The Rough Of The Diamond

The sound of hooves rattled around the schoolyard as the ponies of Cheerilee's class rushed out of the door. It was a glorious spring afternoon in Ponyville, and the fillies and colts were happy that lessons were over. Well, most of the ponies were happy; one was in an even fouler mood than normal. Her bullying friend was off sick at the moment and she had spent all day alone, not lowering herself to talk to the other ponies at the school.

As she was plodding along the road, she was slowly being overtaken by three fillies happily skipping along together. Seeing other ponies happy, especially this trio, always made the filly even more miserable given she never seemed to have as much fun as anypony else. She wasn't sure why that was the case given that she was the daughter of the richest stallion in town – why shouldn't she have as much fun as these poorer fillies? Why should they get to be happy?

Well, she was sure going to do something about that!

She listened in on the conversation that the three ponies were having and, unsurprising for the group, it was a discussion on the next planned upgrade their clubhouse. Typical of these foals, thinking just because they have something in common, are best friends and have that dump of a treehouse that they are happy? Pur-lease

“You three are just like, pathetic!” Diamond Tiara suddenly snapped at the Cutie Mark Crusaders a few hooves in front of her. Having been spoken to, instinctively the three fillies turned round but instantly wished they had just ignored the pony behind them - they should have recognised the shrill voice of the pony who always made their days that little bit worse.

“When are you going to grow up and actually get your cutie marks? I mean, at this rate Pound and Pumpkin Cake are going to get theirs before you three losers!”

“Come on gals” Applebloom sighed “Might as well ignore 'er as there’s no point trying to reason with that one!” The three turned again to head off, but Diamond Tiara was not going to let her pray get away that easily.

“That’s right, walk away from clearly your intellectual superior! Blank in the flank, blank in the head!” The three fillies’ blood pressure was starting to rise, but having got used to the bullies behaviour they continued down the road.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders – you've been crusading for more than a year now and not one Cutie Mark found. You're useless!" Diamond Tiara continued "Not only that you are a Unicorn who can't do magic, and a pegasus that can’t even fly!” That was the last straw for one of the members in particular.

“What does yours even mean?” Scootaloo turned and challenged the filly, her body posed to aggressively, wings flared and ready to charge into battle with the bully.

“Huh?” Diamond responded, a bit shocked at the suddenness of the question.

“What. Does. Yours. Even. Mean!” Scootaloo snarled slowly, brushing off her friends attempts to pull her away. The pair had never seen Scootaloo act this way before, but her inability to fly was a sore subject to the filly.

“It’s…”

“What, are you an expert at metallurgy?” Scootaloo snapped again, surprising everypony by knowing the word.

“No, it’s...”

“Are you a creative designer like my sister?” the unicorn crusader suddenly chipped in, equally annoyed at the slight at her magic ability.

“No…” Diamonds tone started to waiver

“Can you work with your hooves to create beautiful things, like our clubhouse built with our four hooves!” Applebloom added, backing up her friends.

“No” Diamond replied meekly, suddenly feeling a bit vulnerable at the actions and words of the three fillies almost surrounding her. For the first time she wasn't on the front hoof, the one being the bully, but had almost become the bullee.

“So, what does yours even mean? I'll tell you what! It means nothing! All it means is you wear nice things paid for by your daddy” Scootaloo finished with the most sarcastic foalish tone she could.

“Least it’s better than no Cutie Mark at all” Diamond tried to fight back.

“Our possibilities are endless” sweetie belle squeaked “Better than being a stuck up pony with no future like you!”

“Me, no future? I have a better future than any of you!” she snarled

“Me and ma family work hard to get what we get, especially with our parents gone. But we do a honest days work for a honest days reward!” Applebloom shouted at the filly “Just living off your daddy’s bits?…I’d rather be a blank flank my whole life than a helpless stuck up snob with no talent whatsoever!”

Diamond Tiara suddenly felt very defeated and slumped to the ground. Seeing that the earth pony had no response to that last remark the Cutie Mark Crusaders turned and trotted off happily together.

Diamond Tiara sat there unmoving for a while, as other students walked past. Everypony ignored her, as afterall she always ignored them or made their lives hell. After a while looked down at the symbol on her flank and just thought What on Equestria does my cutie mark mean anyway?

--/----/----/----/----/--

It was the longest walk home ever for the earth filly, as she plodded along sadly by herself. Nopony she passed seem to care at all about why she looked so sad, and eventually she made her way to her house at the edge of town. It was the biggest home in all of Ponyville, almost as big as the town hall.

Unlike most of the towns buildings, which had a very villagey feel about them or were decorated like something out of a carnival, the Rich family home was a sombre affair. Being a much older building, it had also deliberately been built to look as differently as possible from the farms surrounding it. It was very gothic and classical building, and whilst large and sturdy, had a certain amount of gloom. That made it match it’s youngest residents feelings that afternoon, and most afternoons when she thought about it.

Coming inside, she was greeted professionally but coldly by one of the servant ponies. Diamond asked where her mother was, and was informed that the lady of the house was having an afternoon at the spa. Diamond slowly trudged upstairs to her room and started on her homework.

It was just before dinner time that her parents returned home but when she asked to speak to them she was told be each that they were too busy right then – this was typical behaviour for them and they always seemed be too busy to spend much time with their daughter, even as a foal. Nannies came and went, and she wanted for nothing...except her parents attention.

As the three of them sat around the dinner table, Filthy and his wife discussed the days that they had both had ignoring their only child, clearly depressed, sat between them. Diamond slowly chewed her food whilst her parents seemed too engrossed talking about themselves, and their own interests, to notice anypony else.

Of course Diamond understood that her father was indeed a very busy pony – after all he was running one of the largest business empires in southern Equestria. But still she wished she was a little higher up on his list of priorities rather than worrying about what will be in Beeks report on the Orange Crops. And as for her mother – of course Diamond loved her mother, but given she didn't do much why couldn't she spend more time with her.

Diamond was ignored for the whole meal, and her parents went off to their respective sanctuaries for the evening – father to his study to go over the accounts, and mother to her sewing room. Diamond was in a foul mood, but rather sulk in her room, for some reason she decided to deal with it for a change.

She trotted to her mothers room and knocked on the door. Despite being the daughter of the occupant, her mother always insisted on her daughter knocking before entering…if she was allowed to enter that was.

“Who is it?” a dull voice called out.

“Diamond…your daughter”

“Oh come in darling!” she called back, a slight warmth noticeable in the voice. Wow, she must be in a good mood today to refer to me by any sort of pet name Diamond thought to herself.

Diamond entered the room to find her mother sewing away “What is it darling, need some help with your homework? I could get one of the servants to assist you?” Diamond closed the door and went to sit in the chair opposite her mother.

“No thank you mother, I’ve done my homework for tonight. I…need to talk”

“Talk, about what?” her mother looked at her, although she hadn't put down her needlepoint.

“About the future and stuff! About what I should be doing in my life!”

“Don’t be silly darling, youre growing up fine! That’s the sort of conversation we had before you got your cutie mark there” and the mare pointed to her daughters flank.

Having had the conversation quickly turn to the subject in hand pleasantly surprised the filly “But what does it even mean?”

“That you’re beautiful! In fact, I would say that you’re the most beautiful pony in this town!”

“Even more than Rarity or Fluttershy?” Diamond responded with some scepticism

“Well, they are much older than you, and they aren't earth ponies either which gives them an advantage of being a bit slimmer. But I'm sure when you are older all the colts will be after you!”

“Is that all I need to worry about, finding my own special somepony to be my colt-friend?”

“What's wrong with that? I remember when I was your age I was worried about finding my way in life as well. But then when I got my necklace cutie mark I knew my talent was to be pretty. I was therefore bound to marry somepony wealthy.”

The fillies face dropped as her mother spoke, but her mother misinterpreted that as her daughter being impressed rather than horrified.

“All you need to do is snag yourself a rich fabulous colt like your father, and then you don’t have to worry about a thing your whole life! You don’t need to work the land like those muddy Apples, push clouds around like the dusty pegasi or anything. You can sit back and enjoy life, like the unicorns of Canterlot”

Diamond looked at her mother who was saying this with outward pride, but Diamond near broke in two inside. She always knew that her mother was a little shallow, but having grown up herself she couldn't believe that her mother was actually this shallow? And she suspected that deep down, her mother was no-where near as proud of herself as she made herself out to be...

--/----/----/----/----/--

As night drew in, Diamond lay in her bed crying. Now, she often went to bed depressed but tonight she had felt as low as she ever had done. She thought back at the hurtful things that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had said to her, and realised she had deserved every single word. She had been mean to them for years…she had been mean to everypony for years.

And she knew that unless she changed she would be as lonely as miserable as her mother really was for the rest of her life. The filly looked up at the now faceless full moon and at the twinkling stars. She closed her eyes to stop herself from crying, and choking back some tears she declared “As Luna as my witness, I will become a pony of substance!”