Tang Ri Shan

Be Somepony Else

(Inspired by the songs sung during the Crusaders of the Lost Mark Episode, this story follows the same plot)

CH 1

Diamond Tiara stood there, stunned, as her mother turned and trotted away with her nose in the air. Then she slowly turned and walked in the opposite direction, her head held low under the crushing weight of one single thought, a thought that seemed to dominate her mind. I'm a loser!

Diamond felt a tear come to her eye, and then a flash caught her attention. Glancing up, she saw a large diamond winking back at her in the display window of a store. The diamond seemed to catch the rays of the sun and shimmered like a star. Normally, such a sight would fill Diamond Tiara with happiness, but now, as she gazed at the stone, she only felt worse. Instead of feeling hard and strong, she felt frail and brittle. Her mouth opened, and before she knew it, she was singing.

"If I'm a diamond then why do I feel so rough?

I'm as strong as a stone, even that's not enough" She kicked a small stone out of her way as she began to walk away from the store.

"There's something jagged in me, and I've made such mistakes

I thought that diamonds were hard, but I feel I could break"

Diamond could feel more tears come to her eyes and she broke into a run. Hearing hoofbeats behind her, she glanced back and saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders following her. Gritting her teeth, Diamond Tiara sped up, her grief adding to her speed. Ignoring the Crusader's cries for her to stop, she left them in the dust and didn't stop running until she reached the bridge on the outskirts of town. As she slowed down, she passed an adult stallion and young filly whose names she didn't know walking in the other direction, talking about something. As Diamond watched, the filly giggled while the stallion looked a little embarrassed. Then finally, as they walked away, they both burst out laughing. Seeing this, Diamond felt something cold clutch her heart, a feeling she was all too familiar with, a feeling that made tears come to her eyes…loneliness.

"Would you believe, that I've always wished I could be somepony else?

Yet I can't see, what I need to do to be the pony I wanna be" She sang, leaning over the edge of the bridge, staring at her reflection in the river below. One by one, her silent tears fell onto the lake, their rippled breaking her reflection on the surface of the water.

"Have you seen Diamond Tiara anywhere?" Diamond glanced up at the sound of her name. Through her tear-filled eyes, she saw the Crusaders speaking with the filly and stallion that had passed her earlier.

"Diamond Tiara, yeah we saw her. She's right over…" The stallion pointed with a hoof to the bridge, but stopped when he saw that there was nopony there. "Well, she was right over there."

"Where did she go?" The filly asked, glancing around.

Diamond fled, fear and rage making her run effortlessly. Her tears were flowing freely now, whipping behind her as she ran. She went faster, even though her eyes were so blurry she could barely see where she was going. As she ran, her thoughts tumbled through her head like autumn leaves caught in a brisk wind. Why were the Crusaders looking for her? Probably they wanted to rub it in her face about losing to Pipsqueak. That was just like something those blank flanks would do! Her mother had always told her…

Diamond felt her pace begin to slow as a fresh pang of grief cut through her like a claw. Her head seemed to bend down without her thinking about it. She closed her eyes, but she could not stop the images that flooded into her mind and she started to sing again.

"I've been told my whole life what to do, what to say

No pony showed me there might be some better way

And now I feel like I'm lost, I don't know what to do.

The ground is sinking away, I'm about to fall through.

Would you believe, that I've always wished I could be somepony else?

But I can't see what I need to do to be the pony I wanna be"

By this point, Diamond could not hear any noises around her and guessed that she was beyond the town outskirts now. A small spark of fear sprang up, reminding her that she had never been this far out of town on her own before, but she didn't care. She'd rather be out here and alone then back there, where she was expected to act like some pony she really didn't want to be.

"To be the pony I wanna be" She repeated as she finally gave in to the pleas of her exhausted muscles. She stopped running, lay down right there, and began to sob freely, her cries the only noise she could hear.

After what felt like hours, her tears finally seemed to dry up, so she just lay there where she had fallen, too sad and lonely to bother get up.

"Do you feel better?" A soft, soothing female voice spoke up, Diamond flinched, feeling a tad embarrassed that somepony had noticed her crying, but she didn't care.

"A little" She admitted, sniffling sadly. As if in response, she suddenly felt a comforting feeling come over her, like someone had wrapped a warm blanket around her. Diamond shuddered in the warmth and gave a happy sigh as she felt her grief and despair suddenly drain away. She felt safe, protected, like a little carefree filly again. "Thank you" she gasped, raising her neck to enjoy the warm feeling.

"You're welcome. But please tell me, why were you sobbing so much?" The voice asked, and it seemed to tickle Diamond's ear.

Diamond frowned and lowered her head to the ground again. "Because I don't know what I am any more" She confessed. In the back of her mind, she wondered why she was confessing her feelings to what could be a complete stranger, but she felt so comfortable right now that she didn't really bother opening her eyes to see who it was.

"Really?" The voice sounded confused. "Well, you look like a very pretty, but very lonely, little pony to me"

Diamond felt a smile flicker across her face. "That's pretty much what I think too"

"But then, that means you do know what you are, so why are you saying you don't know what you are?" The voice asked.

"I…" Diamond tried to think of a good answer, but the warm feeling of comfort was distracting her. "It's…complicated"

"It doesn't seem very complicated to me." The voice chuckled, as if finding her answer humorous.

"Well, what do you know?" Diamond bristled, raising her head and glared at the hooded figure that was standing over her. "Who are you anyway?"

"Apologies, the figure bowed her head and her hood was suddenly surrounded by a silver aura, pulling it down, revealing the face of a silver-coated unicorn with a jet black mane. "My name is Quicksilver. What's your name?" The unicorn smiled in a disarming kind of way.

"I'm Diamond Tiara" Diamond replied snootily.

"Diamond Tiara" Quicksilver repeated, smiling. "That is a beautiful name"

As she spoke, Diamond felt her grief and anger suddenly return. Not as powerful as before, but it was enough that she could no longer smile. "No it's not! It's ugly! I hate it!" She cried out, glancing down. "And I hate this too!" She glared at her cutie mark, wishing it could just fall off.

"Hate it?" Quicksilver raised an eyebrow. "But why would you hate your own name and cutie mark? They make you who you are!"

"No they don't!" Diamond snapped, feeling her grief turn to anger. "In Ponyville, Diamond Tiara is a mean, snobbish pony that teases everypony else, because she was taught that she was better than others because she came from a rich family. This cutie mark made her think that her special talent was to get other ponies to do what she wanted them to do, and so she used trickery and deception to make them do what she wanted. But then she failed at something…and because of that, everypony turned their back on her! Even her own family doesn't want her anymore!" Diamond felt her chest heave as sobs fought their way up from her heart to her mouth.

"And you're saying you're not Diamond Tiara?" Quicksilver asked, still looking confused.

"Yes! I mean, No! I…I don't know anymore!" Diamond wailed in despair before collapsing on the ground, tears freely flowing once again.

"Please forgive me" Quicksilver's horn flared with silver magic and Diamond suddenly felt a surge of comforting warmth that drowned out the sobs in her throat. She felt the unicorn's muzzle brush against her own and she instantly felt better. "I didn't mean to ask such a painful question. Tell me, I heard a pony singing a beautiful song earlier, about wishing they could be somepony else, was that pony you?"

"Y-yes" Diamond admitted, feeling a stray tear travel down her face. Quicksilver smiled at her and Diamond felt the feeling of warmth and comfort increase. As she basked in the feeling, the unicorn's face turned into a thoughtful frown.

"I know it's probably none of my business, but I would like to hear exactly how this all happened. Could you tell me?" She asked, levitating a lace handkerchief out from a pocket of her cloak.

"It's a long story" Diamond sniffed, glancing up at her. "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

Quicksilver smiled and sat down next to her. "I have nowhere to be" She answered "And I love listening to stories".

And so, Diamond Tiara told her, she told her everything, about how bad she had been, how she had picked on, and blackmailed, other ponies like the Cutie Mark Crusaders for not having their own cutie marks, or to improve her own popularity and social setting. She even told Quicksilver how she had molded Babs Seed into a bully, and 'convinced' her to pick on her cousin. And as Diamond kept talking, she noticed something, though it was painful at first to talk about all the bad things she had done, once she had, she felt better, lots better. It was like some invisible weight that she never knew she had been carrying was lifted away from her. It still hurt, sometimes so much she felt like crying again, but she kept talking.

"And finally, only this morning I bullied Silver Spoon, the only pony I ever truly considered to be my friend, just to win some stupid class election. But I didn't even win it!" Diamond felt a fresh stab of pain flood through her heart. "And when I lost, my best friend turned her back on me, and my own mother yelled at me!" Diamond felt tears come to her eyes again. "She's always yelled at me, no matter what I try, it's never good enough for her!" Diamond broke down crying again. Quicksilver didn't say anything; she just covered Diamond in a silvery cloud of magic, closed her eyes, and waited. A few minutes later, Diamond's sobs faded and she glanced up, her eyes moist and her face tear-streaked.

"What about your father? Has he yelled at you?" Quicksilver asked.

Diamond thought for a moment. "No, but I guess that's usually because he's never around to do that. He puts a lot of his time into his work"

Quicksilver frowned. "So, basically you have a mother who yells at you, and a father who usually ignores you. Well, I can certainly see why you would feel broken"

"Broken?" Diamond repeated with a gasp, leaping to her hooves, her muzzle sticking up in the air. "I'm not broken! I am a Diamond, and that means I can never break! No matter what happens to me, I stand tall and shine!" Then she suddenly seemed to deflate. "Even if I have to do it by myself from now on" She mused.

For a few seconds Quicksilver seemed frozen, and then she slowly smiled. "So don't" She said

"What?" Diamond glanced up at her.

"Don't go through this alone. I think that even though you have your cutie mark, you still haven't fully realized what it means. And you are just now starting to see your mark in a new way." Quicksilver repeated; her smile widening. "You said you wanted to change, right? Well, this is the perfect time to show everypony that you can change. Go back and renew your friendship and make some new friends too."

"Are you crazy?" Diamond shook her head. "I told you, they'll never believe I can change. They look at me, and all they'll see is a snobbish bully. Even my best friend wants nothing to do with me! There's no way anypony'll ever accept that I've changed!"

Quicksilver's smile was now so wide that it was starting to freak Diamond out. "I might know of one way"

"Huh?" Diamond cocked her head.

"I'm a master of illusionary magic" Quicksilver explained. "And I've been studying a new glamour spell, one that can change a pony's appearance completely"

Diamond gasped and her eyes widened. "Y-you mean…?"

Quicksilver nodded. "If you truly want to become somepony else, then I can help make that happen"

Diamond squealed with happiness and embraced the unicorn in a hug. "Oh Thank You! Thank you!" When she broke away, she was practically bouncing up and down like Pinkie Pie. "Oh! Oh! I can't wait to see what I'll look like!"

"Woah there!" Quicksilver chuckled at the filly's enthusiasm. "I can't cast the spell now!"

Diamond froze mid-bounce. "What? Why not?"

"Such a spell requires time to prepare" Quicksilver explained. "Plus, I still think you can solve this matter on your own, without my help. Tell you what, why don't you think about it for a while? Sleep on it, then, if you would still like me to perform the spell, meet me at the town hall before school tomorrow morning and I'll cast it then, deal?" Quicksilver held out a hoof and Diamond eagerly shook it. Then Quicksilver suddenly frowned and glanced up at the sky. "It sure gets dark early around here, doesn't it?" She asked aloud.

Diamond gasped as she glanced up and saw moon had already risen. "Oh no! It's so late! My parents are going to kill me!" Without hesitating, she turned and crashed through the brush back to the road.

"Bye!" She heard Quicksilver's call, but when she glanced behind her, the silvery unicorn was gone.


This story was inspired by the MLP episode. I watched it last weekend and just suddenly had the urge to start writing. Hope you all enjoy it. Next chapter, prepare to find out what happens the following morning!