Cruel as a Mule

Cruel as a Mule

Part 2: It's not easy being gray

A horrible scream rang through the Rich family mansion. While it's patriarch, Filthy Rich, had left for work well before Celestia brought up the sun, Crown Jewel's eyes shot open beneath her plush sleep mask at the sound. She clumsily removed the obstructing, though very comfortable, sleep mask, hurried out of bed, and toward the source of the sound. When she sleepily stumbled into the hallway, her still hazy vision managed to see the family's butler, Belvedere, also moving with hasty hooves towards the source of the sound.

"What was that?" Crown Jewel started but her slightly raspy voice was cut off by another scream. This time the sound seemed to come from Diamond Tiara's room, which was only a few doors away along the wide corridor. All remnants of sleep left the pampered pony as she called to her daughter and ran with her butler trotting close behind. When they reached the door confused, panic-filled babbling clearly penetrated the wooden surface from within as Crown Jewel knocked with a firm hoof.

"Diamond Tiara, what is going on in there? Do you have any idea what time it is?" Crown Jewel asked with a hint of concern in her otherwise irritated voice. A few moments of silence passed, punctuated only by a few grunts or or shifting of what sounded like glass bottles clicking against one another. Almost instinctively, Crown Jewel's hoof began to tap against the wooden floor, causing a loud and familiar clop sound to make its way to the frantic filly within.

"E-Everything's fine! I just saw a-a bug! Yes, a horrible bug on my dresser! I'm fine!" Diamond Tiara answered as she feverishly tried to make the unbelievable;e sight in the mirror disappear under a cloud of foundation, blush, and wrinkle cream she had acquired from her mother's stash. She could hear her mother groan in annoyance and almost feel the glare through the thick, wooden door. After some further muttering, Diamond Tiara could clearly make out her mother's huffy words.

"Honestly, you woke me up over a bug? Really Diamond Tiara, what am I going to do with you? I'm going back to bed," Crown Jewel huffed as she rolled her eyes with an audible grumble and started walking back toward her bedroom. Belvedere gave a concerned look to Diamond Tiara's door, and moved to say something-but before a single word of further concern came from his wrinkled old mouth, the sound of Crown Jewel clearing her throat stopped the action.

"Belvedere, shouldn't you be cleaning something? I'll want breakfast in an hour or so, and please, try not to burn the hay-flower quiche this time," she frowned with a raised brow before continuing toward her bedroom door. Belvedere sighed, gave one last glance to Diamond Tiara's door, and turned to do what he was told.

Diamond Tiara did her best to ignore her mother's scathing tone, still ringing in her ears, as she did her best to color gray complexion with her usual pink hue. Despite her best efforts, her now sweaty brow seemed to work against her, causing the masterfully applied makeup to smear and drip.

"O-oh, oh no, no! Why is this happening!?" Diamond Tiara mused aloud as she felt her chest tighten and her breath quicken. She did her best to take deep breaths and tried to think when the memory hit her like a hoof to the face. Her eyes went wide a moment before a deep-jowl scowl came to her face.

"That deer, she's the reason I look like this!" Diamond Tiara spoke as she attempted to brush her short, wiry mane, only succeeding in making it even more tangled and frizzy. She threw her brush onto the dresser with a frustrated growl as she quickly galloped into her walk-in closet. The massive closet would have been the size of most pony's bedrooms but it barely contained all of the fancy clothing Diamond Tiara had acquired over her short life. She haphazardly threw the garments as if they were rags in her pursuit of the thickest, most covering items in her large wardrobe. When she finally emerged she was covered from head to toe in individually stylish clothing, but when put together, looked as if she was a roadie with Sapphire Shores and the Foal Follies.

Though the thought of running to her mother and explaining the situation did grace her mind for a moment, the horrible imaginings of her mother's angry form chasing her from their family home seemingly erased the option from her young mind. Her mind moved to her father, but shook her head as he would be working at the shop, clear across town at that time of morning.

"I've got to get to daddy-he'll be able to help me. But i can't let mom see me..." Diamond Tiara mused aloud as she looked to her large window. She galloped towards it and pushed it open. The gust of frigid wind now streaming into her bedroom caused a quick shiver to momentarily flow through her, but it did not seem to cool her heated determination. She looked down to a ledge just outside her window and a thick ivy vine that extended all the way down the two-story building and to the snow-covered ground.

Diamond Tiara smirked beneath her scarf-mask and carefully made her way onto the ledge. Despite her slow and steady grip, a slick patch of fresh snow on the ledge caused her to slip. She stomped and scraped with her hooves to try and find some traction, but was met with patch after patch of snow or solid ice. Diamond Tiara screeched and slid off the window completely, reaching with a flailing hoof to the thick, ivy vine. Despite grabbing onto the old, thick vine, the leaf she managed to grasp held for only a moment before it detached, causing her to fall the rest of the way and into a large mountain of snow.

Diamond Tiara winced as she stood and rubbed her wet backside before shaking off the slightly drippy snow from her form.

"I've got to get to daddy, no matter what! And I know just who'll help get me get to him," Diamond Tiara declared as she dashed off toward their usual meeting place just at the end of their street. She moved in the shadows as best as her now clumsy, cumbersome form would allow: hopping from bush, to pile of snow, to pole in her progression toward their meeting place. When she finally arrived at her final hiding shrub, Diamond Tiara let out a sigh of relief at the sight of her best friend and fellow sugar-lump-rump Silver Spoon, standing on the corner waiting for her. But that momentary relief seemed to freeze along with her blood at the sound of a demure giggle coming from the silver-gray pony.

Standing beside Silverspoon was another one of their neighbors, a slightly older colt that always seemed to make the young filly blush and giggle like a bubble brain whenever he came around.

"Augh! Silverspoon, now is not the time for this," Diamond Tiara winced and resisted the urge to gag at the syrupy display oozing from her friends every giggle, eye lash bat, and vapid compliment. "Pssst, Silverspoon, over here," she hissed and rustled the branches of her shrub shield. The action seemed lost on the silver pony as she continued to ask the older colt about things that she never seemed to care for, or possibly would have made fun of had it not come out of his mouth. Diamond Tiara called to her friend again with a little more volume and a more violent shaking of the branches, causing Silverspoon to roll her eyes and cast the cold an annoyed look.

"Can you excuse me for just a second," She asked while plastering the most nauseatingly sweet face she could muster. The cold shook his head and motioned for her to proceed before Silverspoon turned to investigate the talking shrub.

"You better have a good reason for interrupting me, weir-"

"Silverspoon, its me!" Diamond Tiara quietly, but forcefully hissed. Silverspoon's eyes went wide for a moment before a look of concern slowly came to her face.

"Diamond Tiara? What are you doing inside a shrub?"

"You've got to help me! This deer witch cast a spell on me, and now I look...I look like-" Diamond Tiara paused, voice seemingly caught in her throat.

"What? That's terrib-"

"Silverspoon, are you talking to a bush?" the colt asked with a raised brow and a slightly mocking smirk. Silverspoon visibly froze as she turned her attention back to him and shook her head. "Well then lets get going. If I don't get to the store in time to pick up my mother's Heath's Warming present, my father will have my flank."

"GoodluckDiamondTiaragottagok bye!" Silverspoon quickly spoke as she rushed to her crush's side. Diamond Tiara could barely make out the words in Silverspoon's speedy sentence and she could feel her heart beat begin to quicken.

"Silverspoon, wait! Come back here-" Diamond Tiara called, without a moment of thought, before she scrambled out of the bush to stop the foals from leaving. Just as she thought she cleared the shrub, she felt one of her garments catch on a branch, sending her to the ground with a thud. The sound caused the two foals to look behind them to see something that cause both their jaws to drop. It wasn't until she saw the looks on their faces did Diamond Tiara realize that the scarf around her misshapen, gray face had been tugged off.

"Silverspoon, w-wait, you've got to help me-" Diamond Tiara started as the two foals began backing away with fear in their shaking hooves. As she lifted a gnarled hoof, as if reaching out for help, the pair screamed and ran away from the wrinkled, gray mule in their sight. Diamond Tiara shook her head as a sinking feeling started pooling in the bottom of her stomach. She could feel tears forming in her eyes and brought an angry but still trembling hoof up to wipe them away. An angry, determined expression seemed to be left in their wake as Diamond Tiara gave a little growl and ran in the direction of Ponyville's town square.

She didn't stop to place her scarf back around her face, as panic and anger seemed to drive her every step. When she reached the town square, there were many ponies already up and about their business. While the sight of a mule never made any of the tolerant citizen's of Ponyville stop to gawk, the strangely dressed mule filly did turn a few heads as she galloped past. While a few ponies innocently whispered comments about her strange assortment of clothes or laughed about some joyous story one of their friends happened to be telling, their faces seemed to become huge and monstrous in her wide eyes, their simple comments turned into stinging insults in her long ears.

Her breath started to feel heavy in her lungs as each breath became a struggle. The towering, fire-bathed visages her torturing mind viciously produced seemed to surround her ad the sounds of insult after insult flooded her consciousness.

"Stop it! Leave me alone--daddy help!" Diamond Tiara shrieked as a steady stream of hot tears fell from her wide eyes and onto her wrinkled, gray cheeks. In her hurried galloping she did not see the festively-decorated pole that was right in her path. When the metal pone finally registered in her ailing mind, Diamond Tiara was only a few speedy hoof steps away. The collision caused her to see an aurora of colors and every star hidden away by the sunny morning light. The echoing sound of concerned voices and the occasional, faded image of a worried face seemed to be thousands of miles away in her darkening mind. Then all the spinning stars and colors faded away leaving Diamond Tiara alone in the darkness.

"...and that is how I, The Great and Humble Trixie, impressed the delegates from Saddle Arabia with my fantastic fireworks display. I totally made Twilight Sparkle's decent display of animal juggling a hit!" Trixie boasted with her eyes closed, nose to the sky as she and her deer companion walked along the North-Hoof Highway toward their destination of Canterlot.

"How ah, fascinating. It sounds like you stole the show," Yula weakly responded, forcing a grin onto her white muzzle as her chestnut eyes seemed to beg for some small silence.

"I so did. How about you, you're a princess right? I bet you've done a few amazing things in your...um-actually I don't know much about deer, well, anything. I know you can cast magic spells with rhymes but, what else can you do?" Trixie asked with what seemed like genuine interest in her violet vision. Yula paused for a moment in thought before responding.

"Well, the king and queen of the deer rule our people. We live in the very center of the Everfree Forest, so we're neither bound nor supported by unicorn magic. Each deer is born a day deer or a night deer, so depending on when a fawn is born will determine their magical powers, if they're born with any at all. I'm a night deer, first daughter of the King Nightdeer himself, so my magic draws it's strength from the stars and moon. Those born in the daytime will draw their magic from sunshine. So, even though my mother and father rule our people, we're all subjects under The Night Mare Moon and...her sister," Yula paused, trying to get the momentary bad taste out of her mouth before continuing, "When my father and mother pass on, it will be up to me and my three siblings to rule over our people."

"So do your siblings have deer magic too?"

"Yes they do, my twin brother and I are night deer, while my younger sister and elder brother are both day deer. We're to rule as a council once my father and mother retire, but my siblings don't care a wit about dealing with ponies, nor are they in anyway skilled diplomats.I swear, my people would be better off if father and mother just left me in charge but, they'll never happen. Still, at least my father knows my superior intellect and leadership skill; its why he always sends me to visit with the beloved Night Mare and her sister," Yula spoke with a tone that was not lost on the perceptive Trixie.

"You don't seem too thrilled to be seeing Princess Celestia again, how come?" Trixie asked with a slight look of confusion and suspicion on her face. Yula gave a long sigh before responding.

"It's not that I don't like the solar princess, its just that...well it's strange but every time she looks at me she just makes me feel guilty for something, like she's constantly judging me. She always acts so happy to see brother Solstice and sister Bonnie Belle, but never me. I mean, I've brought her the nicest gifts over the years, ones like the 'Tears of the Moon' that awful little brat spilled all over Ponyville," Yula huffed. Trixie mulled the words in her mind but found no memory of the fancifully-named gift.

"What are 'Tears of the Moon?'"

"A very expensive and hard to obtain, natural perfume. I farm it myself and there's an ingredient I can only get from far away lands. Luckily I can go ask my supplier in the Everfree Forest for some, but its rare that even she has it," Yula sighed as she felt the hollow clink of the stopper and tumbler in her side pack. "Now beloved Night Mare on the other hand, she's just a joy to be around. She'll take me flying and stargazing-we always have so much fun on my visits. Have you met her before?" Yula asked with excitement shining in her face like a full moon in a clear sky. Trixie shook her head.

"Not in person, but when Twilight Sparkle humiliated me I started getting horrible nightmares. Princess Luna came to me during one of those nightmares and encouraged me to face whatever it was causing me so much grief. That's when I got the Alicorn Amulet and challenged Twilight Sparkle to a magic duel! Well I still lost but, things turned out fine and the nightmares did stop after that. Hopefully with your deer magic I can finally defeat her, fair and square!" Trixie gave a determined and hopeful nod, causing the deer princess to give a warm chuckle.

"You see, Princess Luna is simply the best princess there is, well maybe second best," Yula gave a haughty huff causing both her and Trixie to enjoy a good-humored laugh. "Well if you're serious about learning deer magic, I'd be happy to be your teacher! We'll just have to figure out of you're a day pony or a night pony," Yula spoke as Trixie shook her head with a chuckle.

"My full name is Trixie Lula-moon," she said with a smirk.

"That's wonderful! Oh, I've never taught anyone before-this is going to be so much fun. And I'll be sure to be there when you defeat this Twilight Sparkle pony," Yula gave a supportive nod as the pair continued along the long and winding road to Canterlot.