Diamond’s life was officially over. There was literally no lower that she could sink. She was standing here being forced to apologize to Sweetie Belle of all ponies. As if it wasn’t bad enough with the foal, and the foalnapping, and her daddy rejecting her, now these stupid ponies wanted to rub it in her face. Winners don’t apologize! Daddy said it was true! And granted he also said she would always be a winner, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true!
Diamond thought she’d gotten out of apologizing, after she said that she needed to get a drink of water, and Rarity was starving her if she didn’t let her go, but when Diamond awoke the next morning, there was Rarity down at the breakfast table, eating a bowl of hay-me-ohs with a bowl of cinnamon oatmeal in the place next to her.
When Diamond went to sit there, Rarity said, “Ah, before you eat, don’t you have something you want to say to Sweetie Belle?”
And sure enough, the other white unicorn was seated at the third seat, already eating her oatmeal. Sweetie paused as Rarity spoke, looking at Diamond guiltily. Well good, she should feel guilty for making a filly feel even more worthless than she already is.
“Why should I?” Diamond demanded. And why should she? She didn’t do anything wrong. At least, not unless she was inferior to this other filly, and that’s exactly what they were trying to force her to be. She didn’t want to apologize to Sweetie Belle. It was embarassing! Why should she have to apologize?
“Diamond, if you don’t want your breakfast to get cold, you really should apologize,” Rarity stated calmly. “It’s not an unreasonable request.”
“The hay it’s not!” Diamond swore, making Sweetie Belle wince, and... Rarity too, apparantly. “Why do you think I’m like, worse than Sweetie Belle? Is it because I’m a failure? A nopony?”
“When did any of us ever say anything like that?” Rarity sighed in exasperation. “We just want you to display some common decency, and stop treating others with such disdain!”
“You couldn’t force me to if I wasn’t a failure,” Diamond insisted in tearful frustration. “But now you can tell me to do anything, and I have to do it, or you’ll just keep hurting me. I didn’t know I was your slave, Rarity. But I guess I should just give up on everything and tell her that I’m as worthless as dirt!”
She ran back upstairs at that and—that shouldn’t have made her cry, but this stupid foal inside her was making Diamond Tiara upset all the time, and hungry and it was cinnamon oatmeal! She wanted cinnamon oatmeal. It would have tasted so good, but instead Rarity had to put caveats on it. She had to humiliate Diamond for no reason at all, other than to satisfy Rarity’s own twisted pony desires. They were probably laughing at her, and eating her oatmeal and laughing at her. They were just waiting to see when she would snap. Well, she wasn’t gonna! It was just too much. There was only so many concessions Diamond had to make, before she... before she lost.
“Diamond Tiara!” came Rarity’s voice through the door to the guest room. “What is the matter with you? Why are you so disturbed at a simple apology?”
Diamond didn’t answer. It was pointless to argue with ponies, who were all polite and kind and trying to trick you into being friends with them. That’s what her daddy said, and maybe he lied a lot, but it was obviously true. Because here Rarity was, torturing Diamond with cinnamon oatmeal just to force her to admit that she wasn’t as good as Sweetie Belle.
Diamond held out for about an hour, but her stomach was just killing her, and she needed to eat something. So hating herself every step of the way, she ignored her tears and pulled open the door, hating everything about what they were forcing her to do. She looked down though, and there were no ponies on the other side of the door, but there was a tray, with a glass of juice on it, and a bowl of oatmeal. Cinnamon oatmeal. Diamond looked around suspiciously, but there was nopony in the hallway either. What was this? They were just giving it to her, after all? They didn’t eat it?
She was too hungry to care if they poisoned it. She just bit the lip of the tray and dragged it inside her room, then shut the door. Taking a mouthful of the sweet, delicious, cinnamonny stuff... it was cold.
I-it was easier to digest this way, anyway.
Diamond ventured out of the boutique again one day, again because she was trying to dodge Rarity’s wrath. That pony was so infuriatingly hard to understand; she didn’t do anything that made sense! There was something wrong with Diamond; there had to be. Things weren’t this weird and sappy and stupid when she was living with her daddy. He did this to her. He like, broke her somehow, and Diamond didn’t know how ponies expected her to pick up the pieces of herself. She hated waking up because she always felt sick in the morning, and she hated how her stamina was just shot with this whole pregnancy thing. It was just a little lump, how could it be such a resource hog!
Rarity seemed to think that it was because the foal had to grow really fast when it started out, but Diamond protested that it was barely growing at all. And Rarity said that Diamond was just impatient, that ponies just grow slowly, especially if they’re not unborn foals. So Diamond told her not to make fun of her just because she was short and Rarity said she wasn’t doing anything again, and... one thing led to another, and Diamond ventured out of the boutique again, one day.
She made it as far as the playground this time, at least. Lay there beside the swingset feeling worn out and glum. There weren’t any foals around right now. They’d be at school, where Diamond should have been if not for this stupid pregnancy. Rarity tried to pretend that it was for Diamond’s own good, but it was pretty obvious they just didn’t want her around. Wouldn’t be nice to scare the other foals with pregnancy, even if you already scared them with pregnancy trying to stop them from doing it. For some reason, it was totally okay for an adult to bear down on a foal, and get in their face scaring them about the dangers of pregnancy, but it wasn’t alright for a foal to see another foal who was stupid enough to ignore the warnings and actually get pregnant.
Diamond wondered if she could even call herself a foal anymore. Foals didn’t get pregnant. They didn’t have a finished womb, or something. Could you be a foal, with a foal? Diamond sure never saw anything like that. But then, what probably happened was all the foals who were pregnant were kept from coming to school, to keep Diamond Tiara from ever even knowing about them. She was an older foal, who already had her cutie mark, but she hadn’t even had her growth spurt, so it was hard to say Diamond Tiara didn’t count as a foal. But maybe ponies wouldn’t let her be a foal anymore. Maybe the pregnancy would force her to grow really fast too, which is why she was hungry and sore all the time.
Maybe she could get over herself, and ask the one pony who seemed willing to talk to her about this.
Diamond wearily climbed to her hooves. She didn’t want to be around here when recess came, anyway. It was ridiculous how grownups didn’t want her to go to school anymore, but it was convenient, because she really didn’t want to be seen like this either. They were just trying to keep foals from knowing about her, and didn’t care about what she wanted one bit, but it still worked out conveniently for her. Sweetie Belle was bad enough, if her whole herd of friends cornered Diamond they’d—they’d put her down, and tell her she wasn’t more special than them, and make her apologize to the stupid unicorn. For what? Upsetting her? How was it Diamond Tiara’s fault, if Sweetie Belle is the one who got upset?
Diamond pushed open the door to the boutique at last, just wanting to go lie down again. But she groaned out instead, “Okay Rarity, you can talk to me after all.” She received no answer except for the quiet sound of a sewing machine. “Rarity!” Diamond Tiara said, stalking into the sewing room where Rarity was there on her workbench happily stitching away. “I said you can talk to me now!”
“Well,” Rarity said with a huff, “Maybe I don’t want to talk to you, anymore!”
“What?” Diamond exclaimed in exasperation, “But you wanted to talk to me!”
“Yes, I did,” Rarity emphasized, “And now I don’t. I just... need some time alone right now.”
“Rrrrrfine!” Diamond growled. “I didn’t want to talk to you anyway!”
As Diamond stomped off to her room, the only indication Rarity might have given that she heard Diamond was a disaffected “Hmph!”
Rarity even tried apologizing later, and that went about as well as you would expect. Diamond just... didn’t like her very much. She was so sensitive, and picky, and she kept trying to make Diamond Tiara act in certain ways. Diamond didn’t have any choice about it at this point, but she sure didn’t like it. And Rarity just refused to use her! Kept leading her on and on, and never showed her true colors to Diamond. Diamond remembered her daddy’s lessons, about how ponies will pretend to be nice to you, and all they were doing is buttering you up so they could use you later.
On that note, Diamond’s plan to destroy her daddy was running into a few hurdles.
“I want to believe you, Diamond I really do. But this is Filthy Rich we’re talking about,” Rarity told Diamond patiently, “Not some base criminal!”
Diamond figured if she turned ponies against Daddy, then he would lose money, and that would be... bad. It probably wouldn’t even inconvenience him, if a few ponies didn’t like him, but she had to try something!
“He’s an honest businesspony, and a gentlecolt,” Rarity continued, “I’ve never seen any indication he would be so... evil.”
“That’s because he hasn’t used you yet,” Diamond said frankly, stepping around Rarity’s sewing machine to glare eye to eye with the white mare.
“Used me?” Rarity said with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, used you up. That’s how it works,” Diamond told her, feeling devilishly giddy for spilling Daddy’s secret lessons. If Rarity became a winner, then... then Diamond would be one too. “You tell ponies that you’re friends with them, then you use them up!” Diamond explained, “Which is why I already know you’re going to hurt me, because you’re just buttering me up to be used!”
“Buttering you up? Diamond!” Rarity exclaimed with an admonishing wince.
“Yeah, buttering up!” Diamond repeated insistently. “You went and pretend adopted me, and you want me to live here and help you, and do all your chores—”
“Diamond, being asked to do the laundry is not all of my chores,” Rarity said with an exasperated huff.
“You don’t have to lie to me,” Diamond told her eagerly, “I already know how it works. But even if you are a stupid pony, you can still win, if you use him, first!”
“Well, you know I’m starting to think the only one using up any pony is you,” Rarity told Diamond giving her a steely look as the dressmaker left her station to face Diamond head-on. “You are the one who insisted that a good stallion like Filthy somehow orchestrated your foalnapping,” Rarity said disparagingly, “After having secretly whored you out on the street? Why are you telling such... lies about ponies? Do you think anypony is going to take you seriously?”
“Well, who do you think it was, changelings?” Diamond said nervously, backing up a step at the mare’s ire.
“Perhaps the answer is you are the one who is pretending nopony told you about the dangers of pregnancy,” Rarity blurted out angrily, “Because you had estrus, you got winky, and you slept with a stallion! It would be terribly convenient if you somehow accomplished this, without knowing the first thing about filly pregnancies.”
“Daddy told me about pregnancies,” Diamond said confusedly, “What? Like, what does that have to do with him getting ponies to foalnap me? I meant to say he’s gonna raise your rent!”
“Diamond, even if he wasn’t a nice pony, Filthy can’t just charge more on my lease without reason,” Rarity told her in a strained voice. “We have a contract!”
Rarity was no help in Diamond's new goal to defeat her daddy. Diamond wanted to use him and make him below her, but what was one filly supposed to do? The whole town hated her. Ponies walked the other way when they saw her, and not just the ponies she'd been meen to either. It was probably because she was sick like all the time. She had to drag herself out of bed every single day, because her head was heavy, and her joints ached, and her belly was always sore.
She wasn't getting any better at keeping down food either. Rarity said it was supposed to get better, but she was probably just lying, to try and butter up Diamond Tiara. Rarity did bring up one good point though, that Diamond Tiara wasn't supposed to be losing weight, since she was going to weigh herself and a half after all this was over. So she kept trying to choke down her oatmeal, and keep to foods that she could stomach, which were always freaky weird ones like spinach and peanut butter, but not spinach or peanut butter by itself.
Even Sweetie Belle was avoiding coming over to visit Rarity, just because she hated Diamond Tiara so much. Diamond could understand since she kind of hated herself too, but it was still really stupid. She never had anypony to talk to, except Rarity, who only seemed to like to yell at her, when Diamond was just expressing perfectly valid opinions.
The worst part is Diamond couldn't even go back to school, anymore! Rarity wouldn't let her! Rarity lied, again, and said that the school said that Diamond's presence wouldn't be good for the other foals right now.
Or, maybe she didn't lie, but Diamond Tiara was afraid to find out, because finding out meant talking to other ponies, and talking to other ponies meant miss Cheerilee telling Diamond Tiara what a horrible filly she was just for getting pregnant on accident and that she was so ugly now that all the foals at school couldn't even stand to look at her.
The worst part is, Diamond Tiara wanted to go back to school! She never thought in a million years she'd want to go to that stupid place where you had homework and lessons, and you had to pretend to be nice to other foals, and a teacher was always watching you. But it was just so boring having nothing to do but sit around and be pregnant. Diamond wanted to do something, even if it meant going to a stupid lesson. She didn't have anything to distract herself from the pain, just sitting around like this, and she missed—
She just... thought it was really boring, but Diamond was afraid to find out what she knew everypony was thinking, so she just didn't feel comfortable trying to force her way back into the classroom, and force ponies to respect her. Respect a pony who doesn't even have any power, or wealth? Ha! Daddy stole it all. That meant that Diamond Tiara didn't have anything.
So she didn't care about the other foals, who got to go to school and play with each other and have fun. She wasn't lonely at all. She just walked to that hill where you could see the school, and just watched it sometimes when they had recess, wishing she could figure out how to get them all to love her again. Just so she could use them, of course. Y-yeah.
Diamond finally decided to try and sneak into Town Hall, in her quest against Daddy. There were records there that would have Daddy's business partners in them, and Diamond could go try and ruin his reputation that way. They were supposed to be public records, but Diamond knew Daddy had an agreement with ponies there that you couldn't get the records if you just asked. Fortunately, she had an opportunity to do more than ask.
Rarity wasn't exactly careful about her property, so it was pretty easy to steal fabric. And even though she never used it, Rarity had a big bolt of black fabric just sitting there. Diamond tried to do it right at first, but eventually she just got frustrated and bound the poorly cut pieces together with safety pins. But in the end she had a semi-working sneaky suit, like the kind daddy got her for Nightmare Night once.
Under the cover of night, the black coated Diamond Tiara snuck her way out of the boutique and over to town hall. When she was in Town Hall today just looking around, she saw one of the doors only locked at the latching mechanism, and not a sliding bolt. So by slipping a twisted pin in the doorjam and hooking around the latch, she could pull the latch open that way. She had a problem with the cabinets, which were locked, but somepony had “lost” the keys in their purse the other day, and Diamond used those to get them open no problem.
The file folder under “F” was very large, which made sense as Daddy did most of the business around Ponyville, not that most ponies knew about that. He always paid ponies to sell stuff for him, so that nopony knew he was the one getting all the money, and thought they were just working independently. Diamond started looking through stuff, and marking down names on a little notepad she'd brought with her. It was all the ponies Daddy hadn't used yet, so if Diamond could get them to use him first, then she'd win!
Or at least, Daddy would lose, and that was the same thing, right?
She locked the cabinet and left the missing keys on the desk of the unlucky pony who’d “accidentally” misplaced them. Diamond made her way outside, and closed the still-locked door behind her, with nopony the wiser that she'd even been there. And now that she had names like Sweetie Drops and Davenport. Now the problem was had very little idea how to convince them that her daddy was a no good rotten not nice pony, who made his own daughter sleep in a convent, and convince them that was somehow bad.
It's like nopony even cared if he was going to use them later, as long as they could have a good time now. In general, they were lots happier to shove it in her face how she was poor and sick and pregnant disguising their teasing as sympathy. Diamond thought having a foal was supposed to be a badge of honor, something ponies loved, and respected, but no. She was too young for everypony's tastes, so suddenly she's a bad pony for getting tricked into foaling.
Between her resentment and her stupidly complicated pregnancy, Diamond Tiara just wasn't as effective as she could have been. Sure enough, a surprise inspector showed up out of the blue, and sure enough Rarity's plumbing wasn't up to legal code. Filthy was happy to make the upgrades of course, but as it violated the lease agreement they had to renegotiate. And now Rarity was paying more per month than she could make. Diamond knew it was true.
Diamond knew it when Rarity stopped buying peanut butter, because that stuff was really expensive to get in the heartland of Equestria. She knew it because of the looks Rarity gave her after working on her finances, guilty looks because she knew Diamond was right all along. It was only a matter of time at this point, before this became Carousel Boutique, a subsidiary of Filthy Rich Enterprises, and then Daddy could allow Rarity to live there, while Diamond Tiara got dragged away.
She knew, because while Diamond had been too afraid to talk to him again, when Daddy had come to renegotiate the lease, she glared hatefully at him from her hiding place behind the doorway to the back room. Daddy had seen her glaring at one point. He didn't yell at her then, or tell her more about what a bad pony she was, or try to stomp on her or anything like last time. He didn't even call the guard. He just... smiled at her, when he saw her, and went right back to talking to Rarity.
Diamond Tiara was the reason he did it. She knew he was doing everything he could to hurt Diamond Tiara and make sure she couldn't hurt him back. It was all her fault that Rarity was going to lose her boutique. Diamond could see how much Rarity loved this place. She could see how easily Filthy forced her to pay more and more just to keep it. And now Rarity was just going to be a worker at Filthy Rich's boutique, because Diamond Tiara couldn't take her pills when she was supposed to, and let herself get pregnant. That's why Daddy didn't love her, and that's why Diamond Tiara was failing now, and that's why Rarity was getting dragged down with her, just for doing something nice to Diamond Tiara when she absolutely needed it.
Diamond felt... bad about that. She didn't know why, but it just felt really, really bad. Diamond wished Daddy would only hurt her, and not somepony as nice as... not somepony like Rarity. But Rarity was protecting Diamond, and getting in Daddy's way, and for him that meant she had to be dealt with. Diamond wished... Diamond wished she could shove that stupid lease in Daddy’s face, and tell him to go steal from somepony else.
On the bright side of things, Sweetie Belle was actually, somehow, starting to get it. Diamond hated having to hang around her so much, but the filly really did love her big sister, and she was even willing to put up with a roaringly pregnant Diamond Tiara in order to help Rarity with... whatever it is Sweetie Belle helped her with. Diamond figured her encounters with Sweetie Belle would just be a long series of unending stupidity thrown her way, but actually Sweetie Belle was kind of... not as lame as Diamond thought?
Diamond was talking with Sweetie Belle one day after school. Diamond was bored to tears, and kept getting stupid chills even though she was sweating like crazy. She hated being pregnant, and she hated this stupid can of cherries that was so hard to get open, because the lid would catch just the wrong way, and Sweetie just... found Diamond crying over a can of cherries, and sat beside her.
“What do you want?” Diamond Tiara growled at the can. At the can, because Diamond didn’t even want to acknowledge the happier, calmer, slimmer filly who sat next to her right now. It wasn’t fair!
“Oh, I was just thinking,” Sweetie Belle said casually. “You sure like making fun of me.”
“Well, of course I do!” Diamond declared, looking up from her can. “You’re a total pushover, but you don’t know when to quit! You’re like, the stupidest pony I know! How could I not make fun of you, when you make it so easy?”
Sweetie didn’t yell at her this time, just looked at Diamond with a pensively serious expression on her soft face.
“I know I'm not stupid,” Sweetie Belle concluded eventually, “But I think it's okay if you think that I'm stupid.”
Diamond looked up from her can again, which she'd gotten open and now was fishing packed cherries out of with a spoon, saying in surprise, “What do you mean ‘it's okay?’”
“Well, I just don't think you really mean it,” Sweetie Belle said, earning Diamond's undivided attention. “You're just saying it because you're supposed to.”
“Of course I mean it, stupid!” Diamond retorted hotly. “It's totally true! Why would I say it if I didn't mean it, if somepony wasn't forcing me to? Who's forcing me to say it, huh?”
“I don't know,” Sweetie said mournfully. “I'm just the stupid one.”
Diamond grinned triumphantly at that and said, “Yeah w — hey, that's what I'm supposed to —”
Sweetie just smiled at that.
“…say,” Diamond grumbled, sticking her nose up to lick at the can, trying not to cut her tongue on its sharp edges. Because you couldn’t get every drop of sweetness out if you didn’t do it that way.
Between that, and... other stuff, Sweetie Belle just wasn’t the stupid filly that Diamond had always assumed her to be. She might have been crazy, but Sweetie Belle definitely wasn’t stupid. On some level, the unicorn girl knew. She knew about all the pretending you had to do, and how Diamond couldn’t let her guard down, or ponies would get her. Diamond did feel obligated to make fun of Sweetie Belle, because if she didn’t keep it up, then somepony else would start making fun of her. And with this infuriatingly difficult swollen spot in her abdomen making Diamond’s life such a mess, Diamond Tiara really, really, really needed nopony to make fun of her right now.
To a degree, their relationship sweetened just because Diamond had so much trouble getting around. Sweetie Belle was just the only foal Diamond got to interact with on any regular basis. Sweetie’s friends were avoiding Diamond. Diamond didn’t even know if Silver Spoon was alive, much less seen her. And school wasn’t... an option. So of course Diamond sort of accidentally slipped and started thinking that Sweetie Belle maybe wasn’t so bad after all. Now, Diamond was just waiting for the other horseshoe to drop, and have feelings like that lead her so terribly wrong, just like they were supposed to do.
Like say for instance when the guard came to arrest Diamond Tiara right at Rarity’s front door.
Rarity answered it, of course. It wasn’t Diamond Tiara’s house, and she wasn’t really okay with answering doors these days anyway. Because that was something servants did. Yeah, that was why. But answering the door, that pretty white unicorn spluttered as a plainer white unicorn in a guard uniform was there to greet her on the other side.
“What—may this be regarding, gentlesir?” Rarity managed at last.
“We’re here for Mistake, madam.”
Diamond’s ears went down.
Of course she wasn’t answering the door, but she was always listening, and scheming, and hoping. But now she was completely terrified. It was so easy to completely terrify and humiliate her, with just that one stupid word. Now that they knew. Why were they going to take her away now? She’d been doing so good! She hadn’t screwed up at all, and—and hadn’t done anything in a long time!
“I’m sure we can work something out, officer,” Rarity said with an edge of desperation in her voice. The guard merely shook his head, and said,
“We’re not here to arrest her.”
Wait, they’re not? Diamond Tiara sagged in relief.
“Just to issue her a court summons.”
Diamond ceased sagging in relief.
“Wh— huh— what—I didn’t do anything!” Diamond Tiara spluttered as the guard barged his way in and relentlessly approached Diamond Tiara.
“Oh, you’ve done a lot,” he said with an unsympathetic stare. “You have been accused of several very serious criminal charges, which I am not permitted to discuss outside of court. You are hereby summoned by the greater court of Equestria, to be tried one week from now, at noon sharp. Failure to attend will mean further penalties, and possible jail time. Do not be late.”
She swore his eyes glimmered in malevolence as he leaned closer to her and said in a less than congenial tone, “You are in big trouble, little filly, and this time your father isn’t going to cover for you. I would wish you luck, Mistake, but frankly I don’t think you deserve it.”
Diamond was so dead. It wasn’t funny. What were they accusing her of? They wouldn’t tell her until she went into court! What could they possibly accuse her of though? She had a permanent residence, and she’d never even gotten caught once. Her record was completely clean, and only she knew really what she’d done. It must have been daddy. Only he could have ratted her out, in any way that would possibly stick. The rest of the—the bad things she’d done, she didn’t even use her own name!
Court was... absolutely horrible. Diamond had to walk to it, first off, and Rarity helped her, but Diamond didn’t want to walk anywhere. She just couldn’t stop feeling like death warmed over.
Diamond never thought of Town Hall as intimidating, but when she went into their small, cramped courthouse, she started trembling at the thought of what they meant to do to her. Daddy’s ploys to bankrupt Rarity had failed, for reasons... Diamond didn’t understand, but he would no doubt be behind this trial too, the next attempt to defeat Diamond once and for all.
Plus she really had to pee.
Rarity stood next to Diamond in the box for ponies who get accused of stuff. The prosecution was a slim mare who Diamond had never seen before. Probably not even from Ponyville. The judge was um... somepony Diamond had seen before, at one of Daddy’s private parties, the one where he talked with special ponies about business. If she showed any sign of recognition of Diamond Tiara though, there was no affection, only a cold disgust.
“Miss Mistake,” the judge started horribly. Diamond was already glaring. “You have been accused of crimes against Equestria. As your list of charges is manifold, I will ask you for each of them how do you plead, innocent or guilty. The prosecution will attempt to determine the veracity of your claims, and since you cannot afford a defense lawyer, one has been appointed by the court. Miss Dew, will you please approach the stand?”
To Diamond’s horror, a grey pegasus pony with eyes that didn’t even point in the right direction came forward. “Do you swear to uphold the law of the land and the pursuit of justice, in defense of the pony accused?” the judge asked her. The pegasus’s pupils narrowed—well, one of them did. Diamond couldn’t see the other one.
“I really don’t know if this is a good idea,” the pegasus pony replied. “I didn’t even mean to... I only passed a correspondence course. I think you might have the wrong pony!”
“I assure you miss Dew,” the judge said to the hapless pegasus, “You are technically qualified, and you will work pro bono, and as such, you are Mistake’s defense lawyer. Now do you swear to uphold the law...”
Well, the mare did, and she walked uncertainly over to Diamond Tiara’s box thing. “Is this okay??” Diamond hissed to Rarity, as the pegasus looked as lost as Diamond Tiara felt. Her wings were partially spread, and she couldn’t even look Diamond Tiara in the eye.
“I don’t know,” Rarity whispered back, “I thought they were going to select Prim Posey! This is—I’ve never actually been in court before. I suppose it could be...” and the pegasus reached their box then, trying to come in, but getting stuck on the door as she did so. “...okay,” Rarity concluded unhappily, as the door cracked, and remained tilted askew, no matter how the pegasus tried to right it.
“Hi, I’m Dipsy Dew!” said the golden eyed grey pegasus when she finally managed to approach them. Dipsy held a hoof out to shake, saying, “I’m your...” then she moved the hoof to actually face Diamond Tiara, saying, “Defense lawyer, I guess!”
Diamond didn’t even want to talk to her. Rarity leaned over Diamond and took Dipsy’s hoof though, saying, “Charmed...”
The judge was conferring quietly with the prosecution, and announced in their direction, “Rarity! Excuse me, but could you please leave the defense stand?”
“What?” Rarity said, sidling her warm flank closer to Diamond Tiara.
“The court thinks that the defense should be objective as possible,” the judge told Rarity, “And she should only be conferring with her defense lawyer, at risk of confounding any evidence. I know you want to protect your er... ‘daughter’ but please support her from the audience, just like everypony else.” The judge gestured to the more distant rows of seats in the courtroom, all empty.
It’s funny because Diamond thought Daddy would come to gloat. But not even he was here. The only ponies who even showed up were the judge, the guardsponies, these um ‘lawyers’ and Rarity. She supposed she didn’t blame anypony for not showing up. It’s not like the court date was announced or anything, and who’d have come for any reason other than to laugh at her misery? So she was fine with it, but... Diamond felt an emptiness inside as they forced Rarity to leave her, and go sit way off in the lonely benches that were for the audience. She didn’t know why, but she wanted Rarity right now. She wanted somepony to comfort her at least, and Dipsy Dew was about as comforting as a pincushion with how she was practically having a panic attack here.
“The defense can confer before making their pleas,” the judge then said dispassionately, holding up a... really long list. “Now here are the charges. You have been accused of robbery and conspiracy of ill intent for robbing the donation funds from the Sisters of Mercy convent in Dodge Junction. How do you plead, innocent or guilty?”
Diamond blinked. B-b-but she got away with that! They had no evidence! Seeing her hesitance as confusion, the grey Dipsy whispered to her, “I think you can plead ‘not guilty’ too. That’s different than innocent, though.”
“Innocent,” Diamond said regardless. They couldn’t prove anything, so they had to think she was innocent!
“You have been accused of the robbery of the Saddles, a family in Appleoosa,” the judge continued. “How do you plead, innocent or guilty?”
“I-inno—wait, but that was just a couple dozen bits!” Diamond said angrily. That didn’t count as robbery, did it?
“Guilty, then,” the judge said, immediately segueing on to, “You have been accused of breaking and entering the house of Pokey Pierce, and assaulting him in his own house. How do you plead, innocent or guilty?”
“What?! But—but he wouldn’t—” Diamond clammed up. She couldn’t plead guilty to that! He was the one who assaulted her not the other way around! But he knew her! He was one of the ponies who knew her! How could she have forgot? Of course he was gonna find her, and get her. But if she said innocent, she’d get in even worse trouble!
“N-not guilty?” Diamond tried.
“Very well,” the judge said dispassionately, marking on the paper she held in a hoof. “You have been accused of, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but conspiracy of business, conspiring with several ponies in Ponyville in an attempt to fix prices specifically for the purpose of driving Filthy Rich out of business.”
Diamond’s face twisted up in confusion, “Well y—wait, that’s illegal?!”
“Ignorance of the law does not excuse you from being held to it,” the judge replied. “Now how do you plead?”
“G-guilty, I guess?” Diamond said. “But I was just trying to make daddy pay for—”
“You have been accused of extortion, and prostitution,” the judge interrupted. “You have been manipulating the ponies of Ponyville for many years now, by selling your body for money and special favors. How do you plead, innocent or guilty?”
“Wh–well if I plead guilty, then Daddy has to plea guilty too!” Diamond said desperately. This was it. This was Daddy’s attack on her. And—and she sort of knew that it was illegal, since she was a filly and all. And he’d know everything that she did! Why oh why did Diamond Tiara ever trust him?
“This is not about his trial,” the judge replied, “It is about yours.”
Diamond glanced at Dipsy, who shrugged, then looked back at the judge, saying, “G-guilty, but I’m pregnant now! So that means I’m not even really a filly anymore, so that makes it okay, right?”
Somewhere in the audience stands, a white unicorn fainted dead away. Nopony even noticed.
“Your charges have been laid, and your claim has been made,” the judge said, “Do you need any time to prepare your defense against these charges?”
Diamond looked at Dipsy, and Dipsy... sort of looked at Diamond, but mostly looked confused. Looking up at the judge, Dipsy said, “Y—”
“Then the trial can commence immediately,” the judge stated quickly, rapping a gavel on the podium. “Will the prosecution come to the stand?”
One thing about this prosecution lawyer is despite a slight Manehattan accent, she talked very smoothly and confidently. Even Diamond had to respect how grounded she seemed. “Thank you your honor,” she said, “The first of the charges I would like to address is the defense’s claim of innocence regarding the Sisters of Mercy convent. May I call a witness to the stand?”
“Certainly,” the judge replied.
“I would like to call Sister Whinnyfred to the stand.”
Uh oh.
The trial was not going well. Diamond figured it would be totally unfair, and everpony would paint her in the worst possible light, but this was ridiculous!
“Is this the filly who you saw steal your donation funds?”
“Yes. And she’s the worst filly who ever walked this earth. I can’t believe we ever tried to help her!”
“Objection!” Derpy shouted brightly. She shrunk back as everyone including Diamond turned to look at her incredulously, but scrunched her muzzle and said, “I don’t think you can prove she’s the worst filly. Shouldn’t you only talk about what she was accused of?”
Giving Derpy a flat look, the judge turned back to the witness stand and said, “Please continue, sister.”
“And another thing!”
Not going well at all.
Diamond couldn’t help but start crying at some point, and maybe even screaming a little, and now she was in something called contempt of court, which meant that she got in trouble for something she couldn’t even help doing. She was supposed to be quiet and let the witness continue speaking, but she didn’t want her to continue speaking. The worst part wasn’t that it was sad, or hurtful, but that it was true! Diamond couldn’t deny that she’d been a... bully, a little, but even if she had really good reasons for it, nopony else seemed to care.
Diamond took in a breath of fresh air outside the courthouse as Rarity removed her bridle.
“Well that was a farce of a trial,” Rarity said in disgust. “I understand if you did wrong, but that was simply the wrong way to go about it. I may not be well read on the subject but I distinctly recall that the defense attorney is supposed to be given time to well... defend you!”
“What’s the point?” Diamond groaned. “I got caught, and now I’m in trouble for it. She can’t do anything about that, even if she wanted to. What’s she gonna say, like I didn’t b-bully fillies when I was living there?”
“She could have pointed out that you were living there against your will,” Rarity offered. “Or that your state of mind was not ideal, considering how the early stages of a pregnancy can involve some pretty severe hormonal changes.”
“Hormonal?” Diamond asked, blinking.
Rarity nodded down at her saying, “Yes, Diamond. You get more excited, or angry easier, or upset feelings come to you, simply because your body’s changing from a filly into a mother, and there is sometimes a... hiccup in the process.”
“Really?” Diamond asked in astonishment, “So that’s why I was getting so like angry at the sister just now?” She didn’t feel like she changed into a mother... what was she even like before she got pregnant? Happier, for one.
Rarity scrunched her muzzle, admitting, “Well no, she was being pretty terrible toward you, though I fear she wouldn’t have been so severe if you hadn’t stolen all those bits.”
“Like, I didn’t think she was gonna be able to do anything about it,” Diamond said glumly.
Rarity shook her head at Diamond, saying, “Regardless of whether you could get away with it, did you really want to hurt her so badly?”
“I wanted to hurt her worse!” Diamond Tiara said hotly, “Because she wouldn’t let me go find m-my stallion and he turned out to be a huge jerk but back then I thought she was keeping me from winning!”
Rarity walked quietly with Diamond Tiara, a lot on the alabaster unicorn’s mind. “What they did was wrong,” she said to the sore, flushed filly. “But hurting them more would not have gotten you out of that place any faster.”
“Well yeah, like that’s why I didn’t do it,” Diamond replied grumpily.
“So, you didn’t want to hurt them more, then!” Rarity said happily. “And now you wish to hurt them even less, so that they wouldn’t come stand against you in trial.”
“Now like, I just want them to leave me alone,” Diamond Tiara moaned.
“I think you’ll find Diamond Tiara,” Rarity said warningly, “That when you hurt ponies, they will very rarely leave you alone.”
The next day of the trial was set for a week from now. Diamond didn’t want to wait a week though. She was too sore and tired to sleep even, and she couldn’t keep food down again. Plus she kept getting these things where her heart started pounding in her head, like, really fast. Not to mention headaches that made her head feel like it was gonna explode. She couldn’t believe a little bump in your belly could inflict so much pain. Diamond Tiara wanted to never fuck a stallion again, if it meant not having to feel like this.
Rarity was growing increasingly frantic trying to deal with all of Diamond’s pregnancy problems. Strange teas that tasted like mud, body creams, weird smelling stuff that Rarity got from a “very reliable source” she said. Nothing really helped though. It was just gonna be the pregnancy from Tartarus and there was nothing Diamond Tiara could do about it.
The second day of the trial went about as well as the first. They even got some of the fillies from the convent to testify! They said Diamond Tiara tried to drown them! And she kind of did, but just to scare them so they would know their place, but nopony seemed to understand that. Dipsy had these big bags under her eyes as she’d been up late trying to find any way for Diamond to get out of being punished. But all she managed to accomplish was stuttering more, and dropping all the cue cards Rarity’s librarian friend gave her, all over the floor.
Then one of the fillies dropped the entire contents of her stomach all over the floor. The fillies were really sick for some reason, all thin and shaky, and either pale or flushed. Diamond Tiara didn’t know what was wrong with them, but she was glad she didn’t catch it at that convent. Even if she did feel kind of thin. ...and shaky.
After the trial, Rarity wasn’t making Diamond Tiara feel much better about herself.
“I can’t believe you were so cruel to those poor fillies! Has anypony ever done anything like that to you?” Rarity asked.
“Well, yeah! At this farce trial! Just like you said!” Diamond shot back. She just wanted to get back to Carousel Boutique so that she could lie down and... be in pain lying down instead of being in pain walking around.
“I... admit that this trial seems unusually hurtful, but did the fillies at the convent do anything like that to you?” Rarity asked. “You seemed to think you were getting back at them for something.”
“Well, they bit sometimes,” Diamond said righteously, “And they ganged up on me!”
“And pushed your head under the water,” Rarity said skeptically.
“Well... no,” Diamond said, fumbling for words, “But they would have if I... if I let them.”
Rarity’s expression was mildly disapproving, when she said “Forgive me if I’m doubting your ability to stop an entire convent of pregnant fillies from bullying you.”
And now that Diamond thought about it... why didn’t they try to drown her? They had every chance to. It was what they were supposed to do when a pony is below them. And Diamond never stopped fighting, so why didn’t they ever try to... put her in her place?
The third week of the trial, Diamond had the impression they were just doing it to make fun of her now. Edge and Mo testified against her. Edge and Mo! Though their names were Steel Scrap and Losing Streak at the trial for some reason. But the guardsponies dragged them in, and they took one look at her and started begging the judge for leniency, not for her, for them!
“We knewd it was wrong!” Mo had said frantically, “We couldn’t go and rob a buncha nuns! You gotta believe us, we didn’t spend one flour rotting bit of that money! It was all her idea!”
“Did you have any friends at the convent?” Rarity asked some time later, after back at the boutique Diamond had managed to get through some lukewarm porridge.
“Well yeah, one,” Diamond said wearily, “But like, it wasn’t my fault! I didn’t mean to let her be my friend.”
Rarity pressed a hoof against her forehead, and said, “Putting that aside, who would you rather be, a pony like your friend, or a pony like that insufferable judge?”
Diamond tilted an ear Rarity’s way, and said unsurely, “Well my friend, like obviously, but...”
“Perhaps you should start thinking about what kind of pony she was,” Rarity stated, “And what kind of pony you would like to be.”
Diamond tried not to think about it. But it was kind of... hard not to. Everypony was mad at her, and nopony liked her, and she was the biggest loser in all of Ponyville, if not Equestria. She couldn’t help but envy Peach Puff, who just got to live at the convent and eat oatmeal. She couldn’t help but want to be there, with her. Back when Peachy didn’t hate her. Diamond Tiara... she missed her friend.
Unfortunately, that was to soon be the least of her worries.
Diamond Tiara was a little worried now. The judge pony couldn’t punish her as long as the trial was going on, but they were running out of ponies to stand against Diamond Tiara. She hadn’t seen Blueberry Apple yet, so there were a few left. But ponies were really, really, really mad at her. Diamond wasn’t sure she could take both being pregnant and whatever punishment they wanted to do!
She was outside, and... just wandering around, trying to take her mind off the headache and the throbbing limbs. The air was so chill it made her shiver. It wouldn’t be long before the snow started to fall. Diamond had on a coat that Rarity—gave to her, for no reason. But she was just having such a hard time keeping herself warm lately. She didn’t even want to think about what would happen if she got stuck outside in a frost.
Diamond was out and wandering around, and everywhere she went, ponies would look the other way and avoid her, keeping a wide berth around her the way that only Rarity, and... Sweetie Belle did not do. She wasn’t really paying attention to the ponies though. Just staring at the ground and moving her heavy limbs, dragging that stupid foal around while she tried to blink the specks of light out of her eyes.
So that’s why Diamond Tiara didn’t notice until she’d run right into her, that a pony had approached. No, not a pony at all, but something Diamond had only seen in scary stories before. A zebra.
“Funny I should meet you here, Diamond Tiara, I fear?” the creature asked in a low, sonorous voice, staring at Diamond with deep blue eyes. Diamond looked back like a deer looks at a panther. Didn’t zebras eat ponies? Or something like that? How did a zebra get here?
“But where are my manners? Zecora is my name,” the zebra said with a swirl of her cloak and a smile. She was dressed in a thick cloak, almost, but not totally concealing her stripes, and her strange, short mane. “Would that you could do the same.”
Diamond edged backwards, ready to... try to run, at least. She didn’t want to get eaten, and she especially didn’t want her foal to get eaten too! “Please, do not flee, little filly,” the zebra, named Zecora apparantly, said hastily at Diamond’s skittishness. “I have a warning for you, of great gravity.”
Diamond... didn’t really understand, so she said, “Fffine? I’m not like, scared of you. I just don’t feel like running right now, yeah that’s it.”
“Diamond Tiara, I can tell that you do not feel very well,” Zecora said to Diamond Tiara. “I fear the tale has been left untold, why young fillies never foal. Your foal consumes you from within. Against this force, you cannot win.”
“W-what are you saying?” Diamond asked fearfully, backing up another step. She didn’t even realize it, but this zebra had waited until Diamond could be cornered in an alleyway, far away from any other pony seeing her. “I know pregnancy is a t-total drag, but what am I supposed to do about it?”
“A total drag, it certainly is,” Zecora replied calmly to the filly backed against the wall, “What you can do about it is this. Your body cannot sustain the foal. Removing it must be your goal. Doing so in pony society is absolutely forbidden, you see. But I come from a distant land, where a way to kill your foal is at hand.”
“I c-c-c—you can’t have her!” Diamond said shrilly. She didn’t have enough energy to shriek, because her foal was—that was a lie! She could sustain it! She was old enough to have an estrus! “I love my foal, and I can’t k-k-k-kill a pony. That’s something only evil ponies do! I’m just a bully I’m not—”
She looked down at the zebra’s strange hooves, repeating glumly, “I’m just a bully, not a murderer.”
“I cannot make this sound less grim,” Zecora said heedlessly, “You cannot do this on a whim. What I can give will kill your foal, which to anypony is an evil goal. But you have become so very ill, I could not in the shadows stand still. Your heart weakens, and your blood vessels crack. Your body thins from the food you lack.” She held up a hoof before Diamond could protest, continuing, “It is not your fault, for any filly below her growing age will become quite ill. You have no choice, but death to deal. There are no other options, real.”
“I’m not going to kill my foal, you witch,” Diamond snarled angrily. “Lying to me and trying to make me an evil pony. I won’t do it!”
“You will kill your foal, one way or the other,” Zecora said darkly, “What I propose will save the mother.”
“Save the—but I’m the mother!” Diamond squeaked in terror.
“You can still be saved, my dear,” Zecora said almost tenderly to the filly. “Though your death is drawing near. I can give you a powerful herb, that will your foaling, swiftly curb. Your birth will happen swift and sure, once you consume this cure. Of this deed which you have done, you must never tell anyone. You must become a liar, or the consequences will be dire. Ponies will see it as an accident, and will not know of your intent. But if they catch you with the cure, ponies will call you a murderer.”
“I’m—I’m not—” Diamond hissed out, too terrified by these horrible, evil words that the zebra was saying as casually as if they were things that anypony could ever say, ever.
“You wonder why you would do this at all. Ponies never told you of your downfall. It is a truth which ponies fear, so much they never want you to hear. You must not keep this foal, Diamond. If you try...”
The zebra paused then, a cool weariness flowing through her eerie dark eyes, looking at the frightened filly, who couldn’t help but listen, couldn’t help but hear what the zebra was going to say.
“Then both you and your foal, will die.”