The next day, Diamond endured another brutal day of classes and bullies. Still, Diamond learned to keep her head down and avoid unnecessary conflict, focusing on her first Crusader club meeting. The day went uneventfully as she continued to host the "Cutie Mark Crusaders" meeting. The meeting occurred in the abandoned classroom conveniently named "3C", which was somewhat rundown. The place was empty, with most of the desks as Snowdrop and a few other fillies sat around in the broken-down desks. Diamond stood at the front of the class, cleared her throat, and said, "Good evening, my fellow crusaders! Welcome to the first Cutie Mark Crusader meeting."
The foals gave some small clops on the ground, mainly looking at each other with confused expressions. One of the foals raised a hoof as Diamond pointed and said, "Yes?"
"Um, so what exactly are Cutie Mark Crusaders do?"
"Yeah, I heard we can do anything we want!? What is this club about!”
Diamond smiled at her and said, "Those are excellent questions! I’ll start from the beginning." She then went to the chalkboard and drew some stick figures from her other friends. She then pointed towards them and explained, "These are the three first Cutie Mark Crusaders! They are Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo! They were once blank flanks, and they spent working together to find their cutie marks. They eventually did and thats what this club is about discovering your talents if you are a blank flank or rediscovering them if you have a cutie mark."
One red-coated pegasus blurted, "Oh, so they were your friends. Why didn't they invite you to help?"
Diamond paused as she wondered how to answer this question, but she decided that honesty would be the best course of action and said, "I…I was a bully, and I treated them horribly for quite some time." This got quite a stir from the crowd, and some looked at her angrily. She wanted to leave and fly off to hide, but she gritted her teeth, stood up, and said, "I regret a lot of my actions, and what I did is something I'm trying to change."
After she finished, the filly winced and looked among them. Many fillies whispered as Snowdrop was the first to take up the courage and asked, "Then how would they be your friends if you bullied them?"
Diamond looked up and continued, "I'm getting to that; as time passed, I started questioning my actions. Then our paths collided as I tried to become the school president by sabotaging my opponent, a colt named Pipsqueak, who won. But the Cutie Mark Crusaders then showed me that I had a choice to make, and, in the end, I decided to make the right one for once and helped Pipsqueak win! That was when my friends earned their cutie marks!"
Snowdrop scratched her mane, "um, I'm still confused. What exactly did they get cutie marks for?"
The pink-coated unicorn replied, "They helped me discover who I am and what I want to be, and ever since then, they have been helping other ponies find their cutie marks or rediscover what their cutie marks mean!"
The filly turned around and pointed towards her flank, "I believe my journey is to learn to be a leader, and the cutie mark crusaders kept me going down a darker path."
Snowdrop seemed to look somewhat concerned, "that's why your mom put you here, right?"
Diamond acknowledged Snowdrop with a nod, then said, "Yes, my mom wants me to become like her, and sending me here is a part of her plan. But this club can help you and other fillies fight back against what this school is trying to learn who we are instead of the one being drilled into us."
The other fillies nodded as one purple-coated earth pony stood up and said, "I…I want to be an artist, but my parents threw out all my art supplies and sent me here."
A dark grey-coated unicorn stood up and said, "My parents learned I wanted to be a royal guard! They told me fillies can't be in the royal guard, and I wana to prove them wrong!"
"I want to be a singer!"
"I want to learn to bake cookies!"
Diamond looked at Snowdrop and asked, "What do you want for her?"
The pegasus blushed as she scratched the ground. “Oh, my dream…its um…its…” She then threw her wings out and threw out a cloud of snow as it formed and froze, turning into an ice sculpture of herself as they all looked surprised. "I want to make art with snow and ice!"
The other foals went wide-eyed as Diamond smiled, "Yes, that's what this club will be about! We will meet here every evening after classes to learn about each other and help foals without cutie marks, okay!?"
"Okay!"
"Also, remember that this has to be kept a secret from the other teachers, the bully Onyx, and her posse."
"Yes, Diamond!"
"Alright then, let's start!"
They all went off to work on their own things as Diamond watched, feeling rather proud of herself for being so vulnerable with her past and that these ponies would still be willing to have her lead this club. She felt that, in some small way, she was passing on the Cutie Mark Crusaders legacy to these fillies who need it as much as she does.
The week went by as her fellow Cutie Mark Crusader club members went and found new members. The club exploded in popularity from only a handful of fillies to the entire classroom now packed with foals doing all types of activities, from art to music and dancing; some foals brought rudimentary tools to cook or craft. There was so much going on, and seeing all the young fillies engaging in many activities was rather interesting. She came over to Snowdrop, who was deep in crafting an ice sculpture of an alicorn princess. At first, she thought it was Princess Celestia. Still, it was much smaller, with distinctive glass stars shimmering frozen within the mane and tail. Then Diamond recognized who it was and exclaimed, "Oh, is that Princess Luna!?"
Snowdrop said, "Yeah, I think I got her right mostly."
"Is she your favorite princess?"
"Yeah!" the filly flapped her wings, "I do like the other princesses, but Luna is like us, you know? We all were or are a little mean but we all want to be better like her!"
The other fillies nodded and shouted in agreement as Diamond giggled, "Yeah, we should all strive to be like Luna."
She then saw a young red-coated pegasus filly flying over them, zooming about and landing perfectly as she threw out her wings and held her head up high. The other fillies got a rousing response, and they started clapping their hooves in applause as she chirped, "Yeah, yeah, keep it coming. One day, I'm gonna be the best flyer in Equestria and be a Wonderbolt!"
Diamond Tiara fluttered over and asked, "What's your name?"
The little red-coated pegasus flew over and chirped, "Cherry Bomb!"
Everypony ooohed at the name as one filly eyed her and shouted, "That's not your name!"
The little pegasus threw up her head and flashed her wings as she chirped, "It is now! Diamond said we can choose our destiny. I wana to choose my name! I hate being called Cherry Blossom!"
"Okay, Cherry, um…" she wanted to ask if she could help her learn to fly, but she was still unsure if she should unveil her wings. She then asked, "Um, what brought you here?"
Cherry then flew up, "My parents wanted me to go into ballet. I said Buck that! I wana to be a Wonderbolt!" she then took out her hooves and, in a nagging tone, said, "So, they sent me here, to teach me how to be a proper filly."
Diamond felt the wings beneath her uniform aching, wanting to be released. She wanted to ask if this filly could teach her how to fly, but she wanted to keep being an alicorn a secret. Then, an idea cropped into her head as she slowly came forward and asked, "Well, um…Cherry Bomb, if you can, there are a lot of Pegasi who want to learn to fly as well. Do you think you can teach them?"
The filly fellow backed down and cried, "What, no, I'm not a teacher!?"
"I know, but many pegasi fillies here aren't getting proper flying training. This might be the best way to help."
Cherry Bomb groaned as she looked around at the other pegasi, then sighed, "I'll think about it, but I'm not promising anything."
Diamond smiled reassuringly and said, "Okay, that's fine, but even if you say no, thank you for at least considering."
"No problem!" she then flew off to talk to the other pegasi, who were asking for tips for flying themselves. Snowdrop came over and asked, "So why would you be interested in flying?"
"Um…well…we have a lot of pegasi here, and it only makes sense." Diamond quickly replied as she looked around and said, "I'm going to look for more foals who need help." She then ran off and tried not to draw more attention to herself.
Later that evening, as Diamond and Snowdrop returned to their room, they were getting ready for bed when Snowdrop turned and asked rather suddenly. "Why did you ask Cherry Bomb to teach other Pegasi how to fly?"
Diamond turned and said, "N…no reason, just thought it was a good idea."
Snowdrop picked up a pink feather, "It wouldn't because you're hiding something," and threw it at her hooves. “How about explaining where these come from?”
Diamond trotted back, feeling rather queasy seeing Snowdrop come to one conclusion as she cried, "Wait, that's not mine!"
Snowdrop rolled her eyes and sarcastically replied, "No, I just find them everywhere and in the bathroom, and we're the only two ponies who live here.”
The little pink-coated filly gritted her teeth and then thought that, at this point, she and Snowdrop were becoming close, and deep down, she knew she wouldn't tell anypony else. Diamond slowly removed her uniform and showed her wings bound to her sides. Snowdrop then trotted over and helped take the bound off the filly; then Diamond unfurled her appendages, wobbling a little as she flapped them, and whispered, "Are you happy now?"
Snowdrop stepped back, somewhat surprised, as she said, "Diamond, you're wings. They're beautiful! Why were you trying to hide this!?"
The pink-coated alicorn cried, "My mom, she…she told me if anypony found out, she'd enact her revenge on me. I don't know what to do, so I hid them from everypony."
Snowdrop paused and said, "I see, but why would she do that? That sounds so horrible?"
Diamond closed her eyes as she wanted to talk to Snowdrop about this. Still, she finally summoned the courage to say, "Remember the story I told our new crusaders? I omitted the part where my mother tried pulling strings and making me the class president. I was doing it more to get her approval than for myself.” she gazed at a mirror nearby then whispered, I've been striving to be like her my whole life, and now that's gone. She hates me."
Diamond started to bawl as Snowdrop came over and hugged her, then said, "Hey, it's okay; you heard all the other fillies our parents all suck. You're not alone here."
The little pink filly laughed as she said, "Yeah, I guess…though my dad is cool, but he's rather clueless about my mom."
Snowdrop let out a snicker before she replied, "Yeah, I wish my parents had that excuse. They ignored me until it was convenient…" The little pegasus said, "But you must hear it from me. I bet once ponies learn about you being an alicorn, your mom won't be able to do anything."
"You think so?"'
"Oh, heck yeah! You might not be a princess yet because you are still a foal, but when you're an adult, who knows what can happen."
"Hopefully, but I should keep it a secret."
Snowdrop sighed, "I don't know…This is wrong, especially when you put your wings under all that strain. But I won't force you to do anything, and I'll keep your secret."
Diamond hugged her and said, "Thank you. Maybe we can practice flying from time to time. I really would want to learn to fly."
"Okay, but you should reveal them to our fellow Crusaders. It'll only be fair seeing we should be open and honest with each other, and it'll inspire them."
"Alright, I'll take your advice, but I don't want a bunch of fillies spreading the word I'm an alicorn."
"We must take so many precautions to keep this club a secret. But I want you to do it on your own time. It's only a suggestion."
Diamond nodded and replied, "I want to find a magic teacher. I don't know how to use my horn that much."
Snowdrop tapped a hoof to her chin, threw it up, and chirped, "I have somepony in mind."
"Girls, it's time for bed lights to be turned off!"
Diamond then turned the lighst off in her bedroom then she heard Snowdrop whispered, "Hey, wana sleep together?"
"Why?"
“Um…just uh…I always wanted to have a sleepover but never was able to have one."
Diamond skipped over and flopped right into her roommate's bed as she snuggled under the covers against her friend, and whispered, "So this is okay?"
"Yeah, thanks."
She then started to snuggle under the blankets, and then she heard her roommate crying and whispering, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, it's nothing."
The sobbing stopped, and Diamond lay there wondering why she would cry. Slowly, she relayed that she probably had never had a connection in such a loving way with any other pony. These fillies needed help and support, and she would strive to improve. Diamond then decided to reveal to her fellow crusaders that she was an alicorn and inspire them.