//------------------------------//
// Prompt #18 - Diamond Tiara Foalsits 
// Story: Diamond Cutter Anthology Entries 
// by Yukito 
//------------------------------//

Prompt: Diamond Tiara volunteers/does charity work! (provided by Chantal Strand, the voice of Diamond Tiara)





"So then I said, 'Yeah, well you have to budget your food!'!" Diamond Tiara laughed and, though they didn't know why, Pumpkin and Pound Cake laughed along. "Anyway, point is, money is happiness. So if you guys wanna be happy, stay in my good graces, okay?"

Mrs. Cake walked into the room just as Diamond Tiara finished her story, and smiled as her two babies both reached out for their sitter's attention. "And how are my two little angels doing today?" she asked.

Diamond Tiara picked up Pumpkin Cake, not trusting Pound after his little accident the previous week, and turned to Mrs. Cake. "I was just discussing business with my future partners," Diamond Tiara, picking up a toy to give to the pouting Pound Cake. It seemed to cheer him up. "When your mommy and daddy go to the old ponies' farm, you guys'll have the chance to join me in taking over this town!"

Mrs. Cake giggled uncomfortably as Diamond Tiara shared a scheming look with her children. "Well, the uh, 'farm', is still many years away from us yet."

"Wow, they've gotten so big." Diamond Tiara gasped as Twilight Sparkle walked into the room, following Mrs. Cake as towards a chest at the other side of the room. "I can still remember when they were just newborns. They were so small then… Hello Diamond Tiara."

"H-H-Hello, Princess Twilight!" Diamond Tiara straightened her tiara and put on her biggest smile. "Are you here to save the town from a big monster with your magic?!"

"Uhhh, not today." Mrs. Cake handed Twilight a book from the chest. It was covered in drool and bite marks and the princess sighed. "I loaned Pinkie Pie this picture book, thinking it was for her, but it turns out she wanted it for the children…"

Mrs. Cake regarded Twilight with an odd look. "You thought that this book was for Pinkie Pie? But it's for clearly for kindergartners…"

"… Uh-huh." Twilight took the book carefully in her magic, grimacing at the drool dripping from the crinkled pages within. "Well, guess I could order a new copy from Canterlot and have this one recycled…"

"I'm terribly sorry."

Twilight shook her head and smiled. "It's fine. I know Pinkie's heart was in the right place." Twilight turned to the children sitting nearby, watching as Diamond Tiara quieted them down and prepared an afternoon tea party. Of course, the 'tea' was juice for the two babies. "And I could never stay mad at those two little angels. It's amazing how well-behaved they are now, compared to when Pinkie Pie first sat for them."

"It's thanks to Diamond Tiara," Mrs. Cake said. "She's got a way ponies, or so her father keeps telling me."

Twilight hummed in thought. "Say, Diamond Tiara?"

"Yes?" Diamond asked, her head shooting up to meet the princess' gaze.

"You really like to foalsit, don't you?"

Diamond Tiara nodded her head slowly. "It's… alright. Pound and Pumpkin listen to every word I say so it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Why?"

"Well, how would you like to sit for a princess?"

Diamond Tiara dropped her cup and stared wide-eyed at Twilight. "Eh?"

"You see, the Crystal Empire's been pretty quiet lately, and Shining Armor and Cadance are thinking of taking the chance to have a weekend off, just the two of them, but that would mean their usual foalsitter, Sunburst, would have to fill in for them, and they'd have to find somepony else to watch Flurry Heart.

"Soooo… what d'you think? Wanna sit for the future princess of the Crystal-"

"YES!" Diamond Tiara jumped up and danced around the table, drawing odd looks from her two charges. "YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES-"

"I'll take that as a yes," Twilight giggled as she watched the silly continue her dance. "Well then, I'll write Shining Armor a letter letting him know you're interested and I'll stop over at your house later with the details…" She wasn't sure if Diamond Tiara had heard her or not, so she simply shrugged and bade farewell to Mrs. Cake. 'Kids. Getting excited over the simplest- Oh my gosh, I almost forgot that today's the day of the new Daring Do book! BEST. DAY. EVER!'

As Diamond Tiara finally calmed down, her mind raced with thoughts of herself, in the palace of the Crystal Empire, sitting for a princess… whilst surrounded by guards, judging her every move and writing down her every action to later report to her soldier father and alicorn mother and-

Suddenly, Diamond Tiara's legs felt like jelly.





"You must be Diamond Tiara."

"Y-Yeah…" Diamond regarded the strange, unkempt stallion with a look of confusion and unease. He was supposedly a famous wizard, and the royally-appointed foalsitter of Flurry Heart, but he looked more like a hobo wearing a bathrobe. "Uhhh, are you Sunburst?"

The stallion laughed, and then coughed rather indignantly. Diamond was taken aback and he muttered a quick apology. "I know I probably don't look like what you were expecting. My work hasn't afforded me much time to care for my own self." Sunburst's horn lit up, and a baby filly floated up from behind his head, giggling as she waved her arms about. "Flurry Heart, this is Diamond Tiara. She'll be playing with you today. Say hello."

Diamond Tiara watched as Flurry Heart was levitated towards her, and the filly simply laughed and waved. Diamond Tiara smiled and bowed in respect. "It is an honour, Princess."

Sunburst placed the filly gently on Diamond's back, and offered her a sheet of paper. "She can be a little fussy when she eats, so you might need to try being a little forceful. Princess Cadance has been reading to her before her naps every night, to prepare her for preschool."

"At her age?" Diamond asked incredulously. "Wow. Princesses are amazing."

"If there are any problems, you can ask one of her guards." Sunburst motioned towards two Royal Guards, who stood at attention behind the filly. Diamond Tiara swallowed hard. "And if you really need something, you can summon me by asking one of the servants. But only if it's an emergency."

"I will," Diamond said, wincing as she felt Flurry Heart tugging on her mane. She wanted to turn around and tell the filly to stop, but… yelling at a princess probably wasn't the best course of action. Grinning through it all, Diamond Tiara simply waved as Sunburst left.





Flurry Heart proved to be every bit as fussy as Sunburst had warned, and feeding her proved to be no easy chore. Diamond Tiara had tried everything she knew, from pretending the spoon was a train to pleading and to attempting to slip the filly a bribe. Unfortunately, Flurry Heart did not understand the concept of money yet.

The only option left was to trick her to open her mouth and force her to eat, but… she couldn't exactly do that with those two guards standing behind her. Still, if she didn't do something, the princess would starve, and it would be all her fault!

"C'mon, Princess. Pleeeease?" she asked quietly. Flurry Heart simply crossed her forelegs and turned her head away, her mouth sealed tight. Diamond groaned. "You have to eat something! You won't be able to sleep if you're hungry."

Flurry Heart turned her head to the side and reached out for something with her hooves. Following her gaze, Diamond's eyes turned to the freezer nearby. The walk-in freezer was as big as the kitchen itself, and through the crystal door she could see tubs of ice-cream in the direction of Flurry's hooves.

"You want ice-cream?" Diamond asked, frowning. Flurry Heart smiled and nodded. "But… last time I gave the twins ice-cream, I got in trouble…"

"Is something the matter, Miss Tiara?" one of the guards asked, making Diamond Tiara jump.

She turned around and found the guard staring at her, his eyebrow raised. Gulping, she shook her head and laughed it off. "N-Not at all! Uh, the princess wants ice-cream! Go and get some for her!" The guards exchanged a questioning look. "Didn't you hear? Go and get some ice-cream for Princess Flurry Heart, at once!"

The guard turned back to look at the filly, and asked, "Are you… sure?"

"Of course I am!" Diamond Tiara replied. There was no question that ice-cream was what the princess craved.

The guard hesitated, before nodding. "Should we?" his partner whispered.

"I'll only get a little," the first guard replied, keeping his voice low. "A little should be fine. Unless you think you can get the princess to eat?" The second guard frowned and shook her head. "I'll take responsibility. Don't worry."



The guards watched as the kitchen quickly became a fine example of modern art. The kind with colours splattered all over the canvas with little-to-no regard for actual artistic vision, and the happy baby filly indulged herself in the frozen goodness of her ice-cream.

Eventually, she had had her fill, and Diamond Tiara ordered the guards to clean up the mess whilst she took the now-sticky filly to the bathroom for an early bath. "How can a princess make such a mess?" she asked, but her only response was the tug of magical energy on her mane as she carried the princess on her back. She winced, attempting to hold in the urge to yell as she would have done to anypony else.

Getting the princess to bathe proved to be as much of a chore as getting her to eat; Flurry Heart behaved like a cat the moment her eyes met the water, and her wings propelled her into the air, Diamond Tiara holding on tightly as she was taken on a short journey around the bathroom.

Eventually, though, the princess tired, and landed gently onto the floor. Diamond swept her up and finally managed to place her into the bathtub, all resistance gone. "Here, Princess," she said, offering the filly a plastic ship to play with.

Flurry Heart took the ship greedily and proceeded to splash it about in the water. The water hit Diamond's coat and her mane, and some also got into her eyes. "Ah! Watch it!"

Flurry Heart gave a momentary questioning look to her sitter, who quickly gasped and covered her mouth with her hooves. Slowly, Diamond lowered her hooves, and said, "I-I mean, watch it, please?"

Flurry Heart simply laughed and continued splashing water, her other hoof joining the fun as her wings acted as propellers. Though they did little to propel the sitting filly, they did a wonderful job of flooding the once-elegant bathroom.

Groaning, Diamond Tiara finished washing the filly's mane and coat and then gently lifted her out of the tub. After drying her quickly with a towel, she turned to the two guards standing just outside. "You two clean all this up," she ordered, and as they obeyed, she grabbed a second towel to dry her own body. Turning to Flurry Heart, she said, "Please wait here, Princess. Please?"

She interpreted the filly's clapping as a 'yes' and then reached over to drain the bath, before bringing the towel to her mane. She watched as the guards mopped the bathroom's floor, and shut her eyes as the towel reached her face.

Hearing a giggle, Diamond pulled the towel away and opened her eyes, giving them a second to adjust before turning to where she had left Flurry Heart. She could see the filly crawling through the door leading out of the bathroom and she gasped. "Wait!" She started to give chase, but tripped over one of the buckets that the guards had brought with them. "Owww! Hey, what are you doing?! You should be watching the princess, not mopping floors!"

The two guards exchanged quick glances. "But you said-"

"C'mon! She's getting away!" The three ponies left the room and looked down both ends of the hallway outside. "There!" Diamond Tiara gave chase after Flurry Heart, catching up quickly… but then slowing to a walk as she followed at Flurry Heart's side. "Um, Princess? Could you please not crawl around on your own like that?"

The guards gave confused stares as they watched Diamond attempting to pick the filly up, only to give in to Flurry Heart's kicks and protests. "D'you think we should say something?" the guard on the right asked.

The other guard nodded. "Excuse me, Miss Tiara? I think that-"

"Wait! Princess!" Diamond Tiara gritted her teeth as she watched Flurry Heart crawl into the nursery. After dinner, Diamond was supposed to read to Flurry Heart before allowing her to play. It was what Princess Cadance had been doing to inspire growth in the filly, and it was what she had asked Diamond Tiara to do, and yet, her charge didn't want to adhere to the schedule at all.

'If I don't do what Princess Cadance asked, she'll be mad at me! But if I don't let Flurry Heart do what she wants, the guards will arrest me!' She looked nervously to the two guards and swallowed the lump in her throat. 'I-I've just gotta persuade her to want to read. Come on, Diamond. Manipulating ponies is what you do best.'

Flurry Heart wandered through the nursery, searching through the scattered toys for one that she desired. Meanwhile, Diamond Tiara followed, hoping to persuade the princess to see things her way.

"Princess, your mommy wants you to read. Doesn't that sound fun?" Flurry Heart seemed to not carte, as she continued her pilgrimage through the vast jungle of toys, stopping to inspect some blocks. "You want to grow up as smart and powerful as Princess Cadance, don't you?"

Again, Flurry Heart did not seem to care. Diamond sighed and fell to her haunches, attracting Flurry Heart's attention. The filly's eyes reflected the sparkling light that came from Diamond's tiara, and a quick spell levitated the piece of jewellery into the baby's hooves.

Diamond Tiara almost yelled and snatched her tiara back, but she managed to hold it in, instead gently reaching for it. Flurry Heart shielded it with her hooves. "P-Please give that back, Princess. It's not f-for playing with," she said, her eye twitching. Flurry Heart shook her head, turning around so that her back was to her sitter.

Diamond circled around the filly, taking deep breaths. "Please?" she asked, her shaking hooves frozen as they reached towards the filly. Flurry Heart lifted the tiara to her mouth and clamped down onto it, her laughter muffled as she slobbered over the expensive-looking headwear.

Gasping, Diamond's hooves shot out and yanked the tiara from the filly's mouth, startling her. "W-What are you doing?!" Fuming, Diamond Tiara shot to her hooves and glared down at the filly. "Don't go slobbering all over my tiara! And stop ignoring me, too!"

Huffing, the world seemed to be spinning to Diamond Tiara for several seconds. As her rage started to subside, she saw the tears on Flurry Heart's face and the sobs trying to break out. Panic began to set in, and then, Flurry Heart cried.

Turning to the guards, Diamond's heart pounding in her chest and her face as pale as a ghost, she did the only thing that she could think to do. She fell to her knees, bowed as low as possible, and shouted, "I'm sorry!" Tears of her own began to well up. "I'm so, so so sorry! P-Please banish me, or throw me in jail, o-or, or-"

One of the guards raised an eyebrow, motioning for his companion to tend to Flurry Heart as he approached Diamond Tiara. "Uh, Miss Tiara?"

"I'm sorry!"

The guard scratched the back of his neck. "Miss Tiara, why are you apologizing so much?"

"I-I yelled at the princess, and I made her c-cry, and, and… but it was an accident, I swear! I just- Princess Cadance wanted- and then my tiara- and-" Gasping for air, Diamond slammed her face onto the floor. "I'M SORRY!"

The guard sighed, and took a few cautious steps closer to the filly, careful not to spook her. "Miss Tiara, um… I'm not sure if I understand correctly, but… it seems as though the princes was misbehaving, and you were afraid to correct said behaviour, until it all finally exploded…"

"I'M SORRY!"

"Miss Tiara, scolding a filly who misbehaves is perfectly acceptable."

Diamond's tears stopped, and she slowly lifted her head to face the stallion speaking to her. "W-What? But, she's a princess, a-and I'm just-"

"Her sitter," the guard said. "And regardless of her rank, or your own, she is still only a baby filly, who does not know the difference what's right and what's wrong. She will step out of line, and it's up to grown-ups like you and Sunburst to make sure she stays of the righteous path." The guard smiled reassuringly. "After all, we don't want another Sombra on our hooves, now do we?"

Diamond Tiara sniffed, and rose to her hooves. "S-So it's okay to… to tell her 'no', a-and to deny her sweets, a-and-"

"Of course it is, and the princess will thank you for all of it when she is older. I assure you." He laughed, and added, "And no, we won't execute you for it."

"'Execute'?" Diamond asked, tilting her head.

His laughter died slowly, replaced by unease at the filly innocent, confused stare. He quickly looked over to where his partner was failing to quiet the princess' tears, and said, "A-Anyway, for now, I think that you should let the princess know you're no longer mad at her."

Diamond Tiara suddenly realised that the princess was still crying, and she rushed over to take charge, much to the relief of the bumbling guard who was too afraid to even touch the filly. Gently, and with only a moment of hesitation on her own part, Diamond took the filly into her forelegs and nestled her head against her chest.

The sobs began to slow, and Diamond patted Flurry Heart's head. "It's okay, Princess. I just got a little upset. That tiara's important to me, and I didn't like it when you took it without asking. You can understand that, right?" She thought she felt a nod, but couldn't be sure if the princess had actually understood her or not. "Anyway, I'm not mad at you. How could I be? You're a princess, which means you're loved by all."

Flurry Heart seemed to like that, giggling slightly, before belching and groaning. Diamond Tiara looked down to see the princess looking groggy, her face turning a slight shade of green.

"It was probably all that ice-cream she ate," one of the guards suggested, before saluting. "As I said before, I will take responsibility!"

Diamond Tiara sighed. "And that's what happens when you fuss over your food," Diamond said to the filly, who simply pouted and turned her head away. Diamond stood and lifted the filly onto her back. "Come on. Let's get your some warm milk. That's what Daddy does when I'm sick.

"And I trust you'll drink it without any fuss?" Flurry Heart nodded her head, and Diamond Tiara smiled. It felt weird to be treating a princess like such a baby, but then… as it turned out, she was just that. A baby. Suddenly, Diamond's legs seemed less heavy than they had been all day.





Sunburst entered the nursery quietly, a stack of scrolls levitating behind him in his magic as he searched the room. In the small crib at one side lay Princess Flurry Heart, sleeping soundly as her sitter, Diamond Tiara, slept on the stool beside her, an open book on the floor at her hooves.

Gently, he nudged Diamond Tiara to wake her up. He gestured for her to be silent and the two quietly left the room, careful not to wake the sleeping princess. "So, how did it go?" he asked once they were outside.

"It was great," Diamond replied, her energy suddenly coming back to her as she recalled her day. "I read to her like Princess Cadance asked, and she wanted me to keep going."

"Any problems?"

Diamond looked to the guards behind her, and then back to Sunburst. "Uh… A few, but…"

"But?"

"Well, I figured it out," Diamond said, waving her hoof dismissively. "I learned that I didn't have to treat her extra-special just because she's a princess. She didn't wanna eat or take a bath, but then I realised that she's just a baby, like I was, so sometimes I have to be firm and let her know she can't always have things her way!"

"Didn't I teach her that?" one of the guards whispered to his partner.

"This is why I'm never having kids," the other whispered back.

Sunburst smiled. "Well, it seems as though Flurry Heart has taken a liking to you, and you yourself have learned something today. I'll be sure to mention that to Twilight the next time I see her." He saw Diamond's face light up, and held in a laugh. "So, what would you say to foalsitting again? You know, in case I ever need some time off for my studies or anything."

"Foalsitting for the princess again?!" Diamond shouted, a grin spread across her face. "D'you even have to ask?"