Whatever Happened to Diamond Tiara?

Cheerilee slept through her alarm and was late to school. Her sleep was plagued by nightmares and anything but restful. She stood at the lectern, yawning, still trying to shake off the grogginess of the potion. Her pink mane stuck out in strange directions, not having time to run a brush through it before she left.

"Well, students," she began gravely. "I’m afraid I have some bad news. If you haven't heard yet, Diamond Tiara has gone missing over the weekend."

The lack of a gasp from the class told her that they either already knew or they didn't care.

"Everypony is doing everything they can to help find her. If you have any clues or ideas about where she might have gone or you're worried and just want to talk, please tell me. Let’s all hope she turns up soon.”

Well, isn’t this a metaphor for my life, she thought. Smile and fill everypony’s head with false hope.

She scratched the back of her neck, trying to form a train of thought. "How about for our morning reading game we just do the fill-in-the-blank game from last week? You all seemed to like that one."

There was a general consensus of approving chatter from the class as Cheerilee picked up the word game book. "Okay, Pipsqueak, give me a noun; Remember, that's a pony, place or thing."

Pipsqueak thought momentarily "Umm… hole," he answered.

"Okay, Silver Spoon, name."

"Diamond Tiara," replied Silver.

"Let's do somepony in the room," offered Cheerilee nervously.

Silver Spoon, shrugged. "Miss Cheerilee, I guess."

"Alright,” she sighed, hesitantly scribbling down her own name. “Scootaloo, adverb. That's a descriptive word ending in l-y."

"Oh, guilty," blurted Scootaloo."

Cheerilee gritted her teeth. "Uh, not quite. An adverb could be something like happily or lovely.”

Scootaloo scratched her head in deep thought. “What about… sneakily? That works, right?”

“Yes, that works,” frowned Cheerilee. “Very good, Scootaloo. Uh, Applebloom, verb ending in i-n-g.”

“Lyin’,” answered Applebloom with a smile.

“Like lying on the bed?” she inquired hopefully.

“Nope. Like tellin’ lies.”

Cheerilee began to sweat. “Of- of course,” she smiled. And on the suggestions went.

“Broken.”

“Messy.”

“Playground.”

“Tree.”

“Behind.”

“Buried.”

“My goodness,” she abruptly declared. “You’re all so very smart. It’s clear everypony has a firm grasp on this and we're all just wasting time with silly games, so let's go ahead and dive right into the next section which is…” she looked at her book. “Advanced punctuation.”

The class groaned in disappointment and Twist raised her hoof.

"Yes, Twist."

"Are we going to have time to work on the exquisite corpse in class today?"

Cheerilee’s eyes bulged, as the only part of Twist’s question that registered in her brain was the word ‘corpse’, which had no conceivable appropriate context off the top of her head. “I’m- I’m sorry what was that?” she stammered.

"Will we have time for the exquisite corpse story today?" clarified Twist, adjusting her glasses.

"Oh," laughed Cheerilee. "I don't know. We'll just have to see." She flipped the chalkboard over to the other side and gasped in shock. There on the slate was a chalk doodle of a pony in the bottom of a hole with exed out eyes. An arrow pointed to the pony with the clear label 'Diamond Tiara.'

Cheerilee turned to the class angrily. "Who drew this?" she demanded.

The students looked back at her in dismay. Rarely had they ever seen her angry before.

"Well?" she prodded. "You think this is a joke?"

Pip raised his hoof cautiously.

"Pipsqueak?" she called.

"You drew it," he answered.

Cheerilee blinked in confusion and then looked back at the chalkboard which displayed the labeled anatomical drawing of a pony she'd made last week.

"Oh… Yes, of course I did, she laughed. She rubbed her eyes and paused to take a deep breath. Obviously I didn't get enough sleep last night, she thought. Or rather, I didn't get any good sleep.

Somehow Cheerilee made it through the whole school day and found herself at the playground, eagerly awaiting complete emancipation from the children.

“Miss Cheerilee?” called a gruff voice from beside her.

She turned with a start to see a dark burgundy stallion, an earth pony with a shock of white mane.

“Yes?” she replied warily.

“I'm Detective Stone Shield,” said the stallion, tapping a badge which hung from his neck.

Cheerilee’s heart began to race. It's fine, she told herself. It's a missing pony investigation, not a murder investigation. He has no reason to suspect you of doing anything wrong so let's just keep it that way. She cleared her suddenly constricted throat. “You’re the PI hired by the Rich’s, right?”

“Yes ma’am,” he nodded.

“Can it wait until after they’re gone?” She gestured to the playground.

“Of course." He lined up beside her to absently watch the students play. "So how long have you lived here in Ponyville?" he asked.

"Oh, all my life," she replied. She looked back at his flank to see that his cutie mark was a single playing card, an ace of spades, and then admired his powerful looking physique on the way back to his face. He was the type she'd be flirting with, had circumstances not been as they were.

"You like it?" he continued. "Is it a nice place? I've never been out here before. It seems nice."

"I like it, but I guess I don't have much to compare it to," she laughed weakly. Her eyes flicked over to the infamous hole. The spot where Diamond Tiara had died was just feet away from them, and the spot where she was buried wasn't much further.

She really needed to keep it together for this questioning. She'd started the day with her filter and social tact working at half capacity, and they'd only been deteriorating slowly ever since.

After Snails left, the two of them retreated to the schoolhouse. Cheerilee took a seat at her desk while Stone sat down across from her with a notepad at his hooves and a pencil in his mouth.

"I'm afraid I can't help you much with your investigation,” sighed Cheerilee, pulling her coffee close. “I never saw her that day."

"That's okay,” muttered Stone Shield. “I have the last time you saw Diamond Tiara as three days ago, is that correct?”

“That’s correct,” she breathed.

“Can you tell me if Diamond was acting strangely or upset about anything before she disappeared? Trauma? Drama?"

"Well, she was not happy about having to come in for tutoring. I know that. Other than that, no."

“She have any other good friends besides this Silver Spoon?” asked Stone before scribbling on the pad.

Cheerilee sipped her coffee. “I wouldn’t say she has any other friends, period.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Would you say she’s an outcast?”

“Eh, not really. She pushes them away. Many ponies just find it hard to get along with her. She could have more friends if she put her heart into it.”

“Does she have any enemies?”

“Well…” Cheerilee paused in deep thought. It was difficult to answer the question without thinking about the obvious implication. Did somepony hate Diamond Tiara enough to make her ‘disappear?’ It sounded silly. Who would levy such a vendetta against a foal? Adults would know better. Another foal maybe? She supposed something like that could happen, like some sort of prank gone wrong. “I wouldn’t say she has any classmates that would reciprocate the same level of antipathy she gives them, if that makes any sense.”

“That’s a good way to put it,” he nodded. “Doesn’t sound like you like her much though.”

“Just trying to be honest with you. I mean, it is what it is,” she shrugged nervously.

“I suppose so... Have you noticed any suspicious characters maybe hanging around the school of late?”

Cheerilee shook her head quickly. “No. Nothing like that.”

“I see.”

She swallowed more coffee and set the mug down roughly. "Um, can I ask you, what do you think the odds are that we'll find her?"

Stone looked down at the table and sighed. "Find her alive or find her at all?"

Cheerilee frowned. "Well, alive, I would hope."

"Unfortunately conventional wisdom says that the clock's about run out on that. In the first couple of days, if they live, they show up at a friend's, somepony finds them or they come home, especially fillies like her who are used to a certain lifestyle."

“I’m not seeing a compelling reason for her to run off and stay gone. If it was an abduction, that’s usually done by a family member and she has no other family here. She disappeared presumably walking alone between her house and the school. It looks to me like an abduction of opportunity possibly by a stranger. It's not for a ransom because the Rich's haven't been contacted with demands, and if it's not for a ransom, well… You know what it's for. They typically don't turn up alive afterwards."

Cheerilee grimaced at the thought. "My goodness. Maybe in Manehattan, but here?"

He put his pad and pencil away. "Could happen anywhere, Miss Cheerilee, but the bottom line is, if she doesn't show before tonight, I wouldn't be surprised if the sheriff's department doesn't break out the cadaver dogs tomorrow morning."

Cadaver dogs, she thought. Like dogs that could find dead bodies? She should move the body significantly away from the school… But that sounded so dangerous. And where could she move it to?

“Well, you have enough to worry about,” sighed Stone, rising to his hooves. He passed her a business card over the desk. “If you see or think of anything else, I’m in town at the Bays Inn. Thank you for your time.”

Cheerilee thought about moving Diamond's body soon after the detective left but couldn't muster the courage. Even though the school was somewhat isolated from Ponyville and saw little activity outside of school hours, it just felt too risky in daylight. She waited for nightfall.

Luckily, there was enough moonlight that she didn't need a lantern to see. She wanted to forgo using a light because it was still too conspicuous for her comfort. Once more, she got out the shovel and in addition, a burlap sack from the shed.

Her heart began to pound as she scraped away the loose soil behind the tree and soon the body was revealed in the soft blue glow of the night.

Cheerilee recoiled in surprise when from out of nowhere she heard the voice of Diamond Tiara.

"Well, well, well. Didn't do such a great job of hiding me, did you?"

She shook her head, trying to dispel the hallucination. Suddenly the smell of the lightly decayed body hit her and she began to retch, turning away.

"Well, what did you expect?" complained Diamond.

Cheerilee ignored the voice and held her breath, quickly scooting the corpse into the bag. She clenched her teeth shut around the top, drawing it closed and then lifting it up. She began to trot through the woods as fast as the trees and her sight would allow her.

“What brilliant place are you going to stick me now?” scoffed Diamond. “The town square?”

Cheerilee remained silent except for her panting. The stench penetrated the course mesh of the burlap and continued to assault her nostrils all the while. She willed her stomach into compliance.

“You’re going to be in so much trouble when my daddy finds out what you did.”

“You’re not talking,” Cheerilee kept whispering. “You’re not talking. You’re not talking. You’re not talking. I’m just tired and it’s my overactive imagination. You’re not talking.” She continued through the woods for several minutes, unwilling to engage with the voice she knew wasn’t real.

Finally she came to the edge of the little ravine. Below was the river which flowed into the Everfree Forest.

Cheerilee took a step back, winding up to sling the sack into the water, then suddenly stopped. No, not with the bag, she thought. It’s evidence, and if she gets found in a bag it basically indicates foul play. That means more investigation. She dropped the sack on the ground and quickly yanked it off of the corpse.

“You can’t get rid of me,” chided Diamond in a singsong voice. “I’m part of you now forever.”

Cheerilee nudged Diamond’s body toward the edge of the bank with her hoof, shoving it roughly at the last inch. There came a loud splash as the remains of Diamond Tiara plunged into the dark river.

Cheerilee looked down to see a black lump drifting away lazily in the current. Contrary to her hope, she felt little relief after ridding the school of Diamond’s body. Instead she collapsed on the ground and began to heave, sobbing in despair, overwhelmed by everything. Diamond’s face. The smell. The deception and the guilt. The absolute horror and disgust at her own actions. The seeming evaporation of her own sanity and every good quality she thought she possessed.

Cheerilee burned the burlap sack in the fire pit behind the schoolhouse. When she got home, she dug her expired medication out of the trash.