The Rough Of The Diamond

Diamond Tiara spent the rest of Sunday catching up on the homework and assignments she hadn’t yet done for school. Having spent three quarters of the weekend looking for meaning to her mark, she was a little behind with her school work. She couldn’t afford any bad grades as her father had promised her a trip to Manehatten for her birthday if she kept her grade average high.

After slaving over the books for hours she started to lose concentration and started thinking back over the weekend. She wanted to spend more time exploring her mark, but spending time either with her father or Moe would eat up a lot of her weekends. And she still wanted to speak to the Princess about it at some stage.

She looked back down to her book and wondered how on Equestria the stupid Cutie Mark Catastrophes ever found time to do there homework given how much time they spent on their quests. Especially as Applebroom and Sweetie Smell both had to spend time doing chores. How do they fit it all in?

Shaking the thought out of her head, she spent the rest of the day finishing up, pretty sure she would get top marks for the work done.

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

The next morning there was a surprise waiting for Diamond when she made it to school – Silver Spoon had returned after a week off ill. The pair went running over to each other. “Silver Spoon!” “Diamond Tiara!” they called out, before doing their signature greeting “Bump, Bump, Sugar Lump, Rump!” (1) All the other ponies of the class just rolled their eyes at this – given how snobby the pair usually were, this was so tacky it was unbelievable. Everypony was sure that if it wasn't for the trio without their cutie marks, it would had died out years ago.

The pair wanted to chat and catch up, but all too quickly the bell sounded signalling the start of the school day. Whilst the temptation to chat during class was too high, Cheerilee had always proven herself to have very good hearing so there was no chance of getting away with it. So they were forced to pay attention to the lesson on Ancient Equestrian History instead.

During the morning break, Silver Spoon talked about her week off ill, and what she got up to – she had found the Daring Do books to be a entertaining read and suggested Diamond read them. Diamond held back discussing her weekend until Lunch, thinking she wanted enough time to really discuss it with her friend.

The second class of the day was Maths…a subject that drags on most of the time, let alone when you want to catch up with your Best Friend Forever. However, it was one of Diamonds strongest subjects and so answering more than her fair share of questions helped pass the time. In fact, only Scootaloo seemed to be better at Maths than her, something that annoyed the earth filly no end.

Before what seemed all too long it was lunchtime, and the class ran out to play. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara took their lunches and sat in the shade provided by the biggest tree. Whilst munching on their packed lunches, Diamond started to tell Silver about her thoughts about her cutie mark and the Saturday spent with the blacksmith.

“So you like, sat watching him work, like, all day?” Silver asked with an odd tone

“Yeah?” Diamond responded curiously

“But, like, that sounds soo boring”

“Actually, it was sort of interesting to see how Moe made things”

“Moe?”

“Yeah…that’s his name”

“What-ever. But why watch somepony doing…eughh…manual work”

“I thought I’d explained that?”

“You really think you’re going to become a blacksmith?” Silver snorted

“Of course not! But, what am I going to do when I grow up? What are you planning?”

“We’re going to be fabulous together, naturally!”

“Fabulous…how exactly? I doubt I’m pretty enough to ever make it as a model…not with this stupid Earth Pony body”

Silver Spoon seemed shocked “What’s got into you Diamond?”

“Nothing…everything…I mean, what is this…” Diamond pointed to her flank “…even supposed to tell me. But let me tell you about yesterday” and she went on to explain the trip to Sweet Apple Acres. Silver sniggered at the point where Applebloom got in trouble, but otherwise just nodded as Diamond told her her tale.

“So…what’s your angle?” Silver Spoon asked

“Angle?”

“Yeah…planning to ruin the social somehow?” Silver giggled gleefully

“No!” Diamond exclaimed, loud enough so all the other students turned to look, before ignoring the bully “I’m doing it to try to impress my dad”

“Oh, clever, and then you’ll get him to buy you something you want, like a new Tiara?”

“Have you really ever met my mother?”

“No, why?”

“Oh, I just think you two would really get along”

“Awww, that’s so sweet” Silver smiled, whilst Diamond rolled her eyes internally. Clearly her friend had not yet matured enough to properly think about her future. Perhaps when I find my true talent, I can help Silver find hers! Wait, I sound like Applebloom and her friends…nooo! Diamond moaned to herself. In order to prevent herself from getting even further worked up over lunch, Diamond changed the subject back onto the more mundane things which managed to get her through the rest of the break.

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

School had finished and everypony was walking home. Diamond was walking with Silver when she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the distance. She picked up her pace to close the gap. Silver Spoon followed, presuming Diamond was up to no good.

“Wait up Applebroom…Applebloom” Diamond yelled out when within earshot.

“What do you want now?” the cream earth filly turned to grey filly, the usual look of annoyance in her eyes.

Diamond reached into her bag and pulled out a small bag of bonbons. “I…I just wanted to say I’m sorry for yesterday”

“Say what now?” Applebloom asked in confusion, whilst everypony else seemed equally as stunned

“Well, I come into your home and get you into trouble,. That just doesn’t sit right, even if it was your own fault. So, I wanted to say sorry” Diamond offered the bag of sweets to the stunned crusader.

“Oh yeah, like you haven’t coated them in hotsauce, covered them in poison joke or something” Scootaloo walked forwards and prodded Diamond in the chest.

Diamond felt guilty, knowing that the suspicions were probably fair based on past experiences. She reached in the bag, pulled out a random sweet and popped one into her mouth, chewed it and eventually swallowed the sweet “See, nothing wrong with them, unless I’m stupid enough to prank myself!”

“Geee, errr, thanks I guess. Apology…well…errm…accepted” Applebloom sort of mumbled, grabbed the sweets in her mouth and slowly walked off with her two equally perplexed friends. Diamond felt good about herself, but when she turned she saw Silver Spoon looking at her with almost anger

“You’re being nice to them?”

“Look, the Apples are big suppliers to my dad…”

Silver Spoons face softened a little “Oh, so you were told to do it?”

“No, it’s just someday I may need to get along with her, so I don’t want to burn all my bridges. Sure, if we’re doing business I’m certain she would do whats best, but it’ll be easier on me, my dad, whatever if she didn’t hate me!”

“I see your point. Diamond, you are so smart!” her friend smiled “What about Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, you can still be mean to those dodo’s right?”

“I guess not, and not just because they are friends with Applebroom…bloom.” Must stop calling her that otherwise I’ll keep saying it to her face “but because of how close their families, or whatever Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash have, are to each other.”

“And I guess their sisters and friends could turn is into stone, banish us to the moon or something?” Silver Spoon started laughing

“As far as I’m aware they only do that to Draconequus or Evil Alicorns, not wonderful fillies like us!” Diamond struck a pose and laughed back. It was good to share a bit of laughter with somepony.

“But I guess they are fair game” Silver had a smirk on her face, pointing to the side. Diamond looked over and saw Snips and Snails having one of their usual stupid arguments.

“Yep, I guess so!” Diamond replied with a grin spreading across her face. She had to be nice to the Cutie Mark Catastrophes, but this unicorn pair was all too easy to prank. And she was still herself after all...for the time being at least.