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// 19 - We Were Here First 
// Story: Tarnished Silver and Clouded Diamonds 
// by David Silver 
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Silver Spoon looked out over her glasses at a griffon guard approaching with a pony behind him. Ponies were fairly rare in the city. This was the first earth pony they had seen -- other than themselves -- in the entire city. The others had all been pegasi. "Isn't that totally Pinkie Pie?"

Diamond rolled over from her massage to look where Silver was looking. She blinked in surprise before she sat up and hopped out of her chair.

Pinkie spotted the two and bounced past her escort to greet them. "I've been looking for you two forever! Gosh. You wouldn't believe the things I went through, but forget that. I'm so glad you're OK!" She looked between the two, and the curious reptile looking at her, and their servant.

The griffon guard nodded. "Looks like you're in the right place. Have a good day."

Diamond Tiara fished out a silver coin for a tip and sent the griffon on his way. "Daddy didn't come?"

Pinkie tilted her head. "Huh? No, just me. I don't think your dad even knows about other worlds."

Silver Spoon blinked owlishly. "Other worlds?"

Pinkie waved her hooves widely. "All of this?! This isn't Equestria! This is, um, Everglow, that's it."

Gneech bobbed his head. "Yes, is Everglow. What is Equestria?"

Diamond poked Pinkie in the side. "Before we get into that, we've got to get you looking better. Have you eaten in the last week?"

Pinkie perked an ear at Diamond, then looked quite thoughtful. "Um... I don't exactly remember... I was so focused on finding you two and making sure you weren't in trouble."

Diamond clopped her hooves, looking at their butler. "Get Pinkie some lunch, and a change of clothes immediately."

Pinkie let the butler measure her, though her eyes were locked on Diamond Tiara. "You have a new butler? How'd you manage that?"

Silver Spoon trotted up and held out her glass of bright red drink, and Pinkie slurped it down hurriedly. "This is not what I expected. You two are rescuing me." She pouted a little before breaking out into a huge grin. "Good job!"

Silver Spoon recoiled in surprise. "Huh?"

Pinkie bobbed her head. "Good job. You're doing amazingly! You have to tell me everything you've been up to! I always knew you two were a clever duo, but this, wow. You've blown me away."

Diamond Tiara felt a warm sense of satisfaction building in her. Having an adult, even a somewhat scatter-brained party planner, commending her activities just felt really good. "It's nothing, really," she said with false humility. "We've started a textile revolution and we're swimming in bits."

Pinkie threw up her hooves. "Is that all?" She burst into manic giggles. "I thought you two were being eaten by some terrible beast or something." The butler returned and started peeling Pinkie free of her clothes. Instead of putting her into the new set, she was picked up and carried away. "Hey, wait, where are we going?!"

"A bath, madame."

"Oh." Pinkie stopped wriggling and let herself be carried to a tub inside the building.

Gneech tilted his head. "You know pink horse?"

Silver Spoon nodded. "She makes really fun parties. We've been casual friends with her for a long time."

Diamond huffed. "Why did they send her to find us? I mean, not that I begrudge it, I guess."

Silver Spoon shrugged in reply. "I don't know, but did you see her? It looked like she crawled back and forth across the world a few times before she found us."

Gneech scratched behind his head. "She is stupid, but loyal, friend."

Diamond shook her head. "How am I supposed to show off what I've accomplished with just her knowing about it." She huffed and stomped a hoof before returning to her seat to sprawl in her dissatisfaction.

Silver moved to sit beside Diamond. "The most important ponies know." She pointed at Diamond, then herself.

Diamond quirked a smile at Silver's attempts to be encouraging. "Does she even know how to go home?"

Silver shrugged. "Let's ask her when she gets back? I mean, I like the bits and all, but it still isn't Equestria..."

Diamond considered that. They were living the fine life of the city, but it wasn't any city they knew. They didn't have many of the things she had started to take for granted back home. Silver continued, "Besides, we proved we can do it, like, we can do it again, together."

Diamond felt the warmth return and sat up. "Yeah, you're right. It's not the city that's important, it's us! We're awesome no matter where we go."

"Are you Diamond Tiara?" A wiry griffon had walked up to them and was looking down at them.

Diamond raised a brow up at the griffon. "I don't think there's many to confuse me with. What do you want?"

The griffon sneered in an uncouth fashion. "A message for ya." He dropped a box rudely on her belly. "Ta." 

He walked off even as Diamond Tiara sat up in a huff. "He'd better leave, as if he'd get a tip after that."

Gneech scowled at the box and moved towards it quickly. "Gneech not trust, let Gneech see."

Diamond Tiara pulled the box away from him. "It's mine, Gneech!"

Gneech shook his head. "Gneech not take things from alpha horse. Let Gneech make sure is safe, then have box."

Diamond hesitated a moment before she surrendered the box to the kobold. Gneech dashed off with the box and set it down. He started poking and prodding it carefully, inspecting its hinges and peering at it like it was a deadly beast ready to pounce him.

Silver Spoon sat up and looked at him, then Diamond. "What's he doing?"

Diamond huffed. "He's playing with it. Your guess is as good as any."

Gneech worked off the screws on the back of the box and cracked it open from the wrong side while hunched over the box. "Ah ha! Gneech is right!"

"Right about what, Gneech?" Silver adjusted her glasses out of nervous habit.

Gneech put the cover back on gently, then backed away from the box. "Nothing but explosives. Go boom when you open. Someone trying to hurt alpha horse, but stupid. Should know kobolds master of traps."

Diamond scowled at the news. "Who would dare?!" Her expression changed as the situation sank in a little. "Are we talking like 'ha ha, ink all over your face' explosion?"

Gneech shook his head quickly. "Talking big boom!" He threw his scaly hands wide at the word. "Little pieces of alpha horse everywhere."

Silver Spoon shuddered at the imagery summoned. "Oh Celestia! Why would anypony want to do that to us?"

Diamond raised a brow. "Someone who doesn't like what we've done. We're costing them a lot of gold, taking their business, crashing the prices of some of their colors severely. They'll never be able to sell brown ink for anything more than a pittance ever again." She pointed at the box. "And that's how they say 'thanks'."

Silver Spoon shook her head quickly. "You don't blow somepony up over that! You send, like, an angry letter or something."

Pinkie popped out from behind Silver's chair, dressed in local fashions. "Maybe back in Equestria."

Silver squealed at Pinkie's abrupt appearance, and jumped from the chair. Diamond rolled her eyes. "Pinkie's right. This isn't Equestria, like she said when she got here." She slipped to the ground and pointed at the box accusingly. "Killing the competitor's as valid a method as any other."

Pinkie tapped her chin. "I wouldn't exactly call it 'as valid'. Only mean people would do something like that. Is someone bothering you, Diamond?"

Gneech pointed at the box. "Box full of boom. Sent to alpha horse to hurt her."

Pinkie approached the box and picked it up, giving it a little shake before she nodded in agreement. She pulled a hoof back before hurling it up into the sky, where it detonated violently but harmlessly. "To think someone would think that's the right thing to do to a couple of fillies. Well don't you two worry your pretty little heads! Auntie Pinkie is here to protect you." In a lot of ways, she looked happier to have come for a purpose than to have found them entirely secure and comfortable.

Gneech moved up to Pinkie, looking her over. "Who are you?"

Pinkie tilted her head at Gneech. "Oh hi! I'm Pinkie." She thrust a hoof forward and it was met with a clawed hand, and they shook in greetings. "Nice to meetcha. Thanks for keeping eye on those two."

Gneech shook his head. "They saved Gneech. Gneech would be sad and maybe dead on snowy mountains, but they took Gneech in, give Gneech purpose again. Now Gneech is doing good. Eat good, drink good, even sleep good. Alpha horse is best horse." He pointed at Diamond Tiara, who soaked up the praise with a smile. "You work for alpha horse too?"

Pinkie glanced at Diamond, then back at Gneech before she bobbed her head. "Sure thing. It's my job to keep her and Silver Spoon safe until my friends figure out how to pull us back to Equestria. It shouldn't be so tough this time, since Twilight has her book back and everything." She rubbed her nose with a fetlock. "I wonder how they'll do it..."

Diamond clopped the ground with a hoof. "Forget that a moment. I won't accept this outright attack laying down. If I go, I go on my own terms, not to run away from some cowardly griffon that thinks blowing me up is how to handle business."

Silver didn't look quite as convinced. "If we can go home, DT, what does it, like, matter?"

Diamond wheeled on Silver. "It's the principle of the thing! We won, fair and square. I won't have our final move being to run away scared. No, forget that. I'd sooner bring this whole industry crashing down."

Pinkie tilted her head. "How do you do that?"

Diamond wobbled a hoof. "Oh that's easy. Just get more chemists in on the action of making dyes. The more chemists are busy producing them and competing with each other, the more that level of the supply chain would collapse, until no one was getting much. The industry would collapse, and coloring would be a minor factor at best for pricing clothes."

Silver shook her head slowly. "How do you know all this, Diamond Tiara? You're, like, a genius!"

Diamond buffed a hoof against her chest, looking inflated and proud. "I paid attention when father was busy with his own work, and I read a few books. Now, who's with me?"

Gneech raised a hand quickly. "Gneech always with alpha horse."

Pinkie tilted her head. "Are we gonna hurt them?

Diamond raised a brow. "You don't think they deserve it? They tried to kill me!"

Silver raised a hoof timidly. "You know I'm with you, Diamond Tiara."

Diamond looked to Pinkie pointedly, as the only pony that hadn't yet agreed to help her plan of vengeance.