“I’m bored,” Scootaloo said, lying upside down as she waited patiently for her friend's response.
“Well, what do you suggest?” Applebloom said, looking just as bored as her friend.
“Where is she? I thought you said to meet at the clubhouse earlier than Applejack so we can discuss what you wanted to talk about,” Scootaloo said, getting more aggravated by every second.
“I did, but you know Sweetie Belle, she always is the last one of us to leave her house,” Applebloom said just as a young unicorn with curled white and light purple hair and a nervous tone as she said. “Cutie Mark Crusaders, we have a problem!” The two looked at Sweetie Belle with concerning eyes.
“What’s wrong, Sweetie? Is any pony hurt?” Scootaloo said trotting to her friend.
“No, worse than that,” Sweetie Belle said with an even more concerning voice.
“Just calm down and tell us what has your stomach in knots,” Applebloom said, trying to comfort her friend.
“Okay. I was walking down to the clubhouse and saw Big Macintosh bucking some apples, but I noticed that since today is Hearts and Hooves Day and he has a marefriend, right?” Sweetie said looking at Applebloom with questioning eyes.
“Last I checked yes,” she said, giving another thought at it, “Though now that you mention it, he hasn’t been seeing her for a while,” Applebloom said, making the crusader's eyes wide with realization.
“Shouldn’t he be with Sugar Belle today?” Scootaloo asked in a wondrous tone, Sweetie Belle nodded her head as her friends took in all of the information.
“What're we gonna do? It’s obvious that somethin’ happened or else Big Mac wouldn’t be here,” Applebloom said. They all thought of a plan to help Big Mac with his problem when Sweetie Belle squealed like a dog making her friends cover their ears and let her finish.
“Whatever you’re thinking, I hope it is good and loud because I can’t hear anything after that,” Scootaloo said with her hooves still on her ears.
“Well it’s good, but by all means, we don’t want it to be loud,” Sweetie Belle said. Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at their shrieking friend with confusion in their eyes,
“Come again?” Applebloom asked, hoping to understand what Sweetie Belle's plan would be. Sweetie Belle looked at her friends with annoyance, they never really understood her when a plan came into her mind.
“What I mean is, we should send a letter to Sugar Bells village making Big Mac go send some pies or something while we sneak in the cart, then we’ll get out of the cart and look around to see what is going on with the couple.”
Scootaloo and Applebloom were surprised, it was a good plan, but there was one thing missing.
“Ah don’t mean to burst your bubble Sweetie Belle, but ah don’t think Big Macintosh would want to go to Sugar Bells village when something is going on,” Applebloom said.
“And do we even know if something is going on, I mean did you even talk to him,” Scootaloo said, making both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom realize she was right.
“Well then maybe we should ask him before we get our costumes,” Sweetie said looking to see her friends who were very confused at her sentence.
“Costumes?” Applebloom said, raising a hoof to wonder what Sweetie Belle was talking about.
Sweetie Belle looked and realized that she hadn’t said that part about the plan.
“Well, were going to need to be in costume so we aren’t caught,” they looked at her and remembered what happened the last time,
“No offense Sweetie, but do you remember the last costumes we wore, they weren’t exactly… spy worthy.” Scootaloo said, hoping not to ruin her friend's plan.
“Don’t worry about that until we get to Rarity’s shop,” Sweetie Belle said with a reassuring smile.
The two crusaders looked at each other than at Sweetie Belle and smiled.
“Well then, let's go see what has those two stuck in the reins,” Applebloom said with her county talk that made the others get a bit annoyed
----------
Big Macintosh was bucking one of the apple trees thinking about the holiday that was today.
'Maybe ah should go over and talk to her. No, that is silly, she probably doesn’t want anything to do with me, after what happened the last time, I doubt she never wants to see me again.' His head turned down at the thought of what happened. Big Mac’s thoughts were interrupted by little fillies coming his way.
“Big Mac, can we ask you a few questions?” his little sister said, he looked at them and thought to himself, “Oh no, what do they want, this is better not be another attempt to find me another date. Wait, they know I have marefriend, hopefully. So what do they want?”
he realized that he had been thinking for too long he saw the looks the fillies gave and came to his usual sayings “eeup,” he said making the fillies smile.
“Good. Now, is it true that you have a marefriend?” Sweetie Belle asked making Big Mac sad at the thought of almost not having one, it took him a while but he managed to say a quiet “Eeup,” and forcing a nervous smile, the CMC noticed this and looked worried.
“Okay, then why are you here and not at her bakery?” Scootaloo asked hoping he would say anything but what he usually says. Big Mac looked more nervous at this question.
“Oh no, I can’t tell them, can I? It seems like they want to help me with something, maybe they already know. That can’t be possible, it was a private conversation.” It took Big Mac a longer while than he wanted to get the words he needed but finally got up enough courage to speak.
“Well… because Applejack needs ma help with apple-bucking and I thought family comes first so…” Big Mac noticed he was talking fast (well faster than he usually does) and noticed the CMC reacting more nervously.
“If that’s true, then where’s Applejack?” Applebloom said looking around to see if she was there.
“Rats, they’re onto me, I guess there’s nothing else to say, except…maybe...” Big Mac thought he smiled up and looked at the crusaders making an unusual turn of events.
“Me and Sugar Belle decided to not see each other during today since both of us are going to be busy,” Big Macintosh had a reassuring smile hoping it would work.
“I guess that makes the most sense,” Scootaloo said, writing the information on a paper, “Thank you, Big Mac, we’ll see you soon.” The CMC walked off far enough so Big Mac couldn’t hear.
“Well, obviously somethin’ happened,” Applebloom said hoping her big brother was okay.
“So that means we need to take my plan to action?” Sweetie Belle asked with a bit of hope in her tone.
“There must be an explanation to what happened, so I think we need to go along with Sweetie Belle's plan, but only if all of us agree,” Scootaloo said as she and Sweetie Belle looked to Applebloom for an answer.
“If it helps Big Mac with his mare troubles, I’m all for it!” Applebloom said as they all hoof bumped and ran to Rarity’s workshop.
----------
“Can you find anything?” Scootaloo asked frantically searching for a costume. They tore down the back of her workshop to find something simple, but this being Rarity’s boutique, you never could find anything simple.
“Not yet, but I know Rarity made some cloaks some time for one of her nervous breakdowns,” Sweetie Belle said looking between some fancy clothes.
“Well, ah don’t think we’re doing such luck, this place is a bigger mess than before,” Applebloom said, pulling a few clothes onto the floor.
“FOUND SOME” Scootaloo shouted, stopping her friends and going over to the loud pegasus. They took the simple brown itchy cloak and put it in a bag, there was a loud rumble and the crusaders turned around and saw a mass of clothes run onto them, in the darkness, they could hear a loud mumbling, “SWEETIE BELLE! Why are you ruining all my hard work!”
They popped their head one by one and saw Rarity and another stallion. She looked red with anger when she looked at her sister. Rarity went and searched for a suit and went back to the stallion, before long they walked out leaving the crusaders to escape, but it was too late, Rarity came back and asked what they were up to.
“Well, you see Rarity, I wanted to help somepony out today, and I needed to find a costume, so we tried to search for some and finally found a few, but then a big tower of clothes fell onto us, and we’re sorry for making you clean up.” Sweetie Belle said, hanging her head.
Applebloom and Scootaloo looked and saw a calm Rarity, or as calm as she can be, and she said it was okay. They all left the boutique and walked with the bag.
“Now that we have finished phase A, we need to move onto phase B,” Sweetie Belle said, taking a pad and pencil out in her hair making her friends confused.
“So, is phase B to deliver a letter? If you haven’t noticed the mail ponies are off today,” Scootaloo said matter of fact.
“No, the mail ponies aren’t going to deliver, we are.” Sweetie Belle said folding the paper into an envelope, her friends still looked confused but followed along as she went over to Sweet Apple Acres
----------
The sun was coming up for Big Macintosh as he bucked another tree,
“Applejack should be up to her hill right now and watching the sun come up,” he thought, “I wonder what Sugar Belle is doing right now. No, I need to forget her for now, thankfully no letters have come to me to deliver anything,” his trail of thought left as familiar fillies came by with a letter, “Me and my big thoughts,” he grumbled in his voice of thought.
“Big Mac! You have a letter from Starlights village!” a voice from Sweetie Belle said, he turned around and waited for the worst, he read what it was saying.
Dear Big Macintosh,
I want to inform you that I need some more apples for today and would love it if you could come, I can’t wait to see you.”
See you soon, Sugar Belle.
Big Mac read the letter over and over again.
“Does she want to talk! Are we getting back together! Maybe I should go over and talk to her,”
The crusaders looked at Big Mac with wondering eyes.
“So are you going?” Applebloom looked at Big Mac with hope in her eyes.
He looked at the CMC and smiled. “Eeup,” he said in the surest voice the crusaders have ever heard him say.
“Yes! I can do this!”
----------
“Ah can’t do this!” Big Mac thought as he and the other crusaders put on their costumes and were about to enter the village.
“Does Big Macintosh look worried to you?” Scootaloo asked as the crusaders walked.
“Yeah, I noticed too. Whatever happened must’ve made Big Mac not want to come back,” Applebloom said as she looked over to where Big Mac was, he was falling far behind them and going slower by every minute.
“Well, all we need to do is go over by Sugar Belle’s bakery and ask her what happened, with these costumes it will almost seem like we blend in here,” Sweetie Belle said flapping her cloak around.
“Are we sure she even wants to see Big Mac, maybe she’ll get mad and we ruin a beautiful relationship,” Applebloom said stopping dead in her tracks worried that this was a mistake, the crusaders looked at Big Mac and were having second thoughts about this.
“Maybe you're right, we should just go back and-”
“NO! we’ve come too far to turn away now, all there is left to do is keep going forward.” Sweetie Belle snapped. Her friends looked at her with astonishing eyes, she only ever snaps like that when she is determined, and to her friends, that shows great crusader courage.
“Your right Sweetie Belle, we just need to keep moving forward and see what the future leads to the two ponies, and if all else fails, then we’ve come prepared,” Applebloom said, folding her cloak to her ears as did the others, they entered the village. Big Mac saw that nothing had changed since he was last here, same buildings, same ponies, same bakery.
“What am I thinking, the last time I was here she hated me, now I think she's going to forgive me? Ah can’t believe how stupid I was…am… oh, whatever, this is not going to work, right?” all of his thoughts stopped as he paused walking and coming right in front of Sugar Belle's bakery, “Well there’s my explanation, I am the stupidest pony in all of Equestria,” the crusaders looked over and saw that Big Mac had stopped walking and was just standing there, in front of her bakery.
“Come on Big Mac, this isn’t that hard is it?” Scootaloo said turning around and pushing Big Mac into the bakery.
“Eeup,” he said, forcing his body to move against Scootaloo, the other crusaders came up behind him and started pushing him themselves, making Big Mac’s body move through the ground until he was in the bakery.
----------
Sugar Belle was loading up herself when she heard a big thud and turned around to see that a big red pony was laying on her floor and looked worried.
“Big Mac, what are you doing here?” she said, sounding annoyed.
“Well, that answered my question if she had forgotten about the fight, oh well, no turning back now.” He thought to look at her purple face, her face was mad but he couldn’t help but look at them.
“Uh… um…. I uh…” Big Mac stammered and was about to say something but three little fillies beat him to it.
“Miss Sugar Belle, me and mah friends just want to talk,” Applebloom said coming up to Sugar Belle with pleading eyes, it only took one to get control but when Sugar Belle looked at all three of their pleading eyes, she couldn’t help it.
“Okay, I’ll talk! Just stop looking at me like that.” Sugar Belle said looking away at them while they did a hoof bump
“The pleading eyes always work,” Sweetie Belle said, Sugar Belle sat on her haunches, “Let me guess, you want to talk about the fight me and Big Mac had?” she said knowingly.
“Yeah, we want to know what happened so we can try to fix it,” Scootaloo said as they all sat down.
Big Mac, still on the floor, sighed and hoped that this wasn’t a mistake.
“Well, I was putting away my treats…”
Sugar Belle put the last apple pie on her shelf when she heard that same country voice she had been worried would never come back.
“There you are, I was hoping you would come, how long has it been? 2 weeks?” she said as she came over and kissed Big Mac on the cheek, he blushed making her giggle.
“Actually it’s more like… 2 months,” Big Mac said nervously as he scratched the back of his head, Sugar Belle turned around and looked at Big Mac with surprise.
“2 months! You haven’t come to see me in 2 months!” Sugar Belle said as her head was getting red with anger,
“Ah tried to come back but the farm… it needed to be taken care of, you know how hard it is to be a farm pony,” he said trying to calm her down,
“Oh, now I see…” Sugar Belle said making Big Mac confused, but with a wave of relief.
“Oh good, I knew you would under-”
“You like your farm more than me!” Sugar Belle interrupted.
Big Mac looked at her with astonishment. “No, I just meant that you wouldn’t understand how it is like being on a farm, you don’t have the farm experience in you at all,” He said trying to be reasonable.
“So you think I can’t be a good farmer pony! I can’t believe you would say that!” Sugar Belle moved to her opposite side of her bakery to get away from the stallion.
“Sugar Bell I didn’t mean,” Big Mac said trotting to her, but he somehow tripped and landed on her shelf that she had just painted.
“Big Mac you idiot! I want you to leave right now!” Sugar Bell said, making Big Mac flinch, she had never used such strong language him.
“I think I can fix this if you could…” Big Mac said getting back up from the splintered wood.
“NO I JUST WANT YOU TO LEAVE!” Sugar Bell said shouting at the top of her lungs, the crowd of villagers came to see what was going on but just saw an angry stallion walking/running away.
The crusaders looked at Sugar Bell, then Big Mac, and back at Sugar Bell, who looked as if she wanted to cry.
“I don’t believe it, how could that have happened,” Sweetie Belle said freaking out.
“It doesn’t matter how it happened, it just happened. Now you know the story, so you can just leave now,” Sugar Bell said, turning around to her cellar.
“I don’t think so,” Scootaloo said standing up, “We said that we are going to hear and help with the problem.”
The rest of the crusaders stood up and puffed out their chests to show how determined they were to solve this problem.
“Ah don’t there’s anythin’ you can do to help,” Big Macintosh said standing up next to Sugar Bell, “But maybe ah can.” he pulled Sugar Belle to meet his gaze, his her eyes were all the mad, but also very sorrowful.
“Sugar Bell, I’m sorry, I should’ve known what ah was talking about. Ah didn’t even notice you were feeling mad and ah just left you to feel this way, if you have any forgiveness in you, then I hope you can forgive me for mah cruel action. If not, then ah totally understand,” Big Mac said, hanging his head, he looked at everypony whose eyes were as big as saucers and had their jaws dropped.
“What?” he asked as if nothing was wrong.
“You just confessed something,” Sweetie Belle finally managed to say, they took a bit longer to say anything else but soon it got to their heads that indeed, Big Mac had confessed his wrongdoing, Sugar Bell, unlike the crusaders, was astonished happily, all her life she had been lied to, but now that somepony became honest with her, she couldn’t help but smile.
“That was the sweetest thing anypony has told me,” she said as she came closer to Big Macintosh they leaned in closer and almost kissed, not even hearing Sweetie Belle shriek, soon they heard a familiar country voice in a suspicious costume.
----------
The rest of the night was pretty crazy for every pony. Once Applejack left, the Crusaders went on to their own lives that night. Scootaloo went on to Celestia knowing where to sleep, Applebloom went on to the clubhouse to contemplate what they should do next, and Sweetie Belle went back to the boutique to clean up after the big mess today brought. Big Macintosh went to bed early to think about what happened today.
“Well, that was a busy day, ah hope I can see Sugar Belle again, maybe finally kiss her in private. Nonetheless, I should thank my sister and her friends for helping me. Without them, I would’ve been broken up with Sugar Bell forever, or at least for a long time, I’m just glad I could get up the courage, and hopefully, it will take myself to get enough courage to go over to her than my sister,” all of these thoughts and more made Big Mac smile, he kept thinking about his sister and thought, “Man, I hope both mah sisters had a good Hearts and Hooves day”, while all of the crusaders were thinking, “We did it,” and they all slept with happy thoughts and peaceful dreams.