Things with Fluttershy were going about as well as Rainbow had figured, which is to say not great.

As soon as Fluttershy’s friend was away, even though she was never totally out of sight, Fluttershy started to clam up instantly. She awkwardly kicked at the dust, her eyes darted nervously at the ground and her wings flittered about like she was doing everything she could to stop herself from just bolting into the sky and bailing.

She basically did everything but speak.

Rainbow knew she had to say or do something to get Fluttershy to open up, but Rainbow’s social skills were about as good as her reading comprehension. The wall of silence between her and Fluttershy was a real downer, and it was getting more impenetrable by the second, and Rainbow couldn’t blame Fluttershy for it for one second.

Because to be fair, Fluttershy wasn’t the only one who was nervous. Rainbow wasn’t exactly a dating master or anything, and it was hard for her to get out of her own train of ‘wow you sure are showing her a good time, you freakin’ idiot!’ thoughts.

But even still, Rainbow just kept thinking, I can’t let her down, I can’t mess this up for her.

Fluttershy reminded Rainbow of how she used to be as a kid, and that realization gave her an idea; if Rainbow were in Fluttershy’s position, what would she want herself to say?

“Do you like, uh—”

Rainbow looked around at the various carnival games, her eyes scrunching up to deal with the harsh orange lighting all over the place, which was frustrating cuz she felt like she’d probably just see better in the dark.

Anyway, about those carnival games, Rainbow knew she could win some of them, but she also knew a lot of ‘em were straight-up rigged and if she blew this chance it would pretty much tank the whole night, so she did the most reasonable thing she could and immediately choked on anxiety.

Aagh, screw that! she thought as she swallowed her nerves.

“Do you like stuffed animals?”

“I-I, y-yeah, I do,” Fluttershy nodded with a sweet but shaky smile, though her eyes were still glued to the ground.

“Want me to win ya somethin’?” Rainbow grinned and gently bumped her elbow against Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I’m pretty good at some of these games.”

“O-okay.”

Great, she’s a people-pleaser. Trying to figure out how she actually feels is gonna be way harder than winning a rigged carnival game.

Rainbow took a deep breath and tried to shake off the growing anxiety as she and Fluttershy walked up to one of those ‘shoot the thing at the cups and knock ‘em all over’ type of games, which was perfect for Rainbow.

There was a little mounted pellet gun with a couple of levers, but Rainbow recalled that the stupid gun was always jammed in a way where it would shoot to the left of where you aimed, then to the right, or— or maybe the other way around? Rainbow couldn’t remember.

Didn’t matter. Rainbow had a little rig of her own up her sleeve.

“What do you think of that bear?” Rainbow pointed to a giant stuffed bear that was practically twice her size.

“I-I already have that one,” Fluttershy murmured.

“Ah. Well what about the possum?” the possum was also pretty big, like one of those stuffed toys that you can use as an oversized pillow.

“I actually—” Fluttershy looked at the collection of prizes and started giggling, which was the first sign of any emotion other than ‘anxious’ she’d shown all night, so this was already a win so far! “I already have all these!”

“Whoa, seriously?” Rainbow gawked, looking over the fifteen or twenty prize animals. “That’s dedication!”

“I collect a lot of stuffed animals,” Fluttershy tilted her head and her hair fell over one eye.

“That is rad to be honest,” Rainbow snickered and she could see Fluttershy blush and smile, but the anxiety choked the emotion right off her face as quick as it came. “Okay, how about… that?” Rainbow pointed to a small teal butterfly charm, which didn’t look like much, but Rainbow thought it was cool.

“That’s—” Fluttershy bit her lip, which Rainbow hoped was a good sign, and gave a sly grin, which Rainbow figured was definitely a good sign. “I like it. Okay.”

“Alright then! Fluttershy, prepare to own that charm!” Rainbow was trying to sound cool but the jerk behind the counter snickered at her and that got her all flustered. She was absolutely gonna destroy his little cup castle now.

So, how this game is supposed to go; you get five shots and three castles, and the gun’s supposed to misfire in a wrong direction just enough that you’re too disoriented to hit all three castles. Like, you can’t analyze the system at play without putting in a ton of money.

Buuuut with subtle use of Rainbow’s wind magic, even if the bullet doesn’t hit the castle, the force behind it does. And with that on her side, it was no problem taking out three castles in three shots.

The counter guy looked totally flabbergasted and Rainbow figured that he suspected her of foul play, but what was he gonna do? Make a big scene? No way he was paid enough for that.

“That was incredible!” Fluttershy said, hopping excitedly up and down with a big smile, and Rainbow proudly grinned ear to ear.

“You don’t want to disappoint her, do you?” Rainbow said smugly to the counter guy, Fluttershy beaming at him and holding out her hooves. The man sighed irritably and handed the charm to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy blushed and tried to thank Rainbow, but she was getting a little bit blubbery. Rainbow was starting to get little hot too, so the pair walked over to someplace where they could get some frozen treats. In early winter, but whatever there was no such thing as a bad time for ice cream.

They sat on a bench and ate some cheap ice cream popsicles, Fluttershy weirdly fixated on the charm that she insisted on holding in her hoof instead of wearing.

“Do you not like it?” Rainbow blurted out awkwardly, taking a bite of her ice cream as Fluttershy turned her attention to Rainbow.

“It’s not that,” Fluttershy bit her lip, looking at Rainbow for half a second before darting her eyes back to the charm. “Actually, I think—um, I actually think it would look good on you.”

“O-oh,” Rainbow stammered, and she was sure her face was all red all of a sudden which kinda sucks when you have blue fur, makes it really obvious.

“Would you mind?” Fluttershy gently held her hoof out to Rainbow. “Putting it on, I mean? I’d like to see how it looks. I-if that’s okay with you, of course!”

“Y-yeah, yeah it’s fine,” Rainbow gave a weird smile; she was super not used to anyone saying she would look good in anything. Like, she always just kinda figured she looked like a goblin, and even though Pinkie would compliment her sometimes, Rainbow figured she was just being nice cuz they were fr—uh, cuz Pinkie was polite.

Rainbow slowly took the charm from Fluttershy’s hoof, attaching it to one of her feathered ears and—

And it felt really good actually???

Like, it was such a small thing, but the teal color of the charm complimented the icy blue of Rainbow’s fur, and it made her feel kinda cool actually.

“W-what do you think?” Rainbow said, fidgeting with the charm with her hoof.

Fluttershy put her hooves on Rainbow’s hoof, gently lowering it before Rainbow accidentally knocked the charm off of her ear or something.

“I think it looks lovely, Rainbow.”

“Y-yeah? Heh, well I guess you said it would,” Rainbow squeaked, trying and failing to keep her smile under control. “Geez, look at me grinning like a big idiot. It’s just like a cheap charm, it’s probably stupid to—”

“I don’t think it’s stupid,” Fluttershy said casually, licking her ice cream, “I think it’s nice. I’m glad you like it, Rainbow.”

“I—I do like it,” Rainbow scratched the back of her neck and took another bite of her ice cream, which she immediately regretted as the shock of icy coldness rocked her teeth.

Despite that though, for once in her stupid, worthless life she managed to feel pretty good about herself.

The two pegasi sat in relative silence for a few moments while they ate the ice cream, but it wasn’t the kind of incredibly awkward pregnant pause that they started on. This time there was like, a warmth between them.

“Hey, Fluttershy?”

“Yes, Rainbow?”

“Can I ask a weird question?”

“Okay?”

“Have we met before?” Rainbow didn’t know how else to say it but to just say it, and the longer she waited the weirder it was gonna get, and she just couldn’t shake this weird feeling of déjà vu she felt the whole time she was hanging out with Fluttershy.

“Y-you actually remember me?” Fluttershy gasped, and Rainbow nearly choked on her ice cream cuz she sure wasn’t prepared for that answer.

“I think so,” Rainbow said, her hooves trembling. “We met like a bazillion years ago, right? When I was part of Torch’s crew?”

“Oh my goodness,” Fluttershy covered her mouth with a hoof and looked away from Rainbow, her hair hiding her expression from an increasingly nervous Rainbow. “It really is you!”

“Ohmygosh!” Rainbow flew up into the air excitedly, hovering over Fluttershy with a big grin on her face. “You’re the cool pony from back then! Holy heck, I thought I was just going crazy or something, but it really is you, huh?”

“It is,” Fluttershy said softly, looking up at Rainbow and brushing the hair away from her face. “It really is.”

“It’s great to see you again, Fluttershy,” Rainbow gently floated to the ground, her heart overflowing with nostalgia.

Even though they both looked so different—especially with the whole gender situation—knowing that it was really the same person made Rainbow’s anxiety suddenly melt away like it was never even there in the first place.

“You too, Rainbow,” Fluttershy gave a smile that showed off her awesomely sharp teeth, and Rainbow had half a mind to just grab Flutters in a hug right then and there. “I’m sorr—”

CRACK!

Rainbow’s ears flicked up at the sound that tore through the night air and she darted around to look for the source, her confusion growing as the noise was followed by the clattering of a large metal object and the crackling of fraying electrical wires.

Whatever Fluttershy was about to said had to wait, as Rainbow threw herself into the air and faced the direction of the sound, catching a glimpse of someone with lightning crackling around their talons and throwing it at the ground in random directions.

It was a woman, a brown and white feathered griffon who looked vaguely familiar. It took a second, but Rainbow recognized her from the beatdown Rainbow’d given her earlier.

Rainbow smirked. If the griffon wanted a fight so badly, she was about to get way more than she asked for.

Author's Note

i went to a fair one time
"rly? how was it?"
it was fairly ok
"that's fair!"
*audience applauds*

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