Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Chapter Seventy-Six

Rainbow Dash, wrapped in her thick black cloak, sleepily poured a sack of snow into a small gray cloud. She drifted off in thought and almost dropped the sack. In her haste to grab it again, she wound up with a mouth and nose full of snow.

"Hi Rainbow."

Rainbow looked up as she wiped the snow off her face, seeing Derpy hovering there, wearing a thick blue vest to keep warm.

"Can I help you with the snowfall?" she said brightly.

"Oh, uh… sure, Derpy," Rainbow muttered, looking around. "Uh, you can start by getting that low-hanging cloud and bringing it up here."

Derpy nodded and dove downward.

"I love you," Rainbow whispered.

Derpy returned, pushing a cloud. She blinked at Rainbow in confusion. "What?"

"I didn't say anything," Rainbow said blankly. She grabbed the cloud and joined it up with the one she had been working on.

Derpy continued blinking and looking Rainbow over, as Rainbow determinedly refused to look back at her.

"Rainbow… why don't you like me?" Derpy asked.

Rainbow whirled on Derpy and let out a genuine gasp. "What?"

"Just tell me why."

"I—Derpy—of course I like you!" Rainbow stammered.

"Come on," Derpy said patiently. "When you met my fiancé, that was the first time you've ever been nice to me."

Rainbow sighed. "I'm sorry about that. Really. I do like you. I like you a lot, actually. Go get that one for me, please."

She pointed to another cloud. Derpy looked surprised, but hastily obeyed.

"Right now," Rainbow said under her breath, "I don't like you because I'm so in love with you it feels like I'm going to throw up out of sheer misery."

Derpy returned with the cloud, tilting her head. "Hmm?" she asked.

"Nothing."

Derpy shrugged. "So… what did I do to make you not like me?"

"I like you!" Rainbow insisted.

"Oh, get real," Derpy said sadly. "Please, it's okay, just tell me. Is it because I'm clumsy? Or stupid?"

"I don't think you're stupid," Rainbow said weakly. "Stop saying that."

"Then what? Is it because I beat you in the all-Ponyville rap battle?"

Rainbow laughed out loud. "I forgot about that. No, you deserved that first prize. You drop some dope rhymes. I don't even know how I made it to the final round."

She sighed again, then gazed sadly at Derpy with the faintest little smile. "That's just it, see? If I did resent you—which I don't, but if I did—that's why. You can rap, you can bake, you write songs and stories and poetry. You're good at everything I suck at." She tapped the big cloud that had been created by joining three together. "Help me move this, would you?"

They got on either side of the cloud and began pushing. Derpy furrowed her brow and stared down at the ground as they did so, deep in thought.

"That doesn't make any sense, Rainbow," she finally said. "You're good at like a million things… and I'm bad at every one of them."

"Right," Rainbow said softly. "You complete me. We should get married, we'd be good at everything."

Derpy peered around the cloud at her. "Did you say something?"

"Nope," she replied casually. "But you're right, that's a stupid reason not to be nice to somepony. I'm… I'm stupid." She hovered there awkwardly for a moment. "So… how's Pierce?"

"He's good," Derpy said, her eyes glazing over dreamily.

Rainbow didn't respond, biting her tongue for a moment, before blurting out, "Are you really gonna marry that piece of trash?"

Derpy gasped in horror, clasping her hooves over her mouth. "Rainbow!"

"I mean, seriously," Rainbow went on. "He's such a loser."

Derpy's lip quivered, then she rushed at Rainbow and started crying into her chest. "Rainbow, don't say that," she sobbed. "This is the stallion I'm going to marry." She looked up at Rainbow and stared at her with pleading, lopsided eyes. "Do you not want to come to the wedding? You—you have to! You're the most important pony in my life. I need you there when I get married! Please!"

"Okay!" Rainbow said sharply, pushing her away but maintaining firm eye contact. "Okay. I'll be there." She turned away and hung her head, muttering, "You should be with me. I'd make you happy."

Derpy frowned. "Okay, that time you definitely said something."

Rainbow shrugged. "I don't think so."

They hung in the air next to the pale gray cloud, looking at each other and sharing in an awkward silence.

"Can you…" Derpy began. She coughed and began again. "Can you teach me to be like you?"

"What?" Rainbow breathed.

"I look up to you so much," Derpy explained. "Married life, pulling through my financial problems… I just know it'll be easy if I'm more like you."

Rainbow looked away to conceal her blush. "Aw, Derpy," she said. "I suppose I could teach you some life skills. Brush you up on the basics of adulthood… yeah." She shrugged. "But being like me? Not as important as you might think. I don't really like ponies who are like me. I used to. I used to think the only ponies who would make viable friends were the ones who were like me, but… not anymore. Don't care for 'em. I like me just fine, but, meh. Go figure, right?"

She grinned broadly and gave a forced attempt at a chuckle. "Heh… I don't know what I'm talking about. Let's uh, get this snow started." She tapped the cloud. "She just needs some wind. Twirl with me."

Rainbow started circling around the cloud. Derpy tried to follow suit in the opposite direction; the two collided with each other twice, before Rainbow silently and gently pulled her through the proper motions.

"It's like we're dancing," Derpy giggled.

"If only," Rainbow muttered into the cloud.

They spun around the cloud together, shrinking it and smoothing it, until the snowflakes began to fall. They stopped directly underneath the cloud.

Derpy frowned at Rainbow quizzically. "Why do you keep mumbling things that I can't hear?"

"Just talking to myself," Rainbow said hastily. "About… the weather. It's something I do, sorry."

Derpy turned her face upwards, eyes closed, and flawlessly caught a snowflake on the tip of her nose. She looked at with an impossibly gleeful smile for the second it took the flake to melt. She sighed contentedly and looked around.

"I should be at work," she said. "But you will teach me, right? Give me lessons on… taking care of myself?"

"Yeah, we can do that," Rainbow agreed.

Derpy flew off.

"We'll be doing that never, because just looking at you is too painful," Rainbow retorted, shutting her eyes tightly to hold back tears.

Derpy returned immediately with an expectant smile. "What was that?"

"Nothing, Derpy. Nothing at all."

Derpy giggled. "Okay!"

Rainbow waited until Derpy was definitely out of sight, and she could be absolutely sure she was alone, before she spoke again. "I love you," she said in a strained whisper. "So much. I always have. Can't believe you had to get engaged to some moron for me to figure it out. I'm such an idiot."

She dropped down into Ponyville, prancing along the newly snow-covered rooftops.

"Ooh, Big Macintosh!" she said to herself, ducking behind a building and peering out to watch him walk down the street far below. She sighed. "Fluttershy's guy. Her ex-guy… but still off-limits to civilians. I can't do that to her."

Rainbow dropped down to street level and started walking through the snow, hanging her head.

"So…" she mused, "I'm totally in love with two separate ponies, and I can't have either one of 'em. That's what my life looks like right now. Hoo-rah…"

She fumed and grumbled for a few moments, before lifting a hoof and smacking herself in the face.

"Quit feeling sorry for yourself!" she snapped, always keeping her voice below a whisper. "You never had it so good! There are ponies in the world, in this very town, who have real problems. This is not one of those problems. And nothing can be gained by moping around."

She sighed and glanced at her reflection in a shop window. "But I've got nothing better to do…" she mumbled.