Farm Diamondby iDeltaVelocityChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 1Farm Diamond Chapter 1 COULD THE CLOCK POSSIBLY move any slower? It seemed like forever before class would finally end. Cheerilee’s lesson had long since been tuned out due to sheer boredom on her part. Every last word she said came in through one ear and out the other. She was talking to the class about history or something, though Diamond Tiara could not have been bothered to find out which. The filly’s mind was far too occupied, wandering to wherever it was she would think about most of the time, and right now, she didn’t care. Her head resting in her hoof, Diamond struggled to stay awake though much of the lecture. Her eyelids were heavy and she was yawning much deeper with each passing minute. At one point, she found herself falling asleep and immediately woke herself up before having to be called on by Cheerilee. Nothing would be more embarrassing in her mind than being called out in front of the entire class for sleeping. At least that was what she figured. To her right was Applebloom, sitting at her desk and eagerly jotting the notes down in her notebook. She was such a nerd as the pink earth pony thought. To her left, however, was an empty seat. Normally it would be occupied by Silver Spoon. The two ponies would pass notes around and talk about anything one thought important that the other should know about. But now she was home sick from a sudden outbreak of pony-pox that happened to be spreading across the Kingdom. It had caught many ponies off-guard in the first stages. She rarely ever got a chance to visit her friend. Her Mom was obviously the worrying type, though she hadn’t needed to see her to know that she was being confined to her bed. At some times, Tiara got the opportunity to see Silver Spoon on the weekends. But now Diamond Tiara was all alone and outnumbered by Applebloom and her Cutie Mark Crusader friends three-to-one, literally; though she was smart in these types of situations. From where she stood, she knew not to pick a fight, especially one that she had no chance of winning. It’d be better to have a friend to back her up than going it alone, so for now the only thing she could do was wait until Silver Spoon returned, which also meant she’d have to endure being along for who knew how long. She was brought out of her thoughts when a teaching stick smacked the chalkboard. The shock from it had woken her up some, thankfully. She looked up. On it were algebra equations. Some were complicated for her drowsy mind, primarily due to the fact that she outright ignored pretty much everything that’d been taught so far. “Okay, class,” Cheerilee announced, “Who here can tell me the answer to this equation?” There was an air of silence floating amongst the class. Diamond Tiara knew from experience that if some pony didn’t answer, then Cheerilee would end up calling out one of the sutdents instead. This realisation made the filly slouch in her seat to avoid being seen. To her relief, somepony in the back ended up raising their hoof, which was accompanied by them saying, “I know it! I know it!” over and over until they were finally called on. “Yes, Twist?” Of course, Diamond Tiara thought. Twist gave the answer: “Is it ninety-five?” “Correct!” Cheerilee nodded. “When doing this particular equation, you always have to remember that the variables can be substituted by the numbers, and then…” Her words were drowned out yet again. Diamond Tiara looked up at the clock. There was just five more minutes left before class ended, but why did it seem more like ten to her? Why was time moving so slowly all of a sudden? It was useless to try and stay awake now. Three minutes left. Twice now she had almost fallen asleep. She needed to wait until the final bell and then she’d be home free. Unfortunately, that hadn’t happened for her. At the final minute, her head hit the desk and she was out cold. In what seemed like a few mere seconds, she was startled awake when the giant bell atop the school house rang, blaring across the open sky. It was loud, and she never liked that. After slowing down her heart pace, she made a move to gather her supplies before heading for the door. She made a note to visit Silver Spoon again today after not seeing her for a week and a half. “Remember, class,” Cheerilee called out, “Wee’ll be having a test on the materials we’ve learned this week. Make sure to study!” A test…? Darn it, Tiara thought to herself. She groaned. After sleeping in class for the past couple of weeks, she missed everything Cheerilee’d taught her. I should’ve stayed awake. But it’s not my fault. I can’t help it if I’m bored all the time. Trotting out into the open, she was immediately greeted with the sun in her face and the light spring breeze brushing against her coat. Another school day passed, but it was bitter sweet. There was no Silver Spoon to enjoy the rest of her day with. What was there, then? She could head to Sugarcube Corner for a quick sugar-coated treat, but then she’d have to endure Pinkie Pie and her unknowable antics. Maybe she could go for a walk around town. She took a quick second to think about it. Pony-pox or no pony-pox… A quick visit to Silver Spoon wouldn’t hurt anypony. As she began to take off, she could hear the Cutie Mark Crusaders not too far off, discussing more ideas on how they could earn their cutie marks. Their dedication to this task was admirable, but they had been going on this this for two years. Sooner or later, they had to admit defeat. She listened attentively to what they said. One thing that got her was Scootaloo’s suggestion for Cutie Mark Crusaders Karaoke Singers. The idea alone made her chuckle. “Are you three serious? Karaoke Singers…?” Diamond Tiara scoffed. “Can’t you do something a little more productive, and less ?” Scootaloo snapped, “The only thing annoying here is you.” “Oh please…” Diamond Tiara waved a hoof, “Listening to you sing will be like cat scratching a chalkboard.” “Opalescence only did that once,” Sweetie Belle rebutted, referencing back to last month’s pet day. The cat had something against everypony in class. That or it was genuinely a pain in the rear. Tiara, once again, scoffed. “I rest my case.” She started to trot off until another voice joined in on the argument. “Don’t you talk to m’ah friends like that, you spoiled brat.” Applebloom stood vigilantly, glaring at the lavender-maned filly in front of her. In moments, the two were in each other’s faces. “I can do whatever I want, blank-flank,” Diamond Tiara snapped back, poking the yellow filly in her chest. While Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle did manage to throw some insults in in defense of their friend, much of the argument was done between Applebloom and Diamond Tiara, and there was no sign of it letting up. They began hurling nasty comments at each other which only got worse from thereon. Some could have been defined as “low-blows,” before the arguments devolved into pushing and shoving, and finally, as the other Crusaders backed away, descending into anarchy. Hooves began to fly back and forth. They traded violent blows with each other that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo could only cringe at. Cheerilee hurried out of the school house after hearing the commotion to be greeted to the sight of two fillies fighting in the dirt. “Girls!” she called their attention. The fighting stopped immediately. The two girls looked up dejectedly at their disappointed teacher and stood at attention. They had taken their toll on each other in the brief minutes that passed. Part of Applebloom’s bow was torn and her mane and tail dirtied and ruffled up. Top soil had gotten into Diamond’s coat and mane, though somehow, she managed to keep her tiara positioned neatly atop her head despite rolling around on the ground. “I want you two inside, now,” Cheerilee ordered. Reluctantly, they backtracked into the school house. Tiara stayed silent the entire time, not even glancing at Applebloom. The two were seated at their desks while the magenta earth pony lectured them on behavior, though Diamond tried to look as interested as possible as not to get any worse punishment that they might receive. “I’m serious, girls,” Cheerilee said, “This has gone on long enough. How long do you expect to keep fighting each other before you can get along?” “As soon as she learns to leave us alone,” Applebloom replied. Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes in response at the answer. Cheerilee face-hoofed. “Honestly, girls, I’m at my wit’s end. I don’t know what to do with you. I’ve tried everything I could to get you to stop and fighting, but it looks like that wasn’t enough. So I want you sit here and think about things for a while.” At this, they groaned. To Tiara, this was worse than torture. Being forced to stay after school for detention was not how she wanted to spend part of her day. It was finally over and done with, though, so that was the bright side to things. She was also away from Applebloom and her friends—at least until tomorrow, but she wouldn’t have to deal with it until then. Right now, however, she was primarily focused on visiting Silver Spoon. Eventually arriving at her house—a two-floored building akin to those in the suburbs—she knocked on the door and waited patiently until a light gray earth pony mare answered. “Hi, Miss Spoon. Is Silver Spoon awake?” “I don’t know if you want to see her. She’s still very sick,” replied Silver Spoon’s mom. “I wouldn’t want you catching the same thing.” “Please? I haven’t seen her in days!” Tiara begged. She looked up at her with blue puppy dog eyes, which always looked adorable for a filly. Miss Spoon was reluctant, but as she looked down at Diamond Tiara, she couldn’t refuse. “Alright, you can come in. But please be careful. The last thing I want you to catch is the pony-pox.” Without haste, Diamond Tiara cantered inside. Trotting through the hallways and up the stairs, she arrived at Silver Spoon’s room. The filly was lying in her bed. She had pinkish-red blotches across her body and was staring at the ceiling with an extremely bored expression etched onto her face. “How it’s going, Silly?” Tiara greeted her. Silver Spoon looked over and smiled, nearly about to break out into a laugh. “I told you to stop calling me that.” Diamond returned a smiled. “It’s been too long. How are you doing?” “The itching finally stopped, so I think I’m starting to make a recovery. What about you and school? What happened while I was gone?” Tiara thought it over. I fell asleep in class, got into a fight before getting detention? “Nothing too special,” she said. “It’s boring there without you but I’m managing. I really hope you can get well soon.” “Me too, but I don’t think it’ll be long,” said Silver. Tiara nodded. “Hopefully…” She’d love nothing more than for her friend to come back. A brief silence passed, afterwards. “Well, okay then. I just wanted to stop by and say hi. I suppose I’ll see you later.” She headed for the door. “Bye, Silver Spoon.” It quickly seemed like the day was beginning to go by. Between having to spend it in detention, with Silver Spoon, and the rest just casually trotting around Ponyville to pass the time, it was slightly expected. She arrived home to a manour in the northern part of Ponyville. She trotted inside, placing her saddle bag by the front door. Without Silver Spoon, everything had gotten dull quickly, though she would find a way to enjoy the rest of her day, somehow. The hallways of the house were normally kept neat and tidy. Pictures of Diamond Tiara and her dad hung on the walls as well as the vases with various assortments of flowers decorating the place. She soon passed by the kitchen and noticed a turquoise-green unicorn mare. She seemed to be reading something written on a piece of paper. She noticed Diamond Tiara and promptly hid it, acting like nothing was wrong. “Hey, DT,” she greeted, “You’re home later than usual.” The filly nodded. “Well, I had to stay after school, and then I went over to visit Silver Spoon.” The unicorn tilted her head. “Why’d you have to stay after?” The look on Tiara’s face told her the answer, and also told her to change the subject. “How about I fix up a grilled cheese sandwich? Will that make anything better? And hopefully steer us from whatever conversation I was about to go to?” Nodding, Tiara took a seat at the table as she waited. Steam rose from the stove in front of the unicorn, and soon the small of butter, melted cheese, and crispy bread floated over towards the filly. It was making her stomach growl and she could feel her mouth behind to water at the small. Grilled cheese sandwiches were her favourite snack. Soon a plate with the delicious food was placed in front of Diamond, and she immediately began digging in. The kitchen grew quiet. She looked up to see the unicorn baring a forlorn look. “Is everything okay, Star Dust?” asked Tiara. “Well, there is something wrong,” replied the unicorn. It looked like she was contemplating on saying anything. “You see—” “Hold that thought for one minute,” Tiara interrupted, finishing off the last of her grilled cheese. “Is my Dad here?” “Yeah, he’s in his office. But I really think you should—” Star Dust never had a chance to finish her sentence as Diamond Tiara cantered out of the kitchen and down the hall. She could hear echoes of two stallions’ voices, one of them being her father’s. She rarely had any time to spend with her father since he was working most of the time. It was never something she looked forward to, but it made it all the more special whenever he had free time. She arrived at the office to find her dad, Filthy Rich, along with another stallion she recognised. “Diamond, uh, it’s nice to see you!” Filthy Rich sounded a tad nervous when he greeted his daughter, but Tiara paid it no mind. “Cash Banks, I’m sure you remember my daughter.” “Of course! I remember her when she was a little, little filly,” said the stallion. “She’s beginning to look a lot like her Mom.” “What are you doing here, Mister Banks?” asked Tiara. The stallion answered, doubtfully, “Well, I was in town and there was an urgent matter I needed to inform your father about.” Diamond tilted her head. “Like what?” “He can tell you!” Filthy Rich glared at Banks before turning to Tiara. “You see, Honey, something’s happened with the markets. And well… it turns out we’re broke.” Diamond Tiara blinked. “What?” “It’s true,” Cash Banks admitted, “It turns out the investments your dad made weren’t exactly that stable as we thought. And by that, I mean the ponies running them were extremely ‘incompetent’.” “Most of the stuff was counterfeit; illegal!” It was obvious that Filthy Rich seemed furious with what was happening, seeing as he lost over 90% of his money on useless goods. “You can find some way to fix it, can you?” asked Diamond. There was no immediate response. It was obvious that Filthy Rich did not like the situation he was thrown in. He must have been thinking about this for a while. “I have to head over to Manehattan to get things sorted out. It would have to take a couple weeks at the most.” “Trust me, Diamond, you're dad's an expert. I'm sure we'll figure something out,” said Cash. “I only hope we can fix this before it's too late,” said Filthy Rich, “In the meantime, I’m leaving you with a group of good ponies who’ll watch after you while I’m gone.” Tiara eyed her father. “And who might that be?” she asked. Filthy Rich knocked on the red barn doors and waited for somepony to answer. Diamond Tiara stood next to him, her saddle bag and suitcase packed set nearby. Although standing here in front of the home of the pony she despised the most wasn’t exactly what the filly wanted, this was more of a force measure than voluntary thanks to her father. “Do I really have to be here?” She whined and moped, hoping to at least nag him into reconsidering his option. It was all, however, in a futile attempt. “Why can’t I stay over at Silver Spoon’s place?” “From what I understand, Silver Spoon still has the pony-pox,” replied Filthy Rich, “And besides, the Apple Family is one of the few ponies in town whom I trust with the fullest extent. You’ll also have a chance to learn some humility from them, something you’ve been lacking quite a bit lately.” Diamond Tiara scoffed, “More like humiliation. I cannot stay, Dad. Not after the fight I had with Applebloom at school.” “All the more reason for you to stay,” said Rich, “Miss Cheerilee told me about the way you two act, and hopefully, this method can be a way for you to learn to at least tolerate each other’s presence.” Tiara groaned in protest, but she knew once her Dad made up his mind, there was no making him turn back. Sometimes she thought he would canter right up into the gates of Tartarus if he wanted to. The door finally opened, answered by none other than Big Macintosh. The red, big workpony’s view shifted between the two standing in front of him. “Hello there, Big Mac,” said Filthy Rich, “I’m leaving for Manehattan in just a few minutes to fix a little jam I’ve seem to have gotten myself in, and I was wondering if you could watch over my little Diamond Tiara while I was away. I know this must seem short notice, but I’m sure you can handle it, right? It would only be for a couple weeks, tops. What do you say?” Big Mac glanced from Filthy Rich down to the pink earth pony standing in front of him. He nodded. “Eeyup.” “You will? Oh, thank you. I promise I’ll pay you the amount you deserve when I return. Just… make sure she stays out of trouble.” Big Macintosh nodded again as Filthy Rich departed from Sweet Apple Acres. He glanced down at Diamond Tiara. The filly didn’t look too happy about being here, but something told him it was because her father had forced her. He had known for some time about the multiple “disagreements” she and Applebloom experienced over the years, but it’d be out of character for him to simply turn her away. Tiara looked surprised as the big, red pony invited her in. She trotted into the Apple Family home. It was… cozy, she had to admit. Much of the furniture inside had pictures of apples on it. Talk about obsession, she thought. She turned around as Big Macintosh brought her suitcase in. “Thanks, I guess.” She tossed him a gold bit. It landed in the stallion’s hoof, but he placed it down on the table next to him, uninterested. Diamond rolled her eyes and continued on to explore the house. In the living room, asleep in a rocking chair, was Granny Smith. She could feel a large amount of rage build inside her the moment she laid eyes on the elder mare, as this was the same pony who caused her humiliation during Family Appreciation Day. Although she had some words to say, she had to hold herself back. She was always told to respect the owners of any residence, even if it was the very last place she wanted to be, and saying anything she’d regret would get her on the bad side of the Apple Family. That was something she couldn’t afford happening to her. “Finally! M’ah hooves were get’n sore!” Applejack cantered into her home and placed her Stetson on a rack nearby. “Hey, Granny Smith, what’s for dinner? I’m starv’n!” She trotted into the living room, and aside from Granny Smith, she noticed their new guest resting in the middle of the floor reading a magazine. “Hey, Diamond Tiara… What brings you here?” Tiara answered, “I’d rather not talk about it.” Big Macintosh entered the room and whispered to Applejack, telling her of the filly’s dilemma. “Oh my… Are you serious?” She received a nod in return. She glanced over at Tiara, “Well you’re welcome to stay here as long as your Dad’s outta town. Granny Smith should be fix’n up some dinner real soon.” Tiara looked over at the sleeping olive green mare in the rocking chair. She was sound asleep, snoring as her chair rocked back and forth. “That might be a while,” she muttered. Her attention was bought when the front door creaked open again. She knew there were only four ponies who lived at Sweet Apple Acres as far as she knew; the only other Apple Family member was— Oh no… “Hi, everypony…” Applebloom cantered into the living room. “Sorry I’m late, ya’ll. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and I tried to get our cutie marks—” she stopped dead silent when her eyes laid on Diamond Tiara. “What are you do’n here?” “Now Applebloom,” Applejack tried to calm her sister down and keep a fight from starting up between the two fillies, but to no real avail. Tiara and Applebloom got in each other’s faces. Name calling flared back and forth between them: “Blank-flank,” “spoiled rich brat,” “Stupid countryside hayseed”. “Enough!” Applejack yelled, breaking up the argument. She and Big Macintosh separated the girls before any violence broke out. “Listen, Applebloom. Diamond is here because, apparently, her dad’s business has going south.” “Sure, just tell anypony,” Diamond retorted. A.J. ignored her. “So in the meantime, while he’s up in Manehatten sort’n things out, she’ll be stay’n here with us.” “What?” Applebloom was obviously shocked, seeing as the same pony who had been terrorizing her for some time was now staying in her home. “Why can’t she stay somewhere else?” “It’s only gonna be for a couple weeks at the most,” said Applejack, “The least we can do is treat her as a guest here until her dad gets back.” “But I don’t want her here! Not after that fight we had earlier.” “A fight? Really?” Applejack face-hoofed. She never expected them to hate each other this much. Obviously, trying to get these two to get along was going to be difficult. “Alright, I don’t care if ya’ll like each other ‘r not, she’s stay’n. Applebloom looked up at her sister. “But…” “No buts. “I’m not gonna have any fights or yell’n at as long as she’s here. That goes double for you, little lady…” she pointed an accusing hoof over at Diamond Tiara. “Ya’ll understand?” Applebloom and Tiara glared at each other. Sighing and ears drooping to the sides of their heads, they responded: “Fine…” Chapter 2Farm Diamond Chapter 2 APPLEBLOOM AWOKE TO THE abrupt sound of roosters chirping outside of her window. The morning sun leaked into her room through the shades, splashing the entire place in sunlight before finally settling upon the drowsy filly still lying in her bed. After taking a few more moments of shut-eye, she finally sat up, yawned and outstretched her arms, waking herself up for yet another day. Trotting over to mirror, she took a brush and ran it through her mane, straightening as many strands of hair as she could muster. As she sat in silence, she took the opportunity to think to herself. With Diamond Tiara living with her family for the time being, she quickly realised that things here would be far more different than she anticipated. Already she was looking forward to the day when Filthy Rich would return. She set the brush down and gave a breath of optimism. Maybe things could turn out for the better, she thought. She left her room, made her way to the guest room down the hall. Inside, Diamond Tiara was sound asleep. The quilted, apple-decorated blanket was perched over her body. Underneath was the tangled mess that was her mane. I thought for sure the roosters would wake her, Applebloom thought. Even though she had the chance to leave her and let her be tardy for class, that wouldn’t be proper Apple Family hospitality, as Applejack’d always told her. No, she would have to do this the old fashion way. She cantered to her bedside and tried shaking her away. “Diamond, it’s time to wake up. Come one, we gotta get ready for school.” The response she receives instead was a pillow being slammed into her face. “Please go away…” a dazed Diamond Tiara groaned. Annoyed and frustrated, Applebloom considered leaving and letting her oversleep and be late. Then, a mischievous grin spread across her face. She grabbed a bucket and went to the bathroom, and filled it half-way with water. She tip-hoofed back into the guest room, careful not to wake Tiara; set the bucket on a banister above her bed, tying with a length of rope. With one good tug, the bucket tipped over, sending a gush of cold water splashing down on the pink filly. Tiara, soaked and dripping, sat up with a shock, until looking over at a cackling Applebloom rolling on the floor. She was almost angry enough for the water to evaporate from her coat. “Why did you do that for?” “I had to wake you up somehow,” replied Applebloom. “And you had to do it by dumping water on me?” A seething Diamond Tiara hopped out of bed. Applebloom snickered. “Believe it ‘r not, but this is how Applejack and Big Mac used to wake me when I wouldn’t get up for school.” Tiara marched defiantly towards Applebloom, but before she could do or say anything rash, a knock echoed from the other side of the door. “Hey, is everyth’n alright in there?” It was Applejack. Diamond Tiara glanced over at Applebloom, expecting her to come up with an excuse. “Everyth’n’s fine!” Applebloom lied. “Jus’ wake’n Diamond Tiara up for school!” “Why’s there water all over the floor?” Applejack asked, suspiciously. “I, uh… jus’ got outta the shower?” Silence. The two fillies were hoping the mare would buy it. The last thing they—especially Diamond Tiara—wanted now was to get in trouble, especially after promising they would behave around each other. “All righty then,” Applejack said, “Ya’ll come down for breakfast when you’re ready.” With that, the sound hooves trotting against the floor boards garnered sighs of relief. “That was close,” said Diamond. Applebloom couldn’t help but agree. “I’ll meet ya at the table.” “This argument isn't over,” Tiara growled. Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say.” After drying off and combing her mane and tail, Tiara met Applebloom and the rest of her family downstairs in the kitchen. “Why don’t ya’ll come and pull of a seat, Diamond,” said Applejack. “So what are we having?” asked the filly. “A real treat,” said Granny Smith, “We got apple sauce, some scrambled eggs, sliced bananas, and a big bowl of freshly picked blueberries picked straight from the bushes near the orchard. Tiara couldn’t tell a lie—not to herself, at least—but the whole set up did in fact look delicious. Maybe a quick bite to eat wouldn’t hurt. She sat down at the table. There was already a plate set for her, which she already started emptying. It was better than she imagined. “So,” Applebloom started, “How’s everyth’n go’n between you two?” she asked them. The fillies glanced at each other. Applebloom replied, “We’re gett’n along jus’ fine, sis. No roughhous’n between us.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Really…?” “Uh-huh,” said Diamond Tiara. The orange cowpony smiled. “Are you sure you didn’t dump a bucket’a water on her ‘r someth’n?” The red-maned filly nearly spit out her eggs. “How did you know?” “It wasn’t that hard to figure out,” said Applejack, “especially not when I heard the sound of a bucket be’n filled in the sink, and the fact that the mirrors weren’t fogged up from all the hot water you used from your ‘shower’.” Applebloom blushed and smiled nervous, but Diamond Tiara could only face-hoof. Applejack sighed. “Listen, girls. I know you two have your own personal issues between each other, but could you at least try to get along. We’re live’n under the same roof, after all, and perhaps that could work to bring you closer. Couldn’t you at least try?” The girls looked each other and back at Applejack. “Fine, whatever,” replied Diamond Tiara. Applejack smiled. Though she knew this was going to be a longshot, she still had hope that this would work itself out in the end. She could only hope. “Well we should probably be head’n off for school,” said Applebloom, finishing off the last of her breakfast. “Don’t forget your lunches girls,” said Granny Smith. “Thanks, Granny,” said Applebloom. She and Tiara grabbed their lunch boxes off the kitchen counter and headed out the door. With them gone, Applejack glanced over at Big Mac and Granny Smith. “Ya’ll think this is gonna work?” she asked. Together, the two of them responded: “Nope.” Among the small crowd of ponies that amassed at the marketplace, the early morning not yet witnessing the large capacity that usually visited each and every day, Diamond Tiara and Applebloom made their way to school. The entire walk was in silence, though, and to a lesser extent, awkward. Either they had no desire to talk to each other, or they simply had nothing to say in relation to their situation. There was a bit of an unusual feeling around them having to make their way to school alongside each other. It was really something they never thought would they would have to go through in their lives, which really added to the somewhat awkward feeling the two were experiencing. For Applebloom, it was much more about trying to keep her promise to her older sister and least tolerating the pink filly’s presence. For Diamond Tiara, it was more about having to put up with this blank-flank long enough for her dad to return and take her home. But nevertheless, both of them would have to deal with it whether they liked it or not. They arrived at the school. Colts and fillies were flooding the building, wanting to get to their seats before the bell rang. Applebloom glanced over at the pink filly standing beside her. “Listen, Diamond. M’ah sister is right. As long as we’re live’n together, we better learn to get along for the time be’n. Jus’ ain’t no use squabbl’n over our differences like we normally do. We might as well get this over with while we’re here—at least ‘til your dad gets back from Manehattan.” “I suppose you’re right,” responded Diamond Tiara. It was almost weird agreeing with her, but she did have a point in what she said. They both had something in common: they wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible without trouble. “But not a word about this gets out to anypony else, alright?” Applebloom nodded. “Deal…” The class thus far went by normally. They were learning about ancient Equestrian history, alongside math and literary skills—two of Diamond Tiara’s personal favourites. Luckily she had managed to stay awake on most of the lectures, though this was replaced by doodling pictures onto blank pieces of paper while Cheerilee was teaching. Still, the entire time no problems had arisen between the two—no notes meant to get the other in trouble, no name-calling; no nothing. It was a bit surprising to Cheerilee who’d been keeping a close eye on the both of them the entire time. With the bad history these two had, especially the incident that happened just a day prior, she half-expected both of them to hurl insults at one another, though she could tell they were close to it a couple of times. Soon came the time for lunch and recess. It was a warm early afternoon, and the foals had only a half-hour before having to go back inside and get through the rest of their school day. Diamond Tiara ate her lunch in silence, which aside from dandelion sandwiches and a juice box, held a small plastic container of zap-apple jam. The magical fruit, as always, tasted amazing on her taste buds. It was unbelievable that they came from the Everfree Forest. She saw Applebloom with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. As much as she felt the urge to go over and these them, and it was extremely tempting to do so, too, she remembered the deal they made and that they needed to stay out of trouble. She obviously hated it, but she knew there wasn’t any more she could do. “She looks lonely over there,” said Scootaloo. “Of course she is,” said Applebloom, “Silver Spoon has still out sick with the pony-pox. But she’ll be back soon, no doubt.” Sweetie Belle rolled a rubber ball over at Scootaloo. “Hey, Applebloom, on my way here, I actually saw you and Diamond Tiara trotting across town together.” “Really?” Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yes, we were,” Applebloom admitted. She glanced over at Tiara. The pink filly’s eyes were wandering around the playground. Obviously, she was most likely left with nothing to do since her best friends had been incapacitated. She motioned her friends closer. “You see, girls, Diamond Tiara’s gone broke.” Sweetie Belle could feel her jaw drop. “Seriously?” “Yeah, her dad lost almost all of his money somehow, and while he’s up in Manehattan, she’s gonna be stay’n at m’ah house for a while.” Scootaloo was nearly speechless. “Whoa… Just whoa… Most be torture having to live with her.” “We both promised Applejack we’d try t get along while she’s while us. I don’t how that’s gonna happen with all the bad blood we have, but we gotta get by somehow ‘til her dad gets back. Then she’ll be outta m’ah mane for good.” Applebloom glanced at Diamond Tiara again. “And keep this between us, alright? Diamond and I said we wouldn’t let anypony else know about her little ‘situation,’ so no tell’n anypony else.” The two other CMC fillies nodded. “Don’t worry, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle stated, “We won’t tell anypony—Cutie Mark Crusader’s honour.” “Thanks, girls…” Applebloom smiled. Soon enough the bell rang, and the foals retreated into the school to continue the rest of their day. Eventually, the final bell rang. The foals took off for home, among them being the unlikely pair of Applebloom and Diamond Tiara. They tried to make it seem like they weren’t together, though, but their attempts were a bit low-quality. Applebloom waved farewell to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle as she and Tiara began their trek into Ponyville. The entire time, Diamond Tiara slowed her pace, keeping her distance as not to be seen with a “loser” blank-flank like the one she was with. Applebloom noticed this and sighed. Now was not the time to start something, especially considering the rocky start the two of them got off to this morning. Instead, she needed to try and make nice if she wanted to do what Applejack said and get along. She wasn’t sure if would take her far, but just ignoring it wouldn’t do her any real good. She looked back at her. “Hey, Diamond, ya’ll hanker’n for a treat at Sugercube Corner? I’m sure Pinkie Pie’s got something good in store for us.” Tiara put a hoof to her chin and thought about it. “Sure, why not. Just… keep a distance while we’re trotting over there.” With that, she cantered past Applebloom on her way to the confectionary. Another sigh came from the yellow filly before following. This was going to be much harder than she expected, she thought. At Sugarcube Corner, they sat together, though Diamond Tiara tried to make it seem like she barely knew Applebloom at all. It was annoying to Applebloom seeing her act like this. “Look, Diamond, I wasn’t joke’n earlier when I said that we needed to get along while you’re stay’n with us. Act’n like a spoiled rich princess is only gonna get you so far with m’ah family, especially with Applejack.” Diamond rolled her eyes. “Whatever…” “I’m serious!” Applebloom snapped, “Ya’ll can’t keep at it like this. You need to learn how not to be a bully if you wanna get on somepony’s good side.” “I can do whatever I want,” was Diamond Tiara’s arrogant response. Applebloom rebutted, “From what’s happened to you recently, do’n ‘whatever you want’ is really limited at this point. At some point, you gotta realise that not everyth’n revolves around you. And like I said before, act’n like a princess all the time will only gonna get you very far before no pony can’t take it anymore. I know I can’t take it.” Tiara waved her off. “Pa-lease,” she pouted, “Nothing worse can happen to me than what’s already occurred. If you think you can tell me what to do, you blank-flank loser, then you—” In an abrupt flash of colorful confetti, the pony known as Pinkie Pie appeared at their table, cheering, “Surprise!” Her unexpected entrance had nearly given the two fillies heart attacks. “Couldn’t you have warned somepony before busting in like that?” said Tiara, picking herself up off the ground. “Surprises are the absolute best way of making an entrance, silly filly!” said Pinkie. “Don’t you like surprises?” “Not anymore,” said Diamond Tiara. She seated herself at the table, along with Applebloom. “So…” Pinkie Pie produced a notebook and pencil from her poofy pink mane. “Can I get you two friends anything?” “We are not friends!” Diamond snapped. Pinkie giggled. “Of course you are, silly! You’re sitting at the same table, in the same place, in the same town, in the same Equestria— Oh wait! The last two are already obvious, but you get the picture!” Diamond Tiara deadpanned. “Okay, I’m out of here.” She hopped out of her chair and headed for the door. “Wait!” Pinkie called after her, “Was it something I said?” “Don’t worry, Pinkie,” said Applebloom, “Diamond’s jus’ go’n through some rough times. She’ll get over it.” Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin. “If she’s having a hard time with something, I think I know what can cheer her up!” Applebloom shook her head. “No offense, but I really don’t think a party will help that much.” “Never ignore the alternatives,” said the pink mare. Hopping out of her seat, Applebloom made her way towards the door. “There’s jus’ gotta be some way to turn her around without causing a fight,” she thought aloud as she left Sugarcube Corner. However, moments after she left, she quickly cantered back into the store. “Actually, Pinkie, can you get me a muffin; banana nut?” “Coming right up!” Pinkie cheered. “You could have gotten me one, ya know” said Diamond Tiara. Applebloom finished off the last of her muffin before responding, “To be fair, you did storm off before Pinkie Pie could take our orders.” “But still,” replied Tiara, “it wasn’t nice leaving me out.” Applebloom raised an eyebrow at the lavender-maned filly. “Really…? You’re talk’n ‘bout me not be’n nice?” The two of them eventually returned to Sweet Apple Acres. Since Cheerilee had not assigned any homework to the class, probably encouraging the students to study prior to the test next week, Diamond could just wind down and relax. They could see Applebloom’s siblings working in the yard; Applejack was harvesting apples while Big Macintosh was busy plowing the corn field. Applejack waved to them. “Hey, ya’ll! How was school?” “Fine,” replied Applebloom, “Noth’n spectacular happened.” “You two get into any arguments?” Applejack couldn’t help but question them regularly about it, seeing as she still wanted order between them. “No fights,” said Applebloom, “Honest!” “Good to hear!” Applejack threw them a bright smile, though Diamond Tiara couldn’t determine whether or not she trusted them on the matter. The orange mare was definitely a mystery. They cantered into the house, dropping their saddle bags on the floor. Granny Smith was in the kitchen, washing the dishes they used from this morning’s breakfast. “Hi there, girls,” she greeted them happily, “I went down to the market and bought some celery while you were out. They’re in the fridge if ya’ll want any.” Applebloom and Diamond Tiara searched through the refrigerator, grabbing the snacks aforementioned. “I gotta ask you something,” said Diamond. Applebloom looked at her, chewing on her celery stalk. “How in Equestria can you handle all the hard work in your orchard?” “Not that hard if you’ve been do’n it for as long as I have,” replied the scarlet-maned earth pony. “In contrast to being a pegasus or a unicorn, be’n an earth pony is a bless’n when you’re on a farm. Harvest’n apples, tend’n to animals, and the like are as easy as a piece of pie.” Her explanation about it was… intriguing. Diamond Tiara tried not to show the slightest bit of interest, though, instead proceeding to eat her piece of celery. After their snack and resting for a bit, Applebloom made her way over to the door, but not before turning to Diamond Tiara. “Aren’t ya come’n?” “Where?” Tiara asked. “To help out in the field.” “Not really,” said Diamond, “These hooves weren’t made for hard labour. But thanks for the offer, though.” “You gotta,” said Applebloom, “Out here, everypony pays their fair share.” Her response was being ignored by the pink filly. Instead of trying to convince Tiara this time, she bit into her tail and attempted to pull her out of the house. Diamond Tiara tried to slow her involuntary movement, pressing her hooves against the floorboards to weight Applebloom down. This had little effect, however. All that time working in the field had practically strengthened her far beyond what Diamond Tiara’s already scrawny figure was. “I’ll get you for this, blank-flank,” Tiara muttered, seemingly accepting what was going to happen. Applebloom rolled her eyes, responding with Tiara while still dragging her away. “Yeah, yeah, like you haven’t said that before.” Chapter 3Farm Diamond Chapter 3 THE LAST THING DIAMOND Tiara wanted after her sudden, and highly unwanted, change in lifestyle was to work on a farm. She wasn’t made for working; she was more of the leading others type, having them look up to her for guidance. But now she was here, and she had to do everything as Applebloom did, which didn’t seem too difficult when she demonstrated to her. The butter-yellow filly launched a kick at the base of one of the trees. From the branches above, some of the apples fell almost immediately. “I can do that!” Diamond Tiara said arrogantly. She trotted over to a tree of her own. This particular one was fairly large with ripe, juicy apples hanging from the branches. Applebloom gave her a questionable look. “You sure about that? Buck’n apple trees ain’t as easy as it looks for beginners.” Tiara waved her off. “Pa-lease, if you can do it, so can I. It shouldn’t be too hard to kick the side of a tree. Anypony can do it.” “Alright, then, go for it.” Applebloom sat on the sidelines and watched Diamond Tiara’s first attempt at harvesting. Tiara positioned herself in front of the tree. She stood on her front legs, reeling her hind legs back. This was it; a perfect opportunity to show that blank-flank at her own game. Putting as much force into the kick as she could, Diamond Tiara launched her legs at the base of the tree. She could immediately feel the vibrations riding up the bark to the apples. Even though it made her legs sore a bit, she couldn’t help but smile, holding her nose in the air. “See? Told you!” Applebloom nodded, clapping her hoofs together. “Congratulations,” she said, sarcastically, “You didn’t manage to get a single apple to fall.” Being told this, Diamond Tiara looked up at the apples in the tree. Clearly, as she was told, not a single one of them had fallen. They were swaying side to side from the vibration given to the tree, but it didn’t look they were going to fall. “You have got to be kidding me.” She tried again, and again, and again, but each time, none of the apples allowed themselves to fall. It was almost as if they’d glued themselves in place. “I tried to tell you,” said Applebloom, “It’s not all to use just strength, but you also gotta use proper technique when do’n stuff like this.” Tiara blinked. “There’s itechnique in apple bucking?” Applebloom smiled. “Yeah, it’s been used in m’ah family for generations. It’s how we managed to get so much in stock.” “That’s kinda stupid,” said Diamond. Applebloom stood, trotting over to the pink earth pony. “Well listen, how ‘bout we try someth’n a bit easier for you? Follow me.” She motioned Tiara to follow her to another part of the farm. Diamond Tiara’s glare followed her enemy as she trotted away. Saying that had rectified that the pink filly was barely strong enough to do anything, which she saw as a challenge. And the last thing she wanted was to lose to Applebloom. She looked back up at the red apples still hanging on the branches, taking note of each and every one of them. “By the end of this day,” she muttered, “I’ll get at least one of you down from this lousy tree, even if it’s the last thing I do.” With that, she followed Applebloom, whilst musing over the apples she couldn’t knock down. They arrived at a corn field not too far from the orchard. The corn had still yet to actually sprout out of their ears. “Some of the stalks in here is all shriveled up and dead,” Applebloom told her assistant. “All we have to do is pick out the dead ones out and put ‘em in that basket over there.” She pointed at a small wooden basket that was set nearby. Tiara couldn’t see the challenge in pulling a few stalks of corn from the ground. If anything, this was much too easy. With Applebloom, she trotted into the corn field and got to work. Despite her earlier claims, however, she found that it was nearly as difficult as kicking a few apples out of a tree. As she trotted through the forest of corn, she failed to see any that had actually gone bad like Applebloom said. Perhaps this was all just a bust, she thought. Within minutes after starting, though, she found one hidden further in. The brown stalk and withering ears made it obvious enough. She scoffed, “This’ll be a piece of cake.” Grabbing the stalk with her teeth, she began to pull. It was much harder than she thought, despite it being a dead plant. She hadn’t even gotten it out an inch before letting go. The roots that were keeping it attached to the ground weren’t letting her succeed in her goal. She angrily stomped her hoof on the ground, refusing to give up so easily. “Come on you stupid thing! Budge already!” She gave it another try. She bit down harder on it. After putting in more effort than normal, she forcefully pried the dead stalk out of the ground. She fell backwards, and some of the dirt had flown through the air and landed on her coat. It was a small price to pay, though. She sat up and gave out a sigh, wiping some sweat off her forehead. “Glad that’s over.” Even though she probably had more pull out, she counted this as a victory. She grabbed the corn stalk off the ground and headed out. When she arrived at the basket, however, her jaw nearly dropped when she saw Applebloom already there with many more in her possession, which far outnumbered the single one Diamond Tiara was carrying in her mouth. Applebloom glanced at her as she trotted forward. “Finally, you’re back. You were in there a longer than I thought.” Diamond Tiara placed the corn stalk in the basket. “What? Is there a technique for pulling corn out of the ground, too?” “Actually, no, you just pluck it out. Not really that hard,” said Applebloom. Tiara could literally feel her frustration rising steadily with each daunting task she had to do. This was too much physical work for a pony of her caliber. She heard laughing in the distance and was about to yell out in anger before they noticed Granny Smith approaching. “How’s the work go’n, girls?” she asked. “Fine,” said Applebloom. Granny Smith glanced over at Diamond Tiara, who had dirt and sweat littering her coat, mane, and tail. The filly simply looked exhausted. “Can’t really say the same for yourself, though, eh?” She snickered, though she wasn’t trying to make fun of the young filly. “What do you want?” Diamond Tiara snapped. Applebloom cast a glance at the overtly-dramatic pony. Granny Smith didn’t seem to mind it, however. “Country life tends to make a pony like yourself crabby. Anyway, I jus’ came over to tell you that I whipped up some delicious lemonade for all your hard work.” She directed their attention to two glasses that’d been set up on a table. “Figured ya’ll might’ve wanted some cool down a bit from the heat.” Her comment was mainly directed at Diamond Tiara. Applebloom nodded. “Thanks, Granny!” Although she didn’t show it, Diamond Tiara was thankful that she could have at least something to refresh herself from hard work. She immediately chugged down her glass the moment she made it to the table. It was sweet. That was all she could make it out to be. It was like any ordinary glass of lemonade she tasted, nothing too special. She looked over at Applebloom. The filly was enjoying her glass as well, though not as much as Diamond Tiara did. “How much more work do we have to do?” asked the pink filly. It was clear that she wanted to get gone as soon as possible. “After pull’n out the dead corn, now we gotta feed the pigs. Then we’ll be done for the day.” Tiara cringed at that. Having to feed a bunch of filthy animals was not high on her ‘things-to-do’ list, yet she knew there was no way to back out of it. Applebloom could only roll her eyes at her reaction. “Oh, stop be’n such a baby. The only thing we gotta do is fill their troughs so they can eat.” “And what exactly do they eat?” asked Diamond. Applebloom answered, “Slop.” Diamond Tiara could feel her eye twitch. Slop. Why am I not surprised? “And what exactly is ‘slop’?” “It’s basically a bunch of scraps of food we mix together. The pigs love ‘em. They’ll eat almost anyth’n.” An exasperated sigh escaped Tiara’s lips. She did not like idea of it, though she knew if got through this without her sanity breaking, she could finally go inside, sleep, and never speak of this day again. “Alright, the faster we do this, the faster we’ll be finished. Where’s the stuff at?” “Slop,” Applebloom corrected, “And we’re gonna have to make it ourselves.” Tiara deadpanned, staring at the scarlet-maned filly with a blank expression on her face. “You’re joking, right? And how do we do that?” “Haven’t you been listen’n to a word I’ve said?” “Not really.” Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Jus’ come on if you wanna get done so badly.” Diamond Tiara groaned, but the desire to hurry and finish this grueling task motivated her to continue—at least for a while longer. She followed Applebloom into the barn. They gathered the ingredients and got started. The “slop” was mainly comprised of chopped apples, some vegetables such as celery, lettuce, potatoes, and broccoli, tomatoes, and treats that Applebloom decided to sneak in. The entire thing looked like a big hodgepodge of different things mashed together inside the bucket in front of them. By the time they were finished, Diamond’s hooves were covered in debris from the stuff. She wiped them off on the towel Applebloom hoofed her, and together, the fillies brought the bucket over to a trough and dumped the slop in. Finally, they were finished and she could rest; though as she looked around, she saw no animals coming over to eat. “So, what happens now?” the impatient filly asked. Applebloom grabbed a small metal rod and struck it against a triangle hanging from the ceiling nearby. “Come and get it!” she called out. Almost immediately the ground around them felt like it was shaking as the sound of hooves pounding against the ground echoed through the air. A trio of pigs ran past the fillies. Unfortunately for Diamond Tiara, though, they ran over a small mud puddle in front of them, covering the two of them in mud, dirt, and dust. Applebloom looked at the pigs as they greedily dug into the slop, in contrast to Diamond Tiara, who looked just about to lash out at any pony around her. Her mane and tail were dirtied along with her coat, which had mixed in with the dirt and mud to make a horrid pinkish-brown colour. Much of her body was covered in mud, dripping off her tail. Applebloom was equally as dirty, but she didn’t seem to mind it as much, seeing as she’s been doing this basically her whole life. “That wasn’t so difficult, was it?” She turned her gaze towards Diamond Tiara. The pink filly was literally steaming, her face red with anger. Applebloom could tell she was using every last ounce of her willpower to keep from doing something violent. Tiara gritted her teeth. “I’m going to take a shower,” she declared. She headed back for the house. “I thought a pony like you would’ve loved mud baths,” said Applebloom. Even though she was trying to be friendly to her archrival, there was a small part of her that loved seeing Diamond Tiara like this. “Taking a dip in a nice, relaxing mud bath is largely different than having the stuff splattered all over you!” Tiara wiped some of the mud off her face and retreated back into the house, leaving a confused Applebloom behind. The hot water did a good job of washing the mud and dirt into the drain. After her unwanted encounter with the animals, all Diamond Tiara wanted was to get clean and fall asleep, and let what happened with today fade into memory. She knew it’d be difficult to forget everything, but one could only hope. She turned off the water and stepped out of the tub. She dried off her mane, which had went through multiple rinse and repeat to get the muck and grime out, and wrapped it in a towel. Clean and refreshed, the pink filly emerged from the bathroom and made her way to the guest room at the end of the hall. Inside, her tiara lay on a desk, still dirtied from when the pigs ran past her. It was easy to clean, thankfully. There was a knock on her door, and she opened it up to see Applejack. “Hey, Diamond. Sorry to hear about your little ‘incident’ with the pigs outside. They always get a bit hyper when dinnertime comes around.” “Can I help you?” Judging by Tiara’s unpleasant attitude, it was obvious she wasn’t in the mood for a subtle approach. Nevertheless, Applejack decided to keep pushing forward. “Listen, I was jus’ wonder’n if it would be all right for you an’ ma’h sister to head out an’ pick up a few things tomorrow.” Diamond Tiara eyed her. “Why can’t you ask just one of us to do it?” “Well I did ask Applebloom while you were washing the mud out. She said she wanted you to tag along also,” said Applejack. Hearing this had confused Diamond Tiara. Why would Applebloom ask such a thing despite knowing they hated each other? Perhaps she was planning something, though that was Diamond Tiara’s initial thought. Maybe she was overreacting. Applebloom might have thought she just needed some help with carrying the ingredients back to Sweet Apple Acres once she got them. She wasn’t entirely sure if it was voluntary, or if her mouth was speaking out of turn, but she accepted the offer. There isn’t really much to do in this house, anyway, she thought to herself. “Well ain’t that jus’ dandy!” said Applejack, “Maybe you two are get’n along after all.” She shut the door, giving Diamond Tiara her privacy. Diamond took this time to think. Taking her tiara, she began to clean it off. She was still wondering why Applebloom had requested this, and she wasn’t sure why she wanted to through with it. Her muscles were starting to ache from the hard work she’d gone through, something she was obviously not accustomed to being a pony of her standards. All she was focused on now was sleeping. Flour Cinnamon Eggs “I guess we can start by get’n the flour,” said Applebloom. She and Tiara set out through the market amongst the crowd of ponies, searching for the stand that was supposed to be selling the flour. Tiara, though, couldn’t stop thinking back to what Applejack said, about her sister wanting her to help get the ingredients. She still wondered why Applebloom would want her to tag along so bad. The option of this being a trick still hung over her head, which caused her to be a little cautious of the scarlet-maned pony trotting alongside her. Though Applebloom wouldn’t do anything bad or humiliating while in the middle of a crowd . . . right? They finally found the flour seller after nearly twelve minutes of searching and hurried towards her. They asked her for a bag and she happily obliged, giving the bag to Applebloom. It looked heavy from Diamond Tiara’s perspective, but to her surprise, the yellow earth pony was lifting it with ease. “Thanks, Misses Daffodil!” Applebloom waved as she and Tiara headed out to get the next thing on their list. “We should to go Fluttershy’s house next to get the eggs.” “Okay, then… What’re we waiting for?” said Diamond. They made their way over to the edge of Ponyville, crossing the bridge and following the dirt path that led to the timid pegasus’ cottage. There were animals up and about, scurrying across the outside, though Tiara didn’t mind being around them that much. They were tamed, much more so than the animals over at Sweet Apple Acres. As they got closer, a white bunny hopped in front of them. The simple sight reminded Diamond of that humiliating day when her dad forced her to hop around metal watering cans while wearing bunny ears. She wasn’t able to live that incident down for weeks. “Hey, Angel… Do you know where Fluttershy is?” asked Applebloom. Angel did a number of hand signs, trying to tell the girls where the pegasus might have been. “Oh just spit it out, fur ball,” Diamond Tiara spat. Angel gave the filly a questionable look. “Bunnies can’t speak,” Applebloom told her, “I think he’s try’n to say that she’s—” She looked back at Angel. “What’re you try’n to say?” Angel facepalmed and pointed over towards the cottage. “I think he’s say’n Fluttershy’s in her house.” “Then why didn’t he just say that?” asked Tiara. Applebloom shrugged. “Thanks Angel!” They trotted past the bunny up to the door of the cottage. Applebloom knocked, and after a few moments, the yellow pegasus answered. “Oh, hi girls. What brings you by?” “We needed some eggs if you got any,” said Applebloom. Fluttershy nodded. “Of course; just follow me.” She led them to the chicken coop on the side of her house. While they waited for her to fetch the eggs they had asked for, Diamond Tiara looked over at Applebloom. “Hey, quick question,” she said; “why did you want me tag along?” “What do you mean?” asked Applebloom. “I mean when your sister asked if I could help get this stuff, she told me you wanted me to come with you.” The butter-yellow filly shrugged. “It’s not really a big deal. I wanted you to come with me so we can get these ingredients together.” “But why…?” “Applejack said if we’re gonna be live’n under the same roof, we have to at least tolerate each other. And that means try’n to get along for a change.” Diamond couldn’t determine whether it was a legitimate reason, if she meant it or not, but she saw that Applebloom was determined to follow through on her promise to her sister, something she never experienced. Fluttershy emerged from the chicken coop and placed the eggs in the saddle bag Applebloom was carrying. “Here you go. What’re you baking?” “Granny Smith and Applejack were gonna be make’n some cinnamon buns tomorrow and they needed the ingredients,” replied Applebloom. That answered Tiara’s question on why they were going shopping. “I’ll be sure to get you one if you like.” Fluttershy shook her head, declining. “Oh, that’s okay. Thanks, though.” With the eggs and flour secured, all they needed was the cinnamon. “Where do you think we should go?” asked Tiara. “I don’t know. Maybe we can borrow some from Sugarcube Corner. Mister and Misses Cake might have some in storage.” Applebloom rolled up the checklist; she and Diamond Tiara began making their way through town on their way over to Sugarcube Corner. On their way, though, they saw two other foals playing hoofball in the streets. Tiara hesitated to take another step forward when she saw them, primarily the cerulean-blue earth pony colt. He looked ecstatic when he spotted her; although the pink filly did not share the same reaction. Applebloom noticed the amount of nervousness coming from Diamond Tiara as the two ponies approached. “What’s wrong, Diamond?” Before she had a chance to answer, however, the colt galloped past Applebloom up to Tiara. She blushed at how close he was to her face. “Hi… Diamond,” he stammered. “What do you want now?” asked Tiara. She was annoyed, as indicated by the deadpanned tone in her voice, but the colt didn’t seem to notice. “Will you leave her alone, Hopper?” the other pony, a pegasus filly, said to him, “I keep telling you, there’s no chance in Equestria.” “Yeah, please, take it from your sister. There really is no chance.” Diamond promptly shoved him away. “What’re you two even doing together? I’d always thought you hated each other,” said Rain Crackle, the pegasus filly. “Well, you see, Diamond—” Applebloom was beginning to explain when Diamond Tiara shoved a hoof in her mouth and cast a glance that reminded her of their deal. “We just figured we’d try to get along for once. We were gather’n ingredients for m’ah sister an’ Granny Smith.” “We can help!” Hopper exclaimed. Rain looked at him. “We can…?” “Oh no,” Applebloom said, “You don’t have to—” Not regarding what she was saying, Hopper grabbed the sack of flour off Applebloom’s back. “Don’t worry! I got it!” He started carrying it. He didn’t get far before the sack got stuck on a root sticking out of the ground. Hopper tugged and pulled as much as he could; it was not too long before the flour sack freed itself from his mouth. It was flung into the air and fell to the ground with an impact, causing the flour to fly everywhere. It when it all finally cleared, Applebloom, Rain Crackle, and Hopper, despite being partially covered by the white powder, saw Diamond Tiara covered head-to-hoof. She opened her eyes, and the first thing she did was shoot a threatening glare at Hopper. The colt backed away, smiling nervously. “You know, now that I think of it, we really need to get back home for dinner. Let’s go, Rain.” He grabbed his sister’s tail and ran off, leaving a confused Applebloom and a frustrated Diamond Tiara covered in flour. Chapter 4Farm Diamond Chapter 4 ANOTHER DAY OF SCRUBBING debris out of her mane; first it was mud and dirt and now it was flour. She and Applebloom got what they needed. They had to buy another sack of flour from the salespony, and then afterwards they borrowed the cinnamon from Mr. and Mrs. Cake (although getting laughed at by their children and by some ponies in Sugarcube Corner was not something that Diamond Tiara enjoyed at all). Pinkie Pie came in and told them a near hour-long story of how she had to cover herself in flour repeatedly in order to get the Cake’s children to stop crying. But now, the filly was just glad to be back at Sweet Apple Acres, away from all the craziness, in her opinion, that was going on outside. Still, it was lonely here. There was no pony to talk to, or hang out with. She overheard Applebloom talking to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle about going ahead with trying to get their Karaoke Singing cutie marks, and it was obvious that both Applejack and Big Macintosh would either be busy working in the farm or out in town selling apples. That left only one pony in the house… The last pony Diamond Tiara wanted to be stuck with was Granny Smith. She was still harbouring a deep hatred towards the senile old mare, significantly blaming her in unison with Applebloom for causing her humiliating punishment during Family Appreciation Day. The last she saw of the decrepit mare before heading to taking her shower was downstairs sleeping in her old rocking chair. Tiara noticed that she slept a lot during the day, but that was to be expected from a pony of her age. After drying off and placing back on her favoured tiara, she headed downstairs to see Granny Smith asleep, as usual, in front of the fireplace. There was not much a sleeping mare could provide that would interest her, though at that moment, she noticed something purple and shiny sitting atop the mantle. Pushing a nearby chair over, she moved closer to get a better look. It was a gem, and a beautifully crafted one at that. It must’ve been worth well over sixty-thousand carrots. At that, Diamond’s only thought was: Where did this old lady get something as priceless as this? “What? Who’s over there?” Diamond turned quickly to see Granny Smith awake from her nap. The olive green mare’s eyes lay on the pink filly. A smile on her face, she hopped off the rocking chair and staggered towards Diamond Tiara. “Like what you see?” “How did you get this? Or, who gave it to you?” asked the pink filly. Granny Smith gave a small chuckle. “Actually, little one, between you an’ me, I scammed that one off’a that little feller, Spike. You should’a seen the look on his face.” Hearing this had made Tiara’s jaw drop. “You mean that dragon living with Twilight? Are you serious? How’d you do it?” “You’re jus’ full’a questions this time, aren’t ya?” said Granny Smith. She looked down at Tiara. This must have been the only time the filly was really interested in something relating to the Apple Family, aside from her story about the founding of Ponyville. “When Applejack an’ her friends took that trip to the Crystal Empire, she told me Spike had volunteered to watch Winona and all them other critters. I saw him literally roll’n ‘em through town, strapped together like a giant ball. He bribed me to keep m’ah mouth shut, but not after the animals managed to escape and started run’n amuck. I’ve been keep’n that gem ever since.” Her story genuinely surprised Diamond. She never realised Granny Smith had such a mischievous side to her. You know what, I think I’m beginning to like this mare, she thought to herself. “So what’s your story?” asked Granny Smith. Diamond Tiara eyed the old mare. “What do you mean?” “Don’t act like you don’t know,” replied the olive green pony. “No, really, I don’t.” Whatever Granny Smith was getting at, Diamond Tiara could only expect it to be something either she doesn’t know, or something that she wouldn’t fully understand. Granny Smith chuckled, patting the young pink filly on the head. “Me an’ my family’s been travel’n all over Equestria since before your daddy was born. I can safely say that I’ve been to sorts of places: Hoofington, Baltimore, Vanhoover, Manehattan. And in those times, I’ve met all sorts of ponies.” She could have just ignored her and trotted away instead of listening to this mare, but something inside Diamond Tiara told her that whatever Granny Smith was going to be talking about, it was not going to be a typical “when I was about your age” tale that many other old ponies told. Granny Smith retired back to her rocking chair. Diamond Tiara, interested enough to hear what she was going to tell her, sat on the floor like a curious young child. “You see,” Granny Smith started, “Like I told you, I’ve met a whole bunch’a ponies in m’ah travels throughout Equestria, and lemme tell you, there were some of the nicest ponies you’ll ever meet, and then there are those who you would jus’ wanna bash upside the head. Yes, I’ve met a few of those before.” Those few sentences were nearly putting Diamond Tiara to sleep. Maybe I should’ve gotten away while I could, she thought. “One’a those stingy, snobby, stuck-up ponies I ran into was jus’ like you, attitude and all,” Granny Smith retorted. Her statement drew up a questionable glance from Tiara as she continued on with her tale. My family and I were plum tuckered out from travel’n so much. Back then, I couldn’t remember the last time we stopped and took a breather. The bright sun was normally scorching hot, especially around in the summertime, and we hated whenever the winter seasons came hop’n around. Rain, snow, sleet, and everyth’n in-between; it was definitely not fun for us, not one bit. You see, we’d been look’n for a place to settle down for months. Not many places around the Kingdom were suitable enough for us “nomads” as they called us to stay for long. You wouldn’t begin to imagine how relieved I was when we found a place where we could finally stop with all the travel’n for a while. Don’t get me wrong, I did like see’n all that Equestria had to offer, but trotting all those miles can really do a number of a poor girl’s hooves. “Is there a point to this story?” Tiara asked, increasingly impatient. “Hold your horses, girl. I’m get’n to it!” replied Granny Smith. “Now, where was I again?” The place we decided to finally stop and rest for a bit was at Fillydelphia. It was a marvelous place back then. You wouldn’t find another city like it anywhere else in Equestria, believe me. The scenery it provided was stunning; always made me wish we could have jus’ there the rest of our lives, but I guess fate had other plans for us settlers. Ponies there were nice as could be, except for that one I still remember. My Dad gave me some bits so that I could run into town and pick up a few things for supper. It wasn’t all that difficult search’n for everyth’n. They really had everyth’n you needed. Why, one would call Fillydelphia the Ponyville of that time period. After I’d collected enough of the ingredients my Mom asked for, and I was headed back to my family, I came across a small grumpy-lookn colt jus’ sit’n on a bench. Looked like he wanted to be left along, too, but be’n the sweet mare I was, I decided to go over an’ have a little chat, to keep him company. I’d asked him what was wrong, and do you know what he said to me at that moment? Diamond Tiara eyed the old mare. “Get lost?” “How’d you know?” “Lucky guess, I suppose…” Something has got to be up with that colt, I thought. Never in my life had I seen such a long face. Well, except for that one time Grandpa Tart got swindled outta his lucky hat while we were visit’n Los Pegasus. But I supposed, back then, at least, I should mind my business. After our dinner, I decided to go out for a trot through town. There was still so much to see, after all, an’ I knew we wouldn’t be stay’n for long. The streets in Fillydelphia were quiet at this time of night, except for cats have’n hissy fits in the alleyways. Eventually I arrived at a bridge that was built above a small river splitt’n the town in half. The moon’s reflection shone brightly in the water. In the silence of the night, I heard what seemed like sniffl’n and turned my head to see the same colt I met earlier there as well. I was looking up at the sky. I knew he was think’n ‘bout someth’n, otherwise he wouldn’t be out here. I trotted over to him. “You all right?” I asked. He took one look at me and glared. “What do you want?” “I just asked you a question,” I asked. “Why do you care? You don’t know me.” I sat down right beside him. “No, I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I can’t ask you what’s bother’n you, can it?” He looked as if he was about to reply to me, but stopped himself. I was sure, though, that it was someth’n less than nice. He didn’t look at me, but replied: “Do you have a family?” “Oh no, I’m so sorry,” I said, not really sure of what he was get’n at. The colt looked at me. “No, no, it’s not like that, it’s just…” “Just what?” I asked. “How close are with your family?” “We’re as close as a three beans in a pod,” I answered. Though, with that, he looked at me rather confused. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “It means we’re close. Why do you ask?” The colt sighed. “My family is not really that close like yours is. I wish we were, though. My Mom and Dad are always working. I can’t really remember the last time we actually spent time together.” “All a foal ever wants is to be with his Mom and Dad.” “Sometimes I wonder if they really love me.” “Now don’t say that.” I wrapped a hoof around him. “I’m sure they love you very much. You jus’ have a very hard time see’n that. Listen; don’t let those kinds of thoughts get into your head.” He looked up at me, hopeful. “Are you… positive?” “Of course I am! No pony’s as positive I am!” My sudden burst of energy at that moment managed to draw up a smile from the foal. I smiled in return and placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Believe me, kid. Now, please, go back to home. I’m pretty sure your parents are worried sick about you.” He nodded. Then, he gave me a hug before trotting off. I knew I’d helped that colt out. “What happened to him?” asked Tiara. “I saw him again two days later. I’ll be darned if he wasn’t the happiest I’ve seen him since we first met. Guess he finally got the quality time he yearned for with his parents. But I must say, he sounded almost like somepony I know.” Diamond tilted her head. “Who?” “The pony I jus’ told a story to,” replied Granny Smith. She learned forward in her rocking chair. “I’ve heard it all, ya know: You an’ that Silver Spoon friend’a yours tease’n m’ah granddaughter and her friends, and anypony else who doesn’t fit your definition of a ‘popular pony’. But I don’t hate you. No, in fact, I jus’ think you’re use’n that as a shield to cover some issues you must be feel’n. An’ believe me; I know it when I see it.” Had this mare really compared Tiara to the colt in her story? Diamond felt a few tears well up in her eyes. She turned and wiped them away. Now that she thought about it, she and the colt did sound alike. They were both rotten, rude, mean, and hated just about everyone that came within vicinity. Tiara thought it over again; of course, it sounded just like her, though she refused to admit it. She didn’t have any problems with her life . . . right? “Stupid old mare,” she sneered below her voice; “There’s no way I—” She turned around only to see Granny Smith asleep in her rocking chair, snoring and generally out cold. Tiara couldn’t help but think about her story again, about the colt she met and managed to befriend, despite him acting like a complete jerk. Perhaps—and this was just a small possibility, in Diamond Tiara’s defence—Granny Smith was right about comparing them. Now that she thought about it, there were some things in her life that she was not proud, things that she wished she could forget. But these problems were too horrible in her mind to simply ignore like they were nothing. If anything, they had been the very reason for her acting like she did. Her musing was interrupted when a knock came from the front door. She opened it, and to Diamond Tiara’s disbelief, there stood the gray earth pony filly wearing her trademark glasses. “Silver Spoon!” She pulled her in for a hug. “Your pony pox! They’re finally gone!” “I know, I’m happy, too,” replied Silver Spoon, “I was getting tired of being stuck in bed all day.” “How’d you know I was out here?” asked Tiara. “Your Dad told my parents where you were before he left to… wherever it is he went. But the question I wanna ask if why you’re out here. You wouldn’t be caught dead in Sweet Apple Acres unless you’re Dad brought you here.” Tiara sighed. She loved her father—truly; she admired him and what he accomplished—but sometimes he could be a real pain; though even she knew he meant well. She contemplated telling Silver Spoon about her situation. She is my best friend, she thought. We tell each other everything. “Alright, but promise that you won’t tell another living soul.” Silver nodded. “Don’t worry; I promise.” Diamond Tiara breathed in and exhaled. “My Dad’s gone bankrupt.” Silver Spoon’s mouth was agape. “Whoa... Are you serious? How?” Tiara sighed. “I wish I wasn’t. My Dad made some bad investments; and by that, I mean most of he invested in was counterfeit. So now he’s up in Manehattan with Mister Banks trying to fix it. The reason I’m here was because he wanted me to learn ‘humility’.” Tiara rolled her eyes at the word. “They keep trying to get me to get along with that blank-flank, Applebloom.” “Must be torture,” said Silver Spoon. “You have no idea what I’ve been through,” said Diamond Tiara, “I’m just relieved we get to take a break from all the work. My legs have been aching since we bucked apples out of those trees.” “How many’d you get?” Zero… Diamond Tiara said in her mind. “I got lots. I lost count.” She trotted past Silver Spoon. “Come on. How about we go for a trot through town?” Silver Spoon smiled, gladly accepting the offer. “Sure.” To Diamond Tiara’s relief, there was no pony laughing at her. She figured it was because she wasn’t covered in flour like before; but she still expected at least half of them to recognise her, despite not being painted white. As they aimlessly wandered through town, Diamond told Silver Spoon about her various endeavors with Applebloom over these past few days. Silver Spoon listened attentively to what she was being told, from her being covered in flour by Hopper, to the difficult, grueling work—in her definition—at Sweet Apple Acres. It was still a wonder how Diamond Tiara managed to keep her sanity amidst everything that had happened so far. The fillies eventually entered Sugarcube Corner and took a seat after asking for an order of cupcakes. There were still snickers and chuckles from some of the ponies in the store, though she couldn’t determine if they were laughing at each other or if they remembered her as the one who was covered in flour. Obviously the Cakes’ children knew who she was, as indicated when Pound Cake pointed at her, saying her name in whatever gibberish foals spoke. Diamond looked away and ignored them. “How long is your Dad supposed to be in Manehattan?” asked Silver. “Two weeks, at the most,” said Tiara; “probably more if he can’t find a way to fix things in time. I’m afraid this is gonna stick with us for a while.” “Surely, you must have something left, right?” Silver Spoon always tried to search for the bright side of things. It was that quality that Diamond Tiara liked about her friend the most. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Tiara shook her head. “Most of our bank accounts are either frozen or have already had the money pulled out. This is the probably the worst thing I’ve been through in my life.” “That’s not the only thing that’s bad,” said Silver Spoon. She looked behind Diamond Tiara to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders entering the building. Scootaloo was coughing like she’d been choking on something. “I told you not to sing that too high,” said Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo coughed again before replying in a raspy tone, “Then why didn’t you sing? You seem to know a lot about it.” “You know I don’t like to sing!” Sweetie Belle defended herself. “Girls,” Applebloom intervened, “There’s no use in argue’n, especially when Scootaloo’s voice is shot.” Diamond Tiara scoffed, arrogantly, “Told you you’d be no good at karaoke. But I guess three blank-flanks like you had to learn the hard way.” Her comment earned a laugh from Silver Spoon. Though it put a slight strain on her scratchy throat, Scootaloo couldn’t help but growl. “Well, if it isn’t Diamond Tiara’s mindless crony.” “What did you say, chicken!” Silver Spoon snapped back. Sweetie Belle gave a quick counter. “At least Scootaloo’s not a stuck-up brat like you two!” Her defence earned an agreement from the orange pegasus. Another riot had nearly broken out between the five fillies, until Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared amidst a pile of colourful confetti from behind the table. Her surprise entrance, again, caught Diamond and Silver off-guard as the two fillies fell from their chairs. “Really? Again?” Diamond Tiara got up to her hooves, rubbing a sore spot on her head. “Why do you keep doing that?” Pinkie Pie giggled. “I told you before, silly filly: Surprises make the best kind of entrance!” “Could you do it a little less?” asked Silver Spoon. Pinkie shook her head. “Nope, but what you five friends need to stop doing immediately is—” “I already told you, we are not friends!” Diamond Tiara interrupted. The pink pony, however, didn’t look too convinced. “Sure~ you’re not.” “We shouldn’t be fight’n, anyway,” said Applebloom. “We already promised Applejack we’d try to tolerate each other. Isn’t that right, Diamond?” Tiara opened her mouth; she wanted to say something, but no words came out. She could only settle for crossing her hooves and pouting. She hated the fact that Applebloom could hold that against her whenever she wanted. Silver looked at her friend. “What is she talking?” “Me and Diamond made a promise to Applejack that we wouldn’t get into a fight at all while she was stay’n with us,” said Applebloom, “That also includes no insults or name call’n.” The explanation left a smug look on the earth pony’s face. She had the upper advantage if confrontations arose between her and Diamond Tiara, and she knew it. Pinkie Pie broke the ensuing silence. “So, now that you girls aren’t fighting, is there anything I can get ya?” “We need some ice cream for Scootaloo’s throat,” said Sweetie Belle. “Diamond and I already ordered some cupcakes,” Silver explained. “Oh, those were yours, weren’t they? I thought the Cakes had left me a little snack for all my babysitting Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake last night.” Pinkie Pie licked her lips, remembering the delicious flavour of the pastries. Diamond Tiara face-hoofed. Between being held down by Applebloom, and her friends and Granny Smith’s story, this was officially one of the worse days the pink filly had experienced in her life. “Just… get us another.” Chapter 5Farm Diamond Chapter 5 EVERYTHING FILTHY RICH TRIED in order to fix the little money problem he had accidentally thrown himself in was all done in constant vain. In short of arriving in Manehattan and after getting settled in, he and Cash Banks went to the stock brokers in order to get things sorted out. What he thought would last a few days at least continued to draw on with little-to-no progress. He had managed to get back a few thousand bits; the remainder of his money, however, was still gone and his bank accounts frozen. The counterfeiters, the ones whose products he had invested in, were nowhere to be found. The counterfeiters, the ones whose products he had invested in, were nowhere to be found. Because the investments he made were counterfeit, illegal, and he was one of those directly responsible who hadn’t gone into hiding to avoid the authorities, it was obvious that he would have to take the brunt of the backlash. That answered the question as to where most of his money went: reparations to those affected, which, unfortunately, numbered in the thousands. Cash Banks offered any support he could offer to help Filthy Rich, but even that was not enough to change the situation significantly. Simply by glancing in his direction, one could tell Filthy Rich was on edge. His silky black mane, which was usually clean and kempt, became incredibly disheveled and it looked like he had not slept in days. His cutie mar, after all, was three money bags, which meant his skill with business and other matters of the economy. Having to go through this type of situation was incredibly stressful. “Why don’t you take a seat?” Cash Banks led his friend over to a nearby bench. It was some time in the early afternoon. The air was perfect, yet it did little to ease the amount of worry Rich was currently showing. Filthy Rich could only bury his face in his hooves. Everything he had, from Plan A to Plan M, failed, which made him doubt any other alternatives would succeed in the long run. “How long have we been at this?” he asked. Cash Banks replied, “About ten days, exactly. I would’ve expected some serious changes to have been taken out by now.” “I don’t think that’s coming for a long time,” said Rich. “Was there any progress in finding the ponies responsible?” Rich shook his head. “Not a trace,” he stated. “It’s like they up and disappeared out of existence. Wherever they might be, I sure hope the Royal Guard manages to find them.” Cash Banks sat down. “Dare to dream.” There was a brief moment of silence between them. Cash thought of their next plan of action, but it became apparent that Filthy Rich was ready to throw in the towel. “I’ve tried everything.” Cash nodded. “Yeah, you sure did.” “If I hadn’t been so overzealous with the investments, none of this would have ever happened.” Cash agreed, again. “And now, because of that, things might never go back to normal.” Cash nodded again. “Yeah, you screwed up.” Filthy Rich looked over at the green earth pony in irritation. “Whose side are you on, anyway?” “Just throwing words out. Nothing personal,” Cash said, giving a sympathetic grin. “You know I’m sorry that this happened to you.” “It’s not your fault. I’m just wishing things played out differently.” “You must still have some tricks left, right? Any at all that you could use?” “I do,” Rich replied, “But I don’t see any of them working out. They’ll probably backfire like the rest of them. We might as well just give up.” Never in Cash Banks’ life would he ever expect to hear those two words—give up—coming out of his mouth. The last thing Filthy Rich ever did was give up like that, and throwing in the towel here, right in front of them, was shocking to the green earth pony. He responded: “Ponyfeathers!” His sudden outburst garnered the attention of Filthy Rich, as well as an offended mother covering her foal’s ears. Ignoring her and her disappointing glare, Cash continued to try and convince his friend otherwise. “Never in my life have I seen you quit like this. It’s just too unnatural for a pony of your caliber.” “You know I’ve tried everything,” said Filthy Rich. “And…?” It became obvious that Cash wasn’t taking no for an answer, “Listen, you helped me when I was down and out and the last thing I’m gonna do right now is abandon you when you need it most. You know what I say to you giving up at a time like this? I say horseapples!” A growl came from the mother. “Seriously,” Cash snapped, “if you see a couple of grown stallions talking like this and you have a foal with you, wouldn’t it be smart to leave?” The mother left after casting another disappointed look, and after she was gone, he continued, “I know you must still have something left to use, right? Whatever it is, I’ll help see it through.” Filthy Rich put a hoof to his chin and contemplated on his next plan. He looked back at Cash who was eagerly awaiting his response. “You know what; actually, I might have one more.” “Good,” said Cash, “Let’s do it!” Rich nodded. For once, things might have a chance of going his way. “Good, but first we’ll need to contact Fancy Pants for this to work.” Cash froze at the mention of that name. It was one that struck him in the nerve as he hesitated to take another step. “You mean the unicorn Fancy Pants… from Canterlot?” “Yes…?” Filthy Rich confirmed. “You sure you don’t have any other solutions that might work. Really, you must have something else, right?” “Quit stalling and come on.” Before another word could be said, Filthy Rich was off, galloping down the street. Cash Banks gazed after him, watching the rapidly departing earth pony with worry. “I know I’m going to regret every minute of this,” he said before following after Rich, sprinting to catch up with him. Having Silver Spoon around to hang out with again took away much of the anxiety that Diamond Tiara normally felt ever since moving in with Applebloom and her family. Now that she had her best friend to hang out with once again, she would no longer have to sit around Sweet Apple Acres all day. With Silver Spoon back, Diamond could look towards the positives again. She could see things were beginning to look up in this bleak time she was facing. In no time at all, her father would return from Manehattan, their unfortunate economic problem a thing of the past, and she could finally forget everything that’d transpired thus far. The filly looked forward to it with anticipation. In no time at all, she would be kicking back in her mansion, free from “hard labour” that came with working on a cheesy farm and free from Applebloom and Granny Smith. Although, before there was even a remote chance of this happening, she’d have to wait patiently—or as patiently as she possibly could—until this time came. In the meantime, she would spend most of her days with Silver Spoon, and even though the temptation of teasing Applebloom and her Cutie mark Crusader pals was rising with each passing day, she was still residing under the Apple Family’s roof, which meant that she would still have to hold off on the ridiculing, unless she wanted to disappoint her Dad and possibly invoke whatever punishment Applejack would have in store. “You’re back early,” said Applejack. She let Diamond Tiara in after she was done waving farewell to Silver Spoon. “We have a ton of homework to do,” replied Tiara, “We decided it’d be best to get at least some of it done before tomorrow.” Applejack shut the door once Tiara was inside. Granny Smith was awake in her rocking chair, reading over the local Ponyville Newspaper. The sight reminded Tiara of her Gabby Gums article she used to be in charge of, though she tried hard to forget about it. She quit the school newspaper soon after, but often times she wondered if she could have changed things if she had the chance. Tiara emptied the contents of her saddle bag onto the living room table. The stuff that was inside included her homework and a textbook in algebra. “You an’ m’ah sister haven’t been talk’n to each other for quite a while,” said Applejack, “Is someth’n wrong? Would have expected you to at least—” “There’s nothing wrong,” said Diamond, nonchalantly, as she got started, or tried to get started, on her work. “You sure…?” asked Applejack. Diamond waved the cowpony off and reassured her. “I’m sure. Believe me. I just rather hang out with Silver Spoon.” Despite having an answer, even if it wasn’t something she wanted, Applejack decided to keep pressing forward, hoping to try and get Tiara to reconsider her thoughts and actions towards her sister. The only thing she wanted out of Diamond Tiara staying with her and the rest of her family was for her and Applebloom to get along for once, and not get series of reports from Cheerilee about their arguments at school. In fact, the fight she had been informed days before was the first time she realised what their petty differences were evolving into. “Listen, Diamond, I get you still don’t wanna get along with Applebloom, but maybe—just maybe—things can change between you two.” The orange mare surely hoped that she was going somewhere with this. Trying to convince the spoiled filly was the best she could do at the moment. “You know, I think she’s still off with her friends try’n to find out what their special talents might be. Perhaps you could go an’ lend a help’n hoof.” At that, Diamond Tiara scoffed. “Are you serious? Like I’d ever, in a million years, want to help those blank-flanks with anything.” Applejack was extremely shocked that Tiara had said that—and her to face, too! She was losing patience with the uptight, stubborn filly in front of her (those were two qualities of somepony that Applejack hated the most). Since agreeing to take her in at the discretion of Filthy Rich, she had tried being the polite one, civil and hospitable, even with having to deal with her attitude, but now she was that it was leading her nowhere but in a dead-end. She did not like it—and she really didn’t want to—but she saw now that the only way to get through to her was taking another approach; a more direct approach. “Applejack!” Interrupted from her thoughts, the cowpony looked over at Granny Smith. “Leave her alone. Jus’ give her time, hun.” Applejack glanced down at the young pony doing her homework and back at the elderly mare sitting in her rocking chair. She was shaking her head, which told Applejack not to go through with what she was thinking. What was she thinking? Usually Granny Smith’d be all over a pony if they acted like that in front of her. She trotted over towards the olive-green mare. “Granny, I’m not entirely sure you heard what she jus’ said.” “Oh, I heard. Every word of it, too,” said Granny Smith. “An’ you’re jus’ gonna let her get away with it? Jus’ like that?” Applejack stood frozen in disbelief for a brief moment. “You’d smack me silly if I ever went off talk’n like that.” “That’s because you were never supposed to be like that one over there. I never intended to raise you to be a spoiled pony, did I?” Granny Smith looked over her grandaughter’s shoulder at the pink filly. “Trust me, dear. I know exactly what I’m do’n.” Applejack wasn’t too sure. Even though she wanted to take her word for it and expect to be alright between Applebloom and Diamond Tiara, Applejack couldn’t help but outright doubt her granny’s methods. Just letting a pony like Diamond Tiara go off acting like she was now wouldn’t solve anything. At least that’s what she thought. Whatever her Granny Smith was thinking, she could only hope it worked. The orange earth pony trotted upstairs, casting a look of suspicion at Diamond Tiara as she passed. Diamond sighed. She didn’t mean to say those things about Applebloom and her friends, especially in front of Applejack! She and Big Macintosh were nice enough to let her stay with them while her Dad was out of town. She was always taught by her father that no matter whom the pony was, or what their relation was, she’d always have to treat them with respect as long as she was under their roof. She had no idea was possessed her to do that in the first place, but now, as she continued with her homework, she could only silently thank Granny Smith for calming down Don’t know… Don’t know… Fell asleep during that one… This one’s too hard… Can’t even begin to figure this one out… Diamond sighed, Geez, Miss Cheerilee, why don’t you assign us collage homework next? She reread the questions over and over again, but she still couldn’t quite get it down. No matter how much she read over it, skimmed over it, there was still no understanding. Next to her was her algebra book and past homework assignments and guides, some of them weeks old and already graded. She skipped over the questions in front of her that she had no answer to, which was actually most of them. In her days of sheer boredom due to Silver Spoon’s absence from class, she ignored nearly everything Cheerilee had taught them over the past few classes, leaving the filly unable to produce any answers. She looked over at Applebloom. The scarlet-maned filly was seated next to her on the couch; she’d returned home from “Crusading” an hour earlier, and she was already nearly finished with her assignments. Comparing her work to the work done by Applebloom, it became apparent that she wouldn’t be passing this semester. Immediately, one option came to mind. She turned her gaze towards Applebloom. There was no way she would ever ask for her help in anything, but now, seeing the amount of progress done on her own homework in comparison to the work done by the pony next to her, she simply became desperate. “Applebloom…” she muttered. The yellow filly looked at her. Tiara sucked up her pride and asked, “Could you… help me with a problem?” “What’s so hard about it? It’s just math,” replied Applebloom. Tiara was about to regret her decision and go back to trying to do it herself, but decided against it. In retrospect, it wouldn’t be a very wise decision. “I’m not good at math,” she said, “If you saw my grades, then you would know why I’m asking you for help.” Applebloom understand what she was talking about. She took a glance down at Diamond Tiara’s paper and analysed her progress. Not much was done; only about a quarter of the page was finished and most of the answers on that small section were wrong either from answering them incorrectly or simply trying to guess the answer, a tactic which even the young cowpony knew was a bad move. She read one of the questions: 4(x) + 16 = 272. “This one’s easy,” she said, “The first thing you should do is take sixteen and subtract it by both sides of the equal sign.” She showed this by placing two more 16s on the page, one under the first 16 and the second underneath 272. The answer for the small equation came up as 256. “Now that you have that answer, all you have to do is divide both sides by four and you’ll get your answer.” Tiara tried this. Her answer came up as 64, though she was still slightly uncertain about it. “Are you sure this is the right answer?” “Positive,” said Applebloom, “If you’re not sure about it, then switch X with the answer you got then go from there.” Tiara wrote the 64 down in the parenthesis. She did the math, getting 256 by multiplying 4 and 64 before adding 16 to get the same answer that was on the equation. “See?” said Applebloom, “Easy as pie!” There were similar questions presented in the small section that Diamond had been stuck on the entire time. She followed the instructions Applebloom gave her for each one, using the plug-in method to ensure that she had the correct answer. As she moved down the paper, the questions generally got easier to solve, mainly due to the fact that she asked Applebloom for assistance the entire time. What in Equestria are you doing? Diamond Tiara found herself internally conflicting with her conscience. Are you really asking that blank-flank for help? What ever happened to your pride? Don’t let her get the best of you. “Need any more help?” Applebloom asked. She seemed happy and slightly content with assisting Tiara with anything she needed. The lavender-maned filly, however, despite how much she desired her assistance, denied her offer. She glanced down at her homework. She was almost finished; just a few more questions left to answer and then she’d be done and have it out of the way. “No thanks. I think I have it from here.” Applebloom shrugged. “All righty, then… Seeya!” She stood up. “Where are you going?” asked Diamond, confused. “Upstairs,” answered the cowpony, “I’m already finished with m’ah homework.” Hearing this had left Diamond Tiara in shock, her mouth agape. Applebloom finished so quickly, and Diamond Tiara was still working on her homework, trying hard to figure out the winding equations that were left unfinished. She eventually noticed that Applebloom had forgotten her homework on the table. Tiara took a quick peak and read the answers. It’s technically not cheating if you don’t get caught, she always told herself, especially during tests and quizzes when she would have some “help” when she had difficulties answering a question. She copied the answers Applebloom had written down onto her paper. Next morning during school, Diamond Tiara turned in her finished homework. The day after, she received a B. Cheerilee found out she had cheated, copying from Applebloom’s work, though that was only towards the end. The rest of her paper was done on her own, albeit with a little help, but she wouldn’t admit it. The rest of class went off without a hitch. They had a test today. Diamond knew much of the material that’d been on it from studying with Applebloom the day before. Her pencil scratched against the paper, leaving her final answers under every question that had been asked of her. She finally finished after a while, being the next-to-last student to turn in her paper only before Snips. Even in that circumstance, she felt confident about her progress, about how she managed to apply so much that she learned. The final school bell rang to signal the end of the day. The foals were left the school house into the afternoon. “Diamond Tiara, Applebloom; can I see you two for a minute?” The two fillies were called over by Cheerilee. They looked each other in confusion before trotting over. “I just wanted to say that I’m glad to see you getting along,” said the teacher in a relieved tone, “…or, at least tolerating each other’s presence.” “We jus’ thought we’d give it a try for once,” said Applebloom, “Right, Diamond?” She elbowed the pink filly. Diamond wanted to say something in protest, but instead, to put on a show for Cheerilee, nodded in agreement with her enemy. “Sure… We’re both just getting along perfectly. There’s nothing to worry about here, Miss Cheerilee. We’re becoming great friends.” She added this by putting a “friendly” hoof around Applebloom. Cheerilee smiled warmly at the sight in front of her. For once, she could look forward to not having to lecture them. “Applejack told me yesterday how Applebloom helped you with your homework, Diamond Tiara,” she admitted, “You must be getting along better than I thought. I’m so glad to see that.” Sometimes, I really hate Applejack, Diamond thought to herself, suppressing the urge to say that aloud. Chapter 6Farm Diamond Chapter 6 The first sound of the morning was the roosters yelling loudly in the open early air. Something that was ignored by Diamond Tiara in favour of literally sleeping until noon had actually done the job of waking her. Although, it was obvious that she didn’t enjoy it entirely. She quickly found herself becoming more and more accustomed to staying on Sweet Apple Acres, which was the number one thing she tried to avoid since she first arrived. Rising out of her bed, she groaned, rubbing her eye. “Stupid birds…” The clock on the wall read 7:21a.m. In her opinion, there was no legitimate reason to wake up this early, especially from the fact that there was no school on a weekend! She could only face-hoof at the realisation. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around how Applebloom and the rest of her family could manage to stay asleep with birds screeching their heads off in the wind. Nevertheless, there was one thing about waking up this early that she adored, and that was the outside. The golden orb that was the sun was still partially hidden behind the horizon at this time, painting the sky in various different shades of orange and violet. It left the moon and some of the stars visible above. It was something out of a first-class painting. The past couple of days had followed the same old routine: wake up, go downstairs, eat some breakfast, and then go about the rest of her day however she saw fit. She usually spent most of her time with Silver Spoon; the gray earth pony always stopped by to hang out, reminding her of how things used to be. It was as if Diamond never lost all her money. Yet with this, there came a downside. They could not ridicule Applebloom or her Cutie Mark Crusader pals whenever they were on the farm. A lot of the CMC’s antics would most of the time end with them causing some small amount of damage to the property. Just last week, they somehow knocked over two apple trees trying their hooves at being “Cutie Mark Crusaders Stunt Ponies”. With Silver Spoon here, however, Diamond Tiara managed to avoid much of the farm work. That came in handy when they had to fix whatever damage the Cutie Mark Crusaders would cause. She hopped out of bed, nearly falling down to the floor after tripping on her sheets, and trotted towards a mirror. Her lavender mane was a complete and tangled mess from the bed; nothing a comb couldn’t fix. She ran it through one hundred and fifty times and straightened out any out-of-place strands of hair she spotted. The mornings saw basically nothing for her to do, except wait around for someone to finally wake up. Since it was the weekend, she did not have to worry about doing menial chores like bucking apple trees, something she could never quite accomplish despite trying a dozen more times. Albeit, after all the effort she put in, she saw some progress begin to appear. Though she wasn’t nearly on par with Applebloom, she could safely say that she was starting to see herself advance. Finally, she was finished. She set her comb down on her desk, her rejuvenated as she was ready to start her day. Her stomach growled, so she headed downstairs into the kitchen. She grabbed a carton of milk out the fridge and set it on the table. She got a bowl and a box of Bucky Charms cereal from the pantry and started eating. She heard a knock on the door and trotted over to answer it. She opened it, hoping to see Silver standing outside. To her disappointment, she was instead greeted to the sight of the local mailpony, along with Dinky. She knew the blonde pegasus as Derpy, the young unicorn filly’s relative. She stood there with an envelope in her mouth, which happened to be addressed to the orchard. “Message for Diamond Tiara,” she said. Diamond took the letter from her. It was sent from Manehattan. “What are you doing here?” asked a curious Dinky. She never thought a high-class filly would be living on a farm. Diamond looked over at the unicorn. “None of your business,” was her response before shutting the door. She trotted back into the kitchen. She saw the letter was addressed to her from Filthy Rich. She opened it and read the contents: Dear Diamond Tiara, I think I might have found a way to solve our money problem. I’ll be heading to Canterlot to meet Fancy Pants. Hopefully he’ll help. I can see things beginning to look up. I hope things have been going well over at Sweet Apple Acres and that you have been getting along with Applebloom and her friends. I should be back within a few days. With love, Your father, Filthy Rich Diamond Tiara checked over the letter to see if she wasn’t hallucinating. She saw it was the real deal after about the fourth or fifth time reading. Everything was coming together, first with Silver Spoon’s long awaited return and now this. All she had to do was wait… Diamond Tiara was spending another day with Silver Spoon, and the entire time she couldn’t help but wonder to herself what Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were up to this time. Whatever the blank-flanks were planning, it wasn’t going to be good, that much was for sure. “I can’t wait! I can’t wait! I can’t wait!” The letter she received from Filthy Rich had been on Diamond Tiara’s mind as of late. She was just barely able to contain her own excitement. “Settle down, ‘Tia,” Silver Spoon insisted. “I can’t settle down. My dad’s coming home, and he says that he might’ve found a way to fix our problem. Everything can finally go back to normal again!” “I wouldn't go and jinx it, 'Tia. Your dad hasn't really found a solution, yet.” They narrowly got out of the way, avoiding a speeding object zooming past them. The dust kicked up from the wheels had gotten into their manes. Looking ahead of her, Diamond Tiara recognised the object as a wooden scooter being driven by an extremely familiar pegasus filly. “Hey!” she yelled after her, “Watch where you’re going!” Scootaloo skid to a stop and turned to see the two earth ponies she nearly ran over. An innocent smile spread across her face at that moment. “Sorry, guess I didn’t see you two there.” “Why are you in such a rush?” asked Silver Spoon. “I’m meeting Applebloom and Sweetie Belle at Miss Bon Bon’s place. We’re gonna help make candy.” A snicker came from Diamond after hearing this. “What in Equestria possessed Miss Bon Bon into letting you three help?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” said Scootaloo, growing evermore frustrated with the two fillies in front of her. “You always fail at every meaningless attempt you try,” said Silver Spoon, “It wouldn’t be worth the embarrassment.” “Give me a break. At least we’re trying. You two wouldn’t know anything about that even if it bit your tail off.” Silver Spoon scoffed, waving her hoof. “Whatever. I still think you three would mess up, as usual.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. It was always the usual deal whenever she was with them. Turning around, she started speeding for her destination. Anything was better than talking to those two. Besides, when this all worked out, and she and her friends got their candy-making cutie marks, they could rub it in Diamond’s and Silver’s faces all they wanted. It’s a win-win scenario—except for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, of course. Right now, she was focused on getting to Bon Bon’s house. Hopefully Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were already there and being told what to do. They would fill her in on the details once she arrived, as well. The cream-coloured mare was nice enough let them help with the candy making. Aside from getting their cutie marks, they got to eat any free treat they wanted out of it. Doing this was a foal’s dream come true. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon watched as Scootaloo departed. Regardless of what was said in the argument, they still stood by their statement. Whenever the Cutie Mark Crusaders tried something, it almost always backfired on them. The three of them didn’t know when to quit. Silver Spoon sighed at the realisation. “Do you think they’ll ever learn?” “I don’t think so,” replied Diamond, “Maybe someday they will.” She doubted it, though. As they readied to continue their trot, turning around, they soon found themselves coming face-to-face with Big Macintosh. It was always creepy how the stallion was always quiet most of the time. “Hey, Big Mac,” Diamond greeted him, hoping that he didn’t see the argument that just occurred. He and Applejack wanted her to get along with Applebloom more, which was something she had been neglecting as of late. She spoke to him in an innocent tone, “What brings you around these parts?” Scootaloo was lucky to arrive at Bon Bon’s store just in time as Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were given instructions on what they had to do. It didn’t seem too difficult when she first listened to the cream-coloured mare; most of what they would do involved crafting the candy into any shape they desired, another thing that seemed fun about candy-making. This whole thing would be easy, no doubt. They would earn their cutie marks in no time, at all. They had the materials they needed. This would be similar to the time they tried to make treats at Sugarcube Corner, not counting when they got themselves stuck inside the machine. “So, what should we start on first?” asked Scootaloo. “I say we should make taffy. That seems like the easiest to make—and they’re good to eat,” said Applebloom. They agreed on it and got started with gathering the materials. It wasn’t too hard. Bon Bon had a stretching machine here, as well, which would make the entire process simpler. They hadn’t been met with any sign of trouble with the machine or the taffy cubes they threw inside. All in all, it seemed to be going well for the three of them. “Could you image if Diamond Tiara was here?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Knowing her and Silver Spoon, they would probably complain about how hard this would be,” said Scootaloo, “I don’t know if we’d be able to hear the end of it from them.” “Oh, girls-” Bon Bon trotted in, “These two came here offering to lend a helping hoof with the candy.” She stepped aside, letting the two ponies in. The CMC couldn’t believe it, at first. They stood with their mouths open as they stared at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Had those two really come to help them with the candy-making? Even if this was the case, they couldn’t trust them that easily. “Don’t act all surprised at seeing us here,” said Diamond, “Big Mac and Applejack heard you were helping Miss Bon Bon and insisted that we help out, too. As far as I’m concerned, I just need to make it look convincing.” “Whatever you say,” said Applebloom, although she could honestly see why Big Macintosh and Applejack were doing this. They wanted her and Diamond Tiara to at least tolerate each other’s presence, just as the two fillies promised the first day DT came to the Apple Family household. They hadn't been accomplishing this for the past few days, so she could see why they decided to have her help. “I’m sure you five’ll do a fantastic job together,” said Bon Bon. She trusted them enough, and they seemed to know what they were doing. Diamond and Silver didn’t seem all too interested in being here, especially with helping the three blank-flanks that were here, as well. “So what is it that we have to do?” asked Silver Spoon. “We’re just making taffy,” replied Sweetie Belle, “You should know what that is?” Silver waved her hoof. “It'll be a piece of cake—even for you three.” Her statement incited a laugh from Diamond Tiara. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo could feel their boiling points rising. Sure they were used to dealing with Diamond and Silver, but the way the two always acted when around them had gotten on their nerves. Applebloom, however, stood between them before tensions could explode. She was annoyed by Diamond and Silver’s antics as much as the next pony, but she was determined to keep the promise she made to Applejack. She was going to tolerate Diamond Tiara as much as possible until Filthy Rich returned to Ponyville. Then they could go back to arguing and getting in each other's faces all they wanted. “Listen, girls,” said Applebloom, standing between the four fillies, “I know we don’t like each other, but the last thing we outta do is start a fight. We’re all here now; we might as well get someth’n done.” Applebloom had a point. Diamond Tiara wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, but that would not happen if they kept arguing. “So how do you make taffy, anyway?” “All we have to do is put the taffy cubes in the stretcher and let the machine do the rest,” said Applebloom. “That doesn’t sound difficult. We should be done in no time.” She was correct on that matter. All they had to do was throw taffy into the machine, how much more complicated could it have gotten? Bon Bon had everything she needed. She was lucky to have the girls help with making the candy. Hopefully she would receive more help from other ponies as time passed. She planned on putting out advertisements for job spaces when she had the money. “How’s it going, Bon Bon,” a voice came. She turned her head to see an aqua-coloured unicorn approaching. “Oh, hey, Lyra,” she greeted. “What’cha got there?” “Just getting some ingredients.” She presented a bag that was being balanced on her back. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders and their friends are gonna be helping me today.” “You sure it was a good idea leaving them alone?” Lyra had known of the CMC’s antics for some time now, as well as the entire town. They would normally cause a small amount of damage whenever they did something. “Don’t worry about it. I trust them,” said Bon Bon, “They should’ve been fine while I was gone.” Suddenly, the two mares heard what seemed like an explosion from inside the house. They hurried inside to see what had happened. Hopefully the girls were alright and nothing was too damaged inside. Their kitchen was in absolute disarray. The stretcher machine was broken down and the resulting explosion had thrown taffy all around. The cabinets, counters, floors, and even the ceiling were left covered in a complete mess. On the ground lied the five fillies that’d volunteered to help out, each one covered almost head-to-hoof in taffy. Lyra, seeing the amount of carnage present, just whistled and backed out, acting as if she had seen and heard nothing. Together, Applebloom and Diamond headed back for Sweet Apple Acres. It was a long day, and the only thing pink filly wanted was head to off bed. Her coat and hooves had become sticky from the taffy, even pulling some of the grass and dirt up from the ground. “First mud, then flour, and now candy.” It was obvious by the tone in her voice that she was beyond frustrated, “How come whenever I’m with you, I get covered in something?” “Will you calm down, already?” said Applebloom, rolling her eyes. “Miss Bon Bon said she wouldn’t hold anything against us. And I said you could use the shower first.” Regardless of her words, Diamond was still frustrated about what happened. At least they were finally back home; she would do well to forget about today. They knocked on the front door, and waiting until Applejack answered it. She looked down at them to see them covered in taffy. “What happened to you two?” she asked, not sure of what to make of it. “We were help’n Miss Bon Bon make some taffy, and then we kinda messed up when we accidentally put too much an’ clogged the stretch’n machine.” “You’re okay, though, right?” Applebloom nodded. “Yeah. Noth’n real serious. Just sticky.” Applejack sighed in relief. “That’s good to hear. Why don’t y’all head up and take a shower to wash that stuff off. Dinner’ll be ready in a bit.” The two fillies took her advice and headed up the stairs. As promised, Diamond Tiara was given the shower first. The taffy took a little more time to get out than the mud or flour did. She was just glad she didn’t need to shave some of her coat off to get it out. She thought back to the letter she received this morning. Filthy Rich said he’d have the situation under control in a matter of days. Diamond hoped it was true, and if it was, prayed that he wouldn’t run into any trouble. Chapter 7Farm Diamond Chapter 7 If there was one thing Diamond Tiara loved more than weekends, it had to be Spring Break. It was her favourite time of the year; instead of waking up on an early Monday morning and preparing for another day of school, she had to opportunity to sleep in for an entire week!—or at least try to with the stupid roosters making noises outside at this time. Luckily for the filly, however, she found an easy way past this problem, one that she facehoofed at for not coming up with earlier. Rising from her bed, she took off the earmuffs she purchased yesterday and set them on her nightstand. She yawned and outstretched her forearms, lazily dragging herself from under the blankets. Stands of hair from her ruffled mane fell in front of her eyes as she shuffled over towards her mirror. She got a chuckle from seeing her reflection and promptly started to comb her mane back into place. It wasn’t too long into this process that a knock on the door drew the filly’s attention. “Come in,” she called out, not taking her eyes away from the mirror. She needed the utmost care and tenderness when doing this. Applejack opened the door and cantered in. Lately the two earth ponies had gotten along more than they used to, though Applejack still failed in trying to get Diamond and Apple Bloom to do the same. With help from Big Macintosh and Granny Smith, the least she was able to do was get them to stop breathing down each other’s neck all day. “Morn’n, Diamond. Jus’ came in to check in on ya.” Diamond set her brush down, glancing over at the orange earth pony. She isn’t all that bad, I have to admit. Not as bad as her sister, though, she thought. “Do you need something?” “Actually, yeah.” Applejack sat on her haunches, gazing at the filly in front of her with a friendly smile on her face. “Wanted to see if you’d like to tag along with us on our annual family camp’n trip.” “Camping?” Diamond Tiara cringed at the thought. It wasn’t her type of activity to partake in, especially since it involved that much dirt and bugs. “Sorry, but I don’t do camping. Too much… dirt.” Applejack trotted towards her and put a hoof around her shoulder. “Aw, c’mon. It’ll be fun. Don’t tell me you’ve never been camp’n before.” “I went on that class camping trip a month ago,” said Diamond. Applejack raised an eyebrow in response to that answer. “Apple Bloom told me you faked being sick and skipped out on that. You even got into trouble with your dad and Miss Cheerilee because of it.” Darn it, Apple Bloom, Diamond thought, releasing herself from the older mare’s grasp. “Look, I just don’t think I’m cut out for camping like you are. But thanks for the offer, though. I’ll be sure to take it to heart.” “Never know if you don’t try,” said Applejack, hoping to reassure her one last time. It didn’t seem like it was working, however. “Listen, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.” With that said, Applejack left the room, and Diamond Tiara returned to combing her mane. In the silence, however, she did begin to consider what Applejack said. She’d never gone camping before, never truly experiencing what it was like. She heard lots of ponies saying how fun it was, but she never understood what entertainment there could have been living in the woods for a week. She set the brush down after combing through the hundred-and-fiftieth time in a row, grabbed her saddle bags, and headed for the door. She stepped out into the hallway, just in time to see Apple Bloom leaving her room. The yellow filly was carrying a pair of saddle bags, which she had a lot of things stored inside. “What do you have in there?” she asked. “Jus’ some stuff for the camp’n trip,” Apple Bloom replied, “though Big Macintosh gave me some bits to get a new sleep’n bag since m’ah old one was torn up. And by the way, aren’t you come’n with us? We could always bring another pony along for the fun.” Diamond shook her head. “I already told your sister I don’t like camping.” “How can you not like something you’ve never tried?” “Camping isn’t my thing, unlike you,” said Diamond. “I don’t see how spending the weekend in the woods can be considered ‘fun’.” “Ah, come on.” Apple Bloom wrapped her foreleg around Diamond Tiara. “You’re never gonna know until you actually try it. Me an’ m’ah family’s been doing this for ages! Can’t you give it at least one try? You might even end up like’n it.” Diamond rolled her eyes. “I doubt it.” She trotted away from Apple Bloom, heading downstairs. She saw Big Macintosh packing up some saddle bags and suitcases for the camping trip, while Granny Smith slept in a rocking chair nearby. Apple Bloom eagerly cantered past her, passing her bags over to her brother. Diamond Tiara continued out through the front door and followed the dirt path into town. She made her way through the meager crowd of ponies setting up their shops as she approached Silver Spoon’s house. It was the same routine she picked up as the days came and gone, and admittedly, she silently wished that she could change things up a bit, just for the fun of it. She saw the door open and Silver Spoon trotting out into the open, and promptly called to her. “Oh hi, Diamond!” Silver greeted the pink earth pony. “I was just about to head over to Sweet Apple Acres to meet you. You still surviving over there?” “I have to admit; it’s not as bad as it used to be,” said Diamond. Aside from her and Apple Bloom’s rivalry still simmering, living at the farm was becoming pleasant for her. They served great food, most of which were her favourite kinds, the family was nice like they had always been since she was brought here, and she liked whenever Winona was around to keep her company. I wish I had a dog, she thought. “So I take it everything’s going well for you?” “As far as I can see,” said Diamond. “And once my dad gets back from wherever he is, everything will be all right again.” Silver Spoon smiled. “Let’s hope so.” This normal spring afternoon was humid for any pony out under the sun. Diamond Tiara took a sip of her lemonade, waiting outside the store as Silver Spoon made her own purchase. She watched the ponies trotted by, birds flying in the sky above her, and then wondered what Apple Bloom and her family were doing. Sure Diamond Tiara had never gone camping before, and possibly she would never want to go, but ever since Applejack told her about her family’s annual camping trip, she couldn’t help but keeping about it. What if it was fun like everypony said it was? She didn’t want to miss out on it, but it was like she told Apple Bloom this morning: Camping just wasn’t her thing. She hadn’t the desire to partake in it, whatsoever, right? Silver Spoon finally exited the store, a cup of strawberry lemonade in her hoof, and trotted over to Diamond. She noticed a familiar yellow, red-maned filly cantering by with a bag hanging from her mouth. “Blank-flank; three o’clock,” she muttered to Diamond. She pointed over to Apple Bloom, the filly continuing through the crowd of ponies as she made her way back to Sweet Apple Acres. “What was in that bag she was holding?” “She told me she was gonna buy a new sleeping bag for a camping she and her family were going on,” Diamond said. Silver Spoon gazed at her, her eyes lightning up. “Camping trip? I love camping!” Diamond eyed in gray pony. “You do? Since when?” “Since the class camping trip last month. I didn’t have the brilliant plan to fake being sick like you, but after we actually went on the trip, I kinda liked it.” “You liked it?” Diamond Tiara never took Silver Spoon for a pony that could really find enjoyment in it. Nevertheless, the gray filly nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, totally. I know you think it’s not really your thing, but maybe you should give it a try. You might actually start liking it, afterwards.” Those words were similar to the ones Apple Bloom had told her this morning. Could a pony like her really find living outdoors—out in the dirt, no less—fun? Silver sure seemed to believe this, and Diamond trusted her much better than any other pony she knew. “I’ll see you later, Silver.” She stood and threw the rest of her lemonade away. “Where’re you going?” Silver Spoon asked. “I need to have a chat with Miss Applejack,” replied Diamond. “And I may or may not be thinking about what you just said.” “Just try it, ‘Tia.” Silver Spoon gave her a reassuring smile. “Trust me.” Diamond nodded and continued on her way, heading off through the sea of ponies in search of Applejack. The cowgirl had to be somewhere in the marketplace selling apples, if not back at Sweet Apple Acres or off with her friends. She searched around the area, trying to find the apple kiosk where she’d be selling her inventory. She ushered her way past the ponies in front of her, looking left and right, until she finally found it. Applejack was maintaining the store as she expected, giving apples and apple bi-products to anypony that came her way. “Howdy there, Diamond.” Applejack waved as the filly approached. “What can I do for ya?” “Actually, I’ve thought about what you said,” Diamond responded, rubbing her hoof across the dirt, “and maybe I’d like to go camping.” Applejack cracked a smile at this. “Really? An’ I thought you weren’t into that sort’a stuff. What made you change yer mind?” “Just curious, okay? I wanna try it.” If Silver says it’s fun, then it has to be, the pink filly thought to herself. “Well I can give you some cash to buy a sleepin’ bag.” Applejack reached behind the kiosk and grabbed a few bits out the box metallic box she kept them in and tossed them into Diamond’s saddle bags. “Suggest you get ready quick. We’ll all be leavin’ first thing tomorrow morn’n.” “What?” Diamond saw her hopes for sleeping in—at least for tomorrow—suddenly smashed. “Why so early?” “Applebuck Season’s come’n in earlier than usual, which is someth’n we definitely can’t ignore,” said Applejack, “so we had no choice but to push it back to tomorrow. Really, if we could find another day, we would take it.” Diamond sighed. She figured it wouldn’t be too bad for her. After all, they’d only be staying out in the woods for a couple days, so she would have the rest of Spring Break to herself after they returned to Ponyville. “Alright, fine. That’ll do.” “Don’t worry, kiddo. You won’t regret it,” said Applejack. Hearing this, Diamond once again gave out a sigh. I sure hope not. “Thank you so much for your help, Fancy Pants.” Filthy Rich was relieved. In fact, he was more than relieved, like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. His financial crisis might very well be a thing of the past, nothing but a long-lost memory after this moment. “Not at all. I was more than happy to help,” said Fancy Pants. He, Filthy Rich, and Cash made their way through the Cantrlot marketplace. They sought out the unicorn soon after arriving in the city a couple weeks ago, and it was by a stroke of pure luck that he would have a way to help. They eventually reached the center of the marketplace which was where Fancy Pants decided to take his leave. “Well I believe I should get going now. It’s been very nice meeting you again, Filthy Rich. I’ll get back to you once everything is settled.” He shook Rich’s hoof before going his separate way. Filthy Rich couldn’t get rid of the huge grin on his face. Nearly two weeks of running around had finally paid off. “You think you got everything from here?” asked Cash. Filthy nodded. “I’ll still need to take care of a few small things, but yeah, everything should be alright again. And most importantly, I get to return home to my daughter. I can’t thank you enough for your help, Cash.” The green stallion waved it off. “Ah, don’t mention it. I was glad to help. Besides, it gave me something else to do instead of sitting in a stuff old office all day. Anyway, I’m headed back to Fillydelphia. I’ll see ya around.” Filthy Rich waved his friend off as he disappeared into the crowd. Finally, he thought to himself as he wandered back to his hotel. Things were at least beginning to look up. He could finally head back to Ponyville where he belonged, and hopefully, over the course of his trip, Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom could’ve gotten along as he intended. Things were beginning to look up for him. The next morning was nothing like the last—far from it, exactly—but she’d have to endure it for now. Diamond Tiara groggily arose from her slumber, rubbing her eyes as they adjusted to the sunlight. Remember, Diamond: Just a few days living out in the wilderness and you can go back to enjoying the rest of your break. You should be able to survive until then. She hopped out of her bed and made her way over towards the mirror, just as Apple Bloom burst through her door. “Good morn’n!” Or maybe not, Diamond thought and turned to face the yellow filly. “How can you even handle being up this early?” “It’s only ten a.m.,” said Apple Bloom. Diamond Tiara sat on her haunches and cross her hooves. “Well that’s early by my standards.” “But we’re headed out today. I thought you’d be ready.” “I am ready, but I still need some time to wake myself up.” Diamond Tiara picked the brush and started running it through her lavender mane. “I was planning to sleep in all week.” “Ah, stop worry’n about it, already.” Apple Bloom trotted over and wrapped a hoof around her rival. “This is only a onetime thing for you. After that, you’ll never have to worry ‘bout get’n yer coat dirty again.” She chuckled lightly at that last sentence, earning a half-lidded glare from the still drowsy filly beside her, and as much as Tiara wanted to think of a comeback, she was too tired to do so. The late-morning sun hung high in the clear sky; the Apple Family, plus Diamond Tiara, made their way across the forest floor. Diamond gazed around at the trees and little critters around her. As much as she had her doubts prior to coming out here, it was peaceful—she had to admit that much. “Campsite should be around here somewhere,” said Applejack. “Big Mac, lemme get a look at the map.” The red stallion dug into his saddle bag, pulling out the map with his teeth. Applejack leaned in to take a look. There was a line running across the chart, starting from the forest’s entrance and going up through the trees. “Eeyup, should be just another mile till we’re there. Let’s get a move on.” They continued on for their destination. Apple Bloom slowed her pace, waiting until she was trotting next to Diamond Tiara. “So,” she said, “how’re ya like’n it out here, Diamond?” “It’s not what I expected.” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “What’dya mean?” “It’s too boring out here,” said Diamond. “Can’t you be jus’ a little bit patient about this? We haven’t even gotten to the site yet. Trust me; you’ll like it.” The rich filly sighed. Apple Bloom was certainly no Silver Spoon, but there was no way she could afford to be picky. With as little as she had, Diamond had to trust the farmpony beside her. After all, Apple Bloom did have more experience in this stuff than she did. The group eventually came upon a large clearing, located just northing of where they once were—just as the map said. It was wide open, and there was a stream running nearby with the fish occasionally jumping out. It was the perfect place where they’d go to every year, ever since the very beginning of their trips. The Apple family set down there things and began to set up the campsite. “See? What’d I tell ya?” Apple Bloom said, looking back at Diamond Tiara. “I told ya it was nice out here.” Even though Diamond Tiara wasn’t too adept at camping, she had to admit one thing: the wilderness seemed peaceful—at least at first glance. “So what do we do out here, exactly?” Apple Bloom looked back at her older siblings as they got everything ready. It’d be a while before they had to campsite completely set up. That’d be more than enough time for the two fillies to have some fun. “Ah guess the two of us can go sight see’n while we’re wait’n.” Seeing as there wasn’t much for her to do out here, Diamond agreed. Perhaps there’d be something worthwhile they would find in the forest. “All right, then,” she stated, “Lead the way.” The fillies made their way through the forest floor, the sunlight casting down through the leaves of the trees overhead. Diamond hopped over a fallen log as she continued behind Apple Bloom. They’ve been out here almost twenty minutes, yet they haven’t seen anything. “What exactly are we looking for?” “Anyth’n interest’n,” the farm filly said. “You gotta look for it.” Seeing as she had no experience with camping, or any similar outside activity, Tiara had no possible idea of what to look for in the forest. However, Apple Bloom knew exactly what she was doing from her numerous times coming out here—mostly with her family. “Out of curiosity,” she stated, “what exactly do you do out here?” Apple Bloom stopped and put a hoof to her chin as she thought. “S'mores, ghost stories, oh, and during the night, me an’ Applejack would usually go out an’ catch fireflies. They’re real plentiful this time’a year.” Diamond could recall what fireflies were. She’d see at least one or two of them flying outside her window each night. “And where do you usually find them?” “Back at the campsite,” Apple Bloom replied. “There’s usually a whole swarm of ‘em that appears jus’ on the other side of the stream. Ah even brought a few empty jars with me to catch ‘em in.” Catching bugs wasn’t how Diamond Tiara planned to spend majority of her trip with the Apple Family. She’d be okay with resting at the campsite when the time came; though now, however, she could feel her legs starting to ache. She couldn’t tell how long she’d been on this stroll with Apple Bloom. All she did now was that she didn’t want to go any further. She stopped and leaned against a tree, slightly exhausted. “How much longer are we gonna stay out here?” she asked. Apple Bloom turned around to answer her, but stopped when she noticed something crawling on her rival’s shoulder. She didn’t want to tell her, hoping that she wouldn’t find out since Diamond seemed oblivious to it. “Uh, Diamond…?” Tiara looked over at Apple Bloom, and it was then that she noticed a small ticklish feeling on her shoulder. She turned her gaze to see a centipede crawling down her arm. She quickly swatted it off, stepping back as it scurried into the dirt. “Ew! Okay, no more. That’s it. Take me back to the campsite.” “I suppose we should,” said Apple Bloom. “It’s about time we head back anyway.” She started back for the campsite, followed closely by Diamond. Applejack and Big Mac should’ve gotten everything set up by the time they got back. Nearly half an hour after starting back, however, they still didn’t find themselves at the campsite. They continued wandering aimlessly through the forest, making their way through the trees and leaves around them, not really knowing where they were headed. “I feel like we should’ve been there already,” said Diamond. She stopped and looked around at the unfamiliar scenery “Where is it?” “I know it’s around here somewhere,” said Apple Bloom. She stopped to think about which direction they should go. “We’re lost, aren’t we?” asked Diamond, though the way she said it, it didn’t seem like a question. The realization hit Apple Bloom like a ton of bricks, though she refused to believe it. Out here, without her older siblings or her friends to back her up, was something she didn’t want to face. “W-We can’t be lost.” “We are,” Diamond snapped. “We don’t even know which direction the campsite is in.” Apple Bloom paced around, trying to remember which way she came from. She was starting to grow a bit frantic, wanting to find her way back as soon as possible. There were no trails she could use, no hoof prints in the ground she could follow. She had to face it: she and Diamond were lost.
Chapter 1Farm Diamond Chapter 1 COULD THE CLOCK POSSIBLY move any slower? It seemed like forever before class would finally end. Cheerilee’s lesson had long since been tuned out due to sheer boredom on her part. Every last word she said came in through one ear and out the other. She was talking to the class about history or something, though Diamond Tiara could not have been bothered to find out which. The filly’s mind was far too occupied, wandering to wherever it was she would think about most of the time, and right now, she didn’t care. Her head resting in her hoof, Diamond struggled to stay awake though much of the lecture. Her eyelids were heavy and she was yawning much deeper with each passing minute. At one point, she found herself falling asleep and immediately woke herself up before having to be called on by Cheerilee. Nothing would be more embarrassing in her mind than being called out in front of the entire class for sleeping. At least that was what she figured. To her right was Applebloom, sitting at her desk and eagerly jotting the notes down in her notebook. She was such a nerd as the pink earth pony thought. To her left, however, was an empty seat. Normally it would be occupied by Silver Spoon. The two ponies would pass notes around and talk about anything one thought important that the other should know about. But now she was home sick from a sudden outbreak of pony-pox that happened to be spreading across the Kingdom. It had caught many ponies off-guard in the first stages. She rarely ever got a chance to visit her friend. Her Mom was obviously the worrying type, though she hadn’t needed to see her to know that she was being confined to her bed. At some times, Tiara got the opportunity to see Silver Spoon on the weekends. But now Diamond Tiara was all alone and outnumbered by Applebloom and her Cutie Mark Crusader friends three-to-one, literally; though she was smart in these types of situations. From where she stood, she knew not to pick a fight, especially one that she had no chance of winning. It’d be better to have a friend to back her up than going it alone, so for now the only thing she could do was wait until Silver Spoon returned, which also meant she’d have to endure being along for who knew how long. She was brought out of her thoughts when a teaching stick smacked the chalkboard. The shock from it had woken her up some, thankfully. She looked up. On it were algebra equations. Some were complicated for her drowsy mind, primarily due to the fact that she outright ignored pretty much everything that’d been taught so far. “Okay, class,” Cheerilee announced, “Who here can tell me the answer to this equation?” There was an air of silence floating amongst the class. Diamond Tiara knew from experience that if some pony didn’t answer, then Cheerilee would end up calling out one of the sutdents instead. This realisation made the filly slouch in her seat to avoid being seen. To her relief, somepony in the back ended up raising their hoof, which was accompanied by them saying, “I know it! I know it!” over and over until they were finally called on. “Yes, Twist?” Of course, Diamond Tiara thought. Twist gave the answer: “Is it ninety-five?” “Correct!” Cheerilee nodded. “When doing this particular equation, you always have to remember that the variables can be substituted by the numbers, and then…” Her words were drowned out yet again. Diamond Tiara looked up at the clock. There was just five more minutes left before class ended, but why did it seem more like ten to her? Why was time moving so slowly all of a sudden? It was useless to try and stay awake now. Three minutes left. Twice now she had almost fallen asleep. She needed to wait until the final bell and then she’d be home free. Unfortunately, that hadn’t happened for her. At the final minute, her head hit the desk and she was out cold. In what seemed like a few mere seconds, she was startled awake when the giant bell atop the school house rang, blaring across the open sky. It was loud, and she never liked that. After slowing down her heart pace, she made a move to gather her supplies before heading for the door. She made a note to visit Silver Spoon again today after not seeing her for a week and a half. “Remember, class,” Cheerilee called out, “Wee’ll be having a test on the materials we’ve learned this week. Make sure to study!” A test…? Darn it, Tiara thought to herself. She groaned. After sleeping in class for the past couple of weeks, she missed everything Cheerilee’d taught her. I should’ve stayed awake. But it’s not my fault. I can’t help it if I’m bored all the time. Trotting out into the open, she was immediately greeted with the sun in her face and the light spring breeze brushing against her coat. Another school day passed, but it was bitter sweet. There was no Silver Spoon to enjoy the rest of her day with. What was there, then? She could head to Sugarcube Corner for a quick sugar-coated treat, but then she’d have to endure Pinkie Pie and her unknowable antics. Maybe she could go for a walk around town. She took a quick second to think about it. Pony-pox or no pony-pox… A quick visit to Silver Spoon wouldn’t hurt anypony. As she began to take off, she could hear the Cutie Mark Crusaders not too far off, discussing more ideas on how they could earn their cutie marks. Their dedication to this task was admirable, but they had been going on this this for two years. Sooner or later, they had to admit defeat. She listened attentively to what they said. One thing that got her was Scootaloo’s suggestion for Cutie Mark Crusaders Karaoke Singers. The idea alone made her chuckle. “Are you three serious? Karaoke Singers…?” Diamond Tiara scoffed. “Can’t you do something a little more productive, and less ?” Scootaloo snapped, “The only thing annoying here is you.” “Oh please…” Diamond Tiara waved a hoof, “Listening to you sing will be like cat scratching a chalkboard.” “Opalescence only did that once,” Sweetie Belle rebutted, referencing back to last month’s pet day. The cat had something against everypony in class. That or it was genuinely a pain in the rear. Tiara, once again, scoffed. “I rest my case.” She started to trot off until another voice joined in on the argument. “Don’t you talk to m’ah friends like that, you spoiled brat.” Applebloom stood vigilantly, glaring at the lavender-maned filly in front of her. In moments, the two were in each other’s faces. “I can do whatever I want, blank-flank,” Diamond Tiara snapped back, poking the yellow filly in her chest. While Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle did manage to throw some insults in in defense of their friend, much of the argument was done between Applebloom and Diamond Tiara, and there was no sign of it letting up. They began hurling nasty comments at each other which only got worse from thereon. Some could have been defined as “low-blows,” before the arguments devolved into pushing and shoving, and finally, as the other Crusaders backed away, descending into anarchy. Hooves began to fly back and forth. They traded violent blows with each other that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo could only cringe at. Cheerilee hurried out of the school house after hearing the commotion to be greeted to the sight of two fillies fighting in the dirt. “Girls!” she called their attention. The fighting stopped immediately. The two girls looked up dejectedly at their disappointed teacher and stood at attention. They had taken their toll on each other in the brief minutes that passed. Part of Applebloom’s bow was torn and her mane and tail dirtied and ruffled up. Top soil had gotten into Diamond’s coat and mane, though somehow, she managed to keep her tiara positioned neatly atop her head despite rolling around on the ground. “I want you two inside, now,” Cheerilee ordered. Reluctantly, they backtracked into the school house. Tiara stayed silent the entire time, not even glancing at Applebloom. The two were seated at their desks while the magenta earth pony lectured them on behavior, though Diamond tried to look as interested as possible as not to get any worse punishment that they might receive. “I’m serious, girls,” Cheerilee said, “This has gone on long enough. How long do you expect to keep fighting each other before you can get along?” “As soon as she learns to leave us alone,” Applebloom replied. Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes in response at the answer. Cheerilee face-hoofed. “Honestly, girls, I’m at my wit’s end. I don’t know what to do with you. I’ve tried everything I could to get you to stop and fighting, but it looks like that wasn’t enough. So I want you sit here and think about things for a while.” At this, they groaned. To Tiara, this was worse than torture. Being forced to stay after school for detention was not how she wanted to spend part of her day. It was finally over and done with, though, so that was the bright side to things. She was also away from Applebloom and her friends—at least until tomorrow, but she wouldn’t have to deal with it until then. Right now, however, she was primarily focused on visiting Silver Spoon. Eventually arriving at her house—a two-floored building akin to those in the suburbs—she knocked on the door and waited patiently until a light gray earth pony mare answered. “Hi, Miss Spoon. Is Silver Spoon awake?” “I don’t know if you want to see her. She’s still very sick,” replied Silver Spoon’s mom. “I wouldn’t want you catching the same thing.” “Please? I haven’t seen her in days!” Tiara begged. She looked up at her with blue puppy dog eyes, which always looked adorable for a filly. Miss Spoon was reluctant, but as she looked down at Diamond Tiara, she couldn’t refuse. “Alright, you can come in. But please be careful. The last thing I want you to catch is the pony-pox.” Without haste, Diamond Tiara cantered inside. Trotting through the hallways and up the stairs, she arrived at Silver Spoon’s room. The filly was lying in her bed. She had pinkish-red blotches across her body and was staring at the ceiling with an extremely bored expression etched onto her face. “How it’s going, Silly?” Tiara greeted her. Silver Spoon looked over and smiled, nearly about to break out into a laugh. “I told you to stop calling me that.” Diamond returned a smiled. “It’s been too long. How are you doing?” “The itching finally stopped, so I think I’m starting to make a recovery. What about you and school? What happened while I was gone?” Tiara thought it over. I fell asleep in class, got into a fight before getting detention? “Nothing too special,” she said. “It’s boring there without you but I’m managing. I really hope you can get well soon.” “Me too, but I don’t think it’ll be long,” said Silver. Tiara nodded. “Hopefully…” She’d love nothing more than for her friend to come back. A brief silence passed, afterwards. “Well, okay then. I just wanted to stop by and say hi. I suppose I’ll see you later.” She headed for the door. “Bye, Silver Spoon.” It quickly seemed like the day was beginning to go by. Between having to spend it in detention, with Silver Spoon, and the rest just casually trotting around Ponyville to pass the time, it was slightly expected. She arrived home to a manour in the northern part of Ponyville. She trotted inside, placing her saddle bag by the front door. Without Silver Spoon, everything had gotten dull quickly, though she would find a way to enjoy the rest of her day, somehow. The hallways of the house were normally kept neat and tidy. Pictures of Diamond Tiara and her dad hung on the walls as well as the vases with various assortments of flowers decorating the place. She soon passed by the kitchen and noticed a turquoise-green unicorn mare. She seemed to be reading something written on a piece of paper. She noticed Diamond Tiara and promptly hid it, acting like nothing was wrong. “Hey, DT,” she greeted, “You’re home later than usual.” The filly nodded. “Well, I had to stay after school, and then I went over to visit Silver Spoon.” The unicorn tilted her head. “Why’d you have to stay after?” The look on Tiara’s face told her the answer, and also told her to change the subject. “How about I fix up a grilled cheese sandwich? Will that make anything better? And hopefully steer us from whatever conversation I was about to go to?” Nodding, Tiara took a seat at the table as she waited. Steam rose from the stove in front of the unicorn, and soon the small of butter, melted cheese, and crispy bread floated over towards the filly. It was making her stomach growl and she could feel her mouth behind to water at the small. Grilled cheese sandwiches were her favourite snack. Soon a plate with the delicious food was placed in front of Diamond, and she immediately began digging in. The kitchen grew quiet. She looked up to see the unicorn baring a forlorn look. “Is everything okay, Star Dust?” asked Tiara. “Well, there is something wrong,” replied the unicorn. It looked like she was contemplating on saying anything. “You see—” “Hold that thought for one minute,” Tiara interrupted, finishing off the last of her grilled cheese. “Is my Dad here?” “Yeah, he’s in his office. But I really think you should—” Star Dust never had a chance to finish her sentence as Diamond Tiara cantered out of the kitchen and down the hall. She could hear echoes of two stallions’ voices, one of them being her father’s. She rarely had any time to spend with her father since he was working most of the time. It was never something she looked forward to, but it made it all the more special whenever he had free time. She arrived at the office to find her dad, Filthy Rich, along with another stallion she recognised. “Diamond, uh, it’s nice to see you!” Filthy Rich sounded a tad nervous when he greeted his daughter, but Tiara paid it no mind. “Cash Banks, I’m sure you remember my daughter.” “Of course! I remember her when she was a little, little filly,” said the stallion. “She’s beginning to look a lot like her Mom.” “What are you doing here, Mister Banks?” asked Tiara. The stallion answered, doubtfully, “Well, I was in town and there was an urgent matter I needed to inform your father about.” Diamond tilted her head. “Like what?” “He can tell you!” Filthy Rich glared at Banks before turning to Tiara. “You see, Honey, something’s happened with the markets. And well… it turns out we’re broke.” Diamond Tiara blinked. “What?” “It’s true,” Cash Banks admitted, “It turns out the investments your dad made weren’t exactly that stable as we thought. And by that, I mean the ponies running them were extremely ‘incompetent’.” “Most of the stuff was counterfeit; illegal!” It was obvious that Filthy Rich seemed furious with what was happening, seeing as he lost over 90% of his money on useless goods. “You can find some way to fix it, can you?” asked Diamond. There was no immediate response. It was obvious that Filthy Rich did not like the situation he was thrown in. He must have been thinking about this for a while. “I have to head over to Manehattan to get things sorted out. It would have to take a couple weeks at the most.” “Trust me, Diamond, you're dad's an expert. I'm sure we'll figure something out,” said Cash. “I only hope we can fix this before it's too late,” said Filthy Rich, “In the meantime, I’m leaving you with a group of good ponies who’ll watch after you while I’m gone.” Tiara eyed her father. “And who might that be?” she asked. Filthy Rich knocked on the red barn doors and waited for somepony to answer. Diamond Tiara stood next to him, her saddle bag and suitcase packed set nearby. Although standing here in front of the home of the pony she despised the most wasn’t exactly what the filly wanted, this was more of a force measure than voluntary thanks to her father. “Do I really have to be here?” She whined and moped, hoping to at least nag him into reconsidering his option. It was all, however, in a futile attempt. “Why can’t I stay over at Silver Spoon’s place?” “From what I understand, Silver Spoon still has the pony-pox,” replied Filthy Rich, “And besides, the Apple Family is one of the few ponies in town whom I trust with the fullest extent. You’ll also have a chance to learn some humility from them, something you’ve been lacking quite a bit lately.” Diamond Tiara scoffed, “More like humiliation. I cannot stay, Dad. Not after the fight I had with Applebloom at school.” “All the more reason for you to stay,” said Rich, “Miss Cheerilee told me about the way you two act, and hopefully, this method can be a way for you to learn to at least tolerate each other’s presence.” Tiara groaned in protest, but she knew once her Dad made up his mind, there was no making him turn back. Sometimes she thought he would canter right up into the gates of Tartarus if he wanted to. The door finally opened, answered by none other than Big Macintosh. The red, big workpony’s view shifted between the two standing in front of him. “Hello there, Big Mac,” said Filthy Rich, “I’m leaving for Manehattan in just a few minutes to fix a little jam I’ve seem to have gotten myself in, and I was wondering if you could watch over my little Diamond Tiara while I was away. I know this must seem short notice, but I’m sure you can handle it, right? It would only be for a couple weeks, tops. What do you say?” Big Mac glanced from Filthy Rich down to the pink earth pony standing in front of him. He nodded. “Eeyup.” “You will? Oh, thank you. I promise I’ll pay you the amount you deserve when I return. Just… make sure she stays out of trouble.” Big Macintosh nodded again as Filthy Rich departed from Sweet Apple Acres. He glanced down at Diamond Tiara. The filly didn’t look too happy about being here, but something told him it was because her father had forced her. He had known for some time about the multiple “disagreements” she and Applebloom experienced over the years, but it’d be out of character for him to simply turn her away. Tiara looked surprised as the big, red pony invited her in. She trotted into the Apple Family home. It was… cozy, she had to admit. Much of the furniture inside had pictures of apples on it. Talk about obsession, she thought. She turned around as Big Macintosh brought her suitcase in. “Thanks, I guess.” She tossed him a gold bit. It landed in the stallion’s hoof, but he placed it down on the table next to him, uninterested. Diamond rolled her eyes and continued on to explore the house. In the living room, asleep in a rocking chair, was Granny Smith. She could feel a large amount of rage build inside her the moment she laid eyes on the elder mare, as this was the same pony who caused her humiliation during Family Appreciation Day. Although she had some words to say, she had to hold herself back. She was always told to respect the owners of any residence, even if it was the very last place she wanted to be, and saying anything she’d regret would get her on the bad side of the Apple Family. That was something she couldn’t afford happening to her. “Finally! M’ah hooves were get’n sore!” Applejack cantered into her home and placed her Stetson on a rack nearby. “Hey, Granny Smith, what’s for dinner? I’m starv’n!” She trotted into the living room, and aside from Granny Smith, she noticed their new guest resting in the middle of the floor reading a magazine. “Hey, Diamond Tiara… What brings you here?” Tiara answered, “I’d rather not talk about it.” Big Macintosh entered the room and whispered to Applejack, telling her of the filly’s dilemma. “Oh my… Are you serious?” She received a nod in return. She glanced over at Tiara, “Well you’re welcome to stay here as long as your Dad’s outta town. Granny Smith should be fix’n up some dinner real soon.” Tiara looked over at the sleeping olive green mare in the rocking chair. She was sound asleep, snoring as her chair rocked back and forth. “That might be a while,” she muttered. Her attention was bought when the front door creaked open again. She knew there were only four ponies who lived at Sweet Apple Acres as far as she knew; the only other Apple Family member was— Oh no… “Hi, everypony…” Applebloom cantered into the living room. “Sorry I’m late, ya’ll. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and I tried to get our cutie marks—” she stopped dead silent when her eyes laid on Diamond Tiara. “What are you do’n here?” “Now Applebloom,” Applejack tried to calm her sister down and keep a fight from starting up between the two fillies, but to no real avail. Tiara and Applebloom got in each other’s faces. Name calling flared back and forth between them: “Blank-flank,” “spoiled rich brat,” “Stupid countryside hayseed”. “Enough!” Applejack yelled, breaking up the argument. She and Big Macintosh separated the girls before any violence broke out. “Listen, Applebloom. Diamond is here because, apparently, her dad’s business has going south.” “Sure, just tell anypony,” Diamond retorted. A.J. ignored her. “So in the meantime, while he’s up in Manehatten sort’n things out, she’ll be stay’n here with us.” “What?” Applebloom was obviously shocked, seeing as the same pony who had been terrorizing her for some time was now staying in her home. “Why can’t she stay somewhere else?” “It’s only gonna be for a couple weeks at the most,” said Applejack, “The least we can do is treat her as a guest here until her dad gets back.” “But I don’t want her here! Not after that fight we had earlier.” “A fight? Really?” Applejack face-hoofed. She never expected them to hate each other this much. Obviously, trying to get these two to get along was going to be difficult. “Alright, I don’t care if ya’ll like each other ‘r not, she’s stay’n. Applebloom looked up at her sister. “But…” “No buts. “I’m not gonna have any fights or yell’n at as long as she’s here. That goes double for you, little lady…” she pointed an accusing hoof over at Diamond Tiara. “Ya’ll understand?” Applebloom and Tiara glared at each other. Sighing and ears drooping to the sides of their heads, they responded: “Fine…”
Chapter 2Farm Diamond Chapter 2 APPLEBLOOM AWOKE TO THE abrupt sound of roosters chirping outside of her window. The morning sun leaked into her room through the shades, splashing the entire place in sunlight before finally settling upon the drowsy filly still lying in her bed. After taking a few more moments of shut-eye, she finally sat up, yawned and outstretched her arms, waking herself up for yet another day. Trotting over to mirror, she took a brush and ran it through her mane, straightening as many strands of hair as she could muster. As she sat in silence, she took the opportunity to think to herself. With Diamond Tiara living with her family for the time being, she quickly realised that things here would be far more different than she anticipated. Already she was looking forward to the day when Filthy Rich would return. She set the brush down and gave a breath of optimism. Maybe things could turn out for the better, she thought. She left her room, made her way to the guest room down the hall. Inside, Diamond Tiara was sound asleep. The quilted, apple-decorated blanket was perched over her body. Underneath was the tangled mess that was her mane. I thought for sure the roosters would wake her, Applebloom thought. Even though she had the chance to leave her and let her be tardy for class, that wouldn’t be proper Apple Family hospitality, as Applejack’d always told her. No, she would have to do this the old fashion way. She cantered to her bedside and tried shaking her away. “Diamond, it’s time to wake up. Come one, we gotta get ready for school.” The response she receives instead was a pillow being slammed into her face. “Please go away…” a dazed Diamond Tiara groaned. Annoyed and frustrated, Applebloom considered leaving and letting her oversleep and be late. Then, a mischievous grin spread across her face. She grabbed a bucket and went to the bathroom, and filled it half-way with water. She tip-hoofed back into the guest room, careful not to wake Tiara; set the bucket on a banister above her bed, tying with a length of rope. With one good tug, the bucket tipped over, sending a gush of cold water splashing down on the pink filly. Tiara, soaked and dripping, sat up with a shock, until looking over at a cackling Applebloom rolling on the floor. She was almost angry enough for the water to evaporate from her coat. “Why did you do that for?” “I had to wake you up somehow,” replied Applebloom. “And you had to do it by dumping water on me?” A seething Diamond Tiara hopped out of bed. Applebloom snickered. “Believe it ‘r not, but this is how Applejack and Big Mac used to wake me when I wouldn’t get up for school.” Tiara marched defiantly towards Applebloom, but before she could do or say anything rash, a knock echoed from the other side of the door. “Hey, is everyth’n alright in there?” It was Applejack. Diamond Tiara glanced over at Applebloom, expecting her to come up with an excuse. “Everyth’n’s fine!” Applebloom lied. “Jus’ wake’n Diamond Tiara up for school!” “Why’s there water all over the floor?” Applejack asked, suspiciously. “I, uh… jus’ got outta the shower?” Silence. The two fillies were hoping the mare would buy it. The last thing they—especially Diamond Tiara—wanted now was to get in trouble, especially after promising they would behave around each other. “All righty then,” Applejack said, “Ya’ll come down for breakfast when you’re ready.” With that, the sound hooves trotting against the floor boards garnered sighs of relief. “That was close,” said Diamond. Applebloom couldn’t help but agree. “I’ll meet ya at the table.” “This argument isn't over,” Tiara growled. Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say.” After drying off and combing her mane and tail, Tiara met Applebloom and the rest of her family downstairs in the kitchen. “Why don’t ya’ll come and pull of a seat, Diamond,” said Applejack. “So what are we having?” asked the filly. “A real treat,” said Granny Smith, “We got apple sauce, some scrambled eggs, sliced bananas, and a big bowl of freshly picked blueberries picked straight from the bushes near the orchard. Tiara couldn’t tell a lie—not to herself, at least—but the whole set up did in fact look delicious. Maybe a quick bite to eat wouldn’t hurt. She sat down at the table. There was already a plate set for her, which she already started emptying. It was better than she imagined. “So,” Applebloom started, “How’s everyth’n go’n between you two?” she asked them. The fillies glanced at each other. Applebloom replied, “We’re gett’n along jus’ fine, sis. No roughhous’n between us.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Really…?” “Uh-huh,” said Diamond Tiara. The orange cowpony smiled. “Are you sure you didn’t dump a bucket’a water on her ‘r someth’n?” The red-maned filly nearly spit out her eggs. “How did you know?” “It wasn’t that hard to figure out,” said Applejack, “especially not when I heard the sound of a bucket be’n filled in the sink, and the fact that the mirrors weren’t fogged up from all the hot water you used from your ‘shower’.” Applebloom blushed and smiled nervous, but Diamond Tiara could only face-hoof. Applejack sighed. “Listen, girls. I know you two have your own personal issues between each other, but could you at least try to get along. We’re live’n under the same roof, after all, and perhaps that could work to bring you closer. Couldn’t you at least try?” The girls looked each other and back at Applejack. “Fine, whatever,” replied Diamond Tiara. Applejack smiled. Though she knew this was going to be a longshot, she still had hope that this would work itself out in the end. She could only hope. “Well we should probably be head’n off for school,” said Applebloom, finishing off the last of her breakfast. “Don’t forget your lunches girls,” said Granny Smith. “Thanks, Granny,” said Applebloom. She and Tiara grabbed their lunch boxes off the kitchen counter and headed out the door. With them gone, Applejack glanced over at Big Mac and Granny Smith. “Ya’ll think this is gonna work?” she asked. Together, the two of them responded: “Nope.” Among the small crowd of ponies that amassed at the marketplace, the early morning not yet witnessing the large capacity that usually visited each and every day, Diamond Tiara and Applebloom made their way to school. The entire walk was in silence, though, and to a lesser extent, awkward. Either they had no desire to talk to each other, or they simply had nothing to say in relation to their situation. There was a bit of an unusual feeling around them having to make their way to school alongside each other. It was really something they never thought would they would have to go through in their lives, which really added to the somewhat awkward feeling the two were experiencing. For Applebloom, it was much more about trying to keep her promise to her older sister and least tolerating the pink filly’s presence. For Diamond Tiara, it was more about having to put up with this blank-flank long enough for her dad to return and take her home. But nevertheless, both of them would have to deal with it whether they liked it or not. They arrived at the school. Colts and fillies were flooding the building, wanting to get to their seats before the bell rang. Applebloom glanced over at the pink filly standing beside her. “Listen, Diamond. M’ah sister is right. As long as we’re live’n together, we better learn to get along for the time be’n. Jus’ ain’t no use squabbl’n over our differences like we normally do. We might as well get this over with while we’re here—at least ‘til your dad gets back from Manehattan.” “I suppose you’re right,” responded Diamond Tiara. It was almost weird agreeing with her, but she did have a point in what she said. They both had something in common: they wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible without trouble. “But not a word about this gets out to anypony else, alright?” Applebloom nodded. “Deal…” The class thus far went by normally. They were learning about ancient Equestrian history, alongside math and literary skills—two of Diamond Tiara’s personal favourites. Luckily she had managed to stay awake on most of the lectures, though this was replaced by doodling pictures onto blank pieces of paper while Cheerilee was teaching. Still, the entire time no problems had arisen between the two—no notes meant to get the other in trouble, no name-calling; no nothing. It was a bit surprising to Cheerilee who’d been keeping a close eye on the both of them the entire time. With the bad history these two had, especially the incident that happened just a day prior, she half-expected both of them to hurl insults at one another, though she could tell they were close to it a couple of times. Soon came the time for lunch and recess. It was a warm early afternoon, and the foals had only a half-hour before having to go back inside and get through the rest of their school day. Diamond Tiara ate her lunch in silence, which aside from dandelion sandwiches and a juice box, held a small plastic container of zap-apple jam. The magical fruit, as always, tasted amazing on her taste buds. It was unbelievable that they came from the Everfree Forest. She saw Applebloom with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. As much as she felt the urge to go over and these them, and it was extremely tempting to do so, too, she remembered the deal they made and that they needed to stay out of trouble. She obviously hated it, but she knew there wasn’t any more she could do. “She looks lonely over there,” said Scootaloo. “Of course she is,” said Applebloom, “Silver Spoon has still out sick with the pony-pox. But she’ll be back soon, no doubt.” Sweetie Belle rolled a rubber ball over at Scootaloo. “Hey, Applebloom, on my way here, I actually saw you and Diamond Tiara trotting across town together.” “Really?” Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yes, we were,” Applebloom admitted. She glanced over at Tiara. The pink filly’s eyes were wandering around the playground. Obviously, she was most likely left with nothing to do since her best friends had been incapacitated. She motioned her friends closer. “You see, girls, Diamond Tiara’s gone broke.” Sweetie Belle could feel her jaw drop. “Seriously?” “Yeah, her dad lost almost all of his money somehow, and while he’s up in Manehattan, she’s gonna be stay’n at m’ah house for a while.” Scootaloo was nearly speechless. “Whoa… Just whoa… Most be torture having to live with her.” “We both promised Applejack we’d try t get along while she’s while us. I don’t how that’s gonna happen with all the bad blood we have, but we gotta get by somehow ‘til her dad gets back. Then she’ll be outta m’ah mane for good.” Applebloom glanced at Diamond Tiara again. “And keep this between us, alright? Diamond and I said we wouldn’t let anypony else know about her little ‘situation,’ so no tell’n anypony else.” The two other CMC fillies nodded. “Don’t worry, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle stated, “We won’t tell anypony—Cutie Mark Crusader’s honour.” “Thanks, girls…” Applebloom smiled. Soon enough the bell rang, and the foals retreated into the school to continue the rest of their day. Eventually, the final bell rang. The foals took off for home, among them being the unlikely pair of Applebloom and Diamond Tiara. They tried to make it seem like they weren’t together, though, but their attempts were a bit low-quality. Applebloom waved farewell to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle as she and Tiara began their trek into Ponyville. The entire time, Diamond Tiara slowed her pace, keeping her distance as not to be seen with a “loser” blank-flank like the one she was with. Applebloom noticed this and sighed. Now was not the time to start something, especially considering the rocky start the two of them got off to this morning. Instead, she needed to try and make nice if she wanted to do what Applejack said and get along. She wasn’t sure if would take her far, but just ignoring it wouldn’t do her any real good. She looked back at her. “Hey, Diamond, ya’ll hanker’n for a treat at Sugercube Corner? I’m sure Pinkie Pie’s got something good in store for us.” Tiara put a hoof to her chin and thought about it. “Sure, why not. Just… keep a distance while we’re trotting over there.” With that, she cantered past Applebloom on her way to the confectionary. Another sigh came from the yellow filly before following. This was going to be much harder than she expected, she thought. At Sugarcube Corner, they sat together, though Diamond Tiara tried to make it seem like she barely knew Applebloom at all. It was annoying to Applebloom seeing her act like this. “Look, Diamond, I wasn’t joke’n earlier when I said that we needed to get along while you’re stay’n with us. Act’n like a spoiled rich princess is only gonna get you so far with m’ah family, especially with Applejack.” Diamond rolled her eyes. “Whatever…” “I’m serious!” Applebloom snapped, “Ya’ll can’t keep at it like this. You need to learn how not to be a bully if you wanna get on somepony’s good side.” “I can do whatever I want,” was Diamond Tiara’s arrogant response. Applebloom rebutted, “From what’s happened to you recently, do’n ‘whatever you want’ is really limited at this point. At some point, you gotta realise that not everyth’n revolves around you. And like I said before, act’n like a princess all the time will only gonna get you very far before no pony can’t take it anymore. I know I can’t take it.” Tiara waved her off. “Pa-lease,” she pouted, “Nothing worse can happen to me than what’s already occurred. If you think you can tell me what to do, you blank-flank loser, then you—” In an abrupt flash of colorful confetti, the pony known as Pinkie Pie appeared at their table, cheering, “Surprise!” Her unexpected entrance had nearly given the two fillies heart attacks. “Couldn’t you have warned somepony before busting in like that?” said Tiara, picking herself up off the ground. “Surprises are the absolute best way of making an entrance, silly filly!” said Pinkie. “Don’t you like surprises?” “Not anymore,” said Diamond Tiara. She seated herself at the table, along with Applebloom. “So…” Pinkie Pie produced a notebook and pencil from her poofy pink mane. “Can I get you two friends anything?” “We are not friends!” Diamond snapped. Pinkie giggled. “Of course you are, silly! You’re sitting at the same table, in the same place, in the same town, in the same Equestria— Oh wait! The last two are already obvious, but you get the picture!” Diamond Tiara deadpanned. “Okay, I’m out of here.” She hopped out of her chair and headed for the door. “Wait!” Pinkie called after her, “Was it something I said?” “Don’t worry, Pinkie,” said Applebloom, “Diamond’s jus’ go’n through some rough times. She’ll get over it.” Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin. “If she’s having a hard time with something, I think I know what can cheer her up!” Applebloom shook her head. “No offense, but I really don’t think a party will help that much.” “Never ignore the alternatives,” said the pink mare. Hopping out of her seat, Applebloom made her way towards the door. “There’s jus’ gotta be some way to turn her around without causing a fight,” she thought aloud as she left Sugarcube Corner. However, moments after she left, she quickly cantered back into the store. “Actually, Pinkie, can you get me a muffin; banana nut?” “Coming right up!” Pinkie cheered. “You could have gotten me one, ya know” said Diamond Tiara. Applebloom finished off the last of her muffin before responding, “To be fair, you did storm off before Pinkie Pie could take our orders.” “But still,” replied Tiara, “it wasn’t nice leaving me out.” Applebloom raised an eyebrow at the lavender-maned filly. “Really…? You’re talk’n ‘bout me not be’n nice?” The two of them eventually returned to Sweet Apple Acres. Since Cheerilee had not assigned any homework to the class, probably encouraging the students to study prior to the test next week, Diamond could just wind down and relax. They could see Applebloom’s siblings working in the yard; Applejack was harvesting apples while Big Macintosh was busy plowing the corn field. Applejack waved to them. “Hey, ya’ll! How was school?” “Fine,” replied Applebloom, “Noth’n spectacular happened.” “You two get into any arguments?” Applejack couldn’t help but question them regularly about it, seeing as she still wanted order between them. “No fights,” said Applebloom, “Honest!” “Good to hear!” Applejack threw them a bright smile, though Diamond Tiara couldn’t determine whether or not she trusted them on the matter. The orange mare was definitely a mystery. They cantered into the house, dropping their saddle bags on the floor. Granny Smith was in the kitchen, washing the dishes they used from this morning’s breakfast. “Hi there, girls,” she greeted them happily, “I went down to the market and bought some celery while you were out. They’re in the fridge if ya’ll want any.” Applebloom and Diamond Tiara searched through the refrigerator, grabbing the snacks aforementioned. “I gotta ask you something,” said Diamond. Applebloom looked at her, chewing on her celery stalk. “How in Equestria can you handle all the hard work in your orchard?” “Not that hard if you’ve been do’n it for as long as I have,” replied the scarlet-maned earth pony. “In contrast to being a pegasus or a unicorn, be’n an earth pony is a bless’n when you’re on a farm. Harvest’n apples, tend’n to animals, and the like are as easy as a piece of pie.” Her explanation about it was… intriguing. Diamond Tiara tried not to show the slightest bit of interest, though, instead proceeding to eat her piece of celery. After their snack and resting for a bit, Applebloom made her way over to the door, but not before turning to Diamond Tiara. “Aren’t ya come’n?” “Where?” Tiara asked. “To help out in the field.” “Not really,” said Diamond, “These hooves weren’t made for hard labour. But thanks for the offer, though.” “You gotta,” said Applebloom, “Out here, everypony pays their fair share.” Her response was being ignored by the pink filly. Instead of trying to convince Tiara this time, she bit into her tail and attempted to pull her out of the house. Diamond Tiara tried to slow her involuntary movement, pressing her hooves against the floorboards to weight Applebloom down. This had little effect, however. All that time working in the field had practically strengthened her far beyond what Diamond Tiara’s already scrawny figure was. “I’ll get you for this, blank-flank,” Tiara muttered, seemingly accepting what was going to happen. Applebloom rolled her eyes, responding with Tiara while still dragging her away. “Yeah, yeah, like you haven’t said that before.”
Chapter 3Farm Diamond Chapter 3 THE LAST THING DIAMOND Tiara wanted after her sudden, and highly unwanted, change in lifestyle was to work on a farm. She wasn’t made for working; she was more of the leading others type, having them look up to her for guidance. But now she was here, and she had to do everything as Applebloom did, which didn’t seem too difficult when she demonstrated to her. The butter-yellow filly launched a kick at the base of one of the trees. From the branches above, some of the apples fell almost immediately. “I can do that!” Diamond Tiara said arrogantly. She trotted over to a tree of her own. This particular one was fairly large with ripe, juicy apples hanging from the branches. Applebloom gave her a questionable look. “You sure about that? Buck’n apple trees ain’t as easy as it looks for beginners.” Tiara waved her off. “Pa-lease, if you can do it, so can I. It shouldn’t be too hard to kick the side of a tree. Anypony can do it.” “Alright, then, go for it.” Applebloom sat on the sidelines and watched Diamond Tiara’s first attempt at harvesting. Tiara positioned herself in front of the tree. She stood on her front legs, reeling her hind legs back. This was it; a perfect opportunity to show that blank-flank at her own game. Putting as much force into the kick as she could, Diamond Tiara launched her legs at the base of the tree. She could immediately feel the vibrations riding up the bark to the apples. Even though it made her legs sore a bit, she couldn’t help but smile, holding her nose in the air. “See? Told you!” Applebloom nodded, clapping her hoofs together. “Congratulations,” she said, sarcastically, “You didn’t manage to get a single apple to fall.” Being told this, Diamond Tiara looked up at the apples in the tree. Clearly, as she was told, not a single one of them had fallen. They were swaying side to side from the vibration given to the tree, but it didn’t look they were going to fall. “You have got to be kidding me.” She tried again, and again, and again, but each time, none of the apples allowed themselves to fall. It was almost as if they’d glued themselves in place. “I tried to tell you,” said Applebloom, “It’s not all to use just strength, but you also gotta use proper technique when do’n stuff like this.” Tiara blinked. “There’s itechnique in apple bucking?” Applebloom smiled. “Yeah, it’s been used in m’ah family for generations. It’s how we managed to get so much in stock.” “That’s kinda stupid,” said Diamond. Applebloom stood, trotting over to the pink earth pony. “Well listen, how ‘bout we try someth’n a bit easier for you? Follow me.” She motioned Tiara to follow her to another part of the farm. Diamond Tiara’s glare followed her enemy as she trotted away. Saying that had rectified that the pink filly was barely strong enough to do anything, which she saw as a challenge. And the last thing she wanted was to lose to Applebloom. She looked back up at the red apples still hanging on the branches, taking note of each and every one of them. “By the end of this day,” she muttered, “I’ll get at least one of you down from this lousy tree, even if it’s the last thing I do.” With that, she followed Applebloom, whilst musing over the apples she couldn’t knock down. They arrived at a corn field not too far from the orchard. The corn had still yet to actually sprout out of their ears. “Some of the stalks in here is all shriveled up and dead,” Applebloom told her assistant. “All we have to do is pick out the dead ones out and put ‘em in that basket over there.” She pointed at a small wooden basket that was set nearby. Tiara couldn’t see the challenge in pulling a few stalks of corn from the ground. If anything, this was much too easy. With Applebloom, she trotted into the corn field and got to work. Despite her earlier claims, however, she found that it was nearly as difficult as kicking a few apples out of a tree. As she trotted through the forest of corn, she failed to see any that had actually gone bad like Applebloom said. Perhaps this was all just a bust, she thought. Within minutes after starting, though, she found one hidden further in. The brown stalk and withering ears made it obvious enough. She scoffed, “This’ll be a piece of cake.” Grabbing the stalk with her teeth, she began to pull. It was much harder than she thought, despite it being a dead plant. She hadn’t even gotten it out an inch before letting go. The roots that were keeping it attached to the ground weren’t letting her succeed in her goal. She angrily stomped her hoof on the ground, refusing to give up so easily. “Come on you stupid thing! Budge already!” She gave it another try. She bit down harder on it. After putting in more effort than normal, she forcefully pried the dead stalk out of the ground. She fell backwards, and some of the dirt had flown through the air and landed on her coat. It was a small price to pay, though. She sat up and gave out a sigh, wiping some sweat off her forehead. “Glad that’s over.” Even though she probably had more pull out, she counted this as a victory. She grabbed the corn stalk off the ground and headed out. When she arrived at the basket, however, her jaw nearly dropped when she saw Applebloom already there with many more in her possession, which far outnumbered the single one Diamond Tiara was carrying in her mouth. Applebloom glanced at her as she trotted forward. “Finally, you’re back. You were in there a longer than I thought.” Diamond Tiara placed the corn stalk in the basket. “What? Is there a technique for pulling corn out of the ground, too?” “Actually, no, you just pluck it out. Not really that hard,” said Applebloom. Tiara could literally feel her frustration rising steadily with each daunting task she had to do. This was too much physical work for a pony of her caliber. She heard laughing in the distance and was about to yell out in anger before they noticed Granny Smith approaching. “How’s the work go’n, girls?” she asked. “Fine,” said Applebloom. Granny Smith glanced over at Diamond Tiara, who had dirt and sweat littering her coat, mane, and tail. The filly simply looked exhausted. “Can’t really say the same for yourself, though, eh?” She snickered, though she wasn’t trying to make fun of the young filly. “What do you want?” Diamond Tiara snapped. Applebloom cast a glance at the overtly-dramatic pony. Granny Smith didn’t seem to mind it, however. “Country life tends to make a pony like yourself crabby. Anyway, I jus’ came over to tell you that I whipped up some delicious lemonade for all your hard work.” She directed their attention to two glasses that’d been set up on a table. “Figured ya’ll might’ve wanted some cool down a bit from the heat.” Her comment was mainly directed at Diamond Tiara. Applebloom nodded. “Thanks, Granny!” Although she didn’t show it, Diamond Tiara was thankful that she could have at least something to refresh herself from hard work. She immediately chugged down her glass the moment she made it to the table. It was sweet. That was all she could make it out to be. It was like any ordinary glass of lemonade she tasted, nothing too special. She looked over at Applebloom. The filly was enjoying her glass as well, though not as much as Diamond Tiara did. “How much more work do we have to do?” asked the pink filly. It was clear that she wanted to get gone as soon as possible. “After pull’n out the dead corn, now we gotta feed the pigs. Then we’ll be done for the day.” Tiara cringed at that. Having to feed a bunch of filthy animals was not high on her ‘things-to-do’ list, yet she knew there was no way to back out of it. Applebloom could only roll her eyes at her reaction. “Oh, stop be’n such a baby. The only thing we gotta do is fill their troughs so they can eat.” “And what exactly do they eat?” asked Diamond. Applebloom answered, “Slop.” Diamond Tiara could feel her eye twitch. Slop. Why am I not surprised? “And what exactly is ‘slop’?” “It’s basically a bunch of scraps of food we mix together. The pigs love ‘em. They’ll eat almost anyth’n.” An exasperated sigh escaped Tiara’s lips. She did not like idea of it, though she knew if got through this without her sanity breaking, she could finally go inside, sleep, and never speak of this day again. “Alright, the faster we do this, the faster we’ll be finished. Where’s the stuff at?” “Slop,” Applebloom corrected, “And we’re gonna have to make it ourselves.” Tiara deadpanned, staring at the scarlet-maned filly with a blank expression on her face. “You’re joking, right? And how do we do that?” “Haven’t you been listen’n to a word I’ve said?” “Not really.” Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Jus’ come on if you wanna get done so badly.” Diamond Tiara groaned, but the desire to hurry and finish this grueling task motivated her to continue—at least for a while longer. She followed Applebloom into the barn. They gathered the ingredients and got started. The “slop” was mainly comprised of chopped apples, some vegetables such as celery, lettuce, potatoes, and broccoli, tomatoes, and treats that Applebloom decided to sneak in. The entire thing looked like a big hodgepodge of different things mashed together inside the bucket in front of them. By the time they were finished, Diamond’s hooves were covered in debris from the stuff. She wiped them off on the towel Applebloom hoofed her, and together, the fillies brought the bucket over to a trough and dumped the slop in. Finally, they were finished and she could rest; though as she looked around, she saw no animals coming over to eat. “So, what happens now?” the impatient filly asked. Applebloom grabbed a small metal rod and struck it against a triangle hanging from the ceiling nearby. “Come and get it!” she called out. Almost immediately the ground around them felt like it was shaking as the sound of hooves pounding against the ground echoed through the air. A trio of pigs ran past the fillies. Unfortunately for Diamond Tiara, though, they ran over a small mud puddle in front of them, covering the two of them in mud, dirt, and dust. Applebloom looked at the pigs as they greedily dug into the slop, in contrast to Diamond Tiara, who looked just about to lash out at any pony around her. Her mane and tail were dirtied along with her coat, which had mixed in with the dirt and mud to make a horrid pinkish-brown colour. Much of her body was covered in mud, dripping off her tail. Applebloom was equally as dirty, but she didn’t seem to mind it as much, seeing as she’s been doing this basically her whole life. “That wasn’t so difficult, was it?” She turned her gaze towards Diamond Tiara. The pink filly was literally steaming, her face red with anger. Applebloom could tell she was using every last ounce of her willpower to keep from doing something violent. Tiara gritted her teeth. “I’m going to take a shower,” she declared. She headed back for the house. “I thought a pony like you would’ve loved mud baths,” said Applebloom. Even though she was trying to be friendly to her archrival, there was a small part of her that loved seeing Diamond Tiara like this. “Taking a dip in a nice, relaxing mud bath is largely different than having the stuff splattered all over you!” Tiara wiped some of the mud off her face and retreated back into the house, leaving a confused Applebloom behind. The hot water did a good job of washing the mud and dirt into the drain. After her unwanted encounter with the animals, all Diamond Tiara wanted was to get clean and fall asleep, and let what happened with today fade into memory. She knew it’d be difficult to forget everything, but one could only hope. She turned off the water and stepped out of the tub. She dried off her mane, which had went through multiple rinse and repeat to get the muck and grime out, and wrapped it in a towel. Clean and refreshed, the pink filly emerged from the bathroom and made her way to the guest room at the end of the hall. Inside, her tiara lay on a desk, still dirtied from when the pigs ran past her. It was easy to clean, thankfully. There was a knock on her door, and she opened it up to see Applejack. “Hey, Diamond. Sorry to hear about your little ‘incident’ with the pigs outside. They always get a bit hyper when dinnertime comes around.” “Can I help you?” Judging by Tiara’s unpleasant attitude, it was obvious she wasn’t in the mood for a subtle approach. Nevertheless, Applejack decided to keep pushing forward. “Listen, I was jus’ wonder’n if it would be all right for you an’ ma’h sister to head out an’ pick up a few things tomorrow.” Diamond Tiara eyed her. “Why can’t you ask just one of us to do it?” “Well I did ask Applebloom while you were washing the mud out. She said she wanted you to tag along also,” said Applejack. Hearing this had confused Diamond Tiara. Why would Applebloom ask such a thing despite knowing they hated each other? Perhaps she was planning something, though that was Diamond Tiara’s initial thought. Maybe she was overreacting. Applebloom might have thought she just needed some help with carrying the ingredients back to Sweet Apple Acres once she got them. She wasn’t entirely sure if it was voluntary, or if her mouth was speaking out of turn, but she accepted the offer. There isn’t really much to do in this house, anyway, she thought to herself. “Well ain’t that jus’ dandy!” said Applejack, “Maybe you two are get’n along after all.” She shut the door, giving Diamond Tiara her privacy. Diamond took this time to think. Taking her tiara, she began to clean it off. She was still wondering why Applebloom had requested this, and she wasn’t sure why she wanted to through with it. Her muscles were starting to ache from the hard work she’d gone through, something she was obviously not accustomed to being a pony of her standards. All she was focused on now was sleeping. Flour Cinnamon Eggs “I guess we can start by get’n the flour,” said Applebloom. She and Tiara set out through the market amongst the crowd of ponies, searching for the stand that was supposed to be selling the flour. Tiara, though, couldn’t stop thinking back to what Applejack said, about her sister wanting her to help get the ingredients. She still wondered why Applebloom would want her to tag along so bad. The option of this being a trick still hung over her head, which caused her to be a little cautious of the scarlet-maned pony trotting alongside her. Though Applebloom wouldn’t do anything bad or humiliating while in the middle of a crowd . . . right? They finally found the flour seller after nearly twelve minutes of searching and hurried towards her. They asked her for a bag and she happily obliged, giving the bag to Applebloom. It looked heavy from Diamond Tiara’s perspective, but to her surprise, the yellow earth pony was lifting it with ease. “Thanks, Misses Daffodil!” Applebloom waved as she and Tiara headed out to get the next thing on their list. “We should to go Fluttershy’s house next to get the eggs.” “Okay, then… What’re we waiting for?” said Diamond. They made their way over to the edge of Ponyville, crossing the bridge and following the dirt path that led to the timid pegasus’ cottage. There were animals up and about, scurrying across the outside, though Tiara didn’t mind being around them that much. They were tamed, much more so than the animals over at Sweet Apple Acres. As they got closer, a white bunny hopped in front of them. The simple sight reminded Diamond of that humiliating day when her dad forced her to hop around metal watering cans while wearing bunny ears. She wasn’t able to live that incident down for weeks. “Hey, Angel… Do you know where Fluttershy is?” asked Applebloom. Angel did a number of hand signs, trying to tell the girls where the pegasus might have been. “Oh just spit it out, fur ball,” Diamond Tiara spat. Angel gave the filly a questionable look. “Bunnies can’t speak,” Applebloom told her, “I think he’s try’n to say that she’s—” She looked back at Angel. “What’re you try’n to say?” Angel facepalmed and pointed over towards the cottage. “I think he’s say’n Fluttershy’s in her house.” “Then why didn’t he just say that?” asked Tiara. Applebloom shrugged. “Thanks Angel!” They trotted past the bunny up to the door of the cottage. Applebloom knocked, and after a few moments, the yellow pegasus answered. “Oh, hi girls. What brings you by?” “We needed some eggs if you got any,” said Applebloom. Fluttershy nodded. “Of course; just follow me.” She led them to the chicken coop on the side of her house. While they waited for her to fetch the eggs they had asked for, Diamond Tiara looked over at Applebloom. “Hey, quick question,” she said; “why did you want me tag along?” “What do you mean?” asked Applebloom. “I mean when your sister asked if I could help get this stuff, she told me you wanted me to come with you.” The butter-yellow filly shrugged. “It’s not really a big deal. I wanted you to come with me so we can get these ingredients together.” “But why…?” “Applejack said if we’re gonna be live’n under the same roof, we have to at least tolerate each other. And that means try’n to get along for a change.” Diamond couldn’t determine whether it was a legitimate reason, if she meant it or not, but she saw that Applebloom was determined to follow through on her promise to her sister, something she never experienced. Fluttershy emerged from the chicken coop and placed the eggs in the saddle bag Applebloom was carrying. “Here you go. What’re you baking?” “Granny Smith and Applejack were gonna be make’n some cinnamon buns tomorrow and they needed the ingredients,” replied Applebloom. That answered Tiara’s question on why they were going shopping. “I’ll be sure to get you one if you like.” Fluttershy shook her head, declining. “Oh, that’s okay. Thanks, though.” With the eggs and flour secured, all they needed was the cinnamon. “Where do you think we should go?” asked Tiara. “I don’t know. Maybe we can borrow some from Sugarcube Corner. Mister and Misses Cake might have some in storage.” Applebloom rolled up the checklist; she and Diamond Tiara began making their way through town on their way over to Sugarcube Corner. On their way, though, they saw two other foals playing hoofball in the streets. Tiara hesitated to take another step forward when she saw them, primarily the cerulean-blue earth pony colt. He looked ecstatic when he spotted her; although the pink filly did not share the same reaction. Applebloom noticed the amount of nervousness coming from Diamond Tiara as the two ponies approached. “What’s wrong, Diamond?” Before she had a chance to answer, however, the colt galloped past Applebloom up to Tiara. She blushed at how close he was to her face. “Hi… Diamond,” he stammered. “What do you want now?” asked Tiara. She was annoyed, as indicated by the deadpanned tone in her voice, but the colt didn’t seem to notice. “Will you leave her alone, Hopper?” the other pony, a pegasus filly, said to him, “I keep telling you, there’s no chance in Equestria.” “Yeah, please, take it from your sister. There really is no chance.” Diamond promptly shoved him away. “What’re you two even doing together? I’d always thought you hated each other,” said Rain Crackle, the pegasus filly. “Well, you see, Diamond—” Applebloom was beginning to explain when Diamond Tiara shoved a hoof in her mouth and cast a glance that reminded her of their deal. “We just figured we’d try to get along for once. We were gather’n ingredients for m’ah sister an’ Granny Smith.” “We can help!” Hopper exclaimed. Rain looked at him. “We can…?” “Oh no,” Applebloom said, “You don’t have to—” Not regarding what she was saying, Hopper grabbed the sack of flour off Applebloom’s back. “Don’t worry! I got it!” He started carrying it. He didn’t get far before the sack got stuck on a root sticking out of the ground. Hopper tugged and pulled as much as he could; it was not too long before the flour sack freed itself from his mouth. It was flung into the air and fell to the ground with an impact, causing the flour to fly everywhere. It when it all finally cleared, Applebloom, Rain Crackle, and Hopper, despite being partially covered by the white powder, saw Diamond Tiara covered head-to-hoof. She opened her eyes, and the first thing she did was shoot a threatening glare at Hopper. The colt backed away, smiling nervously. “You know, now that I think of it, we really need to get back home for dinner. Let’s go, Rain.” He grabbed his sister’s tail and ran off, leaving a confused Applebloom and a frustrated Diamond Tiara covered in flour.
Chapter 4Farm Diamond Chapter 4 ANOTHER DAY OF SCRUBBING debris out of her mane; first it was mud and dirt and now it was flour. She and Applebloom got what they needed. They had to buy another sack of flour from the salespony, and then afterwards they borrowed the cinnamon from Mr. and Mrs. Cake (although getting laughed at by their children and by some ponies in Sugarcube Corner was not something that Diamond Tiara enjoyed at all). Pinkie Pie came in and told them a near hour-long story of how she had to cover herself in flour repeatedly in order to get the Cake’s children to stop crying. But now, the filly was just glad to be back at Sweet Apple Acres, away from all the craziness, in her opinion, that was going on outside. Still, it was lonely here. There was no pony to talk to, or hang out with. She overheard Applebloom talking to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle about going ahead with trying to get their Karaoke Singing cutie marks, and it was obvious that both Applejack and Big Macintosh would either be busy working in the farm or out in town selling apples. That left only one pony in the house… The last pony Diamond Tiara wanted to be stuck with was Granny Smith. She was still harbouring a deep hatred towards the senile old mare, significantly blaming her in unison with Applebloom for causing her humiliating punishment during Family Appreciation Day. The last she saw of the decrepit mare before heading to taking her shower was downstairs sleeping in her old rocking chair. Tiara noticed that she slept a lot during the day, but that was to be expected from a pony of her age. After drying off and placing back on her favoured tiara, she headed downstairs to see Granny Smith asleep, as usual, in front of the fireplace. There was not much a sleeping mare could provide that would interest her, though at that moment, she noticed something purple and shiny sitting atop the mantle. Pushing a nearby chair over, she moved closer to get a better look. It was a gem, and a beautifully crafted one at that. It must’ve been worth well over sixty-thousand carrots. At that, Diamond’s only thought was: Where did this old lady get something as priceless as this? “What? Who’s over there?” Diamond turned quickly to see Granny Smith awake from her nap. The olive green mare’s eyes lay on the pink filly. A smile on her face, she hopped off the rocking chair and staggered towards Diamond Tiara. “Like what you see?” “How did you get this? Or, who gave it to you?” asked the pink filly. Granny Smith gave a small chuckle. “Actually, little one, between you an’ me, I scammed that one off’a that little feller, Spike. You should’a seen the look on his face.” Hearing this had made Tiara’s jaw drop. “You mean that dragon living with Twilight? Are you serious? How’d you do it?” “You’re jus’ full’a questions this time, aren’t ya?” said Granny Smith. She looked down at Tiara. This must have been the only time the filly was really interested in something relating to the Apple Family, aside from her story about the founding of Ponyville. “When Applejack an’ her friends took that trip to the Crystal Empire, she told me Spike had volunteered to watch Winona and all them other critters. I saw him literally roll’n ‘em through town, strapped together like a giant ball. He bribed me to keep m’ah mouth shut, but not after the animals managed to escape and started run’n amuck. I’ve been keep’n that gem ever since.” Her story genuinely surprised Diamond. She never realised Granny Smith had such a mischievous side to her. You know what, I think I’m beginning to like this mare, she thought to herself. “So what’s your story?” asked Granny Smith. Diamond Tiara eyed the old mare. “What do you mean?” “Don’t act like you don’t know,” replied the olive green pony. “No, really, I don’t.” Whatever Granny Smith was getting at, Diamond Tiara could only expect it to be something either she doesn’t know, or something that she wouldn’t fully understand. Granny Smith chuckled, patting the young pink filly on the head. “Me an’ my family’s been travel’n all over Equestria since before your daddy was born. I can safely say that I’ve been to sorts of places: Hoofington, Baltimore, Vanhoover, Manehattan. And in those times, I’ve met all sorts of ponies.” She could have just ignored her and trotted away instead of listening to this mare, but something inside Diamond Tiara told her that whatever Granny Smith was going to be talking about, it was not going to be a typical “when I was about your age” tale that many other old ponies told. Granny Smith retired back to her rocking chair. Diamond Tiara, interested enough to hear what she was going to tell her, sat on the floor like a curious young child. “You see,” Granny Smith started, “Like I told you, I’ve met a whole bunch’a ponies in m’ah travels throughout Equestria, and lemme tell you, there were some of the nicest ponies you’ll ever meet, and then there are those who you would jus’ wanna bash upside the head. Yes, I’ve met a few of those before.” Those few sentences were nearly putting Diamond Tiara to sleep. Maybe I should’ve gotten away while I could, she thought. “One’a those stingy, snobby, stuck-up ponies I ran into was jus’ like you, attitude and all,” Granny Smith retorted. Her statement drew up a questionable glance from Tiara as she continued on with her tale. My family and I were plum tuckered out from travel’n so much. Back then, I couldn’t remember the last time we stopped and took a breather. The bright sun was normally scorching hot, especially around in the summertime, and we hated whenever the winter seasons came hop’n around. Rain, snow, sleet, and everyth’n in-between; it was definitely not fun for us, not one bit. You see, we’d been look’n for a place to settle down for months. Not many places around the Kingdom were suitable enough for us “nomads” as they called us to stay for long. You wouldn’t begin to imagine how relieved I was when we found a place where we could finally stop with all the travel’n for a while. Don’t get me wrong, I did like see’n all that Equestria had to offer, but trotting all those miles can really do a number of a poor girl’s hooves. “Is there a point to this story?” Tiara asked, increasingly impatient. “Hold your horses, girl. I’m get’n to it!” replied Granny Smith. “Now, where was I again?” The place we decided to finally stop and rest for a bit was at Fillydelphia. It was a marvelous place back then. You wouldn’t find another city like it anywhere else in Equestria, believe me. The scenery it provided was stunning; always made me wish we could have jus’ there the rest of our lives, but I guess fate had other plans for us settlers. Ponies there were nice as could be, except for that one I still remember. My Dad gave me some bits so that I could run into town and pick up a few things for supper. It wasn’t all that difficult search’n for everyth’n. They really had everyth’n you needed. Why, one would call Fillydelphia the Ponyville of that time period. After I’d collected enough of the ingredients my Mom asked for, and I was headed back to my family, I came across a small grumpy-lookn colt jus’ sit’n on a bench. Looked like he wanted to be left along, too, but be’n the sweet mare I was, I decided to go over an’ have a little chat, to keep him company. I’d asked him what was wrong, and do you know what he said to me at that moment? Diamond Tiara eyed the old mare. “Get lost?” “How’d you know?” “Lucky guess, I suppose…” Something has got to be up with that colt, I thought. Never in my life had I seen such a long face. Well, except for that one time Grandpa Tart got swindled outta his lucky hat while we were visit’n Los Pegasus. But I supposed, back then, at least, I should mind my business. After our dinner, I decided to go out for a trot through town. There was still so much to see, after all, an’ I knew we wouldn’t be stay’n for long. The streets in Fillydelphia were quiet at this time of night, except for cats have’n hissy fits in the alleyways. Eventually I arrived at a bridge that was built above a small river splitt’n the town in half. The moon’s reflection shone brightly in the water. In the silence of the night, I heard what seemed like sniffl’n and turned my head to see the same colt I met earlier there as well. I was looking up at the sky. I knew he was think’n ‘bout someth’n, otherwise he wouldn’t be out here. I trotted over to him. “You all right?” I asked. He took one look at me and glared. “What do you want?” “I just asked you a question,” I asked. “Why do you care? You don’t know me.” I sat down right beside him. “No, I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I can’t ask you what’s bother’n you, can it?” He looked as if he was about to reply to me, but stopped himself. I was sure, though, that it was someth’n less than nice. He didn’t look at me, but replied: “Do you have a family?” “Oh no, I’m so sorry,” I said, not really sure of what he was get’n at. The colt looked at me. “No, no, it’s not like that, it’s just…” “Just what?” I asked. “How close are with your family?” “We’re as close as a three beans in a pod,” I answered. Though, with that, he looked at me rather confused. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “It means we’re close. Why do you ask?” The colt sighed. “My family is not really that close like yours is. I wish we were, though. My Mom and Dad are always working. I can’t really remember the last time we actually spent time together.” “All a foal ever wants is to be with his Mom and Dad.” “Sometimes I wonder if they really love me.” “Now don’t say that.” I wrapped a hoof around him. “I’m sure they love you very much. You jus’ have a very hard time see’n that. Listen; don’t let those kinds of thoughts get into your head.” He looked up at me, hopeful. “Are you… positive?” “Of course I am! No pony’s as positive I am!” My sudden burst of energy at that moment managed to draw up a smile from the foal. I smiled in return and placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Believe me, kid. Now, please, go back to home. I’m pretty sure your parents are worried sick about you.” He nodded. Then, he gave me a hug before trotting off. I knew I’d helped that colt out. “What happened to him?” asked Tiara. “I saw him again two days later. I’ll be darned if he wasn’t the happiest I’ve seen him since we first met. Guess he finally got the quality time he yearned for with his parents. But I must say, he sounded almost like somepony I know.” Diamond tilted her head. “Who?” “The pony I jus’ told a story to,” replied Granny Smith. She learned forward in her rocking chair. “I’ve heard it all, ya know: You an’ that Silver Spoon friend’a yours tease’n m’ah granddaughter and her friends, and anypony else who doesn’t fit your definition of a ‘popular pony’. But I don’t hate you. No, in fact, I jus’ think you’re use’n that as a shield to cover some issues you must be feel’n. An’ believe me; I know it when I see it.” Had this mare really compared Tiara to the colt in her story? Diamond felt a few tears well up in her eyes. She turned and wiped them away. Now that she thought about it, she and the colt did sound alike. They were both rotten, rude, mean, and hated just about everyone that came within vicinity. Tiara thought it over again; of course, it sounded just like her, though she refused to admit it. She didn’t have any problems with her life . . . right? “Stupid old mare,” she sneered below her voice; “There’s no way I—” She turned around only to see Granny Smith asleep in her rocking chair, snoring and generally out cold. Tiara couldn’t help but think about her story again, about the colt she met and managed to befriend, despite him acting like a complete jerk. Perhaps—and this was just a small possibility, in Diamond Tiara’s defence—Granny Smith was right about comparing them. Now that she thought about it, there were some things in her life that she was not proud, things that she wished she could forget. But these problems were too horrible in her mind to simply ignore like they were nothing. If anything, they had been the very reason for her acting like she did. Her musing was interrupted when a knock came from the front door. She opened it, and to Diamond Tiara’s disbelief, there stood the gray earth pony filly wearing her trademark glasses. “Silver Spoon!” She pulled her in for a hug. “Your pony pox! They’re finally gone!” “I know, I’m happy, too,” replied Silver Spoon, “I was getting tired of being stuck in bed all day.” “How’d you know I was out here?” asked Tiara. “Your Dad told my parents where you were before he left to… wherever it is he went. But the question I wanna ask if why you’re out here. You wouldn’t be caught dead in Sweet Apple Acres unless you’re Dad brought you here.” Tiara sighed. She loved her father—truly; she admired him and what he accomplished—but sometimes he could be a real pain; though even she knew he meant well. She contemplated telling Silver Spoon about her situation. She is my best friend, she thought. We tell each other everything. “Alright, but promise that you won’t tell another living soul.” Silver nodded. “Don’t worry; I promise.” Diamond Tiara breathed in and exhaled. “My Dad’s gone bankrupt.” Silver Spoon’s mouth was agape. “Whoa... Are you serious? How?” Tiara sighed. “I wish I wasn’t. My Dad made some bad investments; and by that, I mean most of he invested in was counterfeit. So now he’s up in Manehattan with Mister Banks trying to fix it. The reason I’m here was because he wanted me to learn ‘humility’.” Tiara rolled her eyes at the word. “They keep trying to get me to get along with that blank-flank, Applebloom.” “Must be torture,” said Silver Spoon. “You have no idea what I’ve been through,” said Diamond Tiara, “I’m just relieved we get to take a break from all the work. My legs have been aching since we bucked apples out of those trees.” “How many’d you get?” Zero… Diamond Tiara said in her mind. “I got lots. I lost count.” She trotted past Silver Spoon. “Come on. How about we go for a trot through town?” Silver Spoon smiled, gladly accepting the offer. “Sure.” To Diamond Tiara’s relief, there was no pony laughing at her. She figured it was because she wasn’t covered in flour like before; but she still expected at least half of them to recognise her, despite not being painted white. As they aimlessly wandered through town, Diamond told Silver Spoon about her various endeavors with Applebloom over these past few days. Silver Spoon listened attentively to what she was being told, from her being covered in flour by Hopper, to the difficult, grueling work—in her definition—at Sweet Apple Acres. It was still a wonder how Diamond Tiara managed to keep her sanity amidst everything that had happened so far. The fillies eventually entered Sugarcube Corner and took a seat after asking for an order of cupcakes. There were still snickers and chuckles from some of the ponies in the store, though she couldn’t determine if they were laughing at each other or if they remembered her as the one who was covered in flour. Obviously the Cakes’ children knew who she was, as indicated when Pound Cake pointed at her, saying her name in whatever gibberish foals spoke. Diamond looked away and ignored them. “How long is your Dad supposed to be in Manehattan?” asked Silver. “Two weeks, at the most,” said Tiara; “probably more if he can’t find a way to fix things in time. I’m afraid this is gonna stick with us for a while.” “Surely, you must have something left, right?” Silver Spoon always tried to search for the bright side of things. It was that quality that Diamond Tiara liked about her friend the most. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Tiara shook her head. “Most of our bank accounts are either frozen or have already had the money pulled out. This is the probably the worst thing I’ve been through in my life.” “That’s not the only thing that’s bad,” said Silver Spoon. She looked behind Diamond Tiara to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders entering the building. Scootaloo was coughing like she’d been choking on something. “I told you not to sing that too high,” said Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo coughed again before replying in a raspy tone, “Then why didn’t you sing? You seem to know a lot about it.” “You know I don’t like to sing!” Sweetie Belle defended herself. “Girls,” Applebloom intervened, “There’s no use in argue’n, especially when Scootaloo’s voice is shot.” Diamond Tiara scoffed, arrogantly, “Told you you’d be no good at karaoke. But I guess three blank-flanks like you had to learn the hard way.” Her comment earned a laugh from Silver Spoon. Though it put a slight strain on her scratchy throat, Scootaloo couldn’t help but growl. “Well, if it isn’t Diamond Tiara’s mindless crony.” “What did you say, chicken!” Silver Spoon snapped back. Sweetie Belle gave a quick counter. “At least Scootaloo’s not a stuck-up brat like you two!” Her defence earned an agreement from the orange pegasus. Another riot had nearly broken out between the five fillies, until Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared amidst a pile of colourful confetti from behind the table. Her surprise entrance, again, caught Diamond and Silver off-guard as the two fillies fell from their chairs. “Really? Again?” Diamond Tiara got up to her hooves, rubbing a sore spot on her head. “Why do you keep doing that?” Pinkie Pie giggled. “I told you before, silly filly: Surprises make the best kind of entrance!” “Could you do it a little less?” asked Silver Spoon. Pinkie shook her head. “Nope, but what you five friends need to stop doing immediately is—” “I already told you, we are not friends!” Diamond Tiara interrupted. The pink pony, however, didn’t look too convinced. “Sure~ you’re not.” “We shouldn’t be fight’n, anyway,” said Applebloom. “We already promised Applejack we’d try to tolerate each other. Isn’t that right, Diamond?” Tiara opened her mouth; she wanted to say something, but no words came out. She could only settle for crossing her hooves and pouting. She hated the fact that Applebloom could hold that against her whenever she wanted. Silver looked at her friend. “What is she talking?” “Me and Diamond made a promise to Applejack that we wouldn’t get into a fight at all while she was stay’n with us,” said Applebloom, “That also includes no insults or name call’n.” The explanation left a smug look on the earth pony’s face. She had the upper advantage if confrontations arose between her and Diamond Tiara, and she knew it. Pinkie Pie broke the ensuing silence. “So, now that you girls aren’t fighting, is there anything I can get ya?” “We need some ice cream for Scootaloo’s throat,” said Sweetie Belle. “Diamond and I already ordered some cupcakes,” Silver explained. “Oh, those were yours, weren’t they? I thought the Cakes had left me a little snack for all my babysitting Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake last night.” Pinkie Pie licked her lips, remembering the delicious flavour of the pastries. Diamond Tiara face-hoofed. Between being held down by Applebloom, and her friends and Granny Smith’s story, this was officially one of the worse days the pink filly had experienced in her life. “Just… get us another.”
Chapter 5Farm Diamond Chapter 5 EVERYTHING FILTHY RICH TRIED in order to fix the little money problem he had accidentally thrown himself in was all done in constant vain. In short of arriving in Manehattan and after getting settled in, he and Cash Banks went to the stock brokers in order to get things sorted out. What he thought would last a few days at least continued to draw on with little-to-no progress. He had managed to get back a few thousand bits; the remainder of his money, however, was still gone and his bank accounts frozen. The counterfeiters, the ones whose products he had invested in, were nowhere to be found. The counterfeiters, the ones whose products he had invested in, were nowhere to be found. Because the investments he made were counterfeit, illegal, and he was one of those directly responsible who hadn’t gone into hiding to avoid the authorities, it was obvious that he would have to take the brunt of the backlash. That answered the question as to where most of his money went: reparations to those affected, which, unfortunately, numbered in the thousands. Cash Banks offered any support he could offer to help Filthy Rich, but even that was not enough to change the situation significantly. Simply by glancing in his direction, one could tell Filthy Rich was on edge. His silky black mane, which was usually clean and kempt, became incredibly disheveled and it looked like he had not slept in days. His cutie mar, after all, was three money bags, which meant his skill with business and other matters of the economy. Having to go through this type of situation was incredibly stressful. “Why don’t you take a seat?” Cash Banks led his friend over to a nearby bench. It was some time in the early afternoon. The air was perfect, yet it did little to ease the amount of worry Rich was currently showing. Filthy Rich could only bury his face in his hooves. Everything he had, from Plan A to Plan M, failed, which made him doubt any other alternatives would succeed in the long run. “How long have we been at this?” he asked. Cash Banks replied, “About ten days, exactly. I would’ve expected some serious changes to have been taken out by now.” “I don’t think that’s coming for a long time,” said Rich. “Was there any progress in finding the ponies responsible?” Rich shook his head. “Not a trace,” he stated. “It’s like they up and disappeared out of existence. Wherever they might be, I sure hope the Royal Guard manages to find them.” Cash Banks sat down. “Dare to dream.” There was a brief moment of silence between them. Cash thought of their next plan of action, but it became apparent that Filthy Rich was ready to throw in the towel. “I’ve tried everything.” Cash nodded. “Yeah, you sure did.” “If I hadn’t been so overzealous with the investments, none of this would have ever happened.” Cash agreed, again. “And now, because of that, things might never go back to normal.” Cash nodded again. “Yeah, you screwed up.” Filthy Rich looked over at the green earth pony in irritation. “Whose side are you on, anyway?” “Just throwing words out. Nothing personal,” Cash said, giving a sympathetic grin. “You know I’m sorry that this happened to you.” “It’s not your fault. I’m just wishing things played out differently.” “You must still have some tricks left, right? Any at all that you could use?” “I do,” Rich replied, “But I don’t see any of them working out. They’ll probably backfire like the rest of them. We might as well just give up.” Never in Cash Banks’ life would he ever expect to hear those two words—give up—coming out of his mouth. The last thing Filthy Rich ever did was give up like that, and throwing in the towel here, right in front of them, was shocking to the green earth pony. He responded: “Ponyfeathers!” His sudden outburst garnered the attention of Filthy Rich, as well as an offended mother covering her foal’s ears. Ignoring her and her disappointing glare, Cash continued to try and convince his friend otherwise. “Never in my life have I seen you quit like this. It’s just too unnatural for a pony of your caliber.” “You know I’ve tried everything,” said Filthy Rich. “And…?” It became obvious that Cash wasn’t taking no for an answer, “Listen, you helped me when I was down and out and the last thing I’m gonna do right now is abandon you when you need it most. You know what I say to you giving up at a time like this? I say horseapples!” A growl came from the mother. “Seriously,” Cash snapped, “if you see a couple of grown stallions talking like this and you have a foal with you, wouldn’t it be smart to leave?” The mother left after casting another disappointed look, and after she was gone, he continued, “I know you must still have something left to use, right? Whatever it is, I’ll help see it through.” Filthy Rich put a hoof to his chin and contemplated on his next plan. He looked back at Cash who was eagerly awaiting his response. “You know what; actually, I might have one more.” “Good,” said Cash, “Let’s do it!” Rich nodded. For once, things might have a chance of going his way. “Good, but first we’ll need to contact Fancy Pants for this to work.” Cash froze at the mention of that name. It was one that struck him in the nerve as he hesitated to take another step. “You mean the unicorn Fancy Pants… from Canterlot?” “Yes…?” Filthy Rich confirmed. “You sure you don’t have any other solutions that might work. Really, you must have something else, right?” “Quit stalling and come on.” Before another word could be said, Filthy Rich was off, galloping down the street. Cash Banks gazed after him, watching the rapidly departing earth pony with worry. “I know I’m going to regret every minute of this,” he said before following after Rich, sprinting to catch up with him. Having Silver Spoon around to hang out with again took away much of the anxiety that Diamond Tiara normally felt ever since moving in with Applebloom and her family. Now that she had her best friend to hang out with once again, she would no longer have to sit around Sweet Apple Acres all day. With Silver Spoon back, Diamond could look towards the positives again. She could see things were beginning to look up in this bleak time she was facing. In no time at all, her father would return from Manehattan, their unfortunate economic problem a thing of the past, and she could finally forget everything that’d transpired thus far. The filly looked forward to it with anticipation. In no time at all, she would be kicking back in her mansion, free from “hard labour” that came with working on a cheesy farm and free from Applebloom and Granny Smith. Although, before there was even a remote chance of this happening, she’d have to wait patiently—or as patiently as she possibly could—until this time came. In the meantime, she would spend most of her days with Silver Spoon, and even though the temptation of teasing Applebloom and her Cutie mark Crusader pals was rising with each passing day, she was still residing under the Apple Family’s roof, which meant that she would still have to hold off on the ridiculing, unless she wanted to disappoint her Dad and possibly invoke whatever punishment Applejack would have in store. “You’re back early,” said Applejack. She let Diamond Tiara in after she was done waving farewell to Silver Spoon. “We have a ton of homework to do,” replied Tiara, “We decided it’d be best to get at least some of it done before tomorrow.” Applejack shut the door once Tiara was inside. Granny Smith was awake in her rocking chair, reading over the local Ponyville Newspaper. The sight reminded Tiara of her Gabby Gums article she used to be in charge of, though she tried hard to forget about it. She quit the school newspaper soon after, but often times she wondered if she could have changed things if she had the chance. Tiara emptied the contents of her saddle bag onto the living room table. The stuff that was inside included her homework and a textbook in algebra. “You an’ m’ah sister haven’t been talk’n to each other for quite a while,” said Applejack, “Is someth’n wrong? Would have expected you to at least—” “There’s nothing wrong,” said Diamond, nonchalantly, as she got started, or tried to get started, on her work. “You sure…?” asked Applejack. Diamond waved the cowpony off and reassured her. “I’m sure. Believe me. I just rather hang out with Silver Spoon.” Despite having an answer, even if it wasn’t something she wanted, Applejack decided to keep pressing forward, hoping to try and get Tiara to reconsider her thoughts and actions towards her sister. The only thing she wanted out of Diamond Tiara staying with her and the rest of her family was for her and Applebloom to get along for once, and not get series of reports from Cheerilee about their arguments at school. In fact, the fight she had been informed days before was the first time she realised what their petty differences were evolving into. “Listen, Diamond, I get you still don’t wanna get along with Applebloom, but maybe—just maybe—things can change between you two.” The orange mare surely hoped that she was going somewhere with this. Trying to convince the spoiled filly was the best she could do at the moment. “You know, I think she’s still off with her friends try’n to find out what their special talents might be. Perhaps you could go an’ lend a help’n hoof.” At that, Diamond Tiara scoffed. “Are you serious? Like I’d ever, in a million years, want to help those blank-flanks with anything.” Applejack was extremely shocked that Tiara had said that—and her to face, too! She was losing patience with the uptight, stubborn filly in front of her (those were two qualities of somepony that Applejack hated the most). Since agreeing to take her in at the discretion of Filthy Rich, she had tried being the polite one, civil and hospitable, even with having to deal with her attitude, but now she was that it was leading her nowhere but in a dead-end. She did not like it—and she really didn’t want to—but she saw now that the only way to get through to her was taking another approach; a more direct approach. “Applejack!” Interrupted from her thoughts, the cowpony looked over at Granny Smith. “Leave her alone. Jus’ give her time, hun.” Applejack glanced down at the young pony doing her homework and back at the elderly mare sitting in her rocking chair. She was shaking her head, which told Applejack not to go through with what she was thinking. What was she thinking? Usually Granny Smith’d be all over a pony if they acted like that in front of her. She trotted over towards the olive-green mare. “Granny, I’m not entirely sure you heard what she jus’ said.” “Oh, I heard. Every word of it, too,” said Granny Smith. “An’ you’re jus’ gonna let her get away with it? Jus’ like that?” Applejack stood frozen in disbelief for a brief moment. “You’d smack me silly if I ever went off talk’n like that.” “That’s because you were never supposed to be like that one over there. I never intended to raise you to be a spoiled pony, did I?” Granny Smith looked over her grandaughter’s shoulder at the pink filly. “Trust me, dear. I know exactly what I’m do’n.” Applejack wasn’t too sure. Even though she wanted to take her word for it and expect to be alright between Applebloom and Diamond Tiara, Applejack couldn’t help but outright doubt her granny’s methods. Just letting a pony like Diamond Tiara go off acting like she was now wouldn’t solve anything. At least that’s what she thought. Whatever her Granny Smith was thinking, she could only hope it worked. The orange earth pony trotted upstairs, casting a look of suspicion at Diamond Tiara as she passed. Diamond sighed. She didn’t mean to say those things about Applebloom and her friends, especially in front of Applejack! She and Big Macintosh were nice enough to let her stay with them while her Dad was out of town. She was always taught by her father that no matter whom the pony was, or what their relation was, she’d always have to treat them with respect as long as she was under their roof. She had no idea was possessed her to do that in the first place, but now, as she continued with her homework, she could only silently thank Granny Smith for calming down Don’t know… Don’t know… Fell asleep during that one… This one’s too hard… Can’t even begin to figure this one out… Diamond sighed, Geez, Miss Cheerilee, why don’t you assign us collage homework next? She reread the questions over and over again, but she still couldn’t quite get it down. No matter how much she read over it, skimmed over it, there was still no understanding. Next to her was her algebra book and past homework assignments and guides, some of them weeks old and already graded. She skipped over the questions in front of her that she had no answer to, which was actually most of them. In her days of sheer boredom due to Silver Spoon’s absence from class, she ignored nearly everything Cheerilee had taught them over the past few classes, leaving the filly unable to produce any answers. She looked over at Applebloom. The scarlet-maned filly was seated next to her on the couch; she’d returned home from “Crusading” an hour earlier, and she was already nearly finished with her assignments. Comparing her work to the work done by Applebloom, it became apparent that she wouldn’t be passing this semester. Immediately, one option came to mind. She turned her gaze towards Applebloom. There was no way she would ever ask for her help in anything, but now, seeing the amount of progress done on her own homework in comparison to the work done by the pony next to her, she simply became desperate. “Applebloom…” she muttered. The yellow filly looked at her. Tiara sucked up her pride and asked, “Could you… help me with a problem?” “What’s so hard about it? It’s just math,” replied Applebloom. Tiara was about to regret her decision and go back to trying to do it herself, but decided against it. In retrospect, it wouldn’t be a very wise decision. “I’m not good at math,” she said, “If you saw my grades, then you would know why I’m asking you for help.” Applebloom understand what she was talking about. She took a glance down at Diamond Tiara’s paper and analysed her progress. Not much was done; only about a quarter of the page was finished and most of the answers on that small section were wrong either from answering them incorrectly or simply trying to guess the answer, a tactic which even the young cowpony knew was a bad move. She read one of the questions: 4(x) + 16 = 272. “This one’s easy,” she said, “The first thing you should do is take sixteen and subtract it by both sides of the equal sign.” She showed this by placing two more 16s on the page, one under the first 16 and the second underneath 272. The answer for the small equation came up as 256. “Now that you have that answer, all you have to do is divide both sides by four and you’ll get your answer.” Tiara tried this. Her answer came up as 64, though she was still slightly uncertain about it. “Are you sure this is the right answer?” “Positive,” said Applebloom, “If you’re not sure about it, then switch X with the answer you got then go from there.” Tiara wrote the 64 down in the parenthesis. She did the math, getting 256 by multiplying 4 and 64 before adding 16 to get the same answer that was on the equation. “See?” said Applebloom, “Easy as pie!” There were similar questions presented in the small section that Diamond had been stuck on the entire time. She followed the instructions Applebloom gave her for each one, using the plug-in method to ensure that she had the correct answer. As she moved down the paper, the questions generally got easier to solve, mainly due to the fact that she asked Applebloom for assistance the entire time. What in Equestria are you doing? Diamond Tiara found herself internally conflicting with her conscience. Are you really asking that blank-flank for help? What ever happened to your pride? Don’t let her get the best of you. “Need any more help?” Applebloom asked. She seemed happy and slightly content with assisting Tiara with anything she needed. The lavender-maned filly, however, despite how much she desired her assistance, denied her offer. She glanced down at her homework. She was almost finished; just a few more questions left to answer and then she’d be done and have it out of the way. “No thanks. I think I have it from here.” Applebloom shrugged. “All righty, then… Seeya!” She stood up. “Where are you going?” asked Diamond, confused. “Upstairs,” answered the cowpony, “I’m already finished with m’ah homework.” Hearing this had left Diamond Tiara in shock, her mouth agape. Applebloom finished so quickly, and Diamond Tiara was still working on her homework, trying hard to figure out the winding equations that were left unfinished. She eventually noticed that Applebloom had forgotten her homework on the table. Tiara took a quick peak and read the answers. It’s technically not cheating if you don’t get caught, she always told herself, especially during tests and quizzes when she would have some “help” when she had difficulties answering a question. She copied the answers Applebloom had written down onto her paper. Next morning during school, Diamond Tiara turned in her finished homework. The day after, she received a B. Cheerilee found out she had cheated, copying from Applebloom’s work, though that was only towards the end. The rest of her paper was done on her own, albeit with a little help, but she wouldn’t admit it. The rest of class went off without a hitch. They had a test today. Diamond knew much of the material that’d been on it from studying with Applebloom the day before. Her pencil scratched against the paper, leaving her final answers under every question that had been asked of her. She finally finished after a while, being the next-to-last student to turn in her paper only before Snips. Even in that circumstance, she felt confident about her progress, about how she managed to apply so much that she learned. The final school bell rang to signal the end of the day. The foals were left the school house into the afternoon. “Diamond Tiara, Applebloom; can I see you two for a minute?” The two fillies were called over by Cheerilee. They looked each other in confusion before trotting over. “I just wanted to say that I’m glad to see you getting along,” said the teacher in a relieved tone, “…or, at least tolerating each other’s presence.” “We jus’ thought we’d give it a try for once,” said Applebloom, “Right, Diamond?” She elbowed the pink filly. Diamond wanted to say something in protest, but instead, to put on a show for Cheerilee, nodded in agreement with her enemy. “Sure… We’re both just getting along perfectly. There’s nothing to worry about here, Miss Cheerilee. We’re becoming great friends.” She added this by putting a “friendly” hoof around Applebloom. Cheerilee smiled warmly at the sight in front of her. For once, she could look forward to not having to lecture them. “Applejack told me yesterday how Applebloom helped you with your homework, Diamond Tiara,” she admitted, “You must be getting along better than I thought. I’m so glad to see that.” Sometimes, I really hate Applejack, Diamond thought to herself, suppressing the urge to say that aloud.
Chapter 6Farm Diamond Chapter 6 The first sound of the morning was the roosters yelling loudly in the open early air. Something that was ignored by Diamond Tiara in favour of literally sleeping until noon had actually done the job of waking her. Although, it was obvious that she didn’t enjoy it entirely. She quickly found herself becoming more and more accustomed to staying on Sweet Apple Acres, which was the number one thing she tried to avoid since she first arrived. Rising out of her bed, she groaned, rubbing her eye. “Stupid birds…” The clock on the wall read 7:21a.m. In her opinion, there was no legitimate reason to wake up this early, especially from the fact that there was no school on a weekend! She could only face-hoof at the realisation. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around how Applebloom and the rest of her family could manage to stay asleep with birds screeching their heads off in the wind. Nevertheless, there was one thing about waking up this early that she adored, and that was the outside. The golden orb that was the sun was still partially hidden behind the horizon at this time, painting the sky in various different shades of orange and violet. It left the moon and some of the stars visible above. It was something out of a first-class painting. The past couple of days had followed the same old routine: wake up, go downstairs, eat some breakfast, and then go about the rest of her day however she saw fit. She usually spent most of her time with Silver Spoon; the gray earth pony always stopped by to hang out, reminding her of how things used to be. It was as if Diamond never lost all her money. Yet with this, there came a downside. They could not ridicule Applebloom or her Cutie Mark Crusader pals whenever they were on the farm. A lot of the CMC’s antics would most of the time end with them causing some small amount of damage to the property. Just last week, they somehow knocked over two apple trees trying their hooves at being “Cutie Mark Crusaders Stunt Ponies”. With Silver Spoon here, however, Diamond Tiara managed to avoid much of the farm work. That came in handy when they had to fix whatever damage the Cutie Mark Crusaders would cause. She hopped out of bed, nearly falling down to the floor after tripping on her sheets, and trotted towards a mirror. Her lavender mane was a complete and tangled mess from the bed; nothing a comb couldn’t fix. She ran it through one hundred and fifty times and straightened out any out-of-place strands of hair she spotted. The mornings saw basically nothing for her to do, except wait around for someone to finally wake up. Since it was the weekend, she did not have to worry about doing menial chores like bucking apple trees, something she could never quite accomplish despite trying a dozen more times. Albeit, after all the effort she put in, she saw some progress begin to appear. Though she wasn’t nearly on par with Applebloom, she could safely say that she was starting to see herself advance. Finally, she was finished. She set her comb down on her desk, her rejuvenated as she was ready to start her day. Her stomach growled, so she headed downstairs into the kitchen. She grabbed a carton of milk out the fridge and set it on the table. She got a bowl and a box of Bucky Charms cereal from the pantry and started eating. She heard a knock on the door and trotted over to answer it. She opened it, hoping to see Silver standing outside. To her disappointment, she was instead greeted to the sight of the local mailpony, along with Dinky. She knew the blonde pegasus as Derpy, the young unicorn filly’s relative. She stood there with an envelope in her mouth, which happened to be addressed to the orchard. “Message for Diamond Tiara,” she said. Diamond took the letter from her. It was sent from Manehattan. “What are you doing here?” asked a curious Dinky. She never thought a high-class filly would be living on a farm. Diamond looked over at the unicorn. “None of your business,” was her response before shutting the door. She trotted back into the kitchen. She saw the letter was addressed to her from Filthy Rich. She opened it and read the contents: Dear Diamond Tiara, I think I might have found a way to solve our money problem. I’ll be heading to Canterlot to meet Fancy Pants. Hopefully he’ll help. I can see things beginning to look up. I hope things have been going well over at Sweet Apple Acres and that you have been getting along with Applebloom and her friends. I should be back within a few days. With love, Your father, Filthy Rich Diamond Tiara checked over the letter to see if she wasn’t hallucinating. She saw it was the real deal after about the fourth or fifth time reading. Everything was coming together, first with Silver Spoon’s long awaited return and now this. All she had to do was wait… Diamond Tiara was spending another day with Silver Spoon, and the entire time she couldn’t help but wonder to herself what Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were up to this time. Whatever the blank-flanks were planning, it wasn’t going to be good, that much was for sure. “I can’t wait! I can’t wait! I can’t wait!” The letter she received from Filthy Rich had been on Diamond Tiara’s mind as of late. She was just barely able to contain her own excitement. “Settle down, ‘Tia,” Silver Spoon insisted. “I can’t settle down. My dad’s coming home, and he says that he might’ve found a way to fix our problem. Everything can finally go back to normal again!” “I wouldn't go and jinx it, 'Tia. Your dad hasn't really found a solution, yet.” They narrowly got out of the way, avoiding a speeding object zooming past them. The dust kicked up from the wheels had gotten into their manes. Looking ahead of her, Diamond Tiara recognised the object as a wooden scooter being driven by an extremely familiar pegasus filly. “Hey!” she yelled after her, “Watch where you’re going!” Scootaloo skid to a stop and turned to see the two earth ponies she nearly ran over. An innocent smile spread across her face at that moment. “Sorry, guess I didn’t see you two there.” “Why are you in such a rush?” asked Silver Spoon. “I’m meeting Applebloom and Sweetie Belle at Miss Bon Bon’s place. We’re gonna help make candy.” A snicker came from Diamond after hearing this. “What in Equestria possessed Miss Bon Bon into letting you three help?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” said Scootaloo, growing evermore frustrated with the two fillies in front of her. “You always fail at every meaningless attempt you try,” said Silver Spoon, “It wouldn’t be worth the embarrassment.” “Give me a break. At least we’re trying. You two wouldn’t know anything about that even if it bit your tail off.” Silver Spoon scoffed, waving her hoof. “Whatever. I still think you three would mess up, as usual.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. It was always the usual deal whenever she was with them. Turning around, she started speeding for her destination. Anything was better than talking to those two. Besides, when this all worked out, and she and her friends got their candy-making cutie marks, they could rub it in Diamond’s and Silver’s faces all they wanted. It’s a win-win scenario—except for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, of course. Right now, she was focused on getting to Bon Bon’s house. Hopefully Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were already there and being told what to do. They would fill her in on the details once she arrived, as well. The cream-coloured mare was nice enough let them help with the candy making. Aside from getting their cutie marks, they got to eat any free treat they wanted out of it. Doing this was a foal’s dream come true. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon watched as Scootaloo departed. Regardless of what was said in the argument, they still stood by their statement. Whenever the Cutie Mark Crusaders tried something, it almost always backfired on them. The three of them didn’t know when to quit. Silver Spoon sighed at the realisation. “Do you think they’ll ever learn?” “I don’t think so,” replied Diamond, “Maybe someday they will.” She doubted it, though. As they readied to continue their trot, turning around, they soon found themselves coming face-to-face with Big Macintosh. It was always creepy how the stallion was always quiet most of the time. “Hey, Big Mac,” Diamond greeted him, hoping that he didn’t see the argument that just occurred. He and Applejack wanted her to get along with Applebloom more, which was something she had been neglecting as of late. She spoke to him in an innocent tone, “What brings you around these parts?” Scootaloo was lucky to arrive at Bon Bon’s store just in time as Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were given instructions on what they had to do. It didn’t seem too difficult when she first listened to the cream-coloured mare; most of what they would do involved crafting the candy into any shape they desired, another thing that seemed fun about candy-making. This whole thing would be easy, no doubt. They would earn their cutie marks in no time, at all. They had the materials they needed. This would be similar to the time they tried to make treats at Sugarcube Corner, not counting when they got themselves stuck inside the machine. “So, what should we start on first?” asked Scootaloo. “I say we should make taffy. That seems like the easiest to make—and they’re good to eat,” said Applebloom. They agreed on it and got started with gathering the materials. It wasn’t too hard. Bon Bon had a stretching machine here, as well, which would make the entire process simpler. They hadn’t been met with any sign of trouble with the machine or the taffy cubes they threw inside. All in all, it seemed to be going well for the three of them. “Could you image if Diamond Tiara was here?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Knowing her and Silver Spoon, they would probably complain about how hard this would be,” said Scootaloo, “I don’t know if we’d be able to hear the end of it from them.” “Oh, girls-” Bon Bon trotted in, “These two came here offering to lend a helping hoof with the candy.” She stepped aside, letting the two ponies in. The CMC couldn’t believe it, at first. They stood with their mouths open as they stared at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Had those two really come to help them with the candy-making? Even if this was the case, they couldn’t trust them that easily. “Don’t act all surprised at seeing us here,” said Diamond, “Big Mac and Applejack heard you were helping Miss Bon Bon and insisted that we help out, too. As far as I’m concerned, I just need to make it look convincing.” “Whatever you say,” said Applebloom, although she could honestly see why Big Macintosh and Applejack were doing this. They wanted her and Diamond Tiara to at least tolerate each other’s presence, just as the two fillies promised the first day DT came to the Apple Family household. They hadn't been accomplishing this for the past few days, so she could see why they decided to have her help. “I’m sure you five’ll do a fantastic job together,” said Bon Bon. She trusted them enough, and they seemed to know what they were doing. Diamond and Silver didn’t seem all too interested in being here, especially with helping the three blank-flanks that were here, as well. “So what is it that we have to do?” asked Silver Spoon. “We’re just making taffy,” replied Sweetie Belle, “You should know what that is?” Silver waved her hoof. “It'll be a piece of cake—even for you three.” Her statement incited a laugh from Diamond Tiara. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo could feel their boiling points rising. Sure they were used to dealing with Diamond and Silver, but the way the two always acted when around them had gotten on their nerves. Applebloom, however, stood between them before tensions could explode. She was annoyed by Diamond and Silver’s antics as much as the next pony, but she was determined to keep the promise she made to Applejack. She was going to tolerate Diamond Tiara as much as possible until Filthy Rich returned to Ponyville. Then they could go back to arguing and getting in each other's faces all they wanted. “Listen, girls,” said Applebloom, standing between the four fillies, “I know we don’t like each other, but the last thing we outta do is start a fight. We’re all here now; we might as well get someth’n done.” Applebloom had a point. Diamond Tiara wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, but that would not happen if they kept arguing. “So how do you make taffy, anyway?” “All we have to do is put the taffy cubes in the stretcher and let the machine do the rest,” said Applebloom. “That doesn’t sound difficult. We should be done in no time.” She was correct on that matter. All they had to do was throw taffy into the machine, how much more complicated could it have gotten? Bon Bon had everything she needed. She was lucky to have the girls help with making the candy. Hopefully she would receive more help from other ponies as time passed. She planned on putting out advertisements for job spaces when she had the money. “How’s it going, Bon Bon,” a voice came. She turned her head to see an aqua-coloured unicorn approaching. “Oh, hey, Lyra,” she greeted. “What’cha got there?” “Just getting some ingredients.” She presented a bag that was being balanced on her back. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders and their friends are gonna be helping me today.” “You sure it was a good idea leaving them alone?” Lyra had known of the CMC’s antics for some time now, as well as the entire town. They would normally cause a small amount of damage whenever they did something. “Don’t worry about it. I trust them,” said Bon Bon, “They should’ve been fine while I was gone.” Suddenly, the two mares heard what seemed like an explosion from inside the house. They hurried inside to see what had happened. Hopefully the girls were alright and nothing was too damaged inside. Their kitchen was in absolute disarray. The stretcher machine was broken down and the resulting explosion had thrown taffy all around. The cabinets, counters, floors, and even the ceiling were left covered in a complete mess. On the ground lied the five fillies that’d volunteered to help out, each one covered almost head-to-hoof in taffy. Lyra, seeing the amount of carnage present, just whistled and backed out, acting as if she had seen and heard nothing. Together, Applebloom and Diamond headed back for Sweet Apple Acres. It was a long day, and the only thing pink filly wanted was head to off bed. Her coat and hooves had become sticky from the taffy, even pulling some of the grass and dirt up from the ground. “First mud, then flour, and now candy.” It was obvious by the tone in her voice that she was beyond frustrated, “How come whenever I’m with you, I get covered in something?” “Will you calm down, already?” said Applebloom, rolling her eyes. “Miss Bon Bon said she wouldn’t hold anything against us. And I said you could use the shower first.” Regardless of her words, Diamond was still frustrated about what happened. At least they were finally back home; she would do well to forget about today. They knocked on the front door, and waiting until Applejack answered it. She looked down at them to see them covered in taffy. “What happened to you two?” she asked, not sure of what to make of it. “We were help’n Miss Bon Bon make some taffy, and then we kinda messed up when we accidentally put too much an’ clogged the stretch’n machine.” “You’re okay, though, right?” Applebloom nodded. “Yeah. Noth’n real serious. Just sticky.” Applejack sighed in relief. “That’s good to hear. Why don’t y’all head up and take a shower to wash that stuff off. Dinner’ll be ready in a bit.” The two fillies took her advice and headed up the stairs. As promised, Diamond Tiara was given the shower first. The taffy took a little more time to get out than the mud or flour did. She was just glad she didn’t need to shave some of her coat off to get it out. She thought back to the letter she received this morning. Filthy Rich said he’d have the situation under control in a matter of days. Diamond hoped it was true, and if it was, prayed that he wouldn’t run into any trouble.
Chapter 7Farm Diamond Chapter 7 If there was one thing Diamond Tiara loved more than weekends, it had to be Spring Break. It was her favourite time of the year; instead of waking up on an early Monday morning and preparing for another day of school, she had to opportunity to sleep in for an entire week!—or at least try to with the stupid roosters making noises outside at this time. Luckily for the filly, however, she found an easy way past this problem, one that she facehoofed at for not coming up with earlier. Rising from her bed, she took off the earmuffs she purchased yesterday and set them on her nightstand. She yawned and outstretched her forearms, lazily dragging herself from under the blankets. Stands of hair from her ruffled mane fell in front of her eyes as she shuffled over towards her mirror. She got a chuckle from seeing her reflection and promptly started to comb her mane back into place. It wasn’t too long into this process that a knock on the door drew the filly’s attention. “Come in,” she called out, not taking her eyes away from the mirror. She needed the utmost care and tenderness when doing this. Applejack opened the door and cantered in. Lately the two earth ponies had gotten along more than they used to, though Applejack still failed in trying to get Diamond and Apple Bloom to do the same. With help from Big Macintosh and Granny Smith, the least she was able to do was get them to stop breathing down each other’s neck all day. “Morn’n, Diamond. Jus’ came in to check in on ya.” Diamond set her brush down, glancing over at the orange earth pony. She isn’t all that bad, I have to admit. Not as bad as her sister, though, she thought. “Do you need something?” “Actually, yeah.” Applejack sat on her haunches, gazing at the filly in front of her with a friendly smile on her face. “Wanted to see if you’d like to tag along with us on our annual family camp’n trip.” “Camping?” Diamond Tiara cringed at the thought. It wasn’t her type of activity to partake in, especially since it involved that much dirt and bugs. “Sorry, but I don’t do camping. Too much… dirt.” Applejack trotted towards her and put a hoof around her shoulder. “Aw, c’mon. It’ll be fun. Don’t tell me you’ve never been camp’n before.” “I went on that class camping trip a month ago,” said Diamond. Applejack raised an eyebrow in response to that answer. “Apple Bloom told me you faked being sick and skipped out on that. You even got into trouble with your dad and Miss Cheerilee because of it.” Darn it, Apple Bloom, Diamond thought, releasing herself from the older mare’s grasp. “Look, I just don’t think I’m cut out for camping like you are. But thanks for the offer, though. I’ll be sure to take it to heart.” “Never know if you don’t try,” said Applejack, hoping to reassure her one last time. It didn’t seem like it was working, however. “Listen, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.” With that said, Applejack left the room, and Diamond Tiara returned to combing her mane. In the silence, however, she did begin to consider what Applejack said. She’d never gone camping before, never truly experiencing what it was like. She heard lots of ponies saying how fun it was, but she never understood what entertainment there could have been living in the woods for a week. She set the brush down after combing through the hundred-and-fiftieth time in a row, grabbed her saddle bags, and headed for the door. She stepped out into the hallway, just in time to see Apple Bloom leaving her room. The yellow filly was carrying a pair of saddle bags, which she had a lot of things stored inside. “What do you have in there?” she asked. “Jus’ some stuff for the camp’n trip,” Apple Bloom replied, “though Big Macintosh gave me some bits to get a new sleep’n bag since m’ah old one was torn up. And by the way, aren’t you come’n with us? We could always bring another pony along for the fun.” Diamond shook her head. “I already told your sister I don’t like camping.” “How can you not like something you’ve never tried?” “Camping isn’t my thing, unlike you,” said Diamond. “I don’t see how spending the weekend in the woods can be considered ‘fun’.” “Ah, come on.” Apple Bloom wrapped her foreleg around Diamond Tiara. “You’re never gonna know until you actually try it. Me an’ m’ah family’s been doing this for ages! Can’t you give it at least one try? You might even end up like’n it.” Diamond rolled her eyes. “I doubt it.” She trotted away from Apple Bloom, heading downstairs. She saw Big Macintosh packing up some saddle bags and suitcases for the camping trip, while Granny Smith slept in a rocking chair nearby. Apple Bloom eagerly cantered past her, passing her bags over to her brother. Diamond Tiara continued out through the front door and followed the dirt path into town. She made her way through the meager crowd of ponies setting up their shops as she approached Silver Spoon’s house. It was the same routine she picked up as the days came and gone, and admittedly, she silently wished that she could change things up a bit, just for the fun of it. She saw the door open and Silver Spoon trotting out into the open, and promptly called to her. “Oh hi, Diamond!” Silver greeted the pink earth pony. “I was just about to head over to Sweet Apple Acres to meet you. You still surviving over there?” “I have to admit; it’s not as bad as it used to be,” said Diamond. Aside from her and Apple Bloom’s rivalry still simmering, living at the farm was becoming pleasant for her. They served great food, most of which were her favourite kinds, the family was nice like they had always been since she was brought here, and she liked whenever Winona was around to keep her company. I wish I had a dog, she thought. “So I take it everything’s going well for you?” “As far as I can see,” said Diamond. “And once my dad gets back from wherever he is, everything will be all right again.” Silver Spoon smiled. “Let’s hope so.” This normal spring afternoon was humid for any pony out under the sun. Diamond Tiara took a sip of her lemonade, waiting outside the store as Silver Spoon made her own purchase. She watched the ponies trotted by, birds flying in the sky above her, and then wondered what Apple Bloom and her family were doing. Sure Diamond Tiara had never gone camping before, and possibly she would never want to go, but ever since Applejack told her about her family’s annual camping trip, she couldn’t help but keeping about it. What if it was fun like everypony said it was? She didn’t want to miss out on it, but it was like she told Apple Bloom this morning: Camping just wasn’t her thing. She hadn’t the desire to partake in it, whatsoever, right? Silver Spoon finally exited the store, a cup of strawberry lemonade in her hoof, and trotted over to Diamond. She noticed a familiar yellow, red-maned filly cantering by with a bag hanging from her mouth. “Blank-flank; three o’clock,” she muttered to Diamond. She pointed over to Apple Bloom, the filly continuing through the crowd of ponies as she made her way back to Sweet Apple Acres. “What was in that bag she was holding?” “She told me she was gonna buy a new sleeping bag for a camping she and her family were going on,” Diamond said. Silver Spoon gazed at her, her eyes lightning up. “Camping trip? I love camping!” Diamond eyed in gray pony. “You do? Since when?” “Since the class camping trip last month. I didn’t have the brilliant plan to fake being sick like you, but after we actually went on the trip, I kinda liked it.” “You liked it?” Diamond Tiara never took Silver Spoon for a pony that could really find enjoyment in it. Nevertheless, the gray filly nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, totally. I know you think it’s not really your thing, but maybe you should give it a try. You might actually start liking it, afterwards.” Those words were similar to the ones Apple Bloom had told her this morning. Could a pony like her really find living outdoors—out in the dirt, no less—fun? Silver sure seemed to believe this, and Diamond trusted her much better than any other pony she knew. “I’ll see you later, Silver.” She stood and threw the rest of her lemonade away. “Where’re you going?” Silver Spoon asked. “I need to have a chat with Miss Applejack,” replied Diamond. “And I may or may not be thinking about what you just said.” “Just try it, ‘Tia.” Silver Spoon gave her a reassuring smile. “Trust me.” Diamond nodded and continued on her way, heading off through the sea of ponies in search of Applejack. The cowgirl had to be somewhere in the marketplace selling apples, if not back at Sweet Apple Acres or off with her friends. She searched around the area, trying to find the apple kiosk where she’d be selling her inventory. She ushered her way past the ponies in front of her, looking left and right, until she finally found it. Applejack was maintaining the store as she expected, giving apples and apple bi-products to anypony that came her way. “Howdy there, Diamond.” Applejack waved as the filly approached. “What can I do for ya?” “Actually, I’ve thought about what you said,” Diamond responded, rubbing her hoof across the dirt, “and maybe I’d like to go camping.” Applejack cracked a smile at this. “Really? An’ I thought you weren’t into that sort’a stuff. What made you change yer mind?” “Just curious, okay? I wanna try it.” If Silver says it’s fun, then it has to be, the pink filly thought to herself. “Well I can give you some cash to buy a sleepin’ bag.” Applejack reached behind the kiosk and grabbed a few bits out the box metallic box she kept them in and tossed them into Diamond’s saddle bags. “Suggest you get ready quick. We’ll all be leavin’ first thing tomorrow morn’n.” “What?” Diamond saw her hopes for sleeping in—at least for tomorrow—suddenly smashed. “Why so early?” “Applebuck Season’s come’n in earlier than usual, which is someth’n we definitely can’t ignore,” said Applejack, “so we had no choice but to push it back to tomorrow. Really, if we could find another day, we would take it.” Diamond sighed. She figured it wouldn’t be too bad for her. After all, they’d only be staying out in the woods for a couple days, so she would have the rest of Spring Break to herself after they returned to Ponyville. “Alright, fine. That’ll do.” “Don’t worry, kiddo. You won’t regret it,” said Applejack. Hearing this, Diamond once again gave out a sigh. I sure hope not. “Thank you so much for your help, Fancy Pants.” Filthy Rich was relieved. In fact, he was more than relieved, like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. His financial crisis might very well be a thing of the past, nothing but a long-lost memory after this moment. “Not at all. I was more than happy to help,” said Fancy Pants. He, Filthy Rich, and Cash made their way through the Cantrlot marketplace. They sought out the unicorn soon after arriving in the city a couple weeks ago, and it was by a stroke of pure luck that he would have a way to help. They eventually reached the center of the marketplace which was where Fancy Pants decided to take his leave. “Well I believe I should get going now. It’s been very nice meeting you again, Filthy Rich. I’ll get back to you once everything is settled.” He shook Rich’s hoof before going his separate way. Filthy Rich couldn’t get rid of the huge grin on his face. Nearly two weeks of running around had finally paid off. “You think you got everything from here?” asked Cash. Filthy nodded. “I’ll still need to take care of a few small things, but yeah, everything should be alright again. And most importantly, I get to return home to my daughter. I can’t thank you enough for your help, Cash.” The green stallion waved it off. “Ah, don’t mention it. I was glad to help. Besides, it gave me something else to do instead of sitting in a stuff old office all day. Anyway, I’m headed back to Fillydelphia. I’ll see ya around.” Filthy Rich waved his friend off as he disappeared into the crowd. Finally, he thought to himself as he wandered back to his hotel. Things were at least beginning to look up. He could finally head back to Ponyville where he belonged, and hopefully, over the course of his trip, Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom could’ve gotten along as he intended. Things were beginning to look up for him. The next morning was nothing like the last—far from it, exactly—but she’d have to endure it for now. Diamond Tiara groggily arose from her slumber, rubbing her eyes as they adjusted to the sunlight. Remember, Diamond: Just a few days living out in the wilderness and you can go back to enjoying the rest of your break. You should be able to survive until then. She hopped out of her bed and made her way over towards the mirror, just as Apple Bloom burst through her door. “Good morn’n!” Or maybe not, Diamond thought and turned to face the yellow filly. “How can you even handle being up this early?” “It’s only ten a.m.,” said Apple Bloom. Diamond Tiara sat on her haunches and cross her hooves. “Well that’s early by my standards.” “But we’re headed out today. I thought you’d be ready.” “I am ready, but I still need some time to wake myself up.” Diamond Tiara picked the brush and started running it through her lavender mane. “I was planning to sleep in all week.” “Ah, stop worry’n about it, already.” Apple Bloom trotted over and wrapped a hoof around her rival. “This is only a onetime thing for you. After that, you’ll never have to worry ‘bout get’n yer coat dirty again.” She chuckled lightly at that last sentence, earning a half-lidded glare from the still drowsy filly beside her, and as much as Tiara wanted to think of a comeback, she was too tired to do so. The late-morning sun hung high in the clear sky; the Apple Family, plus Diamond Tiara, made their way across the forest floor. Diamond gazed around at the trees and little critters around her. As much as she had her doubts prior to coming out here, it was peaceful—she had to admit that much. “Campsite should be around here somewhere,” said Applejack. “Big Mac, lemme get a look at the map.” The red stallion dug into his saddle bag, pulling out the map with his teeth. Applejack leaned in to take a look. There was a line running across the chart, starting from the forest’s entrance and going up through the trees. “Eeyup, should be just another mile till we’re there. Let’s get a move on.” They continued on for their destination. Apple Bloom slowed her pace, waiting until she was trotting next to Diamond Tiara. “So,” she said, “how’re ya like’n it out here, Diamond?” “It’s not what I expected.” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “What’dya mean?” “It’s too boring out here,” said Diamond. “Can’t you be jus’ a little bit patient about this? We haven’t even gotten to the site yet. Trust me; you’ll like it.” The rich filly sighed. Apple Bloom was certainly no Silver Spoon, but there was no way she could afford to be picky. With as little as she had, Diamond had to trust the farmpony beside her. After all, Apple Bloom did have more experience in this stuff than she did. The group eventually came upon a large clearing, located just northing of where they once were—just as the map said. It was wide open, and there was a stream running nearby with the fish occasionally jumping out. It was the perfect place where they’d go to every year, ever since the very beginning of their trips. The Apple family set down there things and began to set up the campsite. “See? What’d I tell ya?” Apple Bloom said, looking back at Diamond Tiara. “I told ya it was nice out here.” Even though Diamond Tiara wasn’t too adept at camping, she had to admit one thing: the wilderness seemed peaceful—at least at first glance. “So what do we do out here, exactly?” Apple Bloom looked back at her older siblings as they got everything ready. It’d be a while before they had to campsite completely set up. That’d be more than enough time for the two fillies to have some fun. “Ah guess the two of us can go sight see’n while we’re wait’n.” Seeing as there wasn’t much for her to do out here, Diamond agreed. Perhaps there’d be something worthwhile they would find in the forest. “All right, then,” she stated, “Lead the way.” The fillies made their way through the forest floor, the sunlight casting down through the leaves of the trees overhead. Diamond hopped over a fallen log as she continued behind Apple Bloom. They’ve been out here almost twenty minutes, yet they haven’t seen anything. “What exactly are we looking for?” “Anyth’n interest’n,” the farm filly said. “You gotta look for it.” Seeing as she had no experience with camping, or any similar outside activity, Tiara had no possible idea of what to look for in the forest. However, Apple Bloom knew exactly what she was doing from her numerous times coming out here—mostly with her family. “Out of curiosity,” she stated, “what exactly do you do out here?” Apple Bloom stopped and put a hoof to her chin as she thought. “S'mores, ghost stories, oh, and during the night, me an’ Applejack would usually go out an’ catch fireflies. They’re real plentiful this time’a year.” Diamond could recall what fireflies were. She’d see at least one or two of them flying outside her window each night. “And where do you usually find them?” “Back at the campsite,” Apple Bloom replied. “There’s usually a whole swarm of ‘em that appears jus’ on the other side of the stream. Ah even brought a few empty jars with me to catch ‘em in.” Catching bugs wasn’t how Diamond Tiara planned to spend majority of her trip with the Apple Family. She’d be okay with resting at the campsite when the time came; though now, however, she could feel her legs starting to ache. She couldn’t tell how long she’d been on this stroll with Apple Bloom. All she did now was that she didn’t want to go any further. She stopped and leaned against a tree, slightly exhausted. “How much longer are we gonna stay out here?” she asked. Apple Bloom turned around to answer her, but stopped when she noticed something crawling on her rival’s shoulder. She didn’t want to tell her, hoping that she wouldn’t find out since Diamond seemed oblivious to it. “Uh, Diamond…?” Tiara looked over at Apple Bloom, and it was then that she noticed a small ticklish feeling on her shoulder. She turned her gaze to see a centipede crawling down her arm. She quickly swatted it off, stepping back as it scurried into the dirt. “Ew! Okay, no more. That’s it. Take me back to the campsite.” “I suppose we should,” said Apple Bloom. “It’s about time we head back anyway.” She started back for the campsite, followed closely by Diamond. Applejack and Big Mac should’ve gotten everything set up by the time they got back. Nearly half an hour after starting back, however, they still didn’t find themselves at the campsite. They continued wandering aimlessly through the forest, making their way through the trees and leaves around them, not really knowing where they were headed. “I feel like we should’ve been there already,” said Diamond. She stopped and looked around at the unfamiliar scenery “Where is it?” “I know it’s around here somewhere,” said Apple Bloom. She stopped to think about which direction they should go. “We’re lost, aren’t we?” asked Diamond, though the way she said it, it didn’t seem like a question. The realization hit Apple Bloom like a ton of bricks, though she refused to believe it. Out here, without her older siblings or her friends to back her up, was something she didn’t want to face. “W-We can’t be lost.” “We are,” Diamond snapped. “We don’t even know which direction the campsite is in.” Apple Bloom paced around, trying to remember which way she came from. She was starting to grow a bit frantic, wanting to find her way back as soon as possible. There were no trails she could use, no hoof prints in the ground she could follow. She had to face it: she and Diamond were lost.
