Rainbow slipped to the door of the train car and peered out into the busy station. The Canterlot Terminal was the busiest mainline platform in the entire country. Peasant ponies, to the rich, diplomats, and even royalty on occasion used the station for entries and departures. As such, there were a lot guards posted throughout, and that was in addition to the routine traffic.
The doors hissed open as the conductor passed by, unlocking the cars as he went. “Canterlot Station! All passengers for Canterlot Station!”
Rainbow narrowed her eyes and looked around for any signs of familiar faces in the crowd. Her sharp eyes picked up nothing, and she slipped out onto the platform.
She crouched low and snuck forward.
“Dun. Dun. Dun DUN dun. Dun-YAUGH!”
A sharp yank on her tail brought her back several steps.
Applejack spat out her tail and scowled at her. “Ya mind not doin’ that? We’re tryin’ to blend in here, not play Secret Agent Mare.”
Pouting her lower lip, Rainbow sagged and trundled along normally. “Why do you always have to kill my buzz, AJ?”
“‘Cause yer a rowdy drunk. Now move yer limp rump and keep an eye out fer Twilight and the others.”
The pegasus blew a lock of her mane out of her face and huffed. “My way would’ve worked.”
“Sure it woulda. Now move.”
The pair navigated the heavy throng of ponies. Rainbow’s magenta eyes were sharp as a hawk’s and could spot the first changing leaf of autumn from a mile up. Keeping their heads low, they managed to wind through the stinking, sweaty crowd and out onto Mane Street.
The two double-timed it up the twisting boulevard, past glass-front shops, five-star restaurants and hotels. A quick turn onto the Boulevard of the Amareicas, and the Market Royale came into view.
Both mares’ jaws dropped.
Letting the sight sink in didn’t make it any less amazing. The marketplace of Ponyville wouldn’t have even qualified as a newsstand by comparison to the Canterlot Mall. Gleaming white storefronts of marble and violetstone lined the street as far as the eye could see; and that was only the first street. There were at least three other roads packed with shops that were even bigger. Cabs lined the street, and foals and adults alike ran every which way, albeit at a more dignified pace than Manehattanites.
“Holy turd moles…” Rainbow gaped.
“I hear that.”
“How the hay are we supposed to find a store that sells baby furniture in all this crap?”
“Hay if I know. Twilight said ‘er parents used to take ‘er shoppin’ here all the time. I just figured it’d be a regular ‘ol mall like they had in Manehattan.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, AJ, but, these stores look a little above my pay grade.” Rainbow scratched the back of her head. “I’m seein’ a lot of ponies in suits and dresses here. This doesn’t look anything like the shops back in Ponyville.”
Applejack rubbed her cheek. “Now I’m kinda wishin’ Twilight was here.”
Rainbow sighed. “You didn’t think to ask her anything about a map or any areas we should look for or something?”
“I did, but she started goin’ off about the history of how the style of the buildings could be ‘traced back to personal stylistic preferences of Princess Platinum’, and then I kinda just tuned ‘er out…”
“Great…”
For what it was worth, the cobblestone streets were immaculate, and judging from all the lesser-dressed ponies dusting the sidewalks, it was easy to see why.
“Well,” she said, shrugging her wings open, “I guess I can always do a flyover and get a sense of where everything is.”
Applejack’s ears pulled back. “I ain't sure that’s a good idea, sugarcube.” She cast her green eyes to the sky. “I ain’t exactly seen many pegasus ponies flyin’ around since we got here.”
“Well, duh!” Rainbow smirked, rolling her eyes. “This is a city full of unicorns! There aren’t any pegasus ponies around to make the sky a more awesome place.”
Applejack shuffled her hooves nervously. “I don’t know about that, darlin'.”
“Trust me. We’ll find what we’re looking for and be outta here in half the time! You just stay here and look pretty. I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
Rainbow began towards the skies, streaking up past windows and towards the low-hanging clouds when a buff, armored pegasus darted into her flight path.
“HALT!” he demanded in a deep voice.
She screeched to a stop just above the rooftops, nearly barreling straight into him.
Rainbow’s brow furrowed angrily. “Hey, buddy! Watch it! I’m flyin’ here!”
“You’re in a no-fly zone, citizen!” he replied, narrowing his eyes.
The pegasus’s magenta eyes widened. “Huh?”
“The law states that no pegasus ponies in the vicinity of Canterlot may fly above rooftop level. You’re breaching standard city security protocols.”
Rainbow Dash’s head spun from the sudden declaration. “City securi—What the hay are you talking about?! I just want to go find a furniture store for me and my wife to shop at!”
“Be that as it may, citizen, I’m going to have to ask you to lower your altitude and remain below rooftop level.”
Logic was never a prevailing force in the pegasus’s mind. Anger, however…
“What the heck kind of stupid rule is that, anyway?! How’s that supposed to improve security?!”
“I’m going to ask you to lower your voice.”
His stately and professional demeanor served only to irk the pegasus further, and her forehead twitched from the building levels of frustration.
“Yeah, I’ll lower my voice when you guys take the royal stick out of your—”
“R-Rainbow?” she heard a nervous voice utter from below.
She ignored it and pressed her muzzle against the guard’s. “No, y’know what? This is dumb! I’m a pegasus pony! I’ve got wings! And I’m a Wonderbolt Reservist, too! I should be able to fly wherever the hay I wanna fly!”
“Not within the Canterlot city limits, ma’am,” his voice deepening threateningly. His icy blue eyes narrowed. “Now I’m going to ask you again to lower your altitude to acceptable levels.”
She didn’t notice three other guardsponies twitching their wings agitatedly on the rooftops nearby.
Even if she had, it wouldn’t have cooled her temper.
“Look here, guy! I’m the pony that did that Sonic Rainboom at the closing ceremony for Princess Cadence’s wedding, and I flew a heckuva lot higher than the rooftops! I’m a personal friend of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for pony’s sake!”
“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are personal friends of everypony, ma’am.” His eyes narrowed to slits. “And if you continue to insist on this course of action, I’ll be forced to detain you, pending an investigation.”
The three other guardsponies took wing and surrounded her. It did little to intimidate her, and if anything only set the fire in Rainbow Dash’s gut to burn all the hotter.
“How ‘bout I let your nose investigate the painful side of my hoof you—”
“Rainbow Dash?” she heard a soft and demure but urgent voice call to her from below. It carried a familiar accent, but with a bit less firmness than usual.
She looked down to see Applejack smiling nervously up at her.
“Please don’t make the nice guardpony’s job even harder than I’m sure it already is.”
The pegasus paused, finally noticing the other three guards glaring at her, hooves threateningly-close to the spears they each carried. All of them were huge, probably twice her size in muscle mass alone, and the way their wings bulged with muscle probably meant that they weren’t slouches when it came to flying either.
And for that one moment in her life, Rainbow Dash understood what the word “humility” meant.
She turned back to the other guardpony who started the ordeal and narrowed her eyes. Pressing her snout against his and poking his armored chest for emphasis, she snorted, “You’re lucky she puts me in a good mood, bucko. Otherwise I’d go right to the Princess and tell her what a creep you are.”
The guard seemed unmoved by her words, but seemed to sense the incident was over. The intensity of his glare subsided somewhat; though he still eyed her with a frigid stare.
With her will to carry on the confrontation gone, Rainbow Dash fluttered back to the ground with a frustrated huff.
“Jerk,” she snorted.
Applejack heaved a heavy sigh. From the corner of her eye, she saw the four guards return to their posts on the rooftops.
“Are you crazy?!” her wife snapped angrily as she stomped up to her. “Those guards coulda thrown you in the dungeon, Rainbow!”
Rainbow Dash was about to snap back, but was interrupted by a pair of trembling hooves wrapping around her neck.
“Don’t you ever do somethin’ stupid like that again!”
The fire in Rainbow’s belly smoldered and sizzled out, and she rolled her eyes coolly, throwing a hoof around her wife. “Yeah, well, I guess all these lame-o unicorns wouldn’t have anything awesome to stare at if I just flew by all day.”
Applejack snorted a relieved chuckle and walloped her on her side.
Rubbing the sore spot, Rainbow frowned. “Now what do we do? Ask one of these rich snobs where everything is in this stupid city?”
“That’d be a lot better than makin’ angry-eyes at a Royal Guard. But I was figurin’ we could just take a cab,” the farmpony said, motioning towards a yellow-and-black checkered wagon attached to a burly stallion.
Rainbow Dash made a face. “Seriously? A cab?”
“Better than talkin’ to a bunch of snobby unicorns, ain’t it?”
With no argument to make to counter that logic, the pegasus shrugged and harrumphed to the ground, crossing her front legs. She cast an angry glimpse to the sky, and saw the same four pegasi staring back at her with suspicion in their gazes.
Applejack trotted to the curb and held up a hoof. “Taxi!”
A stallion, eager for a payout, trotted hastily up to the pair.
“Afternoon, ma’am! Where can I take ya?”
Applejack grabbed Rainbow by the tail and gave her a soft tug to spur her into motion, and the pegasus growled, hopping up into the cart. Applejack followed suit.
“Would ya happen to know where a nice—”
“Reasonably-priced!” Rainbow quickly interrupted.
Applejack scowled at her and cleared her throat, smiling sheepishly to the cab driver. “—reasonably-priced furniture store might be in the area?”
The cab pony quirked an eyebrow at them and smirked. “You two’re from outta town, ain’tcha?”
The couple blinked and shifted nervously as he took off in a northerly direction and hung a left.
"AJ?" she whispered.
"Yeah?"
"On three, we jump out and run the other way."
"I'm with ya."
"Yes sirree, ma'am! I know this perfect little furniture store right on the other side of town! Perfect place for all your shopping needs! Reasonable prices galore and in a nice neighborhoo- uhh, well it's on the other side of town and good prices!"
Rainbow blinked and turned to her mate.
"Onetwothree," Applejack said.
The pair leapt out of the moving cart and bolted in the opposite direction. Neither looked back nor cared whether the cab pony noticed their disappearance.