Unwanted

by Apple Blumpkin

Chapter 8 - Diamond Tiara

“Bushido is realized in the presence of death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. There is no other reasoning.” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Chapter 8

The tears didn’t come immediately as one would expect. Diamond Tiara’s initial reaction to hearing the news of her father’s untimely demise was felt but not expressed outwardly. She simply crawled back into bed and shut her eyes. Hauteur Wreath presumably left at some point. Silver Spoon, of course, stayed. Time seemed to lose meaning to Diamond Tiara as she lay in her bed. Silver Spoon stayed for a while living up to her name by being the big spoon for Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara heard Silver Spoon talking in between her sobs, but Diamond Tiara couldn’t understand her.

At some point Silver Spoon left, giving Diamond Tiara a kiss on her forehead before leaving. Still no tears came to Diamond Tiara. She kept her eyes closed and pretended to be in a nightmare. A horrible terrible nightmare, but a nightmare that, when she opened her eyes, would be over. There came a point where the conscious act of keeping her eyes closed began to wear on her, and she decided to give up. She knew that she wasn’t dreaming, and the world would be the same when she opened them. Her father would still be gone.

However, as she cracked her eyes open and was greeted by the sun’s waning light. A small part of her couldn’t help but be disappointed. Diamond’s eyes were blurry so she rubbed them with a hoof to clear them. Somewhere far off she could hear somepony crying, and was mildly resentful that they thought they had something worthy to cry over while she had to deal with the loss of her father.

It was only after she had cleared her vision before she noticed how wet her pillow was. The voice she heard crying was actually her own. Once she realized that she was crying, there was nothing that could stop the free flow of tears. She continued crying until the deep of night. The only time the tears stopped were when her body gave out and she fell into brief bouts of unconsciousness.

Sometime the next day, there was a reprise in the tears. The sense of hollow emptiness that had plagued her for month returned stronger than ever. The hired help had been leaving food at her door and cracking the door open to make sure she saw it. Diamond wasn’t hungry. She would only get up to slam the door and lock it. However, the hired help had the keys, so it didn’t do much good. At one point a kindly mare under her father’s employment came in to try and get Diamond Tiara to eat. Diamond Tiara recognized her as the assistant to the chef. Diamond dismissed her promptly telling her that if she ever showed her face in this part of the house again she would never find work in Ponyville.

Days seemed to pass. Silver Spoon finally managed to get Diamond Tiara to eat a little bread when she came over. The tears would come and go, but whenever Silver Spoon was around for whatever reason, Diamond Tiara couldn’t cry. Even when she watched Silver Spoon bawling her eyes out, Diamond Tiara would only sit and be held dispassionately. The workers quickly learned that Spoon was the only pony that could get Diamond Tiara to eat, and some visits seemed too short and too timed around an eating schedule to be coincidence. However, Diamond Tiara couldn’t be resentful for Silver Spoon’s alliance with the hired help. No, Silver Spoon was too special to garner that kind of resentment.

Even Apple Bloom came by several times, but Diamond Tiara never let her past the door. Apple Bloom had even tried to hold a conversation with her from the other side of the door. It was one sided, of course, but Diamond Tiara didn’t tell her to go away. The normally abrasive accent and tone seemed to sound so much better than it should of or had before. The sound of Apple Blooms voice was warm and welcome to the pink filly, and Diamond didn’t listen to the words that Apple Bloom said only the pleasant tone and the chaotic harmony that her accent put on the syllables. Diamond Tiara never told Apple Bloom to leave, but Diamond figured eventually the country filly got tired of talking to her door and the sound of her voice would fade way. It wasn’t as though she didn’t want to see Apple Bloom. But Diamond Tiara wasn’t prepared to deal with that issue yet.

Hauteur Wreath had come by to discuss the funeral. The date was planned and set. It would be an outdoor funeral. According to Filthy Rich’s own request, the outdoor funeral would be during a light rain. The only thing left was to coordinate it with the Ponyville weather teams. Hauteur Wreath gave a dry chuckle as he recounted the conversation he had had with Filthy Rich. Something about everyone standing out in the rain had stuck Filthy as funny. The joke was lost on Diamond Tiara, but she didn’t really care. Wet or dry, the day would be the same. Hauteur Wreath was polite enough not to mention how her room now smelled like an ashtray, so Diamond Tiara skipped her normally brash dismissal of threatening to fire the pony. It was also because she didn’t know if she could fire Hauteur, but even if she could, she wouldn’t. Hauteur was someone that her father had called a friend, and that has to count for something.

As the days went by she would occasionally turn to her old and silent friend. It didn’t have a name, of course; that would be silly. But her father’s straight razor was now even more special to her. It had been his. She wouldn’t cut herself often, only when her emptiness was too much to bear.

However, Diamond Tiara was surprised that when she cut herself it didn’t bring the same relief. She was forced to cut deeper and longer to feel anything. The small rational voice in her head would scream out in dismay at the sight of all the blood that was spilt, but a much bigger voice would curse the lack of salt she had to rub on the wound.

At some point she realized she should be at school. Days had passed since the news. Diamond Tiara was momentarily angry that nopony had reminded her to go to school. The feeling was fleeting, as she quickly realized she wouldn’t have wanted to go anyway. Although, the missed project session with Apple Bloom seemed to continue to mildly irritate her.

On the day of the funeral, Diamond Tiara awoke to find herself, of all things, angry. She was angry at the people who took her father away from her; she was angry at all the stupid ponies she would no doubt see at the funeral; she was angry at her house workers for their audacity to pretend they cared about her.

Silver Spoon had shown up again and helped Diamond Tiara into her morning cloths. The black dress clashed horribly with her light pink complexion. However, she was happy to put on her matching black stocking which were long enough to hide her, now much more obvious, self-mutilation. One less problem to deal with. However, Silver Spoon had seen the wounds; it couldn’t be helped, but this wasn’t the first time she had been caught by Silver. Her bespectacled friend’s only response was to give her typical sad little worried look that spoke volumes. But that’s why Diamond Tiara loved Silver Spoon so much; she knows how to be there for a pony without pushing them away.

Funerals, much like death itself, are sordid affairs. Diamond Tiara is not the first nor last filly to come to this conclusion. The funeral itself took place on a hill side on the outskirts of Ponyville overlooking Sweet Apple Acres. On the walk up, Diamond Tiara wondered if the location had been picked by her father too. He always did have a fondness for the rolling apple tree spotted hills. The weather fit the mood perfectly, a constant light drizzle prattled down from the grey cloud cover onto the black umbrella that Silver Spoon held over the two.

Diamond Tiara couldn’t help but notice two Pegasus ponies following them a few lengths back. They wore all black armor, and Diamond Tiara knew that they were in her former father’s employee based on the large white R on their shoulders. The R was modeled in the same way as the R logo for Rich Industries. They looked like soldiers, and Diamond Tiara couldn’t help but be curious about them. She hadn’t ever seen the like of them before, and Diamond had no idea that her father had hired that type of pony.

While she was curious, Diamond Tiara knew that now wasn’t the time or place for those questions, so she promptly ignored her escort. From a distance, Diamond Tiara spotted the gathering of ponies. Their black cloths and identical black umbrellas looked like a cancerous growth had sprouted on the size of the otherwise green hill.

As they left the dirt road for the grassy hill, Diamond Tiara took note of all the ponies that were waiting for them. The crowd was large, nearly the size of Ponyville’s population, but Diamond Tiara thought that her father deserved better. Nothing was good enough for the filly, and by extension, nothing was good enough for her father. Diamond Tiara was resentful at all those that had shown up, but she was equally resentful to all those that had not. The conflicted nature of these feelings didn’t seem to bother the filly at all.

When Diamond Tiara was close enough to recognize individual faces, the crowd’s whispered conversation ceased, and they all turned to regard Diamond Tiara with faces of quiet solace. Hauteur Wreath was there motioning to the fillies to come to the front, and Diamond Tiara slowly followed the directions meeting the stares of the crowd head on as she walked.

The first pony that drew her attention was none other than Princess Celestia herself. She was hard to miss; her mere presence demanded attention. She stood in the back and off to the side of the crowd flanked by Prince Blueblood and the diminutive, by comparison, Princess Twilight. A regiment of Royal Guards stood behind them out of the way. They all bore their condolences in their mannerisms; Princess Celestia even offered a small nod of sympathy to Diamond Tiara as she passed.

The next group that Diamond Tiara passed was a sea of business ponies. Diamond recognized a few of them from her father’s parties or late night meetings he would have at his home office. Diamond caught glimpses of several more of the armored ponies dispersed through the crowd. Dressed in their black armor, their outfits matched the occasion, and they blended in well.

Toward the front of the group the faces became much more familiar. Citizens of Ponyville and friends of her father stood around intermingled. She saw a group of nobles that had decided to stick together. Fancypants and Fleur de Lis stood over their flock as they watched the two fillies walk by. Diamond was surprised to see Lyra Heartstrings standing amongst them next to her fillyfriend, Bonbon. Since their relationship had gone public, Diamond had thought that Lyra had been excommunicated from that circle.

When Diamond Tiara spotted Apple Bloom up ahead, she couldn’t help the involuntary hitch in her otherwise steady breath. While Apple Bloom’s dress looked cheap and overly simple, Diamond Tiara mentally complemented Apple Bloom’s appearance. Even in such a depressing dress, Apple Bloom still managed to look cute.

Apple Bloom stood with her two siblings and Sweetie Belle, Granny Smith notably absent. Sweetie Belle’s sister along with everypony’s friend Pinkie Pie rounded out the group. The pink party mare was the only one not watching her walk up. Her hair was styled uncharacteristically straight as she looked down at the wet ground. All of them held looks of sorrow, sadness, or pity except Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom wore a face of determination fixed on Diamond Tiara. The look looked similar to one she would have before one of her silly cutie mark attempt stunts. While Diamond Tiara didn’t understand the determined look on Apple Bloom’s face, it was still appreciated. All the looks of pity she had been getting had only served to increase her irritation.

As Diamond Tiara passed the group, she hid her surprise as Apple Bloom suddenly broke from the cover of her brother’s umbrella and joined the two fillies as they walked to the front. The quiet stillness of the walk wasn’t broken nor was Apple Bloom’s look of determination as the, now, trio walked along. Silver Spoon, for her part, attempted to extend the umbrella’s covering to the new addition, but it only served half of its purpose as on both sides, Silver and Apple began to get wet. Neither filly seemed to care in the slightest.

As they reached the front and took their place, the funeral began. Diamond Tiara’s was mildly satisfied that they all had to wait for her however she hadn’t meant to be the last to arrive.

Hauteur Wreath was the first to step up to a covered podium. Behind him, Diamond couldn’t help but stare at the closed ornate coffin or the large picture of Filthy Rich smiling propped up to the side. A fresh wave of anger swept over Diamond Tiara as she saw the picture. It had been taken with the two of them together, and Filthy had been smiling down at his daughter, but the picture had been cropped and blown up. Diamond had been taken out of the picture. Now it looked as though Filthy was smiling down at everyone at his funeral. That smile didn’t belong to the crowd; it belonged to Diamond Tiara, and that very though caused Diamond Tiara to tremble slightly in rage. Both Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon misinterpreted the small tremble, and drew closer to the distressed pink filly to offer comfort. While neither filly understood the exact cause of Diamond Tiara’s distress, the closeness did serve to calm and comfort.

“We are gathered here today to honor and mourn the loss of a truly great pony,” Hauteur began, “Filthy Rich was many things to many ponies. He will be remembered by history as a pony with unprecedented business success. A pony that loved his country, and thru that love, nurtured a better and brighter future for Equestria. Yes, history will remember a hero,” Hauteur paused to let his words sink in before continuing, “We are gathered here today because history will not do Filthy Rich justice. Everypony here today knows that Filthy Rich was so much more, and without him, our lives will be a little more empty.”

Diamond Tiara involuntarily twitched at the word ‘empty’.

“Filthy Rich built and sat atop the biggest business empire in Equestrian history, but he never let the altitude go to his head. He was an Earth Pony in every sense of the word. A more caring friend, a more loving father, a more devout husband, I have never meet,” Hauteur paused again, this time to calm himself as he had begun to choke up.

At the mention of ‘loving father’, Diamond Tiara felt a hoof lay comfortingly across her shoulder, and her attention was momentarily divided as she looked over at the hoof’s owner. Apple Bloom met Diamond’s gaze with a soft, understated smile. Overcoming her momentary shock, Diamond Tiara reflexively leaned into the embrace, resting her head lightly against Apple Bloom. Despite the situation, Diamond Tiara took note that Silver Spoon dutifully shifted the umbrella over her and Apple Bloom leaving Silver Spoon unprotected from the rain.

“Much like history, words themselves fall short when used to describe how Filthy Rich has touched us all. However, to honor a pony who has done so much, we must try, so I’d like to invite anyone who would like to up to say a few words,” Hauteur Wreath concluded as he stepped down took position off to the side, the rain pouring down on him completely forgotten.

Pony after Pony came up to speak on Filthy’s behalf. Diamond Tiara didn’t hear much of it. Sometimes the speech would be a small story of Filthy’s character; sometimes it was speeches of admiration for the stallion. Diamond even remembered seeing Apple Bloom’s sister at the podium, although Diamond couldn’t tell you what she said. Every time Diamond Tiara would begin to actually listen, she would feel anger boil up inside of her, so she instead focused on the warmth coming off of Apple Bloom’s body. Diamond Tiara had been worried that she would end up crying in front of everypony, but much like her time with Silver Spoon, the tears never came.

After what felt like hours, Hauteur Wreath interrupted Diamond Tiara’s slightly meditative state to tell her that if she wanted to say something now was the time, everypony else was finished.

Diamond Tiara really didn’t want to, but she knew that if she didn’t she would somehow feel like she betrayed her father. However, she had no idea what to say, and she certainly didn’t have the foresight to plan a speech. She knew the crowd would only expect her to say how much she loved her daddy, if they expected anything at all. As she made her way to the podium, she heard somepony whisper something about what a brave little filly she was. It only served to infuriate her more. As she reached the too tall podium, she was thankful to find a stepping stool that had obviously been left just for her.

Her first thoughts were to tell everypony what horrible parasite ponies she thought they were, but she quickly decided against it. She knew if she said something like that she would end up having to deal with the consequences for some time to come. It also felt somehow disrespectful to her father, and the specter of the box that now lay behind her fell on her heavily. So, after a few moments of silence as she stared out into the crowd, she said the first thing that came to mind.

“My mother died before I can even remember,” Diamond Tiara paused, suddenly unsure if this was what she wanted to say, but decided to continue, “Daddy rarely talked about her, and I never asked. I could see how much it hurt him to think about her…” Diamond trailed off at the memory.

“When he did talk about her though, I could see how much he loved her; his voice would change, and he would look sad. It was a happy kind of sad though because you could tell he was thinking back to a better time. Now…” Diamond’s voice broke slightly as if she were only now realizing what she was saying.

“Now, there is nopony left to remember the happy times they shared, so I guess she finally is gone,” Diamond’s eyes watered, but no tears fell.

Diamond’s vision left the crowd and fell on the rolling hills surrounding Ponyville.

“Daddy always loved this town. He said it was a simple place and a good place to grow up, but I think it reminded him of mother,” Diamond Tiara paused and briefly looked at Silver Spoon and Apple Bloom.

“I hope he has found her. I hope he is happy again.”

Diamond Tiara stepped down and walled back to her place under Silver Spoon’s umbrella. Both Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon gave her a long consolatory hug. Silver Spoon was soaking wet, but Diamond Tiara didn’t mind. The crowd of pony didn’t give any acknowledgement if her speech met their expectation. Diamond Tiara purposefully paid them no attention, what she had said wasn’t for them, although she could hear a number of ponies weeping to themselves.

The casket of Filthy Rich was lowered into the ground and filled in. The grave was marked with a simple placeholder. A large monument would soon be built over the grave. The procession then made their way back to the late Filthy Rich’s home for the wake. Diamond Tiara walked slowly flanked by Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon and still followed by the two guards.

Just as the ceremony ended the rain was stopped, and Diamond Tiara couldn’t help but contemplate how quickly the day went back to being a typical bright and sunny Ponyville day. The walk home was shared in this contemplative silence by the three fillies.

The wake followed the burial. The house was noisy and full. The hired help and caterers scrambled about making sure all the ponies were fed. Diamond Tiara was set upon by a never ending stream of well-wishers and condolence-givers. She would silently nod, and they would leave only to be replaced by somepony else. With each nod, her anger at the ponies in her house increased. A part of her knew that some of the anger was genuine and some was misplaced anger that was really focused on the ponies that killed her father.

Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood were absent at the wake, but Princess Twilight had stayed. Diamond couldn’t help but pay a little more attention as she approached accompanied by a Royal Guard.

“My deepest sympathies for your loss,” Princess Twilight greeted, “I didn’t know your father personally, but his reputation as a kind and giving soul has reached my ears on many occasions." Twilight accompanied her statement with a small bow.

Diamond Tiara had no experience dealing with royalty, so her customary nod ended up turning into a sort of half bow in return.

Twilight continued, “Ponyville is my home too. If you ever need anything, my door is always open to you,” Twilight said in a motherly way. It didn’t come off as practiced as Celestia’s motherly tone but it had all of the same warmth.

“Thank you,” was all Diamond Tiara felt comfortable saying as the alicorn princess smiled at her and turned away to give room for the next pony in line to further infuriate her. However, Diamond Tiara didn’t miss the small wink that Princess Twilight shot Apple Bloom’s way as she turned. Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon hadn’t left her side, and thankfully they hadn’t said much of anything either.

Diamond Tiara was curious what that wink to Apple Bloom was about, but she didn’t want to ask. So far, the two fillies hadn’t tried to start up any casual conversation with Diamond Tiara, so Diamond didn’t want to be the first to broach that invisible line.

The never ending stream of ponies that seemed hell bent on trying her patience continued. Eventually she didn’t even feel like gracing them with a nod, and Silver Spoon seemed to get the cue and took over accepting the condolences for her.

Sweetie Belle and her older sister Rarity made their appearance. Diamond Tiara had bought several dresses from Rarity in the past and was familiar with her over dramatic nature, but Diamond Tiara only paid halfway attention to the dressmaker. Diamond was far more interested in the confused look that Sweetie Belle was giving Apple Bloom.

Chancing a quick glance in the Apple’s direction, Diamond Tiara saw that Apple Bloom had the same determined face from earlier and was attempting to avoid Sweetie Belles gaze. Before she had any time to further investigate the matter, Diamond Tiara spied Hauteur Wreath accompanied by a familiar looking blue Pegasus mare and another one of the black armored ponies disappear into her father’s private study.

Sensing a chance to get away from the endless line of well-wishers, Diamond Tiara quickly excused herself them her group, saying she would be right back, and followed Hauteur into the office.

Whatever conversation the three ponies were having abruptly stopped as Diamond Tiara opened the office door and entered. All three didn’t look like they knew what to say, so Diamond Tiara broke the silence.

“What’s going on in here?” Diamond Tiara asked in her most innocent voice.

“Diamond, honey, nothing you need to worry yourself about,” Hauteur said as sympathetically as he could, “you should go back and hang out with your friends.”

“Well, what were you guys talking about?” Diamond reiterated, ignoring Hauteur’s suggestion.

Hauteur Wreath gave an small involuntary exasperated sigh and looked like he was about to repeat himself when the blue Pegasus mare interrupted him.

“Let her stay. she has a right to hear this too,” the mare stated in a no nonsense tone.

The voice clued Diamond Tiara in on the mare’s identity. She was Sparky Charge her father’s top and personal lawyer. Diamond Tiara had never talked to her before and had always stayed out of her way because of the near permanent scowl she liked to carry with her.

“But she is just a filly, and she shouldn’t have to deal with all this,” Hauteur objected motioning vaguely to everything around him.

“Diamond Tiara is the heiress to all of Filthy Rich’s holdings, she has more of a right to be here than any of us. Also while she isn’t on the board of director’s in an official capacity, She does have majority share and voting rights in everything involved, so you might not want to speak to your unofficial boss like she isn’t in the room. Oh and before you go on about her age, she has her cutie mark, so in the eyes of the law, she has the legal right to ownership and will not be in need of guardian, unless she requests one,” Sparky Charge replied curtly. Diamond Tiara already liked the mare.

Hauteur Wreath let out a much larger groan of frustration while rubbing his temple. “Fine, fine,” Hauteur motioned with his hoof to the armored pony, “Diamond Tiara meet Rainfall Chaser, head of Sun Wire, our private security group. She was just explaining how your father’s investigation was going, please continue.”

Diamond Tiara gave the much larger and heavily armored mare a nod of her head in greeting. Before proceeding, Rainfall Chaser gave Diamond Tiara a nervous smile and returned the nod. She was an intimidating mare, especially in her armor, Diamond Tiara found her nervousness with Diamond Tiara to be confusing.

“Err, well, like I said before, our list of suspect is small. First, pertaining to the changeling magic found on the body, it is unconfirmed. Our contacts in the Royal Guard’s intelligence have told us that they haven’t seen any movement out of Queen Chrysalis, and while she isn’t licking her wounds; she is spending most of her effort in keeping dominance over her hive. There has been reports of some fracturing in the hive with smaller mini-hives hiding in small settlements in the badlands just outside of Equestrian’s boarders. It is possible they might have some involvement, and I’ve already dispatched a team to investigate. I’ve also put word out that someone is looking for the services of a changeling that will do some dirty work. If any changelings mercenaries exist, I’m confident we will find them,” Rainfall paused in her report to look back over at Diamond Tiara.

During the course of the monolog, Diamond Tiara’s eyes had progressively gotten bigger and bigger, she had a feeling that she had gotten a lot more than she asked for, and it wasn’t over yet. Noticing that the conversation had stopped and the grown-ups were all staring at her, Diamond quickly composed herself.

“Please continue,” mumbled out Diamond Tiara as she regained control over her facial muscles.

“Err yes, As to the suspicious markings that were on the body, err Filthy Rich. Any mention of them in the autopsy report was absent,” Rainfall Chaser paused looking around nervous as she reassessed her word choices for present company, “While, I have no proof, the markings are too similar to those left from standard Royal Guard interrogations. With your permission,” Rainfall said motioning to Hauteur Wreath, “I’ve looked into the possibility of the Royal Guard being involved. As you know from my last report, every Guard at the sight where the body was found was in the Phoenix Guard, Celestia’s Elite along with the retired Shining Armor,” Rainfall paused to catch her breath, “Getting information on the Phoenix Guard’s activities has been extremely difficult to do without turning too many heads. However, because of Prince Armor’s close ties with Princess Celestia, Cadence, and Twilight, they are all being investigated,” Rainfall motioned nervously to Hauteur again, “under your orders of course.” She followed up the statement by looking again over at Diamond Tiara.

Diamond Tiara was floored, they were investigating the very rulers of Equestria and the Crystal Empire in connection with her father’s murder? Diamond had learned her lesson once and kept her face neutral. However, on the inside, Diamond Tiara felt no small amount of panic. What they were talking about, under the wrong light, could amount to treason. It was little wonder why Hauteur Wreath didn’t want her here. Diamond Tiara mentally swallowed her nervousness though; she was talking with the grown-ups now and wasn’t going to blow it.

“I must ask, because Filthy Rich was by far and away the largest private donor to the crown, was there any monetary motive that could have influenced one of the princesses?” Rainfall asked both Sparky Charge and Hauteur Wreath.

Sparky Charge for her part only shrugged.

Hauteur Wreath managed a better answer, “No, actually quite the opposite. Filthy was planning on increasing funding to both Celestia and Mi Amore Cadenza. The recent unrest along the Griffin boarders was interfering with one of our major trade routes. He planned on more money to go toward the Royal Guard and the Crystal Sentry to help calm those areas.”

Raindrop could only give a small sigh to that news, “That could be motive to anypony, or Griffin, that doesn’t want those area’s ‘calmed’,” Rainfall paused to think over the new information. “I’ll send somepony to look into it, but to be honest Sun Wire’s resources are already stretched pretty thin, we weren’t ever meant to conduct this type of large scale investigation.”

“Anyway,” Rainfall continued, “There might still be motive even if it isn’t monetary, so I’ll keep those teams in the capitols for now. As to Prince Shining Armor, despite the odd reappearance in the Royal Guard and his role in the investigation being over, he still hasn’t left Canterlot for the Crystal Empire. He is being trailed as often as possible because I do think he knows more than he put into any of his reports. Hopefully that will yield some results in time.”

Diamond Tiara wasn’t sure how she felt about having royalty trailed, but she was the filly here, and she assumed that the grown-ups knew what they were doing.

“Princess Twilight has been something of a mystery,” Rainfall continued, “She has been going back and forth between here and Canterlot every week or so. However, She has apparently been doing this since she became an alicorn, so the behavior has been going on for several months. The mystery with her is that we can’t actually figure out what she has been doing. She’s been spotted in the library, and has had several meetings with Shining Armor, Prince Blueblood, and both Princess Celestia and Luna. Nothing out of the ordinary, other than we haven’t been able to figure out what her duties are. In situations like these, I don’t like not knowing anything about a suspect, so I’ve increased the detail following her,” Rainfall Chaser stopped and looked around, wishing she had brought something to drink before doing all this talking.

“Of course, we haven’t discounted the theory the interrogation was done by an ex-member of the Royal Guard either. after all, I had the training and so did many Sun Wire operatives, and we no longer work for Celestia. I have a team looking through all those that are known to still be in their old line of work, but a lot of them have spread out to all corners of Equestria and tracking them down one by one has been slow. I’d also like to look into less likely ex-Royal Guards, but there is already a shortage of ponypower. I’ve considered withdrawing the teams we have in Neijing and Hoofington to support the efforts, but despite their lack of success in finding anything in those areas, I’m still hesitant to pull them out too early. But ponypower has been our biggest bottleneck, so far. I know some ponies that could help, but their services would put me even more over budget than I already am,” Rainfall finished and looked over at Diamond Tiara, “I’m sorry I don’t know more yet, but I promise you that I will find who did this and they will be brought to justice.”

Diamond Tiara was thankful for the promise, but she hardly heard it. Diamond was far too caught up with the word ‘budget’; she could hardly believe that there was a budget involved in finding out what happened to her father, but before she could speak up Hauteur Wreath voiced her thoughts for her.

“Given the circumstance, I wouldn’t worry too much about your company’s budget. Take whatever resources you need. We will worry about the finances later,” said Hauteur.

“I suppose I’m here as the legal counsel in case this whole investigation turns south?” Sparky Charge finally spoke up.

At Hauteur’s nod, Sparky Charge continued, “You are in the grey area on several accounts, but as long as we keep our suspicions to ourselves, there is nothing my team can’t handle.”

Simple enough for now, Hauteur liked simple; not many things had been simple recently.

“Well, I guess that about wraps things up,” Hauteur said while glancing over at the empty chair where Filthy Rich would normally sit and say much the same thing at the end of the meeting.

Before anypony had a chance however, Diamond Tiara spoke up, “wait.”

All eyes were on Diamond Tiara, “So, I’m in charge of all this right?” Diamond Tiara asked while looking at Sparky Charge.

“Yes, sort of anyway,” Sparky replied.

Turning her attention back to Rainfall Chaser, Diamond Tiara asked, “you said you were in the Royal Guard, right?”

Rainfall Chaser gave the little filly a small nod.

“How many ponies are like you? You know, that work in security for us,” Diamond asked.

Rainfall Chaser puffed up her chest and said rather proudly, “Sun Wire has nearly 400 security guards and forty two ‘professionals’. The security guards mainly sit around and watch warehouses and offices, but our ‘professionals’ are all highly trained and good at what they do.”

Diamond Tiara could care less about a budget and felt that Hauteur was thinking too small. Forty Two might be impressive to Rainfall Chaser, but it paled in comparison with most what the ponies on the suspect list had.

“I want you to recruit more ponies,” Diamond Tiara stated.

The ‘boss’ telling you to hire more people was music to Rainfall’s ears. However the statement was coming from a filly, so she didn’t know how to take it, “We are always hiring ponies with the right training.”

“No, I want you to recruit a lot more ponies, and if they don’t have the right training, make sure they get it,” responded Diamond Tiara trying to sound as professional as possible.

Rainfall Chaser began to get a little nervous but asked, “what do you mean by ‘a lot’?”

Diamond Tiara’s surpressed the impulse to say the first large number to pop in her head. She stopped to think for a second, but coming up with a good number on the spot was difficult.

“Well, how many ponies are in the Royal Guard?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“In all of Equestria…” Rainfall trailed off to think, “maybe five thousand?”

“Then start there.”

Hauteur Wreath breathed in so suddenly that he started coughing on his own saliva. Sparky Charge only raised her eyebrow, and Rainfall Chaser stood in still shock.

Eventually, Hauteur Wreath managed to stop coughing, “Diamond honey, that is too many ponies, the budget alo--”

But Diamond Tiara cut him off, “Don’t talk to me about the budget!”

Rainfall Chaser felt obligated to throw some sense into the conversation, “Even if we found that many ponies, we don’t have the facilities to train them.”

“Then build the facilities,” Diamond Tiara said in a huff, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“They are a private security firm,” reasoned Hauteur Wreath, “you are talking about an army.”

“Well, now they are a private army firm,” Diamond said indignantly.

Nopony knew what to say to that. Diamond felt that she still hadn’t convinced them to see it her way, “Sparky Charge, remind me again who is the boss?”

Sparky gave her a mischievous smile, “you are, sir.”

“Then I guess that is settled,” Diamond Tiara said returning the smile.

“But w--” started Hauteur

“I don’t want to hear it Hauteur! You were a friend of my fathers and that will get you far in my book, but don’t presume you can tell me what I can and can’t do.”

Diamond Tiara began to walk out, “you have your orders. I expect an update on your recruitment in a week. Do whatever you need to get it done. Oh and I expect to be informed as soon as your investigation turns up anything,” Diamond finished as she opened the door.

“Before you go,” Rainfall said as Diamond teetered at the edge of the room, “what kind of ponies do you want me to find?”

Diamond Tiara’s mind immediately jumped to Silver Spoon. With 5000 Silver Spoons she could do anything. “Loyalty. Find me loyal ponies,” Diamond said softly as she closed the door.

Diamond Tiara made a promise to herself. She would find who killed her father, and they would pay.

Author's Note:

10,000 spoons and all ya need is a knife ~
so long chapter, sorry, I couldn't figure out how to make it shorter.
I know i mentioned twilight being a humble librarian back in an early chapter, but I wrote that before twi's aliconication, if the change bothers anyone, I'll go back and change it.
Anyway, I worked pretty hard on this chapter, so please tell me what you think. thanks -apple blumpkin

Comments

[redactedandredacted]

2664873 Editing isn't fun, but without it you're just another FelixDawn. Don't squander a story that so many people have come to love!

Also this:
seoenquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/firstpost.jpg

[Apple Blumpkin]

2666405

Diamond Tiara deserves the title Tia more than Celestia

[Qussar]

I like where this story is going
And to think i buried it in my to read list for two weeks

[Diamond Sparkle]

Diamond Tiara will really want her revenge over this.

[Grif_Bladefeather]

the crown makes no logical sense at this point. i noticed no one presented the possibility of the gryphons being behind this.

[moguera]

Well, if they weren't talking treason before...

[RaptorCalloftheShadows]

2669066 Excuse me. Pardon me. I'm relatively new here. But .... is she talking about forming an army capable of armed rebellion against Celestia herself?

...

So.... Diamond Tiara is bucking for that Extended Lunar Vacation, isn't she? D:

[werebrony]

Ah this reminds me of Mount and Blade. Build up an army from next to nothing and train them into superior troops to do what ever you please
Go on...

[Drax]

I've already read through this once, and didn't favorite it, I now feel ashamed

[Ruxify]

...Hmm... not exactly sure what to think of this new story arc. It seems like it's deviating way off from the original story plot, but whatever.