Diamond Snow

by ImperfectXIII

Chapter 1: Discovery in the Snow

Sigh. Merry Christmas to me, I guess. Well, technically, it’ll be Christmas in an hour or so, but whatever.

It’s been two months now. Two months since I left home and moved into my own place upstate. Always felt that was a big accomplishment. Promised myself I’d move out as soon as I graduated high school, and I still can’t believe I actually did it. Chalk one up in the win column for Richie.

Not a bad place either, I had to say. One story, two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen and dining area, working electricity and plumbing – all I’d ever need, really. Plus, it was within my projected budget for rent. Landlady’s a real nice gal; was pretty flexible on the price, given my hourly wages. I was living the life, right?

…So then, why do I feel like complete crap?

Maybe it’s ‘cause I have no one to spend the holidays with? My friends and coworkers are all doing it up with their friends and family that live close by. I’d been extended invitations so I didn’t have to spend the holidays alone, but I didn’t want to feel like the odd one out. Meanwhile, the roads are completely frozen over, preventing me from visiting my own loved ones out of town. It’s just as well. I’d had enough of my folks blubbering over my leaving home so soon after graduation (my fourteen-year-old sister was hit especially hard by my decision). I was in no mood to be guilted into moving back home ‘for family’s sake’ after only two months.

Although I guess I did owe Paige the courtesy of a phone call.

But I think I know what the real reason was. I look over to my bedroom window and see that it’s snowing lightly outside. I grimace. I’ve never really liked the snow. Snow meant that it’s cold as hell. Snow meant shoveling. Lots of shoveling. And now, snow just served as a reminder that I wasn’t in school anymore and I couldn’t count on it being a snow day. I might’ve liked it when I was little, but that was a long time ago.

I push the bad weather out of my head and turn back to the computer screen in front of me.

And so here I am, stuck with nothing to do but drink Coors Light and watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on my desktop. And the world keeps on spinning.

I gotta say, I didn’t think much of the show at first – kinda played it off as a fad that, with time, would eventually fade away and be forgotten. No such luck there apparently, as my junior and senior years of high school were overtaken by ‘pony fever’. Didn’t take long at all for my own little social circles to be, for lack of a better word, ‘infected’ (but totally not in a bad way). After much provocation, a friend of mine convinced me to watch an episode, and I was immediately hooked.

This show never fails to lift my spirits, even when I’m at my lowest. And it’s so pleasing to look at too; big ups to the animation department. On top of that, it succeeds at doing what other shows of my generation fail at: making me genuinely laugh. Which I found myself in need of with it snowing outside.

‘‘Whining’? I am not whining; I am complaining! Do you want to hear whining? THIIIIIS IS WHIIIIINIIIIING!’

True story: the first time I watched that scene, I fell out of my chair, I was laughing so hard.

That particular episode, however, was not the one currently playing on my monitor. No, the episode I was watching starred…a certain character.

‘Alright, listen up! The Foal Free Press is a joke! Nopony at this school takes it seriously. Well, I, the editor-in-chief in charge, am going to deliver us to newfound glory!’

A character that made me roll my eyes every time she spoke.

‘There’s a new regime now, and I want juicy stories! The juicier, the better!’

A character that reminded me of the worst that high school had to offer.

‘I don’t know what you call this, but it sure isn’t news!’

A character that was so one-dimensional, it was laughable.

And that character’s name…was Diamond Tiara.

Since her debut in episode 12, this filly has just rubbed me the wrong way whenever she appeared onscreen. Yes, she’s a bully, but I don’t hate her because of that. I hate her because she’s just badly written. In my experience, even the most unlikeable of TV characters have some redeeming qualities. Hell, I hate Gilda even more, but there was a reason she used to be Rainbow Dash’s friend, right? But where Gilda and others seemed even the tiniest bit likeable, Diamond Tiara just isn’t. Plus, where other villains in this show all had something or another going for them, like Nightmare Moon being totally badass or Discord being the kind of villain I’d want to have a drink with, Diamond Tiara’s just…plain.

Well, dammit. There I go rambling again. How does this show do that to me? I lean back further in my chair, tousling my thick chestnut hair with one hand and downing another swig of beer with the other.

‘Feelings?! I don’t care about feelings!’

…Okay, writers, we get it. You can dial it back a little now.

---

“…So they’re all sitting around at Sugarcube Corner, yeah? Talking smack about ‘Gabby Gums’ and trying to figure out who she is, right? And Applejack’s all ‘rawr!’, and Fluttershy’s all ‘awww’, and Rarity’s all ‘I’LL DESTROY HER!’”

Christmas Day. I stand two or three feet away from Jesse, my best friend and probably the biggest ‘bro’ in the western hemisphere, at our place of work: a small retail store a few blocks away from where I live. I go on and on about the episode I live-streamed the night before as we relish the let-up in the customer line that would no doubt be short-lived.

Jesse, the bro of bros that he was, just plays off my unbridled enthusiasm with a chuckle. “Okay, rein it in there, ‘pony-brain’,” he says to me, “I can do without the play-by-play.”

“Love and tolerate, baby. Love and tolerate.”

He walks over and wraps a friendly arm around my shoulder, pulling me close. “You’re lucky you’re so good-looking. Otherwise, I’d question where this relationship was heading,” he jokes.

As I flutter my eyelids for effect, I joke back, “Oh, honey, you know you’re the only one for me.”

“Don’t I know it.”

We both go silent then, just gazing into each other’s eyes and smiling. Suddenly, his face starts to move toward mine, and I instinctively react in kind. Our eyes close ever slightly…our parted lips about to meet…

“…GOD-DAMMIT!”

I pull away at the last possible second, and he shouts in triumph, thrusting his forearms up and cackling like a madman. “Yes! I am the king of Gay Chicken! Bow down before me, peons!”

“Celestia help me!”

I’ve known Jesse since middle school, and we did practically everything together since the day we met. Card games, movies, bar hopping, freshman hazes, you name it. My Little Pony was one of the few things we had different opinions on; he’s not into it, but he accepts the fact that I am. That’s more than I can say for certain friends I lost touch with after graduating. Truth be told, I was really grateful he stuck around me as long as he has. Like I said, bro of bros.

As the immature giggling finally dies down, Jesse wipes away his laughter-induced tears and boasts, “You may have your ponies, but I am ‘jokester supreme’.”

I give him a playful punch to the shoulder. “Sure, whatever, ‘your Majesty’.”

“You two are such children,” says a third voice behind me.

I look over my shoulder toward the vision of absolute loveliness standing on the other side of the counter. We’ve known each other for three years, but she never fails in making my heart skip a beat every time I see her.

“Hey, Summer,” Jesse greets first. “What’s up?”

Summer brings a hand up to brush a lock of her blond hair out of her face and tucks it securely behind her ear, granting me full view of her stunning blue eyes, a smirk adorning her features all the while. “What’s always up,” she answers him with just the slightest frustration. “I could hear you guys from clear across the store.”

“Aw, have we distressed Milady and spoiled her much-desired silence?”

“Stuff it, ‘Chuckles’.”

Jesse lets out another laugh while Summer rolls her eyes. Jesse and I may have known each other our whole lives, but Summer didn’t come along until sophomore year. We had her pegged from the start: the kind of girl who played Pokémon for the cute animals rather than the adventure and battles. It wasn’t until she beat the two of us at Yu-Gi-Oh that we became the tight-knit group we are today. She turned out to be extremely fun to hang out with; we could talk to her freely about the things Jesse and I were into, while she offered an ‘insider’s look at the female psyche’, as Jesse had put it. Not quite a ‘girly girl’, but not a complete tomboy either; there was a nice middle ground there. It didn’t hurt that she was also really, really pretty. I get knots in my stomach and a lump in my throat whenever I even consider asking her out. She and Jesse tried it once, but I guess it ended badly – something about bad shrimp at the Olive Garden; I could never wring the specifics out of the two of them – which makes me think if Jesse, who’s gone on ten times as many dates as I have, couldn’t make it work with Summer, what chance did I have?

“So you guys got any big holiday plans?” Summer asks, bringing me out of my mental self-depreciation.

“If it’s anything like last year,” Jesse snorts, “it’ll likely end with Pops and my uncle knocked out from fighting over the TV remote, and my brothers and I passed out from pigging out on my aunt’s awesome turkey and eggnog.”

It was Summer’s turn to laugh. God, even her laugh was perfect. Like Pinkie Pie’s, but not as nasally, or Rarity’s, but not as uppity. “I’d pay money to see that,” she remarks. “What about you, Richie?”

“Me?” The look of surprise on my face then was like I were a commoner being addressed by someone of royalty. I shrug. “Nothing really. I was gonna drive down and visit my folks, but the highways are closed off ‘cause of the ice. So I’ll just be chilling at home.”

“Well, you’re more than welcome to join me and my family tonight. You live by yourself, right? No one should have to spend Christmas by themselves.”

My God, what a saint Summer is! I’m not worthy to even breathe the same air as her! Almost every part of me wanted to cry out ‘Yea verily, fair Summer! I shall take thee up on thy most gracious invitation and make myself presentable for thy kin’s Christmas gathering!’

But those parts of me eventually lost out to the part of me that was in control of my voice. “Nah, it’s cool. I’ll be alright.”

“You sure? My mom’s making apple cobbler~” she says in an enticing sing-song.

“Heh. Tempting, but I’ll take a rain check. Thanks for the invite though.”

Summer seemed to want to voice her thoughts for a second, but eventually relents. I guess she respected that I valued my privacy. With a disappointed yet understanding smile, she says, “Well, I won’t force you. But let me know if you change your mind, okay? I’ll call my mom and have her set a place at the dinner table for you.”

So considerate, this angel was. I give her my warmest smile. “Sure, thanks.”

With that, she leaves the two of us by saying, “And could you guys maybe keep it down before the manager fires your asses?”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” I tell her with a chuckle as I watch her sashay away. I was almost in a trance before Jesse’s palm to the back of my head brings me out of it. “Hey!”

“You are either the most masochistic person I know,” he starts, evidently annoyed, “or the stupidest! Why do you do this to yourself, man?!”

“Do what?”

“This! Turning down Christmas dinner with the girl of your dreams! I keep telling you, dude, Summer’s totally into you! How is it that I see it and you don’t?!”

“…Okay, first off, if Summer was into me, she would’ve said something by now—”

“She’s probably waiting for you to make the first move.”

“—and second, it’s just dinner with her folks. I could have dinner with your folks, and the only different outcome is that I’d wind up with a hangover.”

Jesse hangs his head and heaves an exasperated sigh. He’d been trying to get me to ask Summer out for months, and I let him down at every turn. It’s not that I don’t appreciate his efforts; I just don’t think it’d work out between us. “…Alright. Let me make it easy for you, Richie. Either you tell Summer you’d love to spend Christmas with her family, or I tell her you’re a brony.”

“…You wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t I?” I knew that look in Jesse’s eyes. I’d only seen it once or twice before. He was dead serious.

“Jesse, come on—”

“I know, I know, I’ve heard it all before. You don’t have to ask her out. Christmas dinner – that’s all I’m asking.”

I didn’t let it show, but I was honestly touched by the lengths Jesse was willing to go to for me to be happy. “…Just dinner?”

“Just dinner,” he affirms.

Glancing to my right, I see that Summer is almost completely out of my line of sight. I’m gonna hate myself for doing this, but it’s better than the alternative. With a self-assuring deep breath, I walk around the counter and make after Summer in a sort-of power walk. I could just barely hear Jesse saying something to himself; I’m almost certain it was comical and at my expense.

Summer had just barely reached her department when I’d caught up to her. “Summer!”

She stops in her tracks and spins around to meet my gaze. She seemed almost shocked. “Richie? What’s up?”

“About your invite just now… Any chance it’s still good?”

Her face brightens up a little. Not a date…but it’s a start.

---

Note to self: treat Jesse to dinner at a five-star restaurant of his choosing. This evening couldn’t have gone better than it did.

At first, I thought the sweet smell of my Christmas bonus would put me in enough of a good mood. Boy, was I dead wrong!

So, I show up at Summer’s house at around quarter to seven after getting myself dressed up, right? Well, not ‘dressed up’ in that I wore a suit, but you know, at least I didn’t have a raging bedhead or five o’clock shadow. First thing to happen when I get there is Summer’s dad pulls me into a big ol’ bear hug. Mom’s in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the ham. Gramps and granny are over by the piano singing Christmas carols. I thought I was on another planet at first, it was so surreal. The whole thing looked like it was lifted wholesale from a Disney movie.

I couldn’t help but wish my own family was like this. That’s not to say we weren’t close or happy, but we certainly didn’t go all out like this around the holidays.

Plus, I had to admit, that definitely was the best apple cobbler I’ve ever had.

But that wasn’t even the highlight of my night. The tides of merriment don’t start to recede until around nine or so, so it’s at about this time that I decide to take my leave before I overstayed my welcome (though I probably could’ve stayed until midnight and Summer’s folks would’ve been okay with it). Summer gives me some leftovers to take home with me (there was no way I would’ve left without a slice of that cobbler for later), and just as I’m heading out the front door…

…she sees me off with a kiss on the cheek.

‘Glad you could stop by, Richie! Merry Christmas!’

If I were a fainting man, I don’t think I’d have made it ten feet past the gate. It was the perfect end to the perfect evening.

At this point in the day, the sun has long since set and the streetlights supply the streets below with an appropriate brightness, illuminating my path home. With each step I take, the snow crunches beneath my feet. With my leftovers tucked under one arm, I cycle through my playlist with a free hand before deciding on a song that suited my high spirits. One of my favorite songs ever. Pretty soon, I was bobbing my head and stepping in time to the rhythm while soundlessly mouthing the lyrics.

Continuing at the pace I was going at, I’d be on my own doorstep in just under twenty minutes. But I sure wasn’t in any rush. Thanks to that kiss, I was on cloud nine.

As my playlist switches to a new song, I couldn’t help but think on Summer’s behavior all night and wonder if there was some truth to Jesse’s words. Was Summer’s invitation out of more than just kindness of the heart? Did she like me in that way and was reaching out to me in the hopes that I would take the initiative? Seemed almost impossible to imagine.

I’m brought out of my music-laden musings when I hear a particularly loud crack under my boot, like I’d just stepped on some glass or something. Glancing downward, I pick up my foot and catch sight of something shiny. Maybe it was glass. I kneel down and clear some of the snow away to reveal…

…What the?

I pick up the strange object to examine it further.

“…A tiara?”

Sure enough, I was now holding a (rather simplistic-looking) tiara in my hand. Stepping on it had caused one of the five jewels adorning it to pop loose. Who would leave a tiara in the middle of the—?

Hmm?

Looking down at where I’d found the tiara on the ground, I squint my eyes to find…footprints. Small circular footprints in the snow, leading into a nearby alleyway. Footprints that, considering the level of fresh snow collected within the depressions, were at least several hours old. Looking closer still, I find strands of some fabric, like cotton or silk, lining the row of prints and also leading into the alley.

‘Curiouser and curiouser’, or so the line goes.

I pick myself up to stand upright and pocket the broken tiara before cautiously stepping into the dim alley. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to find, but I always found it difficult to turn away from a mystery. My walking pace slows to a step taken every second-and-a-half, my eyes glued to the ground and the only sound being my feet making contact with the snow. Using the light of my phone’s screen for luminescence, I follow the increasingly shallower footprints (in fact, this far in, they start to look like they were left by tiny horseshoes) to the far end of the alley, where they stop in front of a damp cardboard box that’s been turned on its side behind a dumpster.

Was whatever left those footprints inside this box?

…Hold on.

Horseshoes?

And a cardboard box?

I read something like this once, a few months back. That one story with Rainbow Dash in it. Uh… Damn, I forgot what it was called.

No matter. I quickly rationalize in my head what I was experiencing was nothing that extraordinary. Setting the Tupperware down, I grasp the rim of the box with one hand and use the phone in the other to illuminate the inside. Before looking inside, I brace myself to defend myself against anything that might attack me.

Leaning forward and cocking my head to the side…I take a look…

…and my breath seizes in my lungs.

Oh, no way.

I blink.

A coat of pale magenta.

I blink again.

A lavender mane, with white streaks.

I blink a third time.

There’s…just no way.

…Diamond Tiara?

Comments

[ImperfectXIII]

Took a bit longer than I thought to establish Diamond Tiara's presence in the story. Also, might've channeled some cheesy movie I may not have even seen for certain scenes, but rest assured, the island of "romantic comedy" is now far behind and nothing but pony waters lie ahead.
And to answer the question you most likely have, yes, that IS a reference to Scrubs up there. You're welcome.

[MetaKnight145]

That is some bad luck. i.qkme.me/3pnsqd.jpg

[MagerBlutooth]

Judging from the first chapter, I'm predicting this story's going to be...cold. Also, I reached the end as the song got to the point of storing things in a jar.

The anti-parallel has been established. The main from MLD has a partiality towards Rainbow Dash while Richie has anything but towards Diamond. It's so simple and yet it almost feels mandatory. Not to mention that the focus is on humor in place of drama, so the anti-parallelism is further implemented. Also, while the removal of the isolation factor takes away from the emotional aspect that MLD possessed, the fact that Richie is the only known brony in the story so far offers something of a remnant of it that provides a much better setup for comedic purposes. I'd call it a fair beginning. I shall push forward on this frigid journey tomorrow!