It was an unspoken promise between them. It was one that wasn’t just guarded; it was kept in a steel chest, wrapped in chains, locked tight with a padlock and the key thrown into raging rivers. It was a promise protected by the age long feeling of loyalty.
Rainbow Dash watches Pinkie Pie run off with her ears low and shoulders tense and for one long moment she isn’t quite sure what to do. But then she takes off after her. It wasn’t part of their original promise but it was just as important...
The pink pony is gazing out her window with her back to Rainbow Dash and for a while, neither of them speak a word. Rainbow Dash takes in her mane with a furrowed brow as an ache forms in her chest before she takes a step into the room.
“Pinkie?” She says gently and slowly, her friend turns and looks to her with ears pinned back against her head.
“Dashie...” She replies in a voice that is so unlike her usual cheerful tone that it pains her friend to hear it. It’s so meek and sad and she looks so small stood there with her mane limp around her shoulders and her head hanging a little too low.
Wordlessly, Rainbow Dash approaches then wraps her best friend in a warm embrace that she returns with a second of hesitation.
“It’s okay, Pinks. I gotcha...” She murmurs soothingly and Pinkie clings onto her tightly. “It’s alright...”
No, it isn’t...
Not really.
And she sits there and holds that mare close for hours.
She holds her until the sun is low in the sky and starting to dip below the horizon. She holds her until they’re both being bathed in reds, oranges and purples of the sunsets then she holds her a little while more. She keeps holding her until Pinkie pulls away and she gives that smile that wrenches something in Rainbow’s chest every single time. It isn’t the smile that Pinkie wears when she’s working or when she’s pranking or when she’s singing or with her friends. It’s the smile that she wears when nopony but Rainbow Dash is around. It’s the most real smile that she gives and it hurts so badly because it’s proof of a million things that Pinkie really is beneath it all; it’s proof that the smiling and bouncy mare that everypony sees her as isn’t really who she is. Yet, she shares that smile because of the silent promise and all the other ones that they haven’t discussed but are there all the same.
She shares it with Rainbow Dash because she trusts her with her whole being to never tell a soul just how broken she is...
And Rainbow never has any idea what to do in the face of that smile so she usually just sits there with her uncertainty and worry written across her face and Pinkie will smile just a tad wider then hug her again. Not for as long but long enough.
“Don’t worry, Dashie. I’ll be okay...”
No, she won’t...
Not really.
She never argues with her though. She never says it. She never knows what to say to be able to fix it; fix this mess, this pony, this Pinkie Pie. She never knows and so she never says anything. She’ll sit there and feel useless and just hold her friend until Pinkie urges her off home and shoos her out the room. She always lingers for as long as possible.
Even if she can’t find the words to say, at least she can be there.
But then Pinkie will shake her head gently with that tiny smile and she’ll push Rainbow Dash out her room and tell her to go home and get some sleep or she’ll be a ‘grumpy mcgrumperson’ the next day. She isn’t wrong but it doesn’t make Rainbow any more reluctant to leave.Yet she does every single time and she does this time too because she isn’t as strong as Pinkie thinks she is and after those bad days, she’ll often fly well into the night before collapsing onto her bed and maybe, if she’s feeling particularly resilient, she won’t wake up with tear streaks staining her face...
Somehow though, she finds herself with Pinkie more and more. A few minutes here and a few minutes there and on the good days, Pinkie will greet her with a wide grin and her eyes will shine brightly and Rainbow will be helpless but to smile right back. Even on the bad days when Pinkie’s smiles are shaky and not completely real, Rainbow goes to see her and before the pink pony can let that darkness chew away her smile, Rainbow is there to give her a warm hug and tell her that it’s okay to be sad because she’s still the best friend a pony could ask for.
And sometimes, that’s enough and Pinkie will beam at her and laugh into her embrace.
It makes Rainbow’s day every single time when she is successful because she isn’t very good at fixing things. She was good at making a trail of destruction. She crashed into and broke through things. She made a mess and often didn’t clean up after herself.
She wasn’t used to fixing things but she was learning and Pinkie was learning too. She was learning how to be happy for real.
But sometimes, it didn’t work and that just meant that Rainbow Dash had to work harder into figuring out what she could do and at point she stopped dreading those times; the times when Pinkie couldn’t be cheered up, where she needed to be sad, weren’t ones that Rainbow Dash was afraid of anymore. She didn’t like them, of course, but they didn’t cripple her like they once had because sometimes Pinkie Pie just needed to be sad and cry for a while and be held and told that it was okay for her not to be happy.
It frightened Pinkie so much that her friends would think less of her for not being happy...
It has been another very bad day but she has no idea why. Rainbow knocks on the door gently with an ear perked towards it.
“Pinkie? It’s me!” She calls but she gets no response and she starts to wonder if Mrs Cake was mistaken in saying that the pink mare was in there when the lock clicks and slowly, the door creaks open. Instantly, Rainbow Dash knows this is bad. She comes to half expect the feeling that follows; that sucker punch to the heart. Pinkie peers up at her, her mane hiding her face but her eyes are glimmering with tears and she looks like she’s desperately trying not to fall apart. Rainbow Dash steps into the room, kicks the door shut behind her then pulls Pinkie into a tight embrace.
“Talk to me...” She says with a pleading edge to her voice and the floodgates open. Pinkie weeps quietly into her neck and through her tears she explains. She explains how it’s the anniversary of the day that her mum died. She explains how horrible she feels for not even writing a letter to her dad and she explains the choking fear she has that he blames her. She blurts it all out in a rush and she doesn’t seem to show any signs of stopping. Rainbow rests her forehead against the broken mare’s as she rambles with her eyes on anything but Rainbow Dash.
She has no idea what to say. She watches helplessly as the tears stream down a face that shouldn’t be tainted by that kind of pain and she watches helplessly as those tears continue relentlessly with every word that pink pony speaks.
“Pinkie...” Rainbow interrupts gently and that’s all it takes to break the mare out that trance. Rainbow Dash brushes her tears away gently then nuzzles her cheek. “It’s gonna be alright...” She tells her firmly and blue eyes stare deep into her eyes with a million questions within them. “I’ll fix you...” She says and she has no idea how but she’ll be damned to Tartarus is she doesn’t try.
She kisses Pinkie’s forehead and those blue eyes close beneath the touch before Pinkie leans into another embrace.
“I’m tired of being broken...” She whispers shakily.
“I know, Pinkie...”
She knows.
She’s tired too...
“Rainbow?”
“Yeah, AJ?” The Pegasus returns and she looks over to her companion and finds her stood, unmoving, a few paces behind. She stops and waits as green eyes pierce her gaze.
“Ah want ya’ to be honest with me,” Applejack says seriously and Rainbow Dash glances away.
“Okay...” She agrees warily.
“It’s about Pinkie.”
Rainbow turns her head away then huffs gently. Of course it was.
“I don’t think I’m comfortable talking about her behind her back, AJ.”
“Ya’ just gotta answer me one question,” Applejack says determinedly and Rainbow can tell by her tone that she isn’t going to let it go. She kicks a pebble then looks back to her friend. “Rainbow Dash, is Pinkie okay?” Applejack asks gently but sternly. Rainbow Dash stares back at her.
“... I promised her, AJ...” She says simply and Applejack just keeps gazing at her for a long while before she nods.
“Yeah. Ah figured ya’ had,” She replies and Rainbow Dash shouldn’t be surprised at how observant Applejack was but she can’t help that her eyes widen. “Ya’ both look so darn worn out, Rainbow.”
“... I know,” Rainbow Dash mumbles and Applejack nods again before trotting up to her friend’s side.
“If it helps any, Ah think you’re good for each other.”
“We’re not-... not in that way-... we’re just... yeah...” Rainbow fumbles as her face reddens. Applejack smirks then chuckles.
“Whatever ya’ say but she’s sweet on ya’, RD.”
“... Go kick a tree, AJ.”
Applejack laughs at her as she trots ahead...
Rainbow watches Pinkie dance around the kitchen like... like something that danced. Maybe she was actually just springing with a few twirls in the mix? Springing like a doe. Yeah, that sounds about right. Rainbow Dash watches in wonder as the pink mare whisks a bowl, a carton of eggs balanced on her head and another bowl balanced on one of her back hooves. How in the Hell did she do that? Pinkie catches her baffled look and grins widely.
Today is a good day; her eyes are sparkling.
She spins and twirls, laughing at herself and Rainbow laughs right along with her. It’s kind of silly and neither of them know what they’re laughing about but it hardly seems to matter.
Pinkie just lights up when she laughs like that.
She looks so darn beautiful when her heart’s in it...
Rainbow Dash smiles slowly. Pinkie glances up from the doodles on her napkin, spots the smile then beams back at her warmly.
“Something on your mind, Dashie?” She quips curiously and Rainbow glances away as nerves make her heart go all weird and she thinks carefully, her thoughts briefly flickering to how much she hates it when Applejack’s right.
“Well... I was wondering if maybe you’d like to-... to try...” She hesitates then looks back to Pinkie as she waits patiently. “... dating, maybe?” She finishes cautiously. Blue eyes widen at her before Pinkie grins.
“I thought we already were, silly!” She replies and she leans across the table and kisses Rainbow Dash on the nose as the Pegasus’ face floods with a blush. “So, carrot crunch cupcakes or beetroot bonanza buns?” Pinkie asks; holding up her napkin to show the drawings. Rainbow looks from her to the drawings then smiles.
“Beetroot bonanza. Carrot’s been done already,” She replies and Pinkie giggles as she looks at her drawings and nods her agreement.
“Beetroot bonanza... I think so too.”
Rainbow Dash rouses out her sleep to the scent of a candy mane and movement beside her. She opens her eyes and looks across to Pinkie. She is frowning, her mane without a bubbly frizz. Without a second thought, Rainbow slides closer to her and drapes a hoof over her then from deep within the haunted dreams, Pinkie scoots closer into her and tucks her head beneath Rainbow’s chin before she sighs gently into her neck.
Rainbow Dash strokes the taffy like mane soothingly and nuzzles the top of her head.
“It’s okay, Pinks... I gotcha...” She murmurs. “... It’s alright.”
“I know...” Pinkie whispers.
And this time she does know and so does Rainbow Dash.
Really.
They know that everything’s alright.
Sometimes, Pinkie just needs to be sad.
Sometimes, she doesn’t.
Always, she’s got one of Ponyville’s top causes of destruction to fix her.
