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Snippet · 7:00am Mar 18th, 2014
This is an excerpt from an upcoming Royals-verse story. It's a WIP, it's not quite polished in places, and you might be wondering why I'd post it here. The answer is simple: I wrote it, I gave it a few days, and then when I reread it I liked it.
Figured that might be worth sharing. 
The sun was doing the best job it could, glaring down through a bright, clear sky. Fall wasn't the perfect season for a picnic, but it certainly wasn't the worst.
The fact that Silver and AB were doing some sort of honing exercises for earth ponies, and Scoots was off getting Dash-attention, meant that Sweetie probably would have pestered Diamond into a picnic anyway, even if it had been cloudy. Or cool. Or cold. Or, really, even if there had been hailing and lightning out.
As it was, the sun had done a good job that day. It was just warm enough during most of the meal, and warm enough after to entice the two to lay back on the grass for a while.
She'd spent the intervening weeks thinking of little but Diamond. It seemed to be going around, really. AB's date with Featherweight had apparently gone okay, and Scoots was still talking about Rumble at every given opportunity since the party at DT's place that he crashed. Mostly grumbling about keeping him in line, but the exasperation was tempered with a wide smile much of the time.
Diamond, however, still wanted to keep her and Sweetie to themselves. Somehow, that made it all the sweeter. Sure, it wasn't forbidden exactly, but secrets are secrets, and Sweetie was going to take intrigue where she could. So here they were, Sweetie's head settled on Diamond's shoulder, the both of them on their backs in the sun and comfortably full of food and drink.
Well, almost. "Are there any more bottles of iced tea?" Diamond yawned.
Sweetie lifted her head. "I don't think so? There's more lemonade, though." She settled a hoof on Diamond's tummy.
"Heyyyy, c'mon. That hoof isn't clean." Diamond's nose scrunched up.
Sweetie giggled and rubbed. It was barely dirty -- a little grassy, sure, but even Diamond got grassy stains on her hooves sometimes.
Diamond pouted, then rolled out from under the offending hoof. "I think I'll get more lemonade." She paused. "I didn't realize we'd laid down so far from the basket."
"Huh." Sweetie tilted her head. Cool air filled the gap between her hoof and the spot where Diamond had lay on the grass, and somehow she didn't want to let it fall through that spot. She wanted Diamond right back there like a few seconds ago, and wanted to lay her head on Diamond's shoulder again.
"Do you -- " Diamond turned and stopped. "What are you doing?"
Sweetie blinked and brought her hoof to her side, swallowing. "Nothing. What?"
Diamond's forehead wrinkled for a moment. "Do you want another lemonade?"
Sweetie shook her head and found she was biting her lip. It'd healed up sometime since the sleepover, but not quite all the way. She could still feel that little bit of unhealed swollenness every time she bit it, and sometimes she hoped it'd never heal up.
"Are you sure? It's cold." Diamond swallowed and shrugged. "I mean, I don't mind bringing you one too."
"Um . . . sure, I guess." Sweetie smiled and tilted her head, watching her mare.
They were mares now. Not that they felt like it, but as far as anypony was concerned. They were at the age where they could enter the Royal Guards, or the Royal Academy, or even go drink in bars.
Not that they did that much, of course. Neither Sweetie nor Diamond felt like dealing with the onslaught of attention it invariably brought from the colts swaggering around like their fifth leg was as long as they were tall. Still, it was nice to know it was an option, particularly when the other girls could come with them.
"Here." Diamond was in front of her, a wide smile on her face.
"I love seeing you smile," Sweetie breathed out. She immediately wished she hadn't. "I, uh . . . shit, that sounds so dorky. Sorry."
Diamond's ear flicked, and she bit her lip. "It's sweet. You're sweet."
Sweetie giggled and took the drink. A long cool stream of lemonade found its way past her lips, soaking her tongue in tart and sweet, trailing all the way into her stomach.
Always upvote Rum Punch.
For the record, in my head, I call it the Rum Royal Verse
1935631
*Cough* Rum-Royal-Colts-Verse *Cough*
Joking aside, I really like this, Cola. We should chat sometime on Skype when you're not too busy rocking the world.