//------------------------------// // ACT ONE: The Foaling // Story: The Sunshine Chronicles // by TwilightUCrazy //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash. A professional sleeper if there ever was one. It had always taken quite a lot to shake her out of her slumber, and usually nothing short of a small parade or a clap of thunder could pull it off. The impregnability of her dreams had been the stuff of legends in flight school and around Ponyville alike. Over the past couple months, however, she had found it more difficult to sleep alone. Something about having a warm body laying against her had spoiled the pleasant sensation of napping in trees or on clouds alone. To be comfortable, she needed a body pillow, and if that body pillow happened to be a certain somepony, so be it. Otherwise, she became restless as a rabbit and twice as easy to disturb. So it hadn't so much been the sound of the creaking house that woke her as much as her missing mate. Magenta eyes glinted against the silvery moonlight filtering in through the thin curtains as Rainbow peered out from under the heavy, warm blanket of sleep and yawned. Dizzily, she peered over to the clock and the ungodly hour it marked. The familiar scent of apples had vanished, not to mention the silky soft coat she had grown to adore. Her face melted into a scowl and she reached over with her hoof to turn up the lantern on the bedside table. A second sound got her attention, and compelled her to stand. It had a peculiar abruptness to it. Judging from the angle and distance it had come from downstairs. Rainbow trod gently out of her room and dodged the creaky spots on the stairs she had grown familiar with to avoid disturbing anypony else in the household. Little felt out of order on the ground floor except for the front door standing wide open. Rainbow crossed the room slowly with a wary eye, peering through shadows for intruders and glancing around to make sure all items of value were still in their rightful place. She leaned out the door and gazed into the cool night. The moon made a magical shifting garden of shadows out of the Acres, and the gentle rustle of the midnight breeze whispered comfortingly across the peaceful nightscape. Starlight glimmered off the grass freshly glazed by dewdrops, and lent a mystical quality to the ghostly mists rolling off the hills. It took a moment for Rainbow's eyes to finish adjusting to Luna's demesne, but she found her missing wife just out the door and off the porch. She had settled near the side of the house, hunched over a group of bushes. "There's my squeeze!" Rainbow sauntered up to her mate and nudged her cutie mark with her muzzle. "What's the big idea leaving me-" A sudden retch from Applejack and the emptying of her stomach contents on the bush's roots sent her scurrying back a ways. "Ohhh... not feeling good, huh?" Applejack looked over her withers with bloodshot eyes. Her words were laced with bitter sarcasm. "Nah. I just come on out here and spill mah guts in the middle of the night 'cause it's a heap of fun." Rainbow bit her lower lip and made sure to gag the laugh forming in her throat. "Yeah, guess that was a stupid question." Her wife answered her with another gurgle and the always-pleasant sound of vomit hitting the soil. "Granny Smith's veggie soup?" Rainbow hazarded a guess. She smirked and reached forward to stroke her wife's convulsing back. "Eh, stuff probably looks better on the way back up than in if you ask me." Applejack snorted. She heaved again, but came up with little, other than a gag and a cough. Rainbow's hoof massaged in gentle circles as she waited. "Done?" Her wife shuddered and her back legs gave out from the effort. Her breathing had become labored, pained and uneven. Her coat, usually so bright and colorful, seemed dull and sickly from fatigue in the twilight. Her freckles faded a bit into the pallor of her cheeks. Applejack coughed again. "Yeah... I think so..." Rainbow smiled and wrapped a wing over her mate's back and pulled her close to support her. "Then how about we clean you up and get you back to bed?" Applejack nodded in agreement and forced herself under pain of exhaustion to stand again. The shaking of her legs gave her the appearance of being made of matchsticks, like she would blow over in a stiff breeze. She draped a hoof over Rainbow's back, and allowed herself to be guided back up the stairs to the bedroom. Pride would dictate that she could not be carried of course. She held no objection, though, to being given a hoof up into bed. Her wobbly and unsure steps the whole way spoke volumes of just how violently ill she had been. "There. Better?" Rainbow received an uncomfortable grunt as her lover collapsed beneath the covers. Her head met the pillow with a weighted thud. "I'll take that as a, 'Shut up and get me something to gargle.'" Applejack groaned. "Ya read me like a book, sugarcube..." The pegasus smirked and trotted to the bathroom before coming back with a small cup of mouthwash. Applejack spent the better part of a minute sloshing the liquid through her mouth before spitting it back into the mug. After emptying the mug in the sink, Rainbow returned with a wet washcloth in-hoof, and rubbed it over her mate's muzzle roughly. "'Ey. Would ya knock it off?" Applejack grunted. "Oh, clench yer teeth. I'm almost done." Applejack moaned in protest and tried to wriggle away from the damp assault before Rainbow chucked the soiled rag into the hall. "There. Now at least you're kissable." "Oh, shut up..." Rainbow Dash smirked and reached over to the lantern to banish the light once more, before a glint of it caught off a pair of copper eyes peering in from the doorway. The commotion had dislodged the youngest member of the household from her sleep, and Applebloom had come to investigate. The little filly hesitated and peered in on the ruckus. Rainbow's expression softened. "Hey, squirt. What are you doing up?" Applebloom yawned and rubbed her eyes as she stepped into the bedroom. Her anxious gaze met Rainbow's first before she glimpsed around to mare in bed behind her. "I could ask y'all the same question..." Rainbow smiled. "Oh, your sister's not feelin' too hot." She reached over and covered Applejack beneath a pile of blankets. "She and her stomach had a fight, and her stomach won. She'll be okay." The little filly's face twisted in concern. "Applejack's sick? But... Applejack don't hardly ever get sick." A smug grin crossed Rainbow's face. "First time for everything, kid." She reached out and fluffed the little filly's mane. "Nothin' left to see here. I got this. You can get back to bed now." Applebloom regarded her sister with a furrowed brow. Applejack managed to muster a rather meager smile, though even in the lantern's dancing flame, her green eyes had lost much of their usual luminescence. "Scoot," Rainbow insisted, nudging the filly towards the door. "I'll bring everypony up to speed in the morning." Stubbornness obviously ran in the family, and she initially believed she'd have to carry her sister-in-law back to bed and tuck her in herself. A moment later, however, Applebloom conceded and retired to her room up the hall. Smiling for the little filly's obeisance, Rainbow trotted around the pair's bed and climbed in behind her wife. She looked her over for a moment, softly stroking her amber flank with her wing. "But she is right, y'know. I don't remember you getting sick much when we were growing up. And you haven't been eating much the past couple days either. At least, not for you." She crossed her hoof over Applejack's chest and embraced her from behind. "Think we should take you to the doctor tomorrow." Applejack didn't seem to have much to offer in the way of argument. She countered with half a grunt and folded a hoof over her eyes to block out the lantern's light, too tired to protest. "So is that a yes?" No answer. Only her arduous breathing and the distant chirp of crickets pierced the silence between them. "And we'll go tomorrow?" Rainbow could tell from the way she tensed and her brow creased that the thought of being anywhere near doctors didn't make for pleasant thoughts. Thankfully, whatever days of misery she had gone through seemed to weaken her resolve enough that she had resigned herself to its necessity. "Whatever gets that dang light turned off quicker..." Rainbow chuckled. "Good." She reached over her lover's stationary form and turned down the light source to a dim flicker. "'Cause I can't rightly kick your butt in anything if you're only at fifty percent." Her wife lay still and offered no reply. Rainbow smiled and snuggled closely, pressing a gentle kiss to the earth pony's cheek, before draping her hoof and wing around her. "Goodnight, AJ. She glimpsed over to the clock again, then smiled and leaned in to her ear. "Happy birthday, by the way." The farm pony's tension faded in favor of a smile as Rainbow pressed against her back, and the two returned together to sleep's delicate embrace. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... The Sunshine Chronicles written by TwilightUCrazy ACT ONE: The Foaling ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...