Diamond Tiara groaned as she woke up the following morning. She felt her stiff wings as she slowly got into her jacket, wishing she could spread them out, taking a mental note to free them when she used the bathroom. Then, she turned to see her roommate slowly getting up and dressed in a drab grey uniform. They didn't talk at all throughout the morning, but she saw Snowdrop was looking rather guilty, but she herself was still quite angry at how she treated her yesterday.
Then they walked out, trailing behind dozens of other fillies slightly younger or older than her, and followed the rest of her class to the dining hall. She looked up to see the long, dusty hall filled with long benches covered in bowls of sad-looking grey oatmeal, plates with small omelets, and small china cups filled with tea. The little filly then sat down and began eating a small omelet that wasn't filling and some tea. Throughout the meal, the other fillies looked over at her and whispered amongst each other with stares. She tried to ignore them and just went about eating.
Mrs. Hardwood then came out and tapped a spoon into her cup. "Now, students, settle down."
The chatter died down to a murmur as she continued, "Now we have some announcements. I want to introduce you all to a new student, Diamond Tiara!"
The filly slowly rose and bowed as the rest of the students murmured and whispered, some looking at her with smirks. She felt like a fish in the middle of a swarm of sharks waiting to gobble her up; while she was here, it would be best to keep her guard up.
"Please sit."
"Yes, Mrs. Hardwood," Diamond whispered as she sat down, which got more fillies to murmur. But they went quiet once more as the teacher replied, "Now, since we have a new student and the beginning of a new semester, we should go over the rules now while you are in class; you will do as your teachers say and be on your best behavior. You will receive demerits if there is any misbehaving, missed assignments, or being late. If you reach ten, we will send a letter to your parents about your behavior. I promise you we take your education seriously and will not allow any misbehavior if that is understood!"
"Yes, Mrs. Hardwood," the fillies all chimed.
"Now, enough chit-chat. It's time for classes. Go to your assigned teacher's single-file lines."
The fillies got up, and as they were going to the front of the dining hall, Diamond crossed. She tripped and squealed as she fell. Then she slammed onto a bowl of cold oatmeal face first. The little filly groaned as she struggled to get up, wiping the cold glop from her face. This got a laugh from the other fillies, and Mrs. Hardwood stomped a hoof on the ground and shouted, "Silence!"
The fillies stopped with only a handful of giggles echoing through the hall and snapped, "Diamond, get up and clean yourself up this instant!"
The filly looked up surprised, "But!"
"No buts! Fillies should be more aware of their surroundings. Now, get up and clean yourself."
Diamond was furious that not only were her classmates bullying her, but the teachers couldn't care less or were clueless. She was about to snap back, but Snowdrop put a hoof on her shoulder, bowed, and quickly said, "Don't worry, Mrs. Hardwood. I'll escort her back to the dorm."
"Good, now hurry; you two will still need to be on time for your classes."
"Yes, Mrs. Hardwood," the two fillies chimed as they rushed off. Diamond felt tears coming over her eyes as she looked at Snowdrop, who looked downtrodden, as she escorted her roommate back to their room. As they entered their room, the filly went to the bathroom and cleaned herself. Snowdrop stayed by silently, waiting patiently; once finished, Diamond eyed her and asked, "Why are you helping me?"
"Look, we don't have time. I'll talk about it later, okay? Now come on, we can't be late!" Snowdrop helped her out of the room, and the two ran off through the dusty halls.
Upon finding their classroom, they stopped running and took a second to fix themselves as they slowly opened the door. It revealed a drab-looking classroom with rows of fillies all dressed in their boring grey uniforms, quills in their hooves. At the front of the classroom was a plump earth pony with a chalkboard. She eyed them as they sat down and snapped, "You're late!"
Snowdrop bowed her head. "Please accept our apologies. Diamond slipped into some oatmeal, and I escorted her back to our dorm to help clean her up."
"Yes, I am aware that it does not excuse your punctuality. You two will both receive a demerit now. Sit!"
"Yes, Mrs. Porridge."
Diamond wanted to say something back, but Snowdrop shook her head, "No." so Diamond sat grumpily at a desk as she took out a notebook. Then they went straight to etiquette lessons, learning to eat properly, talk to ponies, and curtsey. Each lesson was more tedious than the last, and it was exhausting to make all the effort to stay awake. Snowdrop nudged her every time she dozed off, and Diamond did her best to pay attention; after their morning classes, they were back in the dining hall having lunch, this time being a hot bowl of a thick veggie stew with tea. As Diamond ate, three other foals came over, and one was a tall, black-coated unicorn with a long purple mane and dark violet eyes. "So, you're the newbie?"
"Yeah, so what?"
"Well, I'm Onyx, and there are some rules you might not know about. I'm the one in charge when the teachers aren't around."
Snowdrop rose and said, "Look, I'll pay her share today. She's new."
"Of course she is, so she needs to learn who's in charge!" She then threw her mane back and took out a hoof. "I'm sure your parents gave you some bits for your trip here, so how about you lend me some to help make your time here easier."
The pink-coated filly eyed her, "No, I'm not giving you a bit."
Snowdrop took out a purse filled with bits, but Diamond placed a hoof and shook her head. "No."
Onyx eyed her, then said, "Diamond, let me say this another way: Pay me, and I can make things much easier for you. I'll get the other fillies to stop teasing you, and we can become best of friends. But you're a newbie, so if you want to climb up the ladder here, you need to pay. Or I can make the next year a living hell. What do you say?"
"I say you can buck off," Diamond growled as she eyed her.
Onyx got in close until they were "muzzle to muzzle" and said, "You really want me to be your enemy?"
"No, but I won't be bullied by the likes of you. There are better ways to make friends than abusing your power over other ponies."
The two other fillies gave each other nervous looks. Diamond smirked, seeing that she had planted a seed of discontent into Onyx's posse, but this just made the filly more furious. Stomping a hoof, she said, "Fine! See what happens when you mess with me!" then, she stomped off with her posse following behind her. After Onyx left, Diamond returned to her meal as Snowdrop asked, "Why did you do that?"
"I used to be like her, and it's easy to intimidate ponies who move to a new school. Standing up to her is the best way to stop a bully like that."
Snowdrop rolled her eyes and said, "You have no idea how things work here. This isn't just any school. You should've just let me pay her off for you."
During the meal, Diamond Tiara grew quite frustrated as she turned to her and asked, "Why are you being nice to me all of a sudden!? You basically told me to buck off last night."
Snowdrop opened her mouth, looked around, and whispered, "As I said, we can talk later."
Just then, she heard a plop and a splash in her teacup. The filly saw a mouse squirm out, making her cry as it ran off. She fell back onto the ground, and there was another round of giggling and laughing as she heard Mrs. Hardwood shout, "Diamond Tiara! Stop making a racket!"
The filly got up and was going to shout, but Snowdrop placed a hoof on her shoulder and bowed, "We will do as you say. I apologize."
Diamond glared at Onyx, who smirked but did as she said, giving a cutesy. Then, as she sat down next to Snowdrop, she apologized, not fully trusting her, but at this point, she was the only pony in this school helping her.
They then spent the rest of the day going by with tedious lessons on the history of Equestria, mathematics, spelling, and language. By night's roll, Diamond was exhausted, hungry, and tired. By dinner time, she quickly ate her meal, not wanting to stay in the dining hall a single second longer than she had to, and then went on her way. Being used to the hushed whispers and the looks, it was like what she did the cutie mark Crusaders, but over a hundredfold. Onyx probably was spreading rumors about her already, but it would be what she used to do.
That night, after Diamond had a long relaxing bath, she dressed in her coat and placed the band around her wings. Then, as she entered her room, she spotted the small pegasus, which seemed a bit crushed. She turned to her and said, "What!?"
"Nothing, just I...I want to apologize."
"For what?"
Snowdrop sighed, then said, "For snapping at you yesterday, I…I was having a bad day and took it out on you. That wasn't right."
Diamond was surprised and then said, "That doesn't explain why you're being nice to me all of a sudden?"
The pegasus looked downward and said, "I see how you're being treated. It was the same for me when I first came here," she then paused and continued, "Most of the foals here were forced to be here by their parents, and we all are a bit…"
"Snobbish, rude, bullies."
Snowdrop winced at Diamond's description but nodded in agreement. Then she said, "Yeah, all that…" She shivered a little and added, "But it's not all our fault. Every filly here was put here by our parents, so you can't blame us for being suspicious—even Onyx, though she's the worst of them."
The pink-coated filly looked downward, reminiscing about seeing a lot of her old self in the black-coated unicorn, and said, "Yeah, she is, but who knows how she's keeping everyone from ganging up on her, intimidating, blackmailing, and spreading rumors about other foals."
Snowdrop just nodded along with every word and said, "Yeah, that's true; guess you had a similar experience?"
Diamond paused, reminiscing a little about how she bullied other ponies, then said, "You could say that."
The pegasus then trotted to her bed and plopped on it as she took off her shoes. "Well, while you're here, I'll teach you the ropes, who to talk to, and how to navigate Onyx and her posse, okay?"
Diamond turned to her, appreciating the thought, but she didn't want to be protected. Deep down, she wanted to do more and explained, "Thank you, Snowdrop, but I'm not going to let them walk all over us. In fact, I think I can change them."
The little white-coated pegasus paused as she started to laugh. "Change them? Yeah, good luck with that. In the meantime, I'll try to keep you alive."
"Trust me, I think we can change them," Diamond said.
"Alright, if you say so?" Snowdrop scoffed, unconvinced, as she took off her uniform. Upon doing so, Diamond's eyes widened to see she didn't have a cutie mark, and she replied, "You're still a blank flank?"
The filly eyed her, then snapped, "Yeah, I'm a blank flank, alright!? You better not tell anypony else!"
Diamond squeaked, seeing she didn't mean how she said that, and then said, "Right, sorry, but I'm just surprised."
The filly looked back at her flank and said, "Well, if I'm being honest, my whole life, I wanted to be the perfect filly like my mother wanted me to be, but I barely ever knew her. I was raised by nannies, and most of them were quite cruel. I became bitter and angry as the only times I ever saw my mother was when I was in trouble, so I lashed out a lot and disobeyed them. They soon had enough, and the last time I saw my parents, they packed me up and sent me here to teach me how to be a proper filly."
Diamond paused hearing the story, feeling so sorry for her and the dozens of the fillies here, all being punished unfairly. This would only make them crueler. Then an idea crept into her mind as the pink-coated unicorn took out a suitcase and opened it. Some clothes were removed, revealing a red cape with the sigil of a prancing pony on a blue field. Snowdrop eyed it and then said, "What is that?"
Diamond turned to face her and said, "This is the cape of the cutie mark crusaders, a group of ponies who changed me for the better. They spent years looking for their cutie marks and helped me find out what pony I wish to be."
After hearing Diamond's words, she placed a hoof on her chest and said, "They sound like great fillies."
She then placed the cape around Snowdrop's shoulders, tied it around her friend's, and continued, "In time, with some faith and help from friends, you'll find your cutie mark, and I think other foals here might be blank flanks as well. We can help them find their cutie marks, too!"
"That… that's a great idea!" the filly squealed. Then she threw it behind her as she fluttered about, giggling with glee. Then her joyful expression turned sour, and she groaned, "But the teachers won't ever permit us to wear these or host a club."
Diamond Tiara tapped a hoof to her chin, wondering what the Cutie Mark Crusaders would do. Then an idea came out as she said, "Then we have to hold our meetings in secret, a place where the adults don't ever go."
Snowdrop got excited again as she shouted, "We should meet in old Classroom 3C! It's been abandoned for years; no pony would ever go there. We can meet after dinner. Most of the teachers leave, but only Mrs. Hardwood walks about, so we'll still have to keep an eye on her."
"Okay, that works. Then all we need to do is find other foals scared of Onyx and have them come. It can be a place where they can relax and learn about themselves, even if they do have cutie marks."
The pegasus filly nodded and said, "Right, I might know some fillies who would join.
Diamond started to get excited as she exclaimed, "Sounds like a great plan! We can start our first Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting tomorrow evening to spread the word!"
Snowdrop nodded, then yawned, "Right tomorrow, we better get going to bed. We can't be late. We're already on Mrs. Hardwood's bad side."
The pegasus gave her an odd look and asked, "Also, I have to ask why you are wearing that jacket?"
The filly looked away, then clenched it hard as she said, "It's my coat condition, please. I don't want to talk about it."
Snowdrop wanted to pursue it more but sighed, "Fine, I'll drop I, but…if you're going to keep my blank flank a secret, I'll keep your secrets as well."
"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind," Diamond whispered as she lay under the covers and slowly fell asleep. Feeling the wings beneath her stir, she wanted to break free. The little filly wanted to reveal them to Snowdrop, but she couldn't still hear her mother's threats.