Diamond Tiara is a true Rich. Will be, to the end.
Despite all her past setbacks, she’s grown up to become the hyper-successful CEO of Barnyard Bargains Incorporated, a business empire which has spread across the globe. Now she’s built the high-tech Equestrian Dream Shopping Mall right in the heart of Ponyville, a town suited to the ultra-modern vogue not at all.
But when they said corporate would eat her alive, this is NOT what she had in mind…
An entry in Imposing Sovereigns IV, using the prompt "Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom/Persistence".
Chapters (1)
Dead Rising.
Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃
LITERALLY AMAZING WRITING ..
I felt genuinely bad about silver spoon, but sweetie belle and scootaloo made me
(I think because it was so silly.... like girl why did you touch her :sob:)
Great writing! My favorite part is your characterization again. DT's not a Good pony, but she's not
completelya bad one either... still pretty spoiled, yeah, (more than) a bit of a brat, but there's the stress of being successful, the stress of maintaining your status when you've got a lot of people who are just as cutthroat as you are and would love to see you fail, the stress of her inferiority complex...I really liked that bit about the papers. My jaw was on the ground. Even though it's tagged tragedy, I have faith that Twilight will be able to reverse everything. DT's probably going to jail, though. Like, almost definitely. All those fears she had about her legacy (not really brought up, but definitely a vibe I got) led to her doing the thing that would destroy it. Ironic. I feel like if she'd just let her business empire chug along... although she did say that the competition was starting to catch up to her. But could that have been her own insecurities?
I liked applebloom too. heart of the story and all that. she was practically a saint- I would've fuckchucked tiara the moment she started hyperventilating about coffee. But then of course I wouldn't have been able to escape! Alas.
As gratifying as it might've been for some people for tiara to die, I honestly think it's better she lives. Forced to live with the consequences and become a better person and all that.
Always gonna appreciate a zombie fic that is actually good. Especially nice when the different tribes' magic is used to their advantage.
Kinda makes me wonder what they'd be like given enough time. Incidental great minds thinking alike, or were you going for a Land of the Dead homage there? Assuming I remember the name correctly. Last saw that film when I was single digits.
Also, gotta love that 28 days/weeks reference. It's subtle and I like it.
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Thanks! Always a good sign.
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That whole paragraph: Laugh out loud, but that was kinda the opposite of what I was expecting.
I love that you singled this out; that ambivalence with Diamond Tiara as part-reformed, part-regressed was what I was hoping to achieve. There's always fascination in someone who's changed but isn't quite all the way there yet.
Can't add much to your breakdown of DT's... well, breakdown, but I do like the implication that Apple Bloom suffers - to a lesser degree - similar stresses in her role as community leader. Maybe I played it too subtly, but what I was going for was that Apple Bloom is putting on a mask of her own, and most of the favourable comparisons between her and Diamond Tiara owe more to the fact that the deck was stacked hard against DT and AB herself failed to realize that until the end.
Part of it was also their relationships with their closest friends. Apple Bloom's extremely close to the other Cutie Mark Crusaders and takes it especially badly when she doesn't have them backing her - the lucky part is that, by this point, Apple Bloom's still well-adjusted enough to push past that and stick to the plan. By contrast, Diamond Tiara only has an uncertain friend in Silver Spoon, and she's already struggling to stay afloat - losing her friend/"friend" just pushes her further down the slope she was already sliding down.
I do admire the kind of character who's patient enough to stick to their principles despite the way others act. It's the sort of thing she'd have learned from Applejack. Plus, they're fun to torment. 😈
As for the last spoilery section: agreed! And thanks again for the excellent feedback. 😍
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Surprisingly, that was something I came up with on the fly. But it makes a certain sense, especially if you concede that zombie use of magic - for example - would be as crude as their hoof-eye coordination.
Er... not consciously, but I have broadly come across the concept of zombies getting smarter the longer they last and thus regaining their former memories, and there's a chance I picked it up from a discussion of the movie that I've since forgotten about.
My personal favourite is the Clementine reference to The Walking Dead video game, especially since a "clementine" is a type of fruit and so works quite well as a ponyism. 🍊
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Whoops! Sorry about that. I must have overlooked your comment in a rush first time around.
Anyway, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving, and thank you for the comment.
Excellent perspective work for both leads. Exploring the depths of despair in Equestria always feels a bit off, but it works well here. One's been aimlessly climbing the corporate ladder for years. The other's been going through the same motions her family has for generations. In both cases, they didn't know what else to do. And now, with doom hanging over their heads, both look at their lives and are horrified to see just how many regrets look back.
But it's always darkest before the dawn, and together they can hopefully go into as much of a figuratively brighter tomorrow as they do the literal one. As I've said before, thank you for this, and best of luck in the judging.
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Darkest of the Dead before the Dawn of the Dead?
Seriously neat comment. Sorry I haven't got anything smarter to say in response, but I am grateful for the time you've taken to tell me what you liked about the fic.