//------------------------------// // 3. Falling Apart // Story: Family Matters // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// “…and so that’s how I have all these bits,” Dinky finished explaining to Filthy Rich. She had to admit, she was getting a little tired of telling the same story over and over again, even if it was a relief to no longer have her secret all to herself. Filthy Rich nodded slightly as Dinky finished talking, and stamped his hoof on the floor after a moment, causing Dinky, Sparkler, and Diamond Tiara to all jump slightly. “Well, I’ll be!” he exclaimed. “Little filly, that kind of frugalness and forward-thinking is the foundation of good business! I wouldn’t be surprised if your special talent relates to banking or accounting with that kind of ethic!” Dinky had an image pass through her head of her stuck behind a desk, crunching numbers and double-checking figures and trying to balance ledgers (whatever all that meant) and singing to herself about her fate. “I spend my life accounting with figures and such; to what is my life amounting? It figures, not much!” The unicorn filly wasn’t sure where the words to the song came from, but they seemed apt. “That’d be…nice,” she said politely to Filthy Rich. Behind the counter, Sparkler once again hid her laugh behind a hoof as she used her magic to magnify the gems in a necklace that Diamond Tiara was inspecting. Dinky had been worried that Diamond Tiara might take a liking to the necklace that Dinky was after, but fortunately all of her choices had the same thing in common – blue gemstones, and not yellow like the one Dinky had her eyes on. She had passed right by Dinky’s own choice without even acknowledging it. Filthy Rich nodded. “It sure would. Equestria couldn’t exist without the paper-pushers, little filly. It’s not the most glamorous job, but it pays the bills.” He smiled at that, and waved a hoof as though pushing the idea aside. “Of course, you’re still a filly. No need to worry about that quite yet.” Dinky shook her head, as Sparkler and Diamond Tiara both came back up to the two of them, the proprietor carrying a necklace in her telekinesis. “Alright, Mister Rich, your daughter’s made her choice, and a very nice one at that,” she said. “This is one of my best pieces that I made just for my opening in Ponyville: sparkling pale blue sapphires set in sleek sterling silver, and with radiant eighteen-karat gold plating on a delicate link chain, also sterling silver.” “Gold?” Filthy Rich asked worriedly, leaning down to inspect the necklace. Nopony wore gold; it was too much like the radiant, wrathful sun. “Whitened gold, of course,” Sparkler amended. “I was originally planning on using platinum for this piece, but I was already reaching my budget as it was with the sapphires. Nopony but a dedicated metallurgeon with an extraordinarily keen eye would be able to tell the difference. It is one of only two of this kind that I’ve made; the first one, which did use platinum, is currently in the collection of the Vicereine Twilight Velvet.” Dinky regarded the necklace. It was beautiful, but then again so was everything else in the store, and Dinky wasn’t used to jewelry and so had no real concept of what went well with what; however, Dinky was surprised that Diamond Tiara had chosen such a small necklace. The pendant that the sapphires were set into was barely an inch in diameter, if even that much. “This piece costs seven hundred seventy bits.” “Er,” Filthy Rich said, “is that with or without the…?” “It is with the twenty-five percent off, yes.” Oh, that explains it, Dinky thought. Diamond Tiara must have been looking simultaneously for sapphires, and very high price tags. “Please, daddy?” Diamond Tiara asked her father, rubbing her head against the point of his shoulders. “Please please please please?” Filthy Rich could not stand against such an onslaught. “…well, why don’t you and Dinky go and look around the shop some more while Miss Star and I talk about it, okay?” Diamond Tiara nodded fervently, doing little to hide a smile over what she knew was the triumph of her cuteness and power over her father. Filthy Rich seemed to realize this as well, but looked like he was going to make at least a token effort of trying to haggle the price of the necklace down. Sparkler had rolled her eyes at the knowledge that she’d have to haggle; neither Filthy Rich nor his daughter saw, but Dinky did, and it was her turn to hide a slight giggle as she wandered over to the necklace was going to be getting for her mother. To her surprise, Diamond Tiara actually did join her; she’d been expecting the earth pony filly to instead pick her own jewelry display to stare at. “Is that what you’re getting for your mom?” she asked. Dinky nodded. “The gem matches my momma’s eyes, and the silver my momma’s coat.” Diamond Tiara stared down her nose at the necklace, appraising it. “Not really all that much to look at, is it?” she asked. Dinky frowned. She’d been hoping that Diamond Tiara was going to be nice; apparently her hopes had been misplaced. “I don’t have a daddy paying for me. I’ve only got a hundred bits. But I know she’ll love it!” Diamond Tiara again considered Dinky Doo, the bag that was once more on Dinky’s back, and the fact that there was a hundred hard-earned bits inside. “Did you really not steal all those?” “No! I had to work! I cleaned up around the house and outside with chickens and I used to like chickens but now I hate them ‘cause they’re mean and they smell and they go to the bathroom everywhere. But I earned every bit!” The earth pony filly blinked at that. She looked like she’d needed, for posterity’s sake, to ask once more, just to be sure, and finally seemed satisfied with the answer. “I…guess it is pretty nice, that you’re spending all that money on your mom. And that you could save it all up.” It took Dinky several moments to realize that her jaw was hanging open, and she needed to use a hoof to close it. Diamond Tiara had just – begrudgingly – complimented her. Diamond Tiara noticed her shocked expression, and scowled as she stomped a hoof. “Look, I’m just saying what it is, okay? Just acknowledging it. It doesn’t mean anything!” After a moment of considering, she leaned in close, eyes narrowing. “You better not tell anypony in school that I said that!” Dinky nodded, willing to agree to that demand in return for Diamond Tiara showing that, somewhere, she really did have a heart, or at least something that resembled one. She turned back to the display case, wondering if she should pay Diamond Tiara a compliment in return. Even as she thought that, words came tumbling from her mouth: “Scootaloo said the exact same thing.” For a moment, Diamond Tiara’s coat seemed to be red rather than pink. “No she didn’t!” “Yeah she did. Just a few minutes ago. Those exact words: ‘I guess it is pretty nice.’” “I’m not like Scootaloo! Not even just saying the same things! Scootaloo just falls asleep in class and doesn’t do work and she thinks she’s so cool on her scooter but she’s not.” Dinky had a feeling that there was something more complex than she, or Diamond Tiara for that matter, fully understood driving Diamond Tiara's words, and so decided to drop it. “Okay…” “Princess?” Filthy Rich’s voice inquired. Dinky and Diamond Tiara both turned to look, and saw that Filthy Rich had finished his conversation with Sparkler, the latter of whom was sliding Diamond Tiara’s necklace into a small box, as well as using magic to wrap up another box, the contents of which were a mystery to Dinky Doo. Diamond Tiara, for her part, smiled brightly as she galloped up to her father “Thank you thank you thank you!” she gushed, which even Dinky could tell was part of a well-planned and perfected routine. She immediately, however, had eyes on the other box. “What else did you get me?” Sparkler wasn’t fast enough this time to hide her burst of laughter, though she did manage to keep it to a single ha. Filthy Rich turned to glare at her, but by the time he did Sparkler already had managed to put on a straight face and focus intently on wrapping the box up. “…no,” he said after a moment. “Something for your mother.” Surprisingly, Diamond Tiara didn’t seem distraught by the idea of her mother also getting a present. She just nodded as Filthy took the bag containing his purchases into his teeth. “Now, if anypony asks,” he said on the way out, “I spent seven hundred bits on your mother and a hundred and fifty on you, okay, honey?” Dinky didn’t get to hear how that conversation continued as the door to Sparkler’s store closed. Now free from having to keep up appearances, Sparkler laughed aloud at what she heard Filthy Rich saying on his way out as she made her way over to Dinky from behind the counter, and Dinky joined in. “That foal,” Sparkler said as she looked down at Dinky, “is the best example of a ‘daddy’s little filly’ that I have ever seen. She plays him like a half-jangle kazoo. Is she always like that?” Dinky nodded, or started to before recalling the recent past. “Not always,” she conceded, though she couldn’t keep herself from adding “but usually, yeah.” --- Ditzy Doo had given up on walking and instead flown over to Sweet Apple Acres, giving her hooves a much-needed break, if not her shoulders or dock as the muscles on both were necessarily worked out by the flapping of her wings. It meant that she was delaying the entire middle of her route, of course, but she had decided that the trade-off was necessary to prevent her from collapsing on the street somewhere. Her oath, she reasoned as she slid several envelopes into the Apples’ mailbox, didn’t mention anything about delays, after all. Neither Rain, nor Sleet, nor Dark Of Night, nor Glare of Day, shall keep me from the swift completion of my appointed rounds. “Oh, shut up,” Ditzy demanded of herself as she took wing again, sailing away from Sweet Apple Acres and back towards Ponyville proper, though she would land while still outside of town to prevent herself from crashing into things. “That line could be interpreted any number of ways. If swift completion was the goal than this route would be split in half and divided amongst two ponies.” Of course, it was split in half and divided amongst two ponies before I – “Shut up, me,” Ditzy said again. She realized that she was talking to herself, and worse, interrupting and responding. Still, as long as she was cognizant of both those facts, she was reasonably certain that she didn’t need to worry. Probably. Maybe she would stop talking to herself, just in case… “Hi, Miss Doo!” Ditzy blinked as she stopped her forward flight and instead hovered in place, looking down at the ground that was some fifty feet below her. It wasn’t easy with only one eye pointing down, her strabismus currently making her left eye keep an eye on the few clouds overhead. Still, she spotted her caller quickly enough: a straw-colored earth pony filly with red hair, wearing a large bow in her hair. “Applebloom?” Ditzy asked as she came down, making sure to give the youngest scion of the Apple family plenty of room as she did, as Ditzy’s depth perception wasn’t the best and – Smack. “Yikes,” Applebloom noted, as Ditzy picked herself up off of the ground, shaking her head. “You okay there?” “Yeah, I’m used to it,” Ditzy admitted with a sigh. Depth perception. The bane of her existence. She’d misjudged the distance from where she’d been to the ground, and more importantly the distance of her hooves to the ground, and…well, like she’d told Applebloom, she was used to it by now. She shook her head again to clear it, looking to the filly. Something was nagging at the pegasus’ mind at the sight of Applebloom, but she wasn’t sure what. “Aren’t you running late from school? Did it get out late?” “Naw, it was on time, but everypony in class followed Dinky into town to Amethyst Star’s – oops.” Ditzy Doo’s brow furrowed. Amethyst Star? She knew that name from…somewhere. For the life of her, she couldn’t place it, though for some reason she got a sinking feeling in her stomach at the sound of the name. “Why were you following Dinky?” “Um, Ah think it was supposed to be a secret, Miss Doo,” Applebloom admitted, tapping her hooves together. “Or a surprise, really. But, uh..." she leaned in close. "Yer gonna love it, Miss Doo. But ya didn't hear that from me, okay?" Ditzy looked over Applebloom, who seemed completely earnest. It wasn't hard to figure out that Dinky was probably getting something together for Ditzy's upcoming birthday. The thought of her filly having somehow garnered help from her entire class managed to dispel the worry that Ditzy felt at the name 'Amethyst Star.' “Okay, then.” “Uh,” Applebloom pressed. “You really didn’t hear nothin' from me, okay? Ah don’t want Dinky mad at me for spoilin’ the surprise.” “I don’t think Dinky can get mad at anypony,” Ditzy assured the earth pony filly. “Chickens, sure, but not a pony.” “She got real mad at Scootaloo that one time…” Ditzy vividly remembered pulled hair, ruffled feathers, mud, noodles, something about Dinky saying that a certain idol of Scootaloo’s wasn’t so great, and all in all the one time Dinky had ever seriously gotten in trouble at school or needed a punishment from Ditzy. “That was a year ago, and they get along fine now.” The latter was especially impressive seeing as Dinky had, by all accounts, lost the fight. “Ah guess that’s true. See you later, Miss Doo!” “Later, Applebloom,” Ditzy returned as she turned around, ignoring the slight ache in her hooves as she trotted away, head down in thought. Amethyst Star…Amethyst Star…she knew that name. Ditzy stopped her pace after a moment, closing her eyes. She didn’t precisely have a photographic memory, but once Ditzy committed something to memory, she rarely forgot it. Obscure things like a name she’d probably only heard once or twice usually needed some digging, though… …a stairwell, in a house in Fillydelphia. White plaster walls. Pictures hanging on the walls as Ditzy Doo followed Castor Cut upstairs, hips swaying and wings standing upright since she knew what was coming once they reached the bedroom… …stopping at the top of the stairwell, focusing on one picture. Castor Cut, with a mare Ditzy didn’t recognize…and a filly, nearly a mare in her own right, standing between them. “Who’s this?” Ditzy had asked, giggling slightly even as she spoke. She was maybe a little tipsy. Just a bit. Castor Cut was an older unicorn (but not too old! Middle-aged), but that hadn’t bothered Ditzy since they’d met. Who cared about age? He’d saddled up alongside Ditzy, guiding her away. “Come on, Ditzy, you don’t want to know that…” “No, I do,” Ditzy had insisted. “I really do. I doo. I Ditzy doo…” Castor had been at least as tipsy as her, and the sight of her pouting – dock still shaking back and forth a little, tail swishing around – had been enough to convince him. “Well,” he said. “My wife May Bell, and my daughter, Amethyst Star. Sparkler. She prefers Sparkler. It’s a nickname.” Ditzy stared a moment…then giggled. “Ha!” she’d laughed, as she’d turned and rushed into the bedroom. “You’re old…” “Really?” Castor Cut asked as he followed Ditzy through the door, across the floor, and to the bed. “Could an old-timer do this…” Ditzy’s eyes snapped open, wide as dinner plates, mouth hanging open. “No,” she breathed, turning around and galloping after Applebloom. “No no no no no! Applebloom!” The filly hadn’t gone far, and turned around to see Ditzy Doo baring down on her. The filly gave a yelp and shrank back. Somehow, Ditzy managed to reign in her panic. “Applebloom,” she repeated. “I’m not mad at you, I promise you’ve done nothing wrong, but I need you to tell me: did you say Amethyst Star?” Applebloom stared at Ditzy. “It’s…it’s supposed to be a surprise – ” “I don’t care if – !” Ditzy began to shout, but forced herself to stop. She closed her eyes. “Applebloom, please. I’m sorry, but I need to know. It’s very, very important.” Applebloom paused a moment more, before nodding. “Yeah,” she confirmed. “Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers. New store opened up in Ponyville.” “And Dinky is there?” “Yeah – ” Ditzy didn’t hear if Applebloom had anything else to say as she turned around, wings beating as she took to the air, intent on breaking her personal rule of never flying inside of Ponyville. “No, no, no, please Luna no…” --- “I’m sorry again about the look I gave you when you came in,” Sparkler said as she opened the glass case that Dinky’s objective was located in. “You just…well, for a moment, anyway, you looked a lot like somepony I know.” “You don’t like that pony very much,” Dinky surmised. Sparkler nodded. “She…well, it’s a long story.” She smiled down at Dinky. “You’re, like, the polar opposite of her, though, from what I can tell. Seriously, I’m getting a toothache.” Dinky frowned. “Well, there’s a dentist’s office just a few buildings away. Doctor Minuette could probably help…” Sparkler laughed as she levitated out the necklace, passing it off to Dinky’s hooves for her to look over in greater detail, so as to make sure that she was certain of her intended purchase. Up close, the necklace looked even more beautiful and perfect for her mother. “I meant that you’re just so sweet,” Sparkler explained. “Get it?” Dinky thought a moment before enlightenment struck. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “That’s what Miss Cheerilee meant, too!” “Probably,” Sparkler confirmed, before nodding her head to Dinky. “So. How does it look up close?” “Perfect.” “I try,” Sparkler said nonchalantly, prompting a laugh from Dinky. The two made their way over to the cash register. --- A stray cloud had somehow made its way down low over Ponyville; a pegasus named Cloud Kicker had been about to buck it out of existence when Ditzy Doo came crashing through it, destroying it in the process. The sudden lack of anything to buck threw off Cloud Kicker’s balance in the sky, causing her to crash into one of the town’s iconic thatched-roof homes. Even if Ditzy Doo had noticed, she probably wouldn’t have cared at the moment. Ditzy’s eyes were focused forward, an act that stung her eyes and made them water if she did it for too long, but she ignored the pain. Theoretically this should have much improved her flying, but her panic coupled with the fact that she simply wasn’t used to seeing the way ponies without strabismus did actually managed to make things worse – but she was in no state to realize this. Flying low through Ponyville, she smacked into two wooden street signs, splintering one and breaking another one entirely. She didn’t notice the pain, but the impacts did force her to the ground. She was up and galloping a moment later, then taking to the air once more, head snapping left and right quickly as she read the signs of businesses, looking for the name that had incited her to panic. Dinky looks exactly like me, just with a horn instead of wings! She cried out internally. My name was on the front page of every newspaper in Equestria just a few weeks ago! She has to know that I live in Ponyville and she’s going to see Dinky and…and… Ditzy didn’t turn in time to avoid crashing into a lamp post. This, being made of metal, didn’t bend or break, but the glass of the lantern itself did. Ditzy was already up and moving before she could be cut by it, though, looking around desperately for – There. She saw it, tucked in comfortably between a sandwich shop and Windowpane’s Window Repairs: Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers. Ditzy charged. --- “I’ll just wrap this up…” Sparkler said as she slid the necklace into a box, then got wrapping paper behind her. Dinky, meanwhile, was fishing out the bits from her backpack, using her telekinesis to heft them in stacks of ten and lay them out as neatly as possible on the countertop. She was going to have four bits and seven and a half jangles – the copper, smaller units of currency, with ten jangles to a bit – left over, according to Sparkler. Dinky smiled, despite the precise nature of lifting up bits and laying them on the counter. She was nearly there. Once she had her mother’s present, all she’d have to do was wait for her birthday… “Okay,” Sparkler said, getting a quill from an inkwell as she finished wrapping the necklace’s box up, as well as a small card. “Who’s this being made out to?” “My momma!” Dinky said happily. “Just write, happy birthday, momma! Love, Dinky Doo.” “Short and simple,” Sparkler said with a smile as she wrote. “Those are the…wait. What was your second name?” Dinky’s eyes were closed in concentration as she separated and counted out her bits, so she didn’t see the look that Sparkler had affixed her with. “Doo,” she said as she set down the last stack, this one of six bits, one of which would be broken down into the jangles that Sparkler would owe her. “Like Ditzy Doo! She’s my momma, you’ve probably heard of her since she saved the world…” Dinky’s voice trailed off as she had looked up to Sparkler. The unicorn was staring at her, her expression completely unreadable as she seemed to be flipping through every emotion there was. “But…” Sparkler said at last. “Does…does that mean you’re my…?” The door to Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers was thrown open. Dinky and Sparkler both looked to the entrance after leaping simultaneously in shock, both dropping the items they had been holding… Dinky’s eyes widened. “Momma!” she exclaimed, recognizing the panting sight of her mother in her mail mare’s uniform. Her hat was missing, and her eyes were focused forward. Dinky saw her surprise falling apart in front of her eyes. “No!” Dinky exclaimed, taking a few steps forward. “Momma, you can’t be here! You’re ruining the surprise – ” “You!” Sparkler exclaimed. Dinky blinked at the intensity; looking behind her, she saw that Sparkler’s face was contorted in rage. “You! What are you doing here, you home-wrecker?” Ditzy Doo dashed forward, placing herself between her filly and Sparkler. “Not here,” Ditzy begged. Dinky’s eyes widened. She’d expected…she wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but she certainly hadn’t expected the pained, submissive voice that her mother was using. “Please, not here, not in front of Dinky. She doesn’t know, Sparkler – ” “Don’t call me that!” “Amethyst Star. Not in front of Dinky. Please. Please.” Sparkler stared at Ditzy, then down to Dinky. She closed her eyes, horn glowing brightly. Ditzy Doo flinched, wings spread wide as she moved to shield Dinky, but all that happened was Sparkler shoved the bits that Dinky had taken from her bag back into it, then hurled the bag to the ground in front of Ditzy. “Get out,” Sparkler spat. “Now.” “Okay,” Ditzy said, again almost sounding like she was apologizing as she grasped Ditzy’s school bag in her teeth before slinging it over her shoulders, adding it to the mail bags she was already carrying. “Okay. Thank-you – ” “Out!” Ditzy didn’t need more encouragement, it seemed, as she used her wings to guide Dinky from the store. The unicorn filly’s eyes were wide as she tried to process what had happened. It had been so fast… “Momma?” Dinky asked, as the door to the jewelry store closed, and Ditzy stood still. More than a few ponies were standing outside of it – and it looked like a tornado had passed through Ponyville right up to Amethyst Star’s shop. The Ponyvillians were staring at Dinky and Ditzy as the emerged “Momma, what happened? Why was Sparkler mad at you? Momma – ” Dinky had trotted up to look her mother in the eyes – and immediately wished she hadn’t. Ditzy’s eyes were tearing up fast, already releasing a deluge. “Momma? Why are you crying? What happened?” Ditzy didn’t immediately respond, instead breathing in deeply and releasing her breath only slowly, rubbing tears from her eyes as she did. “N-nothing,” she lied, transparently. “Come on, Dinky. We need to go home.” Dinky blinked, as her mother began trotting off. “But…but you’re supposed to still be working! And you were crying! Why?” “Home, Dinky,” Ditzy repeated, not looking over her shoulder. She didn’t need to, as Dinky was following close by, still trying to figure out what had just transpired.