Apples and Bananas

Sugar Belle’s day was going increasingly sup-par, a fact clearly shown by the frown plastered on her face.

It had started out just fine. Great even! Big Macintosh had shown up around noon with a big shipment of apples for her.

The day she and Macintosh met, Sugar Belle found she absolutely loved apples. Something about apples just filled her mind with such… possibilities. Sweet, juicy, delectable possibilities.

Truth be told, she also liked Big Mac. He was strong and stoic, but with an easygoing and thoughtful expression that always seemed to dissolve into jelly whenever he tried to talk to her.

It was pretty clear to Sugar Belle that Mac liked her too, but his shyness and the way he fumbled to find his words became a bit of a barrier between them. She tried to overcome that barrier with some light flirting.

That light flirting become quite blatant flirting as results continued to evade her. But try as she might to send the right signals, Big Mac always became too flustered by her to respond. In his last five visits, the big teddy bear of a stallion barely said a word to her, incoherent mumbling not included.

Still, it was clear he was trying. Big Mac came back nearly every day with more apples, to the point that a literal mountain was piling up in her shop. She knew she use them all in some way shape or fashion, but she wanted to tell Mac that he didn’t need an excuse to come see her.

Although, his actions today made her reconsider ever wanting to see him again. Him and Feather Bangs.

Feather Bangs was always sort of around. He never really stood out when everypony was equalized by Starlight; that was kind of the point. But as soon as he got his cutiemark back, he also gained a messy, frosted-tipped manestyle, and some of the cheesiest pickup lines anypony had ever heard.

There were plenty of mares in their small town that were taken in by his charismatic nature, but he always tried to woo her before anypony else.

At first she thought it was romantic, and was was flattered by his attempts, but then… they just kept coming. No matter how much she hinted that she was interested, Feather never moved on to part where he actually asked her out on a date.

She would have said yes! In an instant!

Party Favor and Night Glider were already hitting it off together, and Double Diamond was always going on ski trips with some pegasus named Lightning Dust. Out of her group of friends, Sugar Belle was the only one without someone to call her special somepony, and it made her feel just a little left out.

It was so exciting when she met Big Mac for the first time, seeing another stallion interested in her, one that might just be hers if she could just get him to open up.

Only now she learned that Mac and Feather Bangs were two of the same kind, after they spent all day trying to outdo one another at impressing her with their romantics.

Having her bags stolen by a chicken in a wig was only the start of the day’s shenanigans.

From waking up from her nap to the sight of Mac’s puckered fish-lips, to being spirited off on a carriage ride with Feather that literally went nowhere, Sugar Belle had just about had it. It wasn’t until their music battle IN HER SHOP led to her only display case being destroyed that she finally snapped and told them to leave her alone.

And all of that brings us to where Sugar Belle stands now, making her way back to her house, with a bag full of bananas.

Sugar Belle felt perhaps a bit better knowing what she was going to use them for, something she’d done many times in the past to make herself feel better, to fill the gaping hole in her being when nopony else was there to fill it for her.

“Hello!” a voice caught her attention, and she looked up to find a filly wearing a pair of gag glasses blocking her path. “My name is Shimmering Spectacles, and I'm a librarian with a mysterious past.” She said in a strange, exaggerated accent.

“Oh, okay. I'm... Wait a minute.” Sugar Belle put on a confused expression. Something seemed off about that filly, but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. “You look familiar.”

“D- Oh! Uh… I shouldn't.” the spectacled filly stammered, “I'm umm… new in town. Mind showing me around?”

“Uh, sure.” Sugar Belle said, and made a sweeping gesture towards the houses in front of them. “That's the whole town. It's just the one street.”

It wasn’t the best tour, but Sugar Belle wasn’t really in her best tour-giving mood at the moment. Really she just wanted to get home and put her bananas to good use.

Speaking of, her bags felt surprisingly light.

“Oh, no! Clumsy me!” the filly gasped, and Sugar Belle looked to see her bags unraveled, and her precious fruits scattered at her hooves. “Here, let me help you clean it up!

Sugar Belle grumbled under her breath.

“It’s fine. I’ve got it.” she said and picked them up in her magic. She could carry them home. She just hoped they weren’t bruised from the fall. That would make them significantly less useful from what she had planned.

“Uh, n-now hold on a minute. Are you sure I can't buy you a new bag?” the filly with overlarge glasses continued to follow her.

It was a nice gesture, but even if she was in the mood, they didn’t have a bag shop in their town yet.

“I'm good. It's no big deal.” Sugar said as she kept walking. She could ask the town tailor to fix her bags tomorrow, but right now that was the last thing on her mind. She was nearly at her shop.

“But, u-um, umm…” the filly gulped, now physically blocking the way inside her shop.

“Okay, what's going on?” Sugar Belle said with a stomp of her hoof, having had enough.

Immediately the filly caved, dashing inside and screaming something about cupcakes landing. Sugar Belle didn’t bother trying to figure it out, as her eyes immediately landed on somepony else.

“Big Mac!” She said venomously. After everything he and Feather put her through today, he had the gall to show up in her shop yet again. But all her anger drained out of her when she saw the magnificent piece of craftponyship behind him, freshly built, painted and polished.

Sugar Belle had to see it up close, to touch it with her own hooves. “You… you made me a new display case?” she whispered as she stroked the hard, smooth edges of it.

“Eeyup.” Big Mac answered simply, and yet that one ‘eeyup’ carried so much meaning when coupled with his kind gesture.

“And you made it bigger!” Sugar Belle gasped as she noticed the extra length of it. “Now I have twice as much room for all my desserts! Which means... I can make even more! I've been dying to try baking cream pies and whoopee pies and icebox cakes and, of course, more apple treats!”

“Uh, y-y-yeah or-or nope or...” Big Mac chuckled nervously, as he tended to do around her.

Sugar Belle giggled and pressed a hoof to his mouth. Right here was the stallion she wanted all along, somepony kind, genuine, and willing to do something meaningful to impress her. She felt it only right that she do something nice for him too.

“I like you, too.” She told him and lovingly nuzzled his snout with hers.

She wondered if he liked bananas.

[A short while later]

“Mmm, yeah.” Sugar Belle licked her lips clean before going in for another helping. “Is it good Big Mac?” she said with her mouth full.

Big Mac meanwhile let out a contented sigh. “Eeyuuuup.”

After swallowing another big load, Sugar Belle nudged him with her elbow. “You wanna eat my cherry?” she asked.

Mac simply nodded and leaned over, taking it with his tongue.

Sugar Belle leaned back with a sigh of her own, rubbing her now bulging belly. She had done this alone so many times when she was feeling down, but with Big Mac it was so much better.

Eating banana splits is much better with your special somepony, after all.