“Pinkie Pie,” Dash said. Her Eyes got big in that way they did when she was thinking, really Thinking about Something, or maybe feeling it, depending on the Thing.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie said back. Pink and Blue. They matched each other in a way. Pinkie draped her arms around Dash’s body and leaned back like she was pretending to be Someone In Charge, or Someone Who Understood, or anything more than what she was, which was Pinkie Pie.

“You... do you ever worry, sometimes?”

Pinkie’s head shook before Dash could finish her question, but Dash plodded on, paying no mind to Pinkie’s gesture.

Pinkie Pie liked that—the way that when Dash had Something on her mind, there was no force on earth that could stop her from bringing it out. Pinkie knew because she had tried before without much success.

“I worry sometimes,” Dash said.

“What do you worry about?”

Pinkie’s voice sang. It was like a chipper chirping that burbled into melody at a moment’s notice. Pinkie liked to make her normal voice as cheerful as her singing when she could. She liked it because it made other ponies smile.

Dash sighed.

“It’s stupid, but... sometimes I worry that one day I’m gonna wake up and all this will be gone. Not everything, but just... you. Us. This.”

It was to Pinkie’s credit that she could hold her tongue long enough for her hug to come to being, which it did, with Rainbow Dash letting out a startled sort of oof as Pinkie squeezed her tight enough to cause an only-for-an-instant panicked wing buzz.

“I don’t worry about that one bit.” Pinkie relented in her hugging and Dash could breathe again, which she did, though not in anything more than soft swallows of air, because she had Pinkie’s eyes to look into, and her Body to hold her there.

“Because,” Pinkie continued, “the only thing to end it is us. And I know that won’t happen.”

“But what if—”

Pinkie’s hoof proved a perfect interruptor, plugging Dash’s mouth and bringing back those wide Eyes again.

“You can worry all you want,” Pinkie said. “You can wake up tomorrow and decide that things are going to be different. But for now, right now, this is the way things are. I’m not going to change them, and there isn’t anything you can say to convince me otherwise.”

Rainbow Dash’s Eyes got smaller then, and a bit of something shimmering danced at them towards the edges. She smiled. Pinkie Smiled.

“Pinkie...”

“It’s okay.”

They pressed their noses together, nuzzling them like tiny fingers reaching to find each other, and holding for a second because they knew they weren’t alone. Rainbow Dash’s nose felt like a soft fuzzy something that Pinkie wanted to bite down on in a playful way, but she didn’t.

After a few seconds, Pinkie and Dash looked up and opened their eyes, and their hooves found a place around each others’ backs. Pinkie’s eyes flared for an instant before she closed them, and leaned forward, and she and Dash kissed.

And to Pinkie, the kiss in that moment was Everything.

When they met there were differences between them, as there were with anyone, and Rainbow Dash had had no qualms about directing her opinion in Pinkie Pie’s direction, in the way that she always did Pinkie had Smiled and bared the entire thing, because there was no opinion of her such that she couldn’t see it as a stepping stone to friendship, the problem being that friendship was one thing but what this was was another, something now Pinkie couldn’t imagine trading because it was so perfect, she had never imagined that in the instant that became seconds minutes hours days and so many months till now that what might happen would happen, it was when she saw the sparkle in Dash for the first time and felt it in herself, not a sparkle like the way the moon or stars overhead did but a sparkle like something caught in the flicker of a candle-flame that was brighter for one second than it ever had been before, Pinkie saw it and she wanted to believe it was real and for a minute that had meant thinking more than she had about anything in awhile, what did the sparkle mean and why did she like it so much, and she wondered if she had sparkled too because anything like that look in a second was worth hanging on to, and from then on she had thought about Rainbow Dash a little differently even if it was silly at first, and it probably was, it was probably that day they had spent together before things turned sour for a while, no it must be before then when Pinkie had imagined an afternoon into an evening and she had looked for Rainbow Dash who hadn’t heard the twinkle in Pinkie’s voice that was there extra hard, partly because she wanted it to be and partly because she couldn’t help it, she had found Dash like she was a small frightened critter to be stopped from fleeing, Pinkie had always been good with animals, she was no Fluttershy, and sometimes she hugged too much, but in the end everything seemed to work out, and Rainbow Dash had sounded anything but happy to spend the next day with Pinkie, but Pinkie didn’t let it hurt because she had something flowery around her heart that told her it would be Okay,  and even better, it was more than okay, and she’d laughed so hard that day it felt like her lungs would never stop aching, and Dash had done the same, and even though Pinkie hadn’t said it then she recalled so much later into Dash’s Eyes that instant she had seen her Eyes for the first time, really Seen them, and there was a kiss on her lips she couldn’t show, and then things had gotten complicated because of feathers and chants and things that nopony else saw, Pinkie was jealous, of course she was jealous how could she not be jealous but as much as there was jealousy in Pinkie there was always more happiness and she had told herself there was no pony worth hating even if they were a pony called a griffon and no matter what was between Dash and Gilda she could make things okay and show Dash that it didn’t matter what happened because she wanted her to be Happy, she’d told this to Dash so many months later and Dash had gasped and then smiled and then the night blurred away into grabkisstouchnoair and that sound Dash made when she was happy, really Happy, and Pinkie kissed her afterwards every time because she wanted to catch it, and that only brought out more, until the only thing left was pillows and the next morning, telling her had been hard, harder than anything and Pinkie hadn’t been sure how to do it because there was nothing in anything she remembered to prepare her for how she felt, she asked ponies and didn’t ask and threw away what they said and kept it close, and in the end the only thing she remembered was a bunching of notes inside her stomach that told her to do what felt right, a song had come and Dash had sat at the center of it like a startled bird until Pinkie was done and out of breath and her heart tipped over the edge of a cliff ready to break until Dash pulled it back, pulled it close, pulled it up to her chest and her face and breathed in a sigh of Pinkie’s name Pinkie and Pinkie’s hooves had felt like they were fireworks for days afterwards when she touched her lips and remembered a Kiss, how she could walk and see Rainbow Dash and not hold herself inside and run up and smother Dash in Kisses which was embarrassing at first but now Dash wanted them as much as Pinkie did so there was seldom a chance for them to do much else, and from then on there were nights like no other when there was a black blanket overhead a plaid picnic quilt and Dash and Pinkie and each other’s arms and the first night of those sounds and later dates and moments spent together and one time Dash and flowers and Pinkie’s heart had burst and the walls of her house from then on were painted in those sounds and whimpers and the fluttering of wings that Pinkie didn’t let stop until the morning sun came up, she was in love that was no mistake but more what she was in was Blue, she was drowning in Dash’s everything her smile and the flick of her hair and her jump and soar and giggle and reluctant blush for every peck on the cheek until she unblushed and kissed right back Pinkie had always liked the colour blue it was perfect like the sky and she could look up at day and see nothing but tiny tufts of clouds and endless avenues of empty cerulean everywhere and imagine she was waking up to Dash every time and sometimes she did and that was when the sky was no matter because everything else was perfect she was in Love, she said it too much except when she didn’t need to and Dash prickled on it sometimes but when she let it out the words were like bombs going off and Pinkie sheltered both of them with touch and touch and touching there and no sleep until the clock rolled into the early hours and the bed was sweat and tangles and Pink and Blue bliss Love, it was a funny word when Pinkie thought it because she’d always known she loved ponies everypony but never in this way because she could see somepony sad and feel her heart shrink until she made things better and she knew her friends and could count them off in her head and tell their birthdays and favorite things and what would make them happy but what she had for Dash was different because it was new and uncertain and she had no songs about it until she had made one up and in a way all of that was more exciting than anything Love, and when she saw the tiny flutter of feathers on Dash’s back that was it Love, and Dash’s reluctance was no more a challenge than it was an accommodation and Pinkie wanted too much and too little all at once but none of it mattered, because what she had simply was and Dash had it too and they both did together like they never had before Love, Pinkie learned new things like how a hug really felt and how a tongue went and how she was more and more sure of herself even when she wasn’t and Dash was always surprised and that was the sweetest thing Love, nothing could make her unwant what she had and when Dash worried it didn’t worry her because there was no certainty in life but what she would feel and she felt it so strong there was no way back and what if things fell apart and if they did then Pinkie would go from there even though she couldn’t imagine it she knew that things would be alright because she had a piece of the brightest Blue to cling to Love, no matter what Love was now and Dash was now and Pink and Blue was a prettier combination than either of them had ever imagined swirls in the sky when the sun rose and the petals of carnations that grew together in gardens and parts of dresses and strange ice-cream flavours and feathers on fuzz on bodies together that never in a million years would pull apart Love.

Pinkie and Dash pulled only an inch apart and the kiss hung in the air between them.

“Pinkie Pie—” Dash said, and stopped with a sort of choke, like the I Love You was caught in her throat.

But it didn’t matter to Pinkie, because showing I Love You was just as good as saying it, and she showed it with a pounce, and Dashed eeped and lost herself in Pink.

Pinkie forgot thought and time, and knew only onward with Dash’s body next to hers every moment was that kiss, and that kiss was each moment, forever blue and soft wings and losing herself in seconds that were that moment, instant oblivion neverending that moment, here, now, that moment with Dash beside her.

Rainbow Dash is a really good kisser, Pinkie Pie thought.