"LET ME IN! YOU LET ME IN RIGHT NOW YOUNG LADY!" The door rattled and trembled violently under the assault. Each hoof print across the battered, splintering wood marked another fit of unquenchable rage. Mother had whipped herself into a frenzy again.

"I DON'T HAVE THE KEY!" Diamond screamed in panic, hunching herself over in the corner, and trying to maintain as much distance from the door as possible. For better or for worse, mother didn't seem able to remember what she did to the key for Diamond's door. That meant mother couldn't get to her- but it also meant that Diamond was trapped in the house with her. And the longer Mother was unable to vent her frustrations on Diamond, the madder she became. There was no salvation here. For each failed attempt at twisting the door knob open, Diamond was rewarded with another round of angry screaming.

"DO YOU HEAR ME?! DON'T YOU EVER TALK TO ME LIKE THAT AGAIN IN PUBLIC! I SWEAR IF I WERE IN THERE I'D SHOW YOU SOME RESPECT! I'D TEACH YOU! YOU ARE MY CHILD AND I CAN DO AS I PLEASE WITH YOU!! DIAMOND?! DO YOU HEAR ME?! YOU'D BETTER ANSWER ME YOU LITTLE ROACH!" Screamed the door, but try as she might, Diamond couldn't produce a sound. What were you supposed to say to something like that? Was sorry good enough in this situation? How sorry was she supposed to be?! It's not like she could go anywhere! She was trapped in her room! Mom couldn't just leave her alone until she calmed down a little bit? The door rattled again, the wood starting to splinter as angry hooves crashed into it.

"ANSWER ME DIAMOND!" Mother demanded. Diamond whimpered quietly. There was no reason for this. No way out. Did mother really have to stand there and beat at the door? It's not that Diamond could escape anywhere really. Maybe she was trying to assert some control over the situation (Which was silly, since it was rapidly getting out of hoof). Maybe she was trying to get back into control, and wrestle back the authority she lost from Diamond's little outburst. Not that there would ever be another outburst like that again...

The screaming stopped. Diamond Tiara slumped underneath her window, hugging her knees and breathing in long, slow pants of relief. She'd gotten a message to Silver Spoon though. That's all that mattered, and now she simply had to worry about the door giving in to mother's fury. How had all of this happened? When did life get so complicated? How did she get here? She lifted a hoof and stared at it quietly.

"Who are you?" She murmured. It was true, a week ago- she'd have never thought the Cutie Mark Crusaders would turn out to be her friends. Or she'd stand up to mother. Or go through all this trouble to keep those Blank Flanks around. Heh. What had gotten into her?!

She liked it. A lot in fact. It didn't help the situation now, of course, but it was a nice change. A nice feeling that was easier to deal with than the miserable gunk she felt deep inside every time she opened her mouth and mother's words flooded out. She shuddered and tried to relax. She'd gotten a message to Silver Spoon. Things would be okay. As much as she hated to admit to it; Silver Spoon was the brains of their little operation. She was right, after all. There was little mother could actually do to the CMC, but mother didn't make idle threats when it was within her power to affect the situation with money. It was strange really, to think that mom was doing all this to protect her. In some bizarre, warped and twisted way, having mother to go through all of this to make sure she was brought up properly was ...touching? That didn't seem right. That didn't feel right at all. Why did all of this have to be so confusing?! Diamond wanted to believe that if mother really did feel she was protecting Diamond from a threat, she would go to the ends of the earth for her. That's what scared her the most. Never the less, mother wouldn't be going after them while she was drunk, which means Silver Spoon had time to get to them. Everything was going to work out! She was sure of it... so why did she have this gut wrenching feeling that something horrible was about to happen?

Don't panic. Like some sort of calming mantra, the words repeated in her head over and over and over again. Silver Spoon shut the blinds when she heard Diamond's mother return. She had been trying to figure out a plan- some way to stop this for good, until her body started moving on her own. She didn't know what she was going to do- but something inside refused to let her sit there and listen.

Throwing herself down the stairs, she found herself headed towards the back door. Past big sister, past mother, past father. Outside into the open air. Brisk. Dusky. Fall was in full swing here. The trees overhead exploded in hues of red and orange and blotted out the sun with a rain of leaves. Silver didn't notice any of it. She hardly even heard her mother calling from the patio.

"Silvy? Dinner in fifteen minutes." Chimed the voice behind her. The little filly froze, ears perked in surprise. She'd been so focused on...whatever she was focused on, she failed to hear mom canter in behind her. What was she focusing on? As if she didn't know. As if she hadn't already made up her mind what she was going to do. Slowly, she turned about, and flashed the older mare a smile.

"Sure Mom. Fifteen minutes. Gotcha." Silver Spoon squeaked pleasantly. Great. Now she had a time limit, as if this wasn't going to be hard enough. Closing her eyes, the little silver filly shook her head as mother went back inside. She was as ready as she was going to get...

"This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy." Silver Spoon muttered softly to herself as she crept along the expansive flower garden the family had. Flowers and plants from all over the place. A very floral look, which was very, very popular right now. According to her mother, anyway.

The garden was vast, with multiple different types of plants, and flora sprawling out in a beautiful layout. Almost like walking down a jungle path. Almost as popular as Diamond's luxury pool. Almost. Silver Spoon had to admit, Diamond's pool parties were much more fun than mother's garden parties. She stepped precisely seventeen steps forward along the little brick yard path around the side of her house. There, mother had several potted plants. Her next 'project' or something. Mother had a thing about raising weird plants. She had something of a green hoof, but Silver Spoon didn't care about the golden roses, or the sparkling ruby tulips. All she cared about were the pots. The seventeenth pot, to be exact. The one that secretly hid the key to the Diamond's house. Silver always found it kind of strange that the families swapped keys for each other's homes. She supposed the idea was that if some thief did stumble across the keys, they'd be confused, because the key wouldn't fit the lock. She peered over the object in her hooves. A dirty, tarnished little key. She let her gaze slowly trail up towards the sprawling sixty four room house and swallowed. Gripping the key firmly, she made a mad dash towards the house the moment the key touched her lips. She didn't know why she made such a mad dash. Panic, perhaps? The heat of the moment? The very fact that she had absolutely no idea what she was about to do. Yeah, that one might be it. She wasn't usually one to improvise. She liked to have a calm, neat, tidy little plan before she did anything. But hearing Diamond's sobs completely bypassed all of her intelligent planning, and transformed her into the pony that was standing at the backdoor to Diamond Tiara's house. The crazy pony who had absolutely no plan and holding a key between her lips. A little pony that unlocked the door as silently as possible, and swung it open.

Silence...Diamond Tiara's mother was somewhere in the house- and Diamond too.

"This is crazy." Silver Spoon squeaked. And it was. She knew that it was. Whatever was about to happen would be certifiably one hundred percent pure insanity. Mother had a strict rule about not interfering with other people's affairs. Bury-your-head-in-the-sand-and-hope-it-goes-away. She was happy living in her little world of ignorance, like lots of adults, but Silver Spoon wasn't so lucky. She couldn't ignore the choked sobs spilling from the window across the street. She couldn't pretend Diamond hadn't sobbed on her shoulders week after week, after mother had one of her little episodes. She couldn't refuse the desire to help. And now here she was.

"This is crazy." Silverspoon whimpered one last time And she knew that it was. Whatever was about to happen would be certifiably one hundred percent pure insanity. And as she crossed the threshold into Diamond's house, she knew that it most certainly wouldn't stop her.

Author's Notes:

...
They say write what you know...
Taking a break from cleaning the boutique to flex my mental muscles a bit.