Author's Note

This story is a "Quest". As such, it is mostly focused on Velvet Covers' point of view. Other things, such as the "short quotes" that summarize Velvet's decision (which was voted by players) are added here and there for ease of understanding.

However, like any other story, interludes are also warranted, every now and then.

Usually, a regular chapter is simply named "Turn X results". But particularly important chapters might have particularly important names. And those can be from Velvet's perspective, or somepony else's.

This is one such interlude. Many more await in the future. And I hope you have been enjoying this story so far!

Turn 4 - Results, part 3 extra

You are Spoiled Milk, and you have just arrived home after a rather dull afternoon of shopping.

Spoiled Rich, thank you very much. You abandoned the "Milk" part of your maiden name ever since you married.

"Good afternoon, mistress. I trust you had a pleasant day?" you pass by your butler as you enter your manor, to whom you respond by throwing your shopping bags at without breaking stride, which he swiftly catches as usual.

"Is dinner ready yet? There wasn't a single adequate place open today so I haven't eaten in more than a while," you ask, making your way to the living room while the butler tries to balance all your shopping bags to take upstairs.

"Dinner will be served soon, mistress," he answers in his usual droning voice, "shall I summon the young lady as well?"

"Yes, whatever. Call Diamond and Rich, I'll be waiting on my couch."

You hear the butler answer something, which you pointedly don't care about, and make your way towards the comforts of your living room.

A pleased smile finally appears in your face as you start to ease down, your body feeling slightly more relaxed. Living in Ponyville can be so difficult sometimes, with all the unpaved dirt roads, the poor shops and the uneducated lowlifes that seem to be everywhere a pony looks at. As much as you try to shop the unease away sometimes it just doesn't work, simply because there's nothing interesting to buy.

You let out a long sigh, breathing back in the perfumed air of your manor. You should make another trip to Canterlot, you think, or Manehattan, or Fillydelphia, or anywhere that's not here. Things are so much simpler in the better, more developed cities.

You arrive at your living room, already planning your coming weekend, when you suddenly freeze as you feel something under your hoof.

Your mouth goes wide open as you recognize the offending sensation that you just stepped on, whatever calm you were about to achieve instantly evaporating from inside you.

"Randolph!" you call your butler, "RANDOLPH, come here right this INSTANT!"

You do your best to keep your temper level, but this simply will not do!

"Yes, mistress?" the butler finally shows his face from the top of the stairs. How can the incompetent stallion be so calm during this whole thing?!

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Beg your pardon mistress, what exactly do you ref-?"

"THIS!"

You take your hoof from the carpeted floor, revealing the smidge of dirt that is on the carpet.

Dirt! In your mansion! Why do you even have servants if your own mansion is as dirty as the damned streets of the hillbilly town outside?!

"Pardon mistress," the butler answers with his usual drone after inspecting the carpet, "madam Soft Sweeps paid us a visit earlier, and she had her hoofs dirty due to what I believe was a strong landing at a sharp angle. I must have missed this spot, and will clean it right away."

"Visit? Someone who leaves dirt in my house can barely be called a visitor. Rich! Filthy Rich! Get your hoofs down here, we must discuss something immediately!" you call out for your husband, ignoring the butler as he scurries away to do the job he should have done long ago.

"Oh, you're back already. Welcome home dear," your husband comes down the stairs soon after.

"Don't you 'welcome home' me, Mr. Rich. What's this about some," you wave a hoof around, trying to remember the obviously lowborn name, "Whatever Sweeps visiting our mansion? And what the hay kind of name is that, a maid's name?"

"Oh, yes, right. She came with the mother of our daughter's friend. You know, Silky, the little pegasus who has been visiting us and-"

You facehoof in anger, letting out a groan that your husband knows very well not to talk over.

"I have already told you, Rich…" you speak slowly, still trying to reign in your temper, "that our Diamond Tiara cannot, and I mean CANNOT affiliate herself with those dirt-borne foals in her school!"

How can he miss something so obvious? How can he be teaching your daughter something so obviously wrong?!

"That is not the way a pony moves up in Equestria, and she will not learn that if you keep letting her consort with those kinds of ponies."

"Well, I…" he stutters a bit. Good, it means at least he knows he messed up, "I couldn't just chase them away dear, after all the mare she came with was here to pick up her daughter and-"

"Then you should have chased her daughter away," you turn and walk away from your husband, making clear that the conversation is over, "have the butler throw her filly out through the door like some trash or whatever. I don't care."

You take out your gold necklace and place it over the low central table, determined to try and calm yourself down at least before dinner.

"But dear, well, the mother seemed like such a pleasant mare," your husband insists, much to your chagrin, "I mean, from what we talked I might very well try and do some business in the future with Velvet Covers if she-"

You trip. Your body freezes and you fall face first into the floor.

"Dear, are you all right?!"

You feel your husband shake you a few times, and you see his worried face when he turns you around to face upwards.

"Spoiled dear, what happened?!"

"What…" you finally manage to say a few words, "what did you say the mother's name was?"

"What? Dear, you're not thinking straight. Was it the heat? Did you carry too much weight?"

"Her name Rich, what was her name?" you bring your hoofs to your husband's face, shaking him back even while he holds you.

"What does that have to do w-? Agh! Fine! It was Velvet, I think, Velvet Covers!"

You feel the same freezing sensation surge from inside of you again, but this time you master it, and you use your newfound strength to bring your husband's face very close to yours.

"Listen well Rich… our Diamond Tiara and that filly you were talking about are going to be the best of friends. Do you understand?"

He meekly nods as an answer, confusion clear in his eyes.

But you don't care. Your daughter, it seems, must have inherited something very important from you.

After all it seems that, just like you, she has the uncanny ability to find gold even in the middle of dirt.

Your daughter's blank flank and excited demeanor has gotten her close to a trio of fillies, and her innocent manners allowed her to get close to another notorious pair. But what might change once a certain external influence starts to force her hoofs into the situation?

Will your daughter's mediating plan succeed, and a lasting rivalry be put to rest? Or will the situation be aggravated, and she will be forced to pick a side as a wedge is thrown between the two groups?