More than This

More than This

by Damocles23

Chapter 9: The simplest of truths

“So...You two?” Spoon points a grey hoof at the two mares sitting on the floor in front of her, nodding with a content grin. “Are a couple?”

The two mares nod in unison again and they say with one voice, “Yes!”

Tiara giggles at Bloom’s timing, who mirrors the yellow mare’s laughter with glee. The young mare sees her best friend bent over, almost gagging, and trying to not be noticed by the two very few confused.

And failing miserably, of course.

“Is this some kind of prank? Is it? It must be.” Spoon adds a desperate chuckle, “Now somepony is going to burst from that door and take a photo of the dopey face I’m making. I bet it’s priceless!” Her eye twitches while a crazed grin appears on her face.

“Does she does that all the time? Ah’m starting to worry,” Bloom asks.

“The twitchy eye is a new thing, actually. Gee, calm down a bit, Spoony. It isn’t that strange,” says Tiara, waving a hoof at her friend and tenderly grasping Bloom’s own with the other causing a little smile escapes from the cream colored mare.

“Well, it kinda is. No, not kinda; it’s like...I don’t know, it’s like the rules of the universe somehow got turned upside down,” Silver Spoon rants, pacing back and forth in the room to the utter indifference of other two.

Tiara shrugs while the farmpony just watches bamboozled. “Is she a’right?” she whispers.

“Give her a few minutes,” the magenta mare answers cooly.

“I mean...” Spoon starts ventilating, “What if I got hooked up with the other one, Scootaloo?”

“Ah think it would be cute...” Bloom mutters, in a way so innocent so as to make the grey mare glare.

“Oh, is that her name?” Tiara looks above absentminded and almost shocked. “I’ve called her Girl-Featherweight all those years!”

“Must have been really awkward,” Bloom mumbles earning an eye roll from her marefriend.

“The thing is...” Spoon continues, her braid almost loosening itself out of sheer disbelief, “The thing is I’m just surprised, that’s all. No, actually it isn’t.” She falls flat on her haunches and stares at the floor. “How did this happen?”

“Well, gee...” Tiara scratches the back of her head and holds her chin. “I guess like any love story happens: You find your special somepony in the last place you would expect,” she latches herself onto the farmpony, squeezing her in an affectionate, unashamed embrace, “in the last pony you would expect.”

“Ah was starting to worry at the lack of that part...” Bloom rolls her eyes, but still has the time for a quick chortle, to which the spoiled mare responds by sticking out her tongue.

Silver Spoon rubs at her belly with a grimace.

“What’s wrong?” asks Bloom with concern.

“All this sappyness is making me sick...” Spoon groans. “Don’t get me wrong, T: I’m happy for you, but I still can’t believe my own eyes. It seems like only yesterday you two were at each other’s throat and now...well, you’re at each other’s...” The grey mare gives herself a little slap before adjusting her glasses and holding the bridge of her nose, “Celestia forgive me for the joke I was going to make...”

“I’m sure she will, Spoony.” She waves a hoof with nonchalance before her easygoing attitude dissolves into a grimace of concern. “You know, there’s another reason I wanted you here, besides being my best friend, of course.”

“What is it?” Spoon quickly eyes the couple.

“You’re the only one that knows about us. Besides me and Bloom, obviously.” Tiara’s marefriend just nods at the statement, unsure. Something in her gut still tells her that it’s better for Tiara to deal with her friend, lest she want to complicate the situation further. She can see the grey mare’s distrust of her, even after all those years, like a black aura radiating from her.

“The thing is, I want you to keep the secret from everypony”, Tiara continues, “that’s it. Nopony else has to know. At least for now.”

“Well, It’s not like once I knew I was going to plaster the news all over Equestria, you know.”

“Just promise me Spoony. It’s really important this time.”

“Pinkie Promise!” adds Bloom, raising a hoof. It’s the most serious swear she can imagine. She smirks at the memories it brings, even though the other two mares can’t possibly have a clue about what she is talking about.

“Pinkie what?” Spoon blinks. “Is that baker in on this, too? So it is a prank, I knew i—”

“No, no. It’s just something ah care about. Ah mean, ah want you to keep the secret, so you need to do the Pinkie Pie swear.”

Tiara appears hopelessly lost in all of this, but she gives a nod of approval to her.

“Do this and repeat: Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she crosses her chest and lightly pokes her eye, making a squishy sound.

Spoon rolls her eyes and groans at the formula, cycling through the gestures like a soulless, bored automaton. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. There, you happy now?”

“Thanks, Spoony,” she finally says. “It means a lot to us what you did.” Bloom just smiles through all this. Seeing Tiara so determined, so willing to make this work, lights a warm, fuzzy kindling in her heart. Over and over, her beloved had said she had grown up, and over and over Bloom could do nothing but nod along. But seeing this with her own amber eyes... She doesn’t want to pity her, but at least that sad, spoiled mare deserves a shot at happiness. Everypony does...and she will be helping, of course.

“I just did it for you, you know. Surely not for the ‘Polychromatic flank formerly knows as Blank Flank’ here.”

“Can ah smack her a little bit?” Bloom asks, hooves shaking as she and Spoon exchange a vicious glare.

“No, please girls!! I’d like to keep this conversation as peaceful as possible. Besides, you don’t get angry anymore when I call you blank flank...” Tiara lifts herself off the floor and comes in between the two mares, interrupting their line of view.

“When it comes from ya it’s cute!” Bloom throws an accusatory hoof towards Spoon, “She’s jus’ trying to upset me.”

“And I’m doing it very well. Go me,” Spoon deadpans, her voice as dry as possible, even raising her hoof in the air as a victory gesture with no sentiment at all.

“Please girls, can’t you just get along, at least for now? Can you do it for me?” Tiara throws a pair of puppy dog, shimmering eyes, making her best friend instantly recoil and her Applebloom quiver with a cuteness.

“Heh...” Bloom sighs, “Ah can’t say no to those eyes.”

“You’re right, It’s like they’re hypnotizing or something.” Spoon adjust her glasses to mask one little sneer toward the rural mare. “I guess I’ll do it for you, Tiara, as usual. But there’s a question I really need to ask.”

“What is it?” Tiara cocks an eyebrow.

“Why the secret? I mean, I can understand the social stigma of being a fillyfooler, but—”

“I’m not a fillyfooler,” Tiara lashes out with a venomous glare.

“Erm, Tiara, ah think this is the right word, but—” Bloom tries to say, but Tiara’s blue orbs of hate swivel towards her. A glim of sadness is barely etched in them, one that curbs her violent edge.

“I don’t want to be called that,” Tiara lets out a throaty sob, “I don’t want to hear that word, at least not from you two.”

The other two mares exchange a knowing look and slightly nod in agreement. That sad, little mare with will always be their common ground, their truce.

“Why is that, Tiara?” Spoon asks, reaching out and placing a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.

“Ah think ah know...” Bloom mirrors Spoon’s affectionate gesture, holding Diamond Tiara between the two ponies that matter the most to her. As Bloom predicted, their presence shine a light on her face and finally summons the word that confirms everything.

“It’s because of Daddy,” she whispers. “How do you think he would react finding out that not only his wife, but his daughter are...that word?” Tiara sighs, cracking a collected facade. She slumps down to the ground and looks at her forehooves, powerless and exhausted. “I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should hide and hope for the best...”

“You know, Tiara...” Spoon scratches the back of her head and plays with her braid. “How long do you two want to keep up this charade?”

“This what?” Bloom tilts an eyebrow.

“This lie,” Tiara blurts out without any subtlety, still staring at the floor. For some reason, Bloom still prefers the words that she can’t understand. They can’t hurt her, that way.

“Oh...” Bloom’s gaze lowers as well, and she reaches for Tiara, stroking her mane and removing a loose lock from her forehead. “As long as necessary. Not forever, of course.”

“But it kind of is, isn’t it?”

Silence falls between the three mares, as the realization hits harder than a bullet. Bloom’s plans seem foalish and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

“He thinks we’re just friends...” the yellow mare looks out the window, “she can always find an excuse to go visit a friend, right?”

“But then, you’ll have to keep it hidden from your siblings as well, since they don’t know either, right?”

“Well...” Bloom scratches her chin in embarrassment, causing the other girls to slap their own foreheads in a synchronized thwack. “Ah just couldn’t find the words.” The night before was the perfect moment, but now the farmpony realizes it with deep shame. The night where they became real mares...With regret, she understand that a real mare should tell the truth.

Tiara gives out a long, exasperated sigh. “Back at square one, are we? Excuses, lies... hiding it from two ponies instead of three. Guess it could be easier, then.”

“It would still be a lie, and ah’m tired of lies!” Bloom yells, smashing a hoof into the floor, startling the other two mares from their sorrow induced stupor. “Tiara!”

The farmpony runs toward Diamond and holds her hooves in her own, causing the mare to look bewildered with her pupils comically shot up. “Are ya ashamed of me?”

“W-what? Of course not!” she shouts in complete panic, as if Bloom just suggested her to devour a live foal.

“Well, neither do ah!” Spoon choughs when she says that and Applebloom can almost hear the words between the breaks in the violent fit.

That would be the day.

She shakes off the thought (reminding herself to smack Spoon just a bit, when she has some time) and focuses again on her marefriend’s quivering blue orbs. “I’m proud of being with you! And ah want all of Equestria knows of this!”

“But what about Dad—”

“Ya said he feels better and he’s always been a good stallion, righ’? He always was a friend of mah family and ah think you’re worrying too much about it!”

“Not to mention the way he looks at your sister...” Tiara mutters with a smarmy grin and a wink towards Silver Spoon. The grey mare returns it, leaving Applebloom in the dark.

“Ah really don’t know where ya’re getting to...but mah point remains. Wouldn’t it be better if he saw ya happy for once? Wouldn’t it be better he saw that smile of yours that ya wear when you’re with me?” Tears rile up her wide smile as the words flow out of her mouth. She likes to think her plea is guided by a mysterious and benevolent force, a force that cheers for them, that spurs them to be better. ”Couldn’t ya use that big mouth of yours, to say that you want to be happy with me?”

Broken and vulnerable, the yellow mare finds herself in the potent and loving embrace of somepony who had really had enough of being hurt. Tiara’s hugs her in an unbreakable bond, it’s her way of saying I’m not letting you go. Bloom trusted her and found her trust repaid with a gesture, simple yet powerful. Even Silver Spoon, brash and annoying like few others, visibly blushes at the sight of their sentiment.

“I will tell him.” Tiara’s solemn look is just the cherry on top of their promise. “And you want to know when?”

Bloom simply nods.

“I didn’t know the right time to say it, but...me and Daddy are leaving next week.” A tearful smile appears on Tiara’s face. “We’re going home, we’re going to be a family again and you will be part of it.”

“Tiara!” The joy in her heart seeps through every inch of her body and overwhelms the rural mare, forcing her to share it through Tiara’s lips, so her lover can catch a taste of it directly from the source. Their kiss is vibrant, violent and sloppy. Each other’s hooves run along their respective curves as the slender physique of Tiara is gently pushed onto the floor by Bloom’s exuberance. She wants Tiara, she wants her forever and she’s ready to reape and satisfy this need right now...

Right under Silver Spoon’s embarrassed and terrified gaze.

The grey mare radiates crimson from her cheeks, barely hidden by her raised foreleg. “Don’t mind me, please. I’ll be gone in a minute...on the floor, passed out...”

The loving pair compose themselves almost immediately, bolting to their feet from the floor. The two return with fluid movements at standing apart and remaining awkwardly at opposites ends of the room. Their eyes dared not dart towards the other, lest she catch a glimpse of the foalish crimson around their cheeks.

“Sorry, Spoon...” Tiara mutters between nervous giggles. “Please ignore what was about to happen...”

“Sorry about that...” Bloom mumbles. She always thought to be, if not the most patient of ponies, at least possesing a better...demeanor, as Tiara always called it. Having a fancy marefriend means learning a lot of fancy words. Not that she’s complaining, though: it’s the least she could do for her. The demeanour, that is...

“You know,” Spoon chuckles, still behind her foreleg, “I’ll do my part about the secret thing, but you two are not helping if you do that everywhere!”

“Well, she’s right. I don’t know how we did keep this up for so long.”

“Ya did nothing to stop me, of course,” Bloom remarks with a sly grin to which Tiara responds with a scoff and a blush, turning her back from the yellow mare. A sad look is etched in Bloom’s marefriend eyes after that sigh, and she turns toward her grey friend with hesitation.

“So, Spoony...” Tiara switches her gaze between her hooves and Bloom repeatedly, almost like one of them could provide better words to say in that moment. “Are you okay with this?”

“Uh? Why are you asking me?” Silver looks shocked, adjusting her glasses with a hoof again.

“You’re my best friend, my only friend.” Something in Bloom’s heart almost weeps at this sentence. She realizes that all the ponies that matter for her in this world are under this roof...and only one of them is allowed to know the truth. The truth that makes her happy.

Seeing Tiara’s heart exposed like this to somepony else should not bother her so much when that pony is Silver Spoon. If her friends were there, she would act the same with Scoots and Sweetie.

Then why? Why does she feel her blood boil when Tiara reaches for the other mare’s shoulder? Why does she feel so jealous of them, jealous of Tiara basking in her embrace, jealous of sharing her happiness with her best friend and receiving her blessing?

Why does she see more than she should and suffer for it? The relief on Tiara’s beautiful face quells everything negative that blossomed in her in that moment. The moment she hears that mare say Thank you, Spoony with a smile so peaceful and innocent, seeing in that smile everything she loves about her is worth it. Bloom remains so abashed at the sight of Tiara earning a much needed space that she fails to notice when is right in front of her eyes until it’s too late to do something.

A gleam.

A gleam in Spoon’s eyes of something terrible and undefined. Something that makes her eye twitch for just a brief moment and makes the grey pony bite her lip, so hard that a small drop of blood falls from the side of her mouth. She rubs a eye to see that if it’s real, until Spoon’s bespectacled gaze is mere inches from her.

“Applebloom, can I speak to you for just a sec?” Silver asks, completely calm, hiding the source of that gleam with an uncanny calm and panache, keeping it masterfully hidden to her still very relieved best friend.

“Y-yeah, sure,” Bloom gulps, suddenly afraid. Of what? This is just Silver Spoon, right? But what does she know about her, really? Every hoofstep they take towards the door makes a menacing sound. A thunder is even heard in the distance while Tiara waves a hoof at her, lost in foalish glee.

Once the two are out, Spoon slams the door closed with a hindleg and very coldly removes her glasses with a hoof. She breathes upon a lense and polishes it on her coat. The gleam returns with a vengeance and her little eyes narrow in a bad omen.

Bloom gathers her courage, brushing aside the ridiculous gestures from the pampered and arrogant pony, and speaks.

“So, what ya wanted to say—”

A grey flash shoves her with violence against the wall. Applebloom finds herself pinned by a pair of surprisingly strong hooves, belonging to a pony that wears a mask of tears and rage, peeling and cracking the composed exterior to reveal...something that Bloom, in her simple life, had prayed to never see and lacks the word to describe.

“If you do something to hurt her, anything...” Spoon teeth are clenched like a savage beast, “I’ll kill you!”

Surprised and terrified by this jarring change, Bloom tries to articulate some words out of her paralyzed mouth. “W-wha-”

“It’s that simple!” She manages to growl without raising her voice an octave. “You make her suffer, just for a chipped hoof, and I will end you.” Their foreheads touch and Applebloom can finally see what lies beneath those violet eyes. ”Don’t you forget it.”

The yellow mare keeps her cool and tries to hide how much she’s scared by this attitude. Her hindlegs wobble, but her face is unmoving. She plays dumb.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you dare. That pony is very important to me and seeing her this happy after so long because of you...If you dare take it away, you know what awaits you.” Spoon’s forelegs are still hard as tempered steel, but the terrific pressure starts to falter.

“Ah won’t. Ah love her.” Her sincerity makes Spoon’s hooves dangerously slip toward her neck. She decides to keep talking, regardless. “Ah love her so much and she will be happy.” The farmpony’s hooves touch the menacing grey ones on her neck, causing Silver’s hold to fade a little more.

“Why do you care so much?” Bloom asks, distancing further the grey mare’s menacing grasp.

Spoon simply stutters, utterly overwhelmed and unprepared. She had never used brute force before and now wasn’t the time to start. “Because she’s my best frie—”

“Cut yer crap. Ah know what you feel.”

Spoon’s resolve breaks and she slumps down on all fours.

“Ya love her too,” Bloom finally says with tears in her eyes. It has to be: there is nothing as beautiful and terrible as a first love. There is nothing that can drive a pony to such violent despair. Even if it’s her first love, Bloom knows.

“What do you mean?” Spoon blinks. “Is that all you think of? Just because two ponies are close they must be in love?” Her voice trembles in indignation, but the conviction in those words fades like snow in the Sun.

“Are ya willing to strangle me for her?” The struggle between the two slowly continues, each of the mares not daring to continue.

Spoon lowers her gaze, defeated, and her tears hit the floor. “Y-yes...” she mutters. “More than you can imagine, let alone comprehend.” The moment of weakness is once again hidden by venomous resolution. “That’s why.”

“And ya think I stole her from you, don’t ya?” The woeful sensation crawls inside of her, dispersing itself in dry tears and painful thoughts. She knew that mare more than Bloom ever did in those terrible instants, more than Bloom could possibly know in an entire lifetime...

“Not on purpose, of course. Nopony knows... Not even Tiara, but this doesn't change anything. Anything.” The grey mare finally lets Bloom go and walks away in silence into the hallway, leaving the farmpony shaken to her very core. When Silver Spoon finally disappears from her sight (without even attempting to say goodbye to Tiara), she becomes calm again, in sheer defiance of those words.

She is not scared of her.

Tiara’s smile is wide as ever and will stay that way.

They are happy.

Then why does that second and much louder thunder in the distance scares her so much?