Reborn in a Dating Sim: Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Reborn in a Dating Sim:

Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Chapter Nineteen

Diamond Tiara felt the coldness of the room. It wasn’t because the temperature had changed, or that someone was using a cooling spell. No, the coldness came from the Prince himself. He sat on the ornate bed that belonged to him. The same bed she had believed would be her marriage bed at one point. He refused to look at her, and she felt her heart breaking again, “My Prince, I am truly glad that you are alright.”

“You would do anything to separate us, and to make yourself happy, wouldn’t you?” he asked, his words cutting deeper than any dagger, “I mean it. You would have some lower noble, that has some modest achievements, use a lost item on us. I never knew that you would sink so low. You’ve cut me off from my love, and for what? Did you come to gloat over your victory? Are you satisfied that you’ve ripped me away from the one person that understands me?”

“My Prince, it isn’t like that,” she said, trying to explain, “She would cause you to lose everything. Everything you’ve known, everything you have grown up around, all of it would be gone. It would separate you from your family. I couldn’t let that happen to you.”

“And yet I would gladly give it all up to be with her. Please understand, we will not marry. I do not love you, and I never will. I have seen your true face, and you are hideous. You hold such resentment toward someone like Satin. You despise her so much because of her standing, and because of who she is on the inside. I am ashamed that I ever considered you moderately beautiful before.”

She shrank back from the words, “Your Highness, surely you don’t mean that,” she replied, “What I’ve done, what I did, and what Baron Copper Blum did was for your benefit. It was to save you.”

“What both of you have done is ruin me,” he replied, his eyes still looking away from her, “You’ve taken my chance at happiness and you’ve dashed it on the rocks. I can only assume that you want to do more. That seeing me lost without my love isn’t enough. Is there more? Should I prepare myself for a more horrible torture? Will you go and appeal to my mother to have our engagement reinstated? If so then I will do all that I can to escape from here.”

She looked away from him, “I see,” she said as she stood, “Then I will simply wish for your swift recovery, and happiness, from afar. Goodbye, Prince Apollo.”

With that she began to walk, and she heard the quiet words from him, “Thank you, now, if only you would have said that at the beginning it would have saved both of us so much trouble.”

She walked out and felt unsure of what would happen. The prince was truly in love with this daughter of a viscount. He actually wanted to be with her, and it was not merely some school fling. Added to that was the fact that she hadn’t even properly thanked Baron Copper Plum yet. She had left him, with a small thanks, while she ran to check on the prince. She had prioritized her own happiness before behaving in a proper and decent way. To say that she was ashamed of herself would be putting it mildly. She had acted in a rash manner. And now she wasn’t sure if she could thank Baron Copper Blum.

She knew that she needed to, but doing so now would look pathetic. She would appear to be someone that held her own interest and desires above the proper way of doing things. Not that it would be wrong, “What should I do?” she asked herself, “Should I go ahead and thank him? I could, but is he engaged with some act with his servant? That is something that doesn’t seem right.”

She knew that it was fair enough for a man to have a servant, but it was looked down upon. Mostly because it was an unspoken fact that the servants themselves were used for sexual release by the women that owned them. All too often she had walked into a room of a follower only to see her getting handled by three or four beast people at once. It was disturbing, and disgusting. The only reason that it felt that way to her was because she believed that the act should be filled with love.

If there was no love, then there was no reason to continue on it. It was using them as a means. It was degrading for the servants, and it made the act of lovemaking into something mundane. She could not openly fault the girls that engaged in it, and yet she couldn’t remind them that they were doing the same when a man had a servant of his own. Either way she went about things it appeared that there were no truly correct answers. Instead it appeared that everything seemed to be shades of gray.

Maybe that was how it was supposed to be. Maybe there wasn’t a completely correct answer, but in the end, did it really matter? She stopped and found a seat on a bench between the dorms. She didn’t feel like going into the dorm currently, and she certainly didn’t feel like going further at the moment.

“Y’all alright?” came the voice of the scholarship student, “Y’all seem purty tuckered out.”

She looked up, and gave what she hoped was a grateful smile, “I am very tired, although I fear it is mostly emotionally tired. The past few days has been an emotional rollercoaster. I fear that I might have completely ruined Baron Copper Plum’s chances of a decent future.”

Applebloom looked at her with nothing but kindness, “Ah don’t think that it’s like that t’all. See, Mr. Copper said that he figured this was going to happen. That he was being the villain for the good of the kingdom. From what he told me they needed someone that was willin’ ta help set the prince straight, or at the very least set him on the right path.”

She breathed out, “Even if that is so, I feel that I have done a huge disservice to him. Thanks to my actions he likely will not be able to attend the school anymore. There is a chance that he could be killed. Perhaps his family will be spared, but I cannot promise that is the case,” she said as she looked at Applebloom, “I have truly ruined his chances here. Unless, are you his lover?”

Applebloom shook her head, “We’re from two different worlds,” she said as she grinned at her, “He’s purty much outta mah reach. He’s a decent fella, but I’m just a commoner. Granted, Ah’ve been given a scholarship, but that doesn’t mean much. It just means that the local lord saw potential in me. Ah guess that’s right nice, but it ain’t gonna do much fer mah standin’. Ah know that Ah’m an outsider here.”

Diamond Tiara looked at her, “And outsider, perhaps, but a welcomed one,” she replied, “Honestly, you’ve been nothing if not welcoming. The fact that you were willing to stand beside me, well, it means a lot.”

She looked at her, “I don’t know what will happen, I truly don’t, but I know that you’ve been someone who is respectable. If nothing else your actions are what I would hope my own followers would behave the same. Instead I’ve seen how so many of them are quick to become withdrawn and act as if I didn’t exist. At least until Baron Copper Blum managed to beat Prince Apollo and his followers.”

Applebloom nodded, “Ah know,” she replied, “He did far better than most would’ve thought. He’s surprising, that’s fer sure.”

Diamond Tiara nodded, “Although I don’t think that I can handle everything that is to come,” she admitted as she shook her head, “There will be so much postering, and dealing with the royalty and nobility. I will have to wear a mask of calm while I’m anxious on the inside. I… I even have to deal with the fact that I now have no prospects,” she stated her shoulders slouching forward, “Without my engagement to Prince Apollo I’m practically just another member of the nobility.”

“Yer a good person,” Applebloom said, “Ah’ve seen it, and Ah know that yer gonna stay a good person.”

She gave Applebloom a small smile, “Thanks, but it doesn’t feel that way,” she stated, “It feels like I’ve used those around me to get what I wanted. I keep wondering if what Prince Apollo said was right. Did I break him and Satin apart because I despise her? I mean, I want to believe that I did it for the right reasons. That I was saving him from the trouble she would bring, but I can’t honestly say that’s the case.”

“Ah think that it was the right call,” Applebloom admitted, “Ah only talked ta her once, but she was cold. Said that she didn’t like girls like me. Told me ta get ‘way ‘fore she decided to tell everybody that Ah was more interested in trying ta get her ta do mighty nasty things. Ah left her ‘lone after that. She ain’t a nice person. Dun know why though.”

Diamond Tiara shrugged, “I couldn’t tell you,” she admitted, “But I know that she currently has Prince Apollo, and his followers, around her little pinky. It’s disgusting, and I absolutely hate it. I hate that she makes me want to hate her. I should be above that. There is no doubt in my mind that I should be above hating her, and yet I do,” she said as she whimpered, “I hate her so much that I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be worried if she were involved in an accident. I fear that I will need to keep my distance from her.”

The door to the building behind them opened, and both of them turned to see Copper Plum walking out. He seemed to have noticed them, gave them a lopsided grin, and walked toward them, “Lady Diamond Tiara, I have been asked to let you come and visit my home. Your father feels that it would be good for you to enjoy some time away from here, and since I live out in the country it would be a better place to recover.”

She nodded, “And how about you?”

He shrugged, “Your father is going to speak on my behalf to the king and queen. With any luck they’ll accept my apology, the fact that I did this for their son, and of course take my recent knighthood, barony, and about half of my wealth as payment.”

She looked at him, “You’ve given that much?”

He shrugged, “It’s a small price to pay. My parents and siblings will be fine. I wanted to make sure they would be, especially after Tarnished Tiara decided to let me know what was going on. She could have kept quiet about it, but instead she wanted to make sure that I made it out alive. That deserves kindness returned.”

“Would y’all mind if’n Ah come?” Applebloom asked, “Ah mean if’n do mind then Ah’m stuck here. Not that it’s bad thing, but bein’ stuck at the school fer break wouldn’t be no fun. ‘Sides, Ah’d like ta see where y’all live.”

He shrugged, “Honestly, I don’t mind. I know that my father won’t, and I doubt that Tarnished will say a word. Not since you helped her. The only one that might is Delicate Emerald, but if we’re lucky you won’t really have to deal much with her. At least we can hope that you won’t have to deal with her.”

He shuddered as he stood there, “Sorry, just thinking about her is a little unnerving,” he admitted before he looked at her, “So, after today we can take my airship, and we’ll head out to my home. I’d like to stop on the way and check a place that I’ve found and claimed as well.”

They nodded, and he stood, “Then it sounds like a plan.”

As the three of them headed to finish up the rest of their day inside of the administration building Duke Filthy Bit was currently looking at the mountain of platinum coins that the former Baron Copper Plum had left, “Well, you are an interesting one,” he said as he rubbed his chin, “You obviously have the ability to amass great wealth, and more than that you put the stability of our kingdom before your own desires. There’s little doubt in my mind that you exemplify exactly what it is to be a knight.”

“Father,” a young tanned skinned man said, “Do you think it wise to consider asking that he not only be reinstated, but promoted? He did challenge, and beat, the prince to a duel.”

“Son. what’s something that I’ve always told you when it comes to rewarding those that deserve it?”

The tanned skinned, dark haired boy closed his eyes for a moment and slowly rocked back and forth for a moment, “That all work that is done well, and done without issue is worth rewarding. That we should encourage those who are able to improve the kingdom to keep doing so. I can see that, but this might be a step too far. I mean, father, we will have to do some very powerful tap dancing in order to keep from appearing as if we completely agree with what was done. That in and of itself could be dangerous.”

Duke Filthy Rich nodded, “I know,” he said, as he looked toward where Copper Plum had left, “And yet it is well worth it. I believe that his actions have helped Prince Apollo more than hurt him. They, at the very least, taught him an important lesson. He understands that he isn’t merely able to act in a way that is uncouth and not be held accountable. That is an important lesson for anyone to learn.”

His son nodded, “I see, but I do hope that this doesn’t come back and bite us. It feels like it has the potential to do so.”

“I know,” he replied, “Opulent, I want you to understand exactly what I am getting at here. We have the chance to see a new member of the nobility climb to higher ranks. He’s a successful adventurer, and he has proven himself worthy of his title that he willingly gave back in order to save his family. Additionally, we have someone that I believe will climb higher than my own recommendation. If we foster this, then there is a truly great chance that we can see him lead a new branch of the nobility.”

Opulent Rich studied him for a moment, “Father, you sound like you are discouraged with the current nobles.”

His father rolled his eyes, “Discouraged is a poor synonym for how I feel about them,” he replied, “Most of the nobles have forgotten what it is to mold the kingdom into what it needs to be. There are a good number that still go into the commoners home and take more than they deserve. Those individuals claim that it is their right. I have no issue against taxes being paid, and no issue against the local lords collecting taxes for services they actually do.”

He shook his head, “But I know that there are a good many who do nothing, who give nothing, and who provide nothing, and still they tax the commoners that live in their lands to the point of near death. There are even a few that have taken the sons of commoners and made them into little more than slaves. They call them indentured servants, but I know that they are slaves all the same.”

He looked at Opulent Rich, “So, yes I am disappointed, and I have hopes for Copper Plum. I see him as someone that might give the nobility the kick they need to attempt to do better. I can see him spurring them on, in a desperate need to one up him if nothing else, all in order to improve themselves. He’s a decent one, and so it is my hope that he will be promoted to lower fifth rank.”

Opulent Rich shook his head, “Father, I’ll go with you, and I’ll help you speak on his behalf, but I am uncertain if what you say is something that will happen,” he said, “I see that he has potential, but I am uncertain if he truly has the potential that you believe he does. To me it seems that his skills reside more with adventuring and fighting. I would almost believe that he’d make a grand warrior knight.”

His father laughed, “And perhaps you’re right,” he said, “but whatever the case, I want to see him spared, and I would like to see him promoted. His wealth is something that I believe he can recover on his own. The amount of money he has made already is evidence that he has the drive, and will, to accomplish great things. I would dare say that there will be little stopping him.”

His son nodded, “Then there is really only one choice,” he replied as he looked toward the door, “We present the token gift to King consort Baked Bean, and of course to Queen Celestial Sol Bean. Once we’ve done that we’ll petition his rise in rank, and I do hope that you will lead in that endeavor. I think that you have their ears more than I do.”

As the two of them began their trek toward the palace Artemis was preparing herself. All of the versions of herself were gathered on the ship, and they were preparing it for their Captain. The one exception was the original version that had fought him. She was still on the claimed island, and with the help of a few basic robotic drones she was cultivating it into a livable place. One of the things she did to help ensure that Diamond Tiara Rich, and Applebloom weren’t able to find out what she was seemed to be the easiest thing to do.

Each of the android bodies were wearing their organic disguises, and each of them had slightly changed the color of their hair. Their facial features remained the same, but their eye color also changed. The excuse that they were all sisters could be used, and from her own study of the rabbit beast people that excuse was actually a very good one. Her studies had shown that the rabbit beast people had children in the numbers of five to twelve.

“We need every inch to be impressive when our Captain returns,” she stated, walking proudly, “I want him to applaud and reward us for our fine work, and then I want to ravish him until there is no tomorrow.”

A cheer erupted from her other selves, and together they continued the work on the ship itself.