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 2
Diamond took a deep breath as she stepped out her front door the next morning. Her ears were still partially ringing from the scolding she had gotten last night for coming back so late. Her mother's words had a way of cutting deeper than a sword did. Her father had been kinder, giving her a hug and telling her how worried he had been, but she noticed he did nothing to stop her mother's ranting, which did not make her feel much better.
However, a good night's sleep had given her time to think about Quicksilver's idea, and she was even more excited now. She desperately wanted to renew her friendship with Silver Spoon, and maybe even strike up some new friendships, maybe with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or maybe with Twist. That filly did know how to make tasty sweets.
"But making friendships is easy, keeping them is the challenge" Diamond reminded herself as she crossed the bridge and began following the road that lead to the town square. "What if this glamour spell doesn't work, or it fails at an inopportune moment? Everypony might just think I'm trying to trick them. And they'll hate me even more" Diamond paused, feeling doubt creep into her mind. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.
Oh stop it! Diamond scolded herself, shaking the doubts form her head. Don't start thinking like that! This is your chance to be somepony else! A chance to get away from the image of Diamond Tiara! You've wished for this, and you might as well see it through! But Diamond still felt nervous as she entered the town square and glanced around for Quicksilver. There was no sign of the silver unicorn, but Diamond was surprised to see Silver Spoon emerge from the bakery across the street in the company of Snips and Snails. As Diamond watched, Silver laughed at something Snails said as she munched a doughnut, and Diamond felt her heart sink. Has Silver Spoon moved on that easily? She wondered, before suddenly accelerating. "Silver Spoon, wait!" She called out as she raced towards them.
Silver Spoon froze, then glanced around, when she saw Diamond, her eyes widened in alarm, then narrowed in hostility. "What do you want?" She hissed as Diamond caught up with them.
"Silver, please. I need you to listen to me. I…" Diamond started, but was cut off when Silver placed a hoof over her mouth.
"Sorry, but since I'm not allowed to speak, I probably shouldn't be allowed to listen either". She snapped, before trotting off with her nose in the air. "Come on boys!" She called back to Snips and Snails, who turned and followed her without saying a word.
"Silver, please! We need to talk!" Diamond called after her.
But Silver just tossed her head. "I've got nothing to say to you, Diamond!" She called over her shoulder and broke into a gallop, Snips and Snails right behind her, leaving Diamond standing in the middle of the road.
Diamond Tiara watched as her best friend in all of Equestria ran away from her, and felt heartbroken. Tears rise in her eyes and she seemed powerless to stop them. She bowed her head and whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm so very, very sorry"
"You had to try" Diamond heard a voice say next to her and glanced up to see a silver unicorn with a black mane staring at Silver Spoon's retreating figure.
"Quicksilver!" She gasped. The unicorn glanced down at her and smiled.
"You couldn't know for sure your friend wouldn't accept you back until you tried to make amends" Quicksilver soothed, placing a hoof around Diamond's shoulders.
"But you saw what happened! She wouldn't even talk to me! She's already moved on" Diamond's ears drooped as she spoke.
"You don't know that" Quicksilver argued. "Maybe she feels bad too, but just doesn't know how to express it. Maybe, deep down, she misses you too"
"That's why I need your glamour spell" Diamond grabbed Quicksilver's hoof. "Please, please, please tell me you have it ready!"
Quicksilver gazed into Diamond's tear-filled eyes, and eventually nodded. "The spell is ready" Over Diamond's cheering, she added. "But are you sure there isn't any other way to find the answers you want?"
Diamond shook her head. "You saw what happened between me and Silver Spoon. It'll be worse with the others. It's better for everypony if Diamond Tiara…goes away for a little while." She spoke with a level of firmness in her voice that surprised even her.
Quicksilver hesitated, as if trying to come up with another argument, but finally sighed and motioned for Diamond to follow her. The two ponies left the road and trotted into a darkened alley. "Hopefully no pony will see us here" Quicksilver lowered her voice as she used her magi to open a satchel she was carrying, and then levitated something out of it, a small black necklace with a small white crystal in the front.
"What's that?" Diamond asked.
"This is a glamour charm." Quicksilver explained as she levitated the charm over to Diamond. "The magic within it powers the spell. As long as you are wearing it, no pony will recognize you."
"Wow, thank you so much" Diamond Tiara squeaked and started to put the necklace on, but Quicksilver stopped her.
"Remember, if you remove the charm the spell will wear off. And you can only use the charm once. It won't work a second time." She warned.
"Don't worry, I'll remember" Diamond Tiara promised as she slipped the necklace over her head. As soon as the crystal was around her neck, it began to glow. Diamond closed her eyes as the light got brighter, then the light dimmed and faded. Diamond waited, but nothing else happened. She opened her eyes and glanced up to see Quicksilver looking her over. She nodded, seeming satisfied. "Did it work?" Diamond asked, than froze as she heard a different voice come out of her mouth.
Quicksilver didn't answer right away, but her smile widened and she gestured to a nearby window. Diamond walked up to the glass, and her jaw dropped. Staring back at her was a filly with a coat as blue as the ocean with a mane as white as the clouds with a streak of purple running down the center. Her eyes were now deep amber, and her cutie mark had changed from a fancy tiara a simple small crown symbol with three points. "Wow" Diamond gasped, touching her face with her hoof. "This is amazing!"
"I think it's a good look" Quicksilver smiled from behind her before she used her magic to pull a note from her saddlebag and holding it out. "Give this note to your teacher. Now you'd better get going or you'll be late." As soon as she spoke, a very familiar ringing reached Diamond's ears. The school bell!
"Oh no!" Diamond grabbed the note and began racing back towards the road. Suddenly she realized that she should thank Quicksilver, so she skidded to a halt, but when she turned around, the alley was empty. Diamond glanced around every which way, but the unicorn was gone. "Thank You!" Diamond called through her clenched teeth, as she glanced around the alleyway one last time before turning and racing towards the school building.
A few minutes, later, Diamond knocked on the school building door. As she waited for someone to answer, she took a deep breath to calm herself. Okay Diamond, this is it! You've only got one shot at this, so make it count! But…but what if I only make things worse? What If my charm fails at the wrong time? What if I say something, and somepony figures out who I am? Diamond shook her head again, trying to clear her mind. No, don't start thinking that way! You've come too far to turn back now!
Just then, her inner conflict was interrupted as the classroom door opened and Miss Cheerilee's face appeared in the opening. Seeing Diamond standing there, she looked confused. "Hello there, can I help you?"
Diamond nodded and handed her the note. As Miss Cheerilee read it, her confused from slowly melted into a friendly smile, and Diamond felt some of her nerve begin to leave her. "I see. Come in, please!" She led Diamond inside and to the front of the classroom. Clearing her throat, she announced. "Attention everypony! I want you all to meet Crystal Crown!" Diamond fought the urge to gasp in disbelief. That was her new name? "Crystal's family is visiting Ponyville, and her parents have asked to for her to join our class for the day, so I would like everypony to make her feel welcome. Now say hi, everypony!"
"Hi Crystal!" The fillies chorused together, all staring at Diamond with big, friendly smiles on their faces.
"H-hi everypony" Diamond replied, trying to look like she had no clue who anypony was. "It's…nice to meet all of you" She stammered, giving a small smile as a few fillies giggled in reply.
"There's an empty seat next to Sweetie Bell, Crystal" Miss Cheerilee observed, pointing with a hoof to the white unicorn filly smiling widely in the second to last row, her eyes shining. She raised her own hoof and waved it wildly in the air. Fighting the urge to snigger, Diamond made her way through the desks, feeling the eyes of everypony on her as she took her seat, but there was no hostility on their looks, only friendliness and curiosity.
"Hi. I'm Sweetie Bell" The unicorn whispered as soon as Diamond had sat down next to her "And these are my friends, Applebloom and Scootaloo" She motioned to the pale yellow earth pony and orange Pegasus gazing back at them from the row in front of theirs.
"It's an honor ta meet ya" Applebloom smiled at them
"Welcome to Ponyville" Scootaloo winked at her.
Diamond wanted to snap that she already knew who they fillies were, but she remembered that was something Diamond Tiara would do, so she gave a small smile and simply said, "Thank you"
"So, where are you from?" Scootaloo asked eagerly.
"Oh, I'm…uh…" Diamond's mind raced as she struggled to come up with a convincing answer, but just then Cheerilee tapped her hoof on her desk and announced that they would be beginning their lesson on weather patterns. As the lesson got under way, Diamond sneaked a glance at Silver Spoon and saw that she was glancing at the desk where Diamond usually sat at, which was empty, frowning in a confused sort of way.
Well, that was…different. Diamond admitted later as she left the schoolhouse after the bell rang. She had expected ponies to treat her differently because of her new look, but she hadn't expected everypony to be so nice to her. They'd helped her with all her school problems, shown her where everything was, they'd even shared their lunches with her when they learned she didn't have one of her own, and they had all wanted to talk with her on the playground, which had been wrecked by Tirek's attack, so there was not much to do except talk. One of the most common questions was where she was from. Diamond had made up a story that her parents were architects from Manehattan, who had come to ponyville for inspiration in their latest building, which prompted a big discussion on everyone's favorite structures in Ponyville. More than half the assembled had voted Twilight's castle as the most beautiful and Diamond agreed with them.
"Can you imagine seeing a building exactly like Princess Twilight's castle in Manehatten?" Twist had asked as she passed out peppermint sticks to everypony. She had slid two to Diamond Tiara with a wink.
"With the influence my parents have, I wouldn't be at all surprised" Diamond had boasted as she bit into one of the sticks, and shivered with delight at the taste.
Having mostly stayed by herself at recess, with the exception of Silver Spoon, Diamond was amazed by the amount of friendship she had been shown today, and she felt unbelievably happy. It felt she had found a part of her that she never knew she had been missing. And she never, ever wanted to lose it again. Smiling dreamily as she walked down the path, she didn't hear Sweetie Bell calling her name until the filly was standing in front of her.
"Hey Crystal!" She shouted, causing Diamond to jump.
"W-what? What is it? What's wrong?" She squeaked, causing Sweetie to giggle.
"Settle down silly!" Diamond turned to see Scootaloo and Applebloom standing behind her.
"We were wondering if you'd like to come to our clubhouse to hang out" Applebloom smiled at her, then seemed to catch herself. "That is, if you have the time" She added sheepishly.
Diamond was surprised. "Really?"
"Yeah, for real" Scootaloo nodded.
Diamond was a little unsure what to think. Sure the crusaders didn't know who she really was, but still, it felt strange to have them be so open with her, especially after she had spent so much time teasing them in the past. But still, they had made the offer freely, and Diamond felt it would be suspicious if she didn't go. "Um…okay. Sure" She finally said. The Crusaders cheered and led the way to the clubhouse, which was located on the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres. When they got to the farm, the Crusaders playfully made a big fuss about blindfolding Diamond Tiara to 'protect the secret location' of the clubhouse before taking her there. They had even spun her around once or twice, making Diamond laugh. This is so amazing! Diamond thought as she was led there by Sweetie Belle. I should have made friends like the Crusaders a long time ago! She squealed with pure happiness.
"Crystal, are you okay?" She heard Sweetie Belle ask.
"What? Oh, yes, I'm fine Sweetie Belle." Diamond replied as she felt the filly come to a stop. "In fact, I don't think I've ever felt better in my whole life" She added in a low voice. There was a rustle, and the blindfold was lifted off.
"Ta da!" The crusaders grandly gestured to their clubhouse.
Diamond smirked on the inside, recalling that she had already seen the clubhouse many times before. But she decided to play along and gave a dramatic gasp of amazement. "Wow! That looks amazing! Can I go in?"
"Of course you can!" The crusaders cheered, leading her up the ramp. The inside looked the same as she remembered, except for two charts on one wall. One was blank, the other was full of images that had been X'd out. On top of them both was the Crusader's symbol, a blue shield with a yellow filly inside.
"So, you called yourselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, right?" Diamond asked when they were all inside. "What exactly do you do?" She fought to hide the smirk building on her face, expecting some long speech about the 'great crusade the fillies were on in search of their cutie marks', or something like that.
"Oh nothing much" Applebloom giggled
"Yeah, we just sit around all day, trying to find new ways to get our cutie marks" Scootaloo explained, sniggering.
"And get into all sorts of trouble along the way!" Sweetie finished, laughing aloud. Diamond laughed too, recalling all the mischief that the Crusaders had caused.
"Wow. You three are…really lucky" Diamond admitted, and was surprised to realize that she actually meant it.
"We are?" The crusaders gasped. Apparently they were just as surprised to hear it.
"Well yeah, you get to explore all these options, learning who you really are before you get stuck with a mark you don't understand." Diamond glanced at her own cutie mark as she spoke. Even though she couldn't see the tiara on her flank, she could picture it there. Ever since it had appeared, Diamond thought she knew who she was and what she was meant to be, but when Silver Spoon had turned her back on her after the election, Diamond had begun to realize how wrong she had been. Her mind flashed back to her cute-cenera, where she had made fun of Applebloom's blank flank, only for her and the crusaders to userp her attention at her own party. An idea formed in her mind and she kept speaking. "And what's more, since you don't have your marks yet, there's no telling what you could be. The possibilities are…like, endless, and you have all the time in the world to figure it out." She smiled at the memory, which suddenly seemed really funny.
"Wow" Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stared at her, wide-eyed. But Applebloom's face was twisted into a thoughtful frown. Diamond suddenly felt nervous when the filly looked up at her and narrowed her eyes. Had she said too much?
"Applebloom, what's wrong?" She asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just, what you said reminded me of…Diamond Tiara" Applebloom answered. Diamond felt a stab of fear at the mention of her name. "W-who's Diamond Tiara?" She stammered, trying to keep her face still.
"She's one of our classmates. She wasn't in school today." Sweetie explained.
Oh, I know. Diamond said to herself. Aloud she said "Oh, I hope she's okay"
"Oh she's probably fine. It's just…" Applebloom paused. "What you said, about being stuck with a mark you don't understand, it reminded me of her because she was always teasing us about us not having our cutie marks." Diamond stiffened, and glanced down at the floor.
"Yeah, she kept going on and on about how special her cutie mark was, and how she was so much better than everypony else." Scootaloo added, doing a horrible imitation of her that made Diamond frown in anger, but then her heart sank and her ears drooped as she realized Scootaloo was right. She had been just like that and more.
"But lately…" Sweetie Bell paused. "I don't know how to explain it, but we've been getting the feeling maybe she's just saying those things to make herself feel better"
Diamond lifted her head to look at Sweetie Belle. "What makes you say that?"
Sweetie opened her mouth to continue, but then paused. "Uh, maybe we shouldn't be talking about this right now." She suggested. "Let's talk about something else instead"
"No" Diamond shook her head firmly. "I want to hear the rest of this." She insisted. "Don't worry, I promise I won't tell anypony what you told me. I'm good at keeping secrets." I ought to be. Diamond thought as the crusaders glanced at each other. I've been keeping my true feelings a secret for this long
Sweetie finally shrugged before continuing. "Well, yesterday, our school was holding elections for student class president and Diamond was running against a foal named Pipsqueak, and she lost. She didn't even get a single vote."
"Really?" Diamond gasped dramatically, but inside she felt nothing but grief.
"Yeah, even her best friend, a filly named Silver Spoon, voted against her." Scootaloo added, not noticing Diamond wince as she remembered her BF's betrayal.
"You don't say" She squeaked, hoping her cracked voice didn't give away anything.
"And after she lost the election and stormed off, we got worried about her. I mean, just because she had never cared about anypony else's feelings, didn't mean we shouldn't care about hers. So we followed her, and then we saw her mother yelling at her". Applebloom finished. Diamond made a face in an effort to keep from crying.
"That's when we realized that we judged her wrong. The bitter and boastful Diamond Tiara we knew wasn't really her at all; it was the result of her upbringing." Scootaloo spoke up next, causing Diamond to visibly stiffen.
"We knew then that she wanted to change, but she just didn't know how, and… are you okay? Sweetie asked, noticing that Diamond was quietly sobbing, tears running down her face. When she glanced up again, her eyes were big and moist. She had no idea that the crusaders felt this way about her. That must have been why they were following me yesterday! They didn't want to rub my face in the dirt, they just wanted to help me! Diamond felt herself smile, despite her tears
"Crystal, what's the matter?" Abblebloom asked, looking concerned.
"I-I know exactly what Diamond Tiara's going through" Diamond confessed, as she lay down on the floor of the clubhouse.
"You do?" The crusaders asked unanimously.
Diamond nodded. "My family comes from rich pony society as well. And they sometimes seem to care more about their social status than they do about me. At least…my mother does. My father's not that bad" Diamond felt a small smile flicker across her face as she thought of her father. Sure he could be just as air-headed as her mother was, but she had seen his kind and caring nature deep down. "But I understand what she's going through. She probably feels alone, and confused, and maybe a little hurt too."
"Wow, Crystal. That sounds so harsh the way you talk about it" Sweetie Belle glanced at her hooves. Diamond nodded sadly.
"That's it!" Applebloom suddenly exclaimed. Everypony stared at her.
"What's it?"
"That's how we can help Diamond Tiara! It sounds like she could use some friends, well we can give her some new friends right now!" Applebloom explained.
"What?" Diamond exclaimed, feeling her eyes widen. Was Applebloom offering to become Diamond Tiara's friend? Diamond barely dared hope that it could be possible!
"That's a great idea!" Sweetie smiled.
"And you can come too Crystal!"Scootaloo suggested.
"What?" Diamond leapt to her hooves, feeling panic shoot through her.
Scootaloo smiled at her. "Yeah! She'll love having a new friend from Equestria's elite who's been though the same problems she's having"
"But…I…No! Wait, I…" Diamond stammered, but the sound of the three crusaders cheering and leaping to their hooves drowned her out.
"C'mon Crusaders, let's go find her!" Scootaloo crowed as the threesome charged out of the clubhouse, leaving a worried Diamond Tiara in their wake.
"On no! Girls wait!" Diamond cried out as she charged onto the balcony. "WAIT! THERE'S SOMETHING I HAVE TO TELL YOU!" She cried out as she charged down the ramp and ran after the three fillies. "Come back!
Well! How are we doing so far? Enjoying the show? Be sure to let me know!