//------------------------------// // Closing Down // Story: The Little Bakery of Horrors // by Nevermind1 //------------------------------// Spike got out of bed, ready for another day of working in an empty bakery. Since it's former owners left Ponyile, Suger Cube Corner has lost many of it's customers, and the once-well-known bakery now sat empty. Except for Spike and the new owner, Pinkie Pie, no one has set hoof in the bakery for years, and Spike knew that there won't be customers today, or tomorrow, or anyday this week... But he kept working because with Pinkie Pie still hoping for more customers to come, he had no choice but to keep helping her run the place, he didn't want to shatter her hope. And besides, she has been so kind to him after Twilight Sparkel's death Five years ago, giving him a new job, a new home, a new family. He couldn't let her down after all that. He went downstairs and saw Pinkie standing next to the door, looking out of through the window from time to time, as if waiting for somepony to come. "Good morning Pinkie" Spike said with a hint of concern in his voice. "Good morning Spike" said Pinkie cheerfully "I woke up super early today so I could be the first one to greet our customers today! They haven't showed up yet, but they will." Spike smiled at Pinkie, at least she has hope, he thought to himself. "I'm gonna go make breakfast, you want some?" Spike asked Pinkie. "No thanks, I already ate" said Pinkie, "By the way, we're all out of chocolate milk, you should go buy some, I would've gotten it myself but I need to stay here in case a customer comes" she smiled and went back to looking outside. Spike sighed, they ran out of chocolate milk about three times a week, so it wasn't a big surprise, although it was an annoyance. Pinkie enjoyed chocolate milk a little too much. He made himself breakfast and when he was finished eating, he left for the market. It was a nice day outside, birds were singing, Celestia's sun was shining high up in the sky, and the friendly ponies of Ponyvile were greeting him as he past them by. He always liked days like this one, this kind of day made him feel like everything is going to be alright. He got to the market and was on his way to buy some choclate milk, as Pinkie asked him, when he heard someone calling out to him: "Hey! Spike! Over here!" He stopped, rolled his eyes and turned around. Rose, the flower pony was always bothering him. He never managed to walk through the market without her calling him over to buy something. He learned to just accept it and go with it. There was no point in trying to avoide her, she could see the entire market from where she was stationed. "Hey Rose." Said Spike with a tired voice "Let me guess, you want me to buy something, don't you?" "Oh, I just love how you know me so well!" Said Rose with a smile. Before Spike had the chance to tell her he wasn't interested in buying anything, again, he suddenly noticed a strange little fly trap sitting on the counter in front of Rose. It wasn't an ordinary fly trap, something about it felt different. "Is that a new plant? I haven't anything like it before." He said. Rose looked around, slightly confused, before noticing the strange plant sitting right in front of her. Well that's odd, she thought, I don't remember putting it there... But Spike seemed interested in it, and she wasn't going to pass up an opportunity like this one. "Oh, Yes. this plant is a new kind of fly trap I found, I don't really want it for myself, though, to be honest. I've been trying to get rid of it for some time." "What?!" Said Spike, shocked that she of all ponies would say something like that "You want to get rid of it?! This is a new type of plant nopony has ever seen before! It needs to be preserved, you can't just throw it away like that!" " Well, if you really think It's that important, how about I sell it to you? What do you say, 20 bits?" Said Rose, delighted that she managed to get Spike interested in buying a plant for once. "Well..." Spike wasn't sure what to do. If he doesn't take it, she will probably throw it away and it would go to waste. But if he takes it, she would never leave him alone. After a while of thinking Spike reached the conclusion that she won't ever leave him alone anyway. "Fine" he said with defeat in his voice "You win. here's 20 bits." "Glad I could help!" said Rose as she gave him the plant and took his bits "Have a great day!" Spike walked back to Suger Cube Corner with the plant in hand. He spent all his money on it, and so was not able to get Pinkie her chocolate milk. He feared she'll be dissapointed, so on the way, he stopped by Sweet Apple Acres and got her some nice, juicy apples, hoping they would make a good "Sorry-I-wasted-all-my-money-on-weird-plants-and-didn't-buy-you-any-chocolate-milk" gift. He walked inside the bakery and saw Pinkie Pie has fallen asleep next to the door. Spike smiled at the adorable sight, put the plant on the counter, and went over to wake her up. "Pinkie" he whispered "Pinkie, wake up." Pinkie opened her eyes slowly. She looked at Spike for a a few minutes, while her brain was waking up. "Oh, hey Spike" she eventualy said "Did you get the chocolate milk?" "Actually, no." he said "I'm sorry Pinkie but, you see, Rose was going to throw awy this perfectly good plant. It's an amazing new discovery! I couldn't let it go to waste like that, so I spent all the money I had on it. I got you some apples, though." Pinkie looked at him with a blank expression. She looked at him without saying a word, which made Spike feel a bit uncomfortable. And just a little bit frightened. After a few minutes of scilence, Pinkie started to cry. Tears were rolling down her cheecks as she curled herself to a ball on the floor. Spike was confused, but worried. "Don't cry Pinkie! It's just choclate milk. Please, I'm sorry. just stop crying" he begged. "It's not just the chocolate milk, Spike!" She managed to say between sobs "The store is dead! Nopony wants to come here anymore. I wanted to belive we'll get through this, but I just can't do it anymore!" Pinkie fell down on the floor and cried some more. "If this keeps up, we may have to... to..." Pinkie couldn't bring herself to say it. "Close down?" Spike said, like he was having difficulties comprehending the situation. Pinkie just nodded her head in respons. Her face had a pained expression on it, as if the action was hurting her. Spike didn't know what to say or do. All he could think of doing was going over to Pinkie and hugging her. "It's going to be okay." he said, trying to convince both her and himself that what he was saying was true. But he had a hard time beliving it.