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Home for the Holidays6,536 words
Epilogue745 words

Epilogue

“Oh my...” Diamond gasped as she pulled the frame out of its wrapping paper. “It's beautiful. Is this for the picture I...”

“Mm-hm,” Apple Bloom nodded, feeling a little sheepish even as Diamond looked at it with wonder. “I just thought, you know... you might like somethin' for it.” She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

“Like it? I love it,” Diamond assured her, running a hoof over the polished surface. “And it's even got everyone's... Thank you, Honeygold. Thank you.” She clutched the frame to her chest, closing her eyes and smiling as hard as Apple Bloom had ever seen her. Her appearance wasn't nearly as polished and refined as normal and her demeanour, while as cool and confident as ever, was far more relaxed that it had been when Scootaloo was here. By the time their families arrived, she'd have groomed herself and made herself as presentable as possible, physically and mentally, but for now, she was at her most natural and real. The sight was enough to bring a smile almost wide enough to hurt to Apple Bloom's face, even as she reached for one of her own, smaller presents.

She caught Diamond's smile turning into a bit more of a smirk as she opened it up, catching the hint of circular silver instantly. However, to her surprise, it soon revealed itself not as a ring, but as a pocket watch, its gleaming silver lid opening to a silently-running clock face.

“Oh, wow,” Apple Bloom said, tilting her head a little. “I, uh...”

“I know, it's not what you'd think of,” Diamond said with a shrug, a hint of nervousness creeping into her expression. “But it's for when you're out on a job and it's kind of a... companion piece to that one.” She indicated a much larger box that had been underneath that one.

Obliging, Apple Bloom picked that one up and opened it, revealing a gleaming, silver clock. Apple Bloom laughed in surprise, looking up at Diamond. “How much did...”

“You should know better than to ask,” Diamond admonished her impishly. “Besides, your workshop needs a working one and I know it'd take paying you ten times as many bits to get that one fixed.”

Apple Bloom swallowed, smiling even while she winced as the thought of the old clock occurred to her. “Well, I don't wanna seem ungrateful, cause I really love it,” she assured Diamond with absolute sincerity, “but you sure you want me to put it up in there? You know what happened to the last one – I don't want it gettin' damaged.”

“I know,” Diamond smiled knowingly. “That's why I included the box too.”

Frowning for a moment in confusion, Apple Bloom looked down, seeing that the clock had been packed not in an ordinary box, but a shallow, open cuboid made of hard, see-through material and with several points to fix it onto a wall.

“Magically reinforced glass,” Diamond explained. “With that, you could have a bomb go off in there and the clock wouldn't even get scratched.

A smile blossomed onto Apple Bloom's face as she understood and looked at the two timepieces. “Wow, thank you, Princess. This is...” she shook her head. “Not what I was expectin', but I love 'em.”

“And what were you expecting?” Diamond smiled mischievously. “A ring, maybe?”

Apple Bloom looked up in surprise. “Huh? How'd you... you mean let me see a bit of it on purpose?”

Diamond chuckled. “No, I'm not that cruel, but I figured you might have caught a glimpse and the way you looked when you started opening it kinda confirmed it.” She sighed into a more sedate smile. “And, yeah, I'd considered that but, well, a proposal on Hearth's Warming... kinda clichéd, isn't it?”

Apple Bloom considered this for a moment, understanding the reasoning even as she shrugged. “I mean, ain't like I wouldn'ta loved it.”

“Well, I hope so, but I still can't help feeling like it'd lose a bit of its impact, especially if you saw it coming.” Diamond flashed her eyebrows, grinning. “Trust me, Honeygold, when I propose, I'm gonna keep all the surprise and it'll have every bit of impact it should.”

Apple Bloom smiled, only to catch onto the wording a moment later. “Wait, don't you mean 'if you propose'?”

Diamond just raised her wine to her lips with a smirk. “Happy Hearth Warming, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom's heart soared as smiled back. “Happy Hearth's Warming, Diamond.”

Author's Note:

I... I tried. I really tried to make this one concise. But it still ended up passing the soft word limit and getting uncomfortably close to the hard one. I'm sorry, there was just too much stuff to explore, too many exchanges to have, too many little details to think about.

Also, I apologize if Asexual-Scoots (Ace-Scoots? AScoots?) bothered anyone. I tried to keep the side-shipping suppressed, but it felt weird not to bring up the status of the only mare present besides the main pair and, well, I've always kinda seen Scoots as being Ace. Maybe it's just projection, but it's how it feels to me. Hope it doesn't bother anyone - I know that kind of side-shipping's rarely a good idea, even if the ship it's about is a lack of one (I think that makes sense), it just felt like the best way of doing things.

In any case, Happy Jinglemas, Nyronus. Hope you enjoyed the story.

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