Tiara in the Rough

by Locomotion

Chapter 7: Absence Makes The Heart Grow...Lonesome?

The months passed. Back in Ponyville, life had improved enormously for Locomotion and the Cutie Mark Crusaders without Diamond Tiara antagonising them round the clock. Within a few weeks of her departure, more Cutie Marks began to appear among the group – only three days afterwards, Tornado Bolt gained a lightning-bolt-shaped tornado on each flank, signifying that she shared Rumble's talent for weather control; and Pipsqueak arrived at Sugarcube Corner a week later bearing a Cutie Mark consisting of a helm and compass.

The biggest surprise of all came in the first week of the following month, when Silver Spoon generously offered Tootsie Flute her assistance in arranging flowers at the Town Hall for a wedding. When they had finished, the two of them were amazed and delighted to find a single flower standing proud on each of the aqua-coated filly's flanks. At her cute-ceañera two days later, Tootsie Flute made a hearty speech expressing her gratitude towards the grey Earth pony for helping her find her true calling in life, and even Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had to agree that Silver Spoon had come a long way from the lackey she used to be. Not only was she being more sympathetic towards blank-flanks – she was actively helping them find their special talents.

But the feelings of heartbreak and regret still lingered in the grey filly's heart, and not even the presence of her new friends could sweep that aside. Five months later, she was hanging out in the schoolyard with Apple Bloom, Sweetie-Belle and Scootaloo, nibbling mournfully at her apple turnover while the three Crusaders chattered eagerly amongst themselves.

Sweetie-Belle looked up from her daisy sandwich, noticing the gloomy expression on their former enemy's face. “You alright, Silver Spoon?” she asked.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” mumbled Silver Spoon unhappily. “Just lost in my own world is all.”

“It's not Diamond Tiara again, is it?”

Silver Spoon groaned inwardly. Was she really that easy to read? “Um...to be honest, Scootaloo, yes it is,” she confessed glumly.

“Silver, you've gotta try and move on,” insisted Scootaloo gently. “If Diamond Tiara doesn't want to be your friend anymore, she doesn't want to be your friend anymore, and there's nothing we can do about it.”

The grey filly sighed and removed her glasses to wipe away a small tear. “I know,” she replied. “It's just so hard when your best friend turns around and forsakes you without warning. Surely you and Apple Bloom must have felt something similar after getting into that row over dating.”

Apple Bloom nodded thoughtfully. Angry though she may have been at Scootaloo for being so difficult, she couldn't deny that the Cutie Mark Crusaders felt rather lifeless and empty without her, and it had taken a huge weight off her chest when the orange-furred Pegasus heartily agreed to rejoin their ranks.

“True,” observed Scootaloo brightly, “but on the plus side, at least it brought me and Rumble together.”

“So?” retorted Apple Bloom.

“So there might be somepony out there who is to Silver Spoon what Rumble is to me.”

“Scoot, that somepony is already long gone,” objected Silver Spoon. “Diamond Tiara is the only one I ever had feelings for.”

Scootaloo lost patience. “Look, this is getting to be ridiculous!” she growled. “You're not gonna see her again, and even if you do, she probably won't even recognise you, let alone want to start out fresh!”

“Now, hang on, Scoot,” interrupted Apple Bloom firmly, “that's not necessarily true. Ah may not be a fan o' Diamond Tiara right now, but ya never know – five months away from 'er family an' home might've given 'er time ta properly think things through.” She paused impressively. Deep down, she didn't believe what she was saying any more than the others did, but she didn't have the heart to tell Silver Spoon. “Ah know this sounds crazy, but it might be that she's started ta see the error of her ways.”

“Fat chance!” huffed Scootaloo. “Once a bully, always a bully!”

Sweetie-Belle gasped in shock. “How could you?!” she burst out. “Here Silver Spoon is changing her ways, and you say she's still a bully?!”

“What?! No, I didn't mean that!” spluttered Scootaloo, trying to backpedal a little. “I meant Diamond Tiara, not her...”

“Scoot, Silver Spoon was a bully once, and she's already changed fo' the better!” interrupted Apple Bloom severely. “If such a thing is true of her, then why shouldn't there be a chance of that happenin' with Diamond Tiara?!”

“Because she's been nothing but mean to us even before she got her Cutie Mark!” blustered Scootaloo defensively. “At least with Silver Spoon we could tell she didn't actually mean it!”

“I know I've got every reason to hate her myself,” cut in Silver Spoon promptly, “but I still miss her. She was my whole world, and I'd give anything to try and reconcile with her.”

“You what?!” Scootaloo looked as if she could hardly believe her ears.

Apple Bloom was more supportive; “Well, if ya want, we can go an' pay 'er a visit at some point,” she suggested. “Maybe then y'all could try an' salvage yo' friendship.”

“And even if you can't,” offered Sweetie-Belle, “we'll be happy to give you a shoulder to cry on.”

The faintest hint of a hopeful smile registered on Silver Spoon's face. “You will?”

“You betcha!” said Apple Bloom. “Tell ya what – we've got half-term comin' up in a few days, so maybe we could go then. Have a sort'a Cutie Mark Crusader Convention an' help y'all out at the same time. What do ya think?”

“I think you're nuts!” interjected Scootaloo. “All of us venture up to Manehattan just so we can be tormented by that prissy prude again?! And why should Diamond Tiara want to listen to reason?!”

Apple Bloom smirked devilishly. “By way of our secret weapon...”

---

“...you wanna go over to Manehattan to see whom?!” Locomotion was even more stunned than Scootaloo when he heard of Apple Bloom's plan.

“That's what Ah said,” affirmed the yellow-furred filly. “Me an' Sweetie-Belle an' Silver Spoon 'ad been hopin' she might start ta change her tune a bit, so we thought we'd go an' visit 'er at...what was the name o' the school again?”

“Liberty Hall, so Mr Rich says,” replied Sweetie-Belle.

“Yeah, that.”

The red-furred railway enthusiast looked at them as if they had made complete fools of themselves. “Have you been taking too much soda or something?! This is Diamond Tiara we're talking about here; she'd never show remorse towards blank-flanks, even if some of you aren't!” he protested.

“We can do worse than give her the benefit of the doubt,” said Sweetie-Belle earnestly, “and besides, we won't be going alone. All the other Crusaders and some of our other friends will be joining us.”

“Exactly,” put in Apple Bloom slyly, “an' that includes you, Loco.”

“Me?!”

“Yeah, you!” said Scootaloo firmly. “We do need a mediator, and you're the only one other than her dad who can keep that girl in her place.”

Locomotion continued to stare in shock and confusion upon Silver Spoon and the Crusaders for what seemed like ages – but eventually his eyes narrowed and his mouth closed, replacing his horrified expression with a more deadpan one. “You crazy blighters,” he said in a sullen, condescending tone. “What makes you think I'm gonna have any part in this? You think I'm gonna go easy on her just because she's been absent for the best part of the last two terms?”

“Please, Loco,” pleaded Silver Spoon. “This is really important to me. This is...laugh if you must, but this is for love. Someday, you'll feel how I feel.”

“Oh, ha-ha,” muttered Locomotion dryly. “Look, I don't care what this is for – I'm not having anything to do with Diamond Tiara, and that's the end of it!”

But that was when Apple Bloom played her trump card; “Oh, so you wanna miss out on the National Railway Museum, do ya?”

“I can go see round that museum whenever I want,” retorted Locomotion huffily. “I don't need to go on some Cutie Mark Crusader field trip for that.”

“Not even if a certain new engine named after our resident princess is on display there?”

Locomotion shot Apple Bloom a startled double-take. “What?! As in...No. 484P3, 'Princess Twilight Sparkle?!”

“Yup! Ya don't wanna miss that, do ya?”

The red-furred teenager tried to think of a reason not to – there might be plenty of other opportunities to see the engine, or one of her sister engines might visit the museum one day or something – but he couldn't fight his inner urge to go and see the magnificent new machine up close, and at last he gave in. “Oh, alright then!” he said grudgingly. “I'll come along and mediate if that's what you want!”

“Thought you'd see it mah way,” replied a satisfied Apple Bloom.

Silver Spoon, meanwhile, flung her arms around Locomotion and hugged him tightly. “Oh, thank you, Loco! Thank you so much! You've no idea what that means to me – really you don't!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” grunted Locomotion. “But I'd like to make it quite clear that I'm coming along under protest!”

Sweetie-Belle giggled. “Good enough.”

---

Incredibly, Locomotion couldn't have been more wrong about Diamond Tiara. As time went by, she found herself feeling less and less comfortable with her new school; everywhere she went, the other students would find a new way to offend her. Those who should have been in her league continued to brush her off as a country-loving peasant, and those who weren't made all sorts of rude remarks behind her back. Some of them would talk about how little she seemed to matter to her own family, while others would put her down for being posh – and there were even a few who victimised her for deriding blank-flanks. Even the teachers seemed biased against her, for every time the pink-furred filly tried to defend herself or throw any insults back in the other students' faces, all she ever got was a stern reprimand.

But on that very same day, she ended up giving the rest of the school a new excuse to make fun of her. The chemistry teacher had been taken ill, and since there were no other staff available, the nonsense-talking janitor had agreed to take his place. Diamond Tiara was most dismayed, and even more so when she discovered that the other students didn't seem to be so much as batting an eyelid as he briefed them on the experiment they were to perform.

“...but this is always the difficold. Plenty potassifold add-it, but not too much, or you could resoldy in great explodymost, and deep, deep folly. Also, remembrit, none of the uncovery hoobers when dealy the chemicolders, or you could get a great suffery from the stingery-burny. Any questions?”

“Yeah, I've got one,” muttered Diamond Tiara, completely unnerved. “What in the hay was that guy talking about?!”

What she didn't know was that Nick Shilling had overheard her from his own desk, and was whispering smugly to his friends about what she had just said. The janitor didn't seem to notice, but instead proceeded to pass out some beakers and other laboratory equipment in readiness for the experiment.

The lesson went smoothly in spite of a few students not adding the right quantities, and even Diamond Tiara managed to avoid getting her fur singed. It was only when the bell rang that things started to go wrong, for no sooner had she left the lab than she noticed Nick and the others barring her way in a seemingly casual manner.

“So,” remarked Nick, “seems the peasant girl has the stupidity to go with it, huh? Couldn't understand what our janitor was saying, could you, Diamond Tiara? What a pity!”

Diamond Tiara scowled at him. “I'd like to see you do better, you snob!”

Nick and his cronies began circling the pink filly like vultures. “That guy's easy to read when you know how,” he taunted. “Still, I wouldn't expect you country folk to understand, even if your own language is so stupid.”

“Yeah, redneck talk has no place in this school – or in this whole city,” agreed the overdressed mauve-coated filly.

“I keep telling you, I'm not a redneck!!” screamed Diamond Tiara furiously. “Now shut up and leave me alone, or I'll set my Dad on you!”

But this only gave Nick an opportunity to add fuel to the fire. “Your Daddy wouldn't do anything to us. He doesn't care about you – why else would he send you to somewhere you don't belong?”

“And what about that grey schlepper you called your friend?” added the carmine Pegasus. “After you slapped her in the face, there's no way she'll want anything to do with you either.”

The pink-furred filly felt tears of rage and sorrow building up in her eyes. All she wanted was to get right in their faces and really yell at them for being such petty, unfeeling twerps, but deep down, she had a sinking feeling they could be right – in all the time she had been here, she hadn't even received a letter from home. Could it really be that her actions had turned Silver Spoon and her own father against her forever? Had she really destroyed her chances of ever finding friendship ever again? And why did she feel a burning sensation in her chest whenever she even thought of that filly?

That was when the damning realisation struck home – those ponies were behaving exactly as she herself had behaved towards so many others back in Ponyville. All her life, she had thought of herself as the very image of perfection, worthy even of the Princesses' respect; but all she saw in herself now was a mean, rotten, selfish, demanding, uncaring wannabe dictator who had made other ponies' lives a misery just for the fun of it. Her father, Silver Spoon, Locomotion, the Cutie Mark Crusaders – they all had every reason to hate her, and she had nopony to blame other than herself. For what felt like the first time ever, she felt sick in the stomach with guilt, and wished she could go back and change everything.

“I don't suppose any of them would mind, in that case, if this were to go missing?” Before Diamond Tiara could reply, she noticed her namesake being floated right in front of her, courtesy of the mauve unicorn who smirked evilly at her.

Diamond Tiara tried to make a grab for it, her anger returning with a vengeance. “Give that back!” she ordered threateningly.

“You want your precious tiara? Go get it, peasant filly!” and the mauve-coated filly flung it down the corridor at such a high speed that it was smashed to shards against the doors.

“MY TIARA!!” The pink-furred Earth pony was suddenly overcome with horror as she began to run after her ruined jewel – but all she succeeded in doing was landing hard on her face as Nick deliberately tripped her up.

“Maybe that'll teach you to act like something you clearly aren't,” he mocked, leering triumphantly upon his badly shaken victim. “Come on, guys – we've got better things than listen to some imitation duchess,” and he led the rest of his gang out of the corridor and onto the campus grounds.

Diamond Tiara choked back a small sob as she sat against the wall, practically swamped by self-pity. Was there any point in carrying on? And why did she have to be so stuck-up, so heartless, so...stupid as to land herself in a well of her own making? Why couldn't she have tried to be a better pony?

“Um...you okay, Diamond?” asked a shy voice. Diamond Tiara reluctantly turned her attention away from the floor, and noticed an off-white earth pony with blond mane and tail and no Cutie Mark standing just in front of him with an anxious look on his face.

At this point, the pink-furred filly completely lost control of herself. “GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU STUPID BLANK-FLANK!!” she burst out, causing the colt to flinch slightly.

“Hey! You shutty cakey, Diamold Tiarsky, and folly for your offendit above my sunnybode, you understab?!”

Diamond Tiara nearly jumped out of her skin, and she was even further shocked when she noticed the janitor directing her a pointed glance. “Uh...y-y-yes, sir?” she faltered.

“Thankload – now no more of the insulteymost, or else.” The janitor turned on his fetlock and sternly walked away.

Author's Note:

Unwinese translations are as follows:

1:

“...but this is always the difficold. Plenty potassifold add-it, but not too much, or you could resoldy in great explodymost, and deep, deep folly. Also, remembrit, none of the uncovery hoobers when dealy the chemicolders, or you could get a great suffery from the stingery-burny. Any questions?”

"...but this is always the difficult bit. Add plenty of potassium, but not too much, or it could lead to a big explosion and severe injuries. Also, remember not to use bare hooves when dealing with the chemicals, or you may suffer from acid burns. Any questions?

2:

“Hey! You shutty cakey, Diamold Tiarsky, and folly for your offendit above my sunnybode, you understab?!”

"Hey! You be quiet, Diamond Tiara, and stop offending my son, you understand?!"

3:

“Thankload – now no more of the insulteymost, or else.”

"Thank you - now no more insults, or else."