Chapter 4
Every morning, Diamond Tiara would wake up at 07:30, make a hassle of getting out of bed, walk drowsily through the halls of her home, slowly descend the staircase downstairs, enter the kitchen, greet her father with a quiet mumble, and then hop onto the chair nearest to the kitchen door, where her bowl of Flim & Flam Cotton Candy Puffs was waiting for her. If the box was newly opened, she would first search it for the toy inside. Otherwise, she would just start to chow down immediately, the high-energy cereal giving her the fuel that she needed to properly wake her up.
Today, however, Filthy Rich was concerned. Not only had Diamond Tiara come downstairs fifteen minutes earlier than she usually would, she hadn’t complained when she arrived at the kitchen table and found no bowl of cereal waiting for her. She just sat there, waiting patiently. Patiently. Filthy Rich knew that his daughter was many things. She was special, she was cute, she was a hoofful, and she was sometimes a troublemaker. But she was not patient.
“Diamond, honey?” he called out, and was thankful that she responded by turning to face him. “Is everything okay?” he asked as he poured some milk into her cereal, and placed the bowl in front of his daughter.
“Mm…” was all she responded with. Her eyes were still half-shut, so she wasn’t truly awake just yet. Her mane was a mess, she had dried drool running down her cheek (which told Filthy Rich that she had probably been dreaming about sweets), her tiara was dislodged, and her movements were sluggish and inelegant. If somepony other than her mother or father had caught her like this, she would never be able to live it down.
However, after starting off with her breakfast, the aura around Diamond Tiara began to change. Her eyes began to open up, her movements sped up, she ate the cereal with the grace one would expect from the rich filly who acted like a Canterlotian noble, and she sat up in her chair properly, as opposed to slouching over her bowl like she was previously.
“Did you sleep well last night?” Filthy Rich asked, hoping that, now, he would be able to get a proper answer out of the filly.
“Of course,” Diamond Tiara responded after swallowing the spoonful of cereal in her mouth. “Why?”
“Just checking. You know how I like to make sure my little Diamond Tiara is alright.” Filthy Rich smiled at his daughter, who simply rolled her eyes and looked back at her breakfast. However, he knew that she wasn’t being honest. After raising her for his whole life, Filthy Rich knew when his daughter wasn’t telling him the truth. “Well, if there’s ever anything that’s bothering you, you know that you can always talk to me about it.”
Diamond Tiara stopped eating, and shifted her eyes to her dad. She had already spoken to Cheerilee about her problem, but she hadn’t really done much to help. Despite telling Diamond Tiara that there was nothing wrong with her, the pink filly didn’t feel the same way, and she had her doubts about going to her parents about this matter. ‘… Well, if I just pretend it’s a friend again…’
“Actually, daddy?” Filthy Rich put down the coffee that he was about to drink, and gave his daughter a surprised look. He hadn’t expected her to actually speak to him, at least not so soon. She usually went to her mother whenever she was upset. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course you can. What’s on your mind?”
“… How did… you and mommy first meet? And get together?”
Filthy Rich tilted his head in confusion. “Why do you ask?”
“Uh, you know. Just curious. Trying to pass the time, that’s all.” Diamond Tiara tried to play it cool. Act like there was no ulterior motive to asking this other than taking an interest in her parents’ history.
“… Well, I certainly don’t mind telling you, though I’ll have to keep it short, so that you get to school on time.” Diamond Tiara nodded, and her father took a long sip of his coffee, before thinking about where to begin. “Let’s see… I believe that we were both in Middle School when it happend… Yes, it was during our final year, to be exact. The two of us were asked to work on an assignment together, along with two other ponies, which required the four of us to meet up a lot outside of school hours.”
“And that’s when you two fell in love?” Diamond Tiara asked, reaching across the table to grab a carton of orange juice sitting in the middle.
Filthy Rich laughed, and shook his head. “No, no. Not quite. You see, your mother never showed up to any of those meetings. She was too afraid to come near me.”
“Afraid?”
“That’s right. You may not believe me when I tell you this, but back in my youthful days, I was a brat.” Filthy Rich scratched the back of his head as the uncomfortable memories came flooding back to him. “Certainly not the charming gentlecolt that I am today,” he added jokingly, successfully drawing out a laugh from the filly across the table.
“When you say ‘brat’, what do you mean?”
“Oh, you know. Just a colt who tried to be ‘cool’ by whatever means necessary. Calling fillies names, telling fillies they stunk, and had ‘cooties’. Stealing sweats occasionally with my friends… Though, sometimes, I may have taken things too far. Such as repeatedly picking on the one foal with low self-esteem, or getting into arguments over the silliest things.”
Diamond Tiara stared at her father in disbelief. “Wow. You were really like that? That’s not ‘cool’, you know?” Filthy Rich gave his daughter an incredulous look. “… What?”
‘Really? She doesn’t see the similarities? Well, not like I noticed until I was much older, either, but still…’ The stallion shook the thoughts from his head. “Anyway, you know how stories tend to spiral out of control, right? Well, by Middle School, I had somehow worked up quite a nasty reputation. It took months to convince everypony that I wasn’t some cold-hearted, bada- flanked, bully. But even then, there were still ponies that feared me.”
Diamond Tiara shot her dad a proud grin. “Nice! So you were, like, the boss of that place, right?”
Her father sighed. “I can see why you might think that, but trust me, it was like a nightmare, having so many ponies think such things about you, and judging you behind your back. And because your mother was avoiding our group meetings because of it, it was my job to go and talk to her. To convince her that I wasn’t such a bad colt.”
“And that’s when you two fell in love?”
Filthy Rich hesitated for a moment, and then turned his head away as he started to blush. “Y-Yeah… It didn’t happen overnight, mind you, but that was definitely the turning point. After our talk, we both realised that we had feelings for each other. But it wasn’t until much later, in High School, that we actually acted on those feelings.”
“It took you that long?”
“Regrettably, yes. Those months where your mother and I were simply friends, and I was too afraid to talk to her about how I felt, were like torture to me. I couldn’t focus on my schoolwork, and I acted like a complete dork around my friends.”
Silence filled the room for a moment. “… And, is she the only pony you’ve felt that way about?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Were there others? And how could you tell that you were in love? Did not being around her help? Do you think there’s a way somepony could just lose those feelings?”
Filthy Rich studied his daughter closely, who was eagerly awaiting a response to all of her questions. She had already finished her breakfast, and was just sitting there, staring at him intently in complete silence. “… Diamond,” he began, leaning closer to her, “Tell me the truth. Is there a colt that you like?”
The question caught Diamond Tiara completely off guard, and she quickly reeled back in her chair. “What?! N-No! Of course not! I’m just asking for a frie-”
“Diamond Tiara,” Filthy rich said in a stern tone, letting her know that he could tell she was lying.
The filly bit her lower lip, and looked around the room nervously. The clock showed that she still had plenty of time, so she couldn’t play the late for school card. “… Y-Yes…” she answered reluctantly. ‘If I just tell him it’s one pony, I should be fine. Better say it’s a colt, for now.’ “Well, I think so, at least…”
Filthy Rich sighed, and leaned back in his chair. “I thought so,” he mumbled to himself.
“Um… I’m sorry?”
Her father quickly shook his head. “No, no. You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just, I’m really not the one that you should be speaking to about this. Your mother was always better at stuff like this than I was.”
“Even though it took you both a year to confess to each other?” Diamond Tiara asked teasingly, earning a chuckle from her father.
“Well, in any case, you’re still young, Diamond Tiara. Perhaps you should try just being friends with this colt, and see where it goes from there.”
“F-Friends?” Diamond Tiara gulped. Friends, with two of those blank flanks?
“And who knows? Maybe it’ll just turn out to be a schoolyard crush? Y’know, it’s not uncommon for foals your age to have crushes that just disappear as suddenly as they appear in the first place. At least, that’s what my mother taught me.”
“So, it might just go away in time?” Diamond Tiara, a hopeful expression on her face. Though inside, part of her felt uneasy. Almost like she had just received a grounding, or been told to sit in detention.
Filthy Rich simply nodded. “That’s right. Now, perhaps you’d better go and get ready for school.” He pointed a hoof at her mane, which reminded him of the pink mare’s that he recognised from the sweet shop his daughter frequented. “Unless you were planning to go to school as an example of what happens when you play with electricity.”
Diamond Tiara gasped, and quickly raised her hooves to feel her mane. Feeling her hairs sticking out all over the place, she quickly bolted out of her chair, and ran upstairs, desperate to reach her hairbrush and sort of her rat’s nest of a mane, and at the same time, leaving her father to clean up after her in the kitchen.
Scootaloo slumped her head onto her desk, burying her face into her forehooves as she groaned something incoherent. Between the whole situation with Diamond Tiara, and her father not feeling so well, the orange filly hadn’t been able to get much sleep last night, and as a result, she wasn’t feeling quite as energetic as she usually was today.
The fact that the first class that day was another boring math class didn’t help, either. And of course, today would just have to be the day that Cheerilee decides to try a new method of discipline. Those who had finished the homework set for them were allowed to leave fifteen minutes, and enjoy an early recess. Those who hadn’t, had to stay to do it in class.
The students that hadn’t done their homework were: Scootaloo, Snips, Snails, Twist, Archer, and… Diamond Tiara.
‘Well, at least I won’t have to be alone with her,’ Scootaloo thought as she looked around at the other foals sitting with them in the classroom. Of course, she was wrong again. It turned out that Twist hadn’t finished her homework due to an honest mistake of forgetting about it, and Snips and Snails were caught up practising their magic. All three of them proved to be capable foals, though, and had finished the homework in under five minutes.
Archer was lucky enough to be sitting next to Twist, so she was able to copy her answers and get out of the classroom quickly, too. That just left Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara, who, by the seventh minute, were both still struggling to get through their sheets. Seeing this, Cheerilee asked them both to sit next to each other, so that she could go through the answers together.
At first, she had considered just speaking to them both individually, after remembering that Diamond Tiara had come to her with love troubles that may or may not have concerned one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. But she decided that it wouldn’t be fair to whichever filly she got to second, and also, she highly doubted that Scootaloo was the filly that Diamond Tiara had her eye on.
In fact, Cheerilee had money on Diamond Tiara’s affections being for Apple Bloom, considering the two had been fighting for much longer than the other Crusaders.
And so, with Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo nervously sitting next to each other, each one doing their best to distance themselves as much as possible, whilst still sitting at their connected desks, Cheerilee began to go through the problems one-by-one.
“And then, there is still three leftover. So the answer is forty-seven, with a remainder of three.” The two fillies nodded, though she wasn’t sure if either of them had actually followed her. Only one way to find out. “Now, would either of you like to go through the next one on your own?”
Silence. Cheerilee sighed. “Which part did I lose you both at?” she asked, wondering if a visit to their houses to discuss afterschool classes was necessary.
For Scootaloo, the orange filly was honestly trying her best, but her mind kept getting distracted. She was worried about her father, and at the same time, she couldn’t stop thinking about the annoying pink distraction sitting next to her, constantly staring at her. “Uh, the start,” she admitted, giving a nervous chuckle as Cheerilee gave her a blank look.
“I just don’t get what you mean by ‘carrying over the remainder’,” Diamond Tiara said, staring at the numbers as if they were going to jump out and attack her. She spared a moment to glance at Scootaloo, and quickly averted her eyes. ‘She’s still doing it! Every time I look over at her, she’s staring at me!’
‘Stop staring at me!’ Scootaloo shouted in her mind. ‘If there’s something you wanna say, then say it!’
Cheerilee smiled at her two students, and decided to go over the example one more time. However, before she could begin, the door to the classroom opened up, and three fillies walked inside, one of them holding up her hoof and crying.
“M-Miss Cheerileeeee,” the middle one sobbed. “I… I tripped and c-cut my hoof…”
The fillies’ friends helped her into the classroom, and Cheerilee quickly excused herself to deal with the situation. She walked over to the hurt filly, and examined the small cut on her hoof. “Oh my. I told you to be more careful when you’re playing outside, Dinky.”
The filly sniffled, and was escorted out of the classroom by her teacher. “Girls,” she said to Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara as she left, “I’m going to go take care of this. Please try to work through the problems together, if you can.”
The two fillies that brought their friend here giggled, and told the teacher that that was impossible. True, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the two ‘rich fillies’, as they were known, had a reputation for being arch-enemies. Truffle Shuffle had even started a comic series about them getting into fights around Ponyville, though it was more of a comedy, and the five fillies would often end up embarrassing themselves. Diamond Tiara put a stop to this when she read through issue one, and was not amused by his portrayal of her. It was perhaps the one time that both factions had agreed on something.
After Cheerilee and the three fillies left the room, Diamond Tiara slumped down on the desk almost immediately, and Scootaloo stretched her legs and let out a loud yawn. “Aren’t you even gonna try?” Scootaloo asked, looking down at the pink filly sitting beside her.
“Nope,” Diamond Tiara said. “‘Cause I know I won’t be able to answer them. And it’s just, like, such a waste of time.”
“You don’t know that,” Scootaloo said. “Rainbow Dash says that you should never give up before you even try!”
“And Rainbow Dash is, what, some kind of Princess?”
Scootaloo frowned. “Well, no, but-”
“My daddy says that you should play your strengths, and not dabble in unfamiliar territory. And I trust my daddy a lot more than I trust some crazy Pegasus pony who crashed through our roof one evening when we were having a delightful dinner together.”
“She did that?” Scootaloo asked. “Anyway, that’s just stupid! You’re not gonna get any better if you don’t try. C’mon, let’s take a look at the next question.” Scootaloo picked up the paper to take a look. “Three hundred and seventy five divided by four…” Scootaloo began to write in her exercise book, but only got as far as setting up the problem the way her teacher had taught her to. How to actually solve it eluded her.
“… My, you’re doing so well,” Diamond Tiara stated sarcastically, tilting her head so that she could peek at Scootaloo’s work and grinning at the struggling filly.
“At least I’m trying!” Scootaloo countered. “Argh, I should have just skipped the first class and taken a nap outside. I really can’t think when I’m tired like this…”
“You’re tired? What happened? Did you have a nightmare that you were a blank flank, only to discover it was real?”
Scootaloo scowled at Diamond Tiara, who was giggling in response. “No, actually. Not that it’s any of your business, but my dad wasn’t feeling well!” Diamond Tiara’s giggling stopped. “It’s always been like that. He would get sick, take the day off work, and then the next morning, it would be even worse. He’d have headaches, he’d throw up a lot, and he’d be completely unable to get out of bed. I usually fetch him some water and his medicine, and cook him some healthy meals, but last night, it was super bad!
“I’m… I’m worried about him…”
Diamond Tiara rolled her head back into her hooves, feeling mixed emotions for the sad Pegasus sitting beside her. She felt sympathy, for a start. After all, if her dad was ever seriously ill, she knows for a fact that she wouldn’t be able to sleep right, either. She felt angry at herself for bringing up something so painful for Scootaloo, and making her sad… And she also sad herself, because she had seen Scootaloo frowning. Which was weird, because usually, that would be exactly what she would want to see from her. But not right now. Not anymore…
She glanced over at Scootaloo’s exercise book, and then to the question paper. Diamond Tiara was never very good at comforting ponies when they were down. Silver Spoon could vouch for that. So instead, she decided to try the next best thing, something she was actually good at.
“Hey, show me how to do long multiplications,” she said, sitting up and glaring at the confused filly. “You know how to do them, right?” She pointed to the answers in Scootaloo’s book. The only answers that the filly was able to actually come up with.
“Oh, yeah, but… why should I?” she asked, returning Diamond tiara’s glare.
“Because I said so, that’s why! You should feel honoured! A blank flank like you, being allowed to teach somepony like me? Not every day that such a chance presents itself.”
“Yeah, well maybe I don’t want to teach you! Maybe you should just ask Miss Cheerilee to do it, instead!”
“Miss Cheerilee tried, and failed! But if you can do it, there must be some super secret technique that you used! Show it to me!”
Scootaloo had to admit, the annoying filly was right. There was a secret technique that Scootaloo’s father had taught her for long multiplications, one that, for her, works much better than the complicated methods that Cheerilee had taught the class. But still… “No,” she said, narrowing her eyes.
Diamond Tiara leaned closer. “Yes.”
“No.” Scootaloo leaned closer too.
“Yes!”
“No!”
“Yes, yes, YES!”
“No, no, NO!”
The two butted heads when they met in the middle of their two connected tables, and growled angrily at each other. It took a few seconds, but soon, Scootaloo remembered just why this filly had been causing her so much grief lately… and then realised how close their faces were. Her face turned red in response, and when Diamond Tiara saw that, she realised the situation too, and quickly pulled away.
Scootaloo moved back more slowly than Diamond Tiara did, but kept her eyes off the filly the entire time. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Scootaloo sighed, and leaned over to grab Diamond Tiara’s exercise book.
“Hey, what’re you doing?!”
“Teaching you long multiplications,” Scootaloo said. “Now pipe down and listen already! I don’t wanna have to repeat myself!”
Diamond Tiara huffed. “Who do you think you are, speaking to me like that?”
Scootaloo put on a pair of fake glasses, and gave Diamond Tiara a smug grin. “For the next minute or so, your teacher.”
“… Where did you get those?”
“Old idea for a Cutie Mark that didn’t quite go well. Kept hold of ‘em, just in case. Anyway, let’s begin!”
‘In case of what?’ Diamond Tiara wondered, but shook the thought away as Scootaloo began to draw squares into her book. “What’s that?”
“This is the method I use for long multiplications! Let’s use this question here as an example. You put the two number in question here and here…” Scootaloo wrote ‘372’ at the top of the three-by-three square grid, and ‘174’ down the right-hoof side. “Next, put some lines through the squares like this…” She drew diagonal lines through each of the squares, cutting them in half. “Now, we do some short multiplication. We multiply the numbers down the right-hoof side by the numbers at the top, and write the answers in these squares, tens-digits above the line, unit-digits below.”
Diamond Tiara watched as Scootaloo did an example in the top-right square, which was two times one. Scootaloo wrote ‘01’ in the square, with the zero above the one. “That’s… pretty easy to follow, actually.”
“Isn’t it? Now try to do the rest on your own.”
Diamond Tiara nodded, and continued through the square, filling in the answers and actually finding herself enjoying it. It was also like a puzzle that she was solving, rather than just a boring old math problem, like what it always felt like. However, she soon hit a snag. “Um… Seven times seven is…”
Scootaloo quickly looked through her own notes to find the answer, since she had done the question earlier. “Forty-nine,” she said, and the filly wrote the answer down. “You know, for somepony who’s planning on running a big business someday, you sure do suck at Math.”
Diamond Tiara paused from her work to give the filly a fresh glare. “Oh yeah? Well, for somepony who’s always talking about being a Wonderbolt, you sure do suck at flying!”
“I’ll get there someday!” Scootaloo shouted. “My wings just… aren’t developed yet, that’s all.”
“Like your brain,” Diamond Tiara mumbled, though Scootaloo heard it pretty well. She continued to work through the problem in silence, until she was done. “Okay, now what? How do I get the answer from… this?”
Scootaloo reached over, and pointed some of the numbers in the square. Diamond Tiara could smell the filly’s shampoo and, although it was a scent that she would never be caught dead wearing herself, she still found herself liking it, and blushing as the smell entered her nose.
“You just add the numbers that run down diagonally together, and put the totals at the bottom and the side. Get it?”
Diamond Tiara nodded. “So… like this?”
Whilst Diamond Tiara did that, Scootaloo looked up at the clock on the wall. “Man, Miss Cheerilee sure is running late. And the others are still outside playing, so she hasn’t gone to call ‘em in yet.”
“You know how Dinky is,” Diamond Tiara said. “She’s probably making a big fuss over her hoof, and making it hard for Miss Cheerilee to treat it. By the way, I’m done. Is ’64,728’ correct?”
“… Actually, yeah. It is,” Scootaloo said, genuinely impressed.
Diamond Tiara smiled. “Wow. I can’t believe I had so much trouble with this before! You make it look, like, super easy!”
Scootaloo blushed and scratched her neck. “Well…” She suddenly started to feel uncomfortable again, so she tried to change the topic. “By the way, why were you staring at me earlier?”
Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow. “What? I wasn’t staring! You were!”
“Was not,” Scootaloo said.
“Were too,” Diamond Tiara argued.
“Was not.”
“Were too.”
Was not!”
Were TOO!”
Suddenly, the door opened, and the two fillies quickly pulled their faces apart from each other, and then blushed as they realised that they had once again come into such close contact together. Cheerilee walked into the class, followed by her students.
“Sorry that took so long, girls,” she said to Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara. “Were you able to finish while I was out?” The two shook their heads, and Cheerilee sighed. “Well, I guess you have an extension on your homework, then. But be warned: if it isn’t finished by tomorrow, then I will have you stay behind for detention! Is that understood?”
The two nodded, and then Diamond Tiara packed up her stuff, and moved back to her seat at the front, ready for the next class to begin. As she left, Scootaloo went over the past fifteen minutes in her mind, trying to make sense of all that had just happened. That’s when she realised something. She looked towards Diamond Tiara, who was sitting herself down at her own desk. ‘Did she… Did she do that on purpose, to get my mind off of my old man?’
Cheerilee told everypony to settle down, and Scootaloo focused her attention on the front of the class as the lesson began. ‘Nah, no way.’
Silver Spoon cast a worried glance at her friend as the two sat in the cafeteria together. “Hey, Diamond? You okay?”
“Mhm,” Diamond Tiara replied, not taking her eyes off of the air in front of her. “Just fine, why do you ask?”
“Well, it’s just that, most ponies like to unwrap their chocolate bars before eating them.”
Diamond Tiara stopped her chewing, and pulled the half-eaten chocolate from her mouth… still all wrapped up. She could then taste the unpleasant wrapper in her mouth, and quickly grabbed her orange juice to take a drink.
“What’s with you?” Silver Spoon asked. “You’ve been like this ever since second period. You’re usually so good at History, but today, you were just… so out of it.”
Diamond Tiara shot a glance over to a table in the far corner of the room, where a certain orange Pegasus filly was sitting with her two friends. “… It’s nothing,” she said. However, Silver Spoon didn’t believe her.
“Don’t lie to me, DT!” she said, putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Do I need to recite the third amendment of our ‘Sugar-Lump Rump Friendship Pact 2.0’!”
Diamond Tiara gasped in horror. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Try me.”
Diamond Tiara sighed, and looked around herself cautiously. “… Fine. But not here.” She turned back to Silver Spoon, and leaned in to whisper: “The walls have ears.”
Silver Spoon looked around, and noted that they were in the centre of the room. “The walls are pretty far away,” she joked. Diamond Tiara wasn’t amused. “Fine, whatever. Let’s go behind the schoolhouse then.”
Behind the schoolhouse, Silver Spoon waited patiently for Diamond Tiara to start explaining what was bothering her. It didn’t take long. Diamond Tiara had a much easier time confiding in her friend than she did in her teacher or her father. Although that could have been down to the pact that they had made when they first became friends, and revised only once, after the incident involving Babs Seed. The new rule was simple: ‘No Babs Seeds’.
Needless to say, of all the things that Silver Spoon was expecting to hear, she was not expecting to hear this. That her friend had fallen for not just one, but two of the blank flanks. And Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, at that! In all honesty, there was a time that Silver Spoon had suspected that Diamond Tiara had feelings for Apple Bloom, back when she was the only one they bothered, but that didn’t last long.
‘I could kinda understand if it were Sweetie Belle. She’s the only one of those three who even has some grace and dignity, and her voice isn’t as annoying as the other two.’
“So… that’s it,” Diamond Tiara finished, looking down at the floor as she awaited her friend’s judgement.
“… Wow,” was all that Silver Spoon could say. “That’s… I can understand why you wanted to keep quiet about that.”
“I know! There’s something wrong with me, isn’t there?!”
“… Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Silver Spoon said, pulling her friend into a hug. “Maybe it’s just like what your dad said. You know, about it being a phase?”
“You think?” Diamond Tiara asked, returning her friend’s hug.
“Totally. But, if it isn’t, and you really do have a crush on them… I’ll totally help you out, Diamond. Even if they are annoying little blank flanks, and totally not good enough for you.”
“So, you’re still my friend?”
Silver Spoon pulled out of the hug, and gave her friend a stern glare. “Do I need to recite the first amendment of our pact?”
Diamond Tiara smiled, and shook her head. “… Thanks,” she said quietly, sniffling as she resisted the tears trying to force themselves out of her eyes.
“NP,” Silver Spoon responded, waving a hoof dismissively. “So… what’re you gonna do now?”
Diamond Tiara’s ears flattened against her head. “Well… I was thinking of… approaching one of them.”
Silver Spoon’s ears twitched, and she tried to hide the excited look on her face. “Really? You’ve made up your mind already?”
“Well, I’m not entirely sure yet, but today, Scootaloo and I spent some time together, and… I kinda enjoyed it,” Diamond Tiara with a blush. Silver Spoon had to try hard not to giggle. “And, Scootaloo was the first one to stick up for me in Manehatten.”
“So you’d like somepony who’d defend your honour?” Silver Spoon teased, receiving a nudge from the pink filly.
‘There’s also that thing that I learned today, about her father… Her father’s always ill, and she spends so much time looking after him, making sure he’s okay. I never realised she could be so… so…’ Diamond Tiara cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’m going to focus on her for now, and see if these feelings really are just a phase.”
“Sounds good,” Silver Spoon said. “But, how are you going to approach her? You two aren’t exactly on the best of terms.”
Diamond Tiara held her head high with pride. “I’ve already got it figured out! I’m gonna approach her with an offer of mutual benefit!”
“… A what?”
“Like what daddy does with other companies: a trade of goods! I’ll offer to tutor her in History, since she’s falling behind, and I’ll ask her to tutor me in Geography! I learned today that she’s actually, surprisingly, a good teacher, so it’s like killing two birds with one stone!”
“… What if she says no?” Diamond Tiara had no answer. Silver Spoon sighed. “You didn’t think it through past that, did you?”
“… Whatever! We can cross that bridge when we reach it! Silver Spoon, your job is to get the other blank flanks out of the way, so that I can talk to Scootaloo alone!”
“H-How do I do that?”
Diamond Tiara shrugged. “I don’t know. Hang a Cutie Mark outside a window or something, just keep them busy.”
Diamond Tiara entered her house, and silently made her way to the stairs. She couldn’t believe that it had actually worked… That Scootaloo had actually agreed to her proposal. For the rest of the day, she couldn’t concentrate at all in her classes, and she kept wondering to herself whether or not it was a bad idea approaching Scootaloo like that.
‘No. Daddy said he regretted not approaching mommy sooner, and besides, it’s not like I could focus anyway. I need to just get this over with, and find out whether what I’m feeling really is…’
“Diamond Tiara?” Filthy Rich called from the living room. “Could you come in here for a second?”
Diamond Tiara stopped halfway up the stairs, and turned around to walk back down. She rounded the corner, and entered the living room, where she found her father sitting in his favourite chair, a briefcase at his side. “How was school today?” he asked.
“… Okay,” she answered. “What’s with the briefcase? Are we going somewhere?”
Filthy Rich shook his head. “I am, but you’re not.” He got up, and approached his daughter. “You see, I have to visit one of my clients in Manehatten, right away, and your mother is going to be working late tonight. I know that this is rather sudden, but I’ve arrange a foalsitter for you.”
Diamond Tiara smiled. Looks like tonight was going to be fun. “It’s okay, daddy. It’s your job after all.” She leaned up to nuzzle her father, who knelt down to make it easier for her. “So, what time is Miss Fluttershy getting here?” she asked. She loved having Fluttershy sit for her. The timid mare would such a doormat. She would let Diamond Tiara eat whatever she wanted, and stay up late watching cartoons.
“Actually, Miss Fluttershy isn’t available tonight,” Filthy Rich said, a tinge of red crossing his face. “So instead, I arranged for somepony else to watch you. And it will be at their house.”
Diamond Tiara’s smile feel. Looks like tonight was going to be a drag. “Well, who is it?”
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Applejack. Calling it now.
hmmmm i think it will be pinkie pie
I'm guessing the parents of one of the colts in her class.
Totally Applejack...at least I'm hoping it is.
Place your bets now!
AJ. Then all her thoughts of trying to actually focus on scoots is gone to shit. boom. More mental struggling.
2203306 Seconded. And dang, can't wait to find out, now!
Or Rarity, and she'll develop feelings for all three of them!
2210615 Going the way of the ponyamorous eh? THough then again, she already is...
2217575
Had ta type that into Google to discover what it meant (I thought the word was polygomy, but I guess I was wrong... or there's more than one word for it).
Fun fact, I then typed 'biamorous' into google images, and sixth result was Trixie. Looks like my Twixie Dash fantasy may be true after all
I am going to agree with Applejack on the foalsitter. Look at how well she handled both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Continue onward my good author so that we may know the answer to the cliff hanger.
...agree with Applejack being the foalsitter. I didn't re-read my comment.
2227051
Bad Applejack! Get off the foalsitter right now!
I have to say that I think it'll be Applejack, too. It just makes sense. First you write out an entire segment (very nicely, might I add) involving Scootaloo, so now it's only fair that Apple Bloom gets her turn. It's the perfect setup! So many conflicting emotions going back and forth! Ah, it's so amazing; I love this story so much! It's really the only one on this site that I find myself stopping everything else I do just to read it! Also, all the other characters you use are very well done. Silver Spoon, Sweetie Belle, Cheerilee, Filthy Rich, and even Dinky Doo! All awesome.
But, yeah, I really love this story. There's an error here and there, but nothing much to really speak up about. I'm not sure where you're going to go with this, though. Will Diamond Tiara pick Apple Bloom? Will she pick Scootaloo? Will we get the hilariously adorable ending of her getting BOTH of them? Will it be the cliche ending of Tiara just wanting to be friends so that the Cutie Mark Crusaders' friendship isn't hurt by her choice? Will Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon get together, since it WAS slightly hinted at one point that Silver Spoon didn't mind her? So many choices! I so cannot wait to see more!
Awesome! Love this fic! Hope to see this completed soon
I think I want to know more details about this Sugar Lump Pact. How did this enigma of a document come to have more than two amendments if it was only revised once?
I also think someone really should have told Filthy that stealing sweats is not cool. It's really quite silly and arbitrary.
At the end of scootaloo's rant about her sick father you forgot to add a quotation mark."
Hanging cutie marks outside of windows. Best. Distraction. EVER
!
Haven't read it yet, but calling it: Applejack. Just wanted to put my thoughts down.
Ha ha, the plan. Is to always fail.
In particular, this type of sweet:
How big did this pot get? I wanna know!
6741223
No, it was orange sherbet.
6915510
No, it was apple fritters!