Behind the Crown

by Rocketknightgeek

Restructuring

'Just smile and maybe nopony will pay any attention to you.'

This mantra repeated itself over and over in Bonbon's head as an argument whipped back and forth across the ludicrously large table. She had long since finished every last scrap of the small but tasty salad that had mysteriously appeared in front of her sometime within the couple of seconds she had looked over at the door as her niece entered the room shining like she'd been dipped in oil. Bonbon greatly missed that salad, it had been the one place in the room she could look without giving away her total lack of understanding.

In the meantime, Silver Spoon had managed to recover enough of her facilities to ignite and maintain an extended screaming match with her aunt Sterling. Of course, to Bonbon and Twist it appeared for all the world to be a relatively subdued if not outright civil affair, but in high society it may as well have been a knock down, drag out, all-in brawl.

"I didn't tell you about this ahead of time because I didn't even know about it myself," Silver growled, "it's not like I make a habit of sealing my deals.. don't you give me that look, my deals with tree sap Aunty." Silver paused to take a breath and glanced over at Twist with a smile, "this is just me inviting a friend over. Why do you always assume that my only interest in a pony has to be because I'm looking to increase our holdings?"

Sterling Silver looked over her exasperated niece's shoulder at the gangly and awkward filly sitting there, Twist was glancing every other second to her aunt as if she was afraid Bonbon was somehow explosive. It was hard to blame her given the candy mare was actually vibrating in such a fashion that her chair was producing a steady hum.

"My dear niece," the white mare laughed dismissively, "you are a Silver, not only that but you stand to inherit the family trust. Do you really think, even for a second that the ponies you choose to involve yourself with aren't going to be affected by your very proximity? Or their friends by them in turn? Now you're just bringing them here because you're planning sleepovers on the spot as though such casual frivolity was even possible."

"When did I ever say word one about a sleepover?" Silver groaned as she rubbed her hooves in circles on her temples in the vague hope that an impromptu headache cure would end this conversation right now.

"You mean it ithn't?" Twist whined, "aww, I wath all eckthited for a thecond there."

For the first time that evening, Bonbon spoke, "Well, if you want it to be... I-I guess it's okay with me... how about you Mr Filthy?"

"I certainly see no problem with it," Filthy Rich said, glaring at the mare who had, for the umpteenth time that evening; forgotten that he hated his first name, "maybe I can pull out the photo album and..." his speech was brought to a tooth grinding halt as something hard smashed into his leg under the table, his daughter emerging back up onto her seat a second later.

"Sorry, dropped my salad fork," Diamond said with a flutter of her eyelashes to feign innocence.

"See, it's all okay Twist," Bonbon cooed to her niece, "it'll give the adults a chance to fully discuss the... um... the mer... mer-ji-arrr that we're apparently having... right now..." she looked around the table to see everypony staring at her and the fake grin slowly overtaking her face, "that I totally understand everything about by the way... say, this is a lovely room, perhaps I'll look into redecorating... um... who's hungry?"

At the very utterance of the word 'hungry', large dishes once again flashed into existence over the place settings, startling Bonbon and bringing her to much appreciated silence.

"Don't worry, you never really get used to it," Filthy leaned over and whispered to Bonbon, who was shaking but otherwise completely still, "just better at hiding your reaction."

Bonbon paid his words no heed, she was too busy glancing around at the servants who stood ready at the walls, not a hair out of place and with now much more noticeable metallic gleams secreted under their pristine uniforms.

She had, naturally enough for somepony that had lived next to an insane mint green unicorn for any length of time, immediately concluded that she was surrounded by assassins and that she would disappear without a trace if she had one more word or gesture out of place.

It had been a good year since Bonbon had last felt the kind of need to scream in terror that was currently lodged in her esophagus. This was odd given the town's generally high allocation of nightmarish occurrences so she was probably well past due for a good bit of hysterical circle running.

- About a minute ago, in a room directly adjacent to the kitchen. -

A swarm of ponies were busying themselves around a similarly massive table constructed entirely of dark onyx, taking away dishes as they appeared and placing the next course on the marked runes as the pieces exited the ovens. It was loud and chaotic but everything was proceeding on schedule despite the last minute addition of four extra ponies to the meal.

Well, not quite everything, the serving staff would have a little less than normal in their usual 'overflow' pot luck at the end of the evening. It never hurt to be prepared, especially when somepony else was paying and barely even glanced when approving food budgets.

Regardless of this, once everything was in it's place for the main course, the timekeeper dutifully flipped an hourglass and the runes all started to glow red in warning to get clear. As the light started to become intense, all at once they went out with a flash and the table was now adorned only by a few small salad bowls that were bound for the sink.

Diamond Tiara had hardly been a stranger to confusion, mortification or the pressing need to plant one's fetlock directly on the bridge of their snout during her years in Ponyville, especially not since the formation of a certain trio and the endless disasters that followed in their wake but this...

Well, it was comparatively a four at best but that would require the benefit of hindsight to realize.

Her father was sitting rigidly, avoiding eye contact with anypony while the local candymare was shaking so much that she was unable to keep her food from spilling over her place setting. Bonbon's eyes were constantly darting about to everypony in the room as though she were ready to bolt for the exit at the slightest twitch and this was, in turn making everypony else afraid they were going to cause her to take flight if they dared actually eat.

Even worse, Silver and Ms Sterling were just alternating between glaring at each other and their meals with the occasional hoof pointing silent accusation of fault for this debacle.

Twist just looked like she was going to puke as her aunt went through another cycle of shuddering glances.

A second glance revealed that Twist's forehooves were shiny while her face had returned to it's normal tone. Diamond wondered for a second if she was the same but that thought was interrupted by a violent gurgle from Twist's belly.

Wait..

Is her tongue shining too? Did she accidentally eat the make up?

A subtle bubbling sound cascading through the cream filly's barrel confirmed that yes she had and yes, she really was going to puke. Diamond needed to get everypony out of this powder keg of a dinner and to do so right now before Twist could make it explode and ruin any chance of her ever feeling comfortable around Silver or herself.

Thinking quickly, Diamond glanced down at the small fray in the tablecloth that had been tickling her belly since she sat down and formulated her plan, she twirled it around her fork and tied it off, placed her fork back on her plate and braced herself to grab Twist and run out in the commotion.

Why were her destructive plans always her best ones? Ah well, no time to dwell on that for now.

"Done," Diamond whispered directly into the transport rune she knew was sitting just under her setting, there was a slight blink as her food and utensils vanished followed by a blur as the entire tablecloth, the candles, everypony else's meals and anything else that had been on the table whipped up and followed her unfinished food through the tiny wormhole like somepony had removed the plug to drain it.

Diamond grabbed Twist and vanished out the door heading for the bathroom before a last 'pop' signaled that the impromptu spectacle of swirling tabletop was over. Everypony else just stared in bewilderment and wondered what in Equestria had just occurred.

Well, except for Bonbon, who had fainted and was now face down on the table slowly creating a puddle of drool and babbling about her mistake being to forget that ninja was it's own plural.

Once they had recovered their faculties, everypony wordlessly agreed that they should not disturb her.

"Silver Spoon dear," Sterling said to her niece with a knowing smirk, "could you please go check to see if your friends have come out okay in the preparation room, I'd hate for them to be added to the potluck."

Silver just smiled back and mouthed out 'thank you' before taking off out the door to try to figure out where her friends had actually gone.

"Well then Mr Rich," Sterling said as she put her hostess smile back on and turned to her one remaining guest, "shall we go to the parlor for some drinks, I don't know about you but I could really use one."

Filthy Rich just sighed and nodded, standing up to follow his host.

"Oh, and Swift Service," Sterling added looking over her shoulder to her personal servant, "do be a dear and bring Miss Drops along, I shall recover the smelling salts when we arrive."

"Yes Miss," the light blue unicorn replied before scooping up the now sleeping mare in her telekinesis and draping her over her back. Swift Service shuddered a little as Bonbon's drool string snapped and swung coldly into her side but kept her form as she trotted gracefully toward the parlor.

"Ewwww, what in the hay is that smell?" Silver Spoon cried and covered her muzzle as a wave of acrid stench hit her upon entering the bathroom the servants had pointed her towards.

She soon got her answer as she saw Diamond standing over Twist holding her mane out of her face as the redhead continued vomiting what remained of her guts out into the lavatory.

Diamond Tiara's face and mane were a mess, as she'd evidently been splashed in the face but she was far more concerned with trying to get Twist through her dry heaving hell.

"Like, hey Silver," Diamond greeted her with a shudder, "hope you don't mind but we decided to get a head start on practicing for college life."

"Gamma gamma epthiloo..," Twist chuckled before being interrupted by another wave of nausea.

"Well, this is fine," Silver smirked, "we'll not be losing our trust funds so long as we don't do anything really stupid, like go to Hayle."

"And before you ask," Diamond sighed, annoyed that somepony had to bring up that stupid rivalry with her Daddy's college, "we already have one of your maids, Delicate Brush I think, heading off for some medicine."

"Can't say I know her, she must be new," said Silver, "I must say that she doesn't really have a name I'd expect from somepony that became a maid."

"She's probably an arts major."

"Ah."

It was then that the faded orange blur known as Delicate Brush reappeared, dashing back into the bathroom and finding the gleaming tiles less than conducive to unicorns attempting speedy turns, she skidded across the floor and slammed into the wall. She groaned from under her sky blue mane and hooved Silver a bottle of milk and some charcoal pills.

"It's what the doctor recommended," Delicate groaned as she worked her way back to her hooves.

"Um... like, thanks," Silver Spoon replied as she passed the medicine on to another servant moving past to attend to Twist, "you'll have to forgive me for prying but... I can't say I've ever seen one of our servants do a full crusader like that."

"Yeah, sorry," Delicate blushed, "I don't have a lot of experience being in a rush, I'm usually doing slower things like restoration and maintenance on the antiques." The unicorn paused to consider what had actually been said, "wait, a cru - what?"

"Oh, it's a Ponyville thing," chuckled Diamond as she trotted over to the sink, "you can't have been here long if you don't know to run when you hear a buzz."

"Thank you Miss Rich," said Delicate as she grabbed some extra towels out of the cupboard with her magic, "I'll try to remember that. Now, I would suggest you wash up too Miss Silver, I have my doubts that you want to lick your lips and end up like your friend there." She glanced over at the redhead who had finally managed to down her medicine and was swaying on her hooves.

"Yes," said Silver as she took a towel from Delicate's telekinetic grip and started to remove the bulk of the caked glitter from her cheeks, "you know, I'm honestly surprised I've not seen you around before, you do seem to know most of the other servants around here."

"Oh," said Delicate, "I've been moved down here from the main mansion up in Canterlot until the renovations are complete. It was either this or deal with a maze of tarps and paint trays and I fear I would have gone quite mad."

"So you moved to Ponyville," Diamond laughed from the sink, "I think you may have been counterproductive so far as avoiding insanity goes," She splashed her face and stepped away to let Silver wash properly, "tonight being a fairly average evening for this town."

"Well, I'll be sure to pass that along to all the others then," Delicate chuckled as she cast a quick drying spell on Diamond and moved to go assist Twist.

"What others?," Silver asked.

"As I tried to explain to you earlier before the children arrived Mr Rich," Sterling Silver continued, "events are already in motion and I need to warn you that they are going to try to isolate Silver Spoon before too long. That puts your daughter and Miss Sweetie Drop's niece into the firing line and we need to be prepared if something happens again." The matriarch stared into the fire in the hearth and absently tossed some papers into it.

"With all due respect Sterling," Filthy Rich sighed, "what happened in Canterlot was entirely my wife's doing and I don't need your paranoid fantasies clouding me from seeing that as the truth." He look another long swig of the bourbon he'd been offered and sat back heavily, "It was already hard enough accepting that once."

"Well, I may be paranoid but it's not me they're out to get," Sterling retorted dismissively, "I don't know if you've noticed but they're already cleaning house here, with the exception of Swift and a couple of others I hired personally, I've found my home full of strangers as my staff have been slowly shuffled to Canterlot over the last couple of seasons for no good reason I can fathom."

"But your reasoning makes no sense," Filthy replied as he peered through the lens of his now annoyingly empty glass, "the Silver family are already by far the richest ponies in Equestria, it makes little sense to turn on each other and risk collapsing it."

"And if this was purely about money I might agree with you Mr Rich," the white mare replied as she refilled his glass, "but this has always been about power, the ability to change the landscape of Equestria with nothing but your signature or lack thereof. Young Spoon has been sent here, as was her father before her, to ensure that she has a proper perspective of exactly what she's really in charge of and there are a lot of ponies in positions to do terrible things if they could mold her into the mare they want her to become."

"But why would my little Diamond ever be a target for them? She already stands to become the head of Equestria's largest retail chain, isn't that exactly the kind of friend they'd want her to have?"

"Because Diamond ties Spoon to Ponyville," Sterling said, "their best chance to skew her perspective toward friends in the nobility is in three seasons when she moves onto secondary school. If she has nothing tying her to this place she may well decide she'd rather move back to Canterlot and it's in that hive of schemes that she will become the weak willed tool they want."

Filthy Rich was about to continue his line of thought when a rustling sound and a series of snorts signaled that Bonbon was finally coming back around, this was punctuated by a slight wheezing and then a loud thump as she rolled off the settee onto the floor.

"Oh Celestia," moaned Bonbon as she looked around and remembered what had happened, "I'm lying on plastic sheets aren't I? Well, I won't talk."

"No Miss Drops," chuckled Sterling with a sip from her flask, "the cold sensation on your back is just marble. We already chased all the shinobi away, turns out they're easily startled by loud noises and flashing lights."

Bonbon scrunched up her nose in annoyance at the use of her real name, "well, at least I was right about this house being full of spies if your earlier conversation was an indication." She smiled to herself for her clever retort.

"Oh," asked Sterling, "so you understood the stakes of what was being said then."

"Didn't understand a word," Bonbon replied confidently while crossing her forehooves, her self satisfied grin never wavering for a moment.

Silver Spoon had never been a mare to do anything by halves and if she was going to host a slumber party, she was going to do it right.

To this end, her private wing now contained every form of sugar known to ponies and probably a couple that aren't stacked high over her table. this was in addition to a large cleared area with three sleeping bags arranged in a circle ideal for gossiping about colts, stallions, classmates, hobbies and whatever frivolous thing crossed their minds. At the very least it was likely that Twist would have a great deal of wisdom regarding amazing combinations of sugar laden confections with no logical business being anywhere within ten feet of each other.

Thankfully, Diamond was able to help her get everything set up by the time Delicate Brush bought Twist back, a clean bill of health ensuring that she could indulge in the kind of diabetes-baiting that marked a successful sleepover. Silver thanked the maid for her time and sent her on her way.

"Wow, you girl'th really put thith together fath't," said Twist as she looked around foyer, it's table of treats inviting her and her largely empty stomach to an evening of riding high on the Pinkie train.

"Well, you didn't leave me with a lot of choice during dinner," Silver laughed before before putting on a mock southern belle pose, "Oooh, I was aaaall excited about it Aunty. My dreams shall simply be shattered if I don't get to do this thing that hadn't even been bought up before now," she ended this by staggering in a circle with her hoof on her forehead before mock fainting onto a pillow, "oh, woe is me."

"I hath taught you well my apprentith'," Twist giggled, "Thoon we thall combine our forthes and nether the mathriarthy nor the pathriarthy thall be able to th'tand before our mighty cutey pie barrath'."

Diamond just rolled her eyes at the two giggle-pusses before her as they continued to misquote terrible old nerd movies and generally work themselves into a self sustaining fit that was only funny because they were already laughing. She'd never quite been able to enjoy those movies, as she couldn't understand how something could be loved for it's inherent awfulness.

If there was one feeling Diamond Tiara didn't like, it was the uneasiness of not understanding.

Diamond Tiara's stomach was growling again.

That wouldn't have been so bad in itself but it had snapped her out of the zen like state she'd been enjoying and the momentary lapse of concentration sent her out of the graceful twirl she'd been doing and into a hooves over head tumble that ended with her staring up at the sky.

"Are you okay Diamond?," Silver Spoon asked as she trotted across the grass into her peripheral vision, "that looked like quite a tumble you had there."

"I'm FINE," Diamond grumbled in frustration as she beat her hooves on the ground, "guess I'm gonna need to work on that one." She accepted Silvers hoof up and a slight twang in her side made her shudder and stumble. "Heh, guess I'm not all that fine."

Silver carefully led Diamond over to the bench she'd been sitting on so she could rest for a bit when a second, louder protest from Diamond's stomach interrupted her.

"Well, guess it's a good thing I accidentally got two cookies today then, isn't it," Silver chuckled to her injured friend as she reached down into her saddlebags, emerging a second later with two doughy discs interlaced with large chunks of what Diamond could only remember in her dreams as 'the forbidden substance'.

Diamond paused for a second of doubt before she accepted the cookie that was offered to her with a heartfelt smile, she didn't even really think she could eat it, she just stared at the way the sun illuminated it's edges and finally concluded that yes, she could eat it and nuts to her stupid diet.

Then she realized that Silver wasn't eating her's, in fact she was staring open mouthed at Diamond in what appeared to be a state of shock. Diamond followed Silver's gaze down to her side where there was now a massive purple bruise covering her skin, now as obvious as the pink of her fur.

It took almost a full half-minute before Silver's incoherent screaming managed to attract an adult and Diamond made good use of that time to devour her cookie lest it be taken from her. Diamond was soon whisked off to the nurse's office so that her injuries could be properly evaluated and she ended up spending the remainder of the afternoon explaining how long that had been there and how she got it in her training.

In the end she was sent home early with a note explaining why she'd have to stop her training until she'd healed up fully. She sighed as she trotted sullenly across the quad and stopped briefly where she'd fallen.

She stomped her hooves angrily over the ground until no trace remained of the streaks of pink makeup that stained the grass.

Stupid grass, now Mummy would be upset.

Jade Scepter glared at the note, how dare they even try to tell her how she should be conducting her daughter's training, it was hard enough getting her to stick to a schedule as it was and she certainly didn't need to start skimping just because of a little bruise.

Once she'd done an entire show with a broken hoof and nopony had even realized.

Diamond looked up at her mother as she paced back and forth and felt ashamed, behind her sat a shelf stacked with the trophies she'd bought out to motivate her daughter, the trophies of a winner, banners from her tour as Miss Equestria and other accolades across the entire length. Under that sat Diamond's shelf, every number from second to fifth but not a first place to be found, she wasn't getting on the top shelf until she had a major win and she couldn't quit now, they'd worked so hard.

Why would anypony ever settle to be anything less than number one?

'Why were the guardponies taking Mummy away?'

Diamond Tiara simply didn't understand what was happening, all she'd been doing was practicing when the doorbell had rung and now she was desperately kicking against the barrel of the school nurse as she was held tight. Why were they taking her bedsheets and dresses in plastic bags? She needed those for the pageant next week.

The last thing Diamond saw before she was shuffled out the door was Jade Scepter making one last desperate dash for her daughter and falling as the guardponies tackled her to the ground.

That was the last time Diamond Tiara had seen her mother.

"No Miss Bonbon," growled an angrily depressed and thoroughly drunk Filthy Rich as he leaned over on the settee to prop himself up, "I don't hate my wife for what she did, I don't think I ever could, but at the same time I can't ever forgive her." He swirled the meager remains of the scotch in the glass and looked her straight in the eye, "do you think you could ever forgive someone who would sell their own child to those bastard judges just for some Celestia damned ribbon?"

"But Miss Sterling said that she didn't," Bonbon replied sheepishly, the intensity of Filthy's glare making her understandably nervous.

"No," Filthy shouted with a stomp of his hoof, causing Bonbon to backpedal away from him, "There is NO conspiracy, it doesn't even make sense for there to be one. I don't know what kind of delusions of grandeur Sterling suffers from but there is NOTHING her family could possibly be responsible for that they would fabricate a bloody mountain of evidence and pay off four stallions to go to jail for the rest of their lives, which were probably VERY SHORT because the case was the main headline in every bucking paper for weeks by the way, just so that little Silver Spoon would have to make new friends. It's completely retarded and I'm sick of hearing it, Diamond and I had to make new lives and the great one followed us all the way back here so I guess even the shadow ponies get to be disappointed. Everypony wins!"

With that, he put down his glass far more forcefully than was necessary, nodded a goodbye to Bonbon and trotted out the door without another word.

"Well then," said Bonbon as it dawned on her that the evening was now very definitely over, "um... why don't you get your ponies to call my ponies and we can hash out a plan for your investment in my store." She maintained eye contact with Sterling Silver as she circled as wide as she could on her way toward the exit, "it was a lovely evening.. I think?"

"You don't have ponies Miss Drops," Sterling deadpanned, holding back a wince as she watched the candymare circle around her and trip or stumble on every single thing anywhere near her path, "but thank you all the same, I'll be in touch. Do you need Swift to show you the way out, I should very much prefer it if at least one of my carpets was still flat when you leave."

Bonbon blushed and smiled back, nodded to the waiting Swift Service to show her the way and began mentally composing a list of things she could never tell anypony lest she endure months of told-you-so's from Lyra.

"Tho how do you think the adult'th are doing?," asked Twist through a mouthful of marshmallow and pastry, "I hope Aunt Bonbon hathn't gotten to doing her," she put her hooves up to do air quotes with an eye roll, "comedy routine yet."

"Just so long as they haven't pulled out any photos or newspapers," Diamond replied as she tried to wiggle to the snack table without leaving her sleeping bag, "I'm sure it's nothing we should worry about."

"What'th wrong with a newthpaper?"

"Oh you know," said Diamond as she mentally cursed her slip, "I um.. like, just don't want anypony bringing up the Gabby Gums thing again, you know."

"Oh yeah," Twist chuckled, "I th'till don't know where you got those photos of me with my mane in the oven door, but thank'th for not printing them."

"Well, a slow news day never came up."

"What?"

"Nothing, never mind."

Silver Spoon just sat up in her sleeping bag and smiled as she watched her two guests argue first about Diamond's short stint as an editor, then over newspaper comics and finally over which superponies could beat up other superponies.

She was almost entirely content that the evening, dinner notwithstanding had gone as perfectly as it could by the time she realized Twist had yelled something, something along the lines of pillar flight.

That was when a feather stuffed bludgeon slammed into the side of her head.

"Oh it is SO on," Silver laughed as she sprang from her sleeping bag to do battle, her pillow dangling in her mouth.

It had taken nearly half an hour and three kicked letterboxes but a drunk and angry Filthy Rich had finally staggered back to his own door.

Why did that horrible mare feel the need to bring the worst months of his life up? Didn't she get that he'd already had to fight himself to believe what had happened the first time? He didn't understand why Jade had done those things but he'd accepted that she HAD.

Not that she'd ever admitted it herself, the selfish bitch.

Why not?

Filthy rich slumped down on his porch having given up hope of finding his keys for the time being and pondered that question over and over again in his head.

It was there, under the light of Luna's moon that he finally decided he would find out tomorrow.

He was going back to Canterlot, and he was talking to Jade.