Chapter 2: The Morning After

Rainbow's eyes fluttered open as the early morning sunlight landed on her face, the light blinding her because of the hangover she had. With a loud groan Rainbow rolled over onto her back in the bed, her right hoof landing on something hard and soft at the same time. When she looked at what she hit her eyes shot open in fear and surprise, and all that came out of her were some unintelligible mumbles.

"Big Mac?!" Rainbow said in a hushed shout when her brain managed to make the sounds she needed for the words to make sense. Apparently Big Mac, and everypony else in the house for that matter, were still fast asleep, considering how it got so quiet after Rainbow's shout that you could hear a pin drop a mile away. Rainbow continued to stare at Big Mac until her brain started to remind her of what had happened last night, up to the part where things started to get hazy. The last thing Rainbow could remember was Twilight daring Pinkie to eat healthy for an entire week, which was followed by lots of whining and complaining, but after that all Rainbow could remember was laughing a lot and nothingness.

"Oh Celestia what did I do last night..." Rainbow said quietly as she rolled over to face the edge of the bed, curling up into a tiny ball in the process. She had a sliver of hope that by some unknown Unicorn magic Celestia had actually heard her and was going to come down from the clouds to answer that question, but of course that was never going to actually happen. With a loud sigh Rainbow slid out of the bed and landed with a thud on her hooves, still not waking up Big Mac, as evidenced by him rolling over so that his back was to her, showing her the bow that he had in his mane by accident. She tried to stop herself from giggling, but she couldn't help but let out a tiny laugh, but it quickly stopped when she saw the tiny earring Big Mac had in his left ear. It was small, but it was big enough for her to notice it.

"What did I do last night?" Rainbow asked, sounding almost desperate as she slowly curled up into a ball beside the bed, her mind coming up with thousands upon thousands of possible scenarios as to why she was in bed with Mac, and why he had a wedding ring in his ear. She started to shake on the floor as her panic attack got worse, eventually giving her the thought that she had gone for a roll in the hay with Mac the night before. Just as she started stroking her tail she heard Mac start to wake up, which shut her up immediately.

"Ugh, my head..." Big Mac groaned as he got out of the bed so he could stumble his way downstairs. He didn't seem to notice Rainbow silently wishing she had never been born on the floor beside his bed, which she was partly thankful for. She knew he was soft spoken and polite, but she didn't know how he would react to her laying on the floor next to his bed right after he woke up. Meanwhile, Big Mac was making his way downstairs, his sleepiness and his hangover somehow making him oblivious to the fact that there were five passed out mares, one of them being his sister, in the living room, each of them sprawled out across the floor in different ways.

"Ugh..." Big Mac moaned as he stepped over Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie without even knowing it so that he could get to the kitchen. Once he was there he shoved his head in the sink and turned the cold water on, waking himself up almost immediately, and helping to lessen his hangover. When he pulled his head out of the sink he backed up into the empty cider barrel from last night, rolling it over just enough to reveal three red "x"s on the side of it.

"Applejack grabbed the hard cider?" Big Mac asked out loud in confusion, trying to figure out why she would do that when it was her friends that had come over. They only ever brought out the hard cider when the older ponies got together after the reunions, or when somepony in the family passed away, not for drinking with friends, and they certainly didn't go through an entire barrel in one night.

"Oh, Granny is going to be mad..." Big Mac said, knowing that even though Applejack was the one to get the barrel, he was going to get hell too because he didn't check to see if it was the right one. Knowing better than to dwell on the issue Big Mac decided to head upstairs, but when he looked into the living room from the kitchen he noticed the mares all passed out on the floor. They must have drunk a lot, Big Mac thought in his head as he looked at all of them, his eyes stopping when he saw Applejack and Rarity cuddling in front of the couch.

"Oh that's just too good" Big Mac said with a big smile as he quickly ran off to get the camera. He may be one of the nicest ponies in town, but even he couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some dirt on his sister that he could use whenever he needed to. Once the camera was one he got in position to take the shot, and the flash ended up making all of the mares wake up, meanwhile Big Mac was rolling around on the floor laughing.

"What's so funny?!" Applejack shouted as she opened her eyes, her hangover making Mac's loud laughter the most annoying thing she had ever heard. When her eyes had fully opened she found herself looking right at Rarity's half awake, half hungover face, which made her shout so loud that everypony in the room huddled down in pain.

"Stop shouting so loud!" Rarity cried as she held her hooves over her ears, accidentally shouting herself, which earned her an angry look from everypony else. Rarity quickly realized what she had done and a light blush appeared on her face, but it quickly went away when she saw the picture Mac had taken lying on the floor in front of him. Picking it up without any hesitation Rarity was met with a picture of her and Applejack, happily cuddling up with each other on the floor, their hooves wrapping around one another.

"Who took this picture?!" Rarity asked angrily as she threw it onto the ground in front of her, getting more angry looks from everypony because of how loud she was being. Once the pain he was feeling went away Big Mac picked up the picture and gave Rarity a devilish smile.

"I did" Big Mac said, sounding like it was all part of a diabolical plan that he had hatched to embarrass her and Applejack.

"Give it to me" Rarity ordered, putting her hoof out in front of herself, expecting the picture to be given to her in an instant.

"Eenope" Big Mac replied, still smiling evilly at her.

"Give it to me" Rarity ordered again, with a bit more force behind her voice this time.

"Eenope"

"Give it to me!"

"Eenope"

"I SAID GIVE IT TO ME!" Rarity whined, earning her a punch in the shoulder from Applejack, who could have sworn her ears were bleeding from how loud Rarity was getting. Big Mac stuck his tongue out at Rarity as he tucked the picture under his yoke so that no pony was going to get it from him. Meanwhile, because of the noise they were making downstairs, Applebloom was climbing out of bed with a moan and a groan since it was still early in the morning. As Applebloom made her way towards the stairs she glanced into Big Mac's room, seeing Rainbow still curled up in a ball next to his bed, and Applebloom could have sworn she was sucking on her hoof.

"Big Mac?" Applebloom called out from the top of the stairs, "Why is Rainbow Dash huddled in your room?"

"WHAT?!" everypony, including Big Mac, shouted from the living room before running upstairs to see Rainbow start to rock back and forth on the floor.

"Rainbow, dear, is everything okay?" Rarity asked, the news of Rainbow being in Big Mac's room having shocked her out of the hangover, if only for a little while. Rainbow seemed to notice that they were there and moved her head to look at all of them, Applejack's eyes shooting open when she saw what was in Rainbow's ear.

"Why are you wearing my mother's wedding ring?!" Applejack asked angrily as she ran up to Rainbow, barely resisting the urge to rip it right out. The shout seemed to snap Rainbow out of her panic attack long enough for her to notice the ring as well, which made her scream when she realized that it matched the one Big Mac had in his ear, except it was bigger. Unfortunately, Rarity now noticed the ring in Big Mac's ear, and quickly made the correct connection between the two.

"My guess is, Big Mac and Rainbow got married last night" Rarity said in a matter-of-fact way that made everypony look at her in confusion until she pointed out her reasons why, "See, they have matching earrings" Everypony looked between Big Mac and Rainbow closely, now seeing the connection that Rarity had made.

"Why in Celestia's name does Rainbow have mom's earring, and why do you have dads on?!" Applejack shouted as she ran up to Big Mac and held him up by the fur on his neck.

"I... Don't... Know..." Big Mac forced out, being barely able to speak with Applejack pretty much choking him out of anger. It wasn't that she didn't like Rainbow, or hated that they were going to be together, but it was because she hated that it was over night, and that there was nothing behind it. She wasn't stupid, she could tell they weren't together before, and now, after a night of fun they were hitched.

"Sis, why are you choking him like that?" Applebloom asked as she pushed her way into the room, her own eyes settling on Rainbow's new accessory, "Did Rainbow and Big Mac get married?!" When everypony looked at her she had a hopeful look on her face, as if she wanted it be true, that her big brother and the best flier in Ponyville were now married.

"Uh..." Twilight said, trying to come up with an excuse for it, but nothing came to mind, and everypony else was busy trying to figure out what could have happened that would end up with the two of them getting married. Nothing that made sense seemed to end up with them getting together, but when Applejack let go of Big Mac he gave the last piece of information they needed to figure out what happened.

"Maybe it has something to do with the hard cider you brought up last night" Big Mac said, giving Applejack an angry look, not only for choking him, but for making a scene in front of Applebloom. There was a chorus of "Oh..."s coming from all of the mares, who had collectively realized what must have happened the night before.

"What?" Big Mac asked, not quite understanding what was going on.

"You two got drunk last night" Rarity said, hoping Big Mac would be able to figure out the rest, but his blank stare proved otherwise.

"And then you two went to town hall" Twilight said, but Big Mac still didn't get it.

"And then you two got married" Applejack said, sounding like an upset little filly as she glared at Big Mac.  It seemed like had finally understood it, but after a few seconds his face went blank again.

"So I'm married to Rainbow Dash now?"

"YES!" everypony shouted, including Applebloom, because they had already gotten tired of having to explain it to him.

"Oh..."