Wednesday came and went without issue: Silver Spoon, true to her father’s word, did not return to the school; which elicited a collective sigh of relief from her former classmates, not least Diamond Tiara.
Ponyville and Wider Canterhoof Elementary would not miss the bespectacled terror, but the actions of Silver Spoon and her reluctant assistant still lingered in the minds of even the most forgiving of ponies. With Silver gone, there remained only the repentant Diamond Tiara to take all the anger and hurt and – perhaps bravely, perhaps naively – try to turn it into some kind of basis for an amiable relationship.
It was not fair, of course, but little in life ever was, and Diamond supposed the hoof she had been dealt could have turned out worse. She tried to keep this fact in mind, but it could only do so much against the crushing weight of failed apologies and the nagging feeling that the others were talking behind her back. Judging by the murderous looks she was subjected to daily, she was probably better off not hearing what they were saying.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had been some help to her, but ever since the agreement with the Apples had gone through they had made a point of distancing themselves from her. The message was clear: they may have helped her tremendously, but they were not her friends and certainly did not intend to be.
Snips and Snails, whilst they were decent enough in relative privacy, likewise avoided her. The only other foal she’d successfully apologised to – Dinky – was not in school, nor was her lanky pegasus friend. A science trip, apparently: one she’d have been able to go on herself had her grades not spiralled into the abyss along with her optimism.
So there she was, stranded at school with nopony to talk to besides Cheerilee, who was nice enough but just wasn’t the same as company her own age. Lessons came and went and she desperately tried to claw her way back to some degree of understanding, with limited success.
It was better than it had been before, but still a long way from being any sort of pleasant experience. Still, she told herself that by making amends she was taking steps towards a brighter future and sometimes this was all that pulled her through when her academic inadequacies got her down.
And then there was the assembly on Friday, in which she would have to convince her rightfully suspicious classmates that it had not been her desire to hurt them.
Wednesday came and passed without issue, but it likewise lacked anything good. Dead neutral; that was her life now. She just hoped she could make something worthwhile out of the mess she was in.
*
Thursday arrived with an enthusiastic bedazzlement of sunshine. This fair weather helped somewhat in making Dinky and Auburn’s return to school after their trip to the Everfree Fringe on Wednesday feel less like Monday come early.
Still cocooned in the fun they’d had the previous day, the pair did not, for once, notice the mocking laughs and stares from their fellow classmates in response to their outstandingly geeky apparel. Admittedly, Dinky would’ve shrugged the negativity off anyway, but even Auburn’s watchful eyes were blindfolded with the silken fabric of her good mood.
Apparently not satisfied with the fulfilment of exploring the ‘tamed’ edge of the mysterious Everfree Forest, the duo had a plan of action for the day.
Their objective: make a friend in – or, at the very least, a good impression on – Diamond Tiara.
Their method: a new and radical approach from the smartest minds in Equestria known only as ‘simple conversation’.
Its effects would be several times that of the previously state-of-the art tactics: ‘standing-close-to-the-most-reasonable-looking-pony’ and ‘enthusing-loudly-about-our-favourite-things-in-the-vain-hope-somepony-cares’. Celestia help the social scene.
They found Diamond standing alone outside one of the Equish classrooms, clearly not wanting to stand amongst the chatting fillies and colts who acted as a living reminder of what she didn’t have. Auburn slowed as they approached, and Dinky matched her pace, knowing from experience that Auburn’s cautiousness was a good thing to follow if one wanted to avoid making a foal of themselves in front of the class.
Diamond turned to look at them, eyes widening and brow raising, as the filly shrank into herself subconsciously: clearly she did not want company, nor the trouble it invariably brought, this early in her day. Nevertheless, the two approaching fillies drew ever closer, stopping a short distance from her.
For a few moments, nopony spoke, and in that time Diamond took a second to examine each of the new arrivals. Their body language was unthreatening, almost nervous, and she let out some of the breath she’d been holding: from the look of things they weren’t here to cause trouble.
The marginally closer of the two was the dun pegasus, Auburn or something: her coppery mane not styled so much as coaxed half-heartedly from bed-mane into something presentable, with the only personal touch being the deliberately curled end of her overlong, leftwards swept fringe.
Her eyes, pea green and watchful, gave little away – although the lack of any negative expression was something, at least. Lazily, almost complacently, she stretched her wings out and yawned, and in that moment Diamond thought she caught a slight smile grace the filly’s face.
Dinky was more expressive: she looked nervous, yet determined; the corners of her lips turned upwards in a placating expression despite the worried furrows of her brows. She didn’t appear to bear Diamond any ill will, and neither did her enigmatic companion.
This, of course, left the question of why exactly these two fillies were here. She waited for one of them to make a move. After an eternal few seconds, Dinky finally did just that: stepping ahead of her friend and smiling shyly at Diamond, head tilted a little to one side.
“Diamond?”
“Yeah?”
“Erm… me and Auburn have been talking, y’know, about you… and stuff, and we couldn’t help noticing you don’t really have any friends here.”
“You don’t say?” said Diamond, with more than a drop of sarcasm. “…What’s your point, Dinky?”
“My, uh, point is that maybe if you wanted we could hang out? Like friends? We usually help each other out with our homework and then we go do fun things.”
‘Fun things’ likely meant something far removed from Diamond’s own idea of the phrase to these two oddballs. Still, it would almost certainly be better than more evenings on her own, and she could really use the help with her work, nerdy as Dinky had sounded when she’d suggested it.
“…Alright, I’ll give it a go. I’m just not sure I like any of the same things you do – haven’t heard of most of them, actually – so that might be a problem…” She finished weakly, shuffling awkwardly on her hooves.
Dinky and Auburn merely grinned at her, the latter chuckling lightly.
“You don’t like any of the things we do, yet” she corrected, smirking a little as they fell once more into silence. Checking a little silver pocket watch she’d extricated from her overstuffed saddlebag, she glanced back up at her two companions and spoke again. “Class is in a minute – who d’you think’s left their homework behind this time: Snips or Snails. My money’s on Snips, personally – he couldn’t organise a pis--”
“Language, Auburn!” snapped Mrs Discourse, who’d approached from behind without them noticing, and Diamond took a little pleasure in the sharp ‘eep!’ of shock the pegasus made at this unexpected interruption.
She laughed and so did Dinky, Auburn joined in herself once the shock wore off and the trio made their way into the classroom. Diamond’s heart was light for the first time in months: unlike so many other things, friendship was turning out to be as good as it was made out to be.
*
“Diamond?”
Having been happily in conversation with her newfound friends as they made their way to lunch, it took Diamond a moment to realise she was being called for. She whirled round, to see Cheerilee standing a short distance from her.
“Could I have a word with you?” Continued her teacher, quickly moving to dispel her fear. “Don’t worry, it’ll only take a minute or two – I know how valuable your free time is to you.”
Glancing to her friends, Diamond sighed but conceded. “OK, I’ll come with you. You two go ahead, I’ll catch up in a minute, alright?”
She felt a slight pang watching Dinky and Auburn trot off to the cafeteria, it was funny how quickly she’d gotten attached to the two, considering she’d never once spoken to them for anything other than Silver’s dirty work.
She supposed she could be forgiven for not noticing Auburn before, since she’d only moved to Ponyville shortly before the school had opened its doors to the new influx of students from the wider area, but she’d had years to notice Dinky: years which she’d wasted instead with Silver Spoon.
Following Cheerilee into one of the maths classrooms, she took the nearest seat and looked expectantly up at her teacher.
“Sorry to drag you away like that, Diamond. You looked like you were enjoying yourself with Dinky and Auburn, but I needed to speak with you about tomorrow. Have you put any thought into what you’re going to say since we last spoke?”
Diamond nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ve got a good idea of what to say. Not sure if they’ll buy it though: no matter how I put it, not everything’s going to seem believable.”
“Don’t worry, Diamond. I’m sure you’ll do well out there, especially if you’ve got a plan of what to say. Unless there’s anything else you wanted to talk about, you’re free to go.”
“Well, actually there is something. I was thinking maybe I could see if Apple Bloom and a few of the others would say something in the assembly, too. I don’t think the Crusaders really want to be associated with me any more than they have to, but if they’d at least say that they believed me, it might make the others more likely to hear me out.”
Cheerilee smiled down at her. “That’s a fantastic idea. If you can convince them to help you, then I don’t see why not. Good luck, Diamond”
Diamond slid from her seat and trotted to the door, calling back over her shoulder: “Thanks, miss – I think I’ll need it…”
*
Hurrying to catch up to her new friends, Diamond was surprised to find they had not only saved her a seat despite the cafeteria rush, but had also brought her a tray laden with food she liked.
“Is this… mine?” She asked, equal parts confused and touched that they’d do this for her.
“Yep.” Dinky grinned. “ I think I remembered most of what you had yesterday, but I wasn’t really paying much attention then so I don’t know how much I got right. I hope you like it, anyway.”
Diamond smiled gratefully as she took her place opposite Dinky, which turned into a blissful grin as she took a bite of her food – it was still hot!
“You two are amazing – thank you so much.”
Her companions broke into matching grins at this, Auburn gesturing to her wings and extending them a little to emphasise her reply: “Just count yourself lucky I’m a pegasus. I’d like to see an earth filly try to carry two trays on her back and not drop anything.”
“What about unicorns?” asked Dinky, pointing to her horn. “Couldn’t somepony just levitate them both?”
Auburn’s smirk only grew. “Princesses save us if they tried! – somepony older, maybe, but nopony our age could do it without exploding, setting fire to or just plain dropping one of them.”
Diamond laughed with her, but frowned as a thought occurred to her. “What if they carried one on their back?”
“Dinky here already gave me all the proof I need that that won’t work… There’s a reason Twist won’t talk to us!”
“Auburn!” exclaimed Dinky, indignantly. “You said you wouldn’t tell her about that – now she’s going to ask me about it.”
“Actually,” said Diamond, “I think I’ll leave that for another time. I was wondering if you’d maybe go up with me in assembly, Dinky, tell them what you told me yesterday. I think it’d help if I had somepony else with me, you know. Might make me more believable.”
Dinky smiled happily, glad that she’d not been forced to relive the Twist incident. “Sure I’ll go up with you. Didn’t know you’d be speaking tomorrow - what are you doing in assembly anyway?”
“Oh, right, you don't know. I’m going to tell them the truth about me and Silver Spoon.” Stated Diamond simply, trying to keep her nervousness from surfacing in her voice.
Auburn whistled appreciatively. “You’ve got guts, Diamond, I’ll give you that…” Diamond grinned despite her fear, the irrational sense that she was somehow ‘cool’ for doing this buoying up her spirits.
“I was thinking of maybe seeing if the Crusaders would be up for it, too. If they said they believed me in front of everypony, maybe they’d give me a chance to explain myself. What do you girls think?”
“It’s worth a try, let’s do it.” Dinky enthusiastically agreed, and Auburn nodded her approval; the pegasus’s mouth full of food at the time.
Diamond paused to thank them both again, before ravenously tucking into her rapidly cooling meal. This might just work.
*
The rest of the day passed without too much trouble, although Diamond and the others were unable to find the Crusaders, none of their lessons after lunch quite matching up well enough with those of the trio’s to allow them to talk.
Their last lesson was the same as the Crusaders’ – Equish – but the corridor bustle had ensured that they arrived too late to catch the Crusaders, their class having already been called in by their teacher. All they could do was stare powerlessly through the glass and wait for Mrs Discourse to call them in for their lesson.
They established a last-ditch plan while they waited: as soon as the lesson ended they’d leave as quickly as possible and try and catch the CMC before they left the school building. This would be their last chance: tomorrow morning was the assembly, and therefore too late.
Their teacher beckoned the class in, and they obliged sitting down towards the back to allow them to talk without so high a risk of detection.
“So,” whispered Dinky, as their teacher launched into an explanation of good sentence structure, “D’you think the Crusaders will help us?”
“Dunno,” Diamond replied, “Scootaloo might – she even said we might have been friends if not for the whole cutie marks thing – but I’m not sure if Apple Bloom wants to be associated with me.”
Auburn spoke quietly, somehow covertly projecting her voice sideways without looking at the other two, “What about Sweetie Belle? From the sound of things she’ll be the one to tip it either way.”
“I just don’t know” moaned Diamond, falling silent as their teacher locked her hard grey eyes on the trio.
“Have you got something to share with the class, Diamond?” said Mrs Discourse, meant less as a question than as a spotlight under which she could make an example of the filly.
“No, Mrs Discourse.” Diamond mumbled, unable to meet the hateful glower of the angered Equish teacher.
“Is that so? Had you been working on a question, I’d understand if you wanted to discuss your work with your classmates, but I expressly told everypony to put down their pens and listen to me. Whatever’s more important to you and Dinky than your education is important enough for the class – go on, out with it!”
Diamond gulped. “It was nothing miss, really. Just some gossip”
“Very well,” snapped Mrs Discourse, “The two of you can stay behind until I’m satisfied you understand that idle gossip has no place in the classroom.”
“Crap.” Cursed Auburn, not quite quietly enough to evade detection.
“And you, too, miss Wake, since you appear to have ignored everything I’ve just said to your friends. Fifteen minutes after school, minimum. Every complaint, every whine, every time you tell me ‘it’s not fair’ I shall add another minute onto your time behind. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Mrs Discourse” chorused the trio sullenly, and after a long, long moment their teacher turned back to the blackboard and resumed her lecture. They did not bother talking after that, neither in the lesson nor their short detention.
Their chance was lost: the Crusaders would be miles away by the time they got out of class and Celestia knew where they’d decide to go that afternoon… unless… unless.
Diamond felt hope rise in her heart as she remembered that the Crusaders had let slip they always went to their clubhouse on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres before they set off. If they were fast, they might just be able to catch them.
She glanced up at the clock: five more minutes, and they’d be free. Surely the Crusaders took more than a mere quarter of an hour to plan out their insane schemes? Maybe, just maybe they’d be able to do it.
The time passed; an eternity of seconds; and finally Mrs Discourse begrudgingly let them go. As soon as they were out in the hall, Diamond broke into a sprint, her friends hurrying to catch up to her.
“Where are you going? We’ve already missed them!” called Dinky, scampering madly to catch up to her. Loping along beside her, Auburn raised a questioning eyebrow, and Diamond yelled her answer as the trio skidded to a halt to open the door leading out of the school.
“I think I know where they are! If we hurry we might just catch them.”
“What? Where?!” Cried Auburn as they galloped along the dirt path into town and swerved right onto the road out of Ponyville. Realisation struck the pegasus as the outlines of apple trees came into view in the far distance. “Sweet Apple Acres?! Oh, of course – the clubhouse!”
United at last in an understanding of what they were doing, the three fillies ran flat out, coming to a halt on the orchard’s outskirts. After a minute of desperate attempts to get their breath back in their empty lungs, they stood on unsteady, overstretched legs and ambled on towards Sweet Apple Acres.
“Best get over there quick – we’re not in the clear yet!” panted Diamond as she broke once again into a jog. This had better be worth it.
*****