//------------------------------// // Diamond Tiara Likes Talking About Anime // Story: Diamond Tiara Likes Anime // by Yukito //------------------------------// Diamond Tiara scrolled through the list of anime displayed on her computer screen, trying to pick out the top three out of the fifty available. Naturally, ‘Mahou Shoujo Sakura-chan’ got her vote instantly. Her second vote went towards ‘Pony no Go’, an anime that she had recently finished watching and really enjoyed. For her last vote, she was torn between ‘Canterlot High School Host Club’, ‘Code Pony: Luna of the Rebellion’, and ‘Chibi Changeling’. Unable to make her decision, she decided to ask her friends’ opinions. BBBFF: I voted for Fate/Equestrian Night myself. Diamond rolled her eyes and opened her other chat window. Queen Tiara: Hey, have you voted on that top three anime poll yet? Sweetie Belle: No, not yet. There are too many choices to choose from >.< Have you? Queen Tiara: I’m torn between three different anime for the last spot. A knock at Diamond Tiara’s door caused her to quickly minimise the chat windows, and she turned towards the door just as her father walked in. “Diamond? Can I please borrow you for a moment?” Diamond tilted her head, wondering what she could have done. “What about, daddy?” “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble,” he assured her. “And this won’t take long.” Diamond Tiara was confused but nodded her head regardless. “Um… okay,” she said, and her father left her room, leaving the door open for her to follow him. She set her status to ‘Away’ and told her two friends that she would be back soon. Filthy Rich asked Diamond Tiara to sit down in the dining room, and the filly was surprised to see her teacher, Cheerilee, waiting for her at the table. As soon as Diamond Tiara was sitting down opposite her teacher, Filthy Rich and Cheerilee nodded to each other. “I’ll leave her to you then, Ms. Cheerilee,” Filthy Rich said before turning to Diamond Tiara. “Now then, I’ll be taking care of your mother whilst Ms. Cheerilee here has a few words with you.” “Wait!” Diamond shouted. “What is this all about?” “It’s about your recent… interests,” Filthy Rich said, causing Diamond’s eyes to widen. “Y-You mean-” She was cut off by a nod from her father. “D-Daddy, I can explain-” “There’s no need to worry,” Cheerilee said reassuringly. “You’re not in trouble. Your father’s just worried about you, and wants to make sure you have a proper understanding of… that stuff.” Filthy Rich nodded and blushed a little. “I’m… probably not the best pony to teach you this stuff, so I asked Ms. Cheerilee if she could spare some of her time for you. I expect you’ll behave, and listen attentively to her?” Diamond was a little confused… Okay, more than just a little, but she nodded anyway and watched as her father left the room. As soon as he did, Cheerilee began asking her questions. “Now then, Diamond,” she started, “I understand you’ve been acting a little… different, lately. Is that correct?” Diamond nodded slowly. “Like shutting yourself in your room?” Another nod. “And looking at things on our computer that you don’t want your father to see?” “H-How did you-” Cheerilee shushed her by raising a hoof and continued, smiling reassuringly the whole time. “Relax. As I said, you are not in trouble.” Diamond did seem to calm down a bit, though she still looked a little nervous. “Tell me, when did this all start?” “… About five months ago,” she said, surprising her teacher, who had been expecting only a week or two as the answer. “When I first came across a certain video on PonyTube, completely by accident.” Cheerilee nodded, and made a mental note to bring up the issue of foals coming across adult videos online at the next town meeting. “I see… And what were your first thoughts about the video?” “My first thoughts?” “Were you confused, at all? Or perhaps, intrigued?” Diamond thought about it, and then only offered a nod. When she realised that wasn’t enough of an answer, she elaborated with words. “I thought I wouldn’t like it, at first. But, for some reason, after watching one video, I just had to watch more.” A blush crossed Cheerilee’s face, but the filly didn’t seem to notice. “I… see.” Cheerilee cleared her throat. “And so, you watched even more of these videos?” Diamond Tiara nodded. “At first, I just stuck to videos of the same series, but then I started to give other ones a try… Some were a little too much for me,” she said, shuddering slightly as a memory of ‘Pony Lied’ crossed her mind. “But others had me completely hooked instantly, and there are some that are just good to watch when I’ve got nothing else to do.” Cheerilee was quite shocked, to say the least, at how open Diamond Tiara was being about having such interests. Most foals who had come to her with this problem usually took about half-an-hour to properly elaborate their feelings, but Diamond seemed to have no problem at all being completely honest with her. “Diamond, when you first started to develop these… interests… did you not think about going to your mother or father to ask about them?” Diamond quickly shook her head. “No! I couldn’t let anypony know, especially not them! What if they get the wrong idea? What if they think there’s something wrong with me, liking stuff like that?!” Cheerilee quickly calmed the panicking filly down by placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Diamond, it’s okay. Nopony’s mad at you, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with you.” Diamond Tiara sniffed. “You sure?” Cheerilee nodded. “I’m sure.” Diamond smiled, and Cheerilee went back to her questions. “So, besides watching videos online, have you made any… other discoveries?” Diamond Tiara hesitated a bit, but then nodded. “For a while, I felt all alone, watching those videos on my own.” Cheerilee nodded. “But then, I found an online community, where ponies with similar interests can talk to each other.” ‘Oh no,’ Cheerilee thought to herself. “I see… And you chatted with some of these ponies?” Diamond Tiara nodded. “In particular, I made a very good friend on there, who understands my problem, and helps me out by sending me videos that are hard to come by.” “Does this pony know how old you are?” Cheerilee asked, feeling the issue becoming more complicated by the minute. Diamond Tiara nodded. “He does. Why?” “Oh, no reason,” Cheerilee lied. ‘We can deal with that issue later. First of all, I need to make sure she hasn’t gotten into any trouble with this ‘community’.’ “There’s another friend I made, who’s a similar age to me,” Diamond said. “She’s a bit more open about her interests, and recently, she found out who I really was… but she agreed to keep my secret.” Diamond Tiara smiled and wiped away a tear that had recently rolled down her face. “She’s… a really good friend…” “Somepony your age?” Cheerilee asked. “Can you tell me who?” Diamond Tiara thought about it for a moment. Sweetie Belle was more open about liking anime than Diamond was, but would she appreciate Diamond telling Cheerilee without asking her first? Then again, Sweetie Belle used her real name online, so she clearly wasn’t concerned about remaining anonymous. “It’s Sweetie Belle,” Diamond Tiara said, blushing a little as she turned her head to the side. Cheerilee’s eyes widened in absolute shock. “Sweetie Belle?” she asked, her mouth agape. Diamond Tiara nodded. ‘Sweetie Belle likes… Well, that’s certainly… I’ll have to make sure to stop by her house later. If she’s a part of this ‘community’, I should at least make sure she’s not putting herself in any danger.’ “Sweetie Belle actually helps me out,” Diamond Tiara said. “Recently, I learned of a shop in Ponyville that sells these videos, and she offers to buy some of them for me with my money, since I’m too afraid to go there by myself most of the time.” Cheerilee’s eyes grew even wider. “You two… buy these videos from a shop?” Diamond Tiara nodded, an innocent smile plastered on her face. “We sometimes watch them together, too. IRL.” “IRL?” Cheerilee asked. “‘In real life’,” Diamond explained. “I’ve been round her house a few times in the past few days, and we watched some of these videos together, and talked to each other about them… and, we even do some RPing, sometimes.” “RPing?” “‘Role-playing’. We sometimes act out some of the scenes we see together…” ‘Oh Celestia.’ Cheerilee quickly took a huge drink of the tea that Filthy Rich had offered her when she came by, and then rubbed her temples with her forehooves. ‘Okay, so the situation is more complicated than I first thought… I’d better make sure Mr. Rich knows about all of this, and I’ll have to have a word with Mr. and Mrs. Belle, too.’ “Um,” Diamond Tiara said, gathering her teacher’s attention. “You’re not going to tell anypony about all this, are you? If anypony found out, especially Silver Spoon, I’d-” Cheerilee once again calmed the filly down, with a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. Besides yours and Sweetie Belle’s parents, what was said here will remain confidential.” Diamond Tiara’s eyes grew wide with fear. “O-Our parents? W-Why would they need to know?” “Please understand, Diamond,” Cheerilee said. “Your parents love you, and they’re worried about you. They need to know what’s going on, so that they can be there to help you. And Sweetie Belle’s parents need to know, too.” Diamond Tiara wanted to protest more, but she knew she wouldn’t win. Resignedly, she nodded her head. Cheerilee had one more question for now: “Diamond, how do you feel about all this?” “What do you mean?” “Do you feel like what you’re doing is a bad thing?” Diamond Tiara shook her head very quickly. “I don’t. It makes me happy, and I’ve made some very good friends online.” “Oh? Then why were you afraid of going to your parents about this?” “… Well, I just thought that, maybe they wouldn’t feel the same way. I was afraid they’d make me stop, and force me to never speak to my new friends ever again.” “… And you have fun with these new friends?” Diamond smiled and nodded her head. “They’re really great! Some of them can be a little annoying, but they totally understand me, and help me out by giving me advice, or showing me various sites where I can watch more videos. If possible, I’d like to meet up with some of them, but…” “That would probably be a bad idea,” Cheerilee said, rather strictly. “Ponies online hide their identities. You can never be sure of just who it is you’re meeting.” Diamond sunk her head low. “… Right…” Cheerilee sighed and stood up. “Well, that will be all for today. Can you ask your father to come back? I’d like to share with him what we talked about today… but I’ll leave out Sweetie Belle’s name for now, okay?” Diamond Tiara smiled. “Thank you,” she said, before getting up and leaving the dining room. Once the door closed, Cheerilee pushed her face into her hooves. “… This is exactly what I was talking about during that last meeting. Foals these days need Sex Ed. at a younger age, because otherwise they’ll learn about it off the internet…” Queen Tiara: Back. Sweetie Belle: wb! Where’d you go? Queen Tiara: Daddy dragged me away to have a talk with Miss Cheerilee. Sweetie Belle: Miss Cheerilee? Why? Queen Tiara: Somehow, he found out that I like anime, and wanted her to have a talk with me about it. I told you they wouldn’t approve. Sweetie Belle: That’s weird. Rarity knows I like anime, but I never had to talk with Miss Cheerilee. Queen Tiara: About that… I told her that you also like anime, and that we’ve been watching it together recently, and she wants to have a word with your parents, too. Sweetie Belle: What?! Why?! Queen Tiara: Sorry, I thought you wouldn’t mind, since you don’t use an alias online :( Sweetie Belle: First, what’s an alias? Second, I don’t mean ‘why did you tell them?’, I mean ‘why does she want to talk to my parents?’. Queen Tiara: Oh… Well, like I said, nopony else would understand us if they found out, especially the adults. They’re from another generation, and totally have the wrong idea about us. Sweetie Belle: Well, can’t we just show them that there’s nothing wrong with what we like? Maybe show them an episode or two of some of our shows? Queen Tiara: What if they won’t listen to us? Anime makes me happy… I don’t want to lose it. Sweetie Belle: I know! I’ll ask Rarity to help! She’s been so supportive my whole life, so I’m sure she’d be willing to help us out! Queen Tiara: Well, it’s a start… Just make sure she doesn’t tell anypony about me, okay? Sweetie Belle: Yeah, I got it. I hope this goes well. I was gonna ask you if you wanted to come with me to a convention in Manehattan next month. Queen Tiara: A convention? Sweetie Belle: ManeCon. It’ll be my first ever convention, but Rarity will only let me go if I take a friend. If all goes well, would you like to come? Queen Tiara: A convention is that thing where lots of ponies with similar interest gather, right? Sweetie Belle: Yeah, it’s gonna be totally neat! You in? Queen Tiara: Totally! But first, we need to make sure things go well with our parents first. Diamond Tiara looked over to her clock, which was now beeping. She quickly started typing, but Sweetie Belle proved to be the faster typer. Sweetie Belle: Hay-Ate no Gotoku! is coming on soon! Queen Tiara: What was that livestream link you sent me before? I forgot to bookmark it! Sweetie Belle quickly sent Diamond Tiara the link, and for the next thirty minutes, the two forgot their worries as they sat in their homes, watching the new episode together and chatting together about it. As she watched the episode, a part of a Diamond Tiara found it silly that she was so afraid of other ponies judging her for something that only brought her happiness… but that part was overshadowed by the knowledge that she herself liked to tease ponies for things they enjoyed, too.