The Ruby Scandal

The Ruby Scandal
Prologue

Canterlot.  A shining beacon of what the height of the Equestrian denizens’ wealth provides not only because of the royal sisters, but because of the various aristocrats and smattering of celebrity faces.  Canterlot is not simply a city, but a symbol, an embodiment of what money can buy.  The residents all wealthy, in a capacity of course-at least that is the assumption there are those of us that have to struggle to survive, to live the posh life that exists there, I am one of those ponies.

They call me Ruby, which is alright with me, since my actual name is Ruby Elixir.  I owe it to my luscious ruby color, mane, tail and coat, though I keep my mane and tail dyed a luxurious pink.  Officially I am a kind of alchemist; I make confections of sorts for the social elite, well, not confections themselves, but flavors.  If the tongue can taste it, I can remake it~ however, I hardly make money doing it, so unofficially I am what one of the elite would call…a Companion-if I am lucky, and if I am unlucky, I believe the worst I have heard is “a very disposable somepony.”

Sure it’s an unsavory profession… however, I can’t argue with the money, -couldn’t- argue with it. I was young and stupid, easily dragged in by a handsome client who kept me largely to himself.  I have been in the service of many a rich pony, but none of them were like him, none of them held sway over me like Filthy Rich did.  A stressed and earnest pony from some hovel called Ponyville.  I was shocked he didn’t live in Canterlot; he told me it was because he loved Canterlot to be a getaway, from his common day to day, from his neighbors, and apparently-from his wife.

No other client I had paid as well as he did, I was astonished someone as young as me made that kind of money, but I suppose if the family name is ‘Rich’…it spoke for itself.  He didn’t always treat me like just a call pony, he brought me places, spoiled me, told me stories about things like how his family had a hoof in the founding of the town he lived in. In my early years love was easy, and I was a sucker. I would take it all back if I could, after I learned what kind of pony he really was, the depths of just how despicable the things he was willing to do were… all of it, all of it except for the one thing he gave me  that wasn’t money-my daughter, Diamond Tiara.

I knew her for little more than a day.  I can only begin to imagine how his, at that time, wife could have taken the situation-hopefully not well. I can honestly say as an estranged mother, I began devoting my life to trying to get her back.  But Filthy is not a pony that is easy to trifle with.  Even in Equestria, money is power, I learned that during childbirth, when an official of the state came and took my daughter from me, and told me never to pursue her.  I threatened going to the Princess about it, but I was assured that such an avenue had been taken care of already-which I found out when the royal guard kept me from making an official audience-that they don’t allow crazy conspiracy theorists…

So I poured my efforts into my craft, working on my flavors working on my self-promotion, I had plenty of money left from my history with Filthy, and I was determined to use it, all of it if I had to, in any capacity to get my daughter back.  This led me to getting a job in the palace itself.  I was a flavorer for the confections that lesser nobility decided to consume, I worked now for ponies like Prince Blue Blood-who is much more a gentlecolt than that bastard Filthy Rich!  But I suppose I should never let my anger completely consume me, which would ruin everything I’ve been working toward.  If I’m going to tell my tale I should start from the beginning.