I enter the living room with a nice warm cup of jasmine tea. I sit in the most comfortable lounge chair while Diamond sits on the couch to the far corner to my right (after I sit down). With a press of a button, a small table ejects itself to the side of the lounge chair, curves then brings itself over the right arm of the chair. It extends far enough to go over my left thigh.

I sit quietly while I enjoy watching Diamond Tiara squirm a bit. I give her a tiny grin as I soak up the irony. Just yesterday she was sitting on a “throne” just like this in her home theater system room. Well, now, the tables have turned. She is now on my turf, and here I am Queen!

I'm also the Queen outside of this home as well, but she doesn't know that yet!

After several minutes of silence, she asks, “So . . . what is it you're drinking there?”

“Jasmine tea,” I answer simply.

For some reason my answer surprises her. Notably, this pleasantly surprises her. It's as if she expected me to drink something less sophisticated.

When her surprise ebbs, she gains a pouty face, then asks, “Well . . . aren't you going to give me some?”

“Why should I? I'm not your maid,” I counter curtly.

“No, but I am your guest,” Diamond points out. “Plus, I fed you yesterday. I even ordered that strawberry cheesecake that you loved so much.”

“That . . . is true,” I agree with a blink. “Alright.” I push the mini table on the chair off to the side to get it out of my way. “What would you like to drink? Same thing?”

“That will do,” Diamond agrees dismissively while giving me a shoo-shoo gesture.

Seeing that irks me (especially given our history together), but she has a point about me being a hostess here, and I'm trying to win her over as Cozy Glow. Besides, I really owe her big time for the cheesecake yesterday. I ate a little slice of heaven back then!

I return a few minutes later. I offer her a cup of jasmine tea upon my return. As she accepts it, I briefly cling to the saucer at the base of the cup as I tell her, “I really do owe you for the treat you gave me yesterday.” I let go of the saucer. She is finally able to pull it close to her chest.

As I stand up straight again, I say down to her, “It may not be strawberry cheesecake, but please enjoy this small token of my gratitude.”

On my way back to the lounge chair, she asks behind me, “So . . . super genius girl likes to run the school as Student Council President, ousting me from office to pull that off.” I sit down and face her while she goes on. “You like strawberry cheesecake, strawberry milkshake, chess, you are good at the violin, and you like ninjas. These things seem rather random altogether, so tell me . . . what don't you like?”

I narrow my eyes at her slightly as I answer, “Oh, you don't want to know that.”

“I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know,” Diamond argues.

“Yes, but you can't handle the truth,” I warn her. “In your emotionally fragile state, I think we'll save that discussion for another time, but trust me,” I flick a point at her briefly, “I will remind you of that subject when I sense you are ready for it.”

Diamond looks pouty again. “Well, then . . . FINE! Have it your way. How about, instead of that, you tell me something else that you like.”

“Something else I like? Hmm.” I regard our sixty-inch flat-screen TV which is currently off, then say, “I like anime.”

“Really?!” Diamond asks me brightly, then went on with rising hope. “Do you watch 'Sailor Moon'?”

I look back as I wince at her while saying, “Ew! No! I can't stand that awful show!”

“Oh? Why not?” Diamond asks me in confusion mixed with disappointment. “It's a good show!”

“Says you!” I argue back.

“What's so bad about 'Sailor Moon'? It's a classic!”

I slide the table over my lap again then answer while I stir my tea. “Okay, first of all, the main character is unbearably stupid and obnoxious.”

“Eh.” Diamond looks forward with a dry expression, then shrugs. “True.” She looks back at me. “I'll give you that one, but she does get better in later seasons. You should give it another chance.”

I sigh irritably, then say with a dismissive gesture to her, “I'll take your word for it. I don't need proof.

“Secondly, the show is too repetitive. I mean, what are Queen Beryl’s monsters doing while Sailor Moon is transforming? Giving their claws a manicure?”

In response, Diamond giggles at me a bit.

“And the fights all end the same way. Sailor Moon just ends up tossing her stupid tiara over and over again, and it pretty much always one-shots her opponent. Well, if that weapon is sooooo darn effective, why waste the audience's time dinking around and acting like a total moron? She should just toss the damn tiara and get the fight over with!”

“Hey! Don't dis the tiara! That's my favorite part of the show!”

I roll my eyes drolly as I said, “You would.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Diamond asks me in an offended tone.

“I'm sure a fan of that 'brilliant' show would be able to figure that out,” I reply with a snarky tone.

Diamond growls.

“You know, if I were one of Queen Beryl's monsters, I'd just rip out a gun and shoot Usagi in her stupid little face while she's in the middle of bragging about how much she is going to 'punish' me, although I must admit that I am a little intrigued how kinky that line sounds.”

“Okay, FINE!” Diamond says in huffy frustration. “You don't like 'Sailor Moon', and yet you like anime. What kind of anime?”

I sigh a bit as I look at her, then say, “Considering the fact that I just rejected 'Sailor Moon', you may consider it ironic that I like romance anime, but it also has to be intellectually stimulating, or at least not insult my intelligence. There are plenty of anime out there that do this. I am still able to figure out the plot or details way ahead of the characters in the show, but I still like it when some characters in anime discuss complex strategies with each other, even going so far as to show charts and graphs to illustrate their point.”

I look forward at nothing.

“Another thing I like about anime is how much they are willing to showcase female protagonists and/or antagonists.” I look back at Diamond. “I'm willing to give 'Sailor Moon' credit for that one at least, but that's not enough to make up for the show's massive shortcomings.

“Nevertheless, I respect shows like this for finally giving us females some overdue respect. For too long we were regarded as the weaker sex but now people are at least willing to fantasize about how much we can kick just as much ass as the guys.

“I love it when a female takes the center stage and doesn't surrender her destiny to anyone else. Every time I see that, I inwardly cheer, 'You go, girl!'”

Diamond smiles at me pleasantly. That strongly implies to me that she also agrees with some of the things I am saying, especially my recent declarations.

“And yes,” I wave her off, “I'm perfectly aware how sexist the medium tends to be when portraying female characters. By judging all animes as a whole, one would think females tend to have an allergic reaction to clothes or something, and I don't appreciate the double standard about how much the guys cocks in these shows are not flashed, and yet the shows have no qualms about showing our bouncing breasts all the time.”

“Over half of them aren't even realistic,” Diamond agrees as she lifts up her tea near her lips. “Seriously, if girls like that really existed, their back pain must be a nightmare!”

“I know, right?!” I agree with a rising inflection while she sips her tea. “We get it because we have to live as those kinds of characters instead of fantasizing what it's like.”

Diamond grins at me. “Speaking of which, I really like those animes that portray guys turning into girls. I love how their face grows hot and they shoot blood out their noses so much that, if it really happened in real life, they'd probably have to go to the hospital.

“I like those kinds of shows because it kind of feels like revenge to me. Also, I like the idea of how they can chase their own skirts for a change instead of bothering us all the time.”

I shrug. “I don't know. Some females want to be caught, and there's nothing wrong with that. We can do whatever we want to do. It's a brand 'spanking' new world out there.

“Oh, and . . . I agree. The kind of animes you proposed has an interesting sociological dynamic to it. I also love animes that are willing to dig into complex psychology. I don't care how ridiculous it gets. As long as the shows mix things up a bit, I'm good.”

Diamond flashes me an evil grin as she says, “I can think of another reason why you might not appreciate seeing bouncing breasts in anime. Realistic or not, it probably feels like a sharp slap in your face which simply reminds you of what you lack.”

I frown at her and cover my chest with my right arm self-consciously.

Damn it, Little Miss Prissy, that one actually struck a nerve!

“I'm still growing,” I argue like a sore child. “I may be blooming on the slow side but I'll get there someday.”

“Nah, you're fine just the way you are,” Diamond tells me with a flicking gesture towards me. “It means you won't develop some of the back problems that most of us do.”

I gather my tea near my lips, but don't sip yet as I say, “Well, be that as it may, I am still a girl so I do care about my appearance, including elements beyond my control. I hate how shallow that makes me sound, but it's the truth. It's also true that society heavily judges us based on how we appear. Girls and guys do that to us alike. Probably especially the girls, and I don't like to feel like I'm at a disadvantage. I have big plans for the future, so I want to be as prepared for it as possible.”

Diamond sighs as she looks down. “Yeah, I know what you mean. We may not like to admit it, but we definitely feel very self-conscious about our appearance.”

I am tempted to bring up the subject about her secret “purging” in the girl's bathroom, but then I recall the fact that it is a secret so far. I shouldn't bring up the subject first. That would be too suspicious.

Our conversation continues for about another twenty minutes. During that time, we finish our tea. By the end of that time, it seems as if our conversation draws to a close, at least for now.

We have actually known each other for quite some time. I, especially, have studied her for quite a number of years. Today, however, is the first time we tested the waters with each other on a social level. Overall, I'd say we don't quite have a comfortable feel for each other yet.

Most likely, however, she would be startled to discover how much I have learned about her during this conversation.

After two minutes of silence, Diamond sighs, then declares, “I'm bored.”

I frown slightly as I say, “Well, I'm sorry I couldn't be a more entertaining host. Personally, I thought our conversation was quite illuminating.”

“Oh, you're fine!” Diamond quickly puts it. “You've mostly done a fantastic job, but I want to do something more engaging. Something more challenging than simply discussing anime.”

“Such as?”

Diamond grins and slightly narrows her eyes at me as she proposes, “I'd like to play chess with you.” She waves me off. “I'm well aware that you are a national champion, so you surely must have the game here somewhere, at least in digital format. Someone like you, who is that passionate about the game, would very likely have the real deal as well. By that, I mean the solid, authentic pieces.”

“Well, you're not wrong there,” I concur. “However, it does not seem likely that you are fully aware of the challenge you are proposing upon yourself. I don't coddle my opponents unless I'm trying to teach them. If you are interested in those lessons, I charge sixty bits an hour. Normally I wouldn't think that would be a big deal for you but I am well aware of your recent change in financial status.”

“Sixty bits an hour?” Diamond double-checks with an upraised eyebrow. “Are you sure you are worth it?”

“Do you want to see my trophies? Mom keeps a collection of them all nice and shiny. They are displayed along with my music awards.”

I look at, then brush, a few wrinkles out of my dress before looking back and resuming talking to her.

“Considering the caliber of skill I can offer, I'd say sixty bits an hour is actually quite the bargain. I've known chess masters with half my skill charging ten times that amount for their lessons.”

“Put up or shut up!” Diamond dares me. “Prove to me that you are worth that kind of cash for training. I challenge you to a game of chess!”

“A glutton for punishment, are we?” I ask in amusement as I raise an eyebrow and smirk at her.

Diamond passes me a coy and cocky smile as she says, “Oh . . . I don't know. You might not find me quite the pushover that you think I am. I have been trained by some of the finest chess masters that money can buy.”

“They aren't me. Don't rope me in with those amateurs.”

Diamond squints at me as she says, “Those 'amateurs', as you call them, are some of the finest chess players in the world.”

“If that's true, I'd love to play against them,” I express with interest. “Maybe they can finally give me a decent challenge in the game.

“There is a thirty-one percent chance that I already have faced at least one of those you are referring to, and I have only lost four games in my entire lifetime. True, one of the persons I’m talking about did beat me one of those four times, but I never lost a game against him since that time.”

“Okay, you see, the problem with you right now is your mouth is going like this,” Diamond says as she makes a yap-yap gesture with one hand, “but you have proven nothing to me so far. I've challenged you to a chess game. The next move is yours.” She narrows her eyes further at me. “Are you in, or are you out?”

I sigh at her, then ask, “Do you really want to do this?”

“Consider it my very first lesson from you!” Diamond proposes enthusiastically. “Or, perhaps, it will be the other way around.”

“Very well.” I rise from my seat and tug once at my single piece dress. While I do so, I gather my composure. After that, I leave the room without further word. I go to a closet that is dedicated to all kinds of board games (most of these are gifts from several of my mother's friends). From there, I pull out an old wooden chessboard. It is five inches tall and has a drawer on the side of it where the white and dark brown chess pieces are stored.

It is true that I have a specialized chessboard that I have stored in my room, but I consider that board very sacred. There are only a few players in the world that have ever faced me over that board. My mother is among them, the person who originally bought me that board.

But Diamond is clearly unworthy of such an honor. She'll need to earn it first, so I bring out the old chessboard from the game closet instead.

I retrieve a small, wooden folding table from behind the couch. I set the chessboard on the couch for a moment while I prepare the table. To do that, first I lift the table into an upside-down L pattern. At first, both pairs of legs are on one side until I slide one of them to the other end of the table in an X pattern with the table on top of the X. I set the table in front of my lounge chair. I was going to leave to retrieve one of our folding chairs, but it turns out Diamond already found one of them and set it up on the other side of our folding table.

That's fine. Less work for me.

As we settle down across from each other, it takes us a little less than a minute to set up the board, then we're ready to play.

“Do you want to be white, or black?” Diamond offers me. “Or . . . dark brown, I suppose I should say.”

“It ultimately doesn't matter to me, but I prefer to play black. It's an aesthetic as well as a strategic choice,” I tell her. “I'll let you go first but, in exchange, I'll go last.”

“Cocky, are we?” Diamond asks me with a smirk.

“Yes, 'we' are,” I agree. I settle back into my seat, but not far enough to be beyond reach of the board with my right arm. Using my left, I prop up my head using my pointing finger and thumb in an L pattern. I use my thumb to gently lift the bottom edge of my left jaw and settle my pointing finger up my left cheek. I hold this pose as I stare straight into her eyes.

“I would like to make one amendment to the rules for this game, however,” I propose. “As I said, I don't coddle my opponents or hold back unless I'm training them. As such, I will not warn you by announcing 'check' all the time when your king is in danger. Instead of that, it is up to you to protect your own king. Conversely, you may do the same for me. Agreed?”

Diamond thinks about it for a second, then asks me, “Is that how they do it at the championships?”

I shrug as I say, “Some of them, yeah. We're professional players. We don't need to warn each other all the time. For us, it is unnecessary and generally slows down the game anyway.”

“Eh.” Diamond copies my shrug, then says, “I can live with that.”

“Very well. Your move.”

“Very well.” Diamond examines the chess pieces, seems to do a little calculation of her own, then makes a move.

Meanwhile I am just staring straight at her, not at the board itself, nor the pieces. I can see, based from her shoulder movement and tiny micro-expressions on her face, where she moved her piece. Based on that, I rapidly calculate the rest of our game.

The moment her fingers lift from the pawn she advances forward; I immediately make my move. She has not even fully settled back into her seat yet and it's already her turn again.

She is still surveying the board. I see her pause as she tries to predict what my moves are going to be based on the two moves we made already.

Oh, Little Miss Prissy . . . you'll soon learn you're now swimming in a tank with a shark. Chess is my arena! I think in terms of the game for nearly my entire life. It's my freakin’ cutie mark, for Christ sake. You are way out of your league here.

The game continues as I have planned. About fifteen moves into the game, however, Diamond finally notices that I have never once looked at the chessboard. I've been giving her a fixed stare into her eyes the whole time. It's starting to unnerve her.

Check.

She is also noticing how I am instantly making a move every single time she completes her turn. Her fingers barely leave her chess pieces when I already make my move. It gives her further evidence that I already correctly predict her moves every single time and I've planned way ahead of them.

Diamond tries to concentrate on the game but she keeps glancing up at me. She looks at my fixed, icy stare. Unmoving, and seemingly unblinking.

There is a brief moment when she almost makes a comment on it, but she shuts her mouth before uttering a word. She tries to regather her composure and resumes focus on the game. By then, she knows I'm pressing a psychological tactic against her, but that does not help explain to her how I am able to read her moves without glancing at the board even once.

Little does she realize that I don't have to. A chessboard is constantly in my mind. Whenever she makes a move on the real chessboard, I see a virtual copy of it in my mind. Not only that, I rapidly calculate ahead of that move to every probability that she will make. With each move she makes, she narrows down the logical list of possible choices. Strategy after strategy is layered in my mind which is based on the choices she makes.

Eventually, though, her nerves crumble again. She looks back at me as she realizes that we are forty moves into the game and I have never once looked away from her. My icy stare continues to chill her soul. By then, she is starting to wonder if I can directly read her mind. The moment she starts to think that, I finally change my expression just slightly. I give her a creepy grin worthy of Hannibal Lecter. When she sees that, I see her shudder.

“Will you stop that?!” Diamond asks me in rising frustration.

“Stop what?” I ask her in a cutesy, innocent tone.

“You know! That!” She seems to gesture to all of me. “Stop staring at me and just play the damn game!”

“I am playing the game!” I argue in a suddenly sinister tone. “Your move!”

“But-”

“Your move!” I firmly remind her.

Diamond growls in frustration, then proceeds to do exactly what I have calculated at this stage of her devolving psychological development. After seemingly being able to read her mind this entire time, she starts to make stupid moves on purpose in a vain attempt to be unpredictable.

We are only three moves into this new and reckless strategy when I, without warning, pull out my cellphone and take a picture of the board, but I still do not look away or appear to blink to her.

The truth is I do blink on occasion, but only when she isn't looking at me.

“What was that for?” Diamond asks me, perplexed. That was the first time I did not instantly make a move after her, after all. I only made my move after I put my phone back down.

“Your move,” I remind her firmly.

Diamond growls, then she continues the game.

She continues to make reckless and stupid moves just to throw me off track, but I have planned on it. I continue to perfectly see not only where the chess pieces are right now, but where they will be soon.

Sweat pours down her forehead. Her hands are shaking slightly as she reaches for her chess pieces. Only when I see her nearly cracked do I finally make another move she does not expect or welcome.

As she reaches forward to make yet another stupid move, I slap her hand away from the chessboard. She nearly complains in a startled way but the very same hand that slapped hers away lifts my pointing finger to signal for her attention.

Then, to her amazement and horror, I reach for her chess piece. The very one she was going to reach for. Once I have it, I move it exactly where she had planned to move it just to prove to her that I predicted her moves perfectly.

She looks to my face as she gasps in horror.

While she does that, I secretly grab her King and hide it down my sleeve with a deftness that secretly would have impressed Trixie, though I doubt she'd ever admit it openly.

After that, I lift my right arm off the table to get it out of the way so Diamond can make her next move unhindered.

She does exactly what I predicted would happen next. She sweeps an arm across the chessboard to wipe away the remaining chess pieces from the board.

“There! Did you predict-” we say simultaneously, but she freezes in fear when she realizes I predicted her well enough to say what she said right as she is saying it.

“-that.” I finish her sentence for her. After that, I twist my right wrist in a circle. From that move, I produce her King chess piece, then say, “Yes, I did. In fact, this was my plan from the very beginning.”

I stab her king chess piece exactly where she had it before she swept her arm across the board. In this case, it's D4, pretty much the center of the board. After placing her piece on the board, I place my right pointing finger on top of her king piece.

“By sweeping the pieces off the board during your turn, you forfeit the match,” I coldly inform her. “Ergo, I win.

“I play my opponent, not just the chess pieces themselves. A good strategist always factors in every variable of the game, including the most important piece of the game.” I nod at her to indicate her.

I smile at her smugly just before I announce, “You know, I could have beaten you during your forty-ninth move. That is why I took a picture of the game board during that time. I knew you were going to sweep the pieces off it later, and the pieces would be in different places by then anyway. I just wanted to preserve a copy of the game during that turn so I could verify my claim if you chose to challenge it. By putting so much emphasis in protecting your rook, you left your king exposed.”

Diamond growls at me in frustration, then asks, “If that's true, why didn't you finish me off back then?”

“Because I knew it would be more humiliating for you to defeat yourself,” I say with a vicious smile. “My aim was not just to defeat your mind, but your emotions as well. Once I provoked you back into a corner,” I flick her king chess piece. It falls on the table and rolls away. “double checkmate. By crushing both your mind and emotions, I more firmly assert my dominance over you.”

“FINE!” Diamond cries out at me. Then, when she leans back, she does much more than just pout. She looks absolutely devastated.

“You made your point,” Diamond says as her face wrinkles in pain. “You've proven how absolutely stupid I am. Are you happy now?”

Eh. Kind of.

“It's true that challenging me wasn't one of your most brilliant strategies,” I partially agree. While I say that, I lift up one of my dark brown rook pieces and tumble it back and forth along the fingers of my left hand. “but, to be fair, nearly everyone would seem like an idiot if they are compared to me. My towering intellect so vastly overshadows the rest of humanity that humanity seems more akin to the average human intelligence compared to a basic animal to me.”

Diamond gains a pouty face as she asks, “So . . . I guess that means the rest of us must seem like boring simpletons to you, huh?”

“For the most part, yes,” I agree with a shrug.

Since I am aware that Diamond was being sarcastic with her last question, I am not really wondering why she looks shocked at my response.

“What? I'm just stating a fact. Do you want me to lie?” I ask her.

Diamond narrows her eyes at me as she asks, “So then . . . I guess you know everything.”

I smile at her deviously as I say, “I'll let you in on a little secret.”

I toss the rook I've been tumbling on my left hand upward then snatch it as it descends back to the level of my left hand without even looking at it.

“The secret of being a genius, at least in my opinion, is the ability to be smart enough to deceive everyone else into thinking that my kind knows all the answers. In truth, however, we are just as lost and confused as the rest of humanity. The only difference is we're stumbling and struggling with higher-level challenges.

“If I really knew all the answers then I wouldn't even be here on this miserable planet. There would be no reason for me to be born in the first place.”

“Guess it must get pretty lonely at the top where you are, huh?” Diamond surmises a bit sympathetically.

“There are a few exceptions, of course,” I amend. “My mother, for one, has a respectable intellect. I surpass her in most respects but there are some things she can do much better than me. Inventions, for example.” I indicate around me with a finger. “I'm sure I could become as good, if not better, at her in this but I'd nearly have to start from scratch. She's way more passionate about this than I am, and I have bigger fish to fry.”

You, for example!

Diamond drops her gaze with a painful expression. “So . . . all this time you were just trying to flaunt how superior you are. Well, congratulations! You won! You succeeded in proving your dominance over me. You succeeded to reveal how utterly stupid I actually am!

“So my mother was right. I am a loser! I'm a stupid, fat, ugly, good-for-nothing, worthless piece of trash better left rotting in the gutter. I'm not worthy of your attention, nor anyone else’s! I should just take a knife and slit my wrist and-”

I interrupt her train of thought by boldly standing up and slapping her hard on her left cheek using my right hand.

In response, she gazes up at me in shock.

“Golly! I'm so sorry, Diamond Tiara!” I apologize in an obviously overly cute way. “I was not trying to aim at you, I was trying to aim at your mother within you! You,” I flick a point at her, “simply got in my way!”

She continues to stare up at me in shock.

I inwardly groan in annoyance. It feels so irritating to have to babysit Diamond Tiara like this. I am quickly growing so sick and tired of coddling my fucking nemesis!

I really can't watch her twenty-four/seven either, nor would I like to. Her potentially genuine threat of killing herself is quickly growing tiresome. I really need to deal with this once and for all if I'm going to advance forward with the rest of my plans for her.

It's time for a change in strategy!

“Come with me,” I order her as I start to make my way to my room. I pause at the hallway since I notice, by virtue of hearing alone, that she's not following me yet. Without looking back at her, I cry out in a firm, demanding voice, “NOW, Tiara!”

The volume of my demanding roar startles her out of her stupor. She quietly stands up to obey. She is far too broken to feel like putting up any resistance to my demands.

God fucking damn it! I really despise you, Little Miss Prissy! You're forcing me to play the role of the “hero” for you just so that I can set you up for a greater downfall later. How utterly annoying!

* * *

While Little Miss Prissy meekly sits on my bed behind me, I upload the video footage of her mother into my computer. Specifically, I have my voice synthesis software scan her voice so it can make a decent approximation.

It is true that I do have a decent amount of footage, but scanning a human voice from another recording delays the process.

While my program scans and uploads the voice into my computer's ram, I occasionally look back at Diamond.

For the most part, she looks so broken in spirit, but I notice her looking around once in a while with interest in her eyes. It is then that it occurs to me that this is the first time she has ever seen my room.

This experience shows her more than I had ever originally intended to reveal to her. I did not want to gamble on the chance that this glimpse into my psyche might start helping her predict me more often. Besides, I suspect most would consider the decorations of my room surprisingly immature, and probably in a bad way. I think fewer people would take me seriously if they saw all my cutesy stuff.

But then again, I do put on a cutesy air for others on occasion.

For the most part, I tend to do that to those older people or those with more authority than me because I want them to underestimate me. I want those above me to think that they are in charge while I am secretly pulling the strings from the shadows.

To my peers or subordinates, however, I am more about firm authority because I want their respect and obedience. I don't think I'd get either if they all thought I am some immature child.

Diamond Tiara is both my peer and subordinate in separate regards, so she is one of those to whom I did not want to reveal what my room looks like. It might give her the wrong impression.

Or the right impression. I honestly don't know which scenario is worse.

I hear a beep on my computer. That means the program is finished uploading Spoiled’s voice into the synthesis program of my computer's memory banks. It's now time to use it.

I take a screenshot of Spoiled Rich's face from my video footage then bring that up. This particular shot is during the time she approached down the hallway of the mansion. I borrow this shot because it's one of the few times my camera is more directly facing towards her. I take that shot and zoom up to it so it mainly shows the upper part of her chest, shoulders, neck, face, and top of her head. I digitally edit her eyes slightly so it looks like she is looking straight at the camera rather than just below it.

When I am done with this, I minimize the picture then turn around in my computer chair to face Diamond Tiara.

“I'm going to be honest with you for a moment,” I tell her honestly. “I am growing so sick of this annoying attitude, especially when you make death threats against your life. I wish I could take that as a joke, but Sweetie Belle warned me that you made an actual attempt against your life, so I am forced to take those threats seriously.” I pound the right arm of my computer chair with my right fist. “No subordinate of mine should be this weak, so it's time to confront your demon once and for all. I can't be there to babysit you all the time, after all, and I've got better things to do with my life.”

“Of course you do,” Diamond agrees in an empty tone. “Everyone has better things to do than take care of me. I'm a worthless piece of crap.”

“No, you are not,” I reject. “Damn it, Tiara, look at me!” She does so. “You are not a piece of crap,” I lie. “But if you want to see what a real piece of crap looks like, then I'll gladly show you!”

I scoot my chair out of the way so she has a direct line of sight to my computer screen. I also unplug my keyboard with a built-in touch pad. Doing so forces the device to communicate to my computer wirelessly (which means it is now running on an internal battery, but there is plenty of charge in it).

On my computer screen, I call up the minimized image of her mother. In the background, I also load the voice synthesis program. After that, I type up a sentence I want her voice to say.

“Diamond Tiara!” we hear the synthesized voice of Spoiled Rich call aloud from my computer. This greatly startles my guest. “Why are you making that face! That is not the face of a winner!”

“What the-!” Diamond cries out, startled. She looks over at me but I've already started typing a response to that, for I correctly predicted she would look at me in confusion, begging for an explanation.

“Don't look at her!” Spoiled Rich's voice seems to demand. “She is the enemy, Diamond Tiara! Instead of her, you look at me when I talk to you!”

“Yes, Mother!” Diamond cries out reflexively. I roll my eyes at this. She is so well trained and beaten that she can't help but regard a mere picture of her mother meekly.

“I can't believe how much you disappoint me!” Spoiled’s voice seems to say in disgust. “My daughter, of all people, hanging out with her kind! Staying in her home and her room! How low do you want my expectations of you to sink, Diamond Tiara?!”

Diamond cannot even meet the mere image of her mother in the eyes anymore.

But, as her gaze drifts away, I have her mother say, “I already told you, you look at me when I talk to you!”

“Yes, Mother!” Diamond replies meekly and looks back at the image.

Gods! This is pathetic! I can't believe she is struggling to meet the mere image of her mother in the eyes!

I suppose this is a little too familiar. Maybe I should throw Diamond a bone to help build her confidence a little, and we can have a little fun revenge at the same time.

“I pooped my pants, Diamond Tiara!” Spoiled says while maintaining her authoritative voice that’s mixed with disgust.

“Huh?” Diamond cocks her head at the image of her mother. It is her mother's voice, or at least seems to be, but what I made her say is so far out of character that it took Diamond aback.

“YOU HEARD ME, YOUNG LADY!” fake Spoiled screeches. “It's all brown and squishy.”

Diamond blinks at my computer screen numbly. Her brain, apparently, does not know how to process this new information yet. This goes against too much of her experience to openly accept this.

“I have a stupid face, Diamond Tiara!” I force the voice to say.

Diamond cracks a giggle as she looks over to me, finally realizing who is making her “mother” say these things.

In response, I wink at her.

“I paid big money to have this rhinoplasty,” I make the voice say.

“It's, um . . .” Diamond begins to say but trails off.

I silently twist my right wrist over at Diamond to give an encouraging gesture. When she sees it, I follow that up by shaking my fist at Diamond, thus silently encouraging her to stand up to her apparent mother and “hit” her back, in a way.

“What was that?!” Spoiled seems to say in a demanding tone. “Speak up, young lady.”

“I, um . . . I do think you have a stupid nose,” Diamond agrees. “In fact, I think your whole face is stupid!”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?!” I have Spoiled cry in outrage. “How DARE you speak to me that way! I made you, Diamond Tiara, and I can break you just as easily!”

“No, you CAN'T!” Diamond cries out as she shoots up to boldly stand at the foot of my bed.

I hide a proud smile.

Atta girl, Diamond Tiara! Give her hell!

“You insolent WRETCH!” I force Spoiled to say. “You stupid cunt! You whore! You-”

“ENOUGH, MOTHER!” Diamond cries in outrage. I pause the playback of my program to pretend it is responding to Diamond's interruption. I also erase the rest of what Spoiled would have said. I replace it with nothing for a moment to simulate stunned silence, thus giving Diamond more of a chance to talk. I wait to see if she takes the bait.

“I am DONE with you, Mother!” Diamond cries out at her image. “You raised me to be like a high-horse all of my life! You yelled at me, called me names, and tried your best to tarnish this beautiful diamond inside of me, but guess what! A diamond is one the hardest, most beautiful, and precious gems in the world! You cannot break me any further, Mother! I WON'T LET YOU!”

Diamond approaches to glare closer to my computer screen. During this time, she also crosses her arms in defiance.

“You think you can just buy everything you ever want in this world, but I know now that there are some things in this world more precious than all the money in the world, and it's something you will never be able to afford . . . FRIENDS!”

I now regard Diamond in a little awe.

“You may have brought me to this world, Mother, but that does not mean that you own me, nor could you EVER afford me!” Diamond goes on. “I'm far too precious for your black, bankrupt heart, so you go to Hell, Mother! You go to Hell and you die! I'm done with you!”

She reaches forward to turn off my computer screen, then stands up straight again and continues to glare at the screen.

I stare at her in stunned silence for a further ten seconds before quietly setting aside my keyboard then giving her an applause.

But I blink, startled, when she suddenly belts out a shrill scream for four straight seconds, then says, “Oh GOD, that felt so good!”

“I figured you needed to get that off your chest,” I say to her. “I think you needed to say that almost all of your life.”

“Cozy, stand up!” Diamond commands me while looking at me firmly.

Huh? This is intriguing. I wonder what she is up to, but already I calculate several possible scenarios.

Since the very hostile possibilities have such a minimal chance, I cooperate. Once I do, Diamond proceeds to do the thing I calculated a seventy-three percent chance of.

She hugs me. She squeezes me dearly while also crying on my shoulder.

“Thank you!” Diamond cries at me gratefully after nearly a minute on my shoulder. “I never knew how badly I needed that!”

Although a strong part of me still feels awkward and disgusted, I reach up her back and squeeze her back.

You're welcome, Little Miss Pain In My Ass! At least now I know you can start to recover.

Which brings me another step closer to my ultimate revenge!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I enjoyed writing this chapter as much as reading it because it showcases great, and in some cases downright pivital, development for the characters within it, but in "slice of life" stories, not every conversation has to be critically important. Some just set the tone and the mood of the moment. It helps illuminate the characters so we can get to know them better.

For instance, before I started this chapter, I didn't know that the conversation between the characters would include a discussion of anime. That's also something that makes this story distinctive from life in Equestria. A story set in the modern and human world can be more identifiable. It's nice to have fun and run with that. There is plenty of reminders in there that this story is attached to a MLP core identity, but with some extra twists to spice things up.

Enjoy!