Two weeks later
Silver Spoon sat down on her bed, staring down at a letter. Earlier that morning, she had received her report card and final test paper from the last day of school in the mail. It wasn't graded, but it came with a short, hoof-written letter from Cheerilee.
Dear Silver Spoon,
This school year has been so full of excitement and fun. You have been so diligent in your work, always ready to help someone in need of academic assistance. You have been a joy to teach this year, and I'm sorry that it's over.
Enclosed is your final Report Card. I'm not technically supposed to tell you this, but you have some of the best grades in class! I'm so proud of you. You brought a ray of sunshine into my classroom this year, and I hope that you'll do the same in secondary school.
I have also included your very last pop quiz of 5th grade. It's not graded, but I'll let you assume that it's an A!
I want you to take another look at that last question again. I understand that your friendship with Diamond Tiara has greatly changed since the beginning of the year. I have also noticed that you have been spending time with Boysenberry and Sketch. Good for you! It's always good to form new friendships.
You are an exemplary student and a wonderful filly. I will miss having you in my class.
Always your teacher,
Cheerilee
When Silver finished reading the letter, she moved on to her report card; all A's, as usual. She shifted through the envelope until she found her test paper, turning it over to find the question. She came face to face with the friendship qualities she had listed two weeks ago. She read through them, and suddenly noticed that something was missing. She ran over to her desk and grabbed a pencil, and sat down to write down the last quality needed in a friend.
Respect
Silver Spoon smiled. She saw now, that Diamond Tiara had been lacking in this aspect for far too long. She had, too.
Respect means everything. Diamond Tiara hasn't really given me respect since she started to pick on the other kids and expected me to do the same, she pondered. I'm to blame as well. I never had enough respect for myself to try to stand up to her.
She pulled out a clean sheet of paper from her desk and began to write.
What I need in a friend
-Fun
-Kind
-Loyal
-Good Listener
-Honest
-Shares some interests, but not all of them
-Gives me the respect I deserve
Silver Spoon taped her list right next to her mirror, where she'd always be able to see it. A knock sounded at the door, and Silver's mother walked in.
"Sweetie, your friends are at the door. The purple one says that you need to come with her RIGHT NOW, something about The Pony Bride getting made into a movie in August."
Silver jumped up. "Really?! Omigosh, YES, that's like my favorite book ever! Coming, guys!"
She ran out of her room in over to the front door, where Boysenberry and Sketch were waiting, enormous grins stretching across both their faces.
"Come on, Silver Spoon!" said Boysenberry. "The movie theatre is showing the trailer for it as we speak!!!" Come on, we got to hurry!"
"Let's go!" said Silver.
And the three ran off down the street, laughing and talking all the way. Silver couldn't wipe the smile off her face.
All is well.
The End
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I'd like to thank all my loyal readers. Without you guys, I probably never would have finished this story.
Thank you.
I'd also like to thank HaloEssence111, my editor and prereader. She is also the one who originally suggested the idea here.
Thank You.
To all those who have commented, liked this story, or otherwise supported it even when the chapters were months apart.
Thank You.
This story was meant to portray how a once-good friendship can quickly be poisoned with jut one little word- power. When one side of the relationship has all the power, and the other side has much, much less, you become trapped in a cycle, never feeling worth it, always feeling like you have to agree with everything, even if you think what's happening is wrong. This is the more vicious side of friendship, especially for girls.
I hope that I have successfully depicted this side of friendship. Most people prefer to gloss over this, never imagine that it could ever happen to them or anyone they know, or even just pretend that it doesn't exist.
That is not true.
I know. I've experienced this. I've lost more than one friend because they didn't think that my friendship was valuable enough to aid their climb up the social ladder. Before, it had gotten to the point where I didn't even try to make friends because it hurt too much when they eventually threw me away.
Now, I have found an amazing group of friends who always support me. Instead of just one or two people wielding all the power, we're equal. No one is the 'leader'. And it feels great.
Maybe Starlight Glimmer had a point. Friendship's no fun when you're the one who's been given all the grunt work, when it's always someone else who's the 'special' one. Like Silver learned, respect means everything. Friendship is just an empty word when there is no respect between you.
"Respect other's feelings. Even if it doesn't mean anything to you...
It could mean everything to them."
-Unknown
~Sparkler774