The Second Round
“Piña Colada!” Apple Bloom called to the barmare, who was halfheartedly rearranging her back shelf’s selection of liquors and spirits.
“What can I get you?” she replied weakly, turning to Apple Bloom and trying to put on her best smile for a Tuesday night.
“Another...well, you know.” She laughed almost silently. “Another one of Piña Colada’s Piña Coladas.”
Piña’s smile grew larger and more genuine at the joke; no matter how many times Apple Bloom had told it, it had never failed to make them both smile. She needed a smile, and a nice drink that would loosen her up. Luckily, a few bits on the bar could solve both of those rather quickly.
“Apple Bloom?” a somewhat familiar voice asked from behind her. She could have sworn that voice belonged to Diamond Tiara, but she hadn’t been back to Ponyville in years. Sure enough, however, there she was when she turned around, wrapped in the expertly-fitting navy jacket of what was most certainly a very expensive pantsuit.
“Diamond Tiara?” Apple Bloom asked after a few seconds’ pause of disbelief. “Thought you moved away a long time ago. Nopony’s seen you in years!”
“I’m back,” she sighed, taking the empty seat next to her. “Been a long time, yeah. Didn’t know this place was here. Wasn’t this where Quills and Sofas used to be?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed.
“Quills and Sofas…” With a laugh, she shook her head. “How did he ever stay in business as long as he did? There were other furniture stores that sold more than just sofas, and stationery and office supplies stores that sold more than just quills. Not like he didn’t have any competition. He limited himself too much. that’s what my dad always said.”
As Piña Colada passed Apple Bloom’s freshly-made, pale white drink to her, Diamond Tiara spoke up and tried to order a few very expensive-sounding wines Apple Bloom had never heard of before. She finally settled for a glass of some other wine she clearly had no interest in trying, but ordered anyways. Apple Bloom began sipping her cocktail in silence, and when Diamond Tiara’s drink came, she too took a few mouthfuls in silence, not wanting to break the tension between them.
“So what brings you back?” Apple Bloom asked after a good portion of her drink was gone.
“My mom’s not doing so well,” she stated rather matter-of-factly. “Came back for a quick visit, then back to Vanhoover.”
“Vanhoover?” Apple Bloom echoed. “I thought you moved away to Baltimare to work for your dad.”
“We hit a bit of a rough patch a few years back,” she answered after a short pause. “We had to close most of our stores on the east coast of Equestria, they just weren’t really profitable enough. He offered to get me a similar position for our Southwest Division, but turned him down. I kept the east coast running for longer than most other ponies could have, so I had a lot of ponies just throwing offers at me. Been at Luna Bay Superstores ever since.”
Apple Bloom bit her lip a little bit, trying to figure out how she could say what she wanted to without intruding too much on Diamond Tiara's personal life. “I can’t imagine he was very happy with you leaving the company that’s been in your family so long.”
“He understood.” She shrugged. “It was a better offer than he could give me. And besides, being the CEO’s daughter is a weird position. Lot of ponies just saw nepotism, didn’t consider that maybe it was that I earned my place and just happened to have Filthy Rich as my father.”
“Big Mac wasn’t too keen on me not staying at Sweet Apple Acres,” she laughed nervously, trying to change the subject. “Applejack was fine with it though, just so long as I ‘don’t forget where we came from’, as she put it.”
“You’re the new Miss Cheerilee, right?”
“Teacher at the Ponyville schoolhouse,” she corrected. “And yeah, Miss Cheerilee hasn’t been there in years.”
Out of topics to continue conversing about, both mares returned to their drinks.
After choking down a sip that was much larger than she had intended, Apple Bloom shifted her eyes over to Diamond Tiara. She hadn’t really noticed it before now, but she looked very nice. Well, she had to admit that was a lie. She had noticed before, but had never thought anything of it beyond wishing she could look that good. Her jacket was nice and clean and really brought out her chest, but wasn’t garish or flashy. Her mane was beautifully styled, and it had body that she had previously thought only Rarity was able to achieve. She smelled sweet, too. Lilac, and...something Apple Bloom couldn’t quite put her hoof on. It was both sweet and acidic at the same time, reminding her of the way Ponyville smelled in the spring when everything was in bloom.
“So how are things going with you?” Diamond Tiara asked, startling Apple Bloom, whose focus had grown to the point where she hardly noticed anything other than the way the mare next to her looked tonight.
“With me? Things are…” She stopped herself. She hadn’t seen Diamond Tiara in at least a decade. She didn’t need to know that. “Things are good.”
“You paused,” she pointed out.
Apple Bloom quickly returned her eyes to her drink. “Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing you’d care to hear about anyways.”
“My mom and I haven’t exactly been on the best of terms recently,” she laughed nervously. “Anything to get my mind off that is a welcome change.”
“Well, Coconut Cream and I are kinda...getting a divorce.” She pushed the drink away from her, for some reason not wanting any more of it. “I moved back into Sweet Apple Acres a few weeks ago. We’re going through that process, and just…” She crossed her hooves over her chest. “Not fun. Enough sad stuff, DT. What about you? Anypony in your life?”
“If we don’t want to talk about sad stuff, asking me about my love life isn’t going to change anything,” she replied with a smile that Apple Bloom could still feel pain through.
“That bad, huh?”
“Had one girlfriend ever,” she admitted. “It was a million years ago, and it hardly went anywhere. I went on like, four dates with Dinky Doo before she realized she wasn’t into mares and went running back into Rumble’s hooves. Hope she’s at least happy with him, I guess. Left town not long after that and never found out what happened to them.”
“They’ve got three foals together. Guess you could say they’re happy.”
“Figures,” she laughed. “Probably was just her way of getting back at him, anyways. I remember they had a pretty nasty breakup. Can’t imagine she was really all that interested in me anyway.”
“Why don’t you think she did?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Diamond Tiara drank the last few drops of her wine, then put it off to the side. “Probably for the same reasons I’ve only ever had one girlfriend in my life. Even then, four dates just barely counts as having one.”
“Probably just haven’t found somepony yet.” Apple Bloom shifted on her bar stool ever so slightly closer to Diamond Tiara. “I think you’ve got a lot of qualities ponies would be interested in.”
“Don’t get all therapist on me,” she giggled.
“It’s not therapist. It’s...interest.”
Silence fell over them again as they both stared into each other’s eyes. There was something Diamond Tiara wanted to say; she could tell it in her eyes, the way she was looking back at her.
It was the first time she had ever really noticed Diamond Tiara’s eyes.
They were beautiful.
Diamond Tiara slid her empty wine glass away, “You’re blunt, aren’t you?”
Unsure of what to say, both mares simply began laughing. Not the nervous type of laugh they had been exchanging for the past few minutes, but a genuine one, full of warmth. There had been little for either of them to laugh about recently, and even laughing about part of the reason they had nothing to laugh about felt good.
“I’ve never been one for playing around,” Apple Bloom admitted, pulling her drink back towards her and taking a sip. “I always thought you looked nice, just never really had any serious thoughts about it until now. I know we didn’t talk much after I got my Cutie Mark, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it a few times.”
“Too much bad history between us?”
“A bit. But it’s always complicated then, you know that.”
“We’re both two grown mares, it’s not really that complicated now.” She turned her head ever so slightly, now looking at Apple Bloom from the corner of her eye. “I haven’t really kept in touch with anypony from Ponyville, so I’m free tomorrow night. I’d offer to take you out tonight, but I told my parents when my train was coming in. I decided to pop in for a quick drink, just going to tell them I got delayed a little bit. Not enough for a whole date.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Apple Bloom thought aloud. “I mean, I’ve got all my family here. And neither of us could just up and leave our jobs, there’s not much here in Ponyville and I’m only licensed to teach in—”
“Apple Bloom,” Diamond Tiara cut her off. “When you started dating Coconut Cream, did you sit at home and talk about all the reasons it wouldn’t work?”
Apple Bloom, surprised at the question, looked down into her drink. “No,” she admitted.
“Then it shouldn’t be any different for me.” She pulled out a small coin purse and began counting bits as they were placed on the bar. “Look, I’m not going to lie, I don’t know how we’d make it work if this got serious either. But I’d rather us at least try and see if there is something that could work. But I’m tired of just sitting around and waiting for something to happen.”
“I’ll drink to that!” Apple Bloom proclaimed, raising her Piña Colada proudly into the air.
“I’ll come by Sweet Apple Acres around 7.” A tiny smile holding a great deal of warmth appeared on her face. “Don’t have to get super dressed up, but a little dressy.”
“See you then.”
“See you then,” she replied slowly, clearly unused to those words coming out of her mouth. After a few seconds of staring at each other awkwardly, Diamond Tiara slowly turned around and started walking out of the bar.
Apple Bloom took another sip of her cocktail. She was glad she had it.
She didn’t want to think about what she might have missed out on if she had just gone home without ordering a second round.