Stay Puft

Rarity sat on the living room couch and rubbed her temples with her hooves in meditation, trying to drown out the noise of raised voices of her parents who were having another tiff in the kitchen. But it was hard to ignore the sound of breaking glass.

Rarity looked up at her mother, Cookie Crumbles, storming out of the kitchen towards the bedroom. And here we go... Rarity thought to herself. Her mother would come back out shortly with her hastily packed bag for another extended stay at Gramma Blondie's house.

Rarity knew where this was going. "I think going out for a walk would do me well," she thought as she closed the front door behind her. She was quietly grateful that Sweetie Belle was at school for this. Rarity felt a sharp pain in her chest. She feared that keeping these feelings bottled up was going to give her an ulcer. She wouldn't dream of unloading all these insecurities on Sweetie Belle. But she needed to talk to somepony. She headed out of town towards the local apple orchard.

~

Applejack answered the knock at the door, barely opening it more than a crack. "Rarity?"

"Applejack darling, do you have time for me to talk with you for a bit? Things at home are a bit... energetic at the moment."

Applejack knew what that was code for. "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that Rarity, but..."

"Is everything okay?" Big Macintosh's voice asked from inside the farmhouse.

"It's just Rarity," Applejack said.

Rarity noticed that Applejack was still keeping the door mostly closed. "Is this a bad time, Darling?"

"In a manner uh speaking..." Applejack looked anxious for a moment. "Aw shoot, ain't nothing you ain't already seen." She opened the door to let Rarity in. She stepped inside and Applejack quickly closed the door behind her. Rarity did a double take when she saw the size of Applejack's belly.

"Heavens, Darling! You're- you're... But I just saw you a few days ago!" Big Mac joined them in the kitchen upon hearing the commotion. Rarity looked back and forth between them.

"It ain't what you think," Applejack blushed. "Not exactly. It's a mite long story."

"I've nothing but time, Darling," Rarity said. "Indulge me."

Applejack rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, the long and short of it is, Apple Bloom went and tried to trick Miss Cheerilee and Big Mac here into drinking a love potion for Hearts and Hooves Day."

"Ah," Rarity said. "Because she didn't know that Mac already has..." she looked at Applejack. "A special somepony."

Applejack's blush did not improve. "Considering the gravity of it, we decided a fitting punishment was in sorts. So we gave Bloom a shrinking potion and, well..." Applejack rubbed her belly. "Mac here put her into Time Out."

"So you're pregnant with Apple Bloom again?" Rarity asked.

Applejack nodded and continued to rub her belly. "Yeah. She's sleeping at the moment. Ain't felt her kick for a spell. But it's given us time to explain things to her, about... her parents. Maybe get a fresh start with her next time around. And being with foal again has been... nice."

"I suppose that explains why Sweetie told me Apple Bloom has been absent from school." Rarity looked at Applejack's pregnant abdomen. "It's almost like old times."

"Almost," Applejack said. "Speaking of, what did you end up doing with Sweetie Belle?"

"Pardon?"

"Rare, you know that whenever it's trouble, it's the three of them together in on it. I'm of the understanding that Sweetie Belle was the ringleader of this particular escapade."

"What!?"

Arriving back home, Rarity walked into the kitchen. Her father, Hondo Flanks was busy sweeping the kitchen floor. He looked at her. She said nothing. There was nothing that needed to be said anymore.

He just smiled weakly at her. "Ah, you know how... spirited your mother can be sometimes."

"I do know..." Rarity said, grabbing the dustpan for him. He swept the broken pieces of ceramic into the dustpan. "Your favorite coffee mug."

"It's just a... thing," he said.

"That I made for you!" she said.

"It wasn't about that," he said.

"Then what was it about this time!?" Rarity asked.

He scoffed and shrugged. "There were dirty dishes in the sink, and then it was about... well, then it was about everything she was ever mad about." He dumped the dustpan into the trash. "It's just a thing," he repeated, as much for himself as for her. "That's not important. You could always make me another one."

"I suppose."

"So she's going to be... away for a while."

Rarity sidled up alongside him. "That's not the worst thing in the world."

"Rarity..."

"I simply do not understand why you still tolerate her."

"You know she's usually not like this. Most of the time it's fine."

"Oh, who are you trying to fool?" Rarity asked. "Me? Or yourself?" Hondo set his jaw. He wanted to argue, but none came. "She needn't be the one to leave. You know there's a bed for you at the boutique."

"What about Sweetie Belle?" he asked.

Rarity stood upright with a start. "I nearly forgot! We need to have a little chat with her. But I think everything is going to work out just fine."

"What are you talking about?" Hondo asked.

"It seems that she and her crusader friends gave a love potion to her teacher, Miss Cheerilee, and to Big Macintosh."

"But I thought Big Mac... is he no longer with-?"

"Oh, he very much still is."

"Ooh. I bet Apple Bloom got hers," he said.

"She hasn't been to school since Hearts and Hooves Day. She's still in Time Out."

"What, like grounded in her room?" he asked.

"After a fashion," Rarity said. "Apparently Applejack and Big Mac gave her a shrinking potion. She placed her inside his penis and he ejaculated her back inside her uterus, where she is currently residing until she gets her second start."

Hondo looked at her. "That seems-"

"Like a marvelous idea! I agree! That's why I paid a visit to Zecora on the way home." Rarity grabbed a couple potions from her bag. "It'll be the perfect opportunity to broach the subject with Sweetie, and for us to get some much-overdue alone time." The front door opened. "Aha! Speaking of! Sweetie Belle?"

"Yeah?" Sweetie Belle responded, walking into the kitchen and setting her bag on the floor.

"Have a seat," Rarity directed her to the dining table. She sat down across from Rarity and Hondo. "Did you, perchance, give Miss Cheerilee and Big Macintosh a love potion?" Rarity asked.

Sweetie Belle blushed. "Well, technically, it was a love poison."

"That hardly makes it better!" Rarity said with a stern expression.

"I know."

"No. I don't think you fully understand the full gravity of the situation, dear," Rarity said. "What if the potion had worked as intended? What if Big Mac were to have gotten Miss Cheerilee pregnant?" she asked.

"Then... they would have gotten married and it would have been happily ever after?" Sweetie Belle tried.

Rarity scoffed. "Did it not occur to you that Big Mac already had a special somepony?"

"Does he?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Most certainly! And she was none too pleased to hear about what you and your crusader friends tried. That's why Apple Bloom has been getting her punishment."

"Is that why she's been out of school?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Rarity nodded. "She's in Time Out. Which is where you should have been as well, had we known about this sooner." She pushed one of the potion bottles across the table.

"What's this?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Punch," Rarity lied.

"No, it's a potion!" Sweetie said.

"Yes. It's obviously a potion," Rarity said. "And you're going to drink it."

"What does it do?" Sweetie asked.

Rarity's expression was stern. "Big Macintosh and Miss Cheerilee didn't get to know. So neither do you."

"Is it... dangerous?" Sweetie asked.

"Did you willfully give them a dangerous potion?" Rarity asked.

"No."

"..."

Sweetie Belle winced.

"Do you feel you are being treated... unfairly?" Rarity asked.

"No..."

"Then let the punishment suit the crime," Rarity said with finality.

Sweetie Belle gulped nervously. Then she gulped the potion before she lost her nerve. "There! I drank it! Now tell me what it was!" She braced herself for... whatever might happen next. Nothing happened.

"I shall," Rarity said. "In fact, I shall tell you a great many things. Things that I would liked to have waited to tell you until you were older. But since you feel qualified to meddle in the arena of love, you have brought that time upon yourself."

"Is it an actual love potion?" Sweetie asked.

Rarity pursed her lips. "What if it is? What if I gave you and Father a love potion?"

Sweetie Belle gasped and recoiled in her seat. "No! You wouldn't!" Even though she mentally told herself not to, she met Hondo's eyes. Unlike Miss Cheerilee and Big Mac, she didn't feel any compulsion to stare endlessly into them. She looked back to Rarity.

"Do you think that would really be so bad?" Rarity asked. "You don't know. He could be quite the considerate lover, after all," she said leaning closer to Hondo. "A proper gentlecolt who doesn't just pump and dump." She nuzzled against his cheek. "Who understand the importance of... foreplay." Rarity kissed him. He kissed her back. It was not a chaste kiss.

Sweetie grimaced at the sight of them tongue wrestling. "I'm starting to think that you two took a love potion!"

Rarity broke the kiss. "You may be more right than you know."

Sweetie's face turned a whiter shade of pale, "Wait, you did!?"

"No... not today, anyway."