Filthy Rich; Ponyville’s richest, owner of the Equestrian-wide service of Barnyard Bargains, and the single father to Diamond Tiara. A simple stallion, aged into his early forties, who likes to think of himself as a middle-class pony however much his peers say otherwise.
When his grandfather, Stinkin’ Rich, passed on, he gave his Ponyville estate to Filthy’s mother. Motherload was quick to hand down the property to her son as she wanted to see him in the real world as fast as possible. She was so proud of him when she heard of his astounding progress with Barnyard Bargains. He thinks of her smile when mentioning it as his happy place.
Alas, Motherload had recently passed on herself, shortly after Diamond Tiara’s birth. When the two first met, Filthy had expected her to be happy, and she was; until Diamond woke up. Their eye’s connected, and from that moment on, his mother warned him to keep his child in check. To care for her and never let her go until she is ready to carry on his role.
Those words are exactly what carries on the brown earth stallion to this day, even if he doesn’t fully understand their meaning. A strive to care for his daughter. He had wished that his wife would be with him to care for her, but she, sadly, had died of blood loss during labor.
When Diamond started school, she mentioned seeing most of the other foals being dropped off and picked up from the schoolhouse by their mothers. That’s when Diamond went and broke her father’s heart.
She asked where her mother was.
Being that she was only about five at the time, he couldn’t work up the nerve to tell her that her mother was dead, so he had lied, telling her that she was on business in the Griffin Empire. Diamond then wanted to send a letter to her, so he complied, letting her write one. He read it, and the only thing that popped out to him was that Diamond requested that her mother come home soon and/or that she send a gift for her or Filthy.
Filthy felt it necessary to go out and pretend to mail the letter, but he had to play it right. He went to a local toy shop and picked out a little tiara with fake diamonds lining it. The trinket itself wasn’t real jewelery, but seemed close.
His wife, Shop Keep, or as he nicknamed her, Blue, due to her infatuation with the color, wasn’t all into fancy garments, so this seemed like the ideal object for her to buy Diamond. Once he had it, he ran to the post office, and asked that the tiara and a new hoof-written letter be sent back to their address one week later.
After one week, Derpy Hooves had delivered the tiara in a small box along with a letter written by one of the staff at the post office. The letter, to Filthy’s surprise was similar to Blue’s hoof-writing. He read it aloud to Diamond. The letter told the two that ‘Blue’ would not be able to return for several more years, decades, maybe even.
Diamond seemed crestfallen. However, once Filthy pulled out the tiara with a newly attached gift tag that read, “From Mommy; To my precious Diamond,” she had smiled the widest she ever had.
Diamond put her new accessory on right away. The moment that she did, she vowed that she would wait for her mother’s return, even if it took her whole life.
That tiara was Filthy’s guilt. His fear. His anxiety. But on top of all that; His hope. His hope that his little Diamond would never have to face the truth.
Filthy was just waking up. It was a bit into the afternoon; about three o'clock, but irregardless, he had had a long night, and besides that, it was a weekend.
So, one hot tea later, he was on the road to a nice, relaxing evening. It was one of those moments of bliss, days like this. One where he could sleep in past noon, get up late, have some time to himself while drinking tea or maybe some wine, and reading a nice novel. It really took a load off him whenever he did this. It seemed like perfection.
But as is with all things that seem perfect, there must be something to interrupt them. Just as he was nearly comfortable, the doorbell to his manor rang. He muttered under his breath, but kept calm. He got up and trotted to the foyer and opened the door with a pleasant smile. He was greeted by a few ponies and some pets.
Rarity glared at the stallion, not even returning a greeting. "It's your daughter, Filthy. She's been causing problems lately."
Filthy stared in shock at his friend, before a frown found it’s way onto his face. “What do you mean by that?” Rarity looked down at her little sister, whom Filthy had just noticed, as if telling her something with her eyes. The filly turned slowly to show Filthy her side and back. Filthy’s jaw dropped. “You’re telling me that my daughter did….that!?”
Both Rarity and the other mare with her, Fluttershy, Filthy believed, nodded. He looked at Sweetie Belle a bit more before something stuck out to him. She had no cutie mark. His head drooped and he muttered something to himself, sighing. He lowered himself to face the filly and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Sweetie Belle, are you part of the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ that I keep hearing about in Diamond and Silver’s conversations?” Filthy asked her.
“Y-yes,” she said with a shaky voice. Filthy grunted to himself, looking to Rarity. He began to speak, but Sweetie Belle started up again, “It’s just me and my friends, Scootaloo and Applebloom. Diamond and Silver are always picking on us, making fun of us for having no talents or for screwing up. She always calls Applebloom poor, mocks Scootaloo’s inability to fly, and constantly jabs at me because of my ‘Wanna-be-a-high-society-pony sister,’” Rarity’s eye twitched at the insult, “It just gets worse and worse after every encounter, and we’re treading thin ice. One more verbal throw, and me and Bloom might not be able to hold Scoots back from attacking your daughter, with this problem right here taking a huge toll on the remaining sanity we Crusaders have.
“Please, Mr. Rich, if you can, just get Diamond to stop tormenting us. We never did anything wrong.”
Filthy looked at Sweetie like he just heard a ghost story. A scary one. He looked at Rarity, expecting some kind of help, but all she did was raise an eyebrow in question. Filthy looked between the sisters a few more times before sighing. “I’ll try.”
He looked back into his manor, the top of the stairs being his focus. The third door on the left was his daughter’s room. She was home right now. They could take care of this much quicker.
“Diamond!” he called up to her, “Come down here for a moment, will you?”
A door opening and hooves trotting down the stairs was the only sound made for the next few seconds, until Diamond got to the bottom of the steps.
“Yeah, daddy?” she walked up to him, looking to see who was at the door. She stopped once she saw Sweetie Belle. “What are you doing here!?” she yelled at the filly, but with a fearful look.
“We’re here,” Rarity started, giving the filly a death glare, “to put discipline on those who need it most.”
Filthy turned to his daughter, looking down at her. “Can’t you ever give your classmates a break?”
“I-er...but…” Diamond stuttered, searching for something to say, “She started it!” she randomly yelled, pointing a hoof at Sweetie Belle.
“No I didn’t!” Sweetie yelled back, her voice cracking.
“Yes you did! You mocked my tiara’s quality!” Filthy’s eyes widened.
“It’s not my fault that it obviously isn’t real jewelry!” Rarity put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder, pulling her back a little. Sweetie calmed down.
“Even if it wasn’t real, which it is, you don’t make fun of your superiors’ accessories!” Diamond growled at the other filly. She turned to her dad, “Daddy, you should run Carousel Boutique out of business! They shouldn’t be able to treat me like this and earn no punishment!”
Filthy sighed, “Now Diamond, if anyone is in the wrong, it’s you.”
“What!?” Diamond screeched, “You’re siding with them? I’m your own bucking daughter!”
“Diamond Dazzle Tiara!” Filthy yelled. Diamond flinched back. Filthy lowered his voice, “First off, watch your language, especially around company. Secondly, you should know that there is no excuse for what you did to Sweetie Belle.
Diamond looked down at her hooves, her tone now soft, “I….she mocked my tiara. To me, that’s like she made fun of mommy. This is all I have of her until she comes home from the Griffon Empire.”
Filthy looked down at his daughter, and felt her remorse. “Look, sweetheart, I know it’s tough being without your mother, but I’m trying my hardest to raise you until she comes back.” He turned to Rarity, pulling out his checkbook from his suit. “I’m sorry for all the trouble that’s been caused by this incident, Rarity, I really am. Here, have this check for one-thousand bits. It should cover some psychological therapy for your sister, or at least something relaxing to get her mind off of it.”
Diamond groaned audibly behind her father, “Daaad! You’re doing it again; siding with the filly that caused me emotional pain!”
“I’m sorry, dear, but this is what fathers have to do: clean up after their foals. I’m doing my job by offering Sweetie Belle a bit of relaxation from the physical pain that you caused her.”
“So what if I hurt her? This tiara is precious, and should be treated just as perfectly as the diamonds that make it up!”
Filthy sighed, turning to his little filly, “Look, Diamond, considering your act through all of this, I feel you should know something. It’s something I thought you would have figured out actually. Your tiara, isn’t made of gems. It’s just some plastic bought from a party store. It was the most your mother could afford once she flew out to the Empire.”
Diamond gaped, staring at her father. She took off her tiara, holding it in her hoof for a few moments. It seemed as if tears were forming in the corners of her eyes, her lip was quivering as well.
It was over in mere seconds.
Diamond threw the piece of party jewelry on to the ground in rage. She growled into the air, “I can’t believe that mare would even think that a filly like me would deserve something less than top of the line! She is useless!”
“Di-!”
“And what kind of stallion are you to have married that kind of cheap pony!? Even if she had rich tastes before, why didn’t you keep it that way!? In fact, why didn’t you just go and force her to come home and raise her daughter along your side? I ask you, dad, what kind of stallion are you!?”
Filthy’s eye twitched, and he opened and closed his mouth several times. He simply stared at his filly for several seconds.
“I asked-”
“I’m a single father doing his damndest to raise his filly by himself!”
Filthy was out of air, he was breathing hard, and everypony else was silent. Seconds passed before the stallion broke into tears. Rarity trotted over to him, putting a hoof on his shoulder. Opal and Angel came over and patted his flank.
“I’m sorry, Diamond, but I-I-I just couldn’t take the stress. You were so young….I couldn’t have possibly told you the truth about your mother. S-she passed away during your birth. The doctors say that she had lost too much blood. I went and bought you the tiara myself, buying off of her tastes, and had the postal service stage a letter delivery. It was a weak point, but I pulled through for a while. You are the only thing I have left of her, in truth. That’s why I’m hoping for you to grow into her hoofsteps. But you’ll never be able to do that if you keep going around and hurting others.”
Diamond was silent. She took in her father’s words, before falling back to the stairwell and slowly going upstairs. Filthy sighed, looking back to his guests. “I’m sorry you had to see that. Rarity, I’ll see you on Tuesday?” Filthy asked the mare.
“As….always….Filthy.”
“Alright. I’m going to go talk to Diamond.”
Filthy retreated up the stairs, and the ponies and animal companions exited the manor. As they walked, Rarity looked down to her sister.
“I’m sorry you had to hear about Diamond’s mother,” Rarity told her.
“You knew?”
“Of course. Filthy is one of my best friends outside of Fluttershy and the girls. It was rather tragically I found out about it, but I didn’t know his daughter lacked the knowledge. However, I’m pretty sure that any drama between you two is going to come to a halt, if things with Mr. Rich go well.”
“You know, Sweetie Belle, that reminds me of a word that Twilight taught me once.”
“What word is that?”
“It means, and I’m paraphrasing to fit the situation, something or someone that has been considered insignificant due to a recent event.
Opal jumped up on Rarity’s back, “Obsolescence.”