Author's Note

......

......

......

....Shit....

In which Barb eats a cookie

"Here we are Barb! Sugarcube Corner! Home of the most delicious confectioneries you would ever taste in your entire life" Spike exclaimed, putting his arm out towards the building to introduce it to Barb.

Barb merely stood rooted in place as she looked over the gigantic building in front of her. She was once again awestruck by the beautiful building. The entire thing looked like a gingerbread house for goodness sakes! The detail put into it as well as the props on the roof made it look so edible to Barb, which made her mouth water. "Sooo...Coool..." Barb muttered as a single droplet of saliva fell on to the pavement.

"Hahaha! Like what you see, huh?" Spike asked, to which Barb nodded absentmindedly, still staring at the gigantic building. "Wait till you see the inside. You'll love it" Spike said, tugging on Barb's hand to pull her away from her stupor.

Spike turned the knob on the door and pushed it, entering the building with Barb in tow. There were a fair number of ponies sitting on their chairs, either alone or with friends. In front of the duo, there was a glass cased shelve displaying numerous confectioneries ranging from cupcakes to donuts to cakes. There were a couple of ponies whom had ordered something in front, to which they received their orders and went off their merry way.

"Hi Mr and Mrs Cakes!" Spike exclaimed, catching the attention of the married couple behind the counter, surprised by the sudden volume.

"Oh Spike! Hello there!" The guy with the light orange colored hair exclaimed in reply, smiling at Spike. He is known as Carrot Cake, or Mr Cake, for simplicity.

"Oh dear me! Hello Spike!" The female with light crimson colored hair replied. She is known as Cup Cake, or Mrs Cake.

Spike and Barb walked forward in front of the couple, with Barb hiding herself behind Spike, obviously shy towards the two of them. The couple seemed to notice the young female behind Spike, which piped their interest. "Why hello there. And who might this young lady be?" Mr Cake asked, cocking his head sideways in confusion.

"Her name's Barbara, or Barb for short. Hey Barb, why don't you say hi?" Spike asked, ushering Barb to go forth and greet the couple.

Being shy towards them, Barb slowly moved forth, with her head hanging low, fidgeting a little. "Umm...H-Hello..." She meekly replied, causing the married couple to chuckle at her shyness.

"Hello dear. I'm Cup Cake and this is my husband, Carrot Cake" Mrs Cake introduced herself and her husband. Though, after a while, she looked at her in confusion. "Say...I must ask, why does she look a lot like you, Spike?" Mrs Cake asked, causing Spike to sheepishly chuckle.

"Ehehehe....Err...To put it short, Twilight's newest spell backfired and now she's here" Spike awkwardly explained, causing the couple to chuckle.

"Is that so? Well, that must have been a weird experience then" Mr Cake commented, laughing heartily. This in turn, caused Barb to blush, due to the memory of their first encounter being not so pleasant in a way. "Anyways, since the both of you are here, what do you need?" He asked the duo, placing an arm on the counter.

"Well, Twilight planned on having me take Barb on a tour around the town. This is our first stop actually" Spike told them.

"If that's the case, let us whip up something special for this occasion. How about the two of you take a seat first?" Mrs Cake asked, causing Spike to nod his head, grabbing Barb's hand and gently tugging her along, with Mr and Mrs Cakes walking back into the kitchen.

After finding a good spot, the duo took a seat, with Barb sitting rather close to Spike, her still not wanting to remove her sight off the ground. She was still rather shy and quite frankly, Spike was still the only one she could really trust, besides his sister and friends. Then, not even a moment later, Spike caught her attention with a question. "So...How do you like things so far?" He asked, causing her to fidget in her seat.

"..I-It's fine...I'm just...really nervous" Barb replied, placing her face on the table.

Spike sighed and shook his head. "Really now. What did I tell you just now? You have nothing to worry about. Everyone here is really nice" He patted her shoulder, causing her to whine, much to his amusement.

"I'm just nervous...! There's a lot of new faces I've never met and new places I've never seen!" She shook her head in embarrassment, causing Spike to look at her with an unamused look. He tried to think of something to say but decided against it due to not wanting to make the situation any more worst for her.

After a while, Mr and Mrs Cakes emerged from the kitchen, holding a tray in their hands as they walked towards the duo. Spike was smirking at this point. The Cake's were notorious for making a really damn good first impression. Whatever they made would probably blow Barb's mind.

Figuratively, of course.

"Here you go! Some of our standard chocolate chip cookies with some bagels filled with a deluxe cream filling" Mrs Cake announced to the duo, as she placed down the tray. Next to her, her husband placed his tray, revealing two beverages in a tall glass with two straws. "As well as today's special drink, 'The Fruity Rainbow Supreme'. Made from freshly juiced fruits in a tasty cold beverage" She smiled. "Enjoy!"

And with that, she walked off with her husband in tow, the two of them sharing whispers and soft chuckles along the way. Meanwhile, Spike nodded in satisfaction. The married couple had once again made a damn good impression, seeing as how Barb was staring at the two trays as if the princesses had laid the greatest feast in pony history. Her pupils were so large that it looked as if they would pop off their sockets if they grew any bigger and her mouth was wide open, with a small trail of saliva dripping down her lips.

Spike had to chuckled yet again at her look of utter disbelief. But he had to reaffirm himself that the looks of these goods would not even come close to how amazing they would taste. He had seen the looks ponies had given when they tried these delicacies for the first time. Readjusting himself in his seat, he snapped his fingers, which managed to get Barb off her trance. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead!" He ushered the tray towards Barb.

With slight hesitation, Barb picked up a single cookie and took a bite. Almost immediately, her eyes shrank to the size of a pinprick, with her mouth slightly agape, curved to form an 'o'.

"Sooo....How does it taste..??" Spike asked in a little teasing tone, which earned him no response. He cocked his head, a brow raised. Odd.

"Helloooo? You in there Barb?" Spike asked. After a short silent period, Barb muttered something incoherent.

"Th-...eat..-ing...ever..." She muttered, with Spike barely hearing any real sentences.

"Come again?" Spike asked.

In one motion, Barb swallowed the cookie piece she ate. At that moment, once she was done, she took in a deep breath and yelled out loud, at the top of her voice, "THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER!!". With that, she began to shake in her seat in excitement, a huge grin on her face, with the half eaten cookie still in her hand.

Spike sighed in relief. So it wasn't a bad thing after all. Thank goodness for that. And so, slumping into his seat, Spike reached out and grabbed a piece for himself and took a bite himself. It would probably be better if he didn't disturb her in her sudden revelation of what would soon be the 'greatest thing ever' by her standards. But to be perfectly honest, their chocolate chip cookies were extremely addictive.

After a while, Barb managed to get over her hype and began to act a little bit more 'normal'. And by 'normal' meaning stuffing her face with cookies, all the while making "Om nom nom" sounds and wagging her tail back and forth, that Spike had found to be extremely cute. For the rest of the ponies that were in the building, they merely looked at the duo, shaking their heads and chuckling at the sight. It was cute seeing something like that happen.