“Fluttershy, you’re amazing!”

Hearing those words come from Rainbow Dash as she heartily grabbed onto Fluttershy’s shoulders and lifted her off the ground was… overwhelming. The blood rushed right to Fluttershy’s face and it felt like she was trapped inside of an oven all of a sudden. She didn’t know how to respond either; she didn’t think she was all that amazing, she just—

“I just did what anypony would do.”

“Whatever!” Rainbow scoffed and put Fluttershy back on the ground, her laugh quickly becoming something of a cackle. “There were a ton of ponies at this carnival and no one but you and me had the guts to take down that griffon! And your ability was so cool! I’ve never seen anything like that!”

Fluttershy blanched. She wasn’t used to so much praise. She had no idea what to say to it all and she was starting to feel really panicky. Her ability—her Gentle Hoof as she liked to call it— wasn’t anything that special, and it’s not like she worked hard to attain it, it was just instinct. She didn’t even really understand how it worked herself!

She didn’t know what to say. But luckily she didn’t have to say anything because a haughty woman’s voice chimed into the conversation.

“Guts is a good way of putting it,” the voice said from behind Fluttershy, eliciting a frightened squeak from her as she jumped behind Rainbow, who narrowed her eyes and flared out her wings.

The voice belonged to a pale purple unicorn with bangs covering her forehead and her purple hair tied back into a slick ponytail with a teal streak that shone brilliantly through it.

“And you are?” Rainbow said warily.

“My name is Starlight Glimmer,” the unicorn said pleasantly, using her pale teal magic to grab something out of her saddlebags and producing two golden envelopes with a striking crimson seal on each.

“And you don’t need to be alarmed, I’m not much of a fighter,” Starlight said with a disarming laugh, hovering the envelopes in front of the two pegasi and offering them. “All I want is to give you each these.”

Rainbow quickly snatched the envelopes out of the woman’s magic, her hooves shaking as she looked at them with wide eyes that almost looked on the verge of misting up. “Are these—”

“They are two individual invitations to the Bifrost tournament,” Starlight had a smile on her face that said she knew exactly how valuable these invitations were and that she was quite pleased, if smugly so, to see Rainbow react accordingly. “One for each of you, of course.”

“One for— these are—” Rainbow was breathing heavily. She absentmindedly gave Fluttershy one of the envelopes, the contents of which meant very little to Fluttershy personally, but she was surprised to see Rainbow’s reaction. She’d never seen a smile so big as the one on Rainbow’s face as she gently rubbed her cheek against the envelope.

“Of course, the Bifrost is a team-based competition,” Starlight continued, mostly unfazed but still quietly amused by Rainbow’s zeal. Starlight probably saw reactions like Rainbow’s a lot. “The invitation extends to each of you individually and two other creatures of your choosing.

“Should you both decide to compete on the same team, please give one of the invitations to someone else so that they may compete, although I will leave the deciding of who should get said invitation up to your judgment. Think of it as a consolation prize, I guess.”

“That’s… a lot,” Fluttershy muttered.

“I’d like to say you have plenty of time to decide what you want to do, but-” Starlight chuckled, lifting a hoof up to her mouth and staring coldly at Rainbow and Fluttershy. She seemed polite enough, Fluttershy couldn’t help but find something about her… unpleasant. Unnerving almost. “-to be honest, the tournament does begin the day after tomorrow, so please make up your minds by then.”

“Wait a tick,” Rainbow said suddenly, giving her full focus to Starlight. “Day after tomorrow? And you’re still giving out invitations? Doesn’t that seem a little sloppy?”

“We give out a single invitation on each of the hundred and eight days before the tournament,” Starlight explained. “If we gave them all out months or even weeks in advance, there would be no sense of intrigue or urgency, plus they would all likely go to a bunch of rich jerks who just bought them or hired hitmen to take them or some such. Very boring, no fun for anyone.”

“If you give out one every day, why are you giving us two?” Rainbow asked suspiciously. Fluttershy couldn’t blame her for being a little hesitant and making sure this wasn’t a ‘too good to be true’ situation.

“Those of us that are given authority to hand out invitations are allowed to make judgment calls like this,” Starlight said with a slight giggle. “You both impressed me. And besides, those are the final two invitations so that means I can take tomorrow off!” Starlight laughed.

“So, this is legit, huh?” Rainbow said, her voice a mixture of excitement and anxiousness.

“One hundred percent,” Starlight replied with a nod and a confident smirk. “Clear as the scarlet seal on those envelopes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a one-day vacation to take!”

Starlight laughed again as she walked off into the dark of the night, leaving behind only a few more words before she disappeared.

“I hope to see both of you at the preliminaries in two days! Good luck!”

Fluttershy looked at the envelope in her hooves and tried to muster up any sort of emotion, but felt nothing. She had no interest in joining a fighting tournament and it made her sad to think that she had something so valuable in her possession yet it meant less to her than Rainbow winning that silly carnival game to impress her.

“Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy’s ears perked up at the sound of Rarity’s voice, and she looked around for a moment before seeing Rarity and Twilight running toward her, both looking rather haggard and their coats were all messed up, like they’d gotten into a fight.

Oh.

“Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?” Rarity said, grabbing Fluttershy by the shoulders and inspecting her this way and that.

“I’m—I’m okay,” Fluttershy laughed softly. “What about you? You don’t look— you look a little worse for wear.”

“Eh?” Rarity looked at herself and then at Twilight, before looking back at herself and then at Fluttershy, only to give a shrug. “It’s been a long night.”

“Fluttershy, is this what I think it is?” Twilight said with a gleam in her eye, picking up in her raspberry magic the envelope that Fluttershy had carelessly dropped on the ground.

“Oh. Yes.”

Fluttershy groaned under her breath and braced herself for the unwanted attention she was afraid she was about to receive. “It’s an invitation… to Bifrost.”

“How the heck did you—” Rarity coughed to cover up whatever she was about to say. “How did you get your hooves on one? And so suddenly at that?”

“Because she’s awesome, that’s how!” Rainbow Dash suddenly joined the conversation and put her foreleg around Fluttershy, taking her by surprise and causing a tiny “Eep!” to escape her lips.

“Is that right?” Rarity said drolly, shooting Rainbow a bemused glance. “I mean, I don’t disagree, but I’m surprised you’re saying that.”

“Did you two get into a little scrape?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy nodded meekly, sliding out from under Rainbow’s leg.

“Yeah, and Fluttershy was incredible,” Rainbow laughed and playfully bumped her hoof into Fluttershy’s side. “I really owe her one.”

“Huh. You don’t say,” Rarity looked at Fluttershy, who cautiously averted her gaze, feeling like Rarity’s eyes were going to burn a patch into her skin.

“It’s getting pretty late now though,” Rarity looked up into the sky, the smoke from some of the explosions pretty much entirely cleared up at this point, and the fair was quieting down as cleanup began. “Fluttershy, do you need someone to walk you home?”

“I can do it if you want,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “I kinda want to talk to you about this anyway,” she raised her envelope for everyone to see, and Fluttershy was more than a bit curious what Rainbow wanted to talk to her of all ponies about.

“That’s really not—”

Rarity tried to interrupt but was cut off by Fluttershy, “I would like that, Rainbow Dash.” She looked toward Rarity with an apologetic smile. “If that’s okay with you?”

“What? Y-yes, of course,” Rarity nodded effusively, and Fluttershy pretended not to see Rarity’s apprehension. “Do what you need to do, darling!”

“Thank you, Rarity,” Fluttershy bowed her head graciously and gave Rarity a tender hug. “And thank you as well, Twilight.”

“Uh, no problem,” Twilight said with a bright, albeit nervous, laugh and Fluttershy smiled at it because she knew she made that exact same laugh all the time.

Rainbow jerked her head to motion for Fluttershy to follow and Fluttershy gave a gentle nod in return.

“And thank you, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said with a soft smile as the two trotted away from the fair, and from Rarity and Twilight, Rainbow returning the sentiment with a very charming grin. “It’s been… a lovely night.”

Author's Note

Please feel free to alert me to any typos or errors.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!