As Pinkie Pie was receiving a lap dance by the stallion at the admiration of the crowd, Rainbow stopped cheering and paused.
"What is it Sugar?" Applejack inquired of her wife.
"Did Fluttershy just say she was Pinkie's mare of honor?"Rainbow felt the atmosphere of the room leave her as she realized this fact was indeed true.
"Don't be so down." Applejack said, rubbing a hove through Rainbow's mane. Rainbow Just pushed it away and slipped into the kitchen nearly unnoticed. She remembered how Pinkie Pie was her mare of honor and Fluttershy was Applejack's. Rarity and Twilight had been too busy with their own parts in the wedding to be any ponies mare of honors. She remembered getting ready and now panicky she had felt.
"Calm down. Here, have a cupcake." Pinkie had offered her so long ago.
"I don't want a cupcake!" Rainbow had bucked it out of Pinkie's hove but Pinkie had caught it with her tongue before it touched the floor. She ate it in one tremendous gulp then sat down in a nearby chair while Rainbow paced.
"Maybe we're not ready." Rainbow mumbled to herself then looked out the window out towards the horizon. "Maybe this was a huge mistake..." She muttered and thought about tearing off this stupid white dress and heading off towards that much more forgivable horizon. The last thing any pony would see of her would be her now signature rainboom light up the sky one last time.
"What?!" Pinkie erupted tearing Rainbow away from her runaway thoughts sharply. "How could you even think that? Applejack loves you and you'd throw it away just like that! If it were me at the end of that aisle-" Pinkie fell silent and, if possible, even pinker. Rainbow looked astonished.
"What would you do if you were at the end of the aisle?" Rainbow asked cautiously. The only thing to break this uncomfortable silence was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" They both said finding something else to do besides staring at each other. When Spike entered the room, he found Rainbow looking out the window while Pinkie Pie was studying Rainbow's bouquet.
"Hello?" He asked, causing the two friends to look at him and not at each other.
"Hi Spike." Pinkie Pie blurted.
"What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked with forced causality. The whole scene felt awkward but they all rolled with it.
"Fine, I just wanted to check on you before I checked on Applejack. Everything fine?" Spike entered the room and stood next to Rainbow. He was now taller than Rainbow which she wasn't used to yet so she took a step back. Spike chuckled at this. "What not use to the grown up baby dragon?" He joked.
"You're just so tall." Rainbow muttered blushing a little.
"Here." Spike took one claw and dragged the strands that were dangling in front of Rainbow's face then placed them behind her closet her. "And Rainbow?"
"Huh?" He pulled her into an unexpected hug.
"You're going to be fine." Rainbow was having trouble slowing her heart but she fell into the comforting touch the dragon brought.
"What about me? I'm a nervous wreck!" They glanced over at Pinkie Pie who was stuffing cupcake after cupcake into her mouth. Spike and Rainbow laughed at her zaniness. Pinkie smiled, she loved making Rainbow laugh, it was the truest laughs that made her heart break and soar at the same time.
"Come here you." Rainbow motioned for Pinkie Pie to join in on the hug.
"Wow Spike, you're so warm." Pinkie noted the moment she was in her friend's arms.
"Yeah, a side effect from the enhanced aging process." Then he grinned to himself. 'Rarity always seems to like it.' He thought coyly. They all stood like that for a while before Spike cleared his throat. "Well, this has been fun" 'And awkward.' he added under his breathe "But I better go check on Applejack too." He sighed before letting go of the two ponies who stepped back and smoothed out the perfections Rarity had created.
"I hope she's not nervous. Do 'I' look nervous? I felt like I'm going to throw up."Rainbow Dash was now hyperventilating. Pinkie Pie grabbed Rainbow's shoulders and shook her to her senses.
"Pull yourself together!" Pinkie yelled. Spike thought she was being too harsh with Rainbow but that was what Rainbow needed in that moment.
"I'm okay, I'm fine." She promised them, Spike more than Pinkie Pie. Pinkie didn't need to hear it from Rainbow to it was still pleasant to hear all the same.
"All you need to do is stay calm and get through it. We'll do the rest." He patted a reassuring claw on her shoulder before leaving the room. Now the two mares stood alone in the unsettling quite.
"Well, better get you married." Pinkie mumbled before trotting over and picking up the bouquet but when she tried to pass it on, Rainbow Dash simply set it aside.
"Pinkie Pie, what did you mean before?"
"About what?" Pinkie Pie tried playing dumb like she always did, which usually made the children watching her in her head laugh. But the children were tucked away for the time being and Rainbow wasn't in the mood.
"You know what." Her voice was soft but still furious. There was something else Pinkie Pie recognized too. Defeat? Deflation? Pinkie gulped then shut her eyes before continuing.
"If it's all the same to you Rainbow Dash, I'd rather not tell you." She answered the question without really having to answer it. I like our friendship and I don't want to lose it." Rainbow considered this.
"All right, only if I'm your mare of honor!" She then surprised Pinkie Pie (which was no easy feet) with a noggie to the head. Pinkie's laughter, as it had chased away the spooky in the Ever Free Forest, chased away the awkward. too.
"Yeah right, I'm not even seeing any pony right now."
"What about Cheese Sandwich, I thought you two were an item?" Rainbow inquired thickly around the bouquet in her mouth.
"True but nothing 'THAT' serious. We aren't really serious at all!" Pinkie Pie bounced out of the room, leaving Rainbow alone with her thoughts for the first time that day.
"No, you're not." She agreed quietly before Rarity popped her head in and informed Rainbow that it was time.
"Rainbow?" Rainbow Dash felt the ground of her flashback slip then tumble away as Pinkie Pie entered the kitchen.
"Hey Pinkie, I thought you were getting a lap dance?" Rainbow managed a smile on her face as Pinkie approached her.
"I was, but I noticed you came in here, so I told the girls to have a little fun of their own." That was when Rainbow heard Fluttershy's unmistakable excitement and terror squeaks.
"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!" Rainbow thought she caught a glimpse of Fluttershy getting gyrated on by the stallion to the cheers of the crowd.
"Cupcake?" Pinkie Pie held a black frosted cupcake with a red mare painted on it. Rainbow remembered when Pinkie had offered her a cupcake in that memory.
"No thanks, hey Pinkie?"
"Yep?" Pinkie asked through hot sauce coated cupcake.
"Do you remember my wedding day and we were in my dressing room getting ready and I thought about flying away and you said not to?" Pinkie stopped chewing then swallowed hard at the cupcake's bulk. Pinkie nodded which prompted Rainbow to ask the question she wanted answered: "Then why is Fluttershy your mare of honor and not me?" Pinkie thought a moment. Playing dumb wouldn't work, the kids were asleep and Rainbow was serious. 'I hate serious questions, there's no way around them.' Pinkie thought before sighing.
"I didn't want you as my mare of honor Rainbow. Please accept that." With that she walked away.
"That's not a real answer!" Rainbow cried after her.
"Well then what is!" Pinkie Pie roared back her mane and tail now sounding like a deflating balloon as she continued. "Maybe because I didn't want you to find out that even after all this time, even though I still love Cheese, even though I'm a different pony, I. Still. Love. You!" There was a palpable silence that followed. "I still, despite everything... I love you." Pinkie felt horrible at finally releasing her most private secret to the pony she never wanted to found out in the first place.
"Pinkie. I had no-" Rainbow began but Pinkie stopped her.
"Don't give me that. You knew when I slipped up on your wedding day." Of course Rainbow had suspicions, but no idea that it was still true to this day. "I tried everything to get over you. Everything. And when Twilight told us the plan for your anniversary, I couldn't take it anymore. So I tried to get pregnant with a pony I don't even love. At least, not as much as you." Pinkie confessed to the floor, which made it feel like Rainbow just happened to be there. Just listening not apart of the conversation even though she was the center of it.
"Pinkie, I'm sorry." Rainbow said after a while.
"You know what can be your wedding present to me?" Pinkie asked.
"Anything." Rainbow promised.
"Don't show up to my wedding. Run away if you must, just don't come at all."
"But Pinkie-" Rainbow was tearing up at such a horrible request but again, Pinkie interrupted.
"If I see you in the crowd, I might not say yes. Just please Rainbow, for me." Now Pinkie was crying too. After an almost total slience besides the party noise outside the kitchen, Rainbow nodded.
"Okay, if that's what you wish. It is your wedding day after all."
"Thank you." Pinkie smiled through her tears but it was painful. "Better get back to my party I suppose huh?" She wiped away the tears and fluffed her mane and tail up to look as puffy as it did before. "You are more than welcome to stay if you-" It was Rainbow's turn to interrupt.
"No I think I should go, if you see Applejack tell her-"
"Tell me what?" Applejack trotted into the kitchen looking angry but she was only hurt. Pinkie's mane and tail re-deflated as Applejack stood next to Rainbow defensively.
"How much did you-" Pinkie began, Applejack picked up.
"The whole thing. Don't you worry none, neither of us will be there. We are together Pinkie Pie, ask one of us not to come, neither of us come. Now come on Eagle, let's go home." Applejack pushed past Pinkie Pie as if she wasn't even there, except she flipped her tail on Pinkie's snout with a small, satisfying little snap.
"I'm sorry Pinkie." Rainbow offered as she wiped away a trembling tear from Pinkie's face and flew out the door with Applejack leading the way.