//------------------------------// // Wood versus Diamond // Story: To throw light on a Diamond // by TwiwnB //------------------------------// Applebloom took three steps back and watched the result of her work with a very critical look. “Just stop already!” said Scootaloo, who was just sick of her friend’s meticulousness. “It’s just a lemonade stand. It’s perfect as it is.” Applebloom didn’t seem to have heard it and went back to the wooden stand she had been working on for hours and finished sanding one little corner she had forgotten. “There, perfect!” she said, satisfied and oblivious to her two friends’ sighs. It was a very good job indeed. The little filly had become very skilled at building things. And the view of their new work tool made the cutie mark crusaders very happy, as its perfection was assuring them all the success they had been hoping for in their new project. And as life seems to decide that no achievement should come without some sort of punch back in the face, a very familiar, yet incredibly annoying voice made itself heard from a few feet away. “Oh no!” said Diamond Tiara laughing, or sniggering depending on the point of view, “Don’t tell me those three are planning to do what I think they are planning to do.” The rhetorical question was aimed at Silver Spoon, at her side, who nodded and giggled, while adding: “I fear they are. They really are.” Applebloom as well as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were trying to find out what they could have done in any previous life for karma to obsess so much into making their lives miserable, but just couldn’t imagine anything horrible enough. At loss of a better thing to do, they decided to defend themselves, once again, knowing in advance there was no use in trying to fight the stupidity of the two bullies. “Just go away already!” said Sweetie Belle. “You can keep your stupid remarks to yourself.” “I wouldn’t use the word stupid so lightly if I were you.” responded Diamond Tiara with her superior and obnoxious look. “After all, you’re the one who is about to sell some pathetic lemonade for a few pathetic bits in that pathetic stand of yours. But I guess for little ponies like you, this is something to be proud of.” Silver Spoon giggled again and added, in redundancy: “Yeah, it’s really pathetic!” Diamond Tiara ignored her commentary and kept on talking, circling around the cutie mark crusaders and their newly built lemonade stand, not even looking at them as she did so. “I shouldn’t criticize you I imagine. No, I’m not being fair with you here. I should have realized way sooner. On the contrary, I should probably congratulate you!” And she had said those words with such a genuine tone that it sparked a little tiny doubt in the three fillies' mind who, for just a second, believed all their prayers may have been answered. “Thank you?” tried to reply Applebloom, not certain if she was saying the words she should be saying. “No, I really want to congratulate you.” Diamond Tiara said with her most genuine tone ever. “Congratulation!” she almost yelled. “Savor the moment, and remember it for all your life. This is the moment you lost all hope to achieve anything whatsoever in your life. The very moment you decided to accept your low-life nature abided to the law of nature that wants you to be nothing more than a perpetual source of amusement for true ponies like me.” “Shut up!” ordered Scootaloo, who wasn’t ready to accept such words thrown at her. “You better shut up or else…” “Or else what?” asked Diamond Tiara with a burst of laugh. “Are you going to attack me with those wings of yours? Oh no! I’ll have to keep watching the sky from now on or you may even, maybe, I don’t know… jump on me?” “Why are you so mean?” asked Sweetie Belle, as a last effort of diplomacy before the inevitable fight she was more than ready to have at that point. “All we did was build a lemonade stand. We did nothing against you!” “You hear that?” Diamond Tiara asked Silver Spoon, once again in a rhetorical way, and then turned back to the three fillies and suddenly replied with an unusual anger: “Don’t you realize that by building that pale excuse for a stand you insulted, no, not just insulted, you spitted on any trace of intelligence any normal pony may have? But do go on, sure, be my guest. I can’t wait to see you beg on the side of the street for ponies to have pity of you and offer you the little amount of money your tiny brains will consider as a fortune, which will probably be the biggest fortune you’ll earn in your whole life anyway!” And carried away by her anger, Diamond Tiara began to leave, then stopped, turned back and added, with a smirk: “You didn’t even write lemonade with an “i”, that’s just how incredibly incompetent and insultingly dumb you are.” The three fillies stayed silent at that last statement. Not because of its very relevant nature, but because they were trying to find out what it meant. And they could even see in Silver Spoon’s eyes that they weren’t the only one who were kind of lost there. “You do know lemonade it’s spelled with an “e”, right?” asked Applebloom, suddenly founding a great pleasure to be in the position to snigger as she was exposing Diamond Tiara’s error. Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle joined up in an explosion of laughter, as they could almost feel Diamond Tiara’s humiliation in a tangible form surrounding them and enveloping them in its sweet, sweet embrace. The mocked filly, pretending to haven’t noticed her error, just said: “I give up, there is truly no hope of redemption with three useless little miserable ponies like you.” And then, went away, followed by Silver Spoon who was still trying to figure out how the word “lemonade” was really spelled, as she couldn’t conceive that her friend could have made such a blatant mistake. Finally alone again, the cutie mark crusaders gradually, and very slowly, achieved to stop laughing. “She just made my day! I think I’ll never let her forget it.” Sweetie Belle said. “I sure as hell won’t let her forget either. It’s only fair after everything she made us go through.” agreed Scootaloo. “Building a lemonade stand wasn’t a bad idea, right?” asked Applebloom. “What?” asked, in return, both her friends. “I was just wondering… you know… I don’t want ponies to give me money because they pity me…” explained Applebloom. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other with a very concerned look. And in their silent communication, they both told each other: “Yes, even when she shows how truly stupid she is, Diamond Tiara can still hurt ponies”. “Don’t tell me you still listen to a word that snake tongue says?” Sweetie Belle told Applebloom. “The lemonade stand is a great idea. We will make a lot of money in very little time and we will be able to offer great gifts to our big sisters for Sisters’ day.” “And you’ll see.” added Scootaloo, “We will make the best lemonade ever tasted by pony tongue in the whole of history. It will be so great the whole barrel won’t last even one hour. You’ll see.” It was a slight exaggeration, but it came straight from the heart and reassured Applebloom that the money they would earn would come as a reward for all the efforts they would have put into that little project of theirs. They all agreed it was a great idea once again and took the rest of the evening to prepare the lemonade, in the knowledge that the next day, once school would be finished, was going to be a very successful one.