On Diamonds · 11:56am Feb 11th, 2019
I'm entering the Season 9 Bingo contest. This is a curious fic-writing contest where everyone gets a different prompt consisting of five disparate elements which are deliberately quite hard to fit into the same fic. I had been looking for a contest to enter and this looked like an interesting one (with a relatively gentle deadline – the airdate of the first episode of Season 9). Sure enough, it's been fun.
I looked at the kind of thing people might get as prompts before entering, and it looked wildly unpredictable. But when my prompts arrived, I was very happy overall. No characters or tropes I'd dislike writing, and a couple that I think would be great fun.
I spent a while trying to find a plot idea that allowed me to fit in all five, and for quite a few days I only had passable ideas that would fit 2-3 of the elements but would need to stretch a bit to add in the last one or two. Eventually, though, I came up with a single self-contained idea that perfectly accommodates four of them and can easily fit the fifth. It offers a fun setup, builds on an element from canon, and even provides me an opportunity to make a fantastic(ally awful) pun. 
I'm really looking forward to unleashing it upon you all!
One reason I was particularly happy when my prompt arrived is because one of the five elements was simply:
Crusaders of the Lost Mark is my favourite episode of the whole show. It's the episode that persuaded me this series was something worth getting into as I watched it over my daughters' shoulders, and it's the episode I've rewatched the most. Diamond Tiara's redemption, even if hurried because of the needs of the episode, is so inspiring, and some of the lines in that episode are my favourite from the entire series. My breath still catches every time I hear "There's so much more still left to learn about yourself".
I was particularly eager to see what Diamond Tiara looked like as a character post-redemption. So one of my great disappointments of seasons 6-8 has been that she's not had a single line, even though I think she was added to the season 8 new intro. Two of my favourite characters are Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer, partly because we get to see how they handle redemption. I had high hopes to see Diamond Tiara on that list as well, but canon has not obliged me.
So getting dealt the Diamond Tiara card for my bingo fic is a big thing. If the show hasn't cared about her enough to show what she's like post-redemption, then I get a chance to instead. But wow, that's a big responsibility upon my shoulders.
It's also a challenge because, for all that I love her, I know she's not a character that everyone loves. I know there's a portion of the fanbase that doesn't like her, or didn't think she deserved redemption in Crusaders of the Lost Mark. I hope my fic will still be entertaining enough even to those fans, and show that she can be a likeable character. But I'm not naive enough to expect everyone to enjoy the fic 
I've been doing some second-guessing myself about whether I've done justice to her character. I don't get to show every aspect of what she's like post-redemption, because of the needs of the other 4 bingo cards. I'm doing the best I can, and I've got some more editing still to do. But at some point I'll have to just say enough is enough, hit publish and let the work stand for itself.
Look forward to it!
Redeemed characters are interesting. In stories with a post-redemption ponies, they have something in common: they retain aspects of their pre-redemption personality, mixed in with their new self. This gives them a useful perspective, able to see things the good guys wouldn't, able to do things the good guys daren't.
Sunset is able to see dig underneath social norms. Starlight Glimmer is prone to using magic to solve her problems. Trixie goes for the big spectacle. Discord has a hard time seeing how anypony would want things different from him.
I look forward to seeing what aspects of pre-redemption Diamond you weave into her post-redemption personality.
Congratulations on scoring so highly in the contest!