//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: A Spoiled Girls Story // Story: Broken Barriers: Secret Reports // by BioQuillFiction //------------------------------// I remember when I was young, times were hard, but my family got by. We were dairy farmers. Cheese, milk, anything that required milk to make we also made and sold. I remember the story as to how I got my name. Mama said the week I was born, just the day before our freezers blew out and all the milk in it went bad. That’s how I got my name, Spoiled Milk. I hated my name. It’s why when I was young I prefer it when others called me Milk rather than Spoiled, but sadly only my sisters were kind enough to call me Milk, while everyone, acquaintances, teachers, even my parents, all called my Spoiled. I had to have been at least six the first time I lashed out at my parents. There was this doll, every other filly in my class and in town seemed to have one, all but me. It was a simple doll of an old cartoon donkey that wore these horrid pants, but, I was six, and I wanted it. I never knew what want was before then. My mother called me spoiled, and I looked at her confused, that was my name after all. It was then what she explained to me what it meant...and I felt shaken. Before I ever asked for anything, she branded me with that word as my name. “Then it’s a good thing you named me that!” I yelled at her, and ran to my room. She named me after a word used to define the rich, those that got everything they wanted and never showed appreciation. When I was ten, that first fight still rang in my head like an echo that would not seace. I hated my name even more so. My mother and I got into another fight when my birthday came around. Birthdays in my family were...simple. It was  the only day of the year we didn’t have to do anything. A free day. I just asked if we could go out for dinner for my birthday, at least to a Hay Burgers… I knew money was tight, but before I could even tell her I had some bits saved up from wherever I could get them, she denied me then and there, told me that asking for anything in this family was as selfish as leaving it… So I did. I left with only a letter on my pillow. ‘I guess you got me down to a T, by naming me Spoiled, mother.’ It was all I wrote, for it was all I wanted to say. I used the bits I wanted to use for a family dinner and used them to buy a train ticket to wherever. I got off in Ponyville. It was a nice town, I admit, but I spent all I had on the train ticket and having only worked on a dairy farm my whole life, I didn’t have skills enough to work on the apple or carrot farms. I passed by a super store. It was massive, in my home town the largest store was only ten feet by ten feet… This was almost a quarter mile long back and easy sixty feet wide. I wouldn’t have believed such a large building could exist  if I didn’t see it for myself. I walked in and asked if they were hiring. They were, for a night stocker. I got hired and worked my first shift ever that same night. That was also the night my ex-husband came into the store, checking on things for his father. He saw me and he...turned pink. Never before had a colt ever seemed to like me in that way, so I just asked him if he was ill. I didn’t know any better, I didn’t know what it was like to catch the eye of the opposite sex until then. Within the months that passed he kept trying to court me, and I had enough bits to rent a room with some others. I only spent money on what was needed. Never did I want to be called spoiled again for anything other than my name. I barely paid Rich any attention when he was trying to impress me. I wasn’t the one for romance or anything of that sort. That was...until he gave me something. A gold ring, with a diamond on it. That was the first time anyone had given me anything, and he told me “Anything you want, I will buy.” I was speechless, reasonably. I didn’t know if he meant it or not, so, I decided to test it. “Take me to dinner, and I’ll see.” I said, him grinning and saying he’d be back at seven for out date. I would have accepted any restaurant, no matter how cheap… But Rich, as his name told plain as day, took me to a restaurant were just a table cost more bits than I was making in a month. When his mother found out about me, and my story, through means I still don’t know how, she took me into their home. She said if I was to be her daugher in law some day, I might as well be taught how to act like nobility. I was being given all these things. A large house, a bed and sheets that felt like sleeping on the softest cotton, food that was plenty and seconds and thirds were even allowed. It was how heaven must be like. I loved it. Of course, coming from where I came from, I took a while to adjust. My mother in law had to almost force me to spend more than twenty bits on anything. She was a big spender, but got things for her family as well as her. Something about a proper lady always buying for others as well as herself. In time, I found myself spending over a hundred to three hundred bits on my shopping days. I began to like my name, spoiled. I was spoiling myself, any no one was there to argue about it. In time, Rich proposed, and I accepted. I knew that day was coming, and that wedding was the most we ever spent on anything. In time though, I began to feel empty. I was in my prime, could buy whatever I wanted thanks to a rather well paying job, School Board leader, my husbands company raked in more bits than we knew what to do with, servants did the things I used to do daily. Yet, I began to feel empty. Buying myself things didn’t satisfy me anymore. Rich thought a foal would make us happy, bring out my happiness, and to be fair, even when we were just foals he always wanted some of his own. So, I agreed, and after a year of trying and nine months of being pregnant later, our own little Diamond Tiara came into our lives. I still felt...empty, after the birth, but I did care for her. I wanted her to have everything, and everything I gave. When I wasn’t there to watch her, which was often, there was always a pony there to watch over her. She and Rich were inseparable, but I knew how wrong ponies could be, treating the rich like villains in some silly cartoon. I knew being born into money would make life both sweet and hard for her, so, I was hard on her. I wanted her to be strong, so she never knew the pain it feels to have people call you...spoiled, just because. She became a bully, and in my eyes, that was better than a coward, or a blank flank. When Silver Spoon came into her life, it was nice, seeing she had someone that, no matter what, still stick with her and be there for her. There was something about that foal that...reminded me of something. Then I met her family, and the puzzle pieces lined up. When her family was young, before she was born, the worked as silversmiths, forging silver trinkets for ponies of all classes. Then, they got their break. Princess Celestia was found of their craftsmanship, and commissioned them forge silver utensils for the royal dining room. At least eight hundred sets were required, and they accepted. It took them nine years, five of which Silver Spoon was alive for. Even when she was so little she helped them by polishing and placing the utensils in their holders. It’s how she got her cutie mark, a silver spoon, its meaning that of arrangement, not just with utensils, but anything out of place, even an inch, she could tell. When they finished, Celestia paid them triple the original price for their hard work and time spent. She also gave them a royal warrant. Such an item quadrupled their products value, sales, and allowed them any property within Equestria. Free of charge. They bought a large piece of land and opened up a silver mill, forging silver day and night. Dozens of ponies worked for them, and with their product name and brand now with so much, the work easily was paid off with just a few sets of silver utensils and such. Workers were paid well, they now were wealthy, and could give their daughter whatever she wanted. For that reason I always liked Silver Spoon, she had a happier story than mine, and I envied her for that. Then...The Nobodies came. At first just a fright, scary stories plastered on the front pages of the news papers, quickly became a mass extinction. I remember how they killed me. Rich, Tiara and I were all packing, preparing to leave for an island we shared with Silver Spoon’s family. Then, two of those skinny, wiggily ones came in. Rich tried to fight on off, his rapier having no effect on them, while I tried to sneak out the back with Tiara… At the back door, one of those larger, bulky nobodies was waiting. It threw me across the room. My leg broke from the force, and they dragged Tiara away. Rich and I were conerd. Injured, tired, and scared. I don’t remember exactly what happened after that, but everything was dark after. Every now and then I swore I heard voices, but I couldn’t see. Couldn't feel, physically and emotionally. Then, I saw light. I was awake, alive, in my home, Rich next to me… We were both naked. Guess that’s what happens when you come back from being both a heartless, and a nobody. Thankfully we were able to get dressed quick, our suitcases we had...when we tried to escape were still nearby. It took a while before those Daybreak people came and found us, and even longer to discuss the terms of how to assemble our lives again. I just wanted the money… I couldn’t go back to being how I was when I was a filly. Then I said something, something that Zeke was hoping for. After I said that, he had me thrown into the dungeon for child abuse. Rich never visited, neither did Tiara. I was alone, bitless, and locked away in a cramped jail cell. I felt rage again. Like when I was a filly, yelling at my mother, I felt rage. I wanted revenge. I just wanted my life back...and for a misspoken word, I was punished. It was then that his lacky came. Crow, a rather odd individual. He broke me and several others out, and that’s when I met him… Core. Never before had I seen anyone with that kind of power. He didn’t need to buy or ask others for what he wanted. He took it. I wanted that kind of power. I needed that kind of power. So, I studied under him. All his experiments, I was a part of, either at the scientist, or the test subject. The pain wasn't the worst thing I dealt with, it was the others. Others who wanted to follow Core, but died or left. It was pathetic I wanted to prove just how much I needed the power he had, so, I had one of those Keyblade wielders that followed him, remove my heart. Everything became...so clear. No longer was my mind fogged by emotions and the issues, the burden of having a heart. I felt fulfilled, having no heart whatsoever. I was now a hollow shell of who I was, but I have never felt empty since it was removed. Even my cutie mark made sense now. A gold and diamond ring. Not the symbol of a wife of the rich, but a symbol of the two most valued items in the world. Diamonds were the symbols of power, hard to break, near impossible even, and gold, the symbol of power through wealth. Together, they were power. I wasn’t born to become rich, I was born, to become powerful. Even with Core dead, his notes remain, and so do his methods for power. For now though, I’ll leave my chest empty. I need something stronger than darkness, or a dark heart. I need a heart of pure, immeasurable darkness. It’s why I agreed to working with that Drezke, dark half of Zeke’s heart. The very man who lead me down this path, his darkness I will take for myself… and use to make Core’s dream reality. I will kill Kingdom Hearts, and send everything, back to the void. Then, and only then, can I embrace the true, original, darkness.