Light of a Diamond

by SirNotAppearingInThisFic

Heart of Pyrite

It had been four months since Twilight Time, and only in the previous week had Diamond Tiara’s father reinstated her allowance. Nothing, not even Tirek’s rampage, persuaded her parents to lessen any of her restrictions.

She scoffed. It took one brief moment for her parents to waste weeks or months of her life, and what could she do? She had nopony besides Spoony to confide in. For the few parties and gatherings that her mother dragged her through in the last few months, she dared not say anything against the façade that her mother expected of her during such social events. When she wasn’t at school, she was alone – most of the time – though occasionally Randolph would come by with another small task for her to complete. Spoony had offered to stop by, but Diamond Tiara replied that her parents wouldn’t have it.

Now relieved of her burdens, she walked to school as she would any other day. Despite the lack of active punishments, though, she didn’t feel any lighter.

It wasn’t her, was it? Was she the reason for her own dissatisfaction?

No. She was doing everything she could to meet her parents’ expectations. Her parents just had ridiculous expectations, was all. They were why she was unhappy.

Probably.

She shook the thoughts away as the schoolhouse became apparent, along with the ringing bell. She would figure it out after school.

---

The bell rang again. Diamond Tiara let out a long breath.

“Hold on now, my little ponies,” Cheerilee called. “Tomorrow is a very special day, and those of you wishing to participate might want to stay a few minutes longer.”

She sat up straight. It couldn’t already be the election for class president tomorrow, could it? A small, sly grin spread across her as she realized what this meant.

“As you know,” Cheerilee continued, “Diamond Tiara has been our class president two years running! Even so, we hold an election every year in case a new pony wishes to run.”

Diamond Tiara payed less attention as her teacher explained what it meant to be class president. That she already knew: expected to regularly attend school board meetings at least occasionally, be a role model for the rest of the class, make sure new ponies “feel welcomed”... though anypony could technically do anything the class president was expected to do even without the title. This would be a solid step out of her recent rut, though; coming home with the news that she once again crushed any competition in the class election would definitely warm her mother’s perception of her. Right now, that was exactly what she needed.

The first step to winning was to take out as much competition as she could before they even consider competing. She looked around, and saw that about half the class was looking at her expectantly, which was a good start. She flashed a confident smile. Several of her classmates quickly turned back to Cheerilee’s elucidation. So far so good.

As per the usual end of her explanation, Cheerilee held up a simple piece of paper with a few bold words and several lines across it. “If you would like to be a candidate in tomorrow’s election, please come up and write your name on the sign-up sheet here.”

She wasted no time in walking to the front of the classroom in the most confident gait she could pull off. Grasping the pen in her mouth, she wrote her name on the top line in practiced, flourished letters. With that, she turned and walked towards the front of the school, where Spoony waited. Anypony close to her path took a step back as she walked by. She glanced briefly rightward where several ponies stood. Out of them, Dinky made an “eep” and stumbled back farther.

“You’re totally going to win again,” Spoony said as they walked down the school’s front steps. “I don’t think anypony is even going to consider running against you this year.”

It did feel nice to have at least one thing that her mother would appreciate. “It would be silly. Nopony could ever win against me.”

“Nope. The Cutie Mark Crusaders didn’t even stick around.”

Diamond Tiara’s ear twitched. “You don’t mean to suggest that they would have a chance at winning if they did stick around, do you?”

Spoony scoffed. “No, of course not! They’d lose by at least as much as anypony else… but they’d probably be loud and annoying about it.”

She nodded. “True. Someday they’ll have to understand that trying hard doesn’t mean anything.” She knew that from experience, which she had gained plenty of recently.

“Mhm,” Spoony continued. “Some ponies are winners. Some ponies just aren’t. Some ponies—” Spoony rolled her eyes, “—are just losers.”

Diamond Tiara nodded, and they continued in silence for a short while. The Cutie Mark Crusaders tried and tried, and it would have been admirable if they ever got anything from their efforts. It might even be a boon if they took up the challenge of running against her, because they would probably take the place of anypony else that might consider trying, and then they would end up messing it up somehow, like they did for the rest of their plans.

Like they did for Twilight Time.

They didn’t even stay to sign up, though, so that wasn’t likely. She would have to ask her mother if anypony else signed up when she got back from the afternoon’s school board meeting. her mother would understand, too. Waiting around as if expecting somepony to sign up might actually cause them to do it, and anypony willing to stand up to her like that would probably be annoying and a sore loser.

Spoony’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Tiara.”

She looked around briefly and realized that they had indeed reached their usual point of departure. “See you, Spoony.” They resumed their walk home in separate directions.

In twenty-four hours she would be walking home with the good news.

---

Diamond Tiara sat down to a bowl of her father’s rich bean and carrot stew. It helped that the carrots were purchased from the Apple Family, and the ingredients were sourced from other farms around Ponyville.

Her mother had only just returned from the school board meeting, and while she wanted to ask about the election, her mother and father were catching up on each other’s days. Her father’s jokes occasionally elicited a chuckle from her mother as his topic drew towards the present, though not before a detour through his recent cooking mishaps. Even with the money to hire a cook, he still insisted on cooking up dinner himself at least once a week.

As her bowl’s contents grew scarce, she listened intently when her mother recounted the details of the board meeting. Apparently the school grounds were “in need of improvement”, and the board had been debating how best to go about it. None of them agreed on anything.

In a break in the conversation, Diamond Tiara decided to ask her question.

“So, mother, did anypony else sign up for class president?”

Her mother considered the question for a moment, which puzzled her, as it should have had a straightforward answer. “Yes and no. The little one from Trottingham did sign his name, though I would barely call that a signature. Even for an outsider, he’s a remarkably poor candidate for anything.” Her mother sniffed. “Hardly what I would call a good role model for the students.”

Diamond Tiara smiled. Pip Squeak had plenty of self-esteem issues that she could exploit, and nopony really took him seriously, which was probably an effect of all of the wild fantasies that he regularly indulged in during recess. He was also a blank flank, barring any last-minute miracles. Most notably, he was also the pony whose blunder got everypony kicked out of Twilight Time. Even if that weren’t a good tool to use against him in the election, it served to make her desire to win personal.

“Thank you, mother. I don’t think I’ll have any trouble winning this one.”

“Oh! When you win, dear, I think I know what we can do to improve the school’s grounds.” Her mother returned a warm smile. “I think we could convince them to put up a modest statue of their long time class president by popular choice. They couldn’t say no to both of us. Besides, think of all of the new foals who would look upon it and aspire to be just as great as the pony whose statue it is. Not that they’ll all succeed, but the other parents love that nonsense.”

“I think that sounds wonderful,” her father said, “and I think I could find a few bits to spare if the school can’t afford it.”

A statue. She didn’t know why, exactly, but the thought of having a statue of her put up in her honor made her stomach tingly. Tingly in a good way, for once. She fought the urge to beam like an idiot in front of her parents, as that wouldn’t help anything, and took another spoonful of her stew.

A few minutes later and Randolph was back in to clear the table. Her father hadn’t made anything for dessert, not that there was much room after the stew, so dinner was over. Her mother departed promptly, but her father held back for a moment.

Randolph, dishes and silverware in tow, latched the kitchen door behind him, leaving Diamond Tiara and her father in the dining room.

“I know how your mother gets about these things, Tiara. I want you to have a good time tomorrow. Remember, it’s just an election.”

She turned to her father with a raised eyebrow. It was an election for a significant title – namely the only title that the school had to offer that wasn’t associated with the Foal Free Press – so why would her father try to play it down? Unless he thought that she was nervous...

“I’m fine, father.” She rolled her eyes. “Really.”

Her father chuckled. “Of course you are!” Then his face reset, and he held quite a serious look. “I’m not talking about how you feel. I’m referring to what you do. Don’t get so caught up with it that you lose sight of everything else that’s important.”

She sighed. This was one of those times that her father shared his experience or wisdom or whatever for her own sake. As far as she was concerned, they were of questionable reliability, especially after his advice that she shouldn’t let her fear stand in her way a while back.

“You know what I mean, too,” he continued. “You are looking for a way to earn your mother’s approval?”

She froze up. The idea of trying to shrug it off tempted her, but he was uncannily correct this time. He probably wouldn’t let it go anyway, even if he wasn’t.

“I don’t want you to take this any further than you have to just because you think you have to earn anything from us.” He took a hoof and ruffled her mane behind her tiara. “Your mother doesn’t necessarily show it well, but we’ll always love our little princess.” With that last line, almost purposely cliché in its delivery, he turned away and left the room.

Diamond Tiara now sat alone.

Pip Squeak would be a laughingstock by the end of the week, and her mother and father would put up a statue of her on the school grounds when she won. Even so, she should have been reassured by what her father had said.

If only she could believe him.

---

Diamond Tiara was up with the sun the next day. The election was still her salvation, and she had to be ready to squash Pip Squeak in any way that she could to make sure everything went in her favor. She bolted down the stairs and scarfed down a bowl of oats that Randolph had waiting for her. After that, she was out the door, barely pausing to say goodbye to her father as he prepared for his own day.

First, she had to meet up with Spoony. If nothing else, she wanted to tell her friend about the statue. The early morning air presented a mild chill as she cantered along the streets. It wouldn’t be long before the preparations for fall began.

Spoony was waiting at the intersection, and waved as Diamond Tiara came into view. If the smile was any indication, her friend was excited about the election.

“Hey, Tiara,” she said when they met, “are you ready for you big day?”

“Yes. Even better, my mother is going to convince the school board to put up a statue of me on the school grounds when I win!”

Spoony blinked. “Whoa. That is so awesome!”

She nodded. “And do you know who the competition is?”

Spoony’s grin deflated a little. Evidently she did not. “Awww, somepony else is running too?”

“Pip Squeak is.” A thought occurred to her. Given… everything, really, about Pip, he would probably ruin his own chances at election, with little or no effort on her part. Perhaps that was what her mother had been hinting at the night before. “It’s probably almost the same as nopony else running.”

He would make a good Cutie Mark Crusader for that reason.

“You are just as likely to win.”

She could see the schoolhouse after they turned the last corner, and let out a smile. Several of her classmates were already there, playing outside while they waited. All of them would be voting for her soon enough, just after she enumerated every reason that Pip Squeak would amount to nothing more than a disappointment as class president.

---

“AHRGGG!”

Diamond Tiara stomped her way out of the schoolyard. She could barely believe what had just happened. Not only had she somehow lost the election when the stupid Cutie Mark Crusaders used their inexplicable and undeserved political sway with the class to elect a crayon-brained low-life who spent more time in his pirate-fighting fantasies than in Equestria, but Spoony just went and threw her under the carriage as well. If she didn’t need the title for her mother’s approval, she probably wouldn’t even want it if her class going to make decisions that dumb.

Once she could no longer see the schoolhouse, she paused to kick a clump of grass. The crumpled blades just sat there, about as uncaring as before.

“It’s not my fault!”

It was Spoony’s. Maybe even the Crusaders’. If Spoony hadn’t tried to help and mess up everything, she could have held off the Crusaders and their worthless campaign. But if the Crusaders hadn’t agreed to help the snot-blowing driftwood that was Pip Squeak when it came to intellect and decisions, it would hardly have mattered what Spoony said.

She would have won, but other ponies got in her way and ruined everything. Now she had to face her mother’s ire once again, as if she were responsible for her peers’ bumbling.

Her clump of grass still didn’t care. She looked towards the heart of Ponyville, about where her home was. Even if she didn’t tell her mother, she was doomed. Her mother was on the school board, and they had another meeting that evening to discuss the election. There was absolutely no way her mother wouldn’t find out by the end of the day, so she might as well not get caught lying.

That line of thinking had become far too frequent for her taste.

She left the stupid grass clump to its apathy. A few minutes later, she found herself surrounded by buildings. She had gotten herself into a reverie, brought on by a haze of anger and trepidation. She wasn’t sure which was stronger.

The door to her home once again stood before her, the only thing between her and her mother’s wrath. The urge to scream still hadn’t left her completely, and staring at the door only made it worse. She would have liked to smash it down, too, but if she did those things in public, she might as well jump into a stream at night and hope for the worst after what her parents would put her through.

She pushed through the door. This time her mother wasn’t waiting. There were a few boxes of what appeared to be party supplies sitting in the foyer. Now she was doomed. If her parents’ desires weren’t going to come crashing down on her, their expectations certainly would.

Her mother’s voice drifted in from the parlor. “Diamond Tiara? Is that you, dear?”

She closed her eyes for a moment. As jittery as she was, she still had to get it over with.

“Yes, mother.”

She took a couple of steps towards the parlor, which already boasted a few extra decorations. Her mother was overseeing Randolph while he hung a few more.

“What are you making that face for? That is not the face of a winner.”

She figured that she looked angry. She was angry, too.

“It isn’t.”

Her mother spared a glance at Randolph, who then exited the room. Lucky for him that was an option he had.

“What do you mean?” she hissed. “Do you mean to say that I prepared all this—” she gestured around the room “—for nothing?”

The first thing that came to mind found its way out of her mouth before she realized. “Sorry, mother.”

Her mother’s expression turned from bewilderment to outright fury, just as expected. “You— you actually lost to that transplant from Trottingham? That colt could barely count his hooves, let alone his votes, and you lost? Tiara, you have to keep your social standing in mind, and that certainly doesn’t involve losing to him. The only worse outcome that comes to mind would be losing to those blank-flank crusaders, who flaunt about their low social standing as if it’s a good thing!”

Her anger was building up. She wasn’t going to just stand and take it. Pushing back, though, meant far worse.

“Mother—”

“You should never have let yourself lose!”

“I haven’t lost yet!” she shouted. Her volume surprised her. She didn’t mean to shout it, but she was already in deep, so what did it matter? “Pip Squeak only got elected because he made promises that he can’t keep about making things better around the school. He’s got maybe a couple of days before they realize that he’s worthless, and demand that he be removed from office.”

She paused, partially to catch her breath, and also to take in her mother’s reaction.

Her mother stood quietly, slightly slack-jawed.

“And when they do,” she seethed, letting every drop of anger possessed by her into her voice, “I’ll be there. I’ll become president again, and I’ll make sure they never think anything of him again.”

They both stood in silence for a moment before her mother replied.

“Fine, then. If you think you can make something of this failure, do. For now, go.” Her mother pointed a hoof at the front door. “We’ll see just how much hope you have left after the next board meeting.”

She turned away and walked out the door. Her anger was still present, fueling her determination to exact some form of revenge. There was also something else; something eating away her resolve.

Fear.

Comments

[SirNotAppearingInThisFic]

Light of a Diamond – now with content!

I thought about calling the first chapter a prologue, but it didn't seem quite right. Between the first two chapters, at least, I'm reasonably confident that there's enough of the story for speculation to occur.

I have held back on writing Spoiled Rich as a stuck-up, rude, unfeeling, manipulative, heartless parent, but she still sounds purely evil. The same goes for Diamond Tiara, but in the other direction. I wouldn't want to forget the last decade of her life, now, would I?

[Walabio]

It is more likely that the carrots com from Golden Harvest Farms, the farm of Carrot Top, than Sweet Apple Acres.

[SirNotAppearingInThisFic]

6907203
Golden Harvest isn't confirmed to be a farmer within the show. Sweet Apple Acres definitely appears to grow carrots as well.

I figured that it'd be a safe bet to say that they're from the Apple Family. Admittedly, I could expand my horizons beyond canon a little more than I have.