Polishing a Diamond

The students of Ponyville Day School waited anxiously for Cheerilee, their teacher, to emerge from the schoolhouse with the results of the Student Pony Presidential election. The candidates for this events had been Diamond Tiara, the local bully who would use the positions of others for her own gain, and Pipsqueak, the runt of the group (for lack of a better word) who managed to mostly get through his days without much trouble due to his small stature.

After what felt like hours, Cheerilee emerged with a parchment in her hooves. "The votes have been counted," she said with a hint of pride in her voice. "The Student Pony President is..." Diamond then began to walk forward slowly and expectantly. "...Pipsqueak!!"

"HUH????" Diamond looked at the smaller pony with sheer disbelief while the other students surrounded and congratulated the colt.

There were three ponies specifically who were particularly proud of Pipsqueak's victory. Those ponies were known to all of Ponyville as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or CMC for short. "Oh my gosh Crusaders, Pip won!" A yellow filly with a red mane and tail and a pretty pink bow on her head exclaimed with pure delight as the victor approached them thankfully.

"I couldn't have won without the hard work of my campaign managers, the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" He gestured to them proudly and with grandeur.

Sweetie Belle, a filly with a white coat and two-tone purple mane and tail, then realized what this had potentially meant for them. "Campaign manager cutie marks!" The three fillies looked at their flanks expectantly for any sort of symbol to appear, but to no avail.

Diamond then saw this as an opportunity to reclaim her lost ground. "Guess you're not as good as you though Blank Flanks. In fact, I demand a recount!" She turned to Cheerilee and waited patiently for her to do so.

Cheerilee however, wasn't having any of Diamond's shenanigans any longer. "Trust me Diamond Tiara, Pip won." She spoke with a slight sneer to her voice that would have been missed had no one been paying attention.

Diamond, on the other hoof, refused to budge. "I'll be the judge of that Ms. Cheerilee." Diamond pushed past her teacher and walked into the school to count the votes herself. Upon seeing them, she was completely appalled. "WWWWWHHAAAAAAT?!?!? One vote?!?!" She ran out in a near-panic as she walked over to her one and only friend. "Silver Spoon, you didn't vote for me?"

Silver looked at Diamond with a near scowl on her face. "No, I didn't." She spoke with a blunt, almost monotone voice that realized all of Diamond's worst nightmares.

"But, you're my best friend!"

"Am I? Because I tried to help by mentioning your surprise statue, and suddenly, I wasn't even allowed to speak. You could have actually won this election if you'd just listened to me. You wanna know how?" Diamond hung her mouth open in shock as Silver Spoon walked over, placed her hoof on her bottom jaw, and then whispered into Diamond's ear. "Sorry, I'm not allowed to speak." On that final word, Silver Spoon had shut Tiara's mouth as the latter ran off with a scream. Silver then turned to the Crusaders, who all had surprised looks on their faces. "What? I don't have to follow her drama anymore."

The Crusaders then walked over to Silver Spoon with a smile on each of their faces. "You kidding? That was awesome!" Applebloom congratulated Silver as she patted her on the back, which had been a bit stronger than intended due to her upbringing. "Whoops, sorry. Guess my strength's building faster than I thought it'd be."

Silver accepted the apology as the rest of the crusaders gave her equal levels of praise. Once the dust had settled properly, Cheerilee dismissed the students for the remainder of the day and they all went home to their families. At that moment, the CMC each offered to walk Silver Spoon home and while flattered, Silver Spoon denied their offers politely and opted to be able to make her own decisions while walking home for a change. They understood and told her that if they wanted to hang out again, they'd be open to it. Silver smiled once again and finally started her journey home, as did the rest of the CMC.

After all had been said and done, Cheerilee then went back into the schoolhouse and walked toward her desk. She opened the drawer where she had kept the students respective files. She picked out Diamond Tiara's and gave it a thorough analysis as she had remembered what happened when Diamond had been humiliated after being replaced by Featherweight as Editor-in-Chief of the Foal Free Press and subsequently demoted to paper printer. She looked towards Ponyville with a thoughtful gaze as she put away the file and prepared for her own journey home.

Meanwhile, Silver Spoon had arrived at her own home and had her own private celebration, consisting of her happily prancing about the house, but not to the point where her parents felt that they needed to intervene. After her little personal party, she decided that it was time to get ready for bed. As she finished her preparations, she could not help but wonder what was going through Her former friend's head right now. She was by no means concerned as she merely wondered what sort of temper tantrum Diamond was throwing right now and felt sorry that she was missing out as she figured it would be humorous.

However, Silver's thoughts were anything but what she figured them to be as Diamond Tiara's situation was anything far from pleasant. Upon returning home, she had encountered her mother, Spoiled Rich, who asked her how the election went and how much she had won by. Upon seeing her daughter's face however, Spoiled immediately determined the outcome to be less than satisfactory. Filthy Rich had not returned home yet, as he was busy closing a few last-minute business deals with some fellow associates. As a result, she beckoned Diamond into her own room where she shut the door and locked it tightly behind her.