Diamond Tiara led her compatriots with a broad smile and a dignified pose. "We will show everypony just how prepared we are. We started with business, now we'll show up Twilight Dorkle and her fumbling attempts to adventure."
Silver Spoon tilted her head. "She didn't do anything wrong, Diamond. We'll do our best though, and everypony will be proud of us."
Gneech bobbed his head. "You have good magic, protect us from danger."
Before Silver could finish replying to Gneech, Diamond stomped on the ground. "I didn't forget my promise! I will have magic, I will!"
Silver reached for Diamond, but her hoof was swatted away. "No! I don't need comfort. I need magic. If you get to have magic, than I should too, and it should be better."
Gneech scratched behind his head with some confusion. "Are you going to pray to big gods like Silver Spoon does?"
Diamond huffed. "I think not! No. I'll get my magic my way. No stupid books. No stupid gods." She pulled out her axe from her loop and swung it around dangerously, causing ponies that were going past to offer a much wider clearance. "I have everything you do, Silver. I can feel it, right here." She thumped herself in the chest. "I just have to get it out."
Silver Spoon spread her hooves wide. "Calm down, please. Neither of us think there's anything wrong with you, Diamond."
Her face contorted with further frustration. "It's not good enough to think I'm not broken. I. Am. The. Leader." She brought down the axe and embedded it into the ground. She marched towards Silver, staring her in the eyes. Suddenly, Silver felt paralyzed with fear. Her heart thumped in her chest as her friend towered over her, at least mentally.
"You are my right-hand mare. I am supposed to be in charge, that means I should get magic if you do, and it should be good! That's how this works!" The sensation of dread spread through Silver Spoon as the words kept coming. "If I can't use magic, then you can't either!"
Silver felt the subtle presence of her god vanish, and all the words to her prayers, simple as they were, went with her. She was abandoned and alone. She began to sniffle and cry, which broke Diamond Tiara out of her raging fit.
Gneech was silent, unsure what to do or say, until inspiration hit him. "Alpha horse is still alpha horse, no matter what magic she has. Gneech knows."
Diamond nodded mutely at Gneech even as she reached for Silver and gently shook her, only to feel an intense stabbing pain run up her leg, only to be echoed by her other legs. She squealed in pain and fell over in front of Silver Spoon.
Silver's pain was quickly forgotten. Her spells returned to her and she hardly noticed in favor of checking her friend. "Oh my gosh, are you alright?"
Diamond began to bleed from the same place in all four of her legs, and the placement bothered Silver Spoon. The memory of the spot came to her and she recoiled with a loud gasp. They were like the injury she had drawn from Diamond all that time ago. "P-please! Don't punish her like this! She didn't mean it, she really didn't!"
Miss Tiara struggled to her hooves with a low grunt of pain. "Don't beg, Silver Spoon, you're above that." She fought to an upright position, sitting on her haunches. "I'm fine. Just a little cramp, that's all..."
Gneech shook his head in the negative. "Not look like any cramp Gneech see before. Means most respect for alpha horse, but not sure she is alright."
Tiara gave a nasty glare at Gneech and he felt his will crumbling before it. When had Diamond gained such a terribly withering look? He bowed his head quickly. "Gneech is sorry, alpha horse."
Diamond nodded with a satisfied look before she pulled herself fully upright. "I'm fine, and I mean it. A little cut like these won't slow me down." She turned away from her friends and began guiding them to the magic store she intended in the first place. She snatched up the axe on the way and tucked it in her loop.
Gneech moved beside Silver Spoon. "Gneech thinks alpha horse has changed. Big nasty glare, not normal nasty glare. Did Silver see it?"
Silver nodded in quick agreement. "I saw that, and those cuts... They're exactly what I healed when I joined Luminace, and now they're back. I think she really made her angry, maybe for attacking me?"
Gneech frowned and whispered, trying to keep quiet as they moved behind Diamond Tiara. "Your god is nice god, Gneech doubt do for naughty alone. What if lesson? Maybe... Maybe she have nasty glare, but her way of saying she Luminace friend still?"
Diamond suddenly spun on them. "I'm not deaf, you know." She thrust a hoof at Silver Spoon. "Is that really what happened? Tell your god to stop trying to slow me down."
Silver looked befuddled. "Are you still hurt? Stay still." She moved to touch the outstretched hoof and prayer for her friend's health. The gentle prayer eased the mild bleeding, but Diamond was just as hindered, and angered by it.
"It doesn't hurt anymore, but I just can't move them as fast as I should be able to." Diamond clopped the ground. "Whatever! I'm not going to stress out over some stupid book god and her spastic needs. This way." She started to step away then stopped. "I look like a mess." She shook a leg, then glared at it. The stain seemed to retreat from her stare, which made her break into one of confusion. "What the?"
Gneech pointed. "See! Alpha horse has magic!"
Diamond burst into a giggle before she lowered that hoof and raised another. A nasty glare sent the blood stain there scurrying away to vanish as well and her giggles broke out into a full on cackle of delight. Ponies in a wide circle found better places to be or walk, leaving the filly to laugh her maniacal laugh.
Silver Spoon rubbed behind her head before adjusting her glasses, quite unsure what was going on. "Do you... Do you feel alright, Diamond Tiara?"
Diamond grabbed her at the shoulders. "Alright? I feel fantastic! I told you I'd get magic of my own. I just had to have the right amount of confidence." She stood up with a certain grin. She stared at Silver Spoon a moment, grunting with futile effort before she found what she could move with her mind. She grabbed Silver Spoon's spectacles right off her snout and floated them over to atop her own head, working behind her ears with a huge grin.
Silver Spoon squeaked in dismay. "P-please give those back. I can barely see anything!"
The glasses floated serenely through the air before landing back on the nose of their owner. "There you go. Now who's the best spellcaster here?"
Gneech clapped his scaled hands excitedly. "Alpha horse is full of tricks."
Silver gave a less certain smile. "That's very good, but no tricks on each other. We're a team, right?"
Diamond nodded. "Right right, of course. I was just seeing what I could do. This is amazing! In fact... I bet my magic can beat out your stupid god's work." She closed her eyes and focused intently before opening them with a new gleam. "I can feel it. Race you!" And she dashed off with supernatural speed, rushing through the crowds with a trailing laughter coming back to greet them.
Gneech and Silver shared a look at one another before they moved to catch up with her, but not breaking into a run to do so. They arrived at the shop of curiosities well after Diamond Tiara, who sat there in front of it with a gleeful expression. "Beat you!"
Silver Spoon gave a tolerating smile. "You sure did. Your magic's working really well. Do you feel better?"
Diamond quickly bobbed her head. "I do! I really do! Even if I get a bit sore when it wears off, I don't care! I did it!" She approached Silver Spoon with a bit of a hobble that worried Silver, but the worry was nudged aside with a gentle and sincere hug. "I'm sorry for getting worked up before. Bump bump?"
They did their little dance, and all was forgiven between them. Gneech held out his arms for a hug of his own and Diamond peered at him. "You haven't quite earned that, Gneech." She smiled. "But keep it up."
With the promise of future rewards, all three proceeded inside to start shopping for their future venture.
Back at the Drowsy Mare, Pinkie was getting to know Blue. "Oh, wow, so you met Twilight? She's totally one of my best friends in the whole world! Um, two worlds now, I guess? That totally makes you a friend too!"
Blue smiled with building warmth. "It's nice to meet another friend of hers. She's mentioned you before, and said you could manage almost anything if you put your heart to it. Is this something you're ready for, Miss Pie?"
Pinkie gave a single firm nod. "You betcha! I'm not going to let those meanies get away with what they did." She crossed her forehooves a moment before she grabbed a cupcake and offered it to Blue. "Want another? Mommies have to keep their bellies filled with good and yummy things."
Blue felt content, but not full. Not wanting to dissapoint her new friend, she accepted the treat and nibbled at it. Pinkie's treats were specially good. "You were a baker before you came here?"
Pink tilted her head. "I'm still a baker, I'm just not baking right this very moment, just like I'm still a party planner. You don't stop being something just because you're not doing it right then, that'd be silly. You're still a priest, right?"
"Cleric," explained Blue. "But I understand what you mean. I'm one of Luminace's even if I do something else for a short or long while." She set the cupcake aside, half-eaten. "Are you sure the girls are alright? They had money... But do they have any experience? I mean, I guess I'm one to talk... I'm not the most experienced around, but they were so fast. They might get into trouble?"
Pinkie shook her head. "Nah! They're just shopping anyway. What do you think will happen? One of them will spontaneously develop psychic powers and be marked by the gods or something?"
Blue blinked softly. "That was awfully specific, but no, I suppose that's not terribly likely."
They exchanged some tea and shared news of the empire and the road that laid between them and changeling city. There was no rail going that way, though they could get partway at least, but the hike would be considerable and potentially dangerous, not that Pinkie seemed at all worried about it.
If ya gotta suck at something, quittings the thing to suck at. Unless you're a smoker. Then it might be good to be good at quitting. Ya see, if you had just blown up the world you could've been free of it. And all us fans could never have whined you back into it, because, "Hey, the world blew up. What can ya do?"
That said, I'm glad you un-cancelled. This is a great story. And it's good to see Diamond let the nasty off the leash jus a little bit.
Well, I think we know Diamond's class now. She's a mesmerist. (That nasty glare is a dead giveaway.) Mesmerist fits her scarily well, she would be the type to enjoy magically manipulating others. That's going to cause some fun friction between her and Silver.
Did the new Occult Adventures book give you ideas to get the story moving again? I was sad when I saw you'd cancelled.
you're continuing? Awesome. Now let's read.
Thank you
which was echoed by her other legs
She only had one injury originally. Perhaps you could say, "They all resembled the injury that she had drawn from Diamond..."
Don't mess with Lumi's clerics; she takes care of her ponies. Or is this the price of her new class?
working them
Wow, his journey toward the pony side is complete.
two
Miss
Mommies
New Diamond is scary. These are exactly the worst sort of powers to give to someone who's juvenile and selfish. All sorts of things are going to go wrong...but that's the whole point isn't it?
Well, I'll put my bet into the "What class is Diamond Tiara contest" and call her out as a Bloodrager. A hybrid class that is essentially what happens when a barbarian realizes "Weeee I have MAGIC!"
That axe, the speed spell she just pulled off, it seems to fit; and if is true, it makes you wonder what bloodline she has and where it came from...
Glad I kept this on my list, almost had taken it off. Yay!
Diamond Tiara REALLY needs to get the sass smacked right out of her... *puts on his smacking hoof glove*
Oh great, just what the multiverse needs, Diamond Tiara with The Stare. Good job AJ...
At least Lumi is letting her know she won't tolerate her bitchiness getting out of hand...assuming that wasn't a side effect of whatever class DT just manifested.
6264902 Fixed! You are also welcome.
6264435
6264902
6264913 So would you like me to post their sheets?
6265117 Yes, please. All of this speculation about the classes is fun, but we'll make idiots of ourselves less if we know.
I like seeing the stat sheets. Might as well add the link to the Google doc to this story's description when you update it with their sheets. (Part of the fun is seeing what classes you pick for various characters.)
6265132
6265227 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxUh1iVHP4kiYTZSdHFJSVlDWlE/view?usp=sharing
6265290 ...Oh. Oh my.
Dare I ask, oracle of whom? I suppose that would be telling.
Silver Spoon plushy
Hmm...they're all squishy (especially SS, haha). They still need a tank (especially now that Diamond has new ways to get them in trouble). Maybe the Seekers could lend them someone...
6265290 Thank you for uncancelling this.
~Crystalline Electrostatic ~
not good Diamond Tiara so not good.
I have a big red flag waving at me right now.
good chapter to a good story.
take your time DS your muse will guide the way.
Hooray! Not canceled after all!
Huh. Diamond Tiara bullied her psychic potential into reality? I'm impressed. Though few others are going to be if she keeps this up. Certainly not the gods. Even Luminace's patience has limits.
Wow. Did Silver Spoon just get locked out from her connection with Luminice by sheer simbliminal force? So, does that mean Diamond got punished by the goddess or was that Diamond's words rejecting a goddess' gift without really knowing it? Sounds like when Silver lost her connection it even cut off what remained of Lumi's gift that was still holding Diamond's body together, clearly showing Diamond has yet to fully recover without the mending from the goddess' gift.
Geez, things really cranked up a notch!
God that was so Pinkie. You and those premoniton-y statements of yours. Things can only go well when she utters things like that. xD
Nice to see this story back! Interesting to see Diamond Tiara's character sheet. I had her pegged as a chaotic natural Barbarian. I hope Silver Spoon can get back on her gods good side. I also hope she can begin to have a more positive influence on her friend because sooner or later Diamond Tiara will make a choice she could end up regretting. So the real question is what will Pinkie's class be? I bet Bard.
I'm pretty sure that she means "Twilight."
I don't think that second "Bump" needs to be capitalized.
6279436 Fixed!
6265290 Thanks so much for posting their character sheets, I have been looking forward to this since Chapter 1! I'm not a hero labs guy, so maybe you could explain something to me: Each character is listed as a class 2/other class* , with CR 1. Does that mean they have no levels in the 2nd class yet, but they will gain some in the future?
6282836 It means that they are using the multiclass system found in unchained.
6279877 Reading this chapter over, I have mixed feelings about how things proceeded here. That's because I liked what was here, but the manner in which it began seemed so sudden, so abrupt, that it was jarring. Overall, this was a good - and necessary - bit of development for Diamond Tiara. I just wish it didn't make her seem quite so schizophrenic.
Even then, this is a relatively minor complaint. Diamond had a reason for why her good mood suddenly soured, and it was one that was true to her character. Rather, it was because she got so angry, so fast, that the level of exposition didn't quite manage to justify - that is, to expound upon - her state of mind. She went from feeling confident (albeit spitefully so) to working herself into a rage that she didn't have powers befitting a leader. Fair enough, but we should have been shown her state of mind via narration, rather than just having the story tell it to us in how she acts. Extremes of emotion are - to my mind - the places where it's best, and most required, of the story to show us what the characters are feeling.
Beyond that, however, I quite liked the manner in which Diamond Tiara developed her powers; that's because this touched on how I view d20-based worlds. Namely, magic is so prevalent, and so powerful, in them that anyone who develops some degree of personal power is likely to have that manifest, at least partially, as some sort of magic. That's sort of why classes that don't have any mystical abilities (e.g. fighters, rogues, etc.) always felt left behind to me. While they may not develop spellcasting per se, magic itself is ubiquitous enough that it's hard to believe that powerful characters wouldn't develop magical powers of some sort.
That doesn't mean that all magic is equal, however. Diamond Tiara's insistence that she have powerful magic just because she's the leader smacks of wanting something for nothing, and any businessmare should know that it doesn't work like that. While she may have some sort of internal power that she can let out (e.g. being a mesmerist) through sheer force of will, she's also opening herself to darker forces that could manipulate her via her desire to dominate those around her...like, oh, say, the Night Mare.
Overall, this was a good chapter for letting Diamond have what she wanted so badly, but she's making the classic mistake in not asking what the price is. You don't ever gain power for free, and the longer you wait before paying for it, the higher the cost will likely be.
6285620 Setting up the future while providing hooks for drama? It's like you know me. Diamond makes an uncannily apt mesmerist though. I had her stats made up before hand, and then the class fell into my lap, and everything came together so well... so well... She'll put you in trances. She's an evil enchantress, like, literally. Pinkie didn't know how true it was that one was around, but it wasn't Zecora.