Rainbow headed back to her stupid little alleyway home, walking along the asphalt roads of Dodge City lit up by barely functioning street lamps that flickered in and out.

Nothing mattered to her besides the golden envelope that was sticking out between her teeth, her tongue gently brushing the edges of it as she walked, which she knew was probably a really good way to get a papercut, but she didn’t care.

She almost couldn’t believe it, but there it was.

Her invitation.

“Hi there!” Pinkie chirped as she showed up next to Rainbow and started walking beside her, Rainbow completely unfazed by Pinkie’s sudden appearances after a very long time getting used to her doing that exact thing.

“Hey,” Rainbow said coolly, her eyes firmly locked onto the ticket. “Didn’t see you at the carnival.”

“I was around,” Pinkie said with a shrug. “Played some games, got some snacks, skulked around for some shady characters.” Pinkie giggled and placed her hoof gently on the crimson seal of Rainbow’s invitation before saying in a sing-song voice, “But it looks like I didn’t need to!”

“You knew about this?” Rainbow asked curiously, dropping the envelope into Pinkie’s hooves.

“I was watching from the bushes,” Pinkie said nonchalantly, analyzing the envelope she was now holding. Rainbow didn’t recall there being bushes at the carnival grounds, but she knew better than to question Pinkie’s logic.

“This is it, Pinkie,” Rainbow said proudly, stamping her hooves against the ground. “We’re competing in Bifrost. Somehow, we got our hooves on a ticket. You and me are going to Bifrost!”

The emotions had been welling up inside Rainbow all night but there was still a part of her that felt it must’ve been a mistake cuz it was too good to be true, but it was really hitting her now that this was real. She had the invitation in her hooves and this was happening.

Rainbow stopped in her tracks and just grinned ear to ear at the invitation. She started jumping in place and doing a really awkward looking dance, Pinkie Pie quickly joining in until both were on the ground in a laughing fit.

“I’m so happy for you!” Pinkie said, wrapping Rainbow up in a big hug. “But wait!” Pinkie sprung to her feet. “You plus me equals two, which is three minus one because zero plus three makes three which is how many you need for Bifrost but three minus two is one which is how many we don’t have because we’re two and one plus two is three so three minus one is two—”

“Alright, I’m confused,” Rainbow put one hoof on her forehead and another on Pinkie’s to stop her rambling.

“We need one more teammate, duh!” Pinkie scoffed and rolled her eyes. It was really endearing to Rainbow how Pinkie thought anypony could keep up with her sometimes. “I thought it was pretty obvious what I was saying, Rainbow. You need to step up your game,” she stuck her tongue out teasingly and Rainbow just bopped her on the nose with a sly grin. Pinkie backed away with a giggle, brushing her nose gently with a hoof.

“I asked Fluttershy to join our team.”

“Doesn’t she have a ticket of her own?” Pinkie cocked her head to the side. “Are you sure she wants to join us?”

“Yeah, and I dunno if she even wants to join Bifrost at all.”

Rainbow took a deep breath and sighed. She scrunched up her face and wrinkled her nose for a sec, but then just shook her head.

“But I’m willing to bet on her,” Rainbow shrugged with a wry laugh. “And if not, we’ll just find someone when we get there. Doesn’t matter who, I can ace this whole thing by myself, and I have you with me which means double the acing.”

“Ooh, I love acing!” Pinkie said exuberantly. “Like a strawberry acing on a chocolate cake! Mm-MMM!” Pinkie licked her lips. “Doesn’t that sound so good?” Pinkie gasped dramatically and donned a very proud smile. “We can call it Bifrosting!”

“You’re thinking of icing,” Rainbow said with a baffled laugh, “although yeah, it does sound good right now.”

Then it hit her, and her eyes widened as drool fell from her open mouth.

“Pinkie.”

“Yes, Rainbow?” Pinkie leaned against Rainbow, smooshing their cheeks up against each other and smiling brightly.

“Teams competing in Bifrost get free meals at like, dozens of restaurants in Manehattan,” Rainbow said excitedly, giving Pinkie a huge grin. “If we make it all the way to the tournament proper, we can eat like queens!”

“Strawberry acing chocolate cake, here we come!” Pinkie screamed, hopping up and down and clapping her hooves against Rainbow’s, who quickly joined her in hopping around like a doofus.

It’d be a long road from here to the end of Bifrost; nearly an entire year if past tournaments were anything to judge by, but Rainbow was ready for it. She was strong, and confident, and she knew she would have the best team.

And for just a sec, she felt like life was good to her.

Author's Note

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