Treacle

Tart

There was a mild chill in the air the following afternoon. Evidence of the previous day’s rainfall were scattered about in the form of errant puddles and soaked bits of foliage spread around. Yet as always, the simple townies went about their lives, especially the lone proprietor of Sugarcube Corner. For the first few weeks after discovering her husband’s adulterous ways, Cup Cake had been in something of a depressive haze, barely able to perform her daily routines at both home and work. There were neighbors who offered their sympathies and support, which helped her get out of the worst of it. But it was trying times: the bakery was short two industrious workers, which put a hamper on the production of confectionary delights. Not to mention the gnawing hole that lingered in her heart from such devastating betrayal. Nevertheless, there was a business to run and two hungry mouths to feed, so she sucked it up and continued on with her profession, always making sure to give her customers a smile.

With the lunch rush well past, the pudgy blue mare set about tidying the store and restocking for the impending school crowd. As she neatly placed the final cupcake into the glass display of the sales counter, the tingling of the storefront bell announced a new customer. Looking up, she was surprised to see none other than Ponyville’s resident princess, Twilight Sparkle. Though it was the same pony she’d known for years, Cup Cake never completely got used to the added wings and royal title. But those middling concerns were absent as she made a genuine smile at the young alicorn.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Cake,” Twilight greeted with a smile of her own.

“Hello there, Twilight. Good afternoon to you as well.” Although Twilight in a way had brought her husband’s infidelity to light, Cup never harbored any ill feelings to the studious mare, so all her greetings remained warm and welcoming. “Been keeping busy as of late?”

“Not so much. Official duties have been very slow lately, but that’s bound to change when the holidays roll around. Speaking of which, the reason for my stopping by is that I wish to perform a random health inspection.”

“Health inspection?” Cup asked, a little dumbfounded.

“As your business involves the handling of consumables for mass distribution, it’s important that health and safety practices are upheld to the letter to avoid endangerment to both employees and the public at large.” Twilight finished her serious talk and softened back into her casual tone. “I’ve been reading up on mandatory business monitoring practices and thought I’d try my hoof at it, just to get a better understanding of what goes on. Past inspection records show Sugarcube Corner as having straight A ratings, so this should make for an easy practice run to help apply what I’ve just learned. Nothing like a little field work to really drive it home.”

“Oh, okay. Sure, Twilight, if you want to give it a try,” Cup Cake acceded.

“Good! Now this being a cursory inspection, I’ll just skip over the boring questionnaire and get right down to the main inspection.” Twilight trotted up to and past the sales counter. “I’ll start with the food preparation area, and make my way out to the sales floor. I ask that you stay out here so as not to interfere with the inspection.” Twilight giggled. “Don’t worry, I won’t move anything around. Just a quick look over the key areas. Be right back.”

With that the alicorn trotted into the back area of the building, leaving a bemused Cup Cake. Quite strange for the young mare to take an interest in something so dull and bureaucratic, but then again that’s typical Twilight, Cup mentally remarked. Hardly a minute passed before the sound of a surprised gasp reached the baker’s ears.

“Mrs. Cake, I really think you should come have a look at this.”

The grave turn in Twilight’s voice instantly raised Cup’s concern, and without hesitation she headed for the kitchen. Past the swinging doors, she was about to ask Twilight what had happened, when her whole body and mind stopped. At the other end of the preparation area near the back door, Twilight stood beside the lanky yellow form of Cup Cake’s estranged husband. He had a meek smile, with dark spots under his eyes and his face recently shaven. Cup only stood and stared as Twilight spoke up.

“Sorry for the deception, but I thought that the back door would make less of a scene.”

“Hello, Cuppa,” Carrot waved to his stunned wife. The initial shock quickly wore off, and Cup Cake immediately took on a more aggravated expression.

“What is he doing here? What’s the meaning of this?”

“I say there’s some unresolved issues that need to be dealt with between you and your husband that’s been left unaddressed for too long,” Twilight answered.

The side of Cup’s mouth twitched. “He’s no husband of mine.”

“Actually, he still very much is,” Twilight corrected firmly. “Although you did kick him out, you never officially filed for divorce. But if you wish, I can summon up the necessary paperwork that you both can fill out and which I can have notarized, being the highest legal authority here. All I ask is that you and Mr. Cake talk things out before you make that decision.”

Carrot gawked at Twilight as though he were hoodwinked, but Cup Cake still looked miff. Although, five months of adjusting had tempered her inner wrath… to an extent.

“Alright. I’ll talk… for five minutes,” she sternly said.

“Very well,” Twilight nodded before turning for the door. “I’ll just wait outside while you discuss things. Give me a yell if you still want that divorce arranged.”

Twilight opened the back door with her magic and stepped outside. Closing the door gently, she looked to the other five mares gathered around.

“Now all we do is wait and hope for the best,” she announced.

“Not really seeing the point of all of us coming along if all we’re doing is sneaking him through the back,” Rainbow griped. “We did say we would all help him out. You did pretty much all the work.”

“The last time we all got involved, we put unnecessary strain onto an already delicate matter,” Twilight reminded. “This time around, we’re just going to stay put and let it run its course, for good or bad. But if it makes you feel any better, if things should get catastrophically out of hoof, we can do peacekeeping.”

“Aw yeah, now you’re talkin’!”

“Rainbow, that’s not something to hope for,” Rarity chided.

“I hope they get back together,” Pinkie bemoaned. “It would just be horrible for all of this to wind up crashing and burning and making it worse for everypony.”

“I’m sure they’ll talk it through,” Fluttershy assured her bulbous friend. “As the saying goes: absence makes the heart grow fonder. Right now, I bet they’re enjoying the simple joy of seeing one another again.”

Back inside, the air simmered with the heat of Cup Cake’s leveled glare toward her husband. Carrot figured that talking would come naturally, but as he shifted his eyes around, he scrambled internally for something to break through the awkwardness that had beset them. Since stalling would do neither of them good, he went for broke.

“Do you... want to sit down?”

“Sure.”

After the curt response, the two ponies went over to the dining table and pulled up their own chairs. Once seated, they went back to exchanging unfriendly looks (at least from Cup’s end).

“You wanted to talk. So talk,” Cup said flatly, crossing her forelimbs over her chest.

“Oh, um, yeah. Uhh, I just got back into town the other day. Umm, you look nice.” A pause. “How are the kids?”

“They’re fine, though I don’t see how they’re any of your business since you went and started making more on your own,” was the harsh response. “I take it you’re back because luck with the floozies hasn’t been going well.”

“It’s-it’s nothing like that.”

“Then I suppose you’re trying to wrangle Twilight into getting me to give up one of the kids to pair up with the one you have coming. Well hear this, you son of a bitch, I’m not letting either one of them—”

“That’s not what this is about, Cuppa!”

“Don’t you call me by that name, you lying snake!”

Carrot found himself half-raised from his seat, and quickly sat back down and readjusted his tone. “I didn’t come here to start up any of that nonsense. I only wanted to clear things up.”

“Like what? How you slept with our employee, got her pregnant, let everypony believe some random pony raped her, or how you never told me the truth until it got too hot to handle, but only when our closest friends happened to be in the same room to hear it.”

“I never told her to say she was raped: that was a huge misunderstanding! But the rest… were solely my mistakes, I won’t deny it. But I want to better explain myself, since I never got the chance to.”

“Okay, then let’s start at the top: why did you do it? She’s lived with us for so many years; I had long thought you were above that.”

“So did I. She was like the daughter we never had… no, that came out wrong. But I never had romantic feelings for her, I swear. It just… sprung up on me.”

“Sprung up?” Cup asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Maybe for the first time, but I remember you saying it had been more. Were those sprung upon you, too?”

“No. Those were strictly my doing.” Carrot averted his gaze upon saying that.

“Still no answer as to why you went through with it. Was it because I’m no longer attractive? That sex with me had become grotesque, so you do it with somepony more tolerable to keep your heads straight?”

“No, no, not at all. I still find you beautiful, and I could just swim in those flanks forever. I could never find you grotesque. It’s just…”

“Yes?”

“...I felt like… the passion had gone out of our marriage.” Before Cup could respond, Carrot quickly continued. “Remember how we started? It was more lively, exciting, passionate. But then it petered out and became… dull. All run-of-the-mill.”

“Of course it would: we grew up, made a family,” Cup said bluntly. “We can’t stay young and reckless forever. But you seemed to have forgotten that, or refused to accept it.”

“I knew that very well. That’s why I couldn’t fully enjoy those times I had with Pinkie. There was pleasure, I won’t lie, but it was more out of stress relief. Nothing like the times we shared. Nowhere as meaningful.”

“I see: go to the younger mare to keep married life exciting without telling your wife. That’s a very reasonable way of handling ‘stress’,” Cup scoffed.

“I had wanted to tell you about my concerns. About how things had become too predictable and routine.”

“So why didn’t you do that instead of knocking up our boarder?” Cup furrowed her eyebrows.

“You seemed alright with how things were. You didn’t seem brought down by domesticated life like I was, so I figured what was the point of bringing up my own insignificant prob—”

“Bullshit!” Cup’s hoof slammed onto the table to punctuate her shout. “When we took our vows, that meant we could confide in one another about our troubles, that we could seek each other for help. Marriage is about trust and helping and receiving help from your partner. There were times I came to you for help, and there were definitely times you did the same with me. So what made this one different? Why couldn’t you have talked to me about this and let me help you? Why, Carrot? Why?”

“I was afraid, okay!” The outburst halted Cup Cake’s badgering as she looked wide-eyed at Carrot. “Here I was with this wonderful life that so many desperate stallions could only dream of, yet I wasn’t feeling satisfied with it. If I complained about it, what did that say about me? Like it’d be acknowledging that I made some kind of mistake that I’m just now regretting, which I damn well won’t ever accept! And if I had told you about it, what if it couldn’t be fixed? What if I continued feeling unsatisfied, no matter how hard you tried to help me? Then you’d be stuck with an unsatisfied husband and start growing resentful, and that would make me grow resentful as well. And our kids would wind up being caught in the middle as our happy home slowly withered and died!”

Carrot took a few haggard breaths. “I never, ever want to hate you, Cup. I never want to do or say anything that would ruin the life we made, and I thought that my worries were something that couldn’t be fixed. I felt so afraid each time I thought of telling you, how it would go all wrong. Each time I considered doing it, I turned to Pinkie instead. It distracted me from those worries, so that I would never acknowledge that our marriage was flawed in some fundamental way. But now… I’ve proven it by screwing up Pinkie’s life, as well as ours…”

A deep pause hung over the two, before Cup Cake said, “Did you think so little of me… of your own wife… Did you really have that little faith in the strength of our marriage?”

Carrot dropped his head, letting the passing seconds of silence weigh heavily on his pending response.

“I allowed doubt to take me over,” he finally said, solemnly. “For that, I wound up messing up things more than if I had simply talked it over with you. But, now all I want to do is fix it up as best as I can.” He took a deep breath. “Everything may be beyond fixing, and for good reason. But the fact remains that Pinkie is carrying my foal on her own, and Pound and Pumpkin are without a father. I don’t want them to bear the burden of my own stupidity and mistakes, to be ridiculed by everypony because I abandoned them. I want to support them, to see they have as normal and happy a life as possible. I don’t want to take them away from you, but I don’t want to be gone either. I may have failed as a husband, but I still want to be a good father. Please… whatever you want, just let me stay a part of their lives.”

Another heavy silence, only now rife with sorrow and uncertainty. Cup’s indignation and anger had tempered a good deal since the stallion began saying his peace, and was more full of thoughts than actual responses to his plea. But after nearly a minute of stillness, something came to her lips.

“Say if I were to take you back… how will I be able to trust you again?”

Carrot delayed his answer for some seconds, looking at his hooves on the tabletop. “I guess there’s really no guarantee. I can tell you this won’t happen again. That I’ll always come to you for help, like I should’ve. But, it all falls down to… whether you will believe me or not.”

More silence between the two Cakes, as Cup mulled over the options and Carrot awaited his sentence. Then…

“After what you did, it will be difficult to just take your word,” Cup said softly, with a twinge of remorse. “That you would commit adultery instead of just talking to me… that’s not something you can wave off. I may never be able to look at you as the same stallion I fell in love with, and whom I’ve lived with for so many years.”

Carrot looked to the side, his eyes beginning to water as his chest grew heavy.

“With that said,” Cup resumed. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t missed you to some degree.” Carrot looked up, a little surprised. “We have been together for so long, that having you gone made my days feel… incomplete. You talked about things becoming routine, and you being around was part of my own happy routine. I’ve been hard-pressed to find something to replace it, and besides, nopony looks at me the same way as you do. There was a noticeable void when I no longer got that unique sort of attention you gave to me.”

She paused a moment, then looked directly into Carrot’s eyes. “It may be a very long time before I can fully trust you again, if ever. But as you said, the children shouldn’t have to suffer. And they’ve really missed their father.”

The corner’s of Carrot’s muzzle stretched slightly into a humble smile, his head rising up some more as the oppressive weight on his heart all but disappeared. Cup Cake gave her own smile in return, her eyes softening at seeing that comforting expression on the stallion’s face once more.

“And it wouldn’t be right to let Pinkie have her foal without a warm home and some proper guidance,” she added.

“You’re okay with Pinkie Pie?” Carrot asked, a bit amazed.

“I can’t really stay mad at the poor girl. She can be obnoxious at times, and cause her share of trouble. I should be more infuriated at her for sleeping with my husband, but if you’re wanting to make amends, I don’t see why she can’t as well. Pound and Pumpkin have missed her immensely as well, and it’d be nice for them to have a playmate that’s more their age.”

“Cup… thank you,” Carrot said graciously.

“It’s mainly for the children, as you put it. The other issues will be dealt with as time goes on, but for now… we might be able to work something out.”

Back outside, Pinkie removed her ear from the cup placed against the back door and looked to the others.

“They’re gonna work it out!” she exclaimed in her attempt at a whisper, which raised a quiet cheer from her friends. It ended quickly as the door opened, signaling the others except Twilight to duck out of sight as Cup Cake stepped out.

“We’ve come to a decision not to file for divorce, Twilight,” she said to the alicorn. “However, we would still like to talk to you about some things. As well as Pinkie Pie.”

With a yip the pink, gravid mare popped out from her hiding place and went up to her smiling friend and the matronly mare.

“Nice to see you again, Pinkie,” Cup greeted.

“Yep, same to you!” Pinkie beamed right back.

“The pregnancy seems to be going along nicely,” Cup commented after looking over Pinkie’s enlarged features.

“That it is!”

“Hmhm. Now, if you two will just come inside.” As the two mares entered, Cup leaned out and said, “The rest of you can come in the front and wait there, if you want. Better than standing out here where it’s damp, I say.”

After the door closed, the remaining four mares stepped out from their hiding spot, looking a little bemused.

“We’re that obvious, huh,” Rainbow dumbly remarked.

“Eeyup,” was the affirmative from the farm pony.