The Colors We All Share

Taking Advantage

Nopony said a thing. They all wanted to, but nopony had any idea where to start. They understood what was said, but it didn't quite process yet. It didn't make any sense!

Trixie, the most boastful, self righteous, egotistical, conceited, narcissistic pony around, was here to learn about the magic of friendship?

It was ridiculous!

Unbelievable!

Absurd!

...Hilarious!

Rainbow Dash's mind finally settled on that word. That about summed it up better than anything else ever could, and she wasted no further time vocalizing it.

“Okay, okay, okay, let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash started, the beginnings of a smile edging its way onto her face, “you, you of all ponies, came back to study friendship? That's just too rich. You don't even know the first thing about being nice! I bet you wouldn't know a good friend if one walked up to you, asked if you wanted to be friends, and handed you a piece of cake.”

“Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! I heard we were meeting somepony new and I LOVE meeting new ponies so I baked you this cake! Wanna be my bestest best friend ever? Pretty please?”

Looking at Trixie with wide eyes and a smile that could melt a Windigo, Pinkie Pie proffered up a chocolate cake with pink icing.

Trixie was a little taken aback at the sudden appearance of so much, er, pink, but she didn't show it. Instead she gratefully accepted the cake with a smile, although under her smile she was wondering just where that cake came from.

“Trixie would be delighted.”

“WHOOOOO!” Pinkie shouted as she rocketed in the air. “Now I get to throw another one of my famous welcome parties! Oooohhh I'm so nervouscited!”

“She does realize that's not a word, right?” Trixe asked.

“Just let it go Trixie,” said Rainbow Dash “you won't get anywhere with that one.”

***Three Days Later***

Trixie was having little success in her attempts at friendship. Most of the ponies in town either remembered how she acted last time she visited or was told by a friend, and thus didn't care to try and put up with Trixie in any way. Trixie's only chance now was to befriend somepony everybody liked. Somebody who was cool, somebody who ponies cared about, somebody who the town looked up to, somebody whom everyone would listen to when they say 'Hey, Trixie's not such a bad person.'

Somebody like Rainbow Dash.

But Trixie's attempts at befriending the chromatic mare had been less than fruitful. In fact, most of the past two days had consist of Trixie shouting up at Rainbow Dash's cloud house until one of them got so fed up they left.

Rainbow was still grateful for Trixie's cover-up a few days earlier, but she just couldn't bring herself to attempt and befriend Trixie, she just held too much resentment. After all, she humiliated her when she-

“Hey Rainbow Dash! Get down here!”

Not again.

“Trixie! Leave me alone!” Rainbow shouted back.

“Rainbow Dash, I'm not messing around this time. You're coming down here or ELSE!”

“Or else what? I can dodge ANY of your spells!”

A smirk appeared on Trixie's face. “Not this one!”

A flash of light and a smoke cloud later...! Nothing changed. In fact, Rainbow took note that the residual magic cloud was looming over TRIXIE, nor Rainbow herself.

“Uuuuhhhh....did you miss? Terribly? I assumed you were a bad shot but this is ridiculous.”

”NOT AT ALL RAINBOW DASH! MY TARGET WAS ME!”

Holy Celestia! Trixie's voice was literally booming loud as thunder! It may have been hurting Rainbow Dash's ears, but still, she could just fly away from the source and then it would be fine, right?

”ATTENTION PONYVILLE, THIS IS AN ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTOR SPEAKING! I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT RAINBOW DASH, CURRENTLY HIDING IN HER CLOUD HOUSE, HAS COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY HEAD-OVER-HOOVES FALLEN IN LOVE WITH-”

And that's about as far as that got. The only thing going anywhere now was Trixie. To the hospital. Again.

Makes sense, though. Noses tend to break when you punch them dead on with the force of a Sonic Rainboom.

**************************

“That was completely uncalled for.” A certain irritated unicorn said to an equally irritated Pegasus.

“No, it was completely CALLED for! As far as I'm concerned, telling a secret to anypony you're not supposed to is pretty much saying 'Hey! I need to get punched in the face at the speed of sound! Could sompony help me with that?!'”

“It got you to come down and we're talking right now, so in the end I think I won anyway.” Trixie pointed out.

“Except now I'm furious with you and are never going to give you the time of day once you heal. I'm only here now because I feel a little responsible.”

Trixie thought for a moment.

“Hhhhmmmmm, you may be right. Never has Trixie heard that spilling a friend's secret is conducive to good friendship behavior...”

Trixie looked down at the white sheets of the hospital she was currently resting on.

“Rainbow Dash, sometimes I wishes she could have a clean slate, you know? Like these sheets right here. So white, so...pure. I wonder if I could ever be like that.”

'That's weird.' Rainbow thought. 'She dropped her whole third person thing. Could she actually be feeling sad? Eh, probably not.'

“But unfortunately for you, Rainbow Dash,” Trixie said with a not so innocent smile. “Trixie's heart is not like this sheet. It's black as night. Do you know what that means?”

“That you suck?” Rainbow said as she went to leave the room, she'd had about enough of this already. She'd made it halfway out the door when Trixie said

“It means that Trixie is going to blackmail you with the knowledge you've accidentally told me unless you give Trixie a chance. Commence friendship!”

“...That's stupid. Your stupid.”

“Well Trixie bets that you spelled 'you're' Y-O-U-R in your head just then.”

“What, that's not the proper 'your'?”

“NO!”

***

“Why are we doing this again Trixie?”

By 'this' Rainbow Dash was referring to the carnival she now stood in front of. It was standard fare as far as carnivals go, with cotton candy stalls, a couple of rides, cheap imitations of superheros as prizes, the usual.

“Because this is what friends do, Rainbow Dash, and if Trixie ever hopes to have friends she should start acting like one!”

Rainbow grimaced as she looked over at Trixie, a flat look now overtaking her features.

“I don't believe for one second that you could be a good friend. Look at us right now! I'm not here because I like you or anything, I-”

“That's not what you confessed to the magnificent Trixie before!” Trixie had to interject with a laugh.

“That wasn't meant for you and you know it! Now listen up and listen good. I'm only here because of you blackmailing me, and not for any other reason. Do you think that's a good way to start off a friendship? I'm gonna go with 'no' on that one.”

“Nonsense! It's perfectly normal, just go with it. Now let's go enjoy this carnival together.”

And with that Trixie walked off to enjoy some of the rides present, Rainbow following close behind.

They walked along in silence, Trixie looking for something legitimately fun for them to enjoy, Rainbow looking in any direction but Trixie. It wasn't a very productive friendship.

“Ooh Rainbow Dash, how about that one!”

Trixie was pointing forward at a small train ride, with a  bunch of fillies likely younger than the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It went around in circles and had a bump in the middle, to add a little thrill for the kids.

“Really, Trixie? Really? That ride is for babies! Come on, let's keep going.”

They continued on their path, walking in random directions just taking in the sights.

“Trixie, If we're gonna ride something, we're gonna do it right. We need something that goes up and down while flipping and spinning. Something that goes so fast it hurts your eyes to keep open. Something that makes you say 'Oh Celestia, why did I trust this carnival ride made out of balsa wood and hope?' Something like...something like...that!”

As they rounded the next corner, there came into sight precisely the ride Rainbow was talking about. It was called “The Chain”, and for good reason. The ride consist of a vertical chain on a belt system that spun around in  circles. On the chain were metal cages, four on each side. They spun on the chain, but also had a ball bearing where they connected, so each cage could spin individually from each other.

“Rainbow, are we looking at the same ride here? Look how rusted that abomination is! Surely it will break on the next cycle. And are you even looking at those cages? There's no padding plus they appear to be solid metal, and the door is held closed by a piece of string on some of them! If half are string and half metal, that means some of them must have already broken! And look at the structure holding it in place...Trixie is under the impression that that is indeed balsa wood! This may be the most dangerous thing Trixie has ever seen in her life.”

“I know, isn't it great?!” Rainbow yelled as she turned to face Trixie, a near maniacal look on her face. “Come on, let's go!”

Dash grabbed Trixie's hoof and dragged her towards the ride. Through her protests, Dash still managed to shove Trixie on board the contraption.

“Seal her up!” Dash shouted to the worker.

“No, let me out first! Let me OOOUUUT!”

The carnival worker, showing little concern at all, asked “Is she gonna be okay?” He didn't seem that genuine though. He was probably just doing the bare minimum of his job description.

“Yeah, it's her first time. She'll have a blast.”

“NO! Let Trixie out this instant or I'll-”

“What?” The uncaring guy shouted with an almost evil glare. “I can't hear you, the ride's started!”

With a lurch the ride kicked into high gear right out of the gate, creaking as it ascended.

“Rainbow Dash, if Trixie knew the teleportation spell, Trixie swears she would-”

“Leave?” Rainbow offered up.

“No, Trixie would send you into a volcano! Priorities, Rainbow Dash!”

It was then that they came up on the first spin, one of many to come. The wood creaked and the chains rattled, but nothing broke as the increased G-force was upon them.

Faster and faster the cage went, increasing in both speed and spins. Occasionally Trixie would let out a little 'Eep' of terror, but for the most part she seemed to be holding it in just fine.

That it, until the machine went in reverse.

“WHAT?! This blasted machine isn't over yet?”

The Chain was on it's way up.

“No no no, Trixie demands to be let out NOW!”

The speed was increasing.

“Hey, guy, do you hear Trixie? Stop this horrendous excuse for a ride right this instant!” Trixie shouted, banging on the doors while The Chain was reaching the topmost spin.

“When Trixie gets out of here, there will be consequences, do you hear me?! Consequences!”

*Snap*

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The door couldn't handle Trixie's banging anymore, and the string holding the cage had snapped as their cart reached the apex of the turn, sending Trixie flying.

An instant later, Dash was a flurry of multi-colored madness. Realizing what had happened right away, and that she was partly responsible, she careened after Trixie mere moments after she had flown free from the cage.

Grabbing Trixie securely around the waist, she gently lowered to the ground, dropping her inches from touchdown.

Rainbow was trying to gauge Trixie, but Trixie just held a blank look.

“Hey Trixie, I don't normally say this, but uuhh, sorry.”

Still she just stood there.

“I didn't mean it, honest!”

No reaction.

“It was just a bit of harmless f-”

Well that's weird. These lips weren't here when she was trying to speak a moment ago.

Wait, lips?

It took her a moment, but our rainbow heroine was now acutely aware that Trixie was kissing her with her very soft, very pleasing lips.

'Wait...what?' She thought. That was a strange way do describe Trixie's lips. 'It's been like five seconds. I should probably do something about this. Yeah, definitely gonna do something, like, push her away. Any second now. Come on, body, move!'

But try as she might, Rainbow couldn't bring herself to pull away. There was something about the situation locking her in place, something that just made her want to stick it out to the end and see where it went.

She wouldn't have to wait long though, as Trixie had pulled away moments after.

“Rainbow Dash, I, I don't...I just.”

“Sssshhh,” Rainbow whispered as she leaned in. “It's okay.”

Rainbow Dash had no idea what was possessing her to lean in for another kiss, but when their lips reconnected she didn't really care.