Unpolished Diamond

by pokerninja2

Ex-Best Friends

It was recess time at the Ponyville Elementary School, and the foals were using this time to get the most fun out of it as possible. Rumble, Featherweight, and their respective teams were playing hoofball, kicking the ball as it was bouncing, tumbling, and rolling along the grass. Dinky Doo, Peachy Pie, and Sunny Daze were taking turns going down the slide, with each turn resulting in a squeal of joy from them. Cheerilee was overseeing the whole thing from her window, taking enjoyment in watching her students have fun from the window while grading their homework.

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, the somewhat famous Cutie Mark Crusaders, were playing a game of four-square, with Twist happily taking the role of the fourth player. It was a pretty heated game; Scootaloo was at Square #4, holding the title of Princess for three rounds in a row. Close behind her was Apple Bloom in Square #3, working up the ranks to dethrone the pegasus. Meanwhile, Twist and Sweetie Belle were stuck at Square #2 and Square #1; they weren’t exactly the best at four-square.

"OK," Scootaloo said, the ball in her hoof. "No cherry bombs, no snake eyes, and no horseshoes."

"Awww, no fair," Apple Bloom complained. “How am Ah s’posed to get the ball without mah back hooves?”

"Well, I am the Princess, aren't I?" Scootaloo gloated.

"You’re jutht making that rule becauth you know you don’t thand a chanth againtht Apple Bloom’th back hooveths!” Twist said, giggling a bit.

"Whatever," Scootaloo said as she rolled her eyes.

Starting the round, she bounced the ball to Sweetie Belle. Panicking, she barely bounced it to Twist, who got it to Apple Bloom. She carefully aimed the ball at Scootaloo's back hooves, trying to get the orange pegasus out at her own game. Not wanting to risk being dethroned, she spasmodically jumped back a few inches and quickly tried to bounce it back to Apple Bloom. However, the ball made contact with the wrong part of the hoof, resulting in it flying off in the opposite direction and colliding with Twist's head, knocking off her glasses a good few yards away.

"Oops," Scootaloo said. "Sorry."

"It'th alright," Twist said, wandering around and waving her hooves aimlessly. "But hath anyone theen my glatheth?"

"Here they are," a voice came.

Right from behind, Diamond Tiara walked up to the four friends, Twist's purple glasses in her hoof. It had certainly been an interesting week after the recent election; if today were any regular day, she would have been taunting the poor filly with her partner-in-crime Silver Spoon, waving it willy-nilly while she tried to get them back. But things have changed, and now that Diamond had put an end to her bullying ways, here she was, handing back the glasses to Twist.

"Thankth, Diamond," Twist said, putting her glasses back on her face, clearing the blurriness.

"You're welcome," Diamond said, putting on a fake smile as she returned to her place on the swing, looking a little depressed. The Crusaders and Twist shot glances of concern at each other.

"You think we should talk to Diamond?" Scootaloo suggested.

"Yer just tryin’ to forget ya lost, aren’t ya?" Apple Bloom teased.

“No, I was-” Scootaloo started in defense before being interrupted.

"Ah was jus’ kiddin’," Apple Bloom giggled. She then looked at Diamond, and got more serious. "But yer right, she does look pretty sad."

"Maybe we should," Sweetie said. "She DID apologize for bullying us, after all. She’s nice now."

"Thure," Twist said. "Le'th go."

The four fillies put their game on hold and went over to the swings with Diamond. Scootaloo got on a swing next to her, while the rest just sat around. Diamond was pretty taken aback by the sudden company, and was looking at them in confusion.

"What are you all doing here?" Diamond asked.

"Well, you looked sad, and we figured you could use a few friends," Sweetie Belle said.

"So why are ya so down?" Apple Bloom asked.

"'Friends?'" Diamond asked. "Why are you saying you’re my ‘friends’ after all the things I’ve done to you?"

"It's all water under the bridge," Scootaloo said, swinging pretty high. "We already forgave you."

“Yeah,” Sweetie said. “You’re a nice filly now, and you’re being a lot friendlier to everypony.”

"Tho you can tell uth why you look tho thad," Twist said. "We're your friendth now."

"Thanks, girls," Diamond said, smiling a bit. She then sighed. "It's Silver Spoon. Ever since the election, she's been ignoring me. I tried to be friends with her again, but she, like, just won't listen."

"Ah thought you two would have patched things up by now,” Apple Bloom said, a little confused.

“Yeah, you two were betht friendth,” Twist added.

"Yeah,” Diamond said, sighing again. “we were.”

"Well, you WERE kind of a bad friend," Scootaloo said. “Like, no offense, but it always looked like you were bossing her around and-”

"Scootaloo!" Sweetie interrupted, offended. "That's so mean!"

"No no, it's true," Diamond said. "I was a terrible friend. Especially during the election." She sighed once more.

"Well, we can help ya get back together with Silver," Apple Bloom suggested.

"Really?" Diamond said, astounded at those words. "You would really do that for me?"

"Count me in, too," Scootaloo said, jumping off the swing and landing on her hooves.

"I'll try to help, too," Sweetie said.

"Daimond'th learned her lethon alright," Twist said. "Tho I'll help too."

Diamond was shocked. Was she actually hearing this correctly? Were these fillies, the ones that she had bullied for her entire school life, actually willing to help her? This was most certainly a dream - if Silver Spoon, her best friend, wouldn't forgive her for her wrong doings, then these fillies surely wouldn't. She threw her hooves around Apple Bloom for a hug.

"Thank you girls so much!" she thanked.

"What are friendth for?" Twist said.

Apple Bloom broke away from the hug. "OK," she began. "To help ya, we need to know what we're dealing with. So yer gonna try to apologize to Silver again while we watch."

"Are you crazy!?" Diamond asked. "She's not going to forgive me if I just walk up to here and say 'Hey, I'm sorry for being a bad friend. Can you forgive me?'... or something like that I haven’t already said."

"We don't expect her too," Sweetie Belle said. "If she does forgive you this time, then problem solved. If she doesn't, we at least have some ground to work off of."

"Oh, alright," Diamond said. The fillies looked around saw Silver Spoon sitting on a nearby bench reading a book to herself.

“OK, we’ll hide behind that bush while you go talk with her,” Scootaloo said, gesturing to a conveniently-placed bush near the bench.

“Very well,” Diamond said, as the other fillies crowded behind the bush.

Gulping, the pink filly began walking towards her ex-best friend. Silver saw Diamond walking up to her, and inwardly sighed. She continued reading as if she wasn't there. The pink filly took a seat next to her, whistling to herself (though not doing a good job at it, she was never good at whistling), inching closer and closer. About a minute passed until she finally spoke up…

...or was about to before she her a thump from behind. She turned around and saw Apple Bloom accidentally tumbled from her hiding place. The farm filly gave her an embarrassed look. Diamond gave her a rather annoyed glare and made frantic hoof motions, telling her to get back in position. She looked back at Silver; it didn’t seem like she was paying attention and just kept reading.

"Hey Sil," Diamond said.

"Diamond," Silver greeted, not taking her eyes off of her book. Another moment of silence fell between the two.

"Hey, isn't that the ninth book in the Foal for Hire series?" Diamond asked, trying to start a conversation.

"Tenth, actually," Silver corrected.

"Oh," Diamond said, starting to feel a bit awkward about the situation.

"I think I'm just going to go put this away, now," she said as she closed her book and trotted off.

"Wait!" Diamond squeaked. Silver stopped and turned around to look at her, having an annoyed expression on her face.

"I-I'm sorry," Diamond said. "Can you forgive me?"

"I told you this yesterday and the day before," Silver began. "A simple ‘sorry’ isn't going to be enough. You weren't a very good friend to me, so why should I be friends with you again? To blindly follow you around and help you think you’re above everypony? Well newsflash: you’re not, and I’ve got better things to do than to be treated like dead weight." With a huff, she trotted away.

The pink filly sighed, though she would be lying if she said she didn’t see this coming. The other fillies came out of their hiding place walked up to Diamond.

"That could have gone better,” Scootaloo commented.

"You see?" Diamond said in a rather defeated tone. "She just ignores me. How am I supposed to apologize to her if she just acts like I don't exist?"

"Ah think ah have an idea," Apple Bloom said, just as the school bell rang, signalling the foals to go back to class. "Well, we'll talk 'bout it later," she said.

---

When school finally ended for the day, the group walked out of the building. "So Diamond," Apple Bloom started. "We should probably talk 'bout our plan in the clubhouse. Pretty sure ya know where it is."

"Yeah, I've seen it a few times," Diamond said. "But I can't go today. Mother is expecting me to be back at the mansion early today, and you know how she is."

The rest of the group shuddered. The very thought of Diamond’s mother, Spoiled Rich, made their fur crawl.

"Well, I gotta go," Diamond said. "I'll see you girls later."

"OK," Scootaloo said. "Would tomorrow morning work?"

"Sure," she answered. "I'm usually here early anyway."

As the fillies waved their new friend goodbye, they realized that they needed to be back at their homes too. Twist knew her parents would worry if she was away for too long, Sweetie Belle was needed at Rarity's for help with an important dress order, Scootaloo needed to rush over to Sugarcube Corner to meet up with Rainbow Dash for their flight training session, and Apple Bloom had work to do on the farm. They waved each other goodbye as they parted ways.

---

The walk back home wasn't anything too different than it was the past couple of days, though she was a lot happier knowing that the Crusaders and Twist were going to help her get back with Silver Spoon. If that plan of Apple Bloom’s was successful, then she'd be back with Silver as best friends again.

“I hope this plan works,” Diamond thought aloud. “If it does, then I may be able to get back together with Sil. Maybe she’d even be friends with the Crusaders too. And if that happens, I’ll have four times as many friends as before! Oh how wonderful that would be!”

Diamond was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even realize she was already at her doorstep. Getting herself out of her trance, she rang the doorbell, and waited to be let in. Her mother, Spoiled Rich, answered the door.

"Welcome back, Diamond," she greeted with her usual upper-class tone and posture.

"Hello, Mother," Diamond greeted back as she entered the mansion.

"Your father is running some errands for me," Spoiled said. "He won't be back for a few hours."

"I see," Diamond said. "So why did you want me back home earlier than usual?"

"I was just getting to that," Spoiled said as she sat on the couch in the living room, and gestured Diamond to sit next to her. "We need to have a serious discussion about your future."

The pink filly nodded and took a seat next to her mother. The couch was soft, and in a vibrant lavender color. It was decorated with bronze sequence, and brownish-gold pillows were placed on top. Diamond decided that if she was going to have a lecture, she might as well get comfortable. She took a pillow, fluffed it, and put it behind her as she leaned back on it.

Once Spoiled figured Diamond was ready, she began. "As you know, this mansion and its fortunes have been in the Rich family for generations spanning. In fact, us and the Apple family actually founded Ponyville, and we'd be nothing without each other. That said, it’s tradition that we pass on our fortunes to the firstborn foal of the family. I assume you are familiar with the concept of life and death?"

Diamond nodded, not wanting to interrupt.

"I thought so, this school has taught you well. Anyways, your father and I are getting quite old, and to be honest, it may be closer to... our time than we believe. And since you are our only child, you shall be the one to inherit all of our fortunes."

Diamond was just staring blankly with her mouth agape. She was going to inherit EVERYTHING her family owned? One one hoof she was going to own all of her family fortune, and was honored to be granted this responsibility, but bitter since A) she had no clue what the first step to owning all of this stuff was and B) the mentioning of her parents being a foot in the grave didn't sit well with her. While her mother and father had their individual flaws, they were still her parents, and she loved them even so.

"Now, I'm sure you're wondering how you're going to handle this big of a responsibility,” Spoiled said, as if she just read her daughter’s mind. “I will be training you personally within the next few months, to make sure you are capable of leading the Rich family when we... pass away."

After a few more minutes of talking, Spoiled was finally done with everything she had to say. "And that is all I wanted to talk about. Your father will be here soon, and dinner will be ready in an hour. Run along, now. I look forward to teaching you the ways of our family." She escorted Diamond upstairs to her room.

When she opened the door, she was greeted with the same bedroom she was given since she was a newborn - a large bed with curtains, a rather large television set - a rarity for most ponies - on a white dresser, an outdoor balcony, and even her own personal bathroom. She simply laid on her bed, grabbed her remote, and turned the channel to her favorite show - Mysteries of Fillydelphia. Out of the corner of her eye, she found a picture of her and Silver Spoon hugging on her bedside. She frowned a little, saddened that she lost the only friend she had.

She just hoped that the Crusaders' plan was good enough to win her back.

Author's Note:

Show: doesn't give Diamond and Silver a proper send-off
Me: "Fine, I'll do it myself."

After a year-long hiatus, I think it was only fitting I make a comeback by rewriting one of my favorite fics, now being much more experienced in writing and storytelling. Hopefully this time I actually finish it