The Holder of Heart
by Ezn
"In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself into." So began the slip of creased parchment Diamond Tiara held between her quivering pink forehooves. She had read it, reread it and memorised its every specific instruction, and now she stood just outside the door of the Canterlot Institute for the Mentally Unwell.
The building, with its thin windows and steep, angular roofs looked quite mad itself and cast a long, dark shadow over Diamond as reached out to push the door open.
With an agonisingly slow creak the door opened to reveal a dingy lobby with a tiled floor, free of all life except for a solitary unicorn receptionist standing behind a wide wooden desk. She didn't even seem to notice Diamond Tiara's quiet, tip-hoofing entrance.
Diamond shoved the crinkled piece of paper in her saddlebag. One of the instructions had been that she was not to refer to it during her trial. She didn't want to consider what might happen if she did.
The receptionist finally noticed Diamond Tiara's presence and snapped her head around to face her. In a slow, serious voice, she said, "The sparkling waterway leading to the uttermost ends of all things flowed brilliantly under a radiant sky."
Diamond took a deep breath and replied, "Seemed to lead to a heart of immense diamonds."
The receptionist's horn lit up and a door at the far end of the room opened. Diamond squinted to make out what lay beyond the door, but saw only darkness. Determined, she set her sights on the door and started walking slowly towards it.
A surge of panic rushed through her chest. She'd almost forgotten something! Turning to the receptionist, she let out a feeble, "Thank you."
"It's my pleasure, dear!" the receptionist replied warmly. "Be careful now."
***
Diamond Tiara's hooves clopped softly on the tiled floor of the dark hallway. To her left and right, she could make out the vague shapes of dirty walls scattered with occasional pictures and noticeboards. Darkness stretched ahead of her, and she bravely walked further into it.
"Hehe..."
The hooffalls stopped. Diamond's ears pricked up. Silence. She thought she'd heard giggling.
"Hehehe..."
There it was again. A low, airy laughing sound that seemed to glide across the corridor behind her.
"Hehehe. Hehehe."
Light flashed behind Diamond, and her blood ran cold. The parchment had been vague about this part of the journey. All she knew was that she had to turn to face the light on her back, and she had to do it fast.
Steeling her resolve, Diamond spun around, blue eyes burning with determination that just barely concealed her fear. She could feel her left hindleg shaking uncontrollably.
The light was coming from six circular holes in the darkness. The holes came closer and revealed themselves to be eyes – eyes attached to ponies. Foals, like herself – a yellow earth pony, a grey unicorn and an orange pegasus.
Blank flanks. Diamond sneered.
"W-What are you losers doing here?" she demanded. "T-trying to get your creepy weirdo cutie marks?"
That made her feel a little better.
Applebloom narrowed her glowing eyes. "Getting our cutie marks? Why, Diamond, we already hay-ve our cutie marks!"
The Cutie Mark Crusaders each turned to the side, showing their colourful flanks. An apple painted on a two-by-four – a musical note – a pair of wings.
"I'd say you're the one who's looking for your cutie mark, Diamon' Tiara! Maybe you'll get one in blindness!"
It took all Diamond Tiara's willpower to keep her eyes from snapping to her flank. She didn't know what she would see if she looked, but she knew what would happen if the Crusaders were right.
"No!" she screamed. "I have my cutie mark."
"Really now?" asked Applebloom. "What is it?"
Diamond Tiara's mind blanked. What was her cutie mark? She'd stared at it for countless hours ever since it had appeared, she'd had her father monogram it on all their towels, she'd heard all her friends and family tell her how very well it suited her... but what was it? Suddenly she couldn't remember.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo snickered. Applebloom stepped closer. "Go on," she drawled, "just take a look if you can' remember."
Diamond grimaced.
"What kinda pony forgets what her own cutie mark is?" Scootaloo taunted.
Diamond growled.
"Is your special talent growling?" asked Sweetie Belle. "You're not very good at it."
As Diamond Tiara's mind raced to remember what her special talent was, the three Crusaders seemed to grow larger and more frightening. Their glowing white eyes turned red and sharp teeth grew out of their mouths.
"What's your special talent, DT?" Scootaloo rasped. "Or aren't you special?"
"It's... it's..."
Diamond Tiara staggered backwards as the Crusaders advanced on her, mouths hanging open and full of pointy teeth. Drool splattered on the tiles in front of her, and she saw thin, serpent-like tongues flick in and out of the Crusaders' mouths.
Diamond's back came up against a wall. The Crusaders grinned. She squealed. Something dropped over her eyes. Something silver and... crowny.
"T-tiara..." Diamond stammered, vaguely sensing something important about that word.
She could feel the Crusaders' hot breath on her face. A drop of slobber landed on one of her forehooves.
"T-tiara..."
Then it hit her.
Her cutie mark was a tiara – a diamond tiara – just like her name, and just like the one she wore on her head. Her special talent was the most special one of all – being special, being glamourous and being adored by ponies everywhere.
"A diamond tiara!" she yelled. "My cutie mark is a diamond tiara! I'm more special than any of you will ever be! I'm a precious diamond!"
The hot breath on Diamond's face disappeared, and the wide-open mouths of the Crusaders closed into frowns. The lights in their eyes faded, and they disappeared in puffs of smoke.
Diamond Tiara blinked in the empty corridor. "Now what?" she asked no-one in particular.
A light flicked on in front of her. It was a neon-lettered sign, which read "ENTER" and was situated just above a plain black door. The door was slightly ajar.
This was the next part. Diamond Tiara had made it through the Corridor Trial.
***
Diamond Tiara stepped through the black door and heard it click closed behind her, just as she knew it would.
She was standing in a small room, lit by a diamond-encrusted chandelier and with walls full of paintings by famous artists she hadn't heard of. Her hooves sank into the Sheepersian rug as she stared in anticipation at the room's main feature – the golden throne on its far side, which faced the wall.
According to the parchment in her saddlebag, somepony was sitting on the throne, but Diamond could not see them, as the parchment had warned against moving too far into the room. She waited.
Nothing happened. Diamond had half a mind to clear her throat to get the pony's attention, but remembered what the parchment had said about that and wisely chose not to.
After what felt like an eternity, a grey figure stepped out from behind the throne and into Diamond's view.
It was a stallion, a hulking great earth pony with a boxy figure and grey skin that gleamed in the light. An image of a black hoof adorned his flank. His small, beady eyes glowed red, and he moved in a stiff, jerking fashion.
Diamond Tiara stood motionless, waiting for him to speak.
"Why do you seek the Heart of Diamond?" he asked at last.
Diamond knew to tell the truth. "Because my name is Diamond Tiara, I'm wearing a diamond tiara, and my special talent is diamond tiaras. I thought I had everything, but then my father told me that I needed to 'have a heart'. And what better heart for Diamond Tiara than a heart of diamonds?"
She said all of this confidently and without paused, and the stallion jerkily nodded his acceptance and motioned for Diamond Tiara to come closer.
Diamond padded across the plush carpet, and when she was within the stallion's reach, his outstretched forehoof flashed.
The largest diamond Diamond Tiara had ever seen appeared on the stallion's hoof, and she reached out her own forehooves to take it from him. It felt warm as she clutched it to her chest, and a strange sensation washed over her. All of a sudden, she felt desperately sad.
The stallion in front of her, who she now realised was made entirely out of metal, was scattered with dents and rust. His red eyes were dim, and something in his jaw creaked. But worst of all, there was a gaping black hole in his chest, just where a heart might go.
Diamond reached out to the stallion, her forehoof grazing the edge of the hole. Forgetting all notion of following the parchment's instructions, she asked him, "What happened?"
The stallion's mouth creaked as it fell open. "I sought the Heart of Diamond, much like you, but failed the trials and was condemned to lose my own heart and become this one's bearer. Although I have held the Heart of Diamond for uncountable years, during all that time I have been without a heart of my own. It is a terrible, lonely existence, to be without a heart."
Diamond's eyes welled up with tears. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Give me the Heart of Diamond, young one, so that I might have a heart with which to live and to love and to seek and to bring them together."
Overcome with grief at the stallion's plight, Diamond Tiara had made up her mind already. "At once!" she exclaimed, and without a moment's hesitation slipped the Heart of Diamond into the hole in the stallion's chest.
A bright light flashed, and the stallion vanished.
No longer overcome by the strange feeling the Heart of Diamond had given her, Diamond Tiara realised what she had just done. Anger filled her, but was shortly replaced by fear, for she soon noticed what else had disappeared along with the stallion.
The black door was gone.
***
The Heart of Diamond is 1 of 100. They must never come together.
Author's Note
Unofficially written late (and over an hour or two) for Thirty Minute Pony Stories Prompt 84 ("Heart of Diamond"). Shamelessly ripped off from Inspired by The Holders Series.
