Rainbow Dash and Spike shared a heavy, dejected sigh as they glanced across the donut bar at their respective lost loves. Rarity was more than happy stuffing donuts into her mouth, talking about this or that while Applejack just sat, head in hoof, staring dreamily at her partner's ability to constantly devour sweets at a pace that never seemed to slow. Applejack, too, hadn’t gotten away with her appearance unchanged - she’d taken a liking to having her mane braided now that she had the assistance of a unicorn to make it a million times easier.

"Well," Rainbow Dash reasoned, head resting on the bar top. "At least they look pretty happy."

"Yeah," Spike responded, taking a small bite out of the purple frosted donut he held in his hand. "They do. And I guess that's what matters, right? Twilight always told me that if you love something, let it free, and if it feels the same it will come back." He stopped mid-bite, then added, "I don't know if that applies to ponies, though."

"The whole... well, I mean, look at her," Rainbow Dash said, gesturing weakly with a hoof at Rarity. "I didn't expect that, though."

"Oh, me neither," Spike said. "When I started leaving snacks on her porch, I never expected that."

Rainbow Dash paused for a moment to process the information she was just given, turning her head to glare at Spike out of the corner of her eye. "You did... what?"

"Well," Spike said, popping the last of his donut into his mouth before brushing his claws off. "Wheff Rawrit shtarded taw-" Spike held a claw up, chewing and swallowing before continuing. "Sorry. Anyway. When Rarity started to kinda hole up in her Boutique to work on dresses, well, I kinda missed her. So, I thought, hey, what's something she can do while she's working on dresses? Eat! I kept stopping at Sugarcube Corner and then leaving treats on her door step so I didn't bother her."

Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed as she stared hard at Spike, her expression slowly turning sour. Spike was the reason why Rarity started stress eating? Spike was the reason she lost Applejack to Rarity? Her teeth began to grind together at the revelation, ears folding back against her head as she prepared to lunge at the adolescent dragon.

A sharp giggle from the table across from them broke Dash’s anger immediately. The glare fell from her face as she turned, seeing Rarity and Applejack both laughing mirthfully at something that must have been exchanged between the two. Dash sighed, head returning to the table chin first. “That was nice of you,” Rainbow admitted. “I can tell she liked it.” Her voice had just a twinge of sarcastic anger in it, but not enough to be readily apparent.

“Hey, whatever happened between you and Applejack, anyway? Twilight told me not to ask, but I kind of heard you guys arguing over it one day, and... well, I’m kinda curious.”

Rainbow Dash huffed, giving a small shrug. “You ever, like... had somepony who you were too much alike with? And it ended up getting really frustrating?”

Spike cocked his head and glanced away. Okay, Dash thought. I guess not.

“Whatever. That’s basically what happened between me and Applejack. We were both too competitive. Too strong. Too stubborn... those are all great traits, but we constantly tried to one-up one another. All the time.” Rainbow Dash gave a small roll of her shoulders. “...aaaaand, we both wanted to be on top. That got awkward really quick.”

“On top?” Spike questioned, head tilting even farther. “What, like you guys were wrestling or something?”

Rainbow gave a short chuckle, turning to look at Spike with one side of her mouth up turned in a grin. “That’s a question for Twilight, little guy. I’m sure she’d appreciate that one.”

“Oh,” Spike asked, before grabbing another donut and greedily shoving it into his mouth. “Okay.”