CHAPTER 5

“Sweetie Belle!” Silver Spoon ran up to the unicorn she was calling.

Sweetie Belle was sitting in front of Carousel Boutique, reading her book on exorcism. She was so taken by the book that it took her a while to notice Silver Spoon. “Oh, um… H-hi Silver Spoon,” she said, slightly taken by surprise.

“I see you've taken quite the interest in that book.” Silver Spoon said, smirking.

Sweetie Belle wasn’t smiling back. She didn't reply, and instead simply closed her book and slid it in her saddlebag, under her cape.

Silver Spoon noticed that Sweetie Belle wasn’t too happy, along with the ‘CLOSED’ sign on the door next to her. “Isn't your sister's boutique open at this hour–?”

“Silver Spoon, please, I don't want to talk about that.”

Silver was surprised. She realized that Sweetie Belle wasn’t doing okay at all. The unicorn had bags under her eyes, looking like she hadn’t slept well. Her eyes also looked bloodshot, like she had run out of tears from crying a lot. Something had to have happened the previous day, while Silver was at the theater.

Silver thought that it would be best to respect Sweetie's wishes and not to press further on the subject, so she switched the topic. “Say, Sweetie Belle.”

“Hm?”

“What are you doing today?”

“Oh, um… Rarity and I are going to the Six Wings Great Venture.” Sweetie Belle seemed more at ease with talking about that.

“Sweet! Um…” Silver first hesitated, but then shook her head and asked, “could I… come with you two?”

Sweetie Belle finally smiled a little. “Sure! But I would have to ask Rarity first.”

Silver Spoon's ear perked at the sound of somepony trotting by. She turned to see it was Rarity herself walking up to them. “Heh, speak of the devil.”

Sweetie Belle hit Silver Spoon on the shoulder. “Don't ever call her that again,” she said firmly.

Silver Spoon simply nodded while rubbing her hurt shoulder. “I'm sorry,” she mouthed quietly.

Rarity walked up to the two fillies. “Are you two alright?” she asked.

“Y-yes we're fine,” Silver Spoon answered.

“Rarity,” Sweetie Belle said. “Silver Spoon wanted to join us at the amusement park today. Is that okay with you?”

“Why of course, darling. I can get more tickets for your friends,” Rarity answered. She raised an eyebrow and glanced at Silver Spoon as she continued. “Although, I expected you to want to invite other friends.”

Sweetie Belle bit her lip as she thought for a moment. “Well… Silver Spoon is kind of a new friend, so I wanted to spend some time with her. I'll have plenty of time to spend with both her and the Crusaders later, you know?” She grinned.

Rarity looked confused for a bit. “Well, if you two are getting along now… It's decided then. We will be going with Silver Spoon.”

“Thank you, Miss Rarity.” Silver Spoon replied with a genuine smile on her face.

◇◇◇

“So, Baroness,” the princess asked. “Where have you been these past few days?”

The baroness didn’t reply immediately, instead chewing slowly on her dinner while the unusually patient princess looked at her impatiently. Then, the baroness finally answered: “It is none of your concern what I do away.”

“Who is it?”

There was an awkward silence that followed the princess's last question. The baroness had stopped eating.

“Who are you ditching me for?” the princess continued. “Answer.”

The baroness clearly wasn’t too keen on answering this. Her face had a visible scowl. “Let's just say, Princess, that you're much poorer than her.”

◇◇◇

“Hey, Silver Spoon. Wake up.”

“Mm… what is it, Sweetie Belle?”

“We're almost here,” Sweetie Belle said, pointing at the window.

Silver Spoon, who had been napping during most of the trip, looked out of the train's window. She saw the city of Fillydelphia, which they were entering, and, in the distance, she saw the large cloud that held the Six Wings Great Venture floating in the outskirts of the city.

The train finally stopped at the Fillydelphia station.

****

To access the Six Wings Great Venture, there was a hot air balloon station at ground level, which served as the entry to the park. Visitors would buy their tickets there. They would also be given bracelets that served both as verification passes to enter the actual park and as charms that would allow them to walk on clouds, which was what said park was made of.

Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Silver Spoon got seated in their hot air balloon, which soon took off and flew toward the giant cloud above.

Silver Spoon was looking at her bracelet pensively.

“Are you alright, dear?” Rarity asked her.

“Oh– um, yes, don't worry. I'm just a little, um… afraid of heights,” Silver Spoon responded, stuttering a little. She looked up at Rarity and noticed her now concerned look. “Oh, no no no. We don't need to go back. I'll be fine, really. I can handle it.” She tried to grin reassuringly.

Rarity smiled, relieved to see that Silver's fear wasn’t too disabling. “If you ever don't feel well, do not hesitate to tell me.”

“I will tell you, Miss Rarity.”

Not wanting to look at the landscape distancing itself further down from her, Silver Spoon dozed off while the hot air balloon continued to go up.

◇◇◇

“So, my friend, are you still flying away from me?” the princess asked, a sly smirk on her face despite the bitterness in her voice.

The baroness, who was flying by, landed on a nearby cloud and looked down to the ground, where the princess was standing. “Are you talking to me?” she asked her.

The princess had replaced her smirk with a scowl.

The baroness sighed. “Will you ever leave me be?” she said in exasperation, flying down to ground level.

“Who is she?” the princess asked sternly. “And don't talk in riddles like last time.”

The baroness closed her eyes in exasperation as she sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Recall the merchant street down that town of mine?”

“You own a town?” the princess asked, puzzled.

The baroness wasn’t humored at all. “Seriously?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “You gave it to me!” she reminded the princess, who still didn’t seem to understand what she was talking about.

After a few seconds, it clicked in the princess's mind. “Oh, right! You meant the one within your barony.”

The baroness rolled her eyes before continuing. “Yes. So I met a baker and befriended her.”

The princess's eyes were wide in shock. “PARDON ME?” she exclaimed. “You said she was rich! Not a beggar!”

The baroness frowned. “She is rich.”

The princess frowned in return. “Really? Are you sure it's real money?”

The baroness turned away from the princess. “You'd be surprised how rich peasants are. It's stunning.”

Before the princess could respond, the baroness took off and flew in the direction she had been going toward before being interrupted.

◇◇◇

They finally landed on the cloud. Rarity, who was very excited, was the first to hop off the balloon, followed by Sweetie Belle, who was trying to shake the bad feelings out of her mind, then by Silver Spoon, who was hesitant to step on the cloud surface at first. Once Silver had her four hooves on the floor, she started moving forward. She couldn’t take her eyes off of her legs at first, but she gained slightly more confidence after each step. Shortly after, she had enough courage to look up and was quickly amazed at the sight of the park.

The Six Wings Great Venture was one of the most impressive amusement parks in all of Equestria. The rides were known for being gigantic and thrilling, and indeed they were. Water slides, roller coasters, and multiple other rides were visible as far as eyes could see.

Silver Spoon realized that her glasses were sliding off her muzzle, so she pushed them back on.

‘Sorry Princess, but I'm glad you aren’t here to ruin the fun,’ she thought, grinning. She then trotted after Sweetie Belle and her sister, who were already thinking about which rides they could try.

They went to a roller coaster first, but a security guard asked Sweetie Belle to take off her cape before stepping in the ride, to avoid it being stuck in the machinery. Sweetie didn’t feel comfortable taking it off, which Rarity noticed. After a bit of an argument, Rarity and the guard managed to come to an agreement: Sweetie Belle could keep her cape, but she had to keep it tied around her barrel in order to prevent it from flying in every direction in the wind.

As they sat in the roller coaster, Silver Spoon noticed that, while tying her cape, Sweetie Belle was always trying to keep it over her flanks.

“Did you receive your…?” Silver started to ask.

Sweetie Belle shook her head, frowning, as if to say: ‘don't talk about my cutie mark.’

“Fine,” Silver said. “I won't pry.”

Sweetie Belle smiled, happy with Silver Spoon's answer. “I promise that I will tell you everything as soon as we're back home,” she said, while fastening her seatbelt.

The following hours were spent in relative fun. Rarity was probably the most excited of the three. She was laughing and from ride to ride like a pre-school filly most of the time, dragging the actual fillies along. Sweetie Belle was rather moody at first, thinking about the events of a few days earlier, but the thrill of the roller coaster snapped her out of those gloomy thoughts, and quickly enough she started smiling a lot more. Silver Spoon was very happy too, but she got dizzy, both from the altitude and motion sickness. By the middle of the afternoon she had to excuse herself for a restroom break.

****

Silver Spoon finished vomiting in the toilet bowl. She was about to flush when she heard a familiar voice.

“Do you not like flying anymore, Baroness?”

Silver Spoon was startled. She finally flushed and stepped out of the cabinet. Looking around, she didn’t see anypony, so she simply shrugged and went to wash her forehooves and face at the sink.

“Or perhaps it's the wretch that's giving you sickness?”

The voice now sounding closer, Silver Spoon immediately shot up her head and looked around the room. She still saw nopony. Though she did recognize the voice.

“DT, is that you?” she asked.

“Please, do not change the subject. You've been ditching me. At least give me some respect.”

Silver now knew where the voice was coming from. She turned around to face the mirror, but was shocked to see that her reflection was replaced by Diamond Tiara's figure.

“You tried replacing me by this accursed peasant,” the pony in the mirror said. “Don't deny it. You know the truth is unpleasant.”

Trying not to look afraid of the apparition of her ex-friend, Silver Spoon huffed at her. “Yeah, nah. I don't care. You've been nothing but a bully to her and her friends. I just don't want to condone this behavior anymore.”

“Oh, is that so?” the figure asked.

Suddenly, the mirror cracked and the room's lights flickered, becoming dim. This alarmed Silver Spoon, who started stepping back, away from the glass. She stopped however when she bumped into something behind her.

When she turned around to see who this was, Silver Spoon was shocked.

It was the figure who had reappeared on the other side of the mirror.

She tapped one of her forelegs on the ground, shattering it like glass and giving it the shape of a knife. She then launched at Silver with it, trying to stab her between the eyes.

Silver Spoon wanted to scream.

****

Rarity and Sweetie Belle were sitting at a Café's terrasse, eating ice cream while discussing this and that.

“And what did you do next?” Sweetie Belle asked, captivated by Rarity's story.

Rarity chuckled, swallowing another spoonful of mint ice cream. “I simply continued complaining, and eventually they let me go. They even gave me the gems.”

Sweetie Belle's eyes grew wide. “All the gems?”

“All of them,” her big sister replied with a prideful smirk.

Rarity was glad that Sweetie's smile was returning. Her little sister was happy, and it was the most important thing at the moment. This trip to the park among them three was a good idea after all.

Rarity winced, realizing that somepony wasn’t here right now.

“By the way, is Silver Spoon still in the restroom?” she asked. “I haven’t seen her for a while.”

Sweetie Belle looked around the terrace, not seeing any trace of her friend. “Weird. I did tell her to come back here when she's done, right?” she asked, turning back to the older unicorn.

Rarity nodded. “We should check on her,” she said, finishing the remains of their ice cream bowl.

Rarity quickly paid for the food before she and Sweetie Belle departed toward the restrooms.

****

As the two sisters entered the room, the first thing they saw was a broken pair of glasses being thrown in their direction. Just before it could reach Sweetie Belle's face, Rarity had the reflex to catch it in her magic.

In the middle of the room, Silver Spoon, who didn’t have her glasses anymore, was backing away from another filly of around her age. This filly looked almost identical to Diamond Tiara, with her pink coat, white-striped purple mane, and namesake on top of her head being the same.

However there were two giant differences between her and the actual Diamond Tiara: one of this filly's forelegs was shaped like a shard of broken glass which looked as sharp as a knife, and instead of her face was what could be described as a blurry, distorted mirror that melted seamlessly within the rest of her head.

The following happened within only a few seconds.

The mirror-faced filly's sharp leg was dangerously nearing Silver Spoon's hoof. Rarity immediately knew that she was aiming for Silver Spoon's bracelet, so when said bracelet was cut, she was already jumping toward Silver Spoon and grabbing her by the tail before she would fall right through the cloud floor. Sweetie Belle screamed when Rarity lept in the room, then quickly ran to her side, not wanting to be anywhere far from her big sister at the moment.

This last action turned out to be a bad idea, as the mirror-faced pony turned toward the restroom's door and seemingly closed it telekinetically.

While Rarity placed Silver Spoon on her back to carry her more easily, Sweetie Belle tried to use her own telekinesis on the door to reopen it, but it didn’t budge.

The unicorn sisters and Silver Spoon turned their attention back to the figure that looked like Diamond Tiara. Said figure just stared at the trio with reflections of their own, terrified eyes, then launched herself at them with her knife-like limb.

As the two sisters ran in opposite directions from the figure, Rarity quickly found herself being cornered. In the moment, it was as if their aggressor was targeting her specifically, but Rarity then understood that the actual target was Silver Spoon, who was still on the older unicorn's back, her forelegs wrapped around her neck in order not to slide and fall through the floor.

But as the mirror-faced figure was raising her blade to attack any of the two, a shackle suddenly appeared from behind her and locked itself around her legs, preventing her from striking it at her cornered victims. It was at this moment that she craned her neck back toward the opposite end of the room, where Sweetie Belle had run to, and finally took a good look at the white-coated unicorn filly… and the silver key dangling from around her neck

“Silver Key…” the figure reminisced at the sight of the accessory, still in Diamond Tiara's voice. “Isn't this intriguing after all?” She snorted. “The old stallion found a pupil before his fall.”

“‘Pupil’?” Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. “Wuh- what are you talking about?”

Silver Spoon didn’t feel comfortable at all in this instant, but she was eager enough to answer Sweetie's inquiry. “It's not unusual for exorcists to take apprentices under their wings. But my great-uncle didn’t have any from what I know,” she said, trying to keep her composure despite the situation.

“Right…” Sweetie Belle replied, now understanding what the demon was assuming. “But I've never even met Silver Key,” she added, matter-of-factly.

Rarity was dumbfounded, feeling left behind as if she had missed four entire chapters. “…whatever is going on!?” she finally shouted.

The demon turned her attention back to the mare and the filly on her back as she said: “Do you want answers, little baker's big sister? Too bad. The one thing you’ll receive is this splinter.”

“Sweetie Belle, don't let her–!”

Silver Spoon barely had the time to shout at the caped filly as the mirror-faced demon tapped her free front leg on the floor, shattering it to turn it into another, similar looking blade that immediately swung onto the shackles and broke them in one hit. Now free to move, the demon lashed at Rarity's direction. The mare dodged the attack with a panicked leap along the wall, then she made a dash to the door in her attempt to escape the mirror-faced figure.

Sweetie Belle tried to stop their attacker from following them by summoning more chains onto her, which were all avoided with relative ease before the demon jumped back inside one of the bathroom mirrors and… to everypony's shock, started attacking the reflections of Sweetie Belle, Rarity, and Silver Spoon on the other side of the mirror.

With an uncanny lack of difficulty, she killed them one by one: stabbing Sweetie Belle, slicing her big sister's throat, and letting Silver Spoon fall off through the cloudy floor. All of this under their real world counterparts’ eyes.

The trio could only watch in terror as the figure jumped into the mirror next to the one she had been in and did the same thing to three more innocent reflections. Again. And again. And again.

At this point, they were desperately trying to open the door, knocking it, turning its knob, picking the lock with telekinesis, slamming it with a shoulder, anything… but to no avail.

Soon after, the demon came back out of the mirrors and wasted no time dashing onto the three ponies to repeat her massacre one more time. She was suddenly stopped by Sweetie Belle, who had summoned a shackle to catch her left hindleg. She barely even slowed down to turn around as she used her sharp forelegs to cut the shackle off, then returned to her charge at the ponies.

“Come on, Sweetie! Multiple chains!” Silver Spoon snapped angrily as the two sisters once again dodged being sliced by the demon and ran to different corners of the room once more.

When she thought that she had taken enough distance to be safe, Sweetie Belle focused and summoned two shackles, this time on the demon's front legs.

But the demon only moved one leg to dodge the shackle aimed at it, then used said leg to cut the other shackle in the same momentum. She went back to her charge toward Sweetie Belle.

“Smooth move, Sweetie! You really overwhelmed her with those two chains!” Silver Spoon shouted sarcastically, taunting the other filly from the other side of the room, making her receive an angry glare from a still confused Rarity.

Sweetie Belle wanted to snap back at her, but it was not the time. She galloped to a water cabinet and locked herself inside to give herself enough time to breathe, even if it only lasted a few seconds as the demon sliced the door in half diagonally twice, breaking it. Thankfully, she only needed a few seconds.

Before the demon could kill the exorcist, who was non-arguably cornered with no escape route, she was targeted by three shackles coming from her left. She managed to avoid them with a jump backward, but was quickly caught by surprise by two more chains from the right, immobilizing her two right legs.

Sweetie Belle didn’t intend to lose any chance. She quickly shackled her foe's left foreleg before she could use it to cut the chains, then did the same to her last hindleg just to be safe.

“Very impressive,” the demon said, now unable to move any limb freely. “Seems the pony Silver trained was able to put Gh'i-Lþ to shame with only chains.”

“You're taking your own defeat… surprisingly well,” Silver Spoon remarked while her adrenaline was going down. She was relieved to see that the demon, whose name was apparently ‘Guilt’, was finally restrained.

“You raise a good point. It is true I don't fear Hell. For it won’t be long before I'm freed out of there.” Guilt turned her face toward Sweetie Belle, allowing her to see her own reflection within it. “Soon, the King may rise, and rule over your nightmares.”

As soon as Guilt finished monologuing, Sweetie opened a portal to Tartarus underneath her and pulled her inside with the chains.

Sweetie Belle then lifted her key with her magic and pivoted it sideways, locking the portal close with an audible *click*. She then sat down on the floor to breathe out, glad that this was over.

Rarity went next to Sweetie Belle to wrap her in a hug with one foreleg. They stayed like this, crying silently for a while.

Silver Spoon, who was still holding onto the elder sister's back, was the one to break the silence. “Now, I know you have many questions,” she said calmly, not wanting to impose too much. “But can we get out of this park… and never come back, please?”

Rarity nodded and smiled at Silver Spoon. “I will make sure to sue whoever thought that these bracelets were a good idea.”

◇◇◇

The baroness looked tired, both physically and mentally as she trudged along the streets. She walked over to the baker, who was about to close her boulangerie for the night. The two looked at each other awkwardly for a while, in silence.

“Hello,” the baroness said. “I can’t really say I had a good day.”

“You finally left that princess?” the baker asked, getting a nod in response. “What did she say?”

“I was kicked out,” the baroness told her. “It seems this life wasn’t for me.”

The baker quietly nodded in understanding. “I suppose you no longer own this barony.”

Silence again.

“So…” the baker said. “How do you wish to be called, now?”

She hesitated before replying. “Silver Bell…”

The baker smiled at Silver Bell. “It's a beautiful name, one I think fits you well.”

The two hugged each other, happy that all of this was over.

The curtains closed, indicating the end of the play

Author's Note

The way I wrote Silver Spoon makes her feel like a jerk at times... which she is so I guess that's a win for my writing career

I think the document I made for this story was so big it glitched out, so I'll have to reorganize into even more docs. Great.