//------------------------------// // Just Leave Me Alone // Story: Not My Little Diamond // by MagerBlutooth //------------------------------// Chpt. 9 - Just Leave Me Alone Sunday, March 30 Diamond Tiara was correct about one thing: Apple Bloom wasn’t hurt that badly. Frankly, the emotional trauma from the whole experience was much worse than any of the physical damage. After Diamond pounced on her, the pink filly immediately latched her teeth onto Apple Bloom’s left ear and refused to let go. Being unable to stand back up, Apple Bloom desperately tried apologizing for whatever it was she did wrong, but all she received in response was a menacing growling noise and a very unsettling glare. She even tried rolling around in the dirt to loose her tiara-less classmate’s grip, but Diamond clamped down on that ear like it was a chocolate chip cookie, refusing to show even the smallest amount of give as she was jerked from side to side. The chomping session continued until Sweetie Belle brought out Miss Cheerilee to intervene. The teacher tried asking Diamond Tiara to stop, but her student seemed to be having a problem with ears that afternoon. Eventually, the four spectators and donkey managed to pry the two apart, and Apple Bloom managed to come out with only a few tooth marks on her ear and a slightly crooked bow on her head. After receiving some minor first-aid and some comforting words from her teacher, Apple Bloom and her two friends fled the scene before any more surprise attacks could be launched. Big McIntosh wasn’t too thrilled when he found out what had happened, but after meeting with Miss Cheerilee the following day, he was truly moved by her concern for each of her students and trusted that she had everything under control. Granny Smith wasn’t too happy to hear what happened either, but she ended up forgetting what Big McIntosh was telling her before he finished. Apple Bloom was pretty upset about it all herself until her friends started suggesting some crusading exploits to get her mind off it. After a few rounds of innocent mischief, she was basically over the entire thing. One Apple family member, however, wasn’t ready to let it go just yet. Thanks to her own dangerous battle with a malignant force, Applejack hadn’t found out about the incident until the afternoon after the day it happened, and, thankfully for Mr. Rich’s sake, she hadn’t been there to attend that meeting with Cheerilee. She was downright furious when she first heard about it, and, an entire week later, her anger had only dropped by about half a scowl. Applejack was angrier than a tennis racket being used for badminton, but the main problem she was having wasn't that she couldn't let go of her anger. Her problem was that she no longer knew why she was so angry. At first, she thought she was just upset that her sister had been hurt, but after even Apple Bloom basically forgot about it, she was surprised to find her anger hadn't even diminished in the slightest. Clearly there was something else about all this that was bothering her, but she just couldn’t place her hoof on it. She did know that every time she thought about what happened, she felt as if somepony had just kicked her square in the gut and then done the same to her sister while she watched helplessly. She couldn’t lie to herself. She was definitely still upset, and as she attempted to blow off some steam again by working the apple fields, she continued struggling to understand why. Whatever the reason was, though, her pent-up rage was bending the trees with each kick. In fact, Applejack was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice her brother standing right behind her until he spoke up. "Hey there, AJ, I see you’re back out here working again. Everything okay?" Big McIntosh asked. Applejack turned around to face the red stallion as she bucked the tree she was standing under. "A course I’m okay, Big McIntosh, and why wouldn’t I be out here working? It’s the beginning of spring, and the apples just turned ripe for harvestin’. Matter a fact, why ain’t you out here helping me?" Big Mac stared at his sister for a moment, a disturbed frown across his face, "You’re bucking an empty tree, Applejack." Applejack stopped and glanced up at tree she had just kicked to find there wasn’t a single apple left on it. In fact, she had kicked the tree so much that there weren’t any leaves left on it either. She had been so caught up in all this emotional riffraff that she had completely forgotten about actually harvesting the apples. "Why didn’t y’all tell me that earlier?" Applejack shouted at her brother. "Here I am wasting all this time bucking an apple tree with no apples, and my own brother’s just standing there watching and making fun of me for it." Applejack stormed away from the tree, walking past her brother as she spotted a less barren one a few feet away. "Well, come on then. We still got a lot of work to do if we're gonna finish 'fore sundown." "Is there a problem, Applejack? You seem upset," Big Mac said, not even turning his head. Applejack stopped in her tracks underneath the foliage of her selected apple tree and slowly looked back towards her brother. She really didn’t want anypony knowing she was still upset about the whole Apple Bloom situation. She wasn’t the type of pony to dwell on the past like this. Besides, she didn’t even know why she was upset, and trying to explain it would just be awkward for everypony involved. "Only problem I got right now is a lazy brother who keeps sticking his nose in other ponies’ business," Applejack said with a completely straight face. Big Mac remained stagnant to Applejack’s retort, still facing away from her. "You just seem a bit distracted is all." Applejack bucked the tree, sending all of its apples tumbling into the collection of wooden buckets waiting patiently underneath it. "Well, I am talking to you. That’s pretty distracting while I’m trying to do some actual work. How about some of that help I was just talking about?" Big Mac slightly raised his voice without changing his tone. "You know what I’m talking about, AJ. Something’s bothering you, and it’s not me." Applejack bucked another nearby tree, seemingly unfazed by his words. "That’s just crazy talk, Big Mac. What would possibly make you think that?" Applejack asked. "Well, I’ve been watching you out here all week, and I noticed you seem much angrier at the apple trees than usual," Big Mac noted. "Oh, that?" Applejack hesitated. "I’m just uh, trying some new bucking techniques. You know, seeing if I can work faster by addin’ some more kick to it and all that." After another short pause, Big Mac finally turned around to ask, "You’re sure it doesn’t have anything to do with what happened to Apple Bloom last week?" Applejack struck the third tree like it had just insulted her, replying in a much more frustrated tone, "Why in tarnation would I still be thinking about that? Apple Bloom ain't even hurt no more." Big Mac paused again before answering. "Well, you were pretty steamed when I first told ya. Maybe you’re worried it’ll happen again." Applejack, keeping the same amount of frustration in her voice as before, bucked the next tree as if it had just insulted her entire family. "I honestly doubt Cheerilee is gonna let anything like that happen again." "Well, maybe you’re still mad at that one filly for hurtin’ Apple Bloom in the first place," Big Mac suggested as he followed his sister on her applebucking rampage. Applejack feverishly bucked the next three trees in her path before saying anything. "Nothing doin’, Big McIntosh. I ain’t holding no grudges against no fillies. I’m sure she got what was coming to her from her teacher, and there ain’t nothing more that needs being done about it." "So, are you mad at Miss Cheerilee for letting it happen?" Big Mac asked, a hint of sadness in his voice. Applejack's frustration continued to rise as she sent fruit raining down from the trees like a swarm of parasprites. "That's crazy talk! The way that teacher cares about her students, I know she did everything she could to prevent something like that." "Well, you’re not mad at Apple Bloom are you?" The apples fell almost from Applejack's presence alone now as she switched from speaking loudly to just plain shouting. "I ain’t mad at nopony! Especially not Apple Bloom! She might not have been totally innocent of it all, but she sure as sunflowers didn’t do nothing to deserve her ear bein’ treated like one a Winona’s chew toys!" Big Mac took another moment to think. Then, a thought popped into his head, which persuaded him to ask, "AJ, are you mad at…yourself?" Her brother’s words struck Applejack right through her core, causing her back legs to miss the tree she was about to buck and kick nothing but the air next to it. Her anger dissolved into surprise as the heavy realization from her brother’s words made her head drop to face the ground. All the thoughts the orange mare had been searching for the past week came surging to the front of her mind, and it was then that she knew exactly what was causing her so much distress. "It's my fault. The whole thing happened 'cause of me," she softly expressed, tilting her hat over her eyes. Big Mac was a bit thrown off by his sister's reaction. "What are you talking about, AJ? You didn't do a cherry-picking thing." "Exactly!" Applejack shouted, quickly turning back around to face her brother. "I didn't do a thing to keep something like this from happenin’! I just stood back and allowed it like a dang scarecrow." Big Mac tried to protest. "Applejack, you can’t blame yourself for what happened. You weren't even there. You were off saving Equestria again when it happened." Applejack refused to back down on her claim. "I know that," she assured, taking a small step forward, "but I shoulda took care a this earlier." Big Mac opened his mouth to ask for some clarification but chose to remain silent and let his sister continue. Applejack gazed up at the apple tree she had missed earlier that held only one lone apple on its branches. "I ain't stupid. I knew somethin’ was goin’ on between them fillies, but I didn't do nothing about it. I didn’t even ask Apple Bloom if it was anything serious." Big Mac didn't like what he was hearing. "AJ, you're being too harsh on yourself. If Apple Bloom really thought it was serious, she woulda told us earlier." "Well, it seems pretty serious now," Applejack stated, turning back towards her brother with her eyes as wide as her hair was long. "So why do I still know next to nothin’ about the whole thing? What’s the matter with that filly, Big Mac? Don't she know we care?" "A course she does, Applejack. You know how Apple Bloom is. She don't like asking for help. She always thinks she can handle her problems herself. Remind you of anypony?" Big Mac cocked an eyebrow at his sister, forcing her to crack a smile at his remark. The smile only lasted for a moment, though, and it faded away as Applejack continued her thought. "It's just that if she ain’t tell us somethin' like this, then..." She trailed off. "Then what else ain’t she telling us?" Big Mac finished, walking beside the mare to see if she was okay. Applejack dug her hoof into the ground as she contemplated her own sister keeping secrets that she didn’t want her family to know about. She could tell it was that very notion that had been causing all her grief this past week since she got that same gut-wrenching, sister-kicking feeling every second she spent thinking about it. It was enough to make her want to yell a door off its hinges, but as her anger reached its boiling point, she felt a stalwart hoof touch the top of her head. She looked up to see Big McIntosh's comforting smile which said more in an instant than anypony other than Pinkie could say in half an hour. Applejack could feel the clouds in her head receding, and it all became clear what she needed to do. "Well, I’m sure not gonna find out by standing around feeling sorry for myself!" Applejack said with a sudden burst of enthusiasm that startled Big Mac so much that he almost flinched. "From now on, if my sister’s got a problem, I’m gonna know about it, and I’m gonna be there for her for the whole eight miles. In fact, I’m gonna start right now!" Applejack proudly announced before running down the hill back to the barn, her enchanted necklace softly striking against her shoulders as she galloped off. Big McIntosh smiled as he watched his sister cheerfully run off, no longer lashing out at any defenseless apple trees. As she ran, she called back to her brother, "Oh, Big McIntosh? Can you take care of the rest of my workload for the day? Thanks!" Big McIntosh’s smile faded as he turned around to see a veritable ocean of apple trees left to harvest splayed out in front of him. He sighed and walked over to the particular apple tree with the one remaining apple left on it. He softly knocked the tree with his front hoof, causing the apple to drop down into the bucket. He looked down at the apple lying in the bucket before closing his eyes. As he prepared to get to work, he quietly muttered a single affirmative word to himself that contained both a hint of annoyance and a hint of relief. "Eyup" Monday, March 31 I stumble into the store, almost tripping over my own feet in the process, and who else do I find waiting for me but the clerk who held my toothbrush at tonguepoint? "Hey! I remember you! You’re Mr. Philosophy!" she excitedly exclaims as she spots me. Hey! No! Leave me alone! Of course, that’s never going to happen, and she continues talking to me as I make my way to the back of the store while attempting to look as if I haven’t been standing right outside for the past twelve hours. Thankfully, since I moved between settings, my throbbing hand and the bump on my head have cleared up, so they’re not there for her to use in discussion. "Crazy invasion today, huh?" she asks. "Those aliens will think twice before trying to take over this campus again!" Well, if everyone keeps bringing it up to me like that, they might not get the chance. "They sure will," I respond, attempting to sound as chipper about it as possible. I feel around for something toothbrush-shaped on the back wall in my slumbersome confusion. Clearly, there’s a conversation on the horizon right now, and I need to hurry up before I get roped into it. "So, how’d that exam go?" the clerk asks me as I stagger back to where I believe her voice is coming from. Too late. I’m doomed. "Great! Hoping for a perfect score," I state cheerfully with an impossibly large smile on my face. "No way! With all the sleep you got? You must have been snoozing all day long after all that!" Sweet ice pops, how I wish that were true. I just shrug and laugh at her comment as I finally reach her location, wondering how she doesn’t notice how exhausted I am as I proceed to throw my purchase on the counter and internally brace myself for her response. "You have got to be kidding me, dude. Another toothbrush? What do you do, eat them?" she asks as she picks it off the counter and twirls it around. I laugh again and reply with the amazingly thoughtful response, "No." I especially like how little emotion I actually put into it this time. It must be inspired from all the hunger, exhaustion, and despair I’m feeling right now. In a surprising burst of common sense, it occurs to me that I should purchase something to quell the expanding black hole that’s materializing within my stomach. However, even in the state that I’m in, I’m not about to put myself on the spot to tell the clerk to hold on a second. Who knows how long it would take me to get through this conversation if I did that? Although, if I get too much hungrier, the clerk’s previous joke might become truer than she knows. "So, is this gonna be all for you?" Actually, could you knock me unconscious so I can get some sleep? "Yep," I respond unresponsively. "You sure? You don’t look so good tonight." Oh, so you did notice? "I’ll be fine," I yawn, covering my mouth with my hand. "I just need a little more sleep." Or any. Any sleep would be nice. She tilts her head and looks at me strangely. "Why’s your hand so shiny?" she asks, catching me off guard. And there goes another thirty seconds of my life. "Oh, uh, it’s sort of a long story," I respond, trying to make it sound as boring as possible. "Well, are they stuck like that?" she asks, leaning over the counter to grab hold of my left hand, clearly not bored. "Maybe," I reply, still trying to deny potential topics for discussion. "What do you mean ‘maybe’? You don’t even know?" "It’s..supernatural. It’s out of my hands right now," I reply, my enthusiasm now fading to the point where I don’t even realize the pun I just made. She puts her thumb to her lip as if she’s thinking about something. Then she gets a disturbingly wide grin on her face, one that reeks of mischief. "You know, I think I might have something that can take care of that for you." Is it that face you’re making? Because that’s the new screensaver of my nightmares for the next week. "What is it?" I ask, still having enough curiosity to play along for the moment. "I’ll tell you, but you have to close your eyes first," she says with a tiny giggle. "Uh, how come?" I ask, now regretting my curiosity. "Because it’ll only work if your eyes are closed when I give it to you." She’s now struggling to hold back her laughter. Once again interested by the notion of such a strange cure, I do as she says. With my eyes shut, I try to imagine myself safely lying in bed instead of standing in a convenience store preparing to receive a mysterious antidote for shiny hands from someone I barely know. I think it’s a bit more relaxing that way. "All right, now hold out your hand, and I’ll give it to you." Hesitating for a moment, I extend my hand in the direction I’m reasonably sure is in front of me to accept her convoluted remedy. After a few seconds of waiting, a round, dense object falls into my hand, which is followed by the sound of her voice saying, "Okay, you can look now." I open my eyes to see a small black sphere in my hand and the clerk nowhere to be found. It’s not the object I expected to see, but I can promise you there’s nothing about it that can cure my shiny hands. As I see the tiny, ignited rope at the top of the sphere disappear from sight, I’m forced to once again close my eyes before the resulting explosion. The clerk pops back up from behind her counter, laughing hard enough to make a clown look like a mime. She slams the toothbrush in her hand onto the counter in her fit of laughter as she struggles to get out a coherent sentence. Apparently, seeing a tired guy covered in soot is the funniest thing one can see at 10:13 PM. Eventually, she manages to successfully wheeze, "I’m…I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I know it’s a bit early, but I couldn’t help myself. I needed one quick prank to tide me over until tomorrow." Tomorrow? What’s tomorrow? Wait… "Right, tomorrow’s April Fool’s Day," I declare, wiping some of the black dust off my face. "You know it! It’s my favorite day of the year. You wouldn’t believe all I’ve got planned! I even took the late shift tonight so I could get to work as soon as possible!" So tomorrow’s already ruined before today’s even over yet. Fantastic. Last year my roommate dressed up as a jester and treated me like his servant all day. Don’t ask. "Good for you," I answer, hiding my irritation as well as I can. "You know, I seriously do know a guy who could help you with those hands if you're interested." "That's okay. I can handle it myself." I try to learn from my mistakes, thank you very much. "All right then. Have a nice night!" She finally scans my toothbrush and hands it back to me, effectively giving me my key to freedom. "You too," I reply instinctively, grabbing my toothbrush and quickly making my way out of the store. However, my body is incapable of doing anything quickly right now, so I lose my balance, fall forward, and tumble out the door as I hear more laughter from the ever-sympathetic clerk lady behind me. Yeah, what a nice night I’m having. Can’t even go five seconds without becoming a source of comic relief. I rub my head and look up to see my new greatest enemy still wobbling around in the moonlight. I think that's how it laughs. Well, since it decided to stick around to see me fall flat on my face, I figure it’s worth giving it a decent internal farewell monologue. Mr. Goo, it’s been…unbearably depressing. However, I think it’s time you moved on to torture someone else now. I know how much fun you’ve had these past twelve or so hours, but I think we both know that you’re getting much more out of this relationship than I am. As a matter of fact, I believe you got more than you should have. Give me back my hammer! Possessed by spontaneous desire, I shove my hand into that diabolical goo to grab hold of my beloved mallet that I can still feel resting just on the other side. As usual, the goo begins to devour me, but I simply grab hold of that hammer and pull back as hard as I can. As the goo works its way down my arm, I slowly step backwards to in order to resist its influence. The goo is persistent though, and it continues to gain ground on me despite how far away I walk from it. Eventually, it manages to swallow me whole again, which means it’s time for the one thing it does best. However, thanks to the distance I’ve stretched it, it doesn’t just spit me out this time. It launches me. As if I just attempted my senseless slingshot plan again, it sends me soaring into the night sky like a reverse falling star. You know, the sky does look pretty tonight. I soar straight past the campus fountain, past my exam building, over the trees right outside of campus, and then off campus altogether. Soon, I’m overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and I can tell this one’s sending me all the way around. I suppose a normal person would scream at a time like this, but I’m not really one to scream when I’m afraid. It always bugs me when people waste their time screaming at something that scares them when they could be using that time to do something more useful like thinking. Seeing as how I have some free time now, I take the time to think about everything that’s happened to me today. I've had both my dreams pie me in the face, I’m apparently struggling to maintain my role as an antagonist, and I’ve let a bunch of supernatural snot make me its personal chew toy. So, nothing’s really gone my way today, but it’s not the worst Monday I’ve ever had. Eventually, I end up crash-landing back onto the pavement of my college campus face first, sliding into the imaginary feet of the one who sent me on my little trip as the trombones mock me once again. I don’t look up. I refuse to even acknowledge the goo’s existence anymore. I just turn my head to the side to take another look at my watch to see if I still have time to do my physics homework tonight. I don’t, but I’ll probably end up doing it anyway. However, as I see the time, I make another observation about the toothbrush in my hand that just got a quick tour of the world. It’s green. The toothbrush I just bought is green. I honestly never imagined I’d have my first villainous breakdown at this age. It always seemed like something that only happened to more experienced villains. I especially didn’t expect the breaking point to be a toothbrush. Regardless, here I am, with red eyes, sharpened teeth, and the faintest hope that the wicked goo that hovers over me will just spontaneously combust as I slam my head against the sidewalk in an increasingly desperate manner while water shoot out of my eyes like I'm property of the local fire department. I no longer have any control over my body in this state. All I can do is thank all things convenient that no one’s around to see me like this. That reminds me. Sorry you have to see me like this. However, before my incoherent rampage powered by nothing but the fumes of my anger can reach its climax, a bird lands on top of my head, forcing me to stop. My head's facing the ground, so I can’t tell what kind of bird it is, but I can feel its talons clutched around my skull as I lie there motionlessly. My first instinct is to shoo it away before it starts singing my theme music, but then I realize something. It's a strange thought that I believed could only manifest in works of fiction. This is hilarious. I’m lying on the ground covered in soot with a face full of pavement and a bird on my head, I’m freaking out because my toothbrush is the wrong color, and the BGM is attempting to play a relaxing lullaby tune using accordions and tubas.This is the most ridiculous situation I’ve ever heard. How could I find this anything but funny? However, even funnier than any of that is the cause of all this mess: the goo. All it's done today is float, eat, and spit. It has all the powers of a floating baby head, and I’m treating it like it’s some kind of amazing mastermind that I can never hope to defeat. That is utterly ridiculous. How could I have been so blind? This goo isn’t diabolical! It’s just plain silly! The bird flies off my head as I force myself back onto my feet. My legs feel like goo themselves as I attempt to sustain my body weight, but I don’t care. At that moment, all my despair, all my sorrow, and all my dignity appear to flee in terror as I descend into my own fit of laughter. I laugh at my reflection in the puddle of my tears, I laugh at the huge dent I made in the sidewalk with my head, I laugh at this one funny-looking comic I see in the newspaper stand next to the store, and, most importantly, I laugh at the silly goo in all its nonsensical entirety. I have to say, it’s been awhile since I laughed like this. Normally, my laughs come in one of two flavors: evil and fake. However, this long-forgotten third flavor tastes pretty good after everything that's happened. Soon, my sides start hurting and I fall back over, but I just find the pain funny and continue laughing. Eventually, I run out of laughter and finally calm back down. Once I can breathe again, I turn back up to my new best friend and smile. You know what, Goo? You're not so bad after all. I don’t even remember why I was so upset anymore. It’s like I just laughed away everything that was bothering me. I just wish there was something I could do to show my thanks before I go. Oh, wait, I know. There’s only one thing that you want, isn’t there? I stick my hand in that wonderful gunk for the 440th and final time to give it the opportunity to engage in its favorite pastime once more. Just as always, it excitedly begins to cover my body with itself. Then, just as always, it swallows me completely from head to toe. Finally, just as always, it follows up on its consumption by… Well, this is new. Sunday, March 30 A diet of nothing but pig slop, an orange dye job, a loss of all talking privileges, any other punishment would be worth it to make this one stop. Never before had Diamond Tiara felt as humiliated over the course of a single group of seven days as she did during this one. The torture began the day she had her tiara savagely ripped off her head by her wicked witch of a teacher. She could still hear the maniacal cackling as Miss Cheerilee chained it to her desk and declared, "You leave me no choice, you horrible child. Now back to work!" It had taken almost four hours to finish that accursed essay, and afterwards Diamond had rushed straight home to get to the bottom of the evil spirit that had possessed her father and made him assign this punishment. Unfortunately, the situation was even worse than she realized. Her dad was more serious about the situation than Miss Cheerilee was. He said he wanted her to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around her and that she needs to appreciate the value of other ponies. She was certain she heard thunder clap as he said those vile, disgusting words. Why couldn’t these grown-ups see things from her point of view? If she really went around trying to appreciate all those other no-talent ponies, how were they supposed to see how special she was? What would that prove anyway? That they all were special in their own way? How could her dad and Miss Cheerilee possibly expect her to lie like that? It would completely go against everything she stood for. It’d be like saying they were all equal or something, and, excluding Silver Spoon, she wasn't about to even pretend that those other sorry excuses for ponies in her class were on the same level that she was. The next morning, her dad still wouldn’t budge on the issue, and her mom had read that wearing a headpiece too often can stunt growth, so Diamond was forced to go to school that Monday without a tiara. She felt almost naked walking into class without it and not just for the obvious reason. It was Snails who first noticed it and started a chain of whispering around the classroom. Before long, everypony in the classroom had gone silent, and they all curiously stared in awe at the tiara-less Diamond from the safety of their desks. Despite her usual desire to have all eyes on her, Diamond wanted nothing more than to be invisible in that classroom at that moment. She didn’t even need to turn around to know they were all looking at her, and she was about ready to shout to all of them to mind their own business. She hesitated simply because she didn’t want to attract more unwanted attention to herself. Eventually, after some hushed encouragement from his friend, Snips broke the silence by walking up and confronting her directly. "Um, Diamond Tiara?" Snips began, trying as hard as possible not to laugh. Diamond turned to him with a blank, commonplace expression on her face. "We were just wondering…what happened to your tiara?" he asked with a stifled chuckle. Diamond narrowed her gaze at the mention of her tiara and the tone of the cheeky colt’s voice. She wouldn’t let this happen. She could not and would not let this clown make a fool out of her in front of the entire class. "I don’t know. Where’s your scissors?" Diamond asked, a little smirk appearing on her face. "Right here," Snips said as he pulled out some scissors from seemingly nowhere. Diamond’s smirk faded as Snips went on, "We just wanted to know why you don’t have a new one yet. I heard it was because you went crazy after your first one broke, and now you’re refusing to wear one." Snails intervened before Diamond could reply, "Nu-uh, that’s not even close to what happened. I heard the first one was so expensive that her dad couldn’t afford a new one." "That’th not what I heard," Twist declared, joining the discussion. Soon, all of Diamond’s classmates started talking over each other stating all the rumors they had just created, attempting to explain Diamond’s lack of tiara. Every voice felt like a tiny nibble out of her pride, and she wasn't about to stand by and let it happen. "Quiet!" Diamond shouted, standing on her desk and driving the commotion to an immediate halt. "You all are the rudest, most inconsiderate bunch of foals I’ve ever seen! I’ll have you know that the only reason I’m not wearing a tiara right now is because--" She stopped as the door to the classroom opened, and three fillies walked inside, too engaged in their own discussion to notice her. Her pulse quickened as she realized she was standing on top of the desk, drawing everypony’s attention to herself. She swiftly jumped off her desk and hid behind it in a panic-stricken, last-ditch effort to avoid being seen by them. "…and that’s when Rainbow Dash crashed straight into the fruit stand, sending apples flying everywhere," Scootaloo finished as she and her friends entered the classroom. "What’s so amazing about that?" Sweetie Belle asked, not noticing everypony’s gaze shifting to them. "Yeah, and who do you think had to clean up all those apples?" Apple Bloom grumbled as she closed the door behind them. Snips had walked back to his own desk after the three had entered. He and the other students talked quietly amongst themselves as they all furtively watched the scene set itself up in front of them. All of them were eager to see what was about to happen, too enthralled to interrupt it. "Aw, you just had to be there when it happened," Scootaloo responded, sitting down at her desk, the closest one to the door. "Whatever, but that still don’t mean Rainbow Dash deserves to be named ‘Best Pony in All of Equestria from Now Until the End of Time’." Apple Bloom said as she headed to her own desk. "Hey, she’s gonna be eventually, so why not just go ahead and do it now?" Scootaloo remarked. "Hey girls, look," Sweetie Belle noted. "You-know-who isn’t here yet." She pointed toward the empty desk on the far side of the classroom. Diamond heard the filly’s observation from behind her desk. She wondered if they were talking about her, but knew she couldn’t look up to check without revealing herself. One good thing about not having her tiara at the moment was that it didn’t give away her position behind the desk. She didn’t exactly have a plan, but she just wanted to keep hiding at least until Silver Spoon showed up. What was taking that filly so long to show up anyway? "Oh yeah, you’re right. Do you think she’ll even show up today?" Scootaloo asked. "I hope not. That filly’s finally lost it. I’ve never seen her get so mad before," Apple Bloom remarked, trying not to think about the incident a few days prior. "Seriously, I thought she was going to burst into flames or something," Scootaloo said with a small laugh. "That wouldn’t be good." Sweetie Belle said with another little chuckle. "She might have melted if we had to throw water on her." "Hey!" Diamond yelled on impulse at the sound of being slighted, poking her head out from behind her desk. She recoiled as all ponies in the room turned right back towards her, including the three newcomers. "Diamond Tiara? Why are you hiding behind your desk?" Apple Bloom asked in surprise as Sweetie Belle slunk down in her desk, regretting her previous remark. Diamond hesitated for a moment, "Well, I…um…" "And where’s your new tiara?" Scootaloo asked almost mockingly. "That’s…it’s just…" "Are you sweating?" Sweetie Belle asked, poking her head back up to get a better look at her classmate. Diamond casually wiped her forehead with her front hoof and looked at it. It was true. She’d let herself become so nervous that she’d started to perspire. This was unacceptable. She was letting these three blank flanks of all ponies get to her. She was better than this. She was better than them. She knew she had a very simple way of getting out of this, and all she had to do was calm down and seize it. Switching her expression to one of prideful satisfaction, Diamond pompously responded, "I don’t see how any of that’s your business." She sat back down in her desk and turned away from them. All too easy. "Fine, we didn’t want to know anyway," Scootaloo huffed in response to Diamond Tiara’s change in attitude. "And what’s that supposed to mean?" Diamond asked angrily, turning back to them and almost instantly forgetting about dropping the issue. "Are you saying you don’t care that thanks to you I lost my most prized possession?" "It wasn’t Scootaloo’s fault!" Apple Bloom shouted, defending her friend. "I was the one who broke your tiara, and it was an accident!" She softened her tone a bit to plead, "Can’t we just forget about it?" Diamond's mind had completely shifted focus to the memory of her broken tiara, and she didn’t think anything of it as she replied, "How am I supposed to forget about it when I have a constant reminder not resting on my pretty little head?" "Little?" Scootaloo quietly asked to herself. "Well, there’s one on mine!" Apple Bloom shouted back in defiance, pointing to the white bandage still wrapped around her ear. "And, no offense, but mine’s a little more uncomfortable." Diamond scowled as Apple Bloom brought that up. She wasn't prepared to argue with a cheap shot like that, so she took a moment to recollect her thoughts. "Fine, I’m willing to forget all this if you are," she eventually stated, closing her eyes and once again facing the front of the classroom. "Really?" Sweetie Belle asked, almost stunned at what the pink filly said. "Just like that?" Apple Bloom asked, equally surprised at her classmate's reaction. "Accidents happen, and I’ll have my tiara soon enough anyway," Diamond casually said, pretending to inspect the front of one of her hooves. Diamond remembered she was trying to get the focus away from her tiara, and she knew if she told them to drop the subject, nopony would want to keep asking about it. She was just that persuasive. "Is it me or was that too easy?" Scootaloo whispered to her friends. "Maybe she kept most of her meanness in her tiara," Sweetie Belle suggested also in whisper. "Does that mean it’s a good thing I broke it?" Apple Bloom asked in jest, checking to make sure Diamond didn’t hear. "I wouldn't exactly say it's a good thing, but at least we got her off our flanks for now," Scootaloo whispered contentedly. Diamond smiled to herself at the way she managed to skillfully resolve that situation. Then, just as everything seemed to be cleared up, Silver Spoon finally arrived. She drew much less attention than the Cutie Mark Crusaders did as she entered and silently walked to her own desk. Like the rest of the class, she noticed her friend was lacking something before even reaching her desk. However, it seemed a bit stranger to her since she’d seen her friend wearing it only a day ago. "Diamond Tiara? What happened to your--" Silver Spoon stopped mid-sentence when she caught her friend feverishly shaking her head and signaling her to not to keep going with that thought. Scootaloo shot a glance at Diamond after Silver Spoon started hesitating, causing the pink filly to quickly place her hooves back on her desk and force a smile. "…mane?" Silver Spoon corrected herself. "It looks so shiny and regal today." "It does, doesn’t it? How correct of you to notice," Diamond smiled, flipping her mane with her hoof. Scootaloo was not amused. Silver Spoon felt some relief that she hadn’t upset her friend any more with that last comment as she took her seat. She wasn’t exactly sure what to say or think after everything that had happened over the past three days, but she did feel a twinge of nervousness as her friend leaned over and started whispering to her. "What took you so long? You wouldn’t believe what I had to put up with from these other foals before you got here," she whispered harshly. "Sorry, I overslept. There was, like, an owl or something outside my window that kept me up all last night," Silver Spoon explained. "Hmph, well don’t let it happen again," Diamond quietly ordered, sitting back normally in her desk. "What did happen to your other tiara, anyway? Didn’t you tell me that was your only other one? You didn’t lose that one too, did you?" Silver Spoon asked, her worry emerging on her face. Diamond stiffened up a bit. "D-don’t be ridiculous," she whispered. "I just…had to get it spruced up. It wasn’t shiny enough for me." "Oh, right, duh," Silver Spoon replied, her posture relaxing as her smile returned. She knew Diamond Tiara better than anyone, and if there was one thing that Diamond loved, it was making her possessions shinier. The gray filly was about to ask where her friend was getting it "spruced up", but their teacher happened to arrive before she got the chance. "Good morning, class," Cheerilee greeted as cheerfully as ever. "Good morning, Miss Cheerilee," most of the class replied in unison. "I hope you all used the weekend to ready your minds for some new information, because today we’re going to learn all about the wonders of gravity!" she exclaimed as if she were talking about a field trip to a candy store. Before continuing, she caught sight of Apple Bloom's ear. Her teaching instincts took over, and she felt obliged to ask, "Apple Bloom, honey, are you sure you’re feeling okay? I don’t want to feel like you have to come back to class before you’re 100% ready." "Oh, I’m okay, Miss Cheerilee," Apple Bloom innocently replied. "Applejack said I'll be able to take this bandage off by the end of the day. It don't even hurt no more, honest." "You dirty liar!" Diamond shouted, once again forgetting about her desire to remain inconspicuous. "You tried to make me feel guilty about hurting you when you're not even hurt?" "What?" Apple Bloom asked in confusion. "I wasn't trying ta-" "Now, Diamond Tiara," Cheerilee started, already feeling her patience draining out of her, "Please, just calm down. There's no reason to start the day off by calling somepony a dirty liar." "I wouldn't need to if somepony wasn't one," Diamond scoffed as she glared at the accused. Cheerilee sighed. "Apple Bloom, did you tell Diamond-" "Don't ask her!" Diamond interrupted, violently pointing her hoof at Apple Bloom. "She's a dirty liar! I'll bet she doesn't even know what 'truth' is!" "Do too!" Apple Bloom shouted in her own defense. "My big sister taught me everything I know about honesty." A very natural smirk spread across Diamond's face like icing on a carrot cake. "Then I guess it's true what they say. Those who can't do, teach." Needless to say, Apple Bloom was by no means pleased to hear her family being insulted, but it was possible that Cheerilee trumped her in feeling slighted. "Diamond Tiara, do I need to remind you what I told you yesterday?" she asked as she walked right up to Diamond's desk. Diamond dropped her entire smug disposition at the sound of her teacher's threatening statement. Surely Miss Cheerilee was not going to mention her punishment in front of the entire class, right? She couldn't possibly be that cruel! "Because if you want your tiara back anytime soon, I strongly suggest you remember it." As those words came out of her teacher's mouth, Diamond forgot how to speak. Her eyes exploded open and her mouth quickly followed suit. She could heard several gasps throughout the classroom as the the other students came to understand what had happened, and she felt the shame overtake her body like a gallon of cement. It would seem that Miss Cheerilee was possibly that cruel. After receiving no response, Cheerilee took Diamond's silence as a sign that she would behave and proceeded with her lesson. The only other sounds related to the teacher’s warning were a soft chuckle from Scootaloo, an aimless comment from Snails, and an inquiring question from Silver, but Diamond heard none of it. All she could hear was a loud, derisive laughter echoing through her mind for the rest of the school day. The rest of the week hadn't fared any better. Miss Cheerilee and her dad just wouldn’t budge on the issue, and after he discussed it with her, even her mom was on board. Worse yet, now she had an even greater punishment on top of it. Having to put up with the humiliation of those other foals knowing why her tiara was gone was even more embarrassing than losing it. Even though none of them actually directly said anything to her about it, she knew what they all were thinking. She knew they all thought she was just an ordinary pony now, and it made her sick. Silver Spoon tried to cheer her up as best as she could, but without a tiara to offer her, she couldn't even get her friend to smile. Eventually, Diamond's bitterness and paranoia escalated to the point where she had herself convinced that even Silver Spoon was laughing at her behind her back. After that, she started spending most of her time enjoying the isolation of being locked in her own room with only her thoughts, her anguish, and her cat to keep her company. Now, as she lay there on her bed that Sunday evening after an entire week of it all, she prepared her attempt to drown out all the ridicule that continued to echo in her mind with the large tub of strawberry ice cream she had set before her. She wasn't supposed to have this much ice cream at once, but her dad was gone on an emergency business trip thanks to a huge drop in sales last weekend, and her mom was invited to take a seven-day blimp cruise around Equestria on that same Thursday. The two neglected to coordinate their trips, so Diamond's favorite babysitter had been assigned to watch after her: herself. She was the one in charge, and after everything she'd been through that week, she demanded that she have that ice cream. She tried to remember her manners as she ate her little snack so as not to stain her bed, but as the thoughts of her stolen treasure and shattered reputation swarmed through her mind, she soon found herself wearing the bucket as her new headpiece with pink, splattered globs of dairy all over her walls, her floor, her bed, her ceiling, and even her cat. Realizing that ice cream wasn't the solution, she pulled the empty tub off her head and angrily threw herself back onto her bed. She felt the stickiness of her comfort food against her back as she collided with her mattress, but she was too upset to let it bother her. In fact, it almost felt right. Diamond felt lost as she struggled to think of a way out of her punishment. If things continued to go the way they were, she feared that she would actually have to give in to her punishment’s demands and treat those other mouth breathers as her equals for a few weeks. She pulled her thoroughly sticky covers over top of herself in an attempt to warm herself from the frigid chill that arose after imagining such a possibility. What had she done to deserve all this punishment? That's just it. She wasn't punished this time for doing anything. This time she was punished just for being herself. She didn't understand. Miss Cheerilee and her parents had always told her to be herself, but now suddenly they wanted her to change? Why didn't they just take away her cutie mark while they were at it? It's not like she could be embarrassed any more! How did it even come to this anyway? How did she end up on the other side of the laughter? How did she become the one being ridiculed? It was one thing when it happened to somepony who deserved to be laughed at, but she was supposed to be above all that. She was supposed to be better than that, but if she could fall into that same trap that they could...did that mean she was no more special than anypony else? It was at that point that she noticed she was tasting ice cream again. Confused, she lowered her eyes to find that she had been gnawing on the edge of her mane without even realizing it. Enough was enough. This punishment had put her through enough torment already, but this was too much. She had kicked that filthy habit years ago, and she wasn't about to let some stupid punishment reduce her to such nonsense. She had to get ahold of herself before she completely lost control of her life. She spit the hair out of her mouth and threw herself out of her bed, stomping over to her room's full-length mirror that was about twice her own size. She took a good look at her reflection. Her entire body was nearly covered from head to tail in ice cream after both eating it and rolling around in it, her hair was rife with split ends between the chewing and the bedhead, and the rest of her head looked barren and lifeless without anything shiny on top of it to complement her beauty. However, Diamond didn't see any of that. All she saw was herself in that mirror, and there were no faults she could find in that. Nopony was as talented, charming, or good-looking as she was, and she knew it all too well. There could be no question that she was the most special pony there was. But then, why did she feel so ashamed when the others found out about her punishment? Since she was so special, why did their opinions even matter? That was the moment when she finally realized: They didn’t. They couldn’t. The only opinion that actually meant anything was hers. She was more special than any of them, and she didn’t need anypony else to tell her that. As she let the thought seep deeper into her mind, all her feelings of shame and embarrassment started to fade until finally they vanished completely. She stared straight at her ice-cream-coated self in the mirror with a newfound look of full-fledged determination as she focused her entire being on one goal: getting her tiara back by any means necessary. She knew that if she could find a way to get it back, everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be. In fact, there was no ‘if’ about it. She knew she was capable of finding a way to convince both her dad and her teacher that she just wasn't meant to be a Diamond without a tiara. She could do it. It would be easy. She was just that special. Monday, March 31 There are two types of people in this world. One type of person sees his toothbrush on the ground, picks it up, and either uses it anyway or just goes to sleep without worrying about it. The other type of person goes out into the middle of the night, buys a new toothbrush, gets shiny hands, aces an exam in their favorite subject only to completely lose interest in it, gets pointlessly crushed by a piano, draws some guy’s lost bejeepers, and then spends over twelve hours trying to get swallowed by goo until it finally works. These two types of people are known as ‘everyone else’ and ‘me’, respectively. And for the first time in a long time, I'm glad to be part of the latter. Truly, I find it hard to describe what’s happening right now. I can almost guarantee that the place where I’m standing isn’t part of my college campus. Actually, "standing" really isn’t the right word to use in this case. I suppose "hurtling" would be more appropriate. Yes, I’m hurtling through this non-college campus space, completely veiled within the aforementioned goo that endlessly continues to pull me forward through an infinite void of purple nothingness that’s slightly better lit than my hallway at night. Also, I got my hammer back. So, how excited am I about all this, you ask? Well, have you ever been to a football game and watched one of those big, well-rehearsed halftime shows? You know that feeling you get when they announce it's over, and they're finally getting back to the game? That's what I'm feeling right now. The halftime show of my life just ended, and it would seem that this goo is taking me straight to the main event. I think that sums everything up quite nicely. I guess it's not as difficult to describe as I thought. However, I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to do right now. It feels like this goo has been dragging me through purple for either three hours or three centuries now; I'm not really sure which. I could try to get it to let go of me, but I'm afraid that might leave me stranded in this chaotic dimension of purple. I'd honestly prefer a different kind of adventure. I would have thought that at the speed I’m going, I’d have already reached wherever this stuff is pulling me. I'm fairly certain I could have flown around the world at least twenty-seven times by now at this speed. Again, I’m sure a lot of people would be screaming at the top of their lungs if they were going this fast, but like I said, I'm not a screamer, so why start now? Of course, no one’s around to actually hear any of my screaming, so I don't think anyone would mind, but on the other hand, no one’s around to actually hear any of my screaming, so what good would it do? As I continue to fly through the mysterious world of nothingness, all my physical deficiencies suddenly catch up to me, doubling in strength since I last thought about them. I have to put every ounce of strength I have left into staying awake lest I somehow miss my last shot at a successful supernatural encounter by sleeping through it. On the bright side, whatever strange form of reality I’ve wandered into appears to be much warmer than it was in the one I used to exist in. My skin isn’t even blue anymore. On the less-than-bright side, this place has to have the worst BGM I've ever heard. It's nothing more than a loud, repetitive hissing noise that makes Rook's theme music sound like a rehearsed, orchestral work of genius. My gooey overcoat prevents me from moving my arms up to cover my ears, so I'm forced to endure the noise as I propel forward at a barely-survivable speed. After all this time, my body’s become so desensitized to the speed that I start daydreaming about something else entirely. During the long hours of attempting to be eaten, I basically ran out of relevant topics of interest, but there’s one depressing subject that I've been trying to avoid giving too much thought until now: my recent loss of interest in my life’s interest. I know that my apathy towards my dream is going to be a problem for my future career plans, but now I'm not even sure I was ever interested in psychology to begin with. Try as I might, I still cannot recall the reason that initially made me aspire to learn about psychology all those years ago. It’s as if someone else chose this path for me to follow and I've just mindlessly following it all this time. I can’t even seem to remember the last time I did something interesting with psychology. I think it involved a large armchair and a reclining couch, but that might have just been a movie I saw a few weeks ago. Well, you know what? If it's really gotten to this point, then I see only one possible solution: I’m done with psychology. From here on out, it’s no longer my passion, my dream, or my major. Some might say it's a bit rash of a decision to make while I'm sleep-deprived and going seven thousand miles per hour through a hallway of purple, but then again, I may not even have to think about college ever again. After settling that conflict, my mind transitions back to the goo. I have no idea what this thing’s purpose is or where it’s taking me, but truly I’ve reached into a supernatural grab bag here. I'm thinking the best case scenario is being taken somewhere where I can obtain a robotic sidekick. Worst case is probably a wormhole where I'll have my molecules painfully and rapidly ripped to pieces. It's a grim notion, yes, but considering that means I’d never have to see my obnoxious roommate again, it’s still not technically the worst possible scenario. Right now, all I'm hoping is that food and sleep still exist on the other side of this dark tunnel. Then, right as that thought comes to pass, the purple void disappeared around me. The fact that I was flying at a speed beyond my imagination finally registered in my mind again as a new world suddenly embraced my vision. I saw trimmed, clean grass underneath me as I soared over it, a vivid, night sky above me as I soared beneath it, and a large, stagnant rock in front of me as I crashed directly into something big and round. It was probably the rock. Oddly enough though, crashing into that rock at that speed didn’t hurt. In fact, it was actually pretty comforting to crash into it. It didn’t even spawn my daze halo. That being the case, I decided to treat it as a pillow and used it to relax for about two seconds as I slid off it onto the much less comfortable ground. While lying on the ground, I looked up at the sky. It looked exactly the same as before I got dragged inside that goo. The stars still twinkled, adding some light to the darkness that surrounded them; the moon was cleverly hidden behind the clouds, leaving the stars to fend for themselves in serving as a primary light source; and the sun was nowhere to be found since it wasn’t daytime. Nothing seemed notably supernatural about any of this, but I knew I'd find something strange soon enough. Then, as I sat up to observe my terrestrial surroundings, I came face-to-face with something that was, if nothing else, unusual. It looked like a well-sized brown horse wearing a red tie with a dollar sign on it and some sort of collar around its neck, and it was staring right at me with a look of concern across its face. While that was certainly an interesting sight on its own, the most curious thing about this creature was its introductory theme. Listening to it at first, it sounded very regal and dignified, consisting mostly of brass instruments and a strong bass drum, but I could have sworn I heard a faint harmonica in there somewhere. The main reason it was so odd, though, was because animals don't have introductory themes! It was at that point that the world I was in was not my own. I had finally broken my asinine curse and made contact with the supernatural. However, perhaps seeing this new theme-carrying, horse-looking, dollar-worshiping creature took more out of me than I thought. Then again, perhaps it was the unending struggle through an odd goo substance or simply the fact that I hadn’t really slept in almost twenty-four hours that got to me. Whatever the reason was, my head fell backwards like a bowling pin, and I was out.