Chapter Text
Cold. Bitter, hurting cold. This feeling was familiar to Diamond Tiara. With her father often out of the house to expand his business empire, this lead way too often to Tiara being under the less than gentle touch of her mother, Spoiled Rich. Spoiled Rich was not what one would call a good mother, even from what she did show in public when it came to parenting Tiara. Often, being in public the only thing Tiara would receive from her mom was a lot of yelling. Loud, painful yelling that would hurt Tiara more than help. Though it wasn’t the yelling that made Tiara full of dread. The yelling was often like a forecast to what was going to happen when they got home, in closed doors, with soundproof walls so nobody could hear her screaming from the pain.
Spoiled had many ways of hurting Tiara other than all the yelling. A hit to the jaw with a front hoof, or a buck to the stomach, sometimes even smashing a wine bottle over Tiara’s fragile head. Whatever it was that Spoiled could do to hurt her mistake of a daughter, she would do with zero regrets. Always after the physical abuse, came the horrible neglect. Tiara would never get her own plate of food while her mom was in the house, she’d be forced to wait until Spoiled finished her plate, and any crumbs or bits and pieces left behind were what Tiara would get to eat. Tough luck if Spoiled cleaned her plate. And then, the cold. The horrible, horrible cold. With a state of the art air conditioning system in the house, making it so that each room could be set to a different temperature, Spoiled would often lock Tiara in her room and turn her room down as low as possible, with no blankets in the room since Spoiled took those.
Tiara could swear that she almost froze to death multiple nights. That was another thing that scared Tiara about her mother. If Spoiled chose to end her life, perhaps disguise it as an accident, nobody would care except her father, who was a genuinely great if naïve stallion.
Tiara wanted nothing more than for it all to change, to not be afraid that her mom could ruin or even end her life. But sadly, that wasn’t the case. Even at school, a safe zone for her, she wasn’t at all safe. She wanted nothing more than to make friends at school, to play with the other kids, and live a normal life for the school hours at least, but she knew she couldn’t. If Spoiled even caught her being slightly friendly with the so-called low-lives as Spoiled put it, the punishment would be severe, even more than before. This is why Tiara relentlessly bullied her classmates, to push them far away from her, as far as she possibly could push them.
The only friend Tiara had was Silver Spoon, which was only allowed by Spoiled because Spoon came from a noble, rich family. Silver Spoon was the only one Tiara would open up to about, cry on, vent. But of course, Tiara always made Spoon swear not to tell anypony. If authorities caught up, she knew Spoiled would do something before she got arrested, anything to make Tiara’s life a living hell even inside prison, or maybe even kill her before she’d get arrested.
And once again, Tiara was locked in her room, temperature down with nothing to warm herself. Tiara looked to the window in her room, it could only be opened with a key, which Tiara didn’t have. And breaking the glass...She just knew the sound of the glass breaking would attract her mother’s attention. But maybe...Maybe that was it. She could attract her attention, sure. But if Tiara managed to break free, she could run for it. Run to...Anypony, anypony who maybe would care for her. No...Nopony cared, she was a bully. A bully with a seemingly one-track mind of ‘bully other kids’.
With that in mind, Tiara made a choice that night. She burst out the window with all her might, smashing one of her room’s chairs through it. It hurt like Tartarus, both the landing itself and landing in glass shards, but Tiara knew she had to keep going. She sucked it up, and began running, and running, and running. Eventually, she reached the center of Ponyville. She ran into an arts and crafts store, and before the owner could even say anything to her, she took a pen, and several pieces of paper and bolted out of there. She didn’t care that she just stole something. After more running, she reached the tallest building in Ponyville, the Timeteller Clock Tower. Panting, Tiara began climbing the stairs of the tower, hundreds upon hundreds of stairs. Eventually, she reached the top. She cried a river of tears, remembering all the abuse from her mother, all the times it hurt her to have to be mean to the Cutiemark Crusaders and her other classmates. She began writing on the pieces of paper she stole, putting the pen in her mouth, and beginning to write, several tears dropped down onto the paper. She was about to make a life-changing decision. Literally. This could mean life or death. Jump from the tower, or not? If she jumped, her abuse would be over, the pain would stop, and she’d make more people happy than sad. If she didn’t...She risked being found by her mother.
As Tiara took closer and closer steps to the tower. She made her choice. With the note in her mouth, she leaped and closed her eyes...But there was no fall. In fact, she felt like she was hovering in the air. She opened her eyes and in front of her, she saw the tall, dark figure of Princess Luna.
“Pr-Princess?” Tiara asked, her voice weak and breaking from the crying.
Luna remained silent. She knew she was breaking a rule. Princesses were not allowed to interfere in matters like this, that was up to the guards, the teachers, but not the princesses. If the princesses stuck their nose into these types of situations they would be blamed for everypony they couldn't save. But…
“I could not allow a young filly such as yourself to end their own life,” Luna told Tiara. “I...I am deeply sorry for not coming to you sooner, we princesses are not allowed to interfere in these types of matters...I saw your fear, your struggle, and I wanted to do something.”
“What do you care…” Tiara said softly, looking down.
“I care a lot about each one of my subjects, Tiara,” Luna said, lifting Tiara’s chin with a front hoof. “Especially the little ones. You got dealt a bad card in life, but that shouldn’t mean I should not care for you.”
Tiara sniffled. “S-So what now?”
“Now…” Luna brought them down with her magic, landing on the ground safely. “Instead of taking your own life, go to Sweet Apple Acres. Find Apple Bloom, and explain everything.”
“Why!? Why would she care!? She has no reason to! I-I have done nothing but bully her endlessly!” Tiara cried, tears of confusion streaming down her face.
“I understand why you would think that, but Apple Bloom is a kind, family-oriented soul. If you tell her of your circumstance, she will understand and help.” Luna explained. “I shall bring you to Sweet Apple Acres,” Luna said, as her horn glowed and in the blink of an eye, Tiara was in front of the house of the Apple family. All she had to do was knock. She gulped. Luna couldn’t possibly be right, could she? But then again...She is the omnipotent goddess of the night. Tiara extended a hoof and knocked. She stared blankly at the door, and then she saw the door open, Applejack stood there.
“What in tarnation is anyone doin’ here so early in the-” Applejack was saying before she looked down at Tiara, her eyes red and puffy from crying, her body weak and thin to the point you could see her ribs. Blood trailing down her body from the glass shards. Applejack was shocked into silence.
“C-C-Can I come in?” Tiara asked, sobbing softly. “I-I need to talk with Apple Bloom.”