Applejack settles down as the train gets rolling. Despite the late hour her mind races, dredging up fears from years and years ago. Specifically, when Princess Cadance applied, and was denied, for a spot in the herd. Her herdmates seem to be taking a cue from her, and none are yet willing to lay down and sleep. The mood in the car isn’t quite dark or gloomy, more pensive.
“Soo,” Rainbow Dash drawls out sleepily, “you look like something’s on your mind.” She makes no attempt to cover her long yawn, then smacks her lips a few times.
“Obviously she wants to talk about Twilight,” Rarity says distractedly as she sets up her sewing machine, then unzips one of the long bags containing their work-in-progress dresses. Soon the sound of sewing fills the air, competing with the click and clack of the train.
“About… how she’s a princess?” Fluttershy quietly says, her voice barely audible. It’s hard to tell if she’s still in awe, or if it’s more that she’s terrified. Or possibly both. She buries her attention in helping Rarity, holding Trixie’s dress up against the mare.
“That, of course,” Rarity concedes dreamily. She pauses her motions with Trixie, gazing fondly at a wall. “Can you imagine? Having a princess in the herd will be fantastic! It’ll be everything I ever dreamed!”
“And with such close connection to a Princess, Trixie is sure to find all manners of red tape removed before her!” Trixie grinds her hooves against each other, grinning madly.
“That ain’t the whole of it, though.” Applejack sighs heavily. She pulls her hat off her head, inspecting the three expertly embroidered apples. The ones she had put there. She steals a glance at Rarity, who probably has another hat for her to wear to the coronation. Maybe she could convince the seamstress to let her wear this one instead. “Sure, it was pleasant meeting all them Canterlot nobles. Ah couldn’t believe how many of ‘em wanted to make nice with me! But how many were just trying to use me to get something else?”
“Wait.” Rainbow Dash growls, hooves folding across her chest as she briefly takes to the air. “You don’t think that I got into the Wonderbolts because of Princess Celestia’s favor, did you?”
“You know Spitfire better’n me,” Applejack retorts. “She seem like the kinda pony who’d do something like that?”
Rainbow Dash shakes her head, still clearly unhappy at the notion. She plops back down, grumbling to herself.
“But that ain’t my point.” Applejack huffs, nearly spitting on the floor. “Ah want each of you to be completely honest with me.”
Applejack turns to each in turn, gauging their reactions. Rarity is focusing on her sewing, but spares her a glance and light smile; Rainbow Dash still looks angry, snorting her mane out of her eyes; Fluttershy, while helping Trixie, cowers a little; Pinkie Pie beams broadly; Trixie has a bemused but not entirely unapologetic smirk.
“As lead mare of Herd Apple, have you been happy with how Ah’ve been running things?”
Only Pinkie Pie manages to hold Applejack’s gaze, the rest of the mares exchanging awkward glances.
Several long seconds pass before Fluttershy questions, “Why would you think we are disappointed?”
“It ain’t that Ah think y’all are unhappy with how things have been going.” Applejack mulls over her next words, her stoic demeanor fading as her shoulders slump. “Much as Ah’d hate to admit, most ponies’ll expect a Princess to be running things.” She kicks at the floor. “Ah want to know what y’all want.”
“Seems fine to me,” Rainbow Dash says, about as coolly as possible. “Since when have you cared about what other ponies think?”
“Ah ain’t concerned about other ponies, Ah’m concerned about one pony in particular.” Applejack flicks her head towards the adjacent car. “Well, maybe two ponies. Ah’m not quite sure what Celestia would say about me denying her protege leadership.”
“Could have fooled me,” Rainbow Dash says, snorting. “Why do you care?”
“‘Cause it’s important to me!” Applejack stomps a hoof on the floor.
“Does Twilight even want the position?” Fluttershy asks as Rarity finishes Trixie’s dress. “What if she’s fine with being, um,” her eyes flick to Trixie, “junior mare?”
“Ever since her dam came over she’s been asking more’n more about how things get done. At first, Ah just chalked it up to that same curiosity she shows everywhere else.” Applejack turns to stare out the window, watching the dark plains roll by. “Up until now, Ah never really considered her taking over. Ah just assumed Herd Apple was gonna stay, you know, Apple.”
“I know we had a similar discussion when Cadance applied all those years ago.” Rarity packs up Trixie’s dress, pulling out Pinkie Pie’s. “I think you’ve done a, hmm, fine job.”
“Just fine?” Applejack says, turning to look the unicorn up and down. Her eye twitches a little, mouth slightly curling to a frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I really meant nothing by it, darling,” Rarity says, though the slight puckering of Applejack’s nostrils lets her know that her lead isn’t buying it. Rarity purses her lips, gears almost audibly grinding in her head.
“Ah know you ain’t thinkin’ of lying to me,” Applejack says coldly. “Ah’m a grown mare. Just spit it out. Ah can take it.”
“I would never have lied to you,” Rarity retorts. “I was just thinking about what I wanted to say.” Rarity demurely pins a pink bowtie to Pinkie Pie’s blue sleeve, then one on the opposite side. Her eyes flick to the sleeping fillies, then to Applejack.
“It ain’t my fault you didn’t get with Doug more often.” Applejack smirks at the sound of Doug and Starlight emanate from the other car. “Besides, sounds like he’s working on fixin’ that imbalance right now.”
“It isn’t just about how many foals are earth ponies.” Rarity stabs another pin into Pinkie Pie’s dress, stamping over to the other side. “It’s about what sort of vision we have for the herd. I’ve always dreamed of expanding my store to Canterlot, or Manehatten. And with the number of foals we’ve had, it’s been very difficult to scrounge the funds for any such expansion.” She continues as Applejack opens her mouth to object, “And that would have happened regardless of how many are earth ponies.”
“Well,” Applejack says, chewing over her words, “let it never be said that Ah don’t consider everypony’s opinion. Or position.” She can’t help but continue to stare at Rarity who, along with Doug and herself, run the herd’s finances. “Maybe we can find some way to accommodate that.” Her eyes narrow. “You don’t think it’d be different under Twilight, do ya?”
“I do believe you are the one who started this discussion,” Rarity says, moving on to Pinkie Pie’s hat, holding up several different floral patterns. When Pinkie Pie holds up a couple of sweets and an ice cream cone she merely rolls her eyes. “I can’t put an actual cone on your head, Pinkie Pie.”
“Aww,” Pinkie Pie moans, huffing in disappointment. “But where else am I going to keep it?”
“I’ll make you one out of fabric, and you’ll have to resign yourself to eating at the buffet.” Rarity levitates over a bit of pink fabric, then deciding on a hoofful of sweets to pin in place.
Applejack glances to Pinkie Pie; though her smile remains, it seems to have lost a little bit of its natural cheer. “What do you think, Pinkie?”
“Weeell,” Pinkie Pie says, awkwardly shifting back and forth as much as her constrained position allows.
“Come on, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack groans out, pulling her hat to cover her head. “Not you, too.”
“It’s just that, I think Twilight’s going to have a lot of pressure on her from ponies outside the herd, and while she may not consciously consider their opinions very important she’s going to have a lot of ponies watching her and talking about her and it’s not really something that she’s used to; in fact, I’d probably say it’s something she avoids - mostly because of how much she likes to lock herself in the library and really only interacts with us - I mean, whenever something happens, it always seems like it’s the six of us - including Trixie, sometimes - that she gets stuff done with - - I mean, not really consciously avoids, but she definitely has a preference, and so she might ask you for the title of lead mare but she won’t really be desiring it herself, but because she thinks that other ponies expect her to desire it.”
Everypony mostly stares at Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow Dash waves a hoof up and down for a few seconds before saying, “I think what Pinkie Pie is trying to say, is that we don’t really care who runs this herd. We’re all here for each other, through thick and thin, and who runs these meetings really doesn’t matter.”
“That’s… not really my point, but I guess it’s still true.” Pinkie Pie turns to Applejack. “I think what we need, is a change in perspective.”
“A what now?” Applejack says, confused.
Pinkie Pie smiles, and that smile brightens up the entire room. Like Celestia herself raised a sun, just for them, in the compartment of the train car.
“There,” Pinkie Pie says, in such a calm and matter-of-fact manner that nopony else could say anything. As if that simple act proved everything.
And, maybe, it did.
Everypony smiles; not forced, like someunicorn cast a mix of spells that made them her slaves. But optimistic about the future, no matter what it holds. Like somepony said, ‘Everything is going to be just fine’ and meant it.
“Alright then,” Applejack concedes, taking a moment to steel herself. “Ah know being lead mare means a lot to me. It ain’t something that Ah want to give up; hay, ‘fore Twilight came along Ah didn’t think Ah’d ever give it up. But it don’t mean more to me than my Friends. If Twilight thinks it’s that important that she be lead mare, on account of bein’ an alicorn and a Princess and because that’s what those ‘other’ ponies want? Ah’ll go tell her to shove that horn of hers so far up her plot it’ll pierce her wings.”
Rainbow Dash cringes; Trixie looks mildly turned on.
“But Ah’ve seen her planning, and how me-tic-u-lous she is about everythin’. If’n she wants it because she can run a meeting better’n me?” Applejack chuckles. “She’s probably got a checklist for how the changing of the crown goes.”
“Thank you for your honesty,” Rarity says with a smile. “And speaking of crowns changing, what about the other two Princesses, should they ask to join?”
Applejack shrugs. “We already got one Princess in the herd. Other’n makin’ Twilight nervous whenever her night with Doug lines up with Celestia? Ah don’t see a problem. ‘Sides, they’ll probably be too busy running the country to do much of anything.” She glances around. “Anypony else have an objection to the Princesses joining?”
The thought of denying the Princesses anything, much less something as important to them as this, is more than anypony can bear. Leave it to Doug to do that.
“Yeah, Ah assumed it’s pretty much a done deal.” Applejack glances to Rainbow Dash.
“Ugh, that means I’ll be spending even fewer nights with Doug.” Rainbow pouts, scratching a hoof along the floor.
“Don’t be silly, Rainbow.” Pinkie Pie grins as Rarity finishes her hat, the blue and white chapeau looking almost as delicious as the melting ice cream cone in her hoof. “You see Doug in the middle of the day more than any of us.”
“Hey! That’s not…” Rainbow Dash frowns. “Okay, fine.” She glances over to the other car. “I think they’re done now. I’m going to just go over there and… check.” She looks back at Applejack. “Did we want her to come back here?”
“Nah, Ah think we’re good.” A round of sleepy nods finishes with most of the ponies, outside of Rarity, laying down.
“Okay. Um, don’t expect me to come back. Tonight.” Rainbow Dash winks as she quickly opens the door, zipping to the other car.