//------------------------------// // Time doesn't heal all wounds. // Story: The Diamond Princess // by TheEmpressEclipse //------------------------------// Months had passed since Diamond Tiara's father was taken from her, and she now lived in the Ponyville Orphanage. She still saw Silver Spoon at school, but, things were different, and they'd never be like they were. She sat on her bed and stared at the floor, that's all she ever did at night, everypony would leave her alone, but she wished they would stay. The old Grandfather Clock "chimed", it didn't really sound like a chime, it sounded more like a gong. She raised her head and looked at the door, somepony was coming by to make sure that everypony was tucked in bed and sleeping, Diamond laid down and pulled the sheets over her little body and pretended to be asleep. The door creaked open and a blue mare with a long, silky black mane looked in, it was Nightingale, she was the kindest pony at this dreadful orphanage, quietly Nightingale exited the room and closed the door, leaving silence to reign in the room. Diamond tossed and turned as she tried to fall asleep, but she couldn't shake the memories of her father from her head, she sat up and crawled out of her uncomfortable bed, sitting down in front of the window she sighed and looked up at the stars, they made her think of Princess Luna and that day that ruined her life. A shooting star flew past and she couldn't help but wish that this was some horrible nightmare, closing her eyes she tried to think of a black abyss, it was something Nightingale taught her, slowly she felt her conscience slipping away before everything went black. ******************************** Diamond woke up to the sound of delighted squeals, rubbing the sleep from her eyes she looked around the room, it was empty but somepony had put her in bed. Lifting herself up, she jumped out of bed and trotted to the door, she pushed it open, walked down the stairs and turned into the main room. All the foals were opening presents and playing with each other, then Diamond remembered, it was Hearths Warming Day! Walking around the piles of wrapping paper, she came to a stop in front of the Hearths Warming tree, there was only one present left and of course it was hers, she grabbed it and began unwrapping it, she pulled the box open to reveal a scarf, a hat and some boots. She sighed and picked them up, gracefully she trotted over to her corner and sat down, from here she could watch all the foals in the orphanage play, it was actually enjoyable. Looking down at her present she wondered who the donator was and if they would even fit, she took them out and tried them on, they were a little too big but she was still growing. Looking back to the foals, her frown softened, then tears pooled in her eyes and poured down her cheeks, she didn't cry aloud for fear of ruining everyponies Hearths Warming, and instead walked back to her room, her head filled with memories of past Hearths Warming's with her father. When she got to her room she attempted to calm herself down by thinking of the black abyss, then she started drying her eyes, it was almost breakfast time and she wanted to look presentable, reaching under her bed she pulled out a bottle with an eye-dropper for a top, she filled the eye-dropper and pulled it from the top of the bottle, she put a couple drops in both of her eyes and returned the eye-dropper and bottle to the underside of her bed. Looking in the mirror, she could see that the eye drops were already taking effect, her eyes were no longer puffy and red. Sighing she exited the room and headed back downstairs, maybe today would better then all the previous days. The dinning room was full of happy laughs and chitchat, Diamond climbed into her seat and awaited the food. As she sat there looking at her empty plate she tried to listen to all the foals who were talking around her, a pink filly named Sweet Roll was talking to her best friend Willow, a white unicorn, about her dream family, as she talked Sweet Roll's boisterous purple mane bounced, it was practically mesmerizing, Diamond quickly stopped listening to that conversation and and let her attention wander to Pipsqueak and Lantern. They were always finding ways to get themselves into trouble, Diamond never could understand why though, clearly putting a bunch of frogs into Miss Free Notes' dresser drawers is going to land you in a world of trouble, but they did it anyway. Today was no different, they were scheming again, they spoke in low voices so Diamond didn't hear much, but she did hear something about snow and Miss Free Notes' room. "QUIET!" Diamond turned to find the scowling face of Miss Free Notes, she was the director of this miserable little orphanage, for all her beauty and grace she was a villain, she was a tall white unicorn with a white and orange curled mane and her cutie mark was three music notes, which was odd seeing as she never sang. Nightingale walked out of the kitchen pushing a cart with plates, forks and stacks and stacks of pancakes. Miss Free Notes took her seat at the head of the table and Nightingale started handing out the food. Bless Nightingale's heart, she always got us good food, she came from a rich family up in Canterlot but wanted to help those less fortunate than herself, which lead her to the Ponyville Orphanage, the most miserable place on the face of Eqquis. Finally Nightingale passed out the last plate of pancakes and took her seat next to Miss Free Notes, who looked us over and scowled. "Thank you Miss Free Notes. Thank you Miss Nightingale." We all chimed in unison. "Alright, lets eat." Miss Free Notes said, her face was still frozen in that permanent scowl. And so the feast began, everypony shoveled pancake after pancake into their mouths and some of them might have even chewed, but still Nightingale was going to have a very hard time cleaning up the mess of syrup. Diamond ate her meal slowly, making sure that she didn't make a terrible mess like all the other foals, soon enough Diamond looked up to find everypony staring at her, she sighed, gripping her spoon tightly, she picked up all the cut up pieces of pancakes and stuffed them in. Everypony cheered, got up, and ran off, probable to cause one shenanigan or another. Then Diamond heard the front door open and the sound of little hooves trotting in, Diamond knew she was coming and ran out to meet her friend, when she got to the lobby, sure enough, it was Silver Spoon. "Happy Hearths Warming, Diamond!" Silver Spoon exclaimed as she ran to hug her pink friend. "Yeah, happy Hearths Warming to you too." Diamond said, being around Silver always made her feel better, but she was never truly happy. "I got you a present!" Silver said through a broad smile. Silver Spoon was a prime example of getting into the holiday spirit, she was practically a different filly. "Here, open it!" She commanded as she gave Diamond a small, thin rectangular box. Doing as she was told, Diamond sat down and began unwrapping her little present, pulling open the box she found a very simple necklace, it was a silver chain with two charms on it, one resembling Diamond's cutie mark and the other was Silver's cutie mark. "I made it myself!" The platinum coated filly said proudly, taking off her scarf she showed her friend that she had a matching necklace. "I made one for both of us." "Thanks Silver, its beautiful." Diamond felt like crying but the eye drops were preventing it, so instead she hugged her friend, something she almost never did before. "Come on, lets go play!" Silver said as she broke free from her friends embrace. "Alright." Diamond said. "What should we play?" "Hide and seek!" Silver said, she loved hide and seek. "Okay, lets get the others!" Diamond exclaimed.