//------------------------------// // Step 7 ~ The Acres, Starting Grounds For A Grand Adventure // Story: Sleepovers And Such // by Sunset-Chan //------------------------------// Celestia’s sun might’ve just been the first thing that woke in the morning, signalling everypony that their day would start beneath a clear sky with their princess smiling down upon them. The leaves rustled in the light breeze and the grass moved ever so slightly as Diamond Tiara made her way through the Sweet Apple Acres, unsure where exactly she was going. The lay of the land wasn’t exactly something she was familiar with, now that she’d swayed from the road and into the seemingly unending labyrinth of same looking trees who all bore the same fruits during the same season.   Farming them was probably a stupid job and she didn’t quite understand why anypony would do it. Well, if they traded with her parents that probably meant they got good money for it. So she guessed that was why.   Step by step she walked along a seemingly unending path into an uncertain direction. Sometimes she turned around, wondering whether she still knew which way led back to the barns, to the Apple Family’s poor looking home. Of course she did, she was Diamond Tiara, she couldn’t get lost in some acres. She harrumpfed every time as she turned around, but made a grimace anyway. While she wanted to look sure in case she came across somepony, the truth was that she couldn’t possibly be sure.   She was on enemy territory and the farther away she strayed from civilized grounds, the more she worried about all the wild things she might encounter, all the strange, strange creatures she might find here where nopony came looking. She heard of fruit bats and timber wolves, of the ghosts of Apples’ Past and of fairies playing their games at a strange pond few ponies had ever seen. Her parents had often told her those stories, probably to entice her to think that it was fun coming here. It wasn’t, she hated it and she didn’t want anything to do with it. Well, at least she could hopefully take on the blank flanks without Silver Spoon’s backup. In all honesty, she’d been through worse.   Not that she could think of anything right now and the day was still young.   A few more minutes of walking and Diamond Tiara found herself on one of the few hills that the acres spread across, looking around with great displeasure. This place was big. No, not big, her family’s villa was big. This was huge. The Apple family’s home seemed more like a gatehouse now that she saw the acres spread out in all their glory. How many trees did they have? Too many, that was the answer. Nopony should possess this many trees.   But where could the blankflanks be? They weren’t here, instead, it was just Diamond Tiara and what looked like a pocket dimension worth of apple trees. Maybe she could spend the whole day here, without being bothered by anypony else? There was no need to find those three idiots, to agitate them, she could have fun without them. This was a sea of endless possibilities, the closest she might ever get to exploring a forest like the Everfree. Her eyes turned to the family’s place, where Applejack and the rest of her clan where. She could always go back on one of the hills and find her way back if she got scared. She couldn’t get lost, wouldn’t need to stay in her diaper for too long. Everything was fine.   The idea was interesting, to say the least, but also scary. Exploring the acres all on her own, as much as she was a grown up, she still wanted to have at least one friend by her side now, because who knew what she could find here. No, Diamond Tiara thought and slapped herself lightly.   “I’m not some foal that needs the help. I can be an explorer and if I want, I could survive all two days out here in the wild. I’m Diamond Tiara, the best pony at everything possible,” she told herself, loudly before she rose up.   This would be easy.   But that didn’t stop her from regretting her decision like five minutes later when she stood in front of an old barn she’d mistaken for the Apple family’s current home. It had nicely painted red walls and a sick blue roof. It was awesome, yet also completely empty. Well, Diamond Tiara figured, fool me once.   The second time she came across a building, it was actually just the front of one with a small wooden sign in front of it saying: “Under construction,” with the date it should be finished being around the time DT was born. Well, Diamond Tiara thought, They do say that third time’s the charm.   Though that saying didn’t account for large holes in a fence and old witch shacks that for whatever reason stood right beside the acres. And while there was still an animated pot inside, at least the actual witch had left. There was a sign on the door:   “Dear Roseluck, I must inform you that I have gone to the annual meet for the League of Ponies That Practition The Dark Arts and your training must be put on halt for a while. Do not try to make the brooms do your work for you again. Yours sincerely, Hydia”   And Diamond Tiara just decided to turn around and go back from whence she came, forever blocking that old shack out of her memories. So what she did was walk across the acres for a while longer until she halted again and looked at the sun. She half-figured it was noon already but somehow the sun had decided that moving a large distance was too much of a bother, so it firmly remained closely to where it’d been last time she looked.   “Why must you hurt me so?” She asked the sun and it probably wanted to shrug, if only it wasn’t so lazy that it still needed someone to help it wake up in the morning. Nevertheless she decided to find another hill and then map out her surroundings. Of course, the first hill she climbed was only high enough that she could see the tips of the trees in front of it, while the second, again, had a sign stand before it, warning of a fruit bat reservoir. She almost wanted to take it as a challenge, but was quite happy that Silver Spoon wasn’t here.   I’d totally need to go if she was here, she thought, even though just the idea of a fruitbat made her want to crawl up on the lap of any of her parents, though preferably her father, since her mother would probably try to sell the fruitbats a new and better sign while using DT as a mascot for her merchandising. Apparently she’d done so in a time before Diamond Tiara’s memories were being thought, but that wasn’t so bad. She was sure that back in the days of foalhood, she had made an adorable mascot.   After making a big circle around that specific area she ended up by a river from which she decided to drink, if only a bit. There was no telling how long she’d walk around here and she didn’t like walking into the blankflanks with a diaper that felt like it was about to burst. While the magic kept it hidden from sight, it still wouldn’t hide any leaks or the like. Just the thought about that one time she remembered it happening made her cringe up. “Never again,” the filly told herself bravely.   As she stepped forward, however, she suddenly heard something behind her, fast steps hurrying across a vast distance with ghostlike speed, the wind following like a dog bound to its master. Even with her godlike reflexes, Diamond Tiara only barely managed to turn. There was no time to make an attempt at dodging, no time to throw insults at whoever there was coming. No, there was only one split-second she used to grab her tiara and shield her face while making a an indescribable high-pitched noise that might’ve been a yelp. Maybe.   As she fell to the ground, the limbs of the attacker stood firm on her shoulders while her hindlegs plastered themselves to DT’s sides. Then, they asserted their dominance by stating; “Arf!”   Didn’t the Apples have a dog?   Diamond Tiara, who’d closed her eyes in the moment of shock, dared to open them only to look at a creature made up entirely of sugar and fluff. With a bright, white smile the pale violet creature with the blonde mane stared at DT with golden eyes. “Arf,” Dinky repeated excitedly.   “Bad dog,” Diamond Tiara responded instantly, not entirely what else to say.   That did seem to do the trick somewhat as Dinky’s big ol’ puppy eyes welled up and her ears pulled back ever so slightly.   “Go sit,” Diamond Tiara said, hoping that playing along would help her situation.   Dinky simply sat down on the other pony, frowning for a moment. Diamond Tiara felt why Dinky was frowning and reacted with a speed acquired only by mastering the highest forms of Gongfu. “Get off of me,” she stated with firm assertiveness while pushing the other filly.   Dinky, thankfully, let herself be pushed off quite easily. “Arf?” She asked curiosly.   Diamond Tiara felt half like yelling, but as she stood up she realized that this was another pony, another soul in the vast emptiness of this lifeless graveyard (which was actually teeming with life, but none of that could help her back to the farmhold so it didn’t count). No, she couldn’t yell, she needed to be diplomatic, and make sure that Dinky was actually too stupid to notice anything.   This was quickly confirmed as Dinky still sat there, her tail waving around like it actually belonged to a happy puppy, while the tongue hung from the pony’s mouth and she panted happily.   “Why are you pretending to be a dog, Dinky?” Diamond Tiara asked.   The panting immediately stopped as the eyes suddenly started looking at her surroundings. Then Dinky closed her mouth, opened it again to say something, closed it again, put her hoof against her chin, tried to come up with another argument, before finally relenting that there was no specific reason and simply shrugged the question off. “Wanna play something?”   There was a pause. “Why would I want to play with you?” “We could be adventurers, I recently found a cavern close to the edge of the Everfree and there’s also a bunch of treehouses scattered across these woods. There’s so much to do and we could be like Daring Do or–”   “Okay,” Diamond Tiara interrupted, “stop right there. That didn’t answer my question.”   Dinky looked at her almost shocked. “What do you mean, don’t you get it. The opportunity for treasure, for glorious battle, for the stories we could created,” she put one arm around Diamond Tiara before she could react and let her other arm move in half a circle to show the acres. “Oh, the songs they would sing. It would be like in the days of old.”   “What?”   “Diamond Tiara,” Dinky said, pressing both her hooves against Diamond Tiara’s cheek. “Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, You, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, the chronicler, who alone can tell thee of this saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!”   The speech sounded the familiar and as Dinky delivered it with admirable fervor, Diamond Tiara could’ve sworn that an orchestra was swelling up in the background. Like the words were actually inspiring, even though they were not. It almost made her wonder if she should take the invitation from what was perceived as the weirdest filly in ponyville.   She wasn’t just dressed as a firepony during the last Nightmare Night, she was dressed as a changeling infiltrator hellbent on taking the princess out during a ceremony for heroic deeds performed by her during a fire that could’ve ended the royal household. She’s dangerous, she thought of the pony that had just pretended to be a dog and whose villainous scheme last week was foiled by her mum taking her home from school.   No wait, she managed to take Dinky out by cuddling her and calling her cute nicknames. I can join her, she can help me back to the farmhold, then I get rid off her by blowing a raspberry on her stomach and calling her ‘Inky-Dinky’. It’ll be perfect and I can go into my room and not get lost in the acres ever again. Diamond Tiara, why are you such a magnificent genius?   She shrugged, rising to the opportunity because Dinky was a necessary tool for her scheme and not because she wanted to see what this high adventure stuff was about.  “Alright, you got me,” she said, completely not hyped about that speech, but pretending to be so completely she believed her own lies.   “So we’re gonna go adventuring?”   “Yeah, sure.”   “Alright, I’ll be a wizard knight like Ivanhorse, dashingly protecting my liege lady from all danger.”   “Oh, oh, oh, I’ll be a princess from the crystal empire who escaped her boring court life in search of adventure in these strange, alien lands,” Diamond Tiara said, quickly abandoning the premise that she wasn’t doing this because playing was better than thinking about being lost in the woods.   “Yay,” Dinky said, jumping up, happy to finally have somepony to spend the time with.   It then took Diamond Tiara exactly two and a half seconds to become utterly engrossed in the game. Their epic journey started in the woods, where they heard strange noises in the distance and the daring knight wanted to investigate, while the princess, still too used to the comforts of home, wanted to avoid any danger. Yet, with some words inspiring faith and a strong grip the knight managed to convince the princess to come. The noises came from the fruitbat sanctuary, where they found one such creature lying on the ground, regretting its decision to fly about when the sun was still out in the open. Neither Princess Tiara nor the knightly lady Doo could abandon the creature, and decided to bring it back home.   A valuable lesson was learned and quickly forgotten as the next adventure called, because who had time to remember stuff when there was a witch’s shack to be investigated. Sadly, they did not find the way to the shack the princess had spotted and instead landed back on a hill surrounded by apple trees.   “‘Tis an oppressive labyrinth, filled with traps and creatures of horrible poroportions,” Dinky said.   “I think you meant perprotions ... or was it porportions. Eh, who cares,” corrected the princess with a shrug.   They decided to scour the wild for more adventures, feasted on apples that strengthened their magic and tricked a sleeping ogre (though Dinky constantly insisted that it was a troll) into letting them pass a bridge over a huge river (which was actually a small creek which DT didn’t want to go through). And then they also fought a ghost zombie spirit lich dragon elder lizard pirate king, which Diamond Tiara actually never thought she’d actually do, but Dinky went along with it, which was awesome.   The sun had moved farther up and it was clearly long into the morning, finally. Resting beneath a tree, Dinky was munching down on some apples, while Diamond Tiara used the chance to breathe and noticed that the diaper felt differently now. I probably should change soon, these things don’t hold as much as the others, she thought, thoughts of regret creeping up in her mind. She honestly should’ve taken some with her, even though changing out in the wild wasn’t really for her anyway. It wasn’t like she hadn’t done it before, camping trips were a thing for family getaways, but there something very different about changing at home and changing out in the open where the risk of discovery was approximately 127% higher than at home, where she only got comments about them when she needed to change. Her parents often seemed to just appear out of nowhere to tell her to change.   And now they weren’t here. Yeah, that’s right. They’re not here. I don’t need to stress myself about it. I can still go on for a few hours more, no trouble, she told herself.   “These lands truly are strange, my lady, but I heard some peasants on the way speak of a mysterious castle in these woods, built upon a tree. Mayhaps it belongs to the lords of this realm,” Dinky said as she threw the remnants of her apple away.   Diamond Tiara looked at her, then smiled. “Truly? Then we should make haste for it, if you know where it is. These strangers might be valuable allies to us.” She loved it when she sounded smart and important.   They rose up and Diamond Tiara took a deep breath. “Are you alright, my princess?” Dinky asked hesitantly.   Diamond Tiara nodded after a second. “Yeah, sure. I’m fine.”   She took a few steps forward. “I simply cannot wait to meet the foreign dignit–”   And then came the final moment of the episode, the moment during which the haughty princess made one wrong step and found that there was a root sticking out of the ground. With impeccable comedic timing, she tripped and midfall, she managed to blink once and wonder to herself: What?   Diamond Tiara wasn’t quite sure where the root had come from or why the universe decided that hating on her was suddenly okay, but as she landed on the ground she found her jaw hurting slightly and her tiara deciding that it was a bird now and flying off into what seemed like an unfathomable distance to the filly. There was a quiet moment where the feeling of magic rescinded and gave way to a grim reality.   A grim reality which Dinky Doo observed unfold from the spot where she sat, Diamond Tiara realized as she saw the tiara land on the ground unharmed, glittering in the sunlight like it was a mystical artifact just waiting to be picked up by an adventurer. For a second, Diamond Tiara was as still as a mountain lake on a calm summer day, then roared up like a storm over the sea.   Everything was the worst, her reputation was ruined, the game was gone, nopony would take her seriously anymore, her parents would disown her and Silver Spoon would need to take the leadership position in their duo. Everything was gone as the garment that safely enclosed her rump faced Dinky with all its padded glory.   Diamond Tiara wasn’t somepony who ever worried about looking infantile … Well, maybe she  was, a little. … Okay, maybe a lot. Either way, right now she felt cheeks flush as she reminded herself of a toddler who barely was able to walk. She’d done clumsy things from time to time. Her parents found her precious when she did what they called ‘waddling around’ and Silver Spoon, in her unending kindness, had merely said that she’d tripped once when trying to get the cookie jar. This wasn’t anything like that however, no this couldn’t happen to her.   Immediately, she jumped up, and with incredible quickness made a grab for the tiara, put it on and turned back to face Dinky all in one motion. She panted, her eyes fixated on the other pony as she the magic washed over her. “You didn’t see anything,” she said, her face as red as a tomato.   Dinky blinked. “I never realized,” she said, barely beyond a whisper. A grin spread across her face and Diamond Tiara felt all hope vanish. “You’re,” Dinky started, confirming Diamond Tiara’s worst fears and making her wonder whether they’d ever find Dinky’s body here. “As,” much of a baby like that. Come on: Say it. Say it!. “Adorable as a button.”   That was actually quite flattering.   No wait, this is still the worst! Diamond Tiara had not actually thought something like being even more ashamed was possible but right now she realized that she was just full of surprises today. She couldn’t even say anything. This day had gone from stupid, to worse, to actually pretty nice to pretty bad again. Fate just chose the proper weekend to torment her.