//------------------------------//
// Downfall 
// Story: Broken Blossom 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

Slowly but surely Blossom regained consciousness. She groggily opened her eyes revealing what appeared to be a simple basement. Its walls were completely blank and the seemed to be no furniture in it. It was completely bare as far as she could see. Frowning, Blossom tried to stand up to look around for an exit but to her surprise she was completely incapable of movement. Head, legs, she couldn't move anything except for her eyes. 

As she regained her senses more and more, she realized that she was lying on a horizontal table and she felt sheets strapping down her head and legs. Her eyes widened when it hit her. She was strapped to a table in a basement!

The memory came flooding back. Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara had broken into Carousel Boutique and drugged her and now she was strapped to a table in a basement. 

Blossom's eyes scanned the room. Diamond Tiara didn't seem to be in the basement right now. Maybe she had left to go get something. If so this was her chance! Even if she was strapped down, she had her magic and could easily remove the sheets if she needed to. She fired up her horn and used her magic to fell around for the place where she could loosen the sheet strapping her head down. 

Before she could she felt a sharp pain in her horn and instantly saw Diamond Tiara's face inches from hers. She looked surprisingly well groomed but her face was more sunken then when she had seen her last. "No! Bad foal, bad foal!" she growled. "You don't get to use your magic until I tell you to!"

Blossom squealed in fear and tried to flinch away from her captor but the sheets held, and she couldn't wiggle away. "Please let me go!"

Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow and rested her forelegs on the table. "You know something? That exact phrase sent your aunt on the warpath. From what I hear she had a poster that she put on the wall so her victims would know not to say when she was gutting them." Diamond Tiara placed her forelegs back on the floor and walked over to a blank stretch of wall right in front of the table. She pointed to it. "I believe it was placed right here. It would have to have been for her victims to see it."

The implications of Diamond Tiara's words hit her and Blossom shrieked fearfully. Diamond Tiara glanced over at Blossom and shot her a satisfied grin. "Oh that's right I didn't tell you." She motioned around to all of the basement. "Joyous Blossom, we are currently in your aunt Rarity's torture and murder basement! When I came here yesterday it took all of two minutes to find it and kick out the drywall covering it and now here we are!" Blossom began sobbing but Diamond Tiara ignored her and rubbed her lower jaw thoughtfully. "It took a little longer than that to bring your kitchen table down here and get everything I needed to keep you strapped to it so you couldn't get away but that is neither here nor there right now. What matters is that you're here!"

Diamond Tiara walked behind Blossom and she heard her fiddling with something. "I wasn't actually sure if I wanted to use this one or not but I've decided against it. I may put it back on later but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Blossom felt the sheet on her head loosen and eventually it came off altogether. Blossom rotated her head around to ease some of the stiffness out of her neck while Diamond Tiara walked beside her and righted a large tray and placed a black medical bag on it. She undid the clasps and reached inside. To Blossom's horror she pulled out a large butcher knife. "Found this in the kitchen. I've spent the past two hours sharpening it to perfection!"

Blossom screamed in horror and instinctively fired up her horn to try to get the sheets off again. Diamond Tiara noticed immediately and with a snarl of rage she grasped the knife in both hooves and slammed it down on the table above Blossom's head. The knife was as sharp as Diamond Tiara had promised, and the blade cleanly severed the tip of Blossom's left ear.  

Blossom screamed in pain and began struggling more violently to get out of the straps before she lost something else. However, she stopped when she heard something... unusual. Diamond Tiara had cried out when she had cut off the tip of her ear but seemed to be a cry of fear. It seemed strange to Blossom, as Diamond Tiara didn't seem to have any reason to be the one who was afraid.

"No, you can do this, you can hurt her! Her mom killed your baby, you are more than capable of doing this. Don't chicken out now," the mare whispered to herself. "This is for Golden Necklace."

Diamond Tiara took a deep breath and turned back to Blossom with a maniacal smile on her face. "That's what happens if you try something like that. Next time I take the whole ear, got it?" Blossom weakly nodded and Diamond Tiara flicked the ear fragment off of the table with her knife. "That's a good foal." Diamond Tiara placed the knife back on the tray and trotted up next to Blossom. "Now, I've heard that your cutie mark means that you have a talent for changing your appearance, right?" 

Blossom weakly nodded. "Yeah," she squeaked. 

Diamond Tiara nodded and reached into the medical bag once more with her muzzle. When she pulled it out, she had what appeared to be a photograph in her mouth. Blossom whimpered when she saw who it was: Golden Necklace. Diamond Tiara tapped the photo and pointed to Blossom. Blossom whimpered. "Please just let me go!" 

Diamond Tiara glared at her and nudged the butcher knife before tapping Blossom's injured ear. Blossom resumed her sobbing and Diamond Tiara sighed. She flattened Blossom's ear on the table and picked up the butcher knife. "NO, NO I'LL DO IT!" Blossom screamed. 

Diamond Tiara grinned and placed the knife back on the tray. Blossom did her best to control her sobbing before glancing at the photograph. With a few deep breaths she fired up her horn and in seconds she became a teenaged Golden Necklace. Her white body suddenly mirrored the pink of Diamond Tiara’s and her purple mane turned into a soft gold.

When she saw the image of her foal on the table, Diamond Tiara's mouth dropped open and the photograph floated to the floor. "Necklace?" she whispered. "Baby, is that you?"

Blossom sniffled and slowly nodded. "Yes, mom." Feeling those words come out of her mouth made her want to vomit but she held the bile back as Diamond Tiara approached the table. 

Diamond Tiara shakily reached out a hoof and began stroking Blossom's mane. "Oh Necklace you've grown into such a beautiful mare." Diamond Tiara leaned in and nuzzled Blossom's mane. It held none of the love that her mother's affection did. Instead it was merely a shallow imitation. 

Diamond Tiara locked eyes with Blossom and smiled happily at her. "How is your schooling going?"

Blossom sniffled but forced herself to return the smile. "It's... it's going good, mom. I got an A on a paper I wrote about Hearths Warming Eve."

Diamond Tiara's eyes widened with almost childlike joy. "You did?" She leaned in and did her best to wrap her forelegs around Blossom. "Oh Necklace I'm so proud of you. You're such a smart mare; I always knew you were one."

"Thanks, mommy."

Diamond Tiara broke off from the hug and her face turned almost conspiratorial. "So, are there any stallions that you have your eye on? I know there have to be some cute guys in school."

Blossom had to hold back more tears and her weak smile faltered but she cleared her throat and regained control of her emotions. "Y-Yeah there's a guy."

Diamond Tiara gasped and beamed at Blossom. "Ooh, is there? Come on, give mommy some details!" 

Blossom took a deep breath. "Well, he wants to become a doctor a-and I think he likes me too. There's a school dance next week and Fire Ruby says that she thinks that he's gonna ask me out."

"And why wouldn't he?" cooed Diamond Tiara. "You're quite the catch if I do say so myself."

Blossom began shivering and she considered trying to struggle out of the straps again. As soon as she did, though, she became aware that her ear was aching and she forced her hooves to be still. She doubted that she could get free before Diamond Tiara managed to get the knife or that she could get the knife away from Tiara. 

So she had to endure Diamond Tiara treating her like she was Golden Necklace. 

For three hours it dragged on. Eventually Diamond Tiara wrapped Blossom into a tight hug and squeezed. "Mommy loves you, Golden Necklace. I... I know I probably didn't say that enough, but I always want you to know that Mommy loves you."  Diamond Tiara pulled away from the hug and her loving smile slowly faded away and she tapped Blossom's horn. "Stop pretending to be my daughter you worthless foal," she growled. "She's ten times the mare you were so STOP IT!"

Blossom whimpered but powered up her horn and reverted back to her original form. Diamond Tiara nodded and reached into the medical bag. To Blossom's horror she pulled out a straight razor. "Now that you're not pretending to be Golden Necklace anymore, I think we can get on to the main order of business." She glowered at Blossom and pointed the razor at her. "Taking you away from your mother just like your mother took my daughter away from me. That seems like justice, doesn't it?" 

Blossom began sobbing and turned her head away from Diamond Tiara but the psychotic mare merely violently turned it back. She used one hoof to keep Blossom's head still and her mouth and the other hoof to put the strap back over her forehead, keeping it still. "No, you're going to stay right where you are and you're going to be still while I tear you apart bit. By. Bit."

"Please just let me go!" wailed Blossom. "You don't have to do anything!"

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I really think that I do," she said simply. "You see, your mother took my foal away from me and she's still alive; I got no justice." Diamond Tiara began slowly running the flat part of the razor up and down Blossom's chest. "It was in my ten years in a loony bin that I realized that if you want justice you have to take it for yourself." 

With that, Diamond Tiara held a large lock of Blossom's mane down and began slicing through it with the razor. Blossom's screams and pleas for mercy went unheard by Diamond Tiara and she shaved Blossom's mane off bit by bit. When she had reduced Blossom's mane down to frayed remnants, she moved down and severed Blossom's tail. 

As Blossom continued to cry, Diamond Tiara put the razor down and picked up Blossom's tail. "You know, I think I'm going to mail this to your mother so she knows what happened here tonight. I think your ears would make a nice addition to the care package too, what do you say?"

"Just let me go!" sobbed Blossom. "I just want my momma!"

Diamond Tiara's thoughtful expression hardened into a glare. "I'm sure that's what Golden Necklace wanted too, but did your mom show her any mercy? No! Your mother just killed her like she was an animal!" Diamond Tiara walked up to Blossom and placed her hoof on her left cutie mark. "And now I do the same to you."

"Don't take my cutie marks!" Blossom wailed. "Please don't take my cutie marks!" 

"Why not? If I'm taking justice it would only be fair wouldn't it?" Diamond Tiara snared. "My daughter never even got a cutie mark; what makes you think you deserve yours?!" 

Blossom began hyperventilating and her struggles became steadily weaker as she got more lightheaded. Diamond Tiara scoffed and walked closer to her head. She reached up and tapped her horn. "I've heard tell that the single most agonizing thing to happen to a unicorn is for them to get their horn torn off. I've heard that it's like having your head split open and then having molten iron poured into the wound. If you're a good foal and don't try to use your magic, we'll save that for last."

Blossom merely continued hyperventilating and Diamond Tiara shrugged. She walked back over to Blossom's cutie mark and hooked her foreleg over the handle of the razor to begin cutting it off. Slowly she brought the razor closer to Blossom's cutie mark, but as she was just about to place the edge on the skin, she paused. "Come on, Tiara you can do this," she growled to herself. "You cut off part of her ear and you cut her hair, you can do this. Her mother murdered Golden Necklace, you've been planning this down to the last detail for years. Don't chicken out now."

Diamond Tiara resolutely nodded to herself and adjusted her grip on the razor. She placed the edge just above Blossom's cutie mark but once again paused. "Don't be a coward. This foal deserves what you're doing to her and her mother deserves to know about it. Just... just do it. DO IT NOW!" 

With that, Diamond Tiara swung her hoof, letting the razor leave a long, deep cut just above Blossom's cutie mark. Blossom shrieked in pain and began violently struggling. She almost instinctively charged her horn but Tiara's warning put those thoughts to rest. 

However, Diamond Tiara didn't seem to be willing to break her horn of even if she did use magic. Blossom quieted her screaming and to her surprise she heard hysterical sobbing coming from her right side. To the best of her ability she looked over and and saw Diamond Tiara on the floor staring at her bloody hooves with the red soaked razor on the ground in front of her. "P-P-Pull yourself together!" she mumbled to herself. "This is for Golden Necklace, she deserves this!" 

Slowly Blossom's horn fired up and she undid the strap over her forehead, allowing her to raise her head up. "Miss Tiara?" she whispered. 

Diamond Tiara shot her head up and looked at Blossom with wide eyes. She slowly got to her hooves. "I... I'm sorry," she whispered. "I d-didn't..."

Diamond Tiara weakly got to her hooves and trotted over to Blossom's left side. She undid the strap, freeing Blossom's left foreleg. She then walked over to the right side and undid the strap there, freeing Blossom even further. 

The second her forelegs were free, the new feeling that Blossom felt that day in the woods with Golden Necklace and Fire Ruby coursed through Blossom as the thoughts of her damaged ear and cutie mark along with her destroyed hair came to the forefront of her mind. All it would take was one little swipe and Diamond Tiara could never hurt her again. it would be a good thing. Before Diamond Tiara could do anything about it, Blossom levitated the butcher knife over to her, clasped it in both hooves, and plunged it into Diamond Tiara's gut up to the handle. 

With a weak gurgle Diamond Tiara collapsed onto the ground, allowing Blossom to use her magic to free her hind legs. She hopped off of the table, knocking the tray over in the process. It fell to the floor with a loud clang, but Blossom only cared about Diamond Tiara. The wounded mare was still alive and desperately trying to crawl away. Blossom clasped the knife in her hooves again and slowly began pulling it upwards. "You wanted justice? Well do you want it now?" growled Blossom. 

Diamond Tiara's mouth flopped up and down and she only managed one weak word. "Please."

Blossom cackled and pushed the knife up further. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't think you knew the meaning of that word! You didn't seem to when I was on the table over there!" She pulled the knife up even further. "You wanted to get back at my mom for killing your stupid brat? Well here's a little something I think you would have liked to have known!" 

An evil smile crossed Blossom's face and after another jerk of the knife, she leaned in next to Diamond Tiara's ear. "My mom wasn't the one who killed your little brat..." Blossom licked her lips in anticipation. "I did."

Diamond Tiara's eyes widened but the fatally wounded mare could only lie there, twitching weakly as Blossom slowly disemboweled her. 

"I took the rock and bashed her head in." Another jerk of the knife. "I watched her fall to the ground before I moved on to that friend of hers." Once more. "I bathed in her blood, and you had me on the table, right there but you chickened out." A mocking look crossed Blossom's face. "What would your daughter think? Let's ask her, shall we?"

Blossom's horn fired up and she changed back to the form of teenaged Golden Necklace. Diamond Tiara whimpered and weakly raised a hoof up to Blossom but she batted it down and she twisted her face into a sad whimper. "Mommy, you had her on your table and you didn't do right by me! Didn't you love me, mommy? Why couldn't you do it? Why couldn't you make it so that I got the justice we both wanted? Why?"

Diamond Tiara slowly closed her eyes before throwing her head back and letting loose an ear-splitting shriek of emotional agony. A shriek that was cut off when Blossom jerked the knife up one final time. 

Then she was still. 

Blossom took a deep breath and reverted back to her normal looks. A satisfied smile crossed her face as she stood up. As she did, a jolt of pain shot through her side and she collapsed onto the ground. Her cutie mark wound. She whimpered in pain and looked around trying to see if there was something she could use to bandage the wound. She brought the medical bag over to her and opened it up but to her horror all she saw was half a dozen large knives. She tossed the bag away from her and leaned against the wall. "Well, Blossom, you got her," she muttered to herself. "She was too weak to take you out." She chuckled. "Good thing too; that cut really hurt. It'll need a bunch of stitches." 

"Yeah, Blossom. It was lucky that she was about to let you..." She sat up and began blinking rapidly as what she was about to say sunk in. "She was about to let you go. She was about to set you free and not h-hurt you anymore and you killed her."

Slowly Blossom turned her head and saw the bloody corpse of Diamond Tiara with the knife still jutting out of it. She snapped her head away, unable to bear the sight of what she had done. She whimpered and looked down at her own blood-soaked body. If one looked at her then, one would have difficulty seeing that her coat was supposed to be white. 

"Blossom what did you just do?"


*  *  *  *


Applejack, Apple Bloom, the Royal Sisters and a trio of royal guards all ran quickly towards Carousel Boutique. 

When they first discovered Diamond Tiara's disappearance, they first thing that they had done was try to track Blossom to Baltimare and six guards were currently trying to discover if she was still there. If she wasn't, they figured that she would be in Ponyville with the Apples. That line proved to be fruitless so the two elder Apple mares had suggested that they might try Carousel Boutique. It wasn't unlikely that Blossom had been rejected by her father and if she had she would have made her way back to Ponyville immediately. The only place she could be was Carousel Boutique. 

When the group arrived they quickly entered and began calling out for Blossom. Apple Bloom was the first to catch sight of evidence that she had been there when she found her saddlebag overturned near the stairs. The group was about to begin tearing the place apart of Blossom when Applejack heard something. "Shh. Ah think Ah hear somepony cryin'."

Apple Bloom gasped. "It sounds like Blossom!" 

The group began following the source of the noise and soon discerned that it was coming from Rarity's old basement. Princess Celestia turned to her guards. "Be at the ready for whatever might be down there," she commanded. "I want the three of you to go in first. My sister and I will be right behind you."

The three guards saluted and began walking down the stairs. The Sisters and Apples listened quietly for a moment to and were rewarded with the sound of a shriek of terror. Instantly the four of them bolted down the stairs and into the basement. There they saw the tragic scene. 

There in front of them was a maneless Blossom, soaked in blood and sobbing. She was staring blankly ahead and cradling the disemboweled body of Diamond Tiara in her forelegs.