The next day dawned bright and early, and Diamond didn’t want it to dawn. She didn’t want to have to fess up to letting her friends ninja snuggle her, how they were all practically literally lying together on the pillows and blankets on the floor to the side of Apple Bloom’s currently unused bed. They were just so warm, and soft, and heavy, and breathing. It was just... really nice. Diamond wondered if this was what it was like having a pet. She wanted a dog some day, a nice big one who could sleep with you like... this.
Scootaloo woke up after Diamond Tiara, yawning and stretching out a hoof saying, “Ugh, what am I sleeping on...”
“Oh Scootaloo, is that any way to talk about your bed?” Diamond teased the pony. Scootaloo tensed up, then flailed herself right off of Diamond Tiara’s abdomen, her hoof contacting painfully once, as she did, but Diamond just grunted and ignored it. It was worth it, to see Scootaloo standing there like a dog next to her, head hunched and blushing up a storm saying “I–I–I swear I didn’t go to sleep like that!”
“What’re you two yammerin’ about,” Apple Bloom groaned, lifting her head from where she was practically making a nest out of Diamond’s hair.
“We were just talking about how you cute little ponies just looove cuddles,” Diamond said sweetly, tilting her head back to look at the pony.
“Ohh, heh heh..” Apple Bloom said discomfited, rolling off Diamond’s pillow so she could stand on her own. “We sorta did that, yeah,” she admitted, kicking a hoof on the ground. “Ah just didn’t want ya to feel unwelcome...”
“Well I don’t mind,” Diamond said in a subdued sing song, “If I’m just too irresistable to stay away from, that’s just my burden to bear!”
Scootaloo blinked at the two of them sleepily, and said disinterestedly, “I’munna go check on breafast.” She walked quietly out of the room, her hoofsteps scarcely clopping on the floor boards as she did so. Scootaloo’s scraggly wing arms were half spread for some reason, so maybe that helped? Diamond didn’t know, but Scootaloo was pretty good at being quiet when she wanted to be.
Before Apple Bloom could also tip toe out, Diamond looked to her right at the still sleeping Sweetie Belle, asking her remaining awake friend, “...what’s with her?”
Sweetie, the little fuzzy white unicorn, was still sleeping—and hugging—against Diamond. Her ear was flattened against Diamond’s shoulder, her right front leg crooked over Diamond’s side, and her left arm crossed over her chest in a human-ish fashion, so that Sweetie Belle could lay there, peacefully sucking on her hoof.
“She stayed in her own dream,” Apple Bloom explained quietly. “I been looking for Scootaloo’s dream, so we ain’t been dreaming together so much.”
“So, you... like, walk between each other’s dreams, right?” Diamond speculated.
“Sorta, ah dunno how to explain it,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “But I’d just let her sleep though. She was real tired after yesterday!”
“Yeah, I didn’t think you ponies could actually get cold,” Diamond said in a reserved tone. “But um... I’m still kinda stuck here.”
“Wait,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly, “She got cold?”
Diamond nodded, whispering, “Tell you later. You go check on breakfast and make sure Scootaloo isn’t getting herself in trouble.
“I’d come with you,” Diamond added, “But clearly I’m trapped here like, forever, crushed beneath the tremendous weight of her elbow!”
Apple Bloom snickered, covering her mouth with a hoof, then said, “Actually that’s her wrist.”
Diamond would have asked more, but Apple Bloom cantered off then, dancing lightly on her hooves until she got to the hallway then through the door and out of sight. Diamond had to guess ponies could just be like... quiet when they wanted to, which didn’t make any sense because a thick nail hitting a floorboard makes the same sound regardless, right?
Diamond lay her head back against the pillow, turning to look at Sweetie Belle again. Sweetie really was adorable as a unicorn. Those cute little ears sticking out of her bountiful curls. Her blunt horn was just below her hairline, enough that her hair parted around it as it cascaded down from the top of her head in alternating locks of pink and purple. It was kind of bad that she had her hoof in her mouth—don’t they walk on those? But it was so, just... like... adorable!
Sweetie wasn’t nearly mollified enough when she woke up, with a popping sound of a hoof leaving one’s mouth. She may not have even noticed she was doing it. Sweetie lifted her head, and Diamond sat up fully, instead of just drowsing there with her unicorn friend. Sweetie took a look around where she was at, and giggled, a blush coming to her face as she raised her right hoof to her chest, gathering her legs under her like a cat would sit up. “Morning Diamond,” Sweetie said smiling at her dreamily. “Sleep well?”
“Like a baby unicorn,” Diamond Tiara said impishly, crouching forward and standing up from her blankets, before Sweetie could respond to that. Sweetie didn’t even flinch though; she just put her front hooves straight, and worked out her back hooves so her butt rose into the air, tail bouncing up with it. Sweetie looked at her tail in disgust.
“Ugh, it’s all flat,” she said, sounding quite displeased with the mussy thing.
“Yeah,” Diamond admitted, “You sure did get a bad case of bed tail.”
Sweetie did blush at that, and swished her matted tail, saying shyly, “I don’t suppose you could...”
“Ohh, no,” Diamond declared, her eyes widening. She backed away hands crossed saying, “I am not gonna like, brush you. It was weird enough with you sleeping on me. I don’t want to make this any weirder than it has to be.” Diamond sort of did want to make this any weirder than it has to be, but she’d never admit it, so she wasn’t going to sit there brushing her best friend’s tail, come love nor money. Fortunately, there were soon to be more fearsome powers at work here, than Diamond Tiara could ever have imagined.
Sweetie looked up at Diamond Tiara with big, soulful, trembling, pale green eyes and said, “Pleeeease?”
Diamond Tiara was a little bit late for breakfast, for reasons.
Breakfast was carrots, pancakes and syrup. A surprisingly good combination. It was actually noticeable how much more vegetables the Apples were serving this weekend. Diamond had to guess that with three ponies to feed, veggies got a higher priority in what to eat for dinner, even with the humans. It was... a really strange feeling to Diamond, seeing the school’s librarian working in the kitchen. It wasn’t strange seeing the school’s lunchlady, but the librarian was for some reason. Apparantly Ms. Cheerilee was Scootaloo’s mom. Who knew?
“It’s like when ah’m looking for th’ princess,” Apple Bloom commented, over a very syrupy pancake. “You gotta just... get yourself in a mindset, so you look for something in the dream you cain’t see like a door or something, an’ you just gotta convince yourself she’s on the other side. Ah’m not very good at it though, so I can’t really find the princess when she’s not waiting for me, and can’t seem to find Scootaloo either. But Sweetie is right easy to find.”
“Not like I’m not trying to be hard to find,” Scootaloo grumbled crankily. “I never remember my dreams, anyway. It’d be totally cool if I could dream like that with you two.”
“Yeah...” Diamond added, wistfully.
The breakfast table was quiet at that, with just the sound of plates scooting as ponies tried their best to eat from them, the clink of tableware on part of the humans involved. “So Diamond,” Apple Bloom started, probably just to break the silence. She didn’t seem to know what to say next.
“Hey, you know what I wanted to do today?” Diamond interrupted to Apple Bloom’s relief. “We should go figure out what’s going on with that weird forest on the edge of your property!”
“That again?” Apple Bloom sighed. “Ah told you it’s just easy to get turned arou—”
“Yes, and then you said that you weren’t sure anymore,” Diamond stated forcefully, “And that we should check it out, after all. So now you changed your mind? We shouldn’t try to figure out the mystery?”
“No, we... ah didn’t mean—” Apple Bloom snorted, frustrated. “Ah didn’t say that at all, did I? It’s just a... an edge of a property, nothing special about it. We’re more liable to get lost than find a mystery that ain’t there.”
Diamond put down her fork and peered calculatingly at Apple Bloom, the little yellow pony looking nervous under her icy gaze.
“We’re going to the forest today,” Diamond concluded imperially, “And we’re going to find out its mystery.”
“But—” Apple Bloom started.
“Just like, humor me in this, okay?” Diamond clenched her teeth at her. “Why are you so against the idea? It’s just a forest, right?”
“Iunno, Diamond...” Scootaloo put in uneasily. She looked at the door to outside with her wings half extended, saying “Maybe we can do it later? I just don’t feel like it.”
“Yeah, can’t we do that another week?” Sweetie said. “I just want to go um... somewhere else.”
“It’s like the perfect time to do it,” Diamond insisted. “It’s not snowing this morning. The leaves are all fallen, and you can see like, everywhere in the trees, even on the edge. I really think there’s something weird there. Don’t you trust me?”
The three looked... uncertain.
“I’m not lying to you,” Diamond repeated anxiously, to the ponies who continued to be silently unconvinced.
“I’m not cra—” she blurted hastily, before Sweetie Belle interrupted her, admitting assertively,
“Diamond’s right. We shoul’ go check it out! Even though it’s just a boring old... um... the forest is weirdly not weird, and that’s weird.”
“Ah just don’t want us to get lost,” Apple Bloom said shaking her head. “How far are we gonna wander out into the wilderness before you’re satisfied?”
“Oh, we’re not gonna get lost Apple Bloom,” Diamond said smiling craftily. “Or turned around. I like, totally have a plan.”
With the girls done eating, that left room for Big Macintosh and the other older kids to eat at the table. That left Diamond idle since she was the only one not spending time by the hay bale, which gave her plenty of opportunity to plan and scheme. She immediately bugged Granny Smith, who expressed some concerns at them “playing” out at the limits of their property.
“We won’t get lost,” Diamond said confidently. “That’s why I want the twine. Here’s how it’s going to work.”
Despite explaining, Granny seemed hesitant even, her imposing figure looking down on Diamond Tiara. “Yer can’t urhm...” Granny said clearly trying to disapprove, “Well ah cain’t see anythin’ wrong with it persay, but ermn...”
“We’ll be really careful,” Diamond assured her uncertainly. “No running, nothing c-crazy. We’re just exploring it.”
“Hope yer know what yer doin’ child,” Granny said somberly, but then added, “Here, lemme see if ah cain set yer up.”
So when Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle finished their horsey hay thing, Diamond presented them with the plan. She had everything she needed, and just had to struggle into her winter clothing before heading outside with the three. They all kicked a ball around in the yard until they’d acclimatized enough to the temperature, and then went forging forth. Past the yard, past the fence, over a small swell of a hill and down a long meadow. Behind the three ponies, Diamond could see the bright red farmhouse, stark against the white overcast and the bare trees.
“Okay, listen up!” Diamond said gleefully, finally at the mouth of this weird forest place. “I have in my hot little hands what we’re gonna use to canvas these woods.” She held up the thick roll of corded twine. “After we get as far into it as we can reach with this, then we start looking for strange things. Like, not touching anything, but like, just to observe it. And if we ever get lost, we can just follow the twine right back to the farm house.”
And if her hunch was correct... well, she’d withhold judgement until then.
Diamond tossed Apple Bloom a stake, and the pony... caught it on her tail? Whatever. Apple Bloom agreeably pounded the stake into the ground, while Diamond tied one end of the twine securely around it. Scootaloo and Sweetie stood to either side, looking warily at the forest. “Okay, Sweetie Belle you need to stay here,” Diamond said. “Keep an eye on this stake, and make sure it doesn’t pull out on us. If you need anything, pull on the twine to signal us.” Sweetie seemed relieved at that, and it took away any excuse Scootaloo had to pussy out, without appearing to be a pussy.
Diamond stood there looking away from the farm house, peering into the winter forest, its twisted branches reaching nakedly up to the sky, the trunks seeming grey against the overcast, the undergrowth somewhat trampled by their other attempts to come through here.
“Alright, every pony,” Diamond said with emphasis. “Let’s do this. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo?”
“Right here!” the two chorused to either side of her. Diamond felt a queer nervousness in her evaporate at the sight of her friends, even if they were little magic ponies. Maybe especially because they were little magic ponies. Diamond couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this confident about herself.
So she and the other two strode and trotted forward respectively, going from crunching on meadow snow to pushing aside crackly underbrush, much withered away from the freeze, some still retaining hardy branches, or evergreen leaves. There was way too much Holly back here. They had to be careful, avoid thorns and things that might get the twine tangled up. It was easy enough with Diamond holding the twine up at her height. She imagined something small as a pony might have a harder time keeping it untangled from the underbrush though.
They walked for some time without incident. Diamond was kind of worried; she was already about halfway through her roll of twine. Well, maybe she was wrong after all, and there wasn’t anything weird. They’d just explore the limits of this place without uh... limit. “Well, Ap—” she started to say, but Apple Bloom wasn’t by her side anymore. Neither was Scootaloo.
Diamond Tiara was all alone in the winter woods.
“Apple Bloom?” she called out, with an unsurpressable tremble in her voice.
“Over here!” Apple Bloom almost immediately called back, but she was like, way off in the distance!
“Why’d you go over there?” Diamond asked, when the yellow pony pushed through the bushes and sticks to reach her again.
“Over where?” Apple Bloom asked her, with an uncomprehending look.
“There!” Diamond said pointing away. “You were way over there! And where’s Scootaloo?”
“I said wai’ up!” came Scootaloo’s slightly horsey voice, leading Diamond to look back down her very straight trail of twine, while Scootaloo struggled over obstacles back there much slower than Apple Bloom.
“I was waiting for you,” Diamond said uneasily to Scootaloo. “I swear I was walking right with you. How did you get so far behind?”
“I didn’t—get far behind,” Scootaloo said irritably, “You went way ahead! Can’t we go other ways, besides just straight?”
“Going straight is the whole point,” Diamond said huffily to the orange pony. “We want to see how far in we can get, before the twine runs out. We won’t make any turns, and we’ll always go in the same direction, then when it runs out we can start looking left and right.”
“I suppose,” Scootaloo mumbled, clustering anxiously against Diamond Tiara’s poofy snow pants.
“This is dumb,” griped Apple Bloom. “We shouldn’t be here! Why are we even doing this?”
“Yeah, why are we way out here in the woods?” Scootaloo said looking... genuinely puzzled?
“We’re measuring how far we can go?” Diamond prompted her. “Trying to see how deep this place is?”
“O-oh yeah...” Scootaloo said, in a chastened tone.
“Maybe we should just—” Apple Bloom said, before Diamond hastily interrupted her.
“Alright, alright, we still have a lot further we can go,” Diamond said clutching her ball of twine nervously. “So just like, stick together and don’t separate from each other no matter what.”
They walked further through the brush, and Diamond Tiara could swear that Scootaloo just... slipped away in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see Scootaloo standing a good 30 feet away looking very confused. “Over here, Scootaloo!” she shouted, letting the orange pony run up to her.
“You believe me now?” griped Apple Bloom as they got separated again, like the two weren’t even trying to stick with her. It was like from one step to the next, one or another of them was just... elsewhere. “Ah told you this wood was easy to get turned around in!”
“Suspiciously easy,” Diamond insisted heatedly to the pony. “I think we’re really onto something. We’re going to beat this forest I just know it! We just have to go a little further. Just until I run out of twine. I promise this place is totally weird!”
It got easier to stick together once they went much further, and finally everything stopped feeling so... off to Diamond. And, to her great excitement, with barely any twine left, Diamond caught sight of the bright red farmhouse through the trees right in front of her.
In front of her.
Diamond was practically giggling with excited triumph, as she led the two ponies out to meet Sweetie Belle, still sitting there on her belly over by the stake with twine. Out and out it spooled, until Diamond was just standing there with the end in her hands, outside of the forest.
“I knew it!” Diamond crowed triumphantly. “I knew it!”
“Oh,” Sweetie said with a wary look at Diamond. “You girls got turned around again? I thought you were gonna go deeper.”
“Yeah, ah guess we did,” Apple Bloom said with a shrug. “We were trying to go straight, but you know how these woods are.”
“I still don’t see what the big deal is,” Scootaloo said crossly. “We went in the woods, turned around, and came out.”
“What?” Diamond exclaimed, looking at the two ponies in alarm. “We didn’t! What is wrong with you? Look at this!” she waved the twine in her fist in Scootaloo’s horse face. “Can’t you see this?”
“Oh yeah! We were measuring the depth,” Apple Bloom said in realization, “With that twine.” She looked back to the woods, saying glumly, “Guess it musta gotten wrapped around something, when we turned around.”
“It didn’t!” Diamond insisted angrily. “I swear it didn’t! I never turned around not even once! Didn’t you see you getting like, lost? Like, slipping sideways and not moving moving? Look at the strings! Look at them!”
The three ponies looked at the twine extending into the trees, and then back out again. “It had to have gotten wrapped around something,” Apple Bloom asserted uneasily.
“Then, okay, fine, then let’s like...” Diamond walked back to the stake, and tied the other end of the twine to it too.
“You follow the twine!” she commanded the pony, “And tell me just where it wraps around something, and goes the other way! Tell me!”
She practically dragged them along their old path, everyone watching keenly for the place that it would do more than simply be bent aside by a tree trunk, where the twine would be forced to make a concave angle, to turn around. There was none, though. There was none!
“See!” Diamond said as they returned to the edge of the forest. “It never turns around! It just goes straight on through! It never even once like, wrapped around anything or turned around!”
“M-maybe it’s going in a slow circle?” Sweetie attempted uneasily.
“No it’s not!” Diamond shouted in giddy exasperation at the little unicorn, half picking her up and shouting desperately. “It’s going straight! I never once turned. I just went straight. It doesn’t turn around or go in a circle, it just goes straight through. And like, the farm is on both sides of the forest! It’s impossible, but it’s true! It’s so freaky, Sweetie Belle! Can’t you seeit?”
“Diamond, your eyes...” Sweetie whimpered, cringing back from the worked up human girl hunched over her. Diamond opened her mouth and—closed her mouth and... what? Of all the possible... things to say... what?
“What’s wrong with my eyes?” Diamond said in alarm, stepping back from the unicorn. “Is there something wrong with my eyes?” She fell on her butt right in the wet trampled snow saying, “My eyes? What? I–I need a mirror! What’s wrong with them?!”
All Sweetie Belle said was a big, fat, horrible nothing and Diamond couldn’t escape it and she started to scream, and then Apple Bloom was there.
Apple Bloom, who leapt in front of Diamond Tiara and reared up, putting her hooves on Diamond’s chest looking straight at her, said, “Diamond, calm down! What’s got into you?!”
“What’s got into me?!” Diamond said angrily, “I’m not the one who can’t even see the—”
“Diamond, calm down, please!” Apple Bloom said tearfully, looking so terrified, as she refused to flinch away.
“But you don’t—!”
“It doesn’t matter!” Apple Bloom shouted. “You need to calm down! Just stop an’ think a moment, and relax! You’re s-scaring them, an’ it ain’t doing you any good neither!”
“Okay fine, I’ll—” Diamond said, roughly shoving the pony off her breasts. “I’ll just calm down and...” she looked at her hands, then at her gloved palms. “Fine,” she repeated, putting her hands over her eyes. “I’ll just sit here and... like... whatever. And if my eyes are hurt, then it’s your fault!”
They didn’t answer. Listening to the shouts and the crunch of hooves around her, listening to them judging her, Diamond Tiara felt trapped in the darkness like, like it was all around her, and she couldn’t escape because if she tried her eyes would like, fall out or something and Sweetie Belle had been so scared of her and maybe the darkness wouldn’t even go away when she did because it was like, dark everywhere forever and—something bumped into her side.
Something bumped into Diamond’s side, that was soft and animated, and then started rubbing against her. Diamond risked peeking out from her gloves to see... Scootaloo? Scootaloo was standing beside her, and leaning against Diamond, rubbing her cheek against Diamond Tiara’s side.
This was starting to look like Diamond Tiara’s strangest day ever. It was like the weirdest gesture to have a pony rubbing her cheek on your coat, but Diamond just couldn’t help but be comforted by it.
She looked around the landscape, but didn’t see the other two ponies. “Where...?” Diamond said in a detached murmur, which got Scootaloo’s attention right away. The little orange pony, clad only in a thick purple scarf, pulled her head away and looked up at Diamond, Scootaloo’s purple eyes seemed perfectly normal, even if they were in the body of a pony.
“You kind of zoned out or... something. The others went to get help, but I stayed behind,” Scootaloo said to her, a hot blush creeping up underneath the pony’s fur, “It just... it just really looked like you could use some um... it helps sometimes, if you hug someone. Just to c-calm down, I mean. Nothing sissy or anything. It’d be uh, okay I mean, if you wanted to. It helps me sometimes... I mean.”
Diamond blinked at her, then looked over towards the farmhouse where the others had vanished, then back to Scootaloo.
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Diamond said to Scootaloo, with a shaky smile. Scootaloo’s wings shifted self consciously, but she willingly reared up on her back feet, letting Diamond hook the pony around the waist in her hands, and pull her against her into a hug. Scootaloo was... so warm. Diamond forgot any sense of decorum, and just hugged the soft, yet bulky pony to her, like a security blanket, or a really big teddy bear. It felt like spring break and pizza Fridays.
“Thanks, Scootaloo,” Diamond Tiara said after a while, setting her pony friend back down firmly on four feet. “I feel like, better now.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Scootaloo said easily, looking over toward the farmhouse, “Just don’t... you know.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Diamond said with a note of finality.
“Your eyes look fine, by the way,” Scootaloo added. “I dunno what Sweetie was talking about. Maybe you just looked really angry at the time? People are kind of a little scarier, when you’re this ...little.”
“Thanks,” Diamond admitted, “It just... kind of threw me. I never had any problems with my eyes before.”
Getting to her knees and pushing off the ground, Diamond awkwardly balanced in a squatting position, then stood up straight. She looked forward at the farm house, not even wanting to think about what was behind her, which was just an ordinary forest with nothing special about it at all, but of course then Scootaloo pointed out the stake in the ground with two pieces of twine coming out from it.
“Should we uh...” Scootaloo said, swinging a hoof at it.
“No! Leave it,” Diamond said, before the pony could do anything. “We’ll like, come back to this later. When I’m a little less, like... jumbled.”
Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “Probably a good thing too,” she said, “Considering what’s at stake.”
“Glad somebody besides me is taking this seriously,” Diamond agreed, massaging her forehead. She felt so weird and shaky inside, like she was teetering on the tip of a cliff. “Let’s just go back to Apple Bloom’s house, before they send the ambulance,” she said wryly, “I don’t feel like... I just need to like, sit down a little and get warm.”
Scootaloo nodded, and trotted ahead while Diamond walked after her.
Then Diamond Tiara stopped short, and spluttered, “W-w-was that a... joke?! You aren’t seriously... you are taking this seriously, Scootaloo, right?”
Scootaloo paused ahead of her, but only a moment, before trotting on faster without answering. Diamond picked up her pace, wanting to get out of this cold if nothing else, and not really wanting to know how much thought Scootaloo put into what she said.
They got halfway back to the yard, before Applejack was running out with a bag of... medical something or another. Apple Bloom’s pretty cool older sister continued jogging even after she saw them, until she could walk with Diamond and Scootaloo.
“Oh dear sweet merciful Lord,” Applejack said in relief on reaching Scootaloo and Diamond. “The way Sweetie Belle was goin’ on, ah thought you had hurt your eyes or some such.”
Diamond Tiara glanced up at the older girl. “I don’t know what she was going on about, at all,” Diamond said with a shrug. “My eyes don’t hurt. I didn’t like, hit my eyes or even look at the sun or like, anything.”
“Sweetie was actin’ pretty nutty alright,” Applejack agreed with a frown, as they walked into the fenced portion of the yard. “Near as ah could figure she was makin’ it sound like your eyes were spinnin’ like wagon wheels.”
Diamond gaped at Applejack, utterly incredulous. “Sweetie said I was rolling my eyes?” she asked. “I was looking straight at her! Wagon wheels? That’s like, literally impossible.”
Applejack herself paused, to give a very meaningful glance down to the winged pony version of Scootaloo trotting along with them, saying, “Ah wouldn’t discount impossible no more, if I were you. Seems like some stories ain’t so impossible no more.”
“My eyes look fine now though, right?” Diamond prompted Applejack, in a note of anxiety, looking up at the tan skinned cowgirl.
Applejack looked into Diamond’s worried eyes briefly, and nodded in confirmation, with a small comfort of a smile. So... Diamond was fine now, and whatever it was wasn’t afflicting her anymore. If it was even a thing that really happened.
“Maybe that p...place does something weird to eyes. I dunno,” Diamond speculated uncertainly, as they reached the door to the farm house. “I think it’s a lot more dangerous than just an ordinary... forest on the edge of your property.”
“We’re gonna get to the bottom of this,” Applejack asserted firmly. “But for now, why don’t you just go inside an’ get yourself a cup of cocoa. Ah think you had enough adventure for one day.”
For once, Diamond Tiara found that she couldn’t agree more.
Sweetie Belle wasn’t any clearer on the subject of Diamond’s eyes, once she asked her directly. Diamond had hoped Applejack had just been making some sort of countryism, but Sweetie told her in her exact words,
“It was probably just me, but I thought your eyes were spinning like wheels.”
“Wait, that wasn’t a metaphor?” Diamond said, confused as she looked into the mirror again, there next to the little white unicorn who was sitting on the bathroom sink beside Diamond Tiara. Diamond’s bright pink face held searching eyes, with irises of icy blue. The same thing she saw in the mirror every day, nothing odd about them or... wheely. “How would they even spin?” she asked. “They’re just like, rings.”
“Well, the irises have lines in them,” Sweetie suggested, spinning a hoof over her own eye in circles uncertainly, “Sort of like um... spokes. Especially with your pupils contracted so much that I couldn’t see them anymore.”
“They were... really?” Diamond said, still at a loss to understand. “But I could see fine.”
“What?” Sweetie responded uneasily.
“I could see fine,” Diamond repeated, “So my pupils couldn’t... have been contracted, or that weird thing.”
“Oh, they were contracted, just I mean, they were pretty close to... gone,” Sweetie mumbled, kicking a hoof. “You were re–really excited and it’s a lot scarier when I’m like ...this. You know, little and... a pony. So maybe I just was imagining it. Or maybe my horn was doing something, I dunno.”
“I have no clue either,” Diamond said tiredly. “I don’t even know why I was so excited. We could have just gone in a big circle, for all I know.”
“Hot chocolate’s ready!” Apple Bloom called out from the kitchen, where a whistling kettle announced itself after her.
Diamond Tiara sat down tiredly with her hot cocoa on the couch again. Ponies had trouble drinking the stuff hot but seemed very content with just holding the hot mug flush against their chests as they sat on the floor. Diamond Tiara was tired alright, but she wasn’t out of hot water yet for this weekend. When she sat there sipping at her cocoa, and trying to understand what was happening in that forest, and in her, who should bustle busily in through the front door, but Diamond Tiara’s top secret sewing tutor: Fluttershy!
No, but seriously, it was Rarity. Rarity came into the house, shivering at the chill outside. Snow had begun falling again since they retreated from the cold, and it speckled her attractive looking but ultimately cheap faux fur cap, and the shoulders of her dark blue coat. “Sweetie, are you here?” Rarity called out hopefully, and Diamond gulped and put down her hot chocolate.
“Oh, hi there Rarity,” Diamond said simultaneously, with Rarity’s surprised,
“Oh, hello there, Diamond Tiara.”
“I uh... I’ll be right back,” Diamond stated, standing stiffly up from the couch and booking it quickly for the laundry room. There, the forms for three of Rarity’s cherished dress designs were tossed off carelessly to the side, and her design patterns were spread out all over the place to make them easier to pick out. Diamond hastily started reassembling them onto the forms, but at her speed she could barely get halfway through one, before (now accompanied by Sweetie Belle walking at her side) Rarity came into the room exclaiming in startlement,
“What the Christ happened here?!
“My designs!” Rarity moaned, picking up some limp fabric pieces in her hands, “They’re in a shambles! Oh this is terrible! This is awful! Who did this to you, my darlings?”
“I’m putting them back together!” Diamond announced hastily, but a little irritably. Rarity was acting like she didn’t even see Diamond Tiara standing there. Rarity turned to face Diamond as she spoke, her eyes dawning in realization, and relief. Wait, Rarity did see her, right?
“Oh thank heavens, of course!” Rarity said. “Diamond! I was worried someone else had done this. You did make sure to dot the pin holes, did you not?”
“Every one of them is marked,” Diamond said, rolling her eyes. She could almost walk down a list of questions at this point.
“You didn’t tear anything?”
“Are there any missing pieces?”
“Did you save the pins?”
“Are my measuring tools accounted for?”
“You didn’t lose the ribbon, did you?”
“It’s fine,” Diamond said to the older girl doting over her. “I’ll make it look exactly like you had it.”
“But why were you even disassembling my ensembles?” Rarity asked incredulously. “You weren’t actually thinking of sewing anything from ...these?”
“Way ahead of you,” Diamond said with an indulgent grin, pointing Rarity over to where the two outfits she’d finished yesterday were hanging, waiting overnight for the glue to cure.
“B...but they weren’t finished yet,” Rarity said in a disappointed tone, walking over and scowling at the plain looking things on the rack. “I had some ideas, but I wasn’t sure whether to—”
“They’re good enough,” Diamond whined exasperatedly. “What’s the big deal? I said I’d reassemble the forms. I just forgot until now. My friends need clothing, and they don’t have any right now. Why does it have to be perfect? Just give them these, and then you can make your perfect dresses!”
“Fall short of perfection, that you may achieve perfection?” Rarity poised, putting her hand on her chin. She formed a fist and slapped it against her palm exclaiming, “It’s so crazy, I do believe it just might work!”
Diamond resisted an urge to groan at her very... very eccentric mentor. Diamond wasn’t gonna get in another argument over whether perfection was even something anyone wanted. But the reason for Diamond’s reluctant deference to this lady became quite apparant, as Rarity sat down to assist Diamond, and reassembled the two other forms swiftly, with a practiced grace, much faster than Diamond could do a single one. And Rarity was only a Sophomore!
“Are these for us?” Sweetie Belle squeaked eagerly, having wandered herself over by the hanging dresses. Sweetie’s dress was a basic tube that hooked on the top of her tail for stability, a darker green than her natural eye color, with long sleeves for her front legs, which at least had some semblance of normality to them, when it came to designing sleeves. What distinguished her dress was the hood, that could hopefully fold up over her head, at least up to her horn. The fluffy lining Diamond added to the collar hopefully would keep the unicorn nice and warm. Beneath the collar, was a brown laced ribbon woven between the two chest flaps, so that Sweetie would be able to fit the dress on over her head and horn, but still cinch it snugly about herself.
Diamond had decided against that frilly one with lacy sleeves for Scootaloo. Definitely not something Scootaloo would willingly wear. Instead Diamond just went with something that looked more like a cloak than a dress. It could be secured with a cloth belt around Scootaloo’s waist though. Or barrel, or whatever you call it. The rich brown fabric Rarity picked out would go well with Scootaloo’s colors, without exaggerating them. It too had long sleeves on the front, presumably in preparation for the chill of winter. It didn’t have a hood, but none of Rarity’s designs had included a hood, so Diamond wasn’t sure if Rarity just thought hoods were a fashion disaster, or if she never noticed how much Scootaloo liked going around and wearing a hoodie.
Then again, there was a reason they hadn’t included a hood. Besides the ears. Because every one of Scootaloo’s dress designs had a carefully shaped flap that went over the back, where two broad openings were on either side, for Scootaloo’s wings to extend through, hugged when folded on all sides by the protective fabric. It remained to be seen, whether that would be a hit, as opposed to a disaster that Scootaloo could barely wear. There wasn’t much you could do to verify that without actually sewing one up and preparing it for her.
Which is exactly what Diamond Tiara did.
As for the rear legs of her friends, they were going to have to get some kind of custom wrapping for them. Not that the ponies even needed clothing to keep them warm. There was that one time with Sweetie, but it had been below zero that day, and they’d been playing in the snow! Anyway, Sweetie Belle’s dress looked like it had the warmest design, so Diamond was pretty confident that Sweetie wouldn’t have any problems this winter.
“Yep!” Diamond chirped from where she squatted beside the cute little unicorn. “I made sure to make one for each of you, except Apple Bloom of course. She’s got like, 3 already. They’re a little rough because I had to do it really fast. I wanted to finish them both yesterday. And... you wanna try it on?”
“Do I!?” Sweetie exclaimed, utterly delighted.
Diamond let out a sigh of relief as her stitching was... adequate, and by adequate that meant when they carefully wiggled the dress on over Sweetie Belle’s head, it wasn’t too tight, and when Sweetie walked around in it, looking at her reflection in wonder, it wasn’t riding up, pulling on her tail, or catching on her fur too much in uncomfortable places.
“Thank you so much, Diamond!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed beside herself with joy, right beside Diamond, rearing up and hugging her forearms around Diamond’s side. Diamond lifted her arm and blushed as the pony in a dress hugged her, but Diamond didn’t tell her to let go either, because it looked like Sweetie Belle was... crying, a little?
Sweetie pushed away from Diamond, falling on all fours—threes, and rubbing at her eyes with one hoof. “Thank you so much,” she repeated passionately, “This is so cool. I’m going to show it to the girls!”
“Knock yourself out,” Diamond shrugged dispassionately. But as Sweetie went back through the door and found the girls, the delighted squeals and cheers from the other room just warmed Diamond Tiara’s heart something fierce.
“I take it back, miss Tiara,” Rarity said in a dazed tone. “Your dresses are perfect after all.”
Diamond Tiara looked at Rarity confused, and said, “No they’re not. I totally rushed them. You said yourself they’re not finished yet.”
“That may be,” Rarity said more animatedly, “The stitching is uneven, and the patterns are plain, and I have no idea what to do for accents, but it’s your sense of timing dear. We should get this other garment to Scootaloo right away!”
And Scootaloo was like, “Oh, cool. Thanks!”
In the silence, Scootaloo lifted a hoof to touch the fabric, then put the hoof down, looking around calmly. Apple Bloom was there with her legless overalls on, and Sweetie her own new celadon dress, certainly not made from drapery. Scootaloo’s gaze fell evenly on a very hotly anticipating Diamond Tiara and Rarity, with a note of confusion in her face. Wrinkling up her snout, Scootaloo said testily, “So uh... you want me to try it on?”
“Yes!” Rarity and Diamond shouted at once.
With the three little ponies looking so cute and satisfied in their new, new and old clothing, respectively, Diamond had to think that the weekend ended on a good note. They hadn’t solved the mystery of that... place... but Applejack and Big Macintosh both promised they’d investigate, and that they’d take her experiment with the twine very seriously, and that they wouldn’t forget. Diamond still wrote a reminder in big dark marker, and stuck it on their wall, so that there was no way they could just... forget.
It’s not like the reminder would fall off all on its own, and slip halfway under the counter.
Diamond’s friends wouldn’t be with her at school. Duh, because they’re ponies, and who’d be stupid enough to try and attend school if you’re a little horse? Yet somehow, Diamond didn’t feel like that would bother her as much anymore. Sure maybe they were all being these amazing magical ponies without her, yet they still cared about her, and that really did make her feel better about herself. Diamond really honestly felt like she had important things to do that, they needed her for. She felt like... they might not be available, but they wouldn’t start finding excuses to leave her, so that she was alone again. Diamond could bitterly fight with an inflexible school day, without the fear that her friends were, once again, moving on without her.
She probably should have suspected that she wasn’t the only one who shared that fear.
Dinky tossed and turned in his bed. He was just unable to relax. He couldn’t stop thinking about the dance. He couldn’t stop thinking about her and what she’d done to him.
He tried not to think of her, to think instead of Scootaloo, that amazing girl who had pulled him out of his shell and treated him like he was someone who mattered. They worked together and... talked, and it turns out she was really excited about aeronautics and propulsion. He loved listening to her really get into something, even if it wasn’t exactly his thing. She was pretty inspiring, when Scootaloo wasn’t telling herself she could never achieve anything.
He huffed in frustration, because Scootaloo had been there for him, and now she was just... gone! He cursed himself a thousand times for not even kissing her at the dance. But that sort of cowardice shouldn’t have been enough for her to outright abandon him! Even after that disaster of a dance, Scootaloo still seemed to like him! But Scootaloo must have known... that’s why she left, because Dinky had to go and ruin it all, because... because of her!
Dinky had gone to the dance with Scootaloo, but then he met... Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara was beautiful! She was... she was objectively beautiful. She was the kind of girl that Dinky shouldn’t have even had the privilege of standing next to. The kind of girl you’d see in a... in a magazine or on T.V. She just had such an amazing body, he had thought she’d have a boyfriend for sure.
Then she saved... she may have saved his life! Diamond was fiery and aggressive, and even abrasive, but the more he got to know her, the harder it was to stop! He wanted to be around this girl. She never lost her cool, or maybe it was that she never lost her heat just storming into his life like a wrecking ball. She was confident and capable and...
And not one boy had asked her to go to the dance with him.
Dinky could see why, now. He could see how strongly she pushed away the people around her, while clinging to them with a desperation not all that different from Scootaloo. The boys who expected her to be the picture of grace and beauty would be pushed away by her brash attitude, and every other boy would be just... like... Dinky. Just assuming that someone that amazing and perfect would have her choice of boyfriends.
He hadn’t even known Diamond was at the orphanage! How was this presumably sought after girl supposed to get a date, if even the students in her own orphanage didn’t know that she existed? It was... too perfect a situation. They had more in common than Dinky had imagined. He could even see Diamond on the bus, now that he knew to look for her! Or more pertinently, she knew to look for him. There wasn’t a day Diamond didn’t sit next to Dinky in the bus now, laughing it off and making light of things, but... she was sitting next to him, and he couldn’t help but respond to that!
Dinky tried to be a good boyfriend, he really did. But with Scootaloo just gone, there was nothing he could do to make up to her. And with Diamond coming onto him more and more strongly, he was losing the will to resist and... and not be Scootaloo’s boyfriend anymore. Diamond simply would not leave him alone these days, not without Scootaloo to get in her way. He wondered if maybe she did something to make Scootaloo stay away from him, so she could have him for herself. Dinky wondered if that was a bad thing. He wondered if Diamond would break curfew, and come into his room and just... just take what she wanted.
His head hit the pillow, as the thought just overcame him and he tensed up, both frustrated and exhilirated imagining Diamond Tiara, and what she could do to him. He could just see her before him, kissing, and... and more. Dinky was fairly sure he wasn’t supposed to feel... however he felt about her. When he relaxed again, Dinky sighed and sat up on his elbows, looking at himself irresolutely.
“Wish I had someone I could talk to about this,” he said softly, alone in the room as usual.
He sighed again and ran his free hand through his mop of blonde. He would have to keep avoiding Diamond. He’d be outraged at anyone else passing up such a tantalizing opportunity, but now that it was in front of him, Dinky just... couldn’t do that to Scootaloo. He wasn’t going to hurt her any more, even if it meant he and Diamond couldn’t ever... be friends. He didn’t know why Scootaloo was avoiding him, but until he found her and... and broke up or something, he’d have to just... avoid Diamond Tiara and ignore his... his feelings about her.
Something told him that the next few weeks weren’t going to be very fun.