Takes place a week after "Crusaders of the Lost Mark"

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all assets are owned by Hasbro.

Enjoy!

It was a typical Thursday afternoon. It was recess time at the Ponyville Elementary school, and the foals were using this time wisely to get the most fun out of it as possible. Rumble, Featherweight, and their respective teams were playing hoofball, kicking the ball as it was bouncing, tumbling, and rolling along the grass. Dinky Doo, Peachy Pie, and Sunny Daze were taking turns going down the slide, with each turn resulting in a squeal of joy from them. Cheerilee was overseeing the whole thing, taking enjoyment in watching her students have fun from the window while grading their homework from the previous day.

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, the notorious and somewhat famous Cutie Mark Crusaders, were playing four-square with Babs Seed. Apple Bloom's cousin was visiting as her parents were dealing with financial issues in Manehattan, and Applejack agreed to let her stay on the farm until it was all sorted out. Twist was also playing, though was currently waiting to get in.

"OK," Scootaloo said, ball in hoof. "No cherry bombs, no snake eyes, and no chicken feet."

"Awww, no fair," Apple Bloom complained.

"Well, I am the princess, aren't I?" Scootaloo said, finally working her way up to Square #4.

"Calm down, cuz," Babs Seed consoled her cousin. "We'll get her out!"

"We'll see about that," Scootaloo said.

Then, she bounced the ball to Sweetie Belle, who was in Square #3. Panicking, she quickly bounced it to Apple Bloom, who got it to Babs Seed. She carefully aimed the ball at Scootaloo's forehooves, trying to get the orange pegasus out at her own game. Not wanting to risk being dethroned from her position at Square #4, she spasmodically jumped back a few inches and quickly tried to bounce it back to Babs. However, the ball made contact with the wrong part of the hoof, resulting in it going out of bounds and colliding with Twist's head, knocking off her glasses a good few yards away.

"Oops," the normally tomboyish Scootaloo said. "Sorry."

"It'th alright," Twist said, with her lisp kicking in. "But hath anyone theen my glatheth?"

"Here they are."

Right from behind, former bully Diamond Tiara walked up to the five friends, Twist's purple glasses in her hoof. If this event were at any point before the recent election, Diamond would have smashed her glasses right on the spot. Though, now seeing the error of her ways, she was now nowhere near as mean and antagonistic as she was, and has been trying to be good friends with those the previously teased.

"Thankth, Diamond," Twist said, putting her glasses back on her face. Now the blurriness had cleared up.

"You're welcome," Diamond said, surprisingly monotone, as she returned to her place on the swing, looking a little depressed.

"You think we should talk to Diamond?" Scootaloo suggested.

"Are youze just trying to make us forget youze lost?" Babs said in her Manehattan accent.

"Nah," Apple Bloom corrected. "Ah think she means she looks pretty sad."

"Maybe we should talk to here," Sweetie said. "She DID apologize for bullying us, after all."

"Thure," Twist said. "Le'th go."

The five fillies put a halt to their game and went over to the swings with Diamond. Scootaloo got on a swing next to her, while the rest just sat down.

"Why are you all here?" Diamond asked.

"Well, you looked sad, and we figured you could use a few friends," Sweetie Belle said in her signature kind voice.

"So why are ya so down?" Apple Bloom asked.

"'Friends?'" Diamond asked. "But what about all those times I bullied you? Or made Babs turn against you? Or-"

"It's all water under the bridge," Scootaloo said, swinging pretty high. "We already forgave you. No need to apologize again."

"I still am pretty sorry about the whole float thing," Babs added. "And I wasn't sure if youze be willing to forgive me, but the othas told me youze changed, and by the looks of it, youze did."

"It's alright," Diamond said with a faint smile.

"Tho you can tell uth why you look tho thad," Twist said. "We're your friendth now."

"Thanks, girls," Diamond said. She then sighed, now looking more depressed, as it the Crusaders had not said anything at all. "It's Silver Spoon. Ever since the election, she's been ignoring me. I tried to be friends with her again, but she just won't listen."

"So youze two broke up?" Babs asked, shocked at what she just heard. Apparently Apple Bloom left out the part that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were no longer friends. "I though she was youze best friend."

"We were," Diamond said, sighing again.

"Well, you WERE kind of a bad friend," Scootaloo said.

"Scootaloo," Sweetie said, as if she was offended. "That's so mean!"

"No no, it's true," Diamond said. "I was a terrible friend. Especially during the election." She sighed once more.

"Well, we can help ya patch things up with Silver," Apple Bloom suggested.

"Really?" Diamond said, astounded at those words. "You really mean it!?"

"I'm in," Babs said. "I like helping my friends, and any friend of my cuz is a friend on mine."

"Count me in, too," Scootaloo said, jumping off the swing and landing on her hooves.

"I'll try to help, too," Sweetie said.

"Daimond'th learned her lethon alright," Twist said. "Tho I'll help too."

Diamond was shocked. Was she actually hearing this correctly? Were these fillies, the ones that she had bullied for her entire school life, actually willing to help her? This was most certainly a dream - if Silver Spoon, her best friend, wouldn't forgive her for her wrong doings, then these fillies surely wouldn't. She couldn't tell if this was a scheme just to get back at her, but she decided to risk it and threw her hooves around Apple Bloom for a hug.

"Thank you guys so much!" she thanked.

"What are friendth for?" Twist said.

Apple Bloom broke away from the hug. "OK," she began. "To help ya, we need to know what we're dealing with. So yer gonna try to apologize to Silver again while we watch."

"Are you crazy!?" Diamond asked. "She's not going to forgive me if I just walk up to here and say 'Hey, I'm sorry for being a bad friend. Can you forgive me?'"

"We don't expect her too," Sweetie Belle said. "If she does forgive you this time, then we're done here. If she doesn't, we at least have some ground to work off of."

"And you never know," Twist added. "Maybe thee will forgive you."

"Yeah," Scootaloo agreed. "You never know unless you try."

"Oh, alright," Diamond said. She saw Silver Spoon sitting on a nearby bench reading a book to herself. She instructed her allies to hide behind the nearby bush while she tried to apologize to her ex-best friend. Silver saw Diamond walking up to her, and inwardly sighed. She continued reading as if she wasn't there. The pink filly took a seat next to her, whistling to herself (though not doing a good job at it), until finally speaking up.

"Hey Silver," Diamond said.

"Hello, Diamond," Silver replied, not taking her eyes off of her book.

"Hey, isn't that the ninth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Foal series?" Diamond asked, trying to start a conversation.

"Tenth, actually," Silver corrected.

"Oh," Diamond simply replied. A moment of silence passed by until Silver broke the silence.

"I think I'm just going to go put this away, now," she said as she closed her book and trotted off.

"Wait!" Diamond squeaked. Silver stopped and looked at her for the first time since the conversation started.

"I-I'm sorry," Diamond said. "Can you forgive me?"

"I told you this yesterday and the day before," Silver said. "Sorry isn't going to be enough. You weren't a very good friend to me, so why should I be friends with you again?" With a huff, she trotted away, ignoring Diamond's pleas to hear her out.

The pink filly sighed. She knew this was coming. The other fillies walked up to Diamond, now knowing how Silver felt about her ex-best friend.

"That could've gone better," Babs commented.

"You see?" Diamond said in a rather defeated tone. "She just ignores me. How am I supposed to apologize to her if she just acts like I don't exist?"

"Ah think ah have an idea," Apple Bloom said, just as the school bell rang, signalling the foals to go back to class. "We'll talk 'bout it later," she said.

When school finally ended for the day, the group walked out of the building. "So Diamond," Apple Bloom started. "We should probably talk 'bout our plan in the clubhouse. Pretty sure ya know where it is."

"Yeah, I've seen it a few times," Diamond said. "But I can't go today. Mother is expecting me to be back at our mansion right away today, and you know how she is."

The rest of the group except Babs Seed shuddered.

"Well, I gotta go," Diamond said. "I'll see you guys later."

"OK," Scootaloo said. "Would tomorrow morning work?"

"Sure," she answered. "I'm usually here early anyway."

As the fillies waved their new friend goodbye, they realized that they needed to be back at their homes too. Twist knew her parents would worry if she was away for too long, Sweetie Belle was needed at Rarity's for help with an important dress order, Scootaloo needed to be back at the orphanage by sundown today, and Apple Bloom and Babs Seed had work to do on the farm. They waved each other goodbye as they parted ways.

"So what's with Diamond's mom?" Babs asked.

"I'll tell ya when we get back to the farm," Apple Bloom answered.

The walk back home wasn't anything too different than it was the past couple of days, though she was a lot happier knowing that the Crusaders and co. were going to help her get back with Silver Spoon. If the plan Apple Bloom had was successful, then she'd be back with Silver as best friends again, and maybe she'd even befriend the Crusaders as well. Oh, how wonderful that would be. Thoughts of her being friends with both Silver AND her new friends passed right through her mind. They took up so much of her short attention span, in fact, that she didn't notice she was already at her front door.

She rang the doorbell, and waited to be let in. Her mother, Spoiled Rich, answered the door. "Welcome back, Diamond," she greeted with her usual upper-class tone and posture.

"Hello, Mother," Diamond greeted back as she entered the mansion.

"Your father is running some errands for me," Spoiled said. "He won't be back for a few hours."

"I see," Diamond said. "So why did you want me back home earlier than usual?"

"I was just getting to that," Spoiled said as she sat on the couch in the living room, and gestured Diamond to sit next to her. "We need to have a serious discussion about your future."

The pink filly nodded and took a seat next to her mother. The couch was soft, and in a vibrant lavender color. It was decorated with bronze sequence, and brownish-gold pillows were placed on top. Diamond decided that if she was going to have a lecture, she might as well get comfortable. She took a pillow, fluffed it, and put it behind her as she leaned back on it.

Once Spoiled figured Diamond was ready, she began. "As you know, this mansion and its fortunes have been in the Rich family for generations. In fact, us and the Apple family actually founded Ponyville, and we'd be nothing without each other. That said, it's tradition that we pass on our fortunes to the firstborn foal of the family. I assume you are familiar with the concept of life and death?"

Diamond nodded.

"I thought so, this school has taught you well. Anyways, your father and I are getting quite old, and to be honest, we may be closer to death's door than we believe. And since you are our only child, you shall be the one to inherit all of our fortunes."

Diamond was just staring blankly. She was going to inherit EVERYTHING her family owned? It gave her a bitter-sweet feeling - sweet because she was going to own all of her family fortune, and was honored to be granted this responsibility, but bitter since A) she had no clue what the first step to owning all of this stuff was and B) the mentioning of her parents being a foot in the grave didn't sit well with her. While her mother and father had their individual flaws, they were still her parents, and she loved them to death.

Spoiled began again. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering how you're going to handle this big of a responsibility. I will be training you personally within the next few months, to make sure you are capable of leading the Rich family when we do pass away."

After a few more minutes of talking, Spoiled was finally done with everything she had to say. "And that is all I wanted to talk about. Your father will be here soon, and dinner will be ready in an hour. Run along, now. I look forward to teaching you the ways of our family." She escorted Diamond upstairs to her room. When she opened the door, she was greeted with the same bedroom she was given since she was a newborn - a large bed with curtains, a 90-inch plasma flat-screen TV, an outdoor balcony, and even her own personal bathroom. She simply laid on her bed, grabbed her remote, and turned the channel to her favorite show - Mysteries of Fillydelphia. While watching, she noticed a picture of her and Silver Spoon on her bedside. She frowned a little, saddened that her bullying managed to lose the only friend she had.

She just hoped that the Crusaders' plan was good enough to win her back.

That's going to be all for this chapter. After watching "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", this had been floating around my mind for a bit. Hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I am writing it.

'Till next chapter, see ya!