This story is a sequel to Three of Hearts
Joining the Royal Guard seemed like the adventure of a lifetime to Azurite. She just never imagined that her career would heave her life down the path it did. After struggling with her job, the injury of her partner, and her relationship, she’s found herself in entirely new territory: love. She’ll soon discover that love is only one of the elements necessary to keep ponies together.
Three of Diamonds is a comedy-romance story that pokes fun at some of the common tropes found in the genre. It is a direct sequel to Three of Hearts. Readers will need to be familiar with that story.
ToD is also an interwoven side story of Secrets of a Royal Guard.
Quill & Blade Universe
Adorable cover art by Potates-Chan.
Chapters (11)
So much yes! Finally, more Azu! Good chapter, I forgot how well you write her. Interesting to see the relationship dynamic changing from the last fic.
WooHoo !!
Oh boy, Azu's been around Sunny too long if she's already eying up Crystal!
An entire multi-chapter story devoted to Azurite... I think this might be too much concentrated cute for any one reader to handle. Just, for the Princesses' sake, don't do a chapter featuring Miley and Azurite doing something together. Nobody would survive!
This is going to be sooooooo good
6353513 Thank you :) I have to be in the right mindset to write Azurite but, once I am, she just flows. I love her so much!
6353678 Hurray!
6353725 Hahaha yeah... also, wait until Wednesday when you see how SK saw it. Azurite's PoV and Silent Knight's PoV don't exactly align.
6353773 I'm not going to confirm or deny Miley's involvement in this story.
6353803 I hope to not disappoint!
YAY! Azu is back. Its funny she can get more out to Mr. Clockerson than she could with the therapist. anyway its a lovely start to the story. and I can see how Sunny Day's stress is getting to her. A nice start for the story though cant wait for more
6353847 Oboi. I can't imagine why :P
6353847 Azu is by far my favourite character that you write.
Let the games begin. Hmm that sweet double meaning in the context of Azurite.
This is going to be cool from SK's perspective. He's less perky than Azu, but he's still an awesome character. Wonder if he'll put the three-way relationship thing together? I don't think it's been explicitly mentioned in Secrets.
6353859 She and Mr. Clockerson are totally besties! Yeah, the tie ins between Diamonds and Secrets this time around are going to be FAR, FAR more obvious than Hearts/Memoirs.
6353882
6353936 I'm glad. Sometimes I enjoy writing her far more than I like SK.
6354347 Sports! They play sports!
6354392 Excellent catch. It HAS NOT been mentioned in Secrets :D
Now I suppose I really do have to catch up in Secrets. One of these days I might even succeed.
6354598 I'd love that! No rush though ;) Life has to take precedence.
6354607
I'm getting there. I've caught up to where they're about to leave for the Crystal Empire, so not too much more to go.
6354613 All That Glimmers! That is a great arc ^_^
Mr. Clockerson, how vulgar!
You know, Sunny is really quite wrong in my opinion. This sort of stress is exactly when you do need a vacation.
It is now!
Oh man, Silent is so going to think that Azurite is cheating on Sunny, isn't he? They really should have name dropped Sunny as well just to simultaneously clear and remuddle the air.
6354513
You are hard at work ruining sports while Crystal has already destroyed desserts.
I will get to this one ASAP.
Alrighty, now I have found time for this one! It seems so far that Azu is still a little young when it comes to more mature things in a relationship. I think that will soon resolve itself though, hehehe
Anyway, the time she spends at the fair should help ease her fear of crowds. Little by little she will overcome this fear. The steps may be small, and the progress slow, but she will make progress towards conquering her fear. That is what's important. 
6354951
Amen to that!
6354726
We'll be finding out on Wednesday EXACTLY what he was thinking :D
6354779 We like the two pronged approach.
6354951 That is true. A little step at a time towards getting healthy.
Yay! More Azurite adorableness! Tracked, read, and upvoted. This is absolutely up to your usual standards of quality, and I approve wholeheartedly!
Sports were played
And Sunny knows it
“I’m still in command of the palace and Princess Celestia has a full schedule for the next month. That is following up a month that was also packed. She is taking on so much it is running us ragged. Raven literally just dropped off a new request for this weekend and I’m spread so thin I’ll be lucky to get this all organized in time.”
“I’m sorry, Azu, I can’t. If I could do anything I would but my ponies are close to dropping. Going to the faire while the unit is half dead would look horrible and destroy morale.”
It sounds like Sunny is forgetting her primary duty. The Solar Guard needs to been in good condition to protect the Princess at any time and from the sounds of it they aren't. Silent would put his hoof down with Luna if he felt she was overstretching the Lunar Guard. Sunny needs to do the same.
More awesomeness.
I'm guessing Crystal Wishes is trying to get Crystal's Wishes caught up to this point? I'm reading that story now, but I'm only halfway through.
6358066 Correct. Crystal is really close to being caught up plus I invested a ton of effort lining up Diamond chapters with Secrets chapters so it feels like a true crossover. About midway through Diamonds she should be totally caught up.
6357418 Standing up to a princess can be intimidating I suppose!
6356375 Yes, yes she does. I thought tea party was believable though.
6356037 Thank you thank you! Also I love your avatar.
Yay, one of my favorite ponies gets another story focused on her. Can't wait to see this chapter from Silent Knight's perspective.
Why stop at Azurite + Miley? I dare you to write a chapter of Azurite + Miley + Velvet Step.
6358514 I'm going to just keep my mouth shut :D
6353847
I was wondering about that, I read Secrets first.
ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Veigar_8.jpg
SERIOUSLY TRIXIE!? TO try to get away with that IN Ponyville!
Sounds like somepony needs to put a hoof down on the Princesses for running their guards ragged.
Dun dun duuun !!
Things are always a trip with Lovey Dovey. I swear that mare reminds me of a love version of Pinkie pie. It was sweet with Sorin going almost 90 times to win Azu the plush pony. And no Anxiety attack either so that's always good. Did not see that coming about Sunny and Velvet step. Seems there is a lot that Crystal and Silent don't know about their little dancing friend. I feel bad that they are so angry, but they did have rules.. Anyway loved the chapter cant wait for more.
Wow just.... well now.. and hijinks... many hijinks
Drama, Drama! I love drama! Poor Azurite and Soarin :(
Okay. Now I really can't wait to find out more about Velvet's secret life. Still though, I did not expect it to be such a small world, what with Velvet knowing Sunny.
sorry I call bull on the resteraunt and hotel being closed during a fair. Makes no economic sense at all. That's the best time to be open.
Well Pink Pony can be her office mate.
and Sunny, you don screwed up. THough the Princess is a bit to blame for the overworking that allowed it to happen.
Well, this is interesting.
6377829 Yes indeed ;D
6377850 The "who" was most certainly supposed to throw everyone for a loop :) Glad it was a surprise!
6377871 Yes. This exactly!
6377898 Yeah, Sunny is a wild pony! We'll have to see how it turns out.
6377948 The Q&B universe is pretty small ;) We ARE indeed going to be seeing some interesting things. Just wait until next week.
6378032 Well, you're entitled to call BS on anything you want but it isn't going to make you right ;) Ponyville is a small town and this is their local faire which is like a "national holiday." Both the restaurant and the hotel are locally owned and operated. If they want to attend they have to close up shop. As far as the economics, I actually don't agree. In general this faire isn't a tourist initiative. It is local for the locals. Locals can eat at Savoir's any time. All of the faire foods are temporary and special treats. The hotel is pretty much the same thing. Locals don't need a hotel and the proprietor wants to join the faire. I guess they care more about having fun than money.
6378038 I certainly hope so!
Darnit!
This is all your fault, Silent Knight!
6378065 Says you!
6378069
Yeah, says me! It's his fault, and I'm going to hold an effigy burning party, where we're going to burn him in effigy! I've already got the effigy!
I mean, sure, it kind of looks less like Silent Knight and more like a potato that's been stuffed in a cowboy boot that got left in a river for about a month, but... artistic license!
This effigy is artistically licensed, and we're gonna artistically burn it in licensed effigy.
Effigy. Regular effigy. The effigy is not licensed. Except artistically, so it's licensed but not but...
It...
I...
I'd better lie down....
6378062 I work in fast food and in the town it's in they do have their own holiday and we get busy. Heck the only time we don't is during a parade.
6378112 And I'm certain that is true but, and this is a big but, you don't work in Ponyville and our economics still don't really apply. Compare this to a hamlet in Europe. I can assure you that I've been to towns in Germany that did close their shops and restaurants to attend the local festivals. And, again, in either case, neither is Ponyville. We don't have unicorns either ;)
It appears that Sunny isn't so ready if ever to drop her promiscuous ways.
Oh...oh, dear. This is going to get a bit ugly, isn't it?
I feel so badly for all three of them right now, holy cow. Soarin cause he feels betrayed, Azurite because she's having her self-worth issues forced into action, and Sunny because I can imagine that guilt is now eating her alive. I hope this has a happy ending!
6378129 Indeed she may not be!
6378138 Ugly is a fair word I'd say. Azurite is clearly on a mission. :D
6378129
I think it's less that, and much more that Sunny feels alone. I mean, let's face it, this is a mare that's used to having a lot of close company, and she had all the close company she needed in Azurite and Soarin.
And then ponies were out sick, or on vacation, or are Silent Knight. Sunny is overworked, but she has to do her work, which means she's had to neglect her relationships. She barely sees Soarin at all, only only sees Azu occasionally, and not usually for very long. She probably hasn't been on a date with either of them for weeks by this point. She's been sleeping in her office, for goodness sake!
She's lonely, and worse, she likely feels like she's powerless to do anything about. So, she's at Mare Contrair, and there's Velvet Step, who is friendly enough, and Sunny jumps at the chance to have dinner with her not because she's set on promiscuity, but because she sees an opportunity to do something about that loneliness when before, she had nothing.
She feels like she's lost control of her life — whether or not that's true — and this seemed like a way she could take some control back.
in short, she went out with Velvet because it seemed like a really good idea at the time.
6378218 A really well thought out idea. Love it! This is certainly more thinking along the lines of "grey area" that I typically go for with character motivations.
Oh, Sunny...
[youtube=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HPVI8EbMi0Y]
6378265
No, it's still pretty black and white: Sunny made a promise, and she broke it. I'm just looking into the why, rather than the what. It's a really useful mental exercise to get inside someone's headspace, helps you think like they do. You really have to understand how to think like a pony when you're... when you're also a pony. For empathy, of course, because there's obviously no other reason that I would need to think like a pony. That wasn't me.
Empathy is the only reason I would need to think like a pony that wasn't me, there is absolutely no other reason, and definitely not a nefarious one!