//------------------------------// // Berried Deep // Story: Silver Marriage // by cdcdrr //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Berried Deep Diamond Tiara had poured herself a coffee from the food and drinks table and turned around to find Silver again when she bumped into somepony else who she'd given a hard time once. "Dinky! My gosh, I'm sorry." Diamond apologized as she put the cup down and grabbed some tissue to wipe some of the spilled coffee off the mare she'd hit. "Oh no worry, I wasn't looking. It wasn't your fault." Dinky brushed the incident off. "Did I burn you? I don't think it was very hot." Diamond finished and threw the wipes into the trash can. "Why do you care? I didn't believe you'd consider anypony but yourself." Dinky tilted her head questioningly, but there was no accusation in her voice. "The Diamond Tiara I know would just blame me for spilling her drink." The brutally honest fact stung Diamond's conscience despite her manners right now. "Well, I'm not the Diamond Tiara you once knew anymore. Goodness Dinky, that was how many years back?" "Fifteen years I think? Less?" Dinky helped herself to some coffee herself. "A lot happened between then and I haven't kept track of a lot of it." The optimism she showed felt a uncomfortable to Diamond Tiara, who knew the elephant in the room. "You... you've always paid no attention to us- to me and Silver Spoon teasing you. You know, calling you a loner and making fun of your mom. But I just want to say I'm sorry even if you never let it bother you." "That's okay, mommy always said not to listen to bullies. So I just ignore you and Silver." Dinky picked up her coffee with her magic and cantered off smiling. The intimation that her attitude held in the present made Diamond Tiara question whether Dinky was really just an airhead with too much innocence in her bearing, or if she was capable of stealthily snubbing ponies. It didn't seem undeserved either way that Dinky was just slightly negative towards her. She and Silver Spoon had made the unicorn filly cry many times, picking on her because of her family. When she struggled in school, they'd told her it was because her mother was dumb to. When Dinky was all alone, they said nopony would want to hang around her mother either. When she didn't get a single card for Hearts and Hooves Day, they reminded her she didn't have a dad because her mother was a bimbo tramp. But no matter how low and how far she and Silver went, nothing stuck permanently. All it took was for Dinky to run crying to her mother, and she'd be given a hug, a smile, and the advice not to listen to 'those mean fillies'. And it had always been infuriatingly effective at cheering Dinky right up. Perhaps she realized that Dinky had something that Diamond never had, and that was a loving mother. She blinked away a tear, not wanting to break down in the middle of her reunion. Diamond Tiara was refilling her coffee cup when she heard another of her past victims call her out. This time, she felt no regret. "Oh hey, it's Diamond Tiara. Cheating on your wife with a blonde hot flank?" Sneered the voice of Berry Pinch. "What do you care if Dinky and I have a chat?" Diamond replied through clenched teeth. "I couldn't help but overhear the burn she gave you after you tried to physically do the same to her. Bravo Tiara, for the attempt. But you should have used the tea, it's still boiling hot." Berry Pinch leaned against the refreshment table, standing in Diamond Tiara's way. "Too bad there's no alcohol for you, Berry." Diamond exchanged fire. She could see Berry's expressing worsen from sarcasm to hate. "I'm just surprised you bothered to show your face her at all. Seeing as how everypony in this school hates you. Nobody here ever really liked unless they wanted access to your pool or toys. I think even Miss Cheerilee only put up with you because it was her job. Even your daddy didn't want to be around you so he hired servants to do it." Diamond turned her head abruptly to glare at Berry Pinch, but she kept herself under control. It was unbecoming of a mare with class to sink to the level of Berry Pinch. Still, she wanted to get away from this mare who knew exactly what nerves to touch. She began walking to one of the school children's' desks to put down her coffee, only to be followed. "Didn't you get married to Silver Spoon? The only filly shallow enough to stick with you? I read that you had a wedding, but word is that none of your parents showed up. I bet they didn't want to show their face around their two little fillyfoolers, am I right?" Berry Pinch kept pushing, enough so for Diamond to lose her cool and push back. "I read your mom's liquor store went bankrupt, again. Between the both of you, I'm not even fazed." It was a fact Berry Punch couldn't run a business, although that had more to do with her alcoholism than her drinking the whole inventory. Diamond Tiara got some satisfaction from the flash of anger across Berry's face. "You shut up about my mom, brat. At least she was there for me, unlike yours!" "Yeah, to apologize for the neglect and drunken mistreatment." Diamond Tiara continued to rub in the childhood trauma. As much as Diamond Tiara had come to regret her bullying, she couldn't bring herself to regret it in Berry Pinch's case. She actually felt more sorry for her mother, whose alcoholism was a serious problem. It often seemed that not a week went by without Berry Punch embarrassing herself in public by lolling around drunk late at night after binge drinking, or coming on too strongly to some pony in a bar and being brought into the guard station for harassment. There were days when Berry Pinch would be late for school because of her mother's antics, but these episodes at least served to make her more self reliant at a young age. Diamond Tiara's bullying on the other hand had done nothing for her demeanour. She and Silver Spoon had loved to remind everypony of Berry Punch's humiliating antics and neglect for her daughter. They had hurt her just as with Dinky, putting the idea in her mind that she was the reason Berry Punch drank. That her mother was ashamed of her daughter and she had made her miserable. This became even harsher upon learning that on a few occasions, Berry Punch had actually blurted out such words of disappointment. It was the alcohol talking, certainly, but Berry Pinch's life had taken a very depressing turn since meeting Diamond Tiara. All of that, however, was no excuse for how she had learned to cope with it; try and be the bigger bully herself. Berry's disregard for other ponies had gone to lengths that even Diamond Tiara was afraid of. While Berry's grievances lay with her and Silver Spoon, she had begun taking it out on Dinky and other ponies to. It had helped to teach Diamond Tiara that bullying wasn't so much fun when you're the target. But whereas she had realized her mistakes, it now seemed Berry was set in hers. She suppressed the voice that told her she was responsible for it, assuring herself that Berry Pinch was an adult now and entirely responsible for her own behaviour. Trying to take her own mind off of Berry Pinch, she raised the cup of coffee to find stimulation in the content instead of her mean-spirited arguing with Berry Pinch. "Actually, maybe you get along with Dinky so well because of your mothers. Yours is gone, as is hers." Berry's smug expression at that last barb was the last straw for Diamond Tiara. She may not have ever been nice to Derpy, but such a sick comment made her indignant nonetheless. Diamond Tiara's coffee splashed into Berry's face before she could wipe that grin off her mug. She was silent for a full five seconds, before making her way into the bathroom without another word. Diamond Tiara feared the mare more when she was silent than when she was throwing out insults, but she believed it worth the risk of drawing Berry's ire. For Dinky's sake she would. Whilst she could handle ponies talking about her mom mostly because she had left too early for Diamond Tiara to feel any attachment, Dinky's life was defined by the care given to her by Derpy. And when Diamond had to print in the obituaries that Derpy Hooves had passed on as a result of the drastically shortened life expectancy of ponies with her condition, it had still hurt her despite how often she'd mocked the grey pegasus for it. To hear Berry Pinch talk about her in such a way offended her worse than anything else she could have said to her. Not wanting to stay for the drama that was almost sure to follow, Diamond nervously looked for Silver, finding her standing between Babs Seed and the duo of Snips and Snails. "Come on Silver, we're leaving. I don't want to be around any longer." She told her spouse without hiding her discomfort from her.