For the first time in her life Diamond Tiara was truly happy. She found the courage to stand up to her mother, she learned the true meaning of her cutie mark, and she made new friends, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders. In spite of all of that, she still felt dismayed over something that she had forgotten. This gap in memory was filled in with the sight of a familiar grey filly sitting gloomily on the new swing set. With all the excitement of everything that happened, Diamond Tiara had forgotten that she had lost her best friend. She knew this had to be fixed post haste, so she took a deep breath, put on a big smile, and trotted over to Silver Spoon. “Now Silver, you can’t be sad on a swing.”
Silver Spoon looked up from the ground towards the jokingly disapproving voice. All she could muster was an annoyed glare in response.
Diamond Tiara nervously chuckled while backing away from the daggers coming from Silver Spoon’s gaze. After a moment of painful silence, Diamond had come up with, what she thought, was a spectacular idea. “I know what would put a smile on your face.” She walked up behind Silver Spoon, “I’ll give you a push to get you started.” She stood up on her hind legs and swung forward only to push nothing but empty space. She landed with a loud, “oof” when her stomach landed on the now empty seat. She looked up to see Silver Spoon walking away not even looking back to see if Diamond was alright. “Where are you going?”
Silver Spoon stopped, but didn’t look back at Diamond, “You said it yourself, I can’t be sad on a swing, so I am going somewhere else.
“That’s not what I meant,” Diamond exclaimed, anger beginning to well up inside over Silver’s stubbornness.
Silver spun around to meet Diamond’s gaze, fire now in her eyes, “Really? Then tell me, what did her highness want?”
“I just want to make up so we can go back to being best friends.”
“And you think a simple push on the swing is going to fix everything?”
“No, of course not. I just thought it would give me a chance to tell you I was sorry.”
“For?”
Diamond Tiara cocked her head in confusion, “For the way I treated you today.”
“Just for today?”
“Well…yeah.”
Silver Spoon sighed, “If you honestly think this is just about today, then any apology you give me will be worthless. If this is how you view our friendship, you can consider us no longer friends.”
Diamond Tiara could no longer hold in her frustration. She wanted to tell Silver Spoon to get off her high horse, but all she could get out was, “Fine!”
Silver Spoon jolted back, her face now filled with rage and tears. “Fine,” she yelled back at Diamond, and she turned around and sprinted off.”
Diamond Tiara watched as the image of Silver Spoon became smaller, and she realized this didn’t go as planned. “Wait,” Diamond yelled out, but Silver Spoon was too far gone and was unable to hear it. Diamond Tiara lowered her voice to a volume only she could hear, “but that’s not fine at all.” She turned around and walked away defeated, head drooped down and eyes glossed over with tears.
******
The Crusaders, still admiring their new cutie marks, were setting up for their first meeting of how they were going to help others gain their cutie marks. Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell took their usual seats on the main floor while Apple Bloom took the spot behind the podium.
“So girls,” Apple Bloom said excitedly, “first thing on the agenda, who should we help first to get their cutie mark?”
“I know we just helped him with the election, but I did notice he didn’t have a cutie mark either.”
“We could also help Dinky” remarked Scootaloo. “She hasn’t gotten hers as well.”
“Or maybe even,” Apple Bloom paused for a second while looking at the door, “Diamond Tiara?”
“Um, I’m pretty sure Diamond Tiara has a cutie mark already,” assured Scootaloo.
“No, I mean Diamond Tiara,” repeated Apple Bloom now pointing at the door. The others followed Apple Bloom’s gesture and turned towards the door to see a pitiful looking Diamond Tiara sitting in the alcove.
“I need your help,” cracked Diamond Tiara holding back anymore tears from accumulating on top of the ones already streaming down her face.
“What’s wrong,” asked Sweetie Bell. “You were happy when we left the school earlier today.”
Diamond Tiara gave a couple of sniffles before explaining herself. “I tried making up with Silver Spoon, but she won’t listen; and now she doesn’t ever want to be friends with me.”
“Well you did treat her pretty bad,” mumbled Scootaloo. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell both gave her a stern look.
“While it could have been said better,’ Apple Bloom said trying to clear the tension, “Scootaloo is right. You didn’t really treat her the best during the campaign.”
“I know,” agreed Diamond Tiara. “I tried apologizing for that, but she told me it wasn’t enough. She told me there was more I needed to apologize for, but I always assumed we were always the best of friends.”
The Crusaders looked at each other uneasily. Sweetie Bell was the first to break the tension. “The truth is this isn’t the only time you’ve treated her this way. While you two did have fun with each other, you always snapped at her any time she tried to show you support.”
Diamond Tiara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was nothing but the best of friend to Silver Spoon. She thought about all the fun they had together, though she began to regret most of it was at the expense of the three fillies in front of her. The more she thought about of it, the more she realized that they were right. Every time Silver Spoon showed her any kind of support, she took it as a threat to stealing the spotlight. Diamond looked up at the Crusaders and began to tear up again, “Sweet Celestia, what have I done!?”
“Don’t start crying again,” all three said in unison.
Apple Bloom walked up to Diamond Tiara and put a hoof around her, “It’s going to be alright, we’re going to help you out; isn’t that right girls?” The other two beamed with bright smiles in approval. “Now, let’s start from the beginning. How did you two become friends in the beginning?”
Diamond Tiara thought about it for a second. “I guess it would have to be when her father and my father started doing business together. You know my father runs a department store, but Silver’s dad runs a transportation company that allowed my father to expand across Equestria.”
The Crusaders sat in a circle pondering over this bit of news. “Well, we can’t do much with that,” Sweetie Bell said. “There had to be some interest that you two had in common.”
“Well, we did just get our cutie marks recently. So we did bond over that.”
“This is going to be a lot harder than I thought,” worried Apple Bloom.
“We still have the other two,” reminded Scootaloo. This was met with the same harsh glares as before. “Just kidding you two.”
“Oh, I just remembered,” chimed Diamond Tiara. “Both of us enjoyed reading those teen novels. In fact, we were actually going to go to the library together to check out a new one we were waiting for.”
“That’s it,” exclaimed Apple Bloom. “You head off to the library and we’ll try to get Sliver Spoon there. You two can read the book together and become friends again.”
“That sounds great,” agreed Diamond Tiara with a smile on her face. The four of them went over some last minute details and went their separate ways.
*****
Diamond Tiara made it to the front of Twilight’s castle, which was also the new location of the library ever since the Tirek incident, and looked up at the giant doors. This was the first time she came here by herself. The last time she was here was when it first sprouted from the ground. She slowly went to push the door open when the door seemed to swing open on its own. This startled her and caused her to jump back, but felt better when she saw the cause of the movement was Princess Twilight. “Afternoon Princess Twilight.”
Twilight looked down, “Oh, hello Diamond Tiara; and please, Twilight is fine. I still feel awkward with being called Princess by everyone. You must be here about the new book you and Silver Spoon have been asking about.”
“Yes, is it in yet?”
“Yes, it is. It’s stacked with the others in its collection.”
“Thank you,” responded, and Diamond walked in.
“Oh, by the way, Silver Spoon is already in there reading it; but there are plenty of copies.”
“Oh ok…wait, what?”
“Yeah, she came in about a half hour ago. She also seemed a little down, is everything alright between you two?”
Diamond Tiara let out a small sigh, “No, not really, but I’m on a mission to make it better.”
Twilight gave a smile, “I’m glad to hear it. Well, I’ll leave you to it. I’m off to do…princessey things.”
“Sounds like fun,” replied Diamond Tiara.
Twilight’s face turned to that of someone that has been over worked, “You would think.” With that, she spread her wings and took off.
Diamond Tiara went in and walked up to the library doors. She stopped when she remembered what Twilight had just told here. “Wait, if Silver Spoon is already here, that means…,” it seems that the Cutie Mark Crusaders would be unable to help in this case. She took a deep breath and walked through the doors.
The library was a lot bigger than she would have imagined. She always assumed it would be about the same size as the tree house, thinking that there weren’t that many books; but the place had to big enough to swallow some of the biggest houses in ponyville, and the shelves were jam-packed with books. Diamond Tiara made her way to where the novel would be, and stopped when she rounded one of the stacks of unfiled books. On a bean bag right next to the shelf she was heading too, was Silver Spoon laying down with the new book. Silver looked up and rolled her eyes when she saw Diamond Tiara.
“Let me guess,” scoffed Silver Spoon, “come to tell me I can’t be sad reading either?”
“Well, that all depends. If it’s a sad part of the story, then it is completely acceptable.” Diamond waited for Silver to give some form of response to the joke, but Silver Spoon just sat there looking as if she was still waiting for Diamond to answer her question. “So, is that the new Filliesitter’s Club book we’ve been dying to read?”
Silver Spoon continued to read while lifting the book up to expose the cover confirming it was in fact that exact book.
“Mind if I join you in reading it?”
“I’ve already gotten a couple chapters in, so you’ll have to get your own.”
“I can live with that.” Diamond walked over to the shelf and grabbed another copy of the same book and sat at the bean bag next to Silver Spoon. “So is it any good? Did Peach Blossom get kicked out of the club? What about Rocky Road, did he confes-,” Diamond was cut off by Silver Spoon putting a hoof over her mouth.
“If you want answers, I suggest reading the book for yourself.”
“Right…of course.” Diamond opened the book and they went the rest of the time without speaking to one another. Diamond attempted to read, but was too busy trying to figure out what to say. After about an hour, Diamond had only made it through the first chapter when Silver Spoon closed her book. “Finished already?”
“I am a fast reader; I guess it just never showed because we were always discussing the book while reading.”
“That’s possible; hey, remember the time we got in a debate who the mysterious filly napper was in the third book?”
Silver Spoon giggled, “I think the whole town remembers.” She looked at Diamond Tiara and her smile quickly faded. “I mean, yes, but it seems those times are over. Good bye Diamond.” Silver Spoon lowered her head and left.
She giggled. Diamond Tiara had gotten Silver Spoon to laugh. There was still hope in making amends with her. As Diamond was enjoying this happy feeling, she was interrupted by the Cutie Mark Crusaders barging through the door.
“We’re sorry,” Apple Bloom pleaded, partially out of breath. “We went to her house, but she wasn’t there. Her mother had said that she had only stopped by to say she was heading to the library. We tried getting here as fast as we could to warn you.”
“You just missed her,” said Diamond.
“Aww,” exclaimed all three. They looked at the floor, ashamed that they were unable to help.
“I couldn’t be helped girls,” reassured Diamond Tiara. “So, what’s the next step?”
The three fillies were glad to see Diamond was mad at their failure. They went back into thinking mode and tried to come up with some other ideas. This time, Sweetie Bell came up with a brilliant idea.
“This plan I’m sure will work, but it’ll have to be done tomorrow because of how late it’s getting.”
“What do you have in mind,” asked Diamond Tiara.
“She likes chocolate milkshakes, right?”
“Yeah, they are her favorite. Though, I hardly believe just getting her one is going to be of any good of an apology.”
“That’s why you’re going to make her one.”
“That’s an awesome idea,” said an excited Scootaloo.
“We can work with Pinkie Pie and see if she can help Diamond Tiara make the biggest, besttest milkshake Silver Spoon has ever had,” added Apple Bloom.
“That’s a great idea, I’m totally in,” gleefully stated Diamond Tiara.
“Then it’s settled,” said Sweetie Bell, “let’s go over to Sugar Cube Corner and set it all up.
*****
The next day, Silver Spoon walked into Sugar Cube Corner and was met by a bouncing pink pony. “Hey there Silver Spoon, what brings you in here today?”
“Hi Pinkie, I got this invitation in the mail,” Silver Spoon lifted up a crudely drawn piece of paper. “It says I won a ‘Super-Duper Secret Chocolate Surprise’. It’s seems like a joke since it looks to be written in crayon, but I thought I’d see if you knew anything about it.”
Pinkie grabbed Silver Spoon and brought her close, “Shh, can’t you read? It says ‘secret’ on it.” Pinkie looked up to scan the room for anyone that could have overheard. Silver found this odd since they were the only two in the store this early in the day. Pinkie Pie ran through a curtain covering the opening to another room. One of her legs poked out from behind the curtain and beckoned Silver Spoon to follow.
Silver Spoon became a little uneasy and thought about exiting out the front door. Then she remembered, while strange for other to act this way, this was Pinkie Pie. Normal would be strange in her case. So Silver walked through the curtain and was met by pitch blackness. “Um, what is going on here?”
Suddenly, she was blinded by all the lights coming on.
“Surprise!”
When she could see clearly again, she could see Pinkie Pie and the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing there, arms up and covered in confetti and streamers. “What’s all this about?”
Apple Bloom walked up to Silver Spoon, “We saw you were looking a little down lately, so we thought we would cheer you up, maybe help make you feel better.”
Silver Spoon smiled, “Thanks, you didn’t have to do that.”
“We know, but we wanted to,” replied Scootaloo.
Apple Bloom led Silver Spoon to the table in the middle of the room. On it was the biggest chocolate milkshake Silver Spoon had ever seen. It had to be the size of her head, and it wasn’t just a chocolate milkshake, it had all her favorite treats in it: peppermints, sprinkles, oats, and whipped cream with a cherry on top. All she could say in her daze was, “Wow.”
Pinkie Pie was dancing around as if she needed to use the bathroom. “Well, try it.”
Silver Spoon stretched to get to the straw and took a small sip to savor it. As soon as it hit her tongue, her eyes shot open. It was amazing! She had never tasted anything like this before. “This is amazing everyone, who do I have to thank for making such a wonderful dessert?”
The other four looked at each other with grins that went from ear to ear. “Well,” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, “That’s your other surprise.” She walked up to another curtain that Silver Spoon assumed led to the kitchen, “Are you ready?”
Silver Spoon nodded excited while continuing to sip on the milkshake. Pinkie threw open the curtain to reveal an exhausted, but happy, Diamond Tiara covered in blotches of chocolate and cream. Silver Spoon spit out what she had in her mouth and choked on what had made it down her throat. “You made this?”
Diamond Tiara stood up with a proud look on her face, “Yep.”
Silver looked between Diamond and the milkshake. The joy that once took over her left like air in a balloon being deflated. “I think I just lost my appetite, sorry for ruining the mood Pinkie.”
“But,” Pinkie said becoming frantic, “you were enjoying yourself; and the milkshake was made by a friend of yours.”
“You mean ex-friend.” Silver Spoon took one more look at the milkshake, wanting to finish it, but stepped down from the table and walked away.
Diamond rushed out to catch up to Silver Spoon, “Why are you acting this way? I’m trying to make it up to you, but you throw it back in my face every time I try.”
“You believe this will do it,” shot back Silver Spoon. “This is no better than in the library or the swing set. What’s next, you going to try to buy me off with a present?”
“We’ll there goes my idea,” Scootaloo said sliding a wrapped gift behind her.
Silver Spoon raised an eyebrow at Diamond Tiara.
Diamond Tiara looked at Silver Spoon, then at the Crusaders, then back at Silver Spoon. She began to become nervous under the pressure. Finally she fell to the ground and began to cry, “I’m sorry Silver! I’m so, so sorry!”
Silver Spoon wanted to go and comfort her, but remembered she was still mad and stood her ground. “I ask you the same question as yesterday; for what?”
Diamond Tiara looked up at Silver Spoon with tears coming down like waterfalls from her face. “For everything; for snapping at you during the election, for bossing you around, for not listening to you, and for treating you anything less than the best friend anypony could ever ask for.”
Silver Spoon began to tear up herself and ran over to Diamond Tiara and gave her a great big hug, “I’m sorry too.”
Diamond Tiara looked at Silver Spoon confused, “Why are you sorry?”
Silver Spoon wiped the tears from under her glasses, “I knew you were trying to apologize, but I was just so mad at you that I couldn’t find myself able to forgive you. In the end, I kept myself from getting my friend back. You are my only friend, and I punished myself for not accepting your apology.”
“I deserved it, but now that I was finally able to apologize to you correctly, we can be best friends again.”
“I would like that.”
“How about our chant for old time sake?”
Silver Spoon smiled and nodded her head.
“Bump, Bump, Sugarlump Rump.”
“Bump, Bump, Sugarlump Rump.”
They both laughed and embraced each other in their renewed friendship.