Golden edges of the sunset, wisps of the day passed, ebbed from the twilight sky. A walleyed mare and a rainbow weather Pegasus had enjoyed the day to its very end. That wasn't the end of their night however. Unbeknownst to them, Hearts and Hooves day lent its hand in creating a maelstrom of emotions for the residents of Ponyville below. A storm in which Rainbow Dash was standing in, the walls of the storm surrounding her while she spent a moment in the eye. However, this did not mean that our rainbow maned friend was without her own deluge of emotions. She had spent the evening laying her head, and her life's sorrows on the shoulder of the town mail-mare.
Leaning up from her resting place, Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes. Still red and sore from the evening of emotional events. She couldn't remember crying, nor why her mane seemed matted against her forehead but she knew that she was finally able to breath again. Sobbing was not something that anypony would consider, “awesome” or “cool” for that matter, yet the Pegasus felt a weight lifted from her shoulders that nopony, even her, knew she carried. A burden which had time and time again pulled her into an obsessional occupation with overall athletic performance. In her heart she knew she loved doing what she did, working with the weather to brighten other ponies' days was a great way to help the town. On top of that, Celestia knows, Rainbow wanted to fly with the Wonderbolts more than anything in the world. Something has been missing though, some aspect of her life felt empty and she thought that having someone to keep her grounded is what she needed.
Yet, her she was, again with her head in the clouds.
“Rainbow?”
Dash's ears perked up and she drew her eyes to her gray friend.
“Oh, finally, I thought I'd lost ya a minute there.” She said, a small smile returning to her face.
Dash sighed. She hadn't noticed that she wasn't paying attention to Derpy.
“Sorry about that, I guess I just needed a minute to collect myself.”
The other Pegasus nodded in response.
“It's okay Dashie! I know stuff like this is hard but you don't have to do it alone.”
Draping her wing of the cyan mare, Derpy sighed. Knowing that it was getting late and Ditzy Doo was likely up and wreaking havoc for Lyra, who'd only offered because she felt sorry for Derpy being a single parent. She was used to it. Better this way the the snickers she suffered before Twilight had helped showed Ponyville how wrong it was to treat someone differently because of their problems. She had been so relieved the day that Twilight had helped her, it was fairly uncommon for a mare to raise a foal by herself but then again, she never knew when he was coming back, or when for that matter.
“Ya know Dash,” She spoke, startling the other mare, “I know that, sometimes, we feel like everything is against us. But it isn't like we have to do everything on our own.”
Dash looked at her friend, confused but nodding.
“Have ya thought about talking to Twilight, about this?”
Suddenly a renewed vigor found Dash a burst of energy, but of doubting confidence. She sat up quickly only to regret the sudden movement as she was incredibly dizzy.
“What could that egghead possibly do to help me out?”
Ditzy looked confused, not just because of her slightly lopsided eyes. She bit her lip a minute and acted like she had a secret she wasn't supposed to tell.
“Well, I promised I wouldn't say anything.” She said through a slightly parted lips.
This only encouraged Dash into a fervent slough of questions, most of which could only barely understood as speech. When the onslaught of syllables stopped, Derpy looked at Dash and only nodded in vain of her complete lack of understanding.
“Thanks so much Derpy! You really are a great friend!”
Dash went to take off, but a small, stifled sob stopped her speeding off.
“Derpy, what's wrong? What, did I say something wrong?”
The mail mare wiped a stray tear from her cheek. She wrapped her hooves around her friend and sobbed into her shoulder. Dash wasn't sure what to do, part of her was concerned that she'd upset her friend. The sound of sobbing slowly died down as the mare slowly regained her composure. Detaching herself from Rainbow she looked Rainbow in the eye.
“Do you mean it!?” Derpy's face was lit with what seemed like an endless smile.
“What?”
Derpy suddenly dropped her head, tears started to fall again but this time there was no sound. No movement, just tears falling from under a blonde mane.
“I should've known...” She shook her head, only settling once her mane was a frazzled mess of hair.
“Derpy, talk to me. You listened to me drone on for how long?”
Rainbow paused, waiting for a response from her friend. When there wasn't one she continued speaking, trying to help. Knowing that there was no way she would leave a friend like this.
“I'm sorry I started to take off so quickly. I should have at least said good bye.”
Taking a minute to move over, Rainbow draped her wing over the depressed mare.
“You spent so long listening to me...”
The sudden speech caught Dash off guard, though she stayed, holding her friend when she needed her. Waiting, in between sobs to hear what she needed to say.
“I thought that was what friends do?” Rainbow cut in quickly.
The other mare tackled Rainbow, beaming ear to ear with a smile that would make Pinkie Pie look sad. She hugged Rainbow so tightly it was almost impossible to breath. Worming her way out of the mare's strangle hold she was completely dumbfounded by what ever was happening in front of her. Waiting for some kind of explanation she sat and waited for Derpy to come down from what looked like the most intense sugar high of her life.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
Derpy was all but screaming at this point, incredibly excited even at this late hour of the night. Still beaming, Rainbow Dash could clearly see that her eyes were sparkling with a kind of happiness she'd only seen a few times in her life. Obviously the mare was thrilled for a reason but Raibow just couldn't figure it out.
“Uh... what did I do... exactly?”
Derpy calmed down, still obviously happy and looked Dash in the eyes.
“You said I was your friend!”
Dash breathed a sigh of relief, glad that nothing terrible had been done and that no feelings were hurt. Laughing a bit she replied the only way she knew how.
“Well, duh!” She paused, “We just spent hours talking about life with each and I'm pretty sure you just gave me the greatest idea ever to solve my problem. If that doesn't make you my friend, I dunno what does!”
Still beaming with happiness, Derpy was no longer teary eyed, but she worried that the smile on her face would be stuck that way for some time.
“Ya know, thank you Rainbow, I'm here for you no matter what. If you ever need anything, just let me know!”
Knowing that things between them were fine, Dash nodded her head in agreement and unfurled her wings. The late night air flowing between her feathers brought a shiver down her spine.
“Good night Rainbow. Thanks again for the chat, we should do this again sometime.”
Smiling, Rainbow replied. “That sounds like a great idea, I can definitely make time to hangout with someone as cool as you are. Just promise not to tell anypony about all this mushy stuff, gotta reputation to keep up.”
With a nod, Dash took off into the night sky leaving on the the smallest trace of a rainbow behind her in the nocturne sky. Derpy shivered and unfolded her wings, eager to get home for the night and take Ditzy off of Lyra's hooves. Besides which, she had something else to take care of now.
___________________________________________________________________________________
The flight to Lyra's only took a few minutes, where she found sleeping Ditzy Doo and Lyra, getting ready for work this coming morning. Then again, playing in a symphony didn't seem like much work to Derpy but who is she to say what's hard in life?
“Good morning Lyra!” Derpy said cheerily, “Hopefully she wasn't to difficult this time...”
Lyra looked up from her coffee mug and smiled, “Actually, she went to sleep just a little while after you dropped her off. I haven't heard anything other than the occasional mumble all night.”
A wave of relief passed over the mare, having been aptly worried that Ditzy might have broken something or caused some other mischief while she was away. She trotted over to her sleeping foal and wrapped her hooves around her. She looked over shoulder and saw Lyra, just watching.
“I know you didn't have to do this, Lyra. I appreciate it though. I really needed tonight and I'm supper glad you watched Ditzy for me tonight.” Stopping for a minute remembering something that had slipped her mind, “Oh! And if there is anything I can do for you, lemme know, I'll need to pay you back some how!”
Lyra sighed, she had known that Derpy would have tried to pay her for foal-sitting. If it hadn't been for Twilight insisting she helped out once in a while, Lyra wouldn't even have offered to watch Ditzy, though at the same time she certainly had felt that she helped. Which, for her was more than enough.
“No, no, no. It was no problem at all, you just be careful on our way home. Okay?”
“Not a problem.” Derpy said with a smile as she took off for her home.
On her way back to her house, Derpy nudged Ditzy awake hearing only muttered refusals and only made out one coherent sentence.
“But ma.... five... mor...” Ditzy sighed and curled up against her mothers hooves.
Arriving to her house just a few minutes after, Derpy unlatched the gate to her house and slipped inside. She set Ditzy down on her bed, covering her quickly while she ran to the kitchen, grabbing a quill, some ink and a piece of parchment. Quickly she trotted over to Ditzy's room and rocked Ditzy slightly until she woke up. Dazed and confused the foal sat up, rubbing her eyes from sleep.
“Morning momma...” She said, followed by a long yawn.
“I know it's really late, but momma needs your help with something.” Derpy surveyed her daughter, who automatically woke up at the thought of helping her Mom.
“Sure momma!” She replied, obviously excited to help out as best she could.
“Here.” Derpy said, sliding the supplies over to her daughter, “I could really use some help writing something, I'll make sure I don't use any big words so you can write okay?”
With the determination of a cockatrice in her eyes, Ditzy looked at her mom and simply said, “Not a problem momma, I can help! I promise I'll do my best!”
Picking up the parchment, quill in her mouth, Ditzy looked as ready as ever to write.
Derpy pulled her self together, trying to quell the exuberant happiness she felt, “Okay, here it goes.”
Dear Princess Celestia,
I know I haven't writen written anything to you in a long time but I have exciting news! For the first time ever, somepony called me their friend...
Ditzy had fallen asleep while she was writing, Derpy just sighed, puling the quill and parchment from Ditzy and throwing the blankets over her sleeping form. She climbed onto the bed next her daughter, nuzzling her neck and whispered as she drifted off to sleep.
“Maybe things will start to get better.”