Aquamarine didn’t know if it was the best idea to let this mare inside the Boutique, but she hadn’t gotten much choice. Once she caught sight of Rarity laid out on the couch, she burst in without a word and stood over her, looking pained.
If this were really dangerous, she’d be in trouble; there wasn’t anypony else around right now, with most of the town either getting ready for bed or our hiding. Nopony liked sleeping so late, but they were all like farmponies now, waking up with the sun to get all of the lifting done without tripping on stuff. It amazed her how fast things could change.
“Oh, Rarity,” the mare said, looking down at her like they were alone in the room. Rarity hadn’t moved, or done anything interesting besides breathing, so to Aqua she was more like a part of the room by now. If she’d ever really known the dressmaker, maybe she’d have felt worse, but all of her family was still together and the thought of feeling guilty about that made her wince.
“Did you know her?” Aqua asked, after the silence became uncomfortable enough that she felt prompted.
“A little.” Then, like a magician’s trick, a quilt with a pattern of blue diamonds knitted itself into existence, falling into position over the couch. “Does she ever come out of it?”
Aqua shook her head. “We don’t have to feed her or anything.”
Then something crashed into the wall.
***
This was the first time Sweetie had seen Tiara’s Stand, and it was very tall. Hanging in the air limply, it looked more like a pink mantis than a pony, like it was folded into existence out of bubblegum.
“That’s an interesting Stand,” she said, “Maybe you should tell us what it does.”
Diamond snorted. “You think I’m going to tell you what my Stand does right before I beat you with it, because you asked?”
“Well, you do know what my ｢Private Eyes｣ does, don’t you? It seems only fair.”
Foals who’d shushed each other so they could listen to the battle were now murmuring mild agreements among themselves.
“Life isn’t about fair!” Diamond said. “It’s about who’s best for the job. If you tell anypony who asks about your Stand powers and you can’t stop mine with them, then that just means you weren’t fit to be the leader.”
“But shouldn’t a leader be fair exactly when the rest of the world isn’t? Aren’t we trying to get even with the ponies who’ve done all of this-” she waved a hoof back at the rest of town, “to us?”
“That’s nothing to do with fairness. I’m going to lead us to victory by crushing our enemies and making anypony who wants to hurt our town wish they’d never been born! You just want an advantage because your little picture-viewer’s useless in a fight. If you cared about leading, you’d just have given the job to me and made yourself an advisor.”
The tone of the crowd was shifting to Diamond Tiara, mostly in righteous anger. Sweetie didn’t pay attention to them.
“And when somepony comes along who’s stronger and better at leading than you, are you going to hand Ponyville over to them?”
Diamond leered. “Never happen.”
“How can we know that?” Sweetie turned to their audience, briefly. “What if the reason you’ve been keeping it a secret is because it can only work against somepony like me? If it was so great, you would be out at the wall defending the town.”
During all of this ｢Misery Business｣ had been trembling in the air and fidgeting with its hooves, and although most in the crowd couldn’t see it, the rest were turning restless themselves.
“I’m going to make you regret speaking to me that way.” Diamond snarled.
“Fine, but don’t you think the ponies here deserve to know how you’ll do it? I wouldn’t trust any leader who has to hide what her powers are.”
“Just tell her and get to the fight!” a foal shouted from inside the crowd, and the rest agreed in various amounts of heartedness.
Diamond groaned loudly. “It can read secrets. Like yours. Want me to share some of your more embarrassing moments with everypony, or do you want to pony up and fight?” On the inside, she was flustered. Sweetie made me choose between revealing my Stand and losing support. She knows this is about more than fighting one-on-one, which means I have to beat her into the ground as fast as possible.
“Sure, just one second. Catch!” Sweetie grabbed her Stand and tossed it into the crowd, which scrambled for it until it wound up in the hooves of one Rumble. While everypony looked at each other and back to Sweetie, she pointed her hoof to the sky and said, “I don’t need a Stand to beat you, Diamond Tiara!”
The crowd cheered. Diamond seethed.
***
Coco rushed outside and found Scootaloo, laying on the ground next to her scooter, helmet still on. She looked like she’d fallen over in a slapstick routine, groaning as she sprawled out.
“What happened?” Coco asked.
“Stand user. The one Sweetie told me to look out for. I tripped her and got away, but I couldn’t hurt her. Took my aim. She’s, burning.” Scootaloo gestured woozily with a hoof. There was smoke a couple blocks away, obscured until now by the houses in between.
Coco looked back at the Carousel again, thinking, and then to Scootaloo. “Are you going to be okay here alone?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Go kick her flank. She’sss purple.” Scootaloo said, and then puked in the grass.
Coco grimaced but said, “I will,” and ran in the direction of the smoke.
***
Under the sneering exterior, there was a conflict going on inside Diamond Tiara.
If I use my Stand, it’ll seem like I need it to win. But if I don’t use it, then I’m playing into her hooves! She’s trying to make herself seem like the bigger pony, even though she thinks it’s going to get her beaten up. She thinks she can win some kind of sympathy vote because she threw away her only good resource!
Wait.
Is she hiding something?
Sweetie stood there, motionless and waiting for the first move, looking Diamond in the eyes. With that eye contact, her hidden thoughts were as bare as possible.
The information appeared as a line of text in Diamond’s field of vision, something that, if she ever spent time watching films in the hobbyist cinema scene, she would call a subtitle. It read, I CAN USE SCOOTALOO’S ITCHING POWDER AS SOON AS SHE GETS CLOSE.
A-ha!
“You think you can use itching powder on me as soon as I get close to you?” Diamond asked. “What kind of a dumb idea is that?”
Sweetie looked stunned, and then she asked, “What itching powder?”
THE ITCHING POWDER IN A PACKET TUCKED INTO MY MANE.
“The itching powder you got from the pegasus who couldn’t fly! It’s tucked into your mane!”
“Scootaloo? I didn’t get anything from Scootaloo. And what good would itching powder do me in a fight?”
I’M STALLING TO THINK OF A NEW PLAN.
“You’re stalling to think of a new plan!”
“No I’m not.”
YES I AM.
“Yes you are! I can read every thought you don’t want me to, there’s no fooling me!”
Sweetie looked a little perplexed. “I’m just waiting for you to start fighting. Are you sure that’s what your Stand does, or were you lying to hide its real power?”
I’M TURNING EVERYPONY AGAINST YOU.
“You-you’re turning everypony against me!”
Sweetie looked at the crowd and shrugged. “I guess?” In response it started complaining, in various voices, about how the fight wasn’t happening.
Nopony believes me!
“Look, I’ll make this fair. If your power's bothering you so much, then I’ll just think of something else secret that will help you concentrate.” Sweetie turned to the crowd again, “Any ideas?”
“Pick a number between one and ten!” one of them shouted.
“Pick seven! Like, seven numbers, not the number seven!”
And then Rumble, who everypony was looking to because he was holding her Stand, said, “Uh… You could try not thinking of something. Maybe... a purple griffon.” Everypony around him nodded.
“Thanks, Rumble.” Sweetie said. Then Misery Business transcribed, PURPLE GRIFFON PURPLE GRIFFON PURPLE GRIFFON.
She’s egging me on.
“That’s not going to work, Belle! I can read anything you want to hide from me as soon as you think not to think it, and I’m not going to be manipulated like this!”
“I’ve done everything I can for you, Diamond. Besides, I’m not sure you can really read my mind anyway. Can you tell me what number I’m thinking of?”
PURPLE GRIFFON I DIDN’T PICK A NUMBER PURPLE GRIFFON.
“You didn’t pick a number.” Diamond said, and as soon as the words came out she knew they were a mistake.
Sweetie shook her head and smiled, “It was eight. You could’ve tried, you know. Of course, if you just want to surrender and let me get back to work, I’m sure I can find something for you to manage.”
The sun was mostly down and everypony was getting tired of standing still, and their grumbling was aimed at Tiara. If I can’t keep their support, I’ll just have to prove that I’m the strongest. Then everypony will have to do what I tell them to!
Diamond charged.
***
Berryshine’s day had been getting better, until she slipped and sprained something. She might have just put it down to bad luck if it weren’t because of a Stand she’d had to dodge. It was amazing how many of them were around here, considering they were all kids. All the Stand users she’d seen in Sombra’s castle were teenagers like her, and close-by.
She supposed he was just sending them out to test their strength and ability. If they lost, then they weren’t worthy to serve him. He didn’t really speak to the recruits - she had the feeling that he couldn’t speak at all yet - but almost everything about this place had to do with weird intuitions.
But this orange filly had zoomed past her like she wasn’t there, then doubled around to take in the housefires. Berryshine had taken the opportunity to knock her out with ｢Simply Red｣, and as soon as the effects started the filly attacked like a trapped animal for about a minute and fled.
She imagined how easy it would’ve been to turn all of the filly’s blood into wine, or all of the water in the air so she couldn’t breathe, or her eyeballs so it stung, or all of the other things that she knew her Stand could do and tried not to use it for. It would’ve been a piece of cake to do it to Punch or her sister, or to the pony who met her at the gate.
She shook her head and concentrated on fueling the fires and searching for ponies still at home to knock out. Drops should be here in a couple hours, and then I can brag to her about how I took down their whole housing district before she could show up.
The blaze was healthy, but mostly contained. It was amazing what a wine-soaked rag and a fireplace could pull off. She stood back and felt the heat washing off in waves. Even if it didn’t smell great, it felt cleansing. She felt in her heart that they’d be back to grazing in the forest by the end of the week, and Sombra wouldn’t have much reason to bother them. She let out a happy sigh at the thought.
Then the hood fell over her eyes and tightened around her neck, and she was yanked backwards.
***
Ultimately, ｢Misery Business｣ was a clumsy, short-range Stand that relied mostly on its immense strength. Diamond knew enough about it to understand this weakness, and to exploit its ability in order to compensate, which is how she managed to convene so many ponies together. They cheered as she galloped and discarded the politicking, ready to make it a test of strength.
Stands can’t be hurt by anything but other Stands. She couldn’t beat me if she tried!
PURPLE GRIFFON PURPLE GRIFFON PURPLE GRIFFON
Diamond lunged, and in that moment, hanging in midair, she lost.
Sweetie’s horn glowed, and the dirt and dust exploded upwards. It got in her coat and tarnished her tiara, stung her eyes with grit and threw earth on her tongue. She had to squeeze her eyelids shut, and her Stand lashed out wildly. Sweetie sidestepped it easily, and as Diamond crashed into the dirt, she laid a white hoof on her tiara'd head and held up the other to the sky.
The crowd cheered.
"This is over. If you try to use your Stand, I'll cover you in itching powder and keep away until you give up." Sweetie said quietly, so nopony else would hear.
"Why couldn't I read your thoughts?" Diamond asked, rubbing away the dirt.
"You could. All the ones you repeated were exactly what I thought. But after a little while, I realized that it didn't matter whether you could tell what I was thinking or not."
"I could still use your secrets, Belle. I'm sure you've got lots of embarrassing ones."
"If anypony listens and believes you. You could always help out, I'll take your input if you like. It's pretty boring being a leader, to be honest, but I can't let anypony stop us protecting the Elements."
ESPECIALLY MY SISTER.
Diamond sighed and dismissed ｢Misery Business｣. "Get off my head, you've made your point."
Sweetie helped her up, and then turned to Rumble, caught ｢Private Eyes｣ and thanked him.
Then somepony in the crowd pointed to town and said, "Is that smoke?" Everypony turned, and Sweetie clicked through ｢Private Eyes｣.
"It is," she said, and just as ponies were turning to her she raised her voice, "There's no way we're stopping it, but we can protect the ponies of Ponyville if we work together. Wake everyone up, avoid any Stand users you come across and tell everypony with an ability what's going on. Diamond, please help organize and protect them. I'm going to wake up Spike.
"We're moving everypony to Twilight's castle -tonight-."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78yioWJhUJA [Rush - Something for Nothing]
Stand Name: Misery Business
User: Diamond Tiara
Stats
Power: A
Speed: C
Range: D
Durability: B
Precision: E
Potential: C
Abilities: Mind-reading; only perceives thoughts the target doesn’t want read.