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Wine - TwilightUCrazy

"Everypony all settled in fer the night?"

Rainbow grinned around the picnic basket in her teeth as she scaled the hill all the way to the top, where a scarlet blanket and a series of lit candles awaited her beneath the moonlight.

"All tucked in!

"Sunshine brushed 'er teeth?"

"Teeth brushed, bedtime story read, house locked up tight. Now it's just you 'n me, babe!"

Applejack smiled from her position on the blanket. Rarity had had to open up her old red dress quite a ways just so she could fit into it so late in term. Likely, it was ruined, but for date night, she had to wear something that complimented Rainbow's tux nicely. Her wife had gone through the trouble of prettying up and even combing that unmanageable mane of hers. She had to at least give it the same effort.

As Rainbow settled down onto the blanket, she reached in and clutched a bottle of wine in her teeth. Grasping it between her hooves, she gave it a few firm shakes and started to wedge her hoof in under the cork.

"Goin' straight fer the wine, huh?" AJ grinned. "Ya sure don't dally much do ya, sugarcube?"

"Eh, who has time to mess around any-"

A sharp loud pop filled the air, interrupting the pegasus with an outpouring of fizz from the mouth of the bottle and pouring onto the blanket.

"Whoa!" she yelped, and pointed it away from the delicate fabric.

Rainbow smirked mischievously.

"I swear to Celestia that never happens," she said with a wink.

Applejack rolled her eyes humorously and bit her lower lip.

"Not every night it don't..." she whispered.

"I heard that, Applerack!"

Applejack simpered at the cruel nickname and draped a hoof over her bulging stomach.

"Yeah, yeah, go 'head and yuck it up Lasermane. Ya can go 'head and make fun if ya want, but it ain't wise to tease the pony who determines whether or not ya get a happy endin' tonight..."

Rainbow's wings flared involuntarily.

"Forgive me m'lady. I know not what I do."

Her wife grinned.

"That's what Ah thought." She turned to regard the picnic basket. "So, didja finally manage to break the cookin' curse placed on ya, or did Granny give ya a hoof?"

"Hey, I can cook if I want to!"

Applejack's mouth curved upward at one side.

"Sugarcube, the last time ya tried to make a bowl of oatmeal, it caught fire..."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and poured a glass of wine for each of them, before taking a styrofoam container out of the basket. She noticed how Applejack's eyes bulged in surprise, then deflated in disappointment.

"Rainbow..."

"Look, I don't know what the deal is, okay! I tried following Granny's directions to the buckin' letter and nothing worked! You like the food from this restaurant anyway!"

The more her wife yelled, the more Applejack smiled.

As the pegasus's rant seemed ready to continue, she reached over and silenced her with her lips.

"As long as ya tried, darlin'," she said warmly, scratching the underside of her chin with her hoof.

Rainbow smiled and squeaked in delight, her colorful tail tenderizing the blanket underneath her.

"Yeah, well, I figured you wouldn't want a completely trashed cobbler anyway, so..." With a flick of her cyan hoof, Rainbow revealed a delectable salad, spiced with some of the Apple family's most expensive apple products and sold only to the finest confectionaries. Having a P-4 paygrade in the Wonderbolts certainly helped her afford some of the nicer things in life.

Applejack's brow raised.

"Hmmm... okay, color me impressed."

"And that's just dinner!"

Rainbow bolted around behind the tree, and reemerged with a stringed instrument. It didn't bother her that Applejack bit her lip and cackled softly.

"Oh you laugh now, but I swear, once you see my sweet moves across all the strings on this guitar, you're just gonna beg me to take you!"

Applejack sniffed her laugh back under control and smirked.

"Ah would... if'n that were a gee-tar."

Rainbow blinked.

"What are you talking about? Look at it! It's an awesome guitar! Picked it out myself at the music shop!"

Her wife had a difficult time keeping from laughing all over again.

"'Cept, it ain't a gee-tar."

Rainbow stared blankly at her. It was the kind of stare that told Applejack just how few clues her wife had. She leaned over and began to chuckle into her hoof.

"Okay, I'll bite..." she admitted, holding up the instrument. "If it's not a gee-ta-... GUITAR, what is it?"

"Can't be sure mahself – Ah'm no instrument expert. But from the look of the rounded back, Ah'd say it's a mandolin."

Rainbow blinked.

"The buck's a 'man-duh-lin'?"

"Ah reckon what yer holdin' right there."

Her wife glared down to the instrument of mistaken identity. She growled and chucked it over her shoulder, landing it in the grass somewhere out of the light of the candles.

"Ah didn't know ya were practicin' playin'," Applejack said over a warm smile.

"Yeah... well... I wanted to make this date romantic. I thought a little guitar solo might help put you in the mood..."

"And ya never thought it was kinda different from the other guitars ya were usin'?"

"I just thought it was something fancy from Germaney or something!" she huffed in frustration.

Applejack chuckled and sidled closer to her lover. She leaned in and nuzzled against Rainbow's neck, while a free hoof found itself gently massaging against her sensitive withers.

Her foul mood evaporated like a raindrop in a fire as small jolts of electricity fired from the tips of her wings up to the base of her brain.

"Don't you worry none, sugarcube," she felt whispered into her ear. "Ah figure ya done surprised me enough fer one night." Her mate's teeth nipped at her eartip.

"Y-yeah? Well... wait 'til you see what I bought for dessert!" she exclaimed.

It was tough. Every synapse in Rainbow's brain screamed to take the date to the next level. The last time she'd tried that kind of thing though, Applejack made quite clear her discontent. She had a hoof-shaped bruise on her cheek for a good week after.

She had to resist... had to seal the deal...

Applejack quirked an eyebrow and cast a sidelong glance towards the basket as her wife dug through the various goodies therein. She smiled and reached for her glass of wine, swirling the crimson beverage in soft circles.

"Well, sweetheart, Ah can safely say that..."

A pause followed.

"Safely say what?" Rainbow asked from her head in the basket. "That I've charmed you? Made you fall in love with me all over again?" She came back out of the basket with a wrapped glazed apple cake in her teeth. "Or that I'm just the most amazing-"

The cake hit the blanket.

"Applejack, what's wrong?"

Rainbow leaned against her wife's side to support her. Applejack had clutched her stomach and doubled over, a wince of pain written across her face.

Applejack smiled up to Rainbow through clenched teeth, her many dots of sweat on her brow reflecting the moon and candlelight.

"Just a cramp. Ain't nothin' to worry about," she reassured, massaging her hoof over her stomach. "See? All better."

"Cramp nothing..." Rainbow said, her magenta eyes widening to the size of dinner plates. "AJ, you're bleeding."

Applejack blinked and looked down at her dress. From the red cloth, it was difficult to tell at first, but realization hit quickly that she was drenched in her own blood.

Rainbow didn't miss a beat, and quickly wrapped her hooves around her mate's chest.

Applejack's face paled several shades, and a look of fear that her lover had never seen before took hold. "Rainbow... the baby..."

With a single motion, she landed on her wife's back, and wrapped herself around her.

"Just hang on. I'll have us at the hospital in a couple minutes."

For all of Applejack's fears of flying and heights, for all her nervousness of her own bravado, for all her reckless stunts from the past, none of it mattered in that moment. She braced herself in Rainbow's grasp, and shut her eyes.

Rainbow had never planned on flying Applejack anywhere quite as fast as she did that evening...

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