Pony watching is a funny habit. It's intrinsic to all equines, exemplifying their curiosity and their need to understand other ponies. Chiefly, it's what they turn to when conversation has run thin and they're utterly bored, when they're alone and introspection has run dry.
A lack of external stimuli might drive a pony to sit and try to gauge the lives of others. They might wonder whether those around them are living more rich and fulfilling lives, or even hope for their misfortune if only for some crude sense of amusement, or a method of assuaging their own latent insecurities.
Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara were different. They had each other, they had the world to play in and loving company every hooffall of the way, yet they frequented the very same spot in Canterlot's Opal Park. They told themselves it was because they enjoyed the view, they told each other the same.
That was only half of the truth.
The two were giggling at nothing in particular, it might have seemed from a distance, but a look beneath the veneer of these two fillies—barely young adults—tossing their legs up and driving each other to further bouts of breathless laughter as they laid against one another might have revealed the true purpose behind their weekly excursions.
It was the mare with the large peacock hat and the the permanent pout strutting along the nearby cobbled path as if she sired the earth and owned the air. She didn't even turn to look when the volume of their laughter grew in intensity, nor when Apple Bloom took her hooves to her mane, pushing them up and trying to imitate the sheer height of this pony's bold fashion statement.
"Opulence, would you please be a doll and fetch my hat, I'm afraid it just tried to fly away again." Fits of giggle-snorts, a fiery red mane buried in a fuzzy lilac chest which quivered and trembled with each delectable lilting note that seeped from Diamond Tiara's muzzle. Apple Bloom was sure that she could listen to that sound for years and not grow tired of it. As a matter of fact, she'd been listening to it for years already.
Diamond waved her hooves about in a flurry as she attempted to calm herself, the redness in her cheeks softening only a modicum and her breath modulating just enough for her to produce full words. She put on a very serious face—almost reminiscent of her younger self—and sat up on her haunches, straightening as her back became rigid. "I do believe there are two fillies engaging in a bit of joviality over there! Jeeves, do see fit to give them the cane, laughter is quite unbecoming of young mares."
The affectation in her tone was so effortless that Apple Bloom could almost see the tiara on her head again. "And my, you do not suppose that they're lesbians, do you? That's it, euthanasia will be the only option, I'm afraid!"
Her voice cracked a little at the end, and Diamond didn't fail to pick up on it. "You slipped back into your normal voice just there," she teased, prodding at her belly with a hoof.
"Heheh, fancy talk don't come as natural to me as you. Reckon you could've even been like Miss Catwalk over there?"
"Me? Hah, of course not." Diamond flicked her mane back, narrowing her eyes. "Why would I ever want to hide all of this behind a silly hat like that?"
"You know that ain't what I meant, Diamond."
"I do." Diamond chose not to say much else, though the question got rooted in her head as it often did. A lot could've played out differently than it did—she could've been a completely different pony. She could have been miserable. She dismissed the thought with a shake of her head, eyes frantically searching. "Oh, wait, look, here comes another one. See him?"
Apple Bloom's eyes snapped to where her hoof pointed. As one, they watched a middle-aged stallion walking up the path in a full suit, accompanied by a young and extremely attractive mare. "What d'ya reckon: girlfriend or daughter?"
"Mistress," Diamond replied, a devious grin on her lips. "Look at the way she walks. She's got no poise, or elegance. A stallion like that, no way he's dating down the caste system that much, and there's no ring on either of their horns, so... Either he's a widower, or just really good at hiding things from his wife. You don't get that old and that rich without marrying somepony along the way, trust me."
"Dang, you're sharp today..." Apple Bloom watched intently as they drew closer, and to the pair's luck, they stopped walking along the path only a few paces away from either of them. The pair would've killed for listening devices at that moment, their interests piqued. But try as they might, they only managed to catch the last few words of the conversation, proceeded by a drawn out embrace.
"Bye, daddy!" the mare had waved after taking a couple of steps, and the stallion had simply smiled back before walking the other way.
"Hah!" Apple Bloom turned on Diamond Tiara, pressing her snout against hers. "Oh yeah, mistress, sure... And I bought that, too!"
Diamond stole a kiss before leaning back in the grass, inviting Apple Bloom to plop down on top of her. "Hey, you never know, it could be a role play thing. That stuff's pretty popular these days."
"First off, ew. Second, you're reaching. Third? ...ew." Apple Bloom pushed her face against Diamond's chest, trying to get that thought out of her mind before it could take hold.
"Well hey, of course it seems weird to us, we don't even like stallions."
Apple Bloom blanched, her throat getting caught as she tripped over her words. "That's the weird part?"
She didn't see it, but Apple Bloom felt the shrug of Diamond Tiara's withers as she laid beneath her. The differences between them felt subtle at times, but more often Apple Bloom would notice with frightening lucidity just how dissimilar the two of them could be.
Even if they were one. It was a silly, ugly, niggling thought in the back of Apple Bloom's mind, but something Diamond had just said was scratching at her. She ignored it as best she could. "It's funny how none of 'em notice us, huh? They're all so damn self-absorbed, you'd think we weren't here, even when we're a couple paces away."
Diamond softly inhaled her partner's mane, breathing in the woody scent of leaves and farmpony sweat. There was a certain consistency to it that remained, even though she hadn't worked the farm in months. It was pleasant, like being in a field that was cared for and nurtured always. Sometimes, around Apple Bloom, she felt like a part of the field itself. "Why would they notice us? We're of no importance to them, just a part of the scenery. Something pretty to look at, maybe, but we'll be gone as soon as they carry on by."
Just a part of the field. Diamond sucked in a breath. Her chest felt tight.
Apple Bloom's thoughts lingered on Diamond's words as she attempted to parse them, mouthing a few, knowing that Diamond couldn't see her doing so. "Is it just rich ponies that are that disinterested in others? Or is it everypony?"
"Well, ask yourself, are you interested in other ponies?"
Apple Bloom opened her mouth, a smug and decisively obvious retort in mind, but already Diamond was prodding her side.
"And no, guessing other ponies' lives for our own amusement doesn't count. Are you genuinely interested in every stranger that walks by?"
Apple Bloom faltered. The words found parlance on their own. "Nah, I guess not... but these ponies have always felt different, you know? Like, I don't reckon you can walk around with that air of arrogance and give a damn about anyone, 'cept yourself of course."
Diamond bit her lip, ignoring the first two ways to tackle that statement that came to mind. She chose her words slowly, carefully, shifting beneath the weight of her partner. "You know, not every rich pony is like that. Think about someone like Vinyl Scratch. You've seen her around Ponyville, she's relaxed, extroverted, kinda blaze. You think she cares if the pony next to her is rich or poor?"
"It don't matter none," Apple Bloom grumbled. "Way she acts is all part of her brand. Wouldn't do her no good to walk around actin' all high and mighty, even if she wanted to. Besides, she's so dang aloof that who knows how she really thinks? All of that ain't even the important part; it's the fact that she knows she's on top. She might act like she's somethin' else, she might try and come across like your average pony, but deep down she knows all she has to do is open her purse and she can get anythin' she wants. Playing field's all stacked in her favour, and that's the end of it."
Diamond could feel her throat getting tight, something about this topic always put her on edge. Apple Bloom's opinions weren't exactly a new revelation to her, but whenever they were brought up, Diamond always felt as if the walls were clamping shut around her.
Even on a nice, warm, sunny day, snuggled up with the mare she loved. She felt cornered. She took a leap. "Is every pony with bits in their pocket a bad pony because of it?"
Diamond shrunk in on herself. Apple Bloom shifted to the side, away from Diamond. She looked at her with a subtle mirth, as if what she'd just said was ludicrous. "Y'all really think that I think that?"
Diamond sighed, attempting to diffuse the wires in her head. "I didn't say that. I was just, y'know... thinking aloud."
"You said it without sayin' it, is what you mean." Apple Bloom propped herself up on her forehoof, now barely touching her partner. "There's a difference between ponies what are born into wealth and those that go out and earn it. It's 'bout how you're raised, what values you're taught. Ain't all 'bout the money."
Diamond felt more naked without her partner's touch. Vulnerable. "So, ponies that aren't taught to be—I dunno, good and considerate are all the same regardless?"
"Yeah, but I reckon it's mostly the snooty ones. They've just got that air 'bout 'em, y'know?"
Her words were cutting, and the worst part was that Diamond was sure she didn't know it. "You think ponies that are taught to be like that are always like that?"
"Maybe in some respect, yeah." Was it naivety, or was this something she'd been wanting to say for all too long now?
Apple Bloom was watching Diamond with scrutiny. She seemed uneasy in some way, as if she didn't like what Apple Bloom was saying, and it only led more credence to the worry that Apple Bloom had had earlier on. She wanted to let it go, she had done for a while, but the more the conversation continued in the same strain, the more it ate at her. "You said somethin' earlier 'bout that pony not wantin' to be seen with a low class mare. Reckon that's so important?"
"To him, probably."
Apple Bloom's eyes shifted to the floor, but she soon found her conviction, looking her partner in the face. "I didn't mean to him, Diamond."
The implication of her words shattered Diamond's front like the most fragile glass, shards flying like imperceptible tears. "After all that we've been through, you really think I'd ever see you as beneath me?!"
There was that haughty, imperious inflection to her voice that took Apple Bloom back to her childhood. She could see that damn tiara glimmering on her head. "Ain't 'bout what you see, it's 'bout how you think. You look at other ponies and you judge 'em, we both do. We might be doin' it to the high and mighty sorts right now, but just how different's that to lookin' down your snout at someone with nothin'? What am I meant to think, Diamond?"
Diamond Tiara shuddered, taking her hoof away and finally severing their contact completely. "I can't believe you. After all that I gave up to be with you, the sacrifices I made—"
"And there's your problem!" Apple Bloom rebuked, her voice becoming heated despite the sick feeling in her belly. "You still look at things in terms of materialism, you still think about the fact that you had to give up your inheritance to be here with me, not about the important things!"
Diamond shook her head. It was a vivacious thing, so fast that the verdant grass around her blurred into a green mess, though all of it used her Apple Bloom's face as an axis. Her angry, hurt face, one that was all too quickly mirrored by Diamond herself. "You honestly think that, don't you? That I care about some stupid inheritance? No, Apple Bloom, I had to give up a mother for you."
Apple Bloom stopped shouting. She paused with her lips parted, measuring Diamond Tiara from head to hoof. "You ain't ever told me you cared 'bout that. You hated her, never agreed with her on nothin'."
Diamond folded her legs in, laying on her belly and ignoring the tickle of the grass. Her eyes were glazed, and she blinked rapidly to save face. "You never asked. Guess you just assumed I didn't care. When she left my daddy, she took half of what he had, and it was only a year or two later that his company was in the pits, all his assets liquidated. My mother invited me to come live with her. She'd bought a nice big mansion and had enough bits to keep her steady for years. She could easily live off interest and never want for anything."
"And you didn't go because you didn't care 'bout the money, right?"
"I didn't go because I wasn't about to take away the last thing that daddy had. Of course I cared about the money, Apple Bloom. I grew up around it, it's what I knew. I don't think that makes me a bad pony, but maybe it does." Diamond closed her eyes, taking a short breath. "But when it came down to it, I knew my mother would never accept you, and I knew that daddy would. I didn't just stay for him, I was selfish. But I still gave up a lot."
Apple Bloom was quiet for a moment, contemplating everything she'd heard. "Honestly never thought you'd miss her. It's been years."
Diamond opened her lids, peering at her tentative love. "If you had a chance to meet your mother for a day, even if you found out she was a horrible, evil pony, wouldn't you do it in a heartbeat?"
"I would." And it wasn't a lie.
"I'll always miss her in some weird, messed up way. But if it ever meant choosing between her and you, it would be you in a heartbeat. I don't care about where you're from, I don't care about who you are. I just care that you're mine, that you were with me through all of this and taught me just how to become the mare that I am now." Diamond reached out a hoof, flinching as if she was scared of being bitten.
Apple Bloom eyed it with caution, only shifting forwards. The atmosphere felt so delicate that the smallest misstep might cause it to snap like elastic at any moment, sending them cannoning away from one another. "You reckon I'm just as bad? I might be on the other side of the fence, but I still judge. You know I do, you hear how darn opinionated I am every wakin' minute. Am I a hypocrite?"
"I don't know," Diamond said. "Honestly, I've never been in your horseshoes. I'm not sure what it's like to grow up with the same unity and need to pull through things as your family had, I've never had to crawl through the muck." Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. "Uhh, proverbially, I meant." Diamond hesitated, lowering her still outstretched hoof but not placing it to the ground. "Maybe you're right to feel how you do, or maybe society is just divisive and designed to make us all hate each other. I don't know, all I know is that I could never hate you for any reason, I could never look down at you."
Apple Bloom took Diamond's hoof in her own, caressing it gently. "But you still worry, don't you? You look uneasy when we talk 'bout this stuff, and sometimes when we talk 'bout the rich folk and you laugh, it feels forced. What ain't you tellin' me, Diamond?"
"I..." Diamond tried to pull her hoof back, to look away, but Apple Bloom kept it firmly rooted in place. She always seemed to do this, force anything and everything out of her at some point or another, but this issue had been buried deep. So deep, in fact, that sometimes, in moments of bliss, watching the sunset or laughing as they walked, Diamond would briefly forget it even existed.
But now Apple Bloom was looking at her like a detective might a suspect, waiting for her to crack. She tried to ignore her eyes, which managed to appear concerned and stern all at once—a trick she must have acquired from her sister—but to no avail. Every word felt as if it was dragged from her under duress, but she gave them voice regardless. "I've always... I've always worried that you might look at me like you do those rich ponies, the ones you dislike so much."
Apple Bloom waved a hoof as if that was silly. It might have been. "Diamond, you know I don't—"
"Let me finish," she interjected, her chest pushing out. "I've always tried to fit in with you, ever since we got close. I've gotten dirty on the farm, I've hung out with your friends, even as they became my friends, I've changed my lifestyle as a direct result of being around you. And with that... I've tried to cut out the things that used to make me, well, me. The things you used to hate so much, the things I hate when I look back at them."
"You were a different pony as a filly, Diamond. You know that as well as I do." Apple Bloom reached closer, pushing her face against hers and lightly smushing it. "You worry too much."
"But you said it earlier," Diamond shook, her voice cracking. "You said that ponies couldn't really change, and that's what worries me. I know that my upbringing, the way I used to act, it all gives me this horrible, nasty stigma that I just can't shake, no matter how much I've tried to over the last few years. I know I'll never be like you. Even my name, my cutie mark. I'm Diamond Tiara, even if I took the stupid thing off."
Apple Bloom kissed her on the cheek, her eyes misty despite her best attempts to stay calm. "You silly, silly filly. I'd never want you to be like me. Never, ever. You're perfect bein' you, always have been and always will be. You ain't never had to change to be who you are. You chose to be who you are now, and I hope it weren't all 'cause you were scared of how I might see you. That'd really make me feel terrible."
Diamond sniffled without meaning to, wiping at her eyes. "I just... You've always treated me so well, and I know that's in your nature, but mares like me? We're a bit a dozen, I think. Pretty to look at, only thing we're good at is talking, simple minds, simple interests, expensive tastes... how have you not gotten bored yet? Moved on to another pony?"
Apple Bloom pulled at Diamond's head until she was forced to face her. Her hooves were as rough as they were soft. A single tear flowed freely. "Diamond Tiara, you'll never be simple or borin' to me. You're amazin'. Every single sense of the word. You ain't just some silly rich filly. You're the mare that chose not to live in her parent's shadow, to be her own pony, and that'll always amaze me, constantly. You're funny, you're beautiful, and you're more than I could ever ask for."
Their lips met in a silent seal. It wasn't a passionate kiss, there was nearly no movement. There were only the gentle pecks of lips and the memory that each of them was there, right in front of the other, live and and in flesh. They'd always be there for one another, Diamond liked to imagine.
Even if she almost drove her away with outbursts like this. Tears flowed freely for what felt like hours but was likely seconds. Time took a backseat amidst the admission that had needed so many months spent skirting around the subject for it to finally come to light. It was dawning on both of them now just why they took such a fascination with the ways of the wealthy, the actions of the affluent.
Diamond Tiara had a thought. It was a simple thought, a self-professed silly one, but it was a thought she couldn't help but follow through on regardless. Stepping back a few paces, she looked at her love and began to speak, the words leaving her in nervous squeaks.
"I see a pony." She shook her head, aware of how silly this was, but something in her brain told her to continue in spite of it. "I see a pony, and she's got a yellow coat and a red mane. Her name is Apple Bloom. She worries too much about silly things, but I love her in spite of it. Hell, I even love her for it, it tells me how much she really cares for me. She's the most beautiful pony I've ever met, inside and out, and she gives amazing cuddles."
Diamond watched as Apple Bloom wiped her eyes once more, a dumb smile affixed to her lips. A moment like this... it was transient, but that would never affect its permanence.
"I see a pony," Apple Bloom repeated, a grin on her face. "She's got pink fur and the brightest smile I've ever seen. Her mane is lovely and she grooms it to the point of obsession. She thinks she's not the best mare in the world, but she's the only mare in my world, now and forever. She makes me say silly, sappy things when I ain't got a clue how to be all poetic, but I'll try for her because that's how much she means to me. I'm happy to be an idiot for her."
"I don't see poor," Diamond smirked, taking a step forwards.
"I don't see rich," Apple Bloom replied, matching her pace.
"I don't see imperfection."
"And I see past yours!"
"Hey, you cheeky mff—" Diamond was cut off with a long, drawn out smooch, an unashamed thing that was shown throughout the park and echoed their mutual appreciation, the world ceasing to be a factor in that moment as all thought and reason bowed to the sensation they experienced. It transcended physicality. It was an emotional and spiritual joining, one that would always be found on their lips even after their kiss, only at the mouthing of the other's name, the thought of the other's face.
When they broke apart, Apple Bloom tackled Diamond to the ground, the two of them laughing and rolling around until Apple Bloom invariably ended up on top. "I don't usually have to watch a pony for that long to know that little 'bout 'em, I'm gonna keep discovering you bit by bit."
"And I you," Diamond assured her, kissing her on the nose. "We've spent so many hours here, doing the very same thing, but through all of it, I won't remember the ponies we looked at, or the jokes we made. I'll remember the laughter though. I'll remember the kiss of the sunlight. I'll remember the look on your face as you scrunched up in fits and the calm rise and fall of your chest as I drifted off to sleep. Some of the things we've done will fade over time, but that feeling will last forever."
For a while they were silent, curling into one another and allowing the sun to do its rounds of the sky. The park continued without them, the world didn't put on the breaks for anypony.
If a pony watcher were to stop and look, he would perceive the happiest couple in Canterlot sleeping away their day in ecstasy, their worries faded and their bodies calm, their hearts pumping a continuous beat only for one another.
And he'd be right.
