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// Family Matters 
// Story: The Spy Who Hugged Me 
// by GaPJaxie 
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A request by Jake the Army Guy:

The first time Big Mac brought Sugar Belle to the farmhouse.



Imagine an invisible line, draw along the ground.

On one side of that line are Big Mac and Sugar Belle, who have come to Sweet Apple Acres so that Sugar Belle can meet the Apple Clan, and come to know the family into which she will soon be wed. Both are nervous, yet both are smiling, pressed into each other's shoulders, their joy overflowing into the world around them.

One the other side of the line are Granny Smith, Applebloom, Applejack, and approximately 237 other earth ponies, all of whom are part of the extended apple family. All eyes are on Sugar Belle, hundreds of them boring in, the gazes of the young, the old, the wise and the foolish, the welcoming and the hostile. All of them watch.

“So,” Granny Smith said, “you pregnant? Because the wedding was kind of short notice.”

“Granny!” Big Mac shouted, his face flush. “How dare you?”

“We’re not sure,” Sugar Belle said, her tone bright and untroubled. “But I did throw up, so we figured, better safe than sorry.”

“Sugar Belle!” Big Mac turned, his mouth hanging open.

“That’s a good sensible mare you got there, Big Mac,” Granny said, with an approving nod. “You want an apple family apple fritter?”

“Only if you eat some of this pie I brought!” Sugar Belle produced the treat with a flourish. “I heard there was a baking contest, and I mean to hold my own.”

“She’s one of us!” A pony in the back shouted, and the whole apple clan applauded as one.







That night, as they lay in bed side by side, Sugar Belle said to Big Mac: “I think your family likes me.”

Silence. He rolled over away from her.

“You’re mad, aren’t you?” she asked.