Tiara in the Rough

by Locomotion

Chapter 3: Expulsion

“...seems awfully quiet around here right now,” mused Lickety-Split.

Pipsqueak gave him a wry half-smile. “Careful,” he cautioned. “The moment anypony says things are quiet, Diamond Tiara usually comes and winds us up.”

“Well, that's just it, Pip,” replied Lickety-Split, noticeably perplexed. “I haven't heard a peep out of either of them since this morning.”

“Ain't ya?” The mottled Earth colt raised an eyebrow. “That's weird.”

“So what?” muttered Button Mash, who was too focussed on his Joyboy to take any notice. “If it means I can save the Humgonians before lunch break is over, I don't even care.”

“Meh...I suppose so,” agreed Pipsqueak thoughtfully. “Ah well, I guess I'd better go see how what Dinky's up to. See ya later, guys.”

“So long, Pip,” said Lickety-Split, and turned his attention back to his lunch. Barely a few seconds went by before a bewildered Shady Daze came ambling up to their bench. “What's up, Shady?”

“Would you get a load of that?!” remarked Shady Daze in a tone that sounded both shocked and amused at the same time. “I don't think I've ever seen Miss Cheerilee look so honked off!”

Lickety-Split cocked his head in confusion. “Get a load of what?” he asked. “I don't get what you're on about.”

“I heard shouting from inside the schoolhouse while I was having lunch,” explained Shady Daze. “When I looked inside, I could see Miss Cheerilee talking to Diamond Tiara about something – couldn't make out a word of what she was saying, but whatever it was, it must have been real bad. You wouldn't believe how angry she looked!”

“Let me guess – something to do with her and Silver Spoon taking the mickey out of Featherweight?”

“Not quite.” Locomotion approached the group with a grave look on his face. “I mean, yeah, I'd already spoken to her about it, but I'd say it's more to do with Diamond Tiara punching Silver Spoon in the face.”

Shady Daze and Lickety-Split shot him a thunderstruck double-take, and even Button Mash was so startled by what Locomotion had just said that he completely forgot about the game he was playing.

“She did what?!” exclaimed Lickety-Split, stunned.

“Diamond Tiara punching Silver Spoon in the face?!” repeated Shady Daze. “Have you gone loco, Loco?!”

“Depends on how you interpret my name, I guess,” replied Locomotion in deadpan. “But no, I'm serious.”

“But...those two are like best friends!” objected Button Mash. “Why would Diamond Tiara hurt Silver Spoon like that?!”

Locomotion paused, turning his gaze back towards the schoolhouse. “I don't know, but one thing's for sure – Silver Spoon's gonna have a hard time getting over it,” he said unhappily. “She's physically okay apart from a nasty bruise on the cheek, but she couldn't seem to stop crying even after I'd brought her to see the nurse, so she's been sent home to recuperate.”

“What about Diamond Tiara?”

“Ah, who cares?!” scoffed Shady Daze. “So long as she gets what she deserves, then I don't give a toss about what happens to her! Imagine talking to Featherweight like that! Why, if I was in his horseshoes, I'd...”

“Well, now you come to mention it,” interrupted Locomotion, “I did catch a glimpse of her storming away from the schoolhouse as I was leaving the nurse's office. My guess is she's either gotten into a huff and legged it – or,” he finished, his eyebrows straightening, “she's been expelled.”

“Wouldn't surprise me either way,” quipped Lickety-Split. “She's had it coming her way for years. Even I've tried getting her to change her ways once or twice, but all she ever did was laugh it off.”

“Serves her right if you ask me,” muttered Locomotion darkly.

---

As it turned out, Locomotion was quite right about Diamond Tiara. When lunch break was over and it was time for the next lesson, the first thing everypony else noticed was that neither she nor Silver Spoon were anywhere to be seen. Furthermore, when Cheerilee called the register, the whole class was taken aback when she made no mention of either filly's name.

“Now, class,” began Cheerilee, standing up and making her way to the blackboard, “for today's history lesson, we will be picking up where we left off with the Great Griffin War.”

At last, Lickety-Split could no longer contain himself. He raised a hoof in the hope of gaining Cheerilee's attention.

“Yes, Lickety-Split?”

“I hope you don't mind my asking, Miss Cheerilee,” ventured Lickety-Split innocently, “but where have Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon gone?”

Cheerilee sighed wearily. Clearly she had been hoping to avoid the subject. “Well, I suppose it's only fair that you should all know,” she said gravely. “Just after lunch break had started, Locomotion had been telling me that both of them had been putting Featherweight down for his stature, and when I came outside to speak with them, I caught Diamond Tiara picking a fight with Silver Spoon – why, I don't yet know, but I regret to inform you all that Diamond Tiara will no longer be attending this school.”

This came as both a surprise and a relief to the whole class. They had never known Diamond Tiara to be so vicious with Silver Spoon, but at least they wouldn't have to put up with her anymore.

Locomotion suppressed a smirk. “Good riddance,” he muttered under his breath.

“And Silver Spoon?”

“She was in a bit of a state, so I've let her off the hook and sent her home,” Cheerilee clarified. “I'm hoping she'll be in better spirits by Monday, but we'll just have to wait and see.”

Lickety-Split smiled wryly. “I understand, Miss Cheerilee.”

“Anyway, getting back to the lesson – today, we will be studying the roles that railways played during the Great Griffin War. Now, can anypony tell me the first task they fulfilled after the declaration of war with Griffonia?”

Almost at once, Locomotion forgot all about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and enthusiastically raised a hoof.

“Yes, Locomotion?”

“The evacuation of all fillies and colts from heavily populated areas such as Canterlot, Baltimare and Manehattan, otherwise known as Operation Playschool,” explained Locomotion knowingly. “The Equestrian government also sanctioned the construction of several armoured trains to patrol the border between this country and Griffonia so as to suppress the threat of invasion.”

“Exactly,” affirmed Cheerilee, and proceeded to elaborate on the brief summary that Locomotion had given her; “When war was declared, the railways put on more than a thousand special trains for the movement of foals, mothers and teachers...”

---

Meanwhile, Diamond Tiara was receiving a lecture of her own – and unlike Locomotion, she wasn't enjoying it one bit. To say she had been sore at Cheerilee for suspending her would have been putting it rather mildly; throughout the journey back to the mansion in which she lived, all she could think of was how badly she wanted revenge not just on her teacher, but on that train-mad snitch who had dared to grass on her about Featherweight. If she had her way, she would have had her father sue the school, and Locomotion would have been made to suffer.

But as was often the case with Diamond Tiara, she didn't get her way. Cheerilee had already telegraphed Filthy Rich about her unruly behaviour, and naturally he wasn't the least bit pleased with his daughter. When she returned home, the first thing he did was to accost her into the study, where he spoke severely to her about her actions.

“I don't reckon I need to emphasise how disappointed I am in you, Diamond Tiara,” he scolded. “Your behaviour over the last few months had been atrocious, even by your own standards, and on top of all that, I hear you've assaulted your own friend in front of the whole school! I don't know what angers me more – that you refuse to improve your behaviour, or how horribly you treated Featherweight and Silver Spoon today.”

“It was Silver Spoon who started it!” protested Diamond Tiara. “She said she wanted...”

“I don't care what Silver Spoon had done or said to upset you!” snapped Filthy Rich. “You had no right to start getting physically violent with anypony, and you know it. You've already given yourself and my Barnyard Bargains firm a bad name with your attitude, and I'm not letting you make it any worse by picking fights. That's why I'm sending you away to a boarding school in Manehattan – hopefully that ought to teach you a bit of courtesy.”

Diamond Tiara looked horrified. “What?! But Dad...”

“No buts!” ordered Filthy Rich firmly. “You've crossed the line once too often, young lady, and there's no way I'm going to bail you out of this one! You're off to Manehattan, and that's final!” He turned on his fetlock and sternly walked out of the study.

Diamond Tiara was left staring at the doorway in disbelief. Surely this couldn't be happening to her, she tried to convince herself – no way would her father send her away just because some stupid fillies and colts had gotten on the wrong side of her. As far as she was concerned, the ones who should really be paying for all this were that goody-goody Locomotion and that grey fillyfooler who no longer qualified as her friend, and yet here she was being told that she was being sent to some boarding school far away from home. It wasn't as if she deserved any of this in the first place!

“Stupid ponies! Stupid Ponyville!” she groused bitterly. “I never wanted to live here anyway!” and she stomped huffily away, still griping over her “wrongs”. So perhaps she had been disgraced by some worthless lowlifes, she thought, but so what if she was being sent packing? What did Ponyville have that Manehattan didn't?

---

Brass Burnish stepped back from the display cabinet, allowing herself a few moments to admire the hard work she had put into her latest creation – a smart new silver gravy boat in the shape of a Bitalian gondola. As a well-known tableware purveyor to the aristocracy, she took great pride in her metalworking skills, and over the years had built up a small collection of bespoke silverware, from plates and goblets to knifes and forks. Many of them had simply been made for her own pleasure, since she viewed her work as much a hobby as a profession, but her collection also included a number of prototypes intended for batch production.

“Not a bad day's work if I do say so myself,” she thought aloud; but her reverie was promptly broken by a knock at the front door. Confused, she went to see who it was.

It came as even more of a surprise when she noticed Parcel Post, one of the local mailponies, standing outside with an envelope in his hoof. “Telegram for you, Mrs Burnish,” he announced. “From the school.”

“Oh...uh, thanks,” replied Brass Burnish, still looking bewildered as she accepted the envelope. Why would the school be telegraphing her, she wondered? Was there some special field trip coming up? Had Silver Spoon put another hoof out of line? Was she...sick? With a look of grave apprehension, she ripped open the envelope and began to read – but what she found inside came as such a shock that she almost shrieked with anguish:

Brass Burnish

Silver Spoon injured during lunch. Diamond Tiara hit her. Have sent her home to recover.

Cheerilee

Understandably alarmed by the bombshell with which she had been presented, the goldenrod mare dropped the telegram and galloped out into the street, nearly knocking Parcel Post off his hooves as she barged past him. To think that her own daughter had been willingly hurt by a filly who had been friends with her for so long! She had already seen it coming for some time, but it did little to suppress the pain she felt from her daughter being betrayed in such a cruel manner. She could only imagine how the poor soul must be feeling right now.

Eventually, Brass Burnish found Silver Spoon plodding sadly down a sidestreet not too far from the town centre. The grey filly's cheek was badly bruised with signs of mild swelling, and there were several scratches on her glasses. All told, she looked a right mess.

“Silver Spoon!” gasped Brass Burnish in dismay. “What happened to you?”

Silver Spoon stared miserably at her hooves. “She knows my secret.”

“Who does?”

“Diamond Tiara,” replied Silver Spoon, trying to hold back her tears. “I accidentally let slip of my crush during recess, and at lunch, she...she just...” but she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence before her floodgates finally burst open, and her mother instinctively wrapped her hooves around the sobbing filly as she cried into her shoulder. They remained that way for what felt like an age, and neither pony said a word until at last Silver Spoon resurfaced for air. “I can't believe I've lost my only real friend. Why did I have to throw open my big mouth?” she faltered.

“There, there, my little pony,” soothed Brass Burnish, wiping the tears away from her daughter's eyes. “It's not the end of the world. Diamond Tiara may not like you anymore, but there are plenty of other fillies and colts out there who might.”

“Not after the way we've treated them,” lamented Silver Spoon pessimistically. “All anypony talks about these days is what a royal pain we are – and they'd be right too.”

Brass Burnish smiled softly. “It's not too late to make amends with them, you know,” she answered. “The thing about Diamond Tiara is that...well, she's shallow. The only reason she ever wanted anything to do with you is because you come from a rich family just like her, and she probably didn't care what you were on the inside.”

Silver Spoon didn't say anything, but nodded morosely in reply. What a fool she was to have overlooked that in the past, she thought bitterly.

“Now, real friends,” went on Brass Burnish wisely, “like each other not for what they are – not their appearance, not their mannerisms, not even their Cutie Marks – but for their true colours. You too can become a really good friend to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, for example, but in order for that to happen, it's important to just be yourself. Do you see where I'm coming from?”

There was a brief pause before Silver Spoon nodded again. “Yes, Mom...I think I do,” she conceded. “I guess you're right – there's no way I'm going to get over this until I've at least apologised to the blank...uh, Crusaders.”

Gladdened that her daughter was starting to see the error of her ways, Brass Burnish gave her a warm smile and patted her shoulder. “That's my girl,” she encouraged. “Now, what say we go out to dinner at your favourite restaurant tonight?”

“Can we?” Silver Spoon's eyes lit up for the first time since her earlier scrape. “Oh, yes please, Mom!”

Brass Burnish chuckled. “I thought that might cheer you up. Come on then, my filly – let's get you home for a nice hot bath.”

Author's Note:

Operation Playschool, the population movement mentioned by Locomotion, is a reference to Operation Pied Piper, a mass evacuation programme that saw nearly 3.75 million people, mostly children, moved out of major population centres in Britain during the Second World War