Touch of Grey
Mrrow!
Something flicked by Diamond's flank. She cracked one eye open.
The black kitten was circling around her, his tail brushing against her. Rubbing up against her side, he looked up, with a distinct cat look. "It's breakfast time. You are neglecting your duties by not serving me now!" seemed heavily implied.
Diamond groaned and flopped on down from her cushion. Her back felt stiff, and she wasn't sure she'd ever get used to the lack of beds. Did she even have anything here she could feed to a cat?
Scootaloo was lounging around at the desk, drawing doodles on a pad of paper, making Diamond feel perversely cross.
"Shouldn't you be doing wing pushups or something?" she asked irritably, rubbing at the corners of her eyes and trying to will herself awake.
"I finished those ages ago," Scootaloo said casually, even not looking up. "Exactly what time do you think it is, anyway?"
Diamond glanced out the window. It was kind of light out, wasn't it?
"Um, morning time?" she said, weakly.
"Well, it is morning, kinda, if you consider morning to be sometime before noon. You sleep pretty soundly, you know."
Dumb place with no alarm clocks. And shouldn't one of the roosters have woken her up? Wasn't that what they were for, sort of alarm roosters, in a way?
"Well, why didn't you wake me up, then?"
"You looked like you needed sleep, and I figured you wouldn't be used to early mornings," Scootaloo said, then pointed to the kitten, who had resumed his meowing. "Shouldn't you do something about that?"
Like Scootaloo couldn't have?
"If it's that late, why didn't you feed him? Do we even have any food for Dazzle around?"
"It's not like he's my cat," Scootaloo said, abandoning her doodles and getting up. She bent down and looked quizzically at the cat. "Dazzle, huh? Doesn't look much like a Dazzle to me."
"Well, he is mine, and I'll call him what I like. What else would I call him?"
Scootaloo seemed to somehow take this question seriously.
"Being all black like that, he looks kinda spooky. Maybe you should call him that?"
"What, Spooky?"
Scootaloo rubbed her chin, mock-seriously.
"How 'bout Spook? Mister Spook? We could make him our science officer!"
Yes, because a cat was a perfect science officer.
"Isn't Sweetie Belle your science officer?" Diamond asked, finding herself drawn into the absurdity, despite her best inclinations.
"Well, we could always have two science officers. You know, for when things get extra sciency."
Diamond shook her head, not so much in denial as disbelief. Maybe she was best off dropping that line of conversation. "So, cat food…"
"Sweetie Belle left some here that Opal didn't like, didn't she?" Scootaloo looked around the treehouse briefly and shrugged. "It should be around here somewhere."
Of all the useless… Fortunately, the clubhouse wasn't exactly big, and it wasn't like they'd actually been put away or anything. Diamond quickly turned up a stack of cans, and some said things like "Feline Delight" on them, so she was pretty sure they were the right ones.
Of course, opening the cans was an entirely different problem. She turned back to Scootaloo.
"Do we have a can opener?" She really hoped the answer was yes. Why couldn't this have had pull off lids? No wonder Rarity's cat had rejected it.
"Do you know how much easier it is to get ahold of food that's stored away in cans? Of course I do." Scootaloo opened the desk drawer, revealing several tools, pencils, and assorted things, including a can opener, which she grabbed.
Diamond took the can opener. Now how did you work this thing again?
Holding it rather clumsily, she struggled with the can opener, and eventually managed to get the lid cut open after a few tries. Nearly cutting herself fishing the lid out afterwards, she set the can down, and Dazzle ran over. He began scarfing down cat food as if he hadn't eaten for ages, and all things considered, that may very well have been the case.
"Well, that's all taken care of," Scootaloo said, acting for all the world as if she'd fed Dazzle herself. "Now that you're up, I suppose I'd really better get going."
"Where to?" Diamond asked, and a thought crossed her mind. "Are we going crusading? Does Apple Bloom need my help with the wheelchair again?"
Scootaloo shook her head.
"Sweetie Belle stopped by here earlier, while you were still asleep. She's stuck going on a shopping trip most of the day with her parents. Not only that, she went by Sweet Apple Acres first, and Apple Bloom isn't able to go anywhere today. Big Mac decided to take her wheelchair to pieces today, looking for anything else that might be wrong with it."
That actually sounded like a good idea, and Diamond wondered why it hadn't been done before Apple Bloom came home.
"So how is Apple Bloom getting around, then?"
"She isn't, mostly. Bloom's pretty much stuck sitting in a chair, lying in bed, or getting a ride on somepony's back, I think. I'm sure it'll be fixed up by tomorrow, though, and we'll all get together at Sweet Apple Acres before school to pick her up."
And she'd be in charge of pushing it then, naturally. At least she didn't have to worry about it today, which was a relief. She wasn't really sure how much walking that one injured hoof of hers could take.
Reminded of it, she unwrapped the bandages around her hoof and squinted. Did it look better or worse? Her hoof was a little pale, but bandages tended to do that, and it wasn't aching as much as it had been.
Seeing what she was doing, Scootaloo grabbed a bottle of water, a towel, and some more bandages, and passed them over. Diamond cleaned off her hoof as best she could with them and rebandaged it, though it didn't look nearly as neat afterwards and had an extra loop of bandages hanging loosely from it.
"So where are we going, then?" Diamond asked.
"Now that I've finished this and you're up, I still have a few jobs I need to take care of, and to see if the wagon's done. I'd better run."
"All right. Just let me get ready to take off." Diamond glanced around, looking for a comb.
"These are my jobs, actually, and they aren't really expecting anyone else there," Scootaloo said, looking back as she walked toward the door. "I'm sure you've got a few places you'd like to go, or you can just hang out here. I'll catch up with you later, and we'll get dinner."
"What?" Diamond said, looking towards her as Scootaloo walked out. "Fine! I didn't really want to come along anyways!"
She sat down sullenly at the desk, and propped up her head with her forelegs. "Stupid."
She didn't need Scootaloo. She could find other things to do. She had lots of things she normally did with her weekend. Lots and lots and lots of them.
So why couldn't she think of any?
How about going out to the theatre? Watching a movie would be fun. She'd always had fun there in the past. Silvy'd bring over the movie listings, and they'd talk over what was playing, see what was on where, and have a bunch of fun talking about it afterwards and making fun of all the really lame parts.
Except… well, she didn't have Silvy, did she? She didn't know what was playing, and wouldn't have anypony to talk to about it if she did see something.
She could go to Sugarcube Corner, she supposed. She had been working through all the flavors of milkshakes there in order… with Silvy. No, that wouldn't do. Anyways, Pinkie always acted all weird over there now. Well, weirder than usual.
Hadn't she been planning on going to the modern art gallery?
Come to think of it, that'd been Silvy's idea, too. She'd wanted to check out a metalworking exhibit there. Not many ponies actually knew Silvy was good at that stuff. She'd mostly kept it to herself, since even though it was family tradition, it wasn't really one she'd been expected to follow.
Diamond mostly knew about it because they were best friends, or had been, anyways. They always shared everything together… but not any more.
Well, she could do things by herself. Maybe she should just head out now, and decide what to do later.
Right. That was probably the best idea. She didn't need to have plans. She could just go out and do things, all by herself. She didn't need anypony else.
Moving through the clubhouse with new determination, she dusted off her saddlebags and put them on, then grabbed her comb. Well, it was technically Sweetie Belle's comb, but minor details like that weren't going to bother her.
She ran it through her mane a few times, wincing as the comb hit a tangle, and then she went on down the ramp out of the clubhouse. Diamond may not have been totally sure where she was going, but from here, it was mainly towards the town, towards the forest, or towards Sweet Apple Acres anyways.
Still, she ought to pick somewhere to go. Maybe some of her previous ideas weren't that bad, even if she didn't have Silver Spoon there with her. It wasn't what she was used to, but she could still try.
Of course, others might think this was easy. You just had to pick something and do it, right?
Well, they were used to it. She'd never really had to do something as low-class as 'making her own entertainment'. Others would do that for her. Either Silvy would be there with ideas, or she could just tell Grey she was bored, and he'd provide the entertainment, or be the entertainment.
Even if that failed, she'd had a stash of romance novels tucked away in her room she could go through, and some of those funny comics Silver Spoon had lent her that were imported from someplace exotic and translated.
There had always been Cutie Mark Crusader teasing, too, which was hours of entertainment in itself.
Then sometimes Daddy'd come to her bedroom and try to explain to her how business worked. She still remembered some of that, even if the numbers always lost her. Silvy was better at numbers then her anyway, so she'd always kind of figured she'd get her to do that side of things for her, when it was time for her to run things.
Before Mommy had died, she'd had family outings sometimes, too. After Daddy'd remarried, they'd tried to start them up again, but they'd always been awkward things, and she didn't really know or like Spoiled that much anyways.
She supposed Daddy hadn't really known Spoiled that well, either, as he'd been expecting her to come back from the vacation she went on, and hadn't realised she'd taken a bunch of his money with her. Supposedly they were going to try and get back together, but Diamond had her doubts.
Spoiled had seemed to know an awful lot about how the world worked, but some of those things were the kind of things that were all proving to be wrong now, anyways.
The trouble was that her world had always had a certain order to it, everything in its place. Things happened in a certain way, and there never were any surprises, at least, not unpleasant ones. She'd been used to it and had her routine and it had always worked before. Now everything was all jumbled and scattered, and she didn't really know what to do without it.
Of course, she'd long lost track of where she was going here and now, too. Diamond hastily looked around to try and get an idea of where she'd reached while lost in thought.
As it turned out, she was most of the way in town by this point. In fact, she was pretty close to a movie theatre, which had been one of her ideas earlier, hadn't it? She could watch a movie by herself. It's not like she really needed somepony else for that, just eyeballs.
So what was playing? There were plenty of ponies in line, so it must be something good.
She walked over to take a look at the movie listings, but up close, those lines sure looked really long. This was going to take forever to get through. It might even be sold out by the time she got up there. Would standing in line be worth it? She didn't have much money anyways.
Diamond was still trying to make up her mind when three ponies near the back of the line started making a ruckus. Without even stopping to say so much as "excuse me", they were boldly pushing their way through the lines, as if the rest of the crowd didn't matter, making snide comments the whole way.
Really boldly, given their attire, actually. Diamond wasn't sure whether to be appalled or to applaud. They must have been some sort of musicians, given that thing that looked like a cross between a guitar and a piano slung on one of their backs. She wasn't totally sure what type of musicians wore trashy zebra-striped clothes and face paint, though.
One with a yellowish-green mane shoved right past a mare and filly, sending the filly tumbling to the ground.
"Outta my way!" she bellowed, not even slowing or looking behind her as the filly started to cry. "Coming, Roxy?"
One of her companions, this one with a white mane, hurried right past the whole ugly scene to the other's side. "Right with you!"
She glanced back. "Coming, Stormer?"
The blue-maned pegasus she was addressing did pause for a moment, and look over at the filly. Then she seemed to give a little shrug and joined her companions, and they went straight in the theatre, ignoring the protests of everyone behind them.
Diamond blinked. Now what had all that been about?
The excitement was obviously over, but Diamond couldn't help thinking about what she'd seen.
On the one hoof, they clearly saw what they wanted and took it. Diamond could appreciate that. It didn't really matter what happened to anypony you ran over on your way, or it wasn't supposed to.
It didn't really seem the same when somepony else was doing it, though, or doing it for something that wasn't really that important.
One of them had seemed to realise it was wrong, too, but she'd just gone in with the rest of them. She wasn't sure if it was better that they knew it was wrong, or worse that they kept with it.
She probably shouldn't be thinking so much about it. It'd been so much easier when she hadn't had to think about things. She'd had other ponies that did that for her.
But with so much time now, what else was she supposed to do?
Her stomach rumbled. Well, there was always lunch. She hadn't been paying much attention, but she hadn't actually eaten anything yet today. Were there still snacks from yesterday back at the clubhouse?
There'd be apples, anyways. There were always apples. Or she could buy lunch somewhere. But then, she rather suspected she'd be buying dinner, and she really needed to make her money last. She could go to Sugarcube Corner and wheedle some food from Pinkie, but she'd really rather avoid her for the moment.
She shrugged. Well, apples and snacks it'd have to be. Diamond turned around and headed right back to where she'd started, as if the very act of deciding had drained all the energy out of her.
And it had, really. She wasn't really made for not having a schedule or just doing whatever came to mind and making decisions. Even getting up may have been a bad idea. There was a lot to be said for sleeping.
Fortunately, as it turned out, there were a few snacks and things left over in the clubhouse when she got back, or at least a few apples and sandwiches. She gobbled them down in a way that would have reminded anyone watching of Dazzle earlier.
Now to just wait for Scootaloo, get some dinner, a bath, and this day could end. And tomorrow...
Oh, right, tomorrow was school.
"Bother."
Maybe she should go back to sleep right now and not think about it. But there were some things she did have to do. Pulling out a piece of paper, she started writing in her best approximation of daddy's writing.
Dear Miss Cheerilee,
I'm afraid an emergency came up and my daughter had to leave in the middle of the school day, and was unable to attend school for the rest of the week. I'm sure you'll excuse her absence. I was just telling Miss Sharp what a wonderful teacher you've always been in a recent board meeting.
Yours truly, Filthy Rich
That'd probably work, she thought. It had flattery mixed with a veiled threat of sorts. She didn't know much about Miss Sharp, not even her full name, but she knew she was important on the school board and that daddy knew her, which was enough.
It should get her out of the days she already missed, hopefully. She'd written fake notes before without problems, so she knew that she must be close on the handwriting, or that Miss Cheerilee didn't care, which was always possible.
There was another note she had to write, though, which might be harder, because she probably needed to actually be honest on it. Maybe. Not being honest was easier. Maybe she could write it as if she was lying about it?
Nah, a teacher was one thing, but this was Twist she had to deal with. She might talk with a stupid annoying lisp and be terribly irritatingly cheerful, but she was sharp. All ponies with glasses were smart. She thought that was probably a rule somewhere. Maybe there was a conspiracy of glasses-wearing ponies that secretly ran the world or something.
Of course, Silvy wore glasses, too, so she'd already had that advantage in the past, even if she didn't wear them herself. Now she didn't have anypony to think for her.
Twist had been on her side, though, before she blew it, and she needed Twist on her side again, because that was her only way to get back with Silvy. The two of them seemed to be friends now, or at least glasses buddies, and she needed that.
The real question was what she could write to get back on Twist's good side. She needed Twist so she could pass messages to and from Silvy. But she'd yelled a bunch of stuff at her about stealing Silvy from her, which was actually rather silly, thinking about it.
There really wasn't any way Twist could steal her best friend from her. But it had been one lousy day.
Dear Twist,
You do know I didn't really mean all that stuff I said about you, right? I really, really need your help with Silvy!
Diamond
Diamond crumpled up the paper and tossed it in the bin. Pathetic.
Dear Twist,
I shouldn't have yelled at you. I need-
That one hit the edge of the bin and bounced off.
Dear Twist-
Tossed. Why couldn't she do this?
Dear Twist,
I'm sorry. Please forgive me?
Diamond
That was still pretty pathetic, wasn't it?
A voice came from behind her. "Whatcha doing?"
Startled, Diamond tucked the note quickly in her bag and turned to see Scootaloo coming in.
"You're done with all those big important jobs you had to do?" Diamond asked, still a little miffed at being left behind.
"They weren't that important, other than my getting paid for 'em, but that's pretty important to me, at least. Ready to get cleaned up and grab some food?"
Well, she might as well get a proper meal. Diamond sighed.
"Sure. Let's go."
Greywithers ran one hoof along a shelf of the bookcase. It came back covered with dust, just as expected. It was hardly surprising. The mansion was large, and it would attract dust in a quite short period of time. Still, by rights it should be attended to.
Of course, he still was on alert, and should stay ready to be called on. A true gentleman's gentleman would anticipate his master's call and be there at but a moment's notice. And he did know Mr. Rich's habits well, as he ought to from many years of service, and by rights he would have been called a good half an hour ago. But then, Mr. Rich's requests and moods had been rather more difficult to anticipate as of late.
Naturally, dusting the manor shouldn't have fallen under his purview, and wouldn't have, under normal circumstances. He was nothing if not flexible, though, and he did seem to have a spare moment.
Greywithers carefully picked up a feather duster left by one of the maids, and started cleaning the offending shelf, attempting not to sneeze as the dust hit his muzzle.
"Greywithers?"
Without a moment's pause, he was immediately in front of his employer in the study, bookcases left behind.
"Yes, sir?" He said, as best he could manage with a duster in his mouth and a dust-covered muzzle.
Mr. Rich looked at him with a skeptical gaze.
"Grey, what on earth are you doing with that feather duster in your mouth?" Mr. Rich said. "It makes you look ridiculous."
Greywithers lay down the duster with a sigh. "Dusting, sir."
"Dusting?" He tutted. "No, no, that won't do. You are a butler. You buttle. Dusting is the maid's job, not yours. Who is supposed to be taking care of it today?Lilac?"
Mr. Rich paced back and forth. "You never can seem to get good help these days. I should have a talk with her, I really should. What does she think we pay her for?"
Grey coughed. "We don't, sir."
Mr. Rich raised an eyebrow. "Don't we?"
"No, sir. You fired her about a month and a half ago, in fact," Greywithers reminded him, not for the first time.
"Did I?" He said, sounding fascinated by the thought. "Well, then, shouldn't Cinnamon be doing it? It's not like we only have one maid."
"She elected to seek work elsewhere, sir," Grey replied. "She seemed rather upset at the prospect of having to do the work of two ponies, and that you weren't looking for a replacement."
"So we don't have any maids?"
"No, sir." It was going to be one of those nights. Grey could already feel the beginnings of a headache.
"Well, why haven't we? Do I have to do everything around here myself?"
There were a number of responses that ran through Grey's mind to this line of inquiry, but he suppressed them with practiced ease.
"You do have to authorize the expense of hiring more help and approve of the replacements, and hitherto you have not been inclined to do so when we've discussed the matter. If you wish to authorize it, I'll be glad to arrange to hire replacements for all the unfilled positions myself." This would, of course, include rather more than just two maids, but there was no need to bother his employer with the details.
"Yes, capital idea. I'm sure we can go through the details and discuss that at a later time. I would want to approve any new personnel personally, of course."
"Of course." Naturally, said meeting would never happen, or Mr. Rich wouldn't actually find any of the replacements suitable, to judge from his past experience. He could think of several reasons his employer wouldn't want anyone new in the household, naturally.
A minute went by without further comment.
"In any case, you called, sir?" Greywithers ventured.
Nothing.
Looking over at his employer, Grey noticed him staring into space in an odd, abstracted way that he was, unfortunately, all too familiar with lately.
"Sir?"
A few minutes went by before Greywithers was able to get his employer's attention again.
"Yes, what is it, Greywithers?" Mr. Rich finally snapped, irritably, looking back in his direction.
"You called me, sir?"
Mr. Rich looked around, slightly unfocused. "I did, didn't I? Everything taken care of for the day, Grey? Any new business I need to take care of? Diamond settled down in bed?"
And here we go again.
"I'm afraid not, sir."
"Then shouldn't you be getting her to bed, then?"
"I'm afraid I don't know where she is at the moment, sir. Would you like me to go find her and bring her back home?"
Mr. Rich shook his head and seemed to come into better focus. "No, that's right, Diamond's gone now."
"You know my feelings on that, sir."
"And I've made my decision perfectly clear. End of discussion. Was there any other business I needed to attend to?"
Greywithers’ headache was starting to have baby headaches.
"There was a letter from Penn-, ah, from your cousin. She is willing to take her place as heir to the Rich family, but was inquiring as to why she should suddenly be your heir after not hearing from you for years. She seemed, in fact, to be highly interested to know if anything has become of her niece."
"I do believe we can safely ignore that, Greywithers. She'll undoubtedly forget about it given a few weeks."
Grey had to wonder if Mr. Rich even remembered his cousin, at this point.
"I suppose it is possible, sir."
"Now, was there anything else?"
It would be easiest to say there wasn't and escape while he could, but he did have a certain duty.
"You're getting worse, sir."
"Oh?"
"We have talked about this before, sir."
"And I've already told you my feelings. I don't need any help, and certainly not by those quacks that call themselves doctors. Frauds, more like. They'll take your money, but can they do anything for you you can't do yourself? Hardly."
"You do need help. I'm sure we can find a specialist who will have you feeling right as rain."
"I said no, and that is final. They'll take it from me. They'll find a way to take my business from me!"
They may have good reason.
"Surely not, sir."
"Oh, just go away. You're dismissed until morning, Greywithers. And all talk of all of this and of Diamond stays here, understand?"
At this point, discretion was the better part of valor.
"As you wish, sir."
Grey hastily took his leave, and retired to his own quarters, shutting the door firmly behind him and bolting it. He had never needed it in the past, but the worse things got, the more he really could use a nightcap to settle things down. A brown bottle emerged from a cupboard, as did a glass.
What he really felt like more than a drink at this point, though, was to have a bit of a talk, but none of the ponies he wanted to talk to were available. He poured himself a glass and downed the contents.
Opening up a desk drawer, he took out two pictures and propped them up. Neither could stay up while his employer was around, of course. Feeling generous, he poured them both drinks as well.
He turned to one of the pictures, an old sepia one he'd had in his possession for a long time. "Ah, Stinking, who'd have thought we'd come to this? Remember when we met, me not a bit to my name? You took me in and I swore I'd serve you, your heirs, and your family to the end of my days. Never occurred to me I'd ever not be able to do all three of those things. You'd be ashamed."
"And you," he said, turning to the other picture, which depicted a fiery redhead. "You'd belt me around the ears! Seems to me that Filthy has totally forgotten about you, to think ignoring your letter would do any good. Sooner or later, you'll be around to find out what has happened for yourself, I'm sure, and Filthy won't hear the end of it!"
Grey gulped down another glass. "I don't know where Diamond is, I'm afraid, Penny. She wasn't at school, at least she wasn’t when I had an opportunity to check, and she isn't staying at her friend’s, either. I'm sure I will catch up with her eventually, though. If I know her, she'll be coming to me in a couple of days, in fact. I just hope she'll listen to my advice when she does."
Assuming nothing had happened to her. Assuming she was all right. Assuming she'd act the way he thought she would. He poured himself another glass, and lay down restlessly, thoughts refusing to settle down.
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..... oh my god Filthy's getting Dementia.
So.
Filthy 's not right in the head.
In some ways, this partly excuses his treatment of his daughter.
In others, it makes it so, so much worse.
I feel sorry for Diamond, but really, that's what this fic is all about, isn't it?
Awesome! So glad to see that this is still being updated! Keep it up!
Greywithers you need to inform someone now. Diamond Tiara's future is in your hooves. I would suggest going to the Apple family due to their longstanding friendship and business relationship. It has become obvious the Mr. Rich has become compromised in some fashion and it could end up costing you your job.
Great to see this story updating again and looking forward to seeing the coming storm.
Ah well , the state of her father is not going to help Diamond in any way ...
Actually , scrach that , it just might , given the letter Diamond wrote to ditch school....letter which will not help her in the long run.
This story is like Project Horizon in a way : When you thing that nothing can go worse or more depressing for the protagonist , it still manages to prove you wrong.
Then again , she is enduring it quite well ...but for how long , I wonder...
Glad to see this story back...
I shall catch up later on.
I have a feeling the cousin will come to town and run into Diamond first thing. THEN Filthy will hear a word or two. At which point his condition will come to light. And Spoiled will return at just the wrong moment...
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7458246
The unfortunate thing is that Filthy's been like this since before the first chapter, though, as Grey said, this was one of his bad days. As may or may not have been implied, he's getting worse, too.
Meanwhile, Greywithers is sitting here trying to do every single job in the manor, and he's obviously done a little running around to try and find Diamond. It's no wonder he's hitting the bottle!
Of course, this story is also about Diamond growing as a pony...
--arcum42
7458927 .... I FEEL SO TERRIBLE.
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Thanks! I certainly hope I'll be able to! Right after writing a chapter, I feel like I can just crank the others out, but that never lasts...
--arcum42
7458532
Grey's trouble is that he is loyal. He's loyal to the family, and takes his word very seriously. Trouble is that right now his word and his loyalty to the family are in direct conflict, and something's going to have to give. He is trying to track down Diamond, based on what he said at the end, and he has some plans there...
I'm actually rather relieved to have finally been able to show Filthy's current state, and, ironically, to have actually written the name "Penny" in a chapter.
Next, though, it's time to deal with school...
--arcum42
7458545
Well, the state of her father isn't exactly stable, either. Sooner or later, the whole thing is going to collapse in on itself. It could still be stable for a little while, though.
I will say that this story doesn't have a Tragedy tag on it, and that's for a reason. I'm not intending to end this with Diamond lying dead in a gutter or anything...
--arcum42
7458888
To be honest, Spoiler wasn't in the original plotline (since she didn't exist at the time!), so I still need to think a little on how she'll factor in.
Otherwise, pretty good guesses!
Oh, and to be clear the cousin mentioned here and in the first chapter is the same as the aunt Diamond said she thought she had somewhere (in the chapter "Crosseyed and Painless"). Her relation to Diamond and Filthy's more complicated then that, actually. Being "Aunt Penny" was a little inevitable, though, given that her full name is Penny Ante...
--arcum42
7459008 Ante Up...
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That's about it. She's fairly well formed in my head. The story just hasn't had much opportunity to touch on her yet.
I've even thought before about writing about her last trip to see the Riches, and why she hasn't been back since...
--arcum42
7458545
It's even worse.
Even if Diamond gets to come back home, she won't go back to the father she knew. Whatever condition he's got is eating him from the inside, piece by piece; it's like something is taking parts of her daddy, the pony she's always looked up to, far far away. To a place where she can't follow.
She needs help, but he may need help even more. One could argue Greywithers owes it to Stinking Rich to make sure his son gets treatment.
7459240
Yeah. Unfortunately, he hasn't really been the father she remembers for a good while. If he actually spent more time interacting with her, it might have been noticeable, but, frankly, he was a lousy father before this.
One of the big problems Grey is facing, honestly, is he has a very rigid view of promises and his given word and follows them to the letter. Filthy knows this, and has taken advantage of this a fair amount.
Grey will follow Filthy's orders to the letter, but is willing to violate the spirit of them, as we saw before with Diamond's allowance...
--arcum42
7459049 Ah, I know exactly how you feel. I also prefer to keep my older chapters the way they are, if only to remind myself of the pure cringiness everytime I look them over. Helps motivate me to write better.
Bit casual for a butler speaking to the head of the house, don't you think?
Been a while since the last chapter. They've seen fit to give DT a redemption in the show, though personally I like your bit better. And the plot thickens, what with Filthy's "condition". Looking forward to more of this.
7459395
Yeah, same here, mostly. I did rewrite the first chapter at one point, but it was a line for line rewrite, where I was sticking pretty closely to everything that happened in the original, just writing it better. Part of it was that people kept telling me that Filthy Rich was out of character. I actually knew when writing it the first time that Filthy Rich's condition was the way it's shown in the latest chapter, but I bumped the hints and foreshadowing of it up a little.
Another part of it was to lessen telling people that it gets better after the first few chapters.
--arcum42
7459410
Hmm. A bit, though it was an awkward moment. I'll have to see what I can think of as far as a revision. Being down one prereader probably did leave the chapter a little rougher than usual, though Elric did catch a number of things.
And yeah, the "only canon up to season four" holds more than ever. I worked Spoiled in, since I thought of a way to do it that I liked, but since it happens at that point, nothing past that happened, and a fair amount won't happen. Diamond likes Scootaloo too much for Flight to the Finish to happen, for example.
The funny thing is that from my perspective, Filthy's always been like this in this story. It's nice not to have to dance around it any more!
--arcum42
7459442
Revealing plot mysteries certainly does have a liberating quality to it.
I'm excited to see where you take her relationship with Silver Spoon. There's something about that filly that has always intrigued me.
7459448
Yeah, it really does. Though, admittedly, I haven't said what Filthy's exact condition is. I plan to eventually, and I seriously hope I don't have someone more familiar with it then me tell me I wrote it all wrong.
Oh well, this is the magical technicolor pony version, obviously!
It's also nice to gradually bring Filthy's cousin into focus, as it's irritating to have a full fledged character in the back of your mind and not on paper.
It's been so long since I wrote the school scenes that I'm probably going to have to reread them a bit, to be honest. I'll be interested to see where it goes myself, though I have things in mind. (In fact, there's one scene between them that I've had in mind for a long time. It'll just be quite a while before I get to write it.)
And, believe me, I'm not an admin of the Silver Spoon group for no reason. I like her a lot, too...
--arcum42
7459473
You could always actually write her on paper. I have entire character bibles for characters I've never even introduced, and enough backstory to write a separate book for some of my mane characters, all in a private document.. Sometimes it just helps to have more information than you need in order to streamline a character's actions.
Interesting...
7459533
I have written some of it down, though I'm sure I've left out a number of details. Some parts, I don't really want to write down more than generalities on, because they are important scenes that I plan to write when they happen. They've already run through my head enough times that I've got them memorized anyways.
I do like knowing details like why she hasn't seen Filthy and Diamond in years, and what her special talent is, how she makes money, etc. She should be a fun character to write, actually.
--arcum42
First thought when Filthy started talking about Diamond: "Wow! Worst father ever!"
Second thought, immediately after that: "Wait... does he have dementia or something?"
Greywithers mentions he's getting worse and should see a doctor: "Oh my God! He does!"
That was actually a very good reveal, I'm impressed.
7459993
Thanks. That's been coming for a long time. It was tricky when I got all these comments near the beginning of the fanfic about how Filthy was acting out of character...
It's been fun leading up to this, though.
--arcum42
7459976
I know the feeling. I've only written one full story, but I ended up rewriting it 4-5 times. Eventually I had to just throw my hands up and realize it was just going to have to be imperfect, otherwise I'd never stop messing with it =P
Is Filthy suffering from dementia?
7460765 I was originally going to guess Alzheimer's, but dementia sounds like it fits a lot better. Either way it says very bad things for his future.
7461148
Cool ^.^
Yay! A new chapter!!!
I'm glad to see this story update ^_^.
7461015
7460765
Given an answer when that question was asked earlier in the comments section by 7458927 .
best story
BEST STORY
BEST STORY
Oh, and it's also really quite heartbreaking, but still... BEST STORY
7463849
I, for one, welcome our new bespectacled pony overlords...
7463849
7464313
Thanks. That is one of my favorite bits in that chapter...
--arcum42
7463852
Yeah. Sad thing is that for me, this is what's been going on with Filthy and Grey for the last 18 chapters in the background. It's just finally spilling out into the actual text of the story, which is honestly a bit of a relief. Now I have something to point to when people reading early chapters say Filthy is acting OOC...
Hmm, I wonder why I was even worried about the section with Roxy, Stormer, and Pizzazz. No one's commented about it.
--arcum42
Oh good this came back!
Okay, NOW I'm caught up =P Still looking forward to whatever comes next.
Yeah I remember them, they're just as obnoxious now as they were then it seems. Some things truly never change.
7478221
Pretty much. I decided for the purposes of this story that Pizzazz was a unicorn, Stormer was a pegasus, and Roxy was an earth pony, and made Stormer the more sympathetic one because that followed their characters in canon. It was a fun little walk-on, and it worked well for what I wanted it to do. I was worried about messing it up, since I'm not nearly as familiar with that universe, though...
--arcum42
7478312 There is not too much that can be said about it Arcum. It was a badly written animated soap opera, which is too bad because it a lot of interesting idea and technology that it presented. But it was all so shallow at the end of the day. *sighs* What a waste.
The decisions you made pony wise seem right to me though.
7478323
Oh, the series could have been better, but it certainly could have been worse, as evidenced by the movie reboot. OTOH, I'm only really familiar with the early episodes. I did think it was funny that while storywise, the Misfits were supposed to be the worse of the two bands, musicwise, I generally preferred their songs.
The shame really is that, as you said, the ideas and technology were good. A reboot could have been pretty good, if it had been done right. I've had it in the back of my mind that I should look at the IDW comic series some time...
--arcum42
7478391 Yeah it wasn't worse, until it was.
The Misfits didn't really perform very often either, they replaced rather quickly by another group of troublemakers called the Stingers, I remember little more than that.
Yeah that was really interesting tech, that they really didn't do anything close to enough with.
7478879
Ah. Never actually got that far, and since I was enjoying the Misfits more than the main cast, that would've been worse. Think I watched around the first dozen episodes, plus a few clips from later. If I'd gotten further, my interest may have faded. I did see this clip of Stormer performing as a duo with Kimber later, though.
[youtube=oTkoa98KI14]
If any song made me give them a brief walk-in role on Cubic Zirconia, it was this one. It manages to hit things very related to this story. I also can't help wishing these two had stayed a duo. It also makes me want to ship them, but you know how that goes...
--arcum42
7479221 I know it's not a healthy reaction but the way the rest of the Misfits treated Stormer made me want to put my my fist through the T.V. screen. The way she was abused by her bandmate was too much like the way Hydia and Reeka abused Draggle in MLP G1. Both girls deserved better than that.
The Holograms weren't always so good to Kimber either.
7479277
Yeah, it's a shame how Stormer got treated, which is another reason I'd love to have seen her and Kimber stay together. Stormer's obviously the creative heart of the band, too...
As far as G1 goes, my knowledge is really limited to having watched through My Little Pony: The Movie, but I did love Draggle in that. I'll readily admit I love watching musical numbers in shows, too, so a good song or two goes a long way towards my liking something.
[youtube=B2XG7Zcrupg]
I meant to start watching the actual series at some point, but never really got to it. I'm pretty sure I have "the End of Flutter Valley" sitting around somewhere...
--arcum42
7479287 Yeah I know. Don't quote me on this but I think that Stormer eventually left the Misfits and that contributed to their downfall as a band. I'm not sure though because I'm reaching back 30 or more years on that and can easily have it wrong.
If you watch the End of Flutter Valley as well as My Little Pony the movie you see just how bad Draggle got it from her mother and sister. beyond those two points though she was never featured in the show again.
7479313
Good for her if she did, then. I like seeing characters get redeemed and make something more of themselves. (If I didn't, I probably wouldn't be writing Cubic Zirconia!)
Pity on that. One of the reasons I was planning on watching it was because I liked Draggle. I've been watching a lot of old cartoons lately, too, so it'd fit into the type of things I'm watching, too. (I've been watching "Scooby Doo, Where Are You? for some reason today, in fact.)
I mainly picked up watching G1 because I wanted to have more of a feel for the history of G4, honestly. I've been meaning to watch Rescue at Midnight Castle...
--arcum42