//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 Part 1 Wakey Wakey // Story: My Secret Daughter // by deadpansnarker //------------------------------// Inside the chamber known as Diamond Tiara's bedroom, the current occupant was presently in an advanced state of motion. She tossed and turned constantly, tying herself up in knots between the sheets, while desperately clutching onto something soft and cuddly at her side. "Oh, Pennyworth! You won't believe the horrible nightmare I had last night. Thank Celestia it's all over now, and things can just return to normal. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here, you don't say very much but just cuddling you up close makes me feel a million times better... huh?! Since when did you start wearing underwear?" Diamond's eyelids immediately sprung open, and she was greeted by a most troubling sight. Instead of her usual gargantuan sleeping quarters, the flummoxed filly instead found herself in a far more modestly sized accommodation. It wasn't exactly small, but compared to the scale of what she was used to, this was little more than a storage closet. Another undeniably creepy aspect of this mysterious location she now inhabited was the fact there seemed to be multiple other Diamond Tiaras in residence as well, staring at her with trepidation under the covers of a bed very much like the one she... wait a sec. Under closer inspection, the many miniature doppelgängers of the pink filly turned out to be copious reflections cast within the structure of a crystalline wall, so at least she could state with a degree of certainty she hadn't been abducted at the behest of some kind of radical cloning program. Not that a wretched replica could ever capture her true beauty and sparkling personality, it was the principal of the thing, that's all. Initially taken aback by her unfamiliar, unknown location, Diamond suddenly recalled the main reason behind her discomfiture upon awakening in the first place: Pennyworth's new item of clothing. She glanced down with an audible gulp, wondering what the next shock on the menu could be on this most bewildering of mornings... ...Only to find that her precious penguin stuffed animal with the monocle and top hat wasn't there at all, for it had been replaced by an imposter. She'd no idea who this brazen trespasser was, but she'd never seen it before and it certainly didn't look like any toy she'd ever owned... or want to, for that matter. It was an ugly specimen indeed, resembling an aged grey mule with a tatty mane hanging forlornly around it's sagging head. One eye was missing, while the other hung on (quite literally) by a thread. There were patches sown everywhere just to keep the filling from spilling out, and just like Diamond had already noticed, it sported a rather unattractive pair of spotted undergarments around it's legs. Unable to cope with all of these surreal and odd sights all hitting her at once, the loss of her nighttime confidante was more or less the final straw for the panicking filly. She took a deep breath, before unleashing a scream of such volume and ferocity that it seemed to shake the entire foundations around her. Fortunately, before the entire room could collapse under the force of Diamond's shrill hysteria, help was on the way. The stressed filly hadn't even heard the new arrival enter the room over the sound of her own caterwauling, but it wasn't too long before she found herself snared in a comforting glow and levitated up into the air, while being deposited into the welcoming hooves of a empathic mare. "Shhh, everything is going to be okay. I know just how you feel: when I was a filly and I woke up in a strange place, I would start getting a bit anxious, too. Not that I was invited to many sleepovers, but still..." Diamond didn't know the identity of this female pony, still recovering as she was from the trauma of finding herself who-knows-where with weirdness all around her, but she did appreciate the soothing voice and gentle words of solace. Spoiled would never have held me or tried to calm me down like this Diamond mused, while unconsciously letting out a blissful sigh. Her only response would've been to tell me to 'get lost', while her mud pack dried. If I have been kidnapped and am being held here for ransom, maybe I don't ever want to be rescued... Unable to hold back her suspense any longer, the now placated Diamond found her eyes panning upwards to see the identity of her embracer. She didn't know why, but there was something oddly familiar about that coat and Cutie Mark. The horn and wings were a little distracting too... Wait... horn and wings?! Immediately, everything else around the filly faded into irrelevance and her entire attention was focused on the smiling visage regarding her with mild amusement a few inches away. "P-Princess T-Twilight?!" An awed Diamond stuttered, unsure whether to faint or curtsy. As it was, she just lie there enmeshed in the royal's plumage, her jaw uncontrollably flapping as the all-too-real flashbacks from the previous night came flooding into her head. "I'm sorry Starlight isn't here to attend to you..." Twilight told the gibbering filly with a slight eye roll. "She always sleeps in on a Saturday, no exceptions. You'd think she'd make more of an effort the day her long-lost daughter comes to stay with us, but apparently not. Also, for future reference, you don't have to stand to attention whenever I come in the room. I'm not that kind of Princess, and neither are any of the others, as far as I know. Now, how are you liking my..." She stopped talking momentarily to peruse the room, before apparently finding what she was looking for in the furthest corner. It was the grotesque doll Diamond had woken up with, that she'd subsequently thrown as far away as she could in the midst of her mini-fit. Frowning a little upon seeing the abandoned, bedraggled toy, Twilight also picked it up with her magic to place it side-by-side alongside Diamond, while telling the confused filly a few things. "This was my favourite doll as a filly, she helped me through some very tough times when I had nopony to talk to at school and my parents were busy. I put her in your room last night after Starlight tucked you in because I thought the two of you might get on, but I can understand if you don't. She's a bit past her prime I must admit, though it was hard enough to get her back from Big Mac..." Not wanting to upset the Princess on top of everything else she was dealing with right now, Diamond struggled to conjure up anything complimentary to say. "U-Umm... I like her... pants?! It seemed to do the trick, as Twilight unexpectedly broke out of her slight funk to smile down with gratitude at the filly. "Thank you, I thought so too." the alicorn said pleasantly, while ruffling the youngster's mane. "In fact, that's even part of her name... 'Smarty Pants'. Because she's smart just like me, and she wears pants! Clever, don't you think? Even as a foal, I was very inventive!" "U-Uh, yeah... sure." Diamond replied, quite unsure how to respond to that. She looked around the room once more with curiosity, wondering how she was going to cope for the next month when everything here seemed so foreign. "P-Princess, i-if it's not too much trouble, c-could I have some of my stuff..." "Remember, it's just 'Twilight', not 'Princess'. And of course you can, in fact I'll be heading back down to Rich Mansion myself this morning to pick them up!" Twilight guessed easily what the filly was about to request. "Obviously, you can't join me as per the conditions of the contract, but if you want you can write me a list of things to get and I'll do my best to bring back everything I can find! Now, shall we make your bed? After all, good organisation costs nothing!" "B-But I've never done such a thing before!" Diamond stuttered upon hearing this, as she glanced back at her mattress as if it was a huge mountain she had to climb. "U-Usually one of the maids takes care of that, while I'm downstairs eating breakfast. Y-You're a princess, surely you have at least a few servants living here with you! L-Like that tiny dragon, for instance..." Twilight's earlier frown was as nothing as compared to the deep grimace she pulled at that precise moment, and she gently dropped Diamond onto the floor before giving her a mini-lecture. "First of all, don't ever let Spike hear you say that... he'll grow much bigger one day, but for now his height is very much a sore spot for him. Secondly, in no way, shape or form is he my 'servant'. He might be my number one assistant, but his value to me is so much more than that. Don't you have a close friend, who by simply being in their presence helps lift your mood and gives you the strength to face whatever challenges come your way?" "U-Um, s-something like that..." Images of a grey filly with glasses and a long white ponytail began to play in Diamond's mind. Celestia knows what Silver Spoon would think of everything going on right now. "B-But I thought... I-I mean, S-Spoiled said..." If it hadn't hurt so much the last time she did it, Twilight would've hoofpalmed there and then. "Well, there's your problem, I think. If you don't mind me saying so, Mrs Rich isn't exactly the first pony I'd look to for an unbiased view on someone she's always denigrating as a mere 'reptile'. I could tell you about all the amazing things Spike's done in his short life that make him far, far more important than a simple 'servant', but I think I'll let him fill you in on all that himself. Be careful though, sometimes he gets a little too chatty about past glories, and I don't want him to neglect his other duties. Now, I'll show you how to make your own bed, so that next time you can do it for yoursel... AARGH!! What is that?!" Diamond's contemplative mood was shattered by Twilight pointing with alarm at the spot on the sheet where she'd been napping until recently, and there, large as life, was a large wet patch with obvious implications behind it. The humiliated filly's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at this unbelievable occurrence. "W-What?! T-That can't be... I-I mean, I haven't... e-ever since I was..." "Well, judging by the smell, I don't think it's sweat..." Twilight wrinkled her nose a bit, before realising her big mistake. She was talking to a small child who'd just spent the first night away from home after being taken away from the family she'd known all of her life. Under those trying circumstances, it was perfectly natural something like this might happen. "Listen, Diamond..." Twilight said sympathetically to the snivelling filly, pulling her close with her wings. "I'm so so sorry for overreacting there, I'm just not used to dealing with this kind of situation and said the first things that came into my head. Don't be embarrassed, I'm sure a lot of other fillies do this at your age when they feel under a lot of stress. We'll exchange your sheet later on for a plastic one, and we won't say anything else about it. Please don't cry, I don't want Starlight to see you all upset on your first day here. It's not a big deal, really." Diamond, about to turn on the waterworks and really launch herself into a major crying marathon, was somewhat reassured by the insistently kind words of the alicorn. "R-Really?!" "Really really." Twilight nodded her confirmation with a large smile. "I want you to enjoy your time here as much as possible, even under these difficult conditions. I know Starlight can be a bit much with all the mollycoddling she's giving you right now, and I also saw how much it annoyed you every time she made you call her 'Mum' last night. You have to understand though, that she's been looking forward to seeing you again for years, and so her over-enthusiasm can easily be put down to that. If you'd like me to, I can have a quiet word with her to try and get her to cut down on some of the more over-the-top things she says and does, before you're fully settled in. Would you like that?" "M-Maybe..." Diamond sniffled, while wiping away a stray tear. It was the only one which had appeared, luckily enough. "Thank you, Prin... I mean, Twilight!" "See, you're doing better already! You didn't stammer that time! And, you even remembered my proper name!" Twilight complimented the suddenly cheerier filly. "I'll take care of the rest of this later, when Spike starts the laundry. For now, shall we..." The rest of Twilight's sentence there was going to be 'go downstairs and eat, while waiting for Starlight', but having just noticed Diamond's damp flank and put two and two together, immediately changed her plans. "... Run you a nice hot bath?" Those ominous last few words from the alicorn made Diamond's ears prick up and a shiver run down her spine, and she instinctively made a bolt for underneath her bed. "Oh no, you don't!" Twilight hated to force the issue, but she couldn't have the retreating filly trotting around all day stinking like a latrine, so with little other option she lifted up Diamond from her hidey-hole once more with the power of magic and proceeded to quickstep her straight to the bathroom. Struggle as she might, Diamond couldn't form a single dent in the powerful aura that now consumed her, her only release being the inevitable plunge into hot water, saturation by frothy bubbles and the pressure of a hard bar of soap being scrubbed here, there and everywhere. Welcome to Friendship Castle, Diamond Tiara.