//------------------------------// // My Name Is Diamond Tiara // Story: Not My Little Diamond // by MagerBlutooth //------------------------------// Chpt. 1 - My Name Is Diamond Tiara Friday, March 21 "Seventy-one," Diamond Tiara said, she and her friend shifting their eyes back and forth like they were watching a rather slow game of table tennis. "Seventy-two," Silver Spoon said with even less enthusiasm as the two continued watching what was in front of them. "Seventy-three," both of them grumbled as they lost more and more interest in what they were witnessing. "This is ridiculous!" Diamond Tiara shouted, her ferocity causing her friend to jump in surprise. Diamond stomped away from her position by the wall of the schoolhouse to confront their teacher. "Miss Cheerilee, can we please do something else already?" Diamond Tiara moaned, interrupting the lecture her teacher was presently giving to the other students. "I’ve had all I can stand of this momenitum stuff." Cheerilee lost her train of thought upon hearing her student’s blatant mispronunciation of the day’s subject matter and calmly responded, "Momentum, Diamond Tiara, and I don’t think you’re really getting what you need from this demonstration." "But it’s just so boring, Miss Cheerilee," Diamond Tiara whined as she stomped the ground in frustration. "Me and Silver Spoon have already been reduced to counting how many times we’ve watched that stupid thing go around that dumb pole." Cheerilee, not liking to see this sort of negativity or such misuse of object pronouns from her students, politely offered, "How about this? Why don’t you take a turn now? Maybe that will make this lesson more interesting." Diamond Tiara let out a small sigh and turned toward the tetherball pole. "Fine," she loathfully replied. Cheerilee smiled, keeping up her cheerful demeanor. "That’s the spirit!" she cheered before calling out to one of the two fillies hitting the tetherball back and forth, "Scootaloo, let’s give Diamond Tiara a turn." "Okay, Miss Cheerilee," the orange filly earnestly replied as she stepped aside to stand with the small crowd of spectating students. Diamond Tiara reluctantly walked to one side of the tetherball pole opposite the yellow filly on the other. She checked to make sure her beloved tiara was still perfectly level on her head as she surveyed both her opponent and the tetherball with a very jaded look in her eyes. Cheerilee stood beside the other students as she prepared to continue with her lesson for that day, and Silver Spoon quickly made her way over to get a better look. "Ready, Diamond Tiara?" Apple Bloom cordially asked, holding the ball with her front hoof. "Just hit it already," Diamond Tiara mechanically replied with a hint of spite. Apple Bloom complied with the impatient filly’s request, beginning a slow-paced rally between the two, and Cheerilee carried on with her explanation of momentum. Those that were not smacking the tetherball watched as it circled the metal pole, most of them intently listening to their teacher. "Now remember, class, momentum is produced when a physical object has a force applied to it, which causes it to pick up speed. In this case, momentum is produced by the tetherball, the physical object, by smacking it, which creates the force that gives it its speed. When an object loses speed, it loses momentum, and vice versa. So, can anypony tell me at what point this tetherball has the most momentum?" "Oh! Oh! Oh!" A white unicorn raised her hoof high in the air to get her teacher’s attention. "Yes, Sweetie Belle," Cheerilee responded with a small giggle. "It has the most momentum when Apple Bloom hits it, because she’s hitting it much harder. So that means there’s more of it at that moment…um, right?" Sweetie Belle stated, pointing to her friend. Several of the other students nodded and mumbled in agreement at Sweetie Belle’s suggestion. Upon hearing this little scientific theory, Diamond Tiara realized that she was being insulted. She heard the way the other students all latched onto that blank flank’s ridiculous notion, and she could tell that at that moment they all thought Apple Bloom was better at hitting a stupid, worn-out, yellow ball around a tacky, poorly-crafted pole than she was. The very idea taunted the filly with a powerfully annoying amount of potency, causing her mind to converge onto one singular idea that she could not and would not disregard: I’ll show them who can hit this thing harder. As the tetherball swerved around the pole toward her, Diamond Tiara readied herself to hit the ball as hard as she possibly could with her front hoof. She felt a glimmer of excitement for the first time that entire school day as she fiercely dug her hoof into that yellow sphere like it was filled with candy. Miss Cheerilee, about to reply to Sweetie Belle’s answer, got sidetracked as she caught sight of a tetherball zooming around a pole with at least twice its previous speed. Apple Bloom, not expecting the sudden change in momentum, could only drop to the ground as the ball soared straight over her head and back around the pole again. Diamond Tiara, not expecting it to come back so quickly, had to jump back to avoid it herself, and the ball continued on its circular path around the pole until it wrapped around it completely. Apple Bloom stood back up after the ball had finally stopped. "What in the hay was that about?" she shouted toward her uncooperative tetherball partner. Diamond Tiara, wanting to play up her proficient tetherball skills, stuck her nose up and boasted, "Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hit it too hard for you?" Apple Bloom’s eyes narrowed as the tetherball begin to unravel itself from the pole. She didn’t know what made Diamond Tiara suddenly start acting like, well, herself, but as she heard Silver Spoon giggle at the Diamond's condescending remark, she knew this was probably another attempt to try to embarrass her in front of everypony. Cheerilee, seeing there was conflict brewing between the two fillies, calmly tried to intervene. "Now girls, remember, we're doing this exercise to learn. So let’s all just calm down for a minute and think about the…" Apple Bloom didn't even hear her teacher's words. She grabbed that ball again, and threw it up in the air before turning around to kick it with her hind legs. Diamond Tiara, still holding her head up high in celebration of her impressive display of tetherball prowess, tilted it back down just in time to get a lovely view of a yellow ball a few inches away from her face. Luckily for her, the ball zoomed right over her head, barely grazing the top of it before wrapping around the pole once more. However, Diamond didn't feel lucky. Instead, she felt a sudden shift in mass between her ears. Diamond’s tiara was sent flying off her head, and Apple Bloom’s smirk quickly met a similar fate. The coveted headpiece continued its flight path until it was forced to come to a sudden, complete stop by the sturdy wall of the schoolhouse from which Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had just recently moved away. Upon making contact with the wall, the tiara broke in half and fell lifelessly into the dirt. The entire class gasped in unison, many of them taking a few steps backwards out of fear. Silver Spoon timidly hid behind her teacher in anticipation of the expected explosion, who was looking just as uneasy about the situation. The ominous silence took hold of the moment, and the only sound that shined through was a hushed comment from Scootaloo. "Told ya that thing wasn’t made from real diamonds." Diamond stared at her formerly impeccable headpiece with a look of pure horror before it shortly morphed into one of unbridled rage. She slowly rotated her head toward the guilty party with two piercing daggers where her eyes should have been. "You! You…you…apple-bucking...butter churner! You did that on purpose!" she shouted loud enough to ensure that everypony heard. Apple Bloom’s eyes lit up with fear as she took a step back from her classmate, who seemed to be on the verge of either weeping uncontrollably or foaming at the mouth. Before the yellow filly could even offer an explanation, Diamond had already grabbed the tetherball again and sent it hurtling around the pole once more, this time even faster than before. Apple Bloom ducked under the ball again as she tried to explain herself. "N-no! I-I didn’t mean to–" "Do you have any idea what you just broke?" Diamond furiously shouted, shoving the ball as it came around again. "Well, I mean…I don’t…" Before the madness could continue any longer, a purple hoof reached out and brought the weaponized toy to a sudden halt. "I think that’s quite enough, Diamond Tiara," Cheerilee stated in a much more serious voice than before. "But...but she…" Diamond began to plead before Cheerilee silently cut her off by raising a hoof in the air. "Apple Bloom, is there something you wish to tell Diamond Tiara?" the teacher asked in a serious yet nurturing tone. Apple Bloom unwillingly walked over toward her teacher and classmate with her head tilted toward the grass. She looked up at Diamond with only her eyes and said as sincerely as she could, "I’m sorry I broke your crown, Diamond Tiara." Cheerilee smiled warmly at Apple Bloom before turning to Diamond Tiara with another serious look on her face. "And don’t you have something to say as well, young lady?" Diamond was taken aback by what her teacher was proposing. "But…she…I didn’t even..." She tried to protest her teacher's statement, but that piercing stare prevented Diamond Tiara from creating a single successful excuse. Eventually, Diamond Tiara reluctantly turned back toward Apple Bloom, and replied through gritted teeth, "I’m sorry for...overreacting." Upon hearing the apology, Cheerilee reverted to her normal cheerful self and enthusiastically exclaimed, "Splendid! Now, why don't we all head back inside? I think we’ve learned enough about momentum for today, so I think we should–" The school bell rang before Cheerilee could finish her sentence. "Oh, well it looks like this school day has just flown by hasn’t it?" Cheerilee said with another giggle. "I suppose we’ll begin our next lesson on gravity Monday. Enjoy your weekend, everypony!" Several of the other students began to run off, and Cheerilee quickly called after them, "Make sure you all remember your homework!" Cheerilee turned back to the five remaining fillies next to the tetherball pole. Apple Bloom was being consoled by Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, while Diamond was observing her broken crown as Silver Spoon attempted to come up with some words of comfort. "Honestly, girls, this kind of behavior just isn’t acceptable for two growing fillies. I think you two should stay after for a little while and work this out amongst yourselves. If you need me, I’ll be right inside grading yesterday’s test papers." Cheerilee walked into the schoolhouse leaving the five completely alone. Apple Bloom, hoping to rectify this problem before it became one, made her way over to Diamond Tiara, whose eyes were glued to to broken headpiece that lay in front of her. Silver Spoon gave Apple Bloom a dirty look as the yellow filly approached. "Haven't you done enough already?" she asked spitefully. To be honest, Apple Bloom figured that she had, but she also recalled her sister’s advice about making sure nopony walked away angry from an argument. With that in mind, she reached out her front hoof toward Diamond to say, "I really am sorry about this. I wasn't tryin' ta–" Diamond smacked the yellow filly’s hoof away in anger. "Don’t…touch me!" she barked in a hostile yet hushed tone as she imposingly forced eye contact between them. "And don't try to act all innocent. I know you wanted this to happen." "T-that's not true," Apple Bloom said. "I didn't plan to knock yer crown off." "Then maybe you should–" Silver Spoon started before Diamond cut her off with more violent whispering. "I don’t care what you were planning to do. Because of you, now my tiara is broken." Sweetie Belle, not caring for the situation any more than the rest of them, decided to suggest, "But you can fix it, right? With glue or tape or something? We can help you if you want." Hearing that idea gave Scootaloo one as well. "Yeah! We can be Cutie Mark Crusader Tiara Fix–" "No!" Diamond shouted, stopping all of Scootaloo’s enthusiasm dead cold. She proceeded to follow her outburst by slamming her front hooves into the ground, right on top of the the remains of her tiara. Hearing a soft crunch, Diamond raised her legs and brought them back down a few more times, crushing the pieces beneath the weight of her body and breaking them into unrecognizable bits of sparkly, light blue. All four fillies were left speechless at their furious classmate’s destructive actions, none of them believing what they just saw. Diamond continued ranting in a stifled tone with a crazed look in her eye. "Tape? Glue? Who do you blank flanks think you’re talking to? My tiara has to be perfect or it’s not fit to go on my head! As far as I’m concerned, it lost all its value the second it hit that wall." Apple Bloom tried to reason with the enraged filly as best as she could. "But it’s not that bad is it? I mean, your daddy can just buy you another one, right?" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement to Apple Bloom’s idea. Her anger continuing to rise, Diamond screeched, "That’s not the point!" The Cutie Mark Crusaders jumped at Diamond Tiara’s sudden increase in volume. The angry, young pony approached them threateningly, forcing the three to start backing away from her. Silver Spoon decided to take two steps back and just observe. "And anyway, who said my dad needs to buy me another one? You think that was the only one I own? Don't make me laugh. I'll have a new one on my head before dinnertime. That's not the problem." "Then...what is the problem?" Sweetie Belle asked hesitantly. Diamond managed to sound even angrier as she continued ranting, "Look at my head! Do you see a tiara on it now? I can’t be seen in public not wearing one!" "Then why did you-" Scootaloo began before getting cut off. "It’s part of who I am. I mean, really, it’s my look. It’s my name. It’s even my cutie mark!" Somewhat confused by an aspect of what the filly just said, Apple Bloom had to ask, "You got a cutie mark for wearing a crown?" Only three fillies witnessed what happened after that question was asked, and none of them could probably tell you the exact reason why it did. It’s possible that not even the two involved knew the exact reason. All that was truly known about the incident that day was that after Cheerilee, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Silver Spoon, and a passing donkey managed to yank Diamond Tiara off Apple Bloom, it was clear that each one of them had a perfectly developed understanding of the word "momentum."