Behind the Crown

Chapters

Just business
New partnerships
Consolidation.
Restructuring
Old business

Just business

“Let’s see now, maybe if I start stocking the cheaper..”

“YOU GET BACK HERE WITH THAT YOU STUPID BLANK FLANK!”

Silver spoon sighed and looked up from her notebook to see what exactly had Diamond in such a temper.....again.

“Sorry, but Ah need this to try fer’ ma tiara wearin’ cutie mark, Ah promise Ah’ll give it back when Ah’m done.”

Despite the muffling of her distinctly rural accent, it was impressive that Applebloom had got out a sentence that long without pausing for breath, given the pink filly tearing around the schoolyard in hot pursuit of her and the tiara clenched tightly between her teeth.

This sort of thing happened far too often for Silver’s taste and she had long since given up on trying to intervene on her friend's behalf. She instead laid back and gazed up at the rolling clouds through the shimmering leaves of the tree that she and Twist had mutually agreed was best suited to reading under during recess, her mind quickly drifting back to lowering her costs on the small candy tray she’d installed in her stand last weekend.

Silver didn’t really get an allowance like her classmates; her father had instead insisted on giving her a small amount of ‘startup capital’ that wasn’t for spending on herself but to instead start a small business with. If she operated it at a profit, she could pay herself a wage.

It naturally wasn’t very much, after all, she was just a little filly and she had to concentrate on schoolwork first. That image combined with the small town ideals Ponyville was so very fond of led to her starting a lemonade stand. It had started out small but between her natural business acumen and Tiara’s flair, it was a surprisingly elaborate affair now, almost matching the hoofprint on the town of any one of the larger stunts the crusaders had pulled.

Almost...

Her thoughts were interrupted as a sweaty and uncharacteristically unkempt Diamond Tiara staggered up to her gasping for breath with her mane disheveled and a mud-caked tiara hanging from her mouth.

“Well Dee,” Silver managed to get out while trying to mask her amusement, “on the plus side, this probably means that they still don’t have a single clue what your mark actually means.”

“Yes, a-and I’m sure I’ll take comfort in that the moment… th-the moment the world stops spinning,” Diamond gasped out before rolling her eyes and flopping face down onto the soft grass in a graceless lump.

Unknown to Silver, her last statement had managed to set ears burning from around an uncontrollably curly red mane on the other side of the tree.

The rest of the day went pleasantly enough as Ms Cheerilee spent the whole period between recess and lunch trying to get the basics of algebra into the heads of her students. Silver had initially reacted in mute horror along with the rest of the class at the very mention of it. They’d always heard older foals talking about algebra in hushed voices as though it were some demon math from Tartaurus.

Of course, when she found out that it was just value substitution, something she already had a firm grasp on, she pretty much tuned out the lesson save for taking note of new words and reached down for her notebook so she could go back to her bookkeeping.

To her surprise Silver found that at some point during the lesson Twist had leaned over and placed a note on top of her saddlebags. With all the stealth an earth pony could manage when handling paper, Silver managed to pick it up and unfold it without Ms Cheerilee noticing as she was presently distracted with trying to get Scootaloo to stop banging her head against her desk in frustration.

“I’ll never get this stupid math, never, never, never...”

Silver smirked at her classmate's ineptitude and read the note.

I heard what you said about Diamond Tiara’s cutie mark under the tree, meet me after class -
PS: I’m a little insulted that you would forget I was there so quickly. -

Silver’s eyes went wide and she started to sweat. How could she have been so careless as to blurt that out? Her mind only stopped running in circles of worst case scenarios and ridiculous solutions when she suddenly realised something, a sly smile creeping onto her lips.

That she could solve both her current problems at once.

Silver grabbed her pencil between her teeth and hastily scribbled down her reply.

Meet me at my stand, I have a proposal. -

She quickly hoofed the note back to Twist and after a confirming nod they both returned to being completely bored with the easiness of the lesson.

Not that it didn’t give them time to think about what to say.

School had been over for a couple of hours by the time Twist arrived at the stand. Silver had almost forgotten the meeting by that point as the sweltering heat had bought her a steady stream of customers, along with a completely melted selection of chocolates that had covered everything in her candy rack, this hadn’t stopped her customers from buying out the other treats that now came with a generous coating for no charge.

Note to self: Buy a small cooler to keep the chocolate in.

Silver noticed Twist just as she was trotting past the umbrella tables where most of the crowd for today had gathered in the shade. Those had been a good investment for the summer, especially given that she’d gotten them practically for free; the cafe in town square had been planning to throw them out when they were upgrading. She didn’t even have to pay snails to help her drag them home, although she considered enduring that weird grin he gave her every time she glanced back to check on him payment enough.

Twist trotted up to the stand and sat down on one of the cushions placed in front of the counter, where Silver was rubbing the inside of a cup with a washrag. She briefly wondered why Silver would be doing that to a paper cup but decided not to bring it up.

It kind of made it feel like a salt bar scene from an old detective comic.

“Um, Thilver thpoon.”

“Oh, hey Twist, glad you could make it.”

“Thou, about what you thed to Diamond.”

Silver glanced nervously about before offering Twist a drink on the house.

“Look, I can’t talk about that right now when there’s a crowd,” Silver explained, “but if you wait a couple of hours for it to thin out, I’ll tell you.”

“Thanths for the drink but, what thould I do till then?” Twist asked having gulped down the cold liquid, with a whine in her voice that told of her having dropped everything for this meeting.

Silver stuck up a hoof and pointed Twist’s eyes toward three familiar fillies who were wheeling what looked like a glider into the center of town. “Why don’t you go do... that? At the very least it’ll leave you with a story to tell”.

Twist pondered the consequences of following the crusaders into pretty much anything before deciding that it HAD to be better than waiting. If only on the basis that her mind would be off Silver’s secret for a while. Asking Silver to hold a small bag of peppermint sticks she’d bought along behind the counter for her, Twist galloped off after the notorious trio.

It was at the first signs of dusk that Twist finally came staggering back to the stand, bearing a huge grin across her face that might have been frozen in position by the coating of tree sap. Silver was still at the counter but the tables had been put away. The only remaining customer being a morose looking pink coated filly that Twist hadn’t been expecting to see again today.

Twist nervously made her way up to the counter, never taking her eyes off the notoriously ill-tempered filly whose big secret had been the entire reason she’d come here in the first place.

“Hello Twist,” Diamond Tiara hissed in a cordial but clearly annoyed manner, never taking the side of her head off the table, “It’s good to see that you’ve finally decided to end your streak of being unfashionable. I hear that conspiracy with former friends is in this year.“ Her eyes rolling around to glare daggers at the grey filly behind the counter.

“Don’t mind her, she’s been drinking non-stop since I told her about this an hour ago,” Silver Spoon reassured, “She’s just coming down off the sugar rush.”

“Oh, shut it you...” Diamond piped up before realizing that she had nowhere to go with that rant and going back to lethargically boring a hole into the table with her forehead.

Twist took her seat and motioned for the bag of peppermint sticks that Silver had hid behind the counter. Once she had it she popped the zip open and offered them to her two classmates. Silver gladly took one and Diamond waved them away as her headache told her that having any more sugar was a bad idea.

“If you don’t mind me athking Thiver Thpoon,” Twist asked between licks, “what’th thee doing here? Thurely her thecrets aren't thomething thee’d want you telling me.”

Silver sighed, lowered her brow and assumed an intimidating posture before explaining in her best authoritative voice, “The first thing you need to promise before I tell you anything is that, absolutely nothing you hear today leaves this group.” The seriousness of the statement perfectly clear.

Twist gulped and nodded, the sudden iciness in Silver’s voice and the stern look she gave shocking her a little. She’d always thought of Diamond’s cohort as preening and stuck up, but this was...

This was something else.

Silver Spoon’s voice and expression quickly came back to normal after a stuttering and shaking Twist finally managed after three amusing minutes to get out a Pinkie Pie Swear, the ramifications of breaking one being well known to the entire town.

Then Silver burst out laughing uncontrollably, having to maintain her serious face during all that had just been too much. Twist joined in on the giggling after she allowed herself to exhale and realized that all the tension had been sucked out of the situation all at once.

“Foooooreeeeeeeeveeer,” a ghostly voice carried by the wind howled, reducing the laughter to nervous chuckling which quickly petered out.

With the formalities out of the way, Silver took several deep breaths to calm herself, leaned her head onto her hooves and started to explain Tiara’s presence at the stand.

“Not too many ponies know this but Diamond and I have been going to a therapist once a week for as long as we’ve been in Ponyville.”

“Wait?” Twist queried, “but Mithder Rit’th alwath ran barnyard bargainth. I thought Diamond Tiara wa’th from Ponyville?”

“No, we’re originally from Canterlot you walking cavity,” Tiara spat venomously, having rolled her head so she was facing away from the two conspirators, “there’s, like, waaay more than one branch of Daddy’s store you know.”

“Anyway,” Silver interrupted, facehoofing as she did so, “getting back to the point. Diamond’s been told and told that it isn’t healthy to keep pushing everypony away and..”

“Bite me you little traitor,” came the dissenting voice from the other end of the table.

“..and that she should try to make other friends,” Silver carried on. “The first step being to let somepony know the truth.”

“And you...chothe....me?” Twist asked with a thoroughly puzzled look spreading across her face.

“Well, no, not deliberately,” Silver sighed, feeling slightly guilty, “but you overhearing us on the playground made you a pretty obvious choice. Plus, I can see a lot of opportunity in us being friends.”

Diamond once again interrupted with a sharp and bitter laugh.

With that said, Silver poured them both a tall glass of Lemonade and dragged Twist’s bag of candy toward her. Taking a stick and rolling it around in her cheek, Silver sighed and turned to the first pony from Ponyville that would share in the secret that had made Diamond so volatile. Such a big step and here she was mixing it with business.

Maybe that was the only way she could convince herself to do this, even if it was it wasn't like there was a way back now.

It was time for the truth to come out.

New partnerships

Silver Spoon took one last sip on her drink to steady herself, Turned back to Twist and began her story.

“I first met Diamond back when we were in kindergarten in Canterlot.”

“Wait, I thought you were jutht gonna tell me what her cutie mark meanth Thilver.” Twist interrupted.

“Well” Silver explained, a small flourish with her hoof sloshing her lemonade around, “Context is important here Twist. If you’re going to find out the truth, you should know the whole truth”. Twist rolled her eyes at this but still resigned herself to it, she shifted about on her cushion to make herself more comfortable.

“Anyway” Silver continued, “It was a nice enough place, but not in the same way as Miss Cheerilee's class. Everypony there was from wealth and the unicorns looked down on everypony else because that's what their parents did and what few earth ponies there were tended to enjoy the kind of...” Silver paused for a second to consider the least snobby way she could put it, “Play", she pondered if that was the correct word and decided it would do for now, "that tends to result in a lot of scrapes and bruises.”

“Plus muddy Tiaras and blanky blank flanks.” Diamond sneered, not really overly bothered with being diplomatic.

“Yes, we get it” Silver sighed, “now stop interrupting me or I'm going to tell her about the bunny ears photo album while I'm at it."

Diamond stared at her gray friend in what had to be close to mortal terror for a couple of seconds, then gave up and plopped her head back on the counter, finally attempting a last second dignity save with puffed cheeks and a stuck out tongue. It didn't work.

"Wait" Twist piped in, having finally realized what she just heard, "whath thith about a bunny ear'th album?" Eyes darting back and forth between the two fillies who were currently involved in a raspberry blowing contest, before finally conceding that the moment had passed and giving up on that particular nugget.

Finally, her patience clearly wearing thin, Silver Spoon continued, "It was only natural that more sophisticated fillies like DeeTee and I would be drawn to each other in that place. I was kinda bookish and preferred to sit quietly, Diamond was just naturally graceful, able to dart in and out of my company without me even noticing." Silver sighed at the nostalgia and looked up at the sky as it gave it's first bleeding yards to the orange of sunset. "Over time we just started talking about anything and everything. I kinda got the feeling that she liked me because she knew she had my undivided attention when we talked."

Two tiny fillies, one pink with a purple mane and one two shades of gray and wearing a pearl necklace sat in the shade of the great tree that dominated the center of the quad, idly watching some of the older colts playing something that would almost resemble hoofball if the viewer had no idea what the basic rules or code of conduct for hoofball were. On occasion one of the colts would trip and tumble face first into the grass, eliciting a giggle from all the fillies present.

"So", the pink filly turned to her friend, "do you like Daring Do?"

"Not really", the Gray one replied in a disinterested voice, "one of the servants tried to read it to me once but I didn't really enjoy it, she wasn't really very good at stories that one. Good cook though," she paused for a bit, "I miss her."

"Oh" The pink one replied, a little disappointment in her voice that quickly turned into a knowing smile. "you should hear my Daddy tell it, he does all the voices and makes Anitz.. Anotzil.. um.." She paused to try to remember before settling for "the bad guy all shouty and silly, and he makes me cocoa and tucks me in and..."

She stopped and looked at her gray friend, who now sported the kind of frowney face that makes Celestia sad just by existing. She quickly determined that she had to somehow make that go away for both their sakes.

Then, the perfect solution came to her; "Ooh! ooh! you should totally come over" the pink filly suddenly started shouting excitedly, "Daddy can read to us and we'll sleep in my room and tell each other ghost stories and.." She paused again to look at her friend who was now staring at her in shock.

"I'm sorry" the gray filly said, "but I don't even know your name."

"Oh" The pink one replied, the confidence returning to her face. "My name is Diamond, Diamond Tiara."

"Silver spoon" the gray one squeaked in reply, "and I'll have to ask Daddy if it's okay." She twiddled her necklace with her hooves and looked around nervously.

"Of course it'll be okay" Diamond tiara announced with now unstoppable confidence, "stick with me Silvey and you'll go far."

"Thilvey?" Twist asked in mock disbelief, a small amount of Lemonade running under her chin as she closed her eyes and unsuccessfully tried to stop shaking with the giggles.

"Yes, yes," Silver sighed, "that was her little nickname for me when we first became friends." Then she smirked and ran a hoof through her hair, "Of course, she stopped that little habit after my father heard her say it and he took her aside for a 'talk' about the importance of proper titles in the old families."

"Talk?" Diamond spat out far louder than she'd intended. "He insisted on having our little 'talk' while having a walking tour of his private collection of pre-Celestian torture devices."

"He hath what?" Twist gasped, not really liking the idea of such a thing being in Ponyville.

"Yeah" Silver reminisced, a faraway look growing in her eyes, "while they've not really appreciated in value over the years, he always insisted they were the best investment he ever made”, Silver adjusted her glasses before continuing, “ Knowing him, he was probably just using them to gauge your character."

Diamond snorted at her friends attempt at humor. "Well then, it's probably a good thing he did it while I was so young, can you imagine if he wanted to test your friends today."

"Yeah" Silver piped up, looking as though she were deep in thought, "He'd probably actually end up using them instead of just letting fear speak for itself. Wonder if they've been kept in working order?"

Then Silver cocked her head sideways and glanced over Twist's back before waving to the road, "Speak of the devil, Hi Dad."

Twist spotted a stallion shrouded in shadow coming up from behind them and suddenly went pale and in a panic dived behind the counter, making sure she was out of sight. She stayed hidden as best she could given her shocking red mane and glanced over at Silver to make sure she hadn't been noticed.

That was when she realized that Silver and Diamond were rolling around on the grass laughing like loons. A quick glance at the path presented her with a happily oblivious Mr Waddle, who simply waved to her as he passed.

After taking a couple of seconds needed to process what had just happened, she turned around to face the still uproarious Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara.

"Ha ha, v-very f-f-funny girl'th" Twist half shouted as she tried to stop herself from shaking, but she couldn't really stop her scowl from turning up into a smirk.

'Honestly', she thought, 'that was a pretty good prank.'

"Pfffft" Diamond giggled, her previously sour face all but erased, "You should have seen the look on your face Twist." Then she paused to catch her breath. "Oh Celestia, just too damn funny."

"Yeah, sorry, just couldn't resist" Silver managed to get out after she'd almost stopped her convulsions, "we've run that one lots of times on silly colts that tried to hit on us."

Then they all stopped and stared when they realized that Twist had managed to take the cushion she'd been sitting on with her over the counter; which had become stuck firmly to her flank with now long dried tree sap. Twist tried to shake it off but only succeeded in tangling up more of her tail in the tacky mess.

"Well" Twist muttered with a scowl, "that'th jutht faaan-tathtic."

It didn't take the three earth pony fillies long to exhaust all the cushion removal strategies available to them, given that those consisted of pulling against Silver, pulling against Diamond and pulling against them both, they only succeeded in discovering that the combination of tree sap and cushion is in fact not a delicious taste treat. The tacky mess's sticking power had even defeated their genius backup plan of dangling twist between two of the umbrella tables by the cushion and giving her a vigorous shake.

Defeated, the three of them conceded that the only option was going to be soaking and scrubbing it off before any further brute force approaches risked taking the fur right off Twist's rump.

"Well then" Silver finally admitted, "Looks like you're at my place for dinner Twist, unless, of course you want Miss Bonbon to see you in this state."

Twist's face twitched in disgust at the very idea of her Aunt getting an eyeful of this. Bonbon had recently started trying to make her own standup act and was constantly on the lookout for new material from her life for it. The only reason that incident where Twist had got part of her mane stuck in the oven door had finally gotten omitted was because absolutely nopony but Bonbon had ever thought it was the slightest bit funny.

"Come on then" Silver sighed, "let's get the stand packed up and I'll tell you more of the story on the way."

The three fillies lowered their heads and immediately set to work gathering up the impermanent parts of Silver's business.

"Tho Thilver" Twist asked as she mouthed the third tray of candies on top of the box of cups and sugar sitting on her back, "what did you mean by opportunity in uth being frienth?"

"Oh right" said Silver, herself somehow ludicrously carrying two upside down tables, their respective umbrellas and a box containing her bit tray and glass pitchers, "I was hoping to be able to set up a partnership where I could sell your candy directly. I put in my candy tray to attract more customers and it worked but having to buy it from stores has meant I've never been able to have it operate at anything more than a loss."

"Thorry Thilver, but I make my candieth' for aunt Bonbon'th th'tore. I couldn't do that to her." Twist replied apologetically.

"It's okay Twist" Silver reassured her with a smile, "I think I just needed an excuse to do this for myself and Diamond, now come on, let's get home so you can get washed up."

Diamond was giggling at her again.

Silver spoon picked herself up and once again placed her right back foot high up against the tree, then put her forehooves against it and leaned in trying to relax into the stretch.

*THUMP!*

Why was this so hard? The question repeated itself in Silver Spoon's mind as she looked up from the ground at her new friend effortlessly balancing up on one hoof even without the support of the tree. Diamond did a little twirl as she switched legs and found herself staring down at her currently pouty friend.

"How do you DO that?" Silver asked in amazement, "My daddy has been sending me to that stupid Ballet school for ages and, and I can't even do the rail ex..exer..scissors without falling down."

"Dunno" Diamond replied as she did another twirl and switch, "I just can, daddy says I'm just nature-ly graceful."

"Ooooh, maybe dancing is your special talent" Silver said as she picked herself up off the grass again.

"Awww, thanks a LOT Silvey" Diamond pouted, losing her balance in the process and landing with stumble back on four hooves, "now you've cutie-jinxed me, now I can't never have dancing as my talent."

"Ohmygosh, I'm so sorry" Silver blurted out, "I didn't know."

"Wait a minute" Twist interrupted, "Please tell me THAT ithn't the big thecret, becauth' I've gotta tell you, cutie jinthxes aren't real."

Silver just laughed; "Oh my goodness no Twist, although dancing did turn out to be a big part of it, just as reading turned out to be part of mine."

Twist Crinkled her brow as though she'd just unlearned something vitally important; "I thought you made thpoonth?"

"No, no, don't take it so literally" Silver chuckled, "I got my cutie mark a few months before Diamond when I was named first in line to inherit the family fortune, so I've had to learn a great deal about investing, running businesses and managing bits, that's why I take my little stand so seriously."

"She's not even kidding" Diamond piped in, "Give her a chance and she'll talk your ear off about her profit projections for hours. I'm not even going to ask where she's always able to pull those charts and graphs from." Then she muttered to herself "Still don't know how she managed to fall asleep during Daddy's speech."

Twist was slightly taken aback by this new information, she, like the majority of her classmates had always thought cutie marks were always very much literal, after all, Celestia controls the sun, Aunt Bonbon makes candy, she makes candy, Miss Cheerilee grows flowers....

Wait, that's not right...

The afternoon sun was still high as Silver Spoon sat on the swing seat in the garden of her family's palatial mansion in Central Canterlot. She had been slowly working her way through a huge and stunningly dull tome detailing her family holdings that her father had given her a few weeks ago for her cutecenera. Even if this was her destiny, it still held little of interest for a 6 year old.

At least the illustrations in the margins were pretty.

Silver's meditation on her book was interrupted by a jubilant voice shouting and galloping up the path to meet her.

Diamond Tiara stepped up her pace as her gray BFF came into view; She hadn't expected to see her over the school holidays but an emergency business meeting had forced her father back to Canterlot two days early. Despite her initial reluctance to go out into the countryside, she had so VERY much to talk about as the two of them spent every remaining moment of their break together.

Silver didn't really get much of a chance to say hello as she stepped down from the seat to exchange greetings with her unexpected visitor. She barely got as far as smiling and opening her mouth before a crash tackle/hug sent them both rolling down a slight incline before plowing into a small patch of dandelions, scattering seeds everywhere which floated down around them.

Silver let out a little sneeze as one found it's way up her nose.

Diamond, for her part, was talking up an absolute storm with such a pace that one word blended right into the next and all Silver could make out was incomprehensible gibberish. After a good twenty seconds of this, the gray filly sighed and put her hoof up against her pink friend's mouth to silence her.

"Again" the gray filly calmly said, "but slowly."

Diamond nodded in understanding, then took a long breath to calm herself.

"so" Diamond began, "Daddy was taking me out to meet some farmers and maybe see some pigs or cows, when I saw this poster, and it said something about a beauty contest. My dad said it was called a page-gent but that's silly, posters aren't boys, and anyway, I was bored and asked him if I could enter because no filly's as pretty as me and he said it was okay if I asked mummy and mummy said it was OK and so I entered."

"And?" Silver asked, clearly unimpressed by the idea of a small town pageant.

"Well" Diamond continued, "I got to wear some of Mummy's make up and there was a big stage that I got to dance on and after all the girls had been up I was the best so I won."

Diamond sat there with a huge grin on her face expectantly waiting for Silver to reply.

Silver finally caved in to her friend's overabundance of pride and squeaked out a curt "congratulations.. I guess."

To Silver's great surprise, Diamond was in no way disappointed by her lack of enthusiasm, almost as if she'd been expecting it.

"Oh yeah" Diamond said, a sly smirk forming, "this appeared while I was getting my prize." With that, diamond rolled over and pointed at her flank, and more specifically at the symbol now emblazoned on it, a shining purple crown.

It took Silver a few seconds to comprehend what she was seeing, but when she did she abandoned all pretense of her disciplined upbringing and took her turn to tackle the pink filly, leading to them both tumbling and running around each other on the grass, the sound of laughter thick in the air.

Finally, their energy spent, they just laid on the grass staring up at the clouds. Of course, being little foals, it only took a minute before Silver felt the need to break the silence.

"So", she asked "your special talent is beauty contests and being pretty and graceful."

"Looks like it" Diamond replied happily.

"You know" Silver sighed, "I found out today that I'm gonna need glasses before I go back to school."

Diamond just looked at her friend and gave the only reply one really can to such ironies.

A flat "Huh?"

Twist was confused.

"I donth get it" she finally said after trying to work it out herself, "Why is it thuch' a thecret if thath' all it ith'? Thouldn't you be proud of it inthtead? You're even wearing the prith' on your head, tho how ith thith a big deal?"

Seeing Twist's confusion, Diamond stepped in to fill in that blank.

"Well Twist" Diamond began, "this tiara isn't a prize or even directly related to my pageantry at all, I had it commissioned when I first moved here because I didn't want anypony getting curious and I thought that if I presented a front, nopony would ask me any questions that I don't want this town asking. Guess it worked until now."

"It's true" Silver said, "I even made a bet with her that it wouldn't fool anypony, I lost that bet and that's why I spent a whole week wearing a spoon on my head."

"I don't remember that" Twist asked.

Silver chuckled; "You wouldn't, everypony else in the class remembers it as the week I spent trying to convince everypony that berets were back in style."

"Didn't Sweetie Belle's sister believe you and take to wearing them everywhere?" Diamond laughed.

Silver just shook her head in pity for the desperate fashionista.

"Anyway" Silver finally started again, "I told you at the start that context was important here, you'll understand when you hear the rest of the.."

Silver paused "Oh wait, we're here."

Standing before Twist was the biggest house she'd ever seen. Silver informed her that it was her Aunt's house as she greeted the servants to tell them to set two extra places at the table and run a bath for Twist.

Diamond trotted off a couple of houses over to ask her father if it was okay for her to spend the evening over at Silver's place again.

She didn't fuss a premade speech, she knew her daddy could never refuse her.

About an hour later, Bonbon was pacing about in her home, wondering where her niece had gone off to. The opportunity to ruminate on worst case scenarios involving the Everfree forest, the crusaders, insane librarians or a random monster attack however, was cut short by a knock at her door. Expecting to have to lecture Twist on what a curfew means she was slightly taken aback when it opened to reveal Filthy Rich standing there.

"Good day to you miss Bonbon" the wealthy stallion began, "My daughter asked me to come by here and ask if it's okay for Twist to stay for dinner at the Silver family Mansion."

"Um.." replied Bonbon, "that's......fine Mr Filthy, but why are you here asking and not her?"

"Please, call me Mr rich" the stallion sighed, rubbing his temple in frustration that nopony seemed to understand that filthy on it's own was not a brilliant name. "My daughter didn't give me all the particulars, only to say that she got 'crusader'd', and,.. something about tree sap and seats, I think she also specifically told me not to tell Miss Bonbon about......"

Filthy rich facehooved at his own ineptitude, while Bonbon suddenly grew the grin of somepony that had just won the Celestial lottery.

"Well then" Filthy stammered, "I guess that if it's okay I'll just....be.....going......now.", and with one last cheesy grin he took off galloping, leaving a thoroughly confused mare in his wake.

Bonbon, for her part just sat stunned on the floor taking a much needed minute to process this new information.

As her smile returned, she knew what she had to do now.

"This is totally going in my routine."

Consolidation.

Twist wasn't paying any attention to the messy trail she was making.

She was presently far too busy gazing around in astonishment at the enormous lobby of the Silver Mansion, it's gleaming marble floors and expensive hardwood fixtures all pleasantly illuminated by glowing crystals set into the walls that gave off a natural feeling, diffuse light. A huge dark wood staircase wound through the landings above her, a dozen massive doors no doubt leading to countless rooms just as ornate as this one.

A distant voice could almost be heard pleading to her as she trotted around, not really sure of her destination. The faint buzz of it was really quite distracting as she attempted in vain to calculate the value of her surroundings and some circumstance by which a pony could possibly come to require so many bits to begin with.

Twist was finally reawakened to her present company when she found herself hovering slightly off the floor.

"Sorry miss," apologized the white uniformed unicorn servant who had been diligently following her, wiping her tacky hoofprints as she made them. He gently eased her down onto four paper towels; "But we've been trying to tell you to stop before you tracked any sap onto the carpets." The stallion explained smiling kindly at Twist as she blushed in embarrassment over almost daydreaming another giant mess into being.

Pinkie never had trusted her to pack the welcome wagon again after that one incident.

"Thorry about that," Twist sighed as she hung her head, already resigned never being allowed into such a home again.

"Now then," the stallion explained as he gently picked up and wiped off Twist's hooves, "the young miss has asked that I accompany you to her private washroom to get you cleaned up for dinner. So if you would please follow me I'm sure that she'll be waiting there to receive you."

"You mean you aren't mad about the meth?" Twist asked as she looked up at the strangely calm stallion who continued to remove the lingering sap from her hooves. It was really quite a pleasant sensation which just made her feel even more embarrassed.

"My goodness no," he reassured her. "It's my job to look after such things. Were it not for the small mistakes of youth, I fear that my day would be frightfully empty."

"Tho Thilver hath a lot of foalth over?" Twist queried as he finished cleaning the last of the sap from her hooves.

The stallion suddenly looked quite sad for a second before he remembered his duties and bought back his warm smile and ushered Twist toward one of the large doors leading into the heart of the mansion.

"This way please miss," he said before falling into step behind Twist and following her through the doors.

After a short tour that led Twist past several hallways lined with imposing portraits of ponies she assumed were Silver Spoon's ancestors and relatives; they finally ascended a grand oak staircase, stopping as they came to the doors that led to Silver's private wing of the mansion.

Twist turned around to thank the stallion who had directed her but found that he simply bowed and took his leave. Twist was about to comment on this but her thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Silver Spoon as she came to the doorway.

"Oh good, I was afraid that you'd managed to get lost," Silver said with some relief. "Wouldn't be the first pony to simply disappear within these walls," she added, a slight giggle reassuring Twist that she was joking.

As she was ushered into the room, Twist was once again struck by the almost obscene scale of this house. She had expected Silver to have a big room but this was more like a dormitory. A lushly appointed central chamber with four or five doors leading to other rooms and a sitting area that could easily accommodate Ms Cheerilee's entire class.

Then there were the toys; Huge plush animals and shelves upon shelves of dolls lining the walls in a way that would cause any foal to start feverishly imaging the epic tales they could tell with their grand porcelain army. Curiously though, they all looked like they had been arranged for show and then never touched again. Did Silver simply not play with dolls? A small table between the couches surrounded by smaller and well beaten stuffed animals having a tea party seemed to suggest otherwise.

"Tho Thilver," Twist asked as she passed through another door into the bathroom, "do you collect dollth?"

"No Twist," Silver explained, "those are mostly gifts I've received from relatives continuously since being named as heir." She let out an exasperated sigh, "I've honestly never even heard of most of them but apparently they think they know me."

"Don't you ever play with them?"

"Diamond and I did once," Silver giggled with a guilty smirk, "when one of the maids saw us she almost lost her mind. Poor thing apparently collected dolls her whole life and there we were, two brats smacking a collection that far eclipsed her own against one another like they were action mares."

After a slightly awkward silence Silver simply pointed Twist in the direction of the bath, which was thankfully a modest affair that wouldn't look out of place in most pony's homes. The cream colored filly trotted up to the edge and after a quick dip with her hoof to test the temperature; removing her glasses, she climbed into the warm, pleasant smelling water.

Twist relaxed into the water. After pointing out where the guest towels were, as well as quick run through of the multitude of shampoos and scented soaps, Silver turned to take her leave.

"Awwwww, c'mon Thilver," Twist pleaded as she leaned her head back to soak her mane, "aren't you gonna tell me more of the th'tory while I thoak thith out of my mane?"

"Hmm, I can't really do that until Diamond gets back," Silver said, "but I suppose I could keep you company until... Well, speak of the devil."

"You would dare compare us to that uppity peon," Diamond Tiara proclaimed mockingly as she strode in through the door, with her usual confidence back in full. "My, how the underclass has grown bold."

Silver rolled her eyes at her friend's melodramatic speech. Twist had missed most of it, as she had managed to topple over and completely submerge her head when she was caught off guard by Diamond's arrival. Her splashy resurfacing forcing the other two to stifle their laughter.

"Bleh," Twist shuddered in revulsion, "gueth that thented bathwater th'till tath'tes the thame as regular bathwater."

"Yes," Silver deadpanned, "I imagine that it would, we'll just take your word for it." Feeling that conversation was best left where it lay she then casually trotted over to a lighted vanity on the far wall and pulled the two cushions over to the bath. Motioning for Diamond to take one of them as she sat down and leaned in over the tub so she could continue the story.

"Now then, seeing as we're all here, we can get back to where we were."

"Hold up," Diamond interrupted, "this is my story so I'd like to tell some of it if you don't mind."

"Ugh," Silver groaned, "Fine, but try not to embellish the facts too much. Celestia knows that trying to stop you entirely would be impossible."

"If you really insist," Diamond snickered as she placed a hoof over her heart, "I promise that I won't give myself more than three besotted love interests."

"Make it two and one of them has to be snails."

"Yuck, I think I'd rather just tell it properly."

"Okay, if that's your final offer."

"Bite me."

Mummy was very excited.

Ever since Diamond come home, cutie mark in tow, Jade Scepter had been pulling out old photo albums and trophies from her closet and shouting plans for her wonderful, beautiful daughter and the swath of success the two of them would soon be cutting in the pageant world.

"Now now dear," Filthy Rich interrupted her as he fastened on his cufflinks, "if you don't get yourself ready soon, we're going to be late to our own celebration dinner."

"Ooh, can Silvey come too Daddy?" Diamond asked, looking up from the album she'd been nosing through. Her muzzle now covered in a light layer of dust.

"Of course she can," Filthy chuckled as he pulled out a rag and wiped off Diamond's nose, "we'll be meeting the Silvers there. That is of course assuming that we actually leave sometime tonight." He rolled his eyes towards his wife to emphasize his point.

"Fine," Jade finally relented, "I suppose my dreams can stand to wait for one more night."

"Aw, you mean I have to wait until tomorrow?" Filthy teased.

"Stick to business dear, leave comedy to the idio.." Jade Scepter was suddenly interrupted by a loud knocking on the front door.

"Who could that be?" Filthy wondered aloud. He left his wife to fix her dusty mane and trotted off to answer it, his daughter following closely behind.

They arrived at the door just as a second set of knocks reverberated through the house. Whoever it was being clearly impatient.

A quick peek through the keyhole revealed two of Filthy's branch managers. Both looking very jittery about something and clearly they hadn't slept in a while.

This didn't bode well.

"How may I help you gentlecolts this evening?" Filthy asked with as much decorum as he could muster as he opened the door. Diamond hid behind his legs with only her head poking out from around him.

"Well Sir," gulped a haggard stallion in a disheveled Barnyard Bargains uniform, "we're afraid that a matter has come up in Ponyville that needs your personal attention immediately."

"It most certainly does not," Filthy shouted. "My daughter has just earned her cutie mark and nothing is going to pull me away tonight that you idiots can possibly handle yourselves. Now figure it out"

"But Sir," the stallion pleaded, "the entire western wall and a good quarter of the stock have been obliterated."

"WHAT!?," Filthy suddenly screamed, sending Diamond scurrying away to hide. "You mean to tell me that you morons have managed to destroy my store, my FATHER'S store. How in the name of Celestia's holy t..."

He stopped himself and took a deep breath before continuing.

"Look," he sighed, "just.., just tell me what happened."

"Well," the other pony spoke up, "We were just going through the special orders that arrived yesterday morning, two large items were in there, a party cannon and a stone bust of Celestia for the local library."

"P.. party cannon?," gasped Filthy, not really liking any suggestion of the word 'cannon' given how he now knew things had ended up.

"Well," the stallion continued, "the pony who ordered it popped up pretty much the moment we opened that crate. I don't know how she does that and everypony I've asked has said not to ask...," he momentarily lost his train of thought. "But anyway, she suddenly decided that we should have a 'yay, my party cannon arrived' party and we maaaay have let her give it a test fire."

"Why..., why would you do that?"

"Well, it just fires cakes and decorations, at the worst we would have had a sugary mess to sweep up from the loading dock."

"So, how exactly," Filthy spat, "did cakes and confetti manage to completely destroy an entire wall?"

"Well, you know those almost invisible little plastic ties they use to hold labels on things." The stallion said while putting on his best 'we're so sorry, please don't fire us' grin.

"Please don't tell me..." Filthy groaned as he facehoofed.

"The confetti charge grabbed one on it's way out and, it took the stone bust with it. Those things are far too strong if you ask me."

There was an unnerving silence as the business stallion allowed these events to sink in. His employees had allowed a pony to fire an effigy of their monarch through the western wall of the original Barnyard Bargains. How was he ever going to explain that to his father? How would he explain the loss of a commissioned artwork, one that depicted a living god at that?

"Okay," Filthy finally said, his voice eerily calm, "tell me what you've done so far to fix this."

"Well sir," the stallion began, "we've cleared all the destroyed stock from the floor, put up temporary supports for the roof and moved what we have remaining to the eastern side of the store with the western side cordoned off."

"What about the bust? That was a one of a kind item."

"We've already contracted a sculptor to reproduce it, and in the meantime we've put the head from a destroyed rocking horse on a wooden base and covered it with a tarp. With any luck, nopony will know the difference before it's unveiled in a week." The two managers gulped and waited to be fired.

Filthy let out a sigh of relief and allowed himself to smile. These two idiots had managed to minimize the damage and with any luck he could have everything back to normal within a few months.

"Alright," he finally announced, "you two get the next train home, make sure the pegasai don't have any heavy rain or storms scheduled, bribe somepony if you have to. Oh, and try to get some sleep tonight. I'll be heading to Ponyville in the morning and expect to see you all bright and bushy tailed when I arrive."

"You mean we aren't fired?"

"No, not yet anyway. Now I plan to spend the last evening I have with my family for the foreseeable future celebrating with them at a dinner I am already far more than late for. Good day."

And with that, he turned around and slammed the door, leaving two bewildered branch managers to mull over their improbable survival.

Later that evening as he carried his lightly snoring daughter home draped across his back; Filthy Rich looked over to his wife and wished that he could have stayed.

Alas, duty calls.

Twist let her mane cascade back into the water as she used her hooves to massage the last of the sap out of it. She knew full well that it would spring back to it's normal, frizzy state the moment it was dry and was enjoying that her classmates finally got to see it at full length.

Not that Diamond and Silver had noticed as they were currently engaged in an argument over who was supposed to be telling the story. The argument had degenerated into a suds fight about five minutes ago.

Sometimes it's a truly tragic thing to be half blind without your glasses. It gives you fewer chances to laugh when your friends appear to have grown full length beards.

Silver Spoon was very confused.

Diamond had placed fourth in a regional pageant, out of a field of over a hundred hopefuls and this was supposedly her celebration dinner.

So why was dessert completely off the menu?

Was milk really expensive at the moment? Had there been a general cow strike again? Those heifers really know how to stage a protest march.

These thoughts were currently being echoed, albeit loudly and with less tact by Diamond Tiara herself.

Silver tuned out the soap worthy tirade bellowing forth from her friend. She'd already been well aware of the doubling of practice time in the last month since Mr Filthy had left and sure, it wasn't fair that after basically monopolizing all of the pair's free time since to consider a top five finish unworthy of a treat.

Didn't mean that everypony else in the restaurant needed to hear about it for the umpteenth time.

Silver instead busied herself by going over the prices on the menu and doing a mental tally of their theoretical costs. The numbers seemed pretty promising. Maybe she should try her hoof at the food business.

Nah, what business did a filly have preparing food?

Silver's musing was interrupted by a loud gasp from everypony in the restaurant which was followed by a prolonged silence. When she looked up from her menu, she could see Jade Scepter blushing beet red and Diamond reeling away from her on the verge of bawling her eyes out. What the hay had been said?

That was when the floodgates opened.

The next couple of minutes were a blur of tears, screaming and panic as they were hurried out of the restaurant by Jade with every eye on them and Diamond shrieking like a banshee. Silver couldn't even get her bearings until they were safely in a taxi and heading back to the hotel.

Things seemed to have calmed down by the time they arrived. Diamond had managed to scream herself to sleep on the floor of the cab and Silver was stroking her friend's mane to comfort her. As Jade carried her daughter up to their room to put her to bed, she avoided all eye contact with Silver spoon, only managing to whisper, "I'm sorry baby," over and over.

To make up for it the next morning, they both got taken out to buy their first ever makeup supplies that they could call their own. Jade nudged them into the store and told them to find one that matched their coats as closely as they could. There was even a trip to the ice cream store afterwards with them both made up like dolls as the store hooves had insisted they try everything.

Sometimes salesponies are just far too transparent.

"I was so Naive back then," Silver sighed.

"Well," Diamond cut in, "in your defense, we were six. Back then I used to think that Daring Do was a real pony who made money by going on fantastic adventures and then writing about them."

"I don't get it," Twist piped in as she vigorously rubbed the last of the damp out of her mane, "I'd probably get a public thcolding as well if I wath acting up like that in public."

"Oh," Silver said, "Diamond's mother wasn't angry at her for acting up, Goddess forbid that anypony ever actually called her on that."

"Hey," Diamond whined, more annoyed about Twist's sheltered ignorance than her friend's little jab.

"Tho?," Twist asked as she replaced her spectacles. "What wath thee tho mad about?"

"Because," Diamond suddenly started shouting angrily, "I WASN'T HER and I DIDN'T WIN!"

Silver looked on in horror as Diamond stalked up to Twist and stared her right in the eyes as the volume of her voice increased and her screaming became raspy.

"All I got when I came home from that stupid trip was even more stupid restrictions on my time and what I was allowed to eat!" Diamond screamed. "I wasn't even... wasn't even allowed to.." She paused, her anger disappearing behind teary eyes and panting breaths. When she opened her eyes and looked at Twist's face, she was cowering in front of her.

Diamond took a step back and fell on her rump realizing she had once again allowed herself to shove her anger on an undeserving pony. "I... I'm Sorry Twist."

Twist just sat there for a moment, trying to process this new information but just couldn't. Winning wasn't something she or her family had any real experience with, only the long held belief that if you did your best, then you had nothing to worry about. That it could become an all-encompassing desire was a completely foreign concept.

Diamond was pawing at the ground, ashamed of her outburst. Silver just looked at her in disappointment, she thought Diamond had already come to terms with those parts of her past.

Thankfully, any and all serious thoughts came to an abrupt halt as Twist's mane suddenly took its cue, exploding back to it's normal form with an almighty FWUMMP that threw off her glasses and left the previously half blind pony completely absent her ability to perceive anything other than hair.

Nopony dared to laugh during the stunned silence that followed.

"So," Silver blurted out as she saw her chance to salvage the evening, "makeovers?"

"Yes!" Diamond responded instinctively, "let's do..., wait..., aren't you allowed like, no makeup in your room."

"Well no, but that doesn't mean I don't have any."

"Why would you not be allowed any?" Twist asked, genuinely confused that Silver had ever been refused anything.

"Daddy thinks that I shouldn't be worried about attracting a stallion until I'm older, he still has that makeup Diamond's mum bought me locked up in my hope chest back in Canterlot. Wouldn't do me much good anyway, my coat's at least two shades darker now anyway."

With that said, Silver trotted over to her lighted vanity and reached around the back for her hidden drawer. It didn't take her long to completely empty it's smuggled contents out.

It wasn't a lot, but it was more than enough to allow three inexperienced fillies to have a ball unknowingly making each other look ridiculous.

Sure enough, two hours later three fillies emerged from Silver's private wing; heading to dinner with grinning faces that shined like somepony had run a power buffer over them. This was left without comment by the servant that had arrived to escort them there, but he secreted some napkins into his pocket just in case one of them caught sight of a mirror on their way there.

No such luck.

As the three giggling fillies were ushered through the last set of doors that led into the main dining room, they were surprised to see that besides Silver's Aunty Sterling, a good number of seats had already been filled.

What were Mister Rich and Miss Bonbon doing here?

"Oh good," Sterling Silver addressed them as they nervously approached the large table, "you're all finally here. I do wish that I had known about your little sleepover earlier dear, I had to send out Swift Service to fetch these two for this get together as soon as I heard."

"Why did you have to.." Silver asked as she glanced over at the two clearly uncomfortable adults. Filthy Rich was glancing about in a fashion that suggested he saw incoming disaster. Bonbon was just trying not to look nervous and was doing a terrible job of it.

"Well," Sterling droned in her distinctly upper class accent as she inspected a wine list, "I had to meet with the ponies who own the businesses that you have so suddenly decided to merge with. It's always best to do these things formally you know."

Silver was grateful that her starting salad had already been served. It did a marvelous job of softening the blow as her face collided with the table.

Diamond and Twist glanced at their stricken friend and then across her to each other and gulped.

This was going to be a long night.

Restructuring

'Just smile and maybe nopony will pay any attention to you.'

This mantra repeated itself over and over in Bonbon's head as an argument whipped back and forth across the ludicrously large table. She had long since finished every last scrap of the small but tasty salad that had mysteriously appeared in front of her sometime within the couple of seconds she had looked over at the door as her niece entered the room shining like she'd been dipped in oil. Bonbon greatly missed that salad, it had been the one place in the room she could look without giving away her total lack of understanding.

In the meantime, Silver Spoon had managed to recover enough of her facilities to ignite and maintain an extended screaming match with her aunt Sterling. Of course, to Bonbon and Twist it appeared for all the world to be a relatively subdued if not outright civil affair, but in high society it may as well have been a knock down, drag out, all-in brawl.

"I didn't tell you about this ahead of time because I didn't even know about it myself," Silver growled, "it's not like I make a habit of sealing my deals.. don't you give me that look, my deals with tree sap Aunty." Silver paused to take a breath and glanced over at Twist with a smile, "this is just me inviting a friend over. Why do you always assume that my only interest in a pony has to be because I'm looking to increase our holdings?"

Sterling Silver looked over her exasperated niece's shoulder at the gangly and awkward filly sitting there, Twist was glancing every other second to her aunt as if she was afraid Bonbon was somehow explosive. It was hard to blame her given the candy mare was actually vibrating in such a fashion that her chair was producing a steady hum.

"My dear niece," the white mare laughed dismissively, "you are a Silver, not only that but you stand to inherit the family trust. Do you really think, even for a second that the ponies you choose to involve yourself with aren't going to be affected by your very proximity? Or their friends by them in turn? Now you're just bringing them here because you're planning sleepovers on the spot as though such casual frivolity was even possible."

"When did I ever say word one about a sleepover?" Silver groaned as she rubbed her hooves in circles on her temples in the vague hope that an impromptu headache cure would end this conversation right now.

"You mean it ithn't?" Twist whined, "aww, I wath all eckthited for a thecond there."

For the first time that evening, Bonbon spoke, "Well, if you want it to be... I-I guess it's okay with me... how about you Mr Filthy?"

"I certainly see no problem with it," Filthy Rich said, glaring at the mare who had, for the umpteenth time that evening; forgotten that he hated his first name, "maybe I can pull out the photo album and..." his speech was brought to a tooth grinding halt as something hard smashed into his leg under the table, his daughter emerging back up onto her seat a second later.

"Sorry, dropped my salad fork," Diamond said with a flutter of her eyelashes to feign innocence.

"See, it's all okay Twist," Bonbon cooed to her niece, "it'll give the adults a chance to fully discuss the... um... the mer... mer-ji-arrr that we're apparently having... right now..." she looked around the table to see everypony staring at her and the fake grin slowly overtaking her face, "that I totally understand everything about by the way... say, this is a lovely room, perhaps I'll look into redecorating... um... who's hungry?"

At the very utterance of the word 'hungry', large dishes once again flashed into existence over the place settings, startling Bonbon and bringing her to much appreciated silence.

"Don't worry, you never really get used to it," Filthy leaned over and whispered to Bonbon, who was shaking but otherwise completely still, "just better at hiding your reaction."

Bonbon paid his words no heed, she was too busy glancing around at the servants who stood ready at the walls, not a hair out of place and with now much more noticeable metallic gleams secreted under their pristine uniforms.

She had, naturally enough for somepony that had lived next to an insane mint green unicorn for any length of time, immediately concluded that she was surrounded by assassins and that she would disappear without a trace if she had one more word or gesture out of place.

It had been a good year since Bonbon had last felt the kind of need to scream in terror that was currently lodged in her esophagus. This was odd given the town's generally high allocation of nightmarish occurrences so she was probably well past due for a good bit of hysterical circle running.

About a minute ago, in a room directly adjacent to the kitchen. -

A swarm of ponies were busying themselves around a similarly massive table constructed entirely of dark onyx, taking away dishes as they appeared and placing the next course on the marked runes as the pieces exited the ovens. It was loud and chaotic but everything was proceeding on schedule despite the last minute addition of four extra ponies to the meal.

Well, not quite everything, the serving staff would have a little less than normal in their usual 'overflow' pot luck at the end of the evening. It never hurt to be prepared, especially when somepony else was paying and barely even glanced when approving food budgets.

Regardless of this, once everything was in it's place for the main course, the timekeeper dutifully flipped an hourglass and the runes all started to glow red in warning to get clear. As the light started to become intense, all at once they went out with a flash and the table was now adorned only by a few small salad bowls that were bound for the sink.

Diamond Tiara had hardly been a stranger to confusion, mortification or the pressing need to plant one's fetlock directly on the bridge of their snout during her years in Ponyville, especially not since the formation of a certain trio and the endless disasters that followed in their wake but this...

Well, it was comparatively a four at best but that would require the benefit of hindsight to realize.

Her father was sitting rigidly, avoiding eye contact with anypony while the local candymare was shaking so much that she was unable to keep her food from spilling over her place setting. Bonbon's eyes were constantly darting about to everypony in the room as though she were ready to bolt for the exit at the slightest twitch and this was, in turn making everypony else afraid they were going to cause her to take flight if they dared actually eat.

Even worse, Silver and Ms Sterling were just alternating between glaring at each other and their meals with the occasional hoof pointing silent accusation of fault for this debacle.

Twist just looked like she was going to puke as her aunt went through another cycle of shuddering glances.

A second glance revealed that Twist's forehooves were shiny while her face had returned to it's normal tone. Diamond wondered for a second if she was the same but that thought was interrupted by a violent gurgle from Twist's belly.

Wait..

Is her tongue shining too? Did she accidentally eat the make up?

A subtle bubbling sound cascading through the cream filly's barrel confirmed that yes she had and yes, she really was going to puke. Diamond needed to get everypony out of this powder keg of a dinner and to do so right now before Twist could make it explode and ruin any chance of her ever feeling comfortable around Silver or herself.

Thinking quickly, Diamond glanced down at the small fray in the tablecloth that had been tickling her belly since she sat down and formulated her plan, she twirled it around her fork and tied it off, placed her fork back on her plate and braced herself to grab Twist and run out in the commotion.

Why were her destructive plans always her best ones? Ah well, no time to dwell on that for now.

"Done," Diamond whispered directly into the transport rune she knew was sitting just under her setting, there was a slight blink as her food and utensils vanished followed by a blur as the entire tablecloth, the candles, everypony else's meals and anything else that had been on the table whipped up and followed her unfinished food through the tiny wormhole like somepony had removed the plug to drain it.

Diamond grabbed Twist and vanished out the door heading for the bathroom before a last 'pop' signaled that the impromptu spectacle of swirling tabletop was over. Everypony else just stared in bewilderment and wondered what in Equestria had just occurred.

Well, except for Bonbon, who had fainted and was now face down on the table slowly creating a puddle of drool and babbling about her mistake being to forget that ninja was it's own plural.

Once they had recovered their faculties, everypony wordlessly agreed that they should not disturb her.

"Silver Spoon dear," Sterling said to her niece with a knowing smirk, "could you please go check to see if your friends have come out okay in the preparation room, I'd hate for them to be added to the potluck."

Silver just smiled back and mouthed out 'thank you' before taking off out the door to try to figure out where her friends had actually gone.

"Well then Mr Rich," Sterling said as she put her hostess smile back on and turned to her one remaining guest, "shall we go to the parlor for some drinks, I don't know about you but I could really use one."

Filthy Rich just sighed and nodded, standing up to follow his host.

"Oh, and Swift Service," Sterling added looking over her shoulder to her personal servant, "do be a dear and bring Miss Drops along, I shall recover the smelling salts when we arrive."

"Yes Miss," the light blue unicorn replied before scooping up the now sleeping mare in her telekinesis and draping her over her back. Swift Service shuddered a little as Bonbon's drool string snapped and swung coldly into her side but kept her form as she trotted gracefully toward the parlor.

"Ewwww, what in the hay is that smell?" Silver Spoon cried and covered her muzzle as a wave of acrid stench hit her upon entering the bathroom the servants had pointed her towards.

She soon got her answer as she saw Diamond standing over Twist holding her mane out of her face as the redhead continued vomiting what remained of her guts out into the lavatory.

Diamond Tiara's face and mane were a mess, as she'd evidently been splashed in the face but she was far more concerned with trying to get Twist through her dry heaving hell.

"Like, hey Silver," Diamond greeted her with a shudder, "hope you don't mind but we decided to get a head start on practicing for college life."

"Gamma gamma epthiloo..," Twist chuckled before being interrupted by another wave of nausea.

"Well, this is fine," Silver smirked, "we'll not be losing our trust funds so long as we don't do anything really stupid, like go to Hayle."

"And before you ask," Diamond sighed, annoyed that somepony had to bring up that stupid rivalry with her Daddy's college, "we already have one of your maids, Delicate Brush I think, heading off for some medicine."

"Can't say I know her, she must be new," said Silver, "I must say that she doesn't really have a name I'd expect from somepony that became a maid."

"She's probably an arts major."

"Ah."

It was then that the faded orange blur known as Delicate Brush reappeared, dashing back into the bathroom and finding the gleaming tiles less than conducive to unicorns attempting speedy turns, she skidded across the floor and slammed into the wall. She groaned from under her sky blue mane and hooved Silver a bottle of milk and some charcoal pills.

"It's what the doctor recommended," Delicate groaned as she worked her way back to her hooves.

"Um... like, thanks," Silver Spoon replied as she passed the medicine on to another servant moving past to attend to Twist, "you'll have to forgive me for prying but... I can't say I've ever seen one of our servants do a full crusader like that."

"Yeah, sorry," Delicate blushed, "I don't have a lot of experience being in a rush, I'm usually doing slower things like restoration and maintenance on the antiques." The unicorn paused to consider what had actually been said, "wait, a cru - what?"

"Oh, it's a Ponyville thing," chuckled Diamond as she trotted over to the sink, "you can't have been here long if you don't know to run when you hear a buzz."

"Thank you Miss Rich," said Delicate as she grabbed some extra towels out of the cupboard with her magic, "I'll try to remember that. Now, I would suggest you wash up too Miss Silver, I have my doubts that you want to lick your lips and end up like your friend there." She glanced over at the redhead who had finally managed to down her medicine and was swaying on her hooves.

"Yes," said Silver as she took a towel from Delicate's telekinetic grip and started to remove the bulk of the caked glitter from her cheeks, "you know, I'm honestly surprised I've not seen you around before, you do seem to know most of the other servants around here."

"Oh," said Delicate, "I've been moved down here from the main mansion up in Canterlot until the renovations are complete. It was either this or deal with a maze of tarps and paint trays and I fear I would have gone quite mad."

"So you moved to Ponyville," Diamond laughed from the sink, "I think you may have been counterproductive so far as avoiding insanity goes," She splashed her face and stepped away to let Silver wash properly, "tonight being a fairly average evening for this town."

"Well, I'll be sure to pass that along to all the others then," Delicate chuckled as she cast a quick drying spell on Diamond and moved to go assist Twist.

"What others?," Silver asked.

"As I tried to explain to you earlier before the children arrived Mr Rich," Sterling Silver continued, "events are already in motion and I need to warn you that they are going to try to isolate Silver Spoon before too long. That puts your daughter and Miss Sweetie Drop's niece into the firing line and we need to be prepared if something happens again." The matriarch stared into the fire in the hearth and absently tossed some papers into it.

"With all due respect Sterling," Filthy Rich sighed, "what happened in Canterlot was entirely my wife's doing and I don't need your paranoid fantasies clouding me from seeing that as the truth." He look another long swig of the bourbon he'd been offered and sat back heavily, "It was already hard enough accepting that once."

"Well, I may be paranoid but it's not me they're out to get," Sterling retorted dismissively, "I don't know if you've noticed but they're already cleaning house here, with the exception of Swift and a couple of others I hired personally, I've found my home full of strangers as my staff have been slowly shuffled to Canterlot over the last couple of seasons for no good reason I can fathom."

"But your reasoning makes no sense," Filthy replied as he peered through the lens of his now annoyingly empty glass, "the Silver family are already by far the richest ponies in Equestria, it makes little sense to turn on each other and risk collapsing it."

"And if this was purely about money I might agree with you Mr Rich," the white mare replied as she refilled his glass, "but this has always been about power, the ability to change the landscape of Equestria with nothing but your signature or lack thereof. Young Spoon has been sent here, as was her father before her, to ensure that she has a proper perspective of exactly what she's really in charge of and there are a lot of ponies in positions to do terrible things if they could mold her into the mare they want her to become."

"But why would my little Diamond ever be a target for them? She already stands to become the head of Equestria's largest retail chain, isn't that exactly the kind of friend they'd want her to have?"

"Because Diamond ties Spoon to Ponyville," Sterling said, "their best chance to skew her perspective toward friends in the nobility is in three seasons when she moves onto secondary school. If she has nothing tying her to this place she may well decide she'd rather move back to Canterlot and it's in that hive of schemes that she will become the weak willed tool they want."

Filthy Rich was about to continue his line of thought when a rustling sound and a series of snorts signaled that Bonbon was finally coming back around, this was punctuated by a slight wheezing and then a loud thump as she rolled off the settee onto the floor.

"Oh Celestia," moaned Bonbon as she looked around and remembered what had happened, "I'm lying on plastic sheets aren't I? Well, I won't talk."

"No Miss Drops," chuckled Sterling with a sip from her flask, "the cold sensation on your back is just marble. We already chased all the shinobi away, turns out they're easily startled by loud noises and flashing lights."

Bonbon scrunched up her nose in annoyance at the use of her real name, "well, at least I was right about this house being full of spies if your earlier conversation was an indication." She smiled to herself for her clever retort.

"Oh," asked Sterling, "so you understood the stakes of what was being said then."

"Didn't understand a word," Bonbon replied confidently while crossing her forehooves, her self satisfied grin never wavering for a moment.

Silver Spoon had never been a mare to do anything by halves and if she was going to host a slumber party, she was going to do it right.

To this end, her private wing now contained every form of sugar known to ponies and probably a couple that aren't stacked high over her table. this was in addition to a large cleared area with three sleeping bags arranged in a circle ideal for gossiping about colts, stallions, classmates, hobbies and whatever frivolous thing crossed their minds. At the very least it was likely that Twist would have a great deal of wisdom regarding amazing combinations of sugar laden confections with no logical business being anywhere within ten feet of each other.

Thankfully, Diamond was able to help her get everything set up by the time Delicate Brush bought Twist back, a clean bill of health ensuring that she could indulge in the kind of diabetes-baiting that marked a successful sleepover. Silver thanked the maid for her time and sent her on her way.

"Wow, you girl'th really put thith together fath't," said Twist as she looked around foyer, it's table of treats inviting her and her largely empty stomach to an evening of riding high on the Pinkie train.

"Well, you didn't leave me with a lot of choice during dinner," Silver laughed before before putting on a mock southern belle pose, "Oooh, I was aaaall excited about it Aunty. My dreams shall simply be shattered if I don't get to do this thing that hadn't even been bought up before now," she ended this by staggering in a circle with her hoof on her forehead before mock fainting onto a pillow, "oh, woe is me."

"I hath taught you well my apprentith'," Twist giggled, "Thoon we thall combine our forthes and nether the mathriarthy nor the pathriarthy thall be able to th'tand before our mighty cutey pie barrath'."

Diamond just rolled her eyes at the two giggle-pusses before her as they continued to misquote terrible old nerd movies and generally work themselves into a self sustaining fit that was only funny because they were already laughing. She'd never quite been able to enjoy those movies, as she couldn't understand how something could be loved for it's inherent awfulness.

If there was one feeling Diamond Tiara didn't like, it was the uneasiness of not understanding.

Diamond Tiara's stomach was growling again.

That wouldn't have been so bad in itself but it had snapped her out of the zen like state she'd been enjoying and the momentary lapse of concentration sent her out of the graceful twirl she'd been doing and into a hooves over head tumble that ended with her staring up at the sky.

"Are you okay Diamond?," Silver Spoon asked as she trotted across the grass into her peripheral vision, "that looked like quite a tumble you had there."

"I'm FINE," Diamond grumbled in frustration as she beat her hooves on the ground, "guess I'm gonna need to work on that one." She accepted Silvers hoof up and a slight twang in her side made her shudder and stumble. "Heh, guess I'm not all that fine."

Silver carefully led Diamond over to the bench she'd been sitting on so she could rest for a bit when a second, louder protest from Diamond's stomach interrupted her.

"Well, guess it's a good thing I accidentally got two cookies today then, isn't it," Silver chuckled to her injured friend as she reached down into her saddlebags, emerging a second later with two doughy discs interlaced with large chunks of what Diamond could only remember in her dreams as 'the forbidden substance'.

Diamond paused for a second of doubt before she accepted the cookie that was offered to her with a heartfelt smile, she didn't even really think she could eat it, she just stared at the way the sun illuminated it's edges and finally concluded that yes, she could eat it and nuts to her stupid diet.

Then she realized that Silver wasn't eating her's, in fact she was staring open mouthed at Diamond in what appeared to be a state of shock. Diamond followed Silver's gaze down to her side where there was now a massive purple bruise covering her skin, now as obvious as the pink of her fur.

It took almost a full half-minute before Silver's incoherent screaming managed to attract an adult and Diamond made good use of that time to devour her cookie lest it be taken from her. Diamond was soon whisked off to the nurse's office so that her injuries could be properly evaluated and she ended up spending the remainder of the afternoon explaining how long that had been there and how she got it in her training.

In the end she was sent home early with a note explaining why she'd have to stop her training until she'd healed up fully. She sighed as she trotted sullenly across the quad and stopped briefly where she'd fallen.

She stomped her hooves angrily over the ground until no trace remained of the streaks of pink makeup that stained the grass.

Stupid grass, now Mummy would be upset.

Jade Scepter glared at the note, how dare they even try to tell her how she should be conducting her daughter's training, it was hard enough getting her to stick to a schedule as it was and she certainly didn't need to start skimping just because of a little bruise.

Once she'd done an entire show with a broken hoof and nopony had even realized.

Diamond looked up at her mother as she paced back and forth and felt ashamed, behind her sat a shelf stacked with the trophies she'd bought out to motivate her daughter, the trophies of a winner, banners from her tour as Miss Equestria and other accolades across the entire length. Under that sat Diamond's shelf, every number from second to fifth but not a first place to be found, she wasn't getting on the top shelf until she had a major win and she couldn't quit now, they'd worked so hard.

Why would anypony ever settle to be anything less than number one?

'Why were the guardponies taking Mummy away?'

Diamond Tiara simply didn't understand what was happening, all she'd been doing was practicing when the doorbell had rung and now she was desperately kicking against the barrel of the school nurse as she was held tight. Why were they taking her bedsheets and dresses in plastic bags? She needed those for the pageant next week.

The last thing Diamond saw before she was shuffled out the door was Jade Scepter making one last desperate dash for her daughter and falling as the guardponies tackled her to the ground.

That was the last time Diamond Tiara had seen her mother.

"No Miss Bonbon," growled an angrily depressed and thoroughly drunk Filthy Rich as he leaned over on the settee to prop himself up, "I don't hate my wife for what she did, I don't think I ever could, but at the same time I can't ever forgive her." He swirled the meager remains of the scotch in the glass and looked her straight in the eye, "do you think you could ever forgive someone who would sell their own child to those bastard judges just for some Celestia damned ribbon?"

"But Miss Sterling said that she didn't," Bonbon replied sheepishly, the intensity of Filthy's glare making her understandably nervous.

"No," Filthy shouted with a stomp of his hoof, causing Bonbon to backpedal away from him, "There is NO conspiracy, it doesn't even make sense for there to be one. I don't know what kind of delusions of grandeur Sterling suffers from but there is NOTHING her family could possibly be responsible for that they would fabricate a bloody mountain of evidence and pay off four stallions to go to jail for the rest of their lives, which were probably VERY SHORT because the case was the main headline in every bucking paper for weeks by the way, just so that little Silver Spoon would have to make new friends. It's completely retarded and I'm sick of hearing it, Diamond and I had to make new lives and the great one followed us all the way back here so I guess even the shadow ponies get to be disappointed. Everypony wins!"

With that, he put down his glass far more forcefully than was necessary, nodded a goodbye to Bonbon and trotted out the door without another word.

"Well then," said Bonbon as it dawned on her that the evening was now very definitely over, "um... why don't you get your ponies to call my ponies and we can hash out a plan for your investment in my store." She maintained eye contact with Sterling Silver as she circled as wide as she could on her way toward the exit, "it was a lovely evening.. I think?"

"You don't have ponies Miss Drops," Sterling deadpanned, holding back a wince as she watched the candymare circle around her and trip or stumble on every single thing anywhere near her path, "but thank you all the same, I'll be in touch. Do you need Swift to show you the way out, I should very much prefer it if at least one of my carpets was still flat when you leave."

Bonbon blushed and smiled back, nodded to the waiting Swift Service to show her the way and began mentally composing a list of things she could never tell anypony lest she endure months of told-you-so's from Lyra.

"Tho how do you think the adult'th are doing?," asked Twist through a mouthful of marshmallow and pastry, "I hope Aunt Bonbon hathn't gotten to doing her," she put her hooves up to do air quotes with an eye roll, "comedy routine yet."

"Just so long as they haven't pulled out any photos or newspapers," Diamond replied as she tried to wiggle to the snack table without leaving her sleeping bag, "I'm sure it's nothing we should worry about."

"What'th wrong with a newthpaper?"

"Oh you know," said Diamond as she mentally cursed her slip, "I um.. like, just don't want anypony bringing up the Gabby Gums thing again, you know."

"Oh yeah," Twist chuckled, "I th'till don't know where you got those photos of me with my mane in the oven door, but thank'th for not printing them."

"Well, a slow news day never came up."

"What?"

"Nothing, never mind."

Silver Spoon just sat up in her sleeping bag and smiled as she watched her two guests argue first about Diamond's short stint as an editor, then over newspaper comics and finally over which superponies could beat up other superponies.

She was almost entirely content that the evening, dinner notwithstanding had gone as perfectly as it could by the time she realized Twist had yelled something, something along the lines of pillar flight.

That was when a feather stuffed bludgeon slammed into the side of her head.

"Oh it is SO on," Silver laughed as she sprang from her sleeping bag to do battle, her pillow dangling in her mouth.

It had taken nearly half an hour and three kicked letterboxes but a drunk and angry Filthy Rich had finally staggered back to his own door.

Why did that horrible mare feel the need to bring the worst months of his life up? Didn't she get that he'd already had to fight himself to believe what had happened the first time? He didn't understand why Jade had done those things but he'd accepted that she HAD.

Not that she'd ever admitted it herself, the selfish bitch.

Why not?

Filthy rich slumped down on his porch having given up hope of finding his keys for the time being and pondered that question over and over again in his head.

It was there, under the light of Luna's moon that he finally decided he would find out tomorrow.

He was going back to Canterlot, and he was talking to Jade.

Author's Note

Well then, guess that's finally done.

Only took me over a YEAR. Mainly due to laziness really, but also because I did 2 versions, the first was bad because I had no idea how to get this much information in all at once. This chapter was a workhorse of exposition.

Also, thanks to Mushious for helping me to edit this into coherency.

Anyway, more will be forthcoming but I'm not going to hold myself to any dates.

Old business

Filthy Rich’s head was throbbing.

Under normal circumstances he was an organized pony with a plan for any contingency up to and including having to do business while enduring truly monstrous hangovers. It was an important and time honored tradition in the grand halls of Hayle University to make sure that a suitable tolerance was cultivated before any portion of ones brain became devoted to pointless knowledge like ‘how to run a business’ or ‘how to fake knowing things long enough to pass’ and he was fully prepared for his train journey to Canterlot with a massive cup of very strong coffee, an absorbent breakfast and a practiced aura of ‘no, I am not okay and you asking will not help, so please be quiet’.

It HAD been working right up until his train car had become suddenly filled to capacity with boxes of pastries and cakes and a normally friendly pink mare that had so innocently asked for a sip of what she had probably assumed was his hot chocolate.

That had been two hours ago.

He had long since completely exhausted his repertoire of titles and honorifics from ‘Miss Pie’ to ‘Pinkamena’ and even to ‘Pinkie Chan’ in his attempts to actually get a word in but for now he was just going to go with ‘the thing that will not shut up.’

“So anyway, like I was saying,” the pink blur continued as she zipped from one stack of boxes to another seemingly to make sure the labels were still in order, “Princess Twilight is launching her big work outreach program now that her trial run is done and so I have to throw a party for the team but it’s a prison so I don’t know how good I should make the party because otherwise you’ll have ponies outside trying to get into the prison but there’s only one way to do that and the party is only for a few hours so they’ll have gone to prison for nothing so that wouldn’t be very fun.”

“Miss Pie,” Filthy Rich moaned as he massaged his temples, “do you know what hubris is?”

“Well sure I do silly,” Pinkie laughed, “but I don’t really like flatbreads very much. Give me a good muffin or bagel any day. Ooh, or a cupcake, I love cupcakes, I even wrote a song about them.”

And with that, Filthy Rich’s face just stared in wonderment as she began her song and his brain checked out. He didn’t care where his thoughts went, anywhere was better than here.

The scandal that rocked the pageant world.

Filthy Rich glared at the headline plastered across his desk for a few seconds before throwing it into the waste bin.

The mother who sold her foal for a crown.

Another paper, same damn story. Bin it.

Has the nefarious Mane-iac has really taken the throne? Find out in..

Wait… What?

Filthy Rich sighed and leaned back in his chair as the tiny colorful book sat in his hooves. He reasoned that he must have grabbed it by accident when he bought every paper at the newsagents just hoping to read something to take his mind off what had happened. Did he really have to resort to reading something meant for foals just so that he didn’t have to think about Jade’s betrayal or those disgusting stallions any more?

A glance at the long since overflowing waste bin confirmed it. The only thing anypony in Canterlot was talking about was ‘the cabal’ , ‘the ring’, ‘the blahblahsinistername’ or whatever they wanted to call the judges and he couldn’t really blame the papers for giving in to the demands, even if they were clearly starting to run out of material and were just cannibalizing each other now.

If he had to look at that damn photo of Jade striking Diamond in that Manehattan restaurant one more time.

The trial was set for the next week and preparing Jade for it had taken up all of his time from the moment he’d stepped off the train. He had thankfully managed to broker a deal where his little Diamond wouldn’t have to testify if Jade pleaded guilty and testified against the other judges. She’d jumped at the deal.

The very idea of Diamond testifying seemed to make her terrified. He wasn’t sure if that was a protective instinct or self preservation but either way she’d agreed and that meant that he had nothing to do now but wait.

“Jade,” he muttered to himself as he poured himself a scotch, “what have you done?”

*BANG BANG BANG!*

His train of thought was interrupted as a loud knocking erupted from his study door followed by a very worried looking maid trotting in and standing to attention despite the fact that she was clearly hyperventilating, most likely from having run here at full speed if the disarray of her uniform was any indication.

What was her name? Cotton Swab? Cotton Ball? Something like that. At some point he would really have to learn his servants names, Jade had always handled the help and the house in the past.

Jade had basically run everything in his life that wasn’t his work.

“Please Mister Filthy Sir,” she gasped out once she’d caught her breath, “you must come quickly. Miss Tiara has locked herself in the bathroom and we can’t get her to come out.”

“Do you have any idea why?” Filthy Rich asked as he put down his drink and tossed the comic into the bin, “how long has she been in there Cotton?”

“A little over two hours now Mr Filthy,” she answered with a grimace, “we realized something was wrong when she didn’t come out after the first hour and we can’t get her to answer. We tried everything we could think of but all we could hear was the shower running, then I came to get you as soon as we got word you were home.”

That was all the details he needed to hear and he was already out of the study and galloping toward the foyer before he was even aware of it. He had almost gotten halfway there when he suddenly came to an abrupt halt as he realized something about the size of his house, causing Cotton to crash into his flank as she failed to react in time and sent them both sliding splayed out across the marble surface.

“Miss Cotton,” he asked apologetically as he got to his hooves and helped her up, “which bathroom exactly is it?”

---------------

How could he possibly have an entire guest wing that he didn’t know about?

It had taken him five wrong turns that looped him back to where he’d started but the sound of the shower faucet gave Filthy hope that he was finally approaching the right place.

Now he just had to deal with the fact that he’d accumulated a large reserve of terrible premonitions about what he was going to see when he opened that door. A state that he fully intended to rectify as he galloped around a corner and came upon a small army of unicorn servants desperately trying to undo the enchantments on the lock that were preventing the door from being opened.

They barely had time to look up from their work and register that their employer had bellowed for them to “GET OUT OF MY WAY!” before Filthy had skidded to a stop and with his back to the door, employed an earth pony skill that he hadn’t used since his teenage years when he was helping his family’s oldest business partners with his father.

There was a great crash as his legs sprang out and obliterated the fine hoof-carved door, turning what had once been a great mahogany barrier into a pile of splinters save for a few stubborn remnants attached to the bent hinges and the lock, which hovered in mid air, still dutifully rooted in space where it’s bolt should have been firmly in the wood that used to be the doorframe.

As if to relieve it of it’s misery, he turned the latch on the inside and it dropped to the ground as its enchantments shut off.

The bathroom itself was a mess of steam that had coated every surface in condensation and turned anything past a hoofs length into an indistinct blur littered with debris from the door. Filthy Rich didn’t care and walked blindly in the direction of the loudly running water that roared over the much fainter but distressing sound of a sobbing filly.

The white abyss of the mists soon ended as he came upon the door to the shower and reached out to shut off the cold water, the hot water reserve having expired some time ago. The faucet squeaked in relief as the pressure was finally stopped and allowed the mists to part enough to reveal a soaking wet and shaking pink filly who had curled herself up in a fetal ball and was clutching a reddened washcloth for dear life like it was a comforter.

All the fur around her cutie mark was gone and the skin had been rubbed raw and bleeding. Clumps of her bloodied fur were scattered around the shower and clogged parts of the drain.

“It won’t… it won’t come off,” Diamond sniffed, having cried herself out long ago and been reduced to a snotty mess, “I.. I-I scrubbed and scrubbed but it wo..wo (hic)..won’t c-come off.”

At a loss for words, Filthy Rich scooped up his shivering daughter in his forehooves and hugged her as tightly as he dared to do as she heaved sobs onto his shoulder.

“My darling little Diamond,” he whispered to her as her shaking started to slow down, “why would you ever want to ruin your beautiful fur or your cutie mark. It doesn’t matter what those stallions did or said to you, they’re gone now and they’re never coming back. You’re safe now, I promise.”

“B-b but,” Diamond sobbed, “I.. I dun want my cutie mark anymore,” she hugged her father tighter as she once again started to shake uncontrollably, “If I (hic), if I never got this stupid thing then Mu.. then Mum.. Mummy would still..”

Her sentence was cut short as she started bawling again in earnest, banging her little hooves against her father’s barrel as all he could do to comfort her was to hold her closer. They sat there for several long minutes as Diamond heaved and blubbered incoherently and Filthy Rich just took it all in and realized with a growing dread in the pit of his stomach that for all his wealth, he was completely unprepared for raising his daughter on his own.

Finally, as the last of the mists dissipated to reveal two sodden ponies shivering and covered in tears and mucus, servants moved into the bathroom and started to wrap them in warm towels while others held hot cocoa at the ready should they be needed.

Diamond Tiara cried herself to sleep that night.

Filthy Rich was unable to find any sleep at all.

“And like I was saying,” the still caffeinated pink mare rambled, “it was really a neat coincidence that you were the first pony to get a Pinkie party with my party cannon because you just turned up out of the blue the day after it arrived and were totally able to afford the damages it caused at the train station.”

Filthy Rich snorted as he was snapped back to consciousness by a sudden change in the pace of the train.

“Thanks for that again by the way,” Pinkie continued on, oblivious to the fact that her audience was still mostly zoned out, “I should totally be able to finally pay you back next year. Who knew that icing and boilers don’t mix well? Not me, that’s for sure, you’d think they’d get along really well because baking and boilers both start with the…”

*TOOOOOOT!*

Pinkie Pie abruptly stopped talking and pressed her muzzle against the window as the train lurched to a stop at Canterlots main station.

“Well then Richy,” Pinkie giggled as she bounded up onto her hooves from her seat, “it’s been fun talking to you, have a nice time at..” She stopped and thought about it for a second, “say, you never did say where you were going didja, somewhere fun I bet.. ooor somewhere businessy, or somewhere bisfunnery, wait, is that a word? I should ask Twilight, or...”

Filthy Rich held up his hoof to stop her again, “Yes, it was lovely talking with you again but I have a private matter that I must attend so I’m afraid we must part company.” He paused as something he’d heard earlier amid the neverending storm of words came back to him, “Um.. Miss Pie, where was it that you said you were hosting this party for Princess Twilight?”

“Canterlot Correctional Facility. Why do you ask Richy?”

“Oh, no reason,” Filthy replied with a resigned sigh.

Why are these expensive magical light crystals so bright?

“Uuuuugh,” Diamond Tiara moaned and squinted as she waited for her turn in the bathroom, “why did this seem like such a good idea last night?”

“I don’t know,” came a slightly raspy and strained reply from Silver Spoon as she fitted her toothbrush into it’s hoof adapter, “it seems to be an inevitable part of college life if the movies are to be believed, maybe having a tolerance built up was our plan. I wouldn’t put it past us to plot against our future selves for that advantage.”

“Wow,” Diamond moaned as she smacked her lips, “past us are either morons or evil geniuses, I’d like to think it was the former but we seem to have picked up this vocabulary from somewhere and I seriously doubt current us could have been bothered.”

“You girlth’ are lightweight’th,” laughed Twist as she emerged from the shower looking like she’d been up for hours and trotted out, “do yourthelve’th a favour and don’t tou’th anything Aunt Bonbon makes with blath’ter in the name. Now that’th real thugar.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way Twist,” Diamond groaned and rubbed her throbbing head, “but go die in a fire.”

“Awwww,” Twist chirped as she stuck her head back through the doorway and wiggled her glasses, “at leath’t you care enough to be thpethific. Thower’th all your’th by the way.”

“Me standing in water is the exact opposite of you lying in fire,” Diamond growled as she trudged over to the faucet, “I don’t know how you can be this used to hangovers, I wouldn’t think all night sugar binges were your kind of thing.”

“Well no,” Twist replied from the common room, “but in Auntie Bonbon’th houth thugar ith practically in the air it’thelf. We make everything on the premith’eth you know.”

“Tha thinds,” Silver gurgled before turning back to the sink to spit out a mouthful of toothpaste, “that actually does sound like a fire hazard Twist, especially given how hot your ovens must get.”

“Nah,” Twist chuckled as she made herself comfortable on the couch, “We have fantath’tic ventilation, the thugar moth’tly get’th about becauth it juth’t followth Auntie and me. Thomething to do with earth pony magic but all I thee ith a lot of extra th’weeping and laundry I have to do.”

“Hah,” Diamond chuckled from the shower, “I wonder if that means that we could slap a spreadsheet or pie graph onto Silver’s butt and it would just stay there forever without help.”

“It just might,” Silver shot back, “self importance and egotism do seem to have become firmly attached to yours.”

“No,” Diamond giggled, “I’m looking at my butt right now and the only thing that’s stuck to it is your jelly Silver.”

“Well then,” Silver laughed, “I guess I’d best give you some of my raspberries to go with it.” She then stuck out her tongue and made a very brief ‘thhhp’ing noise before she realized that she still had toothpaste in her mouth and had just blown it down her front and onto the floor.

“Bleh.”

Diamond Tiara and Twist burst out laughing as a mortified Silver Spoon turned red before rushing back to the sink to rinse her mouth out.

“Thpeaking of magic though Diamond,” Twist asked, “ithn’t it thupoth’d to be really bad for a pony to deny their thpethal talent? Mith Cheerilee thaid that you could get theriothly thick from magic buildup or thomething like that.”

“Yeah,” Diamond sighed, “but it’s not like I could get back into doing contests even if I wanted to. Mum’s cheating was a really, really big deal and it’s not like I don’t practice my abilities in how I hold myself anyway.”

“I thupothe,” Twist replied, “but why the lie? It’th not like we’d think any leth of you thinthe you’re not the one who did it.”

“Ponies just..,” Diamond sighed, “they just can’t know because it wouldn’t take them long to figure out who I was and if they knew I’d get.. I’d get those damn looks again. Like they can’t decide if I’m just some pathetic victim or..,” her hoof started shaking at the thought, “or even worse, some horrible villain.”

“Why a villain? You did nothing wrong.”

“I don’t even know, alright,” Diamond shot back, “for some reason there was a complete reform of the entire pageant circuit following it. The whole show shut down for an entire year and my mother was the public face of it. It doesn’t matter if I did anything wrong or not because my name was like a dirty word to them.”

“Wow,” Twist pondered, “they muth’t take pageant ruleth really theriothly in Canterlot.”

“Please, where are my glasses, I can’t see without my glasses.”

Diamond Tiara could only just barely hear her friend whimpering behind her while she shielded her from the group of her classmates that were slowly encircling the two of them to trap her with the unicorns that had blasted Silver’s glasses off and sent her to the ground with a clump of thrown mud.

“Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!” the surrounding children chorused with slowly increasing volume.

“What the heck is your problem you jerk?” Diamond demanded of her friend’s attackers as she continued to position herself between them and Silver, “what did she ever do to you? Or to anypony?”

“Oh, I do apologize,” a smug purple colt laughed, “but it really was your fault she got hit like that.”

“What?” Diamond snarled.

“You moved,” he sneered, “you ducked out of the way far faster than I’d ever expect a girl to… well no, but certainly faster than I’d ever expect a dirt pony to move away from their destiny.”

“How DARE you,” Diamond seethed as she started to really see red, “You shut your mouth right now or...”

“Then again,” the colt laughed as he ignored her words, “I guess you should be well practiced at dancing out of the firing line by now, after all, you somehow managed to not get sent to prison with that FILTHY half-breed mother of yours.”

The colt continued on, unaware of the threatening posture Diamond had taken or the fact that every other student in the quad had started to back away from him.

“Did you REALLY think that just because you can do some little twirls that you belong on the same stage as unicorns and pegasi?” he jeered, “my sisters ended up crying for WEEKS after your stupid little stunt got the entire circuit shut down. Dirt pony can’t compete fairly so she has to get down in the mud with the judges for an edge. Well then,” he levitated up another clod of mud from the garden, “I’ll give you all the DIRT you could ever..”

THWACK!

The colt was abruptly silenced as Diamond’s rear hooves collided with the side of his jaw, sending him bouncing and tumbling across the quad leaving a trail of blood and teeth in his wake until he came to a sudden, crunching halt when he thumped into the tree in the center.

He struggled to his hooves and turned achingly around to face the blurry pink demon that was currently attacking him, he lit his horn to defend himself but a blow to the base of it sent him into a feedback loop and he clutched his head in agony until a kick to his barrel brought him back to reality.

“What’s the matter,” Diamond growled at him, “don’t you like dirt?.. There’s nothing wrong with a good bit of dirt, it’s awesome for any meal,” she picked up his head by the mane and slammed it back down into the grass, “here, TRY SOME!”

Diamond laughed a joyless, sinister laugh as he struggled desperately to get his face up out the mud. “Aww, what’s the matter?,” she teased, “is that dirt just not refined enough for you, well, let’s fix that.”

“Please stop,” he begged through his tears and the taste of copper, “I’m sorry.”

“And here,” she continued as she dragged him by his mane back out onto the concrete, “we have some much more processed dirt, I’m sure it’ll be more to your liking.” Diamond growled and picked his head up again.

She was almost certain she could hear Silver yelling from across the quad for her to stop before she heard the crack.

---------------

Diamond Tiara couldn’t bring herself to think about what her father was hearing behind the great doors.

Instead, she just kept her head down and concentrated her view on the carpet in the foyer of the principal’s office. She’d been here far too frequently since she’d been considered well enough to return to school. It had mostly been because she’d yelled at the teachers for looking at her like some kind of leper but the incident today…

That was another matter altogether and she’d known it from the moment she’d realized she was standing over a colt that was barely moving and she was just shaking with anger that she could barely remember the source of but otherwise unmoving.

“No Mr Rich,” Principal Hard Measure continued, “modern medicine being what it is, I’m sure that Ivory Keys will make a full recovery, assuming that his family can get over their… ideas about race long enough to enlist a zebra to regrow the boy’s teeth. He should otherwise be running around again none the worse for wear in a few weeks.”

“I am SO sorry,” Filthy Rich apologized, “I promise you that this won’t happen again.”

“Oh, I know it won’t Mr Rich,” Hard Measure replied, “because I’m afraid that your daughter will not be continuing her education here at this school.”

“Wait, please don’t..”

“Oh, don’t worry Mr Rich,” Hard Measure interrupted, “she is not being expelled because of this one incident and it will not be going on any permanent records, they’re children, this kind of nonsense happens all the time. The problem here is that after Miss Tiara’s almost entirely justified little demonstration, the other student’s parents are somewhat overreacting to the… and I quote, ‘threat that earth pony strength represents to their children.’ It’s a load of old rubbish if you ask me but they apparently don’t like having the playing field be tipped the other way when their kids don’t have all their magic yet.”

“That’s a load of horseapples,” Filthy protested, “you can’t seriously think that.”

“Oh, I know it is just as well as you,” Hard Measure sighed, “but ponies are less than rational creatures at the best of times and if I fight this, I will soon find myself minus a job and replaced with a puppet that would likely do far worse. I can assure you Mr Rich that I don’t like this any more than you do but my hooves are tied.”

“So what exactly do you expect me to do then,” Filthy Rich sighed, “with all the nonsense lately it’s not like I can send her to a public school without a swarm of paparazzi descending on her.”

The educator turned his head to explain but was unable to get a word in as Filthy started to pace about and ramble angrily.

“And what of Silver Spoon and the other earth ponies here, do you expect them to do the same? This can’t be right and I’m going to fight them on this, I’m sure the Silver’s will back me on it and so will the Peach family. You just watch, I’ll stop that bunch of...”

“MR RICH PLEASE!”

Filthy Rich found himself stopped mid-rant as the normally very reserved Hard Measure raised his voice in such a manner that all other sound in the room was temporarily obliterated by it. He sat back down and hung his head like a chastised foal.

“Now as I was going to say Filthy,” Hard Measure continued in his usual voice, “I have already discussed this matter with the other parents and ah… one moment please,” he paused and placed his hoof down on the intercom button, “Miss Triplicate, could you please send Mr Silver in, we’re ready to see him now.”

“Yes Mr Measure,” came the nasally reply over the speaker.

“Wait,” Filthy asked, “you mean that Scabbard actually took the time to come down here… himself?”

“Yes old friend,” came a deep tenor from behind Filthy, “it’s great to see you again after you disappeared into your work, I was afraid that you were becoming something of a recluse.”

“I could say the same to you Scabby,” Filthy smiled up at the massive grey stallion, an imposing figure in a tailored suit who could only be matched for sheer physical presence by the eldest son of the Apples, “and I do wish this meeting could have been under better circumstances but it’s still so good to see you.”

“Yes, I wish it could have been as well,” Silver Scabbard sighed, “but the fact that I found the time to come here myself should tell you that this is not a casual matter Filthy. I am pulling my daughter out of this school and I should recommend you do the same.”

“But where would I send her?,” Filthy asked, “there aren’t any schools in this town where she won’t be recognized. Silver Spoon would probably be noticed soon enough too, she was in that stupid photo in the restaurant too so it wouldn’t take long.”

“I know that,” Scabbard chuckled, “I wasn’t thinking of keeping her in Canterlot any more at all. In fact, I talked it over with Mr Measure here and we both agreed that it would be best to give her what you and I had. And to give the same to little Diamond too.”

Filthy Rich pondered the proposal for a second, a smile slowly growing on his face as a rush of memories came flooding back to him.

“But where would they live?,” Filthy asked, “It’s not like we have permanent residences in Ponyville ourselves any more.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Scabbard reassured him, “I’ve arranged for Spoon to stay with my sister for a time and it’s my understanding that they have something of a housing surplus there right now. There were apparently some rumblings that Celestia was looking for a residence in Ponyville but nothing really came of it and the speculators were left holding the baby.”

FIlthy suddenly leapt up and embraced his old friend with all his might, it took Silver Scabbard a second to react but he draped his hoof over Filthy’s shoulder and returned the hug.

“Well then Mr Measure,” Scabbard nodded to the smiling principal still sitting at his desk, “it would seem that our business is concluded for all but the paperwork.”

“It would certainly seem so Mr Silver,” Hard Measure replied, “I’m sure that we can have the papers to you and Mr Rich within a day or so.”

“That’s good, you do your office proud,” the great grey stallion smiled, “and I hope that you’re going to have a word with the parents of the Keys boy about the kind of language they use in front of him. I’d hate to need the time to have that discussion myself.”

“Um..,” Hard Measure gulped, “y-yes, I’ll pass that message along.”

Silver Scabbard turned back to his friend who had now broken off the embrace and was beaming as he started recalling all the adventures they two of them had grown up having in the sleepy hamlet of Ponyville.

“Oh my Celestia,” Filthy suddenly burst out laughing as he put his hoof on the door, “Scabby, do you remember that night we found the Apple family’s special cider reserve and drank, like, half of it.” He lost his composure and held his chest to hold in the giggles.

“No, my good friend,” Scabbard laughed as he pushed the door open, “I do not… and THAT is how we know it was worth the hiding we got the next morning.”

“Huh,” Twist said, “I didn’t think that all earth ponieth were that Th’trong, I mean, I’m an earth pony and I don’t theem to be.”

“That’s because you live in a town full of them,” Silver Spoon interjected, “you have a skewed sample size. Wierd as it might sound, we really were the biggest and baddest kids on the playground back in Canterlot.”

“Theriothly?,” Twist asked, “you two were the… Oh my Theleth’tia.” She started to grin widely at the thought of it.

“Yeah yeah,” Diamond cut in, interrupting Twist from her impending daydream, “don’t go getting too excited. The pegasi and unicorns in our class have magic now and we’re hardly athletes.”

“Th’till,” Twist giggled, “ith that why you dethided on your firth’t day at th’chool here that you’d pick on the th’rongeth’t filly you could find.”

“Um, yeah,” Diamond gulped as she recalled an extraordinarily uncomfortable conversation she’d had with Applebloom a month ago after she’d made Sweetie Belle cry in which the normally friendly yellow filly had split a rock in half as a final warning, “S-something like that.”

“Gueth I can underth’tand why you’d want to feel powerful when you got a freth th’tart,” Twist said as she started to think about what Diamond must have felt like, “Applebloom’th couthin went through the thame thing and at leath’t you guy’th never bogwath’hed me.”

“Did she now?,” Silver smirked, “I guess that explains why Bonbon wouldn’t let us into her store for a month after Babs left. And also why Aunt Sterling wouldn’t let that girl into the house.”

“So anyway Twist,” Diamond said as she rolled back over onto her hooves from the couch, “now that you’ve heard my explanation, do you still want to try burying the hatchet and being friends?”

Silver leaned in expectantly.

“Well, I don’t thee why not,” Twist smiled, “provided that you girlth don’t dethide to act like jerkth again then thure, thith wath a lot of fun.”

“Fantastic,” Silver beamed, “I’m sure that won’t be a...”

“Hold up,” Diamond interrupted, “I still totally reserve the right to mock Snips and Snails when they’re being stupid... or gross... or both.”

Twist rolled her eyes mockingly and sighed, “well, DUH.”

“Then it’s all settled,” Silver giggled as she held up her hoof to shake on it, “Friends?”

“Thure, Friendth,” Twist smiled back and put her hoof in with Silver’s and Diamond’s.

They held their hooves in a circle for a few seconds before Twist nervously spoke up.

“Thoooo..,” She asked, “Are we thuppothed to thpit on our hooveth or thomething?”

“Boys are SO freaking GROSS!,” Diamond Tiara cursed as she stepped out of the shower for the second time that morning, “spit brothers is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Dumber than ballista cutie marks?,” Silver giggled, “because I’m pretty sure that’s in another ballpark entirely. It’s your own fault anyway, you’re only supposed to spit on your hoof, not drool down your front.”

“Well freaking excuse me for not taking the time to master the fine art of hocking loogies,” Diamond shot back, “I just have better ways to spend my time.”

“Speaking of the time,” Silver replied, “we’d best hurry along or we’re going to be late for breakfast.”

“Ooooh,” Twist salivated at the thought of real food, “what’th for breakfath’t?”

“I went ahead and ordered pancakes,” Silver explained, “I’m pretty sure that’s the traditional cure for a night of binging on sugar.”

“Yeah,” Twist said with an eye roll, “I don’t think that’th the kind of hangover pancaketh are for. Th’till thoundth good though but... theriouthly?”

“I don’t get it,” Diamond asked, “What other kind of hangover is there?”

Bonbon moaned and rolled over in her bed hoping against all odds that she could find a position to lie in that would stop the constant throbbing in her head.

Inevitably, this proved futile, especially given that some sadist had apparently decided that Bonbon could do with more sunlight and opened her curtains.

“Uuuugh,” she groaned and turned back over again to face her guest, a mint green blob that Bonbon was currently putting serious consideration into running through with the first sharp object she could find as payback for getting her so drunk last night. ‘No, that would never work,’ she thought to herself in defeat, ‘how am I supposed to stab her with her own stupid head?’

“Be honest,” she asked the blob as it slowly came into focus as her neighbour, “are you actually the devil or just his emissary?”

“Oh come on,” Lyra giggled as she whipped the covers off Bonbon and offered her a hoof to get up, “you’re the one who was acting all squirrelly when you came home last night and I had to get the big secret out of you somehow.”

“Yeah,” Bonbon sighed, “but telling me your aunt died so that you could trick me into toasting her with Berry’s special stock? That’s low even for you.”

“Well,” Lyra laughed, “if it’s any consolation, I feel suuuper guilty about it so I let myself in with your emergency key and just put on some pancakes for you. Now come on, let’s get you up so that we can put some food in your belly.”

“Lyra,” Bonbon groaned as she took her friend’s hoof and managed to struggle up into a sitting position, “am I hearing the fire alarm right now?”

“Um… noooo,” Lyra laughed nervously, “you must be imagining things again Bonny.”

If there was one thing that could be said for the ponies of Canterlot, they really knew how to make a great cup of Coffee.

As such, Filthy Rich was feeling much better even despite the fact that Pinkie had managed to talk him into helping her carry her supplies to the prison. They were currently sitting at the only cafe’ close to the facility while they waited for the guest areas to open for the day.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try any of this cake Richie?,” Pinkie asked him as she offered her teaspoon, “it’s not quite up with Sugarcube Corner but it’s still really good.”

“No, but thank you for asking Miss Pie,” Filthy chuckled, “I couldn’t dream of taking any when you paid so much for it.”

“What are you talking about silly?,” Pinkie giggled, “there’s no such thing as too much for good cake. It’s totally worth the…” she stopped as her eyes fell down upon the check and the thirty bits she owed, “Well, okay then, maybe I was wrong about that.”

“The power of a captive audience,” Filthy explained as he pointed to the prison which was just starting to open it’s doors, “no joke intended of course. Well then, let’s be off, you have a party to set up and I have to go talk to Jade.”

“Wait, are you talking about Jade Scepter?,” Pinkie giggled.

“Well… yes,” Filthy answered with a nervous grimace, “do… do you know her Miss Pie?”

“A little,” Pinkie smiled, “but I don’t think her and the others are due back here for quite a while, assuming that there isn’t another pony with that name in there. How do you know her Richie?”

“She’s… she’s my wife Miss Pie,” Filthy gulped, “h-how exactly did you meet her?”

“Oh,” Pinkie beamed, “she’s the foremare of the group that Twilight’s had cleaning off graffiti from all over Ponyville. I’m surprised you never ran into them but they pretty much just have ponyville park to do today and then they’re coming back here for the party. You might as well help me out with the setup then huh Richie.”

Filthy Rich made no reply. He just sat in his chair frozen in a look of shock as the color slowly started to drain out of his face.

“Um,” Pinkie nervously smiled, “what are the chances of you picking up the check here, because I don’t have thirty bits on me.” She then pushed the remaining half of her cake over to him and grinned at him hopefully.

Filthy’s eye started to twitch.

Twist should have been annoyed at Silver for all but begging her to help out with her lemonade stand on a Saturday. She, by all rights would have been justified in ditching shortly after helping with the setting up but there were three things that gave her pause.

The first was that Silver had offered to give her an even cut of the days net profit, which would probably be a fair bit given that there was quite a crowd gathered in the park, the second was that breakfast had been AWESOME and she felt kind of indebted for it even if Silver clearly didn’t consider it anything out of the ordinary and then there was the third thing…

She was personally delivering food and drink to a real princess.

Some part of her knew deep down that she had served Twilight in the past back when she was the town librarian but there was just something about the general pomp and atmosphere that changed when you added wings. Every foal in town had probably had the same visceral reaction and most likely had only been able to define the change in high pitched fanfilly squeels.

“Thank you Twist,” Twilight smiled as the gangly filly placed a pitcher of lemonade and a small stack of paper cups on her table, “I’ll pay you just as soon as I deal with my crew leaders,”

“Okay Printheth’,” Twist smiled back as she watched a dirty looking mare and stallion talk to Twilight from behind a pair of guards.

“Hey Twist,” Diamond suddenly gasped out as she galloped up from behind her and skidded to a halt, “I know that it’s super cool to be serving the princess and all but we’re getting seriously swamped back there with all the ponies watching princess Twilight.. um.. watch ponies.. and we really need you to help out.”

“Thorry,” Twist replied, “I wath juth’t waiting for the printheth to finith her meeting tho th’he could pay but her credit’th probably good ithn’t it. I’ll juth’t… Diamond… what’th wrong?”

Diamond Tiara had fallen down on her haunches and was staring open mouthed at the princess and her entourage, she made a few squeaking noises but otherwise had seemingly stopped.

“Um.. Diamond,” Twist giggled and waved her hoof in front of Diamond’s face, “Equeth’tria to Diamond. You’ve theen the printheth’ before, thee even invited uth all into her tree that one time, remember?”

Diamond still didn’t move. She just sat there as her trademark tiara fell off her head and landed with a clatter as her eyes started to fill with tears.

Twist followed her eyes back around to where the mare talking to the princess seemed to have taken notice of the two, she stared at Diamond and back over to Twist, her barrel started to visibly expand and contract as she hyperventilated and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

“QUICK, SOMEPONY STOP HER!,” the guards yelled out as the mare suddenly turned and bolted into the town without a word. A flight of pegasi in armor came up from behind the treeline and took off in pursuit of her.

Twilight started to panic as she watched the scene before her unravel and one of her foremares seemingly took any chance of her outreach program succeeding with her as she disappeared from custody. What in Equestria could have spooked her so bad?

The princess’s thoughts were interrupted by the soft sound of a foal whimpering behind her. She turned around and was greeted by the sight of Twist worriedly trying to rouse a pink filly from her shock.

“Hey,” Twilight reassured the pink filly, “it’s okay, she can’t hurt us, my guards will protect you. You have nothing to be afraid of.”

The pink filly sniffled and choked out a single word.

“M-Mom?”

Author's Note

Right, chapter five. Sorry for the wait.

This chapter is weird. A lot of stuff happens in it but in terms of actual events, the entire chapter is just everypony getting ready to begin their day right up until the final section.

Anyway, I hope at least some of you enjoyed it and, as always, please point out any egregious crimes I may have committed against grammar or spelling.