Grow up, Diamond Tiara

by Masters-of-the-Elements

The Only Chapter

Grow up, Diamond Tiara!

“But daddddy-”

“No ‘buts’, Diamond Tiara!” Filthy Rich said sternly. “You’re not a school filly anymore. It’s time for you to go into the real world! Be thankful I’m giving you a secretary job and not something worse. And if you fail to show up on Monday, then I would be forced to kick you out of this house!”

Diamond Tiara, now 24 year of age, grumbled to herself as she wondered the streets of Ponyville. After returning home for her usual morning spa visit, she meant her father where he informed her that she was going to be working as a secretary at Barnyard Bargains with no questions asked. That didn’t sit well with the pampered pony, and she had gotten into a fight with father, ending with her storming out of her house.

“What’s daddy’s problem?” the pale magenta pony grumbled angrily. “I only been out of school for 12 years, can’t I live a little?”

The spoiled rich girl stopped when she saw that she was near the market place, namely an opened stand that sold mirrors. She walked up to the stand and looked in a heart-shaped vanity mirror.

Expect for the obvious height she had gained in the last few years, Diamond Tiara hasn’t changed much since her school days. She still wore her mane in that same style she wore it in since she was a filly. She also has on the tiara she had since she was a little girl. About the only difference that any pony could see was the necklace, matching her tiara coloring, with costume jewelry on it, and an overload of make-up on her face.

She smiled at her own reflection, feeling like there was nothing wrong with her, and walked away, oblivious to the glare she was getting from the stand worker. Diamond wondered the market place, looking for a news stand so she could buy her favorite magazine, Gabby Gums, a gossip magazine she had personally funded after leaving school.

Diamond was close to the news stand when she saw a certain pony walking. She smiled as she waved to her friend. “Oh, Silver Spoon! Over here!”

The gray earth mare looked to her right, and put on a (forced) smile as she waved back to the other mare. Diamond trotted up to her friend, a snobby smile on her face.

Though Diamond failed to see it, her friend had changed quite a bit. Silver no longer wore glasses and her mane was much shorter then when she was a filly. The mane was also hidden by a red bandana, and she has exchanged her necklace for a pair of safety goggles that hanged from her neck. Finally, she wore a saddle pouch with numerous tools in it.

Diamond reached her friend and her smile suddenly vanished when she realized Silver Spoon was in the company of one of her least favorite ponies. It was none other then Sweetie Belle, and like Silver Spoon, Diamond failed to notice the changes that had occurred to her schoolyard foe.

Sweetie Belle’s mane was slightly longer then when she was a filly, only now wasn’t curled like before. Instead it was straighter with a large section curling around her face, and partially hiding her right eye. She also wore a gold necklace with a phoenix stone, the rarest gem in all of Equestria, embedded in the center of the necklace. She also had a pair of saddlebags, simple in design, on her back.

Finally, there was the pony’s cutie mark, which was weird (To Diamond Tiara). It was a pink musical note, inside of a transparent head-like design. Diamond snickered under her breath at the cutie mark, finding it ridiculous, and failing to the notice the glare sent her way by her supposed friend.

“Listen SS, I should be going. I promise I would help the magic teacher at the Twilight Time Center, and I don’t want to be late,” Sweetie commented calmly and kindly.

Silver just nodded kindly and took a couple of steps back as Sweetie activated her magic, taking off both her bag and necklace in one go. She placed the necklace in the bag and set the bag beside her. The white unicorn suddenly changed, transforming into a robot-like creature on two feet, and then into a strange chariot form. Diamond didn’t even pay attention to the strangest, as the transformed pony magically put her bags onto her being and sped away, leaving a small cloud of dust in her wake.

“UHG, why do you hang out with such a freak, Silver?” Diamond asked in a snobby tone, but quickly changed the subject before the earth pony could respond, “I had a rough morning, so let go get the latest Gabby Gums!”

Silver sighs and looked at her friend seriously. “Sorry, Diamond, but I have a large order that needs filling, and with Rumble out of town-”

Diamond began to pretend to gag, rudely interrupting her friend. Silver just watched friend theatrics with a lazy eye. “What do you see in that freak?” Diamond asked in snobby tone. “He’s just worthiness and you can do some much better. Now, come on, let’s go.”

The snob began walking into the market, blissfully unaware that her friend wasn’t following her. She got about 15 steps ahead when she finally realized that somepony was missing. She grunted angrily and turned around. Silver hadn’t moved from her sport, and that made Diamond angrier. She began to tip her hoof impatiently. When that didn’t work, she stormed up to Silver, ready chew her ear out.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Silver suddenly said, catching her friend by surprise.

“Can’t do what? Diamond demanded slightly.

“I can’t continue to cater to your fantasies,” Silver sharply said, causing Diamond to glare at her. The gray mare saw that her friend was about to speak, and beat her to the punch. “In case you haven’t noticed I have a job now! A job, I would like to point out, that you nearly ruin because I have to drop everything I was doing because you couldn’t afford a ticket to Manehatten so you could get your stupid magazine, which I would to add isn‘t even sold here anymore! If it wasn’t for Rumble, I would have lost one of my company’s oldest clients!”

“You done?” Diamond asked offhandedly, clearly not hearing half what her friend just said.

“Good-bye, Diamond Tiara,” Silver said flatly, clearly irritated by her friend’s behavior.

The gray earth pony then walked away before her ex-best friend could say anything. Diamond watched her friend walk away, feeling more irritated then shocked. She just turned up her nose and began to walk, no real goal in mind.

“What’s her problem?” she asked angrily after a short time of aimless walking. “It’s not like I asked her to drop anything that was really important?”

“If you asked me, it’s you who has the problem,” A voice said offhandedly.

Diamond looked to her right and groan when she saw that had somehow wondered to the stand run by her most hated ponies in town. That would be the Apples, and the pony who just spoke wasn’t even a pony, but some sort of weird robot thing. Diamond, however, didn’t care what the thing looked like, but wouldn’t let its words go unchallenged.

“And just who do you think you’re talking to?” the snob pony asked commandingly.

The robot named Steel Hooves just shrug and went about setting on the stand. “I think the question here, is who do you think you are?” the robot calmly asked as he continue to set up his stand.

“Ha! That’s easy!” Diamond said confidently. “I’m the princess of Ponyville!”

Steel finished setting up the stand and looked at Diamond curiously. Diamond, for her part remained rather confident in her word. Steel just sigh after a minute of stare down and transformed into his pony form, to the unimpressed pony in front of him. She didn’t even bother to take in the pony’s appearance, thinking it was a waste of her time.

The now transformed pony then took an apple from the stand, and said, “If there’s a royalty for Ponyville, I would have to say it’s…the Apple family, and I don’t just say that because I’m part of that great family.”

It was clear that Diamond didn’t like that answer, as she glared at the hybrid pony. Steel didn’t even flinch as he took a bit from his apple, chewing on it slowly just to annoy the overgrown filly in front of him. He swallowed the chucks on food and began to tip his chin in thoughts.

“Well, let looks at the facts. While the town may recognized Princess Twilight Sparkle as their official princess, if it wasn’t for the Apples we wouldn’t have a Ponyville, and while we can’t forget the things Princess Twilight have given use, like the Twilight Time Centers all throughout Equestria, we can’t deny the simple facts, either,” Steel explained calmly.

“Ha, right!” Diamond exclaimed confidently. “It was my family that started Ponyville. So there!”

Steel just rolled his eyes as the immature mare stuck her tongue out at him. He finished off the apple and threw away the core, without taking his eyes off the pony who was smiling smugly.

“And no pony is denying your family part in helping to make Ponyville what it is today, but without Granny Smith, rest her soul, and her zap apple jam, then your family would have nothing special to sell, and you probably wouldn’t have what you have today,” Steel said calmly.

“What do you mean?” Diamond snapped sharply.

Steel just sigh and went behind the stand, and began to put on an apron. “Can you just think about what would happen if Granny Smith never discovered the Zap Apples trees in the first place? Where do you think you’re family would be then?” Steel asked curiously.

Diamond opened her mouth to respond, only to freeze when she realized she didn’t have anything for a come back. Steel, despite knowing better, couldn’t help but smile a little, as he finally said something that the immature mare couldn’t turn around on him.

“And just between you and me, you’re family isn’t all that impressive,” Steel said a little smugly.

That snapped Diamond out of her stupor and she sent a glare at the hybrid pony. Again, it didn’t scare Steel. He decided to say something before the immature mare could say anything else.

“Well, I remember one of my trips to Manehatten, and meetings with several well-off ponies,” Steel said, the smugness in his voice gone. “It was boring, but I did learn that ponies I meant made a sizable income, some that easily rivaled your father’s own company.”

“If you have something to say to me, you stupid freak, say it!” Diamond snapped angrily.

Steel looked at the pony front of him, his face completely devoid of emotions and when he spoke his voice was eerily calm, “What I’m trying to say, Diamond Tiara, is that you’re a filly who never grew into a mare, and you only have yourself to blame.”

Diamond stared at the pony’s face, feeling fear…for about a second. She composed herself quickly and turned her nose up at the freak of a pony.

“Whatever...” was the immature mare only response as she turned around and began to walk away.

Steel watch as the filly who never grew into a mare walked like she was the queen of the universe, and couldn’t help but feel a bit of sympathy for her. He knew that the filly was about to be in a world of hurt, and every time some pony tried to help her she snubbed them and acted like everything was fine.

“Poor filly, she’s about to enter a world she could never hope to live in,” Steel said with pity, and went about doing something stuff with the stand.

Author's Note:

This was susposted to be a stand alone story, when I first starting thinking it up, but I wanted a pony to put DT in her place, and felt that no pony from the show would do something like that, so I twiched the story and made it put of my CMCT idea.

Comments

[Lord Of Dorkness]

Poor bastard. By the time she realizes what a twit she's been, it will quite possibly be to late to mend even the bridge with Silver Spoon.

Utterly deserved and self-inflicted, but still.

[nodamnbrakes]

Meh.

It had a good premise, and I can see a good story in this, but it wasn't fleshed out nearly as much as it should have been.

[Leafall]

Twilight Time Center? Genious!
I haven't read the story which is supposed to take place before this, but I knew what was going on...kind of.
You see, there are a lot of minor problems here and there in your story. A lot of times, you seem to forget the tense that you are writing in. At times the sentences are simply...wrong. Because of that, at times it's hard knowing what's going on in the story.
Example:

Diamond, for her part remained rather confident in her word. Steel just sigh after a minute of stare down and transformed into his pony form, to the unimpressed pony in front of him.

Try reading the sentence out-loud. You'll see that it's terribly off.
I recommend revising the whole story. Read it slowly, out-loud, or in a whisper, if you wish. You'll notice some mistakes that you haven't noticed before.
I hope I wasn't to harsh on you...

[Multiversity]

Not bad. Good premise, if a little shakily handled. If I could offer any advice, I'd drop the robot thing. That's a bit... out there.

[Mr Dan]

It would be better without the robots. Though, this one-shot has potential. Maybe you should rework it one day.

[Telaros]

There is a lot I'd like to say, but the one thing that stands out the most is, aside from the AU tag, the lack of doing a round of checking for spelling errors which for many these days take less than a minute, or even the complete and utter ignorance that can only really be summed up as escapism on Diamond's part. No none of that really stands out as much as being told repeatedly that a transforming robot pony that's usually in his non-pony form I guess is "Not afraid of Diamond Tiara."

Not even if one didn't know what a transformer was, and the fact that it's made to be such a norm in this story that is directly set in your CMCT universe, I would never once even begin to imagine Diamond Tiara ever making a robot that can blast her into atoms as ever 'feeling afraid' of a prissy pink pony living in her own pretty pink world and past accomplishments.

This universe of yours spawned a mentally retarded Diamond Tiara. And though I curious to read how a world with robot CMC would affect the world they live in, just reading this makes me think DT was either intimidated to continue going to school with those robot 'freaks' or she choose to actually deprive herself of being around ponies her age she could continually show off her specialness too and prove how much better she think herself to be. And that's if she even appears as so much as a mention in such a robot filled universe.

Now, if Diamond Tiara was some past psycho robot obsessed with herself or like Arachnid, then I can see the potential of that robot might possibly have a chance to be instilled with fear, but then showing none of it.

I think the word you want was "unphased" by Diamond's glare. And not mentioned again as we'd just take that word and go "Yeah, this robot ain't going to be intimidated by some fleshy pony with an attitude."

Anyways, apologies, just really couldn't buy into this pony that's missing 12 years of character growth that would be shown not to notice her friend's and the town's change around her. It's just too, rushed. And it takes 12 years for something to put Diamond in her place? Okay, so she has to be a secretary now. She's in denial and living off petty past accomplishments and clinging to everything of what she knew that was special about her of 12 years ago that may be signs of regret that she may have missed out on growing up, which is exactly what happened as it looks like she never grew up from the day she left school.

In fact, there is no conflict in a universe where the CMC are robots but Silver and Diamond are normal? You could of wrote this as a sort of Trauma or Shock that she's never outgrown after discovering Apple Bloom was one of those.

It could use some cleanup but it's not a bad story, just another alternate viewpoint of how Diamond can end up that seems to be either canon or stand alone to whatever happens in CMCT I guess. If only implied as a possible outcome. Or a definitive one in your universe. Either way, it's hard to see someone not suffering some sort of mental disorder to being this retarded considering how intuitive she is in the show. I'm going to chalk this up to a mental disorder on Diamond's part to avoid giving it a dislike.

Presentation feels rushed. Too much stuff feels out of place. Alternate dimension changes everything about Equestria but doesn't bother to explain or show us how she ended up this way. The descriptions alone has errors. Again, just feels like it was put together on a whim and without a care =/

[Telaros]

Also, while it may not seem sad that someone, anyone, would waste their life away like this. I'd still recommend a sad tag since this is a DT POV story.

Slice of Life, Sad, AU.

[The Great Derpsby]

Put her in her place and throw her family under the bus^^ Last one didn't exactly endear him to me. Giving Diamond lip? Fine, but being a smug bastard while insulting her family left a bad taste.

[Masters-of-the-Elements]

To all whom may had read this little fic. I truly grateful for all you have said, and I would admit that I did rush this. This was just a small project that I wanted to do, it was rushed in a big way. But, again, thanks for your reviews. And I'm promise that this whole robot/pony angle will be explored in the actually story.

[Frankie2]

I like that, expect for one thing. Twelve years. I honestly can't believe that Diamond Tiara would still be like this for twelve years. Four, maybe six, but not twelve. I don't think Filthy Rich would have waited this long to force his daughter to get a job by cutting her off financially. So, have a like, but not a fav.

[Alex Warlorn]

4133047

Taunting the CMC is just a game to her, a distraction to entertain herself in a way video games and movies can't provide, they're toys to her. The Foal Free Press proved that she is quite capable as a leader if ruthless and doesn't have much or empathy outside of those she cares for.

[Alex Warlorn]

4667658

Depends.

[Alex Warlorn]

How do you feel now that fate has changed?

[Masters-of-the-Elements]

7224929 You mean now that she isn't a bully anymore?

[Alex Warlorn]

7225362

Yes.

[Masters-of-the-Elements]

7225376 Really, not much. I'm looking forward to see where they will take the character in the future, though

[Alex Warlorn]

Well... I'd say the winds of fate have changed.