"You told me the potion would get rid of my fears!" Sugar Belle confronted Sour Grape in her inn bedroom.
Sour made a mock surprised look and said with fake sincerity, "Oh my! Well that's certainly strange! It should have worked! Unless…"
"Unless?"
"Unless your fears were much stronger than we thought!"
"W-what does that mean?"
"It means, my dear, that you were against the idea of having children in the first place but you wanted to please your husband so much that you thought you could handle being a mother. This potion has shown you otherwise."
"Well then, what do you think I should do?"
"Well… it's not my place to say… but perhaps you should consider leaving, for the good of your husband."
Sugar gasped and tears welled in her eyes, the thought of leaving Big Mac was unbearable. Unknowing to her, her eyes were turning darker just she had thought, But what good am I to him if I can't even bear him a child? And all because of my stupid fear! Maybe I should leave…
Spike, Applejack, and Big Mac were running through town calling out Sugar Belle's name all the while kids were trick-or-treating and adults were enjoying the festival.
Applejack declared, "This is getting us nowhere! There just too many ponies runnin' about!"
Spike suggested, "We need some way to narrow down the search…" he pondered long and hard until he snap his fingers and said, "Twilight and Starlight worked on locater spells at one point! Mac, do you have something of Sugar Belle's with you?"
The stallion quickly went through his pockets till he pulled out a hair tie. Spike took it and told them, "Come on, we need to get to the castle."
Apple Bloom paced back and forth in the farmhouse, "I don't like this. I don't like this one bit! I should be out there looking for Sugar Belle too!"
Her friends were watching on the side along with their coltfriends.
Pip addressed her, "Your sister told me to take you back home. I was inclined to obey her."
"And that's another thing! I thought we have gotten past that! I'm not a baby anymore! I'm fifteen for pony sakes and dating! That doesn't get more grown-up then that!"
Pip motioned, "She just wanted to keep you safe. We don't know why your sister-in-law suddenly vanished like that."
A knock on the door came and Tender Taps entered in, "Apple Bloom, I heard about Sugar Belle, I'm sorry."
AB stopped pacing and a warm smile came over her face which Pip didn't fail to notice much to his dismay.
"Thanks Tender, but I would feel a lot better if I could be searching too for her."
"I overheard your brother and sister and they sounded very worried, I think they did the right thing sending you home."
She lifted her brow, "You think so?"
"Yes, it's important that you're safe, for all we know a manic could be on the loose and Sugar Belle could have been his first victim."
Both Button Mash and Sweetie Belle gulped at the thought and held each other tightly for support.
Apple Bloom was worried herself if that was the case and told him, "You might be right, Tender, since we don't know what is going on."
Pip slightly scowled and bitterly thought, So she'll take the word of her old coltfriend but she refuses to listen to the new one? Something is very wrong with this picture here…
"Think it'll work?" Spike asked Starlight while holding out Sugar's hair tie.
The unicorn nodded, "As long as it's her's, it should." She took it with her aura and began casting the spell. The tie then glowed and floated on it's own. She added, "All we have to do is follow it and it will lead us to Sugar Belle."
The tie floated out of the room and they rushed after it.
Sugar Belle was ready to head to the train station but she lingered on to the place she had called home for the last year. Ponyville had become more of a home to her then Our Town ever was. Sure she missed her old friends but marrying Big Mac more than enough made up for that. After all she been through during her lifetime, she felt that she had finally gotten her happily-ever-after until this happen.
I don't understand it. I was so sure I wanted children but if I had been afraid of the idea all this time…? She sadly shook her head, My husband deserves better then that… He deserves better than me…
She kept walking toward the station when a great cry suddenly shouted out.
"Sugar Belle!"
She turned to see her husband, Applejack, Spike, and Starlight running to her. Then Big Mac wrapped his arms around her as he exclaimed, "I was so worried about you!"
Applejack came up, "We all were."
Sugar could feel the tears welding inside her.
Starlight asked in concern, "Are you okay?"
The tears came faster then she could stop them, "No!" and she sobbed on holding her face to her hooves.
The group exchanged worried looks.
They were back at the castle where Spike offered the weepy mare some hot chocolate. She took it with her aura, barely sipping it. Her husband had a blanket drape over her and wrapped his arm around her trying to keep her calm. Starlight began questioning her.
"Can you tell us from when this all happen?"
Sugar quivered, "I-it was when Big Mac and I were discussing of possibly starting our family now but I was scared to go through with it and it made me feel ashamed that I couldn't give him what he wanted."
Mac pointed, "But we've already talked about this, Sugar."
"I know we did, but I felt so guilty in delaying that I hoped I could get past my fears by taking Sour Grape's potion."
Applejack furrowed her brow, "What potion?"
"It's a potion she said that could get rid of my fears but it turn out that my fears were more powerful than we thought! I was so upset that I thought I was doing you a favor by leaving…"
Mac moved her closer to him and uttered, "No. Don't ever think that. I would be miserable without you."
"But… you want children…"
"I want to have them, yes, but you mean more to me than that. So, children or no children, I want us to be together till death do us part. But even then, I want us to spend an eternity together…"
Applejack and Spike exchanged loving glances at those words before looking at the married couple again.
Sugar was speechless and touched as she wept, "Oh, Big Mac…" she cuddled closer to him.
Giving the lovers their moment, Applejack, Spike, and Starlight huddled together as the unicorn whispered.
"I've never heard of a potion that can get rid of your fears…"
Spike questioned, "You haven't?"
Starlight shook her head, "It's unheard of, not to mention impossible."
Applejack frowned, "So why would Sour Grape say that her potion can get rid of fears if it's not possible?"
Spike pointed, "But what if it is possible? After all, we know a zebra that's gifted with the art of potion making, so we should ask her to be sure."
Starlight inquired, "Can you go get her then?"
The dragon started for the door as he declared, "I'm on my way!"
Apple Bloom sighed in relief after reading the letter she got viva dragon fire breath. She told the others what it said and they sighed in relief as well.
AB stated, "Since now that I know that Sugar Belle is okay and that Applejack wrote they're not sure when they'll be home, we got the whole place to ourselves!"
"Neat-o!" exclaimed Scootaloo, "We should totally play a game that no adult would ever let us play while we're waiting, like spin-the-bottle!"
Sweetie motioned, "I'm not kissing anyone but my special some pony!" she held Button close, almost choking him.
Apple Bloom pointed, "I'm with Sweetie on that, Scoots." she turned to Pip and kissed his cheek, catching him off guard.
Tender slightly frowned at the affectionate smooth.
Pip was pleasantly surprised by her kiss, making him think, Maybe I was overreacting before…
Apple Bloom said, "Since we know everything's okay now, we might as well get something to eat."
Rumble volunteered, "I can help you cook something cool!"
She exclaimed, "Great!" and they headed to the kitchen but not before the pegasus stole a loving glance to his girlfriend with her returning it.
Button suggested, "And while they're doing that, the rest of us should find games to play while we wait."
Sounds of agreement went around the room.
Tender told Button Mash, "And I know where the Apples keep their board games. Wanna help me get them?"
The colt nodded and the two left the room, leaving Pip with the girls giving him the chance to talk to them about Apple Bloom.
He addressed them, "Hey, I've noticed Apple Bloom's been giving Tender Taps these strange looks. Do you know something about that?"
The two crusaders exchanged cringing looks and Pip knew that wasn't a good sign.
Meanwhile, as Button and Tender were getting the games, Tender inquired, "So how close are Apple Bloom and Pip?"
"Pretty close." Button replied, "They went out a lot since they got together and recently, they admitted their love for each other and had their first kiss."
Tender's eyes widen at this and gawked.
It took us a whole year before we admitted our love for each other!
Unknowing to him, his eyes turned a shade darker as he felt his jealousy rising once more.