//------------------------------// // Will never Hurt Me // Story: Sticks and Stones // by CowgirlVK //------------------------------// Beep! Whoosh! Beep! Whoosh! Diamond Tiara sat holding her mother’s hoof. No longer was her mother’s face artistically painted. Her mouth wasn’t scowling, her fur was tight against her bones, wrinkled and clammy. Her cheeks were pale, and her body was nearly unresponsive. Diamond could hear her father outside talking loudly with the doctor. She’d had a stroke. A stroke that had nearly shut down her entire body. Beep! Whoosh! Her mother’s chest rose and fell as the respirator forced the dying mare to breathe. It was just her. Just Diamond Tiara. Nopony else had dropped in for a visit. Nopony else had sent flowers. There wasn’t even a balloon tied to the headboard like she had seen in many of the other rooms. Not even a card sat propped up on any of the tables. Never, never in her life had she felt so alone as she did at that moment. Her head snapped upright as the door opened. Filthy Rich sighed and walked over to his daughter sadly. “How is she?” he asked. Diamond Tiara wiped away a tear from her swollen eyes. “She’s—” A sob choked her. Taking a deep breath, she continued. “Nopony cares about her, do they? Nopony cares about us! Not even the Spoons!” Filthy Rich only sighed. “There there,” he soothed, “I don’t think the Spoons know yet. I’ve sent a note, but it isn’t likely they’ll get it anytime soon.” He had no other words to comfort the filly. Spoiled Rich was a bully, one that even surpassed his daughter in her cruelty. Nopony ever wanted to spend time with her. Her only “friends” were as stuck up as she was, and to take time out of their day to visit a smelly, cold hospital... nope, not them. There were other places they needed to be. And so the small family was alone, alone with the beeps and the whooshes of the machines that kept her spoiled heart beating. “She’s gonna die! My momma is going to die!” Diamond Tiara said to herself. “There there, she might pull through,” Filthy said absently. “Did the doctor say so? Come on Daddy! I’m a big filly, you can’t fool me!” The stallion winced. “No,” he said truthfully, “No.” The young, almost mare’s namesake tiara fell of her head, clattering to the floor as Diamond fell to the ground in a mess of sobs. “No!” she wailed, “No!” ------------------------ “Oh that poor filly!” Apple Bloom sat just out of eyesight around the kitchen corner listening in on her big sister’s conversation with Muffins. “Yep, so that’s why Filthy wasn’t able to come by today to discuss jam sales,” Muffins said in her high-pitched sort of way. “Thank ya’ for tellin’ me,” Applejack said. No sooner had Applejack closed the door than Apple Bloom had rounded the corner. “What happened?” she asked. The orange mare sighed. Removing her stetson, she guided her younger sister to the couch. “Ya know Diamond Tiara?” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Of course!” she stated. “Do ya know her ma?” Applejack asked again. Apple Bloom glanced back at her marked flank. “Ah’ve seen her.” Applejack sighed, “Ya see, last night during one of their parties, somepony... angered Mrs. Rich. She ended up giving herself a major stroke. Not that ah’m surprised, the mare—” She stopped herself. “Was a tad upclass.” The smaller yellow filly nodded, “So, Mr. Rich won’t be coming by ta pick up our batch of jams taday afterall.” Despite the fact Mrs. Rich got on Apple Bloom’s nerves, she couldn’t help but be slightly concerned. “Will she be alright?” Applejack shook her head. “She’s not expected ta last the night.” The sisters sat in silence for several moments, Apple Bloom hugging her sister’s forehoof like a lifeline. “Ah don’t suppose Diamond will have many visitors. She ain’t exactly liked,” she noted. “Ah don’t suppose there will be,” Applejack affirmed. Apple Bloom sighed, then lept to her hooves and dashed for the kitchen. “AB?” Applejack asked, startled by her younger sister. But she was on a mission. Apple Bloom found her saddle bag, a jar of jam, and three leftover fritters from lunch. After dropping them in her bag, she galloped up the stairs to her room, blowing past a very confused Applejack. Once up in her room, the filly found a piece of paper and a crayon and drew a simple “Thinking of You” sympathy card. After signing her name, she dropped it in an envelope and dashed back down the stairs, once more blowing past her sister who was on her way up the steps. Back in the kitchen, Apple Bloom collected her bags and dropped the note in with her other items. She was just about to go out the door when Applejack caught up with her. “Whoa there Nelly!” the elder mare said, catching her sister around the torso. “Come on sis! Ya said yerself she probably didn’t have many friends ta make her feel better,” Apple Bloom complained. Applejack nodded, “That ah did. But ya ain’t goin’ without a pie.” Apple Bloom smiled, then nodded. As she and her sister worked, her mind raced back to the earliest she could remember. If it hadn’t been for the Rich family, they’d have lost their farm a hundred times over. Filthy Rich had always been there to buy a bag of apples or to loan them the money they’d need to repair this, that, or the other. Apple Bloom nearly giggled when she thought of the time Filthy Rich made Diamond bounce around in that bunny costume. Though she’d felt so silly, she knew that Diamond felt completely humiliated. It’d given her so much satisfaction at the time, but now—Apple Bloom’s stomach churned. “Are ya sure one pie will be enough, Applejack?” Apple Bloom asked. “If they need more, we can bring it,” Applejack pointed out. “Big Mac can polish off a pie all by ‘imself!” the younger sister stated. “There’s fritters in that bag, right?” Apple Bloom nodded. “Well AB, then all they need is shoulder ta’ cry on, just like Mr. Rich was there for us when Ma and Pa died. Ya’ go on ahead, I’ll be there in a bit.” “Alright Sis,” Apple Bloom said, “See ya’ then.” Tightening her pack to her back, she galloped down the road to pick up her friends before the three of them stopped in to be there for their newfound friend in her time of grief. ---------------- Nothing had changed over the past three hours. Her mother still looked drawn, her father looked absent, and Diamond Tiara felt sick. The food was horrible, and the smell wasn’t much better. Not that she was exactly hungry. She held her mother’s non-tethered hoof, rubbing it back and forth on her own cheek. “Come on, Mother!” Beep! Whoosh! Beep! No change. The pink filly brushed a stray piece of mane from her face. Her tiara no longer lay where it had fallen. The nice nurse, Redheart, she believed, had managed to scoop it up and put it on the table where it wouldn’t get damaged, not that Diamond really cared at that moment. Knock! Knock! “Enter!” her father said listlessly. Diamond assumed it was just another nurse or doctor swinging by to check on her mother. “Diamond?” The pink filly didn’t move, her head stayed down, her eyes closed. Something hard but warm settled on her shoulder. “Diamond?” It didn’t matter. It really didn’t matter. All that mattered was her mother, and she was leaving her. “Diamond.” This time it was firmer, and it was pulling Diamond’s listless self towards it. Now it was important. She looked up into the face of her former victim, Apple Bloom. “Shh,” the youngest Apple sibling soothed, rubbing her hoof up and down on Diamond’s back. Diamond Tiara looked up as she felt herself encompassed in warm hugs. Not only was there Apple Bloom, but Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were there as well. None of them spoke, allowing Diamond to take it in. “We are so sorry!” Sweetie finally said, breaking the silence. “Why?” the spoiled filly asked, “Why do you even care?” They all pulled back somewhat shocked. “Diamond, we can never forget everything you ever said to us,” Scootaloo said. “You really hurt us,” Sweetie added. “But, if we left ya alone right now, we would be hurting you worse than how you hurt us,” Apple Bloom finished. Now it was Diamond’s turn to be stunned again. “Wha-What?” she stuttered. Apple Bloom stood and walked to the door. Retrieving her saddle bag, she pulled out a neatly tied up cloth bundle from out of it. “Just a bit of somethin’.” Diamond hesitated, blinked, then tentatively removed the wrapping paper. With a gasp, Diamond Tiara put a hoof to her mouth, new tears springing to her eyes. “A pie!” she exclaimed. “That’s not all!” Sweetie then disappeared and came back with a bunch of balloons, which she tied to the vacant rocking chair in the other corner. Scootaloo then disappeared and came back with a big card. “It isn’t much, but nopony deserves to be alone.” BEEEEEEEEP! All five of them looked up as the machine flatlined. “NO!” Diamond screamed. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom both had to hold her back as the nurses and doctors swarmed the room. But they could do nothing. Spoiled Rich was gone. ---------------------------------- It wasn’t a large funeral. Nopony wanted to attend. Pinkie had been there, Mayor Mare had done the ceremony, and a few other ponies around town were sprinkled through the oversized room. Silver Spoon sat beside her, holding her best friend close as Diamond Tiara sobbed. Now it was over. The town shrew was gone, and the now motherless filly sat in her room, watching the town move and bustle around. The way home had been horrible! She figured most of them had meant well, but the few of her mother’s “friends” who had shown up had such heartless words to share that Diamond wished they had stayed home. Nothing but sneers and jests met her from those ponies. Her mother’s ways were wrong. Stepping on other ponies was no way to get to the top. If she wanted to lead, being a bully was not the way to go. Nopony cared for Spoiled Rich. Tolerated, maybe, but love? The whole town had known she was dying. They all knew she had passed, and yet, so few came, so few cared. Her mind trailed back, way back. Sticks and stones will break my bones—the old schoolyard chant. She paused there, grimacing as she thought of a way to change the end. “But my words… can both help and hurt me,” she said aloud. “They can hurt everypony!”