“Heh heh, we missed you too, Shy,” Rainbow chuckled as Spike was tackled to the ground in a hug by Fluttershy.

Spike, while initially happy with the hug, soon felt that he couldn’t breath. “Air… air…”

“Oh, sorry!” Fluttershy apologized. The hugging duo let go of each other and stood up, with a little bit of blushing at the sudden and close contact. Fluttershy felt a tap on her back and turned around to receive a hug from Rainbow.

“I’m glad to see you’re alright,” Rainbow said. “How you’ve been the last few years? We didn’t get a letter from you for about two years now.”

Rainbow put a leg around Fluttershy’s neck and pulled one of her ears close. “And between you and me, Spike was worried sick about you when he realized first the letters weren’t coming…”

Fluttershy at first looked at Rainbow strangely, before she realized what the cyan Pegasus meant. “Oh, um, I just didn’t want you to worry so much about me after what I was doing in the last letter...”

“Worry about what?” Spike asked, the last of the dirt getting swiped off from his knees.

“Nothing!” Fluttershy yelled, before bending her knees and receding back into her now massive amount of hair, “It’s… nothing. Just something Rainbow and I talked about before I left Cloudsdale. How is it anyway?”

“Ah, the usual. Stuck up noble snobs, jocky athletes thinking they can woo mares with just a couple of words, aaaaand wonderbolts,” Spike answered.

Fluttershy giggled lightly, holding a hoof to her mouth. “I guess nothing changed since I left all those years ago?”

“Bah! Spike’s just forgetting everything again. For one, Spike’s bigger, and two, he can actually challenge me at a race. I still am the fastest Pegasus alive though,” Rainbow looked at her hoof with mild interest as she smiled smugly.
“And I’m the fastest dragon alive. Now we just need to find out who’s the faster one between us.”

“Oh, you simply must tell me everything that happened since the last letter. Oh, and um, sorry about that…”

“Nah, it’s no big deal,” Spike said, waving it off. “Things got crazy on our end for a while too. You know I got laid off of the hoofball team after what happened at Canterlot freshman year, right?”

“Oh, no, I didn’t. What happened?” Fluttershy asked with worry in her tone.

“Well, some hot-shot colt complained that Cloudsdale High having a dragon on the team was just unfair. Since his family was part of the nobility in Canterlot, they easily got the league to tell my coach to cut me off the roster or else they were out of the season. At least they gave Rainbow here a chance afterwards though!”

“Hmph,” Rainbow pouted. “They still chose you first over me.”

“Ya see Dash, I was a dragon and I was hard to hit. For speed, you outmatched me, and really, they just needed a speedster on the team. Oh, Fluttershy, did we also tell you about the-”

“Whoaaaaaa,” the three heard a familiar voice. “I’ve never seen a dragon this close before!”

“Uh, Fluttershy? You’ve known us since we were babies,” Spike dead-panned.

“That wasn’t me,” Fluttershy defended herself. “That was, um, Pinkie...”

“Pinkie? Who’s that-“

Spike’s personal space was invaded by a very large set of blue eyes.

“AHHH!” he yelled, stumbling back.

“Hiiiiii…” the blue eyes spoke. Spike, after getting over his shock of surprise, figured out that the eyes didn’t speak, and instead it was a pink earth pony, with poofy pink hair and a cutie mark of three balloons on her flanks.
“Oh, um, hello?” Spike hesitantly greeted her. He received a reply of two bounces and a letter from the mare.

“Welcome to Ponyville! I’m Pinkie Pie, and I’m friends with everypony in the town! I wanna be your friend too, so I wanted to invite you to your ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party!”

“Welcome to Ponyville party?” Spike said out loud as he looked at the contents of the letter. Indeed it was an invitation, and it was going to be at some place called Sugarcube Corner.

Guess we should have asked for that tour…

“Sugarcube Corner? Where’s that?” Rainbow said over Spike as she read the letter next to him.

“Ooo, it’s the building that looks like a giant cupcake in the center of Ponyville! You can’t miss it!” Pinkie replied with another hop. “Well, I gotta go get everything ready. See you guys tonight!”

Spike watched the pink mare literally bounce back towards Ponyville. Both the dragon and his sister shared a confused look before turning towards Fluttershy. “Uh, what’s up with her?”

“She’s Ponyville’s party planner. If there’s a party, Pinkie probably organized it. She’s a great baker too,” Fluttershy explained.

“Did she try to throw a party for you when you came here?”

“Um, well, she came here after I arrived, so no. She’s only been here for two years, living with the Cakes couple in Sugarcube Corner. She immediately tried to be friends with everypony in town but… for some, it didn’t end well. But with her parties all of us saw that she means well to everypony, so she was accepted. Now she helps to bring smiles to everypony, especially when they feel down or…” Fluttershy hesitated as she looked away, “alone. You should definitely try to be her friend.”

Spike looked down at the invitation again. “Well, Fluttershy, the problem is that we kinda do have a reputation to maintain. Not to bash on Pinkie, but-“

“Spike, c’mon!” Rainbow moaned. “There’s probably, like, two ponies from Cloudsdale here. And maybe three ponies from Canterlot. This is supposed to be a fresh start for us, you know?”

“Well yeah, but…”

Rainbow laid a hoof on her brother. “It’s going to be fine, Spike. Fortuna isn’t here, and I doubt that stuck up brat will ever try to go near a ‘mud-pony’ town like Ponyville. We make some friends, we’ll find some work, and we’ll be living a quieter life. Least until I get into the wonderbolts that is.”

Spike chuckled at the last sentence. “I guess it is going to be quiet for us here. Well, what have we got to lose?”

“Our dignities?” Rainbow replied.

“You still have some after Fortuna?” Spike dead-panned.

“Mmm, yeah, you’re right.”

“Of course I am. Well, the letter says the party isn’t for a few hours. What do you wanna do before then?”

Rainbow raised her eyes up as she thought about what to do, before she looked back towards her old friend Fluttershy. “Hey, Shy, you wanna check out our house before the party?”

“Oh, if you’re not bothered by me coming in…”

“Of course not! Our doors will always be open to friends, Fluttershy. Mi casa es su casa.”

“Shouldn’t it be tu casa, since you’re directly speaking to the pony?” Rainbow corrected.

“C’mon, I had a D in foreign language; give me some slack!” Spike complained, before he chuckled with Rainbow. With a steady flaps of their wings, the trio flew up and towards the cloudhouse the Rainbow siblings would now call home.

The duo were happy that they had a fresh start to their lives, and Fluttershy was secretly happy that Spike was back.

Author's Notes:

So I'm churning this one out before schoolwork starts piling up. A bit short, but I hope y'all like it.

Thank you Blueright for making this chapter's art!