//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Stronger Tiara // by computerneek //------------------------------// She lets out a sigh of relief, inside, when class starts.  Ever since she arrived on the school grounds, ponies have been staring at her.  It’s been making her nervous- but for some reason, she’s really good at hiding it at the moment; she’s virtually certain everypony thinks she hasn’t even noticed their stares.  She concentrates on what Ms. Cheerilee is telling the class. Funny.  It seems so much easier to pay attention than it used to. She can still see the doors in that odd, metal thing underground.  Maybe she should have never returned? She doesn’t know. Ponies are still staring at her.  She needs to either retrieve or replace her crown soon; too much more of this will drive her crazy. She remembers what it looks like.  How could she forget? She’s spent many a day in her room, studying the thing, for lack of anything else to do! She can also feel the line on her head, beneath her mane, where the thing always rested.  She knows exactly how big it was, exactly what colors.  She remembers the light spell- the only spell placed on it, for in case she needed to go somewhere dark, like the basement, for any reason. Eighty-three and a half minutes.  In eighty-three and a half minutes, she’ll have another one.  It’ll be down in that underground labyrinth, but she knows exactly how to get there- and she can even have it brought out to her, though that could take a few more minutes. Meh.  Even ninety-one and a quarter minutes will still be within school hours; if she wants it anytime within the next five and a half hours or so, it’ll have to come to her. It’ll do that. Ms. Cheerilee hooves her her graded test. One glance at the front page is all she needs.  She knows she got a perfect score once again- yet two of the three questions on the front page are wrong.  One is a sign mistake, the other she misplaced a decimal point in the middle of her calculation- and got 83 when multiplying 7 and 12. Funny, she didn’t know she was that good at…  Well, the whole sequence: Reading the question, reading her answer, spotting her mistakes, and finally finding the correct answer…  all in no real time at all. On three questions, all at once. She flips the page, glancing at the other questions- and answering them mentally with similar speed.  And, she knows somehow, accuracy. …  It only works on the math and logic questions.  She’s still stumped by the history questions. Some of the biology questions seem wrong to her, but she can’t quite put her hoof on exactly how. The science questions had been a source of curiosity.  Her knowledge of them hadn’t changed- but science has generally been her best subject, and she’s never been possessed of so much curiosity on the subject before. But at least she got two out of twelve of the math questions right- that is, the two easiest.  Or close thereto. She almost shudders.  Whatever is causing this new ability, she likes it- she’ll just want to be sure it’s not going to hurt her. It won’t.  She doesn’t understand the details, even though she knows them too, but she knows it won’t hurt her.  It will help her instead. Perhaps she should involve somepony else, find out what they might think of it?  The same… whatever that will be delivering her tiara will be able to lift almost any pony back out of the labyrinth, so she should be able to choose anypony. Anypony she wants to, that is. Which reminds her.  Silverspoon is going to be busy; a messenger showed up before class to alert the silver earth pony of some task or another back home.  Besides, it would be more convenient to have a unicorn along instead of another earth pony. She’s tempted to go to the Princess- but she stops herself very quickly.  Not one of the adults, they wouldn’t listen and are big fans of taking things away. Not from her, usually, but in general, they are. She’ll have to pick a youth.  They’ll be less skilled in magic, but they might actually stop to listen.  Maybe look at what she has to show them, without branding it as ‘dangerous’ and forbidding her from approaching it. She runs through her mental list.  Preferably a classmate; she knows them the best, and will be able to judge their probable reactions more accurately- which ones are safe to inform, and which ones will run to the adults. Unfortunately, many fall into the latter category.  There’s only one that probably falls into the first category; she sits two seats to the left and one forwards.  What’s more, she’s also had a fairly negative relationship. Perhaps she can turn that around, though?  She thinks back to what she overheard just this morning.  She’ll have to wait until after school, then make the approach very carefully.  Especially if she wants to minimize the skittish behavior she currently expects, and prevent any possible practical jokes, pranks, or other unkindnesses against herself. She’ll have to close off her latest release, though…  Eh, she can do that. She already feels far more stable than she ever did before, no matter how many or how effective of releases she found. She resolves to wait for after school.  Perhaps she can catch the white unicorn while still on school grounds. There’s too many variables for her to make even an educated guess on that question. …  and variables or not, she couldn’t even begin to make an ‘educated guess’ on that kind of question before.  Maybe it’s another perk. But they do say, everything has its pros…  and cons. All she’s noticing right now are pros- so what are the cons?  Where are they? When will she find them? She doesn’t know. “Mr. Rich?” He looks up from his desk.  Somepony- his best teller, by the voice- just knocked.  “Come in.” She comes in, stopping in the door and bowing her head.  “Sergeant Stonewall has arrived, and has requested an audience with you.” He raises his eyebrow.  “The Guard?” Nod. “About my daughter’s tiara?” Shrug.  “He didn’t say, but suspect it is.” He nods.  “Send him in, please.” She bows herself out.  “Yes Sir.” “Come in.”  She’d just knocked again. She opens the door.  “Sergeant Stonewall, Sir.” He nods.  “Thank you.”  He looks at the Guard sergeant standing next to her.  “You called?” The Sergeant enters, the teller closing the door behind him.  “Mr. Rich,” he begins. “You’re aware of the tiara incident this morning, right?” He nods.  “I was made aware of it, yes.” He bows his head.  “About the tiara. We have been able to confirm, it is genuinely Diamond’s tiara.  However… Underneath the compulsion spell, we’ve discovered a persistent dark magic curse.” His eyes widen.  “A curse?” He nods.  “We estimate it would take only about two years to corrupt her, were she to wear it, to a level similar to that of King Sombra.  The tiara has been sent off for Princess Celestia’s personal attention; if anyone, she will be able to remove the curse. “We don’t think she’ll be able to.  If she can’t, the tiara will be classified as a dangerous artefact and locked in the Vault.  The Crown will reimburse the value, but…” He gestures lightly with one hoof. He snorts.  “True. What about the jerk that put them on it?” He raises his eyebrow.  “Same stallion as brought it to your bank.  There’s a death warrant to his name.” He raises his eyebrow as well.  “Oh?” Nod.  “A known criminal, yes.  We didn’t realize it was him until he shadow-walked right out of the station.” Blink.  “Can we put a bounty on him as well?” His eyebrow goes right back up again.  “A bounty? Not on Crown or Guard finances, I’m afraid.” “What if I fund it myself?” “We can do that, yes.” “Right then.  One million bits, dead or alive.” Blink.  “Uh, yes, we can do that- but for that much, you’ll have to pay it up front.” He nods, and reaches a hoof into his desk drawer for a very specifically printed piece of paper.  “Any fees?” He shakes his head.  “There’s already a death warrant to his name- Guard finances will take care of that side of things already.” He gives a short nod, scribbles the information down on the bank check, and slides it to the Sergeant.  “There. Show that to one of my tellers on the way out and they’ll make it official.” He bows his head.  “Will do. You’ve got your bounty.”