What was it, six o’clock? Seven at night? Sometime around there that Rainbow Dash returned to the miserable little alleyway that acted as her home; setting sun’s light reflecting off of slowly parting rain clouds painted the whole sky a pale yellow.

Rainbow fell into her hammock, and every bone in her body rebelled immediately, making their strain of trying to get comfortable in the old worthless hammock known by crying out all at once.

Once Rainbow was settled, a head peeked down from the hammock above hers; pink fur and the most adorable set of sky-blue eyes, and a wild mane of curly pink cotton candy hair.

“I brought you a cosmic brownie,” Rainbow said, handing up the plastic-wrapped treat, the pink pony beaming as she snatched it out of Rainbow’s hoof.

“Thank you kindly, Rainbow!” Pinkie Pie giggled, and her infectious enthusiasm was almost enough for Rainbow to forget how cold and achy she was. Almost.

“Some girl asked me out today,” Rainbow said nonchalantly.

Pinkie gasped dramatically. “No kidding?! That’s so great!” she stuck her head down to look at Rainbow, brownie held firmly between her teeth. “Was she cute? Who was she? Did you accept? Tell me all the deets!”

“Her name’s Fluttershy,” Rainbow slunk out of the hammock; she didn’t know why she thought laying in that thing would help her relax. “You should’ve seen how pathetic she was— that sounded bad. I just mean she looked so, uh—”

Rainbow tried to think of a nicer word than ‘pathetic’, but she came up empty.

“It was sad,” Rainbow said, trying to sound a bit less mean, “so I told her I’d go to the carnival to make her feel better.” Rainbow pondered for a sec, and a quick glance at Pinkie’s pensive expression confirmed that no, that did not sound less mean. “That also sounded bad. I don’t want it to sound like I accepted her offer cuz of pity.”

“I should hope not! You hate pity!” Pinkie dropped out of the hammock, her big plump body landing on the concrete with a thud, but she sprung to her hooves like nothing happened before Rainbow could ask if she was okay.

“So where are you going? When are you going? When can I meet her?” Pinkie hopped up and down excitedly as she asked a million other questions that Rainbow pretty much tuned out for the sake of her own patience.

“We’re going to the carnival at like eight,” Rainbow yawned, stretching her back muscles and splaying her wings, “or was it the fair? Eh, either way, there was an actual reason, not pity related, that I accepted her offer.”

“Oh yeah?” Pinkie said curiously, standing up on her hind hooves and leaning her face close enough to Rainbow’s that their cheeks touched, before getting swatted away by Rainbow’s hoof.

“Yup,” Rainbow groaned as she looked over at the hammock, knowing she wouldn’t get any rest in it but also feeling totally antsy and seriously needing to chillax. “She was really nervous when she talked to me, like she was super worried about saying or doing the wrong thing.”

“That… sounds familiar,” Pinkie shifted uncomfortably and kicked awkwardly at the ground.

“So you see where I’m going then,” Rainbow snickered. “You remember how I used to be, super nervous and shaky and awkward. I couldn’t just, y’know, to go up to some girl and ask them out, that’s something I never could’ve done back then.”

“You couldn’t do it now!” Pinkie giggled and as much as Rainbow hated to admit it, Pinkie was totally right and that made Rainbow laugh.

“You’re not wrong,” Rainbow gave a wry smile, lying on the ground and letting her nose come mere inches from Pinkie’s, a smile finding its way onto Rainbow’s face like it always seemed to when Pinkie was around. “I guess what I’m saying is, I owed it to her to take her up on that offer. I couldn’t let her bravery go unrewarded.”

“A little kindness goes a long way,” Pinkie’s smile turned from devilish to sweet and right back to devilish again, and Rainbow couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Exactly,” she nodded, “plus she reminds me of an old friend I had. Like an old old friend.”

“Someone from before we met?” Pinkie cooed, head cocked and ears upright.

“Yeah,” Rainbow sighed. Her childhood, especially from before Pinkie, wasn’t something she had a whole lot of fondness for. “My old man’s right-hoof guy, an old man named Torch—guy practically raised me more than my old man did,” Rainbow clacked her hoof against concrete as nostalgia welled up in her stomach, but she quickly cleared her throat and got back on topic.

“Anyway,” Rainbow tapped against concrete twice, “old dude was in charge of training me and a bunch of dragon kids my dad thought would make good fighters. Sometimes he’d bring in other dudes to help us sharpen our fangs on, and one of those guys was a pegasus who I really hit it off with, had the same yellow fur and pink hair this girl Fluttershy has. So she reminded me of those old days, that’s all.”

“So,” Pinkie hummed, “what happened to your old friend?”

“They got out,” Rainbow muttered; remembering the day she got left behind brought back the same jolt of pain like it’d just happened yesterday. “They actually had the guts to. I didn’t.”

“You did,” Pinkie rubbed her mane against Rainbow’s neck and purred, Rainbow’s face turning pinker than Pinkie’s hair as she let out a hoarse laugh, “eventually.”

“I guess,” Rainbow awkwardly stumbled away from Pinkie, eyes crossed and cheeks flaring up. “E-either way—”

Pinkie cut Rainbow off with a dramatic gasp, Rainbow looking behind her and arching an eyebrow to see if Pinkie had something to say or if she was just being Pinkie.

“What if this Fluttershy is the same person!” Pinkie hopped in place, and Rainbow humored her with a grin.

“Maybe,” Rainbow shrugged, “stranger things, I guess. And I mean, I changed gender since then, maybe they did too.

“That said,” Rainbow bit her lip until she couldn’t hold back her excited grin anymore, “there’s one other reason I wanted to go to the carnival with that girl.”

“Why’s that?”

“Bifrost is almost here.”

“Ohhhhh snap!” Pinkie said emphatically, hopping over to Rainbow and wrapping her foreleg around Rainbow’s. “What are you talking about?”

“A carnival that visits a dump like Dodge City, it’s bound to be full of all kinds of shady characters,” Rainbow grinned, fangs peeking out the sides of her mouth. “Shady characters that may have a way for me to get an invitation to Bifrost. I mean, I know it’s a long shot but, it’s better than nothing.”

“I don’t get how that works,” Pinkie huffed, puffing up her cheeks. “Bifrost is like, the biggest martial arts competition—heck, the biggest competition period in all Equestria! How is it invite only?!”

“Cuz everyone and their mother is gonna wanna get involved!” Rainbow said excitedly, flapping her wings and hovering over Pinkie. “If just anypony could join, they’d have literally half of Equestria competing! By the time the tournament was over they’d have to start the next one right after!”

“So that’s why there’s only like a hundred invitations?” Pinkie grumbled, apparently not satisfied by Rainbow’s answer.

“Yup,” Rainbow sighed desperately, lowering back down onto the ground in a slump.

There was nothing more important to Rainbow than joining Bifrost—than winning Bifrost. She needed to prove that she was stronger than anyone else, that she could defeat every other team and prove that she could stand above everyone.

That was the only way she was going to defeat him.

“And it’s a hundred and eight, to be specific.”

“Right,” Pinkie whistled. “Welp, nopony wants this more than you do, so I just know you’ll get your hooves on an invitation! Tell you what, while you’re hanging out with your cute date, I’ll skulk around the carnival and try to find the shadiest of shady characters and see if I can’t rustle an invitation out of ‘em!”

“That’d be awesome, Pinkie,” Rainbow gave Pinkie a bright smile and lifted her hoof toward Pinkie, who pounded her hoof against it with a delighted giggle. “What would I do without you?”

“Uh, be extremely lonely and sad?” Pinkie scoffed. Rainbow just looked at her in bewilderment. “Too much?” Pinkie chuckled nervously, making Rainbow sigh and shake her head before grabbing Pinkie in a playful headlock and ruffling up her hair, Pinkie giggling the entire time.

Rainbow didn’t want to say—she couldn’t bring herself to say it— but Pinkie wasn’t wrong.

Author's Note

i love pinkie and rainbow's relationship.. they're rly sweet together

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