She dove, catching Diamond Tiara before she could fall. But Applebloom could only hold her so high, and the noose was digging into Diamond’s neck tightly. Applebloom’s forehooves where wrapped around her hind legs just as tightly, holding DT up. Applebloom, standing on her own hind legs, barely had a grip on Diamond’s and she was slowly slipping downwards. “Girls help!” she cried back to Scootaloo and Sweetie Selle.
“Jusk… lek… me die!” Diamond Tiara literally choked out as her eyes looked downward at Applebloom, while her head remained pointed up, held in place by the rope. All she could see was the tip of the bow on Applebloom’s head and all she remembered of the filly was the look of sheer fury she’d worn when the door had been broken down.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle rushed in, lending their strength to help hold Diamond up. But it was a losing battle. Diamond Tiara’s face had already gone past already bright red and was slowly fading in colour now. They couldn’t lift her high enough to get the noose from off her neck. Not like this at least, and in their awkward angle, standing on her rear legs, Applebloom’s strength was quickly fading.
“Cut the rope!” Applebloom yelled, barely, more focused now on keeping the girl in her hooves alive.
“Don’k…” Diamond Tiara barely even whimper but went completely unheard by all three of the other fillies.
Scootaloo found a way to grab onto Diamond and started lifting her alongside Applebloom while Sweetie Belle dashed around the room looking for anything that could be used to sever the rope, flinging pencils and paper off of a small desk and ripping the draws completely out in panic. “I can’t find anything!”
Applebloom refused to let go of DT. Scootaloo, opposite Applebloom lifting Diamond too, her wings buzzed furiously trying to give her any extra lift. It helped slightly as the two managed to start to gain some height, allowing Applebloom to look up. She couldn’t see it until now but Diamond had already passed out and every second she stayed like this she got closer to death. “No…” she muttered staring up at the filly.
“Cut the damn rope already!” yelled Scootaloo before giving a strong shove upwards before she lost her grip on Diamond Tiara and let her just fall. It was over… Scootaloo looked down at Diamond Tiara, now laying on top of Applebloom on the floor. The rope had been cut. She turned to Sweetie Belle, seeing her stare wide-eyed back at her. “Did... did you cut that with magic?”
The light around her horn extinguished, though she hadn’t realised it had been glowing. “Y-yeah… I think.” Sweetie Belle said, looking down at DT and Applebloom below Scootaloo. Her gaze then turned to her friend above them. “You’re… flying!” she said with excitement and happiness for her friend that she’d finally been able to fly… then realising “I used magic!”
Scootaloo too only just noticed it herself once Sweetie Belle had pointed it out to her. And as a result quickly lost control, banking sideways and falling from the air. Her wings hurt from straining them so hard to lift Diamond, she had just kept that pace up once the weight was gone. That thought was interrupted though but a sharp gasp by Diamond Tiara.
Applebloom rolled Diamond off of her and quickly removed the noose. She didn’t know what she had expected from DT but it wasn’t this. “Wh-what are you going to do to me?” she asked with more terror in her voice than Applebloom had ever heard from anypony before. “If you’re go-going to kill me then, then why not just let me do it!?” Diamond demanded. She had it in her mind that they’d saved her just so they could torture her first.
As Applebloom put a hoof over her neck to look at the injury DT flinched just from her movement. “Ah don’t want you to die…” Applebloom said, trying to calm the filly. Naturally it had no effect. She would’ve said more but before she could came a shout…
“Get away from her!” yelled Silverspoon as she shakily stood at the broken-in door frame, leaning against it before flopping down onto the ground. Her head ached and she easily had a concussion. But despite that, despite having fallen over, she tried to get to her hooves and half crawled over towards them. Managing to get to her hooves, she took a few more steps before seeing the noose.“No!” she shouted and lunged at Applebloom.
Missing her completely. But the noose was underneath her, she wouldn’t let them have it to use on her friend. “Just… let them…” Diamond Tiara told Silverspoon. “Let them kill me. I… I don’t want to…”
Silverspoon lunged at Applebloom, this time actually aiming for her and tackling her down. It hadn’t worked out for her so well last time but it’s all she could think of to do, “Don’t hurt her!” she screamed as she slammed her hoof into Applebloom’s jaw. “Don’t hurt my friend!”
Applebloom threw Silverspoon off of her and got to her hooves. She then walked over to Silverspoon and put her hoof down against her. “Ah ain’t ganna hurt her,” she said as she helped Silverspoon up onto her own hooves. She turned back towards Diamond Tiara to see Scootaloo as Sweetie Belle both sitting next to her, both looking at herself and Silverspoon.
But most of all, she saw Diamond Tiara staring at the two of them. Not crying, not quite sad but not quite happy either. “Am… am I your friend? Really?...” she practically begged of Silverspoon.
Silverspoon didn’t answer at first. DT’s heart sank until finally Silverspoon’s head processed what she'd heard. “Y-yes.” she whimpered, and ran over to her. Tripping in her dazed state halfway there but luckily landing on Diamond in a tight hug. “Of course I am!” she said quietly but with more passion than any words she’d ever used before.
Diamond Tiara was in tears once again. She couldn’t say they were tears of joy, not entirely, but they partially where. She still hurt so much inside. And even with a friend, she still wanted to die. And most of all, despite what Applebloom had said, she still thought she was going to. Now, maybe Silverspoon too. “Please don’t hurt her too…” she pleaded with all around her.
“We’re not going to hurt you.” Sweetie Belle said, trying not to cry herself.
“We just saved you for pony’s sake!” added Scootaloo, a lot more calm about all this than either of her two friends.
“Saved her?” Silverspoon asked, pulling her head away from Diamond Tiara to look at Scootaloo, but not releasing her grip on her friend.
Applebloom plopped down beside them, opposite Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, the noose in mouth. She spat it out and said “We weren't the one who put that ‘round her neck.” Silverspoon didn’t quite seem to understand. “She put it on herself. Ah don’t think she’d be here no more if we hadn’t shown up…” she said with just as much pride as she did guilt.
“Why would you?...”
“Because I deserve it!” DT cried. “I killed her! Twist is dead because of me and I should be too! I killed her, I ki-i-i-i-i-illled h-er-er-er-er-er…” she lost it once more. Diamond just started bawling. It kept up for a good amount of time before she finally calmed enough to say “Why do you even care? Why do any of you care?!” she asked facing Silverspoon.
“Because I’m your friend.”
“Why do they care? They hate me! I hate them…” Diamond Tiara rebutted.
“I don’t hate you.” Sweetie Belle answered. “I may not be your friend, but I don’t hate you. I even just used magic for the first time to save you! I’ve never been able to before… I mean, that means something, right?”
“Yeah it does!” added Scootaloo “And I flapped my wings so hard trying to keep you up I ended up flying for the first time too!”
“And ah…” Apple Bloom began. “And ah… uh…?” she paused. “Dang it… but I still helped ya. Ah wouldn’t wanna see ya dead over this too. It… it ain’t your fault.”
“Shut up!” Diamond shouted. “You don’t care, stop pretending! You’re not my friends so stop acting like you are!” and with that Silverspoon hugged her tighter, and Diamond Taira could feel tears that weren't her own. “I mean… you are Silverspoon. Y-you’re my friend.”
And before Silverspoon could reply, Diamond felt a hoof on her shoulder. “She's not your only friend.” Applebloom said before being joined by two other pony’s hooves alongside her own.
“But I…”
“It’s not you’re fault Diamond Tiara…” Applebloom said, a few tears falling from her eyes too. Sweetie Belle was crying deeply at this point, and despite doing her best to hide it and hold it back, a few escaped from Scootaloo as well. Applebloom could see the next words from DT before she even formed them “It ain’t yer fault. Ah don’t blame you for it… and even if it where, ah forgive you… because…
That’s what friends do.”