Chapter 3: An Apple in the Sky

As the sun came over the horizon most mares, except for Applejack were asleep, and Rainbow Dash was no exception. Being the athletic pony she is, she needs her sleep, although even she knew she slept a small bit too much. As Rainbow struggled to stay asleep despite the sunlight washing over her from the window.

"Ugh..." Rainbow moaned as she got up to close her curtains, but something caught her eye. It almost looked like Big Mac was, nah, couldn't be him, he can't fly...

"RAINBOW HELP!" Big Mac shouted from outside, making Rainbow pull her curtains open so hard she nearly ripped them off the wall. Her jaw nearly went through her floor as she watched the large stallion flail through the air. He would occasionally yelp as he started to look at the ground. Rainbow started laughing as she continued to watch Big Mac spiral through the air, slowly floating towards Rainbow's front door.

"I SAID HELP!" Big Mac cried, as he noticed how close he was getting to Rainbow's door. She quickly ran downstairs to pull him in, opening the door seconds before his face collided with it. He rolled through her house until hitting a wall, crumpling at the foot of it. Rainbow laughed as the stallion's tongue lolled out of his mouth as he saw stars circling his head.

"Nice landing there Biggy" Rainbow laughed, poking him in the stomach as she did. Big Mac shook his head and got to his feet, looking around lazily before his sights settled on Rainbow Dash.

"Good morning Rainbow" Big Mac said, still shaken up from his crash landing. He shook his head one last time, a small pendant falling out of his mane to hang from his neck off of a silver chain.

"What's this?" Rainbow asked, pointing at the pendant, watching as it glowed with a faint purple light.

"Twilight gave it to me so I could up here, and fly," Big Mac said, wincing as he looked outside, "You saw how well that went". Rainbow laughed as Mac looked down at the ground in shame, feeling embarrassed that the best flier in Ponyville had seen his pitiful attempt. Big Mac coughed as he reached up towards his yoke, pulling out the scroll that Soarin had handed him, which got Rainbow's attention.

"What's this for?" she asked, grabbing the scroll from Mac, getting little resistance out of him. He watched silently as she read over the scroll, her eyes getting as wide as the moon the further she read. When she reached the bottom of the scroll she threw it to the ground, dropping it through the floor of her house by accident.

"There's no way Celestia can do this!" Rainbow shouted, looking Mac down like it was his fault, "How could she do something like this?!"

"I don't know Rainbow, but apparently it's law, so we have to do it" Big Mac said flatly, moving towards one of Rainbow's windows, stumbling a bit as he got used to the height, "If I go to jail, what'll happen to the farm?". Rainbow could see that even though he was a usually easy going person, even he didn't want to jump into something like this because Celestia said so. Mac looked down at Sweet Apple Acres for a long time, being left alone by Rainbow as she tried to come to terms with it herself.

"Rainbow?" Mac asked quietly, still looking out over the farm. Rainbow slowly walked over to him, looking over the farm along side him for a little while before Mac leaned into her.

"What are you doing?" Rainbow asked, not liking the fact that he had suddenly invaded her personal space, but when she saw how green he was she knew what to do. Withing moments Mac had his head in a bucket, loosing last night's dinner the hard way. After a few minutes of retching he stood up, looking at Rainbow with a beat down look on his face.

"Feeling any better?" Rainbow asked sweetly, giving Mac a small smile. He smiled and nodded back before making his way towards her couch with her not far behind. They sat down in silence for a few seconds before they both tried to speak up.

"So about this-"

"What do you-"

"How are we-"

The two ponies gave each other shy smiles before Mac nodded, signalling Rainbow to go first. Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, but she forget it as soon as her lips parted. She smiled sheepishly back at Big Mac, and after getting to his feet Big Mac coughed.

"So, now that Celestia has ordered us to get married, what happens now?" Big Mac asked softly, knowing that this was a touchy subject for any mare, especially a mare like Rainbow.

"I don't know" Rainbow said quietly, looking at the floor as she did, "The Wonderbolts wouldn't accept me if I'm pregnant right?"

"I wouldn't know, but I'm sure Applejack could ask Soarin for you" Big Mac said, an angry look passing over his face as he thought about his sister and Soarin getting married. As far as Mac was concerned, no rich pony like him knew how to run a farm right, and he probably wouldn't be very much help with his Wonderbolts schedule taking up most of his time...

"Mac, I don't know what to do" Rainbow said slowly. The more she thought about marrying Big Mac the sadder she got. He was her best friend's brother after all, and how would the Wonderbolts react to her betting married so soon in life. Rainbow looked up to see if Mac had left, but instead found him sitting in front of her looking up at her, a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"Rainbow, I know it's strange, but of all the ponies that she could have forced me to marry," Mac said, a sad, yet determined look on his face, "I'm happy it was you"

"Really? Who would want to marry me?" Rainbow said, his words throwing her off guard, "I'm lazy and care only about getting into the Wonderbolts, I'm not wife material"

"You left out how loyal you are, and how much you care about other ponies' safety" Mac said, a small blush hidden among his red coat. Rainbow laughed quietly before patting Mac on the head, making him look up. When their eyes met there was a brief moment where almost seemed like the world had stopped. It wasn't until then that Mac had realized that he had always been watching Rainbow perform her stunts over the farm during his lunch breaks, being constantly amazed by the things she could do. For Rainbow, she realized that Mac was just what she needed in life, somepony to keep her grounded to her ideals and morals.

"Rainbow Dash..." Mac whispered, looking at Rainbow, nearly breathless. Right now, as the sun shone in through an open window her mane seemed to glow with every color, like a real rainbow. Before anything else could be said the two ponies embraced, each of them wrapping their legs around the other, not wanting to let go. They rolled around for a little bit, only stopping when they were interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Um, hi, is this Rainbow Dash's house?" a small voice said from the other side. Rainbow quickly opened it, her mane rustled up from rolling around with Big Mac, and found a small green Pegasus with a pink mane standing on the other side.

"Yeah, how can I help you?" Rainbow asked, her voice a bit off due to having rolled with Mac.

"Can you show me where Fluttershy lives, I'm on orders from Celestia to go see her" the tiny Pegasus said, trying to avoid eye contact with Rainbow. She turned around and shrugged at Big Mac before hopping out of her house so she could show the small stallion where to go. As she flew away she heard Mac think out loud to himself.

"How do I get down from here...?"