Public Works Projects
Diamond didn't look up when she first heard the newest hoofsteps beginning to approach: she simply risked a quick nod to the colt who was sitting on the bench opposite her own in her daddy's oddly basic (but rather comfortable) study, which was her pre-established way to telling him not to look up either. And then when she judged that those hoofsteps were close enough for their owner to pick up on words, she increased the volume of her own.
"-- no, the Diamond Dogs were actually invited to the signing of the treaty, just like everyone else," Diamond carefully lectured. "A lot of ponies make that mistake. They think that just because the Dogs didn't sign, they were never invited at all. But they didn't have one leader who would speak for them. It's really important, to have one leader --" quickly "-- maybe two, just so you know exactly who's in charge. But with them, every warren was like its own little country, and all their alphas ever did was fight with each other over who was the biggest alpha. So even if any of them had wanted to sign, they couldn't agree on who should. And if one alpha tried to go, the other warrens would stop him because they didn't want it to look like he was speaking for them. Okay?"
"Uh-huh," said the colt, which was all she'd trusted him to say after hearing the results from the brief rehearsal.
They both felt the head carefully moving into the open doorway. Neither of them paid any visible attention to it.
"Now, the dragons..." The head pulled back. The hoofsteps moved away as Diamond continued her lecture, which she maintained for thirty seconds after the last echo had faded. "...all right, come out!"
Snails carefully stepped out from behind the freestanding, shielding bookcase. "You're sure she's gone?"
Diamond, who was intimately acquainted with how sound moved within her house, especially when those sounds came in the form of her orders, nodded. "We're clear. Let's get back to the real stuff!"
"But aren't we gonna do history for a while longer?" Snips asked, momentarily glancing at the now-empty doorway, at the spot where his mother's head had recently been.
"...why would you want to do history?" a confused Diamond asked, because history was the one thing she had to do and wanting to was never going to be any part of that.
"You were talking about dragons," Snips immediately answered. "Dragons are cool! But just the big ones. Who might eat ponies. I mean, Spike's okay, but it's not like he's ever gonna do anything cool, like stomp around and knock over buildings and set whole settled zones on fire! Except for that one time when he almost did, but nothing really happened. Besides, like you said, our folks might quiz us on some of this stuff when we get home, so we've gotta have something to tell them."
Snails nodded. "If they came all the way out here to check on us, they're sure going to follow up when we get home. We know. A few minutes of listening in aren't enough to convince them of anything. Not even close."
Diamond managed to repress the instinctive snarl, mostly through spotting the thing as it was just beginning to emerge and wrestling with it until the final battered result could pass for a sigh. "Fine... Five more minutes on the Treaty of Menagerie, but then we've got to get back to Literature." (She'd never really been interested in the written stories of other ponies, not when she was clearly so much better at making up her own.) But so far, the boys had been right about their parents, right about every way in which they'd predicted the adults would behave...
Precautions had been taken at the moment they'd all reached the estate. Diamond had rounded up every servant who was afraid to offend her (which was pretty much all of the still-employed ones) and given them their orders: two of them were to answer the door on every knock. If the Gastropes or Bradels showed up and asked to see their sons, they were to be told only that son was being tutored by Diamond. One servant would make an offer to show the snooping adult just what was going on with their offspring -- which gave Diamond time to get into a lecturing position with whichever son that currently was, while the other colt hid: something there was plenty of time for, because the other servant would have galloped ahead to sound the warning. Mrs. Bradel had been the second visit of the early evening, and hopefully the last: she was pretty sure they weren't going to get more than one from each family. And the staggering of their arrivals had taken out the one problem she hadn't figured out how to fix: the possibility of the adults showing up at the same time, or even just encountering each other on the lone road which led to her home, something which would have let them know both boys were on the premises -- and while she could have explained that away once, it would have prevented any more visits over the days to come. Planning, with a little bit of luck added in because the world approved of Diamond's plan in the same way that her daddy would eventually openly approve of her again, had given them the first night -- and it looked as if the colts were finally starting to relax.
But...
"Do they always do that?" Diamond found herself asking, because she was starting to realize that employee welfare just might mean more than ponies not sending couriers ahead bearing notices of illness too often. "Check on where you are and who you're with?"
"All the time," Snails sighed.
"Just in case we're with each other," Snips wearily confirmed. "And they still might go to Miss Cheerilee, and we haven't thought of anything we can do if that happens..."
Which made all of the relaxation reverse itself, and Snails gave his Literature text a disheartened snout nudge as he sank back down to the floor of the cozy study. "Did you think of anything? While I was behind the books?"
"No," Diamond reluctantly admitted, although not without feeling some pleasure about his starting to look towards her as the source of all thinking. "But we've still got time. Dragons now, though. And then you'll review some dumb stories. Maybe you can read them out loud to each other, because that helps ponies memorize stuff, especially when you've got to tell your parents about it. And -- reading stuff out loud makes it better. Even when it's dumb."
"And we'll play after that?" Snips quickly asked. "I want some more time with that block set! The ones which stuck together if you touched them just right. I almost had that bridge halfway across the room before we got called in for supper!"
"Maybe." Actually -- probably. The block set was something she'd never really been interested in, especially after she'd done some quick research in her father's study and found out it had never appreciated in value for the collector's market by even a single tenth-bit, even if the original packaging was still perfectly sealed just like hers had been before she'd sacrificed it to the needs of passing. Admittedly, this might be giving up more than a few bits down the road because such markets weren't exactly stable (and there had been the one time when Diamond had almost managed to get all of the store's lone shipment for that year's Hearth's Warming Eve's hottest toy off the shelves before they could be sold to the public, just so she could be the one to sell them at a markup which her daddy had refused to consider inflicting on anypony), but they'd really wanted to see it in action and besides, it kept them away from the stuff for which the secondary market value had already gone up.
"Your place has some awesome suppers," Snails said, finding the ghost of a smile. "And the ponies who bring all the dishes in move really fast!" Thoughtfully, "I guess they've sort of got to. If you just trotted down the whole table, the food would get cold. Except for the food that's already cold. That would warm up."
They'd had to use a third bench: a rare occasion outside of Silver's visits. But there hadn't been a fourth. Her daddy hadn't come home for dinner. And that was normal, it really was: there were some times when he stayed at the store until long after Moon had been raised, and Diamond only knew he'd arrived at home when she heard the tired gait approaching her door, just before he made his way into the bedroom as carefully as he could, trying to be quiet so he wouldn't wake her (although she was just pretending to be asleep by then, every time), and kissed her forehead before he finally went off to sleep. Her daddy worked so hard, and sometimes had trouble putting work off for another day, especially when he thought there might be something going on at one of the stores, like if there was a new competitor in another settled zone, or he was trying to decide just what to order from the latest wholesale catalogs, and always if he was trying to track down a reason for why --
-- Ponyville business is off.
"Diamond?"
That just might have been the first time either of the colts had used her name, which was probably why it felt so weird to hear. "Huh?" Diamond responded, and wanted to wince: that just made it sound like they were having some influence on her...
"You looked kind of out of it there," Snips continued in his role as the resident expert on just what ponies who were kind of out of it looked like. "Were ya thinking about something?"
"Literature," Diamond lied. "Let's do the dragon stuff, and then you two review some stories, and then the blocks. And then we'll do math after that." Not that Diamond needed much in math, because watching her daddy's accountants fill out her homework probably had some benefits, but it would look weird if the colts got home without that subject to discuss.
"We can't stay too late," Snails pointed out. "We've got to be back home for our normal bedtimes."
Which meant Diamond really needed a way of getting them onto the estate for the weekend. Well, as long as her lie was holding... but still, good employees should really be willing to put in some overtime.
Not that she knew if they were good employees yet. Their job was to keep her on top, and this was just the prep work for the true labor. But they were still all she had...
"I'll watch the clock," Diamond assured them, for her daddy had lots of clocks. "Just listen for now, okay? So when it came to the dragons --"
So she talked about that for a while, and watched the boys wriggling with excitement because they were dumb enough to still think dragons were cool when the presence of the one at the stupid library had already disproved that forever. Then she made sure they got into the early part of the literature stuff, and listened as they read aloud to each other, each quickly deciding that it was more fun if they threw in some voices, and their idea of how to make themselves sound like mares threatened to make the clocks stop. And after that, mostly because her daddy had said break times were an integral part of a productive workday, she reluctantly paused in her supervision and started leading them to the blocks, where she'd have to do some more supervising in order to make sure they didn't get into anything else, especially if it might have potential long-term value.
Some of that supervision might have to be conducted close-up. Somepony needed to make sure they were playing properly.
Snails glanced over to Snips as Diamond led them back towards the elaborate playroom, with its many shelves and extensive staging area which hosted a scale model of the palace large enough for a couple of ponies to stand in, its walls glinting in the highlights from reflections off untouched wrapping paper: there were a few things which Diamond really hadn't gotten around to, mostly given by ponies who probably hadn't been able to spend that much. "You know, Snips, if nothing bad happens, even if our parents don't find out -- this is still a really good idea. Not just the getting together, because that's still brilliant as long as we don't get caught. The studying stuff, too!"
Diamond's ears instantly perked.
"You think so? 'cause I don't know if our folks are gonna quiz us on this much..."
"Yeah, but they could ask any question. And it's not like we could review everything in one night, so we can get some stuff wrong. But we've still gotta be careful --"
Her tail was starting to feel as if she was holding it a little higher than usual.
"-- especially when it comes to getting stuff wrong. Making sure..."
And Snails grinned.
"Oh!" And it was a bark of a laugh which emerged from Snips, something which would have made any Diamond Dog proud. "You mean like third year! When Miss Cheerilee was trying out the multiple choice tests!"
A quick nod. "Yeah! You remember! We nearly marked off too much of the right stuff by accident, both of us! I know it was just bad luck, but five more for you, three for me, and one of us would have wound up on vacation!" And a very slow head shake. "Too close, Snips. Too close..."
"Yeah, Snails! I get it! If Miss Cheerilee does something like that again, and we know what the right answers are going in, we'll never put them down! -- hey, Diamond?"
The lone word seemed to take every bit of strength dinner had granted before reaching back to her absent breakfast and trying to draw from vacuum. "What?"
"Did you know your tail's dragging on the floor?"
She knew. And it kept dragging for the entire break period, ultimately covering up the vital blocks which would have allowed the bridge to carry the toy cart to something other than a final crash.
She hadn't slept well. Again.
It had been hours lying in her bed, trying out every position imaginable, if only because she eventually got sick of looking at every individual wall, in turn. Trying to figure out what her next move was. If she even had one. Because as it turned out, she could make the boys study. She could even make them learn. And they saw their learning as a more efficient way to flunk. They would write down their answers, their perfectly wrong answers which nopony would ever benefit from copying (with the exception of each other), send themselves to summer school and Mr. Guffey, and she just might wind up going with them...
A week was bad enough. A summer would be nightmare, and perhaps even more so than the one which recent history somehow felt warranted the capital letter, even though all that had happened was some extra nighttime and six mares whose only authority came from jewelry, and not even good jewelry (like her tiara) at that. And that was before considering what her daddy would say, how he would feel about her having flunked, and...
...was.
She still had six days. There was time to think of something. But she'd used up so much of that time under Moon, trying to come up with anything, anything at all, and it had gone on deep into the night, until she'd finally heard her daddy's weary hoofsteps coming down the hallway, and she'd immediately closed her eyes, tucked herself into her usual sleeping position, made sure her forehead was presented at the typical angle, and...
...he'd gone past her door.
Straight to his own bed.
And then she hadn't slept for a very long time, almost up until the moment she'd had to get up and not find him at breakfast. Having all the stupid pillows turn damp hadn't helped.
It had also taken a very long time to walk to school. After all, her daddy's house was some distance from the town, and it was hard to trot fast when you were tired and the dumb servants hadn't made a breakfast decent enough to eat again, or at least decent enough to keep down. Diamond had nearly been late, getting through the door mere seconds before the final summoning bell rang, and everypony had watched her as she'd gone to what wasn't supposed to be her seat, accompanied by a half-giggled greeting from the dumb boys, silent concern from Silver, and it had felt like stupid Cheerilee's eyes had been on her back all the way down the aisle...
She'd barely had the strength to even pretend she was paying any degree of attention. Every so often, there would be words from her left or right, and she might remember to nod: it didn't always seem to make much difference, except that...
"You okay?" Snips checked.
She remembered to nod.
"You look really tired," Snails added.
She nodded again, although that one was mostly on reflex.
"Don't try sleeping in class," Snips advised. "That doesn't work. We've tried it. Unless you don't snore. Snails snores. A lot."
A nod didn't seem to fit the occasion.
"Don't worry," Snails reassured her. "It'll be recess in a few minutes. You can rest up a little more then."
And sure enough, the bell rang, because it always did. That much closer to the final bell, the one which would signal failure and summer school and... was.
Diamond forced herself off the uncomfortable bench, down the aisle, and once again felt the weight of Cheerilee's dumb gaze upon her -- right up until Truffle stepped up to the desk, several papers shyly clutched in his teeth, and took the attention away.
There was trotting, although it was more like a slow hoof shuffle towards her doom. The other students were watching her, of course, especially since she was following the colts again: she had to stay close, just in case she thought of something. And Silver was watching: eventually, if Diamond couldn't think of anything, even Silver would find out...
The recess routine began, well out of sight from the others, a day which brought a scheduled hint of approaching summer heat, something Diamond could barely feel. Snails dug, displayed and talked about the results. Snips laughed, made jokes, gave advice, tried to see how much he could say before his friend took the argument from verbal to rough-and-tumble, a border he wasn't successfully crossing today. Diamond watched from near the wall, her body slumped low in the grass, tried not to think about an onrushing future while only concentrating on the things which might stop it, a priority order which, when put into practice, reversed itself on every attempt. And then --
"-- I gotta go in," Snips abruptly stated.
Snails glanced up, momentarily putting his horn free of the loosened soil. "What's up?"
"Bathroom," Snips announced. "You wanna know the details?"
The taller colt took an odd-seeming glance at Diamond. "Not right now. Get back out in time if you can?"
"I dunno, Snails, this one might be a while..." And with that, he galloped around the corner and out of sight. Snails shrugged, then lowered his head again, poking the dirt with his horn, dragging in careful, shallow trenches. Pulled back to see if anything had been uncovered, then started again. Over and over and over --
"-- why do you do that?"
Another glance up. "Do what?"
The rest of the tired words slipped out just as easily as the first five. Maybe they would be offensive and drive her last hope away. Maybe they wouldn't be. She wasn't sure it mattered any more. "Use your horn. You've got your magic. Why don't you just put your field deep into the ground and pull the bugs out?"
His head lifted a little more, just enough to stare at her.
"Unicorns can't put their fields inside stuff," he said. "Not solids. It's called differencing-nations or something like that. But nopony can do it." Mournfully, "Even when all the best bugs are deep down and I never see the great burrowers. The ones I can't reach..."
Her own blink felt oddly slow.
"You can't? Not even just for dirt?"
"Not when it's solid. Mud, sometimes, I can push a ways down. Really loose soil, that's kind of easy, because it's just being pushed aside. But when you go down deep, and it gets hard again -- not even Miss Trixie could do that, and if she can't..." He shrugged. "So I've gotta dig. Nothing else works."
His head went down again. The horn resumed its rooting. And Diamond stared at him.
He was a unicorn. Maybe not the strongest one: she really hadn't seen enough of his workings to get any sense of his power, mostly because it would have previously meant having to pay attention to him. But she'd just been told he couldn't do something easy. Just about the easiest thing imaginable...
Diamond was tired, and worried, and there had been times during the day and too-long night when she'd felt oddly -- lacking in control. Like there were things she couldn't do, when there had never been before. Things she couldn't arrange, not by herself or through her daddy, her daddy who hadn't come in to kiss her, or... anything. But this -- to have something easy in front of her and be told that no unicorn could do something so easy...
She was tired. And under other circumstances, she might have thought about it more. Because Diamond had her magic: she'd found it even earlier than her mark, practiced now and again under her daddy's instruction, and he'd told her how strong she was, how much pride he had in not only that strength, but her ability to master it on the finest level. The quality of her tools.
Diamond had her magic.
But she didn't really like it.
To enrich the soil, make it so that anything had a chance to grow in the grounds around the estate... that was automatic, constant, a part of her which needed no more tending to than her own breathing. But to go beyond that was to do something Diamond hated.
You had to ask.
That was the rule. You asked a question, and hoped to get an answer. Using her magic meant communication with something greater than herself, something which might say No, where no lies or tears or threats would ever change its mind. There was nothing which could make that a pleasant experience. And then there was the other rule, the one her daddy had told her about so carefully, the one every earth pony followed and for once, that meant Diamond had to follow it too. It wasn't that there were things you didn't do. It was the stories about what might happen after things had been done. And her daddy, who'd loved her, had told her about every last one of them, so that none of them would ever happen to her.
But she was tired...
Diamond looked around: that was automatic. Nopony else in sight. Nopony watching. And as for the other sense... her magic had come earlier than that of the others in her class: she'd even beaten Silver to that particular kick. Some of them still didn't have it. (She felt Apple Bloom was one of them. She had no proof, but she felt it went nicely with every other failure.) And as for those who did -- if she worked carefully, she just might be lost in the background of the Cornucopia Effect. It should be easy to get past fillies and colts, especially ones who weren't actively listening...
"Did you ever try stomping?"
It got her the expected response. "Huh?"
"Stomping," Diamond insisted. "Scare them into coming up!"
"I might collapse their tunnels," Snails dully insisted. "I don't want to hurt them."
"So maybe -- just tap?"
He was staring at her again.
"Tap," he repeated.
"Like raindrops. Like they might want to come up for water."
"They'd drown."
Exasperated. "Or like some berries just fell off a tree! A little heavier and not so often! Have you tried it?"
Slowly, "Naw..."
"So what's wrong with trying it once?"
It took far too long for him to blink. And then his left forehoof came up at the same moment his head went down again, carefully peering at the soil.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
And Diamond, who no longer had any of the colt's attention, closed her eyes, pulled her attention away from sight and the hearing which could only listen to the outer world, banished scent and the warmth of Sun against her coat, pushed her focus down and
there is life within the earth
always
unable to work within solids. that's funny, because nothing is ever truly solid. especially the earth. tiny tunnels, not too far down, but well beyond what a prodding horn, especially one trying so hard to be gentle, could ever reach. and those tunnels are everywhere on that level, up and down and all about. unite all the ones from a single acre, make them into a single slowly curving line, a new kind of enchantment holding up a different bridge, and watch it wrap around the world.
she can feel that, when she focuses this deeply, when no other sense has her attention and there's nothing to do but listen. the little gaps and rents and diggings. and there's more. she can feel vibration moving down the tunnels, tiny impacts coming in constant series from too many legs. it tells her where they are.
so she asks her question
and the answer is given
the tunnels do not collapse. they simply and gently fill in behind the vibrations, and the little lives within know only that there is suddenly a direction they cannot go, one which is moving towards them. it makes them scurry, so many tiny legs moving against the earth, and the deeper soil parts in front of them, a new tunnel slanting up even as the portion they would normally scurry into is taken away.
they cannot think, none of them can think: they only know they have to escape and there is but one way left to go: the one presented for them. it goes up, and they cannot think about that either, up out of the deeper soil and closer to where the dirt has been stirred up and loosened, closer to Sun, they scurry faster and
"HEY!"
Her eyes shot open. Snails' own lids looked as if they might never close again.
"That's a mycohpes zethroides!"
It was a beetle. It didn't look much different from any other beetle Diamond had ever seen, and so she really didn't understand why the colt was suddenly prancing about in place -- although with extreme care regarding where his hooves came down.
"And here comes another one -- that's a girl! It's gotta be a girl: look at the shell colors! And --" gaze moving everywhere, his volume gaining decibels with every fresh spotting of a six-legged bundle of armor which nopony ever should have cared about "-- there's another! And -- I don't believe it, Diamond! I've gotta -- I've gotta get home!" His horn ignited: one field bubble gently surrounded and lifted two beetles, while a second quickly collected some soil. "I'm just borrowing them!" This seemed to be directed at the other bugs who were milling about the stirred-up soil in total confusion, none of whom could understand him or, by that point, see him: the colt was already on the gallop. "I'll have them back tomorrow! They'll be comfortable, I promise! If Miss Cheerilee asks where I went, tell her it's a mycohpes zethroides and I had to go home --!"
Gone.
Diamond stared in what had been his general direction, then looked at the stupid beetles, a few of which were still coming out and coming towards her, all four legs jerked and got her upright before anything could crawl across her, and she leaned against the schoolhouse wall and wondered why Snails cared about the stupid --
"Diamond Tiara."
She didn't want to look. She didn't have to look. Because she knew the voice, hated that voice and everything it said, a voice which for the first (second?) time in her life had power over her...
Her daddy's protection... maybe it had made her prone to taking larger risks. But she'd just taken a huge one. And in her exhaustion, she'd forgotten something. She'd come to her magic early, was better with it than the other colts and fillies, she was sure of that --
-- but she'd completely forgotten about the adult.
She didn't have her daddy's protection. But it wouldn't have mattered. There might have been nothing even he could say. Nowhere to run. There was no protection from this.
Cheerilee was standing behind her. Cheerilee, who had felt everything.
"Come inside," the older earth pony calmly said. "With me. Now."
It was the longest trot of her life.
She knew the others were watching her again. Were wondering what had happened. And they didn't know. Silver didn't know, and Diamond had no way to tell her, especially after Cheerilee looked out across the other students (including a recently-emerged Snips) and told them that she needed to have a private conference with Diamond and that in order to make it work, recess was extended. They'd loved that. Pairing it with the possibility that Diamond was being punished made it all the better.
But they had no idea. Not about punishment. The stories her daddy had quietly told her... some of them had been about punishment. So many of them had...
Diamond followed Cheerilee into the schoolhouse, watched as the teacher locked the door behind them before the adult went up to and then behind her desk, nodded to Diamond, waited for the final approach. And part of her wondered if she would ever come back out.
"Sit down."
Diamond sat.
Cheerilee looked her over. Mane to tail and back again, pausing on the tiara each time.
"That was a very nice thing you just did for Snails."
"...what?"
"You heard me, Diamond," Cheerliee calmly said. "I heard what he shouted just before he galloped off. And a bit more than that, because you listened deep instead of listening around. But I think you might have just given Snails one of the best days of his life. You did something nice for him."
"I..." It seemed to be the only word she could currently find, and so she used it again to buy time while she looked for others. "I..."
"And you don't do nice things." It had been a statement. "For anypony." The green-grey eyes narrowed. "What are you up to, Diamond?"
"I'm not..." She had to have more than that! "I'm not doing anything... I --"
"Last night," Cheerliee quietly continued, "I had visitors at my house. Two, actually, about forty minutes apart. And they both had the same question for me. They wanted to know if I was punishing you through ordering tutoring sessions of their sons. Or in this case, son in the singular, because each told me they'd already been to your house and seen you with that colt, with no mention of the other being there at all."
They'd been right. Snips and Snails had been right, their parents followed up on everything...
"You were teaching, Diamond," Cheerilee softly stated. "You were trying to get them to pass their finals. And you told their families that it was a punishment. Do you know what I told them?"
"I -- I don't --"
"Well," the older pony said, "I told them the only thing I could."
She trotted out from behind the desk. Stood in front of Diamond, mere hoof-widths away.
"I have a teaching mark," Cheerliee softly went on. "That's not just part of my magic, Diamond: that's the focus of my life. But it does mean I'm a good teacher. Now, that magic can manifest in different ways, depending on the individual pony. With me -- it doesn't make me good at dealing with the school board. At talking my way up through the bureaucracy and convincing them there's nothing to fear from you, something I can tell you because I'm pretty sure you know both that and, since I've been speaking to your father, that it doesn't matter any more. But... some teachers instinctively know just the right words to reach a student. I can do that sometimes, but it's never worked with Snips and Snails, and I don't know why. And a very few -- never completely lost touch with their inner filly. They can still think like a child when they need to. That's more useful than you might ever imagine, and I'm proud to be a pony who can call that a part of her mark. It isn't a completely reliable aspect of my magic -- but I can do it, Diamond, at least once in a while. It's instinct, really, a special level of intuition. So when the Gastropes came to me... I knew you were up to something. But I didn't know what. And the best way to find out -- was by letting it happen."
Diamond blinked.
"I told Mr. Gastrope that you were tutoring his son," Cheerilee said. "On my request. And about forty minutes later, I was still very surprised to tell Mrs. Bradel the same thing -- but I told her anyway. Because Snips and Snails have failed their exams every year from their second on, Diamond, and I would love to see that end. If you're truly trying to get them to pass, then I can't think of any reason to stop you -- except one. The one where I know you're up to something."
Direct eye contact.
"What are you up to, Diamond?"
"They -- they need to study... I just want them to pass and not have to attend summer school again..."
"You don't do nice things for anypony," the teacher said. "Let's not even pretend, Diamond. You are being nicer to Snips and Snails than anypony except Silver, and that little stunt you pulled outside might have just pushed you past that. You're not going to be a good little pony unless you've found a means by which it benefits you. Are you going to tell me what it is?"
And Diamond searched, rooted within her own mind, stirred up every thought there was, and unearthed the lie of her life.
"They're -- my friends."
Cheerilee was staring at her again.
"Your friends."
Quickly, trying to sound as if she was only the proper portion of defensive, "They were nice to me when I was sent back there. I spent some time with them at recess, and... they're nice. I didn't know they were nice, they didn't have any reason to be nice and they were nice to me anyway, and I thought it would be -- nice... if they had their summers again, and maybe we could spend part of the summer together. But when I went to Mr. Gastrope, he didn't believe me. He didn't think there was any way I'd want to tutor Snails, and I thought that if I told him it was from you..."
She stopped, checked the teacher's eyes. They were a little bit wider -- and then narrowed again.
"And the reason each parent only saw their own colt?"
"Bathroom break," Diamond quickly said. "Snips can take a really long time in the bathroom."
Too calm now. "And you expect me to believe this."
"Did you see him go in from recess? He was just in there for --"
"-- Diamond, I'm going to let you tutor them." She was smiling again. Diamond was starting to hate that smile. "And with you tutoring them -- as their friend -- I expect them to pass. In fact, I'm counting on it. Because if they don't pass... then I believe you invented a punishment which would take place if that happened. Without specifying what it was."
She could feel her heart. Her lungs. Every breath.
"Teaching isn't easy, Diamond," Cheerilee smiled. "And for some reason, it's very hard with Snips and Snails, at least for me, and that's with a teaching mark. Still, I understand somepony else has rather more summer success than I've ever found in any other season. Maybe you'll be just as good -- somehow. Good luck, Diamond. Please go tell the rest of the class to come in now."
Diamond carefully pushed herself upright, forced herself towards the door. It was taking a while. The air seemed to have acquired a surprising weight, and it pressed in from every direction.
"I was originally going to talk to you about this before school started." Cheerilee added, "but you were nearly late. And Diamond, please try to get some sleep tonight. I know when a pony's about to collapse on her hooves, and I'm tempted to send you home early -- but this close to finals, I'd rather not have you miss anything, especially when you have to pass it on later."
She couldn't answer.
"Oh -- Diamond? One more thing." And her tone changed, gentled, became sad... "That was a very nice thing you did for Snails. Please try to come up with a reason why it won't ever work again. Because I don't think you want to be next to him for every moment of his life to come, just in case he decides to start tapping his hooves."
The teacher sighed.
"You're very talented, Diamond," she said, and somehow, each word felt as if it carried its very own invisible tear. "It was -- a pleasure to feel you work. It truly was. I wish I could feel it more often. But... I'd appreciate it if you'd be a little more careful. Listen around. Always. All right?"
And all she could do, facing away from the older earth pony, was nod.
"I wish," Cheerilee softly said. "I wish... Let them in, Diamond. Let all of them in."
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"...good employees should really be willing to put in some overtime.
Not that she knew if they were good employees yet..."
Definition of Good Employees: Willing to put in overtime.
Definition of Really Good Employees Who Know Which Side Of Their Toast The Butter Is On: Willing to put in overtime and not ask for extra pay.
"...Yeah! You remember! We nearly marked off too much of the right stuff by accident, both of us!..." -- Obviously not students of Green Grass' Theory Of Getting A Zero On A Multiple Choice Test Just To Be A Prat.
I do have to admire how Snips adheres to his rather perilous definition of cool, even after the Ursa baiting incident. If nothing else, he sticks to his principles.
Huh. You know, I've never thought of Legos as blocks until now. I feel like a tiny part of my worldview just got twisted ninety degrees.
It's always fascinating to see the world through the lens of Diamond Tiara, who distorts not light, but reality, making her faultless and more impressive than very nearly everything in existence. It's even more fascinating to watch that lens crack.
Oh my goodness. Talk about sticking your neck out for somepony. I'm with Cheerilee. I don't why they think the masquerade is necessary, but I do so wish they didn't.
Also, I wonder if Diamond will ever think to reveal just why Snips and Snails fail so consistently. Of course, that would require her to work with Cheerilee...
Didn't expect the whole "We Earth ponies have to keep our Earthbending a secret at all costs or we might be purged by the other races" thing to come up here.
Wow.
Am I the only one who think's Cheerilee's been a bit of an *sshole here? Sheesh.
I'm guessing she might have realised it herself, considering her parting words.
Nice. I truly love how you blend world-building so seemlessly into character and plot. Of course Diamond's magic would come in early and she would have greater than average skill, everything in her life has come so easy so why would that be any different?
I might have said it before, but the way you subvert the typical Snips and Snails characterization by making it a conscious effort on their parts that is never picked up on by all the others is fantastic.
7347376
I think she is being a little harsh. DT might be a shit, but she's still a kid.
Oh, I like this. Your style of characterization works very well to capture the thought processes of young children: self-centered, ignorantly enthusiastic, eager to reach their goals but not interested in understanding the work it takes to get there.
Did you see season 5 yet? There is an episode that is ever so slightly relevant to this story.
How in the world can ponies build with Lego's with hooves? Are those Lego's or something else?
... Wait... Have there been historical Earth Pony Purges? Or just fears of such? 'Cause that's creepy... But I guess herd mentality, to have a Societal Panic and stuff...
This would be solved so easily if DT revealed to Cheerilee Snips and Snails' motivation.
7347473
Agreed. Might be Cheerilee's also frustrated because her methods keep failing with Snips, Snails, and Diamond Tiara, and now they're improving all by themselves, with no direct input from her. Essentially making efforts from before meaningless.
7348459
In a way, the normal type of teaching IS working on Snips and Snails: they are smart enough to successfully fail intentionally.
The problem is their families and their ham handed approach to discipline and manipulation of their sons' social circle, and Cheerilee is having problems figuring THAT out.
I think the last sentence from her puts the idea that she's resentful to rest, though.
4541989 Twice I have speculated on where this story might go. Each time, not only have I been wrong, but the story has immediately done almost the exact opposite of what I had said.
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a9/18/b5/a918b5513c012c314b26e37f0aafcaf1.jpg
Diamond is totally going to betray them.
7348181 Ironically enough, the whole paranoid inclusiveness and difficulty trusting other tribes makes Earth Ponies in the Triptych verse seem like the most racist ones of all. Unicorns just seem to be more open with their intolerance, what with having an actual hate group.
The sad thing is, I doubt a single Earth pony alive even knows how the whole thing actually started and why. If the only real reason you can think of for doing something is "We've always done it, and I don't want to be the one to try something different", that's a sign that it's something that needs to be stopped.
I do like the hint that Cheerilee isn't exactly on-board with keeping the secret.
7351292
Thinking that it might tie into the Original 6 Bearers... As there's magic, and race stuff connected there, with Starswirl harvesting essence, alicornification... And, Celestia and Luna both ascended, and were non-Earth, IIRC? Else they'd know to teach Twilight about Earth Magic?
7351331 My guess is that Celestia and Luna were Earth Ponies -- fitting since the other two alicorns used to be a unicorn (Twilight) and a pegasus (Cadance). The only confirmed bit is that Celestia and Luna were originally the same tribe. As for why THEY keep the secret...perhaps they think it's not their place to tell it? Or that trying to drag the truth out kicking and screaming would just cause more problems.
It's also entirely possible they may not even REALIZE it's a secret at all. The sisters aren't omniscient -- Celestia doesn't know what Murdocks looks like for one thing. It's not like using that kind of power is something that comes up in their day and night jobs. They've never accidentally exposed it since their day and night jobs don't involve a whole lot of contact with dirt anyway.
Let's also not forget that Celestia and Luna seem to want Twilight to discover these things on her own or with her friends. They certainly didn't teach her much about flying or pegasus weather powers.
7351410
Do we know if the Original6 were even race-balanced along all three lines? 'Cause if they were were, then Earth is the only option, 'cause there's Hurricane and Starswirl, making the Sisters unable to be the Unicorn or Pegasus pairs, and having to be the Earth pair.
7351429
It's not been officially confirmed, but it fits really well imo, with how secretive the narrative has been with both earth pony magic and the background of the sisters.
7351736
OH! Perhaps The Lynch Fear is due to the Earth Pair Ascending, and then its like, "Where did they go?" into "The other Pairs Killed THEM! AHHH!" Or something.
Or Ascending is taken negatively by the other Earths or something...
Yo, tag Ripple too!
7351738 Maybe the ancient equivalent of the Flower Trio scared the other Earth ponies into thinking they'd be persecuted for their magic. It's herd mentality based stupidity and fear lasting through generations, with no pony having the guts to be the first to break tradition.
7352836
And now I'm imagining recursive fanfic with Flower Trio expies! ... Also, Triptych updated, if you didn't know.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/101769/24/triptych/hamartia
Poor Cheerilee, she feels like she's failing two students, because their controlling parents insist on depriving each of them of their only friend. And because of the way they treat Snips and Snails like criminals, neither trust their parents enough to talk about their problems.
I nearly forgot how good this story was. I like how the dumb duo are pulling off an even bigger deception act than Diamond and have been for quite awhile it seems. Diamond being in a position were he has little control and has to play defensive on multiple sides to keep up the charade to ultimately get her goal in an unnecessarily secretive way is both amusing and intriguing to read. This is a good story. I look forward tot he next chapter in 2018.
Wow, reading this right after the Triptych chapter posted immediately prior has a great effect. It's basically two viewpoints of the same thing.
Despite how despicable of a person Diamond is, I cannot help but focus more on the little girl who only wants her father to love her…