“That’s all for today, class,” Miss Cheerilee announces as bright rays of sunlight reach a certain etched line on her desk. Rainbow Dash, wearing a blue Cloudsdale ballcap, solemnly stands next to a severe Ms. Harshwhinny. The cheerful teacher gives her crammed classroom a wide grin, the two dozen bright and smiling faces buzzing with excitement. “If anypony has any more questions about the Crystal Empire contest? No? Then, class dismissed.”

As soon as the highly anticipated words are spoken the barely suppressed silence disintegrates into a dozen spirited conversations. The students file outside, not as a neat and organized line as normal but a chaotic mass, with Diamond Tiara in her customary spot in the lead. Silver Spoon trots on one side, grinning eagerly, while Pomarbo looks as distracted and unconcerned as always.

“It’s going to be so cool,” Diamond Tiara gushes as the three head toward Sweet Apple Acres, “to lead all the delegations during the Equestria Games, don’t you think?”

“Lead?” Silver Spoon asks with a skeptical raise of her brow. “I mean, I know we’re going to win the Ponyville position for sure.”

“For sure,” Diamond Tiara echoes, haughtily sticking her nose in the air. She sneers, “Have you seen our competition?”

To be fair, Diamond Tiara is only really worried about one other pony. Lemon showed as much interest in the flag-carrying competition as she did everything else - which is to say, she would pour her heart and soul into it like her dam pours batter. As much as she is loath to admit the more Apple ponies they could recruit the better. It’d be better if she could recruit Lemon to the Rich team, but she expressed too much interest in working with her sister Meringue and they could only have up to four ponies on a team, with Hedge declining to participate entirely. But that enthusiasm would likely wane over the three days they have to prepare, and all she needs to do is distract the easily sidetracked mare and it will be clear sailing.

The rest? She nearly laughs out loud just considering them. Aura and Twist, Featherweight and Rumble, Pipsqueak and Zipporwhill? Rumble has an edge with his Wonderbolt brother, she has to remember that, but he’s often too busy to mentor his younger brother. Snips and Snails, don’t get her started on those two. If one of the blank flanks gets a cutie mark in extravagant performances? There’s not much that can be done, but that’s why she keeps tabs on everypony’s darkest secrets.

“I know, right?” Silver Spoon snickers, but quickly stops. “But if we want to lead the delegations from everywhere? We’re going to need a routine that’s truly divine.”

“Exactly,” Diamond Tiara confirms with a nod. “Which is why I already have one that’s sure to absolutely crush everypony else - and I mean crush.” She emphasizes her point by slamming one hoof into the other, enjoying the echoing *thud* with a wicked grin.

Diamond Tiara covertly notes the distraught looks the other ponies are giving her. Some of them try to hide it while others are less guarded, openly kicking at the dirt as they trudge away.

It is only once she has left them behind, safely secluded in Sweet Apple Acres, that Silver Spoon broaches the topic with a cross between awe and disbelief. “You really have a routine ready to go?”

Diamond Tiara huffs, hating when her bluff gets called. “Well, not exactly. But how hard can it be to come up with something so awe inspiring that we’re sure to win?”

“Uhh,” Silver Spoon grunts, confused. “...Pretty hard?”

“For anypony else, sure.” Diamond Tiara smirks. “But for us?”

Silver Spoon raises an eyebrow. “Aren’t you counting your customers before they shop?”

“No.” Diamond Tiara scoffs at the thought of something not going her way. “Look, it’s simple. We just need…”

The first thing that comes to mind is a giant bust of her head made out of paper-mâché. It would be hollow and contain hundreds of candies, ribbons, and pretty knick-knacks she could procure in bulk. But how would she distribute the candy to the crowd? It wouldn’t do to have it broken open like a piñata, that would send the exact wrong message. Neither could the goodies spew from her open muzzle. Out the top of her head, showing how she is a font of ideas?

“I don’t think,” Silver Spoon intrudes, “an image of yourself would be good enough, especially in other cities.”

“It’s brand recognition,” Diamond Tiara contests, but knows her sister is probably right, as much as she doesn’t want to admit it. “Okay, something else. We need an uplifting message that’s impossible to rally against. Something that’s unique to Ponyville, but also applies to everypony. Something like… Ponyville is a place where different kinds of ponies can live together as friends!”

“Um.” Silver Spoon looks at herself, then Pomarbo, then back to Diamond Tiara. “Not that I disagree, but are you sure that’s the message we should be sending?”

“What,” Diamond Tiara counters with a roll of her eye. “Because we’re all earth ponies? Now who’s being breedist?”

“That’s not what I meant at all and you know it,” Silver Spoons huffs. “Besides, I thought you were talking about…” She jerks her silver and gray mane toward Pomarbo, who doesn’t react to their conversation. “You know. His sire?”

“What about his sire?” Diamond Tiara defensively demands, scowling at her sister. Fortunately (or, unfortunately, as the case may be), Pomarbo remains as oblivious to the revealing remark as he is to her licentious intentions. “I certainly don’t believe that we should discriminate just because somepony isn’t a pony.”

“Again,” Silver Spoon spits out. “You’re putting words in my mouth. Are you going to listen to your best friend, or are you going to barrel on ahead and hope we all fall in line?”

Diamond Tiara takes a deep breath. “Fine.” She comes to a dead stop. Silver Spoon turns to regard her while Pomarbo trots along. It takes him a moment to realize that he is leaving them behind. “What do you suggest?”

“First,” Silver Spoon starts with a smug little smirk, “thank you for listening to me.”

“It’s what a friend would do,” Diamond Tiara replies, offering an overly broad smile.

Diamond Tiara is glad Silver Spoon is facing away from Pomarbo or he might see the roll of her eyes. “...Yeah. Second, I think that’s a good message. But what if it isn’t inclusive enough?”

“Not…” Diamond Tiara squints. Suddenly it hits her. “By Celestia, that’s right! I’ve been thinking too small! We shouldn’t just be accepting of all ponies. We should also be accepting of all creatures!”

Silver Spoon grins. “Just like Twilight’s doing!”

“And our language hasn’t been inclusive enough, either!” Diamond Tiara gasps, covering her muzzle with a hoof. “I’ve been saying words like ‘everypony’ and ‘somepony’ when I should be saying ‘everycreature’! Great idea, Silver Spoon.”

“Thanks,” Silver Spoon says with a bat of her silver mane.

“Now we just need a routine that clearly and concisely conveys this message of inclusion.” Diamond Tiara trots up to Pomarbo, who thankfully looks like he’s been listening. “I think this is going to be the best performance ever. What do you think?”

“Ah think you’re countin’ your apples before they’re harvested,” Pomarbo answers.

Diamond Tiara’s heavy frown reaches her eyes as her head pulls up, entirely too reminiscent of her dam. “Oh, yeah?” she snaps, perhaps the first time she’s yelled at the Apple colt. “Well, if you’re so smart, then what should we do for our performance? Did you suddenly get a cutie mark in amazing spectacles that are sure to wow everypony?”

Pomarbo checks himself to make sure. “No, Ah guess not.” Diamond Tiara wants to hoofpalm - of course he would check. “Ah’m sayin’ it’s a bit early. Aren’t ya assumin’ they want ya to use other words?”

“I think that’s a safe assumption,” Diamond Tiara argues. “I mean, they aren’t ponies, so why would they want us to use a word that doesn’t include them?”

“Usin’ another word just highlights that there is a difference between them.” Pomarbo shakes his head. “That’s exclusive. What if they don’t want to be seen as different?”

“They are different,” Diamond Tiara states again. “But that’s okay, we don’t care that they’re different.”

“Then why,” Pomarbo says, speaking slowly, “do we need a different word to describe them if we don’t care that they’re different? What’s wrong with including them with a word like everypony?”

“Because they aren’t included. It’s in the very word!” Diamond Tiara takes a deep breath. “Look, how about this. You know how Thorax and Ocellus use words like ‘everyling’ and ‘someling’?”

“Sure,” Pomarbo says, guarded.

Diamond Tiara grins only somewhat maliciously, feeling a bit like Chrysalis. “How would you feel if they said ‘everyling’ with you around? You’d feel left out. Or if they included you in ‘everyling’. It’d be like they’re denying a part of you.”

“Mm,” Pomarbo stalls, looking up at the sky. He seems to be carefully considering her scenario. “No, Ah don’t think Ah’d feel left out. If they are excludin’ me, it’s ‘cause they got a reason to. An’ if they are includin’ me, Ah wouldn’t think nothin’ of it.”

“Oh, come on,” Diamond Tiara challenges. “You don’t actually believe that.”

Pomarbo shrugs, brushing off her challenge in a way she finds infuriating and, though she doesn’t want to admit it, exciting. After all, how many stallions stand up to their lead mares like that? “Mah dam’s the Element of Honesty.”

Diamond Tiara growls. There’s not much she can say to contest that, and her earlier remark calling him out was hoofing the line of deeply insulting him. She doesn’t want to say anything that would hurt her chances with him, but neither can she back down. “We could ask one of the changelings their opinion.”

Pomarbo nods along, his attention drifting to the Cider Barn still hidden by the trees. “Ah guess. ‘Cellus hangs out at the Aba most days.”

They continue plodding along, much of the spring lost in their collective steps. Both barns are isolated, obviously intentionally, on the northern half of the farm, with the Cider Barn closer to Ponyville and the Abattoir closer to the cow colony, as well as the expanded pig pens and the plains where Sassaflash keeps her growing sheep herd.

Diamond Tiara knows the pegasus has been asking around, but hasn’t found any takers yet. As she understands it, not terribly many earth pony stallions (or lead mares for that matter) are keen on having a pegasus join their herd, while the pegasus herds take issue with the fact that she’s from Appleloosa, a traditionally earth pony town, and that her cutie mark of twinned lightning bolts hardly matches her occupation, a surefire marker for trouble if not carefully managed.

As they pass by the Cider Barn a gamboge coated filly with a red and pink striped mane reluctantly steps out from between the two parked wagons of apples. Any doubt in Diamond Tiara’s mind that she’s an Apple is removed by the three white freckles next to her green eyes, just like Mrs. Applejack’s. Blank flank, a touch larger than Pomarbo, but looks closer to her age. “Hey,” the newcomer calls out tentatively, having trouble getting her eyes above the ground she’s awkwardly kicking.

Pomarbo, ever the inconsiderate colt, awkwardly stares back.

“You must be Babs Seed,” Diamond Tiara greets as she steps forward, having heard Applejack mention the incoming filly more than once. She’s not really surprised at the colt’s lack of attention to detail, more disappointed. She gives the shy filly her broadest smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Err,” the presumed Babs Seed says, looking more than a little out of place with her styled mane and tail. Diamond Tiara’s a little surprised she isn’t wearing anything, but trekking through the orchards in a dress is almost never the right call. “I-it’s a pleasure to meet, you, too?”

“I’m Diamond Tiara, this is my sister Silver Spoon, and this is Pomarbo.” Diamond Tiara motions to each in turn; Silver Spoon gives a small curtsy while Pomarbo nods in greeting. “We were just heading to the Aba. Did you want to come along?”

“The Aba?” Babs’ face scrunches up in confusion. “Um, Ah guess. Miss Applejack told me to wait for ya here.” She looks around at the trees towering above them, and if she had a shell she’d be retreating into it. “It’s so different here than in Manehattan.”

“Oh, you’re from Manehattan?” Diamond Tiara says as they all trot along, knowing full well where the filly is from. “You need to tell me all about it.”

Next Chapter: Ch. 130 - Elegant Hubris, Part Two Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 30 Minutes