Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara walked through the streets of Ponyville with their saddlebags hanging firmly around their sides. After a long day at the schoolhouse learning lessons from Miss Cheerilee, they both couldn't wait to get back to Diamond's house for some rest and relaxation, talking about what frivolously expensive activities or trips they were going to go on with their parents.
For the longest time, both of these fillies had an underground reputation for being wolves in sheep's clothing. While their looks exposed their sweet sides, they had been rather brutish on the inside for the longest time, flaunting their wealth and acting as if they were the dominant children at the school. They had been this way until their former nemeses, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, had finally earned their Cutie Marks after doing everything under the sun and freeing Diamond Tiara from her tyrant mother's teachings.
Now that their heads had been clear, they had opened their hearts more to the ponies around them while sacrificing nothing but their free time in return and getting paid in small royalties for their contributions. For once, it felt like their lives were complete. They had both their money and the genuine adoration of the ponies around them. They both wanted absolutely nothing to change.
"Hey, Di? What plans have you and your dad got up in the Crystal Empire?" Silver Spoon asked.
"Oh, nothing much, Silvy." Diamond Tiara turned to face her friend. "Just some business talk on how he wants to bring Rich's Barnyard Bargains to the Crystal Empire. Honestly, I love my daddy, but sometimes I feel like he makes more than Princess Celestia herself." She scratched her chin for a brief moment with the cup of her hoof. "Hey, Silver Spoon? Is it a bad thing if you're richer than the ruler of Equestria?"
"Well, technically, wealth usually has nothing to do when you compare yourself to a leader," Silver Spoon began to explain. She had always been the most intelligent filly in Miss Cheerilee's class, often scoring higher marks that Diamond Tiara herself. As such, she was able to find the more logical approach to every situation that was thrust upon her and her friends. "If you're gonna compare how much money you have against Princess Celestia, then it really doesn't matter to be honest. Princesses will always be royalty and you can't argue with that; even if you're richer than them." After shaking her head, she pushed her glasses back onto her eyes. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason. It's just that I've always been spoiled rotten thanks to mommy and daddy." Diamond Tiara looked out towards the street ahead. "I mean, I know that my name's not exactly a metaphor for something like yours is, but I find it a bit weird how I always have at least ten times as many bits as the price of some of the things I get. Dresses, jewels, toys, you name it and I can afford it as if it were a bag of candy at Sugarcube Corner."
"Well, there's nothing wrong with a little extra money in your pocket, Diamond." Silver Spoon gave Diamond Tiara a toothy grin as she gave her back a little stroke. "The problem is if you want nothing but cash. Then, you'd never be happy."
"I suppose." Diamond Tiara sighed as she brushed some of her hair back. "What's the point of money if you've got no-one or nothing to spend it on? It'd just be a waste of space."
"Exactly. That's why it's good to have a clean balance between it, your friends, and your wants." Silver puffed out her chest and nodded. "If you cleanly distribute the three equally, then they all have more meaning and are more worthwhile."
"Thanks, Silvs. You're a great friend." Diamond Tiara wrapped her legs around Silver Spoon's body and gently nuzzled her neck.
"No problem, Di. What are friends for anyway?" Silver Spoon mimicked Diamond Tiara's gesture and patted her on the back.
"Now, let's get back to my house." Diamond Tiara finally came out of Silver's embrace and continued down the path with a spring in her step. "The sooner we can get back to my place, the quicker we can discuss where we're going to see Sapphire Shores' latest performance!"
"No way! You like her too?" Silver's eyes lit up as she galloped after her friend. "I love her songs! They're so clever with their naming that it's practically impossible to think of it as a real song title when you first hear it!"
As the two fillies charged down the streets energetically, they eventually came towards a large crowd of ponies all gathered around something. Pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns of all shapes, colours, and sizes were seen examining the object of their interest, chattering and murmuring among each other.
"Hey, Di? What do you think's going on there?" Silver pointed towards the crowd. "I don't think there's any festivals or parties going on today, are there?"
"No. At least, not to my knowledge." Diamond Tiara stopped running and gazed over towards the ponies. She turned her body and got closer to the multiple rings of equines. "C'mon. Let's get a closer look, shall we?"
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon squeezed through the legs of the ponies, making sure not to lose their bags or accessories as they inched closer and closer towards the centre. Despite their smaller statures, they still found themselves having to wriggle and squirm through the large legs like wet clothes through wringers. Eventually, they finally emerged from the legs of the crowd and laid their eyes on what was unfolding.
There, buried into a large stone in the middle of the crowd, was a giant metal spoon made of pure silver. It had butterfly wings on the end with a pink crystal star connecting them. Despite being rooted into the ground, it still shone adamantly in all directions, mildly blinding the ponies cluttered around it.
"A spoon?" Silver could only gawk at what she was seeing. "These ponies are excited over a giant spoon? Seriously?"
"This isn't just any ordinary spoon, little ones." The pony above them bend his head down and looked at Diamond and Silver, who craned their necks skyward in response. "It just fell out of the sky while we were sleeping last night and it's been stuck here ever since." He then pointed towards the spoon, watching as a heavily-ripped white pegasus approached the spoon. "Everypony's been trying hard to get it out, but for it's not budging. Bulk Biceps is about to give it a try, but I don't think that even he can move this thing..."
"How can so many ponies have trouble moving a giant spoon?" Silver Spoon watched as Bulk Biceps wrapped his hooves around the spoon and pulled back with all his might, fluttering his miniscule wings as the backs of his hooves dug into the ground. They watched him groan and sweat as he tried to free it from the ground, but ultimately, he lost his grip and flew into the crowd, breaking the ring of ponies as he sent some of them hurtling in all directions. "Even with those proportions, size, and even the weight of the metal, I'm sure that even a couple of earth pony fillies would be able to get it out, if not loosen it."
"I know. It's weird, right?" A pink pony with a lightly darker shade of the same colour for a mane walked up to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. "We've tried everything we can from using cranes, to pulling it out with the weather, and even doing a song and dance routine, but it's still not moving."
"Pinkie Pie? What are you doing here?" Diamond Tiara raised a brow at the large pink pony with balloons for a Cutie Mark. "Aren't you and Princess Twilight supposed to be discussing important magic of friendship business?"
"Silly, Di. Not all of our days are about saving the world or trying to fix problems." Pinkie Pie played with Diamond Tiara's cheeks briefly. "We've all got our own lives, y'know. Dashie's training harder than ever now that she's a Wonderbolt; Rarity's got three boutiques now; and just recently, Fluttershy's joined the board of Ponies for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. As for me, I'm still caring for two super-cute—yet sometimes freaky—babies while working a few shifts at Sugarcube Corner on the side, so I'm pretty busy as it is."
"Oookay? But that still doesn't explain why you're here at this spoon instead of working." Silver Spoon cocked her left eyebrow and tilted her head at Pinkie. "Why do you want this spoon anyway?"
"Well, as well as using it because it could help a giant stir its' tea and gigantic sugar cubes, I just want it because it's shiny." Pinkie Pie turned to face the spoon and swung her head so that the light glinting off of it slashed the irises of her eyes. "Yep. It's one-hundred percent super-de-duper shiny alright. Let me give it a go!" And without any more hesitation, Pinkie walked up to the giant spoon.
"Good luck with that, Pinkie." Silver watched Pinkie grab the spoon and bounce up and down on her flanks. The momentum that she was generating should've dislodged the spoon, even if it was only by a small amount. However, the spoon wasn't moving an inch, no matter how furiously Pinkie was bouncing. "If Bulk Biceps couldn't even move the spoon, I don't see how you could—" Before she could even finish her sentence, Pinkie launched herself into the air once her hooves slid off of the spoon's handle "—Yep. There she goes."
"We need to get this spoon out soon." Mayor Mare walked up to the spoon and gave it a small tap. "It's going to cause chaos for carts and visitors if it's not resolved. Is there anyone here that hasn't tried yet?" She addressed the crowd, looking at all of the ponies that still remained. "Anyone? No-one? Come on! Somepony's gotta fix this!"
"I suppose maybe I could give it a shot."
The crowd turned to see Silver Spoon raise her hoof and walk up to the giant spoon. They could only smile as she took up her position, examined the spoon from all angles, and began to mentally calculate how deep into the earth it had been buried. In their minds, however, they knew that she wouldn't be able to pry the giant steel utensil from the earth, yet they still wished her luck as she readied herself.
"Silvy? Are you sure about this?" Diamond Tiara got close to Silver Spoon and almost bumped into her as she paced around the spoon. "This thing's huge! And none of the other strong ponies could pull it out! Look, let's just get out of here and wait for Princess Twilight to fix this. I'm sure that she'll have some kind of kooky spell to get it out."
"As much as I'd love to see that happen, do we really need to let Twilight Sparkle handle all of our problems?" Silver Spoon lifted her other brow as she stood with her head practically touching the metallic handle. "We need this spoon out as fast as possible and something in the back of my head keeps telling me that some of these ponies are just acting. This won't take long, Di. Just trust me on that." And then, she laid her hooves on the giant spoon.
Then, all of a sudden, an ice-cold sensation ran through Silver Spoon's body as her consciousness began to waver. Her vision became blurry as a painful headache began to form. All throughout this internal pain, however, her hooves were still tightly planted on the spoon, no matter how much she wanted to rub herself down to try and ease her ailments.
"Silver Spoon..." An indistinguishable voice whispered as she came back to reality.
"Huh? Who's there?" Silver Spoon asked around, trying to find the voice that was talking to her. But all she could find were the ponies of Ponyville and her best friend staring at her with wide eyes.
"I've been waiting for you, Silver Spoon..." The voice continued, blowing a tiny wind into her ears. "You are the one."
"The one? The one what? What are you talking about?" Silver asked, but she kept on drawing the undivided attention of the ponies around her.
"These mortal beings are not worthy of my power. Nor are they capable of my intellect," said the voice, slowly becoming more and more like Silver Spoon's voice. "You, however, are an exception. You and I are one in the same. You were meant to have this spoon. Now hurry! Free it from the ground and awaken your true potential!"
"True potential? What's going on?" Silver Spoon asked, feeling the heat of the spoon's metal get colder with each passing second.
"Awaken me. Become who you are destined to be. One in the same with me. Your new best friend." As the voice spoke, a bright silver glow emanated from Silver Spoon. The light compelled the filly to pull the spoon up, uprooting the giant spoon from the ground effortlessly, causing the ground around it to light up. "Yes... That's it! Now rise! Rise, my friend! This is your moment!" With one final yank, the spoon was freed, causing more light to erupt from the ground and knock everyone around Silver back onto their haunches.
As the light from the burst fizzled out of existence, Silver Spoon found herself floating a few feet off the ground with the giant spoon in her hooves. As she bathed in the twinkling aura around her, it completely blotted out her vision of the outside world as she looked down at the spoon's scoop. Sitting daintly in the middle of it was a large silver necklace with the same butterfly wings and pink star on it as the one on the end of her new prize.
"A necklace? What am I supposed to do with this?" Silver slowly reached for the protective peace in the middle of the scoop, lifting it up as if it was a piece of paper. "Hey, voice? Can you ask me what this is doing here? And for that record, who are you?"
"I am you, Silver Spoon," said the voice. "Your one and only friend."
"That makes absolutely no sense. Diamond Tiara's my friend, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are my friends, and all of Ponyville is my friend." Silver looked up towards the sky above her. "How can you be my one and only friend if I have lots of them?"
"Put the necklace on and I shall tell you everything you need to know," the voice continued, now sounding like a perfect soundalike of Silver's own voice. "Who I am, what I mean to you, what your purpose is, and why I am your only friend. All of these will be answered if you just wear it."
"You'd better not be lying to me, voice." Silver Spoon picked up the necklace and slid her head through the straps. The large metallic piece looked and felt heavy in her touch, but around her neck, the weight that she had felt previously had entirely vanished, and she now wore it like she had held it all her life. "Hmm. Not bad, but a bit too impractical. Now, what was it you were going to say?"
"Good. Now, let me explain myself," The voice became more malicious and cackled maniacally as the light around Silver Spoon turned black. "But, I'm sure that there'll be no need once you're a part of me, right?"
Silver Spoon's eyes widened as the soothing light from before left her and darkness sprung up from the ground, proceeding to cocoon her in it. As she shook and thrashed around in it, her vision of the townsponies came back to her. All of the faces that she had come to love before, including that of Diamond Tiara, were now about to be taken away from her by the encroaching darkness spiralling around her body.
"Silvy?" Diamond Tiara slowly hobbled forward towards the darkness, trying to reach out for Silver Spoon.
"Di?" Silver's voice became weak as she ran out of breath fighting the dark energy. She tried to reach out for Diamond Tiara's hoof, but the pink filly was blasted away by the half-formed cocoon and landed against the belly of a few other crowd members. "Diamond Tiara! No!" As the darkness around her proceeded to consume her, she could only look up as the sky turned from a clear and sunny day into a dark one with black clouds. "Mom! Dad! Wonderbolts! Princess Twilight! SOMEONE SAVE ME!" She cried out, but the cocoon completely enveloped her as she was finally taken from the world she once inhabited.
"There. Now do you see? I am your one and only friend, Silver Spoon," the voice returned once more, echoing in her mind as her body became a darker shade of silver. The colour of her mane and tail became darker as it grew longer and became more spacial with stars shining in it. Her eyes became filly magenta, with her pupil and outer iris becoming pale white. "I am the only one who understands you; who knows you. As such, it is only logical that we are meant together; to rule these miserable life-forms down on that feeble dirt-ridden planet. Now awaken, my friend..." The cocoon around her burst, spreading darkness all across Ponyville. "NIGHTMARE SPOON!
