> Collapse, Collide
>  by Zombificus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Severance 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond Tiara woke to the insistent clamouring of the time-worn alarm clock beside her bed. Groggily blinking her eyes free of sleep’s embrace, she vengefully clubbed at the clattering object until her hoof struck true and the noise stopped. It was 6:30 AM,  which, this being a weekday, was time to get up and ready for her own personal hell: Ponyville Elementary School.

The filly sat up in bed, pushing all thoughts of schoolwork out of her mind for the moment in order to savour the morning’s calm atmosphere. If today went like most schooldays, this would be the last quiet time she’d have for several hours.

The voice of her father, calling from floors below, broke the fragile peace in her spacious room: “Diamond, darling?!”

“Yes, daddy?” she replied, sliding from her bed onto the welcoming carpet.

“Breakfast is ready!”

Turning to the small bedside mirror, she grasped her mother’s old manebrush in her hoof and began the daily ritual of making herself presentable, sending an affirmative “I’ll be down in a moment” her father’s way.


*


Ten minutes later, neat-maned and tiara-adorned, she was tucking heartily into her breakfast, albeit not as heartily as she'd have liked to – a filly had to have some self-control, after all.

The full plate of food didn’t last long faced with Diamond’s appetite and she soon found herself with an empty plate and newly food-covered teeth to clean. Giving in to her obsession with cleanliness, she spent a good fifteen minutes brushing her teeth until they shone before her father called her to more pressing matters: grabbing her bags and heading off to school.

Diamond trotted downstairs and reluctantly donned her saddlebags, taking her time leaving the mansion despite the risk of being late for school if she dawdled too long. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, she straightened up and trotted slowly out the door.

Time for school. Time for hell.


*


Silver Spoon found her as she neared the school gate. Feigning a smile, she greeted her friend: “Oh, hey Silver. How are you?”

“Fine,” evaded the bespectacled filly, “Could you try a little harder with the Blank-Flank Blunderers today? You've been letting them off a little easy lately, and I don’t like having to pick up your slack.”

“Alright,” responded Diamond, wishing not for the first time that she had the will to say ‘no’. But defying Silver Spoon would only make things worse for everyone concerned.

“Great!” grinned Silver, and to the other foals it must have seemed as if everything was as it always had been with the two inseparable fillies. Little did they know that one of the pair wanted more than anything to be able to part with the other.

Diamond merely sighed: with a friend like this, who needed enemies? 

Catching a glare from the underdeveloped pegasus, Scootaloo, she was bitterly reminded that she had plenty of those, too.


*


Class was much the same as always, and as usual Diamond tried hard to pay attention, before heroically failing as she focused more and more and more on pretending not to notice Silver’s unspoken signals to throw some insult or another the way of one of her classmates. 

She made it through Equestrian without starting any verbal conflicts, but her notes were woefully patchy. Another night catching up on her studies it was, then.

Most of the day passed without much going on, for which she was grateful, but the inevitable happened in the corridor a mere hour before the end of school. 

Silver Spoon had managed to corner Apple Bloom between the lockers and the door to the playground, alone, and Diamond groaned internally even as she moved to join her false friend.

“Where are your fillyfriends, blank-flank?” mocked Silver. 

Her red-maned target merely turned the insult around, delivering it with an air of weary dismissal: “While we’re on the subject of fillyfriends, Silver, I’ve been wondering when you’re going to propose to Diamante over there.”

“What?!” spat Diamond, less angry than nauseated by Apple Bloom’s words.

“ I mean, I guessed that since you’re practically joined at the hip now, you’re probably ready to take the next step in your relationship but I thought I’d better check before arranging a Pinkie Party for you lovebirds.”

The others in the corridor laughed at their expense, infuriating and humiliating the pair as Apple Bloom smirked.

“Guess I don’t need my friends to help you make foals of yourselves after all,” stated the farm filly with an air of complacence more at home in her tormentors’ voices.

“Big words for a filly who’s failed completely  and utterly to find something she doesn't fail at” levelled Diamond in an attempt to wrench the focus of the crowd away from her and Silver. 

Getting back in the swing of things, Silver’s nastiness once again surfaced: “Still no sign of those friends –  Did they ditch you for somepony less useless? Oh, poor little Bloom – all on your lonesome…”

A sadistic glint flashed in her eyes as the silver-tongued monster continued:

“Personally, I hope whoever they’re with convinced Scootaloser to stop pretending her mother’s feather dusters are wings – her parents might get caught stealing replacements!”

The bespectacled monster gave a malicious giggle at the insult, her grin growing as the other filly stamped her hoof in fury and opened her mouth to defend her friend. 

“Now you leave Scootaloo’s parents outta this! You ain’t got no right talkin’ ‘bout that!”

“I can talk about whatever I want, plebeian” – though foreign to her, the sneer accompanying the word left Applebloom no doubt as to its nature. “Isn’t that right, Diamond?”

“Yeah,” affirmed her 'friend' halfheartedly. Her face was scrunched into a furtive frown, thinking about things other than the verbal battle at hand. Sensing that the footing was more even than she’d realised, Applebloom shot a retaliatory insult back.

“Well, y’all are just a pair of stuck-up spoilt brats anyway, so what would you know?!”

A chuckle escaped Silver’s poisonous lips as she answered: “What would I know?...  enough to realise that you’re a useless piece of orphan trash, for one…”

It was all Diamond could do not to let her anger show – didn't Silver realise that she was insulting more than just Apple Bloom?
Bitterly falling silent, she answered her own question: of course she knows – since when has she cared about anypony but herself? Fury and hurt spiralled around in her heart at the thought of her mother.

“That’s too far, Silver,” she said, only to be ignored, as she knew she would.

“…What would I know? That your parents would have hated every fibre of your stupid talentless body! I bet they’re glad that they never had to live with such a waste of space for a daughter – I would be.”

“And what’ve you ever done but leech off your precious daddy like a-a parasite?!” snapped Applebloom, close to tears now.

“Silver Spoon. Stop.” Ordered Diamond firmly, anger flaring in her eyes as much as in Applebloom’s. This was way over the line.

“Why should I?” sneered Silver, amused at her accomplice’s reaction. “It’s the truth. You know as well as I do that she’s nothing compared to important ponies like us – with a useless filly like her draining their drink money it’s no wonder th- “

“Stop. Now.” Growled Diamond – there was no way in Equestria she was going to stand by and let her so-called friend say this. She’d stood by in cowardice until now, but this was the last straw.

“Or what? You’ll tell Miss Cheerilee? Go ahead, I’m sure your screw-up father will do just fine without my daddy’s bailouts.”
Diamond shrank back into herself at the reminder of the chains which tied her to Silver Spoon’s bidding, unconsciously stepping closer to Apple Bloom as her mouth closed upon its half-ready retort.

“Exactly.” spat the vicious filly, “Now, as I was saying, blank-flank, you are nothing compared to me – nothing. With a waste of air like you draining their drink money, it’s no wonder your layabout parents offed their pathetic little heads. And good riddance, if you ask m- “
In the space of a second, fury overpowered logical thought and an irate filly, drunk on years of pent up hatred, threw her whole body into an explosive punch. The hoof connected with a thunderous thwack and Silver Spoon staggered backwards, falling onto her hindquarters. Blood trickled slowly from one of her nostrils, her eyes staring dazedly ahead of her as the filly’s mind tried to comprehend what had just happened.

Apple Bloom, tears in her eyes from the fallen filly’s words, stood frozen in shock. Her expression was mirrored near perfectly among the onlookers. Silence fell, broken after a few moments by the bewildered voice of Cheerilee: “What in Equestria…? Diamond Tiara?!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who had been a little way behind their teacher on their return from the store cupboard, dumped the supplies they’d been carrying and sped forward to stand by Cheerilee’s side.

“Apple Bloom, are you OK?” asked Sweetie Belle, concern etched onto her young face.

“Yeah,” replied Apple Bloom, managing a weak chuckle as the extent of what had happened caught up to her, “Though I don’t think Silver Spoon’s day has gone too well.”

Scootaloo grinned, “Oh, really? What makes you say that?”

Cheerilee took control of the situation at last, having broken free of her shock. This wasn’t the sort of thing she’d ever thought she’d have to deal with – little scraps in the playground, maybe, but this?

“Twist, take Silver Spoon to the infirmary, please. Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara, my office – Now!”
She surveyed the class she was supposed to be teaching Maths that afternoon and thought over her options. To her right, Silver Spoon got to her feet, ignoring Twist’s offered hoof and hissing a furious “You. Are. Dead.” at Diamond Tiara as she was led from the scene. Sensing that this would be difficult to deal with, Cheerilee decided to end the school day early.

“The rest of  you… you can go home early, seeing as we only had an hour left,” The class cheered at her proclamation, only to groan when she added that extra maths homework would be given over the next week to make up for the lost lesson. One by one, they made their way out of the corridor, breaking into a cheering sprint for freedom as soon as they were out of her sight.

Cheerilee was surprised to see that Diamond Tiara was still where she had been minutes prior, curled into the foetal position on the floor and rocking back and forth. From her mouth came the incessant, whispered mantra of “No, no, no, no, no… oh no, no, no” and from her tightly shut eyes dripped glistening tears.

“Diamond? Are you alright?” asked Cheerilee, seriously concerned by the filly’s behaviour. After a long pause during which she lapsed into silence, her student took a shaky breath and answered.

“N-no” came the quivering response. The filly who’d uttered it was a far cry from the Diamond Tiara Cheerilee’d had to deal with these past years: she was tearful and scared, her face the very picture of misery. 

Slowly, very slowly, Diamond got to her feet and shuffled along beside her teacher, plummeting into one of the waiting chairs when they reached Cheerilee’s office without a care that she was sat beside three of the fillies who disliked her most.


*


It felt like no time at all had passed between Apple Bloom entering Cheerilee’s small office and her subsequent reappearance in front of Diamond, although a glance at the clock told her that in fact it had been fifteen minutes. At her teacher’s request, Diamond walked through into the familiar room and took a seat without needing to be asked. For a little while both teacher and student sat in pensive silence, deep in thought.

Cheerilee spoke first. “I’ve already spoken to Apple Bloom about what happened, and while your actions will not go unpunished I feel you did what you did for the right reasons. You’re not in any real trouble, though if you make a habit of starting brawls in the corridors, your punishments will be severe, indeed.” 

Her gaze softened as she finished, “My main aim with you now is to get your side of the story, and your reasons for doing what you did. Let’s start at the beginning of what Apple Bloom said and you can tell me if anything she said you disagree with, okay?”

Diamond hesitated before answering: giving her reasons for doing what she did would mean dishing some serious dirt on Silver Spoon and she would not be happy about that, but if her ex-friend was ever going to act on her threats, it would be now. Her chances of preventing her false friend from attempting to ruin her father’s business were already as good as ruined, what more could the wretch do?

“Alright, Miss Cheerilee.”

Cheerilee smiled down at her. “Fantastic. Now, I made a transcript of what Apple Bloom said, so let's start with…”


*****




 
> Confessional
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Let’s start at the very beginning,” said Cheerilee, frowning a little as she looked through her notes on Apple Bloom’s version of the events. 

“Ah, here we are,” she began, having found what she was looking for. “Now, Apple Bloom told me that it was Silver Spoon who started the fight, does that sound about right to you?”

“Yeah.”

“And you joined Silver Spoon shortly after, correct?”

“Yes, miss.”

“Good… So, Apple Bloom turned one of Silver’s comments against the pair of you,” – a nod from Diamond – “to which you responded with a remark about her lack of a cutie mark, is that right?”

“Yes…” Diamond looked down at her hooves, “…I really shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. I must say I am disappointed that you choose to continue picking on the other students – especially since Apple Bloom and her friends can’t help not having their marks”

“That’s not what I meant – I mean, I know I shouldn’t have called her anything – but…well, I think the cutie mark thing’s getting to her.”

“While I am glad you’ve found it in yourself to feel responsibility for your actions, quite frankly it should not have taken you three years to realise that if treat somepony like you’ve treated her, there are bound to be lasting effects.”

“It didn't take me three years,” stated Diamond with a touch of steel in her voice. 

Cheerilee could merely blink.“…What?”

“I didn't do the things I did because I didn't know they were wrong…” began Diamond.

“Then why?!” Cheerilee’s face was the very picture of exasperated anger, mane falling messily out of place. “Why would you even consider doing what you've done?”

Taken aback, Diamond sat in stunned silence as Cheerilee demanded: “Well? Tell me!”

“I didn’t have a choice!” blurted Diamond. ”I-I wanted to… but Silver wouldn’t let… she… she said she’d ruin daddy’s business if I didn’t do it!”

The combined mass of all the things she’d wanted to say had tumbled in one great mess out of Diamond’s mouth, but the final statement was chillingly clear to Cheerilee. 

Unless this was one great lie, she had catastrophically misjudged Silver Spoon’s character. She shivered at the idea of what may have been going on behind her back.

“If that is so, I can hardly hold you to your actions as if you did them out of malice alone. If you’re lying, though…” Cheerilee’s narrowed eyes eliminated the need to finish the warning, and Diamond gulped involuntarily.

“I’m not lying, I promise!”

“Well, you won’t have any trouble explaining to me how Silver Spoon is supposed to be able to ruin your father’s business, will you?”

“No, miss,” answered Diamond.

“Go on, then,” said Cheerilee, and Diamond began…



*



Meanwhile, Silver Spoon ill-temperedly sat whilst the school nurse fetched some painkillers for her badly bruised snout. 

It had not yet stopped bleeding, so her nose remained bunged with screwed up tissues; leaving her sounding like she had a particularly bad cold. 

This irritated her, as did the half-hearted words of comfort from the idiot, Twist and the ever-present throbbing pain in her snout. The nurse had said she’d been lucky her nose hadn’t been broken outright, but Diamond Tiara’s betrayal more than negated any foalish concept of her having been ‘lucky’ today.

The nerve of it! To hit her – actually hit her – after she and her family had done so much for the wretch! Needless to say, she would pay for this dearly. She was no better than the others… no better than the useless Cutie Mark Crusaders, or the idiots Snips and Snails – not even the half-brained Dinky Hooves. 

Did these ponies not realise what an honour it was to walk the same ground; to breathe the same air as a noble such as her? Did they not understand that their every action was inferior to her own?

Mother was right, they did not deserve even the small gift of her presence in their backwater town. How she itched to get back to Canterlot, where the ponies who mattered lived – where she belonged. But her father had wanted her to grow up with the commons, to understand how the ‘normal’ ponies lived. He seemed to have gotten the idea into his head that this would help her to – how had he put it? – ‘become a well-rounded young mare’.

How could it, when just being near these idiots made her feel as if she was being physically dirtied; degraded into somepony less than herself. It was infuriating! 

Twist was looking at her, wide-eyed, and Silver realised she had been breathing heavily through her mouth, clenching and unclenching the flexile centres of her hooves. Unshed tears shimmered in the corners of her eyes; she blinked them away furiously: crying was for common folk.

As she continued waiting for the nurse to return, her thoughts turned once more to the foal, Tiara. Pushing down the rising wave of bile-like fury, she instead tried to rationalise just what she had lost today. What had Diamond Tiara meant to her, really? 

She listed off phrases to describe the filly in her head: an ungrateful little traitor, first and foremost; formerly a weapon against the other foals; a diversion to misdirect the teachers’ wrath; at a stretch, she supposed she’d been a bit of company – but certainly not a friend. 

All in all, she had not lost much. She was merely at a minor disadvantage now; she would have to be more careful if she wanted to avoid detentions but she could still put the other foals in their place. What had triggered her emotions to run so freely was not that she had lost the filly, rather it was that she had dared defy her in front of their entire class which had sent the volcanic rage flowing. Now came the time to put that rage to good use.

She smiled a little as the nurse returned to her with some tablets and a glass of water, mind running double-time as she planned her sweet vengeance on Diamond Tiara. She downed the medicine and trotted out of the infirmary without even waiting for the nurse’s go-ahead – there was work to be done.



*



Three fillies stood, ears pressed to the wooden door, outside Cheerilee’s office. Surprisingly enough, not one of them had had the thought to whisper-yell ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders Eavesdroppers’ as they listened in, uninvited, on the conversation going on within the small room.

One, a small-winged orange pegasus, looked to her unicorn companion and asked, in a whisper:

“Did you hear that, Sweetie Belle?! – you think she’s lyin’ or what?”

Turning her concentration momentarily from the door, Sweetie Belle answered her.

“Good thing I did hear it, with you distracting me,” she muttered with a roll of her eyes, “As for whether she’s lying – I don’t know, Scootaloo. Maybe if you’d let me concentrate I could figure something out.”

Mock-saluting Sweetie and miming the act of zipping her lips closed, Scootaloo returned to her prior position, ear flattened against the door.

The third filly, who’d ignored her bickering companions in order to listen in on the whole conversation, frowned at what she was hearing. It just didn’t add up – although, when she considered what had happened earlier, Diamond Tiara’s tale seemed a little more plausible.

Closing her eyes to give her full attention to the voices behind the door, Apple Bloom listened even more closely.



*



A short way into Diamond’s explanation of how Silver Spoon would be capable of carrying out her threat, Cheerilee had stopped her and asked instead for the filly to go through her relationship with Silver Spoon over the last few years. 

Similarly to what Cheerilee had originally believed about the fillies, Diamond had gone along with Silver’s plans in the beginning because she’d liked the feeling of power. On the other hand, the filly had apparently begun to feel that hurting the others wasn’t worth the power rush it brought a few months after.

Diamond had also mentioned that her first attempt to change her and Silver’s course away from bullying the others had ended badly, fitting with Cheerilee’s own blurry memories of a week nearly three years prior during which the filly had seemed uncharacteristically silent and withdrawn. 

“I had assumed that this whole three year mess was down  to that sort of thinking, but you say it was only the first six months or so? Interesting.”

Deciding that it was time to move onto the next part of the events, Cheerilee enquired:

“So if you weren’t enjoying it as much, what made you carry on doing what Silver wanted?” 

Diamond paused momentarily before answering. 

“She was still good company, most of the time, and she was my only friend. I fooled myself into thinking that she was just a control freak, and apart from the few times I did something she didn’t like, she was fairly nice to me.”

“Alright, so how would you describe how she was back then?”

“Arrogant, self-centred and manipulative for the sake of it. She was convinced that just because she was from a noble family, she was in some way better than everypony else. 

“She was spoilt, really spoilt, but not bratty about it – she’d just assume she had a right to a particular thing and then do whatever she felt like to get it.”

A little overwhelmed at the extent of Diamond’s answer, Cheerilee hurriedly moved the conversation on.

“Ok, that’ll do on that subject. What happened last year? I’m assuming your relationship with Silver got worse?”

“Yeah… much worse. She started pushing me to be meaner to the others, especially the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and if I didn’t do what she called my ‘share of the work’ she’d get really nasty. The things I had to say to please her were… well, they were horrible. I-I don’t like hurting ponies – really, I don’t!”

“I know you don’t”, reassured Cheerilee, and Diamond continued; once more carried along by the weight of her own words.

“It was too much! So I went to her house last June, and I told her that I wasn’t going to do it anymore. She- she laughed at me! She said I was a stupid filly, and started calling me name after name. She got really mad at me, but I didn’t want her to control me anymore, so I went to leave and - and…”

Diamond’s breaths were shallow sobs now and Cheerilee felt pity for the filly rise in her chest; reluctantly, she asked her to continue.

“She said that if I didn’t do what she wanted, she would tell her parents that I was bullying her. They’ve helped my dad out when the business was going badly – like it is now – but only because me and Silver are supposed to be friends. If she told them that, then they’d start looking for other business partners – and there are a lot of them out there – instead of dad.”

She looked Cheerilee in the eye, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“We need them, Miss Cheerilee, or we’ll lose everything. But they- t-they don’t need us! And now Silver’s going to go home and tell her parents and everything’s going to be ruined!”

Diamond bawled, her breaths ragged, until she ran out of energy and slumped on the desk. After a few moments of sob-punctuated silence, she muttered mournfully: “It’s my fault. Daddy’s going to lose his business and it’s all my fault. I’m a horrible daughter. Everypony would be so much better off if I had never been born…”

Eyes moist with tears of her own, Cheerilee pulled the sniffling filly into a hug and tried her best to comfort her. 

“It’ll be all right,” she said soothingly, “it’s not your fault.”

She held Diamond until she eventually stopped crying, and even then waited some time before gently telling her to go home. She had a lot of very important letters to write, concerning a certain Silver Spoon.



*



The three fillies awaiting Diamond on the other side of the door had not quite managed to scamper back to their chairs from the keyhole, and this did not go unnoticed. 

“How much of that did you listen in on?” she asked flatly.

The trio scrambled to answer but in their haste all three answers were lost in a burst of gobbledegook which yielded no coherent response at all. 

Tapping her hoof on the floor impatiently, Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow and Sweetie Belle guiltily answered: 

“Pretty much all of it…”

Not finding the strength in herself to get angry, Diamond merely slumped once more into the fourth chair in the row outside Cheerilee’s office, limbs drooping lethargically. 

“Whatever,” she said, and Sweetie mouthed ‘do you think she’s mad?’ to Scootaloo, who merely shrugged in response.

Diamond had been sat there, staring at the blank wall opposite, for several minutes in which the Crusaders grew gradually more guilty, fearing that their intrusion into their ex-tormentor’s privacy had somehow broken her spirit.

Tentatively, Apple Bloom shifted in her seat to face Diamond – or the side of her head, at least – and after a few faltering, silent attempts to voice her thoughts, roused the filly from her thoughts.

“Uh… Diamond Tiara? We’re sorry for... spying... on you. We just wanted to know what was happening and…y’know… well, we didn't mean to hurt your feelings, is what I'm sayin'”

Diamond chuckled, the ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, and turned to face the Crusaders. 

“I’m not upset about that, you idiots-“ 

Sweetie Belle interjected an indignant “Hey!” and Diamond smiled for real this time. Not unkindly, she said: 

“What? You are idiots… but you’re nice idiots…

“Honestly, I wish I had never picked on you in the first place. We might even have been friends… but I chose the spoilt brat with a superiority complex instead, and here we are.”

“If you’re not mad at us, then why the long face?” questioned Scootaloo, confusion written on her features.

Before Diamond could deliver her cuttingly witty reply, Sweetie Belle frustratingly answered for her.

“It's because of Silver Spoon, right?” Diamond nodded, and Sweetie put the situation as simply as 
she could manage for her confused friend.

“Scoots. She’s going to try and ruin Diamond’s family. They could lose everything.”

“Everything?” exclaimed Scootaloo incredulously. “You can’t be serious!”

“Yeah, everything,” affirmed Diamond mournfully, “Silver’s going to try, at least, and she never gives up until she gets what she wants. Keeping Daddy’s business safe was the only thing I had left that mattered to me. Now I don’t even have that. No friends, no family besides Dad, no grades… and now we’ll have no money… no house…nothing. And it’s my fault, all of it.”

She once again fell into despondent silence, but this time it didn’t last.

“Ain’t your fault,” said Apple Bloom firmly, “it’s that nasty piece of work, Silver who’s done all this. So quit blamin’ yourself and start makin’ up for what you’ve done. Just ‘cause you didn’t want to say what you said don’t mean it didn’t hurt who you said it to.”

“But they’ve all gone home! How am I supposed to apologise when they aren’t even here?” retorted Diamond. Apple Bloom was having none of it.

“So what if they aren’t here now?! Think how you’re gonna tell ‘em you’re sorry tonight and you can do it tomorrow. What you’ve said ain’t gonna fix itself.”

Caught between admiration of and frustration at Apple Bloom’s stubborn nature, Diamond threw her last excuse at the filly in the faint hope she’d drop the subject.

“Apple Bloom! They all hate me – they  aren't going to believe a word I say! And besides, what am I supposed to do about Silver Spoon? Nothing I do matters because she’ll just ruin everything anyway!”

Apple Bloom stood her ground. “We can help you deal with Silver Spoon – but you have to try. 

“We don’t hate you – not after hearing what you said to Cheerilee – but we sure don’t like you a whole lot, either. So if you want us to save your sorry flank from this mess you’d better put some effort in yourself.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stepped forward to join Apple Bloom, nodding in agreement as the canary filly offered her hoof and her help. Not having the patience for Diamond’s indecision, she instead pushed her to give her an answer.

“Decision time, Diamond,” she stated, “You do the right thing, and we’ll do the right thing. Deal?”

Swallowing, Diamond took Apple Bloom’s hoof and shook it. “Deal”




*****

> 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.




*****

> Reparation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond’s spirits were rock bottom as she left her house for school. Cheerilee had scheduled a meeting for that evening about the mess she was in, and the inevitable presence of Silver Spoon’s parents meant that it was bound to end the whole thing in chaos. Nothing would come from this except a reaffirmation of the crisis to come, she was sure.

It was not just the impending doom of the meeting which weighed upon her heart.

Her father had heard her out; believed her; forgiven her, but the news had not been kind to him. His face this morning had been haggard, his eyes looking at the world around him but not really seeing it; his mind occupied by the fresh worries Diamond had brought to his precarious existence.

The ever-present guilt robbed her of what little energy she had after the nightmare of the previous day. Nightmare. If only her troubles were but a bad dream; to be blinked away in the morning and forgotten about in the joys of life. 

In reality, however,  the situation was a damning truth to be carried upon her shoulders.

A half-forgotten myth about a giant who held the sky itself upon his shoulders came to mind, and Diamond tried hard to remember his name. What had it been? Anvil…? No, that wasn't it. Something to do with maps… Atlas! 

She smiled: a brief, wry expression, before the amusing similarity was swallowed by the ravenous ocean of self-loathing which crashed against the cliffs of her heart.

The skies of her own mistakes were heavy, indeed.

Trying to ignore the dread in her bones, Diamond continued toward her school, idly wondering whether anypony would treat her differently now that she had been seen by half the school punching  Silver.

She doubted it. 

If anything, she would be feared more by her classmates, and whilst Silver enjoyed the way they avoided her at any cost, Diamond did not like being universally feared. 

Although, she couldn't really blame them: after what she’d done, she was just as afraid of herself as they were.

Diamond sighed and focused on her hoofsteps: step, step, step, step, step, step, step… 

Somewhere in the steady rhythm she lost herself, and the rest of the journey passed unnoticed.



*



The Cutie Mark Crusaders awaited Diamond in the school courtyard, greeting her with subtle nods and indifferent expressions.

She approached them and when she was close enough, Apple Bloom began speaking: the filly’s attitude all business.

“Morning, Diamond. Listen - I’ve spoken to my sister about your situation and she’s going to try and get some of the other Apples involved.

“We’re willing to supply your father with fresh fruit for his store for as long as we get a decent return from it. It’s not going to attract the same high-brow customers as Silver’s fancy tat… but the offer’s there if your father wants it.”

Diamond was taken aback for a moment, her sleep-addled brain struggling to process the information. So this was how Apple Bloom intended to help her out? She was impressed: whether the farm filly was aware of it, she had a great mind for business. This just might work, provided they could get the other Apples involved.

“Thank you.” She said, earnestly. This was more than she’d dared hope for, and it meant a lot that her former victim would be willing to ask her family to trade with Diamond’s.

Apple Bloom shrugged, smiling slightly. “It’s no problem… so long as we get our profit, that is.”

“You've got a sharp mind, Apple Bloom. Perhaps you should try for a cutie mark in business sometime?”

“Perhaps. Not sure the other Crusaders would want to try it, though. Last time we tried anything business-related, it...uh... didn't go to plan… Thanks anyway.”

With this, she turned and trotted away into the school proper, followed by Sweetie and Scootaloo, the latter of whom pausing just inside earshot to turn and call: “You’re alright, Diamond. We might’ve been friends, if all this hadn't happened.”

Diamond stood for a moment and watched her dash forward, half-sized wings propelling her quickly to her retreating friends. Sighing in renewed loneliness, she followed them inside.



*



Diamond’s first lesson should have been Equish, but Cheerilee took her aside instead, reasoning that one lost lesson was a fair price for being able to sort out some of the mess the filly was in. 

Leaving Diamond’s fellow students outside the classroom, they trotted down the corridor and once more entered Cheerilee’s small, oak-panelled office.

“I’ll make sure Mrs Discourse knows I took you out of the lesson, so just relax: you aren't’ in trouble, with me or her. I just wanted to talk with you for a moment about getting your explanation out to the school. 

“As you probably already know, I’m meeting your father, Silver Spoon’s parents and Apple Bloom’s sister this evening about yesterday’s events. 

“If that goes well enough, I was thinking that you could tell your classmates during Friday’s assembly – or, if you’d rather not go out in front of them all, I could relay your explanation to them. They’d probably take it better from you, but I can understand if you don’t want to be in that position. What do you think?”

Diamond frowned, considering the offer. On the one hoof, she could take the easy route and let Cheerilee do it for her, and potentially have her classmates think ‘d fooled the teacher into believing a wild tale.

On the other hoof, she could go up in front of all the ponies who hated her and tell them herself that she never wanted to hurt any of them. She could imagine the leering faces, the calling out, the angry objections – the laughing! 

But she could just as easily see them hearing Cheerilee speak, but not really listening to the meaning behind it: the opportunity could so easily be wasted.

“I’ll tell them myself.” She decided: instantly regretting saying it, but knowing it was the right thing to do.

“Good. I’ll talk to you later in the week, in the meantime, perhaps you could try and apologise to some of your classmates anyway – every little bit’s going to help you in the long run.”

“Okay”, Diamond said, mentally cursing her teacher for unwittingly backing the Crusaders’ stupid idea. Now there was no way out of it. 

Groaning inwardly, she headed for the door.



*



Looking around the classroom in Maths, Diamond had realised that Silver Spoon was not in school today. 

Diamond was glad: the last thing she wanted right now was to have a vengeful sociopath on her back; what with the meeting arranged by letter for that evening, the looming threat of bankruptcy and her Crusader-assigned ‘duty’ of apologising to the ponies who despised her.

Resolving to start fulfilling her ‘duty’ now, Diamond approached the most level-headed of her visible ex-victims: Rumble.

“Hey, Rumble!” she called, trying to sound pleasant. The athletic colt turned to deliver a hard stare right into her eyes which almost made her halt her progress toward him that very moment and seek another to apologise to.

“What?”, he growled. Diamond winced; this was already going badly.

“I just wanted to say… I’m sorry, for everything. I didn’t mean what I- “

Rumble refused to let her finish, turning on the spot and stalking away from her, his only acknowledgement of her apology being his angry rebuttal:

“You meant every word, and you know it. I never told Cheerilee what you said, by the way, so you can do me a favour and shut your lying mouth.” He spat, refusing to look at her.

Eyes wide with shock, Diamond did as he asked and tried her best not to cry.



*



When the time came for lunch, most of the students flocked straight to the cafeteria to sate their ravenous appetites. Two fillies – a small, ashen-coated unicorn and a gangly, copper-maned pegasus – did not join the mad rush. 

The silence that accompanied them on their meandering route was a comfortable one, broken only by the dull hum of the unicorn’s magic as she lifted a butter-yellow lock out of her face and took a sideways glance at her friend, who was deep in thought as usual.

Noticing her gaze, the pegasus swivelled her pea-green eyes to meet Dinky’s and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Dinky shrugged, and with a quiet chuckle the pegasus turned away once again, figuring the unicorn filly’s little quirks were not worth worrying about.

Nearing the end of their loop,  the two fillies found themselves back in the corridor off of which branched the cafeteria.

The aura of quiet calm was slowly eaten into by the clamour of the cafeteria as they made their approach, and devoured completely as they entered the eating hall itself. Dinky’s gaze swept back and forth across the room and eventually, as the pair made their way to join the relatively short line for food, the unicorn spoke what was on her mind.

“Hey, Auburn, do you see Diamond Tiara over there? She looks upset...”

“Mm-hm…” affirmed Auburn, punctuating this with a nod of her head. “D’you want to go talk to her?”

“Wouldn’t be our business to pry, but…” Dinky trailed off, her pegasus friend picking up her train of thought.

“Yeah…”

Their minds made up, the two fillies took their trays and walked casually over to Diamond sitting right opposite her. No words were spoken between the newcomers and the outcast besides the obligatory “is anypony sitting here?” but the company lifted Diamond’s bruised spirits anyway. 



*



Though she felt better than she had before lunch, Diamond felt no resurgence of enthusiasm for her ‘duty’ of apologising. It was with a little surprise, therefore, that she found herself in a position to do just that.

Snips and Snails – two colts who’d often been the recipients of slights on their looks and insults to their intelligence – approached Diamond in the Biology corridor to give their two bits on her claims of relative innocence. 

Stepping out in front of his friend, Snails put on a shoddy mask of confidence and opened his mouth to speak his mind.

“Now, Apple Bloom’s been telling everypony that Silver Spoon was makin’ you bully us all. Most of what she said we – that’s Snips and I – can believe, but we’d be crazy to believe you didn't mean any of what you said. No way somepony could say the things you said and not mean it.”

“No way at all”, agreed Snips.

Diamond took a deep breath and let it out in a low, mournful sigh. “I didn't want to hurt you, believe me, I didn't… I mean, yeah, some of the things I said to you were… disgusting… but I just wanted to keep Daddy safe… 

“Silver Spoon is... something else. You have no idea what it’s… what it’s like to have that little… psycho pulling all the strings in your life. I only did what I did because I had to do. You don’t have to forgive me, but please believe me when I say I’m so, so sorry. For everything.”

Her voice cracked and she concentrated on keeping her trembling lip still – she was not the one who had been hurt, so why did she feel like crying? It was stupid.

Noticing her expression, Snips stepped forward to lay a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “I still don’t know what to believe, Diamond... but I think I could do a lot worse than accepting your apology. We’re even.”

He removed his hoof and left her with Snails, who, despite having started the conversation, seemed to be speechless.

“Yeah…What he said…” he added after a moment, somewhat awkwardly, and he hurriedly trotted off with his waiting friend to their next class. 

Diamond nodded in acknowledgement and continued her day with a renewed sense of confidence. Perhaps this might work out after all.



*



It was the end of the school day, but Diamond wasn’t leaving with the thralls of fellow students – not yet, at least. She was waiting for one pony in particular out of the innumerable foals she’d hurt, and was rapidly losing confidence in the whole plan as the clock ticked on, on, on…

Finally, the filly she’d been waiting for meandered into sight, babbling on about some nonsense game she and her companion were hooked on. She fell silent when she noticed Diamond watching, and met her gaze evenly.

Diamond got up and headed over to her, stopping at what she hoped was a respectful distance before asking the question in most immediate need of an answer.

“I take it you’ve heard what Apple Bloom’s been saying about me?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, I don’t need to go into all that, then… Dinky, I just wanted to say that I’m truly, truly sorry for everything I've ever done to you. I really didn't want to do it, but I had to so that Silver wouldn't threaten me so much... I… I don’t think I can say anything more than that, just that I’m sorry.”

Dinky’s pegasus companion, who’d been watching with a curious look in her teal eyes as Diamond apologised, did a sort of half-shrug with her wings, sending an indecipherable look the way of the unicorn filly.

“I appreciate that you’re trying to make amends,” began Dinky, sincerely, “but I think you know that words alone aren't going to make much of a difference. 

“And to answer your next question, I've already forgiven you:  I saw you putting the lunch money you stole back in my desk last October and that, along with what the CMC have been saying, gave me all I needed to see that you aren't so bad.”

Diamond smiled, feeling immeasurably grateful to the unicorn for having the heart to forgive her.

“I… Thank you.” She said, and trotted off home before something could spoil her good mood.


*


Dinky and Auburn watched the pink-coated filly go: the former’s face twisted in a small smile and the latter’s a picture of intrigued wonderment, one brow raised above the other.

“Well…” drawled Auburn, blowing a trailing end of coppery mane out of her eye and grinning, “That was interesting.”

Dinky giggled a little. “You’re telling me! …I never expected her to just come along and apologise. I thought she’d just keep the past the past and pretend like it never happened, but here we are. Maybe Apple Bloom and the others have done the filly some good.”

“Yeah, maybe… Homework’s at your house today, isn't it?”

“Uh-huh” affirmed Dinky as she made her way over to the door, golden magic pushing it gently open and letting a cool breeze in which caused Auburn’s trailing fringe to swing back over her eye.

Huffing at the unwelcome entrance of her mane into her retina, the dun pegasus followed her friend out the door, pulling a hairclip from a small pouch on her bag with which to pin her fringe back so the wind wouldn't blow it into her face.

As usual, they walked in silence; both sharing a tendency to space out when walking and marvel at the scenery presented by Equestria's countryside. After what felt like mere minutes later, they found themselves at Dinky’s home: a cosy little bungalow sandwiched between two far larger homes.

Derpy Hooves greeted them at the door with warm smiles and, for Dinky, an equally warm hug. The pair eagerly entered the home, trotting straight through the living room to the kitchen table in order to finish their homework sooner, freeing up more time for them to have some fun. 

“Do you girls want some muffins?” Called Derpy, as they extracted their homework from their saddlebags. “ I saw them at Sugarcube Corner and thought you might like a few to eat while you do your homework.”

“Yes, please!” chorused the fillies, and Derpy obliged with a grin. Checking that there were no Three Kingdoms pieces stashed out of sight, she left her daughter and her friend alone to their work.

A few minutes passed before Auburn, swallowing a mouthful of muffin, asked. “Diamond Tiara doesn't have any friends now, does she?”

Dinky shook her head. “No, why d’you ask?”

“Well, I was thinking that since she’s alone and she’s apologised to you, we could see if she wants to hang out with us? – I mean, it’s just an idea, we don't have to…”

Dinky scratched her head with her hoof, frowning momentarily as she made up her mind. 

“I don't see why not… yeah, let’s give her a chance at least.”

“Cool.” Said Auburn, and with that the duo returned to the daunting task before them: homework revolving around a cruel invention known as algebra. It was going to be a long evening.



*****

> Escalation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Diamond, it’s going to be okay,” reassured Filthy Rich as he stood in the hallway of the Ponyville townhouse he and his daughter shared. “It’s only a meeting and besides, your teacher will be there to keep things under control. I know you’re worried but I need you to at least try to take your mind off it. Please, for me?”

Diamond was unconvinced; frowning up at her father as he tried to convince her that everything would work out. 

It wasn’t working: if anything she was more worked up than she had been before… he was trying to help her, though, so she put on a smile and made an attempt to calm her voice.

“I’ll try, Daddy... No promises, though – I can’t control what I feel.”

Filthy sighed, sensing that this was the best he’d get from her. He snatched up his coat from the hanger by the open door and pulled it over himself, turning to give his daughter a goodbye hug before he left. 

Tousling her mane playfully before turning once more to the door, he took his hat off its rack, pulled it onto his head and strode out into the cool evening breeze, coattails flapping behind him. 

Diamond watched him trot away until he was merely another moving dot on the horizon, before she too turned away, pulling the door closed and sliding the chain across.

All she could do now was pray that Silver’s parents wouldn’t be too hard on him, although if they were capable of anything like what their daughter had done, all the luck in the world wouldn’t save him.

She looked up at Celestia’s setting sun and projected her prayer over and over, a mantra for the sun goddess: ‘Please, let this be okay…’



*



The clock on the wall read three minutes to seven and, looking around the table, Cheerilee could see that everypony she’d invited was present. 

Both of Silver Spoon’s parents – the thin, severe Glimmer and the rigid, impassive Argentitus – sat on one side of  the elliptical wooden table, with Filthy Rich and Applejack seated opposite. Cheerilee, at the table’s head, shuffled her papers awkwardly and steeled herself to address the ponies around her.

“Everypony appears to be present, so we will begin. As you already know from the letters through which you were asked to be here tonight, this meeting has two purposes:

“Firstly: to relay a detailed and unbiased account of the events of Monday afternoon, during which time I must ask you not to interrupt. It is of the utmost importance that we are all clear about what happened. Your questions, should you have any, will be answered at the conclusion of this report.

“Secondly, some information has come to light from one of our students on a related subject, and I believe it is crucial that all present are informed about these revelations.”

All heads turned to Cheerilee, and at their silent insistence she began to relay the events to her small yet terrifying audience.

Although she had been trying to keep an impassive, professional tone as she read, Cheerilee was unable to mask the disgust in her voice when she relayed the things Silver Spoon had said to Apple Bloom. 

She was not the only one whose emotions momentarily surfaced: Applejack’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears and Argentitus looked frankly aghast. His wife, however, wore an expression that showed no concern whatsoever about the nature of their daughter’s words, and even a little pride.

Taking deep breaths in an attempt to regain her composure, Cheerilee shuffled her papers once more and continued her report of the incident. 

As the news that Diamond Tiara had, as reported, struck Silver Spoon in the face, it became Silver’s parents’ turn to look angry and upset and Filthy Rich’s to stare back at them indifferently, misplaced pride swelling in his heart.

Racing to finish relaying the incident before arguments broke out, Cheerilee hurriedly detailed how she had broken up the fight, sent Silver to the infirmary and spoken to Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara about the incident.

“That concludes my report of Monday’s events…” she stated. “If you have any questions, now is the time to ask.”

First to raise a hoof was Argentitus, and she nodded at him reluctantly.

“Did you not interview my daughter about the incident? I do not believe I can trust your judgement of these events to be unbiased if you have not even done this small thing.”

Though his words themselves held little more than the typical Canterlot haughtiness, the way with which he spoke them whispered dark threats of anonymous complaints and unscheduled inspections of the school.

Responding coolly, Cheerilee turned to look him in the eye.

“It was, and still is, my fullest intention to interview Silver Spoon, but she ignored the advice of the infirmary nurse and left the building before I had the chance. And although her injuries were not serious - though admittedly unpleasant - she did not attend school today. Had she been here, I would have endeavoured to speak to her the moment it became possible.”

The stony-faced stallion muttered something darkly under his breath but did not contradict her. His wife, however, was not so easily placated.

“Why has that wretched Tiara filly not been expelled for striking my daughter? A Canterlot school would not hesitate to punish such brutish behaviour, so why would a school in a princess’s hometown let it go without retribution?”

Cheerilee groaned inwardly: she had been afraid of this.

“That Diamond Tiara has not been punished yet does not mean that she will never be. Were it not for the circumstances, she would already have been assigned a punishment. However, her reasons for striking your daughter complicate the situation somewhat and I do not want to misjudge my actions regarding this incident.

“Besides, psychological harm can be just as – if not, more – damaging to ponies at this young age. Your daughter has hurt a great many of her classmates over these past three years, and the effects in some cases have been quite serious. I am sure that Canterlot schools would not condone this sort of behaviour, either.”

She held Glimmer’s gaze for what seemed like forever, until the noblemare turned away, a look of disgust scrunching her features.

Sending a silent prayer to the princesses to get her though this meeting alive, Cheerilee cleared her throat in preparation for delivering Diamond’s testimony. 

This was not going to go down well.



*



“Mum?” 

Derpy looked up from  her dinner. “Yes, honey?”

“Uh… me and Auburn have been thinking about something and I think we need some grown-up advice. I was wondering if you could help?”

“Of course I’ll help, what is it?”

Dinky tapped her hooves together awkwardly, trying to figure out how to phrase her question.

“Diamond Tiara came and apologised to me today, about the things she said. She seemed like she was telling the truth, so I said I forgave her.”

“I don’t see anything wrong, Dinky.”

“Neither do I. But what me and Auburn were wondering was whether we should let her hang around with us, since she doesn’t have any friends anymore. We aren’t sure what to do, so I wanted to know what you thought.”

Derpy’s baffled expression turned to one of understanding, accompanied shortly after by a proud smile. “That’s my filly: kind to everypony, no matter how mean they’ve been… I don’t have any problems with it, so long as you don’t let her push you around.”

Dinky grinned. “Thanks, mum!”

“No problem, honey”, replied Derpy; laughing gently as she returned to her food. It was moments like this which made her immeasurably proud to be a mother: no matter what life threw at them, Dinky would always be her little ball of sunshine, and for that she was unendingly grateful.



*



Cheerilee waited nervously for the mutterings of the attendees to quiet down, clutching at her notes like a drowning mare to a lifeline. Eventually, the room fell more or less silent and she was left with no option but to speak.

“Second on our agenda tonight is to ensure we all have a good understanding of the testimony of… Diamond Tiara.” 

She struggled to speak the name, knowing all too well that this would plunge the meeting irrevocably into vitriol and negativity. 

Sure enough, Silver’s parents resumed their furious whispering at the mention of Diamond, and Filthy Rich turned a shade whiter. 

It was one thing to hear it from his daughter, but in a meeting? With the parents of the filly that the tale condemned still in the room? It was madness, utter madness. 

He supposed it needed to be said, but nevertheless he wished it didn’t: a sentiment Cheerilee agreed with fully.

The schoolteacher raised herself to her full height, wanting her next words to be taken seriously.

“Some of the things I am going to relay some of you may find upsetting. I do, however, request that you do not interrupt me. It will be best for all of us if your questions are asked after I have finished speaking, believe me.”

She scanned the faces: Silver’s parents looked ready to start a war, whereas Filthy Rich was the very picture of dread and Applejack wore an expression of wary curiosity. She tried to keep her own face impassive, but she could not be sure that none of her biting worry showed. Trying to feign confidence, she smiled something more like a grimace and began.

“Diamond relayed to me her account of her three-year relationship with Silver Spoon when I spoke with her yesterday. Needless to say; it is an interesting tale, and shocking at times. I cannot be certain that everything she said was the truth, but I do not doubt that she was sincere in the majority of what she said…”

Satisfied that she had given them all as much warning as she could, Cheerilee finally began relating the tale.

“Diamond said that shortly after Silver Spoon joined the school and became her friend, Silver suggested that they… heckle their fellow students, and that she agreed to this because she wanted to be a good friend to Silver. 

“On the subject of their continuation of such activities that year at school, Diamond described herself as becoming rapidly disillusioned with the idea, whereas Silver Spoon seemed to become more and more invested in taunting the others. Diamond said that Silver seemed to treat it as a duty to be fulfilled and positioned herself as the equivalent of Diamond’s boss, were this a business situation.”

Applejack had leaned forwards during this revelation, drawn in by the knowledge Cheerilee was delivering, in stark contrast to the room’s other occupants, two of whom were turned to face one another in hushed discussion and the third having slumped in his chair in that peculiar way foals in trouble often did; as if trying to escape the harsh judgement this would bring upon him as the father of the filly who claimed these things were true.

Honestly, Cheerilee was a little surprised that Silver’s parents hadn’t vocally objected to Diamond’s testimony yet, although it only took a cursory glance at them to know it wouldn’t be much longer before the clearly visible rage overflowed into arguments.

Endeavouring to get as much out as possible before the dam burst, Cheerilee cleared her throat and continued. 

“Diamond told me that following an unsuccessful attempt to steer herself and Silver away from bullying the other foals, Silver instead began threatening Diamond into doing as she told her. Due to these threats and a fear of backlash from me if she revealed the truth, Diamond continued following Silver’s instructions until last June, when she decided enough was enough and visited Silver’s house to tell her that she would play no further part in these affairs.”

“Bullshit!” somepony screamed, and everypony turned to look at the source of the yell.

Here it was at last: Glimmer had finally cracked; yelling her objection at the top of her lungs as if she were throwing a verbal knife into the account. Cheerilee could only watch as she let loose a torrent of fury from her cruelly beautiful mouth.

“My Silver is no bully! She is a noble filly, you imbecile, it is not her fault these… these commons do not know their place at her hooves. It is not her fault that she needed to teach these halfwits the simple lessons their parents should have taught them. They have no respect – no respect at all for their betters. Vile, disgusting, fiiilth, the lot of them!” 

“Mrs Argentum, I hardly think- “ began Cheerilee, but Glimmer cut her off furiously, the dam once blocking the river of her vitriolic thoughts having been torn thoroughly asunder by her gushing rage.

“DO NOT INTERRUPT ME, SCHOOLTEACHER!” roared the unhinged noblemare, her voice harsh and high-pitched like a violin being played by a psychopath.

“Don’t you even dare lecture me on what is right and wrong, when you cannot even distinguish between a lesson being taught and common bullying. I shall have your job for this transgression, believe me; even the commons deserve someone whose moral compass is not so fatally flawed as yours. I'll bet you believe all that mindless prattle about 'equality amongst the classes', don’t you? 

“Well, I say: not in a million years! We stand separate because we are noble, we stand separate because we are better. We will not be made to lower ourselves to your festering cesspool, with the proletarian scum who filthy the very ground upon which they walk.”

Glimmer was barely recognisable as the refined mare of minutes prior: spittle sprayed from her vicious mouth, her eyes were wide and devoid of all sanity and her mane stuck out at sharp angles as if trying to escape the madmare it was attached to. Ignoring, or perhaps not even seeing the expressions of shock and fear upon the faces around her, she ranted on and on and on and ON.

“What would you have us do?” She demanded, livid. “Live among you? Taint our precious blood and breed with you? Why not mate with the changelings while we’re at it?! Never, I say, never! NEVER!”

Devolving into utter madness, she roared the word again and again, even as her husband shook her in an attempt to wrest her back to reality. Eventually he gave up on this tactic and instead dragged his wife forcibly from the room into the corridor outside. The door closed with a loud thud, and silence reigned supreme at last, reclaiming its lost dominion near instantly with the aid of shock.

Nopony spoke.



*




Diamond could not sleep. She had spent the day trying to apologise to the others and had then gone on to complete her mountain of homework; the combination of which had left her drained of energy; but she still could not sleep.

Her mind strayed for the umpteenth time that evening to her father and Cheerilee, Silver’s parents and Applejack. She  hoped desperately that it was all going well; that her father was alright, but she found herself unable to convince herself that it was truly so. 

She turned onto her side and closed her eyes; even still, she was unable to shed her troubled thoughts and fall into sleep’s embrace.

It was going to be a long night, indeed.



*



It was a long ten minutes of silence before the muffled argument outside the meeting room ended and a slightly dishevelled Argentitus Argentum trotted back into the room, muzzle still held slightly aloft in a display of arrogance and supposed superiority despite his ruffled collar and disordered mane. 

Stiffly and somewhat pompously, he straightened his tie, turned his collar and smoothed down his silver mane before returning to his seat. 

“My wife will not be returning to the meeting.” He stated matter-of-factly, avoiding all eye contact whilst displaying an expression almost resembling embarrassment. 

Still somewhat taken aback by the rage she’d been subjected to before the unplanned break, Cheerilee acknowledged his statement with a nod and a look which tried to be consoling, but never quite made it that far. Gulping nervously, she returned to Diamond’s tale.

“Alright, since we now have everypony who’ll be attending back in the room, I think we may as well finish the testimony.”

Receiving shaky nods from the others, she took a deep breath and continued on where she had left off.

“Diamond informed me that when she told Silver Spoon last June that she did not want to bully the others any more, Silver threatened to sabotage the business relationship between the Riches and the Argentums  if Diamond did not continue to follow her orders. Diamond felt she had no choice but to give in to Silver’s demand and thus the pair continued to torment the other foals, particularly three fillies: Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo; who do not yet have their cutie marks. 

“Silver Spoon also stopped hiding her dislike for Diamond following the events of June and became particularly unpleasant during these past few months. The end result of this, as we know, was Monday’s incident along with this evening’s meeting. Unless you have any questions for me, this meeting is now adjourned. Further letters regarding the punishments of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon will be sent to whom such information concerns as soon as our decisions are made.”

At the conclusion of her report, the room fell silent before one by one the occupants of the room left their seats to say their piece to her.

First was Applejack, being the closest to Cheerilee of the three.

“I already heard a lot o’ this from Apple Bloom, but it was good to have it from an… official source such as yerself. I advise you go lightly on Diamond, but try to get her to make amends no matter what ya decide. As fer Silver Spoon, I’ll be happy with whatever y’all at the school come up with.” 

Returning her trademark hat to her head, she nodded at Filthy Rich and Argentitus before trotting briskly out of the room.

Next up was Argentitus himself. He frowned at his hooves for a while, seeming to  struggle with his words, but eventually he drew himself up to his full height and met Cheerilee’s gaze.

“My wife was, I have to admit, rather… unkind in what she said to you earlier. I sincerely apologise for her behaviour and assure you that your job will remain unthreatened. That said, I agree with my wife in that this school is no longer the right place for Silver.

“I believe it will be better for all of us if we simply moved away and educated Silver elsewhere. I will punish her as I see fit, don’t worry, but she will no longer be your concern. We will file the proper paperwork post-haste; that will be all.”

Cheerilee let out an involuntary sigh of relief at the news: punishing Silver Spoon aptly would have proven a serious challenge for her, not to mention that her continued presence would only cause more harm in the long run. Flattening down her slightly frazzled mane, she turned to the only remaining occupant of the room besides herself.

Filthy Rich waited until the door clicked shut once more before speaking, evidently afraid to voice his thoughts in earshot of Argentitus.

“Would you mind if I called you Cheerilee?” he asked, courteously. Cheerilee smiled a little, having been worried that he would bring up her failure to spot the true goings on between his daughter and Silver Spoon.

“Not at all… And would you like for me to call you Mr Rich, or just Filthy?” she replied, trying to keep the conversation’s mostly pleasant mood.

“Rich will do, I have always felt that Filthy gives off the wrong sort of message when separate from the rest of my name. To get to my point, Cheerilee, I mostly wanted to say that you needn’t feel bad for not uncovering this sooner. 
I shouldn’t have let myself ignore Diamond’s warning signs for as long as I did; had I acted upon my first suspicions we would likely never have come to be having this meeting. The time now is not for blaming, it is for fixing what has been broken, so I hope you will accept my offer of help regarding Diamond’s side of this. Some good shall come of this, I am sure of it.”

Cheerilee stared at him. Her first instinct was to thank him for forgiving her ineptitude in spotting the problem, but that would not have been professional, so instead she shook his hoof.

“I would be honoured to accept your help regarding Diamond, Rich… perhaps we could meet another time? I have some work to complete this evening, you see.”

Filthy Rich smiled genuinely and nodded. “When you have the time, of course; I understand how difficult it can be to work around a busy schedule. Until next we meet, Cheerilee: farewell.”

The businesspony left the room quietly, and Cheerilee found herself alone with the papers and the empty chairs. In the end, her main aims had been accomplished, but the meeting had still been a struggle to survive with sanity intact: she wanted nothing more right now than to go to sleep.

Perhaps that paperwork could wait until tomorrow.



*



Applejack tapped a hoof lightly on the wooden floor, idly humming along to a meandering tune of her own creation as she waited for Filthy Rich to emerge from the meeting room. She had decided on what to say that afternoon, after reading through the surprisingly prompt replies from her relatives, the last of which – Braeburn’s and the Oranges’ letters, respectively – had arrived from Derpy just after three o’clock. 

The overwhelming response from the others was that they would be perfectly happy to supply the Riches with fresh fruit – and in doing so get their own already well-known products out to an even wider customer base – for as long as it was profitable for them. 

It made sense, when she thought about it: they did not have the same personal connection to the Riches that Apple Bloom’s constant torment had developed in her, so they were able to view the offer with less bias. They clearly saw an opportunity to be taken here, and were apparently of the mind that if you don’t take a little risk here and there, then you just ain’t living.

Her musings were interrupted by a door opening, from which a stallion stepped smartly – the door and the stallion, in fact, which she’d been waiting for. He looked at her with a little surprise in his eyes, evidently having been expecting an empty corridor and not a farmer on the other side of the door, but there was no hostility in the stallion’s gaze, only a noticeable flicker of guilt. 

“Applejack?” He said, quite pleasantly, although there was a little wariness in the way his voice subtly wavered. “I didn’t think you’d still be here, since you spoke to Cheerilee first. I’m guessing you have business here besides the meeting itself?”

The farmer smiled briefly, silently thanking him for providing her a clear avenue to bring up the subject of the deal. “As a matter of fact, Mr Rich, I was wondering if you had minute to talk?”

“Yes, of course. What did you want to talk about?” The slight quaver returned to his voice: he was nervous; no doubt fearing a backlash about his daughter’s behaviour.

“Apple Bloom listened in on what your daughter said to Cheerilee yesterday – I know because the first thing she did was go home and tell me what she heard. There was one thing in particular I found interesting: from what I understand you’re about to be in some serious financial trouble, am I right? 

“The Argentums are about to drop you and yer company like a ton of bricks. You ain’t gonna be able to break even without their goods so unless somepony provides y’all with a replacement product real fast you’re finished.”

Filthy Rich blanched; he did not need any reminders, especially not from a pony whose very presence reminded him of his failings as a father. 

“W-what’s your point?” he asked, weakly; his eyes filled with dread. The mare’s face curved into a smile as she answered him.

“My point, Mr Rich, is yer damn lucky my sister’s not the sort to hold grudges. She not only forgave your little girl, she convinced me to talk to the other Apples about offering you some kinda deal.”

Hope rose unbidden in his heart and he clamped onto the idea like a pony grasping for a branch to pull them from the cold embrace of a rushing river. 

“A… a deal?”

Applejack chuckled good-naturedly, “Yeah, a deal. We – the Apple Family, that is – would be willing to provide you with a supply of every kind of apple we grow for your stores’ food sections. 

“The oranges would be willing to give you a limited supply of their produce, too, and if it goes well we might consider lettin’ you sell the Zap Apples and the cider we make. It sure as Tartarus ain’t silverware, but it’s there if you want it.”

Filthy Rich stood still as a statue for several seconds, blinking his eyes in shock. And then, like a spring being released, he pulled her into a crushing hug. 

“T-thank you! Thank you so much!” He sobbed into her shoulder and Applejack patted his back awkwardly until he exhausted his catalogue of thanking words and fell once more silent.

Unable to free herself from the stallion’s embrace, Applejack cleared her throat and he let her go. The moment she could get some air into her lungs she hastily added: “There’ll be terms and conditions, of course.”

“I don’t care; whatever they are, I’ll take it. You have no idea how much this means to me!”

Still unsure whether her ribs had all survived his expression of gratitude intact, she mentally replied: ‘no, but my lungs sure as hay do’, before voicing a more professional answer.

“If this doesn’t give us a decent return, Mr Rich, we’re gonna have to pull out. We barely have enough money as it is without losing more through you. That’s term number one. And I think we need a rule about personal space, bear hugs aren’t exactly what I’d call a professional way of accepting a deal.”

This last point earned her a sheepish apology from the stallion, who visibly cringed when he realised how uncomfortable that must have been for her. 

“It won’t happen again, I promise… Anyway, your terms seem fair enough, Applejack. You’ve got yourself a deal.”

He offered his hoof, and Applejack shook it. 

‘Of course I’ve got a deal’, she thought wryly as the simple action sealed the contract between them. All that was needed now was paperwork for formality’s sake and the agreement would be set in stone.

Applejack released his hoof and trotted slowly to the door, calling back: “I’ll have the paperwork ready for Thursday at the latest. Until then, Mr Rich, I have a family to get back to and you have a daughter.”

Filthy watched her go and shook his head. He was having difficulty accepting what had just happened, it all seemed so surreal. But he could still feel the pressure of her hoof on his and he knew that for the first time in a decade, life had given him a brief reprieve.

As he stepped out into the starry night, he looked up at the moon and whispered an earnest thank-you to the princess of the night for answering his prayers. It was not over yet.



*****







> Amelioration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday came and went without issue: Silver Spoon, true to her father’s word, did not return to the school; which elicited a collective sigh of relief from her former classmates, not least Diamond Tiara.

Ponyville and Wider Canterhoof Elementary would not miss the bespectacled terror, but the actions of Silver Spoon and her reluctant assistant still lingered in the minds of even the most forgiving of ponies. With Silver gone, there remained only the repentant Diamond Tiara to take all the anger and hurt and – perhaps bravely, perhaps naively – try to turn it into some kind of basis for an amiable relationship.

It was not fair, of course, but little in life ever was, and Diamond supposed the hoof she had been dealt could have turned out worse. She tried to keep this fact in mind, but it could only do so much against the crushing weight of failed apologies and the nagging feeling that the others were talking behind her back. Judging by the murderous looks she was subjected to daily, she was probably better off not hearing what they were saying.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had been some help to her, but ever since the agreement with the Apples had gone through they had made a point of distancing themselves from her. The message was clear: they may have helped her tremendously, but they were not her friends and certainly did not intend to be.

Snips and Snails, whilst they were decent enough in relative privacy, likewise avoided her. The only other foal she’d successfully apologised to – Dinky – was not in school, nor was her lanky pegasus friend. A science trip, apparently: one she’d have been able to go on herself had her grades not spiralled into the abyss along with her optimism. 

So there she was, stranded at school with nopony to talk to besides Cheerilee, who was nice enough but just wasn’t the same as company her own age. Lessons came and went and she desperately tried to claw her way back to some degree of understanding, with limited success. 

It was better than it had been before, but still a long way from being any sort of pleasant experience. Still, she told herself that by making amends she was taking steps towards a brighter future and sometimes this was all that pulled her through when her academic inadequacies got her down.

And then there was the assembly on Friday, in which she would have to convince her rightfully suspicious classmates that it had not been her desire to hurt them. 

Wednesday came and passed without issue, but it likewise lacked anything good. Dead neutral; that was her life now. She just hoped she could make something worthwhile out of the mess she was in.



*



Thursday arrived with an enthusiastic bedazzlement of sunshine. This fair weather helped somewhat in making Dinky and Auburn’s return to school after their trip to the Everfree Fringe on Wednesday feel less like Monday come early. 

Still cocooned in the fun they’d had the previous day, the pair did not, for once, notice the mocking laughs and stares from their fellow classmates in response to their outstandingly geeky apparel. Admittedly, Dinky would’ve shrugged the negativity off anyway, but even Auburn’s watchful eyes were blindfolded with the silken fabric of her good mood.

Apparently not satisfied with the fulfilment of exploring the ‘tamed’ edge of the mysterious Everfree Forest, the duo had a plan of action for the day. 

Their objective: make a friend in – or, at the very least, a good impression on – Diamond Tiara. 

Their method: a new and radical approach from the smartest minds in Equestria known only as ‘simple conversation’. 

Its effects would be several times that of the previously state-of-the art tactics: ‘standing-close-to-the-most-reasonable-looking-pony’ and ‘enthusing-loudly-about-our-favourite-things-in-the-vain-hope-somepony-cares’. Celestia help the social scene.

They found Diamond standing alone outside one of the Equish classrooms, clearly not wanting to stand amongst the chatting fillies and colts who acted as a living reminder of what she didn’t have. Auburn slowed as they approached, and Dinky matched her pace, knowing from experience that Auburn’s cautiousness was a good thing to follow if one wanted to avoid making a foal of themselves in front of the class.

Diamond turned to look at them, eyes widening and brow raising, as the filly shrank into herself subconsciously: clearly she did not want company, nor the trouble it invariably brought, this early in her day. Nevertheless, the two approaching fillies drew ever closer, stopping a short distance from her.

For a few moments, nopony spoke, and in that time Diamond took a second to examine each of the new arrivals. Their body language was unthreatening, almost nervous, and she let out some of the breath she’d been holding: from the look of things they weren’t here to cause trouble.

The marginally closer of the two was the dun pegasus, Auburn or something: her coppery mane not styled so much as coaxed half-heartedly from bed-mane into something presentable, with the only personal touch being the deliberately curled end of her overlong, leftwards swept fringe. 

Her eyes, pea green and watchful, gave little away – although the lack of any negative expression was something, at least. Lazily, almost complacently, she stretched her wings out and yawned, and in that moment Diamond thought she caught a slight smile grace the filly’s face. 

Dinky was more expressive: she looked nervous, yet determined; the corners of her lips turned upwards in a placating expression despite the worried furrows of her brows. She didn’t appear to bear Diamond any ill will, and neither did her enigmatic companion.

This, of course, left the question of why exactly these two fillies were here. She waited for one of them to make a move. After an eternal few seconds, Dinky finally did just that: stepping ahead of her friend and smiling shyly at Diamond, head tilted a little to one side.

“Diamond?”

“Yeah?”

“Erm… me and Auburn have been talking, y’know, about you… and stuff, and we couldn’t help noticing you don’t really have any friends here.”

“You don’t say?” said Diamond, with more than a drop of sarcasm. “…What’s your point, Dinky?”

“My, uh, point is that maybe if you wanted we could hang out? Like friends? We usually help each other out with our homework and then we go do fun things.”

‘Fun things’ likely meant something far removed from Diamond’s own idea of the phrase to these two oddballs. Still, it would almost certainly be better than more evenings on her own, and she could really use the help with her work, nerdy as Dinky had sounded when she’d suggested it.

“…Alright, I’ll give it a go. I’m just not sure I like any of the same things you do – haven’t heard of most of them, actually – so that might be a problem…” She finished weakly, shuffling awkwardly on her hooves.

Dinky and Auburn merely grinned at her, the latter chuckling lightly. 

“You don’t like any of the things we do, yet” she corrected, smirking a little as they fell once more into silence. Checking a little silver pocket watch she’d extricated from her overstuffed saddlebag, she glanced back up at her two companions and spoke again. “Class is in a minute – who d’you think’s left their homework behind this time: Snips or Snails. My money’s on Snips, personally – he couldn’t organise a pis--”

“Language, Auburn!” snapped Mrs Discourse, who’d approached from behind without them noticing, and Diamond took a little pleasure in the sharp ‘eep!’ of shock the pegasus made at this unexpected interruption. 

She laughed and so did Dinky, Auburn joined in herself once the shock wore off and the trio made their way into the classroom. Diamond’s heart was light for the first time in months: unlike so many other things, friendship was turning out to be as good as it was made out to be.



*




“Diamond?” 


Having been happily in conversation with her newfound friends as they made their way to lunch, it took Diamond a moment to realise she was being called for. She whirled round, to see Cheerilee standing a short distance from her.

“Could I have a word with you?” Continued her teacher, quickly moving to dispel her fear. “Don’t worry, it’ll only take a minute or two – I know how valuable your free time is to you.”

Glancing to her friends, Diamond sighed but conceded. “OK, I’ll come with you. You two go ahead, I’ll catch up in a minute, alright?”

She felt a slight pang watching Dinky and Auburn trot off to the cafeteria, it was funny how quickly she’d gotten attached to the two, considering she’d never once spoken to them for anything other than Silver’s dirty work. 

She supposed she could be forgiven for not noticing Auburn before, since she’d only moved to Ponyville shortly before the school had opened its doors to the new influx of students from the wider area, but she’d had years to notice Dinky: years which she’d wasted instead with Silver Spoon.

Following Cheerilee into one of the maths classrooms, she took the nearest seat and looked expectantly up at her teacher.

“Sorry to drag you away like that, Diamond. You looked like you were enjoying yourself with Dinky and Auburn, but I needed to speak with you about tomorrow. Have you put any thought into what you’re going to say since we last spoke?”

Diamond nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ve got a good idea of what to say. Not sure if they’ll buy it though: no matter how I put it, not everything’s going to seem believable.”

“Don’t worry, Diamond. I’m sure you’ll do well out there, especially if you’ve got a plan of what to say. Unless there’s anything else you wanted to talk about, you’re free to go.”

“Well, actually there is something. I was thinking maybe I could see if Apple Bloom and a few of the others would say something in the assembly, too. I don’t think the Crusaders really want to be associated with me any more than they have to, but if they’d at least say that they believed me, it might make the others more likely to hear me out.”

Cheerilee smiled down at her. “That’s a fantastic idea. If you can convince them to help you, then I don’t see why not. Good luck, Diamond”

Diamond slid from her seat and trotted to the door, calling back over her shoulder: “Thanks, miss – I think I’ll need it…”



*



Hurrying to catch up to her new friends, Diamond was surprised to find they had not only saved her a seat despite the cafeteria rush, but had also brought her a tray laden with food she liked.

“Is this… mine?” She asked, equal parts confused and touched that they’d do this for her.

“Yep.” Dinky grinned. “ I think I remembered most of what you had yesterday, but I wasn’t really paying much attention then so I don’t know how much I got right. I hope you like it, anyway.”

Diamond smiled gratefully as she took her place opposite Dinky, which turned into a blissful grin as she took a bite of her food – it was still hot!

“You two are amazing – thank you so much.”

Her companions broke into matching grins at this, Auburn gesturing to her wings and extending them a little to emphasise her reply: “Just count yourself lucky I’m a pegasus. I’d like to see an earth filly try to carry two trays on her back and not drop anything.”

“What about unicorns?” asked Dinky, pointing to her horn. “Couldn’t somepony just levitate them both?”

Auburn’s smirk only grew. “Princesses save us if they tried! – somepony older, maybe, but nopony our age could do it without exploding, setting fire to or just plain dropping one of them.” 

Diamond laughed with her, but frowned as a thought occurred to her. “What if they carried one on their back?”

“Dinky here already gave me all the proof I need that that won’t work… There’s a reason Twist won’t talk to us!”

“Auburn!” exclaimed Dinky, indignantly. “You said you wouldn’t tell her about that – now she’s going to ask me about it.”

“Actually,” said Diamond, “I think I’ll leave that for another time. I was wondering if you’d maybe go up with me in assembly, Dinky, tell them what you told me yesterday. I think it’d help if I had somepony else with me, you know. Might make me more believable.”

Dinky smiled happily, glad that she’d not been forced to relive the Twist incident. “Sure I’ll go up with you. Didn’t know you’d be speaking tomorrow - what are you doing in assembly anyway?”

“Oh, right, you don't know. I’m going to tell them the truth about me and Silver Spoon.” Stated Diamond simply, trying to keep her nervousness from surfacing in her voice.

Auburn whistled appreciatively. “You’ve got guts, Diamond, I’ll give you that…” Diamond grinned despite her fear, the irrational sense that she was somehow ‘cool’ for doing this buoying up her spirits.

“I was thinking of maybe seeing if the Crusaders would be up for it, too. If they said they believed me in front of everypony, maybe they’d give me a chance to explain myself. What do you girls think?”

“It’s worth a try, let’s do it.” Dinky enthusiastically agreed, and Auburn nodded her approval; the pegasus’s mouth full of food at the time.

Diamond paused to thank them both again, before ravenously tucking into her rapidly cooling meal. This might just work.



*



The rest of the day passed without too much trouble, although Diamond and the others were unable to find the Crusaders, none of their lessons after lunch quite matching up well enough with those of the trio’s to allow them to talk. 

Their last lesson was the same as the Crusaders’ – Equish – but the corridor bustle had ensured that they arrived too late to catch the Crusaders, their class having already been called in by their teacher. All they could do was stare powerlessly through the glass and wait for Mrs Discourse to call them in for their lesson.

They established a last-ditch plan while they waited: as soon as the lesson ended they’d leave as quickly as possible and try and catch the CMC before they left the school building. This would be their last chance: tomorrow morning was the assembly, and therefore too late.

Their teacher beckoned the class in, and they obliged sitting down towards the back to allow them to talk without so high a risk of detection.

“So,” whispered Dinky, as their teacher launched into an explanation of good sentence structure, “D’you think the Crusaders will help us?”

“Dunno,” Diamond replied, “Scootaloo might – she even said we might have been friends if not for the whole cutie marks thing – but I’m not sure if Apple Bloom wants to be associated with me.”

Auburn spoke quietly, somehow covertly projecting her voice sideways without looking at the other two, “What about Sweetie Belle? From the sound of things she’ll be the one to tip it either way.”

“I just don’t know” moaned Diamond, falling silent as their teacher locked her hard grey eyes on the trio.

“Have you got something to share with the class, Diamond?” said Mrs Discourse, meant less as a question than as a spotlight under which she could make an example of the filly.

“No, Mrs Discourse.” Diamond mumbled, unable to meet the hateful glower of the angered Equish teacher.

“Is that so? Had you been working on a question, I’d understand if you wanted to discuss your work with your classmates, but I expressly told everypony to put down their pens and listen to me. Whatever’s more important to you and Dinky than your education is important enough for the class – go on, out with it!”

Diamond gulped. “It was nothing miss, really. Just some gossip”

“Very well,” snapped Mrs Discourse, “The two of you can stay behind until I’m satisfied you understand that idle gossip has no place in the classroom.”

“Crap.” Cursed Auburn, not quite quietly enough to evade detection.

“And you, too, miss Wake, since you appear to have ignored everything I’ve just said to your friends. Fifteen minutes after school, minimum. Every complaint, every whine, every time you tell me ‘it’s not fair’ I shall add another minute onto your time behind. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Mrs Discourse” chorused the trio sullenly, and after a long, long moment their teacher turned back to the blackboard and resumed her lecture. They did not bother talking after that, neither in the lesson nor their short detention. 

Their chance was lost: the Crusaders would be miles away by the time they got out of class and Celestia knew where they’d decide to go that afternoon… unless… unless.

Diamond felt hope rise in her heart as she remembered that the Crusaders had let slip they always went to their clubhouse on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres before they set off. If they were fast, they might just be able to catch them. 

She glanced up at the clock: five more minutes, and they’d be free. Surely the Crusaders took more than a mere quarter of an hour to plan out their insane schemes? Maybe, just maybe they’d be able to do it. 

The time passed; an eternity of seconds; and finally Mrs Discourse begrudgingly let them go. As soon as they were out in the hall, Diamond broke into a sprint, her friends hurrying to catch up to her.

“Where are you going? We’ve already missed them!” called Dinky, scampering madly to catch up to her. Loping along beside her, Auburn raised a questioning eyebrow, and Diamond yelled her answer as the trio skidded to a halt to open the door leading out of the school.

“I think I know where they are! If we hurry we might just catch them.”

“What? Where?!” Cried Auburn as they galloped along the dirt path into town and swerved right onto the road out of Ponyville. Realisation struck the pegasus as the outlines of apple trees came into view in the far distance. “Sweet Apple Acres?! Oh, of course – the clubhouse!” 

United at last in an understanding of what they were doing, the three fillies ran flat out, coming to a halt on the orchard’s outskirts. After a minute of desperate attempts to get their breath back in their empty lungs, they stood on unsteady, overstretched legs and ambled on towards Sweet Apple Acres.

“Best get over there quick – we’re not in the clear yet!” panted Diamond as she broke once again into a jog. This had better be worth it.



*****


> Amity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



The sound of rapid hoofsteps made Apple Bloom pause mid-explanation and turn to the clubhouse window, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle following her gaze. 

“Is that… Dinky?” asked Apple Bloom, confused. Scootaloo leaned forward out the window for a better look, affirming Apple Bloom’s assumptions.

“Yeah, it’s her – she’s got that pegasus filly with her and… wait… Diamond Tiara?! The hay’s she doing here?”

“What?!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle. “Let me see, you two: you’re blocking the whole window!”

Pushing her way in between her friends, her eyes widened as she saw that they had been quite right: Dinky Doo, Auburn Wake and Diamond Tiara were galloping towards them, with the pegasus quickly closing the gap with long-legged strides assisted by her wings.

“Well, shit.” Sweetie said, simply, unable to come up with anything more eloquent to express her current feelings.

The thud of hooves on wood heralded the arrival of the first uninvited visitor, and moments later  a bedraggled looking filly poked her head through the doorway, her eyes scanning the interior for a few moments before she collapsed onto her hindquarters. 

Panting heavily from her long run, she turned to her two companions and reported her findings. “They’re still here... Whew, that... last sprint really... took it out of me: you two... doing okay?”

“We’re fine” replied Dinky and Diamond in unison; their voices not sounding particularly ‘fine’ at all, but more as if the ponies they belonged to were about to collapse. 

The sound of a throat being cleared meaningfully drew Auburn’s attention back to the Crusader meeting she’d gate-crashed. Apple Bloom was staring her down, her expression making it clear she didn’t appreciate strangers just walking into her clubhouse.

“What in Equestria are you doing here?” She said. “We were almost ready to go Crusading.”

“We needed to talk to you… well, Diamond did, mostly… but we missed you... at school so we... ran all…the way…here.” Her reply was slowed somewhat in its delivery by the pegasus panting for breath every few words; still worn out from her sprint over there.

“Can’t it wait ‘til tomorrow?” asked Apple Bloom, pointedly.

Auburn stepped further into the clubhouse to allow Diamond to enter and answer Apple Bloom.

“Do you really think we’d run all the way over here if we could just ask you tomorrow?” She bit back the end of her response, thinking it instead: ‘Don’t flatter yourself.’ Antagonising the farm filly would not help her out, even if she was acting like an ass.

“She’s got a point,” admitted Scootaloo. “You’d have to be mad to run all this way without a good reason.”

“So let’s hear it – what did you need to talk to us about so desperately?” Sweetie Belle added, curiously. 

Diamond looked each of them in the eye before speaking, her look beseeching them to hear her out.

“I’m going up in assembly tomorrow morning to tell everypony the truth about me and Silver. It’s not going to be easy to convince them all, but if you’d tell them that you believe me I might have a chance of getting something good out of it all. Please, you three – you wouldn’t have to say much: just a sentence or two.”

The Crusaders frowned, and Apple Bloom didn’t look at all convinced; seeming to give it even less thought than the other two before voicing her opinion. 

“Look, I appreciate what you’re doin’ ain’t gonna be easy, but I don’t really want ponies thinking I like you, ‘cause to be frank, I don’t. You made years of my life a living Tartarus whether you wanted to or not, so if you think we’re friends, you can think again. If the other two want to help you, I’ll do it, but I ain’t sticking my neck out for you without a reason.”

Scootaloo looked a little hesitant after hearing this, but stuck to her original decision stubbornly. “I’m up for it, even if these two aren’t. You’re trying to make amends, and even Apple Bloom can’t argue that’s a bad thing – she’s the one who made you go out and apologise in the first place. You hurt me just as much as you did the other two, but holding grudges just ain’t worth it.”

One for, one against; Auburn had been right: Sweetie Belle would be the decider.

“Well…” she began, cautiously. “I don’t really want to help you any more than I have to – we already bailed out your father, for Celestia’s sake – but I guess I could manage a sentence or two. Just don’t expect much.”

That concluded things: the Crusaders would help, but how much that would aid her case would remain to be seen until Friday and the assembly. “Thank you so much. I’ll let you get back to your Crusading now. Bye!”

Hurriedly; as if she was fleeing a possible change of heart, she trotted back out of the clubhouse and down the wooden ramp to Dinky, who’d been waiting nervously for Auburn and her to re-emerge from the clubhouse. 

“How’d it go?” she asked, unable to make a clear guess from Diamond’s cloudy expression.

“They’re in,” answered Auburn, as she touched down from her short glide down to the them and turned to Diamond to ascertain what they’d be doing for the remainder of the afternoon. 

“So Diamond, want to go to my place with me and Dinky? Once we’re done with homework we can try and find something you like to do.” 

Auburn looked at her expectantly, clearly wondering how she’d respond to her offer. They’d only really known each other a day, but she hoped that’d been enough to sway the earth filly’s opinion to a positive outcome.

“Sure,” answered Diamond, who could think of little better to do than spend more time with her new friends, “I just need to tell my dad where I’ll be first.”

Dinky piped up happily at her response. “Great! Let’s get a move on, then. It’s a long way back to Ponyville and we’re going to want as much time as we can get if we want to have some real fun.”

As one, the three trotted off back home.



*



“Hey - you two: this is my house.” Stated Diamond as she and her friends’ meandering journey through Ponyville brought them  to their first destination. Dinky and Auburn immediately paused in their conversation to stare up at the large building, which they’d passed on the way to school many a time, but never seen the inside of, for obvious reasons.

Diamond trotted forward and knocked on the door, her friends shuffling nervously from side to side as the sound of the chain being removed inside could be heard through the door. Filthy Rich smiled broadly as he opened the door to his daughter, who, for the first time in a long while, looked happy herself. 

The stallion’s considerable eyebrows rose slightly at the sight of Diamond’s companions; he recognised the slightly shorter unicorn to her right as Ditzy Doo’s daughter but the pegasus filly standing and entire half-a-head taller than her was new to him. He felt a little concerned about who this filly was, and what her intentions were, (her height alone made him wonder whether she was even Diamond’s age) but the her demeanour spoke of no evil within, and he resolved to let Diamond explain in her own time.

“Daddy!” exclaimed his daughter as she flung herself at him, pulling him into a tight hug. Rich, having been expecting this sometime in the next few moments, did not wobble from her enthusiastic embrace, instead wrapping a foreleg around her back and holding her close.

“Hello to you, too, my little gem…” he said through a chuckle,  “I see you’ve brought friends.”

She disentangled herself from him and hopped back, looking a little embarrassed at the reminder of her friends; who, she realised, had seen that show of affection.

“Yeah, I guess I have. You already know Dinky, I think; and this is Auburn: she doesn’t talk much, but she’s good company anyway. They’re my friends, even though we only really got to know each other today.”

Filthy Rich smiled amiably at them all, before pursuing a question Diamond hadn’t yet given answered. “I don’t think I’ve seen Auburn before, is she new around here?”

Rich had intended the question for his daughter, but instead she looked meaningfully at her friend, who answered the question herself. He supposed it was probably better to hear it from the pony’s mouth; figuratively and literally; and listened attentively to the answer.

“Sort of. We only moved here… oh, about half a year ago; so I could go to Ponyville Elementary when it reopened for more than just ponies from the town. Me and Dinky tend to walk to school pretty early, so that’s probably why you haven’t seen us; I don’t think we’ve ever run into Diamond on the way to school, so I guess we must leave at different times.”

“That makes sense.” He replied, more at ease now. “Are you three coming in, or going off adventuring?”

Diamond smiled a little sadly at him. “Adventuring – sorry, Dad. We were going to go to Auburn’s place and get our homework done, and then do something more fun.”

“Alright, sweetie, have fun! –Oh, I suppose I’d better get your address, Auburn, so I can come collect Diamond later. I’ll just get something to write on…”

“No need” said the pegasus, offering a small rectangular object out to him, which he took and examined in curiosity. 

“A business card?” He asked, bemusement etched into his usually stony features.

“My father’s – he makes little things out of bronze to sell: statuettes and the like – he works out of our house; the address is at the bottom, in the green writing.”

“Ah, I see it. Thank you – I’d better let you girls get going, wouldn’t want to miss that homework, would we?”

“Nope!” cried Dinky, apparently without irony, and she skipped happily away; followed by Auburn, who waved a silent goodbye, and finally Diamond, who gave her father one last, brief hug before hurrying off after them. 

He watched them go, smiling as his daughter laughed inaudibly at a comment from Auburn and the three fillies disappeared down a side street. It looked to him like Diamond’s second pick of friends were much better choices, and whilst he’d be much more cautious than he’d been with Silver Spoon, he had the feeling they’d be no real trouble.



*



It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the door of Auburn’s house. It was an average-sized home for a Ponyville family, but with a few unorthodox alterations to its roof: the entire left side of it had been replaced with a small garden beginning about half a storey above the gutters on the neighbouring homes; and the right consisted entirely of a glass-roofed seating area and a squat, rounded tower somewhat reminiscent of an observatory. 

The reason for this, presumably, was the lack of a real rear garden: the gap between houses in which it stood wouldn’t have allowed for a building of the same width, so the architect had presumably just extended it backwards instead, at the cost of the same green space enjoyed by most Ponyville residents.

“You live here?” Diamond asked, slack-jawed.

Auburn turned to her and nodded. “Yeah, I do – weird, isn’t it?” 

“Not the word I’d have used.”

“And that is…?”

“Pegasus. Very, very pegasus.”

“What do you mean, 'pegasus'?”

“Really, Auburn – you’ve got a garden on your roof, and you’re asking me why I’d call it a pegasus house?”

Glancing up at it for a moment, Auburn chuckled. “I suppose you’ve got a point, Diamond. Never really thought about it like that before.”

As they’d lagged behind, Dinky had already arrived at the house proper and rang the doorbell, and now stood tapping her hoof impatiently as her friends caught up. The door clicked open and a thick-set pegasus mare grinned out at them, opening the door fully as she turned to call back into the house.

“Copperwing, your sister’s home! Get your flank downstairs double-time and be sociable for once!”
Facing the fillies once more, she noticed the new face amongst the gathered fillies. “Hello, Auburn – and you too, Dinky. And welcome to you, cadet – what’s your name?”

“Diamond Tiara”

“Pleasure to meet you, Diamond. I’m Burnished Gilding, but you can just call me Gild, everypony does. I’m guessing you’ve joined Auburn’s little circle? – Oh, where are my manners, I haven’t even invited you in yet – guess old habits do die hard.”

She trotted backwards, carefully sidestepping to avoid the filly who’d just reached the bottom of the staircase, and Diamond, Auburn and Dinky followed suit. 

“There you are – I was starting to wonder if you were going to show up at all.” Gild said to the newly arrived filly who looked to be Auburn’s sister. 

Like Auburn, she was tall and thin – albeit less awkwardly so – and shared  the same coppery colouration as her mother and sister, though this was most apparent on her coat and feathers rather than her mane, which was an unusual, dark shade of blonde.

“I can go back upstairs if you want, I don’t mind.” Replied the new filly, virtually swimming in sarcasm. Turning to her sister and friends, her scowl turned to a smile and she greeted them happily. “Hey, sis, have a good day at school?” – Auburn nodded affirmative – “’s good – Nice to see you again, Dinky” 

She looked at Diamond, curiosity gleaming in the one eye not obscured by her long mane. “Oh, you’ve brought somepony new…” she said, “Hi, I’m Copperwing.”

“I’m Diamond Tiara, nice to meet you.”

With that introduction done, they trotted after Gild into what served as the house’s living room; Diamond following the others to the largest table in the room and sitting in the first seat she came to. 

"Hey, Auburn?" She had just remembered something Gild had said earlier, and found it prickling her sense of curiosity.

"Yeah?"

"Why did your mum call me 'cadet'?... And what did she mean 'old habits die hard'?"

"Oh, that." Auburn chuckled. "I was wondering when you'd pick up on that. It's simple, really: she used to be in the Royal Guard, and I guess some of that's stuck with her even though she's retired. Same goes for the habits thing - guards aren't exactly supposed to invite strangers in, are they?"

"No, I suppose not. Thanks, Auburn."

Her friend smiled back at her for a moment before turning her attention back to her homework sheets, and Diamond knew there would be no avoiding her own. With a sigh, she opened her saddlebags and withdrew her homework, laying it on the table top with a sense of despondent finality. After staring hatefully at the indecipherable questions for a while, she picked up her pen and tried her hoof at one of the less confusing riddles her maths teacher had prepared for her. 

Homework – what fun.



*



Diamond found to her dismay that the one question she’d been able to complete appeared to be the only one of the set which made any sense. She wracked her brain for some possible way of decoding them, but nothing helped. It wasn’t even the maths itself which perplexed her: it was the questions themselves. What they wanted her to do was a mystery deeper than that of the universe itself, as far as Diamond was concerned.

Expand the following: (X + 5)(X - 12) 

Expand the following? What in the name of Celestia’s colossal flank was that supposed to mean?

Giving up the task as a lost cause, Diamond let out a groan of frustration and slumped onto the table in defeat. A moment later, she felt a hoof tap lightly on her foreleg and she grudgingly lifted her head.

It was not Dinky or Auburn who’d been trying to get her attention - or even Gild: it was Copperwing, looking at her with her head tilted to one side – presumably so that she could see with both eyes, and not just the one her mane didn't cover – and concern creasing her features.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Can’t figure out this homework, though – it makes no sense!”

“Let me see… oh, expanding brackets? What’s the problem?” The filly was apparently quite adept at reading upside down, since she’d said all this before Diamond even thought to turn the question sheet round.

“I don’t even know what it means. What has expanding things got to do with algebra?!”

Despite clearly knowing exactly what the term meant, Copperwing did not mock Diamond’s confusion; instead, Copperwing explained carefully and patiently; and Diamond found she was beginning to understand at long last. This was a departure from her classmates' reactions every time she had to ask what the ‘simple’ terms meant, which generally consisted of mocking and insults from former victims who'd realised that she was no longer a threat. 

“What they want is for you to multiply the things in the first bracket with the things in the second bracket. Like X times X is X squared, and so on. Does that make sense to you?”

Diamond thought it over for a moment: “A little. So, I do X times twelve, too?”

“Yeah, but the twelve is being subtracted, so it’d be minus twelve X instead of twelve X. Confusing, I know, but it’s how it works.”

Copperwing smiled encouragingly as Diamond scrunched up her face in concentration and hesitantly gave her answer for the next part.

“So, uh, we've got: X squared, minus twelve X, and then it’d be five times X so… five X?”

“Yep - you're almost there. Last one’s five times minus twelve. You could do it as five times minus ten, plus five times minus two, if you find that simpler.”

“That’s… uh… minus ten, plus… minus fifty? So, minus sixty?”

“That’s right! Now, what do you get when you add them all together?”

“Erm… X squared, plus five X, minus twelve X, minus sixty… so X squared, minus seven X, minus sixty?”

“Yeah, that’s it - nice work, Diamond! And, before you ask: no, I don’t know why they write the questions like that, either – it’s supposed to be maths, not riddle solving, but that’s how the teachers like to do things.”

Scribbling down her answer hurriedly, Diamond looked with eyes full of gratitude up at her saviour. Finally: somepony who could explain things in a way she could understand!

“Thanks, Copperwing; that’s been confusing me for weeks!” She gushed happily.

The pegasus grinned at her and shrugged. “No problem, Diamond – if you need any more help, I’ll be happy to lend you a hoof.”

With that, they both returned to their own studies, sharing a mutual spark of amity between them. It appeared that one good thing did lead to another from time to time; her friendship with Auburn Wake and subsequent meeting with her equally nice sister was proof enough of that.



*****

> Gambit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With no small amount of pride, Diamond lay down her pen, tidied up her papers and returned her completed homework to her bag. Sure, she’d needed Copperwing’s help more than once, but most of the work had been her own and she’d made serious headway towards a better understanding of the subject. All in all, going to Auburn’s house had been the best decision she’d made all year besides accepting their friendship in the first place.

Now, though, the real fun should begin. Dinky was visibly shaking with glee at the prospect of introducing Diamond to her favourite game, and whilst ‘Legends of The Three Kingdoms’ sounded like exactly the sort of nerd-fest she’d been avoiding like the plague, she kept an open mind and tried not to make any premature judgements.

As she and Copperwing watched, Dinky and Auburn began collecting things and depositing them on the table. First came several small boxes roughly a third of a suitcase in size; each had a stylised symbol emblazoned upon their otherwise dull, dark-coloured exterior. The first three: navy blue, ebony and dark crimson respectively, were, Diamond guessed, to do with the three kingdoms of old referenced in the game’s title. 

Since no conclusive descriptions of the kingdoms’ banners remained, some artistic licence had clearly been taken. The symbol  of a wing, feathers replaced by various bladed weapons and backed by the outline of a spearhead, clearly represented the pegasi; whereas the stylised, armour-encased hoof enclosed within a circular cog stood for the earth ponies; and the unicorns’ symbol was a minimalistic horn wreathed in curling wisps of magic and accompanied by a miniature sun on one side and a crescent moon on the other.

There were three more boxes of the same size, albeit lightly coloured and with darker symbols; the closest was a muted shade of lime green, and its companions were golden yellow and rich lilac: a clear contrast to the first three. Upon these lay less obvious symbols: a jagged horn within a hexagon; a clenched, taloned fist upon a paw-print; and the grinning, hooded skull of a pony. 

Next came a far larger box, labelled with the game logo and other information – Diamond assumed when she saw the box’s size that this was where the board was kept. 

In a sense she was right. Although there was no board in the conventional sense, there were the materials with which to construct their playing field: a vast collection of hexagonal tiles, which Dinky was already removing and sorting into piles. 

Last was a small velvet bag, the clacking sound it made when it hit the table hinting at its contents just as much as the image of dice emblazoned on its side did.

Just as soon as Dinky had finished sorting the tiles, she began removing them from their piles and snapping them together on the table top, apparently working from some set of instructions in the booklet she’d taken from inside the largest box. 

Diamond looked on in wonderment as the structure came together, rising from the table into the rough shape of a hilly landscape with a serpentine gully through the middle of it. It wasn’t particularly detailed, but it was a lot more impressive than a chequered chessboard – she saw what Copperwing had meant; this was a far more involved game than anything she’d ever seen.

“Right.” Said Auburn, turning her attention from the strategy guide her muzzle had been buried in to instead face her friends. “We need to decide who’s going to play as what faction. I call pegasi - you want to be unicorns again, Dinky?”

“Actually, I thought I’d give the earth ponies a try this time.”

“Okay, how about you, Copper?”   

“Unicorns.” The pegasus grimaced, looking apologetically at Diamond as she made her choice. “I know it’s your first game and all, but I wouldn’t stand a chance against Auburn with any of the wild cards... Sorry. Hey - who knows, maybe you’ll find you have a knack for non-standard gameplay.”

“It’s okay… What are the wild cards, anyway?”

“They’re essentially the oddball factions; they don’t play the same as the main three. They tend to have at least one significant advantage, but they’re also really vulnerable to certain things: 

“You’ve got your Gryphons, with earth pony strength and pegasus manoeuvrability, but no heavy weapons or armour.

“Then there are the Changelings, who can apply encountered units’ traits to themselves. The downside being that for five turns, each positive attribute is reduced and each negative one increased, starting at five points’ difference and reducing by one each turn until normal.

“And then you have the Death’s Head Raiders, whose every action – attack, defense, moves per turn, you name it – is determined by a roll of the dice. Roll badly and you could lose yourself the game, but if luck’s on your side you might defeat a force twice your size.”

Diamond took a moment for the information to sink in. The gryphons seemed a safe bet, but she wasn’t sure if the strength and manoeuvrability was worth the loss of tactical options. The changelings sounded like they were a better faction from a strategic point of view, but she wasn’t convinced her first game was the time to try and outwit her far more experienced friends.

The raiders were out of the question, though. Diamond immensely disliked having luck dictate her life at the best of times, so to lose a game because a roll of a dice screwed her over was not something she wanted to happen - ever.

“Gryphons or Changelings, either one will do... I know, I’ll roll the dice: even for Gryphons, odd for Changelings.”

She scooped up the dice and rolled it across the table, where it collided with Dinky’s structure and pinged off; spinning wildly. It slowed, tilted as if to land with the four-dot face pointed upwards, but rotated some more as it fell and stopped at last with five dots triumphantly facing the sky.

“Changelings it is, then.” Said Diamond, reaching over to take the lime box containing her units. She opened it and took one out, turning it over in her hooves to examine it: it was quite detailed for something this small, and she liked the design, but she couldn’t shake the feeling something was missing in comparison with the others. 

Of course: hers were still dull and grey, identical to each other; whereas every unit her friends possessed had been painted – some minimally, some with great attention to detail – in such a way as to make each one unique amongst its brethren. Something inside her itched to change that, and she resolved to ask Auburn if she could decorate them herself.


Dinky clipped the last few tiles onto the top of her landscape; colouring the battlefield various shades of green, and adding the deep blue of a river at the bottom of the gully. The final few were special: these, when clipped to the tile below, projected a hazy, detail-less image into the air above; forming trees, long grass and ruined buildings – just one more echelon of complexity, and hopefully fun, to be added to the game.



*



A little while later, Diamond and her friends sat around the completed playing field, unit cases open in front of each of them. At one end of the table sat the two differently sized dice and at the other lay a deck of small hexagonal cards, similar – albeit smaller – decks of which also lay on the inside of each player’s box. Diamond didn’t know what they were for, but trusted that it would be explained soon, along with the rest of the game.

This explanation came sooner than she’d expected, delivered by Auburn, speaking in her slow, deliberate drawl. “Alright, I’m going to do my best to explain this to you, Diamond, but if anything doesn’t make any sense just say so and I’ll try to reword it a little better.

“The aim of the game is to either kill off all your opponents’ units or have at least three quarters of the playing field under your control. The first one is tough and pretty time consuming, but the game field is about two metres long and half a metre wide so victory B isn’t easy either. You got all that?”

Diamond nodded, repeating Auburn’s words in an attempt to memorise them: “Kill everything or control half the board… got it.”

“Cool,” Auburn grinned, “Now, most of the game relies on something called energy. You spend it to carry out any actions – besides resting, of course – and you get a little more of it per turn on top of what each unit starts with. Every faction except the Earth Ponies starts with five energy for each unit, and gets two more per turn, with the exception of the Pegasi.”

“So… five energy to start with, two more gained each turn, and I spend it on making my pieces do what I want?”

“Yep. Now, the last main thing is summoning units. Each unit is part of a tier – from one to four – and you can place as many units as you want, so long as their tier numbers add up to four. You have to decide whether you just want more units, or whether you want more powerful ones – how well you can balance the two is a big factor in who wins or loses.

“You can only bring in units every fifth turn – as well as on the first turn – but it’s sometimes a good idea to bring in less than the maximum – or none at all – and save up your points for later. Also, starting with turn five and continuing every fifth turn from there, a player takes a card from the centre pile and whatever effect it carries stands until the five turns are up and a new card is drawn. That’s about it; though you should probably take a look at the hoofbook in your box, too – it has all the moves your units can do and how much energy it takes to do them, along with the lore, which is actually really interesting.”

Stepping in before her sister could go off on a tangent about the merits of lore, Copperwing wasted no extra time in kicking off the game. “Now that’s settled, shall we start?” she asked. “I’ll roll first.”

She rolled the smaller of the two dice, which came up as a two. Dinky rolled next: a five, then Auburn: a three. Diamond took the dice and rolled it herself: “Two”, she said.

“Dinky’s first, then.” Stated Auburn; and the butter-maned unicorn placed her first three units carefully on the playing field: two spear-ponies and an officer-looking piece with a sabre. 

She drew three cards out of the set in her box and, after a moment to examine them, lay one face-up in front of her; setting the others aside for later. “’Discipline’” she read, “’Plus one to any one positive attribute for any unit within two spaces of a higher ranking unit.’ Nice!”

Next up was Auburn, who took her time deciding which pieces to front first, finally settling on an impressive looking pegasus stallion; both built and armoured heavily, with the Pegasus Clan banner in his hoof held proudly aloft. This was the only unit she put down, which drew an appreciative whistle from her sister.

“Tartarus, sis; you’re bringing out Hurricane this early? I don’t know whether that’s genius or just plain stupid… Guess we’ll see soon enough either way.”

Commander Hurricane; leader of the Pegasus Clan and a notoriously formidable warrior. Diamond guessed that this unit would be one to be wary of, especially since her friend hadn’t put any other units into play; which suggested that either she felt she didn’t need to, or Hurricane was a unit worth as much as all three of Dinky’s. Whichever was the truth, Auburn would be one to watch.

Auburn drew her cards and frowned at them: clearly disappointed, she put them to one side and looked at Diamond instead; waiting for something.

“Your turn, Diamond.” Prompted Copperwing, and Diamond looked blankly at the figurines in her box, trying to find one which looked like it would be a safe bet. Confusion overwhelmed her and she turned to Copperwing, hoping that her helpfulness earlier would still be present here.

The pegasus smiled at her soothingly. “You just have to pick a few units whose tier numbers add up to four. It doesn’t really matter too much what you pick this early on, just choose whichever ones you feel like, okay?”

Diamond glanced down at her units: each had a small number printed on their stand, along with their unit name, and she assumed this stood for their tier. In that case, half her units – various types of ‘Drone’ – were tier one, the more unique changelings in the next section of her box were tier two, with the vast majority of the last quarter being tier three, and the imposing Queen being an obvious tier four.

She settled on four tier one changelings: one of each different sub-class of drone – Shock, Empath, Hunter and Conduit – for variety’s sake and, despite the lack of any real threat, positioned them in a rough horseshoe shape to cover all sides from attack.

Copperwing hummed in interest, before verbally nudging Diamond towards the completion of her turn. “Playing it safe, I see – good idea. You can draw three cards from your box, and play as many or as few as you want, and that’s the end of the turn.”

“Okay…” replied Diamond, and she scooped up some cards in her hoof: they seemed useful enough, but not anything she’d really need right now. As Auburn had done before her, she too set her cards aside for use at a later date.

Needing nopony to tell her that her turn had come, Copperwing placed a tier-three-looking unicorn – a warmage, if Diamond remembered her history lessons right – on the field along with what she knew had to be a tier one – not that anypony could have mistaken such a generic unit as anything else. The pegasus drew her cards and played all three – actually placing them face down upon the battle-scape – with deliberate care. 

Noticing Diamond’s confused expression, Dinky explained: “Effect cards – you play them on the field and choose when to activate them. They usually have some sort of area-of-effect ability, though not always.”

It was Dinky’s turn again, and Diamond watched carefully as she moved her spearponies out, stopping just short of where ‘Discipline’ would stop working. Her other unit, which Diamond decided  was probably a sergeant of some sort, remained in place. Completing the turn, Dinky put her cards to one side: her eyes gleaming at the possibilities gained from whatever cards she’d bagged.

Diamond pulled the little booklet out from under her figurines so she could read it between the turns, before returning her attention to the game as Auburn’s turn began. 

It struck Diamond as odd that Auburn didn’t put any more units down, until she remembered what she had said about placing units. If she’d understood her right, Auburn wouldn’t be able to put any more units down for another three turns. The spark of an idea flickered in Diamond’s mind at this realisation; lighting the kindling of a plan which began smouldering away of its own accord.

Auburn did not move Hurricane at all – Diamond guessed she was probably wary of leaving him open to attack – which left her nothing to do but draw more cards and end her turn. All three cards went onto her little stockpile, which would become quite the hoard if she kept on doing this.

It was Diamond’s turn now, and she was in two minds about what to do. On the one hoof, she could spread her troops out and try and claim more land for herself, but on the other hoof there was the plan which was slowly solidifying in her mind. In the end, she settled for a compromise: she spread her units out as if to claim more land, but mostly in the direction of Auburn’s quarter, and sat back in her chair to draw her three cards. 

The cards she got this time were all interesting, but one in particular caught her eye as something immediately relevant: an effect card titled ‘Aether Well’. Its particular ability was to immediately double the energy count of any of her units within two spaces, at the price of a ten-turn energy drain for anything within that same radius once the card’s effect wore off.  She put it down near a section of high ground which was closer to Auburn than her, her mind galloping at a thousand miles an hour as the ethereal fragments of her plan all came together at once – this just might work!



*



As the game continued, Diamond paid little attention to Copperwing’s movements, instead rereading the unit descriptions to make sure she was right in her assumptions. The Shock and Hunter drones, as she had thought, were two fairly similar combat units – the former the more physically powerful and the latter faster and nimbler – which should complement each other well enough. 

Diamond glanced up at the game in progress: Copperwing had moved her own Warmage over towards her own high ground – away from Diamond – and left her Corporal standing idly where she’d first brought her in. All was good; Diamond returned to her paranoid double-checking.

It was the Empath and Conduit drones she’d been concerned with, and she sighed with relief as a thorough rereading of their respective passages in the hoofbook confirmed that her plan was possible. It was also risky, near-suicidal and reckless; but if she pulled it off she might just have a chance at evening the odds. 

Copperwing was drawing her cards, but Diamond ignored her and read through the unit descriptions one last time instead: she couldn’t afford to lose her whole force because she hadn’t read these vital sentences properly.

Her Empath was immune to the disadvantage imbued upon all her other units; meaning it could perfectly copy the forms of enemy units first time: this would cost all its energy, but if the plan worked that wouldn’t matter. And the conduit, whilst near useless in combat, could link units within a certain radius – a link through which knowledge could be transmitted; which in the case of the plan meant how to perfectly imitate enemy units. 

“Field Promotion, hay yes!” said Copperwing, snapping Diamond out of her stupor. 

“What did you say?” she asked, confused.

“’Field Promotion’ – it’s my card. I can upgrade any unit below Tier Three so that it fights as a unit the tier above. Kiss your advantages goodbye, Diamond and Auburn, ‘cause my forces are more powerful than either of yours. This little Corporal? - Well, she’s a Sergeant now, and I’ve got a Tier Five army. Bring it on!”

Dinky was too happy-go-lucky to rise to the boast, and Diamond didn’t care all that much – it wouldn’t affect the plan, and that’s all that mattered right now – but Auburn wasted no time in starting a good old siblings’ argument.

“Brag all you like, sis, but you’ve still only got two units and Hurricane could take either of them before you the other even got close. Might want to close that gap, or your Tier Five army could become a Tier Two moving target.”

Copperwing laughed and sent a smirk the way of her younger sibling. “I’d like to see you try, Auburn - that one unit’s a really intimidating sight... I’m just quaking in my boots here: Auburn Wake and her one stallion army – why, whatever can I do against such an enormous force?!”

“Go buck yourself, Copper…” huffed Auburn, turning back to stare wistfully into her own unit box and then glaring furiously at her one and only unit for not having somehow multiplied whilst her gaze had been on other things.

Dinky’s turn again: the unicorn tapped her hoof to make her indecision audible as she made a few faltering half-moves in various directions. Sighing, she finally settled on shifting her whole force a mere space forwards and groaned in frustration as her cards turned out to be as absolutely devoid of opportunities as the everything else that turn.

Diamond found herself unconsciously holding her breath as Auburn thought of where to move her unit, praying to Celestia, Luna and Twilight that she wouldn’t send him towards Copperwing’s units.  Unsurprisingly, when her friend took the bait Diamond had laid down and moved Hurricane towards the high ground on which she’d placed the card, it took her a lot of effort not to cry out with glee – everything was going according to plan! 

“You know, Diamond,” Auburn laughed good-naturedly, “you really need to be more subtle than that if you want to do well in this game. Putting an effect card down on one of my strategic spots… well, that’s as far from subtle as you can get.”

She’d bought it! For the second time in so many seconds, Diamond had to force down her uprising emotions and feign dismay. 

“Damn it… I guess I’ll have to take you out head-on, then.” Diamond said, trying to coax out the competitive side of Auburn she’d seen when Copperwing had been bragging.

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” grinned her friend, and inwardly Diamond mirrored her in gleeful satisfaction – one did not spend three years around somepony like Silver Spoon without learning a thing or two about manipulating ponies. Now came the risky part: getting her units over to Auburn’s hero without Dinky or Copperwing intercepting them, and within range of her Aether Well before Hurricane got past it and into her land.

Auburn added three more cards to her stockpile, and Diamond frowned: what was she doing? Shaking her head, Diamond sent her own units towards the high ground; the Empath in the lead, followed by her Conduit and then by her two different combat drones. Her cards gave her another saving grace: ‘Stormy Weather’ and ‘Endurance’ would work wonders against Auburn, and she played them immediately.

“Hey, Auburn, guess what? There’s a storm coming…” she held the card triumphantly out for her friend to see. “Halved endurance for any unit when using flight-type movement, so no more super-speed Hurricane for you. I’ve got Endurance, too, so my units move faster than yours – still feeling so confident?”

“Oh, it is on, Diamond… It. Is. On!” Auburn seemed to be taking it in her stride, which was a good thing – her advantage would be no use if Auburn ran away, after all.

Copperwing had watched all this mirthfully, amusement written on her features, and decided for the moment to leave the squabbling duo to their skirmish; moving her units instead towards her own strategic points with the intention of safeguarding her corner of the world from everypony else. 

“This’ll be entertaining…” commented Dinky, and Copperwing laughed by way of agreement, taking her cards from the pile as she did so. 

“True, true…” she said, her face breaking into a grin as she saw what she’d got. “Oh, cool!”

Dinky turned, eyebrow raised. “What’ve you got?”

“Sceptre of Power: I can keep any spell going indefinitely so long as I don’t move the unit casting it.”

Dinky didn’t seem bothered by this development, congratulating Copperwing despite the other filly’s close proximity to her own territory. “Nice! You going to use your shield charm?”

“Yeah, I… how the Tartarus did you know I was going to do that?”

“Elementary, my dear Watson: you’re sending your warmage to a central, defensive location rather than somewhere on your borders, and you’ve just gotten the card which would make that strategy feasible with so few units.”

She said all of this with a great big grin plastered on her face, and Copperwing’s own expression grew increasingly unnerved. “You’re really quite scary sometimes, you know that? Brilliant… but scary.”

“You’re welcome!” chirped Dinky, and she proceeded to draw her cards and end her turn without even bothering to move a single unit. She lay two of the cards down as if by random and put the third with her slowly growing pile of spares, ending her turn with a satisfied smile.

“You’re not even going to move? That doesn’t seem – Oh, wait, I see what you’re doing… you’re saving up your energy for later, aren’t you?”

It was Dinky’s turn to double-take now. “How- ?”

“'Elementary',” replied Copperwing, mockingly imitating Dinky’s terrible impression of the great detective. The pair stared at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing. 

By the time their laughter died down, Auburn’s turn was already almost over and all that remained for Copperwing’s sister to do was draw her cards and predictably add them to her hoard. 

Diamond likewise needed little time to decide what to do: all her actions would be steps of the plan, which she had memorised to the letter; so she guided her units still closer to their eventual goal and drew her cards enveloped in an atmosphere of confident purpose. She, like her adversary, placed all three cards upon her pile of unused items and sat back to glare at the other filly.

Copperwing, breaking off her conversation with Dinky, moved her Warmage the final few spaces to her central high ground and broke out the Sceptre of Power, smirking smugly as she announced her territory’s indefinite protection.

“Sceptre of Power, fillies, Sceptre of Power... Infinite shield spell, here we come!”

“Not if I have anything to do with it…” grumbled Auburn, turning her competitive glare from Diamond to her sister, whose smug grin merely widened. Dinky and Diamond’s eyes met over the table and they shook their heads in mutual exasperated amusement. 

“How are things doing over there, Dinky?” asked Diamond, realising that they’d barely spoken since their arrival at Auburn’s house.

“Great! Well, I can’t really do much until I get more units or somepony else does something, but it’s not a bad position to be in early game. Besides, I’ve got more than enough entertainment from you and Auburn –  I have to ask, though, do you really think you can win?”

Diamond felt uncertainty bubble up at this question, but crushed it with the facts that backed up her plan and forced a confident smile onto her face. 

“Wouldn’t be trying if I didn’t think it would work, Dinky. That said, I wasn’t expecting Auburn to be this competitive – she seemed really chill up ‘til now.”

Dinky shrugged in response. “I don’t know either. She’s never like this except when she’s playing the game, so I guess maybe it’s a pride thing? After all, she has been playing this longer than any of us – even Copperwing hadn’t played it before Auburn brought her first set home and insisted she play it with her.”

Copperwing had scattered two more effect cards across her land whilst they’d been talking, and Dinky turned away from Diamond to concentrate on her own turn: disappointed that the conversation had ended so abruptly, Diamond tried to start another with Auburn’s elder sister.

“Hey, Copperwing, what school do you go to? I don’t really know any schools besides mine, but there must be another nearby because we’re all in our last year at Ponyville Elementary and Auburn’s younger than you.”

The older filly glanced up through her pendent mane in surprise, her face softening in a warm smile as she sat up to talk with Diamond. Happily; whilst she shared her sister’s quiet tendencies and – as her comment to Gild had shown – a decidedly teenage sense of bad attitude; she did not seem to mind Diamond interrupting her train of thought.

“I go to Canterhoof General Academy, it’s about ten minutes away on the train.” Noticing Diamond’s expression, she explained further. “Yeah, I take the train – school’s in Witherston, so it’d be a bit of a trek if you had to hoof it there. There’s a school carriage, too, but I don’t really like to be that crammed in with the other foals… and besides, the driver’s taste in music is awful.”

“What, is it all classical music and stuff like that?”

“Nope, just the same pop music you hear every Celestia-damned place you go these days. Not that I’m some hipster type who hates it just because it’s popular, it’s just that songs tend to get irritating when you hear the same chorus the thousandth time.”

Diamond sighed in relief internally – classical music was a bit of a guilty pleasure of hers – and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I know what you mean. What sort of music are you into, then?”

Dinky’s turn had passed unnoticed, and Copperwing blinked in surprise at the sight of her sister preparing to take her turn before shrugging and replying to her new acquaintance in the hopes that they, too, could become friends.

“I’m not really that fussy about genres – so long as the songs are good, who really cares if it’s jazz or electronica. If I had to choose one, though, it would have to be rock music – there are so many little genres and niches inside that term: you could spend forever listening to just rock music and still have more surprises on the horizon, you know?”

“Yeah,” agreed Diamond, almost disappointed that her turn had come because its arrival meant she’d have to stop talking and concentrate. 



*



Dinky had played a card called ‘Conscription’ while she and Copperwing had been talking about the latter’s school and now possessed a third Spearpony, which she had summoned via the card. Despite this, she was furthest from Diamond and still looked to be building up her energy stores, which meant she was still a minor threat compared with Auburn.

On the subject of the dun pegasus, she’d finally gotten Commander Hurricane over to the high ground, where it now stood – at a safe distance, Diamond noticed, from her face-down Aether Well – waiting for her own imminent arrival. 

It was turn five, which meant that Diamond needed to carry out her plan in its entirety – now – or her friend would be able to bring in another four tiers’ worth of units and crush her little army. Panic pumped her heart harder and harder in her chest, taking thirty seconds of concentrated breathing exercises to alleviate and breaking her calm demeanour. 

Autumn placed three more cards on her pile, sat back and watched in amusement as Diamond hurriedly reread the hoofbook in a panic-driven paranoia fit. 

‘It’s all there in the book, Diamond. You can do this; this can work – this will work!’ 

Mental pep-talk over, Diamond moved her pieces to their final positions: her Empath within striking distance of Commander Hurricane’s spear, her Hunter and Shock drones as close as she could get them – still too far away for them to strike the enemy unit – and, finally, her Conduit drone standing right on top of her Aether Well.

“What the Discord are you doing?” asked Copperwing, incredulous that Diamond would be this foalish with her unit placement. “Your combat drones are too far away to attack, Diamond, and Auburn will tear your Empath a new one when it’s her turn!”

“I know that… but I’m not done yet... I activate my Aether Well – double energy for my Empath and Conduit drones – which gives me eight energy for my Empath and six for my Conduit.

“The Empath’s special move is that it can perfectly copy the form of any enemy unit at an energy cost double the enemy’s tier number. I have eight energy, so I can perfectly replicate Commander Hurricane-“

Copperwing interrupted her, face caught halfway between fear for Diamond, and awe at the plan she was beginning to piece together herself. “Oh, Celestia, if you’re doing what I think you’re doing…” She laughed, shaking her head. 

“What the hay is she doing, Copper?!” growled Auburn, “What’s she going to do?” 

Dinky was shaking her head. “I have no idea, but this is going to be interesting, for sure.”

“If you’d let me finish…” said Diamond, pointedly. “I can perfectly copy Hurricane, and my Conduit can – using the energy from the Aether Well – spend 3 energy sending that information to each of my combat drones. They’re behind because I wanted to save their energy for the transformation – it’d cost four energy to become a tier four and since they’ve got five, I can do that easily. Behold my mighty army of two Commander Hurricanes:” Diamond gestured to her former Shock and Hunter drones with a malicious grin on her face.

Realisation dawned on Auburn, and her face contorted into an expression of shock and outrage.

“You… You didn’t just… oh, BUCK! – I don’t know how you figured all this out, but you’ve bucking got me!”

Dinky leaned over the table, laying a reassuring hoof on Auburn’s shoulder in an attempt to raise her spirits. “Hey - you can still get out of this. One energy isn’t enough to get over to you, and you’ll get more units after Copperwing’s turn ends.” 

She was only trying to be helpful, but Auburn just shook her head in dismay. “You don’t understand – Hurricane can turn unused cards into energy, and his special attack lets him attack any unit within five tiles of himself at a cost four energy. She’s got nine cards, Dinky – I’m finished.”

Dinky’s smile fell as the understanding struck her, leaving her mouth agape like a goldfish. “Well, plump my rump with cake and call me Celestia,” she exclaimed in awe.

Feeling no need for any further explanation of her intended course of action, Diamond took a Hurricane in each hoof and placed them either side of the original, plucking Auburn’s one and only unit off the playing field and ending Auburn’s game five turns in. 

Wordlessly; her mouth curved momentarily in a wry smile as she ruefully shook her head; Auburn passed over her stockpile of cards and slumped back in her seat. Diamond gave her an apologetic look before responding to Copperwing’s congratulatory smile with a triumphant hoof-pump and a grin. 

Also grinning, Dinky offered her hoof and Diamond slapped hers against it; overjoyed that she’d done so well on her first game and enjoying the moment immensely. This was fun!

The celebration of the new filly’s victory went on for several minutes, with Auburn joining in with equal enthusiasm once the shock wore off. 

“I’m impressed, Diamond,” she said, shaking Diamond’s hoof. “Not often I lose when I hero rush, but you won fair and square. I knew I should’ve smashed your combat drones when I had the chance, but I didn’t want to waste my cards – now I’ve lost them all!” 

Diamond grinned back at her, a smile which only widened as she looked around at her new friends: she’d only known them a day, but she felt like she’d been with these three all her life. 

‘So this is what friendship is like: no back-stabbing, no bullying, just some ponies having fun together’ she thought, her happy expression darkening as Silver Spoon trotted, unwelcome, back into her mind. ‘And if it wasn’t for you, you bucking psychopath, I’d have found all this three years ago.’

“Diamond, are you alright?” Reopening her eyes, she looked into Copperwing’s concerned green discs and, buoyed up by her returning good spirits, grinned from ear to ear. 

“Oh… uh, yeah, I’m fine… I was just thinking, is all.”

“What about? You looked kinda sad for a moment there.”

“Nothing; just a bad memory. It doesn’t matter, not after today… I just wanted to say thanks – to all of you – today has been… well, to be honest it’s been the best day I’ve ever had.”

Her friends’ faces lit up as she said this, and as they pulled her into a group hug she felt like she could take on the world. Tomorrow’s assembly would be no problem at all – for the first time in years she had real friends, and that’s all that really mattered. She didn’t need a school full of friends, just a school of ponies who knew the truth: after the summer it would be a new school – a new start – and with her new friends by her side the future could hardly be any brighter.

Diamond grinned into Copperwing’s mane: life was good.



*****








> Imploration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond Tiara was sitting at the breakfast table across from her father, trying – but so far failing – to  eat her breakfast. It wasn’t that the food was bad; her father employed a group of highly skilled cooks, after all; or even that she didn’t like it; she just had no appetite: the space in her stomach apparently completely full of the whirling butterflies who’d made it their home that morning. 

She knew exactly why she felt this way; knew what had her so worked up, but she refused to think about it: that would only make it worse. Think about anything else: Dinky, Auburn and Copperwing, the Cutie Mark Crusaders – Tartarus, even Snips and Snails – anything but the assembly.

There, she’d gone and thought about it now, hadn’t she? 

Her eyes and the corners of her lips drooped out of the deliberate, rigid neutrality she’d locked them in; Diamond’s face finally showing the emotion she’d been suppressing all morning: and as she had known he would, her father noticed it.

“Diamond, sweetie, is everything alright?” He asked, leaning over to her with a concern-etched expression.

Diamond gulped. “I’m fine, Dad… Just got butterflies about assembly today.”

Her father’s eyes widened in understanding, before confusion clouded them once more. 

“Oh, are you doing a presentation for your schoolwork? You should’ve said something, I have to do those sorts of things for work all the time - I could've helped! Ah, but I’m sure you’ll do fine anyway, you’re a brave filly…”

Much quieter, so that Diamond wouldn’t hear, he added “…just like your mother.”

Diamond supposed she ought to explain why she was worried fully, instead of hiding behind her father’s assumptions. She owed him that much – and after all, she’d done the latter for three years – and how had that worked out?

“Actually, Dad, it’s not a presentation… not exactly, at least. Miss Cheerilee and I thought a good way of gaining a little more understanding from my classmates would be if I told them what happened myself, rather than wait for the rumours to misinform them. I… I still think this is the right thing to do, I’m just scared.”

“What did I say? You are so, so brave – and don’t let anypony tell you otherwise. You’ll do just fine out there, just tell them what you told me and Miss Cheerilee and I’m sure enough of them will listen. After all, the… what do they call themselves? Cutie Mark Crashers? – Anyway, they believed you even after what that filly made you do to them, so the others have got to follow if you say what you said before.”

Diamond smiled in gratitude up at her father: she felt a little better now; maybe the odds weren’t as against her as she’d thought. 

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders will be helping me convince everypony – and Dinky, too. I guess it might go okay if our luck holds out… thanks, Dad.”

The gruff stallion’s face softened lovingly, and he beamed affectionately down at her. 

“That’s my filly! Now, you’d better start getting ready, Diamond – time waits for none of us, after all.”

Diamond held onto her spark of optimism with both metaphorical hooves as she trotted off to the bathroom to brush her teeth, losing her thoughts in the steady, rhythmic motion of the brush across her teeth. There was nothing she could give today but her best efforts, and that was all anypony could reasonably ask for.



*



Diamond found Dinky and Auburn where they’d first approached her the day before. As she approached the two, she gave them a friendly wave and pondered how she’d gotten so close to them in just one day. To be fair, her apology on Tuesday had probably helped a lot – no insignificant detail that Dinky had always been the sort of foal who wants to get on with everypony – but still, it amazed her how comfortable she felt around two fillies who had been little more than strangers at the start of the week.

“Hey, you two!” She beamed; her worries momentarily forgotten.

“Hi!” responded Dinky in her usual enthusiastic way; beside her, Auburn grinned welcomingly and waved a hoof.

“How’re things?” asked the tall pegasus asked as Diamond arrived outside the classroom, head tilted a little to the side in an unconscious display of her curiosity. 

“Alright, I guess… I’m a little worried about the assembly, though. Could hardly sleep last night – I kept thinking of things that might go wrong. It’s the right thing to do, but still…”

She jolted in surprise as her friend pulled her into a hug, a wing curled comfortingly around her back as Auburn’s foreleg held her tightly against the other filly. 

Diamond could only blink: she’d have expected something like this from Dinky, perhaps, but the taciturn, no-nonsense pegasus hadn’t seemed remotely the type for physical shows of emotion. Perhaps she’d misjudged her, Diamond mused; held reassuringly under the willow tree of coppery hair.

The embrace only lasted a moment before Auburn pulled away again, but that was more than long enough for Diamond to get the message: this wasn’t a ‘good to see you’ hug or even an ‘it’ll be okay’ hug – and it certainly wasn’t an ‘I love you’ hug – no, this was a hug which said, better than words ever could, ‘I’ve got your back, no matter how it goes out there.’

Blushing slightly, Diamond thanked her quietly and stood a little taller: her waning hope renewed in full. Dinky stepped in now, brimming with optimism as she exclaimed: “It’s gonna go great, Diamond, just you wait and see. We’re gonna go out there and make them understand, and if any of them bother you after that… well, Auburn is the daughter of a former Royal Guard commander…”

As the trio sidled into the classroom, their teacher having finally arrived, Diamond turned to her companions. “Thanks, both of you,” she said, earnestly. “You’re the best friends I could’ve asked for.”



*



Cheerilee was waiting for Diamond in the room behind the stage which had been installed during the school’s expansion: most of the time it was used by the Drama students, but on Fridays it also served as the platform from which whomever was leading the assembly spoke.

“Good morning, Diamond!” Greeted the teacher, smiling down at her student. 

“Morning, Miss Cheerilee.” Diamond answered, her mind too focused on the near future to put any enthusiasm into her response.

Cheerilee, sensing the reason behind the filly’s leaden tone, stepped closer and lifted Diamond’s chin to face her, smiling maternally as she spoke words of comfort. 

“Diamond, it’s going to be alright, I promise you. I’ll be right by you from start to finish, making sure nopony treats you with anything less than the respect you deserve… I know it’s hard to talk about what happened, but once you do this you won’t ever have to do it again.”

Diamond looked up at Cheerilee for a moment, before her eyes brimmed with tears and she looked away; ashamed at herself for breaking down before she even reached the stage. Whispering soothing phrases, Cheerilee wiped the filly’s tears away with a gentle hoof and after a little while the waterfalls stopped flowing once more. 

Wrapping her forelegs around her teacher’s neck, Diamond hugged her briefly before breaking away, embarrassed. 

“Thanks…” she muttered, and Cheerilee couldn’t help but smile at her as she added: “I think I’m ready to go out there now… well, as ready as I’ll ever be, at least.”

“Alright then, I’ll go introduce the assembly and call you when it’s time.” 

She trotted away, and Diamond looked back down at the floorboards mournfully: the clopping of hooves stopped, however, and she looked up in surprise as Cheerilee called her name: "Diamond?"

“Y-yeah?” she replied, shakily. Her teacher was looking at her with a peculiar expression on her face; it reminded her a little of how her father would sometimes look at her, but with so many unreadable emotions cramming in from all sides it was hard to tell what Cheerilee was thinking.

“I-I know you’ve done a lot of harm in the last three years, but you’ve been so brave to break free from all that and try to make amends. A lot of foals – even a lot of grown ponies – wouldn’t have bothered; but here you are, facing your fears to get the truth out there. You’re becoming a fine young mare, Diamond, and I am so, so proud of you.” 

Her proud smile did not drop as she turned away again and slipped out through the curtain onto the stage. Meanwhile, Diamond had to push down the new surge of emotion which threatened to burst her tear ducts with unadulterated joy and instead focus on what she was here to achieve. Listening as Cheerilee began to speak, she sat and waited for her time to come.



*



“Now, the main part of today’s assembly is going to be a little different to the usual. One of our students has something she needs to say to you all, and I am going to let her and some other students who also have something to contribute speak in place of myself.

“I want you to listen to what she has to say and treat her with respect both whilst she is up here speaking and out of this room. I will not tolerate any behaviour to the contrary… remember, the detention rooms always have seats to spare. Now that I’ve said all I need to, it’s time for Diamond Tiara to say her part…”

The students let out a collective gasp of surprise, but said nothing more in fear of Cheerilee’s harsh judgement. The magenta-coated mare in question turned expectantly to the stage curtain, the roomful of fillies and colts holding their breath as the seconds ticked by.



*



The Cutie Mark Crusaders had just arrived when Diamond heard her cue to go out onto the stage, and she took a moment – the time she was spending burning a hole in her mind as she did so – to poke her head out of the door and make sure Dinky was on her way. At the first glimpse of her friend, she ducked her head hurriedly back into the room and trotted up to the curtain, pushing it aside cautiously in fear of what lay on the other side. 

The assembly room was far brighter than the darkened room she’d just been in, and Diamond blinked for a few moments to readjust her eyesight. As her vision came into focus again, she saw the encouragingly smiling face of Cheerilee looking back at her, and also the packed hall of students whose gazes she could feel burning into her skin. Gulping, she resumed her trot over to the pedestal from which Cheerilee had been speaking and tried to stay calm.

Panic rose within her at every step, and as she arrived at the pedestal, she found that she couldn’t speak. The urge to bolt from the room spiralled dizzyingly upwards from her heart to her brain, but just before it forced her to act on her fears, a certain pair of pea-green eyes found hers. 

It took a moment for her breathing to get back to normal levels again, but with the help of Auburn’s encouraging smile she managed it. Sucking in one last breath as if her life depended on it, she let it out slowly and opened her mouth to speak.

“I-I just want to say, before I begin, that I’m not trying to say that what I did to you all was right, or that it’s all going to get better just because I’m apologising. I only want you to hear me out, just this once… you can think what you like, but please let me say my side of things first.”

Contrary to her expectations, there was no chorus of jeers from the onlookers; indeed, some of them even seemed to relax somewhat and slump back in their seats casually.

“Thank you... I suppose that the best place to begin would be three years ago, when I and Silver Spoon first met. Her family had just moved to the area, and her father wanted to show the mayor that he was doing his part for the community, so he offered my father a deal: he’d supply high-end silverware for dad’s shops and in return he’d get a cut of the profit. You might think I’m going off on a tangent here, but this is actually a big part of how I and Silver even became 'friends' in the first place.

“Anyway, a few months after Silver’s family arrived here, her father arranged a little playdate for me and her to keep us out of the house while our parents made business deals. I’d never really bothered with friends before, but I wanted one and Silver, well, she seemed alright back then.

“Our friendship grew a lot over the next few months, but eventually things took a turn for the worse. She’d driven off all the other foals who might’ve been my friends – not that I noticed that before it was too late – and then she started saying that we were better than everypony else. At first I disagreed, but she put up such a good argument that eventually I started to believe it… I was only ten, what did I know better?

“A little while after that, she started calling other fillies and colts names and encouraging me to join in. She said that we were putting them in their place, that it was just something that the better foals did to the others – and I wanted so badly to be special, to be one of the ‘better’ ponies, that I just went along with it. By the time I came to my senses, it was too late to just walk out – if I even mentioned letting the others be, Silver would threaten me; call me a coward; accuse me of being a ‘common-lover’ – anything she felt like saying.

“I gave up after that, just doing what I was told like a good little filly and trying not to make her mad. I wanted to tell my dad about it, but he seemed so proud that I was ‘getting on so well’ with Silver, and by that point dad’s business wouldn’t survive without Silver’s family supplying us jewellery, so I kept it to myself. I didn’t want to disappoint him, or ruin his work with Silver’s father, so I took the coward’s way out and did nothing at all.”

A full silence had fallen at some point, Diamond only noticed its presence when she took her mind off of talking to examine the crowd of her classmates which currently stared up at her with cloudy expressions. Taking courage from their continued lack of interruption, she continued with her recount.

“From that point, things just carried on the way they had been going. Silver got more and more manipulative and threatening, and I got dragged along into her schemes further and further. I couldn’t go one day without having to please her by calling one of you names, or stealing somepony’s lunch money; and it only got worse as time went on… 

“I wish, more than anything, that I had just stopped it all before it even got started… if I had the option to go and change anything in my life, it would be the day I met her. Things would never have gotten to where they are if I had just walked away... But I didn’t, so here I am.

“Anyway, by this time last year it had gotten to the point where if I tried to go easy on you, she’d threaten to hurt me or make up some lie to her parents to mess up daddy’s work. I disobeyed her once, you know…  that time I came into school with a black eye and a limp? Yeah, that was Silver’s work. She said she’d hit me until I couldn’t get up again… and that’s what she did – or tried to, at least.”

Unconsciously, she rubbed the foreleg which had taken the brunt of Silver’s vengeance and looked down at her hooves, trying to force back the tears gathering in her eyes.

“I know you all got the worst of it, but my life wasn’t much fun either back then. Ordeals like what she put me through aren’t easy to cope with, and I got unhappier and unhappier as time went on. After a while, even though she terrified me, I started getting angry about what she was making me do – really angry – and I wanted to make it stop. And last summer, I tried to do just that.

“I don’t need to tell you that it didn’t go to plan, but nopony besides the few I’ve told knows exactly what happened. Long story short, I went to Silver’s place to tell her that I wasn’t going to take it anymore... and she laughed in my face... Then she got mad; she just yelled and yelled and yelled at me until I couldn’t speak and then she…” 

Diamond stifled a sob. “She- she said that if I didn’t do what she told me to; if I even put one hoof out of line; if I made one simple mistake; she’d go to her parents and make sure that they finished up business with my father once and for all. What sort of choice is that? Keep hurting you, or ruin daddy’s life… what was I supposed to do?!”

The tears came freely now, and she no longer cared enough to stop them, sobbing in between mournful repetitions of “what was I supposed to do?!” as she collapsed heavily onto her rump and took her head in her hooves. 

Cheerilee trotted over to her, face painted bright with concern, and helped the filly to her hooves, escorting her off to the side of the stage where Dinky welcomed her with a comforting hug. The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked amongst themselves in indecision, before an assertive intervention from Scootaloo steeled the group to their purpose and they trotted up to the abandoned podium.

Scootaloo, being the one whose idea it had been to take over the role of speaking after Diamond left, naturally ended up speaking first.

“I think Diamond got to the main point of her story; you can all imagine what it would’ve been like for her after that and you know for sure what the results were. And I don’t think anypony here’s been living under a big enough rock not to hear about what she did on Monday – which, for the record, was a magnificent punch – so I’ll skip all that nonsense and get to the point of why we Crusaders are here… and no, it’s not to get a cutie mark in public speaking.

“The point is, we three got the worst of Silver and Diamond’s bullying, but we’ve forgiven her as much as we can manage. We listened in when she told Cheerilee all this on Monday, and no filly’s a good enough actor to fake what we heard her say. She’s a good filly at heart – though, granted, she’s done some horrible things in her life – and if we’ve forgiven her, why can’t you give her a chance. You don’t need to like her, you just need to let her show you how much she’s changed… Apple Bloom, you want to say something?”

“What do you think, asshole” Apple Bloom muttered ill-temperedly, before nevertheless stepping up to the microphone and saying her piece: 

“Now, I think I’m like a lot of y’all – Diamond did some nasty things to me, no matter how good her reasons are, and I didn’t really want to forgive her. I still don’t like the filly, but I’ve made peace with her and what she did, and I think y’all should try to do that, too. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Sweetie Belle was the last of the trio to step up to the podium, and she glanced around nervously before speaking, the large crowd taking her a little by surprise. 

“In the end of the day, you have to remember Diamond’s just a foal like the rest of us. We all do things we regret, it just so happened that she couldn’t fix her mistakes as easily as we can fix most of ours: she got dragged into Silver’s schemes, and that vicious little monster of a filly wouldn’t let her go. She did some bad things for some good reasons, but all that’s over now. It’s a new story from now on, and I for one would rather this one had less fighting in it… that’s all I’ve got to say.”

Cheerilee had been watching all of this and congratulated the fillies quietly as they returned to their seats before turning to Dinky and signalling it was her turn to go up there. To the teacher’s moderate surprise, Diamond Tiara accompanied the small unicorn to the podium, at whose enthusiastic wave the third member of their newly-formed friendship circle fluttered up onto the stage from the audience. 

“A lot of what I could say has already been said better than I ever could by those three,” Dinky began; capturing the crowd’s attention with her cheerful demeanour despite her slightly lacklustre opening line. 

“But the main difference between the Crusaders and us is that they aren’t Diamond’s friends… but we are, and proud of it, too. She apologised to me on Tuesday, and I forgave her there and then – all she’d done to me was take my lunch money… and even though she was sneaky about it, I saw her when she put it back a few months later. I suppose I’ve had an easier time from her than most of you, but my point is that she’s nothing like the filly I thought she was.”

Auburn, who’d been standing to one side and comforting Diamond with her soft-feathered wing, took this opportunity to add her own ideas to Dinky’s monologue.

“The real Diamond Tiara – the one who was hidden from us by Silver Spoon until this week – is a fantastic filly. She’s kind, modest, never too quick to judge and she can be really smart when she wants to be. It’s clear as day that she’s doing her best to make up for what she’s done, and as far as I’m concerned she’s doing an absolutely stellar job of it. Please, give her a chance and I promise you won’t regret it.”

Their pieces said, the fillies stepped back to allow Diamond access to the podium she’d fled from minutes earlier. Her eyes shone with pride rather than tears now, and she managed to smile down at the collected fillies and colts.

“I think we’ve said all we can, and I’m really grateful to you all for listening to it all. Even if we can’t all be friends, the fact that you’ve paid attention through all this makes me feel a little better about my chances of making things right with you all. I just want to say, one last time: I’m sorry; for everything… I’m so, so sorry.”

With that, she left the stage: Dinky on one side and Auburn on the other, heading for her next lesson buoyed by the satisfaction of a job well done. No matter what happened now, she’d done the best she could – with a little help from her friends, of course – and what might come next was momentarilyirrelevant.

She’d done it! 'It' wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t the end of the hurt she’d caused and received, but it was a beginning of something new, and that’s all she really wanted right now.



*****


> Familiarisation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond went to her next lesson much happier for having gotten her side of things across to her classmates. Already, she could see that the way they looked at her had changed considerably: gone was the unthinking hatred, replaced by its lesser cousin, caution and a sort of grudging respect.

The next lesson on Diamond’s timetable was Science, a subject she looked forward to most days, and doubly so today: it would be a practical experiment, and likely to be less demanding on her shaky understanding of the theory – damn Silver Spoon to Tartarus for distracting her for so long – than other lessons.

Her upbeat mood remained throughout the beginning of the lesson, but, as with all good things, it was cut cruelly short when she ended up partnered with Rumble and her teacher moved out of earshot before she could voice her objections. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to work with him, it was that he had made it very clear in their last conversation that he wanted nothing to do with her. 

Still, she would achieve nothing just standing there silently: “Hello, Rumble,” she said, cautiously.

“…Hi, Diamond. I guess we’re partners, then?”

“Looks that way, yeah. You want to fetch the burner, or shall I?”

Looking thankful for an escape from the rapidly mounting awkwardness, Rumble gave a hurried “-I’ll get it-“ and trotted away hurriedly. Shrugging, Diamond pushed his odd behaviour to the back of her mind and set about finding the other items they’d need for the experiment.

Rumble returned from his trip and immediately threw himself into the process of setting up the apparatus, making a point of not looking at Diamond throughout his work: an action she mirrored by likewise pretending her partner did not exist. 

This went on for the majority of the experiment, until Rumble broke the awkward silence by calling Diamond’s name; a reluctant edge to his voice.

“Uh… Diamond?”

“What?” she asked flatly: there was very little about the experiment which would require an explanation – and given Rumble’s dislike of her, he’d be more likely to ask their teacher – so this was probably something unrelated; and very likely related to her speech at the assembly. 

He flinched back a little at her abrupt response, and she frowned at the colt. Perhaps he wasn’t here to criticise her after all, in which case her actions thus far would be far from encouraging. Forcing a more pleasant voice into her mouth, she tried again.

“What is it, Rumble?”

Some of the caution in his expression melted away, and Diamond smiled internally – it seemed likely he wasn’t out to insult her, given this response. 

“I-I… I’m… well, I’m sorry. For before. I should’ve listened to you, but I just walked off… so, I’m sorry.”

She frowned at him again. “Not that I don’t appreciate it, Rumble, but why the sudden change of heart?”

“My brother, Thunderlane… he had a friend  about a year ago. I wanted Thunder to play with me again, so I tried making friends with his friends so that we could all hang out…”

He trailed off: Diamond, confused, pressed him for more details. 

“And… what happened?”

Rumble gulped, but went on regardless: “One of Thunder’s friends seemed nice, and he pretended that he liked me. But after a while, he stopped bothering and just threatened me to do what he wanted: it… well, it was like with you and Silver Spoon… Only I got out of it after a few months, and I only had to steal little things: you had to bully us all for three years to keep Silver off your back.”

Diamond had begun to connect the dots when he’d begun his piece, and with a sinking stomach she realised she had been right. “You know how hard it was for me because you had to live it. Nice to know somepony else understands what it’s like… shame you had to deal with that shit too, though.”

“Thanks for not laughing,” Rumble said, still shuffling on the spot somewhat awkwardly, “You’re alright, Diamond… I really am sorry about what I said.”

“It’s OK. If you want we can forget about what we said to each other and start fresh… sound like a good bargain?”

The colt spat onto his hoof and held it out to Diamond – “Deal,” he said, though a second after he had done so, it occurred to him that she might not appreciate the gesture and he began retracting his hoof. 

Smirking, Diamond spat on her own hoof and gripped his firmly, shaking it without squeamishness and shooting him a grin as she agreed: “Deal.”

They returned to their work in silence, but this one was amicable and comfortable, rather than the hostile, tense and awkward one they’d endured previously. Diamond’s good mood returned with the rushing sense of achievement, and she walked out of the lesson with a considerable bounce in her step which remained for much of the day.



*



Dinky and Auburn met Diamond in what was quickly becoming their regular meeting place – the Equish corridor – and the sight of her two friends brought a grin to the filly’s face.

“Hi!” Dinky chirped as Diamond approached; Auburn waiting until her friend was closer before greeting her in her typical quiet and meaningful manner. 

“Hey, Diamond. You were great earlier; I think you really made them understand what you were going through: a lot of the foals in my class were talking about you, and nicely for once.”

Diamond blushed modestly. “Really, it was you two and the Crusaders who made all that happen… I couldn’t even finish explaining without crying my eyes out like a baby.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Di’, you kicked flank up there and you know it!” 

Dinky’s response, over the top as it was, made Diamond feel a little better about her own part in the proceedings – its success was something she was happy with, but she honestly felt her contributions would have fallen flat if not for the others. 

As the trio headed for the exit, Auburn added pensively: “Honestly, I think you crying did more good than if you’d managed to say it all. For one, it proved that you weren’t just making up some old wives’ tale; and I also think it made a lot of the foals who’d been seeing you as nothing more than a bully realise that you’re a filly with feelings: just like them.”

“When you put it like that, I sound like I did something impressive. All I did was have a breakdown in front of the school.”

Auburn’s wing wrapped momentarily around Diamond’s shoulder, and the pegasus leaned in, speaking softly but seriously in her ear: 

“Dinky’s right – you shouldn’t sell yourself short. You’re a great filly, Diamond; don’t you ever forget that.”

She removed her wing and returned to her previous distance from Diamond, but her words lingered in Diamond’s mind. She thought she might be close to understanding Auburn’s sometimes contradictory mannerisms – her reserved way of speaking but strange enthusiasm for physical contact, for instance – and she mulled this last statement over in her mind. 

The picture she was getting of her friend was that the taciturn pegasus didn’t like to say much besides what she considered important, somewhat similar to Apple Bloom’s elder brother in that regard. With Auburn, every expression of the filly’s thoughts and opinions was given the amount of emphasis she deemed appropriate: minor thoughts were kept to the confines of her mind; more important ideas were spoken concisely so as not to waste anypony’s time; and her most meaningful comments required the extra weight an accompanying physical action could bring.

What had been a slightly confusing quirk of her friend’s personality was now comprehendible to Diamond; and she smiled in satisfaction at her deeper understanding, wondering for a moment whether Auburn, too, thought about what made she and Dinky tick. Given her thoughtful nature, it certainly seemed likely – perhaps Diamond would have to ask her about it at some point. 

With this thought occupying her mind, Diamond continued steadily towards Ponyville and home.



*



“Adventuring again?” – Filthy Rich had guessed that his daughter would be wanting to spend the afternoon with her new friends, and sure enough, she nodded eagerly. 

“Yep: we’re going to Dinky’s house today – you know where she lives, don’t you?”

“Indeed I do… I actually needed to go across anyway: I’ve got a package for Ditzy to deliver, so I’ll give her that when I pick you up this evening.”

“Thanks, Dad!” 

Rich grinned at his daughter as she turned joyfully to her friends and trotted away with a spring in her step. “Have fun, and I’ll see you later!” he called, and she waved back at him, smiling to match his own, before returning her attention once more to her friends. 



*



Led by an increasingly enthusiastic Dinky, Diamond and Auburn arrived outside a modest Ponyville cottage after less than five minutes’ walk. Their friend knocked on the door with her customary vigour and moments later the door flew open and a grey blur dashed from inside to pull Dinky into a loving hug: Diamond watched on uncertainly, while Auburn merely smiled knowingly.

The larger grey figure extricated itself from the smaller one and turned to the fillies with a full, welcoming smile on its face. 

“Hello again, Auburn!” said Ditzy ‘Derpy Hooves’ Doo, with the same infectious happiness her daughter possessed. Her eyes widened momentarily as she spotted the third member of the party, before returning to their previous joyful expression. “Oh, and Diamond’s here too? - I’d been wondering when I’d meet her.”

“Hello, Ms Doo,” replied Diamond, trying her best to make a good impression. 

“Nice to finally meet you, Dinky’s been telling me all about you this week. You can call me Ditzy or Derpy – whichever you prefer – all my friends do, and any friend of my Dinky is a friend of mine!”

“Okay, Ditzy. It’s nice to meet you in person, too – oh, and before I forget: Daddy will be round to pick me up later, he has a package for you to deliver, too.”

Ditzy Doo straightened up in surprise at this last part: she barely ever lost her packages, but the one time she had done so – combined with her clumsy nature – had left a black mark on her reputation. Ponies tended to have her deliver their mail as a last resort, but she knew that several of her co-workers had more than enough time in their schedules, rendering that theory null and void. 

Perhaps it was only because Diamond was there, making it convenient for Filthy Rich to have her take it; but maybe – just maybe – it was because somepony had realised that she was actually quite good at her job, thank you very much, and more than up to the task of delivering post. She held onto that thought: it made her happy, no matter the huge likelihood that it was not true.

“Thanks for telling me that, Diamond,” she said as she led the trio into the house; her darling Dinky shutting the door behind them all. She advanced into the cosy interior of her home, her three companions following her to the worn wooden table filling the living room and taking the seats she offered them.

She trotted off into the small kitchen to make some tea for herself and Auburn, who was quite partial to the drink despite her youth. The pegasus, whom Dinky had unexpectedly brought back to the house one afternoon after school, was certainly an unusual young mare, not that Ditzy minded that. Losing herself in her thoughts, Ditzy filled the kettle and set it down, pressing the magical primer to get it going on automatic – and without so much as a stumble.

Whilst initially taken by surprise by the unannounced guest, Ditzy had quickly warmed up to the filly:  especially when she learned that she was new to town and finding it difficult to fit in. Whilst Auburn’s above-average height raised some red flags for Ditzy, she had relaxed when she discovered that she was in fact two months younger than Dinky, her size merely due to her having run into an unusually large growth spurt earlier in the year. 

On every other day, Auburn would come round with Dinky and the pair would complete their homework, before entertaining themselves via other means. Auburn provided an interesting counter to Dinky’s energetic spirit, being reserved and considerate in her actions in a way which recalled to mind much older ponies than her own thirteen years. 

She was especially interesting to Ditzy because foals far more alike Dinky had been driven off by the filly’s exuberant behaviour within days, yet the pegasus stuck around loyally without so much as a complaint. Ditzy was glad for this; Auburn’s continued support had done Dinky a lot of good: having a dependable friend had meant that the energetic little unicorn no longer felt quite the need to get the other foals’ attention –  a change which everypony in town could get behind. 

Perhaps Dinky would be even more satisfied in her little world now that Diamond Tiara had joined her slowly growing circle of friends, but only time would give that answer. 

Putting her musings aside for a moment, Ditzy poured the freshly boiled water out of its battered but nonetheless functional enchanted kettle into her considerably newer teapot – a gift from Rarity in return for Ditzy’s tireless work to deliver her friend’s dresses intact and in-time. Putting the lid back on the pot cautiously, Ditzy sat down in her favourite chair and watched her daughter and her friends do their homework whilst she waited for the tea to brew.  

Dinky seemed happy – not the fake-happy she put on to hide her fears from most ponies , but the unmistakeably joyful true emotion – and so did her friends; the three of them laughing over something, evidently having finished their work and slipped into play mode. 

Diamond’s laugh ended a little shorter than the other two, and her smile – though equally genuine while it had lasted – dropped prematurely from her face. Looking closer, Ditzy could see a deep sadness in her eyes which had momentarily been banished by the shared joy of friendship but now returned to clutch her heart in its icy grip once more. A state of being Ditzy knew well, and had spent a great many days and a lot of effort to escape from: Dinky; the joy of her life; had helped her immeasurably, and Ditzy hoped that she would be able to help Diamond, too. 

It’s all too easy to ask what one pony can ever hope to do, but the thing to remember – in Ditzy’s experience, at least – was that the smallest things can often have the greatest impact. 

Guessing that the tea had probably brewed sufficiently by now, Ditzy pulled her gaze away from the happy trio and set about making she and Auburn’s drinks. Since, like her, Auburn had her tea with milk but no sugar, this did not take long: Ditzy placed the drinks on a tray she kept around for this purpose, along with two glasses of lemonade for Dinky and Diamond, and carried them over on her wing. 

Painstakingly setting the tray down with aid from her daughter, Ditzy offered the drinks to their intended recipients and took a seat at the table herself. 

“So, everypony-“ she began amicably, “-how were your days?”

“Great!” chirped Dinky, Auburn and Diamond adding their affirmatives, the former with a knowing smile on her face. 

Diamond took over for the main explanation, prompted by Dinky’s expectant gaze and a gentle prod of Auburn’s wing. “I went up in assembly to tell everypony why I did what I did… I didn’t finish telling the story but Dinky, Auburn and the Cutie Mark Crusaders carried it on for me and it’s already helped a lot. I’ve even managed to make up with Rumble, and he hated me before today.”

“You know-“ Ditzy began, cautiously, “- I never did find out the whole of what happened with you and Silver Spoon. If I’m not overstepping my bounds here, would you mind telling me?”

Diamond considered; humming to herself in concentration, a frown on her face. Ditzy, mistaking this as an expression of disapproval, moved quickly to retract her request.

“You don’t have to tell me: I know you’re probably tired of saying the same things over and over. I’m sorry I asked.”

“It’s alright, Ditzy-“ Diamond placated,  “-I don’t mind telling it one last time: I’m pretty sure anypony else who’s curious will find out through the other foals before too long.”

Auburn leaned forwards to enter the discussion, tapping Diamond lightly on the shoulder to get her attention. 

“If you want, Dinky and I could tell some of the story: we know it as well as anypony by now, and you could use a break from all this.”

Dinky chipped in with an enthusiastic “Yeah!” of approval, and the matter was settled: Diamond settled herself into a more comfortable position on her chair and began.



*



Hours later, after the umpteenth – and hopefully final – recounting of the story, there came a knock at the door and Ditzy opened it to find Filthy Rich standing on her doorstep. She hastened to invite him in, and he looked around him in interest as he entered the cosy world of comforting warmth that was Ditzy Doo’s home.

Diamond, accompanied by her friends, came out of the living room and into the hallway to greet him; he drew her into a loving hug – though not one so long or enthusiastic as to embarrass her unduly – and enquired about her afternoon.

“It’s been great! –“ she began, looking contented, “- We’ve done all our homework, so our weekend should be all free, and we had some really interesting conversations with Dinky’s mum – I never realised Pegasus magic was so complicated!”

He laughed heartily, and she continued, still smiling but with a nervous edge to it: he assumed she was about to ask him something, or admit to some minor misdemeanour. He was right:

“Daddy-“ she began, cautiously, “-I was wondering if Dinky and Auburn could come round to our house tomorrow. I’ve been to both their houses, so I thought it was only fair they should get to play round ours. We’ll have to ask Auburn’s parents if she can come, but we were talking to Dinky’s mum and she says it’s okay.”

“So long as Auburn’s parents say she can come along, I don’t see why not. Say, Diamond, why don’t you spend a few more minutes talking to your friends while I talk this package over with Ditzy?”

“Okay, Dad!” She beamed at him, before scampering off with her friends happily.



*



The trio sat back down around their table, packing up their homework and pens whilst they talked.

“Diamond?” asked Auburn, through a mouthful of paper.

“Yeah?” Diamond answered, clasping her bag shut in readiness to leave.

“I was wondering if you’d like to take your Legends figures home with you; decorate them and stuff. I mean, no one really plays as the Changelings, so you might as well keep them – we’ve got plenty of other alternative factions besides the three we brought out yesterday.”

“You’d really let me keep them?” Diamond said, incredulous and more than a little joyful at the prospect of having her very own figures.

“Of course – like I said, it’s not like we don’t have more; and they really do seem to be your kind of thing. You certainly kicked my flank last time!”

“Thank you so much, Auburn!-“ Diamond gushed, stopping abruptly as an idea struck her, “-Hey, maybe we could go fetch them now, and ask your parents if you can come round tomorrow at the same time?”

Auburn nodded enthusiastically in response: “That’s a good idea, Diamond: I was going to have to walk back soon, anyway.”

It was only after they expended that topic of conversation that the pair realised that Dinky hadn’t spoken a word throughout, and they turned to her with looks of concern which only grew in severity as they laid eyes on the unicorn’s grinning face. 

Something inside Dinky seemed to give way, and she gushed happily: 

“Look at you, Diamond: already a fully-fledged friend – my stars, how far you’ve come from the miserable loner we made friends with the other day.”

She said all this with a merry enthusiasm and seemingly-genuine pride that prevented either Diamond or Auburn deciphering the meaning behind it. Much as Twilight Sparkle had been forced to do with Pinkie Pie’s infamous ‘sense’, the pair brushed the statement aside as just Dinky being Dinky and tried to continue with their sanity intact.

Diamond could only give an awkward, confused response to this. 

“Thank you for that… uh… whatever it was, Dinky.”



*



“So, Mr Rich, you said you had a package for me to deliver?” Ditzy asked, trying to quell the hopes that she had been chosen on her own merit for once, so that the inevitable truth did not drop them as far. The businesspony smiled warmly at her, nodding affirmative as he began to speak in a reassuring, gravelly voice.

“Indeed I have, Ms Doo: it’s for a friend of mine in Canterlot – it’s not that urgent, but I would like it delivered before the end of the month. I apologise if I’m interrupting any free time you might’ve had planned, but it should only take a day of your time and I didn’t much feel like hiring any of the couriers at the office today… Oh, and please, call me Rich.”

Ditzy couldn’t help a smile of her own: it had been a long time since somepony had gone about the process of enlisting her help without an air of unhappiness about it.

“Okay, Rich – you can call me Ditzy or Derpy, whichever you prefer… Anyway, you shouldn’t worry about inconveniencing me: I didn’t have anything planned and it’s nice to get a good delivery job every once in a while. I have to ask, though – why me?”

“Because, Ditzy, you have something they don’t. Now, I understand your reputation isn’t as good as the others, but I’m sure they’ve all lost packages at some point and they don’t have to deal with that hanging over their heads. A lot of them are getting complacent – lazy, even – but you… you give your all in whatever job you’re given, and that’s a rare and precious trait these days.”

Taken a little by surprise, Ditzy spluttered out a few unintelligible half-sentences before managing to string together a reply. 

“I-I… Thank you, Rich. That means a lot to me.”

“No problem,” he said, turning away momentarily to call his daughter over. “Thank you for looking after Diamond this afternoon, by the way.” 

Reaching into his overcoat, he pulled out a small, clinking bag and hoofed it over to Ditzy whilst Diamond approached, friends in tow. 

“I trust this will cover the delivery,” he said, before stepping out into the cool evening air. Ditzy didn’t answer for a moment, discovering that the contents of the bag was more than enough pay to cover three or four such jobs.

“Wait-“ she called, weakly, “-I can’t take all of this money – it’s only a delivery to Canterlot… “

He was already out of earshot by the time she said this, and even if he had heard her, he would not have reduced the payment. Ditzy, left with no choice but to accept the large payment, found a grin slowly forming on her face, along with a sudden urge to jig.



*



“Hello...?” came the cautious call from behind Auburn’s front door. A tall, thin pegasus stallion stuck his head in the gap and, after taking a moment to look around at the visitors, grinned at the sight of his daughter and her friend. He stepped back to open the door, before greeting the group warmly and earnestly one by one.

“Welcome back, Auburn – good to see you haven’t gotten into too much mischief while you were out”

“Hey, Dad! ...I guess the commission’s done, then; if you’ve emerged once more to live amongst us mortal folk.”

Some parents would be offended by this sort of smart-alec comment, but Auburn’s father merely laughed – Filthy suspected that he was the one who’d given her such a twisted sense of humour in the first place. 

Diamond let out a chuckle of her own, suddenly reminded of Copperwing’s similarly snarky comments the previous day. Still smiling, Auburn’s father turned to her in greeting.

“Hello again to you, too, Diamond. I don’t think I introduced myself yesterday – my name is Brass Twister, Auburn’s father.“ He looked over to Filthy Rich as he said this, and directed the rest of his comments to the stallion.

“-And you must be Diamond’s father… Filthy Rich, isn’t it? Nice to meet you at last –  on a side note, I heard you will no longer be selling Argentum silverware? If so, then perhaps some of my less famous  – but no less well crafted – metalwork might be of interest to you?”

Rich considered his offer. “I’ll have to have a look around your wares before I can say for certain – it's late now, so another time perhaps? That said, it would certainly fill a gap in my own stock... By the way: Diamond and Auburn have been thinking about having a playdate of sorts round our house tomorrow; I was wondering if you would be alright with your daughter coming over for a few hours?”

Brass Twister looked satisfied by this response and he smiled amiably as he replied.

“Very good – I hear from Auburn you already have my business card? As for the other thing, I have no issue with Auburn going on such a playdate, but I shall have to convene with the Mrs – retired from the Guard or not, she’s still the commanding officer around here...”

Rich gave a sympathetic chuckle at the other stallion’s closing statement and waited for him to re-emerge from the unconventionally built house, gazing up for a few moments to admire its rooftop garden. Whilst his attention was elsewhere, Auburn led Diamond into the house to fetch the changeling figures. 

When, after a minute or so, he returned his gaze to where they had been standing, he found only empty air and confusion. 



*



On their way back out of the house, having retrieved the small green box from the ling room, Diamond and Auburn ran into Copperwing. 

“Hi, Diamond – I wasn’t expecting to see you this evening.”

“She’s here to collect the changeling figures,” Auburn explained, and Copperwing nodded in understanding.

“Not staying, then? A shame, I’d quite like to get to know you a little more.”

Diamond smiled up at her – she felt a little guilty for forgetting about Copperwing, but she thought she knew a way to make it up to her.

“Actually, you might still have a chance at that: Auburn and Dinky were going to play round mine tomorrow, want to come too? We’ll have to ask our parents about it, of course, but if Auburn’s coming I don’t see why you shouldn’t.”

Copperwing grinned gratefully in response. “Thanks, Diamond… Let’s go find them, shall we?”

Auburn led the way back out of the house, clutching the green box under her wing, whilst Diamond and Copperwing followed side by side, chatting away happily.

“There you are!” exclaimed Rich as the trio emerged. “Honestly, I look away for one second and you go disappearing on me… and then you bring back friends!” 

He couldn’t keep up the angry façade, and his tone of mock-admonishment crumbled under the force of his rumbling laugh. After a moment, Burnished Gilding and Brass Twister emerged from the house, smiling.

“Auburn can come, and either Brass or I will go pick her up… does four p.m. sound reasonable? We could drop her off at around eleven, if that’s not too early for you.”

“Great, that’ll do nicely… oh, what is it, Diamond?”

His daughter had been giving him her well-practiced ‘I need to talk to you but it wouldn’t be polite to interrupt’ stare for the past thirty seconds or so, and he thought he had better respond to it before it became her ‘don’t you dare ignore me’ glare. 

“Could Copperwing come, too?-“ she gestured to the taller pegasus filly beside her, with her long mane obscuring one eye and an endearingly nervous smile on her face, “- I know she’s a year older than me, but she’s still my friend.”

“That’s really up to her parents, darling... What do you say? I wouldn’t mind looking after one more, if she wants to come.”

Gilding and Twister looked at each other, and Gilding once again gave the answer. “If you don’t mind an extra little monster, we’ve got no problem with her tagging along.”

“Well, I suppose that settles things... Come along Diamond, you’ll have plenty of time to chat with your friends in the morning.“ 
He waved at Auburn’s family as his daughter trotted up to him, carrying a green box, calling back as she reached him: ”Goodbye!”

As she and her father trotted off home, Diamond grinned to herself: tomorrow was going to be fun.



*****






 




> Divertissement (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond woke up late, having forgotten to set her alarm clock the previous evening, and practically fell out of bed in her haste to get ready. The only reason she was awake at all was down to her father, whose hard knocks on her door had shocked her into this sudden movement. 

She didn’t need to look at the clock to know that she was late; her room was much too bright: the light entering it was nearer to the intensity of the midday sun than the muted early-morning glow she was used to. 

Against her better judgement, she looked at her clock and was jolted yet further awake by what she saw upon its battered time-worn face: half past ten. Her friends would be arriving in thirty minutes – less than that, now – and she had only just gotten out of bed.

Panic turbocharging her every movement, Diamond scampered across her bedroom’s lushly carpeted floor and yanked the door open wide. Running downstairs as fast as her hooves could safely carry her, she hurriedly made her way to the kitchen; dashing past her father’s chef in wordless dismissal of his offered services on a flight path for the cupboards.

Bowl. Spoon. Cereal. Milk. Diamond placed the gathered items precariously balanced on her back and skittered across the tiles back to the dining table, immediately setting to work on preparing her breakfast for immediate, swift and efficient consumption. 

Her father, coming downstairs at a far more relaxed pace, scolded her on her incredibly unladylike table manners and reminded her of the existence of indigestion. She ignored his first point, and whilst she supposed his second point was valid, that particular detail would be future Diamond’s problem.

As soon as the bowl was empty of cereal, she shot off upstairs to the bathroom to make herself ready. The clock she passed on the way up read ten-fifty-three: it would be a tight squeeze, but she might just-

Knock… Knock… Knock… “Crap!”

That piece of wishful thinking abandoned, she carried on into the bathroom in the faint hope that she’d be somewhat presentable by the time her father let her friends in. No such luck: as she raised her toothbrush to her teeth, the unmistakeable, exuberant chirping of Dinky echoed its way upstairs and Diamond sighed in resignation. 

Hoping that if she ignored her, the filly would not find her so quickly, she commenced brushing her teeth: to her surprise she actually finished brushing and was able to comb her mane into something somewhat presentable by the time Dinky actually caught up with her. 

The reason for this serendipitous reprieve was evident the moment Diamond turned to face Dinky: standing outside patiently, rolling her eyes at the unicorn filly’s disregard for personal space, was Auburn. 

“Hey, Diamond!” cheered Dinky, either unaware of or unconcerned by the fact that Diamond had been awake less than half an hour. Sighing in regret at the sorry state of her usually perfectly-styled mane, Diamond nonetheless greeted her with a genuine smile.

“Morning, Dinky…” Diamond said, before turning to her other guest, “Hello, Auburn.”  

“Hey, Diamond-“ the taciturn pegasus answered, looking curiously at her face, “-You not been up long?” 

“Not even half an hour… I forgot to set my alarm” Diamond grinned sheepishly.

Auburn winced appreciatively; “Ouch – So that’s why you looked overwhelmed when Dinky came in – I wouldn’t want to deal with her that early in my day, either. Way too much excitement, way too early.”

“I am still here, you know,” Dinky pointed out, feigning hurt but grinning smugly in such a way as to sabotage the whole effort. She moved backwards out of the bathroom to allow Diamond to leave her impromptu prison, and together the trio made their way downstairs to the ground floor. 

Noticing Diamond’s confused gaze as the filly surveyed the room below, Auburn answered her unspoken question.

“Copper had to go back for something – she’ll be along in a minute.” After a moment, she added: “Whilst we’re waiting for her, what’s the plan for today?”

“Uh…” Diamond began, not having thought that far ahead the last night and being too groggy to think this morning. Luckily – or unluckily, depending on whose luck you’re asking about – Dinky had an idea, which she suggested with a cheerfulness and vigour that made it nigh-impossible to refuse.

“I know! Why don’t you give us a tour of your house?”

The level of exuberance contained within that simple question was too much for the barely-conscious Diamond Tiara, and she sighed in grim acceptance of her fate as she answered. 

“Alright, Dinky. I’ll show you all around... I didn’t get my mark for being a tour guide, though, so don’t get your hopes up too high.”   

She had hoped that this would put a temporary end to Dinky’s cheerful ramblings, but it merely seemed to excite the filly further; a development which made Diamond want more than ever to simply return to her bed and the blissful silence of sleep. Fortunately, Copperwing arrived at the door before Diamond could completely lose her mind, carrying a set of paints under each wing and clutching a packet of paintbrushes in her teeth. She set these down on top of the shelves in the short hallway and hurried to meet the others.  

“Sorry I’m late; I thought you might want to borrow my paints to decorate your figures, so I went back for them.”

Diamond smiled gratefully at her explanation, and the apologetic expression fell off of Copperwing’s face as the earth filly replied:

“Thanks, Copperwing – I don’t actually have any paints, so that’s going to make personalising the figurines a whole lot easier.” 

Gesturing to the room behind her, Diamond added: “Oh, by the way, Dinky’s managed to con me into giving you all a tour of my house - interested?”

“Sure,” nodded Copperwing, and Diamond turned away to begin the tour.



*



“This-“ Diamond began, waving a hoof half-heartedly at the room beyond the short entrance hallway, “-is the dining room. We eat all our meals in here, and through that door over there is the kitchen, where our cook works.”

It was a large, spacious room, wallpapered in delicate pink with gold detailing and at night would be well lit by the twin crystal chandeliers which hung from its ceiling. A large polished oak table dominated the room’s centre, surrounded by a multitude of masterfully crafted wooden chairs, whilst a set of wide, softly carpeted stairs rose up on the left to provide the other main feature in the otherwise rather sparse room. 

Her three companions looked around the room, faces full of many different emotions as they surveyed their surroundings. Dinky’s mouth hung open in an absurdly cartoonlike ‘o’, somewhat astonished by the sights now that she had actually taken a moment to look at them, rather than rush past on an intercept course as she had done earlier.

Auburn looked thoughtful as she slowly ran her gaze over the sights presented to her, humming her appreciation of the tastefully restrained décor. Whilst it certainly wasn’t wanting for luxurious features, it didn’t flaunt them like you’d expect in a rich family’s home, and instead let the room’s contents speak for themselves: she had to admit the approach worked really well. 

Copperwing, on the other hand, was feeling around herself with her sensitive wingtips as she stared up at the chandeliers, attempting to discern their maker from their exquisite features. She’d always had a thing for the Crystal Empire – first fuelled by the tales of its banishment by Sombra and its prophesised reappearance; and in the last few years by the returned kingdom’s unique culture – and this was most definitely a fine piece of Crystal Empire craftwork. 

As Diamond led them further into the room, a series of paintings along the far wall became more visible, as did the small selection of framed photographs sitting on the top of an old, expensive looking grand piano: these new sights drew their attention away from the rest of the room, even Copperwing took her eyes of the chandeliers for a moment. 

Some of the pieces were clearly there just because they were nice to look at, but a small number of gold-framed paintings depicted similarly brown-and-black-coloured ponies to Filthy Rich: the three visitors assumed they were relatives of his, some of them clearly from centuries prior judging by their clothing and the darkening of the paints.

One portrait, however, did not fit this trend. A plump, magenta-maned mare grinned out from the canvas, her pink coat crinkling with joy around her soft turquoise eyes. Not one of these colours matched Filthy Rich’s own, but the mare’s mane was only a few shades darker than Diamond’s; her eye colour was a darker, greener variety of the filly’s own, and her coat, whilst not as pale as Diamond's, was similarly pink in hue.

Auburn, respecting Diamond’s privacy, refrained from prying for information – not that she really needed to be told to know who this mare was – but Dinky’s mouth, racing as ever several minutes ahead of her ability to think rationally, opened... and out tumbled the question. 

“Who’s that in the painting?” asked Dinky, clapping a hoof over her mouth a moment too late to stop the words’ escape: Copperwing cringed visibly at this, and all eyes fixed to Diamond Tiara in waiting for the answer. Though they'd half-expected her to be angry, the fire did not come: instead, Diamond merely looked sadly at her friends and answered in a small, fragile voice. 

“She was my mother… I hardly remember her; she died a long time ago. ‘Complications in childbirth’ is what the medical records say…” 

She said all this matter-of-factly, albeit with a touch of the sadness often heard in those who’ve been told that an acquaintance no longer roams this world. Diamond sighed, shrugged her shoulders and continued leadenly. 

“It doesn’t really matter what you call it; she’s gone and so is my little brother. It’s hard to miss somepony you never really knew, but... sometimes I wish this house wasn’t so empty, you know?”

Silence greeted this final statement, her friends taken aback by the dark turn the morning had taken, but eventually they gathered their thoughts and, one by one, expressed them. Dinky galloped forward to wrap her forelegs around Diamond’s neck, looking with pleading golden eyes into her friend’s sad blue ones as she repeatedly and sincerely apologised: “I’m so sorry, Diamond; I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Diamond looked her dead in the eye and said, seriously: “It’s fine, Dinky. I barely remember her, and if I hadn’t wanted to tell you, I would’ve just said that it was personal and left it at that... Don’t worry about it – if anything, it helped being able to talk about it for once.”

After Diamond held her gaze firm, Dinky ceased her apologies and disentangled herself from the earth filly, her happy mood slinking its way back into her expression as she did so. Next up was Auburn, who stopped just in front of Diamond to say her typically short piece. 

“It means a lot that you’d tell us about all this, Diamond. If you ever need to talk…” 

With this, she shrugged slightly and pulled Diamond into a tight, reassuring hug, before releasing her and stepping wordlessly to the side, out of Copperwing’s way. 

“Thanks, Auburn,” Diamond replied, sending her a grateful smile before turning to face her third friend with a feeling of nervousness and curiosity. 

She’d known pretty much what to expect from Dinky and Auburn from similar experiences earlier in the week, but Copperwing was unknown territory when it came to more personal conversations. To Diamond’s pleasure, she didn’t go off on some long, apologetic speech about how sorry she was for Diamond’s loss, and simply said: 

“I know we aren’t quite the same as a family, but you’ll always have us; your friends. Any time you need us, we’ll be there.”

It wasn’t as deliberately concise as Auburn’s statement, and was clearly all the filly could think to say, but its earnestness and slight hint of Copper’s rebellious side in the way she almost dared her listeners to disagree gave it extra weight in Diamond’s heart. 

“Thanks, you three,-“ Diamond replied gratefully, “-I don’t know how I’d manage without you… Um, do you still want to do the tour?”

“Another time, maybe,” Copperwing responded, vocalising the trio’s thoughts. Seeing Dinky and Auburn nod in agreement, Diamond grinned before looking thoughtfully out the window.

Turning back to them, she shrugged and asked:

“Park?”



*



Five minutes later, the fillies found themselves amongst the verdant plant life of Ponyville’s park, under a brilliant blue sky and warm, golden sun. It was looking to be a beautiful day, and they were not the only ones to have the idea of visiting: the Cutie Mark Crusaders dashed across the path ahead, cloaks fluttering in their wake as they raced off on some poorly-thought-out mission to find their talents. Trotting through the tree-lined path; dappled shadows from the canopy above running over their small forms as shimmering beams of sunlight shone through the gaps in the leaves; they meandered further into the park without a care in the world.

Eventually, they made their way to the edge of a large pond and stopped to watch the gracefully swimming swans pass by; laying down in the grass at the pond-side, the four fillies relaxed and let the minutes float by. Diamond gazed pensively out over the water; it had been a long time since she’d felt this contented, and longer still since she’d had real friends like these: life, it seemed, was finally good again. 

Her train of thoughts came to an unscheduled stop as a mare’s voice rang out from behind them, the softly spoken greeting rolling easily through the quiet into her ears. 

“Good afternoon, little ones” said the mare as she came to a stop beside Diamond, looking out from the water’s edge. “I see you’ve found my little piece of heaven here – it’s quite the peaceful scene, isn’t it?”

Diamond turned to look at her, following the mare’s mulberry foreleg upwards, craning her neck to meet the soft gaze of the newcomer. 

“Miss Cheerilee!” Diamond exclaimed happily, getting to her hooves to stand beside her teacher. Behind her, Dinky and Auburn likewise rose from the grass, whilst Copperwing looked on in curiosity.

“Hello, Diamond. It’s nice to see you’re still friends with Dinky and Auburn; they’ve done you good: I don’t think I’ve seen you this happy in a long time. So, what brings you four to this particular neck of the woods today?”

Dinky joined the conversation at this point, chirping her response before Diamond could open her mouth to answer Cheerilee. 

“Diamond invited us round her house today, and we thought it would be a good idea to play outside for a while, so we went to the park.”

“We were just seeing what we could find, I suppose, but then we found the pond and decided to stay here for a while. Not much more than that,” Auburn added, unusually talkative. 

Cheerilee smiled down at them, her gaze flicking over to Copperwing, who was hanging back nervously. “Hello there, don’t be shy. I’m Cheerilee; I teach at Auburn’s school… I’m guessing you’re her sister?”

“Yeah, I am… My name’s Copperwing, by the way; nice to meet you.” Emboldened by the exchange, she joined the group proper on Diamond’s left, smiling lightly at her acceptance into the conversation. 

“I'd have let you be, but I just wanted to say how proud I am of you,“ Cheerilee began, a genuine smile growing on her face. “All of you: Diamond, for trying to make things right and being so brave in assembly; and you three for giving her a chance as a friend.” 

When the teacher stopped speaking, the oldest filly of the group mouthed the disbelieving question - ‘me?’ - at her apparent inclusion; which Cheerilee spotted and answered with a warm smile. 

“Yes, even you, Copperwing. I don’t know you personally, but yesterday, Dinky mentioned how you offered your friendship to Diamond despite knowing what she’d done beforehoof: if that doesn’t deserve praise, I don’t know what does.”

“Thank you,” Copperwing said happily, and a comfortable silence fell over the five ponies as they returned their attentions to the breeze-rippled water. After a while, Diamond turned to Cheerilee and asked:

“Do you have the time? I promised Dad we’d be back for lunch.”

Cheerilee checked the small wristwatch affixed to her left foreleg, squinting a little as she read the numbers on its face. 

“Twelve-twenty-five  – I suppose you’d better start heading back, then. It was nice seeing you fillies.”

Taking her advice, the four fillies made their way down the path to the main dirt track running through the park, on a course for home and freshly made lunch.




*



Unfortunately, out of all the ponies visiting the park, the one they happened to run into on their way out had to be the one most sure to pop their freshly-inflated balloons of happiness. 

She was a light, blue-grey coated filly of a similar height to Diamond, with piercing orange eyes and a finely styled mane of silver and indigo, and she was not in a good mood. That is to say: she had been in what appeared to be a good mood, but mustn’t have been; since nothing could possibly sour an expression as fast as hers must’ve if the thing to ruin her day was the arrival of Diamond Tiara. 

With a confrontational glare on her mean little face, she stamped her way up to the happily chatting quartet and promptly stopped dead, forcing them to stop also.

“Diamond Tiara,” she spat, as if the name made her physically sick to keep in her mouth for any longer than was necessary to say it. 

Diamond raised her eyebrows at this greeting, having never seen the filly before in her life, and cautiously answered: 

“Yeah... that’s my name. Who are you, exactly?”

“Argent Gleam, you backstabbing piece of trash.”

“Excuse me?” Auburn asked in Diamond’s stead, incredulous.

“I said: backstabbing piece of trash; mutinous pile of crap; disloyal waste of space; turncoat wretch – it was an insult, you cretin, and I have plenty worse than that if your fillyfriend here won’t stop playing dumb.”

“What in Equestria is your problem?!” exclaimed Diamond, bewildered and quickly growing angry.

“You are - you and what you did to cousin Silver, you traitorous cow.”

“’Cousin Silver’?” The pieces came together in Diamond’s mind and she groaned in frustration. “Oh, Celestia – she just can’t let things lie, can she?”

“’Let things lie’?!” sneered Argent, “Of course she’s not going to let things lie, you imbecile. The Argentums don’t forget, and you’ve really dug a hole for yourself. You pushed her into doing what you tell her to do for years, then you hit her and made up a ridiculous sob story to get her kicked out – did you really think you’d get away with that?”

“That is complete and utter horseapples, and you’re an idiot for believing her. ‘Cousin Silver’ is a manipulating little monster, and if you can’t see that, then she’s really pulled the wool over your eyes for good.”

Diamond knew antagonising her was a bad idea, but the reality didn’t hit her until Argent’s hoof nearly did the same; being parried aside by Copperwing’s wing in one smooth movement: a technique Diamond guessed she must have learnt from her mother. 

“Don’t you dare. Don’t even try to hit my friends, you messed-up little shit,” Copper spat angrily, lowering her head to glare into Argent’s eyes. 

Unperturbed, Silver’s cousin struck again with twice the force, right at the pegasus’s muzzle - only to find that her target had already moved. Copper had ducked under the blow and now rose up to strike back herself, twisting her torso left and right whilst whirling her wings one after another into the other filly’s shoulders. The earth pony tried to beat her wings away, but she was too slow, too weak and too uncoordinated to have any real success, and found herself being driven back step by step by the unrelenting force of Copper's wings.

Once Argent was a safe distance from her friends, Copperwing ducked backwards, propelled by her wings out of striking range, and raised her guard once more. It wouldn't be a good idea to get complacent now; even if she'd dealt with the threat of Silver's cousin without really having to hurt her.

“Give it up,” she instructed, aware of approaching footsteps from behind her. “Picking a fight with my friend was a bad idea, but picking one with me? Big mistake. Rule number one of being a schoolyard thug: don’t try to beat a Guard’s daughter at hoof-to-hoof combat.”

The footsteps stopped and the voice of Cheerilee cried out for the second time that week: “What in Equestria is going on here?!”

Copperwing answered her without taking her eyes off of Argent, who still looked angry enough to try something stupid the moment she was occupied with other things. 

“That filly came up to us and started insulting Diamond; Dee-Tee was pretty reasonable about it, considering what was said to her, but of course she was going to say something to defend herself. Little Argent Gleam here didn’t like that and she tried to hit Diamond - then when I blocked it, she tried to hit me, too.”

Cheerilee groaned – if fights like these kept breaking out, it wouldn’t be long until she started breaking down.  “And what were you just doing?”

Argent Gleam seemed to have calmed down somewhat now that she realised the adult was not simply going to go away after a brief conversation. By Copperwing’s reckoning, she was probably coming up with some lie – likely revolving around the ‘she’s older than me and therefore a bully’ argument – but as long as she was occupied that way, it should be safe to at least turn her head in Cheerilee’s direction.

“Getting her away from my friends. It’s a standard Royal Guard unarmed technique for pegasi: in place of a spear, use rapid, alternating wing strikes to drive the threat away from civilians, then retreat out of their striking range and raise your guard in readiness for further attacks.”

“…I see.” Replied Cheerilee, needing a little more reassurance than that to allow herself to fully believe that the older filly hadn’t been trying to start a brawl in the middle of the park. “It was self-defence, then? You weren’t trying to hurt her back?”

“No… well, no more than was unavoidable. If I'd wanted her hurt, I could just have punched her back.”

“I'm glad that you didn’t do that, Copperwing - it'll make it much easier for me to take the issue up with her parents.”

“You know her parents?” asked Diamond: Cheerilee nodded affirmative and elaborated on what she’d said.

“Yes. She’s supposed to be one of my students next year, so naturally I was the one to show her parents round the school. I have their address, and whilst this incident is not technically under school jurisdiction, I am well within my rights to raise concerns about her violent behaviour. “

Argent Gleam had gone a whole ten shades paler over the course of the conversation, and now she looked ready to bolt the scene altogether. Cheerilee noticed this and frowned at her.

“You can run away if you want, young mare; but I will be in touch with your parents about this. I won’t stand for this sort of behaviour, whether it’s in school or not.”

At this latest threat, the filly sent Diamond and her friends a withering glare before turning tail and fleeing the area as fast as her hooves could carry her. Seeing her retreat, Cheerilee shook her head and turned away, raising her head to call out to the crowd which had gathered around them.

“Did anypony see all of that? I need more evidence than just my say-so if that filly’s parents are going to do anything about this.”

Most of the crowd turned and walked away at her question, but a few answered her positively: “I did,” replied one stallion, and a mare to his right trotted forward and said “Me, too.”

A few more of the crowd came forward after that, and Cheerilee found that she had gathered a satisfactory five witnesses. As she was preparing to ask one of them for their testimony, the patter of small hoofsteps pulled her attention away from the ponies. The source of the sound, Featherweight,  came to a stop at her side, grinning widely whilst clutching a large, expensive looking camera, a reel mounted on its side.

“Hello, Featherweight,” she greeted pleasantly, wondering what he had to say, “What brings you here?”

In answer, he raised his camera triumphantly and grinned all the wider as he explained. 

“I was out filming the wildlife when I heard raised voices, so I followed the sound and found that other filly calling Diamond Tiara names. I still had my camera, so I filmed it – I have everything which happened after she called her a… ‘traitorous cow’ recorded on reel, and a version with half the frames on crystal imprint as backup.”

Cheerilee’s eyes widened, before she broke into a grin to match that of Featherweight, exclaiming: 

“Featherweight, you’re brilliant. With this on film, and some eyewitness accounts, there’s no way Argent’s parents can weasel out of dealing with her attitude.” 

Turning to face the aforementioned witnesses, she stepped up to the closest one and asked: “Now, if somepony's got something to write on, I’d like to get started on those witness statements.”

Still stood somewhat awkwardly off to the side, Diamond and the others lay themselves back down in the grass and waited for Cheerilee to finish, losing themselves once again in the returned peace of the park.



*



After she was finished with the ponies in the park, Cheerilee escorted the quartet of fillies back to Diamond’s house: this was partly so they didn’t get into any trouble, but also because after seeing the violent confrontation with Argent, the mare’s maternal instincts had kicked in on overdrive. 

She was protective of all her students, but she felt a greater closeness to Diamond Tiara following their week of shared challenges than she did towards the others, a closeness which had no doubt been strengthened by the events of that day. It was this closeness which had driven her to such determination to deal with the Argent Gleam problem before it spiralled any further, and which now propelled her purposefully towards Filthy Rich’s house with the filly in tow.

To her surprise, the door to the house was already open, and Filthy Rich stood on the doorstep in  conversation with another stallion. The last few words were exchanged between the two before she could get in earshot, but she was sufficiently close to hear Auburn and Copperwing’s exclamations of “Dad!” as they charged the departing stallion. 

Cheerilee smiled as the fillies’ father pulled them into a brief hug and left them to their father’s attention, still leading Diamond and Dinky over to the house as she walked away from the reunion. Before she got to the doorway, however, the two had rejoined her and their father was hurrying off the way they’d come, back into the village. She frowned in confusion, but nevertheless kept walking along the road to Rich’s front door, putting the mystery aside for a later date.

As she drew closer, Filthy Rich waved hello, his face creased with slight concern at the sight of his daughter’s teacher leading her group of friends to his door; she returned the wave and added a friendly smile to reassure him that she meant well. 

“Good afternoon, Rich,” she said, finally coming to a halt at his front door. 

“Cheerilee!” he replied pleasantly, although clearly surprised to see her. “What brings you to my door today?”

“I bumped into Diamond in the park and thought I’d bring her home, seeing as she told me you’d be expecting her back soon… Although, there is something I’d like to talk to you about, if you’ve got a minute – nothing bad… well, nothing Diamond’s done, at least.”

Filthy Rich looked a little uncertain about what such a talk might entail, but Cheerilee’s friendly demeanour did a lot to reassure him that it would not be a painful one. Thinking quickly to find a way of accommodating the mare, he returned his smile to his face and answered her.

“Uh, sure… If you wanted to come in, we could maybe talk about it over lunch – our cook made a little too much pasta, so if you’re hungry we’ve got food to spare.”

He’d been a little worried how she’d take the invitation, but to his relief she smiled wider and accepted it without complaint – far from it, in fact.

“That’s really generous of you, Rich. I think I’d enjoy that.”

“Shall we go inside, then?” He asked graciously, reaching for the doorknob as if to open it for her, but she saw the gesture and shook her head with a smile. She’d never been one for acting ‘like a lady’ as Rarity put it: just acting like a pony was good enough for her.

“After you – it is your house, after all.”

In response, he pushed the door wide open and trotted inside, holding the door courteously so that Cheerilee could enter unhindered. Shaking her head at his continued gentlecoltly behaviour, she trotted after Filthy Rich into the house and, with the fillies having already slipped inside whilst the pair were talking,  shut the door behind her. 

It was going to be an interesting lunch, that much she could be certain of.



*****








> Discussion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As it happened, Cheerilee and Filthy Rich had no trouble finding somewhere to eat without being overheard: Diamond had taken her friends into the living room in search of a more suitably sized table for four small fillies, leaving the main oak one free for the adults’ use.

For the first few minutes neither pony spoke, instead tucking heartily into the ample portions Rich’s chef had provided and enjoying the calm atmosphere which surrounded them. A comfortable silence fell, broken only by Cheerilee’s infrequent hums of appreciation as she bit into a particularly delicious forkful of the skilfully prepared pasta, and this remained for quite a long time, due in part to neither party wanting to break it.

But broken it had to be, and Cheerilee had not come to the house without reason: setting her fork down gently into her bowl, she took a final sip of water and looked her host dead in the eye. Somewhat apologetically, she cleared her throat to draw his attention and began.

“As much as I hate to break the good mood, I do still need to talk to you about what happened in the park.”

Filthy Rich nodded in agreement, straightening himself out in his chair so that he was no longer slumped lazily in it and clearing his own throat in an attempt to appear more professional.

“Indeed. You say it wasn’t Diamond’s fault? Another student, then? Maybe something to get back at her?”

“Put simply, no, no and – in a way – yes. By all accounts Diamond and her friends did nothing to trigger the events, and I have film evidence of such, courtesy of her classmate – and amateur photographer – Featherweight."

After letting this information sink in for a moment, Cheerilee elaborated on the exact cause of the events in some detail.

“Argent Gleam – the filly who started the confrontation – isn’t a current student, but she is in the enrolment process for the next academic year. From what I hear, she and Diamond had never met before today, but she quite clearly had a very detailed description of your daughter in order to so quickly and accurately identify her. Presumably she obtained this information from the same filly she was acting on behalf of: a certain ‘Cousin Silver’.”

“Oh, for the love of buck!” Rich exclaimed in exasperation, his expression quickly turning from furious to apologetic as he realised how his outburst may have made him look. “Ahem... sorry,” he said sheepishly, looking nervously over his shoulder to make sure none of the fillies had heard him.

Cheerilee shot him a wry grin and a sympathetic look in response. “Don’t be – I can think of a few choice words which came to mind when I heard that particular detail – if that filly is anything like her cousin, dealing with her is going to be my own personal Tartarus. I have the evidence and the power to make her parents deal with this, but if she’s spent as much time around Silver Spoon as her behaviour would suggest, even that might not stop her from causing further problems. I expect we’ll both have more dealings with Argent Gleam before this whole mess is cleaned up.”

Rich nodded in agreement, letting out a deep sigh and running a hoof across his brow in  a visible manifestation of his conjoined frustration and dread. 

“So, what exactly did this ‘Argent Gleam’ filly do?” he asked, wanting the full details even if he wished his Daughter had been able to at least visit the park without having to deal with things like this.

Cheerilee didn’t answer for a moment, instead getting up from her seat and trotting away into the hallway, returning after a short while with the strap of her small hoofbag slung over her shoulder and a smile on her face. From the inside of the bag, she extracted a reel of film which she proceeded to triumphantly hold out to him.

“I don’t suppose you have a projector anywhere in this mansion of yours?”

Realising what this reel had to be, he grinned back at her and said: “As a matter of fact, I do.”



*



Meanwhile, in the living room, Diamond and her friends had already finished their lunches and now sat around the table in the comfortable armchairs, chatting happily. 
Well, perhaps some more happily than others: Diamond herself was looking utterly lost, having been roped into a conversation about Legends of the Three Kingdoms strategy and left adrift in a sea of jargon-heavy confusion, with Dinky’s ‘helpful’ explanations merely providing an additional current which took her still further from the shore. 

Fortunately, her equally bored friend Copperwing noticed this and was more than willing to act as Diamond’s lifeguard, smoothly pulling her from the deep waters with a smoothly thrown lifebuoy of a sentence. 

“That reminds me: Diamond, you haven’t painted your units yet, have you? If you wanted to start now, I could lend you a hoof.”

Diamond jumped on the opportunity to escape and agreed eagerly and immediately: together, she and Copperwing retrieved her box of undecorated figurines and the paints and trotted over to the small workstation her father had bought for her to do her schoolwork at. Working as a team, the two of them made quick work of preparing it for use; with Diamond fetching the old newspapers out of the bin and removing the individual sheets and Copper then laying them down on the table top quickly and efficiently; building a barrier to protect it from the inevitable mess of the paint.

Once this small task was finished, they got out Copper’s tubes of paint and palette, a selection of pictures Diamond had procured to use as references and the entire box's worth of the figurines; placing these items down tidily on the small table before sitting down opposite each other. 

“So, how do you want to start?” began Copperwing. “Maybe paint them black all over and add detail later?” 

Diamond nodded. “Yeah, but not all of them are going to be black. I looked it up, and changelings actually come in quite a few colours: browns and greys and blues, sometimes greens, reds and beiges. Most hives tend to be the same colour, but those weren’t really formed until centuries after the Three Kingdoms: they would’ve been a mixed bunch back in those days, which means more variety for us.”

“You’ve really done your homework on this one,” Copperwing said, looking impressed. “So which colours do you want to use? Browns and greys will be easy, but I guess you’ll want some of the more interesting colours too.”

“Yeah. Let’s just start with black, grey and brown and do half of them like that, and decide what colours the others should be when they’re done.”

“Got it.” Copper immediately set to work squeezing the paint from the bottles, mixing them with her brush to make a dull spectrum of greys and browns on the palette. 

When Copperwing had finished mixing, Diamond turned a few of the drones over in her hooves in indecision before settling on one changeling in particular. Setting the others aside, she reached out and dipped her own brush into the near-black grey which had become synonymous with the changeling race following the failed Canterlot invasion, delicately applying the first coat of paint to the drone with the grace and drive of an artist.

Following Diamond’s lead, Copperwing began painting some of the other drones herself in order to speed things up, keeping an eye on which colours Diamond used  so that she would not use one of them disproportionately. They fell into a steady rhythm, and by the time the last of their allotted units had been given their first coats, the paint had dried on the first, allowing them to apply the second and final coat of their base colours.

About halfway through the process of giving a wave of her figurines their final coats of grey-brown paint, Copperwing noticed that Diamond was leaving large sections of her pieces without their second coat of paint; painting around the gaps purposefully before setting them down to allow their half-coats to dry. Shrugging at this odd behaviour, Copper returned to her own task and decided to wait until Diamond explained before questioning what she was doing.

Simply enjoying each other’s company, she and Diamond moved onto the more unconventional colours without needing to say much beside which blends of the colours to use, neither being bothered enough by the silence to break it. Once again, Diamond left unpainted sections during the second coat, and once again Copperwing gave her own figures a full coat and waited for her friend’s reasons to become more obvious. When the last licks of paint had been applied to the final few pieces, Diamond finally spoke.

“I’d like to do the details myself, if that’s okay with you-“ Copper nodded immediately in agreement, “-It’ll be a while until the paint dries, anyway, so why don’t you tell me about yourself. You’ve apparently heard a lot about me from Auburn, but she hasn’t given much away about you, so I’m honestly more than a little curious.”

Copperwing looked surprised at this turn of the conversation, but her expression quickly settled into a comfortable smile and began speaking. 

“Alright. You already know that I study at Canterhoof General Academy, don’t you?” 

Diamond nodded, and Copperwing continued with increased confidence. 

“Well, it’s a great school, and the teachers are all good at their subjects; but it’s also a pretty big place and I can’t help feel alone most places I go, not to mention I've always had a bit of agoraphobia. It doesn't help that I don’t really have many real friends there, either – plenty of foals will be perfectly happy to talk in class, but there aren’t many of them who’ll take the time to hang out with me.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel,” Diamond replied with a sympathetic smile; slowly beginning to paint the details on the newly-dried changelings whilst she listened to her friend speak.

“Anyway, I have a lot of time to myself out of lessons, so I write a little bit to pass the time. I’ve actually started on a book idea I had - although I’m not sure it’s any good - just to have something I can work on whenever I have spare time. I’m most of the way through the first main part of the story now, so I might have something to show you in a month or two – if you don't mind reading amateurish, half finished novels, that is.”

The one eye of Copper's Diamond could see had fixed its gaze self-consciously to the pegasus's paint-smeared hooves, and she made sure to inject even more enthusiasm than she'd originally planned into her reply. 

“I’d love to give it a read – what’s it about?”

“Well, it’s pretty weird: heavy sci-fi stuff, y’know? There’s a bit of story before it to set the scene and everything, but the main part is about a space mission to investigate a mysterious object orbiting a gas giant after scientists find something similar on the moon. There aren't many main characters, just the two crew members who aren't in cryosleep and the ship's artificial intelligence, but I don't think it really needs that many to get the story across."

“That actually sounds really interesting – it’s not often you get sci-fi which isn’t just aliens and ray guns, so you’ve got a pretty unique idea there – what are you going to call it?”

“I was thinking of calling it something like ‘Odyssey’, but I’m not sure yet.”

“Odyssey sounds good, but maybe it’d be more memorable if it was a little longer? Perhaps you could add the year it’s set in, or where it happens. It’s just an idea, so you do what you think is best.”

While they’d been talking, Diamond had mixed a new set of colours and added details such as eyes and mane colours to the majority of her figurines, setting the ones Auburn aside when each was finished but keeping her own where they had been, presumably in preparation for further painting.  Copperwing fell silent for a while, looking pensive, before she opened a new line of conversation with renewed enthusiasm. 

“So, Diamond, how long have you been living in Ponyville? Dinky mentioned you moved here from somewhere else, so I was curious where you were from originally.”

“We’ve been here about three and a half years. We used to live in Manehattan, but after mum died Dad needed to get away. There was too much to remind him of her there, I think, but Ponyville’s been good for him: I think he’s nearly managed to put what happened behind him.”

Copperwing cringed at the mention of Diamond's mother, inwardly cursing her social ineptitude and praying to Celestia she could go the remainder of the day without reminding Diamond of what she’d lost: fearing she'd upset her friend, she hastened to apologise. “I'm so sorry for bringing up your mum again, if I’d known that was why you moved away I wouldn’t have asked.”  

“I told you before: it’s fine. She’s gone, and I miss her, but I’m not about to start a crying fit just because you reminded me that she existed. Celestia, Copper, you could give Fluttershy a run for her money if you keep apologising for nothing. Relax.”

“I'm sor-" Diamond looked hard at her, and she stopped herself proving her point by apologising yet again, "-I’ll try... Say, how are things going at your school?”

“Still rocky, but it’s better than it was. I still get nasty looks, but they’ve stopped making fun of me for not knowing things and a few of them have been almost friendly. Oh, and one of the foals I tried to say sorry to earlier in the week apologised for walking out on me - I think we’re going to be able to get on pretty well from now on.”

Diamond had been half-expecting a teasing question about just how well she and Rumble would be getting on, but Copperwing merely nodded and smiled down at her.

“That’s great! Nice to hear things are working out for you, although I guess you wouldn’t have had to put up with things much longer anyway, since there isn’t long until you graduate from Elementary. About that – have you got any idea what you’re going to do afterwards?”

“I’m planning on staying in school for a few more years: I’m not sure what I want to do as a job and the higher education can’t hurt. Probably going to go to school somewhere around Ponyville, even if Dad could probably afford to send me off to private school: Ponyville is my home, and I don’t want to leave my friends behind just after I’ve found them.”

“Does that mean I might see you at Canterhoof, then? I mean, there’s only really two good higher education schools in the area, and Auburn’s probably going to go to CA since I’ve already got an idea of how it all works there – that way she doesn’t have to go in blind like I did – I don’t know about Dinky, but I reckon she’ll go whichever school has the most ponies she likes.”

Diamond nodded, having had similar thoughts about her friends' future directions.“Yeah, Dad can’t really see much difference between CA and Everside either, so I’ll probably stick with you and Auburn. It’s be a shame to split up the group so early, wouldn’t it?”

“You're right, it would: it's been really nice having you and Dinky around; even if you’re more Auburn’s friends than mine, I’ve had a great time hanging out with you two.”

Once again, the older filly stared holes in her own hooves, giving Diamond's reply an extra ounce of energy. 

“Copper -  I’m just as much your friend as I am Auburn’s, so you can drop that whole idea about me caring less about you. Just because I don’t see you as often or know you as well, doesn’t make you any less of a friend to me. I invited you because I like you, not just because you’re Auburn’s sister.”

This seemed to cheer her up immensely, and Copperwing thanked her earnestly, looking happily out at her friend from under her mop of dirty-blonde hair. As the pair descended into comfortable silence, she noticed that Diamond had finished painting her changelings and leaned in for a closer look, her mouth falling slowly open in awe at the filly’s skilful decoration of the figurines. 

The changelings Copper had painted looked impressive: their leg holes had all been painted a darker shade than the rest of them; their manes, wings and eyes all given believable yet eye-catching colouration and their bodies painstakingly dotted with freckles and subtly shifting chitin tones to give them an additional air of realism. Some of them even had their horns detailed still further with the addition of their magical auras, the amount of paint on them representing varying stages of the act of spellcasting: from the weak glow of a spell only just begun, to the vibrant flare of one about to be cast forth. 

The real stars of the show, however, were the changelings Diamond had painted unevenly: it was now abundantly clear to the awestruck Copperwing what she’d been trying to achieve with this, and the resulting effect rendered her temporarily mute. The areas of the changelings which had previously lacked a second coat now carried the bright colours synonymous with pony coats, and the edges of these sections were adorned with infinitesimally detailed magical flames: in short, Diamond had painted an army of changelings mid-transformation; the chitin either being converted to skin and fur or coats being switched back to chitin. 

Amongst these metamorphosing ‘lings were: a changeling in the process of assuming the identity of a Royal Guard, golden armour and all; a pegasus stallion whose wingtips and jaw were wreathed in green fire as the true being beneath emerged and one which was entirely engulfed by its own violet inferno as it began its transformation.

“…Diamond-“ Copperwing began, having finally regained her ability to speak, “-These are amazing! How did you even manage to make them this detailed?”

Diamond blushed modestly under the praise and shrugged her shoulders. “My talent is to do with decoration, especially fine detail: the tiara on my cutie mark’s more symbolic than anything – despite popular belief, I’d actually be hopeless at making jewellery besides choosing which gems to use.”

Copper nodded. “That explains a lot. Do you get a lot of ponies assuming your talent’s with jewellery? I imagine that would get really annoying in no time at all.”

“Yeah, I get that way too often. You’d think the knowledge would spread, given how often I’ve said it, but apparently what my cutie mark means isn’t worth mentioning.” 

Gesturing to the image on Copperwing’s flank – a navy blue hammer covered over its handle by two crossed wings, one a similar yellow to her mane, the other a brighter hue of her wingtips – she asked:

“What’s your talent? I’d have thought it was something to do with the guard after what you did at the park, but your mark doesn’t really fit that idea.”

The pegasus, following Diamond’s gaze,  glanced at her mark before looking back at her friend and answering the question. 

“My talent? Well, it’s pretty much the same as Dad’s: just shaping metal into things ponies would want. He let me have a go at shaping some copper when I was ten and, long story short, it turned out I was good enough at it to get my mark. The hammer on my mark is actually the same one I used: see the little cut in the handle about halfway down? Matches the handle of the real thing exactly.”

Squinting at the mark, Diamond could see what Copper meant, although the filly's well-formed flank did its best to divert her attention from it. Snapping her eyes back on her friend's face, she forced her thoughts back onto the subject at hoof by hastening to reply. 

“Cool! If you and your dad are good at the same thing, then you’ll always have somepony on hoof to help: that’s got to save you a lot of trouble learning the ropes.”

“Yeah, it’s great having my own personal expert right there at home, ready to help whenever I need him. Beats paying for a tutor, that’s for sure – some of them charge two hundred bits an hour, would you believe it?!”

“That’s crazy! That said, with prices like that their students are going to be a constant stream of arrogant noble-foal brats, so I guess karma isn’t totally broken.”

“I guess so… Hey, I wonder what the others are up to: we’ve been gone nearly an hour and they still haven’t come looking for us. D’you think we should find them?”

Diamond shrugged and sat up in her chair. “Probably. How much do you bet they’re still talking about ‘Kingdoms?”

Copperwing laughed heartily at the remark, following Diamond’s lead and standing up from the table. “I’d bet my life savings on it, if I wasn’t so sure that fate would have them be doing something else just to spite me. C’mon, let’s go nerd hunting.”



*



“Well, I must say it’s been really nice talking to you, Rich,” Cheerilee said earnestly, standing with the stallion in the hallway.

Rich smiled. “It has been a lot of fun, no doubt about that... Now that I know you better, though, I can’t help feeling guilty about what you’ve been through, with regards to dealing with Diamond. I mean, I’m her father, I should’ve-“

“And I’m her teacher, Rich-“ Cheerilee cut him off sternly, refusing to hear his self-doubting apology, “- I won’t say you’re blameless in all this, but it was just as much my fault as yours... Look; we’ve both made mistakes with Diamond, but the point stands that we’ve both started to make up for that.

“Just look how much has changed for her this week – she’s split off from Silver Spoon; she’s apologised to all of the students in her year; she’s even made some good friends – and before you say that was all my doing, I know for a fact that Diamond wouldn’t have been able to do what she’s done these past few days without the support and guidance of her father.”

Her stubborn rebuttal rendered Filthy speechless for a moment, the stallion being truly astonished that Cheerilee didn’t blame him for what had happened. 

“I-I…” he began, trying to find some fragment of his argument that he could still use to express how guilty he felt. “Cheerilee, you don’t understand: I promised myself I’d keep her safe after her mother died, I swore I wouldn’t let her come to harm, but you know as well as I do how badly I’ve failed her in that regard.”

Whilst she could sympathise deeply with him – she was pretty sure her heart had broken a little at the revelation that Diamond’s mother was dead – Cheerilee remained unrepentant in her assertion that he was laying far too much of the blame at his own hooves. 

“That may be so, but perhaps I’m not the only one who 'doesn’t understand'. I took an oath when I qualified as a teacher to protect all of my students from harm, no matter whether that harm was big or small, physical or psychological. I know exactly how you feel about this, because it’s exactly what I’m feeling. 

"We both had a duty to protect her, and to be frank we both failed… but that duty still stands – we are in this together, Rich, for as long as we have that task to fulfil... I know it's not long until she's no longer my student, but Tartarus, if you still want my help, I’ll stick around after she leaves school.”

“You… you’d really do that?”

“Of course I would. I don’t just care about her because I’m her teacher, you know. She’s a lovely filly, Rich, and if you’ll let me I’d like to make amends… for letting Silver Spoon twist her away from that, and for dropping this whole mess on you… You aren’t the only one who feels guilty about all this.”

Touched by the offer, Rich’s voice cracked. “Thank you, Cheerilee. You have no idea h-“

“I think we’ve established pretty well that I know exactly how you feel, so you can stop that sentence right there or so help me I will set you maths problems that would make the punishers in Tartarus cringe at the idea of making somepony answer them.” Though her voice was stern, Cheerilee’s mouth was cured upwards in a playful grin, and Rich couldn’t help but laugh. 

“I think I’ll pass on that one, if that’s alright with you.” He said, and she smiled in response.

“Good. Now I’m sorry, but I have a figurative tonne of paperwork with my name on it waiting back home, so I’ll have to finish our little chat here. Goodbye, Rich… I’ll see you around.” With that, she turned and left the house for the sunny streets of Ponyville and her own home, looking back one last time to respond to Rich’s goodbye with a cheery wave and a smile.



*



Returning with a smile curling the corners of his mouth, Filthy Rich headed off in search of his two pegasus guests, having a message to relay to them from their father. Re-entering the house proper from the hall, he spotted the elder of the sisters – Copperwing, if memory served – and Diamond trotting leisurely into the living room. 

Glancing round, he couldn’t see the other two fillies, leading him to assume that they were in the same room his daughter had just entered with Copperwing. Acting upon this deduction, he began to walk purposefully towards the living room, the smile falling from his face as he assumed a more serious expression.

As he had expected, Dinky and Auburn were indeed in the living room, talking happily with the newly arrived Diamond and Copperwing about something which his old brain could not begin to fathom. With a pang of regret at interrupting such a cheerful conversation, he cleared his throat and watched as the four fillies faced him, surprise written on their faces.

“Sorry to interrupt, fillies, but Auburn and Copperwing’s father gave me a message for them.”

Without needing to be asked, the two mentioned pegasi disentwined themselves from the group and followed him out of earshot into the dining room. Whilst he didn’t think the news was of the sort to be particularly detrimental were the others to hear it, Rich felt it was best to respect the pair’s privacy and let them tell their friends as much or as little of it as they wanted.

“What is it?” Copperwing asked, as soon as they stopped; beside her, her sister stayed pensively silent, her eyes watchful yet inextinguishably curious. Rich took in a deep breath and began.

“Something’s turned up in the Everfree and the Princess’s Guards wanted some input on what exactly they could expect in the forest  besides what they’re looking for, along with a capable guide. Your mother fit the bill perfectly, seeing as she’s an ex-officer with a lot of past experience in the Everfree area, so she’s gone with them in an advisory role.”

Copperwing hummed thoughtfully at his answer, letting her taciturn sister take her turn at asking the pair’s questions. “So, is she going as a civilian or as a reserve Royal Guard? She can take care of herself, but I’d feel better if she had the protection of Guard Lorica too.”

Rich frowned thoughtfully, giving his answer slowly and with a lot of care that he wasn’t misunderstanding their father’s words.

“Your father said she’d be fully kitted out for the mission, so I assume she’s acting as a reserve Guard. I doubt there’s anything in that forest a Guard contingent couldn’t deal with, especially with your mother looking out for them, but I understand that you’d be more comfortable with the idea of her going in armed and armoured.”

Copperwing nodded in agreement and started to turn back towards the living room, but Auburn stopped her, sensing that there was more yet to be said. “I appreciate you telling us this, but that’s not all you needed to say, is it?” She plied, confident that she was right in her assumption.

“No, it isn’t,” Rich admitted. “Your father can’t cancel his meeting in Manehattan, so you’re going to stay the night here. Your mother should be back tomorrow, but until then I can’t leave you home alone. It’s the weekend, so you and Diamond could probably turn this into a sleepover of sorts if you wanted, as long as you don’t stay up too late.”

“Hay, yes!” exclaimed Copperwing gleefully, and even her more reserved sister couldn’t help but grin at the prospect. 

Chuckling, Filthy Rich let them gallop off back to Diamond and turned himself with a sigh of resignation to the stairs, likewise directing his thoughts to the veritable mountain range of paperwork which awaited him at the top of them. This was going to be a long night.



*****

> Preparation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several hours after their return from the park and Cheerilee’s departure from the house, Diamond and her friends were interrupted by the sound of knocking from the door and ran into the hallway to greet the new arrival. Looking through the frosted glass of the window set into the door,  they could see the unmistakeable amber eyes, grey coat and butter-yellow mane of Ditzy Doo, and Diamond wasted no time in sliding across the latch and opening the door for her. 

The moment the way was fully clear, Dinky energetically tackled her mother into an enthusiastic hug, nuzzling into her foreleg with a big, silly grin on her face. Diamond and Auburn looked on with amusement written on their faces; while Copperwing let out a small giggle at the sight, a much lighter and more fillyish sound than her usual barking laugh. 

“Hello to you, too, Dinky,” chuckled Ditzy, gently ruffling her daughter’s mane as she looked around at the gathered trio of friends still stood in the doorway. She gazed somewhat confusedly at Copperwing – since only Auburn went to school with Dinky, she had never met the pegasus’s elder sister before today – but nevertheless offered her an equally pleasant smile. 

“Hello, Ms Doo,” Diamond greeted in unison with Auburn; Copperwing looking somewhat uncomfortably off to the side, unsure whether she should introduce herself.

“Hello, you two… I take it your friend here is Auburn’s sister?-“ Copperwing nodded cautiously, “-Nice to meet you, I’m Dinky’s mum, but you can call me Ditzy Doo.”

“Copperwing… nice to meet you, too, uh… Ditzy”

At this moment, Filthy Rich arrived and said his own hellos, smiling amiably at the pegasus mare on his doorstep. 

“Hello, Ditzy. Here for Dinky, I assume?”

“Yes, I am… Oh, and before I forget, I delivered your package safely to Canterlot: Ms. Fleur De Lis was very happy to receive it, and she sends her regards.”

“Thank you very much, Ditzy; I’ll be sure to put a good word in for you next time I visit the Post Office, it’s the least I can do. The last time I sent a package to her, the courier left it until the very end of the month and then had the nerve to break it by accident and blame it on a changeling, so your swift delivery is certainly refreshing.”

“Wow, you really weren't joking about your bad experiences with the other Posties, though I’m not too surprised… sometimes I worry about the way things are headed: the entry standards have really dropped, not to mention some of the veterans have been getting lazy. They call me clumsy, but I don’t see them delivering two ponies’ loads because their partner’s off sick… They seem to have it synchronised so that each member of a pair mysteriously falls ill at the same time...  I can’t not notice how often that happens – or how often I end up with their work.”

Blushing as she realised quite how off topic her micro-rant had taken her, Ditzy grinned sheepishly and apologised to her impromptu audience. 

“It’s fine,” reassured Rich, “We all get a little tired of our workplace problems from time to time, and I’d say you’re more than justified in being angry about yours.”

Ditzy puffed out again, no longer feeling the need to draw herself self-consciously into a smaller shape, and grinned back at Rich, releasing her daughter from her one-hoofed embrace as she did so. “Thanks, Rich, it’s nice that somepony sees my point for once. Anyway, Dinky and I have to get back soon to pack for our trip to visit her aunt and uncle in Trotsdam, so thanks for looking after her today, and this is goodbye until we're back... Say bye, sweetie.”

“Bye!” Dinky chirped, on cue, waving at her friends and grinning before following her mother away from Diamond’s house and out into the setting sun. Rich, Diamond, Copperwing and Auburn stood together in the doorway for a moment, watching them go, before they turned one by one back into the house.



*



Dinner that evening came in the form of generous portions of vegetable lasagne, sided with boiled vegetables; and the smell brought the three fillies downstairs from Diamond’s room and into their seats at the table at a speed which even Rainbow Dash would be proud of, all before the chef had even finished serving the food. 

Rich watched his daughter tuck in with an amused smirk, Diamond devouring her meal as if there was no tomorrow and in doing so managing to splatter herself with a not-inconsiderable amount of food. Whenever she was eating out, the filly would have perfect manners and eat her food slowly, carefully and delicately; but when she was home, all that ‘posh-filly stuff’, as she liked to call it, went sailing out through the window, catapulted by her lackadaisically whirling fork. 

He wondered momentarily whether her distaste for ‘posh’ actions stemmed somewhat from her nightmarish relationship with Silver Spoon: with the noble-filly’s obsession with upper-class supremacism and general nastiness, it would certainly not surprise him if Diamond associated such malicious behaviour with the rest of the traits stereotypically borne by the upper classes.

The thought made his ears droop a little: it would be a real shame for the best of the high life to be forever tainted in his daughter’s eyes by her personal experiences with the worst. Resolving to do something about it later, he shut the thought away in the back of his mind and turned his attention back to Diamond and her friends. 

The fillies had almost finished their food whilst he’d been lost in thought, and Diamond had already pushed aside her empty bowl and was now leaning back lazily in her chair, listening to Auburn talk about one specific incident which had taken place during their school trip earlier that week, an excursion Rich had only heard in passing from his daughter, who had barely known Dinky and Auburn at that point.

“Anyway,” the usually taciturn filly was saying, “Dinky thought it would be a great idea to test out her magic by carrying Twist’s birthday cake over to the table on her own, whilst also carrying a full plate of food on her back. I tried telling her ‘no’, but when that filly has her mind set on an idea there is no stopping her.”

“Ooooh,” said Diamond, rubbing her hooves together gleefully and grinning, “I think I know how this ends.”

Copperwing, too, interjected her view on the matter with a smirk on her face and sarcasm on her words: “With a foalproof plan like that, what could possibly go wrong?”

Rich found himself leaning forwards in unison with the others, Auburn’s slow, drawling speech drawing him in despite the lack of any spectacular aspects within it. Curiosity burned within him as he waited for the filly to continue her tale, and he felt a rush of foalish joy when she grinned around at them and finally did just that.

“As you may have guessed, it did not end well: for Dinky, Twist or the cake. She got most of the way there before her magic ran out, but then she dropped the cake right onto her own horn, doing a very good job of blinding herself and sending her stumbling off to her doom. Somehow she managed to get over to Twist’s table and trip herself up on the poor filly’s chair, and both of them ended up on the floor, covered in Dinky’s food and Twist’s cake, and tangled up in each other’s hooves. 

“Twist was understandably annoyed about all this, to say the least, but she was keeping a lid on it pretty well until Pipsqueak joked that, seeing as how they were so comfortable wrapped in each other’s hooves, they would make a good couple. I have yet to see anypony move as fast as Twist did then - I'm pretty sure she outstripped Rainbow Dash for speed - and Pip mustn’t have either, because he ended up with a punch to the face before he even realised Twist was heading for him. He went down like a sack of potatoes, wailing like a baby and it all happened so fast that it shocked everypony silent… silent, that is, until Dinky decided this would be a good time to get up and apologise. Big mistake.”

The table was engulfed by an uproarious burst of laughter; an amalgamation of Copperwing’s loud laugh, Rich’s restrained chuckle and Diamond’s fillyish giggles, with Auburn herself taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down enough to finish her story. Wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, the pegasus inhaled and exhaled slowly, before eventually judging that she’d be able to continue and sitting up straight in her chair in an attempt to regain some semblance of professionalism. 

“So, get this: Dinky tapped Twist on the shoulder and started to say ‘I’m sorry’, but Twist picked up Peachy Pie’s whole plate of food in her hoof and slapped Dinky in the face with it before she could finish saying it! It was crazy - Sunny Daze tried to tell her off for taking Peachy’s food, but Twist just took hers too and smeared it down Dinky’s other side. Before the teacher could do anything, Twist just stormed out and Dinky had to clear up all the mess herself… well, I stuck behind to help her, but everypony else ran off to see what Twist was doing. Apparently she tried to wash the cake off by diving in the fountain, although she insists she slipped: no matter she did, she ended up getting a royal telling-off – on her birthday, no less – and she’s hated Dinky’s guts since.”

The laughter resurged at this conclusion, and this time Auburn joined in heartily, the room eventually descending into a comfortable quiet after a long few minutes of pure, unadulterated mirth at Dinky’s unfortunate day at the Everfree lodge, setting the good mood for the rest of the evening.



*



After a few more hours of playing games and messing about, Diamond and her friends decided that it was probably a good time to start setting up her room for the sleepover and formulated a plan to prepare the small space for its soon-to-be tripled inhabitants. Firstly, they would need sleeping bags and pillows for Auburn and Copperwing; secondly party games and other such devices with which to entertain themselves until it was sufficiently past midnight would need to be gathered; and lastly no sleepover would be truly complete without copious amounts of unhealthy snacks.They set about the tasks in the order Auburn had arbitrarily decided on, and scuttled off excitedly across the hallway into the spare room in search of sleeping bags. 

“The bags should be in here somewhere… exactly where is a mystery, though, so we’d better start looking if we want to find them before morning,” said Diamond, looking somewhat overwhelmed at the sight of the wall of miscellaneous objects she now faced, any part of which could contain the items they were searching for but could just as likely be completely irrelevant – unhelpful, even – to their quest. 

Auburn headed for the leftmost pile of clutter, whereas Copperwing took the right and Diamond the middle; and together the fillies dug their way through mountains of assorted tat in their unending mission to secure comfortable bedding for the sisters. Diamond found old newspapers, broken toys and yellowed letters; frayed scarves, moth-eaten hats and dog-eared paperback books; but not one sign of the sleeping bags she’d set out for. Giving up, she almost abandoned the pile completely; but as she turned to leave it, something shimmered softly from inside one of the small boxes she’d set aside as being too small to house a sleeping bag, and she opened the box with cautious curiosity. 

“Huh…” she said, intrigued, as the box’s contents were revealed to her: glossy-covered magazines, each of which had mares in strange poses on its cover, and the word ‘Plot’ – presumably the magazine’s title – emblazoned on the front of each. 

Curiosity piqued, she pulled the topmost issue out and examined it more closely: the earth pony mare on the cover seemed to be wearing some form of tight-fitting black dress and an unusual item of clothing which covered her filly-parts  – a job which, Diamond noted, could quite easily have been done by her tail, had the mare not had it raised into the air like a flag – along with a set of shiny, tight-looking black stockings whose purpose the filly could not discern. Auburn, drawn by her quiet exclamation of interest, sidled up beside her and leaned in to examine the magazine with her. 

“Weird – I’ve never seen a magazine like that before – what’s she doing?” She asked, to which Diamond could only shrug.

“I dunno, why would somepony need so much clothing, anyway?”

Auburn scratched her head with a hoof, trying to puzzle things out. “Maybe she’s a model?”

“Yeah, maybe…” Diamond agreed, some of her confusion slipping away, “What d’you think that black thing in her mouth is?” She pointed at the thin black rod gripped between the mare’s teeth, moving her face in closer to try and discern its purpose, a motion Auburn likewise mirrored, frowning in concentration.

“I have no idea: maybe it’s part of her outfit? Like an accessory or something?”

Their short discussion had temporarily prevented them from opening the magazine and seeing the images inside, but as Copperwing caught onto what they were talking about, the conversation drew to a close, forcing the elder pegasus to move quickly to preserve her friends’ innocence.

“Hey, perhaps we’ll find out what it is inside?” Suggested Diamond, and the rapidly approaching Copperwing saw no other option she could take which would stop her fast enough but to slap Diamond's hoof – hard – as the filly moved to open the magazine. Diamond cried out in pain and outrage, turning angrily to Copper, who took the opportunity to snatch the filthy item from her hooves and shove it back inside the box it had come from, before pulling the box’s lid closed and promptly sitting on it. 

“Copperwing, what the hay? What did you do that for?!”

Copperwing looked at her apologetically, tightening her grip on the box beneath her in anticipation of an attempt to recover the magazine by Diamond; and tried to answer in such a way as to remove all ideas of looking for the publications from the minds of her friend and her sister without actually revealing the things she was so desperately trying to keep secret from them.

“Trust me, that magazine isn’t what you think it is. You do not want to read those sorts of magazine… not until you’re much older than you are, anyway. Once you look in one of these things, there’s no going back… Ever heard the phrase ‘what has been seen cannot be unseen’? These magazines are a perfect example of that, and I speak from experience when I say that you don’t want the sort of pictures inside those things stuck in your head…”

Diamond retracted the hoof she’d half-extended, having intended to simply push her friend off the box and gain access to the magazines by force, and frowned in thought, examining Copperwing. The pegasus looked quite frankly haunted, pale except for the light touch of an ashamed blush across her cheeks and guilt swimming in her eyes, all of which did a very good job of persuading Diamond to believe what she said. Nevertheless, Diamond was a stubborn filly, and she still had her doubts.

“What sort of pictures are they? Surely they can’t be so bad?”

“They really are,” rebutted Copper, trying to come up with some white lies quickly enough to convince her friend, “They’re absolutely disgusting. Lots of blood and sick and stuff… they wear those costumes so that when they get covered in things, not all of it stays on and they can get covered in more of it. Take it from me, this is not what you want to be reading.”

Whilst her excuse was somewhat overkill, and slightly illogical, it did an admirable job of putting  the other fillies off the concept of reading ‘Plot’ anytime soon, with Auburn actually dry-retching into her hoof and Diamond looking decidedly disturbed. Using their silence as a window of opportunity, Copper stood up and grasped the box in her hooves, flying it over to the highest shelf, which was blocked by foothills of tat along the floor which placed it securely as far out of reach as she could get it. 

Whilst she was up there, she spotted the end of something reasonably large and rounded poking out of a pile of miscellanea roughly halfway into the room and, energised by hope, pulled it out along with its even more thoroughly covered twin. A sudden urge to flee from the pornographic publications so nearby filled her and she flapped her wings in preparation for a speedy exit: she had found the bags, now it was time to get out of there! 

Tossing the smaller sleeping bag to her sister, Copperwing flew quickly from the room and forced the others to follow her back to Diamond’s bedroom. When her companions arrived, she was already hard at work setting up her sleeping bag in an attempt to force the tantalising glimpses of the inner pages she’d obtained when snatching the book from her mind. Trying desperately to force down her throbbing, half-raised wings, she cursed herself for ever stumbling on her father’s magazines and sent a silent prayer to the princesses that Diamond and Auburn would not be so unlucky as to do the same.



*




The search for party games crashed and burnt before it even left the ground: the only board game in the house was an incomplete chess set, and the fillies had significant trouble coming up with games they could play with only three ponies, two of whom were sisters. Giving up on the doomed venture, the trio settled instead on the task of accumulating a hoard of fattening snack items and planned their heist with no shortage of conspiratorial grins and secretive whispers, checking it over once; twice; thrice before acting on it.

Sneaking light-hoofedly down the padded carpet of the staircase, the three fillies dropped to the ground and began crawling their way across the tiled floor of the dining room, on an intercept course to the cupboard in which Diamond’s father kept all the things she wasn’t allowed to have unless she’d been exceptionally good, with intent to steal as much of it as they could carry and gorge themselves with the resulting hoard. 

Each member of the team of stash-robbers had their own personal task to attend to, something which Auburn had thought a good idea: Diamond was wearing her saddlebags, which had been emptied entirely of their previous contents, acting as courier for their yield; Auburn, ever-observant, was on lookout duty; while Copperwing, being the tallest and also blessed with the ability to fly, was in charge of actually stealing the food.

Delicately, Copper flapped her wings just enough to raise her up onto the counter and tilted herself forwards in order to land on it. The work surface being slipperier than she’d anticipated, she slid backwards after trying to negate her forward velocity with another flap of her wings; and for a desperate, heart-in-mouth moment, she hung on the edge of the counter; knowing that if she slipped off, there would be no avoiding a noisy collision with one of the nearby objects, her wings not quite fast enough to prevent her hitting something before she returned to the air.

She managed to cling on, however, and with a newly-racing heart and increased shortness of breath, she reached up to take the cookie jar atop the cupboard and emptied it into Diamond’s waiting saddlebags before returning it and sliding a little to one side to allow her easy access to the cupboard proper. Behind the first cupboard door she opened were several bottles of alcohol, mainly wine, and she closed it again in disappointment before prising open the next one and striking jackpot.

Within the small compartment was a veritable dragon’s hoard of sweets and unhealthy snacks: grinning, she crouched carefully on the counter and began passing items backwards to Diamond: chocolate bars, mints, bonbons, caramels, fudge, boiled sweets, gobstoppers, biscuits, anything and everything of interest inside the cabinet was removed and transferred swiftly into Diamond's saddlebags. Within a minute, the cupboard was bare and Copperwing dropped smugly from the work surface to land at her friend’s side: stealthily, both of them dropped once more into a crouch and began crawling away from the scene of the crime. 

Auburn, responding to Copper's insistent whisper, ducked down out of sight and made her own way out of the kitchen, joining the other two behind the dining table as they hid from Diamond's father, who was currently descending the stairs, blissfully unaware of their sweet heist for the moment. The trio edged around the outside of the table to keep out of his sight and, once he was gone, sprinted full-pelt across the tiled floor, onto the carpeted stairs and all the way up to Diamond's room. 

Diving in like fugitives on the run, the three fillies slammed the door to the room behind them and sank to the floor in relief and elation: Diamond unclipped her saddlebags with shaky hooves after a moment to catch her breath, and, after slipping out from under their heavy weight, opened them to reveal their impressive haul of confectionery.
Once they’d all mostly recovered from the upstairs sprint, Diamond looked around at her friends with a grin, clapped her hooves together enthusiastically and said:

“Well, fillies, now that we’ve got our stash… Let the games begin!”




*****










> Hyperventilation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond looked around at her friends, her smile drooping as she realised that she had no idea what games they could play, something which, now that she thought about it, they had already figured out. No sooner had she remembered this when Auburn cleared her throat a little awkwardly and pointed it out verbally, bringing an embarrassed flush into the pink filly’s cheeks.

“I didn’t think there were any games we could play; I mean: we’ve got no board games, your father’s working so we can’t really play hide and seek and we can’t play anything like Spin the Bottle, for obvious reasons.”

“What’s the problem with Spin the Bottle?” asked Diamond, faux-innocently, smirking inwardly.

“We don’t have a bottle, for starters, there’re only three of us and two of us are sisters. And if you’ve got no problem with me and Copper kissing, then you surely won’t mind if we ask your dad to join in, will you?” Auburn matched Diamond’s pseudo-innocent expression perfectly and then surpassed it, blinking her eyes angelically despite her true feelings being far better expressed via a devilish grin and gleeful rubbing together of her hooves.

“You know what,” Diamond replied, her blush returning full force, “I think I’ll pass on that offer, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” answered Auburn, putting on an overly sincere-sounding Canterlotian voice which made Copperwing give the same fillyish giggle she’d let out when Dinky had cuddle-rushed her mother, the elder pegasus blushing a little at the involuntary reaction as she noticed Diamond’s questioning gaze.

After a moment of awkward silence, all three fillies burst into laughter, sharing the simple fun of the moment in a harmony of laughs, although Copperwing withdrew from it early, closing her eyes and breathing slowly in and out whilst the other two giggled on to the natural end of the sound. Still smiling, the corners of her eyes crinkled in amusement, she breached the newly-formed silence with a return to the still-unanswered question.

“So, we’ve still got to figure out what we’re going to do. Hey, how about Truth or Dare? Three of us should be enough for that.”

“Yeah, that could work!” Diamond grinned, glad they’d finally found something to do; Auburn likewise smiled, nodding enthusiastically to show her agreement with the idea. The trio rearranged themselves on the floor so as to form a circle – or, rather, an equilateral triangle, three being too few to form a true circle – and made themselves comfortable in anticipation of a long night of fun.

“Who’s going to go first?” Asked Auburn, noting that their numbers meant simply flipping a coin to decide was out of the question.

“I think I have a die from ‘Kingdoms around here somewhere,” said Diamond, reaching over to her bedside table to retrieve said die, “Here it is, we can take two numbers each and see what it lands on. I’ll take five and one - Auburn?”

“I’ll take two and six, which leaves three and four for Copper. Alright, let’s roll it.”

Diamond rolled the dice, sending it flailing across the bedroom floor and into the leg of her bed, off of which it pinged on a new trajectory, travelling in its new direction for a few moments before finally losing its momentum and falling flat on one of its many faces. The trio of fillies peered down at it, examining the side which pointed skyward.

“Huh, it’s a six: guess the first turn’s yours then, sis,” remarked Copperwing, leaning back into her previous position, slumped against the side of Diamonds bed and using the duvet as an impromptu pillow. Auburn collected herself and prepared to ask the game’s titular question, but stopped short when she realised she didn’t know which to ask, and that she really didn’t want to make that decision herself.

“How do I know which one of you to ask?” she said, hoping that they’d decide amongst themselves. The answer she got was not quite as fast a decision-maker as that would have been, but it did prevent this being an issue every single turn.

“We’ve still got the dice,” Diamond pointed out, “Shall we say: odd numbers for the one on the asker’s left, even numbers for the one on their right?”

“Sounds good,” said Auburn, tossing the dice so that its roll would not take it as far as the last time and leaning over it when it landed, calling out promptly: “Odd – Diamond, truth or dare?”

“…Truth,” the earth filly answered hesitantly. Auburn frowned in concentration, trying to figure out a good question to ask her, before a malicious grin split her face.

“Alright… You seemed pretty happy that Rumble gave you another chance – a little too happy, in my opinion – you got feelings for him?”

Diamond went bright red, though not because Auburn was right: she liked Rumble, sure, but nothing beyond friendship – if you could call it that – and, to be honest, she hadn’t thought about romance since… well, since Silver Spoon.

“Auburn, he hated me until yesterday, and for the last three years I’ve been horrible to him, no matter how good my reasons – don’t you think that would make for a bit of a messed up relationship? Rumble’s a nice colt, don’t get me wrong, but there’s nothing between us.”

“Nothing between you, huh?” mused Auburn, “Then are you more of a fillies’ filly, if you catch my drift?”

“You don’t have to answer that,” interjected Copperwing, “Although… if you want to, I wouldn’t mind hearing it.”

“Celestia, you two - I don’t know, okay? With all that’s happened these last three years, I’ve had bigger things to deal with than romance: I’m pretty sure I like colts, and I think I might like fillies as well… I just haven’t thought about it much, to be honest.”

“I think you might like fillies, too, “ quipped Copperwing, thinking back to the way Diamond’s gaze had lingered a little longer on her flank than she’d been expecting when she’d been showing her friend her cutie mark, and the slight blush which had marked her cheeks afterwards. 

“What do you mean by that?” asked Diamond, bewildered, to which Copper merely smirked and shook her head.

“You sure you can’t figure it out on your own?” Almost imperceptibly, she gestured with an infinitesimal flick of her wing to her cutie mark, and Diamond’s blush deepened. Auburn looked between the two confusedly, trying to discern the meaning behind her sister’s words without success.

“Am I missing something here?” she asked, causing Diamond to turn even redder and Copper’s smug grin to widen, her sister mockingly drawing a hoof across her own lips, closing an imaginary zip before locking it and miming throwing the key away. 

Auburn sighed, picked up the die, passed it to her still-blushing friend and sat back to watch the proceeding events unfold. Diamond spun it on its corner with a twist of her hoof and the trio watched as the die’s revolutions slowed and it fell drunkenly onto one side: a three faced up.

“Copperwing,” she called, “truth or dare?”

“Truth,” answered the pegasus, without hesitation.

“Since you were so curious about me, what are you into, Copper? Fillies? Colts? Something else entirely?”

Rolling her eyes, both at Diamond for asking and at herself for not expecting to be asked, Copperwing let out a long sigh and answered with as much mock-casualness as she could muster.

“Honestly, I’m not that fussy… at this point, anyone willing to give me a go would probably have a good chance.”

“Even Auburn?” asked Diamond, knowing full well that she was running a very real risk of crossing the line with that particular joke, but feeling that the opportunity was too good to pass up. On cue, both sisters turned bright red and sputtered mangled sentences of outrage and disbelief, making a good backing track to the crescendo of Diamond’s mirthful laughter. Regaining her composure, Copperwing raised her eyebrows and wagged her wingtip back and forth like a mother telling off a misbehaving child.

“Don’t make me get your father in here, little Miss Incestuality… seriously, filly, you’ve got issues.”

Still laughing, Diamond hoofed the die over and tried to calm down, knowing that if she didn’t stop soon, the results would not be in her favour next time she ended up on the receiving end of the asker’s whim. Copper rolled the die and, clueing Diamond into her friend’s imminent revenge, let out a little cackle as she saw what number the die had brought up.

“Well, well, well… looks like the tables have turned now,” drawled Copperwing, grinning madly, “Truth or Dare, Diamond, what’ll it be?”

Diamond gulped, anticipating a bad outcome no matter what she chose, and went for possibly the stupider of the options.

“Uh… Dare,” she said, cringing a little as Auburn rubbed her hooves together gleefully in anticipation of the vicarious pleasure she would receive from her sister’s vengeance.

“Okay, Diamond, okay… I dare you to eat an entire packet of those fruit gums all together in the same mouthful. No chewing or swallowing until they’re all in there, and no spitting them out.”

Her evil grin spread further up the sides of her face at Diamond’s look of dread, and she clapped her hooves together happily. 

“Consider this revenge for the comments about me and Auburn, Dee-Tee – don’t worry, after this we’ll be even.”

Grudgingly, Diamond complied with Copper’s request, pulling open the packet and, tilting back her head, pouring the sweets in. She managed to fit most of the packet in, cheeks bulging outwards like a hamster’s, but with about a fifth of the packet left, she found she could not easily fit any more in by simply pouring them into her mouth. Frowning determinedly, she began taking individual hooffulls of the gums and shoving them sideways so that her cheeks ballooned still further: this continued for a while, until even this method would not aid her in fitting the final few sweets into her gaping maw and she resorted to holding the last of the sugary items between her teeth

To her left, Copperwing let out an appreciative hum as she managed to fit them all in, giggling as Auburn began clapping encouragingly and egging Diamond on to complete the second part of her dare: eating all of them without dropping a single one from her mouth; no easy feat.

Mentally cursing herself for making the fateful joke about Copper and Auburn with the full vocabulary of a veteran sailor, Diamond clamped a hoof over her mouth to keep its sickly sweet contents from spilling and began to chew her way through the mass of cloying confectionery, trying not to gag on the mass of accursed sweets as she commenced the task of swallowing them all.

Her friends watched with bated breath as she alternated between mashing the gums to little more than fruit-flavoured paste and swallowing the resulting mess, looking more and more repulsed as the moments went by but slowly, surely, getting through the Tartarus of sweets she had been put into. Eventually, she gulped one last time, looking as if the battle between her mind and her gag reflex had very nearly been lost, and wiped her mouth, struggling for breath.

“Never… again…” she panted, “I’m done with sweets, forever...”

Weakly, she picked the die up off of the floor and tossed it a short way across the bedroom floor and took so long to start getting up that Auburn, sighing with amusement-tempered exasperation, went and did it for her, shoulders slumping when the dice proved to have landed even-number up.

“It’s me, Diamond… I pick dare,” said Auburn, bracing herself for whatever her friend might come up with as the earth filly’s face creased up in concentration, the slow smile spreading across it signalling her impending doom.

‘Well,’ she drawled mentally, bathing the thought in a pool of sarcasm, ‘this is going to be fun.”



*



Several hours after he had descended to the kitchen for a snack, Filthy Rich lay down his pen, shook out his writer’s-cramp-stricken foreleg and stretched out his limbs, letting out a long yawn whilst his joints popped and his back clicked and fighting to keep his lead-lidded eyes from closing completely. 

His bed was calling to him, singing a sweet cadence to lure him into its comforting embrace, the image of its warm, velvety sheets and plumped pillows providing a tantalising glimpse of what he couldn’t yet enjoy: he still had one job to do tonight, and he could not afford to neglect it, no matter how much his bed tried to bribe him with.

Trotting over to the door of his office, he pulled it carefully open so as to be no louder than was unavoidable and exited its confines into the opulent expanse of the upper floor landing, reaching behind him with a hoof to flick the light off as he made his way towards the staircase. He descended with more than the usual care, knowing full well that he was too tired to sprint around the way his daughter did without risking a serious staircase-related injury, and trudged his way through the soft carpet to his daughter’s room, the light on inside it lending the door a golden outline.

Pressing his ear against the wooden surface of the door, he listened hard for any hint of conversation but found none, proceeding to open it as timidly as the reclusive pegasus Fluttershy and peer sheepishly into the room. After a moment searching the crack between the partly open door and the doorframe, he bit the bullet and stuck his head through the gap he’d cautiously widened, glancing about for signs of the fillies.

It didn’t take Rich long to find them: the two pegasus sisters were snugly tucked into their sleeping bags – the elder more snugly than the younger, by joint virtue of her larger size and the fact that her wings were pressing against the fabric in a vain attempt to extend fully – and his daughter was likewise cocooned in her duvet, her foreleg trailing down the side of the bed to the floor, where it almost touched the outstretched hoof of Auburn Wake, a smile on her face. 

Chuckling softly to himself, Filthy Rich trotted backwards out of the room, closing the door gently shut as he did so and making his way back upstairs to his bed: it was well past time to sleep, as far as the stallion was concerned, and nothing would stop him. As if the universe were trying to prove him wrong, he tripped on the last step and landed hard on his belly, knocking the air out from his lungs. Driven by an super-equine burst of energy designed to take him to his mattress mistress, he heaved himself to his feet and staggered into his bedroom, bucking the door behind him before burrowing deep into the protective cocoon of his duvet and finally closing his eyes.

Smiling to himself, Rich fell into a deep, comforting sleep, dreaming blissfully of an intelligent, helpful mare with a mulberry coat and deep green eyes: his face relaxing into a contented expression, he unconsciously pulled a loose pillow tight against his barrel and nuzzled it gently, Rich’s mind unconcernedly adrift in a dreamed sea of simple happiness.



*



Diamond awoke sluggishly the following morning, her mouth filled with the sour aftertaste unique to sweets consumed before sleep and her mane plastered across her face, sticking to it with the drool her mouth had leaked whilst she’d been asleep. Sitting up in bed, she rubbed her eyes and wiped her mouth before looking sleepily around for her friends: they weren’t in their sleeping bags, which meant they were probably downstairs already, but she still glanced around the rest of the room to save her the possible embarrassment of walking out of the very same room they were in on a mission to find them.

Satisfied that she was the only occupant of the room, Diamond brushed her hair mechanically, bringing the unruly strands of purple and white into something resembling a mane style and letting her mind finish rebooting whilst there was nothing much to think about. Eventually, she decided that her mane and her mind were both in acceptable states and dropped from her bed onto the soft carpet, shuffling her way groggily downstairs and following the voices of her friends to the living room.

She found them at her workstation, Copperwing showing Auburn the product of their efforts, with the latter pegasus speaking words Diamond was too tired to focus on, but which nonetheless sounded positive. Trudging her way past them to the kitchen, she mumbled them a hello and proceeded on her intercept course for the chef, who spotted her as she approached and beamed.

“Good morning, little Diamond,” he greeted, “Looking for a spot of breakfast, are we?”

She gave him an affirmative grunt and slumped into her usual seat at the dining table to await her food, the chef heading off whilst happily humming under his breath, unfazed by her behaviour after three years of seeing this sort of reaction to mornings from the filly. Before too long, he returned with a tall glass of orange juice and a steaming plateful of freshly cooked food, which Diamond promptly devoured, finishing mere minutes after receiving the meal. 

Her hunger sated, and the orange juice beginning to spark her awake, she pushed back her chair and headed back the way she’d come in search of the bathroom and the toothbrush which resided within it. Filthy Rich, coming down the staircase the other way, smiled at her and waved hello, his good mood undiminished by the lack of response: he knew better than anypony that Diamond would not be able to function until her morning ritual of breakfast, washing and self-styling was complete.

Eventually, Diamond felt mostly equine again and trotted her way more quickly down the stairs than she had the first time, her energy returning now that the tendrils of sleepiness had finally released her from their grasp, and made a beeline for her friends, who turned in their seats to greet her. She quickened her pace and reached them after a moment or two, exchanging much more energetic greetings now that she wasn’t in a near-catatonic state of existence.

As Auburn started enthusing about Diamond’s work painting her changelings, the earth filly moved over to her and opened her mouth to accept her praise with a humble thank-you , only to stop dead as the sound of hard, metallic knocks coming from the front door. Her father, who had been heading their way, changed course and hurried to the hallway; the metallic clinks of chains being unhooked and squeak of the handle being turned providing the fillies with their only clue as to the events at the door.

Curiosity piqued, the trio tiptoed their way over to the entryway, jumping with fright when Filthy Rich called surprisingly loudly from the doorway: “Auburn, Copperwing, there’s a stallion from the Royal Guard here who needs to talk to you.”

Diamond’s stomach dropped at the words, heart wrenching painfully as her friends’ faces fell into expressions of dread, and stopped dead in her tracks to give them some privacy. Whilst she knew that this had every possibility of being nothing more than their mother’s job in the Everfree taking longer than usual, the forest’s notorious reputation and the solemnness in her father’s voice led her to fear the worst. If Copper and Auburn lost their mother… well, that just didn’t bear thinking about.

She watched, heart-in-mouth, as the pair trudged fearfully to the door and tried to calm her rising emotions down, attempting to find something else to focus on but only finding the voices of her friends and the stallion from the Guard. Unable to help her terrible curiosity, she listened in closer, and began immediately wishing that she hadn’t.

“You are Copperwing and Auburn Wake, the daughters of Commander-In-Reserve Burnished Gilding, is that correct?” the stallion was saying, letting out a low hum as the pegasi replied that they were, voices quivering a little as they answered him.

“I’m very sorry I have to tell you this, but your mother was badly injured whilst conducting her mission… She’s in a stable condition, but it’s going to be a long time before she’s back to how she was. If you want to see her, she’s in Ward B of Ponyville Hospital – I’d take you there myself, but I need to get back to my squad… You have my deepest regrets for your mother’s condition, and for leaving you so soon after telling you this, but I’m afraid this is goodbye.”

Silence fell, punctuated only by the fading hoofsteps of the Guard stallion as he left the house, but after a minute the sound of quiet sobbing broke the air and Diamond found that she couldn’t just stand by and let her friends suffer alone: purposefully, she strode round the corner and wordlessly brought the sorrow-stricken pegasi into a tight, comforting hug. Auburn quivered in her grip, tears dripping onto Diamond’s back, whilst Copperwing’s breathing, despite clear, deliberate attempts to control it, spiralled inexorably into short, panicked gasps: whispering words of comfort, Diamond stroked their manes and tried to calm them down, and after a long five minutes, Auburn’s quaking sobs became sniffles and Copper’s breathing was more or less normal again.

Reluctant to retract the comfort she was providing, but needing to talk to her friends face to face, Diamond withdrew her hooves from around their shoulders and looked sympathetically into their mournful faces: Auburn looked absolutely miserable, with a twitch of stir-craziness flickering on her face as she considered the prospect of visiting her mother; whereas Copperwing looked shell-shocked and haunted, clearly still in shock.

“Auburn… Copper… I’m so, so sorry,” said Diamond, hushed and sincere, “If there’s anything I can do, just say the word – I’m here for you, whenever you need me.” 

This earned a small smile from Auburn, and a numb nod from Copper, the former biting her lip and shuffling uncomfortably on her hooves, trying to formulate a response and eventually going with: “I-I… I need to see her… we both do. I hope you don’t mind if we go now, I just don’t think I can stand waiting any longer than I have to - you understand, right?”

Diamond nodded, smiling sympathetically and laying a comforting hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Of course I do, Auburn – she’s your mum, it only makes sense you’d want to know what’s happened to her as soon as possible… Do… do you want me to come with you?”

Auburn frowned, considering the offer, but whilst she was still biting her lip in indecision, Copperwing spoke for the first time since the stallion had arrived and made the decision for her. 

“I-I’d like that... uh, yeah… Th-thank you, Diamond… You’re a real friend,” she said, her world-weary voice carrying well in the absolute silence which had fallen in the hallway. 

Not wanting to get ahead of herself, Diamond glanced at Auburn for her verdict, who nodded in agreement with her sister; and then at her father, who smiled at her and slowly inclined his head in affirmative: Diamond drew herself up to her full height and stood amongst her friends; the matter was settled: she was going with them.

Wordlessly, Auburn moved out from under Diamond’s hoof and trotted off out of the door, and the earth filly waited for Copperwing before making her own way out of the house, picking up the small black bag Copper had brought with her in case it contained something her friend would need. Trotting in solemn lockstep, the trio of fillies walked down the long dirt road to the hospital, Rich closing the door behind them and returning regretfully to his paperwork.



*



“What- What if her wing’s busted? How can she cope without her wing?!”

Auburn was panicking. It had been a fairly rapid transformation, and for the last few minutes the wide-eyed pegasus had been listing off every pessimistic outcome she could think of in an increasingly desperate tone. 

“Shut up, Auburn!” 

The constant stream of morbid ideas had affected Copperwing, too, and the elder pegasus was looking increasingly distressed by the second, having long ago given up on consoling her sister and resorted to simply yelling at her to stop when it had become clear that the filly was too scared to listen to reason. Her breathing had devolved yet again into agitated, nervous gasps, and her voice now cracked whenever she spoke, the stress getting to her.

“Please, you two; calm down – we’re almost there!” 

Diamond was trying to keep the peace between the increasingly agitated siblings, with mixed success, praying to the princesses that they would reach the hospital before one or both of her friends had a breakdown. Up ahead, as she had pointed out, the hospital had risen into view and was getting closer with every step, giving her hope that they might just make it before the situation worsened much further.

This optimistic thought held right up until they reached the hospital proper, and Copperwing stopped dead, looking fearfully up at the building, her breathing even more erratic. Auburn kept going for quite a while before it became clear that Copper wasn’t following, whereas Diamond had stopped with her friend, concerned by this sudden change of heart.

“Copper, come on! Don’t you want to see mum?” called Auburn, impatience flashing angrily on her face and adding fire to her voice. Diamond looked between the two in worry, before trying a kinder approach at convincing her other filly to continue moving.

“Hey, Copperwing, what’s wrong? We’re almost there now, we won’t have to go much further.”

“Can’t,” muttered Copper mournfully, confusing Diamond still further and infuriating Auburn, who had begun pacing back and forth in front of the hospital doors in an expression of her desperation to get to her mother’s side.

“What do you mean?” asked Diamond, genuinely concerned for the filly’s wellbeing now.

“I-I just can’t do it!” cried Copper, bursting into tears, “M-mum’s hurt and I-I know I sh-should go, but I just can’t! I hate it, hate it, hate it! Why did she have to go to hospital?!”

From the hospital doorway, Auburn snapped: “Oh, for Luna’s sake, Copper – get a grip! You’re seriously going to stay out here when mum’s hurt bad just because hospitals are oh-so-scary and you don’t like the smell?! Oh, poor little Copperwing, pissing herself over a bucking hospital… Grow up, would you?”

Taking a deep breath so unlike Copperwing’s near-hyperventilation, Diamond called back at her friend, trying to stop this moment turning into something which would drive a wedge between the sisters.

“You go on ahead, Auburn, I’ll try and get Copper to calm down and find you later, okay?”

Auburn huffed angrily, but nevertheless heeded Diamond’s instructions and pushed the door to the hospital open harder than was really necessary, nearly galloping into the reception area in her haste. With Auburn’s unhelpful antagonising halted, Diamond turned her attention back to Copperwing, who looked to be on the verge of a panic attack: wide-eyed, hyperventilating and shuddering, the pegasus was a mere shadow of her former confident self, a sight which made Diamond’s heart break.

“Copperwing, it’s okay, just calm down and tell me what’s wrong, alright? Just breathe slowly: in, out, in out…” Copper followed her instructions, and for a moment the filly’s state improved somewhat, regaining the ability to speak, although this proved to be more curse than blessing.

“I…I hate hospitals: the smell and the needles and the scalpels and x-ray machines and the whitewhitecorridorsandthedisinfectantand-and-and…” Copperwing trailed off, unable to breathe in enough air to continue her anxious, desperate tirade of terror: her breathing became more ragged and she let out a whimper, her voice hoarse between her sharp gasps. “Oh, oh, Celestia no… Oh, no…” 

Her breathing took yet another dive into the sea of panic, and this time did not resurface, no matter what Diamond said to try and console her. 
“Copperwing, please calm down!” 

Beginning to cry herself, Diamond gave up on her attempts to help her friend on her own and turned to the hospital building: terrified to leave Copper’s side in case she got even worse, she yelled as loud as she could manage over to the reception. “Help! Please, somepony help!”

As, despite her prayers, no help seemed to be coming, Diamond turned instead to her last, desperate hope: this looked like some sort of asthma attack, so maybe, just maybe, Copper’s little black bag contained an inhaler. It was all she had: with shaking hooves, she yanked the bag up off the grass where it had fallen and clawed at the zip, urgently trying to open it – the zip jammed, and Diamond screamed in frustration and terror, pulling with all her might and tearing the bag open at the seam.

A small, blue inhaler tumbled out of the wreckage of the bag, and Diamond snatched it up and sprinted back to her friend, whose gasps for air had become helpless wheezes; fumbling for a moment with the lid, she inserted the inhaler into Copper’s mouth and pressed down on the cylinder, spraying her friend’s throat with the contents. The effect was small, but it was there: Copper’s breathing had returned to panicked gasps, and had slowed somewhat.

Looking for any signs of disapproval in Copper’s eyes in case there was a risk of her overdosing, Diamond depressed the cylinder again and again at regular intervals, slowly but surely helping the pegasus’s breathing return to more manageable levels. Eventually, Copper pushed the inhaler weakly away and lay there panting, cheeks wet with her deluge of tears, whilst Diamond held her soothingly and whispered whatever words of comfort came to mind into her ear.

The two fillies lay there together for what felt like eternity, until the gentle-yet-firm hooves of the newly arrived nurses pried them apart and lifted Copperwing onto a stretcher. Utterly drained, Diamond followed alongside them on three legs, still holding her friend’s hoof despite the pace they were travelling at.

The group vanished into the hospital, and a minute or so later, a thin, bronze-maned pegasus filly stuck her head out of the door, her grin fading as she noticed the absence of her friend and her sister. Ears drooping, she headed back inside and trudged her way back to Ward B, trying to figure out the way to break the news that Copperwing wasn’t coming after all to her injured mother.



*****


> Antiseptic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond was sat on a clinical, no-frills white chair in a clinical, no-frills white hospital hallway and peered over her shoulder through a gap in the curtain around Copper’s bed as the doctors in their clinical, no-frills uniforms tended to her with a sense of silent urgency.

She snapped her head back round again as one of the nurses emerged from the curtain and tried to still her shaking hooves as the mare made her businesslike way over to where she was sat, hoping partly that she hadn’t been caught but mostly that her friend was alright. Copperwing had seemed on the road to recovery when the hospital staff had retrieved her from the front lawn, compared to her state before Diamond had found the inhaler, but all this fuss around the older filly made Diamond nervous. 

“Hello, my name is Nurse Snowheart – you were with the young mare we brought in off the green, were you not?”

“Yes, Nurse Snowheart. We were here with her younger sister to see her mother in Ward B.”

“I see… And where is her sister now?”

“She went in ahead of us; she doesn’t know what’s happened: my best guess would be with her mother, Burnished Gilding, in Ward B, but she might be looking for us.”

“Noted. What do you know of Miss Copperwing’s medical history – has anything like this happened before?”

“Nothing I know of; I haven’t known her very long… The most I can guess at, besides something like asthma, would be a phobia of hospitals. I think that’s what set her off: she was already stressed out about her mother being hurt, so if she’s as scared of hospitals as she seemed, it would make sense that being here would make her panic.”

“You haven’t known her long, you say? You must be either very perceptive or very lucky to have brought along her inhaler, then. As you say, a phobia of hospitals, whilst certainly unfortunate given the circumstances, would make a good candidate for a trigger. Now, I want you to tell me, step by step, what happened to put her in this state.”

“Well, I suppose the very start would be when the Royal Guard came to tell Copper and Auburn about their mother, who'd gone with them into the Everfree as part of her work as a Guard reserve. He couldn’t stay long, so all he could tell us was that their mother was injured and in Ward B. Auburn seemed very anxious to go, but Copperwing froze up… I guess she was in shock from the news.”

“Interesting, go on.”

“I offered to come with them to the hospital, and the three of us made our way over from my house in Ponyville Square. Copperwing was still a little out of sorts but she livened up as we went along – Auburn kept listing worse case scenarios and that did a lot to rile Copper up, which can’t have helped. By the time we got here, Copperwing was pretty upset about it all, and when we got near the building itself she stopped dead and said she couldn’t go any further.”

“Well, there’s certainly a build-up of stress there… What happened next?”

“She kept saying that she couldn’t go into the hospital, and about the second time she started crying. Auburn was really impatient to get inside… She said a lot of, uh, mean things to Copper, which only made her worse. Copper started breathing really heavily, and I sent Auburn away so that I could try and calm her down, but she just kept getting worse. I managed to get her to stop for a moment or two, but as soon as she got her breath she used it all up sobbing about hating hospitals and started hyperventilating.”

“Do you think that is where the asthma attack began in force?”

“Yes, I think so: before she was just breathing hard, but after she ran out of breath it was like she couldn’t control her breathing anymore. She couldn’t calm down, and I could see she was trying to… She looked desperate, scared that she was losing control. She kept getting worse no matter what I did so I opened her bag to see if there was anything which could help – it looked like she was having an asthma attack, so I thought there might be an inhaler in there if she was asthmatic.”

“So, you found the inhaler and applied it until her breathing was back under her control, correct?”

“Yes, Nurse… I was looking at her eyes to see if I was giving her too much, but it wasn’t until I was just about to stop anyway that she pushed the inhaler away.... I didn’t want to give her an overdose and make things worse, you know?”

“Well, ordinarily what you gave her would count as an overdose, but it is a very minor threat to her health compared to the asthma attack she was suffering, so you aren’t in any trouble for that. Not that we’d blame you even if the threat was greater: your actions showed great presence of mind and stopped the attack before it would have become genuinely life-threatening.”

“So, uh, how is she?”

“Better than she was when we brought her in by a long way, but we want to keep her in at least overnight to make sure there are no complications. From there, she’ll be confined to bed for at least the next few days and she can’t do anything strenuous for the next month – if it would get her out of breath ordinarily, she can’t do it. She should make a full recovery, but at the moment she’s not very well.”

“Can I… Can I see her?”

“Not right now, young mare… Perhaps later, if she’s breathing well enough, but that won’t be for at least an hour yet. If I were you, I’d tell your parents where you are and what’s happened and come back later if you’re able.”

“Alright.”



*



Auburn slinked sullenly into her mother’s room and shuffled over to the bedside, wings hanging limp at her sides and ears drooping guiltily. Ahead of her lay Burnished Gilding, the mare’s right wing and foreleg wrapped in bandages: she picked her head up off of the pillow, eyes searching the space behind her daughter hopefully, but dropped it back weakly when she saw the subtle shake of Auburn’s head.

“She’s gone, Mum; Diamond, too. It’s… It’s my fault, really: she was freaking out about going into hospital again and I snapped at her… Diamond was trying to calm her down, but I guess it didn’t work if they’re both gone… Must’ve gone back to Diamond’s place.”

“You snapped at her? Auburn, you know as well as I do that your sister gets stressed easily, what made you think shouting would help? I’m not surprised she went back with Diamond; hospitals terrify her - with good reason - and with me hurt and you yelling at her, it’s no wonder if she couldn’t take it.”

“I know… I-I just don’t understand what’s wrong with her – she’s my big sister, she’s supposed to be tougher than me; more mature; but all she does is freak out whenever anything happens that she doesn’t like and worry about stupid things like – like hospitals!”

“Auburn, there is nothing ‘wrong’ with your sister, and if you ever say something like that again, you’ll get more than just a stern talking to. An anxiety attack is not ‘freaking out’, not by a long shot - she can’t control it without pills, and she’s allergic to all of the ones suitable for a filly her age, you know that…"
Gilding frowned even deeper and continued with disappointment laced across her words. "Actually, I say you know that, but it really doesn’t seem like you do – how much else of what we’ve told you have you just ignored?”

Auburn looked outraged, stamping her hoof on the tiled floor in frustration as she spoke; an action which just made Gilding sigh even deeper than before and slowly shake her head. “Mum! I’m not ignoring anything!”

“Aren’t you? You say it’s your fault your sister didn’t come see me, but then you go on a rant about how much you think is wrong with her – if you’ve really taken in what I and your father told you, then how can you say the things you just said?” At her words, her daughter's head drooped once more, ears falling limp and the hoof she'd half-raised in anger drifting back down to the floor. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, sounding to Gilding's small pleasure like she meant it, although her mother had no intention of letting her off the hook until she'd dealt with the situation adequately enough that it wouldn't happen again.

“I don’t want apologies, young mare, I want you to listen to me. Copperwing has always been a sensitive filly at heart, and with the way her classmates treated her that developed into something more serious: she has at least one anxiety disorder – the psychologist thinks she might even have two separate ones – and you know as well as I do that there’s no easy fix for that sort of thing. It certainly doesn’t help when her own sister doesn’t understand the way she feels, or makes fun of her phobia because she thinks it’s ‘stupid’. Illogical as it might seem to you, she has very good reasons for being afraid of hospitals, even if what happened to her was a one-in-a-million occurrence.”

Auburn winced again under the redoubled scolding, repeating her earlier apology less because she meant it than because she wanted her mother to stop. “I’m sorry… Why is she scared of hospitals, anyway? You all just say she has a phobia and stop talking about it – what happened that’s so bad you won’t tell me?”

Gilding groaned, lifting her good hoof to meet her face as she realised where this had all spun out of control. “It’s not that we didn’t want to tell you, it’s just that we assumed Copper would tell you herself when she felt the time was right… Not to mention we thought that calling it a phobia would at least clue you in that it was pretty serious, and make you leave it alone until your sister was ready to share the details. If you want, I can tell you now, but if you’d rather you heard it from her directly, I wouldn’t mind seeing you wait for once.”

Her daughter bit her lip, gears whirring in her head, before settling on an answer with uncommon confidence.“I’m not going to be able to stop thinking about it now that you’ve made it such a big deal – tell me.”



*



“Young filly?” Diamond’s head turned sharply to face the speaker, “You may see your friend now, but keep it calm in there – last thing we need is another attack, and she really doesn’t have the energy for much right now, so try not to push her too hard.”

“Thank you, miss; I’ll be careful,” Diamond answered, trying not to rush as she re-entered Copperwing’s hospital room and caught her friend’s anxious gaze, the pegasus wordlessly pleading for her to come closer. She made her way as fast as she could manage without breaking into a canter, and smiled kindly at Copperwing, whose muzzle was covered by an oxygen mask, (Diamond assumed it was there as a ‘better-safe-than-sorry’ measure rather than as an absolute necessity, given that the pegasus was breathing well enough for her to be there), and who spoke entire volumes with her wide, fearful eyes, despite her inability to speak the way Diamond could. 

Reaching her bedside and seeing the worry in Copper’s eyes, Diamond nervously leaned down and nuzzled her comfortingly, bringing a light flush of pink to both their cheeks and a smile back to her friend’s partially-obscured muzzle. A hoof curled round her to rest on her back, and Diamond took the hint happily, ducking her head down to rest the side of her neck against Copper’s and tucking her forelegs around the pegasus’s barrel: they remained like that for some time, and after a while Copperwing slumped further into her embrace and began quivering lightly, the warm drips hitting the nape of Diamond’s neck confirming that she was crying. 

Moving one hoof up to stroke Copper’s mane, Diamond began whispering comforts into her friend’s ear, not in the least bit bothered by the length of their embrace or the damp fur on her neck from Copperwing’s tears and caring only about the wellbeing of the filly in her caring hooves. Eventually, the tears stopped and, after an even longer time in which both fillies savoured the warm, soothing feelings of their physical and emotional closeness, Copperwing withdrew from Diamond’s cradle; her hoof resting for a moment longer on the other’s withers, something mirrored by Diamond’s own hoof remaining entwined in the pegasus’s mane.

In the moment before they released each other completely, the pair’s eyes met and the fillies said much more to each other through that window between souls than they ever could through words, although words came soon after, as they always do. 

“Copper…” began Diamond, not really knowing where to start; but having seen all she needed to in the earth filly’s gaze, her friend let out a strangled little chuckle muted by the oxygen mask and croaked:

“…I know…” 

Copper smiled, and Diamond could tell that she understood what she’d wanted to say: suddenly obsolete, she abandoned that particular line of conversation in favour of the only other thing on her mind.

“You’ve got a phobia of hospitals, haven’t you?-“ Copper nodded weakly, embarrassment flushing her cheeks, “-It’s okay, we’re all afraid of something or other, and I bet you’ve got a better reason than I do for being scared of what you are.”

Copperwing nodded again, smirking a little in a way reminiscent of her former confident self, and reached over to the bedside table for the small, spiral-bound notepad which lay there and the feather-tipped ring alongside it. She struggled a little in her attempts to slide the feather-ring over her own primaries, before Diamond carefully took the item from her and completed the action for the pegasus, who gave her a grateful smile in return. 

Spotting the jar of ink on the table and Copperwing’s sharp glance toward it, Diamond unscrewed the lid and held it out for her carefully, channelling her earth pony magic as best she could so as to avoid spilling it: noticing the swing-out table at the side of the bed, however, she retracted the hoof and instead pulled the table round so that Copper would be able to use it, placing the ink down carefully onto it along with Copper’s notepad.

Her guess that Copper wanted to communicate via more than the monosyllabic, pained words she was currently capable of speaking  turned out to be correct, as Copper began using the feather-ring to write in a careful, almost calligraphic way, the ink-soaked tip of the feather acting like a thin, stiff paintbrush. Confusion returned, however, when she realised that her friend was not stopping even after writing a full page’s worth, and she resolved to find out why.

“What are you writing?” 

Copper looked up at her, raising an eyebrow meaningfully before returning to her peculiar scrawling, Diamond guessing – correctly – that she was explaining the biggest mystery Diamond had found about her thus far.

“Copper, you don’t have to write about your phobia now: I can wait, and I don’t want you upset just because of my curiosity.” Copperwing shrugged nonchalantly, the residual sadness in her eyes betraying the motion as false, and replied in a voice somewhat clearer than before.

“Want to… Gotta get it off my… uh… chest.” 

“You sure about this?”

“…’Fter today, d’you think I’d… uh… do it if I wasn’t?”

“Point taken... Just take a break if it gets to be too much, okay?”

“Mm-hm,” nodded Copperwing, getting right back to work. Pulling a chair in to the edge of the bed, Diamond sat and waited for her to finish, her hoof returning unconsciously to its earlier position wrapped in Copper’s silken mane, soothingly stroking it as the pegasus determinedly wrote.



*



After ten or so minutes, Copperwing leaned back in her bed, slipping the quill-ring off her wingtip and glancing at Diamond, who reluctantly retracted her hoof from behind the pegasus’s head and lifted the notebook carefully from the table, handling it almost religiously as she turned back the pages to find the beginning of Copperwing’s explanation and began to read.

When I was ten, I was probably the least popular filly in my school year, if not the school itself. My first week at school, I’d pissed off some privileged filly and through bribes and lies, she turned all my classmates against me. By the end of that year, I was miserable, and mum took me to a psychologist after I had a breakdown in class. According to him, what they’d done to me had given me something called Social Anxiety Disorder, and I needed to go to the hospital to have some tests done before I could have any pills to treat it.

A week later, three or so days before my appointment, my uncle Pewter Tap died. I was a real state – he was my favourite uncle, and I was still a wreck from school – and I 			 			   hadn’t recovered much by the time I had to go in for the tests. Everything went fine until we ended up waiting three-quarters of an hour after our appointment was due to start and I needed to use the bathroom. Not being in the best state of mind, I got very, very lost on the way back – so much so that I ended up in the back rooms of the hospital where normal ponies aren’t supposed to go. 

I looked around, but I couldn’t find anypony, so I just kept going until I stumbled into what I quickly realised was the hospital morgue – specifically, the morgue where my uncle’s body was being kept whilst they autopsied it – and found when I tried to leave that the door had locked behind me and I needed a keycard to get out. It was dark and cold and stank to high heaven with rotting flesh, and I was locked in. I had my first real panic attack there and then, though at the time I thought that I was having a heart attack, and after that most of what happened is a bit of a blur, to be honest. 

I wasn’t thinking straight, that’s for sure, and somehow I managed to trap myself in a storage cabinet with all the horrible, stinking chemicals they use on the dead bodies. Eventually, somepony heard me crying and let me out and took me back to mum, but I was stuck in that dark, chemical-soaked box for four full hours, believing for all the world that I’d had a heart attack and that any moment I was going to drop down dead just like Uncle Pewter. 

Another trip to the psychologist told me it was likely that, after what I’d been through, I’d have another anxiety disorder – this one situationally bound to hospitals – although he said it would probably be mild. I don’t need to tell you that that prediction didn’t hold true at all. 

So, yeah, that’s all I can think of. Probably just confused you, but at least I tried, right? I just want to say that I’m so glad I met you, Diamond, you’ve been a better friend to me than anypony besides Auburn, and she’s had thirteen years to build a relationship. 

I don’t think I would’ve gotten out of that attack without really hurting myself if it hadn’t been for you – if I’m honest, I wasn’t really expecting to make it through that at all – so thank you for... well, saving my life. I don’t know what else to say, so I’m going to stop writing now and let you read this thing, Celestia knows I’ve let it run on long enough.

Setting the pad down with shaking hooves, Diamond met Copperwing’s nervously expectant eyes and smiled sadly at her, tears rolling down her cheeks as she pushed the swing-out table away and pulled her friend into a tight hug and sniffled into the pillow. 

“Oh, Copperwing…” she repeated sorrowfully, unable to put her feelings into words; falling silent as Copper completed the reversal of their earlier roles and traced a hoof softly up and down through her mane until her tears fell no more. Eventually, Diamond lifted her head up off of Copper's soft shoulder and they once more broke apart, holding each other’s gaze even as Diamond sat down in an emotional continuation of the embrace. The notepad lay forgotten on the side table, nothing more needing to be put into words, as the pair looked at one another in a subtly different light to before, pondering their new views of each other as if they were the most important things in the world.

The fillies remained together even as the nurses returned to check on Copperwing; the pegasus placing her hoof on Diamond’s pointedly when Snowheart suggested that she leave; and for a while both their collective worries melted away in the warmth of their newfound closeness. An hour passed, then another, time moving differently for the two friends, tangled in their blankets of thought as they were: they didn't mind, as far as they were concerned, everything was going to be fine. 

As the sun made its way down the darkening sky on a path to the horizon, Copperwing lay her head on Diamond’s shoulder and burrowed, oxygen mask and all, into the other filly’s mane, closing her eyes and falling asleep with a contented look on her face. Smiling to herself, Diamond ran her hoof once more through Copper’s brassy mane, watching transfixed as the waning sunlight shimmered across her copper-tinged coat and lit her wingtips up a brilliant orange and letting the rhythmic drumbeat of the pegasus’s pulse carry her similarly into the land of dreams.



*****







> Resolution
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Diamond awoke, the comfortable weight of Copperwing’s head upon her shoulder was the first thing she noticed; the second being that they were no longer alone in the room. The hushed breaths rippling through the silence and the anxious shuffling of hooves on the floor told her that much, but what these sounds did not tell her was the most crucial fact of all: who was their mystery visitor?

She thought she had a pretty good hunch: the nervousness and lack of purposeful movement made it clear that it likely wasn’t a member of the staff - not unless something truly awful had happened to Burnished Gilding and they were reluctant to wake them and break the news, at least - and from the sound of the visitor’s quiet hoofsteps and shallow breaths, they were probably closer to Diamond’s own age than that of adult, judging by the rough idea this gave her of their size. 

Carefully, she disentangled herself from Copperwing and lay the other filly’s head softly down onto her pillow, running a soothing hoof through her mane before turning to the other pony in the room. Sure enough, the moment she turned it was clear that her hunch had been right, and inevitably, inexorably, Diamond’s pale blue eyes met with their pea-green twins, a spark of mutual recognition flashing between them.

“Auburn,” said Diamond, not unpleasantly, but without the usual enthusiasm that usually comprised such a greeting. 

The other filly looked down at her hooves nervously, discouraged by the emotionless welcome; and when she raised her head cautiously to once again look at Diamond, the cold gaze she received caused her to stutter a little when she finally spoke. 

“H-hey, Diamond; is Copperwing awake? I need to talk to her.”

Diamond's response came as a near-growl, the anger she'd felt towards her outside the hospital returning with a vengeance, fueled by the things Copperwing had told her about previous occurrences of the same. 

“Damn right you need to talk to her, Auburn – more than talk: you need to apologise to her. Properly. And not because your mum sent you, either: if you aren’t here to apologise truthfully and for Copper’s sake, not your own, you may as well leave now.”

“That’s why I’m here – to apologise, I mean – what I said to her earlier was… Well, it was horrible and I am so, so sorry for saying what I did.”

“I’m really hoping you don’t know why she’s afraid of hospitals, because if you knew and still told her to grow up, I’m not sure I can forgive you for that. I know I’ve done a lot of similar things in the past, but that is the one line I always refused to cross… Making fun of something that serious just isn’t what the Auburn Wake I know would ever do.”

This threat of alienation seemed to flick a switch in Auburn's mind and she sprung into speech with desperate fervour:

“D-Diamond! I didn’t know, I swear! If I had, I never would have even thought that stuff, let alone said it. I feel awful now mum’s told me why she’s scared – I always just thought that she was making a big deal about nothing, just messing around, you know? I didn’t realise it meant so much to her… Oh, the things I’ve said to her, all those Celestia-damned things I’ve said…”

Exasperation boiled in Diamond's lungs and she found herself unable to keep it in, releasing the verbal steam without pause for thought for their friendship in her anger.

“For buck’s sake, Auburn, I thought you were the smart one out of all of us – how did you miss the fact that she was serious about this? You’re her sister! Didn’t you ever stop to think that maybe what you were saying was hurting her?”

Auburn rushed to halt Diamond's rant before it began by biting the bit and admitting her wrongdoing openly:

“I know! I know, okay? I’ve been a terrible sister to her, especially today, but I want to try and make things better between us. I don’t really know where to start, but I’m going to give it my all.”

Whilst her vow to improve things between herself and Copperwing impressed Diamond a little, the still-fresh memory of Copper's pained writings about the years since the hospital incident forged a less than enthusiastic response.

“Better late than never, I suppose.”

“Diamond!-" she cried, desperate for some positive response from her friend, "-Please, I’m trying my best here - making amends after what I’ve done – I thought you’d appreciate that.”

“I’d appreciate that a lot more if Copper hadn’t cried in my hooves for a whole hour and ten minutes earlier, or if she hadn’t looked so ashamed of herself when she admitted she was scared of hospitals: as it is, I’m going to have a hard time appreciating it, especially as all you’ve done so far is talk to me.”

“She’s not even awake – I don’t have anypony to talk to besides you!”

Diamond sighed and ran a hoof through her mane, conceding that her friend was right about that at least and trying to put her views on the matter across less antagonistically than she had been doing. Looking Auburn in the eyes, she attempted to get her to understand her point of view in a slower, more measured tone.

“Look, I still like you, and I’m glad you’re trying to fix things up; but Copperwing’s my friend too, and right now she’s the one in an oxygen mask, in the place she has nightmares about, after having a joint panic and asthma attack, not you. If things were the other way around, I’d be taking your side, but they aren’t; so until you can win me back, I’m quite comfortable on hers.”

She held Auburn's gaze for a long few moments, waiting for her words to sink in and the pegasus to reply.

“I-I… I see where you’re coming from. I’m sorry, Diamond, I – Oh, she’s awake!”

Auburn made to dart to her sister's side, but Diamond held out a hoof solidly and barred her path, wary of her other friend suffering any more stress that day than she already had done.

“Don’t rush her, Auburn: I’m betting she’s got a few things to say to you before you begin, and the nurses weren’t kidding about the ‘keep it calm’ thing.-“ Diamond turned to Copperwing and, without needing to be told, retrieved the writing ring from the bedside table and returned it to its rightful place on the filly's left wing, speaking now to her instead of Auburn, “-There you go, Copper: take it easy, alright?”

“Like a stuck record, you are,” grumbled Copperwing playfully, speaking more energetically despite her still-raw throat, though her wry grin slipped a little as she made eye contact with her little sister. “Hey, Auburn; guess the nurses told you I was here?”

“Yeah, they did. We can talk more after you’re done writing, but I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry for what I said… I know why you’re afraid now, and it’s anything but dumb, or foalish, or any of the other things I’ve called you. I’ve been a terrible sister to you…”

Copperwing’s only response to this was to hum thoughtfully and fix her gaze once and for all upon her notepad, her writing-feather tracing slowly over the lined paper as she carefully inked out her thoughts onto its surface, the process tempered somewhat by her sister’s initial apology. An awkward silence fell over the other two occupants of the room as the older pegasus wrote, Auburn occasionally fixing Diamond with an apologetic glance, to which the earth filly responded stone-facedly, her eyes always flicking over to her writing friend before returning to meet Auburn’s own, her expression giving little away. After some time, Copperwing stopped writing, and Diamond quietly got up from her seat and took a few steps towards the doorway, not wanting to get in the way of the sisters’ conversation.

“I’ll let you two have a little privacy: I’ll be outside if you need me,” she said, backing away; and at her friends’ grateful looks, she turned around completely and trotted quickly from the room. 

As she emerged, she noticed Nurse Snowheart glance at her and shot the medical mare a smile, which thawed her frosty appearances just enough that a small smile in return was momentarily visible. Settling herself down in one of the clinical, no-frills white chairs she had become quite familiar with over the past few hours, she lay back and wondered, not for the first time that afternoon, whether her father was worried about her. She didn’t think he’d be too worried, but with how long she’d been gone, he would almost certainly be concerned by this point: a pang of guilt shot through her as she came to this conclusion, and thought back to Nurse Snowheart’s advice from earlier – advice which she, perhaps foolishly, had not taken.



*



Filthy Rich couldn’t concentrate on his work, and this time it wasn’t just because he was bored or hungry: this time a far greater yearning than those petty reasons was drawing his mind away, and he found that he could no longer ignore its beckoning cries. 

It was half past nine now, and still his daughter and her pegasus friends had not returned from the hospital: almost ten hours since they had left for the far side of Ponyville, and still no sign. Whilst he understood that at hospital visits were rarely brief events, they rarely took longer than three or four hours even with a patient as presumably badly injured as Burnished Gilding being the one receiving visitors. Something had not gone according to plan, and whilst the truth of what would surely turn out to be something minor, Rich could not stand not knowing – it was time to act, even if this work was crucial.

Pushing the papers on the desk away from him, he slid quickly from his seat and strode hurriedly out of the office without a second glance back, trotting purposefully to the staircase outside the room and making his way down it hastily in his rush to escape his lavish prison. It took mere moments (too long, entirely) for him to arrive at the front door of his empty home; and even as he called back over his shoulder to inform the staff of his soon-to-be absence, he was busy unlocking the door; removing the final obstacle in his path with urgency.

Slipping quickly out of the doorway, Rich began to canter nervously away into the town, the door slamming shut behind him. He made it as far as the other side of the square when the voice of a familiar mare stopped him in his tracks; more through the surprise of hearing her calling his name than anything else.

“Rich!” she called again, and he turned to face the voice’s owner as she trotted over to him, a cheerful smile on her face as he caught her gaze, although it dropped a little when she saw his own bleak expression. 

“Evening, Cheerilee; didn’t expect to see you out so late.”

“I could say the same thing... Hey, you looked like you were in a hurry; I’m not getting in the way of anything too important, am I?”

“Well... Auburn Wake’s mother’s in hospital, and she, her sister and Diamond aren’t back from the hospital yet. It’s been hours now, so I was going to try and find them.”

Cheerilee's ears splayed back at the news, and she slumped a little in disappointment, although her overriding expression was one of concern.

“Ah… So that’s a yes, then. I was going to ask you about that deal with Prose Print Publications, but I’ll just let you get going.” She made to turn away, but Rich held up a hoof, feeling he owed her an explanation sooner rather than later given the disappointment the news would bring.

“About that… I’m not sure I’m going to be able to pull it off. I need the papers ready for tomorrow, and half of it’s not done yet… I’d be pulling an all-nighter if it wasn’t for Diamond and her friends being missing, but with trying to find them and getting to and from the hospital I don’t think I’ll have the time. I know you were looking forward to more educational foals’ books ending up in my range, but it just doesn’t look like it’ll happen after all.”

“That doesn’t sound good, no… Say, I could find them for you if you wanted – I’m a teacher, after all, so finding foals is second nature by now – and anyway, I’d feel terrible if I didn’t help you out somehow.” 

Rich frowned, bushy eyebrows knitting together in an expression of indecision, and answered hesitantly. “I don’t know, Cheerilee… They’re supposed to be my responsibility. It would be nice to get that deal done, but I’m not sure I could live with myself if the fillies are hurt. Thanks for the offer, but I’m just not sure that’d be the best thing to do.”

Whilst his answer was effectively a no, Cheerilee could see that he was tempted to accept and pushed harder for him to accept her offer, not wanting him to lose out on his deal and have to pick up the pieces on top of his concern for the fillies under his care.

“How do you think I’d feel if they’re hurt? I care about them, too, and you’ve been under too much stress already to have to choose between your business and your daughter. Let me help, Rich, please.”

He sighed heavily and conceded the conversation to his mulberry friend, grudgingly accepting the offer. “Alright, just be quick about it: I can’t concentrate, not knowing if they’re alright… I’m just scared of losing another pony I love.”

Cheerilee rested a hoof on his shoulder and looked deep into his eyes, reassuring him with firm confidence. “You aren’t losing anypony, Rich, I promise you. I’ll be back before you know I’ve gone, with the terrible trio in tow – I used to captain the cross-country team when I was younger, and I’ll be damned if I can’t still manage a good mile's run.”

With this, she turned and trotted quickly away, her strides quickening into a canter and from there into a full gallop as she raced up the long dirt path, swirling dust hovering in the air where she had trodden. 

“Thank you!” Rich called after her, and she turned her head and yelled back, a playful grin momentarily breaking her serious demeanour:

“It’s called friendship, Rich, look it up!”

For a little while, Filthy Rich watched her go, but with his one excuse removed from the equation, he turned reluctantly away from his friend and her distant daughter, and returned to his own home. It still didn’t feel quite right walking away, but knowing that Cheerilee was on the job did a lot to put his mind at ease. With a sigh, he closed the front door behind him and prepared himself for the long job ahead, sending one final prayer to the princesses that the fillies under his care would prove to be unharmed. 



*



Auburn reached out a nervous hoof and took the notebook from her sister, trepidation flooding her heart as she turned it the right way and brought it up so that she could read what Copperwing had to say. Part of her wished Copper would have let her explain herself fully, but she supposed that she’d lost that option when she had let her insults be the last words in their earlier conversation and resigned herself to the fact that what her sister had written may well be just as hurtful as her words had been. Taking in a shaky breath, she turned her gaze at last to the page itself and began to read.

Auburn, I have put up with your teasing about my phobia for years, but I just can’t take it anymore. I can’t do it: you’ve hurt me too much this time for me to shrug it off as just my sister doing what sisters do, and I’m not even talking about the asthma thing. 

What I’m talking about, Auburn, is the fact that every month - almost every week - for the last four years of my life, you have made fun of me about the results of the worst day of my life, and after what you said today - and the way you looked when you said it - I’ve been forced to accept that you meant what you said. When I could just ignore them as ‘friendly teasing’ or whatever else you called it, I was able to get on with life quite happily, because I believed that you weren’t being serious about it; but when you see them as such, four years of heartfelt insults really has an impact.

You called me a lot of hurtful things - my personal favourite being: ‘the changeling-food equivalent of Sweetie Belle’s burnt toast’ – and now that I’m looking back without my rose-tinted glasses on, every single one of them hurts a million times worse than my body does right now. I just don’t understand you: you call me your sister, you claim that I’m your best friend in the world, you play with me and talk with me and do all the things I’d want in a sister, but when it comes to the most important thing in my life, you trample all over my feelings like they’re nothing and laugh. Why?

Do you simply not care enough about my feelings to accept that my fear of hospitals isn't something you can just insult me for and not hurt me badly? Is that what it is?
I don’t want to think that about you, so I’m going to let you explain yourself, but if it turns out that you knew the reasons for my phobia and still said what you did, we are through as sisters in every sense besides the blood in our veins. 

I’m listening, so talk.

Auburn’s heart sank. There it was in writing: she had deeply, seriously hurt Copperwing without even realising what she was doing; and now her friendship with her own sister lay on the line, with this talk apparently being her only chance at keeping it. She’d known deep down that this would happen since her mother had helped her realise what she’d done, but to have it written down in Copper’s openly judgemental cursive was a whole new level of painful. 

Putting the pad back down on the bedside table, she took a deep breath and steeled herself for the task to come: she knew she’d done wrong, and so did Copperwing; now was the time to say it aloud and accept the consequences.

“Shit, Copper, I don’t know what I can say: 'sorry' just feels empty when I think about everything I’ve said to you, but it’s the only word I can think of. So... I’m sorry, Copperwing; for all the times I’ve insulted you, or made you feel bad for being scared, and especially for what I did today, What I’ve done was unacceptable, and I can see that now… I just wish I hadn’t been so blind in the first place.

“I don’t even know why I did it, really. Mum was right: just calling it a phobia should have been enough that I understood that it was serious, but I didn’t understand at all; I just shrugged it off as meaning nothing and hurt you. You're my sister, but even that fact didn’t stop me, and the worst thing is that I think that might be why I did what I did."

“What I’m saying is that I can’t imagine doing something like that to any of my other friends, so maybe it’s because you’re my sister that I could say what I did and not feel bad about it until Mum broke whatever delusion I was under. I guess I always expected you to love me no matter what I did... That was my excuse, I think: I always thought I could get away with it without having to face the consequences… I think I liked the power it gave me – even Diamond enjoyed what she did a little bit, before it got serious… With me it never did get serious, because I never thought that I’d have to feel responsible for my actions – and that just makes the whole thing even more messed up. 

“It guess it really comes down to this, then: I bastardised our relationship so I could get a power kick and never have to face up to my actions in getting it. Four years of treating you like dirt because I liked the buzz… I don’t blame you if you and Diamond don’t like me after all this, because right now I’m not sure I like myself… What sort of pony does what I’ve done? …Actually, don’t answer that; I already have an answer: Silver Spoon would do what I’ve done. I’m just another sick, sadistic little creep like her. I’m so, so sorry, Copper; I never deserved a sister like you… I’ll just go now, and I don’t blame you for not wanting me anymore – I deserve it after what I’ve done.”

Tears in her eyes, she got up from her seat and left without another word, unable to even look at her sister as she did so. Copperwing tried to say something, but Auburn was too far away to hear her quiet croaks properly and she hurried onwards, deathly afraid of her sister’s response; resulting in a frustrated whine from the elder pegasus and, a few moments later, something impacting hard into her shoulder. She turned in shock to see Copperwing gesturing furiously and, glancing down, the notepad which had hit her. Fresh ink had smeared her coat where it had hit, and it occurred to her that the throwing of the notepad might have been an attempt to communicate more than the extent of her sibling’s rightful anger.

Shaky-hooved, she retrieved the pad from its resting place under an empty gurney and flicked through its disarrayed pages to find the one which had marked her coat. Sure enough, in blurred, barely legible letters, the order “COME BACK” stared back at her, and for the first time since she’d started talking, Auburn met her sister’s gaze. There was the hurt and anger in Copperwing’s green discs that Auburn had expected, but also something else; an unnameable emotion which whispered that the most visible of Copper’s feelings were not necessarily the only ones, and which pleaded for Auburn to let her sister prove that.

Nervously, and with no small amount of trepidation, Auburn returned to her sister’s bedside. Copper smiled slightly, her eyes softening, and leaned in to speak into Auburn’s ear: her voice was raspy and pained, but nevertheless carried every ounce of meaning she needed to express.

“You are nothing like Silver Spoon. Maybe you did what you did because you liked the kick of it, but you’re not like her. She thinks she’s better than everypony and hurts everyone she meets, and she doesn’t just insult, she ruins ponies’ lives. I’ve had to deal with ponies like her, and you are so far away from them you wouldn’t believe… You hurt me a lot, and I’m still furious about what you did to me, but you’re my sister and you know that you’ve done wrong… 

"Do you think Silver Spoon ever feels bad about what she’s done? I bet she doesn’t, but you’re here apologising, so what does that show about you? What I’m trying to say is: I still love you, and if you put your back into making this up to me, I can forgive you even after all the things you’ve said. They say actions speak louder than words, so stop apologising and start acting sorry instead.”

Tears falling freely now, Auburn wrapped her forelegs around her sister and hugged her tight, feeling a simultaneous pang of guilt and spark of joy when she returned the embrace without hesitation. Copperwing was shaking softly, and Auburn realised she was crying, too: with so much pent-up emotion, it was no wonder it was coming out at the resolution of the conflict which had caused it. Together, the two sisters cried into one another’s manes, and felt the hurt and anger drain away out of their eyes, bitterness and regret carried inexorably out of their battered hearts and away forever, opening them up to brighter feelings from better days to come.

After what felt like an eternity and yet no time at all, they broke apart and looked at each other with eyes as good as new, seeing at last past the acts they both put on and accepting what lay beneath, hoping for a better tomorrow for their dented sense of sisterhood and internally vowing to do their best to come out of this stronger than they had come in. Auburn gazed into her sister’s eyes and realised there was only one thing she could say after everything: it was simple, only six short words, but it was a vessel for far more than its immediate meaning. It would do.

“Thank you… I love you, too.”

Copperwing smiled, understanding for the first time in years what her sister was thinking, and nuzzled her gently by way of a response. It was only as she pulled back again that she noticed the other pony in the room: a light pink filly with tears in her eyes and a wide grin bolted to her face.

“Diamond?!” she exclaimed, mind reeling a little from her friend's unannounced arrival.

“Hey, you two,” Diamond replied, still grinning as she trotted over to them and pulled them into a hug, nuzzling first Copperwing then Auburn.

“I’m proud of you, you know, and so will your mother be when she hears you’ve made up. I only heard that last part, but I know that must have been hard on both of you: Auburn, Copper’s right, you aren’t anything like Silver Spoon and if she forgives you, then so do I... Copperwing, what you’ve just said was… Well, you were a bigger mare there than I think I would have been in the same position, so congratulations on that, I guess.”

“Thanks, Diamond,” replied Auburn, tightening her own hold on her once-and-again friend, as Copperwing smiled a little sadly and said:

“Yeah, thanks Dee-Tee; that means a lot, coming from you… Just a shame that I can’t see Mum right now: I still don’t know how she is, and it’s driving me crazy being so close but not able to talk to her.”

Diamond looked her in the eye and smiled smugly, relaying the information she'd discovered whilst out of the room to her friend. 

“About that… I was talking with Nurse Snowheart outside about whether you’ll still be in hospital tomorrow, and she says that they’re going to keep you here until your father’s back, so I’ll be able to come see you after school tomorrow if you like.-" Copper's face lit up at the news, and Diamond grinned broadly at the sight, continuing onto the best news of all, "-Anyway, she says they’re going to move you to your mother’s ward so you two can be together once they’ve sorted everything out, so you might not be waiting so long after all.”

Copper's wings flicked excitedly as she pressed Diamond for more details: “How long do you think it’ll be?”

“Half an hour, maybe?-" the earth filly said, frowning slightly, "-I can go check if you want.”

The pegasus held her tight in her forelegs as she attempted to act on her offer, preventing her from leaving. She burrowed once more into Diamond's mane and squeezed her sister's shoulder with her left hoof, making it clear that she wanted both exactly where they were. 

“Don’t go yet…" she pleaded, "I want this moment to last, you know?”

Diamond chuckled and leaned into the embrace willingly, reassuring her friend with warmth in her voice: “It’s alright, we aren’t going anywhere just yet – right, Auburn?”

Grinning, Auburn followed her friend's lead and leaned in closer to her sister, backing up the earth filly's promise happily.

“Damn right, Diamond. Don’t you worry one bit, sis, we're here to stay.”

Copperwing smiled contentedly at their response and wrapped her wing around Diamond, pulling Auburn similarly closer with her foreleg and enjoying the reassuring warmth of their bodies. Diamond's lilac mane obscured her vision, but she didn't mind, staring into the purple mass as happily as if it was a blue sky on a sunny day. As her sister extended her own wings to complete their three-pony embrace, Copperwing closed her eyes and sighed, letting all the pain of the last four years slip away for a while and bathing happily in the rising tides of joy flooding her heart with warmth. Soon they’d have to leave, she was sure, but for now they were her whole world: all things considered, she thought that made her world a pretty damned good one.




*****

> Reunions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The half-hour’s wait which Diamond had predicted passed quickly for the three fillies, sped along by small talk and jokes; and it came almost as a surprise when Nurse Snowheart returned to the room and announced that Copperwing was to be moved then and there to her mother’s ward. Diamond and Auburn retreated out of the nurse’s way as she transferred the various apparatus attached to Copper from their former homes in the medical devices at the bedside to their new ones in the array of smaller equipment affixed to the ends of the bed; feeling somewhat out of place. Catching the apprehension in Auburn's eyes, Diamond smiled kindly at her and waited with a facade of calm for the nurse to go about her work.

Once the last piece of machinery had been plugged into place, the time came for the bed itself to be moved, and Copperwing with it: with a deft motion of her hoof, Snowheart disengaged the brakes keeping the hospital bed in place and walked slowly backwards, turning as she did so to point the end of the bed towards the door. It was time to go and, sensing this, Diamond and Auburn cautiously approached the bed, taking position on either side of Copperwing as Snowheart began to push forwards and power the pegasus’s bed on its way to its new home beside her mother’s own.

Speeding up a little to give herself the time to switch from four hooves to three, Diamond gripped Copperwing’s hoof in her own and shot her a reassuring smile, which her friend returned in gratitude; a smile which only broadened when Auburn extended a wing over her sister’s chest and met Diamond’s gaze with a nod. It did not take long for the small group to make their way down the clean white hallways to their destination, but in that time; through those small actions; a great many steps were taken by both Copperwing’s sister and her friend which might, under other circumstances, have taken far longer than those short minutes. 



*



Their arrival in Ward B was marked instantly by a wordless cry of joy from somewhere over to Diamond’s right, and all three fillies glanced in the direction of the sound: there on one of the many beds on the large ward was Burnished Gilding, beaming at the sight of her visitors despite the pain crinkling the corners of her eyes and the injuries covered by the myriad bandages wrapped around her right foreleg, wing and barrel. As Snowheart commanded an orderly to remove the empty bed next to Gilding’s, Auburn sidled over to her mother and Diamond gave Copperwing’s hoof a reassuring squeeze, before standing out of the way so that her friend could be moved into her rightful place by her mother’s side.

Soon, Copperwing’s bed had slid to a halt beside her mother’s own and the orderly left the room, with the only other pony besides the pegasus’s family and friend in the immediate vicinity being Snowheart, who was going about her work checking on the other patients. Judging that there would be no unwanted interruptions, Gilding turned on her side to face her daughter better and began the long-needed conversation.

“It’s such a relief to see you at last, my brave little filly – I was so worried when they told me what had happened. How are you feeling, sweetie?”

“Well as can be expected, I guess. Everything in here-“ she tapped a hoof against her ribs, “-hurts like Tartarus, but I’m better than I was for sure. Just glad Diamond was there, really, without her I’d be a lot worse… Inside as well as outside.” She gave a meaningful glance towards her sister on the word ‘inside’, and Gild raised her eyebrows in a look of hope-tempered surprise at the implication that her daughters’ mutual friend had acted as their mediator.

“Auburn’s apologised, has she?”

“Yeah, she did… I didn’t really want to hear it at first, but Dee-Tee gave her enough of a talking to that I was able to cut most of my own anger out of what I said. Good thing she did, too: Diamond wasn’t particularly kind in what she said, but I had a whole torrent of horrible things ready that I’m glad I never said.”

Gild turned her proudly beaming face towards Diamond then, looking to thank her; the intensity of her smiling eyes never even wavering as she gazed into the suddenly shy face of the only filly present not of her own flesh and blood.

“Well… Dee-Tee, was it?-” both Copperwing and Diamond flushed with embarrassment at this unwanted use of the nickname, “-It sounds like you’ve grown to be a very good friend to my fillies, and I owe you and your father a great deal of thanks for all you’ve done for us these last few days. You’ll always be welcome in our home – not to say that you weren’t before, of course – and you can go right ahead and consider yourself one of the family…”

“Wow, I, uh…" stuttered Diamond, "Thank you, Gild – it was nothing, really.” Unnoticed by the earth filly, Gild rolled her eyes at Diamond's modesty.

“I wouldn’t call saving my daughter’s life and then helping patch up her relationship with her sister ‘nothing’. You’ve done a lot of things to be proud of today, Diamond; nopony is going to complain if you let yourself feel good about them.”

“It sounds like I did a lot more when you say it like that,” replied Diamond, still unwilling to accept the mare’s praise in its entirety, and Gild smiled broader than before then turned to Auburn, who hadn’t spoken a word since they’d arrived.

“Your father won’t be back until midday tomorrow, so you’ll need to fetch your school stuff from the house and stay the night somewhere else, okay? I know it’s a pain, but the earliest train he could get back was the 9AM tomorrow – all of the earlier ones were fully booked days ago. Typical Manehattan public transport: late, delayed for hours or packed to overflowing, and usually all three at the same time.”

Diamond piped up again at this, and Auburn allowed her to answer it in her stead, hoping beyond hope that she would let her sleep round her house again, her friend, unbeknownst to the pegasus, catching the expression on her face. 

“She can stay at my house as long as she needs to-” Auburn visibly let out her held breath and smiled in gratitude as these words left Diamond’s mouth, which only served to encourage the earth filly to add a reassuring statement onto the trailing end of the sentence, “-She’s one of my best friends, after all.”

“Thanks Diamond,” beamed Auburn, coming closer at last following the reaffirmation of their friendship; her mother wasting no time in agreeing with her.

“Yes, thank you very much, young mare," affirmed Gilding emphatically, "You’ve already done so much for us today, but apparently your selflessness knows no bounds.”

“Anypony would do the same,” replied Diamond with a light blush, determinedly evading the compliment.

“You’d be surprised,” muttered Gild, her gaze darkening momentarily, before her sunny demeanour returned once more. “Anyway, it’s getting late and as nice as it would be to have you here with us all night, I think it’s about time you and Auburn went home.”

Diamond glanced nervously at the clock, and saw that it was even later than she’d thought: nearly ten in the evening – her father would be worried sick!

“You’re right, I should really be getting back – I’ll just say my goodbyes and go, before I worry Daddy any more than I already have done. You ready to go, Auburn?”

“Yeah,” she replied with a nod, “I have a few small things I wanted to say to mum and Copper, but that shouldn't take long.”

While Auburn spoke to her mother, Diamond immediately went to Copperwing’s side; reluctant to leave her friend in the place she feared so much and looking to soothe the other filly’s nerves. 

“Hey, Copper… I really do need to go now, but if I could, I’d stay the night here, with you. You don’t deserve being stuck here on your own, especially after everything else today, but you’ll have your mum right next to you if you need somepony, and I’ll come see you tomorrow as soon as I can… You are going to be alright, aren’t you?”

Copperwing nodded, the hints of a grin etching themselves onto her features.

“Yeah, I’ll survive one night here – like you said, I’ll have mum with me, so it won’t be too bad. Would be nice to have you here, too, but your dad needs you right now, not me… Still, I appreciate the gesture, it really means a lot to me to hear that.”

“No problem, Copper,” Diamond replied, starting to turn away before a spark of inspiration flashed in her eyes and she returned to Copperwing’s side, saying  “Hey, I have an idea” as she plucked her trademark, namesake tiara from the top of her head. After tugging some caught hairs free of the gleaming jewellery, she held it out to her friend, whose confused expression prompted her to explain.

“I want you to keep this for the night, so you’ll have something of me here to remind you that you’re going to be fine. I was just thinking that it sucked that I couldn’t stay with you, so I thought maybe this was the next best thi-”

Her sentence was promptly cut off as the idea clicked into Copperwing’s brain and the pegasus instantly pulled her into a hug, a mask-muffled “Thank-you!” issuing from her friend’s mouth; meanwhile Diamond contemplated the surface of the pillow she’d been unexpectedly introduced to, grinning to herself despite the reaction having caught her off guard. 

Extracting herself from the embrace, Diamond watched happily as Copperwing set the tiara down on her own head and shot her a grin. 

“How do I look?” she asked, fiddling with the new weight of the headwear.

“Sprout a horn from your head and I could mistake you for a princess… Seriously, though, it really suits you – I’m almost tempted to let you keep it.”

“Only almost?” joked Copperwing.

Diamond put on a tone of mock-authority, which was somewhat ruined by her growing smile.

“I can take it back if you want,” she threatened, Copper widening her eyes comically and holding her hooves up in a gesture of surrender.

“No, it’s fine; I’ll be good,” she promised, trying not to laugh.

“You’d better be, little miss,” Diamond replied, trying her best to look intimidating but being thoroughly betrayed by the persistent grin on her face. 

“Wait a minute," Copperwing said, something having just occurred to her, "I thought I was supposed to be the princess here; why are you calling the shots?”

“Do you want to go to the dungeons?" deadpanned Diamond, "Because that’s how you go to the dungeons.”

Trying to keep a straight face, Copper made a show of grovelling before her friend, making it all the way through before snorting with laughter.

“Forgive my transgressions, almightiest Princess Diamond Tiara, oh wise and beautiful goddess of pretty metal hats; please, pay no heed to this lowly peasant who most certainly isn’t planning to make off with your tiara.”

Diamond frowned. “Did you just call me the princess of tin-foil hats? I thought that was Lyra’s job.”

“Princess Celestia fired her for being unprofessional – since when did tin-foil princesses wear biohazard suits, honestly?”

“That is a good question, my faithful student…”

Diamond trailed off, losing the absurd train of thought she and Copperwing had been following, and after a few moments of awkward silence, the pair broke into giggles; Copper coughing a little and forcing herself to stop after a moment but still smiling broadly through the pain of her burning lungs.

Auburn, who had finished talking with her mother, sidled over to Copper’s bedside, prompting Diamond to give the sisters a little space while they gave their goodbyes. Turning one last time to Gild, she realised that she still didn’t know the cause of the mare’s injuries and decided to kill time by finding out.

Approaching Gild a little nervously, Diamond plucked up the courage to speak when the wounded pegasus smiled kindly down at her and said “Hello, Diamond,” deliberately starting the conversation.

“Hi, Gild… I was just wondering – if you want to talk about it – what happened to you in the Everfree? I mean, you had Guard armour, didn’t you?”

“Oh, that? I suppose you could blame the manticore for knocking me off a cliff, or gravity for making me hit the ground so hard, but most of the damage was from the rocks I landed on. Punched right through my breastplate, some of it, and did a really good job messing up my leg… Wing’s pretty beat up too, but somehow it made it out of all that in one piece.”

“Were any of the other Guards hurt?” asked Diamond, concerned.

“The manticore knocked one of the new recruits off with me, a young mare by the name of Glimmer Blade: she landed almost entirely on her right foreleg… Nasty stuff – if she wasn’t a unicorn with a talent in magical swordfighting, she’d probably have been honourably discharged; as it is, she’s going to need a prosthesis before they let her back out on the field. Other than a few scratches on our C.O. though, nopony else was hurt.”

“What happened to the manticore?”

“Dead. We identified it as soon as we encountered the thing: that manticore’s been attacking villages on the Everfree fringe for months, taking the unlucky souls who couldn’t get away back to its lair. It had a taste for pony flesh, so we had to take it out – it was actually trying to tear mine and Glimmer’s heads off when it overshot its pounce and sent us all over the edge. Glimmer wounded it bad – somehow the filly was able to use her magic well enough to stab it with her sword even after that fall, not to mention what happened to her leg – and the rest finished it off with spears and magic.”

Diamond's eyes widened: this sounded much more risky than the stories made out. “Does... This sort of thing happen often in the Guard?”

“Nah, usually it’s just your run-of-the-mill timberwolves and the like, or some amateur thief trying to make it big off somepony else’s hard work… Only time I got hurt like this before I retired was when a particularly grouchy dragon decided it would be fun to see how well I flew with all the air knocked from my lungs… Not as cool as it sounds. He was ticked off because I interrupted his, and I quote, ‘handsomeness sleep’ and didn’t take the time to realise I was a Guard.”

Diamond Tiara’s response was cut off before it could even leave her mouth – Auburn was done with Copperwing: it was time to leave.

“You ready to go, Diamond?” asked the pegasus, glancing concernedly at the clock hanging on the wall opposite.

“Yeah, we’d better get back,” replied Diamond, beginning to trot out of the room. As she neared the doorway out of the ward, she turned back and waved to Gild and Copper, before looking ahead of herself once more and leaving the ward entirely.



*



Cheerilee wound down from her gallop into a brisk canter, and from there slowed expertly into the purposeful stride of a pony with no time for being bothered with such trivialities as greetings. The hospital filled her view now that she was close to it, and she began sweeping her gaze left and right in search for her missing students, not wanting to chance missing them by looking the wrong way.

Minutes passed, in which she strode along paths and then bleak, white corridors, and still there was no sign of the fillies. A glance at a sign told her that she was not far from the ward Auburn’s mother was being kept in, and she changed her gait up a gear, powering down the hallways with a rhythmic drumbeat echoing from every clacking hoof as she neared her destination.

She rounded the corner and there was Ward B: not one of the fillies she was looking for could be seen within it, although she spotted a mare and a teenage filly with similar colourings to Auburn. Just as she was about to head over to them and ask if they knew where Diamond and Auburn were, she heard a distinctive giggle over to her right. 

Turning to where the sound had come from, she saw that the corridor branched in a ‘T’ shape, one way going left and another going right, and hurried over to it. Not knowing whether Diamond – if the laughter had indeed been hers – was leaving or simply heading somewhere else in the hospital, such as the toilets, she glanced down the new corridor in both directions, catching a glimpse of two tails – one pink, the other coppery – flick around the corner to her right. 

They were likely leaving, judging by the direction, and Cheerilee put on yet another burst of speed to catch them up: if they were in anywhere near as much of a hurry to get back as they should be, considering the time, there was still a fair chance of her losing track of them. That being true, Cheerilee was confident that she would not lose the fillies – she liked to think that teachers have something of a seventh sense for finding those under their care, and it had not failed her yet.

True to her gut feeling, the fillies had made a beeline for the nearest exit at a fast trot, and she found herself closing on them with ease. It had been a somewhat frustrating, roundabouts trip to find them, but at last she was nearing the end of the little adventure.

“Diamond! Auburn!” 

The fillies stopped dead and turned at the sound of their names being called, eyes wide with surprise and a little fear – no doubt worried that they were in trouble for their late exit from the hospital – but as Cheerilee caught up to them, she beamed a warm smile at the two, instantly soothing their nerves.

“H-hello, Miss Cheerilee!” said Diamond, her surprise clearly audible, while Auburn gave a shy smile and waved her hoof by way of a greeting. 

“Hello, Diamond, and hello to you too, Auburn. Diamond, your father sent me to look for you two – I’m sure you have some very good reasons for staying as long as you have done, but he was very worried about you when I spoke to him.”

“Sorry…”

“No need to apologise; I’m just glad you’re both alright – we’ve all had more than enough bad news for today, without you pair getting yourself hurt. Say, Auburn, where’s your sister? I’d have thought she’d be leaving with the rest of you…”

“Copper’s… Well, she’s… Uhm…” began Auburn, looking uncomfortable. Diamond lay a reassuring hoof on the pegasus’s shoulder and finished for her.

“Copperwing had an anxiety attack, and she’s asthmatic so it just… spiralled from there. She’s alright, but they’re keeping her in overnight just to be sure. It’s part of why we took so long: it was a few hours before the doctors would let us see her, and there was a lot to talk about after what happened to her, so I kinda forgot to check the clock. Next thing I know, it’s already dark outside; so we said our goodbyes to Copper and Auburn’s mum, and headed home.”

“I’m sorry about Copperwing, but it’s good to hear that she’ll be alright. Now, we’d better get you fillies home, right?”

“Actually,” Auburn said, looking apologetically up at her teacher, “I need to fetch my school stuff from my house before we go back to Diamond’s, if that’s not too much trouble.”

“Not at all; we can’t have you turning up to class without your books and pens, can we?”

“I don’t know,” quipped Diamond, “I think she could manage without her homework… Homework is complete rubbish.”

“I can give you more if you want.”

“Oh, I’m fine, really.”

“Are you sure? I’ve got some really nice questions on binomial expansion if you want them…”

“I am very sure. I have enough algebra in my life without more question writers asking where their ‘x’ is, and ‘y’ they left them in the first place. I’m a filly, not an agony aunt!”

Auburn sniggered at this, and even Cheerilee covered a giggle with her hoof, and after the laughter had cleared, the trio moved off in the direction of Auburn’s house, the slim pegasus taking the lead while rich filly and schoolteacher walked side by side, enjoying each other’s wordless company. 



*



After twenty-five minutes or so, they found themselves at Auburn’s house, and the pegasus drew a small golden key from under her wing in a practiced motion, before standing at an angle in front of  the door so as not to block her light. A moment of fumbling hooves and squinting passed, before the door opened with a low click and Auburn trotted inside, turning to her companions a second later and gesturing for them to come inside.

Cheerilee and Diamond trotted after her, and the pegasus filly closed the door behind them, taking her key back from the outside lest someone steal it before galloping up the stairs to her room. Her two guests sat down in the living room whilst she located her belongings, and after a moment or two of silence, Diamond struck up a conversation with her teacher. 

“Cheerilee?” she asked. 

Broken out of her reverie, Cheerilee turned to look at her student.“Yes, Diamond?”

“Do you think Daddy’s going to be mad at me?”

“Not even a little bit. You worried him a lot, but I’m sure he’ll understand why you were gone so long. More than anything, he’ll be glad to see you’re alright… I know I was.”

“You were worried too?”

“Of course I was, silly. I care a great deal about all my students, and after everything you’ve done to put things right, I have to say you are one of my favourites... I honestly don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”

“O-oh… Sorry… I should have realised you’d be worried for me, it seems so obvious now. Thanks for coming after me, by the way.”

“No problem, Diamond: it was either me or your father, and I thought it would be better if I did it and let him do his work.”

“That was really nice of you.”

“I do my best to help my friends out when they need a hoof, and it felt like the right thing to do.”

Diamond's face twisted into a light frown of minor confusion at this answer. “So you and Dad are friends?”

“Yes, we’re friends. Your father’s a good pony and I’m glad I got the chance to know him better… I suppose I have you to thank for that, as well as for being brave enough to try and fix what you did.”

“It’s nice you two like each other… Daddy doesn’t really see anypony much, he’s always working and when he does go out, none of the ponies there are the sort he likes. I’m glad I could help find him a friend, really, and you seem like exactly the sort of pony he needs.”

Cheerilee was thankful that the darkness hid her light blush. “…Thank you, Diamond.”

The pair fell once more into silence, broken suddenly a short while later when Diamond, having been shifting uncomfortably on her seat, got up to find the bathroom.

“I’m going to look for a toilet, I really need to go,” she explained, with a pained expression, before glancing up the staircase and spotting a tiled wall, to which she ran as fast as she could without risking a premature release.

To her relief, the tiled room was indeed a bathroom, and in it was a porcelain throne which she was all too happy to take. Closing the door behind her hurriedly, she trotted awkwardly over to the toilet and sat down to do her business. Moments later, as she reached for some toilet paper with which to clean herself up, the improperly closed door slowly swung open on a light night-time breeze, revealing the bedroom at the top of the landing, which Diamond had missed before in her haste.

Finishing up in the bathroom and flushing the toilet before washing her hooves in the sink, Diamond found her gaze drawn to the room, its door labelled proudly in a familiar, twirling cursive as Copperwing’s own. Paying a nervous glance towards the closed door of Auburn’s room, Diamond found herself unable to stop now that her interest had been piqued so much and trotted nervously into the open room.

It was smaller than her own, but not so much as to feel at all cramped, and filled with semi-organised belongings from floor to ceiling, those objects upon the sturdy wooden shelves being the most immediately interesting to the intruding earth filly. A small cardboard box, its lid removed and sat to one side, with the word ‘friends’ drawn on the side in marker pen, caught Diamond’s eye and she pulled it down off of the shelf, tottering a little on her hind legs as she reached for the high-up item.

Gripping the box between her teeth and setting all four hooves gently back onto the ground, Diamond lowered the box onto a nearby desk and peered inside. Within the box were a number of hoof-made pewter figures, mostly painted, along with a number of photographs showing a joyful Copperwing with various other foals, but what stood out most to her was the little figurine of Auburn which sat alongside those of the unknown foals from the photos. 

Picking it up to admire it more closely, Diamond could see the painstaking detail which had gone into the miniature version of her friend, from the nearly-lifelike green eyes to the softly shimmering mane and tail seemingly constructed out of individual strands of copper wire. Jaw hanging slightly open in awe of the work, it took the sound of a zipper being done up from Auburn’s room to remind her that she was on borrowed time, and the earth filly regretfully replaced the miniature in its box and balanced once more on her hind legs, returning the box to its rightful place on the shelf.

Hurriedly, she exited the room and trotted as quickly as she could downstairs without alerting Auburn and returned to her seat next to Cheerilee, waiting for Auburn’s imminent arrival, trying to calm her speeding heart. After a moment, the pegasus trotted briskly down the stairs and called over to them.

"I've got everything, let's get back to Diamonds before it gets much later," she said, already heading over to the front door in her eagerness to get back to her temporary home. Hot on her heels, Diamond and Cheerilee followed her out into the cold breeze of an early summer night, waiting to one side as Auburn pulled the key back out from under her wing, where Diamond presumed there must be some sort of holder for it, and returned to the door. Locking the door behind Cheerilee, Auburn turned to her companions and grinned, gesturing out in the general direction of the village proper as she commanded:


“Onwards, to Canterlot!”



*****




> Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond Tiara awoke to find herself partway onto, partway off of her bed; summoned to the shores of consciousness by the ever-clamourous ring of her alarm clock and promptly left beached somewhere around the cognitive level of a zombie. Raising her head off the duvet and attempting to get to her hooves, she initiated something of an avalanche, falling back off of the bed and onto her rump with a loud thud, and dragging most of her blankets with her. 

Attempting for the second time to rise to her feet, Diamond managed not to cause another bed-slide and proceeded to groggily look around her room. Auburn lay sleeping soundly in the sleeping bag Diamond had found for her, smiling softly at something in her dream, and Diamond felt a pang of regret at disturbing her as she shook her lightly and called her name, alerting the other filly that it was time to get up.

Mumbling something incoherently, Auburn's eyes fluttered open and she stared confusedly at her surroundings, before her gaze rested upon Diamond and sparked her trundling memory into action. The events of the evening prior came back to her in pieces, like a jumbled collection of still shots from a half-remembered movie, and gradually her mind caught up to the present situation. She was still in the sleeping bag Diamond had lent her, having been too tired on her return from the hospital to do anything but retreat to her friend's bedroom whilst Diamond explained everything to her father and, if the schoolteacher had stayed, Cheerilee. 

Having moved on with her morning routine whilst the pegasus had been piecing together yesterday, Diamond was now over on the other side of the room, sitting in a chair by the window and brushing her mane. For a moment, Auburn watched her; not so much out of interest in her current activity but rather out of a desire to figure out what exactly made her tick. 

Yesterday's sharp-edged words had proven the pegasus's suspicions that Diamond's years of forced bullying had left a mark on her nature; seemingly in the form of knowing exactly what to say to hurt another, even if her intention these days was to make amends. Part of her felt a surge of pride at being proven right, but much more felt disappointed that her friend was not as selfless and kind as she had appeared. This, she knew, was unreasonable: they were both flawed ponies, both of whom had made some big mistakes in their time, and given how she had acted towards her own sister, Auburn could not rightly hold her friend in any less regard for having a sharp tongue.

As far as Auburn could tell, Diamond, despite her time-consolidated ability to hurt others' feelings, was at heart a filly who more than anything was caring and loyal; perhaps to a fault. It was, after all, her loyalty to her then-friend which had dragged her into Silver Spoon's fold, and her caring nature which had driven her to such lengths to protect the only family she had left. Still, since she'd broken free of all that, both aspects of her true self had become quite apparent, beginning with her determination to make amends with all those she'd hurt, and continuing to show through her kindness towards Auburn, Dinky and Copperwing. Even the things she'd said the previous day, now that Auburn looked at it, had been said less out of spite for her but loyalty to - and anger on behalf of - Copperwing.

Lifting herself out of the sleeping bag at long last, Auburn tried to compress her newfound understanding into a similar one-clause statement to those she kept for everypony else she knew, finally settling on 'kind heart; razor tongue' and placing it on the mental shelf alongside Dinky's - 'spontaneous equine joy-nova' - and Twist's: 'fair-weather support group'. 

As Diamond set down the mane brush and smoothed down her coat with her now-free hoof, Auburn coerced her bed mane into something a little more presentable and yawned loudly. Turning to the pegasus with a smile, Diamond spoke.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" She greeted, playfully. 

"Morning, Diamond," Auburn replied, stretching her long legs and arching her back, letting out a satisfied 'aah' as her joints clicked. 

Drawing up beside her, Diamond opened her mouth and half-glanced towards her, as if she wanted to say something but didn't quite know how to. Raking a hoof through her newly-combed mane, Diamond took a deep breath and let it out again before turning her gaze back to Auburn, her eyes serious and guilty. 

"Auburn, look, about what I said yesterday... I'm sorry for snapping at you like that. I was... I was just so angry and I-I wasn't thinking enough about how it'd make you feel." Guiltily, she turned her head away and said, sadly: "Or, maybe I was thinking too much about that, and for the wrong reasons... I just - I'm sorry, Auburn. I like your sister... I like her a lot, and when I heard what you'd said to her I saw red."

Auburn smiled genuinely at Diamond, moving to face her as she rested a dun hoof on the filly's shoulder and making a point of looking her in the eyes.

"It's alright, Diamond, really. I deserved worse, if I'm honest, and I already understood why you were mad, even if it did hurt to see you so angry at me. It's nice to hear you say that, though. My sister... Copper likes you, too, you know... You're probably the best friend she's had in years, and as bad as yesterday was for all of us, what you have together is going to be so much stronger after you were there for her like you were."

Diamond snorted. "You say that like I did some great feat, but I was only trying to do the right thing. It's not like it hurt me to help her - what hurt was seeing that she was hurt, and not being able to do enough to make things better for her."

Auburn met her gaze evenly, making sure that her friend was paying her attention. "And you say that like the right thing is always easy. Look, I get that you've done a lot wrong, but that doesn't mean that the things you do right are any less good. Stop beating yourself up over everything, OK? Silver Spoon already did a lot of that, and I - we - need you to be our driving force. Dinky's the happy one, sure, but when you get all determined to make things right, you have no clue how inspiring you can be. And maybe I'm being selfish again, but I could really use some inspiration right now..."

Diamond considered this, eventually shrugging noncommittally. "I'll try," she said, shaking her head in an effort to clear it, before pulling a face at the seriousness of the topic. "Ugh, it's too early for this sort of talk - just listen to us, we sound like grown-ups!"

Auburn's eyes widened in mock horror, the pegasus feigning shock at Diamond's point."Oh, Celestia, Diamond, you're right! Us...? Adults...? The horror, the horror!"

The fillies laughed easily, falling back into a sorely missed companionable silence, and it was with smiles and comfort, rather than guilty looks and tension, that they left the room and headed downstairs for breakfast. 


*


Stepping out into the cool morning air, Diamond and Auburn gazed out across town, watching the ponies in the marketplace setting up their stalls in preparation for another day's work, the weatherponies clearing clouds, and a familiar grey pegasus launching awkwardly into the sky above the post office, saddlebags brimming with mail to be delivered and a broad, earnest grin on her face as she waved down to someone out of sight. 

Returning their gaze to the ground, the duo trotted in amicable silence across the town square, Diamond humming a simple tune as she went. It was a somewhat cold morning, but the sun was bright in the sky and already beginning to warm the air into a typical summer heat, and Diamond and Auburn's shivers were soon cut short as they exited the dark shade of the buildings and made their way to school under the warming sunbeams' golden glow. 

As they trotted calmly through the town, the sun likewise made its own trek into the skies, and it was not long before Diamond traded the convenience of quadrupedal motion for the awkward gait but improved vision of movement on three legs; Auburn merely shading her eyes with a long wing and slowing her powerful stride so that her friend was not left behind. Even with their respective eye-shading methods, both fillies soon found themselves squinting under the brilliant barrage of the summer sun, and as a result it was not until they'd nearly walked into them that the duo noticed the small pony standing in their way.

Blinking rapidly to try and accelerate the readjustment of her eyes to the shade the pony was providing, Diamond hastened to apologise, but was cut short when her vision cleared enough to see who it was. There - with an umbrella-hat proudly adorning the top of her head like a madman's idea of a crown, a pair of lime-framed, purple-lensed mirrored sunglasses, and an off-grey knitted scarf around her neck - was none other than Dinky Doo.

"Oh, I'm so sorr..." Diamond had begun, trailing off as the identity of the pony dawned on her. "Whu...? Dinky...? Dinky, is that you?"

"The one and only!" Dinky chirped, her face splitting into a joyful grin at the sight of her friends. "Did ya miss me? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did y-mmmph!"

Keeping a firm hoof over Dinky's muzzle with her hoof, Auburn chuckled at the filly's energy, sweeping an amused eye between her and the downright haggard-looking Diamond, with a barely contained grin stretching her face into some semblance of expression despite her attempts to remain the serious one. 

"Welcome home, Dinky!" Diamond replied, smiling broadly herself. "It's great to see you again, especially after the weekend we've had."

The unicorn's response was muffled by Auburn's hoof, and her face fell into a frown, before lighting up again with devious glee. A few seconds passed, with Auburn's expression growing more uncomfortable by the moment, until she finally drew her hoof away, a string of spit connecting it momentarily to Dinky's mouth as the unicorn's tongue disappeared back into her mouth.

"Yeah, it's good to have you back, Doo," said Auburn, pulling a face at the sight of Dinky's saliva on her hoof. "...Even if you are disgusting. You do realise you have a horn, right? If you wanted my hoof off of your mouth, you could have just lifted it off - you know, with the telekinesis we both know you have?"

Dinky's expression gained a worryingly convincing air of innocence as the unicorn scratched her head with a hoof, mock-confusedly. 

"What's a telekiwhatsit? Is that like a country or something?"

Despite her irritation, Auburn couldn't help but giggle, a fresh wave of annoyance rising up in her as she tried to return to her previous scowl.

"I hate you," she not-quite-snarled, unable to remain as angry as she wanted to seem. Lowering her sunglasses, Dinky fluttered her eyelashes and gazed into her friend's unimpressed eyes.

"Aw, I love you too, honey," she gushed, at which Auburn merely rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.

Diamond's chuckling became a laugh in earnest as Auburn changed tack and appeared to reciprocate the unicorn's faked feelings, fluttering her own lashes and leaning in with puckered lips. Blinking momentarily in confusion, Dinky shrugged and puckered her own lips, only for the pegasus's expression to snap back into a triumphant grin as her saliva-soaked hoof, until now unnoticed by Dinky, made contact with the unicorn's mane. Laughing heartily, Auburn wiped the disgusting coating off, knocking the umbrella-hat from Dinky's head as she did so.

"Ew!" Dinky whined, pawing at the suddenly spit-sodden patch of mane. Meanwhile, Auburn had half-collapsed into a guffawing mess, tears streaming from her eyes, whilst Diamond looked on mirthfully, shaking with short-breathed, nigh-silent  laughter. 

After a moment, her over-exaggerated disgust vanished nearly as quickly as it had arrived, and Dinky too joined the other pair in laughing at her expense. As the mirth of the moment wound back down into normality, and the guffaws turned to chuckles, then silent grins, the three began to head once more to school in a comfortable silence.

With the terrible trio now reunited, however, such a silence was doomed to meet an early grave. Letting out a little whine of disgust as the hoof replacing the umbrella-hat upon her head touched the spit-soaked section of her mane, Dinky turned to her friends and whined.

"Ewwww, it's all damp. I hate damp." she moaned, earning yet another eye roll from Auburn, and a questioning glance from Diamond.

"Dinky, it's your spit - why are you so grossed out by it? You've made more of a deal out of this than Auburn did about the whole... hoof licking... thing... Actually, forget the spit, what was with you two almost kissing? I mean, I could see it was a trick but you seemed like you were gonna go for it."

Dinky shrugged nonchalantly, although her cheeks darkened several shades at the reminder. "What can I say? I see a chance, I take it."

Auburn broke out laughing at this last comment from her unicorn friend. "'A chance'? Come on, Dinks, like I was going to kiss you - you'd just licked my hoof, remember? Your mouth would have tasted like dirt and grit and who knows what else after that... You know, let's just forget the kiss for a moment and pursue the real question here: why in Celestia's good name did you lick my hoof instead of pulling it away? Do you like the taste of dirt in your mouth, or what?"

Although her face had dropped momentarily at Auburn's comment about her chances, it perked right back up again at the opportunity for another innuendo. The presence of family had severely cut short her ability to make ponies uncomfortable with dirty jokes over the short trip, and now she was behind on her monthly quota - although, if Auburn kept providing these sorts of chances, she'd surpass that number before the end of the day.

"I'm no fan of dirt, no, but you... You taste good."

Covering her cringing, now-crimson face with a wing, Auburn half-laughed, half-sobbed at her friend's awful sense of humour, and it took Diamond quickly stepping in and forcibly redirecting her to avoid the pegasus colliding with an approaching lamppost, her mind shut down in the futile attempt to process the sheer level of inappropriateness that joke had delved into. 

Her chest shaking harder as comprehension began to sink in - whether from crying or laughing, Diamond couldn't tell - and a repeated mantra of "I can't believe she just said that" whispering forward from her mouth, it fell to Diamond to be the one to ensure that she didn't run into anything else along the rest of the way. 

Concerned, Auburn's guide turned momentarily to the madly cackling unicorn in the umbrella hat and wasted no time in expressing the nature of her worries. "Dinky, I think you broke her... Like, really broke her."

Dinky ceased her laughing for a moment to respond, a smug smile firmly planted on her face. "I know."


*


A few minutes later, the trio found themselves at the school gates; the clock on the side of the building showing that whilst a little later than usual, they still had some time before class. 

Trotting straight through the open gate into the throngs of pupils, they pushed their way through the raucous legions of students and into the relatively quiet corridor outside the Headmistress's office, where they came to a halt, taking a moment to wrack their memories for their first lessons.

Somewhat sadly, Dinky announced that she had a Physics test to get to and gave a cheery wave goodbye before cantering off to the far side of school. Turning from the unicorn's retreating figure, Auburn looked curiously at Diamond.

"I've got Maths," she stated. "You?"

Diamond cringed a little, looking apologetic. "Art... Sorry, Auburn, I'd better get going if I want to get through that crowd before the lesson. I'll see you at lunch?"

"Yeah," muttered Auburn, slightly disappointed. "Bye."

Returning to the crowded entrance hall, Diamond burrowed through the shifting mass of ponies; pushing by Snips and Snails, who didn't seem to realise how badly they were blocking the way; and ducking under Rumble's airborne form as he jetted by over the crowds. Giving a somewhat envious glance at his wings, Diamond continued to navigate the living maze of ponies on foot, but was cut short in her progress by a stream of students worming their way through the corridor from the opposite direction. 

When the group passed through, however, Diamond was forced to immediately retreat back into her alcove, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders thundered through the recently vacated gap in the same direction she'd wanted to go. Following them through, Diamond assumed they simply hadn't seen her and shrugged the irritation off in favour of curiosity as she noticed that their voices were raised. Their body language indicated that this was not the shared anger at a single target that they typically showed, but more of a fractious fury between the members, and judging from the angry expressions on Scootaloo and Applebloom's faces, all was not well in the CMC.

Pushing the occurrence to the back of her mind to concentrate on navigating the equine maze, Diamond surfaced from the river of students to arrive on the bank outside her classroom, comfortably shielded from the passing masses by the bodies of her fellow Art students. As the minutes passed by and the corridors began to clear, Diamond zoned out, watching the motion but not the movers in a sort of trance which remained unbroken for several minutes. 

When it was broken, however, it was not by the arrival of her teacher, as she'd expected, but the loud clacks of a sprinting pony somewhere along the corridor. Poking her head out and turning in the direction of the noise, Diamond was just able to catch a glimpse of Scootaloo's face - screwed up in an expression of pure anger and hurt, with dual waterfalls of tears plummeting from her tightly shut eyes - before the sprinting pegasus nearly bowled her over in her haste to get away from whoever had upset her so. 

Confused and transfixed, Diamond stared after Scootaloo as she galloped headlong, little wings flapping furiously, into the fillies' bathroom, barely slowing down for the door. As she waited for her teacher to arrive, Diamond pondered the uncharacteristic behaviour - was Scootaloo upset because of whatever the CMC had been arguing about? Why were the CMC arguing in the first place? What could be so hurtful that it could make Scootaloo, of all ponies, run sobbing down the corridor? To these, and many more questions, she had no answer, and not enough evidence to work one out. 

A younger Diamond Tiara might have been tempted to go poking into the matter, but the filly was older now, and nowhere near as eager to get into others' affairs: especially after all the trouble she'd had to deal with - and still was dealing with - she was very reluctant to play detective in something like this. But Scootaloo seemed to at least like Diamond a little bit, and with the CMC likely out of the question as the probable sources of the filly's upset, she probably didn't have that many - if any - ponies to turn to for help. 

As Mr. Pincel finally arrived, several large boxes grasped in the colourful aura of his magic and a number more on his back, Diamond made up her mind. Just like the art teacher was clearly struggling to carry everything on his own, Scootaloo would find coming to terms with the cause of her upset very difficult without somepony there to help her. Diamond would offer to be that pony, and if the pegasus accepted, then she'd do all she could to aid her; if she declined, however, she would keep a respectful distance and do her best not to draw attention to the other filly's upset.

Mind already buzzing with ideas about ways to help Scootaloo, Diamond trailed after her classmates and took her seat, zoning out when Mr. Pincel began to speak in favour of jotting down possible courses of action. Although she'd been quite looking forward to Art this morning, she no longer had any interest in the matter and couldn't care less if the teacher was talking about watercolours or water coolers, enraptured as she was by the idea of finally helping out one of those she'd hurt most. 

Sure, her qualifications were important and all, but this was life or death!

'Operation: Super Scooter Saviour' was go.



*****

> Assuagement
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even after spending twenty minutes staring out of the window in the classroom door, Diamond did not see Scootaloo return to her class. The other, still-closed door at the end of the corridor, a stylised profile outline of a mare's head marking it out as the fillies' bathroom, had not opened once since Diamond had begun her vigil, and it was beginning to seem like it might not open for some time yet. 

Concern had been building in Diamond slowly at the pegasus's lack of a reappearance - as, in the last few minutes, had a more quickly building need to use the absent filly's hiding place for its usual purpose. This left Diamond in something of a dilemma: the genuine need to relieve herself would give her a reason to leave the classroom and find Scootaloo, but she was becoming increasingly doubtful that she would be able to hold it in long enough to figure out what was wrong with the pegasus before she would be forced to either dash into a cubicle, likely sacrificing all progress with Scootaloo in the process, or wet herself and disgust the other filly as well as embarrass herself, either of which were far from desirable outcomes.

Biting her lip, she raised a hoof and waited impatiently for her teacher to respond, shifting in discomfort on her bench as the agonising seconds passed by. Soon, however, the slow, plodding hoofsteps of Mr. Pincel echoed into her ears as he approached across the tiled art room floor, and Diamond turned on the bench in preparation to leave.

"Diamond," started the art teacher, looking somewhat surprised. "What do you need help with?"

Diamond looked back at him, not needing to exaggerate her expression at all. "I need to use the bathroom."

Pincel bit back his automatic response of "of course you can go" when he spotted the empty space in front of his typically star pupil, a look of disappointment washing over his face at the sight. 

"You haven't even taken your sketchbook out of your drawer, Diamond. I think you've avoided more than enough work this lesson."

Biting her lip in renewed desperation, Diamond crossed her legs and pleaded with her teacher. 

"Please, Mr. Pincel! I really need to go!"

"Had you done any work this lesson, I'd be more inclined to believe you, but this is Art class, Diamond, not Drama. Your acting won't earn you any points with me, young mare." With this, he turned to leave, taking determined, powerful strides away from the filly.

Letting out a whine of desperation and frustration, Diamond dropped off of the bench and made for an empty bucket over in the corner of the shelves of paint. As she neared her target, Mr. Pincel caught her movement out of the corner of his eye and paused in his departure, turning to face the filly with a tired look.

"Diamond, where do you think you're going?" He said, starting to get irritated; Diamond simply ignored him and trotted up to the bucket. Slowly, she turned to face him, positioning her hindquarters over the bucket and widening her hind legs, before raising her left back leg and her tail slowly. Horrified realisation dawned on the art teacher's face and he hastened to stop her.

"Diamond, no! Not in the bucket, please! Y-you can go to the bathroom, Diamond, just please, for the love of Celestia, Luna and everything good in the world, do not relieve yourself in that bucket!"

Diamond looked at him innocently, lowering her leg back to the ground and swinging her tail back over her unmentionables, and shrugged apologetically. 

"I did say I needed to go, Sir," she offered, before trotting hurriedly out of the classroom door and down the corridor. 

Mr. Pincel shook his head slowly as the door swung shut, rolling his eyes at the events of the past few seconds and turning back to the student who'd requested his help. With Diamond Tiara in his class, he supposed he should have seen something as disturbing as that coming, and silently thanked his princesses that the filly had listened to him and halted her horrifyingly hygiene-destroying actions before they could truly ruin his day. 

Diamond, meanwhile, had arrived at the fillies' bathroom and stood, frozen in hesitance, with one foreleg raised to push the door open. A reminder from her body that she did, indeed, need to use the bathroom for more than just figuring out Scootaloo's problem broke her out from her state of anxious equilibrium and she leaned lightly into her hoof, easing the door open slowly enough that even Fluttershy would not have been startled by the movement. 

Trotting slowly inside with a building feeling of trepidation, Diamond let the door swing shut behind her and heard a sharp gasp - presumably from Scootaloo - when it struck the doorframe with a loud thud. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, which she regretted almost instantly at the smell she'd subjected her nostrils to, she left the short corridor leading into the bathroom proper and turned right into the room, the cubicles forming an orderly line to the left of her and the sinks directly ahead, below a set of small mirrors, and behind a small orange filly, caught frozen right in the middle of the room. 

"Scootaloo..." Diamond began, trailing off with a tone of soft pity as her eyes took in the details before her. Scootaloo's mane, usually spiked up, sprawled across her forehead in a sullen, twisted mess; shading broken eyes with puffy red rims and rivers of tears trailing down from them. Her posture held no confidence, no energy, no strength: she sat slumped, hunched over; her head between her forelegs upon the stained tile floor and her ceaselessly buzzing wings deathly still where they lay, pinned to her sides. As the fillies' gazes locked, Scootaloo's bottom lip began to tremble and a fresh downpour of tears fled her oceanic eyes, a choked half-sob rising in her throat before the pegasus bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and forced her lungs back under her own control. 

Finding her voice again, Diamond approached Scootaloo cautiously, her pity and sympathy for the other filly flooding into her features as she tried for the second time to voice her vital question. 

"Scootaloo... Who did this to you?"

The pegasus's only response was to burrow her head under her forelegs in a vain attempt to hide the newly free-flowing tears, her breaths coming in short, shaky bursts as she tried determinedly to prevent another outbreak of sobs. 

"Please, Scootaloo. I want to help you."

Anger and desperation flashed in Scootaloo's eyes and she snapped at Diamond, fresh tears glistening on her cheeks.

"I... I-I don't want y-your help! I-I just wish somepony would understand!"

"...Understand what?" Diamond asked, keeping her voice sympathetic and calm. For a moment it seemed like the unproductive opening and closing of Scootaloo's mouth might signify an imminent response, but the pegasus shook her head violently, visibly disagreeing with the idea before outwardly voicing her intent, or lack thereof, regarding a response to Diamond's question.

"I a-am not talking to you, D-Diamond. N-no way."

Not ready to accept defeat just yet, but seeing that this line of conversation would lead nowhere, Diamond approached Scootaloo and tried a different approach. 

"Then don't," Diamond replied simply, lowering herself to Scootaloo's level and pulling her into a decidedly one-sided embrace. "Just let me help you in some way..." 

As the pegasus looked up in shock at the earth filly, Diamond gently guided Scootaloo's head with her hooves, leaning her neck to the side to better support the tearful filly's face. At first she resisted, but Diamond just stroked her mane comfortingly and spoke in a soft, soothing voice, winning the other filly over. 

"Come on, Scootaloo; you can cry on my shoulder, I don't mind."

Finally letting go of her self-control, Scootaloo did just that; sobbing loudly into her ex-bully's neck, as she ran her hoof gently through the crying filly's short mane and cooed reassuringly. The pressure in Diamond's bladder had by now built to the point of serious discomfort, but she pushed that concern aside and let the broken pegasus held in her embrace get the emotion out of her system in her own time. Eventually, after a long series of sobs, Scootaloo's crying petered out, eventually being replaced by an infrequent, emotional sniffling. She pulled back from Diamond, who released her without complaint, and gazed up at her comforter as if seeing her for the first time. After a time, during which the two merely stared into each other's eyes, she mustered up the will to speak, and did so in a small but grateful voice. 

"Thank you," she said softly, sniffling a little before continuing in a shy, quiet tone. "I-I needed that..."

"I owe you so much, Scootaloo; this... this was the least I could do in return."

An awkward silence fell, neither one knowing quite how to continue. Scootaloo began to look restless, glancing back and forth between Diamond and the door for some time before mustering up the energy to speak. 

"You know, uh... I should probably get to class. Ms. Radium will be wondering where I am and, um, stuff... Yeah... Wouldn't want to miss any more of my lesson, and all that."

"Scootaloo, if you want to go back to class, then just do it; you don't need to make excuses, so long as that's what you want to do."

The pegasus nodded awkwardly, shuffling her hooves for a bit before rising off of the tiles and making a few stop-start steps towards the door. She paused, glancing back and offering a stumbling but quite heartfelt farewell.

"Yeah. I just... I guess I'll see you around, Diamond." 

She began to turn away, but Diamond called out to her and she looked back, looking halfway between nervous and annoyed, with perhaps a hint of happiness at the action, too. 

"Scootaloo?"

"Yeah?" Scootaloo responded, rubbing her foreleg uncomfortably as Diamond's eyes locked onto hers with startling sincerity.

"If you need somepony to talk to about this, o-or anything, really..." Diamond began, trailing off awkwardly, though not too quickly for Scootaloo to miss the implied offer of help. 

"I'll think about it... I, um, yeah, I'll just go then and talk to you later or something." 

"See you, Scootaloo."

Scootaloo's move for the exit had paused briefly as Diamond said goodbye, the filly halting her exit for a moment before she shaking her head and offering a response in kind as she left the bathroom.

"Bye."

Fidgeting uncomfortably, Diamond waited until the door to the bathroom slid shut behind Scootaloo before leaping to her hooves and dashing desperately into the nearest cubicle. 

Not having time to close the door in her resurgent need to relieve herself, Diamond plonked her hindquarters down on the seat, making sure to sweep her tail to the right, out of the way, and let her tortured bladder release its contents. Letting out a long sigh of relief, Diamond slumped into the back of the toilet and thanked the princesses that Scootaloo hadn't stalled any longer before leaving. Closing her eyes, she let out a long 'aah' as the pressure receded from her innards. 

"Sweet Celestia, that is so much better," she muttered to herself, before slowly coming to the realisation that the bathroom was no longer completely silent. Opening her eyes, she looked into the mortified face of Twist, a blush racing to her cheeks at the other filly's wide-eyed stare. 

"Th-thorry Diamond, the door wath open and I didn't realithe you were uthing thith one..." Twist stammered, reaching out a hoof to pull the door closed and block Diamond from view, a fiery red blush upon her own cheeks. "I-I gueth the door mutht have come open or thomething. Thorry!"

Shaking her head and cursing her luck, Diamond called out a reply to the other filly, eager to move on from the incident as quickly as possible.

"T-That's okay, Twist. Lets both just pretend this never happened, alright?"

"Pretend what never happened, Diamond?"

"Thanks, Twist." Diamond replied gratefully.

"Thatth alright. I'm jutht glad you aren't mad at me for walking in on you... uh... relieving yourthelf"

Diamond frowned, confusion written in her features and spilling from her tongue. "Why would I be mad? You didn't open the door, so what could I be mad at you for?"

"I-I freethe up when I'm thocked and thometimeth ponieth think I'm thtaring at them. It wouldn't be the firtht time thomepony got the wrong idea... and I could thort-of thee y-your... filly partth, tho..."

"You thought I'd think you were staring at my bits? Come on, Twist, I know you better than to think that. What sort of pony would think you'd do anything like that? Anypony who knows you knows that you're not that sort of filly at all!"

Twist's response was nervous and barely audible, her tone exuding fear and some hurt. 

"...W-well... actually... I-I, um, kind-of, maybe, th-th-thort-of like fillieth ath well ath-ath coltth."

"What's that have to do with... Oh, you thought I meant 'that sort of filly' as that sort of filly! No, I didn't mean that at all - I like mares, too, so I'd be mad to judge you for that - I meant that anypony would know that you're a nice filly and not... some sort of pervert, or whatever... I'm sorry if I made you feel like I wouldn't like you if you swung that way."

"Thatth okay... B-but can we thort-of pretend we never had thith conversation, ath well ath the other thing that didn't happen?"

"What conversation?"

Twist replied after a moment, confusion evident in her tone. "The one we jutht had, thilly!"

"I know the conversation you mean, Twist, I was just doing what you did earlier and pretending that it had never happened."

"O-oh. Right. Thorry."

"Stop apologising, Twist, you've done nothing wrong!"

"Thorry, Diamond."

"Oh, Twist..." Diamond began, shaking her head in endeared amusement at the other filly's antics. Twist, however, seemed to expect more than two words from Diamond and pushed for elaboration after a moment's silence.

"What ith it?"

"Nothing, Twist..." Diamond started, before a thought struck her and she hastened to continue. "Actually, I was just wondering if you'd like to join me, Dinky and Auburn for lunch today?"

"I don't know, Diamond, me and your friendth don't have a very good hithtory together."

"I know about the... birthday accident, Twist. Dinky is really sorry about that, and she's been wanting to make it up to you for a while. If you really don't like her, then that's okay, but could you at least give her a chance to start over?"

"The'th feeling thorry? I thought the hated me after what I did! I overreacted, and the wath jutht trying to do thomething nice - I thould be the one thaying thorry!"

"Then you can both apologise to each other. I think a fresh start could be great for both of you, but you don't have to come if you don't want to. I won't be mad, I promise. A little disappointed, but not mad - I'm not going to force you to hang around with ponies you don't like."

"No, I'd love to! A freth thtart thoundth great!"

Diamond smiled happily to herself; this unexpected conversation had gone surprisingly well.

"I'll see you later, then."

Wiping herself off, Diamond slid off of the toilet seat and turned to flush it, before pushing the door to the cubicle open and trotting on out towards the sink. As she washed her hooves, she contemplated the Scootaloo situation and the turn of events which had stemmed from it, letting her mind wander whilst she lathered the soap over her frogs. 

She hadn't gotten any information out of the pegasus, but she'd definitely gone a long way to earning her trust, and her offer to lend an ear had not been rejected by the other filly, giving her hope that with a bit more effort she could win Scootaloo over enough that she'd feel comfortable sharing her problem. The incident with Twist afterwards had been incredibly awkward, but that too had seemed to be a step in the right direction as far as gaining her friendship was concerned. She couldn't remember if she'd ever teased Twist for her lisp, but she hoped she hadn't, especially since she had actually begun to see it as one of the filly's more endearing features. It was a nice sound to hear, at least in her opinion, although Copperwing's uncharacteristically fillyish giggle still had the top spot on that particular list. 

Diamond's thoughts of her hospitalised friend stayed with her as she dried her hooves and left the bathroom to return to class. The memory of the older pegasus, wide-eyed and vulnerable in her hospital bed, came back to her unbidden, and a sharp pang of loss struck her heart at the image of her friend trapped alone in the place she feared most. What she wouldn't give to be there with her right now, instead of in this long, dull corridor, too far away to comfort her friend when she needed comfort more than ever. 

The door to the art classroom opened suddenly in front of her, breaking her out of her lachrymose stupor to see the tall form of Mr. Pincel looking down at her in concern. 

"Diamond," he began, stepping out of the classroom and pulling its door shut behind him. "Is everything alright? It's not like you to be off task in lessons, and you've been standing outside the classroom for a good minute now, as if you didn't realise where you were."

Staring down at her hooves in embarrassment, Diamond gave no answer. 

"Is that... Have you been crying, Diamond?" 

Still, no response. 

"You know, you didn't have to pull that stunt with the bucket if you needed some time to yourself, I'd have understood." 

Again, Diamond couldn't bring herself to answer, the anguish in her chest at the heartbreaking image of her friend in that sterile white bed - so afraid, so alone - as it flashed up in her mind again preventing her from managing anything more than a whimper. 

"Alright, Diamond, I'm here if you want to talk about it, and I'm not moving from this spot until you either go back to class or tell me what's wrong."

"She's so alone." The words came out of Diamond's mouth without her even realising it had happened until after the fact, in perfect synchronisation with the fresh tearfall rushing forth from her eyes. His heart breaking a little at the grief in his student's voice, Mr. Pincel reached a reassuring hoof out to Diamond's shoulder and tried to get to the bottom of her sorrows. 

"Who is, Diamond? Is... Is it somepony in your family? ...No? ...A friend?"

"Th-The best one I have."

"Can you tell me her name, Diamond?"

"C-Copperwing. She's... she's Auburn Wake's sister."

"And what's- uh, why is she alone?"

"She's... She's in the hospital. She had a p-panic attack, and then an asthma attack, and now she's in h-hospital. She hates hospitals; she's got a phobia, and she's all alone in there and I'm stuck here and there's nothing I can do to make her feel safe. She's so alone, in the place she's most scared of, and she's got a breathing mask a-and it's all not fair because she's all alone and I can't fix that!"

"Diamond... She is going to be okay, isn't she? She is going to get better?"

"Y-yeah, she is. But what about now? Just because she's going to be better doesn't mean she's okay now! And I could help. I could make her feel safe and happy and I could make her smile again. Maybe I could even get her to laugh. But I'm stuck here while she's over there, and I can't do anything!"

"Diamond, look..." Pincel began, before thinking better of telling her why he couldn't just let her go and visit her friend and changing tack, aiming instead to bring the smile back to her face. "Ah, actually, no... Diamond, could you tell me more about Copperwing? What's she like?"

"Well, she's a pegasus, like Auburn. She's a year older than me, and she's even taller than Auburn is - she's not skinny, though, not like Auburn. She's not fat or anything, she's just... I dunno... Auburn's tall like she was stretched upwards, but Copper's tall more like she was sized up, like a shrink ray only backwards. She's sorta... the right size for her height, I guess."

"Oh, I see. Maybe she's a naturally big filly, then, rather than just having a growth spurt? Tell me more, like, say... how did she get her name?"

"Well, it's pretty simple, really: all of her feathers are copper coloured; I mean they're actually shiny like real copper is, not just the same sort of shade. Her coat's kinda the same colour, but it's duller... like, it's still shiny when she's in the light, but not bright like her feathers are. It's really pretty when the sun goes down because all the golds and oranges and reds from the sunset light up her coat and, um, yeah... She's - uh, I mean, her wings and coat are - really nice to look at. When that happens. At sunset."

"Okay, Diamond... so, what is she like?"

"She's really patient and understanding," Diamond began, her face splitting into a broad smile as she recalled how Copperwing had helped her with her algebra, and only widening as she continued to list off feature after feature of her best friend's personality. 

Seeing the positive change in her demeanour, Pincel smiled and listened until he was sure she'd extricated herself from her sorrowful thoughts. After ten minutes or so, he posed the question of Diamond's return to class, and after a little more convincing, she followed him back inside. Though he was distracted with other students as usual, Diamond still made an effort to do her work in thanks for him lending his ear to her worries, and found to her surprise that the art came easily. Her heart guided her hoof in smooth, sweeping curves whilst her mind lost itself in thoughts of Copperwing, and though both parts of her appeared to be separate in direction, they shared a common focus. 



*



The remaining hour and a half of Diamond's art lesson snuck quietly past the driven filly: seconds, minutes and hours alike took the opportunity to escape into the ether as she worked, moving from light pencil sketch, to heavy pen outline, to watercolour wash. The ink outlines blurred under the invading wetness, but Diamond took it in her stride, working it into graduated shadows as the faded sea of watercolours completed its slow union with the canvas. 

While it dried, the artist adventured off around the room, questing after bright acrylic paints, transparent acetate sheets and a multitude of permanent markers in a rainbow of hues. Her triumphant return to a dry canvas lasted but a moment, before she once more dove like a gannet into the seas of her work, in an determined, impassioned search for the elusive fish of inspiration. Short, sharp, bright, bold strokes of her brush shocked life into her work, illuminating carefully chosen areas of her image in brilliant colour whilst leaving others to the subtle shadows her union of blurred ink and watercolour had cast. 

As the last half-hour of her time made its great escape from the day, Diamond worked like a filly possessed, teasing translucent shapes into life on the acetate with flourish after skilled flourish of her marker pens. The overall effect was like a blurred mirror image of her work thus far, copying the overall shape but abandoning any detail in favour of flowing, blending rivers of rich colour, accentuated with sparing use of the solemn, solid lines from her black marker. Examining the finished piece, she nodded with satisfaction and set it down next to the nearly-dry paintwork it so resembled before rushing off on another quest: this time, a hunt for silver paint and a glue gun. 

The rest of the lesson escaped under her muzzle, aided by the distraction of her obsessive work, but Diamond didn't stop working, meticulously fusing canvas and acetate with painstaking application of the glue gun as all her classmates vacated the room. Even Mr. Pincel leaving could not break her stupor: Diamond paused just long enough to acknowledge him before returning to her work as if he had never been there at all. Finishing off with deliberate, light lines of silver paint across the top of the compound picture, she reached for the hairdryer and held it in place above the new paint, finally beginning to surface like a deep sea diver as the paint dried up under the artificial heat. 

Sighing contentedly, she slumped back in her seat and set the dryer down, eyeing her finished piece with pride in her heart and a dumb grin on her face. Overlong, dirty blonde mane, subtly shining copper coat, shyly solitary pea green eye and a gleaming silver tiara: Copperwing. Her picture wasn't quite as beautiful as the real thing, but Diamond still felt a temptation to waste another hour-and-a-half just staring at it anyway. A voice calling from the doorway, however, robbed her of that opportunity.

"Diamond?" 

She didn't have to look to know that the first speaker was Auburn...

"Hellooooo?! Equestria to Diamond Tiara, come in please!" 

...Or that the second voice belonged to Dinky, for that matter; but she turned anyway, flashing them both a big grin. They trotted over to her table, and she hopped off of her bench and greeted them happily. 

"Hey, you two. Is it lunchtime already?"

"Yup," chirped Dinky, evidently pleased about this, "Like they say, time flies when you're having fun!"

"Or," Auburn cut in, "When you're painting my sister... Really nice work, by the way, but this must have taken you forever!"

Diamond blushed modestly and shuffled her hooves. 

"Actually, I only started this lesson, and I lost half an hour going to the bathroom and trying to comfort Scootaloo."

"First of all, what? Second of all, what? And, third of all, what?" Auburn responded, disbelief clear as day upon her face. 

"Well, I just found a lot of inspiration, that's all... and I didn't think that the fact that I use the bathroom was anything of a revelation. I guess I should explain about Scootaloo, though. On my way to Art, I got pushed past by the Cutie Mark Crusaders; it looked like they were arguing about something, especially Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, but I couldn't hear what they were saying over the noise of the crowd. I got to class and they carried on to theirs, but a minute or two later, Scootaloo came sprinting down the corridor in tears and dived into the fillies bathroom. I needed to use the toilet anyway, so I went after her and tried to find out what was wrong."

"So," said Auburn, curious. "Did you find anything out?"

Diamond shook her head. "No, though I did manage to stop her crying, which is going to help my relationship with her. I could have pushed for info, but I thought that would just make it worse, so I kept the questions to a minimum and tried to seem like somepony she could talk to. She did say she would consider talking to me about it before she left, and she was a lot happier then, so I think we might make some progress later on."

Auburn nodded approvingly. "Good move. She wouldn't have told you anything if you'd pressed her for details, and you'd probably have lost whatever trust she had in you; but it sounds like you've gone a long way to gaining her trust. Even if this whole thing blows over before she says anything to you, this is going to be good in the long run, I think."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. We should probably get to lunch; I told Twist she could eat with us and she'll start wondering if we bailed if we don't get there soon."

"Twist?!" exclaimed Dinky, looking at Diamond as if she'd gone mad. "But she hates me!"

Diamond gave her a serious look, halting Dinky's objection in its tracks, and explained. "No, she doesn't. She's as sorry about that mess on her birthday as you are, and the only reason she hasn't apologised is because she thinks you hate her guts. This way, she can apologise to you, you can apologise to her, and we can all have a nice lunch with somepony new."

Dinky considered this and closed her mouth fully, turning away from Diamond to leave Auburn to ask her own questions, the filly having come up with a new one in the meantime. "How did you even find this stuff out? Twist's not in your class, and it's not like you two have ever been close."

Diamond shrugged helplessly, giving her answer with an attempt at lightheartedly lifting some of the oddity from it. "Bathrooms have proven to be an oddly good place for heartfelt conversations today."

Auburn shook her head in wonder. "You know, sometimes I wonder whether you're the weirdest of us, rather than Dinky." Briefly, the pegasus looked back on the morning's events and promptly changed tune. "...And then I remember things like Dinky's hoof-licking episode earlier and I realise that she's not going to give up the throne that easily."

Dinky beamed at this, and Diamond laughed lightly as the trio made their way out of the art room and down the corridor. Unseen by the chatting fillies, a pair of magenta eyes followed them as they turned the corner, their owner letting out a soft sigh and setting off on her own along a different path. 


> Fragmentation                                                                                                       (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Diamond's group made their way to the cafeteria, the lone filly who had spotted them travelled her own lonely path, her head hung low and ears splayed back as if too weak to stand upright. Magenta locks, messier even than usual, spilled down over the filly's orange forehead, some stray hairs trailing down to meet the tear-darkened fur around her eyes. Her wings, drooping at her sides, lacked the feverish energy they usually contained, leaving them sad and broken-looking where they hung. Her face was an emotionless mask, but the unconscious chewing of her lower lip betrayed a deeper unrest, as did the empty, troubled look in her eyes. 

Trotting along a lifeless corridor, she frowned deeply, muttering inaudibly under her breath as her body moved on automatic. Her eyes were unfocused, brimming with fury, and it was a wonder she didn't run into anything on her angry march through the school. Classrooms, lockers, bathrooms: she passed by them all without so much as a glance. Eyes unfocused, she stalked along, her head drooped towards the dull carpet, left unsupported in her apathy. Deep inside the workings of her mind, her internal compass was keeping her from wandering off course, but the filly herself didn't care where she was, leaving it to her subconscious to guide her round the school.

This angry haze continued to fog her mind as she approached the upcoming T-junction, however a nearby pair of familiar voices shocked her out of her stupor. Her face automatically twitched into the beginnings of a smile before her mind caught up and sent it twisting into a glowering visage, eyes staring death at a pair of tails - one red, one striped lilac and pink - which flicked around the corner before disappearing from sight. Making a concerted effort not to stomp angrily, she followed after them, pausing at the corridor's end and waiting a few moments, both to lower the risk of being noticed and to calm down a little.

She peered around the corner cautiously and, seeing that her quarry were not yet aware of her presence, stalked forwards with a scowl. They were still close enough that she could hear what they were saying - it seemed Sweetie Belle was doing most of the talking this time, despite the gauze-covered wound on her muzzle, but Apple Bloom was clearly offering her support. Scootaloo scowled violently, her diminutive wings flaring in impotent rage, and it was all she could do not to swear at her ex-friends' retreating forms.

"Calm down?! That featherbrained psycho bit me!" Sweetie was saying, and Scootaloo actually stopped breathing in her fury. "She bit me!"

Scootaloo's eye twitched, and her thoughts turned to acid. Oh, so she was going to play the victim card here? The nerve! After everything that two-faced liar had said, she was going to act like none of it was her fault?! Scootaloo couldn't believe what she was hearing. 

"I know," Apple Bloom placated, reaching a hoof out to the unicorn's shoulder which she shrugged off ill-temperedly. "I know, Sweetie."

And right there, Scootaloo spat mentally, was the other half of the idiot pair, showing her true colours. Yesterday, Scootaloo had been stupid enough to believe her when she said that she'd always be there for her, but Apple Bloom had made it more than obvious where her loyalties lied when she'd backed Little Miss Perfect up instead of her. Clearly, honesty didn't run in her family after all. 

Ahead, Sweetie Belle was still ranting, gesticulating angrily with her hoof whilst stomping along on three legs. 

"You know what, though? In the end, she only proved me right: see what kind of influence Rainbow Dash has had on her!" She gestured angrily at her injured muzzle. "She bit me, just because I had the nerve to tell her just what sort of pony her stupid hothead hero really is. So much for 'oh, no, Rainbow Dash is perfect, how could acting like her ever make me a bad friend?'" She paused her whiny-voiced imitation of Scootaloo to spit in disgust. "'Good friends' don't bite each other."

Red descending over Scootaloo's vision, the pegasus felt a sudden and compelling urge to take Sweetie Belle's oh-so-perfect face and smash it against something hard. The wall would do, but then again... Scootaloo's eyes fell upon a full trolley of sports gear left outside the nearby changing rooms. Rows of glossy wooden baseball bats, barely used, waited there for her. 

Unaware of her presence, the hunted duo continued their conversation, although the farm filly was visibly unenthused by the topic, concern sparkling in her emerald eyes as she turned to her furious friend. 

"I know, Sweetie," said Apple Bloom again, "I know... Say, you're gettin' real stressed about this - maybe we should talk about somethin' else?"

Scootaloo, meanwhile, had reached the equipment trolley, and was running her hooves over the waiting bats, breathing heavily though her nose in angry little snorts. Barely noticed by Scootaloo through her cloud of red mist, Sweetie Belle snarled, glaring indignantly at Apple Bloom with a ferocity which sent her stumbling away in fear, the unicorn evidently unable to let the topic go.

"You want to talk about something else? After what she did to me? Whose side are you on?!"

Apple Bloom fell back onto her haunches, leaning away from Sweetie and gesturing reassuringly with her forelegs in an attempt to placate her friend, and carefully spoke her mind, well aware of the unicorn's bad mood. 

"I ain't takin' nopony's side, Sweetie. I'm just a little tired of talking about what happened this mornin', is all."

Scootaloo paid the farm filly's words no heed, hefting her chosen bat in her hooves and getting a feel for its swing just as Sweetie Belle shot a retort back at Apple Bloom. Glancing from the rapidly disappearing fillies to the tub of baseballs on the equipment trolley and back again, she bounced one up and down in her left hoof, her grip on the bat tightening furiously with each word leaving Sweetie's pretty little mouth. 

"Yeah, well guess what? I've been tired of Scootaloo acting like she's some kind of hero just because Rainbow Crash said they were sisters once, and nopony took notice of me until the stupid cloud-brained moron went and bit me, so I think I'm entitled to talk about what I want for a change."

"Well, isn't this just rich," spat Scootaloo, "the filly who never shuts her perfect little mouth thinks she's entitled to talk crap even more than usual? Give it a break, Sweetie, before you actually manage to talk somepony to death."

Both fillies ahead of her flinched at her harsh words, turning in shock to face her. Apple Bloom's eyes had an edge of fear in them, but Sweetie's held only rage and hurt. 

"Hey, come on girls, let's not start another argu-" began Apple Bloom, vainly hoping to get through to her two friends. 

No such luck.

"I don't know, Scootaloser," came Sweetie's retort, "I can think of one filly who'd do everypony a favour if she just upped and died!"

Rather than flinch back from the insult, Scootaloo grinned nastily. 

"Oh, I know exactly who you mean. That fat, horned marshmallow who pays the Fire Department's wages just by making lunch - what was her name again? Sweetie Belle? Oh, wait, that's you! My bad."

Apple Bloom, now tearing up, tried again to break up the fight. She stepped forwards, getting between the duo, and pleaded desperately with her fighting friends.

"Sweetie! Scootaloo! Stop! Just stop it, please!" 

As before, the two warring fillies ignored her, and Sweetie Belle shoved her aside to get closer to Scootaloo, her horn itching to loose a bolt of probably-incendiary magic at her ex-friend. 

"Well, maybe I can't cook, but at least I can use my magic, like a proper unicorn - not like you. Diamond Tiara was right... you're not a real pegasus; you're just a stupid flightless chicken!"

"You want to say that again, huh, Sweetie?" Scootaloo snarled, stalking forwards menacingly. "Just you go ahead and say that again, and we'll see just how pretty you look with your teeth smashed out."

Sweetie ignored the threat and advanced as well, lighting her horn threateningly and giving her ex-friend a defiant look.

"You heard me," she sneered. "But, you know what, fine, I'll spell it out for you so your little bird brain can keep up. You. Are. A. Stupid. Selfish. Flightless. Chicken!" 

She leaned further towards Scootaloo with each emphatic insult, until their snouts were nearly touching. With Scootaloo frozen up in rage, Sweetie took the opportunity to mock her further. In the corner, Apple Bloom held her head in her hooves and tried to pretend that this wasn't happening. 

"Chicken!" taunted Sweetie Belle. "Chicken! Chicken! Chicken! Chi-"

"I'M GOING TO BUCKING KILL YOU!" Scootaloo screamed, launching herself forwards at the unicorn, who backpedalled away and turned to run. 

The berserk pegasus didn't chase her, leaning back onto her hindlegs and bringing the bat down with the full force of both hooves. She grinned madly as the speeding object descended viciously towards the too-slow unicorn, but at the last moment felt the air burst from her hooves as something hit her from the side and sent her sprawling. 

Sitting up, Scootaloo glared after the retreating forms of Sweetie Belle and, closer, Apple Bloom. As she snatched her bat up from where it had fallen, and one of the balls from the nearby equipment trolley, she saw that, in a flash of light on both of Apple Bloom's flanks, an image was appearing: Apple Bloom's cutie mark. 

Fury and anguish coursed through Scootaloo's veins - not only had her friend gotten her mark before her, she'd earned it by betraying her. Growling bestially, she leaned back on her hindlegs and tossed the ball into the air, before snapping the bat through the air towards it, bat and ball connecting with a sound like Rainbow Dash performing the Sonic Rainboom.

The ball hurtled through the air, missing Apple Bloom by centimetres and shattering the glass in the door as it closed behind the fleeing filly. Scootaloo stared after it for a moment, ignoring the shouts from behind her, and sank, panting, to her haunches. As the adrenaline fled her body, she slumped into a sobbing pile of fur, mane and feathers. The forgotten bat rolled from her hooves across the floor, neither it nor its mirror image on the filly's flanks prising her attention away from her grief. 

Scootaloo just lay there alone and wept. 

It was all she could do.


*


Elsewhere in the school, things were, for the moment, going far better for another group of friends. Diamond's plan to repair Twist's relationship with her new friends seemed to have worked: Dinky was happily chatting away to her bespectacled ex-foe, and what few comments Auburn - as taciturn as usual - had made had all been positive. Diamond herself, having already made up with Twist, was content to leave the new friends to it; her mind found its way instead to the unusually-troubled Scootaloo, and what she could do to find out what had happened. 

Maybe if she spent enough time around the filly, she'd feel comfortable enough to open up on her own? Possibly, but some ponies could be reluctant to open up without more of a push. Was Scootaloo one of those ponies? Well, she did idolise Rainbow Dash, a mare who quite often vocally dismissed emotions as 'mushy stuff' and 'uncool', so it was certainly a possibility that that mindset had rubbed off on her. In that case, simply trying to get Scootaloo more comfortable around her might never work, no matter how close they got on a personal level.

A more direct approach might work better, then. Maybe if Diamond pushed her enough, she'd come out with whatever had gone wrong in her little friendship group? Then again, that might simply drive her away, and she and Diamond weren't on the best of terms anyway, so being too direct would be counterproductive. What to do, then? 

Perhaps a best-of-both-worlds method? Putting pressure on Scootaloo but not hounding her for information? That could work... but wasn't that what she'd already been doing? Granted, it had gotten some results, but would it keep on working out like that? Diamond groaned in frustration - why was this so hard?

A hoof waved in front of her eyes snapped her out of her train of thought; blinking rapidly, Diamond turned her head, following the foreleg suspending the dun hoof before her face up to the pony who it belonged to - Auburn. The pegasus was looking at her with an expression that was part irritation, part amusement and rolling her eyes, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. 

"Huh?" said Diamond, eloquently. Auburn giggled briefly, the smirk on her face becoming a full grin. 

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Diamond." The grin dipped slightly, a flash of irritation glinting in her eyes. "You know I've been trying to talk to you for the last five minutes, right?"

Diamond cringed. "Sorry, Auburn. I was lost inside my head again; I didn't mean to ignore you, honestly!"

The smile returned to Auburn's face, albeit a little strained. "'Course you didn't... So, as I was trying to say earlier; what's up with you and my sister?"

"Huh?" replied Diamond again, unchallenged mistress of communication that she was.

Auburn grinned smugly, amusement sparkling in her eyes. "You and Copperwing... Spill it!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Diamond, evenly. Auburn was having none of it, and snorted dismissively.

"Oh, come on, Diamond! You can't pull the wool over these eyes. That painting you did of Copper must have taken a lot of work, right? Most ponies wouldn't spend nearly that long painting just a friend, and I have to say, it was veeeeery detailed... I rather think you've been enjoying the view, if you catch my drift?"

The pegasus moved her eyebrows suggestively, looking smugger by the second as Diamond's mind made the connection and she blushed.

"What?! No! Why would I even?!" Diamond spluttered, crimson making its inexorable way across her face. "I-I wasn't staring! Why would I stare at her?!"

Auburn crossed her hooves, taking on a mock-authoritative posture, complete with an overly-serious voice.

"Why, indeed, Diamond? Why have you been staring at her?"

"I haven't!" Diamond's face was a crimson picture of exasperation and embarrassment by now, a sight which only served to widen Auburn's smug grin.

"Come now, you aren't convincing anypony. If you haven't been staring, then how could you do her seductive little eyes so well? How were you able to get the curve of her pretty face just right, huh? Ooor paint that perfect round flank of hers so spot on?"

The crimson huddle which used to be Diamond Tiara let out a squeak of embarrassment, then a muffled noise which sounded almost like "I haven't," were the phrase to be uttered by a mouse having a panic attack. Auburn, seeing her work was done, relented. After a minute or so, her friend emerged from her cocoon of embarrassment, and the pegasus laid a hoof on her shoulder, her expression serious. 

"Relax, I don't really think you have the hots for Copperwing, Diamond; I was just messing with you, but I'll stop now. I know you and Copper are just friends."

Diamond nodded dumbly, her face still slightly flushed, and managed to sputter out an answer. "Yeah. Friends. Sure."

She turned away from Auburn and stared off into the middle distance, shaking her head as if to clear it and running a hoof up and down her foreleg unconsciously. After a moment or two, a renewed blush spread across her cheeks, and she tucked her head down to her chest, ears splaying back. 

Auburn frowned. "Hey, Diamond... Are you okay?"

No response came from the earth pony, not so much as a flick of an ear, and Auburn's frown deepened. 

"Diamond? I didn't take it too far, did I?"

The only change on Diamond's face was the unconscious chewing of her lip and the appearance of a frown of her own. She mumbled something under her breath, but Auburn couldn't make out what, and as the blush faded from Diamond's cheeks, her face took on the same faraway expression it'd had earlier. 

"Wonderful," grumbled Auburn, sarcastically. "So that's how it's going to be... oh, but of course you don't mean to ignore me, do you?"

Turning away from Diamond with an expression of undisguised irritation, her scowl only deepened at the sight of Dinky and Twist's happy conversation. 

"Hey, Dinky, Twist," she called, hoping, despite her envy, to join them. "What're you talking about?"

Dinky said something and Twist laughed; neither one of them seemed to notice Auburn at all. Frowning more deeply, she tried again.

"Hey!" That got their attention; both fillies whirled around to face her, and Auburn grasped her chance to contribute.

"What?" asked Dinky, looking a little peeved. 

Auburn's frown deepened - why was she annoyed? It wasn't Auburn's fault she'd had to raise her voice. 

"I was just wondering what you were talking about. Miss Talkative over there-" she gestured to Diamond "-is off in la-la land."

Dinky blinked, still not wearing her usual smile as she rubbed her ear and frowned. "Oh. Well, you didn't have to shout."

Auburn bit back a retort, letting out an exasperated sigh when moments passed without an answer from Dinky and she had to repeat her question.  "...So, what were you talking about?"

"Well," answered Twist, "We were jutht talking about thith game Dinky playth... Legendth of the Three Kingdomth, I think it'th called? It thoundth really interethting."

Trying not to let the filly's gratingly pronounced lisp annoy her, Auburn smiled and replied - here was her way in!

"Oh, I play that! I was the one who introduced Dinky to it, actually; I've been playing for years. If you want, I could give you some tips?"

Twist shook her head and Auburn's smile fell. "No thankth, Autumn, I like to learn what to do and not to do by mythelf."

"It's Auburn, not Autumn," the pegasus corrected, not quite managing to clear the terseness from her tone. "Well, how about the lore? I know everything off by heart."

Again, a shake of the head; Auburn's not-quite-a-smile grew even more forced as Twist spoke. "Dinky thaid that it wath worth reading for yourthelth-" Auburn turned a brief glare towards an oblivious Dinky, "-tho that'th what I'm gonna do."

"Uh... well," began Auburn, not even trying to smile this time, "How about you come over some time and we can all play a game? You'll have ample opportunity to read the lore, and I'll make sure nopony stops you learning by yourself."

Twist shook her head for a third time, looking apologetic; that Auburn's face didn't drop defeatedly into the tabletop was a feat of willpower even for her. 

"Well, I don't really know if I actually want to play it jutht yet. I mean, it thoundth awful interethting and all, but I jutht don't know if it'th my thing. Thorry!"

"Of course it's not," growled Auburn, who waited until Twist had turned away before quietly imitating her in a whiny, nasal voice with a caricaturistically pronounced lisp. Unfortunately for her, Dinky overheard her and sent a furious glower her way, her expression making it abundantly clear to Auburn that she wasn't going to be in the mood to talk anytime soon. Auburn cursed, earning her another glare from Dinky, before angrily setting her jaw and glaring into space in bitter imitation of the deeply-thinking Diamond beside her. 

Minutes passed without anypony sparking conversation with her, and a glance at her food reminded her that she'd already finished in-between attempts at getting Diamond's attention. Whining frustratedly, a bitter thought struck her: she could probably leave now and none of them would notice. As time passed on, and nopony so much as glanced her way, the thought grew more and more unavoidable with each moment of silent anger. Finally, after ten minutes of silent simmering, she acted upon it: extricating herself from the bench, she stepped down onto all four hooves and trotted slowly to the exit, every so often stealing glances back to see if anypony noticed. 

Nopony did.

Letting out a bitter huff, she turned away from her friends and stalked off angrily, unknowingly becoming the second pegasus that day to do so. Grumbling under her breath as jealous thoughts of Diamond with Copperwing and Dinky with Twist spiralled tauntingly around her head, mixing a fear of loss into her growing feelings of irritation and loneliness. Arriving at her classroom half an hour earlier and seeing, without surprise, that nopony was in the room, she tried the door and found that it was unlocked. Trotting sullenly inside, she took her seat and let her head drop onto the desk. 


*


Back in the cafeteria, Diamond shook free of her ruminations, turning to an empty seat with words meant for her friend. Blinking in surprise, she turned back to her still-present friends with a questioning look. 

"Dinky, Twist? Where'd Auburn go?" 

The duo seemed not to hear her, happily talking among themselves, and with a rueful smile and a shake of her head, she raised a hoof to tap Dinky on the shoulder. After the third tap, the unicorn took notice, turning to Diamond expectantly. 

"Huh? What'd you want, Di?" She asked, before noticing the empty seat beside the earth pony. "Hey, where did Auburn go?"

Diamond chuckled, shaking her head. "That's exactly what I was hoping you could tell me. Ah, well, I guess she's probably gone to the toilet or something. Never mind, then; I'll let you get back to Twist."

The unicorn turned away, and Diamond once more fell into thought, frowning confusedly when her friend did not return even after ten minutes. It wasn't like Auburn to just disappear. Frowning in concentration, she shut off from the surrounding world and turned her thoughts to her pegasus friend, hoping to find a reasonable explanation. 


*


The end of the day came without further sign of Auburn Wake for Diamond, Dinky and Twist. The pegasus's lessons after lunch did not match up with either of the trio, and none of them spotted her in the corridors. Dinky, sure in her optimistic way that Auburn would be fine, and Twist, who didn't know her well enough to know any different, were mostly unconcerned by this - it wasn't like they'd never had days without seeing her in the corridors before, and in any case, Dinky was pretty confident that they'd find the filly waiting by the front entrance as usual. Twist, trusting her new friend's word, agreed, and Diamond, whilst more concerned by Auburn's disappearance, couldn't fault her reasoning. 

As the trio made their way out of their classrooms and met up on their individual ways to the front of the school, Diamond ran the evidence around her head, trying to rationalise the vanishing of the pegasus. The first possibility was that she had, as Diamond first assumed, needed to use the bathroom and had simply taken longer than usual. It was not exactly normal for a pony to take half an hour in there, but it did happen: after all, it's not like ponies had complete control over their bodies, or, for that matter, whether or not they got ill. That led on to another theory: had Auburn fallen ill or gotten injured, and simply been sent home? Her father should be back in town, so that was an option, although if true then it made for a saddening continuation of her family's recent trend towards ill health.

Tuning out Twist and Dinky's continued conversation, she wracked her brain for more ideas. Perhaps she'd had work to do, and left to do it? It was odd that she wouldn't give any indication of her leaving, but then again... Diamond focused her attention on Twist and Dinky, or rather how their attention was focused almost entirely on each other. They'd been like this at lunch, and for that matter, she'd been as deep in thought then as she was now, albeit for different reasons. If she could tune out a conversation as lively as Twist and Dinky's, then it was no big stretch to think that she might not have heard Auburn, or even, considering the world-oblivious duo chatting beside her, that none of them had. 

And that, itself, brought up a more unsettling idea. Auburn had seemed noticeably peeved that Diamond hadn't heard her, and though she appeared to shrug it off after a moment, she had never been one for expressing her emotions unless it was really important. Had she been hiding how annoyed she was? And just how long had Diamond been oblivious to her attempts at conversation? She must have been thinking about Scootaloo for a good five minutes at least, and if Auburn had been trying to get her attention for even half that time... Just how annoyed had she been, beneath it all? She had looked happy enough whilst tormenting Diamond about her definitely-not-staring at Copper, but that didn't mean to say the emotions had simply vanished. Diamond started, a cold realisation washing over her. Auburn had teased her to the point of putting a very un-platonic image of Copperwing in her head, and she'd completely dropped out of the conversation, right back into her mind. And she hadn't come out for a whole twenty minutes. She'd ignored Auburn for twenty minutes! And if she'd already been annoyed about Diamond ignoring her, then maybe her disappearance was no accident, but rather Diamond's fault.

Maybe Auburn hadn't had anywhere to be after all. 

Maybe that was precisely why she had left.

Diamond chewed her lip, guiltily running the memory through her head. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid,' she berated mentally, growing all the more guilty with each pained rerun. The background noise of Twist and Dinky's conversation had vanished, but the observation failed to cut through the veil of self-reproach which had fallen over her mind like a sensory blindfold, dark and depriving. 'I'm better than this,' she thought angrily, 'How could I just ignore her? Stupid, stupid, stu-'

Her mental tirade was cut short suddenly by an equally sudden impact to her face and Diamond staggered back, landing heavily on her haunches and blinking rapidly in shock. A set of four familiar mulberry legs, presumably belonging to the pony she'd run into, filled her wide eyes, and looking up revealed the surprised face of Cheerilee, her green eyes sparkling with concern as she stretched a hoof out towards the downed filly. Behind her, Scootaloo stepped out of Cheerilee's office, slipping unnoticed into the crowd amidst Diamond's moment of stunned confusion.

"Ouch," said Diamond, accepting the offered hoof and standing back up with her teacher's help. "Sorry, Miss Cheerilee, I was... My mind was somewhere else. It's been a bit of a weird day."  

Cheerilee chuckled. "I can't argue with that, Diamond. And please call me Cheerilee - school's over, and I'd like to think we're friends."

Diamond blinked. Friends? A smile made its way onto her face, her worries about Auburn slipping away for the moment in the face of this happy revelation.

"Okay, Cheerilee... Oh! Speaking of friends, how's Dad doing?"

It was Cheerilee's turn to blink then, and, a moment later, a genuine smile lit up her face. 

"He's doing fine, last I asked... I suppose I'll get another chance to ask tonight, though - turns out your father's got a copy of the original Total Recall lying around, so he asked me if I'd like to come round tonight and watch it with him on that movie projector of yours."

Diamond took her turn to blink in surprise again, her smile growing a little smugger as her mind made a few leaps of logic about the reasons for her father inviting his friend over. 

"I didn't know you liked action movies, Cheerilee," Diamond commented, deciding it was best to avoid the admittedly tempting route of teasing the mare about the less platonic implications of her visit. 

The schoolteacher's smile morphed into a fillyish grin, and she jumped into the subject with an enthusiasm unusual even for her. "Oh, I love action movies! I grew up on them - my mother's fault, that was - and I like to see whatever new one's out whenever I get the chance. Of course, most of the new ones don't quite measure up to the classics, but I'm sure it's only another time before we get another kick-flank one like they used to make!" Glancing around at the varying levels of surprise on the fillies' faces, she coughed embarrassedly in to her hoof, her grin turning sheepish. "Ahem... Sorry about that, I get a bit carried away sometimes."

"Nah," chirped Dinky, "Mummy told me you should never be ashamed of liking something, and she's right! It's really cool you have something to geek out about! Everypony does, really, no matter what they say about it."

Cheerilee smiled at Dinky's kind words, seeing a lot of the filly's mother - Cheerilee's friend - in the little unicorn. "Thank-you, Dinky! I'm glad you think so. Oh, and next time you see your mum, tell her I said hi!"

"Will do!" Dinky grinned, saluting her cheekily. 

Chuckling at her student's antics, Cheerilee waited for the laugh to die down before facing the fillies with a more serious expression. 

"As much as I've enjoyed chatting with you girls, I do need to get home and finish up some paperwork. Don't hang around school too long, okay?" 

She backed a few steps away, flashing them a grin, before turning on her hooves and trotting quickly away, her saddlebags brimming fit to burst with papers. Outside her empty office, the trio of fillies simply stood there for a moment, watching their teacher leave with smiles on their faces. Once she was out of earshot Twist turned to her companions with an expression of subdued awe.

"Wow! I didn't know you two knew Mith Cheerilee tho well." She frowned, scrunching her nose slightly. "It'th a bit weird, actually."

Dinky shrugged. "Not really; Mummy and Cheerilee have been friends since before I was born - she's actually my godmother, if you can imagine that! I sort of grew up having her stop by every week or so, so she's been a friend to me longer than a teacher."

Twist's awe-filled expression returned. "Whoa! That'th actually pretty cool. What about you, Diamond? Have your dad and Mith Cheerilee been friendth for long?"

Diamond laughed. "Nope, they've been friends for about a week. Apparently me punching Silver Spoon in the face made for a good bonding topic..." Her expression turned pensive. " You know, I joke, but that might actually be how they became friends."

"Oh," said Twist, after a moment. "That'th still pretty cool."

Silence fell, and the fillies stood under its blanket comfortably, until the nagging thought of Auburn tugged Diamond's mind back to the real world, and the time. Glancing up at the nearby clock and gasping in alarm, Diamond turned to her friends to usher them forwards. 

"Come on, you two, we'd better go. We've kept Auburn waiting long enough."

A murmur of agreement issued from the other fillies and together, the three friends trotted quickly towards the exit. A strange haste overcame Diamond as she made to leave, imbuing her movements with an almost feverish energy and her mind with a wish to be elsewhere: now began her free time, and there was a certain somepony she'd been dying to see all day. Inside her head, Diamond's thoughts turned to one particular long-maned pegasus and the hospital in which she waited for her. Recalling their parting conversation the previous day, Diamond grinned, before setting her mouth in a determined line. Moving on with purpose, Diamond felt her heart beat a little faster - there was a princess trapped in that hospital, and who better to save her than this brave knight?
> Holding
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Auburn Wake waited perhaps a little impatiently, but nevertheless, she was waiting for her friends. Despite her anger at them earlier, she had come to miss them by the time the end of day bell rang out, and so she waited. Tucked away to one side of the torrent of students that were flooding out of the school entrance, she watched the crowds pass, scanning the mass for three particular faces. 

Normally, they'd be here by now, but it wouldn't be the first time one of them got caught up in something and took a little longer to meet her. Auburn, noticing the involuntary expression of impatience, stilled her idly tapping hoof before looking at the clock: they were almost five minutes late. Almost wasn't quite there, though, so she waited. Her hoof began tapping again; this time, she didn't bother to stop it.

The flood of students was thinning now, but she could see amongst them the first members of art classes and other lessons which were more time consuming to pack away. There was Featherweight, passing by with Pipsqueak at his side, and there was Zipporwhill, but none of Auburn's friends seemed to be amongst the group. Still, those first few were hardly all of the foals who did those lessons, and Diamond, Auburn remembered, did Art. Perhaps she'd just been held up again... But hadn't she already had two hours of art lessons today? Auburn began shifting from hoof to hoof without realising she was doing it, a frown setting once more onto her face. 

The slow packers filed out, until only a mere stream of foals trickled out through the doors: Aquamarine, Berry Pinch, Firelock and Archer all dawdled their way out of the building, and still nopony Auburn was waiting for appeared. Maybe Diamond had wanted to pick up her piece of art from earlier - she'd have had to have waited until everypony had packed up and then popped in to ask permission. Maybe she'd had trouble finding it. As fewer and fewer students passed her by, Auburn got the steadily increasing feeling that she was grasping at straws. 

Now, Scootaloo, who Auburn knew had been in detention all day after some incident with the other Crusaders, trotted past morosely. If she was here, then how could Diamond and the others be taking so long? Sighing, she peered around the corner, seeing only Snips and Snails dawdling along its length, and sighed. Maybe, she thought with a growl, they were never going to come. Maybe they'd already left and forgotten about her... It wouldn't be the first time today. 

Scowling, Auburn turned and stalked out of the front door without looking back. The door jolted violently as it reached the end of the furious arc she'd set it on and collided with the wall. Blinking in alarm, Snips and Snails slipped out of the entrance as the door made its slow swing back into position, watching with concerned expressions as Auburn stomped down the path leading for town, kicked off from the path hard enough to send plumes of dirt mushrooming up from the punished earth, and flew without humour towards the hospital. 


*


Only a minute later, the three fillies for whom Auburn had been waiting stopped dead in the deserted school entrance, looking around and finding, to their dismay that their friend was nowhere to be seen. A cursory glance through the big glass windows in the front doors revealed only the retreating silhouettes of Snips and Snails, and Diamond turned to her two companions with a shake of her head.

"Oh, I knew we'd miss her," she sighed, frowning. A glance at the clock above the doors told her that they were almost ten minutes late to meet their friend, and she let out a whine of defeat.

"I bet she's gone to see Copperwing," Dinky piped up, determinedly remaining positive in the face of this unfortunate turn of events, and Diamond nodded in response. 

"You're probably right, Dinky."

Twist just shuffled behind them, unsure what to say. After a moment or two, she raised her voice, having decided that this wasn't really somewhere she was needed right now.

"Hey, uh, Diamond, Dinky? I've got to go, tho, um... thee you two tomorrow?" Waiting for an answer, she shifted uncomfortably on the spot, her eyes nervous behind her thick-rimmed glasses.

Diamond turned to her, blinking. "Oh," she started, nodding in affirmative, "Of course, Twist. I'll see you tomorrow, then, if you're going now."

Twist smiled gratefully, half-turning to leave. "Okay, thee you then!"

She trotted away, turning back to her newfound friends to wave- "Bye!" -and shot them a bright grin as her hoof powered up and down in an overenthusiastic farewell, before slipping on out the door. 

"See ya later!" called Dinky, as Diamond made her own brief goodbye in the form of a smile and wave in return. The door closed smoothly, separating them from their departing friend, and the two remaining fillies turned to one another. Dinky's eyes didn't miss the eager way Diamond glanced at the door and easily guessed the reason, smirking knowingly before wiping the expression off of her suddenly innocent face as her friend turned back to her. 

"D'you wanna go to the hospital, then, Diamond?" asked Dinky, already beginning to move towards the door in anticipation of her answer.

Diamond followed her, nodding earnestly. "Of course. Even if I knew Auburn wasn't there, I promised Copper I'd visit... Besides, she still has my tiara."

Dinky blinked, then chuckled, slowing for a moment to let Diamond fall into step beside her. "Oh, yeah! She's Princess Copperwing now, isn't she?"

Diamond snorted, a grin breaking onto her face at the reminder of the high note the last night's visit had ended on. 

"Hey," began Dinky, "Imagine if she turned into an alicorn like Princess Twilight."

"That'd be cool," Diamond replied with a smile, nodding appreciatively, "Yeah, I can see that."

Dinky shot her a smirk. "And you, her knight in shining armour?"

"Yeah," replied Diamond, without really thinking. Dinky giggled at her reply and, after a few blinking moments realising what she'd said, Diamond sighed long-sufferingly, shaking her head in exasperation. "Oh, come on, not you too!"

Dinky cackled and Diamond rolled her eyes. Where were they even getting this idea from? Crazy, the lot of them, she thought, sighing confusedly. Slowly, she recalled the times she'd spent with her older friend and began to see where the lunatics she called friends were coming from. 

The last time she'd been with Copperwing had been by far the longest, and she'd spent hours of it just embracing the other filly - to comfort her -  after which she had gotten - quite naturally - protective of her, then closely accompanied her - to comfort her - to her mother's bedside where, after a short period out of her company, she had given the pegasus the only thing of her mother's she had - to comfort her!!! - and left with the promise of returning as soon as possible. 

Alright. 

Okay. 

Fair enough, that was a lot of evidence in Auburn and Dinky's favour - but that didn't mean anything! 

Diamond resurfaced from her thoughts to find Dinky laughing at her. 

"What?" asked Diamond. "What is it now?"

Dinky paused in her raucous laughing for a moment, before stopping and striking her best lovestruck pose, which quickly crumbled as she burst into renewed guffaws. 

"I-I was not doing that!" Diamond snapped, exasperation flooding into her expression. "No. No way. I did not look like that. I am not in love with anypony, I don't have a crush, and I most definitely never made that face!"

Dinky just laughed to herself, basking in the gold comedic light of Diamond's overreaction, as the earth filly turned her gaze to the steadily approaching hospital with a huff. One trotting quickly forwards with a steady blush on her face, the other skipping along in schadenfreudian bliss, the duo passed the time until their arrival in silence. They stopped at the door for a moment, but then Diamond pushed it open with a new sense of certainty and led the way confidently inside, the blush on her face mostly gone save for a persistent pink flush, the embarrassment replaced with a faraway look and a glow in her eyes. Dinky smirked knowingly and followed her inside. 


*


Shivering lightly as they entered the cooler air of the hospital's air-conditioned reception, the duo made for the main reception, where a nurse Diamond recognised - Redheart? Brightheart? no, Snowheart - stood talking hurriedly in a hushed tone with the stallion behind the desk. As the fillies approached, a nod from the stallion signalled the end of the conversation ahead and Nurse Snowheart turned away to head off elsewhere in the hospital, only to spot the duo and clack across the hard tiled floor to meet them. 

Diamond stopped a polite distance from the nurse, looking up at her expectantly, and the older mare smiled briefly down at her before her expression hardened again. 

"If you're here to visit your friend from yesterday, she's in B Ward with her mother, the same as last night. I hope you did get in touch with your family yesterday and told them where you were, young mare; you could have really worried them otherwise."

Diamond shrank back, ears flattening. Snowheart sighed and barely resisted the impulse to facehoof, letting her expression of disappointment speak for itself without further accompaniment. 

"I see," she continued. "I trust you've told them where you are today, right?"

Again, Diamond shrank under the nurse's disappointed stare, joined this time by Dinky.

"Oh, for goodness-" started Snowheart, cutting herself off before she could finish. Turning to the desk again, she gestured for the fillies to follow her. "Come with me, let's sort this out now before it gets to be an even bigger problem."

She led them to the desk and then around the side, where she snatched up one of the telephones fitted there and held the receiver out to the fillies. 

"Here, you can ring home on this. Bear in mind that if a call comes in and there are no free telephones to handle it, then I'm going to have to take it back immediately - no goodbyes, I'll just cut the call and switch the line, you understand?. We're having a slow day today, thankfully, so with luck we shouldn't have to cut your call short, but you'd best make your calls sooner rather than later. I trust you know your home telephone numbers?"

Diamond nodded and stepped forwards; her father, like most of Ponyville's residents these days, had access to a telephone. In fact, there were three in the house, which could each make simultaneous calls independently of one another, allowing the serving staff to pick up when Filthy Rich was busy and inform the caller of his inability to answer, and their employer of the caller's identity and reason for ringing. 

She span the selector on the telephone's rotary face, turning it and releasing it in quick succession with a practiced hoof, entering her father's number so rapidly that within a short few seconds the telephone was ringing, its receiver pressed snugly against her ear. The dully whining dial tones washed out into her ear, repeating for a few moments before a click cut them off and a moment later, her father's voice, professional and guarded, spilled out of the speaker.

"This is Filthy Rich, who is calling?"

"Dad, it's me, Diamond," she replied, hearing a hum of surprise from the other end. When he spoke again, her father's voice was warm but tinged with concern. 

"Diamond, is everything alright? Where are you calling from?"

"I'm at the hospital, Dad. I was going to visit Copperwing and her mother with Dinky, but I forgot to drop by and tell you where I was going. I'll see you later, okay? I won't be late for dinner, I promise."

"Oh, alright, Di. Thanks for letting me know, sweetie, you know how this old stallion likes to worry. Stay safe out there, and I'll see you later."

"Bye, Daddy!"

"Goodbye, Diamond."

Smiling, Diamond hung up, turning to Dinky and stepping aside to let her friend get their turn. To her surprise, however, Dinky shook her head. 

"What's wrong, Dinky?" Diamond asked, concern making its way into her expression.

The unicorn seemed to lose all the joy inside her, her head drooping along with her ears as her mane appeared to go lank and slack, devoid of its usual lively colour and volume, and she shrank into herself as if ashamed. 

"I-I... We don't have a telephone; Mum doesn't- she can't afford one. I can't call home."

Diamond stepped forwards and lifted Dinky's chin to look her in the eye. "Dinky, there's nothing to be ashamed of about not having a telephone. You're hardly the only one in Ponyville who doesn't, and besides, I can just call Dad and ask him to send a message to your mum. You see, there's no problem at all, so turn that frown upside down."

Dinky brightened, giggling a little at Diamond's closing statement, and shot her a playful frown, one eyebrow raised in mock-admonishment. 

"'Turn that frown upside down'? Really, Diamond? That's the best you could come up with?"

Diamond shrugged. "It made you laugh, didn't it?"

"I suppose you've got me there," conceded Dinky. "...Do you really think your dad will be alright playing messenger for me, though?"

"Of course he'll be okay with it. Your mum is his friend, he's not going to mind making sure she doesn't have to worry about you. Besides, he won't say no to his little gem."

"Wait," said Dinky, fighting back a snort of laughter, "wait just one moment. He calls you 'his little gem'? Oh, sweet Celestia, that's adorable!" A mischievous grin crept onto her face as she continued. "...You know what, I should tell Copperwing; every good couple have pet names for each other, after all."

Diamond shot her friend a killing glare which only served to make her laugh harder and tried to ignore the cackling laughter as she dialled her dad's number again. As before, after the dial tones had their seconds of fame, he greeted her in what she liked to think of as his 'business voice'.

"Hello? This is Filthy Rich, who is-"

"Dad, it's me again," cut in Diamond, "we can't call Dinky's mum, so could you make sure she knows that Dinky's here with me, please?"

A second's silence passed by without answer and Diamond began to wonder if she should maybe have drawn that 'please' out a little longer and play the 'verbal puppy dog eyes' card. Just as she was about to follow her question up with another cuter plea, her father's chuckle rumbled across the phone line, his tone warm enough that she could guess his answer.

"Of course, my little gem. I needed a walk anyway and helping my friend out is as good an excuse as any to get out of the house for a while. I'll drop by and tell her where Dinky is, maybe catch up a little, then head back home in time to set things up for when Cheerilee gets here."

Diamond couldn't help but notice how the enthusiasm in his tone seemed to rise towards the end of his reply, and made note of it with a smile. It was good that her father was making friends as good as the ones she had. 

"Okay, Dad, I'll leave you to it. Bye!"

"Bye!"

Putting the phone down for the second time, Diamond turned to her friend with a satisfied smile. 

"There, done!" Diamond then nodded to the nurse, waiting patiently beside them. "Thanks, Nurse Snowheart!"

Snowheart smiled again, as brief yet warm as her last, and nodded to the fillies. "No problem, young mare. Thank you for remembering my name. Anyway, you pair had better get going if you want to see your friend. She's due to be discharged later, if all goes well."

Diamond and Dinky gave their farewells and thanks to the mare and trotted off into the hospital, their original quest to find out their friend's current location from the reception finally at an end.


*


Diamond led the way through the hospital corridors at a determined pace. Beside her, Dinky's shorter legs whirred in a scampering attempt to keep up with the earth pony's powerful stride, the unicorn panting from the effort. Surefooted, Diamond, rather than slow down for the corners, leaned to turn her body round them, while Dinky skidded widely round and skittered after her. The  focused on retracing the path to where Copperwing and her mother were being kept, hoping to herself that Auburn would be there. 

Dinky's hopes were somewhat humbler: she just wanted Diamond to slow down a little. When this unspoken prayer went unanswered, she wrote it off as karma, taking solace in the fact that her ordeal would soon be over. If she hadn't been so preoccupied with keeping pace with Diamond, Dinky would have found her friend's eagerness to get back to her hospitalised friend funny. As things were, her legs were really starting to ache and that was most certainly not funny - surely it couldn't be much further?

Rounding one final corner, Diamond slowed at last, smiling briefly as she finally caught sight of the ponies she'd come to visit. There, in the closest occupied bed, was Copperwing; freed from her oxygen mask and serenely asleep, the dance of light across her subtly shining coat and the gleam of Diamond's tiara upon her head gave her an air of regal elegance. Diamond found the once-joking comparison of Copperwing to a princess more fitting by the second... she really was beautiful. 

The next bed, in which Burnished Gilding lay, had been moved so that it effectively formed a double-sized bed with her daughter's own, and as Diamond watched, she took advantage of this closeness to move an idle strand of dirty blonde mane off of Copperwing's face. The mare smiled, the loving joy in her eyes not diminishing even when her attempt at rolling back onto her own bed sent a stab of pain through her, courtesy of her still-healing wounds. Diamond was glad her friend had such loving parents and, though the thought sent a pang through her heart, wondered if her own mother would have been the same. Memories of her dad fondly telling her stories about her mother caught her smile as it fell: he had loved her dearly, so she must have been just as good as Gild... right? Diamond supposed she would never really know.

Looking for something to distract her, Diamond's eyes found Auburn's cold gaze and the sad remains of her smile fell from her face. The pegasus filly sat rigidly in a chair on the other side of her mother's bed to her sleeping sister, staring at Diamond as if she were looking at a stranger. Ushering Dinky over to Gilding and the sleeping Copperwing, Diamond made her own, slow way over to her other friend, pausing in her approach to give a wave and apologetic smile, which Auburn didn't return.

"Hello, Auburn," Diamond started, earning no response besides Auburn pointedly looking off to the side, rather than straight at her. 

"Auburn, I'm sorry." This, at least, got a flick of the ears from the unresponsive pegasus. "Please, Auburn, I'm sorry, just look at me, would you?"

She got her wish, but the icy glare that came with it made its fulfillment a bitter one. 

"What's the problem, Diamond?" Auburn asked, her voice mock-saccharine and her face innocent. "Don't you like being ignored?"

"Auburn." Diamond whined. "Come on, just listen to me, please. I messed up, I know, and I'm sorry."

"Oh, you're sorry, are you? What could little miss Perfect Friend have possibly done to be sorry for?"

"Auburn, don't do this. I know you're mad, and you have every right to be, but you're being so... so..."

"So... what, Diamond? So childish? So petty? Is that it, Diamond? You think I'm being petty, huh? Yes, yes I am - and why shouldn't I be?"

"Because this isn't you. You're not petty or childish, you're the one of us who uses her head. You're the mature one, the one who always thinks first and speaks later, not... not whatever this is. I'm sorry I ignored you earlier, and I'm sorry we missed you at the end of the day, but I've been trying to apologise since I got here and you have not been making it easy. Now, if you'll actually listen to me, let's go somewhere a little more private and talk about this like normal ponies."

Auburn sucked in a deep breath of air, held it for a furious couple of seconds, and released it again, seeming to deflate a little in the process. 

"Fine," she spat without humour, "let's talk." Leaving Diamond no time to respond, she slipped from her chair onto the floor and marched off towards the hallway. Looking between her retreating friend and Gilding's bewildered face, Diamond sighed, shook her head and followed after her, sparing Copperwing one longing glance before pulling her gaze away and chasing after the pegasus's sister.


*


Auburn waited for Diamond just outside the ward, in the corridor outside. The odd pony went by every few seconds, but in a hospital, expecting better than that would be folly: given the circumstances, it was private enough for the job. Diamond waited a moment after arriving, in case her friend wanted to say something, but Auburn just stared silently, unimpressed. 

"Look," Diamond began, "I just want to say, nothing that happened today - not ignoring you, not missing you, not starting an argument here - none of that was supposed to happen. The stuff you were teasing me about... well, it's not just been you, and I got a bit caught up in figuring out where the hay you're all getting the idea from. I think I get where you're coming from now - not that you're right, 'cause you aren't - but I needed a while to figure it out. I... uh, I get lost in my head, like you do, but I'm sorry it ended up making me ignore you. I did notice you were gone, but it was too late to do anything about it, and besides, Dinky didn't seem too concerned so I figured you had someplace to be."

Auburn remained silent, but didn't seem to be glaring so much, so Diamond continued.

"We were late getting to you today because we bumped into Cheerilee and had a chat, that's all. We were already running a bit late, and we sort of lost track of time, so we missed you. We didn't stand you up on purpose, I promise. I know that us not turning up, after I ignored you earlier, must have felt like some kind of betrayal or something, but we really didn't mean to do that to you, and it won't happen again."

"Yeah, betrayal's right. After all the yelling you did at me yesterday, after you more or less cut me off in favour of Copperwing, how do you expect me to react when you spend all day either ignoring me or avoiding me completely? You're supposed to be my friend, and then you go and treat me as if I'm invisible because thinking about Phobia Filly and chatting with that stupid teacher is more important to you than acknowledging my existence! Do you really think I'll just believe your shitty little excuses when it's clear you just don't want me around? Pull the other one, Diamond! Admit it, you care more about my stupid big sister and that annoying brace-face, Twit, than you do about me!"

Diamond, struck silent in bewildered astonishment, couldn't put words together to respond to Auburn's tirade, leaving the corridor silent save for the pegasus's angry pants as she tried to get her breath back. 

"I don't... I-I don't believe this, Auburn," Diamond began weakly. "How in the world could you think that? After everything we've done together, you're just going to pretend that I don't care so you don't have to admit you bucked up with Copperwing? I don't believe this."

Auburn made a sort of shocked, choking noise in outrage, but Diamond cut her off without letting her speak.

"I was furious at you yesterday because you bucked up, not because I never liked you, or because I liked Copperwing better. You hurt her time and again for years, when she needed your help most; you treated a serious mental condition like it was a joke because you didn't know what caused it; and you treated her like crap when she didn't know how badly your mum was hurt, so much so that you sent her into a panic attack which could have killed her. Of course I was bucking mad at you, Auburn... Look, I'm sorry I ignored you today, and I'm sorry that I made you feel like we'd abandoned you, but what I did yesterday was exactly what you deserved and you know it. You don't get to live in your little fantasy that everyone dislikes you and it's all unfair, because just isn't true." 

Guilt flashed across Auburn's eyes, and the angry spluttering she'd started when Diamond had begun her own rant died down. Her mouth moved silently around unspoken words, trying to find ones which fit what she was thinking, but she never got the chance to say them: Diamond wasn't done yet.

"What you do get to do is face up to the truth. I was - and still am - mad at you for treating Copperwing the way you did: fact. I forgave you yesterday, and still forgive you now: also a fact. I messed up today, and you got hurt: that, too, is a fact. None of what hurt you today was ever supposed to happen: also a fact. I am going to seriously lose my temper if I catch you calling Copper 'Phobia Filly' again: another fact. And finally, I still want to be your friend, just as much as when we first met: fact, fact, honest-to-Celestia bucking fact. Of course, all of these facts mean nothing if you won't believe them, so Auburn - am I right or wrong about all of this?"

Moments passed, in which the fillies stared eye to eye, before Auburn crumpled in shame and bowed her head. 

"You're... you're right, Diamond. I shouldn't have used what happened yesterday as evidence that you didn't like me, it was just... it was easier, you know? Harder to blame yourself than someone else, and what you said the other day hurt - I guess I deserved it, but it felt like you were just turning your back on me. I thought I'd lost you, and then today you made me feel like I really had."

"I know, and I'm sorry. We've both made one Tartarus of a mess out of all this, but I'd like to think the arguing part's behind us now, wouldn't you? So, if you'll forgive me for messing up today, I'll forgive you for messing up with Copper, and we can both move on with our lives. Deal?"

Auburn grinned coltishly, spat a wad of spit into her hoof and held it out to shake. "Deal."

Returning the grin, Diamond spat on her own hoof and shook. Releasing one another, the two fillies stood a little awkwardly, neither one quite ready to head back inside, but neither quite knowing what to say, either. Eventually, Auburn spoke up, looking sheepish but with a determined edge to her eyes.

"Diamond, today I felt like I was invisible. To you, to Dinky, to everypony. It was like all of a sudden, nothing I did mattered anymore. I felt so alone, Diamond, and I don't ever want to feel like that again. I know I just shook to say I forgave you for all that, but it still hurt... it hurt a lot. I don't deal well with being abandoned, either genuinely or when I just think I am."

"I'm sorry you had to feel like that, Auburn. Friends are supposed to take away the loneliness, not make it worse... it won't happen again, I promise. So... shall we get back to the brave guard, the princess and the court jester?"

Auburn snorted in amusement, her smile returning, and nodded. The pair returned in renewed camaraderie, shooting reassuring smiles at Copperwing and Burnished Gilding and rejoining Dinky at the bedside. Auburn sat back down beside her mother, joining Dinky in conversation with the older mare, whilst Diamond made her way to Copperwing's side, a comforting smile on her face as she returned to her friend. 


*


It was a while before Copperwing woke up, but Diamond didn't mind waiting for her: the smile which spread across her friend's face when she opened her eyes to see Diamond there would have been worth waiting all day for, as far as she was concerned. Smiling herself, she leaned over her friend and greeted her with quiet affection.

"Hey there, Copper," she began, leaning in with softly concerned eyes to meet Copperwing's own mismatched irises. "How was your night? I hope you were able to sleep alright, even being where you are."

Copperwing smiled back broadly, her mouth now free of yesterday's oxygen mask, and reached a foreleg out to lay a hoof on top of Diamond's where it gripped the side of the bed. Her eyes, though less pained than they had been, still whispered of hurt, worry and confusion, and there was a vulnerable quality to her demeanour which made Diamond's heart fill with sympathy and her protective instincts flare up. 

"I-I don't know what I would have done without mum here," the pegasus said, more clearly than yesterday but still raspy and weak in volume. "I got some sleep, thanks to her... Having your tiara helped, too. It wasn't as good as having you here, but I-I could pretend..."

Diamond reached out with her other hoof to stroke Copper's mane comfortingly, smiling to herself as she saw her friend release some of the tension she'd been holding in. "Well, I'm here now, Copper. I'll stay as long as you like... or as long as Dad will let me, I suppose. I really worried him last night, but I wouldn't have left you before then for the world. Now, just relax and focus on me, okay? While I'm here, you're not in the hospital, you're safe, with me, wherever you want to be. I'm here for you, I will always be here for you."

"Thanks, Dee-Tee... I-I... Th-that means a lot to me." The older pegasus's eyes sparkled with unshed tears, but her mouth was curved into a grateful smile and her grip on Diamond's hoof tightened, drawing comfort from the physical contact. 

Diamond let action express her response and drew her friend into a comforting hug, smiling when the older filly laid her head on her shoulder and unfurled her big, softly shimmering wings to drape them over Diamond's back. Dinky and Auburn exchanged knowing glances and smirked at Diamond, who glared back but didn't loosen her grip on Copperwing. 

Eventually, the embrace was broken and the duo sat together, Copperwing in her bed and Diamond on the chair beside it, chatting away the minutes. Diamond watched the lingering anxiety fade from her friend's eyes as she slowly forgot where she was, lost in the happier places their conversation took her. 

Later, when they ran out of things to talk about, Diamond made to release her friend and give her a little space, thinking that she'd like that after so much time in close contact. To her surprise, however, Copperwing only tightened the embrace, looking into Diamond's eyes with a pleading expression which thrust a dagger through the earth filly's heart. 

"P-please," croaked Copperwing, "please don't let me go. I don't want to be alone again, not here. Just... just hold me, okay?"

Diamond smiled gently down at her, and obliged, pulling her best friend into a close embrace and shifting her neck so that Copperwing's head could rest upon her shoulder. "Your wish is my command, Princess," she said, and though she had meant it as a joke, she found herself meaning it more than she'd expected to. 

Copperwing chuckled at Diamond's reply, before settling her head down on the other filly's shoulder. Diamond smiled; it was the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard. The two friends sat wrapped in their tight embrace as time sprinted by, just holding one another in trust and contentedness. While they had each other, nothing else mattered.


*****

> Recrudescence
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Filthy Rich sat at the desk in his cosy office, trying to work through the never-ending stack of paperwork which obscured much of its surface. Trying, yes, but failing: tonight held more in store for him than paperwork, and he was too excited by the prospect to concentrate. He'd returned from Ditzy's house nearly an hour ago and ever since, he'd been unable to shake the peculiar mixture of gleeful anticipation and inexplicable dread which had come over him at the thought of seeing Cheerilee again. He hadn't felt like this in... well, years, now that he thought about it. 

How long had it been since he had last spent time with a friend? A long time, certainly; too long... Cheerilee couldn't arrive soon enough. Abandoning his half-hearted paperwork sorting, he pushed his comfortable chair back from the desk and stood. Stretching, his back popped and he sighed in satisfaction before straightening up again and trotting to the door to his office. Turning the handle, he pulled the door open and stepped out onto the landing, before making his way steadily down the staircase to the ground floor. 

A glance at the clock told him that Cheerilee should be arriving in the next hour, so he casually went about the process of setting up the little movie theatre he'd had installed next to the wine cellar in the basement. He hummed as he worked, setting up the well-worn sofa for use in place of the more traditional cinema seats he'd use with business guests. The seats were top-of-the-line and very comfortable, but both Rich and Diamond preferred the sense of togetherness the sofa provided, and he hoped Cheerilee would feel the same way. Satisfied with his work, he headed on upstairs to his movie collection, selecting a few he thought his friend might like. 

As he was setting these down on the table, a knock on the door caught his attention and he went to answer, although the clock told him that Cheerilee wasn't due to arrive for nearly another half hour. Humming to himself, he trotted through the living room, weaving between the furniture on his way to the front door. The knocking stopped, and Rich was close enough to hear the patter of hoofsteps pacing back and forth on the porch. 

A moment before he got to the door the knocking resumed, so when he removed the chain and opened the door, a pink hoof arced through the air, freezing in place just short of his broad chest. Following the hoof back along the leg to its owner, Rich's eyes met the bashful face of Cheerilee, nervousness showing through her grin. 

"Uh... Hi, Rich!" Said Cheerilee, lowering her outstretched hoof to the ground and chuckling nervously, though the fillyish sparkle in her eyes didn't fade. 

Rich returned her grin, leaning casually against the doorframe as he greeted his friend. "Hi, Cheerilee. I... uh, I didn't expect you so early. I mean- Not that that's a bad thing, I'm glad you're here." He flushed slightly at his near faux-pas, but Cheerilee seemed not to have minded.   

"Glad to be here, Rich." Cheerilee's grin widened, before falling in returning nervousness. "I'm not... too early, am I?"

Rich practically jumped to assuage her doubts, wincing a moment later at his own over-eagerness. "No, no! Not at all. I was just picking out some films we could watch, actually, so it's good you're here now. We can choose together this way... I guess being a teacher has given you a knack for being in the right place at the right time, huh?"

Cheerilee laughed, eyes crinkling as her smile stretched towards her ears. "Maybe, maybe. I'm just glad I'm not too early, that could've been awkward."

Smiling contentedly, Rich stood up straight and took a few short steps back into the house. "Yeah, it could have. Uh... if you're ready, come right on in and we can get started picking what to watch."

Cheerilee followed him inside, gently closing the door behind her, and trotted alongside Rich as he wandered over to the table where he'd left the films he'd picked out. As he slowed, she nudged him lightly and he turned his head to hear her say: "Hey, you know, it's good to see you again, Rich."

He beamed, tenderness in his eyes, and rubbed the back of his neck absent-mindedly. "Thanks! Ah.. you too, Cheerilee, really good to see you..." He trailed off as he arranged three of the films in front of his friend on the table. "Now: Total Recall, Ghostbusters or The Empire Strikes Back?"

Cheerilee hesitated, her hoof hovering indecisively over the movies. "Which one do you think I'd prefer?"

Rich met her question with a bashful grin, his hoof back to rubbing the back of his neck, and chuckled softly."...No, I meant: which do you want to watch first?"

The schoolteacher laughed musically and drew one of the films off of the table in her hoof, her gaze meeting Rich's own, who happily matched her grin. Looking away with matching blushes, the pair stood together for a moment, before Rich snatched up the other two movies and gestured to the stairs down to the cinema. 

"Shall we?" He asked, and Cheerilee laughed again. Rich sighed happily; Sweet Celestia, he'd missed this. 


*


Overshadowed by the hospital at their backs, four fillies made their way along the path from the hospital to the rest of Ponyville. One of them, the smallest, skipped along light-hoofedly, whilst the second-tallest took steady, measured steps by her side. The tallest of the four wobbled on her hooves, watched in concern by the final member of the group, poised to catch her at any moment. 

"Copper," Diamond called, halting her friend mid-step, "Copper, stop." Planting her raised hoof back on the ground, the pegasus turned to face her. Hurrying to her side, Diamond pressed herself up against her friend supportively. "Lean on me, let me take the weight for you, okay? That's better... maybe you could put your wing over my back? Would that help?"

"Thanks." Copperwing croaked, complying and unfurling one shimmering wing over Diamond's back, with which she held her friend close, leaning her weight onto the smaller filly. The duo began moving again, much steadier now that Diamond had lent her support, and joined Dinky and Auburn where they waited further along the path. 

Auburn seemed happier now, no doubt due in part to her having Dinky's undivided attention (and limitless enthusiasm), and as the group slowly proceeded into town, the upbeat tones of their happy conversation filled the air. Their talk morphed into a good-natured debate about Legends of the Three Kingdoms lore: Auburn argued with logic and reason, whereas Dinky's eloquent ripostes were more along the lines of 'but the Griffons look cooler', and as Auburn apparently won the argument with a nigh-incontrovertible point, Dinky responded by booping her on the muzzle and declaring herself the victor. Auburn rolled her eyes, unable to erase the grin on her face, while Diamond and Copperwing met each other's gaze with a knowing smile. 

"Better now?" Diamond asked, nuzzling Copperwing lightly on the cheek. Though she couldn't see it, close as she was to the other filly, Diamond could hear the smile in Copperwing's voice as she replied fondly.

"Yeah, much better; thanks, Dee-Tee... You know, it's really strange to think we've only been friends for a week or so; I don't know how I coped without a friend like you."

"Aw..." said Diamond, touched. "Thanks, Copper."

They fell silent again, comfortable in each other's presence, before Copperwing eventually broke the quiet. 

"Getting back home is going to take forever."

"Yeah, I don't think we'll be sprinting to any gold medals at this pace."

"Sorry. I don't mean to be such a burden, Diamond, I just-"

"Stop. Stop right there. Look at me, look into my eyes and listen. You are not a burden - not to me, not to anypony. You're kind and funny a-and beautiful and forgiving to a fault; you're everything I'm not, everything I want to be, so please just stop, okay? You're my best friend, Copper, and I'm not going to let you get hurt again, even if it means protecting you from yourself."

Diamond had leaned her neck out so she could look right at her friend as she spoke, and Copperwing had done as Diamond asked, so the earth filly was able to watch in close detail as her friend's eyes widened in shock, then softened in gratitude, then took on another emotion Diamond couldn't quite place. As the heat of the moment cooled, and the two watched each other's eyes, Diamond became acutely aware of how close Copper's face was to her own, blushing deeply as she realised that were it not for both of them leaning their necks away from one another, their muzzles would be touching. The awkwardness in the air was thick enough you'd need a knife to cut it, but Diamond, in her infinite stubbornness, refused to look away until she was sure the message had gotten through to her friend. 

"Please, Copper, don't ever think of yourself like that. I care about you, we all care about you, and it hurts to see you like this. I know it's hard not to think that way when you're down, Celestia knows I do it too much, but promise me that you'll talk to me when you feel like this?"

Copperwing, her own face as furiously crimson as Diamond's, nodded as she tried to put words together in response, fighting her suddenly uncooperative tongue every step of the way. 

"I-I uh, yeah, I promise, Diamond."

Diamond smiled and broke eye contact, raising her hoof to move on, only to freeze up as Copperwing leaned in and nuzzled her tenderly on the cheek. Pulling back a little, it was Copperwing's turn to freeze in indecision, before wincing in anticipatory regret and shooting her lips forward to leave a fleeting kiss on her friend's cheek. Blushing furiously, neither filly could look quite muster up the courage to look at the other, a sharp contrast to their endless eye contact earlier.

Copperwing, noticing that their friends had gotten even further ahead during their awkward little exchange, said: "W-we should get moving."

Diamond, without turning her beetroot face to face her friend, agreed. "Oh, y-yeah. Uh, let's go. Left front first?"

Copperwing, who'd become lost in her own stream of thoughts, started in confusion. "W-what? Oh, yeah, yeah; left front first."

Both fillies stepped, but at different times, and they swayed dangerously. Various apologies volleyed back and forth between the two, and with some effort and a little luck, they were able to right themselves again. 

"Okay," commented Diamond, rolling her eyes. "Well, that went well." 

In response, Copperwing snorted, a small grin breaking out onto her face.

Diamond, relaxing a little and taking command again, tried to restart their attempt to catch up. Ignoring Auburn, who was smirking knowingly back at her from further up the path, she swivelled her eye to glance at Copperwing. 

"Alright, let's try that again. Since we apparently can't walk in sync anymore, we'll just have to use the numbers."

Copperwing groaned. "Oh, come on. I haven't had to use the numbers since I was three!"

Diamond refused to back down. "Neither have I, but our team efforts seem to be as stable as a two year old's, so we'll both have to suck it up and deal with the numbers until we're walking like grown fillies again."

Her pegasus friend let out a whine of annoyance, but made no other move to reject the proposal. 

"You ready?" Asked Diamond, planting all four of her hooves in the starting position used in conjunction with the numbers to teach foals how to walk. 

"Let's get this over with," replied Copperwing, reluctantly mirroring her friend.

"Okay... One!" Together, the fillies stepped as one.

"Two," grumbled Copperwing. Again, the fillies stepped in unison.

"Three!" Diamond said, falling into a drill instructor's tone.

"Luna-cursed four."

"One!"


*



Elsewhere in Ponyville, another pair of ponies headed along their own route. These ponies, however, did not travel together. The lead pony, a grey-coated, silver-maned filly whose indiscriminate glare sent foals and adults alike scurrying out of her path, strode purposefully through the buildings on the edge of the growing town. On her flanks was her namesake, but nopony here needed to see it to know who the filly was. She was the one they'd all hoped to have seen the last of: Silver Spoon. 

The second pony, shorter than the average adult, followed Silver Spoon from a distance, features concealed under a faded, light grey cloak. They moved along the outsides of the crowds, keeping to the edges of the street and keeping as close to cover as they could, in case their quarry should look back. Whereas Silver stalked forwards like a filly possessed, this pony walked in an unhurried, almost casual way. Looking closely, though, someone might see a tension in the way the follower held themself, a tension which spoke of a pony deliberately holding back for stealth's sake. 

Silver Spoon turned the corner, and made her surefooted way to the door of a house along the street onto which she'd turned. Spoon stepped confidently up to the door and knocked, the scowl on her face vanishing and a saccharine look of innocence replacing it, complete with puppy-dog eyes and an angelic smile. The door opened and a dark grey mare poked her head out, smiling as she caught sight of her visitor. 

"Oh, hello, Silver! How's my favourite niece doing?"

"Hi, Auntie Sheen," chirped Silver. "I'm doing wonderfully, thanks! Is Gleam home?"

"Yes, she is. Did you want to see her?"

"Yes, please, Auntie Sheen."

Smiling kindly, Sheen turned away and led Silver Spoon into the house, gesturing up the stairs with a hoof. 

"She's just up there, Silver. Call me if you need anything!" 

The older mare trotted  off into the house, and Silver muttered insults under her breath, her scowl returning as she turned away from her aunt with a rude parting gesture and stormed up the stairs.

Having seen their quarry vanish around the corner, the follower had sped up to move after her, but skidded to a halt and turned back the way they'd come, their attention caught by something they'd passed. The cloaked figure approached a lanky colt with a cream coat, a brown mane and - most importantly to the follower - a new and expensive looking camera around his neck. 

"Hey, you there," said the cloaked pony, their voice clear but quiet, and deliberately absent of ill-intent. The colt started, but did not step back, to the cloaked pony's relief. 

"Me?" he asked, pointing at himself with a hoof. "Uh, what do you want?"

"I need to borrow your camera... I have one of my own, but yours is better suited to what I need right now."

"Erm... What's your camera, if you don't mind me asking?"

The cloaked pony, with some effort due to their hood, pulled their own camera from around their neck and held it out to the colt. 

"A Crystalclear 5470? B-but mine's just a Shutterbug T80, yours is worth five times as much! What do you need mine for?"

The cloaked pony snorted. "If price meant quality, I wouldn't need yours, would I? For all its so called 'advancements' the 5470's really not as good as it should be. I need a clear shot through glass. The 5470's good for a lot of things, but it's far from the best for that; yours, on the other hoof, is more or less perfect for my needs. I tried to find one myself, but it's discontinued."

"Oh... Okay." The colt narrowed his eyes. "How do I know you'll bring it back?"

The cloaked pony hoofed him their camera. "We'll swap cameras. You keep mine while I use yours. If I don't bring yours back, or I break it, you can keep the 5470. Do we have a deal?"

The colt hoofed over his own camera. "Yeah, we have a deal. I'm Featherweight, by the way; what's your..." Featherweight trailed off: the cloaked pony had gone. "Oh... Never mind," he sighed.


*


"Daaaaaaad! Daaaaad, we're hoooooooome!" 

Auburn, with her head stuck through the door to her house, took a deep breath and continued calling for her father. Beside her, Dinky hopped up and down, doing something resembling a cheerleader dance, possibly in support of her friend, possibly just because she wanted to. Behind this dynamic duo, Diamond and her sister stood together, still entwined in Copperwing's wing-hug; whilst silent, they were comfortably so.

"Daaaaaad!" Auburn called again, unrelenting. "Daaaaa-"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" replied a deep voice from within the house. "Pipe down, you noisy rascal, I heard you the first time!" Despite his gruff tone, there was clear affection in his voice, and his hoofsteps were quick with excitement.

Auburn backed up to give her father full view of the fillies gathered on his porch and moments later, he stuck his head out of the door in unintentional mimicry of his daughter just a few seconds before. 

"Hey, Dad." Auburn greeted casually. 

"Hey, Wakey, good to see you home - and with half the town in tow, it seems!"

"Daaaad!" Auburn whined, cringing at the nickname. "Don't call me that!"

"Come on, Wakey, it's not as if you're the only one with a nickname. Can't a father just be happy to see both of his daughters home safe without having to deal with teenage angst?"

"No." Auburn pouted, though she couldn't quite stop her smile from breaking through. 

"Ya know," Dinky began, earning an interested glance from Brass Twister. "Now that you mention it, I can think of somepony else with some embarrassing nicknames... A certain business-stallion's precious Little Gem, also going by the alias Dee-Tee."

Now it was Diamond's turn to blush in embarrassment. "Dinky!" Diamond complained, her reaction lessened in severity a little by the reassuring squeeze of Copperwing's wing. Noticing the movement, Twister looked over to his elder daughter and her friend and smirked playfully. 

"Oh, I see you pair have gotten closer, hmm? Tell me, when's the wedding?"

Both fillies blushed furiously, turning radiant crimson at the teasing question.

"D-Daaad!" Copperwing spluttered, unconsciously squeezing Diamond tighter with her wing for comfort. "I-I... W-we are not a c-couple!" 

"Is that so?" Teased her father. 

"Y-yes," answered Diamond, regaining the ability to speak. "Copper's... still a little weak so I was just giving her support while she walks. That's... uh, that's all."

"A likely story!" Brass Twister declared with playful dramatism, though his teasing smirk gradually fell into a sincere smile. "Ah, that's enough teasing for one evening. Come on inside, I was just putting the kettle on."

He turned and trotted back into the house with Auburn hot on his heels, though she couldn't resist sending a look of barely contained schadenfreude back at Diamond and Copperwing. Dinky paused for a moment, waiting long enough to leave one last comment.

"For what it's worth, you'd make a pretty cute couple... Almost as cute as your dad and Miss Cheerilee."

Diamond blinked. "W-what? Dad and Cheerilee are just friends, Dinky!"

Dinky smirked, glancing meaningfully between Diamond and Copperwing. "Just friends, huh?" 

With this parting taunt, she pirouetted on the spot and traipsed inside, leaving a bemused and somewhat embarrassed pair of friends standing outside the home. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, during which both fillies had gone back to avoiding eye contact with one another, Copperwing straightened up.

"We... uh, we should get inside," she said, nudging Diamond lightly.

"Y-yeah." replied Diamond. 


*



As the two fillies made their way inside, another pony was settling in for the long haul, outside. Cloaked in dull grey and clutching a well-worn camera, the pony perched in a tree overlooking the rear side of a house, specifically that of Dazzling Sheen and Minty Fresh, parents of Argent Gleam and aunt and uncle to one Silver Spoon. Lying flat on their stomach atop one of the thicker branches of the tree, the pony was concealed near-perfectly by the foliage, the only visible trace of them being the battered silver camera they were poking through the leaves. 

Squinting through the viewfinder, the cloaked pony angled the camera towards one of the windows, twiddling the knobs atop the camera to zoom in and examine the room beyond. The first window yielded a typical view of a bedroom, with a queen-sized bed and tastelessly flashy decor. It was empty: the pony moved on. The next window was small and made of a deliberately distorted glass; despite the glass concealing the interior, it was a good bet that it was a bathroom.

Huffing in frustration, the pony moved onto the last visible window on the house's upper floor. Movement inside caught their eye, and further zooming confirmed that the room was occupied by two ponies, talking to one another: Argent Gleam and Silver Spoon. The cloaked pony zoomed a little closer and took a shot of the two. There would be no telling if the photo would be useful, but it was better to have too many photos than to miss an opportunity by taking too few.

Within the room, Silver Spoon was moving animatedly, gesturing wildly with her hoof and ranting. The cloaked pony didn't need to hear what was being said to imagine what it must be like in that room, and felt a small pang of sympathy for Argent Gleam, caught in the mad-filly's web. Panning the lens across the room, the cloaked pony took multiple shots of the interior, zooming in occasionally to photograph certain objects within. An antique mirror, a bookshelf filled with enough books to make Twilight Sparkle proud, an issue of the Foal Free Press and a typewriter. 

Zooming back out after photographing the typewriter, the shutterbug caught a glimpse of Silver Spoon's face, a face twisting into an eureka expression with such malice behind its joy of realisation that it made the photographer shiver. The cloaked pony took a photo and zoomed back out to the usual levels, following Spoon across the room with rapid clicks of the shutter, before gasping quietly at the sight of Silver Spoon picking up the Foal Free Press newspaper and turning triumphantly to Argent Gleam, gesturing pointedly at it with a hoof. The shutterbug captured all of this with multiple photos in quick succession: this was important. 

In their eagerness to photograph all this, however, the cloaked pony forgot to take their camera's flash into account, and had to yank the camera back through the leaves as Argent Gleam, her eye caught by the rapid flashes, stared out of the window with a piercing intensity. The cloaked pony hid there, deathly still, not wanting to look through the camera and check that the coast was clear for fear of revealing herself if Gleam was still watching. After several minutes of this, they finally mustered the courage to push the camera back through the leaves and check the viewfinder, letting out a sigh of disappointment at the sight of an empty room. 

Clambering back down from the tree, which hindered their descent by attempting to steal the cloak off of their back, the cloaked pony left the scene and returned from the small park in which they'd found the tree to the residential roads leading into Ponyville's main street. They had a camera to return and, more importantly, photos to get developed. The cloaked pony knew one thing for certain: whatever Silver Spoon was planning, whatever it had to do with that newspaper, it wouldn't be good, and it was up to them and them alone to stop it. Rejoining the main street, the cloaked pony slipped into the crowd and disappeared.


*****

> Closeness                                                                                                       (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cloaked pony made their cautious way through the heart of Ponyville, weaving along side streets and alleyways on their meandering path back to the street on which they'd met the colt with the camera, Featherweight. The lengthier route, winding through some of the filthier sections of the booming town, added several minutes to the pony's journey, but as far as they were concerned, the delay and the dirt were worth it for the assurance that they were not being followed. Peering out into the street from the shadow of an alley, their violet eyes scanned the view for any sign of the gangly colt, narrowing in time with their frustrated snort when the search yielded no sign of him.

Shaking their head, they stared thoughtfully into the distance, tapping one hoof against the floor. The cloak shifted near-imperceptibly as something beneath it moved, before stilling suddenly when the pony's eyes refocused, and they lifted the camera up in one sock-clad hoof to examine it. If the colt had any sense, he'd have put his... Ah, there it was: 

'Property of Featherweight, if found please return to 21 Sweet Apple Lane, Ponyville.' 

Dropping the camera back into the folds of the cloak, the pony steeled themself and walked confidently out into the street, approaching the nearest pony who didn't look to be in much of a hurry. As the cloaked pony approached, their intended target - a mint green unicorn mare with curious amber eyes - noticed them. The unicorn turned to face them, eyebrows hiking up her face in surprise at the odd clothing, and preempted the cloaked pony's attempt to ask directions by asking a question of her own. 

"Hey, there - nice cloak. Y'know, that reminds me of when a zebra came into town a year or so back, name of Zecora. Now that was a day and a half. Word of warning, there: I think the whole 'cloaked stranger' thing makes for a pretty cool look, but it can make ponies kinda... antsy. Speaking from experience, here - old 'Cora had her work cut out for her shaking off that first impression, just so ya know."

"Thanks for the warning... I've been given odd looks by ponies all morning."

"No problem. Say, you being all cloaked and all, I thought you'd be a zebra, but you sound more Canterlot than Marebasa, if I've got my accents right. You a Canterlot zebra or... ?"

The cloaked pony shrugged, deciding to roll with it. "A Canterlot zebra? I'm something like that. To be frank, I'm not certain which city home's at... Speaking of home, I seek a pony's domain, but I don't know the way to Sweet Apple Lane. If you live in this town, perhaps some help you could lend? If you'd give some directions, I'd be grateful, my friend."

The mare grinned eagerly, nodding as she set off in the direction of Sweet Apple Lane. "Sure! Just follow me and I'll take you there. What house were you looking for?"

Trotting after her, the cloaked pony replied: "The home of Featherweight; house 21. I'd hoped to catch him in town but he'd already gone."

The mint unicorn blinked, looking round with a question on her lips. "Featherweight, huh? What'd you want with him? You a friend or something?"

"Not a friend, no: I only met him today. Besides, were we friends, I'd already know the way. I've a camera of his: to return it, I wish - I dare say he'd want it back, wouldn't you, miss?"

"Yeah, I guess he would. The name's Lyra, by the way; Lyra Heartstrings."

"A pleasant name, Lyra; my own's Spirit Song. Will getting to Featherweight's house take us long?"

"It shouldn't do; we're almost halfway there already. Say - and I hope I don't sound rude - your name's a lot more pony-like than I was expecting. Is Zecora less typical of zebra than I thought?"

"No, Lyra, nothing of the sort; this Zecora's quite typical, or so I'd have thought. Spirit Song's a translation, new friend of mine, but easier to say, so it's better most times."

"Ah." Lyra said simply, nodding her head and trotting along with a happy tune humming from her lips.

As the conversation faded into silence, the cloaked pony found herself humming along to Lyra's tune, a broad smile breaking out on the larger mare's face as they trotted together, their spirits and voices lifted together in a harmonious duet.


*


"Diamond?" Asked Copperwing softly, from her position curled up on the sofa in her family's living room.

The ears of the filly in question twitched and she turned to her friend with a curious expression, a small smile lighting up her expression.

"Yeah?" Diamond responded, equally softly, gazing up at Copper. Their eyes met and the older filly glanced a little away, light pink embarrassment flushing across her cheeks as her wings shifted subtly.

"I... uh... I'm a little sleepy. I didn't expect the walk back to be so..." - she yawned loudly and full-mouthedly, her ears and wings twitching, the latter partly extending, before snapping back to their original positions - "... So exhausting. I think I'd like to go to bed for a bit, but I... I might need a little help with the stairs. Do you... d'you mind?"

Diamond shook her head with a smile and got up off the carpeted floor, earning an interested glance from Dinky and Auburn, before heading over to where Copperwing lay.

"No problem, Copper. D'you want any help getting down off the sofa, or will you be okay?"

Copperwing, rising as well, shifted her body so that she slid slowly off the sofa and onto her hooves. Finding her legs unsteady when she tried to stand up properly from this halfway point, she smiled bashfully and nodded. 

"I could use a hoof, yeah. Still not so steady." Nodding a wordless 'okay,' Diamond positioned herself by Copperwing's side, providing support to the older filly as she pulled herself up with the aid of her glimmering wings. As she gained more stability from Diamond's support, she continued her line of thought a little further, noting Diamond's look of interest with contentedness. "It's weird, y'know? I guess I'm just used to having perfect balance, being a pegasus and all, but there's something really... not unsettling, so much, just... surreal? Yeah, that'll do... about not having my balance at 100%."

"You two going somewhere?" Asked Auburn, smirking lightly. Though she was silent for the moment, curiosity shone in Dinky's golden eyes.

"Yeah," replied Diamond, "Copper's tired out, so I'm taking her to bed."

Auburn snorted, the smirk growing by the second. "Oh, I bet you are, lover-filly."

"I-I... What?!" Squawked Diamond, Copperwing hiding her radiant crimson blush behind her pendent mane. 

"Phra~asing!" Singsonged Dinky, giggling as Diamond facehoofed and Copperwing shuffled in embarrassment, neither one pulling away from the other. 

"You know what? N-never mind." Diamond muttered, shaking her head emphatically as if that might clear the blush. Turning to Copperwing, she continued: "Copper, you ready to go?" - Copperwing nodded, issuing an affirmative 'mm-hm' - "Then let's get out of this circus act."

"Circus act?" asked Auburn and Copperwing, in unison.

"Yeah," Diamond replied, repeating herself as she supported Copperwing on their way towards the stairs. "Circus act. Honestly, Auburn, between you and Dinky, it's like we've got a whole clown troupe."

"Oh, ha ha." Replied Auburn, the laughter in her eyes tempering the sarcasm in her tone. She turned back to Dinky, and the pair of them continued their conversation after a moment, letting Diamond and Copperwing climb the stairs in peace. 

Slowly, one step at a time, Diamond and Copperwing ascended the carpeted staircase, the older filly squeezing the younger one tighter with a wing to counteract her shaky legs. Every few steps, they stopped to let the asthmatic pegasus catch her breath, before carrying on upwards towards their destination. When, at last, they reached the top of the stairs, they paused for a moment, and Diamond turned to Copperwing to speak, a smile on her face.

"Well, now that we're up here, getting you to your room should be easy."

Copperwing nodded. "Yeah, just a few more steps. Thanks for helping me up here, Diamond."

"No problem." Diamond glanced at her friend with a smile. "I think we make a pretty good team."

"I think so, too... I'm ready to walk the last stretch if you are, Dee-Tee."

Diamond braced herself against Copperwing's weight, shifting herself to better support her. 

"Okay. In three?"

"Yeah, so... two."

"One... and step."

Step by step, the fillies trotted across the landing, quickly falling into a steady rhythm as they moved as one towards Copperwing's room. A good team, indeed.


*


"Here we are!" Lyra chirped, gesturing to a door in a house near-identical to every other house on the street, except for the windows on the left corner of the upper floor, which were bricked up. "21 Sweet Apple Lane," she continued, sitting on her haunches and pointing her forelegs at it in a motion that demanded - but didn't receive - a celebratory 'ta-dah!'.

Just to be sure, the cloaked pony who'd followed her there double-checked the label on the camera, before returning her gaze on the house and the expectant unicorn in front of it. This was the place.

"Thank you, Lyra, and sorry for the time I've cost. Without your guidance I'd have surely been lost."

"No problem!" Lyra beamed at the cloaked pony, shifting on her hooves as if to move on, then paused. "You gonna be okay from here?" - the cloaked pony nodded - "Cool!"

The unicorn fished a small sheet of paper out of... somewhere, as if summoning it, and the cloaked pony found a small pamphlet advertising a music bar levitating before their eyes. Reaching out to take it, they gave it a cursory glance, then looked up at Lyra questioningly, though admittedly the shadow of the hood didn't do much to help her make the expression obvious. 

Lyra, guessing the reaction from posture alone, or maybe just from past experience, laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm a lyrist, you see. I'm playing - along with a few others - tonight at the 12-Bar. You don't have to come, if you don't want to, that's fine, but I'd kind of appreciate it if you came along. If you want to. It's at 7:30. The show, I mean. Anyway, I've gotta get home, but maybe I'll see you later?"

Feeling bad for the mare who'd helped them, the cloaked pony hurried to reply, hoping to ease Lyra's embarrassment. "I'll be there if I can, though I have other business in these parts. I always like to hear the playing of a fellow fan of classical arts."

"Thanks!" Lyra chirped, her smile returning. "I hope I see you, then. Later!"

With this, she turned away for the last time and trotted merrily into Ponyville, back towards the town centre and Princess Twilight's towering palace. The cloaked pony watched her go, then turned their head back to the front door in time to meet the startled expression of the small earth pony mare who'd just opened it, a watering can in her hoof, presumably heading to water the daffodils planted either side of the welcome mat.

"H-hello? Can I help you?" Asked the mare, watering the daffodils to her right whilst keeping her eyes fixed on the cloaked stranger. 

The cloaked stranger smiled reassuringly, then realised that the effort was pointless with their face in so much shadow. Trying to shift their body language and tone of voice to appear less threatening, they replied faux-nervously, concentrating on putting their youth back into their voice after burying it for the conversation with Lyra.

"H-hi, miss. Is this where Featherweight lives? I, uh, we swapped cameras earlier and I wanted t-to bring his back... If that's okay? A-are you his mum? Is he home? I tried to find him in town but he wasn't where I met him earlier, so I wandered around for a while but I just got lost, and then I asked a pony for directions and she led me here, so I thought I'd found the place but then you came out and asked me if you could help me, and I probably should have just said yes, but I just went on this kind of rambling thing and I'm probably just getting on your nerves like I do everypony, so I guess I'll stop now, unless you want me to carry on? No? I'll stop now - oh, but I just went on again. Sorry, I'll stop now. Sorry."

The mare blinked a couple of times, then her face softened maternally and she set down the watering can, before heading over to the cloaked pony. 

"That's okay, you don't need to apologise. You just startled me, is all - not many ponies go around in a cloak like that."

"O-oh. Sorry. I was just taking some photos of birds and animals and things, and I thought it would help if I had a cloak because then maybe I wouldn't startle them, but it didn't really help and now I'm scaring ponies as well as animals. I'm sorry, I mess everything up."

"It's fine, really... Anyway, you were right: I am Featherweight's mum, my name's Lightweight. He's got a friend over now, but he's always been more of a 'the more the merrier' kind of colt, so I'm sure he won't mind if you come in. Oh, and while we're getting acquainted, what's your name?"

"S-shutterbug, Miss Lightweight. A-are you sure he won't mind?"

"Absolutely. Now, enough standing around on the doorstep: come inside, Shutterbug. I'll just let him know you're here and you can go right on up."

Lightweight led the way into the house and 'Shutterbug' followed her in, waiting faux-nervously to one side as the older mare grabbed the watering can in her mouth and brought it inside, shutting the door behind her and setting the can down on a small table in the hallway. 

"Featherweight!" Lightweight called, cupping her mouth with her hooves to better direct her voice upstairs, presumably to cut through the faint music audible from one of the rooms at the top of the stair case. She yelled again, a little louder, rolling her eyes as a door opened upstairs and the music spilled out into the rest of the house, a tidal wave following the lanky colt who appeared at the top of the stairs. 

"What is it, Mum?" Featherweight called, not yet spotting the cloaked pony from her camouflaged position next to the winter coats beside the door. 

"You've got a visitor. She says her name's Shutterbug, and you two swapped cameras earlier."

"Swapped cameras? Is she wearing a cloak?"

"Yeah, she is. You know her, then?"

"Yeah, Mum; I met her in town earlier."

"Okay, Feather. I'll just send her up to you, okay? I've got to get back to watering the daffodils." Lightweight turned to Shutterbug and smiled encouragingly, pointing to the colt at the top of the stairs. "See, I told you it'd be fine. Just go right on up, dear."

"O-okay." Shutterbug stuttered, shuffling up the stairs and meeting Featherweight's gaze with wide, faux-nervous eyes. "H-hey, Featherweight. I, uh, I brought your camera back."

"Cool," Featherweight replied, already turning to head back into his room, "Come on into my room, uh, Shutterbug, was it? We can talk there and I can introduce you to Scootaloo. Celestia knows the poor filly could use some company right now."

"I-if that's what you want." Shutterbug replied, following the colt more enthusiastically than before. The name 'Scootaloo' rung a bell, and if she was who Shutterbug thought, then Featherweight and his friends might be useful for more than just cameras.


*


Copperwing's room was much as Diamond remembered it from her unofficial visit the other night, from the hoofwritten sign on the door to the small cardboard box on the oaken shelves, but in the light of day new details began to make themselves known to her. On the wall directly facing the doorway was an A3 Royal Guard recruitment poster, and taking up the equivalent amount of wall space beside it was a series of small shelves filled with assorted metal figures and sculptures. 

As Diamond and Copperwing hobbled into the room, they passed the larger oak shelves upon which the box labelled 'friends' sat, so visible to Diamond, despite all the other items cluttered onto the shelves, that it might as well have been glowing. Her eyes ran over the battered surface of the box for a moment, a pang of guilt striking her heart as she remembered her invasion of Copperwing's privacy, before she pulled her eyes away from it and focused on the rest of the room.

On the right side of the room was a sizeable cloud bed, above which were two Wonderbolts posters - pin-ups, Diamond realised with a blush - one of Fleetfoot lying on her stomach, with her head turned to blow a kiss at the viewer and her tail flicked to the side; the other of Soarin' lying on his back, wings at their full spread. The suits on both athletes looked a little tighter than Diamond remembered them being in other pictures she'd seen, and given how well they accentuated the musculature and... other features of the Wonderbolts, she had no illusions about it being anything less than deliberate. 

Often, Diamond forgot that Copperwing was a year older than her, especially since she so often acted less maturely than her taciturn younger sister, but at times like this it was hard not to be aware of how much difference a year could make in a pony's mindset. Diamond hadn't long been comfortable admitting she even liked the way other ponies looked in ways other than platonically, but evidently her older friend was so relaxed about admitting that she was attracted to other ponies that she'd gone and put posters of two of them in suggestive poses on her wall. 

Diamond manoeuvred them towards the cloud bed, noticing with a deepening blush that Copperwing's namesake had stiffened against her back the moment they'd started approaching the bed and its risque neighbours on the wall. Together, they made their way to the bed's edge, and Diamond noticed how the cloud, whilst providing little resistance, clung briefly to her hoof as she passed it through. It was, surprisingly, not cold at all, feeling a little like a mist in all but that regard. Instead, its warmth radiated softly into her hoof, accompanied by an infinitesimal buzz of static: it was an alien, but undeniably comforting, sensation.

Getting back to the task at hoof, she turned so that Copperwing was closest to the bed, continuing to provide support as her friend detached herself from Diamond's back and plopped leadenly down onto the bed, a little cloud of mist momentarily swirling up from the heavy landing. Diamond took the moment to turn back to Copperwing's room to take it all in in the light of day streaming in from the skylight, but her eyes once again landed on the box which, with its mixed associations, made her feel ashamed at herself and impressed at Copperwing.

"So..." Copperwing began, perched on the end of her bed. "...uh, this is my room. What d'you think?"

Diamond glanced about for a second more, then turned to her friend with a smile. 

"I like it. It's very you, if you know what I mean? It suits you."

Copperwing shot her a wry grin. "Well, it is my room."

Diamond trotted over to the bed and sat down next to her friend, returning the grin. 

"No way..." she began in mock surprise, "I thought this was Auburn's room!"

"Well, ya thought wrong, filly." Copperwing replied, putting on an accent Diamond couldn't quite place, before a coughing fit silenced her.

Diamond immediately reached for Copperwing's inhaler, offering it to her friend with a concerned look. When the fit ended after just a second, and Copperwing's breathing continued unhindered save for a little croaking, the pegasus waved the inhaler away, sending Diamond a grateful smile by way of thanks.

"I'm okay! I'm okay, Dee-Tee." She insisted, trying to assuage the worry in Diamond's eyes. "I just pushed my voice a little too far, that's all. Note to self: no stupid accents."

Satisfied that she really was okay, Diamond put the inhaler back and chuckled. "What even was that accent, anyway, Copper?"

"Celestia knows. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"That's what they all say." Replied Diamond, imitating the gruff voice of a Royal Guard. 

Copperwing giggled briefly, silencing the laugh with a hoof so as not to start another coughing fit. Diamond smiled without meaning to: the giggle was a magical sound, even when cut short. She found herself looking forward to the day when Copperwing was well enough to just giggle, without worrying about her throat.

Silence fell over the fillies, but it was a comfortable one. Copperwing unfurled a glimmering wing and rested it over Diamond's back, and Diamond smiled at the touch, leaning into her friend's embrace. After a little while, Diamond wrapped her foreleg around Copperwing's back, and the embrace shifted a little, with Diamond leaning closer to Copperwing and the taller filly moving to rest her chin on the top of Diamond's mane.

"D-Diamond?" Asked Copperwing, nervousness creeping into her tone as she broke the silence for the first time in ten minutes.

"Mm-hm?" Diamond responded, her head still tucked under Copperwing's own.

"Could you... do you mind just holding me like this for a while longer? I-I just-"

"It's alright," interrupted Diamond, needing no explanation, "I don't mind at all."

"Th-thanks, Dee-Tee."

"No problem, Copper. It's been a tough few days for you, you deserve to just relax."

"Thank you." Copperwing repeated, her voice quavering a little, the last words spoken by either of them before the silence fell over them again, comforting and soft as a warm blanket. 

As the minutes went by, Diamond noticed Copperwing's embrace loosen and her yawns increase in frequency, until finally, after a long period of silence, Diamond realised the pegasus had fallen asleep. In no hurry to escape her friend's hold, Diamond let her dozing friend snooze on undisturbed, before carefully disentangling herself from the pegasus and easing her down onto the bed. Now that Copperwing was lying down, Diamond carefully tugged the trapped covers out from under her friend and, slowly but surely, freed them, shifting them over to one side of the bed where they wouldn't be in the way. Adjusting Copperwing's hooves so that they no longer hung over the edge of the mattress, she grabbed the covers in her teeth and pulled them up over the sleeping filly, stepping back for a moment to appreciate her handiwork with a smile. 

It was only when Diamond set about the final task of tucking Copperwing in that the pegasus was roused from her sleep, staring bleary-eyed at the other filly in confusion. Diamond was quick to soothe her, taking the tiara from Copperwing's head and placing it gently down on the bedside table so that she could stroke the older filly's dull blonde mane comfortingly. 

"Ssh," Diamond whispered, her tone maternal, smiling as her friend started to slip back into sleep's warm embrace. "Get your rest, sleepyhead."

Despite her best efforts, Copperwing seemed to hover on the brink of sleep without quite succumbing to it, until Diamond, blushing crimson, tried one last-ditch effort. Steeling herself even as her face turned an impressive shade of beetroot, she took a deep breath in and began to sing Copperwing a quiet lullaby. 

"Hush, now, quiet, now, it's time to rest your sleepy head. Hush, now, quiet, now, it's time to go to bed."

Diamond embarrassment only rose as she sang, but it worked. A contented, slightly goofy smile spread across Copperwing's face as her body went limp and her eyelids fluttered shut. Not wanting her to wake up, Diamond sang on until she was absolutely sure Copperwing was asleep, before smiling gently down at her. As she finished singing, a subtle yet appealing impulse made her lean closer, and after a moment or two of indecision, she moved her lips the rest of the way to plant a gentle kiss on Copperwing's forehead. Stunned at her own nerve, Diamond stared down at the sleeping filly for a moment, before hurriedly leaving the room. If Dinky and Auburn found out what she'd just done, she'd never live it down.


*


Featherweight entered first, leading Shutterbug into a small but homely bedroom dotted with photographic paraphernalia. Three cameras of varying sizes and styles rested on a shelf, while two entire walls and the ceiling were devoted to pinned-up pieces of Featherweight's photographic handiwork: one of the walls sported purely nature and geographical photography, the other featured urban scenes and ponies posing for the camera, but most impressive was the ceiling, which was invisible beneath a mosaic map of the night sky built up from countless individual photos. Lowering her view from the photos, Shutterbug spied a small bed shoved into one corner, beside a compact wardrobe, and behind a defeated pegasus filly with small wings and a baseball bat cutie mark. 

"Scootaloo?" Featherweight asked, catching the pegasus's attention. "This is Shutterbug, she's a... friend of mine. She and I need to talk about some things, and then we can get you both introduced properly, okay?"

"Whatever." Scootaloo replied morosely, dropping her gaze back down to the carpeted floor and crumpling into a formless pile of pony. 

"You sure you're okay, Scootaloo? I can talk to Shutterbug some other time if you're not comfortable with her being here."

"I'm fine, Featherweight!" Scootaloo snapped, her body tense for a moment before it collapsed again into apathetic limpness. "I'm fine, just... just let me be for a bit, alright?"

Featherweight's ears pinned back at the shout, but rose again as he sighed and pushed a little more sympathy into his face and tone. "Okay. Just tell me if you need anything."

Turning from Scootaloo, Featherweight crossed over and sat down on the other side of the room, gesturing to Shutterbug to do the same. 

"Alright," he began, "I'm guessing you want your camera back?"

"For now, yes," Shutterbug replied, "but not forever... if you're willing to do me a favour."

Featherweight frowned. "What sort of favour could be worth a camera like that?"

"I took some photos with your camera. They're important to me. Very important. I want you to get them developed and write to me when you have them. Don't let anypony see them, and don't lose them, and I'll give you my camera."

"What's so important about these photos?" Asked Featherweight cautiously.

"That's not your problem. Are you in?"

"No. Tell me why you need these photos so badly, and I'll consider it. Between your stalker getup and all the secrecy, this is sounding all the wrong kinds of shady."

Shutterbug considered this for a moment, fiddling with Featherweight's camera, then sighed.

"Are you familiar with a filly by the name of Silver Spoon?"

Featherweight's expression grew angry in an instant, the expression appearing alien on the colt's usually peaceful face. 

"Yeah, I know her. Little bitch damn near ruined the lives of half the foals in our year, she and the filly she blackmailed into a bully, Diamond Tiara. She got kicked out of school a while back after a fight - good riddance - and nopony's seen her since. What do you want with her?"

"She was back in town today. I have reason to suspect she's planning some kind of revenge on somepony - or ponies - in Ponyville. I don't know if my photos will be any use, but I'm hoping I can work out what she's planning and stop it before she gets too far with it."

Featherweight thought about this for a while, before continuing his pattern of cynical insight and asking more questions. 

"How do you know about Silver Spoon, anyway? You're not from round here, but you knew she was here even though nopony in town said anything about her being back. And take off that hood, it's starting to creep me out not being able to see your face."

Shutterbug complied, pulling the hood back to reveal barely any more of her face than was already visible. A balaclava hid most of her features, while a pair of matte-painted mirrored sunglasses cloaked her eyes. Her ears and muzzle were grey where they protruded from the balaclava, and the shape of her jaw suggested that she was at least a year or two older than Featherweight. Her mane, as far as its colour and shape could be discerned through the hair net surrounding it, was silvery and shaped into a bun at the back of her head, the only bit of hair not hidden beneath her headwear. 

"There, hood off. Better? I hope so, 'cause that's all you're seeing today. Say, do my favour and I'll take the glasses off next time. I know Silver Spoon, because out of all the lives she's ruined, I think I'm the worst off for it of anypony. Whatever she's planning, she's going to hurt more ponies like she hurt me. I couldn't stop her when she turned my life, or your life, or Scootaloo's life to Tartarus, but I can stop her this time. I can't just stand by and let it happen again. That enough explanation for you, Featherweight?"

"You've got history with Spoon? Join the club, sister." Featherweight cracked a wry grin at Shutterbug, who smiled in response. "So you're after revenge? Is that why you're so dead set on keeping your identity secret?" - Shutterbug remained silent - "I think you don't want to be recognised because if she finds out you're here, she could still hurt you. I bet Shutterbug's not even your real name."

Shutterbug shrugged. "It's as good a name as any. Back to the point, are you in?"

"I'm in," began Featherweight, "on one condition."

"And what would that be?" Inquired Shutterbug, impressed by the colt's refusal to simply do what she said even for such a spectacular prize.

"You don't just push me out once you've got your photos. One day's worth of photographs isn't going to pass muster if you want to prove anything, unless they're really good. Photography's my talent, and I'm beginning to doubt it's yours - let me help you. You aren't the only one who wants revenge, and I can be here in Ponyville permanently - you have to come down here, and if Spoon slips by you, you might completely miss something big. With me helping, you can worry about the Canterlot end of things, and I can worry about down here."

Behind her sunglasses, Shutterbug blinked in genuine surprise, the emotion so strong it disrupted her previously confident demeanour. 

"Did... did you just guess where I live from my accent?" - Featherweight nodded - "Huh... And I thought I had it pretty well hidden. You're scarily observant, but guess it does back your point up. Fair enough, I believe that you can help me. So, do we have a deal?"

"We have a deal." Agreed Featherweight, spitting on his hoof and extending it to shake on their agreement. 

Shutterbug grinned and spat in her own hoof, shaking Featherweight's with vigour and standing up to leave. Snatching her camera up off Featherweight's shelf, she dropped the colt's own into his hooves and slung hers around her neck. Realising that she was about to depart, Featherweight hurriedly stood up, rising to his full height and dwarfing the smaller filly. 

"Hey, uh... When will you be back to collect the photos?" he asked. "Or did you want me to deliver them to you?"

"I'll be in touch." Shutterbug said unhelpfully, her smug grin visible even after she pulled the dark hood back over her face. Turning gracefully on the spot, she strutted confidently out of the room, leaving the colt behind her. 

After a moment, her voice echoed back out from the landing with an audible smirk. "I look forward to working with you."

"Yeah." Featherweight stammered. 

"Oh, and one last thing: see if Scootaloo would be interested in helping stop Spoon. I can think of a few jobs I could use her for, and why should we keep all the revenge to ourselves, right Featherweight?"

"Right. Okay... goodbye, Shutterbug!"

"Ta-ra, Featherweight. I'll be back."

Her hoofsteps echoed down the hall, then shifted into an audible clopping sound as she descended the stairs. A moment later, her voice could be heard, giving a faux-nervous thank-you to Lightweight for having her, then with a politely soft closing of the door, she was gone. Behind her, the filly left a curious photographer, a confused, depressed pegasus filly, and a mother hoping upon hope that this lovely little filly would be the one for her darling little colt. 

Slipping out into Ponyville, Shutterbug pulled her hood up, checked the time on a battered wristwatch hidden in her left front sleeve, and pulled out Lyra's pamphlet. Orienting herself based on the map on the pamphlet's back, she set off towards the 12-Bar: Shutterbug's day might be over, but Spirit Song's was just beginning. 


*****



> Revelations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pleasant silence filled the air between the two fillies ambling lazily along Ponyville's main street, content just to soak in the evening sun as it began its descent to meet the horizon. The smaller of the pair frowned, slowing as she lit her horn. The amber glow shifted her golden mop of a mane out of her eyes, then faded as her face returned to an innocent smile and her hooves trotted at a faster pace. 

The larger of the two turned her head to see why her companion had dropped behind, but simply closed her mouth and smiled when she saw her friend scurry to return to her side. For a moment longer, they both basked in the quiet sounds of the town, before the larger of the pair opened her mouth again and turned once more to the filly beside her.

"Hey, Dinky?" She asked.

"Yeah, Diamond?" Replied Dinky.

"I've been thinking..." She began, lamely. "About Auburn, I mean. I don't think she's doing so well lately, you know?"

"Mm-hm." Dinky said, uncharacteristically quiet. She inclined her head towards Diamond, her unspoken words ringing clear in the other filly's head: "Go on."

"Well, she didn't take the idea we were ignoring her well, did she? I think I have an idea why, though." Diamond paused, chewing her lip, then continued. "We... uh, we had a bit of an argument in the hospital the other day. You weren't there - still visiting family, I think - but you know Copper ended up in hospital as well as her mum. Well, the reason for that was Copper's got a phobia of hospitals, which apparently Auburn's sort of treated like a joke for years, and when she got to the hospital she started having a panic attack. Auburn just yelled at her, so I told her to go inside while I tried to get Copper to calm down. That didn't work, obviously. She had an asthma attack and, well, you know the rest."

Dinky nodded, listening hard. 

"But anyway, when I found out how Auburn had treated her I was really mad. Like, furious mad. I said a lot of things to her that I... well, I don't regret saying them, not after all the crap she put Copper through, but they weren't nice. Where I'm going with this is, well, she and I have been on kinda shaky ground since then even if we both made up, and I guess she might have been worried about losing me completely. And then there's you."

On hearing this, Dinky actually slowed down, tilting her head sideways as her gold eyes blinked confusedly. 

"Me?" She asked, incredulous. 

Diamond turned to Dinky and slowed down to match her pace, then stopped completely and nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, think about it: you've been her best friend since she got here, and then suddenly, the day after she and I fell out, you're all buddy-buddy with somepony who used to hate you both and - from her point of view, anyway - both of us are ignoring her. I think she was scared of losing us, and she got mad because she sort of talked herself into believing it was really happening. It's not really logical, but she wasn't exactly thinking with her head, was she?"

Dinky frowned, then nodded. "No, I guess you're right." Looking troubled, she stared off into the middle distance, unconsciously chewing her lip.

"So..." Diamond began, catching Dinky's wayward attention remarkably easily. "Let's try to keep her involved in everything we do; I mean, at least until she's not so insecure about being our friend. She needs to get her confidence back, and anyway, it's not like either of us wants to lose her as a friend, right?"

Upon being given a plan of action, Dinky brightened visibly, nodding enthusiastically as her ever-present smile made its return.

"Right!" Dinky chirped, sounding more like her usual self. "Don't ignore Auburn - mission accepted, ma'am!" 

She stopped to snap a mock salute Diamond's way, puffing out her chest in parody of the ever-stoic Royal Guard, then resumed moving, beginning to skip along in her usual manner. Diamond raised her eyebrows, but smiled nonetheless: she'd noticed something was off, but hadn't realised until then that Dinky had been walking like a normal pony - decidedly strange behaviour, for Dinky. Was this what Dinky was like when she was serious? Diamond was glad Dinky wasn't often in a serious mood, but it was good to know she understood there was a time and a place for goofing around.

Perhaps Dinky would be a better choice of pony to talk to about certain... things on her mind than she'd thought, Diamond considered. Then again, as memory was quick to remind her, Dinky was possibly the most proficient tease of all of them. Capable of seriousness or not, she couldn't really be trusted not to take the opportunity to tease with such juicy information, and if getting answers meant getting teased, Diamond could wait a little longer without outside advice. Still, at least they'd made progress on the Auburn dilemma, even if only time could tell how well it would work.

With the tension gone, the two fillies fell comfortably back in step with one another, heading slowly home with just each other the warm summer silence for company. Things weren't perfect, but they were getting better, and that was good enough for them.



*



Spirit Song smoothed out her cloak with a hoof, then stepped confidently through the door to the 12-Bar Music Club. She drew odd glances from the occupants as she strode through, both from her small size and her disguise, but her sure steps didn't falter under the attention. Much to the contrary - she tipped her head back to bathe her muzzle in the light as she shot a party-loving grin at strangers, then removed her sunglasses and stowed them in the folds of her cloak with a practiced flair. 

Spotting a blur of mint green to the edge of her vision, she turned and trotted after the glimpse of colour, weaving through the crowd in pursuit. Quickly catching up to the pony, she noticed that somepony else in the crowd was making their way towards them, keeping pace with her easily and slipping through the gaps between ponies like a knife through water, the crowd reforming the moment she'd passed through as if she had never been there. Spirit Song noted the other mare, curious, but didn't waver in her advance. 

Ahead, the green pony escaped the throngs of ponies and vanished through a side door. Spirit Song made to follow, only for a flash of silver out of the corner of her eye to distract her. She wasn't looking away long, but it was enough for the other pony, until then neck and neck with her, to streak past. Cursing to herself, she redoubled her efforts, bursting from the crowd hot on the hooves of the grey mare who'd taken the lead. Ordinarily she'd never have let herself be distracted like that, but it had almost seemed for a moment like Silver was... No, it was stupid to be so paranoid. What would Silver Spoon be doing at a place like this?

Forcing her suspicion down, Spirit Song slipped quickly into the side room just as the door swung shut and, spotting the mare she'd been following, called out to her. 

"Lyra!" She called, turning in surprise at hearing another voice call out just the same. Barely a metre to her right, the other mare met her gaze in confusion as their mutual quarry turned towards them with a smile. With a start, Spirit Song recognised the gray mare: Octavia Melody, famed First Chair Cellist of the Royal Canterlot Orchestra. The words 'who are you?' died on her tongue as her breath caught in her throat at the sight of one of her idols in the flesh.

Octavia opened her mouth to give voice to the question in her eyes and took a step towards Spirit Song. Before she could say anything, however, the silence was broken by the joyful clopping of Lyra's hooves as she skipped towards them. The cellist turned to her and tensed up, while Spirit looked on in confusion, wondering why the older mare was so apprehensive of such a friendly mare. It did not occur to her until after she'd been wrapped, alongside her idol, in a bone-crushing hug that Lyra's friendliness may have been precisely the reason for Octavia's reticence. 

Stunned from the unexpected embrace, Spirit Song simply sat and watched as Octavia grunted and shrugged off the musician's foreleg, glaring at Lyra. 

"Luna above, would it kill you to show a little restraint once in a while?" Octavia rubbed her shoulder and winced. "Ouch. That actually hurt, you madmare. You'd better not have broken anything or you'll be the one explaining to Big Band why his top cellist is out of action."

Lyra's grin turned apologetic, but still she leaned forward, fluttering her eyelashes at Octavia, who simply glared at her deadpan, still making a point of rubbing her shoulder. Seeing the other mare's unimpressed expression, she proceeded to make puppydog eyes at her. Sighing, Octavia simply rolled her eyes and smoothed down her mane.

"Aw, cheer up, Melly, I'm only showing you how much I love you!"  Lyra persisted, undeterred. At yet another eye roll, she dialled the puppydog eyes up to eleven and stuck out her lips in a pout. "Come on, you know you can't stay mad at this face."

Octavia sighed long-sufferingly, rubbing the bridge of her snout even as her expression hardened in a show of playful defiance. "I can, and I will, Lyra. And if you want to show how much you love me, go right ahead and clean that apartment of yours..." She trailed off, her gaze drifting to Spirit Song and back again. "Besides, if that's really how you show love, then I'm going to have to report you to the Guard for amoral behaviour towards a minor."

"Huh?" Lyra said, eloquently. Octavia slapped a hoof to her face, before using it to point at Spirit Song, still sitting in dazed confusion on the floor by the mare's side.

"The pegasus filly you nearly killed with that 'hug' of yours. Or did you forget about her while you were busy making your latest audition to clown school?"

Down on the floor, Spirit Song sat up sharply, spluttering in shock. "P-pegasus filly?" She stuttered, forgetting to hide her accent in her surprise. 

Octavia turned to her and smiled kindly. "Dear.... your wings are showing," she explained, gesturing to the appendages in question.

Spirit Song looked round to see with a mortified blush that her wings were, in fact, partly extended, and, in a joint effort with Lyra's hug, had knocked the cape from its precarious perch on her head. Realising she'd been revealed as the impostor she was, she froze up in anticipation of Lyra's reaction. Her attempt to make an excuse for her lie simply came out as a pitiful squeak and she shrank into herself in shame and embarrassment, staring at the floor with her ears pinned back.

"Uh..." began Octavia, her face awash with confusion. She shut her mouth and sat back in expectation, but Lyra seemed as at a loss as she was, and no matter how many times she gestured for the unicorn to say something - it was her friend, after all - Lyra remained silent. The filly on the floor seemed content to try and disappear into herself, and for the longest time, nopony said anything.

When, after an interminable amount of time, the awkward silence was broken, it was by a newly-resolute Lyra. She crouched down so that her eyes were level with Spirit Song's, and rested a mint-coloured hoof gently on the filly's withers.

"Hey, it's okay Spirit... Seriously, it's fine; I'm not surprised you aren't who you said. I mean, I went along with it, but I figured it was more likely you were just some filly sneaking out, y'know?"

Shakily, Spirit looked up and met her eyes, which to her great surprise genuinely seemed empty of the outrage she'd expected. 

"...You're not mad?" 

Lyra shook her head emphatically, her mane flying every which way and falling in a messy heap over her eyes. Leaning to one side to shift it out of her view, the unicorn smiled good-naturedly and explained.

"Nah. Was pretty obvious you were no zebra, but it was none of my business to pry. I'm not mad you lied, filly, so don't worry about that, 'kay? I am glad you came along, though: I play best when I know I have friends in the audience."

Spirit Song's bewilderment grew tenfold. "You'd call me a friend?" She asked, incredulously.

Lyra, to the filly's unending confusion, simply nodded like it was no big deal. "Sure I would. I mean, you showed up to see me play: that's more than most ponies I meet bother to do."

If her actions were baffling to Spirit Song, her reasons were even more so. "Why not?" Spirit asked, crooking an eyebrow. "It's a free show, isn't it?"

The unicorn nodded again, though with a tinge of sadness tugging her ears and the corners of her mouth down.

"Yeah, the show's free - that's not the problem. Problem is, 'cause I'm not playing music for a living, ponies think I must be bad or something. Apparently having a big permanent picture of a lyre on both minty flanks ain't enough for them... Some ponies, honestly - whatever happened to 'got the mark, got the job'?"

"Sorry to hear that, really, but I can't say I'm surprised." Spirit said, trying to inject as much sympathy into her voice as she could so that her new 'friend' wouldn't take it the wrong way.

Luckily, Lyra simply frowned, an eyebrow crooked in confusion. "No? Why not?"

"Well, 'Got the mark' isn't really a thing in Canterlot, and most of the music scene dances on Canterlot-made strings. As far as they're concerned, if you don't have the job, the mark's not for music." 

Spirit explained this carefully, so as not to seem to be placing the blame on Lyra, but still watched the unicorn's expression closely. Lyra's eyes widened, and she nodded; Spirit Song let out a sigh of relief. 

"That... that would explain a few things." She trailed off and turned to Octavia with a curious expression. "Hey, d'you think that might have been why you had so much trouble getting into the Orchestra, eh, Melly?"

The cellist frowned, staying silent for a few moments, then relaxed her expression and shrugged unconcernedly. 

"Perhaps. I wouldn't have thought it was the only reason, though, and since I'm in, I hardly think it's worth worrying about now." Looking from Lyra, Octavia then turned a concerned, almost motherly expression towards Spirit Song. "I'm sorry to ruin the friendly chat you two had going there, but I have to know... are you here alone? And, if I may be so bold as to ask, why were you in disguise?"

Spirit Song froze under the expectant gaze of her idol, her mouth going dry and her eyes widening as she found herself pinned in place under a pair of violet spotlights. 

"I-I..." She stammered, looking away in shame and preparing herself for the inevitable accusations, the angry words and raised voices. A soft hoof on her shoulder, however, prompted her to turn her head and meet a warm gaze and kindly smile unlike anything she had expected. Lowering herself to Spirit's level so that she no longer towered over her, Octavia made concerned note of the filly's distress. Being careful now not to come off critical of Spirit Song, when she spoke again, her voice was warm and markedly gentler. 

"You aren't in trouble, you know - I never meant to scare you. I was just worried, that's all. A filly from out of town, here alone, isn't something we're all that used to seeing. I'm thinking you must have travelled a while to get here, and if so, that's not really a journey most fillies would take alone."

Spirit Song met her eyes properly now, but still failed to say anything, although her mouth flapped open and shut on a few attempted replies which all died on her tongue. Persevering, Octavia tried again, this time cutting her questions down so as not to overwhelm, and making sure her expression never strayed from its current patient smile and look of understanding.

"Hey, let's take this one step at a time. Are you here alone?"

"I-I..." Spirit stammered.

"Huh... Let me rephrase that: does anypony know you're here? Please, Spirit, I just want to know that you're safe here in Ponyville, and that nopony's worrying about where you are. That's all I want to know, okay. You can keep your real name secret if you want to, I just want to know that you're safe."

"I'm... I'm here alone." Spirit squeaked out, already trailing into silence even as she answered.

Octavia's eyes widened as she took this in, then returned to normal. Just because the filly was here alone didn't mean anything was wrong, necessarily, and from what she knew of 'Spirit', it wasn't too surprising that this was the case. Entering town alone, in disguise, armed with only a camera? Clearly, this was quite an independent filly. 

"And does anypony know where you are?"

Spirit avoided her gaze, and after a few seconds croaked out a half-whispered reply: "No, that... That was kind of the idea."

"Oh. And is there any reason why you've come to Ponyville alone, without telling anyone? I mean, your family must be worried."

Spirit shook her head. "Worried isn't the word I'd use."

"It isn't?" Asked Octavia, bewildered. "Why wouldn't they be worried?"

Spirit didn't respond, and Octavia readied another question. Before she could ask, though, Lyra moved in to rejoin the conversation, having sat in silence long enough for her tastes.

"Hang on, Spirit. You're not... You're not here hiding, are you? From your family?"

"No, I'm not. That... That only causes trouble. I'm here looking for somepony. I, well, I was looking - I already found her. Only stuck around to see your show, really, otherwise I'd be back home already."

"Oh, well, thanks, Spirit. I've gotta ask, though, what do you mean 'that only causes trouble'? You're not going to get in trouble for being here, are you?"

"Not if I don't get caught... I mean, I don't wear all this for nothing. Even if I was here with permission, with Spoon in town I really can't risk her sussing out who's been following her."

"Spoon? As in Silver Spoon? You were here following Silver Spoon? That filly's bad news, Spirit; I wouldn't get on her bad side if I were you."

"I know, believe me. You had her in your town, but I've had to share a house with her all her life. I know how she works. She's bad enough on her own, but at home, Mother's her attack dog, and Father's her enabler-by-apathy. I wouldn't be here if I didn't have to be."

As Lyra fell silent to digest the new information, Octavia took her cue to insert her own questions into the conversation. 

"You're related?" She asked, before running her eyes over the filly. "Going by your size, you mustn't be more than five or so years older than her. You must be her sister? Cousin?"

Spirit paused before answering to extricate herself from the balaclava, which had become more uncomfortable than it was useful, then turned back to Octavia and answered.

"The first. She's my younger sister, at least where blood's concerned."

Octavia and Lyra exchanged worried glances at this last comment, but said nothing. In the ensuing silence, Spirit Song had some time to think, finally coming to the conclusion that clutching onto her disguise's final piece was useless now that she'd spilled so much else about herself. Chewing her lip, she built up courage within herself and, at last, surrendered the last vestige of Spirit Song.

"M-My name's Silverspeed," she blurted out, drawing the two mares' attention. After a long moment in which both of them stared at the filly in surprise, Lyra simply nodded pleasantly.

Octavia, though she made the extra effort to comment, found she couldn't quite figure out what to say and eventually settled on something saccharine but inoffensive. "Silverspeed?" She repeated with a smile. "That's a lovely name."

"T-Thank you." Silverspeed replied, and with the end of that anticlimactic exchange, fell into an awkward silence. Quickly growing embarrassed, she soon turned to her idol and made a concerted - but no less awkward - effort to break the silence. 

"Y-You know, I heard you play once. The Gala before the princess's student and her friends... erm... happened. I'm... ah, actually something of a fan."

Octavia, who'd likewise been musing on a way of breaking the tension, blinked in surprise, then smiled broadly. "Is that so? Thank you, Silverspeed. You know, it's not that often I find I have fans your age - with all that 'pop music' flooding the airwaves, it's a hard sell to get foals into classical. It's just not 'cool' anymore - as if 'cool' was ever a measure of quality anyhow."

"Right," agreed Silverspeed, and though she found nothing else to say, the tension had melted away during their simple conversation. Taking this lull and return to comfort in her stride, Lyra tried again to turn the conversation back to the more pressing matters which had started it.

"So, Silver, you still haven't said why you were following your sister. I mean, you've made it pretty clear you two don't get on, and that just coming here is risky for you. I'm just having a hard time figuring out what could be so important, is all."

Silverspeed sighed, took a deep breath, and pushed aside the instinctive responses that would distance herself from Spoon. One by one, the retorts that Spoon wasn't a sister in any meaningful sense, that 'don't get on' was an insulting underestimation of their relationship, and that 'risky' also far from sufficed to describe the situation sprang up and were silenced. With another deep breath and a sigh, she had calmed enough to respond with the only answer she hadn't yet shut down. 

"You know what kind of filly Spoon is; the things she's done here, even with that schoolteacher interfering. Now, imagine how she felt when those ponies she considered most beneath her get her kicked right out of town. Obviously, she wants revenge. Lyra, tell me who usually stops a foal from going out and doing whatever they like to those who've wronged them?"

"...Their parents?" Lyra answered. 

"Their parents. But Mother's just as fired up about this as Spoon - she's not just told her to go ahead with her revenge plot, she's willing to fund it. Heck, if Spoon asked her to, she'd take active part, and Father... well, as usual he's too 'busy' to intervene. The only thing holding Spoon back before was her parents wanting her to stay in school, and now that she's kicked out, there is nothing stopping her going full throttle, just like she does at home. If I'm not here to figure out what she's up to and stop it, ponies are going to get hurt. This isn't playground fighting anymore - if she gets to do what she's planning, whatever it is, it is going to ruin somepony's life. Nothing else would be enough for her."

Lyra's face was lined with concern, but the expression was tinged with disbelief. "Are you sure it would be that bad?" 

Silverspeed opened her mouth to retort, but the return of an uncharacteristically angry Octavia left her momentarily dumbstruck, long enough for the cellist's words to make her own obsolete.

"Of course she's sure! You think, after all we've heard today, after all we already knew, after what happened to Diamond Tiara, that Silver Spoon is anything less than capable of this? She already tried to bankrupt Diamond's father over a punch to the face - how do you think she'd react to being kicked out of town?!"

"Sorry," Lyra repented, backpedalling under the sudden rage of her friend. "That was stupid of me." 

Octavia, despite the apology, was far from done. "And she's got her mother's help. The same mother who went full classist psycho in Cheerilee's meeting. The same mother who's backed that little psycho every step of the way; every single thing she's done. As if the filly who's had to live with both these... these psychopaths would be anything less than sure, Lyra!"

Lyra, ears pinned back in genuine concern, was still no closer to understanding her friend's anger. 

"Octavia, I'm with you on this, but this - getting so mad - this isn't like you. Maybe I'm missing something, but right now I don't get why you're so mad and it's honestly scaring me a little. 

Octavia's eyes widened as she took in this confession. The very idea that Lyra would ever be scared of her was one she could hardly stomach, but the lyrist was right: there was something she was missing, something awful. Turning to Silverspeed, she forced as much of the anger from her face as she could and met the filly's bewildered gaze. 

"Silverspeed, could you show Lyra your foreleg, please. Without the sock."

"Without the sock? Why?" Silverspeed's eyes widened in confusion, and then again as she understood. "Oh. You've seen..."

Octavia nodded. "Your sock slipped down while you were talking to Lyra. It wasn't exactly hard to miss."

"Miss what?" Lyra asked. 

Octavia glanced at her, then back at Silverspeed. "Silverspeed, if you would."

The filly complied, gripping the half-escaped sock in her teeth and drawing it from her leg in a few sharp tugs. As she raised the limb, Octavia turned back to Lyra and directed her gaze towards the outstretched foreleg, literally trembling in anger.

"Look. At. Her. Leg. Lyra." Octavia growled, and Lyra wasted no time in following her order.

Lyra looked down at the limb, saw the crisscross of scarring which left the coat bare in thin stripes along the leg, the strange repeating pattern which almost looked like a cursive 'A', and the raised red flesh of the latest grim strip towards the top of the leg, which had been the one to catch Octavia's eye. Fighting back tears as she realised what the marks were, and how the filly must have received them, she turned away, masking her horrified gasp with a hastily applied hoof. 

Octavia, having already processed the horror of Silverspeed's scarred foreleg, pressed on with an important question, already all but sure she was right.

"Your mother... She did this, didn't she?" 

Silverspeed didn't answer, and Lyra, having recovered enough to see the holes in Octavia's assumption, voiced her objection. 

"Hey, now, we don't know that. She's a piece of work, but I-I can't imagine she'd beat her own daughter... I don't want to imagine."

"If it wasn't her mother, then who, Lyra?! That 'A' symbol - that's her house seal!" She turned to Silverspeed, who had been watching this all unfold in shock, and pressed on, albeit softer now. "Silverspeed, did your mother do this to you?"

The filly turned her violet eyes to Octavia's twinned pair, tears streaking down the fur of her face, then launched herself at the mare, wrapping her in a tearful embrace. This was all the answer Octavia needed, and she began to tremble with suppressed fury even as she stroked a comforting hoof through the sobbing teenager's mane. Rage rose inside her like bile, until she could no longer contain it, and she opened her mouth fully prepared to spit a stream of vitriol at Silverspeed's faraway mother. 

The reassuring touch of a minty hoof on her shoulder, however, gave her pause long enough to quell her fury, and a gentle nuzzle from Lyra turned her mind away from her angry thoughts. As her long-time friend joined her in providing a sheltering embrace to Silverspeed, she let the soft caresses of Lyra's hoof in her mane take away the anger until nothing was left but determination to make things better. Things would change, she promised herself. 

Things would change.


*



Featherweight's room was silent, save for the breathing of its two occupants and the steady, rhythmic turning of the screwdriver held in the colt's mouth as he unscrewed the side panel of his spare camera, an activity he often took to when he had something on his mind. This silence continued for several minutes, through Featherweight's steady, reverent removal of each component, and the constant in-out rhythm of the foals' breath. A deep breath from its lighter-breathing inhabitant signalled a change, and the heavy sigh which followed heralded a greater break in the silence. Sure enough, Scootaloo raised her head from its despondent cradle on her forelegs and made a simple, sad statement.

"Featherweight, I messed up."

Featherweight, startled by this sudden comment after nearly half an hour of silence, looked up from the disassembled camera at his hooves and over to Scootaloo, who met his eyes expectantly. 

"Yes, yes you did," he replied, matter-of-factly. In response, Scootaloo shot him a withering glare, at which he shrugged Even as he continued, he turned back to his camera, having heard this one in various forms already that day, but not one idea from his friend as to how she'd fix it. "What? I'm not going to sugarcoat it, Scoots - you messed up big time. There's no two ways about it: you're going to have to do something if you want anything other than a mess."

This did not win him any brownie points with the small-winged pegasus, and she redoubled her glare.

"You think I don't know that?" She growled. Seeing this, Featherweight shook his head and shot back a smart-alec retort.

"No," he conceded, "But I don't think moping in my bedroom is going to help."

"I'm trying to figure out what to do, alright?!" Snapped Scootaloo, her wings raised in impotent rage.

"Well, you've been doing a whole lot of 'figuring out' today and not a whole lot of getting out there and doing something."

Scootaloo gave him a look like he'd just slapped her. "What, are you kicking me out?!"

Featherweight sighed. "No. You know I'd never do that to you, Scoots." Across the room, the filly's angry stance deflated somewhat, though she still looked ready to storm across the room and hit him at the slightest provocation. Having seen this many times before on his countless faux pas with the pegasus, Featherweight ignored her in favour of finishing his point, hoping to get her back on side. "What I am going to do is sit here and listen while you tell me what in the name of Luna's twin moons happened to get you in this mess."

Far from encouraging her to share and hopefully get to actively fixing her situation, this seemed only to break down the barriers holding back the filly's tears and despair. 

"And then what? You going to go up to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom and, and paparazzi them into forgiving me? Face it, Featherweight, it's hopeless." Tears flooding her eyes, Scootaloo turned away and put her head in her hooves. "I really messed up this time," she sobbed, curling into a ball on the floor. 

Sighing again, Featherweight abandoned his camera and trotted over to his friend. Once by her side, he sat down on his haunches and reached gently out for the sobbing filly. Snaking his forelegs under hers, he pulled her backwards and up so that she was sat on his lap, then wrapped her in a caring embrace, resting his head on the magenta cushion of her mane. 

Scootaloo, who had tensed when he had picked her up, relaxed into his embrace and, without a word passing between them, took this as her cue to simply cry herself out into the fur of his foreleg. Featherweight passed the time by stroking a hoof through her short mane, and waiting for signs that she was calming down. Through the contact of his barrel to her back, he felt her breathing shift from sobs to regular breaths, and then begin to match his own with each passing second, until the two pegasi were practically in sync. 

Eventually, Scootaloo ceased her sniffling and weakly wriggled in her friend's embrace. Featherweight wasted no time in releasing her, but remained close to the puffy-eyed filly as she settled into a spot just next to him. Silence passed over the duo as Scootaloo pointedly avoided looking at Featherweight, who was patiently keeping his gaze on her, waiting for her to acknowledge the message in his eyes. Finally, after the silence had become more than uncomfortable and Featherweight had adopted an expression which read 'Really, Scootaloo?', she turned towards her waiting friend with an exasperated sigh.

"Go on, say it," she challenged. "I know what you're going to say, so do it, Feather."

"I'm not saying anything." Featherweight replied. 

This earned him a scowl from Scootaloo. "Oh, just say it, you interfering lug."

"You want me to say it?" Asked Featherweight, falling back on their usual teasing in the hope of getting his friend back to some form of normalcy. 

"I want you to say it." Scootaloo insisted, giving him an unimpressed look, though he could have sworn he saw the corners of her lips twitch upwards.

"You sure?" He said again, pushing his luck now and knowing it.

"Yes, say it." Scootaloo sighed, with a hoof to her face. "Just get it over with.  Come on, I know you; you're going to tell me how I need to get off my sorry flank and sort this mess out and blah, blah, blah. Say it. I know I'm right."

Featherweight, seeing a golden opportunity, grinned broadly and had to hide it behind a hoof when his friend looked back at him. This, he thought to himself, could be the thing to make her smile again. Dropping his hoof to reveal a face absent of his until-then face-splitting grin, he pushed his luck one last time, praying that it would be worth it.

"You need to get off your sorry flank and sort this mess out and blah, blah, blah." Featherweight said, straight-faced and even-voiced. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and a smirk slipped onto his face, followed by sarcasm in his voice. "Wow, Scoots - you were right! That's exactly what I was going to say."

"Cut the crap, featherhead," Scootaloo snapped. "You're not a comedian, so don't even try." The grin spreading across her muzzle, however, said something quite to the contrary.

Featherweight met her grin with one of his own, and they held each other's gaze for a moment, before the colt's face turned serious again. 

"Actually, what I was going to say was... Well, if you want to talk about what happened between you and the girls, I'll always be here to listen. But... if you're not comfortable reliving all that, I would never force you to, not in a million years. You're my best friend, Scootaloo; don't you ever forget that."

Scootaloo looked away for a moment, wings aflutter, and when she turned back, her cheeks were tinged pink and a genuine smile adorned her face. The moment was a precious one, and Featherweight wasted no time in taking a mental snapshot. Sure enough, all too soon the smile turned to a familiar playful smirk, and Scootaloo put her tough-filly mask back on. 

"Hey, don't go getting sappy on me, now, Feather."

Featherweight matched her smirk with one of his own. "Sappy?" He asked, pointing to himself in mock incredulity. "Me? Never."

"Good to hear it..." Her smirk faded away soon after, to be replaced by a thoughtful, if annoyed, look. Sighing, she answered his unspoken question with a long-suffering tone which hid her inner relief now that she was finally getting it off her chest. "Fine, I'll tell you about what happened with the girls. Sitting on it's not done me any good, has it?"

Featherweight blinked, genuinely surprised by the sudden turnaround. "You sure, Scoots?"

She gave him an unimpressed stare. "What did I just say?"

"Just making sure." Featherweight defended, raising his hooves in surrender. "You know I'd never make you ta-"

Scootaloo, sensing another speech coming on, was quick to silence her friend, though not without gratitude. "Yeah, yeah, I know; and thanks." She paused for a moment, in thought, then offered a nightmare scenario to her patiently listening friend. "Celestia, get any more sappy and ponies will think we're 'an item' or whatever Rarity calls it."

Featherweight's face cracked into a full grin at this last remark of Scootaloo's. "Ha, fat chance of that. You're already married to the Wonderbolts, and I don't take you for the kind to cheat."

Scootaloo met his laughing gaze with a full smile, working out the laughter before turning serious as she cut to the chase. "Yeah, no way... Seriously, though, I'm ready to talk you're ready to listen."

Featherweight nodded emphatically, and accidentally fell back into his usual habit of making overly sure. "Go ahead, Scoots. Just stop if it starts getting too much, okay."

Rolling her eyes, Scootaloo let out a heavy sigh of exasperation. "Okay! Sweet Luna, I'm going to slap you if you keep this up."

Featherweight took this latest threat with a smirk and a dirty joke. "Kinky," he teased. 

"Do you want a slap?" Threatened Scootaloo, through a grin.

"I'm good, thanks."

"Then shut up and listen, Featherhead. I'm not going to say this twice."

Featherweight, recognising the change of tone, let Scootaloo know he was truly listening. "Whenever you're ready," he prompted.

"Okay," she began, unsure of where to start. "So, I guess this all started a few months back, when..."



*****



> Conversation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheerilee sighed happily and sank back into her armchair, sending a grateful smile the way of her gracious host. Rich, catching her gaze, beamed back at her and drained the glass perched in his hoof. Besides the background whirring of the ceiling fan, there was nothing to break the comfortable silence between them, which suited both just fine. 

The silence lent itself to introspection, and the wine in her veins helped usher Cheerilee's mind into contented consideration of her evening. It had, she reflected, been the best night she could remember since her days as a junior teacher, before the increased stress and that Sun-forsaken paperwork had cut off a vast portion of her free time and promptly gone ahead and devoured it. It had been an evening to enjoy, for certain, and the nostalgia of watching not one or two but three of the best action films of her youth had almost made her feel like the twenty-something party-animal Cheerilee, from those mad student years she'd long left behind. 

Glancing over to her host, she felt as though the experience - or, a mare could hope, the company - had brought some youthful enthusiasm to the stallion. Certainly, when the two of them had been fanfoaling over their favourite parts of the films, they had been a long, long way away from the behaviour of a business-stallion and a headmistress, and neither of them had seemed to miss it very much. If it was for him even a little like it was for her, then she could rest assured that both of them had had a wonderful time. Princesses above, she thought, how long had it been since either of them had been able to just... let loose? 

Too long, was the answer to that, but such was the life of the overworked. Still, if she could guarantee herself a few more nights like this, then she'd gladly take the late nights and the paperwork. Perhaps Rich felt the same way? She certainly hoped so. As much fun as she'd had, though, there was still work to be done before tomorrow rolled around, so as with all good things, her pleasant evening with Rich would have to end. 

Just as she was preparing to voice this unfortunate truth, however, Rich eased himself from his seat and broke the silence with a different idea. 

"You know," he began, almost shyly, "It's a little quiet in here. Maybe you'd like some music? I've got quite a collection if you wanted to take a look?"

The hopeful look in his eyes was like a knife to Cheerilee's stomach, and she was already regretting telling him she couldn't stay before the words had even been spoken.

"Rich, I'd love to stay, but I really have to get back. Paperwork is a harsh mistress, as we both know all too well... Besides, if I stay any longer, this comfy armchair of yours won't ever let me go again."

The dash of humour at the end seemed to have helped a little, but the disappointment which sank Rich's hopeful smile was still painful to see. Cheerilee only hoped he could see the disappointment in her own eyes, and knew that if she could, she'd happily while away the rest of the day with him until the sun had long since set and the moon made the sky its dominion. 

"Would that be such a bad thing?" Asked Rich, surprising even himself. Cheerilee blushed and grinned at once, but sadly had to insist.

"Ha! Maybe not, Rich, but I'm sure the fillies and colts would notice if I suddenly vanished. It's been a wonderful evening, Rich, but I do have to go."

"Right," said Rich, trying to hide his sadness behind a soft smile. "I understand, honestly. I've actually got some paperwork of my own to be getting on with, so... Yeah. Shame you can't stay, but at the end of the day, the schedule is boss."

"True, true: so is our plight, eh, Rich?"

He chuckled, regaining some of his lost composure, though Cheerilee found she badly missed the coltish grin he'd had before.

"Definitely. Woe is us, right?"

The joke was more like the Rich she'd been seeing this evening, and Cheerilee laughed openly: half because of the joke, and half in joy at seeing once more what she'd been coming to recognise as the real Filthy Rich. 

"Hey," she said, catching his attention immediately, and found that her next words came more reluctantly, in direct spite of how much she wanted to say them. "I can't stay this evening, but there's nothing to say we can't meet up like this again sometime, right? So, tell me when you're free next and maybe we can set something up?"

"Oh, sure, sure!" There was the stallion she'd been missing: all smiles and awkward eagerness. "Tell you what, I'll check my schedule and get back to you. I could meet you up at the school tomorrow, and we could find a time we're both free, if that sounds good to you?"

"Absolutely!" Cheerilee replied, slowly making her way from the living room to the hall, with Rich at her side.

"Then I'll see you then, suppose." Rich said, and Cheerilee nodded with a smile, her hoof on the doorknob. A thought struck the stallion as she turned the handle and pulled the door ajar, and he raised a hoof to make her wait. "Uh... So where should I meet you, exactly? Outside the main gates or...?"

"The main gates are fine," Cheerilee replied, stepping out onto the street. "I'll have to lock those before I leave, anyway, so there's no way we could miss each other."

"Alright, that's fine by me." Rich fell silent, searching his mind for something more to say, but only came out with a disappointed "Goodbye."

Cheerilee, smiling sadly, bid him farewell in kind. "Bye, Rich. I'll see you tomorrow."

With this, she turned and trotted back along the main road towards her own house, more reluctantly than she had ever done before, and with a nagging sense that somehow, that cosy cottage of hers had become a little less like home since she was there last. With a shake of her head, she pushed the feeling away and returned, with a smile, to the memory of the evening she'd just had. Unconsciously, she began to hum a happy tune from her childhood, and with the warmth of the setting sun on her back, headed home without another thought - except that tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.


*




Scootaloo looked up, met Featherweight's eyes, and sighed. "You don't get it, do you?"

He shook his head. "No. I mean, you were all so close! I just don't understand why Sweetie would be so nasty about everything, or why you'd, you'd actually bite her for it. And where was Apple Bloom? Why didn't she step in before things went all teats-up?" He fixed Scootaloo with an apologetic stare and shrugged helplessly. "Look, I know you've tried explaining it the best you can, but none of this makes any sense to me."

Scootaloo slumped sadly. "Sorry."

He reached over and put a consoling hoof on her shoulder. "No, I'm sorry. This is hard enough for you without having to worry about me understanding it. Look, maybe there's another way. Why don't you think back to when Sweetie first started getting at you about Rainbow Dash - not even the first time it made you mad - or her mad - just the first time she said anything about it. Maybe I can work out why this all happened by seeing how it started."

"Maybe." Scootaloo acknowledged, sullen and unenthused. 

"Come on, Scoots," encouraged Featherweight, "Knowing more can't hurt, can it?"

"Ugh... I guess it's worth a shot." She conceded, shrugging. 

"Of course it is." Featherweight sat back on his haunches and prepared to listen. "Now, what's the first time Sweetie made a negative comment about you and Dash?"

"Uh..." Scootaloo thought, frowning, while Featherweight patiently waited. "I guess it was maybe half a year ago? About January time? We'd just had Winter Wrap-Up, and I was towing the girls about in the cart, y'know, on the back of my scooter? I spotted Rainbow Dash flying through town and she looked like she was headed the same place we were, so I tried to race her there."

Featherweight nodded, already seeing where this was going. "With Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle still in the cart behind you." Already knowing what the answer would be, he asked: "Did you crash?"

"Yeah." Scootaloo nodded, ears folded back. "I crashed. Into the front of Sugarcube Corner... Through the front of Sugarcube Corner... With both the girls and the cart they were in."

"Ouch." Featherweight winced, grimacing. "That why you all got banned for a while?" 

Scootaloo nodded. "It was a disaster... Neither of the girls spoke to me much after that, not until the Cakes let us back in Sugarcube Corner again. When we finally got around to talking about why it happened and I said I was trying to race Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom just rolled her eyes at me and facehoofed."

"And Sweetie Belle?" Prompted Featherweight. 

Scootaloo's expression soured immediately. "She was a total jerk about it. Right away, she says 'of course' in this I'm-better-than-you tone, like almost Diamond Tiara levels of snob."

"Hey," interrupted Featherweight, "I thought you and Diamond were on alright terms now? I mean, we both know it was Silver Spoon behind all of it, right?"

"...Yeah," Scootaloo admitted, "But knowing why she did what she did doesn't change that she was always the one to hurt us worst. It doesn't matter that it was all Silver Spoon wanting Diamond to look like the leader, because it still feathering hurt, okay, and she was the one who hurt me most!"

"Okay, alright, I get it."

"Do you?" Scootaloo frowned. "Because I don't remember you being tricked into almost ruining that flag bearing thing for everypony. I mean, we both had small wings, but I couldn't fly and she used that! She used that so feathering much! I was the one who was scared she'd never fly because of her- her crap, Featherweight, n-not you. And all that shit they say about understanding why being the best way to deal with pain? It's horsefeathers, Featherweight. Total. Bull. Shit. Hurt is hurt, and knowing why changes buck-all."

"I'm sorry, Scootaloo." Featherweight said, moving back a little to literally give her some space. "Look, if you want to take a break now, that's no problem."

Scootaloo snorted. "Take a break? Before I've even gotten to what that bitch said? Buck that!"

"If you're sure," Featherweight said, still concerned but hoping that she'd calm down once she'd gotten this off her chest.

"I'm sure, Feather. So Sweetie's going all snob levels maximum, and obviously I ask her what the hay she meant by that. She just brushes it off, calls me 'Little Crash' - Little Crash! - and says I knew what she meant. And yeah, I did, but I was hoping she wasn't going to be such an ass about it - I mean, I thought we'd already dealt with the crashing thing, but oh no, she just has to bring it up again because I had one accident. One!"

Featherweight's forehead crinkled, one eyebrow rising above the other, and when he spoke, his confusion laced in his voice. This didn't add up. "But... But you didn't fall out then... Did you?"

Scootaloo snorted again. "Oh, we fell out alright. We pulled back together for Apple Bloom's sake, but everything was still rocky for months."

"Oh." Featherweight said, but any further contributions were promptly blocked by Scootaloo's continuing rant. 

"And anyway, I wasn't finished. After she pulled her 'you know what I mean' crap, I said how Rarity's been rubbing off on her badly and she's turning into the kind of snob we had to fight every day. I was thinking maybe she'd see she was being a total ass about it and back off, but no! No! She just goes off on one about me and Rainbow Dash, as if crashing once after three clear months of Sun-damned perfect driving is worse than digging up old fights just to try and prove she's better than me."

Featherweight was silent for a while after that tirade, sorting the truth from the vitriol. "So, that was what...? January? So... just six months ago, give or take, given we're in July now. You, uh, you didn't talk about it at any point between then and you three falling out?"

"No." Scootaloo shook her head firmly. "She kinda brought it up once, but she was already in 'I'm right, you're wrong' mode so Bloom just shut it down before it could turn ugly."

Featherweight nodded, and ticked that question off his mental list, proceeding immediately to the next one. "How about the rest? Did she bring up the argument about Dash being a bad influence again?"

Scootaloo looked at him like he was stupid, then sighed, losing some of her antagonism. This was, after all, her friend trying to help her: getting mad at him would solve nothing. Pushing aside the residual anger, she answered him fairly calmly, more so than either of them had expected.

"Whenever she had an excuse, and then literally any chance she got. At first, I'd argue back, but the last few months I've just been ignoring the bitch when I can't just avoid her entirely."

Featherweight paused before responding, being careful not to let his tone turn an already loaded question into something implying it was her fault. 

"But... At the same time, were you also getting at her at all for being too much like Rarity?"

To his relief, Scootaloo shrugged and answered without further anger his way, apparently thinking the answer was obvious.

"Well, yeah. I mean, when she brings up that argument, what else am I going to say back to her? I didn't do it after I decided to ignore her, though, even though she turned the bitch factor up to eleven right after. Maybe she was pissed she couldn't get a rise out of me anymore, but if she thought that was going to make me do anything except avoid her she's as stupid as she acts."

Featherweight blinked, fiddling with his camera strap. "Huh," he said, giving a slow shake of his head. "Strange she'd go after you more after you started ignoring her. Did you have any sort of big fight right before that?"

Scootaloo shrugged. "No bigger than usual. I did switch from blaming Rarity to blaming her, though. I mean, Rarity's all frou-frou and prissy, but she's nice, y'know? If she was rubbing off on Sweetie Hell, I wouldn't have expected her to turn nasty. Posh, yes, but not nasty. Nasty is, like... Anti-Rarity, you know?"

"Mm-hm," said Featherweight, nodding. "So what did you say if you weren't playing the Rarity card?"

"I told her she'd changed. The last thing I said to her, just me and her - I still hung out with her for Apple Bloom's sake, but only if there was no other way - was that I didn't know who she was anymore. I stopped letting myself get all riled up into an argument after that, and she just went overboard."

Featherweight took that in and reconsidered what he knew before replying to the pegasus, who just sat there expectantly, surprisingly patient given her obvious anger towards Sweetie Belle and the events which had led up to their split. 

"So you didn't answer back to her until... Well, until she brought it up again and you bit her, I guess?"

"Yeah." Scootaloo nodded.

"Okay," replied Featherweight, the lens in his mind focusing on a steadily clearing picture of what might have happened. "So, how long was that?" 

"Two - no, two and a half - months. Nothing right up until... that day. I yelled at her a bit before I... well, you know... but she just wouldn't back down! I never hurt anypony, but she just made me so mad and I... I bit her. I bit her, and I cried about it, then I tried to hit her with baseballs and a bat and earned my cutie mark doing it, a-and then I cried! Again!" 

She threw her hooves up in frustration and pain, tears glazing her eyes. She was going to break down again, Featherweight realised, and he moved in to cradle her in his hooves. Crying into his back now, Scootaloo half-sobbed, half-yelled her last few pained words.

"I don't hurt ponies a-and I don't cry, Featherweight - I don't do that! I could take her shit for two and a half months just fine - why not then?! What went wrong with me?"

Featherweight sighed, suddenly getting the feeling that this was the first time she'd ever voiced these doubts out loud. Nuzzling her cheek, he pulled back to lock his soft eyes with her own tearful pools. "Scoots... Did you talk to anypony about this before now?"

"N-No. Who could I talk to?!" sobbed Scootaloo, beating her hooves harmlessly against the small of his back. "I-I mean, Rainbow Dash knew something was up, bu-but I didn't want her to be ashamed of me." She went quiet for a second, and when she spoke, her voice was hushed and unguardedly sad. "I-I'm ashamed of me, Feather... I couldn't take knowing she was, too."

"Scootaloo," said Featherweight, gripping her face gently between his hooves so that her eyes stayed fixed on his. "Rainbow Dash loves you. You're her little sister, and nothing could change that." She started to object, but this time, Featherweight refused to let her so much as start to speak. "Nothing, Scootaloo! I cannot stress that enough. She! Loves! You! And you know what? Nothing went wrong with you that day. Nothing at all! You took Sweetie's crap without fighting back for two and a half months - of course you snapped!"

His speech finished, Featherweight sat back and observed his tearful friend. This seemed to have struck her completely silent, and as she worked through what he said, an idea struck him. Eventually, Scootaloo would start doubting the facts he'd just stated, and there was only one way to stop that happening. She wouldn't like it, but she'd thank him later.

"Scoots, get up." He said, softly but insistently. "Get up."

"W-Why?" Asked Scootaloo, confused and miserable. At his continued insistence, she picked herself up off the floor and trotted over to his side, half hoping that they were going somewhere other than the suddenly claustrophobic bedroom. "A-Are we going somewhere?"

"Yeah. We're going to see your sister," said Featherweight, steely-voiced with determination. "And she's going to tell you how much she loves you."

"B-But-" Protested Scootaloo as he started towards the door. 

Looking back, he softened his gaze and his voice. "You don't have to tell her anything just yet, but I don't think you need friends right now. You need your family."

"I-I" began Scootaloo, but she found herself without the energy to object. Wordlessly, she followed Featherweight out of his bedroom and down the stairs to the front door. Avoiding her idol - no, her sister - all this time had done nothing but make her miserable. Once out on the street, with Dash's beloved sky overhead, she felt herself fill with a strange confidence that this, at last, was the right path to travel.

Featherweight was right - she needed her sister; now more than ever. 


*****






> Understanding
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond and Dinky turned off Ponyville's main road and trotted slowly along its length, though even dawdling as they were, the shape of Dinky's house grew ever larger as they made their way along. There was a companionable silence between them, and their journey was accompanied only by the rustling of tree leaves in the wind, and the birds chirping from the branches. Dinky's home sat on a tree-shaded yet wide street, the combination of space and greenery giving it a more peaceful atmosphere than was usual for a road adjoining a town's main road. 

The house itself was small, but understandably so - only two ponies had to live there, after all, and many of the homes along this road had been built that way. In earlier decades, the town had more of an earth pony majority, and this street along with many others had been built with more than a little earth pony influence. This was partly because most of Ponyville's income came from farming, a typically earth-pony-dominated occupation, but this had always been the case and had never stifled diversity. According to a local history lesson courtesy of Cheerilee - which Dinky had eagerly contributed to - a particular series of events had caused the earth pony population to rise to levels not seen before or since, and had made a permanent mark on the town through its architecture.

The attraction of living so close to Canterlot had been diminished in those days by a series of wild storms from the Everfree, which had dealt the town a double-blow. Not only had many homes been destroyed, but the newfound doubt as to the town's safety had led many prospective residents - mainly unicorns wanting a rural place to live close to the capital - to choose other towns over battered, monster-plagued Ponyville. With less unicorns making their home in the town, and most new pegasi only arriving to fill the few empty spots on the weather team, the ever-hardy earth ponies had filled the gap in the population.

When the time had come to rebuild the town, it had been earth ponies who had led the efforts, in planning as well as execution. Earth ponies  preferred large gardens, to always have a direct connection with nature right outside their door, even in the middle of town: when faced with the need for enough houses to replace those lost, it had been decided to build smaller houses in order to keep the larger gardens they were so fond of. 

Dinky had been all too happy to regale Diamond with this tale on their way to the little house, but even she could only keep the conversation going for so long. They'd lapsed into silence a little way from the turn onto Dinky's road, and while it was hardly an uncomfortable one, it did leave Diamond with a lot more time to think than she needed. Her mind skipped between worry for Copperwing, worry about still-hospitalised Gild, and worry about Silver Spoon. As her inner monologue ran steadily faster laps of anxiety around her brain, her ears drooped ground-wards and her mouth curled down at the corners. 

The weight of a hoof on her shoulder snapped her out of it. Turning, she saw -- as she knew she would -- Diamond's reassuring face, curled into a gentle smile while her blue eyes beamed silent encouragement into Dinky's amber ones. 

"Hey," she said. "Are you alright, Dinky?"

Dinky hastily nodded, perhaps a little too eagerly. "Yeah! I'm fine."

Diamond frowned. "If you're sure..." -- she gave Dinky's shoulder a reassuring squeeze -- "But you know you can talk to me if you need to, right?"

Dinky nodded. "I know."

Diamond nodded back, and released her. As she stepped back, the bigger filly jerked her head in the direction of the house they'd stopped outside, and with a gesture of the hoof, asked:

"That's your house, isn't it?"

"Yep." Dinky grinned. "Looks like we talked most of the way there."

"I guess we did," agreed Diamond, "Except for that long bit of silence at the end there."

"Fair point," Dinky conceded. Taking a few steps towards her home, she then stopped and waved to her friend. "Bye, Di!" Giggling at the accidental rhyme, she repeated the farewell: "Haha -- bye, Di!"

Cracking a smile of her own, Diamond chuckled good-naturedly and replied: "Goodbye, Dinky." 

Diamond waved, as Dinky wandered towards the door, then turned and trotted slowly up the street. Just before the point where Dinky's house would have vanished from sight behind her, she glanced back over her shoulder, but her friend was gone. With a shrug, she returned her gaze to the road ahead and turned the corner into town.



*



Dinky waved to Diamond until the door closed, then dropped her hoof to the ground. Her ears perked at the sound of humming from the kitchen, and she turned her back on the door to head on into the house. Pausing at the entrance to the little house's kitchen, she poked her head through the doorway: sure enough, there was her mother, humming a happy tune as she set a fresh tray of muffins down on the sideboard to cool. Dinky trotted into the room and wrapped her mother in a tight hug, nuzzling her mane and breathing in the faint smell of muffins that lingered there.

"Hello to you, too, Dinky." Chuckled Ditzy, fondly returning the embrace. 

For a little while, they enjoyed the contact, but eventually broke apart. When they did, Ditzy noticed an uncharacteristic hint of worry in her daughter's eyes. Lifting Dinky's muzzle with the soft touch of her wing, Ditzy looked into her amber eyes and tried to encourage the filly to confide in her.

"Is everything alright, Little Muffin?"

"Yeah." Dinky replied, but without her usual zest. "Everything's OK. Why wouldn't it be?"

"You just looked a little down, is all. Are you sure there's nothing bothering you?"

Dinky looked away. "Nothing worth worrying about."

Lifting her daughter's muzzle again to look her in the eye, Ditzy stood her ground. "If it's worrying you, then it's worth worrying about."

This time, Dinky simply broke eye-contact, a faint blush appearing across her cheeks. 

"It's silly," she stalled.

"Not if it's getting you down, it's not." Ditzy lowered herself to her daughter's level, a pleading tone flavouring her voice. "Please, Dinky, I want to help."

Dinky remained stubbornly silent under her mother's caring gaze for a few more seconds, but at last her resolve broke and her worries came flooding out all at once.

"I... I'm just worried about Silver Spoon. For a second I thought I saw her in town earlier, and now I can't stop thinking about what she might do if she comes back."

"Oh, sweetie." Ditzy sighed, and pulled her daughter into a loving embrace. The filly eagerly burrowed into her chest, and Ditzy blanketed her in her wings, stroking her mane with a hoof. "Have you talked to your friends about this?"

"No." Dinky mumbled.

"Why not?"

"I didn't want to worry them. Diamond's already been through so much, it wouldn't be fair to make her think Spoon might come back."

A warmth filled Ditzy's heart on hearing the words and she loosened their embrace to lean down and plant a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Oh, Dinky. You really are too sweet for your own good sometimes. If you really don't want to talk about this with Diamond, at least promise you'll talk to me about it next time. Please? I love you, Dinky; I don't want you feeling down if there's something I can do to help. Nothing you can say will ever be too silly or to unimportant for me, not if it's bothering you even a little bit. Got it?"

"Yeah..." Dinky sighed into her mother's shoulder, then gave the mare a gentle nuzzle. "I love you, Mum."

"I love you too, Dinky. Now, how about we forget about that horrid filly and have some muffins?"

Dinky's ears perked up and the sparkle returned to her eyes. She disentangled herself from her mother's embrace and made for the muffin tray in a series of short hops. Grabbing one and inserting it whole into her mouth, she mumbled her approval of the plan through an explosion of crumbs.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" 



*



Auburn was alone. Diamond and Dinky had left, and Copperwing was asleep in her bed upstairs -- not that she'd want anything to do with her even if she was awake. Not after what she'd done. Even so, Auburn wished her sister was awake, if only to have someone else around to make the house feel less empty. Her mother was still recovering in the hospital and her father... well, Auburn didn't actually know where he was. He was probably in his workshop, but with how quiet the house was, he might as well be on the other side of Equestria. 

So here she was, alone in the living room with her thoughts. Usually, this would be okay; quite often, she'd actually prefer it to having company; but today was different. Everything had changed since Copperwing had ended up in the hospital: now, nothing made sense. Auburn liked to pride herself on her ability to work things out, but hours of wasted thought had left her just as confused as she'd started. Why couldn't everything just go back to how it was? 

But then, hadn't she learned a long time ago that some things, once broken, would never be the same again, no matter how painstakingly you put the pieces back together? It seemed like her relationship with Copperwing was exactly that sort of thing, since every attempt to make things right had failed to return that easy back-and-forth they'd always had. Or, at least, she thought they'd always been that way. Copperwing's words at the hospital had cast doubt on quite a lot of things Auburn had thought she understood. From what Copperwing had said, their relationship had been broken for a long time before the big fallout at the weekend, but everything had seemed perfect until then. 

Of course, it would seem perfect to her -- she hadn't been the one who'd gotten hurt. The pain she'd caused her own sister... How could she ever make that right? How could either of them just brush it under the rug and continue as they were? Her parents seemed to think that with her apology at the hospital, she and Copperwing were going to magically get along again, but they had no idea how badly she'd messed things up. Apologising wasn't going to fix this -- Auburn just wished she knew what would.

If there was something she could do to make it right, she would, but what could she do? Everypony talked about forgiveness like it was easy to give and easy to earn, but nothing Auburn had done made any difference. After the first one at the hospital, all her apologies had done nothing to bridge the gap between them, but how else could she show she was sorry? She didn't understand -- what was it going to take? How long would it be before Copperwing stopped looking at her like a stranger?

Auburn didn't like not understanding. Celestia above, she was supposed to be smart! What was it that she kept missing that everypony else got instinctively? How could she be this wrong? Auburn sat heavily on her haunches, took a deep, shaky breath and sighed. Dejected, she sank her face into her hooves and squeezed her eyes closed to keep the tears inside.

"Auburn?" 

She took her hooves off her eyes and opened them, blinking away the unshed tears. 

"Dad?"

He was standing in the doorway, smiling softly at her despite the concern in his eyes. Auburn couldn't think what he could want, but he wasn't mad with her, at least. Clambering to her hooves, she shuffled over to him; once she got close, he reached out and laid a gentle hoof on her shoulder. 

"I think," he began, making sure to look her in the eyes and still smiling that soft, paternal smile. "You and I have a few things to talk about... right, Wakey?"

She broke eye contact then, becoming suddenly preoccupied with the worn carpet at her hooves, but when she finally mumbled a response, it was in grudging agreement. 

"...Yeah."

Her father smiled a little wider and turned to leave. Looking back over his shoulder, he gestured for Auburn to follow.

"Come on, then. We can talk in the workshop."

Auburn nodded her silent assent and trotted after him. She'd always been close to her father... maybe she could make sense of this with his help? She could only follow him and hope.



*



Diamond wandered home frowning. Dinky had obviously had something on her mind, but she hadn't wanted to tell her what it was -- in fact, she'd denied being worried at all. It could be personal, she considered, but even then -- why not just say so? Didn't she trust her? 

Maybe how she'd handled the whole Auburn thing had Dinky worried? That would make sense -- if Dinky felt she'd done something wrong, or, again, if she didn't trust Diamond enough not to blow up at the slightest provocation. 

But then again, maybe it was the sort of personal thing Diamond might have been able to guess if Dinky'd admitted to having something on her mind? Granted, Diamond had no idea what Dinky might want to keep secret, but if it was anything like the situation with her and Copperwing, she could maybe understand why Dinky would rather deny she was thinking about anything at all. Diamond had repeatedly denied that there was anything between her and her eldest friend, but in truth... well, even she wasn't sure, and being teased for possibly having feelings for the other filly was not helping her figure it out. 

She'd always thought Dinky would be the blatant, unabashed type when it came to even remotely liking someone else that way, but maybe not. Auburn, the accepted 'smart one' of their group, had proven uncharacteristically ignorant when it came to understanding her own sister, and after years of being a small-town bully Diamond was finally showing her true colours as a more-or-less decent pony -- all considered, Dinky turning out to be shy about romance wouldn't be that surprising after all. 

Especially, Diamond thought, if she was into Auburn. If Dinky had been in a fight with Copperwing -- or anypony Diamond might maybe, possibly, have a crush on -- she'd probably not be her first port of call to talk about her feelings. This seemed to fit, and some of the worry evaporated from her mind. Just because Dinky wasn't telling her what was wrong didn't necessarily mean she didn't trust her, just that it might have been too awkward for her to talk about. Diamond could understand awkward.

As the frown melted away, Diamond continued her journey home with a great deal more peace of mind.



*



Auburn shifted uncomfortably on the stool in her father's workshop. Around her, the little brass sculptures of ponies seemed to be glaring down at her, judgement in every shining face. Her father pulled the wooden door closed and took a seat opposite her; his gaze wasn't judgemental, it was worse -- Brass Twister just looked sad. Auburn flinched from his regretful gaze -- she'd made him like that. 

Normally, Twister was the liveliest personality in the house: his ears were always perked up, and would twitch towards any fresh sound in the hopes of fuelling more of his famous dad jokes; his muzzle was almost permanently creased into a smile; and the skin around his joyfully sparkling eyes was crinkled from laughter past. The stallion sitting across from Auburn was another pony entirely: ears flat against his head, his mouth a grim line, his eyes lacking their usual shine. When he spoke, the joking tone she'd come to associate with her father's voice was gone, replaced with a tired, sighing sound. He rested his forehooves on the table and leaned forwards to speak.

"Auburn, I'm going to be frank with you. This... this thing with Copperwing? You bucked up." 

She flinched at the word, stung and scared. She'd never heard her father swear, never dreamed he'd swear at her. Twister, however, was unapologetic.

"I'm sorry, Auburn, but that's the truth and I'm not going to sugarcoat it." Pausing, he sighed, then changed tack. "That being said, I know from your sister you already worked that out, and I didn't bring you in here to talk down to you. I brought you here so we could talk honestly to one another, say the things that need saying. Now, reminding you of what a mess you've made of things was one of those things, much as I wish it wasn't, but you're not the only one at fault here. Being honest, Copper's the only one I can't blame for this going so badly."

Auburn blinked. "Only Copperwing? Not even Mum?"

"Yeah, just Copper." He shrugged his wings, a tinge of regret slipping into his posture. "I guess she could have done more to make you understand you were hurting her, but we told her we'd handle it, and we bucked up. Your mother and I should have had a proper talk with you when Copper first got diagnosed, made sure we were all on the same page, but we just assumed you'd get it first time and left it there. We should have been there for her more, stood up for her when you got mean, but we didn't. We bucked up, Auburn. We didn't do enough."

Auburn looked on in concern. "Dad?" she began, intending to comfort her favourite parent, but Twister just carried on as if he hadn't heard her.

"That's why I need us to talk now and be honest with one another. Between the three of us, we've bucked up enough already. It's time we started fixing things. It's time we started being a family again. You want that too, right?"

Auburn tried to reply with some enthusiasm, but the guilt and confusion sapped all the life away before the words left her tongue. 

"Yeah, I do... But what can I do to fix this? I mean, I've said sorry and it's not enough. She still hates me."

Twister reached over and squeezed Auburn's shoulder, then leaned down to meet her eyes despite her attempts to avoid his gaze. "Auburn, your sister doesn't hate you, but you hurt her, badly -- things like that, they don't fix so easy. You're going to have to show her that you're sorry by acting like it -- ask her how she's doing, support her, give her space when she needs it. She needs time to trust you again -- use it to become the sister you always should have been. The sister you used to be, all those years ago."

Auburn swallowed, met his eyes, then nodded solemnly. "I'll try."

Twister leaned back, smiling, as his voice returned to something more alike his usual tone.

"That's all I'm asking you to do; all you can do. We've made some mistakes, but we'll get through this rough patch -- just so long as we all try to be better. I'm going to start a sort of... I dunno, regular meeting? for all of us to just sit down and say what's on our minds. No interruptions, no arguments, just talking and listening and then, after somepony's done speaking, we can chip in -- respectfully, mind -- and respond."

Seeing Auburn's frown at the idea of a mandatory problem-airing, he leapt to explain. "It doesn't have to be bad all the time -- if you've found something new you really like, we wanna hear it; if you want to talk about old times, we're all for it; if you want some advice on something, we can all do our part to help. I want us to start talking to each other again: no more unhappy secrets, no more suffering in silence." His point made, he spread his forelegs and smiled sheepishly. "What do you think?"

Auburn returned the smile and nodded eagerly. "Yeah, Dad. I'd like that."

"Then I've just got to sell the concept to your mother and Copper. Speaking of those two -- I'm going to ask your mother to have a talk with Copperwing like I've just had with you. Chances are, she's going to need some more support after that, so please don't get jealous if we spend more time with her in future. She needs us to be there for her, and we need to show her we have her back."

"Okay." Auburn replied, gently lowering herself from the stool and trotting to the door. As her hoof closed on the handle and pulled the door open, her father's voice rang out again in the little room.

"Just try your best, honey, okay? That's all I'm asking."

Auburn looked back and nodded, a smile upon her face, and silently slipped out of the door. She carefully pushed the door closed, then headed up the short staircase to the rest of the house. Her mind wasn't focused on her surroundings, though, but rather on her thoughts. Try her best? She could do that. Maybe, just maybe, she could make this work after all.



*****






> Family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond met Cheerilee coming back from Dinky's house. She approached Diamond a little unsteady on her hooves and her cheeks were tinged with a faint but constant blush. She was drunk. Diamond frowned, puzzled: to bump into Cheerilee so close to home meant that she couldn't have come from anywhere else. She'd gotten drunk at Diamond's house, which meant her father had probably broken out the wine -- Cheerilee seemed a wine sort of mare -- and they'd probably been drinking together. She wasn't sure what to make of that. 

It was great that her father was comfortable enough with Cheerilee to drink with her, and she liked Cheerilee at least as much as he did, but everything seemed to be pointing less to him coming out of his rut than it did to him... well, rutting Cheerilee. That was an image Diamond didn't really want to focus on, but the point stood. He seemed happy again, was socialising and even drinking again, but she had no way of knowing how much of that was real progress. 

If he was truly getting better, and falling for Cheerilee while he was at it, then that was great, but if he wasn't as recovered as he seemed, was just using this as a crutch... That would be something else entirely. That kind of relationship had already happened once, and the fallout from that month-long train-wreck had set him back years. He didn't need that again -- deserved better than that, he and Cheerilee both -- but the stage was set just as well for a tragedy as it was a romance. Diamond hoped to the princesses that this thing between them -- whatever it was -- worked out well. Diamond was all too aware that if it didn't, it could ruin the only genuine friendship he'd had in years.

All of this hit her in a wave upon seeing Cheerilee ambling towards her with a big grin on her rosy face, completely unaware of just how much effect her appearance had on Diamond's thoughts. Despite it all, Diamond's face lit up at the sight of her. Making a beeline for her teacher-turned-mentor, she called out a heartfelt greeting:

"Hey, Cheerilee!" 

Cheerilee stopped just in front of her, beaming cheek-to-rosy-cheek. "Hi, Diamond!"

Though she already knew the answer, Diamond had to ask: "Have you just come from Dad's?"

Cheerilee nodded her head vigorously, then stopped, looking more than a little bit dizzy from the act. 

"Yes, I have. I suppose you've come from one of your friends' houses?"

Diamond nodded. "Dinky's. I walked home with her until she was home, then I left. I didn't really stick around long, but we did spend a while at Auburn's together,  after we walked Copperwing home from hospital, so it's not like we didn't get to hang out. How about you? Did you have a good time with Dad?"

Cheerilee's expression seemed to glaze over with joy as the schoolteacher answered, staring off into space with a smile that looked suspiciously lovestruck to Diamond's eyes.

"Frankly, Diamond, 'good time' is a bit of an understatement: I haven't had fun like I did tonight in... well, in years! It was a really wonderful evening... Just a shame all my paperwork had to cut it short."

Despite her misgivings, Diamond couldn't help the urge to push the fledgling relationship along. 

"Why don't you talk to Dad about meeting up sometime you can stay longer? I'm sure he wouldn't mind you staying for dinner if you wanted to."

Cheerilee simply beamed at her. "One step ahead of you, Diamond. We've already made plans to meet up tomorrow and decide on a good time to do something together."

"That's great!" Diamond grinned to match Cheerilee's smile, then let her face soften into a more serious look. "You know, Cheerilee, I'm glad he's got a friend like you."

Cheerilee's expression turned thoughtful. 

"And I'm glad to have a friend like him. I know both of us are very glad to have a friend like you, Diamond."

"Me?" This wasn't a direction Diamond had expected this to go, and the filly found herself at a loss for words. Cheerilee, on the other hand, wasted no time in proudly explaining her statement.

"Your father adores you, Diamond, and I can certainly see why. And anyway, didn't you ever wonder why I was so determined to help you? I always knew you were a good filly, deep down, and I can't tell you how proud I am -- how proud your father is -- that you've finally had the chance to bring that good to the surface. You've become a wonderful filly over this past month, just like we always wanted you to be."

Eyes brimming with tears, Diamond approached Cheerilee and wrapped her forelegs around her in an embrace that the mare was quick to return. Diamond held onto he teacher for a long few seconds, and then, releasing Cheerilee, backed up to look her in the eye. 

"I learned from the best."

"Oh, Diamond..." 

Cheerilee blinked tears of joy from her eyes, her voice cracked by emotion. Shaking off the grip of her shock, she pulled Diamond into a second, tighter hug. Cradled against the mare's soft fur, Diamond felt safe, at home. The scent of Cheerilee's perfume, soft and sweet, wafted into her nose, soothing her. To her surprise, Cheerilee's hoof began to stroke her mane in a gentle, caring rhythm. As Diamond snuggled closer to Cheerilee, in the light of the setting sun, their colours seemed to blend into one.



*



Copperwing woke with a smile on her face. She couldn't remember the dream she'd had, but the fuzzy warmth it had left in her heart was all the evidence she needed to conclude it was a good one. Looking bleary-eyed around the room, she saw that Diamond was gone, but her scent lingered in the air above the bed and in the covers pulled up under her chin. The smile grew: clearly, Diamond had gone to the trouble of tucking her in without waking her up. It felt good, knowing that she had somepony who cared about her, who'd go to the effort to do the little things. 

Sitting up, she shrugged off the covers but pulled the contented feeling around her like a blanket. The thought of Diamond carried her out of bed and across the bedroom floor in a daze, so wrapped up in her feelings for the other filly that she didn't notice the figure in her doorway until she had nearly run into it. Eyes snapping open in an instant, she sprang back a step or two and saw that Auburn was standing there, a similarly startled expression on her face. 

Before Copperwing could so much as open her mouth, Auburn closed the distance and spoke, quietly:

"Copperwing, can we talk?"

Copper frowned, let out a sigh. She didn't need this right now. 

"Talk about what?"

Auburn had the decency to look ashamed, at least. That was something, Copperwing supposed.

"I wanted to apologise. What I did to you was really shitty, and I want you to know that I really am sorry. If I could go back and stop myself from being such an ass, I would, but-"

"You can't." Copperwing cut in. "You can't change what happened, and you can't just say sorry and expect things to go back to how they were. Sorry to disappoint you, but that's not how the real world works. You're going to have to earn my trust back if you want it at all."

"I know that. I want to be better, I want to make things right. But you've got to let me try, okay?"

Copperwing sighed. "...Okay. Okay. You've got a chance; don't waste it."

"I won't." 

Copperwing sent her a questioning look, but Auburn met it with a steady look. She held Copperwing's eyes until she felt she'd made her point, then, with another apologetic glance, turned to leave. Before she could depart entirely, however, Copperwing called after her.

"For what it's worth, Auburn... I hope you're right about that. I want my little sister back."

Pausing in the doorway, Auburn turned to Copperwing, wiped the surprise off her face and nodded. For a moment, Copperwing spied an uncharacteristic flash of determination in her eyes, but then she turned away and, with a few long strides, vanished from sight.



*



Diamond had expected her father to be in a good mood when he answered the door, and sure enough, the door swung open to reveal a stallion looking years younger than the one she'd left that morning. A big, coltish grin was plastered on his face, and as he led the way into the house, his steps had a youthful spring to them. Clearly, Cheerilee was a positive influence on his mood -- or at least Cheerilee and alcohol was.  

The moment they entered the house proper, Diamond could smell the rich scents of pizza wafting in from the kitchen. She glanced up at her father and he met her questioning eyes with a smile.

"I had the staff cook up your favourite, since you've been doing so well lately. I'm so proud of you, honey, and so is Cheerilee."

Diamond beamed up at him -- "Thanks, Dad!" -- then, turning more thoughtful, but no less happy, she added: "You know, I bumped into Cheerilee on my way home."

"Oh, yeah?" 

Her father tried to hide his curiosity, but his eager tone of voice betrayed him. Diamond grinned: it was almost cute, in a puppy-dog sort of way way.

"Yeah. She said you were both proud of me, but I wasn't sure if she was just saying that... Well, not until she hugged me. Still, it's nice to hear it from you, too."

As they entered the dining room and approached the table, Rich slowed down to give his daughter a loving glance and a reassuring pat on the withers.

"It's nice to be able to tell you. You don't know how many times I thought I'd lost you, when you were growing up. Having the real you, having you safe and happy... It means the world to me."

Not knowing what else she could say to that, Diamond simply replied -- "Thanks, Dad," -- and slipped into her seat at the dinner table. 

Across from her, Rich took his own place.  After a few distracted moments when both father and daughter were preoccupied with locating the proper cutlery, he glanced at her from the other side of the table, a serious look on his face and a softness in his words.

"You know, Diamond... if your mother could see you now, she'd be prouder than words can say."

Diamond's food froze halfway to her mouth, and she stammered, completely caught off guard by what her father had just said. 

"You... You think so?"

Covering her trembling hoof with his larger, brown one, Rich replied: "Absolutely."

Caught by surprise yet again, Diamond resorted to her time-honoured refrain: "T-thanks, Dad." This was the last thing she'd expected to hear tonight.

Rich smiled back at her and simply said -- "Don't mention it." -- before turning back to his food. Diamond, on the other hand, had no option but to sit still and let the conversation filter through to her brain. 

Once she'd gotten over the immediate shock, the mention of her mother gave Diamond an idea. She wasn't overly keen to spoil her father's good mood by bringing up the past, but he'd already brought her mother up on his own and her idea seemed to be her best chance of answering the insistent questions Dinky and Auburn had planted in her head. She glanced up at him, then back down at her hooves, then back again. Steeling herself, she looked into her father's eyes and asked:

"Dad? Can I... Can ask you about Mum?"

He blinked at her, obviously surprised, but although Diamond scanned his face for the telltale pang of pain, she didn't see it. He smiled a little sadly, but the mention of his late wife didn't seem to have brought him the grief it had done the last time Diamond asked, all those years ago. 

"Of course, Diamond," Rich answered, smiling softly. "What did you want to know?"

Diamond realised abruptly that she hadn't actually planned this far ahead. How to word this?

"When...uh... When did you realise you loved Mum?"

Diamond held her breath, waiting for her question to be brushed off with some useless half-answer, or some truncated version of real events too general to be useful. She needn't have worried: again, Rich blinked at the question, but this time his melancholy smile grew full and genuine and he leaned over the table eagerly, pizza forgotten in his hoof, to answer. 

"Now that's a story and a half, and not just in entertainment value. We, uh, might be here a while." Diamond moved as if to protest, but Rich hastily continued before she had the chance. "Now, I'm not saying no, but you'd better eat while you listen or your food's going to go cold."

Diamond's look of defiance turned to one of mock admonishment as she nodded to Rich's own abandoned meal.

"Says you."

Rich, looking at his pizza as if seeing it for the first time, chuckled. To the music of Diamond's giggles, he made a show of taking a comically huge chunk out of it, then set it back on the plate and leaned back in his seat.

"Is that good enough for now, Little Gem?"

Though the nickname sent a flush of embarrassment across her face, Diamond had to concede that his pizza-eating efforts were, for now at least, 'good enough'. Chuckling, Rich clapped his hooves together and sat up straight.

"Now," he said, grinning. "Without further ado: storytime."




*****