Twenty minutes after Midday returned to the library, Twilight Sparkle reappeared carrying the potion book the CMC had borrowed from her, along with Big McIntosh and Cheerilee, both ponies looking incredibly nervous around each other. Twilight led them down into the basement, taking no notice of Midday. After a few seconds she decided to see what was going on, and found Twilight examining the schoolteacher in the strange contraption she'd tried to use on Pinkie Pie.
"Okay..." Twilight said slowly, "You'll be fine" she said, smiling. "The potion has had no noticable effect on your system, but I would recommend you eat something."
"Thanks, Twilight Sparkle" the purple earth pony said, nervously looking at Big McIntosh ever few seconds. The two ponies stood there for a moment, and walked towards the stairs, before bumping into each other.
"Sorry" they both uttered, before trying again. Twilight Sparkle sighed.
"I can't believe those three. I must be a fool." Midday just laughed, causing Twilight to jump slightly.
"You didn't know they were going to make a love potion that turned out to be a love poison." She said calmly. "And besides, they were just trying to do their teacher a favour, right?"
"So they said. Repeatedly, in fact." Twilight sighed. Something seemed to occur to her. "Did you really lift a whole house up?"
"Yes" Midday said, calmly. Twilight Sparkle, for the first time as Midday could remember in a long time looked impressed.
"I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that." The mare whispered. Midday just frowned.
"Didn't you manage to lift an Ursa Minor and levitate it well over a mile with only minor difficulty the other year? I am quite certain that however impressive my magic gets, I couldn't do that." She frowned. "Although, to be fair, I've never had to try. However, I'm reasonably sure I could lift the entire library if I had to." She saw the fierce look of disapproval on Twilight's face.
"Doesn't mean I'm going to try" she said, and Twilight's glower faded. The two walked upstairs, and as they did Midday realised something. She was hungry.
"You want to get something to eat?" she asked. Twilight frowned.
"No, no. I've still got a lot of studying on Hearts and Hooves Day to do." Midday turned to the door. "Although..."
Midday turned to see a slightly grin on Twilight's face, "Perhaps later you could tell me some things about these Crystal Ponies you keep mentioning?"
Midday smiled back. "Maybe I will. We'll see."
*****
Midday walked down the street, trying not to notice the slight shade of purple, or the couples out enjoying themselves. She was halfway along the street when she heard hoofsteps.
"Hello there." Trixie smiled, "And where are you rushing off to?"
"I am going to go find dinner" Midday smiled, "You can tag along if you like, I'm pretty sure the local cafes have stopped serving H&H Day couples now."
There was a triumphant 'yes' from Trixie. Midda stared at her in bemusement.
"Trixie has been trying, without much success, to gain entrance to these eateries since lunchtime. Aside from a few carrots, I haven't had much to eat today."
"Better than some ponies." Midday said, absent-mindedly, feeling slightly annoyed now that she realised she'd missed lunch.
"Yes." Trixie said, before something seemed to occur to her. "Tell me, why was that... incredibly muscled farmpony pulling a house? And what is a 'scmoopy-doo'?"
"Don't ask. Trust me, just don't ask" Midday said, as sternly as possible.
*****
As it turned out, the average restaurants were still not selling to non-coupled ponies, which Trixie complained about at length, briefly pausing to take out a small notebook and jot down the name of the waiter who informed them of this, making stern remarks to the shape of 'informing ponies of note' about his conduct. In the finest tradition of waiters everywhere, he just took it in stride, to which Midday calmly insinuated returning to have breakfast, lunch and dinner there every single day of the week, at which point the poor pony paled, and the two mares beat a hasty retreat.
"How in Equestria did you do that?" Trixie asked, aghast. Midday just looked at her and tried to look innocent.
So, the two wound up in the only restaurant in town not serving exclusively to Hearts and Hooves Day patrons, which due to an unfortunate incident that seemed to involve copious amounts of butter, was mostly just serving soup. So Midday found herself eating (or was that drinking?) Forest Mushroom Soup, which she learnt was carefully designed to have as little forest mushrooms as possible. Customers didn't like hallucinating things going through the walls during their meals, apparently. She looked up to see Trixie calmly emptying a small sachet of an odd brown sauce into her soup, which seemed to have lots of rice in it.
"What?" The showmare asked, sounding genuinely confused as to why somepony would fine such an act strange.
"I thought you were gonna put mustard or vinegar in it" Midday said after a moment's hesitation, ignoring the rather strange scents coming from the broth.
"You don't mix mustard and soup" Trixie said, solemnly. "That's just not..." She shook her head, staring at Midday like she was the crazy one.
"Mustard and soup. You're weird, Midday Eclipse." Trixie lifted her spoon and took a sample of it.
"Needs more salt." The showmare-turned chemist said, after a few seconds.
Midday smirked. While Trixie's eating habits were frankly bizarre, it was better than eating alone on Hearts and Hooves Day.
"I can see you smirking" Trixie said, as she sprinkled some salt into her mixture. "Let us not forget that Trixie is not the one proclaiming the existance of non-existant ponies."
"You saying the Crystal Ponies aren't real?" Midday said, raising an eyebrow. Trixie raised her eyebrows in imitation.
"Um... Yes." Trixie said. "Because if they were real, we'd know of them."
Midday banged her spoon against the table like it was an incredibly tiny staff or spear.
"Well," she said, "How about in eight months time we see if I can scrape together some evidence about them?"
'If I'm still here in eight months' Midday thought to herself.
"Why eight months?" Trixie asked, taking another sip of her meal.
"No reason" Midday said quickly.
The two ate mostly in silence for a while after, though Trixie finished first, and in her boredom explained that she was planning on holding her first comeback show in a few weeks time.
"That's good" Midday said. Trixie smiled slightly, and it was amazingly unlike the mare's usual smiles, in that it looked genuine.
"Thanks. I suppose I do have you to thank for that, as well. Had you not stolen Trixie's hat... I would probably still be thinking of getting revenge on Twilight Sparkle." The two smiled nervously.
"And I've got some new types of spell ready to show. The only problem is that I don't have an assistant. Apparently practicing magic tricks on a filly is alright, until a point." Trixie leaned over the table and whispered. "Miss Doo scares me."
"What? Ditzy Doo the lovable mailmare? Scares the Great and Powerful Trixie?"
Trixie just looked at Midday, and when she spoke it was with as much seriousness as she could bring to bear. "An angry single mother? Trixie would much rather face an Ursa Major with only a wet towel at her disposal."
After a few moments of silence, Trixie sighed. "Now, if you will excuse Trixie, she is going to return to the library." And she left, leaving Midday to drink her soup in peace.
For a few moments. She was aware of a horrible, high-pitched bleating noise. She looked around the restaurant, and saw nothing but ponies calmly eating food or talking with loved ones. She quickly turned herself invisible and went outside, where she saw a horrifying sight.
Three tired and unhappy looking little fillies she recognised very clearly being circled by two other fillies, who had nasty smiles on their little faces. One was bright pink with grey hair, and the other was varying shades of silver. On closer inspection, the one she recognised as being Silver Spoon didn't look entirely like she was enjoying herself, unlike Diamond Tiara.
There was a name she knew. She had met Scootaloo, of course, or Sonic Boom, as the mare had called herself in Midday's time, and she had met Apple Bloom, both of whom had describe the mare's deeds at length. And she had certainly heard of one of Sweet Belle's songs, which explained in no uncertain terms how the unicorn mare felt of her former tormentor. Strangely enough, that song had been critisiced by parents despite being a mare describing the bullying she and her friends had endured.
"-nestly, a Hearts and Hooves Day card to Miss Cheerilee? That's so pathetic. But then, it's not like anypony would send blank-flanks a Cutie Mark. No, wait, card, yes, card." Diamond Tiara smiled the exact sort of smile that usually needed bricks to remove.
"Leave us alonge, Diamond Tiara" Scootaloo said. It was slightly horrifying to see a pony she'd know to be constantly full of life looking so... timid. The two fillies made 'oohing' noises, and Midday wondered why nopony had noticed this. She ignored the bullies' awful comeback and rushed back inside her soup.
"Just need to borrow this for a moment" she smiled as she took it outside before the staff could say anything. She checked to make sure the liquid had cooled enough. It had.
"Waste of good soup" she frowned. But it was in the name of a higher cause. Or a lower one, she supposed. She carefully floated it above Diamond Tiara's head, waiting for Silver Spoon to move just out of the way. Evidently the girls had noticed the floating bowl, and were slowly moving backwards. Silver Spoon had the prescence of mind to recognise this, and looked up.
"DT?" She said.
"Shut up, I'm busy" The pink earth pony said, frowning as her rant was forgotten. "Great. That was a good one, too. Thanks, Silver Spoon." She snapped. Then she saw the filly taking a step backward, and looked up.
Midday tilted the bowl, and the half-full bowl of soup emptied all over Diamond Tiara, who gave what Midday had to admit was a satisfying yelp of horror, followed by sputterings. Midday walked over to the scene as the filly fixed her with an almost barely intimidating glare.
"Are you INSANE?" Diamond Tiara yelled, as bits of mushroom slid down her mane. "Who do you think you are, dumping soup all over me?" For a brief second it seemed to register to the mare that she was trying to intimidate a mare who was already twice her size, and Midday wasn't exactly an average-sized mare. "I-I'm gonna get my dad, and he's going to sue you for being... mad!"
"Your dad?" Midday said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes" the filly said, sticking her nose in the air.
"That would be... who, exactly?" Midday did not regard herself as a bully, she did not like hurting others and had more than once in her childhood gotten into trouble for taking on bullies, but she did feel the slightest bit of satisfaction at the shock on Diamond Tiara's face.
"My dad is Filthy Rich. Of the Ponyville Riches, and we've been in this town since it was founded." The filly stomped her foot for extra measure.
"Goodness." Midday deadpanned. "Your family goes back a few generations, then." She looked thoughtful.
"But, that's interesting. Your family name is 'Rich', and I presume your grandfather's name is Rich"
"Yeah." Apple Bloom said, from a few feet away.
"And I'm guessing it's something like 'Awful', or 'Stinking', which does raise the question of why you, Filthy Rich's only daughter, doesn't go by the name of Rich." There was a look of alarm of Diamond Tiara's face now, and Midday raised an eyebrow.
"Let's see now, your assumed name probably shares the initial of your given name, and given your evident family tradition, I would hazard that your name is..." She made a slight show of thinking the process over, before smiling,
"Disgustingly Rich" She said, triumphantly. Then her smile vanished. "Yeah, that's it, isn't it? 'Disgustingly Rich'. Fitting. You are disgusting." She said, her voice hard, and cold.
"I don't pretend to understand what motivates you, and I really don't want to. You are a loathsome child, relentlessly picking on three ponies who have never done a single thing to you, for Luna only knows what reason." She stared at the mare. "I'd hazard that perhaps it's jealousy. Jealousy because on their worst day they're better ponies than you'll ever been on your best. And that just drives you mad" she hissed. Diamond Tiara was shaking.
"Now, normally somepony would say that you're young, and you'll grow out of this, but I think we all know that's a load of ponyfeathers. You are incapable of loving anything that isn't a bag of bits, you are incapable of trusting anything that doesn't have fine print, and you deserve so much less than what you've got, and so much more than what you've got coming to you." She looked at the little quivering mass of pink in front of her. Then she looked at the trembling ball of silver that was Silver Spoon. She slowly walked over to the filly, and her expression softened.
"You could do so much better than this" she said, calmly. "You really could. If only you could see it. You are capable of so much more, Silver Spoon. But you won't realise until it's too late." She shook her head.
"What a waste."
And with that, she slowly moved away, pausing only to look at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who looked like they were considering trying to talk to Diamond Tiara. Then, Midday kept walking, not stopping even as she heard Diamond Tiara yell slurs at whoever approached her first.
She felt her heart sink. She knew Diamond Tiara would probably brush off what she said, probably blame Silver Spoon for not stepping in to defend her, or just cry and rage and take it out on somepony else, but she still felt quite terrible about having done that.
'No' She said to herself, 'She won't ever change. You know of the things she's done, and the things she will do. Just because she's a filly doesn't make her actions any less reprehensible.'
But, she reminded herself, Diamond Tiara was still somepony's child. Somepony's little filly. And there was always, always the chance that perhaps, just perhaps, she might have taken in some of what Midday had said.
The question was, what would Diamond Tiara's response be?
For a moment, Midday stood there, wondering whether the harshness she'd used on Diamond Tiara was her own doing, or if... just possibly... She frowned. Of the two options before her, neither was at all encouraging.
She quickly hurried back to the library.
*****
"-ere we were, and the lady's just ranting on at Rarity, going on about how feeble she is, and how awful her designs are, and how, you know, the sort of things supervillains say."
Midday's alarm seemed to vanish at the sound of Spike's voice. Even if she was feeling somewhat jittery, and no small amount of distaste with herself, she didn't want to bring it anywhere near Spike. She opened the door to find Spike sitting on a chair in front of Twilight. The mare had a small notepad next to her, which was closed, and she had a rather sweet look of interest on her face as she listened to what Spike was saying.
"So what happened next?" Twilight asked, as Midday slowly walked past them.
"Well, I'm not really sure." Spike said, scratching his ear. "I mean, I was hanging upside down and all the blood was going to my head, so that didn't help..." Midday stood next to Twilight, curious at Spike's tale of how Rarity and he had spent Hearts and Hooves Day, of how the dragon and the fashionista had been abducted by Rarity's self-appointed evil arch-nemesis Generous Embrace, and how in a curious turn of events the evil designer had been crushed by no less than fifteen grand pianos, and how the pair's intended place to hang out had been damaged in a curious accident, so the two had just gone to the lake.
"Someone's had a busy day, then" Midday smiled. Spike just looked bashful.
"I guess. But I bet your day was just as great."
Midday shifted on her hooves slightly.
"Yes. Great. That is exactly how I would define it."
"Is something wrong?" asked Twilight.
Midday looked at her hooves.
"I said some very unpleasant things just now, to a filly." She muttered. Twilight looked horrified. Spike just frowned.
"If it was Diamond Tiara, don't get upset" he said calmly.
"Spike!" Twilight snapped.
"What? Diamond Tiara's a jerk!" he said defensively.
Twilight just frowned, and gave Spike a look that indicated the little dragon was going to get an infamous Twilight Sparkle Lecture for his comments.
"Would it help if I said I feel awful about it?" Midday said.
Twilight gave Midday her coldest glare, before she sighed. "A bit. To be fair, I have heard some of what Apple Bloom and her friends say about her but... I can't believe anypony would be that cruel. Over Cutie Marks."
Midday decided not to share her theory on the filly's behaviour, just in case it damaged Twilight Sparkle's near-endless faith in her fellow pony.
"Well, how about we change the subject?" Twilight said, after a few moments silence.
"To what?" asked Spike.
"Well, Midday said she was going to tell me about these so-called Crystal Ponies."
Midday felt a sudden shock.
"Yes, I suppose I did, rather. Actually, it's kinda fitting to talk about them, in a way." She smiled. Twilight just looked confused, and lifted a quill from across the room, bringing it over to her notepad.
"But, before I tell you that" She said, smiling slightly as she tried to remember everything she'd read about the Crystal Empire, "I have to start at the beginning..." She motioned for Spike to move off the chair and let her sit down. She took a deep breath... and then was startled by a knocking at the door.
"Yes?" Twilight asked, opening the door. Rarity walked in, smiling slightly.
"Oh, Twilight. And Midday. What in the world are you three up to?" She asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Midday was just about to give Twilight a history lesson." Spike grinned, earning himself a slight frown from Twilight.
"Really?" Rarity said, trying not to look amused at the concept. "Also, there appear to be three fillies lurking around outside. Apparently they have something to say to you, Twilight Sparkle."
The Cutie Mark Crusaders walked in, and Midday noted a few brief alarmed glances aimed at her, as if they'd forgotten she resided in the library.
"We're sorry, Miss Sparkle" the three fillies said. Twilight just smiled.
"It's okay girls, but next time, if you want to show somepony you care about them, please find a more constructive means of showing your appreciation. And read the instructions in full next time."
The fillies nodded at that.
"Hey, they managed to make a successful love poison on the first try. That's something, right?" Midday smiled. Twilight glowered at her for saying that.
"Thanks, but we already tried being Cutie Mark Crusaders Potions Makers." Scootaloo said.
"How that go?" Midday asked. The fillies exchanged looks.
"Trust us, you don't want to know" the pegasus said.
"Well, that's that sorted then." Rarity smiled, turning to leave.
"Oh, you don't want to stay and hear about the Crystal Ponies?" Twilight asked. Rarity stopped, and turned, a strange look in her eyes which made both Midday and the girls nervous.
"Crystal... ponies?" she said quietly.
"Apparently." Twilight said. "I was going to take notes on it, and ask Princess Celestia about it once we were done."
"I don't know." Scootaloo said, "I've got... places to be."
"An' ah've got chores to do." Apple Bloom added. Sweetie Belle looked pancied as her mind couldn't think of a suitable excuse.
"Oh, I promise I'll try to not make it boring, and it's got some good stuff anyway." Midday smiled.
"Such as?" Scootaloo asked.
"Well, there's a huge fight at the end for all of Equestria. Betrayal, sacrifice, carnage, bone-chilling terror." Rarity looked uncertain, but if anything got Scootaloo's attention, it was the promise of an adrenalin rush. Not so much with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, though considering they'd seen their teacher saying goofy pet names with Big McIntosh earlier, and Diamond Tiara apparently breaking down into tears at her hooves, Midday wondered what was left for them to be scared of.
"You promise?" Scootaloo asked.
"Of course."
"Alright then, I guess I can stay for a while." Scootaloo smiled.
"Oh, lot of ponies in here" came the voice of Trixie. "What's going on? Somepony explode from too much love?"
"Cool history lessons." Scootaloo said.
"If I can ever start" Midday deadpanned.
"We'll be quiet." Rarity said, assuringly.
Midday smiled, and looked at Trixie, who slowly walked over to sit beside Twilight. Midday took a deep breath as she tried to find the right frame of mind for narrating.
"Far to the north, beyond the woodlands, and wastelands, beyond even the mountains, in the middle of what we would call the Frozen Wastes, lies the last and greatest of all the Ancient Pony Kingdoms. The Crystal Empire."
She looked at the slightly awed-looks on everypony's faces, save Twilight, who was quickly scribbling notes, and Spike, for obvious reasons.
"Its cities stretched across the hills and plains of those lands..."