Life Is Only Real When You Are Near

The default state of their friendship lasted only till the late afternoon when Rainbow and Derpy, after a strenuous session, decided not to fly but take a walk to Ponyville instead.

The training session had been disappointing.

For reasons Rainbow couldn’t understand Derpy botched the majority of the stunts despite knowing them well. The old problem – the original culprit of Derpy’s plight – had resurfaced. She lost her concentration and control in the middle or the end of the trick. Sure, the wobbles that deformed the curvatures of the stunt were a far cry from the original spinning and zigzagging but to Rainbow’s trained eye, already attentive in the everyday life and laser like when it came to teaching, the waving in what was supposed to be a perfect curve, an immaculate loop, looked aesthetically unpleasant. What confounded Rainbow most was that she knew Derpy could perform the tricks splendidly, making such sinusoid and parables that if if Twilight were to see them she would come right on the spot from their perfection and their tightness.

Still, Derpy’s oscillations notwithstanding, Rainbow had decided to introduce Derpy to the simple lucky clover. The trick itself was simple: an eight loop on a horizontal plane followed by an eight loop on a vertical plane. The thing that made the lucky clover a difficult stunt was the shift from the horizontal to the vertical. The change of perspective at the end of the first eight, when the trainee needed to charge down and quickly regain focus the perform the second loop without a hitch, took a lot of rookies back to square one, to baseline, to zero.

Derpy hadn’t disappointed her. But two problems had remained: the wobbling during the shift; the lack of symmetry in the vertical loop, with the lower circle looking bloated on the right side. The former error Rainbow had expected: it always plagued rookies. The latter left Rainbow wistful. She couldn’t understand what had happened with Derpy who had flown with mathematical precision just the day before. Was something worrying her?

Rainbow stared piercingly at Derpy through the session, her expression stolid, but she discovered no signs of serious distress. As a Wonderbolt and teacher she could scan ponies and creatures for worries and then help them with their needs but right now, with Derpy standing in front of her, waiting for an overview of her flying exercise, Rainbow saw nothing: no distant stare; no dropping ears and sloped shoulders; no avoidance of her gaze; no nervousness, no twitching.

By the end of their session, which ended when the sky darkened and the horizon burst into a blob of crimson red and orange, Rainbow had decided to introduce Derpy to a very simple but very secret Wonderbolt exercise devised to bolster one’s awareness. On the way to Ponyville, as they walked next to Everfree’s border, thick with vegetation, overgrown with shrubs, Rainbow introduced Derpy to this little and neat trick.

“The stop exercise?” Derpy, blinking, asked.

Rainbow nodded. “Yup! It’s quite simple, really. We do it in the Wonderbolts all the time. When I shout stop, you freeze. Whatever you’re doing you stop and freeze till you get the signal to move on.”

“Even if I’m holding a cup of hot cocoa?”

“Even if you’re holding cocoa.”

“And the point?” Derpy, her head cocked, asked.

“To bring you here and now and make you see where you are at any moment inside,” Rainbow said. “To be a good Wonderbolt you need perfect awareness and that means being right here and now because the whole team play relies on that. If you’re sad or angry or whatever you’ll flunk and get expelled. To avoid that you must be here, now, and quiet. That’s what I’ve been teaching you.”

“But I’m present, I think.”

Rainbow stopped and turned left to look straight into Derpy’s confused eyes.

“Today you weren’t,” she said. “That amount of wobbling would’ve gotten me furloughed at best and expelled at worst. Is something bothering you?”

Derpy looked down and pressed her ears to her head. She scratched the light brown road, well rutted from the wagon wheels of merchants and solitary wanderers, with her right hoof.

Rainbow decided not to press heavily on Derpy and let the awkward silence between them hang, her ears perked and aware of the soughing of the leaves, the creakiness of branches, the chirping and ululations of the birds.

Derpy inhaled then exhaled, flaring her nostrils. She lifted her head and, looking straight at Rainbow, said, “Do you you think we are more than friends?”

Rainbow tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“We do almost everything together – we train together, eat together, go to the cinema, the library, the spa together, I visit you and you visit me, you even come at my office any time that you’re free – so I… well, I thought we’re more than friends, you know?”

Rainbow straightened her head. “You think you and me act like special someponies?

Derpy nodded. “Yes!”

Rainbow giggled, then turned away from the Derpy and resumed her walk. She could see the gable roofs of Ponyville, thatched, yellow, peeking from behind the small round hill ahead.

“It’s funny you mention it because Twilight also said that we’re acting like special someponies. I think we’re just best friends, you know?” she said.

Derpy trotted next to Rainbow, then resumed her walk at her usual speed.

“But… but best friends don’t eat together every day and don’t visit each other every evening and they don’t look at each other the way you look at me every time we’re together,” Derpy said. “Like today, for example.”

“And how did I look today,” Rainbow said and once again stopped and turned and looked at Derpy who stood still, her face sullen and frustrated.

Derpy gulped then walked closer to Rainbow, so close to Rainbow their muzzles almost touched.

“You looked as if you wanted to topple me and eat me right there on the spot,” she said, sending warm breath over Rainbow face, her eyes half lidded.

Feeling the warmth and tingling rushing trough her body, relaxing every knot of tension in her muscles – the result of Derpy’s exhalation, intimate and sweet – Rainbow stepped back.

“No, I didn’t,” she obstinately said.

Derpy widened her eyes. “What’s wrong with you, Rainbow?”

“What do you mean? I’m fine. Totally a-okay.”

“Have you ever been with another pony?”

“Of course I have!” Rainbow retorted, her voice loud.

“Then why you act like this?” Derpy, frustrated, asked. “I can’t believe you’re implying we’re only friends when your eyes shine that beautiful crazy way every time we’re together and when you always smile when we’re together and always try to make feel so happy and when you stare so hungrily at me exactly like a mare ready to go down and make me happy the way only a special somepony can make one happy. What’s the deal, Rainbow?”

Derpy hit the nail straight on the head.

Rainbow sighed heavily, looked down on the ground, felt blood rush up to her cheeks. All her buffers faltered as she felt immense shame rush up through her frame: a shame that she had only felt once before and that had been the moment when she had emerged from the dank nauseating darkness of the trashcan into light to the cruelest laughter ponykind could make.

“Am I that obvious?” Rainbow asked in a feeble voice and looked straight at Derpy, expecting to see disappointment but facing only confusion, a fierce desire to understand her state. For a moment Rainbow wondered if that had been the way she had always looked at Derpy during all these months that they had spent together training and chilling afterwards.

Derpy closed her eyes and smiled. “I’m a writer. I can’t make good characters without understanding ponies. Stereotypes, cliches – yes. Good characters – no. So, what’s your problem? I see that you want me – a lot – but what’s stopping you, Rainbow?”

When Derpy placed her hooves on her shoulders and breathed over her face again, Derpy’s breath rustling the tips and bangs of her prismatic mane that jutted over her forehead, Rainbow relaxed and the heat in her cheeks diminished. That ancient but traumatic memory – an authentic shock that had stunted her for so many years, had set her on the road to glory but at what expense – faded into the background of her mind. She wasn’t a filly anymore but a Wonderbolt, and not an ordinary Wonderbolt but the best. And a teacher at the friendship school who could teach with equal skill ponies and nonponies alike. Hell, not just a teacher, but a better teacher than the one who had allowed everypone else to laugh at her mistake back in junior flight school. She even taught Derpy to fly splendidly, better than the majority of pegasi in Cloudsdale.

It was high time she came clean.

Rainbow looked left then right and then above, ascertained no-creature was around, and said, “I… well… I’m not good at this mushy stuff. I don’t like it. It feels weird.”

Derpy batted her eyelids. “Why?”

“It makes me feel weak. And what would all the other ponies say if they discovered me kissing somepony else? It will be the end of me!”

Rainbow dropped her head. She didn’t move away from Derpy, and Derpy used the opportunity. She got closer to Rainbow, so close several strands of her sandy mane brushed against Rainbow’s muzzle, then exhaled warm and heated air on the right side of Rainbow’s neck.

“I think they won’t mind,” she said. “Everypony’s doing it. And I see that you want it.”

The tremendous ball of anxiety, that unpleasant knot of muscles in her belly, weakened its hold as Rainbow relaxed and warmed from the flow of Derpy’s breath. Her mouth flooded with saliva and her lips desired to be places against Derpy’s.

Yes! She would do it! Yes! But on some specific terms.

Rainbow lifted her head and the currents of Derpy’s humid exhalation hit her nose and cheeks. She breathed over Derpy in return, smiled drunkenly, and said, “Yes! I do want to do mushy stuff with you, Dee – I really do – but can we keep it between you and me only? I don’t want anypony else to find out about us.”

Derpy looked deeply in Rainbow’s eyes, her own eyes relaxed, bubbly, and half lidded, then said, “You’re weird, but okay. As long you - “

Rainbow silenced Derpy by kissing Derpy on her lips, her head tilted left, her nose rubbing against Derpy’s, her eyes closed. When Rainbow pushed against Derpy’s muzzle and forcefully jutted her tongue between Derpy’s teeth, driven by desire so sweltering and intense it was almost out of control, Derpy placed her forelegs on Rainbow’s shoulders and moved her away.

With a cocked head and a relaxed smile and happy, content eyes Derpy looked at Rainbow, then said, “You’ve never kissed anypony else before, haven’t you?”

“Is it that obvious?” Rainbow asked, feeling paradoxical, between drunken relaxation and stimulating tingling lust. For some reason she didn’t feel shame at admitting that, yes, she had never been intimate before. The only thing she could do was consume Derpy hungrily with her eyes and smile like the most drunk pony in town and the happiest filly in the world.

Derpy giggled. “Yes. Let me show you how it’s done.”

She moved her head forwards and kissed Rainbow lightly on her lips. Rainbow’s whole face shivered with tingling bliss brought by the brushing of Derpy’s soft warm lips, light as feather, light as breeze. Turned by such a gentle kiss, Rainbow felt her nethers moisten, tingle, and engorge. Her clit especially tingled with fierceness she had never experienced before.

Derpy disengaged, then kissed her again just as lightly, just as soft. And then again. And then again. With her eyes closed and her head tilted Derpy peppered Rainbow’s mouth with the softest pecks.

She pressed another time against Rainbow’s face, lifted Rainbow’s upper lip with her lower one, and slid her tongue into Rainbow’s mouth.

Feeling Derpy’s tongue inspecting her teeth, Rainbow relaxed her jaw and darted her tongue forward. For a while her tongue mingled and played with Derpy’s tongue, all sense of time lost, all previous shame forgotten as the stuff she had dreamed about finally came true.

By light pressure of Derpy’s hooves against her shoulders Rainbow understood it was time to stop. She withdrew her tongue, and the next moment she felt the silky smoothness and pleasant warmth of Derpy’s lips abandon her own. Rainbow opened her eyes and looked drunkenly and dreamily at her gray-gold mare, her marefriend, her Derpy Hooves.

“Don’t be too pushy,” Derpy, smiling, said “The softer you are, the better it is.”

“Gotcha,” Rainbow said and winked with her right eye.

Rainbow giggled, then stretched her head forward and kissed Derpy on her lips. She repeated Derpy’s motions, keeping the touch light and the duration of the pecks short. Derpy was right. It felt better – way better – than her first impetuous attempt, fueled by lust that had felt as if a gust of high altitude wind had overtaken her and carried her in whatever direction it pleased.

She could enjoy the smooth texture of Derpy’s lips better, feel the nuances of their wet surface and the tickling of Derpy’s coat around them. And this enjoyment returned to her, intensified, in the form of electric tingles that spread squid-like trough her face and sent her bloom aflame and made it wink.

Slowly Rainbow moved her lips across Derpy’s mouth, pecking from the left corner of her mouth to the right; but when she finished her journey she decided not to explore the insides of Derpy’s mouth, feel her teeth and play with her tongue, but try a far more intimate thing instead.

She smiled and kissed Derpy lightly, gently, on her nose.

When Derpy giggled, blushing, in return Rainbow smiled wider and shuffled her muzzle against Derpy’s: a gesture she and Scoots had performed in the past but now tinged with a love far stronger and fiercer than mere sisterly affection. She stopped and, still smiling like a filly, enjoyed Derpy’s eyes, their most beautiful sheen.

Derpy exhaled upon her, and Rainbow inhaled and enjoyed the air. Derpy’s warm and humid breath relaxed her, made her feel safe, at home: a sensation Rainbow had rarely felt outside her cloud mansion where she knew nopony would disturb her.

The fiery desire rolling through her, burning the knots of her restraint, wanted to take things to another level and it wanted to do it right here, right now. Upon seeing Derpy Rainbow concluded a little bit of playfulness – just a little bit – wouldn’t hurt; and so she shifted right and brushed her left cheek against Derpy’s neck, enjoying the warm smoothness of Derpy’s coat, its steady pulsing beat.

And the feeling of Derpy’s breath going down her own neck and its quickly vanishing tendrils caressing her shoulders and her nape... Rainbow shivered all over and her hindlegs shuddered from bliss.

Creak!

Rainbow perked her right ear and turned it backwards. The squeaky twitching of branches, the rustling of the leaves, the hoop of lithe creatures reached her. And then came another creak!

Fast as a lightning Rainbow turned her head left and stared at the road vanishing at the top of the nearby hill. When she saw the first glimpse of a pony appearing from above the light brown line Rainbow jumped, turned around and, her tail lifted, presented her behind to Derpy. For a single moment Rainbow imagined Derpy’s eyes widening from the sudden appearance of the sight that she had lusted for so long. A sight that now was a few mere inches away from her, all heavy, wet and swollen, blooming and dripping fluids, emitting her most mesmerizing scent.

No matter how strongly she wanted this private exhibition to continue Rainbow had to take care of the intruder first. If he were to catch them in frangrante delicto her career would be ruined, Derpy’s reputation would be ruined, and all Ponyville and environs would discover her shame.

Reluctantly, Rainbow lowered her tail then said, “Stand next to me!”

“But why?” Derpy asked, her voice a whimper brimming with frustration.

“We have a visitor.”

“But I don’t see a -” Derpy said as she moved forward, then stopped. The interloper, Big Mac, had climbed into full view and was going down the hill, a cart full of apples, crimson red, rolling right behind him.

Derpy reached Rainbow, looked at her, and said: “He won’t tell anypony about us. If you need somepony to talk to, Big Mac is the best. He always keeps secrets. Always.”

“What if he’ll sees us, sees me, and starts giggling and then goes home and Applejack sees him and gets curious and starts pestering him till he blurts it all out? Applejack can be very persuasive.”

Derpy tilted her head, strands of her sandy mane caressing her lips, her muzzle, and her cheeks – goodness, how good she looked, full of verve, full with zest, so attractive in her simplicity that Rainbow wanted to forgot about everything and hug her right here and right now and then move down and make Derpy from pure pleasure writhe and moan and twist as she lathered in kisses Derpy’s bubblegum pink clit and lips.

“Later, okay?” Rainbow, pleading, said. “Pinkie promise.”

“Maybe we should go to my place right now?”

Rainbow smiled and jumped into the air. And in the air she remained, flapping her wings.

“Yeah! Let’s do that! Quick!,” she said.

Derpy went airborne; and then they darted together into the sky, lifting clouds of dust, Rainbow leaving her trademark trail.

Rainbow’s anxiety vanished as she saw Big Mac, treading slowly the path from Ponyville to Appleloosa, turn into a little red spot against the sinuous brown background of the road, the light green of the fields, and the deep green of the Everfree. The thought of somepony – somecreature – discovering her dalliance with Derpy gave Rainbow the fantods, but the panic subsided as she hovered in the sky for it was easier to conceal her excitement among the clouds.

“Whooo,” Rainbow said, flicking her right hoof against her forehead. “That was close.”

Derpy giggled. “He was miles away.”

“Yeah but you know how it happens… You always see things you’re aren’t supposed to see at the worst moment possible.”

Derpy giggled once again.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Rainbow nodded and dashed off.

As she relaxed in the vast expanse of the sky desire again surged over her: a fiery, all consuming crimson flame that burned beneath her navel and melted away the cool lucidity of her mind as it reached her head and banished her self: a powerful tsunami of love that overtook her and propelled her forwards against her will: an unquenchable thirst that could be satisfied by hugging Derpy, kissing Derpy, and loving Derpy in a way only a special somepony, the closest and most intimate friend, could.

This evening she would finally satisfy Derpy’s wish, finally grant Derpy the most supreme bliss.