To be Raised

The sun rose warmly over Sweet Apple Acres, and Applejack was there to greet the day as she took a last look out her bedroom window. It was hard to believe that the party of two days ago had been cleaned up so quickly, and what a party it had been. Between friends, family, and other townsfolk, there must have been four hundred plus in attendance, and of course where there was an Apple family gathering, there was food, dancing, and enough cider to drown half of Canterlot.

Applejack couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten so much, or drank that much. In fact, she’d had a hard time remembering anything since she had heard Filthy Rich inform Granny Smith that he wanted Big Mac to get Diamond Tiara with foal. That was three weeks ago. Since then Applejack had found herself replacing the bottle in the bottom of her nightstand at least once a week.

It wasn’t so much that Filthy Rich had approached her brother about fulfilling the contract that bothered her. Yes, it was an old earth pony tradition, arranged marriages, stud contracts and all that; Diamond Tiara’s parents had arranged the whole thing with Applejack’s own parents years ago. But how were Ma and Pa ever to know so many years ago all the grief that little pink imp of a pony would cause their youngest daughter.

How could they? They’d died not long after Apple Bloom had been foaled. They had left their children: a wimpy stick pony of a colt, a young filly, and a foal to the care of an aging farm mare. Not that Applejack was resentful of Granny Smith in any way, far from it; she dearly loved her old grand-mare. The old green mare had taught her nearly everything about the farm, chores, hard work, and looking out for your kinfolk.

Applejack paused, kinfolk, it was something Diamond Tiara would never be. The ‘wedding’ was a sham, a whitewash to erase the bastardy of the foals that Diamond would have, courtesy of Big McIntosh. Why, why, why had her brother ever said yes to that lowdown upscale business pony, with all his fancy trappings and money? She’d never understand. Sure her brother could claim that Filthy Rich had helped them keep the farm after Ma and Pa had died, but she’d never seen the business pony do one lick of work on Sweet Apple Acres.

Ponies like Filthy Rich were always looking down on hard working ponies like her it seemed. Why couldn’t Diamond have just stayed in Manehatten, or Canterlot, or wherever, and left Ponyville for good, and left Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo alone. How could her dolt of a big brother have said yes to covering that little pink imp of a filly that thought herself too good to stay on some muddy old apple farm? Well that was easy, he was thinking with that other head of his, the one that most stallions eventually answered to, dumb boys.

Applejack looked over at her bedside table to where the bottle of her namesake liquor sat next to the shot glass. The bottle was only a quarter full now, the shot glass full to the rim. The orange farm mare smiled as she wrapped her lips around the top of the glass and tossed her head back draining its contents before replacing the bottle and glass in the bottom of the nightstand. Smiling to herself as she felt the warming swell of the liquor melting through her, Applejack set her Stetson in place and trotted off down the hall towards the newly renovated ‘master’ suite that Big Mac and Diamond Tiara shared.

Well, there was one good thing about having that prissy little pink pain-in-the-plot under her roof now. Diamond Tiara might be sleeping in the ‘master bedroom’, but AJ was still boss mare around this farm and nopony was going to be slacking off on her watch.

“Wakey, Wakey, Diamond!” Applejack blared as she burst into the master bedroom, “Time to hit the dirt hooves running. Nap times over, and you’ve got a couple of big loads to deliver today after you haul the cart to market …”

Applejack blinked as she scanned the empty room. The bed was made, and the room empty. From the window sill, a squirrel sat and blinked at her in stunned silence a moment before sticking the thumb of its forepaw to it’s nose and wiggling its fingers while blowing a raspberry at the stunned mare.

“Hey AJ,” Apple Bloom’s voice carried up the stairs, “whadda ya want with y’r coffee, apple-bran muffin or apple Danish? Oh, and Big Mac left ya a note here. He says that he took the first load of apples into town this morning with Diamond, and you’ll need to come take over for her at the market while he takes her to see the doctor later this morning.”

The steam was practically visible seeping from Applejack’s ears as she stood in the doorway of the empty bedroom. Damn her big brother for getting Diamond off easy. He had his own chores to do, and helping Diamond wasn’t one AJ meant for him to be doing. The only thing he needed to do with that little pink plot-hole was jam it full of his foal pole every night that he could. The rest of the time that little pink trollop’s hide was hers.

* * * * *

The sturdy wagon rattled along the well-worn cart track that ran between Ponyville and Sweet Apple Acres in time with the clip clop of hooves. Dawn had broken to an early summer fog laying over the fields, hills, and orchards, casting the land in an almost ethereal appearance. Early mornings trotting under load of wagon or plow were nothing new to Big McIntosh. For Diamond Tiara, however, she would normally still be happily dreaming away, wrapped in the soft covers of her bed, yet fate did seem to make for strange bedfellows.

One glance up at the scarlet mound of muscle beside her told her all too well how strange those bedfellows could be. A twinge of pain from her nethers told her that her particular bedfellow was all too genuinely real as she let her crystal-blue gaze wander over the much larger stallion. It had been just over three weeks since she had blundered into asking the big red farm pony to endorse the stud contract that had been drawn up between the two families by both their parents back when she was a newborn filly and he, a scrawny red stick of a colt.

The following three weeks after the contract had been agreed to had been an abstract rendition of chaos that Discord himself might have taken pride in. Mornings had been filled with event planning, dress fittings, and other civil preparations. The afternoons had been a veritable cornucopia of labor and drudgery at the hooves of McIntosh’s sister Applejack. Still, in the end, Rarity had to take in the flanchards of her dress by over a hoof at the final fitting, though Diamond had been aghast at the lying nature of the bathroom scale, telling her she had also gained over a stone’s worth of weight at the same time.

It had been two days since her parent’s had formally handed her over to Big McIntosh to be bred. Her cherry had been popped in the traditional manner the day before the handover, so the actual covering would go off with less discomfort. Diamond rolled her eyes to herself at the thought.

Sure that first night Big Mac had proven himself disarmingly intelligent, astute, and oddly charming. Even when he had first pushed himself into her she had thought maybe things weren’t so bad, yet the farther into the act, the more uncomfortable it had become. At least he had given her something to bite down on so that she wouldn’t scream out and vindicate Applejack’s desire for her brother to have her rutted raw and bloody as some kind of vengeance for having teased Apple Bloom and her friends when they were younger.

Diamond remembered using a pillow to bite on when Big Mac had covered her again the following morning. It had been less relaxed and more perfunctory that time, and it had stung pretty much from the moment he’d mounted her. Though he’d been apologetic afterward when he’d seen her trembling there with tears in her eyes.

She’d still been walking a little funny when the families had gathered for the big day after brunch before the guests had departed. There had been a good deal of congratulations and well wishes offered her. She’d smiled, as a good mannered pony should, as she’d accepted them standing beside Mac amid the gathered host.

She had managed to get a little time to speak with Silver Spoon even, and promptly lied to her about how wonderful the sex was. Maybe she’d been a little drunk from the cider that was still flowing. She‘d told Silver how Mac had slapped her flank shortly after entering the ‘Love Shack’ in order to give the gathered listening ponies what they wanted to hear, then how when he was sure they were alone he had thoroughly seduced and ravished her in the manner of a scene from a cloppy romance novel.

Yeah, she lied, but lying was a skill like any other Diamond had found, and skills needed to be practiced. It was odd that lying didn’t seem to work on McIntosh; every lie she’d tried he’d seen right through. He had seen through her lies well enough to still make her feel raw and naked every time he even looked at her.

The thought brought a blush to Diamond’s face, as much of a blush as when she and Mac had retired to the bathroom after supper that first night at Sweet Apple Acres. Mac had been hinting at turning in early all through the meal, and Granny Smith seemed to be the only pony to pick up on her grandson’s intentions. Applejack had kept shooting hard glances at her brother and Diamond at each veiled suggestion. Apple Bloom just seemed to alternate between turning a little greener under that blonde coat of hers and pricking her ears up in curiosity at the innuendoes.

Still, at the end of the meal Granny Smith had asked her two granddaughters to take her out for a walk around the orchards ‘on a lovely summer evening’. That had left Diamond and Mac with the place to themselves. Diamond had figured it would be just a simple trot on up to the bedroom and get it over with. Mac had caught her off balance again when he suggested they wash up together first.

It seemed there was a hint of a romantic curiosity in the big crimson colt, and the two had taken turns washing each other, almost like foreplay, the bathtub only able to accommodate them one at a time due to McIntosh’s sizable stature. That had been the first time she’d actually seen Mac’s colthood. Yes, it wasn’t the first she’d seen up close in person. Her gut twisted at the memory of her undignified scandal with that snot nosed Canterlot snob of a unicorn. Even after she’d swallowed for him he’d still gone and exposed her misappropriations to the CFO.

Mac’s stallionhood though was grander by a goodly margin. It had given Diamond pause to conclude that with so much of their egos already coming out the tops of their heads, unicorn stallions needed less between their legs. Mac, on the other hoof, had enough 'ego' between his legs for two ponies, she thought. ‘Big’ seemed to go everywhere with McIntosh. His personal ‘Apple Tree’ as Diamond had dubbed it at the time was a very unmasculine pink at the end, mottling to a more dignified red near the medial ring, darkening towards the root where it disappeared into his sheath, and roughly the same size as her foreleg!

Still she played coy for him, though it was more of “great Celestia’s horn, that thing’s already been inside me, twice!” as opposed to genuine coyness. Still they had been gentle with each other—her plot was still sore from that morning—having mutually decided to make the best of the situation. After toweling off they had made their way to the master bedroom and then it had been down to ‘business’ with Diamond going belly down on the bed, back hooves on the floor, and Mac placing that personal ‘apple tree’ worth of colt-wood inside her.

Mac hadn’t got past the first stroke, Diamond recalled, when she’d had practically leapt off his foal pole, vaulting the bed in the process, and come crashing down on the opposite side in a heap. She recalled how annoyed Mac had been at that moment. She had agreed to let him cover her straight up, with minimal foreplay, in exchange for an allowance of five bits a day while she was in season.

A bump in the road brought a rattle from the wagon beside her bringing Diamond’s mind back from her recollections. She looked back to where the Sweet Apple Acres market cart was double hitched to the back of the cargo wagon Big Mac was pulling. Across the fields she could see the morning mist evaporating like Mac’s anger had last night when he’d seen that she was truly hurting.

She shook her head in disbelief only to draw notice from Big Mac beside her.

“Problem Sugarplum?”

“No,” she looked back at her stud and the load he was almost effortlessly pulling. “I was just thinking about last night, and I’m sorry, I should have just mared up let you finish.”

“Nnope,” Mac tossed back in that nonchalant manner of his, “you shouldn’t have. You should’ve said something sooner ‘bout your feeling sore and all. I promised your Daddy to get foals off you like our folks wanted, but I also promised to look after you, and not to hurt you while doing it. So there’s no sense lying about it, lying got you into this predicament, now you’re going to have to fess up and find your true path out of it and be honest about it. You’re a strong pony Diamond, and you need to start doing what’s right, not what’s easy.”

Diamond ruminated on the words for a while, she’d agreed to this contract to try to save what power and prestige she had, only to find out she’d already lost all of it without knowing. She thought back to last night, as Mac had lifted her into the bed and held her as he wiped away her tears. She remembered resting her head against his chest and listening to the heavy drum of his heartbeat as she’d drifted off into the warm embrace of the bedding and sleep as he had stroked her mane.

Mac had told her to be honest, tell the truth, stop lying—especially to herself—and she’d find her path out of this. She wasn’t sure she could. It felt like she was wading into a pool of raw emotion that kept getting deeper with every step, how could she find her way out when she didn’t know where she was to start with.

The wagons trundled along as the two ponies crested the last hill on the outskirts of Ponyville. Subconsciously, Diamond took a step closer to McIntosh as they trotted into town.

* * * * *

The mulberry purple alicorn lay on her belly on a woven rug displaying her cutie mark on the balcony of her royal apartments at Ponyville town hall. Her eyes were closed, her head tilted into the oncoming rays of light. Her wings were partially unfurled like feathered radiator panels drawing in the morning sunshine. On a low table nearby sat a pot of fresh herbal tea and two cups not yet filled. The scene was of one of calm serenity.

On the opposite side of the tea table, Silver Spoon lay like her employer on a simple but comfortable rug of her own. The young silver-gray pony, however, didn’t embody the calm serenity of the nearby alicorn, her mind wouldn’t let her. Between her front hooves a pencil rolled back and forth from nervous energy. A nearby notepad stood ready to record and organize the myriad of tasks that formed the young princess’s itinerary.

From the moment she’d awoken in the princess’s former rooming loft in the Golden Oaks Library, her mind was working at a fever pitch as it always had. The festivities of the last two days had drained precious time away from the formal schedule. Well, not precisely. The events had been planned and scheduled in part by the princess herself, and Her Royal Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Element of Harmony, OC, was a very detailed organizer.

Yet in the last two days they had yet to address the request for Twilight’s attendance at the Crystal Fair. The invitation had been issued by the princess’s own brother, Prince Shining Armor, KPCE*, OC, and by Twilight’s own informal bestowment BBBFF, and by her pegasister-in-law, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, LCH**, OC, and most importantly, mother of the first trueborn alicorn princess in millennia. Such an invitation had to be responded to, not to mention the luncheon with the Canterlot Literary Awards Commission, the Annual Buffalo Stampede and Treaty festival in Appleloosa, her parent’s anniversary …

Twilight’s Parent’s Anniversary!

Oh Tarnish! Silver swore in her own personal modality as she realized that she’d forgot to put that down on the list that morning. How could she have overlooked such a thing? Quickly she flipped the pencil off one hoof sending it pin wheeling into the air where she quickly moved to catch it in mid spiral … only to have her teeth clack shut on empty air.

“Silver, what is it this time?” Twilight asked calmly, the magenta glow emanating from her horn mirrored on the pencil as she held the writing instrument above her own head out of Silver’s reach.

“Your parent’s anniversary. I didn’t put it on the to do list this morning, I’m sorry Your Highness,” Silver sighed sullenly.

“Ninety-eight, I believe Silver? We’re not on official protocol right now, so you’re supposed to call me …”

“Twilight,” Silver let out a breath of deflation. “Ninety-eight, yes, Twilight.”

“Thank you, my little pony.” The princess smiled as she shook out her wings and brought herself to a sitting position while the teapot lifted into the air under the her mental guidance and began to pour. “What would I do without you right now?”

“Wake the dragon … erhm, Spike?”

Twilight giggled at the fantasy book reference Silver Spoon had involuntarily made before answering. “I think Spike would be a little hard to wake up right now.”

Both ponies looked over in the direction of the Golden Oaks Library where a thin tail of dark smoke drifted lazily from one chimney indicating that Twilight’s number one assistant was still fast asleep in draconic hibernation in the library’s basement. He wasn’t likely to wake up until sometime around the running of the leaves, barring an earthquake or similar.

“Now that I’ve finished my morning meditation, what’s on the agenda, besides having you remind me of my parent’s anniversary?” Twilight smiled as she lifted her cup of tea.

“Well, as it’s Monday, you’re due to hold court a little over an hour from now, as per Princess Celestia’s instructions.”

“That’s why I wanted my meditation not to be interrupted,” Twilight chided her apprentice adjutant with a friendly grin. “A little more relaxation would do you good too, Silver. In fact, why don’t you take the afternoon off while I deal with my family’s events? Yes, actually, you will, or I’ll order you to. Why don’t you head to the spa after lunch with Diamond, use my tab as a …” Twilight paused a moment as she recalled the event’s of the last two days surrounding Big Mac and Diamond Tiara. “You said that it wasn’t a wedding, right?”

“Yes,” Silver acknowledged, “it was a stud contract agreement. Though it also was a wedding of sorts, just for a very specific type of term contract marriage, that’s why there was the maiden fete instead of a bridal shower. I told you there was a difference, only I never got a chance to tell you what that difference was.”

“I see, so it’s one goes with one, not the other.”

“Exactly, a bridal shower wouldn’t have the maiden key ritual, as a wedding is a celebration of love not a contractual breeding. With a wedding the bridegroom gets the honor of the first if the bride wishes, but she may still opt for the key, my mother did.”

“I see, well, call it a gift and we’ll leave it at that,” Twilight smiled.

“Of course,” Silver smiled back at Twilight. The part of her that was still a filly positively squealed with excitement at being given direct instructions from her boss to hit the spa with a friend. Not what she had guessed when she’d woken up this morning, but one didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Besides, Silver thought, maybe Diamond will dish some more on her ‘experiences’ with Big Mac.

The young pony smiled inwardly at herself. Just because she was prim, proper, and a formerly slightly stuck up nerd didn’t mean she had no libido.

“Anyway,” Twilight added, pausing to take another sip of tea, “I’m due to meet Fluttershy and Rarity there after court adjourns, then I’ll show you the art of the ‘Steam Room Cabinet Meeting’ as Cadance calls them. Now, what’s on the docket for this morning’s petition hearings?”

Author's Note

* Knight Protector of the Crystal Empire
** Lady of the Crystal Heart

Well, here it is, the first chapter of Arc 2 of An Apple Studded Diamond. I figured a little bridge chapter might be in order.

Breeder's Note: Bathtub scene: Prior to covering, the Mare and Stud should have their anatomy washed with a mild antiseptic soap solution to reduce the chance of infection/ bacterial transfer during act. Uterine infections in equines are potentially hazardous and may quickly escalate to uterine sepsis. if left untreated.

Also if any of you are interested and hadn't read it before on my blog post the link to the Stud Contract is here. Enjoy.