Life Is Only Real When You Are Near

Rainbow didn’t like the expression on Derpy’s face as her special somepony observed the commotion in the store.

With frowned brows and frightened eyes and drooped ears Derpy observed the ponies gathered in the bookshop, holding her book in their hooves, reading random pages, sharing agitated opinions about the text. She darted her eyes right and left, her mouth open but her teeth clenched tight, and jumped if somepony brushed her.

As Rainbow observed Derpy’s jittery behaviour she wondered if standing to the side of the main table was a good idea. Thankfully, Twilight on the side opposite to theirs dealt with the crowd, smiling, nodding, giving the book to the eager customers, receiving bits in return. The chair on the author’s side of the table, standing beneath a wide and colourful banner showcasing a mountainous landscape with the name of the book printed on the sky, was empty.

Some of the more curious ponies asked Twilight about the author and Twilight, shrugging, said that nopony really knew who she were and that she could be anypony. While Twilight explained the matter of the absent author ponies gathered round the table, took a copy from the tall stacks towering on it, opened at random pages and read. Most of them closed the book, pressed it against their chest with one hoof as they searched for bits with the other, then went to Twilight.

The piles of books quickly disappeared and the empty spots were filled quickly by new copies brought from the storage room by the workers, jittery and tense, foreheads wrinkled and covered with sweat, unprepared for such an unusual assault of clientele.

Smiling, her head cocked, Rainbow nudged Derpy and wiggled her eyebrows. Derpy, however, remained tense, loaded as a spring, looking feverishly left and right, her wings lifted from her body, ready for a sudden flight.

Rainbow’s left foreleg itched from the desire to be placed around Derpy’s neck and her mouth tingled from the desire to breathe across Derpy’s muzzle in an effort to calm Derpy down. If it weren't for the herd... As Twilight had explained, during one of the few breaks she had managed to get, the bookstore hadn’t planned a big marketing campaign yet, somehow, the word had gotten quickly round and now the whole Ponyville seemed to seep into the shop to buy the book written by Derpy Hooves.

Rainbow cast a glance at Derpy, still shivering, still chattering, then looked at the crowd. Nopony observed. She could do her deed.

Casually Rainbow stretched her wings and placed the left wing over Derpy’s back. Lightly she caressed Derpy’s back and left side up and down.

Derpy looked at her with questioning eyes, her eyebrows lifted.

“Saw some flies on you,” Rainbow said, then folded her wings.

Judging by Derpy’s smile, the first one since they had entered the store, her little trick worked. Rainbow smiled and winked.

Derpy nodded, moved one step closer to her, close enough for Rainbow to feel the touch of Derpy’s mane against her neck: light prickles that sent shivers through her skin.

Rainbow closed her eyes and enjoyed the din, unusual for a book store.

“I must say the romance is quite exquisite. I wonder if Lady Jeanette will succumb to Rogue’s charms or not.”

“I really really liked Ashvanatha. It’s not easy to calm an elephant, you know?”

“Well, I personally enjoyed the main character – down to earth and know what’s right and wrong. Didn’t like the other one, the artist fella, though.”

“Ashvanatha is, like, my main dude. His energy is making me sway.”

“Doesn’t anypony care about the style? Anypony? The phrases grow and burst and explode like sugar candy and when you’re finished with them you need to catch a breath because they’re so long. And the vocabulary? Top noootch!”

“I think this is the first book headmaster Twilight has assigned that is actually fun to read, unlike the other boring pony stuff.”

“Ashvanatha is a pretty good superhero, and I know my superheros well. When Ashvanatha saved Moohendra from the plantain enchantresses – now that’s some pretty epic stuff!”

She opened her eyes again, looked at Derpy and nodded, satisfied and smug.

Derpy jerked her head toward the door.

Rainbow nodded and went ahead.

With total ease Rainbow sliced through the crowd and created a clear path for Derpy to follow. Every time somepony bumped or merely brushed against her Derpy jumped up and moved in the opposite direction, her eyes wide open, ears drooped, pressed tightly against her head. The way Derpy jerked away from the inattentive clients reminded Rainbow of the evening when both of them had the unfortunate occurrence of meeting Ponyville’s whoremonger, diseased: a buff stallion with a dark brown mane and white ears and hooves who stumbled and shook and talked like a lunatic, eyes red and swollen and his coat mangy, covered in sores: a victim of dourine.

Only when they exited the shop, overcrowded, did Derpy finally relax. She lifted her head and let her shoulders droop.

She looked at Rainbow with annoyed eyes and said, “Did you really have to do it? I asked you to keep it between us?”

Rainbow smiled. “But everything’s fine. Nopony knows it’s you. Twilight will give your cut-”

“Twilight!” Derpy almost shouted. “How many ponies know about it?”

Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck.

“Me, Twilight, and nopony else. I swear.”

“Why did you let Twilight in?”

“I didn’t. She figured it out on her own. You know Twilight. It’s impossible to keep something from her once she has a few pieces of the puzzle. But she promised to keep it quiet and, believe me, Twilight can be trusted.”

“Still, you didn’t have to do it,” Derpy said, turned right, and trotted down the road, her eyes downcast.

Rainbow followed her. “But why? I don’t get it why you have to keep it all secret. You saw the crowd back there. They would listen to your every single word as if you were Celestia herself. Can’t have it better than that.”

Derpy closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t deserve it. I’m dumb and I don’t write that well. There are better writers than me who are starving right now because they don’t have friends who are friends with princess of friendship herself.”

Rainbow hurtled ahead and stopped in front of Derpy. She put her hooves on Derpy’s shoulders and said, “That’s crazy talk. You’re good – very good – and you deserve all that attention – all of it. There’s no reason for you to keep working in a post office you don’t like and keep up with the insults of your clients and coworkers. You have a chance to prove that you’re not dumb. That you’re better than them.”

Her ears drooped, Derpy shifted her eyes between Rainbow and the ground. She shook her head.

“Okay! Even if you don’t want to be seen then how about I give Twilight the other books of yours that I have? The profit would be enough for you to buy a private home in Canterlot and live the rest of your life doing absolutely nothing. Not even writing if you want that.”

“But I don’t want that,” Derpy said. “And if I quit and won’t work anywhere ponies will start asking questions. You know how Ponyville’s like. It’s a small town. And if I decided to go to Canterlot… well, goodbye friends.”

“Then let’s not settle in Canterlot. Las Pegasus? Silver Shoals? Somewhere south?”

Derpy exhaled then looked, questioning, at Rainbow.

“Why are you so eager about me living the good life?”

Rainbow sighed and stepped closer to Derpy.

“Because you have the chance to live the good life. You have the talent. You have the money. You can live the dream, prove to everypony that you’re not a retard, that you’re intelligent and smart. Even Twilight was impressed by your writing when I showed it to her. Why play small?”

Derpy took a step closer to Rainbow and breathed over Rainbow’s muzzle. She pushed her muzzle forward but Rainbow jerked her head back.

“I… well, I kinda like how I live right now,” Derpy said. “It’s not ideal but I have friends. I have stable relationships. If I were to come out, it will change a lot of friendships. I’ll lose many because, friends or not, ponies are still ponies and they get jealous. I don’t want to lose them.”

Rainbow looked down, at the light brown dirt road of Ponyville, her forehead wrinkled. Then her forehead cleared and she looked back at Derpy, her eyes soft.

“I understand that. Kinda,” she said. “My life too changed when I became I Wonderbolt. I don’t know about your friends but mine accepted me. But, yeah, not all are like that. What will you do with the writing?”

Derpy resumed her walk. Rainbow moved aside, then walked next to her.

“We’ll keep the way it is right now,” Derpy said. “I’ll write. Twilight will publish. But the pseudonym must remain. Okay?”

Rainbow jumped, her wings flapping, into the air. “Awesome!”

When Rainbow landed on the ground Derpy turned her head right and looked at Rainbow with a playful smirk. “But I want something from you in return, for not being quite honest with me.”

Rainbow lifted her eyebrows. “Really? What? I hope it’s not very embarrassing.”

“I don’t think so. Remember your cheerleader squad? Their skirts, especially?”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. She jumped into the air and crossed her forelegs around her chest.

“No way!” she said.

Derpy sighed. “For me, at least? In private?”

Rainbow lifted one eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”

“What do you think I have in mind?”

Rainbow landed in front of Derpy, looked left and right, saw nopony around, then said, “To make me we wear that for a day or something.”

Derpy, giggling, shook her head. “No! Nothing of that kind! Do you know the reason why I was the last to leave the tribune at the show?”

“Because you were waiting for me?”

“That, too. But I could’ve come earlier if that were the only reason.”

Rainbow looked on the ground then back at Derpy and said, “Yeah! You’re right! It was weird why it actually took you so long to go down.”

“Well,” Derpy, smiling lustfully, said. “I imagined you wearing that violet and bright mint skirt when the cheer-leading team came to the stage and, well, I got very wet and bothered. So wet that I was afraid to stand up lest somepony notice the wet spot under me.”

“That kinda fits. You were really awesome in the bathroom that day when you went down on me and rubbed your nose against my parts before the shower.”

“I told you I was really bothered,” Derpy said. “Sooo… how about you wear it for me, once, in private?”

Rainbow moved to the right. Derpy resumed her walk.

“Will you tell others about it, like me about your book?”

“Of course not!” Derpy, surprised, said. “By the way, did Twilight come by that name?”

Rainbow shook her head. Prismatic strands, glinting gold, tapped against her cheeks. “No! Me.”

“I never thought you were into kirin eroto-alchemical poetry. Might explain why you like to go so slow.”

“Nah! Twilight asked about the fake name thing and I improvised. I checked her books and that was the thing that stood out. Do you know about this eroto-alchemical stuff?”

“Yeah! It’s cool, and I want to try it with you, but can we do the skirt thing first?”

Rainbow, her eyes downcast, sighed. “I don’t know. What if somepony finds out about it somehow?”

Derpy nudged Rainbow with her trunk. “Nopony will see us. You look gorgeous but I think with the skirt you’ll look even better. Even sexier. At least one time, please?”

Her forehead creased, Rainbow looked at Derpy, then looked ahead, closed her eyes, and sighed. “Okay.”

Derpy beamed. She veered closer to Rainbow. Before she could brush her cheek against Rainbow’s face Rainbow moved to the right.

Derpy moved her head away and giggled in response. “You’re so weird, Rainbow, you know that? You’re the first pony I’ve met that’s afraid of cuddling.”

“Not afraid of cuddling but afraid of doing it in public,” Rainbow said. “I don’t want ponies to gossip. It doesn’t feel good.”

“That’s why you’re the hero of my next story.”

Rainbow stopped and lifted her eyebrows. “What?!”

“I’ve started writing a detective story, kinda, with the main heroine based on you,” Derpy said. “Don’t worry. Nopony will figure it out it’s you. It’s just that the nature of the crime is the same.”

“And what crime is that?”

“Fillyfooling in Canterlot Park and getting caught.”

“But that’s not a crime,” Rainbow said, confused.

“Well, the book is about the guilt and the gossip that follows. How ponies start rumours that grow out of proportion and bully the family of the heroines.”

“So... it’s kinda like school? When you look at the wrong pony and everyone starts assuming things.”

“Exactly. But it will be bigger. Would you like to read the little I’ve jotted down?”

“Right now?” Rainbow asked.

Derpy nodded. “Yes. And then we’ll do the skirt thing. Only once. I promise.”

“Okay, then,” Rainbow said. “Let’s see what I have inspired.”

Derpy smiled, her eyes glistening from the liquid gold reflected in them, liquid gold atop the golden pulp of her irises, then hovered.

“Catch me if you can,” she, giggling, said and then dashed off into clear midday sky, pristine.

As Rainbow observed the quickly diminishing gray dot in the sky, she smiled. Her chest swelled with pride at what she had accomplished.

She had breathed new life into Derpy, turned her from a somepony who hadn’t know how to fly into a superior flier who could put the lazier members of the Wonderbolts to shame. She made a published author out of Derpy who had written before for her own self only and kept the troves of stories with engaging plot and luxuriant prose hidden from everypony else: an author that was rising in critical acclaim right at this moment as more and more ponies read her book and spread the good words about her work.

But what mattered to Rainbow most – more than writing, more than flight, more than fame– was Derpy’s smile.

She had made Derpy smile more.

That was enough to make her feel good.

With a powerful beat of her wings Rainbow was airborne. With another beat she propelled herself ahead. With wind whistling in her ears and flattening her coat Rainbow, smiling, approached her special somepony, her friend. Rainbow saw Derpy’s smile and saw he eyes shine and understood that everything was good.

Together, side to side, Rainbow and Derpy travelled the remaining distance to Derpy’s home where they would close the doors, drape the windows, forget the world and engage in a special kind of fun, private and alone.