As Rainbow Dash gulped down another mug, Applejack was beginning to regret having apple cider at Sugar Belle's wedding reception. She knew how the pegasus could get. Loud, obnoxious, and a fire hazard. But worst of all, like the cider itself, she became unfiltered.

Big Macintosh and Sugar Belle took a break from the dancing patio. The new groom went to go carouse with the other married stallions for a bit to suffer their unsolicited advice or lamentations. Meanwhile, Sugar sat at the head table to give her hooves a rest. A very inebriated pegasus flopped down beside her in the groom's chair to chat up the blushing bride.

"So what's your relation to...?" Rainbow Dash asked, gesturing vaguely at the one table of ponies she didn't know.

"Oh, they're just some of the ponies from Starlight's town," Sugar said. "Except him," she pointed at a stallion. "He's my cousin."

"So where's his- uh... your aunt, er uncle?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh, his parents and I were never really close. He's actually a step-cousin from my father's first marriage. So he's actually... my dad's, ex-wife's, sister's son. So I guess he's like... an ex-step-cousin. We're more just friends than anything, really. He used to help out at my old bakery."

"What about the rest of your family?" Rainbow asked. "Your side of the aisle was mostly AJ's guests. So, what, are your folks racist against you marrying a mud pony? Or do they just not like you or something?"

"No, it's nothing like that," Sugar said. "I uh, I don't have much family at all. My parents died when I was younger."

"Hey! There you go! That's another thing you have in common with Mac!" Rainbow said with a goofy grin as she lifted her cider mug. "Cheers!"

Sugar smiled politely at the grossly inappropriate toast and tapped her champagne glass against the rim of the mug before Rainbow took another deep swig. This was not Sugar's first encounter with this version of Rainbow Dash. She knew not to take what she said personally. She was just being the 'Dash-hole' that AJ warned her about a long time ago.

"No sisters or brothers either?" Rainbow asked. Sugar shook her head. Rainbow nodded solemnly. "I know that feeling." Her serious expression vanished as quickly as it appeared. "But hey! Now you get a couple of sisters-in-law!"

Sugar's smile was genuine now. "Yes, and they've already made me feel like I'm part of the family. I feel so lucky!"

"I bet..." Rainbow grinned from behind her cider. "So speaking of getting lucky- I gotta ask- marrying Big Mac, how did you ever manage to get that past AJ?"

"I... I don't understand what you mean," Sugar said.

"Pssh!" Rainbow scoffed. "AJ's been in such a pissy mood ever since the engagement. What with Mac wanting to do the proper thing by you and be a faithful stallion. He must have broke her heart when he told her they weren't gonna be bumping uglies no more after he was married."

Sugar stared at her with her mouth agape.

"But like, while you two were dating, how did that work? Did you take turns, or- did you have like a schedule or something?" Rainbow took another gulp. "Don't tell me you do it at the same time- AJ never invites me for that! Ooh, have you tried a Prench Tower?"

"Wha-?"

"Oh! It's where one mare rides his dick, and the other sits on his face, and then when you both cum at the same time, you double hoof bump up top!" Rainbow Dash threw her hooves in the air. "Pow! Like the Prench Tower! Get it?"

Sugar Belle just stared at her in shock. Rainbow Dash stared back. The confusion on Sugar's face finally registered somewhere in Rainbow's addled brain.

"What? Don't tell me you don't... that he... He never told you about them?" Rainbow asked.

Sugar just shook her head.

Rainbow scratched her mane with her hoof. "Huh. I suppose AJ would have never told me either if I hadn't caught them in the act. Twice. But even when me and AJ started knocking tacos, she made it pretty clear she wasn't giving up what she had with him for me or nopony. Not that I wanted them to. Unf! Just thinking about them..."

Rainbow's wings sprang open and she fell out of the chair.

"Fucken... the ground is crooked over here!" Rainbow slurred as she climbed back to her hooves. She grabbed her mug with her hoof and finished off her drink. "Anyway, I'm gonna go grab a refill. Congrats on getting Mac all to yourself. I hope Applejack doesn't hate you forever." Rainbow closed one eye and squinted the other to try to focus on her orange marefriend talking with the other guests. "Nah, she wouldn't do that... Probably."

Rainbow staggered away towards the cider kegs.

Sugar Belle sat in her chair and just tried to absorb the information that had just been dumped on her. Rainbow was a serial prankster, but she knew her well enough now to know when she was fucking with her. She was clearly too hammered at the moment to be any kind of crafty.

Sugar caught the eye of her new husband. He smiled brightly at her and blew her a kiss. Sugar looked to the other side of the reception at the elder of her two new sisters-in-law. Applejack glanced over at her and gave her a small wave and a smile. Or what passed for a smile. The line of her mouth turned up a bit, but that was about it. She didn't smile with her eyes. It looked forced. Fake.

Sugar hadn't noticed it before, the change in Applejack's demeanor. She had dismissed it as stress in preparing for the wedding ever since the announcement. But now...

"Is everything alright?" Big Mac asked as he sat down next to Sugar, startling her slightly from her thoughts.

"What?"

"You looked worried," he said. "Sitting over here by yourself."

"Oh, no. My mind was just wandering. I'm fine," she said.

"Alright." Big Mac just smiled.

Living with Applejack must have made him unaccustomed to what lying looks like, Sugar thought. Mac was an honest pony. And she believed him when he made his vows of fidelity with her. Even so... It didn't preclude them from lying by omission. Still, he seemed happy enough. If they had sorted things out between them, then it wasn't her place to get-

"More champagne?" Applejack asked, standing in front of them with the bottle.

Big Mac nodded, but his happy expression fell. His smile was that same forced curve of his lips that his sister was wearing. That same bitter resentment of jealousy, and tension of things left unsaid.

And despite it being her own wedding, Sugar Belle suddenly felt very out of place.

Later that evening, as the last few guests departed the wedding reception, Apple Bloom helped her older sister with cleaning up. A thought occurred to her and she looked around frantically. "Where's Rainbow Dash? She didn't try to fly home did she?"

"She's laying down, inside," Applejack said.

"Is she on my bed? I swear, if she pukes in my bed again I'mma punch that mare in the box!"

"Apple Bloom! Language!" Applejack scolded her. "Also, don't you worry. I've got her sacked out on some hay bales in the barn to sleep it off 'till morning." Applebloom opened her mouth, but Applejack cut her off. "And yeah, I got her propped up on her side so she doesn't almost die again." Applebloom frowned. "I'mma get that mare to quit drinking!"

Apple Bloom just shook her head. "Lying doesn't suit you, AJ."

"Yeah, yeah... It's getting dark. Ain't you got a sleepover to git to?" Applejack asked. "Don't go making Sweetie and Miss Rarity wait up for you."

Apple Bloom tied off the last trash bag and added it to the others before she left.

Sugar Belle and Big Mac collected some folding chairs to put away.

"Now don't you two go troubling yourself with those," Applejack said. "Miss Rarity would have a fit if you went and got her dress muddied up! And Mac! Papa's ghost would haunt your ass if you go and bust a seam in his old suit!"

The newlyweds gave no argument to the contrary and disrobed, carefully folding their garments and putting them aside on a clean table before getting back to work.

Applejack huffed in aggravation. "Come on now. This is supposed to be your big day. You should be keeping your strength for your... wedding night," she muttered, not from modesty, but through her clenched jaw.

"Alright then," Sugar Belle said, "No more lifting." She tried her best to do things the earth pony way out of respect. But now she carried even more, effortlessly with her magic.

Applejack just threw her hooves in the air. "Fine! Do what you want! I can't stop you. B'sides! I got a sink full a dishes to tend to!" And she stormed into the house.

Applejack wasn't normally one to be quick to anger. But she dealt with it the best way she knew how.

With work.

Figures that hussy would take that away from me too! Applejack thought as she attacked the dirty dishes. First my brother, then that, what next!?

She scrubbed each plate with the wash cloth and stacked it in the drying rack. Then the drinking cups. When the rack got full, she toweled them dry and put them away. Then she refilled the sink basin with fresh hot water to start again. Her raw emotion was tempered with each methodical task. She scolded herself. Sugar is no hussy. I am. What Mac an I been doing behind her back? T'aint right, and t'aint fair to her.

Sugar Belle walked into the kitchen. Applejack watched her reflection in the window glass as she carried the folded table cloths to drop off in the wash room.

"I promise I won't wash them for you," Sugar Belle joked, trying to break the tension.

Applejack took a deep breath. "No, it's alright. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. It's been a long day. I'm just tired is all."

Sugar smiled weakly at the back of Applejack's head. "Well, I'm sure that's true, but I'm also sure that it's not 'is all'."

"Can't say I know what you're getting at," Applejack said with genuine confusion.

"I know you can't say," Sugar said. "But I don't want there to be things left unsaid. Unresolved. Especially if we're going to be a family. I don't want to be a problem."

Applejack turned to look at her, "You ain't a problem! Who said that about you?"

"Nopony said that," Sugar Belle said quickly. "What I mean is, I don't want there to be a problem. I-" She shuffled her hooves anxiously. "I never wanted to make waves around here. That's why I try not to use my magic."

"I ain't mad about that neither! Your magic is a part of who you are!"

"I know. I just mean that- I didn't want marrying Mac to change anything around here."

Applejack opened her mouth to deny it on reflex, but paused. She felt her anger returning and she turned back around to keep working on the dishes. "Well... it can't be helped. It changes a lot. Changes plenty! But it's how it's s'posed to go, ain't it? Ain't nothing certain in life but change! Change in the weather, change in the seasons!"

Applejack dropped a soapy glass and it shattered on the floor. "FUCK!" Sugar Belle grabbed the dustpan and broom with her magic. Applejack grabbed them out of the air. "Don't be taking this too!"

"Applejack, I'm not trying to take away your brother!"

Applejack froze. "What are you-"

"I don't want what you have with each other to change!" Sugar said. "Your relationship, you don't have to stop!" The last shred of Applejack's poker face broke. "Yeah. That."

The kitchen door flew open. "I heard shouting," Big Mac said. "Is everything okay?"

Sugar Belle stopped him with her magic. "Just broke a glass," she said. "Mind your hooves. I'll have it swept up in a jiffy!" Applejack released her grip on the broom and dust pan and Sugar swept up all the broken glass, getting it into the trash can. "You finish up outside and we'll be there soon. Right Applejack?"

Applejack looked at Sugar, and then at Mac. "Yeah... In a jiffy," Applejack said through her teeth.

Big Mac looked back and forth between them. The tension was thick enough to float a block of lead. But he knew a hornet nest when he saw one. And he was wise enough to know not to poke it. "Alright..." He went back outside to finish cleaning up.

Once he was far enough away, Applejack asked, "He told you, I assume? I suppose I can't fault him for not keeping secrets from his spouse. Still, I don't care for him breaking a promise."

"He didn't!" Sugar said. "He keeps his promises, you know that!"

"Then how'd you catch wind?"

"I figured it out on my own."

Applejack narrowed her eyes. "You know I won't abide lying in this house."

"It's not important how I found out."

"Yeah, it KINDA IS!"

"I don't want to get her in trouble!"

"There's no way Apple Bloom could have- oh, DAMMIT RAINBOW! I'mma punch that mare in the box!"

Sugar Belle blocked the doorway. "AJ! AJ, wait! Look, this is what I was trying to avoid, okay? I don't want to be a problem, I don't want to get anypony in trouble, and I don't want anything to change! Look, I love Big Mac. Truly, I do. With all my heart. And... I can tell that you do, too. And, to be fair, you were here first."

"Hmff! Yeah."

"So... I'm willing to move past what happened while he and I were dating, and give you two my blessing going forward..." she trailed off.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "I can tell from the tone of your voice there's a catch in there somewhere."

Sugar Belle blushed and shuffled her hooves nervously. "Well, it's a little embarrassing to say..."

"Speak for yourself. I just admitted that I've been getting porked by my own brother."

Sugar Belle bit her lip. "And I don't mind if you keep doing it if... if I get to watch."

"Come again?"

Almost, Sugar Belle thought as she rubbed her thighs together. "I was an only foal growing up so... I find it fascinating and I'm curious to see it. So... may I watch?"

Applejack pursed her lips.

"It doesn't have to be every time!" Sugar bargained. "Just, some times, at least?"

Applejack huffed. "I ain't got much of a leg to stand on, seeing as you got me over a barrel with this. You know I can't much object to your terms." Sugar Belle grinned. "I suppose the only thing stopping you is getting Big Mac on board. And I dunno how you plan on broaching the subject with him..."

The kitchen door opened and Big Mac walked in with his neatly-folded suit and her dress in his hoof. "The rest of the yard is cleared, so..." He looked at the two mares staring back at him. Sugar Belle had a grin that was usually reserved for foals opening Hearth's Warming gifts. She grabbed his hoof and looked him in the eyes.

"I wanna watch you fuck Applejack!"

Author's Note