Bleached Blondes Beach Bond

by Cryosite

Evening Run

While the moon looked lonely in a starless night sky, underneath it the brightly-lit street of Silver Cove was filled with motion and activity. Ponies meandered in small groups or alone, carried on conversations heedless of the quiet night around them, and overall seemed oblivious to the fact that it was no longer broad daylight. They formed their own constantly shifting constellations of light as everypony wore glowgems around their neck to bring light along when they ventured past the large pools shed by streetlamps.

A small impromptu band of musicians played off to one side, in front of one such streetlamp. Golden glints of bits peeked out from an upturned hat in front of them. Bystanders called out requests and some danced. Spinning and whirling points of light made for an exciting element to their motions.

A few cafes nearby shed inviting glows from their windows, and decorated their outdoor seating with tiny glowgems in festive colors.

Most noteworthy of all, nopony paid Apple Bloom any heed. Her fears of drawing a crowd of spectators to jeer and gawk at her proved unfounded.

A portly stallion bumped into her. “What’s this? Didn’t see you there, yeah?” The red glowgem hanging from around his neck underlit his face in a sinister manner, like something Rainbow Dash would often do at the campfire.

Apple Bloom backpedaled away, wide-eyed. “Uh, sorry. I guess you didn’t?”

“I know if I did or not, and I’m saying I didn’t?”

As Apple Bloom tried to figured out what the stallion was asking her, she backed away to get out of his way. “Uh, my fault. Sorry.”

“Yeah, what—ever.” He passed by her and wandered off.

Apple Bloom approached the musicians, finding a open spot near the edge of the circle of light and small audience, out of the way of the foot traffic. Soon after claiming her seat, she was joined by a hard-breathing pegasus, decked out in a rainbow of glowgems. She watched the mare catch her breath, the lights bouncing on her heaving chest producing an interesting visual accompaniment to the song.

“What are you staring at? And why are you sitting there, like, all darked out?” The pegasus caught Apple Bloom’s gaze and stared back with one eyebrow rose. “Oh my gosh, are you a thief?”

“N-no! I just forgot my glowgem back in my room. I kinda left in a hurry and forgot it.”

“Uh huh. I’m sure. Well, here.” She flicked her wing and a pale blue arc of light streaked towards her, a glowgem on a simple string loop rolling at her feet.

After a moment of hesitation, Apple Bloom picked it up and slipped it over her head. As the stone illuminated her features, she looked back up at the pegasus beside her with apprehension.

Once again, no look of horror, no burst of laughter, nothing.

“Hey, you’re kinda cute. Wanna dance? I think I’ve caught my breath.”

“Oh, uh. No thank you. I’m spoken for.”

“Wow. She gets a stone and won’t even dance for it. Are you for real?”

“I uh, yes? I’m real. Um, you want this back?”

“Yeah, no.” She hopped back to her feet and gave Apple Bloom a withering glare. “Gifts in Silver Cove are permanent. Like, no matter how much you regret giving them.” She turned away. She stomped back into the designated dance spot, and seamlessly went from walk to dance. Before long, a stallion moved near her and offered her an orange glowgem. She extended one hind leg, he fastened it to her, and the two danced together.

I seem to be annoying a lot of ponies tonight. Probably Diamond Tiara too.

She stared down at her hooves. They looked pale green in the blue light dangling from her neck. She looked back at the prancing pegasus now hovering above her unicorn dance partner. Apple Bloom honestly couldn’t tell what color the mare was or the stallion beneath her. Both were a lot of colors right now.

“I think I’ve been actin’ silly,” she said to nopony in particular.

She got to her hooves, thinking it a good idea to be gone before the song ended, in case that pegasus wanted another rest break. At least she could make herself scarce and easily avoid annoying her again.

Further down the road, Apple Bloom stepped into another well-lit space. An empty cafe with an open sign currently lay before her. She reached back to fetch her bitpurse from her saddlebag, but met nothing but bare fur. Her shoulders slumped as she realized she’d left that back in the room with her hasty exit. She turned away to continue wandering, but before she could take more than three steps, she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder.

A unicorn with her horn lit approached her with a wide smile. “Hey, you look thirsty. Traveling light, eh?”

“Sorry, I’m ta—” Apple Bloom paused, glanced at the enticing menu visible on an interior wall through a wide window. “—errd. Tired. Actually, sure.”

The mare’s eyes seemed to light up a little beneath the glow of her horn, and she walked up beside Apple Bloom as they headed inside. In no time at all, they were seated facing each other at a tiny table, with a bubbling cola in front of each.

“Thanks.” It felt like more needed to be said, but Apple Bloom found herself preoccupied with her straw, pulling on the chilled drink. She could almost feel the caffeine and carbonation tickle her brain and chase away the fatigue of the day.

“No problem. Wow, you look like you really needed a pick me up.”

Apple Bloom regarded the mare. In the clean white light inside the cafe, she could more clearly make out her companion. A chocolate brown unicorn with tan mane and some kind of candy cutie mark. “You sound like you ain’t from around here neither. Vanhoover?”

Of course, she was being checked out in return. “Got it in one! Man, it’s really scorching down here!”

Apple Bloom giggled a little, already feeling much more perked up. “I think I baked myself today, but it was so fun playin’ in the ocean.”

“Oh yeah. The water is so warm here.” The brown mare sipped her own bubbly brown beverage. “I don’t think I’ve ever spent so long swimming before.”

A loud slurp drew Apple Bloom’s attention to her surprisingly empty glass.

“Ready for another one there, eh?”

“No thanks. I want to get to some shuteye sometime tonight. Speakin’ of, I should really head back. I can hear my bed callin’ me.”

“Hmm. Think I can hear it too. Where are you staying?” She lifted an ice cube out of her glass with her magic, popped it into her mouth, and crunched away at it.

“Hotel Shining. But, uh, I’m actually kind of lost.”

“Oh, I know where that is. It’s not far at all. I’ll walk you home, no problem at all.” She beamed a smile at Apple Bloom.

“Thanks again. You’re really nice, uh—”

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Coffee Biscrisp.” She extended her hoof across the table.

Apple Bloom shook the offered hoof, and smiled back. “I’m Apple Bloom. Nice to meet you.”

—

The pair stood in front of the crystal-themed building. “That wasn’t far at all. Huh. It seemed longer when I was runnin’ from it.”

“Mainstreet runs East-West and sort of connects to everything in Silver Cove. It has these six squares for the North-South streets. We turned at Cadance Square, and this here is Cadance Street. Pretty straight traveling. The side roads can twist and turn a lot though.” She pointed with her hoof to one and summoned a bobbing glimmer of light a little ways down the side street. With a wave of her hoof, it floated away, then went around a bend out of sight.

“If you ever get turned around again, just remember the borders. If you go South far enough from practically anywhere you’ll hit the beach. The train tracks and mountains are to the North. Go too far West and you’ll get funneled into The Bend and end up heading to the piers. East leads into all the government buildings and schools, then more mountains.

“Easiest just to get back to Mainstreet by figuring out if you are North or South of it. Then just figure out which statue you’re nearest to and remember what order they’re in, and you can get where you need to go.”

“Wow, that’s really helpful.” Apple Bloom glanced at the hotel she and Diamond Tiara were staying in. “And if you learn how they decorate you can figure out the statues too?”

Coffee Biscrisp looked back at Apple Bloom’s hotel, and smiled. “Seems pretty loud.”

“If you think so, you should see the real place it’s designed after. Crystals everywhere.”

“Oh, ha ha! No, I meant your bed. I can hear it calling loud and clear now.”

“Oh. Oh! I uh, my girlfriend is waiting for me inside. I didn’t mean to lead you on.”

“Oh.” Coffee Biscrisp frowned for a moment, then returned to smiling. “I guess that’s why it was loud enough even for me to hear. You have fun tonight, eh?”

---

Tap tap tap.

The door before Apple Bloom opened and she was greeted by a mare with dark pink coat and a yellow and white mane.

Wrong room? No, wait. “Diamond Tiara?”

She gave Apple Bloom a warm smile and beckoned her into the room. “Welcome back. You look better. Clear your head with some night air?”

“Yeah.” Apple Bloom followed Diamond Tiara in, then made a beeline for the bed. “Ran from the timber wolves and had some time to think without them howlin’ in my ear.” She stopped in front of the bedside nightstand, then flipped the glowgem from around her neck onto it. She tapped it a few times with her hoof. When it wouldn’t go out, she opened a drawer in the nightstand and scraped it in, shutting it away from sight. “I see what you were up to while I was away. How did you do such a nice job all on your own when I was your first customer earlier tonight?”

“Do you like it? I hired one of the hotel staff to do it for me. I could get used to living in a place with so many unicorns around. So very convenient.”

“It’s different. I guess we both look different.” Apple Bloom looked around the room. No clothing to put away. All evidence of dinner and their dye jobs was nowhere to be seen. Her run had not pushed back responsibilities. No chores needing tending to.

With no work to occupy her hooves and serve as a convenient excuse to delay talking, she turned back to Diamond Tiara and looked again at her yellow and white mane. “You didn’t have to, y’know?”

“You figured out that it’s not so bad on your own?” Diamond Tiara toyed with a lock of her own mane. Her warm smile held no trace of irritation no matter how hard Apple Bloom searched for it.

“Yeah. Well, I had a little help.”

“You’re right then, I didn’t have to. Maybe instead of thinking it isn’t so bad, we can just try it out and see if it ends up being kinda good. Might even grow to enjoy it. If we don’t like it, we just grow it out and our original colors will be back in a few months.” Diamond Tiara pulled the bedding back for them, then slid into place. Once comfy she looked over at Apple Bloom expectantly. “You had help? Tell me about your run.”

Apple Bloom took her place beside her girlfriend, her gaze still being drawn to the unfamiliar mane coloring. “Dunno about enjoyin’ it. Think it’ll grow out long before it grows on me.” She pulled the covers up into place and got comfy, but fidgeted with the edge of the thin sheet over them. “Ran into a few ponies while out and about. One literally. Even with all the lights on everywhere, it’s still dark and hard to see.

“What I did see was ponies not carin’ a lick for colors. What with all these glowgems around, nopony was their right color and not one hoot to be found anywhere about it besides me being silly. Instead I had ponies askin’ me to dance and one even followed me home hopin’ to get in this here bed with me. Told’r it was already bein’ warmed up for me and she skedaddled.

“I think I spent most of my time annoyin’ those around me. ‘Specially to you, and I’m sorry for that.”

Diamond Tiara lay silent beside her for a moment. An outside observer might mistake her expression for a displeased scowl, but Apple Bloom had come to recognize it as Diamond Tiara’s “deep in thought” look, so she waited quietly. “Every day is an adventure with you, Apple Bloom. Some days even more than others, and sometimes that means being chased by ‘timber wolves.’ Might be a little annoying at times, but we both figured out years ago that we go through this adventure better together.

“I used to get frustrated watching you and your friends, when we were still fillies. Running around, being as much hazards to yourselves as to the rest of Ponyville. I could tell where you needed to go, and you never listened. Of course, we both know I wasn’t really all that fit to be in charge back then.

“I finally learned how to listen. You might need to run on your own now and then, but I know you’ll come back after. You started listening too.”

Apple Bloom scooted a bit closer to Diamond Tiara, letting the world just be the two of them and the soft pale yellow light of the two large glowgems on either side of the bed’s headboard. “I know you’ll be there herding me away from cliffs and brambles when I’m stampeding.”

“I guess so? I’m getting lost in your metaphors.”

“Lets just say I love you.”

“Now you’re making sense. I love you too.” She pressed her lips to Apple Bloom’s for a tender kiss, though the stifling heat made it difficult to enjoy it for long.

“I spent a lot of time today thinkin’ you were teasin’ me when you weren’t. You haven’t in a long time now, right?” Apple Bloom squirmed away from Diamond Tiara, seeking a bit of reprieve from the shared body heat.

Diamond Tiara squirmed around as well. “I’ve been careful to keep from going back to how I used to be.”

“Somethin’ ain't right about that. I’ve seen ponies tease the ones they love. Sugar Belle teases Big Mac all the time. Sometimes she sounds downright ornery, other times pretty damn lewd with her baking innuendos. What with my nephew and nieces having been born, it sure ain’t just mere suggestion she’s makin’ neither.

“I know it’s hard to tell when Mac’s blushin’ but I’ve known him all my life. But he don’t get sore about it. Instead he gets this goofy grin when she does it, and it just kinda makes my heart feel light seein’ them both happy and playful.”

“Sounds like it works for them. Doesn’t work for everypony though. I don’t think Sugar Belle was ever malicious with it like I was.”

“Scootaloo and Silver Spoon seem to manage it fine too. Silver Spoon ain’t as ruthless as Sugar Belle or Scootaloo, but she gets right in there.”

Diamond Tiara kicked the sheets off of them. “I know you’re a tough farm pony, but Silver Spoon grew up in the snake den. We both know Scootaloo is tough as nails.

“Your brother is more like a big tree than a pony. I think you inherited his share of the family’s worry genes. I can barely keep from upsetting you as it is; I don’t think it would be a good idea to go back to teasing you.”

“I remember it feelin’ pretty bad when you’d get in my head when we were fillies. I’d be worried about nothin’, and you’d get right at all my buttons.” Apple Bloom turned to her side, facing away from Diamond Tiara. “I’d worry myself over nothin’ with neither hide nor hare of you around though. Luna knows I’d get worked up even all by my lonesome. No, really, she does. Ask her sometime.” Apple Bloom pondered how long it had been since she last had a visit from the Princess of Dreams. “You ain't gonna make me worry more than I already am, nor any less. I’m pretty sure by now you ain't gonna make me feel worse about it on purpose. You’re already real keen on apologizin’ at the drop of a hat if you do and remindin’ me how your heart’s in the right place.

“As much as your talent is for getting ponies to do stuff, mine is for figuring out what they ought to do. Right now I’m worried about you not teasin’ about as much as we’re worried it’ll hurt if you do. I don’t know for sure if we oughta leave it be or stir up a bee’s nest, but it has been feelin’ a lot less like an adventure these days.”

“I know not to fight your hunches. I also know that what you’re asking me to do isn’t something you’ve tried out yourself yet.” Diamond Tiara paused for several breaths. “Maybe things have gotten more routine between us. We’ve figured each other out pretty well over the years. I have an idea for tomorrow. We can fit it into our plans and make the best of our opportunity.”

“Our opportunity?”

“Lemme sleep on it, and I’ll explain the details in the morning. If I’m right, we can have some fun with this.”

“I’m not really sleepy. What with our nap this afternoon, and a soda while I was out, I’m still pretty alert.”

“This warm, soft bed isn’t making you sleepy?” Diamond Tiara scooted closer, pressing up to Apple Bloom’s back, spooning with her.

“It’s mighty comfy and gettin’ warmer by the minute. But nope, ain't sleepy at all.”

“Maybe if we make it hotter.” Apple Bloom felt Diamond Tiara’s teeth gently bite into her ear and tug a little, drawing a gasp from her.

“Seemed to work at the beach. Real hot. Real wet. Got ourselves worn out and we were out like lights.”

Diamond Tiara’s forelegs were wrapped around her barrel, one hoof drawing lazy circles in her chest fur. It trailed downwards towards her belly, then further. “I think I know how to get all of that. Hush now, quiet now, and let me take care of my pretty Little Flower.”

Apple Bloom closed her eyes, not fighting the growing heat one bit. As the last bits of tension of the day flowed out of her, she felt herself melt into a puddle and smile.

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[Cryosite]

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