The Girl Who Didn't Like Ponies

It was the end of December and in the middle of the town of Canterlot there was a mob of girls a mile thick gathered around the largest toy store in town. They had camped, ate, slept and fought over positions in line around "Mrs.Toywell's Games and Novelties" for half a dozen days and it wasn't for kicks. No, it was because of a bold marketing move by Mrs.Toywell herself to acquire the rights to sell and distribute the newest line of My Pretty Ponies at midnight on New Year's Day. "A New Stable for the New Year", they called it, and it had every MPP fan's heart and mind in a headlock.

My Pretty Pony, if you didn't know, was only the biggest thing of the year. It used to be just an average pony show, until the latest season headed by a series of acclaimed writers, changed it and the world. Nobody's entirely sure what actually changed about it since it was still at it's core a show about magical ponies, (although everyone has an opinion) but everyone agrees it was much better than that fiasco when it tried to branch off into a spinoff by the name of "My Little Pony".

Regardless, the end result was that My Pretty Pony was the world to a group of diehard female fans, and the only thing that meant more to them than their collection of My Pretty Ponies were new My Pretty Ponies. That's why, of the two girls at the very front of the line, one was happier than she'd ever been in her life. And the other one was named Diamond Tiara.

Ten minutes to midnight and through a combination of perseverance, patience, and quite a few bribes, Diamond Tiara and her friend Silver Spoon were seated right at the gates. Although Tiara had pulled most of the strings, Silver was obviously the bigger fan of Ponies. Of course you would know that right off the bat if you had seen the two of them camping out there in person. Silver wore her fanhood on her sleeve. Diamond Tiara wore... Something else.

"I can't believe it's almost time!" Silver said, excitedly biting the knuckle of one hand and twisting her homemade multicolored pony tail with the other. The twinge in her voice leaked sugar sweet enthusiasm, enough to give poor Tiara diabetes in enough of a dosage.

"Yeah," Tiara said, rolling her eyes and pulling her heated blanket tighter "those last six hours really flew by."

"You know you didn't have to be here DT. I could've waited here myself."

And Tiara huffed. In all honesty, it hadn't been such a chore between the heated blankets, insulated tents and the hearty fast food meals (which provided Tiara with a generous layer of extra padding) her father delivered them. And besides, she'd give up all that for some time with her best friend, especially if the alternative was sitting alone in her house while her parents partied. Tiara wanted to make that clear to Silver, but it came out as:

"You? Sitting out here for six days all alone? I can't have my best friend looking that pathetic."

Which was probably as nice as she could get. And Silver Spoon knew that, so she smiled.

"Hey, at least you get to get in on the very first of the very first wave of this year's ponies. They've got figures of half of the new cast, and deluxe Duchess Dourheart that actually glows dark blue!"

"I couldn't be more excited if I tried." Tiara said with the strong inflection that she wasn't planning on trying.

"Oh come on, DT!" Silver gave Tiara a playful bop on the shoulder, "What girl doesn't love ponies?"

"You're looking at her." Tiara said, tapping idly at her phone for seemingly no reason but to really sell how disengaged she was.

Silver took in a tremendous breath of air then it out in the most heartfelt sigh of her life, "Wha-at-ever! Just help me fold up the chairs, it's almost time."

Just as Silver said, the rest of the crowd was getting themselves ready as well. The Time's Square new year's ball had nothing on the energy in the air as some thousand girls of every age got ready to lay siege to this toy shop in the name of My Pretty Pony in just under a minute's time. As the clock wound down and the crowd wound up, even a girl Tiara's size was starting to have thoughts of getting trampled.

"Ready?" Silver asked.

Just thirty seconds now. Two workers were at the double doors waiting to pull them aside and duck out for their lives.

"As I'll ever be." Tiara mumbled. She was almost feeling something close to fear until she felt someone's hand on her's. Silver. She saw her best friend beside her with a grin that was delighted and determined at the same time. Tiara rolled her eyes.

Ten seconds. People were counting down. Tiara narrowed her eyes on the displays of ponies just behind the glass. She wasn't exactly excited to be shopping for colorful pony toys, but she was there.

"Two!" The crowd bellowed behind them, "One!"

And that was the last coherent thing Diamond Tiara heard. Instead, even the voice of her own thoughts was drowned out by the roar of the fans. The doors swung open and she was pushed forward by a hundred or so pairs of feet, none of which belonged to her. Silver's hand was wrenched out of Tiara's grip and she saw her best friend swallowed up by the squealing, shouting mass. She was worried about her friend, but even more worried about her own safety.

Not even her own weight, considerable as it was, could save her from the push of pony fans all around. Before she knew what was happening, she was slammed into a tower of plush ponies that was stacked several feet taller than her. She was so dumbstruck by the circumstance that she couldn't even manage to scream before she was buried under a pile of plush ponies. And for Diamond Tiara, everything went dark. And fluffy. Dark and fluffy.

She almost thought she was going to suffocate in that plush prison and by the time she managed to claw her way to the top of the heap she was red in the face from momentary panic and lasting exertion.

The storm of pony fanatics was still raging around her, although the crowd had thinned and Silver Spoon had managed to get back to her friend, albeit with a few armfuls of ponies in tow.

"Tiara, there you are! C'mon, most of the crowd's moved upstairs; it's where they're keeping the play sets and accessories!"

Accessories? Play sets? Her best friend had nearly been pancaked under a blanket of plush horses and all Silver Spoon cared about was those idiotic toys. Her chubby face bunched up and turned beet red. Accessories, play sets, dumb little brushes and stupid candy-coated ponies that Diamond Tiara hated! She hated it! She balled up her fists and told Silver Spoon,

"I hate ponies!"

And she must've said it louder than she thought because not only did Silver Spoon freeze in stunned silence, the whole store and everyone in it fell in a hush. And it suited Tiara just fine. A scene was perfect to storm out on and a silent one was even better. Silence followed her on the way out, and on the bus ride home, and when she got home to her empty house, Diamond Tiara laid her head down in complete silence and fell right asleep.

That's where the silence ended. In her sleep, Tiara was tossing and turning. She was gripping her sheets and sweating while she mumbled under her breath. One could only imagine what she was dreaming about...

...

"You haven't even finished your sundae!" A voice said.

She blinked. Wherever she was, it was the middle of the day. She was at a table, one low to the ground, and there was a strawberry sundae in front of her

"What?" She asked.

"Your sundae, dear! It's not like you to pass on one!" Another voice, this one feminine, said. She was standing across the table from her, a nice looking couple of... Ponies? Yes, ponies! A husband and wife in color-coordinated aprons. And they were talking!

Tiara gasped, her hooves darting to her mouth. Hooves? No, it couldn't possibly be! She would never be! But, she was! She could see in the shining metal of her sundae

"I'm a pony!" She shouted.

The husband laughed, "Well of course you are, Diamond! Are you playing a little joke?"

But it wasn't funny to her, which she made apparent by darting out of the sugar shop like a flash, tossing the door open and sprinting outside into...

A classroom? She at the front of a classroom, and every pony at their desks was watching her with smiles on their faces. All except for a little gray pony with glasses, who was frowning and looking down at her desk. Even as a pony, Tiara could recognize her best friend.

Carefully, she crept over to the open desk beside this pony Silver Spoon and sat down. Sitting down, she realized that the other ponies hadn't been staring at her, rather straight ahead at seemingly nothing. Tiara couldn't stand the tense silence for more than a minute, and so she leaned towards Silver and whispered,

"Hey, Silver, is everything--"

"You shouldn't talk in class." Silver Spoon said. She didn't look up from her desk.

"But Silver, I just want to talk!"

But Silver simply said, "Teacher's about to start her lesson. Besides, why would you want to talk to me; you hate me."

"Hate you? But I don' hate you! You're my best--"

But Tiara was alone before she could finish. Alone at her desk with a tall, dark blue pony who looked sort of like her vice principal.

"Well Diamond Tiara? What did you learn today?" Said the pony, in a voice eerily identical to vice-principal Luna.

"Learn? What do you mean learn? All I know is that I hate ponies!"

"But you didn't learn that. You knew that already."

Diamond arched an eyebrow in confusion, "That doesn't bother you? That I just said I hate you?"

The pony started to walk around her desk, "Does it bother you? Something must be bothering you."

"Well," Tiara frowned and stared down at her desk, "I kinda got mad at my friend. But she dragged me out to this dumb pony thing and I hated it!"

The pony poked her head over Tiara's shoulder. "But you don't hate Silver Spoon, do you?"

"Of course not."

The pony stopped right in front of her and craned her neck down, touching her horn, "Then we believe you know what you should do to remedy your ill feeling. We will expect a full report on how you resolve this friendship problem. Best of luck, Tiara."

And her vision was overtaken by a flash of light.

...

Early that morning, New Year's morning, there was a knock at Silver Spoon's door. She answered it herself, with a bowl of cereal in her hand, and was surprised to see Diamond Tiara waiting on her doorstep.

"Hey," Tiara said, with her eyes on her shoes.

"Hey," Silver said.

"I, um," she stumbled a bit on her words, "You get some good ponies last night?"

"Oh! No, I actually didn't feel like, well, I mean I forgot my wallet at home."

Silver always was a terrible liar.

"You're kidding! We should go back today, I think it'd be a lot of fun!"

Tiara wasn't much better.

"You know you don't have to. Plus they probably don't any good ones left, anyhow."

"If it's for my best friend, I want to. And I might just happen to know about a delivery coming in from a shareholder of my father's."

And Silver Spoon smiled.

"If you get dressed now, we can catch them unloading 'em." Tiara added.

"Be right back."

Diamond Tiara might not be the best girl in the world, but when it came to her friends, she'd do just about anything. Except write a report about friendship for a pony in her dreams.

She hated those, after all.