@Mr. Horrible  
Yup. It’s one of the saddest moments in the comic’s overarching theme.
 
Diamond has to win. Else she’ll feel the CMC’s friendship will be views by all as a better friendship than that of her and Silver Spoon. She’s so obsessed she even got a BOOK on “HOW TO TRICK YOUR DAD” just to give her the edge.
 
This filly is on a mission. She took something to heart so seriously on some off-hoof baseless comment that Diamond took as a challenge to her friendship with Silver Spoon. Because Silver and Diamond are friends, too, and so winning = proving the CMC don’t have a monopoly on friendship.
 
 
I really was hoping Diamond would eventually see how far her personal self-imposed challenged from Scootaloo’s words to heart, would lead to her realizing she doesn’t have to prove such a thing and begin to enjoy the scavenger hunt.
 
 
But instead, she only saw and thought of Prancy as only being there because of her father’s money. Somepony who would never come visit her on her own if a paycheck wasn’t involved. Prancy Drew was just a ‘hired goon’ as some say. She’s Diamond’s Employee and didn’t believe Prancy could be anything more.
 
 
The ending was real depressing on many levels. Especially when Diamond couldn’t even convince herself of the petty lie she tried to convince herself of.
 
 
Shame a lot of stuff got overshadowed by other smaller events. Comic turned out pretty deep and while I think the leaving the pony behind scene was a bit Rainbow Dash “Last Round Up”, it just added more effect to the “Employee”. Even Prancy never called them friends, just “to work for” almost proving Diamond’s beliefs they weren’t going to be lasting friends.

@Background Pony #D18A  

 
That is literally the exact point I have been making.

@Background Pony #D18A  
You are just putting words in his mouth…

It is an opinion, not an observation.
 
All I hear from you is “I don’t like Diamond Tiara so I don’t want her to have any friends”, from what I see from this comic that Silver Spoon is not mindless follower, she can act on her opinions and this comic kinda prove that fact.

@Background Pony #D18A  
Biased how? That’s literally what’s happening right here in this picture. It’s not an opinion, it’s an observation.

@DoomPony  
As the guy who wrote the original entry, that was my intent; that’s how Diamond Tiara sees her, not me. I like Applebloom

@PonyPon  
Comics generally follow fans’ interpration of characters more closely, compared to show, and “nicer SS” is popular within the fandom.

@Mr. Horrible  
You sound so biased right now :p

It’s stuff like this that reinforces the idea that SS would be a lot nicer if it weren’t for DT’s bad influence. Throughout the whole story there were plenty of moments where she seemed to be honestly enjoying the scavenger hunt thing and being friendly with Prancy Drew, but DT would just not shut up about beating the CMC for a second.

@Background Pony #6095  
That might be how Diamond sees her.

@Background Pony #A4EF  

 
Apple Bloom is no miserable hick.

@Background Pony #A4EF  
Yeah, there’s plenty to be jealous of.

@HJSDGCE  
It makes sense – Applebloom’s some miserable hick who’s big sister is a heroine of the country, has studied under the princess of friendship, has lots of friends, and lives on the single best piece of property in Ponyville (no the most money, that’s DT and her dad, but the best land in town is Sweet Apple Acres). All Diamond has is money and her charming personali – well, she has her money.

This comic is painting this picture for me:  
Silver Spoon is easily the nice one because we really don’t know much about her. She could have other friends, maybe siblings, maybe… both parents.
 
Diamond Tiara. We’ve seen her with nobody else but Silver Spoon and her dad. NO mother, no sign of siblings. Just a super rich, and clearly very busy dad.
 
Of course she’s jealous. Friendship makes her bitter because she only has 1.

@Prof.NightJack  
I think it is…  
IS SHE JEALOUS OF APPLE BLOOM?!

Is that jealousy from DT?

I still maintain SS isn’t a total jerk.

Okay, did they really have her do this the whole time?
 
Did they really put their lot in the ‘Silver’s the good one’ trap?