SPOILERS!
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Rarity arrives at the castle to solicit Spike's help in th egem caves. Spike is distracted by writing a letter, and completely misses what is being said! So he asks her to repeat it (just to be sure he heard her), and she does. He still seems pre-occupied, though, and when she tries to give him a gem basket to start the trip, he asks for a raincheck because he has to go to the post office. Rarity is confused. Neigh, shocked.
Trouble in paradise! Rarity being ignored by Spike?
So Applejack ends up helping, while Rarity rants about Spike's pre-occupation. This only adds fuel to my RariJack shipping, by the way. Also, bats! Yay! Oh, and now they've rattled them and are being chased out of the cave. I love it.
Rarity seeks out Twilight to find out why Spike turned down her trip to the gem cave. Twilight asks her whether or not she and Spike had a fight, and maybe unintentionally hurt his feelings. Yeah, we're heading into that territory, if the title wasn't any indication.
Rarity interrupts Twilight and declares she needs to leave a grand gesture for Spike, in order to regain his attention. She shows up at the post office with a crate of gems and comic books (now that's a grand gesture if you ask me). We get to see Gabby, who is delivering mail from Griffinstone.
Rarity creates a dramatic scene (of course), saying she is sorry she hurt Spike, though she doesn't know why, and she wants to make it up to him. Gabby says it seemed genuine, and would work for her.
Spike shows up and Rarity jumps into her dramatic apology. Spike, confused and holding two ice cream cones, says there's nothing for her to apologize about. He wasn't mad at her, just going to the pier to see friends. Rarity is shocked. Shocked!
Spike explains that he and Gabby are friends, pen pals to be exact. They both quickly explain how they became friends, and share interests (they're both in the message sending business!).
Rarity is clearly jealous, but puts on a conciliatory tone for Spike. She learns the news that Gabby is now a permanent part of the mail system from Griffinstone to Ponyville, and is there all of the time as a result. She starts to explain how they can have a trip to the fabric store but looks around to see Spike and Gabby have already left.
The next day we see Rarity getting help from Rainbow Dash (she always knows how to dress in style!) hahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry, not sorry.
We go to a little music montage of Rarity starting to really miss her outings with Spike, and seeing Spike with Gabby really depresses her. Of course we've all been there with friends, hoping to have them all to ourselves, but it's not something you can do, not do and still be fair to your friends, that is.
We see a few more sweet moments (Rarity letting Spike eat the cucumbers while they're at the spa is adorable). The montage ends, and Rarity is ruminating as she sews. She misses Spike's presence , using Fluttershy as a sounding board for what she might do to fix that.
Of course, Rarity goes a little freaked out and visits Spike in his room late at night, and surprises him with a visit to the Great Gem Cravasse of the Crystal Mountains. Spike's impressed! But... he's going to meet Gabby that day for her rounds. Rarity starts to leave in a bit of a huff, but Spike changes his mind at the last second and says he'll just write and explain to Gabby about going with Rarity to the Crystal Mountains.
This pleases Rarity, of course.
The next scene has us at the train station, with Spike and Rarity returning to Ponyville, Spike's backpack loaded down with gems. They're quite happy from the experience, it's clear, but of course that can only last a few minutes now that they're back home, and that pans out a few moments later when Gabby shows up.
She's excited for Spike (the Crystal Mountains were far more exciting than doing my rounds!). During the next day, Gabby is listening to Spike's story about the Crystal Mountains, when she bumps into Rarity. Rarity has a surprise, a visit to Power Pony Palooza. Gabby is excited for him and insists he go with her, but we see Gabby feeling down.
It's clear that Spike's got a quandary unfolding. Rarity and Gabby both want his time, and it's only for so long that Rarity can keep plying Spike with big trips and surprises. Gabby's feeling left out because she can't reciprocate on that level, and probably feels like less of a friend. This has happened before, and I've faced issues like that as a friend, being lacking in the money department.
So Rarity asks Spike if he wants to play Ogres and Oubliettes. Gabby interrupts the two playing the game, and is saddened because Spike had told Gabby he was too tired to make rounds with her. Spike unintentionally lied, but it still seems bad, and he's hurt Gabby's feelings. The next day, he and Rarity are working on her fabric choices.
He sees Gabby out the window, and we see a montage of Rarity and Spike going about their routine, but Spike is clearly depressed. All of the fun things they had done before pale in comparison to having a friend angry at you. I know this feeling well.
After they return from an outing, Twilight greets the pair and Twilight notices Spike's sadness. Rarity admits that Gabby and Spike are on the outs because she felt wronged by him. Twilight realizes Rarity monopolized Spike's time to keep him from Gabby, and confronts her with it.
Rarity admits her guilt in this, and Twilight explains that just because Spike has a new friend doesn't mean Rarity is no longer wanted. She admits she'll have to share him, and sets off to make amends with Gabby.
She creates a dramatic scene outside the post office, and confesses to Gabby that she was behind the whole thing, and was jealous of Spike and Gabby spending time together. Spike shows up and she has to explain her motivations.
Gabby and Spike make up, and hey, I can see a strong bond building between the two. I believe fully this is an allegory of Spike moving on, and finding somepony to make him happy (Spike x Gabby?)
So we see Rarity and Pinkie Pie mining gems, with Pinkie not understanding the purpose of the basket. Seriously, I love when Pinkie Pie totally misses the point of the most basic concepts. Right then, Spike shows up. Spike insists that he loves being around Gabby, but also wants to make sure he has time for Rarity. Pinkie shouts "Oh! So THAT'S how it works!" causing the bats to flood the cave and terrify everypony.
Scene.
This episode was a long time coming. It acknowledges, without being too specific, the relationship between Rarity and Spike has grown, and that she wants him around because she cares about him, not just because he's convenient as a helper. It's good to see Gabby again, and now it also appears that Gabby and Spike have something more than a friendship if Spike's blush is any indication. I'm okay with that, because I'm not sure the Rarity Spike thing could have worked. She's clearly 10-15 years older, and they wholly different outlooks in life.
Gabby seems much closer to his age anyway. So I'm all for that!
Anyway, fun little slice of life episode that gets into the heart of one of my favorite pairings, and we also get to see Twily use the fainting couch, which was cute. This one gets an A.
