Derpy flopped into the chair beside me, letting out a huge, exhausted sigh.

"Pfft, what're you sighing about? You're just posing?" I laughed teasingly.

"Hey, that's hard work! I'm always so scared that Photo will be unhappy with how I look..."

I glanced over at the mare, who was busily shouting at her assistants as they rushed around trying to set up for a shoot. "Don't worry, you're beautiful. She's always been happy with your work. So, what's on the schedule for today?"

The beautiful grey mare relaxed, leaning onto my shoulder. A better feeling than her weight would have been hard to imagine... "Well, I have another shoot after this, and then we have to head over to an art gallery opening. That's followed by... umm... Turner?"

"The party being thrown by Hoity Toity, Miss Hooves."

"I told you, I"m still just Derpy, Turner!" she giggled.

I laughed slightly. "I don't know, how about Miss Derpy? Anyways, so then it is a party?"

She pushed me slightly, giving me a false glare, but she couldn't keep it up. "Yeah. Then Wolf's Roar wants to hang out for a bit, and then I have... something. Turner?"

He shrugged. "All Photo says is," he struck a pose, "Tha thing, at tha place!" He chucked slightly, but I wasn't amused.

"Who's Wolf's Roar? I thought you said you didn't have any free time?"

Derpy blushed slightly. "I don't! He'll be at the party, and we'll be hanging out there."

"Ohh." ...Now I kind of felt like an ass, but was still suspicious of this new guy. "But, where'd you meet him? I've never heard of him before."

"We met at the last ball I went to. He's a wealthy socialite who plays around in crafting with metal. He's kind of cool."

"Ahh, I see..." The sentence didn't really have an end, so an awkward silence spread until one of the little mares Photo employed came over with some letters. "Miss Derpy, these are for you."

"Oh, thank you!"

I raised an eyebrow as Derpy started to go through her not-unimpressive stack of mail. When my gesture was succinctly ignored, I cleared my throat lightly. ...Really? I cleared my throat louder. "What are all those, Derpy?"

"Hmm? Oh, they're fan letters. They've been coming in ever since I started my career."

"Fan letters? Like, they tell you all about how much they've enjoyed your work and stuff?"

"Ummm... yeah!" Derpy glanced up as Photo started calling for her. "Oh, it's time to get started!" She leaned over, nuzzled my cheek, then hurried off. I watched her until she went around the corner, then sighed, getting up. I was needed back at my work too...

I sighed as I stepped off the train into the usual Canterlot organized bustle. I'd been in Ponyville dealing with business for the last 39 hours, 16 minutes, and 3 seconds. Not that I was keeping count. I was living for my time here in Canterlot with Derpy. ...Not that I usually got to spend time with her even when I was here... I had to spend the time wandering the corners of the kingdom instead. I couldn't go with Derpy to the high-social events, or else Celestia might recognize me. Most times like this, I just wandered the city, keeping my eyes and ears open. Id' found out several things in that time. Luna was still being shoved into the background by her sister. Celestia was at the Gala entrance, at events, everywhere. My Luna was... up in a tower, watching over all the ponies of Canterlot and all of Equestria with loving care all night long, just like she had always done before our revolution.

Another thing I'd found out was that I loved the new music. Every night that Derpy had an event, I'd headed to Vinyl's club. I really didn't understand a lot of what went on in there, from the appeal of "grinding", to what on earth a "bass drop" was, but that didn't change my joy in the music.

The old music was beautiful too, though. I tended to sneak into royal parties to sit, hidden, on a rooftop, and listen to the Royal canterlot Orchestra. The mare that had caught my attention especially was talented. It turned out her name was Octavia. ...An elegant name for an elegant mare.

I would sneak into the events to watch over Derpy too, and a couple of times I thought she'd spotted me! But if she had, she never mentioned anything... Maybe it was just my wishful thinking...

Derpy was already gone when I arrived at the studio. As always, gifts from stallion admirers were waiting for her return... I glared at them. Sure, now that she was famous, they wanted her. I knew I didn't really have a right to be acting like this towards these stallions I didn't know. They had just as much of a right to want her as I did. ...I just saw her first! ...That was rational, right? I'd come up with something better eventually. I sat down to wait for the girls to finish up their jobs as they cleaned the set from an earlier shoot.

A letter fell into my hooves from the nearby envelope. The writer was professing his undying love for Derpy, praisng he stance, her wings, her mane... Anything but her eyes, I noticed. That pissed me off. Even now, they were ignoring how beautiful those eyes were. They were deep, lovely, brown, uni- brown? I suddenly realized I was describing the eyes that were looking at me over the top of the letter. "Yes?"

There was a little "eep!" and the eyes vanished. "Umm... Is the seat next to you taken?"

"Nope." I knew I was being rude, but this letter was pissing me off more every second. I kept reading, until he started talking about sweeping her away from that little nothing of a glass shop, never to return. A blast of magic shook me, shredding the paper.

As I slowly calmed, I could feel the teror of the mare next to me. I didn't dare look at her as my mind raced. What could I tell her!? I could just imagine those gorgeous, deep eyes welling up with fearful tears, and I didn't want to see that... ...What was it with me and mare's eyes? It was part of what fascinated me with Vinyl- Why did she hide her eyes behind those sunglasses? What did they look like anyways? ...I bet they're red. Or purple. Whatever they were, I was sure they would be gorgeous.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Riverspeaker. Miss Hooves is at a social event, then will be being primped for her preview showing with her new colt-friend."

That hit me harder than I'd expected. If I was honest, I'd seen this coming. He got to be around her at the events that made up her life. He was able to share her life. ...I wasn't. For a moment, I tried to convince myself that the little mare had misspoken, but then I shook myself mentally. I hadn't lied to myself for over 1000 years, why start now? I stood, smiling happily at the mare. "Thank you. Have a good day." I started to turn to wish the mare I'd frightened a good day, but I couldn't face it all any more. Where I was, why I was here, where she was, any of it. I trotted out, pausing outside the door, breathing deeply. I lifted my present I'd brought for Derpy out of my saddlebag, then without looking at it I let it fall, shattering into it's minuscule slivers on the pavement. I walked off, pondering where I should go. Home? ...I felt an urge to be reckless and seek out Luna, but that would never fix anything...

I didn't need Derpy. I had Zecora. ...Not that I was able to see her more than once a week... We were both very busy ponies. ...Still I didn't need her. There were other mares. My mind jumped to Vinyl. She'd be DJing at her bar tonight, in an hour or two. Her bar? ...Wonder if this century's alchohol was as watery as its spellbooks. I hadn't really tried to get drunk yet. I headed off to the bar, not looking back. If I had, maybe I wouldn't have missed the shy, brown eyes watching me, and considering the broken glass.

Ok... Hopefully this is less out of the blue than the last time I did this chapter. As always, I have plenty of excuses for why the chapter took so long, ranging from "my characters only speak to me once" to "sickness" to "college". ...But let's be honest, they're excuses, so I apologize. Hopefully you enjoyed the chapter, and hopefully I can speed back up posting.

And for those of you who pick this up hoping for Vinyl or Octy romance, don't worry- the two of them *will* become a part of the story. At the moment, SkyTear has only noticed them, but they will likely end up closer to best friends of his, as he slowly learns what the modern concepts and loyalty are.