"Alright, so," Scootaloo said, setting a second empty pizza box aside and wiping her mouth with the back of a hoof. "If you've never played a real board game before, 'Gates of Tartarus' is a pretty good introduction."

"A 'real' board game, huh?" Silver Spoon said, raising an eyebrow at her. The silver pony had only managed to eat half of a pizza before she'd been filled to bursting by the preposterous morass of toppings that constituted Scootaloo's favorite. The rest of her pie was still sitting in the half-open box on the floor in front of her. Even though she still had a third pizza of her own to finish, Scootaloo was already casting predatory glances at the leftovers. Silver Spoon was duly impressed. She'd heard--and occasionally seen--that pegasi had voracious, almost impossible appetites, and Scootaloo was no exception. She was already in the process of selecting another piece to devastate when she rolled her eyes at Silver Spoon's comment.

"You know, something besides checkers, chess...all those old mare's games." She had already stuffed the entirety of the slice in her mouth before the implication of what she'd just said struck her. Her eyes grew wide and she sputtered incomprehensibly through a mouthful of vegetables and cheese. "'Ot 'at 'oo're a' ol' 'are, o' 'ourse!"

Silver Spoon laughed as Sweetie Belle made a face at the pegasus. "Gross, Scootaloo. Swallow before you try to get your hoof out of your mouth next time."

Scootaloo swallowed hard, most of the piece still unchewed. "I just mean...you know...those are just kind of...old fashioned games," she finished meekly, her cheeks turning a light pink.

Silver Spoon smirked at her. "So I'm not an old mare, I'm just old fashioned?" She raised an eyebrow at Apple Bloom. "Is that any better?"

Apple Bloom grinned. "Ah dunno. Sounds pretty much the same t' me."

"Ugh, forget you girls," Scootaloo huffed. "You know what I mean. It's just...less confusing. Less...complex. I'm sure you can handle complexity," she said, forestalling any further ribbing with a scathing look at Silver Spoon. "But this'll give you an idea of how the rest of the games we like to play work."

Silver Spoon nodded. "Alright, whatever you think is best."

Scootaloo nodded at Sweetie Belle, and the unicorn's horn ignited into a mint-green aura that enveloped a small box near the top of the pile and slid it out of the stack. The rest of the boxes reorganized themselves with the same green glow as 'Gates of Tartarus' flew across the room, shedding its lid as it settled to the floor. Inside, Silver Spoon was surprised to see a vast array of small figurines of various shapes and sizes, three decks of cards, and a hoofful of dice and small cardboard markers. Sweetie Belle was already removing some of the figures and cards and laying them out next to the colorful game board as Scootaloo started explaining the game. "Right, so. The basic idea is that Cerberus has gone missing, and we have to keep the prisoners of Tartarus from getting out until he comes back. We each pick a princess to play, and each princess has special skills that you can use to do that."

Silver Spoon glanced down at the collection of figurines next to the board. Most of them were small sculptures of the infamous denizens of Tartarus--including, she recognized with a bone-chilling start, Tirek--but four of them were faithful reproductions of the princesses, accurate to the most minute detail, except...

"Hey Scootaloo," she interrupted, leaning forward to examine the piece more carefully. "Why is Princess Cadance blue?" Then she realized that the alicorn's mane was also the wrong color. Several wrong colors, in fact. Almost as if...

Scootaloo's eyes widened suddenly, and she reached out and snatched the figure up from the floor. "Oh, no reason! Just...just a...mistake. You know. They must've painted her wrong at the factory...you know how--"

"Oh please," Apple Bloom said, rolling her eyes. She smirked at Silver Spoon. "It's exactly what it looks like, Silver Spoon." She looked at the piece in Scootaloo's hooves.

The pegasus pursed her lips and sighed. "Alright, alright...I...might have painted her myself...to look like..." She looked away and mumbled at the sofa. "Rainbow Dash."

Silver Spoon suddenly found herself overwhelmed by a fit of giggling, and she put her hooves to her mouth to stifle it. Scootaloo blushed crimson. "Hey, I was just a filly, alright?"

Sweetie Belle smirked, still using her magic to arrange the pieces. "Scootaloo, you got this game last year."

Scootaloo shot a withering glare in the unicorn's direction, but Silver Spoon simply smiled. "Don't worry about it, Scootaloo. I think it's neat that you look up to her so much."

"Really?" Scootaloo asked, blinking.

Silver Spoon nodded. "Yeah. I mean, why shouldn't you? She is an Element of Harmony, not to mention a crazy good flier, and even though she's totally rich and famous and stuff, she still comes back to hang out with you."

Scootaloo smiled, looking at the tiny painted pony in her hooves. "Yeah, she is pretty cool."

She shook her head. "I wish I had somepony like that to look up to. You girls are all pretty lucky, honestly; you've got Rainbow Dash, and you two have your big sisters..." She sighed heavily. "All I've ever had was Diamond Tiara."

There was an awkward silence, punctuated only by the quiet swish of Sweetie Belle's magic, and the sound of the game assembling itself. Then Scootaloo snorted and said, "Forget her. You've got us now, and that's all you need."

Silver Spoon blushed and smiled shyly. "Yeah, I know. Thanks, Scootaloo. I appreciate that."

Scootaloo beamed. "No problem. Now," she started again, holding up the blue Cadance figurine, "like I said, we each pick a princess to play. Normally we all play the same princess every time, but since this is your first time playing, I thought we might let you decide who you wanted to be." She looked over at the other Crusaders. "Is that alright, girls?"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom exchanged a look; Sweetie Belle shrugged and said, "Sure. I guess it might be interesting to try a different princess for once."

Silver Spoon watched Scootaloo gingerly holding the Cadance between her hooves. The paint job was extremely well done; all the tiny nooks between her feathers and the fluting of her horn were carefully colored in, leaving no trace of the Princess of Love's pink coat. Even her eyes, normally a dusty purple color, had been expertly redone in Rainbow Dash's striking magenta. Something about the figurine was slightly off, though. Silver Spoon examined it from a distance, puzzling over the oddity until she realized what it was. "Scootaloo, did you...did you reshape her mane and tail?"

"Oh," Scootaloo blushed and looked down at the princess piece. "Uh...yeah. I mean," she added quickly, "Rainbow's mane and tail aren't long and puffy like Princess Cadance's, they're short and straight and kinda rough..."

Silver Spoon nodded. "Yeah, I know. I'm just impressed, that's all. It's a lot of effort for a game. You must really like playing as Rainbow Dash, huh?"

"Wait 'til she does th' voice..." Apple Bloom murmured with a smirk. Scootaloo shot her a look.

The silver filly giggled. "Well, I don't want to upset the natural order of things. If you girls usually play the same character, I'll just take whoever's left. Which princess do you not play with?"

The Crusaders all answered at once. "Celestia."

Silver Spoon blinked. "Really? Who do you play, then?"

"Well, obviously I play with Princess Da--er, Cadance," Scootaloo said.

Sweetie Belle levitated a midnight blue pawn over in front of her. "I play Princess Luna."

"And Ah always play Princess Twilight," Apple Bloom finished, retrieving the tiny lavender alicorn and leaving the largest piece, the regally posed Princess Celestia, sitting forlornly beside the game board.

Silver Spoon took the figurine and examined it. It was denser than she'd expected, more like a fine chess piece than a plastic toy. The paint was carefully applied, the details so pristine and accurate that the tiny toy may as well have been the Solar Princess herself in miniature. It also showed no signs of wear, indicating that this particular piece probably had never been played with before. "So, what sort of special skill does Princess Celestia have?"

Scootaloo grunted. "Light and time control."

Silver Spoon's eyes widened. "That sounds...kind of powerful."

Scootaloo shrugged. "It's alright. I mean, it doesn't do much for her, because her fighting stats are all really weak, so extra turns and time don't help her much. She's mostly a support character; she makes our pieces better."

"Interesting," the silver pony mused. "So...what do the other princesses do?"

"Well, Luna can create and control darkness, shapeshift and sneak," Sweetie Belle said, grinning from behind the little blue figure in her hoof.

"An' Twilight knows all the bad guys' weaknesses, plus she can call up the Elements o' Harmony." Apple Bloom held the Twilight pawn reverently.

Scootaloo smiled down at the little blue Cadance between her hooves. "Princess Cadance isn't too special on her own, so we kind of made up some powers for her to...well, you know..."

Silver Spoon smiled and said, "To make her more like Rainbow Dash?"

Scootaloo nodded. "She's really fast and she can make a sonic rainboom, but she's not too good at fighting unless she's next to another pony. See, 'cuz--"

"Because she's the Element of Loyalty." Silver Spoon interrupted, nodding. "I get it."

"Uh...yeah," Scootaloo said, eyes wide. "Yeah, that's right. How did you...?"

Silver Spoon rolled her eyes. "Scootaloo, just because I'm not friends or sisters with the Elements doesn't mean I don't know anything about them. Heck, I bet even Di could tell you who they all are. They're just a little famous, you know," she said dryly.

"Hah, right..." Scootaloo rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "I guess I hadn't really thought about that."

Silver Spoon glanced at the little blue princess in Scootaloo's hooves. "What could Princess Cadance do?"

Scootaloo shrugged. "She was another support piece, like Celestia. Except instead of buffing the other princesses' fighting skills, she was mostly about protection, healing...you know, the stuff the real Princess Cadance does."

"Buffing?" Silver Spoon repeated the unfamiliar word, looking down at the white alicorn in front of her.

Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah. Just game speak for making someone stronger. You'll see what it looks like when you see what Celestia can do."

"Alright, then," Silver Spoon said. "How do we play?"

The game was relatively straightforward. Although the initial rules explanation took a few minutes and the various intricacies required some examples for Silver Spoon to really grasp the nuances, she found that after a few rounds the decisions and moves came quickly and with relative ease.

True to Scootaloo's promise, Celestia's repertoire of spells was almost entirely based around strengthening the other pieces; Silver Spoon found herself spending most of the early game simply moving carefully around the board, protecting her relatively defenseless character from the more dangerous enemies and allowing the more elusive Luna and the more robust Twilight to actually engage them in open conflict.

Eventually, they fell into a smooth, almost balletic rhythm of moving, spell casting, and fighting that didn't require much planning or discussion, and the conversation began to move outside the immediate game.

"So," Silver Spoon said, "why did you pick Cadance to repaint?" She looked up at Scootaloo, who was nudging her blue figurine across the board and next to Apple Bloom's beleaguered Twilight. "Why not use Twilight? I mean, they're a lot closer to the same size, and their mane and tail are more alike."

"'Precision Hailstorm'," Scootaloo said, indicating one of her character's spells to cast. She glanced over at Silver Spoon as she collected and shook a hoof full of dice. "Because Apple Bloom wouldn't let me. And besides, I like Princess Twilight." She scattered the dice across the board and grumbled at the numbers they displayed. "Lessee...put it all on Tirek, I guess. For all the good that'll do..."

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow at her. "Tirek? Why not put a few on each a' the Legion Fiends, try and cut them down to size?"

"'Cuz Tirek's way more dangerous in the late game, especially playing with four."

"We're not in th' late game yet, Scootaloo, and if y'all don't get a few of those Fiends offa me soon, we won't get there."

Silver Spoon glanced at the cards in her hooves. "Uh, maybe I could--"

Scootaloo ignored her, still scowling at Apple Bloom. "Who says I won't? You've still got like two turns before they really hurt you, and Sweetie Belle will be here in a sec anyway."

Silver Spoon tried again. "What about--"

"Yeah, so long as we don't pull a 'Magic Surge' card on the calamity deck on my turn," Sweetie Belle argued, still effortlessly speaking over her.

"There's only three of them in there. We're fine."

"There's four of 'em, Scootaloo, an' we haven't pulled one yet. I think we're due for--"

"Hey!" Silver Spoon snapped, slamming a hoof into the sofa and silencing the bickering trio. The Crusaders all stared at her in surprise and she immediately blushed, her ears pinning themselves back on her skull. "I, uh...sorry, I just..." She cleared her throat, trying to smooth out the shakiness in her voice. "I...have a spell. That might help." She held up a card and said, "'Blinding Reflection'. It...it duplicates a spell effect for each ally near the caster." Her cheeks warmed as she continued. "I figured...if we needed to, we could just...do that." When the other fillies didn't immediately respond, Silver Spoon cringed back against the cushion and murmured, "Or not. I just thought...I'm sorry, I'll shut up now." She stared at the cards between her hooves, a sick shame settling in her stomach.

"No, no!" Scootaloo said, shaking her head. "That's a good idea. I just didn't even know Princess Celestia had a spell like that." She reached out and gently touched Silver Spoon's hoof. The silver pony looked up from behind her bangs to see a warm smile on the pegasus' face. "You don't need to be afraid to speak up, Silver Spoon. We're not gonna be mad at you for, you know, actually playing with us."

Silver Spoon smiled tentatively. "Alright...it's just...I tried to say something, and you three weren't listening, so I thought--"

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, with this group you might have to speak up a little bit to be heard. I don't know if you noticed, but we're kinda loud."

"An' stubborn," Apple Bloom added.

"And we're used to yelling over each other," Scootaloo finished with a wry smirk. "So, you know, just feel free to yell back if you have to. We won't be offended."

Silver Spoon giggled. "I'll do my best. I'm not really much of a 'yeller'."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "That won' do. Yer gonna hafta learn to holler if yer gonna be our friend. Otherwise we're jus' gonna forget yer even here."

"Gosh, I wonder what that would feel like." The silver filly rolled her eyes.

Scootaloo waved a hoof dismissively. "Yeah, well, I doubt that'll be a problem," she said, shooting Silver Spoon a cool half-smile. "You're pretty unforgettable if you ask me."

Silver Spoon's cheeks flushed crimson as a bizarre and unfamiliar swooping sensation sailed through her chest. Scootaloo's compliment was the most obvious of flattery, but it still set her heart fluttering and forced a silly smile onto her face. She looked away, staring at the floor and murmuring, "Yeah, right."

"No, really," Scootaloo insisted. "You're awesome, remember? I already told you that the other day."

The blush deepened, and Silver Spoon smiled tentatively back. "Thanks, Scootaloo."

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes so hard her head actually moved with them. "Ugh, why don' you just kiss her already, Scootaloo?"

"Ew! Don't be gross, Apple Bloom!" Sweetie Belle's voice cracked on the first syllable, and her face twisted into a horrified grimace.

The outburst was a welcome cover as Silver Spoon and Scootaloo had both perked up, their eyes wide and alarmed as they glanced at one another and immediately looked away. Silver Spoon's heart had skipped a hoofful of beats and was now hammering frantically in her chest. The rumors...Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash...Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle... Diamond Tiara's voice echoed in her head from across the years. "She's a fillyfooler, you know that. Why else would she hang out with ponies like them?" She risked another glance at Scootaloo. The pegasus was staring through her cards, eyes unfocused. Her cheeks were a dark orange color, indicating a deep blush beneath the fur. Her tail was flipping anxiously and her lips were pressed tightly together as if she were afraid they might act on Apple Bloom's suggestion all on their own.

Horror and curious fascination thrilled through Silver Spoon in equal measure as her imagination constructed a parallel universe where Scootaloo took Apple Bloom's suggestion. Where the pegasus slinked across the couch, her broad, beautiful wings spread wide, a sly, predatory smirk on her face. Where she pressed herself firmly against Silver Spoon's body, the heat and strong, musky scent of her fur washing over her. She was startled and a bit dismayed to find this fantasy world wasn't altogether disagreeable. Scootaloo was, after all, a magnificent specimen of a pegasus, female or not, and something in her demeanor, her general attitude of unshakeable confidence, was strangely fascinating to Silver Spoon, who had never exactly suffered from an overabundance of self-respect.

An icy jolt of hesitant curiosity and something so close to desire it was terrifying arced through Silver Spoon. She knew these feelings. She remembered these thoughts, this heady, dizzy rush. The memories were clear and vivid, even years later. Please...please don't push me away... Bitterly, she shut them out. A past that long lost ought to remain lost. A different time, a different life. A different Silver Spoon.

"Yeah, Apple Bloom." Scootaloo's voice dragged Silver Spoon out of her reverie, her tone shifting from quavering to firm over the three word sentence. "Don't be ridiculous. It's just a compliment." She pulled a tentative smirk onto her face. "Just because no one's ever said it to you doesn't mean that it's weird."

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow at her, apparently unfazed by the snide remark. "It's a little weird, Scoot. Not that ya ain't awesome 'r nothin', Spoon," she added, glancing at Silver Spoon. "But..."

Silver Spoon nodded hastily, relieved that both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were dismissing the scenario outright. "No, I get it. And it's alright, Scootaloo, I know what you meant. And I appreciate it." She smiled at Scootaloo. The pegasus smiled back, and some of the awkward tension seemed to bleed away from between them. Scootaloo's tail ceased its agitated flailing and settled back to the couch, the long magenta hair pooling across both of their hind legs. Silver Spoon tried to ignore it.

"An-y-way," Sweetie Belle said, calling their attention back to the game at hoof. "Silver Spoon, you had a spell to play. Scootaloo, stop being an awkward doofus."

Scootaloo bristled, but Silver Spoon just giggled. "Right. Here," she said, tossing the card down to the side of the board. "'Blinding Reflection'. Take out a couple of those Fiends before they defeat Twilight and we have to listen to Apple Bloom whine about it for an hour."

"Hah hah," Apple Bloom drawled dryly. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo just laughed.

The game resumed, and Silver Spoon continued the conversation she'd left off moments before. "Hey, Apple Bloom?"

The earth pony glanced sideways at her. "Yeah?"

"Why wouldn't you let Scootaloo paint Twilight, but Cadance is okay?"

Apple Bloom shrugged. "'Cuz Ah like Twilight. An' Ah don' know that much about Princess Cadance."

"Weren't you all flower girls at her wedding, though?"

"Yeah, but that doesn' mean we're close. That was mostly a favor fer Twilight."

"A favor for...Twilight?" Silver Spoon asked, puzzled.

She nodded. "Yeah. Twilight's brother asked her if she could find some flower girls, 'cuz Princess Cadance doesn' have a whole lot of fam'ly, an' nopony was exactly 'flower girl' age."

"Wow..." Silver Spoon breathed.

Apple Bloom shrugged. "It was no big deal, hones'ly. Twilight an' I go back a ways, an' it was real nice of her to ask."

"Really? Like...how far 'back'?"

"Well," Apple Bloom said, "the firs' place she came when she got to Ponyville was Sweet Apple Acres, and Ah was there, so...since she's lived in town, really. An' of course she used to spend a lot of time down at the farm 'cuz she an' mah sister are good friends, so she an' Ah got to talk a bit. She's real nice, ya know. Friendly an' helpful an' all. Even tried to help me get mah cutie mark with her magic." She nudged her Twilight figurine with a smile. "Anyway, Ah guess Ah always thought she'd make a pretty good princess. Jus' seemed right. So she's mah favorite, obviously."

"That makes sense," Silver Spoon said, nodding. She turned to Sweetie Belle. "So I guess it was just down to Celestia or Luna for you, then?"

"I guess?" Sweetie Belle shrugged. "It was never really a contest, anyway."

"Oh? Why not?"

Sweetie Belle leaned on a hoof, smiling down at the little Luna on the game board. "Luna's helped me out a lot. Saved me from myself a few times, even. She's always been my favorite Princess, and she's a good friend, too. Picking her to play was the easiest decision I've ever made."

Silver Spoon didn't speak for a few seconds. "Princess Luna, keeper of the night, one quarter of the entire ruling body of Equestria, has helped you out personally?"

Sweetie Belle shrugged and nodded. "Sure. She visits me in my dreams from time to time. If I have a problem, I'll talk to her about it, and she's always really nice and eager to help."

"Princess Luna," Silver Spoon repeated. "Princess Luna visits you in your dreams."

"I know that sounds like I just dream about the Princess all the time, but I've actually talked to her in person a few times and she always remembers what we discussed in my dreams, so I know she's actually doing it on purpose."

"No, that's...I believe you, it's just..." The earth pony shook her head slowly. "You say that like it's something that everypony gets to do. Like everypony's met Princess Luna in their dreams and just...chatted."

The Crusaders exchanged a series of wide-eyed glances. Silver Spoon blinked. "Wait, you're kidding. All three of you have...?"

"Well..." Scootaloo rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "Back when I was still trying to impress Rainbow Dash and be 'cool' all the time, I had a bunch of really awful nightmares. Princess Luna eventually showed up in a couple of my dreams to talk to me."

Silver Spoon shook her head in disbelief. "And you?" she asked Apple Bloom.

The yellow filly shrugged. "Sure. Ah met her in a dream once. It was no big deal; Ah needed somepony to talk to, an' she knew about it, so we talked."

"So, you needed somepony to talk to, and Princess Luna just showed up, huh?" Silver Spoon felt an acrid bitterness in her throat creeping into her words, and she cringed inwardly at how cold the question sounded.

Apple Bloom noticed. Raising an eyebrow, she said, "Well, yeah. Ah mean, she is the Princess of the Night. It's sort of her whole job to keep an eye on everypony's dreams, right?"

"I wouldn't know," Silver Spoon said darkly. "I've never met her, in person or in a dream."

"Really? That's too bad. She's really nice," Sweetie Belle chirruped obliviously.

Silver Spoon looked down at the sofa beneath her. "I bet. I wish I'd had a chance to find out."

"Would you like to?" Sweetie Belle asked, tilting her head to the side, her eyes wide and curious. "I can always ask next time I see her."

The bitter gloom dissipated, shocked away by the nonchalant offer. "Wait, what?"

"Would you like to meet Princess Luna?" the unicorn repeated. "I'll talk to her next time I see her in a dream, and see if she can go visit yours instead."

Silver Spoon shook her head, flustered. "I...no, I couldn't...you don't need to do that."

"It's no trouble, really," Sweetie Belle continued. "I get to see her plenty, and you seem like you'd really like to meet her."

"It's okay, really." Silver Spoon's cheeks burned as the shame of letting herself be offended by missing out on such an exclusive opportunity displaced whatever desire she may have had to experience it.

Of course the Princess of the Night made time to visit the younger sisters of two of the Elements of Harmony. She owed her safe return from exile to them; the least she could do in return was watch over their siblings' dreams. And while Scootaloo may not have been related directly to an Element, there was no doubt she and Rainbow Dash were extremely close. Silver Spoon knew the older mare had taken to calling Scootaloo her 'little sis' from time to time; surely Luna was keeping watch over Scootaloo as well.

To expect that somehow Princess Luna would waste time visiting her dreams just because she took the time to visit the Crusaders' was foalish in the extreme. It was tantamount to Diamond Tiara's ridiculous and ill-fated attempt to horn in on the Crusaders' private tutoring sessions with Princess Twilight some years ago, and yet here Silver Spoon was, moping and sulking about not getting to talk to the pony who raised the moon every night, who protected all of Equestria from the creatures of darkness and nightmare, who surely had better things to do with her time than foalsit. Now Sweetie Belle was offering to specifically request that Princess Luna make a special effort to meet her. It was a pointless and selfish suggestion, and she knew that Princess Luna would think so, too.

Apparently Sweetie Belle didn't see it that way. "Well, I'm gonna ask anyway. She won't stay long if you don't want her to, but I think she'd really like to meet you. Heck, maybe I'll see her tonight." She grinned. "So don't be too surprised if she finds her way into your dreams later."

Silver Spoon sighed, recognizing defeat. "Alright, if you think it's a good idea. I still don't know if she'd really want to waste time on somepony like me."

"Ugh, this again?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Come on, Silver Spoon, you really gotta stop letting Diamond Tiara get inside your head like that."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Scootaloo said, pointing a hoof at her, "that this whole 'I'm not worthy, woe is me' thing she's got you believing is horseshit. You keep saying things like 'Oh, Luna would never want to meet somepony like me,' but speaking as somepony who's actually met both of you, I think she'd be perfectly happy to meet you."

"But--"

"But nothing," the pegasus continued, still stabbing the hoof in her direction. "Look, Spoon, I totally get that being DT's nag probably wasn't much fun, and I know she probably told you a lot of stuff about yourself that wasn't true, and now you believe it yourself. That sucks." Silver Spoon blushed and looked down at the sofa between them. "But we're not like that, alright? Well, not anymore, anyway." Scootaloo corrected herself, and the other two Crusaders averted their eyes sheepishly. "We're not gonna say mean stuff just for kicks, we're not gonna talk about you behind your back, and we're definitely not gonna let you talk bad about yourself, either." She smirked. "If we're gonna make fun of you, we're gonna do it to your face, and we're gonna expect you to do it back so we can all laugh about it together, got it?"

Silver Spoon smiled despite the tightness in her stomach. A grey cloud of guilt had slowly collected over her as Scootaloo had talked, recalling all of the dozens of times she had shied away from Diamond Tiara's cruel asides. Every time, the pink pony had spoken with such nonchalance that Silver Spoon had just assumed that she was saying things everypony already knew. Careless barbs about her appearance, her grades, even her personality, tossed about with such casual ease that they had slowly worn away her own self-image until she was left with...what? Who was she now? Diamond Tiara's nag...

Not anymore, she thought. The smiled broadened. "Alright, Scootaloo, you win. I'll...I'll try, okay? Just...don't be surprised if it takes a while."

"We won' be," Apple Bloom said, cutting off Scootaloo's spirited retort. "You an' Tiara have been friends for a long time. It's bound to take awhile to recover from that."

"Yeah..." Silver Spoon said quietly. "Actually, it didn't really start to get bad until a couple years ago..."

"What, it was okay before then?" Scootaloo sneered.

She shook her head. "No, it wasn't the same before. She wasn't mean to me, like, at all. She was actually really sweet, helpful, friendly..."

"Diamond Tiara?" Sweetie Belle squeaked in disbelief.

Silver Spoon nodded. "I know. She was a mule to everypony else, but to me she was just, you know...a friend. She listened when I talked, we hung out and had fun together...we were best friends, and I'm not just saying that. Then, just a couple years ago, everything started to get weird. She got really uptight, and she started to treat me like everypony else. Worse, even. Honestly, I'm not sure what changed." Silver Spoon absently reflected on the irony of using the word 'honestly' immediately before lying through her teeth, but she knew that questions she couldn't answer would follow if she didn't.

In any event, the Crusaders seemed to let the issue drop. "Well, her loss," Scootaloo said with a grin. "Sucks to be her, not to know a good thing when she has it."

Silver Spoon blushed and smiled. "Heh...if you say so."

"I do."

"Well," Apple Bloom said, slumping back into her beanbag chair. "That was close."

"Too close," Scootaloo agreed. "I told you Tirek was dangerous in the late game."

"It wouldn'a mattered if you'd gotten those Fiends offa me sooner."

"We're just lucky Silver Spoon knows how to play her character so well." Sweetie Belle slowly shook her head. "Major points to Celestia in those last three rounds."

Silver Spoon smiled, blushing lightly. "Thanks. It was nothing, really. I just wish I could have been more...active, I guess. You guys looked like you really needed help."

"You helped plenty," Scootaloo said, giving her an unquestionably rakish grin. The blush intensified, and she looked away. Silver Spoon wasn't entirely sure why, but over the course of the evening she had slowly begun to sense that Scootaloo was being far more attentive and genial than was strictly necessary. Perhaps it was simply because she was trying her best to be friendly, this being the first time she and the Crusaders had spent any substantial length of time together. Obviously she would be putting extra effort into making Silver Spoon feel welcome and appreciated.

But there was more to it than that. The raffish pegasus was quick to tease her other friends, but tentative and even defensive about teasing Silver Spoon. A few times, she had bristled at the other Crusaders for making a joke at Silver Spoon's expense. While she appreciated the gesture, Silver Spoon somehow felt slightly left out of the group dynamic, which was largely based around general deprecation and a shared understanding of each other's shortcomings. Even Scootaloo's sneering aside about Sweetie Belle's tendency towards obliviousness was met with raucous laughter by all, including the unicorn herself.

Silver Spoon had sort of expected similar treatment, and had prepared herself to be the butt of some jokes--even reminding herself from time to time that it was all in good fun--but it proved to be unnecessary. Even the most innocuous of comments had earned Apple Bloom a glare from Scootaloo so fierce that it momentarily stopped the conversation cold. Silver Spoon had been quick to dismiss it as fair play, but that hadn't seemed to soften Scootaloo's wariness at all.

It occurred to her that Scootaloo may have simply been trying to make up for all the times she and her friends had teased Silver Spoon with real malice, but as far as Silver Spoon was concerned it was hardly necessary. The Crusaders had already proven they could be perfectly kind and friendly if given a chance. She was already elated to have gotten the opportunity to spend an evening just interacting with them in their own environment, and even though she still felt like something of an outsider--they had only just befriended her, after all--it was clear that this was a circle she desperately wanted to be a part of.

"Hey Silver Spoon." Apple Bloom suddenly addressed her as Sweetie Belle collected and stowed the various components of the game back in its box. "Ah been meanin' to ask, 'cuz we've all been wonderin'...well, basically ferever. How'd y'all get yer cutie mark? That is, if'n ya don' mind me askin'."

Silver Spoon shrugged. "Not really. It's a pretty boring story, actually."

"Most of them are," Sweetie Belle said with a smirk. "But we've been trying to figure it out basically ever since you and Tiara started lording them over us, and the best we could ever come up with is that you were just really good at polishing flatware."

The silly filly giggled. "Well, the truth isn't a whole lot less ridiculous, honestly."

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow at her. "Ridiculous? If what you already told me about it is true, you're a long way from 'ridiculous', you know."

"Wait, she already told you about it?" Sweetie Belle squeaked indignantly. "And you didn't mention it to us?"

"Of course not. She only told me like three days ago, and it's not like we talk about her butt that often."

"It really isn't that big a deal," Silver Spoon said, her cheeks coloring lightly at the mention of her backside. "It's just...not really a big part of my life, so it doesn't come up much."

"So what's it mean?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well, my special talent is metalwork. My father's is, too, but where he's got a silver anvil and ball-peen hammer, because he does mostly big projects and works with lots of material at once, I got a spoon because I'm a lot better with really small, really delicate stuff, like jewelry and yes, Apple Bloom, even flatware." She grinned at the earth pony.

"That's pretty neat," Sweetie Belle said. "You can really make silver jewelry and stuff?"

Silver Spoon nodded. "Honestly, I can make jewelry out of any metal. I just like working in silver the most. It's really pretty, and it works easily. Not as easily as gold, but I don't like gold much; it's too soft, and honestly, it's too popular." She rolled her eyes. "Everypony has a gold necklace or gold earrings or something, but silver jewelry is a lot less common."

"Alright, Ah have to ask, 'cuz Ah know what it's like to work on small stuff with just yer hooves..."

"Tools," Silver Spoon said. "The metalworking industry has a lot of Earth ponies in it because we're, well...'Earth' ponies, so there are a bunch of specialty tools specifically designed to let you work on small projects without magic."

"Cool!" Sweetie Belle gushed. "So did you make your necklace, then?"

Silver Spoon's stomach tightened horribly as she brought a hoof to her neck, running the tip across the delicate pearls hanging there. "Oh, um...no. This...used to be my mother's. I...I used to ask her to borrow it all the time, so she eventually just...gave it to me." She swallowed hard, barely managing to keep the thickness in her throat from seeping into her words.

"Ah, okay." Sweetie Belle nodded, apparently unaware that anything was wrong. "Well it's really pretty."

Silver Spoon blushed and smiled, still resisting the lump rising in the back of her throat. "Thanks. My mother loved jewelry, especially...especially silver. She was really excited when I got my cutie mark."

The specific construction of her comment did not go unnoticed. The other three fillies exchanged uneasy looks, and Scootaloo said, "Uh...she 'loved' jewelry?"

Silver Spoon nodded morosely. "Yeah. She...she died. Ten years ago."

"Oh...oh Silver Spoon, I'm so sorry..." Sweetie Belle whispered.

"Yeah, me too," Apple Bloom said solemnly. "Ah cain't say Ah know jus' how ya feel, but..."

Silver Spoon nodded. "I know. Thanks." She glanced across the sofa at Scootaloo, expecting further condolences, but the pegasus didn't speak. Instead, she simply sat in dumbfounded silence, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide.

"Ten years ago..." Sweetie Belle mused. "So when you took that month off from school...?" she prompted.

Silver Spoon nodded. "That's why."

"What happened? Ow!" Sweetie Belle glared at Apple Bloom, who had just stabbed her in the side with a hoof.

"You don't jus' ask somepony how their mother died, Sweetie Belle!" the yellow filly scolded her. "What the hay is wrong with you?"

Silver Spoon couldn't help but smile at the flighty unicorn's innocent curiosity. "It's alright, Apple Bloom. She was sick. Epileptic."

Sweetie Belle tilted her head. "I didn't think epilepsy was...deadly."

"It's not. Not usually," Silver Spoon said. "But sometimes..." She sighed heavily. "My mother used to have seizures a lot. Enough that it didn't even bother me anymore when it happened. Her case was really severe, and sometimes she'd seize for a few minutes at a time, two or three times a day. She could always tell when she was about to have one, and she'd usually tell me to go get my father before it happened. If he wasn't home, she'd just lay down and ask me to put a pillow under her head so she didn't hurt herself." She shrugged. "Honestly, it didn't even faze me most of the time. It was a little scary, especially if it took a while for her to recover afterwards, but it was just...something that happened."

Silver Spoon looked down at her hooves, the familiar pressure of oncoming tears building behind her eyes and blurring the edges of her vision. "Then one day she started seizing and just...didn't stop." Sweetie Belle gasped audibly. Silver Spoon didn't look up as the first tears broke free and slowly slid down her cheeks. "We called an ambulance, and they took her to the hospital. They tried a lot of things, but she just...kept on." She closed her eyes. The tears were flowing freely now. Even though she had spent ten years coming to terms with her mother's death, talking about it never got easier. It helped, though. A little.

"Eventually, they had to put her into a coma just to stop the seizure, but every time they tried to bring her back, she'd just start up again." One of the other fillies in the room sniffed. Silver Spoon could hear Sweetie Belle squeaking faintly, barely contained sobs escaping as she listened to the story. "They took a scan of her brain to see what was wrong and..." She swallowed hard. "They found a tumor deep in her brain. Too deep. There was nothing they could do."

Silver Spoon paused, momentarily unable to continue. Seconds ticked by in silence broken only by the sniffs of the other three ponies in the room and Sweetie Belle's quiet whimpering. Finally, she heaved a sigh and finished, her voice shaking. "They let us say goodbye, and then they just...let her go."

"Oh, Luna..." Scootaloo finally spoke, her voice hushed and thick. "Silver Spoon...I'm so, so sorry...I had no idea."

Silver Spoon glanced sideways at her, tears still rolling down her face. "Nopony does. Miss Cheerilee knows, of course, but..."

"No, it's not that..." Scootaloo said, shaking her head. "I mean, I'm sorry about...buck, just...everything. Your mother, your father, Diamond Tiara...us...I just..." At this, Scootaloo seemed to run out of words. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, as if expecting her lips to come up with something poignant and appropriate to say, but nothing came.

"Yer father?" Apple Bloom said. "What about yer father?"

Silver Spoon blushed and tapped her hooves together in front of her nose. "Oh, well...my father is...well, he's a little...standoffish. I mean, we were never really close, but...after mama died, he kind of...faded. He stopped having supper with us, he stopped looking over our homework for us, he just...stopped being part of the family."

"Who's 'us'?" Scootaloo asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you were an only child."

Silver Spoon shook her head. "No, I have an older sister. Silver Star. I haven't seen her in years, though." This wasn't strictly true, but as before Silver Spoon was not interested in answering the questions that would follow if she were honest. "She was even closer to mama than I was, and after she passed..." She sighed. "She was angry at my father for 'abandoning' us and only worrying about himself. Star was always making nasty remarks and disobeying him, staying out late and quitting school. Eventually she and my father got into a huge fight, and he basically told her to get out of the house. She was of age, so it wasn't like he was putting a foal out on the street or anything, but..."

"Wow...so...did she?"

"Leave? Yeah," Silver Spoon nodded. "Packed up her stuff, stole a couple of mama's things, and just took off into the night."

"Stole?"

Silver Spoon tilted her head to the side. "Well, I say she stole them. Mama had always told Star that when she grew up, she could have them anyway, but she'd never gotten a chance to actually give them to her. So when father told her to get out of the house, she stormed up to their bedroom and grabbed whatever she knew mama had wanted her to have."

"That's crazy. When did she actually leave?"

"Couple years after mama died. Just a few days before my ninth birthday, actually."

"Dude..." Scootaloo breathed, shaking her head in disbelief. "That sucks." Apple Bloom nodded her agreement. All four fillies fell silent as the weight of their discussion settled in on them.

The quiet gave Silver Spoon a moment to consider what she was doing. She was instantly appalled at her own honesty. Silver Spoon rarely spoke about her family for myriad obvious reasons, but in less than twenty minutes she had shed light on all the deepest, darkest corners of her life with three ponies who she had considered mortal enemies not a week before. Why? What could she possibly gain from this? If--if--they stayed friendly, she would forever be known as 'that filly with the dead mom, the mean dad, and the runaway sister'. And if the far more likely possibility of their falling out came to pass, then she would have supplied her antagonists with the purest possible ammo for further teasing.

Her blood ran cold at the thought of having the rest of the class watching and listening as the Crusaders went through their routine...Scootaloo would start, catch her attention, Apple Bloom would grin smugly and dish out whatever fresh cruelty they'd all concocted together, and then Sweetie Belle would mewl at her, mimicking her voice and asking her if she was going to cry. Then they'd all laugh together. Scootaloo's would be loudest; it always was, harsh and barking, ringing in her ears for hours afterwards. Sweetie Belle's was coldest, high pitched and keening. She'd scowl at them and leave. Then she would cry. Except next time it would be infinitely worse, because the teasing would hit so much harder, so much closer to her heart, that she wouldn't be able to keep her composure until she could escape. She would burst into tears in front of them, and this time she wouldn't even have Diamond Tiara to defend her. Her heart began to race and her stomach lurched. What did I just do?

"Bwaaaahhh!" Silver Spoon jumped as her panicked internal monologue was suddenly stalled by Sweetie Belle's piteous wail. The unicorn had finally succumbed to the sobs she had been stifling and now she was bawling openly, tears streaming down her face. "I-it's just s-s-so s-s-sad!" she hiccuped. "Y-you lost y-your m-m-mom and y-your s-s-sister and n-now you don't have a-any f-f-family at all!" She burst into sobs and tumbled out of her beanbag, stumbling across the room and throwing herself onto the sofa, wrapping her forelegs tightly around Silver Spoon's neck. She buried her face in Silver Spoon's shoulder and started weeping copiously, her chest heaving as she cried.

Silver Spoon was stunned into inaction. She had spent so much time over the past several years hardening herself against the pain of her mother's death and everything related to it that she had managed to reduce her own emotional response to a steady leaden ache in the pit of her stomach. Sweetie Belle's dramatic outburst brought with it waves of long-lost memories, images of late nights spent sobbing over pictures of her mother, clinging to empty dresses still lingering with traces of her scent. The unicorn's open, careless emotion crashed against the wall of stony apathy Silver Spoon had so diligently erected over time. Every wracking sob tightened her throat and brought a renewed wave of tears to her own eyes until she couldn't resist any longer.

She broke down. For the second time in less than a week, Silver Spoon let herself go and began to cry in earnest. She cried for the losses she had never accepted, the losses she hadn't fully realized until Sweetie Belle gave them life in her own special, transparent way. She cried for the emptiness of having no one to turn to when her strength failed her, and for the betrayal of being abandoned by everypony she had once adored and idolized. Her chest heaved and her throat ached as bitter sobs wracked her body, and she curled up in Sweetie Belle's embrace, drinking in affection she had no illusions that she deserved, but that the unicorn offered freely nonetheless. Silver Spoon rested her muzzle against her neck and joined the unicorn in her tears. They cried together, Sweetie Belle for the tragedy her new friend had suffered, Silver Spoon for pain from old wounds that had never fully healed.

Then the pressure doubled as a second pair of forelegs joined the first, and Silver Spoon looked out through bleary eyes to see Apple Bloom holding both crying fillies in her arms as well. She gripped them tightly, exuding strength as only an earth pony could, even though Silver Spoon could see she too was crying, sniffing quietly as tears tracked down her face. Surprised but grateful, Silver Spoon leaned her head the opposite direction now, pressing her face against Apple Bloom's, delirious with the wealth of concern and compassion she was being offered. The other filly didn't shy away or stiffen, but simply leaned back against her, silently reassuring Silver Spoon that it was okay to cry like this, that despite the novelty of their friendship, the Crusaders were, at their core, genuinely kind, caring ponies. In moments like these, no amount of petty, foalish spite would prevent them from lending their strength and love to somepony who needed it.

Scootaloo's wings only served to compound the effect. Her forelegs were too short to completely encircle the group, but her wings, long, broad, and powerful, curled around them, the silken feathers rustling against Silver Spoon's back and face. The pegasus held them all in her warm embrace, comforting and protecting her friends as only a pegasus whose idol represented the Element of Loyalty could. It was an intoxicating sensation. All around her, the gentle caress of her friends' hooves and wings and bodies soothed her ragged emotions. She basked in it. She treasured it, wondering every moment if she were dreaming, and that any second she might awaken and find herself alone and cold in her bed, the pain all the worse for the loss of this balm. Tears streamed down her face and melted into the fur of the other ponies who pressed themselves against her as if to try and ease her pain by wicking them away.

The group hug lasted for several minutes, long after the tears had stopped. All three Crusaders held tightly to their newest friend, offering her what little comfort they could for a loss they couldn't comprehend. Silver Spoon remained still, terrified that any movement might break the spell and send her friends scattering back to the edges of the room and leave her alone again. She barely dared breathe, lest one of the Crusaders realize who they were hugging and come to their senses. In the end, it didn't matter. Scootaloo was the first to speak after the last of Sweetie Belle's hiccuping sobs faded.

"So, that was...intense." She smirked faintly, still cautiously eyeing both Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon.

The latter pony gave a watery chuckle, blinking the last of her tears from her eyelids. "Yeah...sorry, I didn't mean to get all emotional. Sweetie Belle just caught me off guard, and..."

She trailed off as Apple Bloom gave her a suffocating hug, grinning out from behind tear-streaked cheeks. "Ah, ferget about it. Y'all needed t' cry, an' apparently so did Sweetie Belle."

"Shut up," Sweetie Belle muttered, her voice still quavering. "It's a really sad story, and you know I get emotional easily."

"Don't worry about it, Sweetie Belle." Silver Spoon smiled, leaning over and nuzzling the unicorn gratefully. "I appreciate it. Honestly, I think I needed somepony else to start crying first, or I never would have." Sweetie Belle blushed lightly at the caress, but smiled back nonetheless.

"Well, as much fun as this is," Scootaloo said, tightening her wings around the group and grinning at them all, "it's still kind of early to go to bed, so if we wanted to play something else, we've got time."

"Oh, I don't feel like playing any more games," Sweetie Belle sniffed, her face falling into an anxious frown. "Why don't we just watch a movie or something? A comedy."

"I guess. We can even stay here together on the couch if you girls want to!" Scootaloo grinned. Something in her tone caught Silver Spoon's attention. Almost like a tentative hopefulness hiding beneath the bravado, as though she had offered the suggestion with the guilty longing for someone to take it seriously. Silver Spoon searched her face curiously, trying to decide if she was reading more into the suggestion than there was. Scootaloo didn't really strike her as much of a cuddler, but maybe the pegasus pony had a softer side Silver Spoon hadn't seen yet.

"Ah'll pass," Apple Bloom said with a faint smirk. "As much fun as this's been an' all, Ah ain't much fer cuddlin'."

"Well I'm staying." Sweetie Belle squeezed her forelegs around Silver Spoon's midsection. "It's all Spoon's fault that I'm all stuffy now anyway, so she gets to hold me while I recover." She glanced up at Silver Spoon with an anxious frown. "I mean, you know, if that's alright."

Silver Spoon contemplated this. In truth, she wasn't entirely certain how she felt about the demand-cum-request. It was innocuous enough, the sort of thing very close friends might do, but as she had reminded herself repeatedly, they weren't very close. Or at least, they hadn't been. Perhaps their impromptu weeping session had brought them close enough that this was an acceptable level of friendship where snuggling down together on the sofa to watch movies was normal.

Deep down, Silver Spoon's heart had soared deliriously at Sweetie Belle's demand. She and Diamond Tiara had once been close enough to curl up with one another and watch TV or read or just sit and enjoy a warm spring evening together, but it had been years since they'd done something so intimate. Now, with Sweetie Belle tightly gripping her chest and Scootaloo's wings still hanging loosely around her back, she remembered what it was like. The warmth and tingling pleasure of physical contact coursed through her, and a deep, shameful voice in her heart cried out desperately for her to demand that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both stay right where they were. Fear of rejection and ridicule stayed her tongue, though, and she simply shrugged noncommittally at the suggestion. "Whatever. I don't mind."

"Are you sure?" Sweetie Belle's grip loosened, and Silver Spoon wailed internally in protest. "If it's weird or uncomfortable, I can just go bother Apple Bloom instead."

Silver Spoon giggled as Apple Bloom gave Sweetie Belle a defiant glare. "No, it's not that. In fact," she admitted, blushing, "I think it would be nice. It's been a while since I got to watch a movie curled up with somepony else."

The unicorn's muzzle split into a comical grin, and she squeezed Silver Spoon tightly in her hooves. "Yay!" The dramatic filly burrowed into her side, nuzzling her new friend's neck and chin. "This is the best way to watch movies anyway. Apple Bloom doesn't know what she's missing."

"Ah'll survive."

"What about you, Scoot?" Sweetie Belle looked up at the pegasus, whose wings had slowly slipped down off Silver Spoon's shoulders as they'd spoken.

Silver Spoon glanced at Scootaloo's face. Immediately she saw something she knew she wasn't imagining. Scootaloo was struggling with herself. There was an internal conflict there, a battle between heart and mind. She wondered idly which side was which, whether Scootaloo wanted to stay but didn't think she should, or didn't want to stay but thought she had to. As she considered this, Silver Spoon was surprised to discover she knew which side she wanted to win. "Why don't you stay, Scootaloo? The more the merrier, right?"

Scootaloo's stunned expression reflected Silver Spoon's internal shock at herself perfectly. She hadn't requested that Apple Bloom stay on the sofa. She had only just given Sweetie Belle permission to stick around. But for some reason, she knew that she desperately wanted Scootaloo to stay with her on the sofa, with her wings tightly curled around her and her thick, sultry scent washing over her and sending little thrills of joy through her with every breath.

There was just something about the pegasus that Silver Spoon found thoroughly pleasant. Something in her attitude, something in her easy, rakish smile, her cool confidence and surprising strength...she was special. More than that. She was extraordinary, and Silver Spoon knew it. Somewhere in her heart, she'd always known it. Spending time with Scootaloo was the supreme experience, and she wanted nothing more than to extract every unique and enthralling moment from it that she could.

She got her wish. "Yeah, okay. Why not?" Scootaloo shrugged and smiled, cocking a dashing eyebrow. "Since I've got both you fillies in a froth already and all."

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, but Silver Spoon intently looked away, ignoring the heat in her cheeks. "So," she said, mostly to forestall her own idle thoughts, "what movie are we gonna watch?"

"How about a Robin Whinnyams marathon?" Scootaloo asked, settling back against Silver Spoon's side, her wings still extended and resting gently across her shoulders. "Mama Vy's a huge fan, so we've got just about everything he's ever done."

"Ah think that sounds rootin' tootin' terrific," Apple Bloom quipped from the floor, where she had sprawled across the carpet in front of the sofa. "He's mah favorite."

"Well, that makes two of us, then," Sweetie Belle said, her horn igniting as she opened the cabinet beneath the TV and summoning one of the movies from the shelf.

"Three," Silver Spoon said, smiling as the unicorn started the film and dimmed the lights magically.

Scootaloo grinned down at her, pulling her wing tight around the earth pony's shoulders. "See, girls? I told you she was alright."