You pace around for a minute or two. You aren’t really sure what to do next. There’s still time to do… something, you’re just not sure what it would be. You could go ahead and meet up with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. But that probably involves waiting, and you’re a little antsy.
If you can’t think of anything, you won’t really have much choice.
You’re not really comfortable with carrying around a weapon. But hey! Who says a knife has to be a weapon?! It’s a great survival tool! You can cut stuff with it and-… Well, you don’t really have much in the way of survival skills. You doubt Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon do either. Maybe you could find somepony who does?
By cutting an empty paper tower roll and using some a bunch of tape to reshape it, you craft a Portable Knife Holder! You combine that with a Kitchen Knife to make a Safe-For-Travel Knife and put that in your bag! You might not have any survival skills, but you’re as crafty as a slice of cheese!
… That… That probably would have been funnier if Kraft cheese existed in your world.
Unfortunately you already used your +1 foresight to make the Stealth Slippers. With no more points to use at the moment, you’d need significant direction to make anything else.
You’d make more Stealth Slippers, but there aren’t enough belts in the house. You know because you checked.
It couldn’t hurt to offer. But Diamond Tiara is pretty interested in that whip, even if she doesn’t want to show it. You’d need to get her attention away from it first.
…
You inhale deeply and yell your aimless, senseless question in an accent you have little understanding of. Diamond Tiara’s ears curl down and she winces. Evidently you can yell really loud!
“What is wrong with you, you spazz?” Diamond Tiara forces out in a slow, pained tone. You apologize and present your idea: to take her and Silver Spoon on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to another world!
“You really think there’s a portal to another dimension in Princess Twilight’s castle?” You nod and Diamond Tiara pauses for a moment to think. A sly smile makes its way across her face, “Counter proposal: Silver Spoon and I help you on your silly little "quest”, and if there isn’t a portal, we get the whip and you have to be our servant in school for a week.“
That’s rough. You agree before the full weight of what you’re agreeing to settles in. That would be one loooong week.
"Good.” She tosses the whip onto Aunt Bon-Bon’s bed, “I’ll go pull some strings. Meet me by the road to the palace in an hour.” She leaves without another word.
Well, things seem to be coming together. Anything you could do in an hour?
You lead Diamond Tiara to Aunt Bon-Bon’s room (because it’s not Lyra’s room). Immediately Diamond Tiara finds the whip laying on the floor. You couldn’t decide if you should take it or not and never put it back.
Diamond Tiara walks over and nudges the whip, “Nightmare Night was how long ago?”
You explain that it’s not a costume prop. That it’s a real leather whip.
She scoffs and picks up the whip, “Yeah, right. That’s not even possible. If this was real it would have to be ancient. They haven’t made…” She stops and looks at the whip closer, sliding her hoof across the whip’s braids. “What… is this made of? I’ve never seen this material before. This can’t really be…” She catches herself before she sounds too interested, “It’s still dumb, even if it is real. But I suppose I could gift it to Silver Spoon as a novelty.”
There is no way Aunt Bon-Bon would allow Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon to have her whip. The moment she returns she’ll make them give it back. And when she does… Tartarus will look comfortable compared to what they’ll drag you through.
But… It would get them to leave you alone, for now at least. What choice do you have? It’s not like you could just invite them to go to another dimension with you for Silver Spoon’s birthday present.
What do you do?
This is a bad idea.
You lead Diamond Tiara up to your room and start to show her some things she could give Silver Spoon. She refuses each one with bored, single-word answers like: “No. Lame. Boring.” You hear a page turning behind you and turn around to find her reading your diary!
She glances at you from around the book, “Truffle? Really? Not that I’m surprised, but I think you could do better.”
This was a horrible idea.
That’s sort-of what this is about. Lyra and Bon-Bon disappeared and you’re trying to find them. Things have… gotten off track a bit…
You resist the urge to deliver a haymaker to Diamond Tiara’s face, for now.
You feel your face turn flush. You… didn’t realize it was a bear’s…
You have to figure this is a present she would be giving publicly, with adults around. You’re not sure if either of them would be interested in the movie, but Diamond Tiara would know better than to accept that.
Diamond Tiara is staring at you. You haven’t answered her yet.
You attempt to be a smart-rump, but as soon as you start to turn your head, Diamond Tiara whips you back around. A little painfully at that.
“She’s not going to tell anypony without my O.K. But that doesn’t mean I won’t. Another slip up like that and I’ll be spreading around more than just your delinquent desires.”
You swallow hard with a “gulp”.
Technically speaking, your parents are rich too. Maybe more so than Diamond Tiara’s; you don’t know. They just didn’t raise you to be a brat. Though she does seem to have an allowance, which you lack.
You comment on how glad you are to be spending some time with Diamond Tiara. Her face twists into clear disgust, but she doesn’t reply.
Strangely enough, you both arrive at Aunt Bon-Bon’s house. Continuing with this act you open the door and allow her entry. While she looks around you unleash Simple and he runs off.
“This place is filthy,” Diamond Tiara scowls. “Don’t you have a maid or anything?”
You tell her that Aunt Bon-Bon and Lyra can’t afford something like that, and she just shakes her head.
“Whatever. Look, you don’t want to get in trouble. So let’s make a deal.” Diamond Tiara turns away and her hateful, controlling demeanor seems to relax. For the moment, she almost looks like a normal kid.
“As you know, Silver Spoon’s birthday is tomorrow. I was going to get her something great, but I already spent my allowance, my back-up allowance, and my emergency allowance. Daddy says he won’t give me anymore money until this Saturday!”
She turns around, clearly upset. “Can you believe that?! I thought he was going to pay for it! Why should I have to pay for her present with my money anyway?! It’s so unfair!”
The outburst passes and she sits on her haunches and looks down. “Now I don’t have anything to give her at her party… I can not just not give her anything. You’ll help me, right?”
Unfortunately not an option, as that’s implied. The pair have set up a kind of mandatory silence when it comes to their actions. Anypony that dares break the chain will have their secrets and embarrassing moments revealed one after another until they cave. Then they’re forced to share secrets to them about others, furthering their control. It’s incredibly cruel, but not something any one pony can fight against. Maybe one day everypony can stand against them both at once and end the cycle, but that’s obviously not today.
Diamond Tiara approaches you and lifts up your head, “Poor, poor Liza. You must think us awful for bringing you to such a lowly state.”
Silver Spoon snickers, “Yeah.”
You’re surprised to find Diamond Tiara’s hoof extend to help you up, “You should come with me. Just the two of us. We’ll hang out. Play some games. I’ll show you I’m not such a bad pony.”
“Yeah…! Wait, what?!” Silver Spoon’s face is awash with confusion. Admittedly, yours probably is as well.
Diamond Tiara puts her foreleg around your neck and turns to Silver Spoon, “We’ve hung out together since school. I don’t have to foalsit you all day, do I?”
Silver Spoon is completely speechless. If not for the terrible feeling that this is somehow going to get much worse for you, you’d almost be enjoying yourself.
Diamond Tiara rolls her eyes, “Oh stop. It’s not like I won’t see you tomorrow at your birthday party. I just need to spend a little time with Little Liza here. You understand, of course.” She turns around, taking you with her, and you both walk away without so much as a goodbye. But under her breath, you hear Diamond Tiara whisper to you, “That’s right. Keep walking. Don’t look back and don’t say a word.”
There’s that sense of dread again.
Even knowing they won’t take it, you offer them free candy. They don’t surprise you.
Diamond Tiara scoffs, “Candy? You think you can buy our silence with candy?”
“If that’s the best you’ve got, I think revenge would taste a lot sweeter…” Silver Spoon seems to be relishing this opportunity.
At least this proves they aren’t above forms of bribery. In fact, that’s probably what they were after all along. But they’re rich. You’d have to offer something with a different kind of value. Something you can’t just buy or find.
You unceremoniously (another big word) turn around and start to walk away. But you don’t get far before you hear them both behind you.
“Uh, hellooo?!” Diamond Tiara calls after you. “Aren’t we forgetting something?”
“Yeah!” Silver Spoon joins in. “Did you suddenly think we weren’t going to tell?”
Oops. You forgot why you even stomached talking to them for that long. You still need to convince them to not tattle on you.
You’ve never met anypony by that name, at school or otherwise. You’re also eight and have never seen The Brady Bunch. Why even ask this right now?
You decide to just tell the truth, or at least some of it. The pair seem less interested in this than before. Less because they don’t believe you, and more because they don’t care.
Diamond Tiara rolls her eyes when you finish, “If some smudged-up, old mirror is so important to you, why don’t you just knock?”
“Yeah, they’re giving tours of the castle today,” Silver Spoon adds. “Of course, we were on the first tour.”
“And would you look at the time? They might have finished for the day.”
“Wouldn’t that be a shame if Little Liza had to wait until next Tuesday?”
They both grin at each other. They’re right though! Princess Twilight was supposed to start giving tours of the castle every Tuesday! But with it being this late, they’re probably done for the day. You can’t wait a week! If they’ve been on a tour of the castle, they could probably help you navigate. This would make their help even more valuable if you sneak in. That is, if you can figure out how to convince them.
On the other hoof, you could just try knocking. Or maybe somepony on good terms with Princess Twilight could help you get in. Do you even know anypony like that?
You begin to explain the potential value in place as a criminal, using your own family’s heritage as an example. You discuss the Bohun family’s ancestry as successful pirates and how they practically built half of Canterlot! You’re interrupted pretty early on.
“Oh my gosh,” Silver Spoon turns to Diamond Tiara. “She’s really serious.”
Diamond Tiara shakes her head, “Wow, Liza. You really are a psychopath.”
The two are clearly unimpressed. In fact, they almost look worried. Not what you were going for. Maybe a different approach would work better?
You pick a direction at random and run with Simple like there’s an axe-swinging killer chasing you! Not the most level-headed thing to do, but if anypony planned to catch you, they’d have to catch you first!
Perhaps being led subconsciously, you finally slow around the schoolhouse. It’s after hours and there’s nopony here. Or at least, so you thought. Two unfortunately familiar voices spring up around you.
“Did you hear that?”
“Did I ever!”
“Breaking into a princess’s castle?”
“Haven’t you heard, Di? It’s always the quiet ones.”
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon step out from behind bushes on either side of you. They begin to encircle.
“I must say,” Diamond Tiara starts, “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Me neither,” Silver Spoon snidely adds on.
Diamond Tiara lifts a hoof to her mouth, as though she’s thinking, “Why, breaking into a castle? That’s just so utterly-”
“Criminal?” A sly smile creeps across Silver Spoon’s face.
Stifling a chuckle, Diamond Tiara continues, “Now now, we wouldn’t want Little Liza to lose her cool again. I mean, with nopony around, she might get hurt this time.”
“Oh but Di, we can’t just keep this to ourselves. This is treason!”
“You are so right! It’s our civic duty to inform Princess Twilight of a possible attempt… on her very life!”
“Poor Little Liza.” Silver Spoon turns to Diamond Tiara, “How long do you think she’ll get?”
“Why, they’ll probably lock her up and throw away the key.”
“I meant the guard, Di. Not her parents!”
They both laugh hard and you feel tears coming on. You punched Silver Spoon once and ever since they’ve been calling you a criminal. Everypony knows how much trouble you got in for that too. They know, and rightly so, that you’d never do that again. No threat or insult would hold any weight here. If they tell on you, your plans are completely shot. You’re totally at their mercy. And they have little of that to give.
On the other hoof, when you first changed your name to Liza, they were the first to start using it. They’ve never excluded you from anything they didn’t exclude everypony else from. And of all the kids in Ponyville, they are by far the most resourceful. And if you’re going to break into a castle, you’ll definitely need some help.
What do you do? What do you say?
You have to figure this is probably an inside joke or reference that Lyra would get. You aren’t even sure what it stands for. Chocolate Quilted Coconut? Can’t Quit Chasing? … You can’t think of anything else that starts with a Q. Wordsmith you are not.
In your excitement you ask the gray mare how to sneak inside the palace, without realizing what a horrible idea that was until it’s too late. She immediately stops petting Simple, stares at you while taking a few steps back, and flies off. But not before cycling back around to deliver a letter to that mailbox you were blocking. Neither rain nor sleet, nor mischievous fillies evidently.
There is now a clear crowd of ponies watching you and whispering to each other. You should go. Somewhere. Anywhere. Now!