The Cloudiseum echoed to thunderous applause and cheers as a grey, beaming pegasus made their way to join four others on a raised platform, bumping and shaking hooves as they settled in. Buried deep in the crowd of hopefuls below, Rainbow Dash could barely disguise the nerves as they rattled her breath.
Can’t be long now…she reassured herself.
The din soon fell away as a dark-blue hoof was raised to the side of the winners, the orange-maned mare stepping back up to the microphone.
“And our final spot this year…”
Dash couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across her face as the moment drew closer.
“It’s such a shame that this has to be our final spot, because there are so many other talented pegasi that didn’t quite make it…”
Yeah, yeah, Spitfire; we all know who they are! Rainbow Dash quickly went over her performance. After starting off with a flawless Filly Flash that dazzled her audience, she then swept effortlessly into a series of ever-tightening pirouettes and loops, before building to the biggest Buccaneer Blaze she’d ever managed, and one which had sent the crowd into an awed silence as the sky danced with light. If she didn’t make it, she would gladly eat Applejack’s Stetson.
“But, the final place goes to…”
Here it comes… She felt her legs tightening, ready to spring forth in triumph, and she willed the orange mare to hurry up.
“Rain-”
YES!
“-drop Flare!”
Rainbow Dash heaved a sigh, and buried her muzzle deeper into her fluffy cloud. It had all happened hours ago now, but it had been the only thing on her mind the entire time.
She had failed.
The adrenaline that had carried her through her supposedly awesome and effortless display had deserted her at that moment; right when she had foalishly leapt into the air with her fore-hooves raised. Somehow, the crowd’s laughter didn’t seem quite as piercing as it should have done. In fact, everything had seemed muted after that. Spitfire’s and Soarin’s words of commiseration. Fluttershy’s timid, nearly tearful assurances that the yellow pegasus had been certain that she had made it through, and hiding behind her pink mane as she apologised several times for not cheering hard enough. Her own voice as she talked to her idols, as she reassured the shy pony that it couldn’t have been her fault, and as she bid her fellow pegasus farewell. Even the wind and chill had seemed less biting as she climbed higher and higher, seeking out a lonely cloud on which to retreat even further into her thoughts.
Rainbow Dash always had difficulty being sappy. She had no trouble being emotional, so long as those were happy or triumphant, as they should have been today.
Instead, she had real trouble holding back her tears, and one or two had already slithered down her cheeks, pooling on the cloud as if to constantly remind her of her failure. To mock her.
Where had she gone wrong?
The cyan mare peeled her face away from the cloud, and instead propped it up with a hoof. Magenta eyes glazed over even more than they already had, as she stared out at the greyish sky and pondered.
Okay, so maybe she had gotten a little too close to the crowd in the middle of her Filly Flash. Despite the wind buffeting her eyes, she had seen parents moving to shield their foals as she continued to dive, and she could have sworn there was a mane that grazed the tip of her hoof as she levelled out. Perhaps it was the shock of that which threw her off for the start of her loops, meaning that she had to slow dramatically in order to follow her planned route.
Her hoof slid up to her forehead, and another sigh escaped her lips as another tear squeezed out of her scrunched eyes. Even if her Buccaneer Blaze had been perfect, and that was the one part of the routine she knew she had done faultlessly, it was small wonder she hadn’t gotten in; nopony else had nearly caused a stampede of terror.
She reawakened her gaze and directed it at Ponyville, or where she thought it was; her cloud could have drifted some distance by now. Fluttershy should have made it home a few hours ago, and the others would no doubt have questioned her about the tryout. Or, knowing her friends, would have figured out by the yellow mare acting even shier than usual exactly what the result was.
Despite herself, or rather the brash, cocky self that had seemed to vanish along with that final spot, Rainbow Dash cringed as she sank back into the fluffy mass. For the past week, she had done nothing but talk about the tryout. How she was going to wow the crowd with an array of magnificent moves. How she would become the first pegasus ever to be accepted as a Wonderbolt on her first attempt. How quickly she would then rise through to the Alpha Squad and fly alongside her heroes. And, most importantly, how awesome it all would be!
Her friends were interested in the tryout as well, and for the most part had humoured her during her bragging, her less successful stunt attempts, and during her cramming the subject into just about every conversation. Applejack and Twilight may have had the occasional sarcastic comment, but like the good friends they were they understood that this was Rainbow’s dream. Besides, this was Rainbow Dash; the Best Young Flier, the only pegasus ever to pull off the sonic rainboom, and the pony who had saved the lives of three Wonderbolts. How could she not get in?
What would they think of her now?
“You can’t let anypony get you down over this, Rainbow Dash, you understand?”
The rainbow-maned mare instantly recognised the rather goofy voice, and darted her eyes side to side, desperately seeking out the stallion in question lest he saw her like this. However, she soon cocked an eyebrow as she realised the air around her was still silent. No gentle bursts of wings wafted through the air. Given the blue Wonderbolt’s sweet tooth, if Soarin’ had actually come up to see her she wouldn’t have thought she’d have to strain too hard to hear him.
Where had she heard that, then?
“Hey! Pie Saver!”
Wait…she could remember that, too. This time, Soarin’s voice was louder, and yet somehow muffled…
“You okay?”
Of course! This was right after the tryout…
Rainbow Dash hung her head as she tried to scurry away from the Cloudiseum. After sitting through Spitfire’s consolatory speech right after making a complete foal of herself in front of her idols, there was little she wanted to do more than to just find Fluttershy and then disappear.
“Hey! Pie Saver!”
The stallion’s voice called out over the noise of the crowd, as they cheered the actual winners. Trust Soarin’, of all Wonderbolts, to be the one to find her.
She raised her gaze from the ground just in time to see the blue-uniformed stallion land before her, his lips curled in a warm smile and goggles perched jauntily above a kind gaze.
“You okay?”
At any other time of her life, Rainbow Dash would probably have snorted and carried on walking; she didn’t need his pity. Now, she merely sighed.
“Disappointed.”
The all-blue pony’s eyebrows almost fused to his mane, and he nodded with a sage-like quality that seemed ridiculous for his usual manner. “Can’t say I don’t blame you. All the Wonderbolts know that feeling.”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t for the life of her work out exactly why a Wonderbolt would have reason to be disappointed. Then again, she didn’t really have the capacity to fathom anything at the moment, aside from one pertinent question.
“What’re you doing over here, anyway. Aren’t you supposed to be with the…” Dash’s voice died before she could utter that last word, the one which almost burned her throat.
“Yeah… Yeah, I should, really, but we usually have a talk with some of those who didn’t quite make the cut, and since you’re leaving I thought this would be the best time!”
Rainbow winced in the middle of his sentence, but doubted she would have noticed anyway. “So…at least one of you guys has to talk with everypony who doesn’t make it?”
“Not everypony, just the ones who we think have a chance. Believe me, there are a lot of ponies out there who won’t be seei-” Soarin’ gave a goofy laugh for a moment, before his eyes and mouth widened and he surreptitiously glanced to either side, breath whistling through his teeth. “Ooh… What happens is if we think you’ve got what it takes, one of us will come see you.”
Now it was Rainbow Dash’s turn to feel her eyes widen. “You really think I’ve got what it takes?” A beacon of pride burst through the gloom in her chest.
The Wonderbolt nodded happily, and the beacon grew in strength. “Sure do! Some of the guys even wanted to have you make it through this year, but…uh, something else got in the way.”
The shroud returned to full occupation of her chest, and the frown returned to her face as quickly as her shoulders sagged. “Oh.”
It was the Filly Flash, she thought, that’s all it could be…
“Look, you can’t let anypony get you down over this, Rainbow Dash, you understand? Not even yourself. You did very well for your first time, and you should be proud of that, you know?”
Rainbow Dash nodded, barely raising her head in the process. She noticed that Soarin’s hooves looked decidedly unsettled on the cloud base, and there was a steadily building rumbling coming from around them.
“I…I really gotta get back there. Just…believe me when I say that if you keep practicing you’ll be a shoe-in next time around.”
There was a great whoosh as the slightly stocky stallion lifted off, and Rainbow Dash raised her head just in time to see his tail disappear over the soft wall that lead back to the centre of the stadium.
Rainbow Dash pushed her hooves into the cloud and stood up, her rose eyes now glinting with a steely determination. She knew now what she had to do.
Quelling her momentary anger at taking so long to realise it, and the protesting aches in her limbs, she stepped towards the edge of the tiny cloud. A gust of wind teased through her mane, and a small smile began to spread across her muzzle as the crisp coolness ruffled through her coat and cleared her thoughts.
So what if she hadn’t made it on her first attempt? Soarin’ had only made it in after four tryouts, and Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts, took three. There was only one thing stopping her from getting in, and she had been told countless times how to remedy the problem.
Time to make a start! she declared internally, raising her wings as she had done so many times before. She gave her prized pair a few swift beats, shaking the lingering tiredness from them; that tryout had been surprisingly tiring. Satisfied with her warm-up, she tensed the wings, angling them low for a speedy take-off, and leapt off the cloud.
“DASHIE! NOOO!”
This time, Rainbow Dash was certain that the chilling screech wasn‘t in her head, and after barely a few metres of descent she slowed to a hover, scanning the ground for a certain pink pony.
Pinkie Pie wasn’t difficult to find. The party pony was directly below her cloud, and she could see that the pink earth pony was bouncing around at a hectic pace, her familiar springing noise carrying even up to her height. That wasn’t what made the rainbow-maned mare raise an eyebrow. That honour went to what Pinkie Pie had clasped between her teeth: what looked like a party banner, and scrawled across it were the words ‘DON’T DO IT DASHIE - WE LOVE YOU!’.
‘Don’t do it‘? Do what? What’s gotten into her? Rainbow asked herself as she steadily fluttered down to her partner in pranks. She watched as Pinkie’s piercing blue eyes followed her the entire way, as wide as saucers. As she got very close, she could see two streaks of fur beneath the blue orbs that were darker pink than the rest of her.
Has she been…crying? Something had to be wrong; the last time Pinkie Pie cried was when they had first wielded the Elements of Harmony. She flapped herself to the ground as quickly as possible, while the pink pony continued to stare at her.
“Hey Pinkie,” she said as her hooves finally alighted on the grass, smiling at her friend. “What’s up?”
Pinkie returned her expression, but for a moment she was certain that the earth pony’s lower lip trembled. “Oh…n-nothing’s up, Dashie,” the party pony replied, almost forcing her smile to extend, “I just wanted to come see you after what happened at your tryout.”
Rainbow felt the corners of her mouth tug downwards for a moment, but held firm. “Oh…I guess Fluttershy must’ve told you all about that…”
“Yes…well, not really. When Fluttershy came back all alone I thought ‘Great, Rainbow Dash must be the newest Wonderbolt!’, but when she got closer she looked all sad and she was covering her eyes with her mane and her shoulders were all hunched - even more than usual! And if Fluttershy was all teary and wouldn’t talk to any of us that meant that it hadn’t gone well at the tryout, and I thought that that couldn’t be right because you’re the most absolutely amazingly fantastariffic flier in all of Equestria! But then I thought that if it hadn’t gone well at the tryout and you hadn’t come back with Fluttershy then it meant that you would be all sad and alone outside of Ponyville!”
Can‘t fault her logic! Rainbow Dash thought as Pinkie Pie continued to jabber on through her thought process, before something grabbed her attention. Pinkie’s voice had returned to normal, but she wasn’t bouncing around nearly as much as she normally would be.
“And so I asked Fluttershy where you were and it took seventy-three tries but eventually she told me that you were out on a cloud somewhere around here! So I ran out here as fast as I could, but when I looked around where you normally were on you clouds in Ponyville I couldn’t find you anywhere. So I looked up even higher and there you were lying down on a cloud, and you were all face-down and you looked so sad,” Pinkie’s eyes bulged and shimmered for a moment, before her chipper smile returned in earnest, “and so I thought that you needed cheering up, and if you need cheering up then the best way to do that is with a party! And that’s when I ran all the way back to Ponyville to get supplies!”
Rainbow Dash glanced past the pink pony as she mimed out her trek back to town, and found a stuffed set of saddlebags surrounded by a burst of confetti. Poking out from under the lid was the head of a rubber chicken, the neck of a sarsaparilla bottle, and the end of a long strip of purple fabric with a pin stuck through it. Resting against the bag was a marker-pen, its tip at the end of a thick black line across the fabric.
And that’s when it clicked.
The attempts at cheering up.
The terrified scream when she had jumped off the cloud.
The fact that Pinkie had been crying.
The ‘it’ on the banner.
“But when I got back I saw you were about to jump off of your cloud-”
“Pinkie.” Her frown returned.
“-And that made me so scared that my heart nearly stopped!”
“Pinkie Pie!” Her expression twisted into a grimace.
“Because you’re my bestest-best friend ever, Dashie-”
“PINKIE PIE!”
“And that's when I got my…oh…”
The pink pony’s eyes widened as she caught sight of Rainbow Dash, wings flaring and hooves digging into the soil. As suddenly as it had come back, the bounce and joy began to drain out of the earth pony’s expression.
“Pinkie…” Dash started through her teeth, barely keeping her tone level, “did you seriously think that I’d…kill myself?!”
Pinkie visibly shrank as Rainbow Dash growled those last two words, but that didn‘t matter anymore. Instead, she pressed her muzzle right against Pinkie’s, her magenta eyes boring into the blue pair that seemed devoid of their spark.
“How could…you… Why would you even think that? Is this a prank? Because if it is it’s not funny, Pinkie!”
Pinkie had begun to back away now, but Rainbow couldn’t care. She matched the party pony’s movements until her pink rump bumped into her bags with a squeak that would have seemed comical in any other situation.
“Well?” Dash snarled, as the blue eyes before her began to glisten again.
“I-”
“Remember what my Element is? Loyalty!” she spat, turning away from the earth pony. “How loyal would I be if I abandoned you guys like that? And why did you think I’d do it after I fail a tryout?! The Wonderbolts hold those twice a year!”
“Dashie-”
“What kind of friend do you think I am, Pinkie?”
Dash ended her rant with her chest heaving and nostril flared, desperate for more air to fuel even more anger as Pinkie would surely try to justify those…those thoughts.
Rainbow Dash didn’t hear another word out of Pinkie Pie, however. What she heard instead was far, far worse.
A sniffle.
As the wet sound reached her ears, Dash felt the tightness in her face weaken, and she spun around to see her friend. It returned for a moment as her eyes widened, taking in the dullness of her friend’s coat. Her jaw dropped as she noticed how little of the poofiness remained in her candy floss mass of a mane. She fumbled for words as she spotted the crystalline pools at the bottom of those formerly vibrant eyes, which stared at the ground.
But the worst moment came when the party-pony opened her mouth.
“I’m sorry, Dashie.”
The sound of Pinkie’s sugary-sweet voice completely missing its fizz and excitement choked whatever was left of Rainbow Dash’s foul mood.
“I…I-I was just so scared. You didn’t even have your wings open…”
Oh, sweet Celestia…
“…I-I thought I was never gonna see you again, Dashie…”
Why the hay did I have to say all that stuff?
Rainbow Dash padded forwards, and tentatively placed a hoof under Pinkie’s chin. Those wide, blue eyes glanced up at her own, and the pegasus had to fight back the sudden blurriness that filled her vision.
“Aw, Pinkie, you know I’d never leave you guys,” she whispered in the softest voice she could muster, trying to stop the tremors in her tone. “We’re gonna be best friends forever, all of us!”
Her voice strengthened for that final part, and as the party-pony’s muzzle scrunched and her vacant eyes angled back towards the ground, Rainbow had the sneaking suspicion that she’d done more harm than good. Right up until the moment that the greenery around her disappeared, and her vision was filled by a mass of pink bounciness.
She felt Pinkie’s hooves wrap around her, and she was pulled into the tightest of hugs; one that allowed her to feel every shudder that racked the pink pony as she sobbed against her.
“I know, Dashie!” Pinkie wailed, burying her muzzle into Rainbow’s neck. “A-a-and I should’ve known better than to think l-like that. B-but…when y-you started to f-fall…”
For a while, the only sounds that come from the pair were muffled sobs. Crushing her misgivings about being such a softie, Rainbow Dash gently ran a hoof along Pinkie’s back and tenderly nuzzled her friend’s cheek as she desperately tried to fix the mess that she’d caused.
She didn’t know how long it took, and nor did she care, but eventually she felt her friend’s breathing lose its raggedness and deepen, before the pink pony pulled away from the embrace with a final sniff.
“I’m didn’t mean to get you all angry, Dashie…” she whimpered, looking for all Equestria as if she was about to weep again.
“Pinkie-” Dash had begun to close on the pink pony again, but she was stopped as the sweet voice continued.
“But promise me you won’t scare me like that again.”
Those blue eyes stared deeply into her own rose pair, and though that familiar spark was still missing there was a certain determination in their depths.
Rainbow Dash didn’t even have to think about what she did next.
“Cross my heart.”
She ran a hoof over her chest.
“And hope to fly.”
She gave her wings a few quick flaps.
“Stick a cupcake in my eye!” she finished, planting a hoof over her left eye and beaming.
Through her one uncovered eye, she could see the corners of Pinkie’s mouth begin to curl upwards. Before long, both their smiles had become grins, and it wasn’t too much of a leap from there to chuckles. Soon, the pair were giggling, rocking backwards and forwards with their eyes closed in contentment, before they finally started rolling around in the grass, laughing away all of the tension with every gasp for breath and subtle glance at each other that only made them laugh even harder.
And with every little laugh, Pinkie’s coat got just that little bit brighter, and her mane regained a tiny smidgeon of its bounce.
Eventually, after much chortling, guffawing, snickering and good-old-fashioned laughing, quiet started to spread over the Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, interrupted only by the occasional wheeze for air as the pair lay on their backs, watching as the sky shifted from a pristine blue to a warm orange.
With the sun gently basking overhead, and the surprisingly comfortable grass beneath her, Rainbow Dash found her eyelids growing heavy, right up until the moment that Pinkie pointed out the third cloud shaped like a cupcake. It was at this point that something occurred to her sluggish mind.
“Hey, Pinkie,” she said, looking over at her friend.
“Yes, Dashie?” Pinkie turned to face her, and despite her aversion such sappiness Rainbow couldn’t help but feel a little warmer inside as she saw that the pink pony’s smile was back to its full glory. It stood out against a certain clamminess that had begun to build again.
“I’m really sorry for yelling at you,” she mumbled, turning to look up at the sky where her could had been. “I guess it did look like I was about to do something stupid up there, and…I don’t know what came over me…”
Her gaze fell to the ground as she went silent, that unwelcome heat beginning to bubble behind her eyes again. But, before it could build beyond the point of no return, she was pulled from her slump by a mass of pink bounciness tickling at her nose.
“Aw, don’t worry about it, Dashie,” chirped the now-standing pink mare, before pulling away to smile down at her, blue eyes twinkling merrily.
That warm feeling grew and smothered what was left of the chill in her chest, and the pegasus felt her frown shatter to be replaced with a beam of her own. She stood up, and wrapped a hoof around the pink pony’s neck.
“Thanks, Pinkie,” she uttered quietly. Thanks for being such a good friend…
It was at this point that an odd thought occurred to Dash. Something about there probably being enough light for a couple of practice runs if she got going, but she quickly quashed the thought. There was something much, much more important for her to do.
“I think we should start heading back” she said, pulling away from her prank partner. “The others’ll probably be worried about us by now.”
“Okie-dokie-lokie,” Pinkie replied, walking off to her saddlebags and grabbing them in her mouth. “Befifes,” she continued, muffled for a moment as she slipped the containers over her flanks, “I need to start planning your Congratulations Rainbow Dash Party!”
“Pinkie.” Dash shook her head as she watched Pinkie try to stuff the unwanted banner back into her pack, though her expression never wavered. “I didn’t get in, remember?”
“Oh, yeah…”
“But…” she continued, remembering her conversation with a certain stallion earlier, “I was told that I only just didn’t make it, and I’ll probably get in next time!”
“Well, that’s still a reason to celebrate, isn’t it?” Pinkie finally closed the last strap of her bags, and the pair set off for Ponyville with the pink mare leading the way. “But I guess I can’t really call it a congratulations party if you didn’t actually make it, can I? Maybe it can be your Well Done Dashie Party? Or what about a Better Luck Next Time Rainbow Dash Party? No, no, no, that can‘t be the name for a party…”
Rainbow Dash chuckled as she listened to Pinkie Pie rambled on joyfully through her various ideas, while the pair continued their steady trot towards the setting sun, back to the friends that she would never leave hanging…
