//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: The Cutie Mark Crusaders Get Lost in North Carolina 
// by totallynotabrony 
//------------------------------//

	Applejack and Beth exited the apartment.  Neither had said a word since the pony had asked the human to step outside.
The door swung closed.  “How did you come to be here?” asked Applejack.
Beth shrugged.  “I just happened to run into your sister and her friends at Wal-Mart.”
“What in tarnation were they doin’ there?” demanded Applejack.
“They wanted to buy groceries to make you dinner.  They thought you might be having a tough time at work today.  Once I told them I knew you, they invited me back.”
“I told them not to get into any trouble!”
Beth glanced at the door.  She hoped Applejack’s voice wouldn’t be heard inside the apartment.  The pony caught the look, and motioned for the woman to follow her.
“Well, I don’t think they were causing any problems,” said Beth as they walked.  “We had a good time.”
“You didn’t tell them anything about…what happened?”
“God no.  As far as I’m concerned, the less said about that, the better.”
They walked in silence for a moment.
“We need to get this settled between us,” Applejack said quietly.
Beth looked at her.  “You really want to talk about it?”
“The rest of the base has forgotten, but you and Ah have been avoidin’ the subject.”
“They haven’t forgotten!  Just the other day somebody called me a pony fu—”
Applejack stopped her.  “Look sugarcube, we both know that nothin’ happened.  It’s too bad that it looked like we were doin' somethin’ else in that hotel room, but we just have to move on.”
Beth sighed.  “I guess I have been avoiding you since then.  I’m sorry.”
“Ah shoulda been more responsible and not let either of us get drunk in the first place,” said Applejack.  
“I forgive you.”
Applejack nodded.  “So, would you like to stay for supper?”
“That’d be great.”  The two of them turned around and headed back towards the apartment.  It had been a little while since they’d left, and Applejack hoped that the fillies hadn’t gotten impatient and dug into the food without them.
She opened the door.  “Girls?”  There was no reply.
The food was put away, and the note left on the counter advised that the Crusaders had headed back to the donut shop to pick up dessert.
“We already stopped there once,” said Beth.  She explained a little more about the shopping trip.
“Well, I guess that’s nice of them,” said Applejack.  “So what exactly did y’all do today?”
The two of them sat on the couch and talked.  It was much less awkward than their earlier conversation.  Beth was reminded why she and Applejack had first begun hanging out together.  The mare was a good friend, and she felt ashamed that she had let the opinions of a few people push them apart.
Beth glanced at the picture of AJ’s stallionfriend.  “So when was the last time you spoke to Constant?”
“Yesterday.”
“It’s too bad you’re here on Earth and he still doesn’t want to visit,” observed the woman.
“Sure, but can you blame him?”  Like Applejack, Constant Clock also worked for the Royal Intelligence Service.  His run-in with the Chicago mafia a few years back had soured him to people in general.
Beth nodded.  “Well, it’s good that you’re still together.  Long distance relationships usually don’t work out.  Lord knows that I’ve been through that.”
Applejack glanced at the digital time readout on the microwave.  “How long did it take to get to that donut shop?”
“It’s over there by Wal-Mart.  Do you know which one I’m talking about?  It doesn’t take very long to get there.”
Applejack nodded.  “It’s not too far.  Ah hope they didn’t get held up with eatin’ donuts ‘stead of carryin’ some back.”
Beth laughed.  “They told me I should try Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville.  Their stuff is better.”
“Sure is,” Applejack agreed.  The two of them were silent for a moment.
“Do you think we should go look for them?” asked Beth.
“Probably.”

Applejack and Beth were nowhere to be seen when the Crusaders stuck their heads out the door, so they decided that there was probably enough time to go back to the donut shop after all.
“It was down this way, wasn’t it?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom shrugged.  “That looks right.  Ah don’t remember the street name.”
Scootaloo glanced at the sky.  “When did it get cloudy?  Is there rain scheduled?”
“Since when is weather a big concern for you?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Well, I thought I could work as a weather pony someday,” answered Scootaloo.  “Besides, isn’t weather an important thing to everypony?”
“The difference is, on Earth the weather just happens,” said Apple Bloom, reminding the other two.  “There’s nothin' controllin’ it.”
“Earth’s weird,” said Scootaloo.
“Yeah,” agreed Sweetie Belle.
“What kinda donuts do you think we should get?” asked Apple Bloom.
“That might be a hard question to answer,” laughed Sweetie Belle.  “We’ll just have to see when we get there.”
“This is the right direction, isn’t it?” said Scootaloo.

Author note:
I lifted a little bit of the dialogue from Fernin's Strange Bedfellows.  It's a pretty good story.

The word count per chapter appears to be dwindling as we go along.  I’ll probably take a few days off and come up with a larger chapter.  Thanks for reading.