"Imposing" was the first word that came to mind.
Silver Spoon stared at the estate from outside its metal gates. The gates were tall, elegant, and constructed of sturdy metal alloy, yet made up only a small part of the barrier around the property. The rest of the barrier consisted of tall hedges, as far as Silver could see, in either direction. If not for the spaces in between the gate's poles, she wouldn't even be able to see what the estate's mansion within looked like.
While Silver's family was well off and lived in a respectable house, she naturally expected the Riches' to be bigger. Still, she hadn't expected it to be this much bigger. To have so much horizontal reach. To have so many rooms visible from the outside alone.
Definitely imposing. Yet at the same time, she couldn't wait to explore. She pressed the button to the right of the gate.
Chimes sounded. After almost half a minute, A crystal above it pulsed with a purple light. "Who is it?" she heard a filly's voice say, in a tone that suggested she could barely be bothered to ask.
"Um, hello?" Silver said. "I'm Silver Spoon. Are you Diamond Tiara?"
No answer.
"You... well, your parents, invited me over to meet you."
The filly sighed. "Right. Wait for Randolph, and for your sake, don't try anything funny."
Silver was in the middle of deciding whether it was worth risking annoying the filly on the other side of the comm crystal by asking just who Randolph was, when fortunately, she saw the door of the Rich mansion opening, in the farthest reaches of her vision.
Out of the door stepped an elderly purple stallion with tufts of white mane, and the poise and trot of Silver's own butler. He casually strolled down the road to the gate, taking another five minutes before reaching it, peering at Silver, nodding, and opening the gate.
"I'm surprised you walked all the way over here," Silver said. "I mean, even my place has remotely locked gates."
A hint of a smile spread across Randolph's muzzle. "Entirely my prerogative, Miss Spoon," Randolph said. "Daily ten-thousand-step regimen."
Silver smiled back, feeling a rush of relief wash over her. Randolph turned around, walking back to the mansion. Silver followed alongside.
Silver looked around as she walked. Fountains, gazebos, and outdoor dining areas dotted the area, yet still allowed for a large amount of open space. To the west, she saw a hedge statue of a filly wearing a crown. The five minutes back to the mansion passed in nearly an eyeblink due to her tourism, and before she knew it, they were standing at the doors of the Rich mansion, which Randolph opened.
"Miss Tiara's quarters are upstairs and to the left."
Silver nodded and walked in. "Thanks, Randolph." She looked around the equally impressive and spacious foyer, lined with gold, silver, and other precious metals she knew all too well. It was, however, empty.
She looked back to Randolph. "So, I remember it was it was Diamond's mom and dad who invited me here? I thought they'd be there to greet me."
"Regretfully, Mr. and Mrs. Rich are at work," Randolph replied. "They will return in the evening."
"Huh." Silver craned her neck to look up the staircase and to the left. A conspicuously pink door was conspicuously closed. "Is that... their normal schedule?"
Randolph nodded. "It is."
Silver looked at the pink door again. "Oh." She slowly made her way towards the staircase, walked up a few steps, then looked back. "I, uh... suppose either of us will let you know if we need anything?"
"Very good, Miss Spoon," Randolph said, trotting away in the other direction.
Silver walked the rest of the way up to the pink door, and knocked. "It's open," she heard the mystery filly say from the other side. Her voice sounded just as disinterested as last time, but Silver had come too far to be intimidated any more. She turned the knob and opened the door.
And gasped at the sight before her.
Every single toy ever was in front of her, in the most spacious bedroom she'd ever seen. Scooters, dolls, instruments of every type met her eyes wherever she looked. A lavish wardrobe was built into the entire length of the far wall, and Silver could make out a dresser and makeup station close by. A huge master bed served as the centerpiece, complete with curtains. Silver felt a little embarrassed that her first impulse was to wonder if it felt any better than her own bed to jump on.
Silver's family could afford all of these things as well, but her parents certainly knew how to tell Silver to cherish what she had. The Riches, meanwhile, clearly decided to live up to their names in every aspect of their lives. Silver felt mildly jealous, but also prideful, at the same time.
As Silver finished her surveying of the room, her gaze fell back to the center, where the crowned pink filly—the model for the hedge statue, Silver now realized—sat at a table which would be small for grown ponies, but large for the two of them. A tea set was already spread around it, complete with doilies. Several stuffed animals sat around the table along with the filly, who turned her head towards Silver Spoon with a—now expected—indifferent look.
"Oh, you found your way upstairs," the filly said. "Good. I would have let you stay lost if you hadn't."
"Diamond Tiara?" Silver ventured, stepping forwards. "I'm Silver Spoon. It's nice to meet you."
Diamond Tiara nodded, pouring two glasses of tea from a steaming kettle, and setting one of them at the table's lone empty seat, diametrically across from where Diamond was situated.
Silver's expression lit up. "A tea party? Wow, awesome!"
Diamond scoffed and rolled her eyes. "This is not a 'tea party.'" She gestured across the table. "This is an important board meeting, and I will have you treat it as such. We are discussing what to do with the shares of the Tiara Corporation as they currently reside on the Manehattan Stock Exchange." She paused, then added, "There also happens to be tea."
Silver blinked.
"Oh my gosh," Diamond said, "do you even know anything about the stock market?"
Silver adjusted her glasses. "I'm, um, not set to learn about that until next year."
Diamond shrugged. "Well, sit in if you want to. But if the conversation ends up being over your head, don't come crying to me."
Silver sat down, and sipped her tea as Diamond walked around the table. "As you know, shares of TiaraCorp are currently in the toilet. I always tell us to buy low and sell high—but what do you morons go and do instead?"
She stopped in front of a stuffed elephant, leaning over and placing her ear to his mouth. After a few seconds, her expression turned from commanding to stern.
"What do you mean, you forgot to check our values compared to our competition?" She thwapped the elephant's trunk with a hoof. "That is literally the one job for which I hired you!
"And that goes for the rest of you!" She walked towards a nearby blackboard, which had multiple letters of the alphabet scrawled on it, and knocked on it as she spoke. "What do I tell you, over and over again? Always! Be! Comparing! That's how you get ahead in this market!" She huffed. "You're all a bunch of stuffed suits. I ought to fire the lot of you, and just run this place myself!"
A confused Silver Spoon raised her hoof.
"Guest in the back! What is it?" Diamond asked.
Silver took off her glasses, fiddling with them in her hooves. "You know... I've overheard my parents talking about the MHSE, and the things they say are a lot more complicated than what you're saying. Also, I'm guessing, a lot more correct."
"Well of course they would be," Diamond said. "I'm..." She looked away. "I'm not set to learn about the market until next year either." She huffed, and sat back at the table.
"That's perfectly fine." Silver put her glasses back on. "I think it's great that you're interested so early. I'm sort of dreading it, myself."
A short silence fell over the room before Diamond replied with, "Meh. Fear won't make it any more fun for either of us."
Silver decided that Diamond had a point. She got up from the table and walked around. "Also, your room is amazing! There's so much stuff here." She walked over to the junior piano and hoofed a few chords.
"Whoa!" Diamond rushed over. "What are you doing with that?"
Silver looked at Diamond blankly. "It's a piano. I thought I'd play it."
"It's a piano that's imported from Neighpon!" Diamond pulled Silver's hooves away, examining the keys up close for damage." Meaning it's worth more than you and me put together."
Silver chuckled. "That's silly! We're our parents' daughters. Nothing's worth more to them than us."
"Mother was the one who quoted the price to my face," Diamond said flatly, walking back to the table. "Before telling me that if I broke it, it would come out of my allowance. So, you know. I don't exactly use it. You probably shouldn't, either."
"Oh," Silver said, backing away from the piano, and walking towards Diamond. "Sorry." She saw down on the floor next to her. "Randolph told me your parents get home pretty late most nights. So, you just come home by yourself after school?"
"Uh-huh," Diamond said, staring into space.
Silver tried to come up with a response to that, but failed. Silence reigned the room again.
"It's fine, though," Diamond continued. "Lets me study in peace. Also, have all the fun I want without anyone telling me not to."
She got up from the tea table and walked over to the window, looking outside. Silver followed. It was still as a nice a day as ever, though from this perspective she could see almost all of Ponyville. She suddenly realized how easy it was to imagine the town as her domain, and her as its queen. Heck, Diamond even had a crown on her head to complete the fantasy—a fantasy Silver was sure Diamond entertained often. She pointed up to it. "Is that always a thing you wear? The crown, I mean."
"Of course." Diamond smiled. "My daddy gave it to me. To remind me how much of a princess I am to him. To them," she quickly corrected herself. "To them, he said."
"You look really pretty with it on," Silver said.
Diamond's smile persisted. "I know."
"Did you ever have any dresses that go with it?"
"Ha! Diamond Tiara makes everything look great!" Diamond tilted her gaze towards the wardrobe. "But I might have a few that go the extra mile."
Silver gasped. "Can I see them?"
Diamond tilted her head, and put her hoof to her chin. "Diamond Tiara has one rule," she finally said, walking over to the wardrobe's doors. "'Never be seen in any company other than that which compares to Diamond Tiara.'" She beckoned with one hoof for Silver to join her. "Come here."
Silver stood where she was, not entirely sure what Diamond was getting at.
Diamond softly stamped a hoof. "Oh my gosh, Silver, come here."
Silver walked up to the wardrobe. Diamond walked around her, standing close to her every so often while looking at the wardrobe's built-in mirror. After a minute of doing so, she returned to the doors, satisfied. "Yeah, should be same size." She walked inside and rummaged around, coming up with a simple, petite, light blue dress.
"Put this on," Diamond said, tossing the garment to her. "Might need to take off those humongous glasses first."
Silver did the latter, then the former. The fabric was comfortable, and when the dress was on, she admired herself in the mirror, walking in a circle. "This is really pretty," she said.
"Not done yet," Diamond said, walking over to the dresser, and pulling back the chair to the makeup table. "Sit."
Once again, Silver stayed where she was, eyeing the makeup table, wondering if Diamond really was asking what Silver thought she was asking.
Diamond's expression turned annoyed, and she groaned. "I could get a dog if I wanted to do this all day. Come on over here already! I'm just going to touch you up a bit."
Silver walked over, still pensive. She sat in the chair, and Diamond took a brush to her mane, with light, slow strokes that Silver had to admit felt nice. Diamond's treatment was surprisingly soft, in contrast to her brusque personality. Diamond then took out an eyelash brush, and as Silver held still, took to her lashes with the same soft touch and attention to detail.
"One day I'll actually get to use the 'makeup' part of this table without things turning out... uh, bad," Diamond said, stepping back and examining Silver Spoon from a short distance away. "Tilt your head back up."
Silver did so, and Diamond nodded. "You look... surprisingly passable."
Silver gasped. "Really?"
"Sheesh, drop the surprised filly act already. It's not as if we don't both come from distinguished roots. Meaning we're both already pretty even without having any work done." Diamond walked to the wardrobe, took out a white dress, and smoothed it out. She picked up a multicolored jewel necklace from the dresser, put everything on, and walked back to Silver Spoon.
"You'll have to work at it if you want to really stand out. But at least for now, you're fit to stand next to me." Diamond turned Silver to face a grand mirror near the wall, and Silver stood beside her. They really did look like a princess and her regal friend. Silver was okay with this.
Diamond clapped twice. A crystal above the mirror chirped. "Built-in camera. Hold your pose, and smile, in three... two... one!"
Silver smiled, and the crystal flashed. Diamond turned to Silver with her own pleased expression. "I'll send you one when it develops."
Silver nodded, smiling back. "Sure."
"Also, keep the dress."
Silver gasped. "What? Diamond, I couldn't—"
"What?" Diamond shrugged. "It never looked very good on me. I'd rather it got some use from somepony who's actually able to use it well. And you do." Diamond took off her dress and laid it on the bed.
Warmth coursed through Silver Spoon's heart as she took the dress off and laid it on the bed as well. "Thanks, Diamond."
"Mm-hmm." Diamond sat at the edge of the bed and flopped onto her back, forelegs spread. "Well, that was fun, but now I'm officially bored."
"Bored?" Silver said. "How can you be bored with all these toys here?"
Diamond turned her head towards Silver and stared. "You'd be so surprised." She bounced back up. "I know! Let's go outside!"
Silver chanced a sly grin. "You mean you don't just stay in your room all day, every day?"
Diamond rolled her eyes. "Not that I'd be any less amazing if I did, but no, I don't. Especially not while there's a whole town here who needs to be reminded daily who's boss." She walked to a large chest in the corner of the room closest to her bed, opened it, and took out a couple of long tubes. She then led Silver to the window, where they could both see several fillies and foals playing in the distance. "Okay, so there's this girl who lives in the middle of Ponyville named Twist. White coat, curly red mane. You know her?"
Silver nodded. "I've seen her around."
"Yeah, and she's the biggest nerd. Honestly, I thought you were, too, with the glasses, but... anyway. I overheard her talking to herself today. She's going to try her hoof at 'marine biology' near Ponyville Lake later this afternoon." She held up the hoses. "So, we're going to 'help her out'. With these."
Silver eyed the hoses. "So, we're gonna splash her like crazy?"
"Yep!" Diamond giggled. "Probably not the most creative thing to do, but it'll be good for a few laughs."
Silver couldn't help but giggle as well as she thought of Twist being splashed in the face any time she tried to even get close to the lake. Could they actually make that happen? An idea formed in her mind. She decided to run it by Diamond.
"You know, we could make it really tough on Twist with a couple of spare shower heads and a mini-motor. They wouldn't be tough to attach, and no matter where she ran, she'd never be able to escape."
Diamond stared back in stunned silence. "Wait," she then said, slowly pointing a hoof at Silver. "You're... into this idea?"
Silver shrugged. "Yeah? I mean, funny is funny, right? I'm actually surprised you had the idea. I thought you were... you know. Raised to be prim and proper and super-distant."
"I was," Diamond said. "Were you?"
Silver's ears drooped. "Yeah."
"Looks like you don't like it either."
Silver shook her head. "Not really."
Diamond held out her hoof. Silver took it, and looked up at the face of a smiling pink filly.
"Then come on," Diamond said. "This is your operation now. Tell me everything we'll need. I'll have Randolph make a trip to the hardware store."
Silver walked to the dresser to fetch a pencil and paper. She looked back to see Diamond Tiara looking at her, still smiling—until Diamond caught her looking, scoffed, and turned her head to the side.
"Hurry up!" Diamond said. "Don't make me regret taking a chance on you!"
The warmth was back. Silver felt right at home.