drama Beneath the Surface (Intro)

[Twilight Yagami 16]

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So there is a story that I have been wanting to execute for a while now but I figured before doing so I would post a little...pilot? preview? idk, on here to see if it takes.  A short back story on the lives of the main characters: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.  Let me know what you guys think and if you wouldn't mind seeing more.

 
Diamond Tiara often found herself asking: How would things be different if her grandfather never founded barnyard bargains?  Would her life be better or would her life be worse?  And what of ponyville?  These are questions that Tiara never even thought to consider.  She never really was one to dwell on hindsight but given the recent events, one could understand why these questions would now weigh so heavily on Tiara’s mind.  It was over two hundred years ago that the family business was founded.  Two hundred years ago when her grandfather: Stinking Rich, opened the doors to what would become the biggest retail place in Equestria.  Diamond Tiara knew the story well.  It was this store that helped to shape ponyville and it was also this store that earned her family’s place at the top of the social hierarchy.  It was only five years before Tiara’s birth that her father, Filthy Rich, inherited this notorious franchise.
            Now Tiara was young, she never did understand the complex inner workings of the family business or any business for that matter.  She just knew that it was the business that put her family on the map.  It was something that her father was proud of and it was something that she was proud of too and, up until recently, she could have sworn that the rest of her family shared her sentiment.  When her father, Filthy Rich, came in one day and announced that he was going to “incorporate” the business she had no idea what that meant; she only knew that her father was excited about this and so she was excited too.  There were some words of doubt that came from her mother, Golden Tiara, but Goldie never did share the same…enthusiasm that Tiara and her father shared.  Incorporation was a suggestion made by Rich’s friend, Fancy Pants.  He explained that it was a chance for his store to really expand. “The big leagues” was the primary phrase he used. He said that Silver Industries, the company owned by Silver Spoon’s family, was already on board with the idea of incorporation.
            It was four years ago that Rich officially incorporated the business although Tiara still did not know the meaning behind this.  It was also about four years ago that things seemed to change for the worst.  Over time her family seemed to become more agitated.  Tiara would often walk in on her father yelling into the phone as well as some heated arguments between himself and his wife.  Tiara never was terribly empathetic of the people around her but even she could sense that something was going wrong with Rich’s plan.  Efforts to shelter their daughter from whatever was happening seemed to prove futile.  She would notice words and terms such as “asset bubble” “pump and dump” and “IPO” tossed around almost haphazardly in heated phone conversations.
            Tiara could only sigh as she looked back over the events.  She really didn’t know anything about how things worked.  She understood that a potential problem was arising but she didn’t understand it’s severity until the following year.  It was four years ago that Rich made the announcement and it was about four years ago that Rich headed off to Canterlot for a very important business meeting.  Tiara noticed that he didn’t seem terribly confident as he went off.  It was supposed to be the beginning of a new era for the business, that is what her father said.  Shortly after her father returned things didn’t seem to improve.  She kept hearing more words that she couldn’t fully grasp such as “crash” and “investment risk” being thrown around.  It was at this point that Tiara’s Naïveté once again became apparent.  She was seeing her father’s name in the Newspaper and she didn’t know why.  More and more words were used; more and more words that she could not understand.  One day she overheard a conversation between Fancy and her father. Fancy Pants said something to him that clearly scared him.  She could not understand this one either but it seemed to yield a great deal of significance to Rich for she could see all of the color leaving his face as he heard them: The Veil has been pierced.  Her father was silent for the rest of that day.
            Tiara’s thoughts were interrupted by a gentle nudge from her friend sitting next to her.  Tiara awoke from her daydream with a start quite amazed at how lost she had gotten in her own thoughts.  For a moment she had almost forgotten where she was.  Reality snapped back into focus as she regained full awareness of the ambient noises of the moving train and the passing terrain she saw out the window.
            “You’ve been staring at that window for the past hour.” Silverspoon said, “What are you thinking about?”
            “Just thinking about the business.”  Tiara said, glancing back out the window.  “You know I keep asking myself, ‘what if things had been done differently?’  What if my dad never incorporated Barnyard Bargains?  Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if the company never existed.  I know that I wouldn’t have as much, but at least my dad might still be alive.”
            “I really try not to dwell on the past,” Silver said, “and you shouldn’t either.  The point of our doing this is to leave all of that behind right?”
            “I know, I know but I can’t help it.  Knowing what I know now I understand that my father didn’t put a lot of thought into the decisions he made.”
            “I don’t think anyone involved did, my parents included, but that doesn’t give the people the right to do what they did.  The way they demonized our parents.  The way they threatened our families.”
            “And it certainly didn’t give anyone the right to murder my father.”  Tiara added.  “Or your parents.”
            “Three years.”  Silverspoon said, “It was three years ago when our parents were attacked.”
            “And it certainly didn’t take long for our families sell the companies to the corporations.” Tiara frowned “You know I guess I never realized how little Goldie actually cared about my father.  It really was just all about the money.  I think she had been pushing for him to sell the company from the very beginning.  I don’t think that she was all too upset after he died.”
            “I know what you mean,” Silver said, “My family was the same way.”
            The train’s whistle blew signaling the approach of a nearby town.
            A sigh of relief came from Tiara, “Finally.  I am really glad that Fancy agreed to let us stay with him in Canterlot.”
            “Yeah, me too.  I couldn’t stay in that town for another second.  The way that they were talking about our parents.  It’s not all their fault, how could they have known?”
            That was a question the constantly rang in the minds of these two girls.  How could they have known that things would go so wrong so fast?  How could they have known that their parents were even capable of making so many fatal errors?  How could they have know what they would all lead to?  The destruction of several companies, the greatest economic disaster the nation has ever faced, the death people close to them.  Death at the hands of irate shareholders and constituents who were affected by the whole debacle.  No one could have seen it coming; especially not ones so innocent. 
            But like Silver Spoon said, they’ll not dwell on the events of the past.  Leaving ponyville and willingly turning their backs on the families for whom they had they had lost all respect was to be the catalyst of a new beginning.  They would build their own empires and make their own names.  Despite how dark the present looked, the future seemed bright to these young girls.  This is where it would all begin.  They intended to rise just as their parents and succeed where they did not.  And nothing would stand in their way.