The bright pink orb glimmered as an aura of cerulean magic suffused it. It floated up from the ball return and then lazily swung into the air as Rarity trotted up, her hooves clacking against the wood floor. She paused, one forehoof raised to her chin and a backhoof frozen mid-step as she posed thoughtfully. Then, with a mischievous grin, she glanced back to where Pinkie was sitting, giving her a wink.

“Oh no,” Rainbow Dash said, a hoof pressed to her forehead. “What are you doing? No, Rarity, no.”

The magic aura disappeared, and Rarity caught the bowling ball with one hoof, the abrupt heavy weight almost causing her to drop it entirely. With a properly-ladylike grunt of effort, she managed to hold it upright, still balanced precariously on one upraised hoof. “I think I’m going to try it Earth-pony style, darling.”

“Surely you can’t be serious,” Rainbow groaned.

Rarity turned up her nose. “Of course I am.”

“Yeah! And don’t call her—mph!” Pinkie found Rainbow’s hoof suddenly stuck in her mouth.

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “This isn’t the time to screw around, Rarity.”

“Pish posh, I’m sure it will be fine.” Her hoof wobbled, the ball almost falling. “Now how do I… Hm. Hoo-ah!”

With an awkward thrust of her foreleg, Rarity shoved the ball forward. It landed with a loud thunk on the lane, bouncing slightly.

“Whoops,” Rarity said.

The six of them watched the ball make its way down the lane at a snail’s pace, slowly but inevitably drifting off to the side. Thirty seconds later, it finally reached the pins to tap gently against the one furthest to the right, causing it to fall over as the ball finally bounced into the gutter.

“Eeeeeeeeeee!”

Rainbow winced, realizing the high-pitched squeal was actually coming from Rarity, whose hooves were pistoning up and down as she danced in place.

“I got one!”

“That’s my Rare-Bear!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up to join Rarity in front of the lane. They rubbed noses, grinning, and then started in on an elaborate ritual halfway between a dance and a secret hoofshake that involved far too much choreographed weaving and swaying.

Rainbow groaned again, louder. She turned to Fluttershy, meekly sitting beside her. “Can you believe those two? Ever since they started dating, they’ve been completely insufferable.”

“You mean ‘inseparable’?” Fluttershy asked.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie bumped flanks, then reared back to shimmy past one another, doing what could only be described as ‘jazz hooves’.

“I know what I said,” Rainbow muttered darkly. She looked down at the scorecard in front of her, with ‘TEAM SONIC LANE-BOOMS’ scrawled across the top. Underneath were score lines for Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack and Fluttershy, and Rainbow grimaced as she marked down a one for Rarity’s first throw.

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy said. “It’s kind of… cute?”

“Sure as sugar is.” Applejack said, grinning. “Sounds to me like somepony’s sour cause she’s jealous ‘bout not having a marefriend of her own.” Twilight, who was wearing Applejack’s stetson and currently lying mostly on top of Applejack, just giggled.

Pinkie and Rarity trotted back. “My Rarity is the very best at balling,” Pinkie said proudly.

“Bowling.”

“Silly Rainbow! Bowls are what you eat soup out of. We use the heavy balls with the funny holes in them for this, remember?”

Rarity’s brow furrowed. “Indeed. I always wondered what those holes were for.”

“It’s where you store your extra bubblegum!” Pinkie chirped.

“Not... quite,” Twilight cut in. “Griffons originally invented bowling. It’s for their talons to fit in.”

“Aw, you’re so smart,” Applejack said, turning to nuzzle Twilight.

“Yeah, we don’t exactly need a history lesson.” Rainbow Dash pursed her lips, standing up and trotting over to roll her powder-blue bowling ball onto her back and safely nestle it between her wings. “Out of my way, you two,” she groused, stepping up to the lane.

Fluttershy leaned forward, watching intently. Her concentration was abruptly broken when she found herself suddenly squeezed between Rarity on one side and Pinkie Pie on the other.

“Hiiiii Fluttershy,” Pinkie sang out, vibrating in place.

“Um, hello,” Fluttershy said.

“Dear, I happened to overhear at the market when you were speaking with Carrot Top,” Rarity said, her eyes sparkling. “You’re planning on a quick vacation next week?”

“Yes.” Fluttershy forced a quick smile as she leaned forward again, watching Rainbow Dash shift back and forth and consider her angles. “I’m going to go watch the fuchsia foxfalcon migration as they pass near the Whitetail Woods. We’ll camp out overnight, as they pass by early in the morning.”

Pinkie’s grin reached an alarming width. “Weeee…?”

“Rainbow is coming along too.”

Rarity raised one hoof, covering her mouth. “How positively romantic!”

Fluttershy frowned. “I… suppose? It is the mating season for foxfalcons after all, but they’re not really monogamous. In fact, they have a very interesting communal structure, in which the various males—”

“No, no,” Rarity interrupted. “I meant… ehem.”

“It must be really pretty!” Pinkie said.

“Yes,” Fluttershy whispered as loud as she dared, as Rainbow’s ball crashed into the pins at the end of the lane. “Yay!” She tapped her hooves gently against the floor in applause, eyes darting side to side to make sure she wasn’t disturbing anypony. “Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, they’re very beautiful.”

“It’d certainly be a good opportunity to talk to somepony about something special…”

“No, not particularly,” Fluttershy said. “The foxfalcons are quite, um, loud.”

Rarity sighed. “No, I mean, maybe it’d be a chance to tell Rainbow something you’ve thought a lot about?”

“About foxfalcon facts? Rainbow isn’t usually very interested in critter trivia.” Pinkie opened her mouth to respond, but Fluttershy turned to give her a stern look. “Really, you two. I’d be glad to talk about this, but can’t it wait? Rainbow’s trying to pick up the spare, and I think we’d all appreciate it if you’d take things a little more seriously.”

Pinkie and Rarity shared a knowing glance. “So sorry, darling. I didn’t realize you were so into… bowling.”

“It’s important to Rainbow, so it’s important to me,” Fluttershy said firmly, looking forward again. “Just like how she agreed to take the time out of her schedule to go watch the migration with me.”

“Of cooooourse!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down all over again. On the other side, Rarity was doing the same for some reason.

Ahead of them, Rainbow narrowed her eyes as she stared at the couple of pins remaining. On the right side, to be exact, which should have been easy but she had been having trouble hooking too much in that direction all night, and she couldn’t risk making a mistake with the scores so close.

“Having trouble? Normally ya wanna try and knock ‘em all over,” Applejack drawled out. Twilight giggled again.

“No, really?” Rainbow Dash muttered. She crouched down, shaking her hindquarters as she lined up the shot, and then sprung upwards, flapping her wings into a concise loop-de-loop and using the momentum to roll the ball off her back and right down the lane.

It flew straight and true, smacking down the last two pins. “That’s more like it,” she said, holding her nose up as she trotted back to her seat.

“I reckon it’s time somepony showed ya how to do it right the first time,” Applejack said. She stood up, taking the time to stretch before languidly heading over to retrieve her ball, a deep purple speckled with pink.

“Show them how it’s done, AJ!” Twilight cheered. “I believe in you!”

Applejack walked up to the lane, then paused, tapping a hoof to her chin. “Shucks, almost forgot my good luck charm.” She turned around and trotted over to Twilight.

“Oh, do you need your hat?” Twilight said. “I can—” Applejack stopped her with a quick peck on the lips.

“That oughta do it.” Applejack grinned, heading back to the lane and leaving Twilight red-cheeked. In one casual motion, she dropped the ball to the floor, turned around with one final wink, and then bucked both legs back.

The ball flew down the length of the alley without even touching the lane, and when it hit the pins, Rainbow Dash could swear she heard the crack of some of them breaking.

She rolled her eyes. “Showoff.”

“Ya see,” Applejack said smugly, “It’s all about element’ry principles of physics. With the right kind of angular velocity, ya don’t have to worry so much about the friction coefficient and the result is downright constant, relativityally speaking.”

Twilight had turned crimson as she chewed on her lip. “Oh gosh, oh gosh.”

“You alright, sugarcube?” Applejack said.

“You know how turned on I get when you talk science.”

Applejack snickered. “And here I thought I was just making that up as I went along.”

“Oh, it was a load of nonsense,” Twilight whispered, “but hot nonsense.”

Rainbow mimed an overexaggerated gagging, before biting on the pencil to mark the score down. “All I care about is that we win.”

Twilight snickered. “Is it really that big a deal? Of all the flying competitions you’ve medaled in and races you’ve won, is it so important that you be a part of the championship team of the Ponyville Bowling Association Casual Amateur Division?”

“Captain of the championship team,” Rainbow said. “And absolutely. We can’t lose. We’re up against our biggest rivals!”

“We have rivals?” Applejack said.

“Of course we do!” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed as she shot a dark glare at the four ponies one lane over. The big one in the orange sunglasses glared right back, but their leader waved in a friendly, albeit languid manner. “Them right there. There’s… uh. The dopey one. And… Walter, maybe? And that one dude. I hate that dude the most!”

“Of course,” Twilight said. “This is all about trying to beat these ponies that you know so well. It’s not as if you’re just trying to impress somepony after all.”

“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said. “You know who you’re talking to, right? I impress everypony, like all the time.”

“Um,” Fluttershy said. “I’m done now. Sorry to interrupt.”

Rainbow’s head jerked around. “What? How did you do?”

“I got six this time...” Fluttershy said, wincing. “I’m getting better though. I’m trying, honest.”

She felt Rainbow’s wing pull her in for a quick hug. “I know you are, ‘Shy,” Rainbow said, her voice momentarily dropping its aggrievance. “You’re doing fine.”

Applejack couldn’t suppress a huge grin.

---

Rainbow Dash’s ball flew into the pins with a mighty crash. She sucked in a breath, punching out a forehoof in the air. “Perfect!” she said, trotting back to mark down the strike in the final square on her scorecard. “That’s me done. We’re close. So close. We only need ten points to put us over the top. Applejack can probably do it in one go. Right, AJ?”

Rainbow blinked. She looked around. “Applejack?”

There was a distinct lack of orange farmponies in the vicinity.

Rarity waved a hoof dismissively. “Oh, I think she and Twilight ran off to go find a closet to snog in.”

“Rarity!” Pinkie gasped.

“I said ‘snog’! It’s Trottingham slang for ‘kiss’, not anything dirty.”

“Oh, I knew that,” Pinkie said. “I meant there are closets that we could be making kissytimes in and you didn’t tell me?!”

Rarity giggled. “Pinkie Pie, you incorrigible flirt.”

“But this is the last frame!” Rainbow groaned. “What are we supposed to do?”

Fluttershy frowned, deep in concentration. “Maybe we could find a replacement?”

Rainbow Dash immediately perked up. “Yes! Pinkie Pie, you can take over.”

“Sorry Dashie,” Pinkie said. “I can’t. I’m already on a team.”

Rainbow blinked. “No you’re not. You’ve been here the whole—” She glanced over to see Pinkie gone. Whipping her head around, she saw Pinkie two lanes away, bowling a strike. When she glanced back, Pinkie was in her seat again. “You—” Her teeth shut with a click. “Nevermind, not even going to acknowledge that. There’s got to be somepony who can fill in.”

“Hey girls,” Spike said, walking up. Trailing behind him were Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and a giant pile of tickets with part of a big red bow sticking out. “We ran out of quarters at the arcade.”

“...And we have no idea how the skeeball machine broke,” Scootaloo chimed in.

“...And we were wonderin’,” the pile of tickets said. “What d’ya think’s a better use of our tickets, an AM/FM radio?”

“...Or six thousand plastic spiders?” Sweetie said, jumping up in the air for emphasis.

Rarity’s eye twitched. “Sweetie, darling, I don’t think—”

“Rarity, this is an emergency. Let’s solve the important problem first before we talk about how to fill your house with spiders.” Rainbow began pacing back and forth. “We just need somepony to substitute in. Anypony!”

She blinked. Then glanced down at three crusaders who had suddenly slid forward to look up at her with puppydog eyes. “Oh, no. Somepony who can at least manage to not set the bowling alley on fire.” She glanced around, and her eyes lit up as they settled on the fourth recent arrival. “Or maybe somedragon. Spike! Congratulations, you’re the new Applejack. Somepony get this dragon a cowboy hat!”

“I-I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Spike said.

Fluttershy lowered her head down to Spike’s level, giving him her most supportive look. “It’s okay, Spike. We just expect you to try your best, and will be proud of you no matter what.”

“No,” Spike said, wringing his claws. “I mean, I don’t think it’d be fair for the other team. I… kind of... won the under-ten youth bowling championships back when Twilight and I lived in Canterlot. Uh. For three years in a row.”

Several pairs of wide eyes all turned on Spike at once.

“...What?”

Rainbow trotted over to the four ponies idly watching from the next lane over. “Hey, you, dude. One of our team came down with, um, the feather flu, and so we’re going to make a quick substitution. Sound good?”

“Bummer. That one orange earth pony caught the feather flu?” The goateed stallion shrugged at her. “Yeah, okay, that checks out. It’s, like, fine by us.”

Rainbow flew back in a flash. “See? They’re good with it we’re great everything’s perfect.” She flashed a toothy grin at Spike. “Now just get us a strike!”

“Uh, okay,” Spike said. He walked up to the ball return, picking out the smallest one he could find, and slipping his claws into the holes. He stepped up, balancing the ball in his claws, before carefully swinging it back and then forward again.

His form was confident and assured as he let go of the ball, his arm curving forward in a smooth arc. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t quite let go of him. It made it a hoofslength away, but the pink chewing gum plugged into the holes was still very much connected to his claws, and then the weight of the ball dragged Spike screaming halfway down the lane.

“Oops,” Pinkie Pie said, wincing slightly.

Rainbow’s hoof thunked into her forehead.

“I think that’s a double fault,” the dude a lane over opined.

“Your face is a double fault,” Rainbow fired back.

“Well, that’s just like your opinion, man,” he muttered.

“This is horrible! We’re doomed,” Rainbow cried out. “Dooooomed. I can’t believe it!”

“No we’re not,” Fluttershy said. She stood up and stomped one hoof down. “I still get to try.”

Rainbow looked up at her. “I know, but you haven’t even gotten a spare all night.”

“Do you believe in me?” Fluttershy said, staring Rainbow right in the eyes.

Rainbow’s mouth formed a line. She nodded, one hoof reaching out to Fluttershy’s shoulder. “You’re right. You can do this, Fluttershy. You can win.”

Fluttershy’s smile was small, but full of confidence. “Okay then. Let’s do this!”

Rarity and Pinkie Pie watched the two pegasi, their giddy smiles and slight blushes mirroring one another.

Fluttershy marched up to take her ball. She sat it firmly down on the wood. Then she closed her eyes for a long moment, an expression of serene calm overtaking her face. She took a deep breath, then pushed out with all her strength, feeling the ball go rolling forward with speed.

She didn’t even open her eyes until she heard the sound of ball striking pins.

When she did look, at first she thought she must have been staring at the wrong lane. There weren’t any pins standing in it, after all.

And then Rainbow Dash let out a deafening whoop, flying forward to tackle her in a huge hug.

Fluttershy and Rainbow broke into giddy laughter, holding each other in their arms and flapping their wings to spin around in a circle. “You did it!” Rainbow gasped out.

“We did it!” Fluttershy laughed.

Then their celebration slowed down, as they felt suddenly cognizant of a dawning silence. You could have heard a pin drop in the bowling alley. More relevantly, you couldn’t hear a pin drop because they were all left standing upright because everypony had stopped bowling to stare at them instead. Even Twilight and Applejack had trotted over, both looking a little disheveled.

“Kiss her!” somepony shouted from the back of the crowd.

Rainbow blinked. “What? Who?”

“I, uh, think they’re talking about us,” Fluttershy said, frowning.

“Kiss you?” Rainbow said. “Ugh. That’d be like kissing my sister.”

“H-hot,” Scootaloo whispered.

“I mean, uh,” Rainbow looked at Fluttershy, who she still held in a hug. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

“No thank you,” Fluttershy said firmly.

“Thank Celestia,” Rainbow muttered. She flapped her wings, settling down on the ground and letting Fluttershy go.

“But— But darlings!” Rarity protested. “You make such an adorable couple! The signs are so clear!”

“We’re just friends,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow nodded. “Best friends, of course.”

Pinkie’s eyes lit up with hope. “Like Bon-Bon and Lyra? Do you have bedroom best friends tongue-wrestling competitions?”

“Um, no.” Fluttershy said. Her eyes narrowed as a tiny frown crossed her face. “Excuse me, but... Have you guys been trying to get us together?”

Rarity and Pinkie Pie suddenly seemed to find opposite corners of the room to be very interesting. Even Applejack wouldn’t meet Fluttershy’s eyes.

“I can’t believe you all!” Rainbow shouted. “That’s totally not cool!” She crossed her arms in a huff. “I think I speak for both of us when I say you all should just butt out of our relationship stuff that’s definitely not your business. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be taking my bowling trophy and going home.”

“There’s not a trophy, man,” the stallion at the other lane said. “It’s just for fun, you know?”

“Ugh, fine then. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be going to pick out and have engraved a suitably large trophy for our stunning victory. Fluttershy, would you like to accompany me? As a friend?”

“I’d be delighted,” Fluttershy said. They linked forelegs and took flight, heading out of the bowling alley.

Applejack walked up to Pinkie Pie and Rarity. “Shoot. I thought that was really workin’, too.”

“Now we’re back to square one.” Pinkie frowned, resting her head on Rarity’s back.

“Maybe we were going about this the wrong way,” Rarity mused. “Applejack, is your brother still single?”

“Yup. Hmm. Maybe I can talk him into goin’ to a fancy restaurant and we could spring some kinda happenstance meeting, only one table open, that kinda thing.”

“Clever.” Rarity pursed her lips as she thought. “And I could perhaps try and get in touch with that one Wonderbolt captain for Dash...”

“Wait,” Applejack cut in. “Ya mean set up Mac and Fluttershy? Boy howdy, that date wouldn’t go well. Wouldn’t be much more than a game of Shhh! with breadsticks.”

“You think he’d be more appropriate for Rainbow? Well—”

Twilight trotted up. “I can’t believe you three! I think you need to take a step back and look at this with some perspective. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are our friends. Do you really care that little about their own feelings on the matter?”

Applejack doffed her hat, holding it to her chest. “Shucks. Sorry Twi, you’re right.”

“Indeed.” Rarity sighed. “I think we’ve learned an important lesson today.”

“Affairs of the heart are private and personal, and it’s not our place to intrude upon the love lives of our friends,” Pinkie solemnly stated.

“No, no, no. Don’t be silly. I just meant we need more data on their feelings.” Twilight clapped her hooves together. “Which is why we’ll get them to fill out a detailed questionnaire regarding their ideal romantic partners, and then crossreference it with the relationship matrices I’ve already constructed. Ooh, I’ll get Spike to send a letter to Cadance, and she can double-check my math. This will be fun!”

Applejack grinned. “We really are great friends, aren’t we?”

“The very best,” Rarity agreed.