As Silver grabbed her glasses and slipped them on her face, the bedroom door slowly opened, and Sweetie quietly stepped inside. Her eyes swept over the room, her expression one of amazement as she looked over the sheer size and items in the room, before her eyes locked on Silver.
“You are awake. And you look...” Sweetie started before her voice trailed off, seeing the face of a filly that hasn't really eaten or cleaned herself in a few days. “No offense, but you don’t look too good.”
“That happens when you do nothing but lie in bed for...what day is it today?” Silver asked.
“Monday,” Sweetie answered. “Miss Cheerilee needed somepony to bring you your homework, and I volunteered for the job. I thought it would give us a chance to talk about what I wanted to discuss with you a couple days ago.
As she opened her saddlebags and levitated a folder to the writing desk, one of the drawings caught her eye. She levitated it closer to her face and studied it for a moment.
“Is this a sketch of Featherweight?” she asked “It may not be your special talent, but you have some skill.”
Hearing his name caused Silver to eep and hide her blushing face under the blanket. With a mischievous smirk, Sweetie put the picture down and teased, “Looks like somepony may have a little crush.”
Silver peeked out from behind the blanket and said, “Sweetie, I swear. If you tell anypony-”
“I'm not going to,” Sweetie answered, before Silver’s rumbling and empty stomach interrupted both of them.
“Heh heh, guess I haven’t been eating much either,” Silver mentioned, before ringing a bell by her bed. When Good Service came in, Silver said, “Can you get us both a plate of cookies and two glasses of milk. Also inform my parents that I’m feeling better, and I’ll be joining them for dinner tonight.”
As Good Service left, Sweetie mentioned, “I guess your break up with Diamond hit you pretty hard.”
“Wait, you know about that? What did Diamond say?” Silver asked.
“Nothing yet,” Sweetie answered. “It was Button Mash that saw the argument you two had in Sugarcube Corner. He-” Sweetie said, before Silver cut her off.
“Button Mash is back in town? I though he and his mother got that big movie deal and left Ponyville,” Silver mentioned.
“It turns out that some huge corporation thought what they were doing was too similar to their own stuff. Production stopped while they have been in talks with them. There is some hope that they may get a licence from the corporation to continue. But yes, they’re in town during the talks,” Sweetie answered.
Silver was about to answer, when Good Service came in with the requested plate of cookies and two glasses of milk. After placing it and a small table between the two fillies, he said, “Miss Spoon, your parents are glad that you’re feeling better, and dinner will be at the usual time. I would suggest you clean yourself off before coming down.”
As he left, Silver slid out from under the covers and joined Sweetie at the table. The two of them munched on the cookies in silence for a few minutes, when Sweetie noticed something.
“Hey, Silver, what happened with your cutie mark?” she asked.
Silver looked down at her own flank, already knowing what she would see. As expected, the paintbrush and pencil was prominently displayed, as she didn't paint on her fake one after the rain.
“The silver spoon you know is a fake, and this is my real one,” she admitted, pointing at her own mark. “I was pretty much ignored in kindergarten, while I noticed Diamond and a couple of other early markers were more popular. Like you and your friends, I wanted my own cutie mark. I painted one on a few evenings later, after sketching some designs. Since everypony thinks my cutie mark is a silver spoon, I kept it up even after leaving kindergarten and moving into Miss Cheerilee’s class. I got my real one a couple years later.”
“And you've been...or you were...friends with her since then?” Sweetie asked, and Silver nodded. “What I don’t understand is why you want to stay friends with her, even after what I saw and heard about recently.”
“The reason is that she is, or was, my only friend. Without her, I’d be all alone,” Silver explained, looking down at the table. “Because I wanted to stay her friend, I teased you and your friends, even though I didn’t want to. Calling you blank flanks, going with her tricks, doing everything she told me to do, and never saying no to her. Even if I don’t do those things now, nopony will trust me or want anything to do with me.”
After a moment of silence, Sweetie took her hoof and said, “There’s one thing that Apple Bloom’s grandmother said to me and my friends. When there’s life, there’s hope.”
“When there’s life, there’s hope,” Silver repeated, mostly to herself.
“It means that, no matter what a pony is like, as long as they still live and breathe, there’s hope for them. They can change, or that they can make their own life, or the lives of others, better,” Sweetie explained. “And she also has told us that some ponies do deserve second chances, which is why I’m giving you one.”
“You mean...you want to be...m-my friend?” Silver asked.
“I'm willing to give it a try. I’ll need to forgive you for what you did, and you’ll need to prove that you changed,” Sweetie answered. “But I am willing to give you a chance. Maybe a friendship between us, and between the other Crusaders, can happen. But we have a long, hard path ahead.”
“...Thank you,” Silver said, hugging Sweetie, with some tears in her eyes.
“There’s another thing. Twilight once told us that you should be proud of your talents. So I want you to think about possibly coming to school showing your true cutie mark,” Sweetie mentioned, then stood. “Thanks for the cookies. I need to get home before Rarity wonders where I am.”
As she walked towards the bedroom door, Silver said, “Sweetie, before you go, I just want to say...that I’m not going to make excuses for my behavior in the past, or blame it all on Diamond. I’m responsible for the things I did, and...and I want to say that I’m sorry.”
“Thank you,” Sweetie answered, turning back towards her. “That means a lot coming from you. But I’m not the only one you need to apologize to.”
“I know,” Silver replied, as Sweetie walked out the door.
As she did, Silver turned to stare at her flank, and the real, yet unfamiliar, cutie mark that adorned it.
---
When Silver walked into school the next day, Sweetie leaned forward, trying to get a good look at what cutie mark she had. She slumped back down in her seat when she saw the familiar silver spoon painted on Silver’s flank.