//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: A Tragic Realisation // Story: My Secret Daughter // by deadpansnarker //------------------------------// It took the combined efforts of all six of the Elements Of Harmony, half of the servants left in the house and a good dose of Spoiled's shrieking for Filthy and Starlight to finally be separated, Mrs Rich's deafening screeches eventually providing ample distraction when the unicorn went to cover her ears for the stallion to snatch 'his' daughter away. Living with a demanding mare who makes the same cacophonous noises for hours on end if she doesn't get her own way, you tend to develop a resistance to it. Eventually, when the rowdy ruckus had settled down a little and everypony was back in their proper place, the more 'casual' conversation could resume. Seeing a clearly disturbed Diamond Tiara being cradled by an irate Filthy, and Spoiled staring daggers at Starlight (with the bitter gesture more than cheerfully returned) it was up to Princess Twilight once again to be The Voice Of Reason and try to restore some semblance of sanity to the room. Although, considering the complexities of the issues that were about to be conferred, this may be just a forlorn hope. "S-So, e-er..." The alicorn felt a single drop of sweat fall from her horn at the mammoth task that lay ahead. Funny, she'd no idea you could perspire up there. "As I was trying to ask, before the discussion got a little heated, what do you know of my new student, Mrs Rich? Obviously, from your somewhat 'lively' interaction just now, you've met her before, but what I'm trying to ascertain is, in what circumstances, and where?" A distinctly cagey Spoiled, still refusing to remove her eyes off the resolute Starlight for one single second, answered without turning her head. "We've had...dealings before, that's all." Finally, we're getting somewhere. Twilight was just happy to make any progress at this stage, and she quickly moved to capitalise on the breakthrough. "I see. And would these 'dealings' happen to involve a certain pink filly over there..." "Just what is going on here?!" Filthy bellowed, having heard quite enough back-and-forth and accusation-and-denial for one day. "You ponies turn up here on my doorstep in the middle of the day, make veiled allegations against my family, then nearly start a full-scale riot! Now, you know I have great respect for everything you've done for the community here Twilight, and even more so you Applejack, but don't you think by this point I'm owed a little more than mealy-mouthed questions? Tell us why you came here please, and what this has to do our daughter?" Spoiled, now sitting next to her husband, let out a pronounced humph at this point, before leaning into purposefully wrap two hooves around her family in a moving display of kinship. Or, far more likely, it was a sneaky attempt to encourage the ready-to-fly-off-the-handle-again Starlight to lose her temper once more, thus making her an even more unreliable witness. Twilight gently tapped her growling student on the shoulder to try and get her simmer down, before turning to Filthy to address him directly. "I guess this all may seem a little confusing for you Mr Rich, and for that we apologise. We had no intention of intruding on your lovely home today, and we sincerely regret any distress we might have caused you or your family. Circumstances however, dictate that we couldn't leave this matter unattended another day. Please bear in mind that you're not suspected of any wrong-doing, as regards what we came here to discuss..." "W-What are they talking about, Daddy?" Like any child her age, Diamond Tiara was extremely anxious about hearing such disconcerting dialogue, and went in to cuddle him closer. "A-Are we in any trouble?" "Nopony here is 'in any trouble', sweetheart..." Filthy Rich addressed his daughter in a reassuring, calm voice, even though his insides might have felt like they were being scooped out. "But it may be better if the grown-ups were left alone for a little while to discuss this situation, whatever it is. I'm sure it wouldn't interest you, anyway. Feather Duster, could you please take my daughter to the kitchen, and give her a cookie from the jar? The luxury ones, please..." "BBuutt DDaadddd..." Diamond whined, clinging onto his underbelly closely. "No 'buts', darling. Other than yours in the kitchen, please. Pretend this is one of my essential business meetings, that could be the difference between you getting a sparkly new tiara, or not. You've been very patient with me in the past when I've requested you to stay out of the room while I'm talking to very important ponies, now I'm asking you to wait for me again. I promise not to be too long, and this whole silly thing will soon be straightened out. Do you think you can trust me, on this?" Filthy Rich gazed down with affection at 'his' daughter, while ruffling her mane tenderly. Diamond took a moment to glance at all the other faces in the room, paying special attention to the, from her point of view, deranged mare who'd grabbed her with magic just as she entered. "O-Okay." She stammered, after a lengthy pause. "As long as you promise you won't be too long. I don't know why, but I feel kinda scared..." "Thattagirl. And, I promise to try and be as brief as possible..." Filthy nodded his agreement, before gesturing to the maid who'd remained by the entrance. "Now, take Feather Duster's hoof there, and she'll look after you. I'll see you very soon, dear. Just be good, and don't go running off, alright? Everything'll be fine, you'll see." A few months ago, none of the mansion's staff would have agreed to be left alone with the demoness known as Diamond Tiara, even if you offered them triple salary and a month's free vacation. Ever since her 'conversion' over to the side of all things good and pure though, most of the servants found her a true pleasure to be around, so there was no hesitation at all in Feather Duster taking the pink filly's hoof to lead her briskly away. The jovial maid even pledged that her young charge would receive 'the cookie with the most chocolate chips inside', possibly to try and curry favour toward her boss for her own inattention in letting the child slip away in the first place. As Diamond was corralled outside, a look of desperation clearly painted on her face all the way to the door, Filthy returned to his usual sober self. "Good. Now that we're alone again Twilight, perhaps you can start from the beginning as to why you saw fit to turn up unannounced today, and cause this mini-kerfuffle in the confines of my own mansion... and this time, I would appreciate it if there were no interruptions from anypony." "Filthy, do we have to go through all of this, now?" Spoiled Rich had spent the last few minutes watching her nervous 'child' leave the room and heard her husband's ultimatum with growing unease. "Obviously, Princess Twilight has been taken in like I was, by a very clever pony with an knack for manipulating others. These mares and their pet lizard are victims of a tragic hoax, and I would advise caution in believing anything they tell you. It's a psychiatrist they should be taking their friend to, not us..." At this stage, Filthy released the kind of prolonged sigh that could only be expressed by somepony who'd suffered under subjugation for eons. "My love, you know that I adore you, even though other ponies may question my wisdom. So much so perhaps, that I let you get away with many transgressions most sane husbands would never dream of allowing their wives to. But if this is concerning our daughter, then I think we need to know what's going on right now, and I want to hear the whole story without any disruption from those around me, including your good self. Seeing as this is in regards to your filly as much as mine, I'm sure you can appreciate that... can't you?" Realising that if she said a blunt 'no' all of her credibility would slip away like her good looks over the years, Spoiled wisely decided to just play it safe for now and put on her patented 'nice mare' act. "As usual, you know best, dear..." She spat, in a sugary, syrupy voice while forcing her lips into a truly frightening alligator-like grin. "Good..." Filthy seemed to revel in his no doubt temporal 'in charge' status. "Now Twilight, if you could do the honours, maybe we can get this whole sorry mess cleared up by this evening, and life can go back to normal. I swear there will be no more unanticipated breaks, so feel free to tell us everything. Come on, let's hear it..." Twilight gulped a little at the apparent ignorance of Filthy as to the magnitude of the matter which now faced him and his wife, and dreaded to speculate on his response when he found out the truth behind Diamond Tiara's birth. After all, the way he'd just talked down his banshee of a wife when in all other interactions that'd been witnessed she'd had him firmly under her hoof, proved to the alicorn just how much the filly mattered to him. If he could derive that much strength from the devotion to his 'daughter', Celesia knows how heartbroken he would be when he discovered... Nevertheless, she had a job to do. "Okay, Mr Rich. You'd better get comfortable, because this is going to take a little while. Also, prepare yourself for a bit of a shock. Do you remember a business trip you took to Manehattan about nine years ago? W-Well..." ................................................................................................................................................. The elegant clock in the lounge continued to tick on as the hands moved, but that's about the only thing that stirred in the room as Twilight told her tale. The Princess tried to be as thorough and descriptive as possible, glancing back to Starlight every so often to clarify if she'd got the details of a crucial event right. Her student nodded occasionally to let her teacher know that her facts were all in order, being far more interested in continuing to stare her hook-nosed nemesis down than actually contributing towards the retelling of distant history. Spoiled, for her part, was very amenable in obliging her unwitting surrogate parent in a contest to see which one could produce the most hostile glare, and a real battle of the scowls began to emerge. Not quite as enthralling as the earlier tug-of-war, but still an intriguing spectacle nonetheless. As for Filthy Rich himself, he was surprisingly restrained, considering the revelations currently being imparted must be turning his very world upside down. At first he sat back emotionlessly, then as the story moved onto developments behind the covert 'adoption' of Diamond Tiara he leaned forward in his chair, as if analysing every single word carefully. Finally, when he was informed about the early life and nefarious deeds of Starlight Glimmer in 'Our Town', he slumped back in his seat, while the ceiling began to hold a certain fascination for him. Twilight was also sure to disclose the later, more laudable, accomplishments of her pupil too, just to put into perspective how far she'd come from being a brainwashing cult leader. The Princess understood, with everything the stallion had to mull over concerning his 'daughter', he might not be too engrossed in Starlight's backstory. She wanted to be fair to the unicorn however, and show she was a completely different pony these days from the horror that Spoiled would no doubt describe her as, when the retelling was concluded. Sure enough, as soon as the final words left Twilight's lips, Filthy's wife opened hers. She didn't even afford anypony there the courtesy of taking a breath, she just let loose with wild abandon. "That's the biggest heap of Diamond Dog droppings I've ever heard! Darling, you don't honestly believe all that, do you?! Remember all those months I was pregnant, with morning sickness, which meant I had to spend time off work? Why would I make any of this up? Are you really going to take the word of this... this... freak, over mine, your loyal and faithful wife? This 'Starlight' simply wanted to exhort money from me back in the city, and when I refused to comply, vowed to get revenge one day. She's already got a member of the royal family and all of her minions eating out of her hoof, don't you be taken in too..." "Oh, shut up! I don't want to hear anymore of your lies!!" Filthy's sudden verbal blast raged through the room like a sonic pulse, almost turning Spoiled a nice shade of white in the process and causing an already agitated Fluttershy to fly under the sofa in panic. Maintaining a perfectly straight face, but with visible tears gathering at the edge of his eyes, Filthy Rich strolled through a speechless room towards Starlight, whereon he did something quite amazing. He took ahold of both of her fore-hooves and cradled them in his own, while studying her carefully, as if properly seeing her for the first time. "Even though every fibre in my body is telling me 'no'... everything adds up, and... I-I b-believe y-you..." He announced with grief, and that's when this big, strong, stoic stallion finally broke down completely, with a bewildered Starlight reduced to hugging him while patting his back tentatively, and even a quietly observing Spoiled felt a little twinge in her blackened heart at all the anguish she'd unleashed that day. Not that she'd ever admit to it, of course.