"My second youngest daughter, have you found my first youngest daughter?" Pa Pie asked, visibly concerned when he saw Pinkie Pie returning without Marble.
"No, I didn't get to reach her!" Pinkie said between wheezing breaths. "Oh it's all my fault, I must have forced her beyond her limits, I'm such a bad big sister ..."
"Calm down Pinkie, now the most important thing is that we find her, we can't leave her out there in the cold for long!" Sugar Belle said.
"Eeyup!" Big Mac agreed, Impressed and delighted by his wife's ability to remain calm in such a situation.
Everyone started looking for her together, determined not to stop searching until they searched every corner of the orchard, then Applejack had the idea that they'd split up to make it easier to find her.
Sugar Belle walked, calling for her, until she stopped when she heard loud crying sobs coming from a corner. She returned and getting closer to a log lying on the ground, forming a small hole there. She smiled, confirming that it was Marble. She was huddled inside the hole, crying and shivering.
"M-Marble Pie?" She asked softly.
Marble turned slowly to her direction, but when she saw who it was, she immediately ignored.
"Go away, you're the last person I want to see now!" She replied between sobs and chattering teeth, trying to cover her body with her own arms to try to keep warm.
"Marble, everyone on the farm is worried and behind you, come with me, it's very cold out here ..."
"I don't care, can you just leave me alone? Please!" She said.
Sugar Belle was saddened by the rejection of a possible new friend, but at the same time confused, because from what she remembered, she had done no harm to Marble.
"What did I do to make you treat me this way? Can you please tell me? I really need to know!" She said, as she straightened the blue scarf even more around her neck.
"... You didn't do anything wrong to me." Marble finally said after several moments of silence. "But at the same time, you did."
That explanation only made Sugar Belle even more confused.
"Explain to me, please." She insisted.
"I don't know. I have no guarantee that you won't be mad at me."
"I won't be mad, I promise." The unicorn assured her.
Sugar Belle was the last pony that Marble had confidence in, but she was so tired of keeping that agonizing feeling to herself that she decided to tell her what it was about.
Time skip ...
Marble told her everything, not resisting crying a few tears while doing it.
Sugar Belle immediately felt bad, she happily never had her heart broken, but the people around her who went through this painful experience, made her see how much it hurt when the person you love doesn't love you back.
"I didn't know you were going through all these bad things. Why didn't you say anything to your relatives?"
"I didn't mean to bother them with my nonsense." She answered sadly.
"Nonsense?" Sugar Belle said, as she slowly pulled her out of the hole. "If there's someone we can trust to tell you about these kinds of things, it's our relatives. I understand, we don't have the power to choose who we fall in love with and I don't know, but it must hurt when that feeling isn't reciprocal."
"And it hurts, a lot." Marble replied, with her head down.
"Yeah, right?" She asked and Marble replied with a nod. "Listen, I know it can hurt now, but one day you'll get over it and get your own special somepony, who will loves you the way you'll love him back. And if you need a pony to vent with, I'll be here whenever you need it. I'm not here to understand what you're going through, because I can't put myself in your shoes, but I'm here to make sure that whenever you want to vent, or a friendly shoulder to cry on, I'll be here!"
Marble Pie smiled when she saw that she no longer felt sad around Sugar Belle and now she saw her as a friend. She was immediately surprised when Marble suddenly embraced her, but happily accepted her hug.
"Thank you for not hating me." She said, confessing that this was one of her biggest fears.
"Hates you? It'll never happen, I promise. You didn't do anything wrong either, I know Big Mac's really cute!" Sugar Belle said sweetly between soft laughs. "I think I owe you an apology."
"But you haven't done anything wrong."
"I know but..."
"Ugh, this is so complicated!"
"I know!" She said between soft laughs. "But even so, your feelings are just as valid as ours. I'm sorry."
"You have nothing more to apologize for." Marble said calmly, smiling shyly when Sugar Belle smiled nicely at her.
"Now shall we go home?"
"Yes, let's go, it's really cold out here!" She agreed.
They returned to the Sweet Apple farm and the ponies that stayed on the farm in case she returned, celebrated her return.
The two new friends stayed talking, while they waited for the rest of the team who left to look for Marble to return and both immediately felt a strong bond of friendship appear between them.
After several hours, they returned to the farm to get some rest, but they wouldn't give up easily looking for her, after Sugar Belle also disappeared.
Everyone was surprised to find the two safe and sound there.
"Baby sister, I promise I'll never force you again beyond your limits again, please forgive me!" Pinkie Pie said as she hugged her, a stream of tears streaming down her eyes.
"It's okay sis."
"Never do that again, my youngest daughter, you make us very worried!" Pa Pie said. "What do you have to say about it?"
"I'm sorry Pa, I won't do it again, I promise." She said quietly.
Big Mac hugged his wife, relieved that she was fine, Marble smiled to see that it didn't affect her as much as before.
"Where were you two at?" He asked.
"I found her, then we came here. Sorry for not telling you to not be worried, she was too cold and we couldn't wait any longer." Sugar Belle replied.
"Ah see, are you feeling better now, Marble?" He asked her with a smile.
"Mhm." Marble agreed.
"Good. But why did she run like that when we saw each other?"
Marble didn't answer, she immediately hid her face and turned away from him.
"Hey Marbs, it's okay." Sugar Belle assured her.
"What happened? Is she okay?"
"Let's talk about it later, ok sugar? We're on a holiday after all!" She answered.
Suddenly, Marble was startled when she was hugged by someone, blushing when she saw it was the pony she was talking to.
They smiled at each other, while Sugar Belle elbowed her provocatively.
End of flashbacks:
"We're very happy to be here too!" She said, smiling as she watched her niece playing with Lil' Mac, hopping happily with each other, she had been there since morning, helping her parents prepare all the things for Apple Belle's birthday party, his younger sister.
Since they were little, those two were very close.
"Hi my favorite goddaugther in this whole world!" Sugar Belle said happily, as she took Rocky in her arms and the little filly smiled at her.
"Take great care of her, she's still fragile." Caramel said. He was an overprotective father.
"Honey, Rocky is 2 years old." Marble said.
"Yeah I know sweetheart, but she's still so tiny." He said, while stroking his daughter's dark blue mane.
"Okay, can she go and play with Apple Belle?" Sugar Belle asked.
"No..."
"She can, isn't she, sweetie?" Marble said.
"Of course she can, I was just going to tell my bedpan, so as not to let her play with sharp objects." Caramel specified.
"There are no sharp objects, rest assured." Sugar Belle assured him, before taking the little pony.
When it came time for the birthday song, blow out the candles and cut the cake, Sugar Belle asked that every moment be documented by a camera, every little moment filmed would be very valuable for her children in the future.
While everyone started singing the "happy birthday song", Lil' Mac stopped singing when he saw that his mother was crying, but he was too innocent to see that she was just touched, because she could be at such an important moment in the life of her youngest daughter.
She was concerned when the doctor said she wouldn't be past Friday, but there she was, celebrating the first birthday of her beloved Apple Belle with the people she loved most, on the saturday.
"Mommy, why are you crying?" He asked worriedly, gently passing his paw over her face to wipe away her tears.
"It's nothing, my love, I'm just really happy." She replied, giving him a strong hug. "I love you so much, my baby."
Despite not understanding what was going on, the little foal smiled and hugged his mother back.
"I love you too mommy."
The moment the birthday girl, her older brother and her parents bent down to blow out the candles, Sugar Belle felt a strong headache and stepped back, starting to feel very dizzy too.
"Honey, are you feeling okay?" Big Mac asked, it was not the first time this had happened.
"Yes, sweetie, I just need to go to the bathroom and I'll be right back, you can cut the cake without me." She said, before leaving.
The moment that happened, Marble immediately ended filming, she didn't want Lil' Mac and Apple Belle to see their mother suffering in the only images they would have of her memory.
As a close friend of hers, Sugar Belle confided to her, something she wouldn't tell her children, until they were old enough to understand that their mother was dying. It all started a few months before Apple Belle turned 1, Sugar Belle started having constant headaches and memory lapses.
After several denials, she allowed her husband to take her for a medical evaluation, where after lot of exams, she received the worst news of her life: She had an inoperable brain tumor and had very little time left to live, specifically, a few months.
It was really hard for all her loved ones to accept that in a few months, Sugar Belle would no longer be among them, but after acceptance, they decided that they'd make her happy even in the last moments of her life.
When she reached out to open the bathroom door, she started to feel dizzy again, that wasn't a good sign. Despite the effort she was making to get to her bedroom, everything went black and she passed out right there on the floor.
"I'm gunna take my mom a piece of cake, she'll be happy when she comes out of the bathroom and sees that I took her cake!" Lil' Mac said, also lefting the party and going to the bathroom, taking cake to his mother to make her feel better.
Big Mac smiled, but then sighed sadly at the thought of how sad his son would be at missing his mother. Arriving in the bathroom corridor, Lil' Mac dropped the piece of cake on the floor when he witnessed his mother lying on the floor as if she were dead.
Tears of despair welled in his eyes when he ran up to his mother and tried to revive her.
"Mommy, mommy wake up mommy, please wake up ..."