Return
Diamond Tiara awoke to find herself partway onto, partway off of her bed; summoned to the shores of consciousness by the ever-clamourous ring of her alarm clock and promptly left beached somewhere around the cognitive level of a zombie. Raising her head off the duvet and attempting to get to her hooves, she initiated something of an avalanche, falling back off of the bed and onto her rump with a loud thud, and dragging most of her blankets with her.
Attempting for the second time to rise to her feet, Diamond managed not to cause another bed-slide and proceeded to groggily look around her room. Auburn lay sleeping soundly in the sleeping bag Diamond had found for her, smiling softly at something in her dream, and Diamond felt a pang of regret at disturbing her as she shook her lightly and called her name, alerting the other filly that it was time to get up.
Mumbling something incoherently, Auburn's eyes fluttered open and she stared confusedly at her surroundings, before her gaze rested upon Diamond and sparked her trundling memory into action. The events of the evening prior came back to her in pieces, like a jumbled collection of still shots from a half-remembered movie, and gradually her mind caught up to the present situation. She was still in the sleeping bag Diamond had lent her, having been too tired on her return from the hospital to do anything but retreat to her friend's bedroom whilst Diamond explained everything to her father and, if the schoolteacher had stayed, Cheerilee.
Having moved on with her morning routine whilst the pegasus had been piecing together yesterday, Diamond was now over on the other side of the room, sitting in a chair by the window and brushing her mane. For a moment, Auburn watched her; not so much out of interest in her current activity but rather out of a desire to figure out what exactly made her tick.
Yesterday's sharp-edged words had proven the pegasus's suspicions that Diamond's years of forced bullying had left a mark on her nature; seemingly in the form of knowing exactly what to say to hurt another, even if her intention these days was to make amends. Part of her felt a surge of pride at being proven right, but much more felt disappointed that her friend was not as selfless and kind as she had appeared. This, she knew, was unreasonable: they were both flawed ponies, both of whom had made some big mistakes in their time, and given how she had acted towards her own sister, Auburn could not rightly hold her friend in any less regard for having a sharp tongue.
As far as Auburn could tell, Diamond, despite her time-consolidated ability to hurt others' feelings, was at heart a filly who more than anything was caring and loyal; perhaps to a fault. It was, after all, her loyalty to her then-friend which had dragged her into Silver Spoon's fold, and her caring nature which had driven her to such lengths to protect the only family she had left. Still, since she'd broken free of all that, both aspects of her true self had become quite apparent, beginning with her determination to make amends with all those she'd hurt, and continuing to show through her kindness towards Auburn, Dinky and Copperwing. Even the things she'd said the previous day, now that Auburn looked at it, had been said less out of spite for her but loyalty to - and anger on behalf of - Copperwing.
Lifting herself out of the sleeping bag at long last, Auburn tried to compress her newfound understanding into a similar one-clause statement to those she kept for everypony else she knew, finally settling on 'kind heart; razor tongue' and placing it on the mental shelf alongside Dinky's - 'spontaneous equine joy-nova' - and Twist's: 'fair-weather support group'.
As Diamond set down the mane brush and smoothed down her coat with her now-free hoof, Auburn coerced her bed mane into something a little more presentable and yawned loudly. Turning to the pegasus with a smile, Diamond spoke.
"Good morning, sleepyhead!" She greeted, playfully.
"Morning, Diamond," Auburn replied, stretching her long legs and arching her back, letting out a satisfied 'aah' as her joints clicked.
Drawing up beside her, Diamond opened her mouth and half-glanced towards her, as if she wanted to say something but didn't quite know how to. Raking a hoof through her newly-combed mane, Diamond took a deep breath and let it out again before turning her gaze back to Auburn, her eyes serious and guilty.
"Auburn, look, about what I said yesterday... I'm sorry for snapping at you like that. I was... I was just so angry and I-I wasn't thinking enough about how it'd make you feel." Guiltily, she turned her head away and said, sadly: "Or, maybe I was thinking too much about that, and for the wrong reasons... I just - I'm sorry, Auburn. I like your sister... I like her a lot, and when I heard what you'd said to her I saw red."
Auburn smiled genuinely at Diamond, moving to face her as she rested a dun hoof on the filly's shoulder and making a point of looking her in the eyes.
"It's alright, Diamond, really. I deserved worse, if I'm honest, and I already understood why you were mad, even if it did hurt to see you so angry at me. It's nice to hear you say that, though. My sister... Copper likes you, too, you know... You're probably the best friend she's had in years, and as bad as yesterday was for all of us, what you have together is going to be so much stronger after you were there for her like you were."
Diamond snorted. "You say that like I did some great feat, but I was only trying to do the right thing. It's not like it hurt me to help her - what hurt was seeing that she was hurt, and not being able to do enough to make things better for her."
Auburn met her gaze evenly, making sure that her friend was paying her attention. "And you say that like the right thing is always easy. Look, I get that you've done a lot wrong, but that doesn't mean that the things you do right are any less good. Stop beating yourself up over everything, OK? Silver Spoon already did a lot of that, and I - we - need you to be our driving force. Dinky's the happy one, sure, but when you get all determined to make things right, you have no clue how inspiring you can be. And maybe I'm being selfish again, but I could really use some inspiration right now..."
Diamond considered this, eventually shrugging noncommittally. "I'll try," she said, shaking her head in an effort to clear it, before pulling a face at the seriousness of the topic. "Ugh, it's too early for this sort of talk - just listen to us, we sound like grown-ups!"
Auburn's eyes widened in mock horror, the pegasus feigning shock at Diamond's point."Oh, Celestia, Diamond, you're right! Us...? Adults...? The horror, the horror!"
The fillies laughed easily, falling back into a sorely missed companionable silence, and it was with smiles and comfort, rather than guilty looks and tension, that they left the room and headed downstairs for breakfast.
*
Stepping out into the cool morning air, Diamond and Auburn gazed out across town, watching the ponies in the marketplace setting up their stalls in preparation for another day's work, the weatherponies clearing clouds, and a familiar grey pegasus launching awkwardly into the sky above the post office, saddlebags brimming with mail to be delivered and a broad, earnest grin on her face as she waved down to someone out of sight.
Returning their gaze to the ground, the duo trotted in amicable silence across the town square, Diamond humming a simple tune as she went. It was a somewhat cold morning, but the sun was bright in the sky and already beginning to warm the air into a typical summer heat, and Diamond and Auburn's shivers were soon cut short as they exited the dark shade of the buildings and made their way to school under the warming sunbeams' golden glow.
As they trotted calmly through the town, the sun likewise made its own trek into the skies, and it was not long before Diamond traded the convenience of quadrupedal motion for the awkward gait but improved vision of movement on three legs; Auburn merely shading her eyes with a long wing and slowing her powerful stride so that her friend was not left behind. Even with their respective eye-shading methods, both fillies soon found themselves squinting under the brilliant barrage of the summer sun, and as a result it was not until they'd nearly walked into them that the duo noticed the small pony standing in their way.
Blinking rapidly to try and accelerate the readjustment of her eyes to the shade the pony was providing, Diamond hastened to apologise, but was cut short when her vision cleared enough to see who it was. There - with an umbrella-hat proudly adorning the top of her head like a madman's idea of a crown, a pair of lime-framed, purple-lensed mirrored sunglasses, and an off-grey knitted scarf around her neck - was none other than Dinky Doo.
"Oh, I'm so sorr..." Diamond had begun, trailing off as the identity of the pony dawned on her. "Whu...? Dinky...? Dinky, is that you?"
"The one and only!" Dinky chirped, her face splitting into a joyful grin at the sight of her friends. "Did ya miss me? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did y-mmmph!"
Keeping a firm hoof over Dinky's muzzle with her hoof, Auburn chuckled at the filly's energy, sweeping an amused eye between her and the downright haggard-looking Diamond, with a barely contained grin stretching her face into some semblance of expression despite her attempts to remain the serious one.
"Welcome home, Dinky!" Diamond replied, smiling broadly herself. "It's great to see you again, especially after the weekend we've had."
The unicorn's response was muffled by Auburn's hoof, and her face fell into a frown, before lighting up again with devious glee. A few seconds passed, with Auburn's expression growing more uncomfortable by the moment, until she finally drew her hoof away, a string of spit connecting it momentarily to Dinky's mouth as the unicorn's tongue disappeared back into her mouth.
"Yeah, it's good to have you back, Doo," said Auburn, pulling a face at the sight of Dinky's saliva on her hoof. "...Even if you are disgusting. You do realise you have a horn, right? If you wanted my hoof off of your mouth, you could have just lifted it off - you know, with the telekinesis we both know you have?"
Dinky's expression gained a worryingly convincing air of innocence as the unicorn scratched her head with a hoof, mock-confusedly.
"What's a telekiwhatsit? Is that like a country or something?"
Despite her irritation, Auburn couldn't help but giggle, a fresh wave of annoyance rising up in her as she tried to return to her previous scowl.
"I hate you," she not-quite-snarled, unable to remain as angry as she wanted to seem. Lowering her sunglasses, Dinky fluttered her eyelashes and gazed into her friend's unimpressed eyes.
"Aw, I love you too, honey," she gushed, at which Auburn merely rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.
Diamond's chuckling became a laugh in earnest as Auburn changed tack and appeared to reciprocate the unicorn's faked feelings, fluttering her own lashes and leaning in with puckered lips. Blinking momentarily in confusion, Dinky shrugged and puckered her own lips, only for the pegasus's expression to snap back into a triumphant grin as her saliva-soaked hoof, until now unnoticed by Dinky, made contact with the unicorn's mane. Laughing heartily, Auburn wiped the disgusting coating off, knocking the umbrella-hat from Dinky's head as she did so.
"Ew!" Dinky whined, pawing at the suddenly spit-sodden patch of mane. Meanwhile, Auburn had half-collapsed into a guffawing mess, tears streaming from her eyes, whilst Diamond looked on mirthfully, shaking with short-breathed, nigh-silent laughter.
After a moment, her over-exaggerated disgust vanished nearly as quickly as it had arrived, and Dinky too joined the other pair in laughing at her expense. As the mirth of the moment wound back down into normality, and the guffaws turned to chuckles, then silent grins, the three began to head once more to school in a comfortable silence.
With the terrible trio now reunited, however, such a silence was doomed to meet an early grave. Letting out a little whine of disgust as the hoof replacing the umbrella-hat upon her head touched the spit-soaked section of her mane, Dinky turned to her friends and whined.
"Ewwww, it's all damp. I hate damp." she moaned, earning yet another eye roll from Auburn, and a questioning glance from Diamond.
"Dinky, it's your spit - why are you so grossed out by it? You've made more of a deal out of this than Auburn did about the whole... hoof licking... thing... Actually, forget the spit, what was with you two almost kissing? I mean, I could see it was a trick but you seemed like you were gonna go for it."
Dinky shrugged nonchalantly, although her cheeks darkened several shades at the reminder. "What can I say? I see a chance, I take it."
Auburn broke out laughing at this last comment from her unicorn friend. "'A chance'? Come on, Dinks, like I was going to kiss you - you'd just licked my hoof, remember? Your mouth would have tasted like dirt and grit and who knows what else after that... You know, let's just forget the kiss for a moment and pursue the real question here: why in Celestia's good name did you lick my hoof instead of pulling it away? Do you like the taste of dirt in your mouth, or what?"
Although her face had dropped momentarily at Auburn's comment about her chances, it perked right back up again at the opportunity for another innuendo. The presence of family had severely cut short her ability to make ponies uncomfortable with dirty jokes over the short trip, and now she was behind on her monthly quota - although, if Auburn kept providing these sorts of chances, she'd surpass that number before the end of the day.
"I'm no fan of dirt, no, but you... You taste good."
Covering her cringing, now-crimson face with a wing, Auburn half-laughed, half-sobbed at her friend's awful sense of humour, and it took Diamond quickly stepping in and forcibly redirecting her to avoid the pegasus colliding with an approaching lamppost, her mind shut down in the futile attempt to process the sheer level of inappropriateness that joke had delved into.
Her chest shaking harder as comprehension began to sink in - whether from crying or laughing, Diamond couldn't tell - and a repeated mantra of "I can't believe she just said that" whispering forward from her mouth, it fell to Diamond to be the one to ensure that she didn't run into anything else along the rest of the way.
Concerned, Auburn's guide turned momentarily to the madly cackling unicorn in the umbrella hat and wasted no time in expressing the nature of her worries. "Dinky, I think you broke her... Like, really broke her."
Dinky ceased her laughing for a moment to respond, a smug smile firmly planted on her face. "I know."
*
A few minutes later, the trio found themselves at the school gates; the clock on the side of the building showing that whilst a little later than usual, they still had some time before class.
Trotting straight through the open gate into the throngs of pupils, they pushed their way through the raucous legions of students and into the relatively quiet corridor outside the Headmistress's office, where they came to a halt, taking a moment to wrack their memories for their first lessons.
Somewhat sadly, Dinky announced that she had a Physics test to get to and gave a cheery wave goodbye before cantering off to the far side of school. Turning from the unicorn's retreating figure, Auburn looked curiously at Diamond.
"I've got Maths," she stated. "You?"
Diamond cringed a little, looking apologetic. "Art... Sorry, Auburn, I'd better get going if I want to get through that crowd before the lesson. I'll see you at lunch?"
"Yeah," muttered Auburn, slightly disappointed. "Bye."
Returning to the crowded entrance hall, Diamond burrowed through the shifting mass of ponies; pushing by Snips and Snails, who didn't seem to realise how badly they were blocking the way; and ducking under Rumble's airborne form as he jetted by over the crowds. Giving a somewhat envious glance at his wings, Diamond continued to navigate the living maze of ponies on foot, but was cut short in her progress by a stream of students worming their way through the corridor from the opposite direction.
When the group passed through, however, Diamond was forced to immediately retreat back into her alcove, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders thundered through the recently vacated gap in the same direction she'd wanted to go. Following them through, Diamond assumed they simply hadn't seen her and shrugged the irritation off in favour of curiosity as she noticed that their voices were raised. Their body language indicated that this was not the shared anger at a single target that they typically showed, but more of a fractious fury between the members, and judging from the angry expressions on Scootaloo and Applebloom's faces, all was not well in the CMC.
Pushing the occurrence to the back of her mind to concentrate on navigating the equine maze, Diamond surfaced from the river of students to arrive on the bank outside her classroom, comfortably shielded from the passing masses by the bodies of her fellow Art students. As the minutes passed by and the corridors began to clear, Diamond zoned out, watching the motion but not the movers in a sort of trance which remained unbroken for several minutes.
When it was broken, however, it was not by the arrival of her teacher, as she'd expected, but the loud clacks of a sprinting pony somewhere along the corridor. Poking her head out and turning in the direction of the noise, Diamond was just able to catch a glimpse of Scootaloo's face - screwed up in an expression of pure anger and hurt, with dual waterfalls of tears plummeting from her tightly shut eyes - before the sprinting pegasus nearly bowled her over in her haste to get away from whoever had upset her so.
Confused and transfixed, Diamond stared after Scootaloo as she galloped headlong, little wings flapping furiously, into the fillies' bathroom, barely slowing down for the door. As she waited for her teacher to arrive, Diamond pondered the uncharacteristic behaviour - was Scootaloo upset because of whatever the CMC had been arguing about? Why were the CMC arguing in the first place? What could be so hurtful that it could make Scootaloo, of all ponies, run sobbing down the corridor? To these, and many more questions, she had no answer, and not enough evidence to work one out.
A younger Diamond Tiara might have been tempted to go poking into the matter, but the filly was older now, and nowhere near as eager to get into others' affairs: especially after all the trouble she'd had to deal with - and still was dealing with - she was very reluctant to play detective in something like this. But Scootaloo seemed to at least like Diamond a little bit, and with the CMC likely out of the question as the probable sources of the filly's upset, she probably didn't have that many - if any - ponies to turn to for help.
As Mr. Pincel finally arrived, several large boxes grasped in the colourful aura of his magic and a number more on his back, Diamond made up her mind. Just like the art teacher was clearly struggling to carry everything on his own, Scootaloo would find coming to terms with the cause of her upset very difficult without somepony there to help her. Diamond would offer to be that pony, and if the pegasus accepted, then she'd do all she could to aid her; if she declined, however, she would keep a respectful distance and do her best not to draw attention to the other filly's upset.
Mind already buzzing with ideas about ways to help Scootaloo, Diamond trailed after her classmates and took her seat, zoning out when Mr. Pincel began to speak in favour of jotting down possible courses of action. Although she'd been quite looking forward to Art this morning, she no longer had any interest in the matter and couldn't care less if the teacher was talking about watercolours or water coolers, enraptured as she was by the idea of finally helping out one of those she'd hurt most.
Sure, her qualifications were important and all, but this was life or death!
'Operation: Super Scooter Saviour' was go.
*****
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This was...interesting. Also, Dinky seems to have few shades of Pinkie Pie (I wouldn't be surprised to see her turn up as Pinkie's assistant in a future chapter)
I wander what upset her..
I think Dinky has had that slight yet obvious escalating feel of the forward jokester for awhile. Though to see her be that open with Auburn reminds me a bit of how I used to do the same with my introverted friend who I used to love to tease. We were strictly platonic, but I never missed an opening when they set themselves up for something. Perverted friends make the world go round. ;3
You should see the tons of pictures we've taken of the shenanigans we've done online. Shame I never had a camera at the time to capture those real life moments of embarrassment and silliness though, my biggest regrets was not coughing up the dough to buy a camera! xD
So, yeah, hyper character whose likely full of crazy hormones and being extra silly towards her bestest friend? Totally believable far as I'm concerned. Just as long as they don't over do it. Everyone has their limits so it's good to get your reaction and bask in your victory as Dinky did here. lol She clearly knows how far she can go. Extra points for getting grossed out at your own spit, especially feigning innocence. Nice to see Dinky back on scene.
Now, about Scoots. Geez, this drama between those three has been building up for awhile. I'm guessing this has Diamond square in the middle of it seeing how the CMC had a bit of a 180 reaction to DT after they helped her clear her name. But enough of my speculating, I'll be eagerly awaiting the next chapter. So take your time xD
Dinky's scene was much needed after the feels-heavy moments of the previous chapters.