My Worst Enemy

by englishwitch

Chapter 3

My worst enemy...
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 3

Dawn.

The farm began to stir, slowly waking at first with the natural cycle of nature. As the sun rose so did the animals and their farm pony keepers who were tasked with their care. Then came the roosters crow, bringing the signal that brought them into the full wakefulness of the day.

Apple Bloom stirred in her bed, slowly opening her eyes to the new day. What she was greeted with was a mess of curls in lavender and white. The shock of the candy cane colours in front of her face jolted her heart and woke her up far better than any roosters crow.

At some point in the night she and Diamond Tiara had shuffled closer together, in their sleep. Apple Bloom had her forelegs draped loosely around Diamond, holding her like a teddy bear.

As quickly as she dared Apple Bloom released Tiara from the hold and started to slide out of bed. She was stopped by a sudden jolt. Diamond Tiara was lying on top of Apple Bloom’s right leg and the dead weight of the sleeping filly, combined with the awkwardness of the position, meant Apple Bloom couldn’t pull herself free, or push Diamond Tiara off. She was trapped. Apple Bloom pulled and felt her leg slide an inch, Diamond Tiara stirred but didn’t wake; she was dead to the world. Apple Bloom pulled again, her leg moved a little more. Again and another inch toward freedom. She pulled again -

“WAAAAAAA”

CRASH!

Apple Bloom landed flank first on the hard wooden floor. In her desperation to free herself she hadn’t seen how close to the edge of her bed she’d gotten.

Diamond Tiara opened her eyes and sat up, looking around the room blearily. Apple Bloom rose to her hooves, rubbing her flank softly.
“Wha?” Tiara said in a dry croak. “wazzit you doin? iz still dark.”

Apple Bloom would have laughed at how silly Diamond Tiara sounded but her flank was sore and she was hungry, teasing would have to wait for later. “It ain’t dark, it’s dawn.” She trotted over to her vanity and brushed her hair quickly.

“Whatz dawn?” Tiara looked out of the window to the glowing red horizon and the slowly emerging pale blue morning sky. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hoof.

Apple Bloom grabbed her bow and started to tie up her hair. “It’s the start of the day.” she rolled her eyes as Diamond Tiara furrowed her brow, her half asleep brain was trying —and failing by the looks of it— to absorb the information.

Her hair as straight as it ever was and tied up in a bow Apple Bloom was ready, while Diamond Tiara still hadn’t climbed out of bed yet. “It’s when farm ponies get up. Now, c’mon, you’ll miss breakfast.”

Diamond Tiara flopped back down onto the pillow. “Breakfast? It’s still yesterday’s supper time.”

Apple Bloom didn’t say a word. Instead she trotted out of her bedroom, but left the door ajar so the noise and smells of breakfast drifted into the room. There was the clattering of pans, the clinking of glasses and the rich smell of eggs, haybacon, hash browns and something that was either pancakes or waffles.

Despite the rest of her being asleep, Diamond Tiara’s brain was stirred by the noise and her stomach was woken by the delicious smells. It growled and gurgled loudly, rumbling like a storm to inform her just how empty it was.
“Ugh, fine!” She snapped to no one. Climbing out of bed she went straight over to the vanity and began to brush her hair. “1,2,3-” She had to admit to herself, but she’d never say it out loud, the breakfast smelled fantastic. Breakfast had never smelled like that at home, except that time the chef had made pancakes on her birthday. Usually half a grapefruit and as much toast as she wanted was how she started the day. “28, 29, 20, 21, 22....wait?” had she just lost count? Hadn’t she done the twenties already? She couldn’t remember. “Urgh, now I’ll have to start again. 1, 2, 3-” her stomach rumbled like thunder in a spring storm. “Oh buck it, one day won’t hurt.” She hurriedly finished styling her mane and donned her signature tiara.

She trotted down the stairs to the hive of activity that was the Apple family home. Despite the unholy hour the only Apple member missing was Granny Smith. Apple Jack was at the stove, cooking up the last of a large stack of pancakes, Apple Bloom was setting the table while Big Mcintosh was manoeuvring around them both, with surprising agility for a pony his size, while he poured coffee for the adults and juice for the two fillies.

“Morning Tiara.” a strange pony said from the breakfast table. Diamond stared, he seemed familiar somehow. Then she saw his cutie mark and it clicked into place.

“Dad?”

His usually slicked back hair was loose and free it was frizzy like it hadn’t been combed, some of it was even falling in front of his face, he still wasn’t wearing his collar or tie but was instead wearing a faded brown waistcoat. She’d never seen him looking like that, not ever. Even in the mornings at home when she saw him he was cleaned up and dressed for business. He’d always told her appearance meant everything, how you look told other ponies about you, so at all times, day and night, he was dressed to give ponies the image of a rich and successful business pony. Now, he almost looked like one of these farm ponies.

Applejack slid the last pancake onto the top of the stack. “You gonna stand there all day sugarcube?” she said to Tiara, “c’mon and get some grub.” Taking the plate carefully in her teeth she carried the pancakes to the table to join the rest of the breakfast. Diamond Tiara’s nose hadn’t lied to her, there was a huge bowl of scrambled eggs, a mound of haybacon, a pile of hash browns and now a tall stack of pancakes. As well as jugs of maple syrup, jars of zap-apple jam and several toast racks, all full. To Tiara it looked like enough food to feed ten ponies, were the four of them supposed to eat all of this?

Nervously she walked up to the table and sat down next to her unfamiliar father.

Big Mac and Applejack took seats at the table and started helping themselves to the food. Apple Bloom started with several pancakes and many hash browns, covering both in generous portions of syrup.

Rich grabbed several slices of toast and the zap apple jam. He looked to his daughter, who was gaping, open mouthed, at the Apple siblings pigging themselves on breakfast. “Better eat a big breakfast honey,” he said to her. “you’ll need the energy for your chores.”

That snapped Tiara back to reality. “Chores?” She was sure she hadn’t just heard that word. “What chores?”

Applejack swallowed down a mouthful of eggs. “You’ll be sharin’ the chores Apple Bloom does before school. So eat up, you’ll need that strength if you’re gonna get ‘em done in time.” She decided to help by piling several spoonfuls of scrambled egg, many hash brown and hoof-ful of haybacon onto Diamond Tiara’s plate.

“You wanna pancake?” Apple Bloom asked as she helped herself to more from the stack.

...***...

Diamond Tiara moved sluggishly. “Ugh. I ate too much haybacon.” Her stomach was swollen with the food she’d been forced to eat. Servings had just kept coming and any protests were silenced with endless platitudes.

She followed Apple Bloom into the barn. “What are we doin’ here?”

Apple Bloom stood by a large wooden bucket, waving her hoof to encourage Tiara to join her. “First chore it to feed the pigs. C’mon and help me carry this.”

Tiara hesitated. “And what, praytell, do pigs eat?”

Apple Bloom had to stifle a giggle. “You really don’t know nothin’ ‘bout farmin’. Pigs eat slop.”

Diamond Tiara acknowledged she probably wouldn’t want to hear the answer to her next question, but she asked it all the same. “And what is slop?”

“Pretty much anythin’.” Apple Bloom replied, far too nonchalantly for Diamond Tiara’s liking. “Mostly leftovers, and any rotten fruit or vegetables by brother and sis find when they work the fields.” She took one handle of the wooden bucket in her mouth and indicated Tiara should do the same, the pink filly hesitated though.

“You want me,” she said with a slow, seething, tone, “to carry a bucket, of your trash, to feed to your disgusting animals?” She felt like she was about the throw up her substantial breakfast. Apple Bloom would probably want to feed that to the pigs too. “What do you even keep those filthy animals for?”

Apple Bloom released the handle to talk. “They’s great at gettin’ rid of the leftovers and rotten fruit. Better and quicker than any trash can. We don’t waste nothin’ on the farm. Anythin’ that ain’t fit for the pigs ta eat goes onto the compost pile.”

“And anything that isn’t fit for the compost pile, or the pigs?” Diamond Tiara couldn’t figure out why she’d asked. The second the question was out of her mouth she dreaded the answer.

To her relief, Apple Bloom shrugged. “Truth be told, there ain’t much that can’t be dealt with by the pigs or the compost.” She tapped the bucket with her hoof. “Y’all is distractin’ me. Grab the bucket and c’mon. You’re here to make the chores go quicker but we’re takin’ longer than ever.”

Diamond Tiara sat down and crossed her hooves. “I will not carry that filthy thing and feed your filthy trash to your filthy animals.” She stuck her nose into the air and huffed.

Apple Bloom let out a long growl and facehoofed. It took all her restraint not to yell at Tiara. She couldn’t get into a shouting match now, she had to do the chores before she left for school or she’d get in trouble. “Fine!” she snapped. “I’ll feed the pigs, you go back into the house and mop the floor.”

Diamond gave Apple Bloom a sideways glance. Working with soapy water was preferable to pigs but she still didn’t like the sound of it, the key part being the word Work. Still if it got the dumb farm pony off her back, “Fine.” She cantered out of the barn and back into the house. The kitchen was empty, the older Apple siblings had already gone to the orchard for the days work. Her dad had disappeared.

“Where would these losers put a mop?” She looked left, then right, “Oh,” it was leaning against the wall in the corner.

It couldn’t be that hard to mop the floor. There was a cleaner who visited their house twice a week, Tiara had seen her mop dozens of times. Mostly in passing as the filly was on her way to somewhere important.

She filled the bucket with hot water and a little soap. Her confidence increased as nothing went wrong. This chore was turning out easy.

Tiara dipped the mop into the bucket, lifted it out, then started to sweep the dripping head across the floor. It left a puddle of water on the floor as she swept it in a large arc. She pushed the mop across the floor in huge, clumsy sweeps. Occasionally she dipped the mop back into the water for a few seconds, because she’d seen her cleaner do that sometimes, and pushed the freshly soaked and dripping mop-head across the floor again.

“What the hay do ya’ think you’re doin’ youn’un?”

Diamond Tiara looked up to see Granny Smith in the kitchen doorway. She was staring at the kitchen floor, wide eyed and open mouthed. Diamond Tiara looked around her. The floor was soaked with water, almost a centimetre deep, puddles had started to form where the boards were uneven. The bucket she’d been using was almost empty, its contents now all over the kitchen.

“I’m....mopping the floor?” Diamond Tiara looked at Granny Smith’s expression and quickly guessed she’d messed up.

The old mare grumbled some nonsense Diamond couldn’t catch, then asked, “Ain’t you never mopped before?”

Diamond looked offended. “No.” She snapped. “Daddy has a maid-mare to do housework, like civilised ponies should.”

Granny Smith splish, splashed, her way across the floor to Diamond. She either hadn’t heard, or had chosen to ignore, the comment. When she spoke her voice was calm and level. “You’re s’posed to squeeze out the mop, get rid of the extra water. Then you can clean the floor instead of,” she looked around, “floodin’ it.” She took the mop from Diamond and showed her how to squeeze it properly. “I’ll clean this up, why don’t you try an’ find somethin’ less diff’cult to do?”

Diamond Tiara let the elderly mare take over the mopping. She trudged outside and sat on the porch. Less difficult? What could be less difficult than dragging a wet mop across the floor? Had Granny Smith insulted her? She’d implied that she couldn’t learn how to mop a floor properly, so that answer was, Yes. The second question was, had she done it on purpose or had it just occurred as part of her old lady ramblings. How dare the old lady insult her. Of course she didn’t know how to do something she’d never done before but was that any excuse to steal the task away from her. She could learn.

Diamond blinked as a thought occurred to her; why did she care? She hadn’t wanted to do any of the stupid chores in the first place. She didn’t have to do it now.

Apple Bloom wandered back toward the house, her hooves were a little muddy and there was a whiff of animal coming from her. “You done the floor already?” She asked as she approached Diamond Tiara.

“Yeah.” she lied. “It was easy. Anything else to do in this labour camp or can I relax a little?”

Apple Bloom looked at her suspiciously. She was tempted to look inside and see what state the floor was in but she didn’t have time and Diamond Tiara would probably just argue over her findings. “Last job, we gotta go down to the vegetable field, water the vegetables, pull out any weeds and chase away any critters.”

Diamond Tiara blinked. “You do that, by yourself, every day?”

Apple Bloom smiled and shook her head. “Applejack usually helps me, but she’s stayin’ in the orchard today. But since you’re here, you’ll hafta do. C’mon.” She turned and cantered down the dirt road. With a huff Diamond Tiara climbed to her hooves and trotted after her.

...***...

The two fillies walked back up to the house slowly. Apple Bloom was glowering at Diamond Tiara the whole way.
“How? Just how?”

Apple Bloom’s entire front, from face to hooves, was covered in mud. Diamond Tiara looked like mud had been poured over her, from her head to the top of her legs, everything was caked in a layer of thick mud.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” the prissy pony growled. If the unintentional mud bath hadn’t been bad enough, she’d lost her tiara.

“How do you get outsmarted by a rabbit?” Apple Bloom continued to press.

“I said, I don’t wanna talk about it.” Tiara snapped.

Apple Bloom still wouldn’t stop talking. “I’ve lost some carrots to ‘em before. They’re quick critters, so a grab and dash sometimes works. But he got four carrots, four! And his lady friend got your-”

“I KNOW!” Diamond yelled at her. “I was there. I saw what happened! I went through what happened! So stop talking about it.”

“What’s goin’ on here?” Applejack came into view from behind a tree. “What in the wide, wide, world of Equestria happened to you two?”

“It’s Diamond Tiara’s fault.” Apple Bloom jumped in before Tiara could even open her mouth.

“Was not!” Diamond yelled back.

Apple Bloom forgot her sister and turned to yell at Diamond Tiara. “You were the one chasing that rabbit, you’re the one who knocked me down-”

“You got in my way.” Tiara snapped back. “I would have got that damn bunny if you hadnt-”

“You weren’t even chasin’ the right rabbit! You shoulda been chasin’ the one with the carrots, not the one with your dumb tiara!”

“My tiara i-”

“ENOUGH!”

Applejack’s yell silenced the two of them mid-argument. The ferocity of her glare frightened them both. “Come with me.” She growled. When she trotted off the two of them followed her silently, neither one daring to say a word. Applajack however, had plenty to say. “Y’all are done with your chores, we better clean you up and get y’all off to school.”

Diamond Tiara sighed. “Thank Celestia. I really need a shower.”

Instead of heading for the house, Applejack led the girls to the barn. There she grabbed hosepipe. “We don’t have time to be wastin’ with showers.”

“Awww heck.” Apple Bloom sighed. She sat down and accepted her fate.

“You can’t be serious.” Diamond Tiara tried to back off.

Applejack nodded. “Eeyup.” She kicked out her back hoof, knocking on the tap. The high pressure water exploded out. Diamond screamed at the freezing cold water spurted into her face. She tried to run but Apple Bloom grabbed her and held her tightly. The water was freezing cold, it made her heart race and chased her breath out of her lungs.

Applejack hosed down the two fillies with the high pressure of the spray. Diamond Tiara’s yells and screams of protest didn’t stop the entire time. Once enough of the mud had gone she kicked off the tap then tossed a couple of rags at them so they could dry off. “Dry up and grab your lunches from Granny Smith. Then hurry off to school, you’re gonna be late.”

“I’m going to tell my daddy!” Tiara yelled angrily. Applejack smiled and nodded her head.

“You do that.” She trotted off back to the orchard.

Diamond Tiara seethed as the cold water ran down her body, dripping from her mane and tail. To her side Apple Bloom was using the clean rag to dry herself in a hurry.

“It’s a warm day, we’ll be dry in no time. Hurry up before you catch cold.” She trotted off, leaving the furious pink filly behind.

Comments

[Alicorn]

I love this story, please update soon!

[SeventhBrony]

looks like Rich ain't as snobish as canon and fanan has him being since it reads he can cook a old fashioned farm breakfast, not to metion getting up in time to do it. With this point I SO agree with DT, to early!! of course I'm one of those that thinks who ever thought up morning should have to deal with the blasted things and not be able to sleep in like you KNOW that they were able to

[Seether00]

2308027

Agreed, anything before 8 am is too early for me.

[englishwitch]

2308027
I'm not sure about canon, we've seen so little of him.
The one time we saw the most of him, Family Appreciation Day (S02E12), he didn't bat an eyelid at Granny Smith's odd behaviour, even helped her slightly and made his daugther dress as a rabbit and sing to the water
Because of that alone my personal fandom puts him down as the kind of pony who enjoys the finer things in life but respects the Apple's and their ways, so he can enjoy being a part of their lifestyle.

[Lies and Flies]

I like the story, keep it up!

[cpl_scipio]

2308302>>2308027
when i had a job, i had to get up every morning at 0430. my shift started at 0700, and i had a 64 mile commute ahead of me.
I had about an hour to get dressed and gather my equipment (it was construction work, so a shower was pointless), and i was on the road by 0530. a quick stop for 2 cans of monster, a can of chew, and a donut if i was in the mood, and then it was onwards to hell on earth, disguised as a Hy-Vee getting remodeled.

[Telaros]

moar!

Totally my favorite DT story. It really is shaping up marvelously. I really loved the way you did the Mopping Chore part and how DT ended up on the porch questioning all that happened, and the feeling of being treated like an clueless filly that can't pick up on how to mop a simple floor was touching. She really took pride in something she thought she actually had a grasp on. She was actually doing something new to her. To have that taken away so swiftly and feel looked down on, too untrustworthy, was really sweet.

Diamond Tiara being all sour mood because she wasn't given a chance to prove she could really get it done. Not that she wanted to work, but to be seen as unfit to do the work when it was only her first time ever seemed unfair to her, man I know that feeling...

This chapter actually topped the quality of the last one a fair bit. Love it!
And yes, people think that whole bed thing is cliche... but truthfully it is all too common an occurrence irl xD that scooting together thing during sleep is just natural. I would of loved to see DT's and AB's faces waking up to each other, both jumping back screaming top of their lungs while partially caught on their sheet and each fallen over the respective side of the bed lol

Anyways, good night/morning.

[Telaros]

2308429 And acknowledges where his fortunes and heritage came from. I think he respects the relation his pappy and such had with the Apples, and he just grew up living by the examples set, while doing his best to further business and support those that's helped foster his business.

He's not perfect, and loves money, but I think he tries to set a good example for DT. When he can, and catches his cunning daughter when she misbehaves. S3 Babs really took her character a step back from that Foal Free Press episode in season two. But it was an anti-bully episode, so getting saddled as the stalker like bully (DT... going to a FARM willingly? That's stretching it. All other eps she just goes about her day, lest that episode they really did just do it to spy on their float. Possibly.)

[iDeltaVelocity]

We may be three chapters into the story, but I finally have a reason to use this picture

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[BlackShadow94]

Diamond tiara's cleaning lady huh? Was it this cleaning lady?

Just came to my mind.