Friday 8:35 AM
Silver Spoon stared out the window of Vinyl Scratch's car. She was dreading, yet nervously excited about going to school. Today was the day that she'd finally be free. For nearly the entire school year, she had been Diamond Tiara's minion, her slave. She was forced to be cruel to other kids, to bully them till they were in tears. The small girl shuddered at the thought of yesterday afternoon, she knew that Diamond would tease her victims until they'd cry, but she never expected her to make those boys beat them up. It had scared her, and she hated how powerless she was to stop it.
As these though's flew across her mind, she watched the landscape of buildings, shops, and houses pass by. In a few minutes, she saw the schoolhouse come into view. About twenty children, boys and girls, were running around the small playground set beside the small building. She saw Diamond Tiara sitting by the picnic table that they met by every morning. Silver Spoon quickly diverted her eyes from the controversial girl and set her sight on something else.
Her eyes searched through the playground until they rested on Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo. The three girls were playing on the small, two person swing-set. They took turns pushing each other as they sat on the seats, Scootaloo seemed to insist on doing it herself, kicking her legs back and forth until she was nearly going over the top bar. when she deemed herself high enough, she would suddenly fling herself from the swing and landed in the sandbox nearby. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle applauded and cheered every time she did this and Scootaloo bowed as if she had just given an outstanding performance.
"Vinyl?"
"Yeah Spoony, what is it?" Vinyl looked at her goddaughter through review mirror, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah I just had a question. When we finally get Diamond Tiara away from me, will anyone else trust me enough to be my friend?"
Vinyl sighed as she pulled up to the school's drop off point, they had been the last to arrive. She unbuckled her seat belt and turned around in her seat to look at Silver Spoon in the eyes.
"If this new person is a true friend, she'd trust you enough to give you a second chance. It won't be easy, you'll have to prove to everyone that you're a good person, that you can change. Just because you've hurt someone, it doesn't mean that they can't heal and learn to truly know you as a friend. Got it Spoony?"
Silver Spoon Smiled and nodded. Vinyl was right, to have people trust her, she'd have to prove that she could be a good friend. Vinyl opened her car door, she hopped out of the seat and opened the back door for Silver Spoon. The grey-haired girl took her godmother's hand and hopped out of the car.
"Can you watch, please? I want to make sure nothing goes wrong."
Vinyl smiled at the child's question, "No problem Spoons, I'll be watching from the car."
Silver Spoon smiled and made her way to the picnic table. Diamond Tiara instantly took notice of her, she stood up and waved vigorously, "Silver! I've been waiting for you forever!"
Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself for what was about to happen. Today was the day. Today is the day. Silver Spoon waved back slightly and walked over to the picnic table.
"Diamond, I need to ta-"
"Thank Celestia your here!" Diamond Tiara threw her hands up in the air dramatically, "I've been stuck here on this playground full of babies with no one to talk to. I'm so glad your here so I don't have to be around all the dirty poor people alone."
A few children flashed the two girls glares as they walked by. Silver Spoon felt guilty under there hateful eyes, "Diamond I really need to talk to you-" she was cut off as the spoiled girl leaned forwards and once again started to speak,
"Thanks for taking some of the blame on that small incident the other day." She smiled menacingly, "I had no idea that those boys were that strong, got a teensy bit out of hand. If you hadn't been there to back me up, I'd have been suspended.
"Actually I wanted to talk to you about tha-"
"Oh my gosh, look over there." Diamond pointed to the other end of the playground. Silver Spoon's breath caught at what she saw. Sitting there, was Dinky and Berry Pinch. Berry Pinch's left arm and knee were covered in band-aids from when she was pushed down against the gravel, Dinky had a black eye and a small bandage pulled across her nose. The spring air was hot, but Dinky wore a wool sweater and sweat pants to hide the several bruises across her arms and legs.
Silver Spoon had no idea that they were hurt that badly, she felt herself fighting off tears. As her false friend grabbed her by the wrist, she looked over at Vinyl and her car in despair. The DJ was leaning against the hood of her car. Even from this distance, she could still look into her eyes. Vinyl nodded, that was all Silver needed to gain the determination and a plan on what to do.
As Diamond dragged her across the playground, the other children watched, anticipating what was about to happen. Applebloom and her friends followed the two with a resentful gaze, their eyes narrowed. The two girls stopped in front of Berry and Dinky, both were sitting on the ground, playing with barbies. They looked the tyrants with a start, dropping their dolls in the gravelly dirt. Fear filled their eyes and the color drained from their faces.
"Well well well, what do we have here? Two babies playing with their baby toy dolls?" Diamond taunted the two terrified girls and kicked the barbies into the dirt. Dinky gasped and tried to crawl for her doll when the bully stepped in the way of her path. Silver Spoon stumbled, still held in the brat's iron grip.
"P-please, give i-it back." The bruised girl pleaded, "My M-momma gave me that doll for my birthday. It's the best thing she's ever given m-me."
"Aawwwwww, the wittle little baby want her wittle barbie doll?" Diamond lifted the dirty barbie from the dirt, it's blond hair now colored brown. "What do you think about these babies Silver?" The girl started to tear the clothes off of the barbie, tearing the beautiful blue dress to ribbons.
"NO! Stop it! My Mom made that dress for her!" Dinky jumped up in attempt to grab the toy, but Diamond Tiara held it out of her reach and pushed the helpless girl into the dirt with her free hand.
"You pathetic little waste of a person! You're as useless as that stupid derp you call your Mother! And with that black eye, you look like the ditz she is too!"
Tears streamed from her face as Dinky curled herself into a ball, in attempt to shield herself from the cruel words. Berry Punch stood up and tried to defend her friend,
"Stop it Tiara! You don't have the right to treat us this way! Were no lesser class people than you!"
"Oh yeah? What about that drunk of a mom of yours? She's so worthless, she can't even walk straight half of the time."
This comment left poor Berry Pinch speechless, her response was more instinctual than voluntary.
"M-my mom is n-not a drunk. Just b-because she w-works at a bar, doesn't m-mean that she's a d-drunk hers-self..."
"Oh so that's the excuse then!" Diamond Tiara pushed the stunned girl to the ground.
Silver Spoon looked around in numb fear. A group of kids surrounded the skiff, no one intervened in fear of Diamond turning on them. Applebloom and her friends were trying to push their way to the front of the crowd to defend the victims.
"Diamond! Stop this, you've gone t' far this time!" Applebloom shouted.
"Yeah, leave poor Dinky and Pinch alone!" Scootaloo agreed,
"They don't deserve this treatment!"
"DIAMOND TIARA! SILVER SPOON!" The strict voice of Ms. Cheerily filled the air, she too was trying to make her way through the crowd of children. As soon as they realized who was trying to get past, the circle parted like a red sea. Vinyl was also making her way towards the schoolyard.
Silver Spoon looked back at Dinky and Berry Pinch, both girls were huddled on the ground. Diamond Tiara's insult's continued to flow from her mouth. Silver felt a deep anger grow inside her, but it wasn't just anger; she felt responsibility. These kids were getting hurt, abused, bullied, and Diamond was only going to get the partial punishment she would deserve. She would take the rest of the blame, and Diamond Tiara wouldn't learn a thing. She'd continue to bully people and hurt them and it would never stop.
"Come on Silver Spoon, help me out here." Diamond Tiara motioned her hand towards the two helpless girls.
"Come on! If you don't pitch in, or will I have to keep going it alone?" Silver Spoon knew what the devilish girl truly meant. If she didn't pitch in, if she didn't take some of the blame, Diamond would tell everyone her secret. That she had problems learning things that were easy for other kids, that she was different from everyone else.
Silver Spoon took her focus away from her thoughts and back to what Diamond Tiara was saying, only a few seconds had passed but she had already returned to insulting Dinky and Berry, kicking dirt in their faces. Cheerilee was rushing towards them as fast as she could while Vinyl stood at the edge of the crowd, her eyes were urging Silver Spoon to take control and stop the poor girls' suffering.
"Stop! Please stop!" Berry Pinch was desperately rubbing her eyes in a failing attempt to get rid of the grit that covered her face.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you weren't used to being beaten. I thought your mom hit so many times in her drunken stupors that you were used to-"
"Stop it." Silver Spoon muttered quietly. Diamond Tiara paused in her flurry of insults, Dinky and Berry Punch noticed the pause and shimmied away from the the two girls as quick as they could.
"What was that?"
"I said stop it."
The crowd around the two girls was frozen, anticipating what would happen next. Ms. Cheerily continued to try to push her way through the group, but they now refused to step aside for the teacher; they wanted to see what would happen next. Whispers swept quietly through the crowd,
"What's going on?"
"I think Silver Spoon just turned on Diamond."
"Why would she do that?"
Diamond stood in front of Silver Spoon menacingly, she was only a couple inches taller than her, but she seemed to tower over her menacingly. Silver Spoon stood across from her defiantly, she wasn't going to back down now, it was too late.
"What did you just say to me?" Diamond Tiara had poison dripping from her voice. Silver Spoon answered,
"I said stop it. You're hurting Berry Punch and Dinky, they don't deserve to be teased like that." Her voice was much calmer than she expected. It was almost scary, how calm Silver was, compared to the uneven shake of anger in Diamond Tiara's voice.
Diamond Tiara glanced throughout the crowd quickly, she couldn't lose her control here, or she'd lose her power over these kids. She returned her gaze to Silver Spoon, "What do you think your doing?" She hissed, "Remember what I said I would do if you betrayed me?" She no longer cared that Ms. Cheerily was listening. If Silver Spoon didn't back down with this threat, she'd have to try harder to get all the other kids to fear her again.
But Silver Spoon's stance and voice didn't waver, "I remember what you said, and I don't care. You don't scare me anymore."
Even Ms. Cheerily paused at this statement, the entire playground was staring at the two girls, their face off showed no sign of ending and the air was strained with tension. Berry Punch and Dinky had made their way to the back of the crowd, they were now staring over the heads of the group of children to see what was happening.
The two girls stared at each other, their faces only a few feet apart. Poison and fire was burning in one's eyes; calm, focused oceans in the others.
This was it, Silver Spoons one chance at freedom. No backing down, no screwing this up. It was time to face the demon that had controlled her for so long.
It was time to face Diamond Tiara.