Diamond Tiara smiled as Randall poured a second cup of tea for her and her guests.
“That will be all, Randall,” she barked, as the butler stepped back into the shadows.
“This tea is very lovely,” Silver Spoon said from Diamond Tiara’s right.
The pink filly took a delicate sip of her own tea. Yellow Gold Tea, something her father only ever allowed her to drink on the rarest of occasions, as each bud was infused with twenty-four carat gold. It tasted divine! She—and by extension, her guests—deserved only the very best.
Diamond Tiara set her teacup down on the saucer, and grimaced when the table wobbled.
“Randall!” she barked again, as the butler emerged from the shadows a second time.
“Yes, Mistress Tiara?” the elder pony asked.
“My table is all wobbly!” the filly complained. “You’re embarrassing me in front of my guests, Randall!”
The butler slowly got down to his knees to inspect the offensive piece of furniture.
“Ah, it seems that I have found the problem, Mistress,” the butler replied. “Your table has only three legs.”
Diamond Tiara blushed. How could her table only have three legs? This was highly embarrassing, especially in front of such prestigious guests! She ducked her head low, to peer under the table. True enough, the table only had three legs.
“Diamond Tiara,” Apple Bloom moaned, “this table is heavy.”
“Quiet, leg!” Diamond Tiara chastised the blank flank.
“I just want to go home,” Sweetie Belle sobbed.
“You can’t do this to us!” Scootaloo snarled.
“I can… and I have,” Diamond Tiara said, smirking. Seeing the blank flanks in their rightful place always brought a smile to her face.
But then, her table still only had three legs, and that was such an embarrassment.
“Silver Spoon,” Diamond Tiara crooned, her voice rich and silky, “my table only has three legs.”
“Oh no!” the gray filly gasped. “Three legs‽”
“Yes,” Diamond Tiara said, nodding. “Be a dear…” She motioned towards the unsupported fourth corner next to her.
“Anything for you, Di!”
The gray filly got up from her chair and settled herself beneath the table, the hard wood leaning heavily on her back.
“There’s a good girl,” Diamond Tiara said, as she stroked Silver Spoon under the chin. “Now, stand up… we can’t let my table be wobbly in front of my guests, can we?”
Silver Spoon purred, before standing and taking the weight of the table with an unladylike grunt.
“Randall,” Diamond Tiara shouted. As the butler reappeared, she motioned towards her guests. “See that Lady Fastus and Lord Avarita are taken care of.”
Lord Avarita, a well-groomed unicorn stallion with a white coat and blue mane, nodded to the little filly before greedily drinking yet another cup of the expensive tea. Diamond Tiara chuckled at the stallion’s voracious appetite.
“It is wonderful to see one so commanding,” Lady Fastus cooed. “You truly are a beacon to all.”
Diamond Tiara glowed in the praise.
“Rich,” Lord Avarita said.
“Strong,” Lady Fastus added.
“Powerful,” they said in unison.
Lady Fastus levitated another goat-cheese crostino to her lips and nibbled delicately.
Diamond Tiara watched the elder mare with some jealousy. She was tall and thin, with slender legs and a long, delicate horn. Her coat was almost white, with the barest tint of pink. Her mane was beautifully coiffed, two-toned white with a pink streak through it.
Lady Fastus put down her unfinished crostino, then turned to Diamond Tiara.
“Do not be jealous, Diamond Tiara,” she said. Diamond Tiara blushed, feeling embarrassed for being caught. “Not even I can match your own beauty.” Diamond Tiara sat up a little straighter in her chair. “Your looks are the envy of so many fillies and mares in this town already.”
A smile crossed Diamond Tiara’s face.
It was true. Many of her classmates looked upon her with jealousy. Why wouldn’t they?
“You are beautiful,” Lady Fastus said.
“You are rich,” Lord Avarita added.
“They all want you, and want to be you,” they crooned in unison.
Diamond Tiara felt her head go light. Was it getting warm in here?
“And with my help—” Lady Fastus started.
“Our help…” Lord Avarita corrected.
“—you can be so much more.”
“Enough!”
The voice boomed through the darkened plane as a third guest appeared. Princess Luna stood tall, glaring at the two unicorns. Diamond Tiara sat, confused, unsure as to why the Princess had joined her little soirée.
“Begone!” she spoke, her voice echoing loudly in Diamond’s ears. She lit her horn, and a wave of white light washed over Diamond Tiara and her guests. When the light died down, the princess glared at the intruders. “What dark magick is this? Thou hast no place here, Spirits!”
“Ahh, but we do,” Fastus replied. Diamond Tiara stared at her guest, unbelieving. The previously beautiful unicorn now stood tall, a chitinous creature on six legs with a large bone plate in place of where her face once was. She had no eyes, but her mouth was filled with rows upon rows of jagged, yellow teeth.
As horrifying as the sight was, Diamond Tiara did not find in herself any feelings of revulsion.
“She has invited us,” Avarita added. He too, now stood exposed. He stood on two short legs, with a squat body at the end, covered in thick, brown fur. His face was still equine in nature, but now sported five eyes on either side, from his muzzle to his ears. His mouth was obscenely wide, almost threatening to split his head in half. The horn that had originally graced his head had been replaced by two large antlers, similar in look to the Elk folk from the west. Though unlike the elk, his antlers were pitch black and hurt her eyes to focus on.
As with Fastus, Diamond Tiara felt no revulsion towards the grotesque creature.
“See these creatures for what they truly are, child,” Princess Luna said as she glowered at the pair. “Listen not to Their honey words. They have no place within a child’s heart.”
“But that is where you are wrong,” Fastus replied with a grin. “This child, as you call her—” Diamond Tiara bristled at being called a child. “—has given us enough of a foothold that she can now hear our offer.”
Princess Luna slammed her hoof on the table, jumping a little as Sweetie Belle whimpered from beneath. “Nay, ‘tis a lie! No child hath so tarnished a heart that they could hear Thee!”
Diamond Tiara scowled at the Princess. How dare she keep calling her a child!
Avarita burst out laughing. “You may deny it all you want, but it speaks only of your naiveté.”
“Were you not ‘merely a child’ when you struck your pact with your Invidia?”
“I… I was over four hundred when she made her offer.” Princess Luna stepped back, as if struck. “I was no child!”
“No child by mortal standards, maybe—” Avarita chuckled darkly.
“—but an alicorn child nonetheless,” Fastus finished with a sneer. “None interfered with your pact, so leave us be!”
“Aye… ‘tis true that none were there to advise Us against Our own folly.” Princess Luna stepped forward again, staring Diamond Tiara in the eyes. “Take care, filly, that thou dost not fall into the same trap as We did. Thou art too young to understand the dangers these Spirits present.”
Avarita walked towards the filly, circling her as she backed away from the table. “You could have money, jewels, all the fame and wealth you could imagine.”
Diamond Tiara closed her eyes and breathed deeply… she could imagine a lot.
Princess Luna was halted by a buffeting wind as she pushed towards Diamond Tiara and the spirits. “Nay! Do not let them touch thee!”
“She fears you,” Fastus whispered, as she too, began circling the filly. “She fears your power. She fears your strength—”
“Your cunning—” Avarita whispered.
“Your intelligence,” Fastus added, mere inches away from the filly. “She was not strong enough to wield her Invidia… but you—”
“—with our power—” Avarita continued.
“Could have everything the Princess could never hold,” they finished together.
Diamond Tiara looked at the bone plate that was Fastus’s face. It was hard to gauge what the Spirit was thinking, given the lack of facial features to read. But her father had always taught her that if a business deal seemed too good to be true, it likely was. It was up to her to ensure she got the most out of every transaction, and to never trust the ‘altruism’ of others.
“What do you get out of it?” she asked the spirits.
“Ahh, so perceptive,” Fastus cooed. “Your wit speaks highly of you.”
“What we get from this pact… as yes, this is a pact… is to live and breath. To see Equestria once more, through you.”
“They speak of possession, child!” Luna shouted over the roar of the wind. “Fall not for Their trap!”
“Possession!” Avarita scoffed.
Fastus slid closer to Diamond Tiara, so close to touching that the filly could feel the warmth coming from the taller creature. “She seeks only to lay blame for her mistakes on her Invidia, when in truth Luna was just not strong enough to wield her.
“Unlike you… for that is what you will be able to do. You will wield us, like a weapon.”
“Does not the soldier wield the spear?” Avarita whispered, closing in on the filly’s other side.
“You have the strength to wield us,” Fastus whispered, her warm breath on Diamond’s lips. “Accept our pact, and we will once more see Equestria, through your eyes.”
”Nay, child!” Luna screamed over the howling wind.
“Wield us,” Avarita whispered in Diamond Tiara’s ear, his warm breath sending pleasurable shivers down her spine, “and take what is rightfully yours.”
“I accept your pact,” Diamond Tiara whispered.
The distance between the spirits and Diamond Tiara closed. Avarita touched his muzzle to Diamond’s ear, as Fastus brought her lips to the filly’s. In a flash of darkness, the two spirits disappeared, and Diamond Tiara fell to the ground, screaming.
She thrashed her limbs about, a searing pain spreading throughout her body.
“Accept us, child,” Avarita’s voice echoed in her mind.
“It will only hurt for a little while,” Fastus’s voice added.
Diamond Tiara kept spasming on the ground, her head bashing against the hard surface. With a final, violent spasm, the filly collapsed, no longer breathing.
The wall of wind that kept the Princess at bay dissipated, and Luna dove towards the filly.
“Nay! Nay!” the princess wailed. “Say it is not so!
“Wake, child!” She shook the limp filly in her forehooves. “Awaken and live!”
Already, Luna could feel the warmth leaving the filly as the table, and the four fillies holding it up, disappeared behind her. The butler, too, had blown away into a shadow. Soon, nothing but darkness surrounded the Princess and the filly.
“We are sorry, child,” Luna said, tears streaking down her muzzle. “Had We come sooner… We should have protected thee.”
“Requiescat in pace,” Luna whispered, setting the filly’s body back on the ground. All but the smallest patch of light still existed in the world, and Luna knew it would be over soon. “We— I am sorry, child.”
At last, Luna found herself in complete darkness.
There was nothing left for her here, so she departed, back to her astral realm.
“I—” a voice called out in the darkness. The filly stood to her hooves, opening her eyes. Brilliant blue irises shone through the darkness, their pupils slit like those of a dragon. She opened her mouth, revealing rows upon rows of sharp, jagged teeth. “—am a child no longer.”
Diamond Tiara looked around her barren dreamscape and smiled. She had plans to make, things to set in motion. It would take time, but time she had.
“Everypony has to grow up some time.”