Aiguille
Diamond Tiara trudged sullenly along the packed dirt road leading from the school into Ponyville’s centre, head hung as low as her rock-bottom spirits.
Throwing an apology the way of a mare whose flower stall she’d nearly walked into, she sank once more beneath the icy surface of her thoughts; her hooves unconsciously positioning themselves in automatic, mechanical movements not unlike those of a marionette.
The whirring gears of her mind spun aimlessly as the engine that was her brain coughed and sputtered but ultimately churned out no useful ideas about how to – or even whether to – tell her father about this.
If Silver was going to ruin her father’s business – and Diamond had no doubts that the filly would try her very best to do just that – then she owed it to him to give a warning of the things to come, no matter how late it may be.
But the whispering, insidious doubt in her mind chastised her for the thought, circulating and recirculating the question she didn’t want the answer to: how could he forgive her for bringing this ruination upon his life’s work?
Would he even believe her?
Any speculation upon the answers to these questions merely brought the crushing guilt and fear that much more to the forefront of her mind, so she tried her best to ignore them and focus instead upon the most pressing matter at hand: how to break the news.
The weary part of her suggested that it would perhaps be better to simply pretend that nothing was wrong and enjoy her last few hours in the utopia she had doomed, rather than ponder the impending catastrophe which was to befall her. But she had to tell him – didn’t she?
Frustration built as her attempts to make a plan continued to fail, and she soon succumbed to a fit of impotent rage which temporarily cleansed the contents of her head, allowing other thoughts to take the stress-cramped stage and entertain the audience of her mind.
Attention turning now to the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ offer of assistance, she tried to fathom what way they could possibly hope to help her.
What could the sister of a seamstress, a farm filly and the underdeveloped daughter of Ponyville’s most disadvantaged family do to pull Diamond, her family and their entire business from the clutches of bankruptcy?
*
“Apple Bloom, you still haven’t said what we’re going to do to save Diamond Tiara”, said Scootaloo, who appeared to have been wordlessly elected as the voice of all the trio’s questions.
“I mean, it’s nice you've gotten her to promise to apologise to everypony but how are we going to keep our side of the bargain?”
“Yeah, how are we going to do it?” interjected Sweetie Belle, who’d been thinking hard and had yet to come up with anything more helpful than providing counsel for the rich filly once she lost all her, well, riches.
If she hadn’t already figured out the solution to their little dilemma, Apple Bloom would’ve been irritated by their questioning; instead, she smirked smugly.
“I just don’t know…” she said, straight-faced, “if only one of us happened to be part of a hypothetical family which had a near-monopoly on a certain hypothetical fruit’s production on this continent. Then we’d have the financial capacity with which to help our little friend, but alas, dear Crusaders, ‘twas never to be…”
After a few moments of bewilderment, Sweetie’s mouth formed a silent ‘o’ and Scootaloo’s eyes widened in realisation.
“You don’t mean…?” she asked, voice drenched in disbelief.
Apple Bloom nodded sagely.
“Eeyup.”
Sweetie Belle could see one fatal flaw in Apple Bloom’s plan, and wasted no time voicing it.
“But Bloom, your family think Diamond Tiara’s a spoilt brat!”
Apple Bloom shrugged her objection off, figuring she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.
“Can’t hardly blame ‘em for that, now can I?” She asked, rhetorically. “We’ll just have to do some real good explainin’”
With this, she turned and trotted away along the path, followed less than enthusiastically by her friends.
“Understatement of the century”, muttered Sweetie Belle gloomily as the trio continued toward Sweet Apple Acres.
Scootaloo nodded. “Yep. This’ll be fun.”
*
Diamond managed to get as far as the first floor landing before her father spotted her and ran over: his priority shifting immediately from work to welcoming his favourite – and only – daughter back home.
He pulled her into a warm hug which only served to make her feel worse – she didn’t deserve his love, not after she’d doomed him with one ill-thought-out punch.
“And how’s my little filly today? Did you have fun at school?” he asked as they broke apart.
When Diamond didn’t answer, his happy smile slid slowly off of his face, dropping from the corners of his eyes as they crinkled in worry.
“Diamond, honey, what’s wrong?”
Again, silence. His daughter’s eyes were wet with unshed tears, her idly tracing hoof seemingly attempting to communicate what her mouth could not. But Filthy Rich did not speak its language and instead resorted to his prior course of verbal questioning.
Lowering himself to her level, he all but begged her to reply.
“Diamond, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s up... Please?”
His imploring gaze finally broke her self-imposed silence and she stammered:
“I-I… I've ruined e-everything... I didn't m-mean to, I-I promise… I’m sorry!”
Wailing the last part as the floodgates opened in her eyes, Diamond didn't resist as Filthy pulled her to his chest, whispering words of comfort in her ears as she sobbed into his shoulder.
“Hey, hey – it’s all right, sweetie. You know I could never be mad at you, now, let’s go somewhere more comfortable and you can tell me all about it.”
She lifted her head to look up at him and nodded weakly, climbing slowly off of him. With a consoling foreleg around her, he led her from the landing into his office and prepared to get to the root of his daughter’s sorrows.
*
Back in the schoolhouse, Cheerilee turned her brassy key in the lock to her office, securing it until the following morning’s work. She twisted the handle to and fro just to be sure it was locked before heading out under the weight of paperwork-filled saddlebags with so much in them that she was forced to carefully carry her newly-written letters between her teeth.
Pausing once more to lift the keys from where they hung at her breast and lock the outer door of the school building, the teacher wearily made her way out onto Ponyville’s main road, heading in the general direction of her modest home and taking the time to admire the beautiful scenery provided by the countryside bordering her town.
It was fortunate that she chose this slower, more relaxed pace: Ditzy Doo, better known in the town by the well-meant nickname, Derpy, ambled in that unique way of hers onto the main road from a narrower country lane to emerge in front of the teacher.
Cheerilee waved the mailmare over and she enthusiastically skipped across the road to her, nearly overbalancing when she tried to arrest her movement with an overly powerful flap of her wings.
“Hey, Cheerilee!” she greeted happily.
“Hello, Derpy,” answered Cheerilee, having removed the letters from her mouth with her hoof so that she could speak clearly, “I’ve got some letters I need delivering. Do you think you could sort that this evening? They’re pretty important so the sooner they arrive, the better.”
“Sure! Anything for a friend.” Stowing the letters in her mailbag, the mailmare trotted off, getting a fair distance before Cheerilee yelled after her.
“Derpy, I haven’t paid you yet!” she called, removing her small bag of bits and removing a fair sum.
Returning to her prior position, her grey-coated friend smiled and modestly said: “It’s alright, Cheerilee. We’re friends, you don’t need to pay me.”
Cheerilee chuckled. “You’re friends with pretty much everypony here, Derpy! How do you expect to make a living if you don’t let us express our gratitude?”
Derpy gratefully took the bits, and with a warm “thank you!” she headed off the way Cheerilee had come, no doubt to Scootaloo’s home on the very fringe of town. After watching her friend trot off into the distance for a while, Cheerilee too moved on from the crossroads into town proper.
Reaching the central square, she gave Roseluck a friendly wave as she passed her stall on her path toward her own home, pausing for a moment to stare up at the Rich family’s townhouse and wonder how Diamond Tiara was doing.
After a moment of pensive speculation, she continued her walk along the short distance to her comparatively diminutive cottage and unlocked the door. Setting her saddlebags down with a sigh of relief, she turned to lock the door before sidling over to a well-loved armchair and collapsing into its welcome embrace.
*
Instead of veering off the main path towards their clubhouse as they usually did, the Cutie Mark Crusaders trotted over to the house overlooking the vast orchard in search of Apple Bloom’s dependable elder sister.
They waved cheerily to Big Macintosh as they followed the well-trodden path to the house, seeing Applejack wasn’t with him and therefore was probably in the house having a short break. The crusaders picked up their pace a little and arrived at the house in very little time at all.
Sure enough, within the house’s kitchen sat Applejack, clutching a glass of water in one hoof and wiping the sweat from her brow with the cloth in the other. Looking up, she smiled at her little sister and her friends.
“Howdy, you three… what’re you doin’ in here? I’d have thought you’d be in your clubhouse by now.”
“We would be,” agreed Apple Bloom, “but we wanted to talk to you about somethin’ important.”
“What is it? Somethin’ to do with school?” asked Applejack, puzzled.
Apple Bloom sat down opposite her, joined on either side by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, taking a deep breath before speaking. “We need to talk about Diamond Tiara.”
Applejack frowned at the mention of the name.
“What do ya wanna talk about that rotten filly for? She ain’t been pickin’ on y’all again, has she?”
“Nope.” Replied Apple Bloom cheerfully. “Actually, I don’t think she’ll be doing that sorta thing again, all things considered.”
Now Applejack was curious. “What do you mean?”
“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon ain’t friends no more. Silver was sayin’ stuff ‘bout mum and dad and Diamond just… snapped... Nearly broke Silver’s nose with that right hook of hers.
“Turns out she didn't really want to bully us at all. From the sound o’ things Silver Spoon’s been threatenin’ her somethin’ nasty – said that if she didn't do what she said, she’d wreck Diamond’s dad’s business.”
Applejack looked dumbfounded, but her gut instinct told her that her sister was telling the truth – or at least what she believed to be true.
She dug deeper, trying to make sense of it all. “How’d you girls find all this out?”
Apple Bloom looked guiltily at her hooves.
“We…sorta… listened in when she was talkin’ with Cheerilee. I know we shouldn’ta done it, but we were curious and she was in there forever!”
Smiling a little, Applejack shook her head: this was typical behaviour from Apple Bloom. That filly’d get herself into some real trouble someday with that curiosity of hers.
“Applejack?” asked Bloom, recalling the farm-mare’s attention from her little act of boketto.
“Yeah?” she said, returning her focus to her sister.
“We've gotta help Diamond Tiara. I thought you could maybe get in touch with the other Apples, set up some deals or somethin’?”
Applejack nearly choked on her drink. “What!”
Apple Bloom waited until her sister’s coughing fit had finished before explaining calmly.
“Silver and Diamond’s parents are business partners. Diamond’s dad needs the trade with Silver’s parents to keep his company going, but Silver’s parents are only helping him out ‘cause Silver and Diamond are friends... Now Silver Spoon’s gonna go home with a near-broken nose, a bad temper and a will to do her best to wreck Diamond’s family business…”
Sighing, Applejack finished for her sister:
“And you want us to bail ‘em out… That’s a pretty big deal, Bloom, especially for a filly who’s spent the last three years bullyin’ y’all. We could do it, I suppose, but we’d need some serious return for this to work…”
She trailed off, finally settling on a decision after an agonising minute of silence.
“Alright, I’ll talk to the family, but just so’s you know: if this goes ahead and we ain’t at least breakin’ even we’re shutting it down. If they’re gonna go down even with our help, we ain't getting’ dragged down with them.”
Sensing that this was the best she was likely to get, Apple Bloom grinned and headed for the door with her friends, calling “Thanks!” to her sister as the trio left for their clubhouse.
Applejack stared after them, before downing the last of her drink and heading out into the orchard to resume her work.
“Hey, Mac!”, she called, “I've got somethin’ I need to talk to you about – you got a moment?”
Her brother turned and nodded. “Eeyup… what is it, AJ?”
“You ain’t gonna believe this, big bro: Apple Bloom wants us to trade with the Riches.”
“What?!”
*
Filthy Rich had listened with a swirling mix of emotions, foremost of all being sorrow for his precious little filly, as she’d explained everything that had happened behind his back over the last few years.
In his mind he cursed himself viciously for never acting upon his gut feeling that something was off with his daughter; for never pressing further when she told him she was ‘fine’.
After his wife had died giving birth to his never-to-be son he had promised himself that he would take good care of his only child. That he would protect her.
Not realising that Diamond’s supposed best friend had been manipulating her for three entire years under his nose didn't strike him as taking ‘good care’ of his daughter.
He was ashamed that he’d never once questioned whether things were as they seemed – had he been so desperate to believe he was doing a good job as a father that he had ignored the hints and ultimately failed in that most important of duties?
She was asleep now, curled up in his hooves; the faint glint of tear tracks still visible across her soft pink features. Another stab of guilt: a thirteen year old filly should not be in such trouble that she cries inconsolably because she believes her father will hate her for something that wasn't her fault.
He could not bring himself to be mad at her for not telling him until now, he knew all too well how difficult it could be to talk about that sort of thing. His late teens and early twenties had been plagued by deep depression, a burden he’d carried for many years in the belief that nopony would want to hear his sob story.
It had taken the mare of his life to change that view, the first one who would listen, who would console him, who genuinely cared how he felt… along with Diamond, she’d been one of the best things ever to happen to him.
Sweet Celestia, he missed her so much, even ten years later. His love for her would never fade, and neither would the pain of losing her. It was a price he was willing to pay to always remember her.
In addition to his failings as a parent, there was also the alarming matter of his imminently disappearing partnership with Silver Spoon’s parents to deal with. A great number of the products he sold came from them: without those supplies, there would be a hole in his stock that would be nigh-impossible to plug.
There would be no way the business could continue as it was following that sort of loss… it was possible he might not be able to continue it at all.
Filthy looked mournfully at the setting sun and prayed for a miracle.
*
Dinky Doo was playing a game of ‘Heroes of the Three Kingdoms’ with her newfound friends Auburn Wake and her sister, Copperwing, when her mother came to collect her.
The fantasy board game was the magnum opus of nerdy pastimes, not to mention aimed at twenty-something stallions with a penchant for self-painted miniatures and week-long battles of wits, but the unicorn filly had become enraptured by the complex game of cards, dice and hoof-painted pieces introduced to her by her eccentric pegasus friends.
It was, therefore, with great reluctance that she obeyed her mother’s summons to the door, accompanied by Auburn. Though she'd also wanted to see her off, Copperwing stayed behind to note down the positions of their pieces for next time and pack up before the pegasi’s mother nagged the pair about it.
“See you at school, Dinky!” called Auburn as the unicorn left, and Dinky made a show of waving goodbye, intent on keeping the first truly close friend she’d made. Slowly, the pair trotted in unison away from the house and turned onto the main street of Ponyville.
“Did you have a good time, sugar?” asked Derpy.
Her daughter answered with an exuberant “It was great!” and a wide grin.
“That’s good… How was school? Back on track with your Equish, I hope?”
“Yeah, Equish was fine… Oh! – you’ll never guess what happened at school today!”
“And what was that?” asked Derpy curiously as they crossed the town square.
“I didn't get there quickly enough to see much of it besides the fight, but Silver Spoon was being horrible to Apple Bloom – stuff about her parents, I think – and Diamond Tiara hit her right in the face. I thought those two were best friends, but now I’m not sure what to think.”
“Oh, dear, that doesn't sound good. You’re alright, though, aren’t you?”
“Yeah!”
The pair fell into a comfortable silence as they closed the final distance to their little house on the street corner and went inside.
*
Silver Spoon had returned home with a furious air to her, and her father had done his best to avoid aggravating her further, instead attempting to placate her with ice cream and cake.
She had insisted on waiting until her mother was there before telling him what had irked her so, or what had happened to her nose. He hoped it had been a simple nosebleed, but her angry demeanour gave him the feeling that it was from an altogether more violent source. Though the room was mostly silent, nopony noticed the clank and dull thud of a letter hitting the tiles, floors below.
Finally, after hours of her daughter pacing the spacious living room, Silver’s mother emerged from her office, tiredness showing on her face as she moved over to the coffee machine and refilled her cup with her bitter lifeblood.
“Glimmer, darling?” her husband called. “Something’s happened to Silver at school today, she said she wouldn't tell me what it was until you were here.”
Silver’s mother, the brutally elegant Glimmer, trotted over with her coffee levitated in lilac magic whilst her husband cleared the paperwork off of the most ergonomic of the seats.
“Here, have the good seat, I know your back’s been bothering you.”
She wordlessly nodded her thanks and took the offered armchair, looking expectantly at her daughter, whose muzzle, she observed, looked visibly sore and, if the dried blood was any indication, had clearly bled earlier.
Responding to their questioning gazes, Silver Spoon opened her mouth and injected as much hurt, betrayal and shock into her words as she could muster.
“Diamond Tiara hit me”, she said, smirking inwardly as her parents’ faces twisted into masks of outraged fury.
‘And so it begins’, thought the filly, a sense of satisfaction filling her cold heart as her parents launched their questions, to which she would give the most damning answers she could think of.
Celestia damn it, revenge felt good.
*****
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I can't wait until next Thursday then. Its getting good. I just came back from a story that made Apple Bloom the bully and blackmailer. Everything new is so..refreshing.
They're going to need to get the other side of the story and maybe input from at least one third party, but sadly when it comes to their children parents usually take what the kids say at face value and don't bother with confirming what they were told were the facts or the whole story.
Well, that was something. Next chapter is going to potentially going to be pretty intense. Nothing is more violent than blind, rage-filled, parents who dismiss their own children of ever doing wrong. But that letter. Looks like things are gonna get rough if things don't go according to Silver's plans, but so far she looks to be getting in the first shots.
Dinky is into tabletops and The Three Kingdoms? NEEEEEERRRRRD!
Dinky and Auburn might make for a nice side story for ya down the line. Then we'd be able to learn more about Auburn down as the story progresses.
Could be cute. Add some conflicts of other fillies and colts just not being into anything Dinky likes. Nerds of a feather have to stick together. :P
Still, far as this story goes, I'm curious as to what role an OC will play in this story. Here's to next chapter.
5024788 Yeah, next chapter's going to be both very fun and very challenging to write. Some of my favourite parts to write are the more confrontational scenes, but I've shot myself in the foot a little with all the buildup I've given it!
One of the things I've been trying to avoid in this (although it may not seem like I've done so thus far) is having Diamond become best friends with the CMC. Realistically, that just wouldn't happen, or at least not as quickly as I usually see it being done.
Having established that the school is much larger now and takes students from nearby towns too means I have the ability to mix up who DT does become friends with in the end, thus avoiding the issue of who's going to like her out of the few canon classmates she has if not the CMC.
As for Dinky being the world's nerdiest unicorn since Almighty Sparklehorse herself, and your idea that practically nopony likes the same things as her: you are spot on the reason Auburn's her only close friend and I very much intend to, as you suggested, make this into more of an issue in later chapters.
I'm naturally wary about having an OC as a major character, but I think Auburn's personality will fit fairly smoothly with the established characters and that she won't seem so out of place. Besides, we know so little about most of the foals that they're essentially OCs anyway. Just to be clear, Diamond is, and will remain, the main character of the story.
Oh, and
I might just have to steal that. Had a good laugh when I saw it.
Thanks for the support!
Or so Silver Spoon thinks