The Sunshine Chronicles

by TwilightUCrazy

What Happened to Sleep?

"Rainbow."

"..."

"Rainbow, wake up."

"Zzzz..." Rainbow Dash's chest rose and fell, smacking her lips and grinning in her sleep. "Yeah... I'll have the apple tarts..."

"Rainbow!"

The pegasus bolted upright. "Whatwhatwhat?!"

Applejack stared at the wall and looked to her side, green eyes wide. "What if it's a colt?"

Rainbow reached up and rubbed her sleep-wrinkled face. Her magenta eyes blinked widely, reflecting the moonlight and bedside lantern. Her eyes drifted around the room in a daze.

"A colt?" she asked in confusion, scratching an itch. "What colt?"

"A colt!" the farmpony said, looking at her. "What if our little foal turns out to be a colt?!"

Rainbow blinked at her wife and rolled her eyes. With a loud yawn, she laid down. "Then we'll need to get Big Mac to do the potty-training thing with him I guess..."

"Rainbow, I'm serious!"

"So'm I..." the pegasus muttered, closing her eyes. "I never bothered handling any of that crap before..."

"You ain't kiddin'!"

Rainbow opened her eyes and looked at her mate. "Uhh, actually, yeah, I kinda was."

"I mean, if'n it turns out to be a little boy, how're we supposed to help 'im with... y'know... 'b-boy problems' and such? How're we supposed to be real parents if'n we can't tell 'im from experience?"

Rainbow sighed and rubbed the side of her head. "Pretty sure his uncle wouldn't mind hanging around to help out..."

"But..."

"AJ," the pegasus said, brow twitching, "unless we're on a steady diet of stupid-pills, I'm pretty sure we can figure it all out."

"I dunno..." Applejack leaned back against the headboard, fidgeting on her side of the bed. "I mean... we'd have to have 'the Talk' with 'im eventually and... and what about the kids in the schoolyard?"

Rainbow closed her eyes again, nuzzling back into the alluring embrace of her pillow.

"What about 'em?" she droned.

"Well, what if they started callin' him stuff like 'two-momma's boy' or... or what if he... what if he just winds up hatin' us for not bein' able to be a real daddy to 'im?"

"It's two o'clock in the morning, AJ. Can you at least save the freak-outs for sometime other than when we should be sleeping...?"

She could feel Applejack clutching the sheets against herself.

For a short bit, Rainbow actually believed she was going to make it back to the comfortable clutches of slumber.

"Do you think I'm gonna make a good momma?"

Rainbow's eyes opened, magenta eyes hot and sharp enough to burn coals. "What?"

"I just... I don't know if I'll even know how to be one..."

"Yeah. You'll be great. Now go to sleep..."

"I was just thinkin' how good ma and pa were to me and Big Mac when we were growin' up. Momma'd always come in and lay with me so I wouldn't be a-scared of the dark." A pause. "I used to be scared of the dark somethin' awful, y'know..."

Her ear twitched irritably in regard to the subject. A picture of Applejack's parents hung on the wall above the bed, staring down with happy expressions to a young son and foal. There were no signs of Applebloom in the portrait.

She'd never considered it before – it'd never occurred to her to look too much into family history. There would be conversations... things would come up...

"That'd explain why you're burning my retinas with the lantern..." Rainbow grouched, turning over.

"There was an old bedtime story my momma used to whisper to me way back when to make me feel better..."

I thought the sleep-loss thing was supposed to happen after the kid was born...

"I just wish they'd been around longer... I really woulda liked to learn a little more about bein' a mom..." Applejack probed the covers in circles with her hoof. "I mean... she never raised a hoof to me. Not once. And I can't remember one single time where she ever yelled at me. She was always so nice and pretty... like an angel or somethin'... and I always remembered wantin' to be just like 'er..." She frowned. "Now I can barely remember 'er face without lookin' at an old picture..."

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and sighed, offering no response. Instead, she folded her ears and buried her head beneath a pillow.

"I always used to wonder what kind of mom I'd be," Applejack continued. "Figured I'd try and follow her example. She was so perfect in every way. Never really had to discipline me or Big Mac... it was just the way she'd lookit ya, and ya'd feel horrible about misbehavin'. I always tried so hard to make 'er happy with me... just so she wouldn't never get upset with me." She exhaled. "Guess there was somethin' magic about 'er motherin'. I don't even know if..."

Silence filled the room, except for the faint, muffled sound of snoring.

"Rainbow?"

Her mate replied with more vocal lumber-making beneath her pillow, and Applejack settled back onto her own with a dejected sigh.

Sleep didn't come for her that night.

Comments

[wzium]

Rainbow... how could you?

[NobleValor]

Rainbow, I know you are a sleepy pony as a rule, but help your wife overcome her 'motherhood issues' before attempting to sleep. Although I can't help but wonder about Rainbow's childhood and parents reading this. Matter of fact, there's my prompt: Rainbow's childhood! (Please put something on there about that, even if it's not the next chapter.)

[crooked]

Man, Rainbow either REALLY needs her beauty sleep, or somethings wrong.

[SHL]

Aaaah, poor AJ. But I could understand RD. I mean, being awaken in the early morning for something so far away in the time...

[The Princess Rarity]

You bastard. I haven't read this story in a while, so I click a random chapter and then you break my heart in a million pieces. *crawls into the feels corner*

[Electronic Flair]

Rainbow... you beyotch.

[Hobbestc]

Wow, this Rainbow is a heartless bastard.