//------------------------------// // Shop 'til it Drops (part 1) // Story: The Sunshine Chronicles // by TwilightUCrazy //------------------------------// “Ain’t you ready yet?” Rainbow’s brow twitched as she stared into the mirror. “Yeah, yeah, gimme a minute.” “I swear, it’s always some dang thing with ya…” She ignored the farmpony standing outside the bathroom door and swept her wing through her mane once again. All the hairs settled to the left side of her head. “Nope,” she said, scowling at her reflection. “C’mon, Rainbow! Yer takin’ longer to get ready than Rarity does!” “Am not!” She leaned her head forward and nodded up and down rapidly. Her mane settled straight, favoring the right side a bit. She flicked her tail out to ruffle it a bit, and smirked. “There!” Her eyes met Applejack’s annoyed gaze as she opened the door. “Y’know, you could just run around the house a couple times.” “Oh, get real! If I’m gonna be dragged to Canterlot for a shopping trip, I’ve gotta have the ‘max-awesome’ look – and awesomeness takes time, babe!” “You better have ‘max-horsepower’ too if’n we wanna catch the train! It leaves in half-an-hour!” “Cool your jets, AJ. We’ve got plenty of time!” “Only if ya get yer flank in gear and start beatin' dirt!” The two bolted out of the house after grabbing snacks for the trip and their respective bit purses, and scorched earth up the path towards Ponyville. They made a race of it like they did with everything else in their lives, jockeying for first place, leaping over carts and bystanders. To any passersby, nothing was different from the norm. Only those with sharp eyes and who particularly knew the duo well could recognize that Applejack had begun lagging behind, and her pelt color was a bit paler than normal. If anypony took notice, they said nothing. Rainbow Dash bolted to the ticket counter and slid to a stylish stop, kicking up dust at her hooves. “Made it! A winner is me!” She looked over her withers to find Applejack just trotting breathlessly up the steps a few pony lengths behind her. She couldn’t remember a time where she had ever beaten her wife so handily at anything. It was… disconcerting. She turned back to the ticket window and placed a hoofful of bits on the counter. “Two for the morning Canterlot Express.” Rainbow turned back to her wife and frowned, receiving her with a hug around the neck. “You okay?” Applejack panted. “Fine…” she replied, fanning herself with her hat. “Don’t know where all my energy went all of a sudden, though.” She fidgeted. “Probably ‘cause you were up all morning doing chores and I wasn’t. That’s all,” she said encouragingly. She knew she was lying. “Yeah,” the farmpony smirked, her breathing evening out. “That’s probably it…” Rainbow led them to the train platform and took a seat on one of the benches, patting the spot next to her. Applejack looked around to be sure they were alone, and snuggled up under her partner’s wing. Neither said anything. The pegasus couldn’t tell if it was a comfortable silence, or one where they were each was just waiting for the other to say something first. It was hard, however, to believe the latter when her mate looked so content cuddled against her. Smiling, Rainbow glimpsed around to be sure they were still alone, then nuzzled the earth pony’s muzzle. “Kid’s taking a lot out of us. We were never this busy a week ago.” “Mmmm…” Applejack purred pleasantly. She smiled and brushed her wing along her mate’s back, eliciting further noises of appreciation. A glimpse at the clock showed the time to be 9:47. Not long until the train arrived. She turned back to her wife and gave her a soft kiss. “You realize this is the first chance we’ve gotten to relax together since we found out you were preggers?” “Mmm-hmm…” Applejack moaned tiredly, nuzzling into her soft coat. Rainbow Dash chuckled and encircled her wife with her forehooves. “I’ll shut up now.” “Mmmm…” Comfortable silence it was. At least, it was for a minute… With a sharp, sudden gasp, Rainbow Dash inhaled half the air in a twelve block radius, and grabbed Applejack before darting down on the protective side of the bench. “Hey—!” The pegasus shoved a hoof up against the earth pony’s lips to silence her surprised protest. “Shhh! Keep it down!” she demanded in a whisper. Applejack’s bright green eyes blinked. Rainbow leaned in closer. “Intruders at six o’clock!” The earth pony pushed her hoof from her lips. “Waitaminute. Yer six o’clock or mine?” “Mine! Duh!” Applejack began to sit up. “Don’t look!” Rainbow Dash whispered shrilly, squeezing her tightly against her. “Well, who is it?” “It’s Twilight and the other girls!” Green eyes distant with onset of confusion, her mate scratched her freckled cheek. “Wait, I don’t get it. Why’re we panickin’? They know we’re together.” Twilight and their closest friends had been the only ponies to know of her and Applejack’s relationship since the beginning. A few other mare couples had picked up on it and kept it hush-hush to that point. That, however, wasn’t what worried the pegasus. “We’re supposed to be panicking ‘cause Pinkie Pie’s gonna wanna know what we’re doing at the train station waiting for the Canterlot Express on a Saturday morning!” Applejack blinked. “Then there’ll be questions… lots and lots of questions.” “Yeah, I can see how that might get bad…” “There’s a bench over here, girls!” Rainbow heard Twilight’s hoofsteps approaching. The ‘fwomp’ of a bag landing just behind her head and the contented sigh froze her like a statue. Rainbow held a hoof to her lips and shushed her. Applejack nodded, eyes nervous and shifty. “I can’t believe how beautiful it is!” she heard Rarity complimented. The swish in the air gave her a vision of the fashionista fanning herself. “I can hardly believe it’s so early in the spring!” “Maybe we should have invited Applejack and Rainbow Dash along. They like good weather more than anypony,” she heard Fluttershy say. “Oh, I don’t think that would have worked out, girls.” “Why not?” Pinkie’s excitable voice said. “It’s not like there’s a lot of applebucking to do yet! And we hardly ever get to see them anymore!” “Indeed. Every since those two traded vows, they’ve become rarer than a vein of baby blue sapphires.” “I’ve been meaning to make my way over there to give Winona her checkup, but Angel’s been rather demanding lately.” “And I don’t have anypony to go pranking with anymore!” A balloon deflated somewhere. “It’s no fun when you don’t have anypony to laugh with.” “I would have invited them. It’s just that, the last time I went over to Sweet Apple Acres on the weekend, those two were up to things that would have probably involved a public indecency charge.” Applejack’s mortified face lit up like an apple and she buried herself in Rainbow’s chest. “Darling! You... you caught them?” “Oh… my…” “Heeheeheeheehee!” “Yeah, yeah. I caught them. They were just as humiliated as I was, though. And it’s not like I saw too much.” “I should certainly hope not! Walking in on a pair of lovers like that…” Rarity’s voice paused ominously. “It does make me wonder, however, what you did see.” “Rarity! Shame on you! Like I would ever share the details of such a thing!” Applejack softly breathed in relief. “I mean, it’s not like I got a good look before I left or anything. It was just Rainbow Dash on top of Applejack, really…” Rainbow smugly grinned and nodded. Sure as hay was. Her wife scowled and shoved her hoof roughly against her chest. She noticed the reason. The conversation her friends were having had an unfortunate reaction on her wings. Rainbow clenched her eyes shut and tried to envision colts, bloody murder, Granny Smith in a bikini – anything to keep the problem from getting worse. “Oh! Here comes the train!” Pinkie said. “Goodness. I’m glad we made it on time.” The four friends stood up and hoofed it over to the platform edge as the express screeched to a stop. Rainbow Dash sighed quietly. “Now what the hay do we do?!” Applejack whispered. “Uhhh… get on at the other end of the train?” she asked, beads of sweat speckling her brow. “Are you nuts?! They’re gonna see us if we move!” “Well if we don’t move, we miss the train!” “We’ll just go another time then!” Rainbow frowned. “Buck that! I already paid for the tickets! This is our train; we’re going!” Applejack squirmed. “Boarding call for the Canterlot Express! Please have your tickets ready!” The pegasus cast her eyes around frantically and tapped her hoof against her chin. She spied a conductor’s uniform wrapped in plastic laying across a pile of luggage. “AJ, how do you feel about being a pain in my butt?” “Huh?” *** “Guh,” she heard Applejack say beneath the long conductor trench coat. “I don’t think whoever owns this thing bathes regularly.” “Shhhh! We’re almost there!” she whispered harshly, pushing past short lines of ponies showing up for the train. A young filly gawked at the pair as they trudged past. “Mommy? What’s wrong with that pony?” The mother grabbed her child around the head. “Don’t look at it, sweetie.” Rainbow grimaced. Okay, so it hadn’t been a perfect plan, but Twilight and the others standing towards the front of the train hadn’t thrown so much as a glance their direction. With Applejack’s forelegs up on her flank, it was hard to tell, other than from the lump behind her, that there was a second pony up the coat from a distance. The conductor held out his hoof to the duo as they approached. “Ticket… uh… tickets… please,” he said, blinking at the spectacle. Rainbow rummaged around for the tickets in the coat pocket. “I-I’m sorry, Miss, but… what is…?” She flashed him one look. “Uhh… b-butt cancer?” Applejack whacked her on the rump under the coat. “O-oh, I’m so sorry,” he said flatly, eyelid twitching. She shoved both tickets into his hoof, receiving an odd look in turn. His experience told him that most ponies trying to sneak on a train would try to sneak on with one ticket only. He shrugged and Rainbow hastily claimed the stubs before stepping past him, her “tumor” stumbling after her. “Th-thank you?” As soon as they had found a seat nearest the caboose, Rainbow burst out of the hot trench coat and heaved a sigh of relief. “Next time…” her wife said, brushing back her mane and sneering at her, “you get to be the butthead.” “Hey, come on! They didn’t see us, right?” “Don't figure so." Applejack snorted. "I never took Twilight to be blind and clueless.” “Oh, would you relax? Two hours from now, and we’ll be home free. Twilight and the girls’ll never see us in a station as packed as Canterlot Terminal. We just have to stay right here,” she said, patting the seat on the bench next to her. Applejack sighed and softly rubbed her temple before accepting the seat. “Y’know, eventually they’re gonna find out, one way or another.” She softly rubbed her hoof over her stomach. “It ain’t exactly gonna be hard to guess why I’m gettin’ so fat eventually.” Rainbow sighed and lowered her head, wrapping a wing around her mate. “Yeah… I know.” She gave her wife a look. “I’d just rather not jump right into it with them, y’know?” Tilting her head softly, Applejack leaned against the pegasus’s shoulder. “Why’s that, darlin’?” “Well, Rarity’s a gossip queen for one. I don’t know how much I trust her to keep it to herself. And even if she does, the maternity crap she’ll start making for you is gonna tip somepony off eventually.” She blinked. “And then you’ve got evil genius-Twilight. I don’t know how much I’d appreciate her poking at your gut with magicky-sciencey stuff.” The thought of Twilight nudging her belly with some kind of magic rod-thingy obviously didn't sit well with the earth pony. She shivered. "Thanks for makin' yer point..." "And don't forget Pinkie. We'd never get a moment's rest again until we told her she could be our foalsitter. And then there would be party ideas and cakes with the number of days left until the birthday and visiting all the time to feel your stomach and ask if she missed anything..." "Uh-huh..." “And if somepony with a clue ever corners Fluttershy, our secret’s as good as out.” "Okay! Okay! I get it..." Applejack sighed and rubbed her forehead. "We'll just lay low 'til we lose 'em." Oh, sure. It sounded that simple.