And so, Daring Do continued bravely through the forest, the pain in her wings nothing when compared to the concern for her friend. Daring Do had made a promise, and she intended to keep it.
Looking up at the setting sun, she knew she didn’t have much time left; the ritual was to start the moment the sun had finished setting. To get there on hoof in time would be impossible. But, when things began to look grim for the young adventure, she heard-
Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep!
Diamond Tiara lowered her book, Daring Do – First Raid, and looked over to her clock. That it was beeping meant that it was… Yes! It was indeed 15:55!
“Okay, I guess I’ll finish this later,” she said, placing a bookmark inside her book and placing it down on her bedside table. She jumped off of her bed, stretched her hooves a little bit, and walked over to her computer.
“He should be online any second now…”
BBBFF has signed in!
“Ah! He’s on!” Diamond said excitedly as she immediately dragged her mouse to the notification and single-clicked it. A message window popped open.
Queen Tiara: Hi!
BBBFF: Hello, I take it you want the new ep?
Queen Tiara: Yeah, I’ve been waiting all week to see how she captures the Fire Spirit!
BBBFF: lol, me too. I won’t spoil anything, but it was epic!
Queen Tiara: You’re lucky. I wish I could watch new episodes live, and buy the DVDs and such :(
BBBFF: Well, for a while I tried keeping it a secret from my wife, thinking she’d make fun of it… She did, but at least she’s still accepting of it.
Anyway, here’s the file: Mahou Shoujo Sakura-chan! 22.avi, sorry for the scratchy quality, but it’s still perfectly watchable.
Queen Tiara: Thnx! Can’t wait ‘til I’m older and have my own house.
Diamond Tiara clicked the link, ignored the warning about files potentially containing viruses, and prayed the download wouldn’t take too long. Fifty minutes remaining soon turned into fifteen, then ten. It stayed at that rate, so she decided to continue chatting for ten minutes whilst she waited.
Once the download was finished, a notification popped up in the bottom corner of her computer screen, and she let out a silent cheer.
Queen Tiara: File’s just finished DLing. Gonna watch the ep now :)
BBBFF: kk, have fun.
Diamond Tiara set her status to ‘Busy’ and double-clicked the video file. It opened, took a moment to load, and then started playing. She paused it for a second so that she could plug in her headphones and turn up the volume a little bit.
“This is going to be good,” she said to herself as she hit play.
During the opening sequence, Diamond Tiara found herself silently singing along, though because the words were in Nipponese, it was mostly just gibberish that sort of sounded like the opening song.
Whenever the characters carried out their signature moves, Diamond Tiara found herself copying their poses and speaking their lines along with them.
“God of Rain, answer my call!” she chanted as the colt in the video did the same thing.
“I am Mahou Shoujo, Sakura! In the name of the stars, I will capture you!” she sang as the filly onscreen did the same.
During the battle scene, she was watching quietly in anticipation, virtually on the edge of her seat the whole time. It was only when the show’s main character, Sakura, had captured the Fire Spirit that Diamond Tiara finally let out some noise, cheering for the show’s protagonist as she landed next to her rival, thanking him for his assistance and gazing dreamily into his eyes…
“W-Whoa…” she said as the two started moving closer to each other. She had to bite her lower lip to stop herself from squealing in excitement, but when the sudden intrusion of Sakura’s friend caused the two to separate just short of confessing to each other, Diamond Tiara let out a frustrated groan. “Oh, come on!” she yelled, shaking her hooves in fury. “They were so close! Why must you tease us like this? Just make them kiss already!”
Knock knock!
“Diamond, sweetie? Is everything alright?”
Diamond Tiara quickly turned her head to her door and then back to her computer screen. The door opened just as she managed to hit pause and minimise the window.
Filthy Rich, Diamond Tiara’s father, walked in to the sight of his daughter clicking something on her screen and quickly tossing her headphones away.
“D-Daddy? Is something wrong?” she asked, trying to slow her breathing as she sent him a nervous smile.
“That should be my line,” he said, looking over at her computer screen to see just her desktop background. On it was a picture of herself and Silver Spoon enjoying a picnic together, with the text ‘BFFs 4EVER!’ written above in pink text, and some icons to the side, though the only ones he recognised were the basic ones, such as ‘My Computer’, or ‘Recycle Bin’.
“I heard you shouting,” he said. “Who were you talking to?”
Diamond Tiara gulped and tried to think of something quick. “Uh, I wasn’t talking to anypony,” she said. “It was, uh… online! Yeah, there was somepony dissing your company online, so I… got a little mad…”
“‘Dissing’?” Filthy Rich asked, not quite sure what the strange new term meant.
Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. “Bad-mouthing, Daddy.”
“Oh!” he said. “Uh, I knew that… but, why would that make you yell at your computer screen?”
“Geez, don’t you know anything?” she asked rhetorically. “If I had confronted them directly, it would have started an argument, something I so don’t wanna get into right now. So I just, y’know, vented my frustration to myself.”
Filthy Rich raised an eyebrow, not quite sure he understood. “I… see?” He shrugged and began to leave. “Well, just as long as you’re okay. Just try to keep it down, alright? Your mother isn’t feeling so well right now.”
Diamond Tiara nodded. “Yes, Daddy.”
The door closed, and Diamond Tiara let out a relieved sigh. She opened up her window again, only to minimise it instantly as the door swung back open. ‘Now what?!’
“One more thing: dinner will be a little late tonight.”
“O-Okay. Thanks for the heads up.”
Filthy Rich scanned his daughter for a bit, who simply stared back with a strange smile on her face. He slowly backed out and then closed the door.
This time, Diamond Tiara waited until she could hear his hoofsteps moving down the stairs before reopening her window, and picking up her headphones.
Sweetie Belle has signed in!
Diamond Tiara groaned as she saw the name pop up on her screen, but clicked on the notification anyway. She still wasn’t sure why exactly she had added the filly… Maybe it was because she knew that she was a similar age, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that there weren’t that many anime fans like herself online that could actually hold up a decent conversation, so she couldn’t afford to be picky…
Whatever the case, she was just glad that Sweetie Belle hadn’t yet caught onto the fact that ‘Queen Tiara’ was Diamond Tiara, and whilst online, the two actually had some fun times together.
“But, honestly, who uses their real name online? That kind of goes against the whole point!”
Sweetie Belle: Hey! You seen the new ep of Detective Ponan yet?
Queen Tiara’s status is now set to ‘Available’
Queen Tiara: That’s been subbed? I’m watching the new MSS right now. Just at the ending.
Sweetie Belle: Awwwwww, I was hoping to talk to somepony about the new character in this ep :’(
Queen Tiara: New character? Send me a link! I’ll watch it as soon as this is finished!
Sweetie Belle: kk! Oh, brb! My sister wants to talk to me. Here’s the link: www.equestriaanime.pon/detective_ponan_129
Queen Tiara: Good luck.
Sweetie Belle: lol, thanks ^_^
Sweetie Belle’s status is now set to ‘Away’
Silver Princess has signed in!
“Okay, now let’s see how this ends…”
Silver Princess: Heya, DT!
Diamond Tiara let out a frustrated groan, as she was once again torn away from her beloved anime. For a moment, she contemplated simply pretending she was away and had forgot to mark her status as such, but she decided against it. Silver Spoon was her only real life friend. She couldn’t risk losing her.
Queen Tiara: Hey. What’s up?
Silver Princess: Oh, not much. Doing this boring homework, and my stupid brother insists on watching the hoofball match in my room!
Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. “Meanwhile, I’m being prevented from watching my favourite show.”
Silver Princess: Oh, by the way! You’ll never guess what I saw on my way home today!
Queen Tiara: Oh? What?
Silver Princess: It was Sweetie Belle, coming out of the anime store that opened just last week.
Queen Tiara: Anime store? Where?
Uh, y’know, so I know where to avoid going.
Silver Princess: Just round the corner to House of Hats.
Anyway, don’t you think that’s so lame?
Diamond Tiara frowned a bit, and her hooves shook as she typed a response, slowly, to her friend.
Queen Tiara: Yeah, well, what else would you expect from a blank flank whose only good point seems to be making a mess of everything?
Silver Princess: Totally.
Ugh! My brother’s being a pain! Brb.
Diamond Tiara felt her heart sink as she re-read the conversation again.
‘Anyway, don’t you think that’s so lame?’
With a sigh, Diamond typed a quick message to her friend.
Queen Tiara: gtg, see you tomorrow.
She set her status to ‘Appear Offline’ and went back to her episode. She found herself cheering up a little at the last few minutes, but she had lost most of the spirit she had whilst watching it earlier.
“I love anime… Why does it have to be so lame?” she asked herself quietly before moving on to the episode sent to her by Sweetie Belle.