"So, which one is that again?" Officer John Capelli asked.
"Applebloom," Relena answered simply.
"I thought that was the one with the cowboy hat, and the three apples tramp-stamp." John answered, confused.
"No, that's Applejack. Applebloom is her little sister," Relena clarified, giving John a glare. "And it's called a Cutie Mark."
John kept his face straight as long as he could before cracking a smile, and earning an eye roll in return. "You want a soda?" he asked as he took a quick trip to the fridge to help himself to a beer. Honestly, though, after 10 hours of nonstop pony cartoons, he was having trouble keeping all the Technicolor equines straight.
A knock on the back door interrupted his thoughts, and despite everything he did a bit of a double-take when he realized it was coming from a green pegasus, as a young boy hopped off her back. "Friends of yours?" he asked the girl on the couch, before moving to let them in.
"Yeah, Robert and Thunder Peal. Don't tell me you can't keep their names straight either?" Relena asked, before smiling at her company. "Glad you two could make it on such short notice."
"Who's up for anything other than cartoons?" John asked, hopefully.
"How about five card stud?" Thunder Peal suggested.
"I don't know if I can play poker with a bunch of minors with a straight face," John objected.
"It's not My Little Pony, and if you can't keep a straight face maybe that will help you bluff," Robert offered.
Relena, for her part, simply turned off the TV, cleared the table and dug out the poker set she had inherited from her late father. "I prefer Texas Hold 'Em, personally, but we'll go with the guest's choice tonight."
"I think you might just be the best daughter ever," John said with a chuckle. He spent a minute calling in an order for pizza before settling down and shuffling up the cards to deal.
"Speaking of which, how's the paperwork going on that?" Robert asked, as he settled in himself, by Thunder Peal's side.
"We have a meeting with the judge on Monday, and if all goes well the adoption should be finalized by the end of the week. What about you two?" John inquired.
"Ugh, it's turning into this whole political thing, with everyone wanting to pass the buck on up the chain. At this point, it's seeming likely we'll have to get a Presidential executive order, a law from Congress or a Supreme Court ruling before we can get married. At least here in the US. Princess Cadance was able to do a quick ceremony over the internet and call it good as far as Equestria is concerned," Robert said. "On the plus side, maybe we'll be able to get it settled whether humans and ponies can marry by the time we're 'old' enough that that's the only obstacle."
"Politicians..." John said with a shake of his head.
"Enough of that. Deal 'em up," Thunder Peal said, clopping a hoof on the table.
Lying down with her marefriend had proven surprisingly comfy. Surprising because the earth pony was unaccustomed to lounging on tree branches, and the brief moment of acrophobia, driven more by doubting the limb's ability to hold them than the height of the drop, per se, had mercifully faded quickly. Now Applejack lay on her back in what had previously been Rainbow Dash's favorite napping spot. Her new favorite napping spot was slightly above that, namely, laying atop AJ, here in the tree.
Concerns about the limb snapping had thus far proven unfounded, even when they had dared to get a little amorous, but now Applejack was slowly growing a new concern. The sun had managed to drift an awful long way across the sky. She couldn't see it... Rainbow's beautiful main was, for the moment, obscured by AJ's own stetson, which shaded both mares from the bright light. But the shadow of the hat had drifted noticeably along RD's multihued mane, the shades serving as markers in a makeshift sundial.
There was so much work to do. There was always so much work to do. It was the nature of farming. If farmers ever managed to actually have time to spare, they were apt to plant more trees or vegetables or something, solving the problem with more good ole' hard work. Maybe there was something to be said for her marefriend's way of doing things. Sure, a bit more work would mean a bit more produce which would mean a few more bits in the end, but if they never relaxed and enjoyed life, what good were those bits, really?
"One more color," Applejack finally mumbled, lazily.
"Mmm?" Rainbow inquired, stirred only barely from her slumber. She looked down at the mare beneath her, blinking in confusion, then turned just enough to catch sight of the sun's light coming up her mane just to the junction of blue and green. There were a few calm minutes before her slowly recovering mind processed the implications before she tensed up. "I better hurry then!"
Before Applejack could question what she was going to hurry doing, she was met with a sudden, fierce kiss. The activities that followed renewed the earth pony's fear that the bough would break beneath them, but that fear just lent an air of excitement to it all, that merely energized their shared passion.
When they were finished, they were both ready for another nap, but Applejack knew some of her chores simply couldn't wait, and at this point would require Rainbow's assistance. She reclaimed her stetson, finally clearing her view of the sky. It gave her pause, furrowing her brow as she looked to the distance.
"What's wrong? One of the Skies mess up their patter-" Rainbow cut off as she followed her lover's gaze, frowning herself.
The color distortion in the sky where the low magic zone surrounded Canterlot was quite unmistakable, but it was suddenly no longer unique. Worse yet, this new low magic zone had a massive blanket of wild rain clouds, which even now were spreading out uncontrolled, visible even from what must be a few dozen miles away at least.
"Go," Applejack said quietly but firmly. And with a silent nod, the orange mare was left with naught but a multicolored contrail, blazing a path toward the new disaster.
In retrospect, perhaps her marefriend could have spared a moment to help her down first.