Tom had lived a boring life, until the day he met Rarity.
She had showered him with kind words and and loving gestures, eventually convincing him to leave his home in Canterlot and go with her to Ponyville.
It was brief and passionate romance, with Rarity refusing to spend even a minute away from him.
Unfortunately, as was so often the case, the flame that burned the brightest was extinguished the quickest.
The end, when it came, was sudden and unexpected.
Despite his best efforts, the beautiful and cruel Rarity soon grew bored with him.
She cast him aside like garbage, leaving him alone and friendless, with no way to return home.
Heartbroken, he moped around Ponyville for several months.
Eventually, the pain was replaced with boredom.
As he sat, trying to decide what to do next, he remembered a bit of advice that his mother had given him when he was just a pebble.
"Son, a rolling stone gathers no moss."
He looked at his reflection in a nearby shop window.
He had gathered quite a bit of moss.
Disgusted with himself, and furious at the Unicorn that had broken his heart, he began rolling.
He rolled north, with no real destination in mind.
He rolled over plains and through forests, never stopping.
The more distance he put between himself and Ponyville, the better he felt.
When he finally reached the frozen tundra of Equestria's northern wastelands, he felt hope for the first time in months.
Crystal Heart was depressed. Though it was her duty to hold the hopes, dreams, and love of the entire Crystal Empire, she herself had never experienced real love.
Perhaps she never would.
Even after being restored to her old home in the courtyard of the Crystal Palace, she still felt alone. The hundreds of ponies that visited her everyday thought of her as a mere tourist attraction, a pretty image to put on a postcard.
She spent her days lost in thought, not paying any attention to the endless stream of tourists.
Tom was enjoying his new life in the Crystal Empire.
He had found a job as a still life model for an art school, and had made friends with some of the crystal formations in the city.
One day, he overheard some of the Crystal Ponies expressing concern for something called "The Crystal Heart."
"...don't know what's wrong with it, Ruby. It seems different. It's like there's something keeping it from working properly."
"I wish I could help you, Agate. Do you think King Sombra may have done something to it?"
"I suppose it's possible. The Crystal Heart is..."
As the Crystal Ponies walked away, Tom thought about what they had said.
He wasn't entirely sure what a "Crystal Heart" was, or, for that matter, what a "King Sombra" was.
He just knew that something deep inside of him was telling him that he needed to see the Heart.
Crystal sighed. Another day had come and gone. Hundreds of tourists, thousands of photographs, and not a single pony had thought to even say "Hello" to her.
They all thought of her as just an object.
The gate opened, and the night janitor entered the courtyard..
His cart of supplies seemed heavier than usual, and he was having difficulty pushing it.
As soon as he turned his back and began cleaning, Tom rolled out from his hiding place underneath a pile of rags.
The boulder that suddenly appeared below her was the most ruggedly handsome chunk of granite that Crystal had ever seen.
She spoke shyly. "Hello there... I'm Crystal Heart. It's nice to meet you, Mister..."
Tom had never in his life seen anything as beautiful as the crystal that rotated in the air above him.
With her graceful curves and smooth, polished features, Tom realized that he had finally found what he had been searching for.
Suddenly very nervous, he found himself rambling and tripping over his words.
"Tom. My... my name is Tom. It is nice to meet you too, Miss Crystal.
Wow... gosh you're pretty.
If you don't mind me saying this, Crystal is a beautiful name.
A beautiful name, for a beautiful gem..."
Crystal giggled.
“You know, you're kind of cute when you're nervous.
But really, Tom, there's no need to be nervous.
I won't bite. To be honest, I'm just glad to have someone to talk to. These ponies act like they can't even hear me! After awhile, I just gave up trying to speak to them.”
Tom laughed.
“I sometimes wonder if the ponies are really as smart as the claim to be.”
Tom and Crystal talked all night.
They spoke of their hopes and their dreams, the pains of their pasts, and their hopes for the future.
They talked about to ponies they had encountered, and the amazing events that each had witnessed.
By midnight, they felt like they had known one another all their lives.
By sunrise, they had fallen in love.
When the crowds arrived the next morning, they were shocked to see a large boulder sitting on the ground below the Heart.
After numerous complaints, a stallion was called in to remove the eyesore of a rock.
The moment he took Tom out of sight of the Heart, several tourists cried out in horror.
The Crystal Heart had faded, it's radiant inner light vanishing.
When the stallion, still carrying Tom, rushed back into the courtyard to see what had happened, the Crystal Heart lit up again.
The scene was repeated for nearly an hour before somepony finally figured out that, somehow, the Crystal Heart and the mysterious boulder had become connected.
The best sculptor in the Crystal Empire was called in, and he carefully carved a heart-shaped niche into the boulder.
The moment the Crystal Heart was set inside, it glowed more brightly than it ever had before, filling the hearts of everypony in the Crystal Empire with more love that they had ever thought possible.
Nopony ever found out where the mysterious boulder, which came to known as the Rock of Hope, had come from, but all agreed that their lives were much happier since it's appearance.
Tom and the Crystal Heart, of course, lived happily ever after.
