Diamond Tiara was walking down the road in Ponyville. Every single time a mare passed her she'd take one look at their dress and have to hold down her lunch. She was getting sick and tired of seeing their tasteless outfits, and she really wanted to know where they were buying them! What pony in their right mind would look twice at those rags? She could design something, anything, better than the things she saw in Ponyville: until one day. One day she looked up and saw this mare wearing the most beautiful gown she'd ever seen. She couldn't contain herself, being Diamond Tiara.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" She asked trying her best to be polite. She didn't want to miss her chance to find out where she could finally find something that beautiful to wear. "Where did you get that beautiful dress?" She asked. The mare smiled and laughed a bit.
"Actually dear, I made it myself." She gleamed with pride.
"It's the first dress I've ever seen that didn't make me want to kill the pony that made it."
"Well-erm, thank you darling." She said questionably. "I very much appreciate it."
"I've just been thinking…I really think I could make pretty clothes like yours." She thought out loud. "I mean I've been looking for someone to actually help me learn how to design." The purple haired mare looked down at her and smiled.
"How about you come with me, and I'll teach you how to sew, and how to put together beautiful designs?" She asked excited for the challenge.
"I'd love to." Diamond Tiara grinned back with a couple ideas in her head already. "Maybe once I can sew, I can open up my own store, let's just say Ponyville needs it."
Diamond Tiara's POV
This mare took me back to her boutique to help me figure out how to design and create outfits. She seems nice enough, but there's something familiar about her. I can't put my hoof on it, but it doesn't matter as long as she can help me.
"As you can see all you have to do is bring the fabric through the sewing machine like so and, well look at you! You're already starting to get it! You're going to do fabulous!" She smiled.
"Thank you." I gleamed with pride. Everything I do I am fabulous at, she didn't have to tell me.
"I'm Rarity by the way, what was your name again?" She asked me.
"My name is Diamond Tiara, and I think I've heard of you before." She scratched her chin in thought.
"Yes, I believe I've heard of you from Sweetie Belle."
"Sweetie Belle?" I asked. "How do you know that loser blank flank?" I asked laughing a bit. Her face got a whole lot less happy.
"That 'loser blank flank' just so happens to be my baby sister." She admitted. "She's right upstairs too. Are you not friends?" I had to think fast because I couldn't lose my chance to learn from the best- well second best next to me- seamstress.
"Not friends? I was kidding about the whole blank flank thing. She's one of my best friends, and maybe she should come down and-"
"We better not bother her right now, she's in time out." The mare told me.
"Time out? What is she an infan- I mean, what did she do?" I am WAY too used to making fun of those blank flanks, but there's too much to make fun of.
"She just got into my gems last night. I suppose I am being a little hard on her though, she was up late crying." Maybe designing isn't the only thing I'm going to get out of my lessons. Maybe I'll get some good information too. "She misses our mother and father. They've been gone all week and they won't be back until next week. Poor Sweetie's been torn up about it, but you, being such good friends, must know already."
"Sweetie Belle has told me ALL about it." I lied. I'm sure that everypony will LOVE to hear about Sweetie crying over mommy and daddy. Anyway, back to what I came here for. I started sewing again and Rarity looked over my design.
"Perfect darling!" She smiled. She sounded like she was lying. I scoffed and looked at her.
"What do you mean by that?" I snapped.
"Well maybe you could have actually stitched this instead of just pulling it through the machine." She said.
"I was just trying to save time!"
"Well I'm sorry Diamond Tiara but it's not that simple." She sighed trying to help me again with her fabric.
"Oh, so you just know everything, huh? You're just perfect!" I fought back. She looked at me shocked and then angrily.
"I am NOT perfect, but I'd like to think I was fairly close." She is so conceited!
"Rarity!" I heard a whiny little voice yell from the top of the stairs.
"What is it darling? I'm trying to teach!" She called back. Sweetie Belle came down the stairs and trotted towards us. She stopped the second she saw me.
"D-Diamond Tiara? What are you doing here?" She's such an idiot. If her sister says she's teaching and I'm sitting right next to the sewing machine, chances are THAT is why I'm here.
"I'm just teaching your little friend here how to create, Sweetie Belle." Rarity told her.
"Friend? Diamond Tiara isn't my friend, she's my-"
"Best friend, but don't worry Sweetie, I'll see you tomorrow at school." I smiled. The second Rarity turned her back I winked, letting her know that I am not, and never will be even associated with being friends with her. That's disgusting.
Sweetie's POV
My sister sent me upstairs for pulling Diamond Tiara's mane. It wasn't my fault though: she started it! I was upstairs for two hours before she finally came up and talked to me.
"Sweetie Belle darling your friend just left. Now come here." She said sitting beside me on her bed and petting my mane. "Tell me why you resorted to violence darling."
"Rarity! Diamond Tiara hates me! She thinks I'm useless because I'm a blank flank!" I explained stomping my hoof in anger.
"Darling, I'm sure that's not true. Diamond Tiara simply adores you. She told me she was the one who convinced you to stop doing the gabby gums column in the paper."
"She lied! She was the one who blackmailed me!" I fought. Rarity sighed and rolled her eyes.
"You know it's very unladylike to make up stories about other fillies darling." She scolded.
"It's not a story! It's the total honest truth!" I rebuttaled. Rarity stood up and walked to my threshold, still watching me.
"Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara is my new student and she will be learning how to sew for the next couple of weeks. I'm sorry if you two are feuding, but you'll just have to give the two of us some space. Do I make myself clear?" Why is Diamond Tiara being so buddy-buddy with my sister all of a sudden? "Sweetie Belle?"
"Perfectly clear." I sighed lying back down on my pillow.
*The next day*
After breakfast I got up and went to school for the day, which was super exciting because today we're going on a field trip!
"Hey ya Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom called. "We saved ya a seat!" She waved down the aisle. I started to go back there until a hoof pulled me back and sat me down in a seat near the front.
"Looks like since Silver Spoon is absent today you're going to be MY partner." Diamond Tiara smiled sitting next to me. I started to worry and try to get out of the seat, but she stood up. "As I recall we're supposed to be best friends, and if we're not your sister will probably stop giving me lessons, which is totally not gonna happen."
"It's perfect to me. I don't like you hanging out with my sister for any reason, but especially not for designing…she never helps me with it, so why should she help YOU?"
"Oh Sweetie Belle, you don't get it, do you?" She smiled. "I know things now about you that nopony else knows in this entire bus, so you need to sit your little blank flank down and act like we're best friends unless you want everypony here to know you cry all the time because you miss mommy and daddy."
"What do you get out of this anyway Diamond?!" I asked quickly before anypony could hear what she has said. "Rarity isn't here and can't see any of this."
"Good point, but I'm not stupid. I thought ahead. We're going to take pictures all day, and then she'll know: unless you don't want to be my friend 'anymore' and I go crying to Rarity about how horrible you were to me when you said it."
"I never said anything horrible to you Diamond!" I defended. "Stop being such a liar!"
"Oh, I'm not lying when she hears this." Diamond smiled pulling out a tape recorder and playing back my words. "Why would she help YOU? I don't like you hanging out with my sister for any reason, what do you get out of this Diamond?! Stop being such a liar!" When the recording stopped she was gleaming with pride.
"Diamond, give me that thing!" I fought. We started to get into a struggle until Miss Cheerilee came back to detain us.
"Girls, girls stop what you're doing! Calm down!" She begged prying us apart. "You two never sit next to each other, what's going on?" She asked confusion obviously in her voice.
"We're best friends now." Diamond grinned fake as could be. "We weren't really fighting either." She said shooting me a look.
"Well it doesn't really look like your best friends, but if you two are both sure you're not angry." She reluctantly walked away and Diamond slapped me in the face.
"What was that for?!"
"For trying to steal my recorder!"
"Why did you even bring that?!"
"For the same reason I used it, duh." She scoffed.
"After this field trip we should go our separate ways." I crossed my arms flopping back into my seat.
"Uh, more like after I get my second cutie mark in sewing." She giggled.
"You can't get two cutie marks!"
"My point exactly. As long as your sister keeps teaching me, we'll continue to be BEST friends." She smiled putting her arm around me.
Diamond Tiara's POV
After we got to the park and I scrubbed my arm thoroughly with anti-bacterial soap, Sweetie tried to go back to her riffraff friends, but I stopped her and took her to the picnic tables.
"Hungry?" I asked with a grin. "My daddy packed me this peanut butter sandwich, but it's chunky, so you can have it." I explained tossing at her.
"Well thanks, what am I your dog?"
"Pretty close I guess." I promised, handing her all the things I didn't want to eat.
"I appreciate it Diamond, but my sister packed me a lunch."
"You mean my sister? I've been spending so much time with her lately I'm starting to forget if we're related or not." I joked.
"Well you're not. She's my sister and I love her, and she loves me, not you." Sweetie snapped. Every single time she says something like that I get it on recording, but she's obviously way too stupid to catch on.
"Well how about some cookies?" I asked waving the bag in her face. "We should trade."
"Ok, here." She gleamed handing me her pudding. I took both.
"Thanks so much Sweetie!" I giggled.
"Hey, that's not fair!" She whined.
"Don't be such a baby." I scoffed grabbing the pudding and shoving it down.
"First you hit me, then you steal my pudding! You don't know how to be a good friend!"
"Oh just shush. Shush and don't even un-shush." I told her stuffing the sandwich in her mouth. I heard her say something, but it was too muffled to understand.
"Whatever, let's finish eating and then we can go to the swings and you can push me." I loved blackmailing this stupid blank flank; she didn't even try to fight back.
"Sweetie Belle, don't you want to have lunch with us? Why are you hanging out with Diamond Tiara?" Apple Bloom asked, while Scootaloo followed. When Sweetie opened her mouth to speak I quickly shoved my hoof in it and glared at Apple Bloom.
"She's my new best friend, and isn't allowed to associate with ponies like...you anymore, ok? Ok." Sweetie tried to move my hoof, to no avail, but Scootaloo tried to speak up. "Before you even try to talk, I don't care what you have to say. Rarity and I are like best friends now, and she's teaching me how to make dresses, and I'm doing so well we're going to be dress partners." They'll never know if I'm lying. "Plus she doesn't want Sweetie hanging out with losers like you; she wants her to have good friends like me."
"Stop lying to them Diamond!" Sweetie tried to fight as I shut her up again.
"No, I'm telling them the truth! She's MY best friend now, so you can go eat your candy bar lunches now. We'll be eating healthy." I said hiding the cookies and pudding.
"Well I ain't leavin' without Sweetie!"
"Fine, that's fine, isn't it Sweetie Belle?" I flashed her the tape recorder.
"You guys go ahead. I'll see you later." She frowned. They both left confused and perturbed.
"Well Sweetie Belle, I'd say that the two of us are going to be great friends for the next couple weeks." I winked. We'll be the best of friends, until her sister runs out of things to teach me.
Diamond Tiara's POV
"This stupid needle won't thread!" I exclaimed, throwing the worthless needle to the ground.
"Oh Diamond, darling, we must have patience while sewing. It is important to learn the art of stitching by hoof before moving on to the machine," that purple haired bimbo explained.
"Of course, I understand Miss Rarity, I'm sorry I get so easily frustrated," I lied. "I think I'm just a little cranky because I skipped breakfast to get here and learn extra early."
"How about I whip up some delicious cinnamon rolls?" Rarity asked. I grinned in anticipation.
"I sure would love some, but I would hate to get sticky glaze all over my precious fabric," I smiled as innocently as I possibly could. I knew what I wanted that house-mare to make me.
"Honestly, I don't understand what I'm thinking, what WOULD you like darling?" Just the words I was looking for.
"I'd LOVE some chocolate crepes or scones, if you have them."
"To think, someone of my standards not having such classy breakfast items. I will go fetch them, while you work." Good dog, I mean, teacher.
"Thank you so much, I'll have this stitching thing perfected by the time you pop them in the oven," I promised.
"Take your time dear, remember, patience." Patience my left hoof, but she can think what she wants. Once she was downstairs and all the kitchen appliances were going, it was my chance to strike. Immediately I galloped to the sewing machine.
"How do you work this thing?" I asked hastily. I pressed buttons, causing a bunch of the machine's gadgets to spaz out. "Stupid thing," I exclaimed, hitting it a few times.
"Oh boy," Sweetie's voice rang in my ears. "I smell chocolate and crepes!" Her hoof-steps came to a halt right at the door. "What are you doing?!"
"I'm trying to sew this stupid fabric together, duh!"
"Don't "duh" me! You're going to break my sister's sewing machine!"
"I am trying to figure it out!"
"It's not hard, I've done it a million times," she bragged.
"Oh, is that right? Then sit down and let your hardworking hooves do the talking little miss crafty."
"Maybe I will," she huffed. With her chest puffed out and her nose in the air, she made her way to the seat I was sitting in. I let her replace my spot and she had the stupid machine working quickly. Almost as if you had to be a certain level of intelligence to work it: one much lower than that of my own.
"That's all you have to do?" I asked. She smirked, like SHE had anything to be smug about, and nodded. "Well then get out of my chair, and get your dirty hooves off my fabric," I demanded. Her expression faded instantly and she stood up angrily.
"Fine!" she yelled, ripping the part of my fabric she had sewn. "It's all yours!"
"Oh no, you fix that right now! I'm not working harder for the likes of you!"
"Working hard? You don't know what hard even means!"
"Gee, I thought it meant difficult, troublesome, arduous, but then again a moron with no cutie mark could never know any of those words." I paused and then sarcastically gasped. "Oh wait, what's this? I HAVE a cutie mark! Good news Sweetie, we're both intelligent. What was that? You don't have a cutie mark? Ohhhhh, that makes sense."
"Shut up Diamond!" she fought back.
"Such language for such a little filly," I taunted. I felt her teeth tug my gorgeous mane, and I rammed my hoof into her shin.
"Ow! Diamond, you're such a bully!" Sweetie hit me in the side of the head with her hoof, which shocked me that she had the audacity to do such a "non-goody-goody" thing.
"Sweetie Belle!" exclaimed Rarity. Both of us turned to see, my personal chef herself, standing at the doorway.
"Rarity, wait, you don't understand!" Sweetie began. "Diamond Tiara was-"
"I don't care what was occurring, I've taught you to never lay hooves on another pony, and I know mother and father have as well! Go to your room this instant!"
"But I haven't even had breakfast yet!" she whined like a little baby.
"I don't care," she coldly stated. "You will receive your breakfast once you've learned your lesson and apologize to Diamond."
"I'll never eat again!?" Slamming her face into her hoof with a big facehoof, Rarity sighed. Sweetie Belle gladly took the opportunity to leave the room.
"I sincerely apologize for Sweetie Belle's boorish behavior," Rarity sighed. "However, your breakfast has been prepared, and you may take a break from your hard work."
"Thank you very much Miss Rarity, and by the way: Sweetie Belle ripped my fabric. I had finally sewn enough and she came by and just ripped it in two."
"Oh, don't you worry one bit Diamond. I see the stitches, and they seem almost flawless! You're obviously ready to use my sewing machine, and I'll give you the first lesson right after you crepes and scones, but you may want to hurry. They taste best while they're warm and the chocolate is melty." With a more than satisfied smile, I left the room. It should be illegal to get away with this much, but good for me: it's totally not.
Sweetie's POV
This is so unfair! I'm in my room, bored, starving, and wanting to spend time with my sister: while Diamond has all the opposite issues. It's not even her sister she's out there with! Why is the life of a seamstress's sister so super stressful?
"Raaaaaaaaarityyyyyyyyyy!" I called from my room.
"Whining won't get you a shorter sentence Sweetie Belle!" She sang. I waltzed over to the air vent and eavesdropped on their "lovely" breakfast conversation.
"These crepes are scrumptious!" said Diamond in a delightful voice, which is foreign if you ask me. "How do you get them so crispy and burnt?"
"Excuse me?" My sister asked. I knew she couldn't play "Little Miss Princess" forever!
"I asked how you got them so filled to burst," she lied. "There's so much delicious chocolate!" No way would my sister buy her act.
"Oh! I'm sorry; I must have misheard you the first time. I simply wasn't frugal with the chocolate I suppose," my sister giggled "Oh-so-modestly." "Now, while cooking may not be my job necessarily, I am a rather renowned chef." To who, Opal?!
"I can see that," Diamond said, with a fake smile written all over her voice. "It seems to me that you've got your life put together. Well, almost all of it anyway, I feel bad you're stuck babysitting your little sister all the time."
"Oh, well Sweetie Belle and I usually get along just fine," my sister tried to explain before being rudely interrupted.
"I can see YOU trying, really I can; but Sweetie Belle's very immature sometimes, and it brings the relationship to rock bottom when one pony tries, and the other makes things worse." I didn't hear Rarity say anything in response. Where was my sister's defense?! Why didn't she tell Diamond to go sit in mud or something? I opened my door and marched downstairs. Trouble or not: my sister isn't falling for these lies!
Diamond Tiara's POV
My unpaid disposable tutor seemed to put up an invisible wall in between us after I said something about Sweetie, but it didn't bother me any. I told the truth about her! She's seriously ruining their sister-ship, but I honestly don't care. Right now all Sweetie is really ruining is my credibility.
"Rarity!" cried the pony in question. "Please stop listening to this manipulating filly! She probably doesn't even want to learn to sew! She just wants to torture me!"
"Sweetie Belle, Diamond is an aspiring dress maker!" Where did she get THAT from? "You need to respect other pony's dreams and talents."
"Talents?" she asked. "Rarity, she has her cutie mark already! Unless a tiara is secret code for seamstress in training: this isn't her "talent.""
"Well, at least she's actually trying for something worthwhile," sighed the older idiot.
"W-what?" questioned Teary-eyed-McGee.
"Sweetie Belle, I know you try very hard for your cutie mark, but it's just…you try for the silliest of things. You need to think a bit more realistically about what you'll be doing for the rest of your life." Ouch, bad sister on both ends.
"I see," Sweetie told her. "I also see that you're perfectly ok teaching and helping a filly that bullies me, but you would never think to help your own sister!" She ran away, like the scared little blank-flank she is, leaving me with a new glob of weak putty.
"B-bully?" asked I. "I would never Bully Sweetie Belle. In fact, I've even tried to help her find her cutie mark, but you're right. She's too busy trying out frivolous things to realize what's right in front of her. Why can't she see you're just trying to pass down your talent?"
"P-pass down my talent?" asked Rarity. "I wouldn't force Sweetie Belle into making dresses and other fabulous outfits unless she wanted! No matter how much of a disservice it is to her!"
"That's what I'm telling you I see," I smiled reassuringly. The air-headed mare looked down at me and wrapped around my false friendship like a cobra.
"Let's finish our crepes and then go learn that machine, alright?" she smiled. I looked at the jarred front door and then back at her. Sweetie was out of my way now, so my first to-do was completed.
"Sounds like the perfect way to spend my day."
