A Shattered Jewel

by Ruxify

A Shattered Jewel

The wind blew softly through the trees of the forest along the trail, creating an orchestra of nature’s ambience that autumn evening. Everything had a beautiful shiny glow of orange as Princess Celestia lowered the sun in order to allow Princess Luna to elevate the moon for the night as she always did. Diamond Tiara, an avaricious, young pink filly, took a break from her final journey to admire the beauty and sophistication that was known as a sunset, now being able to look at it without hurting her eyes. It was a shame that after it left she would never get to see it again. She stretched for a bit and once again continued up the path to her now ill fated destiny.

It was strange to think that only a few days ago, she and Silver Spoon had been happily enjoying each other’s company. But then she thought again. Was she really happy then? Were her friend and the abundance of wealth that her father, Filthy Rich, provided for her all she really needed as a reason to get out of bed every morning? She didn’t know, she couldn’t possibly know anymore, not that it mattered.

Diamond was about halfway there now; the sun left a dark shade of red far in the distant sky. She could have been there already; being a pony, she could have just gone right up the somewhat steep precipice and gotten it all over with in an instant. But no, she was too afraid, and yet, she knew that she had to do it. Nopony really cared for her anyway, what good reason was there NOT to take her time, enjoying the winded path through all the trees, rocks and little animals that were now running back to their nests and homes to have a thorough night’s rest? Soon, she would be resting too.

A few days ago on the previous Monday…

“So, girls, ya’ll ready ta go today?” asked Apple Bloom to her fellow crusaders, enthusiasm in her voice.

“You bet. After this day is over, we’re all gonna have some of the most impressive cutie marks in all of Equestria!” squawked Scootaloo.

“I don’t know, it sounds awfully dangerous,” said Sweetie Belle.

Diamond Tiara was sitting at her desk working on an assignment when she overheard the three adventurous fillies talking. A sudden interest grew inside her, and her curiosity thickened as she kept her ears wide open, wanting to hear every detail of what they were going to be doing.

“Don’t worry Sweetie Belle, Ah’ve read through the guide books over and over, and I know how we can be sure we’ll be safe, in case somethin’ were ta happen,” said Apple Bloom.

“Yeah, but…”

“Do you want to cross a tight rope over Ghastly Gorge and possibly earn a tight rope crossing cutie mark, or not?” Scootaloo asked, getting annoyed.

A tight rope crossing cutie mark? Diamond just had to see this. She bent over to the side to her friend, Silver Spoon.

“Hey Silver Spoon, the Cutie Mark Losers are gonna try and get a tight rope walking cutie mark. Wanna go watch?” Silver Spoon giggled at what Diamond called them and replied.

“Sure thing. I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they fail.” Diamond snickered at this.

The two friends fought through the rest of the school day together. Upon leaving the wooden doors of the school house, they broke into a run heading straight for Ghastly Gorge, hoping to arrive there before the other three did.

It took them twenty minutes, but they managed to arrive before the crusaders. They looked around for a good hiding spot and found a bunch of large bushes forming a tight ring. Together, they hid inside the ring and began to keep a look out, making sure to keep quiet just in case they could be heard by somepony.

A good ten minutes passed before they spotted them. First it was Apple Bloom, who was carrying two heavily filled saddle bags, then Sweetie Belle, then Scootaloo. They stopped near a sturdy brick bridge that had been built across the gorge for easy crossing to those that didn’t have working wings to fly. They watched as Apple Bloom pulled out a couple of very long ropes from her bag and hand one end of each to Scootaloo who ran across the bridge to find a sturdy anchor on the other side. Looking around, she spotted a tree with a large trunk and got to work tying each rope to it, one of them higher than the other. Apple Bloom did the same on the other end. The top rope was to be used as a safety device, holding onto the fillies’ harnesses as they crossed.

After everything had been set up, the three adventurous fillies put on their harnesses and helmets, and high hoofed each other shouting out “Cutie Mark Crusaders tight rope crossers, yay!” They then attached the ropes connected to their harnesses to the higher safety rope and together, they began to slowly walk across, first Apple Bloom, then Scootaloo, and last but not least, Sweetie Belle.

“Now ya gotta make sure to balance yourself, like so,” said Apple Bloom loudly, making sure her friends heard her.

“Gotcha,” said Scootaloo.

The three fillies were doing surprisingly well, much to the discontent of Diamond Tiara.

“Ugh, this is a problem,” she muttered.

“What is?” asked Silver Spoon, unsure of what her friend was saying.

“Well just look at them! They’re succeeding! We really need to do something.”

“Like what?” Diamond put a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment.

“Okay, I have an idea. Follow my lead.”

“Okay.”

By now, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had managed to make it to the exact center of the rope, hundreds of feet from the ground. Apple Bloom looked from her hooves to the end of the rope and to her horror saw a certain pink filly and her friend emerge from some bushes.

“Diamond Tiara, what are you doin’ here!?” she blurted out.

“Oh no…” said Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo simultaneously from behind their friend.

“Oh, I overheard your little plans earlier and well, I decided to come and watch with Silver Spoon.”

“Ugh… fine. Just don’t do anything,” groaned Apple Bloom.

“Oh, I won’t… that is… not if you can get over here in time,” said Diamond, putting on an evil smirk.

“Oh, whatever do you mean, Diamond?” asked Silver Spoon, with a purposefully dramatic voice.

“I mean, if these three fillies don’t get their flanks moving, the rope under them is going to… fall,” as she finished her sentence, she walked up to the anchor closest to her and placed a hoof on the knot.

“You wouldn’t dare,” challenged Scootaloo.

“Oh, I dare. You have thirty seconds. Go.”

“Diamond, I don’t know about this,” whispered Silver Spoon.

“No need to worry, Silver Spoon. They’ll be alright, they have safety harnesses.”

“Oh yeah…”

The three fillies came back to their senses after being frozen with fear for a few seconds and they began to shuffle carefully, but quickly across the rope.

“Twenty seconds,” stated Diamond Tiara, making sure her voice was loud and clear.

With only about twenty feet to go, each filly was somehow able to muster a little bit more speed. But no matter how hard they tried, they still weren’t going to make it to the end in time.

“Five, four, three, two, one…” called out Diamond, before getting her hooves to work on the knot. Eventually, she made it loose enough that it started to untie itself.

“Oh, horse feathers…” muttered Scootaloo before she let out a high pitched scream with her friends as they began to fall. It was only for a short distance though, and the rope above them had successfully saved them from falling to their demise. Scootaloo was still screaming.

“Scootaloo. Scootaloo. SCOOTALOO!” squeaked out Sweetie Belle before smacking her flank, attempting to get her attention. Scootaloo looked down and noticed that she wasn’t falling anymore, and her shrieking ceased as she began to observe the situation. She blushed in embarrassment and Sweetie Belle gave her a dirty look.

Back on the cliff, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were laughing their lungs out.

“Oh man! Did you see their faces, Silver Spoon?”

“Yeah! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! That really was great.”

“Oh would ya quit giggilin’ up a storm and help us get over there ta safety?” Apple Bloom requested to the two bullies, annoyance obvious in her voice.

A few seconds of laughing continued before they finally calmed down and Silver Spoon spoke.

“Yeah, sure, hold on a second.”

Suddenly, a loud snap was heard, and the air was filled with cries of terror as the rope the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ lives depended on broke just a few feet down the line in front of them. As the end of the rope entered Apple Bloom’s reach, she used her powerful jaws to bite down on the end of the rope, therefore preventing any of the safety harnesses from sliding off it. They swung on the rope like Tarzan all the way to the other side and painfully collided with the wall.

After everything had settled down, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were left hanging on the opposite side of the gorge from Diamond and Silver Spoon, Apple Bloom, biting down hard trying to use her mouth to support the weight of her two other friends, the loops to the harness connectors smashing into her face.

“Iz rvrprny uoookei,” mumbled Apple Bloom, attempting to form a sentence.

“What?” asked Scootaloo, stopping from shaking from fear for a second due to the confusion.

“I think she said, ‘Is everypony okay?’” said Sweetie Belle.

“Oh.”

Filled with horror, Silver Spoon watched as the helpless fillies dangled by a thread, her mouth was gaping open, and her eyes were open wide.

“Pfft. Those blank flanks should’ve used a higher quality rope. Come on, Silver Spoon. Let’s get out of here,” Diamond told Silver Spoon, voice as sassy as usual. But Silver Spoon didn’t move. Instead, she walked right up to the edge of the gorge and called out to the helpless fillies.

“Don’t worry! I’ll go and get help! Just hang on!” At that, Silver Spoon began running towards Ponyville, but before she could get far, Diamond Tiara moved herself in front of her friend in order to stop her, and Silver Spoon ran straight into her at full force. The two fillies fell to the ground in pain and laid there for a few seconds while they gathered themselves together.

“Silver Spoon, what the hay?” grunted Diamond with a scowl.

As soon as she could manage, Silver Spoon was back on her hooves and she started up again. Her own face was a mixture of worry and anger as she passed her friend. After going a few feet down the road, she turned her head back and called out to Diamond.

“I’m gonna go and get help, you stay here and watch them. I need to talk to you after this is over and done with.”

“Ugh. Fine.”

Luckily enough, Silver Spoon just happened to run into the famous weather pony Rainbow Dash on her way to Ponyville. She stopped her midflight and explained to her the situation. Rainbow was happy to oblige, elevating the poor fillies to safety.

“You and your friends should really be more careful, squirt. Wouldn’t wanna lose ya. Love the daring attitude though,” Rainbow Dash said to Scootaloo, messing up her mane.

“Yeah… he he he,” she responded.

“Well, see ya guys later. Gotta dash,” said Rainbow Dash before blasting off into the sky at blazing speeds. At this, the Cutie Mark Crusaders exchanged glances and at that moment decided to check their flanks. Much to their disappointment, they were all still blank. They gathered all of their supplies, put them into Apple Bloom’s bags and started off back to Ponyville.

Silver Spoon returned to Diamond Tiara, who, as promised, stayed right where she was throughout the entire rescue.

“So Silver Spoon, what was it you wanted to talk about?”

“Diamond… uh… how should I say this…” Silver Spoon looked away from her friend, and Diamond tilted her head as she waited for her to state what was on her mind.

“I think that maybe you’re starting to get out of control… I think that what you did back there was a little too extreme.”

“WHAT? Extreme? Nothing is too extreme for those worthless little blank flanks!” retorted Diamond.

“Well, yeah, but you could’ve gotten them killed, Diamond!”

“So?!” snorted Diamond. Silver Spoon was shocked by her friend’s words. She was starting to get really angry.

“WHAT? ‘SO?’ There is no ‘SO?’ in this Diamond, can’t you understand that?! Making fun of them is one thing, but putting their lives in danger?!” Diamond put her nose up in the air in disgust.

“Well I see who’s side you’re on now.”

“It’s not necessarily that I’m siding with them, it’s just that you’re being completely ridiculous!”

“Ugh, fine. If you love em’ so much then why don’t you just go and hang out with THEM from now on?”

“You know what, I think I will. GOOD BYE, Diamond, and unless you can stop being so mean all the time, I don’t ever want to talk to you again!”

“Mean? But, you were like that too!”

“Yeah, but now I realize, it was only because I ever got involved with you. Good bye.” Muttering to herself, Silver Spoon turned away from Diamond and ran away from her as fast as she could.

“F-f-fine! Be that way! I don’t need you!” Diamond called out, but Silver Spoon was already too far away for her to hear.

Diamond sat there for a few minutes, watching the last of Silver Spoon disappear in the distance before picking her own sorry flank up off the ground and slowly begin making her way towards her own home.

Once on her front porch, Diamond flipped over the door mat and pulled out the somewhat hidden key and used it to unlock the door. She returned it back to its hiding spot, let herself inside, and then relocked the door behind her.

“Hello? Is anypony home!?” she called out. No answer. Not that there usually was one, but it was nice knowing whether or not she was home alone or not. Slowly, she climbed her house’s rather lofty and fancy stairs and continued down the hall to her room. Without realizing it, she slammed her door shut, the vibrations radiating throughout the house’s walls, dropped her bags and plopped herself down onto her bed.

‘Pfft. Who needs Silver Spoon? I can just go hang out with one of my other friends… I mean, I’m so popular, why wouldn’t anypony want hang out with me?’ she thought to herself. ‘Now let’s see, who is there… well there is… um…’ Diamond put a hoof up to her chin, as she always did when thinking up something, or trying to think of something.

“Ah, forget it. I’ll find somepony tomorrow at school,” she said aloud, giving up. She looked at the clock. At around five-o-clock in the afternoon, it was getting to be about dinner time and Diamond noticed her stomach rumble. She went downstairs and opened her fridge. As usual, it was stocked to the brim with top-brand fruits and veggies, which is how it usually looked when her father was out on a business trip somewhere. When Diamond was younger, Filthy Rich would hire a full-time baby sitter for her, but one time when she was able to talk to her father, she insisted that she would be able to take care of herself now. Reluctantly, he honored his daughter’s wishes.

Pulling out some ingredients from the fridge, she made herself a tall sunflower sandwich, which she greedily consumed after spending the previous five minutes perfecting it. She complimented the flavor with a tall glass of milk. After devouring the last few crumbs of it, she placed her dishes neatly in the dishwasher and began making her way back upstairs.

Once there, she searched around her room for something to do. The twice-as-tall-as-her dollhouse that her father had bought for her had caught her attention. She walked up to it, opened a storage bucket that was near it and pulled out two small pony figurines. Immediately she started to idly move them around the house and go about doing their “everyday business” like getting themselves a bite to eat, or cleaning themselves in the bath. After they took care of that, Diamond commanded them come down to the living room and have a conversation.

“Hey, how’s it goin’?” asked the one in her left hoof.

“Great! How’s life for you?” asked the one in her right hoof.

“I have never been in a better mood.”

“Really? Why is that?”

“Because I have so many friends! It makes me feel so loved and warm inside, that I just want to squeal!”

“Well I’m glad. Um… I’m your friend too, right?”

“Of course! In fact, I’ve never really had a best friend before. Would you like to be mine?”

“Really? You mean it? I’ve always wanted a… a…” Diamond stopped. She shook her head and took a better look at what was going on, and exactly what kind of conversation she was having with herself. Quietly, she placed her toys back in the storage bucket and she climbed back up onto her big fluffy bed. She looked at her clock again. It was only five-thirty, thirty minutes past the last time she had checked.

Suddenly, she heard very familiar voices coming from right outside her window. Slowly, she got off her bed and brought herself to it. What she saw made her heart drop to the pit of her stomach. Walking down the road past her house were the Cutie Mark Crusaders… and Silver Spoon… together. She decided to open her window just a crack so she could hear what they were saying more clearly.

“Ahahahaha. Wow. I never knew we had so much in common, Sweetie Belle,” came the voice of Silver Spoon.

“Yeah, why couldn’t we have known this before?” she squeaked cheerfully.

“Maybe it was because of, I don’t know, Diamond Tiara? We’ve been over this Sweetie Belle,” said Scootaloo.

“Oh yeah, he he.”

“Speakin’ of Diamond Tiara, where is she?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Oh… she must’ve run home after I told her off,” said Silver Spoon.

“I see.” said Apple Bloom. Finally, the fillies outside her window had walked out of Diamond’s audible proximity. Annoyed, she closed her window, and leaned back against her wall.

‘It’s alright Diamond. I’m sure you’ll be able to find somepony to hang out with tomorrow,’ she thought to herself.

For the rest of the afternoon and evening, Diamond lazily hung around the house, annoyed that she had nothing to do. Eventually, after hours of doing absolutely nothing, the clock had struck eight-o-clock in the evening, so Diamond decided it was time to take a bath and go to bed.

The next morning, Diamond had to rush to school as she somehow managed to sleep in too late, but despite her efforts she found that class had already started.

“Ah, nice of you to join us, Diamond Tiara. It is rather unusual to see a tardy from you, but nopony is perfect, right?” said Ms. Cheerilee, which caused Diamond to blush a little from embarrassment. “Please take your seat.”

Diamond went over to her desk, making sure to avoid looking at the silver colored pony that sat next to her. Over the next couple hours, Diamond silently endured the seemingly endless and rather challenging math lesson she was being taught, and noiselessly completed the assignment given to her afterwards. Finally, their teacher excused them for a fifteen minute recess.

Once all the activities had begun, Diamond Tiara, who was standing in the middle of a patch of grass, began to look around for somepony to play with. She saw a small group of three fillies chatting with each other by a tree. Diamond walked up to them.

“Uh, hey, would you mind if I hung out with you guys?” she asked shyly.

“Sure! What’s your name?” asked a small pink pony with a yellow mane. Diamond tilted her head slightly in confusion. How could she not know HER name out of all the other ponies that were in HER class?

“I’m Diamond Tiara,” she said with a smile, puffing out her chest with pride.

“Oh…” said the little pink pony, moving her glance away from Diamond. She noticed the unexpected reaction.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“I’ve heard about you Diamond… and… I don’t think we should hang out. Sorry.” At that, the young pink filly and her friends walked away from her.

Throughout the rest of recess, Diamond kept on trying to find somepony… anypony that she could hang out with. She even tried ponies that were outside her class and yet, they had already somehow heard stories about her little shenanigans in the past. Just as it always did, time went on and eventually, that one recess of failures turned into a whole school day of failures, which turned into a rest-of-the-school-week of failures. But the rejection that really took the cake was the one during the final recess of the day on Friday. The weather controlling pegasi had scheduled moderately sized rain showers today, and so the sky began to get darker and gloomier after each cloud the pegasi placed.

Diamond Tiara walked up to a couple of slightly older fillies from a higher grade. She had seen these fillies walking around before multiple times in the past few days, but she decided to save them as a last resort, as their image was quite terrifying. It was evident that their natural colors were bright and cheerful, but they had dyed their manes to a dark black and wore an obnoxious amount of makeup. They looked more like mimes than anything else.

Diamond took a deep breath and initiated a conversation with them, one that she had started so many times that week. By now, her words were sluggish, dull, and lacked any real meaning.

“Hey there, I’m Diamond Tiara. Mind if I hang out with you two?”

“Hey, Widow Fire, check it out. This frilly pink pony wants to hang out with us,” said the one Diamond talked to.

“He he. You’re kidding right? Please tell me she’s kidding, Dragon Breath,” Widow Fire responded back to the ponies next to her.

“Um… I’m not kidding,” Diamond replied back a little annoyed.

Suddenly a few drops of moisture were felt falling from the sky. One drop even hit Diamond squarely in the nose, which made her scrunch it up in annoyance. The three ponies looked up at the clouds and observed the weather for a few seconds. The little droplets swiftly transformed into a dramatic storm, complete with thunder and lightning. It seemed that the pegasi had added a little too much thundercloud for their “moderate showers”. Everypony that wasn’t already under something began to get drenched, including Diamond Tiara and the two Gothic fillies in front of her. Ms. Cheerilee, who was on recess duty that day, blew her whistle and ordered all the school children inside.

“Hmpf. See ya later, little filly,” sneered Dragon Breath, before giving a mighty shove to Diamond and making her fall backwards straight into a developing mud puddle. The force of the landing had sprained her back and she rolled around the mud in pain, eventually camouflaging her pink coat and purple mane in dark brown. A few seconds later, everypony had made it to the schoolhouse door and had gone inside. Cheerilee closed the door behind her. She was now left outside alone, cold, wet, and dirty. Eventually, the pain in her back subsided enough for her to be able to get back on her hooves. She began to slowly drag her body towards the school house. When she got there, she turned the handle to the door and pulled, but found that it wouldn’t budge. She kept pulling at it, hoping that she just wasn’t using enough of her strength, but to no avail.

Diamond Tiara lifted her hoof up to knock on it, when suddenly a strange thought entered her head.

‘Sigh… why should I bother? They probably won’t notice me missing anyway.’ She paused for a moment to contemplate this before she finally accepted it. She immediately turned herself around and decided to get herself home. She didn’t have any homework that day, so she figured she would be fine by leaving her bags there at the school house.

Once again left alone in the confines of her own home (though her father was supposed to be coming home again tomorrow), Diamond quickly washed off herself in the shower, and she brought a soft comfy chair up to her window, and sat down to relax her sore back. Outside, Diamond could see that the sky was a consistent dark gray. All the buildings seemed to effectively absorb the moisture that they were being fed which resulted in them displaying a bright, shiny texture. The constant pattering sounds from each individual rain drop hitting her roof varied from a light tapping to a thunderous pounding. There was no way the storm was going to stop soon.

Diamond’s thoughts suddenly shifted and reminded her of the events of the previous week. First there was the tight rope crossing incident, then Silver Spoon's infuriated face, and finally all the annoyed fillies’ and colts’ faces as she had tried to befriend them.

‘No… nopony likes me… no… nopony wants to hang out, talk, or even look at me… but why?’ Diamond thought for a minute, scrounging her brain for every last detail of information she could find. Suddenly, an epiphany hit her.

All at once, the memories of how she had carelessly belittled other ponies came to her, all the sad, annoyed and angry faces that she, herself, had caused, and the faces of all the ponies she had hurt emotionally with her cruel words. A strange, sour feeling encompassed her heart, and Diamond’s shiny blue eyes began to secret the physical representation of all her newly found regrets.

‘Why… why did I do all those, say all those mean things to my peers, especially the Cutie Mark Crusaders… it just… felt like something I was supposed to do… like… like it was my destiny,’ at that thought, Diamond looked down at her flank. The shiny representation of what she usually wore on her head was still there like always.

‘I’m just… a mean pony. It’s who I am… and there isn’t a single pony who likes it, which means… I am nothing but a waste of air, food, and water… and time,' Diamond concluded before the liquid coming from her eyes increased to an abundance and she began to cry her heart out for the first time in ages, each tear, burning her cheeks in depressive agony. Diamond had never felt such extreme sorrow like this before, the few times she did cry previously had all been for little annoyances or physical pain, all of which, were nothing compared to fires of regret and loneliness she was experiencing that dreary fall afternoon. Finally, Diamond made up her mind.

“Fine… if they don’t want to deal with Diamond Tiara anymore… then… then… they won’t have to…” she quietly said to herself, voice pausing only to be attacked by the sudden hicks and sniffles that usually accompanied a crying pony.

‘Starting tomorrow… they will no longer need to see my worthless face again.’ At that, Diamond got off her chair and entered the covers of her bed to sulk in her sorrows and to plan her exit from this world. She racked her brain for all the methods she could try. First, she thought about overdosing on pain killers, but decided against it, as it wasn’t instant enough for her. She wanted to get out of her worthless life as quickly as possible, and preferably, wanted to be somewhere far away where nopony could find her when she did leave. Suddenly, she remembered the terrified faces of the crusaders after their safety rope had broken a few days ago. That was it. That was how she wanted to end it all. But somehow, despite its depth, Ghastly Gorge didn’t seem quite deep enough to do the job effectively. Sure, she probably could be successful with it, but probably only after having suffered immense pain for a few minutes. She decided that she had to find someplace higher, and remembered an old hiking trail she, her father, and Silver Spoon used to go to when she was little. At the end of the beautiful trail, there was an extremely steep cliff with a nightmarishly long fall, though that spot in particular had a fantastic view of all of Ponyville and beyond. That’s it then. Tomorrow evening, she would throw herself off that cliff and she would no longer be a burden to anypony anymore.

For the rest of the day, Diamond simply laid in her bed thinking about anything and everything, and she continuously ran over her plan over and over again, making sure she knew exactly what her actions had to consist of tomorrow. She didn’t even get out of bed to get some dinner when her stomach began to rumble. Eventually, the evening came and it became pitch black outside. The storm was still going strong, performing its continuous melody of *thudthudthud* against everypony’s windows and roofs. With her face and mane a wreck, and her nose filled to the brim with snot, Diamond eventually fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.

Diamond woke up to the sound of birds chirping as they flew by her window precisely at noon the next day. Sluggishly, she removed herself from the fluffy, soft, warm covers of her bed and she slowly trotted over to her window and opened it. She took a deep breath and got some fresh air. The pegasi had completely cleared the sky and so it was a beautiful day. The trees boasted luxurious shades of red, orange and yellow, confirming that it was indeed autumn, but the air wasn’t that cold at all; Diamond wouldn’t even need a scarf to keep her warm for when… it was time. She had planned for it to happen tonight, just as the sun was setting over the horizon.

Diamond got herself ready by showering, brushing her mane, and having a quick bowl of oats before heading out into the world. Though the unpaved parts of the road were still squishy and moist, mostly everything had been thoroughly dried by the quiet, gentle winds and the somewhat warm sunshine.

She had decided that that day, she would be visiting a few key places that she wanted to say goodbye to. The little ice cream shop she and her father always used to go to, the park, the library, the bowling alley, the town hall, and last but not least, Sugar Cube Corner. She had decided that it would be the place of her final meal.

As soon as she had entered the sweetly decorated bakery, she was greeted by Mrs. Cake.

“Why hello dear, how are you doing today?” she asked her new customer.

“Um… okay I guess…”

“I see… rough day?”

Diamond nodded at this. Rough day? That wasn’t even the beginning of it. She suddenly felt the urge to release more tears, but stopped herself as she wanted to keep her cool. She had cried enough last night to last a lifetime.

“Well, is there anything I can get you?”

“Yeah… I’ll take… some apple fritters and some cherry cheese cake, please.”

“Coming right up!” she sang out with glee. Every last syllable that hit her ear drums made her heart hurt more and more.

‘Only a few more hours…’ she thought to herself.

After finishing her meal, Diamond decided she would head home and stay there until about six-o-clock in the evening when she would be making her way to the hiking trail. There was still one last thing she needed to do before she could go. She had decided that she was going to write two different letters to two different ponies: one to her father and one to Silver Spoon. She went to the desk in her room and pulled out two sheets of parchment, some envelopes and a ballpoint pen and began to write her father’s letter first.

‘Dear Dad,

I know this is rather sudden, but I’m afraid I no longer have a choice. I don’t know why I have been so oblivious to this before, but there isn’t a single pony around here that cares about me in the slightest, and I know exactly why. I am a terrible pony, I always make fun of others and make their lives horrible, and there is nothing I can do about it because it’s my destiny, it’s what my cutie mark has represented all this time: being a rich, selfish snob. Please don’t be sad for too long after I’m gone… it’ll probably be better for the both of us in the long run. Remember that hiking trail we always used to go to when I was younger, when mom was still alive? I have decided that that would be my final resting place. I guess you could go and try and find me, but I know that by the time you read this it will all be too late… goodbye daddy.

Love, Diamond Tiara.’

Originally, Diamond had planned for her day to go tearless, but as she was in the middle of writing the letter, her emotions got the best of her and she couldn’t resist breaking out into an excruciating sob of internal pain. She had to move her head back from the desk a bit to make sure she didn’t soil the parchment with her tears. Now that she had finished writing it, she folded it up neatly four times horizontally and sealed it inside an envelope. On it, she wrote ‘To Dad’ in her fanciest mouth writing. She placed it off to the side and began to write the second letter to Silver Spoon.

‘Hey Silvy,

I know by now that you probably couldn’t care less about me or my well being, but I just wanted to say that I am terribly sorry for any troubles that I may have caused you, not that it matters anymore. I have recently realized how terrible of a pony I am to everypony, and so tonight I am gonna make sure I can no longer be a burden. Remember that hiking trail we used to always go to when we were younger? I think it would make a nice final resting place. Goodbye Silver Spoon, it was nice knowing you while it lasted.

Diamond Tiara.’

By the time she was finished writing this, she had calmed down a bit, but only because her tear supply was running thin, and if anything, it made the feelings within her worse, as she was now lacking of a way to release all the pain and tension inside of her. She sealed the second letter, addressed it to Silver Spoon and then glanced at the clock. It was about five fifty-eight. Close enough. Diamond Tiara sluggishly picked herself up, grabbed the letters with her mouth, opened her door, stood in the frame of it, and turned around to get a good final look of her room. She had spent her entire life there and was saddened to know that this would be the very last time she would get to see it. After she had gotten a good look at it, she stepped forward a bit and calmly closed the door. She went down the hall, down the stairs and straight to her father’s home office. She placed his letter on the desk, knowing that in just a couple hours when he returned home that night that he would be right here, right where she was standing, reading it. After getting a final look of her dad’s office, she let herself out of the house, and locked the front door behind her. Her final last look was of the house. Thinking back, she remembered all the great times she had had with Silver Spoon and her parents there. The memories brought a smile to her lips, and she had once again found an extra surplus of tears that were now making their way down her already soiled cheeks.

Her next destination was Silver Spoon’s, which was just down the road. When she got there, she went to her window and found that it was open a little bit like it always was and she placed the letter through the crack and onto the desk behind it.

Now it was time for the final journey she would ever be making. Her journey to the forest covered, mountainous roads of her childhood hiking trail.

It just so happened that that very same night, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had gotten permission to have a sleep over at their new friend Silver Spoon’s house. It wasn’t nearly as big and fancy as Diamond Tiara’s, but it was still fairly high class. That night, Silver Spoon’s parents had gone out on a date because they trusted Silver Spoon enough to take care of everything, and she intended to keep that promise.

“Now girls,” she started as they all walked through their front door, “I promised my parents that I would take care of the house while they were gone, so please treat it with respect.”

“Hey, what do ya take us for? Monsters of mass destruction?” asked Apple Bloom.

“No, I’m just saying that we need to keep ourselves civil, that’s all,” Silver Spoon retorted, somehow keeping a mature tone.

“Sigh, fine.”

The three fillies followed Silver Spoon down the long hallways of her house and to the door to her room. Upon entering, and seeing it for the first time, their mouths gaped open at the exquisite splendor their eyes were feeding to their brains. The entire room had a modern silver color to it, and it was filled with what looked like very expensive furniture. The ceiling seemed like it was a mile high, and hanging from it was a large glass chandelier, which looked as if it were made out of diamonds.

“Woah… your room is AMAZING!” squeaked out Sweetie Belle.

“Why thank you Sweetie Belle. You guys can go put your stuff over there by the wall and you can roll out your sleeping bags over there by my bed,” said Silver Spoon. She then watched her friends do as they were told to for a few seconds before she sensed that something… was out of place. No, that wasn’t it. There was something in her room that hadn’t been there when she had last left it. A few seconds back, her eyes had skimmed over it, but she didn’t really think about it until just now. She turned to her desk, over by her window, and she found a little square envelope sitting on top of it. Ignoring the Crusaders for a moment, she slowly walked over to it and picked it up. ‘To Silver Spoon’ it read. She opened her drawer and fished out a letter opener, and being careful not to damage the envelope too much, she started to open it up. Finally with a hole big enough, Silver Spoon removed the letter from inside, placed the envelope down on her desk, unfolded the letter and began to read.

“Hey Silver Spoon, we’re done rolling out our sleeping bags,” said Scootaloo, being followed by her other friends, “what are we going to do first?”

“Hey, what is that you’re reading?” asked Sweetie Belle. Silver Spoon didn’t respond, she simply kept her back to them.

“Silver Spoon? Hello? Anypony home?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Silver Spoon?” Scootaloo said softly. She walked up to their friend and turned her around by tugging on her shoulder. The three fillies’ mouths dropped open in astonishment as they saw Silver Spoon crying her eyes out, and she was noticeably shaking a bit.

“Oh horse feathers, what’s wrong Silver Spoon? What did that letter say?” asked Apple Bloom, her voice now obviously worried. A few seconds passed as they watched their friend cry. Finally, she wiped her eyes and got a hold of herself. She now looked more worried than sad.

“This letter, it’s from Diamond Tiara. She’s in trouble, and we have to go find her, NOW!”

“What! What’s wrong with her?” asked Sweetie Belle, even more shocked than before.

“I…. I…. I think she is going to… going to… end her own life…”

“Oh my Celestia. What are we doin’ just standin’ here? We’ve got to go find her! Does it say where she is going to do it?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Yes. Do you know where Firefly trail is?”

“Yeah, Ah was there just last week.”

“Okay, we definitely can’t do this alone, so Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, you hurry and go get your sisters, and Scootaloo, come with me to go and find Diamond.” Scootaloo nodded.

Finally, the sun had disappeared completely over the horizon, just as Diamond made it to the peak of the mountain. In front of her, she could see a vast scene of blackness, speckled with little dots of white and yellow from the lights of the residents of Ponyville. The trail had come to a large circle shaped viewing platform, surrounded by a rather short fence. Diamond skillfully pulled herself over it, and onto the rocky terrain just before the cliff face. There was only about seven feet of it, but the length didn’t really matter to Diamond. She was going to jump off of it either way. Diamond decided to rest here from her hike for a little bit and to look at the moon for one final time. Princess Luna certainly had outdone herself, presenting a large, shiny full moon. Even though it was autumn with a slight breeze, Diamond didn’t feel cold at all, in fact, the temperature was quite comfortable. Despite knowing the exact actions that were about to take place, Diamond was very calm, and didn’t have the slightest desire to cry. Just moments away, she would no longer have to suffer the unfairness of life, and she would finally be at peace.

Finally satisfied with her rest, Diamond slowly walked forward to the edge and looked down. Despite just barely being lifted from the horizon, the moon was able to adequately light up the entire precipice and, of course, the ground below.

Suddenly, Diamond’s acute sense of hearing picked up a strange sound. It was too faint for her to recognize it, but somehow she thought she had heard it before. She decided to stop what she was doing for a few seconds to see if she could identify it. A few seconds passed and it got louder and louder until finally it became recognizable. Diamond couldn’t believe it. It was none other than the sound of her ex-friend Silver Spoon’s voice.

“DIAMOND?! DIAMOND!?” Silver Spoon called out. “Ugh, she’s got to be here somewhere.” Suddenly, the two fillies came to a large, rocky wall and so they had to make a directional decision. Scootaloo suddenly stopped about fifty feet from the wall.

“Hey, what’s that up there?” said Scootaloo looking up at something so high, her neck was craned almost a full 90 degrees. Excitedly, Silver Spoon moved back to where Scootaloo was, and looked up too. It was hard to see, as it was so high up, and the darkness didn’t help, thank Luna that the moon was so bright tonight. Focusing as hard as she could through her glasses, Silver Spoon could see a small, shiny but blurry ball of pink amongst an endless collage of brown, gray and black. There was no way that anything else was going to be that color.

“Diamond? Is that you?” screamed out Silver Spoon at the top of her lungs, wanting to make sure she could hear it. A few seconds passed as Silver Spoon’s voice echoed out throughout the forest.

What could she do, she had let herself be spotted. She decided to respond back.

“Yes… it’s me…” she called out, her voice beginning to shake.

“Oh thank Celestia you’re alright! What do you think you’re doing up there Diamond?!” Silver Spoon responded, despite now knowing exactly what Diamond had been planning to do. Before Diamond could respond, another sound could be heard. It was the sound of hooves slamming against the ground at full speed and the sound of four voices screaming at the top of their lungs, calling for Scootaloo and Silver Spoon.

“Over here, guys! By the cliff face! Diamond is all the way up there at the top!” Scootaloo called out to her fellow crusaders and their sisters. Finally, through the darkness the two fillies on the ground spotted Apple Bloom, Applejack, Sweetie Belle and Rarity in that order emerging from the forest.

“What’s going on here?” asked Applejack, “ya’ll just told me to come hurryin’ without any explanation.” Apple Bloom looked up at the top of the cliff and spotted Diamond. She pointed a hoof up at her so Applejack and Rarity could see.

“Golly, what’s she doin’ so close to the edge?” she said out loud. Diamond heard her.

“I’m gonna BUCKING JUMP, ya dimwit hillbilly!” Diamond Tiara screamed at the top of her lungs at the now startled Applejack. As the words left her mouth, Diamond couldn’t help herself but to start tearing up, yet again.

“Hey now, there’s no reason to get hostile… wait… JUMP!?! Now why would ya ever consider such a silly thing?” All the ponies on the ground were now standing next to each other, all with their necks craned upwards, all with worried expressions.

“Yes, darling, I guarantee you that it’s not worth it. Now could you please come down here so we can talk civilly?” called out Rarity.

Diamond just sat there staring down at her observers for a minute, contemplating what she had just heard. Her sobbing was hysterical by now.

“NO! You don’t understand; you couldn’t possibly understand what I’m feeling right now. I’m sure you all have big, loving families and lots of friends that care about you very much! So what do I have? Nothing! The only family I have is either dead or always gone somewhere, not paying any attention to me. I don’t have any friends, and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get any! Not even one! I’m a complete waste of life, air, food, shelter, water, everything! I didn’t want anypony to see me off, but I guess it’s too late for that now!” Silver Spoon was now crying herself.

“Diamond, wait! Please don’t jump! I’m sorry about everything I said! I’m sorry about ignoring you! I’m sorry about being a traitor to you! I’m sorry about every little thing, but please, DON’T JUMP! You’re my best friend and have always been since the day we first met when we were really little!”

But by the time these words reached Diamond’s ears, it was already too late, as she had already stepped back to the fence, and stared running to the edge at full speed. Diamond couldn’t see a thing, as it was too dark and her tears were blurring her vision. Suddenly, the ground disappeared from underneath her and her forward acceleration ceased. The somewhat startling sensation of ‘butterflies’ in her stomach confirmed that Diamond was now beginning to plummet towards the earth below. Diamond closed her eyes and curled herself into a ball. As her falling speeds increased she started to do somersaults through the air and she immediately lost control.

‘I’m so sorry, Silver Spoon,’ Diamond thought to herself through her screams.

Back on the ground, the six ponies watched in horror as the young, depressed pink filly hurled herself through the air, and started to plunge to the ground at an alarming rate. Applejack and Rarity instinctively began to run away from the cliff, knowing that Diamond could land anywhere, and it would be very bad if she were to hit them. But, because their eyes were focused on the nightmarish sight before them, the four young fillies stood completely still, eyes open wide; Silver Spoon’s filled with tears.

Five agonizing seconds later, the ponies heard a sound and saw a sight they would never forget. It consisted of somewhat dull and quiet cries quickly turning into loud, blood curling screams of terror. After that, an eardrum shattering thud of flesh hitting rock rang throughout the forest, immediately followed by the vivid sound of crunching and something that sounded like an overly filled water balloon breaking open after being thrown as hard as anypony could into the ground. A dark red mist burst into the air as Diamond’s now limp torso bounced a little. Her arms and legs were ripped from her body and sent flying in all directions with torrents of blood ejecting from the ends of them, splattering everywhere, including all over the crusaders and Silver Spoon. Diamond’s head not only liberated itself from her neck, but a massive hole was created right where her tiara had been, and it dug straight down into her brain. The contents leaked out and covered her now lifeless face, each eye staring at a different target into nothingness. The place where her head had just been on her body started spurting out its own life juice, creating a giant puddle of blood under her now settled corpse.

The ludicrous amount of blood that had been rocketed to her face had forced Apple Bloom to reflexively close her eyes. Now that the damage had been done, she slowly opened them and saw the revolting scene before her. Her pupils shrunk down to their smallest size and tears started to erupt from her tear ducts. Losing strength in her knees Apple Bloom collapsed, and was now starting to shake uncontrollably on the ground.

Sweetie Belle was a little luckier. She had closed her eyes right before impact, and even though she was now dripping from head to hoof with the red substance, she didn’t see a single thing that had happened, and she decided to keep it that way. She was already crying, her tears seeping through her closed eyelids.

Scootaloo’s reaction was less extreme, at least, on the outside it was. As her innocence was brutally destroyed on the inside, she merely stood there, motionless and accepted every last brutal image fed to her pupils, and every last piece of gore thrown at her.

Finally, Silver Spoon wasn’t fairing too well. On impact, she had turned her entire head away, closed her eyes and covered her ears, and only once the nightmarish sounds had ceased did she dare to take a look at what happened. At first sight, she had instantly wished she hadn’t. As if she wasn’t in enough shock already, as soon as the sordid fumes of death reached her nose, her stomach began to rumble and churn before Silver Spoon vomited all over the ground in front of her. Her tears fell from her cheeks to join the wretched mixture of blood and vomit before her.

Applejack and Rarity returned from their escape.

“Oh my… what a… mess,” Applejack muttered to Rarity, starting to turn green.

“Quick, grab the fillies. We need to get some help, and fast,” said Rarity. Usually, she would’ve been completely repulsed by such a job, but she felt it was her responsibility at that moment to get covered in blood and to help the poor, helpless fillies. She carefully lifted Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon onto her back, and Applejack did the same to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. The ponies immediately started on their way out of there and straight to the Ponyville police station.

It was a long, completely silent fifteen minutes before they finally reached their destination. All and any of the Ponyville residents that were out and about stopped and gaped at the blood covered fillies that had been rushed past them. Applejack burst through the door, and met two startled police ponies.

“It’s an emergency! A poor little filly has just committed suicide by jumping off the cliff at Firefly trail!” yelled out Applejack, now out of breath. “There is blood… everywhere, and these poor little fillies had to watch it all!” Both ponies set the fillies on their back on the ground as she said this.

Immediately, the police picked up their phones and started calling the hospital, and called for some back up from the other stations scattered throughout town. One of the officers went back to the forest with Applejack so he could identify the exact location of the incident properly and report it to his fellow officers and the medical crew. The other one immediately started asking Rarity and the little fillies questions, but to their dismay, they couldn’t get any of them to speak a single word, that is, except for Silver Spoon who kept muttering to herself, the only recognizable words being, “How… how could this happen. Why… Diamond… why…”

Suddenly, the doors to police station forcefully popped open, revealing a distressed Filthy Rich.

“Officer, you’ve got to help me! I think my daughter is going to kill herself! We need to go and find her, NOW!” It was just then that he saw the traumatized fillies. His mouth gaped open and he suddenly forgot how to breathe. Calmly, the officer put down his notepad and walked over to Filthy.

“Sir, are you the father of Diamond Tiara?” asked the officer, voice soft and respectful.

“Yes…”

“Well, if what these ponies over here are saying is true… then… I’m sorry but, I think we may be too late.” Filthy Rich sat there for a moment, absorbing his words. He walked over to the wall and began to sob to himself, not letting the other ponies see him this way.

“Sir, we have a crew on their way right now to where your daughter is. In the meantime, would it be alright if I asked you some questions?” Filthy Rich turned around suddenly with hope in his eyes.

“Wait, you know where she is? Where is she? Can I see her?”

“Uh… I don’t think you would want to see her like this, not that there is much to see of her anymore… She threw herself off the large cliff at Firefly trail.” Upon hearing this, Filthy began sobbing again this time not caring that the others saw him. He couldn’t believe it, his one and only daughter had killed herself, and so suddenly too. He remembered his daughter’s final words in the letter that had been addressed to him. She sounded like she had been in a lot of pain and was awfully lonely, which only made it worse for him. If only he could’ve been there for her… if only…

Diamond opened her eyes slowly, only to find that there were wasn’t much to see in the first place. All around her, there was nothing but complete whiteness. In fact, the only other thing she could notice about this place was that the ground was rather soft and fluffy, as if she were on some sort of cloud. Upon sitting up, she called out into the nothingness.

“Hello? Is anypony there?” A few seconds passed with no response.

“Hello?” she called again. Still nothing. Her voice simply echoed out through the abyss. She decided to get up and start looking around, but upon doing that, a thunderous yet gentle female voice bellowed throughout the land.

“Greetings, my little pony.” At that, a large majestic alicorn descended from the whiteness above and landed just a few feet ahead of Diamond.

“Prin… Princess Celestia?” stuttered Diamond, bowing.

“It is I, young filly,” she responded.

“What… what is this place?”

“This place is what I call Limbo. If you have arrived here, then something has prevented you from moving on…”

“Moving on? Moving on to where?”

“As to where, I cannot say, for even I do not know. All I do know is that it is my duty to help ponies that have gotten themselves stuck in Limbo, and to get them to move on.”

“Well… how do I move on when I’m stuck in Limbo?”

“You must return to Equestria and finish what must be done.” At that, a bright light shone in Diamond’s face, forcing her to close her eyes, and when they opened, she found herself back in her own home, just outside her room. Princess Celestia was nowhere to be found and when she looked down at herself, she found that she was slightly transparent. Suddenly, she heard the sound of somepony quietly sobbing from inside. She tried to turn her door handle, but found that her hoof went right through it. Instead, she realized she was able to walk right through her door and into her room.

Once inside, she found her father sitting on her bed, and he was holding a simple picture of her smiling face in a silver colored frame. His appearance was a mess and it looked like he hadn’t had a good night’s rest in weeks. His eyes were filled with tears and he was sobbing to himself. Diamond trotted over to the front of him and spoke softly.

“…daddy?” Her voice seemed to echo as Filthy Rich jumped and looked up to find what looked like a transparent projection of his daughter. He thought he would have felt scared seeing her, but instead, his heart felt warm and calm.

“D… Diamond? Is that really you?”

“Yes daddy… it’s me…” At that, Filthy Rich put down the picture frame and tried to pick up his daughter for a hug, only to find that his hooves failed to make contact with her.

“I’m sorry daddy, but I am afraid that you cannot touch me.”

“What are you doing here then?” he asked, seemingly afraid to do so.

“I don’t understand it, but Princess Celestia has told me that I need to… take care of some things before I’m allowed to… move on…” Upon hearing those words, Filthy Rich began to weep, yet again.

“Why… why did you do it, Diamond? You have hurt me and so many other ponies from what you have done…” Diamond was taken aback by this.

“It’s… it’s because I’m such a worthless pony that nopony cares about… I killed myself because I thought it would be one less burden for everypony.”

“Please Diamond, don’t say that about yourself. You just… needed a little help… that’s all. You should’ve waited till I got home. We could have sorted everything out together.”

“Daddy… are you mad at me?”

“No, honey… I’m not mad… just sad… but also a little glad because you’re going to be able to see your mother again. When you see her, if you see her again, please tell her that I love her, and that I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help you live a long and prosperous life…” Diamond nodded at this.

“I will, daddy. And I guess I’m sorry too. I never thought about how much I would hurt you.” At this, the father and his daughter wept together as they tried their best to connect their hooves, trying to feel the other as best as they could. Suddenly, Diamond started to fade away.

“It looks like my time is up, daddy… I’ll love you forever… goodbye…”

“Good… goodbye Diamond… I’ll love you forever too.” At that, a bright light yet again blinded Diamond and Filthy Rich saw her disappear into nothingness.

Once Diamond could see again, she found that she had appeared in the Cutie Mark Crusader’s tree house, and inside there were four depressed looking, crying fillies: Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and lastly, the pony who looked to be in the worst shape, Silver Spoon. It seemed that none of them noticed her appearing, so she had to make a vocal notification.

“Um… hello?” she said shyly.

Slowly, they each turned their heads and, though startled at first, saw the ghostly projection of their deceased friend. Silver Spoon was the first to speak.

“D… Diamond… is… is that you?”

“Yes, Silver Spoon, it’s me.” The four living fillies got up and gathered around Diamond.

“Don’t bother trying to touch me, as it is not possible. I’ve already tried,” she told her friends before they could make any attempts to do so.

“Why… why did you decide to leave us like this Diamond? It’s… it’s not my fault, is it?” asked Silver Spoon, pausing every few seconds so she could sniffle. Diamond thought for a minute before she responded.

“Well… it did kind of… affect me emotionally…”

“Oh, just say it Diamond! It WAS all my fault. But… you have to understand, I had no idea how much pain you were in. Why didn’t you come to me first? I don’t care how mad at you I was, I would have been more than happy to help you! And now, you’ve hurt all of us.” Upon hearing this, Diamond’s blue eyes began to moisten yet again as these painful words ate at her soul.

“I… I know Silver Spoon. I guess… I shouldn’t have done this… and I’m so sorry everything had to turn out this way.” The two of them wept together as the Cutie Mark Crusaders watched, now beginning to form tears of their own.

“Um, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo? I’m also very sorry about everything I said and did to you. I never realized how mean I was being. It all just felt completely natural to me, like it was my destiny, like it was what my cutie mark was trying to tell me.” Apple Bloom was the one who responded to that.

“It… it’s okay, Diamond. It all really wasn’t that bad in the first place…” As soon as she had finished, Diamond started to once again fade away.

“Looks like it is time for me to go… goodbye everypony… I… I love you all…” Diamond said to the four sobbing ponies all around her, but by the time they had a chance to respond, she had already completely vanished.

“Goodbye Diamond… I love you too, dear friend…” said Silver Spoon.

Once the bright light had faded once again, Diamond found herself back in the company of Princess Celestia.

“Well? Did you take care of what needed to be done?” she asked.

“Yeah… I think I did…”

“Well then… it is time. I must leave you now, but I’m sure you’ll get to move on very soon. Goodbye, Diamond, and good luck.”

“Goodbye, Princess.” At that, Princess Celestia ascended back to where she came from; straight into the heavens of this limited world she called Limbo.