At High Noon Folks · 5:03pm Jan 11th, 2015
CST (That's 2 PM EST or 10AM PST) The final chapter of An Apple Studded Diamond will go up, so pass the word along.
I had originally planned to post a small one POV Epilogue to go with it but it just started feeling awkward in relation to how the main chapter finished out so after some thinking I opted to drop it and let the chapter stand on its own.
In Retrospective, I remember when I started this as just an experiment to see if I could write for lack of a better term, Clop. But I didn't simply want to write a variation of a one scene porno with an already accepted character pairing (FlutterMac, The Crystal Couple, ThunderDash, CaraJack, -insert your fave pairing here-). So I picked a pairing that seemed out of left pasture. Big McIntosh and Diamond Tiara. In some ways I was inspired by a since abandoned fic. (though listed as 'On Hiatus') Big Mac Love by Bronystories, and like that fic. felt some sort of vehicle was needed to bring the couple together. Secret loves and hidden crushes seemed to have been done before so I took a look around at the real world of horses I knew something about (there is more than one reason I picked a 99 year old Thoroughbred racehorse as an avatar).
So I came up with the idea to borrow the concept of the Stud Contract from modern horse breeding and then fit the story around that. The original outline actually involved Diamond being tied into a breeding stall when Mac was lead in to cover her. I wanted Mac to be more of just a simple walking dick for a wham-bam-thank you mare over and done with tale. Mac always intrigued me from his first more vocal role in Apple Buck Season, before he became the one word wonder of Eeyup and Nnope. So I wanted to move forward with my take on 'Big Red' (coincidentally a nickname shared by the two greatest Thoroughbreds in North American history, Secretariat and Man'o'War). So I started to spin out a more elaborate tale based on Secretariat's parents. Bold Ruler, a well regarded champion, and Somethingroyal, who had been a failure as a racer but was a very good broodmare and desirable as her sire was Princequillo a champion distance runner (and from whom Secretariat inherited the X-genes to produce the biggest heart-lung engine block ever seen in a racehorse). Diamond became Somethingroyal, with Mac taking on the role of Bold Ruler, and even Filthy Rich getting cast a Princequillo as a consequence. There was even supposed to be a 'fan foal' as Secretariat at the end of one outline: Rich Harvest by 'Big' McIntosh out of Diamond Tiara. 
(And it's a character I may still use later on in a different story.)
I used to say in the early chapters 'I don't know what I did right' when the story started getting a lot of favorable comments and responses. I realize now what I did do. I told a story, that just happened to involve sexual themes, and not just narrate a porno for descriptive video.
Now as I prepare to post the final chapter I'd like to thank a small cadre of people (and I do apologize if I accidentally leave someone out).
An Apple Studded Diamond
Credits and Thanks that goes with them.
Aziraphael - Main Editor
Dotterall - Cover art, pre-reading, and secondary editing (primary when Azi had to step away for a time)
Loyal to Luna - Chapter 6 proof of 'clop'cept, pre-reading and tactfulness consulting.
Lesolan, King5, tg111, Terego, Ogrepony, Kamunari, StormyVenture, The Great Derpsby, Corwin Freiss, Freewing Alchemist P, Shogoki, Elric of Melnipony, ponygrad, and probably others for your continued readership, comments, moral support, encouragement, and above all patience while I brought this piece of fiction to it's often delayed conclusion.
Now I'm off to grab some breakfast and then post the chapter in about an hour from now.
Sir Barton (One Old Racehorse)
Great fic, as I've said many times before. There were only a few problems, especially since the chapters came so far apart. Fluttershy's POV is good but completely superfluous, as AJ makes us hold it in our heads because of the chapter after that, when it is silently dropped. And I can't make heads or tails of the conversation about cheerilee in the last chapter.
Read from when DT asks about cheerlee to "“She had Apple Bloom instead." to the poem. Big mac says they couldn't reach an agreement over his contract, " But I felt I had to be honest with her and tell her about wanting to honor my parents and the contract they’d signed for me. After that things seemed to cool between us. " but then laughs when DT confirms this, laughs at "thought your contract … had been the reason … Cheerilee and I never got hitched.” and says something about it being Applebloom's contract. It just does not make any sense.
2716062
Their parents arranged separate contracts, one for each of their children, Big Mac took over Apple Bloom's because it was the first one to be requested to be honored and because Apple Bloom turned out to be a filly. There's another contract for Big Mac somewhere, Mac discussed the details for that one with Cheerilee when they were together, but they were not covered as part of the story.
Thank you Sir Barton for your story, and thank for the thanks, though I'm not sure how I helped, but if anything i posted was of used to you then I've been of more use on this community than i ever thought possible.
Thank you again and here's hoping to read more from you in the future.
2716062 Knew there was going to be folks I missed. List of thanks amended.
2716223 Right on with the explanation there. There were 3 contracts signed in all, with Mac opting to honor the 'extra' one originally intended for his younger brother, that turned out to be Apple Bloom in stead.
You've been a good and intelligent reader since you stumbled across this story's 'intriguing' cover art, It's readers like you and the others I've listed that I kept up my efforts to finish this fic.
Side note: In my version of Equiestria the Stud Contracts are kept by the mare's families. Hence, Filthy had one for Diamond, Granny had the one for AJ (Apple Bloom actually slips the noose here by not having had one negotiated prior). Mac's own contract is held by the prospective mare. (And I do know who that is.
)