Faithfully Yours

                                                                                                                                         14th August (last year)

To an owl or a high-flying pegasus, Sweet Apple Acres was no more than a cakey black expanse rolling outwards from the stipple of lantern light that indicated Ponyville. A short distance into this darkness, a small golden ember glowed, where Big Macintosh and Fluttershy were having their wedding party.

The couple had been married in a marquee at the edge of the Everfree forest, before heading to the clearing where once stood an old barn and now, as of that morning, a large gazebo and a long buffet table. Applejack, having assumed the leading role in all aspects of her brother's wedding, had overseen the erection of the site. Rainbow had dropped by with Soarin during the day to help, with the usual thinly veiled incentive of showing off her boyfriend. The novelty of having a gorgeous celebrity stallion on her arm still hadn't worn off, much to her own concern - she'd never thought she could be such a sap on account of a boy.

Applejack was running around frantically when they arrived, barking directions at her various visiting relations and farm pony friends in an accent thickened by their company, almost to a degree of incoherence to an outsider. When the pegasi approached her, she swiftly refused their help.

"Oh come on, AJ, there must be something we can do. I'm not offering the services of a champion wonderbolt stallion just for you to turn us away!"

Soarin had never seen his girlfriend's charming best friend so stressed, and was conscious of the stares of the stern, stocky farm stallions. Did they know who he was? Soarin wasn't sure how far Cloudsdale's popular culture extended into the rural regions. Applejack hadn't known at first, but then it wouldn't have mattered to her either way.

"Look, it's mighty sweet for ya t'allow Rainbow to rope ya into this Soarin." Applejack flushed with hasty manners. "But us Apples know what we's doin'. This ain't our first Apple wedding by any means!"

Soarin shifted awkwardly on the spot. "You sure, AJ? I mean we've just been hanging out at Rainbow's, I feel pretty bad when you've got all this work to do."

Applejack grinned, her eyes gleaming with exertion. "Don't sweat it, Sugarcube. Ya'll run along now, I'll see ya s'afternoon. And tonight I'll teach ya how to party Apple style, how about that?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes tenderly, though in truth she was rather relieved to not have to spend the morning heavy lifting with Applejack's extended family.

The pegasi took off, Rainbow eager for where they were going and Soarin intrigued by what they had left behind.

--

It was nearly ten o'clock, and as far as the pegasi were concerned, Applejack was making good on her promise. She had been cantering merrily this way and that all night, greeting everyone with her trademark grin, striking up quick conversations, dipping in and out of dances and lending her fiddling skills to the band. She had even sung a duet with a couple of her female cousins and proved to have a very musical voice, a trait that Soarin discerned was somewhat taken for granted within the Apple family. He and Rainbow had been dancing non-stop, if not remotely in the country style. This wasn't a concern of Rainbow's by any means, but Soarin was fascinated almost to the point of self-consciousness by the alien lifestyle exhibited by his girlfriend's best friend and her family. Applejack beamed at them from the gazebo, having come to the end of a jaunty country song that Soarin had never heard.

Pinkie too, was enthralled by the music, having naturally emerged as the most flamboyant dancer and indeed a very good one; she herself had her roots in farming, after all. Rarity and her fiancé Braeburn had been having no end of fun dancing too, but now Rarity had opted for mingling, presenting Braeburn to her most respected clients. She felt no shame about marrying the farm stallion, and loved to revel in the liberation that this feeling granted her. Twilight had thus far spent most of the night by the drink stand, and was now engrossed in intense, one-sided conversation with Star Hunter about the meaning of his cutiemark.

When the cloud-skinned night was at its coldest, and a sizeable dent had been made in the alcohol supply, Applejack once more took to the gazebo, seizing the band's microphone for her announcement.

"I trust we're all havin' a mighty good time?"

Her holler was met with rowdy cheers and stomping.

"Well shucks, this turned out better than I coulda imagined. We pulled off another one, Apples!"

Her plethora of relatives crowed boisterously.

"Now I sure hope ya'll ain't tired your hooves out already, cause' it's that time of the night folks! Who's gonna be leadin' our time-honoured square dance then? Where's the happy couple? Big Mac, Fluttershy, get on up here! And Rainbow, Soarin, you've been givin' it all you got all night, what ya'll waitin' for?! We need one more couple, folks, and we'll have our square! Rest a yall follow along now, we got plenty of us Apples to go around!"

Rainbow and Soarin were quick to the gazebo, both excited by the prospect of excelling in something new. Big Mac and Fluttershy leisurely followed suit, the latter's shyness softened by alcohol, the former's eyes sparkling as one who was about to enter fully into his element.

"Oh boy, square dancing!" Pinkie, who had been raiding the buffet table, exclaimed to nobody in particular. "I did this all the time when I was a filly, oh boy this is gonna be AWESOME!"

Pinkie's elation roused Rarity from her conversation with Lyra and BonBon. She looked to her fiancé, who had been dutifully standing at her side and now extended his hoof to her in the hope she might join him on the stage, but Rarity gave a soft smile and directed his attention to the solitary Pinkie. Braeburn nodded, gave his fiancé a quick peck on the cheek, before bounding up to the pink Earth pony and extending his hoof to her. Rarity smiled as she watched her friend eagerly accompany him to the stage. She was so lucky to be marrying such a thoughtful stallion.

Applejack had by this point had snared her reliable reserve dance partner Caramel, and was now instructing the participants on the gazebo as to where they should stand. Meanwhile, four more squares formed amongst the party guests below, with Apple family members distributed generously amongst those who, like Soarin and Rainbow, were trying it for the first time. Then Applejack began a run-through of the moves, demonstrating each one reflexively with Caramel. Rainbow's concentration was feeble as she leaned tipsily against her boyfriend, who was wondering how many weddings Applejack had done this for.

Applejack rejoined them in the square, bringing up the volume of her voice in the absence of the microphone. She was to be both the caller and one of the leading dancers. The band shortly took up their instruments and began a fast-paced tune.

"Ok...Here we go. Bow to your partner, bow to your corner!" Applejack crowed.  "Join hooves, and round we go! Now face your partner, docey do!"

Soarin and Rainbow had not been prepared for the speed and fluency of Applejack's calling. As the only leading couple without an Apple family member, Rainbow and Soarin were chaotic in their attempts to mimic the movements, but the crowd of non-participants cheered and stomped regardless. As the song went on, Rainbow grew bored of their constant mistakes, but Soarin only became more determined, glancing back at Applejack every few seconds to check he was doing it right. Soarin's career was built on his superior coordination and aptitude, and it was only a matter of applying it to this. Rainbow had never seen him concentrate so hard - it was cute. It wasn't long however, before the cuteness wore thin.

"C'mon babe, let's give it up." Rainbow puffed over the music.  "I need another drink." She didn't wait for her boyfriend - she never did - and flew out of the centre.

"Left...take...partner..." Applejack gave up attempting to direct the incomplete square when Caramel, a renowned lightweight, abruptly flung her away from him and galloped out of the centre with his hoof over his mouth. Only Soarin caught her faint sigh and eye-roll, from where he stood, five feet away, having also momentarily been abandoned.

Then Applejack put on a fresh smile and hollered, "Come on partner!" before grabbing Soarin by the hoof and proceeding to dance with him in a generic country fashion. The squares below rapidly disintegrated without anyone calling the moves, and the widely dispersed Apples took to cheering at the sight of Applejack dancing with a stallion who wasn't the feeble Caramel. Applejack was the family spinster, and how sweet it was for Soarin, a handsome superstar with a beautiful pegasus girlfriend, to humour her passion for traditional dancing. Soarin looked happy enough too, and Rainbow laughed as she turned from the drink stand to behold her boyfriend getting some much needed one-to-one tutoring.

Big Macintosh and Fluttershy had slunk out of the gazebo, and Twilight now pounced on the former, showering him with drunken blessings and heartfelt fragments of traditional wedding speeches that might have been utilized much more effectively if Applejack hadn't taken the position of Best Mare. Big Mac looked around with nervous impatience; Fluttershy had gone ahead, making a discreet escape from the party, and he had assured her he'd catch up at his first tactical opportunity; it was their wedding night, after all. With multiple bows and 'thank ya kindlys', he tentatively edged back towards the gazebo. Twilight had closed off his original desired exit, but the spot behind the band was just aout suitable for a disappearing act.

Braeburn and Pinkie were wandering back to Rarity, tottering dizzily this way and that and laughing together as they went. Rarity watched as Pinkie nudged her fiancé and leaned to whisper in his ear, and she frowned a little, rolling her eyes.

"A perfect little flirt that one, isn't she?" Drawled a voice. Rarity vaguely recognised it, but was too preoccupied to register.

"Hmm yes." She replied, not sparing a glance behind to behold her elusive company.

Braeburn and Pinkie were in front of her now, the former smiling at her tenderly, and Rarity abruptly forgot about it - her fiancé was a cheeky and deeply sensitive stallion whom she couldn't wait to marry, and Pinkie was a natural, indiscriminate and harmless enough little flirt, although it was not her to which Rarity's mystery company referred, but Applejack.

Because by this point, Applejack and Soarin were fully in the swing of their country dance. Soarin had finally got the hang of the style, and couldn't remember the last time he had felt this free. This sort of thing was a far cry from anything in his high profile celebrity life in Cloudsdale, and the innumerable stares that had become so mundane to him now kindled a new excitement. His mind came loose from his body as his eyes slumbered on the mare before him, his girlfriend's best friend Applejack, and he realised he couldn't stop dancing even if he'd wanted to. Applejack's hair had come loose from her burgundy party ribbon and was lapping at his vision like burning straw, more escaping with every swing. Her smile was always in front of her eyes; it shaped them into little emblems of goodwill, her desire to make everyone else happy. But tonight, Soarin noticed them. Their ripened, ready love. Their mirror-like honesty. And through them, for the first time in years, he saw himself in the same light.

And it was at this point, when their synced hearts were mid leap, that everything Rainbow knew of Soarin - the dents of admiration and reverence in his handsome, puerile face - was overthrown by a sublime new smile that held him the right way. And Applejack was returning this, as if it was passing like breath between them.  Tied together in this new intimacy, their eyes had been flung open like windows, and behind them were blue skies, humbly conspicuous as little cuts in the night. This was how Soarin was supposed to be, and Rainbow had never seen him like that.

Applejack's ribbon finally gave up, fluttering away from her on the light night breeze. It landed in the mud at Rainbow's feet, and she stomped on it once, hard, but her eyes didn't leave the couple on the stage, and she failed to lift her hoof again, frozen with grief. When she looked away, a drunken Twilight met her eyes with pair that were grossly wounded with sympathy. So she looked back at her best friend and boyfriend, letting her pain thaw.

The song ended. The couple parted tentatively, the spell broken. But both were still living behind their eyes as they ambled their separate ways; still wearing each other's breath.

Only Rainbow, Big Macintosh and Twilight saw it. The other Apples would never expect anything so profound from their celibate cousin, and everyone else either didn't know either party well enough, or was simply looking the other way. The latter was the case with Rarity, whose intuitive nature would have seen her comprehend the situation immediately, had she not been preoccupied by her own jealousy.

It was the next day that Rainbow would insist that it was time to move up to Soarin's home in Cloudsdale, and Rarity would give in to her fiancé and move to Appleloosa. And the next week that Trixie would finally marry Blueblood, and Twilight would be called to Canterlot on royal business. And the following week that Pinkie would return to her family's farm, and Big Mac would return from his honeymoon to find the FlimFlam brothers harassing his sister to sell Sweet Apple Acres, whereupon they would engage in a poker game in which both subjects were put on the line, and Flim and Flam would walk out with the rights to both of them, and Applejack would leave the following morning with Flim.

                                                                                                                                             1st July (present day)

The storm had passed, and Soarin stood in the wake of its destruction. The room was blitzed with torn costumes, dented trophies, broken picture frames and pills, like the disembowelled entrails of all his time with Rainbow. And on the other side of the en-suite door, against which Soarin had almost collapsed, a soft sobbing was audible.

"Rainbow?" Soarin persisted frailly. "Rainbow, please open the door."

There was a pause, and the pop of a cap, then the sobbing continued with a breathless edge. Soarin shut his eyes.

"Rainbow please, all that stuff...it doesn't matter anymore. It's done with."

He grappled for his feelings amidst his gutted heart.

"Flim came by an hour ago." He found himself saying. "Applejack's run away."

Saying it made it all the more real, but still it failed to inflict the impact for which he was bleakly waiting amidst the numbness the news had brought. And then he lost his patience, slamming his hoof against the door.

"Rainbow I'm still yours." He burst out.  "I - want to be yours."

The sobs were suddenly sucked up, and Rainbow responded distantly. "You need something else. Something completely different."

"We can find it." He gave a breathless laugh. "Heck Rainbow, we're the two most talented pegasi alive today. We can do anything we want." His resolve strengthened, and in the dried up canals of his honest nature, he felt his feelings run again. "We can make this work. We can find love, it's just...it's not here." His last line was saturated with sincere need. "Please babe, let's go somewhere else."

Soarin knew that his case was feeble, and felt his revived love rain on him in the silence that followed. But before his first tear had hit the ground, the door was being unlocked.