Strength
“Fire-eating!”
“Apple-bobbing!”
“Fire-eating!”
“Apple-bobbing!”
Apple Bloom looked up from her notes and heaved a sigh through the pencil held in her mouth. She was trying her best to concentrate on Miss Cheerilee’s math lesson, but was having trouble due to her ears being filled with Scootaloo’s and Sweetie Belle’s whispered argument about their next venture to earn cutie marks.
“Fire—”
“Girls!” Apple Bloom hissed, putting down her pencil and turning around in her seat. “Ah want my cutie mark just as bad y’all do, but Ah also wanna pass the math test tomorrow, so can we discuss this after school?”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other, then back at Apple Bloom, mouths open to argue back. They decided against it, however, and sat back silent in their seats.
“Thank ya,” said Apple Bloom, satisfied.
She spun back around, snatched up her pencil, and wrote quickly to catch up with Cheerilee’s lecture.
When the bell rang two hours later to signal the end of the school day, the Cutie Mark Crusaders gathered up their books and joined the throng making for the door. Scootaloo was still set on trying out fire-eating.
“I mean, can you imagine what a cutie mark for that would look like?” she said enthusiastically. “It’d probably be something cool like a torch, or a fireball, or...”
She went on, but Apple Bloom stopped listening. Fire-eating sounded, to her, less like a good cutie mark and more like a good way to wind up in the hospital. Then there was Sweetie Belle’s idea, which, while certainly safer, seemed destined to end in boredom, rather than un-blank flanks.
Apple Bloom was musing on her friends’ lack of good, safe ideas when she noticed something odd: Silver Spoon was standing alone by the corner of the schoolhouse. Diamond Tiara was nowhere in sight, and Silver Spoon looked distinctly uneasy, if not downright scared. Apple Bloom nudged Sweetie Belle in the ribs with a hoof.
Sweetie Belle was in the middle of postulating what an apple-bobbing cutie mark would look like. “Probably a picture of some kind of apple, like Big Macintosh or Applej—what is it, Apple Bloom?”
This, in turn, caught Scootaloo’s attention, and both of them looked expectantly at Apple Bloom.
“Look at Silver Spoon,” she told them.
“Ugh, do we have to?” said Scootaloo. “Her and Diamond Tiara make me sick.”
“That’s just it: Diamond Tiara ain’t with her,” Apple Bloom said.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both saw that this was true.
“Weird,” Scootaloo remarked.
“It is strange,” said Sweetie Belle. “Was Diamond Tiara home sick today?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “She did show-and-tell today, remember? Those ‘special’ shoes her dad bought her for 100 bits apiece.”
“So why aren’t they together?” Sweetie said.
“Beats me,” answered Apple Bloom. “Do y’all reckon we should go talk to her?”
“Why would we do a thing like that?” gasped Scootaloo, horrified.
Apple Bloom opened her mouth to answer, but was spared the trouble by Sweetie Belle.
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Sweetie said fervently.
“Who says?” said Scootaloo.
“Nopony says,” said Apple Bloom. “It’s just what good ponies do.”
“If you two haven’t noticed, Silver Spoon is not a good pony,” Scootaloo said.
“But that don’t mean we shouldn’t be,” Apple Bloom said.
Scootaloo scoffed. “Okay, you two go be ‘good ponies,’ and I’ll stay over here and watch. Deal?”
“Ah guess.”
So Scootaloo hung back while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle made their way across the schoolyard to Silver Spoon.
“Um, Silver Spoon?” Sweetie Belle said once they were near her.
As soon as she saw Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, Silver Spoon swapped the anxious expression they had noticed from a distance for one of extreme haughtiness.
“Like, what do you blank-flanks want?” she said, in a voice that was a little too snobbish to be entirely convincing.
It had worked on Sweetie Belle, however; she drew back, hurt. Apple Bloom, sensing a façade, stepped forward.
“Well, ya see, we noticed you lookin’ pretty blue from over there”—she gestured with her head to where Scootaloo was still standing—“and we were just wonderin’ what was the matter. Also, we noticed that Diamond Tiara wasn’t with ya, so we wanted to ask you if you wanted to come back to the clubhouse and study for the test tomorrow with us.”
Silver Spoon huffed. “Okay, first off, I am not sad, and even if I was, it’s none of your business. Second off, I don’t need to study with you stupid blank-flanks. Now why don’t you get out of my sight?”
Apple Bloom glared at her. Apple Bloom still sensed that Silver Spoon was hiding something, but didn’t see any way around the wall of snobbery.
“Let’s go, Sweetie Belle,” she said irritably, and they started to walk back. “That’s what you get for tryin’ to help somepony,” she added in a mutter loud enough for Silver Spoon to hear.
They walked back to Scootaloo, who, upon seeing Sweetie Belle downcast and Apple Bloom angry, knew she was right.
“Don’t say anything,” snapped Apple Bloom, just as Scootaloo opened her mouth. “Listen, do y’all wanna come over to the clubhouse and study?” she added more nicely.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo agreed. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle clambered into the wagon behind Scootaloo’s scooter, Scootaloo got behind the handlebars, and they set off for Sweetapple Acres.
When they arrived, they said a quick hello to Applejack, Granny Smith, and Big Mac, then took their schoolbags up to the Crusader clubhouse. They spread their books on the dusty wooden floor and began quizzing one another over math problems. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had to periodically regain Scootaloo’s attention when they found her staring out the window (hoping, no doubt, to catch a glimpse of Rainbow Dash). In this way, twenty minutes passed.
There was a knock at the door. Apple Bloom got up and let in Applejack.
“Hey, sis,” Applejack said warmly. She was carrying a tray of juice and cookies. “Ah brought y’all snacks and a friend.”
“A friend?” said Apple Bloom. “Who is it? Twist?”
Applejack shook her head.
“Featherweight?”
“Nope.”
“Well, who then?”
Her question was answered when the last pony she ever expected walked through the door behind Applejack. It was Silver Spoon.
Scootaloo couldn’t control herself. “What are you doing here?” she blurted.
“Well, Diamond Tiara and I usually study for tests together,” said Silver Spoon, in a voice that, to Apple Bloom’s relief, was now (almost) free of hauteur. “But she’s busy tonight, so I thought I would study here.”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exchanged a skeptical glance.
Apple Bloom, however, saw a chance to find out if her hunch about a ruse was correct, and said, “Sure, come on in.”
Sweetie and Scootaloo immediately pulled her aside.
“Apple Bloom, what the hay are you doing?” Scootaloo whispered.
“Silver Spoon ain’t telling us something,” Apple Bloom replied.
“What do you mean?” said Sweetie Belle quietly.
“Ah mean she’s hidin’ something, and Ah wanna find out what.”
Scootaloo sighed. “Is this another one of those ‘good pony’ things?”
“Kinda,” said Apple Bloom.
“Fine.”
The trio went back over to Silver Spoon.
“Have a seat,” Apple Bloom said warmly. “We was just goin’ over long division.”
Silver Spoon sat down and all the fillies resumed studying. They had been at it for five minutes when Apple Bloom decided to take a stab at Silver Spoon’s secret.
“So why ain’t you hanging around with Diamond Tiara?”
“I told you, she’s busy,” said Silver Spoon defensively.
“Doing what?” said Apple Bloom.
“I don’t know,” Silver Spoon said. “She doesn’t, like, tell me everything.” Then she added in an undertone, “...Anymore.”
All three Cutie Mark Crusaders shot each other silent, surprised looks.
“What do you mean, ‘anymore’?” asked Apple Bloom, trying to keep her voice quiet and soothing, yet practically bursting with the feeling that she was at last close to an answer.
“Nothing,” said Silver Spoon.
“No, no,” said Scootaloo, joining in. “You had to mean something.”
Silver Spoon looked all around, then, to the Crusaders’ surprise, a tear rolled down her face.
Apple Bloom took a step back. “Oh, no, Silver Spoon, we’re sorry,” she said hastily. “We didn’t mean to make ya cry.”
“W-What’s wrong?” said Sweetie Belle anxiously.
“You don’t have to answer that,” added Scootaloo, afraid further questioning might release more tears.
Silver Spoon sniffed and shook her head. “No—I—it’s okay,” she sobbed. “You h-have been so nice to me, and I’m always so mean. M-Maybe I should tell you.”
Silver Spoon took a deep, shuddering breath. “Diamond Tiara isn’t my friend anymore.”
“Well... why not?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Did you have a fight?” said Scootaloo.
Silver Spoon shook her head. “It w-w-wasn’t anything like that.”
“Then what happened?” said Sweetie Belle.
“I don’t really know,” Silver Spoon answered. “We just, like, drifted apart. At first, we just weren’t talking as much. Then, we only spent time together once or twice a week, instead of every day like before. And now, she just ignores me. It’s really bad, and I miss her a lot.”
At the end of her speech, she dissolved into fresh tears.
There was silence for a few moments, then Apple Bloom spoke again.
“Well... Ah mean...” she began hesitantly, trying to choose her words carefully in order to not upset Silver Spoon further, “Diamond Tiara was... kinda... not very nice, wasn’t she?”
“But she was my f-friend.”
“Ah know, Ah know. But you can make new friends.”
“Like who?” said Silver Spoon.
“Like us,” said Apple Bloom. “Me an’ Sweetie an’ Scoot would love to be your friends, if you’d stop callin’ us ‘blank-flanks’ all the time.”
“Really?” said Silver Spoon tearfully.
The Crusaders all nodded (Scootaloo after several persistent pokes from the others).
Silver Spoon hesitated for a moment, sniffling and wiping her eyes.
Then she said, “I’d really like new friends.”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders cheered, and all four fillies shared a hoof-bump. Then, Sweetie Belle propositioned a sleepover, which was met with immediate enthusiasm. They obtained permission from everypony’s parents and decided to sleep in the clubhouse.
After a few more hours spent studying, eating Granny Smith’s scrumptious special-recipe caramel apples, and playing Pin the Tail on the Pony and Truth or Dare, the fillies curled up for sleep in four spare sleeping bags.
Apple Bloom lay awake, staring at a patch of starry sky visible outside the window, listening to the deep, calm breathing of her companions. Her mind raced with thoughts of what had happened to Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. One question rose to the surface: what if that happened to the Crusaders? What if, once they got their cutie marks, the bond uniting them disappeared and life swept them away from each other?
“Apple Bloom, are you awake?”
Apple Bloom jumped slightly at the sound of Sweetie Belle’s voice, but then responded, “Yes.”
“Me too,” said Sweetie, “I can’t stop thinking about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Do you think that could ever happen to us?”
Apple Bloom noticed that Sweetie Belle sounded worried, and didn’t have the heart to further burden her friend by telling her that she herself had just been thinking about the exact same thing.
“No, Sweetie Belle, Ah don’t think it could.”
“Good. That makes me feel better. Good night, Apple Bloom.”
“Night.”
Apple Bloom did not immediately go to sleep, but lay there, still thinking. Strangely, this conversation had made her feel better, too. She mulled it over a little more and finally came to the conclusion that there were two types of friendships: weak and strong. Weak friendships came and went, but strong friendships lasted a lifetime. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had a weak friendship; the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ friendship was as strong as Big Macintosh. That was the strongest thing Apple Bloom could think of, and she fell asleep peacefully a short while later.