A Weighted Choice: Chapter 2

“I don’t get it,” Diamond Tiara said as she looked upon a card lying on the carpet in the living room with a math problem on it. Both Featherweight and Clara Lire were sitting on the opposite side of the card looking down at it as well. “How the heck am I supposed to solve this? How is anypony supposed to solve this? Who came up with this math problem in the first place?”

“It’s only been three days,” Clara Life responded in an annoyed tone. “And this is the first day we’re actually focusing on math. You can’t expect to become an instant expert.”

Featherweight looked at Clara Life and gave her a non-verbal ‘I’ve got this’ nod. He then looked to Diamond Tiara and began motioning with his hooves. “What are you finding so difficult about this?” Clara Life translated for him.

Diamond Tiara’s ears twitched when she heard Clara Lire’s translation. Whenever Clara was interpreting what Featherweight was saying she would always lower her voice. While she didn’t sound anywhere close to what a teenage boy would sound like when she tried, Diamond Tiara appreciated the attempt. Even though she would never admit it.

“What’s the logic in this problem in the first place,” Diamond Tiara said. “I never got these stupid problems. Algebra just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well uhh…for physics do you remember the third law of motion? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction?” Featherweight motioned. Diamond Tiara nodded. “Well with Algebra it’s sort of the same way. Everything you do on one side of the equals sign, you also need to do on the other side. So like…let’s look at this problem.”

Featherweight pointed to the problem before once again motioning with his hooves. “See like for this problem: 5p − 14 = 8p + 4. To get the variable on one side you need to move each part of the equation around. So like, to get the 5p on the other side you need to subtract it from both sides of the equation, to keep the equation balanced. It’s the same with the four and 14. In order to get the four on the other side we need to subtract it from both sides.”

“Alright…I guess I get it sort of but…would it work the same if I were to like, subtract 6p from both sides or something?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Well yeah, technically that would keep the equation balanced. You could add something like 1984 to both sides or you could multiply the entire equation by five if you wanted to. It won’t help you solve the problem at all but you could technically do it so long as whatever you do to one side you do to the other.”

“Alright, so now I’ve got -18 = 3p,” Diamond Tiara said. “So I…?”

“Look at the problem and see if you can figure it out for yourself. I could tell you but I’m positive you can figure it out on your own. Just remember, you need to get the p on its own.”

“Ok…so I guess…” Diamond Tiara tapped her hoof on the carpet. “I need to get rid of that three. So…since the three multiplies the p…that means I need to divide?”

Featherweight nodded. “That’s exactly it.”

“Ok, so our answer is negative six,” Diamond Tiara said. “So what does that mean?”

“Well go back to the original equation and plug negative six instead of p. Five times negative six is negative thirty, which subtracted with fourteen equals negative forty-four. On the other side you have eight time negative six which is negative forty-eight. Add four to that and you have negative forty-four. So as you can see, the equation works out. That’s actually how you can check your answer to make sure it’s right.”

“Alright, I think I’m getting it,” Diamond Tiara said. “It’s boring and pointless but I think I’m getting it.”

“Try a few more problems and then we’ll take a study break,” Featherweight motioned.

Diamond Tiara complied and, after picking her pencil up in her mouth, began work on a few more problems. Featherweight silently watched her do it, there just in case she screwed up somewhere she he could alert her. But after about a quarter of an hour those few problems Featherweight asked her to do were all done.

“Alright, time for a break then. Clara, do you mind getting us some snacks from the kitchen? Oh…that’s me.”

Clara Life nodded to Featherweight after her translation. “Sure, I’ll get right on that.” Clara Life got up on her hooves and walked for the exit of the room. But before she left she looked at Diamond Tiara and said “and don’t you think of bullying him while I’m gone,” before walking out of the room.

“Geez, she acts like I’m a criminal or something,” Diamond Tiara said, looking to her right in the direction Clara walked off.

Diamond Tiara continued to stare in the direction Clara went for much longer then she expected to, if only from spite, until she felt something poking her. She faced forward to see Featherweight handing her a note. Diamond Tiara grabbed the note and began reading it.

Yeah she can be a little strict but she has a good heart, was written on the note Featherweight gave her.

“Wait, if you could just write notes for me then why is your interpreter here?” Diamond Tiara asked.

Featherweight tore another piece of paper from his notebook to his right and grabbed the pencil in his mouth. First he erased what he wrote and then he started writing some more. As he wrote Diamond Tiara noticed he wrote very slowly and it took him what felt like a couple of minutes to finally finish. He once again handed the note to Diamond Tiara and she began to read it.

As you can tell I write slowly. Hoof language is much faster.

“So you’re a slow writer yet your part of the newspaper,” Diamond Tiara said. “How does that work?”

After a long pause of him writing Featherweight answered: It’s a long story. Diamond Tiara figured that meant he was going to tell her later when his interpreter gets back. Which was going to be a while because Featherweight wrote on a paper: She might be gone for a bit. She likes to cook, though she doesn’t do it often, so it still might be a while.

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes suddenly becoming very bored. She wanted to go in another room to find something to do, but she hadn’t really taken a tour of the house yet so she didn’t know where anything was. So without really anything to do, Diamond Tiara looked back down at the piece of paper filled with math problems and reviewed it.

Ok, this has to be part of their plan or something, Diamond Tiara thought. Leave me alone with the mute kid so that I’m so bored I have to learn to pass the time. Great.

Eventually though Clara Life came back levitating some cookies. She gave one to Diamond Tiara before taking her place next to Featherweight once again with the rest of the cookies with her. Featherweight grabbed a cookie and, after taking a bite out of it, began motioning with his hoof language at her.

“Ahh, you want to know about why Featherweight’s in the newspaper,” Clara Life said to Diamond Tiara. “Ok.”

“Well as you know, I can’t really talk,” Clara interpreted for Featherweight. “So I’m not really able to communicate with other ponies, not really able to get my word out, I can’t even really state my opinion since I don’t have the voice to say anything. That’s why joining the newspaper was so fascinating for me. It was finally a chance for me to get my words out since I wasn’t able to otherwise. It’s the closest thing I could ever do to talking.

“Plus I know how much some ponies think the newspaper is corrupted. How biased it is. And some even believe the newspaper is untrustworthy. I want to do the opposite. I want to write news stories that are nothing but the truth. No scandals, no lies, no rumors. The full honest truth.”

“So…I guess when I had those three…” Diamond Tiara curbed her impulse to say losers, “…Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, do the Gabby Gums articles. Back when you used to just be a photographer. I guess you weren’t exactly happy with that huh?”

“That’s…actually why I’m not interested in reporting lies, scandals, rumors, and the like,” Featherweight admitted. “At first I was fine with it, especially from all the attention it gave me. But after I saw how the Gabby Gums articles hurt other ponies I wanted to change that. …Problem was I…can’t really talk and if I didn’t take any pictures I knew you would have kicked me out.”

Featherweight sighed. “You know, you and most ponies are pretty lucky. You can speak out for yourself if you want. I can’t do that. I’m all alone at school most of the time and can’t stand up for myself. I’m too weak to fight back. There isn’t a thing I wouldn’t give to actually have a voice. To be able to finally speak up for myself.”

As Diamond Tiara listened to him she couldn’t help but feel a little sorry to him for a second. She remembered the terror stories Silver Spoon told her about being bullied in Manehatton and Diamond Tiara couldn’t imagine going through that along with not being able to do a thing to defend yourself.

“Hey…Featherweight,” Diamond Tiara started as she looked to the floor. “I…guess I’m…” Diamond Tiara shook her head. “Nevermind.”

“Gabby Gums incident?” Clara Life asked.

“Long story short, I was the editor-in-chief of our Elementary School’s newspaper the Foal Free Press,” Diamond Tiara said without looking up. “I wanted the paper to sell so I had Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom go out and find stories of the townsponies that I could take out of context and use it in a story. It sold so I was perfectly fine with it. The rest of the townsponies…not so much. They were fine with it when they weren’t in the paper but when they were they became annoyed.”

“I could imagine,” Clara Life said. “And do you feel any remorse for what happened.”

“It’s not like it matters whether I am or not,” Diamond Tiara said. “That happened a long time ago. Most ponies have probably forgotten about it by now. I want to forget about it. So who cares.”

Clara Life gave her an unamused look.

“Well if it makes you feel any better, my dad chewed me out for doing that too,” Diamond Tiara said in response to her look. “He hates that probably just as much as you do. He’s had too many newspapers try to ruin his company through a bunch of lies and gossip.” Even though the paper actually sold copies that year instead of being only useful for a paperweight.

“And yet you were perfectly fine with-” Clara Life started but what quickly interrupted by Diamond Tiara.

“I was a kid then, what did I care,” Diamond Tiara quickly said. “Nothing mattered to me then. And nothing matters to me now. Stop trying to pry into my life. It’s not going to work. I’m the way I am and you’re not going to change that anytime soon.”