Avatar: Legend of Diamond Tiara. Book 1: Harmony

by Jeweled Pen

Chapter 24: Loss

Diamond kept her head low, barely even aware of her surroundings as she was led down the hall, two unmarked surrounding her. Now that she had no bending, Meadowbrook didn't seem as interested in her and left her to the others to take away.

The Avatar didn't care, though. Everything was wrong now. She felt so slow and weak. She couldn't focus like she used to. Her body didn't even feel like hers anymore. Even the short little walk from the airship to the city was making her feel tired and lightly panting. She felt as if a part of her had been absorbed. She didn't even know if it was physical, either. 'Maybe it's because of my lack of a cutie mark that;s making me feel so weak,' she pondered as she walked. Meadowbrook had won, she had defeated her. There was nothing more she could do. A big door was opened and she walked inside, not even putting up the smallest of fights.

“Diamond!” a voice called out, making her look up. To her amazement, Silver was sitting there in the small room. It was hard to say who was more surprised, the other's mouth was hanging open. “Your... your cutie mark... it's... Avatar...”

“I'm not the Avatar anymore,” Diamond said softly. “Meadowbrook has... has beaten me.”

Silver slowly walked over, reaching up to give the mare a hug. “That's... that's impossible. You're the hero, you can't lose. You can't!”

“I... I have. I can't beat her. Not now. Not ever. I tried. I tried so hard,” she mumbled softly, tears welling up in her eyes. “She was just... too strong. She has the cutie marks, she has the city, she has me. It's... over. I've lost.” She hugged her friend back and sobbed into her shoulder. “I can't do this anymore! I tried, I tried so hard. I did everything I could! But she still won! Why? Why did she have to win? I just... I just...”

“It's okay, it's okay,” Silver whispered, gently patting her on the back. “You can still win. You'll still win. The others aren't captured, are they?”

“I think... I think Blaze and Prism are.” Diamond whispered. She wanted to feel hope, that maybe the others would save them. But she couldn't. She could barely even feel upset that her teacher had been captured. All she felt was empty and sad. Not sad about anything in particular, just sad in general. As if a part of her had been torn away and she couldn't do anything but just endure the pain of it being gone. “So many others, too. So many gone. So many failed. I... I never should have been the Avatar.”

“You're a good Avatar,” Silver said with a smile, hugging her friend tightly. “I know you'll find a way out of this. I know you'll still save us. I know--”

“How? How can you possibly know that?” Diamond asked before tugging away and glaring at her. “I've messed up everything! I'm empty now! Hopeless! I have NOTHING! How can you possibly think I can fix this?”

“Because you're the Avatar. You've always saved the world before, why can't you now?”

“I'm not the Avatar now! I can't bend! I can't fight! I can't even run faster than a small trot, I just... I can't do anything,” Diamond said softly, before falling onto her butt. “Why... why are you even here? Where is everypony else?” She looked around the room, it was little more than a small cell.

“Meadowbrook has been keeping me here so she can keep my father under her control,” the mare muttered. “Ever since the... prison fell. Meadowbrook can bend. Or rather... her staff can. She used it to break the prison apart and allow the ponies to escape. Then her minions... took me.”

Diamond nodded slowly. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. We should have come and saved you. I should have gotten you out. I should have... there are so many things I should have done.”

Silver nodded and then patted her head. “It's okay. Sometimes friends let each other down. But that doesn't mean they stop being friends. As long as you keep trying, it doesn't matter how many times you fail, right? I know in the end you'll beat her. You won't give up, will you?”

“I... I don't know if I can keep going...” the Avatar said softly.

Silver nodded. “Do... you think you really can't beat her? That there's nothing you can do?”

Diamond stared for a moment before, slowly, she shook her head. “No... I just... I don't... if I could get my cutie mark back. If I could get the others back from her... I could just...”

“I think she has them stored somewhere.”

The Avatar froze. “Wait, what?”

“Think about it. How many of them has she stolen so far? She couldn't possibly be carrying all of them with her, could she? She'd have to put them somewhere. If you can find where she's hiding them, you can get them back.”

Diamond nodded slowly. “Your... your right. She has to...” She then gasped, moving a hoof to her mouth. “What if... she still has her cutie mark?”

“Oh?” the earth pony asked. “But she's one of them. How could she be an unmarked with one?”

Diamond felt her mind working, though it was still slow and groggy. But the ideas were forming. “She fought too skilled. Too fluid. Her movements weren't... right. They were too perfect. What if she still has her cutie mark? What if all along she's just been... using them? What if the staff is all just a way to get their cutie marks for her own ends? So she'll be the strongest, the only one still with one?”

Silver gasped, her eyes widening. “Is... is such a thing possible? Surely somepony would notice.”

Diamond chewed on her lip. “Maybe? I mean... right now... you've felt it. How... hard it is to focus like this? How everything feels different? Maybe they just haven't noticed yet.”

Silver nodded. “But how can you be sure? There has to be some way to prove it, right?”

The unicorn nodded. “Yeah. I'll have to... think. Plan. I'll find out, somehow. Just need to come up with a plan.” She sat down on the small bunk and leaned back against the wall. “Just... need to think.”

She just wished her head didn't feel like it was filled with gravel.

------

“And how's my favorite Avatar today?” a voice asked. Diamond turned towards the door and groaned. A small window in the middle had been opened, revealing Meadowbrook.

“Oh go buck yourself,” Diamond grumbled, glaring up at the door. “What do you want?”

“Oh Avatar, need you be so petulant? You may have lost to me, but in life you have won. Is being one of the unmarked really so bad? Don't you feel better now? More connected? Now you are one with everypony else, no longer rising above them and dominating them with your superiority.”

“I liked dominating ponies!” Diamond snapped. “And I... wait, no, that came out wrong. I liked who I was. And I liked who they were. And just because I was better at some things didn't mean I was better than them! It just meant we were different. We all had different strengths and weaknesses. And that's okay. Everypony is like that. Some are faster, some are stronger, some are smarter, some are funnier. It's just... the way we are.”

Meadowbrook shook her head. “Why? Why is it so important for others to be better? To raise themselves above their fellow ponies? Can't you see the glory, the love in this? When all ponies are equal, it means nopony will ever have to feel bad.”

“What you're doing is wrong,” Diamond muttered. “It doesn't matter what you say. It's wrong.” She held a hoof to her chest. “It's... taking away what makes me, me. Holding it prisoner. Nopony should have to feel like this.”

“Nopony should have to feel alone, either. Nopony should have to feel like they don't matter just because they... lack what others do. We should all be equal,” Meadowbrook said with a shake of her head. “I... was hoping you'd see things differently. Would understand. I was hoping you could join me as a friend. But it seems you will have to come as a prisoner. But it is no matter.”

“Come? Come where?”

The mare smiled. “There are still those who fight me. Sadly, they'll have to be... forcefully converted. I will show all ponies how the Avatar has fallen, become one of the unmarked and joined us. They will of course try to save you. They will join us as well. Then, finally, the city will be ours.”

“You can't... you can't unmark the non-ponies,” Diamond said softly. “They'll fight you.”

Meadowbrook shrugged. “Our numbers are vastly higher than theirs. I don't wish for them to fight us, but if they insist, then they will suffer the consequences. But you are right. Those... non-ponies will have to be expelled if they won't join me.” She paused. “But the Staff of Sameness is strong. Every day I learn something new about the power it holds. And it's getting stronger. Perhaps soon I will be able to convert even non-ponies into the unmarked. After all, it didn't originally work on anything but unicorns. But now it even works on the zebras.”

Diamond's eyes widened. “W-wait, it... didn't? How? W-where did it come from? How can it be... getting stronger?”

“With every cutie mark it takes, it grows stronger and stronger,” the mare said with a soft chuckle. “And isn't it obvious, dear Avatar? It's a relic of Discord. One of his more... powerful ones.”

Silver's eyes widened and a hoof rose to her mouth. “D-Discord? That's not possible, that can't be...”

“Oh? There's no need to be so frightened, child. Discord is long gone, the last Avatar made sure of that. But his relics remain.” She paused. “Avatar. There is still time. You don't need to spend your life imprisoned. You can join us. Become our friend. Our equal.”

“I will never join you. I'd rather die.”

“Dying isn't an option, Avatar. But if that is how you wish it... very well.” The door opened and a tray was slid into the room, with a few pieces of bread and a bowl of some kind of mush. The door closed, the little window with it.

Diamond sighed and leaned back, closing her eyes. “How could I fail so spectacularly?” she asked softly. “I tried so hard. I worked so hard. I practiced. I adapted. I learned to be a better pony. And yet here I am, a failure. A loser. A horrible pony who... who just...” She felt the tears welling up in her eyes again. “I never should have been born.”

“Diamond, don't say that,” Silver said softly.

“I mean it. I should have just... I wish I'd died as a child. Somepony else could have been the Avatar, somepony else who...” She eyed the tray. “If... I die... do you think the next Avatar will do better? Do you think she'll... be stronger than me? Do you think she'll be able to stop Meadowbrook?”

“Diamond, you're not going to die.”

“Why not? If I... I can't even bend anymore. I'm useless as an Avatar. But when I die, somepony else will take over. Somepony who can... fix this. Maybe. Somepony who won't be such a failure. Somepony who--”

Hooves wrapped around her. “If you die now, I'll lose my friend. And... what if there isn't another Avatar? For all you know, Meadowbrook's magic has... taken it away. Ended your magic. You... can't die now.”

Diamond blinked and then slowly nodded. “Your... your right. If I die, there might not be another Avatar. I just... I feel so weak. So hopeless. I don't know what I can do.”

“You'll think of something. I know you will. It's your destiny.”

The Avatar nodded and slowly pushed her friend away. “Y-yeah. I'll think of... something. Somehow. I just need to think,” she mumbled softly before closing her eyes. “I just need to rest for a little bit. Okay?”

“Of course, Avatar,” Silver said with a small smile. “Rest as long as you need.”

Diamond nodded and fell down flat on the cot. 'What can I possibly do? I'm helpless. Meadowbrook is just too strong. Too powerful. How can anypony hope to stand against her?'

Comments

[eric-emanwu]

Oh, do doy! If you're going to go fusion with Starlight, of course you'd have the waiting zone with a lost cutie mark! Just like with the Cutie Map.

And, well, if DT was partially broken by Silver losing bending, then she's definitely broken now. Losing a mark after all is a soul rip.

Actually, there is something I'm wondering. Why is it that Silver keeps calling DT avatar? I mean, that's been established already, and she was like DT's first friend. So why all that?

Anyhow, a lot of this was introspective, and DT started to get to the idea that maybe MB does have her mark still. And DT had to give one more slip of the tongue, as her words are the last barbs she can throw at MB. “I liked dominating ponies!” Ha! Gotcha. And besides, specialization of traits helps give the world...texture MB. I mean, look no farther than the elements of harmony. 6 different ponies of such different temperments, personalities, goals. And yet together, they saved the world twice. Just like in season 5, your ideology is built on a premise that isn't true in ideal situations. Oh...and as for the relic of Discord...huh. I would've thought that big D wouldn't have bothered to leave bits of his power lying around. And besides, stuff like that feels more like a Tirek kind of thing.

And this is definitely calling to mind the end of Korra, with that idea to die to restart the cycle anew. But, as Silver pointed out, we don't even know what something like that does to the avatar spirit. So, we gotta keep going. After all, you're the hero. And heroes don't give up and don't lose at the very end. I suppose that makes DT something of a byronic hero. One who fails despite her best efforts in part due to her heavy flaws. But, we'll see soon enough.

[Mocha Star]

Lol.
Diamond unmarked.