Chapter 22: Hearts & Hoofbreakers
Diamond Tiara entered to the sounds of sobbing and wailing, making it easy to retrace the steps of the pony who had went inside the building before her. She stopped herself for a moment to think if this wasn't trespassing, and if it was really any of her business to involve herself in the misery of another pony who clearly came here for privacy. But she remembered this individual meant something to her once, and if there was something she could do to alleviate their grief, she'd feel bad for turning back.
Clearing her throat, Diamond spoke up as she found her query. "Hey, are you alright? I saw you running past in tears and was worried."
The pony turned her tear-struck eyes towards her, unable to get the words out at first because her breath came irregular. "Applejack doesn't love me-e-e-eee!" Rarity stammered before burying her head in the pillow of her couch.
Diamond was at once reassured this was one of Rarity's overtly dramatic moments and worried because this was the first romantic mishap her teenage idol suffered that was based on more than just a crush.
"Why would you think that? You two have been friends since before I can remember." She tried to gently coax Rarity into telling what happened.
"I-I-I-I t-t-trie...ed- I tried- to- tried to-" Diamond stopped her by raising a hoof to stop her before going to fetch a glass of water because it would be too hard to understand anything through all the hyperventilating. After drinking some, a calming hoof on her shoulder and a few minutes to allow Rarity to calm her breathing, she tried again. "I tried- telling Applejack- about my feelings- for her. And she- and she rejected me!"
While Rarity dove back into the pillows on her drama couch, Diamond Tiara thought it better not to mention she should be used to rejection. "Well why do you think she doesn't love you even so?"
"She said- said that her barn door just doesn't swing that way. I was so sure Hearts and Hooves day was going to be the right time to reveal my deepest desires to her. I had even booked a table for us tonight. I told her of the reservation and if she wouldn't at least indulge me for dinner. She said it was better that we did not do so today. She must think I'm hideous! An abomination unto Celestia! A mare bereft of tact and slave to her lurid nature!" Rarity supposed while she lifted the cover from the heart-shaped box of chocolate she'd dumped next to her couch and stuffed two of the candies in her mouth.
"That's not true. I've talked to Applejack back when Silver was struggling with herself and she never judged us. You are imagining things are worse than they seem." Diamond tried talking some sense into her as she grabbed some discarded cloth and tried to clean Rarity's tear streaked eyes and get the running mascara out of her fur.
"You don't know what's changed around Sweet Apple Acres since then. How Apple Bloom sets the mood nowadays in accordance with her convictions." Rarity rambled on as she offered Diamond one of the chocolates.
Although tempted, Diamond declined it. Her flank was already large enough as it was. She was interested in the bit about Apple Bloom however.
"What did Apple Bloom do? I thought you asked Applejack?"
"After so cruelly breaking my heart, her sister was by Applejack's side in an instant. Apparently having overhead my confession. She warned of how they don't like fillyfoolers around the farm and I should go back to pining for stallions. It was awful! What if she shouts it from her soapbox to the entire town? What if word reaches Canterlot the designer Rarity asked a mare to be her date on Hearts and Hooves Day? Nopony would want to buy dresses again from a disreputable fillyfooler. My career would be ruined!" Rarity screamed her distress while Diamond pondered.
It seemed rather odd Apple Bloom would dare say that to one of her friends' older sister, and her older sister's friend. But then, where sisters were concerned, siblings were incredibly protective. Diamond Tiara had never been blessed with a sibling, but read enough romance novels to know it was true. Knowing Rarity's drama queen tendencies, she imagined Rarity hadn't stuck around to hear of any reprimand given to Apple Bloom by Applejack.
"I must cover my tracks! Erase all evidence this conversation ever took place! The reservations for dinner, I need them cancelled!" Rarity began frantically pacing in panic mode.
"Actually, me and Silver were going to eat out tonight to celebrate Hearts and Hooves. We could take that table from you." Diamond proposed. It'd save her going there, which by now was getting interrupted constantly.
"Oh yes! And you can do something else for me." She levitated a book from one of the salon tables into Diamond's face for her to take. "I cannot be seen returning this to the library, but someone might see this when they come in here and presume something."
Diamond read the book title as 'Dating A Mare: A Fillyfooler's Handbook'. She was well past the stage of needing a book to tell her the birds and the bees, but Rarity was right to think it wasn't horribly out of place for her to carry it.
"Eh, sure. Anything for a friend. Take... care of yourself." Diamond awkwardly averted her eyes from Rarity, binge eating chocolate candies as tears continued to streak down her face.
* * *
Knocking thrice on the door of the Ponyville library, Diamond was only half surprised to see Princess Twilight open the door. It figured she didn't have a pony on Hearts and Hooves day.
"I'm here to return a book, your Highness." Diamond declared as she showed the item in question.
"Ah yes, Rarity checked this one out a few days ago I remember." Twilight said, while Diamond cringed at how loud her declaration had been. If only she'd read the title out loud, all of Ponyville would have known about Rarity's bi-curious escapades. "Dating A Mare: A Fillyfooler's Handbook." Twilight finished, to Diamond's chagrin.
After facehoofing herself, she followed Princess Twilight into the library where she proceeded to check the book back in and leave it on the pile to be returned to the shelves.
"So how did things go? Who's the lucky mare that stole Rarity's heart?" Twilight Sparkle inquired curiously as she did her job as a librarian.
"If she didn't tell you that herself, I'm not going to either. Honestly, I have a feeling you'll find out soon enough." Diamond Tiara denied before changing the topic. "And what about you? Has somepony asked you out for Hearts and Hooves, Princess?"
She saw Twilight cringe and answer suspiciously. "N-no. No stallion has asked me out. And you don't have to call me Princess."
"No stallions? Then what about mares?" Diamond prodded. If she found out Twilight was secretly in the closet, she was sure she would burst out laughing.
"Twilight was invited to have a dinner with her friend Moondancer in Canterlot a couple of weeks back in a way too romantic setting and had to tell her off." Answered Spike, who had come in to dust the shelves without their noticing.
Twilight cringed more visibly this time and spun around, almost reflexively tossing an almanac at Spike's face. "Spike! I told you not to mention this to anypony!"
"Oh, oops." Spike appollogized before beating a hasty retreat.
"So, I take it this didn't end well." Diamond Tiara assumed after an awkward silence had reigned.
"No, not at all. I am not a pony who's prone to romantic lovey-dovey things - well, except maybe the occasional boy crush - but I know well enough I like stallions, not mares. So when Moondancer started to get really suggestive, I was getting panicked." Twilight admitted.
"You could have taken it as a compliment. I'm not one for colts, but I wouldn't pass up their compliments of how beautiful I look." Diamond Tiara reasoned.
"I was not looking for affirmation of my body image. And the way she communicated her interest in me was just way beyond my comfort zone." Twilight turned to face Diamond Tiara. "I mean, I don't hate fillyfoolers. Really, I don't. But Moondancer has issues. I don't know if I should feel guilty for not having been there for her as a friend, but I think she was better off as a shut-in who wanted nothing to do with me."
"Why don't you add 'some of my best friends are fillyfoolers' to that, Princess?" Diamond proposed, more than a little irked her former role model was sounding just slightly intolerant.
"As a matter of fact, some of them are. But that's not the point. She was acting really inappropriate. It made me uncomfortable, and I may have said things that I regret and were really hurtful. But you had to have been there, it was like she had a compulsion!" Twilight tried frantically to justify herself, though she had lost Diamond's sympathy.
"Right, 'compulsion'. 'Inappropriate'. 'Issues'. Those are the kind of words I've heard from Silver Spoon regarding her 'treatment'. They told her she was better as a repressed shut-in, and to stop making ponies 'uncomfortable with her disorder'." Diamond Tiara uttered as she turned to leave the library. "Happy Hearts and Hooves day, your Highness."
* * *
In a foul mood despite having gained table reservations for herself and Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara returned to her shop to inform Silver Spoon, only to find an even better reason to be irked upon arrival. Upon entering the store, Diamond was greeted with a rather unwelcome sight.
"D-d-don't try anything!" Silver Spoon stuttered as she seemed tense from the customer by her register.
"Why? I'm just looking. My eyes just happen to be drawn to those display cases and selection behind you. No harm in looking, right?" Berry Pinch asked almost rhetorically.
"I'll- I'll call the police and have you removed." Silver threatened.
"Oh, but you can't. They have a law against that sort of thing." Berry replied as she seemed to almost stare through Silver Spoon, keeping her eyes on the gray mare as she moved in such a way that made her seem intimidating.
"What kind of law?" Diamond demanded to know as she announced her presence to Berry Pinch.
"Oh, in case you didn't know, Diamond, Mayor Mare has made it illegal to refuse customer service or remove from the store prospective clients outside of closing times barring a valid reason that holds up in court. Maybe you should have studied up on it if you're going to run a business. You cannot seperate that from politics." Berry informed her.
"Now why would she do that?" Diamond Tiara asked, rather sceptical.
"Oh, concerns over shopkeepers denying service based on race. The increasingly divisive atmosphere has a lot of politically correct ponies worried. And you know the mayor, always ready to make a visible stand against racism to make herself look good in the eyes of the public. Except of course this is just something blown out of proportion and not in reaction to any real event in which a pony was refused entry to a store based on race, gender orientation or anything. A lot of ado about nothing. In fact, it's probably fuelling resentment where there wasn't much before. I've heard some earth ponies mumbling something along the lines of 'must have been passed for some uppity put-upon pegasus or snooty unicorn not getting the treatment she wanted'. Did you know Apple Bloom is pulling ahead in the latest polls by the way? This is exactly what that head of hers needs; more encouragement to keep spouting those insipid lines against the all-powerful Establishement. You and Silver might have to pack your bags soon if her progressive taxation proposals get rubber stamped, they're punitive on snot-nosed rich fillies and their daddy more-bits."
"If I find you hurting or bothering Silver here in any way I will kick your plot to the curb, law or no law!" Diamond Tiara threatened in no uncertain terms.
"Careful Mrs. middlemare pony, you wouldn't want the blame to land on the pony tending the register who isn't you." Berry cautioned, but moved around Diamond Tiara to leave, who watched her do so.