Chapter 16-The Name Game
Mac and Rainbow sat behind empty plates at the first diner they had come across. Rainbow wasn't as hungry as she'd thought, though she managed to put down most of her meal. Mac on the other hoof had no such trouble. He idly stared at his marefriend as she picked at the last few bites on her plate.
"Well, now how do ya feel?" Mac asked, slumping back in his booth.
Rainbow shrugged. "Better, I guess..."
Mac nodded, resting a hoof on his chin as he waited for the check. "Better than before, at least?"
"Yeah," she replied. Rainbow pushed her plate away just as the waitress came by with their bill. Macintosh reached for it, only to have his hoof pushed away. "I got this."
He smiled, "Ya sure? Just 'cause you're rich and famous now don't mean ya have ta pay for everythin'."
"Yeah, I'm sure. You guys need your money for the farm." She placed the currency on the table and glanced at him. "Speaking of, how's it holding up?"
It was Mac's turn to shrug. They were doing okay, but one bad harvest would have dire consequences for his family. After all, they had to sell a good amount of cattle just to pay for the windows Rainbow had broken.
Even though Applejack and Big Macintosh were a team, Mac had always felt the need to take responsibility for anything that ended up going wrong or not working out on the farm. He knew his sister would be fuming if she found out he thought the farm was more his responsibility than hers. They both worked hard every day, but the heavy lifting, the field plowing, the tree planting were all done by him, and him alone. The hardest labor was the kind he took the most pride in. Only he was capable of doing such work, and the feeling that would well in his chest after seeing the result of a hard day's labor was second only to getting all the apples out of a tree in a single buck.
As Rainbow waited for his answer, he considered his options. He could lie to her, say the farm was just dandy and be done with it for now. Or, he could confess the farm's financial hardships in detail, and pray his marefriend wouldn't mind fronting the money to get the repairs and equipment they needed to keep the orchard from going under. He found neither option very palatable. He wasn't a liar, but at the same time, Rainbow was very clearly the breadwinner in their relationship, and though it would seem silly and sexist to most, Mac's identity as a male found itself under siege by Rainbow's exorbitant salary. The stallion was supposed to pay for the mare, fight for her honor, and defend her if necessary.
Mac realized some of those ideas may have been a bit dated for the modern, 'liberated' mare, but wrong or not, those were the only standards he had to measure himself against. So far he was barely meeting one out of three. What would happen when their foal is born? Would he be the one at home changing diapers while Rainbow was off earning money on tour?
Though he wasn't as strict on gender roles as his folks might have been, the idea instilled in him that he should be the one providing still nagged at his conscience, especially when Rainbow paid for things like this.
"It's... it's going well."
Rainbow narrowed her eyes at him from across the table. "Horseapples," she replied. Was she really that good at reading him?
"Sorry?" he said, a bit confused.
"Don't lie to me, Macintosh!" Dash snapped. Apparently she was that good.
His ears folded back as he scratched his mane with a hoof. "Well, Ah..." he began, but faltered in his attempt to cover himself. "Alright, so we ain't great, but it could be worse..."
"Worse?"
"Well, if this season's crops were to fail... then, yeah."
Rainbow sat back against her booth. "Where'd the money from last season go?" she asked.
Mac didn't want to get into the specifics of their finances, but decided she deserved to know their state if she was going to be a part of the Apple clan.
"Back into the farm. A lot of our equipment is on its last leg. My plow is about the only thing that works reliably anymore."
Rainbow worked her jaw as if to speak, but remained silent. Her eyes shifted down to their plates as she put a hoof to her belly. "How much do you think it would cost to do everything that needs doing?"
Mac knew where she was going and decided to nip her offer in the bud. "Ah don't know, but you ain't payin' for it."
Rainbow cut her eyes. "Since when do you tell me what I can and can't do?"
"My farm ain't a charity case," Mac insisted. "Things are just tighter right now than usual."
Dash sat silent, examining the stallion across from her. "What if you woke up one day and there just happened to be new equipment in the barn?"
"Ah'd say whoever put it there would need to take it back," he replied sternly, only pushing Rainbow further to consider covering the costs. "Besides, if it came down to it, Ah'd just get one a them loans from the bank."
Rainbow flopped both hooves onto the table, "Mac, those things are a scam! You'll be paying it back for years!"
"It'd be better than takin' a hoofout," he grunted.
"It's not a hoofout!" Rainbow snapped. "It's me helping my coltfriend and his family when they need it!"
A brief wince of disgust fell across Mac's face. "Ah don't want ta talk about this anymore," he replied.
Rainbow glared at him. Normally, Rainbow would keep pushing, especially if she knew she was right. If she had been arguing with anypony else, she'd keep on until her opponent relented. With Mac, however, she was a bit more sensitive.
Mac knew he'd gotten off lucky with just a glare, but suspected this wasn't the end of this argument.
Putting the diner behind them, they ended up back at Rainbow's house for the remainder of the evening. Dash was busily studying the thick binder of maneuvers and standards the Wonderbolts had mailed her. The note accompanying stated they wanted the entire book memorized by first practice. First practice meaning tomorrow morning.
Mac sat stretched out on the couch, flipping through a back-issue of Stunt Fliers Monthly while Rainbow sat on the floor, the binder at her hooves with her mane tied into a... well, ponytail.
Her eyes darted back and forth over the glossy pages, studying drawing after drawing of tightly timed twists and turns. Mac flicked an ear in her direction, followed by an eye.
"You ready?" he asked.
A few moments of silence followed before she looked up. "Yeah. Just start with the show routines. I've got the warm-ups down." She gave Mac the binder and he set it across his chest after laying down his magazine.
"Alright, from the beginning," he said before yawning.
Rainbow stood up, closed her eyes and stretched out her wings. "Okay, and... go!" she said to herself as she visualized the routine she would soon fly.
"First move," Mac announced.
"Half-twist with a full roll," she replied calmly, setting her wings in the proper position.
"Good, next move?" he continued.
"Double loop in sync with my wingpony, then split," she answered confidently, earning a hum of approval from Mac.
"Good, here comes the hard part," he warned, glancing to her as she scrunched her face in thought about the upcoming series of moves.
"Okay... three full screws, a vertical ascent, level off, straight and level at heading... three zero two?" she asked, peeking one eye open and looking to Mac.
He grimaced. "Three two zero."
"Damnit!" She slammed her hooves on the cloudy flooring of her house, sending bits of it into the air. "I can't believe I put this off for so long!"
"Well, there wasn't much you could do about our... circumstances," Mac reasoned, about to send the book back her way.
"Not yet, tell me what's after three two zero."
Mac took back the binder and squinted at the pages. "Formation flight join-up, star pattern, star pattern, grand finale," he read.
Dash sighed, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. "Gah, what time is it?"
"Nearly Luna's hour," he said, looking at the clock.
Rainbow moaned as if someone were torturing her. "I'll get a little bit more done before I leave tomorrow."
"Turnin' in?" he asked as Rainbow nodded in reply.
"Alright then, it's 'bout time for me to be headin' back," he said groggily. Had Rainbow not wanted his help studying, he'd have very well been asleep on her couch.
Mac stood up and stretched his powerful legs before trotting over to Dash. He nuzzled her gently and kissed her goodnight.
"You'll do great tomorrow, Ah just know it," he whispered.
"Yeah, listen..." she began, gently pulling away from her stallion to look him in the eyes. "Do you think you could... uhm... hang around tonight?"
Mac could read the look in her eyes; what kind of significant other would he be if he couldn't? It asked him to stay with her, but really, it was as though she was begging wordlessly. He knew this mare, and knew she would never beg for anything. Not admittedly, anyway.
Whatever the reason, Mac felt happy to know that he was wanted for more than what was on the outside. "Well, Ah suppose Ah could have another night in that cloud bed of yours." He grinned.
Rainbow returned his smile, though with a touch more blush. She exhaled softly and said, "Good."
He followed her to the same messy, cloud covered mass with blankets strewn about over it. Mac climbed in first, and Rainbow hovered over him, slowly descending and taking her place beside him. He drew the blankets over them and settled in for the night. He knew Rainbow would be up about the time he woke to do his chores on the farm. He figured Applejack wouldn't mind him being a few minutes late.
After getting comfortable, Rainbow and Mac settled in to their claimed bedroom identities: the little spoon and the big spoon, respectively.
This night was chillier than most, denoted by Mac bringing the foreleg he usually kept tucked around Rainbow beneath the blankets.
"Hey, Mac?" she whispered.
"Hmm?" he mumbled.
"I may have to return the money the Wonderbolts gave me." Rainbow waited tensely for a reaction. A surprised yelp, an annoyed grunt, anything! The suspense was killing her! "Mac!" she snapped with an elbow to his chest.
"What?" he snorted, stirring awake. "What're you talkin' about?"
"Well, my contract was for ten years, not nine years and two months!" she exclaimed. "What if they throw me out for getting knocked up?" she asked bluntly.
Mac sat up on his elbows, looking at his marefriend in the moonlight. "Look, you're not only a Wonderbolt, but an Element of Harmony. Could you imagine the bad press the Wonderbolts would get if they kicked out a pregnant member just for being pregnant?"
Thinking about it from his perspective began to set her mind at ease. Besides, she could still fly now. The Wonderbolts didn't need to know until the foal's safety was at stake, and that was another few months away. "Yeah... I guess I just get a little worked up sometimes," she admitted. More often, she was finding herself saying things to Mac she wouldn't dare say to another pony—not even one of her best friends.
"Ah know, Twilight." Mac teased, immediately making Rainbow snap around to face him.
"Hey! I've never hypnotized all of town over a friendship report!"
"I wouldn't put it past ya," he replied, earning an elbow from Rainbow.
"That's not funny!"
"Listen here, you're gonna be fine," he assured her, "you're gonna fly 'til ya can't anymore, and once the foal's here, you can get back on the team."
Rainbow nodded. Mac had laid out what sounded like the perfect plan, though her mind was still restless. "Yeah, I guess so..."
Trying to push the intrusive thoughts from her mind, she forced her eyes closed and tried to catch some sleep before her first practice.
Until Mac decided he had something to say about it.
"Speakin' of the foal, have ya thought about a name?"
"Nah, not really." Rainbow yawned. "Isn't it a bit early for that?"
"Prior planning prevents poor performance," he quipped. Rainbow rolled over to face the half lidded green eyes that seemed bright, even in the darkness.
"And you just called me Twilight?" she teased.
Mac ignored her question, removing his forelegs from the blanket and wrapping them around Dash's back—careful to avoid her wings. "Seriously, have you?"
Rainbow scrunched her face in thought, trying to come up with a list of possible names. She hadn't considered any since she found out she was pregnant. "Uh... not really."
Mac chuckled, getting an immediate rise out of Rainbow. "And I suppose you have?" she snapped back.
"Well, there's always Macintosh Jr.," he suggested.
Rainbow laughed, to Mac's disappointment.
Maybe the next one... he thought.
"Okay then smarty pants, let's hear one of yours," he whispered kissing Rainbow briefly to stop her laughing.
"Hm... I was thinking... Uhm... Zap!"
Mac raised an eyebrow. "Zap? You want our foal's name to be Zap Apple?"
"Yeah! It has a good ring to it, and if he's gonna be a pegasus, he'll need a fast sounding name!" she insisted.
"Uh huh..." Mac hummed. "And if she ain't a pegasus?"
Rainbow leveled her eyes at him. "Trust me, nothing's coming out of me that doesn't have wings," she said. "But, if it was another type of pony, I wouldn't love it any less or whatever."
Mac wrapped his foreleg around her and settled in for the night. "Don't forget about your doctors appointment day after tomorrow."
"Yeah, how could I forget," she moaned, burying her face into her cloudy pillow. "I just love letting a strange stallion put his ice cold hooves all over me."
"You want me to go with you?" Mac asked, raising up from the pillow.
"Ah..." she began, wondering whether or not Mac's presence would make her more or less comfortable. "If you want to, you can."
Mac could recognize leading statements from a mile away. Living in a house with all females certainly had its positives. He knew the phrase 'if you want to' in actuality, meant 'if you don't come, I'm going to be upset.' Luckily, Mac was as sharp as he was large.
"Ah'll come up there with ya," he whispered. "Ah'll make sure the doctor stays professional," he said teasingly.
Rainbow smiled. "And what if I want the doctor to get unprofessional? After all, it's every mare's dream to marry a doctor," she chuckled.
"Well Ah wouldn't be worried about what Ah'd do," he warned. "Ah'd be worried about what Applejack would do to ya."
Rainbow's eyes widened. "You're right. I guess it's cool if you hang around."
"That's what Ah thought." He grinned, kissing her on the forehead before putting his forelegs back beneath the blankets. "Now, get some sleep. You've got a busy day tomorrow."