//------------------------------// // 47 House of Mirrors, Part Three // Story: Continuity Disrupted // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// July 25th, 1000 Domina Solaria Diamond Tiara chews the cream cheese and honey bagel as she awaits Randolph’s return with her bookbags. Her eyes drift upwards, staring out the dining room window. Black clouds pouring in. One hoof rests on the pure white tablecloth as the other brings the bagel closer for another bite. She frowns. She doesn’t remember any inclement weather scheduled. She is certain that the experimental lightning storm is scheduled for two weeks from now. They can’t possibly be getting the clouds in for that today, can they? Maybe they need extensive testing? It is supposed to be this big undertaking - they’ve been posting fliers for weeks. Well, Celestia knows those weather ponies can barely get anything done right. Probably just a hiccup or something. Hopefully. Diamond Tiara’s eyes barely shift to watch as Silver Spoon practically struts into the dining room, her plate of buttered toast and glass of orange juice balanced on her flank. She rolls her eyes at the blatant display, obviously designed to get her to look at the cutie mark directly underneath. Ever since her sister got that silly silver spoon on her flank she hasn’t been able to stop reminding her that she needs to hurry up, to get her own cutie mark. “Morning, DT,” comes the far-too-pleasant greeting, Silver Spoon shifting her plate to the table and taking a dainty bite of her toast. She dabs at her muzzle with the napkin, leaving a single dollop of butter on the left side of her mouth. Intentionally, too, judging by the way her lips try to keep from curling to a smirk. How would that conversation go? ‘You missed a spot.’ ‘Oh?’ she would glance back at her flank. ‘No, I think you missed a spot. Two of them!’ Followed by that chittering laugh as she licks the fleck of butter clean and scarfs down the toast, leaving crumbs everywhere. Dam would be furious, but a Rich mare never lets her anger get the better of her. Diamond Tiara instead finishes chewing her morsel, swallowing and taking a sip of her apple juice. “Good morning, Silver Spoon,” she cheerily replies, her lack of the diminutive a clear reminder of her sister’s place. She pointedly looks outside at the still growing storm. “Some weather we will be having today.” Silver Spoon licks the butter from her lip, glancing up and outside as she takes another bite of the buttery treat. “What the hay are they doing out there?” she asks, though manages to keep the crumbs from flying from her gaping mouth. She might let a fly in, though. Not that there are any flies in the Rich mansion. “Language, dear,” Silver Set says as she walks through the dining room and into the kitchen. Silver Spoon’s dam quickly returns, saddlebags neatly packed with designs she had been working on late into the night. Apparently a lot of the nobles want to get something unique done in time for one of the garden balls that Princess Luna will be attending, and there had been very little notice of the royal visitation. Though all those pale in comparison to the exquisite pieces they want for the Grand Galloping Gala next February. Those pieces, some already half constructed, would be the talk of the town! Well, not Ponyville. Canterlot, of course, as if it needed to be stated. Silver Set quickly slips past the various chairs in the way, nuzzling both Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Her eyes never drift upwards, instead focusing on maneuvering through the most efficient route to each of them, a brief nuzzle for the twins as they walk into the dining room, and then out the door. Silver Hoop and Silver Stud both take their places at the table, eagerly awaiting breakfast. “Your bags,” Randolph says as he enters the room, the elderly earth pony stallion shakily placing her for-school saddlebags on the floor next to her. He gathers a few of the empty plates, a slight incline asking Diamond Tiara if she would like any more. He nods as she shakes her head, continuing around the table. “You packed the papers like I asked?” Diamond Tiara says with barely a glance to the saddlebags, taking the second to last bite of her bagel. She would still be a little hungry, but she needs to leave now. And she can always grab something at Sugarcube Corner. If it isn’t too busy. “As you requested,” Randolph says with a nod, moving to the kitchen. The clink of empty plates being loaded with more breakfast is soon followed by the butler returning, placing the plates in front of Hoop and Stud. “Thank you,” Diamond Tiara says, finishing off her bagel. Always make sure the help feels appreciated. She stands up from her chair, waiting only somewhat impatiently for Randolph to place the light saddlebags onto her bag, though she straps herself in. To her side, Silver Spoon dons her own school bags, though she only has the one pair, even if they are that Prench designer brand Diamond Tiara wanted but her sister got only because she has her cutie mark. Well, if all goes according to plan, cutie marks will be a thing of the past. Not like that. Don’t be ridiculous. Silver Spoon follows Diamond Tiara as they walk outside, the giant cloud of smoke already starting to cover all of Equestria! Actually, more like barely starting to impact the town. Hmm, maybe not even that far. The mountain all the smoke is coming from is pretty far away, after all. And there is a lot of sky, even with the wind blowing towards them. Hay, with how quickly it's coming it'll probably be blown past in just a matter of hours. Unless it just keeps coming, but how many dark clouds can they make at once? Well, they’ll still have enough time to play in the park for a little bit before school starts. Ponies just starting their day pass on either side of the street, merchants hawking their goods and greeting everypony with a smile. The two fillies pass through mostly unmolested, only stopping at the Apple stand to grab a few fresh apples from a distracted and scowling Applebaum. Not at them, but at some sort of study guide, the filly briefly waving at them without looking up. They drop the correct number of bits onto the stand regardless, Applebaum not bothering to count them as she sweeps them into a bag underneath. Silver Spoon zips up her purse, returning it to her saddlebags and remarking as if Applebaum had struck her instead of just mostly ignoring them, “What is she so fascinated by? She barely even did her job!” She takes a bite out of one of the Red Delicious, placing the other two in her bag for a snack during class. “It looked like some sort of aptitude test,” Diamond Tiara says with a shrug. Her own two apples also disappear into her saddlebags, not quite hungry yet. “Daddy says that some of the specialty schools do that. They make you read and then take a bunch of really hard questions. And, based on how well you do, that determines what kind of school that will accept you.” She grimaces a little internally; all of the good Administration schools are geared towards unicorns, and often include examinations to further that, if she isn't being charitable, agenda. “She looked pretty worried.” Silver Spoon glances back, a bit of a frown at seeing Applebaum still staring at the booklet. “Also, isn’t she pretty young?” She pauses, the two looking back to see a far more fervent smile on the earth pony, like she just found the section of the study guide on dealing with blowing things up. “Nah; as long as you can get a high enough score on the test a lot of those schools, like Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, they’ll take any age. They just have to take their civics and general ed classes at the same time. And if you don’t get in you can just retake it next year if you really want to, but generally your score doesn’t change much.” Diamond Tiara shrugs, “I might go for some sort of chief operating officer job, but Daddy says that real world experience matters a lot more than some fancy diploma. Or a cutie mark, but good luck with that.” “Yeah, I think I’ll stick to jewelry making, thanks,” Silver Spoon says, shaking her head at the thought of running a multi-city business. Way too much work. "Leave the running of things to the ponies who want all that comes with that." The two arrive at the park, the morning sun piercing through the many green topped trees. A lot of ponies are milling about along the dirt paths or just relaxing on the grass, that green unicorn sitting on a bench all weird and upright. Diamond Tiara spots Scootaloo, the pony she was hoping to see, watching Rainbow Dash bounce a ball around. Well, not so much watching as alternating between either a wing up, a squat, or a push up every time Rainbow bounces the ball. In fact, a bunch of the mares of Herd Apple are here, Diamond Tiara raising an eye at the coincidence. Diamond Tiara walks up to Scootaloo as Fluttershy worriedly points to the sky. Diamond Tiara clears her throat, saying as the orange pegasus looks over at her, “Morning, Scootaloo.” Diamond Tiara nudges her head a bit deeper into the park, away from the excited murmurs of the crowd as they watch Rainbow Dash continue to bounce the ball. “Morning,” Scootaloo struggles out as she continues doing wing up, squat, push up. Diamond Tiara huffs at the lack of compliance as Pinkie Pie pronks around Rainbow Dash. She sits down, a bored look on her face as she continues watching the ball go up, and down, and up, and down, and Rainbow getting smacked by Pinkie Pie and missing it. "Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash exclaims as Scootaloo drops down, panting. "Now I have to start over!" Scootaloo staggers to her hooves, deep breaths as she follows Diamond Tiara. “Sup?” Fluttershy continues going from pony to pony, none really reacting to her frenzied whispering. Diamond Tiara pulls a few of the folded papers out of her saddlebags, the pegasus scrunching her eyes as she takes and reads through the first couple lines. "I wrote this up for you. As you probably know, the deadline to run for class president is today. And, before class, you're going to read those lines to everypony." "There's not anything really embarrassing in here, is there?" Scootaloo says, flipping past the first few pages. A purple unicorn crosses one of the bridges, a determined look in her eyes as she points a hoof to the sky. She points to the dragon on her back, Fluttershy now cowering down. "Wow, you're a fast reader," Diamond Tiara says, a hint of amazement in her voice. Even when she skims she doesn't go that quickly. Or maybe Scootaloo wasn't reading it through? Behind her a lot of the ponies either begin panicking or gather around Twilight Sparkle as she motions to a mountain off in the distance. "Thanks." Scootaloo flips to the last of the pages. Not that there was a lot on each, as Diamond Tiara wanted to make it easy to read and not her normal elegant cursive. Scootaloo's eyes narrow, looking up at Diamond Tiara. She points to one section at the end, "You sure about this?" "Please, it's not that bad. And you do want that new scooter, don't you? I haven't seen you on your other one since that Griffon chick left." Diamond Tiara smirks at Scootaloo's scowl and delayed head shake. "Well, I've got some good news and some bad news." The Apple herd breaks apart, each rushing in the direction of their home. "Bad first," Scootaloo says, as if this isn't the first time somepony has used the phrase in front of her. Actually, knowing her sire and Rainbow Dash, it probably gets used in front of her a lot. Diamond Tiara points a hoof at the papers, "You're going to have to memorize that. But, if you pull it off? Well, there's a new scooter waiting at school for you." "Then what are we waiting for?" Scootaloo says, bouncing to her hooves. She can already envision herself on the new scooter, performing tricks and wowing the audience just like Trixie thought she could. She glances back towards Sweet Apple Acres, though the newly painted wagon isn't in view. "Let's go!"