you alright, Silver Spoon?” As Apple Bloom turned around to ask, she could feel a cooling feeling spread over her body.
That feeling, then turned into a tight knot in her stomach as she worried about what Apple Bloom would say if she confessed her problems. “Y… you wouldn’t understand,” she protested as she lowered her head.
“It’s okay," Apple Bloom insisted, "but what happened? Your parents ain’t dead or something, are they?”
As much as Silver Spoon didn’t want to admit it, she actually wished that had happened instead. She wished that her parents were dead instead of getting a divorce.
Forcefully, she wrapped her hooves around Apple Bloom's torso to cry some more. She didn’t care that it was Apple Bloom; she just needed somepony to lean on.
Luckily for her that night, Apple Bloom willingly returned the hug.
“It will be okay,” Apple Bloom said as she began to rub her back, not making any difference for her at the moment.
“No it won’t,” she muttered, “be… because they are not dead, but I wish they were.” Thinking it was one thing, but saying it was another.
“How… how can you say that?” Apple Bloom shouted as she pushed her away. “What could be so bad that you’d wish em dead?”
She hesitated to tell her at first, but when she realized that nopony else would comfort her, she decided to come clean. If Apple Bloom laughed in her face or used her bad news against her one day, it would be okay because she had nothing else to lose.
“No, but they’re, “she took a deep breath before she said it, “they’re getting a divorce.”
Apple Bloom to tilted her head. “A what now?”
“A bucking divorce!” she screamed. Realizing her mistake, she took a deep breath before she spoke to the wide eyed filly in front of her. “Sorry, I just… I just never thought they would actually do it. I mean, I never thought I would actually want them dead like your parents are.”
“Excuse me?” Apple Bloom glared at her.
‘Darn you Silver Spoon,’ she thought, ‘can’t anything go right for you today?’
“Sorry,” she apologized as she her ears fell flat, ready for any verbal lash Apple Bloom could throw at her. “I didn’t mean to insult you, it’s just… I was a foal to believe that they would work things out in the end, or at least wait until I graduate. Then my parents told me that they were going through with it, and then I,” she began to tear up some more, “then I just ran off.”
“But what does it mean?”
“In short,” she explained inbetween sobs, “it mean’s my parents are not going to be married to one another anymore. My mother is moving away, and now they expect me to choose who I’m supposed to live with from now on. I just- I just... how could they do this to me?”
“Well, I," Apple Bloom stutters, "why ain’t Diamond Tiara with ya right now?”
“Oh,” she sighed, but she figured that a little more confessing wouldn’t hurt. “I tried to talk to her about it, but she insisted that a divorce is one of the best things that could happen to a filly.”
Apple Bloom's eye's grew wider. “How in Tartarus is a vorce supposed to be a good thing?”
“Divorce,” she corrected. If it had under different circumstances, she might have laughed at Apple Bloom's limited knowledge. As it was, she continued on in hallow tone.
“And… she said that I was acting foalish by crying over it, and that it would actually be great in time. She tried to make it sound like it's a good thing, because now I get to have two Hearth warming’s,” her eyes became more heavy with tears, “with four parents competing to give me the best presents when they get married again.”
She broke down again, and when she saw that Apple Bloom was offering up a warm hug, she immediately accepted it.
“Hey,” Apple Bloom continued, “Ah know this can’t be easy for ya, ah wouldn’t wish this upon my own worst enemy.” Did she really just say that? “But the thing is, your parents are alive and still love ya, right?”
“I… I think so,” she said wasn't sure if that was true, but she did think back to how sorry they looked as they spoke to her. “Before I ran off, they said that they both still loved me.”
“Well, there ya go,” Apple Bloom said with a grin. “I’m not saying anything about this is right or fair, but the fact is that they’re still alive and love ya, what more could a pony ask for?”
She paused for a moment to processed Apple Bloom's words. For the first time that day, she began to wonder if her situation was that bad.
“Maybe your friend Diamond Tiara was right, in her own way.” Apple Bloom continued, making Silver Spoon wished she had a camera to convince herself that she wasn’t dreaming this. “But maybe it does get easier with time."
“While ah didn’t experience my parent’s deaths myself, my sister told about how she dealt with it. At first, she was a mess, heartbroken, and said that she didn't want to live anymore. She even ran away to Manehattan because she couldn't stand the sight of our parents’ farm anymore."
"Then one morning while she was living in the city, she saw a rainbow that pointed home. Believing that it was a message from mom and dad to live her life to the fullest, she raced back here, and was never as sad again.
"She realized then that she still had friends and family who loved her, and that she did have a reason to live because things weren’t that bad. It was a bad situation, but that didn’t mean she had to live like she was sad all the time. She told me that as long as there is life, there is hope and happiness, and that it's important to never let sadness take over your life, even when it seem like that’s all there is.”
"So yeah, it ain't fair what your parent's are doing to you, but mopping bout it won't help. Your parents' are still alive, so there's always another day. Even when they are driving you crazy, you better love them because there is noting truly worse than death, I should know."
Inspired by such a simple conversation, she began to cry again as she leaned into Apple Blooms chest. Only this time, some of her tears were good tears. While Apple Bloom stroked her back and told her that things were going to be fine, she allowed herself to believe it.
While she couldn’t make her parents love each other anymore or stop the divorce, she didn't have to let it get to her, or be as cold and hard as Diamond Tiara could be to get through a day.
******************************************
“Thanks, Apple Bloom,” she said some time later as she broke from the hug to wipe away a tear. For better or worse, she was ready to face whatever drama in her life was to come.
“I guess I should apologize to Diamond Tiara for shouting at her, as well as my parents. Also,” she was hesitant about what she wanted to say next, but after all Apple Bloom had done, she knew she owed her that much.
“I’m... sorry for treating you and your friends so horribly. I don’t like teasing you guys, but after a sleepless night of my parents arguing, it always seemed to be the easiest way to get through a day. I’m sorry I do it, but I’ll stop it now, and I’ll see what I can do to make Diamond Tiara quit it as well.”
Feeling as if she couldn’t get any more satisfaction out of this talk, she started to walk home, ready as she would ever be to face her parents.
“Oh yeah, Silver Spoon?” she looked upon Apple Bloom as she wondered what else there was left to say. “The girls and I are going to try to get our cutie marks in deep lake fishing tomorrow, if you want… you and Diamond Tiara can join us.”
If Apple Bloom had asked that of her yesterday with Diamond Tiara around, she would have just laughed at Apple Bloom's face. While she didn’t actually hate the cutie mark crusaders, she certainly would have never considered hanging out with them.
However, after such a long day, a fishing trip with the crusaders sounded like a relaxing adventure.
“I’ll talk to Diamond Tiara about it tomorrow," she shrugged as she gave Apple Bloom a weak, but honest smile. "But thanks again, Apple Bloom.”
It wasn’t likely that she would be able to convince Diamond Tiara to go that easily, but she would at least try. Despite how cold her friend was at time, she still believed that she could bring back the Diamond Tiara she knew and loved hanging out with as a foal before her parents’ divorce messed her up.
“Sure thing, friend!” Apple Bloom’s last word had completely caught her off guard.
It was the last thing she thought she would hear Apple Bloom call her. She felt her inside's doing summersaults, and decided to walk away before she said anything stupid.
It wasn't until she got into bed did she realize that she probably should have done something more after Apple Bloom had called her a friend.
She supposed she would have to make up to Apple Bloom at the lake tomorrow.
Author's Note
If you commment on my grammer, or have to give this story a dislike, please explain why you didn't like it, or at least point out the most anyoing grammer problem. Thank you for your time.
