Whatever Happened to Diamond Tiara?

It was the end of the school week and all the students of Ponyville Elementary had left the schoolhouse except for one. Diamond Tiara sat at her desk, forelegs crossed indignantly, a scowl on her face.

Exhausted but hovering diligently at her side, Miss Cheerilee cleared her throat. "I realize that most ponies don't like school, but the undue disrespect you show your classmates and I doesn't make it a more positive experience. Next time you feel like putting somepony down, I want you to ask yourself, would I like it if somepony said this to me? And if the answer is no, then just don't say it. Can you do that, Diamond?"

"Fine," she growled, throwing up her hooves in annoyance.

"Thank you," replied Cheerilee, even though she fully believed this was lip service to get out the door. "The other thing is," she continued. "You really need to start taking your education seriously. You're falling further behind your classmates."

Diamond rolled her eyes. "Ugh. So what? I already have money. Why do I even need an education?"

Cheerilee exhaled the air she greatly wished to use on a blunt reply to the stupid, entitled question.

Because maybe with my help there's just the tiniest chance you won't become your mother, snapped her inner voice. She clenched her teeth in a smile but her eyes weren't in it. Her smile had become faker and faker with every passing month of her career.

"More education helps make you a better pony," she argued. "And better ponies make Equestria a better place."

“I don’t want to make Equestria a better place,” smirked Diamond Tiara.

I know you don’t, you insufferable little hellspawn, she thought. That’s why I’m counting the days till you age out of my classroom and are no longer my responsibility. But in the meantime...

"Well, Diamond,” she countered, “maybe not today or tomorrow but someday you just might change your mind about that and it's my hope that if that happens you'll look back at your time in my class and appreciate all the things I did to help get you there.”

Diamond leaned back and cackled derisively in her teacher's face.

Cheerilee pressed her lips together tightly, her cheeks heating up in anger. There was no greater indignity than the honest continuation of this fruitless battle day in and day out. She was still speaking like an idealistic new teacher because she knew it was what she should do. In reality, she hadn't felt that way naturally for years. Her old personality had become nothing more than a teaching persona that she pulled out and put away like a ventriloquist’s dummy, but few ponies seemed to have figured this out. The real her had withered away inside, leaving only a cheerful facade, and even that was beginning to rot as students like Silver Spoon and Diamond pummeled it cruelly with a sledge hammer.

Cheerilee quickly masked her frustration and moved on. "I want you to come in tomorrow for a couple of hours so I can help you with your social studies and reading."

Diamond squinted back at her. "Uh, no thanks. I'm good."

"No,” she replied. “You are clearly not ‘good.’ Hence we are having this conversation.” Her eyes flicked over to the schoolhouse doorway where she spotted a far away Filthy Rich starting up the path to the school. “Oh look, your father's here. Why don't we go see what he has to say about it?" She said this with a genuine smile, but not a friendly one. Diamond Tiara's face fell to her satisfaction, not a spiteful satisfaction, but a relief in knowing she'd been put back in her place for the moment.

The two went out to the playground where Filthy was looking for his daughter in the hooffull of students who were meeting their guardians at the school that day.

“Ah, there you are, Diamond,” called Filthy as he turned around. “Miss Cheerilee,” he nodded cordially.

“Hello, Mr. Rich. I was just speaking with Diamond about her grades.” She spoke softly for privacy. “I have to be here working tomorrow, and I thought it would be a great idea for her to come in for a couple of hours so she can catch up in a couple of subjects.”

“That sounds fine,” he muttered dismissively. Filthy certainly had his foibles, but she could usually count on him to back her up when Diamond stepped out of line.

“But, Daddy,” she whined. “We were going dress shopping tomorrow!”

Cheerilee rolled her eyes subtly. Like I'm super excited to spend part of my weekend forcing you to learn something you should have learned during school hours?

Filthy squinted down at his daughter. “You’re not going anywhere until you take steps to resolve this issue.”

“But, Daddy-”

“But nothing,” he scolded. “I’m not pumping bags of bits into this dump just to have you squander your education. Speaking of which…” His eyes returned to Cheerilee. “How’s that new playground coming along?”

“Oh, It’s just a matter of connecting with the supplier.” Her eyes scanned nervously over the ugly earthworks that had been near the playground for weeks now. Filthy's earmarked donation gave them the money they needed for something big and new, but unfortunately it required coordinating with two different companies, and the task just always washed out of Cheerilee's bloated priorities list. So there it sat, a hideous and unfinished embarrassment that everypony could see.

"Well, in all events,” muttered Filthy, “Diamond will be here at eleven tomorrow.”

“That works just fine, Mr. Rich,” agreed Cheerilee.

"Come on now, Diamond," ordered Filthy as he did an about face on the lawn.

Diamond Tiara followed sulkily, casting a glare back at her teacher.

Cheerilee waved goodbye with a neutral expression on her face. “It’s a date, you little jerk,” she muttered under her breath before shoring up to the playground to supervise Applebloom and Snails.

Before long, Applejack appeared beside her to meet up with Applebloom to take her to Sugarcube Corner in celebration of her good grades. She surveyed the dirt piles and sighed. “Still haven't done anythin’ more with the new playground?”

Cheerilee laughed weakly. “Just... have to get that order all ironed out first,” she breathed, staring at the ground in shame.

“Should at least put better boards over them holes in the meantime. At just a quarter inch thick, somepony could still fall right in and hurt themselves.”

Cheerilee didn’t want to admit that she had to buy all those boards out of pocket and the stronger ones were just too expensive. "Yes, I suppose," she sighed. "But the students at least do a good job of staying out of that area." Even Cheerilee was disappointed with her excuse.

The two Apples meandered away down the path and the teacher turned to the only remaining student, now sitting on the merry-go-round. "Okay, Snails," she chimed. "Time to go."

Snails was always there after school as long as there were other foals around. He was told by his parents to stay at school and only leave when the last student left. That way he spent less time at home, but also wasn’t an unmitigated burden to Cheerilee.

The next day, Cheerilee came into the schoolhouse to clean and change the bulletin boards and the seasonal decor. She planned to work until Diamond Tiara got there. Then when their tutoring session was done, she’d finish up whatever she had left to do. The gramophone in the corner played soft symphonic music and soon she was lost in her work. When she finally checked the clock again, it was eleven ten. Cheerilee frowned. Diamond should be here by now, she thought, but it sure wasn’t hard to imagine her being significantly late to something like this if she wasn’t being escorted.

Cheerilee went to the open door of the schoolhouse and peered out, hoping to see the little pink brat traipsing up the path, her ever present tiara glinting in the sunlight, but there was nopony in sight. She sighed, flipped the record over, and continued working.

At noon, she ate lunch alone and checked the door again. She was almost done working and Diamond was an hour late and counting. Did they forget or did she just ditch and go to Sugarcube Corner or something?

In another twenty minutes, Cheerilee was entirely done with the classroom and sat clicking her hoof angrily on her desk. Diamond wasn’t coming. How obnoxious. She’d now have to follow up on this with a trip to the Rich’s mansion as if she wasn’t already bending over backwards for them, offering free tutoring outside school hours.

Cheerilee growled through her teeth as she locked up the schoolhouse. She slipped the key into her saddlebag and strode briskly down the path toward town. As she passed by the playground and the dirt piles, something caught her eye. She stopped in her tracks and squinted at the anomaly. It looked like one of the holes was uncovered and the board was missing. Curious, she walked closer to investigate. Now what? She’d need to get another board? Who would take- Her thoughts were scattered as she neared the hole and realized that the board had apparently just fallen down. No, wait, it was broken. Suddenly her blood ran cold as the edge of the pit revealed a tiny pink form laying motionless at the bottom.

“Diamond!” she shrieked. “Are you alright?” Cheerilee rushed up to the edge. “Diamond Tiara, can you hear me?”

Diamond laid on her side, eyes open and unblinking, and she still hadn’t moved at all. Cheerilee sat for a moment, waiting to see her sides move with breath. A modicum of reason returned as a thought occurred to her. “You’re not dead. You’re just pranking me. You can’t die from just falling in-” Her eyes landed on a metal bar jutting out a few inches from a red ring on the side of Diamond’s neck. She’d been impaled through the jugular by the exposed metal cage for the foundation of the main play structure.

Cheerilee’s lungs shriveled as the oxygen left them. She scrambled down into the pit to see that a large pool of blood had collected under Diamond. She was cool to the touch.

“This is my fault,” she breathed in terror. “I’m legally responsible. I got a student killed and now my life is over.” A list of things she could have and should have done differently blasted through her mind, but none of it mattered now. Tears began to stream down her face. “I”m so sorry,” she cried.

The unthinkable reality hit her. She'd have to go tell- Wait... Cheerilee stood up, looking out of the pit in all directions, wiping her eyes with one hoof. There was still nopony around. She was the only one who knew about this. She didn't have to tell anypony if she didn't want to. But that would mean-

Hide the body, she suddenly thought to herself. She shook her head, trying to expel the appalling idea from her brain. What? That's insane. But what is there to lose in covering this up? But it's wrong. Diamond's fate is already sealed. Yours isn't. You're already highly culpable for a felony. Even if you somehow skated on charges of negligence, you're still never teaching again and her parents would still destroy you in court and you'd end up in debtor's prison at minimum.

Cheerilee bit her lip. Okay, what do I do now, she asked herself. Knowing the clock was ticking on the success of her ploy, she began to sweat as she quickly formulated a sordid plan. She climbed out of the hole, leaving the body and pulled a board over the top of it from an adjacent hole. Then she ran to the gardening shed and grabbed a shovel. Unfortunately, time and circumstances as they were, she was going to be limited to hiding Diamond's body somewhere nearby. She selected a spot just behind a tree right on the treeline of the woods at the edge of the playground.

Cheerilee began digging up the earth frantically. She wanted the hole deep but also didn't want to take too long making it. Eyeballing it, she decided it was big enough for a filly to be adequately concealed. She ran back to the pit and took a cautious look around before yanking the board off. Then she got back down next to Diamond Tiara's corpse.

Cheerilee’s stomach twisted at the squelch created from lifting the body off of the bar. Fresh blood poured from the hole in her neck. Hesitantly she took Diamond's tail in her teeth and made sure to cover the hole again before galloping across the playground to the grave.

Diamond's body plopped irreverently into the fresh hole, mouth agape, eyes vacant. Cheerilee panted, her heart beating out of her chest, scarcely believing what she was doing.

She cast another glance back at the school grounds to see Ditzy Doo flapping lazily up the path with the mail delivery. The two of them locked eyes and suddenly she changed course to Cheerilee. A bolt of electricity shot through her. She knew Ditzy liked to hoof mail over directly to the recipient. With blood on her hooves and right in the middle of hiding a dead student, Cheerilee began to panic.

"Just- Just leave it on the porch, Ditzy!" she shouted fearfully.

Ditzy's eyes widened, swiveling about in surprise and she stopped to hover in place. Disappointed, she nodded dumbly and flew to the porch to leave the mail.

Cheerilee waited for her to be out of sight before picking up the shovel to fill the grave. She felt a heavy pang of sadness and remorse as the last of Diamond's face disappeared beneath the soil. No foal deserved a shallow unmarked grave like this. The Rich's didn't deserve to have their daughter disappear forever with no answers or closure. It suddenly felt like such a selfish act.

Cheerilee tamped down the dirt and swallowed. "I'm sorry," she breathed once more. Now she had to go get the hose and spray away the blood pool, the blood trail she left on the grass, and the blood on her hooves from tracking through it.

Eventually, after everything was about as good as it was going to get, Cheerilee hurried to the Rich's mansion and knocked on the door.

"Ah, Miss Cheerilee," answered the butler. "Is young mistress Diamond Tiara not with you?" he asked, craning his head out the door to peek.

Cheerilee furrowed her brow. "With me? No. I came to see why she never showed up at the school for her tutoring."

"But she left for the school quite some time ago," he explained.

"Did she? Oh dear."

Cheerilee spent the rest of the day pretending to look for Diamond Tiara. She spoke with her worried parents and the sheriff's department, offering leads and encouragement. She replaced the broken board with a ¾" thick plywood sheet using money she was going to spend on groceries.

That night, all of the things she hid and all of the lies she told came back to her as she laid awake in bed, waiting for sleep to come to her rescue. When it finally did, her dreams gave no sanctuary from the waking horror she'd been thrust into and embraced with both forelegs.

Grudgingly, she did the same thing the following day, searching and putting up missing posters because that's what she would have done in a normal situation where she wasn't responsible for the disappearance of the pony in question.

"I'm a good pony," she muttered to herself in front of the bathroom mirror. "I care. I didn't want this to happen." But on the other hoof, she thought, you know what would have done a lot more good for everypony than performative help after the fact? A thicker board or better yet, a new playground instead of a bunch of deadly holes. Tears began to stream down her face as she opened up the medicine cabinet. They were still there, her bipolar meds. She couldn’t remember when she stopped taking them, but it had been quite a while. She just forgot one day and never got back in the habit. Maybe now was a good time to start again.
She wiped her eyes, picked up the bottle and looked at the date. Expired. Not worth it. There was no good time to start expired meds. She tossed the bottle in the trash. Before she went to bed she took a sleeping potion, anticipating another rough night which she couldn't afford. She had to teach in the morning.