The bustling Ponyville market stretched endlessly before the earth pony, as she bent to close the cover on her shopping bag, filled to the brim with ingredients that would make up the night’s dinner, along with a couple of new teething rings. Applejack stood up, and planted a kiss on the forehead of the tiny pegasus strapped to her, snuggled comfortably in his sling.
 
“Should we see if we can find Uncle Mac, Rainbow Harvest?” she asked, playfully, “He should be sellin’ our apples somewhere ‘round…”
 
She craned her neck as she tried to spot her brother under one of the tents. The square was more packed than usual today, and even a pony Mac’s size could be hidden among the crowd. Applejack’s eyes scanned over familiar faces, before landing on somepony she needed a moment to recognize. It had been years since she’d last seen the blue unicorn—she was visibly more taken care of, her mane done up fancier than she’d worn it before. To the pony’s surprise, though, underneath the purple cape she was also noticably pregnant!
 
“Trixie!” Applejack shouted over the crowd, waving eagerly.
 
“Oh my goodness, Applejack!” squealed Trixie, magically swishing her shopping into the air to free her hoof and wave back.
 
“Fancy seein’ you here, sugar cube,” said the earth pony, trotting up to her old acquaintance, “How long’s it been since you were last in town?”
 
“Five years!” she replied, wistfully, “I’d have been back sooner, but show business is good everywhere but here, y’know?”
 
“Hah, I know whatcha mean. How’re you doin’, Trix, life on the road been treatin’ ya okay?”
 
“Greater than ever,” she said with a smile, subtly turning to the side to emphasize her protruding stomach, “I can’t believe you haven’t said anything yet!”
 
“Ya never assume a mare’s pregnant unless ya wanna risk bein’ bucked in the head,” Applejack said, chuckling. “But congratulations! Who’s the sire, if ya don’t mind me askin’?”
 
“That would be my spectacularly beautiful wife, Lightning Dust!” the unicorn answered, brimming with pride, as she magically pulled a photo of a muscled blue pegasus out of her purse.
 
“Lighting D—aaaaaaaaaaaah…” Applejack went slack-jawed, as her eyebrows leapt to her hairline in horror. Of all ponies, she had to be looking at a photo of the crazy mare who’d sworn to be her wife’s rival for all time. It had been more than a decade since the last particularly huge intrusion on Rainbow’s life from Lightning, but every time their paths had crossed during their work, it hadn’t exactly gone swimmingly. And she was married to Trixie. Who was in town.
 
“…aaaaaaaaaah Lightning Dust!” Applejack finished awkwardly, a huge, fake grin plastered across her face, “Goodness, Trixie, I… I sure do recognize that name!”
 
“You should, she is the most great and powerful athlete of this century!” Trixie replied, tucking the photo back into her bag, “Sadly you won’t be able to get her autograph, she’s performing out in Takhi—I only came into town to do some shopping and see Starlight, we’re on the move again tomorrow. Oh, the life of two overwhelmingly talented and beautiful showponies, you’d never understand the stress, Applejack!” She sighed dramatically, before smiling and patting her belly. “But it’s all worth it at the end of the day!”
 
“Well, that’s just great, Trix,” said Applejack, nervously, “now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta be—“
 
“Oh, but where are my manners!” the unicorn squealed, leaning down, “I haven’t even said hello to this little sweetie!”
 
Rainbow Harvest looked up from his mother’s chest, and smiled at the unfamiliar pony.
 
“And who’s his sire, hmm?” asked Trixie.
 
“Oh, hah, well, y’know…” Applejack couldn’t see an option where she didn’t have to say; “…Rainbow Dash.”
 
Trixie gasped, throwing a hoof over her mouth. Applejack’s ears flattened to the back of her head when she said; “Rainbow Dash?! I didn’t think she was still around here, I figured she’d be off with the Wonderbolts—forget what I said, our schedules will just have to go out the window, Lightly has been talking about Rainbow Dash for years!” Trixie squealed.
 
“She has, has she?”
 
“Apparently they had some friendly little rivalry going on, y’know like me and Twilight used to have? Didn’t Dash ever tell you?”
 
“Rings a bell.” Applejack wasn’t loving Trixie’s definition of ‘friendly’.
 
”She’ll be so excited to see her again! They can talk all about what it’s like being dad-moms!” Trixie giggled, lighting her horn as she added; “Starlight showed me a teleportation spell a while ago that I think I’ve got the hang of, should I get Lightning Dust now or later—how about now, I’ll get her n—“
 
“Dashie isn’t in town today,” Applejack interrupted. It wasn’t a lie, she thought, Sweet Apple Acres was outside the city limits.
 
“Aw, no!” whined Trixie.
 
“Yeah, too bad.” She put her hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder, and steered the both of them towards the quickest way out of the market—Rainbow could be ‘back in town’ at any time. “How ‘bout I walk ya to Twilight’s castle? You said you were gonna visit Starlight, and I know she takes care o’ the place while Twi’s away!”
 
“That’s very chivalrous of you, Applejack,” said Trixie, casually magic’ing the earth pony’s hoof away from her, and trotting along forward, “I think I’ll take you up on that!”
 
%%~
 
 
Do you ever have no idea why you wrote something but you just kinda have the idea and then fjhaodhgorwufhaonwodg and whoops you wrote it. Some TrixieDust and AppleDash nextgen-era interaction! Never written Trixie before and written AJ maybe once, so good practice I suppose? …Eh, just look at baby Harvey. Even at like six months old he’s already freckly as heck, this boy can not handle the sun.
 
(Random note, Takhi is an… OC town? OL, original location? It’s the town that Pinkie and Braeburn live in that’s between Ponyville and Appleoosa, in my nextgen-y-headcanon-y-thing-y )
 
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