The voting seemed to stretch on for hours, but at last the polls closed. Several tense minutes passed, as only Cheerilee was allowed to count the votes, opting to do so from the safety of the school house. At last, she came out and with a smile on her face she declared. "The votes have been tallied. The winner of the election and the new student pony president is: Pipsqueak!" Everyone cheered (or rather everyone except for Diamond Tiara).
"I couldn't have won without the help of my campaign managers, the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Pipsqueak spoke up. "This is very much their victory, just as much as it is mine."
"We did it!" The Crusaders all cheered, and looked at their flanks. But they found nothing, their flanks were still blank.
"Guess you aren't as good as you thought, Cutie Mark Losers," Diamond Tiara taunted with a smug smile. "In fact, I demand a recount, Miss. Cheerilee! No way did Pip beat me fair and square."
Cheerilee's happy mood faded, replaced by a disapproving frown and narrowed eyebrows. "You're welcome to examine the votes if you'd like. But trust me, Diamond Tiara, Pip won fair and square."
"Pah! I'll be the judge of that, Miss. Cheerilee," Diamond vowed and trotted inside. Just seconds later, a deafening shout echoed out from the schoolhouse! "WHAT?! ONE VOTE?! JUST ONE VOTE?!" Frantically, the pink coated filly rushed back outside and confronted the filly she'd considered her best friend. "Silver Spoon! You didn't vote for me?!"
"No, I didn't!" Silver Spoon confirmed. "I've had it with playing second fiddle to a pony who doesn't respect me."
"But, you're my best friend! How could you do this to me?!" Diamond demanded, unable to comprehend this sudden betrayal.
"Am I really your best friend?" Silver asked in reply, her tone of voice indicating just how fed up she was. "Because I tried to help you by mentioning your surprise statue, and then suddenly I wasn't even allowed to speak anymore. You could've actually won this election, you know. Wanna know how?"
"H-how?" Tiara stuttered.
But Silver only replied by grabbing Diamond by the mouth and taunting to her. "Sorry, I'm not allowed to speak. Try asking somepony who cares."
Diamond was silent for just a moment, then she let out a furious scream and ran off! "You were supposed to be my best friend!" She could be heard shouting to high heavens, but no one bothered to acknowledge that comment.
In fact, Silver responded to the attention she was suddenly getting by simply commented. "What? I don't have to follow her drum anymore. What difference does it make, she wouldn't have won even if I'd voted for her. She cost herself re-election by ignoring my advice." And with that, the grey coated filly turned and trotted away.
"What just happened?" Rumble spoke up, trying to comprehend the whirlwind of events that had just transpired.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Rumble," Scootaloo commented. "I guess Silver Spoon just got tired of being taken for granted and rebelled. Serves Diamond Tiara right if you ask me, she was a jerk anyway."
"Maybe, but I'm a little worried about her," Apple Bloom replied with concern. "She just lost the only friend she ever seemed to have. Don't know 'bout the rest of you, but I don't think she'll just heal from that overnight."
"You think maybe we should go check on her?" Sweetie Belle suggested. "Just to be sure she's okay?"
Scootaloo shook her head in protest, shutting down the idea. "Are you all crazy?! We don't owe Diamond Tiara anything! Let her wallow in her despair for a while, maybe she'll learn her lesson about pushing other ponies around. After the way she made fun of my wings, I'm content to see her face karma! Besides, knowing her, she'll be back on her hooves the very next day and acting like it never happened."
"I don't know about that," Rumble nervously replied. "Wouldn't your Uncle Flash say to never leave a pony behind when they need help?"
"That's for ponies who deserve it, which Diamond definitely isn't," Scootaloo firmly answered. "Just leave her alone and let her see for herself what it's like not to have power over others. When she finally realizes what being cruel will get you and is ready to apologize, then I'll gladly give her a helping hoof. Now come on, we've got an election party to celebrate! Not to mention our faces in the school paper! We're finally going to be the big shots we always dreamed of being, and this could be our big chance to expand our ranks!"
Apple Bloom reluctantly agreed. "Scootaloo's got a point. Let's leave Diamond Tiara alone for right now. I'm sure everythin' will be back to normal before long."
But the very next day, Diamond Tiara was nowhere to be seen. Her seat in the classroom went unoccupied, and she was not even present for the change of power in which the old student pony president relinquished the office to their successor.
When class had let out for the day, Apple Bloom made up her mind. "Come on, Crusaders, we're goin' to go check up on Diamond Tiara!"
"What?! Why in the name of Celestia are we doing that?!" Scootaloo protested. "Why don't we instead work on new plans to get our cutie marks?! Campaign managers didn't work, so we're back to square one."
"How can we possibly think about cutie marks at a time like this?" Rumble replied quite firmly. "For all we know, Diamond Tiara could be in serious trouble. We owe to her and to ourselves to check up on her and make sure she's doing okay."
"After all," Sweetie Belle suggested. "Just because she's never cared about anypony else's feelings before, doesn't mean we shouldn't care about hers. Rarity and Mr. Fancy Pants would say we need to be the bigger ponies in this situation. And it's not like we're going to try and befriend Diamond Tiara or anything, we're just making sure she's not hurt or sick or anything like that."
"Wouldn't you feel guilty if she was in trouble, and we had a chance to do somethin' about it but didn't?" Apple Bloom told Scootaloo.
Scootaloo thought about that for a minute, before she reluctantly sighed and agreed. "Okay, fine, let's go check on her. But we're only doing it to make sure she's okay, and that's it. We're not sticking our necks out for her or anything like that, if we are I'm drawing the line."
The Crusaders made their way into town, hoping to find Diamond Tiara. They eventually did, spotting her hanging around the outskirts of her rather noticeable family mansion. But they were surprised to find the pink coated filly talking to somepony, an earth pony with a noticeable upturned snout. Said mare had a pale, grayish-pink coat, and wore a blueish-green dress with a golden hem around her body. She also wore a noticeable golden necklace. Her eyes were a cold, strong opal in color. And she sported a mane and tail that was styled into a loose series of curls, the mane and tail were colored two shades of magenta and a darker purplish-pink. Most telling of all though, the mare sported a cutie mark which depicted a diamond ring.
The mare seemed to be shouting at Diamond Tiara, if the tone of her voice and expressions on her face were any indication. "What?! You lost the election?!" The mare could be heard saying. "And after all the money I generously spent on your campaign! Do you mean to tell me that I spent all this money on a statue and party supplies, all to celebrate nothing?!"
"Sorry, Mother." Was all that Diamond Tiara seemed willing to say in response.
"Mother?!" The Crusaders all gasped! Could this pony be the notorious Spoiled Rich they'd heard so much about? She did seem to have a not so striking resemblance to her daughter, if her coat and eye colors were any indication.
Spoiled Rich didn't seem to take the news that her daughter had lost an election well, and her tone of voice seemed to indicate that of a lecture. "You have insulted the Rich family name with such a disgraceful loss!" Spoiled said sternly. "It's bad enough that you actually lost to that transplant from Trottingham, especially since you so easily bested that lisp speaking filly in your last election. But imagine if you'd gone and lost to one of those dreadful 'blank flanks'. What did you say they called themselves again: The Cutie Mark Crusaders?"
"Yes, Mother." Diamond nodded, but said nomore.
"As a rich pony, and a filly born into a life of luxury, you must always be aware of your social standing in life," Spoiled proceeded to lecture. "That starts here in Ponyville, and spreads all over Equestria. Rich ponies never settle for second best. After all the careful work I've put into helping you build up your reputation so as to impress the nobles and the rulers of this glorious land, you go and squander it in a shameful defeat. But all can be forgiven. You will run again, and next time you will be elected! Remember, Mother knows best. So don't you ever forget that, Diamond Tiara. EVER!" Spoiled then trotted off somewhere, leaving a rather downtrodden Diamond Tiara to just stand there and feel sorry for herself.
Her head hanging low, and tears forming in her eyes, the pink coated filly could be heard singing a sad tune to herself. A song that went like this:
If I'm a diamond, then why do I feel so rough?
I'm as strong as a stone, but even that's not enough.
There's something jagged in me, and I've made such big mistakes.
I thought that diamonds were hard, yet I feel I could break.
Would you believe?
That I've always wished I could be somepony else?
Yet I can't see.
What I need to do, to be the pony I wanna be!
I've been told my whole life what to do and what to say.
But nopony shows me that there might be some better way.
And now I feel like I'm lost, I don't know what to do.
The ground is sinking away, I'm about to fall through!
Would you believe?
That I've always wished I could be somepony else?
Yet I can't see.
What I need to do, to be the pony I wanna be!
To be the pony I wanna be.
Having heard Diamond's lament, the four little ponies started to chatter amongest themselves. All of a sudden, they felt strange new feelings for the pony they'd previously considered a foe and a bully. "Is it weird that I actually feel bad for her?" Sweetie Belle asked with concern.
"Well if it is, then... I'm weird too," Scootaloo confessed. "I don't get it. Part of me wants to believe she's faking it, but every other part of me tells me it's as real as real can be."
"I know fake tears when I see them," Rumble commented. "And those tears as were genuine as ever. That filly's been through a lot. With a mother like Spoiled Rich, it's not hard to see why."
"The thing is, she wants to change, but she doesn't know how," Apple Bloom realized. "All this time she's never truly had somepony who's cared enough about her to get to know her and try to help her out. I'll bet even her dad's not aware of what she's goin' through."
"Seems like she could use a friend or two to help her figure things out," Sweetie suggested. "And I think we're just the ponies for the job."