• Published 1st Jul 2012
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A Jewel of a Problem - Rainbow Sparkle



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Fun times in Ponyville

As it turned out, Diamond Tiara wasn’t as up to speed on the physical department as I had hoped. So it did take me about twenty minutes to reach the outer edge of Ponyville. I stopped for a moment, taking the chance to take a breather as I looked up ahead into the town. The streets were only beginning to fill with ponies, and for the most part it looked like adult ponies, which I viewed as a good thing. Adults were less likely to potentially bother me unless I got in their way, where as any children in town were likely to take this opportunity after recent events to ridicule Diamond Tiara, or in this case me.

And too much ridicule directed at Diamond-err, me, isn’t going to end well. I had always had a low tolerance for those who made fun of others, Diamond Tiara included, which was this situation sickened me to my core, and why I needed to get out of it as fast as possible, but I had never taken well to those who decided to make fun of me.

Thankfully, the only child I saw was a younger looking pegasus filly walking in my direction with her mother. She looked too young to be in school, a tad smaller than Pips size I’d wager, so unless her mother or someone else in her family had been slighted by DT when she was running the paper…

Last time…on A Jewel of a Problem…

Dear sweet Luna, not this again.

Ehehehe…After a series of repeated attempts to inflict harm on Diamond Tiara’s body…

Hey now, only one of those was my fault! Wait, why am I even responding to this voice?

Our hero has left the Rich manor, on a quest to locate and find Twilight’s tome-filled home in his efforts to find a way to free himself from this current predicament. But he doesn’t have long, as he has already taken twenty minutes of his time-

It’s not my fault Diamond Tiara’s body isn’t up to the norm for Earth Ponies. Give me a break here.

­-leaving him only a total of two hours and ten minutes to both find her home, find anything that may give him a hint of how to get back home, and find his way to Sweet Apple Acres in time to help the Apple Family.

Crud. I hadn’t thought of that. Finding Twilight’s home might be hard, but getting to Sweet Apple Acre’s could take a significant chunk of my time. And if I didn’t get there in time, they’d probably assume that I was trying to skip out on the punishment, and then I’d be in big trouble with Filthy Rich.

Ehehehe…that’s right. So you better get moving, muahahahahah!

“Did you hear something Mommy?”

I glanced to the side at hearing this, seeing the small young pegasus filly looking up at her mother expectantly. The mother’s ears seemed to be twitching, as if trying to discern if she had heard anything. After a moment, she replied “It was probably just the wind honey.”

I frowned at this. The only thing I’d heard was that weird voice… nothing else. There wasn’t anypony else nearby, and the birds were either still asleep or slacking off today.

Which can only mean…that the little filly over there heard the same thing I did… but that doesn’t make sense! If I am hearing voices, I should be the only one able to hear it… shouldn’t I? If I wasn’t the only one who could hear the voice, that meant I wasn’t hearing voices in my head, and that someone… or something was talking to me

Eheheheheheheehhe…

“Mommy, I heard it again.” I heard the little filly say, and the mother was silent for a moment before murmuring

“I did too, but it sounds like an animal. Let’s just keep going.”

Alright, it’s official, I’m not hearing things, something really is talking to me. Yet I can only seem to hear it in my head, but others can hear it, though understanding it seems up for debate…ugh this is making my head hurt.

Oh I’m sowwy, is the purty little filly having a headache? Let me give you a kiss and make it aaalllll better!

“Bite me.” I muttered aloud, hoping that whatever was the source of the voice would go away and leave me alone.

“Okie dokie!” I heard someone behind me say, followed by a pinching sensation on my rump. I stopped, my eye twitching as I recognized the voice, before slowly turning my head, and I saw the only pony in the universe who could have taken what I said literally to heart. I could already hear my inner brony jumping for joy and singing the song of her people.

“Pinkie… why are you biting my rump?”

Yes, it was none other than Pinkie Pie who had her teeth gripping my rump. Her eyes blinked innocently at me as if she had no idea why I would even be asking such a thing. My inner brony was crying out, thrashing at the chains I had placed on him in my head, wanting me to glomp Pinkie and give her the biggest hug ever, and then spend the rest of the day helping her with pranks or whatever other random stuff she did.

My only response was to put more chains on him. I didn’t need Brony-me getting DT tossed into the loony bin. And thanks to Read it and Weep, I knew they had such a thing.

She mumbled something that I wasn’t able to catch, as her mouth was still clinging to my rump. Smacking a hoof to my face, I asked, irritation getting into my voice “Can you let go of me and say that again?”

Pinkie did so, taking a moment to lick her lips before saying, “Mmmm, Cherry Blossom!” I gave her glance that said I didn’t care if I tasted like three-day old mayonnaise as I waited for her response. She looked down at me, her mouth making an ‘o’ shape as she remembered I was still waiting and she said “Well duh, you asked me to you silly filly.” She ruffled my hair at that last, careful to avoid the tiara.

You know that meme image that says ‘implied facepalm’, when something is ridiculous or stupid that you don’t even need to facepalm? Yeah, that’s the expression that was on my face at that moment. I wish I had a mirror, as it probably would have been the funniest thing ever. Okay, maybe not, but it would have at least made me chuckle.

As it was, I simply went “Ugh, Pinkie, it’s a figure of speech-”

“Oh! Twilight uses those all the time! I don’t understand some of them, but some of them are really funny. But I’ve never heard her say ‘Bite me’. Hehehehe, that’s a funny one, Bite me. Bite Me! Bitemebitemebitemebiteme!”

Dear God, what have I done? I haven’t been here even a day and already I’m tainting Pinkie Pie!
“And besides, I wasn’t even talking to you!” I said, raising my voice so I could get Pinkie’s attention, as she had been hopping around as he tried to come up with a song based on the very phrase I had inadvertently taught her. She stopped in mid-air, turning her head upside down as she asked,

“But… if you weren’t talking to me, who were you talking too? I didn’t see anypony else…oooh, heeeyyy, maybe Twilight’s learned an invisibility spell! That would be so awesomeriffic! Ya here Twi? Heellooo? Twiledly yodelly who?”

I could feel my eye twitching again as Pinkie began searching the nearby area for Twilight, drawing a few stares from the animals that were up and about. “Ugh, I wasn’t talking to anyone! I was just speaking out loud.” It wasn’t exactly what had been going on, but I didn’t want to tell Pinkie Pie I had voices talking to me in my…

Actually, Pinkie would probably be the only one I could tell I had voices talking to me in my head, but that’s besides the point.

Pinkie stopped her search, her head popping out of a nearby birds nest, with said birds looking at the pink pony like she was crazy or something, and she tilted her head as she gave me a… confused doesn’t work here, I have to go with confuzzled, expression as she asked “But… doesn’t that mean you were talking to yourself.” I nodded at this, hoping that would be the end of it, when she added “So… why would you tell yourself to bite yourself? Seems kinda silly if you ask me.”

Says the bright pink earth pony whose head is sticking out of a bird’s nest I thought to myself as I tried to come up with a good explanation for why I would say such to myself. Or better yet, I needed to come up with a good reason for Diamond Tiara to say such to herself.

“Uhm,… well ya see…” Sadly, I had nothing, and as I tried to work something together in my head, Pinkie popped out of the nest and bounded over to stand next to me, her eyes gazing at me curiously. Realizing I wasn’t going to come up with anything, I decided I needed to distract her, and suddenly, a brilliant plan came into my head.

“Say… Pinkie Pie… would you like to play a game?” I gave her a friendly smile, my eyes glittering conspiratorially.

The effect was immediate. Pinkie went from questioning what was going on to possessing a smile that should have broken some sort of bone or tore a muscle. “A game? Oh I love games, which game are we playing? Tic tac toe, pin the tail on the pony, OH! Please say Bingo, it’s my favorite!”

“Actually, it’s none of those. It’s kinda like follow the leader. Only it’s called ‘Destination’. I pick a place to go, and then we take five minute turns trying to get there. The first one to get us to the destination wins. Oh, and you can’t tell the other players if your going the wrong way. Sound like fun?” I was making this up from the seat of my…I’d say pants, but I’m lacking those right now, or any clothing at all, so I guess the proper phrase would be that I was pulling it outta my plot. Suffice it to say, I had no idea if it would work or not.

Pinkie Pie sat back on her hind legs and tapped her chin for a moment, before hopping up and shouting “You betcha! I’ve never heard of that game, but it sounds like fun fun fun! Can I go first?”

“I think I should go first, since I suggested it. Next time we play, you can go next.” Pinkie seemed to deflate a bit, but I said “That just means I pick the place we’re going to. You get to lead the way for the first five minutes.” This made her perk up a bit, so I finished by saying “Alright Pinkie, our destination is the library. Ready… set… lead the way!”

“Whheeee!” Pinkie shouted, galloping off into town, a determined look on her face. Smirking to myself, I charged after her, hoping my plan would work in time.

~^~

As it turns out, my plan worked, though it took longer than I thought to reach the library. Unlike Pinkie, I had no idea where the heck I was going, so during the few turns I had I basically wandered aimlessly, Pinkie happily bouncing along. The trip wasn’t exciting, though it was informative of just how much of the town had been slandered by Diamond Tiara. More ponies were out and about now, and about one in three would give me a dirty look. My belief that Diamond Tiara was universally disliked seemed to be wrong however, as there were some ponies, both adults and kids, who would wave or smile at me. In the latter case, it was roughly one in twelve, though that’s more of a guess on my part. I have no idea how many ponies are in Ponyville, and some of them look really, really similar to each other. I could almost swear that one glared and smiled at me.

Now, your probably thinking the library looks as it does in the show right? That looking at it’s sight was a familiar thing right? Well, you’d be wrong, because it was actually a bit different from what they showed in the episodes.

For one thing, it was bigger, and it was obvious that there were at least a few more floors. At the top, I could see what looked like a small balcony, where a fancy looking telescope sat pointed at the sky. There was also a sign that said “Ponyville Public Library”, with a smaller lettering underneath that said “built YE 641”. I had no idea what that meant exactly, though I was certain I’d learn at some point.

Pinkie stopped in front of the door and turned to give me a wide smile as she said “Well, here we are. Ponyville’s Public Library. Which means I won the game!!” She clapped her hooves excitedly at this, and I returned the smile with one of my own.

“Eyup, you won alright. And here I thought it was going to be me who got us here…”

“Oh don’t feel bad, I’m sure with one more turn you would have been the one to get us here. I was really worried that with all those wrong turns you were making you’d be the one to get us here first.” She replied, giving me a curious look as she seemed to think about that. I didn’t give her much of a chance to think about it, as I stepped toward the door and said,

“I guess I’ll have to rethink my strategy then for next time we play Pinkie Pie. I really did enjoy playing, but I’ve got some things to do before I…*sigh* go start my punishment, so if you’ll excuse me-” I had my hoof on the door, ready to push it, but a sudden gasp and brief blast of air behind me caused me to turn and see Pinkie’s face only inches away from mine. I yelped, backing into the door as her eyes bored into mine.

“Ya know, I just realized that there’s something off here…” Pinkie said, her eyes looking up and down at me, causing me to sweat as I tried to figure out what the heck I could have done that would make her say that. Was I not rude or pretentious enough? Did I say something that Diamond Tiara wouldn’t say? Or was this because Pinkie’s Pinkie Senses had some way to detect when a human was in possession of a ponies body?

Suddenly, her eyes drifted back towards my head, and then they lit up as she pointed a hoof at my mane and said “That’s it! Your missing your tiara! I knew there was something different about you!”

I reached a hoof up and felt around my mane. Sure enough, the tiara that represented Diamond Tiara was missing. “Huh, it must have fallen-”

Just before I could complete that sentence, the world flashed white for a moment, and I could hear a strange sound. It sounded like Diamond Tiara…but I’d never heard her laughing like this. It sounded like she was… happy.

“Look Mommy! I won, I won!!”

I didn’t see anything, but I was able to clearly hear Diamond Tiara’s voice. The tone of her voice was so different from what I’d heard when watching the show on TV. It almost sounded like a completely different pony.

“Oh that’s wonderful dear! I knew you had it within you. And would you look at that...”

Another voice joined the conversation, one that I had never heard before. But from what I had heard just moments ago, it wasn’t all that hard to figure out who it belonged too. Of course, any further thoughts about it were drowned out by the ecstatic squeal of Diamond Tiara as she shouted out

“My Cutie Mark! My Cutie Mark! I got my Cutie Mark!”

With those words, the brightness faded, and I could see the concerned face of Pinkie Pie looking down at me, and I don’t mean in the glancing down at someone who’s shorter than you sense, I mean in the sense that I was laying on the ground and she was looking down at me. “Hey, are you okay? Your eyes went all shrink winky and then you fell over like this.” She then did what I suspect was an exaggeration of how I fell down, but that wasn’t important as I stood bolt upright, only one thought in my mind.

“My tiara’s gone!! Oh where could it have gone?” I glanced all round me, worry and dread welling up inside me as I failed in spotting it anywhere nearby “I don’t remember bumping into anything, ohh Pinkie ya gotta help me find it!!”

Pinkie Pie smiled and saluted, replying, “Okie doki loki! We’ll find that tiara lickety split!”

I could feel my heart swell up at hearing that, and I turned to run off in search of it, my mouth moving without me realizing it as I said “Come on then, if we hurry we can find it before I-Wait, you’re going to help me?”

Yeah, my mind wasn’t entirely there at that moment, as I’m sure you’ve already figured out. Nevertheless, it seemed odd to me that Pinkie Pie would help me look for the most important thing in the world to me right now. I could understand playing the game, its Pinkie Pie after all, but helping Diamond Tiara?

“Why of course silly, why wouldn’t I help you?”

I frowned as I stated what should have been obvious to her, saying “I published a story calling you a party animal in the Free Foal Press, not to mention I’m normally a jerk-pony whose mean to everyone?”

Pinkie got a blank look on her face for a moment, then she started snorting and giggling, which while it was nice to hear her laugh, what she was possibly laughing at was lost on me. She managed to get it under control after a few seconds as she said “Oh, that newspaper things all water under the bridge, though I don’t know what else you could have under a bridge instead of water. Maybe strawberry pudding…” She stopped to shake her head for a moment, trying to regain her focus I imagine before she continued, “And besides, I am a party animal!” She threw confetti into the air, and despite their clearly not being one present, I could hear a party horn go off as she did so.

“Well…that makes sense…but what about-” I tried to ask, but she stopped me by saying,

“You mean being a meanie-pants? Actually, you’ve never been a meanie-pants to me before, except the newspaper thing, and I’ve already forgiven you for that. Besides, I know how much that Tiara means to you, and I can’t stand to see anypony and I mean anypony being upset. So I’m gonna help turn that frown upside down and make those sad eye’s get all sparkly when we find your tiara!”

I tried to file those pieces of information away in my mind, but all I could think about was finding my tiara. It consumed my mind, overwhelming any other desires or thoughts I had. Forgotten was my plan to search the libraries magic section to see if I could find anything that could point to a way home. All that mattered was getting that tiara back.

“Then let’s find it before something happens to it!” With that said, Pinkie and I ran back the way we came, with only one goal on our mind.

~^~
It had been an hour since we started looking for it, and with no luck thus far. Each minute that passed with no sight of my tiara left me feeling worse and worse. Tears had already started forming in my eyes, and for some reason I couldn’t figure out why it was so important for me to find it. No matter how hard I tried to think about it, the reason eluded me.

“Oh its hopeless, we’ve searched everywhere!” I said, sitting down on the ground, letting the tears flow freely down my face.

Pinkie came over and sat down next to me, a sad and disappointed expression evident on her face. “Don’t give up Diamond Tiara, we’ll find it. We haven’t searched all of Ponyville yet…”

“But where else could it be Pinkie? We’ve checked all the places we walked by, we’ve asked everyone we’ve passed, and no one’s seen it!” The fact that some of them possibly wouldn’t bother looking for it or even tell me they’d seen it had occurred to me, but I wasn’t going to tell Pinkie that.

“I’m sure we’ll find it soon, it’s got to be somewhere around here. I mean, it’s not like it could have just vanished or something… or could it…?”

Despite how bad I was feeling, I had to roll my eyes at that. The idea of it simply vanishing into thin air was utterly ridiculous and not worth commenting on. I laid my head down on the ground, covering my face with my hooves as a few more tears fell onto the ground.

Why is this affecting me so? I shouldn’t give a damn if I have the tiara with me or not, yet I can’t stop thinking about it! What’s happening to me?

“Um…excuse me…uh…”

I heard someone talking, and it sounded like they were talking to me. I tried to place the voice, but it wasn’t one I recognized from the show, which actually meant it could be just about anyone. At that moment though, I just wanted my tiara back, and unless whoever it was happened to have it or know where it was, I didn’t give a damn.

“Sorry whoever you are, but unless you’ve found a small diamond studded tiara, just leave me alone.”

“Um…well…is this what you lost?”

I felt something being softly set upon my head, and without even looking I knew that it was my tiara. It felt as if I was whole again, and I lifted my head up to see who it was who had found that lost piece of me. Looking up, I saw a grey coated pegasus with light blonde hair. One of her eyes was looking down at me in a mixture of concern and curiosity, while the other looked up and away.

I couldn’t believe it. Ditzy Derpy Hooves was standing in front of me, and more importantly, she had found my tiara. A broad smile filled my face as I began hopping around Ditzy and Pinkie, shouting “My tiara! My tiara! You found it you found it!” Ditzy seemed a bit surprised by my exuberant reaction, though Pinkie wasn’t.

“Wow, where’d ya find that Ditzy? We’ve been looking everywhere for that thing.”

Ditzy rubbed a hoof along the back of her neck as she replied, “Well, I was doing my deliveries, and I ended up crashing again… I crashed into a tree, and right in front of me happened to be a bird’s nest with a small tiara sitting in it. I recognized it as being Diamond Tiara’s, so I picked it up and brought it with me.”

Well, that would certainly explain why me and Pinkie Pie hadn’t found it. Knowing that it was back however filled me with such an intense joy that without thinking about it I launched myself at Ditzy, wrapping my hooves around her neck as I gave her a great big hug, much to her and Pinkie’s surprise.

“Thank you thank you thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me!”

Ditzy returned the hug after a moment and gave me an awkward smile, though maybe it was awkward only because one of her eyes wasn’t looking at me. “Hey, it was no problem kid.” We both let go, and I sat on the ground next to her, the smile still on my face. Ditzy seemed like she had something more to say, as a focused look came to her face. After a second, her eyes lit up as if she remembered something, and she turned her gaze to Pinkie as she said “Oh, hey Pinkie, I think Fluttershy was looking for you earlier, I can’t remember what she wanted though.”

Pinkie gasped and jumped into the air at this. “Ohmygosh, I totally forgot! I have to help Fluttershy plan Angel Bunny’s birthday party today. See ya two later!” And with that, Pinkie zipped off and away, leaving me and Ditzy by ourselves. Glancing back up at Ditzy, I said,

“I really appreciate you bringing this to me…I was really worried I wasn’t going to find it ever again.”

Ditzy gave me another smile, this one seeming much less awkward as she tried to focus both eyes on me. “As I said, it was no problem, that bird didn’t need a tiara anyways.” She looked away from me, glancing at a clock-tower nearby. I glanced at a too, and with a gulp realized that I only had half an hour to get to Sweet Apple Acre’s.

“Well Miss Tiara, I got to get back to delivering the mail. You make sure to keep a better eye on that tiara of yours, wouldn’t want to go losing it again would ya.”

“No, I wouldn’t.” I murmured, stroking the tiara softly. Ditzy nodded, and turned, ready to fly off, but I called out to her “Hey Ditzy! Can I ask for a quick favor?” Ditzy turned and gave me a curious look, but nodded. “Could you point out which way to Sweet Apple Acre’s?”

Ditzy nodded and pointed her hoof in the direction of what I hoped was Sweet Apple Acre’s. “Thanks a bunch!” I shouted out, turning and running off for the Apple family’s farm. Ditzy just shook her head, a smile on her face, and went back to work.

After about ten minutes of running, I slowed down once I started seeing row upon row of apple trees in the distance. I took a second to reach up and confirm to myself that the tiara was still sitting safely upon my head. As I brought my hoof back down to continue walking, I stopped, a thought coming to my mind. Turning my head back towards Ponyville, then glancing up at the tiara, I asked the only thing that came to my mind.

“Wait, what the heck just happened?”

~^~

What indeed has just happened, eheheheheh. Is this the first instance of Diamond Tiara’s personality asserting itself, or was this entire event merely orchestrated to waste his precious time. I’m sorry to say, but you’ll have to wait for the next chapter of A Jewel of a Problem to find out, muahahahahhah!

Would you quit that out already? Its getting really annoying.

Eeenope.