//------------------------------// // Taking Care Of Business // Story: The Pony That Fell From The Sky // by Zurvan //------------------------------// Chapter 22: Taking Care of Business Meanwhile in Ponyville, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walk toward Sweet Apple Acres. “Diamond, are you sure you want to do this?” Diamond nod., “I need to do this Silver. Even if Sweetie Belle’s plan doesn’t give Apple Bloom her cutie mark it’s time for me to admit my feelings for her.” Silver nods. “I’ll help you however I can Diamond.” “Thanks Silver, you’re a great friend.” “But just a friend, right?” Silver asks sadly. “Silver?” Diamond stops and looks at her. “You have feelings for me?” Silver nods. “I have for a long time, that’s why I always made a big effort to be your friend even when you were mean to other ponies and pushed them away.” “Silver why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Diamond asks. “Do you remember your cute-cenera?” Silver asks, “More importantly do you remember what I asked afterwards?” “You asked me why I singled out Apple Bloom when there were others without cutie marks.” Diamond says, “And I told you it was because I had feelings for her.” “I was going to tell you at that night, but then you told me about your feelings for Apple Bloom, I couldn’t tell you how I felt after that.” “Why are you telling me now?” “I figure it’s now or never.” Silver says, “If you’re plan goes the way you’re hoping then you’re going to be with Apple Bloom, if it fails then you might think I’m pitying you if I told you then.” “Silver,” Diamond says. “I love you.” Silver smiles, “as a sister.” she finishes. “A sister?” Silver asks. Diamond nods. “I’ve always thought of you as the sister I never had Silver, and I’m sorry if that’s not enough for you.” Silver smiles slightly, “I think I can handle being your sister.” "Good, cause I’m going to need a sister to talk to and confide in.” Diamond says. “And if I start going out with Apple Bloom we’ll have to find you somepony else so we can double date.” “Diamond…” Silver starts and then nods, “I’ll think about it, maybe I just want to be your sister too.” “You’ll find the right pony for you Silver, I know you will.” Diamond says. Silver nods. “Let’s go see the pony you care about and go from there.” Diamond nods and the two of them continue down the path to Sweet Apple Acres where they meet up with Big Mac. “Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon.” “We were hoping to speak to Apple Bloom.” Diamond says. “Is she here?” “Eeyup.” Big Mac says as he glares at Diamond. Diamond looks to the ground, and takes her right fore-hoof and rubs the back of her neck. “We wanted to apologize to her for how we’ve been treating her, and then I wanted to discuss a business arrangement with her.” Big Mac nods toward the barn. “I’m keeping an eye on ya.” “Of course.” Diamond responds then she and Silver head to the barn where they find Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom sees the two of them and speaks angrily. “What do you two want? Tired of making fun of me only at school? So ya come to mah home and do it instead?” Diamond hangs her head. “Apple Bloom, we came to apologize.” “‘Say what?” Apple Bloom asks shocked. “We want to apologize for how we’ve been treating you.” “Why?” “I have a business proposition for you.” “What are you talking about?” “The other day I was getting fitted for a dress and spoke to your friend Sweetie Belle, and she mentioned how you did a wonderful fixing up the clubhouse you all use.” “I reckon I did alright.” “Well my dad has recently acquired a new property, but he was considering having it torn down. I think it just needs work. He said I could fix it up, but it would have to be with my own money. I can’t afford to hire a real professional, so I was hoping you might be interested in fixing it up.” “You want to hire me to fix up your property?” “That was the idea.” “But I don’t have a cutie mark for that.” “Yeah, I was hoping that would mean you wouldn’t charge as much.” Apple Bloom sighs. “I guess I can at least come look at the place.” “Are you able to come look at it now?” Diamond asks. “Yeah, I’d just finished up mah chores when ya came in here. I just need to tell Big Mac where I’m going.” Apple Bloom answers and then heads out of the barn. "Hey Big Mac.” “Eeyup?” Big Mac asks. “Diamond heard what I did to our clubhouse, and she wants to see if I can do anything to this property she has. She said she was willing to pay me, and I know we could always use the extra bits.” Big Mac nods, “All right, just be careful.” Apple Bloom nods and heads back to Diamond and Silver. “Alright you two, let’s get a move on.” ========== The three of them walk up to a small house, maybe twice the size of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse. “Here it is.” Diamond says. “It’s not all that big.” Apple Bloom says as she opens the door. “It looks kinda like our clubhouse, but bigger.” Diamond nods, “I think it was somepony’s clubhouse, and since it’s a bit away from everything I was thinking of using it for myself, it just needs fixing up.” Apple Bloom nods. “Well, I have to say the structure seems alright, I think if ya get me the right materials I can fix this up for ya.” Diamond pulls a bag of bits out of her saddlebags. “Will this cover your materials?” Apple Bloom carefully opens the bag,  “I reckon so, let me get to work.” “What about your pay?” “How about we discuss that when the work is done?” Apple Bloom says. “How long will that take?” “A day or so, if I had another set of hooves to help I could probably get the worst of it done today then you’d just have to get furniture or something.” “Silver, can you do me a favor?”Diamond asks. “What is it you need?” Silver asks. Diamond carefully takes off her tiara and places in Silver’s saddlebag. “Take this home for me, I don’t want it to get dirty.” “Diamond ya sure ya wanna get your hooves dirty?” Apple Bloom asks. Diamond nods. “If you're willing to teach me what I need to do.” Apple Bloom nods. “I reckon we can give this a try.” ========== Several hours later Silver Spoonbcomes by the building and finds Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara working together. “Hey you two, thought you could use a break.” Silver says as she slides her saddlebags off. “I am pretty hungry.” Apple Bloom admits. “I went and saw Big Mac, he gave some apples, some water and some fresh cider.” Silver says “I suppose a break would do us some good.” Diamond admits and they all sit on the ground and eat. As they do Silver gasps in surprise. “Apple Bloom, look at your flank.” “Huh?” Apple Bloom looks down and sure enough her cutie mark, a zap apple being painted by a paint brush, sits on her flank. “I got mah cutie mark?” Apple Bloom says, then smiles “I got mah cutie mark!” She hugs Diamond Tiara. “Oh thank you, I guess until I was working with you I didn’t realize just how good I was at fixin’ stuff up.” “We should celebrate,” Diamond says. “I ain’t gonna celebrate unless everypony is there, the crusaders, and you two.” “You want us to be part of your celebration?" “Of course, I wouldn’t have realized mah special talent without you two.” “More likely without Diamond.” Silver says. “Yes, your right, and first thing we should do is finish this place up, we can have the party here.” “All right, let’s get to work.” Diamond says. “I’ll see you two later.” Silver says as she leaves. The two of them work until nightfall. “Well shucks, I was hoping we’d have the place finished by now, I best be walking home.” “In the dark?” “You got a better option?” “We could stay here tonight, and finish in the morning.” “That’s actually not a bad idea.” Apple Bloom says, she goes over to Silver Spoon’s saddle bags and starts rummaging through them. “Looks like Silver left us plenty of food, and enough water to clean ourselves up before we lay down.” “Then it’s settled, we’ll just stay here tonight.” “Where are we going to sleep?” “On the floor.” Apple Bloom taps the wooden floor a few times with her hoof.  “Ya need some carpet Diamond.” Diamond nods, then gasps. “I bet it’s still here.” She goes to a closet and opens the door. “It is!” She pulls out a sleeping bag with Princess Celestia’s image on it. “A Pony Princess sleeping bag?” Apple Bloom asks. “How’d you get one of these?” “They were all the rage when we were little, I begged my daddy to buy it for me.” Diamond answers then she sees the sad look on Apple Blooms face. “And I’m the bad filly again.” “What are you talking about?” “I saw that look on your face, you had wanted one of these since you were little, didn’t you?” Apple Bloom nods, “More than anything else, I begged Big Mac and Applejack, told them I’d take on extra chores, and that I wouldn’t ask for anything for mah birthday if they got it for me.” “I take it that didn’t go the way you were hoping?” “I worked my tail off, and then a storm hit, and we lost lots of apples, I knew then without them even telling me that I wasn’t getting mah sleeping bag, in fact that was one of the hardest years for us.” “Apple Bloom, I’m so sorry.” Apple Bloom shrugs, “Looks like I would’ve outgrown it by now anyway.” Diamond nods. “It is kind of small, but-”she unzips the sleeping bag and lays it on the floor like a mat.”-I think the two of us can fit on it this way.” She lays down on  the mat and taps the spot next to her with her hoof. “Better than the floor.” Apple Bloom admits as she gets on the mat next to Diamond. “This... this is soft.” “I use to love it, I made my dad set it up on my bed so I could sleep in it for the longest time.” “Seriously?” Diamond nods, “It feels kind of foalish now, but it was fun at the time.” Apple Bloom chuckles, “Well, at least I can finally say I got to lay on one of these sleeping bags, right?” Diamond nods, “Yeah.” Then after a few minutes Diamond moves so shes against Apple Bloom. “Apple Bloom I need to tell you something.” “What’s up Diamond?” “Promise not to laugh?” “I promise.” “Well, you know how they were telling us how a filly is suppose to like a colt, and vice versa?” Diamond asks and Apple Bloom nods. “Well, I don’t like colts like that, I like other fillies.” “That ain’t nuttin’ to be ashamed of Diamond.” Apple Bloom says. “Mares out number stallions 5 to 1, so it’s common.” Diamond nods. “I’m glad you don’t think it’s weird, because the truth is…” Diamond pauses and when Apple Bloom looks at her to see why she paused, Diamond kisses Apple Bloom, then breaks the kiss after a minute. “Wow, that’s some kiss.” Apple Bloom says. Diamond nods. “My first romantic kiss, for the pony I’ve had feelings for for a long time.” Apple Bloom lays there, apparently lost in thought. “Is there any chance that you might have feelings for me?” “I’ll be honest Diamond, I don’t really know. I’d never thought of anypony in that way at all. Colt, or filly so I suppose I could like fillies.”Apple Bloom answers and Diamond looks hopeful. “I gotta know, why’d you torment me all this time if ya had feelings for me?” “I was ashamed that I had feelings for a pony without a cutie mark.” “So it’s ok now that I got mah mark?” Diamond shakes her head, “I was going to tell you tonight either way, it was Sweetie’s idea that doing this might earn you your cutie mark.” “So you had planned on us staying here?” “I’d hoped that I could convince you to stay so I could admit my feelings, if you’d said you wanted to head home earlier I would’ve told you then instead.” Apple Bloom nods. “I see.” “What can I do to convince you that I’m sorry?” “Well, ya did get your hooves dirty helping me, so I guess that gives ya some points.” Apple Bloom says. “Really?” “Of course I just thought about the fact I’m going to have extra chores for not coming home tonight.”         “Why don’t I come with you? I can help.”         “You on the farm?”         Diamond nods. “I like  you Apple Bloom, and your life is the farm. So I need to get use to the idea of being on the farm if I want to be with you.”         Apple Bloom chuckles. “Alright Diamond, I’ll tell you what, I’ll give ya a chance.”         “Really?”         “Yeah, I don’t see why not. The fact you’re willing to come help on the farm makes me wonder exactly how ya feel though.”         Diamond blushes. “I think I’m in love with you Apple Bloom.”         Apple Bloom blushes again, “Ya understand I really don’t know how I feel, right? I could wake up tomorrow and decide that I like colts.”         Diamond nods. “You could also wake up and realize you like fillies, and that would be a point on my side.”         Apple Bloom nods. “Let’s get some sleep then, tomorrow is going to be a long day.” Apple Bloom nestles herself against Diamond. “Ya are nice and warm.”         Diamond smiles and puts a hoof around Apple Bloom, “You are too.”         ==========         The next morning the two of them wake up and eat their breakfast with the food left over from the previous night.  Apple Bloom stretches. “Next time we do sleep together, we do it in a bed, I’m sore from that floor, even with that bag under us.”         “Next time?” Diamond asks looking at her.         “Well, we are fillyfriends now, aren’t we?” Apple Bloom asks.         Diamond smiles and nods. “Yes, yes!”         “Then we should act like it.” Apple Bloom says as she kisses Diamond on the cheek. “Now let’s get to work.”         “Of course.” The two of them quickly finish the renovations, Diamond sneaking kisses in at their breaks.         “Whatcha think?” Apple Bloom asks as they look at the finished place.         “I can’t believe the two of us did it.”         “I got to get home and work on mah chores, why don’t you go furniture shopping?”         Diamond shakes her head. “I really want to come help you, spend the day with my fillyfriend.”         “Alright, but you really going to get dirty at the farm.”         “That’s what showers are for.” Diamond says. “Maybe I can convince you to get one with me.” She says with a grin.         “We’ll see how ya do at the farm.” Apple Bloom says. “I might just be convinced you earn that.”