Confounding Interest
She'd mostly decided to forgive Moon by the time she headed for bed, because it wasn't a good idea to close out a potential resource after a single mistake. Additionally, there was every chance that the orb had simply been busy, or -- distracted. Logically, there had to be at least several thousand sapients making requests on any given night, and that number felt as if it was assuming that the traffic in prayers was fairly slow. It was possible that Moon had simply lost her specific request in the flood.
Of course, by not keeping itself attuned to her potential needs at all times, Moon had potentially demonstrated a severe and immediate need to resort its priorities.
Diamond did have other options. Outsourcing was something her father generally frowned upon -- but in this case, it was just making sure to remember that Sun was also out there, and presumably listening. There was just the minor issue of a more limited access period, because it was winter and Moon had the majority of the hours.
Diamond could theoretically try to get Sun's attention at night. It was just a matter of facing in the right direction. Oh, and talking while having her snout just about pressed into the carpet. Plus she would essentially be trying to talk through a planet.
...multiple minor issues. And since the majority of her winter time under Sun was also spent under a schoolhouse roof, it was entirely possible that calling in extra cosmic reinforcements would need to wait for the weekend.
But for now, Diamond was back in her bedroom. She'd somehow managed to get through dinner following her father's announcement and judging by the feelings coming from her stomach, some portion of the meal was making a game attempt to get through her. In the proper direction, as opposed to what typically happened when she was especially upset. It was why she'd basically bolted the meal before nearly dashing from the table: because she was fully aware that her small intestine was going to need a head start.
(Her daddy had been thrilled to see his favorite foodstuffs awaiting him. He'd said that it put the perfect capper on the day.)
She was briefing Cameo. The jeweled scarab had been present in the dining room, but had missed everything at the front door. Diamond didn't like bringing Cameo to the front door in winter, just in case it stayed open a little too long.
"...and you didn't see his face! He was all stunned! Like he couldn't even believe that she'd said --" paused, then rethought everything as her tail began to lash across the pacing trail. "Maybe not stunned. Disbelieving.”
Hopeful.
Alive --
No. She couldn't let him get hurt. This wasn't just atrophy of taste: he was obviously no good at choosing, especially since he appeared to have never truly done it before. And it was the mailmare, somehow it was the mailmare and maybe he'd just been desperate enough to go for somepony whom he'd felt couldn't say no, possibly because she didn't understand what it meant...
The mailmare had said yes. Or... something which had been close enough. Her father had suggested that the pegasus was basically agreeing to give him a chance, and that felt especially insulting. Who did that mare think she was? Because when somepony as special as Diamond's daddy came along and somehow showed interest in that one, the intelligent thing to do was agree immediately...
Diamond softly groaned.
"I should have thought of that last night," she wearily told Cameo. "That she was going to say yes. She's not that dumb." With a sigh, "She's been in the store. She buys things. And if she can buy things and count her change, then she knows what money is. And that Daddy has lots."
...maybe he'd just asked her because he was starting all over again and it was sort of like training for sports? Clearing the lowest possible hurdle...
...except that he'd thought the pegasus would turn him down. And maybe that was lack of confidence (which wasn't something which her father normally displayed -- in public, anyway), but...
He'd brought the mailmare up once before, just before everything had gone wrong near the end of a school year. Said she was distinctive, even beautiful in some ways.
Her father had been thinking about this for a while. A half-buried concept, stored at the very back of the mind. And then Tirek had stomped a giant hoof, and every such thought had been jolted towards the front.
No. It's my love. She shouldn't get it.
And he isn't any good at this. He just about told me that.
He's going to get hurt...
With the mailmare involved, 'getting hurt' had a lot of options attached. Some of them involved lightning.
She groaned again. Her tail lashed against the bookcase: this told her that it was time to turn and pace back the other way.
"And he said that he wanted to talk about something else with me," Diamond added. "But that it could wait for a couple of days. And it wasn't bad." Of course, her father had thought that dating again -- at his age! --- wasn't bad...
...one nightmare at a time.
One Nightmare...
She thought about it --
-- no. It wasn't practical. She had a few more ponies available to try and wear necklaces, but she still couldn't get into the vault. Which was rather inconsiderate of the librarian, because the Elements were still being stored in a library and therefore, really should have been available for loan.
When you thought about it, there were a lot of things which might benefit from being blasted with magic. Things and people. Especially when you weren't quite sure what any given blast would do. The librarian considered herself to be a researcher, and she'd gone and locked away any real chance at extended practical group trials.
But it might just make the mailmare smarter. Prettier or, for those who had taste, make her pretty at all. More desirable...
Diamond fumed for a while. Then she tried talking it out with Cameo again. There was some more non-ranting involved, quite a bit of pacing, she eventually began to head-shove some furnishings around because it had just occurred to her that she might do better when moving in more of a circle and when that failed, she spared a moment for glaring at Moon. Not that she didn't intend to form a working relationship with the orb, but she wanted it to know that the startup stage wasn't exactly going well.
She tried to think, as her stomach churned and her tail lashed, while her tossing head somehow managed to feel oddly heavy and too light at the same time. Tried to think of a way to save her father from himself.
And nothing came.
Diamond's pacing came to a stop. Her eyes wearily closed.
"There's no helping it, Cameo," she sighed. "I know you're doing your best, but I think this is past your experience." It wasn't as if there were any male jeweled scarabs in Ponyville, and Diamond currently wasn't in a position to be considering future imports. "I have to bring in some consultants."
Getting ready for school, as an adolescent, took more work than it once had. And a lot more time. Fortunately, Diamond had her own bathroom.
She was still trying to settle on a new personal Look. One which wasn't centered around a... constant companion. Not so much an accessory as a metallic part of her body...
It's gone.
Her head felt strange without the tiara. Too light. And sometimes, too heavy.
It was the 'at the same time' moments which she had to watch out for.
She'd certainly been aware that she was growing up. Lengthening legs, picking up breadth in her torso, and she felt interesting things were talking place with her tail -- but she'd never really thought about her head getting bigger. Which made sense, because it was usually filled with large thoughts and they clearly needed the room. It was just that before it had been -- lost --
sacrificed
-- her tiara had been getting tight.
Diamond had considered having the tines resized. But then it wouldn't have quite been the original design, and... well, she could have just tried to weave them into her mane, letting the hair take all of the support -- but that wasn't quite the right level of security. And she was still growing. Eventually, she would have reached the point where the center didn't look proportionate, and after that...
There must have been a time when it was too big for me. But she didn't remember it. She felt as if it had always been just right for her, until just before the very end.
She hadn't picked out a new one, because... the original had been a gift. Something which was hers.
Then she had arranged for it to be regifted, as what she had intended to be a final act of contempt. Jammed into a crack within a giant hoof, in the hopes of causing infection. The last thing she could do before she...
...Discord had appeared.
Acted.
And as the stolen magic had been sent back to those sources which still lived, the monster had shrunk. That hoof had gotten smaller, the tiara hadn't, and...
It's gone.
Which, for full accuracy, needed a more specific definition.
It's dead.
So was Tirek.
There was an adolescent looking at Diamond from the mirror. Harsh blue eyes told her not to shiver.
Preparing for school...
She was trying out new manestyles and tail displays. The current version required straighter falls than the usual, without the little twists along the way. The intent was to show off the streaks. The intent was always to show off the streaks and because trying to get any definitive reaction from the intended audience was an exercise in frustration, Diamond switched it up every week.
After that, she had to get dressed. The Weather Bureau had arranged for what felt like an exceptionally cold winter, which was apparently making up for something: Diamond's best guess was that the local coordinator had slept through most of the subtle temperature downgrades, and now it all had to be done at once. But dealing with the conditions meant layering, and when you were an adolescent...
There was an undercoat. (This went directly over her own, much more natural coat, and did so with no recognition of irony.) This was followed by a thick, soft blue-grey jacket, and then she had to worry about slipping her hooves into the rack-mounted open leggings. Fore and hind.
She was armoring herself against the chill. Doing so meant that by the time she was finished, there was very little of Diamond left to regard. It was mostly her features -- along with her mane and tail. Because that was the idea. It was what she was supposed to be doing. And when it came to the true goal, the weather was her ally. She knew that for an absolute fact, because she'd studied.
Diamond felt herself to be getting better at the process with every successive icy dawn, and was still waiting for the acknowledgement which should show that any of it was actually working. And once she reached the point where her half-bound joints were only operating through a combination of earth pony strength and raw stubbornness...
Her father had already left for the store. Diamond told Cameo to stay warm, watch out for herself, and to be careful around the servants. And then she set out for school.
It was a new house, one which was noticeably smaller when regarded from the outside -- but it had been built on the original site. The first structure to occupy that space had been a mansion, and those demanded a lot of room. Getting enough acreage had required her grandfather to build outside the core of what had become Ponyville, and it meant geographically, Diamond's closest neighbors were the Apples. This was a fact which had once provided a convenient, localized target and, with the passage of time, now added the occasional touch of awkwardness to the school journey.
Apple Bloom didn't see any need to take a side path any more. The junior members of those families were sort of talking, but... it wasn't always easy to find subjects they could talk about. Even when there were a few things they had in common. Mutually-hoofpressed precious...
But she didn't see the youngest Malus during that particular trot.
Diamond had one of the longer journeys to school, and it started out on the old road: something which had been cut through the forest by ponies who insisted on having a few less trees to go around. Snow had been shoved off to the sides, and the older trunks were buried up to the height of Diamond's back. Some of the white had been distorted by dirt, along with showing a few yellow discolorations near the base because animals had to go somewhere.
(She'd once asked her father about personal carriages. Having a servant bring her in every day, and possibly even roll out a carpet to the schoolhouse door. The proposal had been rejected, and she'd been a little huffy about that for the next two moons of kindergarten. Really, she'd just been trying to create jobs. Well, one job. Although it was possible that the carpet would have required a specialist. But at least the trot helped her stay in shape.)
The plowing hadn't been perfect. There was usually a thin layer of dirty crust on the road, trying to attach itself to Diamond's leggings. She paused every so often and shook off whatever she could. Presenting a proper appearance was important, especially when she was waiting to find out if a given Look would actually work. And she had to keep trying. Even when she felt that success should have come by now. And even if she hadn't hit outright triumph dead center on the first attempt --
--or the second --
-- it shouldn't be taking anywhere near this long --
-- seriously: was there a crucial square hoofprint of fur which was the key to everything? Did she have to go so far as to cover her dock? Because tail wrapping might have felt like a logical next step to some, but she knew something about her target's general tastes and that would amount to pure self-sabotage --
-- she should have at least been getting some feedback...
Diamond muttered to herself: solitude allowed for that. And then she kept going.
It was a long trot just to reach the bridge which led into the core of Ponyville, and then she had to divert towards the schoolhouse. Diamond picked up her consultants along the way.
Silver was frowning, and naturally that meant the glasses slipped accordingly. The boys were visibly thinking everything over. (The majority of their thought processes tended to be visible, especially now that they were willing to be caught at it.) But Silver was the one who spoke first.
"And she really said yes?"
"Of course she did!" Diamond announced. "Why would anypony say no to him?"
"I just didn't think she'd say yes," Silver came very close to countering. "I mean, obviously she did, but... it just didn't feel like the sort of thing she'd say."
"What did you think she'd say?"
"Something about how she just doesn't know what went wrong."
They all trotted on for a while, doing so in full privacy -- well, at least when it came to ponies. Slipping away from the main streets and taking one of the wooded paths across the last part of the route gave them protection from adult eavesdroppers, but they couldn't do anything about the local animals. Still, Diamond considered them to be sufficiently protected. The caretaker might have understood anything relayed, but it would take exceptional circumstances to make her ask.
"How long until the date?" Snails checked.
There had been no special note of longing attached to the word 'date'. Diamond hadn't really expected one, and still took a private internal moment for fuming.
"A couple of days," she told him. "I don't know what he's actually doing, though." She'd have to find out.
"With the mailmare?" Snips considered through a half-grin. "Maybe he's just going to follow her around on her route. Help her sort packages. It's a cheap night out, right? And he can stay behind her the whole time!" Which triggered the laugh (and did so as Silver's snout wrinkled with disgust). "If that's what he's into..."
"It's my father," Diamond immediately said, and felt herself to be doing well by keeping the sneer out of it. "He can do something better than that. He can afford more than that."
Then again, he was clearly rubbish at choosing ponies to date. There wasn't necessarily any counterbalancing compensation when it came to the actual activity.
Snips just shrugged. "Movie?"
"He could buy out the cinema and have the whole place to himself!"
"Themselves," Snails dully corrected.
"Yeah..." Snips considered. "They could make all out they wanted!" Another laugh. "Nuzzling from the title screen through the closing credits, and no witnesses! Except for the projectionist, but ponies say Ms. Bayleaf is just looking for stuff she can do at home --"
Which was when the shorter boy finally noticed how the girls were reacting. (Diamond distantly wondered whether the tail lashing was doing anything for her streaks.)
"-- I'm just teasing ya, Diamond," he quickly said. "Just teasing."
She just barely managed a smile, and made sure to keep her lips together over tightly-pressed teeth.
The smaller colt slowed in his trot.
"It's a weird thought," he carefully admitted. "Parents dating. I mean, I know mine must've at some point. There's a wedding album. Mom keeps the binding perfect. And the corners. So if there's a wedding album, then they dated. To get that far. But I can't see it in my head. It's like trying to look at something slimy when Snails digs it up."
"Snips..." the taller boy automatically cautioned.
"Only it's actually gross."
They moved under low-hanging, slumbering branches. Snails had to duck.
Diamond lashed her tail again, just to see if he would pay any extra attention. (Or any attention.) Nothing happened. Snails was lost in thought, and not because it was unfamiliar territory.
"I can't really picture it either," he said. "It's not like my mom's trying anything yet." And shrugged. "Not that she's gonna. Since nothing's official."
Diamond offered a sympathetic nod.
'Trial separation.' Divorces weren't all that common, but... they happened. Snails' parents just weren't sure whether they were ready to take it that far. They were simply living apart for a while, and trying to sort things out. And when it came to Snails, her sympathy could be sincere -- but as far as she was concerned, his mother was on the potential verge of catching the luckiest break of her life. Diamond considered Lyon Gastrope to be one of life's assigned prizes, because something had to provide motivation for staying out of last place.
Snails had been taking it fairly well, especially since there were no signs of any potential custody dispute. But Diamond was still keeping a close watch over the whole thing. You couldn't be too careful. Especially when any fallout had a chance to hurt him and, as a non-special side lack-of-bonus, could fully disrupt her own plans.
There had already been a degree of adjustment, because the original blueprint had scribbled a fuming Mr. Gastrope in near the margins. He didn't like Diamond and in return, she'd been looking forward to making him live with it.
The other option was that the adult could just leave, and -- he was sort of on his way to doing that already.
...she really had to keep an eye on Snails. But for now, with the schoolhouse getting close...
"A couple of days," she stressed. "And then he's going out with her. When she's all wrong for him. I know that. Anypony would."
"She wouldn't be my first choice," Snips admitted, and Diamond automatically waited for the rest. "Since I'm holding out for the right mare."
"'The right mare'," Silver immediately said, "is at least ten years older than you. She's always going to be older. And she isn't going to date a kid."
"It's Miss Trixie," Snips confidently declared. "I can wait --"
Diamond looked ahead, spotted the rock, and planted her left forehoof with a little more force. The resulting echo took out most of the fantasies.
"This is wrong for him," she repeated. "She's wrong. I don't want this to happen, because I have to protect him. And he can't know that I did anything to stop it." Carefully, "So... what should I do?"
She waited. And they thought.
Diamond generally preferred to make her own plans. But with any such brilliant specimen currently absent, meaning there was nothing to refine... well, there were benefits to discussing things in committee. Even when that group included two colts, because Snips and Snails were remarkably bright for boys.
Admittedly, this usually meant they were somewhat less stupid. But they each had their moments. And on the whole, when it came to colts...
Diamond had an issue with boys. It was ongoing, as stupid as most of them were, and it probably wasn't going to resolve itself today either. Because she was growing up, and the passing moons had unlocked odd thoughts. These had been followed by a few strange dreams. Diamond, who didn't want anything going through her mind without careful inspection and proper approval, had inspected all of the new concepts closely and in doing so, come to a horrific conclusion.
She liked boys.
Worse than that.
She wanted them.
Diamond liked boys, and that was frustrating because she didn't LIKE most of them. The majority of colts were stupid. There wasn't anything worth liking. But she liked boys, she wanted them, and she'd told herself that it wasn't the choice she would have made.
So she'd tried to make a different one.
Silver had come to the dreams somewhat earlier than Diamond, and her oldest friend had been forgiven immediately for finishing in first because...
Silver had been scared. (It was so easy to see -- but only when looking back.) She hadn't wanted to talk about it at all. But it was something they'd had to get through if they were going to keep trotting into the future together, and during one crucial sleepover... it had all come out.
Silver wanted to be with a girl. But she didn't want that filly to be Diamond. She loved Diamond, but -- not that way. And she'd been afraid that it would change things, that they couldn't be friends any more, and...
...as sleepovers went, that one had been a total lie. Neither had slept at all. They'd talked, and a careful discussion which started under Moon had brought them all the way back to Sun. Multiple levels of exhaustion had left them both dazed for days, and Diamond had spent most of the weekend stumbling into door frames.
But the important thing was that they'd come back to Sun together.
Silver was attracted to fillies. They were still friends. But then Diamond had realized that she wanted boys, and that was a cruel fate indeed. So she'd asked Silver for a little help, and during the next sleepover...
...they'd tried all sorts of nuzzles. Nothing had happened. Silver was still her friend, and Diamond couldn't see her any other way. She just didn't feel anything towards mares. Not that way. (She even had some trouble in simply judging whether a girl was appealing, and that had been the first time she'd ever encountered difficulty in passing judgment on anything.) Apparently it wasn't the sort of thing you got to choose or change your mind on, and how stupid was that? About as dumb as the average boy. Maybe more.
So if she was absolutely stuck with males, with no help or cure in sight, then...
...she'd been thinking about dating Snails.
Not quite yet. For starters, if she was going to wind up with a boy, then he was absolutely going to be brought up to her standards first. And she clearly needed to make sure that he would be capable of dating properly, which mostly meant going along with whatever she wanted.
Okay, Snails didn't look like much. Neither did raw sculptor's clay. It was messy and went all over the place and if you were careful, you could make just about anything with it. Snails provided plenty in the way of raw material and once you had that, it was mostly just a matter of time, making sure it didn't air-dry on you because that would ruin everything, and finding a place to get rid of the rough bits. Diamond was currently willing to put in the work.
Snails, because he wasn't as dumb as most boys, wasn't a bad option. Unfortunately, he was also a package deal.
It was sort of like dealing with a toy manufacturer who knew they'd just finished a full production run for something which was destined to be the last-place finisher in the Get Out stakes. Because if they also had a recognized Heart's Warming Eve winner... well, they had one line which was guaranteed to sell and if the store wanted to get full stock on that, then they were going to be dealing with the bundle. One box of the good meant taking three of the horrible. And that was mandatory. The product lines were linked together. Permanently.
...well, it was potentially mandatory and tied until her father got involved, because the weight of soon-sixteen stores was sometimes enough to break a few knots. Diamond even helped out there, because she'd been the franchise's unofficial assistant toy aisle buyer since kindergarten. Nothing provided insight for knowing what kids would want to play with like being one, and her daddy took her to the national show every year: expert advice helped the store, plus she got to play with most of the samples.
But the analogy held up. If you wanted Snails, then you were stuck dealing with Snips. The boys couldn't be separated for long, and that meant Diamond was trying to form some tentative, mostly-theoretical long-term plans for keeping him from living in a post-marriage house.
...which would potentially mean trying to fix him up. The good news was that she had a rather exacting idea of his tastes. Diamond absolutely knew what Snips was attracted to, and was equally aware that Miss Trixie wasn't interested.
Still, there were far worse fates than Snips, and she was sure she could locate somepony for him. Eventually. But it would need to be a pony who could be convinced that the stupid grunting laugh was somehow endearing. It had taken Diamond several dozen attempts at lying to herself before the falsehood had started to take hold.
Her committee was still thinking, and the schoolhouse was beginning to come into sight.
She pulled ahead of the group, then deliberately swished her tail. Followed that up by tossing her mane. In both cases, streaks flew: the former benefited from a touch of concealed buttocks sway.
Diamond glanced back to check on the results.
Look at me.
Look at me.
...for Sun's sake, look at --
And nothing happened.
...boys.
(Singular. Not that it helped.)
"We have to go in soon," Diamond announced. "Anything?"
They all shook their heads.
"We can talk about it some more during recess," Silver said.
"Maybe Sweetie will have an idea," Snips thoughtfully added.
Maybe.
It could be hard to speak with Apple Bloom. With Sweetie...
They'd shared an experience. Something which had pushed them together. And it was easier to pretend you weren't shivering when somepony else's coat was absorbing the vibrations.
"Yeah," Snails considered. "It'll probably go better with more of us. Recess good for you, Diamond?"
She forced the nod. Got a little more ahead, tried the tail movement again...
...oh, come on! I heard him during the parent-teacher conference! He likes white streaks! He said they make mares pretty! And there's a perfectly perfect set of white streaks right in front of him, showing off for him, and I've got a jacket and leggings and everypony said this is what I'm supposed to do!
I'm dressed!
It wasn't just for winter. Even with this level of cold, there were a few ponies trying to get through the season with a scarf and the sort of half-scurrying tail-curled trot which was mostly meant to hide the accumulated ice crystals in their fetlocks. Because some professions required their own outfits, fancy parties were a semi-common thing in Diamond's life, and some ponies got dressed for the fun of it -- but the majority of society defaulted to 'nude'.
And when you could see just about what everypony had to offer in the way of physical appearance, for virtually all of it, constantly -- then enticement came from covering up. You hid what they'd seen before, and that would make them want to see it again.
So Diamond was getting dressed for winter. As much as she could, while still being able to move. And then she very carefully went by Snails' house, picked him up, and trotted to the schoolhouse while mostly staying in front of him in order to provide the best possible view. On every school day. And that meant on every school day, she got to both catch and feel him not looking.
What was she doing wrong? Was the next step actually going to wind up being a tail wrap? It would certainly hide that much more of her from view, but it was also putting away half of her streaks and she had some doubts about concealing what Snails likely considered to be one of her best features. And she'd tried to stay dressed in class, because it was all the more time during which she was essentially forcing him to recall the hidden --
-- but there was a certain problem with that.
The default pony situation was 'nude'. Classrooms were heated and in this case, that meant to a level which allowed students and teacher to be fully comfortable during the winter -- while clad in nothing more than their own fur. Remaining fully dressed for the outdoors under those conditions quickly produced sweat. Maintaining the layers in spite of that could lead into froth, and the state which lurked beyond 'froth' was generally known as 'hospital'. Diamond, trying to be enticing and appealing and the sort of exotic dresser who just happened to be sitting on a school bench right now but could theoretically start dancing at any moment, could easily wind up alluring herself into the emergency room.
...which had a theoretical chance to get Snails at her bedside and weeping with regret at what he'd done, but she didn't like her odds.
So she had to go into the classroom, trot up to the garment closet, and awkwardly shed the layers. She had more layers than anypony else, so she had to stay there longer than most of the class combined. And worse, she did so while her intended audience didn't watch any part of the process. She just had to get undressed while totally observed, then trudge off to her desk. Again.
He was being so inconsiderate! She showed off for him on every last chill winter school day, and he wasn't even...
...maybe he didn't want her.
(Why wouldn't somepony want her?)
Didn't he have any taste? She would have been smart enough to want herself!
...wouldn't she?
She wasn't entirely sure. Diamond had trouble judging with mares, so... maybe she wasn't going to be the best judge with herself. And she'd tried to bring in a consultant on that too, but the recruited pony had treated it as the most awkward question ever.
Diamond didn't understand why.
I should ask her for advice.
Again.
Silver was obviously going to be the expert.
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There is a high chance Snails is purposefully not looking because he doesn't want to make Diamon Tiara uncomfortable. He doesn't know Diamond is trying to attract him but he's getting attracted and trying not to look so to not make Diamond feel creeped on.
I think Diamond needs to look beyond her current circle for advice on both her problems. Plus at some point I would kill to find out what happened when Tirek was in Ponyville. We get hints but never the full story.
Perhaps she needs to set the phasers to Lewd:
derpicdn.net/img/2019/5/18/2042336/full.png
This is one of the main differences between MLP & real life. IRL horses have a one way digestive track. They CAN'T even burp let alone vomit. This can kill them if they swallow something they shouldn't.
MLP doesn't explicitly show it, but it is strongly implied that they do vomit on occasion.
Got to admire Diamond's straightforward approach to the matter of finding herself liking boys.
Entertainingly wholesome story, with a lot more heart to it than you'd think at the first glance!
Typo
Honestly, I think it would do wonders for Diamond Tiara's public perception if she started going out with Snails. Sure, ponies have seen her being friends with the duo, but their public perception is probably also going to tainted by "easily manipulable" for a while thanks to Trixie. Dating... that's a whole other story. There'll probably be a lot of attempted puzzling out from ponies not in the know...
In a way, it kind of mirrors Dulcinea and Filthy.
And I'm sort of fearfully waiting for the chapter when Dulcinea realizes that cultivating an image of a stupid idiot might've worked against her in the long term...
>trying to attract boys
>"let's ask the lesbian!"
Sweetheart... that's not gonna work!
Interesting teen dynamics here. Be really funny if Snails turned out to be gay after all and it would just blow Diamond's mind.
Thanks for the chapter Estee!
11707518
I think the idea is 'I'm not good at knowing if a mare is pretty. I need an expert in that!"
I think Silver may be in for a very awkward few days ....
11707136
See DELWMG for the full story of Tirek, his attack on Ponyville, and what happened to him after.
11707669
Great point. 💯
Diamond trying to woo Snails of all ponies, and at the same time belching at the idea of her dad going with Derpy? And not registering the irony in the slightest?
That was a good story so far goodluck with the rest of it.
11707876
In total fairness, Snails hasn't nearly gotten her set on fire yet.
Muffins? Sounds like there's quite a bit of history there and not the good kind.
Diamond's also going to have to apologize if she ever acknowledges she treated Muffins wrong, and it sounds like she was much more antagonistic towards her than any of the others.
That's going to be extremely painful to have to swallow any resentment or guilt she might feel.
So, she's got reasonable and not so reasonable reasons for disliking Muffins.
Snails? Considerably less baggage on both sides.
11707136
Eh. Having read it, you aren't missing much.
It's pretty simple fare and they cover it in the next chapter.
Here's the chapter if you're interested, with a summary below. Business Year In Review
To put it in simple terms, Tirek was at best negligently homicidal, Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle were nearly killed trying to evacuate ponies, Diamond's tiara was used as a weapon against him and destroyed in the process, ultimately splitting his hoof.
Filthy Rich's mansion was destroyed in place of Twilight's tree house, Discord never allied with Tirek and took him down single hoofed, and Tirek is dead now (somehow).
The idea of Sun and Moon being viewed in this manner is interesting, we already have some part of how some ponies view Celestia, but this seems a separate "belief".
Oh Diamond, poor Snails have no idea.
I still have trouble seeing Diamond and Snails, but all the building blocks are there and… well… half of that pairing don’t see it either.
It is a clever little play to have Diamond be entranced by a colt most others would say is undeserving of her attention while pushing that exact sort of judgement on Derpy.
Diamond and Derpy have one thing in common, they both /fiercely/ love one other person. Diamond loves her father and Derpy loves Dinky. It would be a very short story if they just talked about that and got perspective on each other, but I could see that being something that does help on the future.
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Cerea killed Tirek in DELWMG.