Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Chapter Seventy-Three

Twilight and Spike rushed into the warmth of Sugarcube Corner, kicking snow off of their boots and hanging up their winter clothes on the hat rack.

"TWILIGHT!" Pinkie shrieked, swooping down on her.

"Hey, Pinkie!" Twilight said in glee. "Good morning. I missed you. What's it been, eight hours?"

Pinkie shrugged.

"So, sleepover at the library tonight?" Twilight said slyly.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Pinkie squealed, hopping up and down.

"It's gonna be a big one!" Twilight said grandly, pulling off her boots with a flourish. "I'm pulling out all the stops! I've got great plans, to forget about any and all upcoming struggles for at least one night. Not gonna let it bring me down!"

"Nothing brings you down, does it?"

"Not today, Pinkie. Not today."

"WHOOOOOO!" they said together, prancing in place.

Spike went up to the counter and climbed up to a stool, shivering slightly.

"Cocoa?" Mr. Cake asked.

"Sure," said Spike. "No, wait… make it coffee."

Mr. Cake chuckled. "You got it, son."

"Sleepover tonight," Spike muttered. "Guess that means I have to make myself scarce somehow. 'Girl time'." He sighed. "I wish I could get some 'guy time'."

"Mm, I feel ya."

"What is guy time? I wouldn't know. Never had any guys to have guy time with. Guys… don't really have slumber parties, do they?"

"Not so much, no," Mr. Cake admitted.

"Don't get me wrong, I love those girls," Spike said softly, gesturing to Twilight and Pinkie, still planning animatedly. "They're the best friends a dragon could have. Wouldn't trade them for the world. But being with them… being the one guy… there's always that sense of exclusion. Even when I'm right there through the whole thing, I just get overcome, sometimes, with… with…"

"Estrogen poisoning," Mr. Cake supplied.

"Yes!" Spike exclaimed, pointing at Mr. Cake with one finger and winking. "That's it. Hehe, that's exactly it."

"I know the feeling," said Mr. Cake, passing him a cup of coffee. "Listen, Spike… I don't know about tonight, but next Friday, Cup Cake is taking the twins out of town to visit, I don't know, some aunt or another. I'll have the shop to myself."

He leaned forward confidentially. "When I was your age, every Friday night I'd get all the guys together and we'd play some cards. Sometimes things would get really fierce, and the chips would keep on flying all night long. It was intense." He leaned back. "Why don't we try that? Next Friday, let's round up a group of guys, set up some snacks, have a nice friendly guys' night right here in Sugarcube Corner."

Spike bit his lip. "I don't know. Sounds good, but… I don't really have a whole lot of guy friends."

"Eh, neither do I. But I'm sure between the two of us, we'll be able to whip up some semblance of a group."

Spike nodded. "Okay, then. You're probably right. Thanks, Mr. Cake. This sounds like a great idea. Next Friday, huh?"

"Yeah," said Mr. Cake. "See you there."

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Endnotes

Okay, with the mood I'm in, "shortest chapter in RFE history" is not the record I wanted to be setting, but here it is. I had a premise for a chapter, I stretched it out as much as I possibly could and I got this. Sometimes I look in the mirror and want to punch the guy looking back at me.

Yeah, as you may have gathered from the previous rant, I'm in a really bad place right now. It comes from looking at the stats of other people's stories, really. Why do I have less than half of the normal amount of reviews, faves, and subscriptions for a story of this size and age? I can't possibly suck that much, but there's every other story that's ever been written, staring me in the face, proving my deepest insecurities right.

Granted, if there were more of you, you wouldn't be nearly as special to me, so there's always that. I love you guys. And when I say that, I'm referring to two or three specific individuals, not a huge impersonal crowd. I guess that's better than the normal way. Actually, that's just about the best thing a guy could ask for.