A Silver Lining

by Visual Spectrum

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Sweetie Belle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Silver Spoon
Length: 2244

Silver Spoon has to learn to do stuff herself instead of having others do it for her.

Silver Spoon's parents have to leave for a business trip and could not take her with them. To make matters worse for Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara is gone. She shows a different side of herself, one that no one knew. Sweetie Belle helps her to learn that she can do things on her own and don't need another pony to hold her hoof.

Cover Art created by ZekeOfTheFreaks

Published 2014-05-12 01:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-12 01:50:02 UTC

Chapter 1

Silver Spoon watched her parents pack for their business trip. They already told her that she couldn't go along with them, and held their ground after constant begging. This experience was new to her. She had never been left alone in her entire life. Her parents didn't even have time to prepare food, so she had to learn how to cook or starve.The latter obviously wasn’t acceptable.

"I'm going to go to Diamond Tiara's house," she announced before leaving. Her parents didn't say anything as they were too busy, and Diamond Tiara's house was only three houses down the street. Silver Spoon knocked on a fancy looking door three times. On the third knock, Filthy Rich answered the door.

"Hello, Silver Spoon," He greeted with a smile.

"Hello, Mr. Rich. Is Diamond Tiara here?" She asked.

"She is, but I'm afraid you cannot speak to her. She has the Pony Pox." He explained.

"I hope she gets well soon!" Silver Spoon responded feeling bad for her friend. She then returned to her house.

"Was Diamond Tiara not home?" Her mother, Parfait Spoon, asked.

Silver Spoon shook her head. "She was home, but she had the Pony Pox. This week is going to be so boring!"

"Don't say that," her mother responded while smiling "I know you can survive a week alone."

"I've never been alone in my entire life!" Silver Spoon complained.

"I wish you could come with us, but the boss says he doesn't want any children on the trip. I wish it wasn't so sudden so I could at least get you a babysitter, but I know you’re old enough to be home alone." Her mother explained.

"Honey! It's time to leave!" Her father, Caviar Spoon called to her mother.

Her mother kissed her on the cheek and rushed out the door giving Silver Spoon a small wave of her hoof before mounting the chariot. Silver Spoon looked out a window, watching the chariot drive away, leaving her alone. She sat on her bed, not wanting the face the challenges of being alone. School would start in thirty minutes, but she didn't feel like going to school without Diamond Tiara to walk with her.

She was about to go to sleep, but a thought came to her: 'School would be interesting even without Diamond Tiara, there are other ponies I can talk to.'

She got up and made sure she looked perfect, before leaving for school.

A lot of ponies stared at her, and she wasn't sure if they were admiring her beauty or shocked because she was alone. Silver Spoon had a strong feeling it was the latter. When she reached the school, the doors were still locked, so she took a seat on a bench.

The bells rang, and Silver Spoon, along with all of the other school fillies, galloped into the building. A few minutes later, a second bell rang signalling that class was starting. Miss Cheerilee trotted up to the front of the class and began speaking to them. "Good morning, class! Today, we’re going to be talking about colors! Can any of you tell me the colors of the rainbow?"

"Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet!" Sweetie Belle shouted without raising her hoof.

'Just my luck...' Silver Spoon thought to herself. She knew that Sweetie Belle's older sister, Rarity, was a fashion designer, so it was no surprise that Sweetie Belle would have good knowledge of colors.

"That is correct!" Cheerilee announced at the same time as Silver Spoon was thinking. "Next question. What are the three primary colors?"

Again, Sweetie Belle answered, "Red, Yellow, Blue!"

"Correct!" Cheerilee announced again, "Now somepony else! What would I get if I mix red with yellow?"

"Orange." Silver Spoon muttered quietly.

"Silver Spoon, can you repeat that?" Cheerilee asked.

"Orange." Silver Spoon repeated louder.

"That is correct! Last question. What is white light?"

"Light that is white!" Snips exclaimed laughing.

"Not quite." Cheerilee said.

"Light that contains all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum at equal intensity." Silver Spoon answered when no one else would.

The bell rang, and the little colts and fillies left the building knowing it was recess. Silver Spoon sat on her bench expecting peace and quiet, but a filly ruined it, Sweetie Belle to be exact. "How do you know so much about color?"

"Leave me alone!" Silver Spoon shouted irritated.

"My sister is a fashion designer, so she taught me a lot about colors, but how do you know so much?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Silver Spoon rolled her eyes. She knew there was no way of getting Sweetie Belle to leave her alone except to answer. She took a deep breath and replied, "When Rarity was making a dress for me, she explained the importance of colors to me. At first, I didn't care, but she made it sound so interesting, so I was paid as much attention as I could to what she told me. She made me love colors so much that I wanted to be a painter. I wanted my cutie mark to be something to do with painting, but my cutie mark is useless. What is my special talent? Nothing! My cutie mark just means I get things hoofed to me. That's no talent!"

Sweetie Belle noticed Silver Spoon's irritation, so she replied nicely, "You don't have to let your cutie mark control you. If you want to paint, then you can paint. Rarity's special talent isn't singing, but she sings sometimes."

Silver Spoon giggled a bit before switching back to her irritated expression. She wasn’t about to let Sweetie Belle win, there was just no way. She didn't even have her cutie mark! Then she realized something. She didn't have to be mean to her, it wasn't like Diamond Tiara was around.
She looked at the Crusader's flank and had an idea, "What if your special talent was being invisible, and you didn’t notice it because your cutie mark is invisible?"

Sweetie Belle was confused, "Do you mean my special talent is being unnoticed?"

Silver Spoon shook her head, "No, I mean the ability to become invisible. Just like Invisible Mare!"

"You read comics?" Sweetie Belle asked surprised.

"Um... promise you won't tell anypony!" Silver Spoon begged.

Sweetie Belle nodded and said, "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." While doing the hoof gestures. Then she said, "Do you want to come over to the Boutique? Rarity is the Element of Generosity. I think I can get her to make you a new dress for free."

"Element of Generosity?" Silver Spoon asked confused, she never heard of that. She knew Rarity had a reputation of being generous, just like Apple Bloom's older sister, Applejack, had a reputation of being honest. She had no idea there was an element for being generous though.

School ended, and Silver Spoon followed Sweetie Belle to the Carousel Boutique. Rarity, who was wearing her red glasses, was drawing in a sketch pad and talking to a mare who appeared to be a high standing Canterlot Pony.

Sweetie Belle led Silver Spoon into the kitchen, "There is plenty of food here, feel free to eat anything."

"I want a cheese sandwich." Silver Spoon requested.

"Then make it yourself!" Sweetie Belle said giggling.

Silver Spoon looked down embarrassed, "I don't know how."

Sweetie Belle laughed then said, "Really? You don't know how? It's easy! Take two slices of bread and put cheese in the middle!"

Silver Spoon grabbed the bread and tried to open it to no avail, "How do you untie the bag?"

"You just pull it." Sweetie Belle explained laughing. Silver Spoon pulled it and was surprised how the knot disappeared. She then went to the fridge to get some cheese.

"How many of slices of cheese do you use?" Silver Spoon asked.

"Two" Sweetie Belle answered.

Silver Spoon opened the fridge and grabbed two slices of cheese, before placing them on the top slice of bread. She knew what a sandwich looked like enough to know that the cheese is supposed to be in the middle. She swapped the slices of bread, making the cheese in the middle. Then she took a bite.

"How is it?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"This is really good!" Silver Spoon exclaimed after she swallowed.

"That's because you made it all by yourself!" Sweetie Belle said.

"I did!" Silver Spoon realized. She had never made anything by herself, and she just made a cheese sandwich. Sure, she had trouble, but she knew with a little bit of practice, that she would be able to do things on her own. She looked at her flank and thought, 'If I can do things on my own, then my cutie mark would be useless, no! I can still have things given to me, but not all the time. I can do things on my own, but if somepony wants to give something to me, I will be grateful!'

Sweetie Belle, who couldn’t read Silver Spoon's mind, sat in silence. She got up and told Silver Spoon, "I'm going to see if Rarity is finished with her customer."

Rarity was sitting down disappointed. Sweetie Belle knew that Rarity had lost a customer, and she wasn't sure if it was the best time to request a dress. Luckily, she didn’t have to ask. Rarity saw her and said, "Silver Spoon wants a dress, doesn't she?" as if reading her mind.

"Can you read minds?" Sweetie Belle asked. Then she remembered that her older sister asked a question, "Yeah, she wants a dress."

"No. It wasn't too hard to figure out, she was looking at all of my dress designs. I know when somepony is planning to buy or when somepony is lurking." Rarity explained. "Can you please get her?"

Sweetie Belle galloped quickly into the kitchen where Silver Spoon sat. Silver Spoon took the cue and trotted to the main room with Sweetie Belle. Rarity told Silver Spoon to stand on a platform before she measured her sizes.

"Definitely not a warm color." Rarity muttered to herself while designing Silver Spoon's dress, "A lavender would go perfect." Rarity then asked Silver Spoon, "I am thinking light lavender. What do you think?" Rarity then levitated the dress design in front of her.

"I love it!" Silver Spoon exclaimed happily.

"Why don't you get the lavender fabric that you want for me?" Rarity requested, before explaining, "I wouldn’t recommend the ones in the back, I put the fabrics that are out of season there. The weather is getting warm, besides, the design is best with a thinner fabric, but not see through."

Silver Spoon trotted to the fabrics and found the lavender ones. She felt each fabric until she found the one that was perfect. She then picked up the bolt and carried it to Rarity who cut out shapes in the fabric, and sewed them together with her magic. Silver Spoon watched in awe while Rarity made dresses as if it was nothing.

"I would not recommend a warm color because it doesn't go well with anything. A dark color would also ruin your appearance. Grey would not accent you at all, but lavender will accent your eyes quite wonderfully," Rarity explained to her. Silver Spoon listened to the dress maker while watching her work.

At last, the dress was complete. “Go ahead, try it on!” Rarity told Silver Spoon. She did as she was told and looked in a mirror, she looked absolutely stunning! Sweetie Belle planned on it being free, but she wasn't going to leave without paying for the dress. It was far too beautiful to be given freely. Silver Spoon grabbed a lot of bits out of her saddlebag and hoofed it to Rarity who was confused. "Sweetie Belle probably wanted you to make it for free, but it's far too beautiful." She explained.

"Thank you, dear!" Rarity exclaimed smiling. She happily took the money and told her, “Have a nice day.

Silver Spoon smiled kindly, "I will, I learned something today."

Sweetie Belle heard that and told Silver Spoon, "Rarity keeps a diary where she writes down things she learned about friendship! Maybe you should do that, too!"

Silver Spoon loved the idea. Rarity told her to wait and galloped to the back. A few minutes later, she returned with an empty book, "You can use this for your diary." She explained.
Silver Spoon gladly accept and wrote in it.

Dear Diary,

This morning, I thought today would be terrible. My parents were gone, and Diamond Tiara was sick. However, today was one of the greatest days of my life. I learned that I should not expect things to be given to me. Things are much better when you do them yourself. I learned that by making a sandwich, it was the best cheese sandwich I had ever tasted! I also learned to be grateful when things are given to you, and you should never take anything for granted. Sweetie Belle has taught me more in one day than Diamond Tiara has taught me in an entire year. Until today, I never knew that it was better to work for something than to have it given to you.

Silver Spoon.

Author's Note

Disclaimer: I do not own the My Little Pony franchise. This fan fic is not canon and should not be taken as such.

Edited by: Radical Prescott