Spike sat around a table in Sugarcube Corner, along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. With Twilight gone for their weekly Twilight Time session, Spike had decided to take the fillies out to have some fun. Their newest quest had turned out to be "Cutie Mark Crusader Poker Players," and Spike was more than happy to teach them. While they had lived in Canterlot, Spike had learned a few interesting card games, especially from Shining Armor. Currently they played at Blackjack, and had decided to use candies as their currency. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were having difficulties, but Applebloom had shown general aptitude. They also had a side-bet going what a card-playing cutie mark would look like. Spike insisted it would be the spade suit, Sweetie Bell the diamond, Scootaloo the club, and Applebloom thought it would look like a playing card.
"Alright little ponies, show me what you've got," Spike called out. The girls put down their cards.
"Seventeen." Scootaloo declared
Sweetie Belle grinned, "Nineteen."
Spike turned over his face-down card, a king. "Twenty." He smiled.
All eyes went to Applebloom. She was showing a six and a ten. Then she revealed the face-down five. "Twenty-one. Pay up y'all." Everyone groaned as they pushed a pile of chocolates and peppermints toward Applebloom. She had as much candy now as the other three players combined, probably more.
Their game was interrupted when Twilight burst into the bakery, bawling. She ran up to the counter, to a very concerned-looking Mrs. Cake. "Oh dear, Twilight, is something the matter?"
"I don't want to talk about it, just give me some cake." She sniffled, pushing a few bits toward the earth pony.
She nodded, and wordlessly fetched the Princess a decadent slice of chocolate cake. Twilight devoured it, then left, mumbling about asking Rarity about what flavor of ice cream she uses to deal with depression.
"I think I had better go," Spike frowned, "It was great playing with you guys, why don't we meet up again sometime?"
"Heck, I think we'd better go and start havin' Spike Time every week too." Applebloom grinned. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement.
"Can't wait!" Spike yelled as he ran out the bakery.
"So, who gets his candy?" Scootaloo asked.
"Let's play another hand for it." Applebloom insisted.
Luckily for Spike, Twilight was not difficult to find. The depressed Alicorn's sniffling and sobbing could be heard from a long distance away. Spike finally caught up to her as she left the town market, carrying saddlebags humorously overloaded with strawberry ice cream.
"Twilight, what's the matter?" Spike asked. "What happened with Rainbow Dash? You were only gone for a few hours."
"I don't want to talk about it." Twilight kept walking past her young dragon. Spike wordlessly followed her back to the library, the whole time his mind ran into overdrive trying to think just what had happened that could upset her so much. It didn't take him long to suspect that Rainbow Dash was involved.
Once inside the Golden Oak Library, Spike renewed his inquisiton, "Twilight, please. Tell me what happened."
She sat on the floor, and opened the first tub of ice cream. With her horn, she started scooping the pink dessert into her mouth. Soon that one was gone and she started on another.
At some point during the fourth or so carton, Twilight finally opened up. "You were right about Rainbow Dash Spike." She wept, "She made me leave before I even went inside. She wouldn't stand up to her father for me, even though that's the reason I went with her in the first place."
Spike tipped his head. He had worried this would happen. "Is there anything that I could do for you?" He asked.
"No Spike. I just need to be alone for awhile."
Spike nodded, and left.
* * *
"She did what now?" Applejack shouted, outraged. "Ah never would've thought Rainbow would go an' do somethin like that to poor Twi."
Spike nodded. "I have to cheer her up somehow. She's locked herself in the library with fifty gallons of strawberry ice cream."
"Oh nelly, we've got another Code Blue on our hooves." Terror was plain on Applejack's face.
"What's a Code Blue?" He asked.
AJ sat down to explain the story, and gestured for Spike to sit beside her. "A couple years before you and Twi moved to Ponyville, Rarity was seein' some unicorn from Canterlot. That stallion was her world, lemme tell ya. Then one day he just stopped comin'. Rarity waited months for him to come back, but he never did. None of her mail got delivered, and she couldn't find him in Canterlot. She went into a depression for darn near a year. Nopony was gettin any new clothes, and Rarity wasn't out findin gems anymore. It got so bad that the mayor had to call an emergency meetin to figure out how to cheer up Rarity."
"So what did you guys do?" Spike asked.
"We introduced her to a nice country gentlecolt named Buck Wheatly. They were together for awhile, then they broke up on a good note. Far's I know, Rarity still writes him every now and again."
"So should we find Twilight a special somepony?"
Applejack laughed, "Darlin, you don't know the first thing about datin. Ya can't go lookin for love right after a breakup. It ain't right."
Spike argued back, "But Twilight wasn't with Rainbow Dash for even a day! Can that even be a breakup?"
Applejack tipped her hat downward, "Anytime somepony's heart gets broke is a breakup Spike. What Twilight needs is somepony who'll be there to comfort her an listen to her.
Spike shrugged. "You sure? She doesn't seem to want me around."
"Probably because you told her it was a bad idea from the get-go. She needs somepony who hasn't been involved in this at all. Probably the furthest pony you can find from Rainbow Dash."
Spike snapped his claws, "I think I know just who that is!" Spike ran off eagerly, off into the orchards. "HEY BIG MACINTOSH! CAN YOU HELP ME WITH SOMETHING?"
Applejack ran off following him, "That wasn't who I had in mind!"