To throw light on a Diamond

Chapters

Wood versus Diamond
Failing badly
Succeeding like crazy
The hidden Diamond

Wood versus Diamond

Author's Note

"If you throw light on a diamond, you may obtain a rainbow."

Wood versus Diamond

Applebloom took three steps back and watched the result of her work with a very critical look.

“Just stop already!” said Scootaloo, who was just sick of her friend’s meticulousness. “It’s just a lemonade stand. It’s perfect as it is.”

Applebloom didn’t seem to have heard it and went back to the wooden stand she had been working on for hours and finished sanding one little corner she had forgotten.

“There, perfect!” she said, satisfied and oblivious to her two friends’ sighs.

It was a very good job indeed. The little filly had become very skilled at building things. And the view of their new work tool made the cutie mark crusaders very happy, as its perfection was assuring them all the success they had been hoping for in their new project.

And as life seems to decide that no achievement should come without some sort of punch back in the face, a very familiar, yet incredibly annoying voice made itself heard from a few feet away.

“Oh no!” said Diamond Tiara laughing, or sniggering depending on the point of view, “Don’t tell me those three are planning to do what I think they are planning to do.”

The rhetorical question was aimed at Silver Spoon, at her side, who nodded and giggled, while adding:

“I fear they are. They really are.”

Applebloom as well as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were trying to find out what they could have done in any previous life for karma to obsess so much into making their lives miserable, but just couldn’t imagine anything horrible enough. At loss of a better thing to do, they decided to defend themselves, once again, knowing in advance there was no use in trying to fight the stupidity of the two bullies.

“Just go away already!” said Sweetie Belle. “You can keep your stupid remarks to yourself.”

“I wouldn’t use the word stupid so lightly if I were you.” responded Diamond Tiara with her superior and obnoxious look. “After all, you’re the one who is about to sell some pathetic lemonade for a few pathetic bits in that pathetic stand of yours. But I guess for little ponies like you, this is something to be proud of.”

Silver Spoon giggled again and added, in redundancy:

“Yeah, it’s really pathetic!”

Diamond Tiara ignored her commentary and kept on talking, circling around the cutie mark crusaders and their newly built lemonade stand, not even looking at them as she did so.

“I shouldn’t criticize you I imagine. No, I’m not being fair with you here. I should have realized way sooner. On the contrary, I should probably congratulate you!”

And she had said those words with such a genuine tone that it sparked a little tiny doubt in the three fillies' mind who, for just a second, believed all their prayers may have been answered.

“Thank you?” tried to reply Applebloom, not certain if she was saying the words she should be saying.

“No, I really want to congratulate you.” Diamond Tiara said with her most genuine tone ever. “Congratulation!” she almost yelled. “Savor the moment, and remember it for all your life. This is the moment you lost all hope to achieve anything whatsoever in your life. The very moment you decided to accept your low-life nature abided to the law of nature that wants you to be nothing more than a perpetual source of amusement for true ponies like me.”

“Shut up!” ordered Scootaloo, who wasn’t ready to accept such words thrown at her. “You better shut up or else…”

“Or else what?” asked Diamond Tiara with a burst of laugh. “Are you going to attack me with those wings of yours? Oh no! I’ll have to keep watching the sky from now on or you may even, maybe, I don’t know… jump on me?”

“Why are you so mean?” asked Sweetie Belle, as a last effort of diplomacy before the inevitable fight she was more than ready to have at that point. “All we did was build a lemonade stand. We did nothing against you!”

“You hear that?” Diamond Tiara asked Silver Spoon, once again in a rhetorical way, and then turned back to the three fillies and suddenly replied with an unusual anger: “Don’t you realize that by building that pale excuse for a stand you insulted, no, not just insulted, you spitted on any trace of intelligence any normal pony may have? But do go on, sure, be my guest. I can’t wait to see you beg on the side of the street for ponies to have pity of you and offer you the little amount of money your tiny brains will consider as a fortune, which will probably be the biggest fortune you’ll earn in your whole life anyway!”

And carried away by her anger, Diamond Tiara began to leave, then stopped, turned back and added, with a smirk:

“You didn’t even write lemonade with an “i”, that’s just how incredibly incompetent and insultingly dumb you are.”

The three fillies stayed silent at that last statement. Not because of its very relevant nature, but because they were trying to find out what it meant. And they could even see in Silver Spoon’s eyes that they weren’t the only one who were kind of lost there.

“You do know lemonade it’s spelled with an “e”, right?” asked Applebloom, suddenly founding a great pleasure to be in the position to snigger as she was exposing Diamond Tiara’s error.

Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle joined up in an explosion of laughter, as they could almost feel Diamond Tiara’s humiliation in a tangible form surrounding them and enveloping them in its sweet, sweet embrace.

The mocked filly, pretending to haven’t noticed her error, just said:

“I give up, there is truly no hope of redemption with three useless little miserable ponies like you.”

And then, went away, followed by Silver Spoon who was still trying to figure out how the word “lemonade” was really spelled, as she couldn’t conceive that her friend could have made such a blatant mistake.

Finally alone again, the cutie mark crusaders gradually, and very slowly, achieved to stop laughing.

“She just made my day! I think I’ll never let her forget it.” Sweetie Belle said.

“I sure as hell won’t let her forget either. It’s only fair after everything she made us go through.” agreed Scootaloo.

“Building a lemonade stand wasn’t a bad idea, right?” asked Applebloom.

“What?” asked, in return, both her friends.

“I was just wondering… you know… I don’t want ponies to give me money because they pity me…” explained Applebloom.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other with a very concerned look. And in their silent communication, they both told each other: “Yes, even when she shows how truly stupid she is, Diamond Tiara can still hurt ponies”.

“Don’t tell me you still listen to a word that snake tongue says?” Sweetie Belle told Applebloom. “The lemonade stand is a great idea. We will make a lot of money in very little time and we will be able to offer great gifts to our big sisters for Sisters’ day.”

“And you’ll see.” added Scootaloo, “We will make the best lemonade ever tasted by pony tongue in the whole of history. It will be so great the whole barrel won’t last even one hour. You’ll see.”

It was a slight exaggeration, but it came straight from the heart and reassured Applebloom that the money they would earn would come as a reward for all the efforts they would have put into that little project of theirs.

They all agreed it was a great idea once again and took the rest of the evening to prepare the lemonade, in the knowledge that the next day, once school would be finished, was going to be a very successful one.

Failing badly

The morning came with a brand new sun, and with it another few hours spent in school. Way too long hours for the trio of friends who wanted to finally go out and sell the lemonade they had been doing, and re-doing, and doing once again after they had failed a few times, until they had obtained the perfect beverage they were looking for.
So they waited, and waited, until there were only about thirty minutes left on the clock they were all staring at since the beginning of class. Then, Cheerilee spoke something about giving back the marks of the last math exam. They had forgotten about it, so wrapped up as they had been in their plan for the near future, but they quickly recovered and waited to receive their copy and see how well they had performed.
First Scootaloo got a C, which satisfied her because she hadn’t studied much for that exam and thought it was a show of her talent to have received a pretty good grade for so little effort. Then Sweetie Belle got a B, which she was only upset about, because Applebloom, on her side, got an A and made the two other understand it in a very loud celebration. The three fillies, relieved to have passed the exam, eventually began to laugh and joke about it and would have soon forgotten about the whole thing if Cheerilee hadn’t stopped before Diamond Tiara, sighed and given her her test with only one comment:

“Diamond Tiara, we need to talk about this.”

The filly didn’t respond to the teacher and almost ignored her test, pushing the paper back with her hoof in disdain.
Curious to what might need a talk with Cheerilee, Applebloom, who was near enough, looked above Diamond Tiara’s shoulder and saw the mark. A grin appeared on her face: their arch nemesis had gotten a very big and red F, and, which was even better, zero points at all from the whole test.

She immediately got scolded by Cheerilee as she was bursting out laughing, but honestly couldn’t prevent herself to, as couldn’t her two friends and a part of the class when they understood what was going on. All those who Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had been picking on were having their sweet revenge right there and had the intention to profit from every second they could.
It took a moment for Cheerilee to bring back the calm and she made it clear she wouldn’t tolerate any more bad behavior from any foal or filly. Understanding they had crossed the line, they all stopped and repented, just a little as they still felt Diamond Tiara had gotten what she deserved.
The bell rang eventually, freeing all the fillies and foals present, as well as a worried Cheerilee who reminded Diamond Tiara she should stay for a very serious talk.

Do I have to spell what a great day it was for the cutie mark crusaders? At that very moment, they were opening their lemonade stand, had a fresh memory of Diamond Tiara’s last day’s screw up, had just gotten another sweet laugh to compensate years of abuse and couldn’t but see the future with a very optimistic mind. Not only that, but once their stand got opened, they sold five glass of lemonade in less than thirty minutes.
In other words, everything was going in the best possible way, until, just like a never ending curse, the unbearable condescending tone of Diamond Tiara’s voice got heard:

“Why am I even surprised?” she told the three friends. “I shouldn’t even waste my saliva on you, there is no redemption when you’ve hit rock bottom. You don’t even get to grasp the roots in your fall. I really would like to know: how does it feel to be a bunch of low life losers?”

“Yeah!” immediately replied Scootaloo with a smile, “Tell us how it feels to be a loser.” she said, returning the question. “We are not the one with failure written over our math test.”

“No, that would require for you to have some sort of intellect.” responded Diamond Tiara. “But you are dumb enough to persist in that stupid childish lemonade stand of yours.”

“It’s not stupid!” said Applebloom.

“We are children!” said Sweetie Belle at the exact same time.

They looked at each other, having some difficulty to understand the meaning of their different answers. But Diamond Tiara didn’t let them enough time to think about it. She sighed, came near the stand, looked around and saw the barrel of lemonade as well as the price per glass the three fillies were selling it. She seemed to stare into nowhere for a few seconds and then asked:

“How much for the whole barrel? I offer you forty bits.”

“What?” shouted the three fillies in one harmonious but very surprised entity.

They tried to understand what Diamond Tiara’s plan could be there, but it was just too opaque. So they considered her proposal and it was kind of tempting. Given Diamond Tiara was really going to pay, they could earn the product of a day of work in a few seconds, which was great. And forty bits were way enough for the gifts they wanted to offer their big sisters. Still, it was Diamond Tiara, so they felt like negotiating.

“We want sixty bits!” said Sweetie Belle.

Their nemesis offered forty five, and slowly they all agreed to sell the barrel for fifty bits. Then, to the three fillies’ surprise, Diamond Tiara put the money down on the table.

“So the barrel is mine now, right?” she asked, to make sure the transaction was done.

“I guess so…” replied Applebloom, not sure why the bully was suddenly giving them money.

But her face turned pale when she saw Diamond Tiara come to the barrel and knock it over, pouring its content on the ground.

“Hey! We spent hours preparing that lemonade!” complained Scootaloo, regretting to have sold it as she was realizing she had no right to intervene anymore.

“Yes, and you sold it to me for half its trading value, so you also lost about fifty bits today.” replied Diamond Tiara. “So I can ask you again. How does it feel to be complete losers?”

They didn’t answer. Of course they didn’t care much about how much money they could have earned, as they had earned enough in they own eyes, but they didn’t care about money at all as they were enraging over all their efforts stupidly and unfairly thrown on the ground like that. It felt insulting. It was also hurting a lot.

But as there wasn’t much they could do there, the three fillies just kept watching the lemonade flowing out of the barrel. Suddenly, an unexpected question came from the one guilty for their pain:

“Tell me. Would you like to crawl out of those miserable pathetic childish plans of yours and work on a real project with real perspectives and maybe make a difference for a change?”

They weren’t sure to have heard the words very well, as it wasn’t making much sense to them, but Diamond Tiara repeated herself.

“What do you mean?” asked Sweetie Belle. “You want us to work with you on something?”

“Are you joking?” replied Diamond Tiara. “What pony in its right mind would want to work with you. No: I want you to work for me.”

“Forget it!” told her Applebloom. “There is no way I’m working for someone as dumb and mean like you.”

“Then keep on being pathetic, see if I care.” angrily replied Diamond Tiara. “I offer to make you benefit from my genius and I only offer it once. You’ve got until tomorrow to change your mind. If you do, come to my house at noon and we will discuss real business.”

She looked at each crusader with a grin and added:

“But I guess you prefer to keep on selling some lame lemonade. You could even paint a cutie mark on those blank flanks of yours and be lemonade sellers for the rest of your petty lives. It’s probably the best you could hope to achieve on your own.”

And saying those last words, she hit the empty barrel with her hoof and went away laughing for a reason she was probably the only one to understand, leaving three angry and upset fillies behind her.

“Who does she take herself for?” asked Applebloom, who was regretting not to have straight up punched the little brat when she had a chance. “Does she really believe we would lower ourselves to work for her? No way!”

“Yeah!” confirmed Scootaloo. “We are way better than she is. How can she even hope we would waste our time helping her?”

A silence ensued, as they were waiting for Sweetie Belle to make a third clear confirmation that there was no way they would comply with Diamond Tiara’s offer. But it didn’t come. Both Scootaloo and Applebloom looked at their friend, who had come near the barrel, and stared as if they were saying: “come on, it’s your turn.” But Sweetie Belle still stayed silent.

“Don’t tell me you’re even considering it!” suddenly said, horrified at the thought, Scootaloo. “We are not helping her.”

Sweetie Belle still didn’t answer and just kept on looking at the empty barrel.

“Please Sweet’…” said Applebloom, “You know Diamond Tiara. She is all of the worst sins of ponykind put in one filly. Don’t you remember Gabby Gums? Let’s just forget about it all and go buy those gifts for our big sisters.”

But once again Sweetie Belle just kept on looking at the empty barrel.

And so her two friends understood that they were embarking into an adventure they were almost certain they wouldn’t like, not one bit.

Succeeding like crazy

Diamond Tiara looked at the clock that was showing five past noon, and looked once again outside by the door, but saw nopony.

“You know they won’t come.” said Silver Spoon. “I don’t even understand why you would want to use those three blank flanks. There would screw up any plan you make anyway.”

The doorbell interrupted them and soon Matt, their domestic, came to announce three fillies wanted to see her, having supposedly got some appointment that would have been schedule.
A few minutes later, the cutie mark crusaders were introduced in the huge living room, torn apart between their will to not feel impressed, and the fact they were really impressed by Filthy Rich mansion.

“So you came in the end. I may have underestimated you. Maybe you do have some sparkle of intelligence left somewhere.” greeted them Diamond Tiara.

“That’s it, I’m out of here.” said Scootaloo, already turning back.

“You promised you would stay for five minutes.” said Applebloom, glancing at Sweetie Belle who was the real reason they were here, as she had said she would go alone if necessary. They had followed her as they thought it would be very unwise to let anypony alone with some satanic entity like Diamond Tiara.

“You should listen to your friend.” said the latter. “How are you going to achieve anything if you flee as soon as you’re confronted with some truth you happen to dislike?”

Scootaloo hesitated, remembered she was there for Sweetie Belle and finally turned back once again, sat and clenched her teeth, waiting for the moment she could go away.

“You said you had a project you wanted to involve us into. What is it?” asked Sweetie, cutting down the chase.

Diamond Tiara smiled and clapped her two front hooves together, making a part of the wall lift up and reveal a chart, or a poster with a bottle in the middle.

“Water. That’s my project. You are going to sell water.” she told them.

The three fillies looked at each other and felt the same shared need to giggle.

“Water, seriously?” laughingly asked Applebloom, “This has to be the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Okay, she made us laugh. Now let’s go.” summed up Scootaloo.

But Diamond Tiara wasn’t finished:

“In a few weeks, you’ll have earned more than you could have in a few years with those little pitiful schemes of yours. And if everything goes as planned, you may become very famous.”

“All that with water?” sarcastically asked Applebloom. “I’m sure it works that way in that little fantasy of yours, but this is the real world. You do know that there is water all over Equestria, right?”

But the argument didn’t even scratch Diamond Tiara’s determination. She went behind her desk and just said:

“I already created the prototype of the product with a designer team. But I’ve decided to give you the honor being the directors of the company. In name only, as I’ll call all the shots. We don’t want to go bankrupt, now, do we?”

The three fillies were about to reply, but she interrupted them:

“You.” she said, pointing at Scootaloo with her hoof. “You’ll take the sport version of the product and test it with that Rainbow Dash friend of yours and her own competitive friends, saying the idea is yours. You’ll tell them that this water is purer than normal water and helps improve their performance and their overall health.” she then threw some papers at Scootaloo’s hooves and added: “Here are the details of how you are to present the product to them. Take notes about their reactions and then report back here.”

Scootaloo was about to ask a series of questions, but Diamond Tiara didn’t care the least bit and let Silver Spoon explain the details while taking the pegasus away.

“You.” then said Diamond Tiara, pointing at Sweetie Belle with her hoof. “You’ll take the premium version of the product and test it with your big sister and all of her upper society friends, saying the idea is yours. You’ll tell them that the water is clean from all the mud normal water usually go through, and that it comes from the peak of the Canterlot mountain. Point out that true ladies and gentlecolts shouldn’t drink water that came from some plebeian well, but only the highest quality of water provided by true professional. Take notes about their reactions and then report back here.”

Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure she would remember everything, and sort of wondered if it was okay to lie to her big sister about who the idea was coming from, but she received the pack of papers containing the details as Scootaloo had before and got taken away by Silver Spoon who began explaining the details.

Finally, Diamond Tiara turned to Applebloom who asked:

“And what should I be doing. Are you going to try to sell my family some water? Because you might be heading for a disappointment there.”

The idea made Applebloom smile, as she was hoping Diamond Tiara would be disappointed in the end, but the answer didn’t please her much:

“Of course I’m not trying to sell anything to your family. Why would I, it’s not like they could purchase anything anyway.” Diamond Tiara replied, ignoring Applebloom’s angry look, “I’ve got a much more important task for you. I want you to go to our newly crown princess Twilight Sparkle and convince her to take a few bottles of water as a gift from you for her next trip to Canterlot. You’ll ask her to share it with the other princesses, saying you’ve worked very hard to make them happy and that you hope it will please them. Be persuasive, don’t fail your friends and more importantly don’t fail me.”

“That’s it?” asked Applebloom, surprised. “All I’ve got to do is offer a few bottle of waters to Twilight?”

“Yes.” replied Diamond Tiara, with a half smile. “But make sure you offer a lot of bottles, make sure you say they come from you, make sure she knows you made it with all your heart and put a lot of effort into it and finally make sure you offer them just before she departs for Canterlot, which is in about six hours from now.”

“But won’t I be lying?” asked Applebloom. “I didn’t work on those bottles of yours and I don’t really care about them at all, and Applejack says it’s wrong to lie to people and…”

She got interrupted by Diamond Tiara who wasn’t in the mood to hear every little doubts Applebloom may have had.

“Just do as I say, and make it so our princess believes you.” she ordered. “If you really feel bad, you can always tell her the truth when she comes back from her trip, right? Just make a temporary lie. It’s not even really a lie if you plan to say the truth in the end. Do that and your family will be so proud of you they won’t even care if you were to lie at every word you speak.”

She then gave Applebloom the papers with the details and let Silver Spoon take her away to explain all the remaining details. Then, finally alone, she smiled to hide the fact she was relieved to have been able to distract those three fillies from their doubts about winning money by selling water.
She was relieved because she knew they wouldn’t have understood, even if she had explained it for a whole day. And she hadn’t got a day anyway. But, as she was thinking, with a little bit of luck and her big genius, everything would go very smoothly and be a big success.
Alone behind her desk, Diamond Tiara burst out laughing with such an evil tone that some pegasus, maybe even paid by her, felt obligated to trigger some lightning to provide a good background.

The next day, the three fillies came, saw Matt at the door who took them to Diamond Tiara and they made their report.

“Rainbow Dash…” difficultly began Scootaloo, as the words were kind of hurting her as she was saying them, “Rainbow Dash loved it. She asked me if we were going to make more of it and if she could preorder some.” the pegasus then blushed and added: “She said I was great for having had such a good idea and that she was proud of me.”

“Same result by my big sister and her friends.” said Sweetie Belle, who had some hard time believing it. “She told me I had better find more of that water soon, because she now refuses to drink the water we used to drink all the time.” she also added, just to notice it out loud: “It’s crazy.”

Satisfied with those reports, Diamond Tiara turned to Applebloom, who didn’t seem very happy, as she had had to lie and felt she had been cheated.

“Twilight accepted the bottles of water and even thanked me.” Applebloom explained with shame. “She just told me the form of the bottle wasn’t optimal to stock a big amount of water, whatever she meant by that, and said she would be sure to offer some to the other princesses to show what little fillies from Ponyville are able to achieve.”

“Perfect.” said Diamond Tiara, clearly satisfied with those reports, as everything was going following her plan. “My own tests with some of dad’s friends show similar results. To think nopony thought of putting water into bottles!”

“Nopony thought of it because it’s stupid!” replied Scootaloo. “Why would anypony want to have a bottle of water when they are well, and rivers, and even faucets to get free water from?”

“The grown up don’t seem to think it’s stupid.” replied Diamond Tiara, shutting up all opposition with that simple observation.

“So what now?” asked Applebloom. “More lies?”

“Now we sell our product. I’ll use my dad’s network to make sure our bottles of water are sold all over Equestria.” said Diamond Tiara.

“And us?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Are we selling those bottles too?”

Diamond Tiara sighed.

“Of course no!” she almost yelled. “Have you still not learned anything at all? Let the lesser ponies sell the water. You are going to promote it. Or more precisely, your big sisters are going to promote it. I’ll pay you a trip all over Equestria and I’ll give you a list of ponies to contact. You’ll explain them how you came with the idea, your vision of the product and how you always dreamed of bringing quality water to everypony. Be sure to smile and to be convincing. And don’t forget to offer some bottles of water to those ponies.”

The three fillies hesitated, but they couldn’t see anything wrong with going on a paid journey all over Equestria with their big sisters, and so they agreed. They received, once again, detailed instructions about what they had to say to whom, but this time Diamond Tiara left the room with a satisfied smile leaving Silver Spoon who began explaining the details.

But as the latter was caught in trying to explain why Scootaloo couldn’t chose where they would go during the trip, as everything had already been planned, Sweetie Belle saw a certain piece of paper on Diamond Tiara’s desk that caught up her attention.
She made sure she wasn’t seen and took it to look at it. It was the math test Diamond Tiara had failed so badly and that had leaded her to have to talk with Cheerilee. Sweetie Belle began to snigger, when she suddenly realized something was odd with the test. The answers were false, for sure, but there were false in a very weird way. For example, when asked how much four minus three was, Diamond Tiara had answered zero. And then, when asked how much six minus two was, Diamond Tiara had answered three. Or when asked how much twelve minus three was, Diamond Tiara had answered eight. Sweetie Belle’s brain made the necessary connections and the little filly suddenly realized something that she couldn’t understand just yet, but that she felt was going against everything she had believed since the very beginning. Something about Diamond Tiara. Something important.

But she got no time to think about it as Silver Spoon saw she wasn’t listening and took her to explain, once again, how the journey was going to go, and before they all knew it, the three fillies, plus Rainbow Dash and Rarity, were in a train, without much time to realize what was going on, riding to a new town, as the newspaper were announcing some new innovating product in store created by three little geniuses…

The hidden Diamond

A big crowd was impatiently waiting as the train was returning from its long journey with the new heroes of Ponyville within. The brass band had gathered for the occasion, a red carpet had been installed and the mayor had prepared a forty-six lines long speech, which was still about forty more than usual. Altogether, every pony there was very excited to welcome back the successful trio who had changed, at least that was what ponies were saying, the way of life in Equestria.

The excitement reached its paroxysm when the train finally stopped in a big cloud of smoke and the door opened.

But instead of the three expected fillies, Rainbow Dash came out of the opening and immediately kissed the ground, letting herself cry a little out of relief.

“Thank Celestia and everything sacred!” she faithfully shouted, “I can’t believe it’s finally over.”

“We have arrived? It’s over?!?” shouted a previous voice from within the train.

And just as those words had been heard, a white tornado, composed mostly of a very hurried and potentially traumatized Rarity, came out of the opening and rushed through the crowd to go hug some trees, eat some of that beloved mud of good old Ponyville and eventually finish in a familiar bed where all the pain of the long journey could be expressed and thrown away.

And finally, after those two had gotten the freedom they had wished for so much since the simple journey to visit Equestria had turned into a marketing nightmare, the three cutie mark crusaders came out of the door, trying to cover their eyes as they immediately got covered by the flashes of the photographers.

“Welcome home!” happily shouted the mayor, ignoring the distraught and exhausted faces of the little fillies, just before the brass band began to play.

“Oh no, not once more!” complained Applebloom, with good reason as they had gotten pretty much no break since the journey had begun. “Scootaloo, you do it.”

“No way!” replied the little pegasus. “If I do it once more, I think I’ll throw up. Just ask Sweetie Belle.”

But Sweetie Belle was already letting her dinner go to waste on the railways, too upset and too tired to even notice that this conversation was happening between her two friends.

“In the name of all the inhabitants of Ponyville…” began to tell them the mayor, having come nearer, “… let me please welcome you back from your glorious journey!”

“Wait, what? Ponyville?” said Scootaloo, slowly realizing where she and her friends were. “Guys, we made it, we are back in Ponyville!” she suddenly shouted with more joy than she had ever felt in her all entire life.
And she jumped on the mayor to hug her with all her might, as if she were to never let go anymore, and so did the two other fillies as they were just too happy to think about their behavior.
The photographers took the opportunity and they got a very good cover for the next edition of their respective newspapers with three fillies seemingly happy about their triumphal journey and probably very touched by the warm welcome of the crowd.

“Ah, here you are!” said Diamond Tiara, coming out of the crowd and putting an end to the hug, which gave an opportunity for the mayor to breath. “I’ll admit that you didn’t do too bad of a job out there. Keep it up and you could maybe compare to the shadow of my own talent.”

The three fillies thought of just blindly attacking the brat for all they had endured, but sadly hesitated as looking at such a familiar, even if hated, face was giving them some feeling of relief too.

“I told you I would make you enter the real world. You’re stars now, enjoy it while it lasts.” told them Diamond Tiara, without the ability to really hide a point of jealousy, “For the time being, I just need you to sign this paper and take your part of the money.”

She stretched a paper out, as well as a pen that the three fillies looked at somewhat suspiciously, but not for long as Diamond Tiara also threw three bags to them, adding:

“It’s only a part of the fifty thousand bits. I think you’ll find it a little better than the fifty bits you were so happy to earn before. All you have to do is sign the paper and it’s yours.”

The cutie mark crusaders looked at each other, then decided that they were just too tired and happy to have returned home without turning crazy to care much about whether or not they should sign a paper. So they signed and took the money, slowly accepting the fact they had more money in their hooves now than a grown-up mare could earn in many months, as well as all the possibilities that were opening themselves to spend that money.

"You did a pretty good job I guess." said Diamond Tiara in an unusual honest tone. "I may have underestimate you before. You do are losers, but you have more potential than most losers. Keep up working like that and maybe there is some hope you might do something with your lives someday."

The three fillies wanted to respond, but Diamond Tiara very rapidly disappeared to let the crowd celebrate the three little heroes as seemed fit, for those three had given Ponyville a new reputation of ingenuity and excellence from which they were all benefiting.
It took some time and convincing, but finally Applebloom was able to make the ponies, and mostly the mayor, understand that they were appreciating the welcome party a lot, and that it was all very kind and all, but that they needed some urgent rest. The mayor accepted to let them go home at the condition they would give an interview to the Daily Equestria, as she had promised an exclusivity and really wanted to keep her word there. Instinctively knowing that there would be no point in arguing much more, the cutie mark crusaders agreed and, as if the whole background was morphing itself out of nowhere, found themselves facing a very joyfully looking pony with a pen and a writing pad in his hooves, all alone in a comfortable room.

A little silence ensued, as the journalist wanted to let the three fillies breathe a little and cope with the situation. Having made a lot of interviews, he was able to feel that those three needed some space and he gave it, waiting for the right time to introduce himself.

“I’m sorry, but… who are you?” asked Sweetie Belle, who had forgotten why they were there and what they had agreed with the mayor what felt just a few seconds before.

That was the right time he had been waiting for.

“My name is Blue Forsyth.” he presented himself, ignoring the fact his true name was actually blue Forsythia. “I make articles for the Daily Equestria. And, if it’s okay with you, I would like to write an article on you three.”

Scootaloo looked at her two friends, who were as uncertain as she was, and then asked:

“Why would you want to write an article on us?”

Blue gently laughed. He could feel the honesty of those three fillies and the sheer goodness that was in their very nature. And in a way, he was pleasantly surprised.

“I want to write it because ponies all over Equestria want to know about you, who you are and how you came to create that big company of yours. You could for example begin by explaining how you came up with the genius idea of putting water into bottles.”

“It’s not a genius idea!” sharply replied Scootaloo, who was fed up with the concept of water bottles. “I’m sorry.” she said to her two friends. “I just can’t stand it anymore.”

“Yeah, I kind of feel the same way Scoot’.” said Applebloom, as Blue was staying as silent as he could. “I mean, the more I think about it, the stupider it gets.”

Sweetie Belle had her own idea on the subject, but saw no point in arguing with her friends. After all, there wasn’t any wrong in any of both positions. Putting water into bottles to sell it was objectively stupid, but if ponies wanted to buy it, then it was making a lot of sense. Two truths, but sadly way too far apart to get a consensus out of them.

As Blue was still staying silent, as he had learned a good interviewer was one who lets his interlocutors speak, Applebloom added:

“You know what? I think it’s time we say the truth for once.”

Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo hesitated, but in their heart they agreed.
Not only were they from those ponies whose nature leads to honesty, but Scootaloo felt like she didn’t want to hold responsibility for the whole water bottle thing and Sweetie Belle felt like Diamond Tiara deserved to be the one getting praised, whatever the consequences. And altogether, it was just what felt the most right in their young minds.

Seeing that the other two were agreeing with her, Applebloom turned back to Blue Forsyth and told him:

“We lied. We didn’t imagine the water in bottle, it’s not our idea at all. We actually still don’t understand why ponies are buying it and who produces it.”

She stopped there and looked for Blue’s reaction, but the journalist just gave a gentle smile as all response, trying to show them they shouldn’t fear to speak freely as he was meaning no harm at all and wasn’t judging them.

“Diamond Tiara is the one who came up with the whole plan.” Sweetie Belle said.

“You mean Filthy Rich’s daughter?” asked Blue, who needed the precision to know who they were talking about.

“Yes.” confirmed Applebloom. “She destroyed our lemonade stand and then told us we should work with her and then stuff happened and…I’m not even sure what happened then.” she realized, as the memories were flowing back into her head in a whole gigantic mess.

“We wanted to give her way a chance.” explained Sweetie Belle, forgetting that she was the only one who wanted to try Diamond Tiara’s way of making business. “But we never thought it would become so big all of a sudden. The whole thing had been crazy!”

Another silence ensued, as all three fillies and the journalist were digesting respectively the memories of those last weeks and the new informations.

“So Diamond Tiara is the genius’s mind behind the water bottles?” asked Blue, paraphrasing to make sure he had understood it the right way.

He just didn’t expect Scootaloo’s answer, as the filly suddenly shouted:

“Diamond Tiara isn’t a genius! She is nothing but a big dumb mean poopyhead!”

“A poopyhead? Seriously?” asked Applebloom, as the insult seemed just so weird and coming out of nowhere that she had to ask.

“Give me a break.” replied Scootaloo. “I’m tired.” she defended herself, almost forgetting about the presence of the journalist.

But Blue, trying to follow as best as he was able to, asked:

“What do you mean? Why would she have let you take all the credit if you three are in such bad terms with her?”

“I don’t know!” replied Scootaloo, too confused and upset to think about it. “It’s just another one of her stupid plans to anger us, and it worked once again. We should have never listened to her.”

Applebloom was sharing the opinion of the little pegasus, but Sweetie Belle, finally putting all the pieces together, responded in their place:

“I think she just saw us as an opportunity she could use.” she said, as much for her two friends as for herself or Blue. But she then turned to the latter and told him the following: “You know… I first thought Diamond Tiara was just very dumb for behaving as she always was, and being mean to us all the time. But I learned something, I think… Life can seem very unfair. Sometimes you put a whole lot of effort into something, and your effort finish wasted on the ground, just thrown away like it never mattered to begin with. And sometimes, you might feel like you deserve something that you’re not getting. And maybe the feeling you aren’t receiving what you deserve can make you become very cold, and unpleasant, and overall make you look like a bad person. But it doesn’t mean that you’re dumb, or even that you’re bad. It just means that you feel life is unfair to you and you don’t know how else to react to it…And sometimes, you’re way smarter than people give you credit for.”

Blue thought the speech was actually very good, but couldn’t understand it out of context, so he wasn’t certain what to make out of it. As for Applebloom and Scootaloo, they were still trying to figure out who Sweetie Belle had been talking about and if they should feel insulted or not. This was all very confusing for them.

But then, Blue realized something:

“So in the end, it’s because it was Diamond Tiara’s idea all along that you decided to sell the company to her father?”

“We did what now?” asked Scootaloo.

“You sold the company to mister Rich.” detailed Blue. “We all heard the news, even if the amount of the transaction was kept secret. But I know it is at least a few millions bits.”

“A few millions bits?” said out loud Scootaloo and Applebloom, realizing what last trick Diamond Tiara had played on them. And in their imagination, they could hear her evil unpleasant laugh resonate through the wall of her father’s mansion all the way to the room they were in at that very moment. “I can’t believe it! But she won’t get away with it this time.” said Applebloom with assurance, before rushing out of the room, quickly followed by Scootaloo, in order to go get their revenge, or at least just go tell Diamond Tiara a piece of their minds.

An awkward silence came in place between Sweetie Belle and Blue Forsyth, before the latter eventually asked:

“Aren’t you going with them?”

He had understood that the three fillies had been nothing but pawns in another one hoof and would have understood if they all had felt very upset and had sought some justice. But to his surprise, Sweetie Belle replied:

“No, I’ll just wait until they come back.”

“Don’t you feel bad?” asked Blue.

“I guess I do feel a little bad.” answered Sweetie Belle. “But I’m mostly glad it’s all over. You know, you can’t always win and sometimes it’s just better to keep on moving on to some new stuff.”

“So…” began Blue. “What are you going to do now?”

Sweetie Belle thought about the question, as she hadn’t beforehand, and eventually answered:

“I’m not sure. I’ve got my whole life to do whatever I want to do. For the time being, I’ve got some gift to buy for my big sister and then I think I’ll just convince the others to finish an old project of ours.”

“What project?” Blue asked, very curious.

They both ignored what seemed like a distant sound, the kind that a cannonball shot at a mansion would make, with a side of taunting from a very proud and bragging filly, and Sweetie Belle simply replied with her own innocent smile:

“We used to sell lemonade and we were happy doing it.”

THE END

Author's Note

Finally finished it. And now I've got no time left to sleep...
Well, all thanks to the "Better than you" song from Mandopony.

"J’ai écrit une nouvelle histoire marquée par une profonde et totale inutilité, qui ne sera lue et appréciée que par quelques curieux ou âmes trop bienveillantes à mon égard. Je pourrais tout aussi bien aller vendre de la limonade. Et avoir du plaisir à le faire..."