Nothing bothered Applejack more than the waiting. In fact, if anypony could match the wet-paper-napkin-delicate patience of her mate, it was her.
For all the sharp, pointy, cold objects that doctors had at their disposal, for all the spooky, torturous instruments and beeper machines and medicine that she gagged on every time she tried to take it, none of that could measure up to just sitting in a starch white room, and doing nothing. Just breathing. Killing time. Wasting daylight. Existing.
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't have bothered her as much. Waiting came naturally in life, and as much as she loathed standing around doing nothing, she had come to enjoy the quiet times on occasion. They felt like rewards for her hard work.
Sitting in a hospital waiting room, however, didn't qualify as any kind of reward. Applejack didn't even like to play doctor.
And it had happened on her own birthday of all days too. Applejack had always hated the medical profession, and she had found herself even less enthused than usual because of that simple reason. Typically, Rainbow could at least say or do something stupid for her and she could in turn put the pegasus in her place to help pass the time.
But her wife had picked up a magazine and had begun leafing through it like it was the most normal thing in the world.
For some reason, it lit a burning anger within the farmgirl. If she was nervous, then that gave everypony else a reason to be, as far as she was concerned.
"What the hay could you possibly be readin' at a time like this?" she found herself scolding her wife.
Rainbow looked up from her fashion magazine and blinked. She adopted that annoying grin of hers and turned the magazine to show off the "article" that had caught her attention. Or the centerfold in that case.
Applejack took one brief look at the mare and her sultry saddle before firmly punching Rainbow's side.
"Ouch," Rainbow deadpanned through a chuckle. She tossed the magazine down to the table in front of her and turned to face her mate. "So, what 'time' is this?"
"What?"
"You said 'at a time like this'. What time is it?"
Applejack fumed and turned away with a snort.
"Nothin'. Forget I said anything."
She felt a powerful but soft blue wing wrap around her opposite side and pull her in against her, where the smell of rainwater and spring soothed the nerve-frying irritation she had felt.
"You scared?"
She couldn't help but detect a hint of playfulness in her mate's voice.
"No!" she snapped a bit more harshly than she meant, drawing the eyes of several other patients.
Rainbow was unfazed.
"Oh come on, AJ. Lots of ponies are afraid of the doctor. Foals, wimps, crybabies..."
Applejack growled angrily and wriggled free of the other mare's wing as she burst out into a fit of giggles.
"I ain't afraid of the doctor none, okay? It's his cold hooves and needles I don't much care for..."
Rainbow reached over and clapped her hoof on her back a couple times.
"Eh, I bet he probably won't even do anything. He'll probably just give you a pill and send us home so we can get down to your birthday party."
Applejack didn't seem convinced by her lover's reassurance, and seemed even more skeptical when the nurse called her name.
After the standard weight, blood pressure and temperature readings, the only thing Applejack had left to dread was the doctor coming in and doing whatever it was doctors did. That, and more waiting.
She swore she spent more time sitting there than in the actual waiting room itself. The examination room smelled of rubbing alcohol and cleaning solutions that made her more nauseous than she already had been. She did all the best she could do to take her mind off things, and paced about the room nervously. Still, the walls felt as though they were closing in.
It felt like an hour when the doctor opened the door, even though the clock said only ten minutes had passed.
"Well, howdy there!"
The unicorn physician's accent hurt rather than helped Applejack's immediate opinion of him.
He levitated a pair of glasses out of his pocket and perched them atop his muzzle. His eyes skimmed over a clipboard that hovered closer.
"Applejack, hm? Well, it's certainly been awhile since we've seen head or tail of ya! And yer vitals are lookin' healthy." He peered over the rims. "So what is it I can do for ya?"
Applejack would have told him nothing just to be able to escape the suffocating environment. The room had grown more claustrophobic with the addition of yet another pony.
Before she could answer however, Rainbow Dash spoke for her.
"She's been having stomach problems lately."
The doctor looked from Applejack to her wife, and acknowledged her with a nod. "I see. Has anypony else in the household been ill in the past few weeks?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Nope."
"Been exposed to anypony who has been?"
Applejack blinked and pouted, shaking her head.
"Anything taste off or unusual?"
"Not that I could tell. Granny Smith's food doesn't always look the best but it's never made me sick before."
Applejack interjected sharply. "Granny never feeds bad food to nopony! It weren't nothin' I ate. I just... ain't been feelin' good. It'll go away..."
The doctor looked her over and stepped forward, hovering a stethoscope to his ears and pressing the end to her chest. She shuddered against the cold sensation and tried to keep still as he levitated it down along her stomach.
"Had any other unusual symptoms?" he asked, telekinetically tapping his pen against his cheek.
Applejack paused and cleared her throat timidly.
"Umm, well... I ain't had my..." She glimpsed towards Rainbow, waiting to hear what she had to say, and waved the doctor closer and whispered in his ear.
"Hmm..." He widened his eyes and looked at her again. "Interestin'." His gaze traveled over towards Rainbow Dash waiting with bated breath.
"What's wrong, doc? It's not serious, is it?"
The doctor turned back to Applejack. "Well, these symptoms're a clue, but I wanna confirm my suspicions first." He levitated a clipboard and scribbled something on it, then opened the door. "Nurse? Couldja let Ultrasound know that Ms. Apple-Dash'll be droppin' by?"
***
Applejack had never heard of sonograms before, but she was pretty sure the goop they spread across her stomach to do it with had become her new least-favorite thing about visiting the doctor's office. It felt cold on her thin coat and melted all over her. She didn't appreciate being told to lay so still either, or being told when to hold her breath.
Rainbow hovered nearby and peered over the shoulder of the nurse doing the test. She narrowed her eyes at the screen and twisted her head.
"Looks like a bunch of mush to me. What're you looking for anyway?"
Nurse what's-her-Heart levitated the firm and uncomfortable device across Applejack's belly. It felt like she was probing at her belly with a gigantic plastic spoon handle.
"I'll know when I see it. The doctor will have to make the final call on what it is," she said. Her free hoof tapped across a few buttons and the fancy machine chirped a couple times.
The nurse moved the cursor around a bit and dragged the annoying device across the prone farmpony's stomach.
"Rainbow, would ya quiet down? The quicker she's done, the quicker I can get outta here..."
The pegasus smirked. "Hey, could you do one of her head too and find out why she's been such a crab lately?"
Applejack's glares would probably scorch steel if she focused her attention on it long enough.
"Oh keep talkin', sugarcube. I just ain't decided whether I'm gonna take away yer cider privileges or make ya sleep on the couch fer a week."
Rainbow laughed. "See? Grumpy!"
The nurse smirked but wisely kept herself out of the lovers' squabble. She levitated more of the jelly over and squirted some more of it onto Applejack's stomach before traveling up a bit further.
Suddenly, her wand came to an abrupt stop.
"Hmmm... well that certainly appears to be something," she murmured. She raised her glasses a bit, squinting at the screen, and smiled. She skillfully skittered her hoof across the console again, unleashing a series of indeterminate beeps and chirps once again.
Rainbow bolted to her side.
"What? What is it? Show me!"
Applejack sat up from the bed and started to lean forward and catch a look at the screen, but the nurse had removed the wand from her stomach, and whatever image it had been faded.
"Give it to us straight, doc! How long does she have?!" Rainbow asked melodramatically as she clutched the farmpony against her.
Applejack gave the pegasus a grave look. "'Bout however long it takes me ta dig a grave big enough fer that head of yers. Might take me the rest of my life."
The nurse chuckled at the pair's banter, and unplugged something from the machine.
"You two stay put and I'll go get this to the doctor. We'll let him decide what he thinks it is first."
Silence settled over the couple as the nurse left the room. Rainbow scratched her mane awkwardly and looked over to her wife laying on the table as she wiped a towel across her gel-soiled coat.
"So..." Rainbow said, coming to rest on the table. "Pretty sure it's nothing."
Applejack felt the weight of Rainbow trying to comfort her hit her like a runaway cider barrel. It occurred to her that if she hadn't said anything, she never would have even thought to worry. Because Rainbow Dash was, however, it gave her reason to.
"Y-yeah... nothin'."
She rested her head on the cold hard surface beneath her.
Rainbow, not one to be ignored, nudged her muzzle beneath Applejack's chin. She fluffed her wing, and gave it up to her mate as pillow to rest against. Applejack accepted the offered appendage wordlessly.
"I mean... it's not like she sounded worried or anything."
"They never do..." Applejack answered and nuzzled closer, burying her face into the mound of feathers to be alone with her thoughts.
Not one to be lame either, Rainbow kept quiet, and curled around to rest her chin atop Applejack's chest.
The room had no clock, so neither mare had any real way to tell just how much time had passed before the doctor came into the room, flipping on the lights overhead and smiling to the curled up pair on the bed.
"Don't bother sittin' up," he said. "You'll probably just fall back over again."
Neither Applejack nor her mate knew what to make of the doctor's words, and gave each other an unsettled expression. Their eyes tracked back to him and she swallowed her nervousness for a time.
"So... is it good news or bad news?" she asked hesitantly.
"Well, that depends..."
He took something out of a folder he had been carrying with his magic aura and levitated a print-out of the sonogram down in front of the farmpony. A small shape in the middle was circled for attention.
The pair looked up at the doctor curiously.
"Just how do you feel about bein' seven weeks pregnant?"
The stunned silence that followed was palpable.