Rainbow grinned nervously, as Night Rain’s gaze turned from puzzled to scrutinizing. She did her best to recover her composure, continuing her explanation of what she needed from him. “You see, since Daring Do is the most awesome book series ever, I really want to write about it. Like, fanfiction writing.” Rainbow idly thought that the whole idea would have been lame even if she weren’t the one trying to write the fanfic. “So, I went and wrote a really awesome, epic story, but I need somepony to help… uh… look over it.” Note to self - figure out what the egghead word for that is. I’ll bet Twilight said it at some point...
Night Rain’s stare changed from questioning to excited. “Ah, writing this fanfic means that much do you, does it?”
You have no idea, Rainbow thought, but outwardly she made no reaction but to inspect her hoof, trying to feign detachment… though, given that she’d already admitted that it was quite important to her, it wasn’t a very convincing bluff. Really, since that part of the draw for him was that it was something she needed him for (ugh!), there wasn’t much point in trying to make it seem like a casual matter to maintain her coolness. But she could at least try. “Well, I’ve put a lot of work into this and it’d be a shame if that went to waste. After all...” She smirked at him. “I’ve got such awesome ideas, I’ve just got to share them, you know what I mean?”
Night grinned. “I do, I do. It’s one thing to have a story in your head, it’s another to have it out there!”
Rainbow grinned with him. “Exactly! But, before I can get my story out there, it needs to be edited! I need somepony to help fix it up a little.”
Night nodded. “Quite. Writers and stories alike benefit from feedback. Have you had anypony else look at it?”
Rainbow hoped she would benefit from feedback, she wasn’t sure about that yet. “Yeah, somepony else took a look at some of it. I… wanted a second opinion.”
Night frowned just a little. “I’m not sure what I’ll be able to find that they overlooked, but I’ll do my best.” He fidgeted slightly. “Uh, were you wanting me to get to work on that right away, or should I finish that latest Daring Do book first?”
Rainbow thought about that for a moment, trying to recall if there were any ‘spoilers’ in her fanfic, or at least the early parts. Inevitably there would be - finding out Daring Do was real and, and actually adventuring with her, was the spark that motivated Rainbow to write this fanfiction. Obviously she’d have referenced the latest Daring Do book - but Rainbow was confident she could at least get Night started with this fic that evening. “...You should read the book pretty soon, but I think we can get you going now.” She grinned. “Besides, I want you to get started as soon as possible!” She jumped off the recliner and took flight. “Just hang tight!” She quickly zoomed through her house to her bedroom where her draft was stored, before returning just as quickly to her living room and plopping the draft in front of Night Rain, in less time than it had taken her to tell him to wait.
Night’s eyes widened at the stack of papers thicker than his hoof. “How long did it take you to write all this?” He levitated half of the stack off the table by a few inches, before letting it fall page-by-page back to the pile, slowly releasing his ‘grip’ on the bottom pages first.
“Oh, about… four months. Probably less. I’d been tossing around ideas since I first picked up the Daring Do books, but it took me a little while to put them together. And I recently got some… inspiration.” She smirked.
Night glanced up at her in surprise. “Dang, you work fast, if I’m any judge.” Rainbow grinned as Night turned back to the stack, continuing to speak as the last of the papers fell from his magical grip. “I envy your dedication… writing stories this long is no small feat, certainly not in that time frame.”
Wow, really? Rainbow grinned a little. She actually hadn’t thought about it… she had just done what was natural for her, and had assumed that Daring Do - and all good stories - had been written at similarly brisk pace. It was also the most praise she’d gotten on her work so far. Of course, she only had two readers right now counting Night Rain, but compared to Twilight’s mixed review, she was glad for his compliment.
Besides, she had a feeling his praise wasn’t going to last long. Soon, he’d take a look at the actual contents, and while she hoped he’d be more generous than Twilight… her faith in her writing had already been shaken once...
Night Rain turned his eyes from the impressive stack of papers to look at Rainbow. “I, uh… definitely won’t be able to do this in one run.” He chuckled. “I mean, I wasn’t going to do that anyway… not how I work.”
Rainbow tilted her head. “You prefer to take it slow?” Rainbow herself was a bit of a binge-reader as well as a binge-writer. She was used to ponies being slower and less gung-ho than her, of course, but she was still wary of anything that might lead to bad synergy between her and her soon-to-be proofreader…
Night nodded. “If I were to read through the whole thing before talking to you about any of it… by the end, I’d forget about all the stuff I wanted to talk about in the first chapters. Besides, I don’t like doing everything all at once. If I were to just unload a whole bunch of suggestions and corrections on you, then I’m sure that’d be tiring for us both.”
You have no idea, Rainbow thought. “So you’re going to do it chapter by chapter?” She smiled. Even though his speech was getting more formal, and his tone was growing less nervous and more serious, she recognized this as the signs of a pony getting “in the zone” - and that was a good sign for her. “I’m fine with that. I don’t want to have to try and cram everything all at once, not when it comes to this stuff.”
Night nodded. “Cramming is rarely helpful. It’s better to digest information at your own pace. Better to be a little relaxed when it comes to studying.” He chuckled. “Although if you’re trying to cram things all at once, it’s probably because you’re being rushed, and you’re probably stressed, and that doesn’t help either.” He cleared his throat. “Speaking of, uh, rushing… I should probably get to work instead of talk all day.”
Rainbow snickered. “Probably.” Still, she’d have to make a note of that warning against cramming. Granted, she usually didn’t cram, because she usually didn’t study. But at least now she knew that too much studying was bad. At least, that was what she took away from Night’s words.
Night Rain blushed a little in return. “Oh, do you have any particular concerns you have about it, before I begin? Anything you wanted me to be aware of?”
Rainbow thought for a moment. She tried to recall what exactly Twilight had said was wrong with the fic, during her brief time as Rainbow’s proofreader. Sadly, she’d blocked a lot of that out. Ugh, all I remember is stuff about Ahuizotl and… oh yeah, spelling! She could go with that.
“Well, the spelling might be a little… messy. I was kinda focused on getting things out rather than being fussy with the writing.”
Night nodded. “Understandable. Spelling errors and the like won’t be hard to correct. That’s the easy part.”
“All right then!” Rainbow grinned. “Don’t let me stop you!”
“Ah, almost forgot…” Night opened his saddlebags with his telekinesis from where they lay next to the couch, and brought out a quill and inkwell. Setting them on the table, he pushed the draft to one side to clear a space to work, then levitated the title page of Rainbow’s fanfic and held it in front of him. “Daring Do and the Winds of Destruction…” He flipped the page over face-down onto a spare space on the table, then picked up the next page.
He hadn’t even made through the first page of text before his eyes widened. “Oh my.” Somehow, Rainbow didn’t think that was a good ‘oh my.’
Still, Night set down the page, levitated his quill over, and crossed out one of the words, writing a replacement on the margin. He examined the page while the ink dried, before flipping it onto the “read” pile and picking up the next page. A few moments later, he said, “I see what you mean about the spelling.”
Rainbow chuckled nervously, privately glad that that was the worst he’d found, so far. “Yeah… I tried to get things right at first, but then I decided to just roll with it and worry about it later.”
“I see.” Night made another correction, before setting the page aside and looking at the next, before glancing across the table at Rainbow. “I might need to have you come over here and read with me, I, uh… might find a word I can’t identify properly.” He glanced away, looking embarrassed.
Hmm, Twilight hadn’t had a problem. At least, she hadn’t asked. All the same, Rainbow was happy to help those with less-than-perfect reading comprehension -- even though the only reason she could help at all was because it was her own poor spelling. She smiled, and took flight, flying over the table to hover just above Night Rain as the pair looked down at the pages. “All right, what do you need help with?”
“Well, I think I can manage at this point, but in the future…” Night frowned as he looked at the next page. “Ah, right here, what’s this word meant to be?”
“That word is…” Rainbow frowned. Okay, what was I trying to say there? “...I’m not actually sure.”
Night smiled. “Well, it’s either ‘confiscated’ or ‘constipated.’ I’m guessing it’s the former.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but snicker. “I dunno, it could be either one there.”
Night chuckled. “Well, one makes for better reading than the other.” He looked up at Rainbow, though he had to crane his neck a little. “Do you have a dictionary on hoof, by any chance?”
“I don’t,” Rainbow said. She felt that should have been obvious, given the quality of her writing… although she could pretty easily get one from Twilight. Now that she thought about it, doing so actually seemed like a good idea. “We can pick one up from Twilight, probably.” Shoulda’ done that ages ago...
Night nodded. “Sounds good, I think I can manage until then.” He turned the page, and after a few moments his eyes widened again. “Or… maybe not.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “It can’t be that bad, can it?” She flew a little closer to the table, looking to where Night’s eyes were staring at. “...I guess it can.” She was starting to feel a little wounded in the pride from these errors. Not that she had ever prided herself on her spelling ability, but surely she could do better than this. “Uh, in fairness, I was just learning how to use a typewriter…”
“Fair enough. I imagine those things take getting used to…” He turned his head to look at her. “Maybe we should get that dictionary sooner rather than later.” He smiled. “Besides, there are words I don’t actually know how to spell. ‘Archaeologist’ is one of them.” He pointed to the word where it appeared on the bottom of the page.
“That makes me feel a little better,” Rainbow admitted. Rainbow herself certainly didn’t know how to spell it, and Daring Do was probably the only thing in the world that could make her even think the word.
Night nodded. “So yeah, a dictionary would be great. How long would it take for you to grab it from your friend? I can keep working while you grab it.” He suddenly glanced away. “If it’s okay for me to be here, that is.”
Rainbow grinned. “I’ve got a better idea - you can come with me! You can meet Twilight, and you two can bond over being eggheads.” She quickly seized him in her hooves and flew towards the front door of her home as Night fidgeted in her grasp.
Rainbow didn’t settle for simply setting him down beneath her villa - she carried him all the way to Twilight’s library through the air. As Night squirmed and screwed his eyes shut. Rainbow frowned. “What'd I say about keeping your eyes open? You're never gonna to get over this if you don't look.” But Night's only reply was to shake his head.
As she descended, Rainbow grinned, getting a wicked idea. She gently floated down in front of Twilight's library, but rather than set him down on the ground, she hovered just above the ground, and let him go. Night started to gasp, only for his breath to be cut off by a yelp of surprise as he hit the ground after only a hoof-length of falling distance. As he looked up and glared at her, she smirked and said, “Keep your eyes open next time and you won’t be surprised.”
He sighed. “Point taken...” He gestured towards the library door with a hoof. “After you, she's your friend after all,” he said tersely.
Rainbow ignored his mood and went for the door, knocking briskly on it. It was only a few seconds before Twilight opened the door and greeted the pair. “Hello, Rainbow!”
“Hi, Twilight. This is going to sound odd, but we're going to need to borrow a dictionary. Me and Night Rain here were-” She stepped to the side to allow Twilight to see her other visitor, while she glanced back at him, hoping his mood didn't put Twilight off. Her explanation to Twilight was cut off, however, out of surprise – once Rainbow was out of the way of Night’s view of Twilight, the stallion’s eyes widened and he immediately dropped into a bow that almost looked like one of Rainbow's warmup stretches, with how much he was pushing himself into it.
As the two mares stood, momentarily at a loss for words, Night Rain stammered, “I'm sorry, I didn't realize- I should have known- that Twilight... I mean, Princess Twilight-”
Thankfully, that Twilight was the kind of Princess to have mercy on him. “It's all right, you don't need to be so formal... I'm sure you're here because I'm a librarian and not because I'm a Princess.” Twilight blushed a little.
“O-oh.” Night hastily straightened up, blushing as well. “I'm sorry, I've never been... well, this close to a princess – an alicorn – before.”
Rainbow couldn't help but smirk. Rainbow was used to herself, her friends, and the townsfolk being casual around Twilight, but it was always funny to her to see ponies try and be all formal with her. It also always impressed her how Twilight was so humble about it. Sure, Twilight was proud of her accomplishments – who wouldn't be, with those wings? – but she was also modest and informal. Ironic for a pony normally obsessed with doing things literally by the book.
Looks like Night’s mood is better now, too, Rainbow thought. He may not know how to take a prank, but at least he doesn’t stay mad.
Night coughed lightly. “Uh, anyway, Rainbow Dash and I were just-”
Rainbow cleared her throat, causing him to abruptly fall silent. “Night Rain and I were just playing… Scrabble! And he called me out on how to spell a word, but we didn’t have a dictionary, so I suggested we come to you to get one!”
Something had clicked in Rainbow’s mind. She wasn’t sure she wanted Twilight to know she was being snubbed - however tentatively - in favor of a random out-of-town pony for the position of ‘Rainbow’s Editor-in-Chief.’ At least, not right away. It was inevitable that she’d find out, of course - but Rainbow wanted that to happen on her terms.
She grinned at Twilight, hoping Night wouldn’t ‘spoil the surprise,’ that he remembered her telling him that this was ‘top-secret.’ She glanced briefly at him, and saw him looking at her with a frown and a raised eyebrow. Obviously confused, but silent for now, which was fine by Rainbow. She figured it probably looked odd to him, watching her glibly lie to a friend and princess.
She looked back at Twilight, who was smiling - either she was oblivious to Rainbow’s deception, or she had gotten really good at hiding when she was displeased with somepony. “Oh, well, I’ve got plenty of dictionaries to choose from! Come on in!”
She backed up to allow the pair entrance, smiling. Rainbow just rolled her eyes. “It’s not like we’re going shopping or anything, Twi. We just need a dictionary, you don’t need to show him your entire collection. It’s probably huge.”
“Well…” Night put his hoof to his chin. “We could stop in, get some other books…”
Twilight beamed at him. “What kind of books?”
“Reference guides, mostly. I’m only in town for a week, so I don’t want to check out any long stories.” He stepped forward, moving into the library as Rainbow followed. “Let’s see what you have…”
Rainbow glanced at Night Rain, worried he might reveal her secret, intentionally or not, if he sought out books on writing. She wanted to make this visit as brief as possible, but wasn’t sure how to do so except in the most direct and blunt fashion possible - so as she followed, she asked, “I hate to cut this short, but we’re in a bit of a rush… gotta get that game of Scrabble done before we settle Night in, wherever he’s staying. Where are the dictionaries, again?”
Twilight pointed with a hoof. “Right over there-”
In an instant, Rainbow had flown past her and back, with a thick book in her hooves as she hovered. “How about this?”
She was a little dismayed when Twilight said, deadpan, “That’s a thesaurus.”
Rainbow tilted her head, frowning. “A what now?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “A thesaurus is a reference guide for writing, that groups words together by their meaning. Each word’s entry lists other words associated with it.”
“Basically,” Night added, “If you look up a word, it tells you what other words mean the same basic thing. Of course, it looks a lot like a dictionary inside.” He chuckled. “When I was young, I actually used one as a dictionary for a while, not realizing there was a difference.” Twilight giggled at that.
Rainbow flipped the book open, her eyes landing on the entry for ‘tireless.’ Listed below it were its synonyms: energetic, enthusiastic, indefatigable, and so forth. She raised an eyebrow at Night. “Your vocab must have been out of control.”
He chuckled again. “Still is, sometimes.”
“Anyway, we’d best get going!” She flew back to the shelf, and put the thesaurus back. After a moment’s thought, she took the thesaurus back out, grabbed a nearby dictionary, looked at the cover to make sure it really was a dictionary, then flew over to Twilight. “I’ll check these two out.”
Twilight looked at the thesaurus, next to the dictionary that Rainbow had claimed she needed for Scrabble, then looked at Rainbow, seemingly scrutinizing her. Rainbow felt a twinge of nervousness. Does she know? Did she figure it out? Will she get really mad?!
Then Twilight levitated a records book over to herself and started making a note in it. “All right then. You two enjoy your game of Scrabble!” Twilight grinned, the look on her face halfway between a cheerful smile and a face that said, ‘I know what you’re doing.’
Either she’s actually being really chill about it, or she really likes the idea of me playing Scrabble. Rainbow glanced at Night Rain. ...Or she thinks we’re banging. That’s possible too. I really should have ponies over more often, so it doesn’t look odd when I pick up a random stallion - literally - and take him to my house.
As Twilight finished recording the checkout info, she smiled at Night. “I hope you enjoy your stay in Ponyville! It really is a wonderful place!”
Night smiled back at her. “I hope so too.”
Rainbow nudged him, and he jolted forward, trotting out the library with her following behind. As he closed the door behind him with his magic, he frowned at her. “So… if you don’t mind me asking, is there a reason you’re keeping this whole thing secret? From her in particular?”
Rainbow sighed. Justifying it to him would probably be even harder than justifying it to herself. But she wondered if maybe telling him about it would make her feel better about her decision to snub Twilight for the role of editor. She motioned over to a nearby alley and led him there, so as not to be overheard - especially by Twilight. Once they were safely secluded, she faced him apprehensively. “Okay, so… you know how I told you I’d had somepony look at it, but I wanted a second opinion?”
Night nodded, but she continued without waiting for a reply. “Well, that pony was Twilight. She’s smart, she’s an eg- I mean, well-read-” Rainbow coughed, hoping he wouldn’t be too put off by her making fun of qualities that he actually shared with Twilight, “-And she’s the biggest fan of Daring Do other than me. So… I gave the draft to her first.”
Night frowned. “She didn’t like it?”
“I… really don’t know.” Rainbow shook her head. “She was pretty harsh when she talked about it, even after reading the first part of it, but… she said she wanted to read the rest and was willing to help me edit it.” She dragged a hoof along the ground, making a small furrow. “I… I thought about it, but… I just didn’t want her to see it. Not yet.”
Night Rain bit his lip as he looked at her, but said nothing. Whether he wanted to say something but was holding back, or was just waiting for her to finish, Rainbow couldn’t tell. Either way, it looked like she’d have to continue. “I just… kinda wanted to start fresh with a new reader.”
One side of his mouth tightened as his eyes revealed something clicking in his mind.. “I see… I think I understand.”
Rainbow tilted her head. “You do?” She wasn’t sure spelling out her issue made it make more or less sense to her, never mind what he made of it.
Night nodded. “Yeah. Every writer deals with it when something they worked really hard on is rejected. It takes getting used to, I think. But basically, you’re...” he scrunched his face. “...You’re a little bit mad at her so you’re not choosing her as your editor?”
Rainbow shrugged, looking down. “I guess, yeah. I mean, I was also hoping it was better than she made it out to be…”
“Don’t worry about it.” Rainbow looked up at Night to see him smiling lightly. “This is just the first draft, right? There’s bound to be errors. I mean, I’m kind of a perfectionist so I try to have everything right the first time… but you can still correct things. It’s not over.” He chuckled, though his tone was more of chagrin than joy. “It’s better than criticism after you’ve published something.”
“I know, it’s just…” Rainbow slapped her face with a hoof. “It sucks.”
“You really put a lot of work into it, right?” Night received a nod in response. “I know that feeling too… when you invest a lot of effort into something, and it comes out… well, not as good as you wanted.” His tone took a morose turn. “Kinda makes you doubt yourself a little.”
Rainbow nodded, then frowned. She could see where this was going, because she’d gone down this route recently herself. While she’d had a hard time snapping herself out of that sort of funk… she could at least try to snap him out of it before it got too bad. She was great at encouraging others, after all. She stood herself up tall, a smile coming to her face. “Yeah, you’re right, no point in worrying about it. We just gotta work harder, is all! If a dark cloud hangs over you, you just kick it away!”
Night gave her a small smirk. “I can’t, I’m a unicorn.”
“Details, details!” Rainbow waved a hoof dismissively. “The point is, you can either feel glum about it, or do something.” She was being a little hypocritical here, but that wasn’t the point. She needed to seem confident. Part of being a leader in any capacity was getting your team to feel the way you wanted them to feel, even if you had to fake it. Who knows, maybe she could even get him confident enough that it’d rub off on her.
Night nodded. “Alright, sounds good…” He frowned. “Rainbow, are you sure you want me as your editor? Feelings aside, Twilight really would be a good editor, I think. She knows you better, she knows Daring Do better, and she’s certainly smarter than I am…”
“Hey, I don’t wanna hear that kind of talk!” Rainbow’s firm statement made Night jolt a little. “You said you wanted to help me out, right? Well, here’s your chance! You’re going to go through this fanfiction with me and make it the best Daring Do fan story ever, and if you aren’t the best pony for the job, we’ll make you the best pony for the job!” She smirked. “Got a problem with that?”
Night stood up straight. “No, m’am.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at him, causing him to quickly blush as he stammered, “I-I’m sorry, you just… you made me think of a drill sergeant or something - or how I imagine they’re like-” He was interrupted by Rainbow failing to hold back a giggle. He stood silent as she laughed, but when she smiled at him, he returned it.
“Come on,” Rainbow moved up to him, circling around him and putting a hoof around his barrel, looking over into his eyes. “It’ll be great! You’ll get to read and edit the fiction of Daring Do’s number one fan! I’ll even mention you in the book’s credits, so when it’s a hit, you’ll be famous too!”
Night chuckled. “Aiming high, huh?”
“I always aim as high as I can.” She gave him a grin that could only be described as ‘wicked.’ “By the way, hang on to these books.” She passed him the dictionary and thesaurus. “Tightly.”
Night subtly pulled his head away from her, his horn lighting up as he gripped the books. “Why?”
“Because we’re going back up to get some work done!” And with that, she took flight, gripped him in her hooves, and lifted him into the air as he yelped. As she soared up into the sky, she said “And not only am I going to make you a good editor, I’m going to get rid of your fear of heights, too!”