Chapter 1: Dare to Drink!

As the final customer of the day trotted away with his mug of fresh Apple Family cider Applejack felt a sense of relief. Another year had come and gone, again thanks to her friends helping out the family with the cider making process, allowing them to quickly mass produce enough cider for every citizen of Ponyville to have two, or even three, full mugs. Now that they could pack up Applejack thought it would be the best time to ask all of them something that had been on her mind all day.

"How would you guys like to come over for a drink tonight?" Applejack asked, getting the attention of her friends and her brother, who had been busy cleaning up the empty barrels that they had lying around. Big Mac looked closely at Applejack before shrugging and moving on with his work. In all honesty he wouldn't mind drinking with Applejack and her friends, but he was fairly sure that none of them were going to say yes, given the fact that they had been working hard all day and probably wanted to go home to rest. When Big Mac came back from putting a small trailer full of barrels in the barn he found Applejack smiling happily as her friends trotted off to their houses behind her.

"What'd they say?" Big Mac asked as his eyes lingered on a certain rainbow maned Pegasus.

"They all said yes, now I'm going to go get it all set up, can you finish cleaning up here?" Applejack said as she started to trot away, leaving Big Mac with at least a hundred empty barrels that he would have to haul into the barn, for better or for worse. With a loud sigh he began to stack them onto the trailer one by one, grunting as he hitched himself up to the trailer for the first of many trips to the barn.

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Just as Big Mac came out of the barn for the last time Applejack's friends began to arrive, with Rainbow being the last. Big Mac silently stood behind them as they waited for Applejack to let them into the house, trying his hardest to keep himself from looking at each of them from where he was standing. The five mares that were in front of him were among the most powerful in Equestria, possibly even the world, and they were his sister's friends, if he did anything to them he would be signing his own death certificate.

"What are you looking at back there?" Rainbow Dash asked quickly when she saw Big Mac looking towards her, his mind having wandered off as he thought about what would happen to him if he did anything wrong to them.

"Oh, nothing!" Big Mac answered quickly, a blush being hidden under his red coat as he realized that he had been staring directly at Rainbow's flank for the entire time he had zoned out. Rainbow rolled her eyes before turning back towards the door, just as Applejack opened it too so she was able to fly inside. When Big Mac got inside he started heading straight towards the cider cellar, but Applejack stopped him.

"Let me get the cider tonight, you just go sit down and talk with my friends" Applejack said as she started to push him towards her friends, who were happily laughing about something on of them had said just before Mac had gone inside. He shot Applejack an angry look before he went to sit down next to Rainbow, which was one of the only two empty seats in the room. She gave him a weird look before turning back to the others, preparing to tell her friends about some old Wonderbolts story just as Applejack came back upstairs with a barrel of cider on her back.

"Ok, now we can get this party started" Applejack said with a grunt as she rolled the barrel off her back, which landed with hard thud on the wood floor. Without missing a beat Applejack set it up for serving and poured out seven glasses of cider for her and her friends.

"So, anyone want to make tonight even more fun?" Rarity asked, a devilish smirk creeping across her face as she looked at everypony that was there, "Who's up for a daring contest?"

"A what?" Applejack asked, giving Rarity a confused look.

"We give each other dares to see who's the weakest one of us" Rarity explained, her eyes settling on Applejack, "For instance, I dare you to let me give you a make over" Everypony except Applejack and Rarity gasped, all of their eyes focusing on the former as they eagerly awaited her response to the dare.

"You're on" Applejack said with a determined look, getting a chorus of surprised "Oohs" from everypony. Rarity quickly got up out of her seat, and from there Applejack went from a down to earth mare, to a pompous Canterlot mare. The night only got more rowdy and crazy from there, starting with...

"I dare you..."

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"I dare you to... *hic* ...kiss Rarity!" Rainbow said, her voice coming out very slurred and almost incomprehensible because of the cider she had been drinking. Of course, everypony else was just as drunk as she was, so it seemed like a perfectly reasonable and intelligent dare to all of them.

"You're on" Applejack said shakily as she tried to get up, swaying from side to side before she was able to get steady. As she trotted over to Rarity a strange, almost mystified, look came over her, causing Rarity to squirm in her seat. Rarity didn't expect Applejack to actually go through with it, and as their lips met she fought back, but it quickly turned into something they both enjoyed. They kept kissing for a while until Rarity moaned some random stallions name, instantly snapping Applejack out of her trance when her drunken mind realized that she was kissing Rarity, and not the stallion of her dreams.

"Oh, I, uh..." Applejack stuttered as her face turned a shade of red that rivaled her brother's, but now that she had done what she was dared to do, she could have some fun.

"Big Mac, I dare you to wear Applebloom's bow for a month" Applejack said, narrowing her eyes at her brother as he started squirming uncomfortably in his seat. Rainbow, who was still sitting next to him burst out laughing when she noticed his face was turning a darker shade of red than it was normally. Without him knowing Rarity pulled a bow that Applebloom had left on the back of the couch towards his mane with her magic, quickly tying it up so tight that he wouldn't be able to get it off.

"Sorry Mac, dear" Rarity said as she levitated a mirror up in front of his face, "But you don't have a choice"

"If it's any consolation you look adorable" Twilight said with a giggle, which quickly made all of them erupt into laughter before Granny Smith smacked the floor from her room, making them shut up immediately. Big Mac sighed before looking over at Rainbow, who was making baby faces at him and poking the bow while giggling. He wanted to get back at her, and knowing her competitive nature he was going to give her a dare that she would never go along with...

"Rainbow, I dare you to..." Big Mac trailed off as an evil look came over him, "Marry me"

"Ooh, you're good..." Rainbow said, a confident smirk creeping across her face, "You're on" Rainbow's competitive nature made her accept the dare, but now she needed a way out of the house with Mac.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow said suddenly, making her shy friend jump so high she almost hit the room, "I dare you to make out with Pinkie, right here, on the table!" The two mares looked at each other in surprise before Fluttershy was pulled onto the table by Pinkie, their passionate make out session just about to begin. With everypony else distracted Rainbow used the opportunity to pull Big Mac out of the house, and towards Ponyville.

The two of them didn't speak much during the walk, save for a few short conversations about the dares that had been asked earlier that night, and whether or not anypony noticed they had left. As they got further into town Rainbow's goal came into view, Ponyville Hall, the one place they could get married at this hour. When they got inside they found Lyra running around turning off the lights, but she froze on the spot when she saw the two of them standing at the doorway.

"What do you guys want?" Lyra asked in an annoyed tone as she trotted back to her desk, sitting in her custom chair in her unusual way.

"We're here to get married" Rainbow said confidently, the request surprising Lyra for only a short moment before she reached into her desk and pulled out a few pieces of paper that they had to sign. Without asking any questions the two of them wrote down everything they had to, even checking the "Wife is an Element of Harmony" box that was suspiciously placed on the bottom of the list for some odd reason. Once they finished the forms Lyra took them away, filed them, and then pushed to newlyweds out of the hall so she could leave.

"Now go home!" Lyra said angrily as she got them over the threshold, causing Big Mac to smash his face into the ground since he lost his balance. With that the two of them headed home, a triumphant smile on Rainbow's face. She had done what no pony thought she ever would, and for probably the stupidest reason they would ever hear of. Little did she know Big Mac was silently cheering and celebrating inside his head. He never told anypony, but he thought Rainbow was fairly beautiful, and had a slight crush on her. Now he was married to her, and he couldn't be happier, but he didn't let Rainbow see it.

"So, now what do we do?" Rainbow asked as they got back to the farm house, the sounds of the other mares snoring creeping out from the windows.

"Well, there's something I want to give you" Big Mac said as he led Rainbow inside and towards the old cabinet they had in their living room. Reaching inside he pulled out a small wooden box with an apple carved on top, and when he opened it up Rainbow was greeted by a beautiful emerald and ruby apple earring, which looked like it had been through quite a bit in it's time.

"What's this for?" Rainbow asked, as she looked closer at the earring.

"It's yours, since you're my wife now" Big Mac said with a sheepish smile, which made Rainbow smile and giggle. He had never acted that way around anypony else, and it was just too precious to Rainbow right now. Taking the earring in his hoof Big Mac attached it to Rainbow's left ear, finally sealing the deal that she was his wife. Once he had his earring in, which was almost identical to Rainbow's, albeit quite a bit smaller, the two of them headed upstairs to Big Mac's bedroom, which begged Rainbow to ask him something.

"You want to do it tonight?" Rainbow asked, nudging Big Mac in the ribs. He chuckled before giving Rainbow a kiss.

"No, not tonight, I just want to spend it with you" Big Mac said, making Rainbow blush as he climbed into bed, patting the spot in front of him to get Rainbow to climb in. After some short hesitation she climbed in, nudging herself between his legs so that he would hold her close as they slept.

"Goodnight Rainbow" Big Mac said as he gave Rainbow a kiss on the head.

"Goodnight Mac" Rainbow said back as she nuzzled his chin with the top of her head, the two of them both falling asleep quickly once they were comfortable, and now neither of them were going to move until the morning.