“…and so that’s how I have all these bits,” Dinky finished explaining to Filthy Rich. She had to admit, she was getting a little tired of telling the same story over and over again, even if it was a relief to no longer have her secret all to herself.
Filthy Rich nodded slightly as Dinky finished talking, and stamped his hoof on the floor after a moment, causing Dinky, Sparkler, and Diamond Tiara to all jump slightly. “Well, I’ll be!” he exclaimed. “Little filly, that kind of frugalness and forward-thinking is the foundation of good business! I wouldn’t be surprised if your special talent relates to banking or accounting with that kind of ethic!”
Dinky had an image pass through her head of her stuck behind a desk, crunching numbers and double-checking figures and trying to balance ledgers (whatever all that meant) and singing to herself about her fate. “I spend my life accounting with figures and such; to what is my life amounting? It figures, not much!”
The unicorn filly wasn’t sure where the words to the song came from, but they seemed apt. “That’d be…nice,” she said politely to Filthy Rich. Behind the counter, Sparkler once again hid her laugh behind a hoof as she used her magic to magnify the gems in a necklace that Diamond Tiara was inspecting. Dinky had been worried that Diamond Tiara might take a liking to the necklace that Dinky was after, but fortunately all of her choices had the same thing in common – blue gemstones, and not yellow like the one Dinky had her eyes on. She had passed right by Dinky’s own choice without even acknowledging it.
Filthy Rich nodded. “It sure would. Equestria couldn’t exist without the paper-pushers, little filly. It’s not the most glamorous job, but it pays the bills.” He smiled at that, and waved a hoof as though pushing the idea aside. “Of course, you’re still a filly. No need to worry about that quite yet.”
Dinky shook her head, as Sparkler and Diamond Tiara both came back up to the two of them, the proprietor carrying a necklace in her telekinesis. “Alright, Mister Rich, your daughter’s made her choice, and a very nice one at that,” she said. “This is one of my best pieces that I made just for my opening in Ponyville: sparkling pale blue sapphires set in sleek sterling silver, and with radiant eighteen-karat gold plating on a delicate link chain, also sterling silver.”
“Gold?” Filthy Rich asked worriedly, leaning down to inspect the necklace. Nopony wore gold; it was too much like the radiant, wrathful sun.
“Whitened gold, of course,” Sparkler amended. “I was originally planning on using platinum for this piece, but I was already reaching my budget as it was with the sapphires. Nopony but a dedicated metallurgeon with an extraordinarily keen eye would be able to tell the difference. It is one of only two of this kind that I’ve made; the first one, which did use platinum, is currently in the collection of the Vicereine Twilight Velvet.”
Dinky regarded the necklace. It was beautiful, but then again so was everything else in the store, and Dinky wasn’t used to jewelry and so had no real concept of what went well with what; however, Dinky was surprised that Diamond Tiara had chosen such a small necklace. The pendant that the sapphires were set into was barely an inch in diameter, if even that much.
“This piece costs seven hundred seventy bits.”
“Er,” Filthy Rich said, “is that with or without the…?”
“It is with the twenty-five percent off, yes.”
Oh, that explains it, Dinky thought. Diamond Tiara must have been looking simultaneously for sapphires, and very high price tags. “Please, daddy?” Diamond Tiara asked her father, rubbing her head against the point of his shoulders. “Please please please please?”
Filthy Rich could not stand against such an onslaught. “…well, why don’t you and Dinky go and look around the shop some more while Miss Star and I talk about it, okay?”
Diamond Tiara nodded fervently, doing little to hide a smile over what she knew was the triumph of her cuteness and power over her father. Filthy Rich seemed to realize this as well, but looked like he was going to make at least a token effort of trying to haggle the price of the necklace down. Sparkler had rolled her eyes at the knowledge that she’d have to haggle; neither Filthy Rich nor his daughter saw, but Dinky did, and it was her turn to hide a slight giggle as she wandered over to the necklace was going to be getting for her mother.
To her surprise, Diamond Tiara actually did join her; she’d been expecting the earth pony filly to instead pick her own jewelry display to stare at. “Is that what you’re getting for your mom?” she asked.
Dinky nodded. “The gem matches my momma’s eyes, and the silver my momma’s coat.”
Diamond Tiara stared down her nose at the necklace, appraising it. “Not really all that much to look at, is it?” she asked.
Dinky frowned. She’d been hoping that Diamond Tiara was going to be nice; apparently her hopes had been misplaced. “I don’t have a daddy paying for me. I’ve only got a hundred bits. But I know she’ll love it!”
Diamond Tiara again considered Dinky Doo, the bag that was once more on Dinky’s back, and the fact that there was a hundred hard-earned bits inside. “Did you really not steal all those?”
“No! I had to work! I cleaned up around the house and outside with chickens and I used to like chickens but now I hate them ‘cause they’re mean and they smell and they go to the bathroom everywhere. But I earned every bit!”
The earth pony filly blinked at that. She looked like she’d needed, for posterity’s sake, to ask once more, just to be sure, and finally seemed satisfied with the answer. “I…guess it is pretty nice, that you’re spending all that money on your mom. And that you could save it all up.”
It took Dinky several moments to realize that her jaw was hanging open, and she needed to use a hoof to close it. Diamond Tiara had just – begrudgingly – complimented her. Diamond Tiara noticed her shocked expression, and scowled as she stomped a hoof. “Look, I’m just saying what it is, okay? Just acknowledging it. It doesn’t mean anything!” After a moment of considering, she leaned in close, eyes narrowing. “You better not tell anypony in school that I said that!”
Dinky nodded, willing to agree to that demand in return for Diamond Tiara showing that, somewhere, she really did have a heart, or at least something that resembled one. She turned back to the display case, wondering if she should pay Diamond Tiara a compliment in return. Even as she thought that, words came tumbling from her mouth:
“Scootaloo said the exact same thing.”
For a moment, Diamond Tiara’s coat seemed to be red rather than pink. “No she didn’t!”
“Yeah she did. Just a few minutes ago. Those exact words: ‘I guess it is pretty nice.’”
“I’m not like Scootaloo! Not even just saying the same things! Scootaloo just falls asleep in class and doesn’t do work and she thinks she’s so cool on her scooter but she’s not.”
Dinky had a feeling that there was something more complex than she, or Diamond Tiara for that matter, fully understood driving Diamond Tiara's words, and so decided to drop it. “Okay…”
“Princess?” Filthy Rich’s voice inquired. Dinky and Diamond Tiara both turned to look, and saw that Filthy Rich had finished his conversation with Sparkler, the latter of whom was sliding Diamond Tiara’s necklace into a small box, as well as using magic to wrap up another box, the contents of which were a mystery to Dinky Doo.
Diamond Tiara, for her part, smiled brightly as she galloped up to her father “Thank you thank you thank you!” she gushed, which even Dinky could tell was part of a well-planned and perfected routine. She immediately, however, had eyes on the other box. “What else did you get me?”
Sparkler wasn’t fast enough this time to hide her burst of laughter, though she did manage to keep it to a single ha. Filthy Rich turned to glare at her, but by the time he did Sparkler already had managed to put on a straight face and focus intently on wrapping the box up. “…no,” he said after a moment. “Something for your mother.”
Surprisingly, Diamond Tiara didn’t seem distraught by the idea of her mother also getting a present. She just nodded as Filthy took the bag containing his purchases into his teeth. “Now, if anypony asks,” he said on the way out, “I spent seven hundred bits on your mother and a hundred and fifty on you, okay, honey?”
Dinky didn’t get to hear how that conversation continued as the door to Sparkler’s store closed. Now free from having to keep up appearances, Sparkler laughed aloud at what she heard Filthy Rich saying on his way out as she made her way over to Dinky from behind the counter, and Dinky joined in. “That foal,” Sparkler said as she looked down at Dinky, “is the best example of a ‘daddy’s little filly’ that I have ever seen. She plays him like a half-jangle kazoo. Is she always like that?”
Dinky nodded, or started to before recalling the recent past. “Not always,” she conceded, though she couldn’t keep herself from adding “but usually, yeah.”
---
Ditzy Doo had given up on walking and instead flown over to Sweet Apple Acres, giving her hooves a much-needed break, if not her shoulders or dock as the muscles on both were necessarily worked out by the flapping of her wings. It meant that she was delaying the entire middle of her route, of course, but she had decided that the trade-off was necessary to prevent her from collapsing on the street somewhere. Her oath, she reasoned as she slid several envelopes into the Apples’ mailbox, didn’t mention anything about delays, after all.
Neither Rain, nor Sleet, nor Dark Of Night, nor Glare of Day, shall keep me from the swift completion of my appointed rounds.
“Oh, shut up,” Ditzy demanded of herself as she took wing again, sailing away from Sweet Apple Acres and back towards Ponyville proper, though she would land while still outside of town to prevent herself from crashing into things. “That line could be interpreted any number of ways. If swift completion was the goal than this route would be split in half and divided amongst two ponies.”
Of course, it was split in half and divided amongst two ponies before I –
“Shut up, me,” Ditzy said again. She realized that she was talking to herself, and worse, interrupting and responding. Still, as long as she was cognizant of both those facts, she was reasonably certain that she didn’t need to worry. Probably. Maybe she would stop talking to herself, just in case…
“Hi, Miss Doo!”
Ditzy blinked as she stopped her forward flight and instead hovered in place, looking down at the ground that was some fifty feet below her. It wasn’t easy with only one eye pointing down, her strabismus currently making her left eye keep an eye on the few clouds overhead. Still, she spotted her caller quickly enough: a straw-colored earth pony filly with red hair, wearing a large bow in her hair.
“Applebloom?” Ditzy asked as she came down, making sure to give the youngest scion of the Apple family plenty of room as she did, as Ditzy’s depth perception wasn’t the best and –
Smack.
“Yikes,” Applebloom noted, as Ditzy picked herself up off of the ground, shaking her head. “You okay there?”
“Yeah, I’m used to it,” Ditzy admitted with a sigh. Depth perception. The bane of her existence. She’d misjudged the distance from where she’d been to the ground, and more importantly the distance of her hooves to the ground, and…well, like she’d told Applebloom, she was used to it by now. She shook her head again to clear it, looking to the filly. Something was nagging at the pegasus’ mind at the sight of Applebloom, but she wasn’t sure what. “Aren’t you running late from school? Did it get out late?”
“Naw, it was on time, but everypony in class followed Dinky into town to Amethyst Star’s – oops.”
Ditzy Doo’s brow furrowed. Amethyst Star? She knew that name from…somewhere. For the life of her, she couldn’t place it, though for some reason she got a sinking feeling in her stomach at the sound of the name. “Why were you following Dinky?”
“Um, Ah think it was supposed to be a secret, Miss Doo,” Applebloom admitted, tapping her hooves together. “Or a surprise, really. But, uh..." she leaned in close. "Yer gonna love it, Miss Doo. But ya didn't hear that from me, okay?"
Ditzy looked over Applebloom, who seemed completely earnest. It wasn't hard to figure out that Dinky was probably getting something together for Ditzy's upcoming birthday. The thought of her filly having somehow garnered help from her entire class managed to dispel the worry that Ditzy felt at the name 'Amethyst Star.' “Okay, then.”
“Uh,” Applebloom pressed. “You really didn’t hear nothin' from me, okay? Ah don’t want Dinky mad at me for spoilin’ the surprise.”
“I don’t think Dinky can get mad at anypony,” Ditzy assured the earth pony filly. “Chickens, sure, but not a pony.”
“She got real mad at Scootaloo that one time…”
Ditzy vividly remembered pulled hair, ruffled feathers, mud, noodles, something about Dinky saying that a certain idol of Scootaloo’s wasn’t so great, and all in all the one time Dinky had ever seriously gotten in trouble at school or needed a punishment from Ditzy. “That was a year ago, and they get along fine now.” The latter was especially impressive seeing as Dinky had, by all accounts, lost the fight.
“Ah guess that’s true. See you later, Miss Doo!”
“Later, Applebloom,” Ditzy returned as she turned around, ignoring the slight ache in her hooves as she trotted away, head down in thought.
Amethyst Star…Amethyst Star…she knew that name. Ditzy stopped her pace after a moment, closing her eyes. She didn’t precisely have a photographic memory, but once Ditzy committed something to memory, she rarely forgot it. Obscure things like a name she’d probably only heard once or twice usually needed some digging, though…
…a stairwell, in a house in Fillydelphia. White plaster walls. Pictures hanging on the walls as Ditzy Doo followed Castor Cut upstairs, hips swaying and wings standing upright since she knew what was coming once they reached the bedroom…
…stopping at the top of the stairwell, focusing on one picture. Castor Cut, with a mare Ditzy didn’t recognize…and a filly, nearly a mare in her own right, standing between them.
“Who’s this?” Ditzy had asked, giggling slightly even as she spoke. She was maybe a little tipsy. Just a bit.
Castor Cut was an older unicorn (but not too old! Middle-aged), but that hadn’t bothered Ditzy since they’d met. Who cared about age? He’d saddled up alongside Ditzy, guiding her away. “Come on, Ditzy, you don’t want to know that…”
“No, I do,” Ditzy had insisted. “I really do. I doo. I Ditzy doo…”
Castor had been at least as tipsy as her, and the sight of her pouting – dock still shaking back and forth a little, tail swishing around – had been enough to convince him. “Well,” he said. “My wife May Bell, and my daughter, Amethyst Star. Sparkler. She prefers Sparkler. It’s a nickname.”
Ditzy stared a moment…then giggled. “Ha!” she’d laughed, as she’d turned and rushed into the bedroom. “You’re old…”
“Really?” Castor Cut asked as he followed Ditzy through the door, across the floor, and to the bed. “Could an old-timer do this…”
Ditzy’s eyes snapped open, wide as dinner plates, mouth hanging open. “No,” she breathed, turning around and galloping after Applebloom. “No no no no no! Applebloom!”
The filly hadn’t gone far, and turned around to see Ditzy Doo baring down on her. The filly gave a yelp and shrank back. Somehow, Ditzy managed to reign in her panic. “Applebloom,” she repeated. “I’m not mad at you, I promise you’ve done nothing wrong, but I need you to tell me: did you say Amethyst Star?”
Applebloom stared at Ditzy. “It’s…it’s supposed to be a surprise – ”
“I don’t care if – !” Ditzy began to shout, but forced herself to stop. She closed her eyes. “Applebloom, please. I’m sorry, but I need to know. It’s very, very important.”
Applebloom paused a moment more, before nodding. “Yeah,” she confirmed. “Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers. New store opened up in Ponyville.”
“And Dinky is there?”
“Yeah – ”
Ditzy didn’t hear if Applebloom had anything else to say as she turned around, wings beating as she took to the air, intent on breaking her personal rule of never flying inside of Ponyville. “No, no, no, please Luna no…”
---
“I’m sorry again about the look I gave you when you came in,” Sparkler said as she opened the glass case that Dinky’s objective was located in. “You just…well, for a moment, anyway, you looked a lot like somepony I know.”
“You don’t like that pony very much,” Dinky surmised.
Sparkler nodded. “She…well, it’s a long story.” She smiled down at Dinky. “You’re, like, the polar opposite of her, though, from what I can tell. Seriously, I’m getting a toothache.”
Dinky frowned. “Well, there’s a dentist’s office just a few buildings away. Doctor Minuette could probably help…”
Sparkler laughed as she levitated out the necklace, passing it off to Dinky’s hooves for her to look over in greater detail, so as to make sure that she was certain of her intended purchase. Up close, the necklace looked even more beautiful and perfect for her mother. “I meant that you’re just so sweet,” Sparkler explained. “Get it?”
Dinky thought a moment before enlightenment struck. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “That’s what Miss Cheerilee meant, too!”
“Probably,” Sparkler confirmed, before nodding her head to Dinky. “So. How does it look up close?”
“Perfect.”
“I try,” Sparkler said nonchalantly, prompting a laugh from Dinky. The two made their way over to the cash register.
---
A stray cloud had somehow made its way down low over Ponyville; a pegasus named Cloud Kicker had been about to buck it out of existence when Ditzy Doo came crashing through it, destroying it in the process. The sudden lack of anything to buck threw off Cloud Kicker’s balance in the sky, causing her to crash into one of the town’s iconic thatched-roof homes.
Even if Ditzy Doo had noticed, she probably wouldn’t have cared at the moment.
Ditzy’s eyes were focused forward, an act that stung her eyes and made them water if she did it for too long, but she ignored the pain. Theoretically this should have much improved her flying, but her panic coupled with the fact that she simply wasn’t used to seeing the way ponies without strabismus did actually managed to make things worse – but she was in no state to realize this. Flying low through Ponyville, she smacked into two wooden street signs, splintering one and breaking another one entirely. She didn’t notice the pain, but the impacts did force her to the ground. She was up and galloping a moment later, then taking to the air once more, head snapping left and right quickly as she read the signs of businesses, looking for the name that had incited her to panic.
Dinky looks exactly like me, just with a horn instead of wings! She cried out internally. My name was on the front page of every newspaper in Equestria just a few weeks ago! She has to know that I live in Ponyville and she’s going to see Dinky and…and…
Ditzy didn’t turn in time to avoid crashing into a lamp post. This, being made of metal, didn’t bend or break, but the glass of the lantern itself did. Ditzy was already up and moving before she could be cut by it, though, looking around desperately for –
There. She saw it, tucked in comfortably between a sandwich shop and Windowpane’s Window Repairs: Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers.
Ditzy charged.
---
“I’ll just wrap this up…” Sparkler said as she slid the necklace into a box, then got wrapping paper behind her. Dinky, meanwhile, was fishing out the bits from her backpack, using her telekinesis to heft them in stacks of ten and lay them out as neatly as possible on the countertop. She was going to have four bits and seven and a half jangles – the copper, smaller units of currency, with ten jangles to a bit – left over, according to Sparkler.
Dinky smiled, despite the precise nature of lifting up bits and laying them on the counter. She was nearly there. Once she had her mother’s present, all she’d have to do was wait for her birthday…
“Okay,” Sparkler said, getting a quill from an inkwell as she finished wrapping the necklace’s box up, as well as a small card. “Who’s this being made out to?”
“My momma!” Dinky said happily. “Just write, happy birthday, momma! Love, Dinky Doo.”
“Short and simple,” Sparkler said with a smile as she wrote. “Those are the…wait. What was your second name?”
Dinky’s eyes were closed in concentration as she separated and counted out her bits, so she didn’t see the look that Sparkler had affixed her with. “Doo,” she said as she set down the last stack, this one of six bits, one of which would be broken down into the jangles that Sparkler would owe her. “Like Ditzy Doo! She’s my momma, you’ve probably heard of her since she saved the world…”
Dinky’s voice trailed off as she had looked up to Sparkler. The unicorn was staring at her, her expression completely unreadable as she seemed to be flipping through every emotion there was.
“But…” Sparkler said at last. “Does…does that mean you’re my…?”
The door to Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers was thrown open. Dinky and Sparkler both looked to the entrance after leaping simultaneously in shock, both dropping the items they had been holding…
Dinky’s eyes widened. “Momma!” she exclaimed, recognizing the panting sight of her mother in her mail mare’s uniform. Her hat was missing, and her eyes were focused forward. Dinky saw her surprise falling apart in front of her eyes. “No!” Dinky exclaimed, taking a few steps forward. “Momma, you can’t be here! You’re ruining the surprise – ”
“You!” Sparkler exclaimed. Dinky blinked at the intensity; looking behind her, she saw that Sparkler’s face was contorted in rage. “You! What are you doing here, you home-wrecker?”
Ditzy Doo dashed forward, placing herself between her filly and Sparkler. “Not here,” Ditzy begged. Dinky’s eyes widened. She’d expected…she wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but she certainly hadn’t expected the pained, submissive voice that her mother was using. “Please, not here, not in front of Dinky. She doesn’t know, Sparkler – ”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Amethyst Star. Not in front of Dinky. Please. Please.”
Sparkler stared at Ditzy, then down to Dinky. She closed her eyes, horn glowing brightly. Ditzy Doo flinched, wings spread wide as she moved to shield Dinky, but all that happened was Sparkler shoved the bits that Dinky had taken from her bag back into it, then hurled the bag to the ground in front of Ditzy.
“Get out,” Sparkler spat. “Now.”
“Okay,” Ditzy said, again almost sounding like she was apologizing as she grasped Ditzy’s school bag in her teeth before slinging it over her shoulders, adding it to the mail bags she was already carrying. “Okay. Thank-you – ”
“Out!”
Ditzy didn’t need more encouragement, it seemed, as she used her wings to guide Dinky from the store. The unicorn filly’s eyes were wide as she tried to process what had happened. It had been so fast…
“Momma?” Dinky asked, as the door to the jewelry store closed, and Ditzy stood still. More than a few ponies were standing outside of it – and it looked like a tornado had passed through Ponyville right up to Amethyst Star’s shop. The Ponyvillians were staring at Dinky and Ditzy as the emerged “Momma, what happened? Why was Sparkler mad at you? Momma – ”
Dinky had trotted up to look her mother in the eyes – and immediately wished she hadn’t. Ditzy’s eyes were tearing up fast, already releasing a deluge. “Momma? Why are you crying? What happened?”
Ditzy didn’t immediately respond, instead breathing in deeply and releasing her breath only slowly, rubbing tears from her eyes as she did. “N-nothing,” she lied, transparently. “Come on, Dinky. We need to go home.”
Dinky blinked, as her mother began trotting off. “But…but you’re supposed to still be working! And you were crying! Why?”
“Home, Dinky,” Ditzy repeated, not looking over her shoulder. She didn’t need to, as Dinky was following close by, still trying to figure out what had just transpired.
Dinky's internal song, by the way, is from the Producers. Specifically, it's Leo Bloom's first lines in the song "I Want to Be a Producer."
Castor Cut is an OC, as I couldn't find a unicorn pony I wanted to use. Actually, that's a lie, I did, but I chickened out. For a little while, though - about an hour - Dinky's and Amethyst Star's dad was Fancy Pants.
Additionally, Ditzy's line in "Longest Night," about how she feels that she doesn't deserve the Element of Kindness, should by now be farily well explained as to why she initially felt that way.
Oh, freaking Hell. The stupid mule blames Ditzy for something that was going to happen anyway given her father's need to tomcat around like an idiot. And don't think that I didn't notice the name of one of the friends Trixie alienated and might want to un-alienate.
The conflict between "stupid vindictive idiot know-nothing know-it-all Sun-damned Brenda Walsh from 90210 with hooves" friend and "hapless victim of a slick-talking sexual deviant" friend is going to lead to certain things:
1) Raindrops spurring Trixie's conscience by the subtle masterstroke of punching her in the face.
2) Dinky becoming Trixie's assistant.
3) A dumb-ass kid who only THINKS that she knows what's going on getting a hard lesson in reality.
679769
I feel I need to float this idea: you're assuming that Ditzy Doo was a victim, or otherwise not fully aware of what she was doing. But her little flashback scene was written in specifically to dispel that notion.
My point is, it takes two to tango.
Vicereine Twilight Velvet, nice.
And Diamond Tiara's heart grew three sizes that day -- but then she noticed and forced it back down.
Oooooo, so that's the rest of the story, or at least more of it.
That is so sad......
Vicereine Twilight Velvet? I want to hear more about that.
"I hate them ‘cause they’re mean and they smell and they go to the bathroom everywhere."
Now wherever did you get that idea?
679798
As a quick refersher, the ranks of nobility in Equestria are, from lowest to highest:
Lord/Lady
Knight/Dame
Baronet/Baronetess
Baron/Baroness
Viscount/Viscountess
Count/Countess
Marquess/Marchioness
Duke/Duchess
Archduke/Archduchess
Viceroy/Vicereine
Grand Duke/Grand Duchess
Prince/Princess
King/Queen
Emperor/Empress
Typcially speaking, however, a Grand Duke is a sovereign in his own right in the traditional (Terran) ranks of nobility, and not subserviant to a higher power. So a viceroy is typically the highest rank of nobility before reaching the guy who is ultimately in charge of everything.
679780
I know that it takes two to tango. The problem is that Amethyst Star only sees the effect their stupidity had on her home life and can't see what kind of Hell her 'tormentor' has had to endure. The idea that Ditzy isn't laughing at her misery not only flies in the face of everything a properly paranoid citizen of the Lunaverse can't help but think would happen, it goes against her need to have a villain that she'd blame in the Celestiaverse as well.
679732
Yeah! "I destroyed the life of an innocent foal who I regard as an object of pity (no matter how violent her hatred of me might be) because of my throbbing biological urges and haven't made amends to my satisfaction."
679824
I wouldn't go so far as to call the typical Lunaverse citizen paranoid, just...more open to the idea of betrayal and misdirection than is generally seen in MLP. They've still got a generally brighter disposition than humans.
679873
I think that you will agree, however, that Amethyst doesn't see the whole picture when looking at Ditzy. Getting her to see her as more than a homewrecker is probably either the point of this or something that'll have to be worked on.
679920
I'll agree on that, yes.
Poor Dinky had her surprised ruined Diamond Tiara was almost nice too. I wonder if Sparkler had let the sale go through if Ditzy hadn't burst into the shop?
Twilight Velvet is a vicereine? I didn't expect that.
No offense, but why?
And I like your way to explain how Dinky and Sparkler are sisters. Works good in the lunarverse.
679985
It's something of a holdover from my interpretation of the mane universe, actually. Namely: Princesses do not marry down the social strata; not very far down, at least.
Oh, they can be in love with whoever they want, live with whomever they want, have kids with whomever they want, but marriage is about more than love when royalty is concerned. There's dowries and inheritences to consider. Marriage is a transaction amongst the nobility (and not just the bride! The groom as well). So Shining Armor must therefore of been either reasonably high in the ranks of nobility, or else (more likely) set to inherit such a rank from his dad. Not to mention that Twilight was foal-sat by a princess.
Now, even if this isn't true in the mane universe, in the Lunaverse, where the nobility is more important and actually does stuff, it's certainly true there. So if I want Shining Armor to get married to Cadence (and I do! They make a great couple), I need to have Twilight's family be landed nobility, and highly ranked ones at that. Nothing lower than Duke would do.
And then I pictured the look on Trixie's face when she learns that Twilight Sparkle is the daughter of Viceroy Nightlight. 'Twas silly.
Everything I expected pretty much happened in this chapter. Except Tiara not being a bully, much. That of course doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it
Twilight's mom being a vicereine is an interesting detail, especially considering what her daughter ist currently up to (re: Boast Busted). With every chapter I like your Lunaverse more and more. Keep up the great work.
I just wonder if AS's realization that Ditzy feels like plop for treating her like plop when she was Dinky's age isn't going to make things worse. I've seen what happens when that happens and it ain't pretty. It usually leads to things like this:
Raindrops: "If you don't get done being remorseful, I'll have to kill you."
Nice Diamond Tiara is nice!
...and while yes, it does take two to tango, AS needs to realize that applies to her 'oh so loyal' dad as well. I honestly think they're equally to blame, and that Ditzy's current feelings on the matter pretty much redeem her. It's a mess.
I anticipate the next part! (will this be four chapters like Boast Busted, or will it be a bit longer? And I really want to know what Trixie needs feathers for...)
680700
Four or five, but certainly not six. That's all I'm sure of.
680058
Vicereine sounds important, a representative of the monarch. But isn't that what Trixie for Luna in Ponyville is ?
It's the highest rank somebody can have without being a part of a ruling family. But it's a title which isn't a rank of nobility, more a position which also common can hold.
679920
AS's reaction isn't entirely fair, especially where Dinky is concerned, but considering the emotional trauma that comes from a broken home, is rather accurate. In all likely-hood she acts the same to her father as well. It will make the reconciliation between AS and Ditzy that much sweeter though.
Oh wow....this chapter was just heartbreaking. Well, not the first two-thirds. It was actually pretty funny seeing how much Diamond Tiara had her father wrapped around her hoof and seeing her be...mildly pleasant was nice.
Yikes....that's a pretty dark turn there. Ditzy an adulterer? Never seen that before. And Castor Cut would be Dinky's dad too huh? Urf. Can't wait to see how Ditzy and Cut's family reacted when they found out that Cut had a marefriend on the side and got pregnant. Awkward...
And poor Dinky! She worked so hard to get her momma a present and now everything's ruined! :(
Sad Dinky is the saddest thing ever. In fact I'd go so far as to say that this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!
Also, Twilight being middle-high royalty? That's gotta be hard to deal with in specially in light of the Ursa situation that crops up later. No wonder she wanted to run and hide, poor girl...
There's hurt and blame on both sides, here. Ditzy did a bit of... doodling, but so did Castor, and Ditzy does feel awful about it.
And wait... why does Trixie need to get punched?
Also, yay on Diamond Tiara! Great chapter, Double-D.
680896
No, it isn't fair. As bad as she feels now, the realization that she's wasted a crapload of time obsessing about it is going to make her feel worse. Now, don't get me wrong...she and Ditzy are probably never going to be friends as such but at least she'll be civil enough towards her. My guess is that the last paragraph will involve her giving Dinky a family discount on that necklace.
681263
Because Raindrops perceives her as throwing Ditzy under the bus to get in good with Amethyst.
681295 I... doubt Trixie is gonna do that. Nor do i see Raindrops thinking Trixie is gonna do that, either, to be honest. At least I hope neither happens.
681374
Same here. As a matter of fact, I hope that the story ends with Trixie saying "Wait....who did you say the jeweler was again?" after Ditzy and Amethyst have settled things between themselves.
681408 Yeah, good ending there.
681427
Let's just hope that the author thinks so too. I don't want this getting any uglier than it already is.
681438>>681427
Trixie's only scheduled for two scenes in this story (one of which has already happened), both of them basically non-sequitors that don't affect the plot overmuch but instead tie the story into "Helping...Hands?" She'll have a bigger role in the next story, but both of these stories were supposed to develop the rest of the Luna-6 more than Trixie, who's getting plenty of screen time between me and everybody else's stories.
680801
That's true and false. It didn't start as a title of nobility per se, but traditonally only nobles got appointed to it, and it became a title of nobility over time on Earth. We can presume the same thing holds true in Equestria.
The key difference between Trixie's position and that of a viceroy is that a viceroy has actual executive authority second only to the monarch. Trixie, meanwhile, is basically a glorified messenger and only has executive authority in very specific, very limited circumstances.
681607
Oh, right....the thing with Lyra. Odds are that she'll only learn about this if it ever occurs to her to ask. (Which I doubt will happen what with her being her and all. She's sort of a jerk that way.)
I'm surprised no one commented on DIamond Tiara getting a little tsundere at the mention of Scootaloo...
^ I was actually just about to comment about how interesting Tiara's reaction to her comparison to Scoots was. Doth protest too much, perhaps? It was REALLY nice to see her not being such a total so-and-so, especially since Dinky never really does anything to deserve ill will. And on that note, AWWWUHH! I'm gonna agree with whoever up there said that sad!Dinky is the WORST. POSSIBLE. THING. She was THIIIIS CLOSE to getting that perfect necklace! Houu, if only she'd said "to momma love Dinky" and left it at that! So curious as to how this will turn out, and so EXTRA curious about the next story with Lyra. Lyra and hands...
Diamond Tiara being nice to somepony? Inconceivable!
She's really a changeling in disguise, isn't she?
681295
Actually I got a good feeling about where this is going. Dinky is totally gonna bring them both together. Calling it right now. :twilightsmile
:681665 :
681665
That would explain a lot, come to think of it......
Poor Dinky. And poor Ditzy. Poor everypony in that situation, really. And, of course, Sparkler will only have had her parents' side of the story. Ditzy does have some amends to make, I'm sure, but I'm putting the bulk of the responsibility on, y'know, the pony who was actually married at the time. I wonder what Ditzy has told Dinky already about her father - if anything at all. Because keeping the truth from inquisitive kids like Dinky always goes so well.
I like the way Filthy Rich applauded Dinky's financial responsibility. It seems like the sort of thing he'd like to see kids doing. Diamond Tiara's reaction was very interesting. We know how much she admires her father, so I'm sure she has a lot of empathy for Dinky doing something nice for her mother. I actually feel a little sad for her, here, because she can't do the same thing as Dinky did - what do you get for the father who already has everything?
And the plot thickens.
I'm really digging this chapter and the dynamic between Sparkler and Ditzy. Both characters are sympathetic enough that you want them to peacefully come to terms, but that depends on how willing Sparkler is to forgive her. I can't wait to see her back story in the next chapters.
And I hope Dinky gets to give Ditzy that necklace. I can't bear to see that little girl in despair.
The cuteness was still in full force when this chapter started, making the end all the more painful, great work.
Filthy complementing Dinky's financial abilities and Dinky being less than thrilled about the prospects he suggests for her, was a nice contrast. Tiara actually being moderately, nice even if she does have to enforce her own reputation afterwords, also love the way she wraps her father round her little hooves. You really did capture all the character dynamics her quite well here.
Dinky's filly grade naivety is also wonderfully played. Love the her reaction on finally finding out why so many grown ups seemed to suddenly be in need of miss Minuet's services. Also her complete inability to comprehend why everything went so wrong at the end.
Ditzy talking to herself was most enjoyable. I rather liked the modified mail mare's oath as well, especially the "nor Glare of Day" part, though I find the preceding "nor Dark Of Night" part to be a bit extraneous. The flash back of Dinky's father was not any thing I'd have ever expected when I first started reading this continuity, though the premise of this story had already made it mostly obvious. I'm still left with rather mixed feeling over it all, but that would seem to be rather the point. Lastly, the panic Ditzy goes into when she finally places the name, flowed by the confrontation at the shop was just all too devastatingly perfect.
Caught a few typos though I think.
and they go to the bathroom everywhere. But it I earned every bit!”
the "it" should probably be deleted
Dinky and Diamond Tiara both turned to look, and saw that Filthy Rich had finished her conversation with Sparkler,
wrong pronoun, unless Tiara's family is a bit more interesting than first glance would suggest
Dinky’s eyes were closed in concentration as she separated and counted out her bits, so she didn’t see look that Sparkler had affixed her with.
probably put a "the" in the middle there
680058
I'm in full support of Twilight's family being nobility, and have been ever since Shining was revealed to be her brother, with Cadance having foal sat her being just about the final proof of the matter for me. Regardless of actual rank, it should be clear that her family was always of some degree of wealth and prominence. That fancy home she's living in at the start of the first episode seems to be the same as the one she is seen living in with her parents as a filly during her cutie mark story.
Glad to see you going for the "I was an idiot when I was younger" approach than the usual woobie or mary sue methods. I was also raised by a single mom who got knocked up from being stupid and young. It's just life.
684538
I wasn't raised by a single mom, but my parents did seperate when I was 15. I actually wish they had seperated sooner - I love my mom and dad both, they are both great parents, but they definitely shouldn't of ever married or lived together. Frankly, it was a relief when they split up.
684617
Hmm, yes. I've known others in said situations. I... was comparing my situation to Dinky's though.
684628
I know, I was commenting on my own life. I'm narcissistic like that.
But in any event, yeah, I'm trying to avoid woobieism with Ditzy's situation, for the same reason that I didn't want to have Dinky's dad dead because of some tragic accident. That happens in real life, too, but I think that too many authors use it to add instant drama to a story. Similarly, making Ditzy the victim of some sexual predator is...well, first, it's kinda' dark for my tastes, but second, it's again just like waving a magic wand and conjuring instant drama.
No, the only really innocent ones in this situation are Dinky and Amethyst Star. And probably May Bell, but I don't think Sparkler's mom is going to feature too prominantly in this particular story. Maybe later.
684642
I agree. If I can use a specific example PegasusRescueBrigade's Shipping and Handling used a "tragic accident" scenario to explain Ditzy's eyes and Dinky's father's absence. It "worked" for that story, but then that story had a lower level of believability and realism to it than the Lunaverse. That kind of thing wouldn't have worked nearly as well here.
684617
My parents have been rather happily married my entire life, but my mother's practice used to include divorce law so I'm still pretty familiar with the concept of good people, who are good parents, but who just don't work together because they got married for the wrong reasons. I'm sorry to hear you had to grow up in such home, but glad to hear it doesn't seem to have left all that bad a mark on you.
Anyway, It may have surprised me when it first came up, but I fully support your avoidance of woobieism with Ditzy. It's been used to great effect by plenty of other authors, but it is still kind of cheating as a way to force instant sympathy. Your approach, like so many other aspects of the Lunaverse is wonderfully fresh and invigorating. I do sort of wonder though if a more woobie-like Ditzy might be in the cards to appear in eventual crisis crossover as a way to proved contrast for universal counter parts should they meet and interact.
684642
Wanna bet that most of the reason that she's trying to help Fluttershy is because she wants to make up for being a selfish jerk who didn't have her plop together?
Also wanna bet that Dinky isn't going to like Mommy quiiiiiiiite so much after this?
Out of all the stories on Fimfiction, this one deserves ALL of my win! i never really liked the "adopted" fanom of sparkler, nice originality there m8! keep up the good work, awesome story!
679780
I honestly don't see why you'd do that at all.
691984
Why I'd do what?
692258
the affair thing. Makes no sense to me.