Diamond's mood was slow to improve as she sat in her room, letting Nanny Sweetums fix her mane. Her room was very spacious, big enough for three ponies to share comfortably. The walls were a vibrant pink, painted to match her pelt, along with purple and white trim for her mane. A king sized four poster bed was the centerpiece of the room, it having a wonderful silk comforter colored pink as well. To the left of the bed was a whole walk in closet containing outfits and dresses of almost any kind Diamond could want. To the right of the bed was her doll and stuffed animal collection, containing a large number of plush dragons, Diamond's favorite creatures. She always loved the story of the princess being put to sleep by an evil unicorn, only able to wake up when a dragon gathered six special gems.
Still, Diamond winced slightly as Nanny gave her mane a little tug, still sore from the bath. The mare relaxed her grip on the filly's mane, apologizing for hurting her. Diamond just sat there, glum and sad as Nanny gently rubbed the sore spot on her head, making it feel slightly better.
"Iz zomzing ze matter, little flower?" Nanny asked with a bit of concern.
Diamond sighed heavily and replied, "I miss Mommy and Daddy..."
Nanny, instead of replying with words, simply stopped fidgeting with Diamond's mane and gave the filly a hug. Nanny had been with Diamond since she was a foal, just barely learning to walk. In her mind, Diamond was as much her daughter as she was her biological mothers'. The pink filly still sat glumly as her caretaker tried to comfort her, happy she was there, but still feeling the void of her real mother and father's hug.
As she hugged the filly, Nanny Sweetums reiterated the well worn, but comforting words of a caretaker to Diamond. "Zweetie," she softly whispered, "Your parentz love you. Zey love you very much. Zey alwayz zay to me zey wizh zey could be here for you, to zee you and to hug you. When zey can't, zey rely on me to be your mozher, a job I never tire from. I love you like my own daughzer, Diamond. You are ze most perfect little filly I could azk for."
Diamond turned around to face her caretaker. She looked up at Nanny Sweetums with her big icy blue eyes which threatened to shed tears at any moment. Nanny smiled gently at the young mare and began to push some rogue strands of hair out of her face, humming gently. Diamond buried her face into Nanny's chest and stayed there for a few seconds before speaking up.
"Nanny," she hicced weakly, "Why does nopony like me?"
"Vhatever do you mean, Diamond?" Nanny replied, aghast.
Diamond looked back up to her with the same sad expression and said, "Mommy and Daddy are never around and all the other fillys in school had dates today. Even Silver Spoon did and I was all by myself."
"Now lizten here, Diamond," Nanny spoke in a firmer tone, "You are too young to be zhinking about coltz at zis age. And Beziddez, zere are plently of poniez who want to be around you. Mizz Zilver Zpoon zhould be here zhortly and your new friend, Zpike, iz waiting for you."
As she finished speaking, Nanny lifted her hooves to her mane and finished fixing it. "Now, look in zat mirror behind you," she ordered. Weakly, Diamond acquiesced and saw her own reflection staring sadly back at her. As she stared, Nanny's hooves gently lowered her trademark tiara down onto her head and nestled it into her mane. A small grin crossed Diamond's face as she looked at her tiara.
"Now, iz zat ze faze of a filly nopony vants to be around?" Nanny's voice asked from behind. Instantly, Diamond's sour mood vanished and she smiled happily. Turning around the filly gave her caretaker a big hug, one that Nanny gently returned.
"I love you, Nanny," Diamond said into her caretaker's chest, her voice muffled slightly.
"And I, you" Nanny replied with the affectionate voice of a mother.
As the two hugged, a loud bell toll rang through the house. Diamond eagerly broke the hug and ran off, shouting, "Silver's here! Silver's here!" Nanny just smiled contently as she trotted out of the room, heading down to the parlor where Diamond's new little friend, Spike, waited.
Little did Diamond know that the bell was rung as Silver walked in. The gray filly was on her way over to the parlor, trotting happily along the familiar hallways of the mansion.
"Ah, Miss Silver Spoon. How nice it is to see you again," came a voice from another room. Silver turned to see a white pony stallion dressed in a suit smiling warmly at her.
"Hi, Nit Pick!" Silver replied enthusiastically, waving to him. Nit Pick was Filthy's personal butler and often made sure the house was in good working order while he was away.
"Diamond should be joining you shortly," he replied in his official tone, "The parlor is, of course, open to you."
"Thank you!" Silver said sweetly in reply and trotted off to the room. She knew where it was because it was where she and Diamond hung out the most. Diamond's room was usually off limits due to that side of the mansion being cleaned when they would hang out, but the parlor was always open and prepped for them, complete with clothes from Diamond's closet to try on, her jewelry and make-up and sometimes her stuffed animals to play with.
Today was different, though, as Silver noticed a small purple dragon sitting in one of the big squishy armchairs in the room.
"Who are you?" Silver spoke up, catching the small dragon's attention. He was busy admiring the room, a large and open space with several armchairs, one of which he was sitting in, and some more portraits. Little things were littered about the room, some being tables, others being vases or a sapling palm tree. Spike was rather amazed by the house in general, but his attention was now drawn to the new pony in the room.
She was about the same size as Diamond, but was a bland shade of gray. Her mane was a lighter color and shimmered, giving it a silvery appearance, like her mane was made of silk. A large set of blue rimmed glasses sat on her snout, almost hiding her purple eyes.
"Oh, hi there," Spike said, getting down from the chair, "I'm Spike, Diamond Tiara's guest today," Spike wasn't sure if she was part of the staff in the house, but he wasn't going to attempt to find out.
"Wait a minute," Silver replied, narrowing her eyes at the young drake, "Haven't I seen you before?"
Spike really didn't know how to answer that. "Uh, well, I work at the Golden Oaks Library with Twilight Sparkle, if that's what you're asking," he stated with an unsure grin.
"No, I-- WAIT A MINUTE!" she shouted loudly, "I've seen you with those annoying blank flanks, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle!"
Spike flinched slightly at her shouting, but managed to say, "Uh, yeah. They're my friends."
Silver regarded the dragon curiously and queried, "If you're friends with them, why are you Diamond's guest? She absolutely can't stand them."
Before Spike could answer, the door to the parlor opened again, this time revealing a very familiar pink filly. "Silver!" she shouted as she ran to her best friend.
Silver eagerly greeted Diamond and did their traditional secret hoofshake. "Bump, bump, sugar-lump, rump!" they both said in unison, leaving Spike feeling awkwardly out of place. As the two fillys giggled, Diamond lead the way over to him.
"Silver, this is Spike!" she stated happily, "He's my new friend! Spike, this is Silver Spoon, my best friend"
Silver's glee faded rather quickly as she nudged Diamond. "You do know he's friends with the blank flank dorks, right?" she whispered.
"Oh, I already knew that!" Diamond responded. unfazed, "He saved me today, so he's here to hang out with us!"
After some more awkward conversation, the three settled into the room. Diamond and Silver began to play dress-up with Spike being their judge, which was something he was used to doing at the Carousel Boutique. It stung him to remember helping Rarity pick out outfits, but the two fillys almost dulled that sensation by making him laugh at their outfits. Diamond and Silver were taken aback by that at first, but got revenge on Spike by having him model some clothing next. They nearly died laughing at him in the silly outfit they picked out. Spike was embarrassed, but he knew it was justified for him laughing at them.
After about an hour, Nanny Sweetums brought in some snacks for the young ones. Diamond and Silver happily munched on some cakes while Spike stared uncomprehendingly at the jewel he was given. It looked like a garnet, a usually spicy gemstone, but the weight was off.
"Try it!" Nanny insisted, "I'm zure you vill looove it!"
Spike tentatively bit into the stone, but found it had a soft inside and was juicy. Instead of being spicy, the gemstone was actually very sweet and had a cherry flavor to it.
"It'z a cryztal fruit from ze Cryztal Empire," Nanny stated proudly, "Zey were zought to be exztinct for yearz, but vhen ze Cryztal Empire returned, zey did too! Zey are uzed for making delicious drinkz moztly becauze poniez cannot eat zem raw, but I knew you could."
"It's so good!" Spike exclaimed as he took a large bite. The sound of rocks breaking echoed in the room and both Diamond and Silver gasped.
"Oh no!" Diamond shouted, "You didn't break your teeth, did you?!"
Spike happily chewed on the fruit and mumbled through a full mouth, "Noph. Drgon teeph r ment to brek rcks."
"Wha?" Silver replied, flabbergasted.
Spike swallowed the delicious fruit down and repeated, "Nope. Dragon teeth are meant to break rocks. Our favorite snack is usually rubies or sapphires, but we eat all sorts of jewels."
"You... eat jewels?" Diamond asked with her mouth hanging open.
"Uh huh!" Spike replied with a confident nod of his head, "They're so sweet and delicious, they're like candy to dragons!"
Spike wound up laughing at the awestruck expressions of Diamond and Silver for several minutes. After their snack, the three wound up having fun swapping stories. Spike was particularly the one the two fillys wanted to hear from since he had been in on several adventures. They listened as he recounted his tales of meeting other dragons, saving the Crystal Empire from King Sombra, meeting Princess Luna and so on. Spike wound up talking for most of the three hours they spent in the room until Nanny Sweetums poked her head back in.
"Diamond, zweetie, I take it your friendz vill be ztaying for dinner?" she asked.
Diamond's attention to Spike's story of the Royal Wedding broke at that question. "Oh, yes, they will!" she called back before asking them. Silver clapped her hooves together happily and smiled while Spike tilted his head.
"Wow, is it really that late?" he asked, "I should get going before Twilight gets worried."
"No, please stay!" both Diamond and Silver wailed to him. Spike grimaced a bit as both Diamond and Silver gave him their sad faces, bottom lips quivering and all.
"Well... I guess I could. Twilight's probably still reading her reviews on the Elements," Spike mumbled, feeling his confidence shatter under the looks of the two fillys.
"Yay!" they both shouted and hugged Spike. As an instant reaction, Spike began to blush at the two fillys hugging him and slowly pried himself from their grip.
'Today might not have gone as planned,' Spike thought, 'But I haven't had this much fun in a while.'
