More than This

More than This

by Damocles23

Chapter 11: Our peace is Destroyed

“Ah still can’t believe you’re doing this.” Applebloom’s hindlegs stand idly in front of a tree, frozen in place.

“Deal with it,” Tiara says as she lifts her rump and clenches her teeth. She flexes her tender muscles and whips them out with a sharp movement, striking the tree bark, and a sharp pain ripples across her hind legs.

“Ouch!”

“Told ya.” Applebloom rolls her eyes with a smarmy grin and effortlessly hits the tree with a powerful, snappy kick. A moment later, a considerable number of apples cascades into a nearby basket.

“I still can’t believe you manage to do it.” Tiara massages her rump with a defeated look. “I mean, I’m an earth pony too.”

“Practice, practice and more practice. Besides there’s earth pony and earth pony.” She gives another blow to the same tree, filling up the basket up to the brim, and moves on to the next. “Still, it’s the thought that counts. Thanks for helping me out.” She smiles at her fillyfriend.

“At least I didn’t waste a hooficure. Hay, I don’t even remember what a hooficure feels like.”

“Ah’m sure that won’t last,” Bloom giggles.

“Well, duh! It’s the first time I’m doing once we get back home. And you’re coming with me, of course.”

“What?” Her pupils shrink with a comical pop.

“You heard me, beautiful. If you want to be with me, we’ll have to work with your appearance.” Tiara leans against a tree with an absent minded look. “I mean, the rustic charm has its, well, charm, but being in a relationship with a mare of my status— Don’t make that face to me. I’m talking about your social survival here!”

“Ya must mean serious business, right?” Bloom’s attempt at sarcasm flies so over Tiara’s head that it leaves a trail of light in the metaphorical sky. In fact, the magenta mare draws closer to the rustic filly with her pupils shot up with indignation and blood. Mostly indignation.

“Of course it is!” she yells, “Just a hair of your mane out of place and bam, you’re going down. They’ll eat you alive— Don't make that look, beautiful: I meant figuratively.”

Blooms sighs in relief and her face regains its healthy colors, still shivering from her own cold sweat. High society, or at least the tales she hears from Rarity and Diamond Tiara, fuels her fear of the pampered dances, hooficures and gossip. She still lacks the courage to ask about half of the things she doesn’t understand; it is a foreign culture that has diverted so much from Equestrian society so as to be unrecognizable. She just smiles and nods most of the time, but not out of lack of respect toward Tiara, of course.

“But you know what?” Tiara gives a wide grin, “I think you and I will be just fine.” The gentle and moving words of the spoiled mare are very inconveniently framed by a thunder in the distance. For a second her vision flashes and she sees a vengeful pair of grey hooves around her neck and her heart skips a beat.

“What’s wrong?” Tiara aks, moving away some locks of her red mane from her forehead.

“N-Nothing. Ah’m just happy to see ya making all these plans for the future and all that.”

Tiara’s smile is in front of her and that is the future in which she wants to believe and rely on. Bloom finds herself in that comforting embrace of hers before she can say a word. “I love you,” she whispers.

“Ah love ya, too.” Their gazes intertwine and their lips quiver, waiting until the moment they’ll be joined together...

Until Bloom breaks the hug in a huff and fakes a smile. “Hi, Sis!” she yells while Tiara jumps away from the yellow mare with fluid grace. She turns away to see, in fact, Applebloom’s sister carrying a cart chock full of apples

“Come on, Applebloom, hurry up to buck those apples. The storm’s coming!” she yells, trying to get her voice over the whistling of the wind.

“Almost finished,sis. Ah just need a couple more.”

“Well, at least ya got help, right?” Applejack gives a playful wink at Tiara, to which she responds with a simple, nervous smile. This worries her a bit, since she normally expects a scathing comment or at least her sticking her tongue out. She's still so unaccustomed to see her playing nice for once. “Jus’ be careful, ya’ll!”

As her sister goes on her way, Bloom sighs and says the obvious: “There’s still your dad.”

“Just a couple of days, AB. You just have to wait.”

Another thunder booms dangerously close.

“I hope we’re finished there.” She shivers a little as the air becomes progressively colder.

“Jus a couple more.” She gives another kick and the tree strips its apples in less than a second. “Ya should’ve stayed inside.”

Somehow, she does not think of these couple of days with Tiara’s as being really just two.

“I wanted to feel useful, you know?” She fidgets a little on her hooves.

Bloom doesn’t know how to answer this. Even though she has all the love in the world for that mare, she still wants to play careful, like standing on a fine line with nothing below to catch her if she falls, if both of them fall. “Ya don’t need to. Ya just need to...be!”

“Just be? The hay does that mean?”

“Be Diamond Tiara. The pony that loves me, the pony that loves her dad, the pony with the colorful insults and the nice little rump.”

“Oh, you rascal!” Tiara giggles and waves her hoof at her with girlish glee.

“Be the pony that ah love even if ya can’t buck a tree to save you’ life and everything will be okay.” She gives her a quick peck on the cheek. “Ah appreciate tha help, tho’.”

“Wow,” Tiara blurts out, frozen in her place, except for a slightly dreamy look.

“Wow what? Was it too corny, maybe?” The fine line on which they walk wobbles and the cold touch of the ground feels closer.

“Yes, it was. You aren’t really aiming high, you know.” She breaks out a nervous giggle. “I mean, all I can do... I wish I could be more.”

“Ah don’t need more.” The giggle collapses into a tearful, sudden and desperate laughter, an almost scary shriek. No, not almost: totally scary.

“Tiara, what’s going on?” She reaches for her and pulls the desperate mare into a close embrace. The cold wind rises once more and the tightrope they tread on wobbles again. The abyss feels colder and closer...

“I’ve do nothing but buck things up and I’m loved for it. It’s just funny.” But Tiara’s laughter is not of the heartfelt kind. It’s every kind but that: a devilish pout-pourry of emotions in the form of a very basic pony emotion. “I love you so much that it hurts. Right there...” She puts a hoof on her chest and makes tiny circles around the heart, “Promise me, Bloom. I don’t want this to end.”

The farmpony babbles incoherently , fear clutching her heart like a steel claw. “Why would this end?”

“It’s too good to be true. For once, everything is going exactly as I want and I don’t have to be mean for it. Just being little, old me.”

“And that’s enough?”

“I hope it is. I hope you were right. I hope we can be three again, one day.”

Bloom’s stare grows vacant as the first raindrops start to tingle on the two mares coats. She strokes Tiara’s mane with tender care, but her mind goes to places she has desperately tried to avoid until now. She was always a pony that moved forward without looking back. A pony that never wanted to lay down and wait for things to work out themselves.

A pony that, even if she has the utmost respect and love for Diamond Tiara, thinks that waiting any longer is a terrible idea. What if her father feels he’s been deceived the whole time, not knowing such a life changing piece of news at the very last moment?

No. Not like that.

Chills crawl up her spine as thousands of raindrops assault the ground below with a vengeance, while thunder roars just above their heads.

“Whoah!” Tiara grips Bloom in a protective embrace, just as the brilliant flash and booming cackle in the sky dies away.

“Ah think you should go inside.”

“Yeah, I think I should.”

Another fleeting kiss and a wink from behind the shoulder, and the mare Bloom loves runs toward the house much faster than she expects. She muses on the fact that she really compensates her lack of brute strength with agility, almost disappearing before she has time to blink. If she wasn’t so spoiled and lazy, she would make good use of that.

But nopony is perfect, she reflects with a simple giggle. A giggle that quickly dies out the moment she realizes what is she going to do behind her lover’s back. One last buck at the tree makes the final apples fall and produce a thumping sound that almost spells out the only things she needs to say:

Me

And

Your

Daughter

Are

In

Love.

So simple and yet so distant to reach, these are the most difficult words to say in all of Equestria. She has to say them, though. They have to say them. At least she’ll be doing this behind Tiara’s back only to some degree.

As she watches the now completely bare trees, her vision blurs, stained by the merciless rain. She runs and her hoofsteps are masked by those dreadful thunder strikes. So swept she was by Tiara’s plight that she almost forgot that she was hiding this from her siblings as well! Tiara’s playful jab about the Element of Honesty comes to her mind and while it was, of course, playful, it hid a gleam of truth in it: truth is the whole point. Even if it hurts, even if it’s colder than this wind that’s rising over the horizon.

With cat like poise she tiptoes all the way past Tiara’s bedroom and her own, as hears her sister footsteps and the creaking door. Normally she would be the first pony she would confide too, but she decides to put Tiara’s dilemma in front of her own. Applejack’s warmth and kindness would certainly make her understand her reasons and her brother will follow. One of the few things that hasn’t changed is her family, thank Celestia.

Then, before, she can knock on Filthy Rich’s door, that bespectacled, horrifying gleam flashes in again. What if she’s wrong?

If you make her suffer, I’ll kill you.

Silver Spoon’s words hammer her temples and the thought of hurting Tiara hurts even more than whatever that crazy and lovesick pony could. Not that she’s scared of her. What if she ends up being the very thing that Bloom and Tiara fear the most? What if she ends up being the monster that Silver Spoon wants to vanquish at all costs?

It’s too late for that. Far too late: it’s the only reason she has found this resolve. I’m doing this for her. Or am I doing this for me?

No matter what Tiara says, it’s worth it for their love.At least to give them both a chance to bask in the wonderful feeling of love and being loved in return. Everypony deserves at least that, after all, right? The answer doesn’t come...

Bloom timidly knocks at the door and hears the polite voice of Tiara’s father.

“Come in.”

“Um, am ah bothering you?” She leans inside in the oil lamp-lit room in which she sees the mature stallion sitting on a chair with a blanket over his rump and a tiny pair of glasses on his muzzle, reading a book in complete relaxation.

“Of course not, dear.” He closes the book with haste and puts it on his bead nearby. “You must have finished your work at the orchard, I suppose?”

Bloom nods.

“I’m glad, and just when this dreadful storm arrived. Sometimes I wonder how we would live if they weren’t scheduled,” he chuckles.

“Ah guess we’d have a rain of trouble.” She wears a goofy smile while scratching the back of her head while Filthy just chuckles a little more. Thank Celestia her Cutie Mark wasn’t for bad puns.

“That’s true. You wanted to tell me something, dear?” he asks with his usual pleasant behaviour.

That only makes it more difficult to say it.

“Yeah, ah just wanted to ask a couple of things. Ya may have noticed that, um, ya are feelin’ better, right?”

“Of course, Applebloom. I’ll never thank your family enough for the time I’ve spent here. It’s quite a while since I’ve been so peaceful. Especially after those dark days,” he sighs, “I feel so old and useless. I hope my daughter will be alright.”

“Ya know, it’s about your daughter ah wanted to talk.”

“Oh, Celestia. What happened now? You had a fight?” he says with a half-hearted tone

“No, no, no!” She waves her fore hooves in front of her. “Ah mean we are fine together-Ah mean we are together-Ah mean...” She takes a deep, almost painful breath, as if the words are lost in the air she exhales. “We get along well.”

“Phew.” He sighs of relief, “I almost thought you two were back at the old ways. I’m so glad to see her with a friend. She is a grown mare now and she was always, um, difficult to deal with, shall we say.”

“Ta put it mildly.” Bloom rolls her eyes. “No offense, but your daughter was kind of mah worst enemy back in the day.”

“But now it’s not like that anymore,” he wears a warm smile, “isn’t it?”

“Nope, that’s behind us now.” Their first night together flashes before her, clouded in a pleasant and nurturing light. “Far, far behind us.”

“I’m guessing there’s a but in there somewhere, isn’t there?”

“Wel’...A tiny but. Like, really tiny and gorgeous an’...”

She slaps her cheek before Rich’s befuddled gaze confuses her even more. She makes a mental note to slap herself again for that. “We have to tell ya bout somethin’”

“Can I have a clue as to what is this about or I should look forward to the surprise?” he says, nonchalant as he wipes his glasses clean with a blanket.

It’s almost unnerving, how serene he is. Or maybe it’s because Bloom feels so nervous that everypony else looks like the epitome of tranquility compared to her.

“Wel’, I’d prefer for Tiara to be here. It’s very important for her too, and since she’s mah friend...” the taste of that lie becomes more bitter by the minute, “it’s very important fo’ mahself, too. Ah hope ya can understand.”

“Of course. I’m just hoping for some good news for a change. You know, before my time here runs out. I mean our, you know,” he rapidly correct himself, even though the last part flies over the young mare’s head.

“It is, Mr. Rich,” she says with a solemn tone reaching for his shoulder. “Ah guarantee ya that your daughter in in good hooves, that she will never be alone again and after this...” she barely manages to hold back tears of joy, “after this it won’t be tha same!”

“Well, now I’m really curious about this ‘thing.’ But I trust my daughter and I trust you. You know...Tiara has been very distrustful of everypony these days. Especially mares.”

“Really? Why is that?”

“I think she sees her mother in the eyes of every mare she comes across, expect maybe for Spoon and you. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s not what it seems, even though the two...never got along, to put it mildly.”

“Why is that?” she asks, repressing a hint of sadness in the statement.

Some days, Applebloom would do anything to see the mother that she never knew, while Diamond Tiara always said she would rather forget about her completely.

Cuddling together at night, Tiara whispered between tears how much she would like to trade places with Bloom.

She wipes away a tear that managed to escape before Rich notices it, hoping in the discretion of the darkness.

“I don’t know,” he continues, “but perhaps my condition was the last straw between the two. My wife and my daughter are both difficult to deal with and neither of them reacted the way a normal pony would. Pain changes ponies so much, after all.”

“But, ah don’t want to be disrespectful, wasn’t she the reason you and her... Ah mean she was a-”

“Like I said, it’s much more complicated than that. I’m not ready to tell anypony and I hope I can trust you with this secret. Tiara is not ready, yet.”

Bloom preemptively shuts up, the hated word dissolving in the air before leaving her mouth. Which is good since none of the ponies she knows seems to like it very much anyway.

Bloom just nods, feeling so much disgust over this thread of inevitable lies. Maybe it’s the blood of the Element of Honesty in her veins or maybe it’s just the sheer sadness of a family not able to understand each other anymore, but this sensation is too much for her. Even though her mind would like to return to simpler days, her heart can’t and won’t, not when she has somepony else.

“Ah understand. Mostly.”

“I know it’s not right to make you carry this weight, but you’re a good mare, just like your Granny and your siblings.”

“Ah will, Mister, ah will. Just come see me in a hour or so and ya’ll know everything.”

“When you’re ready, dear. Just don’t worry if I’m late because of these old bones, alright?” He reaches for Bloom and pats her head in a paternal way, with a gentle smile and a chuckle. This gesture of kindness sends her over the edge and she takes leave with just a nod and a nervous smile.

She leans against the door, suffocating an exasperated, long sigh with her hooves, before running them all over her mane. This night is the night all secrets and lies are shattered and laid bare. A thunder strikes a third time, much closer than the last one, and pierces the blackened skies, almost making her yelp like a scared little filly.

She was scared, alright...

Bloom throws herself onto the bed, letting the sweet slumber and darkness envelop her, just to rest her forelegs and cleanse herself of the stress of the day. The dreamless sleeps it’s so deep that it passes in mere seconds for her, and it’s only interrupted by another thunderflash through her window. The brilliant light reveals a silhouette magenta for just a fleeting moment, before it disappears.

She blinks.

“Hi, Bloom,” the figure purrs, her pleasant breath tinging the farm pony’s muzzle with gusto.

“Tiara, ah—”

Her words are swallowed with a kiss that looks more like an assault than a romantic gesture. The spoiled mare’s lips move all along her lover’s muzzle and neck, suffocating them in her typical rough, yet tender, fashion.

“Surprise,” Tiara whispers with an wide smirk before nibbling her ear. Bloom finds herself pinned on the bed under her full weight while the farmpony’s forelegs are locked at her sides by a pair of surprisingly strong ones. “I hope I didn’t scare you.”

“Actually, yes. Ya did. I mean, with tha thunder and all. Did ya do it on purpose?”

“Well, duh!” Tiara says, her grin unchanged.”You always need a good scenery when you want to have sex.”

The mere mention of the word makes Bloom shiver, and Tiara as well, who basks in the simple power of that word.

“Wel’, if ya don’t have scenery, what do ya have instead?”

“Just sex. But you know, there’s just sex and sex.” She shivers again with even more glee, shakes crawling up her spine while her grin turns into a hoarse laugh. “Oh my gosh, I’m, like, terrible.”

“Yes, you are.” She shuts up her the giggling with a kiss, a quick, pleasant kiss that turns into a cascade of them, but strangely lacking passion. Their bodies intertwine, their hooves caressing each other’s withers and flanks.

But Bloom’s mind isn’t there, even when she brushes the interior of Tiara’s cheek with her mouth, drawing out a delightful yelp. Her mind rocks back and forth like a cradle, each movement accompanied by the same litany.

Tell her. Tell her now or it will be too late.

She breaks their kiss, leaving the magenta mare confused and almost...concerned, even.

“What happened?” Tiara asks, almost reflecting in her eyes the same whirlwind of doubts that roars in the farmpony’s brain. “You aren’t in the mood?” she says, lifting herself up with a struggle.

“Nothing,” Bloom quickly says, trotting her way to the window near the bed.

“You liar. I know something is wrong.” She puts a hoof on her shoulder. “You never say no when I jump on you like that.”

“Yeah,” Bloom answers, mesmerized by the tapping of rain on the glass. “That’s true.” It’s the worst possible answer ever and fueled by guilt. With much regret she realizes that Tiara is not fooled in the least.

“Was that about before? I’m much better now, if you’re worried.” She circles Bloom’s shoulders with her forelegs in a tender hug, “Much better now that I can see you again.”

“Ah’m glad.” She grasps Tiara’s hoof with her own. What am I doing to her? The yellow tinted mare turns on herself and meets her lips with Tiara’s own, making both of them relax in the their shared bliss.

There’s still time...

She gently pushes Tiara onto the bed, pausing only to take a breath, massaging each other’s lips until the magenta mare manages to slip her tongue in Bloom’s eager maw. The seconds tick by, with their tongues exploring other’s with voracious need, each warm appendage going crazy and savoring the respective partner’s mouth.

Maybe she won’t be angry if I “soften” her a bit...

With burning intensity and need they explore their bodies with lips, tongues and hooves alike, passing through each and every curve and muscle, coat against coat, almost fused in a single being.

Each stroke is timed with a muffled moan or a desperate giggle, accompanied by the tapping of the rain— the only two noises worth listening to in all of Nature. Her nostrils fill with Tiara’s natural gentle aroma and the few traces of expensive perfume left in her fur, mixed by the familiar scent of grass and rain.

Tiara shivers a bit, desperately grabbing at the farmpony’s whiters while burying her muzzle in the cream colored coat. She throws kisses and nibbles at her neck as she leans closer and closer into Bloom’s ear. The aroma of their marehood’s dripping fills the room, making Bloom’s tights already leak and fuel further her daily need of Diamond Tiara.

Firmly grasping Tiara’s flanks, her mouth along her sensitive chest to nibble and lick to her heart’s content, causing Tiara to let loose those moans. Oh, Celestia, those cute moans of hers, while her body flails and shakes to every whim of Applebloom’s tongue, teases Tiara’s waist with her warm breath as she nears her pink prize between her legs.

The glistening and beautiful prize between Tiara’s legs looks so inviting and juicy, leaving an ever growing trickle of fluid on the bed.

“I bet you love that,” Tiara giggles and pants. “Here, have a better look.” She sprays her legs further, even using a hoof to spread her wet treasure, allowing the world to see her exquisite folds.

Bloom drools and stutters a bit, shades of crimson assaulting her cheeks. “T’s alright...”

“Just alright?” Tiara raises an eyebrow, irritated. “Come on, you can do better.”

“It’s...great?” Bloom gives a sheepish grin, much to Tiara’s escalating annoyance. “Ah mean, fantastic, spectacular, studentuos?”

“It’s stupendous.”

“Yeah, that too! But, ya know...” she purrs, “there’s only one word we need right now. Delicious!”

She lunges toward Tiara’s dripping vagina and her tongue explodes in potent flails, finally tasting the mare.

Tiara’s thighs lock themselves around Bloom’s neck and her hips start to move, bucking against her voracious mouth, much to the farmpony’s delight. Bloom buries her muzzle in Tiara’s privates, in the most intoxicating scent of her arousal.

Bloom’s body shivers and quakes at every lick, tasting the mare she loves and loses herself in the powerful taste. Yet, even if she loves doing this to her, the mere act of pleasuring Diamond Tiara is a reward in itself.

Temptations of pleasuring herself like the first time inches into Bloom’s brain, only to be suffocated by much more primordial sensations, forcing her forehooves to grab Tiara’s hind legs and lift them a bit, uncovering more of that delicious pink flesh. The magenta mare moans and screams of delight as Bloom’s tongue swirls deeper and deeper inside her, grasping at the sheets with animalistic howls. ”Oh, Celestia! I fucking love you, Bloom!”

While the sentiment is sweet, the phrasing wasn’t at all, forcing Applebloom to delve deeper with her tongue and give a sound slap on Tiara’s butt cheek. She lets out another moan of delight that confuses the farm pony into stopping altogether.

“Don't you dare stop!” Tiara screeches. “Slap me again and go on with that pretty mouth of yours-Youch!”

Bloom complies with gusto, feeling the shaking of Tiara’s delicious rump all over her foreleg while her tongue keeps picking at her saccharine juices.

Buried between her haunches, feeling her lover with every sense, every molecule of her body lies in Tiara, for Tiara and because of Tiara. She literally worships her magnificent cunt with every thrust of her tongue down her slick canal and her inner walls, listening to her lovely attentions and eager for more. She delves deeper and deeper, soaking in Tiara’s revelatory moans of approval of where and how to move her tongue.

Her hooves don’t stay idle, though; they explore every inch and curve of her lover’s lower half, brushing against the silken coat of her inner thighs. The curves of her rump, already sore after a couple of slaps or two, burn against her touch. It’s almost like whatever little body fat there is got squished into that cute little butt of hers, the rump that gives Bloom so much trouble.

In fact...

She slips out of Tiara and before the spoiled mare can protest, and spreads her buttcheeks with haste, running her tongue in circles around her delicate anus.

Diamond Tiara almost screams and bites her tongue, her body assaulted by spasms of pleasure in every circle that Bloom runs around her delicate web of nerves.

“It’s dirty,” she lets out with a hint of a laugh. “You’re dirty.” Tiara slams her head into the pillow and relaxes, letting her tongue roll out of her mouth.

Delicious juices rile down her butthole, and Bloom’s lustful licking makes loud slichks and slurps. Another thunder booms outside, but it is obscured by Tiara’s orgasmic shrills.

“Gahhh! I love you, Bloom! I love you so much. I don’t want to ever leave you. I’m sorry for everything bad I sai—”

She bites her lip as the pleasure rocks her nethers and runs down Applebloom’s chin in spurt after spurt, covering her face with love juices. “I love you so much... Promise that you’ll never...You’ll never...”

Her voice stops all of a sudden and her body rests, unmoving.

Bloom lifts her head, leaving a strand of female liquid hanging from her chin, to look into Diamond Tiara’s eyes. She stands frozen, a look of absolute terror and shame etched in her eyes, something she’s never seen before. She looks almost on the verge of tears, staring at nothing, before Applebloom can muster the courage to turn and see what her marefriend is seeing.

She glances towards the door, and sees Tiara’s father, mirroring the same shocked and horrified look on his daughter.

Before he can open his mouth, he collapses to the floor.

I wish she could just slap me and be done with it, she thinks as her sister wraps her in a tight hug.

It’s the same hug she would always give whenever Bloom felt sad as a little filly. The same kindness and comprehension, even though in happier times would have been a gift from the heavens, now seems inappropriate.

“It’s mah fault,” she mutters.

“It’s alright, suga’cube.We’ll figure this out later,” Applejack whispers.

“Ah wanted to tell ya, but---”

“Shhh, Applebloom. Don’ cry.” Her sister tightens the hug and the young mare realizes tears are running down her face. She's not the only one in the room: the pony she loves and hurt is crying her heart out, her face buried beneath her forelegs.

She wishes she could go and comfort her, hold her and tell her that it’s going to be alright, but she has already piled lies upon lies and now it’s too late.

I’ve done enough damage to her. How could I forget? How could I expect it?

For the first time in years, she feels little and vulnerable, wishing for her older brother to be there. He would have something to say: few words, sure, but they would be the right ones. Of all days he had to be in Appleloosa...She feels like a little filly again, yearning for her siblings comfort, the same embrace that would cradle her during the loudest thunderstorms and whisper only sweet nothings. But what would they say, knowing that this is really her fault?

She abandons her sister’s undeserved embrace, not an easy task, and reaches for Tiara’s side, putting a loving foreleg around the shoulders of the crying pony. “Oh, Tiara. Ah’m so sor-”

“How could this happens?” Tiara says between broken sobs. “Why now? Of all moments why now? The worst possible moment...” She sulks again into a crying fit, hiding her face from the rest of the world.

“Ah don’t know.” The lies taste like poison now. Poison for the soul that she deserves to taste. “Maybe it’s jus’ nothin’.”

“Bloom, I love you, but please shut up. You can’t say anything until the doctor says something.”

“How could ya?” Bloom’s heart stops when she hears her sister’s voice, but the words are directed to Tiara, accompanied with a glare from vengeful eyes. The young mare returns the glare with no hesitation, finding more than a match.

“Pardon?” Tiara brings out a forced smirk, the smirk of a pony that perfectly heard her, but just wishes to mock. A smirk that hides venomous rage behind it.

“How could ya do this to your own father? And Applebloom too?!, she screams with anger, almost kicking the table in the way.

“Don’t you dare!” she lashes out at the orange mare, “Don’t you dare make me the bad guy. I didn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“The nerve of ya,” she spits out, “Ah bet it was you, t’ always ya! Ah bet it was all your idea. Ah bet it was you that took advantage of mah little sister.”

“I wanted to tell him. I wanted to tell all of you, but...but it never was the right moment until that happened. There’s nopony to blame. Besides, why is your little sister not getting a lecture?”

“It’s because of you. You coerced her into this and-and...It’s your fault!”

“Applejack, stop!” Bloom launches herself in between the two snarling mares, “She didn’t coer...coex...Ah wanted it! And she wanted it, too. Ah-Ah love her.”

The fury in both Tiara and Applejack’s eyes quells for a moment as her sister strokes her cheek. “Oh, Applebloom...Is that true?”

“It is.” The truth hurts, this one in particular. For once, she regards it as the poorest excuse ever, given what just happened.

“Well...” she rubs the bridge of her nose with an annoyed grunt, “we’ll think about it later. After the doctor tells us somethin’.”

“You know, if there’s somepony that should be worrying right now, it’s moi! Why do you care?”

The words fly out and Bloom wishes she can shove them back down Tiara’s throat; the embarrassment is enough to make her want to slap herself silly. And maybe slap Tiara, too. For a second, she can almost see that unpleasant little filly of days long past in her house.

“At least somepony’s got to do it. Ya seem like ya don’t care, you little sniveling b-”

“Applejack!” Bloom screams in terror, severing the word that she hopes her sister didn’t just try to utter before something horrible happens.

“No, no, Bloom. Let her finish. I want to see if she has the guts to say it. You know that you have no chances with him, right?”

“Now, jus’ what are ya trying ta say?” Applejack’s voice lowers to almost a growl, her green eyes twinkling like the twirl of a knife under her hat.

“You have no business with my family. And even if you did you’re so below him you don’t even deserve him! You don’t need to fake some sympathy just to get into his bed—”

A powerful slap hits her across the face and flings the mare to the other side of the room.

Bloom screams, but no sound comes from her mouth.

Tiara hits the wall with a side and and a trail of blood riles down her chin, which she wipes away in a instant.

“It all comes down to this with ya, doesn’t it?” The mare’s lower lip faintly trembles, as does her voice. “Jus’ ta only thing ya can think of...Like there’s no middle ground.”

Diamond Tiara runs outside, without warning, leaving a gust of cold wind to enter the room, as cold as the stare she gave to the farmponies.

“Tiara, wait!” Bloom runs toward her, but feels a familiar grip on her coat. Applejack tries to stop her, to say something, but for the first time she doesn’t want to listen. She isn’t saddened or angry with her sister, but something between them can’t ever be the same again. “Please let me go to her,” she pleads with quivering eyes.

The hoof removes itself, and lowers a stetson upon Applejack’s eyes.

“Ah’m so sorry. I failed ya both...” Applejack whispers, before the proud and angry farmpony dissolves into tears.

The cold rain and wind stings her eyes while the thunder falls all around her. A scream is heard between the sound of the storm in the tune of Tiara’s voice. She finds her lover in the muddy fields, her mane wet and disheveled and her coat as dirty as ever, screaming and crying her heart out at the uncaring sky: a horrifying and pathetic image that is a far cry from the elegant and composed mare she came to know.

All of her sorrow exploded on this dreadful day, beaten and kneeled by the awful circumstances... and by Bloom’s mistakes. “How could this have happened?!”

She runs to her side in the slime and in the mud, hugging her so hard that she can feel Tiara shaking to her very core, her heartbeat slamming against her ribcage. She doesn’t deserve to talk to her, let alone touch her this way.

“Everything will be alright.” She closes her eyes and only Tiara’s sobbing and the thunder remains.

“It won’t be. I’ve done it, I’ve finally done it! I hurt my father more than I ever did! We were right: the truth would have destroyed me, but seeing me like t-that...” She circles her own chest with her forelegs and makes another painful sound. “I feel so dirty.”

“It’s mah fault. Ah thought there was still time. A-Ah didn’t mean to...” A voice inside Applebloom screams to tell Tiara the truth: her father was there because of one of her crazy schemes. They’ve slept together without a care in the world, completely forgetting about him. Bloom forgot about him because she had been careless, for Celestia’s sake! She let her guard down and disaster had struck.

“I was asking for it, actually. Maybe your sister is right: I-I Just have one thing in mind.” She slumps down against Applebloom’s chest like she would to a brick wall, staring at nothing with vacant eyes.

“Maybe it was all wrong. Everything about us was wrong.” The horrible truth comes out between raucous sobs. Diamond Tiara stops moving and shaking in Bloom’s grip.

“Never say that again,” she calmly says. Much more calmer than the mare who cried for her father just a minute ago. The uneasy kind of calm.

“Yes, it’s true. Ah messed up everything an—”

She’s shoved into the mud by a crazy gleam framed between dirty locks of mane and pinned to the ground by pinkish hoof.

“Never say that again!” Tiara screams, teeth grinding and tears flowing, her once cute face deformed by the lightning in a desperate scowl. ”You said that everything is alright, right?”

“Well, ah said it, but—”

“I still got you. I’ll always have you. Always. I love you.” Her voice cracks, but before Bloom can do anything or say anything to comfort her, her lips force themselves onto Tiara’s with all the tenderness of steel grazing rock.

There’s no passion, no love in that kiss, only pain and cold need. The kiss breaks countless times, just enough to let them breath the bare minimum to survive.

“I love you, loveyouloveyouloveyou....” she repeats as a mantra while coating the mud covered muzzle of Applebloom in slobbering and completely careless kisses. None of this is earned, none of this gives solace to the farmpony’s heart, none of them is...

Nothing. She really doesn’t deserve it.

Tiara's lips are stopped by a sturdy hoof and a pair of pleading amber eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Tiara blurts out in broken sobs, her elegant features covered by tears and mud.

“This. This is wrong.” Bloom is immediately slapped by the mare above her, but the pain doesn’t registered. “It’s all mah fault.”

“Your fault for what?! What have you done?” the mare screams in anger, grinding her teeth.

A shocking suggestion passes through her mind, fueled by the most negative feelings she has ever had the displeasure to find: cowardice, sadness...and love. For the love of that mare that is suffering so much, she now has to relinquish it.

To end it, once and for all.

How could she ever look in Tiara eyes again, knowing that she’s involved in all of this? How could she ever think to kiss those lips again if those same lips brought her peace to an abrupt end?

“Ah’m sorry for having to fall in love with the likes of ya!”

The sky itself tears apart with a vicious thunder, and rips the cloud bank in two for its sheer force. The heart of two ponies breaks in half in the exact same moment.

Tiara recoils back, in shock and despair. “W-what do you mean? What does that mean?”

“That it’s over!” She shoves Tiara away, tossing the mare’s rump into a puddle of mud, splashing vigorously even with such a slender body. “We couldn’t do it. It just can’t work!”

“Who said it can’t?” Tiara lifts herself, her coat and mane stained beyond repair, but for the first time uncaring of it.

“How could ah ever face your dad after what jus’ happ’ned? How could ah face ya about it?”

“I don’t care. We’ll find a way, he’ll get better and I’ll say how sorry we are and we’re going to be happy together and-and-a-a-a-a...”, the magenta mare descends into a manic, almost desperate giggle drowned in tears of regret. What little is left of her composure melts away in front of Bloom’s eyes. It becomes more difficult by the minute, but she swears to herself this is the last time she will ever hurt Tiara.

“It can’t be done, Tiara. Ah’ve ruined your life. All of your plans, all of my plans...Gone. Because we were wrong from the start.” The rain washes away her tears before anypony has a chance to see them. The dreadful storm cancels the traces of her guilt forever.

“You didn’t ruin anything , Bloom. It’s not your fault. Ever since we got together I couldn’t be happier. I was alone, all alone until you got into my life, just because of the mistakes of a little, dumb filly. I was too lazy to move away from that village and nopony there, not one of the foals and fillies I grew up with could look at me with something other than contempt. I never grew up because they didn’t give me the chance!”

“Ah know...” Bloom’s mane falls limp and wet in front of her eyes. Her ribbon falls to the ground covered in mud, like the last shreds of days long past when she and Tiara didn’t share, but disliked each other. Days that rear their ugly head, reflected in the storm...Days that she knows will live again after this.

“Except you! I was even willing to forgive Mom for breaking my dad’s heart, because If that didn’t happen I wouldn’t have met you. And I don’t mean the lame, do-gooder blank flank, but the real you, that saw something more than the little bitch I used to be. Somepony that saw the real Diamond Tiara and even fell in love with her.”

The words cut deep, marking something the farmpony will never forgive herself for. For having done this to the one pony that needed her love and it was thrown back to her face. She knows that she doesn’t deserve her anymore and her kind words are lost in the wind. “Ah’m sorry, then. Ah’m sorry If ah hurt that wonderful mare.”

“You see? Nopony has ever called me like that. And I never loved somepony as much as I love you. “

“Think, Tiara!” Bloom wants to hurt her more, to make her go away for her lover’s sake, but she still wants to plead, to reason with her. She clings to this tiny hope, but she knows kind words will never reach Tiara. “What can I give ya but pain and embarrassment? What will ya say to your dad? Do ya still want to make him suffer? Do you want to suffer? Why, even if you love me-”

“I do love you!”

“Why are ya willing to do this to yourself? Just for a mare that just ruined everything?”

“Because if something were to happen to daddy...Nopony in the world would love me, except for you. And I wouldn’t want anypony else to love, but you. ”

There are few moments in life that two different outcomes can change a life, if not more, forever. She sees a faint hope of staying at Tiara’s side, a glimmer of hope to work out this horrible night out, a last chance to be happy and not let guilt and sadness cancel the beautiful days she passed her with her first love.

It’s just a lie, of course: a beautiful lie she doesn’t deserve anymore. Reality strikes like the final lightning above them. Everything ends with this sound and Applebloom knows it.

“So, please...I’m begging you...”

For the first time in her life, Tiara kneels, so low that her forehead almost touches the slime. “Don’t leave me alone now. Not now. ” She lifts her head to reveal a pair of hurtful eyes, eyes that scream the only thing that Bloom begs silently to her love to never say.

“I need you,” Tiara says softly.

The farmpony turns her back to her to hide her tears and trots away in the darkness.

“You need better, then...”

She’ll hate herself forever for this and she knows it, but, somehow, the strength she’s always had finally runs out. Not even a glimmer of courage to say the truth to her.

“I NEED YOU!” Diamond Tiara screams again, alone in the cold, like she was once again condemned by the action of a little, dumb filly. A grown up, a real mare would run to her and tell the truth, but she’s not one yet. Nothing has changed but her height...The only thing the little dumb filly can do is steel herself to not hear those desperate pleads.

“I need you, please! Don’t leave me like that! You can’t do this to me! You can’t! YOU CAN’T!”, Tiara snarls, her voice shrieking so much that it almost rips itself apart before a desperate wailing replaces words. Every sob is a stab, a kick, a drop of poison, but she can’t go back now.

She has just left alone the only pony she has ever loved in her moment of need. She hopes that, one day, the pain she has brought her, the memory of the love they have lost will just become something to forget, something that Tiara will write in her diary so that her memory won’t contain it.

Just drops of ink that will never hurt her again...