The first rays of dawn filtered through the open windows and kissed the nightstand by the filly's bed. A wonder of the world sparkled on it in the morning light – a diamond as large as a lemon, masterfully crafted into the shape of a bell. Only ten were known to exist, three of which were owned by Princess Celestia herself. As the sun warmed the diamond, the unicorn enchantment inside it awoke, and the sweetest ringing began to chime from the diamond bell.

It was from that soft melody that Diamond Dazzle Tiara awoke.

She had slept well in her king-sized bed, both the mattress and pillow made with expensive memory clouds contained inside a mattress. The nest of sheets over her were thick silk, soaked in vibrant hues that brought out rich rose reds and stunning pinks, as if the color was stolen from the twilight skies and bottled, just to make the finest bed sheets for the best filly in Equestria.

What had made her rest so nice wasn't the luxury she was resting in – that of course was common everyday pleasure – it was from one of half a dozen pillows on her bed that she had wrapped her front legs around. Silver Spoon had slept holding the very same pillow two nights ago, and the filly owned a perfume that reminded Diamond of freshly blossomed sweet pea flowers bathed in fresh rain; that perfume had lingered on the pillow.

Mmm, I’m going to see you later tonight. It’s going to be just you and I, and every clothing and jewelry store in all of Canterlot. No crummy second-rate school with a bubble-head teacher and peasant foals breathing our air - I can’t wait to see my best friend.

Though the bed tempted her to stay under the warm covers, Diamond Tiara pulled herself away, off the elevated bed onto a thick bearskin rug imported from the Frozen North. She had her bed on a raised platform, rather liking high places where others had to raise their heads to look at her. The platform also had coals inside it that her personal unicorn butler would ignite, which would serve to preheat the bed before Diamond Tiara would retire for the night.

Behind her, the enchanted diamond bell still rang its tune, and Diamond didn't mind the early morning music. Nothing in the world could create so pure a sound as a hollow diamond, and nothing was more fitting than to have such a treasure ring with praise for its owner every morning. It was flawless – like her.

She approached the double-oak doors of her bedroom and tapped on it twice, then walked away to her three mirror vanity to inspect herself. The doors opened softly and a green unicorn entered, dressed smartly in a butler’s jacket. “Good morning, princess.”

It was one of the many rules of Diamond's home that the help showed proper respect to her family by addressing them according to title. Her father was the master of the house of course, and referred to as “Lord Rich”. At his side was the second-in-command; her, the princess of the manor.

“I'll be having breakfast in my private living room. Have the morning paper brought to my table. Also, have the chef prepare a lunch for two. I'll be traveling with company tonight.” Diamond paused as she took in her reflection. Her mane was a little dis-heaved, her coat needed a brushing as well. “After I've eaten, I'll be taking my morning bath.”

The butler kept his head bowed, waiting still. Diamond Tiara had to recall that her father was away at Manehatten on business, and wouldn't be returning for a week. It was day four of that week, and she couldn't think of anything else that would be worthy of her attention other than a full day of shopping with her best friend.

“That is all, you're dismissed.”

The butler gave a stiff nod to the back of Diamond Tiara's head and wordlessly left her room.

The diamond bell had stopped ringing, though Diamond never noticed when it actually stopped. Her attention was on the vanity mirrors reflecting back to her a winning smile. Little photos were stuck into the gold trim of the mirrors, mostly photos of herself and Spoony, some with her father, but every morning there was only one photo she paid attention to first.

It was a simple polaroid taken over a year ago, kept in a frame trimmed with flawless sapphires and emeralds. In the frame was a picture of herself, standing on a stage surrounded by roses that had been tossed at her. Her smile in the photo wasn't smug, but a rare smile of genuine happiness. It was a side shot of her, mane perfectly styled, coat shiny and silky, smiling with that happy angelic smile she never made nowadays, and sporting the moment her cutie mark appeared. It was the day she discovered herself and how good it was to be her.

In a glass display case against the wall of her bedroom, several pieces of jewelry rested on royal blue velvet. The choice piece of her collection was the diamond tiara she always wore, tipped with three round cut blue diamonds and two sky blue diamonds. The actual tiara itself was twenty four karat white gold.

Her smile twisted into a smirk. It certainly was good being her. She turned her eyes back to the vanity mirrors, admiring what she saw as she placed the tiara on her head. It was early morning, but in a couple of hours she would be out of the backwater town called Ponyville. There was shopping to be done, snacks to be eaten, drinks to be shared, and better company that what was currently around her to be enjoyed.

This day was going to be perfect, Sweetie Belle told herself as she trotted by her big sister's side. She had thought it would have taken quite a lot of work to convince Rarity to take her on a gem excursion, but Rarity had surprisingly agreed rather quickly to the idea. Sweetie Belle only had to swear up and down and left and right that she would listen completely to what she was told, go only where she was told, and do nothing that would cause even the idea of trouble.

The gem fields were a few miles away from Ponyville, and they had left just before dawn. Celestia’s sun was just starting its journey when the sisters arrived at the desired spot.

“Hmm, I believe this will be good enough,” Rarity said after a moment of taken in her surroundings. Sweetie Belle sighed with relief, letting go of the small wagon she had been pulling with her tail. She had been so eager to leave with her sister that she insisted she pull the little red wagon that Spike normally pulled for Rarity, allowing her to save up her magic for casting the gem-seeker spell. Rarity would never think to physically pull her own wagon.

It was that very spell, the one to which Rarity owed her cutie mark to, that Sweetie Belle was going to learn tonight. Many ponies may have thought that Rarity’s special talent was making dresses, and in some ways that was true, but her true talent was gemstones. No one could find gems as well as Rarity, and if that kind of talent ran in the family then there was a high chance that Sweetie Belle could earn her cutie mark in finding precious stones – she could have a talent that would match her big sister!

“Great! So when do I start finding gems?” Sweetie asked, positively beaming.

Rarity glanced back at her sister’s glowing complexion with a stifled giggle. “Well, first I simply must explain the method I use to sense where gems are in the ground. It is rather sensitive magic that not many unicorns can use – even Twilight has had trouble focusing in on her surroundings to detect anything more than average crystals.”

“TWILIGHT has trouble with this spell? But... how am I suppose to cast this spell if even she had trouble using it?”

“I only said that she has trouble finding anything more than crystals. Twilight can cast this spell just fine, but she can’t fine tune it the way I can. Any unicorn could cast this spell and find a crystal or a gem here and there, and depending on how strong that unicorn is with magic, the results will be different. To my understanding, Twilight can sense and see gems in the ground when she casts this spell. However, if she were to look some specific type of gem, she wouldn’t find it right away, or at all. It’s all about practice, learning not just how to cast the spell but how to understand it as well. I have full faith that you will be able to cast my gem-seeker spell, and if you keep practicing with it, you’ll even be able to fine tune the spell the way I can.”

The look of concern and self doubt on Sweetie Belle’s face instantly transformed into a grin that stretched as wide as Rarity had ever seen on her little sister before. Rarity’s explanation made complete sense to her now.

“It’s just like leveling up my character in a game! I can start with the basic spell, and keep practicing until I reach the maximum level. If I spend all day level grinding, I’ll get the hang of it and at the end of the day we’ll come home with a wagon full of diamonds!”

Rarity looked completely confused. “Uh, Sweetie this isn’t a ga-”

“Cutie Mark Crusader Sweetie Belle Gem Hunter YAY!!”

Rarity smiled, despite the high-pitched shout that was making her ears ring slightly. Her little sister might have gotten on her nerves a few times in the past, but in rare moments like this she often found herself very proud of the kind of pony her sister was – passionate, determined, with just enough hard-headedness to not be a doormat. There was a lot of herself in Sweetie.

“Yes, well, it would be nice to find a couple of diamonds to take home, but that’s not why we’re here. I picked this spot because this is where we’ll find the gems I need for a very important client’s dress. We most likely won’t find any diamonds here, and that’s where the first lesson of my spell comes in; you have to know what you want before you start seeking.”

Rarity spoke in a very matter-of-fact tone, and waved a hoof out in front of her. “Now Sweetie, tell me what you see.”

The question struck Sweetie Belle as dumb, and the look on her face reviled as much. “Uh…dirt and rocks?”

Rarity rolled her eyes, but shook her head and waved her hoof again. “Take your time, look at your surroundings and see what’s obvious and what’s missing.”

Sweetie looked out around her once again, this time doing as Rarity said and taking her time. All around her were boulders, some seemingly as big as Rarity’s shop, and the smallest were as big as she was. There was no grass around, the earth felt soft under-hoof, and it was quiet, which meant there weren’t any animals around. Sweetie looked a little longer, but without being really sure what she was looking for she could only take guesses at what Rarity wanted to hear.

“Well…there’s lots of rocks, and soft dirt?” Sweetie asked finally.

“Well yes, I suppose that much is obvious. I’ll explain why that’s important,” Rarity’s horn glowed, the aura of silver-blue magic danced around her carefully filed horn, and Rarity walked a couple yards away from where she and her sister had been standing, with Sweetie Belle pulling the wagon as she followed behind. “You see, dear, this area is very dry. The ground is mostly made of dry, loose soil. There’s no wildlife out here because there’s no water left. We have all these big boulders around us because once, maybe a thousand years ago, this area was under water.”

Sweetie Belle looked surprised at her sister, unsure how Rarity could know such details about the land around them just by looking around her. “So, why’s that important?”

“It’s important because it means this land shaped the rocks in a certain way, and if you want to find certain gemstones, you have to know where they could have been made first. Remember what I said about fine tuning my spell?”

Sweetie Belle nodded quickly, wide-eyed and absorbing Rarity’s lesson with more drive than she ever showed in the classroom.

“My gem-seeker spell can find gemstones and crystals just about anywhere - that’s the basic level of the spell, I suppose you could say. I’ve been using this spell for years, I know everything I can make it do. If I want to find only a specific gem I have to be at the right place, and I have to know what I’m looking for. Now for this client I’ll have later, I need garnets, but not just plain old orange or red garnets. Those are far too outdated for today’s fashion for a young filly. What we’re looking for are rare green garnets. Not as overpowering as an emerald and not as subdued as a green topaz; green garnets have a color to them that has the perfect balance of a vibrant green color, like wet grass on a bright summer day.”

Rarity had a dreamy look on her face as she thought about the kind of dress she was going to make with even a small cache of green garnet stones. Sweetie was still trying to understand how the dry land they were in could be a place to find rare gems.

“Okay, so we need to find rare green gems that were only made here. So if we know where to look, it should be really easy to find them, right?”

Rarity frowned, and with her magic pulled a shovel to her from the red wagon, which started to dig in front of her on its own. It was at that moment that Rarity wished she could have brought Spike along with them; his claws were ideal for digging up the earth and opening the gem veins she could find. A shovel required too much work and magic, and if she did it too much she would start to sweat, something that she was adamantly against.

“Not quite. You see, this location might be the most ideal place to find the garnet stones I need, but that doesn’t mean they’re here. Oh, we’ll find some garnets alright. For example,” Rarity moved away from the deep hole that her unicorn magic had already dug up to allow Sweetie Belle to see that her big sister had already found a cache of gems.

“You did it already?! But we barely just got here and you still haven’t showed me how to cast that spell yet!” Sweetie looked upset, thinking that her sister was just playing games with her, until she realized what had just been dug up. “Wait, they aren’t green.”

Indeed, the cache that had been dug up offered only two rough orange garnets and one red garnet. The stones were dull, faded, looking nothing like the gems that Rarity would use on her dresses.

“That’s right, and that is something you’re going to have to remember about using this spell. It can find gems easy enough in the right area, but depending on how rare the gem is, it can’t always find you exactly what you might want. There’s a fair bit of chance that goes into using this spell, and you have to be very patient when using it. I’m constantly trying new ways to perfect this spell. Green garnets are considered rare gems, and they are harder to find than common garnets like reds and orange. Also, If you get discouraged that you aren’t finding what you want, the spell gets weaker. You need a clear calm mind to use this spell, or any magic for that matter. Take what you find, and hope it’s what you wanted. This works for me because no matter what I find, I can always use more gemstones.

“This is exactly why I wanted to bring you with me. I certainly would never make you try and find the rare garnet stones I need for this dress when you’ve never even cast this spell before. I’ll be doing that - you on the other hoof will be looking for garnets like these. I can always use more gemstones.”

Sweetie Belle nodded quickly. This was finally going to be her chance to not only do something sisterly with her big sister, but also help her too! And the more Rarity talked about it, the easier it sounded to her. All she had to do was keep calm and cast magic – it couldn’t be that hard to do.

“Now, I’m going to have you start casting this spell. Fir-“

Rarity was cut off by the excited filly’s shout of joy and her sudden bounce off the ground. The filly’s high pitched soprano voice struck Rarity like whip to her ear drums. The look of annoyance mixed with slight pain caused Sweetie to blush rather brightly.

“Hehe…clear calm mind you said?”

Two hours had passed with zero luck.

Rarity had explained the spell well enough, but Sweetie soon realized that executing it was a different story. Tiny sparks of green magic would burst from the tip of her small horn, teasing her with the sense that if she just focused enough on the spell itself she could finally cast it. In the end, Sweetie couldn’t cast the spell at all, while Rarity had already dug up two more gem caches with orange and red garnets, but not a single green gem.

The angry scowl on the filly’s face was easy to spot, and Rarity was doing her best to keep her sister calm.

“Let’s stop for breakfast now. You’ll need a full stomach to keep casting the spell.”

Sweetie Belle let out an unladylike groan as she walked with her sister to a boulder that was smoothed over one side. Rarity was quick to open her saddle bags and lay out a clean picnic cloth over the sun-kissed ground, along with plates for herself and her sister. Sweetie slouched against the rock and sighed, staring at the ground. It was always a challenge for her to cast any magic, and the gem-seeker spell felt simple enough. It was like needing to sneeze, only for the sneeze to go away, come back, and go away again.

“Dumb horn. I’m never going to be able to cast anything at this rate. Isn’t there something else I can do to make this spell work? Didn’t you say that when you first got your cutie mark the gem-seeker spell started on its own without you controlling it?”

Rarity looked up from the spread of dandelion sandwiches she was preparing. The mare blushed and made a small frown at the memory of her youth; she rarely liked talking about it.

“Well yes, I suppose when I first discovered the spell it was cast differently than the way I do it now. If I recall correctly, Twilight told me once that unicorns occasionally cast magic without meaning to at a very young age when they feel exceptionally driven, such as when she was taking her entrance exams to hatch Spike. At the time, I was so driven to make the costumes for my class play just perfect that I simply could not focus on anything else. I suppose Rainbow Dash also helped in her own brash way.”

Rarity thought about how those events worked out for her, looking to Sweetie Belle and wondering what drove her sister, what passions she had inside her heart. Finding her cutie mark was certainly one such passion, but there had to be more.

Before Rarity could ask, Sweetie Belle spoke up excitedly “I got it! Let’s call Rainbow Dash to do another one of her sonic rainbooms while we’re looking for gems. Maybe that will help me cast the gem-seeker spell AND get my cutie mark!”

Rarity couldn’t help but laugh. “Sweetie, while Rainbow Dash might have accidentally helped my friends and I find our special talents, she wasn’t the direct cause of them. If she were, we would all have rainbow cutie marks.” Rarity frowned momentarily at the idea. “Even if she did one right now, it wouldn’t get you your cutie mark any more than it would bring us the gems we need to find.”

The disappointment was clear on Sweetie Belle’s face, and rather heartbreaking to see. “What’s so special about these green garnets anyways? Why do they have to be green? You have lots of emeralds back home.”

“They are important because they are what the customer wants.” Rarity paused, taking a quick breath as she set herself up for something she knew would be difficult. “I think you know her too – she’s classmate of yours. Her father commissioned me to make a dress for her, and green garnets were the gems he asked for.”

“You’re making a dress for a filly in my class?” Sweetie Belle asked. Her sister’s dresses were always bright and flashy and sometimes a little gaudy to look at. No pony in her class was like that… with the exception of two fillies.

“Just who are we finding these garnets for? Who's the dress going to be for?”

Rarity swallowed her food and wiped her mouth with a napkin, all of which took too long for Sweetie Belle, before she replied. “It’s for Filthy Rich’s daughter, Diamond Tiara.”

The name alone was enough to sour Sweetie’s excitement for the day. The spell she had so desired to learn was to be used for Diamond Tiara’s benefit? Sweetie Belle would rather never learn the spell at all if that were the case.

“No way!” Sweetie shouted, stomping a hoof on the picnic cloth and spilling the sandwich from her plate. “Diamond Tiara is the most stuck up, rude, mean-hearted mule in my class! The last thing I want to do is help her get anything!”

Rarity was shocked into silence at how Sweetie Belle, who normally was a polite, well-mannered filly, had just blown up in a fit of uncharacteristic anger. She looked angry, ready to reprimand her little sister for speaking so unladylike, but frowned instead.

“I know. I know she’s been bullying you and your friends for months.“

Sweetie Belle was about to say something else before getting blindsided by Rarity’s comment.

“You know...?” she asked softly, feeling dumbstruck. She never talked about her bullying because she was always the first of her friends to get over it, to let it go and accept that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were just mean ponies to be ignored. She could take their bullying - it wasn’t even that bad, not like how Babs had bullied her and the others. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon always had a mean word ready for them, but they never went out of their way to make her life miserable. They weren’t the proactive bullies that Babs had been.

“I spoke with Applejack after the... trouble... you and your friends had with Apple Bloom’s cousin. Needless to say I was distraught! The very idea that my little sister was being victimized for so long without my knowing had me in a fury that I rarely allow myself to feel! But... I thought about it for several days, and... well I suppose I should have said something sooner, but the appropriate time never presented itself.”

While she spoke, Rarity dragged her hoof across the ground without seemingly thinking about what she was doing. Sweetie Belle noticed the dirt building up around her sister’s pristine white hoof and knew something was really bothering Rarity.

“So, you know I’ve been bullied, and you still want me to help you find gems so you can make a dress for the pony whose bullying me?” Sweetie asked with a slight bit of fear behind her tone.

Rarity looked like she was unsure of how to answer. “This made so much more sense when I spoke with Applejack,” she muttered to herself.

“In a word... yes.” Rarity finally said, earning herself an outraged look from her little sister. Rarity could already see the angry tears forming in Sweetie Belle’s eyes, and quickly continued.

“I want to make her your friend!” Rarity shouted, just before the first tear could be shed.

“What?! You want to make her my what?! Rarity, do you even know what you’re saying? Have you ever even met Diamond Tiara?”

Rarity licked her lips and pushed herself to keep going as her heart start to speed up with anxiety.

“No, but I know her type! If what Applejack told me was true, than I know just what kind of bully she is to you, because I use to be a bully just like her.”

“This can’t be right!”

Even as she told herself this, there was no denying the obvious evidence in the filly’s personal planner. She had gotten the dates mixed up – today she was to pick up a custom order dress here in Ponyville; it was next weekend that she and Spoony had their shopping date in Canterlot.

The filly flung her planner book away, sulking in the cushioned high back chair of her personal living room. The space was for her personal uses, such as entertaining friends. It was huge, with thick sofas and plush couches, polished glass tables and crystal lamps that glowed when touched. Windows occupied most of the space over three walls, allowing Diamond Tiara to see out into the impressive flower garden that was tenderly kept by the hired help. Outside was a vibrant display of nature’s color palette grown just for Diamond Tiara’s pleasure.

At the moment, she didn’t give a damn about the scenery. The filly glared at the flowers from her favorite love seat, which fit her rather big thanks to her small size. It was big enough that often she and Silver Spoon would sit side by side on it, sharing gossip or just… talking.

The thought of her sugar-lump buddy was not making Diamond feel any better. She had been looking forward to seeing her best friend and spending the day with her. The thought of the new dress waiting for her in Ponyville had lost its entire splendor now that she wasn’t going to be able to show it off to the one pony whose opinions actually mattered to her.

That left the filly with a nagging question – what to do now?

She wasn’t going to stay home on this weekend. The living room was rich and vast, but it was also very empty. The hired help were busy with their jobs, and Diamond Tiara was not about to bother herself with their company. Such a thing would be beneath her, as if she simply had to have some pony around her, like she was a pathetic attention seeking loser.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. Never the less, she didn’t want to stay inside doing nothing either. Her day was free, aside from picking up the dress in the later afternoon. She had a couple dresses from Rarity, and she had to admit they weren’t that bad. This dress had been ordered from her father, so she knew it had to be something to fit her tastes. Whatever daddy liked, she liked, and they both only liked the best.

It was still early morning, and the silence of the living room was starting to get to her. There were few options left to her. Reaching for the night stand, she bit down on the handle of a gold bell, ringing it softly by shaking her head in a gentle, dignified manner.

Seconds passed before the butler that had waited on her when she got out of bed appeared at the doorway to her living room. The green unicorn, whose name Diamond had trouble remembering, waited at the entrance – he had been called, but he hadn’t been given permission to enter the room.

“Princess?” the unicorn asked in a deep, flat voice.

“There is a change of plans,” Diamond Tiara didn’t even turn her head to look at the butler. “I will be going to town alone tonight. Have only one lunch packed.”

The unicorn’s face was emotionless as he responded in a matter of fact tone. “We have your lunch packed already, princess. As well as the other you requested earlier.”

“Then throw the other one out,” the filly ordered with a huff of annoyance in her tone. If she couldn’t share her food with Silver Spoon, she wasn’t going to let any lesser pony have it.

The unicorn raised his head, just enough so that the sunlight reflected from the massive window of the living room onto half his face, illuminating it, especially around his earth brown eye. The look he had for the back of the filly's head was something Diamond Tiara would have taken notice of, and might have even been concerned about.

“Very well, princess. How else may I serve you?” the unicorn asked, his mask like face starting to tighten at the corners of his eyes and lips.

Diamond Tiara heard nothing in the butler’s tone that attracted her attention. She thought about anything else she might need, but came up with nothing. Already her mind was busy making new plans for the day.

“That is all. You’re dismissed. I shall be leaving in half an hour.”

“Indeed,” the unicorn smiled, a small tight-lipped smile. He pulled his face away from the sun, and it transformed once again into the emotionless mask he and the staff had mastered in the time they had working for “Lord” Rich and his daughter.

Diamond Tiara didn’t even hear the door close when the unicorn left. Already she was thinking about shops she could go to, perhaps even visiting the local spa treatment place before getting her new dress. But before that, she would have to visit one of the better candy shops in Ponyville. Certainly not Sugarcube Corner! There had to be better sweet shops than that place…

The second lunch that had been packed that day was being devoured by Sharp Dresser, the green unicorn that waited on Diamond Tiara. The head chef has certain made an excellent lunch – freshly cultivated daisies, with blackberry jam brushed on fine baked wheat bread with oats, and dried salted red and pink rose chips for a snack. To hear the stuck up foal had wanted perfectly good food thrown out had been the last straw from the careless and selfish commands she had made of him over the year he had to wait on her.

As his magic held the sandwich afloat, his attention was focused on the dried bright purple flower in front of him, its slender petals being picked off one by one and crushed into a fine powder that was sprinkled into Diamond Tiara’s sandwich.

Passion flowers were supposedly very toxic. With enough blackberry jam and some dark lettuce to mask the flavor, the little filly wouldn’t realize what she was eating. Once she would start seeing things that weren't there, the chances were that she would never make it to a hospital in time to stop the poison.

He had threatened to do this for a year, but only to himself. A sudden buck down the stairs, a push into oncoming traffic, a pillow over her ugly face in the middle of the night... there had been lots of ways Sharp Dresser had thought about putting an end to the filly who treated him like dirt. All his life he had been bullied or picked on, and it always seemed to come from stuck up mares like Diamond Tiara.

Not anymore. I won’t let the little foal push me around anymore. It’s time I finally started taking a stand.

The chef would be to blame, or so Sharp Dresser assumed. It really didn’t matter. There would be no proof tying him to the poison, and there were so many servants in the Rich manor that anyone of them would have been suspected - they all hated the little mule. Sharp Dresser highly doubted anyone would care, not even Filthy Rich. In his eyes, he was doing the world a favor.

Finishing off the last bite of his sandwich, the unicorn wrapped up Diamond Tiara’s lunch and placed it in her saddle bags. He felt good, proud of himself even. A lifetime of bullying was ending with his first act of fighting back.

“You were... a bully?” Sweetie Belle felt like she was looking at Rarity differently now. It wasn’t so far fetched to believe, but at the same time she didn’t want to believe that the sister she looked up to had ever once made another pony feel the way Diamond Tiara made her feel.

“As loath as I am to admit it, I am afraid I must confess the truth. I know it’s hard to believe that I could ever be so selfish, but yes Sweetie Belle, your perfect big sister has a dark and shameful past. It wasn’t until after you were born that I started to change my deviant ways. Once I got my cutie mark, I felt like the best filly in Equestria. Can you imagine how good it felt to discover that you had the talent to make anypony beautiful? That kind of power... oh Sweetie Belle, I was just a foal, I didn’t know how to use my talents for good instead of fueling my own ego!” Rarity hid her face with her arm, looking away before her sister could see the tears of shame forming in her eyes.

“I bullied anypony who wore clothes that weren’t as good as the clothes I made. I know how silly it is to think about it now, but at the time I was fully convinced that I was the best dressmaker in Equestria, because in my class only I could find and use gemstones to make the perfect ensembles. Oh, I was the worst, the absolute worst! But then...”

Rarity wiped her eyes and reached out to take hold of Sweetie Belle’s front legs, holding them up and looking into the confused and worried green eyes of her little sister.

“But then mother and father told me I had a new baby sister. And when I saw you for the first time, the very first thing I did was sew your first diaper.”

Sweetie Belle made a shocked face and turned beet red. “Eww Rarity! I don’t want to know about that!”

Rarity ignored her sister’s complaint and continued. “I used ivory silk and embroidered your initials with gold thread. I even used two white diamonds I had been saving for a special occasion to fasten your diaper together. My new baby sister had to have the best! And when I showed mother and father they laughed and told me it was a nice thought, but silk isn’t very good at absorbing.”

“Oh come on! I don’t want to know about this!”

Rarity dismissed her sister’s embarrassment. “The point I’m trying to make is that for the first time I was using my talents not to show up other ponies once you entered my life. Proving I was the best at what I could do didn’t matter anymore to me. All that mattered was that I had a beautiful little sister, and I could make her even more beautiful.”

Sweetie Belle forgot her embarrassment. Her big sister had just called her beautiful - she never called her beautiful. Not once that she could remember did Rarity ever compliment her on her looks.

“But, you don’t make dresses for me. You haven’t done that in years.”

Rarity smiled sadly and let her sister’s legs go, wiping at her eyes again. “That’s because I quickly learned that you were going to be a very active foal. You either ripped, stained, or completely destroyed every dress I made for you.” Rarity chuckled, thinking back to those times. “You use to make me so mad. But, when I was making your dresses, I felt really good about myself. And after a while some ponies noticed how nice you looked in my clothes, and asked if I could do the same for their foals. After that, I started making clothing and dresses all the time, and discovered it was my passion for life.

“On some level, I always knew that making clothes would be my dream job. But until you came into my life, all I could think about was what I could do for myself. When I started making clothes for you, I felt good inside. I stopped bullying others, and I made amends to all those ponies I use to taunt by making them something special. It felt so much better to give than it did to criticize. And then Applejack told me about your bullying. This Diamond Tiara sounds like me when I was your age. Always showing off how much better she is than others, flaunting what makes her special, and taunting anypony who didn’t understand her - she sounds like she’s going through the same phase I went though.”

Sweetie Belle was trying to following along with her sister’s thinking, but she wasn’t making the connections. “Diamond Tiara is an only child though. How is she suppose to turn a new leaf the way you did if she doesn’t have a baby sister?”

“It’s not that she needs a sibling to change her ways, she needs a reason to give. You’re a very special pony, Sweetie Belle. Without even meaning to, you made me want to be a better pony, and all you had to do was smile towards me. Now, as somepony who knows a thing or two about the upperclass, I have a feeling I can make some safe assumptions about this filly. She’s rich, so she’s most likely always gotten everything she’s ever asked for. Believe or not, but that gets very boring after a while.”

Sweetie Belle raised her eyebrow and looked as if she didn’t believe her sister at all on that point.

“I suppose it is hard to imagine, but getting everything you want from ponies you expect to get things from loses its meaning after a while. It stops feeling special and starts to feel phony. You start to realize that you’re getting what you want because the ponies giving to you are expected to give. There’s no meaning behind it. But, if you received something from somepony you never expected to get anything from, that is different. It’s special. I think if you showed this filly a little honest generosity, she would stop being a bully to you, and see you in a new light.”

“It... almost sounds like I’m buying her friendship though.” Sweetie Belle said, trying to imagine Diamond Tiara ever being grateful to get anything from anyone. Rarity might have had good intentions, but she didn’t know how nasty Diamond could be. Not once since Sweetie Belle had known her had she ever shown herself to be anything but stuck up and mean.

At the same time though, the idea of turning Diamond Tiara into a friend was very tempting. She never would have considered it before, but if Rarity was being honest about her foalhood, then it was possible for a pony to turn from nasty to nice. Maybe the two of them could actually be friends, and then Diamond could stop bullying Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and they all could be friends together! The possibilities only got better from there - as friends, maybe Diamond Tiara could help the crusaders find their cutie marks! Maybe Silver Spoon would turn nice too and they could all be one big group of friends, the way Rarity had her big group of friends!

It could work! She could see it all so clearly in her head. Befriending Diamond Tiara by showing her the kindness of giving, getting passed her mean and snobby personality to the real filly underneath. She could do it!

“Oh no, it’s not buying her friendship at all! It’s like a peace offering really. I think once this dress is -” Rarity stopped mid-sentence, looking up from Sweetie Belle’s growing grin to the sparks of green magic coming from her horn. “Sweetie Belle, your horn is glowing!”

The filly had no time to respond. A bright flash of green light exploded from her horn, blinding both sisters. The magic in Sweetie Belle’s horn was stronger than it had ever felt before, and with surprising force, it lifted her off her hoofs and started dragging her away!

Sweetie Belle cried out for her sister, but the light of her horn was too bright to see where Rarity was, or where she was being dragged off too. She felt her hooves dragging against the ground, bumping over hard rocks. She could hear Rarity calling her name, but the magic from her horn was buzzing like a hive of bees, making it hard to hear as well.

She could make out that Rarity was trotting after her, telling her in an excited tone not to panic and to let her magic do what it needed. Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but panic as she blindly got pulled away, feeling herself getting dragged over a large boulder, having a couple of seconds of weightlessness, and then feeling her stomach rise up into her chest as she fell back down to earth. Her hooves hit the ground running as she kept being dragged away.

The experience had felt longer than it really was, but Sweetie Belle’s horn finally had dragged her to the spot it wanted her to be at, pulling her whole head right onto the ground as if to mark where she had to be. The impact of skull on dirt, even soft dirt, had Sweetie seeing stars.

She was aware of Rarity nearby, saying things Sweetie couldn’t make out. There was a ringing in her ears, and the sudden rush of adrenaline she had been feeling was gone now. The sensation of having cast the gem-seeker spell was no longer felt so intensely inside her horn. The experience was a lot like waking from a dream, barely able to hold on to the sensations and emotions of the whole experience, and even then questioning if it had been real or just made up.

Rarity pulled her sister up from the ground, forgetting that all of Sweetie’s kicking and struggling had worked up a cloud of dust that now stained her white coat as she held her sister to her.

“Sweetie Belle, please tell me you’re okay! I kept trying to tell you not to fight the spell. Are you hurt? Your head isn’t bleeding is it?”

Rarity fussed over Sweetie Belle while the filly tried to get her bearings. She was out of it of course, but she was quickly starting to get a handle on what had happened to her, as she gently pulled away from Rarity.

“I’m fine... my head hurts a little, but I’m fine.” The filly rubbed her head with a hoof, feeling a slight, throbbing bump. She winced and pulled her hoof away, rubbing her eyes instead. She was looking down at the ground, but she could still see stars.

Her eyes widened, realizing just what kind of stars she was seeing. They were a hue of green she hadn’t seen outside of her sister’s workshop, and only under special lighting. These stars seemed to glow in the light-less embrace of the earth.

They were the green garnets that they had been trying to find.

“Your horn suddenly went off! It was just the same thing that happened to me when-”

Sweetie pushed a hoof in her sister’s mouth, the dirt covering her hoof doing more to silence Rarity than the hoof itself.

“Wait. Look. Can’t you see them? They’re right there! The garnets are right there!” She could see the cache of gems clear as day, the magic of her spell lingering in her eyes even though her horn had stopped glowing like a green mini sun and was now only dimly lit.

The growing smile on Sweetie Belle’s face couldn’t have been bigger.