//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - Apple Bloom / Diamond Tiara // Story: Unwanted // by Apple Blumpkin //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Apple Bloom paced the CMC clubhouse trying not to think of all the trouble she would be in if caught. Reminding her-self that she was doing all this for a good reason helped to calm her nerves. She was also nervous about drinking the bottle of Apple Whiskey. Getting the bottle had ironically been the easiest part. It was as easy as going down into the cellar and grabbing a bottle. Apple Bloom supposed it was because her family didn’t think it possible for her to steal anything, or to even be interested in alcohol. Apple Bloom gave a small sigh to help clear her conscience. Apple Bloom was waiting for Diamond Tiara who went to pick up snacks. It was odd because Diamond Tiara had insisted that she should pick up something to eat if Apple Bloom was going to supply the liquor. It was an oddly nice and unexpected gesture, but Apple Bloom supposed it was just because Diamond Tiara was just hungry. The clubhouse should be empty all night. Apple Bloom didn’t exactly feel like she was going behind her friends back, but it was easier if she didn’t try to explain what was going on, and of course, she didn’t want to be seen drinking with her ‘worst enemy’. Apple Bloom’s ears perked up as she heard the familiar sound of hooves lightly clopping up the clubhouse’s wooden ramp. Diamond Tiara appeared around the corner holding a bag in her mouth while looking around the interior of the club house. At first, it looked like Diamond Tiara had something nasty to stay about the clubhouse, but after Diamond put the bag down she just stood in place looking slightly awkward. Diamond Tiara stood with her mouth open slightly as she searched for something to say. She didn’t want to say anything mean, but mean things were the only thing that seemed to spring to mind. “Huu, Hi,” Diamond finally decided on a simple albeit awkward greeting. “Howdy,” Apple Bloom responded, also awkwardly shuffling her fore-hooves. It felt extremely weird to be hanging out in her clubhouse with her ‘arch-enemy’. Diamond Tiara took in the room and glanced the full bottle of Apple Family Whiskey in the corner on a small table. “I should have given you more credit, maybe you aren’t such a blank flank after all...,” Diamond Tiara said as she approached the bottle. “But, Ah am a blank flank...” Apple Bloom self-consciously mumbled to herself but still instinctively checked to see if she got a thief’s cutie mark for her actions. Diamond Tiara unplugged the cork and gave an experimental sniff. Diamond Tiara, in all her bravado, had never drunk alcohol either. Her dad’s liquor cabinet was always kept under tight lock and key, so she had no idea what to expect. The last thing she expected was for the smell to seem familiar. Late at night, Diamond Tiara’s father would come in and give her a good night kiss and whisper things like, ‘sweet dreams, princess.’ Diamond Tiara always pretended to be asleep to not ruin the moment. It happened like clockwork if her father was entertaining guests or working late into the night in his home office. It was a small thing, but it was something Diamond Tiara loved. The whiskey smelled like her father’s good-night kisses. This unexpected happy memory caused Diamond Tiara’s eyes to water, and she had to blink away the moisture to avoid tears. But the odd reaction didn’t go unnoticed by Apple Bloom. “Hey... ya ok?” Apple Bloom said as she approached Diamond Tiara from behind. “Yeah, yeah... it just smells like... it smells really good,” Diamond Tiara recovered quickly turning back to Apple Bloom with a genuine smile on her face. “So, you have any glasses?” Diamond Tiara asked looking around the obviously cup less room. “Mah bro and sis, just drink it from the bottle.” Diamond Tiara didn’t know much about drinking, but she was certain she had never seen her father drink out of the bottle. Thinking back to conversations she had overheard she remembered that if it was good whiskey you have it ‘neat’, and if it wasn’t good, you had it ‘on the rocks’. Diamond Tiara didn’t know what either of those things meant, but she did know that either way it always involved glasses. Apple Bloom hid her surprise as she heard Diamond Tiara mumble to herself, although she caught the word ‘uncivilized’, and watched as Diamond Tiara flipped the bottle and took a healthy sized swig. Apple Bloom couldn’t help but smile at the look on Diamond Tiaras face as she brought the bottle back down. Coughing a little, Diamond Tiara passed the bottle to Apple Bloom. “Warm...,” was the only thing Diamond Tiara came up with to say not wanting to betray the fact that she had never drunk whiskey before. While the smell might have been familiar, the taste was not. She knew that her father liked the drink, so she wanted to like it too. So she suppressed her natural instinct to immediately hate the drink. Apple Bloom took a swig much like she had seen her siblings do, and to be honest, it looked a lot more natural. From watching Diamond Tiara’s reaction, Apple Bloom was much more prepared and managed to look less silly. Although her face still puckered up a bit at the unfamiliar taste. They continued on, and surprisingly both fillies began to relax and conversation came more naturally to them. Apple Bloom wasn’t sure how much of that was to blame on the alcohol as she had seen her siblings get plenty wasted on the stuff. While they had only but a small dent in the bottle they could both feel the effects. As they passed the bottle back and forth, they began nibbling on the baked goods that Diamond Tiara had brought. As it turns out, Diamond Tiara was absolutely famished. The conversation was light at first, and Apple Bloom marveled at the fact that Diamond Tiara talked about Silver Spoon in with the same affection that Apple Bloom would talk about her own friends. “Shooo, tell me shomething juicy about your friends,” Diamond Tiara asked suddenly with a slight slur. “Juicy?” Apple Bloom asked, even though she had a strong suspicion what Diamond Tiara meant and wanted to buy time looking for an acceptable answer. “You know, like a secret?” Diamond Tiara asked as she played with her leftover used muffin wrapper. Apple Bloom immediately got worried. She didn’t want to say anything that could come back and bite her in the flank... especially something about her friends. Diamond Tiara noticed the reaction and rolled her eyes, “fine, I’ll go first,” she said as she lay shifted in her chair taking a moment to think. “Shilver Spoon is absolutely terrified of clowns. If she sees one she will instantly run away,” laughed Diamond Tiara. Apple Bloom still felt this was borderline gossip, but the alcohol had loosened her tongue enough to play along. After all it was funny to know that Silver Spoon was afraid of clowns, and it was fairly harmless knowledge. “Well … ya remember when someone wrote, ‘I love Scoots’, on the shide of the schoolhouse? And Cheerilee talked to every colt in the school tryin’ ta figure out who it was?” asked Apple Bloom. “Yeah, I remember...” “It was actually Scoots herself that wrote it, and nopony ever shuspected it,” laughed out Apple Bloom. “Haha, that’s actually a pretty funny thing to do,” surmised Diamond Tiara. Apple Bloom was briefly worried that Diamond Tiara might use that information against scoots, but tattle telling wasn’t really Diamond’s style. Sensing Apple Bloom’s train of thought, Diamond Tiara took her turn, “Oh and this really can’t leave your clubhouse, but Silver Spoon has a crush on Featherweight.” Apple Bloom couldn’t help but share a bit of a giggle with Diamond Tiara at that news. “Really? I never knew... they never talk to each other...” contemplated Apple Bloom. “Oh she gets really really shy around him and she always looks for excuses to get away. It is actually really funny to watch,” laughed Diamond Tiara. Getting up, Diamond Tiara made her way to the balcony. “So, tell me something about Shweetie Belle, I bet she has all sorts of ‘dark’ secrets.” as Diamond Tiara said the word ‘dark’ she flailed her hooves around in a comically spooky way. Apple Bloom had to think for a moment. Sweetie Belle didn’t have any dark secrets or crushes that she knew of, so she blurted out the first thing that came to mind, “Well, she still sometimes wets the bed, but that’s about it...” The cigarette the Diamond Tiara had been pulling out fell out of Diamond Tiara’s hooves as she was jarred from the realization of what Apple Bloom had said before she started laughing hard enough to fall back on her plot. “You CANNOT tell anyone that!” Apple Bloom responded realizing what a personal and embarrassing thing she had just told Diamond Tiara about one of her best friends. “Haha, wets the bed...,” continued Diamond Tiara who seemed to be having trouble breathing. After a brief wrestle with her guilt, Apple Bloom got up and made my way over to the balcony and stood over Diamond Tiara. “Promise me that ya won’t tell a soul!” Apple Bloom felt the need to at least get a promise... How much a promise meant from Diamond Tiara, she did not know. But she could at least hope. It took a few more moments for Diamond Tiara to stop laughing, but when she finally did she responded, “OK, OK, I promise. I promise I won’t tell a soul that Sweetie Belle wets the bed!” And her laughter returned full force. “It really ain’t that funny!” Apple Bloom stated with a little hoof stomp. After a few more moments, Diamond Tiara brought her laughter under control, “Your right, I’m sorry. I just … I just never would have guessed,” Diamond Tiara took several calming breaths before looking around for her dropped cigarette. Finally spying it all the way down at the ground level, and being too lazy to go get it, grabbed another one out of her pack. Then she offered the pack to Apple Bloom, “Want one?” Normally Apple Bloom would immediately refuse, but today isn’t a normal day. After all what is the difference in drinking alcohol to seem more mature to Diamond Tiara, and having a smoke to seem more mature to Diamond Tiara. “Umm sure,” Apple bloom said as she took the tobacco from Diamond Tiara. “Thanks...,” she added as an afterthought as Diamond Tiara helped her light it. One small inhale was all it took for Apple Bloom to enter a fit of coughing. Diamond Tiara gave her a knowing smile and patted her on the back. After a few more drags, Apple Bloom seemed to get the hang of it. “These are super gross,” Apple Bloom commented offhoofedly but continued to smoke it. “You’ll get used to it,” Diamond Tiara stated matter-o-factly. Apple Bloom wasn’t at all sure she wanted to get used to it, but held her tongue. All things considered. Things were going better than she ever would have imagined. Although she was hesitant to ask any awkward questions, she knew she would eventually have to if she was going to figure out how best to help Diamond Tiara. The words tasted bad even in her mind, or maybe that was just the cigarette. The two fillies settled into a comfortable silence as they stared out over the back lot of Sweet Apple Acres. The sun had begun to set over the farm and even Diamond Tiara had to admit it was quite beautiful. The two fillies continued swapping the bottle back and forth albeit taking smaller and smaller sips as their thoughts and worlds began to swim more and more. As it got darker, it got colder. The two fillies had retreated inside and both had blankets around them as they continued to chat while lying down on the floor. As with most fillies slumber parties, especially those fueled with alcohol, the topic inevitably turned to colts. Diamond Tiara had admitted to never having a coltfriend, but only after Apple Bloom had admitted to the same thing first. For some reason, Diamond Tiara still felt the needed to defend the fact that she didn’t have a coltfriend and had entered into a long monologue detailing all the reasons why. Once she covered why they were brutish, she continued into the lack of available colts that were even halfway decent. She had just entered into how they all talked about boring stuff when Diamond Tiara looked over and noticed Apple Bloom had fallen asleep. Next to Apple Bloom was their half empty bottle of Whiskey. Deciding that the sleeping Apple Bloom didn’t need to hear the other reasons, Diamond Tiara’s attention turned to the bottle. After imbibing a few more swigs, Diamond Tiara fell into her own thoughts as was her normal habit. For the second time, Diamond Tiara reflected and realized how much fun she had with Apple Bloom. Looking over at Apple Bloom passed out on the floor, Diamond Tiara couldn’t help but smile as Apple Bloom lightly snored. “I’m shuch a shofty,” Diamond Tiara whispered to herself as she fiddled with the bottle. She decided that she liked the smell of whiskey much more than the taste. ‘Maybe, the whiskey tastes better if you have your own glass,’ Diamond thought to herself. Also, the taste did seem to improve the more of it you drank; she assessed as she took another small sip. Having nothing in the room of interest to occupy her attention her gaze eventually fell back on Apple Bloom. After watching her sleep for a few moments an odd thought struck Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara couldn’t help but think how adorable she looked. Diamond Tiara knew she was probably what everypony else called ‘drunk’ and decided not to linger on the thought. Instead her thoughts were diverted when she saw Apple Bloom shiver in her sleep. On an impulse, she decided to ‘tuck’ Apple Bloom in just like her father used to. Grabbing her own blanket, Diamond Tiara draped it over Apple Bloom careful not to wake her. Leaning over Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara whispered, “Shweet dream princess.” Closing her eyes, Diamond Tiara ever so lightly brought her and Apple Bloom’s lips together. Time seemed to stretch on forever, until Diamond Tiara realized what she was doing and how long it really had been going on, much longer than any good-night kiss her father had ever given her. In fact, it had been going on for and inappropriately long time. Diamond Tiara broke the kiss and bolted back upright. Flustered, Diamond Tiara brought a hoof up to her lips as she stared down on the still (hopefully) sleeping Apple Bloom. To say that Diamond Tiara was confused was putting it lightly. A myriad of thoughts and impulses seemed to be fighting for control over her higher brain functions. Finally, one thought managed to be heard though all the internal commotion. Diamond Tiara wanted to kiss Apple Bloom again. Ignoring the many different thoughts that all wanted her to stop for many different and good reasons, Diamond Tiara leaned in again. This time with her lips parted slightly and the contact a little more firm. Eyes closed, Diamond Tiara continued the kiss as long as she dared. Slowly sitting back up, she couldn’t help but see the still sleeping Apple Bloom in a different light. As rational thoughts began to creep back into her mind, panic was quick to follow. “Oh, no...,” was all that Diamond Tiara’s stunted thought-process could articulate.