None of her students could tell, but today Cheerilee was quite nervous. Today she had a project planned for the class, which would be fine, however, she had never asked a student without a cutie mark to do it; she had never had to. But in this particular class sat three fillies that had yet to discover their special talent. She had no doubt that they could still complete the project, or at least the special directions they were to receive, no, she was nervous about the embarrassment it may bring them.
"Okay, listen up class. Today we have a special project that requires groups of two. It's an essay project designed to help you understand the deeper meaning of your cutie marks with the help of an onlooker. Of course, since not everypony has their cutie mark yet, their job will be to write about what they think it takes to earn one, with their partner's personal story to help guide them." Cheerilee waited and noticed the words slowly sink into not just the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but the whole class. "So would Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom please step forward. You're going to draw names to determine your partners, then everypony else can partner off like normal."
As Cheerilee just smiled and gestured at the bag of names, it was the CMC's turn to be nervous. Besides not being able to pair with each other, or Dinky who was normally the partner of the odd horse out, there was also the fact they could draw into somepony they didn't want. Silver Spoon for example...
"What, no, Miss Cheerilee, I can't be partnered with Scootaloo, I need to be partnered with Diamond Tiara!" The gray Earth-pony whined. Scootaloo also looked hopefully up at her teacher.
Unfortunately for them, part of a teacher's job was to make her student's do things out of their comfort zone. "You don't need to be partnered with your friend Silver. Scootaloo isn't being partnered with her friends, and I don't see her complaining. It was luck of the draw."
"Or unluck, as the case may be." The orange Pegasus mumbled, as Sweetie Belle took her place.
As Scoots sat back down she noticed her teacher nudging her head to one side. After a moment she realized that Cheerilee was beckoning her to go stand with Silver Spoon. She hoped Sweetie got a better draw.
"Button Mash, who the hay is that!"
From the back corner of the room there was almost an audible note of surprise as a brown Earth-pony colt looked up like he had been caught doing something wrong. He timidly raised his hoof to show he was indeed Button. Sweetie trotted over to her partner. He seemed just a bit too excited to be paired with her.
Apple Bloom was last to draw, and she was taking her sweet time with it. There were a dozen ponies in her class that she would be fine with, but only one that she must avoid drawing at all costs. After a bit more time, Bloom finally drew her lot. She looked around franticly. What could she do in this situation?
"Well Apple Bloom, whose name did you draw?" Miss Cheerilee politely inquired.
"Oh, ah, er... it was blank?"
"Now Apple Bloom, I put those slips in this bag myself, and I know I didn't put any blank slips in. If you'd please give me the paper, this will all be over quickly." Cheerilee spoke softly as she reached for the name, but Bloom was to fast, and ate the slip whole.
There were some sounds of disgust as well as amusement, but they were cut quick by Cheerilee. "Apple Bloom, take your seat! I don't know what your playing at, but I can only be so patient." She grabbed the bag and took out a slip. "Your partner is NOT Snails." Another slip. "Your partner is NOT Ruby." Apple Bloom's face began lighting up red. Cheerilee was going to read off every name to find out who Apple Bloom ate.
And so for days and days Cheerilee read off one name after another, and after two minutes Cheerilee discovered Bloom's partner. The only pony oblivious enough not to realize her name hadn't been called. "Apple Bloom, please go stand next to your partner."
"Ha, ha! All that work and you still failed. You must have gotten a really lame partner if even you didn't want them."
"You said it sister." Apple Bloom retorted as she plopped down next to the pink pony's desk.
"No, this is some kind of joke? Miss Cheerilee this isn't fair!" Diamond's whining was even worse than Silver's. "I'll have to do more work than the other kids! You can't do this to me!"
"That's enough. Everypony else partner up and report your groups to me, after that your dismissed. I want you all to start on this project as soon as possible."
Really Cheerilee just wanted some peace. She guessed that phrase about 'best intentions' applied right about now.
After the rest of the class had already left, Silver Spoon and Scootaloo remained. They had been 'discussing' where to go, with Silver trying to go anywhere BUT her house it seemed. She had even offered to treat Scootaloo to ice cream to distract her. It had almost worked too, until Scoots realized what she was trying to do. Now they just sat there, Scoots needing Silver to lead the way to her home. It was funny, the Crusader knew where Diamond lived, but not Silver. She was soon to find out.
~~~
Scootaloo seemed to noticed that the two fillies had been walking for a long time now. Or maybe it seemed like a long time because neither of them had said anything since school. No, no, it had definitely been awhile, that was the only explanation for them to be at the very end of the high-class housing... correction, heading past the high-class housing. There was definitely something very wrong here, but before Scootaloo could ask anything of her companion, Silver spoke first.
"What I'm about to show you," Silver seemed to be struggling. "You can't tell anypony."
Scootaloo found this display strange, to say the least.
"Not a soul. You have to promise!" Silver whipped around as she continued. Whatever this sudden bout of seriousness was, it was clear it was very important to her.
"Um, I guess, is- is something wrong? Are you all right?" Either worry or fear was shaking the Pegasus's voice.
Silver inhaled deeply. "Everything is fine, but remember you promised, I don't mind failing this assignment and taking you with me."
"Silver, for Celestia's sake your freaking me out! What's wrong? Did I do something- I'm sorry!"
Scootaloo had no idea what she was apologizing for, or, she realized, why it was to Silver Spoon of all ponies, but she found out rather quickly as Silver lead her down a path that seemed to lead more to a forge than a house. She received a harsh glance from her companion once again before the gray filly walked on in.
"Daddy I'm home!" After a pause, "And I guess we have company!"
~~~
Silver's father had been all but too friendly to Scootaloo. He quickly disclosed his delight that his daughter had finally brought a friend home to visit. Scootaloo just nodded, she just hadn't the heart to tell him that they weren't really friends. In fact she mostly just nodded as information was gushed to her. Silver's father, Iron Bonds, use to trade in stocks, his special talent, reflected by a green graph on his flank, and was pretty well off until an unfortunate accident, now he worked as a clerk in a neighbouring town. Nothing had been mentioned about Silver's mother, she was apparently not in the picture. He gushed about his messy house (it wasn't). He gushed about not having snacks prepared (how could he have known). He gushed and gushed until finally Scootaloo came to.
"Oh yeah, well it was nice meeting you, Silver Spoon's dad, but, uh, we have a school project we need to get working on."
Silver quickly jumped at this opportunity by adding, "That's right! It's a pretty important one to, lots of concentration needed."
"Oh, well, if you plan on staying for dinner, Scootaloo, it'll be eggplant. There's a phone in the kitchen if you need to call anypony."
Silver motioned for Scootaloo to escape though a nearby door to her. Once through, Silver let out a sigh long enough sigh for Scootaloo to get a good look around the room. A child's bed and night-stand in the corner. Faded wall paper covered up by posters here and there. No door on the closet or dome on the ceiling fan's light. A few toys laying around. Silver Spoon was poor.
"The other Crusaders are going to have a field day when I tell them about this," Scootaloo smirked. This was exactly the bitter irony that would put one of her bullies in their place.
"You can't, you promised!" Tears were welling up in the eyes of the filly.
Scootaloo almost felt bad, though she wasn't exactly sure the tears were real.
"My reputation will be ruined if you do!" Silver's tears were real all right, but they were tears of anger. Scootaloo could deal with that.
"Exactly!" Scoots shouted. "That's perfect! All those times you were mean to me and my friends, ruining you sounds like just the right way to get back at you! I should actually go do that right-"
As Scootaloo turned to leave Silver pounced on her, cutting her off mid-sentence. The tussle wasn't something Scootaloo had expected, but even with Silver's surprise advantage, Scootaloo's agility won the day. Silver looked scrawny, but she had that Earth-pony strength in her, which made holding her down difficult. After a couple futile attempts to shrug off the Pegasus, Silver's tears finally turned into the sad kind.
"I may tease you, but I'd never be this cruel. I wouldn't take away your friends!" Silver sobbed. There were other words after, all unintelligible.
"What are you talking about I'm not-"
Again Scootaloo was cut off by a sneaky move. This time a pair of back hooves to the stomach. It hurt, but Scootaloo knew how to take a blow like that and kept her foe pinned, after a few rolls.
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU PSYCHOPATH!" Scootaloo didn't even care her shouts were probably echoing throughout the entire household; she wanted answers. "I'm not taking anything away from you!"
"Yes you are! If everypony knows I'm poor, Diamond won't be able to hangout with me any more! You'd make me lose my only friend!" Her voice began to lower, which caused it to be harder to understand through the still-flowing tears. "But, more importantly, you'd take away her only friend. I won't let you!"
Silver tried to buck again, but Scoots would have no more of that and kept the other filly pinned. After little more fighting, Silver's body gave up, and when it did, Scootaloo finally rolled off of her and sat against the wall.
"You know that's not how it works right? Real friendship isn't conditional like that."
"You just don't understand."
"I really don't."
Right about then Silver's Father opened up her door, "Shoot, you two didn't call for me or anything did you? I though I might of heard something."
The two traded glances, Scootaloo of worry, Silver's, smugness. Scoots was sure that Silver was about to tell her dad everything, but at the last moment her expression eased. "No daddy, we're fine."
"Okay then, I'll turn my radio down though."
"Actually," Silver caught her Dad before he was gone. "You might want to keep the music up, we might be getting loud later."
So Silver's dad left like that was a perfectly normal thing to say. Scoots was not so sure it was, and was already readying for another bout. Silver's next line didn't ease her fears.
"So, are you still going to pursue this Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo stood too, "Yeah, I think I am."
"Then, can we at least work on our reports?"
"Uh, yeah, I-I guess?"
"Well come on then, I can't show you my special talent here," Once again the gray filly ushered the orange one through the doors of her house.
Scootaloo didn't quite know what was going on, or where they were headed, but she did have a question for the journey, "I thought your special talent was being a trust fund foal?"
"Oh come now, knowing what you know now, can't you tell that was a lie?" Silver had stopped at the entrance to a room without a door. Her father's music could be faintly heard form the other side of the house.
"Well, if that's not your special talent... what is?"
As if on cue Silver Spoon stepped inward and a warm glow overtook her. Scootaloo wondered what was causing the light for a moment before realizing it was the glow of a forge. She had never been in a forge, but she had always thought one would be sooty and cramped. This forge was, nice almost? Instead of dark stone the furnace itself was made of a yellow brick. Nearby sat an anvil and a container of clear blue water sitting at a child's height. A few metal objects lay on shelves here or there.
"Welcome to my forge, where I go to release my stress by hitting things with a hammer." Silver smiled coyly at the Pegasus. "I suppose you want the story of how this came to be? That is the assignment after all."
Scootaloo nodded again. She wasn't to sure what Silver meant with that hammer line, but she wasn't going to push it.
"Well then," The Earth-pony began both her story and her bellows. "I'm not sure you'll enjoy this, but this is what you get, pay attention."
"I wasn't always friends with DT, y'know. Our friendship started on a particularly bad day for everyone. My father and I were at a pawn shop in Canterlot, we needed money so he was planning on selling a set of fine silver cutlery. Diamond and her father had just finished a pageant, one in which Diamond won second, and a silver tiara. She was just as much DT then as she is now, so she wanted a gold tiara, since she thought she deserved first, so they came to the shop. With me and my pearls and my father with his silver, they naturally thought we were buying the wares, not selling.
Offhoofedly I mentioned that I thought Tiara's headpiece was very nice and, well, you can imagine the telling off I got. By all rights I should have backed down, but I insisted. My mother had always told me that there was such a thing as showing you were rich, and then there was showing that you were refined. Refinement needed a touch of humility, not gaudiness, and that's what I told her a nice, silver tiara would do. I guess that's when we became friends. Later that year, when school started, is when we found out that we lived in the same town. That was good. Neither of us knew it, but we wouldn't have had anyone one we knew without each other.
Then one day, Diamond traded her tiara for my pearls, just for the day mind you. I was so excited that I ran straight home, and tripped on the steps and snapped the jewellery in half. I was sure I had just ruined the best, and only friendship I ever had, and I cried. The tears didn't stop me though, I knew I had to find a way to mend it. Nothing I tried worked, not even glue, but I knew that Mom had a metal forge installed, and even though I wasn't allowed to go in that room, I did. It took hours, but somehow I fixed it. I was so glad I didn't even notice my cutie mark until Diamond said something about it the next day. She even thanked me for taking great care of her namesake."
"Oh wow, so you got your cutie mark by being a good friend, then?" Scootaloo asked when her partner finished.
"I guess that's partly true, yeah."
"Y'know, I'm thinking that maybe she wears that thing on her head because it reminds her of your friendship. Just maybe, she thinks that's more important than even first place."
"I'd rather not risk it, but it's not up to me," Her tears were coming back.
"Well, I guess it's not up to me either." Scootaloo sighed at the chance she was giving up. "I did promise after all."
"Thank you. This doesn't make us friends you know?"
"Eh. Doesn't really make us enemies either."
That would be the last smile they shared for a long while, but at least they shared it.
Author's Note
Well here's my entry into EFNW and my debut on FIMfiction, I hope its enjoyable.
According to Notepad ++ is stands at 2998 words. I had to cut ~500 words to get it there, and wasn't able to give it a nice polished ending because I just couldn't find anything else to cut. But, hey, I rather submit the best I could than nothing at all.
Edited on March 2, 5:30ish CST. Changelog includes:
Commas, 5 or 6 added, 1 removed.
A period evolved into a Question Mark, another became an Exclamation Mark.
Various spelling/grammar mistakes corrected.
