Original air date: September 4th, 1992
Starlight's mother is doing Mrs. Barrington's hair while they discuss the latest gossip. Mrs. Barrington mentions how a storm last night blew the roof off of Mrs. Nettlebush's house, and, much to Starlight and Sweetheart's amusement, sent her clothes flying all over the neighborhood. The two mares leave to do some clothes shopping, and Starlight, Sweetheart, and Bon Bon take the opportunity to give their friends manedos.
Taking cues from her mother, Starlight asks the girls if they have any juicy stories to share. When it's Sweetheart's turn, the best she can come up with is her baby sister looking cute when sucking on her own hoof. Patch suggests Teddy sleeps with a teddy bear, and when Sweetheart doesn't deny it, the girls soon realize that Teddy really does have a teddy bear, prompting them to sing and dance about it. Ace walks in on it, and promptly runs away to tell Lancer.
Teddy is taking shots at a soccer net, with Lancer guarding the net, and mocks Lancer's skills at doing so, but Ace arrives and tells Lancer about Teddy having a teddy bear. Enraged, Teddy physically attacks them both and storms off with both of their soccer balls.
Sweetheart comes to visit him, but Teddy is furious with her for supposedly telling his secret, not helped by her amusement when Teddy kicks a tree, causing apples to pour all over him. The girls feel bad about hurting Teddy so much, so Sweetheart comes up with a plan to get Ace and Lancer to lay off him.
Melody and Bright Eyes sweettalk Ace and Lancer into helping babysit Sweetheart's triplet baby sisters. They prove to be a lot of work, and when it comes time to feed them, Melody and Bright Eyes have them dress up as babies and drink milk from bottles to "show the baby ponies how it's done". While they're doing so, Sweetheart snaps a photograph. Teddy comes in, accepts the photograph, and laughs at the other two boys. They beg for him not to tell anyone, and he agrees, provided that they never talk about him owning a teddy bear, so he tears up the photo and the three of them, having reconciled, go back to practicing on the soccer field.
"Shop Talk" provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Ace and Lancer come to find dressing and acting like babies somewhat entertaining... at least until they get photographed doing it.
- Aerith and Bob: Mrs. Barrington mentions that "Justin finally proposed to Moonglow."
- An Aesop: Spreading rumors and secrets about others can harm their reputation and hurt their feelings.
- Animation Bump: Patch leaps into the air excitedly when she says, "Woohoo! Teddy really does have a teddy bear!", which is fluid compared to the show's usual animation.
- Appeal to Flattery: Bright Eyes and Melody compliment Lancer's and Ace's manliness to convince them they're up to the task of babysitting Sweetheart's sisters.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: Ace and Lancer agree to babysit Sweetheart's three baby sisters. Unlike most instances of this trope, the harm doesn't come from the babies themselves, but from the girls dressing them up as babies and taking pictures of them.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Ace pretends to be a ghost like this while playing with Sweetheart's sisters. Unlike most examples, this ghost is black with white eyes rather than the inverse (possibly for better contrast against the scene).
- Big Ball of Violence: Teddy gets into one with Ace and Lancer when the two tease him about his teddy bear.
- Blackmail: Sweetheart photographs Ace and Lancer dressed as babies and Teddy uses this to force them to stop making fun of him.
- Coconut Meets Cranium: Teddy has the apple variant happen to him when he bucks an apple tree in frustration and all its apples rain down on him.
- Contrived Coincidence: Ace happens to enter the ice cream parlor/hair salon, one catering mainly to females, just in time to hear about Teddy having a teddy bear.
- Desperate Object Catch: Well, the object is a baby. One of Sweetheart's baby sisters jumps off a chair. Ace rushes over and catches her, but then slips on a toy car, causing the baby to fly out of his grasp before being caught again by Lancer.
- Easily Forgiven: Even after Ace and Lancer mocked and ostracized him over his teddy bear, and were stopped only by a scheme involving counter-blackmail, Teddy is more than happy to go back to playing soccer with them.
- Embarrassment Plot: Teddy has a teddy bear, and when the news reaches Ace and Lancer, they belittle him for it. The girls' solution is to trick Ace and Lancer into dressing up as babies, then photograph them like that.
- Feed by Example: Bright Eyes instructs Ace and Lancer to eat baby food in front of the babies.
- Friendly Scheming: When Teddy becomes the target of teasing by Ace and Lancer regarding his teddy bear, resulting in him turning on Sweetheart, the girls hatch a plot to photograph Ace and Lancer in a compromising position to make them stop, thus repairing the friendship between the three boys as well as that of Teddy and Sweetheart.
- Goo Goo Getup: Melody and Bright Eyes insist Ace and Lancer must wear this when babysitting Sweetheart's three baby sisters. It's actually just so they can photograph them dressed like babies to counter-blackmail them.
- Gossipy Hens: Starlight's mother and Mrs. Barrington prove to be this, which leads Starlight to do the same with her friends.
- Humanizing Tears: Teddy is driven to tears when he thinks Sweetheart told on him for having a teddy bear, which has resulted in his friends making him the target of their mockery.
- Jerkass Ball: Lancer is meaner here than in other episodes, joining Ace in making fun of Teddy.
- Joke and Receive: When making fun of Teddy to the other girls, Patch suggests he still has a teddy bear. Lo and behold, Sweetheart's blank, awkward reaction gives away that he does.
- "Just Joking" Justification: Ace and Lancer try to claim they didn't really believe Teddy had a teddy bear.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Starlight's gossip regards a pony who "acts like she's so smart" but got a D in math.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During "A Juicy Story", Clover holds a telephone receiver in the audience's direction.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Teddy orders Ace and Lancer not to mention him having a teddy bear again if they want him to get rid of the photographs of the two of them dressed as babies.
- Like Mother, Like Daughter: After her mother engages in gossip with Mrs. Barrington, Starlight has her friends over and asks them for interesting gossip.
- Losing Horns: The "Sad Trombone" is briefly heard in the background right after Sweetheart sneaks an embarassing photo of Lancer and Ace.
- Mocking Sing-Song: The girls sans Sweetheart sing "Teddy has a teddy bear!" when Sweetheart's silence and blank expression at such an idea make it apparent that he does. Ace and Lancer later sing the same tune to mock Teddy at the soccer field.
- Moral Myopia: The girls display this in the "A Juicy Story" song: "Oh I am in my glory when I hear a juicy story/So long as it’s not about me".
- My God, What Have I Done?: The girls feel bad when Teddy's secret spreads and makes him a laughingstock among his friends.
- My Hair Came Out Green: During the song number, Patch claims this happened to her neighbour.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Teddy when Ace mentions him having a teddy bear to Lancer: "...Huh?"
- Ace and Lancer look somewhere between startled and horrified when there's a camera flash while they're dressed as babies and drinking milk from bottles.
- Schmuck Bait: Ace and Lancer go along with the girls' instructions to pretend to be babies, resulting in Sweetheart taking a photograph of the spectacle.
- Slippery Skid: Ace slips on a toy car in the playroom for Sweetheart's baby sisters.
- Speak in Unison:Ace: What? You mean we've gotta (Lancer joins in) eat baby food?!
- Window Watcher: Sweetheart watches how the babysitting is going through the window, noting how well the plan is working.
