My Little Pony: Ignorance is Bliss

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony Friendship is Magic

We circle around the alicorn drenched with mud. " How long as she been dead for?" Thunder Wing asks. I take my thermometer out of my saddle bag and force open her mouth. I slide the thermometer under her hanging tongue. Her body is still somewhat warm despite her fur being cold and wet.

" A little under an hour. We're going to have to take her to a medical examiner to get an autopsy so they can inspect her body and find the cause of her death." I say.

I hear a soft gagging noise. Twilight Sparkle presses her hooves against her chest and water squirts out of her mouth.

" Eek! A zombie! Kill it, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie shrieks. Derpy Hooves kicks her in the face. She lets out a moan and five long deep gasps.

" How did thou find me here?" She asks in a thunderous tone.

" Princess Luna? What are you doing here? You scared the oats out of me." Pinkie Pie says.

" Nightmare Moon! She's going to make us suffer eternal night." Honey Flower screams as she gallops behind a tree.

" No she's not. She changed her ways quite some time ago." Twilight says. Honey Flower peeks her head past the tree cautiously.

" It's a relief that you're alive." Thunder Wing says.

" I'm sorry I kicked you, Princess." Derpy Hooves says.

" Tis alright, citizen of Ponyville!" Princess Luna says.

" What are you doing here, Princess Luna? Shouldn't you be at the castle?" Twilight says. She's right, maybe Princess Luna is a part of the kidnapping. Maybe she wanted to be first in line to be queen. That would mean she's after Cadence and Celestia too.

" I came here to look for a filly I saw in a vision. She ran away from home after she was punished by her father. I was much like her when I was younger. When I was trapped into the moon by my sister, Celestia I made horrible decisions. I wanted to talk to her before she ended up like me. I searched the Everfree forest for her last night. I figured I was too late so I decided to head home. On my way I slipped in the mud and fell into the raging river. The rocks were too slippery to hold on to and the water was too deep to stand up. I thank thou all for rescuing me." She says.

" It was no problem at all, princess." I say bowing down to her.

" The little filly is alright. We found her." Twilight Sparkle says.

" Huzzah!" She says. Thunder Wing carries Diamond Tiara over to the filthy princess.

" What are you doing here?" She asks.

" I am here to talk to you. Your father is worried about thou, Diamond Tiara. Thou shall go home. Your father loves thou very much. He does not want thou to leave." She says in her Canterlot speak.

" No! I won't go home! Daddy should have thought about that before he yelled at me. I'm not taking orders from a mud ball like you. " Diamond Tiara says stomping her hoof.

" Respect the princess. She came all the way here to find you. At least hear her out." Thunder Wing says.

" I'm tired to everypony telling me what to do. I ran away so I could do whatever I want, when I want. It's not fair. If my daddy really cared about me he wouldn't have punished me and made me cry." She says sprinting through the trees.

" I command thou to halt!" Princess Luna says. Diamond Tiara slows down for a few seconds and then she keeps running through the forest. I manage to catch up to her and grab her by the tail with my teeth.

" Ouch!" She whimpers as she stumbles onto the ground. Her swollen bottom lip trembles and she stares at me with fearful eyes.

" Diamond Tiara! Who do you think you are? You can't treat the princess like that, especially when she's just trying to help. Look at me when I'm talking to you! That kind of behavior is inexcusable. You need to say you're sorry. Do you understand?" I snap.

"I hate you. You're such a big fat meanie!  No wonder you don't have any friends." She screams as she spits in my face. What if Thunder Wing was right. Maybe I am just like her. I can't lose my cool. Not in front of them. Not in front of the princess. I pull her tail harder and raise my front hoof in front of her face.

" Listen to me, you spoiled brat! If you don't apologies to that princess right now, I'm not going to find the antidote to your poison joke." I say.

" Fine! I'm sorry." She says scornfully.

" Say it like you mean it. If you say you're sorry like that, you might as well not say it at all." I say.

" I'm sorry… I really am." She says.

" Sometimes, ponies need to be punished. It's not to make you upset. It's to make you learn from your mistakes and make you a better pony. Sometimes punishment can be hard, but giving every pony a hard time is not the answer. Sometimes, you may think you do not deserve the punishment you received but in the end, there's probably a good reason for it. Holding a grudge on your family is the worst punishment of all." Luna says stroking her mane.

Diamond Tiara wraps her front legs around Luna's muddy legs.

" I wanna go home. I miss my daddy." She mumbles.

" This is going in my letter to Princess Celestia." Twilight Sparkle says.

" Maybe you should stop by at Sweet Apple Acres and apologies to Apple Bloom too." Thunder Wing says.

" Why should I?" She asks.

" Well, how would you like it if you had no cutie mark and every pony made fun of you?" Honey Flower asks.

" I wouldn't like that at all." She says lowering her head in shame.

" These herbs I picked will help your swelling go down. Make sure to put it in your bathtub when you're taking a bath." Honey Flower says.

" And make sure to wash behind your ears." Pinkie Pie says flapping her ears back and forth.

" And don't eat the soap. It tastes yucky." Derpy Hooves says sticking out her tongue.

" Thank you." She says taking the herbs.

" I better be going. Princess Celestia is probably wondering where I am." Princess Luna says. Her horn glows and she disappears into thin air.

" How are we going to find our way back home?" Twilight Sparkle asks.

" That's easy. I took a stick and drew xs into the dirt so I'd know which trees we've already passed." He says.

Just outside the forest Diamond Tiara's father is waiting for her.

" I promise I'll never run away again." Diamond Tiara says reuniting with her father.

" Is this really my daughter?" He asks.

" Yepperoni!" Pinkie Pie says.

" Thank you for finding my precious little pony, Sprinklejinx." He says.

" You're welcome." I say.

" You'd make a great foalsitter." He says. I shudder. I used every ounce of my self control to not beat her with my shovel for forty five minutes in the Everfree Forest. I really hope he's joking.

" We'll see what happens." I say trying to sound polite.

" She's such a sweet little angel." Honey Flower says to herself as she watches Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich walk away.

" Yeah." I sigh letting my ears droop down.

" Is there something wrong, Jinx?" Thunder Wing asks.

" No. It's nothing." I say looking at my hooves.

" Are you disappointed that we didn't find Princess Cloudstar?" Honey Flower asks.

" Not really. We have plenty of time to find her. At least Princess Luna is safe." I say.

" Are you still mad about when I said she acts like you? I'm sorry." Thunder Wing asks.

" You don't have to be. It's true. Like you said, I'm the one who she got her nastiness from." I say.

" You're not that bad. You might be snarky and ornery, but it's in a funny way. If you really hated me you wouldn't let me go on your adventure with you. You tried to find Cadence's sister without being offered a reward. You have a big heart." Thunder Wing says.

" You risked putting yourself into danger to save somepony you didn't even know from the Diamond dogs." Honey Flower says.

" Do you want to stop at the Sugar Cube corner and get some snacks?" Pinkie Pie asks getting off topic.

" I can really go for a muffin." Derpy Hooves says.

" I guess we can meet the others there and we can talk about the evidence they gathered." I say.

" You really need to learn to lighten up a little, Sprinkles." Thunder Wing says.

" It's okay to take a break some times." Honey Flower says.

" I can't remember the last time I took a break." Twilight says.

It's nice to be out of the EverFree forest. I squint at the sun's bright rays of light as we trot on the path to Ponyville.