A Fake Diamond

by Diamond Sparkle

Chapter Three-A Deal

That evening Sweetie Belle took advantage of the secret fact that after a lot of trouble and error, she had found out the combination of Rarity's jewel safe where she also hid the cookies to try and them from being munched up within days. She helped herself to a single diamond; it would be a while before it was missed. In another world where jewels were much less common such a diamond would have the pride of place in a royal crown; here, whilst still worth plenty of Equestrian bits, it was a mere dress decoration. The next morning Sweetie headed to school with much less worry then before, as she only had Silver Spoon to worry about. If indeed Diamond Tiara was a Changeling, then she much preferred the friendly Changeling to the real pony. The real Diamond had teased and bullied her and her friends at every opportunity, whilst her replacement was sweet and kind to everypony. And if the book on Changelings was true, then Diamond was not dead or suffering in a Changeling pod. In her drugged mind she would be back with her family, whilst her love oozed out from the pod to feed the grubs that would become the next generation of Changelings.

Meanwhile Brightwing had spent several hours with Silver Spoon and had noticed several things about her. The first was that she was just as loved by her parents as the real Diamond had been. The second was the sheer luxury that she lived in. Whilst Changelings would replace poor ponies if there was a strong enough love source to feed on, they chose rich ones if possible. Not only would their lives be much better in every way, but there was normally a much richer source of love to feed on. Poor ponies were more likely to divorce which could be a disaster for a Changeling, lowering its love intake by at least half. The last thing she noticed was how deeply unpleasant Silver Spoon was with anypony who she considered to be beneath her. Clearly the sooner one of her real friends could fang and replace Silver Spoon, the better it would be for everypony. She would meet her friend Warmlove the next evening and then the Love Squadron would claim a new victim and the Hive would be served with the rich love of Silver Spoon. After kissing her new parents goodbye and being kissed in return (Changelings when impersonating a pony were affectionate) she went to school and her new friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Unknown to her, the Crusaders had been talking about her for a while.

"Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, I think I know why Diamond Tiara is being so sweet to us, she's been replaced by a Changeling. And more then that, I think that I can prove it. But if she is a Changeling, I think we should keep it to ourselves."

"Are you crazy?" Scootaloo replied, flapping her little stubby wings fearfully. "I've heard of those things and they often attack in packs. They're a danger to everypony, and I do not want to end up hanging helplessly in a Changeling pod so that a replacement me can feed off the love of my parents. If Diamond has been kiddnapped, then I'm happy about it, but we have to think of the greater needs of ponykind, Everypony could be in danger if this is just the start of a major Changeling attack. We have to tell Rainbow Dash, the police, or both."

"But what if we tell them and Diamond somehow gets rescued? Do you want her to start calling us blank flanks and doing her best to ruin our schooldays again?" Apple Bloom replied. As the number one target of Diamond Tiara, she was in no hurry to be teased again by her. Sweetie Belle knew that as by now Diamond was hanging in a Changeling Hive by now, there was next to no chance of her being rescued but she chose to keep that infomation to herself as it would only help Scootaloo. "And what about Diamond's parents? Would you rather they were in mourning for a lost daughter or content with the one she has now? Who is almost certainly better behaved and sweeter then the real Diamond ever was. Also, what if you're wrong about Diamond? What if she has just decided or been told by her parents in private to stop treating us like the dirt on her hooves? If you falsely accuse her of being a Changeling, then at the very least her kindness towards us will end, and she might well want to get revenge on us."

"For Celestia's sake, do you two only care about yourselves? Do you not care if half of Ponyville's ponies vanish into a Changeling Hive as long as you are free from Diamond's teasing? Today it's Diamond, tomorrow it could be Rarity or Applejack or one of you who gets quietly replaced by a Changeling. They might even decide to target the Royal Sisters.We have to use that spell of yours to uncover Diamond's true nature in front of Cherrilee and our whole class," Scootaloo replied. "Unless there are a lot more Changelings around then we think, there is no way that a whole class can be replaced all at once. The police can be told, the news can be made public,the Royal Sisters can do whatever they need to do to protect the Herd. We have to uncover Diamond...or prove her innocence and give everybody peace of mind. And if you won't, then I will. The safety of the Herd matters a lot more then our own self-interest. If you have not cast that spell by sunset, I am going to the police, even if that costs me your friendship and my membership in the Cutie Mark Crusaders. And even if I end up with an informer's cutie mark as a result.I'm not going to make a deal to keep things secret here."

There were a small number of cutie marks that were either illegal or downright disliked, and an informer's cutie mark, which was a pony head talking into an ear, was one of the latter, as it showed that the pony's special talent was telling on other ponies and getting them into trouble. Murders in Equestria were exceedingly rare,at least outside the big cities, but there had been at least one case in recent times of such a pony being found dead with his throat cut after he betrayed the wrong pony's secrets.

Comments

[armando92]

well the ending of this chapter was not expected, i got the weird sensation that in this one nothing really happen