To her credit, Diamond Tiara only panicked a little bit, and only sort of thought that if she made a break for the door, then she could escape the bad guards, who grabbed her in Dodge City and threw her in with all those... those ugly ponies. But Joe and Iris both grabbed Diamond in their magic, and struggle as she might, Diamond was once again one filly against two full grown adults, one of whom being a trained royal guard, apparently.
Diamond calmed down relatively quickly, after she found out Iris wasn’t going to send her back to the convent. Joe got Diamond all dressed up, and unicorns totally cheat at everything. Iris was... one of the good guards, it turns out, who are like, fighting secretly to beat the bad ones. Or something. She didn’t really want to talk about it, which was weird because Diamond thought it was totally awesome. Even weirder was a mare in the guard. Diamond thought only stallions were guard ponies, but Iris said that sometimes a mare was fine too! Or, it used to be like that, but now they only wanted stallions for some reason?
One way or another, when Diamond made her way out of that donut shop she was a brand new filly. Her dress covered the mess she’d made of her cutie mark, and she was accompanied by a shining gold example of authority in Canterlot. Nopony even dared to look at her, much less chase her or try to push her around. Diamond was starting to feel more like her old self again, by the time they got to the gate leading to the upper city, which was literally the part of Canterlot higher on the mountain, surrounding the palace.
Diamond Tiara stood there smugly at the gate, with her nose held in the air, while her very own personal guard pony said, “It’s a good thing I found this filly before sundown,” to the guards in the gateway. “If she’d wandered off any later, who knows what those street ponies might have done.”
“We should clean them out of the city,” one of the guards at the gate said with a frustrated grimace. “The whole lot of them! And you missy, you don’t go wandering around outside the gates,” he told Diamond. “Don’t you know it isn’t safe out there? You need to get in here, where you belong.”
Diamond allowed herself a small smile. Yes, right where she belonged.
The two of them found themselves in a beautiful neighborhood, full of large, beautiful lawns behind expensive, ornate gates, and majestic houses that seemed to sprawl even high up here on the mountain. It really reminded her of home, well, her home at least, even if most of Ponyville was a dump. The air here was crisp, but the sun was bright, and pleasant on the skin, what little skin Diamond had exposed. Her hide in fact, and her marred hindquarters were mostly concealed beneath a pretty buttercup yellow dress, that only let her tail out a little bit.
Whoever these ponies were helping Diamond, they sure seemed to have a bone to pick with her stallion. But Diamond was okay with that. Diamond could just use them, and save him, just when they thought she was going to help them, instead. Just like Dark Venom, in the third book of Con Mare, though she was a villain in that story, and Diamond really never understood why the writers went with that angle. But this “Joe” and “Iris” would be very useful to her plans. They got her into the protected upper city, and they were going to lead her right to wherever they were imprisoning him.
She couldn’t believe those two thought she was their friend. It was too rich. Diamond couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it in the first place, fooling royal guards into thinking that she was on their side. She was right under their nose, and they had their sights on a different target entirely. And Iris was only one guard, for that matter. Not even Joe came along with her. This lone, foolish guard would be easy to evade when the time came.
“Alright, this is the place,” Iris spoke, jarring Diamond out of her scheming. She looked up and... kept looking up.
“This is... just a house,” Diamond said uncertainly. It was more than just a house, of course. But that seemed to be par for the course in this neighborhood. She was looking at an elaborate estate, with sculpted hedges and what looked like a croquet course. It was beautiful, luxurious, and... completely unthreatening whatsoever.
“Yes, now the security is going to have a shift change soon,” Iris said looking intently at the property from where they were half concealed by an ornamental street garden. “If we make a move then, we’re most likely to be able to get in without being seen.”
“Where’s the dungeon?” Diamond asked cagily. She wanted to know in case things went south, so she could get right to him and rescue him.
“Dungeon?” Iris asked, as if she didn’t know. “I don’t know if this property has a dungeon,” she lied.
“Never mind!” Diamond said pleasantly, while cursing inwardly. It was too blunt a question, and now Iris’s suspicions had been raised. It must be a secret dungeon he’s being kept in, and Diamond wasn’t even supposed to know about it.
“Well alright then,” Iris said with some reservations, “Now, here’s the plan once we get you inside...”
Iris had a “plan” that was pretty much obviously a set-up. She wanted to frame Diamond’s stallion or something, and have Diamond accuse him of wrongdoing, which didn’t even make any sense since he was already imprisoned, so how much more in trouble could he possibly get? The two had some other agenda in mind, and they wanted to pull the wool over Diamond’s eyes with some phoney story of abuse and injustice, but Diamond was too smart for them. She hardly even listened as she planned what she was really going to do when she got inside.
Just like Iris said, the security guard left his post shortly after the tolling of the second hour, on a bell in a tower high overhead at the center of the castle. Before the next one could return, the two skulked up to the gate. Iris already had her horn prepped, and with a nerve wracking clunk the gate magically unlocked, swinging smoothly open as they scurried in, their hooves silent as possible on the smooth stone walkway. From there, it was straight to over by those sculpted bushes, where Iris pulled Diamond fully inside the thick topiary, severely mussing up her buttercup yellow dress in the process.
“Hey what’s the—” Diamond started to say, but Iris plugged her mouth, and sure enough, the other security guard was heading right up to the gate. Silently, they waited, for what seemed like hours, until Iris got some unknown signal, and pushed Diamond out of the bushes, to make a beeline for a servant’s entrance. Of course that was the easy way in, just like in the books. Diamond made a mental note to better secure her servant’s entrance when she got home. Quick as a flash, Iris divested Diamond of the dress and slapped her into ugly cooking scrubs. It was humiliating, but things were happening so fast now. Diamond hardly had an opportunity to squeak in protest, and anyway Iris also removed her own golden armor to replace it with those scrubs too. So at least she was fair about it.
“And... now, we find a way underground, right?” Diamond said, eyeing Iris as they snuck out of the closet they did their concealed change in. Iris abruptly stopped moving stealthily, and instead started plodding along like she was really tired, so Diamond imitated her as best as she could.
“No, remember?” Iris said in a sort of weird, dopey voice, “We’re cleaning ponies of the master, getting the banquet hall ready for the big event.”
Diamond nodded vaguely, and Iris harshly cautioned her, “Land sakes filly, you really are new here! You better shape up quick or the master is gonna have your tail whooped!”
She looked at Diamond and winked, and Diamond got it saying, “Oh! Right, so like, let’s get started right away.” There were other servants walking the halls now, and neither of them drew more than a second glance. They seemed to realize that Iris knew what her duty was, and as long as nopony bothered them, Diamond was her problem, not theirs.
Diamond Tiara didn’t expect that posing as servants would involve actually scrubbing the floors of this banquet hall, but Diamond already said she was gonna do it, and she’d be crazy to betray this Iris mare before learning of where the dungeon to this place was.
So there they were, relaxing in the spacious broom closet, while Diamond fussed over her poor hooves, which were already shaggy and unmanicured from her life the past... while. But now, they had cleaning stuff all over them! Iris objected that Diamond had never minded putting soap on her hooves before, but Iris just didn’t understand that this was something servants were supposed to do, not super secret super... spy ponies.
And that’s when everything went like totally, horribly wrong.
“Why do you keep asking about a dungeon?” Iris asked her for the third time, while Diamond leaned on a rickety chair, trying to get as much information out of this pony as she could.
“Just curious,” Diamond said. “I like, wanted to just take a look there before we did this... banquet thing.”
“We are not here to sightsee, filly,” Iris told her with a serious frown. “We’re here for the banquet, and everything is going down hard after that.”
“Who cares about some dumb banquet?” Diamond asked irritably. “I just want to see the dungeon. Why is that such a bad idea?”
“I told you, I don’t even know where a dungeon is in this place,” Iris whispered to her. “What do you even think you’re going to find there?”
“Duh,” Diamond chided her, “My stalli—” she shut up but it was too late. Iris’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth, and Diamond got ready to run.
“Why would he be in a dungeon?” Iris said flabbergasted. “This is his house!”
Diamond paused, an ear tilting in confusion. “...no it’s not,” she ventured.
“Why would he be in a dungeon in his own property?” Iris hissed, “What do you think we’re doing here, anyway?”
“We’re going to h-humiliate him and I’m totally okay with that I just like, want to like, know where he’s being... like... held.” Diamond was getting really worried here. She didn’t know what to say. Did Iris know? What did she mean in saying this was his house? Were they even talking about the same pony?
“Listen filly, this is his house, and this is his banquet,” Iris told her quietly, glancing around nervous of any listeners. “It is very important that you understand this. There are going to be a number of important guests here, and you’ll have a chance to finally expose that rat for the filly killing broodfucker that he is.”
“He—what?!” Diamond exclaimed in literal disbelief.
“Sorry, but it’s true,” Iris said tensely. “He goes for the young ones... he... this isn’t the first time he’s done it. This summer has been a devil’s playground for that bastard, and—I’m sorry, but you can—”
“No, you’re not sorry!” Diamond told her calmly and smoothly, without a raised voice at all. “You’re just a big liar! If he’s supposed to kill fillies, then how am I here, huh? He’s the perfect stallion, not some... big meanie!”
“Filly—please,” Iris hissed, glancing around at the other servants. “You’re attracting attention. We can talk about this after—”
“After what, after you show him off in a cage and get me to just laugh at him for what a bad pony he is?” Diamond said hotly. “I know what you’re trying to do. You think you can frame him, for something he didn’t do!”
“Filly you said he did it yourself,” Iris pleaded. “You’re ruining our cover. Somepony is going to hear us like this—”
“No!” Diamond demanded, “I will not shut up! You tell me where he’s being held right now.”
“He’s not being held this is his house!” Iris champed out. “He won’t be in prison until we—”
“Well, if you can’t tell me, then I’m gonna find out myself!” Diamond declared bravely, standing up from the chair and looking at the older unicorn with outrage and fear. “You go ahead and try to humiliate him, and when he’s escaped you’re gonna get your just desserts!”
“Filly—!” Iris said in a choked scream, lighting up her horn. She was gonna use magic on her! Diamond panicked. She swung the chair as hard as she could...
...and connected with the side of Iris’s head, with a dull thunk. The tall, fair mare went sprawling, and her horn flickered out. She lay there on the ground, unmoving. Did Diamond j-just...
“Did you just—?!”
“No!” Diamond yelped, whirling at the voice. A servant pony was staring at her, and Iris a-and the chair with shock. “No I— no!” Diamond knocked the chair over and bolted, gallopping as hard as she could in any direction that was away from that servant and Iris lying there so still. Diamond was seen! This was terrible! She had to like—she had to like, find him right away!
Shouts started to echo down the nearby hallways. Diamond was completely lost. She had no idea where she was supposed to go! She looked for stairs, for iron doors, for anything that might be his prison, but everything just looked all the same. Why was this house so big?! She had no advantage, with servants pursuing her, who knew their way around this house.
They easily corralled Diamond, blocking off all avenues of escape, and finally they just jumped on her. The servants being mostly earth ponies and low level unicorns, they didn’t exactly have a lot of magic, but they did have brute strength, and that easily countered Diamond Tiara’s... brute strength!
She had to find a way out, but she couldn’t even move! She wasn’t going back to that stupid convent! She had to escape! But how??
“What in Celestia’s name is going on over here?!” came a loud voice full of disapproval. A smooth, silky tenor. A familiar voice. Around Diamond all the servants scrambled to stand at attention before the... the master of the... house? It can’t be. There’s no way!
The servants all scrambled to attention, but that didn’t stop one of them continuing to hold Diamond down, so she couldn’t even lift her head to see, covering her mouth so she couldn’t speak. “So sorry sir,” came the trembling voice of one of the servants, “We didn’t mean to trouble you! We just had a little troublemaker here, nothing you need to be concerned with.”
And that might have been that, but Diamond bit the hoof that held her. With a squeal, the pony lurched back and Diamond was free. She jumped up she—she got tackled again. “Pierce!” she shouted reaching out to him, “Pierce, help! These ponies think I’m like a servant!” Even in the tumult she was trapped in, as soon as she snapped her head up to leap for him, Diamond knew it was him.
Before her, stood Diamond’s stallion, in a beautifully smart looking tuxedo, with a perfectly coiffed mane, and a gentlemanly cropped tail. He was everything she remembered. He was here!
“You’re not a servant?” he asked in puzzlement, leaning towards her where the servants seemed frozen, unwilling to so much as jerk her around while his attention was on her.
“Pierce, it’s me, Diamond Tiara!” she exclaimed in confused relief, “Pierce, you’re okay! I came to rescue you! How did you escape the dungeons?”
“What dungeons?” he asked incredulously. “Rescue me from what?”
“Weren’t you imprisoned here?” Diamond asked tremulously.
“Imprisoned?” he laughed, rising up straight, “This is my house! You are quite an amusing little filly. What is your name?”
“Then why didn’t you come back?!” Diamond shrieked at him. Sensing her distress, the others became mystically unfrozen, and held her down from charging at him, as they looked up at him in confused apology.
“That’s a strange name,” he remarked calmly.
“My name is Diamond Tiara!” Diamond said accusingly. “You know me!”
“Afraid the name isn’t ringing a bell,” he said, looking at an immaculately groomed hoof. “I can’t possibly remember all of my fans, you have to understand.”
“Fan—!” Diamond choked out, “You said we were gonna get out of this stupid Equestria! You were going to take me on adventures, and we were gonna do incredible things! You said—how could you forget about me? Filthy Rich is my daddy! I’m not a f-fan I’m your—you love me! You gave me your child! Pierce—we, we’re g-gonna do such incredible things together we j-just gotta ditch these servants and—and I didn’t see your blimp outside, but, but...”
“Oh,” he said in a stricken tone, sagging to his haunches. “I see what this is about. Oh dear.” He didn’t talk to Diamond then, but to the ponies holding her, saying, “My great thanks to you, hard working staff, because it seems you’ve caught a little spy in our midst.”
“Spy—!” Diamond choked out, too angry to even speak.
“Tell me, filly,” he said getting right in her face. “Who set you up to this? Was it Fancy Pants? He would stoop to such slander and blackmail. Upper Crust, perhaps? Surely not Blueblood, though I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Nobody set me—I’m not lying!” she shouted at him. “H-how could I be lying you—you were there! You were inside me! You did—you did it and and...”
He pulled back, sighing in disapproval, and saying, “Well you certainly have your act down very well, little gold digger. Thank Celestia my good servants caught you before the banquet, or your lies could have done some serious damage to my reputation.”
“You think I’m lying—you think I don’t know you,” Diamond said, struggling to throw off her holders. “You think they’re going to buy it—you... you... you don’t want to be the father of my child at all! You lied to me!”
“Filly, we’re going to have a nice long talk after the banquet,” he chided her. “You are going to reveal who sent you to destroy my reputation, and what they promised you. Until then, our conversation is over.” With that, he turned to walk away from Diamond. She shouted at his retreating rear,
“You can’t do this to me! I’ll find out! I’ll there—there are ways to find out who’s the father!” the servants were actively pulling her away now, but Diamond continued to struggle to shout at him. “I’ll find out it’s you and—and they’ll put you in the dungeons, and you’ll never go on adventures and—and—! Let go of me!”
“Diamond Tiara,” his words cut through the scrabbling, and everypony looked up again, where the beautiful Pierce stood, not even turning around, just looking over his shoulder.
“I don’t know what stallion did this to you,” he said, “But if he did something so terrible, as to fill such a young filly with child...” She could swear his eyes flashed with triumph.
“Do you really think he wouldn’t have used another stallion’s seed, instead of his own?” he remarked slyly.
Diamond tried to answer, but her brain just sort of broke on imagining that. “Y-you can’t...” she attempted lamely.
“There are ways,” he told her, tapping his horn with a hoof. “Goodbye, Diamond Tiara,” he said. Then, turning with his nose in the air, Diamond Tiara’s stallion trotted away from her, with a jaunty spring in his step, down his hall of his house. Diamond was dragged away in the other direction, but she couldn’t even struggle anymore. He didn’t... love her? He didn’t even know her? Everypony was supposed to know Diamond Tiara! He... he was lying about so much, she couldn’t—she couldn’t even imagine... another stallion’s seed?
Could you do that? She felt him! Diamond felt him, his strangely right-sized shaft plunged deep in her passage. She felt it moving, throbbing, pumping over and over to fill her with child. She had looked into his eyes when he did it. It was so romantic. He looked at her with so much love. He—he lied to her? How could it be some other stallion’s seed? He... he just took some stallion’s seed and just... put it in his own penis? She didn’t... there was no way to even... whose seed was inside her? Did Pierce even use his own penis? She—she didn’t know if those could be magically rearranged!
Diamond was in too much shock to cry. They just sat her down in a room with no windows, tied her to the chair, and left a servant pony to watch her. Diamond felt... dirty down there. Diamond had taken so many penises into her, and the stallions behind them had been so in love with pumping her full of their goo. She had stretched, and bled, and cried, and squeezed, and orgasmed, and cried out in bliss, more times than she could count, and none of those made her feel as dirty as she felt now. None of those times, not the scary ones, nor the ugly ones, not the ones where the stallion called her a dirty slut and demanded she beg for him to give her his penis, none of those made her feel as dirty as this.
She looked down at her cleft numbly; slouched as her limp body could be all tied up like this, it was quite apparant that Diamond was a filly. She imagined his... his figure above her, curled protectively over his mare, filling her, completing her. Now that Diamond thought about it, his penis had been a different color than the rest of him. No other stallions were like that, though some had a sort of fleshy mottling towards the tip. She thought—Diamond hadn’t even cared. It just—it just fit perfectly. She loved it and she loved him, and... what was Pierce? He wasn’t her stallion at all! He was...
He was a monster.
It was starting to look like Diamond didn’t even know who the father of her child was. Not even the father of her child would know, unless Pierce was lying about that too. W-well Diamond would give birth and then ch-check the foal to make sure that it isn’t really his and she didn’t even know what was in her tummy anymore. That managed to break through her fog, and Diamond started crying softly at just the sheer wrongness of it all. She had come so far, and had so much good luck, and this was her reward? Her stallion was a jerk? Joe was... was right about him?
Blueberry? Blueberry was... right?
Diamond had just ignored him. She had just let Joe down, and hurt Iris totally on accident, and left Blueberry, instead of listening to him, and just... failed at everything. She went and put some... some big jerk higher than ponies who was actually useful to her, just because he came inside her, and told her all those stories she wanted to be true. Of course he was lying about it! About it all! Who wouldn’t?
And it wasn’t even his penis! Diamond hadn’t even... she hadn’t even offered to let Joe mount her. Her greatest enemy this whole time, and she threw away everything for him. They were right about her... they were all right. Diamond Tiara was a horrible little filly, who couldn’t do anything right.
Her tears ran out eventually, and she sagged in place, still trying to get her head around how she could possibly have been so stupid to think that her stall—that Pierce ever even loved her. Just ragged breaths and silence. Just ragged breaths and—
And then the pony minding her was opening the door, out of this little windowless room they were in, that smelled bad. It was a stallion; Diamond had hardly even noticed who was minding her, but it was a stallion. Dressed in worker’s scrubs, just like she technically was, he was a very blue looking unicorn, with an electric blue mane. He untied her then, and—he untied her?
“Listen filly,” he said in a tight voice getting in her face, “You—you gotta run. I just can’t take it. If he gets you, you don’t deserve that. Nopony does. I–I don’t care what he does to me, you just... he’s gonna be comin’ for you and you gotta get outta here, and you gotta run. He won’t let you go filly, you understand, he won’t let you go.”
“What are you—” Diamond said half in disgust at the stallion’s frightening earnesty. But, at this point she was ready to believe anything. “Where’s the way out?” she asked warily.
“Take a right at the fountain... the kitchens are on the left then. And past them’s a servant’s entrance,” he said to her, practically pushing Diamond out of the room. “Y-you then I—I dunno how you get over the walls. We don’t get out ourselves till dark, and by then he’ll already... just—find a way filly. I don’t even care just, find a way!”
“Run!” he shouted, shoving her rear. Diamond ran. It was so surreal, because she didn’t know what she was running from. She did know, because the servants that saw her gave chase, but she wasn’t running from them. She was running from something scarier, something more unknown.
Anyway, now that Diamond knew a way out, she didn’t get corralled. She knew just where to go thanks to that... blue worker pony. But how was she going to get over the wall? She needed a ladder. The scrubs she was wearing! The—that’s it! Diamond barrelled right into the kitchen, shouting loudly in a helpless, frightened voice, “I need a ladder! Does anypony know where a ladder is? Oh, the master’s new cat is up on the wall! I need to go fetch it before he finds out!”
She felt the words leave her mouth like ugly, bitter oil, just calling him “the master” but that’s what he was. Diamond didn’t even know him anymore. How could he be the master of the house? Who did she even expect to find here? Did she ever even know him?
As luck would have it, nopony here immediately recognized and jumped on her. Diamond knew luck had nothing to do with it of course, since kitchen servants were different from cleaning servants, and there was no way they had a chance to communicate in just the past few minutes. Minutes! It had only been minutes?! She was freaking out—
“Over here, child!” a fat, straw colored pony with a sous chef’s hat said, running up with a ladder on her back. “The master has a cat now?!” the mare squealed aggrivatedly, “Show me where it’s gone over. We can still catch it before he knows!”
Diamond ran outside with her, shouting eagerly, “There! I see it—oh no she’s going to go jump onto the other side!”
“I’ll get theh thing!” the mare declared bravely, slapping the ladder against the side of the wall. Diamond’s ear turned back, when the older mare started to climb up. Behind her, Diamond heard a shout in her direction, not far behind where she stood:
“What—stop that filly!”
Diamond jumped, not even thinking, just used the mare as a platform, climbing her back and jumping off her head, to land squarely on the ladder. Diamond clambered up it, desperate to reach the top of the perimeter wall before that mare thought to pull the ladder out from under her. But this mare helping Diamond wasn’t crafty. She just stared and exclaimed in a flabbergasted tone, “What on earth are ye doing, filly?!”
Diamond couldn’t stop grinning there up on the wall. She couldn’t stop as she struggled to focus on the mare down there, exclaiming giddily, “I’m a kitty cat!”
Then she just jumped off the wall. She should have looked first—the ground came up way too fast, and Diamond’s enervated hooves collapsed under her, the moment she landed. She went rolling forward from the impact. That was good, it turns out, because Diamond might have broken something had she not just crumpled right away. Pierce’s wall—his—his wall?! His wall was a lot higher than the convent’s, and the ground was a lot more firm and unyielding here, stone rather than the soft dirt she landed on before.
Diamond was sure she scraped herself. She was probably bleeding! She struggled to her hooves, trying to look herself over her—her pregnant self she—this couldn’t be happening! She had a scrape on her cannon, but there was no time to sit there and lick it. Ponies were already coming up the ladder after her; she could hear them coming!
Diamond fled as fast as she could gallop. Why were the streets so open and exposed here?! Why were they all straight and orderly, with no twists, turns, alleyways or hiding spots? Why had she even thought for a minute that he was a—she had to focus. She slowed to a walk, none of her pursuers around that she could see, only a blur of other ponies. She had to keep it together. Just keep it... together!
“You there, filly!” a golden armored guard called out to her.
Diamond kept running. What else could she do?
“Stop in the name of Equestria!” he shouted. She didn’t stop.
“Stop that marred filly!” he shouted to another guard, just in time for that guard to look down at Diamond... very... slowly... as she slowly... ran past... him... and he couldn’t catch her in time. But now he was chasing her too! Diamond had never been so scared in her whole life. It seemed like there were guards coming from every corner to converge on her. Big stallion guards who thundered down on her like an oncoming train. She couldn’t breathe because she couldn’t stop crying and tears were streaming down her face and how could he say that to her?!
It was no good. There was no way to hide. There was no way to outrun the powerful guards. Iris was nowhere to be seen because—because Diamond used her too soon! Diamond hurt her like an idiot, instead of using her to escape. Why did she do that? She had just been so scared and—and they were corralling her in.
Diamond knew what they were doing. They wanted to capture her. There were less and less places to run, and before she knew it she was backed right up to the edge of the upper city. There was a lovely golden rail here, that her tail bunched up against, as the guards trotted toward her briskly. Diamond glanced—glanced down. She saw a—a fountain! It would be just like in Daring Do and the Forgotten City. It—it was so far down. She—she had to make it. She had just jumped down Pierce’s wall, so this was nothing special right? Just a little bit... a lot... higher.
The lead guard broke into a gallop across the vista square when Diamond vaulted over the railing, scrabbling on the edge as she tried to prepare herself to leap. She had to make it across to the fountain. She had to! The guard lit up his horn. Diamond leaped—just in time. His magic tore off a piece of her tail, but he missed grabbing her! Diamond was home free! She was
She was falling short of the fountain. She didn’t want to hit the cement she was f a l l i n
“In the name of Celestia filly, what in all the Tartarus spawned three eyed toad beasts art thou doing?!” a mare’s rough voice hollered in Diamond’s ear. Diamond’s scream died, as she opened her squeezed shut eyes, and gasped for breath. She found herself hanging not even two feet away from the hard, stone walkway. The fountain was a long way ahead of her. It hadn’t looked that far away, when she jumped. Why hadn’t Diamond landed? What was going on—
Diamond was shaken in mid air, as the mare, a purple pony in a big poofy blue dress addressed her saying, “Answer me, filly! Why hath thou bodily leapt out of the upper city?! Thine death was assured!”
“I–I–I—like,” Diamond stuttered senselessly, looking up at her tail from which she was hanging. The tip looked ragged and was already starting to sting with pain, but the greater part of it was in the green grasp of a unicorn’s magic. This unicorn was looking at Diamond with a pained grimace, straining just to hold Diamond up in the air, her horn lit up like a lollipop. Looking beyond her captured tail above her, and high above, Diamond could see was a seemingly endless wall going up and up, at the top of which three tiny little guards were peering down at her. Two guards then leaped off the ledge, but they spread their wings. Oh no—!
“Let me go, hurry! Let me go!” Diamond squealed, swinging crazily in mid-air.
“Art thou blemished?” the mare asked staring at Diamond’s flank in bewilderment as her scrubs fell over her head. “How art thou—even in this city? Thine mark is covered—art thou a mongrel, or is that ink—”
“Just let me go!” Diamond said, lashing out at the mare. Her hoof met only air as Diamond swung there, so close to the earth, but so far!
“Calm thyself, filly, just a moment now!” the mare said, shakily settling Diamond to the ground. “Now why hast thou marked thine—” Diamond ran from her.
“Filly!” the mare called out behind her. “You rude little filly, we merely hath some...” and that was the last Diamond heard of her. Diamond just ran down the first alley she saw, hearing, feeling, imagining the wingbeats of the guards breathing down her neck. She ran and—and ran and, and she saw a pile of trash bags out behind the store it was—Diamond dove into it without a second thought. It smelled horrible! It was full of rotting straw and old vegetables. She was so scared she pulled the bag over her bottom, she yanked her tail in.
There in front of her, two pegasus guards silently glided past.
Diamond watched them go, her head hurting, her tail hurting, her legs her—her everything hurting. Her heart was beating so fast she didn’t think it would ever slow down. She was hidden and they—they couldn’t see her! Diamond was so completely spooked that she didn’t move for anything. She just sat there, staring forward with wide eyes through the horrible smelling bags that just saved her from—from something! She didn’t understand what was going on, so she didn’t move. She couldn’t accept what happened, so she didn’t move. She didn’t know where the guards were, or the servants, or Pierce, so she just sat there.
Her shivering started to ease off, and with that the tears started coming again. Diamond couldn’t take it anymore. The horrible sobs just ripped out of her and she couldn’t even conceal him. And the worst thing is, nopony even seemed to care. She was the lowest, low of all lows. She was the worst filly who ever lived. She was—nopony. There was no pony here, just a bunch of trash. Diamond wished... she wished was a pony.
Even Diamond’s crying had started to putter out, when a pony came to take out the trash. Her quiet whimpers turned into the sucking in of startled breaths, as a pony threw a bag of trash right next to her. It made Diamond jump so much, that the whole pile came down around her. “What?!” a violet stallion in a paper hat exclaimed, as Diamond lurched away from him. “A filly? What are you—”
Diamond tried to run away, but she just stumbled and fell over. Her leg hurt so much she couldn’t even—
“Hold on now,” the stallion said in an appeasing tone, holding up a hoof to stay her, “I’m not gonna hurt you. I just wanna know why you were sitting in the trash pile?”
Diamond struggled to her hooves, saying, “I was—” before she lost her voice again, and her stupid eyes filled with stupid tears, so she couldn’t even see him.
“Look filly, just come on inside I’ll get you a... a something,” he said awkwardly, taking Diamond by the hoof. Which of course made her squeal in pain. “Are you hurt, filly?” he asked in alarm. “Just... just get inside, before a guard sees you like...this.”
That pain hadn’t been her scraped hoof. When did she hurt her front right one? Did Diamond bang it when she jumped over the wall? That must have been it. She hadn’t even noticed until he pulled on it and her leg flared in pain.
Diamond... got herself inside. She didn’t like, have anything better to do at this point. She just limped on three legs after him, into what looked like a burger joint. A sizzling fryer, a bunch of big iron pots, and the smell of fried hay everywhere. Diamond was so hungry.
“Steady, what are you—” a blue haired, dark peach mare in a white collared shirt said as the two of them came in. “Is that a... filly?”
“I swear I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Steady said nervously. “I just found this filly in the trash—in the...trash, yeah. She was just—boss, I think she’s hurt!”
The boss eyed Diamond up and down, and said, “What does this look like, a hospital? Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?”
“I’m okay I just—” Diamond gulped anxiously, “I just need to like, rest a little bit. A-and I wish I could have a hayburger.”
The boss raised an eyebrow. “You don’t look like you got a lotta money, filly.”
“I... my saddlebags are—gone,” Diamond said in an unsettled tone. “I don’t have any m-money I just like, I just really need some... something and I can’t like, and all the grass is like, mowed around here.”
The mare got a strained look, putting a hoof on her own forehead. “Look, we’re not a charity, filly,” she said unhappily.
“Then where is a charity?” Diamond asked her. “Or... or some place to look at my leg for like, not... money.”
“...let me just get you a burger,” the mare said in a resigned tone, causing the stallion who escorted her in to sag with relief. “You like ketchup on your hayburger?” the boss mare called over her shoulder as she trotted off.
“I... don’t know?” Diamond said looking to the stallion who still stood there. “I never actually had a hayburger before.”
“Everything’s better with ketchup,” he said confidently.
The stallion led Diamond Tiara into a room in the back, where all the hay and fryer oil was stored. There, he stopped Diamond, and said,
“Now about your leg, can you stand on it?”
Diamond carefully put her leg down, and it didn’t hurt as much when she carefully stood on it. “Yeah?” she asked. “It still hurts.”
“So sue me; I flip burgers, not heal ponies,” he grumbled, glaring at his own horn. “I heard if you can stand on it, then it’s not as bad, that’s all.”
“...if you say so,” Diamond said. They stared at each other for a while.
“What are you wearing?” the stallion asked. “It’s all beat up.”
“Oh, ju–just something I wore from... somewhere,” Diamond said uneasily, hastily pulling the torn, dirty scrubs off of her body.
“I-it’s nothing special,” she said, when his eyes widened, at the removal of her clothing. Diamond just kicked the... formerly white things over to pile against the wall.
“Not that. Your rump!” he exclaimed. “You’re a deformed filly? How long have you been here?”
“What?” Diamond said looking at her—ick, her black rump. That did look pretty bad, it must have been really unsettling to him. “I just—”
“You need to get outta this city, filly,” he told her urgently, “You know any relatives that you can stay with?”
Diamond turned her nose down nervously, saying, “I... I do.” And she did. She did!
“Not safe for blemished ponies around here,” he said nervously. “The boss won’t like it if you’re a splotch rump. You know how much trouble we could get in?”
“I—I’m not,” Diamond admitted finally. “It’s just some ink I was—making a costume, to um... be a deformed filly. I can just like, clean it off...” And boy oh boy did she want to clean it off. That had to have been like the worst idea ever. Second only to... to coming here.
“A-are you serious?” he asked in surprise, leaning over to look at Diamond’s rump more closely. “You poured ink all over your...?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Diamond admitted miserably. “I’m gonna take it off like as soon as I can. It was like, a... a costume, yeah.”
“Steady! Order on 6!” the mare shouted from the front of the building.
“I gotta go, just uh... just stay back here, okay?” he asked. Diamond couldn’t think of a good answer, so she just looked at him, while he hesitated, then trotted on out of the back room.
She didn’t want to. Diamond just wanted to hide here in this crummy back room and never leave and never go anywhere again. She wished she could just... not be here in the first place. She wished she was a thousand miles away and a lifetime ago, before estrus, before stupid stallions, before Canterlot before... everything. But she was here, and she couldn’t change what happened, and now she felt safe and cared for, but it wouldn’t be long before she had to make tracks again.
They... they really did bring her a hayburger! And it was the best hayburger she’d ever eaten! They didn’t even have to do that, and now she just had to leave, and just waste this kind of... of... pony thing.
Diamond had to ditch these ponies. They were telling her it was okay, that they understood—well they didn’t understand! Diamond was in trouble. She was in big trouble. The guards were chasing her and they were gonna come and she’d be lucky if they took her to the convent! The sobering thought occurred to her that the convent might actually not be the worst possible thing that could happen to her.
She didn’t know if the ponies here were gonna turn her in or save her, or what. They were just fry cooks! For all she knew, she could’ve been right next to the hideout of those robbers! Except they’re in Dodge, and Canterlot is too freaky clean and neat for ponies like that to even be allowed to walk around. Diamond would have loved it. She would have felt nothing but smug glee that ponies were finally getting their just desserts, not even having the right to walk around and be unmolested. But not if she was one of those ponies!
It was so stupid, even these stupid fry cooks were neat and tidy. Diamond felt practically filthy just being here. She needed a bath, and a bubble bath at that, and she needed her hair styled, and her tail deburred. And she needed to clean this ink off her flank! Her whole life was over, and she was the one who couldn’t walk around outside, while they could do it without even worrying! Just because she was a little filly? No, because they thought she was a pinto, which was like, illegal for some stupid reason.
She couldn’t get her scented bubble bath, but she did find a wash tub, and some abrasive soap powder. It needed to be abrasive too, because this ink had pretty much crusted on and soaked in. But nopony covers up a cutie mark for long, and the hairs of her coat bravely rejected the darkness, washing away in rivulets down the soapy floor drain, until her rump was beautiful and pink again, and her cutie mark was so clean, it sparkled. As soon as Diamond saw it again, she knew what a good idea it was to clean it off. She was still a hunted filly in this city, but seeing that sparkling tiara, she felt better than she’d felt this entire time since coming here.
Diamond totally wasn’t panicking when the guards came into the front of the restaurant and started speaking with the manager who’d been so nice to her and—and pliable so far. She wasn’t thinking about how they could finally convict her of the absolutely unforgivable crime of not being nice when the guards are watching. She just needed to get out. She needed to get help, and the only pony who could help her now was Daddy. So when those ponies tried to cover for her for no reason, since they weren’t getting anything out of it, the flustrated Diamond Tiara just slipped out the back.
She didn’t know where she was going—she didn’t need to know where she was going. Nothing in this mountain city was superfluous, and it was easy as pie to leave it. They didn’t even guard the checkpoints on the way out, and there were no walls Diamond Tiara had to surmount. Her only scare was when a guard she didn’t see just shouted at her to put some clothes on. Diamond was anything if not compliant. When she pushed that filly down and stole her shopping bag, it was practically on a royal mandate!
It was an emergency anyway, and even if this scratchy blue dress was—looked kind of cheap, and didn’t fit of course, it concealed Diamond enough that she could get to the building that led out of the shield. Diamond left the city proper, looking all around above her for pegasus guards, or Pierce’s... that stallion’s flunkies, who were clearly out to get her the last time she saw them. She couldn’t believe he... he said that! She couldn’t believe she ever trusted him! Diamond had to trust him though! He had to be a good stallion! It was either that or—
Or she’d be having this child alone.
She didn’t want to think about that. She didn’t want to think about anything. She just wanted to get through this scary black building dividing the shield in half. She was tired of adventures, sick of Canterlot, and sick of travelling. She just wanted to go home to her lavish meals and her nice warm bed, and her... other bed, and just figure out some way to deal with this. One thing is for sure, Daddy was not going to be happy that Pierce treated her this way, and he was going to make that stallion sorry he ever crossed her. Daddy would know what to do about this. It was going to be okay. Diamond was coming home.
Or she would if she could work up the nerve to try and get out through this building. Were they going to question her? Were they going to catch her? There was no way out so Diamond had to approach, though she did so very cautiously. There was a way into the building labeled “Exit” so Diamond cautiously crept into that one, and trotted down the dark hallway. She hoped whatever was at the end of this wasn’t too hard to fool into letting her leave.
What was on the other end of this was a turnstile, and past the turnstile there was... nothing. She trotted out of the other end of the building, looking up with surprise at the great shield above her, and the egress she emerged from that said—oh, of course. “Do not Enter: Exit Only.”
“I guess I... don’t have to check out?” Diamond said uncertainly, but there was nopony outside to answer her. So she just turned away and gave a confused huff, stalking off without another word. She didn’t even care. She didn’t even—she just wanted to get home. She was hurting so bad, she... she needed to tell daddy about her hurt leg, and her hurt pride, and her hurt... uh... her occupied womb. He didn’t even know, Diamond had been too stupid and scared to tell him. She bet he knew all the tricks about having a foal, when stallions are being stupid about it. It was just something that happened to ponies like her, Diamond working so hard at making herself pregnant all the time. She bet Silver Spoon messed up too, and stopped taking her birth control. It was so easy to do so, once you start thinking about foals and adventures and... and Pierce...
Diamond wasn’t dry eyed when she stumbled onto the train platform, but she wasn’t going to cry about it, just... was a little sad about it and stuff. She couldn’t possibly miss him, not after he said that to her! Not after he insinuated that she—that he used magic to steal another stallion’s penis, and Diamond didn’t even know who it was who did it inside her. Daddy would know if that was possible. Daddy would tell her it’s silly, and Pierce is lying, and when Diamond has the foal it will be Pierce’s and he’ll get in big trouble for pretending it wasn’t. Or however that worked.
Diamond wasn’t crying because she missed him. There was no way Diamond would ever miss a complete and total jerk like him. She... she just remembered all those nice things he said about her. He was the only one who could understand her... she thought. She hoped he would be... different.
All her money was practically stolen by that Joe pony, who shouldn’t have been right. He should have been just a mean pony, and not so horribly right, and not trying to help her, and just trying to lie and make up terrible things to say about Pierce. If only that were true, then maybe Diamond would hate him for stealing her money. But she just... couldn’t see anything bad about it. Why should some bottom scraping nopony have any money, anyway? She could steal everything she needed, and all she had to do was not get caught, so what’s the big problem?
Diamond didn’t know. But she did know that the only thing keeping her from her daddy was gone, gone, gone. She just had to jump this train and—and get home. Would he even be home though? Daddy had been there when she got foalnapped, so surely he got foalnapped too! She hoped he was—she hoped she wouldn’t have to rescue him too. She hoped he was just at his house, with that pleased expression on his face, like as if nothing bad had ever happened.
