Diamond Tiara Makes a New Friend

Last week had been one of the greatest weeks in Diamond Tiara's life. She was wary at first. It was fun having Babs turn on the Cutie Mark Crusaders for a bit, but she never had any intention of actually hanging out with the new blank flank. But after some convincing from Silver Spoon, she decided to give her a chance, and the three fillies spent the entire week together. When they weren't tormenting Apple Bloom and her friends, they were taking Babs all around Ponyville, showing her the sights, and just generally having a good time together.

Bowling, tennis, running, frisbee, video games, comic books, braiding each other's manes, and even just chilling at Sugar Cube Corner. The three had so much fun getting to know each other, and Diamond had to admit that, for somepony related to Apple Bloom, Babs was one of the coolest ponies she'd ever met. She had even offered to help Babs find her Cutie Mark, but the other filly declined. Diamond didn't understand why, but she did now.

During the second week of Babs' stay, she had told Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon that she had to stay at the farm and do lots of work. A 'family thing' she said it was, and she advised they stay away, since Apple Bloom was going to be there with her big sister.

And so, on the day that Babs was to return to Manehatten, they thought that they'd surprise her by showing up at the train station and seeing her off. And what they found shocked the both of them to the core. Babs Seed no longer had any intention of hanging out with them… because she was hanging out with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She even had their trademark red cape around her neck! And when they tried to put up a strong front to save face, Babs defended them. Babs threatened to snitch on them, and forced them both to walk backwards into a pile of mud.

For Silver Spoon, this was no big loss. But for Diamond Tiara, this was proof of what she had previously preached to Silver Spoon, every time the nosy filly insisted she try and socialise with other ponies: that ponies are jerks. That nopony ever wants to be friends with her, and that those who say they do are all liars.

To Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon was the only friend she needed. And the only friend she wanted. So what if Babs Seed betrayed her? So what if that stupid blank flank was only playing pretend, just to hurt her feelings? She failed! Diamond Tiara's feelings weren't hurt! She was strong, and it would take a lot more than some stupid blank flank to… To…

Diamond Tiara stopped at the gate to her house, and silently began to cry. She didn't even check to see if anypony was around. She just let the tears fall out of her eyes, which sped up the more she thought about Babs Seed. About the filly who broke her heart. She could see Babs grinning at her, in that strange way that originally attracted Diamond Tiara's interest. And then, she could see Babs laughing at her. Laughing at her pain. At her misery.

Today had been terrible for the young filly, and she could only see worse days ahead of her from now on.

*Snort, snort!*

Diamond lifted her face from her foreleg, and turned around to see a strange pink blur standing behind her. She wiped the tears away with her still-muddy hoof, and sniffed as she re-opened her eyes to see a small pink pig standing before her, looking up at Diamond Tiara with a goofy grin on its face.

"W-What do you want?" Diamond asked, putting venom in her voice to sound tough. Was this the same pig that she had fell on in that mud pit? "Did you follow me here? Why?"

The pig didn't answer, naturally, as pigs were unable to speak, but it did raise its head up, revealing the muddy tiara that it was holding in its mouth. Diamond's eyes grew wide in surprise.

"Is… Is this… my tiara?" she asked, and then slowly reached a hoof forward, and pulled the tiara out of the pig's mouth. Ew. It was all slobbery. "Did you… come here to return this to me?"

The pig snorted again, a sound that Diamond took some offence too, but she smiled a little bit as she looked down at her tiara. "… Thanks," she said, sniffing once more as her tears came to a halt. She noticed that she, along with her tiara, was absolutely filthy, and needed a bath right away. She then noticed that the pig was still standing there, simply staring at her. "… Yes?" she asked, wondering what else this animal could have wanted.

She looked the pig over, and found that it, much like Diamond Tiara, was also filthy. There were spots of mud all over its body, and she saw a trail of muddy hoofprints behind it, leading through the street.

"… You're filthy," she said flatly, walking closer to the pig. "Daddy always said it's important to repay your debts as quickly as you can." She tugged at the pig's left foreleg, hoping to drag it with her towards her house. To her surprise, it wasn't that difficult. Although as it turned out, that was because the pig itself was walking as she pulled it along. "I'm going to give you a bath, and then I want you gone. Got it?"

The pig responded with a simple snort.

---

"Daddy? I'm home," Diamond Tiara said as she entered her house. "I'm going to take a hot bath. It's been a tough day."

"One second, Diamond!" Filthy Rich shouted from upstairs, and in a few seconds, he came running down the stairs, but stopped upon seeing his daughter. "Whoa! Diamond, sweetie, what happened to you?!"

"I just… tripped," Diamond lied. If she ratted on Babs, she would rat on her. "Can you make this quick? I really want to wash myself off."

"Oh, well I was just going to ask if you help me move some of the furniture outside while I redecorate, but I suppose you really should take a bath first." Filthy Rich's attention was drawn to the strange guest that Diamond Tiara had brought home with her. "Um… Diamond, are you aware that there's a pig standing beside you?"

"Yeah, so?" Diamond asked, not at all caring about the tone of her voice right now.

"Oh, uh… That's fine, just as long as you're aware. Um, I guess I'll let you have your bath in peace." Not giving any response, Diamond trotted – or rather, stomped – her way up the stairs, grumbling angrily under her breath about something that Filthy Rich couldn't make out.

Filthy Rich simply stared blankly at the top of the stairs, wondering what in Equestria was going on. 'Coming home all filthy… Bringing home strange farm animals… Clearly hiding something from me… And a sudden bad attitude? Oh no. Please tell me she's not having a rebellious phase…'

---

Diamond turned off the bathwater, and slowly sank into the warm, relaxing water, a pleasant sigh escaping her lips as she did so. This was exactly what the filly needed after such a rough day as today. She simply lay there in silent bliss for a few minutes, soaking in the water and allowing her mind to wander… Until a few snorts to her left brought her back to reality.

She turned around to see the pig from earlier string at her, that same smile on its face, and she sighed as she moved over to the nearby showerhead, and began spraying it on the filthy creature. To her surprise, besides a few twitches and cringes, the pig actually didn't make much effort to avoid the warm water from the showerhead hitting it. She didn't know much about farm animals, but she assumed that, like most animals, they hated the idea of being washed. Especially considering how filthy they always were.

"Stupid Silver Spoon," Diamond muttered to herself as she ran the water over the pig, washing off all of the mud. "'Just give her a chance', she said. 'You'll like making new friends'. Yeah, sure. Maybe next time I'll just give a list of my fears and allergies to that flightless Pegasus."

She sighed and lowered her head when she realised what she was doing. Silver Spoon was her one and only friend, and yet here she was, talking down about her behind her back. It wasn't Silver Spoon's fault, right? She couldn't have known Babs would turn on them like that, right?

Diamond Tiara jolted up when she felt something against the side of her head, and found the pig leaning forward. It had started nuzzling her when she started moping, and when she backed away, it raised its head back up to give her that same smile as before.

"… You're lucky," she said, picking up the showerhead and starting to wash the pig again. "You don't have to worry about anypony betraying you, or forcing you into mud. You actually enjoy playing around in mud like that, don't you?"

Diamond put the showerhead away after she had finished, and looked around for a bottle of shampoo, to wash her mane. "Where is it?" she asked herself out loud. She felt something poking against her foreleg, and turned around to see the pig holding a bottle of shampoo in its mouth. She stared in bewilderment for a few seconds, before smiling and taking the shampoo from it. "… Thanks," she said silently, and then began applying the shampoo to her mane.

"Y'know, I'm probably making too big a deal out of this, aren't I?" she asked, making sure that the shampoo was rubbed thoroughly into her mane. "Babs was cool and all, but I still have Silver Spoon with me. And now, she knows that I'm right when I say that other ponies can't be trusted. Daddy always says that negative life experiences are just as important as positive ones, so…"

Diamond held her breath and dunked her head under the bath water, emerging a few seconds later with her head completely soaked, and the shampoo washing out of her mane. She turned around to the still-smiling pig, and let out a little giggle. "Why am I talking to you? It's not like you can understand me…" She thought about how the pig had tracked her down to return her tiara, how it had tried to comfort her when she was upset, and how it had passed her the shampoo when she couldn't find it.

"… Would you… like to hear more?" The pig snorted in response, and Diamond, with a smile, began to tell the pig everything that had happened regarding Babs Seed. She stopped every now and then to let out a few tears, but whenever she did, her captive audience was always ready to nuzzle her until her calmed down.

Even if her listener couldn't respond to her, and even if it could only understand parts of what she was saying… somehow, just having someone, or something, to talk to right now, even this pig, was a nice experience for the depressed filly. It felt nice to get everything off of her chest. To just vent out her frustrations, and to just be heard out as she did so.

When she was finished with her bath, she led the pig back to the front door of her house… but then stopped and looked down at it. Its usual smile was gone, and it was now looking up at her with what appeared to be a nervous look on its face.

"… Hey," she said, looking the pig directly in the eyes, "It's kind of late… Maybe you should stay here for the night." At that, the pig's mood seemed to have lifted, and its smile returned to its face, and its tail began wagging. "But only for tonight! You got that?"

---

Two days later:

Silver Spoon felt terrible about leaving Diamond Tiara all on her own like that for a full day, but prior experience had taught the filly that, whenever Diamond Tiara is upset, she needs at least one whole day in order to calm down. Otherwise, she says things that she regrets later on, and then only needs more time to calm down.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door to her friend's house, and a few moments later, the door opened to reveal a brown stallion on the other side.

"Oh, good morning, Mr. Rich," she said, bowing politely as she did so.

"Good morning, Silver Spoon," he returned, moving aside to let the filly in. "I didn't see you yesterday. Am I to assume that Diamond had one of her little episodes again?"

Silver Spoon shook her head. "Not at all," she said, "I was just… Doing some serious catching up with my homework."

"I see," Filthy Rich said, not entirely convinced. Still, his smile didn't fade. "Diamond Tiara's up in her room. Feel free to go on up to her, and I'll bring the three of you some snacks up in a second."

Silver Spoon nodded, and began to ascend the stairs, when something Filthy Rich said struck her. "'Three'?"

"Oh, that's right. Diamond Tiara's new pet is up there, too," he explained, confusing her more. "We spent the whole day yesterday getting him settled in… Buying him a bed, some food, getting instructions on how to raise him… I even had to buy him from his current owner." Filthy Rich let out a small laugh. "Thankfully he wasn't too attached to him, otherwise Diamond would have been really upset."

Silver Spoon looked up the stairs with a look of interest on her face. So Diamond Tiara had a new pet? 'Wonder what it is,' she thought to herself. 'A cat? No, wait… She's allergic to cats. Dog? Bird? Aliga-No, that's just stupid. Who in their right minds would keep a pet aligatior?'

Upon reaching Diamond Tiara's room, Silver Spoon knocked on the door, and awaited her friend's voice.

"Come in," she heard from inside, and then opened the door and walked in to find… "Oh, hi, Silver Spoon," Diamond Tiara said as she looked up from her open comic book, sitting on her floor, and leaning against a pink blob not much smaller than her.

"Uh… Diamond?" Silver Spoon asked. "What's with the pig?"

Diamond smiled nervously, and turned to give her new pet a pat on the head. "Do you like him? Daddy bought him for me yesterday. His name's Elizabeth."

Silver Spoon raised an eyebrow, just as the door behind her opened. "'Elizabeth'? Isn't that a girl's na-" She felt a hoof on her shoulder, and turned around to see Filthy Rich standing behind her, shaking his head.

"I brought snacks for all of you," he said, laying a tray of various chocolates and biscuits and two glasses of orange juice on Diamond Tiara's desk. He then placed a bowl of water down in front of Elizabeth. "Diamond, I've got a lot of work to do, so try to keep it down, okay?"

"I will, daddy," she assured him. He left the two fillies alone, and Diamond Tiara told Silver Spoon all about how Elizabeth returned her tiara to her, and how he helped her feel better by being there to listen to her when she was feeling upset.

She told Silver Spoon all about how much effort she and her father put in to getting Elizabeth settled in yesterday, and how it was all worth it, because now, when she's alone, she has Elizabeth by her side to help her feel better.

Silver Spoon smiled all throughout Diamond Tiara's story, and when her friend was finished, she reached over and gave Elizabeth a pat on the head. "Thank you, Lizzy," she said, earning a grunt from Elizabeth, causing her to giggle. "You don't like that? Okay, Elizabeth. Thank you for taking such good care of Diamond while I was away."

"What am I, your pet?" Diamond asked Silver Spoon, who leaned back and grinned at her.

"Sometimes, it feels like it," she said. "… So? Do you still think making friends is stupid?"

Diamond shrugged off Silver Spoon's comment, and leaned back into Elizabeth. "Hmmm… Well, I still think that you're the only friend I need," she said, causing Silver Spoon to frown. "… But, I guess I could give it another try," she added, causing Silver Spoon to perk up again. "Just as long as you and Elizabeth are there when I get shot down."

Silver Spoon nodded, and quickly pulled Elizabeth and Diamond Tiara's forehooves forward, joining them together with her own. "Then, let's promise. Whatever happens, the three of us will always be there for each other."

Diamond Tiara smiled and nodded. "Totally." Elizabeth snorted. "He's in, too," Diamond translated, earning a giggle from the other filly. The two continued to laugh for a while, before Silver Spoon offered to braid Diamond Tiara's hair for her.

Diamond Tiara smiled the entire time that Silver Spoon was fixing up her mane. Today was looking up for the young filly, and she could only see better days ahead of her from now on.