//------------------------------// // A Past Unravelled // Story: Hearth's Chilling Eve // by WritingPony //------------------------------// The tree was immaculate, one of the finer specimens from the Canterlot Gardens this time of year. Decorated with spectacular baubles from Saddle Arabia, the finest tinsel from Las Pegasus, and under the tree, the most expensive gifts that bits could buy, ‘donated’ by nobility from across the Canterlot social and political spectrum. The house was warm and inviting. A log fire burned at one end of the living room, carrying aromas from a covered table of food to the nose of the only pony in the room. The filly caught herself getting lost in her plan for tomorrow, triggered by the scent of the apple fritters on the table – delivered direct from Sweet Apple Acres, no less. First, she would shower, and then do her hair – after all, a lady has to look her best. She would then descend the stairs, and her daddy would be waiting for her. She would open the presents under the tree – they were all addressed to her, after all – and then, she would have first pick at the dinner table! Diamond Tiara caught herself drooling at the prospects, and had to silently remind herself that it was only Hearth’s Warming Eve. She couldn’t wait to see Silver Spoon again in the morning; the two of them would have such fun playing in the snow tomorrow! She glanced at the grandfather clock in the hallway. A quarter to ten. It would be time for bed soon, although Diamond Tiara was not sure that she could fall asleep, such was her excitement for the day ahead. Her eyes kept making contact with the stairs leading up, knowing that bedtime was looming sooner or later for her. She begrudgingly accepted that the night was creeping further towards her, and rationalised that, if she could get some sleep, tomorrow would come faster! She slowly made her way up the stairs, and made a right turn, entering the door at the far end of the corridor. This was Her room; her sanctum, her one place of absolute privacy. Not even daddy dared to intrude on her private time. She’d even convinced daddy to fire more than one housekeeper for daring to make her bed in the morning. Diamond Tiara eagerly crawled into bed, and found her sleep-guards on her bedside table waiting for her. The blanket glided easily over her silky-smooth fur, and she brought her head to rest on one of the luxurious embroidered pillows at the head of the bed. Knowing that excitement would make any effort to sleep futile, she stilled her thoughts, and cast aside her expectations for the next day; her mind became a place of tranquillity, serenity and peace. From reality’s perspective, it didn’t take long for her to drift off to sleep, but Diamond Tiara was unaware of such trivialities. She had no idea when it happened, but she was now in what appeared to be a backstage area, sporting a stunning dress and headgear ensemble. It immediately reminded her of the many beauty pageants she had been enrolled in over the years; pageants she had always won. It was nothing personal; after all, she was beautiful, and she knew it. It was her calling in life to be the best-looking pony in the room, and she was prepared to do whatever it took to ensure that situation was forever the status quo. “And now, Diamond Tiara!” That voice! Feminine in nature, it felt familiar to her, and yet one she could have sworn she hadn’t heard in quite some time. She tentatively trotted toward the opening in the curtains, a series of bright lights dazzling her vision. It took what felt like minutes for her vision to adjust to the light. In truth, it was the lights dimming, their beams moving down to the floor and away from her gaze. It was then she noticed; there wasn’t a single soul in the audience! The dinner tables were vacant, the sound system unused, and the dance floor empty of patrons. A flash of panic made its way through Diamond Tiara. Here she was, toffed up to the nines, and there wasn’t a single pony to admire her or compliment her in what was arguably her finest hour. For a split second, her existence felt empty and meaningless, like a cello player being forced to do vocals or use mixing equipment. Her eyes relentlessly scanned the room, looking for any signs of life. It wasn’t long before she noticed a silhouette at the far corner of the room; a shadow cast on the wall seemingly without a counterpart. Without warning, the shadow moved toward her with a mix of grace and efficiency, dissolving as a liquid would and began reforming itself in front of the catwalk. Diamond Tiara was frozen, gripped by a combination of intrigue and sheer terror at what was happening. The fear began to subside when the form became clearer; it was a pony, taller than most, with pink fur, tinted wings and... what looked like royal regalia! Before the transformation finished, she finally recognised that which had been stalking her. The pony opened her eyes, and gave a soft smile in the direction of the filly on stage. “Hello, there! Diamond Tiara, I presume? Apologies for invading your dream in this way, but we have some urgent business to take care of together. No time like the present, right?” Diamond Tiara’s jaw dropped; any lower and it would have gone subterranean. “You... you’re..." “Yes, I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me Princess Cadence; the Princess of Love, and relationship guru extraordinaire!” The pink-furred princess punctuated the last point with a wink, as she trotted over to the stage, “We have a task that we must complete. This evening, I am the Princess of Hearth’s Warming Past, and it is your past that I’m very interested in seeing. I’ve heard very... troubling things about you, and part of me is curious to see what your life has been like." The implied threat that Diamond Tiara was less-than-perfect snapped her attention firmly back to sea level, “Who told you that, some loser blank-flanks?” With a dash of magic, Princess Cadence levitated Diamond Tiara down from the stage and dissolved the dress and headgear plot devices, depositing her on the carpeted floor with an audible grunt at having been deprived of perfectly-good evening-wear. “Well, that little outburst certainly cements the pique of my curiosity." The princess turned to face away from the stage, as her horn started to illuminate. As she moved forward, the walls started to dissolve away, the grand, stately room giving way to an outdoor location. Diamond Tiara immediately recognised the urban vista in front of them. Canterlot! They were in Equestria’s capital city, at what looked to be the height of the Hearth’s Warming holiday season. On autopilot, Diamond Tiara attempted to flag the attention of a street vendor, and was becoming increasingly frustrated, “Ugh, are they, like, ignoring me or something?” The princess moved beside her, and waved one of her wings in front of the merchant, “Nope! They can’t ignore what they can’t see." “Stop speaking in riddles!” “If you insist. This is a recreation of Canterlot... partially from your memories, and partially thanks to an artifact we have at the Castle. These are events that have already come to pass. We are just observers here, and we can neither interact with nor change the world here." “You wanted to peep on me? Ew." Diamond Tiara felt a slight pang of disgust, and rolled her eyes with no degree of subtlety in front of the princess. “Nothing quite like that, my dear. I’ve seen your memories, and I know exactly what I want you to see. This journey of ours is for you to see as much as it is for me to guide you." With a confident hoof-stamp on the ground, the world accelerated in front of them; cobblestone, buildings and ponies passed by in a blur, until they came to a sudden halt in front of a large, majestic building. Penny Pincher’s Prep School for the Privileged The sight of the ominous stone construction was one that Diamond Tiara had hoped to never see again. Nothing I did was ever good enough here. Every answer I gave was wrong.... and every friend I made turned against me. Her muzzle was now pointing down at the ground, her eyes shutting at the unpleasant memories of the time spent here, as one memory after another washed over her. Princess Cadence wasn’t blind to this reaction; one of her wings instinctively reached out, and gave Diamond Tiara a reassuring cuddle, “This... wasn’t enjoyable for you, I’m guessing." Her mind dissuaded itself from thinking about it, “Ugh. If you’re going to do something, do it! The less time I spend here, the better.” Diamond Tiara walked off slowly, and Princess Cadence approached the window as she folded her wing back to her side. A window was ajar, open enough to clearly hear what was happening inside. It was a classroom, filled with the chatter and laughter of fillies. At the front of the room, there was a pony writing on a blackboard, levitating the chalk with a magical aura from her horn. It wasn’t long before the chalk was deposited, as the pony turned around to face the class. She cleared her throat, and cast her gaze squarely at the now-silent fillies in the room, “Class, it seems that somepony had a little... accident in the main corridor yesterday. Would anypony like to own up?” Much as she didn’t want to, Diamond Tiara could hear everything. She had replayed this scene in her mind hundreds of times. Every time her insecurities wanted to come out to play, this is the card they dealt to make it happen. Even now, with her eyes closed, she could see it happen as clear as day. “Miss Pinch!” smirked one filly at the back of the room.“It was Diamond Tiara, miss!.” Another filly next to her spoke up, “Miss, she like, told us in the dorms last night. She’s so trusting." Every eye silently made it’s way to the desk in the far-right middle of the room. The pink-furred filly was now getting noticeably upset, as the teacher addressed the two little ponies at the back of the room, “You two! See me in my office after class!” It did not take long for their snickering to subside, as the teacher’s gaze refocused on the shivering, nervous wreck of Diamond Tiara, “... well, my little pony? What do you have to say for yourself?” It eventually became too much; the filly bolted from her seat, and sped out of the classroom, the cackling and jeering of her peers ringing in her ears, the sounds reverberating down the hall. The laughter only increased when the class noticed a large puddle on the carpet, right under where Diamond Tiara has been sitting. Princess Cadence turned around, and saw Diamond Tiara looking decidedly depressed, as once-forgotten memories from the school swam to the surface of her mind. Diamond Tiara looked up at the alicorn; she found it hard to believe that Princess Cadence had never had treatment like this during her schooling... but then again, it would probably be a very foolish a pony who would bully a filly when her aunt was the nation’s ruler. Diamond Tiara could tell that Cadence was looking at her, the silence becoming increasingly uncomfortable, “Those two at the back... they were real nice the first few weeks I was here. Then... it got bad. Real bad. They kept getting called behind after class, but it only got worse." Diamond Tiara illustrated her pent-up frustration by stamping a hoof on the ground. “Maybe I can shed some light on that..." said the princess, as her horn started to illuminate. Suddenly, Diamond Tiara found herself in the teacher’s office. Her heartbeat increased noticeably, her mind recalling the many times she’d found herself in here. It was the most intimidating room she’d ever been in, and that was still the case years later. Only now, she was at the back of the room, the two fillies from earlier now front and centre. The teacher was in her swivel chair, writing in what looked like a journal. Without warning, she snapped her head up, and addressed her eyes at the two now-sweating ponies in front of her. “You two know why I called you in here." “Um, yeah, about that... I just wanted to say that I’m so sorr-” The teacher held up a hoof, indicating that she did not want to listen to the stream of empty platitudes about to unfold, “That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. I just wanted to say... good job." The two fillies’ jaws dropped, as did hers. In Diamond Tiara’s mind, a mental puzzle was beginning to solve itself, and this conversation was contributing many pieces to that. It was several crucial seconds before the two fillies could process what was happening, “Wait, Miss... you’re... thanking us? I don’t understand..." The teacher got out of her chair, and walked slowly toward them, “This school doesn’t pay for itself, you know. Filthy Rich is paying us top bit to turn his daughter into the ideal successor to take over his company. Our goal is to make her one of the most ruthless, selfish, and manipulative ponies that Equestria has ever seen. A mare perfectly suited to inherit her father’s legacy, and crush anyone that gets in her way." Princess Cadence looked over at the filly to her left, the eyes of Diamond Tiara almost glazing over while the clockwork gears of her brain struggled to take in everything she’d just heard. The Princess of Love was actually beginning to sympathise with Diamond Tiara; her father had sought to emotionally damage his daughter, just so that he would have a successor ruthless enough to keep his business together while still capable of fending off the piranhas inherently attracted to successful businessponies. Try as she did, Diamond Tiara could not stop her emotions from overwhelming her. The tears started flowing like the river running through Ponyville, her forelimbs failing her as she crumpled to the floor in a broken mess. Her mental barriers had been broken, and Princess Cadence knew that it it was now up to her friends to rebuild them. Without warning, the large clock in the room started chiming, echoing the time back in reality. Midnight. Princess Cadence got down on all four hooves, and looked Diamond Tiara in the eye, “I must take my leave of you now. My magic... grows weaker. I cannot maintain my presence here any longer." Diamond Tiara saw through tear-stained eyes that the princess was now translucent, her physical presence disappearing before her, “No! Don’t leave me! You can’t! It’s not fair!” she stormed, stomping a hoof on the ground. Princess Cadence pushed a hoof to the filly’s mouth, “Hush now, my little pony, there will be another of us along shortly. We still have much to show you when the clock strikes One. Farewell, Diamond Tiara.”, she uttered, as her body completely faded from view.