Business Year In Review
There were probably ponies who would argue that a certain degree of change was natural. Diamond, if she was ever so fortunate as to find herself in the presence of that level of non-intellect, planned to jab a foreleg in the general direction of Town Hall -- and it was going to be the general direction because she wasn't entirely sure where the plans were kept. Namely, the ones which dictated the procedures for Winter Wrap-Up, Summer Shutdown, the Running, and every other transitional process for which ponies had tried to take charge. Because change might be natural -- but that didn't mean it shouldn't be regulated.
She was an adolescent now. Her entire class was, and that meant they were all changing. Diamond felt that putting a few direct controls on the process wouldn't exactly hurt. Additionally, there was a clear need for educational lectures. Something delivered by a pony of both knowledge and authority, which was probably going to mean screening out most of the adults. In theory, there were words which would teach Snails exactly how he was supposed to be responding to Diamond's enticement attempts and if the school board got involved, that sentence was going to be fear-deconstructed into uselessness. By contrast, turning it over to the custody of the librarian was just going to result in Death By Edit. There would be Fearsome Gerund corpses all over the place, and that somehow became all the worse when nopony was entirely certain what those were.
A lot of things were changing. Others weren't, and a few of them really needed to. None of those were Diamond's fault because if given both opportunity and authority, she absolutely would have changed every last one of them. She just lacked the power to do so.
(She'd briefly considered a career in politics, because there was so much which needed fixing and it was clearly going to require more than two alicorns to do it. In fact, Diamond's presence in the halls of power was just about mandatory because the older Princess had been gifted with centuries to work on all of the problems, and the result? There were still problems to be had. Diamond was sure she could at least kick a dent into the pileup, but...)
(...the store...)
Their teacher hadn't changed. Ponyville East operated under what Diamond had heard described as the Mutual Trot Theory: you advanced through the system, but your instructor came with you. It was supposedly meant to give the students a more familiar voice, along with a better relationship and as far as Diamond had once been concerned, what the experimental process mostly did was give the same adult extended time in which to figure out the tricks. This had been annoying. Miss Cheerilee wasn't the quickest adult when it came to spotting things -- but she'd eventually and regretfully proven to be faster than most. Diamond was fully certain that if she'd been given a new teacher every year, she could have gotten away with everything right up through graduation -- followed by bringing extended years of study in Advancing Lying onto a college campus and rendering them into a full doctorate.
The school itself hadn't changed very much. There had been some repairs, because it was Ponyville in the time of the Bearers and the blast radius tended to relocate itself at random. And the Crusaders had been through a phase where whatever they weren't going to get a mark in might also fail to be demonstrated during a school presentation: anypony who had to go through watching a second go-round tended to do so from a position near the emergency exits. But when it came to the interior... that was very much the same. And while there had been some swapping of benches to accommodate growing bodies, the desks were starting to feel too small.
Recess was exactly the same length as it had always been, and that was why Diamond had missed most of it.
It wasn't fair. She'd worn all of those layers to school and since the Weather Bureau had been too stupid to schedule a warming trend, she clearly had to put them all on again before going outside! Something which should have made Snails pause to watch the extremely extended process -- but he'd just donned his own minimal layers and headed directly out into the cold.
Of course, during winter, everypony had the option to spend recess inside -- and doing so put you under the direct supervision of Miss Cheerilee. Diamond liked to keep proper planning well away from adults, who were presumed to be incapable of appreciating it and in the majority of cases, were better off without a preview.
Diamond was getting older. Taller, stronger and, regardless of Snails' continued failure to acknowledge it, definitely more attractive: something her younger self wouldn't have believed possible. So recess should have been expanded to accommodate her. That was only sensible.
...she'd been considering a library visit. There had to be books about exotic dressing techniques, because ponies liked to write down whatever they considered to be important and that had continued even when most of the authors were so clearly wrong.
She also recognized that given the library's custodian, any such texts were probably going to be age-restricted. And explaining that she just wanted to read the sections on how to do it all quickly was unlikely to grant her access.
(Seriously: how did they do it? An exotic dresser had to be capable of donning clothing at all sorts of speeds, on rhythm, often while matching a background beat -- and then they had to be nude again before starting the next performance, which could start at Any Minute. There had to be a comprehensive selection of speed-undressing techniques. Diamond was completely sure that she would be capable of mastering them all, and remained somewhat less certain as to how she was supposed to access the required material. Finding out what the actual titles were would help, but there were a few potential issues with ordering for home delivery. And it was possible that Miss Fleur knew everything about the subject -- but the retired escort drew the line at anything more advanced than teaching adolescents how to put on makeup.)
Getting fully dressed had cost her time. And when she'd finally gotten outside, she'd discovered that unsupervised boys had allowed themselves to be distracted by a snowball fight. Both Snips and Snails had active coronas, and flinging things at each other was apparently good practice. So they practiced a lot, and each relished the sounds of horror which came when the other pretended to be going for the yellow snow.
Silver had been located. It had been easy to spot her, because Silver had walked right by Diamond as she'd finally exited the schoolhouse, going the other way. Adolescence also meant a myriad of reasons to visit the restroom more frequently than usual: another change meant it was now the boys who really didn't want to know the details.
And until they remembered what their priorities were supposed to be (or with Silver, sorted out the important stuff), it left Diamond with but a single consultant, resting beside her on the cold ground under one of the evergreens.
This consultant was surprisingly good at listening. Diamond just wasn't sure that was a good thing, because the unicorn had gone through several years of hearing stupidity while completely failing to recognize it as such. Filtering any of it had been completely out of the question, and when it came to having ideas...
They talked now. They'd been talking for moons. And it had let Diamond learn a few things. For starters, when it came to the majority of the disasters, the consultant had typically been going along for the ride -- but she'd continued to do so even when she knew that the running rails always terminated in a crash. And maybe some of that had been because she hadn't wanted the other two to be in the debris field as a mere pair, but she'd still lacked the strength to trot away -- and at least a few of the initiating ideas had been hers.
Admittedly, that meant her consultant wasn't always all that bad at having ideas. She just clearly needed somepony around who could spot the lousy ones.
She'd listened as the situation had been explained: having the other three out of hearing meant that at the very least, repetition technically wasn't happening. Now she was visibly considering what she'd just heard, and Diamond was -- waiting.
Waiting to see what she thought.
"Your dad. How did he look? When he told you she'd said yes?"
Diamond thought it over again.
"Disbelieving." That was good for a snort. "Like it had been a surprise. And he was all happy when he talked to me. 'There was a boulder directly in front of my right forehoof: I can't believe I didn't miss!'"
"He didn't actually say that," the consultant immediately deduced.
"No," Diamond readily admitted. "But it was how he looked. Like he'd kicked as low as anypony could without going into the dirt, and he was still surprised he'd touched the ground."
"And was that everything about how he looked? Sounded?"
It was a sincere question. Diamond gave the memory a little more inspection.
"I think... he might have been holding something back," she admitted. "He said he wanted to talk with me about something else, and that it could wait a couple of days. But he looked like he was keeping words locked in the stable before he said that."
The consultant thoughtfully nodded. The little matching bob of the white horn gave the movement a touch of extra punctuation.
Beyond the chill shade of the tree, on the mostly-plowed grass of the school grounds, fillies and colts were playing. Classes were mixing together, talking and laughing and having fun, and they could do all of that freely because they didn't have Diamond's problem.
If the entire group had known...
Not that she wanted to tell them. But she felt at the very least, a few might have offered a thoughtful pause and when it came to this sort of potential disaster, that just about equated to sympathy.
The majority, however, might have laughed all the harder.
"It'll come out," the consultant predicted. "Your dad doesn't keep secrets for very long."
Diamond nodded, and then said the words.
"So what do you think?"
It would have been an odd thing, once. Caring about what this pony thought.
But things changed.
Change could require a catalyst. For the class, it was getting older. Everypony in the group becoming adolescents at the same time, with hardly anypony knowing what to do with it. (Diamond had a plan, because she pretty much always did: the problem was in getting other ponies to cooperate with its obvious brilliance.) But for her father, it had been Tirek. The monster had changed a lot of things, and some of those alterations had been permanent.
"I think," Sweetie Belle said, "this is going to be really complicated."
Diamond, who was occasionally willing to acknowledge the wisdom of any basic truth which didn't get repeated too often, nodded.
For Diamond and Sweetie, the catalyst had been Tirek.
They had nearly spent the last seconds of their lives together. And after they'd been rescued from the descending shadow, the natural tendency had been to spend a little more.
Some of that time had been expended in sharing a bedroom.
Diamond was living in a new house. But before that, there had been a mansion.
And in the time in between, Diamond had been homeless.
If you lived in Ponyville, then you had to know how to get out of Ponyville. Generally in a hurry, and possibly while something was chasing you.
Just about every settled zone ran evacuation drills, because settled zones were surrounded by wild ones and since a monster was something which couldn't care, they didn't care about borders. And with Ponyville, where the Bearers lived... there was at least one drill per season. The number of actual evacuations was somewhat higher.
Tirek had finished with Canterlot. (Her father had been there, hadn't been drained, was doing everything he could to reach her.) He'd turned towards Ponyville, draining from the wild zone along the way. And at his size -- with the way that size kept increasing, making it feel as if there was a laughing mountain coming towards the town and any avalanche would be maliciously aimed...
The Bearers had prepared to confront him. Trying to do whatever they could. The rest of the town had very sensibly tried to get out of the way, although true sensibility probably would have involved a lot less screaming. And Diamond, not knowing what had happened to her daddy...
She'd directed the evacuation of her home. Gotten the servants out, made sure they were on the right route and that Cameo was safely with them. And then she'd looked towards Canterlot, all she'd been able to see was Tirek, and --
-- she'd been scared. (She could admit that, if only to herself.) Who wouldn't have been, when there was a mountain coming to hurt you and you didn't know what had happened to your daddy?
And if she was scared, then... there were going to be ponies who were more scared. Too frightened to think properly. Rationality would be sacrificed in favor of the need to gallop, and a pony's legs might not remember which way to go. Legs weren't very good at thinking on their own.
There might even be some who were too frightened to gallop. Joints would lock. Wings, if available, wouldn't be. Every trembling feather tight against a flank, knees didn't know what to do any more because they technically couldn't, and those ponies would just sort of... wait.
Wait for the mountain to fall on them.
Evacuations had to be done properly. If one pony didn't get out, then it had all gone wrong. And the servants were on their way to safety, Cameo was with them, Diamond could hear the screaming even from so very far away, and if one pony got left behind...
Cameo and the servants were moving towards safety. That was their job.
(Not that anywhere would have been safe for long. Not from Tirek, who would have eventually drained the entire world.)
Diamond, who had needed a few seconds to reconcile both a decision which had arisen from the core of her mark and what her legs were doing about it -- had galloped towards town.
There was a terrified herd, and the screams were loud enough to reach the mansion.
Somepony had to lead them.
She hadn't meant to find Sweetie.
She'd been looking for anypony who couldn't get out on their own. Who was too scared to act without guidance, or possibly had galloped at full speed into a wall and made themselves too dizzy to try anything else for a while. (Terrified ponies could do some really dumb things.) And she'd found Sweetie.
Sweetie had initially been trying to evacuate. The little unicorn (bigger now, but not by much) might have been attempting to do so in the company of family, and -- that would have meant her mother. Just her mother, because hoofball coaches traveled a lot.
Daddies being somewhere else usually wasn't their fault. It was work. Earning money often required travel. Diamond understood that. Her daddy had to travel and when it had all started, he'd been in Canterlot. The place which had been one of the earliest targets, because of course Tirek was trying to drain the alicorns.
Maybe he'd been trying to claim Sun and Moon for himself. Just like he took everything else.
Maybe he'd thought he could make them work. Keep the world going on his own, for what might have ultimately become a population of one.
Or perhaps he simply hadn't cared.
Sweetie's father was home less than Diamond's. Much less. He'd been in Baltimare. Well beyond the horizon, with no idea that anything was happening at all.
And the older sister had been... getting ready to battle Tirek.
(With what? Diamond still didn't know. The Bearers had never talked about what their plan would have been. What would Miss Rarity had done, with needles and cloth and what was occasionally a fairly blistering vocabulary? Diamond, who'd weaponized her tiara at the last, liked to imagine something could have been done with the needles.)
The evacuation had been well under way. Most of the population had gotten out. But ponies who were in a panic tended to move in herds, and two of those groups had intersected. Passed through each other. Sweetie, small and easily knocked around, had been jolted free.
She'd been bruised. Disoriented. Trying to recover, recenter. And she'd also been the first pony Diamond had found.
And then there had been two of them.
Tirek had still looked to be a fairly long way off, and two could search with somewhat more efficiency than one. They'd both been looking, the pair had located a few ponies, gotten them on their way out, there had been plenty of time to work with because a mountain clearly couldn't move very fast --
-- a mountain which had been getting bigger the whole time.
That meant longer strides.
They ran out of time. And then the shadow had been on top of them.
They'd nearly died together. They would have died under an uncaring giant hoof, and perhaps it would have been a trio of deaths because Diamond's father had found them, been racing towards them on burned legs even as she'd screamed at him to stay back. Begged, during the last moments of her life. Because he was racing under the shadow as if he could do something for them, they were going to die and he was only being drained, 'only' drained but if he stayed back, he would live for a little while...
Diamond had been weak. Hollowed, because so much of her had been pulled away into the metal glints within that giant hoof.
She'd known she was going to die, crushed by the descending mass. Her blood and bones would have been mixed with those of the little unicorn.
(A near-final, half-crazed thought had noted that there was no need for a true burial, especially when none of the parts could be sorted out. Somepony could just push some dirt over the smear.)
She didn't want her daddy to see it.
She didn't want him to die too.
But he kept trying to reach her. Up until the very end, he kept trying to reach her. She was begging him to turn back, begging in the last seconds of her life and a stallion who'd burned himself from inexpertly forcing a train's boiler to run all the way to Ponyville wouldn't stop.
And then Discord had appeared.
Discord had saved the world.
He'd nearly died.
When Discord had been fighting Tirek...
The draconequus had allowed himself to be fully absorbed. Power, body, and mind, because the best way to take the monster apart was from the inside. And he'd been looking for all of the stolen magic, sending it back to where it belonged.
Diamond had been able to move before that, simply because the pulling had stopped. She'd still been weak, hollowed, wounded deeper than the core -- but there had been enough left of her to get Sweetie up, and then they'd managed to move together. They'd both gotten out from under the shadow. Escaping from the impact zone just before the giant hoof crashed down behind them.
Not that it stayed a hoof.
Tirek had chosen to absorb chaos -- but the monster hadn't had any control over that power. Because there was a second mind within the giant body, and it apparently felt the best way to keep the monster distracted was through turning parts of Tirek's body into cactus spines and scales and the occasional pillow. Diamond had personally felt that converting hooves into pillows was an interesting decision.
Discord had been taking Tirek apart from the inside, and Diamond's power had been among the first returned. (She acknowledged that this had been more proximity than prioritizing -- several weeks later.) Sweetie's horn had lit up. There had been magic going anywhere, back to hosts and homes in order to make souls whole again --
-- but Tirek had been fighting. Uselessly trying whatever he could to fend Discord off. Clawing at his own body, which was a little easier during those times when his hands had become giant claws. Unable to truly reach a foe who currently resided within his bones.
He'd also been casting. Wildly, completely uncontrolled, trying anything and everything in the frantic hope that something might work. (Monsters were apparently capable of hoping, if only about things which concerned themselves.) Burning thaums of all kinds, using up some of the magic which couldn't be sent back to the dead.
Bursts of power had erupted from his body, over and over. The largest had streaked over the eastern horizon, phasing into invisibility as it moved and -- that one had changed the world. It had just taken a few moons before anypony had learned about the how of it.
Another, only slightly smaller, had gone directly for the library.
The Bearers had been closing in on Tirek's shrinking form, and Miss Twilight's approach angle had started from the tree. She'd seen the blast coming, instinctively deflected everything she could, and that was why both librarian and tree had survived.
(The alicorn had been mostly fine. The tree... the library had remained open, but the tree itself was healing. Dedicated teams of earth ponies were steadily guiding it towards full recovery, and it was still possible to see the scars in the bark.)
Shortly after that, Discord had won. Saved the world and in the process, lost himself.
Tirek, shrunken to skin and bones and organs which had no right to still be working, had been taken away by the Guards. Discord, who hadn't had enough strength left to fully reform his body... the insensate and intangible remnants of the chaos storm were carefully brought to safety. It would take moons before he woke up again, and the draconequus still hadn't fully recovered.
Time had passed. The evacuation reversed itself. Ponies began to cautiously reenter the settled zone. The majority, needing a safe place to recover, had headed for home. Diamond and her father had made sure to get Sweetie back to her parent, and then done the same.
Except that the majority of the blast had been deflected.
Redirected, really.
It had to hit somewhere.
They'd stood next to each other. Frozen in place within the old road, just barely on the other side for what was left of the gates. Looking at splinters and rubble and all of the places where the fragments had landed.
And then they'd been homeless.
Her daddy hadn't blamed Miss Twilight.
They had talked about it, though. All the weeping librarian had eventually managed to say was that she'd been trying to get the blast out of town, deflected away from the main residential sections and anywhere that evacuated ponies would have been waiting for an all-clear. Beyond that, she hadn't exactly aimed.
It had been an accident...
Diamond's father had carefully approached the little mare, half-collapsed with misery in front of the scorched tree. And then he'd told her that... not a lot of ponies lived out that way. It was the mansion and some of the farming areas. If the impact point had been a little further out, then the Acres...
(He'd stopped for a little while. Waiting for the crying to end.)
It -- didn't matter. The servants had gotten out. His daughter was safe, and her pet... Snails was on the way with an extra terrarium and some emergency scarab food, so that would be settled quickly enough. The living were safe, and -- wasn't that the most important thing?
But his house, the librarian had wept. All of his possessions...
(Everything Diamond had owned.)
(Everything.)
He'd smiled, just for an instant. Told her that he lived in Ponyville, and that meant taking certain precautions. Anything inanimate and precious... that was in a safe deposit box, far away. Anything else could be replaced. In time. And really, if anypony was going to lose their home from this, then wasn't it better for that to happen with somepony who could afford to rebuild...?
It... wasn't her fault...
He hadn't blamed her.
And when you didn't really blame somepony, suing them was obviously completely out of the question.
Diamond had lost everything.
Everything except Cameo, and... that was enough. If she could have saved only one, then...
But her tiara was gone.
Gone because she'd been in the last seconds of her life, she'd looked up at the descending hoof, and she'd seen all of the cracks. Imperfections. There were flaws in most hooves (excepting hers, which were obviously perfect) and everything about Tirek's had gotten bigger at the same pace. What had been a tiny gap was now large enough to place something within. And since she was going to die anyway...
Sweetie had helped. The last of the little unicorn's magic had levitated the tiara, jammed it into a crack. Diamond had heard it bend and break as the metal went in, and -- she'd been happy. Because Tirek was too big to ever get it out again and maybe in a few days, that hoof would be infected. Leaking pus everywhere, while still trying to support a mountain.
Except that Discord had entered the fight. Taken him on, for the sake of the world -- and, according to the last thing the draconequus had said, to avoid boredom. (A world where Tirek was the only one with magic would have been extremely boring. And probably very dead.) And the monster had gotten smaller as the power was sent back.
Tirek had shrunk. The broken tiara, still jammed into a crack... hadn't.
Ultimately, Diamond's final act of assisted, intended postmortem vengeance had split the monster's hoof. Something which hurt, and she hoped it still did.
Admittedly, that wish had recently entered the realm of eschatology. (Diamond had needed to do way too much research in order to discover that word's existence, and was still trying to justify the time investment through finding other places where the term might apply.) She wasn't entirely sure whether the dead could experience pain in the shadowlands, and had no intentions of making a personal investigation any time soon. Regardless, in the event that it wasn't usually possible, she was hoping somepony would make an exception for him.
Her daddy's most precious things... those were in the deposit box. Safe.
But for Diamond, if she looked past Cameo and made herself consider the inanimate -- it had been the tiara.
She still hadn't replaced it.
(There were times when her head felt too light. And too heavy. At the same time, which made no sense at all.)
It had been a gift...
Her daddy was good at getting things organized during a crisis, and that didn't change very much when the crisis was his.
Money couldn't solve every problem: he'd always said that. There were things which bits simply couldn't do. They didn't take away pain, or... cure the incurable.
They couldn't bring back the dead --
-- the power of money, he'd said, was ultimately limited. But if your problem was that your home had been destroyed? Then there was something money could do about that.
He'd hired an architect. A construction crew. Made sure the servants had salaries for the full duration of the rebuild, because it hadn't been their fault either. And there had been a room booked in one of Ponyville's hotels. Long-term. Father and daughter had to stay somewhere.
They'd been there for all of three days, because that was how long it had taken for Sweetie's father to get home.
Diamond hadn't managed to overhear the majority of the argument: her own daddy had banished her to the side room for most of it. All she'd been able to pick up on was the big unicorn's gruff, insistent tones, along with a few words like 'my daughter' and 'not going to'. Her father had countered with a 'don't need' at one point, along with 'shouldn't be imposing'. Diamond presumed that was enough to win.
Then there had been a very slow, sad 'wasn't there...'
Her father had gone silent for a while.
The two adults had exchanged some more words, all of which had been too soft to hear.
And then they were living with the Belles.
There had been an argument, and then there had been a victor because that was how arguments usually worked. Diamond just wasn't completely sure who'd won.
Her own daddy had managed to get some things away from the big unicorn during the negotiations: Diamond mostly learned about them during the trot to Sweetie's house. (Her father had limped through most of it, because the burn cream took moons to fully work.) For starters, he'd clearly won the right to pay his own way. They could stay with the Belles until the new home was complete enough to live in -- but her daddy refused to let the other family bear the expenses of hosting anypony. They were going to pay for their own food, the additional drain on charged devices --
-- Sweetie's father had bemusedly pointed out that they were going to be living with unicorns: device recharges weren't really a problem --
-- wonders, then. There was going to be extra laundry and dryers were in the 'wonders' category. A unicorn couldn't recharge a pegasus creation -- look, the point was that Diamond's daddy was going to cover any incurred expenses. Also, you did talk to your spouse about this before you came here, right? Because if you didn't, then Diamond and I are going to wait outside while you try to explain this. For maximum safety, we're going to be about three streets back -- no, I've seen your spouse argue in the store before this. Four streets. With the option to try for five. Send up a corona flare if it gets really bad. Two if I need to get you out of there...
The big unicorn's response had been a deep chuckle. And by the time they all reached the front door, Diamond realized that the two fathers had become friends.
(She was still trying to work out exactly when that had happened. Diamond hadn't known it was possible to do it during an argument.)
Moons of living with the Belles.
Her father had gotten Miss Rarity's old bedroom: the colors really hadn't suited him, but the thread count on everything was apparently divine. Diamond had moved in with Sweetie, and... she'd never had to share space with another filly before. Not night after night, every single night, in a place which belonged to another because Diamond didn't have anything left at all...
And it was also staying with somepony who, until recently, had seen her as The Enemy.
(Justifiably.)
There had been some mutual jurisdictional friction. And then they'd gotten over it, because they'd nearly died together and the past felt as if it was becoming smaller. After a while, it turned into something they could mutually hurdle.
Also, both of them had been having bad dreams. Just about the same dreams about being trapped under falling mountains, and... Princess Luna didn't have enough hours under Moon to visit everypony. So it helped to have somepony around who understood.
They all ate at the same table. Diamond had been vaguely curious as to what regular meals prepared by a mother were like, because Silver's didn't do a lot of cooking. The answer had been 'a lot like a recipe book', because Sweetie's mom prepared things according to exacting directions. And she did so every single time, regardless of how often that dish had been made before -- because if she didn't, then everypony quickly discovered that Sweetie had picked up her tendencies from a very local somewhere.
Sharing a meal with somepony else's family. It was... strange, and no less so when that family so often felt incomplete. Sweetie had a mommy and daddy, but -- her father was on the road a lot. Sometimes the mother went to parties, and Diamond could spot an aspiring social climber from two hundred body lengths away, in the dark. Especially with that dress. The dress was usually a problem. Miss Rarity was welcome to drop by for dinner and usually did so at least once whenever her father was in town, but the mother had an odd objection to accepting any of her older daughter's dresses.
They were hardly ever all together. (Sweetie's daddy had to coach the team, Miss Rarity had missions...) And when they were, there were little fights. Disputes, and it felt oddly like the majority of words were going unsaid. But for the most part, if they were together, then they were -- together.
It took a few days before Diamond's daddy really tried to join in on any of it. Longer for her. And then they were all talking, because they were living in the same house and talking was frankly easier than anticipating the arrival of whatever Sweetie's mom had tried to 'whip up' for dessert.
It felt strange.
It felt like the sort of thing Diamond couldn't let herself get used to because eventually, it was all going to go away...
Diamond had her own room again. Her own house, and the word qualified because you really couldn't call the rebuild a mansion. The dreams were... fading. Slowly, and she'd found that writing to her new quill companion helped with that. Diamond had a very special quill companion, one who wasn't like anypony else in the world -- and in part, that was because she wasn't a pony at all.
Writing to her made the dreams more infrequent. Meeting her...
...Diamond had started to feel a little more like herself after that.
(She wasn't always sure which self she felt like. That change had started a little earlier, and she tried to keep an eye on it because there were aspects which seemed to be waiting for a chance to change back.)
Her own room. Her own house. Those changes could be argued as reversions.
But she'd claimed a new desk in the classroom.
The one next to Sweetie's.
And that change was holding.
"What do you know about the mailmare?"
Sweetie thought it over.
"That she's the mailmare," the little unicorn finally said. "And she's got my route most of the time." Thoughtfully, "I think the post office shuffles everypony around so they'll know the whole settled zone. But when they're not doing that, she's on my route."
Which meant that during the time they'd been living with the Belles...
My daddy would have been seeing her more than usual.
I know she comes into the store sometimes. Not just to shop: to deliver stuff. But now she would have been in the store and coming to where we were living.
It had clearly made everything that much worse.
Diamond decided not to blame Sweetie. The little unicorn couldn't help where she lived --
-- the earth pony had a thought.
It was an odd sort of thought. The question itself was perfectly natural, but not having an answer pressed under her hoof wasn't. Especially with something so basic.
Know your enemy.
...opponent?
...well, whatever the mailmare was, Diamond clearly had to learn about her in a hurry. Studying the competition was basic, and Diamond was prepared to put in the research --
"What's her name?"
-- but the future structure of knowledge didn't have a foundation.
Sweetie's features twisted across the full range of confusion.
"...I'm not sure," she finally admitted. Pale green eyes blinked a few times. "I've heard ponies call her things, but I don't know if any of them are actually her name. Especially since they're usually yelling. After the lightning."
"Has she ever done the lightning stuff near you?"
More thought.
"Maybe almost," Sweetie eventually decided. "But just almost. And it was more around us."
"Almost..." Diamond tried.
"If we were Crusading and got too close to her, then any cloud she was resting on would start to turn kind of dark. Obviously a pegasus can do that on purpose. But Scootaloo said it can also be a stress reaction, so..." Forelegs slowly spread away from each other, gestured. "I guess I don't know."
Her daddy said that honest answers had to be respected, and Diamond tried to do that. It didn't change the fact that the lack of actual information was infuriating.
"I have to find out her name," Diamond decided. "Just for starters. Help me after school? If we can't find out during recess?"
Sweetie's nod came across as being somewhat... hesitant.
"Were you going to do something else?" Diamond checked. Her own plans were usually brilliant enough to justify an override of whatever anypony else had wanted, but inquiry was polite.
"No. I was just thinking..." The hesitation stretched out, took on vocal proportions more appropriate to Miss Fluttershy. "...you said your dad was happy."
"Because he got a yes," Diamond's frustration pointed out. When he should have known that she couldn't say anything else...
The little unicorn’s forehooves dragged small furrows into the dirt.
"Maybe," Sweetie finally said, "the best thing is to -- let him be happy?"
Diamond instantly snorted. "With her?"
"She's the one he asked --"
"-- she's not right for him!"
She's not good enough --
-- he thought she was pretty --
-- there was something very wrong with stallion tastes. And, by temporal extension, Snails.
"He hasn't been with anypony in a very long time," Sweetie said. "You said he felt lonely --"
"-- I'm there! I'm always going to be there!" Powerful hind legs kicked backwards, came up just short of the trunk. "Why does he need anypony else?"
Sweetie didn't say anything.
The silence stretched out --
"-- that filly has been looking at you," Sweetie said. "A few times now."
Diamond managed to keep her head from outright snapping up, which let her discover that it had somehow been lowered. The lack of tiara was probably at fault. "Which one?"
"Over that way." The white horn lit up, and a thin line of glow briefly indicated a direction. "I'll tell you when to look. So you won't get caught. Not yet. Not yet -- okay, now!"
Diamond looked.
A unicorn. Younger than they were by at least two years, and Diamond wasn't sure about that because the filly gave off the impression of being small for her indeterminate age. The coat was a relatively pale purple, while the mane and tail were blonde (with lighter shading along the edges): the irises had shifted closer to gold. Grooming was almost admirably expert, but... she was young enough that she was probably being prepared for school by a parent.
The horn seemed to be a little too long for her. (Diamond wondered if she was going to grow into it. She didn't really know how the process of horn growth worked.) It was also noticeably pointier than the usual. It was a horn which, with speed and strength behind it, could do some damage -- but the filly was small.
And she'd been looking at Diamond. For some reason.
"I don't really know her," Sweetie said. "Do you?"
Diamond concentrated.
Light, sparkles, glow...
"I think she had an early corona," the earth pony said. "That's it."
"Maybe you said something to her," Sweetie carefully proposed -- then hesitated again. "About her."
"Maybe."
Probably.
If it had been a insult based in physical traits, then there wasn't a lot to work with. Not that such had ever stopped Diamond for very long.
"So... maybe if you tried to apologize..." Sweetie gently suggested.
Instantly, "No."
"Diamond --"
"-- I can't. Not until I remember what it was." How much would a Secretary Of Insults need to be paid? She had to calculate based on a full-time position --
"You could just say you were sorry. See if that --"
"-- it doesn't work," Diamond immediately countered. "Generic apologies never do. It's like putting on minotaur gloves to keep your hooves warm. The intent is there, but nothing fits."
This time, she felt her head briefly dip. Too heavy and too light, at the same time. Which didn't make any sense, but... there it was.
"When I remember," Diamond finally said. "Or when she tells me. One way or another" Her eyes refocused. "The boys are coming over. Maybe they'll have the mailmare's name."
Learn about the competition.
How hard could that be?
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I think I kind of don't like diamond very much..
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That's fair. You don't have to like anyone. But it's okay to acknowledge that this is a Diamond that was a bully and a spoiled brat in the past and is actively trying to be a better person... but this is a change that has never happened in her life before and she's freaking the hell out, even if she doesn't admit it to herself.
Unfortunately, Diamond is having a very common reaction to a situation many have faced before.
The good thing is that Diamond is smart, and that she's trying (and goodness knows that actively trying to be good is difficult unless you're a fuggin' saint) as hard as she can to be good.
She'll learn. I believe in her.
I just hope that it won't take her father sacrificing his own happiness to appease her to make her realize that her father needs this.
Oh. Oh dear, I'd just assumed Diamond knew who Dinky was. This throws a curve on things.
I think I like the fact that Diamond and Sweetie have become friends. Last night I reread chapter 46 in another story to get a recap of Tireks end and it was good to get it again here. I can't wait for Diamond to learn Dulcinas name. A very musical name I think.
I don't know if that refers to Cerea being brought into Equestria or if it's a seed for another story because it sound like that shot went very far.
And now Diamond will get the problem of facing somepony who kept her card very close to her chest and has an entire settled zone fooled about her true character. That's going to be interesting.
Not everyone has a psychopomp for a sister, after all. (DELWMG spoiler)
Rarity comes by it honestly. From both sides, in different ways.
To say nothing of the physical...
I do love the parallels between Diamond and her father. Both going after those most would dismiss as imbeciles without considering their hidden depths, both preferring to do anything other than talk to their would-be significant others... and it's possible that both are terrified of rejection. Diamond may just be better at hiding behind her own ego.
Also, funny how she never considers how caring for (or at least wanting) Snails might lessen her love for her daddy. Recognizing that may be what she needs to get out of Mr. Rich's way... assuming she ever does.
Looking forward to more, especially seeing what you do with Dinky. If Diamond thought sharing a room with a friend was weird, wait until she has a little sister...
Luna must have been run ragged trying to take care of everypoines dreams after Triek
Like Pinkie Sense, how the Ponyville educational system (pre-School of Friendship) works is something best not examined too closely.
What she needs is Pony Hawkeye Pierce telling her not to screw up like he did. Also, getting Dulci in shtook with the G isn't going to bring her mother back........
I’ll bet that if the little unicorn is angry, whatever Diamond did to her is second on the list. If she knows about anything Diamond said to, or about, her mother, that’s going to be the burning coal.
The apology might get thrown back in Diamond’s face with, “Apologise to my mother first.”
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I think it might be more of Mother telling daughter about an upcoming date and daughter not being happy because they don't think the Stallion is good enough for there mother.
Dinky and Diamond both are having the same issues with there parents dating essentially.
Okay, can anybody tell me what a Gerund is and why they are fearsome?
Holy horseapples, buffalo biscuits and every other euphemism! Diamond actually had an epiphany, and didn't just brush it off!
Ah, Diamond, if things go right between Filthy and Dulcinea, this could become a major part of your life.
Uh- oh, The Dink is on the prowl.
Look out Diamond, this is gonna be a ride.
Oh no, the daughters have been deployed...
Yeah. There's a saying with a lot of sayers that goes "Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan." I am absolutely *positive* that if you locked all three of these kids in a room with a bottle of truth serum and a professional intelligence officer, you would find at least nine-tenths of their schemes for gaining cutie marks just came out of thin air with nopony willing to admit the origin. Taken a little further, that would suggest that pony magic that bends their courses to particular special talents is both additive and independent, i.e. together the three of them form a semi-sapient pseudoentity of creativity that drives them to their actions. With that in mind, ladies and gentlecolts of the jury, how can we find these innocent creatures guilty of any crime at all in their pursuit of permanent identity and their manifest destiny?
Might one call this unseen entity formed from the union of three different types of ponies...Harmony?
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A gerund is word that functions as a noun by putting -ing at the end of a verb. e.g. Dancing is a favored pastime.
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Thanks
oh, this reminds me of that scene WAY back in "Dragonshy", where Fluttershy's wings locked up.
oh, this reminded me of a fan-comic where it was Derpy's turn to do "book duty":
https://www.deviantart.com/moemneop/art/Shifting-Changelings-Lies-and-Truths-027-680184811
'wasn't there...'
OW! OW! FREAKING...GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!
And Rich knows... It was right there. HE was right there. He wasn't fast enough either. Pray to Sun and Moon and Love and Magic. Toss your body on the fire to move even a little faster. Run past froth and into the shadowlands... And it's still not enough.
And someone WAS there. Someone was there when you didn't even know... There's these moments in stories and shows sometimes... In Amphibia when the the Plantars wind up in the Human world and they keep trying to earn their keep and Anne's dad says "You will never owe us anything." Because it was EVERYTHING... Everything. And you didn't even know...
That's what it IS... What it's supposed to be. It's that kind of hurt and that kind of gratitude and I just don't know where to put it all.
Is the quill companion thing a reference to another story?