Who Was in My Room Last Night?
'Who Was in My Room Last Night?'
"Can we eat already? Come on!"
Rainbow drummed her hooves on the booth table in the window of Sugarcube Corner, drawing a groan from Twilight and a frown from Rarity.
"Rainbow Dash," Rarity said, "we are waiting until Applejack arrives."
The five ponies were waiting in the closed bakery in the early morning. Owing to a couple of intersecting busy schedules -- the cause of which being sowing season, a magazine article in a Canterlot bi-weekly praising a little out-of-the-way designer from Ponyville, a mix-up in the communication with the weather team in Baltimare, and the various minor duties of an Equestrian princess -- Twilight had been forced to find a time during the week when all of her friends could see each other. That time happened to fall on the day when the market was closed, the weather team was not out in force regulating the skies, and most stores (including the one owned by the Cakes) elected to not open up. Pinkie was able to convince Mr and Mrs Cake to borrow the bakery while it was closed, under the usual proviso of returning it to the state it was when she arrived and not using all of the chocolate in a fondue fountain. The arrangement had worked well for the past month.
That is, until Applejack was late.
Normally Applejack could be counted on to arrive some time after Fluttershy, who often appeared a few minutes early after leaving out food for the varied residents of her cottage, and Twilight, who always showed up precisely at the same time every week, but before Rarity, who sometimes got caught up in a furious burst of post-sleep creativity that she forgot to watch the clock closely, and Rainbow Dash, who routinely slept through her alarm on days she didn't work. Dependable Applejack was not a pony who made a habit of missing appointments; if she said she'd be somewhere, then she would be there. Even if that meant not completely brushing off the soil on her hooves, or having a stray leaf unnoticed in her mane.
Applejack's failure to appear was making Rainbow, the chief cause of the weekly get-togethers beginning late, visibly antsy. Fluttershy, in an attempt to avert a confrontation, changed the subject.
"I like what you've done with your mane, Rarity," she said.
"Why, thank you, dear!" Rarity touched a hoof to her more low-key mane. "Yes, I thought the au naturel look would be easier to maintain than how I regularly wear it, and a little change now and then does a pony good."
"What's o-naturelle?" Rainbow asked.
"In the natural," Rarity replied with a flourish. Then, after noting Rainbow's blank expression, clarified further: "Not doing anything to it."
"Pfft, big deal, that's what I do with my mane." Before Rarity could outline the difference, Rainbow turned her attention to Pinkie Pie. "Could you like, break some eggs or something?"
Pinkie, apparently tapping in to a past life as a short order cook, sprang from her seat at the table to behind the counter into the kitchen in a single bound, donning a wobbly toque as she did so. "Omelet, coming up!"
"What did I say about waiting, Rainbow?" Rarity huffed.
"No, I mean," Rainbow started, frantically waving Pinkie down. "Just prepare stuff. Like get out bowls and flour and things. And crack eggs." Noting her friends' skeptical looks, she added, "What? I don't cook much, I don't know how it goes."
"I'll help set up," Rarity said, rising from her place.
Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged a glance. Rarity was always willing to lend a helping hoof, but seldom in the kitchen, where there was ample opportunity for spills, stains, and sweat. Nevertheless, she slid in beside Pinkie and began unpacking a mixer and measuring cups, humming a bouncy tune.
"Heeey," Pinkie said, "I know that song. What song is that?"
"You know, I'm not sure," Rarity said, and continued humming.
"Sounds like... Pony Cash? Fillie Nelson?"
"It's Flank Williams," came a voice from the doorway. Applejack had arrived.
"That's it!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I knew it was one of those rootin'-tootin' ten-gallon-hat cowpoke ponies. Say--" Her brow creased as she switched mental gears. "--I didn't think you liked music like that, Rarity."
"Hm, must have stuck in my mind from somewhere," she said, not breaking the tune.
"Hey, Applejack's here," Rainbow said suddenly. "Morning, Applejack. Now that Applejack's here, we can eat, right?"
"Sorry I'm late, y'all," Applejack said, ignoring Rainbow and positioning herself by the bakery counter. "Things at the farm just took a little longer than I expected."
"Perfectly alright," Rarity said with a warm smile.
"Didn't start without me, did'ja?" Applejack returned the smile.
"No, we're just getting things set up."
Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged another glance, this time trying (and failing) to include Rainbow Dash. For a moment, it seemed like Rarity and Applejack were the only two ponies in the closed bakery.
"Okay, so, food," Rainbow said, breaking the illusion. "Pinkie, can I get a burger and some hay fries?"
"Okie-dokie-lokie!" Pinkie disappeared behind the counter while Twilight turned her attention to Rainbow.
"For breakfast, really?" she asked.
"What?" Rainbow shrugged. "Hay fries are good any time of the day."
"Can't you eat something normal? Like toast." Twilight glanced at Rarity. "I'd like a normal breakfast of toast. Please."
"Mm-hmm." Rarity picked up a loaf of bread with her magic. "And what about you, dear?" she asked Fluttershy.
"Oh. Um, a piece of French toast, if it's not too much trouble."
"And you, Applejack?"
After a pause that was a moment longer than was needed, Applejack replied: "I was thinkin' I'd just have a croissant." The foreign word sounded unfitting but not unfamiliar in her accent.
"That's not like you, AJ," Rainbow said. "Normally you eat like a plow horse."
"Well, some days I ain't as hungry as I am on others, RD," Applejack said without turning back to look at Rainbow.
"Speaking of hunger," Rarity said, "I am positively famished this morning, and as such will be making a stack of apple pancakes. With syrup."
"Okay, way to go Rarity," Rainbow shouted. "Good to know somepony else can handle a real breakfast." She tried to shoot Twilight a glance, but Twilight was already caught up with exchanging another knowing look with Fluttershy.
Applejack sat down in the booth next to Fluttershy, which was expected, and took off her hat, which was uncommon but not unheard of. What was unusual was the state of her mane; gone was her regular simple ponytail, and in its place a tightly-packed braid with two strands of ribbon woven into it, one red and one blue.
"Why, Applejack," Fluttershy said with a sudden hint of boldness in her voice, "what's the occasion?"
"What, m'mane? Dunno, just felt like doin' somethin' different with it today, is all."
"Seriously, what's the deal?" Rainbow asked, leveling Applejack with a stare. "It's like it's Opposite Day here or something, you're eating like a bird and putting effort into how you look, and Rarity's not and she's..." Rainbow trailed off, her eyes looking off into space as if seeing a quiet revelation there. She banged a hoof on the counter, making Fluttershy jump, and pointed back and forth between Applejack and Rarity. "You hooked up!"
"What?" Applejack said with a nervous laugh. "Why would you think--"
"You two. Hooking up. Totally happened. And now you're doing stuff each other does. Right? Right?"
Silence as Applejack tried to look anywhere other than Rainbow Dash. Twilight and Fluttershy watched the stand-off with held breath. Even Pinkie's eyes were on the commotion instead of the stove.
"I wouldn't call what happened 'hooking up'," Rarity said with an exaggerated sidelong glance and artfully-timed paused, "but..."
"I knew it! I totally called it!" Rainbow pumped a hoof in the air in triumph. "Okay, spill. We want the deets. Tell us what happened."
"Sorry, Rainbow," Applejack said, sliding her hat back on her head and purposefully obscuring her eyes in shade, "but a lady don't kiss 'n tell."
"I'm afraid Applejack is right, sugarcube," Rarity added.
Rainbow glanced from one conspirator to the other. "Darn it," she muttered at the table.
Fluttershy giggled, and Twilight joined her. And in a moment when Pinkie Pie, also giggling, bounced out of the kitchen with a burger and fries, Rainbow's temporary sourness was forgotten.
-/-
As the six ponies left Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy asked Rarity quietly, "You'll tell me what happened at the spa, won't you?"
"Of course," Rarity said, checking first that she was out of earshot of Rainbow Dash. "What's said in the sauna never leaves the sauna."