Life Is Only Real When You Are Near

Rainbow lowered her head and sighed in defeat.

She gave Derpy the simplest tricks – from the barrel roll to the chandelle – and Derpy failed them all.

The simple roll sent Derpy swirling out of control while the simple loop never achieved perfect form, with Derpy forgetting to close the curve and going straight to the ground and Rainbow having to grab her and swoop up. Upward and downward spins ended up with Derpy losing her grip, either spinning too much and too fast or dashing far into the sky ahead instead of closing the stunt. The eight figure never reached conclusion or perfect shape. Instead of looking like an eight Derpy’s stunt created the number eight as perceived in reverie of dreams or madness of drinks: the trajectory waving, unsteady, one loop short, the other elongated, more a taper than a ring. While doing the chandelle, ascending and preparing to turn, Derpy craned to one side, lost her grip, and got entangled in a current of wind. The only maneuver Derpy perfectly performed was the slow roll, changing her position slow and flying for long stretches in particular position before shifting to the next.

Rainbow facehooved many times, and sighed even more. At one point she wanted to give up the whole affair, fly to Derpy and say that was enough and send her home; but her inner feeling along with the memories of Derpy’s speed and elegance she had seen kept her glued to this spot on the outskirts of Ponyville, to this stretch of rolling hills with waving grass far away from well travelled roads and uninvited eyes. She had seen the potential lying inside Derpy – she had – but what brought it to the fore? What activated it and made Derpy move like a pro?

By the time the sun touched the horizon and the sky turned deep orange and then red with a carpet of dark blue above them, Rainbow understood some things. Derpy started the trick well and always lost it in the middle. She began good but then got clumsy for some reason as if the original force that made her adequately perform left her to her own devices and alone. Did the problem lie not in Derpy’s eyesight but something else?

Frowning, one hoof under her chin, her eyes so focused on Derpy trying to do two loops in a row that everything else became distant and dim, Rainbow felt close to the solution. She needed to scratch the last remnants of the patina of ignorance away and the answer will stand clear, bright as the brightest star at night, and then she would make Derpy fly like a master and see her smile and her eyes shine.

A burst of purple that ended in a fireworks of sparks brought Rainbow out of trance. She looked right and saw Spike falling to the ground.

And she saw the miracle she had wanted to bring this whole tedious afternoon.

As Derpy saw Spike while closing her first loop, her eyes widened, then focused. In less than a second she did the second loop perfectly and after finishing it beat her wings and flew in a straight, mathematically, geometrically, physically straight, line towards Spike who by this time managed to gather himself and spread his wings. He didn’t do a single bat. Derpy had him in her hooves before he could do a single flap, then gently brought him to the ground near Rainbow Dash, her mouth open, her eyes opened wide in wonder.

“Thanks, Derpy,” Spike, nonchalant, said. “But it wasn’t needed. I got wings. See?”

He flew in the air, turned his back to Derpy, and fluttered his thin membranous wings.

“Sorry. I forgot about them,” Derpy said. “I got used so much to seeing you without wings that it still slips from my mind that you’re a grown up dragon. Kinda.”

“You’d be surprised how often I hear that. Anyway, I’m fine. Twilight needs to adjust her teleportation spells, tough,” Spike said and landed once again on the ground.

Rainbow, however, wasn’t looking at the little drake. Her eyes were focused on Derpy, on the gray-gold mare who performed a trick perfectly and caught Spike with incredible ease and speed.

Derpy acted her usual self, smiling. Her golden eyes, askew but so sincere, reflected the last of the sunlight: gold reflecting upon gold. Her long blonde mare, of a hue less intense than her eyes, was messy and tangled thanks to the strenuous exercises amidst unfriendly flows and tides. Strands of hair jutted out across her head and neck and peeped, straw like, from the spaces between her ears and head. Like a coast ravaged and eroded by the sea Derpy’s mane looked where it lay against her neck, the ends of her hair either prickling the thick tendons of her neck or sticking out into the air.

The messy hair and the innocent stare of her eyes gave to Derpy an aura of youthful naivety coupled with exuberant acitvity, of adolescence not forgotten and lost. Taking this into consideration and remembering the way Derpy had performed the last aerobatic stunt, betraying a skilful flier hiding somewhere deep within, Rainbow felt more than a simple desire to make Derpy fly good. She burned with curiosity and perceived that nopony knew Derpy particularly well – where she lived, what she liked, what she feared and what she dreamt. If somewhere within lies such a perfect flier then what else Derpy hides from everypony else, either by design or by accident.

These were the questions for later. Flying first, then the rest.

“Uh, Rainbow, you okay?” Spike asked.

Rainbow shook her head, then said, “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“You looked very weird for a moment, like you were lost really deep in your thoughts, and by really I mean really lost. That’s all.”

“I kinda was. I was,” Rainbow started then it hit her, the final piece of the puzzle. Like a madmare Rainbow smiled, scaring Spike once again.

Her eyes happy and shining, Rainbow hovered and hugged Spike tight, then let him go and rubbed gently his head. “Spike, you’re the best, you know that?”

“I… don’t know what I did, but thanks,” Spike said. “But let’s get down to business. Twilight’s inviting you to the weekly spa session, followed by ice cream dinner at Shem The Icemare, the best ice cream shop in Ponyville.”

Standing on the ground, Rainbows cast her eyes between Derpy and Spike. The choice she had to make. Twilight was her best friend, all right, but she had seen the light in Derpy’s case. Derpy, being who she were, would greet the news that Rainbow must abandon her with a nod and a smile, without even holding the shadow of a grunt. Still the thought of leaving Derpy right now didn’t sit well with Rainbow Dash. It felt unpleasant, rotten, to drag Derpy to this field and then leave her all alone because Twilight called her. But Twilight and the others…

Rainbow looked once more at Derpy’s ruffled frame then said, “Sorry, Spike, I can’t. Have other plans for today.”

“Twilight pays.”

Rainbow shook her head right and left. “Still can’t. I’ll make it up to her. I promise. I’m kinda busy right now.”

Spike shrugged. “Okay. See you tomorrow.”

He was airborne in a single flap of wings then set his course toward Ponyville where the first lights, points of intimate yellow, glowed from within the miniature windows of the little homes with thatched roofs beneath the starry sky of the deepest blue.

“What other plans do you have for today? What could be more important than princess Twilight, princess of friendship, the Third Clarity?” Derpy, curious, asked.

Grinning, Rainbow stared at the unkempt looking mare who looked cutely tomboyish.

“You,” she said.

Derpy tilted her head. “Me?”

“I know your problem,” Rainbow said. “And I know how to solve it.”